Its brilliant white radiance seemed to shine brighter than the light of the sun. Gold, copper, yellow, auburn, amber. The creature dressed in robes decorated with these colours. It was humanoid but couldn't be any further from us. This was it. The first subjugation. The next moments would decide if humans had any chance of standing on the same level as the being standing before the lone soldier.
She look upward upon the visage of the 'angel' as we had called it, standing perfectly still with its six outstretched wings. As she scanned its smooth metallic robes and featureless face, her companion AI ran endlessly, making sure not to miss any change. She knew beforehand these early scans were a waste. The angel always attacked in retaliation and was never the aggressor. She closed her eyes and felt the weight of her metallic armour. Condensed matter and energy adorned her body and earned her the name of 'cyber angel'.
Upon her mental command the nanomachines began emerging from her suit. These were like small creatures, spiderlike, connected to her nervous system, and could execute any command that was sent through external brainwaves. Each contained a small processor connect to the others nearest to it. Millions of these connections allowed it to simulate its intelligence and act independently of the cyber-angel's command. However, their most useful property was that these machines each contained a small pocket of matter. Well to be more exact, the components of matter, sub-sub-atomic particles that could be assembled and reassembled to whatever the user desired.
As these 'creatures' emerged, Rita envisioned the weapon she had employed many times. One that had still not deviated from one of the most basic types of attacking: projectiles. The core of the weapon was mainly for cushioning the force that would be generated as the machines continued to work, creating two highly conductive rails of iron alloys. In the middle of these rays resting on the base of the weapon was a bullet-shaped piece of osmium, the densest metal.
Surges of electric current ran from the small orb held in the chest of Rita's armor. Inside was humanity's greatest engineering feat. A sustained fusion reaction measuring only 2 cm in diameter. The inside of the amulet contained a layer of structures that operated like solar panels. They gathered energy from the reaction at an amazing efficiency. This small device could power all of Rita's weapons and she planned to make full use of it.
Current flew through the rail with the force of millions of volts, creating a magnetic field that can propel the bullet. And then, the current in both rails connected through the projectile completing the circuit. BOOM. The projectile crossed the distance between it and the angel in less than a moment. Railgun shots relied on nothing but raw kinetic energy to deal damage. Rita could track the shot every millisecond of its journey toward the angel. The angel simply levitated in place as the projectile approached him until it was only mere meters away from him. And then he wasn't there. As quickly as he disappeared he appeared again. The projectile was now behind him and continued its true path disappearing into the blue sky.
Rita's AI tracked and analyzed this 'movement' that the angel had performed. The results of the analysis was data she was all too familiar with. It has jumped forward in space by a couple of meters. 0.13 seconds. That was the time the AI recorded in between the angel's disappearance and re-emergence. The angel prepared to retaliate by bringing its left hand up to its chest and swiping the air in the direction of Rita. Seven balls of photons gathered in front of the angel. Rita commanded her machines to build wings that were equipped with ion projectors for flight and took to the sky immediately. No sooner than she had lifted off the beams of light shot towards where she had once been, heating the air around them and vaporizing holes into the ground where they were aimed.
The angel turned its head toward Rita who was now circling her target at dozens of meters per second. Huge swarms of nanomachines burst forth from their capsule and constructed 2 railguns just like before. BOOM BOOM! They fired off almost simultaneously but approached from widely different angles. The angel teleported again and this time appeared in the orbit Rita was traveling. It stretched its hand forward and blasted plasma in the direction of Rita. She dodged to the side widening the orbit and then climbed higher in altitude never taking her eyes off the target. The angel teleported behind her as she flew and slashed at her with a blade it formed from light itself. The blade cut through thin air as she dodged to the side thanks to her AI-monitored rear view.
In one swift motion, Rita oriented herself to face the angel while crafting lasers on her palms and 2 more behind her aimed over her shoulders. Not a second passed between their completion and firing. Beams of light made their way to the angel as it prepared to teleport it again. As soon as it disappeared Rita released an EMP around her to sabotage the angel if it teleported close too her. And it did! The angel froze and started falling from behind her where it had jumped. Wasting no time Rita made another railgun and fired a shot into its torso causing a blinding cloud of heated gas and plasma where it hit. Without waiting for the cloud to clear she made a second railgun and fired 2 more shots into the cloud confirming the hit with the crashing sound of mental shattering against metal.
Rita dove towards the cloud making sure to approach in an orbital to not get caught in attacks from the cloud. As she was about to pass the altitude of the dust cloud, the body of the angel started to fall from the cloud. It oriented itself and fired beams of light towards Rita who could dodge easily from this distance. As the angel continued to fall it held its hand to its chest covering its wound. The angels heavily impacted the ground and shakily stood back up with attempted haste. Rita observed this whole motion and took the time to run a damage analysis on the angel. The first shot had torn into its chest. Fragments of the bullet could be seen in the wound that was still hot and nearly melting from the impact. The second shot grazed its side and the third had made a hole partway through the right leg.
With its mobility severely reduced, Rita wasted no time and fired 2 more shots this time aiming at its head. The angel reacted quickly and used the outside of its two hands to deflect to the projectiles. The force of the impact however still took its toll and crushed the areas of its hand under which its 2 outer fingers would rest. As it started to put down its hand Rita's eyes opened wide in shock. The damage from the first 3 shots was gone. The angel appeared brand new, except for the newly inflicted damage on its hands. The AI ran multiple scans to detect any sort of illusion or trickery, even running damage scans on its sensors. The angel's hands finally reached its side and then the holes it once had reappeared! And just like that, they were gone again. They flashed in and out of existence for the next few seconds as Rita stared at the angel unsure of what is going on. Each time the switch happened, the angel would either have damage on its hand or its body and leg but never both. The AI finished the analysis and provided the best explanation it could.
"The target has 2 bodies it can seamlessly switch between at any given time."
Rita continued to stare at the angel with a feeling of confusion and slight dread. Really it should have been simple.
"I just need to kill it twice." Rita thought to herself trying to calm herself down. She had trained for long battles and she had the weapons, ammo, and fuel to do it. And yet she could not shake this feeling of uneasiness. As if being stared down by the reaper. Its presence erased all hope but instinct still demanded you try. For Rita though it wasn't mere instinct. It was the memory of why she started all this in the first place. And so remembering all the people she aimed to create a brighter future for, she cried out and readied her weapons.
