Three Square Meals Ch. 127

A dozen hits were enough to knock out the protective field, then tachyon beams started slashing into the harried dreadnought's engines. The chitinous plating covering the rear of the Kirrix vessel was no match for the streak of bright blue energy pulses, Calara's uncannily accurate shots gouging glowing furrows across the armour before punching through. Brilliant orange eruptions marked the death of each propulsion system as fuel manifolds were blown to pieces by the superheated energy blasts.

By the time the Invictus was close enough for the dreadnought's neutron beam batteries to fire back, Calara had already destroyed all six engines, leaving it dead in space. The brunette's sharp eyes flicked back and forth, memorising the location of every weapon port long before Dana was able to complete an active scan. Switching her weapon controls to the Tachyon Cannons, Calara opened up on the ugly insectoid behemoth, sending a cascade of azure energy bolts into the stationary ship.

John glanced at the Invictus' shield status as they were struck by dozens of neutron beams. The Brimorian Shield Generator robbed the sickly green energy attacks of much of their strength, greatly increasing the longevity of his ship's defences. Despite being hit by enough beam weapons to destroy a Terran Federation battleship, the Invictus still held at 72% shield integrity. He noticed the forest of neutron beams was being rapidly felled, the hits coming at slower intervals until they petered out entirely.

"You declawed them!" Marika exclaimed, looking at Calara with admiration.

The brunette nodded, picking off the remaining neutron beam batteries on the flanks and rear as the Invictus soared overhead. "The Tachyon Cannons were the perfect weapon for it. Those tachyon bolts were strong enough to penetrate the armour protecting the gun turrets without coring straight through the ship."

"Nice shooting," John said appreciatively, patting her on the shoulder. He glanced around the Bridge and continued, "Alright ladies, let's load up and move out. Dana, Rachel, and Alyssa in fire team one, the twins in fire team two, and Sakura's with me."

Calara looked up at him with a pensive frown. "John...can I join the twins?"

He looked at her in surprise. "I thought you hated squad combat?"

"I'd rather be fighting alongside the twins than twiddling my thumbs on the Invictus. The Kirrix fleet are no longer a threat; I've neutralised every hostile ship within a light year from here."

Jade half-rose from her seat as she protested, "Hey, I want to come with you too, Master!"

He shook his head. "We'll be fighting in ship corridors and your dragon form will be a tight fit. I know you really want to help, but I think you should sit this one out, Jade. Besides, we can't all go, someone has to guard the Invictus."

The Nymph slumped back in her chair and looked forlorn. "Okay... I'll stay."

He walked over to her, then leaned down for a kiss. "Thanks, honey. Keep Helene and your sisters safe for me."

"I will, Master," she said earnestly, giving him a reassuring smile.

The girls jogged up the ramp to the Armoury, equipping themselves with Tachyon rifles and collecting several spare magazines. John waited for Sakura to sheath her ninjato, then they dropped down in the express grav-tube to the Secondary Hangar.

*Jade, can you circle the dreadnought at close range?* he requested, as he walked towards the huge hangar doors. *We'll jump off and board from different directions.*

*Sure. Is 50 metres close enough?* the Nymph pilot asked eagerly.

He couldn't help smiling at her enthusiasm. *There's no need to scrape the paintwork. Just get us within a couple of hundred metres.*

*Will do!*

Alyssa gestured towards the door controls and the hangar doors began their ponderous climb towards the ceiling. They all assembled in their separate fire teams, weapons at the ready, the atmosphere electric with the nervous anticipation before combat.

"Your two teams will be at opposite ends of the dreadnought, but I'll be in the middle with Sakura," John said to the girls. "If any of you get in trouble, call for help immediately; we'll get there as fast as we can."

They each nodded their agreement, then focused on the enormous Kirrix warship before them. Jade was racing around the circumference of the dreadnought, the Invictus still only a hundred metres from the surface of the ugly ochre ship. She swooped below the delicate vanes that assisted the Hive Queen in maintaining telepathic communication with her minions, then arced around the segmented hull of the Kirrix command ship.

Irillith's eyes were glowing with a brilliant violet light, visible even through her helmet. "I've made contact with the dreadnought. I'll open the closest outer airlock doors for you."

"Thanks, honey," he said gratefully.

Alyssa glanced at John, making eye contact with him. *I love you. Be careful.*

*You too, beautiful,* he said, trying to sound as calm and not-reckless as possible.

She laughed and rolled her eyes, before glancing at her two companions. "Come on. Let's show them how it's done."

Dana whooped as she leapt clear of the Invictus, quickly followed by Rachel and Alyssa. John watched as they soared towards the dreadnought, until the three armoured figures quickly disappeared out of view.

"We'll go next," he said to Calara and the twins. *Jade, tell me when we're half way to the other side.*

*Six seconds,* she replied, as acres of sloped chitin plating swept by below them.

John counted down the seconds, then patted Sakura on the shoulder. "Go!"

She leapt clear, performing a graceful swan dive as she glided towards the marooned vessel. Leaping out of the hangar after her, John activated his Paragon Suit's flight mode, allowing him to control his approach towards the alien ship. As they drew closer, he saw an aperture in the hull peel open, light from inside the vessel making the airlock entrance shine like a beacon amidst the murky brown chitin plating. Sakura dove through the portal, arresting her fall with the judicious use of thrusters to bring her to a halt inside the airlock.

John landed on the deck beside her, raising his rifle in case the Kirrix had been alerted to their presence. *Alright, we're in,* he said to his blonde matriarch.

The outer door clenched close, making the confines of the airlock suddenly feel claustrophobic. As soon as the hull was sealed and atmospheric pressure stabilised, the inner aperture split open, admitting them into the forbidding interior of the Kirrix flagship.

***

"Into the belly of the beast," Rachel murmured ominously, as she followed Dana out of the airlock and into the corridor beyond.

Alyssa stumbled a step and placed her hand against the wall to steady herself. "Centuries of terror... a crescendo of pain..." she groaned, trying to block out the anguished echoes that assailed her from all sides. "So many died here... they were slowly ripped apart in absolute agony!"

"Oh great..." Dana muttered, shivering involuntarily. "Would someone remind me why I got stuck teaming up with you two? If I'd gone with the twins, at least they'd just be quoting one-liners from action movies!"

Rachel rolled her eyes at the redhead, then put her arm around Alyssa. "Are you alright? Do you want to return to the Invictus?"

Closing her eyes, Alyssa let out a shuddering breath. "The Kirrix slaughtered countless thousands aboard this ship. Their deaths were so painful, the dreadnought is saturated with psychic imprints... I wasn't prepared for how bad it would be. Just give me a moment."

Dana and Rachel shared a glance, then split up to cover the two approaches to the airlock.

Alyssa enclosed herself in a sphere of hexagons, instantly shutting off the final terrifying moments of the long-dead hosts. Sighing with relief, she gathered her will, channelling it into a swirling vortex of power that whipped around her gauntleted fists. Crouching down on the chitin decking she thumped the floor, sending a rippling pulse of eldritch energy through the ship. It was like a psychic sonar, flagging the tens-of-thousands of Kirrix crew in a blood-red aura.

Rachel watched the waves of energy rolling down the corridor and frowned as a sudden thought came to her. "Didn't you say that the Kirrix don't believe they're doing anything wrong? If so, why are you sending out a pulse to determine their guilt? Surely, they'd all see themselves as innocent of any crimes."

The blonde slowly rose to her feet. "You're right... but I know what they've done. This wasn't to determine if they're guilty... just to tell me where they are."

She raised her hands and a phalanx of translucent psychic blades materialised in the corridor around them. With a curt gesture from Alyssa, the disembodied weapons surged down the passage to their left.

Unshouldering her rifle, Alyssa took aim along the wall to their right, then pulled the trigger. A flurry of tachyon bolts blasted through the ochre chitin like it was made of tissue paper, the energy particles ripping through the ship until they cut down a squad of Kirrix drones.

"Let's go stir up some shit," she muttered, a grim look of anticipation on her face.

Dana brightened and fell into step beside her friend. "I take it back. This is the best team!"

***

"Alyssa says the Trankarans are all being held in the centre of the ship!" Calara called out over the staccato squeal of tachyon fire.

"Good, we won't have to worry about collateral damage," Irillith said with satisfaction, hammering a reeling juggernaut with a stream of blue beams.

Her shots melted its front-left femur, shearing straight through the black carapace and vaporising the meaty sinews inside. The hulking Kirrix monster screeched in agony, its scythe-like arms thrashing in a frenzy as it crashed to the floor. The Maliri snapped off another quick burst, neatly decapitating the convulsing beast.

"Come sister, we must purge the darkness to save the pure of soul," Tashana intoned, striking a heroic pose as she mowed down a squad of Kirrix marines in a blistering hail of energy bolts from her twin pistols.

Irillith laughed and flashed a broad smile at her twin. "War Monastery II?"

"Battle-sister Emmanuelle was the best," Tashana confirmed with a wistful sigh. "I hated it when she died in the sequel."

Another juggernaut barrelled into the corridor ahead, mandibles clicking furiously as it charged towards them. Irillith dropped to one knee and lined up the targeting reticle on its thorax before squeezing the trigger. She rotated the barrel in a tight circle as she opened fire, neatly blasting a metre-wide hole through the chest of the Kirrix siege beast. The juggernaut's enraged battle screech turned into a dry wheeze as it skidded across the deck, already dead before it hit the floor.

With that threat disposed of, Irillith turned to frown at Calara. "Why do Terrans like stories that kill off the heroes?"

"Err... I don't know," the Latina replied, caught off-guard by the question. "I guess because it makes a story more dramatic if the hero dies a poignant death?"

Irillith snorted indignantly. "If I watch a holo-movie and the hero dies at the end, I feel like I've just wasted two hours of my life I'll never get back."

Calara shrugged and gave her an optimistic smile. "Look on the bright side; now you're with John, that's not something you have to worry about any more."

"Watching bad movies is one way to spend immortality," Tashana said to her sister with a big grin.

"Envy not my immortality; I long for an end to this lonely life of torment," Calara recited solemnly, as she aimed at a trio of Kirrix drones and cut them in half with a short burst of tachyon fire.

"What was that from?" Irillith asked, darting a curious glance in her direction.

Calara looked embarrassed as she replied, "The Blood Rose."

"Wait... you like vampire romance movies?!" Irillith asked, looking at her in disbelief.

The Latina blushed furiously. "No! I just remembered that quote... John's given me a really good memory."

"Ah, I see..." the Maliri said, her violet eyes sparkling with amusement.

Tashana poured more blue tachyon fire into the lethal storm cutting the Kirrix defenders to pieces. "God kills indiscriminately... and so shall we."

Calara looked at Tashana in surprise, then smiled when the Maliri winked at her.

Irillith groaned. "Not you too..."

***

Sakura padded silently along the corridor, her twin ninjato held in a relaxed grip. "How much further?"

John did his best to mimic her stealthy progress, but it was hard to match her pace while trying to creep along without making a sound. "Another fifty metres, then we start heading down," he whispered back. "We need to look out for a stairwell so we can reach the lower levels."

"Do you want me to scout ahead?" she asked in a hushed voice.

He shook his head. "We're trying not to fight our way in, remember?"

She tried not to laugh, the corners of her eyes crinkling with the effort. "We need to come up with a new naming convention for basic reconnaissance."

"It's not the name that's the problem," he murmured, sharing a smile with her. "Just stick with me. If we do run into a Kirrix patrol, we can take them out in half the time if we're together."

Sakura nodded her understanding, then darted a glance both ways across an intersection before creeping over to the corridor opposite. After making sure it was still clear, he followed after her.

*How's the battle with the defenders going?* he asked his blonde matriarch.

*The Kirrix are throwing pretty much everything they've got at us, so you should have a clear run to the nest,* Alyssa informed him.

*Are both teams alright?* he asked, unable to hide his concern.

*I've got telekinetic weapons covering our backs, so the Kirrix are being forced to charge our guns,* she replied, her voice ringing with satisfaction. *It's not working out too well for them.*

*Let me know the moment that changes.*

*Don't worry, I will,* she told him soothingly.

John caught up with Sakura at the stairwell, then mimed putting a finger to his lips. She didn't reply and stood stock still, waiting for whatever reason he needed her silence. Cocking his head to one side, John closed his eyes and focused on listening to the sounds aboard the gargantuan vessel. Concentrating on just that one sense made all the difference and he became aware of the rustling footfalls made by thousands of chitinous feet. Amidst that susurrating sound, he heard the eerie chirruping of Kirrix grubs, the same unsettling noise he'd heard on a hive ship nearly 6 months ago but on a dramatically larger scale.

"What do you hear?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Kirrix grubs... a lot of them."

She peered over the stairwell at the lower levels, then pulled back. "Which direction?"

"Everywhere..."

***

"We've got a lot of incoming!" Alyssa warned, firing burst after burst across the room.

The Kirrix corpses were stacked ten-deep in places, piles of glowing chitin limbs twitching even after they'd been severed from shattered thoraxes. Squads of drones were trying to clamber over the macabre barricade, only to be shot in the face as soon as they emerged above the teetering stack of dismembered bodies.

"Overheating... give me a few seconds to cool down," Rachel called out, raising the steaming barrel of her Tachyon rifle.

Behind them, the ugly sound of sharp blades hacking through chitin carapaces continued unabated. Alyssa's telekinetic weapons were attempting to strongly discourage the encircling forces from their efforts to hit the invaders from the rear.

"Shit! I'm running hot too!" Dana yelped, releasing her grip under the overheated barrel and shaking her hand.

A juggernaut chose that moment to smash its way through the piles of bodies, sending its fallen brethren cartwheeling across the room. Alyssa swept her crosshairs across its broad skull, then fired the underslung launcher. The 10mm runic penetrator hit right between its black compound eyes, driving deep into the skull. An instant later the psychically enhanced ordnance exploded, splattering sticky green chunks of Juggernaut cranium over its insectoid crewmates. The behemoth added its vast bulk to the pile of drone corpses it had tried to smash aside, replacing and greatly adding to the cluster of bodies inhibiting the Kirrix.

"C'mon, c'mon..." Dana urged the flux heat-exchangers, watching as they bled off the heat built up in the battle.

Rachel's rifle recovered first, so she started laying down a field of suppressing fire, making the Kirrix's assault an even deadlier proposition.

*I'm hearing a lot of grubs,* John muttered, sounding unsettled. *Have you seen how many there are?*

Alyssa's expression turned bleak. *Yes.*

*How many?* he asked quietly.

*Too many to count. The Kirrix invaded Dun Hergrun weeks ago and captured the entire population; a hell of a lot of Trankarans have died, John.*

He didn't reply, but Alyssa could sense his mounting fury over their bond.

***

"Overheat!" Irillith called out, ducking back behind a curved bulkhead as she let her rifle cool.

Tashana lined up the two red crosshairs from her pistols on a pair of drones, then executed them both with precise headshots. "Full auto is total overkill here," she admonished her sister.

"Yeah, but it's so much fun," Irillith said with a smirk.

Calara squinted at the piles of Kirrix dead, looking for any sign of new troops climbing over the corpses. Unfortunately, with all the twitching severed limbs, the whole grotesque heap looked as though it was still alive. There was a loud crash to her right and the wall buckled outwards, rents tearing through the chitinous ochre surface. She spotted the telltale black carapace of a Kirrix monstrosity through those cracks, the hulking form backing up to charge again.

"Juggernaut!" she called out in alarm, leaping away from the buckling structure.

Rather than backing away, Tashana darted forward, shoving both pistol through the yawning cracks in the wall. Flame sprites leapt from her hands into each long-barrelled pistol, infusing the bullets in the magazine with a pyrokinetic payload. She squeezed both triggers, striking the Juggernaut mid-thorax with both rounds, which exploded an instant later. The runic penetrators eviscerated the juggernaut, while her sprites immolated the surrounding room.

The wall buckled with the detonation, chunks of shattered resin crashing to the floor as the structural integrity was overwhelmed. As it blasted outwards, Tashana was temporarily obscured from sight, clouds of smoke and dust choking the corridor. The murky shroud dissipated a few seconds later, revealing the Maliri knocked to her knees.

"Shan! Are you alright?" Irillith gasped, rushing to Tashana's side.

The Maliri nodded, her expression grim. "My shields took the worst of it."

Calara picked herself up off the floor and saw the look of revulsion on Tashana's face. "What is it?"

"Grubs... thousands of them," the gunslinger murmured, her angular violet eyes still looking straight ahead.

Whirling around, Calara looked through the sundered wall into the huge room beyond. The broken corpse of a juggernaut had been smashed backwards by the twin explosions, its shattered body surrounded by dozens of mangled Kirrix drones. Further back, she spotted the bulbous mass of a Broodmother, the segmented creature writhing on the floor with half of its upper-limbs scorched from its body.

Her eyes widened as she took in the rest of the destruction, finally spotting the indented shelves along the walls that had caught Tashana's attention. Kirrix grubs thrashed in their nests, the newly hatched insectoid offspring shrieking in agony as they burned.