File 8.8 Giant's Domain

“Damnit!” yelled Wells slamming the panel at his side in the cockpit. His computer threw an energy warning at him informing him of his limit. At the side of that, system displays for the damage to his machine flashed red. Partially melted hand from just even a near miss from the Blue Devil’s particle beam left it completely malfunctioning. Warnings for errors in the drive shafts and hydraulics within his machine screamed for maintenance. “I’m not going down here!”

The shield on the Blue Devil smashed forward as the Peng attempted to cut through in a weakened point made on the shield. Cal rocked around as his air bags blew out to protect him from the fall. His sword rained down in shattered pieces at the base of the unmoving shield. Once the bags drew back in and he could look out from his prone position, the Devil stared down at him for an easy shot. “Rinn, are you ready yet!”

“Quick rushing me! The crash fried most of the circuits and we never took the time to fix them. I’m having to re-route power through some dangerous places just to get them kicking!”

Seeing the blue glow charging from the rifle, Cal ran out of time. “Stop complaining and just fire! You don’t have any more time left!”

“If I die on this forsaken planet I’m coming back as a real demon to curse you all!”

“Duly noted, now fire!”

A pink beam stretched through the sky hitting directly on the shield of the Blue Devil, but the blast radius in front expanded rapidly. Earth ripped up and chunks flew away pelting the Jiao and Peng as they tried to find some sort of cover.

The close range of the attack temporarily overloaded his computer needing time to reboot. “Report! Main camera’s down!”

“Energy and heat readings are still unclear and visual scans are impossible with all of the debris! Schir, can you make anything out?”

Getting more of a feeling of the battle flow, she managed to narrowly evade another beam. Unfortunately, each narrow dodge still damaged her machine. The armor completely melted away from the arm of her Jiao exposing the skeletal machinery underneath. She spun around quickly to get a view of the Blue Devil only to see clouds as well. “Unable to confirm anything. There’s too much interference still!” However, a blue glow suddenly came through the clouds as a beam particle ripped through the dust. She was unable to dodge in her Jiao time with it taking the shoulder off leaving only scraps of metal holding the useless arm together. “It’s still alive! I repeat, it’s still alive!”

“Bastard! It really is a demon!”

“Damnit…”

“That’s impossible! How can it take a direct hit from a cannon?!”

“It’s a monster…”

Cal saw the reports coming to his machine as the commander for the rest of his team. None of them were in good shape and they were running out of power. Even though the combat with the twin Devils only lasted five minutes they had burned through at a rate of three times their normal amount. ‘We’ve lost this battle. They’ve completely out classed us in every way…’ He started to think about their future. With deadly machines like the two that they faced he started to have concerns over the success of the operation. ‘Do they only have two machines? How many more do they have back in reserve? We wanted to see their fighting strength, but this is unsettling…’

A retreat was their only recourse. Watching the battle quickly fall out of their hands made that clear enough to him. ‘The long range on that Black one is worrying. We need to create an opening…’ He quickly looked at the battlefield and what his team had left. There was little to work with, but he had to make due. “Rinn, I need one more! Can you do it?”

“I fried half of the systems with that, you’re going to be lucky for us to fly out without swimming.”

“But can you fire once more?”

“I can give you one, not both.”

“Fine, that’ll be enough.” Cal ran checks on the inventory as the plan came together quickly in his mind. “We’re going to need those flash grenades, Pol.”

“What you got in mind, Cal?”

“Our retreat.”

“You can’t be serious! They’re right in front of us!”

“Can you take one of them down as you are?” Silence came from the other end. Wells didn’t like it, he knew, but he had to accept it. They all had to accept that they had lost. The first skirmish might have ended closer to draw even if it tasted like defeat, no question remained about this. “I’m sending over the escape route. Get your positions exact, any mistakes and we’re going to die here! I’m not allowing this damned planet to take anymore of my team, you hear!”

“Yes, sir!” they all shouted.