All Aud were feared, no matter their tier. Sometimes, that fear abated when humanity developed its next-generation powerful toys, but it never disappeared. Not really. The weakest Aud could break through a dozen layers of sandwiched plain steel like paper.
And the differences between each tier were less like taking a step, and more like running a kilometer. It wasn't even at the half-point in the form of the yellow furs when it became apparent humans and WAVs were no longer enough to make a difference. The difficulties any opponent of a high-tiered Aud would face were tantamount to turning them into dead soldiers walking.
Although the apex of what the Aud could become was limited to purple, that was in terms of raw power alone. Each Aud could vary vastly in more mundane qualities, like perception, recognition skills, or adaptive learning.
It was unfortunate, then, that the Nyx Breaker encountered one of the most stalwart and stubborn of the enemy. The Titan tore through barrier after barrier, adding its own tunnel to the scenery. It had to be agonizingly fast to do this while remaining at a near-constant speed, and the unrelenting force with which it removed any obstacles from its path using sheer might was not to be taken lightly. What the Titan was accomplishing was far from easy work, even for a Directory project.
Regardless, the blue Aud refused to detach or be slowly ground to death as it was trapped on the outside of the Titan, yet the inside of its quickly forming tunnel. The amount of punishment it endured for entire seconds uninterrupted would generate enough heat to melt whole tons of scutumsteel, yet the Blue could shove it off just as easily.
Ze-4 pulled up a diagram of the nearby tunnels. They were in a moderately sized pocket of rock, losing height while being turned further west. Maybe too far west. At the edge of the diagram, he could see where the tunnels ended and knew he didn't want his Titan to end up in that region. He snapped for his aide. "Stand in for me. Try to keep us on course."
He was already moving for the ladder when she looked up from her communicator. Unlike most of the servicemen, she had elected to sacrifice a portion of her flesh for a replacement communication module. For "greater efficiency out in the field", her submitted application had said. Her projected HUD split so she could stare at him in confusion. "Where are you going, sir?"
"I have something to check. An idea. I won't be a minute!"
He moved in direct opposition to his prodigious age, as if he were spiting the time he had already experienced. The "Old Man's Vigor", it was called. Something of a signature trait among the Ancients, and even among younger servicemen and personnel of higher ranks.
All who had the Old Man's Vigor possessed an elevated trait that made them desirable to have at the forefront of any Aud-human conflict. Which was to say, any conflict. The effects of the Old Man's Vigor on his mobility were clear. It was less clear to see when he first entered the command compartment. He mainly used it to avoid getting in anyone's way or accidentally tripping a hurrying tech.
But now that the clock was rolling against him? He was a blur, spending no more than a second on the ladders, and three weaving around the personnel present to reach the edge of the next command platform. If one of the servicemen blinked, it would be easy to miss him. The aide watched his form disappear around the lowest command platform, then refocused on the situation at hand.
She gripped the edges of the command console, her projected HUD coming up once more. "Increase the output of the anti-grav generators. We should create a bubble to avoid nicking something and causing a collapse behind us."
Outside the center of the speeding Titan, Ze-4 moved with purpose and urgency. He stopped by the nearest engineering bay to recruit three, then ordered them to head down three segments' worth of space. He zipped further down the Nyx Breaker's insides, almost reaching its tail before stopping.
His hands were a blur, grabbing a tripod, three power cores, a barrel, and several other items from one of the stores that would've seemed completely random to an observer. Thankfully, he had no reason to explain himself to any of the inventory management, since they were all huddled away in the safer areas of the Nyx Breaker as non-military personnel.
Good. That was where they should be. He dashed back the way he came, stopping in an empty hallway. Well, at a specific point in an empty hallway. Compared to the other Titans, it could be said the Nyx Breaker was impractical in terms of internal navigation. The engineers and schematic-makers had designed the Nyx Breaker to have a long, prehensile body, capable of twisting this way and that and contorting into itself.
That being said, how could the engineers make a traditional compartment layout if this was the case? From head to tail, the Nyx Breaker's insides were a long line of essential rooms, like the echo-room, the command compartment, the garage, or the generator stores. Dispersed between them were the more mundane spaces, like general goods stores, military resource depots, recreational and living spaces, and so on. He supposed he should be grateful the singular hallway stretching alongside it was built on the right side, where the stubborn blue Aud was trying to make its way inside.
As he unfolded the tripod, the trio of engineers he'd called upon to assist him finally reached his position. Or, rather, the Aud's. They wasted nothing on questions, trusting the sitesman wouldn't call them over if he wanted to fool around. Especially not given the current circumstances. He smiled at them. "One of you, hook all the cores into a single loop. They should be passing energy one way only. Leave an opening to hook it to something else.
One leaned down and scooped up the cores, while the others stood awkwardly. He pulled one of them over to the external wall. He pushed him up against it, and they both ended up with their ears pressed against the cool surface. "Listen."
They didn't need to focus hard to hear it. A routine, if irregular, thudding was going through the metal. It was so strong, they could feel a residual tremor reach through the plating to rattle their cheeks. The engineer paled.
"That's the sound of the damn Aud trying to get inside. Inform us the exact second it becomes hollow, you hear?" Hopefully, the preparations would be done before that, but it was better to have a lookout than not. The engineer nodded, wiping his brow.
"Good man." Ze-4 appraised the last engineer. She was eyeing the assortment of items he left in a pile at their feet, no doubt trying to determine what he had in mind. He had to hold back a chuckle. What he was about to perform…was something the Ancients used to do regularly. The modern First Ray was much more conservative in their methods; he hated to admit that their casualty rates for said modern methods were lower too.
But desperate times called for desperate measures. "Can you apply a custom program for these three?" He pushed an auto-coil, a scutumsteel-coated biolock, and a simple HUD chip into her hands. "The first should be instructed to apply it all in a single shot. The second, remove its primary locking mechanism and set up something for voice commands. And the third…actually, you can leave that be."