Chapter 268: Three Minutes of Terrible Decisions

The bridge landed across two maintenance supports instead of dropping straight into the crusher, which was excellent luck for someone still attached to the problem. I released the tow ring before the cart rolled over its edge, then fired my fin jets towards a gap above the nearest support.

The burrower’s jaw closed where my middle had been, catching a steel guard rail and twisting it across its own teeth. A falling chain hooked the cart’s handle, leaving the bait hanging above the crushing chamber rather than disappearing somewhere impossible to reach.

[System: That’s your luck working, mate, not a reason to start believing your bones have improved. Keep moving while the machinery’s accidentally on our side. This koala’s drinking to your survival, not explaining to the next snake how you headbutted a fucking crane.]

Keep the beer off the controls, because if this ends badly I want the obituary blaming equipment failure rather than your fucking coaster. I landed beside the crane control box on a narrow maintenance ledge and looked for instructions that didn’t require spending three years earning a qualification.

Pike called through the yard speaker from the control room, telling me which lever would lift the chain holding the bait cart. Bridget had found the emergency operations diagram, and Lukas was watching the creature through the reinforced window instead of offering his ribs as a loading tool.

The lever had been labelled with a picture of a falling load and a man having a very disappointing afternoon. I decided the picture meant the system understood its customers, then asked Pike to confirm the direction before committing myself to becoming another warning.

I pulled the lift control with a solid tendril, raising the cart above the open crusher throat. The burrower followed the pulsing bait, dragging its weight across the broken bridge while loose concrete fell from the supports beneath it.

Two minutes and thirty seconds remained on Snake-Eyes Gamble when it struck the ledge below my coils. The support cracked, but a loose panel swung out and caught my falling tail, giving me something firm to push against before the rest of the ledge broke away.

"Pike, tell me there’s a way to lower this beast into the useful machinery before it finishes redesigning the yard," I called. He answered that the old crusher could still cycle, but its safety gate needed to be shut from beside the pit.

Bridget moved towards the control room door before I told her I would handle it. "Then give me something useful on this side, because watching you nearly die isn’t my idea of contributing," she replied when I explained where the gate stood.

She had earned a useful answer, and I wanted her helping from somewhere that couldn’t swallow her. She could hold the emergency stop ready while Lukas kept the access door clear and Pike watched the motor temperature, because crushing something this large was apparently rude to ageing equipment.

[System: Ninety seconds of luck left, champ, and I hate to interrupt your first successful team meeting, but the customer’s about to climb onto the same ledge as your arse.]

Offer the bastard a refund if it stops climbing, and I’ll put its preferred seating arrangement straight through the crusher. I used a short burst from both fin jets to cross the pit, passing the hanging bait closely enough to pull the creature’s head away from my friends.

Its hooked forelimb struck a weakened beam above me, bringing the beam down across its own armoured neck. The impact forced its front half into the crusher throat while I reached the safety gate and dragged it along its track with two solid coils.

The gate caught on loose stone before closing fully, and the warning light stayed red. I pushed harder while the burrower twisted beneath the beam, watching the System counter fall towards the end of a very generous arrangement I had no ability to extend.

A chunk of broken railing landed beside the gate, striking the trapped stone and knocking it free. I pulled the final distance, the warning changed, and Pike started the cycle while the beast’s lower limbs still scraped for purchase on the broken bridge.

The jaws of the crusher closed across its exposed underside with a grinding roar that drowned out the yard speakers. It fought the pressure, bending the support beam across its back until a loose hook snapped and struck the armour seam beneath its skull.

The hit landed with the cruel precision my temporary luck had promised, and the creature’s movement changed from attacking to struggling. I stayed clear of its limbs while Pike completed the cycle, refusing to celebrate until the great body stopped trying to pull itself back towards the road.

Snake-Eyes Gamble ended before the machinery finished winding down, leaving ordinary fear, ordinary pain and a very ordinary desire to be somewhere else. The result had been heads, but I had seen enough people near the pit to understand how easily tails could have changed who needed rescuing.

[System: Borrowed monster stopped, and there’s two thousand EXP plus twenty IP. Seventeen thousand two hundred and fifty EXP, a hundred and eighty IP, and you’re still D+, so don’t start challenging the bloody moon.]

I was planning to challenge a sandwich, then ask Bridget whether she fancied an evening without a reinforced safety window between us. I accepted the figures without mistaking them for healing, then climbed towards the service ramp as Bridget emerged from the control room carrying my fallen chef’s hat.

Pike checked the motor before letting anyone cross, while Old Mate muttered, [System: Listen to the bloke, champ; surviving the monster then dying to a switch would be fucking embarrassing.]

Lukas began explaining which part of the fight would have looked best on camera until a shot cracked across the yard. The tyre beside Bridget’s parked vehicle burst, dropping its corner while she stepped away from the door instead of taking cover behind the exposed glass.

Rusk came through the side entrance with her sidearm raised and two guards holding the route behind her. She ignored the dead burrower, pointed directly at Bridget and told me to stop moving unless I wanted to discover how much of my lucky afternoon had already ended.