As Maya was basing everything she was seeing on science fiction shows, she was expecting the mana core to be a massive cylindrical tower of pulsing light and energy. Life seemed to imitate art, as the mana core turned out to be a whirling disc of light and energy.

In Pops’ attempt to hammer in some ‘real world’ knowledge into his children, he had forced Maya and her brothers to help him fix vehicles Pops maintained for some of the older residents in their neighborhood.Maya mostly remembered the hot days and wishing her father had been less of a pillar in their community.

One of her more mechanically inclined brothers had dismantled an alternator and they had marveled at the intricacies that lay within.

The mana core reminded Maya of that alternator.

A shaft of black metal rose from the deck twenty feet below Maya and reached the ceiling of the room, in its center was a bulky metal protrusion that she labeled the rotor.From it wires and tubing ran up toward the ceiling and vanished into the bulkheads.

But around that rotor spun what Maya thought of as the stator. It was a glowing disc of light and energy.

“That’s fucking cool,” Maya breathed.

The glowing disc reminded her of the rainbow skies of this world.It pulsed and throbbed with contained energy, bathing the entire room in a blue light, even though the colors of the disc were every color of the rainbow and more.

A trickle of fear nudged the edge of her mind as she looked at it. It was beautiful, yes, but it looked very dangerous. She didn’t think that a space ship like this would have so many moving parts just hanging out in the open.

It was then that she began to notice all the trash lying around the large room. Ripped up machinery and thick metallic plating lay scattered all along the room. She saw that torn pieces of metal hung from the ceiling that seemed to have been the original casing for the mana core.

She shuddered as she realized she was looking at an unshielded mana core. Nanaseto had said the amount of mana escaping the core would depend upon how much shielding had degraded in the last twenty thousand years, but what she was looking at was about zero shielding.

Maya almost slammed the access panel shut, until her eye caught movement at the base of the mana core.She remembered she was here not for sight seeing, but to kill a robot boss.

She could make out a massive shape at the base of the mana core.At first she had thought it was trash, but then it slowly began to move.

Rogue AI AZNI45

“Shit, that’s a big one,” Maya hissed. “It’s a peacock turtle.”

Rogue AI AZNI45 was a large machine creature. Maya guessed it was about ten feet in diameter, standing at least five feet off the ground with half a dozen heavy trunk legs.

She couldn’t see a head, but what she could see was the back of the creature.What would have been the shell of the creature instead appeared to be an exposed circuit board.Instead of the usual capacitors, resistors, and circuits, the open back of the rogue AI was glowing tubes and colorful wiring that shone with energy. She saw fine antenna rising from its back, crackling with energy as they waved in the air.

From what she assumed was its backside rose a fan of netting facing the direction of the rotating mana stator.The fan on its backside also crackled with energy.She didn’t have to be a magical space engineer to figure out that the AI was using the fan to suck up the mana in the room.

She was oddly disappointed.She had been figuring that it would have plugged itself into the mana core to receive energy, but instead the rogue AI ripped up all the shielding of the mana core and kept itself exposed to the mana in the room.

Besides the rogue AI and all the ripped up machinery and trash, the massive room didn’t seem to hold anything else. She could see where monitors and computer stations once stood, but they had been torn out leaving black gaping holes of exposed wiring and torn metal.

Maya wondered if the AI recycled the things it had trashed. It would make sense, it wasn’t a biological lifeform, therefore it had to gather up resources to make its guards and minions.

Looking at all the damage of the room, Maya wondered if there would be a way to make more parts for the ship. If she defeated the boss AI, then she would have to somehow fix this ship up for Nanaseto to regain power and eventually figure out a way to get home.

She looked at the spinning disc of light and energy and shuddered. She didn’t even know where to begin with that thing.

Sighing, Maya glanced back down at the rogue AI. It wasn’t moving anymore, instead it seemed to be hunkering down and enjoying the energy glow of the mana.

Maya realized a few things as she scouted out the mana core room. One was that there was a catwalk that attached to the access panel she was hidden behind, it wrapped round the room and approached the mana core from the narrower sides of the room.Second was that she was being exposed to a high concentration of mana, which meant ungodly mutations or damage to her body.

Nanaseto’s words raced through her mind. A hundred gens, whatever a gen was. With that exposed mana stator and the energy filling the room, she had to destroy the rogue AI quickly, then run.

The thing was, how did one battle this AI? She had surprise on her side, but that was like saying she could surprise a car and then beat it into submission. She wasn’t that strong and she wasn’t that fast. She didn’t have any weapon besides her crowbar and a hammer in her inventory.

Besides food, water, some medical supplies, and a few tools, Maya wasn’t armed for a fight. She once again berated herself for her stupidity.

Four hours left, Maya thought. Two and a half until she had to get back.

Perhaps she could disable the mana core. The spinning stator did not look like it would take much to disrupt.Maya sighed, knowing she shouldn’t be messing around with such things. Who knew if forcing the stator to stop would cause the whole thing to blow. The rogue AI was the focus.

She looked back down at the machine and wondered if tossing a bottle of water on its exposed back would damage it. It was an electronic machine after all, right? She had dropped plenty of electronics in water (by accident) and had seen the results. Maya pulled up her inventory and saw she only had three bottles of water left.

She was still deciding on what to do when she heard the sound that she dreaded. The clicking steps of the spider minions.

Maya froze and tried to look back down the shaft, but due to the narrow confines, she could barely make out anything. In the silence of the shaft, she could still hear the clicking steps moving toward her. Growing louder and closer.

“Shit,” Maya muttered.

She pulled out the hammer from her inventory, it wasn’t crowbar time just yet. Taking a slow breath, Maya craned her neck to see what lay behind her. In the blue light of the shaft, she could make out shapes marching down the tube toward her. The ominous glowing red lights of the minions peered back at her.

There was an army of the creatures.

Maya tried to stay stock still, all she had to do was not move and they wouldn’t see her. She just didn’t have to move…

“FUCK!” Maya screamed as she clamored out of the maintenance shaft.

A spider crawled up one leg and another was trying to stab her in the back. She threw herself against the bulkhead and felt the spider on her back dislodge. With her hammer she pried off the one on her leg and with her mind screaming in terror she launched herself back toward the open access panel.

The mini army of spiders were rushing the opening and she slammed it shut, quickly locking the latches before turning around again to face the two spiders that had attacked her.

With her fatigued arms and injuries, she hadn’t been able to hold still enough for the spiders to ignore her.Luckily they all hadn’t rushed her at once and thankfully she hadn’t been lost in the haze of terror that had gripped her before.

Maya kicked the first spider off the catwalk and then swung at the second spider that was clamoring up the bulkhead. The first spider disappeared down into the core room and the second lost a leg and its grip on the bulkhead. Maya sent it flying after its compatriot.

She was breathing heavily, but even over her gasping she could hear the chittering and clicking of more spiders. Maya glanced down into the room and saw what appeared to be an open blast door. The heavy metal door was ajar and from it poured more spiders than she had ever seen.

Of course, the rogue AI would have more than a handful of minions. Of course, it would call them all back to protect itself. Of course, she was going to die.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Maya cried, seeing the first of the horde of spiders skittering onto the catwalk.

She ran.

There wasn’t anywhere to go but away from the spiders, that meant she moved closer toward the mana core. The fear of the spiders overriding her fear of potential damage by the high concentrations of mana. Perhaps there was another exit beyond the core. She hadn’t checked her Map but surely there was more than one exit.

She rushed along the catwalk and then skidded to a stop as another group of minions rose up onto the catwalk before her.They moved cautiously and she cursed as she was now trapped. She looked at the catwalk that lead toward the mana core, it hung over the room and maybe she could jump to the ground and get out.

The air was hot and heavy, Maya realized. Where she had felt tingling and the electric feel in the air, now it was like a heavy blanket was settling onto her. She could feel the mana in the room and it was making her skin burn.

Her exits were being blocked off. Maya cast a glance down at the boss AI that was moving toward her also, like a dog pacing around a tree that had a person stuck up it. She saw the flashing red lights on its body and that strange scanning cone of light the guards had used.

A spider rushed her and maya lashed out with her hammer. It struck the spider and sent it tumbling down toward its master. Maya had to step back onto the core catwalk, cursing her predicament.

She was going to die.

The minions rushed her and she fled down the short catwalk. The exposed mana core was like a furnace with the heat it was producing. Maya gasped, not in pain, but with the feeling that she was dunking her head into cold water. Mana burned through her, she could feel it in her veins, like electricity.

She felt amazing for a second.

Then the twenty thousand year old catwalk she was standing on collapsed.

Today was a day of pain, Maya thought. Everything from the moment she woke up in her truck was pain. She had never experienced a day in her life like today.

She had been stabbed and cut. She had lost an eye. She had been scared out of her wits for hours. And now, now she was lying upon the back of a murderous peacock turtle AI inside of a room filled with dangerous levels of mana.

She had fallen the fifteen feet from the top of the catwalk and onto exposed back of the rogue AI. The jutting pieces of metal and strange electronics was not a feathered bed and Maya once again felt painful injuries opening up.

The hammer had disappeared, but Maya automatically summoned the crowbar.

The rogue AI had not taken kindly to the strange passenger on its back. The heavy machine began bucking and shuddering, trying to dislodge Maya. The interesting thing about a back of exposed circuits and strange wires and tubes, was that Maya had plenty of handholds.

She was shocked by the energies that sparked along its back, but with the furnace of mana from the stator and her own injuries, the sparks were nothing.

“Fuck you!” Maya screamed and smashed down her crowbar onto delicate looking circuits. The pointed end of the crowbar pierced the flimsy looking pieces and a rainbow blast erupted from the back of the AI.

Maya knelt on the back the rogue AI and smashed everything in sight. There were tubes that rose from its back, glowing various colors and reminded Maya of vacuum tubes she’d seen in old electronics. She smashed them with glee.

The rogue AI roared as it staggered about the room. A honking throbbing noise that filled the room. The spiders that had attacked her before had been holding back, seemingly unwilling to throw themselves at Maya.

They were afraid of hurting their boss, she realized and let out a bark of laughter.

She dug into the rogue AI’s back as if she were digging for gold. Electronic bits scattered at every strike. A hole began to appear as the energy sparks that had graced its back began to die. Soon she felt the splash of something liquid.

A fountain of black sludge erupted from its back and the rogue AI gave a scream of what she could only call terror.

Maya grinned even more as she shoved her crowbar into the wound and began expanding it. The rogue AI now went mad with terror, slamming itself against the bulkheads and screaming its throbbing cry.

The spider minions didn’t hold back anymore. They threw themselves from the catwalk and onto the back of the AI. A few of them were zapped by wild energies that escaped the broken electronics, instantly burning up.

Her crowbar knocked several off and smashed a few that got within her range. It seemed the spiders were extremely cautiouson the back of the beast and Maya took advantage of it.

A minion landed on her head and with the terror of losing another eye, Maya gripped the creature in both hands and threw it off of her. At the same time the rogue AI slammed itself against a bulkhead and the shock of it sent her tumbling off the machine.

More pain exploded as she clipped a piece of the mana core shielding and then she rolled away from the rogue AI. A heavy boom erupted from where she had been as the AI slammed its foot down. She gasped and then continued crawling away from it.

There was a whining noise that was filling the air. Maya tried looking for the source, but couldn’t find anything. It began to build up and she felt an odd sensation in the air.She looked at the rogue AI and saw energy flickering across its legs and body, she realized it was revving itself up for an attack.

She didn’t know the full capabilities of the rogue AI, but she had watched enough science fiction movies to know when something was building up to an attack.

Maya spotted the hammer she had lost and raced toward it. A minion got in her way and she punted it toward the rogue AI. As it neared the creature sparked with energy and then go dead, collapsing at the creature’s feet.

“Shit,” Maya muttered, snatching up the hammer. She glanced at the door and decided to run.

The whining noise grew louder and deeper, enough that Maya felt her bones shaking and teeth chattering. A force buffeted her and she nearly collapsed.

Then the world went white.

Maya cried out in terror as her sight disappeared. She felt herself trip and landed heavily on the decking, the hammer still in her grip.

She realized she wasn’t feeling pain, but instead was temporarily blinded.

She blinked her eye, seeing the scorched pitted decking beneath her.She turned toward the rogue AI and saw that it was smoking from its back and sparks of energy were running along its frame.

Then minions began raining down from the catwalk.

“What the hell?” Maya gasped.

She staggered to her feet and saw the rogue AI twitch. The ominous red lights she had figured were its eyes still shone, but the whole creature moved slowly.

The rest of the minions were dead and fried. She saw one shuddering in its death throes, small sparks of electricity running across its limbs.

Besides the injuries she had gotten falling onto the AI, Maya was okay. She patted herself and she still hurt, but she hadn’t received any new wounds.

The rogue AI groaned and let out a whine.

Why had it killed all its minions? What was that light?

Maya’s mind began moving and then she realized. Again, the machines probably had never seen a biological lifeform before. They had evolved in this place, probably the only threats were other AIs. What was the ultimate weapon against electronic foes?

Electromagnetic pulse, an EMP.

Maya let out a bark of laughter.

The rogue AI had used its ultimate weapon to try and fight her. It had blasted the entire room with its EMP and instead had just killed its own minions and damaged itself.

She gripped her hammer and cautiously walked toward the rogue AI. It may be hurt and it might have lost its support minions, but it was still big and it was still dangerous.She had to find her crowbar again.

The rogue AI stepped forward, a hiss of escaping gas and grinding metal filled the air. Then the creature collapsed onto the ground, a piteous moan escaping it.

Maya felt no remorse as she rushed the creature. She swung her hammer and destroyed one of the red lights, then clamored onto the back of the beast.

She found her crowbar stuck in the hole she had been excavating. She grabbed it and viciously began smashing it back into the creature. She felt the pent up rage and frustration that had come with all the terror and pain she had been experiencing.

Chunks of metal and electronics rained around her and soon it was joined by the black sludge of the machine. Maya felt the burning sensation she had experienced earlier, the electric feeling in her veins.She focused upon the feeling and instinctively called the power forth.With a cry, Maya slammed the crowbar down into the back of the rogue AI.

An explosion erupted when the crowbar struck. She felt fire and pain down her arms and for a moment saw the crowbar ignite with light.Then she hit the ground again. She collided with another chunk of shielding and lay there panting.

A sudden weakness filled her. It was as if all her energy had been burned up. She lay there for a moment and then a message appeared.

Rogue AI AZNI45 - Low grade, Tier 1

Level 5

Defeated