"Huh, Deep Dwellers?"
"COMING IN NOW?"
Sean feels that his processor was fried.
There are only 2 cadets among them, him and Clara who had intercepted Deep Dwellers before, and Sean knows how scary Deep Dwellers can be. And now they need to defend on the spot. While he knows there is no other choice, this still feels ridiculous.
"Whose order is this?" asked Sean.
"Mine," replied Xiao Tian, activating the HUD on his Drive-suit, readying for launch.
Hearing Xiao Tian's words, Sean is less worried now, given Xiao Tian's reputation as a tactical genius, his orders should be carefully deliberated and thought through…right?
Nanami withdrew the training drones and flew towards the cadets.
"Alright! We finally get to tear apart an Eldritch abomination with fists of steel!" exclaimed Eddie, both anxious and excited. Most of the 12 of them share his sentiment, even though there is an Eldritch monster about to manifest itself in their faces, they are still excited.
"Negative," replied Clara. "Doctrine states that we are to repel, not aim to kill in dealing with Deep Dwellers."
Hearing the disappointed groans of the other cadets minus Sean and Carl, she laughed. "But! Severing some parts off is part of repelling, and killing is ok as a last resort."
"You lead the operation? Since you were a Mecha pilot before?" suggested Karl. Clara agreed, giving instructions to the 12 cadets as she looked at the estimated impact count down
10 seconds
"Deploy in reverse C interception formation. Once the rogue Deep Dweller enter missile range open fire to repel, if that does not work, standard procedures, deal enough damage and force it to flee."
"Got it!" yelled the cadets in unison.
The cadets piloted their Mechas in C formation, surrounding the trajectory of a black dot, which represented the Deep Dweller, approaching them at a speed comparable to that of a Mecha. Despite knowing that a Deep Dweller is basically a beast on steroids, the cadets could not help but to feel nervous, seeing a work of nature best the machines crafted by sentient beings really put forth the concept of cosmic horror, the idea which all life is insignificant and not worth mentioning in front of nature and the universe.
Sean stared at the screen, readying his missiles.
The black dot rapidly approached them, getting closer and brighter on their screens.
Upon the Deep Dweller reaching 3000km, in range of their long-range air-to-air missiles, the cadets grabbed the HOTAS system of their controls, selecting the relevant missiles.
Their fire control radars soon locked on to the Deep Dweller.
"FOX 3!" Clara yelled, using the brevity code for active radar homing missiles, selecting the long-range air-to-air missile. Announcing that a weapon has been fired is to ensure that other cadets do not manoeuvre into the path of the munition to avoid friendly-fire.
A missile launched out of her missile pod, flying straight at the Deep Dweller. The other cadets followed suit.
Just as their missiles are about to hit the Deep Dweller, its signal disappeared on their screens.
"What the hell? Where did it go?" exclaimed Ariel.
The cadets frantically searched their radars and sensors, trying to find the Deep Dweller.
A black dot then appeared on their screens again.
"It's now 44km away from me!" reported Ariel, turning her Mecha unit to face the direction, selecting the middle-range air-to-air missile, guided by infrared homing. "FOX—"
"WAIT!" yelled Clara, "SEAN! IT'S COMING RIGHT AT YOU!"
"WHAT?!" Sean exclaimed, just in time for the collision alert alarm to start blaring in his cockpit, though it came too late, as almost simultaneously, a huge, black tail with white specks of light designed to camouflage into the backdrop of Space came at Sean's Mecha like a giant fly swatter, hitting his Mecha and sending it tumbling in the weightless environment. The Deep Dweller had just used its ability to FTL travel to teleport itself to the rear of the formation, right behind Sean.
All of the Mecha pilots in the area are stunned at this display of intelligence never observed before in a Deep Dweller, not to mention a rogue who is believed to be literally unable to think logically as it is severed from the hivemind.
Xiao Tian's expression turned serious, pushing the Crimson Dragon forward sharply. Nanami also pushed AC-3 forward, the 2 rapidly catching up to the battle.
"AHH!" screamed Sean. Just as the AI system in the Mecha regained control of his unit and activated the repulsion jets in his Mecha to steady himself, the Deep Dweller charged at him like a bull seeing a red cloth.
This allowed Sean to have a clear look at the nightmarish face of the Deep Dweller. Due to their nature as Eldritch abominations, Deep Dwellers appear in different shapes, looks and sizes. The common trait that they share, is hideousness. If the looks of the "true forms" of the Angel subspecies is a perversion of nature, then the Deep Dweller's looks can only be described as openly tearing apart nature and throwing it into a dumpster.
This Deep Dweller resembles a giant serpent, about 40m long, its head looks like as if someone had forcefully smelted together a human head and a crocodile head. Its mouth is filled with rows of jagged teeth that form a wall of teeth. Its body appears to be a sheet of black cloth, taking up a seemingly non-corporeal form that changed rapidly.
It opened its mouth wide, biting down Sean's Mecha and charging wildly with it, ramming into several other Mechas as it did so.
Sean grunted, activating his plasma blades, slicing at the jaws of the Deep Dweller, but since Deep Dwellers are able to generate flames from their mouths at 25,000 degrees Celsius, which is around the same temperature of the plasma blades, the blades are not able to melt through the Deep Dweller's mouth, hence making the cutting of the plasma blades less effective.
The other cadets aimed missiles and plasma guns at the Deep Dweller, peppering its body with holes. The Deep Dweller immediately healed its wounds, a testament to its perverted ability to evolve to adapt to almost every kind of environment known to men.
Sean then adjusted his arms, slotting the Mecha's hands into its jaws, using the Mecha's energy to the max, forcefully prying it open.
"MAXIMUM POWER!!" yelled Sean. The Mecha's joints shuddered, and as someone who had piloted and built Mechas, Sean can tell that his Mecha's limbs are dangerously close to breaking.
With a loud "clang", the Deep Dweller's mouth broke, a section of its jaws breaking off, sending a loud scream, which is audible in the vacuum of Space as the sounds made by Deep Dwellers are almost identical to radio waves. This allows their sounds to be picked up by human radios. A blue goo that resembled blood leaked out from the cavity from the missing part of its jaws. While Deep Dwellers can recover very quickly from small wounds, large wounds like the one Sean inflicted takes time spans on the scale of months to regenerate, and often times it will leave behind disabilities. Regenerating body parts also greatly consume its energy. This is perhaps the only flaw of the Deep Dwellers that they have yet to evolve out of, otherwise these monstrosities that also use Cosmic Energy would have conquered the universe by now.
"You alright, Sean?" asked Louis.
"I am ok," panted Sean.
The Deep Dweller moved again, only for a powerful fusion cannon blast to blow it back.
Sean, turned, seeing the Crimson Dragon's red body flying next to him, its "wings" fully opened, revealing the 2 fusion cannons revving up for a follow up shot.
"Everyone, attack from different sides, throw everything you have!" yelled Clara. "Inflict as many wounds as you can, the larger the better! Bleed this motherf***er out!"
With that, the cadets swarmed at the Deep Dweller, engaging in a 14 vs 1 brawl in space.
Albert jammed his plasma blade into the side of the Deep Dweller, activating his Mecha's jet thrusters to the max and speeding, slicing up a long, deep wound, the blood cauterising.
"This is going to hurt!" yelled Albert.
"A LOT!" continued Eddie, firing his entire arsenal of missiles at the areas Albert sliced open, the missiles blowing up the insides of the Deep Dwellers.
The Deep Dweller breathed blue flames, while spreading out its body like an ink splatter to attack all of the 14 mechas. Each "splatter" essentially a meteorite, hitting the cadets' Mechas hard, leaving all sorts of damages, from dents to knocking off and breaking parts.
"SH*T!" cursed Louis as one of them hit his Mecha, knocking off one of his missile pods.
Vera dodged one that came at her with an insane manoeuvre that she executed at the last minute.
"URA!!' exclaimed Vera in Russian as she avoided it, firing her plasma cannon repeatedly, taking out an eye.
"Can't let you Russkies have all the fun!" yelled Carl as he swooped down from above, activating his thrusters, dive bombing at its head, firing AP rounds from the 60mm autocannons of his Mecha unit, taking out the other eye.
"I am Belarusian!" retorted Vera.
"I concur!" exclaimed Erika as her unit grabbed the tail and yanked it, tearing off a portion of the Deep Dweller's body.
"Me too!" exclaimed Ariel, doing the same.
Louis used the shield to block his unit from the flames of the Deep Dweller, then charging forward and slicing it ferociously.
"Me 3!" he grinned.
Clara and Sean worked together to dislodge a portion of the face, sending blood spewing everywhere.
Nanami fired a barrage of missies, and then she grimaced seeing the cadets' techniques. "They are literally dismantling the Deep Dweller apart huh…"
"From a firefight to a brawl, so uncivilised!" chided Singh over her HUD.
"But it works!" chuckled Xiao Tian. "Crude yet effective!"
The Deep Dweller suddenly emitted a giant burst, shocking away all of the cadets, the shockwaves also shuddered the instructors' Mechas. Making a whimpering sound, the Deep Dweller broke contact, flying away, its body in shreds, with blue blood floating in Space.
"NOT SO FAST!" yelled Carl, raising the plasma cannon, only for Sean to stop him.
"Orders are to expel, it's running away, need not waste the fusion reactor's energy to pursue," said Sean.
"He's right," added Clara. Reluctant, Carl deactivated the weapons and the 14 Mechas headed back into Gagarin Base.
(2 hours later)
"I f***ing thank you…" cursed Xu Qing in Chinese at the state of the cadets' Mechas: missing panel here, components barely holding on by a thread there, already envisioning the nightmare he and the maintenance crew will have in repairing them.
"Sir, I demand overtime pay for this sh*t," said Xu Qing, the rest of the maintenance crew concurred.
Franz laughed, assuring them that they will.
In the meantime, the cadets are resting and undergoing a debrief. Xiao Tian and Nanami commended their courage and initiative when facing against the Deep Dweller. Meanwhile, Sean fiddled with the souvenir in his hand: a small part of the jaws that had dropped off from his Mecha when he landed. It is the size of his palm, containing its skin and its blood, which had crystallized in the freezing temperature of Space, forming a sapphire like appearance, strangely beautiful.
Louis turned over, seeing Sean eying that crystal of rapidly frozen blood and alien tissue, he chuckled.
"What's wrong Sean? Miss it already?" he asked.
"No, of course…" muttered Sean. "It's just that I have a strange tingling sensation…"
"…that this won't be the last time we see it."