B2-08 - Big Snake Blast (Patreon)

Maya hit the activation button on the tablet. Green lights blossomed to life and the truck lurched forward. There was no rumbling of the diesel engine she had been used to. In actuality, the truck hadn’t even been turned on, it was just the mana motor that was activated.  

Magi-tronics and electronics did not mix, due to the big guy called the System’s decree. The internal lights, radio, and AC didn’t work, mostly because those components had been ripped out and the other because she had lost the batteries for the truck. That was a new development, Maya was sure she had kept the two batteries that were in the truck. They were still charged and they hadn’t been damaged in the dimensional bomb explosion. Yet, upon investigation, they had not turned up. 

She felt the usual wave of apprehension and fear as she knowingly headed toward danger. Nearly two months before she had crawled through maintenance tunnels to fight the boss level entity that had taken over the Hanganathorie. That had been a crap-tastic fight, one she had barely won and with so much pain and suffering involved. Dumb luck had been her saving grace. 

Survival in the rainbow sky hellscape was a tough thing. It was like Pops used to say, “It’s a lot of waiting, all for a few bloody terrifying moments of fighting.” In two months, she had only fought against six different rogue AIs and Shen. There had been the peacock turtle that originally occupied the Hanganathorie, the ramming AI whose body Tender eventually took as his own, Turrethead and Medusa, which had been a three-way fight, then the sad little rogue AI that had retaken the Hanganathorie, and finally the Roach King. 

Every fight had been violent and chaotic. She had nearly died of blood loss in her first fight, not adding in the fact she had been missing an eye at the time. The fights afterward hadn’t gotten any easier. The double team of Turrethead and Medusa had caused her to lose almost everything, setting back her survival by weeks. The Roach King’s minions had tried to deep fry her, causing massive second degree burns across her body. Then she had literally destroyed herself when fighting Shen, allowing herself to become Seared so that she might kill the Necro; afterward she had put herself into the System’s employ for a six hundred and eighty five Earth-year term of service to save herself and help humanity. 

The System was a tough-love kind of guy. She might be his Point of Contact in the dimensional plane, but he wasn’t going to help her, even if he needed her to continue living in order to enact maintenance upon the dimension. The System was a jerk, its entire purpose being to regulate mana and stop existence from being destroyed. Big picture stuff that wouldn’t help Maya as she once more headed into a fight.

“Cry ‘Havoc’, Tender.” 

“Havoc!” 

Big Snake NZN was hidden in a trash pile about two miles away from the fight happening around Shen’s ship. Its small artillery mecha drones were doing the heavy lifting of digging up her two mana cores and trying to break the hull of the ship.  

One thing Maya had to admit was that Shen had built his horrendously ugly ship very tough. Although it had looked like someone carved metal into a vaguely space ship form, Maya had seen the specs and was impressed at the amount of armor and plating that covered the ship. It only showed that the dimensional plane she was stuck on was no happy go lucky place. 

There was danger everywhere, mostly in the form of rogue AIs, since most living things couldn’t survive the transition from the multiverse into the dimensional plane. Non living, in this case, artificial intelligences could cross over without being harmed. Since the builders of the plane were unintentionally selecting for rogue AIs, there was an abundance of them. 

In the multiverse at large, rogue AIs were considered one of the many banes of SIL. With some rogue artificial intelligences achieving a semblance of sentience and sapience, the old trope of deciding to kill all living beings was a common occurrence. Maya didn’t know the full story behind these AI wars that went on, but she figured that there was more to the story. Tender was technically a rogue AI, although he started of his AI existence being a bartender for a fairly idiotic criminal mastermind, but he had graduated to rogue AI status when his original AI core had been damaged in Turrethead’s attack upon the pub. 

Being sentimental and not wanting to be alone in the absolute alien environment of the rainbow sky hellscape, Maya had used a loot dropped rogue AI processor to upload Tender’s programing into it. 

So far he had no desire to kill her or harm her. Except when explicitly told to do so, it seemed. Perhaps rogue AIs were misunderstood. Perhaps they could be reasoned with. Maybe-

“Big Snake is moving,” Tender said, using the new name she had given it. “Zono is attacking the mechas and it seems Big Snake is going in to defend them.” 

“Shit,” Maya said. She looked at another tablet that displayed one of the scout rat’s POV. At that moment she really missed the computer that she had gained from the pub. It had been connected to Tender and he could have created an HUD like window to display the information. Now she was stuck in the stone age trying to look into a tablet screen while using another tablet to drive her truck. “Doesn’t seem to be moving that fast.”

The giant mechanical snake had dislodged itself from the trash pile and slithered its massive bulk toward Zono. It didn’t seem to be interested in them. Perhaps they weren’t considered a threat. Maya grinned. Proved these AIs were fools.

“I would not suggest increasing our speed,” Tender said. “Although the motor can achieve speeds up to three hundred kilometers an hour, your fine control over this vehicle is not good.” 

“Back seat drivers,” Maya muttered and slapped her gauntlet palm down on the acceleration button. There was no change in the sound of the motor, but the truck suddenly lurched forward and Maya had a momentary shock of horror as she felt the truck begin to swerve in the dirt. 

“Aw, shit,” she muttered. She had forgotten that the gray plains that made up the spaces between the trash piles was not compacted dirt; it was a fairly loose layer. The original engine of the truck had been a heavy beast. That was gone now, replaced with a fairly light mana motor. Add to that, Tender’s body was fairly heavy, but all the items they were taking back to Shen’s ship had been unloaded, including Veskari and Yositar’s tube. 

The truck swayed and shuddered as it zoomed across the gray plains. Maya grinned hysterically and clamped her good hand upon the steering wheel while her empty left gauntlet joined it in support. It was taking her considerable Physical Strength to keep the wheel aligned and the truck pointed in the right direction. The truck bounced upon something hard and she let out a bark of terrified laughter. 

“This is fucking amazing!” Maya screamed in terror. 

“We’re being targeted!” Tender cried. 

Maya had a heartbeats worth of time to register his words before the ground beside them exploded into a cloud of gray dirt and shrapnel. Whomever was firing at them had just missed. Maya felt her heart in her throat as she peered through the missing windshield to see a pair of mechas rushing toward them. 

Rogue AI NZN4587AE - Defender Drone - Level 11

This pair seemed to be Big Snake’s protectors.  

“Blue beam ‘em!” 

The blue mana pulse beam slammed into the first Defender Drone; it staggered back, its movements jerky and uncoordinated. The second defender was quicker, already dodging the tracking beam, with its own turret leveling at them. 

A sharp crack filled the air and the turret spat out a shell in their direction. Maya jerked the steering wheel and felt the truck nearly tip over as it changed trajectory. She cursed, slapped the tablet and lowered the power output from the motor before righting the truck again. An explosion erupted not far behind them, causing the already barely controlled food truck to begin shaking violently. 

Maya cursed once more, regretting her foolish decision to not get her hand fixed. She wrenched at the steering wheel with her one good hand and looked up to see the barrel of the mecha’s gun leveled directly at her. 

“Oh, shit,” Maya cried out. The defender had them dead to rights, there was no dodging the attack. Maya felt time freeze for a moment and then reacted. 

The driver side door of the food truck had been a casualty of the dimensional bomb shrapnel, but since she was already wearing battle armor from the zombies; Maya had figured she was safe if she fell out of the truck.  

Maya grabbed the frame of the truck and with agility and speed that even surprised herself; she leveraged herself onto the mana motor, just as the Defender fired it’s weapon. 

Inside of her empty left gauntlet, Maya summoned the Necklace of Protection. She had learned several things over the last few days. One, she could still summon items into her left hand, even though he had no hand. Veskari, once he discovered she could channel essence mana, claimed unlike normal mana channels, once a limb was removed the essence mana channels would not be stunted. She would eventually be able to warp actual essence mana, therefore the physical groundwork of channels wasn’t necessary. 

The other thing she had learned was that she could not wear enchanted amulets or rings on top of her armor. It had to be touching skin, something to do with internal mana fluctuations and channels, once more. The Necklace of Protection kept itself topped up on mana, therefore it wasn’t a requirement to infuse it with her own mana. That would have been an impossibility since she had no mana channels. 

“You better work!” Maya screamed and felt the jeweled necklace against her stub. 

The words had barely left her mouth before the world explode around her. Even inside of her armor she felt heat and pressure. By some miracle she wasn’t thrown off the truck, instead she was shoved back into the cab. The already battered and stressed metal crumpled underneath her and Maya found herself in an awkward position. 

“It worked!” she cried in glee. 

She then reached for the tablet on the steering wheel and summoned it into her Inventory, a moment later she re-summoned it into her right hand. She hit the slow button and the mana motor output decreased. Then she shoved the tablet back into her Inventory again and then pulled herself out of the cab of the truck. Tender stood on his weapon platform with the beam gun at her eye level, Maya realized she was facing toward the back end of the truck. She grinned and waved at him then turned her attention back to the fight at hand. She turned just in time to see the mecha step into the path of the truck. 

The only option that ran through her head was to increase their speed, but this wasn’t a deer; this was a one ton behemoth of metal and rogue AI determination.  

“I just got her running again!” Maya snarled and summoned her scatter gun. 

A blue beam flashed behind her and slammed into the drone, Maya’s weapon barked rapidly in her hands and the combination of both weapons caused the defender to stagger out of the path of the truck. 

Maya reached into the cab and jerked the steering wheel. They didn’t crash into the defender, instead Maya was rewarded with a screech of metal and the truck shaking violently. Maya braced herself on the mana motor and looked behind them. She saw the defender lying on it’s back, arms and legs kicking feebly and the long barrel of it’s gun bent into an unusable shape. 

“My first hit and run,” Maya laughed. 

Tender ended the shuddering rogue AI drone with another dose of blue beam, causing it to shut down permanently. 

Maya took a moment to finally and truly destroy the cab of the truck. She kicked out with her booted feet and was surprised at how easily the metal warped and buckled under her heel. It was during the moments when she consciously used her enhanced strength that Maya was struck with how much her life had changed. 

Poor Bonita. By the end of the day there’ll be nothing left of the old girl.

The fight with the defenders was a side show, the main event was coming up. Maya forced herself behind the steering wheel once more, while Tender set up their ace in the hole. There was a lot of resistance to the steering, Maya took a moment to see how much damage had been done to the truck. The entire driver’s side of the truck had seen better days. The paneling had been ripped apart and she saw a trail of debris in their wake. It was only luck they hadn’t blown a tire or lost their ability to control the truck. 

“Where in the Red Blazes are you!” Zono cried. “This Big Snake is not holding back!” 

Maya grimaced. The plan hadn’t been for Zono to engage the Big Snake. The mining barge had already suffered some damage from the previous rogue AI attack and for all his bravado, the barge wasn’t as tough as he pretended to be. In his prime, Zono would have been able to deal with Big Snake, but constant fighting had weakened the barge. 

“We had some unruly hitchhikers,” Maya replied. “We’re on our way, be there in a jiffy.” She turned to Tender. “How we looking, buddy?” 

“Thirty seconds and we shall be ready,” he replied. 

“Well- Fuck!” Maya screeched and then jerked the steering wheel. 

At their speeds, with the damaged to the truck, along with the loose gray dirt, Maya immediately lost control of the truck. A white hot beam flashed by her driver side opening as she screamed, she could see the metal suddenly turn red and once again she felt the heat through her suit. 

Plasma, a part of Maya noted. Long ago, in her studies with Richfield about weapons, the dinosaur robot bouncer had explained to her the types of weapons that existed. One was plasma based weapon, terribly dangerous for both user and victim. Therefore it was usually a vehicle mounted weapon or AI controlled combat walker. 

It was similar to the beam weapon, but also not. Whereas the original beam weapon from the Roach King had shot deadly lasers that heated up anything it touched, a plasma weapon made that beam weapon’s heat output seem like a lightbulb next to the sun. 

Maya watched in horror as the black carapace armor she wore smoked and began to sizzle. She could see where the metal began to sag and warp. The tablet in her hand turned to putty and she noted that the seat she was sitting upon was already burning. 

A heartbeat later; the truck’s tires exploded. 

***

“Seat belt check,” Maya groaned as she pulled herself out of the dirt. She had created a twenty foot furrow into the gray dirt, but that paled in comparison to the forty foot ditch of smoking, charred earth the plasma blast had created. “Tender, you alive?” 

“Yes, boss,” the voice came over their radio. 

“That plasma’s a real bitch!” Zono’s voice cried out. “I’m gonna have to bail, I can’t- aw, shit!” 

Maya popped her head and grimaced. Bonita was a smoking wreckage of superheated metal. She could see where some of the truck had melted. How fucking hot was that thing? 

Tender, like her, had been ejected from the truck. Either that or he had thrown himself clear. She could see his form sticking out of a small crater near the truck. Maya hissed with pain as she felt something not entirely well in her left arm, but she rushed toward Tender. 

“I’m good, boss,” he said. A complete fabrication if she ever heard of one.

“You know the penalty for lying, Tender.” 

“I’ll put a credit in the Lying Jar,” he said. 

“Jesus. You just got this body,” she whispered.  

Tender’s entire left side had been fried away. The black armor he had used to cover his body had held, but Maya realized he had been a lot closer to the actual plasma blast than she had been. Close enough that it had destroyed the armor and melted most of the left hand side of his body. 

“Leave me, boss. Get to the device. You have to stop the Big Snake.” 

Maya almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the statement. She really had to stop coming up with idiotic names for the rogue AIs. 

The terrible sound of battle filled the air. Maya looked toward the ship, they were nearly half a mile out, but she could see the titanic struggle between Zono and Big Snake.  

The practical decision would have been to let the two AIs go at it. Maybe Zono was strong enough to handle Big Snake on his own. It had just been proven that she was once again out of her league when it came to fighting rogue AIs.  

“Every fucking time,” Maya hissed. She patted Tender on his shoulder and summoned a weapon for him. “Stay safe, buddy. I’ll be back.”

Maya got up and hissed once again as she staggered toward the remains of the truck. The beam weapon was a total lost, she saw immediately. It was a melted pile of components and dreams. 

Their ace in the hole, though, was intact. Tender had secured it to the frame of the truck and it had been low enough that the plasma blast hadn’t damaged it. Maya glanced at Tender, who was trying to dig himself out of his hole and she wondered if he had used his own body to protect it. 

Maya shook her head and grabbed the mana lock. 

“Fuck, this is heavy!”