Three Square Meals Ch. 079

*Start on your left and work your way towards the middle,* Alyssa ordered Rachel, flinching as a Maliri ghost screamed in terror, her face hollowing out as the life force was remorselessly sucked from her body.

*They're fully armoured, I won't be able to punch through with the Justice Laser,* Rachel replied, as she took cover behind a console and aimed at the first Drakkar on the left-hand side.

Alyssa handed over her Punisher rifle and a couple of spare magazines. *Use this as well. You're strong enough to carry both, but don't bother with headshots. Shoot high-powered bursts at centre mass.*

The brunette nodded grimly, accepting the Punisher rifle and steadying both weapons on the console in front of her, one in each hand. Aiming the Justice Laser, she opened fire on the first of the Drakkar. Sizzling blue laser bolts struck its protective force field, ripples undulating outwards from the impact for a couple of seconds, before the shield was overwhelmed. She immediately squeezed the trigger on the Punisher rifle, shooting her now-shieldless foe.

"VrmPrrrkaow!" the railgun barked, sending a trio of twenty-millimetre slugs into the back of the Drakkar's black battlesuit. The heavy calibre bullets punched huge holes through its torso, showering the Ashanath and Drakkar beyond in a deluge of blood.

Not bothering with any finesse, Alyssa simply reached out with a pair of huge telekinetic fists to grab the closest Drakkar. Taking a firm hold of his legs to anchor him to the floor, her second fist gripped him around the torso, then began to tug at his chest. His armour was strong and offered some resistance, so she focused more intently and jerked upwards, ripping him apart in a jet of blue gore. The creature's four arms flailed wildly as it screamed in agony, before she tossed his mangled torso aside and reached for another.

She worked through the group methodically, doing her best to concentrate on the Drakkar and ignore the deaths of hundreds of Maliri around her. The women had died in so many different ways, from accidents to deaths in combat, but by far the worst was seeing the vital young women have the life force sucked out of them. She did her best to ignore the Maliri death throes as she waded into the Drakkar, dismembering the aliens as quickly and efficiently as she could manage.

Pulling them apart was taking too long, so she summoned up a glowing white sledgehammer with a huge, sharply-angled head, and started battering her way through her black armoured foes. The ghostly mallet rose and fell, pounding bloody rents through their armour as she smashed them into the ground with her telekinetic weapon. The Drakkar were stunned by their attacker's sudden appearance, but they finally reacted as Alyssa started tearing them apart, while Rachel hit them from the other side with her two weapons.

The handful of survivors from the first group started firing back, joined by the second, who ignored the Ashanath that had collapsed on the ground in fear.

Alyssa ducked back around a blocky capacitor, seeking temporary respite from the purple bullets that zipped overhead. As she got ready to knock the Drakkar down with a wave of telekinetic force, movement off to her left caught her eye. She gasped as she turned to see a squad of armoured women in an intense gunfight with several armoured Maliri.

The sinister weapons sent streams of dark-red bolts into their foes, overcoming what appeared to be shields, before punching into the Maliri's armoured bodies. Both sets of women wore full body armour, the style eerily reminiscent of the very suit of Paragon armour she wore herself. Alyssa could see the faces of the Maliri's attackers through the clear visors of their helmets and she gaped at their yellow skin and flaming red hair. Her eyes widened as she saw someone stalking towards them, someone she'd seen several times before...

"Alyssa!" Rachel cried out, as the blonde girl stopped killing the Drakkar. More shots sailed around them, the Drakkar intensifying their fire. "I need you! What's happening?!"

***

John finished off the second group of Drakkar, narrowly saving the terrified Ashanath from the hungry beasts that had removed their helmets and were about to tuck into their victims. He watched the Drakkar marine's head sail across the room, the armoured helmet turning cartwheels in slow motion and sending out sprays of blue blood.

He was about to help up the shocked Ashanath when he heard the first resounding crash echoing from deeper in the ship. A quick glance at the map showed him that the lead group of Drakkar had reached the Ashanath High Council in the spot Ularean had chosen for them. It didn't take him long to realise that the Drakkar were trying to break inside and he bolted from the room without a backward glance at the pair of Ashanath he'd just saved.

As John sprinted down the corridor towards the High Council's safety room, he heard more of those crashes, the noise stretched out in long moments as he raced to help Ularean.

***

Something felt naggingly wrong to Vekrok about having a nap in the middle of a fight, especially when his quarry were only a few dozen metres away from him.

*You feel so weary. You have had a very busy day and it is time to recover your energy,* the voice continued relentlessly.

Vekrok glanced around him, seeing that he was the only one still standing, the rest of his men having all fallen asleep. His heavy eyes settled on the Ashanath in white robes ahead of him, seeing the blood streaked over the face of one of them. That blood was so delicious. He knew it would trickle down his throat as he gorged himself on their leaders, filling his belly with their scrumptious grey flesh. He just needed to torture their secrets out of them first.

*There is plenty of time for that later. You must sleep now, instead,* the voice continued, reverberating slightly with fear.

That brief tremble in the whispering voice was enough for Vekrok to break free of the insidious mental compulsion and his eyes snapped open as he woke. "You sneaky little shits!" he roared indignantly, charging across the room at the Ashanath that had ensorcelled his men.

He thrust forward with his sword, impaling the blood-soaked one through the stomach. Not enough to kill the bastard, but just the right amount to leave him writhing in agony and break the spell they'd put on his men.

Ularean's eyes flashed open, his mouth open wide in a shrill scream of pain as Vekrok stabbed him in the gut. The rest of the High Council's eyes flashed open too, gaping at Vekrok in horror as they shared Ularean's pain through their telepathic connection.

"Try and control me like a puppet? That's what happens," Vekrok gloated, yanking out the sword and letting Ularean collapse on the floor in a blood-soaked heap.

***

Alyssa stood paralysed with the intensity of the psychic echo she was now experiencing, staring in a mixture of awe and fear at the man in her vision. This dreadful imprinted moment had been dredged up from an archaic past, but it was from a time she had witnessed briefly before in the Nexus files...

Mael'nerak's stern face was contorted with rage, his black goatee framing a mouth twisted with fury. Swirling vortexes of jet-black psychic energy whipped around his arms, the storms of energy matching his furious temper. Ghastly tendrils shot out from his fingers, spearing the yellow-skinned redheads through the chest. Their tortured cries of pain matched the terrible expressions of agony on their faces, as he lifted up nearly a score of the armoured women in his supernatural grip.

The black tentacles pulsated sickeningly, with bulges travelling down their lengths towards Mael'nerak's fingertips. It took several agonising seconds for the women to die, horrific moments that Alyssa shared with the psychic imprint left etched into the room. With a strangled cry, she collapsed on the ground, overcome by the brutal intensity of such torment.

"Alyssa!" Rachel cried out, ducking behind the console and darting to her side.

The brunette rolled her limp body over, but her rush of relief to see she was still alive was tempered by the realisation that Alyssa was unconscious. Rachel dragged her further back behind the blocky capacitor, quickly activating the HUD comm interface in her helmet, while firing her Justice rifle at the Drakkar in an attempt to hold them at bay.

***

John sprinted down the corridor towards the broken doorway, his heart lurching in his chest as it became obvious that the Drakkar had broken through into the High Council's sanctuary. He could see black-armoured bodies on the ground inside the room, so it looked like the Ashanath had made them pay dearly for storming into the room. He just hoped he wasn't too late...

Abruptly his enhanced speed faded away and he heard a Drakkar's deep roar of anger reverberate down the corridor, the bellow sounding normal now.

*Alyssa! What happened? Are you out of energy?* he asked in a rush, as he ran towards the open doorway. Bizarrely, the Drakkar lying on the ground started to stand up again, dispelling his illusion that they were dead.

He charged up to the doorway and stared in shock at the biggest Drakkar he'd ever seen, the massive creature towering over Ularean, who was lying in a heap on the floor. The Drakkar's sword was dripping with blood, making it obvious what had happened to the Ashanath Senior Councillor.

Even more alarming, there was still no response from Alyssa. He was about to try reaching out to her again, when the comm interface in his HUD crackled to life.

"John! We're in trouble!" Rachel screamed, her fearful face showing her acute distress. "Alyssa blacked out! She said something about seeing ghosts!" Drakkar weapon fire sounded shockingly loud in the background as she flinched away from those shots.

John was truly conflicted, knowing that to leave the Ashanath alone with the Drakkar was abandoning them to a horrible fate. Then again, it was Alyssa and Rachel in trouble. It took him less than a second to make his decision and he began to turn away, giving the Ashanath a look of profound regret.

"I'm out of psychic energy, it'll take me a few minutes to get there!" he said decisively.

Sakura's holographic face appeared a second later as she spoke, Rachel having called them both for help. "I'm already on my way! I'll be with you in half that time!"

Rachel blinked in shock when she saw the inner glow from the Asian girl's eyes, but she shrugged it off quickly. "We're pinned down by at least ten Drakkar shooting at us! Please hurry!"

Realising that there was nothing he could do to help and that he would have to place his trust in Sakura to save the women he loved, John strode into the room. He glanced at his HUD to increase the audio amplifiers on his Paragon suit and thundered, "Drakkar! Is killing unarmed Greys the best you've got?"

The hulking monstrosity whirled around at the deafening noise, his hideous hammer-headed face glaring at the impudent upstart that had dared to challenge him. When he saw the Terran in his glistening white armour with his shiny sword, he laughed mockingly, the snide laughter echoing around the room.

"Show me what you've got, Terran!" Vekrok boomed, brandishing his twin swords and maces with relish.

***

The Invictus barrelled through the raging battle, gun batteries blazing. Faye's team of avatars were doing an admirable job, firing the Pulse Cannons and Gauss Cannons at the teeming swarm of dropships. As the ugly, vicious looking vessels exploded around them, she fired the battlecruiser's Beam Lasers and Heavy Cannons at the remaining Drakkar capital ships. A battleship was hit in a dozen different places, the azure beams dragging along its length as the Invictus raced past.

Unlike the far weaker Ashanath weapons, the Invictus' Maliri-based beams raked straight through the armour, melting the superstructure beneath too. Faye's salvo lacerated the battleship's port flank, burning away over fifty metres of armour and leaving a gaping trench in the side of the vessel. The subsequent barrage of Heavy Cannon shells punched into the hull without any armour to slow them down, finally detonating deep inside the ship. It exploded in a crimson inferno, scattering a million pieces of wreckage outwards on the cataclysmic blast wave.

This section of space was awash with hulks of the fallen and swathed in a sea of debris, making flying through it extremely treacherous. Jade rolled the battlecruiser to the left, pulling up sharply to avoid the burned-out wreck of an Ashanath cruiser. As the Invictus swept by the blackened disc, the rear of a Drakkar battleship slowly tumbled into their path. This section of the vessel was all that remained of the huge angular vessel, after a magazine explosion had blown it to bits. Pushing down on her flightstick and pulling back on the throttle, Jade narrowly avoided crashing into the shattered derelict and pointed the battlecruiser towards the next big cluster of dropships.

There was a fierce impact that made the Invictus tremble and Jade blinked in surprise as she exclaimed, "Hey! I missed that wreck! What hit us?!"

"Heavy Cannon shells," Dana said with a grim frown. "We took two hits to starboard. The armour's fucked, but still holding."

*Alyssa, order the Ashanath cruisers and battleships to regroup with the destroyers. We need them covering each other with point defence,* Calara thought to the blonde. *Destroyer group fifteen in section 'J-47' needs to turn on a heading of oh-eight-nine, to link up with cruiser group six.*

She waited for a couple of moments, surprised when her girlfriend didn't immediately respond with a confirmation of those orders.

*Alyssa? Are you there?* she asked again, but there was still no reply.

Calara felt a tremor of fear at the lack of response from her lover. She darted a nervous glance across the Combat Bridge and asked, "Dana, can you try hailing Alyssa via her helmet HUD? She's not responding to me."

The redhead glanced at her in surprise and her eyes widened in alarm when she attempted to contact Alyssa via telepathy, but didn't receive a response either. She sat up straight and her nimble fingers danced over the engineering console as she attempted to contact Rachel instead.

The brunette's frightened face appeared a moment later and Dana blurted out, "We lost contact with Alyssa! What's happening?!"

Rachel grimaced and they all heard a flurry of shots race over her head. She looked away from the holo-cam and the sound of her Justice Laser firing back filled the Bridge, quickly followed by the bark of a Punisher rifle. A Drakkar's agonised roars confirmed the effectiveness of her shooting.

Focusing on the camera again, the brunette exclaimed, "Alyssa's unconscious! She was seeing psychic echoes on the Legacy - ghosts of all the people who died here! I think it was too much for her; she must have been overwhelmed by it!"

"Where's John and Sakura?!" Dana blurted out, gripped with fear for her lover. "They shouldn't have left you alone!"

Flinching from another fusillade of shots, Rachel replied, "They didn't! Alyssa was slaughtering the Drakkar before-"

Her reply was cut off as she screamed in pain, the comm channel ending abruptly.

"Rachel!" Dana screamed, half-rising from her seat in an instinctive reaction, wanting to run to her lover's aid.

A warning alarm echoed around the Bridge, shocking an already stunned crew.

"What's that alarm mean?" Tashana asked looking around at the other girls for an explanation.

"We've been hit by docking harpoons!" Faye wailed, wringing her hands in worry. "I'm so sorry! I was supposed to be firing the Pulse Cannons at the Drakkar, but I was so worried about Rachel and Alyssa, I got distracted!"

Jade shook her head and replied, "It's not your fault. I was just as distracted as you were and I flew straight through them."

Calara blinked and shook her head to try and focus, gripping the weapon controls and taking over the Pulse Cannons. The Invictus had flown right through a group of three Drakkar dropships, the brutish vessels promptly hitting the battlecruiser with docking harpoons and reeling themselves in. She opened fire immediately, managing to hit two and shredding them with a torrent of blue laser bolts. The third had already pulled itself inside the Pulse Cannons' firing arcs and a couple of seconds later, it clamped onto the hull.

"Oh, fuck me!" Dana exclaimed, paling at the thought of being boarded by Drakkar again. She leaned over her console in a panic and blurted out, "They're on Deck Three! Outside the Simulator Room!"

Turning to look at the crew, Calara said curtly, "We need to repel boarders! Dana, you're in no shape to fight. Try and get in contact with John or Sakura and find out what's happening on the Legacy. Jade, stay up here and keep us away from any more trouble. Tashana and Irillith, you're with me!"

Irillith had been using a Drakkar Battleship's Beam Lasers to fire on its own dropships, but she shook herself out of her hacking trance and back to full awareness on the Invictus' Bridge. Rising from her seat, she reached for the grip of her Punisher rifle with her right hand, while holding up her left hand to stop Calara as she started for the ramp. "Let me and Tashana handle the boarders."

The Latina turned to look at her in surprise. "We haven't got time for this, we need to move now!"

"You can still make a big difference to the battle by manning the Invictus' guns and saving the Ashanath from being boarded. Faye's good, but she can't match your shooting," Irillith said earnestly.

Calara shook her head, protesting, "You two can't face them alone! There must be about twenty in that dropship!"

The Maliri girl started up the ramp, saying over her shoulder, "Leave the invaders to us. We'll have Faye helping on the Sonic Cannons."

Tashana patted Calara on the shoulder as she rushed past on her way up the ramp, falling into step beside her sister. They entered the grav-tube up to the bedroom at the same time and were whisked up to Deck Two in a couple of seconds. When they walked out, Tashana darted a nervous look at her twin as she said quietly, "It might have been sensible to bring Calara along. Drakkar have a reputation for ferocity and we're going to be massively outnumbered."

Irillith turned to look at her as they jogged along the corridor, her eyes glowing with an eerie violet radiance. The light shining from her right eye flickered as she winked at her twin.

***

Sakura's booted feet barely touched the ground as she practically flew down the Legacy's silver tunnels. She didn't even react as she sprinted full tilt into the older section of the ancient Progenitor vessel, not having time to waste with such trivialities as being afraid. Her own reserves of energy were nearly tapped out and she knew she had to reach her friends before she exhausted it all.

She didn't need to rely on the map now; in her heightened state, the cable of light linking her to Alyssa guided her in. Moving like a heat-seeking missile, she powered through the corridors, drawing ever closer to her target. The doors to the room ahead of her were wide open and she stormed inside without hesitation, charging into a room filled with massive old machinery. Her path led straight through the huge obstacles that were blocking the way, so she kicked off the ground, using thrusters from her Paragon armour to launch herself through the air.

Her speed had done its job getting her there in time, but she deactivated it now, needing the last of her energy for the fight to come. A terrifying crack announced her presence to everyone in the room, as her swords were sheathed in a swirl of ice crystals. She held the twin swords fully extended ahead of her, diving through the air as she descended on the group of Drakkar who were looking around in confusion.