The moment that they heard the voice call out to them, Jasmine and Olivia whipped around with their weapons out and their guards up.

They had expected to see someone standing behind them up on the walkway above them where the voice had originated from, but there was no one there.

A few possibilities came to both of their minds.

One that there was a high-quality speaker hidden somewhere that could perfectly mimic a person's voice.

Two that the person was incredibly fast and had hidden themselves immediately after speaking out.

Or the third and most concerning option, was that they were using active camouflage to blend in with the surroundings and make themselves effectively invisible.

'There's nothing on my scanner, so, they either are out of range or have some way of concealing themselves. If it is active camouflage, then it has to be something top-of-the-line.'

Since people moving around completely concealed was a truly terrifying prospect, a lot of research had gone into figuring out way to detect those using things like active camouflage.

In the same vein, cloaking technology on ships was pretty rare.

High-end sensors could pick up traces of invisible vessels, and while being cloaked, ships could not have their shields up. Leaving them very vulnerable to attack if discovered.

'The same should go for whoever this is. My laser pistol may not be able to do too much damage if he's wearing tough armor as well, but Olivia should be able to pierce right through him.' Jasmine thought, using all of her senses to try and figure out where the man who had spoken was, or if he was really here at all.

"Olivia, I'm going to try and contact the others, watch my back while I do."

After seeing Olivia take up a more defensive position around her, Jasmine hastily pulled out her terminal.

Unfortunately, things were as she had expected. The normally strong signal that was ever present on the planet had been cut off. They had really fallen into a well-prepared trap.

Jasmine started mentally berating herself for getting caught in something like this.

She had gotten too hasty in trying to uncover the true masterminds behind Andras that she had not been cautious enough.

'I should have realized that things were going too well. Obviously, thanks to our interrogation of Huijari, these guys know that there are people looking into them. Since that guy going by Adder just sold the operation off to some other people, they would want to clean up any unwanted variables that could get in the way.'

There had been enough clues that Jasmine felt she should have seen in hindsight.

This building was far too insecure for the type of meeting that was meant to be taking place.

The incremental navigation program that Andras had been using was also too simple.

It was true that he had taken a roundabout way to arrive at this place, but they almost never went off in wildly different directions.

If Jasmine wanted to make it difficult for someone to be followed, she would have had them go up and down the different layers multiple times and cut across completely unnecessary stretches of area for hundreds of kilometers.

His body language was also suspect. I thought that he was acting so agitated because he was being ordered around by someone new and demanding. But it was also because he knew that he was being watched.' Jasmine thought, clinking her tongue in frustration.

Nevertheless, she could not keep focusing on her mistakes and make another lapse in judgment.

She and Olivia were in the middle of enemy territory with no way to call for backup.

"Have you detected anything?" Olivia asked, a grimace on her face.

She had received augmentations herself and had pretty good senses, but Jasmine's visit to Dr. Raiti a couple months ago had given her better quality enchantments.

"Sorry, I'm not picking anything up no matter how hard I try. My hearing is still not anywhere close to Kasandra's." Jasmine replied bitterly.

She knew if her close friend and rival in love was here, that she would certainly be able to hear even the faintest of sounds from any people trying to hide themselves. Her hearing was almost as good as radar. When she concentrated, she could actively track people just by their movement from over a kilometer away.

"I'm going to try something. If I expose whoever is skulking about, don't hesitate to run them through."

Holding up her laser pistol, Jasmine began rapidly firing it several in directions.

Since she had no other allies around other than Olivia, there was no need to worry about hitting anyone but a potential enemy.

It was unlikely that this method was actually going to work, but it was the best option that Jasmine could think of that was not too risky.

If she managed to land a lucky shot, she could reveal the location of the person trying to hide themselves.

Sadly, jasmine's method proved to be ineffective, and she did not get a hit before exhausting the power pack in her laser pistol.

Somewhat slowly, she pulled out a replacement and feigned that she was having trouble reloading her weapon.

She was hoping that this would bait out the person that had set this trap for them, but they showed no signs of making a move. After revealing their presence by speaking only a single time they had completely hidden themselves.

"I don't think that we should stay here any longer. We should retreat and regroup." Olivia said, a heavy tension in her voice and a nervous sweat running down her brow.

Honestly, she was quite close to having a panic attack despite how levelheaded and composed she normally was.

This entire situation was reminding her far too much of the time she had ended up getting abducted and enslaved by Iniquus. What she feared far more than death in battle was ending up captured again. Life could easily become a hell under certain conditions.

"You're right, but we can't go back the same way we came in. There's too great a possibility of there being another trap waiting for us. Do you think that you can make a new path for us?" Jasmine said, glancing towards a wall not too far from their location.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem. Just keep an eye out for a couple of seconds. I won't take long."

Her hard light spear at the ready, Olivia tensed the muscles in her legs and dashed towards the wall that Jasmine had indicated.

With swift movements she stabbed into the structure and sliced through it like a hot knife.

Once she had cut all the way through and had created a roughly circular shape just barely large enough for her and Jasmine to fit through, she kicked the cut-out section of the wall using all of her might.

With a heavy thud, the piece she had dislodged smashed into the floor of a hallway on the other side of the wall.

As she ran to meet up with Olivia, Jasmine widely fired shots from her now replenished laser pistol behind her.

If the person that had been watching them was still around, they would probably try to make a move now that Jasmine and Olivia had made an unexpected move and were about to escape from the trap.

This time she really did manage to get a hit with her laser pistol.

One of the eblasts she had fired impacted something and created a dazzling effect as the beam was deflected and broke apart.

For just a moment, the outline of the person after them became visible.

He was wearing a suit of pitch-black light power armor that covered his entire body

Without out a doubt, this armor was equipped with the active camouflage that the man had been using to hide himself.

However, despite being exposed for a moment, his suit quickly hid him again.

Jasmine fired another wide spread of blasts to try and hit him again, but he had immediately retreated once he was discovered.

'I really want to go after him, but we need to prioritize escape first.' Jasmine thought, biting her lip in frustration.

Olivia had been too far away and preoccupied with breaking through the wall to react in time. If Jasmine had hit the camouflaged man one more time, she might have been able to attack, but there was no point dwelling on hypotheticals.

Following behind Olivia, Jasmine ducked into the opening she had created, and the two of them began running down the hallway they had found themselves in.

At random intervals, Olivia would slice another opening in a wall and the two of them would go through it.

They wanted to keep their movements as unpredictable as possible as they headed towards an exit.

Eventually, they broke into a medium-sized room that had an exterior wall. Now all they needed to do was cut through it and they would be out of the building.

Yet, before they could get all the way across the room, something fell down from above and exploded.

A neon pink smoke began rising up from the canister that had just burst and began filling the room.

It was obvious at first sight that this was some type of poisonous gas.

Both Jasmine and Olivia closed their mouths and stopped breathing and turned back towards where they had come from.

"You two nearly got away, but I can't have you leaving this place yet."

No longer hidden from view, the man in black power armor blocked the exit out of the room.

In his hands, he held two more canisters of gas and opened them up. Quickly filling up the area and leaving Olivia and Jasmine no way to escape.