Out in the endless wastelands of the world many humans have lived and still live as nomads, surviving by hunting the mutated monsters that roam the lands. Kyle Fluge was one such hunter, and one day while he and his companions were out riding in the desert, they were surprised to see an Imperial battleship pass over the canyon they were in.

They did not have much time to ponder why a ship would be flying alone in this area though, as they were soon attacked by a group of large, mutated sand mites called burrowers. Determined to stop the last beast from escaping, Kyle followed it all the way to the canyon’s end: where the entrance to an Ancient Age structure stood open, yawning out of the sandy rock that had consumed the ruin.

Venturing inside, Kyle found the ruins silent and inactive. He eventually stumbled across the carcass of the burrower however, as the creature had been killed by an enormous pure-type monster. This beast crushed the coolia that Kyle had been riding, and it pursued him into the ruins; unfortunately for Kyle, the monster was impervious to the relatively primitive hunter’s weapons that he was carrying. Finding himself cornered by the beast, it seemed that Kyle was finished.

To Kyle’s surprise though, he was saved at the last second when a collapse of rock from the ceiling crushed the monster to death. Looking up, Kyle saw two dragons dive through the hole blown in the ceiling; one of them was the dragon guided by the Heresy Program, and the other was the Dark Dragon, which was viciously pursuing it. The dragons’ battle soon decimated the ruin complex, and Kyle was knocked unconscious during an enormous explosion.

When Kyle awoke, he found himself on a high plateau where the wall of the ruin had been blasted away; high above the plain beyond, the dragons were duelling in the open sky.

The dragon guided by the Heresy Program had a rider at this time, an individual known as the Sky Rider, although very little has ever been revealed about this mysterious character. As with all of the riders though, he was deeply motivated to help his dragon fulfil its purpose. Taking various pieces of evidence into account, it seems almost certain that the Sky Rider was a Drone, one of the humanoid bio-engineered creatures that were created long ago in the Ancient Age.

In the heat of battle the Sky Rider was distracted for one brief moment, and because of this he received a fatal laser blast through his chest: his adventure, whatever it had truly been, came to an end. The Dark Dragon flew away, heading ever onwards towards its destination: the Tower off the Imperial coastline.

The Sky Rider’s dragon lowered itself onto the plateau before Kyle, and the wounded Sky Rider reached out his hand to the young hunter. In the same way that Lagi showed Lundi glimpses of the future at the end of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, the Sky Rider imparted a psychic vision to Kyle, asking him to take his place, to prevent the Dark Dragon from returning to the Tower. The Sky Rider then fell to the dusty ground, lifeless; the dragon let out a piercing cry of sorrow.

Taking up the Sky Rider’s ancient weapon, Kyle knew what he must do. Climbing aboard the creature’s back, Kyle ascended into the clear sky, determined to help the dragon fulfil its mission.