File 12.8 - A Killing Ghost

The maximum height for the drop finally arrived. Alerts sounded off inside the ship echoing through the Bishamons. Tension mounted for Schir as light flooded into the chamber from the opening hatches. Her team was going up against a completely unknown Skin. They hadn’t even seen it. All they had was guess work based on the other enemy types. The strengths weren’t even known for it. She knew each had a purpose in battle, but they only had guesses at what it might be. It already proved itself deadly, too many drop ships never made it to the surface.

With the hatch fully open, the camera below the Skin displayed their target still more than three kilometers from the drop zone. The fall left them easy targets, but their ship was already too big. They could be struck before they made it any further. A beam shot through the view as an explosion followed reminding her of the lethality. ‘It’s time to avenge them, Schir. You can do it.’

Psyching herself up, she locked her eyes on the monitor and cleared away everything else. Her hands hovered over the buttons on the console. “Ghost Team, drop in 3…2…1…drop!” Sparks popped from the rails that kept the machines in line on the ship. Released at once, everyone hit the thrusters immediately once free and clear to push away from the others as the wind threw their Skins around fighting the balancers.

She monitored the organization of the team as they formed up well in the fall. A few of them lifted shields up to protect their cockpits during the fall. “Don’t bother with your shields, the power on that beam will go straight through. You’re dead if it hits you.” Flicking the stick, she tested the responsiveness in the free fall. Everything still seemed to work. “Coming up on 1 click! Start breaking.”

Aiming at some suddenly dropped machines, Shizuka noticed that they were different. The computer immediately recognized them as the new machines recorded into the database. “I’ve got a squadron of the new types in my quadrant as well. Preparing to take them down before they hit the ground.”

“Carefully with them, Shizuka,” Ansgar warned, having already met them in battle now. “They’ve got greater output than the Ormt type.”

“Understood.” Locking onto the best solution, the computer gave her a projected course of all the machines. All calculations with wind and fall ran through her mind thanks to the neural connections. She adjusted the aim and waited for the exact moment. “Firing…”

Another beam shot through the air that Schir only saw half a second before it pierced through three Bishamon effortlessly. The responsiveness of her Skin managed to evade a near miss that could have damaged her right arm. Explosions of the three Skins within the group blew their formation apart and sent everyone tumbling about. “Damnit!”

“Three at once?!”

“They’ve got a lock on us! Change your course, don’t give them an easy target!” She already started manipulating the thrusters, giving her a different descent. They would adapt to it quickly, she just needed to get to the ground.

An alert came over her command window showing her team. One of the Skins had yet to start breaking. “Petty Officer Tyiren. Tyiren come in!” She pulled up the system data on his machine, there didn’t seem to be much damage, only superficial. “Byallen and Ramisu, you’re closest, get Tyiren. I think he might have passed out or been knocked out from the explosion.”

“Yes, sir!”

Lifting the twin beam rifle, another one of the test prototypes she thankfully tested it to confirm that it worked, Schir took aim in the general direction of the beam source. The computer had not locked onto a position, likely because they were moving after taking a few shots. It wasn’t going to hit anything, but she hoped to disrupt them long enough to get the team safely to the ground.

It was a heavy rifle, more unwieldy than the Jade standard issue, but it also packed more punch. She slowly squeezed the trigger only firing from a single barrel rather than both. One of the major issues she had with it was the energy consumption. It was more ideal in space, on the surface with the thick clouds it would be poor. The only saving grace was her reserves.

Pillars of snow and debris shot into the air in front of the Freya. Undeterred from the attack, Shizuka fired off another estimated shot through the screen. The debris weakened the strength, but it still made it through. A shallow hit that only took off an arm of the new machine.

Radar call outs signaled nearing enemy machines. She had to change her position and target. ‘I have to hold them off as long as I can before engaging… And those new types…’ As much as she managed to destroy many of the drop ships and enemy ARMs on the ground, they had numbers. It was more than she could keep up from sniping.

It soon came time for her to directly engage with the enemy. Ejecting the power cable, it retracted back into the tower. Hitting the thrusters, the Freya leapt into the air as it grabbed the rifle attached to the back aiming with both. Locking on to her target, she fired one beam from the sniper rifle and three quick shots from the rifle.

An explosion of snow and rock flew into the earth filling half the battlefield with a thick white cover. The wind picked it up, pulling it further, disrupting cameras and radar.

“We can see the Ghost!” shouted one of the forward Jiao teams. “Surround it!”

Schir’s Bishamon finally hit ground along with the rest of her remaining team, now only seven. However, she was down two more with Tyiren still out and another with a damaged arm that completely fried the circuits, it might be fully out of the battle if they weren’t able to reroute the circuits.

Worse though, she saw the battlefield suddenly change with the cover added as the Ghost dropped in. “Pull back, 213th!”

“Wha--?!” screamed a soldier before being cut off.

“How can it move like that?!”

“N-noo—!”

‘They’re dying…damnit! With that much debris and snow it should be preventing radar from working. It’s just soup in there… How are they so accurate?’

Shizuka snapped her eyes around the screen towards the next target. The accuracy of the prediction quickly dropped with each second. Using the cover to mask herself, she used the power of the computer for predictive calculations of the enemy movements on the ones that she trapped inside. She knew more entered after her, but she couldn’t worry about them.

Effortlessly sliding around the field, the Freya slipped in behind another machine piercing it with a beam sword. She retreated to the next target as the explosion went off at her back. “Two left…” The Freya found the next machine with ease, still at ninety percent accuracy. The last one however, she might not make it. Panic set into the enemy, their erratic patterns started to disrupt the calculations. All little off mark, she managed to drop the last one while the cover remained.

She pulled back out of the snow storm she created. “It’d be nice if they’d retreat. Scare them enough into halting their advance. But with these numbers, I doubt they’ll be anywhere near it…I’m going to have to take more…”

“Where’s the enemy?”

“It’s too quiet in here.”

“Think it left?”

Schir regrouped her team quickly, getting them spread out and charging for the frontline. She scanned over the allied signals on the battlefield still. There were too many still in the smoke trying to fight the Ghost. “Team 45 and Team 104 pull back. We’ll take point, set up flanking positions at point B43.”

“Y-Yes, Ghost Leader.”

‘They’re rattled badly.’ The situation turned poorly with them and their morale dropped thanks to the enemy’s deadly assault. Their losses were already up to twenty-five percent with only three minutes into the battle. It was rough to swallow how well designed the Devils were for large scale battle. And with plenty of targets, missing one almost meant that another would be hit. A dark thought of getting their ranks thinned out by the enemy would actually be better for controlling the field. It was a sickening thought to even entertain.

“There’s none coming through…” questioned Shizuka, expecting at least a few of the enemy machines to come through the cloud. It had already started to thin out, but still gave good cover for an advance. Her rifle was ready for them.

A larger than normal energy source came from above her. “Above?!” The Freya jumped back as the beams blasted the ground in front of it. Gliding backward beam fire came in from the right evading to the left. However, the position on the left was three of the new type of machines. “A trap…” Two beams hit their mark before breaking through the line. Fortunately, the damage was light and impacted on the armor.

Shizuka pulled back to regroup her position away from the new enemies. She let them come to her and watch their movements. “This group’s better than the others. It’s not just the machines… This isn’t good…”

Leading the charge against the Freya, Schir pushed her Bishamon straight up the center taking all of the attention while her team flanked. The energy shield managed to absorb the energy out of the beam rifle, though even that was going to be too much for it soon. She needed to give it time to recover. Pulling around the side in her turn, she slashed out with her energy katana. The output in the energy emitting along the solid blade had been over tuned by the mechanics, experimental like the rest of the machine. But it gave it a cutting edge twice as strong as any of the normal melee weapons. It managed to get some knicks and scraps into the armor. Just like previously, it was about wearing the machine down rather than going for a single kill.