Chapter 125 - Iron in the Benthos
"Stay behind the cockpit frame," Naomi whispered, her body instantly sinking into a combat crouch behind the ruptured engine housing of Car 02. "Their visual sensors are calibrated for thermal signatures. The cooling water from our cracked reactor will mask us for another twenty seconds. After that, they’ll acquire."
"I have a sidearm," Julian said, his hand steadying on his nine-millimeter service pistol despite the tremor in his fingers. "Tell me where to shoot."
"In the ocular slit or the neck seam beneath the synthetic jaw," Naomi replied calmly. "Anywhere else, the rounds will pancake against the silver alloy."
The leading prototype stepped off the maintenance catwalk, its heavy boots clanking against the flooded grating. Water was up to Naomi's calves now, freezing and dark. The synthetic soldier raised an arm, its forearm splitting open to reveal an integrated pneumatic flechette launcher.
It didn't speak. It didn't issue warnings. It fired.
A hail of high-density steel needles shredded the remains of Car 02's outer fairing, sending shards of carbon fiber whipping through the air.
Naomi moved like smoke.
She didn't retreat; she lunged directly into the spray of shrapnel, using the debris as momentary visual cover. Before the second synthetic could adjust its targeting reticle, Naomi slid across the slick metal decking, her boots plowing through the saltwater, and swept the legs out from under the lead operative.
The heavy machine fell with a deafening clang. Before it could engage its hydraulic recovery servos, Naomi was on top of it. She jammed the muzzle of her magnetic carbine directly beneath its synthetic jawline and pulled the trigger three times.
*THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.*
The magnetic rounds tore through the neck joint, detonating inside the synthetic skull. Sparks, hydraulic fluid, and black synthetic coolant erupted in a violent spray. The blue light in the machine's eyes flickered, died, and plunged into lifeless glass.
"One down!" Naomi shouted, snatching the dead machine’s flechette launcher with her left hand while rolling behind an industrial pump station.
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The remaining four prototypes opened fire simultaneously.
***
