| Planet 4056-E, Earth |

The setting ball of flames to the east cast an orange horizon to mix in with the dark-blue skies converging above. The dark clouds swiveled around each other, seemingly to engage in an endless battle of who could fill the vastness of the atmosphere.

Below was a large cityscape with towering buildings made of metal and aluminum, reaching for the skies themselves. Some of the skyscrapers leaned onto one another with their interiors damaged and panes shattered. Vegetation of blue and green vined species twirled around the buildings making its destruction somewhat captivating.

A rustle of wind blows a set of green leaves past the ample ocean surrounding and somewhat submerging, the outer city buildings, flowing past a young female standing on a small pavilion facing the crumbling metropolis.

Her hair was like silk, yet jet-black, and continues to dance in the wind as another breeze passed her by. Her baggy sports jacket made of reflective metal fibers also rippled in the breeze with her short black and yellow skirt and matching cap clipped to her right side.

A blare of static followed by some radio noise breaks her focused gaze as she places a hand on her neck. In an instant, a transparent yet slim neck device reveals itself, a set of flashing buttons on its side.

“Speak, I’m listening.” She acknowledges while resting both her hands on the vORG-9 rifle strapped to her front.

Her eyebrows scrunch down as she presses a finger onto the transmitting device. “Koko…? Koko!”

“—Aghhh.” A faint yawn transmits through the receiver.

The worry in her eyes fades as she covers her right ear with a wince. “Please don’t worry me like that.”

“—Worry you? What’s worrying me is the amount of boredom building up inside me from this lame post! You could’ve put me somewhere where there was gonna be some action!”

“Trust me, the area you’re securing is a definite drop zone for creeps. Just keep your eyes open.”

"—Ohh! Finally!"

She looks to a faint glimmer in the distance in one of the highest skyscrapers still standing in the city.

"Do you have a visual in the target?"

Further, into the middle of the city, an office building's lower body reflected off the steel and glass of its lower skyline. The higher levels toured of the estate gave you distinct instances of the mass graveyard it contained.

One office level was scorched with black and white ash, a few bodies lingered in their cubicles and laid out on the ground as mere black skeletons.

The next level was full of purple ooze that seemed to occupy multiple manlike entities. Inside the orb enclosures surrounding the room, most of them attempted to push their way out, however, were stopped by its hardening and thus spent their last few days stuck in place.

Alas, those were but trivial deaths for the next story level. One's imagination could run rampant as the entirety of the office was in a disarray. However, the streaks of blood on the windows and then crimson-coating walls as if they were being given a paint job, could only leave one to wonder what occurred in this small room.

Perhaps the heaps of long decayed mangled skeletons and bashed skulls resting in the center could answer your lingering questions.

"... Yeah, I see one of the lifts coming up in the middle of the road..."

A few more levels up was a girl with long bronze hair wrapped into pigtails laying on her stomach while angling a ROG-series rifled cannon to the road below through a large hole in her office space window.

Her attire was that of a Japanese school uniform, a white sailor top, and a navy-blue skirt all covered by a vanilla-knit sweater. Her loafers, though, were military boots, the SAL rifle strapped to her shoulder and the Equi-Spine enhancement device running down her back made it apparent that she was well behind her normal school days.

Her eyes were focused through a pair of white holographic shades giving her interfaces such as wind velocity, distance, and other relevant info to that of a sniper.

Her rifle was long and jet-black, several of the ridges on the back flexed upward as if the arsenal was alive as she looks through the green-holo sight with scrunched eyes.

A sudden rumble from the ground makes the entire area shake. Windows rattle and break from their positions as the black street below starts to break open, giving way to a pair of large metal doors curving upward.

Koko's body was still, her breaths slowed as she adjusts her hands onto the rail mount and trigger guard of her rifle. She moves a finger to the middle of the gun and taps a glowing white button causing two broad bipod arms to shoot from either side and lodge themselves into the concrete floor.

Several large bangs from the other side of the raised door echo through the streets. Koko rests the buttstock firmly on her left shoulder and blows a bubble of pink bubble gum from her mouth with a small pop before continuing to chew.

The metal doors then slide open in a slow manner, Koko's eyes continuing to scan the vicinity as her rifle gives a subtle peal.

Her eyes then widen as she notices a ring of dust break from outside the door. Her eyes shifted left and right in hopes of finding its origin.

She then smiles as her holo-sight catches a monstrous white towering brute with rippling body muscles and pointed-outward teeth sniffing the air.

Its eyes were red and became more visible with the night sky above coming into view.

"Target in sight, approximately 7245-X and 498-Y in triangular disportion. Asking permission from command to lay his ass down." Koko whispers while aiming her sight onto the back of the creature's head.

"—Permission granted. Remember, you lose the element of surprise after one shot, and those things are fast. One shot, whether hit or miss you are to disengage and retreat." Her transmitting device resting on her neck relays.

"Oh, I only ever need one shot," Koko reassures with a grin.

Her rifle seems to agree as it starts to ramp up, a black tint rushing up the sides as the nozzle gives off a soft white beam.

A shockwave cracks through the air above her, causing her to look past her sight and into the air as a small black vessel coated in blue flames shoots down from the sky.

"Uh, captain. There's some sort of space-pod that's coming into vicinity of the creep-spawn."

"—What? I hadn't gotten any word from Kymayo about something in our airspace... Could you pinpoint its landing spot?"

Koko's holo-glasses create a dashed line from the incoming spacecraft to a building directly in front of her.

"It'll land adjacent to my position in approximately..."

The vessel crashes onto the roof of the building in front of her with an earsplitting crack, causing several of the windows below it to burst.

"... Oh, erm, now."

. . .