Bombing run!
Knocking down the tower was so simple Tobias had to do it himself; the automated systems on the hopper (and every other device in human space) were designed to never, ever let something that destructive happen without human approval. Even then the actual mechanism was straightforward. The hopper’s spare recon drone could be released and aimed at the tower, again with the safety protocols disabled. After that it was just a matter of physics. The drone wasn’t moving very quickly, but then it didn’t have to. All it needed to do was impact against the tower hard enough to knock some pieces loose and knock the rest of it down.
Tobias didn’t wait around to watch the slow-motion collapse; as soon as the drone cleared its launch bay he boosted the hopper almost to the redline and peeled away at an angle up and well away from any human settlement. He half-hoped, half-dreaded the thought of not being pursued. He adamantly refused to remember what it felt like to share his mind with a monster, but the ghost-memory of its liveliest awfulness still lurked, deep down where the dark thoughts lay. He couldn’t risk returning home until he was sure he wasn’t bringing anything back with him.
A slurp of terminal static from the drone — and a flicker of another’s awareness — filled him with dread, and relief. The illusion of escape had just been shattered. This was going to end in a death, or deaths. Deaths, Tobias decided, would be fine. Not that he wanted to die, exactly. He was just running out of long-term plans.