Chapter 55 – Restful.

Shuel's prototype Photon Rifle gave a roar at maximum charge. The barrel blazed white-hot, and the shot that left it became an absolute lance of light driving straight for the red-black colossus's chest.

But at the instant of impact --

From every surface of the colossus - which should have been dormant - an answering flash of red-black light erupted with catastrophic force.

Two extremes of energy collided head-on and blotted the surrounding space with violent electromagnetic noise. In the blinding exchange of light against light, Shuel's most powerful shot was, impossibly, brought to a standstill - neutralized completely, and scattered to nothing.

"That's - impossible - !"

The shock hit Grain's face hard. It had been a maximum-output shot from a cutting-edge prototype Photon Rifle. A hit like that should have vaporized a current-model Makina, shield and all. And this thing had taken it from the front, matched it, and cancelled it.

This was not some relic of a past era. This was a purpose-built mobile weapons platform - and on top of that, it had been rewritten by the unknown system controlling the unmanned machines, pushed well past any designed limit.

Sharp sparks burst from Shuel's right arm. The generator was screaming under the rifle's overload. The barrel, unable to contain the energy it had produced, had begun to melt. Any further use would detonate it.

"Tch - take it!"

Grain made the call in an instant and hurled the ruined Photon Rifle directly at the colossus with full force. A moment later, the energy-overloaded rifle erupted in a blaze of brilliant light.

He used the explosion as cover. Shuel's thrusters went to full and he reversed course, accelerating hard for the exit of the massive structure.

But the pressure behind him was not normal. The red-black monster had fully awakened, and it came after Shuel at terrifying speed, trailing a storm of light that looked capable of burning space itself.

"-- The core unit has already been located. The noise will be eliminated --"

The same androgynous voice from before jacked directly into Shuel's closed comm line and filled the cockpit.

Immediately after, multiple concentrated beams of light struck from a blind angle.

"--!"

Grain threw Shuel's left arm up and tried to angle the shield to deflect the direct hits. But the unrelenting torrent of energy hammered the solid shield without mercy, carving through it, its surface going red and beginning to melt. An avalanche of heat flooded the cockpit with warning alarms.

In the middle of the closing death line, Grain shouted the inexplicable word that had been burned into his mind from the data chip.

"'Lunect Protocol' - is that what you are?! There were never any Escado people here at all, were there?!"

He already knew the thing he was facing wasn't human - the situation had made that clear. But he couldn't not ask.

With every burst of the light storm, the enormous structures around them were dismantled with the ease of paper models. Solid walls, heavy columns, ceilings, floors - all torn apart, pulverized, and the interior landscape converted in moments to the cold expanse of open space.

No answer came.

In the wreckage of the fully collapsed structure, Shuel stood exposed - and before it, the red-black colossus rose in unhurried silence.

In that instant, the data from the chip installed in Shuel's systems matched perfectly against the heat signature pattern of the colossus before him, and produced a single word with an eerie system chime.

-- Restful.

"Restful...? You're a monster of destruction with a name like that? What a sick joke of a name..."

The Photon Rifle was gone. The left arm's shield had been melted into uselessness by the heat. What remained to Shuel now was a light machine gun for suppression, a Photon Saber for close range, and the shoulder missile pods. An overwhelming disparity in firepower.

But Grain's eyes had not lost their fire. There was still only one option.

"No matter how thick the outer armor is - it's still a machine. It has to have a drive system somewhere. ...Hit the right spot, and maybe."

Shuel closed the distance fast and discharged both shoulder missile pods simultaneously - every shot at once. Dozens of light trails crossed each other and converged on the colossus Restful's massive frame.

A chain of heavy explosions swallowed the red-black armor. But when the smoke cleared, what emerged showed damage that barely amounted to surface scorch marks.

In response, Restful unleashed a storm of photon fire at a density that made everything before it look measured - filling the inescapable vacuum around Shuel with nowhere left to go.

"Damn it - you monster - !"

In the very instant he pushed for maximum evasion --

Grain's entire field of vision was blotted out by an overwhelming white light from which there was no escape.