Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 182 Control Module

The east side of the sanctuary was brighter than the outer corridor, with white-gold patterns extending from the walls; this place had been submerged underwater for far too long.

The coordinates marked by BICk0 are just ahead.

The control module signal was blocked by a tall door.

The door was thick and sturdy, its surface retaining the original light blue and white patterns of the sanctuary, but the gaps were sealed shut by the red chains of the Quintessons. Several strange creatures perched on the door frame, guarding the entrance like insects in the wall.

Tongtianxiao stopped in front of the door and, upon seeing the situation, immediately said, "Knight of Law Balance, prepare your shields and force your way in."

The heavy shields landed simultaneously, producing a clear metallic clang. The Knights of Law divided into two ranks, one protecting the direction from which Tongtianxiao broke through the door, and the other turning around to block the way.

The pursuers have arrived.

The remaining shark demons weren't numerous, but they were still a nuisance. Even out of the water, their sharp teeth and brute force were incredibly troublesome. Several bailiffs were mixed in with them, using restraints to secure the edges of the shield array. The crocodile demons lay low against the pillar shadows, waiting to pounce from the side.

The mechanical dog darted out from Alita's feet, crouched low, and pounced on the nearest bailiff, tearing off its arm in one bite.

Arcee appeared from behind the pursuers, her blade slicing through the gap torn open by the mechanical dog, cleanly and efficiently taking down another crocodile demon.

Without needing many words, everyone instantly took charge of their respective tasks.

Tongtianxiao raised his shoulder cannon, and the first round of heavy artillery blasted into the center of the door.

The tall door shuddered violently, and the red chains on its surface glowed crimson. The strange creature screamed and tried to shrink back, but some tentacles reached out and wrapped around Tongtianxiao's arm.

The Knight of Law Balance raised his shield at the front and immediately blocked the attack.

The second round of artillery fire from Tongtianxiao dented the surface of the door.

The curator arrived at that moment.

It quickly plunged into the battle, its remaining skeleton exposed in the bright sanctuary, looking even uglier.

The bone spurs suddenly pierced the door, and the strange figures around it convulsed simultaneously. The door, which had been dented by Tongtianxiao's blast, began to repair itself, with red chains climbing the cracks like living ivy, as if flesh and blood were trying to heal.

Alita instantly fired a shot.

The artillery fire broke a bone spike connecting to the door, and the red light dimmed slightly.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Tongtianxiao launched a third attack, causing a crack to appear in the door.

The curator's skeleton suddenly twisted, pointing directly at Alita, while the remaining bailiffs pounced on her simultaneously.

The elite guards met the attack head-on, clashing violently between the colonnades. The sanctuary floor was scratched, the bailiffs' restraints were shattered by artillery fire, and the shark demon lunged at the shield formation only to be bitten by the throat and dragged down by the mechanical dogs.

Arcee leaped up, stepping on the fallen shark demon's carapace, and with her twin swords crossed, sliced ​​through the tentacles of a strange creature reaching for the door lock.

But the curator still stood there, blocking the way. Its control frame sometimes bypassed the shield array, emerging from cracks in the ground and patterns in the walls.

A young Autobot was so disoriented by the low-frequency interference that he almost pointed his gun at his companion.

Fortunately, Alita grabbed his shoulder armor and pushed him behind the shield formation, where he regained consciousness under the protection of the Knights of Law and with his occasional self-identification confirmation.

The curator sneered arrogantly, "You're nothing but a pile of scrap metal!"

Alita had no interest in reasoning with this thing; that was a matter for the vector.

She prefers to violently eliminate anything that gets in her way.

"How much longer until Skyward Dawn?"

"The outer layer of the door lock is broken, but the inner node is still under the control of the curator."

BICk0 is going on a rampage, vowing that he will definitely ask the Chief Justice for a bonus after this battle!

"The control module inside the door provides feedback to the curator, who is now essentially part of the door lock; they can simply be removed!"

Jack added, "Hit that third red dot in the upper right corner of the door!"

Shockwave said calmly, "This node connects to the inner lock cylinder; damaging it can reduce the reconstruction speed."

She instantly aimed the cannon at the upper right corner.

The curator's skeleton sprang up suddenly, using its bone spikes to block the node, only to have several exoskeletons shattered by Alita's artillery fire.

The curator screamed, but did not move aside.

A deeper tremor came from the direction of the main hall, and the vector control team was also racing against time.

"Then she can't be slow," Alita thought.

"Can sound waves sever its connection to the door?"

The sonic mechanical tentacles are piercing the ground, adjusting and invading the Sanctuary system.

"Trying it out."

The curator immediately noticed and flung out a small bone spike towards the sound wave. The mechanical dog leaped up from the ground, caught the incoming bone spike, and did not let go despite the pain.

Arcee deflected the remaining bone spurs to ensure the sound waves had the time needed to penetrate.

The curator's attention was momentarily diverted by them.

Another shadow quietly pressed against the wall.

Nobody saw when AZ came in.

Maybe he's among the bailiffs, or maybe he's hiding behind some weirdo.

Perhaps from the very beginning, he quietly hid in the shadow of the skeleton laid out by the curator, and followed it into this east wing room.

The curator always thought he had discovered him.

It suddenly raised a bone spike and stabbed it at a bailiff next to the gatepost. The signal it received indicated that it was a machine disguised as a bailiff.

"Found you—"

Its triumphant voice came to an abrupt halt, because that bailiff was truly just a bailiff.

Immediately afterwards, AZ's mocking laughter rang out from behind it:

"What did you find?"

The curator froze.

AZ clung to its back, its form emerging from the shadow of a red skeleton.

This level of disguise made him seem like an integral part of himself, so much so that the curator didn't realize until this moment that he had been carrying an enemy with him all along.

AZ plunged the blade in his hand into its chest from behind, piercing directly through the life core deep within the curator's chest cavity that connects the main core to the control skeleton.

"They never found me in the end, how pathetic."

The curator's screams were even stuck in the microphone.

It tried to struggle in any way it could, but AZ held it firmly behind its back with his other hand.

Seeing this, Alita shouted, "Ultra-Dawn, now!"

Tongtianxiao and Faheng Knight unleashed their full firepower, bombarding the node in the upper right corner.

The red dot that the jack mentioned broke.

The inner lock cylinder lit up for a moment, and then the entire tall door split open from the center. The Knights of Faheng stepped forward in unison, and Tongtianxiao took a step forward, using his arms to pry the split door open from both sides.

A control module is suspended in the center of the room.

It was wrapped in layers of metal rings, with a dark purplish-red light dancing in its core, and countless cables extending outwards, piercing into the walls, the floor, and the dome.

The cables, like nerves or chains, transmitted instructions to the outside of the sanctuary, the seabed, and the still turbulent swarm of shark spirits.

The module has incomplete matrix shapes on both sides, resembling a poorly made imitation of a leader module.

The curator writhed weakly, trying to lunge towards the control room.

AZ pushed the blade inward another inch.

The curator's red markings flickered violently before gradually fading out.

The sonic mechanical tentacles released voltage toward the control module, and the Knights of Law simultaneously raised their various gun muzzles. The Sky-Piercing Dawn Cannon, Alita, Arcee, Starscream, 97, the Tracker Squad, and the Elite Guard all opened fire at the same time.

The mechanical dog also rushed into the control room, shooting out lasers from its mouth.

The red light from the control module flickered erratically, then exploded from the center, the metal ring snapping in rings, and the cables twitching and drooping like decapitated snakes. Residual energy flowed through the walls, finally extinguishing in the pale blue-white light emanating from the sanctuary floor.

In the distance, both the sanctuary and the shark spirits in the sea lost their bearings.

Some crashed into the bubble's edge, some spun around in place, some pounced on the nearest of their kind and bit them frantically, and a few suddenly stopped attacking, blankly following their instincts as they fled into the darkness.

The curator's body trembled violently, and the red light on the main core of his chest dimmed completely.

Its broken skeleton fell forward as AZ let go, crashing to the ground with a hollow sound.

It never managed to see AZ's face clearly in the end.

Alita looked at the completely shattered module in the control room, and Ultra Magnus's voice rang out across all channels.

"The control module has been destroyed."

Smokescreen breathed a slight sigh of relief and then switched to listening to the sounds coming from the other side of the vector.

"Support the main hall," Alita and Tongtianxiao said simultaneously.

AZ had already disappeared into the shadows again, and the mechanical dog, its tail scorched by electricity, quickly ran towards the main hall.