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“Greed, Pride, just fucking obey Ghost,” said Nebty, “and don’t mind Warlock!”
“Get ready to hack,” grunted Eden, a bit thankful Nebty spared her the scolding.
She was having trouble breathing, climbing, and watching her surroundings at the same time, but her ascent was quick. She only regretted that the depth of the wall wouldn’t allow her to simply cross over. She could climb up thanks to what had already been destroyed, but the hole hadn’t pierced through the concrete enough for the other side to appear. Only perhaps a third or half of the wall was blasted apart; there was still a long way to go as Thao’s tank kept firing.
“Ghost, Nebty, it’s Anubis. They are retiring some of their forces in the north; chances are they are sending them your way!”
Eden grimaced, but that was predictable. Since the army in the north couldn’t go in, they were stuck there no matter how much they fought, and with the west side being the closest to the Arcadia Tower, the Core had probably understood this side was going to be more bothersome.
“Sapphire here! We managed to even the odds a little here, but we won’t last much longer without reinforcements; we’ve lost a lot of people! We could use more hackers!”
“Pride, go help the south,” grunted Eden.
“Are you sure?”
“I have enough support from Warlock and Greed until I’m in. Focus your team on the south, for now. I’ll let you know once we’re in!”
“Crash just got into the Dark Reality, Ghost,” said Nebty. “Nekhbet will get there at the same time as you!”
“Good,” she nodded.
She didn’t have much oxygen left, but she was almost there. Suddenly, the tank fired another blast, and everything around Eden shook violently. She screamed involuntarily, grabbed a piece of concrete next to her, and stuck her body against the rocks, waiting for it to pass.
“Thao, for fuck’s sake!” shouted Lecky in their ears.
“Once again, not a precision weapon! Stop whining! We’re almost there!”
“Yeah, but we’re still all dead if she doesn’t make it!”
“Ghost, are you alright?” asked A.
“Yeah... Yeah, sorry, it surprised me. I’m almost at the fans. Thao, keep shooting, I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t get yourself killed, Ghost,” said Circé. “If you fall from that height...”
Eden rolled her eyes. She had tried not to think about it and not look down, but since she was almost at the top of the wall, she was indeed deadly high already. She forced herself not to look again and resumed her climb.
“Just... try not to shoot too close,” she groaned.
“...If you hit near her again, I’m killing you.”
“Just you try!”
“Dante, Thao, we really don’t have time for this!” protested Lecky. “You can kill each other all you want after we’re done, but please cooperate a little bit longer!”
Eden sighed. She couldn’t believe they still had the time and air to argue down there. In fact, things were getting much harder for her as she approached the fans. She was closer to all those toxic gasses, and she began coughing despite her mask, which was having trouble filtering so much.
“Eden, you okay?” asked Dante.
“I’m going to have to jump right after Loir takes control. Circé, can you find me a way down that won’t kill me?”
“...I may have an idea. Give me a minute!”
“...No problem,” sighed Eden.
She still had at least that much time before reaching the top. With each of the tank’s blasts, of which Thao was making an effort to not shoot too close to her, everything under her was on the brink of collapse, and twice, Eden had to hold on to the column itself. Finally, though, she reached the loud fans. They looked like gigantic fans with grids in front of them, but they were obviously controlled by advanced technology. Using the grid to hold on, Eden looked around for anything that could have been part of the System.
“Got it!” she exclaimed. “Loir, Crash, Greed, get ready, I’m opening this one up to hack!”
