The group of graduates all scramble for their phones, trying to find alternative ways to watch the battle.
"Somebody send me an alt!"
"I'm looking, I'm looking!"
While the graduates seek for videos and updates, the scene on the front line has turned to disaster.
~ SKRYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ~
The gate guardian releases a powerful scream.
The shockwave destroys every window in the city, leveling weak buildings and flipping cars, cracks run rampant through the jungle of concrete and asphalt.
At the battle's perimeter, the wave of pressure hits the unexpected personnel , sending equipment and bodies flying in all directions.
While some archaners have a chance to grab at their ears, for some of the lowest level archaners and non-archaners that meet the shockwave, they do not have time to be tortured by the sounds.
They already lay dead, their liquified organs leaking from every orifice.
Echoes of the monster's scream ripple through the city before the members of Thundering Fury are able to stand upright.
"Fuck! That thing isn't messing around! Everybody ok? Sound off!"
The command comes from the strike team's captain, Joshua Daily.
"All green!"
"Right here, captain!"
"Shit, that was crazy!"
"Ok! Squad up! Looks like our fight's about to get started." The captain affirms.
"This is Daily, we're in the centre of the ACZ, what are our orders, Command?"
The Director's voice crackles over the team's communicators.
"Do not engage the guardian! Warden-Unit and Bladestorm en route. Wait for suppression strat. Focus on the etties on the ground! We need to clear them out before they start aiming for the perimeter. Acknowledge!"
"Affirmative! I'm gonna need locations."
"Loading informatics now." GAIA'S familiar voice whispered into the team's ears.
"Got it. Moving to the target location."
"We have no idea what these winged fuckers are capable of, so use supreme cause. Focus on one at a time! I don't need hero's out there, I need soldiers! Out!"
"You heard the man, looks like we have a target 1 point 2 clicks due north. We're keeping this basic, people. Hammer and nail. Get into positions. Move out!"
A litany of small green arrows appear to the archaners, augmented to their vision via their ARCH-units, each arrow pointing them in the direction of a nearby hostile.
The team moves out in swift unison.
The captain, Joshua Daily, summons a pillar of rock from the ground that launches him into the air. He weaves between the buildings on stone pillars that erupt from the earth to follow his every move.
Vice-Captain Adrian Jonas sinks into a nearby shadow, travelling a path where light could not.
Team members Rumaan Adams and Jessica Hills both sit precariously on a sheet of ice as it travels through the air on a cloud of plasma-fed, superheated steam.
"Really wish you'd figure out a way to move around faster."
"Screw you. This is faster than sliding around on your ice like a fuckin' penguin."
The two team members argue as they move towards their target.
"Visual Contact!"
Adrian Jones sees the entity first as he slinks past it through a nearby shadow.
Still knelt down, presenting its sword to the sky. A heavenly shimmering of light floated in an aura around it, its wings wrapped neatly around its body, gleaming under the morning sunlight.
It sits motionless, waiting in the centre of a street that seemed to stretch the entire city.
The rest of the team gathers around the entity, hiding themselves atop buildings and in the alleyways and shadows surrounding their target.
"Ok, we do this quick. We do this precise. Remember your call outs. Engage target in 3… 2… 1… Go!"
The captain's command rings out and the team's reaction is instant, their ARCH-units are blazing flicker as they move speedily towards the target.
First, Rumaan encases the target in a cube of brilliant ice, the entity barely reacts.
Adrian comes next, dragging the ice-cube into the shadows beneath it, leaving it half submerged.
From the air, a giant molten boulder descends onto its target, launched by Joshua Daily and wrapped in a cloak of blazing plasma by Jessica Hills.
The molten rock explodes on its frozen target, the blast of stone and steam send debris in all directions, rocking the surrounding buildings and infrastructure. The team struggles to confirm the result of their attack as the dust slowly settles.
~ WAWOOOSH ~
A violent beat of wings immediately pushes away all the dust and debris that had just littered the area. The road had opened up like a crater, lined with steaming ice and charred rubble, and in its center, a kneeling aetherian.
The creature's wings stands tall and strong as they glimmer above him. Its skin yet unmarred. A vision of perfection.
The wings slowly drop down again, wrapping themselves neatly around their owner.
"Uh… Orders, Captain?" Adrian hesitates.
Joshua Daily stares at his enemy with trepidation, calculating possible vectors of attack that can damage it. He finds his answer.
"Floating Spear. 3-way split. Right down the middle. Acknowledge!" The captain barks across the communicators.
"Roger!"
Planning to hit the 3 most common locations of a humanoid E.T.E.A.'s critical weak points, the head, neck and chest. The team springs into action.
Meanwhile, 4 floors below ground, near the center of the ACZ, team Split-Nova stand nervously above a gaping hole stretching the height of the building. The barrier crystal lay at its bottom, spewing out seemingly endless aether.
"There's nothing we can do, Director. Our hands are tied."
"I'm not dropping a building on myself for a fucking rock!"
The voices come from Ayame Kurosawa and Vera Vertaski of Strike Team Split-Nova.
"Goddamn it. We need that damn crystal. We can't afford to lose another one!" The Director cries out.
"You two, get back up top, find a way to deal with those etties."
The Director turns his attention to the residents of the command center.
"I need options, people! We need that crystal!"
The room falls to a murmur, until a soft voice speaks up.
"Um, Joshua, sir. Mr. Daily is a geo-kinetic. He could lift… um, the building?"
"Close enough! Get Daily on the line!"
Near the northern perimeter, Thundering Fist still struggles to land a harming blow on the same winged entity.
"Daily, acknowledge!"
"Roger, Command! Kinda busy though!"
"I need you at the barrier crystal! A.S.A.P.! No questions!"
There is a moment of silence across the communicators. On the displays adorning the wall at the front of the command center, various scenes of carnage play out.
On one screen, the Director watched as Thundering Fury tries their 4th coordinated attempt at destroying their first foe.
A flaming vortex gives way to innumerable spears of ice, culminating in violent tendrils of rocks all crashing upon the wings of the aetherian.
Yet, no response. The being remains unperturbed by the Strike Team's actions.
"Fine! This fucker ain't playing nice anyway." Joshua Daily finally grunts back at Command.
"Warden-Unit and Bladestorm have entered the ACZ. They'll handle the etties. I need you to retrieve the barrier crystal, intact! This is highest priority, Joshua. Don't let us down!"
"Acknowledged!"
"Have fire and ice join you. Adrian, get back to the perimeter. We have better uses for you there.
"Affirmative."
The team responds again. A dreariness finding Adrian's voice.
The Director watches as the team splits and heads to their assigned objectives.
On another monitor, Strike Team Bladestorm begins their assault on one of the kneeling aetherians.
Barrages of powerful slashes, nuclear-infused punches, bolts of lightning and crashing objects meet the kneeling enemy. But it remains motionless and unscathed.
Similar scenes play out across the other monitors showing the actions of Split-Nova and Warden-Unit as they each try to bring down an enemy, futilely.
"This isn't working. We're just burning aether here. We need a new gamepla…"
~ SKRYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM ~
The Director barely finishes his sentence before another shockwave of sound hits the city.
The gate guardian's mouth slowly closes with a clasping crack, having just finished its latest song of annihilation.
Buildings across the city bend and crack, some tumbling down to disappear into giant clouds of dust and rubble.
"Shit! Was hoping that thing would wait its turn!"
The Director watches in dismay as the wave of destruction washes over the city.
"Fuck! We gotta bring that thing down or we're gonna lose the city before the end of day!"
He sends commands for the 3 strike teams in combat to ignore their current targets and focus all attacks on the gate guardian soaring above the city.
Warden-Unit arrives at the guardian first.
After a moment of planning, they launch a coordinated barrage of destructive forces towards the monster.
It hits the guardian across its chin in an explosion of shimmering colors, blowing off pieces of its thick skin and the aetheric flesh hidden beneath it. Yet, the entity remained motionless, even with numerous cracks snaking across its visage and raw aether leaking from its gaping wound.
~ UNTOS ~!
Aetherian words echoed loudly through the city.
"Did those winged bastards just speak!?" The Director yells in confusion.
On the monitors across the room, 16 kneeling angelic beings rise to their feet, turn towards the gate guardian in the sky and lift their swords in unison. Their wings lay low behind them.
"Looks like they're finally ready to join the party." The Director chuckles.
Though his anxieties are growing with each passing moment, he hardens his resolve and wipes away all doubts. He has a city to defend and planet to save.
"Joshua, where are you with my damn crystal?"
"Half click out, Director. We'll have your toy home before supper."
"Make it lunch and I might double your bonus."
Joshua gives a hearty chortle over the communicator before signing off as he launches his way to the objective across pillars of earth. Jessica and Rumaan plods through the air behind him.
"Hold fire! All strike teams! Hold your fire!"
The command rang out, reaching all the archaners ears. They stand down, waiting for further orders, which the Director swiftly relayed.
"Everyone, stand down and prepare yourself. We're going for the barrier crystal. Do not engage the enemy unless required! Await further command."
The communicators go quiet, until a familiar voice brings good news.
"We've reached the barrier crystal location. Going down now."
Joshua and his team move towards the crystal, Rumaan holding up the walls and floors of the crumbling building with pillars of ice while Joshua carefully moves earth and debris in search of the precious stone.
Jessica remains above ground, as a lookout.
"Found it." He exclaims, allowing the Director a sign of relief.
A fragment of the crystal pokes out from beneath crumbled concrete and rock, revealing its unmistakable shimmer.
"Starting retrieval. Stand by."
Joshua lifts the earth beneath the crystal, gently at first, gripping the aetherite with tendrils of rock and concrete. He pulls on it slowly, careful not to cause it any harm.
~ VAAAOOOOOOOOOM ~!
Joshua winces. The sound startles him, freezing him in place as the ground around him shakes and rumbles.
"What the fuck what that?" Rumaan yells from 2 floors above him.
"Jess, what's happening up there?"
Above them Jessica stands twitching. Staring at the sky, gripped in terror. A gaping hole across her chest, dripping with blood and sinew. Behind her, a neat round cavity etched deeply into the asphalt.
A gigantic iris is focused on Jessica.
Belonging to one of the eyes upon the guardian's crown, it stands wide open, its once black interior swirling with the aetheric energies.
As Jessica's lifeless body falls to its knees and then face, the iris quickly closes, and resumes its twitching dance before another aims at the area and releases a devastating beam of pure aetheric energy.
~ VAAAOOOOOOOOOM ~!
The beam pierces several buildings before digging a hole into the ground above Joshua and Rumaan.
"Jesus Christ! We lost Jessica Hills." The Director shouts.
"Joshua! DO. NOT. MOVE THAT CRYSTAL! The guardian just put a hole through Hills, it's trying to take you out. Hold position!"
The Director turns his back to the monitors, Jessica's death still burning in his eyes. He could already see the faces of her devastated family appearing behind his closed eye-lids.
He turns back to the room, a ferocity burning in his eyes.
"What the fuck are we doing here people. Doctor, I need answers!"
The doctor is shaken from deep thoughts, he leaps from his chair, ready to provide insight.
"It's a conundrum, Director. A puzzle. We hurt the face, the angels may attack. They seem invincible. Unwinnable. Who knows what happens when they join the fray."
"Agreed. We can't put a dent in 'em. I'd prefer we keep them out of this."
"So we cannot attack face. We touch barrier crystals, the eyes attack. Powerful, unavoidable. We can't touch barrier crystal either. And worse, there's the occasional scream of death bringing down the whole city."
The doctor looks at the scowling Director sheepishly with a half-smile.
"Then perhaps the eyes? If we destroy the eyes, the crystal may be ours for the taking?"
"We hit those eyes, those damn angels might decide to rip us to shreds."
"True, yes. But notice, Director. 16 angels. 16 eyes. Perhaps a coincidence, perhaps not? How can we know?"
The doctor's smile turns to a grin, he disappears and reappears alongside the Director again. Close enough to for the Director to feel the doctor's breath across his ARCH-unit..
"Experimentation, Director." He whispers.
The Director turns and looks the doctor in the eye. The man was serious. He suggests using the lives of the strike teams to test an hypothesis.
"It's the best we got."
The Director sends down the order.
Warden-Unit accepts the command and prepares an attack on the rotating crown of eyes.
The Strike Team weave their aetheric skills together into a pulsating sphere of various elements that smash and snap as they try to synchronize aetheric resonances, then quickly launching the volley of swirling energies towards the Guardian.
It hits the crown with near perfect accuracy. Aether and debris spew from the shimmering explosion.
~ ANRU ~!
Another aetherian word echoes loudly across the city.
The Director watches as the angelic beings speak, then lift their wings to their highest points. And suddenly, their swords explode into flames.
Then, motionless.
"Guess I was right about the flaming swords." The Director nervously chuckles.
"Look, Director. The eyes!"
All eyes in the command center search for a screen featuring the crown of eyes.
The Director watches as the crown continues to spin around the Guardian, and coming into view, the sight of 2 gaping holes, dripping with aether, where once stood twitching eyes.
And on the ground, 2 of the angels lay upon the floor. Crumbled into mounds of aetheric dust.
"The eyes are the key, Director!"
"Right as always, Doctor Ravinok."
The doctor smiles as he waddles away proudly.
"Alright people, we need to take out those eyes before we can get to the barrier crystal."
The Director explains to the teams, who have been waiting eagerly for his directions.
"Listen up!" The Director shouts over the frontline communicators.
"We probably only have one more shot at this before the winged fuckers decide to join the fight. So we need to coordinate attacks and take out as much of those eyes as you can in one shot! Acknowledge?"
A multitude of affirmations ring out across the ACZ.
"Joushua, you stay put, as soon as those eyes are taken care of, I want that crystal out the ACZ, and on an ATG, acknowledge!"
"Got it!"
Joshua replies with a strained voice as he and Rumaan struggle to hold up the massive building collapsing around them, their ARCH-units ablaze from the overusage.
"We're reaching resonance-limit, here. Make it quick!" Joshua adds before signing off.
The strike teams on the ground start their offensive movement with the guidance of Command. They move out to predefined locations and prepare their attacks, each group taking aim at a different set of eyes.
"Hit it!" The Director's command rains down.
3 Strike Teams launch a coordinated assault on the crown of eyes. The sky over the city erupts in a cacophony of eruptions and devastation as their attacks reach their targets. After the dust settles, 12 more eye sockets stand hollow, their eyeballs reduced to showers of aether and debris.
~ SAN GROSHA GA BRY ~
The words rang out for a 3rd time, echoing through the buildings and roads of the city.
In a sudden burst of brilliant light, the 2 last remaining winged aetherians disappear.
This first one appears in the vicinity of Strike Team Warden-Unit.
The team barely has a chance to react to its presence. With a swift beat of its wing, it instantly moves beside the first of the four team members.
She tries to scream, but a flaming sword steals the breath from her chest. Her body lights up like a lantern as aether and flames are pumped into her through the aetherian's weapon. A moment later her entire body erupts in a dazzling flash of flesh and flames. A glimmer of aether visible in the shower of blood.
The rest of Warden-Unit immediately retreat, seeking shelter in and around the surrounding buildings.
"Did you see that, Command?"
The trembling whisper comes from the team's captain, hidden in an adjacent building.
"We've got eyes on it. Stay put, we are working on a plan."
"Roge.."
The being bursts through the building the captain was hidden in, scooping up the man by his face as it moves through walls of metal, glass and concrete unhindered. It crashes through 3 more buildings using Warden-Unit's captain as a battering ram.
By the time the carnage ends, the man is nothing more than scraps of skin and muscle barely hanging onto the shattered remains of his skeleton. The aetherian crushes what remains of his skull.
It stands motionless again, yet seems to scan the area.
It's mouth slowly opens, and a piercing high-pitched scream emerges. The remaining Warden-Unit members wince in pain.
"GIYAAAAAAA"
One of the members screams from a nearby rooftop, clutching his bleeding ears in anguish. The echo-kinetic writhes around on the floor in pain, the high pitched scream having destroyed his eardrums.
The winged aetherian disappears again in a blur of light before appearing before the squirming man. It lifts its hand, pointing a solemn finger at the archaner.
The man is quickly lifted into the air by invisible forces, his body twisted around in unnatural ways. A ominous hum pervades the area. The air around the doomed archaner rattles with energy, and suddenly, every particle of matter within meters comes rushing towards him.
~ SHWOOOOOM ~ !
The man is instantly crushed into a single point, a tiny singularity which quickly explodes as an airburst of devastating force, toppling the building below it, and blowing away the tops of those around.
"Jesus! Oh god… oh God! HELP! HELP ME!"
The Vice-Captain of Warden-Unit screams in terror after witnessing the massacre of his teammates.
"Bladestorm! Get your asses to Warden-Unit's location now! We're initiating suppression protocols on those fuckers!"
"On our way, Director. 2 minutes out!"
The response comes from Bladestorm Captain, Rashe Bowman.
As the rubble of the toppled building settles, the aetherian once again appears amidst the clouds of dust. A flap of its wings quickly cleanses the area, and the morning sun rains down again on its glistening porcelain skin.
It notices Warden-Unit's Vice-Captain, quivering in a pile on the street. His mind is broken by the angelic being's viciousness and strength.
The creature lifts its wing, reflecting sunlight onto all around it. The trembling archaner looks on in astounded horror as the angel breaks toward him.
He has no time to react. His head flies off, rolling into a nearby gutter as fountains of blood spray from his headless body.
The angel again stands motionless, its marble skin now dyed red.
Across the city, on the rooftop of a skyscraper, Split-Nova contends with the other remaining hostile.
"I can't hold it. Aya! Its too fucking strong!"
Vera Vertaski screams at her teammate as she struggles with all her power to restrain the aetherian while contending with a painful wound on her abdomen.
The creature hung suspended in an invisible pocket of intense gravity, struggling against the crushing pressure.
"Command! We've detained it. Sending target coordinates!"
Ayame Kurosawa yells across the communication lines to HQ, while tightly gripping a stump of bleeding flesh where her forearm should be.
The 2 members of Split-Nova had managed to barely survive the creature's initial assault and now hold it confined in a powerful gravitational well created by Vera, suspended in the sky.
"Acknowledged. Activating suppression measures." A response comes back.
On the battlefield's perimeter, large artillery cannons creek to life.
"Bio-suppression measures… Fire!"
A voice yells from the perimeter wall.
"Net-suppression measures. Fire!"
~ SHICKBOOM, SHICKBOOM ~!
The cannons fired in a symphony of eruptions.
The bio-suppression measures leave the barrels first.
Large, lead shells lined in aetherium burst forth from the barrels, contained within, a devastatingly destructive slurry of aether-infused biomatter.
The artillery rounds whizz through the air and toward their target, leaving behind a trailing spiral of glittering dust.
The first shell hit's its target explosively, coating it in a thick, sticky, molten-miasma of noxious chemicals. The creature's skin begins to sizzle and pop.
3 more shells hit it in quick succession.
~ SHICKBOOM, SHICKBOOM ~!
Another volley of shells leave the perimeter.
Each housing a capture-net weaved of an aetherite and titanium composite.
The shells buzz through the air, exploding just short of their target and releasing the large mesh of metallics and aetherite that quickly wraps itself around the enemy.
The aetherian, captured and confined, falls to the ground with a mighty crash, where it lays writhing and wriggling, trying to break free in vain.
"Target down! Target down!" Ayame confirms to Command.
The Director sighs again with relief.
"Good, now take care of those damn eyes!"
Split-Nova regroups at the top of the skyscraper, looking up at the spinning crown adorning the gate guardian. Two eyes still twitching with life.
"Let's just finish this and get home. I miss my arm!" Ayame laments.
Vera giggles in response.
"I dunno, I think it suits you."
Ayame rolls her eyes before slipping through the air towards her target. Vera shortly follows riding a wave of personalized gravity.
The duo's ascent is interrupted by another shrivelling scream from the floating face.
~ SKRYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ~
The pressure wave tosses them back down to earth, crashing through buildings as they tumble.
Back in the north-west of the city, members of Bladestorm struggle to suppress the enemy.
The shockwave of the guardian's scream rolls through their area, toppling buildings and structures around them.
"Fuck! We need to finish this!"
The team captain screams as he braces himself against the torrents of air rushing through the street.
Ahead of him, team members hold the creature suspended high above the street in a bubble of pressurized water and wind.
"I can't get it any higher! We need to do this now!"
A team member screams from below the creature's prison as they strain to keep it contained.
"Command, we need a suppression strike on our coordinates, right now!"
"Affirmative, confirming target coordinates"
Before the strike can be ordered, the creature breaks free, dropping to the ground like a lightning bolt. It crushes the team member that had just contained it, leaving only a puddle of writhing flesh.
"Fuck!" The team captain exclaims. "It got loose!"
He watches as the angel scans its targets and moves toward its next victim, another teammate trying desperately to call on their aetheric skill.
But the approaching monstrosity robs her of her conviction, leaving her crumbled on the floor in a panic of tears and urine.
The captain springs to action, forsaking all notions of survival in a bid to save his remaining teammates.
As he approaches the creature, his body explodes into balls of wobbling flesh that quickly transform into multiple clones of the man.
The captains' clones swarm the target, their bodies seeming to melt and mold themselves around the figure of the enemy. Forming a coating of human flesh around the creature. They pull and stretch, restricting its movement.
The creature screams.
The archaners all recoil in pain, but the captain's clones stay firmly latched to their target.
"Mona, NOW!" One of the captain's clones yells.
On a room top nearby, a woman weaves her hands through the air gracefully. Below her, a torrent of air whips around the creature's feet, growing into a whirlwind of dust and debris, lifting the entity high into the air.
"COMMAND!" The captain screams in frustration and fury.
"Bio-suppression measures…. FIRE!"
The firing of artillery rang out across the perimeter.
4 shells snake their way across the ACZ and hit the target full-on. The captain takes the brunt of the first hit, the biomass melting through skin and bones as his clones slough off the creature in bits and pieces.
The rest of the shots find their true target, followed quickly by 3 capture nets, that wrap it into submission and bring it crashing back to earth, where it lay fully restrained.
Mona Yelin searches for her captain in the aftermath of the artillery strike.
She finds his badly mutilated body. Collecting as much of him as she can, she proceeds to gently carry him to the perimeter on a cushion of air.
"Vera… you still alive?"
Ayame inquires toward her partner as she lay half submerged in rubble and concrete on the 25th floor of an office building.
A long sigh came back in response.
"Unfortunately." Vera finally replies.
"I'm pissed. Are you pissed?"
"Worse… I pissed myself!"
Ayame bursts out laughing, coughing up spittles and globs of blood.
"Revenge?"
"RE-FUCKING-VENGE!"
The duo explode out of the rubble of fallen buildings, speeding toward the gate guardian.
Ayame reaches her target first, she lands on the aetherian eye-ball, slipping her sword in its iris, holding on tightly as it flicks around, trying to knock her loose. But it was already too late, her touch meant its destruction.
She channels her aetheric ability into her sword causing it to vibrate faster and faster. It reaches a quivering climax, and the eye it has pierced explodes in a mutilation of flesh and aether.
Another aetherian angel crumbles to dust.
On the other end of the crown, Vera floats before the final eye in a bubble of gravity. She lifts her hand toward her target and smiles as she takes her revenge.
First twisting and rolling her fingers in her palm, the eye before her twists and bends as she weaves the pushing and pulling of matter under her control. Finally clasping her hand closed shut, crushing the eyeball with a satisfactory plop.
"Finally!" A voice snorts in the command center.
"Daily! You're clear. Get that crystal out of there, now"
"Yes, sir!" Joshua Daily responds.
Joshua immediately grips the crystal with his tendrils of rock and launches himself and the crystal out of the crumbling basement, on a mountain of earth.
Rumaan follows, slipping to safety on torrents of ice.
On the surface, support archaners arrive to assist with transportation. They move the crystal onto a large trolley and use their abilities to quickly usher it away to the edge of the ACZ, slipping out of the perimeter and onto a waiting ATG platform.
With the barrier crystal removed from the area, the Aether Concentration Zone that had domed the city, quickly starts to fade, its shimmer disappearing from the air as the raw aether was absorbed back into the fabric of the universe.
With the ACZ gone, all aetherians still active would begin to crumble.
Their source of life and power having been removed, they slowly feed off the remaining remnants of aether in their core crystal, slowly dying until they turn into aetheric dust.
"Good work, people, the ACZ is down. All etties have been eliminated. Let's finish this before the guardian sings us another song."