File 1.8 - Burned Home

Distant explosions reverberated through the ground towards Shizuka. It sent a terrified panic through her body that she had never felt before. The feeling was indescribable for her. Sweat dripped down her face and arms as the cold air suddenly felt like it became ice freezing her. The earth shaking echoes ripped at her stomach. Shizuka’s mind went blank thinking only of running to get away as the strange noises became like thunder overhead. Her legs tried to move, but the paralysis still gripped her until a blue beam shot overhead heating the air and whipping her hair around through the displaced air.

Shizuka broke through the rows of corn fleeing from the sounds as the dread reached rapidly closer. Crashing through another row she collided with something solid falling down in the dirt as a large shadow suddenly cast over her before there was a massive thud followed by the crinkling of corn. Only three meters in front of her, a huge metal boot had stepped into the field. Dazed by the thunderous pounding of hydraulics and machinery, Shizuka attempted to pull her head up to look up at the colossus. All she could see through blurred eyes was the blue burst of fire from thrusters as it jumped evading a beam. ‘What’s going on? What is that thing?!’

She scrambled to her feet as the quaking pulses from the heavy footsteps of two humanoid machines giving chase and dueling made it difficult to find the ground stable. The collapse of the smaller of the machines to the ground in a huge crash knocked her back to her knees. Next to her Ed, who she ran into, worked to gather his senses still thrown by the mechanized chaos.

A blast nearby in the field from an energy impact exploded followed in quick succession by smaller blasts all around them. It threw the two together reflexively to hold on to each other for courage and support as they were lost in the middle of a battlefield.

“Rivers! Can you move?!” yelled Callein as he flew by trying to keep the monster machine away from his subordinate.

Rivers’ Jiaolong had been thrown by Skadi when it tried to come in close with its sword. The strength of the machine surprised Rivers, leaving him in the state that he found himself in, on his back with the computer running a systems check. He had fortunately avoided direct hits from Callein’s hit and run strikes. “The left arm and leg joints are damaged, but they’ll function!” He fired up his thrusters using all of them on his back and his leg to get himself into the air enough to attempt to stand. However, a direct hit from the Skadi’s forearm beams destroyed his machine’s left arm and sent him flying backwards sliding into the earth once more.

A communication from the ship came into Callein’s Skin. “Sir let us sortie!” Wells shouted.

“No! The priority is to get the ship in the air! Don’t leave until it is done!” The Skadi aimed both of its arms forward towards Rivers even as Callein hit Skadi from behind trying to interrupt its shot. “Get out Rivers!” It was too late for him to do anything as the blue beams released from the barrels hitting the Rivers’ Jiaolong in the chest immediately engulfed it in a reddish-pink explosion. “Rivers!”

“No! Welest!” Shizuka shouted as she saw the machine blow up next to her village, taking half of it with it in the blast. Her eyes grew wide in shock as she thought she could feel the countless deaths just taken. It made her heart stop for a moment before a stabbing pain hit her. Tears started to stream down her face burying her head into Ed’s chest with her hands tightly gripping onto his arms. “My village…everyone’s…dead! Why?!”