A Journey of the beyond

Third PoV

The factory was alive with chaos.

Red alarms blared in every direction, bathing the rusted walls in crimson pulses. The floor trembled with the rhythm of distant machinery, but this time, it was different. The rattle was deeper. Angrier. Wrong. Steam hissed violently from broken vents, and sparks rained from the high catwalks like artificial stars.

2B sprinted across the trembling steel walkway, her black heels clanging with precision. Every sense was on edge, visor scanning the rapidly shifting interior. Behind her, 9S hovered down from a service lift, boot-jets burning blue as he landed lightly on the grated floor beside her.

"This isn't normal," 9S muttered, sword drawn. "Not even for a factory overrun by machines."

2B said nothing, only moved forward. But they didn't have to wait long for an answer.

With an earth-shaking groan, the entire wall in front of them shifted. Steel plates unfolded like petals, cables snapping free and retracting into the floor. A face emerged from the metal — massive, expressionless, inhuman. Yellow lights ignited where its eyes should be, flooding the platform in a ghostly glow.

The entire chamber rumbled.

2B halted. Even she blinked under the pressure of what she saw.

"It's not a wall," 9S whispered. "The entire room... it's the machine."

A voice emerged from the face, booming and fractured. Not human, but eerily articulatthem

"Emotion: observed. Fear: irrational. Resistance: futile."

Metal shifted again. To the left, part of the chamber wall peeled open like a blooming steel flower. From within, something rose.

A colossal machine, towering far above the YorHa units. Its core was a massive, rusted pillar of dark metal, armored in overlapping plates. Near the top, the structure expanded into a wide, circular disc — like a turbine, or the center of a sun. This disc was ringed with serrated gears, teeth, and rotating slats, each emitting mechanical groans as they spun.

Pod 042 buzzed beside 2B. "Designation: ARK-SENTINEL. Type: Integrated Core Construct. Threat level: Severe."

The central face pulsed again, yellow eyes blazing brighter.

"Observe. Adapt. Annihilate."

Without warning, the turbine rotated.

A wave of kinetic force blasted from its spinning disc, striking the platform. The walkway beneath their feet exploded, tearing apart in a shockwave of steel.

"Move!" 2B shouted.

She flipped backward just in time, avoiding a falling beam. 9S launched into the air, dodging the debris, his Pod firing a volley of laser blasts toward the machine's core. But the energy dissipated harmlessly against the thick armor.

"We can't crack it like this!" he shouted.

"There must be a weak point," 2B called, already moving. She darted along a slanted pipe, dodging steam vents and swinging wreckage as she searched for a vantage point. The turbine turned again — faster this time.

"It's charging something!" 9S cried out.

Pod 153 chimed in on his end. "Spin acceleration detected. Core heat rising. Probability of explosive discharge: 88%."

The disc blazed with energy, and then unleashed it — a spiraling shockwave of molten plasma.

2B activated her dash module, sliding beneath the incoming wave as metal ignited behind her. The turbine slowed for just a moment afterward, revealing a brief glimpse of glowing orange light at its center.

"The core," 2B breathed. "That's our target."

9S was already working. His visor glowed as lines of code streamed across his screen. He ducked behind a shattered girder and began hacking into the Sentinel's subsystem.

"I'll slow the spin! You have about ten seconds when it stutters!"

2B nodded and launched into motion. She climbed the wreckage like a dancer through flame, each motion deliberate. Gears turned around her, and steam hissed against her armor.

"Now!" 9S shouted.

The turbine spasmed. Sparks shot from its rim as its rotation locked. A pulsing red eye opened at the very center.

2B leapt from a broken column, sword flashing in a reverse grip. She twisted in the air, Pod 042 enhancing her descent with gravitational force.

"Blade Output: 500%."

She struck.

Her sword plunged straight into the core. CRACK!

A beam of light shot upward as the Sentinel roared, the turbine splintering from within. The shockwave knocked her back, but she spun midair, landing in a crouch.

9S covered her with a wave of Pod missiles, blasting incoming defense drones that had begun to emerge from the Sentinel's armor.

"It's destabilizing!" he shouted. "Finish it before it recovers!"

2B didn't wait. She launched again, this time spinning like a drill, both swords flashing. She landed a second blow into the exposed core, sending waves of data and sparks flying.

The turbine screeched, beginning to twist inward. The machine's massive face on the wall flickered, its yellow eyes dimming.

"Purpose... collapsing... error... cannot compute... existence..."

9S landed beside her as the great machine finally groaned and imploded. Fire belched from the seams of the turbine. The central pillar cracked and bent, collapsing into the floor with a thunderous crash. A cloud of smoke and superheated air surged outward, and both YorHa units ducked behind a steel plate to avoid the blast.

Then, silence.

Only the whisper of broken fans spinning in the ceiling and the hiss of cooling metal remained.

2B stood slowly. Her visor was cracked. Her suit scorched along the left shoulder. But she was alive.

9S leaned against a railing, breathing heavily. "So... that was the factory's heart?"

"It was a machine built into the structure itself," 2B said, voice quiet. "Like the factory was its body."

9S looked around, then gave a tired chuckle and little joke. "I guess that makes us... heart surgeons like what hujan call it."

2B looked at him.

For a moment, her lips twitched. Not a smile. But something close.

They turned to face the dark corridor that had opened behind the broken turbine structure, lit only by flickering lights and a pale glow beyond.

Whatever was waiting for them, it would not be worse than what they had just survived.

Still, 9S muttered, "Let's never fight an entire building again."

2B nodded, "at the very least i don't want to be suprised by any a big Machine again"

2B and 9S began to walk, "the factory construct will collapse in minutes, highly recommend to leave factory" pod 153 instructed from beside 9S

They didnt nodded but listening and agreed, after some minutes passed we already outside of factory

When we outside, the factory crumble cantik hold any longer and collapse " after this make file report to Commander white about that particular... Machine"

2B looked at him "don't forget about the trade agreement with noir" after saying that we depart from there