Our Benefactors, Part 3 / Dark Energy
There was no strength left in his limbs; arms, legs, hands, feet, even the muscles that kept him breathing were trembling, not with exertion but with exhaustion. How much further did he have to go? How much more did he have to do? One Strider lay dead behind him among the heaped corpses of Elites, brought low by the Combine's own energy orbs torn away with the gravity gun. Were there more? What else was coming?
As he stepped around the corner and caught site of yet another precipice and another system of transport pods he almost cried. He couldn't do it again. There was nothing left to hang on with.
One of the pods slithering by was occupied. The wasted, withered figure inside had been a human, once; some sort of metal plate covered where its eyes had been, and metal rods poked from the visible ends of its legs like mockeries of prosthetic science. As Gordon swallowed, its head thrashed violently, and it let out an inarticulate roar.
( "Look, Gordon. Look at what you're throwing away. Is it worth it?" Dr. Breen had said- )
There was no other way. Not for him.
Sorry, Ender, but this time the enemy's gate is up, he caught himself thinking as he clambered into the next transport pod to open in front of him. He'd find a way to make it work somehow, but right now, he couldn't do this any other way.
As he stepped around the corner and caught site of yet another precipice and another system of transport pods he almost cried. He couldn't do it again. There was nothing left to hang on with.
One of the pods slithering by was occupied. The wasted, withered figure inside had been a human, once; some sort of metal plate covered where its eyes had been, and metal rods poked from the visible ends of its legs like mockeries of prosthetic science. As Gordon swallowed, its head thrashed violently, and it let out an inarticulate roar.
( "Look, Gordon. Look at what you're throwing away. Is it worth it?" Dr. Breen had said- )
There was no other way. Not for him.
Sorry, Ender, but this time the enemy's gate is up, he caught himself thinking as he clambered into the next transport pod to open in front of him. He'd find a way to make it work somehow, but right now, he couldn't do this any other way.