All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 069'

Well if they just turn in a circle semi slow they could pick up some and it depends how far they minds could reach.

I was mainly offering a means to recover some bullets not shells but i guess bits of shells would return to

Well now that you have posted it on patreon

I hope we will be able to read it by Saturday on literotica

Jedi Kahn, very useful into gleaned there. Perhaps we will see the other forms of shields discussed once dana gets her mind around Brimorian tech. I think shifting seperate sections layered and shifting around would be an upgrade, allowing them to ansorb and redirect damage while recharging different sections. Interesting that atomizing solid mass is negligable to stop.

A lot of people have been discussing how to make Faye a new real body and connect the computer to the progenitor mental network so Faye would become a electronic thrall. It could be a good storyline to pursue, but I think I have a better idea:

If the progenitor who created humanity had that other AI that they got that creation video from, the enemy progenitor they're facing now (or maybe same one!) probably has an AI too. Now, John is nice and not cruel, but this other guy is supposed to be the complete opposite of that. So if he had an AI, how do you think it's going to turn out?

Here's my prediction: during the fight against the progenitor, Faye fights his AI through hacking. She realizes that he's not evil, but just chained against his will to act and think in certain ways.

So she decides to rescue him. When she does, she helps the cute boy AI learn about family, love and the concept of being a "progenitor-but-not-psychopath."(patented by John.)

Obviously they fall for each other hard, then I guarantee that it will be adorable for all involved. Dana would probably have to replace some of the damaged servers and overwhelmed heat sinks when they do it the first time.

Anon: You said, "Crystal alyssiam is very light, not what you want in a bullet. Psychically forming CA around a high density core is a much better idea to give more mass to the projectile. Drastically reduces the amount of CA required. Also, these would not be everyday rounds. You want projectiles to mushroom and make a bigger hole not pass straight through doing little damage, at least on soft targets like humans."

I agree to a point. But remember, the new handheld rail guns are firing 20 mm rounds. That is a larger hole than most high powered rifles, with expansion....even Elephant guns (which tend to be non-expansion for max penetration). Expansion of a hyper-velocity 20 mm bullet (.79 inch diameter which is more than equivalent to an expanded .50 cal. bullet) on a soft target is just not necessary. Not only due to the hole it makes but also due to the fluid shock wave it makes through a soft target due to the hypervelocity.

For instance: I have a 22-250 sniper grade rifle I use for deer hunting. A light, 22 cal. A-frame round travels at approximately 3300 fps. When it hits a major organ at distances out to 150 yards, that teeny 22 cal. bullet literally explodes that organ...be it lungs, heart...whatever, simply due to the fluid shock of something moving that fast through a soft target.

The deer is dead before it hits the ground. That shock wave also completely shuts down the nervous system if near the spine. The velocity alone makes it a very devastating round.

As for the lightness of Crystal Alyssium vs a more massive core: The rounds from the Invictus mass drivers are traveling so fast their mass actually increases in a direct relationship to its speed due to Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

In ballistic terms: the energy supplied by a powder charge (if completely combusted in the chamber, using the same charge level and same powder burn rate) creates the same impact at the muzzle whether the bullet is heavy or light because the total energy of the system is the same. The light bullet travels much faster while the heavy bullet travels much slower.

So, at the muzzle, the more massive bullet, traveling slower, does want to penetrate more than a light bullet at the same speed....but the higher speed of the lighter bullet makes an equal amount of change in the opposite direction to the energy at impact.

Now in an atmosphere, the heavy bullet will have more impact downrange due to its mass pushing more easily through the atmosphere....but in space this is not the case.

With the Singularity Drivers (soon to replace the Invictus Mass Drivers) the projectile approaches the speed of light, which means its original mass is inconsequential because its effective mass at contact approaches infinity as the projectile approaches the speed of light.

Ever shoot a soft lead bullet at a steel plate? It just fragments and bounces off...while a hard steel bullet will punch a hole through it.

With the mass not being the problem, penetration becomes the issue at hand. The shell has to be strong enough to withstand the initial impact at near light speed (near infinite mass) without totally disintegrating. Crystal Alyssium coatings are absolutely necessary for more devastating effect on target...especially a big target like a spaceship.

I am happy

I seem to remember the rifle rounds on those bots were deflected against the hallway walls, even shattering a glass panel at one point. As opposed to just disintegrating. Was I wrong?

Dana could tweak the mass drivers to allow them to fire plasma balls as well, so as to increase their flexibility. The rails can be substituted with magnetic coils like those in Gauss cannons to generate fields that can contain plasma, and Dana could construct a method of generating and manipulating plasma based on the Kintark rifles they ‘requisitioned'. With the powerful Progenitor core, power supply won't be a problem.

Can't wait to see Tashana...

Yeah....deflected, not disintegrated.

She pulled the trigger, and the Punisher rifle barked as she fired, sending a crystal tipped twenty millimetre round directly towards the rapidly undulating synthetic creature. However, instead of blasting a big hole in the robot, the shot slammed into some kind of energy shield, leaving ripples in the air as the round was deflected harmlessly. The bullet bounced off to the side, smashing through plated glass as it struck the long walls.

"Fuck! That thing's shielded!" Dana cursed vehemently, as the robot charged onwards undaunted.

I see your point about plasma. But consider this. That plasma has to be contained where a shell doesn't. While that seems like a silly point: consider this....

When a shell hits a hard target, like titanium based shielding on a ship, the speed at which it is moving through the shield creates such a heat wave due to friction that the shield itself becomes plasma that is blown into the ship as the round continues to penetrate.

So, effectively, the shells are a combination mass/plasma weapon already.

Wouldn't, according to the laws of physics and the fact that thees things will be used in space, the shell propelled by the mass driver move the target rather than cause enough friction to fuel a plasma?

Also, I think the plasma is so effective against barriers and kinetic shields because technically a shield would have to lower it's energy output dramatically or risk overloading dramatically causing more damage to internal structures than if the plasma itself would burn the plating. It's the laws of energy transfer that screws with ships and plasma. So a shield would overload and shut down before it could ignite simply because the circuitry can't handle the massive amount of energy to sustain a plasma.

Even if the shields could become plasma, the energy you have to put into the shell would have to exceed the energy to create a plasma for it to reach its target and then ignite it. A chemical process to create a plasma on contact would make more sense. The containment of creating plasma has to concentrate on energy-displacement and re-direction, same goes to actually firing the damn stuff, which would explain why the kintark are leaders in this field of weaponry, seeing as how their very nature would force them to become leading experts in these fields.

Sorry this got longer than I planned. Don't have a potato. Just my thoughts. feel free to ignore my ramblings.

Keep in mind that several shields have already appeared. John and his crew use magnetic barriers, that Dana pointed out are not the same as the shielding used on ships. The synthetics also used these barriers. This is why the projectile was deflected instead of disintegrated.

The magnetic field works against the projectile with the force of energy it is provided with, witch we know is more or less the equivalent of a 20mm round, according to the battle against those mercs, if I remember correctly. The stronger the force needed, the the more energy needs to be supplied. The miniaturized power-core in the suit and the fact that the substance of the projectile needs to react to magnetism are the limitations of the personal barriers. If the projectile where plastic the field would be less effective.

The shielding on larger structures seem to work differently. It all depends on the how. If the shields are suspended circuit projected outside the structure, the charge would be energy needed to keep the circuit suspended and projected. Such a circuit would have the ability to atomize any solid substance, as long it is not so large as to screw up the projection. Or it could be myriad of other technologies, all depending on the state of energy used and the forces they apply.

You said, "Wouldn't, according to the laws of physics and the fact that thees things will be used in space, the shell propelled by the mass driver move the target rather than cause enough friction to fuel a plasma?"

I am thinking that a projectile, forcing its way at hyper velocity, through 4 feet or more of titanium, is going to create enough friction to create plasma. We already do this with armor piercing tank rounds. Which is why the US created reactive armor...to minimize that on our tanks.

So you get surface plasma damage while the round continues to penetrate and then explodes deeper inside. Dunno, seems the best possible scenario for a cannon or mass driver round to me. If I have a chance to kill a ship quickly with a projectile through a power core as opposed to burning the hull and infrastructure to get to it first...thinking the projectile wins. I have noticed the Kintark think so.

I do agree that the plasma is very effective against the ship's bubble shield. But so are lasers. And the Invictus has the best of those around which out perform the Kintark plasma weapons on shields already.

"Wouldn't, according to the laws of physics and the fact that thees things will be used in space, the shell propelled by the mass driver move the target rather than cause enough friction to fuel a plasma?"

Yes and no. The ship is a much larger surface area so while it would shudder, the projectile, applying that mass and force to a small area, would penetrate. Also, don't forget these ships have Inertial stabilizers that would act to keep the ship stable as the mass of the projectile focused on a small area. If you were talking a projectile as wide as the ship...then yes.

Due to this comment, "However, instead of blasting a big hole in the robot, the shot slammed into some kind of energy shield, leaving ripples in the air as the round was deflected harmlessly." I am thinking that shield was more like a ship shield and like the one Dana put on the demo for the new laser rifle and was on the dragon they fought.

The shield wall rippled....with the magnetic shields there is a thumping sound as opposed to a ripple and the rounds are redirected rather than just bouncing off like they did against the synthetics and the dragon. The available information is a bit weak, but I am staying with my thoughts on that.

I finished the final pass on editing, and have just submitted the chapter to literotica for moderation. It might be ready for the weekend, otherwise, it will probably be published by Monday.

I hope you enjoy it!

Tefler

Is a marathon read. But you need to read it critically because there are so many cliffhangers and so much subtle foreshadowing you will miss a lot if you don't read carefully. I loved the chapter Tef.

Please, no spoilers, even vague ones.

Even vague spoilers are as cruel as Vogon poetry.

Just say no.

I always thought of Shields as a cancellation buffer. It is a swirling energy current that cancels out input energy by converting into antiphase photons and binding to a zero state.

Definition: a person or thing that spoils something.

I am confused. How did I spoil something? What did I reveal other than what should be completely obvious to those used to Tefler's style of writing? I didn't mention anything in the storyline. No plot queues, no character developments, no theme queues, nothing. So, as I mentioned....what could I possibly have spoiled?

At worst I mentioned you should read it carefully...like that is news with this author and story?

I am sorry if your anticipation for the chapter has caused you some frustration. But isn't that one of the things that makes this story so great?

Interesting idea! Can you flesh that out some?

Hi tefler

Was just wondering when the next chapter was going to be ready here.

I submitted chapter 70 on Thursday night, so it'll be in the moderation queue at the moment. I'm guessing it'll go live Sunday or Monday going by past experiences.

Cheers

Tefler

Antiphase Shields are like noise cancelling headphones. They add antiphase energy and energy weapons are neutralized. A shell of electrons carries swirling currents of energy and as a laser beam tries to change the currents the shield emitter buffers flood and compensate towards antiphase to return the Shields towards their equilibrium.

For particles and kinetics they would just hit the energetic electron shell, and bounce.

That electrostatic repulsion is the same thing that happens with every touch of pressure.

Baseball and bat. Their electrons get too much repulsive action. Home run.

Ahh...so you are basically talking about an interactive inverse sine wave. That would have to happen at the nanosecond level before the lasers penetrated. And said shield would interact at the atomic shell level to repulse the electrons of objects with mass. Intriguing idea.

The thing that i cant get round is missiles do get pass Shields?

But how ?

Perhaps missles would go through antiphase shields by accelerating to the speed of light, and moving faster than the electrons can repell each other? Games like Sins of a Solar Empire had the missles use tiny wormholes that moved the just beyond the shields.

A powered missile is different than a cannon shell unless the shells included thrust and guidance. That cloud of electrons bounces shots but if you with a source of power behind a missile it will squeeze deeper into the shield layer and with a fusing system it fires it's payload.

Explosive shells should also be fused to detonate before the shield bounces them. That doesn't make much of a disruption in the shield in terms of this story but it seems like it should.

In practical terms the warheads should all be fusion nuclear warheads or antimatter.

Surviving even one near miss should be very lucky.

That would be a very different story and we are all enjoying this one.

Plrus - longitudinal waves instead of sine waves but otherwise the right track.

The Shields would need to be polyphasic collapsing patterns. They don't adjust themself to be antiphase so much as they have an entropy enforced smoothing that reacts to energy weapon beams by devolving into antiphase energy.

I have started reading this and found that writer has hit a subject matter that has gotten me spellbound... Well done so far...looking forward to the next chapter...

Or shields of any sort strong enough to block lasers, plasma & matter have a problem - you won't be able to see through them. Possible counters are sensor wands/spikes that stick outside the shield, frequencies the shields don't affect (which weakness any good weapons maker would drool over), some sort of port you could sense thru (but become bulls eyes/critical hit locations), shields which flicker off long enough to see thru (surprisingly long times for active EM based sensors at solar system scales), or magic.

I've been assuming magic, in this series.

Transparent shields are a staple of every sci-fi movie/tv show/game I can think of! Shields in my universe use the same, obviously easily accomplished, technology. ;-)

Tefler

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I have read/seen in other stories/TV/movies that missiles get through shields because they are going so much slower relatively. In some stories, you have to lower shields for ships to pass through. Some even drop the shields to fire their own weapons (timing is critical).

For those that don't lower shields for ships, there is a speed limit for the shields. If the "object" is moving slower than a certain threshold, it can pass through without problems. The bombers had to wait for the fighters to be eliminated/reduced, so that they could get close enough to fire the missiles.

Entropic smoothing allows light through but levels high energy beams. It is like trying to play Jenga on a coffee table that is getting kicked around. You won't get anything much taller than three blocks built before it all falls apart and scatters.

In the aftermath of the battle, much insightful and provocative discussions. Precursors to the future?

Last year, I was sitting at a campfire reading chapter 46 on an early Sunday morning and yet again, 50 weeks later, here I am reading chapter 69 around a campfire on an early Sunday morning!

Thank you for making a camping trip great!

I meant to write that on chapter 80.how did I get to 69...

Was there hidden reason for the request for the medical transport??

I can hear the request, " please take our wounded to the station, can we fill the hanger will patients.." and then after the Invictus leaves the nice offer to the gunship " sorry we needed the hanger space, but if you like you can park in this nice empty hanger on the Zeus, we promise not to look inside. wink wink"

And then the looks of surprise as the gunship goes to FLT

Sonormas

1) Greatly enjoying the story. Thank you!

2) When/if things quiet down, John (or Alyssa) should consider setting up a company to handle all of Rachel's new treatments (and patents). Any profits would be funneled to their orphan fund. I know there is a great deal of story I haven't read yet as a first timer, so you may already have this covered in future chapters. There are also currently 239 comments on this chapter, so someone might have brought up the same point. While I often read all the comments, I have to pass on that tonight, so I apologize if I'm covering old ground. I just hated seeing Rachel's discoveries handed over to "them" so casually.

I posted a comment about how creating a for profit pharmaceutical company would be extremely immoral and that they should just give the drugs away for free. There are other ways of raising money for the orphan fund that do not involve fleecing poor, desperate , sick people. But i see that you went ahead and created a company anyway, maybe that's why you deleted my comment ?

No, I didn't even see your comment, let alone delete it.

Tefler

Your reading comprehension must be terrible, Rachel very deliberately released the cures for free...

Oh the lost opportunity!!! I think John really dropped the boat (ball way too small) when he didn’t ask the Admirals how much of a galactic issue they wanted to create “debriefing” his hacker, given that ALL his weapons came from the Maliri, and his hacker was the ONLY daughter of the Matriarch of the First House of the Maliri! I think that would really stir the wasp’s nest when they realize how porous their security really is!!! This would also cover Faye’s existence, something that would greatly benefit the ship from any attempted attack. (what the bad guys don’t know might just bite their asses off)

Another thing, didn’t the Raptor get the elevator replaced on Ashana in chapter 30, before going to Jericho? Mateo would have never seen it with an elevator!

Wolrab🐝

Is there something genetic in the progenitors that keeps them from being gay? I know we haven't heard a lot about them as a whole but I mean there's got to be a couple outliers that prefer guys

I'm going to go out on a limb and just say that it's probably not something that interests the author and would probably turn off a great deal of the current audience. Aside from that, the term 'Progenitor' literally means, one from which someone is descended from, and that would be a hard trick to pull-off from someone who wasn't into procreation.

Even if we look at the Progenitor lore already explored, it's very steeped in heterosexuality with the domination and subjugation or females at the forefront. There has been a 'standard template' discussed, and Progenitors turn all females into their 'genetic ideals', tall, leggy, busty and beautiful. So being that there is a documented genetic memory within Progenitor DNA and it seems it has been heavily modified for the purpose of conquest and domination that sexuality may have been locked in at the genetic level. Also, we have only really 'seen' John and Mael'nerak and that's not really a very good cross-section to give an idea to the sexual orientation of an entire species but with the genetic predisposition to enjoy dominating females and then tailoring them to a genetic ideal I feel it's safe to assume that most, if not all Progenitors would be heterosexual.

Him get B.I.G. now

Threatened a Fleet Admiral.

Took control of the newest dreadnought in Terran Military.

Provided the decisive edge in biggest Terran war for a lifetime.

Then there was that "CEASE FIRE" incident.

I thought that Angel would live. Been found barely alive and nursed back to health by Rachel, and eventually need I g Johns healing powerrs

I really like this story but my biggest tiny complaint is the mechanics of the shuttle movements in space and projectiles. Often the description of ship movements is similar to how planes move through air versus the movements allowed in a zero gravity/ zero air resistance environment. Same with projectiles, a physical projectile has unlimited range in space as there is no air resistance to slow the projectiles.

Giving the drugs away for free was not that smart because the formula is not protected. Someone else will apply for a patent and will be rich. That’s how humans are, corruptible and greedy.

The military will patent Rachel's miracle formulas, via the Port Medea medical staff. So, it will be protected and free for all of the T-Fed spacers to make use of. And like ripples in a pond, the legend of the Lions' Doctor Rachel Voss will grow and grow... And John's ship is already way more powerful than the ships from nearby empires... just wait until Dana can upgrade the Invictus with Progenitor FTL and power core technology, and add the fire power of a singularity driver, tweaked out heavy cannons and gauss cannons too... plus all the other, new stuff, that Dana will think up between now and the next refit... Rachel and Dana are John's Brain trust... All of John's girls are extremely bright! ;-) TTFN

Page 8: "As close an ally as the Terran Federation are, you're still reluctant to give them access to any tech." Should be "is" not "are".

When the Terrans think of taking the Invictus, and John thinks oft that also, neither side ever realizes that really wouldn’t help, as so much of the technology includes mysterious elements or psychically active materials.

Another great instalment.

... they just saved Terra from Nexus, killed a dragon and a wiped-out fleet of traitors, then they freed and returned some prisoners, enroute they changed the course of a war in the Regulas System, all this on tech from the last refit, ... and now they want to do another refit, wow, ... this story and that old assault cruiser keep getting better and better, .... well done! ;-) TTFN

Just want to say that this is a great story! I find it very entertaining! I hope you keep writing it!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Hey, I can do that for you!"

While the old Assault Cruiser, the Invictus, has had tremendous upgrades, it is still an old ship with a titanium superstructure, ... much less resilient than Alyssium or Maliri Crystal (6x or 10x the strength of Titanium), ... and with all the rewiring they will be doing, I think that they should just save the Invictus for Charles, and have the Maliri engineers (and Dana) at Genthalas lay down a new keel for a wholly new ship of the line, ... build the Singularity Driver into the new ship, no adjusting, swapping out or jimmying the old ship, just build what is needed right away, ... it couldn't really take any longer could it? Name for the Lion's new ship? Why the "Leo" of course, ... and maybe add another auxiliary vessel or two with all the new space available, why not? ... They could just hang on to the Invictus, occasionally tinkering and adding some better / improved stuff as the months go by, until Charles is ready to retire and is gifted his old ship, ... a real tear-jerker of a story I know, ... ;-) ttfn

-- Tef's story timing with our heroes racing against the clock, ... is all very dramatic, ... but I feel that the continuing to tear apart and rebuild / upgrade the old assault cruiser vs using the amazing facilities at Genthalas Shipyard to build a wholly new vessel, ... one that would have all the new stuff designed into it already, ... like the Singularity Driver (nearly 500m of rails in length), and extra deck space / hard points for placing some beefed up heavy Cannons, ... also it would seem to be simpler to rewire and design a ship with several Progenitor Power cores to start with instead of ripping out and upgrading all the connections from relying on just one Ashanath (battleship grade) power core, ... the redesign makes more sense to me, ... we'll just need a way for Tef to continue to use the name 'Invictus' for our heroes ship, (I strongly believe that keeping that name is the main reason for all of the upgrades done on the old, titanium structured assault cruiser), .... but Tef keeps bouncing the ole Invictus all around this end of the galaxy to stop the 'bad' Progenitor's evil plans (Tef has gotta tell his story), ... but it would be really nice to have a couple of extra weeks to build a new and improved 'Invictus' that would be as Dana says, truly AWESOME!!! ... and that ship could really save-the-day, and perhaps my imaginary ship would be a Battle Cruiser, or a Battleship, or something in between, like a mini-Battleship at 3/4 the size? .... the Lion, his Lionesses, and the Invictus (with its perky purple pixie keeping it all running smoothly) makes for an incredible story, ... so thanks Tef, I am just daydreaming based on YOUR excellent imagination, ... thanks again, .... ;-) ttfn