Three Square Meals Ch. 033

"These Kintark are nothing like the ones I met during my early trader days," John said, carefully lifting the felled beasts forearm which had covered its face, so that he could study it more clearly. "The Kintark merchants I met were about seven foot tall, and had fairly slim builds. These guys must be some kind of elite troops."

"We seem to have an uncanny knack for finding hideous space monsters to fight with." Alyssa said wryly.

"That we do," John agreed, as he reloaded his weapon. "Let's see if we can do some rescuing now, though."

They walked over to the loading lift and pressed the button that brought the platform down to the ground floor. They stepped onto the square lift, and then began to ascend steadily to the upper level, the battered reinforced bulkhead coming slowly into view. John walked up to the door, and examined the huge indentations in the steel that the enormous Kintark lizard had caved in with its head.

"The doors have been badly warped," he said, looking at the buckled doorframe. "I don't think this will open normally any more."

"Have at it then, Hercules." Alyssa replied, using Dana's apt nickname for her lover.

John put his railgun down to the side and then approached the reinforced armoury entrance, studying it carefully. He saw that the thick steel door had started to come away from the frame at the top right, so he took careful hold, and then began to pull back. He concentrated intently on the heavy steel portal, his muscles bulging as he tugged and strained. With a grinding tortured shriek, the metal door began to bend backwards, allowing him to readjust his grip, and apply more of his strength. When he savagely ripped the mangled, armoured steel away from the opening, terrified screams from inside the vault reached his ears.

"It's okay, we're here to rescue you!" he called out to the people cowering within.

Now that the door was out of the way, they could see that there were at least fifty people huddled inside the armoury vault for safety; an eclectic mix of civilians, a few starbase personnel and a handful of doctors, identifiable by their white coats. Alyssa took off her helmet, and walked over to stand at John's side. When the people in the room saw it was a beautiful woman in the sinister black armour, their faces began to light up with hope, the fear and worry falling away. John was just about to speak, when the survivors' faces suddenly twisted up in terror, and they began to scream once more.

"What's the ma-," Alyssa began to ask them, before the grating sound of scrabbling claws reached their ears, causing them to whirl around.

"Thanksss for opening up their bolthole, I'll deal with them later!" The Kintark Royal Guard gloated as it clawed its way up onto the platform. It then looked at Alyssa and snarled, "And to anssswer your quessstion, that wasssn't good enough! Not even clossse Terran!"

John looked on in amazement, as the dozens of yellow spattered impact wounds on the creature's torso finished closing up, the armoured scales reforming when they touched together.

*No more AP rounds!* Alyssa thought to him in an instant.

The huge Kintark beast swayed for a moment, it's long tail balancing behind it, before it pulled itself completely over the ledge and back onto the upper level. Not wasting any time, John sprinted full tilt at the hideous reptile and barrelled straight into it, causing it to stagger backwards and scrabble for purchase as it tottered on the edge. John had landed in a crouch when he'd slammed into the creature's chest, and he wound up a huge uppercut that he launched straight into the beast's surprised face. It tipped over backwards, flailing wildly as it fell, and landed with a huge crash on its back, sprawled on the ground level once more.

John leaped fearlessly off the ledge after it, and he dropped down onto the Kintark's torso, causing it to hiss in pain as his armoured body landed heavily on its chest, snapping ribs with a sharp crack. It reached up with its long claws, trying to flay him alive through his armour, but John brushed aside the bladed foreclaws and leaned in to grab the Lizards head. It thrashed around and tried to bite him, so he seized the opportunity to grab it's open jaws in his armoured hands. When he had a good grip he began to heave them apart, and the reptile's angry expression turned into one of fear, as it began to writhe desperately to escape his grasp. He wrenched the creature's mouth unnaturally wide, and with a final surge of strength, there was a sickening crunch as he broke its lower jaw in half, causing the creature to howl in agony.

"John! Catch!" Alyssa called out to him, and tossed his railgun over the edge of the platform. Catching the weapon in his right hand, he brought it around, and shoved it unceremoniously into the Kintark's mouth.

"Try regenerating this..." he said grimly, as the hulking lizard stared up at him with wild eyes. He pulled the trigger, and the hollow point caseless rounds smashed through the soft tissue in the roof of the creature's mouth, and blew a huge hole in the back of its head, splattering its reptilian brains all over the floor.

John rose slowly, carefully watching the creature, but it's head lolled emptily and it looked utterly lifeless. He strode up the wall using his magnetic boots, and then hopped off to land lightly on the upper level next to Alyssa.

"Nice moves, handsome," she said with a sparkling smile.

John removed his own helmet, and he grinned back at her. "Couldn't have done it without you, beautiful!"

They kissed briefly, before turning around to face the astonished crowd of Port Medea survivors.

"Is Rachel Voss here?" John asked hopefully, and he was relieved when the shocked young brunette stepped forward.

"John, is that really you?" Rachel asked in stunned disbelief.

"You said you were interested in an interview?" he asked her with a grin.

"And a hug!" Alyssa chipped in helpfully.

The incredulous young doctor began to laugh, not quite believing what she had just witnessed.