Heart and Claw Update

3k words. Had some bumps in the road writing this one out, but should be a good enough payoff for the conclusion.

***

Cooper placed a hand on the lip of earth covering him and Pearl, the pair looking down the length of road towards the structure in the near distance. The lodge emitted an aura of light, a yellow ball that encompassed both the building, and the walls of the pen that flanked the acres behind it.

Under the cover of darkness, they had snuck close enough to the lodge that they could hear the rattling of the mounted guns, the turrets swiveling on their stands as they tracked for movement. He could see men and women manning the walls, patrolling from left to right, the occasional piece of chatter lost over the distance. His suspicions had been right, the lodge had stepped up its security, which meant there was a good chance Jade was somewhere nearby. Neither he or Pearl voiced this fact.

“Any second now,” Pearl muttered, peeling back her hood a little to look out to the building. “There! Look!”

He turned his eyes skyward, movement on the roof of the lodge drawing his attention. Framed against the stars, the skies clear enough now that one could make out the many nebulas canvasing the heavens, was a spiky mass, stalking its way across the slanted rooftop, the tiles creaking under its weight.

Cooper held his breath, fearing the whole thing would come crashing down at any second. The burly figure darted over the peak, scanned its surroundings, then vanished from sight. After a few tense seconds, the roof did cave in, though for reasons other than the weight of the figure.

There was a tremendous bang, clouds of smoke and shrapnel pluming out from the rooftop, tiles and bricks falling down the sides of the building. The damage was controlled to the apex of the building, the structure holding fast, but bringing the lodge down wasn’t the plan.

Back on the ground level, roughly half of the turrets mounted on the walls stopped rotating, every other emplacement powering down with a distant whir. Someone shouted from afar, and then another explosion shook the earth, this one located on the opposite side of the lodge from where Cooper was crouching. The blast wasn’t huge, but the effects were immediate, some of the floodlights illuminating the area cutting off with loud clicks.

“Hope she didn’t catch herself in those blasts,” Cooper murmured. “I know your scales are tough, but shrapnel from a mine is no joke.”

“She’ll be fine,” Pearl reassured. “Looks like team C got the signal.”

She pointed further down the walls, what few sentries he could see on the barricades aiming their guns inside the pen, firing at something out of his view. In the near-darkness, the muzzle flashes lit up like beacons, more worried shouting reaching his ears as more men joined the chorus of gunfire.

Something else could be heard as well. The distinct buzzing sound of rapidly beating wings, along with the clicking and growling that could only belong to an adult gecko. Yet another blast sounded off, but from a grenade this time, snow raining down over the point of impact towards the east side of the pen. He could see Matriarch and one of the laborer’s scale the electrified fence, rushing into the fray. The last two deathclaws were on the far side of the lodge, doing the exact same thing if the sounds were any clue.

“Déjà vu…” Pearl whispered.

“What’s that?” Cooper asked.

“When me and the other hybrids escaped the Enclave,” Pearl began, her bright eyes oddly reminiscent of the explosions. “our plan relied on unlocking the holding areas for the ferals, using them to cause chaos while the rest of us slipped away.” She looked back at the lodge. “Pretty much doing the exact same thing now. I guess they always say don’t reinvent the wheel.”

“We should get moving,” Cooper said, his suit whirring as he got to his feet, Pearl following. They dashed across the road to the other side, keeping low as they approached the corner of the forward wall. Things might get a little awkward if a caravan decided to turn up right now, but that was something they had to risk.

“Hold up,” Pearl hissed, motioning for him to stay put as she peeked around the corner. Cooper kept his laser rifle trained on the walls, his sights sliding over one of the unpowered turrets. Hopefully those solar panels and the battery banks were the only things they had to worry about, and there wasn’t some auxiliary unit stashed away somewhere.

“Three guards,” Pearl reported. “They’re moving back inside… alright, go go go.”

They rounded the corner, hugging the wall as they approached the main entrance, Cooper’s heart racing as every electric whir of his suit potentially betrayed his position. Pearl was paradoxically quieter, her massive frame trudging lightly along the gravel.

As they moved up on the arched gate, Cooper took the lead this time, checking his loaded cell one last time as he got ready. He’d had his complaints about approaching through the front door, but Pearl had managed to convince him, her excuse echoing through his thoughts as he shouldered his new gun.

“Attacking from the front is so obvious that nobody will suspect it!”

Cooper turned out, Pearl whisking out to his left as he scanned the lodge’s front side. It seemed she had been right, there was not a soul in sight watching the inner courtyard, nobody behind the mechanism that would shut the gate. There was the mounted pair of turrets to one side that was angled this way, but their targeting systems were offline, the barrels angled towards the ground.

“Told ya,” Pearl whispered, Cooper seeing that she’d bounded across half the courtyard in a few moments. She seemed to get faster every time she put her athletics on display. “C’mon.”

He joined her at the door, the wooden beams creaking under his exosuit, Cooper peering his helmeted head through one of the windows. The expansive lobby was almost still under the light of the chandelier. Almost. He could see people dashing out of the wings and from the stairs flanking the centralized bartop, filing towards the rear doors, shouting orders at each other. There was at least a dozen of them at a glance.

“Let’s wait till most of them are outside,” Pearl said, looking over his helmet. “but not for too long, we can’t wait for Hendrix to get his people under control.”

When the groups of rushing guards died down, they made their move, Cooper shoving aside the door with his gauntleted arm, Pearl sweeping into the room right after. The bulk of the guards were out in the pen, visible between the far windows, shooting at shadowy outlines further out, but their rearguard weren’t so oblivious.

A group of six armed guards were holding the lobby when Pearl and Cooper barged inside, each one peering back to give the newcomers confused looks. Cooper didn’t let the moment of surprise go to waste. He pulled the stock of his laser rifle into his shoulder, taking aim at the man halfway up the staircase on the left, and squeezed the trigger.

Pm-Pm-Pm! Three bright red lasers lanced across the lobby, the weapon jumping in Cooper’s arms. His target’s leather chestpiece did little to deflect the incoming energy, the man’s cry of alarm cutting short as three burning holes pocked his torso. His legs gave out, and he tumbled down the stairs, the smell of cooking flesh filling the air.

Pearl was already dashing across the lobby before the dead guard had rolled to the last step, brandishing one of her hands, her claws snicking out of their sheaths. The guard unfortunate enough to be closest to her fired his rifle in full-auto, the sound of ripping fabric just audible over the barking weapon. Pearl swiped his head clean off his shoulders, the body part flying through the air to land inside one of the adjacent wings.

As the headless body crumpled, the remaining guards started yelling out in alarm, directing their fire on Pearl. The nimble deathclaw danced out of the way, ducking behind one of the support columns, clutching her horned head as the bullets showered her position.

Cooper moved right, kicking over a table with his armoured boot and kneeling behind it, aiming at a guard taking cover behind the bar. His first shot scored one of the glittering bottles lining the counter, the glass fracturing into a shower of shards. The second shot hit the guard in the shoulder, the man crying out, but not going down, calling for his counterparts while pointing at Cooper.

The table that was his cover was quickly shredded, and with the added height of the power armour, Cooper was forced to move, strafing out to the right as he filled the room with burning arcs of energy. The amount of recoil from his laser gun was less than he expected, throwing off his next couple of shots as he got used to the weapon.

He darted into the wing branching off the lobby, putting his back to the solid wall. He fired off a few blind shots around the corner, his weapon clicking impotently after a few discharges. He slapped a gloved hand into the receiver, the energy cell popping out like a bottlecap, Cooper producing a replacement from his belt and shoving it into the slot. The electric whir informed him he was reloaded.

He couldn’t see Pearl, but Cooper couldn’t afford to keep track of her, turning out the corner and aiming at the wounded guard again. There was a momentary flash as something slammed into his slatted visor, leaving a little ingrain in the fiberglass. A squashed bullet fell to his feet, Cooper’s heart hammering in his chest as he returned fire.

This time, his lasers were fatal, the man going down with a mist of blood spraying behind him. Cooper turned his sights on the next guard, seeing they were retreating up the steps, using the balconies as cover to fire down on him.

As he relocated, dashing up the length of the lobby, he spotted Pearl, seeing her advancing on the other side. She could only dodge and weave so much in the limited space, and he saw more than one trail of her blood in her wake, concern momentarily overcoming him. Two of the guards on that side had backed off, unwilling to let Pearl get close. They dashed upstairs, but one tripped over his own feet in his haste, pleading for his companion to help him, who didn’t look back until he reached the second floor.

Pearl dragged the fallen guard towards her by his feet, pinching her fingers together to form a bundle of sharp claws, then impaled them through the back of his uniform, her claws undoubtedly poking through on the other side. His screams of terror went silent shortly after.

She pulled her hand free, a curving sheet of blood draping off her fingers, turning her draconic features to the remaining men. She climbed the steps, but the guards concentrated their fire on her, and as quick as she was, the narrow staircase did her no favours. Pearl hissed in pain as several bullets found their marks, and she shielded her face as she backed away, diving beneath the bar top for cover.

Cooper fired off another burst, but he couldn’t get a shot, the chandelier put him at a bad angle. They blanketed the lobby with automatic fire, breaking bottles and shredding plaster, Cooper forced to duck away. He picked his moment, leaning out and firing off another burst, the lasers catching on the many branching pieces of wood jutting from the chandelier, glass raining down on Pearl’s head.

They couldn’t afford to waste any more time, that was exactly what the guards were doing, delaying them until someone came over to assist. They needed to end this now.

He waited for a break in the fire, then leaned out of cover once more, brandishing the flare gun in one hand. A bright ball of light sailed up to the second floor, listing a little to the left and trailing white sparks. The flare landed right between the two guards, both of them shielding their eyes at the sudden influx of light.

“Now Pearl!” Cooper called out, but his companion was already leaping up the stairs, her robe fluttering out behind her as she sprinted on all fours. The guards had recovered in seconds, but that was all Pearl needed to close the distance, turning the corner and seizing one of the guards, slashing him across his chest with her deadly claws.

The second guard aimed his weapon, but Cooper pulled the trigger faster, peppering his flank with a stream of lances. As his shots found their marks, a sizzling sound filled the lobby, Cooper’s eyes going wide as the man began to seemingly fade away, falling out of sight behind the balcony railing. There was no thump as he hit the ground.

Pearl gave the strange scene a weary glance, then nodded at him gratefully, her shoulders rising and falling as she caught her breath. “You check downstairs!” she called out, gesturing with an arm. “I’ll look up here.”

Cooper did as she asked, leaning his helmeted head inside the wings, busting down locked doors with his weapon, the power armour frame giving him the extra strength needed. He reappeared in the lounging area where he’d first met Hendrix, the fireplace still crackling away under the mantle, but the room was empty, as was the other wing when he looked throughout the barracks. Everyone must be outside dealing with the chaos the pack had caused.

He moved up the stairs, the wooden boards groaning worryingly under his tremendous weight, his boot landing in what looked like a pile of ash. This must be the last guard he’d shot, the laser gun had disintegrated him. Grimacing, he lifted his boot out of the ash pile, and walked around it.

He spied his companion on the far left side of the balcony. She’d gone through every door systematically it seemed, with only the three leftmost ones yet to be searched.

“Nothing,” he informed her as he ran up, noting that there were dozens of holes in her robe, a trail of wet blood trickling down her legs to leave a trail. “Shit Pearl, you’re hit.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she replied, holding up a hand. “Just help me find this guy.”

The next room was a bathroom, empty, and the one after was the kitchen, also abandoned. That left only one more place to search. Cooper kept his gun trained on the ground floor as Pearl moved to the door, grasping the doorknob and giving it a twist, the device not budging.

Pearl lifted a brow at him, then told him to step back, raising a digitigrade leg and giving the door a swift kick. The lock broke, and it swung inward, Pearl squeezing her shoulders inside, Cooper following her through.

They found themselves in a long, narrow room, with a couple of pristine couches positioned between tall bookshelves stacked against one wall. Opposite these furnishings was a huge window looking out over the acres of land behind the lodge, the glass inlaid with metal brackets. On the far side was a desk and chair, with a terminal resting upon the former, its screen currently switched off.

Looking out through the glass was Hendrix himself, his aged features illuminated by the moonlight, his wrinkles casting hard shadows on his face. As he turned to look at the pair, a flash of recognition passed over him when he looked to Cooper, but he gave Pearl a hard glance, unaware of her true identity thanks to the robe.

“So this is how you repay my generosity, Mister Cooper?” the old man asked, his voice more authorative than his appearance would suggest. “I hire you to perform a task, and then you assault my compound using the tools I gave you?”

“It’s nothing personal,” Cooper replied, his helmet giving his voice a robotic quality.

“A tiresome reply from your typical, thoughtless mercenary,” Hendrix muttered, turning to Pearl. “And what about you? Did Mister Cooper here promise you a sum of the rewards he claims I hold?”

“No,” Pearl answered. “For me, this is personal.”

She drew back her hood, her forked tongue snaking between her chops as she tasted the air, Hendrix taking a step back in alarm. It was the only time Cooper had seen the old man falter.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on Cooper,” Pearl continued. “You told him to bring me back here, and he did. Maybe you should be a little more careful with how you word your requests, Hendrix.”

“So you can talk,” the old man muttered, quickly regaining his composure despite Pearl’s efforts to appear intimidating. “Why did you not answer me the last time you were here? We might have reached some level of understanding, Omega…”

“We have plenty of time to chat now,” Pearl said. “Don’t we? You lodge is in chaos, and your guards are dead. You and me are all alone now.”

“Aren’t we?” Hendrix countered. “I count at least one other person in this room.”

“Cooper’s staying, I want him to hear all of this.”

“Oh, I wasn’t just talking about him.”