Fifty-eight seconds on the clock, and Nina's ocular HUD flashed red numbers directly over her retina. The Kish-Ward Bastion’s main triage bay, still reeking of plasma fire and mutant viscera, blurred around her. Ziusudra’s holographic broadcast had faded, but the chilling reverberation of his words, of her own body as a weapon, clung to the air like ozone. “Marduk!” Her voice was a whip-crack, cutting through the ringing in her ears. She spun, gripping his armored forearm with a strength that belied her slender frame. “Your heavy laser cannon. The one on your mech.” Marduk Urash, warlord of the Urash-Clan, still bristled with the after-effects of their brief skirmish with the zealots. His gaze, usually bored or contemptuous, sharpened, dissecting the frantic urgency in her cybernetic eye. “The Siege-Class X-Pulse? You want me to bring heavy armor in here? It’ll vaporize this entire wing, doctor.” His tone was a low growl, a warning. “Not the entire wing, you Neanderthal,” Nina snapped, her jaw tight. “Just… the neural-spine.” She turned, revealing the luminous silver seam pulsing beneath the pale skin of her neck, tracing a straight track down to the small of her back. It was like a roadmap to her destruction. Her internal diagnostics screeched the countdown, its numbers shrinking with terrifying speed. [TIME TO PHASE ALPHA INITIATION: 00:00:48] “It’s syncing. The remote detonator. Ziusudra wants me to go nova. To ‘cleanse’ the city. I need you to sever the connection.” She pointed to a specific point, barely visible beneath her cerakote skin, just above her sacrum. “There. A clean cut. Precise. The X-Pulse on its lowest setting, focused. Don’t graze anything else, or I’ll gut you with my own hands.” Marduk’s heavy brow furrowed. His expression was unreadable, but a flicker of something—disbelief? grudging respect?—crossed his features. “You want me to… paralyze you?” “I want you to save the damn city! And my career! I have a medical empire to build, not explode in a shower of bioweaponized glitter!” She shoved him towards the still-smoking hole where his mech had parked itself after annihilating the zealots. “Now!” He hesitated for only a fraction of a second, then barked an order into his comms. “Nabu! Bring the Siege-mech's targeting laser to Bay 7, main entrance. I need manual override, pinpoint accuracy.” The roar of the immense mech outside grew louder, followed by the grinding of articulated limbs as the obsidian frame and radiant conduits of the massive cannon angled through the blast door opening, the primary barrel extending into the triage bay. [TIME TO PHASE ALPHA INITIATION: 00:00:32] Nina didn’t flinch. She leaned forward, bracing her palms on the blood-greased operating tray, exposing the lit seam of her spine to Marduk. The silver throbbed now, more pronounced, a faint metallic taste blooming on her tongue. The nanites were working, preparing her body for transformation. Preparing it to *explode*. “Lowest possible setting, Marduk! Overcharge will cauterize too much. Undercharge won’t cut through the adamantine plating.” Her instructions were crisp, devoid of any fear, even as the monstrous weapon hummed inches from her exposed back. “Target the L3-S1 junction. Don’t miss. If I die, I’m haunting your artillery for eternity.” Marduk's massive hand gripped the targeting array on the cannon. His gaze was steady, cold, focused. A faint red laser dot appeared on her skin, tracing the exact path he intended to sever. He took a deep, rattling breath, then exhaled slowly. “Hold still, doctor,” he rumbled, his voice unusually low. “This is going to hurt.” [TIME TO PHASE ALPHA INITIATION: 00:00:15] The laser fired. It wasn’t a flash, but a concentrated beam, a whisper of coherent light that seared through her skin, flesh, and the adamantine casing of her neural-spine with surgical precision. A scream tore from Nina’s throat, raw and animalistic, instantly drowned out by the shriek of superheated metal and the smell of ozone and burning synthetic tissue. Her entire lower body seized, then went utterly, terrifyingly numb. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the gurney, gasping, sweat beading on her forehead, her body wracked with phantom pain and the sudden, alien sensation of absolute stillness below her waist. [REMOTE DETONATOR SYNCHRONIZATION BROKEN. PHASE ALPHA INITIATION HALTED.] A triumphant, if hoarse, laugh bubbled from Nina’s lips. “Nailed it, you maniac.” She tried to move her legs. Nothing. Not even a twitch. Just a heavy, lifeless weight. “Well, that’s… inconvenient.” Before Marduk could respond, the front wall of the triage bay, already weakened by previous skirmishes, *exploded inwards*. Not from a flesh-mech, but a sleek, solid-gold hover-tank, its reinforced chassis gleaming under the emergency lights. It looked like an ingot on repulsors, perched over by Lugal’s absconded genetic stand-in, Shala Tiamat, grinning down from the open hatch. “Nina, darling! Heard you were having some spinal issues!” Shala’s voice, amplified by the tank’s external speakers, echoed with cheerful malice. “Convenient, really. Saved me the trouble of tracking you down across the lower wards.” Shala hopped down from the tank’s chassis, her movements fluid and confident. She wore a tailored flight suit, the color of bruised plums, and carried a custom-built plasma rifle that pulsed with a dangerous purple light. “Lugal’s put a bounty on my head so high even the Urash-Clan’s considering it. Word in the underbelly is you're setting up your own sovereign clinic. You need mobile firepower. I need permanent asylum off the syndicate registers, no questions asked, plus wholesale cybernetic maintenance.” She gestured grandly at the golden hover-tank. “This beauty’s fast, heavily shielded, and still has enough room for one paralyzed warlord-bait doctor.” Nina, still gasping for air, managed a weak, cynical smile. “You stole a *gold* tank? Of course you did.” She pushed herself up onto her elbows, her arms trembling. “Deal. But you’re paying for your own cybernetic upgrades, princess. And you’re on janitorial duty.” “Done!” Shala clapped her hands, ignoring Marduk’s low growl of annoyance. “Alright, Urash, help me load her up. Time’s a-wasting. I saw some… *guests*… heading this way.” Marduk hauled Nina by the harness onto a hard-shell stretcher and shoved her inside the chassis. The vehicle’s ramp hissed shut, sealing them inside its gilded hull. Just as the repulsorlifts engaged, sending a low thrum through the floor, the ground began to violently shake, a deep, resonating tremor that rattled their teeth. Outside, the Kish-Ward Bastion’s remaining lights flickered, casting grotesque shadows across the fortified walls. A low, guttural roar, then another, joined a chorus of snuffling, slithering noises. Drawn by the scent of Nina’s severed biological wiring, a pack of feral flesh-mechs gathered outside, optical clusters burning through the smog as they encircled the Kish-Ward Bastion.

Spinal Tap