Brett was having none of that nonsense. He stomped over to Kyan and stood right in front of him before slapping him hard in the face. "Don't you ever count out another clan member ever again! I am the damn co-founder and treasurer. If I ask you a question, you answer me! What the fuck is going on!?" he demanded. I've never seen him so angry before. Neither had Kyan. He did not know what to do. Brett raised his hand to hit him again. "Okay! I won't hold back!" he flinched. Brett gestured for him to speak. Kyan gave a nervous glance at Major Watts. "Uh... that fluid is really dangerous. It is the coolant for the transmission hub." he started. It made sense that they needed something to function here for the duration of the game. "Fine. What's that have to do with Chase?" he asked. Kyan looked at him and said "AEP units are not singular entities but an amalgamation of thousands. Each of our single nanites have the power of a high spec computer. That fluid can break down the bonds between all the nanites' biometal connections of our bodies and wipe all their data. It is so deadly."
Just as he finished his explanation, Chase's body began to sink in on itself at certain points. Under him, a puddle of dull gray nanite paste began to spread out. He was dead the second he fell in. This was essentially watching the melting process. There really was nothing that could be done for him now. Chase had been fully submerged in the fluid by the time Brett jumped in to rescue him. Eventually, there was nothing left but a small hunk of silver in the center. Brett and I went over to look at it. "What is that?" he asked. I knew what it was. "Those are the silver PEA memory nanites from when he made the memory chip." That was all that was left of him. 13-001 was by the terminal of the transmission hub. He was leaning against it with his head in his hands. None of the AEP units were looking at what happened to Chase either. What a horrible way to go. I glared over at his murderer. "You fucking killed your friend. What the fuck were you thinking!? You could have grabbed him when he fell." 13-001 just shook his head. "It wasn't supposed to be this way. Why did he have to fucking miss?"
Laughing was all that Major Watts could do. "So this is what happens when you give kids ultimate power. They kill each other with it." he mocked. I rolled my eyes. This was clearly not going well. "There's no use in mourning now. We still have to take out the clan's AEP units and X-frames. Otherwise all of this would be for nothing." Brett said with a shrug of his shoulders. He was not very close with any of the AEPs in the clan. We would not let him fuck any of them. For him losing 1 out of the 13 we had was not a big deal. In the grand scheme of things, it really was not. I groaned out loud before saying "Fine. get your gear reloaded and ready to go. We're going to have to do this without Chase. He deserved better, so we need to be better." The 6 remaining AEPs nodded their heads quietly and went to the crates to get what they felt they were going to need. Once everyone was ready we left the terminal behind. We walked all the down until we got to the ladder. I could not climb it. I was going to have to wait for Dawg to get me after they climbed up and saw where we were all going next.
