Chromium

10.5

One skimmed along Dia's Coffin, or at least it looked that way. It was only when the smell of frayed wiring hit her nostrils that she realized the laser blasted her capsule. The Coffin's light flickered before going out, its systems, including the one regulating the dosage of her "medication", shutting down one after the other.

Dia looked at Gibson, but he was too busy at the moment to realize her "cage" wasn't working anymore. The second wave was coming. They entered together this time, one from the door and the other through the hole in the ceiling. The robots started swarming on them as soon as they landed, but the mechs had learned from their past mistakes.

"Device analyzed." One of them said. "Microcell Explosive found. Tactics updated. Secondary weapon: Initialized."

One of the mechs turned to face Gibson's robots, raising its fist like it was pointing at them. However, it wasn't aiming at the droids but at the wagon itself. Dia saw a flash, a red beam glittering as its hand described a horizontal arc. Then the wagon...detached.

She heard a grating noise, the wagon's wheels shooting sparks before going off the rails. The mech had just sliced it, the beam cutting through wood and metal like butter. Dia was still gaping at the robot when she heard a loud electrical sound, the one only a high-powered gun could make.

The mechs seemed to freeze, their sensors scanning the "artillery" in Gibson's hands. Dia did the same. It wasn't a gun, something a person could use, but a freaking tank's cannon. That thing must have weighed three hundred pounds.

Where the hell did he get that from?

"I have worked too hard for this. You won't have me!" Gibson shouted, a note of madness laced with a copious amount of hysteria in his voice. "You won't have me!"

Then the robot at his side turned her capsule until Dia and the mechs were face to face. She stiffened when the Collective's drones started scanning her, their attention focusing on her for the first time.

"What...?" She asked, unable to understand what was going on.

However, that was nothing compared to what came next. Gibson took the safety off, the cannon's barrel glittering as the weapon started charging, and pointed the gun...at her.

Dia's mind was a mess at the moment, but her confusion disappeared and turned into fear when she looked at the terrible amount of energy accumulating in the cannon's spherical clip.

"Leave, or I'll kill her!" Gibson shouted at the mechs.

"G-Gibson. What are you..."

"Shut up" He hissed.

Has he gone mad? Why should they care about me?

Apparently, however, he wasn't crazy.

"Logical failure: contrasting directives." The mech said. "Awaiting instructions."

Contrasting directives? What the hell?

The mech's bionic eyes flickered, their light going out for a couple of seconds. Then it stared directly at her face.

"Primary target detected." It said and everything that was happening around her, Gibson, the robots, even that cannon capable of turning her head into a gelatinous blob, disappeared as dream and reality became one.

"Directive..."The voice of the mech in her memory and the one standing before her overlapped. They boomed in her head and ears in unison, echoes of a lost memory or something her mind had deliberately chosen to forget.  "...Immediate extraction." That's what it said.

Her mind went blank, unable to process those words into understandable information, to conceive why the Collective had been looking for her, an insignificant officer like countless others.

W-What's...going on?

"...to our custody" The mech was saying in the meanwhile.

Dia blinked, too shocked to understand everything it had said. However, she noticed that its voice was a bit different; more articulate and human-like, though still robotic.

"Why should I?" Gibson asked.

"You will be rewarded with a temporary reprieve."

"How temporary?" The cannon in his hands wavered a bit.

However, it seemed the mechs' patience was running out.

"Release the Archnova into our custody. Now." They commanded.

Archnova?

She had no time to think about it. Gibson was distracted, his gun lowered. That was her chance, maybe the only one she had to escape. She didn't hesitate, her muscles flexing as the shackles broke with a loud crash.

It took her less than a second to stand up. Then she ran, one the mech's hands brushing against her hair as it tried to grab her. She ducked, almost fell, but kept running until she reached what remained of the sliding door.

"No!" Gibson shouted, but she didn't turn, ignoring his screams, the sound of laser fire coming from behind her and even the fact the train was like a missile, the tunnel's wall no more than a blur.

She ignored everything that was happening around her and jumped.