The big red

— 6:30 P.M. Terrarian time

— Location: Venus orbit, ogch headquarters.

After a moderately long journey, the New Dawn spacecraft approached the ogch base in the earth's solar system, located in the orbit of venus.

It is not very sophisticated in design, shaped like a mansion, at least 23 times the size of a stadium, there are delimited sectors and the only visible entrances are landing ports.

Beatrice saw this and quickly pointed to the nearest port, then said "Prepare to board the base".

All crew members present in the control cabin began the work, each directing their part to the marked port.

However, the ship stopped.

The operators disconnected, after a few moments the ship began to be pulled in automatically and left the rest to the base.

Attracted by the gravitational fields, it slowly approached, leaving the operators with no work to do but wait.

At that instant a man[By appearance with an age bordering on 50 years old and dressed in military clothing with different insignia]who was checking the status of the port, observed that ship on its way to the dock "Hmmh, the ship New Dawn, what is it doing here?".

He walked patiently in front of the door.

As soon as Beatrice stepped out, the man observed her sighing "Beatrice what are you doing here?" he said before scanning the surroundings, adding once finished "And Jack?".

Beatrice gazed at Otis and immediately performed the salute as a sign of respect "General Otis..." her expression darkened unable to say anything.

"What happened?" Otis remarked.

"Yes... The experiment was... A total failure, creatures from another universe came through the portal, Jack volunteered to stop the engine, we currently don't know his whereabouts and status, however. I wish to assume that nothing bad has happened to him" she said, reluctantly. Somehow she felt there would not be a good ending.

Otis revealed a confused expression "I see, it turns out it ended like this..." his gaze fell on the control knob, at the same time he sat down in a nearby chair "I was afraid something bad would happen, in fact that explains the abnormalities."

Beatrice was surprised, it never crossed her mind the idea that the explosion would affect something as far away as this place... "Abnormalities? What do you mean sir?".

Otis showed some complication in his look "A large shockwave overloaded and disabled our means of communication, coupled.... Unidentified figures were observed en masse traversing space, along with them distinct energy fluctuations. The lead investigator suspects they were the cause of the disruption".

"..." Beatrice began to think the worst. The image of Jack surrounded by beastly shadows permeated her mind, however. After a moment's hesitation she shook her head, pushing those thoughts away "Just as you warned.... They probably pose a great threat.... It's so...".

Otis let out a wry smile and said "Unforeseen? Sudden? Painful? A misfortune? Yes; it's all of the above and much more, however, such is life, all those blows will become the norm in case of inaction. We will have to wait to communicate with the rest of the ogch."

Interrupting Otis, the base began to shake with immense force, followed immediately by a metallic clang, capable of pulling out the soul of anyone.

Beatrice could hardly keep up with his body and finally fell.

Otis stood his ground, his gravitational center shifted to the sound of the rumble, somewhat surprisingly as he sat on a moving chair "Looks like he's back."

Beatrice took support on her right leg before propelling herself in an effort to get back on her feet; her balance did not return instantly, after a few seconds she regained her composure and asked "One of the creatures?". To make such a fortress tremble she could only imagine its strength.

Otis pressed a button, after which he said "Exactly. Although I prefer to call him big bastard" next he grabbed the command speaker, shouting excitedly "Deploy the light combat ships! Now!".

"I'll go too" asserted Beatrice.

Immediately Otis nodded with a smile "That's the spirit!".

They both nodded before going their separate ways. Otis headed for the strategic wing, with as much speed as his body would allow.

Beatrice moved with great speed to the nearest combat depot.

Inside, she barely gave herself time to catch her breath before donning the heavy combat suit; white with orange stripes.

Everyone had already left the warehouse, being dispatched to battle.

However, she would not allow herself to be the latecomer to a party that ended badly.

Determined, she entered one of the few available ships in the lonely harbor.

As soon as it took off, she was able to observe that creature.

With a colossal size, bigger than a blue whale. Its shape is the strangest thing, it seems to want to imitate that of a manta ray, failing due to its bulky mass.

The color of its skin is scarlet red, darker as you advance to the top, going down it loses the color to form a large white spot, from which black veins extend.

From the sides of its mouth, 2 gigantic tentacles extended like whiskers, while on each side another 5 tentacles showed up, giving a total of 12.

The strength of these huge limbs was surely enough to destroy the attacking ships. As if that were not enough, a hard and sharp coating covered the ends of each tentacle.

Beatrice in surprise and fear, fired without thinking. Bursts of bullets were launched against the creature.... They bounced off the moment they touched the skin of the creature itself.

The beast reacted with a fierce, sudden attack. Beatrice's ship flew off into the distance.

Then she looked at the ship's panel, surprisingly the blow had only consumed 9% of the shield.

｢As little as it is, it seems to feel pain.... The problem is at what point can I exploit that weakness...｣.

Her ship oscillated as he thought, and unconsciously her hand activated the photon cannon charge.

The moment it dawned on her. She lowered his gaze, the percentage barely seemed to advance.

However that was not what caught her attention.

That point from which the veins protruded.

Under certain logic... It would not be unreasonable. Therefore she stealthily circled the battle.

Like a swarm attacking prey, the beast was surrounded by oppressive explosions while its attacks became easily avoidable.

It quickly went into a frenzied state, firing random blows in an attempt at unpredictability.

By the time it visualized the center of the stomach, several ships were destroyed due to the narrow field of action.

In the exact center of this venous point a deformed core can be seen embedded, with fleshy tissue spread randomly in the visible area.

Beatrice fired, bursts of bullets were launched against the core.

They impacted, slipping repeatedly, only succeeding in dislodging small pieces of flesh.

The beast responded with an agonizing gesture, enraged and increased the aggressiveness of its blows.

Beatrice pressed a button and said "SH-Three maneuvers, F-Seven armament to the core in region L".

As soon as she released the button, she noticed a tentacle heading towards her ship.

Too late to avoid it. His ship was caught in mid-flight, the blow impacted on the side, causing it to spin around on itself.

Thanks to the shields there was no damage. However, its condition is absurdly bad.

From 9% she went to consuming 60% with a single attack.... Beatrice felt cold sweat running down her temples.

She steered her ship out of danger while observing the general condition.

The cease fire slowed the explosions, now only coming from the destroyed ships.

Worryingly, the situation turned completely to the side of the enraged beast.

Once she was sure that the beast had lost track of her, she pressed another button "Addition, distractor attack G-1".

A terrifying pressure filled Beatrice's mind, as she noticed a figure out of the corner of her eyes.

She released the button and immediately changed the direction of her ship.

Time seemed to stand still as the crystalline, blue barrier manifested itself in front of the glass protecting her. The main means of observation to the outside.

The speed of the ship meant that she was only able to observe a crack.

And another... Many cracks.

They quickly expanded and her eyes almost popped out when the blow went through the barrier... Worse still was the damage to the glass.

From the inside, the notorious crack in the glass began to swallow oxygen.

Followed by something she was already expecting, on the screen, an alert notifying that the shields reached their maximum capacity.

From this moment on, there was no defense left.

With the charge of the cannons that only reached 80%.

In spite of all the time she had spent dodging... She immediately took a transparent patch and sealed the crack.

Luckily, it was not particularly large.

The oxygen concentration decreased drastically, he could already feel the consequences.

Dizzily, he activated the emergency fill, in an instant the ducts on the sides of the cabin began to fill the ship with oxygen again.

The beast did not attack her again.

Even if she stood still, no attention was directed at her.

The charge was finally completed, as she approached within a certain range, the beast reacted.

She directed all her efforts at it, ignoring the other combatants.

She approached the core, evading the vicious attacks. As she positioned herself in front of it, one of the tentacles lashed out head on.

The cannons fired, piercing the tentacle and striking the core.

The impact created an oppressive pressure, causing the core to recoil back on itself, creating a small crater.

However that was all, the beam gave way at the same time that the beast shook violently.

It lashed out from all directions, leaving Beatrice with no escape route.

As she watched the tentacles approach, her body trembled.

She closed her eyes and crossed her fingers, waiting for the impact that would soon finish her off.

The next fractions of a second were eternal, her heart beating at high speed.

An ache surged in her chest, thinking of all that was slipping through her fingers.

...

...

...

She opened his eyes at the absence of the impact.

Hundreds of lightning bolts shot through the core from different directions and the tentacle a few meters away from her became completely immobile.

After a sigh of relief from Beatrice, the colossal beast fragmented.

The colorful spectacle was over and the stage was tinted in darkness.