Low Earth Orbit
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The air within the cockpit of the EX-35 was sealed as Jin's oxygen levels appeared before the bottom left of his HUD. Demon Squadron all forming up together and flying in formation through the foreign environment of space. Everything around them was black and empty, save for the Earth and its aurora below them. The brightest source of light coming from the sun behind them.
In front of Demon Squadron was the Class A Xeno still moving and breathing, or at least Jin thought it could breath in the void of space. He activated his visors filter to shield his face from the sunlight as he sped forward towards the creature, firing a flurry of missiles at the same time.
Each of them exploded onto the Xenos chest area with unfathomable force causing the creature to cry out again, its tentacles shooting in different directions with the tips emitting what appeared to be electricity.
And Jin could hear every sound of it around him. Well...at least thanks to the technology built into his helmet.
Given that sound didn't travel through the vacuum of space, Norio pilots wore helmets embedded with sensors that would artificially generate the sounds that they would hear on the battlefield, in order to maintain their situational awareness.
"!"
" Tailing a Xeno the size of his jet he opened fire with his EX-35's gun and destroyed the creature. Bringing his jet down he fired a set of missiles towards the Class A and made direct contact. They exploded onto the Xenos chest where the core was causing it immense pain and damage. While Jin managed to deal a great amount of damage to it, he was far from out of the woods. The Xeno had built up enough of its energy once again to where it was ready to fire another deadly stream of red power, as its mouth as wide open with a spherical ball of electricity and energy growing bigger and bigger by the minute. Jin's on board computer began to go off with countless beeping sounds and red lights as the creature attack again. He was barley able to move out of the beams path as he tried to formulate a plan. " Jin raised a confused eyebrow. " The next moment a stream of blue light appeared in a quick flash, when it settled Jin and the other Norio and Astrean pilots in the void found themselves flying alongside two large spacecraft. One of which had a deck sporting a runway and control tower similar to an aircraft carrier, with guns on either side and was the largest of the two. The latter was slightly smaller featuring a set of three cannons capable of rotating 360 degrees, and four Gatling guns situated strategically on both sides. "Demon Squadron, this is the Astrean supercarrier Mystral and destroyer Icarus, responding to Norio's mayday call." " " Demon Squadron cleared the void that the supercarrier Mystral flew through and the ship turned to its right to aim its orbital cannons, the Xeno hovered towards the vessel as a loud "boom" sound was heard through Jin's helmet, followed by the sight of flames emanating from the cannon barrels. The shots from the ship ended up hitting an invisible spherical wall, the Xenos showcasing its ability to protect itself from ranged attacks. The next moment was one of pure and utter shock as the creature suddenly began hovering towards the supercarrier. Jin flew back towards the squadron to see the Mystral trying to evade its path. It's efforts were in vain as the Xeno rammed its tentacle into the side of the ship, the screams and shouts of everyone on board coming through the squadrons comms channel. " " The ships sides went up in flames. Fortunately it was still flying and functional as just moments after the ship was attack, a number of jets began flying off its runway and into the void of space. Those jets being Astrean fighter pilots. " " Jin circled around another jet and formed up with the rest of his squadron as the Astrean team began to distract the Xeno from the front, giving Demon Squadron a chance to sneak up behind the creature. Once close enough Jin placed a jet propulsion system on his back and grabbed a rifle from the side of his seat. " " The canopy to Jin's jet opened depressurizing the cockpit and exposing himself to a vacuum, jumping from the cockpit he floated for a few moments in the void before using his jetpack to hover onto a nearby asteroid. His squad following suit, demonstrating another skill all Norio pilots were capable of. In the event of Xeno situations where mere firepower of the EX-35 isn't enough, pilots are trained to manually engage the threat outside the safety of their jets whenever required. In short, Norio pilots were trained to fly and fight in both an aircraft and boots on the ground. After landing into the field of asteroids Demon Squadron assumed their positions in a diamond formation and made their way to the creatures chest, they would have to float towards the core on its chest and plant the explosive before leaping into the void once again and recalling their jets. Due to zero gravity Jin had to take light steps and use his jetpack to bring himself back down. " " The next moment shots began to fly as a set of Class B Xenos found their position. Using the asteroids as cover Demon Squadron retaliated, firing their weapons towards the creatures as they got close. Jin leaped to another asteroid before drawing a grenade from his chest and throwing it at one Xeno, the device exploded once it made contact. Releasing a short burst of fire and the insides of the creature. " " After killing several more of the Xenos floating about them the squadron was able to make it to the Xenos chest area, there before them lay the core of the creature. A large oval shaped crystal of sorts with what appeared to be veins embedded within it. Jin activated his jetpack to its fullest power and, with the bomb in one hand and rifle in the other, flew towards his target. Jin placed the device on the creatures core and twisted the rotating switch, then pushed it forward with the device displaying information that it was ready to detonate. "Okay, charge is set. Heading back now." Jin pushed himself away from the Xeno and hovered back up to his squadron, before he could even get five feet away from it a tentacle wrapped itself around his leg. Looking back down Jin could see the Xeno squeezing its arm around his leg, and he desperately tried to free himself from it. " Firing his rifle he tried to get the Xeno to let go, but to no avail. Jin shouted in pain as the grip became stronger and more tighter as he tried to pry the creatures tentacle off of him. Nio had flown down to his position and stabbed the tentacle with his combat knife. After a few moments things took a turn for the worst as Jin heard a popping sound from his suit. Looking down he could see a small opening in his suits left leg, oxygen had begun to leave it causing his heartbeat to rise. After what seemed like forever Jin finally managed to free himself from the Xenos grasp. Wrapping his arm around him, Nio flew towards the squadron just as their EX-35's returned to the A.O. * As his oxygen levels depleted by the second Jin could feel the air from his body leaving, his eyes growing heavier and heavier as he tried to remain conscious. Once his jet was near and the canopy was opened, Nio had thrown him inside. The cockpit pressurized and Jin took in a large gasp of air. " Jin was able to fully regain his head and control his jet. " " The squadron flew from the A.O and, once all was said and done, Jin pulled a detonator from his pocket. Pressing a button the Xenos chest was engulfed in a ball of plasma energy and electricity, its tentacles either flying about or falling off its deformed and grotesque body. The sounds of its shreiks were heard through the teams comms channel and the Mystral that had been damaged began to fire on it. " " Jin flew from the area and further into the void away from the Xeno as the satellites fired onto the Class A Xeno from all sides, before he knew it the creature was finally killed at long last. Engulfed in a ball of fire with pieces of it floating off into deep space. " Jin let go of his jets controls and set the aircraft to hover in the void of space, taking a few moments to breath as Demon Squadron all gathered around him to do the same. He closed his eyes as the suns light shined onto his filtered canopy glass. *** Emma had wrapped her arms and legs around her boyfriends waist and chest as tight as she could after crawling onto his lap, not letting him go for a second. Her face buried into his shoulder as Jin wrapped his arms around her waist in turn. He'd been wearing only sweatpants and a grey shirt with Emma dressed in her casual attire, a pair of black shorts and a grey tank top. They had been in her house located in another residential area outside of Kasane City, a house that Emma shared with the rest of her research commission. The house had been empty with only the two of them in the living room, the lamp light dimmed and the sun outside setting over the city. Jin had been with her for most of the afternoon after he'd arrive back on Earth from his mission earlier, enjoying some much needed downtime and rest. Emma had been terrified at the thought of something happening to Jin and to see his face, made all her troubles disappear like a dream upon wakening. "Sorry I didn't reply to your text sooner babe.." Jin said. "No...it's okay. You're here now." Emma replied, kissing his cheek. "Are you okay?" "Yeah. You know I'd never go down without a fight. Also..." Jin frantically looked around for a few seconds. "You sure we're alone to do this, right?" Emma simply chuckled and plugged her lips with Jin's. The two of them remaining this way for several moments, enjoying the rest of the night together.