Three Square Meals Ch. 089

John gave her a grateful smile, then turned to look at the stunned Fleet Warden. "Please can you transmit any data you think might be useful to the Invictus. The Kirrix fleet listings, the precise location of the underground fortress on Khalgron, floorplans and schematics too, if you have them. Finally, I'll need a way to contact Niskera, I want to confirm her group is still alive."

"You really mean it!" Thandrun blurted out in his rumbling voice, lurching to his feet. "I can't believe you're actually considering doing this alone!"

John studied the reeling Trankaran officer for a moment, then gave him a faint smile. "I actually came all this way to offer the Republic a place in the alliance I'm building. The Maliri and Ashanath have thrown their full support behind it and I'm working on the Terran Federation at the moment. I was intending to offer you a one-sided trade to help secure that alliance; advanced technology in exchange for Trankaran ores, but I no longer think that's wise."

Thandrun gaped at John, shocked by the thought of the enigmatic Maliri and detached Ashanath allying themselves with the Lion of the Federation. That look of amazement was soon replaced by one of despair. "But that's everything we ever dreamed of! I beg you to reconsider, we're desperate for assistance!"

John gave the hulking Trankaran a reassuring smile. "You misunderstand me. I still want the Trankarans to join the alliance, but I don't want to waste time haggling with your Senate. I can see how much you need the help against the Kirrix right now, so I'm just going to give you the tech for free. As soon as we return to the Invictus, I'll transmit several schematics for advanced technology. I can give you blueprints for the Ashanath's most advanced Power Core and their fastest Jump Drive, Kintark Heatsinks, and Sensors from the Maliri. I only ask that if we don't return, you do whatever you can to begin upgrading all your fleets as soon as possible, including a military coup if it comes to it. The survival of your species depends on you acting swiftly."

"Why would you do this for my people?" Thandrun whispered in awe, his voice coming out as a gravelly murmur.

John looked sombre as he met the Fleet Warden's look of amazement. "Because this mission to rescue Niskera is extremely dangerous... If it ends in disaster and something happens to me, at least that tech will give you a fighting chance against the Kirrix."

"No, I mean, why would you offer such an overwhelmingly one-sided deal? You must know how dire our situation is at the moment... It would be easy for you to take advantage. What's in it for you?" Thandrun asked, his face filled with doubt.

John paused for a moment then said quietly, "I'll do what I can to rescue Niskera and protect the Republic, but if we survive this we'll need to have a long talk. There are other threats out there beside the Kirrix."

The Fleet Warden took a deep breath, the light of hope shining in his eyes for the first time in weeks. "I won't forget this, John," he said, the deep bass of his voice ringing with sincerity. "I wish you the very best of luck on your mission."

The two men shook hands and John turned to leave, with Calara falling into step beside him. Thandrun placed a huge armoured hand against the panels of runes by the door, then watched them depart, not quite sure if he'd just dreamed the entire encounter. Associate Bhaken was waiting for John and Calara outside the Command Chamber and he greeted them with a warm smile. He happened to glance at Thandrun, and the Fleet Warden's astonished expression made Bhaken dart a startled look at John and Calara.

"What did you say to the Fleet Warden?!" Bhaken whispered as they walked away, glancing back at his leader in surprise. "I've never seen him look at anyone like that before!"

"Could you take us back to the Raptor, please," John asked politely. "We need to hurry; I'm planning to rescue Chancellor Niskera..."

***

Alyssa was waiting for them in the Hangar and she greeted John with a wave when he walked out onto the deck. As he weaved his way around piles of mangled Kirrix corpses, he spotted movement inside the Raptor and a moment later, two Trankaran soldiers stomped down the loading ramp. Their blocky faces were twisted with disgust as they tried to wipe sticky green blood off their hands.

Rachel appeared a moment later, giving the pair of burly soldiers a grateful smile. "Thank you for the assistance, gentlemen. The two of you are far stronger than me!"

"After everything you did for our rock-brothers, it's the least we could do, Doctor Voss," one of them said, his tone full of profound respect.

His companion gave her a deferential bow and then the two hulking Trankarans walked away, returning to their fallen comrades across the hangar. Rachel watched them leave, then re-entered the gunship, disappearing from sight.

John turned and offered Associate Bhaken his hand. "It was good to see you again, Bhaken. Thank you for being our guide."

The robed Trankaran had a shocked look on his face, still struggling to come to grips with the idea that they were sailing off to face the might of the Kirrix alone. He did his best to recover as he shook John's hand and said earnestly, "I wish you every success in your mission, John. I've worked with Chancellor Niskera for over three years and have grown to greatly admire her; It'll be a terrible blow if she's lost to the Kirrix. I will pray to the Great Maker that all of you return safely."

With a parting smile, John walked over to Alyssa with Calara in tow, the Latina still lost in thought. The trio walked up the loading ramp and into the Raptor, finding Rachel kneeling down beside a pair of Kirrik corpses, the yellow and brown insectoids arranged neatly on the deck. One of the Kirrix marines had been killed by a headshot, his helmeted head completely missing from the body. The second had been shot in the chest, his chitinous torso a melted and charred ruin.

Rachel saw John's inquisitive gaze and she waved a hand at the two bodies. "These were the best specimens we could find; between them they make up a complete cadaver. The Trankaran soldiers were very thorough in their defence of the Anvil."

Alyssa removed her Paragon helmet and leaned in to give John a parting kiss. "I'll go start up the Raptor, see you in a minute." She left the room with Calara in tow, leaving John and Rachel with the dead Kirrix.

He squatted down beside the brunette, looking down at the six-limbed marines. "It was before your time, but these look just like the ones that boarded our ship the last time we encountered the Kirrix. Do you think you can learn anything from studying them?"

She tilted her head to one side and carefully appraised the corpses. "A thorough autopsy will take me a couple of hours, I'll be able to give you a synopsis of their physiology then. As soon as we return to the Invictus, I'll ask Faye if she can get the maintenance bots to bring the bodies up to Medical, then I'll get started immediately."

"Thank you. I've got a feeling we'll be seeing a whole lot more of them very soon," John said, rising to his feet and offering her a hand.

"We're really breaking a planetary siege by ourselves?" Rachel asked as she stood, looking up at him wide-eyed.

He sighed and nodded. "It doesn't look like we've got a choice. The rebellion damaged the Republic far more severely than I originally thought; the Trankarans are in a very precarious situation at the moment."

Rachel looked worried as she said, "This other Progenitor seems to really know what he's doing. Creating the Glowing Queen was an extremely clever piece of manipulation; it required minimal effort on his part but caused dramatic consequences for the Trankarans..."

"Just like turning Admiral Lynton into one of his thralls," John said, nodding in bleak agreement. "Between the Nexus Project and working with Norwood to wreck relations with the Kintark, Lynton nearly managed to bring down the Terran Federation single-handed."

"The Progenitor definitely seems to have a Modus Operandi," Rachel said, her mind whirring. "But why go to all this trouble? Everything we've learned about Progenitor technology seems to indicate that his ship is much more powerful than ours, let alone the Thrall fleets he must have at his disposal. Why didn't he simply launch an invasion six months ago and sweep all these empires before him? None of them could have withstood a direct assault like that..."

"I must admit, I've got no idea what he's doing," John said, shrugging helplessly. "I've been wondering about the same thing myself."

She looked at him askance for a moment, reaching up to brush his temple with a shiny white gauntlet. "I bet your Progenitor Guide knows what's happening... If only we could talk to him, we might be able to convince him to work with us instead of fighting against you!"

John reached up to clasp her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing her fingers as he gazed into her inquisitive grey eyes. "That's not a road I want to go down just yet. I can't risk giving him any opportunities to escape, not until I know I'm strong enough to face him. The danger to all of you is far too great."

"I understand," Rachel said, leaning in to give him a gentle kiss. "I wasn't trying to push you into anything, it's just frustrating not knowing."

He gave her a wry smile. "Yeah, tell me about it."

*Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you might want to see Sakura in action,* Alyssa said, her lovely telepathic voice a welcome distraction from these troubling thoughts.

The flicker in Rachel's eyes let John know that she'd heard the blonde too and they walked through the door at the back of the room to take the grav-tube to the upper level. When they reached the cockpit, they found Calara standing behind Alyssa in the Pilot's chair, the two girls looking out of the cockpit canopy to the starboard side. A staccato series of blue flashes lit up the cockpit and John led Rachel over to join them, intrigued to see how the Asian girl was getting on with her target practice.

Calara pointed at the Valkyrie for him, but John had already spotted the mech, its sparkling white hull making it stand out like a beacon amidst the sickly brown Kirrix wreckage. The mech pivoted, using the retro-thrusters built into its arms and legs to quickly face a new direction, the Valkyrie now aiming at the darkened hull of a Kirrix drone carrier.

With its bloated, segmented hull, the insectoid ship made John think of a gigantic mechanical termite queen. The huge strike-craft launching vessel had been gutted by Trankaran Fusion weapons, a dozen ugly blackened scars over its belly revealing where its hull had been sundered across several decks. Whatever critical damage those beams had inflicted had been enough to disable the fifteen-hundred-metre long vessel and now it was a lifeless derelict, lying cold and dark in the blackness of space.

The Valkyrie's four shoulder-mounted Photon Lasers lined up squarely with the drone carrier and bright blue laser bolts lanced outwards to strike the target. Each weapon shot a trio of beams, with that stream of blazing destructive energy fired in pulses to maximise their damage and minimise the heat buildup. The azure cascade struck the drone carrier amidships, scything through the hull with enough power to punch straight through the stricken carrier and blast out the other side.

The brilliant ribbon of light faded out as quickly as it had blazed across space, the weapons cooling now so that they could be fired again in ten seconds. Sakura brought the Punisher Gatling to bear next, the rotating barrel spitting hyper-accelerated slugs into the flank of the Kirrix vessel. The monstrous carrier shuddered as it was struck by those shells and she strafed the Valkyrie's fire vertically down the hull, the path marked by rippling explosions. Ochre-coloured armour plating was shattered by each hit, leaving a trail of deep impact craters from spine to belly.

Sakura shifted position slightly, the Valkyrie's quad guns lining up with that path of devastation. A second deadly salvo of Photon Laser beams arced across space to scythe into the drone carrier, but this time Sakura slashed her fire down the hull, following the trench gouged out of the armour by the Punisher Gatling shells. Using the beam weapons like a surgeon's scalpel, she cut a lethal incision through the Kirrix vessel, slicing it into two chunks, each side glowing a fierce orange as the ship broke apart.

"Not bad," Calara said, nodding her approval.

"You think she's combat ready?" John asked, watching as the mech turned to face them, waving a hand at the spectators.

The Latina pondered that question for a moment, before she smiled at John. "Considering that she's only had an hour practicing with those guns she shows a lot of promise. Sakura's disciplined and level-headed, I think you can trust her not to do anything reckless."

"Duly noted, Commander," John said, putting his arms around her from behind and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

They watched through the cockpit canopy as Sakura finished her training session, twisting the Valkyrie around with remarkable agility, retro-thrusters flaring with a bright orange light. As soon as she was aiming in the right direction, the engines on the mech's back powered up to maximum, launching it through space and leaving an amber trail in its wake. She formed up on the Raptor's port wing, accompanying them back to the Invictus.

Faye and four of her boys were waiting for them in the Secondary Hangar, the maintenance bots greeting them with a cheery wave as the Raptor touched down. Faye winked out and reappeared in the cockpit a second later, a sparkling grin on her face.

"Dana said you needed some help moving a couple of bugs!" she exclaimed, her wings fluttering with excitement. "I brought the boys to act as removal men for you!"

"Thanks, Faye," Rachel said, giving her a grateful smile. "The two Kirrix corpses are in the forward loading area. Can you transfer them to Medical for me please?"

The cute purple sprite bobbed her head enthusiastically. "We'll be super careful with them!"

John turned to look at Alyssa, watching her for a few seconds as her hands flew over the consoles, going through the shutdown routine for the gunship. "Could you ask everyone to gather in the Combat Bridge please? I'd like to brief them on what we're going up against."

"They're on their way," she replied, slipping her arm around his and accompanying him out of the cockpit. "You can skip the boring bit where you check to see if we're all onboard with the plan. I kept the girls informed and they all support your decision one-hundred-percent."

He looked at her in surprise as they dropped down in the grav-tube, then laughed when she winked and kissed him. "Well, I wouldn't want to be boring..."

"Good!" she said with a grin, striding ahead of him for a moment so that they could manoeuvre past the maintenance bots.

Rachel watched two of the floating robots pick up the first of the corpses, then smiled at Faye when she saw the meticulous care they were taking of their deceased charges. The AI was a little distracted at that moment however, modifying and upgrading the bots programming so that the pair would work in perfect synchronisation and avoid tearing the corpses in half.

John led the way to the express grav-tube at the back of the hangar, pressing his hand to the DNA reader to reveal the concealed door. It slid open at the same time as the doors to the Primary Hangar, with Sakura jogging through a moment later.

"I love flying that mech!" she gushed, bounding over to join them.

"I had faith in the cliché," John replied, nodding sagely.

She laughed and rolled her lovely brown eyes at him. Turning to grin at Calara, she said, "Firing the Photon Lasers was thrilling! I can see why you love your role as Tactical Officer so much!"

The Latina gave her an indulgent smile. "That was a fine bit of marksmanship. John's definitely thrown you in at the deep end though; I began my career as a gunner on a corvette and that mech has at least five-hundred times the firepower I started with!"

"Do you have any advice you can give me?" Sakura asked as she followed Alyssa over to the grav-tube.

Calara thought about it carefully for a moment. "The Valkyrie isn't a conventional vessel like the Raptor or the Invictus. It's more like a highly mobile and extremely powerful gun platform. Take advantage of your small size and manoeuvrability to keep yourself out of trouble, the quad Photon Lasers will let you outgun anything smaller than a battlecruiser."

John stepped into the grav-tube with Alyssa at his side, missing the rest of the conversation as they were catapulted up through five decks to reach the Combat Bridge. He walked towards the weapon racks, unclipping the gun belt from his waist and unloading the Quantum pistol before storing it away safely. Putting his Paragon helmet back on, he stepped into the armour-equipping frame at the end, the one sized for his bigger suit. It only took a few seconds for the robotic limbs to remove the armoured plates and he stepped clear, running his hand through his hair as he watched the girls remove their armour.

"I won't stay for the briefing," Rachel said, walking over to him and giving him a parting kiss. "I want to get the Kirrix autopsy completed as soon as possible."

"No doubts about this mission?" John asked, stroking her arm as he looked into her grey eyes.

Rachel shook her head firmly. "None. I know how much you care about all of us and how careful you are about exposing us to danger. If you think we need to do this, then I trust your judgement." Turning to smile at Alyssa, she continued, "Can you keep me informed?"

"Of course," Alyssa said to the brunette, brushing hands with her as Rachel turned and walked away. The blonde slipped her hands around John's waist and arched an eyebrow at him. "I thought you weren't going to be boring?"

"I don't want to be a domineering asshole," he replied firmly. "I'm comfortable leading our group and making command decisions, but this isn't the military. I don't have the right to just throw all of us into combat without at least doing everyone the courtesy of letting them voice any objections."

She leaned in to kiss him, her hands brushing through his hair. "If anyone had any concerns, I'd let you know," she said softly, her voice calm and soothing. "The girls know you're more than willing to listen if they have a problem with anything. We all trust you; just assume we fully support your every decision unless someone says otherwise. It'll save a lot of time."

He smiled and kissed her back. "Alright, as long as you promise to let me know if anyone has even the slightest doubts, okay?"

"Cross my heart," Alyssa replied, tracing a slow cross over her ample cleavage.

John found his eyes drawn to her succulent bronzed flesh, then glanced up at the look of delight on her face as she listened to his thoughts. "I think I'll need your help pre-loading the crew before battle, XO," he said, caressing her back.

"Happy to serve in any capacity, Vice Admiral," she said with a sultry smile, giving him a flirtatious salute.

He laughed as they separated and they walked hand-in-hand towards the ramp leading down to the Combat Bridge. Irillith and Tashana stepped out of the grav-tube ahead of them and waved at John when they saw him approach. He returned their friendly greeting, then followed the twins down to the lower level to join the rest of the crew. A holographic Sector Map was centred in the middle of the Combat Bridge, with their present position highlighted in green and the Alpha Tauri system circled in red. He looked expectantly at his blonde companion, knowing she was listening to his thoughts, and awaited her unparalleled Navigational advice.