Ardi saw that, even though things were changing frantically, she was still on the path she had chosen and so she deeply breathed in, expanding her still bare chest.
She didn’t have lungs and instead, her mouth and nose acted as vents that she could use to cycle air through a series of branches that were attached to each of her key components and acted as a heat sync.
Her mouth also led to a small component which she could use to break down organic matter but while she adored the body she had been given, she had more pressing matters to dedicate her thoughts to.
Zenith’s Canons were mostly likely pointed at the ZC Gore and chances were, if he realized that trying to capture her alive was too costly, he’d just blow the whole ship up.
Guro, who was in the bridge with Tsuro and Condor Unit, informed Ardi, over radio transmission, that ten ships had just jumped to their location and were encircling his ship.
Ardi scanned the Gore and saw that it was fitted with something quite interesting.
[This ship has Gravshields, huh?] Ardi radioed everyone on the bridge knowing fully well that the enemy was listening in. Her lips weren’t moving but the signals she was sending were easy enough to detect.
[Yeah and no. They won’t be enough to stop Gravfold Canons, let alone Planet Mounted ones. Those things are about as big as observatories and can distort up to 100 meters of space at a maximum range of 50 light years. We are currently in the range of 7 Canons.] Tsuro explained.
[And why aren’t Gravshields able to block the distortions or at least cancel them out?]
[That’s because the shield covers a very general area around the ship. If it was a single beam of distorted space then that would be fine but it’ll be a whole wave that’ll pass through us and it’ll overload the Shield and exceed the threshold-]
[What if the Shield focused on the area of impact?] Ardi asked, internally referencing her own Reactive Armor.
[The ship’s AI wouldn’t be able to handle that. You’re talking about quintillions of calculations per second as it tries to cancel out each cubic centimetre of warped space. And while we Archons could potentially handle that, we’d also need sufficient cooling otherwise our E-Souls would pop-]
[I’ll do it.] Ardi decided, choosing to trust her mind.
[What?]
[That is practically suicide!]
[Ma’am, please reconsider! Aren’t there any other options?]
Such things were said by Tsuro, Gudo and Meredith but Ardi didn’t respond to their concerns.
She didn’t think she was better than any Archon when it came to processing speed and power but she also didn’t have a choice.
She knew that she was being reckless but, in the face of overwhelming odds, the occasional blind toss of the dice was necessary.
She simply delegated the task of figuring out how to handle the Gravfold Canons to her future self and chose to turn her focus to the present.
[Here they come!] Tsuro said as she opened the landing bay’s doors.
A large, dark and box-shaped vessel then entered the bay prompting Ardi to do a quick status check.
[Name: Ardi
Level: 4
Remaining Upgrade Points: 0
HP: 800/800
EN: 480/800J
STR: 24000N
SPD: 22m/s (+9)
DI: 100%]
Her Dermis was back at 100% but her energy levels hadn’t recovered so she kept that in mind as the ship landed a few meters from the Hawk-14.
She used an additional 5W to scan the metallic box to see that it held 5 Archons and 20 humans who immediately disembarked as its little legs touched the cold floors and the giant doors behind them closed.
The Archons were clad in form-fitting suits which looked suspiciously similar to the ones Meredith and her men wore. On top of their suits were large plates of armour that protected their key components and helmets for their heads.
The humans in front of them carried all kinds of weapons ranging from Plasma weapons to what appeared to be rail guns.
They all pointed their weapons at Ardi who finally let out a breath in the now chilled air of the bay.
The Archons all had Inferno-rated energy signals meaning they were all about as strong as Gudo but since she didn’t have anyone to protect, she was free to move as she liked.
And so, before her targets could even make their demands, Ardi dashed towards one of the Archons, a feminine type, at her max speed of 132kph and punched her in the neck, just above her chest plate but just below her helmet.
Ardi’s punch carried enough force to tear through the Archon’s hardened skin and break through her neck.
Ardi then grabbed the Archon’s head, as her momentum carried her to the other side of the bay, and ate the E-Soul inside before tossing the head aside.
[Name: Ardi
Level: 5
Remaining Upgrade Points: 1
HP: 1600/1600
EN: 1600/1600J
STR: 48000N
SPD: 44m/s (+18)
DI: 100%]
“Open fire!” Someone barked prompting Ardi to sprint towards them.
However, even though she was running incredibly quickly, the four remaining Archons anticipated the path she had chosen and moved in to quickly subdue her.
Ardi saw this and also realized just how much of a boost she’d gotten from her level up so she decided to see just how much force she could now generate and so, as the first two Archons reached out to grab her, she grabbed both of their arms, crushing them as she did, before swinging and throwing them at the landing bay’s furthest wall where they exploded into dozens of parts.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ardi scolded herself for potentially destroying their E-Souls.
She turned her frustration towards the remaining two who had already sent forward their attacks and Ardi took two hits to the head which would have instantly killed her but [Reactive Armor] saved her life yet again although her Dermis Integrity dropped to zero.
Ardi had wondered what her increasing HP points represented and apparently, it represented, among many other things, the total number of Nanites she had.
These were multiplying exponentially and any damage she took would have to go through way more of her to actually kill her.
That said, her heat output was also far greater and her hair and skin were starting to catch fire.
This wasn’t a problem for any component in her body other than the CQNN which was partly organic.
She chose to temporarily shelve any further internal diagnosis and smacked one of the attacking Archons in the face with the back of her hand, sending the bottom part of his head flying off along with a large chunk of his neck.
She then grabbed his body before it fell and tore out his E-Soul which she greedily ate.
The second Archon, at this point, must have realized that the chances of winning against Ardi were slim so he turned to run but she ran after him and kicked his back with so much force that his chest burst open, spewing forth bits of his Skeletal system and Aetherium Core.
The humans, after having witnessed all this, had seemingly forgotten to keep firing and Ardi wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to quickly dispose of them so she dashed towards them after Activating [Heal] again to repair her Dermis.
The ones in the front were first and, while they fired relentlessly at Ardi, she grabbed one of their guns and used it as a club to strike several of them at once but the force of her attack was far too much and so their bodies fell apart as they flew mid-air before splashing all over the walls.
Those who remained kept firing and their high-powered weaponry was enough to stop Ardi’s Dermis from completely repairing itself so she consulted an advanced skill she had been eying.
[Level 2: Advanced Defense
- Skill: [Nanitesuit Mk. 2]
Description: Based on the Nanitesuits worn by Condor Unit members, Nanites gather over your skin to form a protective suit of armour that acts as a second layer of her Dermis. (This version does not include any other stat boosts but lasts permanently)
Effect: Doubles Dermis capacity from "100%" to "200%"
Energy Cost: 300J
Required Level: 5
Required ES (E-Souls): 2]
Now that Ardi was level 5, she had access to advanced skills and, after seeing just how useful [Reactive Armor] was, she knew she had to get what amounted to another set of armour.
The only downside was that it was twice as expensive as a basic skill but it was worth it.
[Acquire Nanitesuit Mk. 2? Y/N]
Yes!
The already terrified soldiers all began to back away as countless Nanites gathered on Ardi’s skin
They then began forming a suit that was a little sleeker than that of Condor Unit although it maintained its signature look.
----------------------------------------
The Nanite Arrangement on the surface of the Nanitesuit
444456⁶66yy [https://i.postimg.cc/brY9WL32/PSX-20240906-085753.jpg]
----------------------------------------
It still looked like someone had stripped the skin from someone revealing a dark grey system of muscles.
The suit covered her from her feet to her temples.
Her hair, which acted as her CQNN's heat sync, needed to remain exposed but that wasn’t an issue.
Her mouth was also covered by a mask that had two ventilation paths along its side and she had on a removable single-lens visor that had a red tint to it.
The humans kept firing but ne they were doing less damage than before.
Satisfied with her investment, Ardi finished off the last of them, making sure to fully test just how hard and how fast she had gotten, especially now that she had eaten another E-Soul.
After ensuring that the last of the attackers were dead, she walked up to the other Archon corpses and ate their E-Souls.
Ardi was surprised that even the one that was damaged by the impact from earlier counted towards giving her an Upgrade Point.
She reasoned that its C-cores were still viable and were being absorbed into her CQNN which allowed her to give her Nanites more complex instructions which came in the form of her skills.
The reason why she wasn’t sure about how that worked completely was because of the organic part of her CQNN.
She didn’t know how but it was not only able to keep up with what her body was doing but it was also adapting alongside the other parts.
Again, she thanked her creator only to be startled a little afterwards as Tsuro yelled into her head.
[Great job, ma’am but the enemy ships are preparing to fire and some of them have Gravfold Canons! What should we do?]
“Just keep me updated,” Ardi said before rushing out of the landing bay.
She then made her way down towards the ship’s centre, a cramped and dark server room, where a cylindrical device stood in a sea of loose wires. This was the central processing unit that housed the ship's AI which, while advanced, was nowhere near as capable as an Archon.
Ardi once again consulted her Skill tree and found one that she had been wondering if it could help.
[4. Utility Branch: Versatility and Adaptation
Skill: [Neural Coupling]
Description: Sends out a group of Nanites that attach to a host device and allow Ardi to control it.
Effect: Allows Ardi to fully connect and control a single non-Archon device.
Energy Cost: 50J
Required Level: 1
Required ES (E-Souls): 1]
She acquired it and quickly diagnosed herself.
[Name: Ardi
Level: 9
Remaining Upgrade Points: 3
HP: 1600/16 200
EN: 12 300/12 300J
STR: 274 185N
SPD: 183m/s (+73)
DI: 200%]
Ardi had a lot to go over but chose instead to quickly acquire [Neural Coupling] and sent forth a handful of Nanites which interfaced with the ship’s AI just as the first shots struck its Gravshield which activated automatically after detecting the activation of nearby weapons.
Thanks to [Neural Coupling], she could see the view beyond its walls via its many sensors and watched as the ten enemy ships fired at it.
She then tapped into the program that managed its Gravshield and saw that the ship’s Gravfold engines had a secondary function which allowed them to create a bubble of distorted space which acted as a shield.
Any bullets or lasers the enemy ships tried firing were stopped dead in their tracks.
A few shipside Gravfold Canon shots were stopped too but it put an extremely high strain on the engines.
Ardi then forcefully tapped into how the Gravshield was being generated and, by gathering as much data as she could from the outside, kept its power usage at normal levels but focused the shield at various points of impact which she worked hand in hand with the Gore’s AI to predict.
The obvious downside was that this left any part that wasn’t being focused on significantly weaker but there was no other way.
[Let’s see just how special you really are.]
A familiar voice said.
It was the same voice which had threatened Ardi and Condor Unit into surrendering.
A voice which Ardi reasoned belonged to Zenith.
The Gore’s AI or Gore, as she decided to call him, sent out seven warning signals as the Planet Mounted Gravfold Canons she’d been told about fired all at once.
Ardi’s mind screamed at her as she felt true fear for the first time.
There was simply no way she could process what was coming.
She still had 2 Upgrade Points and so wondered what would best help.
She remembered that she could upgrade her components as part of a separate tree and so immediately spent a point on turning her CQNN Mk. 1 to a Mk. 2.
["(CQNN) Mark II"
* Description: Improved version with advanced Quantum Entanglement Nano-Sensors for instantaneous data transfer and processing.
* Effects: Increased cognitive capabilities, enhanced decision-making speed, and reduced lag in neural responses.]
[Acquire-]
Yes!
Ardi’s eyes widened to their limits and at this point, her body was generating so much heat that it threatened to boil her brain, even as it evolved so she instructed her Nanites to extend her system of heat syncs out her body.
Countless metallic branches then tore out of her skin and they spread all over the server room after poking out of the Nanitesuit.
Their destination was the ship's own cooling hub where several tanks containing liquid nitrogen were stored.
The ever-growing system of branches harmlessly attached themselves to the tanks and began cycling Nanites from Ardi to themselves where the Nanites would be cooled before returning.
And as for Ardi herself, her eyes rolled backwards as she desperately focused the Gravshield’s energy on the seven massive and invisible waves of distorted space that had already destroyed half of the enemy ships forcing the other half to retreat.
While it only lasted for a few seconds, Ardi had to accurately unbend any of the space the Canons had hurled forward and she had to do this at the Planck level.
All she could see at some point was the very fabric of space-time as it violently shook around the ship.
She also knew she wouldn’t be able to stay conscious for much longer so she quickly acquired the extra skill [Failsafe Nanites] and sent them to Tsuro and Gudo before instructing the ship’s AI to go to a region of space beyond the reach of any Canons after the Grav waves had passed.
What followed was complete darkness.