Page 38 of The Alien Warrior's Vow

“Come on!” Simone screamed.

They ran desperately away from the Heronas’s tracking device. When she had the courage to glance back, she saw the troops gathering around the broken collar. One of the warriors held it up in his hands, inspecting the serrated edges. He scowled fiercely, his eyes darting back and forth in search of them.

Thankfully, his gaze passed right over hers and skittered away.

They were still cloaked.

“This way,” Sara said, darting into a tall building and flinging herself through the doors.

Emma lined up behind her, breathing hard.

Simone bent over, metal claws wrapping around the exoskeleton’s knees. “My heart was about to burst. I was so scared.”

“Me too.” Emma glanced at Kia. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“You saved the guys from orange bubbles, huh?” Simone said, straightening slightly.

“Yup.” Kia nodded.

Simone smirked. “Sounds… weird.”

“It’s an interesting story,” Emma said.

“One we’ll share in detail when this is over,” Sara mumbled, her eyes on the many doors in front of them. “The guards will be looking for us.”

Emma raised her chin. “Then we need to be quick.”

“Let’s go.” Kia glanced over her shoulder, “Simone, are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Let’s hope Clavas’s blueprint was right,” Sara mumbled.

They raced down the hall, following the directions Chozo had traced for them.

“I was born in the lab and spent all my years there. There’s no one who knows Heronas underground facilities better than me.”

“But are you sure it’ll be the same?”

“Yes.” He nodded firmly. “The blueprints don’t change.”

“It’s this way.” Emma hissed, charging down the stairs and rushing into the last door on the right.

The room was filled with boxy computers that hovered in the air. She saw no wires or connectors and yet every screen flashed with some kind of alien code. It looked like something from a techno-thriller and Emma’s head immediately began to ache.

“Run me through the plan again?” Emma murmured.

“We install the Trojan code into the Heronas computers, giving Rune the chance to bypass their firewalls and kill the force field.” Simone trembled. “It’s perfect except for the fact that I don’tread alien.”

Emma patted Simone’s shoulder. The clank of her metal fingers against the exoskeleton rang loudly. “Zar was boasting to everyone that you unlocked his restraints back when the Heronas held you hostage. You’ve done it before.”

Emma nodded at Simone. “You got this.”

“Alien technology is a lot harder to handle than ours.” Simone nervously bit her lip.

Kia made a fist. “Why don’t we just punch some things? Maybe that’ll be faster.”

---