"Squad nine, do you copy!?" A voice cried into the man's ear piece.
The man in question, a middle aged man with tanned skin, short slick brown hair and a small beard huffed and puffed heavily. "Bad timing, HQ..." The man replied, his silver eyes fixed on the black and purple slim and long monstrosity in front of him. Exhaustion was evident on his face.
His left arm was by his feet, dark red and gray liquid dripped down his shoulder. Wires and other metallic components were visible but he stood straight, as if it didn't mean anything to him. He gripped his longsword with his remaining arm.
"We finally got through... What happened"
The man scoffed at the question, raising his weapon to counter the monstrosity's. "I should be the one asking that! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SIMPLE PATROL TO GET THE ROOKIES STARTED!"He was the leader of the ninth squad and right now, they were surrounded by a terrific amount of Starless, extraterrestrial creatures of unknown origins. They have been at wars with them for centuries now.
"It is a patrol mission!" The voice retorted. "You just vanished from the known coordinates!"
A light blue, black and white flame-like aura enveloped the man as his exposed mechanical spine and arms lit up. "You know what? We'll figure that out when we get out! JUST SEND REINFORCEMENT!" The leader roared as he launched himself at his enemy.
"There's a Curtain active. We can't send in anyone until it's down." The voice calmly replied.
"Of course..." Sparks of blue and purple flew about as the leader and the Starless clashed. He pushed the creature away from the rest, crashing into a ruined building. They struggled against each other, until the Starless disengaged.
The Starless jumped back, letting its opponent's longsword crash into the ground. The blade of its weapon retracted, turning into a gun, a light purple bullet shot out of the muzzle. The leader coated his sword with his aura, slicing the bullet of light into two.
The monstrosity's black and purple body lit up, more shots were fired, majority got deflected or cut by the leader as he advanced toward his enemy, teeth gritted. He leapt forward, his aura exploding as he swung down his sword.
The monstrosity's singular yellow eye lit up, its body disintegrated before the sword even reached it. That was how it had claimed the leader's left arm, now it intended to get his head.
"Won't work twice, asshole!" The longsword flashed at the leader's back, stopping the Starless's blade from slashing his neck. With a quick movement, he pushed the gunblade away, pivoting on his heel and slashed at the creature. Blades collided, energy illuminated the room.
Ultimately, the gunblade failed first as the leader's sword cut through it, unleashing a crescent of energy, splitting the abomination in two. He only had a second d to catch his breath when three shots came flying at him.
Outside of the building, there were three more people of the same squad fighting with everything they got. One was a girl of average height with a fair complexion and dark brown eyes. A gray armor covered her right arm and holding a long katana with both hands. An aura similar to the leader's flared as she deflected light purple shots. Her short black hair swinging in the wind as she rushed forward slashing at two of the monstrosities.
Unfortunately, her slashes were not as decisive as the leader's. She did damage her enemies but nowhere near enough to end them as fast she needed. That's when a light blue wall of energy squashed them into the ground before reforming into a barrier that protected the other girl.
The two regrouped as they analyzed the situation. Their breath were ragged, the black-haired girl's armored arm was covered in dents and scratched, her katana's blade was chipped all over. The girl behind her wasn't faring any better, the gloves that helped form these barriers were breaking down, her visor was chipped as well, barely holding up. Both had shots wounds and slashes all over.
"Man, that's gonna be costly to repair..." The black-haired girl commented, glancing at her arm and weapon. It was her attempt to relax in this dire situation, which didn't please her partner.
"Worry about when we'll get out of here!" The visor-wearing girl replied, activating her ear piece. "MAX, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!? WE'RE GETTING OVERWHELMED HERE!" She roared into the device.
"NO NEED TO SHOUT!" Max shouted back. "I'm at the generator, that shit is guarded I'll let you know!"
"JUST GET THE THING TO STOP SO WE GET REINFORCEMENT IN HERE ALREADY!" The visor-wearing girl shouted back at him, launching a wall at an incoming Starless while shutting off the communication.
The black-haired girl was already rushing in, cutting and felling a group of Starless. Her blade was coated in her aura as she slashed four in equal halves but it simply wasn't enough. By the time she took these down, five more were waiting for her.
Shots came from every direction, which the visor-wearing girl managed to intercept. However, that maneuver left her open for a instant, and that was enough for a blade to find its way into her ribcage. A metallic crack echoed as she was sent flying into a pile of rubbles.
The black-haired girl kept on holding her ground but without the visor-wearing girl's help, her defense was failing and soon...
"Gah...!"
A shot knocked her weapon out of her hand and a blade smacked her in the shoulder.
"Fuck...! There's just too many!" She cussed, raising her armored arm to block three elongated blades. "How the fuck did HQ miscalculate this mission!? It was supposed to be a simple patrol!"
The visor-wearing girl summoned a barrier around the two of them, the visor broke down, revealing a pair of light brown eyes filled with exhaustion. "Less talking, more fighting!"
The black-haired girl rolled her eyes, that's all they've been doing for almost an hour now. Just as she was about to stand, a new Starless showed up, rolling and ramming into the barrier at full speed and shattering it.
The previous ones were long and slim with short legs and weirdly long arms that could stretch. This one was far larger with four limbs too short to support its weight. Though it had shattered the barrier, the impact sent bouncing away but left the girls open.
"ALRIGHT, GENERATOR DOWN!" Max shouted in the ear piece.
"...Finally!" The visor-wearing girl sighed, standing up as she fired a blast of light blue energy at a cluster of Starless. "Captain, how much time until reinforcement arrive!?"
"... Thirty minutes." He announced flatly. They meant they could possibly hold on until then. "I'm also have two Threat Grade 1 on my arms,"
"Well, shit... Just when I thought there was a light at the end of tunnel..." The black-haired girl breathed, punching a Starless away. The round one hadn't gotten back up yet but it was only a matter of time, and considering how overwhelmed they were at the moment...
"Cap, let's just recall." Max proposed. "It's not like we found anything of value we have to bring anyways, no?"
"... Are you sure you wanna do that?" The visor-wearing girl chimed in.
"Hey, that's better than dying!" Max added, an explosion ringing into his ear piece.
The leader didn't say anything, he just cut off the communication. Not even ten seconds passed when a massive beam of light illuminated the clear sky. In less than a breath, the ruined city the squad was in had been vaporized leaving nothing but a smoking crater.