[ WP ] Tell me the middle of a sci-fi epic . No beginning or introduction to the setting or characters , nor any context to what 's going on , and no resolution of any kind .

The lieutenant waved the first squad into their positions. They were more courageous than I was, that was for sure. Every one of them knew they were armed with nothing more than high capacity assault rifles, which we already knew would have no effect on this creature. But they also knew we had to hold its attention if the real weapon we were preparing was to have time to charge to sufficient capacity to achieve the critical mass reaction. 
 
 The men flowed down the alley like a well trained brigade of ghost warriors, moving from shadow to shadow as quickly as possible. It felt a bit surreal, like we were playing some kind of deadly game of musical hiding places, and when the silent music stopped, our antagonist would emerge and fry whoever was n't in a hiding place before they even had time to aim and fire. 
 
 It was Rodriguez and Dansky who drew that particular short straw a moment later, as the Beast appeared over the top of the buildings. Dear God, how had it gotten so big so fast? Waves of energy screamed down on the two unlucky soldiers caught out in the open. It was not so much a breath weapon or eye beams like sci-fi movies make you expect, but more a stream of blurred and glowing air that emerged from what passed for the creature's `` face'' and what used to be human beings became melted like wax figures sitting too close to a working kiln, if wax figures could be just sentient enough to scream as they melted. 
 
 I forced my attention away from all that and back to the pad showing me status on the charging of the big gun. I heard the shouted commands and the blare of gun fire alternating rapidly from place to place as the squad worked together as one to keep the Beast too disoriented to select another target. I involuntarily flinched as one of the uselessly deflected bullets chipped the bricks just over my head. Crap! I was not military material. What the hell was I doing in the situation like this? 
 
 I needed to focus on something, so I focused on the pad, minimizing the window which reported the charge status and instead opening the targeting app. I worked on sketching out the parameters of the Beast's latest form, since it had altered too dramatically since we wrote the targeting app for the old data to be effective. With my help, the app relearned how to recognize the Beast and I could hear the servos begin to orient the muzzle to face it. I prayed it was not loud enough for the creature to hear and become too interested too soon. 
 
 I hastily flipped back to the charging status window and thankfully, it was almost at full. I cringed at the sound of more screams. Someone had taken a second too long to take their turn to fire, and the Beast had picked a target after all. Then the screen of my pad blinked to a green background and reported charge at 100 %. Finally! 
 
 `` Fire in the hole!'' I radioed and tapped the fire button. I had pushed a pair of blast goggles over my eyes so I could safely look at the creature as the otherwise blinding radiance from the big gun smashed into it. It staggered back and screamed as pure columnated nuclear radiation slammed into it. 
 
 And then, as unbelievable as a nightmare come to life, the beam cut off, having exhausted its supply of fuel, but the Beast still stood. It shook its head and screamed as it beat its wings and launched itself at the big gun, having finally spotted a target it hated more than the little people on the ground. 
 
 `` MOVE!'' the lieutenant screamed in my ear as he shoved me so hard I staggered and dropped the pad as I finally snapped out of my stunned disbelief long enough to race for the open tailgate of the vehicle I had been so sure we would n't need to escape the area. I made it as far as throwing myself inside, then something in me simply shut down in shock. 
 
 As we tore down the street, trying to stay out of the creature's direct line of sight, I watched it ripping apart the huge metal barrel of the big gun with a frenzy of overpowered raw strength, and I wondered: How the hell can we beat this thing? How do you beat Evolution itself? 

