Three Square Meals Ch. 111

This was the longest they'd gone without talking to each other since... he frowned, trying to remember a day they hadn't spoken at least briefly. Their parents had known each other long before he was born, living as neighbours in a luxurious residential district allocated to senior officers on the outskirts of the Citadel. Then when children came along, it was only natural they'd play together being so close in age. Only a year younger than Tom and Mason, Annabelle was the third Musketeer in their little band, the three of them thick as thieves for as far back as Tom could remember.

His eyes dropped to the holo-pictures on the desk of his best friend and his fiancée. Mason was giving him a broad grin, while Anna gazed back lovingly, her beautiful face lit up with a radiant smile. Tom was closer to them than anyone, but he couldn't help feeling that he was failing them both. Mason was falling apart after his father's death and despite Tom's best efforts to help him, his friend seemed to be withdrawing into drink and anger. He dreaded to think how their father's death was impacting Anna, but he wasn't able to contact her and she wasn't returning his calls. Tom had tried calling her mother numerous times in his desperation, but Natalie Newmont wasn't answering either.

The comms interface chimed and he felt his heart skip a beat, hoping it was Anna. A quick glance at the ID revealed it was Lieutenant Commander Kyle McDaniel and Tom answered the call with a host of conflicting emotions.

Kyle had bags under his eyes and he looked haggard as he gazed at his friend. Tom saw an odd expression on the man's face, one he'd never seen before on the stocky marine. He was looking at him with pity...

"No..." Tom whispered in horror.

Visibly deflating Kyle could only nod dejectedly. "I'm so sorry, Walker. I've been trying to track Anna down but she's been on leave. She hasn't been at her apartment for days, but I finally found her this morning..." He turned and hit a button on the holo-interface, transferring a file.

Tom's hand shook as he went to open the attachment, looking at the data-file like it was a cobra poised to strike. The file was a video clip taken across the street from a luxury apartment, bright morning sunshine making the dew on the manicured lawns sparkle like a carpet of diamonds. His heart lifted when he saw Anna, his beautiful fiancée walking quickly from the apartment, but he could see she looked anxious, her eyes darting around furtively. A few moments later, he saw a tall, dark-haired man leave the same apartment... and Tom sank into the depths of despair.

He recognised Archie instantly, the man's smug smirk as he leered at Anna from behind making Tom's skin crawl. They approached a sporty red hovercar, with Archie carrying two suitcases, one of which Tom knew belonged to his fiancée. Archie loaded the luggage in the trunk, then he pulled the blonde into a hug, Anna resting her head against his chest. She gave him a warm smile, then they got into Archie's hovercar and drove away.

"I took that video at 6:15 this morning. I found Anna's car at Davenport's apartment and checked the energy cells to see if she had just arrived. They were cold, Walker... she was there all night," Kyle informed him quietly, his sad eyes full of sympathy.

Tom slumped back in his chair, his breathing shallow, his vision blurring. It was like he was in a long tunnel, with nothing but blackness and despair surrounding him. Kyle's voice sounded hollow, what he was saying barely registering.

"Hard to tail... trying not to be followed... lost them a few times... a cabin in the woods..."

"Thanks, Mac..." Tom mumbled, reaching for the comms interface. "Gotta go..."

"Wait, Walker!" Kyle called out, staring in alarm at the devastated shell of a man before him. "Don't do anything stup-"

Kyle's panicked face froze on the screen as Tom killed the call, killed it stone dead.

Just like his heart.

***

Zelkrixa eased her enormous bulk through the nest chamber, five pairs of chitinous legs clicking unsteadily on the deck. She paused for a moment, involuntary shudders rolling over her intimidating form, and tried to immerse herself in the glorious chirping chorus of her grubs. The sound of her precious children being fed normally brought joy to her heart, but she was still reeling from the waves of telepathic pain that had engulfed her mind.

Locked into the psychic connection with her Hive Queen, she had felt Krinava's shock when the revered elder had discerned the true nature of the attackers on Carolus III. Shock had quickly turned into terror, waves of it pouring off the battered Hive Queen and crashing over the entire Hive Mind, rippling down to the lowliest of drones. Zelkrixa had experienced every agonising moment of the Hive Queen's terrible fate, her mind writhing in anguish as Krinava was systematically eviscerated.

The Broodmother had scrabbled to break the connection, bordering on the edge of madness as she tried to free her mind from such excruciating torment. She had clicked her mandibles in horror as her own children thrashed in sympathetic agony, Zelkrixa's connection to her drones making them join her suffering. The Progenitor beast had taken her time, cruelly ripping Krinava apart and making the poor Hive Queen suffer, knowing the Kirrix would feel every last act of barbarity.

Zelkrixa shivered with fear, remembering the glowing bipedal female and her icy blue eyes that blazed out of the darkness. There was no mercy to be found in that hideously ugly alien monster, the Progenitor remorseless in her torments. For millennia, the Kirrix had been reduced to raiding neighbouring territories to abduct sentient creatures, all in a desperate attempt to stave off extinction. With that fear ever-present, the threat of a swift and brutal annihilation of their entire species had stunned the upper echelons of the Hive Mind. Most galling of all, was the way that terrifying glowing figure had coldly informed the Hive Mind that this was their well-deserved punishment for the slaying of Terran and Trankaran children.

The Broodmother's huge compound eyes swivelled around to gaze lovingly at the rows full of hexagonal alcoves, each one a nest for her beautiful grubs. The way their mandibles gnashed in anticipation of a sliver of flesh was adorable; what kind of monster must this Progenitor be, to begrudge her children a warm meal? It's not like the mewling Terran chattel actually mattered in the grand scheme of things; it should have been obvious to even the most slow-witted of aliens that only the Kirrix had true value.

When Zelkrixa had finally regained use of her faculties, she abandoned the attempt to round up any more prisoners on the Terran colony known as Brecken's World. Recalling her legion of children to protect the nest was an instinctive act, one she ordered without conscious thought. Unfortunately, her troops were widely dispersed as they hunted for Terran colonists in the forests, so it was taking them some time to return to her hive ship, the Fertile Dream. Having lost the Hive Queen's comforting telepathic presence, the Broodmother felt frightened and exposed, left wondering what the Hive Mind wished her to do next.

Then she heard a faint echoing voice, each word horribly laboured, the Hive Mind battered and filled with fear.

*Zelkrixa... return... home. Kirr-Inax... must be... protected!*

***

Kelli hunkered down with her unconscious friends, watching fearfully as a stream of Bug patrols marched by. The insectoid soldiers stuck to the main road, paying no attention to her, or the score of decapitated Kirrix troopers that had chased them towards Iron Wolverines territory. Her hand shook with fear as she held Tony's chrome SMG and she prayed that they wouldn't return.

When it was obvious they were gone for good, she turned to check on her friends, her eyes drifting to the big man sprawled on the ground. Fortunately, it looked like his backpack had taken most of the hit, destroying everything inside, but protecting most of his back from harm. Kelli put the gun down and dug into her own backpack, pulling out a trauma bandage so she could attend to his wound. The instructions were pretty straight forward, but she read them through several times, trying to distract herself from dwelling on the fact that she was probably the last person still standing in the hollowed out asteroid.

Kelli pulled aside what was left of Tony's backpack, then ripped his ruined shirt away and grimaced as she stared at the ugly gunshot wound on his lower back. Although the ragged red lacerations looked dreadful, they didn't seem to go deep enough to hit anything vital. Kelli had no medical training, so she could only hope he wasn't critically injured. After smoothing the bandage into place around the wound, Kelli blew out her breath and tried to figure out what the hell she was going to do next. Tony and Perl were both unconscious, and there was no way she could drag the blonde very far, let alone the muscular ganger.

"I wish it'd been me that got shot instead..." she whispered, stroking Tony's arm as her eyes filled up with tears. "You'd know what to do next..."

Kelli brushed them away angrily, realising this wasn't helping anyone. "Come on, Kelli, get your shit together!" she blurted out in a choked voice. "What would Tony do?"

Dragging them to the medical centre was impossible... so maybe some kind of vehicle to get them there? Looking back at the truck, she saw that wasn't an option. Black smoke poured out from the wreck, the chunky vehicle riddled with holes after the Kirrix had blasted it to bits with their neutron rifles. Her eyes swept over the shanty town of dilapidated hovels and her heart sank as she realised there was no chance of finding any transport here, the former residents far too poor to afford a vehicle. That meant she needed to go scavenging, which meant a long lonely trek through gloomy tunnels.

Kelli sighed in resignation and struggled to her feet, wincing at the shooting pain from her ankle. "Don't go anywhere... I'll be right back," she said to Perl and Tony, although the pair were in no condition to respond.

She started making her way towards the road, hobbling past the Kirrix corpses that littered the floor. Last amongst the insectoid dead were a trio near the entrance to a side-street, who had just left the shanty before suddenly pitching over and having that bizarre seizure. Kelli picked her way around them and glanced down the dirt track between the hovels, her eyes widening when she spotted a strange yellowish-brown cart rammed into a shack. The Bugs had used carts like this to carry away their prisoners and the squad chasing them had obviously been planning to do the same to Kelli and her friends.

Limping over to the cart, she hunted around, looking for any kind of control system. A frustrating search revealed no kind of steering wheel or joystick to operate it and she was about to give up, when she glanced back at the three headless Kirrix soldiers. One of them was clutching an ochre device in its chitinous hand and she knelt down to take a closer look. Wrinkling her nose, she peeled back its creepy fingers and picked up the hexagonal-shaped object, seeing a number of strange runes on its surface.

Kelli figured it was either a remote or some kind of grenade, but considering the Bugs were after prisoners, she crossed her fingers and hoped it was the former. Holding her breath, she pushed down on the button and jumped as the tracks on the cart began to whir. The cart was now trying to drive through the wall, so she quickly pressed another rune at the back of the device. Her hunch was correct and the cart promptly reversed, veering back onto the street.

"Yes!" she cheered, elated to have figured out how the odd-looking vehicle worked.

She clambered aboard and after a brief bit of experimentation with the controls, began to drive it out of the side-street. It lurched a bit as she drove over the Bug corpses, but Kelli managed to hang on, frowning in concentration as she pressed the runes to steer the cart. When she got back to her friends, she heard Tony groan in pain, his hand moving involuntary to the nasty wound in his back.

"Easy Tony!" Kelli warned him, sliding off her ochre chariot and reaching for his hand so he wouldn't disturb the trauma bandage she'd applied.

"It fucking hurts..." he moaned, looking up at her with pain-filled eyes.

She nibbled her lip then made a decision. "Let me give you a painkiller, hang on..."

"Only got one left..." he muttered, turning to look at the ghostly-pale blonde beside him. "What 'bout Perl?"

"She's fucked unless we can get her to the medical centre and I can't lift either of you onto the cart," Kelli explained, reading through the instructions on the anaesthetic before pressing the hypo-injector to his arm and pressing the button to activate it.

Tony shivered as soothing waves of relief swept over his body, quietening the tortured nerve endings that had been screaming in pain. Breathing deep he gave her a grateful nod. "Thanks..."

"Alright, let's get you two aboard," she said, giving him a strained smile.

He sat up and looked around, his mouth opening in shock when he saw the squad of decapitated Kirrix soldiers. "What the fuck?!"

"When you got shot, I borrowed your SMG for a bit," Kelli said nonchalantly, trying not to grin at his stunned expression.

"You did that?!" he exclaimed, gaping at her in disbelief.

She nodded, giving him an innocent, wide-eyed look. "I hope you don't mind?"

Tony snorted with laughter when he saw her grin and thought she was joking. "Why didn't you tell me you were a Lioness? You could've just slaughtered everything at the start and saved us all this fucking around." He groaned, his hand going to his back. "Shit... don't make me laugh, that hurts like a mother. So, what really happened?"

"I actually did kill them. They all started spacking-out and fell over like they were having some kind of fit. I grabbed your gun and shot them all in the face before they could get up again," she explained, gazing around at the insectoid massacre.

He looked impressed and raised his fist to bump with hers. "Fucking badass."

Kelli gave him a proud smile and bumped her tiny fist into his. "Not bad for a dumb whore."

"You're not dumb, and you're not a whore. You can be whatever you want to be now," Tony replied firmly, looking into her eyes.

She let out a happy sigh, then glanced at the cart. "Let's get you two loaded up."

With Tony's help, moving Perl onto the back of the trailer was relatively easy, although the big ganger groaned every time he moved. He collapsed next to the blonde when she was safely in place, putting an arm around her and sagging onto the strange ochre cart.

"Just get some rest," Kelli said, stroking his arm. "I'll take us straight to the starport."

"The Bugs?" Tony muttered, looking up at her fearfully.

She gave him a helpless shrug. "Dunno... but I think they're long gone. When the others got up again, it looked like they were scared shitless... they all got the hell out of here."

He shook his head, his expression grim. "I don't even wanna know what could scare the shit out of the Bugs..."

***

Alyssa smiled and rolled her eyes at the redhead. "Calm down, Sparks. We're coming aren't we?"

"You guys are taking ages!" Dana protested, skipping down the corridor and stopping outside the Firing Range. She put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot impatiently.

Rachel laughed at her girlfriend's antics, then paused and looked back at John. "I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to dissect the Kirrix corpses yet. I'll take a look later this afternoon."

He put his arms around her and looked pointedly at the Maliri twins. "That's alright, you were busy with something far more important."

The Maliri girls overheard and turned to give them loving smiles.

"Come on!" Dana said in exasperation, beckoning John and the girls towards the open door. "We've already had loads of lovey-dovey time this morning... it's time for some gun porn!"

Alyssa sauntered over to the redhead and brushed her fingers along the beautifully sculpted barrel of the ferocious-looking rifle Dana held in one hand. "That's a very sexy weapon, Sparks."

Rachel frowned as she eyed the bullpup rifle. "I was hoping for something... bigger."

Dana rolled her eyes at her girlfriend and strolled into the Firing Range. "It's not all about length, size queen."

John chuckled as the girls burst into laughter, then he waited for them to all enter the room before following inside. "I'm just amazed you managed to get a prototype built in time; it was fascinating to watch you work."

Dana was waiting by a firing lane, facing her audience to show them the weapon she cradled in her arms. "I was inspired by my handsome assistant," she said with a warm smile. Reaching over to the firing bench for a pair of smart linked glasses, she continued, "I'll just run through the rifle's features, then give you a demonstration."

"Have you decided on a name for it yet?" Sakura asked, eyeing the broad-barrelled weapon.

The redhead wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No, not yet. You know I hate coming up with names."

"It's based on Tachyon Lance technology isn't it?" Calara asked, studying the gleaming white weapon.

"Yeah, it fires pulsed tachyon beams," Dana replied, with a grin at John. "I was given a strict set of design specs..."

"Why not just call it a Tachyon rifle?" the Latina suggested.

John nodded his agreement. "That'll do for now. We can come up with something more exotic later."

"Fine by me," Dana replied, looking relieved. "Okay, so this is the prototype Tachyon rifle. It's got all the standard features you're used to: smart-linking to your Paragon suit, DNA-locked security in the grip, and anti-grav generators integrated along the length so that it'll float along beside you."

"It's double barrelled," Irillith noted, looking at the pair of broad muzzles. "I assume the top one is the laser?"

"Yep! It's based on the Tachyon Lances, but I modified the firing mechanism to fire in pulses like the Photon Beams. It also uses flux heat-exchangers for cooling, which are far more efficient than the old heat sinks." The redhead smiled as she patted the elegant barrel, fluted channels running along the length. "The lower barrel fires runic penetrators. Both work from the same trigger, you just toggle which you want to fire via the HUD, or you can use a switch above the trigger guard."

"Runic Penetrators?" Tashana asked, looking intrigued. "What are they?"

Dana winked at her. "Let me show you."

She turned to face the firing lanes and they could see two Crystal Alyssium armoured panels locked in place fifty metres downrange. The first one was lightly pockmarked with small blackened scars, while the second was in pristine condition and connected to a device on the floor. Next to them was John's old Invictium Phalanx suit.

"That's a blast from the past," Alyssa said, gazing fondly at the sinister black body armour.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw you wearing that," Rachel said, smiling at John. "I wasn't sure which was more terrifying, you or that Royal Guard."

Dana frowned and glanced back at her audience. "I didn't realise it had sentimental value. Want me to get something else?"

John waved away her concerns. "It's okay, go ahead. I got stabbed through the chest wearing that armour, I'm not exactly attached to it," he said with a wince, as he remembered the duel with the Drakkar Warlord.

She nodded and raised the Tachyon Rifle, aiming it at the bulky black suit. "I picked it because it's a bit tougher than the best body armour most species use and on-par with a juggernaut's plating."