File 8.6 - The Second Stone

Cal monitored the battle that played out between the security forces and his team. They began to reach the fifteen minute mark of the operation. ‘They’re slow at adapting. After more than a week of this, it doesn’t look like the cities are communicating anything with each other. There should be a central command structure working with the cities and changing their strategies, but nothing has really changed. Are they really this bad or do they just not see us as a threat?’

He began to have his concerns about the value of their intel after the first few days of the combat readiness tests. He had trouble believing that any military was this poorly organized. While at the same time, their history showed six centuries of peace unlike their own personal history of endless war and conflict. Maybe they were just that different.

“Report in. Any change.”

“Eyes in the sky, Rinn here, nothing strange on long range scans.”

“Schir reporting in, half of the drones in my sector are destroyed. Everything is normal.”

“My sector is clean, sir,” reported Noinel.

“Wrapped up the manned security ships now, returning to passive scans,” Elle replied.

“Five dead demons. Getting bored, Cal.”

“How’s that energy?”

“Still got enough for ten minutes.”

“You should have enough for thirty still.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“Pol get back to base. I’m going to have to talk to you again about your energy usage.”

An audible sigh came through the communication from Wells. It continued to be a problem for him more than the rest. Others on the team started adapting to the necessary changes needed to be made for Earth combat. Space combat created a very different sort of tactic and as veterans they were set in their ways. Wells remained the worst of them with his nickname turning into a weakness where it used to be a strength. “Roger.”

Suddenly an eerily familiar massive blue beam shot through the city shattering glass, but otherwise missed any buildings. A red-pink explosion grew out of the skyline cover as the line with Noinel went dead. “Noinel!” shouted Cal futility. Grinding his teeth together, he ripped his Peng around in the direction of the attack as the cameras already began to zoom in on the source.

Computer analysis took a bit, but he already recognized it. The Black Devil had returned and worse, it looked a little different than before. ‘Did they upgrade it since the last time?’ Analysis of the Skin quickly confirmed what he already suspected. The fire power was greatly increased from the last time and it looked even better armored.

“You bastards!” yelled Wells over the comm. Hitting the thrusters, he jumped into the air clearing the buildings quickly getting a target in sight. However, the computer system had trouble actually getting a lock. “Damn, fine I’ll kill you with my eyes, you demons!” Quickly taking his signature attack, he fired two beams in rapid succession at the Black Devil only for a new Skin to appear before it, absorbing the damage with a massive shield.

“There’s two of them?!” Cal pulled back on his machine slowing down his speed to get a read on the rapidly changing situation. The computer tried in a futile attempt to search for a match in the database, but none existed. That much they all knew already. All the computer could do was confirm from the shape and external analysis that it had the same design and origins as the Black Devil. Even though that was a pointless effort, Cal already knew as much.

Tension wrapped around his arms and tightened to the control sticks. ‘Damn, we had enough trouble and I ended up laid out just fighting one of them and now there’s two. And even worse, it seems that the blue one is playing defender for the black one.’ The only advantage they had came from numbers. The previous encounter with the Black Devil didn’t have all of their Skins out, but even with the odds of being five to two, he still had fears. ‘There’s something not right about these Skins…’

While Cal tried to figure out what was happening Wells already closed in on the two Devils. But the Blue Devil took point in becoming the wall between Wells’ and his real target. “I don’t have time for you! Out of my way!” Firing the energy rifle nearly on top of the shield, flashes of light exploded over the camera screen blinding him from the wall before him.

Multiple beams discharged and yet the shield remained completely unscathed by the ruthless assault. Cursing at the monitors for telling him what he didn’t want to see, he pulled out a short sword attached to his back. The physical weapon glowed with a green energy improving its cutting power. “Your shield won’t protect you!” Green energy splashed on the shield bouncing around from the reflective material coating the shield.

Ansgar took the time to analyze the strength of the enemy machine. The computer needed better data than it had up until now. He played it more cautiously than he necessarily needed to for the fight. But he wanted to be smart and prove their worth. Once the computer gave the signal, he pushed back on the Ormt thinking it could cut through his shield. With enough room made, the Njord retrieved the rifle from the backside of the shield taking quick aim.

“Pol!” shouted Cal, flying in to knock his Jiao out of the way as the weapon discharged leaving a smoking crater in the earth. Cal managed to lift Wells’ Jiao fifty meters away from the Blue Devil. His Peng immediately went into hover as his computer tried data collection on the machines. “Get your head out of your ass!”

“Urgh…Cal?”

“What are you doing acting like a fresh academy recruit? You know your way around the battle, so prove it to me!”

Still getting his head on straight after the ringing, Wells started to focus, getting snapped out of his rage. “Damnit…Noinel and Rivers…”

“Yes, I know, they’re dead, but you can’t avenge them by being stupid! You’re better than this!”

“Yes, sir!”

With Wells rallied back to the course, Cal checked in on the rest of the team that remained. If they stood any chance against the behemoths they were going to have to work together smartly. “Schir and Elle flank around the enemy. Your target is the Black one. Pol, we’ve got the Blue one. Rinn get those particle cannons warmed up!”

“The cannons?! You can’t be serious!”

“Have you seen the data on that shield?! That’s going to be the only thing we’ve got to actually punch through it!”

“Yes, but they haven’t even been tested with the heavy modifications made. They might not even fire.”

Gripping the sticks tightly, it was time for him to roll those dice. “I think the Blue one will make for a suitable test firing.”

“Damnit…this is insane! Using ship-to-ship weapons on a Skin…”

Turning his Peng around on a flanking maneuver while Wells came in from the ground, they tried to split the pilot’s attention on two targets. However, the shield effortlessly flowed back anticipating both of them for it to block both. Sparks and energy jumped off the shield from the blocked weapons. “We can’t think of it as just a normal Skin. They’re in a completely different class than the Skins we’re used to fighting!”

Schir and Elle’s Jiao attempted to take out the Black Devil attacking on two different sides, but the beams deflected off the armor. And out of the arm mounted barrels, return fire burned through the beam weapon and hand of Schir’s Jiao, only sharply pulling on the machine managed to save her from a direct reactor hit. Elle’s experience gave her enough reaction time that she evaded the beam fully. It quickly felt like it became a battle against a giant with only pebbles as their weapon.