An explosion! Four armor-piercing missiles hit the geodesic robot. All they managed to do was knock it down and flip it onto its "back."
The close explosion made my ears ring, but the bio-implants did their job, releasing a precisely measured dose of chemicals and hormones into my blood.
Sergei, dodging a paw that swept past his head, jumped onto the machine, shoving a grenade into the armor joint.
The "Yezhikha" possessed advanced intelligence and instantly recognized the threat. Bracing one leg on the ground, it spun its body, throwing my husband off and shaking out the deadly munition.
The anti-tank grenade exploded, causing no damage to the armor, but forcing the gyroscopes to vigorously stabilize the robot, preventing it from hitting Sergei. The paw again slashed only air, menacingly buzzing with a drill, giving me an opportunity to attack.
I pushed off the husk of the burning APC and jumped onto the manipulator extended in a lunge, but the robot expected this. I miraculously managed to change direction in mid-air, pushing off the steel limb with both hands to avoid getting caught between two manipulators.
I managed to dodge, but not completely. The tip of the paw grazed me, throwing me back onto the armored vehicle. The light exoskeleton built into my uniform creaked protestingly from the impact of my back against the edge of the armored vehicle. I didn't have time to regroup, falling to the ground like a sack.
The robot, gathering its paws, rushed again, circling us. We met the missile salvo with a jointly deployed sphere, but the polymer barrier couldn't withstand it and burst with a loud pop, splashing a fine polymer mist.
Shrapnel, weakened by the sphere, stung us. Small fragments tore at our uniforms, reaching the body in places. I covered my face with my hands, saving my eyes, receiving a deep ragged cut on my forearm.
From under the torn skin, wires in insulation appeared along with blood. My left arm burned with pain, disabling it for a few seconds.
Steel fragments lashed Mercury hard, who had once again exposed herself, reloading the grenade launcher. A curved mist swirled around the second girl in the squad as shrapnel dug into her body. Fortunately for her, it didn't damage anything critical, only tearing her armor and leaving a few cuts.
Lakmus and Sergei managed to hide behind the husk of the armored vehicle. Radium tore off the troop compartment door of the armored vehicle with a crunch and, using it as a shield, rushed at the "Yezhikha," pulling out a hammer reinforced with a field generator from his spatial storage on the run.
The machine only dug its paw into the ground again, spinning around at full speed. The heavy body literally swept Radium away with his improvised shield. Flying about ten meters, our comrade hit his head on a pine tree, incapacitating him. He was alive, but seriously wounded.
"Together! With Frost!" Sergei shouted, giving the order, making a dash and closing in on the machine. We followed him. Lakmus and I fired our assault rifles, hoping to distract the "Yezhikha" from our comrade.
"One!" a stream of aerosol polymer coolant enveloped the robot. It, continuing to roll, became covered in ice, stopping a few meters from Radium. The ice reliably froze the servomotors.
"From the grenade launchers - volley!" Sergei commanded again. He fell to one knee, drawing a loaded "Krepysh" from compressed space. Mercury and Lakmus echoed him. A volley of twelve guided missiles sent the robot flying again, knocking it to the ground, but still not penetrating its armor.
I, making another dash, covered Radium with a polymer shield, quickly injecting him with stimulants to temporarily return him to combat readiness.
Shaking his head weakly, he came to. A moment later, he himself rolled away from the geodesic robot's counter-attack.
And then, rolling away from us, the "Yezhikha" did a somersault, standing on four legs, revealing its reactor!
The guys couldn't reload their grenade launchers in time, so they shot with regular firearms. Bullets knocked sparks from the reactor's hull. Particularly successful hits chipped off pieces of the structure, but it wasn't enough.
Running, I climbed up the robot's hull. Realizing that even an anti-tank grenade wouldn't be enough, I took an explosive charge from the paratrooper's backpack and attached it to a vulnerable part of the machine, jumping off with a backflip.
The explosion shook the "Yezhikha" as it removed the cooled reactor. The armor cracked, and one of its legs buckled, but the robot was still in service.
Instantly soaring up, it spun like a top, creating a small hurricane that tried to pull us towards it.
Fortunately, the boots themselves released spikes, pinning us to the ground.
But, freezing in place, she exposed herself to the infantry accompanying us and the remaining APCs. Two grenade launchers and a burst from heavy machine guns knocked her down again, tearing out a solid chunk of her hull.
Anti-tank rifles only knocked out a couple of sparks and made the robot's sensors ring.
The machine rushed at the soldiers, bouncing clumsily due to its damaged hull, but it was slow, and the soldiers managed to dodge, firing back again. This time, one of the rifles found its mark, knocking out the right sensor block.
"Telekinesis! All at once!" commanded Sergey. With a thousand times practiced action, we caught the "Hedgehog" in a telekinetic grip.
The robot twitched but couldn't break the invisible vise, remaining suspended in the air.
"Calling a 'Unicorn' strike at coordinates..." my husband requested an artillery strike.
"Grad via the double. Expect it," the commander of the 'Unicorn' battery calculation dryly replied.
As if hearing, the "Hedgehog" began to twitch, breaking free from the grip.
"Mercury, Lure, Frost..." my husband rasped. The polymer manipulator had expended its telekinetic charge and began to draw energy directly from the blood.
Mercury and I rapidly closed the distance, timing our move, freezing the robot to the ground.
The geodesic robot fired a volley of missiles directly at us, but the polymer shields held the impact, allowing us to retreat.
Again, the enemy's armor was peppered with bullets from the guards and armored vehicles. And exactly two seconds later, five supersonic shells from electromagnetic cannons fell from the sky with a pop. Tungsten slugs, enveloped in a plasma shirt, drove the robot into the ground, passing over it like a hammer of retribution.
Something exploded inside it, shattering the armor, but the "Hedgehog" was still functioning. We retreated, beginning to bombard the still-moving enemy with grenades and firing from grenade launchers. Only after five minutes did the machine stop moving, surrendering to the mercy of man...
Spitting out a tongue of white flame, the reactor exploded, causing the guards to erupt in victorious shouts.
"Disperse!" commanded Sergey. "Restore the column. You and you – to the vanguard! Keep your eyes peeled. Mercury! With them."
Turning to me, he briefly threw:
"Lure, examine Radium, I'll take care of the other wounded for now..."
The hesitation was understandable. Even though the soldiers underwent minimal improvement and treatment, they remained ordinary people. Perhaps some could still be saved. The polymer in their heads protected their brains from rapid death.
"Well, sick one. The doctor is already here," I say to Radium, turning to him. He sat on the ground, leaning his back against a stump, gesturing that he understood. Besides a concussion, he had broken ribs and a left arm. All I had to do was inject him with everything necessary, fix his arm, and then he would fall into a healing sleep.
"Don't move. Let me spray you with foam," Sergey said gently, taking my injured hand softly and quickly covering the cut with foam, hiding the artificiality of the limb, which I had just come to terms with. "Mercury is also a three-hundred. Two screw-ups. One decided to get a medal 'For Close Combat,' the other clung to her grenade launcher with all her limbs. And she was a sniper too... As soon as they get out of the infirmary, they'll pay for their stupidity."
"You're talking like Argon," I smile at him softly.
"I'm talking like their commander," he sighed heavily. "And the injuries of these good-for-nothings, and my mistake..."
"You're too hard on yourselves, Major. You don't have much experience, but you're doing well, in my opinion," KRAZ chimed in.
"One must always strive for the ideal, even if it's unattainable. Even if everything turned out alright this time, we might not be so lucky next time," my husband cut him off.
"When they activate the 'Collective'..."
"The army will remain. Reality has already proven that we are not alone in the universe. It's foolish to reach out to the infinity of the stars without a club. And it's just as foolish to wave it around, groping in the dark. You might hit a friend," KRAZ interrupted him.
"And our service won't end with the appearance of a common network. Humanity will need soldiers. You can't put an AI behind every robot. Besides, it would be unethical – to send them into battle while remaining in the shadows. You are just like us, even if you were born of science. So, we will fight together," I concluded.
"Only the future will judge us," KRAZ said gruffly. Was he offended that I equated him to an AI?
"And in my opinion, it's a very good position. I was created for creation. I don't want to harm or destroy!" Eleonora retorted to KRAZ. "Let there be those like me or you, but let them decide their own fate."
"Enough idle chatter," Sergey stopped the further argument. "I thirst to wring Petrov's neck..."
"Devil!" Victor cursed again, trying to hack the control terminal of the assembly line. The system refused to yield. Without special equipment and software, gaining access through a bypass was incredibly difficult, but for a rebellious genius, it was possible.
The sky was covered with dark clouds, and somewhere beyond the mountains, a thunderstorm was rumbling. Heavy clouds pressed down on the mountain peaks, threatening to unleash all their fury upon the earth. The weak film of weather shields, shimmering like the aurora borealis, thinned and melted under the onslaught of the raging elements. Although the storm was only supposed to lightly brush the Enterprise's territory, the reflections of the approaching thunderstorm, like flashes of a magnesium flare, illuminated the scene of destruction.
Larisa, looking at the traces of extinguished fires, from which a light smoke and the smell of burning still emanated, indulged in reflection. Inhaling the air with a bitter aftertaste one more time, which could not drown out the smell of the approaching storm, she turned to her beloved:
"You promised that no innocent would be harmed," the girl muttered softly and distantly, in a state of confusion and having lost all resolve. Her imagination painted many corpses left in the fires, which dotted nature like dark sores. The most frightening thing was that her fantasy understated the true scale of the tragedy.
The voices that had been fiercely whispering in her head lately, counting down like a metronome to the activation of the "Collective 2.0," which she so hated, were now unable to drown out the silent scream of the former Filatova, whose enthusiasm and faith in a better future had been an example for others.
The nanomachines that had infected her brain, guided by a cold will from space, could not completely suppress her conjunctive fictions. The once strong mind struggled to shake off the stupor, but her undermined will did not help at all, suppressed by recent events.
The man turned to his chosen muse. A close lightning strike illuminated his insane face, sharpening his features. His eyes glowed with unhealthy enthusiasm, and a mad smile never left his face.
The lightning flash reflected off a single tear that rolled down the woman's cheek, making her look ten years older in an instant. Her face remained a lifeless mask, as if frozen in time.
Victor pulled the mask of his former self onto his face, the image of which had once captivated her, before replying with malice, looking into her eyes with his mad gaze:
"It would have been so if not for the intervention of these dogs! But it's nothing! The 'Hedgehog' will hold them back enough. Do you hear?" he declaimed theatrically, putting his hand to his ear. Amidst the storm, the sounds of explosions and gunfire could be heard.
Suddenly, glowing blue comets pierced the heavens, breaking through the clouds and crashing onto the earth a moment later.
A second later, a roar, like a gasp and an inhale simultaneously, reached the platform of the mobile factory, causing all the surrounding trees to sway. Birds took flight, not startled by the incident or the proximity of military action. Black silhouettes filled the gloomy skies.
"These brutes can only solve problems with force," the disgraced engineer laughed, and thunder and explosions echoed his mad laughter. "They lack the elegance that machines have."
He approached the woman and imperiously took her chin with his fingers, lifting it. Victor's mad eyes were so close. His breath scorched her skin, and goosebumps ran down her spine. Drowning in his madness, Larisa lost all doubt.
Petrov caught a tear with his fingers, wiping it away.
"Don't. All who died in this godforsaken and cursed place are not worthy of a drop of your pity. If they are not freaks, maniacs, and executioners, then they were accomplices of criminals!" his voice sounded in sync with the voices in her head.
The man's hand rested on her waist, pulling her closer. Larisa's lips were burned by a kiss that was as trembling as it was painful. A moment full of roughness, primal, sick passion, and excitement pierced the woman's entire body, frozen like a puppet with its strings cut by a madman. How foolish the slanders against her beloved seemed to her now.
The dissident released the victim of his passion, suppressing the desire to burst into laughter, which made his face dance madly. "How perfect she is in such moments! Alluring like a woman, and obedient like a robot. Just one wish – and my muse will dance a mazurka on the theater stage or step over outdated morality. The ideal of a machine, cast in living flesh. Obedient and intelligent. Befitting my genius!" the thought rumbled in his head. "The most ideal moment for the final act of our life's play!"
The madman allowed himself to savor the woman's listless face, losing track of time. Even the heavy rain that began did not cool the heat of his embrace. It was foolish. They were being looked for. But isn't this madness called life?
Somewhere deep inside, the predator that Filatova had become smiled. Shedding the shackles of her former beliefs, she was no longer limited by anything.
The predator gently caressed and nurtured Petrov's resentment, not letting it subside. She flirted with Shtokhauzen. Only a drop of female cunning and intelligence was needed to manipulate the prominent figure like a puppet.
How pleasant it was to pull the strings. There was no need to fawn, to be like everyone else, to pretend to be nice and fanatical. Everyone around was just a tool for her revenge! Those who did not meet expectations had to suffer, gasping in their death throes, filled with such sweet horror.
Academician Sechenov must suffer! The Union must burn! They will never rest as long as the world of dreams has even a sliver of a chance of life! They will show humanity that it is not the pinnacle of creation, but simply animals that have become too full of themselves.
When her former idol sees the collapse of his life's work, kneeling in the ashes of his creation, she will simply leave him... Without hands, legs, or eyelids, so that he can eternally see the corpse of his dream. And then she will use his creation, pervert it, and give humanity what it deserves. She and Victor will become gods of the new world. He will create the greatest play of the human race's destiny, and she will stand a step behind him, pulling the strings from time to time...
Victor made up his mind. Kneeling on one knee, he took a container with rings from the spatial warehouse. Beta connectors floated in a transparent cube, sparkling in the flashes of lightning, reflecting the mad light of the eyes of two monsters, brilliant and terrible in their own way.
"Larisa, be mine..."
The maniac and fetishist didn't finish, interrupted by an ordinary shot that blew a bloody fountain from the chest of his object of passion. Drops of scarlet liquid and bone fragments splashed his face, mixing with the rain.
The woman stumbled and turned awkwardly on stiff legs, facing the shooter.
The second shot put the final point. A special bullet entered her forehead, blowing out the back of her head and splitting it like a ripe pumpkin. In the last moment of her life, as the accelerated piece of metal turned her brain into mince, the former Larisa returned, feeling relief. "Forgive me..." was her last thought.
The almost decapitated body fell onto the metal platform with a dull thud, finally splattering the dissident with blood.
The man, not believing his eyes, looked at the corpse... Misunderstanding turned to rage. His possession was broken, daring to go against the intended roles, against his genius!
Tears of anger mixed with the blood of the murdered woman. Another flash of lightning illuminated his now completely insane face and three operatives from the "Argentum" squad.
And if the figure of the madman seemed completely dark from the blood, then in the flashes of lightning, the three agents shone with silver.
"NOOOO!!!" the mad genius howled hysterically, grabbing the dead body, feigning grief. "Well, let there be improvisation!" – the only coherent thought rustled in the storm of his mind's madness...