“I thought sounds don’t carry over in space!” Bulco shouted, looking frantically to the sides.

“It doesn’t. It carried through the ground and the air in our suits,” Lana shot back.

“It’s the excavator!” Nori yelled. “It's coming this way, run!”

They left the container behind and made a mad dash toward the Hummer.

A stream of yellow energy hit the ground in front of them and it exploded outward. Luckily, the beam vaporized everything it hit, so there was no debris, but the concussion was still strong enough to throw everyone away like bowling pins.

Lana was thrown backward toward the crate and her back slammed painfully against the hard surface. She squinted in pain but her eyes shot open in horror at the view in front of her.

The excavator was chasing after her friends.

The impact had sent them all flying in the moon’s low gravity, but their zero-grav boots were advanced enough to pull them back down. Down to the ground and the enraged machine. It charged at Nori first, trying to squash her with its legs, while the head spun to the side and released another beam that barely missed Bulco. Lana could clearly hear Nori curse as she nimbly evaded the machine’s legs, using her arms as well as her legs, to launch herself back and forth. Lana thought for a moment she was seeing things as Bulco’s eyes flared in red. He picked up a rock the size of a dinner table and threw it at the excavator. The rock hit its head, turning it around, but not doing any discernible damage. Instead of turning back to the Engineer, the machine’s eyes flared up, pointing at a different figure sprawled on the ground. Nathan.

“No!” Lana screamed in horror as she saw the creature lowering its head and opening its mouth, aiming at the prone man.

Though her back still hurt, she pushed herself off the container’s wall and ran at the giant construct. “Leave him alone, you big rust bucket.” With a thought, she deactivated her boots and kicked her legs, launching herself at the creature. She hit the creature’s head just as it fired. The head jerked slightly, and the beam missed Nathan. Lana slid down onto its ring body.

“Lana, do something!” Nori cried. The athletic woman was moving like a circus acrobat as she dodged the many legs that kept trying to crush her.

Lana frantically looked around and spotted a dark console just next to her. She reached out and tapped it. A message flashed across her view.

Defense mode engaged. Interface locked.

“I can’t access the controls!” she shouted in panic. “It’s locked.”

The machine ignored her and turned to Nathan again.