Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 419: Invisibility? Again?

Chapter 419: Invisibility? Again?
Captain Uti was covered in gray blood as the top half of an invisible creature exploded while its lower half appeared. Before, it was a skinny and hunched-over creature. It was following them while invisible. This one had been preparing a weapon when Jace shot it.
Jace spun around and looked at Doctor Foulm, who was looking at him in shock. Jace pumped his shotgun and ejected the used shell casing. "Down!" He ordered, and the doctor ducked as Jace fired again.
BANG!
This time, a hole was blown through the creature’s chest as it appeared. Then its body collapsed in on itself and fell to the ground. Jace then looked toward Gorund. But the dwarf had already caught on, and his hammer slammed into something invisible and sent them right into a wall. There was a loud cracking as the creature fell to the ground dead.
Jace surveyed the room quickly. Looking for any more invisible enemies. When he found none, he turned to Uti, who was looking at Jace with an annoyed look. "Sorry, he was about to kill you."
"Eh?" He shrugged, then looked at the console covered in gray blood. "What do we do now?"
"I will hack it. But first-" Jace turned to a corner of the room and fired again. There was a spark as he hit the camera. Then he spun and looked at another spot, firing again. Destroying both cameras in the room. "If it wasn’t clear the first time, you should be killing the invisible bastards. Captain Tyler and Captain Solisa feel free to open fire on the enemies you see."
"Acknowledged." Captain Tyler answered.
"Acknowledged." Captain Solisa answered.
Jace then stepped over to the console and hacked into the station quickly. Now that he was not being watched, he had no qualms about doing this. He was in within a few seconds. "Captain Maxim, I am sending the codes now." Jace sent the odes through the command channel as he looked out the bridge window to see several pieces of debris detonate when lasers hit them.
A moment later, the bridge lit up with proper lighting, and Jace accessed the security feeds and saw all of the teams engaged in combat. Ulin and her team were fighting their way back to the Wolfsbane like he ordered. Of all of them, they were the only ones not staying at their location. "Time to get back-"
He was cut off as he watched red swirling masses of energy appear on the monitors at each of the other locations. Ulin’s team was able to run right past it. But it was blocking Maxim and K’s exit routes.
Jace heard a humming and looked to the open bridge door. Watching as one appeared at his location as well. "Jace! Those are portals!" Gorund declared.
"Yeah. I kind of figured that out." Jace answered. "Ulin, do not stop moving. The rest of you hold position. It looks like we are trapped for the moment." He looked to the portal and watched as a small figure, almost as small as an Ola but with leather red skin, no clothes, and a simple spear, came running out.
Its head disappeared into burned nothingness as Corporal Quest fired. His rifle flared as the energy was unleashed, burning through skin and bone. "Gorund, get the secondary black box. Yank it out of the floor if you have to. Uti, get the shields up. Foulm, get your shield up for Gorund. Quest and I will-" Jace cut himself off as he fired, and the same skinny and hunched creature appeared as one of its legs was blown off. Quest fired a moment later, and the creature was dead. "As I was saying. Quest and I will cover the teleportation portal."
Jace watched as a dog-like creature bounded out of the portal, going straight for him, and was followed immediately by a group of these demons. Each one looks strange in its own unique way. But they were all mostly unclothed and had skin that was a shade of red. Jace fired at the ones that closed the distance quickly. Using the spread and close range of his shotgun to his advantage. While Corporal Quest fired at the ones that were staying back or were exiting the portal.
Unfortunately, it was immediately causing problems as the bodies started piling up near the entrance of the bridge. Gorund was utilizing his armored suit to tear up the floor of the bridge. While Captain Uti was able to the the ship to pull up shields and connect to the Wolfsbane, so Solisa could remotely control it.
The ship suddenly shook as something hit it. "Damn. They have given up taking you alive. They are firing from Sakana Nine. I am calculating the rough trajectory now." Solisa explained as the ship shuddered again.
Jace cursed as he watched the portal close. He moved back to the terminal and saw that the other portals began closing. The only unobstructed one had thrown out several enemies. "Damn. Captain Ulin, are you back at the Wolfsbane?" Jace asked as he checked the potential routes of all of the teams.
"We just arrived back in the hangar. No enemies visible. Captain Solisa, I see some enemies tried to board." Captain Ulin acknowledged as he watched through one of the cameras as her entire team boarded the Wolfsbane. She was right, there were a number of these invisible creatures corpses were littered around with holes or missing body parts.
"Good, board the Wolfsbane. We are going to have to regroup and-" He was cut off as another explosion rocked the ship, and he watched as the hangar shook and cracks became visible before the camera disabled. "Captain Ulin!"
"We are good. But that hangar is compromised." Ulin informed him quickly.
"Major Jace. That shot made it through the shielding. A large chunk of the ship is venting oxygen and forcing us away from the Wolfsbane. My team is still aboard, but we are moving away from Wolfsbane. Unless we do a space walk quickly, we will not be able to get to the Wolfsbane." Captain Tyler quickly explained.
"I can reorient the ship to reconnect the two ships, but at the moment, the only reason they have not hit us is because the weapons they have on Sakana Nine are blocked by the Fuji-8." Captain Solisa explained as Jace looked over the data that she sent him through to his aviator glasses.
Jace thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Understood. Get back behind the line and introduce yourself to the politicians. Keep an eye on the survivor. Captain Maxim, hold your position. Sergeant K, make your way to engineering. We are going to hold the bridge. Captain Tyler, you and your team can jump back to the Wolfsbane if you want. But I would like to have some mechs for the scouting mission we are going to have to undertake."
"Haa... might as well make use of these orbital drop adjustments." Captain Tyler answered after a moment of contemplation. "We will stay on the hull of Fuji-8. Keep our status in mind while you are crashing this ship."
"Understood," Jace answered as he moved to the console controls and began making calculations and lighting up the operational engines and thrusters. "I am making flight control adjustments now." Jace began directing the ship toward the direction that Solisa highlighted as where the enemy planetary artillery was coming from.
"I have the black box!" Gorund announced.
"Captain Solisa, standby for controlled transmission of data." Jace started setting up a station to transmit the data.
"Negative. I am receiving multiple attempts to infiltrate my systems. I would not risk it. I have detached from Fuji-8 systems, so they might attempt to hack you as well." Almost as if she were prophetic, the consoles began beeping as an external system tried to use old codes to connect to the ship.
"Understood." Jace looked over at Gorund. "Secure that black box. We will have to check it later and inform them of our findings." Jace told him as he began countering the hacking attempts. "These guys are good. I need all my focus on crashing the ship in a survivable way and countering this hacking. Sergeant K, Captain Maxim, the enemies that came through Ulin’s portal are spread, moving toward the engineering deck and the bridge. Anchor down for a fight while the ship potentially falls apart around you."
Jace was flying the ship to the planet while directing all energy to shielding. He was able to see the energy blast slam into the bottom side of the ship it mostly missed. They were aiming at the Wolfsbane, not them. "The external transmissions have been disabled. Air brakes are too damaged to function properly. Ship frame integrity is at eleven percent. The shielding, life support, and thrusters are the only things functioning."
"That sounds like a bad landing for you guys." Captain Tyler chuckled over the command channel.
"Don’t you mean us?" Sergeant K asked.
"Nope, as soon as we are in low orbit, we jump off. We will not be with you for the crash." Captain Tyler responded smugly.
Jace ignored them as he found a potential course. They would be landing on the same continent anywhere the planetary artillery was located. "Seal up the engineering room as much as possible," Jace ordered as he adjusted he ship and the shielding to focus on the bottom. The ship shook again as another beam of light hit the underside of the ship. "Good thing this is one of their best."