Three Square Meals Ch. 143

*Irillith! Tashana!* Alyssa called out to them both, an edge of desperation to her voice as it rushed through their subconscious. *Can you hear me?!*

*Yeah, we hear you!* Tashana replied, as she peered down into the darkness below. *I can't see John or Dana... we think a robot might have captured them! I'm going to-*

*We got cut off!* their matriarch interrupted. *Something blocked me from using telepathy with you for a second!*

Tashana blinked in surprise, her mind whirring. *It must've been the robot! I bet Mael'nerak built a psychic dampening device into its chassis! We need to get to John, he could be in big trouble!*

*Stop! Listen to me!* Alyssa demanded, making the Maliri archaeologist freeze. *Helene lost contact too... and she can't reconnect unless she can see you. You're exposed to the Mists and it's much worse down there!*

Irillith was barely paying attention to the conversation, the rushing noise in her ears distracting her from Alyssa's voice. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she breathed in short breaths as she fought down a rising tide of panic. She suddenly felt like something was creeping up behind her, so she spun about, wobbling unsteadily in the air as she fired off a wild burst from her Tachyon rifle. The blue laser bolts zipped across the canyon and slammed into the wall, leaving a line of glowing scorch marks in their wake.

"They're coming to kill us!" Irillith quailed, her eyes like saucers as she searched for a hidden legion of unseen enemies. "We've got to get out of here!"

Tashana gaped at her sister in horror, watching Irillith's sanity unravelling by the second.

***

John plunged down through the darkness, the huge clawed hand wrapped around his torso holding him in a vice-like grip. He still felt disorientated after being blocked from using his psychic abilities, the oppressive presence of the dampening field making it hard to think clearly. He knew that he needed to free himself and strained to pry the claws apart, but he'd been robbed of his psychic strength and was unable to break their grip. As they hurtled downwards, he used the Paragon suit's thrusters in an attempt to arrest his fall, but they couldn't support the massive weight of the huge robot above.

Closing his eyes, John took a deep breath and tried to shut out any distractions. He felt that same sense of sluggishness he'd experienced outside the bunker under Saelihn Immanthe, but the stifling feeling was much stronger this time. The flickering torch that had previously offered him salvation, was an elusive and ephemeral thing, barely visible in the distance. He tried to reach for it and shrug off the effects of the dampening field, but it was like moving in slow motion as he grasped in vain for the light.

Before he could try anything else, John struck the floor, the huge impact barely cushioned by his protective Paragon suit. He cried out in agony as it felt like someone had stamped on his chest, burning pain radiating outwards from his back and ribs. The only upside was that the force of the collision broke open the robot's grip and its arm bent awkwardly, flinging him across the floor as the rest of the hulking automaton smashed into the ground.

John landed with a crash, his crumpled body skittering across the metallic grating until he came to a groaning halt. Behind him, he could hear clanking as the robot attempted to right itself, heavy limbs thumping the floor in rapid succession. Trying to ignore the flashes of pain, he clambered to his knees and reached behind him for his runeblade. With mounting dread, he realised it had been knocked off his back in the fall and was nowhere to be seen... just like his missing Tachyon Rifle.

***

Unlike Irillith, who was succumbing to the insidious effects of the psychic mists, Alyssa's mind was razor-sharp and focused intently on the situation at hand. The heightened danger of combat burned away any indecision and she knew exactly what she needed to do. Her first priority was to protect the girls inside the Raptor and clear the crash site of any hostiles. The quicker she could make sure they were safe, the faster she could mount a rescue for John and the missing girls.

Alyssa peeked out around the shattered paving slabs, searching for the squads of robotic thrall soldiers that she expected to see rushing towards her position. To her surprise, there was no sign of any movement on the street, and she could tell from the angle of the incoming shots that many of them were being fired from an elevated position.

"Shit..." she cursed under her breath, realising that Mael'nerak had fooled them yet again.

It seemed painfully clear to her now that the initial waves of robotic troops, which they'd easily dispatched, had merely been a ruse to lure them into a false sense of security. Dana had been surprised and impressed by the robots' sophistication, so with the benefit of hindsight, their decision to mount a suicidal charge across open ground seemed utterly nonsensical. Now Alyssa was seeing what the machines were really capable of, as they executed a well-coordinated ambush that caught her in a lethal crossfire.

The robots spotted her and she was forced to hug the ground as a storm of energy bolts ripped through the broken ferrocrete. The incoming fire was accurate and relentless, keeping her pinned down without any sign of stopping. As Alyssa slithered back into a deeper section of the trench, she couldn't help worrying what the robots behind her were planning while she was preoccupied.

She clenched her fist and gathered her will, preparing to unleash a wave of psychic energy that would allow her to identify and track her enemies. Alyssa was about to unleash that pulse of light when she suddenly froze and snarled in frustration. Her ambushers weren't living creatures, so she wouldn't be able to use a telepathic sweep to locate them in this urban battlefield, where plentiful cover could conceal a huge army of robots.

It was a stark reminder of how ill-suited some of her abilities were at dealing with mechanical foes, a weakness she was sure Mael'nerak fully intended to exploit to the maximum.

***

"C'mon, let's get the hell out of here!" Irillith panted, eyes flicking wildly from side to side as she anticipated an attack from all sides.

"Rill, you've got to keep it together!" Tashana begged her sister, grabbing hold of her arm.

Irillith whipped her head around, a dishevelled curtain of white hair obscuring half her face inside her Paragon helmet. "Let go of me!" she shrieked, yanking back out of her sister's grasp.

Tashana watched in dismay as her twin cartwheeled through the air, thrown off balance when she tore herself free. "Irillith, please! I need your help!"

The Maliri hacker sobbed with fear as she clawed at the air, eventually managing to right herself. She shot an angry glare back at her sister, then her eyes softened for a fleeting moment. "If we stay here we'll die! Come with me, Shan... save yourself!"

"I can't... What about John and Dana?!" Tashana protested.

Irillith's expression shifted rapidly, displaying a procession of intense conflicting emotions. Any sign of lucidity faded as she was quickly overwhelmed by a madness borne of raw terror. She let out a strangled cry and lurched drunkenly for the bridge, then as soon as she touched down, sprinted away as if the hounds of hell were snapping at her heels.

Forced to choose between rescuing John and chasing after her terrified sister, a tear rolled down Tashana's cheek as she watched helplessly as Irillith fled. No matter how desperately she wanted to protect her twin, Tashana couldn't abandon John and Dana to the mechanical monstrosity that had brought them down.

She turned her back on Irillith and soared down into the darkness, searching for her missing companions.

***

Now that the huge robot had righted itself, John was finally able to get a good look at Mael'nerak's construct. It vaguely reminded him of a centaur, or at least the offspring of one of those fantastical equine creatures if it had mated with a gigantic heavily-armed mech. Four sturdy legs ended in a set of broad claws, while a squat torso rose up from its elongated body, sprouting multiple limbs. The right arm held a serrated blade and the left carried a strange cross-shaped object, while two segmented tentacles emerged from its back. Each of the metallic tentacles ended in a multi-clawed hand and every square inch of the robotic behemoth appeared to be covered in thick armour plating.

John clambered to his feet and winced at the waves of pain that triggered in his chest. His first instinct was to heal himself before the mechanical monstrosity could charge, but he was still within range of the dampening field and his psychic abilities were being heavily suppressed. He slowly backed away from his assailant, keeping a wary eye on the robot while darting frantic glances around as he searched for his missing weapons.

Instead of immediately rushing to charge after him, the robot seemed to pause, its multi-faceted head turning as if searching for something. John watched in surprise as it suddenly lurched off to the right, one of its undulating tentacles reaching down to scoop up something from the floor. His heart sank as he spotted his runeblade, the glinting white weapon held tightly within its grasp. The robot clasped the sword with a second prehensile limb, then both appendages flexed and tensed as it prepared to snap the blade in half.

He dreaded to think how much force that hulking monster could bring to bear, and he watched with his heart in his mouth as it tried to break the sword. There was an odd whine from the machine and the two tentacles shuddered as they strained against the metal, but no matter how hard they tried, it proved to be too tough for them to break. John sighed with relief as the mech failed in its attempts and appeared to give up, but the momentary elation proved to be short-lived. The robot pivoted and hurled the runeblade far away into the impenetrable darkness, before swinging around and stalking menacingly towards him.

***

As bright pulses of energy raced over Alyssa's head, she heard an explosion from somewhere above, and chunks of scorched white metal rained down on the street below. She recognised the smoking barrel of one of the Tachyon Cannons and realised the robotic troops were making sure she couldn't use the Raptor's turrets against them again. A second explosion a few seconds later confirmed her suspicions as they destroyed the other exposed Tachyon Cannon.

*Irillith's scared out of her mind!* Tashana called out to her matriarch, the devastation in her voice painful to hear. *She wouldn't listen to reason... she ran away!*

Alyssa could feel the waves of terror radiating from the Maliri hacker, Irillith's thoughts scattered and incoherent as she fled through the pyramid.

*I could've stopped her... but I had to let her go,* Tashana continued, sounding distraught at abandoning her sister. *I needed to protect John and Dana...*

*You did exactly the right thing,* Alyssa said, her voice warm and soothing. *Keep them both safe and don't worry about Irillith, I'm coming to rescue her.*

*Okay... I'll try to find John and Dana,* Tashana replied, sounding relieved after her matriarch's reassurances.

Despite her calm words, Alyssa's eyes blazed with anger, her patience for hiding in the dirt coming to an abrupt end. A shield of glowing hexagons materialised around her and she rose smoothly from the trench that the gunship had ripped through the street. The incoming shots from the robots immediately homed in on her, with streams of bright energy bolts hitting the hex barrier from a dozen different directions on this side of the Raptor.

Ignoring the daunting barrage of fire, Alyssa concentrated on repairing the damage to her hexagons as she levitated into the air, her hex-barrier spinning rapidly to spread the load. When she rose above the Raptor's fuselage, the other half of the ambushing force re-engaged, opening fire on her glowing shield. Despite the damage the hexagons were sustaining, they were repaired almost instantaneously, the protective globe deflecting a terrifying volume of firepower.

She tracked one of the streams of energy bolts back to its source, and spotted one of the synthetic thralls firing at her through a fourth-floor window. A telekinetic lance popped into existence beside Alyssa and streaked out towards the building, leaving a glittering trail behind it. The psychic projectile skewered the robot through the torso and pinned it to the wall behind with a satisfying thunk that could be clearly heard in the street below. She allowed herself a victorious smile, then gestured in several more directions, launching more of the psychic spears at the robotic snipers.

Despite scoring a direct hit on each of her targets, Alyssa realised she was facing at least a hundred troopers and retaliating like that would take forever to destroy them all. She briefly considered summoning a legion of telekinetic blades, then sending them into the adjacent buildings to sweep each floor clear of enemy snipers. Unfortunately, without being able to track all her opponents using a telepathic pulse, locating all the robot troops would be a laborious and time-consuming process. That was time she couldn't afford to waste, not while John and the girls were in mortal danger.

*Calara, I need power!* she informed her girlfriend.

*Of course, take whatever you need,* the Latina immediately replied.

*No, not from you or Sakura. I know how much I can safely take from you two and I want to keep you in reserve in case I need to divert energy to John or Tashana. Are the Nymphs with you?*

*Yes, they're all here on the Combat Bridge.*

Reaching out to Jade's sisters, Alyssa sent a telepathic message to each of them, knowing they wouldn't be able to respond to her directly. *We're in big trouble and I really need your help. I don't have the same precise control over your energy levels as Jade and I don't want to risk hurting any of you. I'm going to start tapping the four of you for power, but tell Calara immediately if you start to feel any pain or discomfort.*

*We understand, Alyssa,* Neysa replied a moment later, her composed telepathic reply taking Alyssa completely by surprise. *Leylira, Betrixa, Marika, and I will provide you with as much power as you require. I would recommend against harnessing energy from Ailita as John has not yet had a chance to fully develop her capacity.*

*O-okay... that's fine,* Alyssa stammered, shocked that the Nymph was somehow able to reach out to her with telepathy when they weren't bonded.

The momentary distraction caused Alyssa to lose focus on her shield and a cluster of hexagons crumbled before she could repair them. The hex-barrier was being hammered from all directions, so when a gap in the protective globe finally appeared, several energy bolts punched through and struck her helmet. Alyssa let out a startled cry, her head snapping back with the impact, which knocked her sprawling across the Raptor's topdeck.

*Alyssa!* Calara cried out in alarm as she sensed her girlfriend's sudden flash of pain.

***

Tashana descended through the darkness, keeping her eyes peeled for her missing companions. She darted a glance at the Paragon suit's HUD, to check the altimeter for a reading, but being underground in an ozone-charged chamber was interfering with its telemetry. At the rate she was dropping, a quick mental calculation estimated that she'd already descended for two-hundred-metres, and there was still no sign of the ground.

Amidst the high-pitched crackle of electricity, she heard deeper noises coming from below, the booms and crashes sounding like a pitched battle was taking place. Rather than being alarmed, Tashana felt a surge of relief, because that meant John had survived the fall and was able to put up a fight against the robot. Twisting her body, she angled herself towards the sound of combat and swooped down to join the battle.

Before she could locate the combatants, she spotted a flicker in the darkness, the shaft of light projected at a strange angle. It winked out shortly afterwards, then reappeared again twenty seconds later. Tashana headed in its direction and felt a surge of relief when she saw the source of the intermittent light.

*I found Dana!* she excitedly informed Alyssa.

There was no response from her matriarch as she drew closer, but after seeing the redhead's limp body, Dana now had Tashana's full attention. The missing lioness was dangling over a broken pylon, the machinery having broken her fall. An electrical surge swept up the capacitor, the charge briefly activating the Paragon suit's shoulder lamps before they went dark once again.

Tashana waited until the latest electrical pulse had stormed up the column, then glided down to her friend. Acting quickly, she carefully untangled Dana and scooped her into her arms, then kicked herself clear of the generator before the next lightning surge. Hovering in mid-air, Tashana held her breath as she gazed through the Paragon suit's clear faceplate, then let out a sigh of relief when she saw Dana was still breathing.

The redhead had a nasty bump on her head that she must have received when the robot smashed into her, or when she crashed into the generator when she was sent flying out of control. Either way, the young woman was currently unconscious but still alive.

"I've got you, Dana," Tashana said softly, as she continued her descent. "Now we just need to help John."

***

John cried out in pain, clutching at his wounded flank as he staggered backwards, the robot's clawed foot smashing the ground where he'd been standing only seconds before. He narrowly avoided being stomped on, but with a couple of broken ribs and more bruises than he could count, he was in no fit state to be performing these kind of acrobatics.

The robot reared back and its huge serrated blade kicked into life, the jagged edges whirring around the sword with a shrill screech. It lunged towards him with the chainsword and John dived to the side to avoid the blow, the slash narrowly missing him and striking the floor. A storm of sparks lit up the darkness as the mechanised blade carved into the metal, leaving jagged furrows in the buckled plating.

Instead of drawing back its sword arm for another swipe, the robot's torso kept turning in the direction of the blow, pivoting at the waist as it rotated in a circle. As John scrambled to his feet again, one of the metallic tentacles whipped around and clobbered him in the chest, sending him sailing through the air to crash down on the floor a dozen metres away.

He groaned in pain, reeling from another vicious blow that aggravated all his previous injuries. John knew he had no chance of beating this robotic nightmare, not when he was wounded, unarmed, and deprived of his psychic abilities. With fighting no longer an option, he was left with flight, and flying away from this lethal behemoth sounded like a very good idea.

Praying that his Paragon suit's capabilities hadn't been damaged in the fall, John activated flight mode and was greatly relieved to see that the aeronautic subsystems were still functional. He used the thrusters to leap to his feet and launch himself skyward, ignoring the stabbing pain in his chest as he made his escape. The robot galloped towards him, but John was in the air and climbing, already out of range of the whirring sword.

John smiled as he soared higher, but the grin was instantly wiped from his face when the robot clamped a claw onto his boot. Glancing down, he gaped incredulously at the robot, which had fired the claw from the end of one of its tentacles, a snaking cable keeping him securely anchored to the machine. Trying to fight down a surge of panic, John ramped the jets up to maximum, giving him enough thrust to launch him into orbit. The robot refused to let go and it swayed beneath him as it tried to reel him in, like an excited child flying his first kite on a blustery day.