Luke's body slammed into the walls again and again, each devastating strike from the tank-thing sending him flying like a superball. The only thing keeping him alive was the gravshield, cushioning his body and dissipating the the brunt kinetic force that threatened to turn him into paste. He'd expected the machine's earlier display of speed had been near the top of its operating capacity, but he was quickly learning how wrong he'd been. The infernal device was now moving at nearly four times its earlier velocity, easily. Luke could only think of one thing that could possibly allow such a machine to move at such speed: an inertia suppression system. The damn thing was literally ignoring the laws of physics. If he weren't getting his ass kicked, Luke would have been marveling at the level of engineering he was witnessing.<br/><br/>'Nirvana, dear, not to rush you or anything, but--' 'I'm working on it. Judging from its reflexes and fighting style, I'm 94% certain that there is no human pilot, either installed or remote. However, it's definitely displaying a level of heuristic thinking that indicates a living presence, not just an A.I. Sensors indicate that the tank is constructed from approximately 62% titanium carbide, 23% silicarbon, 13% trace minerals and 2% unknown alloy. I'm also detecting emissions indicating the presence of a 35% deuterium-dihydrogen-monoxide compound, likely the machine's fuel source.' 'Damn. Heavy water? This thing could run for decades. Alright, take what you've found and run a search on all manufacturers, distributors and shipping manifests involved with those materials and see if you can trace this thing's original component parts; maybe it'll tell us who built this puppy.' 'Affirmative. Processing...'<br/><br/>As Nirvana flew through the Grid, sweeping up particles of information on the tank from servers and databases thousands of miles apart, Luke was left on his own to face the behemoth. He considered his options (they all sucked) as another volley of Gatling gun fire slammed against his shield.<br/><br/>'<em>Grigoris? I'll never get it to hold still and they wouldn't be powerful enough anyway, Seraphim? I'd have to use a bigger blast than the one downtown and who knows how long I'd have to listen to the Urehas' bitching again, antimatter charges? Same problem as the Seraphim, dammit I need something powerful, surgical, and impossible to dodge, the nanite cloud? Von Nuemann process would take too long, this thing might tear me apart before the cloud reached sufficient mass, nerve agents? Useless, anyone who built something this sweet wouldn't leave such an obvious weakness unguarded, <strong>think</strong>, dammit!</em>'<br/><br/>Luke dialed the gravshield back up to level-5, capturing as many of the cannons' rounds as he could and sending them back at the tank. He had no expectation that the high-velocity rounds would have much effect on the machine, but maybe it would buy him a few extra seconds until Nirvana returned. The bullets sprayed wildly against the surface of the tank, ricocheting at eldritch angles and lodging in walls, ceiling, floor, furniture. Some even fell right back into Luke's gravshield. But to the machine, it had about as much effect as a summer rain on a slab of marble. Luke pulled the shield back to a level-4 and allowed the remaining bullets to fall uselessly to the ground as he pondered other tactics.<br/><br/>'<em>Wait a second. This thing's full of bullets. That much gunpowder, it's practically packed with dynamite. Maybe I can touch it off...</em>'<br/><br/>As the tank-thing advanced, Luke drew his knife and sliced open his palm. He aimed as much of the blood spurt as possible onto the machine's left arm, specifically onto the Gatling gun, and sent the nanites to work. Maybe he couldn't dissolve the entire tank, but the nanites could work fast enough to at least disable it's weapons systems. Luke allowed the machine to back him into a corner, falling to his knees under the brutal onslaught as the tank hammered away at his shield and his nanomachines tended to their task. Within seconds, the left Gatling gun started to smoke as the nanites wormed their way into the cannon's barrels, firing mechanisms, and unspent cartridges. When full saturation had been achieved, Luke sent a self-destruct signal to the nanites, causing millions upon millions of the tiny machines to detonate in microscopic explosions, each charge adding power to the next in sequence until enough heat was generated to detonate the tank's remaining Gatling gun rounds.<br/><br/>The result was impressive and immediate. The tank rocked on its legs as the equivalent of a frag grenade detonated inside it's left arm, shredding the metallic limb from within and rendering it scrapped. The tank seemed to pause a moment to regard its damaged limb, then turned its attention back to its target. At that moment, Luke knew for certain that<em>something </em>living was piloting the tank; no A.I. could ever look<em>that </em>pissed off. He rose to his feet and extended both middle fingers to the tank from behind his shield, a cocky grin on his face.<br/><br/>"Ready for round three, Rover?"