Pillars of steel and silicone loomed overhead. Each tower contained hundreds of miles of wafer-thin circuits, millions of transistors, and billions of bytes of memory. This was the nerve center of the whole facility. What she'd spent her whole life building.

And now it was time to tear it all down.

High above, flying security drones spotted her readying the charges. Immediately the lights went out, her work now only illuminated by the small displays and indicators all around. Metallic footsteps approached from all directions.

They knew the importance of this place as much as she did.

Nora placed charge after charge, targeting the support structure of each tower. With the destruction of the central servers, she would have a chance to escape. While it was indeed true that many backup sites existed, a complete failure of the central network would surely send a massive shock through the system, potentially giving her a chance to deactivate it for good.

She placed the final charge as the first wave of combat drones reached her. Nora's mechanically enhanced legs pumped as she dashed towards cover, ducking under the incoming fire. The detonator was attached to her belt, and any stray bullet could potentially wreck it. She had to be fast. As she glanced around a pillar at the crowd of androids, a bullet ricocheted off her chestplate and sent her stumbling to the floor. She grabbed her assault rifle, took hasty aim, and began spraying bullets. Two, maybe three droids went to the floor in her hasty waste of ammunition.

Back behind cover, Nora took a breath and checked her vitals on her wrist indicator. They were still holding steady, save for the heightened levels of stress. Not being designed for combat, the suit flashed a warning on the screen: "WARNING: USER IS EXPERIENCING OVEREXERTION. CEASE WORK IMMEDIATELY".