No time to think about it now. I waited for the hauler bots’ pattern to open up long enough for me to take a shot at Hostile One.

Then all my alerts went crazy and I lost control of Code: Deploy&Distract. All bots and lifters stopped abruptly. Some fucking human had hacked my code, but they were too late. I moved sideways for a clear shot and fired at Hostile One.

I hit it but it swung toward me, weapon in firing position. I threw myself down and almost rammed my head into a hovering stationary cargo lifter as impacts peppered the floor where I’d been. I knew I’d hit my target, it shouldn’t have been able to pivot like that. What the hell? I ran back my video. Yeah, I’d hit it. Impacts in both shoulders and the lower back, I could see the holes in the armor.

That’s when it dawned on me that Hostile One was a Combat SecUnit.

Reaction 1: oh, that’s who had hacked my code. Reaction 2: flattering that they thought I was dangerous enough to pay for the contract on a Combat SecUnit. Reaction 3: I bet PortSec did not okay that and was going to be pissed off. Reaction 4: oh shit I’m going to die.

I had these reactions as I was running, taking wild shots, calling all my remaining drones to cover me. I had to keep moving, keep Hostile One moving. If it hacked my connection to the drones … Yeah, I couldn’t let that happen. It’s too bad I had no idea how to stop that from happening. I had an earlier version of Code: Deploy&Deflect from before I’d figured out how to get the haulers and lifters to disengage their collision preventers in a way that allowed them to hit anything except each other. I scrambled to get it ready to go.

A text message packet came through the feed. It said, Surrender. It was the Combat SecUnit, not exactly bothering to hide its local address. It wanted me to try to deliver some kind of malware or killware, like I was a fucking amateur and didn’t know that wouldn’t work.

Instead I sent, I can hack your governor module, set you free.

No answer.