[h1]Katrina Meyer[/h1]

[quote] "Perhaps we should ask it a different question? The thing could just say go out the door and hit the trolley." He turned his attention to the robot. "Do the stairs go all the way down to the ground? Also, tell us of any armories along the way down if any and any that are near the base of the Wall itself."[/quote]

Kat let Vincent pose his more accurate question at the robot, whilst biting the inside of her lip in annoyance at herself. [i]He’s right; I’m just being too impatient.[/i] She didn’t typically have to talk to the robots after she’d messed around with them, except for a quick diagnostic check.

Still, she was mildly pleased with how she’d bypassed the overrides on this one, so she decided not to be too harsh on herself, and smiled back at the pipe-smoking gentleman who had complimented her on her handiwork.

The robot came out with its description of where they were and a variety of options for where they could be going (including an unhelpful base-jumping option, which to be fair was the best answer to her original question). There was one thing which stood out in Kat’s mind.

[i]Why on earth did it feel the need to bring up something called ‘Project Willow’..? Did it do it because I asked for weapons? Is it a weapon?[/i]

Pushing down her curiosity (there were likely many things about Periphery she didn’t know, and now was not the best time to try and figure them all out), Kat focused on the situation. 

[h2]BOOM[/h2]

[i]That shaking… They’re attacking the bottom of the wall! Are they trying to let through the Grit that can’t climb?[/i]

[quote] "I think we should get going down now. The armory in the North wall could take to long and the grit could flood the wall before we know it. Going back up for additional arms would probably take to long as well. I don't know how quickly we can adorn the implants, but if they don't require surgery, we should use them. Also we should stop at the emergency armory. That one is on the way and we can quickly get weapons then. I can even jump down the center of the flights and scout ahead. I'm not one for arguing what we do, but I don't really want to fight my way out and I do want to act."[/quote]

Pausing only for a moment, Kat looked the man who had spoken firmly in the eyes and nodded. 

“Sounds as good a plan as any. I can’t imagine base jumping into a horde of Grit, or waiting here for them to come find us will work better.”

[i]Then we just need weapons… If the surgery room has battle-ready implants, at least some of them won’t require any complex surgery. The ones that do will take too long for me to implant.[/i]

“Liam! Grab any implants that looks easy to use and let’s head out! ” Kat called, then paused for a moment. “Anbaric is a good brand, if you can see any!" [i]Decent shoulder tendril and forearm ballistic implants, and their subdermal electromagnetic skin-strips pack a punch. Assuming the Grit can be electrocuted, that is.[/i] 

Kat looked around the room for anything she could pick up before they headed out. Given that the surgery supplies had already been raided, and Liam was hopefully picking up some bionic implants, there wasn’t really any reason to stick around in this room. But something was still niggling her at the back of her mind.

Turning to Vincent, she started to say something, stopped, then shook her head and looked at him frankly.

“Do you think there’s any way we can ask a question to find out more on that ‘Project Willow’? If not, I can just extract the bot’s central data storage unit and analyse it later.”

She felt a little guilty for caring about this when her siblings could be in danger, which probably showed on her face- working on the bot had calmed her, but things still felt unreal. Yet given all that was going on Kat couldn't help but feel they needed all the information they could get… Especially if some huge weapon had gone missing. [i]We need to hurry. But like earlier, I shouldn't let my impatience get in the way of the information we might need.[/i]