More than half the ammunition the Indian artillery had sent skyward over several consecutive minutes never even had a chance to touch the ground.
For the first time, Kallen understood in reality what it meant to have absolutely no control of the skies.
Anything exposed beneath this sky, as long as it was high enough and conspicuous enough, would become the next beam's target.
"Guren, lower your altitude!"
Lin Cuo's voice finally came from the rear command cockpit.
Almost instinctively, Kallen pulled the machine down. Guren abruptly dropped from over sixty meters to skim the ground, its wing jets whipping up dust beside a bombed-out road.
Before she could ask what had happened, the shield generator behind her took a hit powerful enough to shake the entire cockpit.
A beam swept over Guren. Its directional Absolute Defense layer deployed automatically, and its energy reserves plunged as though someone had drained them in a single gulp. The outer edge of the Radiation Barrier burned white, while the IS Core reassigned dozens of processing units originally intended to assist maneuvering to defense against high-energy irradiation.
Behind them, an Indian Gao Hai without the new shield was moving rapidly along the road. Its pilot had clearly seen the laser warning too and tried to lower its profile as Guren had.
Too late.
A streak of white light grazed its chest.
A glowing red hole instantly appeared in Gao Hai's spherical torso, burning straight through the cockpit inside. Momentum carried the machine another dozen meters before it finally crashed into a concrete barrier beside the road.
Over the public channel, a very young voice kept calling.
"Third platoon! Can anyone in third platoon hear me? My little brother's in that vehicle! He was just-"
A violent explosion cut off the rest. That Gao Hai