Chapter 69 - The Fracture of Lineage
The chamber plunged into total tactical chaos.
The two masked operators stationed near the catwalk entrance raised their carbines, but Emma was already in motion. Snatching Miller’s fallen carbine, she rolled behind a bank of cooling towers and fired three controlled bursts.
The first operator caught two rounds in the chest plate, staggering back before a third round pierced his throat. The second operator dove behind a hydraulic pillar, pinning Emma down with suppressing fire that tore through the plastic and glass of the command consoles.
"Lily! Crawl into the maintenance duct behind the power array! Now!" Emma shouted over the deafening roar of gunfire.
Lily, showing the unnatural resilience forged over weeks of being hunted, dropped to her belly and scrambled into the low ventilation opening, vanishing beneath the heavy steel floorboards.
Emma ejected the spent magazine from Miller's carbine, slapped in a fresh one from his vest, and checked her corners. Smoke filled the room, thick with the smell of burning copper and sulfur.
The surviving operator was moving flanking-left, his footsteps muffled by the blaring sirens. Emma waited, counting the rhythm of his fire.
*Three, four, five... pause.*
She swung around the cooling tower, firing blind at waist height. The bullets tore through the sheet metal casing, striking the mercenary in the thigh. He grunted, dropping his aim. Emma stepped out and finished him with a single, clean shot to the head.
Silence descended momentarily on the main control floor, broken only by the shrieking alarm and the frantic wheezing of Francis Laurent’s respirator behind the glass.
Emma ran to the medical bay door and punched the emergency override. The pneumatic seal hissed open.
She rushed to her father's bedside. Francis was weeping, his frail, withered hands reaching out to clutch her forearm with surprising desperation. He tore the ventilator mask away from his mouth, gasping for breath.
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"Emma... the core... the core is breached," he wheezed, spit flecking his blue lips. "They... they brought a warship. Not just mercenaries. The council... Evelyn is on board."
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