Three Square Meals Ch. 085

The glow faded from her eyes and she shook her head as if to clear it. She grinned at him as she replied, "I was a good girl for my Progenitor. You'll have to ask him for an explanation; all I did was suck down as much of his tasty cum as I could get!"

He blinked at her in surprise, then laughed. "I'll have to ask him instead then."

"Can you grab the discs, please?" Dana asked, giving him a quick peck on the lips before darting over to one of the armour-equipping frames.

"We're heading to the firing range?" John asked, as he picked up the crystal Alyssium armour plates.

Dana nodded as she stepped into the pair of Paragon boots and slipped her hands into the armoured gauntlets. The robotic arms brought the rest of the plating down to encase her in the full suit, a rippling series of clicks notifying him that she was sealed in. She jogged over to her workbench and refastened her toolbelt around her waist. Grabbing both the green Kintark plasma rifle and the new white one they'd just built, she fell into step beside John as he walked towards the door.

"Have you thought of a name for the new gun yet?" John asked, looking at the weapon out of the corner of his eye.

"I figured 'Quantum rifle' would do," Dana replied.

Glancing at her in surprise, he blurted out, "I thought you didn't know the blueprints for the Quantum Flux Cannon?"

She shook her head, grinning at him. "Don't worry, I still need to suck the schematics for that one out of your quad!" Tilting her head to the side, she sounded distracted as she continued, "The tech behind this rifle feels kind of similar to that cannon though. The scale's totally different and it's not an exact duplicate, but I know it's on the same kind of lines."

John looked intrigued as he studied her, amazed at the intuitive leaps she seemed to be able to make on such radically advanced technology time after time. They had reached the door to the Firing Range by then, so he pressed the button to open the door, then waited for the redhead to stroll inside.

"Shall I set up the armoured discs on the firing range?" John asked, glancing down the lane.

"Sure, just prop them up about fifty metres away," Dana replied, darting over to the target dummy console and activating a pair of dummies at the corresponding distance.

He jogged over to the target dummies as they popped up, leaning the discs against each one. "The upgraded one is on the right," he shouted, before heading back to the firing position at the front of the lanes.

Dana had placed both rifles on the firing bench, and was collecting magazines from the ammo hoppers by the weapon racks. "Back to ten-millimetre rounds," she explained, noting his quizzical gaze. "The twenty-mil would be overkill with the Quantum rifle. It doesn't need the calibre and by halving the bullet size, we can carry twice as much ammo."

"And use standard-issue Terran Federation mags in a pinch?" John asked, glancing at the familiar-sized magazines.

"Yeah, you can use normal ten-mil caseless if you need to. We've still got loads of crystal-tipped bullets though, they've got much greater penetrating power," Dana clarified for him, placing the magazines on the firing bench. She winked as she handed him a pair of smart-linked glasses. "Put those on."

He did as she asked, noting the familiar HUD he was used to seeing when wearing his Paragon suit. There was something new though; a silhouette of the body armour shrouded in a bright green aura. "What's that new icon represent?" John asked, turning to look at his young companion.

"It's the shield status display," Dana explained with great satisfaction. "It lets you know how strong your shields are."

"Very nice," John replied, suitably impressed by her work.

Dana winked at him, then stepped into the firing lane, striding downrange. "Time for a field test!"

"Hey! I'm not firing live rounds at you!" John objected strongly.

She turned around about twenty metres away and put her hands on her hips. "Has any of my tech ever failed you?"

He was forced to slowly shake his head. "But-"

"Yep, you can stick it in mine any time you like," Dana cut in with a wicked grin. "Now stop wasting time and fire a round at me. I'm perfectly safe, I promise!"

John picked up the Quantum rifle, hefting it in his arms and testing the weight. It was as perfectly balanced as the Punisher rifle had been and felt comfortingly familiar as he held it. There was a power switch in the same location as the one on the Justice Laser, so he flipped that to activate the weapon, feeling a slight vibration in his hands as it powered up. Blue lights flashed on along its length, but they were all overshadowed by the crackling blue field that arced between the mag-rails.

He pulled his left hand away from the barrel in an instinctive reaction, before he remembered that the barrel was made from clear crystal and his fingers were perfectly safe. He slotted in one of the magazines, then took a firm grip of the rifle, releasing the safety with the thumb selector switch. He brought the weapon to his shoulder and aimed downrange, spotting the smart-linked targeting reticle that appeared, the crosshairs squarely centred on Dana's torso. He flinched, then deliberately aimed to the right for a non-lethal shot at her arm instead.

"Ye of little faith!" she yelled up the range at him. "Go ahead, squeeze off a round!"

Holding his breath, he did as she asked, hearing the familiar bark of the hyper-accelerated bullet. A blue bolt sizzled down the range, leaving a faintly glowing contrail in the wake of that shot. The round slammed into a shimmering blue dome, that appeared as it absorbed the hit, ripples of light pulsing outwards from the point of impact. John lowered his rifle and sighed with relief when he saw that Dana was totally unscathed.

"It worked!" she crowed triumphantly, doing a little victory dance down the range.

John shook his head in disapproval. "You weren't sure?!"

Dana laughed as she jogged over to him again. "You worry too much! It was bound to work, all my stuff does!"

He frowned at her, but he couldn't stay upset, not in the face of such cheerful exuberance. He noticed that the shield strength had faded after the hit, and while still green, it was no longer as bright. "How much punishment can those shields take?" he asked in surprise.

"Twice as much of a beating as the Drakkar ones," Dana declared proudly. "I slightly improved the design of their shield generator, then the Maliri shield modulator boosted the field strength by another eighty percent."

"Very impressive work, honey," John replied, looking delighted.

She gave him a happy smile, then said thoughtfully, "Think of them a bit like the Invictus' shields. They've got a lot of capacity, but a slow recharge rate. Once they're down, it'll take a while to reinitialise the energy field, then about five minutes to fully recharge the shields."

"But while they're up, we're fully immune to standard ordnance?" he asked, a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

"I'm not sure about something really heavy-calibre like a howitzer shell, or a tank round," Dana admitted, a flicker of doubt crossing her face. "The concussive impact on the shield would probably send us flying, but I don't think it'd be able to penetrate."

"The magnetic field wouldn't have been able to stop them either," John said with a shrug. "I guess we can rely on that to protect us from small-arms fire while the shields recharge."

Dana frowned and slowly shook her head. "Afraid not. It was either the shields or the magnetic field, you can't have both."

Nodding his understanding, he smiled as he said, "That's fine by me. At least these shields can absorb plasma bolts, which have been our real bane so far." He hesitated and added, "They can, right?"

"Yep!" Dana confirmed for him with a look of satisfaction on her face. "Talking of plasma rifles, do you want to test that one out on the discs you made?"

"Definitely," he agreed, but he raised the weapon in his arms. "But finish telling me about this Quantum rifle first, then we'll move onto the plasma."

Dana moved around to stand in front of him, eager to talk about her latest creation. Pointing at the stock, she began, "The Power Core charges the magnetic rails, providing massive acceleration to the rounds in much the same way as the railguns you've used before. The difference here is the energy packet that is shaped around the bullet. All that energy means you have significant shield disrupting firepower to knock out the defences of a shielded enemy."

"And if we're shooting an unshielded opponent?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She glanced down the firing range and frowned at one of the target dummies. "I think that guy over there spilled your pint."

"What a bastard," John replied, his face set in a grim mask. Turning downrange, he lined up the crosshairs on the centre of the dummy's chest, then gently squeezed the trigger.

The blue bolt screamed down the range and slammed into the target's torso, blasting a dinner plate sized hole through its chest. A huge spray of polycarbonate chunks blasted out the back, showering the rest of the range in debris. The round continued on, punching into the armour plating on the back wall, leaving an ugly, blackened crater.

"The energy packet enhances the kinetic impact of the round on the target," Dana explained, with a look of satisfaction on her face. "That's why bullets half the calibre can still blow fucking huge holes through the target."

"Spectacular work, honey," John said, admiring the masterpiece of destructive art he held in his hands. "Any overheating issues?"

"The upgraded heatsinks took care of that," she explained, her hand brushing over the vents on the side of the rifle. "The Kintark were using a crystalline polymer to improve the thermal conductivity. I just upgraded the polymer using a variant made from Maliri crystal, doubling their effectiveness compared to the old heatsinks we were using."

John grinned as he flicked the fire-selector switch to full auto. "How many rounds in a full burst?"

"You can blow the whole mag in one go," she replied, winking at him.

He flicked it back to safety, then placed the rifle down on the firing bench. "It's perfect, Sparks. It gives us everything we could need."

"I had to drop the integral grenade launcher," Dana said with a flicker of regret. "I didn't have room for that with the Quantum field inducer in the barrel."

"That makes the bullets glow blue, right?" John asked, deliberately looking dim.

She laughed then gave him an affectionate smile. "Basically, yes."

John glanced at the rifle for a moment, then looked at her curiously. "How come the bolts this one fires are blue, when the Drakkar ones were purple?"

"Do you want the highly-detailed light spectroscopy explanation or the very simple layman's version?" she asked, her expression one of barely-contained mischief.

"Better go with the very simple answer," John replied. "I'm afraid my knowledge of spectroscopy is rather... limited."

"Dark-purple is a bad-guy colour. We're the good guys, so we shoot bright blue ones instead," she replied, her expression one of artful wide-eyed innocence.

He laughed at the look on her face. "Alright, sounds like a good enough reason to me." Placing the Quantum rifle on the firing bench, he turned to look at the Kintark plasma rifle. "Shall we test this against the armour discs now?"

Dana bobbed her head with enthusiasm, pointing at the bottom of the green weapon. "There's already a magazine loaded. Just press the button on the right side above the trigger to turn off the safety."

He picked up the weapon, noting how the grip felt slightly uncomfortable in his hands, the rifle having been designed for a clawed Kintark hand. Aiming downrange at the disc on the left, he press the button above the trigger to deactivate the safety.

"There doesn't seem to be a fire selector switch," he said, glancing at the side of the green weapon. "I assume it just fires single rounds?"

"The amount of heat that thing generates is crazy. I guess the Kintark weapon designers didn't want it exploding in their trooper's faces if they got trigger-happy. The trigger locks if the rifle gets too hot," Dana explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Alright, I'll shoot at the regular armour plating first," John said, lining up his shot.

He gently squeezed the trigger and a blazing green plasma bolt struck the left disc dead-centre. He lowered the rifle and stared at the fel-green flames licking around the outside of the plasma ball, that continued to burn the armour plating. The initial shot had failed to penetrate, but he could see that the plasma was slowly eating its way through the armour. By the time the plasma went inert and the spectral green fire had burned itself out, the plasma had scorched a small hole through the armour plating.

Dana shuddered and turned to look at him. "Reminds me of that suit Kindralax melted."

He reached across to pat her on the shoulder. "Yeah, that one was too close."

"That plate was made from deca-folded crystal Alyssium too, our armour is only quad-shaped at the moment. If you'd shot at regular Paragon armour with that plasma rifle, it would have melted through about sixty-six percent faster," Dana said, her expression bleak. "Basically, Kintark troops would be able to royally fuck up our armour with just standard-issue rifles."

"Deca-shaped is only sixty-six percent tougher?" John asked, glancing back at blistered hole in the armour plating. "I thought it would be... I don't know, well over twice as tough?"

"The reshaping doesn't work that way unfortunately. The scaling of comparative thickness is linear rather than exponential," Dana said, following his worried glance at the disc of crystal Alyssium.

John frowned as he tried to remember the chart she'd showed them all during one of her presentations on crystal Alyssium. "Right... an inch of quad-shaped metal is the equivalent of nine inches of titanium plating, but deca-shaped was as resilient as fifteen inches of titanium?"

Dana looked delighted, and she pulled off her helmet and gave him a kiss. "I love how you pay attention during my lectures!"

"I've got a crush on the teacher," John replied, winking at her playfully.

Her sky-blue eyes twinkled and she leaned in to whisper, "I prefer being the schoolgirl... Sir."

"Good to know," John said, giving her a sly smile before facing down the range again. "Shall I shoot the second disc?"

"Go ahead!" she said cheerfully, leaning against the wall and watching him.

John brought the plasma rifle to his shoulder, then aimed at the second disc and squeezed the trigger. As before, a vicious plasma blast struck the centre of the disc then started to burn. The armour behaved quite differently this time. He pressed the safety button on the Kintark weapon, left it on the firing bench, then walked down the lane towards the armour plate to take a closer look.

"Hexes..." John murmured, his eyes wide in astonishment as he squatted down by the disc of armour plating.

Faint hex-shaped markings had formed on the crystal Alyssium around the impact site. While there was still a blackened scar on the sparkling white armour, the dreaded corrosive nature of the plasma was being stubbornly resisted.

Dana squatted down next to him, staring at the burning ball of plasma in equal fascination. "We'll still have to be careful against plasma, it can damage the armour," she said quietly. "But a lucky shot won't be able to burn its way straight through now."

"This is amazing, Sparks," he said, looking at her in wonder. "Can you do the same with ship plating?"

A shadow of doubt across her face. "The Invictus is huge..." she faltered. "I don't know."

John turned back to look at the plasma hit on the crystal Alyssium plate and reaching across to grab the first disc, he used it to scrape away the plasma residue. There was a charred crater in the runed armour, but the burning plasma had only been able to melt about half-way through.

"Outstanding work, honey," John said, suitably impressed.

Dana pulled a scanner from her toolbelt and powered it up. "The Progenitor runes limit the burning effect, but removing all the imperfections and strengthening all the lattice makes it tougher too. Check this out!"

She held the scanner over the regular disc and after a few seconds it zoomed in and revealed the intricate latticework that made up the armour. There were slight curves and blemishes in that lattice, barely noticeable, but still visible to the scanner. When she pointed the scanner at the runed disc, even his untrained eye was immediately able to notice the difference. The internal lattice of the metal was absolutely pristine, presented in a flawless crisscrossing without any imperfections to catch his eye.

"It's beautiful," he murmured, staring at the holographic depiction of the metallic structure. "You were able to just fix that?"

She let out a disbelieving laugh. "Yeah I know, it sounds crazy, right? Whatever my new ability is, I'm able to go in and change material properties by sight alone. Fixing the lattice like that doesn't just make it look nice on an atomic level. The tensile strength has been improved by removing the microscopic flaws in the structure."

"A chain is only as strong as its weakest link?" John asked, struggling to think of a useful metaphor.

"Yeah, that's the idea," she agreed, looking impressed. "It'll help with reducing penetration from weapons with real stopping power."

"Like the Thrall version of the Drakkar's Quantum rifle?" John asked, glancing back at the weapon on the firing bench.

She nodded, a grim expression on her beautiful face. "That's what I'm hoping."

He rose to his feet, with Dana rising beside him. "I think you might have just helped level the odds against the other Progenitor and his Thralls," John said, putting his arms around the redhead.

Dana looked anxious and replied, "I don't know... it feels like there's still more I can do. I'll keep plugging away at it and see what else I can come up with. Don't worry, when the time comes, I'll make sure you're prepared to face him."

"I don't doubt that for a minute," John replied, pulling her in for a soul-searing kiss.