Three Square Meals Ch. 109

"Guardians incoming!" Dana cried out in alarm as she ran to Rachel's side. "Both sides... fuckloads of them!"

Red-armoured nest guardians surged across the platform, leaping over rows of screaming prisoners as they raced to attack. The Kirrix Hive Queen chose that moment to emerge from the shadows, sickly yellow energy swathing the dual blades that towered over its shoulders. Pitch-black compound eyes stared at them balefully as it charged, the insectoid tyrant launching another volley of psionic bolts.

*I'll take on the leader, can you handle the guardians?* John asked looking back at Alyssa with concern.

*Go! I've got this!* Alyssa replied, her fists surrounded by a dazzling white aura.

He nodded then counter-charged, rushing towards the Hive Queen. John summoned an orb of blue hexagons to surround himself, bracing as he waited for the yellow darts to strike his shield. At the last moment they abruptly changed direction, sweeping around him to seek out the girls.

"No!" he gasped in alarm, watching them flash past and slam into Dana who was crouching next to Rachel.

John had no way of helping her, as the Hive Queen lunged at him with its blades, each sheathed in a sinister psychic aura.

***

Tony ducked as a spray of green neutron bolts sailed overhead, many of them hitting the truck. "Move Kelli!" he yelled, beckoning her frantically.

She whimpered with fear then crawled across the seat towards him, the rear window shattering above her in a shower of glass. More worrying were the holes the neutron bolts were punching through the thin steel, foam from the seat exploding in smoking chunks. As soon as she was close enough, Tony grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the cab, volleys of Kirrix fire blasting more holes out of the truck behind her.

The brunette yelped with pain as she fell on top of him, banging her ankle on the debris from the shack. She had tears in her eyes as she clutched her leg. "Ow! That fucking hurt!"

"Ignore it!" Tony shouted, grabbing her hand and pulling her around the door towards the front of the truck. "Gettin' shot hurts much worse!"

They staggered away, using the wreck for cover as they weaved their way around and through the maze of hovels. All around them, green bolts were blasting holes through walls, or flying over flimsy roofs.

"I'm slowing you down!" Kelli sobbed, hobbling along behind him. "Leave me... just get Perl out of here!"

Tony looked at her in a panic, no idea what to do. Adrenalin overcame any common sense and he grabbed the petite girl and threw her over his other shoulder. Grunting with the strain, he barged through a corrugated door, desperately trying to get away from the Kirrix pursuers.

***

Dana stumbled backwards as her shields were overwhelmed, struck by a dozen psychic bolts. When her protective field crumbled, four of the yellow darts hit her armour, the impacts knocking her to the ground. She gazed down in horror, expecting to see the revolting ooze melting through her Paragon suit. Instead her runes flared a brilliant gold, harmlessly dissipating the psychic attack. Any sense of relief was short-lived as red-carapaced guardians pounced on them from both sides, intent on tearing them to pieces.

Alyssa stood beside the girls like a dual-wielding gunfighter, but her glowing fists were her instruments of destruction. A white nimbus of energy surged around each gauntlet before blasting outwards to meet the forerunners of the Kirrix wave, the narrower more compact beams were like a psychic Tachyon Lance... and just as devastating. Her first target was the closest attacking from the right, punching through its shield then disintegrating its chest. The second came at her from the left and her hastily fired beam overcame its defences and decapitated it in a shower of glowing motes. As incredibly impressive as her display of raw psychic might was, there were still a dozen more attacking from each side...

***

The Hive Queen snarled as it lunged out with its twin blades, each bony scythe swinging down in an overhead chop. John dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding one of them and blocking the other with his sword. There was a shower of sparks as the two weapons crashed together, blue and yellow intermingling as the psychically-charged blades connected. The Kirrix monster tried to hammer John down with its impressive strength, but he made no attempt to block those pounding blows.

Whirling around, his speed let him dart to the Hive Queen's flanks, and he drew back his sword to drive it into the beast's chest. To his surprise, a yellow hexagonal shield appeared in front of his sword tip and actually managed to deflect his quick thrust. Hexes buckled under the strain but were quickly rebuilt, the Hive Queen snapping its head around to glare at him in fury as she drew back her chitin blades to attack again. John kept moving, circling the enormous creature faster than it could turn, watching intently for another opportunity to strike.

***

Alyssa was starting to sweat with the strain of firing off so many powerful psychic attacks, her head whipping from side to side as she tried to cover both flanks at once. She aimed a fist at a guardian as it jumped over a row of prisoners, her beam of sizzling light coring through its abdomen, a dinner-plate sized hole piercing through most of the creature's lower body. It collapsed to the ground in agony, limbs thrashing as it rolled around.

*Behind you!* Rachel screamed, helplessly watching the fight unfold.

One of the guardians had crept around the platform until it was directly behind the group, then waited until two of its companions attacked from both flanks. It sprinted forward, blade arms retracted and in position, ready to strike the Terran female in the back.

Alyssa saw the movement out of her peripheral vision and felt a surge of dread, the feeling ramping up dramatically as she realised she was being attacked from multiple directions at once. She lashed out to her right and the guardian was blown to pieces, limbs scattering all around the deck. There was no way she could take out the last two in time and she stumbled backwards, arms raised in fear as those wicked blades slashed down at her.

***

John rushed to the Hive Queen's left, the confused Kirrix behemoth stomping around in circles as it tried to impale him with a claw. Another burst of psychic darts shot out, but this time they all hunted after him, the twelve-bolt barrage hitting his hex shield from all angles. They barely made a ripple as they landed, their strength robbed by his all-encompassing barrier.

He skidded to a halt, knowing he'd have a few seconds before the Hive Queen could react and lash out at him with her claws. Hammering away at her shield, his two-handed blade pounded down over and over in a frenzied blur. Hexes cracked and shattered under that onslaught as he mauled her psychic shield, until a massive swing finally cleaved through. His blade slashed into the Hive Queen's mid-left leg, hacking the thick armoured limb off at the joint between the femur and tibia. Green blood spurted out from the wound and the hulking creature reared backwards, its hideous alien face somehow reflecting its shock as it screeched in pain.

"Yeah, first time you've fought anything like me," John muttered with a grim smile, advancing on the Kirrix monster.

***

The guardian's shoulder claws catapulted outwards with incredible force, the whip-like action designed to penetrate and skewer an opponent. Just as it did so, it lurched off the ground, the sudden jolt making the blade miss Alyssa's chest by inches.

"What the hell?!" she marvelled, watching in amazement as the flailing Kirrix sailed up into the air.

The guardian's clawed arms stabbed wildly in her direction again, but by that time it was too late, as it floated out of range. All around them, over a score of the scarlet-hued Kirrix tumbled skyward, their shrill cries intermingling with startled yelps from the Terran prisoners. Alyssa glanced at a raven-haired woman in the closest row, watching in bewilderment as her long black hair started to flow directly upwards. At the same time, the blonde felt a sinking in her own chest, like her body was inexplicably heavier. Suddenly, a golden aura appeared at her side and she turned to look quizzically at Dana.

"Thought you could use a little help," the redhead replied with a grin, her eyes glowing with a brilliant light as she held her hands aloft.

Rachel slowly stood, gazing up at the floating horde of furiously thrashing insects. "What did you do?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Ah, I just made a gravity well up there," Dana said with affected nonchalance, pointing up at the pulsing sphere of golden light hovering by the ceiling. "The civilians are all tied down so I knew they'd be fine... and I made another small field centred on me to negate the pull."

"You really saved my ass, Sparks. Thank you," Alyssa said with a sigh of relief, before throwing her arms around her friend and giving her a tight hug.

***

Tony's heart was pounding in his chest as he continued his desperate flight from the pursuing Kirrix troops. Perl was still limp over his left shoulder, but over the other, Kelli squeaked with every bump. He kicked open doors then ran down narrow alleys, taking random turns as he did his best to confuse his pursuers. This place was a maze of tiny shacks, where hundreds of people had once lived cramped together in abject poverty.

As haphazard as his frantic evasive manoeuvres were, he was under no delusion that they could hide from the Kirrix here. All he could hope to do was put enough distance between them to prolong the chase and... well, he had no idea how to get out of this, but it was better to run than being taken alive. Tony paused for a second to try and regain his breath, his chest heaving as he drew in big lungfulls of air. Normally he would have been able to handle carrying both girls like this for a good ten minutes without feeling it, but with his head injury, and the hours of hiking through tunnels, he was struggling.

"Put me down, Tony," Kelli begged, hearing him labouring for breath as he wavered unsteadily. "You're about to collapse!"

"Nah, just takin' a breather," he muttered, heading off again.

The one bit of good fortune was that the madcap chase through the shacks seemed to have disorientated his pursuers. Neutron bolts were still being fired at them, but the shots were more sporadic and haphazard now, making him think that the bugs hadn't spotted him in a while. Glancing up, he saw the edge of the cavern wall, with tunnels branching off to the outer edges of Karron. That way led to Iron Wolverines territory and he never would have dreamed of approaching those tunnels a week ago... But Karron was a very different place now; he'd be amazed if there was a single Wolverine left on the godforsaken asteroid.

Reaching the edge of the shacks, he peered around the corner into the street to the left, but saw no sign of bug troopers. Crossing his fingers, he broke from cover and turned right, moving towards the yawning tunnel mouth at a brisk walk. He didn't dare to turn around to look for pursuers, knowing he was on his last legs. Instead, he focused on putting one foot in front of another as he plodded towards the tunnel.

"Tony!" Kelli shrieked, her cry shrill with fear.

He broke into a desperate jog, his heart pounding in his chest, not wanting to know what had terrified the brunette. The green neutron bolts sailing around him answered that a moment later, but they were too late, he was right at the tunn-

His back exploded in agony, like a thousand needles digging into his flesh. Tony screamed, his body locking up as his nerves were overloaded. He dropped like he was poleaxed, the girls bouncing on top of him as he hit the ground. Kelli sobbed with fear and begged him to get up, but Tony was oblivious to her cries; all he knew was excruciating pain...

***

Alyssa pointed her fist at one of the floating Kirrix guardians, gathering her will and focusing it into the glowing orb around her gauntlet. When she unleashed the white column of energy at her target, it hit the scrambling creature mid-thorax, the blast instantly dismembering the helpless insect. To her surprise, the beam went unopposed by psychic defences, no shield appearing to protect it. She summoned a pair of telekinetic hands to grasp her Reaper Cannon, tilting the weapon up and opening fire on the closest of the thrashing guardians. Laser bolts blew it to pieces, burning wide holes through its slender body.

She looked at Dana and Rachel in amazement, each of them sharing her startled expression. "They lost their shields!"

As Alyssa started shooting more of them out of the air, Dana frowned at her own floating Reaper Cannon. The redhead's hands were already occupied, her raised gauntlets shrouded in a gleaming golden aura as she maintained her gravity well. She glanced at her lover and grinned. "Grab my Reaper Cannon and take them out, babes!"

Rachel disconnected the mangled remains of her own weapon, which still followed at her hip, the anti-grav suspensors keeping it hovering in the air. She eagerly reached for Dana's undamaged Reaper Cannon, then joined her fellow Lioness in mowing down the rest of the floating Kirrix forces in a hail of azure laser fire.

Alyssa turned to watch John's fight with the Hive Queen, smiling as she watched him facing down the hulking monster. Even though it towered over him by a good ten feet, there was no mistaking the flicker of fear in its inhuman features as it backed away from him.

***

The Hive Queen demonstrated its newfound wariness by weaving its glowing blades back and forth in a defensive pattern to keep John at a distance. He advanced towards it, feinting rushes to the left and right, making the Kirrix behemoth twist each way to try to counter. He darted to the right, eyes on the glowing ten-foot blades as they slashed down in an attempt to impale him. As soon as the Hive Queen had committed to her attack, he shifted direction, avoiding her plunging blades with the aid of his psychic speed and charged to the left.

Taking advantage of the Hive Queen's vulnerable state, John swept his blade around to maximise the full momentum of his charge. The Kirrix monster created another shield in a desperate attempt to keep him at bay, but the force behind his swing sundered it in a single mighty blow, leaving her exposed again. The follow-through from his two-handed slash landed mid-femur, crunching through thick chitinous armour as he ran past, green blood gushing from the vicious wound.

With her front left leg lopped off, the Hive Queen toppled over with an inhuman shriek of agony. She caught her fall with her huge hands, snarling in pain and fury at her tormentor. Shoulder-mounted sword-arms whipped around, slashing wildly in an attempt to catch him as he flanked her.

John paused, drawing back his sword as he prepared a blow that would end this uneven contest. That was when John saw the churning orb of mustard-yellow psychic energy which had been concealed behind her thorax, steadily ramping up in power above the Hive Queen's abdomen. His eyes widened in shock as he realised she had just been buying time while she gathered her energies, before luring him into flanking her like this, the Kirrix leader willing to sacrifice a limb to take him down.

An ugly beam of eldritch power blasted into his shield before he could react, throbbing with a sickening hunger as it melted through the buckling blue hexagons. His shield shattered under the strain, the column of otherworldly energy slamming into his chest and smashing him backwards. The impact flung John across the platform to slam into the wall, tiles exploding as he crashed into the far side of the chamber. The Hive Queen threw her head back and cackled, a deeply unsettling sound coming from something so hideously alien.

John's rune-inscribed chestplate blazed with a dazzling golden light, the glyphs attempting to counter the destructive power being hurled against him. Pinned against the wall by that beam of corrupted energy, he groaned at the sharp pain in his chest, several ribs broken when he was battered across the room. He didn't have time to worry about his injuries though... Dana's runes were burning out, unable to withstand the deadly force of that beam. It showed no sign of petering out, the ugly radiance actually intensifying as the Hive Queen ramped up the power in her determination to end him.

***

"John!" Alyssa screamed in horror, watching helplessly as he was smashed across the room and pounded into the wall by the sickly yellow beam.

All the anger she'd suppressed came flooding back, her cerulean eyes burning with an incandescent fire. Another telekinetic fist appeared, but this time white-hot flames licked around the knuckles, the psychic projection shaking with her barely controlled rage. Alyssa stalked towards her lover's tormentor, her telekinetic fist rocketing across the gap between them.

The deafening boom from the impact echoed around the nest like a peal of thunder, cratering the Hive Queen's shield with a single punch. Her head snapped around, compound eyes frantically searching for this new attacker, just in time to see Alyssa's fist draw back and slug her in the chest. The Hive Queen's thick carapace cracked like a walnut with the weight of that titanic punch, her inarticulate howl of pain reverberating as she was slammed backwards.

The yellow beam winked out, dropping John to the ground and leaving him panting for breath. He felt a tingling in his chest as he regenerated, Edraele feeding him a flood of energy to mend his wounds. Vaulting to his feet, he held out his hand for his sword, the Crystal Alyssium blade sailing through the air as it returned to its master.

Alyssa stalked after the crumpled Hive Queen, waiting for the battered Kirrix to create a new shield to protect itself, before obliterating its psychic defences with repeated blows from her glowing fist. She could see the shields weakening, losing their strength as the Hive Queen tapped into her last reserves of eldritch energy. John rushed past, charging towards the fallen behemoth with his sword drawn back. He timed his assault perfectly, swinging just as Alyssa knocked out another shield. The blow cleaved through both serrated sword arms, hacking them off the Hive Queen's body in gouts of viscous green fluid.

The Hive Queen slumped back, breath rattling in its chest, then raised its trembling hands in supplication. *No more... we beg you...*

Alyssa blinked in surprise as she felt a shockingly alien telepathic presence touch her mind. The Hive Queen's voice echoed, her consciousness clearly part of something... much greater...

"John, wait!" she called out to him, waving him back from the Hive Queen. "It wants to surrender!"

Eyebrows climbing, John backed away from the bleeding monster to stand protectively beside the blonde. "It spoke to you?"

"Yeah," Alyssa murmured, staring at those unblinking insectoid eyes. "It's had enough..."

*Why have you done this?!* the Hive Queen sobbed, her eerie voice wracked with misery and grief. *You have silenced so many of our children!*

Alyssa looked at it incredulously. *What do you mean why?! You raped all those innocent people! You were going to kill them all!*

*The chattel have no voice... you are the only one of their kind able to speak!*

She frowned in confusion. *People can talk... what do you mean?*

*No! They do not possess a voice... they have no greater mind... and do not feel as we do!* the Kirrix collective insisted.

Alyssa eyed the battered Hive Queen sceptically. *You're really trying to tell me that you wouldn't be doing all this if Terrans were psychic?*