All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 068'

I've criticised plenty of aspects of this series, but I won't knock this chapter - a high point in a hugely inconsistent series.

It was a hugely complicated space battle, well explained using lots of POVs, while keeping the pace up, including new or peripheral characters. An excellent example of show, don't tell.

If they had saved the original Invictus for Charles (a retirement gift), then I would hope that they'd include a copy of the gun welding pixie we just saw tear those Kintark a new one, ... Charles would surely love his very own 'unshackled AI' and who wouldn't adore our sweet little Faye (but maybe name the AI copy something else (they could be sisters), ... And while the Genthalas engineers are at it, they could make Jack a Fernandez family ship (based on the Damocles) as his retirement gift, ... but remember to include his own Dojo, ... if only, ... ;-) ttfn

patiently waiting for the yellow N

"I still think that Genthalas Shipyard could work up a wholly new 'Invictus' for John (using Dana's schematics) in about the same time as reworking the upgrades through an old assault cruiser"

One of the main believability issues with this otherwise excellent series is the ludicrous speed with which upgrades are installed...

--Wow, Faye got to play with the big guns, .... more starships need a 'Faye' to help them, .... she sure is handy for so much, .... and she's an excellent alarm clock too, .... And with all the combat, the Invictus (and the Raptor) came through it all without a scratch, ... that's amazing too, ...

-- So, it's time for further upgrades, ... I still think that Genthalas Shipyard could work up a wholly new 'Invictus' for John (using Dana's schematics) in about the same time as reworking the upgrades through an old assault cruiser, and it would be a tougher ship too, ... they should really keep the old / original Invictus for a gift for Charles (when he retires), but keep a copy of Faye onboard to help out, ... ;-) ttfn

No comment.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

(Star system in recalibration....)

[ correction] -- Totally Awesome, ... what fun space battle to read, ... excellent bouncing about to various P.O.V.'s, ... I love the Invictus at this point in the story, ... and with only a few minor improvements I would've wished Tef to leave any major upgrades (***spoiler*** like adding a Singularity Driver to the ship's arsenal) and to use the facilities at the Genthalas Shipyard to lay down a wholly new ship, ... it shouldn't take much more time than working the upgrades into an old assault cruiser, and John could save the Invictus for Charles, with its upgraded Power Core, FTL, Fresh Air, Sensors and Beam Lasers, wow, ... ;-) ttfn

-- Totally Awesome, ... what fun space battle to read, ... excellent bouncing about to various P.O.V.'s, ... I love the Invictus at this point in the story, ... and with only a few minor improvements I would've wished Tef to leave any major upgrades (***spoiler*** like adding a Singularity Driver to the ship's arsenal) and to use the facilities at the Genthalas Shipyard to lay down a wholly new ship, ... it could take much more time than doing the upgrades to an old assault cruiser, and John could save the Invictus for Charles, upgrades and all, ... ;-) ttfn

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Now that, was fucking awesome!"

Regulas has no suns let alone 4. It has 4 stars though. There is only 1 sun in existence and it’s 8 light minutes away from us. The sun is the star that resides in the heart of the solar system, that’s the star system called Sol. That’s us by the way and that’s the scientific terms to describe us. All other stars are just that stars not suns. And those stars if they have planets or asteroid belts or other things gravitationally bound are then called Star Systems.

In a Star System the star name gets a 1 after it, so Regulas 1 and since this is a star system with 4 gravitationally locked stars they are Regulas 1 Regulas 2..3..and 4. The first planet is called Regulas 5 since the first 4 are stars. So each planet in the star system get a higher number as you go out. That’s the naming convention. So really earth’s real name is Sol 4.

That was one heck of a space battle, and while Sakura along with many of the rescued mine workers slept through it all, ... it was a great chapter, too bad Sakura missed so much of it, ... ;-) TTFN

Tbh space battles are better than repetitive sex scenes, but I’m trying to work out why any kind of space craft has wings when it’s designed to work in a vacuum? Anyone thinking about writing space battle scenes have a watch of the old Babylon5 space battle footage, yes the effects are old and unconvincing, but they got the action somewhere near, which is more than can be said for a lot of books/stories/films/tv shows.

After a battle like that the final words came from Sakurai 😂😂. 5⛤

How much higher can they promote him, hell he won't take it this is a really good story,

John is always going on about the girls safety, as mentioned by Anonymous. The actual facts are that the girls are replaceable and their mental conditioning will help them get over it and also accept the replacement girl as one of their own. The only irreplaceable person is John. If John dies the girls will retain their physic powers but will start to age, while unfortunately for Jade she will become a sex slave to the next guy she sees as she will beg him to be her master. So they all fly back to the yet again civil war torn Malari. Illrith and her mother Eradale have 250 years to live and are nice while the human crew have 65 normal years of aging before dying, and Jade just becomes a sex slave since no one can live just spending all day saying “ are you my new master?”

So John is the linchpin to the entire operation and everyone and everything is expendable bar him. So maybe John needs to cool his jets and spend some real time learning his shit. Shit being all those mental powers he has as part of his dna but refuses to learn. Such as telepathy. He has it he knows he has it but be refuses to train for it and just says “ I tried yesterday and it didn’t work so forget it.” John is a real tosser at times and a gutless cry baby at other times. Maybe 1/3 worthy person.

And will the Lion and the Lionesses get another bounty for capturing the Thor's Hammer? For the orphans fund of course, ... ;-) TTFN

I wonder why John leads? In DND, it would be like playing a bard when the bard is not the most powerful character but is excellent at powering up everyone else. In this case of leading the offensive at the end, he didn't bother to try to command. He simply turned the command over to Calara. From the story, it seems that at least 3 characters are smarter than him. It seems that Carlara and Jade could defeat him in melee. Alyssa is a better shot and a far better mage (psionic). I'm not sure that he should be leader. Alyssa is probably the best leader and does lead in many ways. Still, I think the story is very creative. Thanks.

Wow, the Lion turns / saves the battle at Regulus! Awesome! (Perhaps Another Promotion?) ... ;-) TTFN

Best chapter yet. Though I find it hard to believe that an incompetent like Santini could have risen so high in a command structure but in truth I know it really does happen.

Again a great chapter. You’re fightings scenes are magnificent, but a few things are bugging me.

John wants Jade to be safe, meanwhile he takes all kind of stupid risks like fighting a dragon for personal reasons and adding a new member to the team endangering them all because he still do not understand how the astral plane works.

How on earth do you keep all that stuff straight!? PLEASE don't listen to the critics of your writing! You have a serious gift and I'm astounded by the story. You could, of course, make serious money as an author which, I guess, you probably do. I'm assuming this is a hobby that you entertain on the side but wow.. amazing talent you!

Super episode. Drinks for the camera crew, film special effects engineers and costume designers .... aah, err ... I mean the writer and editors.

This should really be on HBO.

I skip all the sex scenes too; they became boring long ago. There's only so many ways to do it, especially when the girls are more or less identical. The sex, and those long debriefs, now only serve as an annoying interruption to your most excellent action story.

I give you 5 stars on your story in spite of, not because of, all the mundane sex.

Poor sakura, slept through an epic battle.

While it's fine for the Kintark to do the sssnake sssspeak thing when they are talking to humans, presumably in English (*ahem* Terran), having them do it when they are speaking to one another is just silly. It's like a movie having Germans speak horribly accented English to each other even when there are no Brits or Americans around.

Awesome chapter. Great job on the space combat. Also, kudos for the nice throwaway reference to Carlo Collodi!

I agree in part, yes it is the authors art and their decision on how to share it, however, there are only so many ways you can lovingly or roughly shove a cock in some pussy ass or mouth and fuck it senseless before the descriptors becomes desensitised and more distracting than enhancing.

The overarching story and character development, on the other hand, are captivating and continuously enjoyable.

While it's your choice what you choose to read, the sex (physical manifestations of love) is integral to the story and the character relationships. It's integral to the personalities and motivation of everyone on the crew and it's alluded to in the story title, "Three Square Meals" ...of cum! Personally I think it's a shame to carve parts of someone's art away because you're not 'into it', when you should just consume the work as a whole as the author intended. But it's your choice, it's just a bad one.

Ditto the last comment

I too skip over the sex scenes. Thanks for your great story

Handling a battle with 4 players, divided into 8 parties is a massive task, but i never lost track of the different fleets.

Also im at that point where i skip most of the sex, and concentrate on the great storytelling.

Just rereading the whole story for the unpteenth time, especially the comments I might have missed! Tefler, you’re ruining me for sooo many other authors 😩! Always GREAT, just as we have all expected!

Re:Draco9881, Regarding using a “wormhole gun” how nasty would it be to put a neutron pulse bomb that would kill all organic life, leaving ship relatively intact!

Re:PLRus, regarding wormhole drive as curving a piece of paper so two corners touch, could you call this a “Möbius Trip?” Also wasn’t I taught that 1 kilogram of anti-matter would completely destabilize our sun? (1974) I think anything over a pound would be extreme overkill.

Wolrab🐝

2cnd re-read and I love it the second time just as much as the first time.... what a story

It should be quite obvious by now that the Progenitor rampaging around the area is John's father. Even evil bastards love their children in their own way.

4th read through this series and this is the first time I looked up Carlo Collodi.. he wrote pinocchio. Faye dreaming of being a real girl. Bravo tefler. Bravo. As someone who loves the classics I never knew this. Bravo. A brilliant tip of the hat to those who came before you.

the security is the tech(elevator) being so advanced that no one else knows how to use it. You can see this from previous chapters where they always have to explain it to anyone new that they trusted onboard. They also have Faye watching the cameras onboard the Invictus she is essentially their internal security with the internal gatling turrets until Sakura gives the Invictus a security upgrade.

Lynton and the Kintark... it's a trap!

I can't believe I read it in Ackbar's voice. Brings back the good old memories.

nice touch with the Carlo Collodi reference

In an earlier chapter, the internal security was addressed. There are blast/security doors which can be lowered to close off decks and access.

As for the T-Fed guys going roaming, "the boys" under Faye's control would have have informed them to stay where they were. Most likely, have locked down deck 4 (where they are (i think) ) to keep any from straying out of bounds.

The gravity lift tube is always open. Anyone can just walk in and infiltrate any deck including the bridge. Even the old elevator has better security; it could require a code or some form of biometrics. But the grav tube is open. How are you gonna fix this flaw? I’m surprised that none of the rescued federation personnel come out of their mind control and just start roamed not the ship in order to find out where they are. Which would lead at least one of them to stumble onto the bridge in the middle school f the battle. But back to my point. How are you going to fix this major security flaw?

This just keeps getting better and better!

Thank you for sharing your gifted writing.

one of the best space fight depictions i have ever read.

"The targeting computer was peppering the Kintark ship with laser bolts, and the vessel looked like it was coming down with some nasty spacecraft infection, covered as it was by glowing pockmarks."

While she's busy curing fatal diseases, Rachel will need to come up with a cure for "Raptoritis," I hear it's going around.

Brilliant writer. One of the best I've ever read. Thanks

Thank you. I continue to enjoy this story immensely. Just love it. Dawn

What an awesome (overused but appropo) story that continues to WOW!!! Thanks!

What a great chapter in this magnificent epic. Enough said.

you should add the communication that was at the front and back of the Stackpole Battletech books. This one being Tefler knows too much.

Have loved the entire story so far. My only complaint is it is so addictive . You are truly a gifted writer. Thank you for throwing in the part where Faye went back to rereading Carlo Collodi . Makes me think that sometime soon even she will become a real girl. Keep up the magnificent work.

Couldn't help but crack up when I saw the last 3 lines from Sakura!

What an amazing story you have crafted for our delight!!!

Bright Blessings to You & Yours Tefler...

the link puts a space between the 'e' and the 'a' in meals.

It is 23:00 UTC Expect chapter 69 at 06:00 UTC

Use this link

https://www.literotica.com/s/three-square-meals-ch-69

Chapter 69 has been through the first round of moderation, so it should be up tomorrow!

I hope you guys enjoy it.

Tefler

Eagerly waiting for chapter 69.

3SM is turning out to be a fanfic of its own with many eager readers speculating different aspects.

Congrats for the effort Tefler.

consistently delivering 10 lit pages of literature is definitely a hard work. Thanks for keeping us happy...

right enough for you to be satisfied, rather than right now.

We can hardly complain as you do turn it out at about three times the speed of most professional authors (and you manage to somehow get it edited and do re-writes in that time too. and hold down a job. I'm in awe)

now we'll just have to harass you about the next chapter :-)

Sorry for the delay, I was waiting for one of my editors.

It should be up on the site by the end of the week, all being well!

Tefler

I hope you have submitted ch69 tefler

When Dana had that moment of the crystal allyssium recipe "clicking" in her head with all the new elements, I thought that was an indication that it was known progenitor tech she inherited via John. We don't know why allysium turns white when Allysa shapes it manually. Maybe when the BSP does it it stays black.

On the subject of armour it was a genius move to introduce the fighter pilots to give that scene a sense of danger since Jade was never really in any (yes she eventually lost her shields after taking down several destroyers but we know that armour is now 15 times tougher than titanium and Athena seemed pretty confident she could fly it directly into Mikaboshi's ship and it would punch straight through

Fantastic cheaper again Tef :-)

I hadn't thought about it until reading your comment on repopulating the Nymphs, but Rachel may want to introduce John to the phrase "Genetic Bottleneck". Of course, that can be easily handwaved given that John is psychically rewriting the Girl's DNA. Concerns over genetic disease in low population sizes probably don't apply here.

Wild speculation time: I wonder if girls would become Nymphs and boys would be Progenitors. The assertion that John has made Alyssa into a female Progenitor is the only evidence of any female Progenitors. It's hard to judge Alyssa's degree of Progenitorness against the (male) Progenitor baseline since she is John's Matriarch rather than independent, and isn't taking thralls of her own.

John's father and Mael'nerak (assuming they're not the same person) seem to make use of non-Progenitors for breeding purposes (or, in Mael'nerak's case, at minimum recreational purposes) while still breeding true as Progenitors (i.e. John). Maybe the Progenitor father can pick the species as well as the gender in cross-species breeding, or maybe gender also dictates species as I suggested above for the Nymphs, and Progenitors are always male (Alyssa notwithstanding).

I've been reading these and over the last week read through them all again... Driving myself a bit nuts since I knew there was a Chapter 68 sitting there unread by me...

There were times I felt like skimming my second read but I kept at it... And it was more than worth the forced wait...

I've had some minor points but haven't let them effect my enjoyment...

First, You keep talking about "pints" when her blows the girls up like a beachball. Whenever you say that, I think more like quarts... You'd need at least a gallon or more total to get that kind of size increase unless it was in him as pints and increased in size in them... But, like I said, minor...

When Rachel told him his sperm was in a state of flux, effectively allowing him to decide the child's sex, I wondered how that would work for the nymphs... Will he be able to sire boy "nymphs" - whatever that might mean...?

Also, in relation to the nymphs... He's going to build the race back up... But what about the race's *need* to have masters...? I really don't see him putting up with THAT with his children...

Hope to see Dana reverse engineer the nano-weave for the armor, both personal and on the ships...

Surprised she hasn't built a Dana-class capacitor yet...

Whatever comes, I await anxiously... Loving it...

I loved the chapter, but also a little bit disappointed, just a little. I thought for sure that Jade would end up in trouble in the raptor and Murphy would get his chance to be a badass.

I realize this is a harem type story, but we really need a sexy male badass in the story who's a true genuine good guy. Also, is part of the progenitor transformation that the girls can't imagine even being interested in or attracted to anyone else?

Also, back to Murphy or other people like him. For some strange reason I thought for awhile he was physic. It got me thinking, even Terrans that don't know the truth of their own abilities would have a significant advantage over others if they happened to be physic, no? I could easily see someone like that becoming a pilot ace, thinking that they can simply sense a "killer instinct" when really they can predict what someone else is going to do.

Someone who was REALLY good at doing that could even give the raptor and jade a run for their money, even if they had an inferior ship and weapons. We've seen brute power with physic abilities in Alyssa, as well as engineering, strategy and more from the crew. But what we haven't seen yet is someone who is able to use those abilities to predict what others are going to do. And as someone who understands fighting, that would open up all sorts of opportunities in combat. Not having to guard yourself in certain ways if you know nothing's coming that direction. Being able to lure people in. Knowing when to pump the gas when the enemy is flustered. Being able to react to anything seemingly anything at the last moment, giving the appearance of being seemingly invincible. Being able to ignore the problem of creating openings when you attack someone zealously is huge: anytime you expose a weakness the enemy will unknowingly let you know instantly before they can take advantage of it. The only person who could stand up to someone like that other than a better physic is Faye, since he couldn't read her.

I released it on Patreon last night, and I've just been doing some edits based on feedback from there.

Once the last of my editors gets back to me, I'll make the required changes and release it. If he doesn't reply by tomorrow night, then I'll submit the chapter to literotica then.

Tefler

I hope you have submitted the ch to literotica tefler so that we can read it by Friday

are we sure they have an agility edge? we've seen the ship twice,and each time the only maneuvering it's done is to leap into a wormhole. So it's possible that its actual abilities are better than we suspect.

one question, how good are the other ships sensors? we know that the invictus sensors have 3 times the range of everyone else. but if the BSP sensors are as good, then when the first encounter happened the invictus couldn't have sneaked up without being noticed. the invictus would have dropped out of warp (or whatever you call it) outside sensor range and then coasted in partially tangentially to the planetary orbit at matched speed so it wouldnt need any major noticeable energy expenditure inside sensor range, but the BSP would have spotted that if ts sensors were upgraded equivalent.

the second time the BSP jumped out, was it down to losing a Thrall in battle? did the extinguishing of Lynton cause chaos and stress through his thrall network, with much the same shock as when Jade was removed for the girls? now it may be much less effect due to the more minor connection we assume that the other side has. but it might be that with this loss he was incapable of fighting

About Alyssa as a progenitor. I think all those possibilities of creating male thralls by using vaginal fluid or breast milk will come later once she is fully merged with Athena. Since john has saving Athena from vanishing in his mind and I think he will achieve it in the future. Even if alyssa creates thralls of her own, breast milk will be more acceptable than vaginal fluid.

You Said: "Second, if they expect to go up against the BSP, they need weapons that are effective against the black armor that the Drakkar got from the BSP. The Maliri laser weapons are impressive, but they are exactly the wrong thing to use against that black armor. They need something like the Kirrix neutron beams or the Kintark plasma weapons. Relying on the (very slow) mass drivers as your only non-laser weapon seems like a losing proposition in a fist fight with the BSP."

Yeah, I cannot think the BSP gave the Drakkar the full tech on that. And I agree, with the Kintark plasma weapons being so effective against armor, those would be a worthwhile choice. But, I am thinking an upgraded Nova Lance which can fire more rapidly with even more power (with the upcoming better heat sinks and power cores Tefler has alluded to) will still overload any localized capacitive ability to absorb the energy from them. Coupled with the fact the Invictus is about to be immune to energy weapons (the Raptor already is), it just becomes a contest of armor strength against mass weapons vs agility. The Invictus definitely has the agility edge. And with upgraded Nova Lances, might have the energy weapon edge as well. The only thing missing from that is a set of singularity drivers.

While the shielding levels may not be the same, the shields on the battleship in this chapter were eliminated by the Nova Lances even faster than the energy weapon of BSP was able to accomplish against the Dreadnaut. Also, the current Nova Lances actually cut the Battleship in two, lengthwise, while the BSP energy device only did damage to the barrels of the singularity drivers.

Yes, comparing apples and oranges, I know. But the destructive power between the two is not orders of magnitude different. With upgraded Nova Lances, the Invictus would be on par if not superior...especially with her agility.

The progenitor would not stoop to anything a menial as shaping armour.

Drakkar armour did not have the psychically reactive etherium bought from the Ashanath so it may not have been psychically forged at all. I doubt he supplied Onyxium and forged their armour for Drakkarr. They did not do their own psychic forming. They might threaten an Ashanath to do some forging but they would eat him before he got much done.

Agreed that bsp is not giving his best tech to Drakkar. His ship has better tech.

The production of psychic primer compound(s) would, logically be governed by genes on the third strand of the DNA. If they are active then primer is produced otherwise there is no primer. If, contrary to my thoughts, the DNA is the primer then having these genes active would enable it as the primer. Alyssa would only be a full Progenitor capable of creating thralls of her own if the relevant genes were active. When John gave Alyssa her third DNA strand did he make those genes active or inactive?

I also think that lactation is the better bet for transferal of the psychic primer to the subject. By psychic primer I mean the substance or substances that make the subject susceptible to psychic manipulation.

I cannot remember offhand whether Tefler has said explicitly that the primer is John's DNA or if it has only been strongly implied that that is the case. Whichever is true. I think that DNA is not the primer because the stomach acids would quickly destroy it.

The true primer is some other substance or group of substances contained in the head of the sperm. The fact that the primer and the DNA are found in the same place has mislead the Invictus' crew and Tefler has not yet got to the part of the story where Rachel analyses a sample of John's sperm for unusual compounds and identified where they are to be found.

I don't recall quite exactly what Dana learned from those Kirrix weapons, but I'm willing to bet that she probably looked at them and said something like "Well, those are neat, but we've got better." Only reason I can think of for Dana passing them up being that the weapons already in the crew's possession (or in Dana's head) were better than the Kirrix neutron beams.

As for the black armor the Drakkar had, that was base level stuff, with relatively minor resistance to laser weapons, especially when compared to the Alyssium Dana creates later, and more so compared to the current Crystal Alyssium. It was enough resistance to be problematic for the Ashanath beam weapons, and those that the Invictus had at the time, but keep in mind, the weapons on the Invictus have gone through a major upgrade. They're now several orders of magnitude more powerful than what they had originally, and would easily overpower that black armor of the Drakkar. Even if that black armor offered decent resistance against the Invictus' beam weapons, the same can't be said for the shields. Once the shields are down, the Mass Drivers can deal significant damage, as they penetrate through armor and detonate inside the ship.

Plus, we don't even know if the BSP's ship is clad in the same armor as the Drakkar. It could be something else entirely, but chances are it's not going to have similar properties as Crystal Alyssium. I don't see the BSP stooping so low as to use his psychic powers to do something as menial as shape metal, so it's possible he's never thought of Dana's alloy, which is by far stronger than the black armor the Drakkar had, especially after it's been reshaped a few times. Which means that if the BSP's ship is indeed equipped with the same black armor of the Drakkar, the Invictus has the armor advantage.

I've been rereading earlier chapters to get my fix between new releases, and two related thoughts occurred to me.

First, despite the fact that the Kirrix were one of the first species to "donate" technology to Dana's reverse engineering efforts, they've made no attempt to field neutron beam weapons.

Second, if they expect to go up against the BSP, they need weapons that are effective against the black armor that the Drakkar got from the BSP. The Maliri laser weapons are impressive, but they are exactly the wrong thing to use against that black armor. They need something like the Kirrix neutron beams or the Kintark plasma weapons. Relying on the (very slow) mass drivers as your only non-laser weapon seems like a losing proposition in a fist fight with the BSP.

Yeah, I mentioned it a few chapters back..... I would go with lactating..... Less difficult to achieve, and less creepy.... (kinda.... lol)

Or Tefler could do what has been done in other sci-fi and allow her the ability to lactate on command or when aroused like John. Her breast milk I'm sure could carry similar properties to Progen cum. Tefler has clearly pointed out that the girls aren't aversed to breastfeeding. It could add another interesting element to the story but to be honest I don't really think it's necessary apart from allowing her to form her bonds with Johns "thralls" or to heal the girls when John isn't available to do that.

Alyssa is a Progen. And there has been some discussion in the comments about how she might create her own thralls but the lack of testicals presented issues that were never resolved.

Point is, women DO have vaginal fluid (I have experience with being able to make a woman squirt) which does contain fully entact DNA. So while it might not have the long term potency of John's semen, it certainly has the potential of John's semen, if only for the short term.

Long term healing may be out. But, the making of male thralls would definitely be possible.

would like to see Matriarch Edraele send some ships to the Geniya Spaceport and order Merchant Ceradan and a couple of other Maliri males to return under Gruard. and have them think that this is the End but have Merchant Ceradan hailed as a hero by the Maliri for bringing John to them. and the other Males are to help repopulate the planet with the guys to pick Brides from Edraele's Engineers.

Realistically all you would have to do is create the largest dirtiest nuke you possible. You get not only an Emp wave but a large amount of background radiation that would have an unknown but most likely highly deterring effect on most sensors. Added bonus is its a very big nuke it could probably at least have some effect on fighters and bombers as well as take out missiles, if the raptor was off doing something else. as to delivery in theory you should simply be able to load them in the mass driver and turn down the power from Hyper Warp to really fast and send them on there way.

Anyone who somehow had a ethical problem with nukes in space. there rupturing the power cores of ships as they blow them up, space is full of background radiation, and there tachyon drive is pumping out loads of cherenkov radiation just to name a few examples. No one cares about a few dirty nukes on the side.

My 10 cents.

Blakes7 rog blake, federation, high tech ship, righting wrongs,

am sure there maybe other series that could be linked

hooray, glad you're feeling better, and even better that the next slice is on its way. :-)

PLR

yes I'm all for consistency, but story first every time, crowbarring current time real world physics into the mix can just break things unnecessarily. given the several hundred years from the story to now, Physics probably looks at current physics probably looks like pre-newtonian physics to those scientists there. Fitting everything to real world physics just risks breaking the immersion.

Love the story too, and am considering rereading it a second time this time with all the comments just to see how people anticipate developments

Hey everyone,

I've just finished chapter 69!

I've just sent it to my editors, so all being well, you should see it here by about Wednesday or so next week. It's 31k in size, and covers the aftermath of the Regulus battle as well as a few little extra bits and pieces. :-)

Cheers,

Tefler

100% effective shields until they run out isn't that hard to explain. If you imagine that the shields as an active defense powered by capacitors (because they require too much instantaneous power), then you keep sucking power out of your caps until there is nothing left to suck. (Feels like there should be a bj joke in there) Of course, if that's how the shields work, it should be possible to use the Nova Lance charging trick to rebuild shields as well.

I am really looking forward to them when the progen power core is miniturized by Dana.

It is consistent with other elements of the story: specifically the anti-grav stabalizer working with the shields okay in the Invictus and Raptor so the shield could be used during flight mode.

It would provide the resistance to plasma and laser based weapons.

We know it is possible due to the melee encounter with the dragon and John's extraction team in the sulphur mines.

You said, "As long as the science has its own logical consistency for the story we may just be pointing ourselves in entirely the wrong way to try to explain the effects we are seeing in current physics. We are probably better off looking at effects rather than causes."

I could not agree more with your perception. I have no issue with suspension of disbelief in a science FICTION story. I do need things to be consistent for that to work for me, though. And I agree, my fantasy literature does not HAVE to follow the laws of Physics as we know them today...but I do need consistancy as mentioned before.

I LOVE this story, as should be evident by my posts. And I know Tefler reads them and incorporates a lot of what we discuss in his story, which I find absolutely wonderful.

Thanks for the insight. What you said is very plausable about the suit fields. Also, I had forgotten that part of the discussion until you mentioned it again. Kudos.

The "shield" on the armor suits is a strong magnetic field that reacts to metallic projectiles by deflecting them off to the side, in a general "not at the person wearing the armor" direction; it is nothing like the shields on a ship, which outright stops (not deflects) just about everything. Dana got the idea for that field from the shields (read like metal shields knights of old carried) the Drakkar had, which had a magnetic field that deflected bullets, and she has since built on that and improved it. One of those improvements is that the field/armor is smart enough to not deflect bullets towards another suit of armor that's nearby. which tells me that there is some sort of sensor that feeds into the suit's computer and can determine the position of the suit, the trajectory of bullets coming in, and where to send them.

So, with that in mind, it is possible that being in flight mode disengages the protective magnetic field because the variables for the suit's position and bullet trajectories would be changing much too quickly for the suit's processor to handle, which could result in the magnetic field redirecting the bullets into the wearer rather than away. You definitely don't want a magnetic field that's supposed to protect you from bullets pulling them at you instead. There is also the possibility that flight mode is capable of accelerating the wearer past the threshold the magnetic field uses to determine if there's something coming in that it needs to deflect, which could result in the field trying to deflect a surface that the wearer is attempting to land on.

Both of those reasons explain why the suit's magnetic field is turned off when the antigrav flight mode is engaged considering that gravity and magnetism are not mutually exclusive, i.e. don't interfere with each other.

I believe there were some discussions in the comments following the development of the armor's magnetic field about adapting that to help protect the Invictus, to which Tefler chimed in and said the magnetic field would disrupt the ship's shields. I forget which chapter the discussion was on, but I'm sure it's there somewhere. I recall that I put forth the suggestion of using magnetic reinforcement on the armor plating of the ship, which would help hold the armor together and increase its resistance to being blown apart; the magnetic reinforcement would not be an extensive field that surrounds the ship, only being strong enough to reach no more than an inch above the ship's hull, and therefore shouldn't interfere with the shields. Or that the magnetic reinforcement engages only after the shields have been knocked out, that way there is no interference as the shields wouldn't be up anyways.

there are problems with trying to build shields with current day scientific explanations. We know that some pieces of current knowledge will have to turn out to be wrong for some of the bits of the story to work. (well maybe wrong isn't the right word, but some sections of science will have to be extended)

As long as the science has its own logical consistency for the story we may just be pointing ourselves in entirely the wrong way to try to explain the effects we are seeing in current physics. We are probably better off looking at effects rather than causes.

As do I yours. I think such speculation is picked up by other readers and Tefler as well. I know he takes our discussions and uses them in his story. Which I find very rewarding.

You said, "Shields in 3SM are at least partly electromagnetic, because Tefler has pointed out in the past that a magnetic field would interfere with shielding..."

I remember him saying the suit electromagnetic shielding would mess with the antigrav units in the suits used for directional control while flying (which makes no sense with antigrave and electromagnetism, while related, do not interfere with each other). But that shielding is different than the ship shielding because it does not deflect energy weapons like lasers or plasma bolts.

Did I miss something?

No worries. In fact I made a small mistake above: e-m fields would also work against conductors, but presumably mass drivers would therefore use materials with a high density to conductivity ratio (since there is no air resistance in space, absolute density is less important). Anyway, the way shields work doesn't make a lot of sense to me (e.g. providing essentially 100% protection until they "run out") but it makes for better story-telling. And as you suggest, it is the story that counts. It is also fun to speculate about the universe in which the story takes place, and I enjoy reading your (and others) posts.

The problem is the shields absorb/deflect/dissipate lasers, which is an energy wave just like an EMP. It would probably affect the shields just like the lasers do. And after the shields are down, well, all military ships now are hardened against EMPs. And fibre optic cables are immune...which is most likely the type of wiring used.

I see your points. And I agree with you on all of them. I was just running with the storyline. No harm, no foul?

"First, a Kilo of antimatter destroys a kilo of matter. So you have twice the amount of matter turning into pure energy."

Yes, but that is also how you make antimatter, by reversing the process: for every kilo you make, you make a kilo of matter as a byproduct (and you will probably waste a lot of energy as well).

"a kilo... would only take 0.0036 seconds"

That means the power core operates at 50 million terawatts minimum, which is about 3 million times the current global power consumption, or about 300 times the total power of sunlight reaching the earth. Wow!

Power cores are something of a McGuffin in sci-fi - I have no idea how they work. Likewise shields - I have no idea how they stop mass drivers or lasers (as you say electromagnetic fields are no use against uncharged particles, and gravity is too weak). The point I was trying to make is that there is no reason to suppose that shields would be any less effective (per watt) against antimatter as against matter or lasers.

What if Dana made a emp Lance from the nova Lance tech & put them on deck 5 at the front of the ship

Of well wishes and concern for Tefler around him. Get well soon, Tefler. Your health is more important than our need for another chapter.

Shields in 3SM are at least partly electromagnetic, because Tefler has pointed out in the past that a magnetic field would interfere with shielding, and the only way a magnetic field would do that is if the shields were electromagnetic in nature. As Manticore suggests, the shields could also be partly photoelectric in order to block lasers, or are at least designed in such a way as to block certain forms of light and/or light at certain energy levels. We do know that the shields do not block normal wavelengths of light, as the crew is still able to see out of the ship when the shields are up, and people outside the shields are able to see the hull. If the shields blocked all forms of light, a ship in space with its shields up would appear as a big mirrored ball and the crew inside would be blind to what's going on outside.

So, given that Tefler has said that a magnetic field would interfere with shields, one way to make the Terran projectile weapons effective against shields would be to develop a shell that carries a warhead that creates an EMP when it detonates either on impact with the shields or just before. That EMP would theoretically be very effective against shields, probably more so than lasers would be, and would have the added side effect of messing with the target ship's electronics. The EMP from the round doesn't need to be very strong, because when you've got a full broadside of cannons firing volley after volley of EMP enabled shells, you'll eventually get the desired result. The shells probably wouldn't do much damage against armor, if any, but they could end up disabling the target ship with repeated EMP bursts frying the electronics. I'm willing to bet that if the Terran scientists haven't developed such ammunition yet (can't imagine that they haven't tried already), Dana probably can.

Shields in TSM are a projected grid of massive pseudoparticles.

Emitters are small surfaces of a hydrogen ice ablating material under Quantum lenses that project and magnify their surface out into a shielding layer. This is a sophisticated form of quantum entanglement that creates shields ideal to interact in superquanta packets of energy. Shielding action dissipates particle kinetics very effectively and photon energy as a loss for loss trade.

Ablation causes total nuclear decay of atoms within the hydrogen ice. The decay reaction actually happens within the projected pseudoparticle of the shield.

It becomes almost a minefield of nuclear bombs that sre sensitive to incoming attacks as an effect of the lensing. The attacks by weapons from a shielded ship do not enter the lensing focus cones in the necessary orientation and pass through rhe shielding layer without interaction.

Most shield schemes have issues with making the ship blind inside their own shield and unable to fire their own weapons without defeating their own shields.

That is how I imagine them at least.

.fs

*does the happy dance*

Feel better Tefler!

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the wait on chapter 69. I've had a cold and I find it hard to write when I'm not firing on all cylinders.

I've written ~24k so far, so I'm nearly done. I'll finish off the end of the chapter today, then with a few days for editing, it should be up on the Patreon page by the end of the month.

Thanks for all the kind/interesting comments. I could spend all day answering these posts, but I try and keep focused on the writing instead. Rest assured I do read them all, and this chapter set new records for feedback! I think it was the fastest chapter to hit 100 comments on literotica, and the Patron thread is at 243 replies as of this morning!

Anyway, I better crack on with wrapping up chapter 69, I hope you all enjoy it!

Tefler

Looked into it some more, i believe a Photoelectric Field In conjunction With an Electromagnetic Field, Both being used for shielding would meet the requirements for TSM universe shielding. A Photoelectric Field has been observed to convert Photons to Electrons (Elecrticity as a byproduct of shield damage observed in TSM universe). However this would have no effect on mass based projectiles as TSM shields do so it would need to be coupled with an electromagnetic shield in order to stop both light energy and mass based projectiles. Creating A Photoelectric shield is a small stretch, however in future/Sci-Fi based applications it fits the bill for withstanding light energy based attacks.

This would be my guess as to the current shields used in TSM universe as it fits all known and described phenomenon to the best extent.

While some of this gets a slight bit beyond me, and its also a Sci-Fi so a bit of artistic interpretation is allowed.

I would say based on what has been shown in previous chapter that they are not a mass/matter based shield

Basically light energy is in essence a photon an always moving with zero rest mass It always moves at the speed of light but technically you can change the speed of light, in order to stop light energy at a quantum level its transferred to a different form of energy, technically according to field theory i believe a strong enough electromagnetic shield would slow for the warping of lightwaves and transferring them into probably electrons, not really sure.

Also any form of gravitic shielding, or some form of electron/static shield, probably with a helping of electromagnetic on the side. From the description and function of the suits it seems almost certain that they are somehow mag based.

All in all at this time i tentatively say that this particular shield may adhere more along the lines of fiction then pure physichs.

While i think antimatter has been thoroughly discussed enough, it should be noted that it simply states in chapter 55, that she would be be sending highly charged antimatter through the power core, and that they would need to begin charging. It is assumed that at some point afterwards they would add the secondary needed components in order to create crystal alyssium.

On a guess i would assume that there by the dialogue there probably streaming Positrons as this is by far the easiest to create/work with, then through means unknown attempting to create some form of Anion with increased and intentional manufactured Resonance. Alot of other ways you could look at it as well, but that would be my offhand two cents guess with quite a bit of Sci=Fi stretching going there. The antimatter was simply a catalyst for the creation of a new element with preexisting materials.

I haven't commented in a few chapters so i will do so now, I'm glad your Patreon is doing well BUT i'm hating these longer waits for new chapters!...But i get it lol

Ok, enough complaining, I loved this last chapter, it had everything you needed to make reading a battle scene epic..it had suspense, drama, intrigue, multiple faceted story lines, attention to detail and timing and of course the hidden puppet master watching on.. and that was JUST the battle scene, that's not even mentioning the whole Astral plain boogey monster, the newest addition to the crew, POSSIBLY a physical body for Fey? and Terran military politics.

All that being said all i have to say is this......Update on new chapter?!? :D

Tazzy