A siren whooped… one long, two short.
In response, the turrets pivoted as the floodlights cut left like a turning school of fish. Then out of the dark, they came… Runner Knots.
Runner Knots, dozens of quadrupeds linked belly-to-back by strands of sinew like pulsing rope, moving as one organism that could absorb gunfire like a sponge until it chose to throw parts of itself forward.
It was grotesque, it was eerie, and it was monstrously terrifying.
The knot accepted gunfire rounds with hideous patience, reallocation shivering through flesh cables.
At twenty meters, it suddenly flared open, flinging a dozen sprinting bodies toward a weak angle between towers.
"Brace!" An authoritative voice blared across the wall.
"Right there," Ethan said, pointing even though no one could shoot from this range. "That seam…"
Reid was already shaking his head. "They see it."
On the tower seam, four shadows rose all at once.
