The largest monitor flickered and the picture changed to show the isolated stadium. The tall walls were reinforced and all the doors and windows were barricaded with steel plates.

“Hey, what’s that?” Lana frowned. She tapped her console and the view zoomed in on one of the walls. A humanoid Warped, with a swarm of metallic tentacles instead of arms, was flailing at the wall. Everyone in the shuttle could clearly see large cracks opening up. Text appeared on the screen.

Warped, level 6

“That’s the highest level Warped I’ve ever seen,” Bulco said grimly. “They keep getting stronger. Everyone down there is going to die. They don’t have anything powerful enough to take down a monster like that.”

“No, but we do.” Nori's voice sounded strained. “Bringing us down. I’ll shoot it from a distance, you get your Puncher ready and cover me if it gets too close.”

“Too bad the shuttle doesn't have any weapons,” the large man grumbled. “Or that mechanical arm. With its two-ton lift capacity, we could have simply plucked that brute off the shelter and drop it to its death.”

“If we had waited for you to install it, the Warped would have made it in by now,” Lana said, her face set in determination. “We have to help them.”

The shuttle touched down barely fifty meters away from the Warped. The monster kept flailing its tentacles at the walls, oblivious to their approach.

Nori readied her Disruptor and stood beside Bulco. They nodded to each other and opened the door. The Warped looked even bigger than she’d first thought. Standing nearly two and a half meters tall, its tentacles had already made a small hole in the wall. They were flailing inside, straining to enlarge it. Sounds of gunshots came from the shelter, but if the bullets did anything to hurt the monster, it didn’t show it.

Nori readied her weapon and took careful aim. A narrow beam of blue light shot out toward the creature. Halfway through, the beam started diminishing and it impacted the monster as nothing more than harmless light.

“God damn it!” she cursed.

“What happened?” Bulco demanded. The Puncher was loaded and ready to go on his arm.

“The pistol’s range is too short. We have to get closer.”

“I’m not a big fan of leaving our flying fortress.”

“We have to, or those people are going to die.”

A door at the far side of the stadium opened and a single man carrying a rifle came out. He put the weapon’s stock to his shoulder and took a shot. The Warped’s head snapped sideways and he turned angrily toward the shooter. Its mouth opened as it spotted the man out in the open and gave off a terrifying, unearthly roar. Dropping his gun, the man sprinted away from the stadium. The Warped drew its tentacles from the hole it had made and started chasing after him.