Three Square Meals Ch. 063

The senior officers on the Jernak'tor had hissed with frustration when he summoned them to the Bridge-Pit for this training drill. He didn't care about their complaints however, as he knew that non-stop drilling was the fastest way to build unity amongst a crew, especially when getting to know the quirks of a new commanding officer. High Prelate Vraktrin had contacted him only a few hours earlier, announcing that he had received special orders, and it was time to go hunting for Terran villains once more.

With a toothy grin on his face, Khardas looked down at his staff as they scurried about their tasks, responding to a simulated interdiction by Terran Forces. They had started the simulation with only a skeleton Nightwatch crew on duty, with the other officers responding as fast as they could to the simulated red alert, and rushing to their stations as soon as they reached the Bridge-Pit. He had to confess that he'd been impressed, and the Nightwatch had brought the shields up within twelve seconds of the simulated interdiction, while the entire Bridge staff had assembled in one-minute- seventeen-seconds.

He leant over the balustrade surrounding the Command platform, nodding his approval as his Engineering Officer diverted power to weapons, bringing them online. He was about to commend his crew for their excellent performance when a blinding flash snapped his attention to the System Map.

"By Tiemeth the Dessstroyer!" he cursed vehemently. "What wasss that?!"

He covered his sensitive eyes with a scaled hand as he flinched away from the dazzling blue light. Blinking rapidly, he desperately tried to recover his eyesight, but the glaring azure lance felt like it had been seared across his retinas. The Kintark Bridge staff were as stunned as he was, and it took them several seconds to react. The blazing flashes arced out again, painfully bright in the dimly lit Command Deck, and they winced against the harsh flare of light.

Malgil his Engineer Sub-Prelate rapidly tapped on her console, before replying in a loud hiss, "Beam Lasersss, Prelate! But with power ssso great, I've never ssseen anything like it!"

She switched to the Tactical Map and increased the light dampening filter, so that the computer muted the brilliant glare from the blue beams. Prelate Khardas lowered his hand warily, then stared in shock at the Terran cruiser that had appeared out of nowhere, its sparkling white hull clearly highlighting it against the turquoise and orange swirls of the nebula. While their long range sensors were disabled by the nebula, the short range sensors could still pick up faint signals, and populated the Tactical Map accordingly.

As he gaped at the screen, the powerful beams lashed out again, burning into the battleship Merlan'tok for the third time in twenty seconds. He saw the blazing azure beams blast straight through the glistening green battleship, spearing through the once proud and mighty vessel in over a dozen places. He could only groan in horror as he saw the huge warship tear apart into four seperate chunks. The section housing the power core detonated in a colossal explosion, which sent the rest of the tattered hull remnants tumbling away on a blastwave.

"No! Not Vraktrin!" he cried out in grief, his heart threatening to rip apart like the obliterated battleship. Fighting down the desolate sense of loss, he snarled, "Fire back! Hit thossse bassstards with everything we've got!"

The Invictus turned its baleful attention to the cruisers next, and as it charged closer at an impossible speed, it opened fire with four of the feared Mass Drivers against the cruiser Lissen'tor. Its crew had been slow to react, having still not got their shields up, and the despicable Terrans punished them for it. The shells smashed into the cruiser's topdeck, and the ship seemed to tremble in terror from those mighty impacts. They were followed a second later by huge explosions, which tore asunder large sections of upper armour plating, further exposing the superstructure beneath.

What seemed like a solid sheet of blue laser blasts tore into the Lissen'tor, the cascade of laser bolts ripping through the gaping rents in the shimmering green armour. The ship convulsed with dozens of minor explosions, the luminescent lighting guttering out as the vessel was blasted into a desolate hulk.

His ship began to open fire on the glossy-white Terran cruiser, launching a formidable barrage of ghastly green plasma at the mystery ship. It was moving with an unnatural speed and freakish agility, which Prelate Khardas had thought only achievable with a corvette or strike craft. The Invictus jinked and rolled, moving in wild, unpredictable manoeuvres that made it practically impossible to lead. Hasira, his Tactical Sub-Prelate was an excellent shot, but she struggled to land more than half a dozen hits from the Jernak'tor's rapid firing Plasma Cannons on her target. The shots hit the cruiser's shields, but the energy was harmlessly dissipated.

He felt a surge of relief when he saw that his ship wasn't the only one to react, and the cruiser Zarkin'tor began to open fire with its plasma cannons as well. The glowing green shots arced across the Tactical Map, but he was baffled when the barrage went nowhere near the terrifyingly potent Terran ship.

"By Malganth the Betrayer!" he swore in horrified disbelief, as those shots burned into the last of the four Kintark cruisers, the Jerman'tor.

Plasma scorched through the Jerman'tor's armour, leaving charred gouges that burned with fel-green flames. The treacherous cruiser Zarkin'tor pounded away at the stricken cruiser, aided by an unending stream of laser bolts from the Invictus. Blue and green bolts seemed to merge together in a frenzied orgy of destruction, the Kintark plasma fire burning holes in the Jerman'tor's armour, which the evil Terrans ruthlessly exploited with their lasers.

The Kintark cruiser was tough and built to withstand heavy battle damage, but the reinforced substructure beneath the armour melted under that onslaught. With green and red fires raging out of control, the Jerman'tor drifted away, nothing more than a lifeless burning wreck. The Jerman'tor turned towards Prelate Khardas' own ship next, and began to open fire on them.

"We're being hailed, Prelate!" his vexed comms officer cried out to him. "It's that backssstabbing viper, Prelate Padaar!"

Khardas gave a sharp nod, and the viewscreen came to life. He pointed a clawed, scaly hand at Prelate Padaar, and roared, "You thrice damned ssscum! You dare ssshow your face?!"

"Forgive us!" the terrified Prelate begged him. "Thossse fucking Terransss have hacked our ssship! We have no control over anything!"

"Ssshut your fucking power down! You're dessstroying my ssshields!" Khardas bellowed furiously.

He glanced up at the Tactical Map, and the other cruiser was sending volleys of plasma cannon fire into his shields. Prelate Khardas knew full well that they wouldn't be able to withstand this battering for much longer. He looked for the Terran ship, his heart in his mouth as he waited for the cascade of laser bolts to start striking him too. The Invictus had sailed away though, leaving him to deal with the other cruiser, and he slammed his scaly fist on his Command Table with frustration, as he saw it eviscerate the escorting destroyers with those devastating blue laser bolts.

A second later, sixteen Beam Lasers opened fire from the Invictus' topdeck, slamming into the carrier Tivash'toh. The carrier had managed to raise its shields in time, but they seemed to do little good. The incandescent blue beams throbbed as they punched into the carrier's shields, and he groaned in disbelief when they flickered out, dying under a single withering salvo. The beams dissipated a second later, before they could do anything more than slash harmlessly across the carrier's outer plating.

Any sense of relief was instantly dispelled, when the sparkling white ship simply rolled over effortlessly, then opened fire with the eight Beam Lasers on its underbelly. Those virulent columns of energy scythed lengthways down the Tivash'toh's hull, gouging a huge furrow along the starboard flank from aft to stern. The carrier had started launching fighter and bomber wings from the launching runways, and the pulsating blue beams instantly obliterated every strike craft they touched. Now that the destroyers had been vaporised, the Invictus began to ruthlessly exterminate any remaining strike craft that attempted to flee, blowing them to pieces in a hail of blue laser bolts.

The carrier's Plasma Cannon batteries were fully charged and online now, and the Tivash'toh's gunners finally began to retaliate. Streams of volatile plasma bolts arced across the gap between the two duelling vessels, and despite the incredible manoeuvrability of the Invictus, some of the barrage struck home. Khardas could see the shields start to weaken as green circles rippled outwards with every impact.

Turning to his pilot, Sub-Prelate Gorchir, he yelled, "Get after them! We have to sssupport those carriersss!"

"Do not engage that Terran ssship!" a deep voice roared from behind him.

Prelate Khardas whirled in place, and snarled, "How dare you countermand my ordersss, Vorgrax?! I'm in command here!"

The hulking lizard surged forward, moving with a frightening speed as it towered over the Lizardman. "You dare addresss one of the Royal Guard like thisss?" Vorgrax hissed at him ominously. "If I believe you have taken leave of your sensesss, I can gut you and sssieze control!"

"My apologiesss, Vorgrax," the Prelate muttered, with a respectful nod of his head.

Ignoring him now, Vorgrax was staring at the Tactical Map, his big reptilian eyes widening in disbelief as he watched the Invictus tearing the carrier Tivash'toh apart. "Get usss out of here! We can't face that kind of firepower!" he rumbled in his deep sibilant voice.

"What about the invasssion craft!" Khardas protested. "If we flee, they're doomed!"

The huge lizard turned to stare at him, and it snapped, "They're already dead! Nothing that facesss that terror ssship can sssurvive! We mussst warn the Emperor about this deadly new threat, our duty to the Empire isss clear!"

Prelate Khardas met the massive scaly monster's gaze for a moment, then leaned over the balustrade, clutching at it with a deathgrip as he snarled at his pilot, "Full retreat! Get usss out of here, now!"

He turned back to look at the viewscreen, but Prelate Padaar had disappeared from view, leaving only the Imperial crest. Khardas glanced fearfully at the Tactical Map, and saw that the sabotaged cruiser was now adrift, all power shut down. A few seconds later, the rear of the ship seemed to balloon outwards, spears of sickly orange light punching out of the hull, and then it erupted in a vast explosion as it was consumed by a powercore meltdown.

With his shields only hanging on by a thread, the cruiser Jernak'tor powered up its engines to maximum, and ran for the Navigation Buoys in a desperate attempt to escape.

***

"Nice shooting, ladies," John said to Calara and Faye, surveying the rampant destruction they had just unleashed on the Kintark fleet. "It looks like the last cruiser is running, so let's finish off the remaining carrier."

"Affirmative, Admiral," Calara replied calmly.

Alyssa brought the Invictus about, ignoring the cruiser, and focusing on the last of the carriers. The huge vessels had split up, fleeing haphazardly in opposite directions until they had caught up with the carrier Tivash'toh. Calara had hit it with one volley after another, working in perfect harmony with Alyssa as the two girls communicated almost instantly via telepathy. Jade had faster reflexes than the blonde Terran girl, but the psychic bond shared between the Pilot and Gunner made them a formidable team.

Wings of strike craft were pouring from the remaining carrier, which closely resembled a stirred up nest of furious hornets. While the Kintark heavy bombers were forming attack wings, then turning to face the Invictus, the waves of fighters had another target in mind. Jade had launched in the Raptor before the Invictus had begun its devastating ambush on the battleship Merlan'tok, and she was now running amok through the fuelling stations and the munitions dumps.

The support structures were unshielded, leaving them horribly exposed to the gunship. Between the sizzling beams from the two Beam Lasers, and the savage storm of blue laser bolts from the six Pulse Cannons, Jade was tearing a wide path of destruction through the base. Both types of facilities were hugely vulnerable to attack, and a loving caress from a Beam Laser, or a few volleys from a Pulse Cannon was enough to cause hydrogen fuel to ignite, or plasma missiles to detonate.

"Forget the carrier for the moment," John ordered sternly. "Head off those fighters before they can double-back to intercept Jade."

*On it,* Alyssa replied to him, banking the Invictus hard to starboard and cranking up the engine power to maximum.

Turning to look at Dana, he asked, "How are the shields doing?"

The redhead glanced at the damage control holograph that floated above her Engineering station, and with a worried frown she replied, "Our shields are pretty fucked up. We took a few plasma hits from that cruiser, and a lot from that carrier. We're at twenty-two percent shields and climbing."

John nodded to her in reply, then turned to look at the Maliri to his right, and asked, "Are you okay, Irillith?"

She nodded enthusiastically, and said, "I turned off all the safety failsafes on that cruiser's powercore, then performed an emergency coolant vent. I got out of there when I knew they couldn't do anything to stop the powercore meltdown." She grinned as she added, "Kintark cybersecurity isn't any more robust than the Terran Federation's."

Relieved to hear she was alright, he turned back to the Tactical Map, and watched the Invictus cut off the route to the Raptor. The second carrier had peeled away, fleeing directly away from the base, so the fighter wings had needed to sweep around to intercept the gunship. Alyssa had carefully positioned the Invictus right in the centre of that flightpath, so that they'd be able to protect Jade.

Calara glanced at Faye, and said, "You did some nice shooting there, but would you mind if I take over for this?"

"No, of course not!" the purple sprite said, holding her hands up as though taking her hands off the controls. "You're a much better shot than me!"

The Latina gave her a wink, then took direct control of the Pulse Cannons again. The Kintark fighter wings raced towards them, the skilled crews neatly peeling their fighters away, and giving the Invictus a wide berth, staying well clear of Gatling Laser range. Unfortunately for them, the Pulse Cannons had the same range as the old Laser Cannons, which meant they were still in terrible danger.

Calara didn't flinch for a moment when she opened fire with the Beam Lasers, sending a dozen incandescent blue-beams slashing through the first waves of ships. Fifteen of the thirty fighters were vaporised in an instant, and the horrified pilots were killed before they even had a chance to wonder how she was able to track them with Beam Lasers. She unleashed the full firepower of the Pulse Cannons before the beams had even faded away.

The Pulse Cannons fired in three-shot bursts, but the cooling was such that they were almost able to fire without pause. The nimble two-metre-long weapons could track the fighters like a Gatling Laser, but the shots were nearly five times as powerful. The glistening-green fighters flew headlong into that deadly blue laserstorm, and were cut to pieces by her uncannily accurate shooting.

"That was amazing..." Faye marvelled as she watched the Latina obliterate the Kintark strike craft. "I don't think I saw you miss!"

Calara smiled at her, relaxing now that the threat to Jade in the Raptor had been eliminated, and said, "I'll give you a few pointers sometime." Faye nodded eagerly, her big luminescent eyes wide with excitement.

"Time to eliminate that carrier," John said, nodding towards the big green vessel that was flying away from them. "We better move fast before they can prep the second wave of strike craft for launch."

"Shields are only at twenty-eight percent!" Dana warned him.

He looked grim as he said, "We'll have to chance it. We can't risk that carrier sending strike craft after Jade."

Alyssa had already powered up the engines, and the Invictus was now bearing down on the routed carrier. The big lumbering vessel was slow and ponderous, so John had no worries that they would catch it before it could escape. He checked the Tactical Map again, and the cruiser was flying away on a perpendicular course to the carrier. Unfortunately that meant he'd have to let that go, as it was escaping in the opposite direction to the invasion craft.

Those big, cumbersome ships seemed to have realised the terrible danger they were in, and were now trying to escape. He could see them using their limited retrothrusters to slowly turn their vast bulk towards the direction of the incoming Kintark Armada. Checking on Jade next, he watched the Raptor unloading on two refuelling stations, which exploded only moments later. She was leaving a burning swathe of carnage in her wake, and had already destroyed a third of the refuelling and rearming stations.

The Invictus met the Heavy bombers next, and the brave Kintark crews carried on regardless, even after they'd seen what had just happened to the fighters. They started launching torpedoes as soon as they got in range, but a moment later, Calara opened fire with the Beam Lasers. She obliterated the ungainly bombers with ease, the azure beams sweeping through one wing of strike craft after another. She left any torpedoes for the Pulse Cannons, and as those fast moving missiles drew closer, she blew them to pieces with streams of laser fire.

"That carrier is launching another wave!" Alyssa called out in warning.

John stared at the Tactical Map, looking for the tiny green ships against the swirling aquamarine and orange background of the nebula. He spotted three wings of fighters race out of the carrier, catapulted clear by the launch runways built into the flanks of the carrier. As soon as they were clear of the hull, they split up, racing away in different directions, obviously trying to make it harder to intercept them.

"How long till we hit the carrier?" he asked, worried about the fighters chasing after Jade.

Alyssa frowned as she replied, "Twenty-four seconds until we're in Beam Laser range."

He stared at the huge, kilometre-long vessel anxiously, watching as the Invictus rapidly ate up the distance between them. His eyes had flicked back to the carrier again, looking out for any more strike craft being launched, when a sudden series of explosions rocked the massive ship. All along the flank of the vessel a shower of armour plating and debris were blown clear of the carrier, after what seemed to be detonations in the launch runways.

"What the fuck just happened to that carrier?" he asked in shock.

He watched in amazement as the carrier began to keel over, quaking violently as more internal explosions ripped through the mortally wounded ship. Calara, Dana, and Faye all shrugged helplessly, all looking equally as baffled as he was.

Alyssa pulled the Invictus around, heading towards the herd of lumbering Invasion craft, then glanced back at him with a sly smile on her face as she replied, "Irillith's been busy."

John spun his Command Chair, and saw the Maliri girl sitting perfectly still in her seat, her expression calm and her eyes closed. She suddenly drew in a big lungful of air, and her angular eyes flickered open, staring into the distance for a moment before she re-orientated herself. She realised he was staring at her in surprise, and she gave him a satisfied smile in return.