Chapter 21: Destruction mode.

The Attack.

As soon as the first raindrop hit the glass entrance, the entire front wall exploded inward, shards bursting like frozen lightning.
The wind carried the rain through the shattered opening, and for a moment the whole scene looked unreal, a perfect stop-motion frame.

Seven metallic-skinned girls, dressed in dark tactical gear, stepped through the sparkling cloud of falling glass.

Their blue hair danced in the draft.
Their red eyes glowed brighter than the emergency lights.
Their activated red shields cast moving ruby reflections across the marble tiles, like someone spilled neon paint everywhere.

It was the kind of shot you'd see in a movie trailer, slow-motion, thunder behind them, glass drifting like snow.
Then reality snapped back.

The entrance hall was massive, high ceilings so tall even a four-meter mech would feel small. Corporate glass walls wrapped around the whole room, exposing the storm outside like a gigantic cinema screen.

Waiting chairs filled the hall, the kind that aged you ten years the moment you sat. Cold, creepy, bureaucratic nightmares. Rows and rows of them stood like an army of bad dreams.
It was liminal in all the wrong ways.

The team moved forward slowly. Caution shaped every step. Their red shields hummed softly, ready for any jump scare.
Ironically, the real jump scare was the chairs. Any human with trauma from paperwork would faint instantly.

05 broke the silence in the comms.
"They turned off the security system. They know our tactics."

02's voice came calm, steady.
"Don't worry, 05. You're still useful. We'll need you to open locked doors eventually. No door will hide them from us. Everyone will fall down."

03 giggled while crouch-walking.
"Captain, you're more excited than anyone. But I get it, ending this rot will be a badge for all of us."

01 replied,
"It's not only honor. They messed with us since we existed. Now it's time we mess with them in their home."

They reached the reception desk.
No staff. No voices.
Just torn papers, cracked screens, and the smell of burned circuits.

04 narrowed her eyes.
"Fools."

05 added.
"They think hiding the evidence will help them. Joke's on them, we already took 25 percent of their local server."

02 nodded.
"They're hanging on every bit of hope, I see."

They turned toward the ten elevators, far too many for a single building, usually meant to move employees efficiently between floors.
04 pressed a button.

As the elevator descended, 02, 03, 01, and 07 raised their heavily modified M16s. Each weapon held absurd magazine counts and reinforced frames so only an E-UNIT could carry them without losing an arm.
04 and 06 formed a shield wall at the front.

DING.

Red laser dots appeared instantly, painting the elevator door, unmoving, waiting.
The doors slid open.

Nothing.
They walked in formation, aiming at every angle perfectly. Human veterans trained for decades to move like this. For E-UNITs, it was just daily data.

02 clicked the button for the second floor.
"Going higher is dangerous," she explained. "They can cut the wires and trap us in a falling box."

DING.

The doors slid open,
A dystopian nightmare.
A massive hall filled with 250 mechs.

They had only fought a handful before. This… this was an army.
02's eyes went cold, scanning the entire room in a fraction of a second.
"E-UNIT, FINISH THEM!"

And chaos began.
The mechs were upgraded. Their shields glowed, the same red tone as the E-UNIT's.

The girls fired, but every bullet bounced off.
PING. PING. PING.
A rain of metal dropped to the floor uselessly.

The mechs advanced step by step, forming a wall of glowing shields.

05 yelled.
"They're using our technology! Bullets mean nothing!"

02 refused that.
"No. We're not shooting correctly. Aim at the center!"

She already solved the puzzle.

E-UNIT shields spread energy evenly, umbrella style from the center to the edges.
The mechs' shields?
Cheap copies. All the power overloaded at one point.

The team aimed one mech at a time.

Six seconds.
That's how long the mech shields lasted before exploding into harmless sparks.

02 nodded to 03.
03 smiled.
"Okay, captain!"

She flew up, locked her M16 to her magnetic wrist, and pulled out the sniper: LIBERTA-01, an energy-core rifle amplified by an E-UNIT's own power.
The world slowed down…
Her vision sharpened. Calculations filled her HUD instantly.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Core after core turned white-hot and unstable.
Mechs froze mid-charge, physics had one rule: no energy = no movement.

Ssssst.

Blades came out.
And the girls moved.

Ghost-speed.
07 sprinted first, exploding with joy.
Slash. Sleek. Slash. Sleek.

Blue energy trails filled the room like neon graffiti.
"WOOOHOO!!"

Mech pieces dropped like apples during harvest. Newton would not approve any of this falling on him.
Boom!

02 passed through a row, every mech she grazed detonated seconds later.
Her cuts targeted the cores precisely.

01 and 04 were surgical.
They slashed cockpits, pilots dropping instantly.

03 didn't stop firing. For human eyes it looked like she held an assault rifle, not a sniper, the timing between shots was too small to process.

BANG. SLEEK. SLASH.

Screams.
Metal collapsing.
Shields cracking.
The price for challenging the E-UNIT.

Then, panic.

The last rows changed tactics. They grabbed multiple shields, forming a giant charging wall.

They sprinted straight at the girls.

06 didn't see them in time—

CRASH!

She flew across the room, smashing into a wall and sliding to the ground.

02 yelled. "06!!"

06 answered immediately.

"I'm okay! My HUD glitched, keep going without me!"

07 stood in the middle of the chaos, head down.
Now she understood the captain's warnings.

Pure energy meant one thing:
Anger.

A red aura ignited around her, faint at first, then violently growing.
Her blades glowed bright red.
The entire floor bathed in crimson.

People outside saw the flash and filmed nonstop, thinking it was some military energy cannon.
02 recognized the mode.
"Team! Corner of the room, NOW!"
They regrouped, forming a shielded bunker.

The mechs stopped, pilots confused, trembling, unsure.
07 floated slightly above the ground.

Still. Silent.

She floated in the center of the room, completely still.

"That's a new tactic! Take cover!" someone yelled.

But it was already too late.

A pilot cried out, voice shaking.
"Captain! W-WTF is that?!"

Another yelled.
"I'm scared, what the f—!"

Their captain grit his teeth, unable to respond.

07 spoke, but not in her voice.
Not even in a human voice.

It was the same cold, monotone system voice that once echoed in the prison during their first mission.

"Destruction mode… initiated."

The voice had the emotional tone of a train station announcement: robotic, neutral, uncaring.
Then the massacre began.

07 tore through the mech army, a storm of metal and blood. Blue trails were gone, replaced by red streaks slicing in every direction.

Sleek.
Sleek.
Sleek.

Shields didn't matter.
Numbers didn't matter.
Formations didn't matter.

If a mech shielded its head, she cut the torso.
If it shielded its torso, she cut the pilot seat.
If it shielded one arm, she cut the other unshielded points.

Some mechs remained standing perfectly still, until blood poured from their joints like grotesque fountains. They weren't bleeding. Their pilots were.

She wasn't tagging them like a child playing tag. She was slicing exactly where the pilot sat, pulling her blade out before their blood could even escape.

The floor turned red.
Not from the aura.
From the pilots.

Half the army dropped within seconds.
07 stood still suddenly, aura vanishing. Steam rose off her armor. Her internal cooling system screamed warnings across her HUD.

Her legs trembled.
She collapsed.

03 bolted to her with super-speed, catching her mid-fall and carrying her to the corner. 04 covered them with her shield, sparks bouncing off as stray shots hit her barrier.

Then the rest of the E-UNIT charged.
The mechs were terrified, frozen, shaking, reacting too slow to defend. Their shields were useless now. Many were cracked or burnt out from the earlier overload.

The girls used their own shields to bash, dash, and launch the mechs across the room.
It turned into metallic ping-pong, one mech after another sent flying through windows, raining onto the street like collapsing towers.

The crowd outside went wild, cheering every mech fall like goals in a football match.
Mech after mech slammed into the ground outside, CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! Piling into a mountain of ruined metal.

When the dust finally settled, not a single mech remained.
A floor that once held 250 machines was now a graveyard of broken metal and silence.

They cleared an entire army in minutes.
02 was right.

They weren't just a weapon.
They were the weapon.



The rain didn't stop. The silence filled the entire floor.
The dust finally settled, and the ground now had a new "organic" paint. Blood.
Blood on the ceiling, on the walls, smeared across pushed-over desks… and splattered over the E-UNITS.

The captain walked toward 07 and 06. Instead of fear, she felt something warmer, pride. She finally saw her sisters step up for each other. Usually, she was the only one worrying. Now, she could share that burden.

02 crouched beside the two units, her tone gentle, the same tone she once used when talking to her father about 03.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly, taking a closer look at 07 and 06.

06 was fine, only showing the usual distortion you'd expect after hitting an electronic machine too hard.
07, however, looked drained, mechanically exhausted.

02 turned to 05. "Status on 07?"

"Her internals are intact," 05 answered instantly. "Everything works, but her system was overloaded with an unusual energy flow. Her CPU shut itself down as protection. The overheating didn't last long, so her body is safe."

01 let out a fake breath. "Thank Father… That stunt was reckless. I guess we never taught her how to handle the energy properly."

03 lowered her head. "It was my fault. I focused on how—"

Everyone cut her off in perfect sync.
"We know."

04 added, "Still… that was an amazing use of raw power. She held it for more than five minutes."

06 blinked, confused. "Held what for five minutes?"

01 explained, "Destruction Mode. A hidden option our Father added. He told us never to use it. It's unstable, and our hardware can't handle more than three minutes. The system will shut itself down if we misuse the power."

05 continued, "We didn't tell you for many reasons. And one of those reasons is currently lying right in front of you. The real question is, how did 07 even know it existed?"

02 thought for a moment. "Maybe it was instinct. Something automatic, like how organic beings react without thinking. I didn't think we were capable of… that. Instincts are supposed to be exclusive to carbon-based life."

03 nodded. "Either way, we should only use it as a last resort."

02 sat on the floor, letting her legs relax. "Exactly. And we can't use it at the same time. Imagine all of us shutting down in the middle of a battlefield."

01 rubbed her metal head. "I think you, captain, used something similar."

05 chimed in through comms. "Right, Super Speed has one condition: no extra weight. And the time you used it, it was the first recorded usage. How did you figure it out? Father said it was still an experimental hidden feature."

01's eyes widened. "That's why he froze when you screamed about it on comms!"

03 narrowed her voice. "Captain… what are you hiding?"

02 lifted her hands calmly. "It will all make sense later. For now, we still have a building to clear. E-UNITS, move out!"



The journey continued.
The team moved in silence, avoiding any unnecessary fights. The goal was simple: reach the top floors and dismantle the mass-killing, high-threat weapons.

04 carried 07 on her back as the group advanced. Rifles and blades were put away, silenced pistols came out. It was time for sneak attacks.

They slipped into the emergency stairs, climbing slowly, step by step, guns aimed at every corner. The stairwell was pitch black. Their blue eyes glowed like lanterns, painting the walls in faint neon.

Darkness never stopped E-UNITS. A full row of sensors lined their faces openly, firing ultraviolet and infrared beams that scanned the area live, much like a bat navigating without sight.

They reached the weapon development floor when 05 broke the quiet.

"Enter the first door on your left. The development offices contain high-threat prototypes. Father insisted we bring them back. As for 07, her systems will reboot any second now."

02 whispered, "Roger. 05, launch the Sky Knights immediately."

"Already on it," 05 replied.

The E-UNITS reached the metallic door. 02 fought the urge to kick it open.
She nodded at 03. 03 stepped forward, turned the handle slowly, and pushed the door open. The hallway inside looked empty.

Drones floated past the glass panels lining the left wall.

01 whispered, "Friendly?"

"Positive," 02 answered, raising her pistol. "Turn off your laser sights. 05, elaborate."

"They're everywhere," 05 explained. "Easy targets this time, only exo-suit drivers. But they're using network jamming. Nothing complicated, drones will manage if you take direct control. But… we'll lose contact for a while."

02 ordered, "05, transfer drone control to 01. 01, be our eyes and link their feeds to our HUD."

"Roger!" 01 replied, dropping to the floor.
She plugged a telecommunication device into her head. Antennas unfolded upward like mechanical ears, now she truly looked like an android.

02 turned to her right. "03, on me. The rest of you, protect 07."

02 and 03 stepped into the hallway. 03's creepy, unsettling smile grew again, the kind nobody would ever want to see.
The left wall was fully glass, the right wall, doors to various rooms.

"04, 06, take position," 02 whispered.

She shot the glass panel, letting the drones flood inside, and immediately shot out every source of light.
Exo-suit drivers were alerted instantly, but never got the chance to react.

02 and 03 stormed in like they owned the place, aiming for heads.
03's smile widened.

"Captain," she whispered, "I'm moving to close encounters."

She slid out her knife and sprinted straight at the drivers.
02 exchanged suppressed shots with perfect precision.

pew pew pew.
Heads dropped one after another. The humans never stood a chance.

03 vanished into the shadows, becoming a ghost.
To hide her glowing eyes, she closed them, fighting blind, using the drone POV fed into her HUD.

Seek. Seek.

She cut throats with the silent efficiency of an old assassin. No alarms. No screams.
02's firefight masked everything she did.

A faint "aaah—"
Seek.
Blood gargled from a collapsing throat.

One driver spotted a shadow moving in the dark. He raised his rifle, but 03 was already there.
She kicked his ankle, shattering the joint. He collapsed to one knee with a gasp, looking up into the face of a pale, eyeless ghost.

Then, 03 opened her eyes.
Two crimson circles flared in the pitch black, illuminating his terror like a spotlight.
A slow, sinister smile stretched across her face.
"I love this expression," she whispered, leaning in until her forehead touched his helmet. "If I had a phone like 06, I'd make it my wallpaper."

Seek.

His head hit the ground. Blood painted her white skin red.
The room stopped moving. But the action outside didn't.

More exo-suits rushed down the hallway toward the shattered room.

02 commanded, "04, 06, build the wall!"
04 and 06 sprinted toward the incoming enemies. The hallway between rooms was wide, leaving the drivers trapped with nowhere to run.

They fired in desperation at the advancing red shields, but—

PING. PING.
Bullets bounced off harmlessly, shattering more glass behind them.

Then—
CRASH.

The impact shook the floor. Exo-suits and flesh were crushed into an unrecognizable mess splattered across the once-white walls.

02 and 03 stepped out of the room. 03's joy was impossible to hide.
06 looked at her. "I know that look…"

07 arrived just then, her system finally restarting.

"01 explained everything," she said with a smirk. "03… did you do it?"

03 replied with malicious pride. "Yes. I'll share it with you later."