Breaking into a sprint, Juan pushed his Vegalta to the limit as he rushed towards the intercept point. Checking over his shoulder to see the other member of Möbius keeping pace, he sighed.

Barely a month of peace and they were once again back in the fire. While he wasn't complaining, it would have been nice to have some actual time to rest.

God knows Frosty needs it...

While everyone was hit hard by the Ravagers, Freda had a particular hatred of them. It was understandable, few people would forgive those who killed their family. Especially not a girl like her.

"This Scout 27, intercept point is clear, no bugs in sight!"

Based on the trajectory of the bogeys, they would land somewhere in a abandoned metropolis a few miles from the actual EDF base. Apparently, from what he had managed to pick up on, they were not part of the Citadel Council the friendly aliens had, but were instead pirates.

While normally he would find the notion of fighting alien pirates funny, fighting 10 meter insects and literal fire breathing dragons made the concept downright normal.

He leapt, Vegalta propelled into the air by powerful hydraulics, and seeing he would quite clear the ruins of a house he fired his thrusters.

Twin wings of fire blasted from the back of his frame, causing it to shoot clean over the building and come down hard.

It took a half a second for the machine to recover, and Juan was already starting to run when Freda came over the building herself, brilliant gold paint job reflecting the dim afternoon light.

The pair continued to move, before coming to a stop a few hundred meters outside the skeletal city. The wall of steel seemed to stretch up and to the sides forever, desolate and empty.

"Hundreds of thousands of people used to live here, now its just a ghost town..."

Freda muttered under her breath.

"I will make them pay."

Looking into the vast blue sky above, Juan could swear he saw a burst of red among the heavens.

Wait.

A streak of fire hurtled into the sky, and another burst appeared as it left view.

Followed by another.

"This is Strategic Command Headquarters, hostile vessels have begun to attempt earth fall. All units are to be on high alert, we will broadcast the results of the space battle to you."

Juan shrugged, the movement copied by the Vegalta.

"Well then, lets get into position."

He began to run, moving into the empty city, ignoring the fact that the area was dead silent.

Freda pursued, and the two began to seek out a ambush position. While attempting to ambush a enemy that you knew little about was difficult, it was possible, and finding a proper position was crucial.

He leapt onto a small building, before using it as a launch platform onto a larger one.

Having the high ground was always a good choice.

"This is Weapons Operator, all silos, open, Despina, locked on!"

A few moments later several streaks of orange light shot into the heavens at a speed that would have seemed impossible just 20 years ago.

"Tempests away, impacting in 10 seconds!"

The pair looked over the city scape, the orange of the sun reflecting off of grey concrete and steel.

"IMPACT! All targets destroyed!"

The voice was cut off by the Tactics Officers, anxiety obvious in her own.

"Hostile warships have launched dropships, and begun counter fire."

Several speck of light fell from the sky in the distance, crashing down to earth. They weren't close, being over 50 kilometers away, but even then he could tell that the impact was devastating.

Despina...

They must be trying to suppress EDF ground defenses.

Panicked and frenzied screams and calls for aid burst through the radio as the last of the shots impacted.

Tuning out the radio chatter, Juan concentrated on his sensors.

Suddenly, several red blips appeared on his radar, the objects descending at a blazing speed towards the city.

Each one was around 5 meters in length, quite small, but given the technology of the aliens...

They must be the dropships.

"Möbius 2! Heads up, hostile aircraft incoming at 1250 kph!"

Freda reacted, rotating the top of her Vegalta to face the incoming dropships. They were nearly in visual range now, and the Vegalta chirped as its VLS systems locked onto them. All 10 of them.

"Damn, we are heavily outnumbered... fire a salvo, then retreat."

He could see them now, 10 small aircraft that resembled a flying box more then anything that should be airborne.

They were of various make and model, weapons hanging of the sides of them, doors opened like the helicopter gunships of the pre war world. Nose art depicting a variety of alien and familar objects and scenes adorned the fronts of some, while others were completely bare.

The head aircraft entered range, and was met by twin streams of fire from Fregas revolver cannons.

The object seemed to shimmer for a second before the shells began ripping into it, causing it to fall from the sky like a rock.

Juan also opened up, his own fire impacting another dropship to once again being met by a odd shimmer, but no actual damage.

He continued firing, and eventually whatever was blocking his fire disappeared and the vehicle exploded as the shells torn through it.

"FIRE MISSILES!"

The deadly projectiles launched from the shoulders of the Vegaltas, soaring above before dropping onto the aircraft, exploding into balls of fire.

Some fell, but yet again some managed to survive, shimmering barriers blocking the explosions. They returned fire, cannons blazing with strange light that launched streaks of silver at the machines. Frega was hit, multiple times by the projectiles, flashes of light as the rounds glanced off her Vegalta, inflicting damage to the outer plating. A streak impacted the arm of the machine, and part of it was torn off. Another smashed clear into the chest of the Power Frame, and Juan realized that the powder exiting the impact crater was the pulverized remains of armor and shell, turned into dust by the impact.

"PULL BACK!"

Juan leapt back, firing his jump jets as he did to control his fall.

He impacted the earth with a crash, Frega landing next to him a second later. Her Vegalta was damaged, dents and scrapes in the more heavily armored sections, and holes in the lighter areas.

"FROSTY, STATUS REPORT!"

She replied with a shaky voice.

"Damn, they got me pretty good. No penetration of the cockpit, but my left cannon is screwed and another shot to the chest would go clean through."

Juan responded as he shifted to face a dropship that dived onto the pair, maneuvering through the tight skyscrapers easily.

"We have to find cover! They will tear us apart in the open!"

Frega leapt back to avoid the hail of fire, and launched a pair of missiles that sent the dropship spiraling to the ground. Another one rounded a corner, before it landed and several humanoid figures left it.

The humanoids began firing at them, miniature versions of the weapons on the dropships impacting to little effect.

Freda raised her good arm and fired, the hail of shells tearing through the aliens like paper, shimmers appearing only to "pop" a milisecond later, the humanoids impacted dying instantly.

One of them, which resembled a blue woman, raised her arms and to Juans shock a ball of... something materialized and launched at high speed at Fredas Vegalta.

It impacted, and the armor touched seem to warp and distort, being wrenched apart. Several aliens begin concentrating fire on the shot, shells that were previously glancing off now starting to tear off small chunks of armor. He quickly responded by laying down a wall of fire that blew apart the dropship and sent the aliens to the ground.

Several of them tried to get back on their feet, but Freda swept her cannon across the area, tearing them and the wreckage of the dropship apart.

The pair of remaining dropships roared overhead, almost seeming to weigh the odds of attacking the pair of Vegaltas.

Juan advanced, raising his nearly spent cannons towards them while opening and closing his VLS pods.

The blue woman slowly stood up, watching the dropships fly off into the distance before dropping her weapon as she looked up to the Power Frame towering over her.

She raised her hands in the universal sign of surrender.