Three Square Meals Ch. 014

"Damn, you girls are good!" John exclaimed. "I knew I kept you ladies around for something," he joked with them affectionately, and the girls all grinned back at him happily.

"OK, let's take a look at the tactical maps from the Griffon," he said to Calara.

The Latina brought up the System map of Chendar, which showed the Gas Mining Facility, as well as the patrol routes of the pirate ships stationed at the base.

He looked up at the holographic map, studying the pirates thoughtfully, before he said, "If we hit their patrols first, we should be able to take them apart piecemeal. They are pirates, not Elite military crews, so if we smash them hard and fast, we should be able to wipe out most of their picket ships before the rest can react".

"Very good, Commander!" Calara said, sounding impressed. "Then we engage whatever's left, cleaning out the smaller ships first, and finally take on the Stalingrad."

"We could always wait, and join up with the Terran Federation patrol," Sparks suggested logically."With another four friendly ships, surely this would be a lot easier?"

"That's true," John admitted. "It would be much easier with Flintlock's assistance."

"We would have to wait at least another day to synchronise our attack with the other ships. They are currently repairing the Calypso, and the Invictus has been heavily modified, so we are much faster than they are," Alyssa informed them neutrally. "However, I can get us there in another three hours," she added confidently.

"That's another day of pirate attacks on innocent people," Calara said passionately.

John looked at each of the girls in turn, then said, "This is going to be a nasty fight, and our lives are going to be in considerable danger. I want you to tell me your honest opinion; attack, or wait?"

"We strike!" Calara said intensely.

Sparks glanced at the brunette, and then back up at John, recalling their earlier conversation "Attack," she said solemnly.

Alyssa knew John's thoughts, and agreed with them wholeheartedly "It's payback time," she said in a low voice.

John nodded his agreement as he said, "Unanimous then. It's judgement day in Chendar." He then leaned forward as he outlined his plan, "Calara I think your original idea is still the best. We sneak in under cover of the asteroid belt, and perform passive scans of their ships. We can disable anything with heavy life readings, just in case those ships are holding slaves, and we eliminate everything else."

Calara turned to look at Alyssa, and said, "If we go in with minimal power, we won't have the shields up in the asteroid field. Will you be able to navigate us through cleanly?"

"Oh please!" Alyssa said boldly, waving away Calara's concerns with a dismissive hand. "It'll be like going for a joyride in a mining cart!"

They laughed at her brazen confidence, which lightened the mood somewhat.

"Ok I want you girls to go and rest for a couple of hours," John said firmly.

He silenced their chorus of objections with a stern look, and said, "It's going to be a tough fight, and I want you all well rested. This isn't up for negotiation."

Seeing his determined expression, the three teenagers rose, and headed to the elevator obediently. He came to meet them at the elevator door, and they each gave him a kiss goodbye.

"Now no mischief, get some sleep if you can. You're going to need all your energy," he told them firmly.

The girls laughed and waved him goodbye as the elevator doors shut. John walked back up to his command chair and sat down in it, the burden of responsibility weighing heavily on his shoulders. He was going to lead three teenage girls into battle against 20 to 1 odds. He wasn't exaggerating earlier, the girls were absolutely amazing, but was his confidence in them making him take too big a risk?

Putting aside his fears for a moment, he contacted Vice Admiral Charles Harris, using a secured channel on the powerful communications relay built into the Invictus. Even using a top of the range Hyper-pulse communicator, it still took a few minutes to establish a connection to his old friend.

"John! It's good to hear from you," Charles' friendly voice said, as the image of the distinguished military man filled the view screen.

"Thanks Charles, it's good to speak to you too," John replied.

"Having problems with the Invictus?" Charles asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

John grinned at him, and said, "Oh no, nothing like that, the old girl has been amazing! Thanks for those extra modifications you made to the Commander's Quarters by the way"

Charles laughed, pleased that John had appreciated his gift. "You're welcome. What did your XO think?" he asked, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Alyssa liked it very much" John grinned at him.

"You lucky rascal, she's one hell of a woman John!" Charles said, whistling appreciatively.

"Yeah, she's amazing," John concurred.

"Well, I'm sure you didn't call to tell me about your love life. What can I do for you?" Charles asked curiously.

"Two things. Firstly, I need to report some damning evidence of criminal activity by Commander Rupert Grant," John reported.

Charles looked thoughtful, and said, "I remember that officer from your report a few weeks ago. What's he done now?"

"Assisting piracy, corruption, culpable homicide, treason..." John listed the man's crimes grimly.

Charles looked grim as he said, "You better send me what you've got. What's the second thing?"

John paused for a moment, before he replied to his old friend, "We're about to assault a pirate base. If we don't make it for any reason, I want you to know all the details."

Charles waved a hand dismissively, and smiled as he said, "The Invictus can handle anything pirates can throw at you. You'll be fine."

"They have twenty ex-military vessels and one of them is a Heavy Cruiser," John told him soberly.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Charles scoffed. "No pirate could possibly put together that kind of a fleet."

"I'm sending you the details of their full roster of ships," John replied. "In any case, there's something else going on; some other group has been funding these pirates, I'm sure of it."

"You're serious?" Charles said, looking shocked. "You can't face those kind of odds, John, that's suicide!"

John smiled confidently, and said, "I've got a hell of a crew."

"Well I wish you luck John, but I hope you don't need it," the Vice Admiral said, his frowning face lined with worry.

"We'll see you in a week," John grinned boldly.

"You have some balls!" Charles laughed. "Ok I'll see you then"

They ended the call and John was left with his thoughts. Two hours later, the elevator door swished open, and the teenage crewmembers of the Invictus walked onto the Command Deck, to take their places on the bridge. Alyssa gracefully ascended the command podium, walking up the illuminated set of steps to the Commander's chair.

"Hey handsome," she said affectionately, giving John a kiss. "We've all just eaten, and I thought you might be hungry too," she said, presenting him with a delicious smelling plate of food, and a bottle of water.

"What would I do without you?" John grinned at her as he took the plate and bottle eagerly.

John ate as the girl's prepared themselves for the upcoming battle, and ten minutes later, the Invictus jumped into the outskirts of the Chendar system and left Hyper-warp. They could see nothing on the long range scans but they put all systems on low power except for the engines. Alyssa brought them in closer towards the long deep asteroid belts that orbited the star, and reduced engine power as they approached.

Thousands of huge rocky asteroids spun and drifted slowly in the field, all that remained of two planetary bodies that had collided millennia ago. Ramming any of these moving hazards could prove fatal to the Invictus with the shields down, even with the thick armour plating protecting the hull. Alyssa was confident however and she guided the Assault cruiser through the asteroid belt with an agility that one would have thought impossible in a ship that size. Sparks watched in alarm as they seemed to swing perilously close to vast asteroids, but their skilled navigator never wavered and the enormous hunks of rock sailed past harmlessly. She eventually brought them to a stop in an impact crater on a behemoth of an asteroid that spun lazily at the edge of the belt.

"Excellent job, honey," John said to Alyssa, impressed by her skills. She smiled back at him proudly.

"OK Calara, passive scans only, what can you see?" he asked the eager Latina.

The brunette brought up the tactical map of the Chendar system, showing the Gas mining facility looking like some kind of bloated red arachnid in the centre of the map. The Invictus was lurking in the bottom right corner, the graphical representation of the Assault cruiser partially obscured by the asteroid belt. The rest of the map began to populate, as more information came back from the passive scans.

There were three groups of picket ships moving in lazy loops around the outskirts of the pirates base. Five more ships were docked at the base itself and a group of seven were heading out of the system, on a path that would take them fairly near the Invictus' current location in the asteroid belt. All the ships had deactivated transponders, so the identity of each vessel remained hidden.

"Let me see if I can shed a bit more light on the situation," Sparks said impishly, as she began to hack the encryption on the blocked transponders using the same algorithm she had developed earlier. Within moments the tactical map redrew itself, showing the precise identification of each ship.

"Excellent work Sparks!" John said enthusiastically. At a stroke she had eliminated a huge element of the unknown and it would make their planning for the rest of the battle incomparably easier.

The picket groups each consisted of a frigate with two corvettes and the outbound ships were a destroyer , two frigates and four corvettes. The final group docked at the Gas mining facility was the heavy cruiser, a destroyer and two corvettes.

"I thought there were only supposed to be twenty ships? What's that?" Alyssa asked, pointing at a mystery vessel that was docked alongside the Heavy Cruiser.

"I can't hack that code," Sparks admitted.

"It's big, whatever it is," Calara replied, looking at the mass readings for the unknown craft.

"OK, same plan as before," John said. "We hit that leaving group and smash them as quickly as possible. Once they're all destroyed, we move on to the picket ships. When we lose the element of surprise, I want an active scan of the ships near the pirates base."

"Yes, Commander," the girl's all chorused together, no-one joking now, the stakes too high.

"Life sign readings from the Passive scans?" he asked Calara.

"Low on all vessels, except the Heavy Cruiser, and the mystery ship," the brunette responded immediately.

"It's clean up time," John said, glad to not have to worry about innocent victims on the outlying ships.

"Weapons hot and shields up, let's eliminate that first group," he ordered.

The destroyer was the biggest ship, blocky and menacing, just over two hundred metres in length, and sat in the middle of the formation. The frigates were smaller, coming in at approximately half the size and they flanked each side of the command ship. Finally the four much smaller corvettes ranged out in front of the formation.

The Invictus leapt out from the cover of the asteroid, and pounced on the departing ships as they cruised by, oblivious to the danger they were in. Alyssa had waited until the pirate craft had travelled past their position, so when the Invictus surged out, they were directly behind the enemy ships.

Calara's right hand triggered the powerful beam lasers, and all six hit their targets in the rear. The two frigates didn't have shields active, so the beam lasers cored through their engines, slicing them in half, and punched into the central hulls of the pirate ships. One of the beams penetrated through the entire length of one frigate, vaporising the bridge. The other was hit at a slight angle and two of the beams blasted out of the side, depressurising the ship. Crippled, both frigates began to spin lazily, all engine power destroyed as they continued their forward momentum.

"Firing main guns!" Calara called a second later, as her left hand cycled through the weapons.

The Invictus trembled with the recoil, and the four heavy shells blasted out from the enormous weapons, slamming into the rear of the shieldless destroyer. There was very light armour over the engines, and the shells penetrated deep into the hull, before a chain of explosive detonations obliterated the command ship, scattering thousands of chunks of debris in a wide radius.

"Nice shooting Calara!" John said, impressed by her accuracy.

Sparks was amazed at the sheer destructive capability they had at their command. Hitting unshielded vessels magnified the effectiveness of their weapons substantially.

The four remaining Corvettes did not react immediately, as they were caught completely by surprise. By the time two of the Corvettes had begun to take evasive manoeuvres the beam weapons had cooled and were ready to fire again. Calara caressed the trigger and the six beams blasted out, three per Corvette. The Corvettes had managed to raise their shields, but it did little good and the brilliant beams of energy instantly overloaded them before punching straight through the lightly armoured hulls. One Corvette exploded a second later, the other had been skewered through the power plant, instantly taking out all power.

By the time the last two Corvettes had powered up shields and begun to react, the Invictus was upon them, the laser cannon batteries now in range. Alyssa pushed the nose of their Assault Cruiser down so that they would eventually fly under the fleeing Corvettes and Calara was able to open up with the sixteen top deck laser cannon turrets. Each of the Corvettes was bombarded by an unrelenting hail of laser fire and both exploded seconds after their shields were overwhelmed.

"Outstanding!" John exclaimed, the first contact going better than he could have ever imagined.

The girls all grinned up at him, delighted at the one sided fight.

"Time for those picket ships," John said, looking up at the tactical map. The entire fight was over in just under 30 seconds, and so far none of the other ships had reacted to the devastating surprise assault.

"One minute until we reach the first group," Alyssa called out, as she brought the Invictus about in a smooth graceful arc to engage its next victims.

Finally realising what had happened, the first of the picket groups moved to engage them, seeming unaware at just how heavily outclassed they were. With the pirate vessels heading directly towards them, the Invictus was in firing range within forty seconds. Calara instantly gutted the frigate like a skilled fishwife, the six beam lasers punching through the shields and then slicing the frigate in half.

Suddenly shockingly aware of their impending doom, the remaining Corvettes turned to attempt to flee, but they were not fast enough to escape the Assault Cruiser's hunger for blood. Alyssa kept their course steady and on the same plane, so that Calara was able to broadside each routing Corvette with 12 laser cannons, the bottom deck turrets also able to add to the salvo. Unsurprisingly, the terror stricken pirate crews were killed moments later as each Corvette was ripped apart by powerful, military grade laser cannons.

"Moving to engage picket group two," Alyssa said confidently, as she pointed the Invictus towards the next three ships.

"Picket group three is fleeing!" Sparks said, pointing at the third group that was turning in the opposite direction to the Invictus and desperately running for safety.

"Let them go," John said, "if we can eliminate the second group quickly, we might be able to hit the Heavy Cruiser while it's still docked."

"Thirty seconds until we engage the second picket group," Alyssa noted.

"Active scans on the Heavy Cruiser and the mystery ship, when we get within range, Calara," John ordered.

"Yes, Sir!" the brunette acknowledged, as she prepared to fire on the last picket group.

"What are they thinking?" Sparks wondered aloud, shaking her head in bewilderment at the pirates stupidity. The second group came within reach of the Invictus and the ship devoured them in coruscating blasts of laser fire.

"Active scans, please," John requested.

"I'm picking up just over one hundred life signs on the Heavy Cruiser," Calara said as she read the report from the scans. "Over five hundred on the other ship."

"It looks like most of the slaves have been transferred to our mystery ship," John surmised.

"Sparks, can you bring up an image of the ship please?" he asked the eager redhead.

"Sure John, there we go!" she said, as an image filled the screen in the centre of the bridge.

The Mystery vessel was bigger than their cruiser, at well over nine hundred metres in length. It had ribbed plating across the top that bristled with weapons, while the underbelly of the ship was segmented, and bulged with spherical compartments. Sparks thought it looked like some kind of enormous mechanical insect.

"Those bastards, how could they?!" John exclaimed, while Calara gasped in horror.

"What's the matter?" Alyssa asked, surprised at such a strong reaction from her friends.

"That's a Kirrix hive ship!" Calara said, her voice laden with dread.