About 10 kilometers to the east of Rochdale a large open plain marked the second line of defence Iris had set up against the archangel Melisha. While it might seem foolish to engage a flying opponent on a open field with no cover it was exactly what Iris had decided, and she had the perfect tool for the terrain. Small ATV sized tracked vehicles made use of the flat and open terrain to the fullest as they quickly moved around and harrased their opponent while slowly withering down her s.h.i.+eld with half precise machine gun fire and ATGM strikes.Epsilon solutions UGAV - Unmanned Ground a.s.sault Vehicle.
After the Galactic Empire split in half doing the iron race containment war independant startups became rare on both sides, with investment instead being focused on military development and war bonds, but Epsilon solutions and their UGAV is a rare exception to that statement. Build originally out of a garage the civilian unmanned grounds keeper vehicle was developed as a cheap alternative to human labor on bioorganic orchard"s to maintain, pollinate and trim fruit trees. The UGKV saw relative commercial success and lead the company president and sole employee Mark Epsilon to further optimise the design, cheepening production and increasing product flexibility. Cheaper grouped gimbal mounts were used to for the sensors and arms of the machine while the miniaturized fusion reactor was replaced with a simple high capacity battery and a popular open source drone control interface was used instead of home developed software, further cutting production cost and increasing the product"s flexibility and user friendliness while even allowing customer modification. With an even better bottom line and increased customer satisfaction Mark Epsilon raked in the profits, until a glaring flaw in the product was found.
The gimbal"s Mark had used were industry standard, and with the open source drone control software allowed for easy modification of the OS, nothing prevented the customers from removing the gardening multi tool and rudimentary sensor package and replacing it with a rifle on a simple gimbal and a high speed tracking radar. Exactly that happened a few years after Mark had made his first sale when 2 neighboring families of farmers finally got tired of discussing their generations old land dispute and weaponized their brand new Epsilon solutions UGKV"s and went to war on eachother. 2 days later a victor emerged between them, but not before the losing side managed to call the police, and a week after that news of the incident had reached the entire galaxy. When the authorities finally came for Mark Epsilon they didn"t come to arrest him, no they came with a investment in the 7 figure range. What had made the UGKV a commercial success for Mark Epsilon made the platform itself extremely attractive for the military with its cheap cost to build, operate and maintain while allowing a high degree of customization on a robust and mobile platform. With the help of a small team of military engineers Mark had the first prototype of the new UGV design ready within a week and over the years it slowly evolved into the moden UGAV used by the Galactic Empire marines.
The moden UGAV is armed with a single Rex-0999 machine gun mounted on a gimbal and a anti tank guided missile launcher that sports 4 missiles. For defence the UGAV is relatively lacking however, it is almost compleatly unarmored, has no countermeasures against heat seeking weapons and only has a smoke grenade launcher to lay down cover, but like the Guardian Spector from which it draws much inspiration from it can outrun or hide from simpler weapons and is really not worth targeting with smarter weapon systems while only looking at the cost.
"What the f.u.c.k is up with these bugs!?"
Melisha had no effective countermeasure against the UGAV"s. From long range she couldn"t hit them as they moved too fast to track, and if she tired to close range they would just pop smoke and flee.
"Enough with these d.a.m.n bugs!"
When frustration proved enough the p.i.s.sed off archangel simply flew up into the sky in an attempt to fly over the effective range of the UGAV"s, but of course Iris had thought about that too.
[REACTIVE FIREMODE ACTIVE, TARGET ACQUIRED, LOAD HV-APFSDS
RANGE TO TARGET: 13.609 METERS.
FUSE: NULL.
ANTI MATERIAL MODE 4.
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FIRE AT WILL.]
On another hill about 13 kilometers from Melisha"s current position a Guardian-G097 indirect fire railgun carrier codenamed "strike 02" sighted a frustrated angel rise above the treetops and immediately opened fire with a single round of high velocity 205mm armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot ammunition normally used to destroy extremely solid targets, or to destroy smaller s.h.i.+ps in high orbit. The fin stabilized tungsten alloy penetrator reached Melisha after only traveling for 3 seconds and missed her by under a meter, but it had come close enough.
"ARGH, HII!!"
The wind pressure alone knocked all the air out of Melisha"s lungs as the ear closest to the pa.s.sing round immediately suffered a ruptured eardrum and she was scared half to death and hurriedly rushed back towards the ground, but not fast enough.
[REACTIVE FIREMODE ACTIVE, TARGET ACQUIRED, LOAD HV-APFSDS
RANGE TO TARGET: 13.610 METERS.
FUSE: NULL.
ANTI MATERIAL MODE 4.
FIRE AT WILL.]
Melisha had remained above the treeline long enough for strike 02 to recharge, making slight adjustments to its aim it let loose another 205mm APFSDS round towards the unfortunate angel. This time as the fire control system estimated the target was moving downwards the ma.s.sive 5 meter long fin stabilized tungsten alloy penetrator ripped through several treetops on the way to its target and therefore had its trajectory slightly disrupted and missed by only a single meter.
"GUA!-"
But it was still close enough to cause significant damage, Melisha"s lungs ruptured as most of her larger intestines were liquified by the shockwave and only her previous experience of having her wing ripped off as she was banished from her sanctuary kept her from pa.s.sing out and dying of extreme internal hemorrhaging and shock outright. Seeing flashbacks of her long life Melisha was reminded of the shame and humiliation she felt when she was banished and lost her wing, that in turn made her all the more furious by being defeated by such parlor tricks and a mix of will, rage and the unwillingness to die forced her mind to use a spell she was sure she had lost when she had lost her wing: Ascension. Ascension was the single spell that really separated angels from all other races, indicated by the name the spell"s effect is that it ascends the user to another level of mana control, allowing the user to enact spells a magnitude more powerful than anything else posible. As Melisha fell through the air all her injuries suddenly healed completely as her eyes opened they glowed brightly along with her 3 black wings as a fourth formed out of pure mana and replaced the one she had lost. Coming to a halt mid air Melisha started floating on her own as a array of halo"s formed above her head and she was bathed in a truly heavenly aura.
"Disappear from my sight."
Melisha"s voice no longer held tones of irritation or aggregation as she simply wave her hand towards the UGAV"s, with the result proving to be all but simple. In response to her simple movement a array of magic hieroglyphs formed in the air that transformed the simple moment into a force that carried hurricane force winds mixed with over a million 10 meter long golden crystal spikes, the result was as expected completely decimating as the UGAV"s and the very terrain the were on disappeared in a bright flash and when the dust finally settled the typography had been reshaped. Floating up into the air she once more came into sight of strike 02.
[REACTIVE FIREMODE ACTIVE, TARGET ACQUIRED, LOAD HV-APFSDS
RANGE TO TARGET: 13.612 METERS.
FUSE: NULL.
ANTI MATERIAL MODE 4.
FIRE AT WILL.]
Firing another 205mm APFSDS at the target it proved to be a dead on hit this time, but the effect on target had even Dax that was sneak peaking at the situation drop the cup that was in his hand as his jaw almost dropped to the floor alongside it. Instead of completely decimating Melisha as expected the t.i.tanium alloy penetrator simply hovered harmlessly in the air in front of her outstretched hand, seemingly breaking the conservation of energy as it velocity had been completely canceled and floated harmlessly in the air. As the penetrator flipped around in the air control was wrestled from Iris that speechlessly watched what was happening and strike 02 deployed smoke as it completely abandoned the stabilizers it had pierced deep into the ground and hurriedly retreated as if it suddenly had gained a ego and feared for its life.
"Return form where you came."
Further violating the rules of thermodynamics the t.i.tanium alloy penetrator suddenly regained all its former momentum as Melisha released it from her control. The result was completely devastating as the hill where strike 02 was formerly located completely disappeared as the raw kinetic energy of the penetrator seemed to have increased several magnitudes.
"WHAT THE f.u.c.k!?"
"Hii!? Big sister Iris?"
"We need to get away from here now!"
Under the command of Iris the transport her and Abel were in suddenly roared to life as it accelerated recklessly to open up the distance between the monster angel that was chasing them.
["I guess not… Iris how are you doing?"]
"Badly"
"We need help"
["On my way."]
"Please hurry!"
[".. Got it! On my way!"]
Hearing the panic in Iris" voice over the transmision Lux made use of her greatly enhanced strength and rushed towards her without any other concerns.