Caleb kept the heavy plasma rifle aimed directly at the ruined machine's black dome.
His boots sank deep into the wet dirt near Jaxson's melted armor.
At the rear of the bottleneck, iron rattled as Rina slammed her shoulder against the sealed bulkheads.
"It's welded shut," Rina yelled over the local link. Her boot kicked the metal door.
On the left side of the cavern, Hiro's voice cracked from behind a fallen rock. "Optics are down. I have no visual on the dark corners."
To the right, the heavy clack of Iharu's scatter-gun pumping echoed from the high ridge. The redhead shifted his weight, spraying loose gravel down the incline.
The Mimic was wrecked. The explosion had gutted its core, leaving an empty iron ribcage anchored to heavy legs. The black dome hung from a sparking neck seam. Tiny electrical currents popped along the exposed wiring, shedding weak light onto the mud. Caleb saw enough to know it was finished.
He tightened his finger on the plastic trigger.
