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The Shasheen had been herded towards a section of the planet’s shields. If they had been fully operational--or even half operational--this wouldn’t have been an issue, but since they were not, the hold points for the shield there were hit and destroyed. A section of the shield winked out of existence.

Gehenna, reroute shield power! Jace cried even as he helped the AI to get other hold points to stretch and more power surged into the rest of the shield.

But the Thylacine-class fighters were right there and started dropping through. The inner defense systems lit up and started firing at the entering enemy ships, but they were working at only 20% and the Thylacine-class fighters’ shields protected them from the scattered fire. He sent the small AIs as he thought of them to work on those as he focused on this matter.

“By the gods, they are inside,” Amana breathed.

The gun came onlight fully just as the iris under the stadium rotated open fully. The Thylacine-class fighters were still clustered by the shield opening, heading like a spear right towards the city center where he was.

Coming for me, are you? Well, let me give you the welcome wagon!

Jace sent a blast from the main gun towards the Thylacine-class fighters. It enveloped them in a green light that was almost blinding.

“What was that?” one of the Thaf’ell gasped.

“You have a big gun,” Jace said.

The planetary shield was about to close again, but Jace kept it open. The Hive that had its sights on Staed’s ship and Khoth’s old crew was about to fire. And the angle was just perfect.

Jace sent a blast from the big gun. It streaked up into the air so fast that it was a momentary green flash and nothing more. It burst into space and hit the Hive dead-center. The Hive exploded and Jace laughed.

“A Hive’s down! High Commander Staed’s ship is in the clear. I repeat, he is in the clear!” a triumphant Thaf’ell called out.

“Bless us,” Thadden whispered. “Bless us.”

“Bless the Pilot,” Khoth said.

“Now, not you, too,” Jace said without opening his eyes though he wished he could see Khoth’s beautiful face. But it would likely be just a blur of auras.

The shield above the planet was repaired and Jace was about to focus on powering them up and aiming for another Hive with the big gun, but that was when Gehenna alerted him.

Jace! JACE! One Thylacine-class fighter made it down! The Khul have landed!

Mecha-Jace

“Can anyone hear me? Is there anyone out there? AT ALL?” Thammah’s voice suddenly rose up through his and Jace’s comms.

“Khoth, could you talk to her? Got some things going on here,” Jace asked, eyes still closed, face still pale and body still mostly limp in Khoth’s arms.

“Flight-Commander Pyrrhus,” Khoth responded, having to shift Jace in his embrace slightly to answer.

“Khoth!” Thammah completely forgot his title. “Thank the Altaeth! What is happening? I lost contact with the Osiris!”

“The Khul are using some sort of dampening device,” Khoth explained, wincing slightly at revealing this. “It’s cut us all off.”

“Damn! Is Jace--the Pilot--ah, doing okay?” she asked, clearly understanding the “all” part of that sentence to mean that Jace was cut off too.

Jace made a thumb’s up. Eyes remained closed though. He answered, “I’m dandy, Thammah.”

“Well, that’s a relief!” And she did sound relieved. “And was that a Khul ship landing here? Well, I’m going to find out about that in a little bit.”

Khoth heard the roar of engines. “You cannot take a dropship against a Khul lander. Do not be mad, Thammah!” He, evidently, had forgotten her title too.

“I’m not. Who would use a lander to go up against the Khul? No weapons for goodness sake!” Thammah chuckled and there was the whine as the ship she was in rose.

“Then what are you flying?” Khoth demanded to know.

“I stole one of the Paladins, of course!” She let out a sigh as if he was the most foolish Thaf’ell ever. “They were all arrayed so prettily at the space port. And no one was using them at the moment despite us being under attack.”