The Drifting Pioneer Ship Icarus (6)
"Master, a heavily armored walking drone QZ-22 is deployed in the corridor ahead. Calculating an alternate route."
I sucked in a sharp breath. We were practically at the destination.
"How much extra time would the detour add?"
"Approximately twenty-five minutes."
I'd already shaved off more than five minutes by sprinting in the exoskeleton. And now she expected me to burn another twenty-five running? Not a chance.
I shook my head. "No. That's too long. We have new gear now. How about we try engaging it?"
A soft whirring came from inside Nia's lens as it spun.
"Inputting data from the V-7 rifle and tactical heavy armor. According to calculations, the probability of victory is higher than before, yet it remains below recommended thresholds. The Master's safety would be placed in serious jeopardy."
"What are the exact percentages?"
"...Victory probability sits at sixty-two percent. Probability of injury exceeds eighty-two percent."
"That's higher than I expected. It's more than enough."
With this kind of equipment, anything over fifty percent was plenty. I'd survived far worse hells than this. This would be no different.
The endless whir of Nia's internal circuits filled the silence. Just as I started wondering if she might actually short-circuit, she spoke again.
"I have been unable to reach a logical conclusion. May I ask a question?"
Her lens spun much more slowly this time, yet it kept moving.
"Entrusting your survival to an uncertain figure of sixty-two percent is not rational. According to all my recorded data, the Master has always placed safety as the highest priority. I wish to understand what is causing the Master to behave so recklessly now."
I paused for a moment. Nia wasn't human, but it had been so long since I'd had a real conversation with anyone friendly that my thoughts refused to line up neatly. I wasn't sure how much I should reveal or whether my instincts were even correct. Still, I didn't overthink it. I simply opened my mouth and spoke.
"Is there anyone else on this ship besides us?"
The rapid spinning of Nia's lens froze instantly. For several seconds she made no sound at all. A sudden, heavy silence fell.
"I'm not completely sure. It's just a hunch. The way their forces are being redeployed doesn't make sense if they're only searching for us. There's probably someone else targeting a more critical location."
Most likely Nia's own comrades. Since she was an android, she had probably been exchanging constant signals with them through an invisible network even while traveling with me. From the situation, it seemed they were attacking key facilities to stop the security AI that had gone rogue and slaughtered the entire crew.
"So you have people you need to help. Or rather, something you have to do for them. You need to recover your body and go save them, right? At least, that's my guess."
I released the Nailer from my grip. Already synced with my backpack's panel, it automatically slid over and locked itself onto the side. I reached out and grabbed the laser rifle that had been mag-locked to the opposite panel. We'd need serious firepower from here on.
"Consider this repayment for protecting my life this far. You've done a lot for me. The least I can do is return the favor."
I stood in front of the door, rifle raised.
"What are you waiting for? Let's move. We don't have time to talk."
At my urging, Nia's lens began spinning again.
"...I will provide full-spectrum support."
Information about the QZ-22 flowed across my visor. It resembled a spider with four legs. I had vague memories of seeing similar robots in media somewhere in the distant past. A laser cannon sat mounted on its head, and each leg carried a gatling gun.
"Master, please be cautious. The frontal armor is multi-layered composite alloy. Standard ballistic fire will be unable to penetrate it."
The main body was so heavily armored that ordinary weapons couldn't hope to breach it. Fortunately, my laser rifle at maximum charge could punch through the plating, but Nia explained that simply blasting the outer armor would be pointless. There was only one spot I needed to target: the underbelly where all four legs converged. The armor plating thinned there, exposing the high-density battery pack that served as its power core.
Nia used the visor HUD to rapidly outline the plan. If I'd had even a few minutes to rehearse, it would have been flawless. The only problem was that I didn't have any rehearsal time.
I attached the equipment Nia had specified to my harness belt. It was one of the items I'd looted back in the exploration support room. An HTGH-type7 high-tension grappling hook launcher. In other words, a fancy harpoon gun.
I took one deep breath and adjusted my grip on the laser rifle.
"Ready."
"Confirmed. Opening bulkhead."
With a familiar hiss of compressed air, the door slid open. The instant it did, I pulled the trigger on the laser rifle I'd pre-charged to maximum output.
The beam lanced out, guided by Nia's precision targeting, and struck the spider drone's leg joint at the far end of the corridor. Before it could even react, one of the gatling guns mounted on its leg sparked violently and went dead. Three gatling guns remained. I began charging the rifle for another single shot. Sustained fire was possible at lower output, but this thing would only feel maximum power.
The spider drone's sensors glowed crimson as they locked onto me. Without hesitation I spun and sprinted in the opposite direction. The nightmare sound of four metal legs hammering after me echoed down the corridor.
I followed the visor's guidance, dodging the laser bursts and gatling fire. Without my perfect sense of timing and the exoskeleton's power, the acrobatics would've been impossible. While running I charged the rifle to maximum once more, then twisted and fired again. Another leg-mounted gatling gun exploded. I'd now destroyed every gatling gun on the legs facing me. The ones on its rear legs couldn't target me either. The situation had become a stalemate. The drone refused to give up, chasing me and firing its main cannon, but I'd already danced through its attacks even when all four gatlings were active. A single cannon wasn't enough to hit me.
I guided it exactly where Nia wanted, into the center of the open room that served as her kill zone.
The long-awaited message appeared. She'd successfully hacked the room's gravity controls. The instant the alert flashed, I fired the grappling hook into the floor and locked it to my harness. Then I prayed. This was my first time using the tool, so I hoped I'd done it correctly.
Three. Two. One.
The ship's gravity flipped. Ceiling and floor swapped places. Everything that had been on the ground tumbled upward. The hook held. The rope went taut, anchoring me in place so I hung upside-down from what was now the ceiling. The spider drone wasn't so lucky. Caught completely off guard by the sudden reversal, it flipped onto its back and plummeted toward what had become the floor.
I aimed the laser rifle straight at its exposed belly. Its upper cannon was now buried uselessly in the floor, but the two remaining gatling guns desperately twisted toward me.
The laser screamed from my barrel at the same moment the gatlings opened up. This was exactly the high injury probability Nia had warned me about. I deployed the tactical armor's shield, but it couldn't completely negate the barrage of physical rounds. The harness power gauge plummeted, and several bullets punched through the weakened shield, slamming into my body.
But I hadn't jumped into this plan without a backup. I was already wearing the steelhelm hide I'd collected from my very first hunt. The gatling rounds smacked against it. The impacts felt like getting kicked by a martial artist, hard enough to make me see stars, but not enough to kill me. That was all that mattered. As long as I was still breathing, it was fine.
A sharp explosion rang out, followed by the roar of flames. When I looked up, I saw that Nia's precision-guided laser had sliced the drone's underbelly wide open.
The moment gravity flipped back to normal, I released the rope and landed on the floor. The steelhelm hide was completely ruined, but I had survived. When I looked up, the drone's burning wreckage lay grotesquely sprawled in the center of the room. Victory.
"That's right, you son of a bitch. After everything I've survived, you think I'd lose to a giant metal spider toy? Sure, it was bigger than I expected."
I spat out the metallic blood that had pooled in my mouth. I wanted to catch my breath, but there was no time for that. Forcing my aching body upright, I swapped out the harness and shield battery packs. Everything hurt, but I still had to keep moving.
"...The outer layer the Master used to block gunfire possesses material properties not found in my database. Where did you acquire it?"
"That's... complicated to explain. Just like you have things you're keeping from me, let's say I have a few secrets too. We're a little busy right now, so can we just get moving?"
"...Logical. I will comply. And..."
Nia's lens, which had been spinning with every calculation, suddenly stopped.
"...Thank you."
It had been a long time since I'd heard anyone thank me. Even though the voice belonged to an android rather than a human, a strange, embarrassed warmth still bloomed in my chest. Maybe I'd been starving for real conversation more than I realized. To hide my awkwardness, I gave an exaggerated shrug.
But before we left the room, there was one thing I absolutely had to do. I slowly reached toward the smoking wreckage of the defeated drone.
Collection
After all the trouble it took to kill the damn thing, I might as well collect the rewards.