Three Square Meals Ch. 029

"Hark at you with the quips!" John laughed, shaking his head as he moved forward to check down the corridor.

"You must be a bad influence," she replied, laughing gaily.

The Drakkar John had shot in the groin was rolling around on the floor in agony, and he put it out of its misery with a headshot. He walked past it, then stepped over the spasming Drakkar that had tried to flee, and scanned the corridor ahead. It ran off for over fifty metres before being shrouded by the gloom. "Ok this looks clear, let's move on to the next level."

Alyssa strode over to join him, and the two of them reloaded their railguns with full clips. She was keeping a close eye on the swirling nebulous of emotions in her mind that represented Dana and she was quite content, happy even, as she worked her destructive magic on the Drakkar ship. Alyssa smiled and then followed John up the next ramp.

They moved quickly and quietly, hugging the wall as they ascended to the top level of the reactor chamber. When John had walked far enough up the ramp to see into the room, he ducked back quickly waving Alyssa backwards with a warning hand.

*You can just think it to me, remember,* she said in his mind, her psychic voice carrying an undercurrent of playfulness.

*Sorry it was instinct,* John shrugged mentally. *The top level is heaving with Drakkar, this could get nasty,* he warned her.

*Shock and awe?* she smirked, raising her railgun and deliberately turning off the sound suppressor.

*Remind me to pass on my thanks to whoever trained you,* John laughed along with her, turning off the sound suppressor on his own railgun.

They crept up the last few metres of the ramp, and ducked behind some bulky computer consoles. There were at least 20 Drakkar in this room, most of them spread out around the walls, operating machinery, and studying displays. There was a small group of four standing in the middle, arguing ferociously about something.

John glanced at the top right icon on the HUD inside his Phalanx armour helmet and turned off external audio. Alyssa did the same as they crouched there, preparing to unleash their ambush. *Dana, turn off audio in your armour, we're firing the railguns without sound suppressors,* she warned her friend who was now disabling her fifth power regulator.

*Give her five seconds,* Alyssa cautioned John, and they waited patiently, counting to five in their heads, their blood pumping with adrenalin.

*Now!* John thought to her, and they rose as one to face the Drakkar in the room.

Alyssa started on the left, while John started on the right. "PRRRRRRRRRRRRRKOW!!!!!!" The railguns thundered as they fired them on full auto, spraying their incredibly destructive firepower around the room. The first dozen Drakkar didn't even have time to react as high velocity rounds slammed into them, blasting holes in the creatures, and sending dismembered limbs and blue gore flying around the room.

As John and Alyssa's weapons finally clicked, the magazines spent, the Drakkar reacted in several different ways. The group in the middle stood and stared, open mawed in shock. A couple of the survivors around the walls who had been showered in their colleagues blood turned and fled, while some of the bolder engineers pulled out pistols and began to return fire.

Expecting only conventional rounds, John was surprised when the Drakkar engineers started firing virulent purple laser beams in their direction. He was hit twice in the chest before he ducked down, the breastplate of his armour smoking where the shots had gouged into the black surface. Fortunately the reflective nature of the armour had robbed the shots of some of their strength, but they were still potent enough to worry about. He slapped in another clip before he rose and began to fire in bursts, specifically targeting the armed Drakkar who were shooting at them.

Once Alyssa had reloaded, she opened up with full auto again, cutting down the group of stunned Drakkar engineers who were clustered around the reactor. She deliberately aimed high, not wanting to test how well the power core was armoured, and focused on shooting the group of Drakkar in the head and upper chest. She smiled with satisfaction when she hit the last one in the throat, sending its head sailing through the air.

*Shit!* John swore with his inner voice, bringing her focus back to the rest of the room.

*A couple of the runners got away,* he warned her as he shot the last of the laser pistol wielding Drakkar, stitching fist sized holes across the alien's chest and sending it slumping over, quite dead. *We better get back to Dana.*

Their industrious chief engineer had moved up the ramp to the level below them, and was humming a merry tune to herself, as she worked on disabling her eleventh power regulator. She was so wrapped up in her work, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, apart from stepping carefully over the occasional Drakkar corpse. She pried the housing off the next power regulator, and then began to work on shutting down the power feeds, not noticing when a Drakkar entered the room from the corridor. The alien engineer wielded a big wrench in his hands, and he charged towards her letting out a roar. With her external audio turned off as well, she was completely oblivious to the imminent danger, and was therefore caught completely by surprise when the Drakkar swung the wrench around, smashing it into her arm and sending her crashing into the wall.

*Dana's in trouble!* Alyssa yelled to John as she picked up the fear and pain from the Dana presence in her mind. She sprinted towards the ramp heading downwards and vaulted over the computer console in the way.

John charged after her, feeling a surge of panic rising in his chest. *Fuck! We should have never have left her!* he chastised himself, as he barrelled down the ramp after Alyssa.

Dana had bounced off the wall, and yowled in agony as pain shot up her right arm when she sprawled on the floor. Her railgun was propped up against the wall, to free up both hands to work on the power regulator, and she turned back frantically to look for her weapon. She gasped as the Drakkar stepped into her line of sight and swung the heavy wrench at her again. Twisting to the side, she narrowly avoided having her head caved in as the massive impromptu club crashed into the floor behind her. Her armour plated feet scrabbled on the steel decking, trying to gain purchase, as she tried to crawl backwards and away from the looming Drakkar.

The enraged Drakkar engineer lifted back its head and roared at her silently, which added a certain surreal nature to the deadly fight. She glanced up at the icon on her HUD to re-enable sound and caught the end of the blood curdling scream, making her wish she had left the creature on mute. It stepped forward to take another overhead swipe at her, and she skittered backwards, frantically trying to get some distance from the creature. It swung the wrench down again, and caught her on the right leg, causing the armour plating to crack and warp, badly bruising her thigh. The Drakkar dropped the wrench, then loomed over her with grasping hands and its sharp toothed jaws spread wide, dripping saliva down on her chest.

Just when she thought she was doomed, the Drakkar lurched violently as an azure bloom appeared on its chest, accompanied by the deafening "PKOW!" of an unsuppressed railgun. Dana saw the shock on its face before It whirled to face the new foe, just as the railgun fired again. "PRRRRRRRRRRRRRKOW!!!!!!" the weapon roared and then the Drakkar's upper body seemed to disappear in a riotous blue explosion as round after high velocity round blew it apart.

"Sparks, are you ok!" Alyssa called in a frightened voice, as she leapt over the obliterated Drakkar to hover over her friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Dana replied. "I just wasn't paying attenti- Ow! fuck!!!!" she gasped in pain as she tried to stand up, instinctively putting her weight on her left arm to steady herself. She collapsed backwards, holding her arm as white hot lances of agony shot up to her shoulder.

"That looks bad, I think you've got a broken arm," John said with concern, appearing at her side.

"I'll be ok," Dana said stoically, wincing with the pain.

John helped her up while Alyssa picked up the discarded railgun. "We need to get you out of here," he said worriedly.

"I'll be fine, honestly..." Dana said slurring slightly, shivering and wobbling uncertainly on her feet.

"Shh, you'll be ok, let me take care of you honey," he said to her soothingly.

*She might be going into shock!* John's inner voice said to Alyssa, shot through with worry. *We need to get her to safety as quickly as we can.*

Alyssa nodded, and then moved to his side to take over supporting Dana. *I've got her, you lead us out.* she thought to him.

John headed over to the ramp that led to the lower level, reactivating the sound suppressor on the end of his railgun. He checked behind them to make sure nothing else was following, and then moved down the ramp looking for any signs of approaching Drakkar. Alyssa and Dana followed behind him walking awkwardly down the ramp, and then across the floor of the reactor room. They walked down the corridor that returned them to the open area with the ramps that went up and down to the other levels, before cautiously moving over to return to the level they initially boarded from.

John had jogged a little way ahead and disappeared out of sight as he turned around the corner to continue up the slope. He suddenly came sprinting back, urging her back with his hand.

*There's a big armed group of them up there!* he thought to Alyssa with alarm. *They must be investigating the gunshots.*

*Or checking the airlocks for signs of forced entry,* Alyssa guessed as she turned Dana around and they made their way downwards.

A few moments later, an alarm sounded out loudly, blaring obnoxiously down the corridor.

"We've got to find another way out," John said pensively as they headed down another level. "Did you see any signs of hangar bays?" he asked Alyssa.

"No, not that I remember." The blonde replied, recalling the image of the huge battleship on the tactical map, as well as what she had seen up close from the dropship.

"That probably means they have a hangar bay at the bottom of the ship, like the Stalingrad," he guessed. "Does that sounds right to you Dana?"

The redhead nodded groggily, focused mainly on standing upright and trying not to being sick. "Yeah makes sense to me," she slurred.

*She's worrying me John. People can die from going into shock, right?* Alyssa's voice sounded in his head, sounding small and scared.

*She'll be fine, honey, just try not to knock the break and keep her calm.* John said, sounding confident. He was suppressing his worries though, having seen comrades die from shock, caused by what had initially seemed like relatively minor gunshot wounds.

They stumbled further down into the bowels of the Drakkar battleship, luckily avoiding any patrols. "Where is everyone?" Alyssa asked him as they reached the lowest level, having descended down the ramps unopposed.

"All their patrols must be either investigating the carnage in the reactor room, or sealing off access to the airlocks," John guessed from experience.

"Ok, which way now?" Alyssa demanded, holding Dana steady.

"Jade?" John called out to the Raptor gunship on the voice-comm. "Can you hear me?"

"There's some interference, but I can hear you," the Nymph replied.

"Good. Dana's been hit and we need to evac her straight away!" he explained. "We can't get to the airlocks, so I need you to check the underside of the battleship's hull and see if you can find any hangar bays."

"You can count on me!" Jade said fiercely, as she moved the Raptor out from the shadow of the battleships vast engines. Using minimal thrusters to keep her energy profile low, she glided down underneath the belly of the huge Drakkar vessel, carefully coasting along and starting to move the Raptor a little further from the enemy hull. With a little more distance between her ship and the looming battleship, she was able to rotate the cockpit upwards to give herself a nice clear view of the underside of the hull. Her sharp, cat-like eyes zeroed in on a couple of darkened indentations in the hull amidships, and in the centre of the vessel.

"You were right! There's a couple, John!" she said excitedly on the voice-comm. "They're positioned in the middle of the ship, on the bottom deck."

"Perfect! We'll head that way and meet you there," he replied, sounding relieved.

Jade nudged the gunship forward, slowly approaching the two indentations set in the bottom of the hull and studying the darkened portals intently. They were both sealed, with what looked like heavily reinforced outer hull doors locked in place. The Nymph sighed in frustration, having hoped that she'd be able to just sail straight in and wait for them, but instead resigned herself to having to wait for John and his companions to open the doors from the inside.

The minutes ticked by as Jade waited impatiently, worrying about how Dana was doing and how seriously she was hurt. Abruptly her eyes darted to the battleship hull as she spotted motion above her, the massive sturdy doors beginning to prise apart. Thinking that her friends had managed to make it to the hangar much faster than she expected, a big beaming smile lit up her face and she readied the Raptor to rise up through the slowly opening hangar bay doors.

Just as she was about to move the gunship forward, the gap now large enough for her craft, a blocky Drakkar transport dropped out of the yawning portal above, its purple hull covered in thick grey plating and long sharp spikes. "Grey plates." Jade thought to herself, and grinned wickedly. "Bad for you, good for me."

Her eyes narrowed for a second, activating the optical targeting system, and the Drakkar dropship was haloed in a targeting reticle. She pulled the trigger on her flightstick, and the Raptor's Gatling lasers spun up for a second before unleashing six bright orange streams of laser bolts at the enemy transport. Caught completely unawares, the dropship hung there as if in a daze as she raked their shields with an unending stream of laser fire. A few seconds later their shields fizzled out, overwhelmed by the amount of deadly energy being poured into them. The Gatling lasers continued unabated, now gouging molten impact craters into the heavy steel plating.

Casually flipping up the red safety cover, Jade pressed the thumb button on her flight control, and the shoulder mounted laser cannons that ran the length of the gunship opened up. Two amber hued energy bolts blasted into the side of the ship, punching gaping holes in the hull, and causing the dropship to drift away as the air was sucked out of the ship in an explosive decompression. She fired twice more with the laser cannons just to make sure, the final shot rupturing the enemy cockpit and instantly killing the pilot.

Jade grinned happily to herself, and then sprang into action when she noticed movement from above her head once again. It looked like the Drakkar were attempting to close the hangar bay doors, but they were too slow, and the Raptor was much too fast. Jade gripped the flightstick and tensed her body, concentrating on making her body much denser. She cranked up the throttle, and the gunship surged forward, darting nimbly through the gap, and making the spiking G-counter set off warning lights and sirens around the cockpit. She slammed on the retro-thrusters the instant she was safely through the hangar doors, causing the G-counter to have a negative-G aneurysm, while her incredibly resilient body simply shrugged off acceleration forces that would have been fatal for a Terran.

She closed her eyes and relaxed for a moment, returning her body density to normal before opening her eyes slowly. The hangar bay was a riot of motion, with four armed aliens sprinting around in a panic, some darting for cover, others running to another parked dropship. The Nymph grinned excitedly. She liked it when her prey ran away, it made the hunt more satisfying. The Raptor's Gatling lasers began to rotate again, the six gun barrels spinning up and filling the huge hangar with an ominous high pitched whir...

***

John moved cautiously down the corridor, checking the passageways to the right as they reached each T-junction. They were on the lowest deck of the Drakkar battleship, and moving as quietly and stealthily as they could. Dana was having trouble going much faster than a slow walking pace, what with the lingering effects of the shock, as well as the nasty bruising to her leg. Alyssa was supporting her friend well, being very careful not to aggravate the injuries, and keeping up a constant stream of reassuring, comforting thoughts to Dana's mind. This meant that she was in no position to aid in a firefight, though, so their little three man fireteam had been effectively reduced to one.

Pausing at the fifth right hand T-junction in a row, John glanced back at the girls. "I think we're about at the middle of the ship by now, let's head in," he said quietly.

"I'm ok, honestly..." Dana said unconvincingly, wincing with the sharp pain in her arm.

"I know you are, Sparks, you're doing so well," Alyssa replied softly, as they followed in John's wake.

They progressed further into the gloomy ship, their quiet footfalls completely masked by the dreadful clanking and grinding of hydraulics in desperate need of some oil. Down here on the lowest deck the corridors were in an even worse state of disrepair, with floor panels pulled up and broad cables left undulating over each other in chaotic jumbles. Their progress was slowed further by having to carefully step over the mess, and the journey down the corridors seemed to take forever.

John reached a crossroad, and glanced left first but saw nothing, before glancing to the right and cursing as two Drakkar stumbled into him. He brought his rifle up instinctively, and shoved it into the closest creature's chest before pulling the trigger. The Drakkar stared at him in shock with two wide black eyes, its fang filled jaw snapping up and down reflexively as round after round punched through its quivering torso. It keeled over on its side, grabbing the railgun with all four hands in a deathgrip, and pulling it out of his hand.

The second Drakkar roared in fury and took a wild double haymaker swing with its left arms, knocking John off balance and away down the corridor. Seeing that his railgun was well out of reach, he grabbed the hilt of his sword and drew it over his shoulder, releasing it from the magnetic fields. The Drakkar snarled in rage and surged forward with eagerly grasping hands, only to have John do a wide sweep with his blade and cleanly chop off the creature's right limbs at the forearm. The alien was brought up short, and frantically grasped each bloodied stump with its left hands, leaving it open to a broad backhanded swing that cleaved through its head, the astonished face split horizontally down the middle.

John stepped over the Drakkar after it crashed to the floor and walked determinedly over to the first Drakkar that had collapsed on his railgun. "That's mine I believe," he said, as he heaved the creature over and then yanked the weapon out of its nerveless fingers.

Alyssa had her railgun in her right hand, the heavy barrel wavering unsteadily in her one handed grip. She relaxed when she saw that the danger was over, and then concentrated on supporting Dana again. *Let's keep going, I'm worried about Dana,* she thought to John as he turned to check they were alright. He nodded silently, putting his sword back in the embrace of the magnetic scabbard, and then jogged ahead up the corridor to check the next junction.