File 1.7 - Rising Devil

“Ensign Toule!” snapped an aged man, seated in the command chair of the Secondary Command Center. Other officers held from their tasks as they stared over towards the General and the Ensign. “I gave you an order!”

“But General Nornland, we don't know who it is yet! We can’t destroy the ship without a reason!”

“They’re the enemy! Those damn terrorists Ragnarok! Now follow my orders or I’ll have you court martialed!”

Keeping to himself for the most part as just an observer was a middle aged man in a lab coat standing in the back of the room. He looked over to the Ensign with a meaning in his eyes that told him that he should obey. “This is the moment she was born for and purpose for living, Ansgar.”

The young man ground his hands into fists shaking while keeping his face under control and free of emotions. “Understood, sir.” He turned around facing the main monitor that displayed the camera from the plane. “Launch and destroy the target!”

“Acknowledged, sir,” echoed Air evenly as the rear hatch on the plane began to open slowly pouring light in with blaring wind. Once the hatch opened fully the truck holding Skadi began to move to the rear. The vehicle came to a stop at the end of the hatch allowing the machine to drop out from the plane beginning free fall. Faint sunlight from the afternoon sky shone around Air in the cockpit while she righted herself and applied thrust to slow her descent coming to a gentle landing.

“Rivers switch to combat mode! Looks like they’ve dropped a Skin,” ordered the Commander as he moved for the rear hatch of the ship. They had immediately picked up the large heat source falling and the radar was bouncing back a silhouette that they were uncertain about.

“But it’s too large to be a Skin!” commented Rivers when he viewed the data. It was significantly larger than their Skins. Jade’s Skins were the smallest, but even the largest combat Skins were nowhere near the size of what they were seeing. It was nearly six meters taller.

Callein narrowed his eyes as he walked out of the ship with his Skin. “Rivers!” he snapped back to the Warrant Officer to break him out of his momentary paralysis.

“Sorry, sir! Switching from conservation to combat mode now! Five seconds to power requirements.”

“Get this ship flying immediately!” he commanded over the line to the ship. “We’ll draw away their fire!” Now that he was outside the visuals could come in on their target. However, the moment that he got his cameras to find the machine all of the radar and electronic detection systems seemed to fail as it disappeared from the computer’s sight. He could still see it on the camera at a magnified scale forcing him to run a systems check that came back cleared. ‘Does it have stealth technology built-in? What sort of beast have they made?’

However, he had little time to question what he saw as the computer was able to detect a new high energy source coming from the black Skin giant. “A particle weapon…” he declared as he pulled on the controls, initiating his thrusters to evade the blue long ranged beam. ‘Can’t stand around here any longer!’

When his Peng came to a rough landing he activated the wings on his back, folding out straight behind the machine equipped with several thrusters. Unlike the Jiaolong, the Peng was the only Skin constructed by Jade specifically for combat on the Earth and not space combat. It had a lighter and slimmer frame than the Jiaolong, but it could also fly and had greater mobility. Callein kept the armor light to give him the speed advantage which he needed against this enemy as the readings from the energy beam would have been enough to completely destroy even a Jiaolong. He took to the sky firing all of his thrusters as the next shot came barely missing his legs causing the paint to peal a little.

“He is fast…he is reacting after I fire… The targeting computer is not fast enough yet,” Aerona analyzed as she fired another shot from her shoulder mounted Heavy Focused Energy Cannon. However, when she saw on her monitor a magnified image of a second machine exiting the downed transport she changed her target. “Switching to the unknown ship.” The unmoving target would be quicker to destroy and then she could focus on the second smaller enemy.

Rivers had just made it out of the ship when his targeting computer announced that the enemy had locked onto their ship. “They’re going after the ship, Commander!” He pushed his thrusters to carry his Skin out in front of the ship to put himself between the black giant and the transport. “I’m defending this spot, sir!”

“No, Rivers! Your Jiaolong will be destroyed!” Callein ran his thrusters to their maximum advised feeling the sudden g-forces that slammed him into his chair as he charged for the enemy Skin. He had to get into range with his ‘Pair’, Particle Assault Rifle, before they could fire on Rivers and their ship. ‘It’ll cut through Rivers’ armor and hit the ship!’ All around him the rattling of his machine against the stress that he was putting on it echoed through his body as it crushed him against the seat not intended for use for such long durations.

The Peng’s arm came up aiming its rifle as it came into range of the machine firing off a burst of shots. The small blue beams shot out hitting the mark as well as the ground around it kicking up a dust cloud. Cameras failed to detect the enemy and the computer still failed Callein. It left him still charging towards firing off another burst not taking any chances.

Ominous clouds held around the machine as the small Peng roared in uncertainty of a kill. A sudden flash of light burst from the clouds as a tunnel burrowed through the clouds. The large blue beam shot from the cannon of the Skadi towards Rivers. As the beam reached the Jiaolong there was a massive explosion rocking the earth. “Rivers!” The Peng flew past the unveiling Skadi as his Skin returned to its normal combat speed making its course over the ground of the debris cloud.

Callein tried to get a reading on the area but there was too much debris that clouded the radar. He forced himself to wait, but he was surprised to find that the beam stopped saving the ship from destruction. His Peng made a second pass on the area as the wind blew through carrying away the cloud revealing the Jiaolong.

“Commander…I’m still here…” sighed Rivers, breathing heavily from what had just happened. He sweated under his suit from the tensions and proximity of the explosion. In the last moment before the beam hit him he threw his shield away from him to take the hit. The shield came coated with an energy resistant material, but even with it the beam completely destroyed it and hit his machine. The energy dispersed enough that his armor was able to take the hit. He hit the button at his side that detached all of his additional armor, now melted and riddled with shrapnel or holes. “A couple of my cameras are damaged, but otherwise I can still fight!”

“We need to get this foe in close range!”

“Yes, sir!” The Jiaolong pulled out its Triple S from its waist and charged forward with full thrust accompanied by the Peng from above. They forced the Skadi to move from its spot as it retracted its cannon into a rear-mounted position. It separated into three pieces and locked in place. Out of its forearms came rifle barrels that shot out lower energy beams keeping the two Skins from getting too close. The battle was on the move leaving the crash site and stomping into a cornfield.