Grey static was replaced by deep blackness that slowly resolved into a white landscape.
[Systems restoring. Estimated time of incongruent consciousness flow: 47.65 micro-gyra.]
I'm supposed to be this unstoppable juggernaut... All I’m really doing is getting slapped around. Perhaps humility is the true lesson Masamune wants his children to learn.
RX reached out to Anak through their link and his sensors simultaneously. The small tamarin was collapsed in the impact chair of RX's cockpit with a small pool of drool collected under his maw. He was out cold but seemed to be resting peacefully.
Kid, you alright? Anak's small frame shifted, but he didn't rouse. Med sensors reported his partner's vitals were all normal. EEG readings showed a deep REM dream state.
RX had been deactivated electronically, and Essence Inhibited… Completely off... There were no logs to review and see what the kid had gone through to pull his metal butt out of the fire. All he had was his olfactory receptors reporting a partially dissipated suspension of carbon particles sitting in the air at the top of the small cell. Smoke... likely from the inhibition net's overheated circuits. Anak must have fried them with an Essence overload... A big one. The only other clue RX had was, somehow, without any system assigned to it, he recalled a strange memory of sitting on the shoulders of a giant and all-powerful, incandescent monkey god while hiding behind his own... Paws?...Weird!
At any rate, somehow, Anak had overloaded the inhibitor net and gotten RX reactivated. He owed the little golden tamarin another one.
Good work, kid! As soon as we're free from the risk of imminent destruction and death, I will surely point out that it's never a 'waste of time' to watch my recommended educational holovids. But Rest well till then. I've got it from here—
[WARNING: Local security systems activated. Imminent confrontational response expected.] RX's MCU interrupted his meandering neural synth and brought his attention back to the present.
Okay, it's time to get to work.
Deactivated inhibitors or not, RX was still wrapped up in the two-centimeter-thick metallic net’s mesh. He cycled Essence to his battle frame and propagated his Earth fortification skill. The familiar golden/orange glow illuminated him internally as he grabbed the net's mesh with his lower graspers. He pushed his frame into a standing position, tearing a rent as the tortured scream of twisted metal and the pinging of metal fragments filled the small space. The massive net slid off his dome and clunked against the deck.
No sooner had RX pulled the stiff lattice off when the door slid open on its side. His sensors picked up two humanoid drone mechanicals, most likely run by the ship's centralized security AI. The drones were sheathed in the same rounded white exo armor the undead guy who had netted him wore. The exo plating would enhance their strength and durability. His game theory facilitator also noted that the ship's security AI was well programmed in close-quarters combat tactics. Its drones inspected the room from the outside without penetrating the portal's threshold. Then one entered the cell and swept his weapon over the deep corner, followed by his partner on the other side. Now inside, both covered him with heavy shoulder-harnessed EM-beam repeaters.
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A superseding informatic from his combat facilitator gained precedence.
[Class C ranged and melee attacks from energy weapons and power armor. Assigned status of low threat in physical combat.]
Neither armored drone was the guy who had netted him... But until the battle mech caught up with that guy, these two would suffice to start collecting some payback.
RX's transceiver picked up the mechanical guards' internal communication.
"The captive mechanical is active. It has destroyed the inhibition net. It is still contained within the security field—"
The blue electro-mag security bars left several wide dark ionization stains on RX's adamite dome as he pushed through them and pinned the smaller mechanicals against opposite bulkheads with his outstretched graspers.
"I'm sorry, fellas, but you'll need to reevaluate that assessment."
The AI guards shot several bursts of green anions into his chest armor before they realized RX was physically crushing their frames. Like angry cats, both androids grabbed his upper manipulators and swung their lower appendages up to push RX away. Impressive... but their inferior design and strength were no match. The big mech scissored his end digits, and their heads thunked to a rocking stop on the deck as the light from their ocular receivers faded...
Unfortunately, neither mech stopped its struggles after decapitation. As with most combat drones, their heads only served cosmetic and supportive sensory purposes. Their actual functions ran off several more heavily armored centralized processors.
Meh... It had been worth a try... But it really didn't matter. RX smashed both headless androids off the deck plates with a blurring fury In less than two micros, both chassis were shattered into pieces that bounced around him.
Finished, RX ducked under the low overhead door. His nav-arrays found him standing at the end of a ten-meter hallway that opened onto a wide-open space below the main functioning decks of the cruiser. On the side of the hall was a row of closed doors that likely opened into rooms similar to the one he had just left. Everything was clean, white, and well-maintained. These guys run a tight ship for a group of murdering, undead mercenaries.
But that was as far as RX's reconnaissance went. A charging mass of white-armored mechanical arms, legs, torsos, and cosmetic heads crashed upon him in an amazingly organized metallic scrum. His combat facilitator calculated the numbers in the low thirties as two other clanking waves came from behind the first and hit him in sequence. The sheer number of chassis proved an irresistible force and overpowered his individually superior strength. Despite the screaming of his servos in resistance, RX was pushed back with increasing momentum to the end of the passageway. The rear of his frame made an RX-sized indentation on the wall’s titasteel plating.
Feisty little bastards!
Rx's combat and logic facilitators busied his MCU with individual combat solutions to disable the drones. He immediately started swinging his upper and lower graspers to lay waste to the crush of combat chassis about him. Still, he couldn't keep his neural synth from wondering... How many mech swarms do these guys have?!