The panel came down with a sound like a gunshot and the gap it left was exactly one and a half meters wide and the first Aberrant came through it before the echo finished.
Michael had been expecting fast. He had read Dr. Kang's briefing notes and he had watched the approach on the pulse and he had run the contact drill four days in a row and he thought he had a working understanding of what fast meant in this context.
He hadn't truly reacted until the first one burst through the gap at its incredible speed, triggering the Skill Echo in his body before his conscious mind even registered it.
The movement reading engaged on the Aberrant's shoulder orientation just a fraction of a second before it committed to a direction.
He instinctively went left instead of right, and the creature's extended arm swept past where his head had been. He felt the air displacement against his face, indicating just how close it was.
He got the axe into the contact on the recovery.
