Max returned to the ground, using his smaller size to increase the number of potential targets the System showed him on this hybrid Ripper. It had an uncanny level of foresight, or perhaps higher intelligence than the original, and the opportunities would disappear nearly as soon as they appeared, but Max continued to place shots into the Ripper as he dodged its claws.
He had to be careful of the size difference. One strike had taken two of the three layers of his energy barrier down, and his physical shield likely wouldn't survive that sort of direct hit. The best he could hope for was to use the shield to deflect the claws instead of taking them squarely.
He feinted left and aimed his Lasers up at the beast's face, which made it raise a claw defensively, opening a path under its belly for him to move forward.
The shield did its job, knocking the defensive claw aside, and Max spun around the closest limb, which was firmly planted on the ground, using it to balance himself as he sliced upward with his blade and tore apart a chitin plate.
The Ripper reared back in pain and leaped away, but that still left the exposed flesh open to a barrage of fire from the Lasers, which burned deep into its body and left the two upper limbs on the right side limp.
The Ripper turned its good side to Max, but the loss of the attacking limbs put it in a very bad position, as now it could only choose between defending against the Lasers or going on the offensive.
After a poorly timed block hit the more delicate limb instead of a claw, the Ripper chose offence, charging straight at Max, hoping to crush him beneath its body where it could attack his sides with all its remaining limbs.
Max fended off the attacks as he retreated, then engaged the gravity plating and his thrusters at the same time, executing a graceful flip through the air that he had mastered while learning to fight with Cleansing Light in space.
The maneuver left him behind the creature's head, and a hard thrust of his blade punctured the creature's head while the following Laser strikes burned deeply enough to scramble its brain.
The clatter of the beast hitting the ground sent the other Ripper into a rage, and it completely ignored Nico to charge at him, flailing its mangled limbs in a blind rage.
As a general rule, Klem didn't experience real emotions, but this one was truly enraged. Max could feel the overwhelming emotion and how the rest of the creature's thoughts seemed to fade into the background as it did its best to avenge its fallen partner.
That was it. Max found that he understood the reason that the creature was enraged. The researchers here had implanted neural backups of a pair of their researchers into the Rippers, and they saw each other as lifelong mates, despite the fact that the Rippers themselves were incapable of procreation.
With Max in the front drawing its attention, Nico was left unattended, and the second Ripper was quickly beheaded, ending the battle and leaving the room in eerie silence.
[Nico, you'll never guess what they did.] Max sent directly to her thoughts.
[Cloned the Rippers so that they would work as one?] She guessed.
[Implanted neural backups from their researchers into the Rippers.] Max clarified.
[I don't think that's all they implanted. Scan for hybrids. I think they put the whole brain in the Rippers and used some method to prevent it from being absorbed or rejected.]
Well, that was horrific on a whole new level. But there was a chance that Nico was right. There was a second species of genetic material in the room, though with the damage done, it was impossible to tell what parts or where they were implanted. There was simply too much gore in the room for a precise analysis with the tools they had available at the moment.
There was a sound of something scratching in the next room, so Max dug deeper into Nico's thoughts to see what the floor's security system had to say.
All of the cameras had been broken or painted over, but the audio on one of them was still working, and Max could tell that it was multiple warriors, likely the ones that had been sent out of the room, and they were headed away from where Max and Nico were standing, while another group advanced.
ƥαṇdαηθνε| Four of the more familiar version of the Klem Warriors raced into the room, beginning with firing spikes at the two Mobile Suits and advancing while the spikes were batted away. The new breed must be learning from the old, as they clearly only inherited a portion of the combat knowledge that they should have, and Max wasn't going to make it easy on them.
Both he and Nico fired their Lasers at the furthest target and charged the closer one, cutting it down with well-practiced precision. They followed through to charge into the next room and found it destroyed, with only a few fading thermal signatures from the fleeing Klem hybrids.
"I can't tell if they're sneaky or cowardly. They are clearly trying to set up an ambush for us, but they are a defective product, and they lack the skills." Nico commented as she scanned the room.
Those words must have hit home as one of the hybrid Warriors turned around from its flight to shriek and attack her with all six limbs at once.
Her blades spun in opposite directions and severed all six arms at once, leaving the mangled body on the ground, but Nico didn't immediately move in for the kill.
"See if there is some sort of sample device here or even a jar with a lid. We aren't equipped for advanced medical analysis, so we can't send enough data up to the ships to properly analyze what happened here. But we can put a nice chunk of this one in containment and analyze it at our leisure." She suggested.
Max sensed the pure panic in the creature's mind, and then everything went blank. How it killed itself, or if an outside force wiped its mind and shut down its body, wasn't clear. But Max could say for certain that it understood him and died to prevent having its mind and body studied.
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