Three Square Meals Ch. 091

"You're quite welcome." She smiled at him and added, "Please hurry though..."

The Trankaran's stomach rumbled ominously and the two Legionnaires quickly helped him to his feet.

"Quite astonishing," Chancellor Niskera murmured, watching the three of them hurry away. "Normally, invasive surgery is required to save someone from Kirrix infestation. It would have taken weeks for the medical facility on the Anvil to treat all these patients!"

"Any questions about how to operate the Sonic Cannon?" Rachel asked, gesturing towards the console.

Niskera shook her head, but looked apprehensive. "Are you sure this is wise, Doctor Voss? I'm not medically trained."

"It's either you or one of the maintenance bots," Rachel replied with a smile. "I think your people would much prefer your gentle bedside manner."

Glancing at one of the floating robots with its disconcerting grin, Niskera nodded. "I agree, I'll take over for you."

"Just call me if you run into any problems," Rachel said, before walking over to the second station that a pair of Faye's maintenance bots had just finished assembling.

***

Sakura watched Alyssa and the twins stride up the Raptor's rear loading ramp, the trio following after the last of the infested Trankarans they had just rescued. Alyssa waved at her before she disappeared inside, knowing that the Asian girl was looking her way. The ramp closed after the blonde and the gunship lifted off the ground, with Faye transporting the civilians to the Invictus in the centre of the city.

"We've cleared the potential blast radius," Faye informed Sakura a few moments later.

The Kirrix hive ship still had power on one side of the vessel, but the other was as dark as the night's sky. The Valkyrie was standing facing that darkened side, safe from retaliation now that all the weapons on the hive ship's port flank had been shut down. Sakura lined up her targeting reticle over the rear of the huge ochre hull, studying the tactical overlay that Dana and Calara had created from the results of their active scans.

The four muzzles of the Valkyrie's Photon Lasers followed her crosshairs, until they were pointing towards the middle of the ship, near the rear. The Asian girl took great care as she aimed her shot, because accidentally triggering a power core explosion would demolish several blocks of the city. She lightly squeezed the trigger and short pulses of azure beams lashed into the stricken Kirrix vessel, burning through segmented armour plating and rupturing the fuel cells. The liquid hydrogen ignited, setting the hive ship ablaze in a conflagration that she knew would leave the vessel a charred derelict, having already done the same to a dozen others.

It didn't take long for the Kirrix hive ship to become a raging inferno, fire licking up around the hull in a dozen places. The dancing flames lit up the sky above the city, joining the other insectoid funeral pyres in a bright ring of fire around Mulbharum. Sakura nodded with satisfaction as the remnants of the Kirrix forces were methodically incinerated.

***

John lined up his crosshairs on the Kirrix soldier's mottled brown carapace, ignoring the sickly green neutron bolts that were causing rippling impacts on his shield. He gently squeezed the trigger and the hyper-accelerated bullet slammed into the insectoid soldier's chest, catapulting it backwards. The Kirrix exploded with the force behind the round, its thorax completely obliterated in a thick spray of green blood.

As its lower body sprawled onto the deck and its arms and head bounced back down the corridor, John glanced over his shoulder to the breeding room. "That was the last of them near here," he said to Calara, who was freeing a Trankaran from a multi-legged sled. "According to Faye's scan, there's dozens more soldiers on the upper levels, we should be able to evacuate the Trankarans before reinforcements turn up."

The Latina nodded, her face tense and alert. "I'll start guiding everyone out."

With Rachel treating the infested Trankarans, it would have just been John and Dana in this fireteam, so Calara had asked to assist with the evacuations. While she was a very good shot and followed his orders to the letter, she was far more relaxed at her Tactical Station, manning the Invictus' massive guns. By contrast, John found the thought of trying to aim and shoot that obscene amount of firepower to be a daunting prospect, especially when equally destructive ship weapons were being fired back at them.

"Hey, John... I was just wondering about something..." Dana asked, rousing him from his thoughts. Her tone made it clear that she was going to ask him to do something he'd rather not.

John watched as Calara helped the wounded Trankaran off the sled and pointed him towards the hole in the hull. "What's up, Sparks?"

"I know this mission's already gone miles off-tangent already, so I thought, fuck it, why not one last thing," she suggested, arching an eyebrow to see if he was intrigued.

He rolled his eyes at her but couldn't help smiling. "Come on Sparks, stop beating around the bush! What've you got in mind?"

"Well... it's Rachel's birthday coming up soon, and Sakura's already got her something nice," Dana continued, making sure the ground around the bush was well and truly beaten.

John looked at her in surprise. "I thought she was only joking... Are you really making her a Pulse Cannon for her birthday?!"

The redhead laughed as she nodded. "Big weapons have started getting her all hot and bothered. I blame you!"

His answering grin slowly turned into a frown. "So what did Sakura get her and when's the big day?"

"A Hivelord head and three days time," Dana explained, counting off her answers with two fingers. She nudged him with an elbow and continued, "If you can bag her a Broodmother's head to complete the set, she'll love it!"

John glanced back up the long corridor at the heavy doors beyond. With his enhanced hearing, he could hear the eerie chittering sound from the Kirrix grubs and knew the Broodmother would be near her foul spawn.

*You might as well, Rachel might be able to learn something from it,* Alyssa encouraged him, her thoughts drifting into his mind. *You're in the last hive ship, Faye and Sakura have destroyed all the rest. Irillith and Tashana are with me, and we're already on our way to help out with the Trankarans.*

"You okay for ammo?" John asked, looking back at Dana.

"Fuck yeah!" she agreed, her face lighting up in a grin. She turned back to look at Calara and yelled, "Come on, gorgeous! I told you he'd go for it!"

John looked at them in surprise, having not heard any conversation from either of them. "When were you discussing that?"

"A couple of minutes ago," Dana replied with a nonchalant shrug, tapping her finger on the side of her helmeted head.

*It's lovely the girls get on so well,* Alyssa informed him wryly. *But I do sometimes wonder if they think I've got nothing better to do except pass on all their messages...*

John ejected his half-spent magazine and slotted in a fresh one. They'd all stocked up on ammunition when they'd changed into new Paragon armour, but this was the fifteenth hive ship they'd breached and he only had three magazines left.

"Alright, let's move," he declared, stepping over the mangled corpse of the soldier he'd shot only a couple of minutes earlier. "This is the only way into the breeding chamber, so any Kirrix coming after the Trankarans will still have to come through us."

Calara and Dana reloaded their rifles as they followed him down the eerily-lit corridor. Power had been knocked out on the left side of the hive ship and one half of the central corridor was pitch black, while the other side pulsated with light, illuminating the glowing hexagon tiles that formed the walls and ceiling.

"This place is really fucking creepy," Dana muttered, as she heard the warbling chirrups of the Kirrix grubs through the door.

Calara gripped her Quantum rifle tighter as she darted a glance at the pulsing walls and could only nod her agreement.

John pointed to the arched set of double doors ahead of them. "Get ready, the nest is through there. That's where we'll find the Broodmother."

He walked up to the doors and placed his hand on the glowing button on the wall. Nothing happened, so he backed up a few paces to look at the door frame. Waving the girls back, John aimed at the frame with his rifle and snapped off several rounds in quick succession, blasting gaping holes out of the frame and the door mechanism behind it. With a short run he shoulder-charged the door and it toppled backwards into the room, landing with a deafening boom.

"Fuck me!" Dana yelped, eyes widening at her first sight of the Broodmother.

The fourteen-foot-tall Kirrix monstrosity whirled around, two sets of compound eyes glaring at the intruders, its mandibles thrashing madly in the air as it let out a furious screech. It had twelve long limbs, six of which ended in thick chitinous legs to keep its big body stable. Its abdomen ended in a bloated, semi-transparent dome, and they could see hundreds of eggs shifting inside its body, under its yellowy-brown hide. The Broodmother's thorax had another six limbs, the first two pairs ending in long scythe-like foreclaws, while the last set of short-clawed segmented arms were kept tucked close to its body.

The Broodmother wasn't the only creature in the room. Aside from the hundreds of chirping Kirrix grubs that were tucked away in hexagonal alcoves in the wall, there were a dozen unarmed drones that were hurriedly picking up grubs and placing them into writhing sacks.

John swung his rifle to point at the Broodmother as it began to lumber towards them. "Drop the big one first, then we'll clean out the rest!"

Dana and Calara darted forward to flank him and their three Quantum rifles boomed, as full-power rounds accelerated down the incredibly powerful magnetic rails built into their barrels. Faint contrails were left behind in the air as those bullets slammed home, blowing huge chunks out of the Broodmother's torso. Its enraged screeching turning into a wet-sounding wheeze as Calara punched a big hole through its upper thorax. It staggered on towards them, but a second volley chopped it in half, spraying the wall of grubs with entrails and green blood.

The Broodmother thrashed on the floor, long foreclaws making a grating squeal as she gouged divots from the metal deck. Without being prompted, Dana and Calara shot those flailing claws, blowing them apart in an explosion of armoured chitin. John calmly approached the fallen monstrosity and shot it one final time at the top of the thorax, the shot neatly decapitating the hideous beast.

"What the fuck?!" Dana exclaimed in surprise, drawing John's attention to the redhead.

She pointed across the room towards the Kirrix drones that had been attempting to flee with their sackfuls of grubs. The dozen six-limbed insects had collapsed on the floor as if pole-axed. They twitched uncontrollably, squirming grubs falling free of the sacks that tumbled out of their clawed hands.

"Must be some kind of psychic backlash when the Broodmother died," John said, clapping Dana on the shoulder. "Our sexy doctor's proved right again..."

Calara raised her rifle and aimed at the jerking drones. "Should we take them out, just in case?"

*Wait!* Alyssa blurted out. *Rachel says to just watch them for the moment. The effect might wear off soon.*

John walked over to the Broodmother's head, watching its juddering, razor-sharp mandibles with a wary eye. "It must wear off eventually. The last time we boarded a Kirrix hive ship, there were still drones fighting a while later, after we killed the Broodmother and the Hivelord."

Calara walked over to join him and shook her head in revulsion as she stared at the horrifying monster lying dismembered on the floor. "I can't believe how brave you and Alyssa were back then, boarding one of these horror ships. You didn't even have any decent equipment!"

"I've always had more balls than brains," John said with a wink.

Dana and Calara both laughed at that, then watched as he grabbed the severed head by one of its armoured horns.

John glanced down at the gaping holes the railguns had blown through the Broodmother's torso. "All joking aside, it was a hell of a lot harder the first time we tried to take one of these things down. Alyssa and I burnt through loads of ammo with those XR75 rifles before it finally dropped... it very nearly killed us."

The redhead nodded, glancing down at the Quantum rifle in her hands. "I can't even imagine trying to kill one of those fuckers with a normal assault rifle."

Calara patted him on the shoulder as she walked past. "To think I used to complain about being stuck on the ship!" she said, obvious relief in her eyes.

"Come on, let's head back," John said, hauling the huge Broodmother head behind him and leaving a sticky trail of green gore in his wake.

As they left the nest chamber, Dana glanced back and saw that the Kirrix drones were starting to stagger drunkenly to their feet. "Two for two, Babes..." she murmured under her breath as she jogged to catch up with her companions.

***

John waited until the last of the Trankaran civilians had disembarked from the Raptor, before he strode down the rear-loading ramp, dragging the Broodmother's severed head behind him. He'd wanted to avoid upsetting the Trankarans with the disturbing sight of the Kirrix monster, but the ones that turned and saw it reacted quite differently. They grinned and pointed him out to their friends as he dragged the trophy towards the ramp leading up into the Cargo Bay.

He spotted Sub-Warden Dhormun standing by scores of Trankaran soldiers, the Legionnaires that they had rescued from Hol Darim Fortress now joined by those captured by the Kirrix. The soldiers were handing out captured neutron rifles to civilian volunteers, with those men joining the newly formed militia units. One of the Legionnaires saw John watching them and he saluted him respectfully, then tapped Dhormun on the shoulder and pointed him out. The Sub-Warden turned around and walked towards John with his long, thumping strides.

"It looks like you've got lots of volunteers," John said, nodding towards the ranks of civilians listening to the Legionnaires.

Dhormun smiled at him and replied, "Everyone wishes to play their part. Should the Kirrix return, they'll face stern resistance!"

"I hope it won't come to that," John said earnestly, appraising the unarmoured civilians and knowing how heavy the casualties would be in a protracted battle. "We'll take Niskera, the other diplomats, and the wounded back to Thandrun's forces, then try and get help for you as soon as we can. We knocked out the Kirrix fleet in the Alpha Tauri system, so at least you'll be safe in the short term."

After a moment's hesitation, Dhormun clapped a weighty armoured paw on John's shoulder. "Thank you for everything you've done for us, Vice Admiral Blake. I don't know if Niskera is right about you, but by the Maker, you're a force to be reckoned with!"

John smiled at him in return. "You did a fine job yourself, Dhormun. You kept Niskera safe... I couldn't have asked for anything more."

The Sub-Warden bowed to him respectfully. "It was my honour to serve. Good fortune to you... John."

"You too," John replied, then watched the big soldier turn around and rejoin his troops.

Making sure he had a firm grip on the Broodmother's head, he walked up the nearby ramp, searching through the crowds until he spotted one of his girls by one of the treatment machines. He already knew it would be Rachel, but the tawny-brown lioness on her shoulderpad identified her at a glance.

"Rachel!" he called out to the brunette. "Do you want your birthday present early?"

Rachel turned around when she heard his voice and her eyes sparkled when she saw the grisly trophy. "Oh that's fantastic!" she exclaimed, before turning to speak to one of her orderlies and asking him to take over operation of the Sonic Cannon. She hurried over to John after that, studying the massive insectoid head with avid interest.

"You were right about the psychic backlash. The drones must have been controlled by the Broodmothers rather than the Hivelords," John told her, glancing down at the four black compound eyes atop the hideous yellowish-brown exo-armoured skull.

"I can't wait to examine it!" she exclaimed, looking up at him and grinning. "I love my present, thank you!"

"Should I take it up to Medical?" he asked, meeting her happy grey-eyed gaze.

She nodded enthusiastically. "If you could, that would be wonderful! Just store it in a sterile field on one of the operating tables, I'll perform an autopsy later. The Hivelord's head should be up there already."

"Will do," John agreed, before he turned to look around the packed Cargo Bay. "How's everything going in here?"

"We're making great progress treating those infested with Kirrix eggs," she informed him, following his gaze back to the three loading claws, which had been retro-fitted with Sonic Cannons to operate on any impregnated Trankarans. "I've also treated the most critically injured civilians, but there weren't actually too many of those."

"Really?" John asked in surprise. "After days of occupation, I would have expected quite a few."

Rachel's face darkened as she shook her head. "The Kirrix killed anyone too badly wounded to survive the two-week gestation period. They applied some kind of salve to the seriously injured, to keep them alive long enough for the eggs to hatch." Her expression lightened a little as she added, "The salve seems to act as a fast-acting coagulant, while also keeping wounds covered and sterile. I've taken some samples and I'll do some research into it when I have some free time. I might be able to synthesise something useful."

"Nice work, honey," John said, patting her on the arm. "I'll let you get back to it, but we'll all catch up later for a debrief, okay?"

She blew him a kiss, then turned around and strode back to the Trankarans to continue overseeing their treatment. John picked up the Broodmother's head again and started to drag it towards the loading lift that led up to Dana's Workshop. Through the crowds, he spotted the distinctive white gleam of one of his girls in a Paragon suit, the alluring armoured figure leaning against the back wall of the Cargo Bay. Weaving around Trankarans to see who it was, he smiled politely at the burly rockmen and women as they gave him respectful bows when he passed.

Drawing closer, he spotted white lioness holographs floating above her armoured shoulders and her exotic blue skin through the faceplate. Tashana twirled her twin pistols in her hands and her angular violet eyes were riveted on the crowd, her expression tense and rigid. It was almost as though he could see the anger pouring off her, and he hurried faster, wondering what had upset the Maliri girl so badly. When he got close enough to get a clear look at her, and more importantly, what she was staring at, he finally understood.

Chancellor Niskera was helping to treat the infested Trankarans, and the diplomats from the minor empires were gathered nearby, watching the process in amazement. All those species had dealt with Kirrix infestations before and were painfully aware of how hard it was to safely treat anyone carrying their eggs. The diplomats were talking quietly amongst themselves, including the Bolon ambassador, who was the object of Tashana's burning gaze.

"Hey, beautiful," John greeted the Maliri girl in a cheerful manner as he hauled the Broodmother's head onto the loading lift. "Want to give me a hand hauling this ugly mother up to Medical?"

Tashana glanced at him in surprise, her expression softening when she saw his smile. "Of course, I'll be glad to help."