Caufmann spits some freezing blood into Isfeohrad’s face and slams his fist across its jaw throwing it back a few paces. “I might ask you the same question.”
Isfeohrad hurls an energy stream at Caufmann that looks like green lightning but the doctor slaps it with his hand, absorbing the energy and electrifying his eyes. “What are you?” yells Isfeohrad more in alarm than rage.
Caufmann’s veins in his arms and the sides of his face are glowing green, spreading up to his eyes, which look to be made of pure energy. “We’re registered as dead, what does it matter?”
Isfeohrad screeches and blasts at him again but Caufmann slaps it aside again, this time generating an angry green aura. “You have lost,” calls the progenitor.
Caufmann doesn’t answer, but slowly steps forward. Still engulfed in energy, he is forcing Isfeohrad back little by little. Caufmann smiles and speaks in a voice so soft that only his enemy can hear him. “Unit ee-ex-zero-zero-eight-eight, Medtech, Cyclone Division, Rupture Team.”
Despite the sheer horror on Isfeohrad’s face it manages to draw a hidden pistol so fast it looks like a cut-scene. It fires a bullet into Caufmann’s chest throwing him off his feet, onto his back. Rennin calls to Del. “Can you tell which one is the progenitor chassis?” he gasps.
Del nods.
“I want you to focus on the progenitor!” Rennin takes a careful breath. He doesn’t want to say what’s he’s about to utter. It’s a death sentence to all of them if Del can’t distinguish which is which, but then again they’re all dead if Isfeohrad kills Caufmann. It’s a command that all combat model androids have ingrained into them. An autopilot-like command designed to make a unit act quickly and decisively. “You got it, Del?”
Del nods.
“Weapons free!”
Del’s head snaps around to face Isfeohrad. A harsh vibration bursts outwards from his body. Rennin shudders as goosebumps appear all over him, causing a brief tickling of pins and needles. It feels like a pressure is building inside his head along with a bass hum in his ears.
Isfeohrad obviously picked up the sonar pulse because it is facing Del with a look of disbelief.
The giant android springs into action, running directly at Isfeohrad opening his mouth and letting out a violent snarl. The progenitor fires at Del with what’s left in the gun but the bullets either bounce off Del’s armour plates or simply cannot penetrate his hide, falling harmlessly to the floor. Once Del is within reach Isfeohrad throws a punch. Del blocks impossibly quickly, grabbing the wrist then bringing his other arm up, snapping its elbow the wrong way. Though Isfeohrad is disabled Del continues his assault, bringing his knee up to crush the progenitor’s abdomen. The progenitor-class leans forward in shock and Del performs a downward left hook to Isfeohrad’s face. There is no doubt it could have smashed through a concrete wall. The android’s head snaps left leaving it completely vulnerable. Del grabs its broken arm and throws the progenitor like a stone across the room. Isfeohrad collides with the doorframe on its way out of the chamber, into the hallway skidding along the floor.
In the brief lull, Isfeohrad climbs to its feet, vomiting up a hideous looking liquid before retreating up the corridor away from the pillared chamber. It risks a glance behind as it feels a grating vibration ripple across it. Del is regarding it closely.
Del doesn’t waste any more time and shoots off after it. Caufmann calls after him, but he’s completely fixated. The doctor limps over to Rennin holding his chest wound. It’s not too severe, Caufmann’s bones are too strong. The doctor clamps his hand hard on Rennin’s shoulder. “Did you say ‘weapons free?’”
“It was the only way to make him do something,” Rennin says, obviously rather shocked at being dressed down.
Caufmann releases him. “I’m not upset with you, Ren, I’m just confused. I never programmed that in,” he says and a grin crosses his face. “He got that from you. He works!”
Rennin is looking Caufmann up and down, mesmerized by the steaming injuries. “You’re badly wounded.”
“There’s nothing I can do about that.”
Rennin suddenly zones out. With the mist in the air coming off Caufmann’s body and the words ‘there’s nothing I can do’ repeating in his head it floods his mind with images from the dream he had the night before.
He looks to Caufmann’s face and can’t, for the life of him, understand how he never put that together. “Medtech?”
Caufmann eyes him for a moment very enigmatically causing Rennin to wonder if he’s just uttered his last word. Caufmann puts his hand back on Rennin’s shoulder. “After we take care of Prototype, I’ll make sure to fill you in,” he says as a loud blast blares from upstairs, followed by the chamber shaking.
Drake is on his feet again. “Where did it go?” he calls.
Caufmann turns to him. “Drake, get Saker some help immediately. Rennin and I will go after Del. Take her to emergency treatment down the main hall on the left then come to our position,” he says just like the soldier he once was. They break off, following the sounds of the battle up and up the stairwell.
Rennin’s head is spinning. He’s still short of breath due to what feels like a punctured lung but he can’t believe he’s running into a fight with the Nexarien Decora. He’s reeling that he didn’t recognise him earlier. It is true that he only saw him during his brutal recovery from Indigo Reign, but still. In another way it might explain why Caufmann has kept him around so long. Rennin is still at a loss to how these events have all come together since Venus III. The watchman and the other CryoZaiyon S troops were decommissioned two days after the CryoZaiyon androids left for the ice planetoid.
Del has Isfeohrad on the run. The progenitor has attempted to distract or trap the larger android but Del simply outmatches it with sheer force. Isfeohrad is cornered, looking to be panicking at the time Caufmann and Rennin come bounding in after tracking them down.
They are fighting on a floor full of offices, but most of the office partitions are now shattered debris. Rennin is puffing like mad after the ten-storey climb, but can almost taste the progenitor’s capture.
Isfeohrad’s left arm is completely useless. Del’s manoeuvre viciously dislodged the elbow joint completely, but the android is still a formidable foe. Even for Del.
Isfeohrad ejects a flare from its good hand, so bright it blinds both Caufmann and Rennin. They scramble to the floor, feeling around for cover. Having no eyes, Del is completely unaffected. That is something the progenitor clearly didn’t expect. It thought that the blind android’s sensory system might be scrambled, but Del ends that possibility by rushing at it to land a left strike, a right, then a heavier left throwing Isfeohrad off its feet. The blows are so fierce it sounds like someone is kicking an empty chemical drum.
Del grips Isfeohrad by its long cable-strand hair, and tosses it into the air. For a brief moment the progenitor is suspended, completely defenceless. Del uses this opportunity to blast a hole clean through its torso with his inbuilt wrist gun.
Rennin is still blinded but Caufmann has recovered, half dragging and half carrying him free of the battle. Rennin is swearing and cursing but Caufmann reassures him that his sight will return.
Del’s composure is one of infinite patience while waiting for the maimed progenitor to rise. The splatter marks where the android’s blood hit the wall steam and bubble in a corrosive, acidic kind of way.
A battered Isfeohrad slowly climbs to its feet losing fluid, clutching its abdomen on the left side with its one good arm. Caufmann has set Rennin down in the stairwell and is back in the destroyed office space.