DEVAS

Part 1

"The Dominion of God, run by the four heads of church, they rule with religion they call Unigen designed to bring everyone together under one belief, but this is a ruse. They force you to follow their ways or die. They strip away your rights, the four are corrupted, and they must be overthrown"

The snake bent into a backward s appears on the screen two dragon wings extended from its back beating slowly, and its forked tongue extends and retracts. I always thought the animation was a little much but the message still came across.

I turned the tablet off, the screen in the middle vanishing leaving a thin metal rim behind. With little effort it collapsed into a L and slid easily into my pocket. I removed the hard restraint from around my shoulders raising it back over my head. There would be no turbulence since we would not be entering into any atmosphere. I stood and stretched, leaning back feeling my bones pop and creak with age.

I stared at the wall for a long moment the old blue and white paint of the Dominion still visible through the new coats of red and gray used by the Enclave, somehow I saw the last 25 years passing by my eyes. "I have been fighting since I was 18" i said to myself.

The black one peace jumpsuit was a comfortable fit and the white that lined the sides from shoulder to ankle was a nice touch, a way of saying Sergeant. Over that I wore the standard issue XZ-162 combat suit that added a foot to a persons height, and two inches of armor plating, servos, sensors, and emergency protection systems to every inch of the body. The helmet with interactive view screen and vision features was on the seat next to where I had been sitting. The standard issue P-5 pistol was attached to my hip as always and the AR-95 assault rifle was strapped above the seat as was procedure for any drop.

"Sir we will be landing in 5 minutes" came the pilots voice from the front of the ship.
"Thank you and I said call me Jim" I called back
"Sorry Jim"
I looked out the window at the vastness of space beyond the curve of the moon as we made our descent. I always enjoyed the view of the Falcon with its curved beak like point coming off the cockpit. Its wings made of several section looking like feathers folding in for space travel and extending for flight on land. Twin warp engines housed at the rear of the ship making it look like a tail gave credence to the name. The ship easily held 20 full suited troops, 30 in standard issue fatigues, and 2 pilots. It's rare to have this much legroom I thought to myself as I pulled a long, slender, blue, cylinder from the pack on the side if my belt placing it between my lips. I take a drag the tip losing its color and becoming clear.
I let out a deep breath in relief and pleasure.

The ship quickly lowered towards a mountain it was to late impact was immanent. I always loved this part.
The ship passed through the hologram with ease. Inside was a large dome formed by the twin artificial atmosphere generators.
The Falcon lands with a slight jolt one the suit has no trouble correcting for.
The ramp extends from the rear digging into the soft blue dirt of the moons surface. I stood at the top of that ramp for a moment like the hero of a movie. The area was lit by a sun that was not there, a couple of engineers in black and green to my left tinkered with some kind of equipment. I pulled the stick out of my mouth and pointed it at them "hey you"
"Me sir?" The man asked sitting up at attention
"it was day when I left how long is the day setting in the enviro-gen set?"
"12hrs day and night sir" the man answered
"Well ain't that dandy" I waved the man back to his work before replacing the death stick If it wasn't for them none of use would be here. I reminded myself and starting down the ramp. My helm under my arm, my beard itched, and the air felt thinner then I was use too even with the death stick. I made my way down the ramp and toward a old, large, rickety building that looked like little more then sheet metal bolted together.

Inside I stripped off the armor, and the fatigues, in nothing but my underwear I stood in front of the mirror the stick half way gone. The scares on my body seemed darker today, each one a memory, almost always a lose involved.
"Sir, Zed wants you to report in" a soldier in black and red reports from the doorway.
"Tell him ill be there after a shower" I answered
"He said now... sir"
I looked at him for a moment and let him go with a nod.

My hair was still wet and my chin still bled from the nicks left by my K-8 combat knife as I walked down the hall dressed in a white shirt with a old brown duster over it, my pistol strapped to my hip, never leave a good gun behind. Zed's command room was just down the hall. The command room was full of computers all facing the far end where a large video screen hung on the wall. Zed sat in a chair on a raised platform extending from the door to the center of the room. As the door closed behind me Zed turned to face me, he was a tall, lanky, and handsome looking well under his age of 43 years old, the politician with a tongue for pure silk.  

"Jim I see you returned alive, congratulations Sergeant" he said with a smile standing from his chair
"I did but not all my men did.” I answered not returning the cheer
“I'm sorry Jim but we shall honor their sacrifice with our new freedom, I will not forget any one of them" he says placing a hand on my shoulder a attempt to show that he feels my pain. But all I saw was the coffins being burned.
"Damn it Zed I'm a pilot, not infantry things like this..."
Zed smiles as he interrupts "funny you say that, thanks to your mission we are well under way to having working Devas."
"Devas? How long?"
"Three days, three days we will have four of them up and running." Zed turned back to the room "the time is coming. We have taken weapons, armor, ships, now Devas. We have people in their colonies recruiting more and more every day. We have hit and taken a few basses but they still don't see us as a real threat, we will take this system, then the Zeno system, then we will hit them at home in Heaven." As he spoke his eyes and heart were full of ambition yet never showing his emotion like the politician he is.
"I have never lead a Deva team before"
"Why do you think I have been throwing you into combat Sergeant?"

I followed Zed heading toward a factory on the far side of the compound the factory was three stories tall and seemed to be held together with nails and duct tape like the barracks we had just left
"When I found you D.O.G. had left you to die, they thought of you as nothing but disposable, your Deva almost destroyed, how long had you been camped out in that desert?" Zed asked though he knew the answer
"Five days" I answered
“and how long had your rations lasted”
“i had enough for two”
"And they never came looking for you?”
“they didn't have too they knew where I was, a teammate had even came back for me but was ordered to leave me there” I answered reliving it in my head seeing the Deva hand reach out for me then suddenly withdraw.
“But I saw the potential, the drive, you are a leader Jim and one of a kind these days and that is why I asked you to help me. We where nothing more then a few camps, very few vehicles, not even enough weapons for every man. But in the last twenty years we have become so much more."
"What ever did happened to that Deva?" I asked thinking back
"we fixed it" Zed said with a smile as we approached the factory

The large engineering bay had been altered since I had last been inside, most of the floor had been gutted, catwalks had been installed on the third floor along with winding stairs making room for them to build and test the large Deva units. Four Devas hung between catwalks, like the standard models they stood 10 Meters (33 feet) tall, three of them were missing various limbs and armor plates but the over all design was there, they were the more common Templar class a medium armor, medium speed unit with a standard equipment load-out similar to a ground troop a magnetically attached DP-52 pistol on the left hip, a hidden compartment in the back that housed a DAR–16 assault rifle, each upper wrist contained a hidden blade for close ranged encounters. There chests where currently open exposing the pilot chair and control systems with wiring and panels all in place, the screens on the inside of the door where already lit up meaning the cores where currently installed and functional. Over all the Daemons looked as good as any other that was in need of repair after a hard fight. But after those three was a fourth, Templar class Deva, the same one I had piloted during the conflict with the troops from earth. The Deva was old, one of the first models so it looked different then the other three but it was clear Zed had performed some upgrades on the armor and weapon systems. Unlike many of the Dominion's modern day Devas it was a default load out with little room for customization but I liked her that way. I couldn't admit it but I almost cried looking at her.
"it looks perfect" I said turning to Zed
Zed smiled "we only needed a new energy core, yours was badly damaged in the fall thanks to its less then efficient design but, of course, we have updated it."
"I haven't seen her since the wars, do we have anyone trained?"
"Not in Devas, that I leave to you" Zed said handing me a stack of papers and turning to leave.