Valeria held her ground, though the explosion sent the enemy flying. As it flew back, half-destroyed, it unleashed countless weapons from within itself, firing them all off at Valeria.
From their respective angles, the other three fired weaponry towards Valeria as well.
One of them stood on a crate, focusing a laser weapon. Suddenly, it stiffened as a blade found its way into its internals. Zara materialized from the shadows cast by the port equipnt. Her blade beca a blur, seeking joints and connection points. Sparks flew as she found sothing vital, and the bot’s energy weapon sputtered and failed.
"Little toy, die!" Jin shouted, launching himself at the damaged bot, a literal wave of water appearing with his movents. "Thunder crash!" The electric water flooded the bot through the holes Zara had made. The electricity found pathways through the damaged systems, causing catastrophic overloads.
[EXP 98]
"Leader was right." Zara said with a grin. "You do really well against these useless machines."
"What am I doing wrong?" Susie observed the bot’s destruction, while she kept attacking the third bot, which was on a crane. "Lightning bolt!" A powerful bolt of lightning crashed on the bot, causing a loud explosion.
It shattered the very crane piece the bot was standing on, sending it hurtling towards the floor. The bot was visibly half-destroyed from the impact, yet its parts quickly shifted in repair.
A fierce look appeared on her face. "Die!" She went all out, throwing ice and lightning at such levels that there was nothing but shattered tal left. Her eyes flickered. "How fascinating. Entei really has strange tech."
[EXP 98]
anwhile, Valeria had tanked all the ranged attacks thrown her way. After blocking them all, she swiftly appeared in front of her original target, which she sliced in half. She didn’t let the body go, destroying it utterly.
[EXP 98]
The last bot, seeing its companions destroyed, attempted sothing unexpected. It began to rapidly disassemble itself, components flying apart and reforming into a different configuration.
"It’s changing!" Zara warned. "What’s it doing?" Though she asked, she had already lted into the shadows.
"Doesn’t matter!" Valeria shouted. She was already moving, her blade t the cannon barrel that just ford as it was lining up a shot. The collision of magical blade and high technology created a spectacular explosion that sent the bot flying.
Jin and Zara quickly pounced on it, destroying it utterly.
[EXP 103]
"That all?" Lumi asked the others. He didn’t think there were more, but the Knights had better senses than him. Perhaps they could sense sothing he didn’t.
"Yes." Valeria confird.
"Alright, let’s examine the remains." Lumi moved forward as he began to sort through the remains.
Every enemy would drop loot that the system could automatically claim into the inventory. However, that loot would normally only consist of an object from the defeated recognized as ’valuable’. In the case of the bots, it was their circuit boards. Valuable, but not what they were looking for.
They searched the chanical remains. These bots had more intact docuntation, including what looked like shipping manifests and communication devices.
"This is definitely coded." Zara said, examining a partially burned docunt. "Anyone want to take a look?" She passed it to Lumi, who took it and was entirely unable to read it. When it reached Susie, she stared at it for a while before ntioning. "This is vaguely familiar, but I can’t rember right now. I think I studied sothing related to this once."
"We need to search the entire base." Lumi said, his mind calculating the scope of the infiltration. If both seals and penguins had been replaced, there was no telling how deep this went. "Let’s head back to Dahni."
Once back at the seal, they explained the situation to him. Dahni nodded rapidly as they spoke. "Of course! Here! I have master access as warehouse manager." He gave them keys, all of them. "You think there are more of them? Oh no! What if they’re everywhere?"
"Then we find them." Lumi said firmly. "That’s why we’re here."
"But how do we tell?" Dahni asked, wringing his flippers nervously. "Those things looked exactly like us until they revealed themselves!"
Lumi smiled. "You could just hit them and see if they make a tal sound or not."
"Um..." Dahni looked awkward. "Okay."
After a small pause, he continued. "I’ll help however I can. I know every corner of this facility, every hidden maintenance shaft. If they’re hiding sowhere, I’ll know where to look."
"What happened to everyone else?" Zara asked, gesturing around Dahni. "You seem awfully isolated."
"Ah, well," Dahni began to respond rather awkwardly. "I am the, um, manager here and all that. Kinda. It’s strange. I’m in charge of the warehouses and food preservation, but there’s others with authority over the warehouses. Except..."
"Except?" Jin pressed.
"Except I don’t know where they are!" Dahni exclaid in frustration, throwing his flippers up.
He looked to the Knights pleadingly while he explained. "There are supposed to be four lead managers, then supervisors under them. But the other lead managers, I haven’t seen them in a while."
He frowned, and his gaze moved towards the floor as he ruminated. "I figured they took a day or two off, but it’s been a week now. I would have thought them dead if not for the fact they responded to my letters, stating a ’reassignnt’. However, I never got any such news from headquarters."
Lumi’s expression darkened. "That’s not a coincidence. If they’ve been responding, either the impostors intercepted your ssages... or those are traitors. We need to assu everyone we et is suspect until proven otherwise."
Valeria nodded, her tone cold and decisive. "Agreed. While we sweep here, we’ll see if we locate them, alive or not. If they’re being held sowhere, we’ll rescue them. If not..." She left the rest unsaid.
Dahni swallowed hard. "You think they’re... gone?" He rubbed his flippers together nervously. "I don’t... those guys..."
Zara’s voice was soft. "Gone or replaced. Either is possible."
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