Up this close, she could see far more details than she wanted to. Although the brightness still hurt her eyes, so long as she dulled the feed and looked anywhere but the giant orbs, she could study the thing about to do her in.
Thousands of legs brought the creature closer to her, bringing a melodic, hypnotic line of clinks, like metal smacking metal. She turned on her WAV's headlights, watching the beams be devoured by the brighter source, pass through, and glitter off the shell.
And what a magnificent shell it was. Though it lacked any pop of color, the different, tiny segments of armor protecting its hide seemed to fit into each other smoothly, each movement an effortless transition that left no part uncovered or strained with multiple stacks.
Why would it? If she could help it, she would surely evolve to remove all eye-catching traits the Aud could track her with. She stared up at it, wondering if she was its first find of the day.
It halted a short distance away, close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off it. What looked like a jaw unhinged, and all the noise in the world seemed to fade away. The scampering Aud coming nearer and nearer, no doubt ready to tear a piece of the pie for themselves, disappeared from her concerns. It'd be quick. She closed her eyes.
And just as quickly--no, even faster, they were snapped back as she heard a voice. A human voice. Before she could turn her head to look at the rope animal again, her HUD beeped. The power core was empty.
No, no, no! The suit slumped, suddenly too heavy to be lifted by her exhausted muscles alone. What was worse, the servos that had previously shouldered most of the weight joined the useless bulk, pressing her down more. She needed to see what made the noise!
She was aware of movement and heard an explosion. No, several. What was fighting? She flinched, feeling the tremors from one especially close. Why now? After holding out this long, why'd the core have to expire now!?
She was jittery all over. Something was happening, and not even all the drugs dulling her thoughts could make her numb to it. Ironically, the still-growing pain in her chest helped retain her coherency. It had spread to her stomach, and she could feel it clawing at the rest of her body, ready to engulf her whole if she let it.
She was still in control. She could use the pain to her advantage and could direct the heat to where it would keep her alive. Because what other choice did she have?
The front of her armor jolted, knocking her head back. She cried out as it smacked the back of her helmet. With the power drained completely, the anti-grav padding no longer did its work to protect her. Unable to tell if it was a one-off occurrence or if it'd happen again, she helplessly braced herself.
It wasn't the former. Stronger this time, whatever force it was drilled into her with an indifferent fury. She couldn't even hear anything beyond the explosions. Was the rope beast still planning to eat her? Was it fighting the Aud?
And again. She bit down on her lip to keep from crying out again. She swore she heard something crack in her chest. Did she still have ribs left to break? Or was that lower, in her spine?
It took more jolts, each harder than the last. She was uncontrollably coughing blood after the first three, desperately hoping for the torment to end. Were the Aud playing with their food at this point? For crying out loud, she knew next to nothing about her situation!
One of the explosions hit what felt like meters away. Preoccupied with emptying her mouth of blood, she didn't have the time to call out again. Maybe that was why her ears were free enough to catch a different cry. Not the Aud. One more like her own.
She froze. There were other humans! Somehow her brothers and sisters had found her! The jubilation took her like an avalanche, crushing every hint of exhaustion and pain she was carrying. It wasn't over yet! She wasn't done yet!
They were trying to get her out of the armor. Why? Couldn't they lift it and take the whole thing with them?
She clenched her hands, getting the dull sensation of blood rushing through her joints as a response. They were taking too long. She needed to do something to help. The thing was, what could she do? Her body was a hair's breadth away from breaking down completely from blood loss and an overdose of liquid sun. Her suit was uncooperative--for completely legitimate reasons--and she still didn't know the next thing about what was happening outside of the WAV.
No, she did know a few things. Each jolt struck her thoughts into oblivion, but she forced them back together. She ignored how her bones were slowly cracking, how her blood was nearly boiling, and how her torso felt like a welding torch was wreaking havoc inside.
The rope creature wasn't immediately hostile, or she'd already be dead. The Aud had noticed them and were approaching, or were already nearby. She could think of two reasons as to why she was still breathing.
A large enough force of humans had appeared out of the black to rescue her and were holding back the mob of Aud and the rope animal. She didn't need to be fully there to know how unlikely that was. This left the other reason: the two "sides" had been pitted against each other.
The Aud saw humans as prey. She could warrant that something of the rope animal's size would have no difficulties coming to the same conclusion.
Before she could continue, her ears caught another crack. Thankfully, not whatever rib had survived the thrashing. It was the suit. A hot rush of air flooded inside the suit as another explosion sounded. It was as if she'd been stuck under a rock, and only now had it been lifted.
All the dampened noise returned in full force, drowning out her coughs. Those were human cries. She was ready to cry herself when she heard sonics blasting off. Another jolt, and she felt the crack press inward, but widen.
Once a single flaw appeared in the WAV's plating, the process sped up. Whoever was cutting her open was precise, yet risky, as evidenced by all the blood spilling down her front. They only spent long enough on any segment to loosen it, then moved on. She ground her jaw as the next jolt jarred her neck. They were going higher.
She pressed back far enough where she could see down the shaft of her neck coverings, so long as she strained. And at the very bottom, the jolt broke open a crack, extending it upwards. Light from outside--why was there light? Had they gone mad? Although the explosions lit up this greater tunnel already, turning on a permanent light was like bringing a red flag to bear against a bull.
The breach had traveled far enough upwards that her ears could now catch snippets of conversation. She disregarded everything that was said. If she could hear them, there was a good chance they could hear her.
"The helmet's locking mechanisms are damaged! Rip it off!" There was silence--relatively speaking, and she feared she had gone unheard. She braced for another jolt.
Instead, her helmet was there one moment and gone the next. She didn't even question how it'd been torn away so quickly. Jubilant, she squinted against the bright lights, trying to catch a glimpse of her saviors.
Someone was shouting. "She's conscious!"
"Fantastic! Now rip the rest of it off!"
"The plates covering her--"
"Damnit! Work faster!"
Someone seized the sides of her head, yanking her forward. She cried out but didn't resist as she felt the same jolts slam into her back. One by one, the WAV was being separated down the middle. She hacked out another glob of blood, holding back fresh tears she didn't know she'd been keeping in reserve.
"We're being too rough! She's not--"
"She can hold out, or she can die! We're rushing this!"
The time between the jolts decreased, and she found herself half-swallowing, and half-spewing the red fluid as fast as it came. How did she even have enough to continue letting loose like a fountain?
She could tell the ordeal was nearing its end when she felt lighter, and heard clatters behind her. The suit had finally reached the end of its journey and was being dismantled on the spot. The thought made her sad; it would rest here, forgotten as she'd worried about her own fate not even five minutes ago.
Wait, who cared about the armor? Her storage compartment! The blood and triangle emblem! She needed to get them to take--
An explosion went off so close she could feel the heat singe her face. There were dull screams of both kinds. She failed to keep her thoughts in order this time and went limp.
Something grasped her shoulders and yanked. With the groan of a dying animal, the WAV split open, revealing bloody, dying insides. Her. She would've fallen backward if large hands snaked around her back, keeping her upright.
"We'll yank the arm plating inside! Go, go, go!"
"Don't be a hero, damnit! Get over here!"
She was shaken and jarred as she was moved. Someone was cradling her, but she had reached her rope's end. The spark in her chest had turned into a flame, but that too wasn't an apt description. She was wracked in pain as the embers tore through her insides, all the numbing agents and paralyzing cocktails in the world unable to provide her safety any longer.
It felt like the fire was burning them out of her body too, determined to make her suffer even more if it could. Veiled by her eyelids, the tunnel dissolved into flashes, and sparks, and vague silhouettes dashing around.
Her ears, however, were spared none of the spectacle. She was forced to hear the screams--of horror, of pain--and the explosions without any protection to seal them out. The explosions were closer too, and several bangs she recognized as flash cylinders.
"Get her in first! Stop standing around!"
She mustered the strength to open her eyelids and froze. It turned out both her guesses were wrong. The rope animal had never been an enemy in the first place. In fact, it had never been a living organism at all.
The jaw was unhinged--or more accurately, the boarding ramp, and within, a long garage stretched as far as she could see. All around her, WAVs were retreating inside and out, some dragging with them limp suits. The dead or injured.
Of course. It all made sense now. She surrendered to the darkness eating at her eyes.