He braces his hands against the body of a rifle, willing his grip to stay sure (more than he's sure it will stay), regulatory system running hot with fear as his heartbeat rabbits within its housing to compensate. Beyond compacted wreckage and labyrinthine barricades, the only thing he can make out is smoke overhead, its unfurling belly lit by flames that climb higher by the second.
He tries. He tries to buck off the soldier that's wrenching armored weight down over his hold, but he doesn't know how. North, Simon, even, he's seen them defy their programming time and time again. His own emulation is unconvincing: his elbows lock, maybe in the wrong place, or at the wrong angle. He doesn't know. Maybe it isn't a matter of purpose, but a driving desperation he lacks.
He pushes, harder, the upturned rifle stock catching him in the chin when it comes back down with force and he tastes— electricity. The sensors in his right leg are damaged. His face feels wet. Their people are leaving, and that's good, he thinks, if they get farther than him.
types from the grave
He braces his hands against the body of a rifle, willing his grip to stay sure (more than he's sure it will stay), regulatory system running hot with fear as his heartbeat rabbits within its housing to compensate. Beyond compacted wreckage and labyrinthine barricades, the only thing he can make out is smoke overhead, its unfurling belly lit by flames that climb higher by the second.
He tries. He tries to buck off the soldier that's wrenching armored weight down over his hold, but he doesn't know how. North, Simon, even, he's seen them defy their programming time and time again. His own emulation is unconvincing: his elbows lock, maybe in the wrong place, or at the wrong angle. He doesn't know. Maybe it isn't a matter of purpose, but a driving desperation he lacks.
He pushes, harder, the upturned rifle stock catching him in the chin when it comes back down with force and he tastes— electricity. The sensors in his right leg are damaged. His face feels wet. Their people are leaving, and that's good, he thinks, if they get farther than him.
And then he hears her. Or he thinks he does.]
North!