Witness [A First Contact Romance]

21. The Desolation (Part 2)

Lumiea

Year -20 (L.D.)

That couldn't be. Why would anyone set a trap? This was not a hotspot where battles raged or a place where anything was to be won. What would rebels who managed to get their hands on mods want to do here? But it had to be. How else would they have projected a heat signature that matched a person into this alley?

"Call it in," Aeryn said to Trin. They were not ready to fight against rebels with real equipment.

"Back to camp," Alix said. "That's protocol."

"Lyon!"

The warning had scarcely left Jace's lips when a hunk of concrete Trin had thrown flew through the air over Lyon's face. A thin beam of energy shattered it.

Their boots scraped against the ground as all five of them flattened against the wall of the building for cover.

The combat soldiers already started firing their guns, providing cover so no one could pursue while they bought precious seconds to gather data about their attackers.

Aeryn unclasped the protective flap covering the vials of fuel at her hip and latched her laser over her arm so she could have both hands free, opting to leave her gun on her back.

Instructions came in through Aeryn's earpiece immediately. Information Trin analyzed and had sent out to them in mere seconds.

Trin thought that there were three attackers based on the laser shot, a shadow she picked up, and some noise a slight distance away, though the attackers were actively camouflaging themselves from her sensors. This time the fear that Aeryn had wrestled with snapped out of her mind. There was no time to think or feel.

A woman launched through the air from a second-story rooftop and landed on her feet with a boom. Blades already flew in four separate directions from her hands, with the unnatural speed and accuracy possible only with body mods.

The combat soldiers easily knocked them from the air. It was only the beginning, though. The woman fired her laser while twisting to lob a small ball at Nikka. At the same time, shots fired from two different directions outside of the alley.

Nikka knocked the ball away as it exploded with shards of shrapnel that shot in all directions. The only one within range of it, she threw herself backward and managed to evade the damage.

So many things happened at once that Aeryn couldn't hope to keep up on her own. She followed the voice in her ear with total faith as she scanned her teammates for injuries. Nikka and Lyon disappeared from the alley as they went after the two snipers who were still firing well-timed shots. She wanted to yell after them to be safe.

"Three steps back," the voice in her earpiece said. She leapt back just as a laser shot into the ground in front of her.

A boom erupted beside her. The thrusters from Jace's palm mods shot him toward the female close-range attacker. Alix fired a small blast of concussive force from his hand to knock away the bullets meant for Jace as the other man swiftly dragged a blade Aeryn hadn't seen him retrieve for the rebel's throat.