I took to the air, hefting my gun. Below me, Tristan was creating his little orange motes. The motes that hit the edge of the crack died, but there were enough and more appearing every second, that he was able to create a kind of bridge over the edge. Once it was there and secure enough to not fall into the darkness below, he began reinforcing it. Metal struck rock as he walked up onto the bridge, looking down, and began to create a set of stairs or slide.

Helicopters were taking off with people inside. Others were preparing. A cape granted flight to a whole crowd of civilians. They weren’t flying in, thank god. That might have been a disaster if they’d tried, the way powers got weaker down there. They grabbed hold of ropes, and they slid down, using flight to help control their descents. As before, the Patrol went first. Sveta joined the first group of non-Patrol civilians.

Come on, I thought.

Let this work.

The golden text appeared across my vision.

TITAN SKADI IS ATTACKING ONE OF THE OTHER ENTRY TEAMS.

I tensed.

The entry squads had been split up into three broader units. Those units were supposed to fan out.

Already, we were under attack. Already, lives were probably being lost.

Tense, slow with my weapon in my grip, I floated up and away from the group.

“Lookout,” I said, trying to keep my voice level and clear. “If you can hear me, mark a good target for me.”

The crosshairs that appeared in my field of vision seemed to be fixed to one point of the crystal landscape, so far below me it looked like pitch black.

I brought the cannon around, aiming for the spot. More notifications popped up, telling me I was off target.

I adjusted appropriately, centering on the spot.

Already dark, the sky seemed to darken a shade. I felt a shift in air pressure, like it was all a bit harder to fly in, or I was being pushed down.

I twisted around, putting the gun below me, and I dropped my weapon.

Titan Skadi, visible only by the glowing metal at the edge of each major panel of armor, was above me.

I met her, flying to her, crashing into her with forcefield and everything else. I felt armor crack beneath the impact, transmitted by an awareness of physicality that wasn’t touch.

Then she was gone.

Below me, swinging.

I flew down, diving, letting my forcefield come back as I seized the gun by barrel first, to pull it out of the way of a swinging axe arm.

She hit my forcefield instead. I didn’t have the handholds necessary for my weapon.

Already hard to make out in the gloom, Skadi was drowned in darkness.