Terket
Ten
Soundbust11
Stormi_chan
KrankysFirebrand48
Catplayz
The actions of the cultists made the Irri infantry behave more carefully- after the first losses, the fire density gradually decreased, and the winged soldiers stopped showing nearby, retreating somewhere deeper into the labyrinth of city streets or rising higher into the sky. Now FDF sharpshooters are aiming longer and shooting less, preferring to stay at least a few hundred meters above the surface of the streets.
The bombing of the airfields was extremely successful, destroying many municipal and personal aircraft, as well as taking the lives of hundreds of civilians.
•••
After receiving information that the enemy had summoned a new ship right near the atmosphere of the planet and had already begun an orbital bombardment, the commander of the "Empress's Eye" decided that random misses and pieces of space debris were not the worst thing that could happen to the planet. However, the high commanders of the Faith Defense Forces at the planetary headquarters were still not ready to give a detailed order.
Irri warships took aim at the cultists' ships, but so far have not done anything more.
The first wreckage of the Ziggurat had already entered the atmosphere of Itteri'cra, drawing long lines of smoke in the sky above the planet.
•••
From the surface of the planet, from canyons and crevices, from mountain peaks and flying islands, new and new groups of fighters rose into the sky, clearly distinguishing themselves from civil transport. Hundreds and even thousands of fighters united into fancy weaving only in order to break up into smaller clusters and then come together again, moving to a group of foreign ships.
Whirling in the air like a flock of disturbed wild birds, the Faith Defense Forces war machines created a volumetric formation that from the outside seemed completely chaotic and devoid of practical meaning- but in fact, in their movements, in their constantly and unpredictably changing trajectories, the patient observer could see a clear connection and excellent coordination of joint maneuvers. The waves of plasma volleys that Irri pilots showered the cultists' ships with passed through this intricate formation, in some unimaginable way never touching the Faith Defense Forces airships. Despite the fact that the shots were fired asynchronously, from different angles and from different positions, they somehow hit the enemy much more often than they would have to if they were fired in a random direction. Some pilots apparently used the gravity shields of their allies to redirect their plasma projectiles to the point they needed.
But in this heavenly dance not only fighters of the Lei'Tava and Ivi'Rri types with their plasma weapons were involved. The visual system, in its vigilance and speed of reaction similar to Irri's eyes, could notice extremely long and fast needles, rapidly flickering here and there among plasma spheres. The Soi'Ull fighters camouflaged with invisibility projectors hung motionless somewhere in the air and fired silently from heavy mass accelerators, stubbornly trying to damage large cultist ships.
One of the Ivi'Rri fighters unexpectedly laid a sharp bend and hung about four hundred meters from the point at which the cultists landed. For some time, the combat vehicle hovered motionless in the air, and then, without acceleration path, started strafing in a semicircle around a group of marines. After a few moments fighter opened fire from both it's rotor cannons. Streams of sparkling spheres, like little suns, sprayed from rotating barrels and indiscriminately hit the pavement, houses, cultists and landing capsules, causing numerous ignitions and unevenly illuminating the street with a series of bright flashes.
•••
Hard, tenacious hands, protected by gloves of a spacesuit, carefully packed numerous scanners and recording devices. Paladin and his assistant were together engaged in a description of an alien fighter, and now their work has safely come to an end. Further, more competent professionals will be engaged in researching of alien technology, and they will work in much safer and more comfortable conditions. The inside of the starship has already been examined and described in as much as it was possible without the help of special instruments and without dismantling parts of the fighter. It was time to came back; in addition, an order was received from the transport ship to return back as soon as possible due to some complications during interaction with the aliens.
The sudden appearance of the hologram made the paladin startle and take a few hurried steps back. An open container, neatly filled with tools and instruments, remained standing unsealed.
The paladin called out to his partner, but, unfortunately, he had already left the alien ship, taking part of the research equipment with him.
Meanwhile, the hologram was changing rapidly. Irri researcher took only a few seconds to understand that the hologram depicts a map of the star system of the Blessed Nation with some obscure symbols and marks; trying to establish radio broadcasting with the bridge of the transport ship, the paladin reached the box with the equipment in one long jump and with trembling hands began to unpack the video recorder.
But the bridge did not respond to an attempt to establish a connection.
•••
Energy for the whole ship at the same time ended for some reason. The main problem that arose as a result of this was that now it became impossible to remove quarantine from the bridge, just as it became impossible to maintain radio communication between the ship’s personnel. Moreover, without energy, the ship was unable to even commit self-destruction and complete the instructions given to it's crew by "Empress's Eye" commander.
Oh, and even the hand mass accelerators without energy became just expensive unwieldy spears (BAYONETS).
From the good news, the warehouse where the equipment of the alien pilot was stored is now also de-energized and blocked. In addition, the containers themselves also
deprived of energy and because of this hopelessly locked.
Both FDF squads met at their destination point. Iv'ieu ended up here a bit later, struggling along the wall. After a brief conversation, the soldiers and paladin decided to ignore the noise and stay in this place, in case of contact with the enemy using grenades and melee weapons.
•••
New ships that appeared in the system could no longer be destroyed under any, even the most positive, circumstances. A small Irri fleet, gathered around a gravitational telescope, was unable to restrain the flow of incoming aliens. The priority goal was considered to be those ships that have already switched to planetary bombing; an order to open fire was finally received, and "Ai'urri'va" ships fired a salvo at the largest cultist ship, which was now bombing the surface of the planet.
Also two fighters of the "Ivi'Rri" type were sent to intercept the shielded shuttle.