Rebecca did not waste a single millisecond on deliberation. She ducked her head and squeezed into the corroded opening at the corner of the wall, moving with the chaotic speed of a frightened sand lizard. Need a minute to breathe, just a minute, she thought, the fear sharpening her focus.
Pilar followed, his movements more awkward. He first shoved his heavy toolkit and the nearly empty ammo box inside. The box scraped against the concrete edge, making a short, sharp scratching sound that felt deafeningly loud in the tense silence.
Just as Pilar was half-squeezed into the opening, struggling to haul his long frame into the dark interior of the garage, a crude shout suddenly exploded outside:
"Over there! The corner! Fire at that hole!"
Bullets immediately whistled over, like a sudden, chaotic torrent, peppering the walls and ground around them. Hot projectiles gnawed at the brickwork, sending up a spray of debris and dust, filling the air with the caustic smell of gunpowder and pulverized plaster.
"Hurry, Pilar! Get your natty bones in here!" Rebecca, already concealed inside the garage, was frantic. Disregarding the danger of the incoming fire, she spun, gripped Pilar's arms tightly with both hands, and pulled him desperately inward.
Her prosthetic arm's servo motors hummed softly but powerfully, delivering a surge of strength that utterly belied her petite physique.
Using the momentum, Pilar kicked hard against the broken wall behind him with the leg still exposed, finally tumbling completely onto the cold, rough concrete pad of the garage floor with a painful thud.
Almost simultaneously, a volley of bullets accurately struck the precise spot where his torso had been stuck moments before, leaving a row of smoking bullet holes along the opening's edge. A scorching blast of air, carrying metal fragments, rushed into the chamber.
The siblings collapsed onto the cold, dusty ground, their chests heaving violently, gasping for air, their hearts hammering like overworked drum machines.
In the deep darkness, only their ragged breathing could be heard, along with the increasingly close, malicious shouts and chaotic, heavy footsteps of the Wraiths outside.
For the moment, they had achieved cover.
But a single, structurally compromised wall was all that separated them from brutal execution.
The space they had crashed into was pitch black, almost completely devoid of external light. The air was a mixture of old engine oil, dust, and a faint, almost imperceptible scent of ozone and burnt metal, indicating recent high-energy technical work.
They had no idea they weren't the only life forms present.
Their intrusion, kinetic and high-stress, was instantly processed by a sentinel.
Less than three meters directly above them, a pale, bone-like metallic skull hung silently.
The faint, flickering, eerie blue scanning beams in its hollow eye sockets abruptly shifted the moment the biological entities breached the barrier. The light snapped sharp, steady, and shifted into cold, unchanging crimson dots, like two highly focused sensor lenses.
A faint, almost inaudible servo motor hum vibrated slightly in the heavy air.
The servo-skull rotated with gravity-defying steadiness, its metallic mandible silently opening and closing once, accurately sampling and analyzing the unfamiliar biological odors, sweat, and high traces of adrenaline in the air.
Its internal high-precision multispectral sensor array was operating at peak efficiency. The cold logic core rapidly processed the incoming data: two life forms, carbon-based humanoid entities, physiological status indicating high tension and fear, carrying low-tech projectile weapons and simple tools, limited evidence of advanced prosthetic modification, no known friendly identification codes, executing an unauthorized breach of a secure perimeter... Data cross-referenced.
**Threat Model: Rapidly established. Security Protocol Lambda-7 activated. Threat level assessed: Potentially hostile. Initiating surveillance and non-lethal neutralization countermeasures.**
As this judgment was synthesized, a cleverly disguised armor plate on the side of the servo-skull silently slid open. A finely structured, gleaming miniature laser emitter extended from within the recess.
The calibration ring at the emitter's front glowed with an eerie blue light, beginning its efficient search for optimal targets.
Its steady and deadly crosshairs silently swept through the near-total darkness, over the two intruders below who had just sought refuge, completely oblivious to the precision weapon now locked onto them.
The scorching sun baked the abandoned town. The air outside was filled with the dry scent of desolation, dust, and decay.
Rebecca and Pilar were pressed tightly against the cold concrete wall, hearts pounding, ears straining to hear the commotion outside.
The crude shouts of the Wraiths pursuers, the sound of boots kicking debris, and wanton acts of destruction spread from a distance, like a chaotic tide breaking the deadly silence.
"Search! Search every inch for me! Those two little mice must be hiding in this pile of junk!" a hoarse voice roared, followed by a violent crash and splintering sound—a rickety wooden door was kicked in: "Hey! This dump looks preem! Tear down anything usable, clear out a spot, and this will be our Wraiths' new pad!"
More wild laughter, cheers, and even more frantic sounds of destruction erupted. These lawless gonks treated the uninhabited town as spoils of war. They smashed the remaining windowpanes with rifle butts and chopped open all rotten cabinets that might hide someone, searching for anything of value while shouting crude threats.
"Bang—CRASH!"
A particularly harsh sound of metal twisting and breaking rang out, temporarily drowning out the other noises.
A Wraith had discovered the several solar panels set up by Osiris, connected to the town's miniature power grid.
Perhaps finding them in the way, or purely out of an impulse for destruction, he swung a heavy iron rod down hard.
The moment the solar panels shattered and twisted, simple passive motion sensors and vibration detectors hidden in various corners of the town—under broken eaves, beneath vehicle chassis, in the crevices of rubble piles—were violently triggered.
A silent, encrypted alarm pulse, traveling along pre-buried, near-invisible thin wires, instantly transmitted back to the garage workshop, directly connecting to the processor of the vigilant servo-skull suspended in the air.
Several kilometers away, Osiris, who was carrying the heavy Thunder-7 battery and the three future Servitor 'materials' on his back, suddenly saw a violently flashing bright red alarm icon pop up in the lower right corner of his visual interface. He simultaneously received a priority vibration feedback on his internal framework.
**Warning: Security perimeter breached by multiple targets. Multiple unauthorized violent intrusions and property damage detected.
Energy Node A-7 severely damaged. Output power reduced by 15%.
Threat assessment: Organized armed looters.
Behavioral pattern analysis: Low discipline, high destructiveness.**
Osiris registered the data. A wave of calculated displeasure washed over his processor. These inefficient biological entities had not only trespassed into his newly established base but were also wantonly destroying the energy equipment he had painstakingly repaired.
A gross display of resource mismanagement.
Without hesitation, he transmitted a string of concise binary commands to the stationed servo-skull, Buddy, via an encrypted data link:
**Initiate autonomous defense protocol. Prioritize efficient threat neutralization. Minimize further losses. Ensure primary infrastructure integrity.**
At the same time, he increased the kinetic output to his legs, his pace back to the workshop now a rapid, relentless stride.