Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[Jet]

Jody was closest to the middle tunnel, which was the one she rolled into to avoid the missiles. As she crossed over the threshold the ceiling began to fall in, forcing her to raise her shield above her to deflect the smaller rocks and scramble around the larger ones to avoid being crushed. When the cave in ended the air was thick with dust, she coughed and fanned the air trying to clear it. It looked like the others had all taken the side paths. Either that or they'd been buried in the cave in. She tried to shift the stone around but it was too heavy to move, especially considering how packed down it was. She'd just have to move on and hope her path would join up with the others in time.

As she moved down the tunnel she came across another red eye built into the wall. She'd mentioned it earlier to the others, but it was really creeping her out. Slowly she approached and tentatively poked the eye with her sword. It blinked, but there was otherwise no immediate reaction. A loud crash from behind startled her, and it was followed by several more crashes in quick succession getting louder and closer. Without another thought Jody ran, stealing a glimpse behind her revealed that the ceiling was again falling down, but this time on its own accord. It was as though the ruins themselves were alive and trying to smash her. The narrow corridor ended just ahead, opening up into an expansive chamber. Jody dove through the doorway as the wall slammed down, it was as though the tunnel had never been there. She no longer found the ruins awe inspiring, they'd crossed over from strange into terrifying. She was half tempted to use the portable transserver herself and get out of there, but she knew Elpizo wouldn't be happy about that. And she really did want to help with the rescue, others were counting on her.

A heavy clanking sound came from behind her, Jody turned around to find she was not alone in this new chamber. Instead of being one of her allies though, the source of the noise was some kind of large golem, clanking around on six legs the size of garbage cans. It had one arm, if you could call it an arm. Rather than a hand and fingers it sported a heavy club. its most distinguishing feature was a single red eye, flashing in the center of its face, very similar to the eyes on the wall she'd encountered before. It was now clanking toward her, club raised high, eliminating any questions as to its intent. Jody rolled away as the club crashed down, sprang to her feet and ran to the other end of the room. There was a single door, but the hatch was shut tight and there didn't seem to be any keypad. She thought that she could probably wedge her fingers in the hatch and pry it open, but the frantic clanging of the golem's legs announced that it was upon her once more. She'd have to deal with him first. He didn't look very mobile, and the club didn't offer the flexibility of an arm. She figured that closing the distance was probably the better strategy. Not that she had any ranged options anyway.

Jody ran in, ducking under the club swing and hopping on top of one of the golem's legs. The monster pivoted in a circle, slamming its club up and down but it lacked the flexibility to actually hit her. That was the good news. The downside was that the golem actually had reasonably strong armor and her sword wasn't doing very much damage to it. If she ever came into some money she'd need to upgrade. For now she began to climb up its body toward the eye, positioned herself behind it and began smashing it with her new shield. The golem began to pivot more quickly, clearly trying to throw her off but its six stubby legs would only allow it tot turn so fast. Whoever built this golem must not have been very bright. Or maybe it was just poorly maintained, Jody supposed no one ever came into this temple of doom to fix up the robots.

Unexpectedly the golem ran full force into a wall, finally shaking Jody off. The big club went up again and Jody rolled to the only safety she could see, right underneath the monster. There wasn't enough room to bring her shield to bare, but she was able to stab its underside with her sword, finding the armor considerably weaker underneath. Still, she wasn't sure she'd ever pierce anything vital this way, and focused her attention on those garbage pail legs. From the backside she could clearly see the gears comprising the golem's joints and set to work severing them. One clean slice and one of the six legs went limp. She was forced to work while lying flat on her belly, there wasn't too much room under the golem, but on the other hand she didn't have to worry about evading the club and the robot was too slow to step on her. She severed the tendons on the remaining legs and crawled out from under the golem, getting its attention and prompting it to chase her once more. When she reached the other corner of the room she shifted her direction abruptly by 90 degrees. The big red eye was tracking her movements, but it couldn't turn on a dime even with six working legs, it lost its balance and crashed into the wall.

After a moment it became apparent that the golem had actually it had gone through the wall, kicking up another cloud of dust and creating passage into a hidden room. Jody climbed over the golem and peered inside, it wasn't a very large room but the floor was covered in energy crystals! Jody couldn't believe her good fortune, she'd never seen so many at once. She paused to gather them up and returned to the closed door she'd seen earlier. With a loud grunt she managed to force the door open far enough to jam her foot inside the hatch. Now that she had a handhold she pushed with everything she had and the hatch groaned and opened wider. This was probably as good as it was going to get, Jody sucked in her chest and managed to squeeze through the opening and into the next area.