Rook and Garry hurried along, passing through a door, and turning a corner, until they stopped at the elevator staff from earlier. He glanced at the empty shaft, elevator below.
"Climb onto my back." He instructed the ex-slaver.
Garry was reluctant but more lives than their own depended on him swallowing his pride and doing as the Android said. He climbed aboard, sighing heavily as he did so.
"You tell anyone about this and I'll turn you into a toaster, now let's go!"
Rook jumped out into the shaft, and wrapped himself around the cable, sliding down.
Morgan looked around, her eyes wide and fearful.
"I don't want to die. P-please, I want to work here. T-truly…"
Both Rook and Garry neared the bottom of the shaft, Rook broke their descent with his knees, pressing them against the cable. Smoke rose as it burned away and charred the fabric, even irritating the flesh underneath, but the two came to a stop just as they reached the top of the box, landing with a dull thump.
The soldier looked up as he heard and felt the landing.
"What the?"
"You're fucked now..." Morgan whispered, assuming the best situation was at hand here.
"Shut up you!" The soldier barked and to top it off, rifle-butting her mouth with his plasma rifle.
Morgan whimpered, spitting out a tooth and some blood on the floor of the lift. "R-really fucked!"
Almost as if in response, Rook dropped down through the hatch, kicking down with a boot so that the metal lid acted as a landing pad. shotgun in hand. The barrel of which he stuck underneath the soldier's chin.
"Don't move."
The soldier quickly snatched the barrel and pressed it upwards with ease, thanks to the strength the Mk II power armour provided him. He shot up the lid with his plasma rifle, practically shaving Rook's eyebrows.
Rook slammed his shoulder into the soldier's chest, and wrestled with him for the rifle.
Garry rushed over to the power armoured guard, stomping down on his knee to weaken him and cause him to lose the struggle.
The lift struggled under the weight.
A woman and a man in power armour already proved vexing.
Now with this huge android and another man on top, it started to get felt.
The descent became disjointed and rocky. Causing the loss of balance.
Rook took advantage as the lift wobbled, yanked the rifle from the soldier's hands when Garry gave him the opportunity, and, as it shifted so that the stoop was at his back, he let himself fall backwards so that he back collided with the wall, lining up a shot with the soldier's stomach. He opened fired.
The shot burned away at the armour, but it didn't kill him. Instead he recoiled and pulled Garry down into the lift, using him as a human shield against another shot.
Rook...
Morgan threw herself at the powered armour guard. She tugged desperately at his arms, hoping to free Garry.
Rook levelled his rifle at the soldier's head.
"Let him go." He hoped Morgan had the good sense to pick up the shotgun and blast the soldier's stomach open.
Garry quickly grabbed Hamilton's Colt 1911 from behind his back and rammed the barrel of the weapon under the soldier's chin before pulling the trigger.
Not even power armour could deflect that at such a close range. The bullet pierced the man's face, his visor sprayed with red on the inside. After which the man in power armour fell lifelessly to the side of Morgan. With a loud thump. The whole elevator rocked violently and the cart got braked as the failsafe acted. Now, locked in the shaft with no floors to escape to.
Morgan grabbed the shotgun and held it close to herself. Blood still trickled down her mouth and she leaned against the wall, trembling.
Garry sighed heavily, panting as he put the gun back into its concealed shot, it was a quick escape but that was his last shot.
Rook closed the distance between himself and Morgan.
"They hurt you." He said, the rifle hanging by his side as he reaches up with his empty hand to touch the injured portion of her face.
Morgan flinched back and nodded. "It's okay..."
Rook nodded. "Where was he taking you?"
"I... I don't know..." Morgan whispered. "Probably somewhere quiet to shoot me..."
"We need a plan to get out of here." Rook said.
"Obviously..." Morgan mumbled, touching her face and winced. "Can you get the door open?"
"I'd prefer to just get out of this shit hole..." Garry grumbled, thinking up a plan seemed like a lot of work.
He knelt down and picked up the guard's weapons as he realised that he was now unarmed.
Rook answered Morgan's question by sliding his fingers in between the doors and then pulled apart. The doors groaned as they slid aside, opening the way out.
Morgan peered out the elevator. "R-rook. Garry. We're in the air. W-we're trapped. There is no way out..."
"Let's lower ourselves down further then." Rook said, climbing out of the elevator so he could get to the cable box.
"Think we can shimmy up the cable?" Garry asked, scratching his head as he raised his plasma rifle.
At that point, a dull item landed next to Rook, with an equally dull 'thud.'
Rook's head snapped to the object. Immediately he dropped back into the elevator box, tackling Morgan and Garry to the ground, and shielding them with his body.
The plasma grenade exploded, the heat ate Rook's back, but the rest remained unscathed.
The wires of the elevator where completely cut though, and the breaks were now the only thing holding the thing from plummeting to the depths below.
"R-rook? Rook!" Morgan called. "Don't...don't move..."
"Why?" He asked. "We need to lower the elevator."
"You just got hit by plasma!" Morgan pleaded. "If you stand up, we'll move too fast. I-I'll die..."
"Get them out there!" Governor barked at the soldiers next to him as he stood there looking down at the elevator below.
"You need to get to the top of the elevator, and deactivate one of the four breaks." Rook instructed. "That will let us coast down to the bottom."
"Kinda hard Rook!" Morgan snapped. "I am not strong, and... the guards are there...We...we are screwed."
"Negative." Rook replied. "Defeat is not a possible outcome." He considered for a moment, glancing around. "Garry- shoot that corner." He pointed to a top corner of the elevator, behind which, he assumed, a break sat, holding the lift in place. The plasma should melt both, disabling the machinery.
Garry swiftly raised his rifle and took the shot, though he was not used to energy weapons and ended up missing it three times before finally hitting it.
The lift's breaks let loose and everyone within could feel themselves being lifted up by gravity, they were going down like a bat out of hell. The impact would be hard and sudden.
Morgan clung to Rook as best as she could. This was to be her last moments, she knew it.
Rook wrapped himself around Morgan and tucked her into his embrace, ready to absorb the shock of the eventual fall. If his calculations had been correct, the remaining breaks should just be enough to lighten their fall so that it wouldn't be deadly. Rook couldn't be sure though; he didn't know how far they had to go. He took a gamble in way.
Garry decided to jump onto the Android's back as instructed earlier, if anything was going to survive this it was the being made out of titanium alloy.
The Elevator didn't appear to slow down, but then break seemed to click back in place and ungracefully stopped the lift before it ultimately landed on the floor below at about 15 mph.
Morgan cried out on impact. Her entire body hurt like hell. Everything ached...
"Gargh fuck!" Garry yelled, rolling off to the side and landing with a thud on his right shoulder.
Rook jarred at the fall, tightening his hold on Morgan, until everything stilled. Upon the crash, his circuits went haywire as the force was exerted through them, blurring his vision and scrambling his thoughts.
Finally, he got a hold of reality.
"Check for injuries." He instructed, hesitantly leaning away from Morgan so that she could.
"Get...off...me..." Morgan groaned, painfully. "Hurts..."
Rook rolled away, kneeling over Morgan. "Where?" Although it was unreadable in his voice, he desperately wanted to make sure his partner was alright.
"Check...Garry." Morgan strained. "W-will report after."
Rook moved to Garry. As he rose to his feet he almost immediately collapsed again onto his side.
Internal damage... right knee is immobile... the impact knocked a joint out of alignment...
He dragged himself across the floor to Garry.
"Status report?" He asked the man.
"Everythin'... Fuckin' hurts..." The Former Slaver grumbled, slowly pulling himself up as his arm hung loosely by his side, he slowly and painfully curled it around his stomach.
"Fingers hurts... Nothin' serious..."
"Impact trauma. Expect bruises and wooziness. Report any dislocated joints, broken bones, or stabbing pains." The last of which would be a symptom of internal bleeding.
He rolled across the floor chest over back, like he was going down a hill, to Morgan's position, and shoved himself up on his knees again.
"What is injured, Morgan?" He asked.
The doors fell open. They had been completely dislodged from their joints.
It revealed a large underground hangar with vertibirds on a sort of conveyor belt system.
"Everything as well..." Morgan grumbled. "T-toes hurt the worst on my left foot...a-and my chest hurts too."
"You must have bruised your ribs. And you could have fractured your foot." He glanced out the door at the Vertibirds.
"But look, Morgan. I found our escape." He gestured to the vehicles. "We're so close. Just a little farther."
Morgan turned her head to look at the Vertibird. "Does anyone know how to...work it?"
"I can pilot a helicopter. I imagine the controls are not so different."
The hangar was dimly lit by ground panel lights. The faint echoing of steam exhausts filled the large cylinder-like room, it felt rather calm compared to what was happening. Sadly, the doors all the way above them seemed closed shut. No Vertibird could launch without remaining trapped in this hangar.
"Get rappelling equipment and smoke grenades!" Governor barked at his entourage of enclave security personal as he saw the intruders climb out of the wreckage down below.
"And override the locks on the vertibird hangar. We must not let them escape!"
"The doors are sealed..." Morgan groaned, pulling herself shakily to her feet. "C'mon we gotta at least hide. Can you walk?"
"No, but I will manage."
Rook looked at the doors.
"I have plan."
They couldn't fly out of here. Not without getting shot down. But if the Enclave thought they had escaped by air...
"Hide you and Garry close to the elevator." He pointed over to an ammo dump. "Perhaps there."
Rook pulled himself to his feet, hobbling on one leg. "I will stage an escape."
"Alrigh' but what about Heather and the brat?" Garry asked, helping Morgan support herself as she seemed a little shaky on her legs, just as she was.
"We are not leaving them. Trust me"
"Wh-what? No! Rook that's too risky..." Morgan pleaded. "Y-you can't even walk!"
"I have a plan. Hide. Quickly." Without another word, the gas canisters making up everyone's mind, Rook hobbled to towards a vertibird. It was a mix of scrambling across the floor with his hands whenever he lost his balance, and limping awkwardly, but he managed.
Gas canisters where flung down the elevator shaft from above. When they landed, it took a few seconds before the tear gas actually activated. Which then proceeded by filling the elevator, shaft and general entrance with a thick cloud of smoke.
Morgan nodded, squeezing her eyes shut to avoid the burning of the tear gas. It still stung like hell, of course, but stumbling blindly with Garry to a hiding spot was less painful than keeping her eyes open.
Being slightly faster as most of his injuries were inflicted on the upper body, Garry moved Morgan over to the hiding spot, throwing them both down to the ground as they kept low.
"Fuck... Hope he knows what he's doin'..."
Rook scrambled into a vertibird, the simple steel door no match for his strength. He yanked himself into a pilot's seat and poured over the controls.
They weren't they difficult.
Besides, he had no intention of flying. He began pressing buttons, and activated the payload, so that it would fire, however, he did not open the bomb-bay doors or fire the missiles, instead choosing to jam both mechanisms. He was simply going to blow it all in place.
Rook then climbed out of the vertibird, 'dashing' to find some cover himself.
If the plan rolled over right, the Enclave would simply think they'd been killed by their own stupidity, incinerated by the blast, and Morgan, Garry, and Rook could sneak out the back.
And perhaps the explosion would take out a few other vertibirds with it, making everyone happy.
Except the Enclave.
Morgan remained silent, covering her head in her hands as she just...waited.
There was a loud clunk from the vertibird in question, a second thereafter, a huge fireball emerged with an explosion of a powerful magnitude. Scraps of metal were flung all around the hangar, hitting other vertibirds which in few cases damaged them. A propeller blade flew away from the blast, lodging itself in the wall just above Garry's head. The metal blade still vibrated a bit.
The blast caused the ground on above to tremble slightly.
"What was that?" Governor demanded.
On the other hand, Soldiers in Power armour were ready to rappel down into the shaft. The gas covering as a smokescreen.
In the pre-fab, the lights flickered for a moment and the floor trembled as well.
Morgan gasped out in fear.
They ain't gonna fall for this...
"Fuck!" The Former Slaver hissed, pulling his head down and forcing Morgan's down with it.
"He don't know what he's doin' does he?"
"I... agree for a change." Morgan winced and groaned softly. "This still leaves us stuck down here."
Through the thick grey smoke clouds, menacingly yellow eyes pierced.
These Power armours had infrared vision or something which allowed them to look through their veil. Joining them were piercing green laser-pointers, most likely laser-targeting for their plasma rifles.
The smoke of the canisters and of the burning wreck greatly diminished visibility of the big underground silo.
Morgan lay huddled on the floor next to Garry in their hiding spot.
I'm a newt. They can't see me...I am small...
"Stick close." Rook whispered in Morgan's and Garry's ears. The infiltrator had some how made it over here between the explosion and the soldiers grapling down.
"They're going to follow protocal and fan out into the hanger. We're going to come in from their 6 o'clock and take their grapples back to the top of shaft."
the thin green pointer moved over Rook's head.
"You think they blew themselves up?" One of the soldiers wondered out loud.
"Possible, keep searching. It might be a ruse."
Morgan froze, shrinking back even further. Her eyes stung...
Garry held his breath, remaining silent...
And Rook just didn't move.
The soldiers slowly moved towards the wreckage of the vertibird.
"We move, now!" Rook practically hissed, scooping Morgan up like a bundle of sheets into his arms. She'd be too slow on her own.
"Garry, count to five, then follow me!"
With that, in hobbling crouch, which dragged his right leg behind him, he hurried for the elevator.
1...2...3...4...5..
Garry quickly rose to his feet, gently placing Morgan back down as he quickly rushed across to Rook, in a similar crouch. Rook was lucky that Garry was one of the few Slavers from Paradise, who could count to five.
Morgan whimpered. She buried her head into the crook of Rooks neck and finally gave in to the sting of the tear gas.
"You're okay, I have you." Rook whispered to his partner. He knew he should not speak, but he could not help it. It was an... impulse.
Inside the box, Rook hefted Morgan into one arm. holding her small form tightly to his chest before reaching up and pulling himself through the hole in the lift's ceiling. He realized halfway through that he wasn't going to make it, and decidedly pushed Morgan through first, before using both arms to yank himself up, unto the roof.
He collapsed onto his rear with a quiet *thunk* not looking his best.
Morgan gave Rook a look that showed her hopelessness at the situation they were in.
Colonel will still be up there...
"You and Garry will need to hold onto me. I will pull us up. But Garry's arm is damaged. You will need to cover us with your pistol. Understood?"
"I-it's a shitty pistol..." Morgan mumbled. "W-won't even scratch Power Armour..."
"They won't have any armoured soldiers up there, only officers."
"F-fine..." Morgan whispered, nodding reluctantly. "My aim's gonna be s-shoddy tho..."
"Want my rifle?" Garry asked, holding it up with his good hand.
"Can't use it for shit, I can swap it with your pistol."
"That would work." Rook slowly agreed. "If you use my shoulder to rest it on, you could sight up any hostiles."
"Ya...I am better with Rifles..." Morgan strained, reaching over to take it. "Rook...are you sure you can carry us b-both?"
"Yes." Rook said, withot a doubt.
"But I will not be able to remove either of my hands from the grapple until you two are off of me. That means we have to get to the top of the shaft with you covering us all the way up.
Quickly now. They will have cleared the room in less than three minutes. Then they will take a minute to report back, hold position for a bit, before returning to the shaft. We want to be away from here before they check on their grapples. Climb onto my back Morgan. Garry, you hold onto my front." Rook instructed as he rose to his feet, and took a hold of one of the grapples.
Garry nodded and approached Rook from the front, feeling incredibly awkward right now...
The grapple strained on their weight, which could be seen all the way up.
Governor looked down into the shaft but it was unclear what or who was climbing up.
"He's gonna be there...I swear..." Morgan whispered, shuffling round to Rooks back. She tried not to look at Garry and took aim, concentrating on the small beam of light from the top of the shaft.
"Squad?" Governor asked, talking into a walky-talky.
"Is anyone climbing back up, over?"
Down below in the hangar the squad leader checked.
"No, sir. over"
Governor's faced contracted a dark grin.
"Roger."
With both humans holding onto him Rook began the climb. When his feet completely left the ground, it was easy to see he buckling underneath the combined weight. A person would be groaning in strain right now, but Rook was completely stoic, even though it was easily to tell from the tightness of his body that every bit of him was working to make the climb.
We aren't making this...Why are we even trying still...
"C'mon Rook...you got this..."
"Almost..." Garry agreed, just wanting to get to the top of this shaft and get back to Heather.
Rook was unable to reply, feeling like his voice module was being crushed. He continued to climb up, adding extra tension by wrapping an ankle in the cord and one of his wrists, letting him slide up the grapple smoothly and effectively as he climbed.
"Everything going well?" A voice echoed from above in the elevator shaft.
Morgan stiffened. "Told you. He's still there..."
"I have to admit, your persistence impresses me." Another echo followed.
Morgan sighed softly. "We're screwed..."
"Sir?" Rook replied, in an exact copy of what the, now dead, soldier in the elevator had sounded like. He didn't expect the Colonel to buy it, he just wanted to buy them more time.
"Oh, don't even try. I know you're a mechanical android. The one Ania said she was going to deal with. It all makes sense now, who you are." Governor indeed didn't fall for it.
"Garry. Pull another grapple over." He whispered, in the Governor got snippy. Both literally and figuratively.
"And you intend to terminate us?" The android called up.
The Wastelander nodded and began to do as he said, doing it as discretely as possible to get it under the Governor's radar.
The Governor laughed.
"That's... The idea yes. Though, it has proven to take more effort than originally intended."
It could been so much easier if I'd just died instead. Morgan thought, keeping her aim trained.
"Have you made an adjustment to your strategy?"
"Not really no." Governor answered honestly.
"Although, I am curious... What exactly did you think you were going to accomplish?"
"We wanted access to your secure files. Or to you, specifically."
"Ah... I guess you're here to 'stop' the Pinko Republic of Chinatown?" Governor added.
"I had an inkling you were the ones that Ray was talking about."
"Well... Seems I'll be doing what she could not."
"What couldn't she do?" Morgan called up as they kept climbing.
I'm guessing that the answer's 'shut the fuck up?' Garry thought, though he was too deep in concentration, doing the grapple to say it aloud.
"Yes, her last transmission said something about a woman and a mechanical android causing her trouble." He told them.
"I assume you're the woman and He's the android?"
"Y-yeah..." Morgan admitted, seeing no other way to talk out of this…
"Well, seems you ignorant dirt-monkeys got yourselves into quite some trouble huh?" Governor assessed.
Morgan fell silent for a moment, concentrating highly. If she could take him out...
You are the dirt monkey, asshole.
"You made a miscalculation, Governor." Rook replied, the edge of the top level in view.
"Did I?" Governor asked curiously.
"I surely hope it doesn't involve me getting shot, because then I drop this"
He held an EMP grenade up.
"Shoot me, I drop this, this drops, you short-circuit, you short-circuit, your companions made out of real flesh and blood will have nothing to save themselves from a particularly nasty drop... Understood?"
Morgan tensed against Rook. "I... I can't shoot him..."
"Well fuck, someone do somethin'!" Garry insisted, feeling like he was in the shittiest position imaginable.
Gabriel slammed against the wall. "I can't take any more of this, let's find Morgan and the others! They have been gone forever now!" Gabriel shouted. Now he was frustrated and let out a loud sigh.
"Gabriel, no! You'll get everyone killed, is that what you want!?" Heather snapped, finding herself to be frantic herself at this point.
"Heather, do you want to find your boyfriend dead, do you want them to be dead, shots in their body? If you don't want Gary to die, then we have to go and save them, they are supposed to be back by now!" Gabriel snapped. He stood and punched the wall in anger, and then after by the sound of Whiskers snorting.
"I..." Heather paused for a minute, sighing heavily.
"Fine... Let's just... Be careful, okay?"
Gabriel nodded and whistled to his pet. He looked over to the hallway and silently went forward. Whiskers snorted and followed right behind him, ready to kill anyone.
"You would have to cook it first, Governor. The time between that falls and it explodes are not great enough for it detonate near me. It will have passed my position by several metres." Rook informed him. "And of course, if you activate that grenade, my companion will shoot you."
Governor laughed.
"You want to bet?" toying with the programming of the android, that's innately against games of chance.
"Rook...what if he is cooking it right now? Please..." Morgan whispered.
"If he's cookin' it right now, it'll blow up in his face..." Garry pointed out, he knew enough about grenades to know that that was true.
"Even if what I said appeared to be... poppycock."
Governor added
"You still are dangling in the middle of a ruined elevator shaft with my men both beneath and above you. How long do you think you're going to hold out?"
"Why have you not dropped it yet?" Rook asked.
"Because you 'might' be useful." Governor answered.
"How so?"
"Why don't you climb up to find out?" Governor baited.
"Or don't." The man shrugged light-heartedly, as if it was a fair choice.
Rook decided he had no choice, and finished the climb, reaching the platform.
Still, even when Rook reached the platform, and Morgan laid eyes on the Governor, she clung tightly to Rook, too scared to let go.
They were violently pulled into the corridor and kicked to the ground. Plasma Rifles trained on them from every angle.
"Smart move."
Rook coiled around Morgan, trying to protect her. His leg was thoroughly busted, and he was defenceless against plasma.
"I am sorry." He whispered. "I only wanted to protect you."
Gabriel continued to the halls, and made a few stops here and there. He thought he was getting closer, until then he had to go to another hallway.
I'll find you Morgan, I promise, I won't let you die like my mom did..." Gabriel thought.
"I-it's okay..." Morgan whispered, reaching out with a shaky hand to rest it on the android's cheek. "We were s-screwed from the start. Told ya..."
"I love you, Morgan Jones." Rook whispered back. "I would prefer you know that, if they decide to end our existence. You are my mission."
Morgan nodded tearfully and pulled herself closer. She focused in on his face and his face alone, blocking all else of the world for the time being.
"I love you too, Rook." Morgan stammered, struggling not to cry. "Everything we've done? It's been amazing getting to spend it with you..."
"I would not give it up for anything else." He agreed, holding her tightly. The guards were shuffling around in the background, probably getting something ready. They were pretty much apprehended now, so guessed they saw no need to assign more than, say, seven guards to point high-tech rifles at their heads.
Gabriel looked around. He sighed, starting to get worried. "Morgan, Morgan where are you?!" Gabriel shouted, but not super loud. Whiskers looked around, trying to smell their scent, but couldn't find nothing.
"Gabriel, don't! Shouting will get us caught!" Heather hissed, however, it seemed that it was too late as she looked up, the group came face to face with a scientist in a similar hazard suit to Garry and Rook's.
Whoever it was simply stood staring at them, not even flinching in response as she eyed them up and down before turning her attention to them.
"Are you patients?"
Gabriel turned around and slowly approached the man. He then got out his knife and tried to cut his eye, while Whiskers then started to run towards the scientist.
The Scientist quickly drew a laser pistol and pointed it at the boy and his Molerat, she was quick to draw but held off from shooting.
"Please, don't make me use this. You're lucky that it was me who found you, the Enclave would have killed you on sight."
"Why should I stop? You have patients that are tortured, your sick Governor is killing anybody, and that gives you a permission to go? No it doesn't, so I will keep my knife in my hand, and not do anything if you leave and quit, if you do something at all to me, and try to take me in your going to be lunch to my little Whiskers, now think about what I said." Gabriel ordered.
"Gabriel... Her pistol could vaporize 'Whiskers' in one shot..." Heather pointed out, slowly raising her weapon and training it on the scientist.
"Look, we don't want trouble, we just want to find our friends..."
"Yeah, the Redhead, the robot and the one with the foul mouth?" The Scientist asked, still keeping her pistol trained on them.
"Look, I can help you get to them, I can even take you there but I can't if you're at my damn throat. I want to help you, as much as it's screwing my mission but I'm not going to risk my life and my mission for two people who keep threatening to turn me into molerat shit is that understood?"
"Fine, but if you betray us, I will kill you, now show us the way." Gabriel said, this time calming down. Whiskers stopped and snorted and jumped up, ready to go with Gabriel.
"Alright, they'll probably be at Governor's office but we can't just run in there, I'll have to 'escort' you there as prisoners." The Scientist explained, rolling her shoulders back.
"Ok, well, that's the plan I guess, we should go now before they die." Gabriel suggested. He put on his glasses, and hid his knife in his pocket. Whiskers snorted and waited.
"On your feet!" Governor demanded.
"Take the Android to the lab."
"The rest... escort them out of here and shoot them. Properly this time."
"Right, move!" The Scientist insisted, gesturing for them to turn around and walk.
"Put your hands up as you do."
Morgan looked up, tearfully clinging to her Android. "N-no! I ain't going!"
Gabriel put his hands up and went with the scientist. Gabriel started to hum silently, while Whiskers was right behind Gabriel, snorting.
Enclave soldiers peeled her away from the android.
When she resisted, they added more force.
Rook did not resist, pulling his arms away from his woman, not wanting them to hurt Morgan. He watched passively. watched as they pulled her away.
"I do not suppose there is some compromise that spares the humans." Rook asked aloud.
"No! Y-you can't! He's a man! Not an android!" Morgan pleaded, obviously a little unhinged at this point. "D-don't take me away from him!"
She struggled in the soldier's grip, desperately trying to break free.
"Fuck this! Let me go!" Garry snapped, throwing his head back into a guard's face.
The soldier rifle-butted Morgan across the cheek.
"Shut up!"
"Fuck this! Let me go!" Garry snapped, throwing his head back into a guard's face.
The guard responded by breaking Garry's nose.
"Filthy scum!"
The others marched Rook away from the rest.
"Governor, I have a counteroffer in exchange for the humans' lives!" Shouted Rook, trying to garner attention.
"R-rook!" Morgan shrieked, blood dripping out her mouth. Everything hurt at this point. Her eyes, her mouth, her legs.
I am going to die...
"ROOK!"
"I'm not interested." Governor said bluntly.
"They have to die regardless; they know too much. At least I'm going to be honest with you here."
With that he left Rook in the hands of his men.
"I will be in my office, should anyone need me. And sent someone down to clean the mess up."
Morgan and Garry were escorted back to the main room, where they would take the stairs back up and be shot outside and what remained would be dunked into the bay.
Morgan struggled as best as she could, stamping relentlessly on her guard's feet, no matter how clear it was, that it wouldn't work.
"Let me go! Please! L-let me die with him at least! P-please!"
The Scientist lead them up to Governor's office, keeping the laser pistol pointed at their back the entire time as she didn't especially trust them.
She led them through to Governor's office, almost following Morgan and Rook's trail exactly as she led them up, picking up the pace as their fate was likely uncertain...
They were but a few moments away from their location, though the Scientist wasn't all that confident in Gabriel or Heather, she still wanted to try.
"Okay, just follow my lead, don't do anything stupid..."
Rook locked onto Morgan's screaming voice, stopping his struggling. His voice cleared, and he began to take in the numbers he was facing. He waited until they had passed back into the lab, before taking action.
Override command: pacify hostiles with "weapons free."
Rook glanced over at the soldier on his left. The man lasted about five seconds after glance, until Rook kicked his knee out, the exoskeleton joint groaning as he took the blow, and causing the soldier to collapse, right into Rook's arms. The android seized the man's helmet and snapped his neck.
Before the soldiers could drop Rook, the android used the one on his right to shove himself to his feet and into a wall for support. He pulled the shotgun from his waistband and aimed it over the soldier's heads, at the Deathclaw tank. The world froze, as the men watched the android line up his shot to free one of the deadliest creatures on the face of the earth. Then he fired.
The tank emptied out, the luke-warm water splashed out in large quantities out on the floor and the curled-up beast was free.
It wouldn't take long before it had its bearings.
"Agh!"
"Kill it!" A soldier commanded the others.
Rook wasn't the main target anymore; this was a lot more severe.
Governor looked back on his way to the office.
"Hmm What?!"
"No!" He knew perfectly what 'that' alarm meant. And it didn't take long for him to realise what had happened and who had caused it.
Fed up he stormed to his office and got out the special gun.
"Right. If we can't get him into the lab. This will just have to do!" He loaded the gun and ran out, on the hunt for Rook.
As Morgan turned around the next corner, she found herself face to face with Heather and Gabriel, who were both stood with their hands up and a laser pistol to their backs.
"I found the others." She informed them, poking them in the back and forcing them to take a step forward and join by Morgan's side.
Gabriel smiled and started to cry. He then nodded and followed the group, Whiskers snorted happily. Gabriel then got out his knife, ready to kill.
She joined the ranks of the guards, seemingly falling in line with them.
Rook scooped up victim's plasma rifle and pistol, using the former as a crutch of sorts, starting his mission to free his partner.
...
And Garry, of course.
He hurried down the hall as fast as he could go, after them.