The smoldering ruins of the city were all that was left. Thin trails of smoke swayed into the air. Fires that dotted the area here and there looked like embers from a sky view. The clouds were a dirty grey, floating on by without a care in the world, ready to p*** on the dead city at any moment. The bodies of the defeated Shadow Pirates lay strewn along the streets and buildings, blood dried on the concrete, their trench coats ripped and torn. Blood still flowed from one of the soldiers lying dead near a destroyed Vital Suit; his head was nowhere to be seen.

It has been a year since EDN III had begun to change. Once the Over G Akrid was killed and the thermal energy dispersed throughout the planet, the terraforming began to happen naturally. Natural life began to come out of hiding; it turns out there were a large diversity of animals hiding from the cold environment and the Akrid that roamed the planet. Unfortunately, the Akrid soon returned. The death of the Over G didn’t stop them.

Low, pressurized sounds came from the haze of smoke nearby a tall building. The sounds of pistons working within a machine. A tall, angular form broke the fog, a Vital Suit in need of repairs. It only had one weapon attached to its right shoulder mount, a near empty Gatling gun. The Vital suit, a Triseed, grey in color, walked slowly forward with a slight limp. One of its legs had a broken down piston, so it had weakened. The pilot, wearing a bloodied coat over his shoulders, with the hood over his face, and chaps with spurs on his boots, worked the controls with a less than happy demeanor. His eyes stared out the view with dull interest. He was the sole survivor of this massacre, when a hive of Akrid exploded onto the city. He stopped his VS and sighed.

Up ahead, a screech sounded, and a Chryatis Akrid leapt out from behind a building. It appeared similar to a praying mantis of earth. It stared at him with hungry eyes. The pilot was sick of this. He was sick of the thermal energy, he was sick of the Akrid, he was sick of fighting and losing his friends. A groan sounded from around the feet of the VS. One of the pirates, barely alive, with his hand severed at the wrist and his coat was drenched with blood. He reached up with his good hand towards the VS, shaking like crazy. Just as the pilot got a spark of hope, the Akrid leapt forward and crushed the man with its long forearm. That made him snap. He activated the blades on both arms of the Triseed, at began to fire what remained of his Gatling gun as he used his last bits of thermal energy to charge forward. The blades cut into the Akrids arms, but it reared back and smashed am arm into the cockpit. The armor dented severly but held, and he shot forward again with his thrusters and hacked into the thermal core of the Akrid. Thermal energy began to pool out, spilling like the blood of all the pilots’ friends. He hacked and ripped and shredded the Akrid in a blind rage, his anger building by the second. The thermal energy was being absorbed by the Triseed as it fell, strengthening the VS. The Akrid fell with a final screech, and the VS stood, what thermal energy wasn’t being absorbed at the second was spilling off the hull.

The dying screech of the Chryatis Akrid had attracted more, and other Chryatis Akrid climbed over the ruins of city, followed by Dongo and a swarm of tiny Akrid. The pilot slowly turned his VS and stared down the oncoming horde, hate seeming to be absorbed into the Triseed along with the thermal energy. The blade on the left arm of the VS began to spin like a propeller, the razor sharp blades whispering in the air. The thrusters roared to life, and both sides charged, one man and his machine against the horrors of EDN III.