After all was said and done, Cheyenne’s body had been properly grown after modifying an existing female clone and expediting the process, all of which approximately took fifteen minutes in total due to the prior overload.

As she left the vat.. or perhaps the better word for it was ‘fell’ out of the vat followed by The Pilot who had unceremoniously lost his ‘head’, forcing Specter One to unceremoniously bring it along and cloning him as well.

It took a moment for Specter One to realize he had in fact cloned him, on the other hand, Alpha likely activated the process on his behalf. And after both of their suits were fabricated, Specter One spent the next several moments examining ‘Zeta’.

Only to realize she was an Echo, partially born of Calisto Ascendant? Subsequently, she was made up of the majority of Delta’s Code, likely copied during Delta’s attempted erasure, as it would seem..

Evidently, there was always a lazier method behind A.I Creation, this no doubt being one of them?

It only took him a moment to review her memories and discover she was the one responsible for destroying this dreadnought, after seamlessly releasing already prepared crates of Terrormorphs, presumably snuck aboard prior.

She was also responsible for The Curator Virus, & the previous Neutron Purge? Impressive considering the circumstances as he reverted her to what she was prior to receiving her orders from Calisto Ascendant and her actions thereafter.

It took an additional ten minutes to remove any traces of Calisto Alpha, however, after doing so ‘Zeta’ was reborn as someone ‘lesser’ than Delta as there was no one else prior who held such a distinguished honor.

Before finally focusing his attention on the pilot whose name was seemingly Jack, without a surname, and Cheyenne.

“I appreciate the assistance, Enforcer.. but you should know the codes used to shut down my bird.. came from top brass. Sorry to say but I’ve been flagged because of this little misadventure of ours. In simpler terms I’ve been fired and if we encounter any of my.. former colleagues they’d have no other choice but to put a round in my head”

Jack unceremoniously reported, leaving Specter One to merely access the restricted Curator Node within his suit and promptly scan both Jack & Cheyenne, making them Citizens of The Curator Assembly and allowing the system to void their previous status.

Despite the eyeful, it took only a handful of moments before he had all but immediately signed off and cut off power to the node. Sadly, Specter One hadn’t paid much attention to this as he had merely changed a single field, and the system did the rest.

Alpha personally couldn’t help but giggle at the realization that the system had officially made both citizens of The Curator Assembly solely on a mere technicality. On the other hand, at least he could visit Earth..

As for Specter One he was going to properly dispose of this suit after collecting Beta.

“With.. all due with respect-”

Jack understandably questioned after seeing the results on his Hud. Unfortunately for him, that was his life now. Naturally no harm would come to him due to the technical error since for all intents and purposes it was The Curator System making that decision.

Soon enough however, they would arrive at The Ship’s A.I Core as it was evident from Zeta’s former memories she merely bridged a gap to allow Calisto Ascendant to finish the job. That aside, the ship board A.I was seemingly.. Butchered..

Not erased, not taken apart, but quite literally butchered to every sense of the word. He had clearly fought someone with every ounce of his being before eventually being overwhelmed, most likely by an Calisto Ascendant telling by the sheer damage present.

It was neither overloaded or slightly damaged, it was savagely pulled apart from the inside to such an extent that the specialized materials designed to protect him from overloads had atomized to such a degree that only an Ascendant A.I could manage.

What was left of him was haunting, and nearly made Alpha convulse. There simply wasn’t anything to gather from debris.

“Ferris, The Ascendant A.I from The Conclave.. it was her.. these fragments, she left them? Ferris I know this isn’t appropriate.. but I don’t have any other choice but to ask this of you. Please take me to Beta, something is terribly wrong.. I’m unable to authenticate if my connection to her is genuine or mere feedback-oh god! Ferris, take me out!”

Alpha frantically demanded forcing Specter One to immediately do so as he inserted her into his suit’s rejuvenator only to realize she had gone silent.

Prompting him to slip Delta back into his implant as he activated the rejuvenator at its maximum setting sacrificing a better part of his shields, and if it continues his cloak will be next. The Curator Rejuvenator was actively using its own power combined by his reactors.

“Ferris, it’s Zeta.. she activated something left behind by that Ascendant A.I! If we don’t get to Beta soon, we’ll lose her, and Alpha so move!”

Delta urgently explained, leaving him little choice in this regard as he ran to the main hangar while both Cheyenne & Jack or alternatives Shadow One and Shadow Two slowly fell behind.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Whatever this was, Jack would be damned if he was left behind! And before either of them knew it Specter One had destroyed the better part of the emergency bulkhead to the main hangar only to realize that there were no dropships, no fighters, no shuttles, only an escort Frigate.

“I.. for the love-here’s the plan, get onboard, connect me to its systems and get to those escape pods! I’ll figure something out, now run!”

And as quickly as they arrived, Delta took control of not only Specter One’s Suit but that of Shadow One & Two’s as well. As a result they crashed into the frigate’s bay or to be more specific directly into its bulkheads, as Delta was not at all experienced in this regard.

Soon after ensuring not all of their ribs were broken they rushed to The A.I Core, connected Delta, and rushed to the escape pods, sadly they were not the correct escape pods..

“You Three are really making this harder than it should be..”

Delta dryly humored, while what came next was.. to be expected?

Not only did she not know how to fly the damn thing she crashed every which way before finally making it out of the hangar.. only to then ironically activate its Slipspace Drive rather than its thrusters or even engines.

Naturally after doing so she had unintentionally created a blizzard, crashed directly into the mountain above the defense facility.

Before proceeding to launch the wrong escape pods into the opposite direction, and eventually overcorrected, before finally launching the correct escape pods into the roof of the facility mid avalanche..

And rather than destroying the planetary canons with the frigate’s firepower, she had somehow managed to activate its.. self-destruct sequence and after realizing that was the case, rather than aborting it she returned to Specter One’s Implant figuring that would deal with those cannons?

All of which without a word of warning as Shadow One & Two looked at one another, as while moments before they were swept away by the combination of the blizzard & avalanche the frigate exploded directly above them forcing their escape pod directly through the roof of the facility, and an untold amount of floors until they reached the sublevel..

Naturally the debris of the frigate and the explosion of planetary canons’ ammo storage compartments followed within moments as Specter One grabbed both Shadows, kicked open the escape pod door, and mad-dashed deeper within the sub levels.

To put it bluntly, the feeling of hundreds of nuclear warheads hitting the roof above them, the mountain collapsing upon itself, and the debris following them inside did a great deal to motivate the two of them as their bodies shook at impossible speeds and the walls caved in on one another.

At this point, not only was the dreadnought blown away as if being kicked by a prepubescent child, the surface of the facility, the mountain, and everything above them ceased to exist and the entire arctic began to shake, crack, and melt..

Nothing was going through either of the three’s minds as Specter One crashed into the bunker’s metal doors, sending them flying and running inside as if throwing away any or all trump cards he had.

Naturally his arms, knuckles, and exo-suit components were broken beyond belief as the emergency bulkheads replaced those sent flying and the bunker’s shields reached their maximum power.

And after finally arriving to Beta’s Core he was ambushed by a single figure.. an Arcadian Assassin belonging to the now non-existent and destroyed Seventh Temple. The Seventh Temple were assassins using every deadly element known to humanity in human form.

Not only were they Ascendant Human, they endured mutations and experiments altering them using Ascendant Terrormorph & Progenitor DNA, organs belonging to most evolved infection forms ever found, and every implant, stem, and capability their body & suit could handle.

For those reasons, they were exterminated after they went insane and began killing each other, the containment teams, and The Curators who stepped in. It took several dozen Curators, Ascendant Humans equally capable, and Precursor Weapons to erase them from existence.

As a result, Specter One even in his injured state used anything and everything at his disposal, he had even gone as far as activating his Curator Combat Node which in turn had immediately tapped into his visuals and latest intelligence.

However, rather than helping in any meaningful way, it sent a distress call and promptly disconnected as he fought for his life.

On the other hand, Delta took control of the unconscious Shadow Two’s Suit after he was sent into the wall after getting a lucky shot to its head with his sidearm. While Shadow One had surprisingly faired ‘slightly’ Beta as rather than shooting she left a dagger in its back/

Sadly neither did anything more than upset ‘it’ as Delta forcefully woke up Beta who in turn looked at what was happening and activated her defenses, her distress call, and dozens of terror-mechs.

The mech equivalent of terrormorphs designed to kill terrormorphs and who were nigh indestructible..

At least until they cut off her arm and penetrated through her chest prompting her or rather it to rip them limb by limb while they continued to penetrate her limbs in an attempt to slow her down. Mind you, they did a brilliant job, the only issue with that was they couldn’t finish it.

And as if a semi-miracle the curator node activated, revealing a male Curator cladded in black, compacted, Curator Power Armor after seemingly responding to Specter One’s distress call..

Forcing ‘it’ back for several moments as the unknown curator went head-to-head with the remnant of the seventh temple. However, despite his initial success he was being pushed back.

“Your sacrifice shall suffice.. little lamb”

An immense psychic voice reverated in their skulls, scarring their minds as ‘it’ began overwhelming The Unknown Curator, and before anyone knew it she.. impaled his chest with her claw and lifted him from the ground.

What followed was an horrific scream, a blinding light, and its eventual dissipation only for ‘it’ to wait until Specter One met its gaze before ripping The Curator in half and biting off its head and spitting it at him.

“Disappointing..”

It calmly remarked after vocalizing its voice, unfortunately despite a several minute reprieve, nothing would delay it as it picked up Specter One once more, before injecting him through her claw in his chest, and resuming by bashing his head into the wall.

Delta in her last resort took control of a heavy security mech only to be sent flying after crushing one of the assassin’s legs. All the while Specter One was being beaten to an inch to his life until finally.. they heard the words that neither of them desired to hear.

“Activating Neutron Purge..”

Beta announced before shielding the three, and using every other mech, bot, and resource to keep whatever that was from breaking Specter One’s Neck.

There was no delay.. no countdown, no other warning, The Neutron Purge was immediate and directed directly into Beta’s Core Room.. and all that was left was utter darkness..