"Do you know what's happening?"
Jessica13 scowled at him. Maybe his Athena genes had been more focused on giving him ecological knowledge than mechanical. Or maybe that wasn't how it worked at all.
"The temperatures in there are too high for safe passage. That light you can see is the core already exposed from the coolant fluid. The container has melted away on the top part and it's heating the rest of the room. Right now, it’s almost a hundred and fifty degrees."
"Shit."
"These suits we're wearing aren't designed to take that kind of heat. If we stay in there too long, it'll damage the containment material and we'll be flooded with radiation. Mini, is there any other way into the city?"
"Sadly, this is the only way I can find. We'll have to get across that walkway to the other side of the chamber."
"How long would our suits be able to be in that room before they lose their containment?" Robert7 asked.
She turned to face the mech.
"The suits will maintain containment for about eight seconds while in the chamber. It should be enough time if you move across quickly," the AI explained. He was better at running the calculations than she was.
"About eight seconds doesn't sound very exact," one the Auburn rebels pointed out.
He was right. When dealing with something as lethal as the amount of radiation that flooded the room, even one second was too large an increment to deal with. And that was based on the assumption that the suits they wore were in top shape.
Given how long they had languished in the Beast from when Tinker had acquired them, it wasn’t the safest assumption to make.
"Couldn't you take us across there, Mini?" she asked. "It would take a while, but we would be more isolated from the heat inside the Minato."
"I could take one person," Mini pointed out. "But the weight of the mech would be too much for the walkway. I would have to be the last one across to avoid risking the lives of the rest."
Jessica13 scowled and shook her head. "One at a time, then. And eight seconds. Every one of you keep that in mind. I'll go across first."
"Is that wise?" Robert7 asked.
She shrugged. Heading through a room flooded with radiation probably wasn't wise, to begin with. It would be better if she went across first and into the isolation chamber on the other side to make sure everything was working correctly. "You decide who goes across in the Minato and we'll keep moving. Good luck."
"And to you," Mini replied.
Robert7 could only offer a small nod as she stepped into the isolation room between the control room and the chamber. The design for the main area was older, intended for the larger fission reactors that were used to power cities back in the day. It explained why it was in such a poor condition. They had built the bunker around it, which caused cracks in the foundation and from that point, it had only been a matter of time. Over a hundred years, small cracks had grown larger and leaked the coolant fluid to the point where the erosion simply gained momentum.
Her calculations said that a terminal meltdown would probably happen if no action was taken, but only in about twenty years if no efforts were made to stop it.
Maybe if they weren't successful, she would go ahead and warn someone about the impending disaster anyway to make sure innocent lives weren't lost.
She took a deep breath, peered into the open area, and tried to determine the quickest path across the walkway through the steam before she pulled the door open.
The heat struck her like a wave and immediately fogged her visor. Even so, with her route through already plotted, she summoned the courage to sprint forward. The steam made everything farther than two meters almost impossible to make out, but at only five meters in, she could see the room she needed to reach.
Sweat streamed from her skin and pooled inside the suit as she yanked the door open and shut it again hastily. The sudden change in temperature was drastic as the room instantly went through the decontamination protocols.
She'd made it somehow. It seemed almost impossible for something to go right at this point.
"Mini, I'm across," she said over the commlink. "Send the next one."
All she could hear on the other side was static for a few seconds before a couple of words came through. "Robert7…coming…"
The radiation would be hell on their comm lines, but the idea was transferred well enough. A few seconds later, Robert7 raced across the walkway, almost ran into the door, and scrambled into the isolation chamber.
He looked as shaken by the experience as she was, but it wasn't time to celebrate yet. They focused on the next one to come across and he traversed the distance as quickly as he could.
Her stomach clenched painfully when he tripped and stumbled forward, his arms flailing as he tried to regain his balance while he covered the final few feet to the door.
Jessica13 stepped into the isolation chamber, shoved the door open, and grimaced when the heat swept over her. She hauled the man inside and closed the door behind him.
"Th-thank you!" he gasped as the decontamination kicked in.
"Don't mention it," she replied and tried not to show her reaction to seeing him trip. They moved out of the small space and Robert7 signaled for the next one to come through.
Another dash followed and this man seemed steadier on his feet than the last one. The team followed one by one, and she was almost ready to explode with tension as they reached safety without mishap.
The third to last stepped out and broke into a sprint. He stopped abruptly and twisted to see what had caught him and now prevented him from moving forward. Jessica13 leaned to pull at the door.
"No!" Robert7 snapped, caught her hand, and dragged it away. "He's…he's already dead."
She looked up, her eyes wide. The man’s suit had snagged on a protruding piece of the walkway that had begun to fall. The constant traffic of each person crossing had put additional pressure on its eroded mooring on the wall and it had gradually worked loose. He dropped to his knees and raised his hands to his face.
The suit was torn and the radiation would be swamping his body. It might take a few hours, but he was already dead.
The rest of the team crossed quickly and Mini brought up the rear. Jessica13 tensed when the walkway shuddered under the weight of the mech, but it moved quickly. The AI already had the grappler ready to use if the walkway fell and he paused to help the compromised man from his knees and all but carried him the final distance.
Thankfully, the structure held, and it wasn’t long before the two stood in the isolation room being decontaminated.
The man had already begun to show the effects of the radiation sickness. He removed his helmet and immediately threw up as he walked out of the room. His skin was clammy and pale and he shook uncontrollably.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered as he moved past her.
"Speak no more of it," he whispered, and while he looked weak and uneven on his feet, he managed to walk. "I still have a little while. I'll help as much as I can until the time comes."
Chapter Seventy-Five
Once they were through the chamber with its lethal radiation levels, the tunnels provided numerous options for the way forward. They could have made much faster progress if they hadn’t had to worry about the man who had been affected. He was, however, deteriorating rapidly and Jessica13 wondered if it wasn't better to simply leave him.
She pushed the thought aside immediately and let Mini carry him on the back of the Minato. The chances were the dosage of radiation he had received was higher than they had calculated, and he might have less than an hour left.
The group needed to push on and for now, they would take him with them.
Radiation levels decreased steadily as they moved away from the core, to the point where the clicking had reduced to regular, survivable levels. Even so, she wasn’t ready to abandon their suits yet. They appeared to do their jobs, despite the beating they'd taken, and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t run into another exp
osed reactor.
The chances of that diminished as they drew closer to the city. Coolant liquid no longer dripped from the ceilings and they were able to see the kind of architecture that had gone into the construction of the labyrinth. She had expected to see the same kind of minimalist work that had defined the building of bunkers, but this was altogether different. The ceilings were supported by arches that had been intricately carved, and the pillars were all similarly designed and sometimes made to look like ten-foot-tall men and women who held the ceiling up.
It was impressive and she wasn't the only one to notice it. The entire group slowed and couldn't help but appreciate the workmanship involved in creating the pillars and arches.
"I guess they had more time and talent for this kind of stuff back in the day," Jessica13 muttered and traced her fingers over a column that had been carved to look like a school of fish swimming upward.
"I think this was where many people hid while there was fighting in the sky," Mini explained as he came to a halt beside her. "These tunnels were where they took refuge from the possibility that something would destroy the world above. In the end, it became a statement that they would survive, if through nothing else than the work of their hands."
A small smile crept onto her face. "I like that."
Regrettably, the group knew they couldn’t linger and continued their journey until they reached a set of stairs that led into what she could only guess was the town. They wouldn’t wait for whatever the Prophet planned to do from the outside with the army he led. Their small team needed to accomplish their mission as quickly as possible.
She led them up the winding steps and by the time they were halfway to the top, she could already hear movement above them. Everything remained fairly muffled but what she could identify didn’t seem like normal activity. Klaxons blared to indicate some kind of emergency and she imagined the troops being mobilized to address the emergency.
"I guess the Prophet's already started his attack," she muttered and raised her voice to the rest of the team. "We need to pick up the pace. Everything needs to be open out there for this attack to succeed."
Her words galvanized them and they all but ran up the steps until they reached the door at the top. It was, predictably, locked.
"I think I can help," Mini suggested and moved carefully through the group until he reached it. The Minato yanked it from its hinges with little difficulty. Everyone covered their eyes at the sudden bright light that streamed through the aperture.
It looked like sunlight and her assumption was that they were only a few steps away from being in the open again.
They stepped out into a somewhat disappointing reality, although Jessica13 couldn't help but stare and marvel at the sheer feat of engineering the chamber represented. A massive ceiling arched above them, and what were clearly nuclear-powered lamps provided the light for the cavern. These were drawn on tracks to mimic the movement of the sun across the ceiling-sky.
Whoever had put this much work into the construction had left little to chance. They wanted a society to flourish while they remained in hiding.
Jessica13 pushed forward while the others in the team appeared to be similarly awed by the massive cavern they had entered. They needed to remain focused if they wanted to succeed in this, she reminded herself brusquely, and there would be little room for error.
"Come on, we need to get out of these suits and looking a little less like outsiders," she snapped, dragged her headpiece off, and removed the rest of the suit. Her teammates hurriedly followed her example, while she turned to Mini and Robert7.
"Do you know where we're supposed to go? Where is the central control facility?"
The pilot took a few deep breaths. "It’s one of the tallest buildings in the city. They wanted to have unimpeded access to all sectors in case of an emergency, kind of like what we see here."
"I am constructing a map of the city now," Mini stated. "The tallest building in the city is about three hundred meters to our left, although there are significant urban barriers between us and it."
"Well, there’s no time like the present," she muttered and took a moment to survey their surroundings. The alarms that blared demandingly were a little less disconcerting than the constant clicking of the Geiger counters, but barely. Fortunately, the constant racket seemed to focus the attention of the residents elsewhere, and the resultant chaos might prove an advantage. Everything in her wanted to push toward their target immediately since the Prophet and his people waited for them to succeed and expected them to come through.
Of course, the man wouldn't be able to deliver on his threat to kill her and Robert7 from where he was, but it was still an effective motivator.
"Jessica13, my sensors detect incoming mechs," Mini alerted her. "I would suggest you climb in and prepare for hostilities."
She didn't hesitate or even think about it before she scrambled in through the hatch. The heavy footsteps of assault mechs approached. The Minato wouldn't have much of a chance against them, but it was still better than they would have without it.
Three mechs came into view and she froze and grasped the controls of the Minato tightly. The adrenaline surged in her body and made her blood pump faster than before. They were big mechs, altered Lancers with heavier armor and likely more firepower to the assault rifles they carried. A hasty scan of the surrounding area showed no obvious terrain advantages. She could always outrun them, but that would leave the rest of her team to the mercy of the enemy.
Windchime's suggestion that she save herself rang in her ears, but she shook her head. She wouldn’t leave anyone behind, not if she could help it.
The mechs came to a halt in front of the rebels, who stood stiff and silent, not sure what they should do next. The Lancers, all painted dark-blue, formed up around them, although it didn’t seem to be a containment formation. It looked more like they intended to attack.
Jessica13 could see why they would choose to do so. They were in the middle of a fight for the city and intruders wouldn’t be treated lightly.
She looked around and tried to find a way through the group. Maybe she could distract them or persuade them to pursue her and leave her team alone. While she considered the odds—none of which seemed to be in her favor—the mech in the center stopped moving. The hatch opened and a head emerged.
Dumbfounded, she stared and gave herself a moment to confirm who she was looking at. The short growth of hair and a beard were a little off-putting, but she couldn’t mistake Hammerhand’s movements and his demeanor was unmistakable as he pulled himself out of the mech.
"I think I'd know that Minato anywhere," he rumbled and a broad, uncharacteristic grin played across his face.
She pulled the hatch of the Minato open and exited as well, sprinted to the man, and all but tackled him in a hug. "Hammerhand! I didn't know if you'd made it out alive. The Prophet said there was a trap but he had no way to know if you and the Knights managed to escape or not."
"It’s good to know that bastard made it out alive." He chuckled and after a few awkward seconds, chose to return the hug stiffly. "I assume he's the one we have to thank for the mess of alarms we hear? I initially thought they had been triggered by our escape from prison but realized after a while that there must be some kind of external threat."
"I think it’s him," Jessica13 replied and finally released the man. "He did have an attack planned, so it can’t be anything else. What happened—no, there'll be time for that later. Where are the others? The other Knights? Windchime and Tinker?"
She received her answer from the way his expression dimmed almost instantly.
"Windchime is organizing the rest of the Knights and prisoners who have thrown in on our side. Tinker… Tinker didn't make it."
A hard, painful lump settled in her throat. She had thought she'd made her peace with losing the Knights when the Prophet delivered the news of what happened, but the thought of the group without the old man felt incomplete somehow. They were missing a
vital piece.
And she could tell that Hammerhand felt the same way.
She cleared her throat, although it did little to dislodge the lump that had appeared there. "We need to keep moving. There’s time…time to think about…" She cleared her throat again and nodded firmly. "We need to reach the central control facility of the city and open the access to the cavern for the Prophet's arrival."
"How does he plan to attack the city itself?"
"We found a way to neutralize the artillery defending it, so the plan is an all-out frontal assault. But it won't work if the cavern isn't open. Can you help us?"
Hammerhand turned as a mixed group approached them. Knights, either on foot or piloting the same dark-blue Lancers he had been in, had been joined by the Auburn rebels who had survived the battle as well as a group of men who looked like the dangerous kind. These were led by a man with a large scar across the side of his face.
"I think we can," the Knights’ leader replied with a small, manic grin.
Chapter Seventy-Six
Ten Minutes before Hammerhand Broke out of Prison
There were few things in the world that were worse than waiting for something to happen or for things to fall into place. Patience was a virtue, or so the old writings went, and the Prophet sometimes wondered if the only thing that made it a virtue was the fact that it was so difficult to do.
Night had fallen a few hours before and the sky was full of clouds that partially obfuscated the light of the moon and stars. It still wasn't quite as dark he would have preferred, as the full moon traced the grasslands here and there with a dull blue light, but it would have to be enough.
He turned to look toward the open plain where they had set the salvaged blimp. Until now, their main focus had been to make sure no one could see what they were doing and to a large extent, they’d been able to use the landscape to their advantage. They wouldn’t have to charge into the teeth of the massive artillery shells, which changed the odds of success considerably.
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