The sounds of combat were coming from all around them, and Max realized that the Energy Beings that he called the Demons had used his own trick against him in reverse. They had materialized all through his ship and were heavily engaged with the Android defenders.
The mood in the main salon was tense as they waited for something to come their way and listened to the sounds of battle all around them.
Only one Demon had appeared here, and it seemed to be a deliberate measure to attempt to take the ship before the crew could respond.
The Demons hadn't factored in that the majority of the crew gave off no signs of life, though, and they had appeared next to the fully armed androids in the furthest reaches of the Cutter.
Max checked the sensors to see where the strongest gatherings were and noted that there was a lot of structural damage done inside the Mecha bays. The Demons must have tried to gather in the largest rooms with no signs of life and then were ambushed by the Androids or Max and Nico's Mecha on sentry mode.
These Demons were a new form to Max. Unlike the ones that they had seen before, these weren't fleshy. The Demons of this batch were mostly covered in either feathers or scales and came in a variety of colours. According to the sensors, Nico was currently fighting a bright red Dragon, for lack of a better word.
It had a reptilian head, four legs and wings and only stood partially upright. That might be a matter of space, though, as the ceiling in that area was only six metres high, and the creature was larger than that.
That thing was no slouch and had a flame attack of its own that had melted a large portion of the hallway around them, forcing Nico to hide for a moment and find a new angle to attack from until she could lure it out of the hallway.
But still, nothing was coming for Max or the Envoy's team.
"Do you think that they're avoiding us because they can sense us here? I think they're trying to take the ship, but they can't tell that the Androids aren't part of it." Envoy Queen whispered.
"I think that is exactly what is happening. We are the largest and almost the only sign of life on the ship, so they're avoiding us and going for the vital areas. Engineering, Propulsion, Controls. But those are the areas with the most Androids, and some of them have a large Mecha contingent available.
The bridge, for example, had five Line Mecha in storage compartments in case of emergency. Those were now under the control of the Androids, so the bridge was heavily defended against intrusion, and the Demons couldn't send their larger kin into the Cutter because the ceilings were deliberately made too low for that.
Common design logic said that no matter how much it would help defence, you didn't make your hallways large enough for the enemy to move equipment that could destroy the ship through them.
A few minutes later, the Demons realized that someone was messing with them and began to form up for an attack on Max's position.
"I count twenty of them so far, all medium creatures, three metres tall or more. All hallways are infested, so prepare for a full invasion." Max whispered to the Envoy as the sensor logs came in.
They were all wearing human-made Mobile Suits, but the Morphos hadn't turned their communications on or perhaps didn't know how. He would deal with that later or have Nico do it when she had a moment. But for now, it didn't matter, as the Demons didn't speak their language.
The demons rushed forward, discharging Plasma balls from crystalline handheld weapons.
Max immediately responded, sending back Ion Cannon blasts and tearing through the first rank of attackers who were overrun by the ones behind them, only to be met with the energy wave of the modified Disintegrators designed to banish them back to their home layers.
The creatures shimmered, and Max felt the energy around them increase. Whatever had opened the portal to bring these beings here was not going to let them be banished that easily, and the portal was serving as a stabilizing barrier to keep Max from simply banishing them.
[You've done your homework.] Max laughed into the radio, forgetting that it was set to voice control.
The only response was Nico chuckling. She had realized the same thing a few minutes ago and had resorted to simply hacking the things apart at close range so that they couldn't use those plasma pistol crystals.
Up close, they were dangerous but much less dangerous than plasma weapons, which suited Nico perfectly, and even Max was leaning toward going on the offensive to get into melee range.
The Morphos did the same, as their personal combat style relied heavily on their natural weaponry, and the room descended into chaos as the defenders charged the strange energy beings, hacking and clawing at the invaders with a level of ferocity that brought a pleased emotion from the greater being watching the battle from the background.
These feathered Demons were much softer than the other ones for some reason, and the serrated blade that Max had chosen, modelled after the ones used by the Red Demons, tore through them like warm butter. Even the crystals in their hands didn't hold up against the blade.
An upward slash cleaved the nearest of them cleanly in two pieces, and Max looked down the hallway to see that there were a dozen more coming his way to replace it, all with those strange Plasma weapons at the ready.
He needed a way to get rid of the energy barrier around his ship so that they could stop the influx before they were actually overrun or ran out of materials to make more Androids.
The Mobile Suits were keeping them alive fairly well, but there were so many of the enemy that there was no preventing the casualties that they were taking.
[Commander Max, our mothership reports the same phenomenon. Is there a way to disperse these creatures?] Envoy Queen asked as she clawed apart the face of a feathered Demon.
[I will send over the weapon description. It works as long as they're not stuck in an energy barrier like we are that keeps the Demons stable.] Max replied.
[Thank you. They are only reporting an unexplained influx of boarding parties right now.] The Envoy replied, returning her focus to the fight.
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