Three Square Meals Ch. 029

The containers were in a disorganised jumble by the entrance, and he had to clamber over them to get back inside the gunship. He carefully pried open one of the lids, revealing bars of jet black ore and when he looked to Dana she gave him the thumbs up. "Jackpot!" she cheered exuberantly. He picked up each of the heavy containers without any trouble, and then moved them to the back of the cargo compartment and stacked them neatly, freeing up room for them to load the rest. The girls watched him work, as the ore containers were much too heavy to lift by themselves.

"This is awesome!" Dana said to him over the intercom as he launched himself out to float to the next set of containers, another bundle of safety cables in hand. "With this much ore, I could make enough Invictium to re-armour the ship twice over!" she added with relief.

"Who says crime doesn't pay?" Alyssa laughed happily, as they started bringing back the last of the containers.

"I prefer to think of it as 'requisitioned', rather than stolen," John chuckled.

"Ah yes, the old requisitioned excuse. I think I've heard that one before," Alyssa said archly.

It took a few more minutes to drag in the last few ore containers, and then John stacked them neatly in the gunship, so that Alyssa could close up the loading ramp and re-pressurise the back of the ship. Dana went to each container in turn, activating their magnetic base that would lock them securely in the cargo compartment of the gunship. John activated the voice-comms between his body armour and the Raptor cockpit.

"Top notch flying Jade!" he said to the Nymph with delight. "We're fully loaded with ore!"

"That's wonderful John," she replied excitedly. "Shall I bring you round to board the battleship now?"

"Yeah, go ahead, we'll be ready in a few minutes," he ordered, as he led Dana and Alyssa through the reinforced doors at the back of the room and headed down the corridor to the gunship's armoury.

They had transferred three rifles and plenty of ammo over to the dropship, and they securely fastened the loaded magazines to their utility harnesses before picking up the XR75 railguns. John slapped in the magazine of sabots in front of the trigger guard, then picked up a clip of hollow point caseless and slotted it into place at the back of the weapon. The ammo counter on the side of the gun read 250/50, showing that he was ready to go. He brought the rifle up to his shoulder to look through the scope, before lowering it and turning to look at the girls. They were performing similar weapons checks and then they nodded at him, signifying they were ready to move out.

John turned and looked at his Invictium sword, which was leaning forlornly against the wall. Given the Drakkar's propensity for melee combat, he would have liked to have brought it with them, but hauling around the five foot long blade would be too encumbering. He sighed regretfully and then turned to leave the armoury.

"Sorry John, I forgot!" Dana said, reaching out to put her hand on his chest to stop him from leaving. "I came up with a way you can carry the sword around with you!"

"Oh really?" he smiled. "I don't see a scabbard with you."

"It's the 28th century! I think we can come up with something a little more high-tech than that," she grinned at him impishly. "Now turn around so I can attach it for you."

John did as she asked, facing away from the eager young woman. He felt her attaching something into place against the armour on his shoulder, followed by a rapid series of clicks, before she tapped him lightly on his arm.

"Ok you're good to go!" she said excitedly. "Go and pick up the sword and then bring it around to your back as though you were putting it into a scabbard."

He went over to the glistening black blade and picked it up in his right hand. Being careful not to hit the girls, the weapon racks or anything else in the armoury for that matter, he brought the sword over his shoulder. He felt an odd tugging sensation on the grip when the hilt was parallel to his shoulder, as though the sword wanted to move out of his hand.

"Perfect!" Dana exclaimed. "Now, just let go."

Following her instructions, John released his grip on the weapon, wincing as he awaited the deafening crash of the sword clattering to the floor, but nothing happened. He turned his head to the right and saw the hilt and pommel sticking up over his right hand shoulder, floating there silently.

"How did you do that?" he asked her, intrigued. "Is it done by anti-grav?"

"Nah, the cyclics would burn out if you had them running all the time. I just tweaked one of the magnetic field emitters on your back to act as a harness, then attached some bands around the grip to keep the sword perfectly positioned in the field. To draw the sword, just hold the grip and pull it over your shoulder!" she said eagerly.

Doing exactly that, John tugged slightly on the blade and it moved easily out of the magnetic field that had been suspending it in place. He returned the weapon to his back and then clapped the redhead on the shoulder.

"This is perfect!" he laughed happily. "Zero encumbrance. Where were you when I was training as a marine, hauling around heavy weapons?" he marvelled.

"I hadn't been born then," Dana giggled wickedly.

"Oh god, you're making me feel old!" John groaned exaggeratedly.

"Come on old timer, we better go raid the Drakkar battleship before you need your afternoon nap!" Alyssa said teasingly, gesturing towards the door out of the armoury.

"After you," John said chivalrously.

"Age before beauty," Alyssa smirked, and then squeaked as he slapped her armoured rump when he walked past.

"I need to come with you two on more combat missions, this is great fun!" Dana laughed happily.

They walked back to the big room at the back of the gunship and gathered around the starboard airlock. Dana pressed the button on the door, and then the three of them stepped into the airlock collar, before she closed the inner door behind them.

"Jade?" John called over the voice-comms to the cockpit. "We're in position, have you docked us with the battleship?"

"Yes, John, the docking clamps are secured. You can board them whenever you're ready," the Nymph said confidently.

"Great work, honey. Get clear and stay out of sight as soon as we're safely on board," he ordered, pressing the button on the outer airlock door. As the collar was secured with an airtight seal, the sombre computer voice stayed silent this time and the airlock door spiralled open.

"That was anticlimactic," Alyssa said wryly as they faced the sealed reinforced airlock door on the Drakkar ship.

"Well I guess this is where I bust our way in," John said eagerly, getting ready to batter the door.

"Easy there Hercules," Dana chuckled. " I might be able to help with this one," she said, as she stepped up to the panel by the side of the airlock door and attached a hand held device. After rapidly entering a series of commands on the unfolding keyboard, the heavy bulkhead door split down the middle and then slowly eased apart, accompanied by the hiss of hydraulics. It signified that it had opened fully with a deep metallic clunk.

"Very impressive!" John commended her. "How are you able to hack your way into their systems? I didn't know you could speak Drakkar?"

"I tripped the hydraulics, and the door opened automatically," Dana said triumphantly, as they stepped through the now yawning portal and into the airlock. She disconnected the device, and then fitted it to the other side of the door.

Before she sealed the door, John placed his hand on the DNA reader on the Raptor. The green light scanned across his gauntleted hand and then after a quiet beep, the airlock door spiralled shut. A few moments later the Drakkar airlock door hissed and groaned as it clanged closed.

"Ok stay safe, we're clear," John said to Jade on the voice-comm.

"Just give me a call when you want a lift home!" Jade replied happily.

They watched through the small porthole in the airlock door as the gunship detached from the battleship and then disappeared silently from view. Turning towards the inner airlock door, they saw that this one was operated by a button and Dana stepped forward to push it. The inner door clanked open noisily and they winced at the din as the small airlock filled with the grating sound.

John and Alyssa moved forward as a pair, with railguns raised, each looking down either end of the corridor that the airlock door opened out into. They could see no sign of angry crew, or even alarms being raised and as they relaxed a little they realised why. The Drakkar ship seemed to be alive with sound, heavy clanks and shrieks of metal echoing down the corridor and greeting them raucously where they stood in the hallway.

"For once I'm glad someone did a crap job on maintenance!" Dana laughed with relief.

"Ok, which way to the power core?" John asked quietly.

"If their battleship follows the same design doctrine as their cruisers, the power core will be centrally located in the aft of the ship," Dana said after a moment's pause for thought. "If I had active scan results I could tell you for sure, but that's my best guess."

"Sounds sensible. Let's move out," he said decisively, taking the lead and walking down the corridor ahead of him with his weapon at the ready.

Dana and Alyssa followed behind, easily keeping pace as they headed deeper into the ship. The Drakkar vessel was dimly lit, with half the lights blown completely and every third or fourth light flickering intermittently, casting creepy shadows. Panels were pulled off the walls here and there, with the occasional cable snaking down from the ceiling. Dana shook her head in disapproval as she looked over the exceptionally shoddy state of disrepair the ship was in.

The first cross section they arrived at, John immediately moved to check the right corridor, while Alyssa moved fluidly to the left; both poking their heads out to check at the same time. Seeing no signs of life, they headed further inwards and soon approached another cross junction.

Ahead of them Dana could see that the corridor opened out into a larger room after another twenty metres, bulky four armed Drakkar lurching about in the distance. While she was waiting pensively, unsure what to do, Alyssa moved left and John simultaneously checked to the right. Abruptly John raised his railgun and fired, the quiet "Prrrkow!" of the three round burst sounding worryingly loud to the tense redhead. Alyssa seemed to react instantly, pivoting on the spot and firing a second later, high velocity rounds blasting out to seek their targets. The two of them fired repeatedly down the corridor to the right, targeting some unseen foe.

Dana watched the Drakkar up ahead in the room in front of them, her weapon raised in case any of them turned and tried to raise the alarm. Her nerve wracking vigil ended as soon as it had began, when Alyssa tapped her lightly on the arm and whispered. "Follow me, we need to cover the corridor."

Nodding, Dana followed after her fully armoured friend and stepped around to the right and out of potential line of sight to the room ahead of them. She looked wide eyed at the still twitching corpses of the three Drakkar that had been walking down this corridor only a few metres away from the junction. With the element of surprise, John and Alyssa had been able to hose them down with railgun rounds before they could hope to react. Huge holes had been shot through the purple armoured aliens, dark blue blood and gore decorating the wall opposite.

John was nowhere in sight, and Dana panicked for a moment, wondering where he had gone. Her question was answered a few seconds later as he re-entered the corridor from a room 15 metres away on the right.

"Cover me a moment girls, I'll stash the corpses in here," he said quietly.

Alyssa dropped to one knee near the intersection, checking for approaching Drakkar. "Watch the other way Dana," she said softly.

Dana knelt down by the other wall and watched down the corridor. She couldn't help but be distracted however, when John picked up one of 300lb Drakkar smoothly and carried it over his left shoulder, it's many arms dragging on the floor behind him. He dumped the corpse unceremoniously in the room ahead, before returning to stash the other two corpses in a similar fashion. The door had a strange wheel set into the frame and once John had closed the door to his impromptu morgue, he spun the wheel, locking the door in place. Waiting for a particular cacophonous clanging from the ship, he wrenched the wheel off the frame to the accompanying shriek of twisting metal and then rested it by the door.

"Oops..." he said quietly.

"Err, what about all that mess?" Dana said, waving at the gouts of blue blood sprayed all over the heavily shadowed walls.

"Let's just hope they think it's from a random fist fight," Alyssa said optimistically.

John turned his railgun around and knocked out a couple more lights with the butt of the weapon. His wanton act of vandalism cast the area in even darker shadows, making it much harder to see all the Drakkar blood. He then beckoned them to follow him, and they headed further down the corridor, away from the scene of the ambush. The corridor took a few random twists and turns, as they followed it towards the rear of the ship, before it eventually opened out in a stairwell, but instead of stairs, there were a few sets of ramps heading up and down.

"We better not hang around here," John said quietly. "Which way do you think Dana?"

Remembering that they had docked around the middle of the ship and halfway up the hull, Dana stopped for a moment to get her bearings. "We probably want to head down a couple of levels, then head in towards the central spine of the ship," she said cautiously.

"Sounds good. Let's go," John said, and moved confidently over to the nearest slope leading down.

"Movement above us!" Alyssa whispered in warning.

"Move!" he said brusquely, and then darted ahead down the slope.

Alyssa and Dana followed his lead and sprinted after him as he raced down the ramp, turning a corner, and then following another ramp downwards. Instead of heading down any further, John moved quickly across the open area by the many ramp entrances and checked the corridor that would take them into the central part of the ship. Alyssa and Dana darted over to join him, relieved to be moving out of the open and feeling a little less exposed.

They moved cautiously forward now, passing a few sealed doors and leaving them undisturbed as they moved ever deeper into the battleship. Finally, they reached a sturdy blast door that was currently wide open, giving them a clear view into the big central chamber ahead.

"This is it!" Dana whispered excitedly, peering around the corner. "I can see the power converter and the plasma conduits. We should definitely find the power core located in there."

There were numerous gantries leading upwards from the floor they were currently standing in, but they noticed many bulky figures wandering around on the upper levels.

"So, what's the plan?" John asked Dana quietly.

"I'm going to shut down most of their power regulators," she replied in a hushed but eager voice.

"Is that something you can do from down here?" Alyssa asked her friend curiously.

"Afraid not." the redhead replied apologetically. "For a ship of this size, there's going to be a couple of dozen. They'll be scattered around the central core on the higher levels."

"So that means we'll have to clear out the Drakkar," John surmised. "Is there any way you can get them to leave without a fight?" he asked Dana.

"If they were using Terran computer systems, sure! Unfortunately, as you helpfully pointed out, I don't speak Drakkar," she said ruefully.

"We clear them out the fun way then!" Alyssa said enthusiastically, checking the ammo counter on her railgun.

John nodded and took the lead and they moved quietly out across the darkened lower level of the reactor chamber, scuttling across the floor like shiny black beetles. They turned the corner of the ramp up to the first level and began to ascend cautiously, spotting three Drakkar engineers hunched over brightly flashing consoles.

*Take the left one,* Alyssa's voice sounded clearly in Dana's mind as they silently drew closer.

Dana aimed at the left most Drakkar, holding her breath as she targeted the creature through her scope. It's hideous lime green hammer shaped head filled the crosshairs and she could see the subtle mottled brown patterning on the bulging section that housed its brain. She gently squeezed the trigger, and the railgun whispered a quiet message of death to the unknowing alien. "Prrrkow," her weapon murmured, closely chorused by Alyssa's and John's railguns.

The Drakkar's head exploded in an instant as it was hit by the three round burst. A shower of blue blood geysered up from its now headless torso and the four armed creature slumped lifelessly over the console it had been so focused on before.

Dana let out her breath with a relieved sigh, and then looked around the platform. John and Alyssa had similarly dispatched their allocated Drakkar and the floor was now covered in a sticky sea of blue blood. She spotted a dark red cylinder embedded in the wall, that was pulsating rhythmically and casting an eerie crimson light into the room. "That looks like a constant load regulator, if I'm not mistaken!" she thought to herself, as she approached it cautiously.

*We'll start clearing the upper levels, you do whatever you need to, and follow us up,* Alyssa's voice sounded clearly in her mind.

She half turned and gave them a thumbs up sign, before turning her full attention back to the power regulator in front of her. Unclipping a handheld multi-tool from her belt, she undid the screws on the casing and then got to work.

John took the lead up the ramp, moving swiftly and silently to the next level, knowing that time was now of the essence. Any of the Drakkar engineers up here could head down to the bloodbath below at a moment's notice, so they needed to act fast while they still had surprise on their side. This next level was dominated by the bottom half of a pulsing red sphere set into the ceiling. Power cables and wiring snaked in and out of the enormous globe, and the throbbing light made the power core look like some enormous sickly heart.

There were five Drakkar in this room, three of them watching and cheering avidly while two of their colleagues grappled in the centre of the room. The slightly larger of the two managed to knock the other engineer to the floor, and then began to rain blows down on his head, while the prone Drakkar attempted to ward him off with four frantically waving hands.

Taking pity on the hapless engineer who was on the receiving end of a vicious clobbering, Alyssa narrowed her eyes and targeted the victorious Drakkar, gently squeezing the trigger and sending three hyper-speed rounds into the unsuspecting creatures face. The hollow point bullets slammed into the alien and knocked its decapitated body off his victim, spraying blood over his cohorts, "I don't like bullies," Alyssa said with grim satisfaction.

The other three Drakkar looked up at them in shock, their fang filled maws hanging open as they stood there stunned, still frozen mid-cheer, their faces covered in blue blood and ichor. John calmly fired two bursts, hitting the first solidly in the chest, punching big holes through its torso, and the second in the groin, doubling it over. The last one whimpered in fear and sprinted for the doorway, only to be shot in the back as it ran. It staggered on for several steps before crashing into a computer console and sprawling on the floor.

The remaining Drakkar got to its feet on shaky legs and turned towards its mysterious benefactors. Alyssa pulled the trigger and gunned it down, sending it cartwheeling backwards, its azure lifeblood fountaining out behind it. "I don't like Drakkar much either," she shrugged apologetically.