Three Square Meals Ch. 077

Faye blushed heavily this time, biting her lip as she glanced at her blonde friend.

Alyssa leaned in towards her and whispered, "I overheard you speaking to John the other day and I know you wanted to ask him something important. Would you mind telling me what it was?"

The purple girl's blushing intensified and she stared at Alyssa with huge eyes, wracked with indecision. Finally making her mind up, she stood on tiptoe and whispered in the Terran girl's ear.

Cerulean eyes widening in surprise, Alyssa turned to look at Faye and saw the hopeful expression on her adorable features. She gave her a warm smile and said, "I've just had an idea how we can help. John won't know what's hit him!"

Faye giggled with excitement, eight of her avatars rushing to enhance her custom programs as Alyssa explained her plan.

***

Carefully aligning the head-shaped cockpit with the spinal mount between the mech's broad armoured shoulders, John waited patiently for Dana to give him the all clear.

"Sure, take your time... It's not like this thing weighs ten tons or anything," he grumbled, as he hoisted the enormous sparkling white cylinder above his head.

"Twelve tons, actually," Dana murmured as she stared intently down at the joint and socket. "Alright, drop it six inches and bring it three inches to your left, then you're good."

John bent his knees a fraction, then pivoted ever-so-slightly to his left before pushing the long crystal bar into the spinal socket. It slid in with the sound of well-oiled metal against metal, before the familiar hum of hydraulics filled the air as the rotating cylinders locked it into place.

"How are you planning to get this thing upright?" he asked, glancing up at Dana curiously.

She was sitting on the mech's shoulder, busy running through long lists of data on her holo-reader and she replied distractedly, "Just help me into the Pilot's Chair in a minute and you'll see."

Rachel and Irillith stood beside him, the three of them watching Dana as she finished her final checks, making sure that the cockpit was now hooked up to the internal power grid. Her wild grin gave them all the confirmation they need.

"Alright then, how do you want to do this?" he asked, eyeing the cockpit curiously.

The redhead climbed onto the back of the cockpit, then hung off one of the four sensor rods that swept back from the head. Pressing her hand down onto a panel on the side of the cockpit, the DNA reader scanned her genetic code then opened an oval shaped door in the side of the head. She swung in with the agility of a cat, then her hand reappeared a moment later waving him to follow her in.

John chuckled at her enthusiasm, then stared at the smooth armour plating, trying to figure out how to clamber up to reach her.

"I'll give you a boost," Rachel said with a smile, clasping her hands together to form a stirrup.

He gave her a grateful kiss, then put his boot onto her waiting hands. "On three," he warned her, then quickly counted down.

Rachel was surprisingly strong and she easily launched him into the air, giving him more than enough height to grab the lower rim of the door.

Dana grabbed his wrist and pulled him inside before pushing him over to the left. "No standing on the weapon controls," she said with an eager grin, jerking a thumb at the console to their right.

"Considering the firepower this thing's toting... that's sound advice," he readily agreed. He glanced over her shoulder at the Pilot's Chair, and added, "Are you ready?"

"Yep, let's do this!" Dana agreed, stepping over to the chair. "Just lift me up so my back's against the chair, and I'll buckle myself in."

John did as she asked, effortlessly holding her up, and gently positioning her against the back of the seat. He saw that the redhead's hands were shaking with excitement as she grabbed the safety harnesses and pulled them across her chest and into the locking slots.

"Shall I jump out?" he asked, looking out of the clear-crystal visor at Irillith and Rachel who waved back at them.

Dana shook her head, and replied, "Nah, just hunker down under that console then brace yourself. You'll be alright."

Not entirely sure he agreed, John did as she asked and ducked down under the console then held himself steady. Dana was sitting directly above him and he saw the look of glee on her face as she stabbed her thumb down on the big green button on the armrest control. A throaty hum filled the cockpit as all the systems surged with power, lights flickering on around him as the consoles came to life.

Some power chords boomed out, and a man's sonorous voice enthusiastically shouted, "Let's get ready to rumb-"

The voice and the music were abruptly cut off and Dana blushed furiously as she saw John looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Must've been some kinda glitch," she mumbled, hurriedly tapping away at more buttons.

Gripping the two control sticks with her hands, he saw her feet slip into some kind of pedal controls and that wild grin was back on her face again. He felt a sudden lurch and an unsettling sensation of movement, but tucked under the console it was difficult to see what was going on. He glanced up at Dana and as the mech abruptly shifted position again, he watched her long thick hair fall back against her shoulders instead of hanging straight down towards him as he dropped onto the cockpit floor. He swayed from left to right and then there was that same sinking feeling in his stomach as they rose higher until he felt the mech steady itself.

"All done?" he asked, peering up at Dana from under the console.

She nodded gleefully and said, "We're up and running!"

John climbed out and stood upright then peered through the canopy in amazement. They were now towering over the Launch Bay floor and he could see Rachel and Irillith running up the steps on the maintenance gantry to get to their level. He heard the hum of machinery in motion and glanced at Dana in surprise as he saw the muzzles of the Photon Lasers appear above the cockpit's visor. Walking around behind her, he saw the target reticle for the quad Photon Lasers appear in front of her, now that the four guns had shifted into firing position.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to fire them," she said, grinning at him as she tried shifting the targeting reticle, the long barrels following obediently. Letting out a rueful sigh, she added, "It's just a shame we can't make a pit-stop to shoot up an asteroid belt."

He patted her shoulder and said, "I've got a feeling they're going to get a very vigorous testing, but you'll be shooting Drakkar ships, not big hunks of rock."

"Are you really going to let me pilot the mech?" she asked him, eyes gleaming at the prospect.

John nodded and replied, "You're the only one who knows how to control the damn thing!"

Dana beamed at him in delight as she exclaimed, "I'd hug you, but I'm strapped into this chair!"

She pressed the button to withdraw the Photon Lasers to their dormant position and they could hear the loud sound of the ten-metre-long weapons being pulled back through the open door in the side of the cockpit. He watched her twist the control sticks and the mech crouched down, the sudden movement making him wave his arms around to keep himself balanced. The mech's huge robotic right hand reached out to slide through the arm mount for the rotary cannon and it grasped the handle securely before Dana stood upright once more.

"We got distracted earlier, what is that thing anyway?" John asked, poking his head out of the cabin door to stare down at the ten-metre-long rotary cannon.

Dana's eyes sparkled with a devious light in the blue glow from the consoles and she replied, "You're familiar with the Punisher railgun, right?"

His eyes widened in shock. "Is that...?"

"A Punisher Gatling, but scaled up for a mech!" she crowed, giving him a beaming grin. Dana walked the mech back a couple of steps, then hit the button to power the gigantic machine down again. As the lights around her dimmed, she began unbuckling her harnesses, freeing herself from the Pilot's chair. "Come on! Let's go hook up that bad boy to the power couplings and ammo hopper!"

He watched her step out of the cockpit door and onto the maintenance gantry, which now ran flush with the mech's shoulder. "Wait a second!" he called out to her as he followed the bouncing redhead through the door. "Have you got a name for this thing? We can't just call it 'the mech'."

Dana flushed and looking shifty she replied, "Yeah, I've come up with a few ideas..."

*We've been hailed by the Ashanath,* Alyssa interrupted, her voice urgent. *Calara's speaking to Ularean right now.*

*Alright, tell her I'm on my way,* he replied, before turning and giving Dana an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Sparks. The Ashanath just called, you'll have to tell me later."

***

Grand Overlord Vekrok glared at the burning wrecks and shattered remnants of once-mighty ships, standing in silence while readying himself to hear the scale of the destruction inflicted upon his fleet.

Grukig scrolled down through the reports and continued, "...along with the Defiler, which were all too slow to enter the minefield and survived unscathed. We lost practically all our destroyers and-"

"I don't give a fuck about destroyers!" Vekrok snarled, his four fists clenching in rage. "What about my cruisers and battleships?!"

Giving the massive Drakkar leader a frightened glance, Grukig continued, "Ninety-seven cruisers were destroyed, twenty-four are too crippled to fight and fifteen are damaged but spaceworthy. Five battleships were destroyed, eight are so badly damaged they'll have to be scuttled and twelve took damage but are ready for battle."

Howling with rage, Vekrok looked around for something to vent his fury, his eyes finally settling on his throne. He slammed his fist into the back, neatly shearing through it and breaking the upper half off the imperious seat. "How long until we're underway?!" he bellowed, watching through squinting eyes as the remaining cruisers attempted recovery operations.

Grukig read the report again, and answered nervously, "At least three hours to transfer the survivors to-"

"Fuck that! We've already been here an hour! We're done hanging around with our thumbs up our pod chambers!" Whirling around, he slapped his brawny hand down on the comms interface and growled to his fleet, "Prepare to jump in five minutes! We're going to slaughter all the little bastards who did this!"

"But Sir! What about all the survivors?!" Grukig yelped, shocked that the Grand Overlord would just abandon tens-of-thousands of elite troops.

"We'll come back for them alright," Vekrok said, his deep voice throbbing with rage. "As soon as I've had my fill of Grey flesh and gone for a swim in their blood!"

Grukig nodded, knowing better than to question his fiery-tempered Commander a second time.

***

"Your plan succeeded, JohnBlake. You have saved us," Ularean murmured in his whispering voice.

John met the Ashanath Senior Councillor's unblinking stare and said regretfully, "I'm afraid the fight's only just begun Ularean."

"But their losses... they were horrific," he said in his eerie, ghostly voice.

Shaking her head, Calara replied, "I don't believe the Drakkar will run, not if they're working for this other Progenitor. We've helped even the odds, perhaps enough to give us a fighting chance now."

John gave the quaking Ashanath a level stare and said firmly, "You'll be fighting to save your species, Ularean. You're going to need to ready your people for a hell of a battle."

"I will do so, JohnBlake," the Senior Councillor replied. He blinked slowly and his whispering voice sounded ominous as he added, "We have made preparations to meet the Drakkar threat."