Sebastian moved with a heavy, deliberate limp. He used the massive brass halberd as a walking stick, keeping his fractured left arm pressed tightly against his ribs to minimize the agonizing jostling. Valerie walked right behind him, gripping her rusted iron pipe with white-knuckled intensity.
"Stay in my blind spot," Sebastian whispered over his shoulder, his voice barely audible over the roaring machinery. "If we run into more Sentinels, I'll take the aggro. You aim for the joints."
"I know how to swing a pipe, Seattle," Valerie shot back quietly.
They navigated the twisting, labyrinthine catwalks, moving deeper into the core of the facility. The sterile, pulsing white light of the Prime Architects' throne room guided them like a beacon, but the path was far from straight.
They reached the end of a long, grated hallway and stopped.
Blocking their path to the inner sanctum was a massive, circular brass chamber.
