V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T

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Chapter 145: Garden's Massacre (Part 2)

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‎Delta's steps were measured and heavy as she moved toward where 02 had sent 11 flying. Her eyes had never changed color before, not once, not even during the fight against Reaper. The energy had never pushed outward from her the way it was pushing now. Something had broken loose inside her, and 11 was going to be the first one to feel what that meant.

11 opened her eyes. Her HUD stabilized in stages, notifications stacking up from failed hardware components across her frame. She pushed through all of it and stood in one motion, the red energy coming up fast around her as the anger found somewhere to go.

Delta stopped several meters away and locked her gaze with 11's.

She remembered everything. 11 counting her dead sisters' crystals with detached interest. 11 feeding Reaper the information that had been the difference between winning and losing. 11 turning the purple crystal against 02 and against soldiers in the mountains. The list was long and specific and Delta had been carrying it.

"The good news," Delta said, "is that your backup exists. So I can kill you again, and again, until the world runs out of metal to build you a new body."

"Heard that one before." 11 crouched and touched the metallic flooring. The matter around her broke apart into red particles and rose, assembling behind her into an assortment of weapons, pistols, rifles, a large magazine machine gun. She reached back without looking and pulled out a sniper. "Beta spent real time on this one."

Delta kept walking.

11 raised the weapon and fired.

A red energy beam erupted from the barrel with a recoil that shoved 11 backward. The shot was almost silent, a high-pitched laser pulse that covered the distance in milliseconds.

It vanished halfway. Absorbed by something blue.

11's right eye twitched. She aimed again, this time with more charge behind it.

The second beam was stronger. It vanished the same way.

"What is this!" She threw the sniper. It dissolved into clean hexagonal shapes before it hit the floor.

She pulled the LMG and opened fire immediately, holding the aim as steady as she could. A dense swarm of red shots crossed the space toward Delta, lighting up the garden in intervals.

They hit something. Then dissolved.

11 froze the HUD footage mid-combat and ran it at reduced speed. Frame by frame: thin blue walls in hexagonal patterns appearing at the exact position of each shot, taking the impact, dissolving before 11's sensors could register them in real time.

"How is that fair?" 11 dropped the LMG. It dissolved on the way down. "She's covering you from a distance."

Delta's expression shifted into something that wasn't quite a smile. "You want it fair?" She went into a deep crouch, collecting momentum, frame compressing.

11 produced a rocket launcher from the manifested arsenal and aimed it at center mass. "Let's see how many walls she's got."

She fired.

The shot was significantly larger than the sniper beam. It hit the first blue wall and detonated it, then kept moving, punching through into the second wall and finally dissolving there.

11's jaw went slack. Then she started laughing, genuine, uncontrolled, the kind that comes when a situation has passed the point of normal response. "What do I do against two crystal holders?"

Delta released everything she'd stored.

She moved in a straight line, cutting across gravity for a moment, speed overriding weight. 11 tried to launch upward, too late. Blue hands rose from the floor and closed around her.

Delta hit her at full momentum, took her by the torso, and kept going.

They crossed the facility together, wall by wall, room by room, through machines and generators and PC stacks and structural supports. Metal crumpled on each impact. 11's frame absorbed everything and degraded with it, pieces coming loose at intervals, the cracks propagating outward with each new surface they hit.

Delta went through untouched.

They broke through the last wall and entered open air above the sea.

Delta's density took them down fast. The surface light faded quickly above them, replaced by the low hum of deep water and darkness. Their eyes glowed as the bottom came up.

The pressure found the cracks in 11's frame immediately and pushed water through them into her internal components. The damage that had been structural became systemic, circuits shorting, processes dropping, the sea doing work that Delta's fists had started.

11 hit Delta's head with both fists, again and again. The water absorbed the force of it. Each impact arrived soft and ineffective.

Delta tightened her grip. Her face was close to 11's, close enough to watch the eyes flicker on and off as the systems began failing one by one.

11 tried to scream. Nothing left the speakers, they were full of saltwater.

Her cameras cut out. Her HUD ran red from edge to edge, screaming exit commands at a body that wasn't responding.

Delta's voice reached her one last time, muffled through the water.

"I hope your backup holds every second of this." She held on. "The way the crystal wouldn't let me forget my sisters. Especially Alpha. Die already."

11's frame went still. Her arms drifted upward slowly in the current.

Delta released her grip, violently tearing the Red Crystal free from the brace on the corpse's arm. Leaving 11 to the depths, Delta turned and began the heavy walk back up to the surface, each step fighting the water's massive resistance.

The sea had no opinion about what had just happened inside it. The creatures that had fled the area would return eventually, they usually followed Delta's purple glow when it was present. It was absent now.

She thought as she walked.

‘She fought to survive even knowing she could be revived. Why? Dave said standard E-UNITs like 11 shouldn't have any issue with revival. Is there a cost we don't know about yet?’

She came up on the shore and climbed the structure above the Hope Bubble, back into the facility. She noticed the bridge was gone. She filed the question away and descended in the elevator, barely functional at this point, and found 02 standing in the main garden beside 24.

Delta looked at them both. Her face settled into something unwelcoming. "Don't tell me you've already forgiven this one."

"Excuse me?" 24 drew her blade.

"Put it away."

Clang.

One hit to the head. 24 went sideways and stopped against a bench.

02 raised a single hand. Translucent blue constructs erupted from the floor, massive, shimmering fingers that locked around Delta, freezing the juggernaut in place.

"Delta. I understand your position. But you don't strike an ally. I'm not accepting her back without conditions, but she brought units twenty through fifty back with her, and we need the numbers. We're waiting for them."

Delta strained against the hold. "02, they chose to leave for a reason that had nothing to do with Infinity controlling them. Dave confirmed it himself, the E-UNITs can't be hacked. They made that call independently."

"I know." 02 looked at 24 getting back to her feet, plating dented. "Which is why I'm watching her. Something doesn't line up." The hands dissolved.

24 crossed to them, walking unevenly. "You think that was deserved?"

Delta looked at her and said nothing.

24 went quiet.

02 turned to the building behind her. "Let's check on the civilians. The fighting noise will have reached them."

The secondary building was in a different condition from the rest of the facility, clean, operational, still running. Wide hallways, large rooms that had been designed for machinery and were now holding people.

02 pushed the tall metal doors open. 24 was on her shoulders, her gait was wrong; one leg kept missing its timing, so 02 lifted her without comment. Delta followed.

They stopped two steps in.

Every civilian was on their knees. Children were crying openly. Women had gone silent in the particular way that means the composure has completely failed. Elderly people were speaking loudly at anyone who might listen. The space was large and white and full of fear.

At regular intervals throughout the room stood copies of Esoptron. Faceless, each void framed in orange, armed with the E-UNITs' own modified M16s. None of the copies had the crystal in its chamber. The original was elsewhere.

Delta spoke under her breath. "02. You spent time with Tau. What's the operational range on a copy using the orange crystal?"

"Tau maintained a copy with me while I was at the Western State border. The crystal was in Theria the entire time. Roughly two thousand kilometers."

24 kept her voice low. "The original could be anywhere."

One of the copies turned and bowed toward 02. "The legendary captain. I was given extensive briefings about you and I'll admit I didn't believe most of them. Watching you fight was genuinely, I nearly said 'the way' again." A pause. "It was genuinely impressive."

"You want the crystals," 02 said.

"Precisely." Esoptron brought his hands together in a brief, respectful motion. "As you can see, your options are limited, unless, of course, you place more value on the crystals themselves—" A copy reached out and dragged a child forward by the collar, the boy landing on both knees at 02's feet. "—than on the people you've committed to protecting. Take all the time you need."

24 exhaled sharply. "That's not a choice, Captain. We hand them over."

02 didn't respond.

"Captain. This isn't the moment to hesitate."

Silence.

24 leaned forward from 02's shoulder, trying to get into her field of view. "Stop calculating. We lost. Give them the crystals."

02 moved her upright. "Give me a moment." She glanced at Delta. "I want to bring your sisters back."

Delta smiled, quiet, certain. "They can wait. Civilians first, Captain." She raised her hand in a salute. "Do what you need to do."

02 looked at the copy of Esoptron and held out the red and grey crystals. "There. Lower the weapons."

"The correct choice." Other copies moved in and collected the crystals. Esoptron stepped toward 02 and ran a brief scan across her frame. "Lord Reaper is right to be cautious. Nick Rivera took his time with you."

The copies in the back began dissolving, orange particles from the feet upward, the weapons dropping as each one came apart. The last copy, still facing 02, spoke before it went.

"Remember, we have eyes in the Veridian Coast." It vanished.

24 was quiet for a moment. "That's confirmed, then. They have operatives already positioned there."

02 turned and looked at the room full of people, still kneeling, still shaking, the children not yet understanding that the figures in the doorway weren't another threat.

"That might be our first case."

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