“Aiu, I need a better warning for those laser attacks!” Eve complained. She had to lay on the floor in order to keep Lilly safe, and this was not good because it put her at a disadvantage. If the laser was followed up by another, not only would Lilly be hurt or killed, but she would be severely damaged or destroyed.

“I am. I switched all heat sensors on tracking the laser weapon on the destroyer. It seems to need a cooldown time before it can be used again. Try to get three more floors up and to the east wing. You will be able to jump onto the destroyer from there.”  Aiu replied hurriedly. She knew Eve was worried about Lilly, which was why she quickly adjusted her tactics to monitor the laser weapon for signs of it beginning to fire.

“Three floors got it. And thanks, Aiu. Sorry for yelling.” Eve felt bad. She knew she yelled out of frustration, but she should not have yelled at Aiu, who was doing everything she could for her.

“No apology needed. I understand.” Aiu replied softly. 

Eve only got to the second floor when Aiu warned her of another incoming laser attack. This time she was much quicker, giving Eve more time to cover Lilly. As she came to the floor she needed to reach, she burst through the door and began running down the hallway towards the far end where a window was. “Lilly, hold on and keep your head down. This will be a bumpy ride.”

“Mmm…” Lilly just wanted this all to be over. She wished that whatever Eve was about to do would be the end of it all. 

Eve knew Lilly was scared, but she did not have time to console her as she crossed her arms in front of her face and dived through the window. Eve felt the ground beneath her disappear. She moved her arms to see the large leg right in front of her. “Shit, I do not think I will make it.” 

With no other choice, Eve pulled a rope with a metal hook on the end out of her inventory. She made it in case they had to scale up a building or escape one. She never thought she would ever use it to swing herself up onto a giant A.I. Eve swung the rope and slung it out. The hook wrapped around a thick pipe that ran down the leg and got caught on a lip allowing it to secure itself to the pipe. 

Eve only felt her body jerk as she began swinging through the air up towards the top half of the leg. She waited until she was at the peak of the swing before twisting her body to make the rope swing around the leg and up more so she could get a hold of the top section of the leg. With one hand, she grabbed hold of another pipe and swung herself up. This entire time she was doing all this, bullets were raining down from above but were staying clear of the leg itself. It seemed to be programmed not to fire upon itself.  So as soon as she had a hold of the pipe, she was finally given a break. “Lilly, are you alive?”

“I think so…” Lilly replied almost in a whisper. She did not dare raise her head. She would not budge from her position until Eve told her it was okay. 

“Good… Hopefully, things will soon be over!” Eve said as she took out the last of her grenades, pulled the pins, and tossed all three of them down into the spot where the destroyer's leg’s knee joint was. She then pushed off as hard as she could on the leg to give her space from the blast. As her swing brought her backwards away from the leg. She let go of the rope, allowing her body to be carried backwards. 

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

All three grenades went off a few seconds apart. Eve brought her knees to her chest, covering not only both Lilly’s arms and legs but even her own head and chest as she was blown backwards by the force of the blast. As the wave of heat passed over her, she spun her body on Aiu’s command and reached out to grab the pipe attached to the other leg, stopping her movement as she hung in the air.  “Did that do it!?”

“I am not sure the whole area in the leg joint is red hot.” Aiu answered. She could only hope this attack did the job.

It seemed their wishes were granted as a creaking sound of metal rubbing against metal was heard, and the leg Eve attacked began to buckle under its own weight. “Eve, it's going down! Make your move now to get on top of this damn thing!”

“On it!” Eve let go of the leg she was holding on to and fell to the ground. She then began weaving back and forth as more bullets rained down from above. Just before the side of the destroyer was about to hit the ground, Eve slid underneath it and out the other side, firmly blocking any attacks from the turrets on the underside of the destroyer. “Damn! That was ruff.”

“No time to be standing around, Eve! You need to get this thing shut down.” Aiu reminded. She did not want Eve thinking she was out of the clear just yet.

“Understood!” Eve answered with a sigh before jumping up on the back of the destroyer and began her search for an access panel. 

Eve scanned the surface over and over until finally finding a single spot where the paneling was different from the rest. She took out a crowbar from her inventory and used that to pry up the opening. What she saw stunned her. The entire inner workings looked simple and very familiar to what she was used to. “Why does this look….”

“Eve…” Even Aiu was at a loss for words.

“Aiu, this is just causing more and more questions on what really happened that day. I will try to hack its memory banks and see what is really going on.”