Three Square Meals Ch. 066

The Phobos took a couple of minutes to go down, a testimony to the rugged durability of Terran ship hulls. When it did, the battleship was wracked by several explosions, before the infernal plasma fire touched off the forward magazine. The resulting explosion looked like a miniature supernova on the tactical map, as a blast wave swept out, battering aside the tortured wrecks that were all that was left of the rest of the Terran fleet. The Kintark had fared better, but not by much, with only one severely damaged cruiser left to support the - as yet - untouched Bershan'tok.

Turning to glance at Jade, she said, "That's our cue. Engines to full power and take us in, Jade."

The Nymph nodded eagerly, and said, "Sure, Commander!"

Irillith glanced at the tactical map, and asked, "Do you want me to try and shut down the battleship, or take over that last cruiser?"

Calara shook her head, but didn't turn around, concentrating instead on powering up the Invictus' shields, and activating their arsenal of weapons. "Save your energy, John and Alyssa might need to tap us for power," she replied over her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed as she added grimly, "This one's all mine."

Sakura stared at the Latina in utter amazement. The thought of taking on a battleship in this old cruiser seemed like sheer lunacy to her. She wanted to protest, but she still felt a little intimidated by these tall, beautiful women at the best of times. With Calara full of righteous fury, the last thing she wanted to do was second guess her. Irillith had seemed more sombre than the others, and a little more grounded than the normally bright-eyed and optimistic brunette. Sakura shot her a furtive glance, hoping that the Maliri girl might say something, but she didn't look at all perturbed at the thought of this upcoming lopsided battle.

As if she knew what Sakura was thinking, Irillith looked up at the Asian girl and met her gaze. The Maliri looked thoughtful for a moment, then a lovely smile spread across her face, and she rose from her chair before gliding up the illuminated steps to the Command Podium. She crouched down next to the big Executive Officer's chair, and her angular violet eyes looked into Sakura's almond shaped orbs.

"You look worried," Irillith said with a comforting smile. She leaned in a moment, then added, "Why don't you let me talk you through the battle? I used to be the new girl around here until you arrived, and I remember how unsettling it could be."

Sakura gave her a tentative nod, and replied, "I'd appreciate that, thank you."

They turned to look at the tactical map as the Invictus tore across the system, travelling at speeds altogether unreasonable in a ship of its size. The Kintark battleship and remaining cruiser had picked up on their approaching ship, and seemed eager to engage on this sole, suicidal cruiser, not realising for one moment what was actually about to descend on them.

"Shouldn't we at least be trying to sneak in there to get the element of surprise?" Sakura asked in a quiet voice.

Irillith shook her head, and whispered her reply, "The cruiser's shields are out, and the battleship's are badly weakened. Calara wants to hit them as fast as possible before they have any chance to regenerate."

"But we're massively outgunned," Sakura murmured, her eyes wide with worry. "I just saw what the Kintark did to the Terran battleship. We can't possibly face that kind of firepower!"

Irillith placed a calming hand on Sakura's and stroked it gently as she said, "Just watch, and you'll see."

The Invictus screamed in towards the Kintark vessels, the long fire arcs displayed on the map brushing over the green-plated ships. The cruiser was closest, and the moment it was in range, Calara opened fire with four of the front-facing Beam Lasers that were mounted on the underbelly of the ship. The ship trembled a second later as she fired the four Mass Drivers, and the shells were accelerated to hyper-warp speeds before they pounded into the already damaged cruiser.

Four savage explosions blasted out huge chunks of the ship, just as the four Beam Lasers slashed into the devastated prow with the accuracy of a surgeon's scalpel. Calara had burnt through the Command Deck of the doomed Kintark ship, vaporising the Bridge, and all the officers stationed there. This all happened in a matter of seconds, so quick in fact, that the Kintark cruiser hadn't even had a chance to retaliate before it was effectively decapitated.

Sakura watched mouth agape, as Jade nudged the Invictus' nose downwards by pushing forward with her flight controls, then jinked from side to side. Her erratic manoeuvres coincided with them coming into range of the battleship, and despite the Kintark gunners' best efforts, most of the Plasma Cannon shots sailed wide.

Irillith glanced at the damage control display, and murmured, "Shields at ninety percent. They'll have to do better than that if they're going to be any sort of challenge."

With the topdeck presented to the Bershan'tok, Calara lashed out at the Kintark battleship with all sixteen Beam Lasers mounted on the topdeck. The blazing azure beams only pulsed for a couple of seconds, before they overloaded the flagging shields in a sudden flash of light. The lances of energy all converged on a single point amidships, eviscerating the armour plating and leaving a glowing rent in the ship's defences. Jade tilted the Invictus, and pulled back on the stick, so that they'd stay in the forward arc of the Kintark cruiser.

This meant Calara had another four Beam Lasers ready to fire from the rear of the underbelly, while the ones on the fore and the topdeck of the ship cooled down. The searing blue beams cut into the same spot, burning much deeper this time.

"What's she shooting at?" Sakura asked, spellbound by the entire encounter.

Irillith smiled at her, and said, "This isn't the first Kintark battleship we've faced. The last one suffered a Power Core explosion, and she knows exactly where that's located now."

The Bershan'tok turned frantically, in a desperate attempt to conceal the charred chasm in their emerald armour plating. This brought their port weapons to bear, and they fired another deadly salvo at the glossy white assault cruiser that was casually tearing them apart. More plasma bolts hit this time, and the Invictus' shield display turned from green to yellow as the shields were knocked down to sixty percent strength.

"Better, but too little, too late," Irillith said with a sly smile.

Jade looped the Invictus around, the impossibly fast ship moving faster than the cumbersome battleship could turn. The overheating warnings next to the Beam Lasers on the weapon loadout display had disappeared now, and Calara hit the Kintark with another blistering barrage in exactly the same spot. The bright columns of energy bored into the last of the armour plating, then cut through the ship, melting through deck after deck as Calara maintained the beams with unerring accuracy. They were close enough for her to bring their complement of Pulse Cannons to bear now too, and a cascade of blue laser bolts blasting into the same spot further shredding the internals of the ship.

The Kintark managed one last volley, several shots of which hit the Invictus' shields and turned the shield display a deep maroon colour. Jade pulled the nose of the ship up so they were pointing directly at the battleship, and Calara opened fire with the Mass Drivers, launching the four explosive warheads right through the hole she'd just excavated in the battleship's hull. The huge vessel seemed to shudder in terror as it was rocked by four explosions deep inside the hull, the last of which enveloped the Power Core and triggered a reactor breach.

Sakura could only watch in stunned incredulity as the Bershan'tok competed with the Phobos for the most impressive death throes. An eerie radiance seem to pour out of the centre of the ship, the flanks of the titanic ship swelling as the fusion reactor at its heart went into meltdown. All of a sudden it was consumed by a blazing orange ball of energy, which blasted out, ripping the battleship apart in a pitiless wave of devastation.

"And that's why I wasn't worried," Irillith said, squeezing the petite girl's hand. "Not with Jade flying and Calara manning the guns."

The Asian girl shook her head, her mind refusing to accept what she'd just witnessed. "How was that even possible?" she asked, utterly astounded.

Irillith smiled at her, and said, "Well firstly let me tell you about Dana. Don't let her coarse language or perky demeanour fool you, like it did me to start with. She's an absolute genius with technology, and she's turned this ship into a unstoppable engine of destruction..."

Sakura gaped at the Maliri as she told her all about her new teammates.

***

"So why do you reckon Tamolith is pissed at her mate?" Dana whispered as they crept down the gloomy tunnel. She grinned as she continued, "Maybe he isn't ringing her bell any more?"

Despite the tense atmosphere, Rachel tried not to laugh, and she replied, "Maybe you could ask him?"

"Stay focused now, girls," John told them, as he looked warily down the tunnel ahead of them.

They'd been following this long, winding tunnel for nearly ten minutes now, heading upwards and away from the magma lake. The temperature was dropping steadily, and the warning icon had ceased flashing some time ago.

*Something's different up ahead,* Alyssa thought to him. *The tunnel's ending.*

*Yeah, I see it,* he replied with a nod, seeing the wireframe images from low-light enhancement clearly showing the end of the tunnel.

It didn't take them long to reach the next room, and he blinked in surprise when he got a good look at the astonishing cavern they had just entered. The room stretched out into the distance for at least three-hundred-metres, with a strangely ridged ceiling, which looked like it had been formed from cooling lava.

The enormous hall was filled with various trophies of all shapes and sizes. Huge skulls from various animals were propped up on stands throughout the room, none of which John recognised. They were illuminated by soft lighting set into the ground, and the shadows playing across the many sharp teeth on display, made them look all the more ferocious.

"These can't all be from Xen-Nuchek," Rachel observed, staring at them in fascination. She pointed to a malevolent-looking aquatic predator, its maw filled with several rows of vicious looking serrated teeth, and added, "There aren't any oceans on the planet that would support an ecosystem for that creature."

"Maybe Kindralax is a big game hunter, and brought his haul of trophies with him?" John wondered as he looked around the room.

"YOU DARE DESECRATE THE ABODE OF A GOD!" a booming voice challenged them, the thunderous sound reverberating around the room.

The acoustics of this chamber meant that the direction of Kindralax's current location was obscured by the deafening echo's distortion effect. John looked around the room for any places big enough to hide a creature larger than Tamolith, but none of the skeletal trophies were anywhere near substantial enough to provide that kind of concealment.

*Up above us,* Alyssa warned him. *There's some kind of balcony up there.*

*Spread out and find some cover,* he replied, darting forward to duck beside the skull of what must have been a huge bear-like creature.

John scanned the ceiling, and saw that Alyssa was right. What he'd mistaken for striations in the rock, were actually a number of jutting out platforms high up above them. He caught a flash of movement at the back of the canyon, and what looked like two baleful green eyes appeared, shining bright against the darkness. Not wasting any time with pleasantries, John snapped off a quick burst with his Punisher rifle, but to no obvious effect.

Low, pitiless laughter rumbled around the chamber, and as John strained to make out the dragon, he heard a strange throbbing sound that grew louder by the second. He recognised the sound, and managed to throw himself clear at the last second, as two huge green streams blasted into the skull he was hiding behind. The eight-foot skull exploded in fiery green fragments, leaving a burning plasma fire spitting in its wake.

*Holy fuck! Can that thing breathe fire?!* Alyssa balked, and he could feel her fear over the empathic bond.

John raced for cover, and replied, *I thought I was shooting at Kindralax's eyes, but he's armed with some kind of double-barrelled Plasma Cannon!*

"FOOLISH, PITIFUL INSECTS!" Kindralax roared, and they could hear him moving position, each heavy step dropping clouds of dust and chips of rock from the ceiling.

John desperately searched the balcony for any sign of the lurking draconic monster, but Kindralax was keeping well out of sight. He spotted the movement of something immense over to his left, and the dragon reappeared, its gigantic head finally visible in the muted light. His maw was about the size of a hover-car, at least twelve-feet long at a glance. The dragon's lips were curled back in a disdainful sneer, and John could make out teeth that were longer than his legs.

He heard that throbbing sound again, and he opened fire on full-auto at Kindralax's head, sending twenty hyper-accelerated slugs towards the reptilian beast. He looked on in shock as the bullets bounced away harmlessly, orange circles of light appearing as the bullets were deflected away.

*That bastard's shielded!* he warned Alyssa, as Kindralax fired again, but at Rachel this time.

She started sprinting as soon as she saw the dragon looking in her direction, and John heard her terrified scream as she narrowly avoided being hit by the heavy plasma bolts.

"FLEE, PATHETIC WORM!" Kindralax cackled with delight as he watched Rachel running for her life.

John stepped out of cover, and cranking up the amplifiers on his armour, he called out, "Kindralax! Stop cowering up there, and fight me! Or are you too afraid to face a real immortal!"

The dragon had pulled back after it had fired its plasma weapon, and the laughter died out as it heard John's bold challenge. It sounded furious as it bellowed, "WHAT HERESY IS THIS?! YOU ARE NO IMMORTAL!!"

"You rage like a petulant infant having a tantrum!" John shouted back, ad-libbing his insults as he went. "You claim immortality, but show all the maturity of a witless child!"

There was a stony silence from up on the balcony above them, and John glanced at the girls to check they were alright. Rachel had found some more cover, and Alyssa met his gaze with a worried frown.

*Are you sure it's a good idea to piss this thing off?* she asked him, and he could see her look of alarm through her clear-crystal visor.

There was movement up on the levels above, and two sets of scythe-like claws appeared at the edge of the balcony, followed seconds later by a colossal red maw. Kindralax loomed above them, then leapt down from the upper level with a resounding crash, and John could feel the tremors from that impact through his booted feet.

"BEHOLD MY GLORIOUS MAJESTY, AND COWER IN DESPAIR, PATHETIC MORTALS!" Kindralax boomed, as John gaped at the size of this monster.

Kindralax was nearly twice the size of Tamolith, at well over one-hundred-feet long. He was proportioned like her, with tree-trunk like legs ending in long, evil-looking claws, a broad body, and a long, sinuous neck that ended where it met its monstrous head. Unlike the female of his species, Kindralax had a jet-black crest jutting out from the back of his skull, ending in long horns. The backs of his foreclaws and shoulders were similarly adorned in four-foot-long spikes, which looked terrifyingly sharp.

As John's eyes swept over the gigantic dragon, he made out some kind of harness across its back, where two broad barrels jutted forward over Kindralax's shoulders. Behind the Heavy Plasma weapons was a squat cube, which John could only assume was a shield generator.

The Kintark dragon was truly awe-inspiring, and John started to wonder if they'd made a terrible mistake in challenging this creature. He wanted to react, but despite his brave words, he felt rooted to the spot as icy fingers of fear clawed at his heart. Kindralax seemed to sense the dread that John was feeling, and it began to laugh once more, a booming, resonant chuckle that sent further chills up his spine.

Surprisingly it was Dana who reacted first, and she hefted her Justice Laser rifle, aiming it at the dragon, and yelled, "Laugh this off, you fucker!"

She opened fire, sending bright blue bolts of laser fire into the dragon's shield, causing it to ripple and spark as it absorbed the impacts. Blue circles spread out over the force field, as Dana poured more fire towards it, and Kindralax snarled in anger at the impudent girl. He half-pounced forward, bringing his Plasma Cannons to bear, and the huge weapons began to power up with an ominous hum.

"Sparks, take cover!" John yelled, seeing the redhead was so focused on shooting the dragon, she wasn't reacting to the impending danger.

Alyssa whirled around, and hurled a telekinetic wall at her friend, just as Kindralax unleashed two green streams of plasma fire in her direction. The mental push sent Dana sprawling, and shoved her clear from being hit directly. However, the twin green bolts burst into the ground, splashing up and coating her armour in a liberal spray of viscous flaming plasma.

Dana was scrambling clear when she saw the acrid smoke streaming from her body as the plasma burnt through her Paragon suit. "Fuck me!" she blurted in horror as she stared at the hissing, searing green ooze that was melting the Crystal Alyssium plating on her chest and legs.

*Unlock the fucking armour!* Alyssa screamed at her. *Get out of it now!*

Dana dropped the Justice rifle and pressed her thumb to her palm, hearing the rippling wave of clicks as the hooks unlocked around the armour plating. Alyssa ran over to her, and helped her pull the steaming plates clear, leaving Dana wearing only the Paragon helmet.

"HOW AMUSING," Kindralax cackled with glee, then roared, "BUT NOW YOU DIE, TINY, INSIGNIFICANT WHELP." The Dragon prowled forward, its long limbs covering the ground between it and Dana at a disturbing rate.

John watched helplessly, his Punisher rifle rendered utterly ineffective with Kindralax shielded as it was. Still, he had one other weapon that he knew would still work, and he drew his sword from its magnetic sheath as he broke into a loping run. With his girls in danger, his fear was instantly banished, and he felt a fierce eagerness to test his strength against this vast, hulking beast.

Kindralax had dismissed John as being inconsequential, and certainly not any kind of threat. Thus it ignored him completely as it bore down on the Terran female, who possessed a weapon actually capable of knocking out its protective shield. Kindralax wove his way through his trophies, studiously avoiding disturbing his collection which had taken over a century to assemble. A feral grin formed on his massive mouth, his lips curled back as he looked forward to feasting on these reckless intruders.

Just as the dragon placed its enormous right fore-paw on the ground, long claws digging into the ground for purchase, John reached the apex of his charge. With a defiant yell, he swung his long sword with two hands in a mighty overhead chop, the shimmering white blade whistling through the air as it slammed downwards. The blade was incredibly sharp, and with his potent strength driving the blow he chopped straight through the spikes on the back of Kindralax's forearm, his sword then cutting a vicious slice through the thick scales covering the dragon's arm.

Kindralax howled with the pain, lurching backwards with a baffled look on his broad reptilian face, as he stared in shock at the yellow blood pouring from his wrist. He knocked several skulls from their stands as he staggered away, sending the grizzly trophies skittering across the chamber.