All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 049'

... and it's done. That was fast!

I'll admit that Irillith's got some skills. She's worth claiming if John is willing to either tolerate or shatter her personality. It was a little amusing to see her preening from John's praise for a moment, but she's such a bitch that I mostly just want to see her smugness smashed swiftly.

Yep. I wanted to show how vastly more effective they are than the local law enforcement.

WIth Irillith providing all the data Calara needed, it only took her a couple of minutes to piece it together. She had already studied the various kidnapping cases on the flight there, so finding the relevant police case files was easy.

A significant portion of people seem to be mistaking Nature for Nuture, as to the behavior of the Maliri women.

They seem to think that this incredibly dark behavior is literally a part of them.

Newsflash -- that's Nurture, not Nature. There's no *way* the Progenitors would have made their recruiting pools this hostile to each-other. The Maliri women would've been slaughtering each-other based on simple Rage. That's a horrible way to keep a standing army.

On top of that, many of those same people seem to forget (or just not mention) the fact that John's semen literally causes changes to the genetic code, as well as to the *psychological state* of those who consume it. It's psychoactive and, so far, it seems to be permanent.

Looks like we maybe see the start of the corrupting of irllith. The could use her well and the change would help . But I would worry about the change possibly giving her psychic powers. Now if she does end up joining her mom is screwed

Congrats on 50 total chapters Tefler. Looking forward to chapter 50 of this story as well.

Worth the wait as always, lets just hope it isn't as long next time.

I was so happy to see that this chapter was posted, I was getting the sweaty shakes from my withdrawl!

I do have questions though, if the looped footage is continuously playing and Dana watches it from time to time wouldn't she have noticed that Irilith's rutine is EXACTLY the same every day or does Irilith change it every day? Also, if Dana wanted to see if the footage is looped couldn't she get John to knock or something and see if the looped footage answers the door or something like that?

Another one, why would John have command over civilians or cops in the precinct, they're not part of the military. And finally it is great to see Irilith changing all by herself. Great as usual!

Sincerly, a guy whose been reading since chapter five came out. (I finally decided to get a account)

presumably it has some form of variation built in as well as the ability to detect when she leaves her quarters as she only took control of the cameras in her quarters and not in the hall or galley for deck 4.

@Lyon007, Teffler addreses your concerns in this chapter. He writes...

> It was with some amusement that she saw the redhead watching the looped feed of activity that Irillith had set up. She smirked as the gullible Terran was duped by the VI system embedded in the fake video feed. It carefully manipulated the images, and made the illusory replication of Irillith perform a series of varied actions so as not to draw suspicion.

. . thanks again.

Yes she's got skills and looks, and I don't care if she was born bad or nurtured to be evil, she's done so much wrong she cannot redeem herself in my book.

As for the crew's attitude to her seeing she could just hack the ship computer anytime and take control, and they see her using these skill over and over (diverting the call to her, almost battle to leave Maliri space, using AI, hacking kidnappers systems) they should know by now she is a risk and need to be contained.

You are trying to cope with the team tactical shortcoming (new weapons) but at the end still too few, still not enough options. if there are tanks in the future why don't they have any? if they have to decide which valuable asset to leave behind each time to guard the ship that's a liability, must have some "regular" crew around, even the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) had a crew of 1,000

Thanks for leaving the comment. I'm glad I've managed to hold your attention for all this time!

Slinkky did a good job of answering your question about the camera feed, so I won't repeat him.

"why would John have command over civilians or cops in the precinct, they're not part of the military."

The Terran federation is very militaristic in its outlook. It has had to be, to claw out a galactic empire whilst fighting with hostile alien species like the drakkar or Kirrix. With the military so critical to human survival in space, they are afforded more authority in society than at present. Think more along the lines of the government in starship troopers.

Even in Star Trek, Picard and Kirk don't take any crap from planetary governors, and they are Captain rank. As a Commodore, John now outranks captains, and isn't exaggerating when he says he outranks all the civilians on the planet. Law enforcement always defers command to the military if the officer is high enough rank.

... if Irilith would manage to leak tech to her mother. Up until now there were no repercussions for fucking up on missions. The healing and agreeable nature of the girls prevented that. But the lack of consequences also gives this story a fairy tale kind of vibe. You know things are going to end fine and everything worked out for the good guys. Now having a spy succeed would mix things up a lot for me. But cheers on a good chapter Tefler.

so happy to see another chapter has been posted. cant wait for the rest 50 hope that it comes faster then this one did

I justo had an idea that would explain why they aren't concerned with Irillith hacking. What if the "offline server" is Dana's brain and she just memorized everything? She has shown the ability to memorize technical data before, and Irillith could disassemble the entire ship looking for the server without ever finding it. And there is no way for her to hack a brain, right?

Dear T,

Another blindingly great chapter! How do you find the time???

Now I can't wait for the next one, frankly your more addictive than heroin!

S

If they intend to attack the serpent nest, they can "requisition" some equipment. Maybe a tank? Maybe the planet? Think about a base of operations of sort, with planetary defenses (tweaked by Dana), a landing port for the Invictus (and maybe some requisitioned ships), recreational areas for the crew, storage space to spare for anything they want, and they could even provide accommodations for some selected friends that could move their shop there. Eventually, if the need arises, they could even become independent (welcome to the republic of my home... or whatever).

He's breaking Irillith down

I agree with the idea that there is no server for her to hack into. They have no intention of providing their tech to anyone, and Dana can memorize all her schematics. As the only engineer on the ship it would be unnecessary.

Looking forward to the upcoming fight.

PS: I wonder if smurfette has watched any of Rachel's Maliri briefings. It seems that she would have some sort of reaction to their discoveries.

"I wonder if smurfette has watched any of Rachel's Maliri briefings. It seems that she would have some sort of reaction to their discoveries."

Congrats on being the first person to refer to her as smurfettte. I was wondering how long it would take for that to come up. :-) (the smurfs aren't one of the inspiration sources for the Maliri btw!)

To answer your question: no, not yet. She watched lots of archived video footage, then stopped when she caught up to present day. After that, she started snooping on the engineering bay to try and find the schematics server.

She sent the AI off to gather more footage, and is just catching up on things in chapter 51, which I'm half way through writing at the moment.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

It's good to see you're still enjoying the story! :-)

Irrilith probably clipped and replaced the initial minute or so where she spotted the surveillance and hacked it so that it can't be watched. I do not remember that being part of the details described, otherwise it is a huge pointy finger waiting to be found.

It would be interesting to find out that she was being watched live at that moment.

The Invictus crew may have made a decision to leave the video records to keep her occupied and entertained. I mention this because there are interesting omissions from what she has seen that would be explained by them being edited out of the records. I won't.ention the omissions here because I have already asked Tefler about them privately.

Any omissions you noticed please contact me instead of putting them in comments because they might signal spoilers.

Since I anon posted I believe sign this post.

FatherSin if you want to contact me.

Finally Lit got their act together and got this posted. I away until Wednesday night expecting this chapter to already be up, but alas no. Some subtle developments that may have been noticed by the crew. The speed of the hacking, should have alerted Dana that her own security networks and firewall have been breached, but thankful that Engineering is not on the net.

Love the story, so many pats on the back Tefler; much kudos.

Mal

... for the team to start acting less cavalier and so I shall. Ch. 50 does seem to be shaping into one major bloodbath and I.AM.STOKED.

BUT...

... I have demands while I wait. Can we get...

1. ... Jade to morph into a Spinosaurus or a Gigantosaurus sometime in the future?

2. ... more traditionally varied races? I know we have a smurfette and a She-Hulk for diversity, but Calara, a latina, is the only non-Caucasian lioness in the group. Would be interesting if Detective Walsh or reporter whatsername (provided they are candidates for joining the team) were of Asian/African heritage. Walsh already has the requisite raven hair, btw ;)

3. ... Master Chief style helms instead of the Boba Fett/ Mandalorian (the wide Y couldn't refer to ANYTHING else) ones. Mandalorian helms are iconic but Halo style helms would offer way better spatial awareness imo.

And yes... I have an ellipses problem.

Yippee for more Tefler-grade premium crack! I was totally expecting the chapter to end on her saying something she shouldn't know and obviously gleaned from the surveillance videos.

Irillith can have a nasty surprise at the end. Wouldn't be a big surprise if the pride know of her digging in their arhive and just give her enough rope to hand herself . Maybe she has better technology to hack in servers , but Dana is a natural.

Their new headgear has much better visibility than master Chiefs armour. No silly peaked hat brim, and a broad clear strip down the middle where his mouth guard is.

Instead Imagine a completely clear faceplate, but with white cheek guards, and a white V covering the top of their head, which join together as solid white where it covers the back of their skull. Looking straight ahead, their vision isn't obstructed in the slightest.

It has been discussed in previous chapters, Dana is a mechanical engineer, not a techno wiz. As she said herself, if she hacked into something, it would look like a bomb went off. She is not a natural in terms of computer finesse.

Captain Killcops getting left to his well deserved doom was very nicely done.

i would love to know what percentage of readers are at this point skipping past the sex scenes and just looking to read the Adventure

I absolutely love this series and look forward to every chapter release, usually manually editing the URL to try to read even before the main link is available. Tefler, thank you for writing this!

I did want to point out one potential continuity issue in case you decide to release it in the future.

From what we've learned of Irillith and the Maliri, I feel she would not willingly reveal her face to the Terran police when talking with the A.I. unit in the server room. My apologies if I misinterpreted the situation and she was actually hidden somehow.

A couple suggestions on how to retcon that may be to have the A.I. unit appear and communicate within her helmet or to first have Irillith ask John and the girls to help shield her from view.

I'm not skipping. They are a feature that sets the stories mood. Besides, if I didn't want sex in my story I'd be reading something else.

I am

the sex scenes are kind of redundant.

I have read this story several times, catching little pieces I missed the last time. You had the innate ability to tell a tale that wraps the reader into your reader into salivating for the next chapter. Keep up the good work and please, keep the chapters coming.

regarding John's access: The other thing to remember is that he's not just a Commodore but one with Special Forces level access plus he's famous. Pretty easy to dismiss just about any complaint in that situation

The main problem with a tank is they have no way to land a tank, I don't think their dropship is big enough and they're more or less out of space as it is. Plus they've only had 1 ground combat situation on a planet and it was in caves, there has not been much need for a tank.

Requisitioning the planet is an interesting idea but holds very little short term benefit and a bit of a long term hassle as they don't have the crew numbers to split up and hold a planet, as of yet anyway, if John ends up with a harem of over a thousand or so then sure it makes sense, or if he decides to employ some corporate interest to take over. The other possibility is he holds it and tries to sell it back to the Terran Federation once the war is over and they have money again, as it is now terraformed, good business opportunity I guess.

@anon regarding Irillith helmet. I don't think she actually takes it off, I think the statement was just regarding her body language after the comment to Detective Walsh. There are no reaction statements so it seems unlikely that she removed it. I'm sure that would've garnered a lot more attention

As for the sex scenes, a lot of it depends on mood more than anything but I'll always skim if nothing else to ensure I don't miss anything important

Couple things I'd like to say. First, hurry up and get Irilith's first load from John in her stomach. She's pissing me off with her spying and secret agenda (LOL). Second, I LOVED Alyssa throwing Buckley around with her super secret psychic Jedi/Sith mind powers. Third, great evolution on the XR75 rifles. Love me some bullpup rifles. Fourth, MORE JADE!!!

Great job on this storyline. Keep them coming...

Ah, that wide. The moment I saw the "Y-shape", Mandalorian helms was all I could visualise. But your description clears it up for me. Thanks for that quick reply and keep up the good work!

@curious: It depends on my mood if I'll read the whole sex scene closely or not. Important information shows up during them, though, so I always make sure to skim if I'm not going to. They make great breathing points between all the action and worldbuilding information while also having important plot reasons for their existence, so I am not bothered by them. Besides, as others have pointed out, I'm reading this on an erotica site. If I didn't want or expect sex scenes I'd go somewhere else.

I love that Irillith is seducing herself. She could be a massively powerful force within John's crew if she joined. I wonder if her transformation would be as dramatic, or if the Eldritch bloodline means it would be significantly smaller than it was for the Terrans. If I remember correctly, Jade's transformation was almost entirely in terms of her shapeshifting ability, which leads me to an interesting question: Does the principle working with Jade apply across all of John's harem? That is, does Dana become a better and better engineer the more semen of John's she ingests? Does Alyssa's Psychic power increase with each load? I think I'm getting subtle hints to that effect, but each of the girls is so amazing that it might just be them settling into the changes that happened, not them continuing to change. Please share!

Like others I have wondered if Dana is storing the schematics in her head. I remember that she brought some of them up on various consoles, though, which implies that at least some of them would be available, especially if she wants to fabricate them using the machines on the Invictus. Simple efficiency would dictate that she would store them somewhere so she wouldn't have to regenerate them every time she fabricated them. So, I agree with Irillith on this one despite my love of the idea that Dana simply stores everything in her head. It would be funnier, but improbable.

I also think that Irillith is letting her upbringing blind her to the possibilities of allying herself with John and crew. If she joined, her mother would no longer be an obstacle to her ambitions (which would, of course, change with her personality when she passed through the initiation ritual). I am looking forward to developments on that front. I wouldn't be surprised either way, but it certainly seems that the stage is set for Irillith to join the crew. Once she realizes that she must infiltrate the crew to truly gain the secrets her mother ordered her to obtain, it's over for her, and John will have gained a powerful tool in the battle of wits with Edraele.

Once again, I love this series. I like the subtle things like Irillith marveling that they got armored up so quickly and was about to say something until she remembered the tech she had discovered Dana had invented. I wonder, when everything comes out will one of the brilliant beauties will remember and comment on that.

During Irillith's briefing on the mercs when she said it took her three minutes to hack in, I was waiting for John or someone to ask how long it took her to hack into the Invictus computers because of course she would. Then maybe she'd answer truthfully and say 8 minutes, and suggest Dana needs only 100 lashes, rather than the 500 she'd recommend for the merc IT guy. But that conversation wouldn't have gone over as well.

During the upcoming mission to rescue the hostages, should Irillith be injured, she may need John via Jade to top her up perhaps? Could make for an interesting moral dilemma: All the other girls joined willingly, but she'll die if she doesn't get it, but they can't just rewrite her personality, but she could use some rewriting, besides one dose won't effect her too much, and what if she needs more than one dose. And back and forth.

Anyway, can't wait for chapter 50. Now that this one is posted, I hope the next one can make it out of moderation soon/faster. Keep up the good work, Tefler!

I love how Irilith is looking for these servers that were totally disconnected from the net on the Invictus when shes been looking at the schematics the whole time and she can't hack them to obtain them. Oh the perks of photographic memories to bad so sad Irilith suck a big one from John for me.

Lovely story n how u've managed to keep us all intrigued.

I'm guessing Iri the Beeyatch gets over-confident n hurt.. n one of two things happening..

1. John finally drills her..

2. Rachel saves her..

Alyssa demonstrated an unmistakable psychic ability--telekinesis--in front of a room full of cops. And way back in Chapter 35, there was this:

Rachel laughed in disbelief. "Come on, this is becoming absurd! There's no record of anyone in Terran history having psychic powers, you can't expect me to swallow that one too!" she exclaimed, then flushed with embarrassment at the inadvertent double entendre.

The Terran Federation is going to be VERY interested, which I can see leading to conflict between them and John and possible loss of their support. And with the way word spreads in this universe, the gang's enemies are going to know sooner rather than later.

In the Irillith vs. everybody else saga, am I the only one who thinks that Dana's robots may suddenly assume a much greater importance?

Excellent job once again, Tefler. I'm as hooked as everyone else. Keep 'em coming!

(insert big cheesy grin here)

I am a sucker for harem stories and this has to be definately the best i have encountered. The plot gets me really invested almost to the point where when its gets to the intimate bits i get a little annoyed because i want to know what happens next (however dont get me wrong they are still greatly appreciated). Last thing i love the whole plot device of using irrilith as a hostile outsider to the invictus crew daily life; it provides a really entertaining dyanamic. Love this series please keep it coming and for the love of god dont dissapear on us ive run into a number of fantastic stories on this site whose last update was like a number of years ago (Im looking at you A Beautiful Wish) it would be deeply troubleing to see it happen to this one.

Irrilith is going to to fun when John adjusts her attitude.

Then we have the reporter from TFNN. Was she middle eastern or am I misremembering that? It would make me smile if her fantasies were all about being in a Sultan's Harem.

I thought a Kintark Dragon Princess might be cool. Something like a Naga or Marilith demon. About a hundred feet of tail with six arms. It would be funny if she laid two dozen eggs and gave John more youngsters than all the other girls combined. Her background might be religion, because I just suspect the Kintark of Theocracy. Religion aka metaphysics, meaning miracles and magical thinking. Also has impacts on leadership. Psychic the hard way, by learning skills.

In terms of professional crew, they have an engineer and a doctor so maybe they should get a lawyer too. Business almost requires a lawyer or else John will end up getting torts and lawsuits that will make it impossible to function in Terran Federation space. A lawyer also gives them a new way to approach some situations. I am not suggesting this adventure become a courtroom drama. If you play fast and loose with legal entitlement then the Lawyers job is to keep things out of court.

A scientist would be worthwhile. It would be hell to write their involvement but if they chase through wormholes, some science backup would be reassuring. Ashanath? How does an Ashanath get sexy? How far could they transform? They will never have hair. Subtle breasts might be fine but a small b cup is still a big change for an Ashanath. The same goes for her butt. She could get as tall as the other girls but that would make her a giant Ashanath. As well as being a scientist, she is Ashanath so she is psychic. I think if she turned from grey to Platinum Chrome sheen for her skin that would signal that she is no longer really Ashanath.

Maybe John needs a Trankaran or Brimorian girl but we don't know what they look like. They could be hermaphrodites or fish.

General purpose are also good for careers. School teacher, or mining survey technician, I suspect that they will find ways to pitch in whenever needed and surprisingly useful applications of their specific skills.

Awesome story. One of those rare stories that keeps getting more interesting every chapter until you hate to stop reading.

John kicks ass but Tefler is a real hero for writing this.

It Just keeps geting beter.

Excellent work as allways. Keep it coming please.

the casual use of psychic powers is very surprising

If you think about it, Irillith is damaged and wounded by her upbringing. John's gooey gift to her would include healing her ugly personality.

Another great chapter. Seeing as Tefler has mentioned that Ch 50 will be a long one, I'm expecting Illirth to be overconfident and get hurt and having to require John and Jade's miracle cream 😀

Speaking of the next chapter, when can we expect our next hit of this sci-fi crack?

I submitted Chapter 50 on Thursday morning, so it might be up on Saturday. I'll let you know when the pending status changes.

I have a list but one that I think is right.

Not telling though.

😉

Man i Fucking Hate Irillith ahhh i dont know why she drives me this crazy and i cant put my finger on it so in that case i just Realy want to see John Bend her over his knee Spank her blue ass till it turns purple and she Crying and begging him to stop than he fucks her in the ass AND Spaces her Rite after and all in 35 min that would make me so Happy i dream about it... Fuck she drives me Crazy ...but i guess this kind of response is what an author goes for ...like always Love the story and cant wait for the next one

P.S. man o man does purple Pussy make John crazy

This would make such an epic tv series

great story and writing... but yea i skip those scenes too

That was amazing well worth the wait can't wait till sat hopefully literotica will have all they're issues worked out by then

Great feedback from everyone, thanks for taking the time to comment. I've stopped responding to every comment now, because it's too time consuming with the increased volume. I've also been eager to write the next few chapters, so I've been spending more time focused on writing. I promise I do read all of your comments though! :-)

It's been fascinating to read your guesses about what I have in store for Irillith. The answer to that will be coming very soon!

Tefler

I have to say I'm loving these chapters the time it takes for them to come out is so worth it. My guess is that irillith Maybe injured in an upcoming fight And one of the only ways to get immediate attention to her is too well fuck her And after taking it once her Primal urges to f*** him Increase in till she cannot control them And she just goes with it becoming a part of their crew telling about her mother

When you finally finish the series whenever that may be years down the road I hope please make this into an actual book I would buy it

She did not get the focus that makes me think she is intended to be crew any time soon.

I like the idea of her being black as someone noted her raven hair would fit.

Variety is one of the things that the crew seems to be developed towards. Every variety of female at least. Being sci fiction fantasy Tefler even has used the option of inventing new variety. More of the alien girls please. I love Irrilith.

Maybe there are other bad guys on the Police Force. Walsh gets some clues and contacts John. Then she gets taken out in a way that leaves her near death before they get the details from her. If they do not save her then the bad guys will probably get away with everything including taking her out.

Turns out that she is too idealistic for Police policy and John and crew spoiled her for putting up with the bullshit. She wants to work with John because that is the only way to get things done the way he does.

If she get's hurt I don't think she would be able to fast heal. If I remember correctly the girls enhancements comes from genetic manipulation and the energy link they share. Neither of those are instantly gained and multiple "treatments" are necessary for them to develop.

Things are getting a bit interesting. John and crew are going to try to take a planet full of mercs? Finally, a challenge worthy of their skills. :-D

That new rifle though...o.O I hope they plan on keeping it on low power most of the time, because otherwise that much power hitting a person could be considered a crime against humanity. It would be extremely demoralizing for the enemy soldiers to see one of their buddies turned into red mist by a single rifle shot. Those new rounds have at least three inches of armor penetration, maybe even four, right? So that tank shouldn't be too much of a problem, unless it has shields. Dana hasn't made an AP version of the new round, has she? If the normal round is that powerful, then an AP version would be insane.

Oh-oh! Brain wave! Is Dana going to upgrade the rounds for the ship's railguns with the new crystal tipped heads? Those rounds already have amazing penetration, so I wouldn't be surprised if the crystal tipped version goes in one side of a target and out the other. They would probably have to save the crystal tipped rounds for battleship-class and larger.

Oh! Another idea! Damn I'm on a roll today! Electromagnetic payload! Maybe Dana can develop a round for the ship's guns that delivers an EMP burst on contact with a ship's shields. Wouldn't be too effective against armor, but it would supposedly be really effective against shields and mess with a ship's electronics, provided those aren't EMP hardened.

It's nice to know why Irillith is so conflicted with regards to John. She was raised to eventually be a boss bitch, but it turns out her genetics won't let her be one when it comes to John. Also, now that she's rubbed off twice to thoughts of him, the endorphins released by the pleasure aren't going to let her be either. And that's only going to get stronger as she continues to wax-on-wax-off. There's no need for her to get seriously injured in the coming fight in order for her to get a dose of John's spunk. She's eventually going to beg for it of her own will in due time; probably soon after she realizes that her fingers will no longer suffice. My guess is that she'll succumb before they get to Trankaran space.

@basura...You may be onto something there. John is eventually going to need a place to call home, where he can take the Invictus for repairs and whatnot. Olympus Shipyard stopped being that place when they got the new armor. The Ashanath would be more than welcoming to them, but their shipyards would eventually stop being suitable as well, once they get the new weapons and other stuff. Plus, Ashanath space is a long ways for them to go just to make repairs, especially if they intend to spend most of their time in Terran space. So they'll need a one-stop shop that can service all the amazing tech they've got and will eventually get.

While yes, they may not have the crew to setup shop just yet, that doesn't mean they can't invite the Ashanath to man the outpost for the time being. Maybe even invite Ceraden to help supply the place, provided Irillith's plan to assassinate him either didn't work or she forgot to set it up in her conflicted state.

@Tefler...Chapter 50 better show up on Saturday as you said, or else I'm going to end up boycotting Lit over this affront to literature. After you finish the series of course.

@Jedi_Khan, you suggest that AP rounds would be great to provide more penetration, but that is not necessary true.

Too much penetration results in a through and through which actually does less damage because it leaves a nice clean hole which transfers less kinetic energy to the target.

With the current loadout, a shot will completely obliterate an armored target on the other side of a wall, leaving a huge hole in the wall. If that was an armor piercing round, it would leave a neat hole in the wall only slightly larger than the projectile and a similarly neat hole in the target and his armor. This would be a serious wound, but survivable.

It's best to use AP rounds on harder targets that cannot otherwise be penetrated.

Irilith isn't a good character. Not because everybody hates her (that's a good thing), but because she is unbelievable.

You need 2 or 3 posts to explain how is it possible to do what she did, everytime. That's a bad signal.

She has impossible skills (haking multiple systems in minutes: police station, banks, kidnappers, etc) -- compare that with Calara: she has near magical aim, but she is limited by what their weapons can do. Irilith on the other hand, can hack anything, and you don't explain how except to say she has access to some awesome technology and an AI. Even her own people don't have that technology (she hacked that ship in seconds).

It looks like you are reacting to how people hated her and are trying to convince us she is awesome. Maybe you could take more time explaining why she is so awesome. But in the story, not here.

Having said that, this is an excellent story. Congratulations on 49 great chapters so far and I'm looking forward to number 50. Cheers!

My problem with the dojo simulator was already described in comments to the chapter, where Yamamoto was introduced. It was pointed out to me that it is better to make conjectures not condemnations. So here is my suggestion:

1. High precision moves scanning device for each participant

2. A very agile bot dummy for each participant

Meaning, Yamamoto is in his place training against a bot dummy. Said bot dummy moves completely in sync with John. Who, in turn, trains aboard invictus against a bot dummy - in sync with Yamamoto moves.

No field generation - just scanning the moves of a human and transferring them to a bot dummy. Naturally, high speed connection is required. Hope John has enough money to pay his Verizon bill.

I agree with your reasoning, BUT: we are talking about a 20 mm projectile moving at supersonic..no, check that....HYPERSONIC speeds. To put it in perspective, a 50 BMG has a bullet diameter of .510 inches traveling at around 3000 ft/second, the 20 mm bullet has a 0.787 inch bullet diameter...roughly one and a half times that of a 50 cal.. And it is travelling at several times the speed of sound faster than a 50 cal.. Even at the supressed level, it has significantly more stopping power than a 50 cal.. Nothing without armor is going to survive a torso hit from that thing as it will blow anything that weighs less than 500 pounds or so in half at normal ship firefighting ranges. A three round burst...1500 pounds cut in half. That big a cross section will literally blow up human tissue like someone swallowed a bomb. Heck, a 50 cal. at close range will do that. There is no need for bullet expansion....the normal bullet diameter is already larger than a 50 cal. AP round that is fully mushroomed.

When you have a shoulder fired weapon that can penetrate several inches of titanium armor...tanks are a liability...shoot a few rounds into the side to weaken the armor (say a three round burst on high power) and then puncture through to send white hot titanium shards into the tank rounds....inside the tank. Roasted tank anyone?

Chapter 50 has been through moderation, so it should be up tomorrow.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Awesome news about chapter 50. Quite a landmark.

Now... how is your progress with chapter 51? ;)

Loved this chapter but I feel like tomorrow I will have a new favourite chapter.

@Jedi_Khan I was thinking more on the line of their own shipyard to refit the Invictus with new techs. Right now they are making "small changes" but at some point they will need to "rewire the sensors" or something like that, and not want people seeing it.

But with a planet there are space for anything. They can have a temporary zoo for animal that Jade want to study, bigger equipment for Dana (maybe even self made) and raw materials to build new things, a more spacious/specialized medical facility for Rachel, bigger firing range for sniping practice for Alyssa, if John is still a trader, office/storage space for official dealings, .....

And eventually, if they want, they could turn it into a neutral planet for different races to negotiate peace or whatever, kind of "Planetary Swiss" or something along that lines.

I can't wait until John gets Irillith into bed and reformats her attitude.

Thanks for the read

I agree with your concerns that she seems to be a little too good.

ive been skimming the last 7 chapters to find out just what about Irillith drives me so crazy and ive come to the conclusion that i Love to hate her she is an amazingly conniving women and would love to see here some kind of mane roll regardless to what ever side she ends up on but would like to see here take over her mothers spot as matriarch with johns help or become his dungeon slave on the ship hes got all this room and no dungeon yet hemm a tied up blue slave i like e so koodoes whith here chacter i love to hate or just love

god cant wait till John spanks her ass till its purple

Apart from looking forward to the next 50 chapters and please take a bow Tefler.

Any thoughts on the return trip to Maliri space if the next in line defects?

Yeah, I agree with you on the AP round making smaller holes and transferring less kinetic force. I pretty much explained all that a few chapters back with regards to why the team used hollow-point rather than AP most of the time.

Also, I didn't say it would be great on the new rounds; I said it would be insane. It would be so insane that they could possible use the AP rifle rounds against a ship. How, you might ask? Well, they could sneak up on a ship in the Raptor like they did against the Drakkar, pop the hatch, and pour rounds into the ship's engines. From the outside. I don't know about you, but I imagine that firing crystal-tipped, 20mm AP rounds at hypersonic speeds into a ship's engines would do some decent damage, possibly even crippling them. Think of it as a surgeon's scalpel as compared to the ship's railguns, which would be more akin to a sledge hammer.

The one point I do disagree with you on is the survivability of being hit by an AP version of the new rounds. Yes, someone could possibly survive an AP version of the smaller 10mm round that the team used before. However, now we're talking about a 20mm round, twice the size of the previous one. That means that the entrance wound is going to be at least twice the size, and the exit wound is going to be even bigger. Unless you're the Drakkar, you're not surviving that size of hole. While it might not be an insta-kill, it will be fatal. And the round would still have enough power to take out the tank behind the unlucky SOB.

@Tefler...I had this thought shortly after posting my previous comment: is Alyssa able to sense the presence and/or location of people she's not linked to? Meaning, could she possibly tell where Irillith is on the ship, or sense that there's a squad of hostile soldiers waiting behind an armored door to ambush them as soon as the door opens?

Jedi_Khan: I'm pretty sure Alyssa can since she could read the mind of the mine owner back on Karron when he wanted to make John pay for "taking advantage of him." She's also read the minds of the Bolon @ Port Heracles & on Ashana, but while she's got the knowledge to put up her mental shields and can lower them to scan & receive, she avoids it as she only wants to hear John's & the other girls thoughts as they are peaceful and loving. The negative emotions of others like Irrilith keeps her from using it. However, if the situation came to it, I think she would be willing to dive into the mental cesspool.

As for the thoughts about acquiring SerpentHold after defeating the "Armored Cobras" PMC, I would have to say that would be a bit too far-fetched. They don't really need a full planet at this time. Maybe in a few decades or in a century, but they're not thinking that far ahead or dwelling on their immortality so it wouldn't be that prevalent. Besides, it's quite a large target they would have to defend. If they need to do repairs, they can do that in space with the bots away from prying eyes. If they find themselves in deep crap and need a hideaway, I would see them more likely taking a spent mining asteroid and turning it into a Haven with Alyssa's & Dana's life experience on Karron as a guide and use the bots as a workforce to refurbish it.

Wanted to say i've greatly enjoyed your story, and have been reading since chapter 1 as they come out. Sci-Fi is one of my favorite reads in general and this is a superb read, my one question/critique, has to do with some of the psychics of the universe.

To be more specific, some of your dialogue seems to indicate dodging light speed weapons? Under normal circumstances you wouldn't see them till you have already been hit as there travel at the speed of light. Is this somehow due to the unspoken of ftl communication.

The second thing i have seen is with acceleration to catch up to a moving object (another ship), When in a pursuit vector you cant just simply accelerate especially in space, if a ship is say 1000km ahead of you and your traveling twice as fast as it, if its going 50 km/s and your going 100 km/s it will take you 20 seconds to overtake said ship, however, you will only be next to them for a few seconds, as you had to accelerate the entire time to catch them, and you are now traveling 1000 km/s faster then them. in order to come to a stop relative to a moving object you would need to began braking at some point so that you would have the same relative velocity as them when you reached them. depending on thrust this would make overtake quite a bit longer. Along with this is acceleration towards a unmovable object where you would need to come to a complete stop relative to it. Some of these things seem to not to a bit wonky at times.

Also on a side note space seems kinda small in your story, just based off of what ive read and assuming your solar systems tend to be about the same size as ours in order for the invictus to get around, during combat situations, it would need to be traveling at something like 1/3 of the speed of light in N-space. Unless im completely off my rocker i dont really use a calculator much like ever. space is just a really really really big place and everything seems to happen fast, which i understand plot and story wise needs to happen to some extent and dont mind, and works fine for H-space. but relativistic speed for a spaceship in N-space dont work so well.

On another note, Why don't missiles have warheads? (chapter 33) No one cares about a little bit more radiation floating around in space crank out the megatons. Or mag bottle laser for some range on the end of it.

Last question has to do with the mass drivers, generally speaking in theory mass drivers rely on kinetic energy to do there damage, speed something up to just short of the speed of light and let relativistic speeds take care of the rest, first thing it hits massive energy released big boom.

In your case the projectile is being accelerated into H-space and there is some amount of initial energy released on impact? But then the charge continues to burrow.

Does this have something to do with when it drops from H-space to N-space, and as for the explosive charge, just wondering are we talking actual boom boom of some kind. or relying more on something along the lines of Pauli's exclusion principle and sudden very very violent release of various fermions?

Again want to say i really really like your story and pretty religiously check for updates, im just a bit of a science nerd and like the how of things quite a bit theres several other little quirks but these are the ones that popped into my mind first and for most.

I have had some of those discussions with Tefler.

Space is huge.

Relative velocity of ships on combat.

Kinetic energy of mass drivers. The idea of explosive warheads going off a second after impact always makes me smile. The shell is out the other side of the target and half way across the system a second later. At those velocities the impact is literally a nuclear explosion so adding an explosive payload is redundant.

Power Cores which from the mentioned helium fuels can be assumed to be fusion nanogrids should be able to explode only in that ruptures might dump a huge amount of internal capacitance charge. A MegaCoulomb release is enough explosion anyways that I don't sweat these anymore.

Space Opera. The story is for readers to enjoy. I enjoy it and you do too you said. Trying to make it more realistic is not required for fantasy and would involve an off-putting amount of science explanation. It works with the drama that readers crave. Science geeks would make a rare audience and should not be used as a target reader.

It is surprising how much science accuracy matters to some readers but almost everyone seems to agree that it takes a back seat to the story.

FatherSin

I'm loving these stories. I can't wait to find out what happens next. I'm hoping he plows the bitchy right out of Irilith! Angry sex Por favor!

Hey Tefler,

I am still tending to family matters, but I wanted to let you know I'm not going to miss anything that you write. As I have been drawn into your world, I have come to GREATLY appreciate how much time you spend building up the characters, via their interactions, private thoughts, flashbacks, etc. Additionally, I am mightily impressed with your ability to put out these great (and astoundingly well written) chapters in such short order.

Please keep up the great work. I'll be back in touch when I can. I promise 5 stars as long as you can keep 'em comin'!

This is really good writing and needs to be placed on film.

I seriously hope he ends up breaking her.

Conceptually and serially mind absorbing chapter after chapter.

Re: Anon- film

It could only be a good film if nothing was left out.

As for you, tefler... I'm supposed to be asleep right now! Here I am rereading this, and you 'pump' out another chapter. Oh well, you're doing a good job, so keep em 'cumming'

I wish you a climactic evening!

This story truly is a joy to read and re-read. ;) Dawn

I can't be the only one thinking the sooner he fucks the spying blue bitch the better can I?

Seriously getting tired of her evillitude, looking forward to seeing her get broken in.

After 49 chapters I finally thought I had to tell you how much I’m enjoying the series.

Never read this type of serial story where I’ve felt (though I really enjoy it) the sex is secondary to the unfolding story.

Thanks for posting these on this website :-)

The cops just lynched that fucker ? The fuck ? Whatever happened to a criminal trial and due process ? Lol. Man I'm really loving this story.

It was not emplied that the cops murdered him on the spot. All that was described was that the cops slowly surrounded him in anger. At the most they probably beat him up while in lock up. He definitely got arrested.

think of it this way, cops go into dangerous situations all the time and most of the time civilians are useless to help because they are too busy panicking. most of the time cops can only rely on other cops to watch their backs and that leads to a brothers-in-arms mentality like what happens with troops in combat, they start to see those with that same uniform as family, think how u would feel if it was proved ur brother shot ur dad for no reason

The Terran Federation legal system has not been fully fleshed out in this story, nor do I believe it needed. With that said, if a military officer can walk into any location, i.e. a police station, and outrank anyone on the planet and has the right to execute an individual, no matter their ranking, on the spot, you can assume that the right to a fair and impartial jury trial is not a part of their legal system. This is also a legal system that embraces vigilantism, a significant departure from most 'civilized' nations on earth, as shown by the frequent rewards for pirate hunting, and general lack of concern over the executions of those accused of piracy after they were disarmed beyond the emotional impact on the executioner.

That said, I fully appreciate the technically advanced, and mildly barbaric universe this well crafted story was created within, as it allows freedom of heroism, not found in my personal country of origin. The characters are well thought out, strong in their own ways, and I find myself emotionally invested in the recurrent characters, even Irillith. I have now consumed 49 chapters ravenously after forcing myself to plow through the first few chapters in the hopes of finding a good story due to the ratings others had given this masterful tale (it did take me three tries, I'm sad to admit). I look forward to understanding the reasons behind the actions, especially those that seem out of character, especially why the security camera archive and access to security cameras being open to hacking, and look forward to verifying my hypotheses, or being surprised. Kudos to you Tefler.

--Arctalyx (User authentication doesn't seem to be working, so sorry for the anon posting)

I'm genuinely enjoying this story. Not to mention im loving how he is gradually softening her. But I do wanna see her broken in a different way. Not in a bad way though.

Royal Trouble in a blue dress, with great skills and great lack of conscience. Think I just understated it.

Themes in this story are so in tune with real life .... Frightening isn't it

I always wondered why you did that? Not that anyone outside of the crew knew what she was. But just the same I would have thought Irillith would have kept it on.

It's getting frustrating seeing what are supposed to be "genius" level people keep making dumb mistakes. Letting a woman, you know is a liar and killer, board your ship. Then let her hack into your system with ease. And no one even thinks of checking on shit. Maybe reinforce your system and security networks.

John and crew want to take on a significant private military army, embedded on their own planet, by themselves. Bonkers

Constant upgrades to gear aside, this is a very dodgy idea.

Thou they need to put cameras on the armor. Footage of the 'Fulmanax' expedition would have been priceless. Did I spell that right?

Getting annoyed that nobody has checked if Irillith has hacked into the ship at all, I mean they are suppose to be geniuses!!

I don't know how I missed it but 10mm equates to 39 caliber (or .39 of an inch). You are talking about a weapon that you would use to drop a cape buffalo or something like a rhino. The recoil would be unbelievable using current powders. The closest figures I can find without going to a larger caliber is the H&H 375 Magnum which shoots a 300 grain bullet. At 2900 feet per second muzzle velocity equates to 5604 foot pounds of energy and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The recoil would be painful to say the least. 10mm would be worse. The bullet weight would be even greater. Now you are talking about 20mm that is larger than a 10 gauge shotgun which shoots a 766 grain bullet unjacketed. Rough calculation the bullet weight would be 800+ grain weight with just a jacketed bullet. 20mm guns are generally mounted on trucks or airplanes. I do not believe a human even with super strength could fire even a three round burst. The muzzle would move violently upward with every shot. Recoil would be something I would not be willing to experience even single shot. Hollow points have been banned in warfare since the 1920's or so in rifle ammunition. They tend to cause unrepairable damage to the human body. All of the rounds you have described would go through a human body and keep on going. They would also go through the ships hull even the hollow points. At close range the velocity would just be too high as well as the weight of the bullet. I understand this is a fiction story and a really excellent one but I felt you should know the reality from someone who has loaded ammunition and shot guns of all types for most of my 66 years starting as a kid. Thank you for your wonderful story!

While it seems obvious, it would be good to know the final verdict on Captain corrupt.

The Purple Ice Princess seems to be getting a little 'hot' under the collar. Interesting.

Dreamdog519, just wanted to point out that these are rail guns they are firing, which are effectivly lumps being accelerated at extreme rates using magnetic fields. Thus, this is a distinctive lack of traditional recoil of powder keg. Also this story is set in the better part of a millennia from now... who knows? Just wanted to share my thoughts.

More equipment upgrades from Dana due fallout from tech intel gained from the Maliri... With enhanced Maliri crystal, just a little Etherite added to increase its lattice strength (10 x titanium) it is used in weapon barrels, helmets, and in crystal tipped ammo; this let's Dana build the Punisher Railgun rifle and pistol. -- More information gained from the requisitioned Maliri DNA from Irillith. Training, sex, and good food... life on the Invictus is pretty good! ;-) TTFN