Three Square Meals Ch. 053

Rachel had been gazing up at the map, and she noticed dozens of disturbingly familiar shapes scattered amongst the debris. "Can you zoom in on that debris?" she asked Calara quietly.

Before the Latina could do so, Jade turned in her chair, and confirmed Rachel's suspicions in a sombre voice, "They're corpses. At least fifty."

Calara looked grim as she nodded, and said, "Whoever attacked the space station probably caught them by surprise. It looks like they pierced the station's hull, and triggered an explosive decompression. If that Trankaran station is anything like a Terran base, then security doors and pressure fields would have been in place to prevent that kind of thing from happening if the station had been on alert."

The active scan was now complete, and Dana looked sombre as she agreed, "They were caught with their pants down alright. The rebels probably pretended to be friendly, and hit Demladuhr while it was completely unprepared. The whole space station has been depressurised, and it looks like there's dozens of corpses in there. I'm getting no life signs, but picking up lots of biological matter."

"There," John suddenly said, pointing towards the overhead map, and the Trankaran Cruiser that had suddenly appeared at the edge of their sensor range. He looked down at Jade, and ordered, "Intercept that ship!"

Jade nodded, and brought the Invictus about, turning towards the closest space lane leading out of the asteroid field. This broad path through the hazardous belts of rock put them on a direct intercept course with the Trankaran cruiser, and would allow them to engage the blocky vessel.

"They appear to be heading for Demladuhr Station, probably on the lookout for more merchants," Alyssa speculated, studying the Trankaran cruiser's projected route. "We should be out of the asteroid field before they get close enough to see us on their sensors."

John nodded, and said, "Good. When we're on the edge of the asteroid belt, power down, and we'll hit them as soon as they drop out of hyper-warp. If they keep going, power up the Tachyon drive and we'll interdict them." Looking towards Irillith, he asked, "Can you hack into their ship, and disable them?"

Irillith looked confident as she replied, "If you give me back my hacking deck, then it shouldn't be a problem."

Dana abruptly looked up and said, "Hold on. Would you be creating an AI to sabotage their ship?"

The Maliri woman masked her irritation at being questioned, and replied, "Yes. I'll construct an AI, provide it some programs, and send it off to execute them."

"What if you already had an active AI?" Rachel asked with concern.

Irillith glanced at the brunette, and she paused for a moment suddenly remembering with a start that she had forgotten to de-res the last AI she had summoned. Her angular violet eyes went wide as she realised why Rachel was asking. "Then I'd shut it down immediately," she replied coldly and without remorse. "Either that, or send it off straight away to attack the Trankaran ship, then de-res it once it had accomplished its task."

Dana looked alarmed, and staring up at John she pleaded, "You can't let her kill Faye!"

"You've named it?" Irillith asked, her lip curling in disgust, despite herself.

Rachel nodded and said sternly, "Faye has been really helpful, and she's growing into a lovely person. We can't betray her friendship like that, and I won't let you harm her."

Irillith fought down her indignant rage, reminding herself she was supposed to be pleasant and obedient. She looked up at John and said in a reasonable tone, "I'd strongly recommend not keeping an AI as a pet. They are quite temperamental, and prone to becoming very unstable if not put down once they've served their purpose."

John nodded in agreement, but he hesitated when he saw the disapproving look Alyssa was giving him. After glancing around quickly, and seeing the worried expressions on the faces of the rest of the girls on the Bridge, he ground his teeth in anger. He looked at Irillith, and said, "Can you hack that ship without using an AI?"

Irillith looked incredulous for a moment, but she fought down her annoyance, and forced herself to think about his question. With a barely concealed sigh, she admitted, "Yes, but it's going to take me a lot longer, and there'll be a limit to what I can achieve. I might be able to set up a comms blackout quickly, but fighting my way into secured systems like the shield generator or fire control is probably going to take too long to be useful."

He shook his head adamantly, and said in a firm voice, "No, don't interrupt their comms."

Rachel frowned and asked, "But if we leave their comms systems intact, they'll call for reinforcements."

John grinned wickedly, and said, "Exactly. We want them begging for help." Glancing over at Calara he asked, "Have they spotted us yet?"

She shook her head, then said, "They haven't reacted to our approach yet. Going by all the data we got from the scan of the loyalist cruiser, standard Trankaran sensors are only about as good as regular Terran sensors."

Hitting a button on her console she brought up an image of the Trankaran cruiser in the Tactical Display. The targeting computer recognised its specifications from the active scan they had conducted earlier, and began to list the details of the ship's loadout and capabilities.

"Four Fusion Beams in fixed mounts to the fore, and three to port and starboard," Calara noted. "They're shorter range than our Beam lasers, but they hit a lot harder. I'd suggest keeping our distance, but their engines are much more powerful than ours, so I don't think that's going to be an option."

"Can you knock out their weapons?" John asked her.

The Latina frowned and said, "Only the gun ports are going to be visible, as their weapons are protected by massive armour plating. I might be able to, but it's going to be tricky, especially with their manoeuvrability. Their retro-thrusters are buried in the armour too, but should be easier to hit. I could try disabling them like I did with the Drakkar."

John said firmly, "I just need them incapacitated, I don't care how you do it."

Nodding, Calara said confidently, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

Jade had powered up their engines to maximum, and the Invictus raced away from the silent tomb that was Demladuhr Station, making steady progress along the channel between the asteroids. When she finally guided them to a halt by the edge of the last asteroid belt, Dana powered down any extraneous systems, dropping their energy profile to a minimum. They all gazed up at the system map, and watched as the Trankaran cruiser dropped out of hyper-warp, appearing to be completely oblivious to their presence, as it plotted a course around the edge of the field.

It was disturbing to see such a stocky, blunt, and ungainly looking vessel moving with such speed, and making smooth and elegant course changes. The front of the cruiser was bulbous, and appeared to be a featureless expanse of iron-red armour plating. They could see that the armour on the hull was twice as thick on the front as it was on the sides or rear, with the Trankaran ship designed to take advantage of their incredibly powerful engine tech, and keep their front to an opponent.

Dana looked pensive as she cautioned them, "We do NOT want to get rammed by that big ugly fucker. Our armour is much more resilient than theirs pound for pound, but their front plating is nearly fifteen-feet thick. They'd tear through us like tissue paper!"

Jade nodded, then glanced back at Alyssa, and asked, "Do you want me to pilot the Invictus for this, or do you want to take over?"

Alyssa gave her a reassuring smile, and replied, "You've got this. Don't worry, you'll be great!"

Jade smiled at her proudly, then turned back to her console. They watched the Trankaran cruiser surge closer, and they could see it move within the fire arcs of their Beam lasers.

Dana studied the passive scan data and said to Calara in warning, "Their shields are up already. Looks like they were expecting a fight."

The brunette nodded, and said to Jade, "Alright keep the nose on them, we'll hit them in the rear at max range."

The Nymph carefully nudged the nose of the Invictus around using light touches on the retro-thrusters, and the front mounted weapon arcs stayed directly over the unsuspecting Trankaran ship. It flew past them, and just as it looked like it was about to get away, Calara pulled the trigger on both of her weapon controls. The six bright lances of energy slashed into the rear of the Trankaran ship, causing a brilliant surge of energy as the energy beams throbbed with power. The beams cut off abruptly to avoid overheating, and the heatsinks began to rapidly vent the excess heat.

The Trankaran ship reacted immediately, their crew sharp and alert. Moving with disconcerting ease, the massive cruiser executed a sharp turn, and began to head back towards the Invictus.

"Shields up, all power to max," Dana called out, clicking buttons on her Engineering console, and sending the energy signature of the Invictus through the roof.

Jade waited patiently as the Trankaran ship bore down on them, seemingly intent on charging straight down the barrels of their weapons. The second the recharging icon winked out on the weapon loadout display for the Invictus, Calara caressed the trigger on her controls again, and the Beam lasers sent pulsating shafts of energy scything into the Trankaran shields. With a scintillating flash of energy, the shields flared and winked out, letting the last of the beams sear across the front of the enemy cruiser.

The very instant the shields dissipated, Calara pressed the thumb buttons on her controls and the Invictus jerked backwards as she fired the four Mass drivers. The hyper-accelerated shells blasted down the two-hundred-metre long magnetic rails, then left light blue trails linking the ships as they slammed into the front of the Trankaran ship, and detonated a second later. Everyone had been holding their breath, and as the bright light from the explosions dissipated, they saw four deep craters punched into the front of the enemy vessel. The enormous impact craters linked together, and the concave ruin that had once been the front of the Trankaran ship, now made it look like it had opened a massive, toothless maw to swallow them whole.

"Get us out of here, Jade," John said curtly.

She pivoted the ship, and cranked up the power, and the Invictus began to pick up speed as it attempted to flee the incoming cruiser. A second later, three shimmering red columns of energy hit the Invictus' shields in the rear. One of the Trankaran's weapons had been destroyed by the Mass Drivers, but the three remaining Fusion Beams pulsed angrily, and waves of incredible heat roared like a furnace over the back of the Invictus, straining the energy field protecting them.

Dana looked worried and gasped, "Shields down to 64% already!"

The Trankaran ship kept coming, and had now closed to laser cannon range. Calara opened up with the rear mounted weapons, adding in those to the sides, which had fire arcs that covered the rear. In all, twelve turreted barrels opened fire, sending a stream of energy blasts into the front of the Trankaran ship. She narrowed her eyes as she concentrated, aiming for the one-metre-square gap in the armour where the Fusion Beam muzzles were exposed. There was an explosion and a second Fusion Beam exploded and was destroyed, before the Trankarans fired back.

"Shields at 42%!" Dana called out.

The Trankaran pilot had realised what Calara was trying to do, and began to dodge from side-to-side while their Fusion Beams recharged. She compensated, adjusting her aim as she anticipated most of the enemy pilot's manoeuvres, and was able to destroy another weapon with her incredibly accurate marksmanship. The third Fusion Beam was blown apart, causing a muted explosion, which was muffled by all the armour. The last of their Fusion Beams had cooled, and they fired it again, just as she hit the final muzzle with several laser bolts, leaving their ship's bow weaponless.

She glanced up at John and said tersely, "I'm not sure I'll be able to disable that ship without destroying them. All their vulnerable systems are at their rear, and our shields can't withstand a volley if they broadside us."

"Careful!" Alyssa called out to Jade, "They're turning to hit us with their starboard weapons."

"Take the hits!" John said sternly, "Bank hard to starboard, and then go for their retro-thrusters and engines!"

Both Jade and Calara nodded, and moved swiftly to obey his orders. The Nymph rolled the ship to the right, then pulled up the nose, bringing them around in a tight turn as she lowered the engine power. Calara opened up with the turrets on the topdeck, and sixteen laser cannons opened fire, strafing the side of the Trankaran ship in a seemingly random cascade of bright orange laser bolts. The rippling explosions over the starboard side of the hull were testimony to the pinpoint accuracy of her shooting, and one retro-thruster after another, was destroyed by the laser blasts.

Unfortunately the blocky cruiser gave back as good as it had got, and the three Fusion Beams lashed out over the Invictus in a raging inferno of heat. The holographic shield strength display rapidly went from orange to red, then faded to black as the shields were burnt out, and the beams of heat went on to lick the glossy white hull of the assault cruiser.

"Another hit like that, and we'll start blowing capacitors!" Dana cried out in alarm.

As the Invictus looped around, the Trankaran pilot fired the retro-thrusters on the port side of their ship, and the cruiser began to make a tight turn. Unfortunately for them, Calara now had a clear shot at the rear of their ship, and the engines on the starboard side were centred in her crosshairs. She gripped all the buttons on the fire control sticks and the sixteen laser cannon turrets sent a relentless shower of laser blasts into the engines. There were two big explosions at the back of the Trankaran ship, as the starboard engines were ripped apart by deadly accurate laser fire, and debris scattered out in a curved trail behind the ship as it continued to turn.

Dana gritted her teeth and yelled, "Incoming fire!"

The ship shuddered as the gunner on the Trankaran cruiser opened fire with their Fusion Beams, sending searing waves of heat over the hull of the Invictus. Two of the capacitors exploded as they were overloaded by the energy they were siphoning through the Alyssium hull plating, and several armoured panels buckled and cracked under the intense blaze.

Warning lights flashed on the damage control panel, highlighting a section midway down the hull in red, and Dana winced as she said, "The armour amidships on the starboard side is fucked! We can't take another hit there."

John half-raised himself out of his seat and yelled to Jade, "Get some distance between us, now!"

The Nymph nodded curtly, and pulled out of the turn and ramped up the engine power. The Invictus raced away at full speed, and by the time the Trankaran Cruiser had pulled around to hit them with another broadside, they were out of range of their Fusion Beams. With the retro-thrusters destroyed on the starboard side of the ship, and two of their five engines blown to pieces, the Trankarans continued their turn and began running for the Nav beacon.

John sat back in his chair, and a humourless smile spread across his face. "There's no running for you I'm afraid," he muttered. Glancing down at Jade he said, "Bring us into maximum Beam laser range."

She nodded, and brought the Invictus about, bearing down on the fleeing Trankaran Vessel. The assault cruiser was the faster ship now, and began to gradually catch up with the retreating enemy.

John sat back, and said confidently, "Stay out of their weapon range, and take them apart. Leave them alive though, we want them pleading for help from any nearby ships. With a little luck we'll be able to draw away some of the picket vessels from Trankara."

The girls looked up at him, startled at his cruel tone, but set about following his orders. Jade brought the Invictus in closer, and at maximum range, Calara opened up with their beam lasers. The Trankaran ship had started to regenerate their shields, but nowhere near enough to save them from the power of the bright coruscating beams. They eviscerated the enemy shields once again, then slashed through their engines, destroying the remaining three in a series of explosions.

The Trankarans spun their cruiser frantically, but now they had begun drifting, and Jade matched their speed just outside their weapon range. Calara pulled the trigger and the beams lashed out, carving six deep furrows through the armour plating, making the red hull look like a pair of three-clawed paws had taken savage rents out of their hide.

Irillith had watched the entire battle while sitting on the edge of her seat, spellbound by the entire encounter. She had seen Calara's incredibly deadly gunnery skills before, but this was the first time she'd seen the Invictus effortlessly shrug off incoming energy weapons with its glossy white armour. It was sobering to realise that the broadside which had finally managed to damage the Invictus, would have crippled a Maliri patrol cruiser.

A flashing light appeared on Rachel's console, and she looked up at John and said, "We're being hailed."

John smiled and said, "Put them through."

The viewscreen crackled for a moment, and the image finally settled into that of a blocky-faced Trankaran. The armoured cruiser Captain's granite coloured features were twisted in fear, and he pleaded in his deep gravelly voice, "Cease fire! We surrender! What do you want?"

John leaned forward and said, "I'm the heroic Lion of the Terran Federation, and I'm here to punish you for attacking poor defenceless merchants. I want you to die..."

Alyssa glanced at him, and swore she heard the biting sound of sarcasm in his tone.

John wagged a scolding finger at the shocked Trankaran captain, then glanced at Rachel, who took his hint, and cut the comm channel off abruptly.

"Keep shooting bits off that cruiser," he ordered Calara. "We want them calling for as much backup as possible."

The Latina nodded, turning back and opening fire with the Beam lasers again. This time the energy lances cut through the already ravaged armour plating, and blew out all three Fusion Beams on the starboard side. She aimed carefully with the mass drivers, sending all four shells slamming into the topdeck of the stricken alien vessel, and smashing huge craters into the armour plating. The Trankaran cruiser rocked with the repeated explosions, and they could only imagine what it must have been like for the crew inside.

Rachel looked up at John and said, "I've been monitoring their outgoing comms. I haven't been able to intercept their messages, but they've been broadcasting non-stop since we started taking out their weapons. I also detected multiple inbound messages, which are probably from reinforcements."

Dana was staring up at the Sector Map, and she confirmed Rachel's suspicions a few moments later as she exclaimed, "Picking up incoming vessels!"

They watched the map as several smaller ships began to approach on the right-hand side of the map. The handful of Trankaran destroyers began to make steady progress towards them, while Calara continued to slash away more armour plating from the immobilised cruiser.

Alyssa did some quick mental calculations based on the speed of the incoming Trankarans and said, "The destroyers are five minutes from jumping in."

John nodded and said without emotion, "That should be enough. Alright, let's finish the cruiser, and go hit Trankara."