I can finally go back to writing these chapters without having to look at an exact repeat of what was said by the characters! Let's go!

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  Several rounds and a full-on laser beam caused the barrier to shatter, with the beam almost bending around the force field. The room itself continued to shift and morph, blasts of energy emitting from ports that moved up and down.

  “Cover!” Eunhwa shouted, and it was clear why. She wasn't asking for cover. She was asking for someone to cover Maxwell. Any awareness of her surroundings seemed to have fled her, focusing on firing her laser gun into the Tyrant class.

  To her credit, without the barrier to protect it, Maxwell was inflicting damage. A considerable amount of it. Chunks of metal were being torn completely through, and while it was patching itself up? Parts of the walls vanished while it did so. So it was cannibalizing itself to stay in the fight.

  Though why just beyond its current frames there was another room, one looked as if it was stacked nearly floor to ceiling with boxes?

  Concerning, but there were bigger problems. Like the tentacles crawling up behind Maxwell.

  “On it!” With my powers, it didn't take long to destroy all three, putting a few more rounds into what looked like a head. A pivot was enough to let me dodge another set of tentacles, blasting through them.

  I don't know which was worse. The fact that this entire room was fighting us, or the fact that it was relying more on its tentacles than anything else. Tentacles that were loaded up with corruption. This thing was playing some type of game. Despite the holes being blown into it, everyone taking whatever spare moment they could fighting tentacles to just unload into the Rapture in an attempt to kill it?

  It still favored the tentacles. It still favored corruption. It was a fucking room! Crushing us flat wouldn't be a challenge and yet? Here it was, taking risks instead of just killing us. The signal was almost omnipresent at this point, like it would be if Chatterbox was right in front of us.

  Blasting away at another set of tendrils that were sneaking up on Maxwell, more rounds strike home against the Rapture. Most hit its center mass, offset by more panels being taken from the walls. But a few rounds hit even higher, going into the machinery that connected the main body to the ceiling. And by extension, the rest of the room.

  That got the most vigorous reaction by far, almost screaming in pain as the room quaked. Panels almost surged upward, climbing like insects. I joined in, a few rounds connecting as it almost looked to be squirming. It didn't or shouldn't have the means to do so, but it still looked like it was trying to escape.

  That was before Maxwell finally joined in. Nikke weapons could smash through quite a fair bit. But Maxwell's gun shot lasers. It didn't break through metal. It burned, it melted, it cut.

  The Rapture screeched as metal screamed in protest. But the shots tore through the support beams suspending the Rapture in the center of the room. With a crash, it came down, slamming into the floor. To which we hammered away at it, gun shots and lasers tearing through the metal.

  “The signal is down,” Shifty said after a moment, breathing a sigh of relief through the line. Looking at the body, it looked pretty dead. But?

  Bang!

  “Elen!”

  “What? It was able to hide itself before. Best to be sure it isn't playing dead,” normally, I doubt that answer would be enough to mollify Eunhwa. But seeing this little mess? How Raptures set this, entire trap up? Hopefully it would make her keep her mouth shut.

  I was willing to let Rapi and Maxwell carry Matis as Johnson phoned in backup. It was time to retreat. Well past that in my opinion. With the signal not being gone, but diminished? And well, no other way to put this, Matis being compromised in more ways than one.

  “Is it okay to open these boxes?” Neon asked, looking at the stacks lining the walls. Against my better judgment, I had some curiosity as well.

  “I'm not detecting any energy signatures, so it should be safe,” Shifty said, almost absentmindedly. “Wait, don't open those!”

  Unfortunately, the warning came too late, Neon opening the box in front of her. Her face paled, stumbling backwards in shock, causing the box to start tipping over.

  “What?” Neon mumbled, everyone else letting out similar sounds of shock and surprise. Even though Johnson managed to slam the lid back down, I saw it.

  I saw them. Bodies. Just, bodies. Stuff in a box like a can of sardines. My mouth felt dry, a lump forming in my throat. My stomach twisted, tying itself in knot after knot. Corpses. They had stuffed corpses in a box. Cut them to pieces and just jam them inside. Bodies just mashed together like a pile of discarded meat, not even given.

  I could barely feel the hand of someone on my shoulder, a familiar burning sensation rising up my esophagus.

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  The story was that those weren't real bodies. It was a load of horseshit, and I think most of us knew it. But it was mostly for Neon and Vesti's benefit, and it allowed us to focus on packing up and moving out. With the Raptures retreat, we were well past the clear for extraction.

  To say Maxwell took what the Raptures had planned for Matis particularly well was a lie. She wasn't taking any of this well. Someone was going to have to talk to her. I was still out of it, the lingering taste of vomit still remaining in my mouth. Didn't think I still had the ability to vomit.

  I don't know if I was better off with or without that bit of knowledge. Even Eunhwa seemed spooked by that. Not that she would ever admit to it.

  What even was the purpose of that? It wasn't something that I should be spending time thinking about, but I couldn't help it. My brain was twisting and spinning, chasing my tail like a dog. There had to be something about this. It had to be doing something. But what? What was going on here?

  It wasn't just for the sake of panic and terror. At least, I would be very concerned if it was. Doing it for the sake of being cruel? That didn't read. Not like a machine would. Causing it as a tactic? Yes, that would make sense. A panic, scared enemy took less resources to fight, generally speaking.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Doing it just because? That was. I wasn't going to be pretentious and claim that humanity wasn't the only species capable of cruelty. Most of nature was messed up in all sorts of unpleasant ways. But something like that?

  Felt very human, in all the worst ways possible. Heretics were still a big question mark at the end of the day. And as Marian showed, there was still some humanity inside, even if it was suppressed and buried. But what about behaviors that Rapture's as beneficial?

  Shaking my head didn't clear the thoughts. This was a mess. The sooner Marian was freed from corruption, the better off all of us would be.

  I think Shifty said something about reinforcements arriving soon. Has it really been an hour already? It didn't feel anywhere close to that long. Instead it felt like only a few minutes at most.

  Pushing myself off the rock I was sitting on, I looked up, the sky filled with a handful of transports and various other craft. It was a pretty sight. Not surprised they brought a bit extra to escort us back. Didn't agree with bringing troops in when it came to a situation like this, but I wasn't in charge.

  If I was, this entire place would be turned into an even bigger crater. Massed artillery, bunker busters, the works. If we had those things.

  But as I admired the scene, a squeaking noise drew my attention. It sounded like one of those cart wheels in desperate need of some degree of lubricant. All it was though was Laplace getting back up.

  Wait, fuck no that is not a good thing!

  “She's shaken off the effects of the suppression round?” Eunhwa sounded like she had just seen the impossible happen. Dammit, Laplace! Out of all the times you had to pull off heroic willpower level bullshit, it had to be right now!

  Rapi was already partway through loading another set of suppression rounds as Laplace let out a scream. A scream followed by heat and pressure. Hot air that had been pleasant mere moments before slammed into my body. Slammed into all of us, pushing us back and knocking us over. Comparing it to a blast furnace suddenly being opened in front of us would be an apt, if an understatement.

  Given how it was a plasma field? Calling it a sun upon the earth may have been more opporperate.

  “If anyone gets too close they will melt!”

  “It will vaporize anything that gets too close!”

  Maxwell and Shifty shouted mostly identical warnings as I scowled. I'd spent enough time around Missilis tech to know Syuen outfitted Matis with the best the company had to offer.

  But I didn’t know that had gotten out of the damn testing phase! I thought it was considered too unstable and power requirements too vast to see deployment, but it looked like I was wrong.

  I tried not to pay attention to the words coming out of her mouth. It may as well be gibberish. Using Laplace's voice, her patterns.

  Getting through it was impossible. The warning wasn't an idle one. No ballistics, no bodies. Not until it ran out of juice. Something we didn't have time for.

  Not with Laplace aiming at the incoming transports. Johnson was trying to wave them off, get them to take evasive actions. It wasn't going to matter. They were too close. Even if they did start evading, Laplace could still see them. For all purposes, they were sitting ducks.

  Part of me wanted to try. Get in, put another suppressor round into Laplace, and get out. But, that wasn't possible. I couldn't just outrun the heat transfer from plasma. Could I? Even with all the bullshit, there was no way I was that fast.

  But we couldn't let her get a shot off, either. Far too many lives were at risk. But nothing we had could get through the heat. If it was physical, it would burn to ash or melt.

  If, it were physical. Would that? Would that actually work? I wasn't a physicist. Not even close to my wheelhouse. And not to say what I was thinking wasn't dangerous, stupid, or both. Because it was.

  But before I could get my lips to even shout out to Maxwell to see if she could shoot the gun out of Laplace's hand, Laplace let out another scream. With a loud clack, the gun in her hands hit the ground.

  Laplace's face had changed. A slack expression, barely that of a puppet moments before, was now twisted in pain. Her eyes. That was the most striking. One was still red in part, veins bulging from Laplace's face and neck around it. The other was normal, a luminous blue.

  “I. Refuse!” Even above the roaring wind caused by the sudden change in temperature, Laplace's voice could still be heard. “A. Hero. Never. Harms. The Innocent!”

  One of her hands dived into her coat pulling out.

  Oh fuck, that was a pistol. And it didn't take a genius to figure out what she was going to do with it.

  “Laplace, don't you dare!” Maxwell screamed at the top of her lungs. I could see tears out of the corner of my eyes, but my attention was almost entirely on Laplace. If the barrier would just go out, even for a second, I could stop Laplace from making a mistake that couldn't be fixed!

  Laplace's face only grew more pained at the sound of Maxwell's voice. Her lips tried to twitch, forcing it into some brave attempt at a smile.

  “Sorry. But I won't. Let myself. Hurt anyone else.” The gun was right underneath her chin now. Despite the corruption, hell, even despite NIMPH, she was about to blow off her head. And the plasma barrier was still up!

  Fuck, I didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t have a choice!

  “Maxwell, you're going to need to shoot the gun out of her hand!” Shoot of her hand, shoot of her arm, shoot the gun, it didn't matter. All of that was more fixable than letting Laplace blow off her damn head!

  “What?” Maxwell sounded completely confused at the order, turning towards me. “The barrier.”

  “Your laser gun is the only thing that might get through to save Laplace before she blows her head …”

  “Stop.”

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  I don't know why we had all stopped. But when we had come too, the barrier was gone. Rapi was able to suppress Laplace again. She was alive. Put on effective ice so they could ultimately fix the corruption issue. On paper?

  It was because Syuen was putting her foot down on wiping their memories. Which is what it would take to purge the corruption out of their system. I don't know whether it was because she thought Maxwell would lose it if she did wipe Matis's memories, or if Syuen had finally managed to find a line that she wouldn't cross.

  There was one other alternative. It was that she knew about Vapaus. As much as I wished that was impossible, the amount of industrial spying that went on between the companies was considerable. Something could have leaked, despite the efforts of everyone involved. Or, Maxwell passed it along. Because he thought telling her would help calm her down. Something he was only partially correct about.

  I could be sitting in on watching Syuen get reamed on all sides for this cluster fuck. Anderson was pissed, Ingrid was pissed, I'm pretty sure the board of investors was beyond pissed. And I wouldn't even need to be a fly on the wall. I could be in there right now, munching on the biggest bucket of popcorn I could find.

  So why wasn't I?

  Well, there was a good answer for that. Maxwell.

  “The Commander said there might be a way to fix Laplace and Drake. Something about Vapaus, and needing to see if it actually worked,” Maxwell had managed to find me before I found her. He did mention that, something to help calm her down. “I know I can't get anything out of Rapi, Anis is too defensive, and Neon is too scatterbrained. So talk.”

  “Rude,” Maxwell's personality and physical appearance always made her feel and seem taller than she actually was. But being right next to her? Made me realize we were both short. Still, I grabbed her arm and pulled her off to the side. “Have you considered that for a moment that there might be a reason why we're trying to be tight lipped about this?”

  “I'm sorry, it's not like I can't find any information about this stuff,” Maxwell countered. Getting a closer look, her eyes were still red and puffy.

  “Yes, because the Central Government classified everything before throwing away the key!” That got a hiss out of her. “All we know is how the Central Government says it does. We haven't seen it in action. We don't know how much or how little is needed. We haven't had the time to do any testing, and we only found out it existed before this very operation.”

  We didn't even know how to start with making more. But I was going to keep that to my damn self. Maxwell didn't need that hanging over her head right now. There was a fine line between giving someone hope and getting them to pray for a longshot. It didn't take much for hope to become bitter.

  “But what if,” Maxwell slumped against the wall, face starting to tear up again. “Syuen goes through with the mind wipe before more is found?”

  That was a rightful concern. I couldn't even tell her that Syuen wouldn't do such a thing. Because we both knew I would be lying.

  “Matis is pretty popular, right?” I didn't see why anything Matis made had fans, but I was biased. “Drake and Laplace suddenly start acting differently, that could cause some problems.”

  Syuen would care if it affected her standing, or her reputation. That is something that could, on paper, do the trick.

  “They would be different,” the sound that came out of Maxwell's mouth wasn't a good one. It was a sound that meant I made a mistake. “They were always such a pain. But now that they could change? They wouldn't be the same anymore. Why does that scare me? Why does it feel like the Laplace and Drake I've known would be dead?”

  “Becuase they would be. Their identities, who they are as people? Gone,” maybe this wasn’t the right thing to say. I wasn't the best when it came to this. But I wasn't wrong. They would be. What went into making someone who they were was a hypothetically interesting debate. Was it soul, brain chemicals, how we were raised, our memories that determined who we were?

  The answer was yes. To all of it. Remove a part of oneself, at that fundamental of a level? You end up with a person completely different.

  “Then what am I supposed to do!” Maxwell shouted, suddenly getting up in my face. I took a step back, trying to reclaim some measure of personal space. Unfortunately, there was not a lot that could be done. Not with any guarantee.

  Well, there was one thing.

  God, I was going to regret this, wasn't I?

  “You could always tell Syuen. Tweak it a bit, maybe omit our involvement. The Commander isn't lying. He will do everything in his power to help Laplace and Drake. He can't promise a timeline and neither will I, but Syuen could be willing to wait if she knows a cure is possible,” yeah, this was very stupid. On multiple fronts. But telling a modified version of the story would keep Syuen off our backs. And ideally, keep her from getting bit by the good idea fairy again.

  “And what makes you think she'll listen or even wait that long?” Maxwell was right. I couldn't promise anything. The only thing I could point to was the fact she hadn't.

  “She hasn't attempted to so far,” that got Maxwell to pause. The fact that Syuen hadn't just shrugged her shoulders and put them through the process already meant something. I had no idea what it meant. But it had to count for something.

  “She hasn't,” Maxwell mumbled, almost to herself, as if she was lost in her own little world now. “They're useless right now. So why hasn't she?”