Three Square Meals Ch. 090

John had spent the last twenty years around spacecraft, but the sight of the Invictus charging into battle was still thrilling. Anything larger than a cruiser usually appeared sluggish and unresponsive when manoeuvring, but those were adjectives that could never be applied to his gleaming white battlecruiser.

A nimbus of throbbing energy began to form at the Invictus's bow, colossal amounts of energy being harnessed to form that glowing sphere. It expanded rapidly then grew much brighter, the intensity increasing until it hurt the eyes just to look at it. For a moment, it seemed that blinding orb contained too much power, as if it were about to explode with titanic force, threatening to annihilate the Invictus in an instant. That was when Calara pulled the trigger, unleashing that terrible firepower on the unsuspecting drone carriers.

The bewildered Kirrix had barely managed to get their shields up in time, having only just detected the Invictus' presence when it started charging-up its most destructive weapons. Not that those protective fields did them much good...

An incandescent beam of phenomenal power slashed through the Kirrix ranks, vaporising several picket ships that were inadvertently caught in its path. Calara strafed the blazing column of energy through the nearest cluster of capital ships. She successfully clipped a trio of carriers, the beam caressing each of them for no more than a second each, but it was more than enough time to wipe out the protective shielding on all three vessels.

That was when the muzzles of the Singularity Drivers blasted out the first shot of their deadly cargo. Huge slugs streaked across space, accelerated to hyper-warp by the tightly controlled singularity contained within the Invictus. Leaving a trail of faint blue tachyon particles behind them, the rounds slammed into the closest of the hapless drone carriers. There was a huge explosion as the first slug struck home, the vast kinetic energy transferred into the ochre hull of the Kirrix ship. Armour plating exploded outwards, showering debris across space and leaving a cavernous crater in the rear flank of the capital ship. The carrier shuddered with the impact, appearing to flinch as if in pain from that mighty blow.

But that was merely the opening note in a deadly symphony...

With the relentless beat of a metronome, the Invictus pounded the Kirrix ship, striking that precise spot over and over again. By the third hit there was an enormous gaping rent in the side of the ship, with armour, superstructure and internals torn asunder to expose its beating heart. The fourth slug punched deep inside the carrier and instead of a single explosive retort there were two, the second far more devastating. The enormous primary reactor that supplied power to the ship was smashed by that fourth hit, triggering a core breach that made the rear half of the vessel balloon outwards obscenely. The ship seemed to freeze for a second in horror, before the detonation blew it apart in a monstrous supernova.

"Fuck me..." Dana muttered, standing beside John and watching the Kirrix capital ship explode into a million pieces. In less than ten seconds, a fifteen-hundred-metre long supercarrier had been completely obliterated.

The Invictus pivoted smoothly, then without seeming to pause, the deadly rain of Singularity Driver rounds began to strike the second shieldless carrier. Calara continued her orgy of destruction, remorselessly preparing for the killing blow on her next target. Huge chunks of armour were gouged out of the carrier as she used those terrible blasts to tear her way deeper into its hull. It only took five seconds for the second helpless capital ship to be ripped apart by another enormous explosion, the Invictus already moving on to its third victim.

The redhead shook her head in awe and slipped her armoured hand into John's. "I'm really fucking glad Calara's on our side..." she said softly.

John nodded as he watched the Invictus execute the third carrier a handful of seconds later, then turned to look at his young companion. "You designed and built that ship, remember? Calara might be the artist, but it's your paintbrush and paint she's using."

"I'm glad I'm on our side too then," Dana said with a lopsided smile.

"Damn right..." John agreed, stroking her armoured thumb with his own.

The Invictus swung about sharply, racing away from the infuriated Kirrix capital ships that had powered up their engines to give pursuit. He noticed Alyssa waggling the rear of the battlecruiser as they fled, further taunting the enraged aliens.

"They're launching drones!" Tashana called out, drawing John's attention to the holographic projection in the centre of the cockpit.

The Kirrix fighters were too small to be seen from the Raptor with the naked eye, but on the Tactical Map they appeared like a swarm of angry hornets, buzzing around the remaining drone carriers. A riot of red sensor signals obscured the carriers from view, then that furious scarlet cloud stormed off in pursuit of the Invictus. As John watched the white battlecruiser tearing across the map, he couldn't help picturing a naughty youth running away in glee after kicking over the hornets' nest.

"So far, so good," he said, turning his gaze towards the green and blue planet ahead of them.

With the Kirrix fleet thoroughly distracted as they chased after the Invictus, Faye's careful approach to the planet went unopposed. The Raptor drifted closer to Khalgron, passing through the sad remnants of the Trankaran fleet that had attempted to defend this system from the Kirrix invaders. Three towering battleships and over a dozen rust-red cruisers lay broken, reduced to nothing more than shattered derelicts. The sheer number of hits those vessels had sustained were a testimony to the bravery of the Trankaran crews, standing firm in the face of such overwhelming numbers.

The Trankarans had fought back valiantly, managing to bring down two Kirrix drone carriers in what must have been a ferocious exchange of broadsides. The sickly-brown capital ships had been deeply scored in multiple places across their hull, the potent Trankaran Fusion Beams having melted straight through their thick armour plating.

John wasn't able to read debris fields like Calara could, but even he could see how the final stages of that battle must have played out. The besieged Trankaran forces had charged headlong into the mass of Kirrix guns, using their speed and incredibly thick armour to close to point blank range. He guessed that they'd caught the insectoid forces by surprise, the rockmen choosing to sacrifice themselves in a bold but suicidal attack that would at least take down some of the Kirrix with them.

Filled with respect for those brave souls, John silently vowed to himself that their sacrifice would not be in vain.

Faye began their descent through the planet's upper atmosphere, easily pinpointing the location of Mulbharum by the sparkling lights from the Trankaran city. Evening had fallen on this hemisphere of the Khalgron, and the city shone like a beacon in the shadow of the planet. As they drew closer, John's expression hardened as he realised the lights in the centre of the city were actually coming from fires... The Kirrix had been burning the citizens out of their homes.

Encircling the city like buzzards landed around a carcass, the Kirrix hive ships swam into view. They had dispensed with any overt ship security, so the external lights on their yellow-brown hulls made them easy to spot in the gloom. They had landed on the planet to disgorge thousands of troops and now clung like bloated ticks to the surface of Khalgron.

"Can't we do something?" Rachel whispered, staring at the huge insectoid breeding ships in revulsion. "The thought of what the Kirrix are going to do to those civilians makes me sick..."

Letting out a heavy sigh, John slowly shook his head. "I hate the idea as much as you do, but it's not like we're just ignoring them out of choice. If we lose Niskera and her Republic falls to the Kirrix, then billions of Trankarans will share their fate. Rushing to her rescue is the best chance we've got of saving many times more sentient beings from that kind of horror."

"I know, it just feels really wrong," the brunette said as she turned away, no longer able to stomach the sight of the ugly segmented vessels, not when she knew what was happening within.

"We'll get some payback on the Kirrix," Dana said, gritting her teeth in cold fury. "I almost feel sorry for those fuckers sieging the fortress... we're going to tear them a new one."

Tashana placed a hand on the teenager's shoulder, her violet eyes burning with anger. "Absolutely."

Looking back at their pilot, John asked, "Faye, can you see where the entrance to the fortress is supposed to be?"

"Yep!" she replied, sounding supremely confident. Pointing a delicate purple finger directly ahead of them, she continued, "We're heading straight for it! I'll be bringing us down to land in just over a minute."

He gave her a grateful smile then looked straight ahead through the cockpit, doing his best not to let his eyes drift to the burning city and imagine how terrified the civilians must be.

***

"The Nova Lances will be ready to fire in ten seconds," Calara said, darting a glance at the blonde sitting in the Pilot's Chair.

"We should probably do something about that swarm of bugs first," Alyssa said, raising an eyebrow. She smiled at the Latina and her purple AI companion. "Did you ladies remember to bring your super-sized fly-swatters?"

"I heard bugs like to fly towards bright lights," Faye Secondary said cheerfully. "Maybe that's why they're chasing after us?"

Calara nodded, her expression sombre. "Why don't we give them what they want then?"

The heatsinks had finished venting all the heat from the Nova Lances, shifting them in the weapon loadout display from red to green. Calara pulled the trigger, initiating the vast power surge that would charge up the incredibly destructive weapons. Alyssa eased off on the throttle, rolled the Invictus to starboard, then yanked back on the flightstick. The white battlecruiser executed a tight turn, bringing them back on an attack vector with the drone carriers - and the swarm of Kirrix strike craft that were eager to get to grips with their quarry.

"Firing Nova Lances," Calara said, aiming the targeting reticle in the centre of that mass of vessels.

She was surrounded by the Invictus' holographic targeting matrix, the sphere displaying the maximum range and firing arcs of all her weapons. Holding the weapon controls with a steady, confident grip, Calara pulled the triggers firing the forward Nova Lances at the swarm. A hundred-metre-wide beam blazed to life, throbbing with incalculable power as the Latina swept it through the tightly packed ranks of Kirrix strike craft.

There were over a thousand drone ships in that first wave and the Nova Lances cut through them like a superheated broadsword through butter. One moment the small yellow chitinous craft were racing through space in neat, six-pronged wings, the next they were just... gone.

Calara watched the targeting matrix like a hawk, the long arcs of the Invictus' forward facing Photon Lasers enveloping the front formations of the survivors. Over half of that deadly swarm had been annihilated, but the Latina wasn't done with them yet. Twelve of the battlecruiser's beam weapons opened fire, the lethal spray of pulsed beams piercing through the dense formations of fighters. Calara aimed to either side of the devastating hole she'd just bored through their ranks, finding rich pickings amongst the throng of fighters still in close formation. Scores of Kirrix drone craft were atomised in the face of that blazing salvo, bright blue laser beams disintegrating anything they touched.

"You've got much longer range than me!" Faye protested, having to wait until the drone vessels closed to medium range.

"Don't worry, I left you some," Calara replied, nodding towards the several hundred remaining strike craft.

Faye grinned with anticipation, eleven of her eager avatars assigned to firing the Pulse Cannon defence grid. She was able to bring thirty-two of the triple-barrelled weapons to bear in the front arc, which meant no more than three guns to aim for each of her processing streams. The moment the Kirrix strikecraft closed to medium range she opened fire with her full complement of energy weapons, sending a brilliant stream of blue laser bolts into the oncoming waves of fighters.

The new heatsinks meant that the Pulse Cannons could now fire without pause and the lead Kirrix fighters that hit that wall were torn to pieces. Faye was gunning down over twenty drone ships a second, so by the time the tattered remnants of the drone wave reached short range and could actually fire back, they had been reduced to under a fifth of their original number.

The fighters returned fire with sickly green energy bolts, from heavy neutron guns built into the wings of their drone craft. The Invictus' shields began to ripple, like a lake being dusted by a light April shower. Alyssa took evasive manoeuvres, throwing off the fighters aim until they compensated and continued to rain down fire on the shimmering field.

That downpour subsided as Faye continued hammering their lines with Pulse Cannon fire, joined again by Calara with her Photon Lasers which had cooled down once more. By the time the Invictus passed the surviving elements of the insectoid horde, they'd been whittled down to a pitiful handful, none of which survived the broadsides as flank and rear-mounted energy weapons were brought to bear.

Alyssa eased back on the throttle, then banked the Invictus around, pushing the engines up to maximum power again as soon as they were facing away from the drone carriers. She grinned as she put more distance between them and the Kirrix capital ships, staying well out of range of their neutron beams. "We're down to seventy-two percent shields. We can let them recharge a bit until the Nova Lances are ready to fire again. Doesn't look like the Kirrix have any weapons with the reach to hit us... I guess the bad guys aren't going to have much fun today!"

Calara relaxed back in her chair, a bright smile of relief on her face. "Nice shooting, Faye!" she exclaimed, genuinely impressed by her purple companion's aim.

Faye frowned and glanced at the screen. "I actually almost started to feel bad for them by the end. I can't match your shooting, but firing constantly makes it hard to miss. Even if I do, I just strafe the Pulse Cannon fire back over the target and... Zap!"

"Fortunately, you got most of them before they got too close," Alyssa said, her tone turning serious. "John wouldn't have been happy if he'd had to spend a few hours clearing bugs from the Invictus' windscreen..."

Calara laughed at her joke, then shared a grin with her blonde lover.

Faye Secondary engaged her default happy smile image, but she was lost in thought, taking advantage of the brief lull in combat to analyse the annoyingly persistent query that was nagging at her. Diverting all her processing streams, except Faye Primary who was flying the Raptor, she began to investigate this new conundrum. The Kirrix were evil, therefore she was doing good by slaying them. Moreover, they were threatening John and the girls, which automatically guaranteed their termination. But why did she have this nagging feeling of regret at ending their lives?

Unable to come up with a solution, she resolved herself to discuss it with John at the earliest opportunity.

***

The Raptor and Valkyrie skirted well clear of Mulbharum, cautiously avoiding the city and its Kirrix invaders. Everyone was glad to see the back of the hive ships, even though they all felt a nagging sense of guilt at not intervening to save the civilians, despite the urgency of their mission to rescue Niskera. However, all those doubts and self-recriminations were swept aside as they approached the foothills where the emergency evacuation tunnel was located.

"Oh fuck!" Dana gasped, pressing herself closer to the cockpit window.

Instead of the smooth rolling foothills that they'd been expecting, there was a slumped crater. Half the hillside had rumbled away in an enormous landslide, leaving behind a rugged rocky depression.

Irillith glanced at their purple pilot. "Are you sure this is the right location, Faye?"

Faye Primary bobbed her head in immediate confirmation. "I've checked the coordinates eighty-seven times! This is definitely where the tunnel entrance is supposed to be. There should have been a concealed cave entrance on the leeward side of that hill, which led back twenty metres to a lift shaft and stairwell!"

"What could have happened here?" Rachel murmured, standing behind her and staring at the scene of devastation.

"Perhaps the Kirrix decided to destroy the fortress with an orbital barrage?" Tashana suggested, studying the crater.

John slowly shook his head. "No, that wasn't done by a ship's battery. I've seen this kind of thing before... the Trankarans must have set demolition charges and flattened the hillside."

"But now they're trapped down there!" Dana protested, her beautiful face scrunched up in confusion. "That was really fucking stupid!"

"The Kirrix might have discovered the tunnel," John said with a shrug. "We'll just have to ask the Trankarans why they did it... if they're still alive."

"Should we risk attempting to contact Niskera again?" Rachel asked, glancing at the bleak grey stone now exposed under the hill.

Dana grimaced. "It'll be like going up to the Kirrix and shouting: Hey motherfuckers! I'm over here!"

"How about a tight-beam active scan, no more than three-metres across?" Tashana suggested brightly. "The focused sensors should penetrate deep enough to detect Trankaran life-forms. It's very hard to detect because it doesn't use much energy. I used them all the time to... Oh!" Her face showed her surprise as she recalled memories of her days as a smuggler.

"You okay?" John asked with concern, patting her on the shoulder.

She nodded, a faraway look in her eyes. Snapping out of it a moment later, she gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, don't worry."

Dana leant over one of the Raptor's consoles, her armoured fingers darting across the controls. "Just setting it up now. It's actually a great idea! I've never tried scaling back an active scan like that before... very sneaky!"

It didn't take long for the redhead to get the modified active scan ready and using the schematics to pinpoint the precise location of the fortress, Dana began to sweep the sensors through the base.

"Yeah, they're still down there alright," she muttered, staring at the readings in concentration. "The Trankaran life-readings are weak, but that could be because of all the rock strata in-between."

"Okay, so this way is blocked, but I seem to remember several others on the schematics, right?" John asked the girls intently.

"There was that train station back in the city," Dana agreed. "Plus a bunch of other tunnel entrances too; probably where the Trankarans hauled out all the stone from the quarry."

Faye turned in her chair so she was kneeling on it and pointed over the headrest at the holographic map that had just appeared. "I've marked the entrances in orange. I also superimposed the locations of the hive ships in yellow."

"Nice work, honey," John said, nodding appreciatively. He leaned closer to study the map and the smile he'd given Faye started to fade as he examined the entrances into the tunnel system.

"Fucking bug fuckers!" Dana snorted in anger, echoing his thoughts. "They've parked those fat fucking hive ships on top of almost all of them!"

John pointed towards a pair of entrances to the north of the city. "Those two are still too close. If the map's correct, it looks like open ground around there... we'd never be able to get that near to the Kirrix forces without being spotted."