Vision Ember - Shards of Aether: Book 2

Chapter 28

It was too late. Red light sizzled in front of them, the explosion shuddering the entire craft. The reactive shields had activated just in time, but the interaction was enough to throw Kazzy to the side.

The Captain growled. "Shit, they're not playing around. To hell with diplomacy."

She sprayed a trio of Aetheric bolts to the far end of the Hangar. None of them reached the end, two impacting on the ground and one on a cloaked craft. The impacted craft shifted on the ground but maintained its balance on its landing gear. Roughly half of it was now visible.

"Looks like they can't shield and cloak at the same time," Domrik observed, hastily removing his right gauntlet and popping a crystal from the store in the back of his armor. "But we can."

"We can?" the Captain wondered, confused, as she swayed Kazzy from side-to-side, avoiding most of the incoming fire while returning her own. A handful of damaged Jets had been unveiled, more popping into existence with each volley Kazzy threw at them.

"Sort of," Domrik admitted, remembering that the soldiers he encountered during the heist were able to partially penetrate his illusion. "If they know about illusions, they probably have a way of detecting them, too."

"Team Eight has joined us," the Captain reported. "Hold off on the cloaking, Specialist. They can't see us. And we can't take much more of this. The reactive shields are overheating."

"Land there," Domrik said, indicating the spot on the floor. "You'll have partial cover from that cloaked craft."

"Squad Three, inform all craft to land as soon upon entry to the facility. An aerial fight in here is too dangerous."

The landing was rough, and everyone was out of their seats before the shuddering ceased. The Captain barked her orders. "We need to get to the nearest hangar wall, ASAP. We can take cover behind the pillar. Specialist, target as many hidden craft as you can. We need to know where everything is."

"I can keep us cloaked from the attackers while still visible to the other Teams," Domrik said as he jogged after them through the cargo bay and down the ramp.

"Do it," she said, levelling her rifle toward the direction of incoming fire. She ran sideways as she covered for the rest of her team. They crossed the ten meter distance to the wall without taking a hit, thanks to Domrik's illusion. Kazzy's reactive shields flared a few times until all fire was drawn to Teams Seven and Eight."

Using his arm blasters, Domrik marked all of the cloaked craft in rapid succession, damaging each one enough to unveil part of its hull to the others. He extended their cloak a dozen meters out, so that their bolts were invisible to their attackers for at least part of their quick journey. Marking their attackers wasn't so easy, as they were in constant motion moving along the opposite wall, using the landing gear of adjacent Jets for partial cover. At the far end, another craft lifted away.

"They're migrating and spreading out, Captain," Domrik said, firing a couple bolts to indicate the general area of their new location. Team Seven was also spread out, partially protected by Domrik's cloak, while Team eight used the cargo ramp of their own Jet as cover. The pilot still remained in the cockpit, firing the cannons at a regular interval. The cooldown between each usage was several seconds. It was too slow. Their reactive shields were overworked. Before one minute had passed since landing, the craft took several bolts to the windshield. The front end exploded, causing the remaining hull to collapse forward. Team Eight retreated, scrambling to the nearest wall pillars for the scant cover they offered. More Guard Jets arrived at that moment, but they hovered clumsily around the expanse of the hangar as they tried to find a safe landing spot. Each took substantial damage from the growing number of cloaked soldiers before finally touching down.