Three Square Meals Ch. 100

Within the doomed ship it took only moments for the Bridge crew to go from gleeful arrogance to quaking terror. A riot of alarms flashed across console displays and the wail of shrill sirens drowned out feverish orders to damage control crews. There'd been some kind of terrible blast, then half the ship had shut down, leaving the vessel completely unresponsive to helm control. For the first time in many decades, fear gripped High Prelate Raktian. The Kintark war hero sat motionless in his throne-like command chair above the turmoil in the Bridge pit, watching helplessly as his ship began to fall to its doom.

Alyssa smiled as she watched John electrocute the pride of the Kintark fleet, the darkened flagship teetering over as it began to slowly drop from the sky. In her peripheral vision, a huge wall of green seemed to suddenly rush towards her, and she snapped her attention back to the battlecarrier Sharan'tohok just in time to arrest her fall. She landed gracefully on the port side of the enormous vessel, with Rachel and Tashana touching down beside her.

The blonde Matriarch grinned at the Maliri girl. "Okay, let's get to work!"

Tashana nodded eagerly, stepping closer to the edge and looking out over the battlefield below. They were floating above the Kintark staging grounds, where tens-of-thousands of troops had already been deployed and more were still pouring out of the transports. She began to gather her will, tapping into the slowly writhing flame that burned deep within her, and fanning that fire with all her psychic might until it roared into a blazing conflagration. To the Kintark troopers' shock, a dozen flame sprites burst into life in front of them, the shapely fire elementals cavorting around as they playfully chased each other.

Alyssa studied the battlecarrier on the left of the formation, her gaze darting along its length and lingering briefly on the retro-thrusters flaring to keep the capital ship aloft. Her cerulean eyes were shining with a brilliant radiant light, a jubilant smile on her face as she savoured the thrill of unleashing her immense psychic potential. Reaching out with both arms, eldritch power surged down from her shoulders to gather at her splayed hands, her slender fingers shrouded in a blazing nimbus of light.

One by one she ripped the retro-thrusters off the starboard side of the Lakran'tohok, the hull going dark as she tore each one from the battlecarrier and tossed it aside. Her fingers curled inwards into claws as she focused on the rear of the capital ship, focusing her intense glowing gaze on the massive starboard engine. There was a piercing shriek of tortured metal as she tugged at that propulsion system, armour plates buckling and snapping as she applied more of her will. With a final flexing of her phenomenal psychic strength she ripped the whole engine housing clear and sent it tumbling away.

The fifty-metre-long chunk of metal crashed to the ground, burying a squad of terrified Kintark soldiers beneath it who had no time to run clear. Those marines who had narrowly avoided being crushed to death gaped up at the critically wounded battlecarrier, watching in shock as it began to veer to starboard. With no retro-thrusters remaining on the right side of the capital ship, the thrust from those on the port side were pushing it into a slow roll, the stunned crew too shocked to correct it.

As Rachel watched her two companions, she felt a pang of regret that she didn't possess some dramatic destructive talent of her own that she could unleash on their enemy. Alyssa and Tashana were completely subsumed in channelling power for their psychic abilities, and she could see their elation as that energy coursed through them. A trio of Kintark fighters raced overhead, patrolling for any Terran Rapiers that would dare to challenge them for aerial supremacy, the deafening roar of their engines drawing the brunette's attention. She grinned as she realised she didn't need any fancy powers to cause some damage, not when she was carrying a Reaper Cannon.

The Kintark pilots were so busy looking for a strike craft threat, they were totally unprepared for the bright burst of azure laser bolts that came from the Sharan'tohok. Rachel hammered them with a stream of laser fire from her Reaper Cannon, the Paragon armour's target tracking making it easy for her to lead the fast-moving ships with her targeting reticle. Even though the ships were all shielded, that provided little protection against the deadly support weapon, and all three were blown out of the sky in rapid succession.

One of the fighters had a wing completely severed and spun wildly out of control as it spiralled down to the surface. The pilot barely ejected in time before his ship slammed into the ground, the resulting explosion enveloping a squad of Kintark marines and shredding them with debris. Tashana's flame sprites leaped joyfully over the burning wreckage, and not only were they unaffected by the blast, they almost appeared to embrace it as they capered around the battlefield.

The fiery elementals were getting larger by the second, and their playful cavorting picked up speed, each of them running faster and faster in a broad circle. As they grew huge, their forms seemed to blend together, until a crackling red wall was encircling a thirty-metre-wide area. Drawing her hands apart, the Maliri Pyrokinetic poured more of her energy into her flame constructs, the spinning barrier growing in height, the temperature intensifying. Kintark soldiers backed away from that blistering heat, giving the raging firewall a wide berth as they continued charging towards the Terran battle lines.

That was when the rapidly spinning inferno seemed to burst into life, the firestorm beginning to move as if by its own volition. The flaming tornado roared with an unquenchable hunger, then scorched its way through the Kintark ranks, sucking terrified troopers into its hellish maw. With each death the towering column of fire seemed to gain in stature, twisting and turning as it incinerated anything and everything in its path. Kintark soldiers fled in terror, their screams silenced as they were dragged back and incinerated by that hellish vortex.

Rachel watched the blazing whirlwind in awe, then patted Tashana on the shoulder. "Dana would be proud."

"It was her idea," the Maliri replied, flashing a smile at the brunette.

They heard another piercing scream of metal being torn asunder, but this time from behind them. The two girls whirled around to see what was happening now and realised that their blonde Matriarch was systematically dismantling the battlecarrier on their starboard side. With all the retro-thrusters ripped away along one side, the huge vessel had started teetering in their direction.

Alyssa turned and winked at her companions, grinning at their startled looks. "Time to move, ladies! John wants us to regroup then follow him down."

She leapt off the Sharan'tohok with Rachel and Tashana diving after her, the thrusters on the back of their Paragon suits jetting out a golden yellow flame as they activated flight mode. John was hovering above the dropping flagship, waiting patiently for the girls to join up with him again.

***

"But he hasn't enslaved the Maliri yet!" Ailanthia gasped, staring in astonishment at the psychic destruction Blake had unleashed on the battlefield. "My Lord, how is that even possible?!"

Shaking his head in bewilderment, her master watched enraptured as a twisting firestorm ploughed through the ranks of Kintark soldiers, leaving a terrible trail of incinerated corpses in its wake. Gigantic lightning bolts were arcing down from the tempestuous storm overhead, blasting the staging ground and sending twitching bodies flying with each stroke. Scores of soldiers narrowly avoided being killed by the actual impact of each blast, but were still electrocuted where they stood by the charged field surrounding the grounding site.

The Kintark flagship crashed into the ground with a deafening roar of tortured metal, the hull twisting and buckling as it was racked by internal explosions. A score of heavy troop transports were instantly flattened by that catastrophic impact, with thousands of soldiers crushed beneath the flagship's gigantic hull. At the same time, two of the battlecarriers tumbled into the one in the centre, smashing the Sharan'tohok between them in a thunderous crash that rivalled the deafening peals of thunder from the storm. Locked together, the three Kintark capital ships started to pitch over, dragging inexorably towards the ground by Terra's remorseless gravitational pull.

"Electrokinesis, Pyrokinesis, and Telekinesis," the Progenitor muttered under his breath, eyes widening as he stared at John in fascination. Glancing at his Matriarch he grinned as he added, "The whelp might have some bite after all!"

***

"Are you really sure about this?" Faye asked, turning around to give her redheaded companion a worried frown.

Dana laughed and nodded. "You're as bad as John! Just maintain a steady speed and let me handle the rest, okay?"

The purple sprite glanced nervously out of the Raptor's cockpit canopy, staring at what appeared to be an innocuous black expanse of space, dotted with thousands of sparkling stars. Appearances could be deceiving though and she knew that lurking out there in that tranquil vista was a vast minefield, just waiting for unsuspecting souls to wander into its clutches. The craziest part of their plan was that Dana knew all about the mines and wanted her to fly right through them!

"Dana..." Faye murmured, darting another anxious glance at her friend.

She was about to volunteer to check the redhead's calculations, just to be on the safe side, but she realised it was too late. Dana's eyes were ablaze with a gleaming golden glow, her face a mask of intense concentration. She had placed her armoured hand on the cockpit wall and rippling waves of energy were pouring out of her and charging the Raptor's hull.

Warning alarms sounded off throughout the gunship's cockpit and Faye watched with mounting apprehension as icons flashed on the piloting interface. The Raptor's sensors were trying to alert her that immediate course corrections were needed because they were about to be drawn into a massive gravity well, while another warned of intense magnetic fields shrouding this part of space. What Faye knew and the sensors didn't, was that there was no way of avoiding either; it was Dana charging the Raptor's hull that had sent the readings haywire...

The gunship rocketed across space and plunged headlong into the minefield. Dana had polarised the bow to repel and shunt aside the mines, while the rear drew them in with irresistible force. With a combination of gravitational pull and magnetic attraction, scores of mines seemed to take notice, catapulting after the Raptor in pursuit. Scores quickly grew into hundreds and the potent magnetic-mines followed after the gunship like a glittering train behind a wedding-dress. Faye banked the Raptor, and the sparkling white bride went hunting for an unsuspecting Kintark groom.

***

Calara's hands moved in a blur as she issued order after order to the Terran Federation forces. Admiral Aeri Malone's fleet had been saved by the Maliri's timely intervention, and the Invictus roaring through Admiral Ramos' group had rescued the Orion, but those firefights represented less than a sixth of the entire battle. Even though she had assumed full tactical command of the allied forces, the combat had been raging for over an hour, and the Federation fleets were now bruised and battered.

Feeling a disconcerting tingling at the back of her mind, she stared at the Terran flagship, watching as the Retribution of Zeus attempted to shield the battleship Summanus from persistent attack. The fleetcarrier's shields had just gone down and it was exchanging broadsides with a trio of Kintark battleships, blocking line of sight to the Summanus as the battleship limped away in retreat, plasma flames licking at its flanks.

Time seemed to draw out into dozens of frames as Calara saw the future of the Zeus playing out before her eyes in slow motion...

~~~

The lead Kintark battleship, the Limtar'tok, had lost its shields and all the Zeus' gunnery teams were focusing their fire on the exposed capital ship. Across the fleetcarrier's bow, Heavy Cannons recoiled as they blasted massive shells at the Kintark vessel. The spinal-mounted Singularity Drivers added to that ferocious barrage, punching hyper-accelerated slugs into the Limtar'tok's prow, crumpling the battleship with one stunning detonation after another.

However, while the Limtar'tok was being savagely dismembered, one of its companions crept forward, closing to short range with the Zeus. The battleship Yalarn'tok ceased fire with its underbelly-mounted Plasma Cannons and launched a volley of torpedoes, which streaked across space and slammed into the distracted fleetcarrier. In the ensuing procession of explosions that tore their way across the Zeus' hull, one of the torpedoes landed a fluke hit, penetrating deep through a plasma-scorched rent in its titanium armour.

When the warhead exploded, the blast destroyed the protective gravitational shielding in the Singularity Drivers' acceleration chamber. With nothing to keep the Zeus' contained singularity in check, the subsequent detonation vaporised half the ship.

~~~

Calara gasped at the horrifying vision, seeing the deaths of thirty-thousand crew played out before her eyes. Stabbing a finger on the battle group interface, she cried out, "Caldwell! Focus all fire on the Yalarn'tok, don't let it close on you!"

He blinked at her in shock when he heard the distress in her voice, then began yelling orders at his Tactical Officers who promptly switched targets. The Yalarn'tok had just begun its fateful charge, when it was lashed by Beam Laser fire from the Zeus and all the allied vessels in the vicinity. Its shields didn't last long against that onslaught and it was smashed backwards by the sheer weight of ordnance that tore into it a few seconds later.

The heavy projectiles burrowed deep into the thick hull plating before their delayed-fuse warheads detonated. The tail of those blasts tore through the armour, the eruptions sending a shower of green metal into space, while the real destructive power ripped apart the entrails of the Yalarn'tok. Successive explosions caused horrific destruction across multiple decks, decimating the crew and adding the listing wreck to the sea of battle debris.

Breathing easier, the Latina sighed with relief. "Thank you, Admiral."

Caldwell felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. He'd seen something in Calara's eyes when she gave that panicked order and somehow, he knew that if he hadn't obeyed her command, it would have meant his death. Badly shaken he nodded to her in gratitude and said quietly, "Thank you... Lioness."

She smiled at the shocked admiral, then turned to look at Faye. The purple sprite was staring ahead with a blank expression on her face, luminous eyes gazing unfocused across the Bridge.

"Faye! Are you alright?!" the Latina asked with concern.

Faye didn't turn to look her way and she spoke in a flat monotone, "This unit is operating with minimal supervision from Meta Faye; all processing streams are currently fully occupied. Do you require a listing of designated activities? This chassis' responses will remain limited until 'the shit stops hitting the fan'."

Calara blinked at her in surprise, then glanced at the Tactical Map. Faye was keeping the Invictus within hacking range of the Hera so that she didn't break Irillith's connection, while attempting to protect the dreadnought from counterattack by over a hundred Kintark cruisers. The Imperial ships were taking by far the worst of the exchange, losing vessels in droves to the sprite's enthusiastic shooting. Despite Faye's best efforts to dodge the bulk of the incoming fire, the standoff was starting to take a heavy toll on the Invictus' shields.

The Vengeance of Hera had moved closer to the rear of the Kintark battle line and was now taking full advantage of being well inside Plasma Cannon range. Irillith was primarily targeting vessels that had lost their shields and were trying to regenerate them by rotating out of intense firefights with the Terran fleet. Those shieldless vessels were rich pickings for the dreadnought's Singularity Drivers and with the Invictus adding to the carnage with her own hyper-accelerated slugs, Irillith and Faye were racking up a staggering tally of kills.

Looking back at the Maliri hacker sitting at her IntOps station, Calara asked, "Irillith, is everything going okay aboard the Hera?"

Those glowing violet eyes locked onto Calara's and Irillith gave the Latina a wicked smile. "We're having a hell of a time..."

***

The high-pitched whir of Gibbons' Gatling Laser competed to be heard over the cacophony of noise engulfing the battlefield. There was the periodic boom of artillery firing barrages deep into the Kintark lines, joined by the hollow thump of mortars from the surrounding bunkers. Those mortar rounds arced high into the air then split into bomblets, which rained down on the lizardman troops that were battling their way through the lines of trenches. They made sharp cracks as they hit the ground and exploded, Kintark soldiers screaming in pain as they were lacerated by razor-sharp flechettes.

Wessex had ordered a minefield to be laid in front of the fortifications, and the carnage when she'd activated those anti-personnel mines directly under the Kintark army had been horrific to witness. Soldiers had been torn to pieces by the explosions, showering thick yellow blood all over the shocked survivors. The fanatical Kintark were fearless though and kept on coming, eventually exhausting the minefield with sheer weight of numbers.

That was when they ran into the devious Commander's second surprise. Wessex had carefully sited multi-barrelled chain guns in each bunker, establishing inter-locking arcs of fire with their neighbouring emplacements. These automated monstrosities raked the ranks of lizardmen with precise enfilade fire, stalling dozens of local attacks and mowing down thousands of Kintark soldiers. The Terran bunkers soon became a priority target for fighter strafing runs and tank assaults, the Kintark desperate to stop the slaughter of their troops.

As more bunkers started to fall, the leading waves of Kintark troops eventually began to overwhelm the first lines of fortifications. Federation soldiers fell back along protected tunnels, blasting those covered passages when the last of the survivors had retreated. However, the Royal Guard had quickly reacted to this tactic, rushing across the battle lines to ambush the fleeing troops and preventing them from blowing the tunnels. Then it had been the Terran forces adding to the death cries, as the vengeful Kintark troops gunned them down with plasma bolts, accepting no surrenders.

Terran hover tanks were pulling back from their forward firing positions and coming under heavy fire from their Kintark counterparts. Gibbons saw one tank shuddering with the impact of several Plasma Cannon blasts, the front of the tank showered in the molten green residue of those hits. A hatch opened up on the back of the tank and the crew leaped out, sprinting away from the burning vehicle. They were wise to evacuate when they did, because the shells cooked off shortly after the last man had bailed out, the tank flipping into the air with the hefty boom of the explosion.

Despite all that din, the initial crash of thunder in the heavens had drawn the attention of all combatants. Both armies had watched in shock as the four Kintark capital ships were knocked out of the sky, the Terran troops joining a rousing cheer as the huge vessels crashed into the ground, causing death and mayhem in the Kintark assembling point. Immediately afterwards, Gibbons had been stunned to see jagged lightning bolts rain down on the Kintark army, his eyes going wider still when he saw the whirling firestorm that was burning through their ranks. He had never seen anything like it, but was tremendously grateful that these bizarre weather effects seemed to be limited to the plateau the Kintark were using as a staging ground.