Sorry, my last post was about my rank-up matches; I'm now Diamond 3, and I'm also thinking about how to write this story
There's a big storm coming in New York, where I am; wish me luck
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The creature finished dragging itself through the broken floor with the slow confidence of something that had never needed to hurry. Concrete cracked underneath its weight, and one section of the ruined relay disappeared beneath an armored hand large enough to wrap around the Engineer's torso. Its body was roughly humanoid only in the loosest possible sense. Two arms, two legs, a head, and a torso were all technically present, but everything had been expanded and rebuilt until the original shape felt more like an old suggestion than a design requirement. Thick plates overlapped across its shoulders, cables disappeared underneath dark armor, and several red optical sensors moved independently across the front of its head.
Engineer slowly backed toward the UNIT line while keeping the Omni-Tool raised.
Running immediately would tell it too much.
Attacking immediately would tell her too little.
Neither option appealed to her.
Okay. Big. Cybernetic. Three centuries old, assuming the System isn't being weird about time travel. Knows my title despite me only starting to use it recently. This is checking far too many boxes on the "future me has made enemies" list.
The creature took one step forward, and the entire chamber shook.
UNIT personnel backed toward the tunnel entrance while keeping their weapons trained on it. Commander Shaw moved sideways until she was close enough to speak to the Engineer without raising her voice, although her eyes never left the thing standing in the wreckage.
"Do you have any idea what we're looking at?"
Engineer kept scanning."Give me a second."
"We may not have one."
"Then give me a nanosecond."
Her Omni-Tool swept across the machine. The first scan had given her physical information. The second started revealing architecture. Several independent processors.Layered neural systems.
Power storage distributed through the entire body instead of concentrated inside one central core.
Temporal shielding. Oof, so no shooting a mass of Artron Energy at it to blow it up
Multiple network interfaces.
Redundant command nodes.
Engineer's eyebrows climbed higher with every line. Whoever built you had trust issues. Good trust issues, admittedly, but still.
The machine shifted one massive hand onto the concrete and pulled the rest of its upper body free. More of the floor cracked beneath it, forcing the nearest UNIT soldiers to retreat several steps while Commander Shaw moved in front of the technicians.
"Everyone back toward the access tunnel," Shaw ordered. "Keep your weapons trained on it, but nobody fires unless it moves toward us."
The Engineer glanced sideways.
"That is surprisingly restrained."
Shaw did not look at her. "You said you don't know what it is."
"I don't."
"Then I would rather not discover it explodes when shot."
I really do like him. The machine's red sensors adjusted.
"ENGINEER."
Its voice was different from the Cybermen. There was still that flat mechanical quality underneath it, but something else had developed over the years. Pauses. Inflection. Thought that had not been compressed into simple statements.
The Engineer noticed immediately.
"You've already said that; can you stop spamming my name?"
The machine's head tilted by several degrees.
"TEMPORAL PROFILE INCONSISTENT."
The Engineer tilted her head at that
Oh… I got profile neat
Her Omni-Tool began automatically recording everything. "Explain cause there only one of me."
"FACIAL STRUCTURE: DISMATCH. BIOLOGICAL PATTERN: MATCH. ARTRON RESONANCE: DISMATCH."
The machine took one slow step forward. The concrete cracked beneath its foot.
"CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT: INCOMPLETE."
She lowered the Omni-Tool by perhaps an inch.
"You know an older version of me."
"CORRECT."
A dozen questions arrived at once.
She picked the most important. "Are we friends?"
The machine became completely still.
Engineer waited. The UNIT technicians waited.
Even Shaw looked toward it.
"MOST NEGATIVE."
The Engineer just shrugged. "Yeah, saw that coming, but Worth asking." Excellent. Future me has apparently upset the refrigerator empire.
The creature raised one arm. Every UNIT weapon immediately followed the movement. Engineer's Omni-Tool identified a massive power buildup inside the limb. Engineer's expression changed as the scan revealed that the weapon was drawing power through several temporal regulators.
Engineer snapped her wrist downward. A holographic barrier expanded across the UNIT line just as the creature fired. Lucky I added the 14th Doctor barrier to this, and when did the Cybermen use a lot of time-based systems? Machines can't master time cause of its wild, illogical nature unless you get an inorganic brain that can think in 5 dimensions
The impact hit like a vehicle slamming into the shield. Orange light bent inward, fractured across its center, and sent the Engineer skidding backward several feet before the beam finally broke apart against the ceiling.
Her Omni-Tool screamed warnings.
[Barrier Integrity: 18%.]
[Emitter Temperature: Critical.]
[Recommended Action: Disengage.]
Engineer shook her hand as heat spread through the bracer.
Shaw immediately opened fire.
This time UNIT did not hold back.
Bullets hammered against the machine's chest and shoulders while Sergeant Okafor fired several heavier rounds into one of the exposed joints beneath its arm. Sparks burst across the creature, but the system damage indicator barely moved.
[Unknown Cybernetic Entity.]
[Health: 47,910 / 48,600.]
Engineer stared at the number. "Oh, that's insulting."
Shaw ducked behind a damaged console. "What?"
Engineer turned to face him. "You wouldn't have any powerful weapons on you."
The machine moved forward through the gunfire. Each step was slow, but there was no hesitation.
Lieutenant Vale threw himself behind cover as the creature swept one arm across the chamber. A section of ruined machinery went flying into the wall hard enough to collapse a shelving unit beside him.
The Engineer's eyes narrowed while her Omni-Tool filled the creature with targeting markers.
Like master Splinter once said, don't fight the armor. Armor is stupid. Fight the man inside that matter…I think that's how he said it: man being in that void fuck my head up
Engineer was scanning for its power source and to blow that up, but all she saw was Temporal components far too many temporal components.
Then she found something strange. Several internal sections were not Cyberman technology. Engineer zoomed in mentally.
Gallifreyan architecture. Her expression went blank. "What."
[Foreign Technology Detected.]
[Gallifreyan-derived components present.]
[Estimated integration period: Unknown.]
Engineer forgot about the battle for half a second.
"You have Gallifreyan technology inside you."
The creature's red sensors focused on her again. "CORRECT."
Shaw fired another burst before ducking back into cover. "Is that important?"
"Yes! HUMAN"
Engineer shifted sideways as another beam tore through the place she'd been standing. "It's extremely important!"
Before she let out a mad laugh, "I'M SO GOING TO RIP YOU APART AND TAKE EVERY LITTLE PIECE OF YOU WITH ME."
The creature suddenly lunged, and for something with that much mass it moved far too quickly. The System flashed across the Engineer's vision while she threw herself sideways.
[Dexterity differential unfavorable.]
"Oh, shut up."
She rolled behind a support column as the machine's hand crashed into the concrete and tore a section from it. Concrete sprayed across the floor while the Engineer came up on one knee and immediately fired the Omni-Tool into the exposed joint beneath its arm.
Orange energy flashed through the damaged connection, and the creature twitched as its health dropped.
[Health: 46,880 / 48,600.]
Engineer grinned while shifting away from the collapsing support column.
The machine raised one arm toward her.
"THE ENGINEER MUST BE PRESERVED."
The Engineer took one step backward while the creature's weapon systems remained inactive.
"Oh, absolutely not, because I am not allowing you to put me in a metal box and drag me into the future."
The creature advanced.
"INFORMATION REQUIRED."
"What information do you need from me?"
"FUTURE EVENT DATA."
Engineer nearly tripped over a broken cable while retreating. "You traveled backward through time to interrogate me about something I have not done yet?"
"CORRECT."
The Engineer stared at it in disbelief before pointing toward its enormous chest.
"That is cheating, because you cannot demand answers about events that have not happened in my timeline."
The creature continued forward.
"YOU WILL PROVIDE THE ENGINEER PROTOCOL."
Engineer stopped moving.
Her amusement rose another level completely. "I'm sorry, the what?"
"THE ENGINEER PROTOCOL."
The System searched automatically while the creature's internal processors began charging another weapon.
[No matching data available.]
Engineer swallowed. "I do not know what that is."
"DECEPTION."
"No, I genuinely do not know what you are talking about. You got the wrong engineer, dude. I just learn how to rebuild a weaponized toaster."
The machine continued forward while UNIT soldiers fired at its legs. "THE PROTOCOL THAT DESTROYED THE CYBER-NEXUS OF KASTORIA."
Engineer looked toward Shaw. "Can I kill it now?"
Shaw fired another burst into the creature's damaged shoulder. "I assumed that was already the plan."
"Excellent."
The creature's sensors brightened.
Slowly, a smile appeared. There is the weakness.
Shaw saw the expression and immediately looked concerned.
"What did you realize?"
Engineer looked at the enormous machine. "You cannot kill me."
The creature remained silent. Engineer's smile widened.
"You were ordered to preserve me, which means your weapons are restricted even if you decide that I am inconvenient."
Engineer took one step forward while Shaw raised his voice. "Engineer, do not test that assumption."
"Trust me."
"That sentence has become less reassuring every time you say it."
Engineer stepped out from behind cover and spread both arms while the creature raised its weapon.
"Go on, because I would like to confirm whether your command restrictions are as absolute as you claim."
UNIT personnel shouted at her to move, but she remained in place while the red targeting light settled in the center of her chest.
Come on, prove me right.
The cannon's charge reached full power, but the weapon did not fire. The energy collapsed inward, and the arm lowered while the machine's processors recalculated.
The Engineer's grin became almost obnoxious.
"Oh, that is beautiful."
Shaw stared at her.
"You could have been wrong."
"I strongly suspected I was right."
The creature moved forward, and the Engineer moved with it while staying directly in front of its weapon systems.
"Now this is interesting, because you cannot vaporize me, but you can still grab me and carry me somewhere I do not want to go."
The machine reached toward her.
The Engineer stepped backward while tracking the movement of its hands.
It cannot shoot me, but it can absolutely stuff me into a metal container and drag me into the future.
The creature lunged again, but this time she expected it. The Engineer ducked beneath the massive hand and sprinted along its side while the Omni-Tool scanned the damaged joint, calculated the opening, and highlighted the exact point where the armor had separated.
She drove an orange pulse directly into the exposed connection, and the creature jerked sideways.
[Health: 44,310 / 48,600.]
"Got you."
The machine twisted toward her while UNIT fire shifted from the armor to the damaged joints.
"UNIT, stop shooting the outer plating and target the joints."
Shaw understood first.
"Target the joints."
Okafor hammered the damaged shoulder while Price fired into the back of one knee and Vale targeted the narrow section between the creature's neck armor and torso.
The machine finally staggered, not much, but enough for the Engineer to see its balance shift. Big things still have physics, even when they are built from stolen technology and bad decisions.
She accessed the temporal map of the chamber and identified several leftover distortions from the relay collapse. Most were weak, but one directly behind the machine remained unstable enough to manipulate.
Her eyebrows rose.
"Oh, you beautiful disaster."
The System immediately responded.
[Manipulating unstable temporal residue is not recommended.]
"When has that stopped me?"
[Never.]
"Exactly."
The Engineer slammed both hands onto the Omni-Tool interface, and the remaining distortions lit across the chamber while the creature turned toward her.
"TEMPORAL MANIPULATION DETECTED."
"Correct, because I am manipulating temporal residue."
"CEASE."
"No, because you are currently standing exactly where I need you to stand."
The machine lunged, and the Engineer pulled the distortion open. For one second, the creature's rear leg occupied two different positions at once, causing its balance to fail as its weight shifted sideways.
The machine crashed into the remains of the relay, crushing another section of machinery beneath it while the entire chamber shook.
Engineer laughed despite herself.
The System filled her vision with warnings.
[Distance decreasing.]
[Threat proximity critical.]
[Recommended action: retreat.]
"No."
She jumped onto the damaged relay housing and climbed onto the creature's back before it could fully stand. The machine reacted immediately.
"ENGINEER."
"Yes, hello dear, and I am currently standing on your back because you refused to remain on the floor."
It reached behind itself while the Engineer flattened against the armor, and one massive hand swept above her head.
This is stupid, extremely stupid, and still worth doing if the stolen technology is connected to my future. She drove the Omni-Tool against a recessed panel near the creature's neck, and the interface connected.
Everything changed.
Data slammed into her mind, and for one instant she was no longer looking at the chamber. She saw hundreds of Cyber units arranged across an alien city beneath black skies, burning towers, temporal weapons, and a figure standing alone on a broken platform.
The figure wore a black and white coat, had white-streaked hair, and possessed violet eyes that looked like clocks.
She had many questions, but the most important one was… why the fuck is she a goth elf
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