Hourly Challenge: Weather Specific Enemy
a/n: Doug, Boze and two OCs are on a mission in Cauldros. Hope it doesn't start raining lava. Hope it DOES start raining lava.
A story beginning, done in under an hour (okay, editing took another hour) .
All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, but Nguyn and Izzy are mine.
"I ain't seen nothing, I ain't seeing nothing, I ain't gonna see nothing. Can we go home now?" shouted a young man petulantly to his superior. He was standing with his toes to the edge of the cliff, ready to dive down onto the enemy complex that lay below them. In the center of the complex sat a circular hangar, built like a covered stadium, containing mysteries. The huge iris in the roof remained just as solidly shut as it had been when they had arrived several hours before.
A second soldier, older and wearing worn heavy armor, kept his field glasses pressed to his eyes. He ignored the complaints. He was also standing at the edge of the volcano crater, but more solidly balanced on the narrow ledge. His attention was fixed on the ruins far below. The first soldier grumbled and resumed scanning the edges of the horizon.
Two other men waited at a distance, not exactly at rest (their equipment prevented that) but certainly keeping out of the way for the moment. "You really should ..." one began to lecture in a warning tone, only to have the second shush him.
"Leave it. I think those two like to perform their comedy routine. Breaking it up would be like messing with you when you're meditating."
The chiding soldier considered that for a moment, then barked with laughter. "I hardly think that's the same thing."
"You focus the way you need to, Boze. Doug and Nguyn are working that farce to remind themselves to keep eyes on the hangar and more importantly to hold off jumping in before something happens. Same as I'm revising my augments again and you're ... I don't know, glowering or something? Not really sure."
"I'm concentrating on breathing and readiness," said the other man contentedly.
"Jeez, you sounded like a Wrothian just then." The speaker had returned to hunching over his comm device and swiping through every stat number of his skell. As a result he missed the angry flare of Boze's nostrils. The volcano's rumble hid any immediate vocal displeasure.
"Mr. Weis," Boze began.
His companion was determined not to let him get a word in edgewise, it seemed. "Izzy. Told you at the start, told you every time you try it. Mr. Weis was my granddad, may his name be a blessing. Sorry about the Wrothian crack; I know you don't care much for the kitties."
"It's not that."
"Gonna rain soon. You ready?"
Boze's eyes flashed and his frown was replaced with a satisfaction. "Do you think we should warn them?"
"No, let 'em keep watch. There's always the off chance that the Ganglion actually will try to fly that new mech they're developing. It's not like they're gonna miss brimstone rain." Izzy stood and pocketed his comm device. His warning had barely been more than an observation. The first glowing coal bounced onto the ground at his feet. "Yup. Saddle up, kids."
"Awww yessssss!" shouted Nguyn, racing for his own skell. Doug continued to scan the structure. "Come on, boss," Nguyn yelled at Doug. "Let's goooooo!"
"Not until you tell me it's here," Doug mumbled. "Until then..."
A searing hiss split the heavens above them. Izzy, a hand on the edge of his pilot's capsule, looked up at the monster. It curled and doubled over on itself, with too many legs flaring in every direction. The creature was mostly obscured by the black smoke from the volcano, but slipping in and out of the clouds was a long sinuous body and a head made mostly of mouth. The scales were bronze, tips rounded and sparking red with each falling ember. Silver bristles grew from the multiple joints of its legs and shot from its spine. Its body slithered through the air, slipping in and out of sight. It whirled its spindly tail and flexed its angular legs. Then the monster turned and dropped towards them, and the sky became nothing but gaping maw and endless teeth.
Vortice didn't always make an appearance when the weather conditions were right, but it happened often enough that BLADE couldn't leave this otherwise routine observation mission to a standard team. Only the most formidable Harriers were assigned to it. Five teams had gone out and returned with nothing more than reports of Ganglion shift changes. One team had come home in tatters. They were the seventh.
a/n: Vortice the holy cow what is that in the SKY? Uh, Vortice, the Deific Blast. Imma gonna go kill it now (ha ha ha ha ha! no). Nguyn is one of Doug's imaginary regular teammates, in "Modern Bromance/3/Tyrants and Kisses" and "Inktober17/26/Squeak". Izzy is a friend of Frye, in "Secret Santa with Frye and HB" (ft. Veena) and briefly "Apriltober20/28/Name".
CR17S19S8 on loop because that's what plays during the brief window before I'm dead.
5 more sleeps to XCDE ahhhhhhhhh!