Page 87 of Stars At Dusk

They heard radios buzzing as the internal teams tried to contact their colleagues outside.

They’re onto us. Mirage, knock out the command centre. Leave them in the dark, Riv ordered.

Done, Wraith, Mirage said.

From the roof, Kage kicked in a door leading to a stairway to every warehouse floor. Riv walked in behind him. Their drones infiltrated the warehouse behind the pair, working their way through the building via the stairs. They moved into support positions to isolate the building, equipped with enough firepower to deal with shooting through the building itself.

Inside the building, Kage and Riv swept past more of their stealth drones tasked to scout ahead and serve as sentries at essential junctures. They were patched into Mirage to warn of movement and call fire.

Kage and Riv moved quickly and silently, neutralising guards with stun lasers. A few put up a good resistance, but the Riders were superior in combat. They compartmentalised and isolated sections of the building, ensuring they weren’t ambushed or trapped inside. Five guards fell, then another six.

That’s all of them,Riv finally confirmed.

The pair bundled the guards up, tying them and placing them in a second heap.

Kage looked at his wrist comm. Only seventeen minutes had elapsed since infiltration. They were keeping a good time.We’re clear, Mirage. Light the way up to our ship.

Sending you the coordinates now.

Mirage pinged them with the telemetry of the building, providing direction and guidance to the pair until they reached the ample warehouse space.

Where their corvette, Aura, sat, nose up, ready for disassembling.

Dammit,Kage grounded out, looking up at the metal scaffold framework surrounding the ship.They wrapped it so they could start tearing it up. Mirage, can you patch into Aura and tell me how much damage it’s taken?

I’ll try my best, Shadow. You may need to fire up her core first so we’ve got some power running, then I can see if she can fly at all. And how much fuel she has.

I’m going in,Kage confirmed, nodding to the man by his side.

Go. I’ll be point,Riv nodded, settling against a wall close to the base of their stolen corvette.

Kage used his suit’s thrusters to reach the well-hidden doorway. He pushed a hidden button, and a panel materialised on Aura’s external skin, where various indicators lit up. He queried the system to get a reading on the antimatter. Relief poured through him when it reported some power and 100% containment.

We’ve got about 49% battery. Enough to get us off Rhesia to where Glimmer can augment Aura’s antimatter with some of her own.

Good news then,Mirage said.

Don’t get too excited. Depends on the engines. Doesn’t look like they bypassed our security, either. Loads of nicks and damage around the edges of the door. They figured out where it was, but they couldn’t get in.

Kage waved his wrist comm over the panel, and the skin of the corvette transformed into a doorway.

He used his neural link to send a bypass code to the panel, and as the lock cycled, it whirred. The door slid back and to the side, letting him in. He prowled inside. Aura’s interior was silent. Marching straight to the command deck he patched into the systems and engines located in the engineering compartment, along with the power plant and batteries were located.

Dammit, Wraith,he said via his node.The crats severely blasted the engine on Dunia. With the power we have, it’ll give us enough to get into the air but only just to limp along. We’ll need to have Glimmer run a tractor beam and get Aura out of here, then tow her all the back to Eden II. Mirage, please prep Glimmer and see how we can blast that roof off to get away.

Riv paused for a beat before responding.Sucks brother. Do what you need to. It’s quiet down here. Not a bogey is stirring.

Belay that,Mirage piped up.Shadow, Wraith, I’ve detected some new players headed your way. In flyers. About six of them. Sending images to you now.

A holo feed flickered into Kage’s HUD. Six flyers were indeed converging on their position.

Should I take them out?

Kage grimaced.Wraith?

Nada. Let’s see who they are first and what they want. You two keep truckin’. I got this.

Kage hurried. He primed the corvette for lift-off, adjusted for its damage and checked that its weapons were still workable.They were, thank Eden,he thought.

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