Chapter 16: The Fall of the System Users

The man simply known as Clockwork walked along the wall at the edge of the capital city.  His army of automatons were all that stood between the city and annihilation since the other Users were out trying to clear the planet of the Theriopes.  He watched as one of the captain series loaded the cannon in its arm from the Matter Eater Ammunition Factory next to it.  He sighed.  Without his automatons he was next to useless in this level of combat, even with the many body augments he had bought and created, over the years.  

"Francis, please contact Diego for an update on the eastern hemisphere." 

 "Diego reports that the eastern hemisphere is nearly evacuated.  However he is unable to disengage the theriope at this time.  Apparently a type 47 carrier has appeared and the swarm it commands is resistant to his system abilities."  His AI responded sluggishly.  It was old.  One of the oldest AIs in the system and did not have the processing power of some of the newer ones.  He worried that someday it wouldn't be able to keep up with his ever increasing demands upon its hardware.

Clockwork nodded to himself.  A type 47 would be extremely hard for any body improvement system, much less one like Diegos.  That was the problem with the superhuman systems.  They just didn't have a good way to combat the swarm types.  "Can we send anything to assist?"  

"You are currently at capacity for automatons of a tier that can damage a type 47.  You don't have enough points to tier up or upgrade to the next controller catalog."  

Clockwork sighed again.  Because he was the most defense oriented user left he was often short on points.  He thought about how many of the other Users had fallen, some defending him, others trying to take the war through the dimensional tears called rifts.  Some had even taken their own lives to get away from the endless war and bloodshed.

He looked back at where the Gentium Shipyards and Docks was located.  He hoped that the evacuations were almost done.  The city hadn't been attacked but it was only a matter of time until the Theriope attacked.  They seemed to have a sixth sense about where the largest stockpile of biomass was on any given planet.  

He frowned as the augment in his leg froze.  It had been doing that more and more of late.  Many of his augments had started to fail due to the age of them.  Clockwork hit it with a wrench off his tool belt and it released with a squeal. He continued walking the wall, his augmented eyes scanning the distant purple trees.  

He saw a convoy headed towards the city.  He frowned.  All the citizens in the nearby area were supposed to already have evacuated to the city.  

The planet was beautiful.  Much of it was kept pristine.  Unlike some of the megacity planets where the horizon was nothing but buildings and factories for various corporations.

While he was watching the trees his hud indicated movement.

 He saw a convoy headed towards the city.  He frowned.  All the citizens in the nearby area were supposed to already have evacuated to the city.  

Clockwork started to call over to the gate when he saw it.  A type 50.  It was closing on the convoy and it would catch them before they got to the gate.

He looked around for the artillery controller he had placed on each wall.  It was the only way to take out the large and tanky Type 50.  And even then it might not be enough if they couldn't hit the vulnerable spot behind the head.

He wished one of the super human users were here and thought about putting a call in for assistance when he felt a discharge like static engulf the planet once. Then again.  And again.  He knew that feeling.  It happened whenever a system user died.  

He didn't understand how so many of his brethren fell so quickly.  There had only been 5 Users left now there were 2.  

He put out a call on the command network calling whoever was left back to the capital. If they fell he would be alone.

  He knew every system user on the planet.  They had fought together for years.  They had been friends, enemies, sometimes even lovers.  

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A voice came back over the network and it sounded like it was in pain.  "Clockwork, you have to run.  We can't all die here and I can't hold this thing off any…" The voice cut off as he heard a loud boom that seemed to shake the walls themselves.  He saw trees breaking behind the convoy.

Suddenly a blur appeared flying through the type 50 and the convoy before impacting the walls.

It was Alana.  She had the Amazon System.  It was a nano tech specialization system that allowed her to go head to head with almost anything they had come across.  

Her body lay at the bottom of the wall.  Broken and bleeding into the earth the shimmer of her nanotechnology drifting to the ground like snow.

He felt it again.  The discharge.  He knew she was dead and he looked up in fear.  He turned and ran, sending every one of his automatons to attack whatever killed Alana.  She was a lot better suited to combat than he was.  If it could kill her he wouldn't stand a chance.

As Clockwork ran he felt the automatons falling to the Theriope.  It didn't matter the type or tier.  They were destroyed as fast as they could leave the city.  As he reached the spaceport he saw that there were still ships on the ground and people were still evacuating.   He hesitated and checked his point reserve. 

He had just enough for the Clockwork Clone Augmentation and something big.  Maybe enough to delay the Theriope while the civilians escaped. 

Clockwork walked towards one of the evacuation ships making the purchase as he walked and purchasing a single basic clockwork.  One of the cheapest in his store.  He handed it the small podlike device and told it to get on the ship.

He watched as the ship started to leave before turning to face the direction he had come from.  The direction the Theriope that killed his friends was.

"Francis, begin memory and Core export.  I'm sorry old friend.  I think this will be our last stand."

"Transmission begun 10 minutes for the transfer core will be out of range in 8 minutes. Prioritizing User memory files and system kernel."

Clockwork nodded as he started walking.  He opened his store and scrolled to the bottom of the warfare automaton catalog.

"I've always wanted to try this." He spoke softly to himself as he selected the Emperor's clockwork giant.

He watched it form in front of him.  He smiled.  It would work.

Primary core out of range end memory download AI personality core corrupt.