Diego laughed as he ripped another Theriope apart with his bare hands. Truly his system was the way to go. He got stronger by doing and seeing new things. And by fighting the Theriope of course. As he grabbed another Theriope he threw it at the hoard in front of him knocking numerous creatures back.
He kicked out behind him as a Type 8 attempted to sneak up on him breaking the leg that came down to skewer him. Diego reached back without looking and flicked a rock at the Type 8 with the force of a cannon. "Dora what's the count look like today?" He asked, laughing.
"Twenty type 7s eight type nines three type 14s and the one type eight that tried to ambush you. Would you like me to activate Turbo mode?" The AI practically sang the answer happily. Diego was paying attention to her and it made her silicone heart sing!
"And the evacuation of our sector?"
"Proceeding as planned!"
"Wonderful, now we need a plan for that Type 47 the civilians were telling us about when we arrived. Those things are almighty annoying."
"Do the thing with the rock!"
"Dora, we can't solve all of our problems by throwing rocks through them."
"Why not?! It looks cool!" If Diego didn't know better he would say the AI was pouting.
"Put out on the planetary network that we are unavailable while we handle the type 47 damn swarm types always take forever."
"Anything for you Diego, show those Theriopes who the strongest System User is!" Dora gushed.
Diego sighed as he strode forward using the growth boost power to add to his height. "I already told you the strongest System is either Clockwork or Maria. Without their support we would all be dead."
"Yeah but you can survive anything Diego we made sure of that when we bought the instant regeneration power. They would have to kill you at least … five times with the energy stores we have reserved for it."
"That isn't impossible, my little carbon wafer. Remember what happened to Lynch. He was tortured for months before we got to him and he had every escape ability his System allowed." Diego made the sign of the cross remembering the look in his friends eyes days before he disappeared for the last time. "He didn't even die to the Theriopes, it was a Corp that did it."
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"If this is one of Dora's shields we might have to destroy it to get in. If she is still active then Diego must have used his beyond death power to enable her to use his corpse until she could be recovered. And she must not want to be recovered. Alice says Dora was obsessed with Diego more so than usual for an AI." Drake relayed from Alice.
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"Well how do we break the shield?" Ice asked as he shot a sneaky Type 2 that was trying to get close to Drakes leg.
"She says she doesn't know."
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Dora carefully used Diego's fragile hands to apply the Stasis Gel to his face trying to preserve the body she was in until Maria could get to them and use Siegfried to bring Diego back. She knew that he could do it. He had to. Diego was more important than the war against the Theriopes.
She pressed her hand against the hole in Diegos chest where his heart should be. Yes if she just kept the body in a good condition then surely Sigfried and Maria would be able to bring her love back to her. And then they could find that beast of a Theriope, the one who looked like a man but wasn't. And they could kill him together. Dora giggled at the thought. Yes she would have her revenge.
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Lynch pressed his hands together as he watched the monitor for the room containing one of Emperor's Captains. The man had shared some interesting secrets. That a System User had been found was only one of them.
He steepled his fingers as he leaned back in the chair. "Lynch use gas number four. I want to see if he reacts to purified Theriope essence."
"You know that we haven't discovered a species yet that doesn't mutate when exposed to that. And they all connect to that hive mind."
"Yes but everytime we connect a new species to it. The Theriope weaken for a time. I believe it had to assimilate the new genetic code and that takes time."
"I agree. But they also become stronger over time as we do this and more new types appear.
"An acceptable tradeoff for information."
"As you wish."
The room on the monitor filled with a faint blue gas and which the captain eyed suspiciously as it drifted towards him. He leaned as far away from it as he could but eventually the furry humanoid ran out of slack on his restraints and the gas finally touched the wolfen nose of the Worvine. Nothing happened for a moment and then the captain jerked against his restraints, almost pulling the shackles out of the thick steel table.
Lynch watched passively as the creatures skin slowly blackened and its fur fell out. He listened to the screams for a few more seconds before reaching forward and hitting the toggle for the speakers bringing a sudden silence. "Another failed species. But he did provide us with good information."
"Yes, it was worth around 700 points. We have had worse information in recent years. Too bad he didn't know where this new System User was."
Lynch shrugged. He operated best alone so it was of little consequence to him. Seeing the transformation complete on the monitor he pressed the button to activate the explosive collar on the beast's neck. "We will have to find a new source soon." He ignored the blood splatter that coated the room as the beast's head disappeared in a puff of light and smoke.
"Do we have any new information regarding Emperor's movements?"
"Our false Automaton reports he has boarded the Tinkers Rage and is intending to hunt down the new System User and his companions. Declaring them Anathema and Traitors to the empire at large."
"How is our information campaign working out?"
"The civilians of the empire still refuse to believe Emperor to be anything besides beneficent to them. However the Navy is beginning to question the disappearances."
"Good. Soon we will turn them against him. For Maria."