Stage II, Chapter IX: The First Sighting

In an unknown base somewhere.

A white dome is seen. There is nothing else in the area besides the endlessly flowing sand. The reddish-brown grains continously moving, like an ocean. Beside the dome, are three satelite dishes. Ever so often, the dishes would occasionally point towards a certain direction in the sky.

But at this point in time, the dishes weren't moving. They were just aiming directly above them. And then they suddenly moved. Way too fast. Alarms blaring, the satelite dishes struggled to keep up with the unknown entity entering Krodoa's atmosphere.

Inside the dome,

"Sir! Sightings of an unidentified flying object have been spotted in the thermosphere and is descending towards the planet quickly!"

"What is it? Show me the orbital satelite's recording. It must've seen it fly by."

"Sir! Here." The recording is that of a spaceship, almost bird-like in structure, rapidly heading towards Krodoa. With it's massive size, people would've seen it the moment it entered the stratosphere. Just before it began to enter, it had stopped immediately. Below the ship, multiple cannons popped up, and immediately fired lasers at the orbital satelite, destroying it completely.

"This was the only recording we managed to retrieve of the unknown object sir!"

"Hmm. No matter. We can clearly see the shape of the object. Alert Headquarters back home about the invasion of the unknown object!"

"Sir!"

The Headquarters, located a few ways away from the Fahnra Royal Castle.

"Sir. We've received a message. It's about the unknown object. It has started entering the atmosphere."

"Shit, already? We still had a week before the invasion was supposed to occur. How big is the object?"

"Sir. It is at least seventy kilometers from side to side, lengthwise."

"Damn it. If we shoot it down with the stellar artillery, it could very well crash into a major settlement and kill everyone. Alright, Plan B. Get the Emergency Expedition Platoon and have them teleport inside the ship."

"But sir! We have no idea what is inside!"

"Do we have a choice?! If we don't stop that thing soon, it's going to kill a whole goddamn lot of us! I'm not confident in being able to control alien technology, but I hope that they at least find a way to steer it into the ocean or something. Tsunami preparations can begin later."

"Sir! Emergency Expedition Platoon, do you copy?"

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you. You're talking about the big ship in the sky, right? Don't worry. We're already suited up and ready to rumble. Cheers." The call is hung up.

**************

On top of a large building, the figure of thirty people, all dressed up in black buisness suits can be seen. Talk about a wrong way to wear clothes!

"Fuck, I was in a buisness meeting. I hope we can get this over with, quickly. Pharah, it's your go."

"Alright, alright, don't get your panties all up in a twist. I'm warning you though, I can probably only keep this going for fifteen minutes at most. Better find some way to stop the ship in midair or have it redirected to the ocean." (Pharah)

"Or better yet, fly it back into space and send it somewhere."

The Emergency Expedition Platoon. Made up of top magicians, they were made to be called on only when high level disasters that included defending the continent. A highly trained elite group, they were always prepared and could be deployed at a moment's notice once called.

Their leader, Lieutanant Fawkes, is a man with long red hair that drops down to his spine. A true prodigy in fire magic.

"Alright, I'm ready. Gravity Magic: Reversal." Pharah chants magic into her fingers, the incredible amount of mana particles making her hands glow blue. Once she casted her spell, she held her hands in front of her in place.

Gravity Magic: Reversal. While the concept of gravity is that it pulls things towards the planet, Reversal does the opposite of that. It uses the gravity magic instead to conjure a force stronger than the planet's to pull it from above. Truly reversing the idea of gravity.

The ship, while humongous, had miraculously stopped. It was suspended in mid-air, literally. Nothing moved.

"Better get going, Fawkes." (Pharah)

"Right, right. Watch out, the ship seems to be firing something." Fawkes says as he teleports out of sight, along with twenty five other people, leaving Pharah and four others beside her.

The ship, realising that something had stopped it's descent, had spotted the lone woman holding the ship up. Seeing this, the cannons from earlier popped up from the bottom again, and fired the laser.

Going back to Pharah, she had also spotted the laser rapidly approaching them.

"Aegis, would you?" (Pharah)

"Here I go, sister Pharah. God's Protection." A glowing light emerged to form a shield that spanned ten meters long, covering the five of the people. The laser had finally reached them. And in a few seconds, no less. But it was met with resistance as the red light was stopped by, well, more light. One that was shaped like a shield.

Clashing with the shield, the laser could not manage to pierce the spell, and eventually disappeared.

"Nice one. Looks like they're firing some more. This one isn't a laser, though." (Pharah)

"Watch out behind you, Pharah!" A man appears out of nowhere and delivers a clean cut to the monster.

"Looks like they already fired the portal gun. It's gonna get bigger soon, so buckle up and hold for fifteen minutes." (Pharah)

"Damn it. This is good, though, since we have been given the opportunity to destroy one of the apocalypse causing portals." The man who had cut open the monster earlier was called Kojirou.

"Hmm. These monsters. Their body structure is sooo different. I wonder what their brain looks like, hehe." A girl with round glasses is seen getting closer to the dead monster.

The monsters were horrific looking. Twice as big as humans, three times more terrifying. The monster was seen to be wearing a militaristic outfit. And on it's back, was a gun that was modeled like a rifle. But everything about the gun screamed "white." The magazine was white, the handle was white, the main body was white....

"Don't play around with that, Leila. We don't know shit about this gun. Don't shoot- for fucks sake." (Kojirou)

"Hehe. Well at least we now know what it fires. And that is lasers. It's like a mini version of the ship's cannons! I wonder how the laser is produced..." She was referring to the alien ship.

"Don't fucking fiddle with it any longer." Another man takes the gun away from her, prompting an "aww" to come from Leila.

This man was Berdley, a close friend of Pharah and associate.

"Aw... but I wanted to examine it. Oh well, I'll just bring it to my laboratory later." (Leila)

"Looks like Fawkes and the others have succesfully infiltrated the ship." (Berdley)

"Good. The earlier this finishes, the faster I get to go home." (Pharah)