Three Square Meals Ch. 050

While the central squad of tanks began shelling the distant hills, the other tanks peeled off, three to each side. They moved effortlessly over the rugged ground, their anti-grav cyclics keeping the fifty ton vehicles gliding smoothly along as they flanked their target. Jade watched them depart, and then banked her gunship, bringing the Raptor around to follow the western group.

***

Alyssa watched the holographic Tactical Map, keeping an eye on the tan coloured destroyer groups as they did a broad sweep of the system. She was keeping a close telepathic eye on her friends down on the surface, and all seemed to be going according to plan so far. When she glanced over at Calara, the brunette looked up from her console and smiled at her warmly.

"Have you come up with an attack plan?" Alyssa asked the Latina.

Calara nodded, and said decisively, "We should hit that central group first, then sweep out to attack the far group of destroyers. Even if the two cruisers move to intercept, they won't be able to reach us in time to save the second group, and it'll pull them far out of range of the planet's defence lasers."

Alyssa glanced up at the map, and plotted out the course in her mind. She grinned, and said to Calara, "Great plan! I'm glad you're on my side."

The Latina smiled back at her and said flirtatiously, "I prefer being underneath you, but I appreciate the sentiment."

Alyssa giggled, throwing a loving look her way, and when Irillith snorted with disgust, the blonde girl smirked with amusement. "Never known the love of a good woman?" she asked the Maliri mischievously. "You've been missing out."

Irillith was about to snap back an angry retort, but a shadow crossed over her face, and she looked away, her eyes suddenly sorrowful.

Alyssa immediately regretted taunting the blue-skinned woman, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I was just being playful."

"Forget it," Irillith said frostily, and turned back to the console, focusing on it intently.

Calara met Alyssa's puzzled glance, and thought to her, *I wonder what that was about?*

Alyssa shrugged imperceptibly and said, *We'd better leave her be, we don't want to upset her right before the battle."

The Latina nodded, then blew her a quick kiss, before turning back to the tactical map to watch the progress of the destroyer groups.

***

John walked at a brisk pace close to the back wall of the armoury, with the reinforced Ferrocrete brushing his left shoulder. He could hear the light footsteps of Dana and Rachel's armoured boots on the ground behind him, and they seemed to be having no problem keeping up with the pace he was setting. They reached the end of the wall, and he glanced around the corner, seeing a broad, squat building up ahead. The Barracks was in the south west corner of the base, and provided the sleeping quarters for up to two hundred mercenaries in the company. With half the Cobras off on the garrison mission, and the crews manning the fleet in the Beta-Draconis system, that only left around eighty men on the base. Thirty of them had headed south on the tank manoeuvres a short while earlier, so there were probably only a few dozen asleep in the barracks at the moment.

He was about to lead the girls across the gloomy gap between the Armoury and the Barracks, when a sudden thought came to him. He paused, and a sly smile formed on his face.

Turning to the eager young women behind him, he said, "You two head on to the Backup Generator. Just follow the back wall around the Barracks, go past the Shield Generator building with the big dish on the roof, and it's the next one along. Set the charges, and I'll be with you shortly."

Dana looked confused, and asked warily, "Where are you going? Splitting up wasn't part of the plan."

John nodded at the heavily reinforced Barracks and said, "I won't be long. I'm going to make it harder for the sleeping troops to join the fight if the alarm gets raised."

The redhead nodded enthusiastically, remembering how he'd wedged the door shut to the Main Generator and said, "Sounds like a good idea! We'll see you soon."

She walked up beside him, peered out around the corner of the Armoury to check for guards, and then sprinted across the twenty metre gap, being careful not to stray anywhere near the illuminated path. Rachel darted out after her, a few paces behind, and John watched the armoured girls disappear out of sight around the robust Ferrocrete wall of the Barracks. Checking to make sure that the way was clear, he ran across the gap towards the Barracks, and up to the double thickness Titanium door. He opened it quietly, and then stalked inside, closing and locking it behind him. His face lit up in a feral grin as he shouldered his rifle, and reached for his long, razor-sharp sword.

***

Alyssa sat up in alarm, as John's thoughts abruptly went dark. They hadn't been in any trouble, and there was no chance of him having been knocked out, so why would he be blocking her out of his head at a time like this?

*What's happening down there?* she thought to Dana with concern.

Her oldest friend replied immediately, surprised at the worry in Alyssa's voice. *What do you mean? Everything's fine at the moment, it's going like clockwork. We set the explosives in the Main Generator, and we're just heading to the backup Generator to rig that to blow too. John's just going to wedge the Barracks door shut to make it harder for them to respond to an alarm.*

Alyssa sat back in her chair, a sense of foreboding building within her.

"Fuck!" Calara gasped, snapping Alyssa's attention to the Latina. The even tempered brunette never swore, so it was even more shocking to hear.

"What is it?!" Alyssa asked her worriedly.

Calara was gazing up at the local Sector Map, and their long range sensors had picked up an incoming fleet. She pointed at them and said, "It's the rest of the Cobras! There's TWO carriers incoming, escorted by a cruiser, and half a dozen destroyers!"

"That can't be right!" Irillith said, looking shocked. "There's no way they bought all those ships, and hired on new men, without it going through the accounts. Their accountant is fastidious!"

Alyssa was sitting on the edge of her seat and she exclaimed, "Forget the accounts then, there must be some clues somewhere else!"

Irillith lifted her vambrace and hurriedly tapped at the buttons on her arm. A purple mist appeared above her forearm, and the violet digital blocks began to form together into the tiny, four inch AI sprite.

"Are you my creator?" it asked her in wonder, its wide eyes blinking as it stared at her in awe.

Irillith was distracted by the incoming fleet of enemy ships, and she snapped, "Yeah, I need your help."

The diminutive digital creature frowned and said, "You don't seem like a very nice person."

Irillith's face contorted with rage, and she snarled back, "I didn't summon you to give me a personality appraisal. Shut the fuck up and get to work you annoying little shit!"

The AIs face darkened and it somehow managed to look menacing, even though it was only four-inches-high. "Filthy organic. Let's see how you like a few hours without oxygen," it growled at her, and darted towards the data jacks.

The Maliri moved faster and stabbed her finger down on the de-res button, and with a strangled, agonised cry, the tiny purple sprite began to disassemble. "Not so smart-mouthed now, are you?" she noted with a wry grin.

The digital creature vanished a few seconds later, and its tortured death wail echoed around the Bridge. When she was sure it had been destroyed, Irillith looked up at Calara and Alyssa, who stared at her with shocked expressions on their faces.

"We'll have to wait ten minutes while the memory archives are scrubbed. I'll be able to create another one then," she said, shrugging apologetically.

Alyssa blinked at her for a moment, and said resolutely, "Alright, forget who they are and why they're here, we've got to assume they're hostile, and know we're attacking them."

Calara looked up at her and asked, "Abort the mission?"

Alyssa nodded, then paused for a moment looking worried. The image of John in her mind had still gone dark and she wasn't able to reach him.

*Dana!* she thought to the redhead urgently. *We've got the rest of the Cobras inbound. Is John back with you yet?*

Back on the surface of SerpentHold, Dana and Rachel had just run over to the big building housing the Shield Generator, the huge forty metre dish that projected the shield towering over them. Reaching out to take hold of Rachel's arm, she said, "Wait a moment. We might have to abort, I'll look for John." She glanced behind her, but could see no sign of movement near the Barracks.

*I can't see him,* she replied to Alyssa. *What should we do?*

Alyssa glanced at the sector map above them, estimating how long it would take for the carrier fleet to reach them. She thanked her lucky stars that Dana had so massively upgraded their sensors, giving them over four times as much reaction time.

"Can we take them before that fleet gets here?" she asked Calara insistently.

The Latina looked up at the incoming carriers, and glanced at the cruisers and destroyers in their system, then said, "It's going to be close."

*Plant the other charges,* Alyssa told Dana decisively. *If we have to get you out of there in a hurry, we'll need their shields and weapons knocked out.*

Dana nodded grimly and said, *We're on it.*

Alyssa's angry voice then said, *And when John turns up, tell him to drop his damn mind-shield!*

***

Jade was following behind the three heavy tanks as they moved in a broad sweeping motion to flank the hill. She was trailing a few kilometres behind them, and was quite confident that they had no idea she was there. It was good fun stalking the tanks like this, but it was frustrating not being able to pounce.

Alyssa's strained thoughts suddenly flashed into her mind, and said, *We've got the rest of the Cobras inbound! We can't abort the mission, because John seems to have gone off on some side mission, and I can't reach him with my thoughts.*

*Is he hurt?!* Jade thought back to her in alarm.

Alyssa sounded confused when she replied, and said, *No. Dana said everything was fine, but he suddenly started blocking me from his thoughts. We can't pull them out of there until he rejoins them.*

Jade was about to reply, when the three hover tanks abruptly came to a halt, and slowly turned around, before heading back the way they came. *Looks like the tank column is returning to base too,* she said, cautiously.

*Fuck!* Alyssa swore angrily.

Jade's cat-like eyes gleamed with excitement, and she said animatedly, *Don't worry, I'll keep them busy!*

*Be careful!* Alyssa thought to her with concern.

Jade grinned, and swung the Raptor around sharply to flank the incoming tanks. They were lined up like nice little ducks in a row, as she powered up the gunship's weapons.

***

Bob Channing slapped the unresponsive targeting scope on his Gatling laser angrily. Power had gone out along the northern wall ten minutes ago, and he had initially assumed it had just been a brownout of some kind. He had been sitting in the Gatling laser nest in darkness since the lights had gone out, but he'd won a game of rock, paper, scissors with Jacob his shift partner, and sent the grumbling man off to check on the generator. Fortunately the lights were still on in the rest of the base, so he wasn't sitting there in pitch darkness.

Bob hated doing tower guard duty, especially on a bleak planet like this. Colonel Morgan was always talking about how they would make a huge fortune from this world, but Bob had come to loathe the place. Especially that biting wind! No matter how warm you wrapped up, it still managed to send cold shivers down his spine.

A noise on the steps inside the guard tower, made him turn in his chair to face the pitch black hole in the floor. He asked with annoyance, "Jacob! Any news on the generator? What the fuck's going on over there?"

The darkness seemed to rise ominously, forming the indistinct shape of man that loomed above him. There was a slight movement, and something round and wet was flung into Bob's lap, as a chilling voice said, "Jacob says he's sorry, but he never found out."

The mercenary felt shivers go down his spine, but they had nothing to do with the cold wind. Eyes wide with fear, he couldn't help but look down at the object in his lap, and Jacob's decapitated head stared up at him, his mouth open in a silent scream. Bob screamed in terror, but the black shape moved impossibly fast as it lunged towards him, and agonising pain blossomed in his chest. With terrified eyes he gaped at the huge sword impaling him through the sternum. Blood began to dribble out of his mouth, and the armoured man smiled humourlessly, then hauled the sword from the mercenary's chest. Leaping over the edge of the guard tower, the man in black armour dropped the twenty metres to the ground, landing silently, and then ran swiftly towards the next one.

***

"Powering up weapons and shields," Calara stated, as Alyssa brought the Invictus around towards the group of destroyers.

The sleek white model of their assault cruiser raced across the holographic system map, as though eager to leap into the fray. They charged towards the unsuspecting group of destroyers that was making its way back to the cruisers, and the mercenary ships had no idea that their doom was only moments away. The long fire arcs indicating the full reach of the Invictus' Mass Drivers overlapped the destroyers, and the Latina sprung into action.

Calara pressed the left thumb buttons on her weapon controls, then made a tiny adjustment with her targeting and hit the right thumb buttons a split-second later. The Invictus trembled twice as the first pair of two-hundred-metre long rails accelerated their shells to hyper-warp, followed almost immediately by the others. The huge shells raced out, leaving faint blue trails of tachyon particles as the ordnance slammed into each of the four destroyers that Calara had targeted.

Knowing Terran ships like the back of her hand, she had sent each shell slamming into the bridge of all four destroyers. Without their shields up, the heavy rounds had smashed through the thick titanium plating, leaving huge craters. The colossal force of that impact ruptured the hull, and triggered explosive decompression on each ship, instantly killing the bridge crew. A moment later, the shells detonated in a huge explosion, ripping apart what remained of the devastated destroyers.

Simultaneously, Calara pulled the triggers on her Beam Lasers, sending three coruscating orange lances into each of the remaining two destroyers. Throbbing energy cut through the titanium armour and hull structure like a hot knife through butter, and having aimed at the power cores, both were speared through by the bright beams. One of the destroyers immediately exploded, sending debris in a wide radius, while all lights on the other guttered and died, leaving it to tumble in space as a lifeless hulk.

Irillith watched the engagement in open mouthed amazement. By viewing the video feeds, she had witnessed the Latina in action before, but the mild mannered brunette had just eviscerated six enemy destroyers in two seconds. The Maliri possessed more powerful weapons of course, but shooting with that kind of deadly precision was absolutely unheard of. She found herself rapidly re-evaluating the threat this deadly ship and crew posed, and her conclusions were not reassuring.

"Bringing us around for the second group," Alyssa stated calmly, turning the Invictus in a broad arc, and sending the ship racing towards the next formation of six Destroyers.

***

The laser cannons on the Raptor opened up, sending bright orange laser bolts smashing into the completely oblivious tank. Although the plating on the fifty ton vehicle was thick, the laser cannons were designed to punch through titanium armoured ship hulls, and with half a dozen hits, they blew apart the tank chassis, causing the stricken vehicle to explode. The two tanks behind came to an abrupt halt, the crews stunned by the sudden destruction of their section leader.

Jade grinned as she banked right, walking searing laser cannon bolts into the second tank, whilst opening up with her six Gatling lasers on the one at the rear. The second tank didn't last much longer than the section leader, and laser bolts blew apart the turret, triggering a magazine explosion that obliterated the second heavy tank. After spinning up for a second, the Gatling lasers were carving huge furrows through the titanium plating, but it was proving too thick for the individual shots to penetrate. The terrified third tank crew away drove recklessly, desperately trying to escape the gunship's deadly ambush, as pieces of armour plating rained down on them from their exploding comrade.

Jade dropped the nose of the gunship as she cranked up the engines, which roared to life as they throbbed with power. Leaping forward, the Raptor rapidly closed the distance, with Jade opening up on the last vehicle with her laser cannons. It ground to a halt as a laser bolt smashed the engine, and it exploded shortly afterwards as she poured more fire into the now stationary tank.

Finding tank hunting to be great fun, Jade raced eastwards in search of the second flanking group. Now that her full sensor suite was active, the four tanks in the main group, and the three in the eastern flanking group were flagged on the terrain map. She raced east from her current position and smiled to herself when she spotted her next prey.

***

Dana crouched next to the backup generator, carefully setting up the remote trigger on the second set of explosives, and making sure that it was linked correctly to the detonator. Two red lights were now shining on the detonator she carried on her belt, with a switch next to each that was currently secured by a restraining clip, to prevent accidental activation.

"All set?" Rachel asked over her shoulder, as she stood guard by the door.

Springing lithely to her feet, Dana nodded and gave her the thumbs up. "We're all good to go!" she said with a grin, as she walked over to join the brunette. "Any sign of John yet?"

Rachel pushed the door open carefully, and looked outside, but could see nothing of their lover. "Where is he?" she asked Dana, sounding concerned.

Dana shrugged helplessly, and looked out over the compound, but they could only see the lights illuminating the mercenary buildings, and the impenetrable darkness between.

***

"They've taken the bait," Alyssa said as she glanced up at the tactical map.

The two cruisers were powering up their shields, weapons, and engines and had started to move from their geo-stationary orbit above SerpentHold base, and appeared to be engaging. From the data available to them, they seemed to be modern Torkan-class cruisers. They were armed with six front mounted beam lasers like the Invictus, but they also had eight turreted heavy cannon on their topdeck, which boasted broad full frontal fire arcs.

Calara nodded, and said confidently, "I'll be done with this group shortly."

The second destroyer group had reacted to their ambush of the first group, by powering up shields and weapons, then turning to attack. Calara had split her Beam laser fire between the first two destroyers, knocked out both their shields, but doing no damage. She left that to the Mass Drivers, and two pairs of shells smashed into the destroyers, blowing apart the incoming ships before they could open fire.

The remaining four destroyers flew gamely onwards through the broad debris field, which was all that was left of their two compatriots. Each destroyer was armed with two beam lasers and six laser cannons, and they opened up with the beam lasers from medium range. Alyssa had thrown off their accuracy with her evasive manoeuvres, and three of the orange beams sailed wide, leaving only three to hit home. The beams slashed across the Invictus' shields, causing bright ribbons of energy to flare as the shields absorbed the incoming shots.