Ten minutes before Axel's eventual arrival.
Jayvaughn was already losing all remaining shreds of hope.
He had spent the last twenty agonizing minutes frantically wrestling with the core engine of the Earthshaker, trying every conceivable tactic to disable it, but he was getting absolutely nowhere.
He did not possess a background in mechanical engineering, and the small specialized technical team he had brought along had already surrendered to despair.
The Earthshaker was fully active now, humming with destructive power, and its internal programming seemed specifically built to trigger an immediate, catastrophic self-destruct sequence upon any attempt at external intervention.
To make matters significantly worse, a hostile force of Levo operatives was firmly entrenched at the main exit, actively blocking their escape path.
