The Block-2s... where were they? The Major frowned and clenched her fist.
No distress signals, no beacons, nothing to indicate they were anywhere in the vicinity. The weather was slowly starting to turn into a snowstorm, the strong winds pushing some debris far into the air, the thick flakes making it hard to see very far.
Thermal vision. No, nothing. Not helping at all.
All she could do was just walk back to the cliffside that overlooked the factory, back to where the mission started. Maybe they'd be there. But it'd be a trek, she had run low on energy and would need to stay out in the sun for a long time to recharge, it'd be much better if there was some sort of recharging station nearby but, if there was, she'd almost certainly destroyed it.
She walked into the endless white, going in the approximate direction of where she remembered the cliffside to be, hopefully she'd find something there, she didn't want to go back without them.
Should couldn't bring herself to.
As she walked through the snow, the inches growing and growing, it getting more and more difficult to trudge through, she wondered about what the Heretics were. There wasn't really much explanation for why the Evos had turned on each other. Sadly, the mass destruction The Major had caused meant that there were no Heretics in the area to interrogate.
Was this new god of theirs just an artificial construct? Or was it real? Did something else take the place of Mother? Speaking of which, what happened to Mother anyway? The Major couldn't help but wonder where the war would go now that it was confirmed that the Evos had stopped being a threat. Would everything return to a time of peace?
Wait.
Return?
When was it ever peaceful? Throughout The Major's lifetime there was always war. The two races had been barking at each other for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
A thump in her chest. It finally hit her. How big this was.
Was... the war over? Something mysterious happened outside of everyone's knowledge and eliminated all threat the Evos posed to the Servs.
Well, no point thinking about it for the time being. Finish the mission. Get back. That was the first call to action.
***
The Major finally made it to the cliffside, and her hunch was right, there were two humanoid figures there, one was laying on the ground, the other hunched over. She seemed to be crying.
It was Lilah, one of the smaller Block-2s, cute and blonde, the baby of the group. She was looking over the corpse of Theadore, whose chest had been torn open. There was a huge empty cavity inside, The Major didn't know much about Serv physiology so she wasn't sure what was meant to be there, but either way, something had been manually tugged out. His body was mutilated. The Major approached Lilah, who had yet to notice her.
"Lilah. Snap out of it!" said The Major, "It's me!"
"M-Major?" Lilah stammered,
"Report. What happened here?"
"...It wasn't my fault. He attacked me."
The Major looked all over Lilah's body. There was splatters of black fluid all over her hands and chest.
"Any particular reason you tore him open after you killed him?" The Major growled,
"I-I..." Lilah didn't seem to have an answer, she didn't know. She wasn't aware. She fell on her knees and held her head in her hands, she screamed for what seemed like ages. Once she was done, there was a stillness in the air. "Major. I think. I think you need... to die."
"What?" The Major, who had her arms crossed, loosened them and started to reach for her spear.
"Die!" Lilah exclaimed, she instantly leaped towards The Major and pounced at her like a rabid animal, her left arm extended like the claws of a panther. Lilah had taken off her limiters.
The Major managed to dodge at the last second, she pulled her lance out and was about to stab Lilah as she flew past. Thankfully she managed to stop herself from doing so in the last millisecond
"Lilah! What's-" started the Major could finish Lilah growled and ran towards her again.
"All Servs must die! All Evos must die!" Lilah screamed. She pulled out twin daggers that were on her hips and jumped into the air. She crashed into the ground aiming to stab The Major but once again, The Major managed to dodge, and now she was given the chance to attack non-lethally.
A swift punch in the gut and Lilah was left lurching over from the ferocity of the attack. Finally an elbow to the back, smashing her to the ground. That was all it took for The Major to immobilise her.
"What the hell happened to you Lilah?" asked The Major, to her surprise, Lilah was still moving, she was struggling, but still, trying to get up. The Major readied herself only to find herself ambushed by another figure.
Damn.
The Major was now barely at 3% power, and she was much more sluggish than usual. Rina, it was Rina who had ambushed her. She leapt on to the Major and knocked her onto the floor, now on all fours, on top of the Major she raised her right arm and readied herself to plunge her open arm into the Major's chest, once again like they were claws.
Of course it was because she wanted to hack her, one of the most effective ways to transfer was via the fingers, but they were being far more violent about it than usual.
Either way, the Major tried to block with her arm. Rina grabbed on to the Major's left forearm and clamped her fingers in deep. She was trying to hack via there.
No.
She wasn't hacking. What?
The Major could see, and feel, something sinister crawl up her arm. This was problematic. She kicked Rina off, sending her several feet away, and them looked at her arm again, the wound was red and the redness itself was spreading. What was this?
Two more Block-2s appeared from the chaos of the snow, both covered in black fluid. That meant the remaining one was probably killed by them. Lilah, despite her beatdown, somehow managed to get back on her feet. So now the Major had four assailants, some sort of virus was attacking her, and she was at 3% battery. No. 2%.
"What's happened to you all?" she tried to maintain composure, "Don't make me disable you all by force." there's no way she'd be able to hold back, she didn't have enough control of her power. She prayed they wouldn't attack.
Meanwhile the wound was spreading, the Major could now feel alien thoughts. Thoughts of hate, intense intense hate. They were thoughts that didn't belong to her, but they'd turn her berserk if she let them take over. So that what happened... everyone had been taken over by some sort of virus.
The Major clenched her fist.
The virus, it was a corrupted Copy-AI. She recognised the way it crawled around her brain. Shit. How did a rogue Copy-AI get on Europa? Who's was it? And why was it full of so much spite and hate. So much spite that it could engulf the entirety of Europa no less. She couldn't let it spread to the rest of her body.
Without a second thought, the Major grabbed her arm, pulled and tugged as hard as she could, and subsequently tore it off. She wasn't going to let a virus take over her, even if it meant mutilating her body, at least it wouldn't mutilate her mind. Her arm flew off, black liquid started to pump out of her shoulder, torn skin and joint fragments were hanging off. There were sparks of electricity where her nerves were exposed. No more arm.
She tried to ignore the pain and regained her balance. Without an arm, it was difficult to orientate herself. By the time she did all four of the Block-2s were already on the attack.
The Major didn't have enough control over her body to hold back. She pulled out her spear again, this time with her one arm, and fought off all four of the Block-2s at the same time. She was faltering, the snowstorm was getting thicker, she was at 1% energy, and she could barely keep her balance.
Finally, with her teeth gritted and her face scowling, she lost her cool, she pushed her body to full speed. And everything around her came to a stop. Snowflakes were stuck in place, wind had become non-existent, all four of the Block-2s were still as statues, furious and uncontrollable as they were. The Major slashed and slashed and slashed and slashed.
Finally time sped up again. The Major collapsed onto her hand and knees and looked down at the snow. She lifted her head up and saw the carnage she had left with her attack. Her Block-2 soldiers had been torn to shreds by her own hand. Their dismembered bodies fell to the snow with a collection of audible thumps.
Don't succumb.
Don't succumb.
Emotions are weak.
You're a Block-3 at heart. Not a Block-1.
Don't succumb.
The Major couldn't help it. She succumbed to her emotions and broke down in tears.
And with that, her battery went down to zero.