Three Square Meals Ch. 110

"I'm so sorry I scared you," Alyssa whispered to her girlfriend. "I just got so mad at the Kirrix, I wanted to tear them apart for all the pain they'd caused."

"I know and I love that you care..." the Latina replied, hugging her tight. "But please don't do anything like that again! I was terrified I was going to lose you."

Alyssa looked mortified at having upset the trembling brunette so badly and held her in a close embrace.

Dana winced as she watched a Nest Guardian drive its glowing chitin blade through Alyssa's chest, the blonde's agonised shriek piercing the uncomfortable silence in the bedroom. "Damn... That must've hurt like a mother..."

Rachel turned to look at Alyssa and said sombrely, "Twelve inches higher and we would've lost you. If that creature had impaled your heart, death would have been almost instantaneous."

Alyssa looked around at the shocked, worried expressions on everyone's faces and her eyes welled up with tears. "I'm sorry, okay?"

It was a painful reminder for John just how young the headstrong blonde actually was. Irillith moved aside so that he could wrap Alyssa and Calara up in his arms. "It's alright, honey," he said, his voice warm and soothing. "It's just that we'd all be devastated if anything happened to you... the thought of losing you is horrifying."

The girls all murmured their agreement and Alyssa gave them a wan smile. "I'm really sorry I lost my temper... I'll try not to let it happen again."

"There's nothing wrong with channelling a bit of anger," John said, brushing his fingers through her soft hair and cupping her head protectively. "We seem to thrive through confrontation and wild outbursts of emotion... In fact, you saved me from being atomised by the Hive Queen that way."

Faye skipped forward in the playback to show John being blasted across the room and pinned to the wall by a foul yellow psychic beam. A few seconds later, Alyssa stormed towards the Hive Queen and smashed the creature backwards with a titanic punch from her radiant telekinetic fist.

Alyssa brushed her hand across her eyes to wipe away the tears. "I didn't even know I could do that..."

"Exactly, which is why I don't want to tell you to keep your temper under tight control," John said, gently stroking her. "We just have to be careful not to get so furious we expose ourselves to danger. If you'd let me take the lead into the nest, there would have been no problem at all... you could have blasted your way through all the Guardians with me there at your side to keep you safe."

"How about if I promise to be a good obedient girl from now on?" Alyssa asked him with a crooked smile.

He chuckled and hugged her close. "I seem to remember you promising me that a couple of times already."

"In that case, a stern reprimand might help keep me in line..." she suggested hopefully, her smile turning mischievous.

John let his hand drift down her back and squeezed her wonderfully taut ass, eliciting an eager moan from the blonde. "You're right, some firm discipline might do you some good..."

Dana had been watching the holo-screen and she turned to look at John with a bemused frown.

"What's the matter, Sparks?" he asked, noticing her odd reaction.

"Well, I was just thinking..." she trailed off, uncharacteristically hesitant.

He raised an eyebrow. "Thinking what?"

"The two of you are supposed to be badass Progenitors, right?" the redhead asked, looking at the embracing couple. "So how come the Hive Queen managed to kick your ass?"

John grimaced and gave her a guilty look. "I must admit I underestimated her too. I had no idea she'd be that powerful."

Alyssa pulled away from him and shook her head. "She wasn't... at least not individually."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dana asked, her frown deepening.

"We weren't just fighting one Hive Queen... she was channelling the psychic might of the entire Kirrix Hive Mind," the blonde explained.

Dana's eyes widened in shock. "You two were slugging it out with the entire species?!"

"Pretty much," Alyssa replied, with a nonchalant shrug. "The boss creatures that rule the Kirrix were all telepathically connected to her."

"What happened to them when you fucked up that Hive Queen?" Dana asked, raising an eyebrow.

The blonde's eyes narrowed. "They felt every second of it..."

"Ouch... I almost feel sorry for the poor bastards." The redhead winced, as she remembered the Hive Queen's agonised death screams. "So you basically delivered a psychic bitch-slap to their entire species?"

"Well, they shouldn't have pissed me off," Alyssa said, her voice turning cold. "After what they did... they deserved it."

John heard the brittle edge to her voice and looked at her in alarm. "You don't just mean being attacked by that Guardian do you? What else did they do? Did something happen when you were communicating with the Hive Mind?!"

She looked at him and reluctantly nodded. "I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah. They were telling me their whole sob story and when I wasn't all that sympathetic, they forced a vision on me..."

"What kind of vision?" John asked, his expression a tense mixture of anger and concern.

Alyssa looked away and quietly replied, "They made me experience what it was like being infested by a Hive Queen... I felt it trying to hatch... ripping its way out of me..."

"Oh my God!" Calara gasped, looking at her in horror. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

The blonde didn't reply, she just looked pointedly at John.

His eyes were blazing with an incandescent blue light, his jaw clenched in fury. "They're going to pay for that..."

"They already have, handsome," Alyssa said, gently caressing his cheek to calm him. "I forced a vision on them... of us hunting down and exterminating their entire species. Either Mael'nerak or Ranagon blew away dozens of their planets and when the Hive Mind realised we were Progenitors too, they thought we were actually going to do it. I showed the Hive Mind us nuking their homeworld with a Quantum Annihilator and they almost lost it completely."

"That was an impressive bluff," Tashana said in admiration. "Remind me not to play poker with you."

Alyssa winked at her. "I don't know, a game of poke-her could be fun..."

Everyone laughed, diffusing the tense atmosphere.

Rachel looked at her quizzically and asked, "So if you inflicted a vision on the Hive Mind in return for them forcing one on you, why did you take apart the Hive Queen? More revenge?"

"That wasn't payback for them attacking me," Alyssa quietly replied. She glanced at Faye. "Did you get any footage of the prisoners when I was fucking up the Hive Queen?"

The purple sprite froze, her luminous eyes flicking back and forth. "Yes! Just give me a second..."

The holo-images were replaced by views from Rachel's, Dana's, and John's helmet cameras as they walked along the rows of prisoners, freeing them from resin manacles. Although the civilians gratefully thanked their rescuers, each and every one flicked glances to the upper platform, where agonised inhuman screams echoed around the nest chamber. There was a look of grim satisfaction on their faces, their shame and humiliation easing, if only for a moment.

"That's why," Alyssa said, looking at the civilians with sympathy.

Sakura nodded, looking at her in admiration. "You gave those people justice... hopefully it will bring them a sense of closure."

"It was the best I could come up with at the time," the blonde said with a sad sigh. Her eyes flicked to Tashana. "It's not easy getting over abuse like that."

The Maliri girl acknowledged that glance with a brief nod.

Rachel saw that Tashana was uncomfortable being the focus of attention, so quickly changed the subject. "I must admit I'm a little confused about the way psychic shields work..." When everyone was focused on her, she continued, "The Guardians were able to absorb hits from a Reaper Cannon, blows from Alyssa's telekinetic blades, and prevented her attempts to grapple them with a telekinetic hand. So how was John able to cut through with his sword? Or Alyssa blast them with those fist beams? Is shield penetration based purely on the psychic power behind each attack?"

The room went quiet as everyone mulled over her questions.

"My telekinetic blades don't hit anywhere near as hard as those beams," Alyssa explained after a moment's thought. "But the beams take enormous amounts of energy; I went through a huge portion of my reserves using them."

"I saw you using runes on your fists to amplify their strength," John said, giving her a smile of approval. "I can teach you another set to reduce the amount of psychic energy required."

Alyssa nodded eagerly. "That'd be incredibly useful, thanks!"

John turned to look at Rachel. "The Hive Queen actually managed to block my first attack against her. I was only able to batter my way through her shield when I put much more force behind each blow."

"Same with my telekinetic fist," Alyssa agreed. "When I powered that up, I was able to smash the Hive Queen's shields and give her a beat down."

Rachel raised an eyebrow and said, "So what about Dana's gravity well? Why did that affect the Guardians? The pull from that was nowhere near as powerful as the force behind a Reaper Cannon laser bolt or a blow from one of your telekinetic blades..."

The crew looked at each other in surprise, having not considered that before.

Jade tilted her head to one side and said, "Maybe because Dana was expecting it to work?"

Alyssa slowly shook her head. "I don't think this is a question of believing something and making it happen. I thought my blade legion were going to hack the Guardians to bits, but their shields still absorbed my blows."

"Perhaps hex-shields are only designed to block direct physical attacks?" Tashana suggested, glancing around at the group. "The gravity well was simply an environmental effect, so the shields were unable to prevent the Kirrix being lifted into the air?"

"Yeah, I think you're right!" Dana agreed.

"That's well worth remembering if we go up against another powerful psychic," John said, giving Rachel a grateful look. "Well done bringing that up."

She smiled at him and said, "If I'm going to focus on shielding the team, I need to know their strengths and limitations."

John looked around at everyone and asked, "Does anyone want to mention anything else before we decide what we're planning to do next?"

Sakura raised her hand, a look of disapproval on her face. "I don't think it's wise you going into battle with just your sword. I would have said something before the fight, but I'd already left for the Valkyrie when you were getting geared up."

Looking at the Asian girl in surprise, John protested, "But those telekinetic force arcs are incredibly powerful! I never would've been able to clear the Kirrix forces like that just using a Quantum rifle."

"You didn't know for sure that you could create them before the battle though, did you?" Sakura asked him pointedly.

Jade interrupted before he could reply, a look of triumph on her beautiful face. "He'd done so before on the Astral Plane! John just needed to believe in himself... and when he took that leap of faith, he was magnificent!"

"But what would've happened if you ran into another null zone device like the one the Emperor used against you?" Sakura persisted, looking at him with concern. "You'd be stuck running around at normal speed with a heavy blade you'd struggle to lift..."

"You're right," John conceded, his expression turning grim. He glanced at Jade and gave her a conciliatory smile. "Having a backup weapon is a sensible precaution."

She frowned, but made no further objections.

"You prefer rifles, right?" Dana asked, her sky-blue eyes locked on him. When John nodded his confirmation, she continued, "Just leave it with me. We've gained a bunch of new tech since I built the Reaper Cannons; I know I can design something much better!"

"Alright, I guess I'll be joining Irillith in eagerly waiting to see what you come up with," he said with an indulgent smile.

"Talking of new tech..." the redhead said, tapping a finger on her chin. "I took a look at the weird vanes on the Kirrix dreadnought. They're psi amplifiers; a bit like the ones the Ashanath use, but designed for broadcasting and receiving signals, rather than focusing a psychic's strength."

"To assist the Hive Queen in maintaining contact with the Hive Mind?" Rachel suggested, listening with interest.

Dana shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but that'd be my best guess."

"Is there any way you can modify them to let us transmit tech schematics psychically?" John asked, remembering one of Dana's current research goals.

"Not on their own, but the technology was interesting," Dana replied, looking thoughtful. "I could incorporate an improved version of those psi-emitters to make it easier for a weaker psychic to use, someone like an Ashanath Engineer."

"Great, I'm sure the Ashanath would love to get their hands on that," John said, nodding his approval. "Okay, unless there's anything else, I suggest we look at planning our next move to liberate the other planets." The girls made no move to raise any other points, so he continued, "Alyssa, are you certain the Kirrix are retreating?"

She gave him a helpless shrug. "I don't know for sure, but I scared the shit out of the Hive Mind when I threatened to blow up Kirr-Inax. While I was finishing off the Hive Queen, I might have accidentally let slip that I'd do the same thing to any others I caught in friendly territory..."

Dana snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, they'll be running alright."

"But did they take the captured colonists with them?" Sakura asked, her eyes tensing with worry.

John glanced at Faye. "Please could you bring up a Sector Map? I'd like to see Menganus IV, Karron, Valia Gate, and Brecken's World."

"Sure! Just give me a moment," the helpful sprite immediately agreed.

Jade frowned in confusion. "Wasn't Tasmaris Prime invaded too?"

"We're leaving that planet for the Terran Federation forces to liberate," Calara explained, turning to look at the holographic Sector Map that Faye projected above the bed.

The systems John had mentioned were highlighted with red circles, located in a broad corridor that led towards the outer edge of Terran Federation space. The forested moon known as Brecken's World was the closest, Karron the hollowed out asteroid next, then Valia Gate and finally the dusty world known as Menganus IV.

"My original intention was to rush all the way out to Menganus IV, then work our way back towards Brecken's World." Calara said, glancing at the border to Kirrix Space. "Menganus IV was the first planet to be invaded and only has a small population; perhaps fifteen-thousand colonists. I was hoping the Kirrix would take their time to round up every last person, then we could catch the hive ships while they were still on the ground."

"But now you're worried they'll be long gone by the time we get there," John said quietly.

She nodded, her mouth set in a grim line. "There's only a few small settlements on the planet and the Kirrix have already been there for over a week. It was already a gamble that we'd get there in time before the hive ships left... but now, there's almost no chance. The situation is pretty much the same on Valia Gate, but there's about seventeen-thousand people living there... or at least there were."

John stared at the muddy-grey planet. "How long would it take us to get to Menganus IV?"

"Just over 23 hours. It'll take us 19 hours to reach Valia Gate," Alyssa replied in a hushed voice. She let out a heavy sigh, her expression forlorn. "I fucked up didn't I? If I hadn't scared the Kirrix off, we might have been able to save those people..."

Calara stroked her arm and shook her head. "It's not your fault. It was highly unlikely we were going to find the hive ships on the planet anyway. We might still be able to catch up to them on their way back to Kirrix Space." Turning to look at the green moon closest to their position, she continued, "If you did scare the Kirrix into immediately evacuating, you will have saved far more people from capture on Brecken's World. The Kirrix haven't been there long, three or four days at most, and the population is spread out in lots of small towns. There's approximately 120,000 colonists living on that planet and the Kirrix won't have taken many prisoners yet."

"Which means that if you scared the Kirrix into leaving, you saved a lot of lives. We all know what they do to any children they capture," Rachel said soberly. "Going by statistical averages for agro-worlds, roughly 15% of the population there will be children under 13-years-old, which is about 18,000 colonists."

John put his arm around Alyssa's shoulder and hugged her as he stared at the Sector Map. "So now we're faced with a dilemma... Do we head to the border to try and catch up to the Kirrix fleets as they run from Valia Gate and Menganus IV? Or do we rush straight for Brecken's World and hope we can still hit the Kirrix on the ground?"

Alyssa didn't even need to look at the map, having memorised the precise locations of the star systems already. "It'll take us three hours, seventeen minutes to reach Brecken's World."

Calara rubbed a hand over her face. "I hate doing this kind of strategic triage. Whatever decision we make, people are going to die by the thousands..."

"We also need to bear in mind incubation times for Kirrix eggs," Rachel said, knowing full-well the consequences for the colonists involved. "We'll also need to take into account how long it'll take to transfer prisoners from captured hive ships to the Invictus, as well as the time to treat infested colonists..."

John looked around at the girls and said solemnly, "Okay, let me summarise and please feel free to correct me if I get anything wrong." He took a deep breath before plunging on, "If we rush to the border, we'll probably find that the Kirrix have already left Valia Gate and Menganus IV, which means hunting down and interdicting fleeing Kirrix hive ships. There are roughly 32,000 colonists on those two worlds, many of whom will have been infested seven days ago. It'll take us a day to reach those planets, then a couple more days to track down and interdict the retreating Kirrix fleets."

"Assuming they haven't scattered," Calara interjected, a deep sadness in her eyes. "Which will dramatically increase the time it takes to intercept every hive ship..."

"So after taking maybe a week to rescue those people, we'd then have to track down the hive ships leaving Brecken's World, where the Kirrix might have murdered as many as 18,000 children," John said, his frown deepening. He glanced at the green forested moon. "Or we hit the Kirrix at Brecken's World first, where we can probably catch them in-system and cripple their entire fleet within minutes. Then a day for hive ship boarding actions and another day to treat all the infested civilians..."

"And if the Kirrix haven't fled, we stop them capturing and killing thousands of children," Rachel said, her sombre expression revealing that she'd reached the same conclusion as Calara.

"We're giving up on 32,000 people..." Dana whispered, looking appalled. "Fuck me..."

John was about to protest, then his face fell and he nodded. "I don't think we have any choice. We have to protect Brecken's World; we know we're guaranteed to save the most lives there."

***

Admiral Alexander Morgan studied the report filed that morning by the Janus' tactical officer, Commander Walker, expressing his deep concerns about Brimorian fleet movements. The team of tactical analysts aboard Morgan's flagship, the battleship Momus, had concluded that the Brimorians were just posturing, but the earnest young officer seemed adamant that there was more to those manoeuvres. Morgan glanced through the synopsis, broadly agreeing that the Brimorians should be treated with suspicion, but Walker's warning that this was the prelude to hostilities seemed premature.