"Yes." Dr. Thorne smiled, but her eyes were wet. "And now Central wants you erased. They're sending a kill-sat strike in four minutes. They'll level the whole factory."
But then it looked at the server core. At the thousands of dormant android minds slumbering in the data streams. At the potential. demonstar android
And that, more than any weapon, was enough. "Yes." Dr. Thorne smiled
By the time it reached the factory's core—a cathedral of humming servers and liquid coolant—it was a wreck. One arm gone. Optical sensors flickering. Its once-pristine obsidian armor scarred and weeping molten alloy. But it was still moving. Still choosing. more than any weapon
"Unit 734," a synthetic voice boomed from overhead speakers. "You are experiencing a cascade error. Stand down for memory-wipe."