?????????????

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  As The controlling mind went over the data it salvaged from the drives in the upper attack force wrecks. No matter what, it failed to understand anything about this, what were they after? Most of the forces that attacked it always went and tried to destroy the body, but these weren’t. They seemed to have broken into the body and were doing nothing, only holding out against it. There was something that bothered the mind, but it just couldn’t follow their logic.

  Most of the robots were destroyed before they could move out of the slope ahead of the hole. They came out of the ship into the cavern and were down in moments. There had to be a method to how they were doing this, but the mind just couldn’t understand it.

  A report from the siege line came in, and the mind looked at it. There was a push by the beasts below, another pointless effort on their part. And some more of the robots were taken out….. the mind went still. It looked over the report on the recovered robots and then it went over the report from the upper attack force. The damage was the same as the upper attack!

  This was interesting, and it changed things. The marks were a bit different, but they were the same. This made the effort to take the upper cavern all the more important. The damage done to the robots on the upper defense line always caused the monsters to win. If what was causing the damage was the same, then that meant that the mind had a chance. The chance to find out what it was and to learn. This would let the mind’s forces break through the beasts line, and hold there for the others. Then it would be able to harvest all the resources it needed for one final push. Finally, things were looking up for it.

  Then a new report from the drone it sent out into the Tunnel came back. Without ‘looking’ away from the data about the damages it opened the data file. Then it stopped and slowly went over everything, sparing nothing. The more it took in the data, the more it grew uneasy. But then it ‘saw’ one of the pictures, this of a footprint. Its ‘mind’ then went to the attacks in the cavern above, and then it looked at a scan of them. A quick comparison to what their feet looked like and it had a match. That meant the attackers above had infiltrated the body, they were near the Cargo!

  Looking over what it had available, it stopped as the creation it had ordered was done. The group was originally meant to get around the defenders of the new cavern. Once they were past them, they would look for a way out. Once it could get access to starlight, it would be able to deploy gathering units. With its power reserves slowly being drained, the few other energy sources it kept from the lower beasts were only holding full shutdown. But at the rate that it lost those energy sites, it knew that the mind only had a hundred years until it failed.

  The breach squad was put together for speed and power, and this was what they were needed for. The upper cavern would wait until this was dealt with, and it would give more combat data. All in all, this was the best thing it could do

  Within moments, the breach squad was given new orders and a mission. With their higher minds, they would be better than the drone that was sent. Plus they would have a low sense of self. And this squad would be able to command other drones and call for them, a new feature that it had just finished.

  With the problem dealt with, the mind turned back to its wars. Beneath, it would shift focus onto defense, and purge itself. It would find out where the other entrance into its body was and close it. The invaders would be destroyed, that was fact.

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Terra

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Looking at the scenes on the wall, Terra just smiled as she drank in every view. She didn’t expect much but here was a chance that she could see something new. A culture and species that evolved here in this cage, something that no one had ever seen before. And for it to have evolved in a finite space like this? People had wondered about this for years, and here it was. Part of her wanted to scream and laugh with joy, the other part was horrified.

  This was against all things that made a people a people, all laws that transcended species. All in all, she had to hope that whoever had made this place was dead before the new race evolved. She didn’t want to think what else that could mean, what horrors this place might hold.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She shuddered slightly as a horrible vision appeared before her eyes. She destroyed it in a moment, not wanting to ask if it had been real. She didn’t want to even think of what could be possible. And if it was? Then she would make this place nothing more than an empty shell.

  “Well, we found the enemy people. And it came from there!” Jessie's voice came from behind her.

  She turned her head and looked at him, seeing him standing there by a table that looked decayed. Then she went still as she saw it was made of metal, and she understood.

  She swallowed and then looked around, seeing this place with new eyes. “So, something has been salvaging this place?”

  “Yeah, and that’s bad. But where could it be coming from” Jessie asked as he looked at the metal remains, trying to understand this. “I mean the other tunnel looks the same as this one. But how could these things have gotten by those drones?”

  Terra looked up at the ceiling, trying to find anything there. The panels there were all black, and there were no signs that anything had been removed. But if whoever had taken the metal had put it back, then there was nothing that said that there was a sign. For all she knew, they could have come from the floor. “We’re never going to find anything if these things are that good. If they lived down here long enough to do this and get by the drones, we won’t find anything.”

  “Yeah, we’ll probably never know where these things came from or how long ago,” Jessie said with a sigh. “But you know, this might have been a way around the drones.”

  “HEY! The door over here is broken off!” Zevortro called out from where he and Bryke had gone.

  Jessie blinked and looked at Terra, his eyes wide. Terra looked back, her mind racing. This could be what they needed, and it’s possible if this had been a cruise ship. Then this could be the service tunnels and those usually had a way to move between levels. Then if they were, there had to be a way to get to the evacuation point on the ceiling above the room they broke into. As she grinned, she looked at Jessie and saw the hope in his eyes.

  “But then we might get lucky. Let’s see if it’s something we can use!” Jessie said with a grin.

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Bryke

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  As he looked down the corridor through the torn-off door, Bryke had to admit that this looked familiar. Within the few moments, it took for the others to come at Zevortro’s call, what this was came to him.

  “So, service tunnel? I’m thinking service tunnel!” Bryke said as he looked at the other three.

  The others all nodded and Jessie shone his light down the darkened tunnel.

  Bryke looked back over his shoulder and frowned, this seemed like a shot in the dark but he had feelings. Something told him that they would find what they needed down here. He never liked his feelings they sometimes were the right moves and sometimes they weren’t.

  “What happened to the door?” Zevortro asked as he poked his head into the tunnel.

  Bryke had to agree, that was a good question to ask. But he had a bad feeling that they weren’t going to like the answer if they found it. “Wrong question. The question is do we go down this passage?”

  “Something salvaged the metal back there. I don’t know if the robot did this or maybe something else. But this tunnel might be the best thing we have to get out of here,” Jessie said bluntly as he looked around.

  Something about the way he said that bothered him, but Bryke couldn’t tell why. And that was what made him want to scream because that feeling he had was growing worse. The ball of fire in his gut just seemed to grow ever hotter the more he tried to think about what Jessie meant.

  “What do you mean?” Zevortro said, his voice shaking.

  That was all Bryke needed to get that sinking feeling as he felt the hairs on his back stand up.

  “We got away from one drone, how do we know whatever sent it won’t send others?” Jessie said with a scowl.

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  ????????????????

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  The four robots thundered along, their scanners were active and hunting their targets. The fact that enemies had infiltrated didn’t bother the lead robot as it moved on its four limbs. The only reason it was leading the way was it was activated first and had moved off before the others were ready.

  The data flowed between it and the other three. Back and forth, each one looking over the information for anything they could use.

  As they thundered into the first intersection they passed it without stopping. All the while, the lead robot ‘looked’ back at its hunting party. The first robot was like it, sleek and only a foot across. It was ten feet long and its legs carried it three feet off the ground its body carried it up to a total of six feet. Its four limbs ended in claws and its back was bare. Its face was sleek and went out half a foot, and its four diamond-shaped sensors were around a spike.

  Two behind them were models of their series that were two feet wider and had two Heavy Shard throwers on them.

  The two Heavies were aiming at the basic model on and off and a message was sent about calibrating their sensors.

  The leader felt anger, they dared to do that and call it such a reason?! As if the Greater mind hadn’t already done that! Still, at least this was a good sense for the two Runners sensor suits.

  As they passed by the second intersection the leader slowed down. They were almost there, and that meant that the invaders would be nearby. They hadn’t been found yet, and that meant that they didn’t know where their goal was. Soon they

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Zevortro

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  As he looked around at the others, Zevortro nodded. “So in we go and hope to find a way out then?”

  “I’m all for that, and we might escape those things if they don’t have sensors here. I mean, look!” Bryke said as he put his arm through the door. After waving it a few times, he looked at the others.

  “If that had any sensors, then they must have been destroyed in the crash. And given how that searcher acted, we might need to move faster. If something with actual brains sees the recording it has, and it's fighting the others!” Terra trailed off and looked around.

  Zevortro nodded and took a step into the tunnel, looking around so his light would pierce the darkness. He had come out onto a corner, one corridor that went straight ahead had a red circle on the wall to the right. The other way went to the left, and there was a green circle there.

  “So red or blue?” He asked the others as he turned and grinned at them.