Chapter 513: What you want is not what you get.

"Hey! Privacy protocol!" Mini Cleo shrieked, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. "I’ll file a complaint with Rex! Hostile work environment!"

Another deep, mechanical sigh. "Terminate the juvenile simulation. Your presence is inefficient."

With a thought, Cleo dismissed the hologram. It flickered and vanished with a faint pop. In the same instant, her laser plasma rifle hummed to life in her hands, cycling up with a rising, resonant whine. It began to pulse with a fierce, molten-gold light.

The reaction spread across her armor. Golden circuit lines ignited across the white plating like spreading fire, and from her back, two vast, shimmering wings of hard light cracked into existence, shedding radiant particles.

With a powerful flap of her powerful wings, Cleo launched into the air. Below, the remnants of the Sergeant Hauer battalion scrambled for cover. She raised her rifle. There was no hesitation, no anger... only the calm geometry of a targeting solution.

Then she fired; the sound was not a gunshot but the snap-hiss of a severed power line exploding. A line of golden energy tore through the gathering. Where it struck, soldiers didn’t just fall dead; they vaporized. The lucky ones were merely halved, their lower bodies left standing for a grotesque second before collapsing.

"T-TAKE COVER!" The sergeant’s shout was swallowed by the chaos. It was already too late.

With another beat of her wings that sent dust swirling, she descended like a falling star into the heart of the formation. Her sniper rifle was gone. In her grip now was a long, humming spear of living gold. Orbiting her were six identical swords, moving with a silent, lethal intelligence of their own.

"Targets acquired. Proceeding to collect combat data." Her voice, amplified and devoid of inflection, washed over them. It was the last thing many heard.

The orbiting swords became a blur of gleaming death. They whirred and darted, severing limbs and piercing armor with a wet crunch; they moved with surgical, effortless grace. It was less a battle and more a grim harvest.

Cleo herself surged forward like a golden streak. Her spear moved with impossible speed, a thrust that pierced a veteran’s chest plate, and a swing that shattered another’s rifle and collarbone. The few seasoned soldiers managed to fire back. Laser bolts streaked toward her, only to flare and die against the shimmering, hexagonal barrier of her personal shield. It was like throwing pebbles at a mountain.

In under ten minutes, the shouts of fear and pain of battle faded into a ringing, bloody silence. The ground was littered with the fallen. Only two figures remained standing.

Cleo stood, pristine as she arrived, her white wings giving a single, dismissive flap to shed the ash and dust. Before her was the sergeant, his armor scorched and cracked, one arm hanging uselessly. He’d used his laser rifle to block her spear strikes until, finally, it had been sheared in two. The severed halves, still glowing red at the cuts, fell from his trembling hands.

He let out a bitter, wet chuckle. With his good hand, he slowly drew the combat knife from the sheath on his hip. The laser edge flickered to life with a faint whine, a tiny, defiant light against Cleo’s radiant gold.

Cleo tilted her helmeted head. Amusement, cold and curious, flowed through her circuits. Here was data worth observing: the irrational, persistent will to fight when victory was mathematically impossible.

The sergeant settled into a shaky fighting stance, his breath ragged in his broken helmet. He was a peak Tier 2, facing an early Tier 3. He was a man of flesh and failing metal, facing a being of living alloy and immortal light.

"Why do you fight till the last breath?"

Cleo’s voice cut through the settling dust. She gestured with her spear with a slow, sweeping motion over the carnage around them, then toward the distant flashes and thunder of the wider battle. "Your forces are broken. Your body is failing. I am statistically superior in every measurable category.... Continuing equates to suicide; explain."

Sergeant Hauer’s shattered visor turned toward her, his breathing sounding like a wet rasp. "What would a butcher know of honor? Of why we stand?" He spat, defiance straighter than his spine.

Cleo’s head tilted, a gesture of pure analysis. "Your premise is flawed; prior to orbital engagement, your governing body was offered integration into the Kaelzar Empire. Your people chose escalation. War is not a monologue; it is a dialogue of force. There are no saints here, only competing interests."

"Spare me your poisoned logic!" Hauer snarled. With a sudden, pained jerk, he drew his sidearm and fired. The bullets pinged against her honeycomb shield in tiny, futile starbursts of light.

Cleo observed the impacts as one would observe rain. She began walking toward him, each step measured and silent. When she was within arm’s reach, she moved.

Her golden spear lanced forward, not with a thrust, but with a terrible, smooth certainty. It punched through his damaged armor and into his abdomen. With effortless strength, she lifted him into the air.

Blue blood... the rich, cobalt life-fluid of the Nexum Dynamic octopus-lineage cascaded down the spear’s haft and painted her white helmet in vivid, alien streaks.

"A hybrid," she observed, her head craning to study him. "Part noble strain... Interesting."

Hauer, choking, mustered his final strength. He hurled his combat knife at her face. It clattered off her helm with a dull clang, leaving no mark, and fell to the blood-soaked earth.

Then, he laughed. It was a raw, gurgling sound, scraping from his ruined lungs.

"Final-stage hysteria," Cleo noted. "Organic neurochemistry remains inefficient." She began to pull her spear free, but Hauer’s hands clamped around the shaft, locking it in place with a death grip.

"Hah... I’m taking you with me!" He gasped.

A high-pitched, rising whine screamed from his power armor’s core. The emergency lights on his chestpiece flashed from yellow to catastrophic red.

Cleo’s sensors spiked. "Oh."

The world turned white, then soundless.

A shockwave ripped outwards, carving a ten-meter crater into the hive’s metallic flesh. Debris rained down for long seconds.

Then, from within a pile of wreckage, a sphere of hardened light began to pulse. It unfolded like a flower, with layer after layer of luminous, wing-like shields retracting.

Cleo stood, unsteadily, in the center. Her armor was scorched, and one wing was fractured and flickering. She scanned the smoldering emptiness.

"No remaining life signs," her voice announced flatly, a slight static in its tone. "Local command unit eliminated via voluntary core overload. Combat data... archived. Sufficient for secondary-body refinement."

She gave a slight, irritated shake of her head, a shower of fractured light falling from her damaged wing. "Annoying. That will require repairs."

With a limping beat of her good wing, she ascended from the crater, a lone, wounded angel rising into the hive’s smoky twilight, already calculating her next objective.

The command center of the fortress was a cathedral of silent, humming technology. Rex sat in the central throne-like chair, the soft glow of dormant screens painting his face in cool light.

"Little Cleo," he called out, his voice echoing slightly in the vast space. "You there?"

A shower of holographic sparkles erupted above his head, coalescing into the miniature form of Mini Cleo. She perched on his crown of hair, kicking her tiny feet.

"Always, partner!" she chirped, her voice a melody of digital glee. "What does the mighty Rex desire? A status update? A joke? I know a great one about a quantum core and a priest—"

"It’s good to have you back," Rex interrupted, a faint, weary smile touching his lips. "The system felt... quieter without your noise. But enough of sentimentalism. Connect me to the Little Red Fleet. Priority channel."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Mini Cleo saluted, her form dissolving into a cascade of light that flowed into the main console. Her playful energy was instantly replaced by the sterile efficiency of military protocol.

Across the room, the imperial bot maids snapped to attention, bowed in perfect unison, and glided out. The heavy thud of armored feet signaled two hulking Tyrant-class Royal Guards taking position outside the massive doors, which sealed with a definitive hiss.

The room darkened. A deep, subsonic hum vibrated through the floor as the fortress’s powerful comm-relays engaged, reaching across the void. The main viewer flickered to life, static resolving into the face of Little Red.

Rex leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "Who am I speaking to now?"

"It is me. Primary consciousness," Little Red stated, her expression as still as a frozen lake. "The virus is in dormant storage. She cited... boredom with logistical management. Requested reactivation only during events with a high probability of interesting outcomes.’"

Rex gave a slow nod. The Virus personality was all manic grins and dramatic flair. This flat affect was authentic. "Report. What’s the status of your assigned sector? Is the planet secured?"

"Affirmative. The world is pacified." Her voice was devoid of triumph. "Primary resistance was neutralized via atmospheric deployment of neuro-selective toxins. All higher organic life signs have been extinguished. Aegis legions are now conducting cleanup operations on remaining fauna. No friendly casualties." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Rex’s relaxed posture stiffened. He steepled his fingers as his gaze turned sharp. "Toxins? You deployed a bioweapon on a hive world? Was the surrender protocol followed? Was the offer given?"

Little Red’s image didn’t flinch. "Negative. Upon fleet arrival, the planet was already lost. Orbital security consisted of approximately two hundred hostile voidcraft. They were eliminated. Subsequent drone reconnaissance revealed no organized organic life form or Nexum resistance."

For the first time, a micro-expression flickered, a barely perceptible tightening around her eyes. "The planet had been breached by a prior threat. My forces encountered only void-born biologic contaminants. The toxins were the most efficient solution for planetary sterilization."