Episode 1- Sword Colossus, Descend!!

The sands of Egypt are harsh in the best of times. However, something was making it worse for the young man currently scrambling over the Theban Hills. There was the merciless sandstorm that had picked up after his father had ferried some tourists across the Nile. There was the dark night, and the deadly cold it brought. And of course, the clay statues that had fallen from the sky and sprung to life. Those were the most pressing problem, with their bronze swords and glowing blue eyes. They wore ancient-looking armor, molded into their very forms, and no two were alike. The child stumbled as the sand seemingly moved beneath him. As one of his pursuers clumsily raised its sword and brought it down, the sand sprang to life, and swept the attacker off his feet. Slowly but surely, great swathes of the desert swirled about, forming into human shapes. Clad in ancient servant's garb with glowing purple eyes, they began marching on the clay aggressors, striking with heavy blows. The boy stood frozen in terror, watching the golems clash- always in favor of the regenerating sand men. When they were cut or struck, they were able to recover with the sand beneath their feet. The Terror Cotta Army was on the retreat, stepping over the shattered pottery of their allies. Suddenly, a voice boomed across the desert.


"Did you think I'd just bring a bunch of museum pieces armed with Shi Huang's bronze weapons? HA!"


And then the whistle came. A massive clay shell arced over the hill, landing in the middle of the The sandy soldiers were blown into smithereens. More shells followed, peppering the landscape with craters. As the barrage abated, the sound of footfalls rapidly approached, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of treads. As the dust settled, the voice rang out again.


“Heryshaf, you doddering fool! The age of the sword is over!”


Over the dunes marched whole regiments of clay soldiers. While their appearance was identical to the previous batches, their kit was quite different. These were armed with primitive rifles and grenades. Bizarrely, they also seemed to be made of clay- as did the tanks providing artillery support and the helicopters bearing down on the armies of sand golems.


"And it has been for five hundred years! Now is the age of fire and powder! The age of Kwan Wei Xi!”


As the tanks formed up, a towering statue fell from the heavens. Streaking to earth, the glow of reentry began to fade as it landed in the crater created by the artillery blast from earlier. Armed with a massive sword and bazooka, the golem of tarnished bronze turned to survey the landscape. Apparently it did not find what it sought, because the golem gave a shrug as it looked around. The faceplate opened, and a young Chinese-looking man stepped out with a smirk, performing the same gesture.

"Come forth, you coward! The Emperor has need of your precious treasures!"
---
LOADING ENEMY PERSONNEL FILE...
KWAN WEI XI: Dragon Empire, Lt 1st Class
Servant of the Dragon Emperor
GOLEM PREFERENCE: Terra Cotta Warriors.

The Dragon Empire came to Earth centuries ago in search of Heryshaf and the weapon caches he was supposed to protect to wage war on the rest of the Zyflud. Kwan Wei Shi constructed an army of clay golems to aid in their search, though it turned out to be fruitless. Every few centuries, Kwan Wei Xi takes a day trip to earth to search for the Eagle Empire's weapon caches on Earth.


LOADING ZYFLUD GOLEMECHANICS DATABASE...
GLORY GOLEM: Sword Colossus #6
MATERIAL: Bronze
ARMAMENT: Dragon Empire Jian-class Claymore, Type-88 Dragon's Breath
ANIMATING FORCE: Vengeful Dead

During his time as ruler of China, the emperor Qin Shi Huang Di ordered his viziers to create a great monument to the glory of his army. The swords of their slain enemies were gathered up, melted down, and reforged into eight towering statues. Using the magic of the Zyflud Empire, it has been given new life as an instrument of war for the Dragon Nation remnants. Driven by the souls of the wailing dead, and armed with the finest military hardware the Dragon Nation’s Zyflud Kilns can bake.

Whoever the man sought, it was apparent that his words were not drawing them out. He sighed and shrugged once again, motioning towards the child's village from atop the dune. The arm wielding the tremendous bazooka angled itself to point at the center of the town, as people scrambled for cover in the streets. Kwan Wei Xi smirked as the first rocket arced out, whistling into town and bursting into a flowery display of colorful flames that burnt away all they touched. The Sword Colossus reached into its pack, taking a second rocket and loading it in.

"I suppose if I can't get you out with words, I'll just have to keep blasting until I dig up your little rat's nest."

He fired a second blast into the crater left by the first. And then a third. As people scrambled from the spreading fire and raining debris, the man in the Colossus began to laugh. The winds began to quickly swirl about.

Earth Lagrange Point Two. January 21st - 1800 hours UTC.
Throwing darts at a board didn't exactly work in an orbital environment. So she settled for randomly searching through the database of 'low-priority' scouting objectives - checking out flashpoints from the other side, and seeing if any trace of similar events remained. After a moment of calculation, the computer spat out a mention of possible alien traces in Egypt.

Egypt sounded nice. Interesting ruins, hopefully tolerable climate... perfect for a working holiday.

---

Egypt

Some days later...

Desert. It just had to be in a desert. Sure, Egypt had some perks, but the sights nowhere near made up for the climate. Or the sand. As soon as this 'mission' was done she was going to find somewhere with functioning weather. And maybe a beach. Which hopefully wouldn't be long - There'd been no sign of the supposed invaders that the briefing had mentioned, so a quick report summarizing that would have her out within a day or two.

At least that was the plan. A plan rather rudely interrupted by a statue falling from orbit and the center of the town she'd been visiting rather rudely exploding.

Unlikely to be assassination attempt. Aditional probability of it being objective is... low.

...Doesn't matter. I'll smash it all the same.

---

One benefit to the sandy landscape - hiding Mobile Weapons was easy. She'd gotten into the habit of burying the Aion in the sands outside of whichever town she visited, and that made it easy to access in a time like this. Nobody was likely to notice a single girl seemingly jumping into the sand on the edge of town at a time like this. And even the flash of green light as it activated could be missed if you weren't looking right at it.

But as long as nobody noticed her.. Liana wasn't going to jump into the fight just yet. The newcomer had a target - an objective. And even beyond the implication that it was after the same thing she was, she just wanted to ruin their day by taking whatever he wanted away.