Three Square Meals Ch. 065

They seemed to listen attentively as the red dragon spoke to them for just a few moments, and the Consort then turned and started heading back up the ramp. The Terrans followed along looking docile and compliant, with some of them even smiling happily. One of those was the dark-haired, olive-skinned man that they suspected was Mateo, and now that he had turned to follow the huge Kintark dragon, they saw he was sporting a neat goatee.

"That's definitely Mateo," Alyssa said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at him. "I've no idea what he's so happy about though..."

"The Consort could be secreting some kind of pheromone," Rachel said, looking absolutely fascinated, her professional curiosity piqued. "By the way those Terrans are reacting, it seems to be having a powerful effect."

"Yeah, making them happy to be worked to death," Dana muttered, her full lips turning down into a grim frown.

John nodded, and said, "We'll have to move fast to rescue them. As soon as the Terran and Kintark fleet departs, we can get the girls to bring the Invictus in for close fire support. I don't care how big those dragons are, they won't last long against Beam Lasers!"

Alyssa smiled at him, and said, "Sounds like a good plan."

***

Three hours later, Calara fidgeted up on the Bridge of the Invictus, glaring at the stationary fleets in anger. Alyssa had filled her in regarding the situation on Xen-Nuchek, and she had initially been overjoyed to hear that Mateo was still alive. However, the Terran and Kintark fleets refused to move on, leaving her staring at them impotently. The thought of her brother being captivated by some dragon on a toxic planet while she was powerless to do anything about it was absolutely infuriating.

"Are you sure we can't take those fleets, even if we sneak up on them?" Jade asked with a cautiously optimistic smile.

Calara shook her head in frustration, and replied, "Sorry Jade, but there's just too many of them. We wouldn't stand a chance against the Kintark and the Terrans. Their crews will already be at combat stations, watching each other for any wrong moves."

Jade glanced at Irillith, and asked, "You're quite good at forcing ships to make wrong moves aren't you?"

Calara blinked in surprise, and then turned to look at Irillith with wild hope in her eyes, and asked, "What do you think?"

For her own part, Irillith looked quite startled by Jade's suggestion, but that was quickly replaced by a wicked grin. "If you can get me close enough, then yes, I could hack one of their ships and... cause some trouble." Her enthusiastic grin faded a little as she added, "We'd have to be very close though, just outside interdiction range, and establishing a remote link with the comms array will create a power surge that's going to be hard to mask."

Jade stared at the system map, clearly showing the two fleets arrayed with the Kintark forces surrounding the Terrans. There were no asteroid belts nearby to mask their approach, so it'd be like stalking their prey across an open plain. She knew there was a lot more to it than that, with sensors picking up energy readings rather than actually spotting another ship, but sneaking up on anything in a five-hundred-metre long assault cruiser was a hard concept to grasp.

"How about the Raptor?" she asked her friends. "It's much smaller, so maybe we could get closer with that so you could do your remote hacking?"

Irillith shook her head, and gave the Nymph an apologetic smile. "It's a good idea, but the comms array on the Raptor isn't powerful enough. Last time I tried hacking anything from the Raptor I had to..." Her voice trailed away, and she sat bolt upright. She grinned at Calara, and said, "I know what we need to do."

***

"They want to do what?!" John balked, staring at Alyssa in astonishment.

She smiled at him, and said, "It's a good plan, but it's going to take quite a bit of effort on my part to assist. With the traitor fleet not moving anywhere, we're going to have to take steps ourselves to remove them."

John gave her a worried look, and said, "You heard Calara yourself, she said they had no chance against all those ships."

She gave him a sly grin as she said, "They aren't going to be facing *all* those ships though."

"They'll be taking an awfully big risk," he replied, looking deeply concerned.

Alyssa reached out to hold his armoured hand, and then asked, "You told Calara you trusted her before you left. You do, don't you?

He nodded hesitantly as he replied, "She's probably the calmest and most rational out of all of us, but she's only eighteen. I hate the thought of her having to make these kinds of command decisions on her own."

Rachel patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Actually she's deferred this decision to you via Alyssa. Just think of this as her offering you a sound strategy, and it's up to you if you want her to execute the plan." She smiled at him then, and glancing at Alyssa and Dana she added, "Besides, us three are only eighteen as well. You give us free reign to make our own choices all the time, why is this any different?"

He listened attentively to the brunette, and when she'd finished speaking, he smiled and said, "You make a good point, Doctor." Turning to Alyssa, he continued, "Please can you tell her that I trust her judgement. If she thinks she can pull it off without excessive risk, the choice is hers."

Alyssa gazed off into the distance for a few seconds, then focused on him again, and smiled as she said, "Done! They'll be making their move in a few minutes."

John glanced around at the girls, and said, "Once everything kicks off up there, I think we should hit the mine. The Kintark fleet might contact the forces down here, warning them to be on high-alert and that a jailbreak is imminent. We can't risk the Kintark ground forces slaughtering the prisoners."

"I'm ready to kick some ass!" Dana said, holding her Justice rifle tightly.

Rachel looked sombre as she replied, "The sooner we can rescue the prisoners, the better. I'd like to avoid them suffering from any unnecessary exposure to this planet's atmosphere."

Alyssa smiled at him bravely, and said, "I might need a few minutes to recover, then I'll be good to go. We can hit the base immediately afterwards."

He nodded, then smiled at them as he said, "Alright, let's do this."

***

Commodore Nathaniel Wheeler sat awkwardly in his Command Chair, his nerves frayed after nearly eighteen hours up on the Bridge. It had been a crazy day, starting with Admiral Norwood's impassioned plea to all his loyal officers. Commodore Wheeler had been one of the first to be convinced by his compelling words espousing the just cause of establishing a new Terran Republic, and he'd immediately agreed to follow the Admiral's orders, no matter how disturbing.

Momentous change to a galactic civilisation as huge as the Terran Federation was always going to be a painful process. Commodore Wheeler had resigned himself to the grim reality that someday he'd end up having to fire upon men he had once considered his allies. However, resigning himself to such a fact was entirely different to having the situation suddenly thrust upon him, weeks, if not months ahead of their previously planned schedule. Firing on those loyalist ships had been a bloody business, and it had stabbed at his heart to have to follow Admiral Norwood's orders, even if he knew that he must.

At least all that was behind them now. After transferring all those men to the Kintark, who'd refused to be a part of their break for freedom, they wouldn't have to deal with those constant reminders of what had just happened any longer. He felt a surge of pity for those people, knowing that they faced a horrible fate in the Xen-Nuchek sulphur mines. It was their own fault though, and if they'd stayed loyal to their Captains, rather than the false ideals of the tyrannical Terran Federation, they wouldn't be in that dire situation now.

Putting them out of his mind, he stared at the Tactical Map, watching the Kintark forces with a healthy degree of caution. His counterpart in the Kintark fleet was a taciturn lizard called High Prelate Tedaktu, in command of the battleship Bershan'tok. They had spoken several times so far during this long flight deep into Kintark Space, and although they were supposed to now be allies with one another, there was a considerable amount of wariness on both sides.

The Bridge crew aboard the Battleship Phobos had just changed shifts, and the men and women at their stations were bright-eyed and wide awake. Commodore Wheeler stifled a yawn, but he wanted to see them safely to sanctuary before he turned in for some well deserved rest. They were currently waiting here in Zeta-Draconis for Admiral Norwood, and his dreadnought, the Vengeance of Hera. The Admiral had agreed to a rendezvous with some important Kintark known as the Grand Prelate, who had left Kinta especially to meet with the defecting Terran officer. As soon as they were done, Norwood was meant to be arriving at Zeta-Draconis, then they'd be escorted to a safe location for a debriefing with the Kintark intelligence division.

He was roused from his thoughts by a strange alarm sounding off in the Bridge, jolting him awake. It was one he hadn't heard before in his many years serving in the Terran Federation military, and he glanced at his Chief Engineer with a frown on his face. The alarm winked out a second later, having only activated for a few seconds.

"I didn't recognise that alarm, Commander Garnier. What's the problem?" he asked, feeling a flutter of concern.

Commander Garnier looked puzzled, and replied, "The ship detected a firewall violation to our digital network, but I'm not detecting any secure connections to the Comm array. Without a connection in place, a hacking attempt would be impossible."

"Could the Kintark be trying something?" Commodore Wheeler asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

The chief engineer shook his head, and replied, "I'm not detecting any comm array activity from any of their ships. Establishing a connection would cause a spike in their power profiles, so we couldn't have missed it."

The tired Commodore yawned again, and then slumped in his chair, and said, "It's probably some kind of glitch. It's a shame we couldn't get the Phobos serviced before all this, she's long overdue. Can you perform a full diagnostic routine, and see if you can find the problem?"

Garnier nodded, but he was hesitant as he replied, "Running a full diagnostic will knock out the comm array for several hours. I'll perform some manual checks for now, and I'll schedule some intensive maintenance the first chance we get."

"Very good, Commander," Wheeler said, removing his glasses to rub at his tired eyes.

He stayed slumped in his chair for another ten minutes, struggling to stay awake, and counting down the time until Norwood arrived. The Admiral was scheduled to meet with them in six hours, and Commodore Wheeler was starting to have serious doubts that he'd be able to keep going that long.

The Phobos suddenly began to vibrate as power was pushed to the engines, and the huge battleship started to slowly rotate. This time Wheeler sat bolt upright, and snapped at his Navigator, "Lieutenant York, cease all manoeuvres! I never gave permission for any course corrections!"

The woman sitting at the Pilot's station looked shocked, and she gasped, "It's not me, Sir! I haven't touched the flight controls since I arrived on the Bridge!"

"I don't give a shit who started moving us, get the ship back under control!" he snapped curtly.

She nodded, then bent over her console, tapping buttons, and attempting to power down the engines. When she turned to face him again, Commodore Wheeler could see the look of alarm on her face, and she cried out, "It's not responding! It's like I've been locked out of my console!"

The Tactical Station began to light up as if by its own accord, and the weapon loadout of the Phobos came online as the armoured panels on the battleship's hull began to peel back, exposing their weaponry. "Sir! Weapons are arming themselves!" the Tactical Officer blurted out in a panic, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Commodore Wheeler lurched to his feet, all tiredness forgotten as his body was flooded with adrenaline. "Shut it down you idiot!" he gasped, as tendrils of fear snaked up his spine. "If the Kintark think we're betraying them, we'll be in a world of shit!"

Hammering away at the Tactical Console the terrified officer cried out, "I can't! Tactical isn't responding, Sir!"

Looking at the Tactical Map with dread, Wheeler gaped at the targeting view as it focused on an unsuspecting Kintark cruiser, identified as the Birran'tor. There was a blazing orange flash as the port Beam weapons opened up, lashing into the Kintark ship, and catching them completely unawares. Their shields pulsed angrily for a few seconds under the ferocious onslaught, but when the Phobos' Laser Cannon batteries joined in the barrage, the protective fields finally gave up and winked out.

Staring at the now-shieldless cruiser in horror, Wheeler moaned in despair as the Phobos' Heavy Cannons locked onto their target and began to open fire. A relentless fusillade of high explosive ordnance pounded into the glistening green armour of the hapless cruiser, punching through and blasting out armour plating with a series of savage explosions. The entire starboard side of the Birran'tor was hit by a brutal salvo that left the armour plating in tatters, and the superstructure beneath critically vulnerable. The Laser Cannons continued their merciless curtain of fire, and soon rippling explosions began to detonate within the burning ship.

"We're being hailed by High Prelate Tedaktu, on the battleship Bershan'tok, Sir!" the Communications Officer managed to blurt out as he stared aghast at the devastated ruin of the Kintark cruiser.

Commodore Wheeler stared at the man, and with fear constricting his throat, he was barely able to gasp, "Put him through..."

The viewscreen flickered to life, showing the furious face of the Kintark High Prelate. He hissed with rage, and roared, "Treacherousss vermin! I ssshould have known better than to trussst Terran ssscum! You have less honour than Malganth the Betrayer!"

"It's not my fault!" Commodore Wheeler pleaded pitifully. "You have to believe me, we didn't fire on your ship! I think we've been ha-."

"I jussst sssaw you dessstroy the Birran'tor with my own eyesss! You will pay for your treachery!" High Prelate Tedaktu swore, his black eyes narrowing with fury, as he cut the Terran officer off before he could finish.

The comm channel closed abruptly, leaving Commodore Wheeler staring at the flickering viewscreen in abject horror.

"The battleship Bershan'tok is turning to engage us, Commodore!" his Tactical Officer called out in warning.

Wheeler snapped himself out of his daze then whirled on his Communications Officer and yelled, "Order the entire fleet to open fire! We have to kill them before they destroy us!"

***

Irillith opened her eyes, then sucked in a big breath of air. She'd been able to smoothly exit the Phobos, and had glided back to the Invictus on her violet psychic bridge, rather than being kicked out of their network. It came as quite a pleasant relief to gently merge with her own body, rather than getting unceremoniously dumped back into it, as usually seemed to happen. In fact, she felt incredible at the moment, and her body tingled with power after Alyssa had pumped her full of eldritch energy.

She blinked, then looked at the Tactical Map floating above her, and the scene of utter chaos she had unleashed. Bright orange beams contrasted with sickly green streams of plasma fire as the former Kintark and Terran allies tore into each other at practically point blank range. She grinned triumphantly, and asked Calara, "How did I do, Commander?"

"That was a thing of beauty," Calara replied, shaking her head in wonder. She was watching the Tactical Map as well, and she smiled as she added, "I suppose I should feel bad about the Terran forces being wiped out, but considering they're traitors, I'm surprisingly okay with it."

"How did you do that?!" Sakura asked the Maliri girl, thoroughly astounded.

Irillith smiled at her and replied, "Alyssa's not just a very pretty face. She channelled a huge amount of psychic energy into me, and I used it to establish a connection to the Phobos' digital network. As we used psychic energy rather than power from the ship, the Terran and Kintark forces had no chance of picking up the Invictus on their sensors."

Calara nodded, and said, "It's true, our energy profile didn't even flicker."

The Maliri girl looked thoughtful as she said, "Then I took a leaf out of Nexus' book. As much fun as it is, taunting enemies when I'm hacking their ship, I kept a low profile and waited until I had total control of the battleship before attacking that Kintark cruiser. After that I slipped out of their network, and left them to it..."

"Pulling us back a bit," Jade advised them, as she turned the Invictus, and eased the ship away from the vicious conflict.

Calara watched as her brother's old ship, the Hydra, started launching wings of fighters and bombers, the crews already prepped and ready for just such an eventuality. The first waves had cleared the launch runways when the light carrier was hit by a brutal crossfire from two Kintark cruisers. Batteries of Plasma Cannons on the Kintark vessels opened up, and glowing green salvos of plasma bolts overwhelmed the carrier's shields in seconds. Those deadly green bolts went on to plough into the Titanium armour, melting huge furrows in the plating, and setting the ship ablaze. The Hydra was soon reduced to a funeral pyre, and the Kintark left it to drift away, with ghastly green fires raging out of control.

She felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing the men who'd betrayed her brother meet such a grim end, then turned her attention to the rest of the battlefield. The Terran ships were giving out as much punishment as they were receiving, and after the Phobos had initiated the battle by obliterating the Kintark cruiser, Birran'tor, both sides were reasonably balanced. Now Calara just had to wait for the opportune moment to strike.

"That's far enough, Jade," she replied, glancing over at the Nymph. "We'll hold position here, but be ready for my signal."

Sakura watched the entire encounter in utter amazement. The absolute carnage that these three women had just set into motion was almost beyond belief, and she watched in shock as a Kintark cruiser exploded, the powercore detonating after being speared through by a pulsating orange beam of energy. She sat there quietly, transfixed by the battle playing out on the holographic map, as the two fleets of ships fought each other to the death.

***

"Alyssa, are you alright?" John said to the drowsy girl in his arms, his voice full of worry.

Her eyelids fluttered open, and she smiled at him as she said, "Athena made that look easy."

"Do you want to rest for a bit?" he asked her, looking relieved.

Shaking her head, Alyssa replied, "Nah, I'm good. It just took a surprising amount of energy to keep that connection open."

They were still up in the tall tree, sitting where a knot of thick branches met the sturdy trunk. By keeping the huge trunk between them and the Kintark guards, they were keeping well out of sight from any attentive Lizardmen. Dana handed over the Punisher rifle, and Alyssa took it with a smile.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Rachel asked her with a worried frown. "You were unresponsive for a couple of minutes."

The blonde girl nodded, and replied, "Definitely. Let's go and rescue Mateo."

They all stood up, performed one last series of checks on their weapons, then stepped out of the tree. With flight-mode activated, they were able to float down gently until they reached the jungle floor, and the girls immediately fanned out, leaving John to take point.