Three Square Meals Ch. 090

Now that the hive ship was grounded, Sakura raised her Punisher Gatling and pressed down with her right thumb. Dana had fixed the excessive vibrations when it fired and she barely felt a tremble as her burst of slugs hit the bulging dome on the side of the Kirrix ship. The power distributor exploded a second later, knocking out power to this side of the ship and preventing it from firing its guns towards the city. Her skilful shooting had effectively rendering it helpless, just as she'd done to all the others.

"That's ten down!" she said confidently. "I'll just kill their ground forces then move onto number twelve. Move on to the next as soon as you take out the eleventh!"

She raced into the plaza in front of the incapacitated hive ship, her Pulse Cannons heralding her arrival with their deadly song. The long arcs of blue laser bolts illuminated the shocked looks on the Trankaran civilians' faces as she began executing their tormentors. The Valkyrie held its massive sword aloft as Sakura dashed forward, then plunged the ten metre blade through the back of a hulking Kirrix Juggernaut, impaling it into the ground. Raising a massive green-stained foot, she stomped down on its head, grinding it into the dirt and feeling that satisfying crunch as its exoskeleton popped.

Tugging her sword free of the flattened Juggernaut, she looked out across the fire-lit plaza, searching for more targets. There were fewer Kirrix soldiers here, so it didn't take long to mop up the routing insects, freeing the smaller group of Trankaran civilians in the process. A few of the braver souls waved to her in gratitude, before joining the rest in fleeing into the night, desperate to escape from the Kirrix terrors. Sakura copied them and sprinted from the plaza, but while the Trankarans were desperate to avoid any Kirrix hive ships, she was charging in a beeline towards the next one.

***

Sighing with relief now that John and all the girls were safe from the lava, Alyssa stared at the Tactical Map and narrowed her eyes as she concentrated on the upcoming battle.

Calara turned to look at her and said, "We'll charge through the Kirrix lines and I'll take a Nova Lance shot at the drones. I hope you're ready for some evasive manoeuvres!"

"Nah, save the Nova Lances," Alyssa said, throwing the Latina a mischievous smile. "Get ready for hyper-warp!"

The Latina stared at her in shock for a moment, then grinned with excitement. Alyssa gave her a playful wink, but her incredible mind was already making the insanely complicated calculations necessary for an intra-system tactical hyper-warp jump. Activating an FTL drive within a planetary system was incredibly risky, the powerful gravity wells likely to pull any ship foolish enough to try it into an ignoble death, inevitably crashing them into a planet's surface.

Her hands flashed over the Pilot's console as Alyssa powered up the Tachyon Drive, laying in her course towards Khalgron. Red warning lights flashed and alarms sounded off around the Combat Bridge, but she ignored them as she activated the FTL drive. Their entry into hyper-warp was greeted by extreme vibrations that made her teeth feel like they'd rattle out of her gums, but she counted to four, then killed their hyper-speed jaunt, dropping them into real space once again.

The Invictus was now running parallel to the drone swarm and Alyssa yelled, "Death roll!" as she yanked the stick to the right.

They caught the Kirrix drones totally unprepared, as an unstoppable wall of Photon Laser beams and Pulse Cannon bolts gunned them down in droves. The Photon Lasers wiped out whole wings of fighters with each blazing beam, while the blue bolts from the Pulse Cannons were strong enough to blast straight through the drones, going on to hit additional ships. The carnage created a sprawling debris field, with fighters in the rear of the formation slamming into the wreckage of those in front of them.

While the defence grid of Pulse Cannons could fire continuously, the Photon Lasers were limited by a ten second cooldown, with the heatsinks venting all the excess heat before the weapons could shoot again. Now that the battlecruiser was rotating around, Calara was able to double their fire power by using guns from the underbelly while the ones on the topdeck were cooling. She raked the strike craft with the Invictus' full complement of beams, neatly carving up their formations. The Latina was also able to bring the Gauss Cannons to bear as soon as the underbelly of the Invictus faced the drone ships, further intensifying the effectiveness of Alyssa's death roll.

After twenty seconds, Calara surveyed the carnage, nodding with grim satisfaction at the results. "Over seven hundred destroyed... That's as much as we can do to help Sakura, we need to hit the carriers!"

The tattered remnants of the Kirrix fighter swarm limped away, with many of the survivors having sustained damage as they tried to escape from the Invictus.

"Bringing us around," Alyssa replied, pulling back on the throttle and yanking back on the flight stick.

The Invictus executed a tight loop which should have been impossible for a vessel of its size. Faye and Calara continued to shoot at the ragged drone formations for as long as they were in range, further adding to the numbers of destroyed ships.

"Optimal firing range in ten seconds," Calara declared, her attention riveted to the holographic targeting matrix and the depiction of the Nova Lances' incredibly long firing template. "Same plan as before, Faye: strip their shields so I can hit them with our ordnance weapons."

"Will do!" Faye replied, bouncing up and down with excitement.

Alyssa reached out to Sakura's mind, hearing the Asian girl's satisfied thoughts as she crippled another hive ship. *Head's up, naughty girl. You've got a shitload of incoming...*

While the blonde was warning Sakura about the swarm of drones heading her way, Calara focused on the fleet of Kirrix capital ships ahead of them. She started planning out the best course through the formation of twelve drone carriers, calculating how much damage they could inflict on each ship on their first pass, while trying to avoid as much incoming damage as possible.

Contacting Alyssa telepathically, because speech would be too slow to keep up with her instructions mid-combat, she began to outline her plan. *We'll attempt to clear the right side of their formation in the first pass. Change course to heading oh-four-seven, at a vertical climb of twenty-degrees and we'll hit the closest in the centre. When I've destroyed that with the Nova Lances, aim for the carrier directly behind it. When we've eliminated that and are parallel to the first, pull hard to starboard, then use that wreck as cover from the left side of their formation while we take on the rest...*

She could picture it all so clearly in her thoughts and she felt her connection with the Invictus intensifying, until there was a sudden yawning sensation in her mind. A shiver went up her spine and then time seemed to stretch out before her, fracturing into vibrant scenes as their decisions played out before her...

~~~

The Invictus swooping around to the right, just as Calara had asked Alyssa to. The battlecruiser's port and starboard energy batteries blazing away, stripping the shields from two drone carriers as they flew between them. Their heavy guns opening up, pounding into the carrier on the right. The Kirrix firing back with scores of neutron beams and unleashing something else... something far nastier...

~~~

Calara's eyes widened in horror at the images her Prescience was revealing and she went white as a sheet. "Faye!" she blurted out, whipping around in her chair to stare at the purple sprite. "I need you to do exactly as I say!"

***

John leapt into the air, retro-thrusters on his suit giving him the extra lift to land on the first Juggernaut's back. The Kirrix beast was slow to react, or at least from his accelerated perspective it appeared to be moving like treacle. Taking a solid two-handed grip with his sword, he chopped down on the back of its head, his long blade rising and falling as he hacked it apart with massively powerful blows. The huge six-limbed behemoth tried to throw him off, but it was easy to keep his balance with its frantic bucking decelerated to a crawl. Green blood gushed into the air, each brutal chop adding more volume to the slow-motion geyser.

When there was nothing left of its head but a lacerated green stump, he leapt off its back, easily dodging the wild swing from the second Juggernaut. He landed to the side of this new foe and skidded to one side to avoid a flailing leg. Chopping down on its front-right femur and cleaving through it, he whirled around to hack through the rear, taking a couple of blows to completely sever the thick chitinous limb. As it began to pitch over on its side, he leapt backwards, giving it adequate room to fall.

He watched it topple over, carefully waiting for just the right moment, then rushed forward, using his momentum to bring extra power to bear in his two-handed strike. It was a perfectly struck blow, landing just below the Juggernaut's ridged outer mandibles and biting deep into its neck. Ducking beneath a wild backwards slash from a serrated claw longer than him, he chopped down twice more, completely decapitating the Kirrix abomination. It shuddered, limbs convulsing in strange jerking motions before lying still.

When he cancelled his psychic speed, the Juggernaut's horrifically mangled corpse seemed to catch up to real time, at least from his perspective. A huge geyser of green blood exploded out of its neck, spraying ten feet into the air like an uncapped oil derrick. Sheathing his sword, he unshouldered his Quantum rifle and started snapping off shots at the remaining Kirrix soldiers.

The rest of the insect troops had been caught completely unawares by Dana and Rachel's assault. The girls had picked off the ones closest to them at the rear, then worked their way forward, taking out one soldier after the other with careful headshots. The Trankarans recovered from their shock at seeing these new arrivals and eagerly joined in the massacre, fusion rifles gouting steam as they incinerated the Kirrix invaders. By the time the Kirrix soldiers reacted to being ambushed in this lethal crossfire, it was far too late. In under a minute the battle was all over, with John and the two girls standing unscathed amid piles of shattered insectoid bodies and a sea of sticky green fluids.

John gave the Trankarans on the parapet a friendly wave, before turning to greet Dana and Rachel as they ran over to join him. "I got you a present," he said to the brunette, jerking a thumb at the fully-intact Juggernaut head.

She studied it in fascination. "Thank you! It's just what I always wanted..."

Dana wrinkled her nose at the huge black armoured head in distaste. "Hauling that fucking thing back to the surface is going to be a massive pain in the ass!"

Rachel smiled at John and said, "She's probably right. If you can open it up for me later, I'll take a quick look before we leave. Doing a complete autopsy back on the Invictus will be too late anyway, at least in terms of finding any weaknesses we can exploit for this battle."

"Commodore Blake!" one of the Trankarans bellowed from atop the fortress walls. "The gates are jammed! It'll take us some time to open them!"

"No need, we'll join you up there!" John shouted back, then used his suit's thrusters to soar up to the parapets.

He sailed over the reinforced walls and landed lightly beside the awed Trankaran soldier on the battlements, followed by Dana and Rachel a couple of seconds later.

The redhead grinned at the Trankaran and her eyes darted to John. "He's actually a Vice Admiral now..."

The Trankaran was shocked by their unexpected flight up to his position, but he managed to shrug it off and gave John a respectful salute. "My apologies Vice Admiral Blake, I meant no offence!"

"None taken," John replied, giving him a magnanimous smile. "What's your name, soldier?"

"Legionnaire Volnir, Sir!" the Trankaran replied hastily with its deep, booming voice.

John looked both ways along the wall and saw that his first estimate of the defenders had been correct. There were only five battered and weary Trankaran Legionnaires left manning the defences, with the bodies of many more of their compatriots littering the battlements. "Volnir, where's Sub-Warden Dhormun?"

"In the keep with the diplomats and the wounded. He was badly injured in the last assault," Legionnaire Volnir rumbled, his blocky features downturned in anguish. "We're all that's left standing..."

John clasped the grief-stricken Trankaran on the arm. "You did a hell of a job holding on, Volnir. The sacrifice your comrades have made will help save the lives of billions of Republic citizens." He turned to look at the other Trankarans that had joined their group. "You should all be very proud of your fallen rock-brothers... and of yourselves."

The weary soldiers straightened, pride shining in their amber eyes. They nodded slowly, looking at John in a different light.

Volnir turned to point at a massive stone edifice set back some distance behind the wall. "That's the Keep over there. Go through to the central room and turn right, you'll find the Sub-Warden in the medical facility"

"We better head there now," John said, before glancing back the way they'd come. "We have two more soldiers in our squad. Watch out for a pair of women in white armour."

The Trankarans all nodded. "We shall remain vigilant, Admiral," Legionnaire Volnir said, sounding firmer now.

John jumped off the edge of the battlements, gliding down to the ground below with the girls flanking him. They jogged up to the partially ajar doorway, finding a blood-soaked Trankaran soldier sitting propped up against the wall and keeping watch. His eyes seemed unfocused and he was clearly struggling to stay conscious.

"We're allies!" John called out to him, pre-empting any accidents as he approached the door. "I'm Vice Admiral Blake, here to see-"

He didn't get a chance to finish introducing himself. The Trankaran attempted to stand up, but wobbled and pitched over, his eyes rolling up in his head. Leaping forward to catch the massive rockman before he crashed into the floor, John gently lowered him so he was lying on his back.

"Easy, we're here now," Rachel said soothingly, as she crouched down beside the groaning Trankaran. "I'm a doctor, let me take care of you."

Dana patted John on the shoulder. "I'll keep an eye on her. We'll catch up in a minute."

"I'll go find Niskera," he replied. "Let me know if there's any trouble."

With that, he walked down the dimly-lit corridor, approaching a set of double doors at the end. The doors led into a large central room with passages leading away in all directions. His sensitive ears picked up the sound of conversation coming from the right, so he followed the signs of life, hoping that it was Sub-Warden Dhormun.

As chance would have it, he found Chancellor Niskera with the Sub-Warden in the medical facility. Dhormun's eyes were closed and he was lying on a very sturdy grey plinth, the upper layer made from some kind of spongy material. He had a terrible wound in his torso, as though some kind of huge serrated sword had hacked a big divot out of his chest. His face looked ashen and John didn't need to be a medic to know the Sub-Warden was on the verge of death.

The Chancellor was sitting beside him, tears rolling down her cheeks as she spoke quiet, comforting words to the dying Trankaran soldier. Even after seeing her on the holo-call, the change in Niskera since their last meeting on the Kerhom's Anvil was dramatic. She had been confident and collected back then, but now she looked haggard and broken by her recent experiences. John had seen that dead-eyed look before and he knew that days spent under siege, with no escaping from the horrors of war had taken their toll.

"Chancellor Niskera?" John said quietly, alerting her to his presence. "Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to-"

She whirled around, mouth dropping open as she gaped at him in shock. Before he could say another word, Niskera leapt from the chair and embraced him fiercely. "By the Great Maker! I never believed for a moment you'd make it!" she sobbed, trembling violently as she hugged him.

"It's okay, I'm here now... I'll keep you safe," John said, stroking her broad back in a reassuring manner.

They stood like that for a long moment, with John doing his best to soothe the overwhelmed Trankaran woman. She eventually pulled back and while she didn't blush - if her granite-like face was even capable of blushing - he could tell by the expression on her blocky features that she was embarrassed by her outburst.

Letting out a ragged sigh, Niskera gave him a wan smile. "I'm so sorry for accosting you like that. The last several days have been harrowing."

"No need to apologise," John said, returning her smile. "You've been through quite the ordeal."

She turned to look down at the Sub-Warden, her brow creasing with worry. "Do you have a medic with your troops? I fear that Dhormun doesn't have long!"

"I do, she'll be along shortly," John replied. "How many of you are left? We'll need to gather everyone together and prepare to make an immediate evacuation."

Niskera frowned, a look of confusion on her face. "I'm no doctor, but I don't think Dhormun is in any fit state to be moved; nor are the rest of the wounded for that matter." She looked around the medical facility, her face stricken with grief as she continued, "None of us had medical training; we couldn't do anything to alleviate their suffering. So many have died from their wounds... it was awful... I felt so helpless..."

Seeing that she was on the verge of tears again, John gently stroked her arm. "I'm sorry Niskera. We can talk about it later, but you need to be strong for just a little while longer, okay?"

She shivered and nodded, biting her lower lip as she tried to stop her eyes from welling up.

John glanced at Dhormun and saw that the massive Trankaran soldier's eyes had half-opened, the Sub-Warden watching them silently as he laboured for breath.

"I kept her... safe... for you," Dhormun wheezed, his once booming voice reduced to no more than a gravelly murmur.

Walking over to his side, John nodded, his voice full of respect as he said, "You did your duty to the Republic, Sub-Warden. Thank you."

"Leave me... here..." Dhormun croaked, his pained expression revealing how difficult it was for him to talk. "Just... slow... you down..."

"Nah, fuck that!" Dana said cheerfully as she bounded into the room. "We'll just slap a band-aid on and you'll be as good as new!" She turned to look at Rachel who glided into the room after her. "He's all yours, Babes!"

Niskera gaped at the two girls, shocked by the redhead's brash arrival. She let out a gasp as Rachel's eyes began to glow with a bright inner light, the brunette sweeping past the astonished Chancellor to stand beside the dying Sub-Warden. Rachel placed her hand on his chest and her misty grey aura enveloped the mortally wounded soldier.

"Great Maker preserve me!" Dhormun rumbled in alarm, sounding stronger already as Rachel went to work.

His ragged wound began to close before their eyes, Niskera staring in amazement as Dhormun's body regenerated from the terrible injury at an incredible rate. In a matter of moments his torso was fully healed and Rachel removed her hand as he sat bolt upright, the unsettled Trankaran patting his chest in disbelief.

John clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Dhormun. We're getting all of you out of here."

"How did she do that?!" Niskera whispered in awe, gawking bug-eyed at Rachel. The brunette smiled at the Sub-Warden with satisfaction, then walked away to tend to the next injured Trankaran.