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[X] Concentrate Fire on ECHO CHAMBER while they're distracted

The horror's jaws ripple open and chunks of mercenary vanish down a funnel of ratchet teeth. ECHO CHAMBER's fire finds it and you think it's gone in a mist of blubbery ichor; a territorial unfortunate with no idea of the powers it was about to enrage. Then it slithers at the wrong angle straight back into their formation like a millipedic lamprey. Its head lances forward, its mouth punches inside-out straight through one of the invaders, and she has just enough time to snap out a blade and sever her neck below the queue before it folds back inside-in and her body slurps into the hole. A comrade catches the head and keeps firing.

You make a snap decision.

<<Luyu, lay down fire on them. I'm flanking left. Let's see if we can catch them.>>

<<Don't care about the monster?>>

<<We can worry about it later.>>

You switch on your skin countermeasures. They're very effective in swimwear. With some blackout smoke they're more than enough to leave ECHO CHAMBER distracted as you sprint out of cover. They're reacting well but it's a hard problem: forced repositioning under fire from Luyu and Alawen while the creature rampages through their position.

The sound of Luyu's hypervelocity drone gun is almost shatteringly loud in the confined space. Your ears are in a deaf defensive crouch by the time you scramble through a flooded doorway You kneel to get a better angle, brace your gun against the wall and wait. A moment later, a blur of countermeasures moving around one of the pillars ahead resolves into an ECHO CHAMBER operative aiming a heavy sniper rifle at the creature. You blow her away with a rapid series of single shots. The others are falling back up the steps, dropping grenades and automines behind them.

A missile drops down the stairs, makes a ninety degree turn and slams into the creature on the side, spraying ink everywhere. It howls, then vanishes - not into cover, but out of space - leaving scattered squirming limbs where it was. Then there's the sound of more gunfire and increasingly frantic howling upstairs.

Luyu reloads her drone while her other self fires repeated single rounds into the mostly downed ECHO CHAMBER operatives. The ability of a knightress to keep moving is ridiculous. Even one who torn in half by the creature was still trying to manoeuvre to get a shot at you.

<<I'd definitely bet on them, not it.>> sends Luyu.

<<Mirareki, are you watching our feed?>>

<<Yeah. No sign of anything here.>>

<<We're going to pull back to you. If there's something that can teleport like that around, you might need four guns not one.>>

<<Copy. See you soon.>>

Luyu pulls out a bundle of grenades from her pack and dials them for proximity, dropping them semi-randomly as you fall back through the water. Alawen meanwhile lays several remote sensors on the wall. You slosh through the tunnels, moving methodically, covering behind, in front, even between in case the creature suddenly shimmers out of the air.

<<Ever see anything like that before?>> Luyu asks Alawen as you move.

<<No, never.>> The Communionist shakes her head. <<"It has to be some kind of Deep One, uh, some kind of Nereidi critter. You hear tales about guardians but this is the first time I've seen one.>>

<<There's a flux of exotic particles whenever it teleports.>> Luyu sends us both a feed from her own vision. <<We'd need an electronic warfare system we don't have to feed it in, but I can see it.>>

<<Valkyries really are something else.>> Alawen looks back, and up at her.

<<Oh, this isn't a Valkyrie thing. I had the implants put in to look at Minonan exotic particle sculptures.>>

The journey takes ten tense minutes even knowing the route. When you arrive you find Mirareki covering the entrance, her carbine on her shoulder.

"I think I've got us a route out." She says as soon as you're set up. "We're just finalising the survey here. We should have enough to prove what we found at least."

"Show us the route." You say. Mirareki nods and pulls it up into the air, a set of drone maps of the honeycomb tunnels under the temple. A route is marked on it in blue, winding through the caverns until it comes to an outside wall.

"I don't want to damage the temple anymore than we have to, but given the situation, using an existing entrance is probably a bad idea. We'll have to break through from here but it shouldn't be an issue to do so, and the tunnels won't flood the basement if we do."

"Alright." You nod, looking back. "Academician, how close to completing your work are you?"

"We're almost done." She says. "Please, five more minutes."

There's a distant detonation and dust drips from the ceiling.

"The gunship just fired into the temple." Luyu says.

"Those psychos!" Jessica snaps, voice shivering. "This thing is a million years old, it's irreplaceable!"

"If it's any consolation, the gunship just waved off. I think maybe someone in their chain of command feels the same way." Luyu looks out again. "They're dropping off a second wave. I think they maybe took the creature out, or at least drove it off. We won't have long."

"We're done." the Academician says. "We have more than enough."

You check the route again. ECHO CHAMBER will be pouring into the structure if they've defeated the thing, but you don't know the creature is dead.

[ ] Move fast even at the cost of movement security.
[ ] Move cautiously even if it costs you speed.