Her radar screen lost the Core's position again.
     The radio chattered, "We saw some enemy pockets just north of you."
     For a minute she couldn't tell if her radar was bad or if the Core were jamming. "I saw them, too. Just ahead of me. I'll try to get LOS for you." She steered her Spider to begin the climb up a hill the enemy was behind. As she came over the hill, she passed by a Deleter patrolling with other units at 9:00. In front of her she saw, "Krogoth!"
     "Evasive manuevers!" chewed the radio.
     Moving quickly, she fired blindly into the crowd and managed to paralyze more than a few Core units. "So far, so good."
     A Commander de-cloaked just in front of her and reached out a charged fist.
     Instantly she could hear and feel a reverberation as her cabin armor melted and reformed into what looked like Core specifications. The sounds of screaming from the radio were replaced with an incredibly loud grinding static of a thousand data transmissions. She reached to shut off the radio volume, but didn't understand the newly altered controls on her console. She then tried to unplug her environ suit and hose couplings from the vehicle's systems just as she felt a sharp pain at the base of her spine. She knew she was being injected with intelligent metal used by the enemy. Already, her ebony skin was growing colder and less flesh-like. Her heart beat was altering. She was being captured. There was nothing she could do as her body began to merge with her seat and control console. Her vision focused more camera-like by the second as she watched her arms move with the precision of a hundred mini-servos where tendens and muscle tissue used to be. Her heart beat quickly slowed. Then stopped. Counting to three, she thought, "I'm still alive?!". Then it switched to a low hum, spinning inside her.
     The radio transmissions were more understandable now as the Core's program commands over-rode her efforts to control her Spider. She sat in shock as her new Commander switched from capture to repair mode, bringing full mobility back to her vehicle. She scanned her retina's patched-in data streams in horror as her weapons turned 180 degrees and targeted her fellow Arm soldiers. Her vehicle paralyzed them in the droves as the Krogoth laid waste to them. As much as she tried, she couldn't stop firing. She tried to scream, but she no longer had a mouth. Finally, after much pulling and straining with all her hydraulic strength, she was able to at last break free from her seat and manage a very audible scream.
     A door opened. Hallway lighting made a crack of brightness in her darkened quarters. "You okay, Kad?" The door opened wider.
     She looked with closed eyes at him and laid back down on her bed. The cold sweat on her sheets made her sit up again. "I'd say no, Simmons." She let out a long breath and starred out her porthole.
     "Well I'd say you're doing pretty good for someone who tried to go AWOL on us the other day," Simmons joked. Then in a more serious tone, "You are so lucky we were able to recapture y.."
     Kad stopped him, "What's our heading?"
     "Core Prime still."




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