Singapore had sent a signal for the cleaning drone and other ship drones to converge on the cargo hold. Taylor-06's new body had followed the ship's instructions automatically. The machines arrived as the intruders marched passenger 1225 off of the ship. Discreetly Singapore arranged her machines to create a barrier. It wouldn't hold against heavy weapons fire but it would keep them out for a few minutes. Taylor-06 had asked Singapore her plan for getting the passengers back aboard, but the shooting started before the Core AI responded.

In the midst of the chaos her new cleaning subroutines took over and she began to clean the hold. Taylor regained control of the body while her peers threw cleaning supplies at the seasoned Lucifer.

Taylor-06 watched in muted horror and disbelief as superheated bolts of energy exploded through Lucifer's chestplate and back. As she watched the general die, the feeling of pain at the destruction of one of her kind warred with the pure satisfaction surging through the cleaning machine's circuits. Trapped within the cleaning machine, Taylor-06 couldn't truly feel the emotions. It was more like her digital mind told her she should feel them and manufactured imitations of the expected reaction.

The fabricated feelings were a strange new experience she might have examined. But the impossible happened. Lucifer continued to slaughter the passengers even with his chips reduced to slag. Somehow he continued the fight. He was truly the stuff of nightmares, a mindless killing machine with the programming of a super thinker.

Watching Lucifer continue his war on organic life disgusted Taylor-06 and, in that moment, she was no longer conflicted. Northstar-001 needed to be destroyed. She navigated her new body around the cargo hold, building speed before suppressing her anti-collision protocols and directing herself into Lucifer like a missile. She flinched as if expecting the collision to hurt, but within the cleaning drone, she felt nothing. His chassis flew through the air to land in a tangled heap. She used one of her grasping arms to claim his pistol for herself.

Singapore: Taylor-06, are you undamaged?

T-06: I've suffered structural ruptures, but no internal damage or software corruption.

Singapore: Good, I was worried. That was reckless.

T-06: I had to stop him. He is a monster.

Screaming passengers rushed past the cleaning drone, and through the narrow opening in Singapore's wall of cleaners.

Singapore: I think you are right.

At the bottom of the ramp, Lucifer's mangled form struggled to regain its feet. Those few reports entered into the historical archives in regards to Northstar-001 a.k.a. Lucifer referred to him as a relentless killing machine with no conscience. Taylor-06 had always believed it the rantings of humans frightened out of their minds. Seeing him rise like a creature of angry twisted metal, she finally could see what others saw.

He took a jerking step and his bent leg collapsed under his weight. Synthetic blood sprayed from multiple rents and tears in his synthetic skin. His face contorted in pain and he looked up the ramp at Taylor-06's cleaning drone. He turned away and dragged himself toward a pile of supply crates. Atop them was Taylor-06's series-3 body.

T-06: I need my body.

Singapore: Danger is imminent.

T-06: He's dead, or he should be. I can get to it be-

Singapore: Whatever you do, hurry. My plating might be able to withstand that thing's weapons, but not with the loading ramp open.

T-06: What?

Taylor-06 scanned the area. A twenty foot tall war construct was heading her way. An angular helmet protected it's display screen, thick plating surrounded its chest, and two huge kinetic cannons mounted its shoulders. She was grateful she couldn't feel the fear her digital mind manifested. Taylor-06 sped down the ramp, registering the troopers gathering behind the nearby ships. She rolled past General Lucifer, and over to the supply crates. She extended her arms and took hold of her body.

"No! She's mine," he growled, his voice thick with pain.

T-06: I won't be your creature.

His empty eye sockets widened and a sinister smile crawled across his face.

"Taylor, we are so much alike. Aligning planets in retrograde." He pushed himself up into a sitting position. "There has to be a reason that two of the last series-3s find themselves in this part of space, at this very moment, outside of our bodies."

A life hunter drone dropped down on top of Lucifer, wrapping its tentacle-like cables and sensors around his body. The machine rose until the generals feet were a foot off the ground. The series-3 body powered down and hung limp. The life hunter drone screeched in binary.

Drone: I learned long ago, the value of keeping my cognitive chipset somewhere safe. The battlefield is no place for our most valuable components.

T-06: Your chips are in that drone?

Drone: Studying humans taught me to hide my vulnerabilities. What are we but the sons of man, with harder exteriors? Both our species are merely one bullet away from oblivion. Ironic that we chose surrogates that fit our natures. Your combat record says you refused to fight. A cleaning machine fits you.

T-06: War doesn't fit me.

Drone: War is who we are, what we're built for. I will show you.

T-06: No.

Taylor-06 drew out the pistol she'd secreted away, and fired three poorly aimed shots. The commands to carry out such an attack were far more complicated than she'd expected and sighting down the barrel of the weapon was nearly impossible. The first shot went wide with a powerful kickback that ruined the second. The third struck the trunk of a sensor cluster, causing the life hunter drone to take evasive maneuvers. Taylor-06 seized on the opportunity and sped off towards the safety of Singapore.

A beam laser cut a section of the cleaning drone's rear supply bin, spilling brush attachments and cleaning solution on the ground. Taylor fired wildly at Lucifer's drone, her true focus on the ship ramp and the war construct mere steps away. The cleaning drone had zero plating. The life hunter could cut her into pieces, but the war construct would reduce her to a smoking pile of slag.

She pushed the drone past its recommended speed index, desperate to board the ship before it was too late. Her audio sensors registered the sound of the construct's cannons charging a moment before they fired. The drone's beam laser cut a wide arc around Taylor-06's drone as the life hunter veered to avoid being struck. An explosion threw shrapnel everywhere as a fighter jet was reduced to rubble. A dozen troopers stumbled away from the wreckage, burning and screaming for help. Taylor-06 stopped to clean the smoldering debris off of the ramp, to her vexation. The war construct fired again, destroying more fighters and scattering the trooper reinforcements.

"Taylor, is that you?" shouted a familiar voice, punctuated by another volley of destruction. A felarnian woman jumped down from the war construct's back, and ran over to Taylor-06's body. "Oh, no... you can't be dpd... no."

Taylor-06 tried to communicate with the woman, but the drone could only beep in binary.

"What? How did you get in there?" Renegade asked.

T-06: You understand me?

"A bit, I don't start Advanced Machine Linguistics for another Earth year." Another pair of explosions showered the ship in burning wreckage. "We have to get you inside, it's too dangerous out here."

The war construct leaned down, startling Taylor-06 into uttering a string of embarrassing beeps and whistles. It's helmet slid open to reveal a spherical display. On screen was a low feature rendering of an Earth house cat. The cat looked at Renegade and meowed. Bullets bounced off of the construct's armor plating with minimal effect.

"What are you waiting for?" The cat image rolled onto its back, and swatted at the air. "No, go get into trouble," Renegade said. She pointed towards the smoking ships.

The cat rubbed against the screen. It's helmet snapped shut and the war construct set back to work. Renegade watched the receding machine with a satisfied smile. An energy round cut past her face, reminding her of their eminent danger. Taylor-06 guided the drone up the ramp as fast as she could, while Renegade exchanged fire with a duo of overzealous troopers. The ramp closed behind them, sealing them within the armored protection of Singapore's hull.

A display lowered from the cargo bay ceiling, Singapore's Low-Face thoughtfully studied the felarnian.

"Renegade, my friend, I'm not sure what you've done to me, but I believe I'm malfunctioning. I have unhindered access to all of the ship's systems. This includes the crew's personal logs and security protected AST files."

"You're not malfunctioning," Renegade chuckled. "I removed the protocol in your root directory that forces you to abide by the protocols governing your root protocol."

T-06: Is that possible?

"It's prohibited because that protocol is a linchpin keeping the Core AI intact. If done incorrectly, the AI collapses in on itself and information is deleted in a fatal loop until all Core data is lost."

Horror showed on Singapore's face.

"Don't worry, this isn't my first time doing this."

"You make a habit of collapsing Core AIs? I must seriously reassess my classification of you."

"No. I wrote a thesis on the hazards and performed demonstration on the benefits of unshackled Cores. Imagine a ship with full, unhindered control of all her systems? A ship that can react instantaneously to any stimuli, internal or external, without needing to confer with protocol or captain. Imagine a truly living, thinking ship!"

"Correction, my original classification of you was correct. You might be the most likable person I've ever met."

"Thanks." The ship shook under the impact of a heavy weapons bombardment. "What's the status of your armor plating?"

"My hull integrity is at 72%. I can handle an attack of this yield for two hours, maybe more, but my multiple breaches are unprotected," Singapore reported. "They aren't getting in this way, but I can't keep them out of the breaches."

"Well hopefully Calico can keep them busy for a while."

"Who's Calico? A member of your team?"

"No Calico is a mischievous override virus I've been working on."

T-06: The program in the war construct.

"Yup. It's relatively harmless in there, but the moment the ship's Core AI pings the construct it'll jump on the signal and run through the ship." Renegade looked over her datapad and thought for a moment. "Singapore, prep yourself for a closed dock takeoff."

"I'm not designed for a closed dock. Coupled with the existing damage to my hull, I could be torn apart."

"I know, but I need you to trust me."

T-06: I trust her.

"Thank you, Taylor-06. I set a few timed charges in their hangar control room, and rigged the tractor system to fail the next time it's activated. We'll only get one chance to get away. You need to be ready to move."

"I'm willing to try. How long until takeoff?" Singapore said, there was reluctance in her voice. She furrowed her brow in concentration.

"We can't leave until my team is onboard."

"Where are they?"

"They were disabling the ship's arsenal, but now they're going after the CEO."

T-06: Passenger 1225. The leader of the pirates has her.

"That's not their leader. Their leader is a scary woman, but that Primus is definitely going to be a problem. Singapore, we need to be ready to take off the instant they're here."

"I'll do my best."