Three Square Meals Ch. 109

*Yes! We have never used the Ashanath to bear our young!* the congregation of voices insisted... a strange sincerity to its declaration that felt like the truth. *We have never sought hosts from their territory...*

She considered it for a second, then her face twisted with contempt. *Don't try and feed me that bullshit. The Greys are too small to infest with your eggs! You'd probably just chop them up and feed them to your grubs! In fact, I bet the only reason you don't bother attacking Grey Space is because you can't use them to make more drones!*

*But we are just-*

Alyssa cut the reverberating voice off, her tone cold and damning. *You've been killing people by the millions. Just because they aren't psychic doesn't mean you can treat them like cattle to be slaughtered... You know they're sentient as well as I do, that's why you use them as hosts!*

The Hive Mind bristled with fury. *You know nothing! We thought you might listen to reason, but you lack the intellect to understand!* There was a momentous building of psychic might behind those voices, the anger raging out of control. *You will know agony for what you have done! All will be hosts for our children!*

Alyssa felt herself plunging into some kind of projected memory, the sensation very similar to those she'd experienced on her spirit walks, but this time it was being forced onto her mind. She tried to call out to John for help, but she was paralysed, her consciousness sucked into the psychic construct...

~~~

Alyssa found herself on her knees, bound naked and helpless before the collective consciousness of the Hive Mind. Her belly was obscenely bloated, a new Hive Queen growing inside her abdomen, its every movement sending shooting pains through her body. Gaping at her distended stomach in horror, she knew that the monster was about to hatch... ready to tear its way free from its host.

She thrashed wildly against her restraints but the resin was impossible to break, her struggles met with mocking laughter. Filled with terror she felt the thing shift, followed by a sharp stab of agony in her guts. She let loose a blood-curdling scream, knowing that there was nothing she could do to stop the inevitable. The birthing of a superior species from her pathetic form...

Alyssa froze, that thought so alien that it jarred her subconscious. Discordant fractures appeared in her surroundings as her mind began to pull apart the projection, rejecting the false reality imposed upon her. With a snarl of rage the mental prison shattered into jagged slivers, the Hive Mind recoiling in astonishment as she ripped their projection to pieces.

~~~

Her mind snapped back into her body and Alyssa's eyes narrowed to slits as she glared at the flinching Hive Queen. *Jade! Give me all the energy you can spare!* she screamed, gathering her will.

*Take it!* the Nymph immediately responded, flooding her Matriarch with a towering tidal wave of psychic energy.

*YOU LIKE PLAYING WITH VISIONS... WATCH THIS!* Alyssa thundered, ramming her own projection back onto the Hive Mind.

~~~

The Invictus dropped out of hyper-warp deep in Kirrix Space, a bright red star casting its crimson pall over a huge verdant planet. The last remnants of the Kirrix fleets were arrayed in defensive formations around that green world, frantically attempting to protect it from the merciless invaders. The Hive Mind shuddered with horror... Kirr-Inax... their homeworld. How could it have come to this?!

Engines blazing, the Invictus surged forward, a forest of deadly beams obliterating every insectoid ship in range. Kirrix died by the millions, blown to pieces with almost leisurely ease, a combination of Tachyon and Nova Lances obliterating drone carriers by the hundreds. Every last ship was hunted down and destroyed, leaving the Invictus alone in orbit above Kirr-Inax. The quaking Hive Mind knew that every last surviving member of their species was cowering in terror on that besieged planet.

Armoured panels peeled back from the Invictus' bow, revealing the massive yawning muzzle of a Quantum Annihilator. Energy crackled along the vast length of its barrel, arcing malevolently as incalculable amounts of power were fed into the doomsday weapon.

The scene shifted to the Bridge, where John and Alyssa stood together, champagne flutes in their hands.

"A toast, my love?" Alyssa purred, raising her glass.

John smiled as he clinked glasses with her. "To the extinction of the Kirrix vermin!"

Alyssa turned her frosty gaze on the Hive Mind and pressed the button to fire the Quantum Annihilator, ruthlessly vaporising their homeworld in an incandescent supernova.

~~~

Releasing the Hive Mind from the projection, Alyssa could feel the collective conscious jibbering on the brink of madness. The Kirrix ruling caste were left reeling after experiencing the unmitigated horror of total-genocide of their species.

*No!* they screeched, the reverberating voices shrill in their terror. *We did not know you were of his kind! We beg you for mercy!*

Alyssa's eyes widened, her curiosity most definitely piqued. *Wait... you've encountered a Progenitor before?!*

The Hive Mind didn't answer, instead it opened another projection. This time it was proffered to Alyssa's mind in an altogether different way; via a gentle invitation rather than enforced compulsion. Sensing that the Kirrix were cowed, their will broken, Alyssa gladly accepted, letting herself be swaddled in the ancient memory.

~~~

The images were faded and indistinct, passed on through countless generations of Kirrix and losing substance with each retelling.

Alyssa saw fleets of sleek black thrall ships butchering ochre vessels, countless scenes of slaughter ending when the Kirrix mind that was witnessing each massacre was snuffed out. Scores of densely-populated planets were reduced to shattered asteroid belts, the horror from the Kirrix viewing the aftermath etching deep traumatic scars across the Hive Mind.

Then the attempt to make contact... the hazy image of a man's face... and there was no mistaking the uncanny resemblance to John. The Progenitor met the Kirrix's desperate entreaties for mercy with scornful laughter, sneering with disgust as he took his time eviscerating the diplomat...

~~~

*When did this happen?* Alyssa asked in fascination.

*Aeons ago... countless rotations of Kirr-Inax have passed since we teetered on the brink of annihilation,* the Hive Mind sobbed, reliving the worst nightmare of the ancient species. *There was no quenching his thirst for destruction... we faced total extermination...*

*It sounds like he had the right idea,* Alyssa muttered, struggling to feel any pity for the malevolent creatures. *Maybe we should finish what he started and remove you from the galaxy? You've been preying on innocent sentient creatures for thousands of years!*

The Hive Mind shuddered, its eerie voice tinged with regret. *It was not always this way... not until the Shroud. Our hand was forced...*

Alyssa paused, startled by the strange turn the conversation had taken. *The Shroud? What's that?*

*It was so long ago... but we remember! How could we not? We suffer endlessly under its terrible presence,* the gestalt Kirrix entity replied, deep melancholy in its mournful lament. *We were different once, living in perfect synergy with the Luphids...*

*Can you show me?* she asked quietly, moved by the intensity of its grief.

Her request was met by another gentle invitation to a recent memory projection...

~~~

A Kirrix hive lord approached a bulbous six-legged green insect, the herbivorous creature ambling in a herd through huge green plants. The Luphid paused to drink from the sap-filled stalk, giving the hive lord an opportunity to mount the passive creature, filling it with eggs.

A series of images flickered past in procession, showing the Luphid incubating Kirrix eggs amongst its own, until it was time for both sets to hatch. The Kirrix grubs chewed their way out from the leathery eggsac, freeing both clutches of young without harming the host. It was obvious that the two species were symbiotic, relying on each other for their natural lifecycle.

But then those Kirrix grubs grew into flawed drones... little more than mindless, feral beasts, unable to connect to the hive lord or broodmother that attended them. Uncontrollable and insane, the Hive Mind was forced to put the tragic creatures down, the experiment another dismal failure...

~~~

*Because of the Shroud... it blankets everything...* the Hive Mind explained, its voice filled with profound sadness. *Our children incubated by Luphids no longer hear our voice; it drives them mad! The only way we could survive was to find new hosts... sentient hosts. We faced extinction otherwise...*

Alyssa's sympathy quickly evaporated. *But that doesn't justify using people as disposable hosts! You've killed millions of innocents! You'll just have to find another way.*

The Hive Mind balked at her condemnation of the Kirrix's entire way of existence. *There is no other way! Our children are beautiful, they must continue...*

*What about all those Terran and Trankaran children? You chopped them to bits!* Alyssa snarled, running out of patience. *You moan about this 'Shroud' and your right to survive, but you're behaving like murderous, sadistic parasites!*

Shrinking back from her rage, the Hive Mind rushed to break the psychic link with the Hive Queen, desperate to escape. But Alyssa remembered what the astral leviathan had done to John's breach of the astral plane and she rammed open the connection, the Kirrix shrinking back in horror, their minds still tethered to the Hive Queen.

*Uh-uh... not yet,* Alyssa said with a wicked smile. *I think you need a little lesson in consequences. When you go roaming in places you're not welcome, all sorts of bad things can happen... especially when you threaten to turn me into your brood bitch!*

The Hive Mind flailed away at the connection, their terror mounting as they realised they had no way of breaking the link. And would feel everything that the Hive Queen experienced...

Alyssa turned to look at John, Dana, and Rachel, who were watching her with anticipation. "Do you guys want to start freeing the prisoners? I'm just about finished here..."

John raised an eyebrow, giving her a curious look. "Aren't you going to tell us what happened?"

"I'll tell you everything later, I promise," she said with a reassuring smile.

He glanced at the Hive Queen. "What about that thing?"

Alyssa's eyes turned cold as she glared at the scrabbling abomination, its mandibles clicking frantically. "I've just got a few loose ends to tie up..."

Rachel walked over to tend to the closest prisoner, kneeling at the man's side and murmuring soothing words. Surrounded by the distraught victims of that sadistic monster eliminated any sympathy she normally might have felt for the Hive Queen.

"Try and leave it mostly intact," she said quietly, glancing at Alyssa over her shoulder. "I'd like to perform an autopsy after you're done..."

***

Kelli's eyes welled up as she tried to shake Tony awake, but he'd blacked out with the pain. "You could've made it..." she sobbed, hugging him tight. "I'm so sorry..."

Kirrix troopers emerged from the sprawl of shacks and advanced towards them, neutron rifles aimed at the ragged trio. Kelli looked up and cringed in terror, her heart breaking as she realised all hope was lost.

The closest Kirrix soldier stepped forward then suddenly stumbled, convulsing violently as it toppled over and fell on its side. All four legs twitched in a bizarre jig, the insectoid soldier experiencing some kind of horrific seizure. Kelli gaped at the stunned creature in astonishment, her shocked gaze flicking over the score of Kirrix troopers that jerked around helplessly on the floor.

"What the fuck?!" she muttered in disbelief, brushing away her tears.

She pulled Tony's SMG out of its holster and pointed it at the spasming insect, the red laser sight wobbling over the drone's ochre forehead. Squeezing the trigger, an armour-piercing round punched through its skull in a spray of green blood, the bullet ricocheting around inside and liquefying its brain. The rest of the squad flailed about, heedless of the petite brunette as she got up and picked them off with careful headshots.

Having dispatched the entire squad of insectoid drones pursuing them, she hobbled back to Tony and Perl, glancing fearfully over her shoulder for any more bugs. She spotted more far away in the distance, but they had all collapsed too, convulsing on the floor. When they finally started to rise a few minutes later, the Kirrix seemed to have lost all interest in her capture... in fact they hurried towards the starport as if the devil himself were chasing them.

Kelli sat down next to her friends and burst into a fit of hysterical laughter, unable to stop as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. After all that fear and pain, the sense of relief was almost more than she could handle. She sobbed as she hugged her unconscious friends; Kelli couldn't believe it... they'd actually managed to survive the Kirrix invasion.