Three Square Meals Ch. 079

"That's the spare," he said in quiet satisfaction, as the two Drakkar keeled over, crashing to the ground.

Hauling his sword free, John strolled down the corridor towards the rest of the pack. The Drakkar floundered on the floor in their heavy armour, still reeling from being smashed backwards by a foe moving so quickly that he appeared like a vengeful white blur. His glistening blade left arcing trails of blue blood in the air as he stepped from one to another, sword rising and falling as he swiftly executed the remaining warriors where they lay.

After plunging his blade into the forehead of the last of the Drakkar, John loped away down the corridor in pursuit of the next group. A score of broken black shells lay in mangled heaps in the corridor behind him, the entire battle having taken less than thirty seconds.

Phenomenal strength and speed, matched with flawless technique... there were only a handful of creatures in this segment of the galaxy able to stand against this Progenitor ascendant.

***

Purple streaks sailed over Sakura's head as she slid across the floor, the Drakkar ahead of her caught by surprise as she ducked underneath his rain of shells. As she slid past another Drakkar marine, she gritted her teeth as she hacked through its armoured leg, her arm jarring with the impact from her right ninjato. The massive alien cartwheeled through the air behind her, lifted off the ground with the force of the strike from her blade. She dug the heel of her boot into the ground, abruptly stopping her slide and using her body's momentum to flip herself up to her feet. Landing lightly, she skipped forward a step then stabbed downwards with her twin blades, impaling the last of the group through its armoured helmet.

She yanked her swords free as she landed, the seven-foot-tall Drakkar marine dropping his black weapon before tipping over backwards, hitting the floor with a booming metallic crash. With no enemies left standing, she glided over to the legless Drakkar that was writhing on the ground and howling in agony. Sakura had seen what this pack had done to the Ashanath they had already caught, so she felt no sympathy for the black-clad creature as she shoved her right ninjato through its throat. She had to thrust hard to drive her blade through the thick armour, her arms starting to tire after carving through so many of those bodysuits to get to the foul aliens beneath.

With that creature's death, it was the end of another group of ten. The red dots that had fanned out from the first Drakkar dropship had now all been removed from the overlay map, so Sakura quickly searched for the next pack of invaders.

"Thank you for saving us," a whispering voice said to her, startling Sakura out of her single-minded focus on hunting down the Drakkar.

She glanced across the silver-walled room at the three Ashanath huddled in the corner, the diminutive creatures staring at her with their huge black eyes. The profound gratitude on their faces was obvious, even for the normally impassive grey aliens - it wasn't really that surprising, considering that they were about to be eaten alive by the Drakkar until she intervened. Still, it was a moving moment for Sakura - the first time she had actually saved another life purely by her actions alone. Those three Ashanath hardly atoned for the hundreds of victims amassed by Shinatobe, but it was a good place to start.

Bowing to them, she replied, "You're quite welcome. I've eliminated the rest of the pack, so you should be safe now. Stay out of sight though, until you're given the all-clear."

"We will do as you command," the Ashanath replied, in its quiet eerie voice.

A second Ashanath stepped forward and asked, "What is your name? We would like to know the name of our saviour."

"My name's Sakura, I'm with John Blake and we're here to stop the Drakkar," she quickly explained.

The alien gazed at her intently and said, "We will never forget you, SakuraBlake. Thank you."

She was about to correct the Ashanath's mistake, but smiled at him instead. Saluting the Grey with her right blade, Sakura bounded towards the door, rushing after the Drakkar that had flooded into the Legacy from the next closest dropship. She had a good three-hundred metres and four decks to traverse before reaching the next entry point, so she sprinted at full speed down one of the main spinal corridors that connected the sections of the ship. Glancing at her overlay map, it looked like the next group had largely stuck together, clustered in a mass of at least fifty Drakkar going by the red dots.

She wondered why that could be, until Alyssa's voice reached out to her telepathically. *You're approaching the Ashanath barracks. Irillith's just added a key, with labels for locations on the ship.*

Sakura checked the map again and when her eyes flicked to the blinking blue light, the map quickly refreshed with names for each area. Sure enough, the section she was running towards was flagged as the living quarters, with the Drakkar congregated near the Barracks. She could only imagine what kind of slaughterhouse the Drakkar had turned that into and she braced herself for more terrible scenes of carnage.

The Ashanath had installed grav-tubes in the Legacy and she recognised them immediately as the inspiration behind Dana's upgrades to the Invictus. Darting into the silvery tube, she began to sink down in the slow-moving field, travelling far too slowly considering the urgency of her situation. Reversing her grip on her two swords, she used them as climbing picks, driving the tips into the silver wall of the grav-tube and rapidly increasing the speed of her descent.

It didn't take her long to drop down the four decks to the barracks and she kicked off the back wall of the grav-tube to propel herself into the broad corridor. She started in surprise when she saw the damage that corridor had sustained and it quickly became clear that she'd stumbled into the aftermath of a pitched battle. The walls had been raked by laser and heavy calibre weapon fire, and while there were a few dozen Ashanath corpses lying on the ground, they hadn't been eaten. The silver-armoured Ashanath soldiers had been left where they'd fallen, the Drakkar too busy fighting with the rest of the ship's complement of Grey Marines to stop for a snack. A handful of Drakkar had been killed too, having taken hits from what appeared to be a heavy laser.

The battle still raged ahead of her and Sakura darted towards the sound of combat with swords held at the ready. There was an open set of double doors ahead on the left, with sizzling red laser bolts flying through and hitting the wall beyond. She could hear the battle roars from the Drakkar accompanying the heavy booms of their weapons as they returned fire, the invaders having forced the Ashanath back to the Barracks in a fighting retreat. Most of the Ashanath shots were at chest height, so she crouched low before peeking into the room.

The Drakkar were involved in a furious gunfight with the surviving Ashanath Marines, who'd been driven back into a last stand. This part of the barracks had once been some kind of galley, with the diminutive silver-armoured creatures using the solid metal blocks that formed the dining tables for cover. The Drakkar weren't bothering with such subtleties as finding cover, relying instead on their force shields, hand-held reflective barriers, and thick armour, for protection from the storm of laser bolts.

An Ashanath marine with a Heavy Laser fired at one of the closest Drakkar, coring a glowing red hole through the black-armoured warrior. As the four-armed monster keeled over, his squadmates returned fire, eager to finally get their revenge on the Ashanath who'd killed several of their pack. The purple energy bolts from their weapons blasted big chunks from the poor Grey soldier and he didn't even have a chance to scream as he was torn apart.

*There's hundreds more Ashanath crew hiding in the kitchen. They fled to the Barracks looking for protection from the Drakkar,* Alyssa informed her solemnly. *The Ashanath Marine Captain tells me that his forces are down to forty men and near breaking point. If you can't stop the Drakkar, it'll be a massacre.*

Sakura nodded, understanding what was needed of her and gripped her twin ninjato firmly with each hand. Her arms felt numb after all the non-stop combat and she wasn't looking forward to hacking her way through another fifty suits of armour. *I won't let them be slaughtered,* she replied grimly, taking a deep breath to prepare herself.

*I know,* Alyssa replied affectionately. *By the way, John wanted you to have a gift.*

Sakura arched her back and let out a shocked scream as Alyssa poured a vast torrent of psychic energy into her, flooding every fibre of her being. It felt like she was in the eye of a tornado as a wonderfully refreshing surge rushed through her body, goosebumps prickling along her limbs. Her fatigue was swept away in an instant, with deliciously cool shivers shooting up her spine as she cried out in ecstasy. The tingling ran down her arms, rejuvenating her tired muscles with the crisp chill of a fresh winter morning.

At some point she had clenched her eyes shut and when she regained her senses and opened them once more, she found the Drakkar and Ashanath staring at her in stunned disbelief. The Drakkar seemed to be crouching for some reason, while the Ashanath cowered behind their cover, only the bravest daring to peek their heads up to see what was happening.

Movement caught her eye and she gaped at her hands in wide-eyed astonishment. A gentle flurry of ice crystals now shrouded her armoured fists, her gauntlets glowing with a soft white aura. The deathly silence was broken by a cracking sound - like a glacier shearing in half - as ice swept up her blades, riming them in hoar frost.

*Please thank John for his wonderful gift,* she murmured, eyes glinting with a chilling inner glow.

*I'm sure he'd prefer it if you thanked him yourself,* Alyssa purred in reply.

Sakura smiled as she twirled the two frozen ninjato in her hands then stalked into the room, the Drakkar backing away from her in terror.

***

Warboss Magaruk's eyes darted around the Tactical Map, now as fearful of the Drakkar on his own side as he was the Ashanath. It seemed some form of madness had descended on the Clan leaders in their massive battleships. One after the other, they had inexplicably started turning against their own side in the middle of this swirling battle.

Backstabbing and betrayals were part-and-parcel of Drakkar life, with Clans seeking payback for decades-old grudges - but to turn on your own in the middle of a major battle like this was unheard of! Maguruk would admire their bold opportunism, if it wasn't for how disturbingly close the fight with the Ashanath had become. The Ashanath by themselves wouldn't be too much of a problem, but that terrifying death ship kept tearing through the Drakkar forces, disintegrating battleships and cruisers alike with contemptuous ease.

His four hands shook with fear as he gripped the Command Table, watching as the Invictus sent a pounding cascade of Singularity Driver rounds into Overlord Yokug's battleship. Out of all the capital ships equipped with black armour from the Dark One, It was the last vessel still intact, the dreadful white battlecruiser having hunted the rest to extinction. Magaruk couldn't tear his eyes from the image as Yokug's immense vessel was obliterated by a continuous stream of explosive shells. After the previous displays of freakishly accurate shooting, the gunner appeared to be toying with Yokug's flagship as if mocking him, spraying shots seemingly at random over its entire length.

"Boss! Overlord Gezkag's turned against his own Clan!" his Navigator yelped, pointing towards another section of the battlefield.

Magaruk turned his frightened bulging eyes to look at Gezkag's battleship, then gaped in shock as he watched it open fire on an escorting cruiser. He knew for a fact that Gezkag's own son was commanding that cruiser, yet the battleship ripped it apart like an alpha podling turning on the runt of the spawn.

"Grey bombers are launching torpedoes!" the Drakkar at Tactical cried out in warning, frantically blazing away at them with the laser point defence.

Magaruk quaked with terror and roared at his Helmsman, "Hard a-port!"

Both hearts in his mouth, Magaruk watched as his cruiser turned towards the incoming torpedoes, which were heading straight for their port flank. There were a couple of huge explosions as their laser point defences cooked off two of the approaching warheads, but there were too many to destroy them all. Retro-thrusters flared along the length of his cruiser, bringing it about in a desperate manoeuvre. They turned just in time to fit through the gap that had opened up, with the rest of the torpedoes missing them by mere metres.

Magaruk's sense of relief was short-lived as his cruiser was shaken by a salvo of beams, red warning lights sounding off around the Bridge.

"Shields out!" the Engineer wailed.

At this point, Magaruk didn't care how tasty the Ashanath were. No meal was worth this kind of grief, no matter how delicious!

***

Engineer Batiri adjusted a dial on her console with a thought, diverting the Ashanath cruiser's energy flows back to the weapons, re-enabling them once again. Sounding pleased, she said, *Shields are restored to sixty-three-percent. We are ready to fight.*

Leader Linnaeus didn't respond straight away, he was still awed by the radiant goddess that had appeared on the Ashanath command web. The curvature of her body was absolutely magnificent and the brilliant white aura seemed to enhance her exquisite globes, rather than obscure them.

*Do you wish us to engage in the battle, Linnaeus?* Navigator Cadimus prompted him impatiently.

Rousing himself from the entrancing spell cast by the exotic astral temptress, Linnaeus said to the radiant goddess nervously, *Alyssa, our shields are partially restored. We are now able to initiate combat once again.*

Alyssa turned to face him so that he was no longer looking at her from behind. Linnaeus felt tinged with sadness as one set of perfect spheroids disappeared, but the sensation was fleeting as he was presented with another pair of marvellous orbs. The glowing Terran girl adopted an odd facial expression as she looked at him. Her smile was lopsided and she raised her left eyebrow as she watched him staring at her. How curious.

*Join the formation of three cruisers harassing the battleship at heading one-four-zero, Linnaeus,* she said, with a flirtatious grin. *Spread out and snipe at the Drakkar using the wrecks as cover, we're trying to keep casualties to a minimum.*

*We shall do so at once,* he replied, passing the order on to Navigator Cadimus.

His cruiser rotated smoothly, turning about so that they were facing towards the three Ashanath cruisers hiding behind several black-hulled derelicts. Navigator Cadimus increased their speed and they began to close the distance on the massive Drakkar battleship, which was attempting to swat away its various attackers with salvos of Beam Laser fire. The sprawling battle had taken a terrible toll on both sides, breaking up the fleets into lots of smaller engagements and Linnaeus' newly-assigned target had lost all its escorts. With the bulk of the battleship's weapons forward-facing, it was relatively easy for the nimble Ashanath cruisers to strike unopposed at the rear, while the cruiser that had gained the battleship's focus ducked out of sight behind cover.

Tactical Officer Pallari took careful aim at the Drakkar vessel as they came into range, then fired their complement of Beam Lasers at the target. The battleship's already-weakened shields flickered dangerously as they were struck by those eight red beams, provoking it into turning towards its latest tormentor. Navigator Cadimus rotated their cruiser to starboard and they slid into cover, hiding from the battleship's fury.

Leader Linnaeus felt a surge of relief as he watched his crew in action. They seemed calm and confident now, happy to be part of the well-coordinated Ashanath counterattack.

***

John brought his sword around in a broad two-handed slash, neatly cleaving straight through the Drakkar's hastily upraised metal shield, then slicing through its armoured head.

"Are you alright?" he asked the cowering Ashanath, who had stumbled to the ground in its haste to flee from its four-armed pursuer. He offered the thin creature a gauntleted hand to help him to his feet.

"I am unharmed JohnBlake, my thanks for your rescue," the Grey replied, accepting John's assistance and swiftly standing upright. His bulbous head turned to look back out through the black door into the gloomy corridor beyond and added, "My five companions... we split up near the Drive Room, when we fled from the Drakkar. I can hear them - they are being chased... hunted..."

"Don't worry, I'll save them," John said with a reassuring nod.

He spun about and ran for the door, checking his map for the intersection near the Drive Room. Four Drakkar had come that way until he'd caught up with and killed them all. He could see two more groups had split up along the other corridors, consisting of a group of three and a group of five Drakkar. Reasoning that the group of five would have started hunting the largest group of Ashanath, he sprinted down that junction in frantic pursuit.

There were still dozens of red dots scattered deeper inside the ship, the Drakkar having spread out as they chased after the fleeing Ashanath. He was methodically catching and slaying them all, but it was taking him time, even aided with his enhanced speed. Every minute the Drakkar were catching more of the fleeing Ashanath and he knew every second was precious, with more lives hanging in the balance.

As he ran down the corridor, he felt the stream of eldritch energy from Edraele flicker out, abruptly cutting off his psychic speed. He'd grown used to hearing Drakkar howls and roars dragged out in slow-motion, so it felt jarring to return to normal again.

*I'm so sorry, John,* Edraele apologised, sounding absolutely exhausted. *That's all the power I can give you.*

*Don't overdo it!* John said in alarm. *You don't have to push yourself that hard to help!*

*It's alright... felt good knowing I was helping save lives,* she murmured faintly, her voice growing drowsy.

*You did a brilliant job! Dozens of Ashanath are alive because of you. Get some sleep, honey, you've really earned it,* John said soothingly.

*Love you...* she mumbled, and then like that she was gone, curled up with the equally exhausted Young Matriarchs.

*Don't worry, handsome. I've still got plenty of juice left!* Alyssa announced cheerfully, while simultaneously flooding his system with psychic energy.

John shivered at that thrilling sensation, his psychic speed re-activating once more. A Drakkar's hunting cry dragged out as his perception of time distorted, confirming that he was moving at a far faster pace than his unwitting foes.

*Fantastic, thanks beautiful!* he exclaimed as he raced down the corridor, seeing from the map that he wasn't far behind the Drakkar.

Rounding the next corner at breakneck speed, he finally sighted his quarry. The five Drakkar had chased the Ashanath into the reactor core chamber, the jagged door currently left wide open behind them. The Greys were now trapped, and he could hear the hulking marauders cackling with laughter as they gloated at the success of their victorious hunt.

John charged towards the group, sword drawn back in preparation.

***

Alyssa strolled along beside Rachel with her Punisher rifle slung over her shoulder, following after a pack of Drakkar soldiers who were fleeing in terror. Every so often, one of them would stop to shoot at her, but she would block his shot with her handy piece of portable cover. She glanced at her impromptu shield, wincing when she saw that it looked a little worse for wear. She blocked a flurry of shots heading their way that blasted more holes in the bullet-riddled Drakkar corpse, before casually tossing it aside.