File 12.7 - Monsters Unleashed

Her coffin was warmed up for the wasteland battle to come. Schir tightened her hands around the sticks frustrated that she was stuck until they were low enough to drop. “It’s the Ghost! We’ve got our target, we’re dropping in thirty seconds, remember to correct thrust for landing.”

“Third ship down!”

“The Ghost really is unsettling…” one of her men said.

“Well I can’t wait!”

“Team leaders report in!” she called.

“Black Leader here, new landing coords locked in.”

“Blue Leader here, detected Blue Devil, moving to intercept.”

“Green Leader, the Devil’s making a storm up here, we’re air dropping in ten seconds!”

“Understood and come back alive!”

“Yes, sir, Ghost Leader!”

In alpha quadrant, Aerona finished reaching her point to get into firing range. The heavy charged particle cannon locked into place over the Skadi’s shoulder quickly charging. Stray beam fire flew around her coughing up snow. “Enemies locked…firing…” she spoke coldly. The thick beam engulfed the upper half of the Ormt, exploding immediately. While the beam remained active, she pulled the Skadi dragging the beam to cover the landscape. “Five enemy ARMs confirmed destroyed.”

“Oh hell!” shouted Black Leader over the comm. with his team dropping out of the ship just as he witnessed the wash of destruction. “It just destroyed five Jiaos with a single beam!”

“What the hell?!”

“These things really are monsters!”

‘All the training and explaining and they still didn’t believe it until they saw…’ She watched as the truth to the reality that she preached to everyone came true. Numbers were meaningless against such monsters. All of the Jiaos on the ground were just sitting ducks waiting to be killed. About the only use for them was buying enough time for the Devil Hunters to make land and take over the battle.

Even with them on the ground, she worried about what their odds of winning the battle would be. Their numbers dropped fast in just the opening minute of the battle. They had brought sixty-seven drop ships with six hundred and seventy Skins to take the city. It was a ridiculous number to fathom for only four machines. And yet, ten percent of their force was already destroyed. Each second only made that number increase.

“There’s a new enemy ARM model that they’re deploying!” called out Ansgar to the team. He finished cleaving two machines in half with his sword and moved forward getting the enemy away from the direction of the city. “They’re larger than the others and look to have higher output. Be careful everyone!”

“I can confirm that as well,” Ed replied from the skies as he shot down another drop ship while evading beam fire. He watched as a squadron of them poured out of a ship matching with the rough data provided from him by the Njord.

Taking out two more units on the ground that got too close, Shizuka began to evaluate her position and charge. She scanned the vast data being thrown at her through the neural connections. “I’m only seeing the standard types right now, not even the flight type.”

“Agreed, I wonder if the flight one was a one-off model.”

“There’s some in my air space,” Aerona reported.

“So much fer that theory. Direct them mah way if ya can Air, I’ll handle them.”

“Acknowledged.”

From within the committee room, the battle unfolded across all of the walls switching between different cameras. The results so far looked far more pleasing for them, unlike the previous encounters. “They’re performing far better, Kitawara,” Nornland commented.

“Agreed, this definitely gives assurances that these machines will work for our needs,” the Air Marshal added.

“The city defense may be unnecessary at this stage.”

Kitawara nodded with a pleased grin on his face watching the AESIR working as designed. “The pilots have suitable motivation now. The drive to protect is a powerful one to improve oneself.”

“At the conclusion of this battle, we’ll discuss Valkyrie.”

“I’m pleased to hear it.”