RX and Anak sped back through the large hangar and jumped through the static EM field that shielded the bay's entry portal to the void. Once free of the ship's grav-units, RX activated his thrusters and vectored ninety degrees straight up from the Leviathan to make a long enough tangent for his navigation analytics to triangulate the source of the repeating signal. The proximity signal that had just turned his world upside down. His MCU, along with every facilitating process and executive function that could, had already spent an eternity... a full ten micros ... evaluating, reevaluating, checking, and rechecking its authenticity.

At one thousand kilometers, RX's navigation analytics had completed their calculations and sent the results to his higher functions for confirmation. RX idled and waited for the longest two nanos of his existence......... waiting......... waiting......... and waiting for his MCU to report...

[Emergency signal authenticated and verified. Location triangulated.]

It’s real?... It's real?!... It's REAL!!!!!! There was no doubt!

Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J were less than a micro parsec away. Just on the far side of Noha-6, well in the center of the terrain belt created from its shattered moons.

The initial shock passed, and RX's deep emotion centers added the new discovery's joy to the entrenched guilt revolutions cycling in his neural synth. The mech knew Anak could feel the turmoil between the regret and impossible hope that warred for control in his higher functions. RX also knew that the kid understood there was only one... well, two things that would have triggered him dropping Sophie and her family like a bunch of hot rocks. And in typical Anak fashion of being solidly wise beyond his years, the kid gave RX his space and kept quiet. He was also drawing all the Spacetime Essence he could to their shared pool.

We’re going to need it.

There was no telling what he and Anak were heading into. Only one thing was certain, There's absolutely a turd in this punch bowl. Rx's game theory, logic, and combat facilitators, along with his MCU and even his own neural synth, were in complete agreement,

[99.3% probability that the sudden appearance of the sibling proximity signal is a trap, one designed to lure this unit into ultimate incapacity and incarceration.]

Ya...well... It’s working... I'll give 'em that...

But how could it not?

It's my fault. I wasn't there to protect them! THE ONLY REASON FOR MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE IS TO KEEP THEM SAFE AND I WASN’T THERE WHEN DOD STAL CAME FOR THEM!!!

An avulsed disunion of his command processes between RX's neural synth and his logic facilitators started a fractured logic recursion loop. His upper and lower graspers flexed uncontrollably. He repeatedly struck his chest plate and apathetically ignored the warnings that flooded from his MCU. Rage built to the point that his internal nano tide was mobilized to repair the damage to his underlying systems. Audio and visual alarms of internal damage flashed red on his consciousness display...

...And then Anak's spirit flooded RX’s awareness through their shared mentation.

The boiling sea of his neuro-break began to calm with illuminating the hope of rescue and reunion. Eradicating RX's ineffective rage like Anak’s mother had stomped lance-creepers in his nesting as an infant. Slowly, oh so slowly, the burning and tearing of RX's guilt was quenched. His useless self-recriminations faded as the two partners unified their psyches to one purpose:

Karma flows from our actions as Balance sits in judgment. Our Reality results. We cannot change the past, only strive to correct the mistakes found there. It’s towards the future that our effort must be focused and where our friends may yet be saved.

Refocused, RX's thrusters burned doubly hot as he soared over the meniscus of Noha-6's north pole. Clearing the crown, he turned his receptors down toward the emergency signal's source. Nothing could be seen optically but the dark-brown asteroid field that stretched out in a wide rim orbiting the planet's equator. At this distance, the torus appeared deceptively placid as it spun uniformly along a planet’s gravitational acceleration arc.

RX beelined for the signal's source as it pulsed from the center of the densest region of lunar rubble. As he drew nearer, what had seemed like the thin brim of a summer hat grew to a depth of dozens of kilometers. Uncountable tumbling rocks ranging from dust, pebbles, and fist-sized rocks, up to and including towering mountain ranges larger than the shield wall they had recently been buried under. All spinning on their own unpredictable axes as they chaotically collided, deflected, and crashed again with others in the churning mass. The incredible force of their contact pulverized the silicone-based asteroids into dust clouds and rolling avalanches of surging rocks.

Chunks with higher ferrous content crashed together and were rapidly heat-fused in bright orange and red hues. Newly joined, lumpish bodies spun off in erratic rotations like forcefully struck and mis-weighted, cosmic-scale gaming billiards. They scattered to wreak havoc on their neighbors until they were once again brought back under the control by Noha-6's gravitation.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Sitting just above the level of the ring, RX's sensors could finally see the signal's origin. Several thousand kilometers ahead, in the center of the gravity-attracted rim bulge of asteroids nearest Noha-6, a sleek mid-sized vessel waited. Scans read light armaments and hull plating as it drifted along with the rotational current. RX's combat facilitators determined the ship’s narrow design and minimal armor would allow for quick insertion and exfiltration of small strike teams. Stealth likely a main priority for the operators. The ship's reflective surface and blade-shaped bow ended in a thin wedge that would defy most routine scans through oblique reflection.

The craft was also surrounded by large asteroids tethered via yellow stasis beams to create a shield against random field impacts. The tethered rocks, all approximately the size of the ship itself, acted as protection from pulverization and a screen from detection to all but the most intensive and proximal scans. It’s definitely well hidden—

RX’s neural synth was interrupted by a priority warning from his MCU:

[Warning! Entering the terrain field is not advised. Minimal contact with detritus will result in severe damage to adamite battle frame and underlying components. Mechanical and biological.]

RX rolled metaphorical eyes at how obtuse logic protocols could be. It was true that going in there was a bad idea. To RX, it didn't matter... But he had to pause at the stark warning to Anak's safety. Without question, he and the kid were joined. RX could feel that it was as important to the Anak as it was to RX to save Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J.

Still, this is old business from before our alliance. I owe him one last out before the point of no return. Even if separating from me would strip Anak of his Essence and Karmic sensitivity ...He'll be alive.

"Anak, these are professionals. And they are waiting. Last chance to cry off and live a normal kind of life."

Anak remained silent and only increased the flow of Spacetime Essence to their shared systems and pool.

Thought so, buddy. But I had to ask. RX sent along their pairing.

RX sent a system-wide message from his neural synth that brooked no argument from the rest of his higher functions and facilitators.

This is our road. Get with the program or shut up.

There was no internal reply.

Unlike the ship, RX wasn't made for stealth. He was more of the in-your-face, brute force, death, and destruction kind of mech. However, the sheer volume and energy in the collisions exceeded his current deflection strength, even with his Earth fortification skill. His game theory facilitator and navigational analytics recommended increased speed and flexibility to fill the gaps. It was the right call, and RX agreed.

"Kid, let's dedicate Essence to Water’s Malleability skill. We're gonna need maxed-out speed, flexibility, and extension. I'll try to avoid getting us squashed like bugs... You keep the juice flowing, ok?"

"You got it..." The little monkey paused for a micro, "and my receiving monitors here are still off. You want to let me see what's going on yet?"

Just then, a space-rupturing impact between geologically-significant-sized asteroids lanced shards and melon-sized boulders on RX's frame, obliterating the entire area RX's navigational analytics had directed him to go through no less than 0.53 micros before.

"...Ahhh... Maybe we should reevaluate in a few micro-gyra, huh?"

"Ok. Let me know if I can help more."

Water Essence bathed RX's frame and systems. His nano synapses shortened for increased speed and reaction time. His titasteel filaments lengthened and relaxed for increased flexibility and range of motion. He extended in length and spun his torso in several 360-degree rotations. He twisted his previously static metal into a stretch corkscrew as he went from his normal three-plus meters to over eighteen. Then RX released the tension and reverse spun like a child's spinning toy back to his standard configuration. 'Liquid' metal spikes shot out from every section of his body to a full five meters. Each ended in razor-sharp edges. Resulting in a puffer from hell that even Sen would have been jealous of. Satisfied with his configuration, RX nodded his dome, and the spikes snapped back to his torso as one.

Their new Spacetime Attunement had significantly advanced his and Anak's Cultivation. His combat and game theory facilitators were busy calculating his current combat effectiveness, but RX wouldn't wait for their recommendations. Let's go! He told Anak and received confirmation through their bond.

Lightning wouldn't strike twice in the same place, right? His MCU agreed. Calculating the chance of a repeat collision in the exact location at less than 4.76 percent in the next ten micros. RX activated his thrusters and was a nano from heading in when a triple collision of house-sized boulders hit so close to where he was going that he was again showered with spinning heat-fused pebbles and rocks. The entire area filled with room-sized chunks that vectored in all directions. Instinctively, RX turned away from the collision and put his thicker back-plates between Anak and the rocks. As he redirected to the left, the big mech caught the first glimpse of the swarm-bots on his main forward sensor array. The meter-long, armored, multi-limbed clone fighter was trying to hide behind a mostly stationary black rock the size of a ground transport floating among the ever-rolling jetsam. The swarmer's red-glowing sensor array oriented itself to RX. For a fraction of a micro, it remained unmoving as its underpowered executive functions calculated its cohorts' chance of success now that it had been spotted.

For the love of burnt-out processors! RX had known this was a trap. And he should have expected that they would come for him before he moved into the terrain torus. Admittedly, the chaotic randomness would make any concerted effort to capture him uncertain. But his neural synth had been in denial, believing that he had gone undetected so far.

Hey, a guy can hope, can't he?! Pointlessly, RX told his acuity facilitators as he surged forward at the swarm. A spear of dark liquid metal sprouted from his left grasper and punctured through the red glowing forward sensors and out the other side. RX pumped more metal through the tip and anchored it as he viciously slammed it repeatedly on the rock it had been hiding behind. Broken pieces scattered away in spreading cones from RX as the ruby light of its anterior plate faded.

Individually, these bots were more vermin than threat. But they weren't called 'swarm bots' for nothing. RX's only hope to navigate the torus unharried by the arc plasma torches mounted on the ends of their dozen tentacles was that he had gotten this one before it had communicated with the rest of its cohort.

Several armored anterior hoods raised above the nearby debris on his right and left. The sanguine aura from several dozen clustered sensor arrays turned in unison when they surged as one in his direction. So much for hope...