File 12.6 - First Blood

Through the upper atmosphere, the drop ship finally eased up on the hellish death rattles. She could breathe a sigh of relief as the entry went smoother than the last time. Though their target still remained away from them.

Schir pulled up the combat data coming in from the closer drop ships already landing Skins on the ground. They managed to keep out of the range of the city in the case that they had defenses. Though so far they only had an air presence. “Just drones and a few fighters, it looks like. So far it's going smoothly.”

The Freya exited out of the tunnel with a light screen of snow reducing visibility. Changing the thrusters, she pushed the machine back towards the opening landing solidly on the ground. As she began connecting to the sniper rifle a tower rose up out of the ground. Taking the left hand, the Freya pulled the cable free and snapped it firmly into the hilt.

Kneeling down, she pulled up the rifle. The target system magnified the battle showing her the still landing drop ships. Many still remained airborne, full of enemy ARMs. She looked behind her for a moment seeing the city. ‘Millions are behind me…’ Shizuka focused her vision on the first drop ship closest to the ground. ‘Just machines…they’re machines…they’re the enemy…’

The sniper rifle already hit full charge awaiting her command. Seconds slowly ticked away as she stared at the targeting reticule fully locked on to the target. Closing her eyes once, she exhaled and focused on the battle.

A thin beam of energy pierced through the windy wastelands distorting the air. Striking directly in the mid-section of the hold, a delayed explosion erupted through the metal followed by several more as the enemy ARMs blew up. In moments, the whole thing was engulfed in a red-pink blast with shockwaves sent through the other drop ships.

Alerts popped up on Schir’s monitor without much data to go with it. She only had data without any visuals. “What’s going on?” she called the drop ship pilot.

“One of the drop ships was shot down, sir!”

“The hell?!” barked one of her men, off the open line.

“We were supposed to be outside their range, what hit it?”

“It was a beam weapon, but we can’t locate the source, it’s out of range!”

‘Damnit…it’s that one again…’ She quickly looked at the combat data again as it became revised with an estimated location of the enemy Skin. Another ship disappeared from the radar as she felt the blast through the ship. The other Devils appeared on the radar as well split up around the city. The Black Devil, appearing on the shared camera, already moved to get into firing range of the first offensive line. ‘It’s begun…the truth we saw before…’