Three Square Meals Ch. 110

She leaned over to give him a grateful kiss. "Thank you, Admiral."

"You're welcome, Captain," he replied with a fond smile. He raised an eyebrow and added, "By the way, do you think it's worth discussing the part where you nearly got boarded?"

Calara blushed and gave him a guilty look. "I'm really sorry about that; I got complacent with the battle being so one-sided. I was very lucky that the solid-phase shields prevented the dropships from reaching the hull."

John pulled her in for a hug. "You weren't the only one getting complacent... a few of us underestimated the Kirrix, me included." When they parted, he looked her in the eyes. "It's a good lesson to remember for the future though, okay?"

She nodded, her face sombre. "Definitely."

He turned to Faye. "Okay honey, who's next?"

"I thought we'd look at the girls who weren't involved in the boarding action against the dreadnought," she replied, turning towards the twins.

"The Kirrix in the hive ships were definitely shocked when we crashed the party," Tashana said, her full lips quirking into a grin.

"We had ourselves quite the barbecue," Irillith agreed, giving her sister a wry smile. "Our Terran hosts certainly seemed to appreciate the exquisite aroma of flame-grilled Kirrix..."

Rachel groaned and pleaded, "No more bad puns, please!"

Fortunately, Faye had activated the camera playback and the audience went quiet as they watched Irillith electrocute the first hive ship and Tashana incinerate the Kirrix troops in the plaza outside.

"That wasn't as dramatic as the flame tornado on Terra, but those firewalls were still extremely effective," John said quietly, watching as she torched hundreds of insectoid troops.

"With all the civilians in danger, I had to take far more care," Tashana murmured, her eyes fixed on the dancing flames.

John turned to Irillith and asked, "Did you get a chance to try hacking the Kirrix network?"

She shook her head and gave him a rueful frown. "Electrocuting the hive ships kept them on the ground, but it also burnt out all their systems. We left too quickly for me to try hacking one of the other vessels."

"Not to worry, I'm sure there'll be another opportunity," John said, returning his focus to the holographic playback.

The footage continued, showing the twins beginning their assault on the hive ships. John glanced at Faye and she ended the playback without needing to be prompted, watching Tashana with concern. The Maliri girl looked self-conscious, knowing why they had cut the footage short.

John beckoned the twins over. "Come here a minute, girls."

They quickly moved across the bed to flank him and he put his arm around their shoulders, holding them close.

"We'll talk later about what happened on the hive ship. As I said before, you did an incredible job taking out all those Kirrix and freeing so many civilians without losing a soul. I'm very proud of you both."

The sisters each kissed him, then settled down at his side, content to stay exactly where they were.

"Sakura next?" John asked Faye, who nodded, a quick blink of her big luminous eyes setting up the recording.

Jade watched with interest as the Valkyrie was revealed to be impervious to the neutron bolts fired by the swarm of drones pursuing Sakura to the planet. "I wish I'd had those kinds of shields when I was flying the Raptor against the Kintark," she said wistfully.

The Asian girl nodded, sharing the Nymph's admiration for the new shield technology. "Being able to ignore fighters makes such a huge difference. It's incredibly stressful having strike craft squadrons picking away at your shields."

"It's even worse when they're shooting bits off your gunship," Jade admitted, sharing a smile with the mech pilot.

"I can't believe you took so many neutron beam hits at point-blank range," Calara said, shaking her head in amazement.

Sakura blushed. "I was trying my best to avoid them..."

The Latina quickly shook her head in alarm. "No, I didn't mean it like that! I wasn't criticising! I just meant that the Valkyrie's shields are incredibly resilient; the mech's probably tougher now than the Invictus was when we first got her. Considering the Valkyrie's incredible manoeuvrability and its relatively tiny size, I don't envy enemy ships trying to take that mech out of action."

"Running around on capital ship hulls does feel like I'm cheating," Sakura confided with a smile. "Being safely inside their own shields must be infuriating for anyone else trying to shoot me."

"Just don't try it on a thrall ship," Calara warned her with a worried frown. "You saw what happened to those dropships when they hit the Invictus' solid-phase shields."

Sakura's eyes widened and she gave the Latina a grateful look. "I won't forget."

The final section of camera footage showed Sakura racing from one hive ship to the next, slicing them open with her mech's gigantic sword. The speed with which she eliminated the Kirrix defenders was astonishing and she liberated prisoners from seven vessels, outperforming Jade and the twins combined. John thanked Faye with a nod when she ended the camera footage.

"That was a very impressive bit of piloting," he said to Sakura, when she turned to him for his verdict. "And you did a brilliant job taking out the dreadnought without dropping it directly on the city."

"The credit for that belongs to Faye," Sakura said, her eyes flicking to the sprite. "She worked out precisely how much lift those thrusters would have... I just had to shoot out enough of them to bring it down."

Faye tipped an imaginary hat, making them all laugh and give her a spontaneous round of applause. She grinned back at her friends, a look of delight on her elfin face.

"You were our Johnny-on-the-spot as usual, Faye," John said, making no attempt to disguise the admiration in his voice. "Dropping off the fire teams in the Raptor, immobilising hive ships, piloting the Invictus as well as manning her defence grid... you even managed to find the time to look after Helene. Saying what a fantastic job you do and how indispensible you are, barely seems like adequate praise."

Alyssa gave her a fond smile. "You're like four Lionesses rolled into one."

The sprite blushed a dark purple and a shy smile crept onto her face. "It's just wonderful being able to help all of you. I'm so glad you trusted me with all those vital roles."

Dana grabbed the petite girl and pulled her onto the bed for a tight hug. "We love you! I think that about sums it up."

"I couldn't have said it better," John agreed, enjoying seeing Faye's surprised elation as the girls took turns embracing her.

When they settled down again, Jade pretended to frown and said, "Perhaps I should have gone before Faye? I think she's going to make me look bad."

Faye shook her head. "I don't think so! I haven't got any suit camera footage for you, for fairly obvious reasons, but I tapped into a planetary security satellite and managed to get some video that way."

"Let's take a look," John said, watching with interest.

The slightly grainy footage showed Jade's enormous draconic form laying waste to a park full of Kirrix. Watching the massive dragon obliterating hundreds of troops before tearing her way into the hive ship was a sobering sight.

"Holy shit! I'm glad you're on our side..." Dana gasped, her eyes like saucers. "You just tore through that armour like it was made out of tissue paper!"

Rachel looked equally shocked. "I can't believe how many times you were hit by neutron bolts; that must have been agonising!"

"I barely felt a thing," Jade replied, giving John a starry-eyed look of gratitude. "I have you to thank for that, Master."

Sakura watched in awe as Jade pulled a thrashing Hive Lord out of the ship. The dragon ripped the big Kirrix leader in half then casually tossed aside its mangled corpse, green blood raining down across the muddy ground.

The Asian girl darted a speculative glance at John. "I know you've started feeding our new Nymphs... Are you planning on having Jade lead a flight of dragons into combat?"

"Absolutely not," John replied firmly, taking them all by surprise.

Jade gave him a fond smile. "I know you wish to protect my sisters from harm, but once you've made them strong like me, I'm sure they'll be eager to fight with us if needed."

"It's worrying enough seeing you charging into combat without any gear, I don't think my heart could take the stress if all your sisters were fighting too," he said, shaking his head. "Besides, they've suffered through a lifetime of exploitation and servitude, I'd like them to live a happy pampered existence from now on. That was my plan for you too, but you seem to take great delight in saving the day."

"You do insist on getting yourself in a pickle, Master," Jade said, reaching over to caress his thigh.

Alyssa leaned back against the headboard and said, "Let's get this fight with Larn'Kelnar wrapped up nice and fast. Then I'm sure John can find lots of fun ways to keep you and your sisters occupied."

Rachel nodded, her expression playfully stern. "You're members of an endangered species, Jade. I'm afraid only an intensive breeding program will bring the Nymphs up to a healthy population..."

Jade bit her lower lip, her hand caressing her stomach. "Alyssa's right. We must hunt down your Progenitor opponent immediately!"

John laughed and nodded. "We'll try."

Sensing that it was time to move on to the next fireteam, Faye brought up the camera footage she'd collected from Dana and Rachel.

"Dana was the star of the show," Rachel said, slipping an arm around her girlfriend's waist. "I was just there as backup with my Reaper Cannon."

"Until the Hive Queen wrecked it," Dana said, playfully wagging a finger at the brunette.

Rachel wrinkled her nose and pouted. "Ugh, don't remind me. I felt completely useless for that fight!"

Irillith looked at the redhead in surprise. "I would've expected you to be more upset at seeing one of your precious weapons get destroyed."

"Nah, Reaper Cannons are old news," Dana replied, with a dismissive wave of her hand. Her sky-blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she continued, "As soon as I get a minute, I'm going to work on the next generation version!"

"You can't pique my curiosity like that and leave me in suspense!" Irillith exclaimed with an eager smile. "What have you got in mind?"

John raised his hand and said, "Hold on, we're getting a bit sidetracked. Let's just focus on the debrief for now, okay?"

The girls nodded, but Dana pointed to Irillith and silently mouthed, "Favourite twin!"

Shaking his head in amusement, John glanced at Faye and the video of Dana and Rachel in action on the hive ships began. Everyone was suitably awed by Dana's evisceration of the Kirrix forces with fragments of exploding hull plating and they watched the playback in open-mouthed astonishment.

"How on Terra did you do that?" Calara asked, watching wide-eyed. "When that armour exploded, I thought those colonists had no chance!"

"Those glowing lines on the ground were from me massively ramping up the magnetic fields in the metal deposits underground," Dana explained. "You know what it's like when you try and stick two matching magnetic poles together... I just made the metal in the hive ship's armour match the pole in the fields protecting the prisoners. The metal was repelled and basically shredded everything in the way."

"That was a very creative use of your powers," Tashana said in admiration. "I would never have thought of using them that way."

Dana smiled affectionately at John. "I didn't appreciate how well a certain somebody knows me when he gave me my psychic abilities."

"No regrets about not being the Pyrokinetic anymore?" John asked, returning her smile.

The redhead shrugged. "Nah, Tashana's got the whole sexy flame sprite thing going on. I must admit, I wouldn't have come up with that."

Rachel let out a wistful sigh. "Don't get me wrong, being able to heal is wonderful... but I do envy you girls being able to go wild with your powers."

Irillith looked at her askance. "Have you thought about reversing your ability?"

The brunette frowned, shaking her head. "What do you mean?"

"You can mend wounds and regenerate lost limbs... so perhaps there's a way you can invert that grey aura of yours to inflict wounds and maim healthy limbs instead?" the Maliri suggested with a shrug.

Rachel looked at her aghast. "That would be horrific! I couldn't do that!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Irillith quickly apologised, her face falling.

John stroked the Maliri's back and gave Rachel a supportive smile. "Don't worry, I'd never expect you to use your abilities that way."

Rachel nodded, still unsettled by Irillith's disturbing suggestion to corrupt her healing powers.

"Faye, I think it's time for my favourite Progenitor to take the spotlight," John said, eager to change the subject.

Alyssa smiled and shook her head. "Oh, I didn't do anything particularly exciting. You've seen me use all those abilities before."

Faye began the playback from Alyssa's helmet camera and they watched as the blonde summoned up a legion of telekinetic blades and unleashed them on the Kirrix forces. John had seen some intense combat in his time, but even he wasn't prepared for the sheer brutality on that battlefield. Glowing swords cut through the insectoid ranks like spiteful buzzsaws, hundreds of Kirrix hacked apart in a flurry of dismembered limbs. Alyssa squashed a trio of juggernauts with the engines she ripped off the hive ship, then she blasted her way inside the vessel and sent in her telekinetic minions to scour the interior for Kirrix forces.

"Damn..." Dana muttered, glancing at her friend in shock. "You really weren't fucking around, were you?"

The blonde shrugged, her cerulean eyes going hard. "The longer I took clearing the Kirrix troops meant more civilians being abused by the Hive Lords. I've seen how devastated their prisoners are after being raped... If me butchering my way through a thousand Kirrix spared one innocent person from that, it was well worth it."

Sakura gave her Matriarch a respectful nod. "I couldn't agree more."

"You did well, honey," John said quietly, patting Alyssa's thigh.

Tashana glanced at the holo-image and asked, "How were you able to hunt down the Kirrix inside the ship like that? I've only been able to manipulate my flame sprites within my line of sight."

"When I pulsed the hive ship, I found out where they were," Alyssa explained, a satisfied smile on her face as she watched footage of bewildered prisoners escaping from the hive ship. "The red aura I tagged them with lasts for a few minutes, or until I dismiss it."

"It's your turn now, Master!" Jade exclaimed, unable to contain her excitement.

Dana grinned, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Oh, yeah! I've been looking forward to this!"

"Okay, go ahead, Faye," John said, settling back against the headboard.

The elfin girl nodded, but she didn't turn to watch the video, her eyes were locked on him instead. She brought up two images side-by-side, one from his helmet camera, the other from the same orbital satellite that she'd used to track Jade. The footage was synchronised and as John's camera view was obscured by smoke, the overhead camera showed what looked like a meteor strike, the blast wave from the impact hurtling into the Kirrix troops. John surged out of the smoking crater and blue arcs of force ripped through the invaders, their broken bodies raining down around the plaza.

"I've seen you do that before!" Tashana exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise. "In that nightmare against the mist monsters!"

John nodded, turning to smile at his Nymph. "It was actually Jade who encouraged me to be more adventurous. She first shifted into a dragon on the astral plane, but then she was able to do it again during her assault on Tartarus."

Jade gave him a loving look. "You always had it in you, Master."

They watched him dispatch the Kirrix troops around two more hive ships, disabling the grounded vessels with lightning strikes. When he reached the last vessel, the girls watched with bated breath as John stared balefully at the ochre hull. The runes on his sword grew painfully bright and he loosed huge waves of force at the hive ship, chopping away the infestation chamber where the civilians were being held. The girls gasped in awe when he charged at the 900-metre vessel, the colossal force behind his psychically charged sword strike caving in the hull and smashing the huge Kirrix ship backwards.

"Now why didn't you do that to the Hive Queen?!" Dana asked with a wild grin.

The girls fell about laughing and John joined in, his deep baritone easily identifiable amongst their higher-pitched giggles.

Once the laughter died out, he replied, "I would've taken out half the prisoners if I tried it. Besides, there wouldn't have been much left for an autopsy."

"Speaking of which, I'll take a look at the Hive Queen and Nest Guardian this afternoon," Rachel informed them.

"Good, I'll be fascinated to hear what you discover," John said, nodding his approval. "Those Guardians were unbelievably strong. I never expected them to have psychic powers."

"Actually... I don't think they did," Alyssa said, her brow furrowed in thought.

"But they were using hex-shields and charged blades!" he exclaimed, turning to look at her in surprise.

The blonde shook her head. "When the Hive Queen powered up that massive psychic beam, the Guardians all lost their shields and we were able to gun them down with Reaper Cannons. I think the Hive Queen was throwing everything she'd got at you..."

John's eyes widened. "Which meant she was the one shielding the Guardians!"

"Yeah, that's my guess," Alyssa agreed.

Rachel looked startled by this revelation then her expression turned hopeful. "Maybe I could learn to do the same thing? I could protect the team from harm rather than wait to heal you after you get hurt."

Dana nudged her girlfriend with her elbow. "You need to figure out how to shield yourself first..."

"We can easily train you to do that," Alyssa said, looking pleased at the suggestion. "I think it's a great idea."

"What happens if I'm not able to create psychic shields?" the brunette asked, with a sudden frown. "Only John, Alyssa, Sakura, and Tashana can shield themselves so far."

Dana slid her hand over her lover's toned stomach and gave John a furtive smile. "If you can't, I know someone who might be able to help you out..."

"I'll see what I can do," he said, watching Rachel lick her lips with anticipation. Dragging his eyes away from that alluring sight, he continued, "I think we've been neglecting our psychic training. The Hive Queen was our first real psychic opponent and she caught us completely off guard."

"Would you like to skip to the footage of that fight?" Faye offered, setting up the assault on the nest with a quick blink.

John gave her a grateful smile. "Yes please." He glanced at Calara and continued, "There's not much to be said about you carving up the dreadnought, other than: nice shooting... and: I don't want to be that close to an orbital bombardment ever again!"

"You got that right!" Dana blurted out, going pale. "Big guns aren't anywhere near as fun when I'm on the receiving end!"

Calara winked at her. "It's a good job I didn't sneeze..."

Rachel shuddered at the thought. "Don't even joke about that."

The Latina was about to reply, when Faye activated the holo-video again. Calara took one look at Alyssa striding into the nest and quickly averted her eyes. "I can't watch this... not again."

"Come here, baby," Alyssa urged her, beckoning her lover over.

Calara studiously avoided looking at the images taken from Rachel's helmet camera and rushed into the blonde's arms. John rubbed Calara's back to comfort her, while watching Alyssa blaze away with her runically-enhanced fist beams.