"Flower any codes from agents?" Adam asked as the Skyblade cut through the endless fog, rain tapping against the hull like static.
"Cracking signal from Quantum Shield…" His Moon Chip pulsed with a glitchy chirp.
Aidenx stiffened. "That's not right. Our Moon Chips just got hacked."
Galen snatched his skydrive interface, fingers flashing. He started piggybacking the commlines of every unit in the field.
"What the hell are you doing, Galen?" Adam snapped.
"I have to. We don't know who's still alive out there." Galen didn't look up, focus razor-thin.
"You are not in charge. You don't have the right to—" Adam started, but Aidenx cut in.
"I think he's right, sir."
Galen's console blared, and a corrupted transmission burst through the speakers.
"Nova Sentinel X-07 reporting from West-Northwest. We are under attack! We lost our core… we lost—" The message died in a sharp static scream.
Galen's breath hitched. "Shit…"
A violent jolt tore through the Skyblade. A Vortex Repeater strike slammed into their shields. Gunfire streaked past the cockpit, plasma trails ripping the fog apart.
"Heaven's edge!" Galen twisted the Skyblade, diving through cloud cover. Adam and Aidenx locked their belts, muscles straining not to be thrown against the canopy.
A scatterstorm of transmissions flooded the comms.
"Captain Adam! We—are—we—"
Adam lunged for the comm panel, jaw tight. "Agent, respond. Can you crack the code? Identify the threat!"
The clouds split open.
A massive creature rushed toward them. A giant parrot, wings wider than the Skyblade, feathers reinforced with UV-resistant alloy plating. Night-vision eyes glowed like twin laser scopes. Claws sharpened for metal. Its beak gleamed with surgical precision.
Mounted beneath each wing: flat Counter-Interceptor guns.
The Veil-Kin had arrived.
****
Four hundred thousand years ago, humanity crowned itself guardian of Earth. They protected nature—at least in the stories they told themselves. When they abandoned feeding animals and plants, they turned instead to Nurturate printed nutrition, precise and efficient. Humans evolved to cherish technology, but in their hearts they were still animals.
Animals evolved too.
The evolved ones became known as the Veil-Kin. Humanity feared them, hunted them, locked them in virtual reserves. All because of the Exodus Abefe War that scorched galaxies, nearly taking Earth with it.
And now the Veil-Kin were returning fire.
***
"Veil parrot." Galen spits blood and sarcasm into the wind.
The giant cyber-parrot screeches back, voice synthetic and furious.
"fuck you, termite!" Its wing-mounted counter-interceptor cannons spark to life.
The first burst of plasma slams into their SkyDrive's tail. Metal shrieks. The craft tilts violently.
Adam yanks Galen from the pilot seat, trying to regain control.
A second hit flips them sideways through the fog.
Adam's head cracks against a console. He slumps, unconscious.
Aidenx throws an arm around Galen and snaps his seatbelt in just before gravity takes over.
They plummet.
The cockpit spins, alarms howling.
"Override it…" Galen's voice is wet with blood.
"Override the protocol now!"
"Override requires verification code," the SkyDrive's AI responds, maddeningly calm.
Galen grips Adam by the jaw and forces his eyelids open so the interface can scan his retinas.
The SkyDrive stiffens, systems flickering back to combat mode.
Weapons ignite automatically. The ship stabilizes, guns barking into the fog.
More shapes drop in—a whole murder of veil birds. Armored ravens, each twice the parrot's size, feathers like dark alloy plates. Their eyes burn with machine intelligence.
Missiles streak and feathers shatter. Some birds fall. Others keep coming.
"My leg is definitely broken…" Galen groans, face pale.
Aidenx tries to brace him, but the first parrot—the smart one—hacks the SkyDrive's sensors. Target lock turns toward Galen's limp body.
Aidenx dives into the pilot seat and screams:
"Aegis, activate missile suite! Fire!"
The SkyDrive obeys. One clean burst. The parrot explodes into drifting metallic feathers.
Aidenx shoves the throttle and dives the craft back into the fog.
Static floods the comms.
"Cracking the code—Oblivion Unit X-21—agent units down—repeat—everyone else is gone—we need backup!" A distorted voice cries.
"Follow us, Oblivion! Aegis, transmit our coordinates!" Galen shouts.
Aidenx glares at him.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"We're being jammed continent-wide. No one in Avrofia knows we're under attack." Galen's breath shakes.
"The veil apes are behind this. Only the South—Pamísile—shares a border with Lëfemy. We head there if we want any chance of help."
****
After the galaxy-wide Exodus Abefe War, Earth burned. Radiation storms swept across continents, and the planet's crust fractured into unstable fault lines. Land became too dangerous for human life, forcing civilization into the skies. Cities were rebuilt high above the clouds, suspended by ancient graviton pillars and war-era technology.
Beneath the floating megacity of Lëfemy, the souththern surface twisted into a vast radioactive forest. Mutated ecosystems thrived there, evolving into new species known as the Veil Kin. Some grew intelligent, united and divide under the emerging Forfei civilization. The ground remained alive, yet violently unstable, prone to quakes and toxic storms.
Lëfemy stands as the largest sky city of the Avrofia continent, one of the last three safe human territories on Earth. It also carries a grave responsibility. Lëfemy is the only remaining city sharing a functional border with the southern continent of Pamísile, the stronghold of the Veil Kin and Forfei.
That proximity gives humanity access to priceless surface resources.
It also places Lëfemy directly in the crosshairs of the enemy.
****
Fog splits behind them as other SkyDrives catch up, signaling friendly IDs.
Another voice crackles through:
"Iron Vortex Unit here. Captain Abigail speaking. Patch me to mission command."
Galen manages a grin through the pain.
"You're looking at mission command now."
Lights flash. Adam wakes beneath an auto-surgery drone, his arm cracked and pinned.
"What happened… Where are we going…" he groans.
"We are heading south, Coordinator," Aidenx answers sharply.
"What!? Why—dammit—"
He tries to move, but the drone forces him still as it finishes repairs.
A holographic feed activates in front of Aidenx:
Veil apes massive cyber-enhanced gorillas are tearing through Dubeon border units. HumanBioD androids are ripped apart for parts, some taken alive in restraint rigs.
Adam's eyes widen.
"Override the damn SkyDrive right now!"
Galen smirks through blood and sweat.
"Already did, Coordinator."
Adam stumbles to his feet as the drone retracts, stunned by how fast everything changed.
Out the cockpit windows, the South glows with wildfire and war.
The only safe city left in Avrofia is now racing toward the deadliest continent on Earth.