Three Square Meals Ch. 015

John washed the sticky green blood off his face, then went to join Alyssa to get geared up. They put on their combat armour and collected several more clips of armour piercing rounds, which they attached to their utility harnesses. John also collected a few of the grenades he had picked up from the Griffon that he hadn't used yet. He had just finished attaching the last of them securely to his harness, when Alyssa leaned in and gave him a big kiss.

"I owed you that one from earlier!" She grinned up at him mischievously.

John laughed happily.

"Look at me laughing" he grinned "You'd never think we were about to storm a Kirrix hive ship!" he said incredulously.

"Come on you" he said to the stunningly beautiful young woman, shaking his head in amazement.

They headed down to the hangar bay and approached the parked dropship. It was a yellow-brown colour with a number of bulky pods at the back and sides and with a bulbous armoured cockpit at the front. It looked like some kind of sickly insect to Alyssa and she decided she was definitely not a fan of the Kirrix style of ship design.

"We better haul out those dead bugs" John said regretfully. "We don't want to risk tripping on body parts if we have to make a fast exit".

Alyssa nodded ruefully and they put aside their rifles so that they could haul out the Insectoid corpses. The Kirrix were big, bulky and very scary looking, with their six limbs, segmented bodies and frightening compound eyes over sharp mandibles. Fortunately though, their chitinous frames were deceptively light and the two of them were able to quickly remove all ten of the dead soldiers and stack them in a pile. The decapitated pilot was the cherry on top of an invertebrate cake.

They left the Kirrix weapons stacked neatly to the side, an odd array of bizarre looking pistols and rifles.

"What type of weapons are those?" Alyssa asked curiously.

"The small ones are Neutron blasters, the long ones with the side mounted grip is a Neutron rifle" he explained. "They are nasty weapons and hurt like hell if you get hit by one".

"Ok I'll give that a miss then" Alyssa said impishly.

John smiled, rolling his eyes at her and the two of them collected their rifles before boarding the dropship. Alyssa sat in the pilot's seat and fired up the engines, while John used a device on his armoured vambrace to open up the hangar bay doors remotely. The ship rose smoothly under Alyssa's skilful control and they glided out of the hangar bay as though she had been flying Kirrix craft all her life. She banked and pulled up so that she was heading towards the hive ship.

"Any idea where their hangar is?" She asked John curiously.

"There in the middle, aim for those big slots in the side" He replied.

The dropship rose and headed towards the much bigger alien vessel like a bee returning to its hive. They received no incoming fire from defence grid type weaponry, so John figured that the Kirrix must have fallen for Alyssa's cunning ruse. They were hailed as they approached, but they decided it was probably best to let that one go unanswered.

They entered the hangar slot for the hive ship unchallenged and Alyssa carefully glided into the big open hangar bay without causing suspicion. The hive ship was brightly lit by glowing hexagonal walls that surrounded the entire bay, all throbbing with a strange pulsating luminescence. The hexagonal panels directly in front of them, which were on the port side of the ship were all dimmed. Figures swarmed over another dropship, probably ground crew John guessed, as a squad of ten more Insectoid shock troops marched down from an overhead ramp to get ready to board their transport.

Alyssa gently rotated their dropship, as they came forward on their final approach to an unoccupied landing pad. As the marching soldiers swung into view, Alyssa pulled the trigger on the odd shaped Joystick and twin streams of sickly green energy bolts blasted out and scythed through the lined up soldiers. The Kirrix trooper's chitinous bodies exploded as they were hit by the powerful energy pulses, causing limbs, antenna and pieces of armoured exoskeleton to be blasted about the Hangar bay as the troopers were struck by the neutron bolts. The Insectoid forces were caught completely by surprise and by the time the survivors tried to react, they were picked off by a second deadly volley of accurate shots.

"Oops!" Alyssa exclaimed, holding her hand over her open mouth in mock surprise.

"What happened to stealthy?" John grinned wryly.

"Sorry John I'm still learning the ship, accidents will happen!" The mischievous blonde informed him.

She continued her sweeping turn until she faced the ground crew, who were desperately trying to get the other dropship operational. Alyssa pulled the trigger again and the Heavy Neutron guns on her hijacked craft opened up, blowing apart their segmented arthropod bodies and devastating the landed dropship. The repeated neutron impacts knocked it on its side and the yellow-brown hull of the ship began to smoulder in several places.

"Very nice..." John said, surveying the carnage. One of the wounded Kirrix troopers was dragging itself off the bloodbath on the gantry, but none were still standing.

Alyssa carefully set their dropship down on the centre of the landing pad and then pushed a button that caused the airlock to slide apart.

"Ok let's move out" John said and led the way out of the back of the ship. He glanced around the glowing hexagonal tiled room and noted three ways to leave the hangar. Up the gantry and then through doors at the top of an overhead walkway, or through ornate arches at either end of the hangar. He stopped for a moment to get his bearings.

"Which way?" Alyssa asked, before bringing her rifle to her shoulder and firing a burst into the chest of the wounded shock trooper who was attempting to stand up. The insectoid fell to the floor, its chitinous limbs thrashing wildly before it finally lay still.

"All the human life readings were that way" John said pointing to the archway closest to them, as he readied his rifle and led them out of the room.

They entered a wide corridor that continued the odd hexagonal tiling in the hangar bay. Each tile pulsed with light and the lighting in the hall throbbed, as though in time with the hive ship's pulse. They passed sealed doorways occasionally, but there were no sounds coming from within the adjoining rooms, so John led them on quickly, hoping to maintain the element of surprise. The corridor ended in a set of ornate double doors, so they darted up to them, getting ready to storm through. John listened intently, but all he could hear was an odd chirruping noise, so he cautiously eased the door open while Alyssa covered him with her rifle.

The big door swung open smoothly and the disconcerting chirruping noise became more intense. It seemed to fluctuate, getting alternately louder then softer and sounding utterly alien and extremely creepy. Now that the door was open, they could see that they were looking in on a hexagonal shaped room. There was a curving ramp that led both upwards and downwards and the strange chirruping noise seemed to be coming from the lower depths of the ship.

*The life readings all came from the lower decks, so I guess we go down* John thought to Alyssa, allowing them to maintain their silence.

She nodded her agreement and followed as he began to lead them down the curving walkway, spiralling downwards a good three or four full rotations around the central axis before they finally reached the bottom. The ramp opened out into a big room, big double doors at the end with smaller entrances on the flanking walls, the entire right hand side darkened after the loss of power.

An upraised curved dais sat in the middle of the room, with a bulky six limbed Kirrix operating hexagonal buttons on the odd looking console. Before they could react, John's communicator watch flashed with an incoming call. Unfortunately the Kirrix noticed the flash of light and looked up, spotting them. It pushed some kind of button in front of it and the hexagonal tiled walls started to glow red instead of white, plunging the room into crimson shaded gloom. A strange squawking noise sounded shrilly and reverberated around the chamber, echoing ominously.

John raised his rifle and fired a burst, but the insectoid moved with a speed that belied its size and it leapt for cover. It ducked behind the dais and began to take potshots at them with a Neutron blaster. Feeling exposed in the middle of the room, John sprinted forward, whilst Alyssa dropped to a crouch. Seeing the charging human, the Kirrix reared up to take a shot at him, only for its head to be ripped apart by armour piercing rounds as Alyssa opened fire.

The scratchy sounds of many clawed feet began to make their way into the room, coming from both side doors. Alyssa and John jumped up onto the dais and ducked behind the long, oddly shaped console that surrounded the upraised platform and stayed down low, staying out of line of sight as two squads of Insectoid soldiers appeared from each hallway. There were six Kirrix soldiers per squad, each group led by a hulking Overseer Insect. John furtively passed one of his grenades to Alyssa, taking another for himself and began a mental countdown.

*3*

*2*

*1*

*Go!*

The two of them lobbed their grenades in nice gentle arcs, so that they landed right at the segmented legs of the alert bug troopers. John and Alyssa ducked down, hugging the console wall and covered their ears in preparation for the upcoming explosions. Neutron weapon fire zapped overhead for a second before two tremendous detonations blasted through the room, still sounding deafening to them even though their ears were muffled. Cautiously they raised themselves up and glanced over at the two groups of soldiers in the aftermath of their grenade strike.

Each Kirrix patrol had been ripped apart by the grenades. The doorways were blackened, scorched ruins, with billowing black smoke pouring out of the incinerated tiling and a few more shattered tiles sheared off the wall to clang to the floor. The Kirrix forces had been annihilated by the powerful explosives, chitinous appendages were scattered all over the floor and viscous green liquid dripped from where it had been sprayed all over the walls. Miraculously, one of the bulky Overseer bugs was still moving, even though it had lost two of its leg limbs. It screeched a piercing squeal of rage as it tried to level its neutron rifle in their direction and John and Alyssa both opened up on it, sending round after round into its armoured body. It took an alarmingly high number of bullets to finally stop it twitching, the tough Insectoid able to take a surprising amount of punishment.

They reloaded their assault rifles and prepared to move out again, neither seeing nor hearing any further signs of reinforcements. John's watch communicator flashed again, forgotten in the excitement of the combat.

"Yes Lieutenant, what's the problem?" John said, fighting hard to keep any irritation out of his voice. The brunette had no way of knowing how much danger she had accidentally just put them in.

We've got company!" The holographic image of Calara's face said, grinning excitedly.

"What, more pirates?" John asked, wondering why Calara would be happy about that.

"No, it's a friendly! Its Captain Flintlock and the Indomitable" she said happily.

"Can you put me through to him please?" John asked, unable to directly contact the other ship from his watch.

Calara nodded eagerly and her image disappeared from view, to be replaced by the frowning face of Captain Flintlock.

"Command Blake! What's going on here? My tactical officer tells me that's a Kirrix hive ship!" he said, shock clearly showing on his older features.

"The pirates were selling slaves to the Kirrix and we're on board now, trying to rescue the human captives" John explained quickly.

"Do you need reinforcements?" the Captain asked grimly.

"Yes please, liaise with my Tactical Officer and she'll apprise you of the current situation" John said.

"John, we've got company!" Alyssa said, as the sounds of more clawed feet came from the ramp behind them.

"Got to go Captain!" John said and closed the call, as Captain Flintlock saluted him goodbye.

They dodged behind the oddly shaped console, being careful not to trip over the insectoid operator they had gunned down minutes before. Another squad of Kirrix troopers marched down the ramp, followed from behind by a looming Overseer. As soon as John and Alyssa could see the segmented feet of the insectoid forces, they opened fire, armour piercing rounds scything through the legs of the alien troops that couldn't actually see what was firing at them, coming down the ramp as they were.

The first few Kirrix had their legs shot out from under them and slid unceremoniously down the ramp, taking hits to their torso's as John strafed fire over them. The remaining two soldiers and the overseer rushed down the ramp and into the room, heads tilted sideways so that they could see what was attacking them. One of the bugs was shot in the face by Alyssa and it collapsed in a heap, killed instantly. The other began to return fire causing her to duck behind cover as accurate neutron blasts began to impact the console where her head had been. John popped up from the other side and fired the last few rounds of his magazine into the chest of the angry insect, causing it to slump over to its side with a inhuman shriek.

Alyssa slammed in another clip and then popped out, preparing to fire at the Overseer, but her timing was unlucky and a shot from its neutron rifle glanced off her right shoulder. The young blonde woman was knocked backwards and she dropped to the floor and screamed with pain.

John glanced at her in panic, but was relieved to see she that she wasn't too badly hit. He had reloaded himself and flipped the selector switch to full auto, targeting the ugly overseer's underbelly in his sights and then holding down the trigger. The muzzle climb from firing so many rounds walked his shots up from segmented belly to chitinous head and John emptied his entire magazine into the bug that had dared to wound his woman. The Overseer slumped over, its ruined body gouting green ichor all over the floor as its perforated torso sprayed blood around the room. Satisfied that he had killed it, John leaned down at Alyssa's side to check to see if she was ok.

"How bad is it Alyssa?" he asked, his voice tinged with worry.

She looked up at him bravely and removed her hand from her shoulder.

"Not too bad, the shot punched through my armour and grazed my arm, but it hurts like hell!" she said grimacing.

John nodded his understanding and helped her to her feet.

"Are you able to continue?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah, that amount of pain was just a shock" She said stoically. "Let's keep going"

John reloaded his rifle and they moved forward cautiously to approach the big doors at the back of the room. He pressed the hexagonal button on the side and the solid doors ground open slowly, the strange chirruping sound getting much louder as the portal parted.

"What's making that noise?" Alyssa grimaced in annoyance, wincing at the loud, irritating sound.

"Them" John said, as the door opened in front of them.

The room this door opened out into had hundreds of hexagonal alcoves set into the wall on either side, the ones on the right cast in shadow. They could see strange writhing shapes in each of the alcoves, Kirrix grubs, all of which were adding to the horrible chirping cacophony as automated chitinous arms dropped pieces of flesh into their waiting maws.

Movement in the centre of the room snapped them both out of their revulsion at the scene in front of them and an enormous multi limbed horror turned to face them.

"What the fuck is that?!" Alyssa gasped in alarm, at the twelve limbed fourteen foot tall monstrosity that lurked in the middle of the chamber.

"It's a Kirrix Broodmother!" John said forebodingly.

"Aim for its eyes!" he yelled as he dropped into a crouch.

Copying him, Alyssa dropped to one knee and she sighted the two sets of compound eyes on its large, bulbous, yellowy brown head. The pair of them opened fire and the Broodmother reared back in pain as round after round slammed into its sensitive eyes. The insectoid beast brought two sets of armoured foreclaws up to protect its face and their shots began to ricochet off the tough armour plating.

The massive creature stood up on its six legs and began to lumber towards them relentlessly.

"What now?" Alyssa cried out in alarm.

"Aim for joints, any place where the armour is weaker!" John said curtly.

The two of them began to walk fire over the Kirrix abomination, shooting at knees, elbows, feet and hands. One of Alyssa's shots blow out a knee, spurting green blood over the walls and John's shot took out a foot on the other side, causing the Broodmother to skid in the slippery green ichor. It still kept coming though, screeching in fury.

They both emptied out their magazines, incapacitating two more legs, forcing the Broodmother to crawl forward using two of its foreclaws for support.

"Now!" John shouted "Go for the eyes!" as he slammed another magazine home into his rifle.

The two of them stood up and backed away slowly as they sprayed bullets into the face of the Broodmother. With only two foreclaws to protect its head, rounds began to strike home, hitting it in the eyes and even shooting off a quivering antenna. It finally got within striking range and lashed out with a six foot long scythed claw, forcing John to leap to the side to avoid being eviscerated by the razor sharp chitin blade. Unfortunately for the Broodmother, this left its head completely exposed and Alyssa fired the entire clip into its face.

Shuddering, the hulking beast slumped to its side, letting out a croaking inhuman death rattle.

John looked up at Alyssa from where he had dived across the floor and he grinned at her victoriously. She returned the grin as she reloaded her weapon.

"Only one clip left John" She warned him.

"Yeah me too" he said with concern.

They gingerly stepped around the bullet ridden corpse of the Broodmother and headed into the big chamber in front of them. They walked past row after row of Kirrix grubs, not wanting to know what provided the flesh the hideous creatures were devouring. They finally reached the back of the chamber and a corridor led away from the room and up to another set of doors. John and Alyssa jogged up to the doors and then cautiously opened them, wondering what might lay in wait in the next room.

As they opened the door, they were met with the sound of a horrible wailing human scream. They glanced at each other nervously and then moved through the door into the next chamber. This huge room was stacked floor to ceiling along the sides with chitinous cages, terrified human prisoners locked within. They overlooked a scene of nightmares in front of them.

Three naked human prisoners were restrained on a round platform in the centre of the room. The first, a man, was slumped over unconscious with drool falling from his mouth and his bloated stomach pulsing as rounded shapes writhed within his abdomen. The second was a woman, who was screaming in fear and looking on in horror at her shipmate.

The third figure was another woman, her body obscured by the hulking insectoid form that hovered above her. It was over ten feet tall and had six limbs, four of which were holding its body up above her and the last set holding the woman it had mounted in place below it. A large bulbous segment grew out of its lower body which ended with an ovipositor, that was shoved deep inside the prostrate figure below. The woman was crying and groaning in horrified revulsion as small spheres passed down through the pulsating transparent section at the back of the creature and were pushed inside her tightly packed ass, her midsection bloating obscenely to accommodate the Kirrix eggs.