"What? What are you doing?" Rex roared, blasting apart aggregates lunging at them.
"No time to explain! Just do it! It's our only chance!" Kael's tone brooked no argument.
Confused but trusting his commander implicitly, Rex complied. "Dammit! Follow my lead!"
He transformed into a human tank, unleashing his blaster's maximum firepower, heedless of energy consumption, and launched a short, brutal charge towards the spacecraft wreckage! Kael followed close behind, his blade clearing threats from the flanks.
The crystalline sentience seemed to sense their intent. The attacks grew even more frenzied! More aggregates surged forth, energy rays fell like torrential rain, and the entire lab's crystalline matrix churned as if boiling.
"Lia! If you can still hear me!" Kael shouted into his comm during the charge, "Find a way to disrupt it! Any form of disruption! Attack its network presence! Attack Vance's remains! Anything!"
Whether spurred by Kael's call or a temporary victory in her internal struggle, Lia's frozen body jolted violently. The chaotic gibberish in her eyes was instantly replaced by a sharp, focused data stream! With immense effort, she raised her arm again—not to aim her pistol, but to point her palm at the shrieking remains of Director Vance!
A high-frequency electromagnetic pulse erupted from her palm. It wasn't aimed at the physical structure, but directly at the energy link between Vance's remains and the crystalline core!
"Ggraaahhh—!" Vance's remains let out an even more distorted shriek, the whispers cutting off instantly as his body convulsed violently.
Simultaneously, the data streams in Lia's eyes went haywire again—she was clearly bearing the brunt of the crystal's furious counter-assault—but this time, she held her ground firmly!
The disruption worked! The lab's energy field fluctuated momentarily, and the crystalline aggregates froze for a split second!
"Now!" Seizing the opportunity, Rex used his last reserves of strength to shove Kael forward powerfully!
Propelled by the force, Kael shot like an arrow across the final few meters, tumbling into cover behind the black spacecraft wreckage!
Sheltered somewhat from the most direct radiation of the crystal core, the terrifying mental pressure and phantoms lessened. Kael gasped for breath, his eyes rapidly scanning the wreckage.
His hunch was right! The material of this non-human ship was unique. Even partially assimilated, the untouched portions still offered significant resistance to the energy radiation!
His target wasn't the wreckage itself, but a severely damaged, dark-colored device—buried halfway in the crystalline matrix beside the wreck—that looked like the ship's core power source!
If his reasoning was correct, if this race's technology allowed for interstellar travel, perhaps even contact with entities like the crystal, then their ship might... just might... have emergency measures for such a threat! Even if only theoretical, even if damaged, it was worth a try!
He reached out, ignoring the potential risks, and slammed his hand onto the broken, dark device!