Three Square Meals Ch. 143

The front of the Raptor was buried in a pile of dirt and broken road, so they turned right to follow the rest of the girls into the rear cargo area. It had only been a few minutes since John was last there, but the floor and walls had been devastated by gunfire from the thrall troops, with dozens of scorched holes melted through the deckplates.

"I'm not seeing much on infra-red," Dana said, peering out into the gloom beyond. "There's movement, but it's not clear at all. Maybe they're using upgraded armour that masks their heat signatures?"

"It's not like Progenitors to innovate," John said dubiously.

"I'll check out a thrall suit after the battle to make sure," she said, looking excited by the prospect.

"Fan out, ladies and we'll cover all the angles of attack," John ordered his team. "I'll stay here with Dana. I want the twins on either flank, and Alyssa can watch the pyramid reactor for reinforcements. The troops attacking along our flight path are already on high alert, but we might get attacked from any direction."

The girls acknowledged his orders with a nod, then spread out to set up a defensive perimeter.

*I'll watch Tashana. Let me know if Irillith goes on a rampage,* he requested, as Alyssa shouldered her rifle and floated up into the air, her body shrouded in a soft white glow. *Hey, where are you off to?*

*I'm just getting us a bit more firepower,* Alyssa explained, landing on the Raptor's hull.

"Here they come!" Dana warned, dropping to her knee and aiming out into the night. "Switch to mag-view, you can't miss 'em!"

John activated the enhanced view with his optical HUD and saw hundreds of armoured figures shining brightly against the darkness. He raised his rifle and aimed the crosshairs at centre-mass, steadying his breathing to take the long shot. The targeting reticle measured the distance to target and activated auto-zoom, making the thrall appear larger as she approached. John's crosshairs swept over her breastplate, the form-fitting thrall armour making the woman's gender abundantly clear.

His finger touched the trigger and John knew that the gentlest squeeze would bring a brutal death to that thrall.

He heard the bark of Dana's underslung railgun, the heavy slug rocketing out across the deserted city. There was a faint thrumming sound far off in the distance as the round was harmlessly deflected by a thrall's personal shield.

"Shit..." she muttered under her breath, sounding embarrassed. A second later, she broadcast a message to the team, her image appearing on his HUD. "Don't forget they're shielded guys!"

To John's left and right, blue tachyon bolts set the night ablaze as the Maliri twins opened up on the incoming thralls.

Tashana's twin pistols strafed fire in two directions, hammering multiple squads and savaging their shields. "Don't worry, we didn't forget," the Maliri said with a reassuring smile. Her face broke into a teasing grin as she added, "I can't imagine anyone letting something so important slip her mind."

Irillith's face appeared alongside her sister, violet eyes sparkling with amusement. "That was the main reason you built us a double-barrelled Tachyon rifle wasn't it? How could we possibly forget after you showed such diligence to our mission?"

"Yeah, yeah... you two are hilarious," Dana snorted, her cheeks reddening at their teasing.

There was a pulsing flash of light that illuminated her beautiful face, quickly followed by another angry bark from the railgun. Dana's embarrassment shifted to professional pride and she nodded in satisfaction.

"Incoming thralls from the pyramid," Alyssa informed them.

"Do you need help?" Tashana asked, glancing behind her.

"Nah, I've got this," the blonde nonchalantly replied.

The high-pitched scream of a Tachyon Cannon tore through the night's sky, followed a moment later by a second in close proximity. Their multiple barrels spat an unending stream of tachyon bolts towards the approaching thralls, hammering shields and blasting glowing holes through armour.

"Hey!" Dana protested, turning to look up at the floating support weapons. "You swiped the Raptor's guns!"

"Yep," Alyssa agreed. "It's not like we can use them on the gunship at the moment."

The two Tachyon cannons were still connected to the Raptor by snaking power-couplings, but the long-barrelled weapons were floating clear of their weapon turrets now. They moved as if possessed of their own malevolent will, making rapid shifts to track new targets and cut them down.

*The twins seem fine,* Alyssa said, before a lengthy pause. *But you don't. What's wrong, John?*

His crosshairs was still lingering over the thrall's chest as she jogged towards the Raptor. The woman was three-hundred-metres away, but was quickly closing the distance on their position along with the rest of her squad.

*I can't do it...* he said, his finger stubbornly refusing to clamp down on the trigger. *She's his victim... they all are.*

*You can't think that way, handsome,* Alyssa said, her voice gentle and sympathetic. *That woman's a stone-cold killer. She wouldn't hesitate for a second to gun down Sparks, or Helene, or any one of us.*

*But if we can take out the Progenitor, we could save them... save all of them,* John said, flinching as the twins opened up with their railguns, blasting gaping holes through exposed thralls.

*That's true... but until we nail that bastard, all his thralls are our deadly enemies. It's kill or be killed with every thrall we encounter, which is why it's so important we assassinate each Progenitor before they can drag us into a bloody war of attrition with their armies. I'm sorry, John, that's just the way it has to be.*

John stared at the thrall in his crosshairs, wondering what had led her up to this point. Was she a young woman like Kali Loraleth? An innocent that hadn't chosen this fight, but was lured into it by a Progenitor's irresistible allure?

*Picturing Kali's face on her isn't helping,* Alyssa said with a wry smile.

*I know what you're saying is true... it just feels fundamentally wrong,* John said sadly.

"What the fuck?!"

John glanced to his side at Dana, who was staring in open-mouthed astonishment into the distance.

"What is it, Sparks?" he asked the stunned redhead.

"I cut that thrall in half and she's still coming after me!" Dana explained, pointing to their rear. "See for yourself... 250 metres in that direction."

He aimed his Tachyon rifle at her target and was just as shocked to see the thrall dragging her disembowelled torso towards their position. A dozen metres behind her, two severed legs twitched erratically, a trail of brightly glowing blood the only thing connecting them to what was left of the thrall.

John frowned in confusion, then zoomed in closer to maximum magnification. The glowing blood turned out to be a trail of small objects, but he couldn't understand why internal organs would be highlighted on mag-view... unless they were made of metal.

"It's a robot!" he exclaimed, sagging with relief. "That's why they weren't affected by the Mists!"

Swinging his rifle around, he took careful aim at the thrall who had put him in such a moral quandary. He had no hesitation about squeezing the trigger this time, firing a stream of azure energy bolts towards the jogging automaton. The shields flared brightly as they absorbed the first dozen bolts, but the pulsed beams from the Tachyon rifle were relentless and soon the personal field collapsed. John switched to the railgun and after readjusting his aim, fired a 10mm slug at the thrall's arm.

The slug hit the black suit of armour in the bicep, completely severing the limb with the overwhelming force of the impact. Knocked sprawling backwards, the thrall staggered to her feet, with chunks of metal cascading down from what should've been a bloody wound.

"A robot? Really?!" Dana asked, looking at him with a euphoric mixture of hope and joy. "That must mean Mael'nerak left an AI running this place! That's why the city was so squeaky clean! John... if we can study it, we could bring back Faye!"

He laughed too, sharing her happiness. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, honey. We still have to shut down whatever's generating the Mists, then dismantle or deactivate all these robot troops. We'll also have to disable the defence grid around Kythshara so the girls can join us with the Invictus."

"All just a mere technicality," she said with an optimistic grin.

They turned their attention back to the army of robots and John had no compunction about destroying them. "I'll strip the shields, you finish them off," he suggested to Dana. "That'll save us having to switch gun barrels for each one."

"Good idea," she said, aiming at the black-clad figure that John was strafing with blue energy bolts.

Working as a pair was much faster, with John quickly overloading their shields and leaving the synthetic troops vulnerable to a slug from Dana's railgun.

"Where do you think they got all this armour?" she asked, after finishing off a flailing robot. "Did Mael'nerak have it made for a robot army, or did the AI loot a barracks for spare suits?"

"He probably had it specifically made for them," John said after giving her question some thought. He jerked a thumb towards the lightning-shrouded pyramid behind them. "You don't build something like that on a whim. Mael'nerak must have carefully planned out these defensive measures, then spent months, if not years, building them."

"And left a super-smart AI in place to oversee it all?" Dana said with a grin.

"Anything's possible," he agreed, before glancing her way and making eye-contact. "I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but I don't want you to get your hopes up and be disappointed. Nexus went completely haywire after being left alone for thousands of years. If there is an AI here, who knows what kind of state it's in."

"Nexus only turned homicidal because T-Fed scientists took him apart, then fucked up putting him back together again. Any AI on Kythshara has been completely undisturbed since Mael'nerak left."

"Alright, fair point," he admitted, strafing energy bolts over an approaching squad. Activating the Paragon suit's comms interface, he continued, "How are the rest of you doing? Having any trouble?"

"Nothing's attacked from the flanks yet," Irillith replied. "We've been assisting you and Dana because Alyssa clearly doesn't need our help."

*How's it looking back there, beautiful?* John asked the blonde.

*No problems so far, but we're fighting over open ground with a massive range and firepower advantage,* the blonde readily admitted. *Rachel just woke up by the way. She seems fine, just very tired.*

*Thanks for letting me know. I'll go in and see her when we've finished off these robots.*

The steady waves of robotic soldiers started to ease as they crashed against the impenetrable line of defenders surrounding the Raptor. Soon there were high piles of mangled corpses strewn over the battlefield, with fragments of shattered armour carpeting the ground.

"The twins have volunteered to be on sentry duty while we check on Rachel," Alyssa said, stepping off the Raptor's broken fuselage and floating down to land beside John. "Are you joining us, Sparks?"

"Yeah of course!" she exclaimed, ejecting a spent magazine and slotting in a new one.

Dana led the way into the battered gunship's interior, rushing ahead of Alyssa and John in her eagerness to check on Rachel. When they caught up with the anxious redhead in the Raptor's cockpit, they found her showering the groggy doctor with kisses.

"Hey, I'm glad to see you too," Rachel said, laughing as she fended off the onslaught of affection.

"How're you feeling?" John asked, crouching down beside the brunette.

"I'm fine," she replied, giving him a strained smile. "If Sparks stops kissing me for a moment, I might actually be able to stand up."

"I was worried about you," Dana said with a pout, but she leaned back to give her girlfriend some room.

John could see how tired Rachel was, so he helped the doctor to her feet, then guided her into one of the passenger seats. "You're exhausted, honey. Just rest here a moment."

She was about to object, but realised it was pointless to deny the obvious. "Maintaining a hex shield that size was considerably harder than I expected," she admitted, before glancing ruefully through the window at the tilted view of the cockpit embedded in the shattered street. "Helene told me about the crash. I'm sorry I couldn't protect us longer."

"You did an incredible job keeping us safe for as long as you did," John said, gently cupping her cheek. "If it wasn't for you, we never would've made it to Kythshara."

She leaned into his hand, then looked up at him with worry in her grey eyes. "What's our plan now? We're running out of time and we still need to neutralise the Mists."

"Alyssa managed to land us near a massive power generator that we think is being used to maintain Kythshara's defences. We'll head out and shut it down."

Rachel nodded and took a deep breath before exhaling. "Alright, I'm ready."

"You're in no shape for combat," John said, firmly shaking his head. "Besides, I have a more important job for you. I want you to find out what happened to Jade."

The brunette's protest at having to stay behind died on her lips, her troubled grey eyes flicking to the paralysed Nymph. "It must be something awful. That expression on her face... she was terrified."

"I know," John said, his brow furrowing with concern for his devoted shape-shifting matriarch. "I don't want to leave her side until we figure out what's wrong... but the clock's ticking."

"I'll do my best to diagnose her condition," Rachel said, giving him a reassuring smile. "After all, I'm probably the galaxy's leading expert on Nymph physiology at this point."

"My thoughts exactly. If anyone can help her, it's you."

Falling back into her professional composure, Rachel tapped her chin thoughtfully. "We're actually in the best place to find out more about the Nymphs. If we can locate Mael'nerak's lab, he might have left notes on how and why he created them."

"After we shut down the Mists, finding that lab is my number one priority," John agreed, leaning down to give her a farewell kiss. "Make sure you get some rest and recover, don't push yourself too hard."

"A preliminary scan of her body won't take much energy. I'll try to see if there's anything obvious that could be wrong."

"Thank you," John said gratefully.

He straightened up and turning his attention to the stricken Nymph, before walking over to stand at her side. Jade's features were still locked in a silent terrified scream, her emerald eyes like saucers as they stared in horror at some unspeakable sight that only she could see.

"Help's coming, Jade," he whispered, leaning down to gently kiss her forehead.

When he rose again, John saw Alyssa watching him with a look of consternation on her face as she overheard what he was thinking.

"Someone needs to stay behind and protect her," he said, looking at the blonde with sympathy. "I know how much you want to come with me, but I can't think of any alternatives. Can you?"

He could see the conflict in her eyes as her shoulders slumped in resignation. "You need Dana and the twins for their specialist skills... and I'm the best choice to defend the Raptor."

John nodded in agreement as she voiced his thoughts.

"Showing off with the turrets really bit me in the ass, didn't it?" Alyssa muttered, before giving him a wan smile. "I don't like it, but we haven't got any other options. I think Helene should stay here with me; she's got enough range to shield the girls while they're in the pyramid and I'm sure you don't want her getting involved in any gunfights."

"Not if we can avoid it," he said, glancing at the gentle mermaid. Her eyes were glowing with a soft teal light as she concentrated on shielding her friends from the relentless psychic assault on their subconscious. "Helene's the only thing protecting the girls from the Mists and I don't want to risk exposing her to any danger."

"Don't worry, I'll keep them all safe," Alyssa said, leaning in for a lingering kiss. "Please don't make me regret letting you go in there without me, John."

"We'll be very careful, I promise," he said, returning her kiss before turning to his Chief Engineer. "Ready to go, Sparks?"

The redhead grabbed her helmet and rifle. "Ready!"

They waved goodbye to Alyssa, Rachel, and Helene, then left the cockpit together to rejoin the twins.

"Any sign of movement out here?" John asked the Maliri sisters.

Tashana shook her head. "Not for the past few minutes."

"Well that's not entirely true..." Irillith replied, gesturing towards the shattered robotic bodies that lay strewn across the street.

John followed where she was pointing and saw that many of the synthetic thralls were making unsettling twitches as they tried to crawl towards the Raptor.

"We're heading over there anyway. Let's finish them off," John said, raising his rifle as he set off towards the pyramid.

"Hold on a sec!" Dana called after him as she jogged to his side. "Can you try to leave one in decent shape? I wouldn't mind checking them out."

"Sure," John agreed, shouldering his rifle and drawing his sword. "What about that one over there?"

He pointed with the tip of his blade towards a flailing robot that had been cut down by the Raptor's Tachyon Cannons. Alyssa had strafed energy bolts across it horizontally, severing its body just above the waist and melting through both arms below the elbow. The damage left it incapacitated, but the torso was still intact.

"Yeah that looks perfect," she said eagerly. "Can you pry open the armour please?"

John nodded as he walked over to the mangled automaton and flipped it over with his boot. It twitched and tried to take a swipe at him with what was left of its arm, until two heavy chops from his runeblade cleaved the mangled limbs away at the shoulders. Wedging the tip of his blade into the join along the side of the breastplate, John carefully sawed through the latching mechanism then levered the armour open.

Squatting down beside the exposed innards of the synthetic thrall, Dana studied it in fascination. "Wow... this is state-of-the-art," she murmured, her eyes glowing as she stared into the sophisticated machinery.

"More advanced than Faye's chassis?" John asked, watching her indulge her curiosity.

The redhead nodded. "Whoever built these bots really knew their shit."

He joined the twins in neatly dispatching crippled robotic thralls for a couple of minutes, then patted Dana on the shoulder. "We better get moving, Sparks."

"Yeah..." she murmured, rising to her feet. "I'll have to come back and take a proper look later."

Falling into formation together, they walked along the street towards the huge pyramid, their senses heightened for danger. Now that they were on the ground and the power generator loomed above them like a storm-shrouded mountain, John was able to truly appreciate just how vast it was. He could hear the sizzling crackle as lightning arced up the pylons towards the summit, followed shortly afterwards by a deafening peal of thunder, the deep booms reverberating around the city.

"Those aren't random power spikes," Dana said, her attention drawn to the same fearsome monolith. "They go off every minute as regular as clockwork."

"Any idea how it works?" John asked, darting a glance at his gifted engineer.

She hesitated, then ruefully shook her head. "A Quantum Annihilator gathers a massive amount of energy before unleashing it in one planet-busting blast. All the electrical surges we saw on the moon were overflow from that crazy power spike. This is something totally different; it's outputting a ton of energy but it must be closely regulated to keep it at a steady level... and has been for thousands of years."