Zelda Verada's Arc

Chapter 10 of 13

At dawn Captain Hills braced the north door with a pry bar. Logan stood beside him, the repaired eyebot humming at his shoulder. The team had waited days for this breach. Behind the door sat the last room between Zelda and a working ward. She checked her medical kit and nodded to Hills. He threw the bolt and hauled the door open. The eyebot drifted in first, its lens sweeping the dark. Three turret housings sat along the far wall. Red lights blinked awake. Motion sensors found the eyebot and swung their laser barrels toward the doorway. "Down," Logan said. The first turret fired. A laser scorched past Hills and caught two of his soldiers in the chest. Both dropped. The eyebot took a bolt to its hull and spun sideways, trailing smoke. Zelda pressed flat against the wall. Logan already had the grenade launcher up, the forest-camouflage frame tucked against his shoulder. "EMP first," he said. He fired. A blue sphere arced across the room and burst. One turret froze mid-swing, its lights dying. He pumped the launcher and fired again. The second turret went dark. The third kept firing, a laser carving the wall above Zelda's head. "Hills, the last one," Logan said. The captain leaned out and emptied his rifle into the stunned barrels. Metal split. The frozen turrets shook and went still. The third turret rotated toward Hills. Logan fired his last grenade. It struck the housing dead center and tore it off its mount. The room fell quiet except for the ruined eyebot grinding on the floor. Zelda was already moving before the smoke cleared. The two soldiers lay where the first laser had caught them. She dropped beside the nearest and pressed her paws to his chest. The burn had cut deep, but his heart still beat. She tore open a stimpak and drove it in. "Hold the wound," she told Hills. He knelt and pressed down. She moved to the second soldier. His pulse was faint and fast. She packed the burn, hit him with antirad and a second stimpak, and counted his breaths until they steadied. Minutes passed. Both soldiers breathed. Neither would walk soon, but neither would die on this floor. Zelda sat back on her heels, paws slick. Logan lowered the empty launcher and surveyed the dead turrets. "Didn't peg you for the swinging type," he said. "Now I don't peg you for the losing type." "I patch what I can't prevent," Zelda said. She looked past him. The containment room office was littered with debris and turret wreckage but it’s cleared. Next is the heavy security door to the containment control panel and maybe a security robot or two. The injured are taken upstairs for medical attention and Replacements arrive with the last 4 EMP grenades. Zelda holds position, in 30 minutes they will move.