Three Square Meals Ch. 068

It had started months ago, when he'd been informed about Admiral Lynette Devereux's PR stunt with that award ceremony. He had initially assumed this was one of her manufactured schemes, with Lynette attempting to improve her position within the Admiralty. However, the resulting improvements to morale amongst the troops, and the bounce in High Command's approval ratings, were certainly not something to be sniffed at. The surge in public support had been of particular importance at the time, considering the relentless disasters and setbacks the Dragon March conflict had encountered up until then, offering scant opportunity for celebration.

Hearing plenty of talk about "The Lion" after the award ceremony, had made him curious about John Blake, and Edwin fully reviewed the Iota-Leonis battle reports. The reports were impressive to say the least. Apparently John had intervened to save invaluable Terran Federation assets in the system, while destroying significant numbers of Kintark forces, and even going so far as to capture an enemy carrier. It seemed that Commodore John Blake had fully earned his promotion, but other than be amazed at just how much a supposedly retired Marine Commander had been able to accomplish, Edwin had paid him no more mind, putting his success down to incredible luck.

Months later, war against the Kintark Empire had been declared, and Buckingham's invasion force had pushed deep into Kintark territory. Word had then reached them of a rogue AI fleet laying waste to the Sol system, while they were nearly a week away from being able to intervene. The Fleet Admiral had called in Edwin to discuss this shocking development, and then only half-an-hour later, a bewildering follow-up report by Admiral Lynette Devereux had announced the AI fleet had been smashed. She'd declared that John Blake had saved the day once again, and that she was promoting him to Rear Admiral.

After that, Caldwell couldn't wait to meet John in person, and was delighted when just such an opportunity presented itself, right there on the Zeus. Upon meeting him, Edwin been tremendously impressed by the man, finding him unassuming and likeable, while possessing an air of confidence and authority that he found himself responding to instinctively. John's unpretentious manner had felt like a breath of fresh air, especially for someone who'd grown jaded with the blatant politicking amongst the senior officers.

Edwin knew that John Blake deserved his promotion to Rear Admiral after everything he'd done to save Terra, but he could see why Lynette had leapt at the chance to use him in her inexhaustible quest for self-aggrandisement. Handsome and amiable, John was a PR dream, the kind of clean-cut hero who looked like he'd walked straight out of a holo-movie.

Then of course there was the meeting with the Admiralty, where John dropped a number of incredible bombshells. The fact that Lynton was a traitor turned out to be practically an afterthought, compared to the revelation that followed shortly thereafter.

Hostile contact by a radically advanced alien species...

It was something that Terran Federation High Command had dreaded for centuries, with numerous contingency plans drawn up over the years, in case of just such an eventuality. To have a trusted source announce that not only did such a civilisation exist, but that it was actively working against the Terran Federation, was an utterly terrifying thought.

When John had left the Zeus to return to his ship, senior Admiralty present in the invasion fleet had reconvened for an emergency meeting to discuss these shocking developments. Opinions varied radically in the approach they should take towards this potential threat, as well as how to handle John, now that he had revealed his true nature. After lengthy discussions, they'd finally made a decision, and had chosen to-.

"BWOOOP!" "BWOOOP!" "BWOOOP!"

The klaxon warning them of an interdiction blared around the Bridge, jarring Admiral Caldwell from his introspection. The Retribution of Zeus began to tremble, the colossal fleet carrier shaking more violently by the second, as they were pulled out of hyper-warp. He didn't think there was a vessel capable of interdicting the fleet carrier, as gigantic as it was, and he stared at the Tactical Map searching frantically for the ship responsible.

The entire fleet had been pulled from hyper-warp, and hundreds of ships were neatly arrayed by battlegroup as they reeled from being dumped into Alpha Leonis, commonly known as the Regulus system. Buckingham's armada was made up of four separate task forces, each group led by one of the three dreadnoughts, with the massive fleet carrier at the centre of the formation. Fleet Admiral Vincent Buckingham had overall command of the Terran Forces, but Admiral Edwin Caldwell had operational command of the Zeus, the Terran Federation flagship, and its accompanying task force. Admirals Ricardo Santini, Carl Weber, and Jayanti Mishra, commanded the other three task forces from their dreadnoughts: The Sword of Sif, Odin's Thunderbolt, and Shiva the Destroyer respectively.

There was no sign of enemy ships, only the four suns of Regulus, dominated by the blue-white primary, which orbited a central point in the system. Whatever planets that might have attempted to form here, had been ripped asunder by the tremendous gravitational forces at work, and the system was awash with asteroid belts.

"What happened, Commander Garfield? I'm not seeing any hostile ships," Caldwell called out calmly to his Engineering Officer.

The swarthy, bearded engineer had narrowed his eyes, staring at the System Map as he tried to understand exactly why they had just been yanked from hyper-warp. His eyes went wide, and he looked up at the Command Podium in alarm as he gasped, "Interdiction beacons! It's the only answer that makes any sense. They must be concealed in the asteroid belts!"

"Kintark forces!" the Zeus' Pilot yelped in alarm, staring at the vast number of ships appearing on the Tactical Map. "They must have powered down and hid in the asteroids!"

"There's scores more of them, Sir!" Commander Milton, his XO, cried out while pointing to the opposite side of the system.

"How in the hell?" Caldwell muttered under his breath, startled to see such a huge Kintark force inside Terran territory.

The answer came to him a moment later, as he saw more ships appearing on the Tactical Map, but these ones were Terran Federation spacecraft by their transponder codes. At their centre was a vessel he never for one moment thought he'd be facing, until that fateful meeting with John Blake days ago. It was the Thor's Hammer, the massive three-kilometre-long dreadnought commanded by the despicable traitor, Gabrielle Lynton.

"Fucking bitch!" Caldwell swore vehemently, an uncharacteristic outburst from the normally calm and reserved man. He stabbed his finger down on the comm button on his console, opening an internal channel to Vincent Buckingham. The Fleet Admiral answered a couple of seconds later, the image of his startled face forming in front of Edwin in a swirl of pixels.

Before Buckingham could say a word, Edwin snapped, "Lynton and the Kintark... it's a trap!"

***

Gabrielle Lynton had a smug smile on her face as she watched Buckingham's forces fall headlong into her ambush. "I've got you now!" she gloated, as the hidden Interdiction Beacons snared the vast Terran Fleet, and she turned to share a broad grin with her Executive Officer.

She'd waited with bated breath as the Terran Federation armada had cruised through the Regulus system, just as she'd predicted. Knowing Terran protocols as intimately as she did, Lynton knew that their navigators would travel close to the strong gravity wells in the system. As long as they plotted their course carefully, they could coast around the edges to create a slingshot effect, which would significantly increase their hyper-warp speed.

"That was amazing, Admiral!" Commander Stephan Nichols said, shaking his head in admiration.

Lynton's eyes twinkled with excitement as she replied, "Now, to close the jaws on our trap..."

She pressed a button on her console, and the image of a composed-looking Kintark officer appeared in front of her. "The Terran invasion force, delivered to you on a platter, High Prelate Zorlin," she said, bowing her head respectfully.

"My thanksss, Admiral Lynton," he replied, acknowledging her gesture with a slight incline of his blunt muzzle. "We ssshall begin our attack immediately."

He ended the call, his scaled face disappearing from sight in a flash of green pixels.

"Shall I give the order for the battle group to engage?" Commander Nichols asked her, turning in his seat and waiting expectantly for her reply.

"All in good time, Commander," Lynton replied as she settled back in her chair, a wicked smile twisting her sensuous mouth. "All in good time..."

***

John stepped out onto the Bridge of the Invictus, and the girls accompanying him fanned out to take their posts at their Stations. He walked up the steps to the Command Podium with Alyssa at his side, and she gave him a loving smile as she sat down in the Executive Officer's chair. John was going to sit down as well, but he found Faye waiting for him, lithe purple legs crossed demurely as she perched on his Command Console.

He reflexively found himself admiring her svelte, naked form before blinking and forcing himself to look into her eyes, where he found her watching him with fascination. "Sorry, Faye," he said with a wry smile. "You're a little distracting completely nude like that."

"You don't like looking at my new avatar?" she asked him then, looking alarmed.

Alyssa laughed, and replied, "He likes it too much, gorgeous. Put on some clothes for the moment, so he can concentrate."

Faye giggled then, fluttering her eyelashes at John coyly, and she paused to give her outfit some consideration. The luscious purple sprite reappeared in a diaphanous, figure-hugging dress that made a valiant attempt at covering her curves, while still revealing plenty of her shapely legs. "Is that better?" she asked, gazing at him with big luminous eyes.

He nodded, and gave her a smile as he replied, "You still look delicious, but that's probably a more sensible ensemble while we're up on the Bridge." He raised an eyebrow as he added, "What's our current status, Watch Commander?"

Her cute face looked adorable as she adopted a more serious expression, and replied earnestly, "We just crossed over into Terran Space two minutes ago! There were no signs of Kintark forces on the final section of our journey."

"Excellent work, Faye. Thanks for seeing us safely home," he said, with an appreciative nod.

"Happy to help!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up with a sparkling smile.

Looking down at the Tactical Station next, he asked, "Calara, which way would Buckingham's armada be headed?"

The Latina had called up a video feed of Mateo, and was watching her brother as he slept down in the Cargo Bay. She tore her eyes away from the screen, then pondered John's question for a few seconds, before she replied, "Port Medea in the Iota-Leonis system would be the most logical destination. There are extensive support facilities there: fuel, ordnance, maintenance, and medical, so it would make sense to use that as the staging ground for further operations in the Dragon March."

He nodded to her in gratitude, then smiled at the Nymph piloting the Invictus as he said, "Jade, set a new course for Iota-Leonis, please."

"Sure thing, John," the green-skinned alien girl replied over her shoulder, her slender hands dancing over the console as she plotted out a new course.

He turned to look at Alyssa next, and she smiled at him as she responded to his question before he could ask it.

"Assuming that Buckingham's forces took the most direct route back to Terran Space, they still have a slight lead on us," she informed him helpfully. Alyssa had already calculated the optimal hyper-warp velocities and travel times for the Terran Forces, and she continued, "We went on quite a diversion rescuing the prisoners from Xen-Nuchek, so we won't catch up to Buckingham's Fleet for at least another twenty-seven minutes."

Prompted by mention of the hundreds of rescued Terran personnel being housed in their Cargo Bay, John turned to look at Faye again as he asked, "Everything alright with our guests?"

The AI nodded, and replied, "They slept peacefully in the makeshift cots we set up for them. My boys are waiting for them to start waking up, then they'll serve breakfast." Smiling at their tawny-haired doctor, she added, "They're responding well to your treatment, Rachel. I've observed a seventeen-percent reduction in breathing irregularities amongst the most badly affected."

Rachel was delighted with the status of her patients, and she replied, "That's wonderful news! The rates of cellular regeneration have slightly exceeded my projections!"

Calara turned in her chair and asked, "Will they be back to normal now?" She looked worried as she added, "Mateo barely recognised me yesterday."

"Tamolith's pheromones should wear off by about midday," Rachel replied, her tone soothing. She smiled as she continued, "His memory of events might be a bit blurry, but other than that, he'll be fine. There won't be any long-term side-effects."

John nodded thoughtfully, and said, "It might be easier for us to ferry these people directly to Port Medea. I'm sure the Terran Federation doctors will want to give them a check-up."

"That makes sense," Rachel agreed, recalling her previous post at the starbase. "The medical facilities will be on a much larger scale than anything Buckingham's fleet has available. They'll be able to accommodate over six-hundred patients without being overwhelmed."

He smiled at her as he said, "It sounds like you've already done the hard work for them."

"John, I'm picking something up on the long range sensors," Jade called out to him, sounding worried. "It doesn't feel right..."

He turned to look quizzically at the Nymph who was staring at the Sector Map, and asked, "What's the problem? Aren't we just picking up Buckingham's forces?"

"Oh my God!" Calara gasped in shock, as hundreds of sensor contacts began rapidly flooding the Sector Map.

Rachel interjected, "I'm picking up a massive amount of Terran comms."

"What's going on?" Dana asked, feeling a rising sense of dread as she stared at the holographic map.

"Those ships aren't travelling in hyper-warp! The Kintark have ambushed Buckingham!" Calara explained, having immediately recognised the subtle distinctions in the sensor signals that identified Kintark vessels. The Latina turned in her seat, and added, "It's a full scale battle, and my dad's caught up in it!"

John met her worried gaze, and said in an authoritative voice, "I need objective analysis, Commander. Give me the full picture so we know what we're up against."

Calara realised immediately that he was trying to calm her down by appealing to her military professionalism, but she had no intention of succumbing to panic. Those months spent training with John in their dojo had helped give her a keen sense of focus, and she sprang into action with a determined look in her eyes. The view from her Tactical Chair wasn't good enough, so she leapt from her seat and dashed to the centre of the Bridge.

Glancing at the redhead sitting at the Engineering Station, she ordered, "Dana, increase magnification, I need to see all contacts in the system." Turning to their Maliri IntOps Officer next, she continued, "Irillith, patch us into the Terran Federation secure Tactical Network. We'll be able to share sensor data with all Terran vessels in the system."

Irillith gave her a brief nod, and her fingers began tapping out line after line of commands as she followed Calara's instructions. Using the powerful comms array on the Invictus, she used John's Admiralty level access to blaze her way into the highly secure data streams. Her violet eyes flickered through the categories, and she said, "There's huge amounts of data here... Do you just want the ships?"

"Start with the ships, then layer it all on," Calara replied, clearing her mind and breathing deeply. "I want to see everything."

While Dana and Irillith rushed to comply with Calara's orders, Rachel said, "I'm confirming one active fleet-level command net, and four battlegroup command nets. It's the same comm channel structure Buckingham had in the Delta-Draconis system."

John leaned forward in his chair to watch the Tactical Map for the Regulus System, desperate for any new information about exactly what they were facing. While Irillith was working to access the secure Tactical Network, the system was initially populated with a bewildering number of sensor contacts, as Dana displayed all the large objects they were detecting with their long-range sensors. There were too many to really tell what was happening, other than that there seemed to be several distinct battle groups of ships converging on one another.

When Irillith started populating the Tactical Map with detailed ship transponder data, the indistinct sensor contacts were replaced with Terran and Kintark ships by the hundreds. He nodded as he recognised the grey titanium hulls of Terran ships, and the shimmering green of Kintark armour plating on the opposing forces, then tried to figure out exactly what was happening in the Alpha-Leonis system. Irillith began layering on more data, showing missile trails, then debris fields, lurid green plasma salvos and throbbing orange laser beams.

Soon the Tactical Map was a riot of colour and movement, with a surging mass of ships locked in a savage battle for survival. Even though he knew the stakes involved, and the vast numbers of personnel manning those vessels, the battle looked more like a swarm of angry grey hornets fighting a plague of seething green locusts. He gave up trying to make sense of it, and then watched Calara instead.

She had her head tilted back and was staring intently at the tangled weave of visual data. Her eyes flickered from side to side, tracking data with movements so fast, John had no idea what she was staring at. He had the distinct impression she seemed to be -absorbing- the entire sprawling battle at once, and he shook his head in wonder as he watched the remarkable girl. Glancing to his side at Alyssa, he found her staring at her lover with fascination, enraptured by the Latina who went about her work with supernatural intensity. Calara turned to him then, and her voice was strong and unwavering as she said, "Let me summarise the battle for you."

***

Admiral Caldwell grimaced as he saw the Helios, a Distinction class battleship, on the receiving end of a volley of plasma missiles launched by a brace of Kintark cruisers. The Lizardmen had been focusing fire on the bigger Terran capital ships, and the Helios had been the first of the ships in his task force to lose its shields. The armour held strong, but the starboard side of the huge vessel was swathed in unnatural green flames, which left ugly blackened scars on the grey Titanium hull.

With a touch of his finger over the representation of the Helios in his holographic battle group interface, he was put in instant contact with the damaged ship. "Commodore Obeng, pull back behind your cruiser screen. Try to draw them after you," he ordered, in a calm but firm voice.

"Acknowledged, Admiral," the steadfast officer replied, and immediately began to execute Caldwell's orders.

Confident that the immediate threat to his forces had been mitigated, Caldwell glanced at the images of his fellow Admirals in his Command Overview. Santini, Mishra, and Weber had just received their orders from Fleet Admiral Buckingham, but the temperamental Ricardo Santini had not been impressed by his assignment.