Three Square Meals Ch. 122

Alyssa reached out to gently squeeze his hand. "You weren't too shabby yourself," she said with an encouraging smile.

John looked down at her hand, then slowly pulled his away. "I made some serious mistakes. If I hadn't agreed with my guide's ridiculous plan to try to outlast Larn'kelnar, then Sakura, Dana, and Rachel would never have been injured. I was also woefully ineffective at getting through his shield; all I really did was distract him a bit and block all those beams. Even when I chased him down, I made a mistake not killing him outright... his matriarch died unnecessarily because I didn't just execute him."

Calara looked at him with concern. "John... you're being way too harsh on yourself."

"No, I haven't been harsh enough... that's the problem. I should have been training constantly over the last six months to get ready for this fight. If Alyssa hadn't done such an incredible job of training Rachel how to create hex shields, I would have lost you all. Sakura came closer to killing Larn'kelnar than I did... and I only finished him off at the end because we'd drained all his energy."

Sakura frowned and said quietly, "I only had that opportunity because you and Alyssa worked together to knock his shields down."

"My guide did that," John said with a grimace. "I was practically useless for most of the battle... but that ends now. I locked my guide away after he turned on me, but I'll never reach my full potential while I'm dragging his dead weight around in my mind. I'm going to end it between us once and for all, then the next time we fight one of those bastards, I will be prepared."

Calara looked at Alyssa and her eyes suddenly widened as she saw the profound sadness in her lover's gaze. "It's not over! We're not retiring!"

"No..." the blonde replied, her expression bleak. "Not anytime soon..."

John rose from his chair and began to pace. "When I met my father, he showed me a map of our galaxy. It showed the location of the other Progenitors and their empires... and there're dozens of them!" He glanced at Calara and continued, "I want nothing more than to retire with all of you and start a family... but there'll be more Progenitors coming."

The room went silent, with the girls looking at him in dismay.

"I refuse to be jerked around like a goddamn puppet by another one of those assholes!" he said furiously. "Jade was right months ago... we need to be the cat, not the mouse!"

"What are you planning to do, Master?" she asked, leaning forward, her feline eyes gleaming.

He turned to look at Dana. "We've got all their technology now, so we're finally on an even footing. Once you've figured out how we can construct Progenitor devices with or without black metal, we're going to rebuild the Invictus, using all their tech against them. But I want to go further... you've already started to innovate beyond thrall technology, but soon it'll be time for you to push the boundaries on Progenitor tech."

She stared at him with eyes like saucers. "I... I can't! I'm not as good as you think I am, John! All I've been doing is reproducing Thrall and Progenitor tech that you put in my head!"

"Nope, that's not true at all," he said firmly. He turned to face Calara. "Pound for pound, what's the most destructive bit of hardware we've got?"

The Latina considered that for a moment, then her full lips curled up into a smile. "The Valkyrie."

"Exactly!" John exclaimed, turning to look at Dana again. "You customised that mech for Sakura's unique abilities and created something incredible. There is no way in hell the Valkyrie is standard-issue Progenitor hardware."

"It's not," Calara said quietly. "While we were on the Bridge of Larn'kelnar's dreadnought, we searched for the location of the Larathyran Empire and I got a full listing of his fleet assets. I memorised that entire list... Thralls and Progenitors don't use mechs."

A smile slowly spread across Dana's face. "Maybe there is some way I can improve on their technology after all."

John nodded and gave her an encouraging smile. "I know you will. We're going to take all that new tech and upgrade the hell out of the Invictus. It'll be smaller, faster, leaner, a lethal killing machine... we'll turn this ship into something they'll come to fear."

"Hell yeah!" Dana exclaimed.

He suddenly paused and looked sharply at Calara. "Wait... you know where all Larn'kelnar's thrall fleets are?!"

She nodded, her smile widening. "Yes, every single one. There are thousands of incredibly powerful ships floating aimlessly in space with dead crews, just waiting for the right person to... requisition them."

"We have got a history for that," he said with a wry smile. "So we just need to use the Wormhole Generator to repeatedly ferry Maliri crews out there, or we find a hyper-warp gate and transport a fleet full of Maliri to Larathyran territory. Once we capture all those ships, we can upgrade all our Maliri fleets with Thrall warships... and still have a massive reserve of Maliri ships!"

"That was what I was thinking," Calara agreed, her brown eyes shining with excitement.

"Larn'kelnar was looking for Rahn'hagon's gate... he was torturing him to find it." John frowned as he mulled that over. "But my father mentioned activating Mael'nerak's gate instead... so that must be around somewhere and probably nearer."

"It's at Kythshara," Jade said quietly. "Mael'nerak's throne world."

He whirled around to look at the Nymph. "Jade... do you remember where that is?!"

She frowned, her brow furrowing with concentration. "It was his seat of power... he ruled his empire from there."

John looked at Alyssa. "You've memorised the star charts... any idea where it could be?"

The blonde held out her hand for the remote, which Irillith then threw to her. Nobody said anything, but they all knew that Alyssa would have called for Faye to assist. She pressed a number of buttons on the remote, bringing up a map of the galactic empires and all the star systems they had claimed.

"We know that Mael'nerak's territory covered Maliri, Terran, Ashanath, and Trankaran Space," Alyssa said, eliminating swathes of territory owned by the Kintark, Brimorians, Drakkar, and Kirrix. "So a central point would be somewhere... there."

They all stared at the map and the section highlighted in a red circle.

"On the Terran side of the Maliri border?" John asked in confusion. "But there's nothing there; definitely no systems with a Gaia class planet."

"Wait a second..." Tashana said, holding up her hand. "We know Mael'nerak went to war with the Achonin, but that was at least 10,000 years before he started creating those species. He must have had his throne world long before he expanded to include the territory he allocated to the Ashanath and the rest."

"Okay, I'll remove those systems too," Alyssa agreed, making some corrections to her map and moving the central point.

Her highlighted area was now in Maliri territory, but still nowhere near any systems with high-quality worlds.

John frowned and looked at Jade again. "What does a hyper-warp gate actually look like?"

"It's big..." she replied, trying to visualise the hazy images in her memory. "Circular... like a disc with the hole removed for fleets to sail through."

"Genthalas!" Dana exclaimed, her eyes wide.

Jade shook her head. "No, nowhere near that massive... maybe a tenth of the size?"

"So still huge then," John said, drumming his fingers on the back of his chair. "How the hell could the Maliri miss something that big? It's been thousands of years since Mael'nerak died; unless Kythshara was destroyed in the war, I don't understand why they haven't found it."

"I don't think it was destroyed," Tashana said, lost in thought. "Do you remember the last video in the Nexus files showing Mael'nerak breaking his bond with Valada? She was still on Kythshara when he left her... that's correct isn't it, Jade?"

"Yes, that command centre was on Kythshara," the Nymph replied with a firm nod.

Alyssa slid the remote across the table to Irillith. "Can you find me those video files please? I want to take a look at Mael'nerak's empire map... the one showing all the Gaia-class planets."

The Maliri nodded and began searching through the data archives to find the relevant video footage. It didn't take her long to find the correct record from the Nexus files and she started the recording, showing events on Kythshara 900 years after the Nymphs had been set free on Lenarra. Irillith paused it immediately, as the clip began with a shot of the sweeping galactic map which adorned one of the walls of the control room.

"That one!" Alyssa exclaimed, rising from her chair and pointing to a Gaia-classification world. "There's supposed to be a planet there... but if you check the star charts, there isn't a star system in that part of Maliri Space!"

"Can you show us?" John asked Irillith, who nodded and zoomed in on Alyssa's holographic map.

The area of space was centred on dense swirls of colour, in vibrant oranges, purples, and greens. Tashana's shocked gasp mirrored her sister's, both Maliri gaping at the map in disbelief.

"What is it?" John asked, his gaze flicking between the twins. "It looks like some kind of nebula?"

"The Mists of Loralar..." Tashana murmured, shivering at the thought. "Sensors don't work in there... it's completely impenetrable."

Irillith nodded, her violet eyes showing her fear. "Years ago, mother sent in an expedition. The ship returned less than an hour later... the crew were terrified out of their minds!"

*They had to be sedated, John,* Edraele murmured sounding thoroughly disquieted. *Several never recovered and had to be euthanised.*

"It sounds like some kind of defensive measure to keep the Maliri out," John said, making eye contact with Alyssa. "That's got to be it."

"I knew there was something weird going on with that planet!" the blonde said with a groan of frustration. "I spotted it months ago!"

"You're not seriously considering going in there are you?!" Irillith balked, her angular eyes wide with fright.

John nodded, meeting her shocked gaze. "Kythshara, Mael'nerak's Soul Forge, his hyper-warp gate... they must all be hidden inside that nebula. We know whatever it is keeping people out of that system affects Maliri, so when we get back home, the two of you can stay with Edraele when we make the attempt."

The twins looked conflicted between obvious relief and regret at the thought of being left behind.

John stood at the head of the table, his eyes set with a determined edge. "Rahn'hagon thinks that Progenitors will be coming for us now... that Xar'aziuth won't rest until we're dead. But now we've got a solid lead on Kythshara, which means everything changes. We're not going to just sit around and just wait for them to come to us... we'll never see an end to the fighting if we do that. I say we go out there and we kill them all!"

***

The Terran Federation assault carrier dropped out of hyper-warp, appearing on the outer edge of the Alpha Centauri system. One of the latest T-Fed designs, the sleek vessel incorporated the formidable gun decks of a heavy cruiser, the dropship carrying capacity of a carrier, and enough engines to let it outpace any ship of its size. Retro-thrusters flared along its hull and the assault carrier pivoted, starlight illuminating the name "Zelus" in ten-metre-tall lettering along its bow.

Six engines blazed to life, the orange light shockingly bright against the darkness of space, and the assault carrier swept towards the solitary planet orbiting the star. The system was teeming with activity with vast fleets of Terran warships arrayed in formation on the approach to Olympus Shipyard, awaiting their turn in drydock. As the Zelus cruised past, it was easy for the crew to see the extensive damage sustained in the battle of Terra, with blackened plasma burns scarring the grey titanium hulls.

It wasn't just military vessels gathered at Olympus. Hundreds of freighters were forced to queue as they waited for an available docking bay, their merchant captains eager to capitalise on the massive demand for raw materials. The assault carrier drew closer and the reason for that influx of goods was soon quite apparent, with a lattice of maintenance stanchions outlining the planned expansion on the underbelly of the shipyard.

After being granted clearance to approach the shuttle bay, retro-thrusters blazed across the assault carrier's bow, easing the Zelus to a halt. If this had been a seabound vessel, the Zelus would have weighed anchor at this friendly port. Instead, armoured bay doors along its flanks peeled back into the hull, revealing rows of black-hulled gunships.

Three of the Raptors lifted off the flight deck and glided out of the carrier, their angled wings giving them the dangerous profile of a swooping bird of prey. The gunships arced gracefully over the shuttle traffic that was ferrying personnel to and from the planet below, then angled off to starboard and entered the yawning hangar. A trio of landing pads flashed green and the Raptors lined up with the glowing discs, then touched down with the skilled precision of veteran pilots.

Lieutenant Cole Price was the deck officer on duty that evening and he watched the three special forces gunships land with a flicker of apprehension. Glancing at his holo-viewer, he saw that a priority landing request had just been filed by the Zelus, but there was no purpose specified for their arrival at Olympus Shipyard. He walked towards the parked craft and the central gunship's forward-loading ramp began to lower with the soft whine of hydraulics, revealing two soldiers wearing black Phalanx armour.

With helmets tucked under their arms and assault rifles slung over their shoulders, the special forces operatives strode down the ramp towards Price. He could see the hawk insignia on the shoulderpad of the lead soldier, identifying the dark-haired man as Commander rank. Both men had the stony-faced look of combat veterans, their eyes instinctively wary for danger, even in a bastion of Terran Federation might.

"Good evening, Sir," Price said with a sharp salute. "May I request your identification and purpose at Olympus?"

"Commander MacCallum, personnel transfer," the special ops officer replied, handing over a data chip.

Price inserted it into his holo-viewer then scrolled through the Commander's details, raising an eyebrow as row after row were redacted as classified. He could only wonder why a veteran with this much experience of ultra-level clearance operations was being assigned to guard duty. He checked the authorisation for the personnel transfer, then grunted when he saw the rank of the woman who'd ordered the move.

"Everything seems to be in order," he said, handing back the data stick. "Welcome to Olympus, Commander."

MacCallum nodded to the deck officer, then tapped some buttons on his vambrace. The loading ramps at the rear of the gunships began to lower and when they touched the deck, squads of identically equipped soldiers marched out of the Raptors. There were thirty men per transport and they assembled in precise ranks as the two officers looked on.

"Move them out, Donnely," MacCallum rumbled, before turning and striding towards the exit.

His second-in-command pulled on his helmet, then issued a series of curt orders that Lieutenant Price strained to hear. The special forces squads had no problem following those orders though and they marched out of the shuttle bay behind Maccallum. Price watched them leave with a wistful sigh, wondering how he could go about qualifying to join their unit.

Commander MacCallum was waiting for Lieutenant Commander Donnely when he left the shuttle bay and the two men opened a secure tight-band broadcast between their Phalanx suits.

"You know what to do, Donnely," MacCallum said staring at his colleague's impassive black helmet.

"Yes, Sir. Initiating Phase One of the operation."

MacCallum unslung his rifle and checked the two magazines were locked in place. Satisfied that the bullpup weapon was loaded and ready, he accompanied his troops as they advanced cautiously through the Shipyard.