Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[Jet]

The piercing lazer attack appeared to be effective, causing the giant Arcadian to halt it's pursuit of the group and activate a personal energy shield. Andraia fired again, and other resistance members with the ability joined in their effort to pin the big Arcadian to one spot while they made their escape. After all, the wall above them was coming down again and to remain in this room was to risk being crushed.

Jody led the group through the doorway and into another hallway, but it wasn't long before they reached another dead end. Jody pounded on the wall in frustration and surprisingly the wall and the floor pivoted around, bringing them to another chamber. Inside of it were the bodies of several more resistance soldiers, but the group did not have time to examine them. There was gunfire up ahead, they'd finally caught up to the survivors!

Isos and Pasos emerged from a doorway on the other side of the room, a small pink cyber elf floating above Pasos' head. Isos turned around and fired off a burst of shots at their pursuer but he was impaled through the chest by a pair of razor sharp claws. Isos crumbled and his assailant slithered into view. It looked like a snake, only it had whip-like appendages which served as its arms and legs.

"This is a restricted area, even for us Neo Arcadians," it hissed. "Now that you’ve come, none of you may leave here alive."

"Isos!" Pasos screamed at seeing his companion cut down.

"There's nothing you can do for him now," Jody said, holding Pasos back. "You need to get back to base." She tagged him with the portable trans-server sending the resistance officer and the mysterious cyber elf back to Elpizo.

"You should not have done that… you have no idea what you’ve unleashed! Hiss!" With that the serpent-like Arcadian dug his limbs into the floor, causing the stone to crumble away. After a short fall the entire group found themselves floating in mid-air on the back of a large mechanical snake.

Jody struggled to hang on as the giant snake wriggled through the air. The walls and the ground below were covered in spikes, they'd have to do battle with the Arcadian on the floating serpent for the time being.