Nessa Cord kept her bare hand on the breach because her suit had started lying to her.
The black shell around her wrist reported a clean seal. She could see two of its Vale-grown tendons hanging through the broken plate, stretched toward the hooked thing trapped under the cracked helm. Her own fingers still moved, which gave her time to cut the suit away before it decided the missing tendons belonged somewhere else.
Below the wrecked transport, the six-legged attacker tore another slab from the defensive wall. Three salvage crawlers pinned the loose fingers that had come through the breach. A fourth tested the black knuckle bone under Nessa's boot and backed away when its cutter softened.
"Cord, the west wall loses another brace when the next heavy shot lands, and the brewery tunnel will be buried if we wait for the civilians to clear it first."
