The city shook.
Buildings three blocks out trembled from the blast radius of the AC-130's impact. Glass panes exploded outward, dust clouds billowed into the air, and the streets were bathed in a flickering violet-orange hue from the burning wounds of the Colossal Worm.
Phillip and his Shadow Team, crouched on a rooftop less than four hundred meters away, shielded their visors from the shockwave. The light seared their HUDs. Static danced across their visors for a second before recalibrating.
"Jesus," Shadow 3 muttered. "We actually hit it."
Phillip's voice was even, but cold. "Target's bleeding. Get the uplink back to Command. Confirm impact zones. We need to know if that blast cracked the regenerative core."
Shadow 7 snapped back into motion. "Telemetry uploading now. Surface gel is destabilizing. Thermal is dropping."
