Against an ethervore, most weapons were useless; the military and government special forces had little role to play in such battles. That's why it was standard that such threats were tasked to Quasars and Quasars only.
However, there were exceptions. For the rare occasion when an ethervore attack was too much for not just the hunter squad to handle but the entire Quasar team, it was clear that the world government had to step in, using the only weapon they could.
Quasarite Armament technology, commonly referred to as QAT, were weapons that utilized Quasarite Cores or crystals to be capable of extremely powerful damage. However, these types of weapons were not easy to obtain, only owned abundantly by Rank A planets or coalitions above.
Such weapons are used in intergalactic warfare and the destruction of celestial fleets and bodies, a conflict only possible for such high-ranked worlds.
A C-rank world like Calyx's could only own a very small number of such weapons, and a less powerful type as well. But when it came to taking care of ethervores, it had always served its purpose.
The particular weapon used for this purpose was the nova blast, a powerful energy blaster that uses harvested starlight, amplified by its Quasarite core, to launch a concentrated beam powerful enough to obliterate a city in an instant right at its target without spreading the energy.
"Ground Q team, air support in position circling the target, what am I looking at? Over," came a voice from the pilot through the comms.
"This fucker is a Reach Three ethervore, over," Rogan responded as he stood on a building not far away from where the fight was taking place.
"So a full power blast?" asked the pilot.
"Yeah," replied Rogan as he watched the fight closely.
Four Quasars, including Claire, were actively engaging the ethervore, yet they seemed to have no advantage over the singular beast. He dodged and parried their attacks while effectively counterattacking. The longer Rogan watched the fight, the more he couldn't shake the feeling that this ethervore hadn't yet done his best.
"It doesn't matter now; the blast will finish him off," Rogan said to himself before tapping his headset.
"Have all civilians been cleared from the area?" Rogan's keen eyes scanned the surroundings.
"Yes," the confirmation returned.
"Good then. Everyone, prepare for the blast, on ten," Rogan announced.
"Roger that, over," the pilot responded, still circling the sky over the ethervore.
"Understood," all Quasars engaging the ethervore responded as well.
"Nine, eight..." Rogan's countdown began as the Nova blast charged up, and all Quasars prepared to exit the proximity of the blast without alerting the ethervore.
"Four, three, two, one." The countdown finished, and with nothing but a blur, all the Quasars disappeared from the scene, as the aircraft above stabilized, a blue glow emitting from it.
Then it fell.
A blinding luminescent beam, ablaze with unrestrained heat and energy, surged downward like a celestial river cutting through the molecules and atoms. The blast was followed by a symphony of crackling energy that crescendoed into a deafening roar upon impact. As the beam collided with the ethervore, the world seemed to shake in terror, the shockwaves creating a chaotic dance of soil and debris.
The center of the strike birthed a gaping hole, a sprawling crater torn into the heart of the landscape. Smoke and dust billowed in chaotic dances, veiling the scarred world beneath. The ground, once solid, now bore the twisted mark of devastation, leaving a terrifying scar on the face of the terrain.
"Get him!"
"That's what I'm talking about."
"Let's gooo!"
"Take that bastard."
"Can't talk shit now, can you?"
The Quasars exclaimed in joy as they watched what was to them a marvelous display of destruction and power.
Then they stopped, taking a moment to look around them, the city now only a canvas of chaos, the streets scattered with the corpses of humans, both infected and normal. They had won, but was it a win worth celebrating?
A quiet enveloped the group, a deep wave of contemplation and realization washing over them as they stood.
"If only you guys had come earlier," Rogan spoke through the comms, his voice tinged with annoyance as he addressed the pilot who still hovered above the destruction.
"This takes a long time to prepare, and you know what kind of weapon this is; it's hard to approve," the pilot replied. He felt sympathy for the fallen city, but at least the destruction would stop at the city when all the level two infected were taken care of.
"What a shitty job this is," Claire mumbled, her red hair blowing in the wind as she looked down at the dark, deep, smoking crater from the building they stood to observe.
"Look, guys, cheer up. What matters is that we killed it. Well, I'm off," the pilot said as he readied his thruster to leave.
A single shot of energy ripped right through the aircraft, just before it exploded in fiery flames.
Rogan and the rest of the Quasars watched in utter confusion as the flaming debris of the aircraft fell to the floor.
"Killed? Killed who?"