Tracer fire climbed upward from the ground defenses while the giant creature continued roaring across the night sky, its chest glowing like a furnace ready to burst apart.

Then Adrian gave the order.

"Final saturation strike. Hit that chest cavity with everything we have."

Inside the command center, every operator moved immediately.

"Patriot batteries ready!"

"Falcon flight repositioning!"

"Raptor flight lining up attack vectors!"

The tactical display filled with engagement lines converging toward the same point.

The monster’s chest.

Back in the air, Raptor One banked sharply through the clouds, the F-22 cutting across the night sky with afterburners glowing behind it. The pilot’s helmet display locked directly onto the burning fissures across the creature’s chest.

Even from distance, the heat bloom distorted the air around it.

"Raptor One in hot," the pilot transmitted.

Falcon One moved lower, approaching from beneath the cloud layer while Falcon Two climbed from the east to box the creature in from multiple angles.

Above them, the monster screamed again.

The sound rolled through the clouds like an earthquake in the sky itself.

Then its chest started glowing brighter.

"Thermal spike!" one of the analysts warned.

Adrian immediately keyed the mic.

"That’s your window! Fire everything!"

The night sky exploded.

Patriot batteries launched first.

Dozens of interceptors screamed upward from the ground in staggered volleys, their rocket motors illuminating the entire southern perimeter of Basa Air Base.

Then the fighters fired.

"Fox Three!"

"Fox Two!"

AMRAAMs and Sidewinders launched almost simultaneously from multiple aircraft, streaking through the clouds toward the monster’s exposed chest.

The creature saw them coming.

It twisted violently mid-air, wings smashing through the clouds as it tried to evade. One missile missed entirely.

Another detonated near its shoulder.

But three more kept coming directly toward the glowing chest fissures.

Impact upon impact upon impact and upon impact.

The explosions merged into one massive fireball across the creature’s torso.

For the first time, the monster lost control as the missiles crashed into it.

Its wings faltered unevenly as the explosions tore deeper into the exposed fissures. Burning blood erupted outward like molten rain, trailing across the clouds behind it.

"It’s destabilizing!" Falcon Two shouted.

Raptor One dove immediately.

The F-22 screamed downward at high speed, nose pointed directly toward the burning cavity across the creature’s chest.

"Firing gun."

The M61A2 Vulcan cannon roared.

Hundreds of armor-piercing 20mm rounds slammed directly into the exposed weak point, disappearing inside the glowing fissures before detonating internally.

The effect was immediate as the creature shrieked not from anger, but from agony.

The roar shook the sky hard enough that turbulence alarms screamed inside every cockpit nearby.

"Oh my God..." Falcon One whispered.

The entire chest cavity burst outward with orange light as internal explosions ripped beneath the creature’s armored skin. Cracks spread rapidly across its torso, glowing brighter and brighter as the damage multiplied.

Then the Patriots hit again.

Another volley slammed into the same weakened area.

The sky detonated in fire.

The creature’s left wing suddenly bent unnaturally downward.

"Wing damage confirmed!" an operator shouted inside the command center.

The monster tried to stabilize.

It beat its wings violently, generating massive shockwaves through the clouds as it struggled to stay airborne.

But it was losing altitude now.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

"It’s dropping!" Falcon Two yelled.

Adrian stepped closer to the tactical display.

"Keep pressure on it! Don’t let it recover!"

The fighters attacked again immediately.

Falcon One rolled behind the creature and launched another Sidewinder directly into its damaged wing root.

The missile struck clean.

Explosion.

Part of the wing membrane disintegrated instantly, burning fragments spiraling downward through the clouds.

The monster screamed again.

Its flight became erratic.

One wing still beat powerfully.

The other struggled.

Raptor Two moved in next.

The F-22 accelerated past the creature’s flank before unloading another burst from the Vulcan cannon directly across its exposed side.

Rounds tore through already weakened armor.

More burning blood exploded outward.

The creature jerked violently mid-air.

Then suddenly, it dropped.

Not a gradual descent, but a real drop.

The massive body tilted sharply downward as lift failed across one damaged wing. Clouds exploded apart around it while the creature spiraled lower across the night sky.

"Direct hit! Direct hit!" one of the operators shouted.

Inside the command center, several personnel actually stood from their seats watching the feed.

Nobody could believe it.

The monster was falling.

But it still wasn’t dead.

Even while descending, the creature kept fighting to stabilize itself. Its remaining wing continued beating violently, slowing the fall just enough to prevent an outright crash.

"It’s trying to recover!" Falcon One warned.

The monster roared again through the clouds, orange light still glowing from inside its broken chest.

Then its body slammed through a lower cloud layer.

The ground finally became visible beneath it.

Dark forests.

Roads.

Scattered towns.

The creature crashed seconds later.

The impact looked like a meteor strike.

The ground erupted outward in a massive explosion of dirt, concrete, trees, and debris as the creature smashed into the earth at tremendous speed. Shockwaves rolled outward from the impact zone while fire burst upward through the surrounding forest.

Even from kilometers away, the pilots felt the vibration.

Inside the command center, the live drone feed shook violently from the blast wave.

Smoke and fire consumed the crash site.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then one analyst checked the thermal feed again.

His face changed immediately.

"...Sir."

Adrian looked over.

The operator swallowed hard.

"It’s still alive."

On the screen, beneath the burning wreckage and collapsing forest, the massive heat signature was still moving.

The flames around the crash site flickered violently as something enormous shifted underneath the debris. Trees that had survived the impact were pushed aside one after another, bending and snapping as the creature struggled within the crater it had created.

Inside the command center, nobody said a word. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

They had thrown everything at it.

Patriot missiles.

AMRAAMs.

Sidewinders.

Thousands upon thousands of 20mm rounds.

And somehow, it was still alive.