Three Square Meals

The view out of the Citadel's upper-storey windows was incredible, the sky over Terra lit up in beautiful shades of crimson and orange as the Sun began to set. The warm evening light cast dramatic shadows over the endless field of fortifications which ringed the base, the defensive emplacements a flurry of activity even at this late hour. Towering mechs and massive hover-tanks were being manoeuvred into position, while marching around them were squads of troopers who'd been deployed to the various bunkers lining the walls and trenches.

Admiral Jayanti Mishra barely gave the dramatic scene a glance as she strode purposefully along the corridor. Her mind was abuzz with all the rumours she'd been hearing, her state of anxiety increasing over the afternoon as one Admiral after another had discreetly contacted her to try and find out what was going on. One of the rumours was actually news to her and had left her stunned, which was why she heading to the Fleet Admiral's office to find out if it was true.

Opening the door without bothering to knock, she marched inside and glanced at the attractive olive-skinned brunette sitting behind the desk. "Is he in?" she asked curtly.

Rear Admiral Carmela Moreno frowned at Mishra's sharp question. "I don't appreciate the tone, Jayanti. If you tell me what this is concerning, I might be able to schedule an appointment."

Mishra bristled at the other woman's haughty attitude. "I don't have time for your bullshit today, Carmela. Is Vincent in his office or not?"

"How dare you speak to me like that!" the Latina snapped indignantly. "I'm a Rear Admiral and due the respect my rank entails!"

Mishra's eyes narrowed and she stalked over to the desk, pointing her finger at the other woman. "Everyone knows how you earned your 'promotions', Carmela. Trust me, I'm giving you far more respect than you deserve!"

Carmela flinched like the older woman had slapped her, but she managed to quickly get herself under control. Half-rising from her chair in anger, she glanced at the door to the Fleet Admiral's inner sanctum. "Vincent won't stand for this! Mark my words!"

"Right, so he is in then," Mishra said triumphantly, whirling around and striding to the door.

Ignoring Carmela's shrieks of protest, Mishra barged her way into Vincent's office. He was sitting behind his massive desk, an overly ornate piece of furniture that was designed to awe his underlings, the surface polished to a mirror-like sheen. Buckingham didn't look her way when she entered the room, as he was in the middle of a holo-call to an attractive middle-aged blonde, who was currently scowling at him in irritation.

Buckingham leaned forward and said earnestly, "Please stop hanging up on me, Natalie, this is really important. I want you and Annabelle to head to Maryland starport. I've arranged a shuttle and-"

"You lost the right to ask me to do anything after cheating on me with that slut, Vincent!" the woman snapped, cutting the Fleet Admiral off mid-sentence.

Buckingham winced at her comment. "But you need to leave Terra for your own saf-"

"You've got a lot of nerve calling me over and over like this," the blonde snorted, her eyes blazing with anger. "I told you before, I'm sick and tired of listening to your goddamn lies! Goodbye, Vincent, don't call again."

Buckingham's temper flared and he yelled, "I'm just trying to protect you and our daughter! Just fucking listen for once, you stubborn bitch!"

"Stubborn bitch?! Go fuck yourself!" the woman screamed in fury.

Before he could say another word, she cut off the comm channel, leaving him staring at a blank screen. That was when he noticed that Admiral Mishra had entered the room and he slumped back in his chair. "I thought she'd stop being a pain in my ass after the divorce," he muttered with a grimace. "It's been four years and she's still being a total bitch."

"We need to talk," Mishra said with a frown, walking across the room to his desk.

Buckingham nodded and sat up straighter. "Alright, Jayanti, what's bothering you?"

"The rumour mill is getting out of control," she replied, pacing across his office. "I've had nearly a dozen Admirals interrogating me for information; they all want to know about the loss of comms with the Dragon March and the withdrawal of forces from the borders... Everyone's talking about it and we can't keep a lid on this much longer! You need to tell the Admiralty something!"

The Fleet Admiral steepled his fingers and said confidently, "Don't worry about that, I'll address High Command tomorrow."

"That's the eve of the battle, Vincent!" Mishra protested. "You can't just announce that there's a Kintark invasion when they're right on our doorstep, High Command will have a fit! You'll be lucky if you don't get arrested for dereliction of duty!"

Buckingham's eyes narrowed and he shook his head. "That's why we need to wait until the last moment! No one will be foolish enough to threaten the command structure right before a battle. When we achieve a glorious victory, all my decisions will be validated!"

Mishra considered the size and power of the Kintark armada reported by the survivors of the Iota Leonis massacre, and looked at him dubiously. "You're taking a massive risk. What about the fleet prepar-"

"It's all in hand," he said dismissively, cutting her off. "I've had every ship in range recalled to Olympus to undergo last-minute maintenance and resupply. Three quadrant fleets have already taken up defensive positions in the Sol system and all the rest will be arriving in good time before the battle."

"All of them? To the Sol System?" Mishra asked, her eyebrows climbing. "But I thought you were leaving two fleets in Alpha Centauri to defend Olympus Shipyard?"

"I'm changing our plans... The Kintark will be going after Terra, so we have to protect it with everything we've got. Just imagine the public outrage if the Kintark start an orbital bombardment of the Terran Federation capital! The media would be all over it and High Command would lose our last shred of credibility!" Buckingham shook his head. "No, we have to protect the homeworld at all costs."

Mishra glanced at the holo-pictures of a young man and woman on Buckingham's desk. She carefully composed her expression and said gently, "Listen, I know your son's safe with Morgan's fleet, and you want to-"

Buckingham saw her eyes flicker over to the picture of his son and daughter and he quickly interrupted her, "She's got nothing to do with this! I'm making a sound strategic decision, for the good of High Command and the Terran Federation. This is not up for discussion!"

Gritting her teeth, Mishra met his fevered gaze. "Alright then, let's talk about something else... What happened to Lynette? I've been hearing all sorts of disturbing rumours..."

A gloating smile lit up Buckingham's face and he relaxed in his chair, interlacing his fingers behind his head. "Ah yes, poor ill-fated Admiral Devereux... She was shot attempting to resist arrest for treason."

Mishra fell back a step, the shock evident on her face. "Shot?! But she had lots of allies... they'll be out for blood!"

Buckingham sneered derisively. "She upset half of them trying to wheedle her way into my confidences. Fortunately, I suspected what she was up to from the start, so all she ended up doing was alienating most of her support base. No... Admiral Devereux won't be anyone's martyr."

"What about the Lion though?" Mishra asked, a flicker of fear crossing her features. "He was her champion. When he finds out what happened to Devereux, he might come after you!"

"Just let him try it. If he does raise a hand against T-Fed troops, we've got the bastard. His reputation will be in tatters," Buckingham replied, with a chuckle of contempt. His face suddenly twisted in anger, a disturbing gleam in his eyes as he gloated, "I'll show him what happens when you cross Terran Federation High Command! If he'd shared all his tech with us, then we could have been allies, but no... he had to keep it all for himself. All his acts of 'heroism'... they were just a trick to lure us into a false sense of security! He was just waiting to work with his alien allies to bring us down all along! Well I saw through his schemes... his and Devereux's! They just wanted to oust me from my position, but I was too smart for them, for all of them! Just wait, I'll teach anyone who crosses me..."

Mishra listened to Buckingham's ranting in shocked silence. With appalling clarity, she realised he'd finally snapped. Her mind whirred as she tried to work out what had triggered this paranoid madness to take hold... They'd all been under such a huge amount of stress recently, having to deal with such unusual circumstances, so it was a struggle to pinpoint the exact moment when Buckingham had taken a break with sanity.

Perhaps it had started with the stress of the failed Kintark invasion, which had led to the ignominious Battle of Regulus. What should have been a glorious capstone on Buckingham's career as Fleet Admiral had ended in a desperate fight for survival, until John Blake rescued the Terran forces from destruction. Then there was the shocking unmasking of the traitors Norwood and Lynton, both of whom Buckingham had known and trusted for years... Mishra could easily see that being a huge contributor to his paranoia.

Finally, there was the revelation that a highly advanced, vastly powerful, hostile alien species was attempting to bring down the Terran Federation. That news had scared Mishra out of her mind and she'd had trouble sleeping for weeks after the Lion told them about the threat his fellow Progenitor posed. She dreaded to think how Buckingham had taken it, but along with everything else, that terrifying announcement might have been the biggest contributing factor that tipped him over the edge.

That was a truly terrifying thought. Buckingham was losing his mind and the Terran Federation was about to embark on the biggest battle of its bloody war-torn history. What made it even worse was there wasn't anything Mishra could do about it, not this close to the battle. As much as she loathed to admit it, Buckingham had been right; deposing the Fleet Admiral one day before the battle would be an absolute disaster. There'd be a gaping hole in the command structure where Buckingham had been and the competing Admirals would start their vicious jockeying for position as his replacement. If she called an emergency session of High Command to expose him, she'd also be putting herself at risk of retribution, just as Devereux had to her unfortunate demise.

At least when the battle started, the Admirals themselves would be making most of the decisions, so Buckingham wouldn't be a factor. Throwing all the Federation fleets into the defence of Terra left Olympus terribly exposed, but by massing the firepower of their fleets, at least they could avoid being picked off as two smaller separate groups.

It was with a heavy heart that Mishra politely excused herself from Buckingham's company and left his office. She ignored a glacial stare from Carmela Moreno as she departed, lost in thought as she walked out into the corridor beyond. She couldn't help wondering if she was making the right decision... the entire fate of the Terran Federation hinged on the upcoming battle and they were being led by a madman. Mishra felt a shiver run down her spine, like someone was walking over her grave. She desperately wished that they'd listened to Devereux at the start and called the Lion for help, but now it was too late...

***

John stepped out of the express grav-tube onto the Combat Bridge with Rachel at his side. Jade was waiting there to greet them and she pulled his tawny-haired companion into a warm hug, then began to kiss her deeply. John was about to step into an armour equipping frame to get geared up, when he heard a startled squeak from Rachel, followed by a sultry moan. When he glanced back their way, he saw that the Nymph was still kissing the brunette, and Rachel's throat was bobbing as if she was swallowing.

Jade's thoughts swirled into his mind. *Just giving Rachel her share, Master.*

He'd been so distracted by his earlier conversation with the young doctor that he'd forgotten that Jade had planned to feed all the girls. Sure enough, when he closed his eyes, he saw that Alyssa and all her wards were now shining brightly in his mind, an active connection open between him and each of them.

Sealing himself into his golden lion Paragon armour, John locked the plates into place with the thumb control, hearing a satisfying series of clicks. He collected his sword and a Quantum rifle from the weapon racks, then watched as Jade and Rachel finally parted. "That looked new," he said with a grin.

"I thought I'd try something a little different," Jade explained as she traced a finger along the brunette's jawline. "I made my tongue hollow to feed this beautiful little kitten."

Rachel actually blushed as she kissed the Nymph's dark-green hand. "That was lovely... very intimate."

Jade turned to accompany John down the ramp from the armoury, leaving Rachel to get into a suit of armour. The rest of the girls were already at their stations and equipped for battle, the only exception being Faye. She scooted over on his console to give him room to sit down, a playful smile on her face.

"Okay, what's the current situation?" John asked, studying the Sector Map with interest.

The map displayed all the active contacts picked up by the long-range sensors, revealing scores tagged in red, located within the gravity well of a red giant star marked as the Alpha Vulpeculae system. He noticed that there were hundreds more contacts marked on the map, but they were all displayed in grey.

As if reading his mind -- which she literally was of course -- Alyssa gestured towards the map and said, "We think the ships marked in red are the Vulkat fleet; we've tracked movement from those vessels. We're ten minutes away from the system, so not close enough yet to have any real details. All those contacts in grey are wrecked ships..."

"There's so many of them," John murmured, letting his eyes roam over the vast scattering of debris sites.

"Some of those wrecks are really fucking old," Dana said, highlighting one and zooming in on it. "Faye said she's been tracking shitloads since we crossed the border. Going by the particle scoring, this one is at least ten thousand years old..."

John studied the light-green ship in fascination, noting the peculiar design that appeared to be an upended "U", with big engines at the end of each trailing section. "I've never seen a ship like that before."

"It might be an ancient Vulkat ship, but I doubt it," the redhead said, tapping a finger on her chin. "Most species tend to build roughly-similar looking vessels, but that one looks nothing like the black and orange ships the Brimorians showed us. There's tons more ships too... most of them are super old and there's loads of different designs."

She swiped her hand across her console and then cycled through a range of wrecks, showing their vastly different appearance. All had suffered catastrophic damage of one kind or another, with many of the hulks now so worn that it was clear they came from a bygone era. There were a host of blue and purple Brimorian ships amidst the fields of carnage, each looking like they met their fate far more recently, and sporting dozens of impact craters over their hulls.

"This is creepy," Rachel said with a shudder, as she walked down the ramp to join them. "It's like we're trespassing in a starship graveyard."

"Do you reckon the Vulkat killed all these?" John asked quietly. "Or do some of them date back to whatever cataclysm took out their empire?"

Calara turned in her chair to make eye contact with him. "I suspect the latter. Most of the really old ships were destroyed by beam weaponry, but the recent kills --like the Brimorians-- were taken out using explosive ordnance."

"And the Vulkat favour missiles..." John said, looking thoughtful.

The Latina nodded. "Exactly."

On a hunch, John glanced at each of the twins. "Have you spotted anything that looks like a Maliri ship?"

Tashana spoke for them, shaking her head. "You were thinking there might be Thrall vessels? I had the same idea, so I've been searching through the wrecks, but I haven't spotted anything that looks remotely like a Maliri design."

"So it might not have been a Progenitor and his thralls responsible for ending the Vulkat Empire?" John asked, not sure whether he should feel relieved or disappointed.

"We haven't got enough evidence one way or the other," Tashana replied, spreading her hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Thrall vessels might have been involved, but they could have recovered or destroyed any lost ships to prevent the capture of their technology."

"Or the Progenitor's forces massively overpowered all these ships, and gave the spiders and their pals a brutal smackdown," Dana suggested, her expression uncharacteristically grim.

John gave them each a nod of confirmation. "Both seem like sensible conclusions, but you're also right that we can't do much more than guess at the moment."

"So what's the plan for the actual mission?" Sakura asked, spinning her chair so she could face him.

He eased back in his seat and glanced around the group. "I suggest we go into low-energy mode when we reach the Alpha Vulpeculae system. Then we take the stealth shuttle and sneak aboard the biggest ship they've got and start looking for the Eternity Crystals."

"Creeping around an enemy ship with no deck plans..." the Asian girl muttered, shaking her head. "We're going to stir up a real hornet's nest."

"I thought they were arachnids, not insects?" Rachel asked with a raised eyebrow and the hint of a smile teasing at her lips.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. It won't take long for us to start tripping alarms."

"Any alternate suggestions?" John asked, open to her ideas.

She gave him a brisk nod. "You could set up a defensive position somewhere inside and I'll head off scouting on my own. If I locate anything interesting, then I let you guys know where it is and you can make your way there."

John paused for a moment to weigh the merits of her plan. "If you're sure you can avoid getting detected, that might actually be our safest bet."

"There's no guarantees, but I'm pretty sure I'm sneakier than old bigfoot over there," she said with a grin, her eyes darting to Dana.

"Hey!" the redhead protested, playing along.

Alyssa turned in her chair and put her arm on top of John's. "Who do you want to take with you?"

"I think we'll need as many guns as we can get, while still leaving the Invictus and Raptor manned," John replied, looking at Jade, Calara, and Faye in turn. "That means you three are on guard duty. I really hope you have a boring couple of hours... if not, then you might be in for a hell of a fight."

"Just say the word and we'll be on our way," Calara said, glancing at her two companions, who quickly nodded their agreement.

"Alright, let's head down to the stealth shuttle then," John said, rising from his seat. He smiled at Calara and added, "If I ask you to promise to return the Invictus to me without a scratch, are you going to wreck it again like last time?"

The Latina shook her head. "No guarantees, Admiral, but we'll try really hard not to."

Jade joined her in saying, "Don't worry about that, Master. I'll be piloting this time."

"Hey!" Alyssa protested with a grin, standing to accompany John. "That wasn't my choice, someone decided on a pre-battle catnap and we couldn't wake her lazy bones!"

The Nymph actually blushed, the first time John had ever seen her react that way before. "I'm really sorry about that... I really didn't mean to-"