Author's Note: Phew! Midterms are finally over! Yay! Anyway, here's Chapter 19.

Disclaimer: Refer to the prologue

Story Title: Corrupted Programming

Chapter Title: End Game

Cluster Imperial Palace, Cluster Prime

Queen Vexus grimaced as the tactical screen in front of her throne showed that a quarter of Cluster Prime's planetary defensive ring went off-line. As it did, a large gap in the planetary force field appeared, exposing some of Cluster Prime's surface to orbital bombardment. However, the attacking rebel force had suffered catastrophic losses and thus could not take advantage of the shielding gap. The numbers were so reduced that the queen could count them with a split-second sweep of her optical sensors.

But she didn't smile since she knew that this wasn't the entire rebel force. Knowing the large amount of respect most of the Cluster military had for Yomex, the Grand Marshal could've easily mustered up more than twice the number of ships that had originally attacked. Still, there was the fact that the transmission from the Grand Marshal had been abruptly cut off, meaning that a problem had occurred with Yomex's communication systems. However, it might also mean that another large strike force was out there waiting for the signal that would surely come after the Grand Marshal's communications problem was remedied.

"Excuse m-me, Your Majesty," a trembling voice suddenly came over the intercom, it was the yellow roach drone in charge of the Imperial Strategic Center.

"Yes?" Vexus replied, making no effort to mask her annoyance.

"Um… well, Your H-highness," the drone's nervous voice sputtered over the intercom. "I, uh, that is to say we in the strategic center, er, thought that, um…"

"SPIT IT OUT!!!" the Cluster queen roared, losing patience with the drone's overly cautious manner.

"WefoundYomex'sship!" the drone said quickly, sounding as though he had expelled some oil.

"What?! Where is he?"

"His ship is orbiting a planetoid in the Gudani system. We detect no incoming or outgoing transmissions."

Vexus smiled thinly. She had found the traitor, and she was going to have him destroyed. She shot a look at the tactical screen. The last few attacking ships had already taken some serious damage, and soon they would be annihilated and would pose no threat to her. Her smile became wider.

"Have my flagship readied! It's time to for me to pay the Grand Marshal a little visit."

Inside Grand Marshal Yomex's Command Ship

Jenny and Brad felt a sense of dread while ADAX looked on warily as Viruz's maddened laughter filler the corridor. His energy field seemed to pulsate as it glowed, giving the High Commander the look of a bomb that was about to explode. And judging from the way everything within touching distance of the pruple robot was melting, it probably wasn't that bad an analogy.

"So, you think you destroyed me, eh?" Viruz mocked. "Well think again! I am not easily destroyed, but you, however, are not similarly endowed."

"Uh huh, yeah, right." ADAX remarked. "Jeez, what is it about bad guys and gloating?"

Viruz arched up a nonexistent eyebrow as he turned to look at ADAX. "What do we have here? Hm, judging from your design I can tell that you're another one of Wakeman's little experiments, albeit an old, battered one. Oh well, just one more target to obliterate!"

Viruz lunged, energy field flaring. The three jumped out of the way with ADAX and Jenny opening fire, ADAX with Miffy and Jenny with her commandeered roach drone arm-laser. As expected, the blasts were deflected by the High Commander's energy aura. Viruz turned and slashed his remaining arm at Brad. Brad yelped as he rolled away, but the hem of his shirt caught fire thanks to the heat emanating from the purple robot. The boy swatted at his shirt wildly, trying to put out the flames.

"You know," Jenny said through gritted teeth 1as she fired at Viruz. "I never managed to ask you how were supposed to get out of here."

"Wakeman's waitin' in a ship outside. We can get to it through the thermal vents." ADAX replied. "But we gotta hurry, I think she's under attack right now."

ADAX then pointed his weapon at the roof and fired a couple of shots. The blasts tore into the already heat-weakened ceiling, bringing it down on the High Commander. Viruz was just melting through the debris when the floor, also severely weakened by the heat he was giving out, caved in causing the glowing robot to fall and melt right through several levels. ADAX ran to the hole and fired a few wild shots into it, yelling in a feral manner as he did.

"That won't stop him for long." Brad said, the voice of experience.

"Yeah, well it'll slow 'im down." ADAX smirked. He then gestured to an open pipe inside the hole he had blasted on the roof. "Now come on, let's go."

Jenny nodded and tried to jump, forgetting for a moment that her enhanced systems were still disabled. As a result, she almost fell into the hole Viruz had melted into the floor, dropping the roach drone laser she was holding. ADAX managed to catch her by activating the magnets in his feet and magnetizing Jenny with his left foot. He brought his foot up and swung Jenny around and plopped her beside him.

"Uh, thanks." Jenny muttered.

"You're supposed to be my replacement?" the green robot said incredulously. "Jeez, your as weak as a human!"

"Hey!" Brad shouted.

"That's because I was hit with some kind of disabling charge by that mantis guy you took down." Jenny said. "Oh man, how am I supposed to get up there now?"

ADAX seemed to mull it over for a moment. Then, he grinned and got down to one knee, splaying his good arm forward. "Get a running start, I'll give you a boost."

Jenny was confused for a second, but then she nodded as she figured out what ADAX was planning. She walked back a few meters before she ran for ADAX. As her foot landed on her brother's weapon, ADAX flipped his hand toward the pipe. Jenny kicked off from the green robot's hand, using it as a springboard. She flew through the air then landed right inside the thermal vent pipe.

"Okay, dude, your turn." ADAX said, turning to Brad.

"Whoa, are you nuts?" the redhead said. "I can't make the jump."

ADAX just shrugged. "Jenny made it, you sayin' you can't?"

"Jenny's a super robot, she very likely had super advanced gears or something that gave her that kind of jumping power."

"I'm under-powered, remember?" Jenny pointed out. "That disabling charge gave me human-level strength, and I still made the jump. You can make it too."

"Um…" Brad looked at ADAX, then at the distance to the pipe, clearly unsure about whether to jump or not. However, ADAX was already getting impatient waiting for Brad to jump. The battered robot held his weapon in his teeth as he grabbed Brad with his one good arm. The boy was starting to protest when ADAX flung him toward the opening in the ceiling.

"Up you go, carrot head!"

"Jenny, catch!" ADAX yelled out. Jenny held out her arms as she caught Brad, but since she wasn't as string as her default settings she and Brad ended up in heap. Both of them sat up inside the pipe and glared sourly at ADAX.

Suddenly, bright purple pillars of energy exploded from the hole in the floor, blasting chunks from the ceiling that caused a section to collapse on ADAX. Jenny and Brad cried out in concern as the green robot was covered by a large amount of metal.

"Dax!"

Then, a thumb-less hand poked out of the pile of debris. ADAX crawled out of the heap, wincing in pain. From his abdomen poked out a large, jagged chunk of metal, and it was leaking formaldehyde. ADAX grabbed the metal piece that impaled him and pulled it out. He let out an involuntary scream of agony as he did so. He looked down, his formaldehyde kept on leaking. Somehow, the failsafe devices that kept them from gushing out had failed. At this rate, he'd lose all his formaldehyde in minutes. And soon after that his bio-circuits would shut down.

"Dax!" he heard Brad and Jenny say. Jenny continued: "You okay?"

ADAX didn't answer. He held up his hand into his mouth and quickly took out a disk that hung from a rack on his upper jaw. He turned to Jenny then threw the disk to her. "Catch!"

Jenny caught the disk then looked at ADAX questioningly. "What's this?"

"The schematics of this ship are on that thing." ADAX gasped out. "I've marked out where you can find Wakeman. Put it in your system and go."

"What about you?" Brad said.

"Did'ya see what just happened? Tall, purple, and angry is gonna be here any minute. I'll hold him back while you go."

"Are you crazy?!" Jenny said. "I couldn't beat Viruz with all my systems operational, and you're far from being in that condition! He'd tear you apart in a second!"

"No one's beaten me before and I don't intend to be beaten now." ADAX said, attempting to grin cockily, although what came out instead was a forced, pained smile. "Don't worry, I'll catch up."

"Oh no you don't!" Jenny shouted. "Don't give me that pseudo-macho, heroic crap! You can't stop him and you know it."

ADAX just kept on smiling. He casually bent over and picked up Miffy. Then, before Jenny and Brad could react, ADAX raised his gun and fired a few low-power blasts near the pipe where Brad and Jenny were. Jenny and Brad yelped and ducked in surprise.

"Go now, or I'll shoot you for real next time." ADAX said simply.

"You're bluffing!" Brad yelled. A split second later a blast singed his hair. "Yah! Okay, maybe not."

Then, a mass of intense purple energy came out of the hole in the floor. It gave out a scream of rage as it turned to face ADAX. The green robot faced Viruz calmly, he shot a look and the pipe and smiled when he saw Brad and Jenny go deeper into the pipe to avoid getting incinerated by the heat. A message scrolled before his eyes, confirming that Jenny was using the disk he had given her. Below the message appeared a map of the thermal vent that was superimposed over his vision. On it, he saw that Jenny and Brad were indeed making their way toward Wakeman's ship.

ADAX smiled. He held Miffy to his cheek tenderly and started to whisper: "Sorry, Miffy. You were good to me, but I need to do this."

With his pinky he flipped open a small panel on the bottom half of his weapon. Inside the panel was a button. He pressed it. Immediately, words began to scroll on the small LCD bar on Miffy's side.

EMP DETONATOR ACTIVATED

EMP DETONATION IN 5 MINUTES

ADAX looked at the map superimposed on his vision. His sister and her friend were still moving, they would be out of range of the powerful electro-magnetic pulse detonation before his weapon detonated. Which was good because the pulse detonation would shut down every unprotected machine within its blast radius. He didn't know if his bio-circuits could survive the EMP, but then it didn't matter anyway since he was already leaking away the very substance that kept his bio-circuits from rotting away.

"So, you decided to attempt to hold me back while your sister and her human companion escape. How noble." Viruz sneered. "Noble but foolish. I will destroy you and afterwards I'll destroy them. Nothing will stop me!"

'That's what you think.' ADAX thought silently. The timer on Miffy's LCD bar showed: 4:37.1. ADAX smiled, 4 minutes and 37.1 seconds. Soon it would all be over. Sure, he'd never get to experience freedom again, but this would sure as heck show Wakeman that he wasn't no failure. He grinned cockily at the High Commander. "Yeah? Well bring it on, Purple-boy!"

Outside Grand Marshal Yomex's Command Ship

Dr. Wakeman looked at the displays nervously. The shielding strength was already dangerously low. She had to do something about the two ant drones that were attacking her vessel, but what? She knew that the ant drones had self-repair capabilities that made the weapons she had brought with her useless against them. She knew that they had their ludicrously exposed off switches, but they were too far away so that negated them as a factor. To be rid of them she would have to find a way to totally disintegrate the ant drones' bodies. But none of her weapons were capable of…

'OF COURSE!!!' her mind suddenly screamed out at her. 'The Molecular Cohesion Disruptor!"

Mrs. Wakeman leapt behind the piloting area. She dug through the pile of weapons she had stacked behind her chair until she finally found what she had been looking for. She pulled out a large, cumbersome-looking energy weapon. It was the Molecular Cohesion Disruptor she had been developing for integration into XJ-9's systems. As it's name suggested, one blast of it disrupted the cohesion between molecules on anything its beam hits. The molecules would literally come apart at the seams, causing the object that had been fired upon to disintegrate into free atoms.

The scientist opened the ship's cockpit and pointed the MCD at one of the ant drones, a gray one. She checked the charge meter on the MCD, only enough for four shots so she had to make every shot count. She carefully tracked the ant drone with the MCD and pulled the trigger. A blue beam lanced out from the weapon and struck the gray ant drone right in the chest.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But as Dr. Wakeman watched on she saw that the ant drone seemed to fade more and more until, finally, it disappeared. The doctor allowed herself a slight smile, at least she knew the MCD worked. She then started to look for the other ant drone. Seeing what had happened to its companion, it was now flying wildly and erratically, firing even more as it did.

Alarms blared silently in the vacuum of space announcing the imminent failure of the shields. Mrs. Wakeman struggled to aim the weapon as the ant drone flew around the Stealth Wasp in evasive patterns. She fired, but the black ant drone managed to dodge it. She fired again with the same result. Realizing that she was down to one shot, she concentrated hard on the ant drone's flight pattern. At first, it seemed erratic, but then she started to see a pattern.

If she was right then she should fire her weapon right… there! She pulled the trigger. The beam punched right through space, and the ant drone flew into it. As it faded to nonexistence it glared hatefully at the space-suited scientist just before it disappeared. Dr. Wakeman let out a sigh of relief as she closed the cockpit and sank to the chair. She flipped on the life support back again. XJ-9 and Bradley would be here soon and the later would need the air. Besides, the suit was getting stuffy. She took off the helmet and flung it away.

But just as she thought it was all over, the threat receiver started to blink rapidly. She slowly looked up and saw the large menacing form of a Cluster Imperial Flagship…

Author's Note: I hope that was okay. I was kinda rushing it a bit.