[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 468: Defenseless

As his newly fabricated aircar carefully traversed the dangerous streets of Neron City, Ves needed to pay attention to a lot possible threats.

Rioters and troublemakers revelled in the streets, brandishing their weapons as they helped themselves to goods normally out of their reach. Too many businesses burned due to a complete absence of law and order. Ves wondered where the local Planetary Guard had gone.

"Did Lord Javier recall them all to defend his own hide?"

Whatever the case, the total lack of authority on the streets brought out the best and worst out of every citizen left behind. As his aircar discretely flew over their heads, he spotted lootings, rioting and senseless destruction.

Detemen IV obviously hadn't been governed very well, because the outskirts of Neron City hosted an enormous underclass of people who felt they had nothing to lose.

Still, various communities and neighborhood associations banded together as well to protect their homes and businesses against the jackals that wanted to take what they wanted. Occasionally, fighting between different groups broke out on the streets, and Ves often had to take a detour if he didn't want his aircar to be hit by a stray projectile.

After a long time of very slow and very cautious flight, his aircar finally left the slums and entered into the city proper. The residential areas he flew over seemed more orderly and cleaner, though the area hadn't completely escaped the anarchy that gripped the planet.

A lot less random thugs prowled the streets, but in their stead Ves spotted far more organized gangs sporting much better gear. Ves needed to rely more and more on his stealth systems to get by, but that didn't help much when someone spotted his aircar flying by with the naked eye.

"Aircar! Touch down immediately or be fired upon!"

"Yeah, no thanks!"

Ves responded by maxing out his propulsion. The aircar quickly lurched forward with a hail of lasers and projectiles peppering his wake.

The only problem with moving so fast was that his aircar's stealth systems became ineffective. Other gangs in the aircar's path detected the vehicle flying above their turf and responded with violence.

Due to its flimsy construction, the aircar couldn't withstand too much damage. Its bottom became increasingly scarred as long-ranged infantry fire occasionally scored a lucky hit.

Ves watched with distress as the integrity of the aircar declined at a rapid tempo.

"Damn these thugs! Don't they have better things to do than shooting an aircar out of the sky?"

No one traveled in the air during times of turmoil. It was too easy to be mistaken as an enemy, and flying a vehicle above the heads of others had a tendency of making most of them uncomfortable.

Flying in the air also happened to be a bad idea because any vehicle that flew above the cityline would be horribly exposed to fire.

After a small missile hit the rear of his aircar, Ves cursed again and lowered the altitude of his car. He didn't like travelling so low through the streets, but it would at least cut off the line of sight of attackers from the neighboring streets.

Unfortunately, lowering his altitude also exposed him to the armed people in his path. As the car accumulated more damage, its stealth systems became increasingly less effective.

"What's that?"

"It's an aircar! Shoot it down!"

Flying through the latest barrage of fire directed in its way caused the car to finally reach its limit. An important antigrav module lost power, causing the vehicle to be unable to keep it aloft. Ves desperately controlled the aircar's descent into a controlled crash.