The water slapping against the wheel and rushing over the waterfall at least masked the small splash she made as she slipped between the slats and dunked herself back into the frothy mess on the far side of the wheel; the robot's lone light beam was beginning to creep closer to the river and Shiloh had no real idea how the cloaking watch she had functioned - did it somehow hide her shadow too? Because she was fairly certain that would be impossible, and even if she herself were invisible she'd probably still cast a shadow behind her if that light came anywhere near.
She kept her hands on the wheel, moving them with its movement to keep her head above water; maybe if she stayed in the water here at the wheel, with it between her and that robot, neither a shadow nor ripples would be noticeable.
Her eyes tracked the movement of the light as it came nearer, the robot gradually sweeping it from side to side as it moved about; she watched as it methodically searched among the machines near the elevators, watched as it searched the elevators themselves as well as the nooks and crannies near them.
Quickly she sucked in a breath and hit the watch in the same instant as the light fell over the wheel, struggling to remain above water as well as in place without causing too many ripples of her own, eyes squinting at the brightness as she prayed that the robot would move on before the cloak ran out.
And...to her amazement, the light abruptly swung away from her, turning back toward the elevators. Shiloh blinked rapidly as brilliant afterimages swam in her vision. Something near the elevators had caught the robot's attention...but what? What else could possibly be down here besides her and it?
She ground the heel of a palm into her eyes, mentally trying to will the afterimages away so she could clearly see; minutes ticked away, the robot's attention remained on the elevators, and Shiloh's vision remained partially obscured.
These stupid afterimages were almost in her direct range of view, hardly ideal, but she needed to try and spot what held that robot's attention so thoroughly. Shiloh slipped into the middle of the wheel again and shuffled along, focusing her eyes above and to the left of the elevators; this took the afterimages out of the way, though seeing strictly through peripheral vision was...tricky, but not impossible. In the ambient light from the robot she could see that one of the elevators, the largest one, had a chainlink cage wrapped around the support poles that stretched up into darkness, presumably up to whatever mechanism lifted it.
The part of it that held passengers was made of dark wood and what she assumed was more metal, and while she couldn't gauge how wide or deep it was it looked maybe eight, nine foot tall - it was basically a box on a chain. Its front was left open with no door that she could see and barely, just barely, through the cage above she could see the faintest sign of a reddish light that was gradually growing brighter the longer she looked.
Oh hell...was someone coming down here?
Her first thought was of the mercenaries - they would definitely be looking to retrieve her, and she hadn't been exactly subtle about her sprint down the hill. Maybe they'd followed and seen where she'd crashed through to this stupid river, but...
She blinked rapidly a few times, the afterimages finally fading enough that she risked looking at the elevators directly. Beside the elevator that was down here with them, the one that had the light coming toward it, she could see an empty caged platform identical to the one the present elevator sat on - clearly there was meant to be two elevators to carry passengers, just this second one must be up out of her view or maybe had been taken apart like the machinery that moved them.
The one that the source of light was descending on was the one that was already down here, and...if there was a chainlink cage, and presumably a solid ceiling that person was going to land on...
That robot would see them and they wouldn't have any way to escape it. And what if that wasn't one of the mercenaries? It would be pretty unlikely but that could just as easily be some property caretaker, or maybe even some idiots from the lake resort. Whoever it was would be a sitting duck in that cage.
...mercenary or innocent, she couldn't in good conscience let that happen. She had a rifle that may not work, the strap that held it to her back, a knife in her pocket, the watch on her wrist, and...well, that was it. Surely there was something she could do to warn whoever it was coming down while not getting herself caught. Think, think, think...
His arms were beginning to burn with exertion when he noticed there was a light source coming up the shaft he was climbing down; it was white, and backlit some sort of rectangular shape below him - the top of the elevator, Sniper assumed - so he knew that he was both getting close to the bottom and also that damned robot no doubt knew he was coming.
Well, he could hardly stop now - there wouldn't be any climbing up, not with the others on the ropes and chain above him. His best bet would be trying to silently land on top of the elevator below him, maybe keep the robot from realizing he'd touched down until after he'd already shot it.
Then, the light disappeared as, echoing up the shaft, he heard a shout-
"-hey, HEY, you mobile wastebin! Want to play a game of hide and seek?"
"Damn it sheila, what the bloody hell are you doing?" he growled.
Well, so much for getting down quietly...or slowly. Sniper angled his feet to trap the rope in the little space between the flat of his foot and the heel of his boot, then began to slide fairly quickly down the rope - as fast as he could manage without toppling off.
The lantern didn't give off much light in a downward direction so when he could actually see the top of the elevator he decided he was close enough to drop down without injury, then immediately regretted that decision when he dropped down onto and then crashed through the dry-rotted boards of the elevator's roof. With a loud grunt he landed and stumbled against the inner wall of the elevator in a shower of splinters and sawdust, and staggered to get out the door to assess what he'd just fallen into.
To his left and right were the other elevators, to his far right was a collection of machinery he could just barely see in the light from his flare, and there was a river rushing by somewhere beyond that - he couldn't see it but he could definitely hear it.
Across from him was a wide, empty area, visible from the light from the lantern and also... He unhooked the lantern and then had his rifle up and trained on the robot as it turned around to face him, one eye lit up like a flashlight, standing maybe twenty feet from him.
"All right, bolthead, where is she?"
"That is a marvelous question. I do hope she doesn't drown as I am not sure where she went after she jumped." Slowly the robot turned, Sniper squinting in the light as it trained that eye on him. "Perhaps hearing you scream will be enough to draw her out if she's still lurking somewhere...torture is such nasty business but one must do what one must do, hmm?"
"You've got that right," he growled, training his sights on that eye and firing.
It had been one heck of a juggling act - she'd managed to unhook the strap entirely from the rifle, without dropping either, and gotten the strap tied to two of her belt loops on the back of her pants. She'd adjusted it to be as long as it could be, then looped it through the slats on the wheel and let it carry her up; when she was out of the water but not at the top of the wheel, she'd clicked the laser sight on, set it squarely on the back of the robot's head, then pulled trigger.
And...much as she'd been expecting, nothing happened beyond hearing a muffled click.
All right, on to plan B.
"Hey, HEY, you mobile wastebin! Want to play a game of hide and seek?"
She squinted as the robot's light immediately swung toward her, knowing she'd have afterimages again, but as she crested the top of the wheel's arc she sucked in a breath and jumped with one hand tightly gripping the strap attached to the back of her pants. As she went under she was forced to drop the rifle, then hit the watch on her wrist and let the wheel drag her around.
When it began to tug her back up she freed the strap's end from the slats and then looped an arm through them instead, using her other hand to untie the strap from her belt loops. With a death grip on the strap she waited to be lifted higher up, then flailed somewhat blindly until she slapped into the central arm that supported the wheel; she flipped a free end of the strap over it, grabbed on, and then swung herself off the wheel, using the strap to keep the current from washing her away.
She had to constantly jerk her arms back and forth to keep the strap centered on the turning arm and to also propel herself forward as swimming was out of the question in this current, but inch by inch she got closer to the shore; from the elevators she heard a crash and the sound of splintering wood, and then a reddish light came swinging out of the darkness.
"All right, bolthead, where is she?"
She grit her teeth and tried to pick up her pace while the robot was distracted - that was Mundy. They'd come down here to find her, like she knew they would.
At last her knees slammed against a rocky but solid river bottom, and she stood to slog the last few feet onto dry ground, keeping hold of the strap once she'd unwrapped it from the arm - she had no idea what else she could do with it, but maybe it'd still be useful somehow.
Over the rush of the water she could just barely hear the robot and Mundy speaking; Shiloh took a few steps and then threw herself into a roll behind the mess of machinery, panting and shivering as she took a moment to decide her next move. She...probably should have planned further along than 'shout to get its attention, then get out of the river.'
The robot had ducked his first shot and then rushed him; Sniper dodged to the side and then ducked himself as the robot swung a fist. There was a clatter from within the elevator before a second flare bounced into view and rolled between the two of them but he hardly spared it a glance as he began to dodge and sidestep a flurry of blows aimed at him.
"If you call this torture I think you need your programming looked at."
He stopped a blow with the stock of his rifle and swung back in kind, forcing the robot back a few steps.
"I merely need you to make noise, my dear man."
"All right, here's some noise - WATCH THE DROP!" he shouted toward the elevator before throwing himself into a sideways roll to avoid a kick, coming up on one knee with his gun tracking.
Spy had wondered what that crash below had been and, even though it was difficult, he paused to light a flare and let it drop; it lit up the hole as it fell through it, giving Spy a clear view of what he was about to lower himself down onto even as Sniper shouted a warning up to him.
The flare had rolled out of his sight but it cast enough light for the Frenchman to drop lightly through the hole and activate his cloak before he darted out the door; there were the other elevators here, and some machinery, but...no other cover. That could prove a problem if that robot had any sort of projectile weapons.
Spy put a hand on his sapper - it would be the best defense against any weapon usage on the robot's part, providing Spy could get close enough, and as he watched the elaborate dance between Sniper and the robot he considered how high his chances were for being struck by a blow not intended for him.
...they would be fairly high, but he didn't have a choice did he?
He drew his revolver with his free hand, checked the time remaining on his cloak, and attempted to creep closer as he heard two successive thuds in the elevator behind him.
Flagship marked the sound of two more dropping through the elevator and would have lamented its loss of an eye if it possessed the programming necessary for such an emotion. As such, it was more annoyed than anything else as it had to quickly turn its head to assess what new threats were approaching, noting that it was the skinny little male it had sent flying before and also a strange masked individual that had a-
Flagship's feet kicked up sparks on the ground in its haste to get clear as the masked one's weapon spewed a gout of flame at it. So this was the one that had set it on fire earlier...well, it certainly didn't need any other fused vents or further damage to its cooling systems, that one would need to be dealt with, quickly.
Admittedly, the tiny one's gun had the power behind it to dent and penetrate its armoring; Flagship ordered the males as the flame-spewing one at top priority, followed by the small one, followed by the man with the rifle. Yes...deal with the biggest threat first.
As it leapt for the masked male there was a sudden blast of an invisible force against its chest, enough that the robot's forward momentum was actually halted, and a follow-up blast sent it sliding backward a few inches. It would seem the male's weapon could do more than spout flame, which Flagship immediately moved out of as the invisible blasts were followed by a tongue of fire.
It assessed its internal power levels again - it was already beyond the point of being able to return home on its own, it would need to send up an extraction signal at some point...and since there was no reason to conserve power any longer... It prepped a charge and squared itself to its attacker.
With a burst of rocket propulsion Flagship rushed the flame-wielder, the momentum and force of the rocket pulse overcoming the compressed air blast from the male's weapon and allowing the robot to close the distance to grapple him. There was a crackle of energies moments before the robot discharged a disabling electrical blast...only to have the male shake it off with a muffled giggle.
That was odd. What exactly what that male's suit made of? Flagship clamped hands on the flamethrower in the other's hands, twisting and wrenching until it tore the weapon from his grasp and tossed it aside before reaching to seize the male by the forearm. As it tightened to a bone-crunching grip the male reached to grab something strapped to its back, then swung an overhead chop at Flagship's shoulder joint - a wickedly sharp axe slammed into the armored plating and scraped off at an angle, but the blow was enough to dent the metal that bordered the shoulder socket.
A few rifle shots slammed into the robot then, still doing little more than denting its armor further but the scrawny male had managed to get behind it as well and was peppering its back with shot after shot, no doubt as fast as the male could pull the trigger.
"Nasty little things," Flagship muttered, tugging to drag the fire-wielding male in close to negate the axe's usefulness while prepping another blast.
Rotating at its hip socket Flagship spun in a complete 360, blasting the scrawny one with the electricity and tossing the other like a discus back toward the stairs that led down to the other level. The scrawny man dropped at its feet; Flagship lifted a foot to crush the male's head before freezing in place as a rogue current suddenly zapped it. Alarms began to beep as already strained levels of power began to drop even further - it was that damned skinny one, the one that had strapped some sort of odd device on it at the base.
Shuddering Flagship swung an arm blindly behind it and felt it connect; it ponderously turned even as it tried to get its hands behind it to seize the device from its back, rifle shots plinking into its body and also beginning to penetrate. The armored plating on its back had taken too much of a beating...Flagship would need to take things head on for now lest a bullet punch through something vital.
But first this...damned...device on its...back...