Prologue

Somewhere on Mars

The hallway was dark, so dark that it was impossible to see even with night vision. That didn't seem to matter for the person with combat clothes and a sword. Little drops of blood from his sword fell onto the ground making a sound which echoed through the hallway.

Infront of a door he stopped. Confirming it was the right one, he opened the door swiftly. Behind the door it was dark too. Just it was a little odd, since there were a lot of different devices that should be running.

'Someone must have turned them off.'

It would have taken too much time to physically disable all components, so it was very likely that the power was cut. He tried to turn on the lights and as expected nothing happened.

"Breathing detected. 280@15."

A voice rang through his head. His glasses now displayed the silhouette of a human, where the AI suspects it to be. Without any hesitation he turned to the direction and let the AI analyze the situation. At the moment he just knew the position the person, but not if the person has a weapon or if he is trying to ambush him.

"Threat level: 3. Emotion: Fear. Melee Weapon detected."

The confirmation came swiftly. Now with more information it was possible to deal with this situation.

"Come out Yanagi. I know that you are there."

There was no response. He knew who this person was from the research he did before the mission. Well if that person doesn't want to come out he just goes to his hiding spot. Just as he readied his sword to make give it a more reddish colour the person came out.

"You know, it is not polite to speak to strangers without honorifics."

"Ah, you are right. I should be talking to dead people with more respect."

"Look, I am not so foolish to fight a S-class. I am a scientist and not a soldier"

With a bang a sword hit the ground. Norio didn't know the identity of the person, but he saw how he killed 4 S-class and 10 A-class fighters. Someone who spent most of the time studying won't stand a chance in a fight. His life depends now on how good he can bargain.

"Buying time will not help you much."

Yanagi just gulped after hearing that. The other person was right. Reinforcements from Earth were more than 2 months away.

"Killing me won't help you either. You see I know where the data you are looking for is stored."

"What for data?"

"An entire new Battle AI that exceeds all other Battle AIs."

"Are you sure about that?"

He was thanking his gods right now. The target of the perpetrator was the AI after all. Knowing what he wants there is a good chance for his survival.

"It is made with the research of our facility. We spent 12 years combining two of the most advanced AIs to make them."

"I am still not convinced. Judging by the size of this facility there is no chance that you would work on an 'advanced' AI. Not to mention that you aren't backed by a major family or institution."

"We are a secret research base after all. Too many people would attract too much attention."

Well this base isn't much of a secret anymore with someone standing in the heart of it. Hidden well in the ground of a crater on a sparsely populated planet, one could have assume that it won't never get found or at least taken a few decades until discovery.

"Your organisation did a job in keeping it secret for a while. The entire self sustaining ecosystem you have built underground is sure fascinating."

"How did you find our base in the first place?"

"Let's say your closed system isn't as closed as you thought it was.-"

For Yanagi this vague answer made a lot of sense. They even had 4 S-rank stationed here to protect the base anticipating someday they are going to get discovered.

"Ok enough. Where is the AI you developed?"

"They are partitioned in those 5 storage devices. But they are encoded and I am the only one alive who knows how to decode it."

Yanagi pointed to a server rack. He just hoped that he would be believed and somehow manage to survive.

"Since I have no other way to prove what you have said."

With a loud slash the storage devices on the other racks were sliced in half. The perpetrator turned to the other ones waiting for a reaction from Yanagi. After a few seconds the other server racks where split in half destroying Petabytes of data until there is one left.

"Are you sure this is the only version in existence? There are no other backups right?"

"The risk would be too high if there are more copies. I don't know where the seed of the AIs came from, but I know that it would get very ugly for us if some people would find about it."

"I have the same opinion as you, because I am one of those people."

Yanagi couldn't make a sound. He just realized that his chances of survival went down substantially, if the perpetrator was an Ishikawa. His thoughts were interrupted by another loud slash. The last of server rack was split into half.

"Don't look at me that way. I had nothing to do with the attack."

"I thought you just said earlier ago you knew nothing."

Not sensing any anger in the other person's voice he didn't know what to hold of the situation he was in. However something was sure. Without any bargaining tools and a S-class off for revenge there wasn't much hope for him.

"Please I was only ordered to do my work. I wouldn't have benefitted from the Battle AI."

Clinging on his last argument he hoped that it would have calmed the perpetrator down. Surprisingly it worked.

"Ok, I give you a last chance."

"Thank you very much."

He didn't know what he could offer to prolong his life, but one chance was better having none.

"Take your sword and try your luck."

Fighting wasn't an option for Yanagi. He slowly walked to the place where his sword has fallen pretending to pick it up and then dashed to the door. A loud shot sounded through the room, a shot that he couldn't hear coming.