Fabricated Chapter thirty five

[companionwolf]

The generators continue to run alongside the sides of the large room in parallel, with a greenlit control panel in the center where the aliens teleported in. Elerium power coils hum nearby, with a Muton taking cover behind one. 

The other two Mutons continue their charge forward, right into the laser blasts of Tulip and Alex’s weapon’s; the aliens roar, and hunker on opposite sides of the room inside the small half cover provided by the generators’ presence.  

The singular Sectoid hides at the control panel of the room, and fires at Espeon, who runs, ends of her tails singed as she narrowly dodges. She leads the still firing alien to shoot in the direction of one of the Elerium cores where the first Muton is taking cover, and takes cover of her own with a shout of ‘Duck!’ at the rest of the group as the laser connects with the power source. 

The explosion is not as big as the one back in the woods, with the broken larger core, but heat still rolls over them all, smoke fills the air, and the humans cough. PC desperately searches the smoke, searches searches—

“Man, those things are not sturdy!” 

He exhales loudly as Espeon appears, her head  poking out of a small crawl space between one of the generator lines and the wall. 

The Spartan fires at the Muton who’d been using the core to hide— it is still on its feet, but bloodied and seems disoriented. It fires back, and PC instinctively lowers his body as the two trade gunfire. 

There is quiet for a moment, as the two reload, and in that moment PC hears Alex hum. He glances over; beneath their closed eyelid he sees the gleam of purple, and for a second a flicker of purple dances around the engaged Muton’s head. It drops its weapon and exposes its chest as it does. The Spartan takes that as a chance to come step a little closer, crouching beside a generator in a flank, and fire directly at its middle

The other Mutons roar as their comrade falls, one emerging from cover to come swinging fists at the Spartan; PC raises a hand and swings a wave of Psionic energy at it, catching it off balance and knocking it to the floor. He grabs his sword from his back and swings before the downed Muton can get up, and it stills under his blade, the smell of burnt flesh rising to mix with the smoke. 

The other Muton comes barreling at him, but Davey intervenes, firing into its side, blasting it across the floor to slump against the generators. The Sectoid, still crouched behind the control panel, takes this moment to begin to flee. 

“Oh, no, you don’t,” yells Espeon, and she clings a small ball of Psi energy from her mouth at the fleeing alien. It cries out as the attack connects, and then again softer, a death knee, as Tulip finishes it off with a near missed pistol shot. 

The Spartan gathers them on the edges of the room, and they peer into the next: crates, stacked in spots across the room, smaller power cores humming away. While this room they’re in seems more a power generator room, the next seems almost like a resource hub of some sort. 

PC glances up, at the glass ceiling, at the dark shapes of sea life that swim past. Nothing to say? he thinks at the Elders, half wondering if they can hear him, half hoping they cannot. 

“Is everyone alright?” he asks, giving once overs to each body in his sight. A chorus of head nodding and ‘yes’s answer him, and he wonders how they got through that so lucky, and if it’ll hold, this luck. 

Does luck exist? asks Eylion. 

I’m not sure, he answers. I guess this’ll show us of it does, since I think we’re gonna need a lot of it. To get through this with everyone in one piece, or even just mildly hurt, to actually do something... 

He looks to the Spartan, who is still studying the next room, but who begins to lead the way into the resource hub when it notices PC’s eyes on it. 

There is little you can do here but try your best, Eylion says. Focus back on the present. Worrying now will just get you hurt, or worse. 

PC supposes that’s as good advice as he’s going to get, and silently follows the Spartan and his friends into the next room.