The Machines were entities built using artificial intelligence as their basis. They were computers armed for combat and warfare.
Of course, they still had to be given orders before they got to work. The orders would normally be a specific command that they would follow to the letter.
Some other times, there would be situations whereby the Machine is given a secondary command but that was it. It worked based on a binary setting.
There were no distractions, no extra work. They merely did as they were programmed. The perfect killing mechanisms under normal circumstances.
But due to such a monotone work ethic, they were multiple ways to circumvent that. Once one was able to figure out the command given to the Machines, it was a simple task to pick out the loopholes.
And that was exactly what Nathan did. Ever since the beginning of the surprise attack and the subsequent actions of the Machines, he was able to deduce two things.
The first was that destroying the Mammoth was their primary objective and killing them was secondary. Of course, with enough acts of violence, they could momentarily shift the attention of the Machines.
While going through the Mammoth settings, he stumbled upon a peculiar option that was rather interesting. He was curious to figure out how effective it was.
He thought the opportunity would come later on but who would have thought that Elena's plan would provide an avenue to test it out.
He had realized a problem with her plan and guessing from what he knew about her, he could tell that it was partly due to her inexperience that caused her to overlook such an issue.
[Teamplayer.] Had activated once Elena had finished explaining her plan to them. It allowed him to play his part in the plan, a part that made full use of his abilities.
Making use of the monotone setting of the Machines, he activated the option on the Mammoth. [Decoy.]
It was a fail-safe measure that allowed the pilot to create a perfect copy of the vessel, anywhere within a hundred meters of it.
It looked almost the same as it. It was a perfect copy. It was easier to destroy though. But it was enough to distract the Machines.
Their primary mission was to destroy the Mammoth after all. Why would they give up on their primary objective?... There was no reason to do so. He counted on that.
Thus, once Elena and the others had made their exit out of the valley, he turned it on. Manipulating things from the safety of the real Mammoth, he drew the ire of the Arachnids.
"Everything is going to be alright."
***
The Arachnids were lost for a second. They too had registered the target fleeing the scene but now, it was back in its original position. This scrambled their systems for a moment.
But then, their original command kicked in. [Eliminate The Mammoth.] Once this was established, they turned away from Elena and company and began to aim their blasters at the vessel.
"Did Nathan do this?" Celeste blurted in sheer surprise. "That guy… I thought you told him to run away!!... Why the hell is he back here?" Jeremiah was a bit incensed by what he saw.
Elena remained silent for a moment before she finally let out a sigh. "Indra, help me." She charged up her blade once more. Everyone present was a bit confused by what she was about to do.
"Doug, Viola, prepare to detonate on my signal." Doug's eyes went wide in surprise. "Wait, isn't that the Mammoth. Aren't we supposed to protect it?" Sandra asked.
"Just do what I say. Indra, can you perform your swordsmanship one more time?" Indra nodded in response as he charged his blade as well.
They had both practiced outstanding swordsmanship ever since they began cultivation.
So far, Indra had learned only one style out of the Heavenly sword martial arts, while, Elena had mastered one style and was already training in the next style as a part of the Festival of Blades martial arts.
"Festival of Blades: First Dance – Retaliation."
"Heavenly Blade: Splitting the Mountains."
Elena moved and Indra followed in tandem. She slashed at the area in front of them causing a mini landslide that pushed the Machines back into the valley. Of course, this also widened the valley by a bit.
"Detonate the bombs now!!" She ordered in a loud voice. Doug wasn't one to hesitate when a superior asked him to blow something up. For him, art was an explosion.
Thus… "Roger that." He looked over at Viola and once they made eye contact, they both pulled out switches from their pockets and pushed the big red button.
First, there was a pulse. The Arachnids detected this and immediately activated safety measures. Unfortunately, they were a step too late.
***Boom***
It was an earth-shattering explosion. Due to how close they were, Gary and King had to step forward and activate their shields while the others circulated their tachyon energies to protect themselves.
A double layer of protection and they still got blown away by the shockwave. It caused a mushroom blast as the smoke rose to the blue sky.
A few minutes later and the smoke cloud finally cleared up. Elena struggled to her feet amidst the fatigue she felt and checked on the situation in the valley. It had deepened by quite a few meters.
It made her wonder just how many explosives Doug and Viola had detonated. They had lived up to their position as Bombardiers.
Along with the valley, the Arachnids had also been flattened. Their parts spread around the valley. Not a single one is still operational. This sight caused her to heave a sigh of relief.
Just then, a rather bothersome individual spoke up. "Doesn't this mean we fail the test?... That buffoon, Nathan, flaunted your orders and now the Mammoth is destroyed." Elena was just about to retort Jeremiah's statement when she paused and a smile formed at the corner of her lips.
"Bold of you to assume that the Mammoth is destroyed. What evidence do you have?.. Can you show me?" It was Nathan that spoke. Along with his voice, they felt the ground vibrate a little, as though something large was marching through.
Reyes was the first to turn around and as he did, he could not help but smirk. "This guy is just full of surprises." The others soon turned to find that Mammoth behind them, completely fine with most of the damage it had suffered, fixed.
Jeremiah was left speechless. "But this… I thought… huh." The entrance to the Mammoth jerked and opened up. Nathan walked out of it with a big smile on his face.
"I hope I'm not too late." For a moment, he felt like a hero. He had done his part and it felt so satisfying, to say the least. "How the hell… How are you over there?... I could have sworn I saw the Mammoth in the valley just now."
"Oh yeah, well that was a Decoy. A fail-safe measure on the Mammoth. I activated it to help you guys out of the pickle you were in. Hehe." Nathan chuckled as he spoke. "Now that was pretty well done."
Elena walked forward and stood at the forefront. Everyone quieted down for a moment. She looked to the side to find Tanya and Victor standing together.
"Don't look at us, he was the one that told us to stop." "You flaunted my order… Just because he said so?" Elena had a rather stern look as she replied. They were forced to feel nervous as they waited for her to continue.
"A Guardian that disobeys orders is regarded as scum…" She paused, almost as though she wanted her words to sink in. Everyone remained quiet, even Nathan felt a bit apprehensive at that moment. "Is she upset that I didn't follow through with her order?"
He found it hard to believe that such was the case. "But those that abandon their comrades are worst than scum… I want you to remember that." Her facial expression lightened and her voice softened.
The tense atmosphere was lifted. Nathan heaved a sigh of relief. Elena walked over to him, climbing the ramp until she was just one step below him. "Thank you. Without you, my first strategy as Herald would have fallen flat. You have saved us again."
"It was nothing, just doing my job." Nathan smiled sheepishly as he spoke. Elena felt amused as she reached out a palm to shake him. "I hope I can keep on relying on you in the future."
Nathan was taken aback by this. The others were also surprised. Wasn't this a gesture by Elena to turn Nathan into a vice Herald?
Of course, he had performed well so far but still, they did not feel it was enough for such an important post. Nathan felt the same as well thus he slowly shook his head. "I'll do my best."
Elena did not push further as she dropped her hand. "Alright then."