All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 074'

I've just finished Chapter 75, and it's available on my Patreon site!

The chapter is 51k words, and wraps up a few important story arcs. I hope you enjoy it!

I'll post it here in a few days time.

Tefler

Hi all

Im considering joining teflers patreon but wondered about a few things . Will i be charged back payments for previous chapters? On average what is the monthly charge to people in Uk pound? And if i subscribed today whe would be my first payment and roughly how much would it be?

Cheers.

Re Patreon

1. No back payment

2. Charge is once per month at end of month based on chapters published during month.

3. Choice is yours. Minimum is $1/Chapter. Maximum is $25/Chapter

4. You can stop or change amount when you want.

Three Square Meals, okay, the quad is a load of fun for a hybrid alien like John but Progenitors would need vesicles larger than their bladders wound around their prostate and everywhere else like the large intestine for the kind of volume described in the story or the women would all have to be less than one foot tall.

Yeah? So what? It's a great story! Lighten up! It's a slow Sunday afternoon and I can't wait for the next chapter!

I honestly don't care about the Progenitor origin. Seriously. I don't care. It's a fun story and it's been rolling right along even with some powerful problems that would drive a dreadnaught. :D

Tanasha or, "What does a girl need to do to get a little help around here?!" I really don't care about the Tanasha story line either but the thing's taken on its own life that doesn't mesh with the earlier chapters -- angst about free will. It was already determined that a single dose from John can heal but not 'bind' so the free will issue is a red straw herring stinking up space.

Then you get the dichotomy with the two radically different treatments for Tanasha and Sakura.

Sakura was the freezerburned assassin that killed Jade, messed up the ship and kidnapped John so of course she was treated immediately and saved, then allowed to make the choice for further treatment.

Tashara? She hasn't done anything to the ship or the crew so to heck with her and her tumor that's going to give her a brain the size of a planet! Let's have some totally meaningless agonizing for two chapters about forcing a choice on her and John wants more sex and blow-jobs so just knock her out for precisely 12 hours with whatever that drug is that keeps better time than an atomic clock, then totally ignore her after she wakes up.

The obfuscations about amateurish observations of Tanasha's mental condition are ridiculous so I shall ridicule them! :D She's been tortured hard for years that she has to wear a freakin' mask so people don't hurl when they see her face. She melted and burned her own way out of her cell and through everyone she met before clocking her evil sister and going off when she saw John. Her own grandmother went tumor-crazy burning people for fun and for profi... well, just for fun, apparently, so of course a trained psychiatrist is necessary in the story to decide she's further off than a five-hundred-year-old fruitcake that should be boxed up and frozen immediately or watched closer than a case of teenage acne.

You knopw that it'll be neural whips to the death for the security wonks that didn't change the access codes for the Matriarch's ship, the guards, station security, and the controllers let Tashana escape but that would be boring and routine for the ultra-paranoid and viscous Maliri so not worth mentioning.

Has the story slowed too much without the battles? Well, no, not really. It's a little slow but it's still important, it's still very dramatic and the fights and battles have their own problems.

Armor. The battles are exciting but with so many scenes similar to Inego talking to Vizzini in, "The Princess Bride," "You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Armor.

The personal armor is supposed to be made out of super-armor for ship's hulls that's stronger than standard Terran ship armor. Comparing the stated thickness of the ship's armor and their personal suits it should not get burned, holed, cracked, broken, or much more than its paint scratched by small arms fire or pretty much anything man-portable up to and including anti-tank and squad automatic weapons. If that were possible the stuff would fail after the first hit from an opposing ship, split open when the megaton ship using it landed or rip its own hatch right out of the hull when it docked.

So, the personal super-armor suit would survive just fine but the occupant would get bounced around the room and turned into creamed corn or roasted smeat when the armor heat-soaked -- so not invulnerable!

Flying purple people eaters with swords punch through it? Mmnope.

Dragons with fierce teef an' claws? Nah, scratch the paint and dull the dragon's claws and teef but not much else.

Alien 'shroom-cutter claws and dropping stone columns on the early off-the-rack suit would work but not on the next generation suit.

Again: Hull super-armor!

Weapon training as-written in the story has a huge problem. All officers learn to shoot or they fail and do not become officers, same for enlisted ranks. John having to show Carla how to shoot read more like a storyline that was written for one of the other civilian girls and Carla's name got switched in during editing or Terran Federation officers are a joke.

The gun fights are stuck in a three rut burst. Really? Three round burst is becoming almost as annoying as certain authors that overuse expressions like "chuckle." Are the fire selectors on their rifles broken or is it just more fun to write, "three round burst!" than aiming and squeezing off a shot? They all train and train and train some more in the ship's firing range to learn how to use their weapons and John's a retired veteran Marine but instead of single shots against light or unarmored opponents they use burst and spray-and-pray with Dana's super-ammo, then for some reason they keep running out of ammo. Not the first time but every time. They need some three round burst grenade launchers to go with their stuck rifles....

Spark's super ammo in her super guns should do nothing to a light or unarmored opponent except make a smokin' hole and probably take out part of the deck or the bulkhead behind the target but it's described as making gory explosions that wouldn't happen unless the target was directly up against that deck or bulkhead.

The ship's weapons have been improved too with more power at greater ranges where they can't be touched by normal ships but for some reason they always rapidly close to Swiss Army Knife range, can't maneuver, then lose their shields and get a fuckton of holes blown in the new super-armor.

They seem to randomly misplace ship's guns too. The number of gun emplacements was explicitly listed but during the battle with the rock people, less than half of them were used and they almost died.

The new power supplies made for the refit are not linked to prevent feedback/backlash. They're not supposed to be linked, they're supposed to have switches/cut-outs/cut-ins so they can be swapped in and out as needed when one or more of them fails in combat and the Captain's aquarium bubbler and the First Mate's vibrator stop working.

Yeah? So what? It's a great story! Lighten up! It's a slow Sunday afternoon and I can't wait for the next chapter!

Man, what the heck?

I meant Tashana and Calara, not Tashanna, Tanasha, Tashara, or Carla!

Come on chapter 75! :D

First I would like to correct the training thing. I have taught a lot of officers in my years of service. Medical officers are not taught a whole lot of weapons. They are taught to save lives not take them. Second I will speak from experience, US officers get approximately 3 days for weapons training unless they are combat arms like infantry or tanks or MPs. Now that isn't speaking for the federation but I can tell you it could be completely true.

Texanguy, I was with mech. infantry and I believe you but everyone has to pass at least basic marksmanship or it's no-go, that's just how it is. Some of the female officers I served with shot better than the males... skimming over it in the story might be tolerated and even appropriate for someone like Rachel but it seems to happen with other female officers in the story.

Calara's from a mulitigeneration career military family with its own dojo in the back yard and regular whupping contests. No, she didn't like to cook but when John saved her from the pirates, the cyborg, and the kobold in the basement she was still fighting, or trying to fight anyway. I can easily see her winking at Alyssa when she told John she needed extensive personal lessons and lots of hands-on training but not being able to shoot is a stretch!

I hope you submit ch75 by Thursday tefler

so we can read it by Saturday

Futa bad! No futa.

I agree for combat arms. But medical officers get handed a weapon and a magazine, told how to aim and that is it. I know because I was in a medical unit and was the weapons instructor. That is what I had to deal with. As for combat arms I agree whole heartedly. Also the reason women are usually better shots once trained is their shoulders were made for it. They have a natural crook in their shoulders( used to hold children) that works really well for the butt stock of a rifle. Men just have too much muscle there.

Well now that ch75 has been on patreon for 2 days I hope we get to see it soon on literotica tefler

Maybe you can submit it by tomorrow so we can read it by Saturday

Hey Tefler, I am a gamer and i played a bunch of games and watched a bunch of movies ... where did you get the inspiration for this stuff, because I cant find any of the spacecraft and stuff in any game I played like Halo, Massefect, etc.

Looking at the wrong type of games I suspect. I'm seeing some pen n paper RPG influence, maybe a dash of traveller?

Reflex, excellent story as always. Speaking for myself, I like that John and the girls can make mistakes, and mishandling Tashana is understandable, that girl is an unholy mess, and whatever they did short of forcing her would have lead to the same point or something far worse. I doubt many of the cast can survive Tashana incinerating them.

Which reminds me - Dana is going to be pissed if/when Tashana joins, she called dibs.

For the large scale space combat, games along the lines of Homeworld, Sins of a solar empire, Sword of the stars, Master of Orion 2, Distant worlds, Galactic civilisations 2, and Endless Space. (4x space games). The strike craft combat takes influences from Wing commander, and the Xwing games.

The ground combat is a mix of fps games, along with tabletop RPGs and Cyberpunk thrown into the mix.

Tefler

Maliri = Asari

Yeah, the Asari were one of four sources that inspired me when I created the Maliri.

Tefler

110% sure another was the drow

Yep, the Matriarchs (Matrons) and twisted House-based society came from the Drow.

Tefler

When are the other girls getting there powers

No update on ch75 on literotica tefler ??????

Would it be fair to say that different branches of the military have different standards of firearms training for non-combat personnel? I believe they say in the Marines that everyone is a rifleman. I imagine it is somewhat different in the Navy and Airforce.

In the Terran Federation, every military vessel has a cadre of soldiers to repel boarding attempts. The scale of those security forces increases with the size of the vessel.

Bridge crews and Medical staff are not given firearms training, as the TF does not want to encourage such valuable personnel to get involved in gunfights.

Tefler

I made a few changes and extended a couple of scenes based on feedback from my editors and patrons. I'll submit the chapter for moderation tomorrow! :-)

Tefler

I hope that chapter 75 will be available on April 16th, as a nice easter-egg from the easter-bunny.

Got to read it after the night-service (ends about 03:00) and off course the meal afterwards, so at home at 07:00, and the story may be up or I have to wait another hour.

RE: Tefler

"Bridge crews and Medical staff are not given firearms training, as the TF does not want to encourage such valuable personnel to get involved in gunfights."

Excellent! Thank you, Tefler!

Man, I can sleep now because Calara's a junior tac officer. I don't grok squid-ese but I'm pretty sure that nothing medical is included in that MOS except to send the other guys to see their medics.

Asari + Drow = Maliri

Inconceivable! :D

I just spent several days reading this story and I have to say, I'm in love! It was hard for me to put it down! Please...please give me more!

Hey, thanks for leaving the comment! It's great to hear you're enjoying the story. :-)

I'll submit chapter 75 today, so it should be up on the site by the weekend!

Tefler

Have been loving this story from the first chapter, keep up the good work Tefler

Have been loving this story from the first chapter, keep up the good work Tefler

I don't think it will be up by weekend tefler

Lit takes at least 3 days to moderate it so Monday if everything goes smoothly

I have to say this is an amazing series. I just wish it had another 74 chapters. I read it all over just a few days. I look forward to every alien race, battle, and sex scene will equal esteem. Keep up the great work and thank you.

Will John ever transform a giant female dragon/lizard into a humanoid thrall?

Also I can't wait to see what appens when John goes into battle with the other Maliri, it'd be so cool to have a Napoleon moment, like when all the french royal soldiers sent to kill Napoleon turned coat at first glance & joined his troops instead.

That'd bee cool, I'd lovw to see the exaperation on tashana's face as swaths of her legion break rank to John's aid

I did not play those games you mentioned because I am more for 1st person shooter games like HALO, COD, and Elders Scroll Series....... That only means one thing....... Lay of the first person shooter games and buy the ones Tefler said..... For THREE SQUARE MEALS !!!!!!!..... and yeah I thought of Asari with hair for the Malari.....

Oh and I was asking for the "spacecraft".... I still don't know how your assault cruiser looks like... I always think of it like the Covenant assault ship

There's some pictures on my Patreon page of ships that look similar to how I imagined a Terran Federation assault cruiser would look.

I sketched it out a while ago, and a friend of mine has been working on a 3D model of it for me.

Tefler

Hi Tefler,

I am really enjoying your epic so far and it has been a blast reading through these 75 chapters. What was most interesting about the earlier chapters was how John and his crew used their abilities and technology to overcome seemingly impossible odds. However now it feels like John and his ladies are completely overpowered. What I mean by that is with the Invictus, Calara's shooting, Illirith's hacking abilities, Jade/Alyssa's piloting skills and Faye's defense protocols, the crew never seem to be in any real danger.

If there is ever a ship or a squadron of ships that are too big for them to fight with normal means then that ship will simply be hacked. Invictus had more than enough firepower before to fight anything less than a dreadnought. With the new Singularity drivers the crew has enough firepower to completely over power anything the Terran Federation, Kintark, Drakkar, and probably the Kirrix have to offer. This really takes out the element of suspense. While the battles are intense and extremely well written it does kinda of take the wind out of the sails when there is no possibility of our heroes loosing or any extreme consequences.

The crew really needs a good ass kicking or at least a great humbling. They can now run unopposed throughout the galaxy which admittedly doesn't make for the best story telling when you know the enemy has no chance of beating our heroes.

I know that the Progenitor is lurking around watching John and these two will eventually come on a collision course with each other but what we readers love about you is your penchant for multiple storylines.

One of John's biggest advantages is the massive tech advantage that Dana has provided him. It would be awesome if that tech advantage could be decreased somehow by an adversary other than the progenitor. For example: Terran Federation could come across either Progenitor technology (or another ancient race's) and reverse engineer it to a lesser degree, Terran Federation could send teams of highly advanced Special forces teams to take out John (with armor rivaling Paragon), or simply the Progenitor could begin dolling out technology to more of John's potential rivals.

Hi Anon, I'd say Tef has already put them in the storyline, it's just that they aren't in play yet. As usual, he has all the bases covered in his plots as he plans forward.

In this case, the currently dormant but worrying threats are:

1. The Kintark with Brimordian armour. Will this be resistant to Nova Lances? To Singularity drivers?

2. That dormant technology in the Unclaimed wastes that some rather knowledgeable bad guy (sorry, forgot the species) called The Vizier has re-activated. Was there some form of Mutually Assured Destruction that went on between the Progenitors and whoever built that 10,000 years ago? It seems very worrying as it is totally alien to their 'watered down' progenitor tech.

These both have the potential of causing major upsets, without even more coming along for me to worry about! No doubt, though, Tef will keep things even more lively as this amazing story proceeds...~~Timbo

Hi Tefler,

I might need to make an account just to comment on your stories. Again I want to stress that I find them incredibly enjoyable and have been reading nonstop for two weeks to get through these 74 chapters!

One of my biggest concerns/gripes with this story is character limitation and ultimately progression. I think most of the women of John's crew are suffering from Superman syndrome. Meaning that for any situation they are in, they will always come victorious because they possess every conceivable ability necessary to overcome the challenge. While it is an intriguing idea, I think it largely limits the narrative because the characters aren't relatable at all anymore.

Each of the women went from highly capable to practically limitless in their own respective fields. Dana can reverse engineer any known technology as well as create entirely new ones just by brainstorming, Rachel can create a cure for a highly mutable biological super weapon in a span of a few hours(?) without any clinical trials or research (or even a live specimen), Caralla simply doesn't miss any shots and is now the most brilliant tactical commander known to man, Illirith can hack any ship in the known galaxy, etc. While these are cool things to write down on paper and all of us probably wish we where that smart it doesn't make these characters relatable at all. Worse it makes all Mary Sue's who can prevent a near perfect solution to every situation they find themselves in.

I really think the huge boost in the crew's capabilities coincided with Dana ever increasing and ever improved inventions. While Dana's invaluable nature was proved very early on, each of the crew members received further buffs to match that. It was cool when they were highly capable, top of their respective fields. Now they are far beyond what any human/alien could do.

While I don't expect you to go back and change anything written so far, I think it would make the characters a lot more three dimensional if you started to introduce limits to their abilities and explain how they could circumvent those limits by leaning on each other for help or looking at more exotic solutions. Or at the very least start introducing enemies that are viable counterparts to the crew.

You have introduced plot devices already in this story that show how individuals other than progenitors could be near equals to the Gifts that John has bestowed on his girls. Perhaps cyborg crews with neural implants that give them increased intelligence and capabilities. It would be cool to have a flight crew that could match the Invictus in firepower and skill due to their enhancements.

"Meaning that for any situation they are in, they will always come victorious "

I've read similar comments off and on since chapter fourteen. They win encounters by working as a team, and if they didn't, they would have died dozens of times by now.

"Caralla simply doesn't miss any shots and is now the most brilliant tactical commander known to man"

That didn't stop Shinatobe from maiming Calara, killing Jade, capturing John, and incapacitating the crew. Shinatobe could have actually killed them all, but Mikaboshi was only focused on John, and underestimated the threat the girls posed.

They had to bluff their way through the battle of Regulus in chapter 68, because they don't have the staying power for large scale engagements. If they'd just slugged it out on the battle lines, they wouldn't have been able to survive for more than a couple of minutes. They would have lost their shields, and the Kintark would have eventually burned through their armour with plasma fire, before destroying the Invictus.

They steamrolled the Drakkar cruiser in chapter 70, but I added that encounter to show the crew and ship's progression since their earlier battles with that race, and to sprinkle some plot hooks for later.

The pirates they massacred in chapter 71 were never intended as a challenge - they were just a rabble of mercs and pirates out on the frontiers. That entire chapter was intended to be from Tashana's point of view, and Hades' forces represented an overwhelming obstacle for her, but not for John and co. It would have been unrealistic if they had presented any serious challenge to the crew, but that wasn't the point of those combat scenes.

"it makes all Mary Sue's"

I thought a Mary Sue was an author's self-insert character? John gets dismissed as a "Gary Stu" from time to time, so I must be a schizophrenic with 8+ personalities if I'm self-inserting the entire cast! I guess at least that means they're well suited for each other. ;-)

I like to think of the crew as being extremely specialised in one particular field, and it's only by working together that they can succeed. Rachel was speed-reading DNA code faster than a supercomputer, almost as soon as she joined them, which is far more technically impressive than creating a cure for a mutating weaponised virus. Calara took about a minute to pin down the location of the Drakkar Raiders in Chapter 26, when teams of Ashanath analysts had been trying to do the same for weeks. They're just finding new and more practical ways of implementing their gifts.

They might seem like they have the answer to everything, but they're far from invulnerable, and there's always bigger, nastier bad guys out there.

Tefler

Hi Tefler,

Thanks for your reply! What I meant by Mary Sue is a definition I found on wikipedia:

"A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or high-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities. Often this character is recognized as an author insert or wish-fulfillment" I believe the argument could be made that most of the girls conform at least somewhat to this description.

The girls are almost too perfect. John is incredibly capable but we see him dealing with a host of problems: self doubt, lack of awareness of political schemes, an inner dark side that threatens to consume him, incomplete mastery of his abilities, fears about his mothers actions, resisting his progenitor nature etc. These limitations on his character are constantly referenced which in turn provides a reference point for us as an audience to see how much John grows over the course of the story. It was incredibly awesome to see Progenitor John completely decimate his enemies with a wide variety of abilities and then to see how powerless John was comparatively. We know he still has a long journey ahead of him and I think a lot of the girls are missing this journey. While they might have emotional pain or bad memories they simply aren't on the same level of complexity as John's character.

For example Alyssa has incredible powers like John but with almost none of his struggles. While I don't think she should even have the same struggles as John, she should at least have the same number of issues that John deals with as this story has become as much about her as it is about John. The most notable issue exclusive to Alyssa that I can think of is her longing for a family like her girlfriend. That's a relatable struggle that us as audience can sympathize with but as John points out: she already has a family with the crew aboard the Invictus. Her personal progression has really stalled once she could start shaping Alyssium. Yeah we know she is getting much stronger since she can shape the metal a lot more before tiring and also do incredible feats of telekinesis but we don't see how she got there, her powers are suddenly stronger when the plot demands it. I think the same could be said for a lot of the other girls too. Sparks was at her best when she was overcoming her self esteem issues and getting used to life as the Chief Engineer, Rachel had a fascinating story arch with her avenging her mothers death, the transformation of the Illirith was captivating also, Jade's growing abilities as shape shifter and emerging identity were awesome. But now that these characters are established they have shown very little movement form their initial personal arcs.

The women have all long graduated from side characters to major fulcrum points in this story. I think it would be interesting as a reader to see a protracted process to how each of the girl solves their respective problems. To see them struggle, look for outside help, maybe even falter and fail in their first attempts. Lately it seems like they have been going from one extraordinary innovation to another without a moments notice.

More Powerful Enemies:

I certainly don't mind reading John and his crew stomping out Pirates, Raiders, and Drakkar because at this point they should be easy pickings for someone with the Lion's reputation. And I think the encounter with the Assassins was incredible bright point in the story where there was real tension and consequence. That encounter highlighted that John and his crew were not infallible or invulnerable. It was visceral and when the bomb went off maiming our favorite Latina paired with Jade's death, I felt a real since of fear. In my opinion that was some of your best writing. John's bluff with the traitor fleet was great as well because it felt completely new but well within the bounds of believability and we as audience knew of their great vulnerability in that particular situation.

However in my opinion a lot of the engagements that John and his girls find themselves in don't seem to have the same level of tension because they possess such great abilities that it is not inconceivable that they will come out perfectly fine. Again I'm not really pointing out recent chapters: the assault on Underworld was awesome, I mentioned how much I liked the engagement with the Kintark fleet, etc.

We are the point of the story where John should be facing Villains formidable enough to leave a lasting impact. He has already attracted enough attention that major players should be aligning against him. Wiping out the occasional raider and saving a ship of grey skinned aliens is cool but I think it would be far more impactful if our crew faces against enemies that can actually go toe to toe with them.

I suspect you have already laid out plans for what I am asking. The leviathan in the Astral plane was absolutely terrifying, The Vicar in the ancient alien base seems sinister, and the Progenitor is watching as well. So it seems like things will begin to return to the mystery and suspense that got me hooked on this series in the first place.

P.S:

You are right about Rachel's character having extraordinary abilities in the first place and I stand corrected on that. (Though reading DNA really fast isn't that hard because most of DNA is non coding anyway and gene loci for humans would have been known for centuries, probably the aliens as well since humanity has been in contact with them for so long. I still think making a cure for a weaponized virus that has the characteristics of the common cold is much, much harder as you have to deal with an extremely fast mutation rate not to mention the biochemistry/molecular to deal with infected cells.) I was really talking about Alyssa and Calara who in the beginning had incredible but relatively tame abilities.

Tefler's Patreon support has reached $1500/chapter. Tefler had agreed to become a full time writer once this goal had been achieved.

This means a whole lot more 3SM chapters.

Yippee

Regardless of the definition on Wikipedia, Mary Sues are an artifact of fan fiction. They are a self insert into an _existing_ universe. Mary Sues normally involve portraying the original characters in a way that is inconsistent with how those characters act in the original work, while introducing a better at everything character that is poorly developed and which the fans of the original work have no existing relationship with.

I don't presume to know the degree of self insert between Tefler and the crew of the Invictus. Either way, even as smart and powerful as they are portrayed, they still struggle. They don't know everything (yes, you could insert a "yet" here), they struggle with the conflicts they've gotten in to, self doubt, etc. Things don't always go they way they wanted them to. (See Also: Tashana) Looking back, I'm starting to think that part of the reason I disliked the fight in the unclaimed wastes was simply that the Invicus' crew had it too easy.

Long story short, self insert does not automatically make a Mary Sue. I don't think you can automatically dismiss a self insert either. There are many on Literotica, some of which are very, very bad. Three square meals isn't one of those, not by a long shot.

What would readers do without John and the girls to escape to when needed?

"But I'll be damned before I let them destroy our whole civilisation!"

Please, it's "civilization" and "apologize". Release the "z".

It's a good story, but the flow of reading is interrupted by spelling errors.

Tefler is british. So those words have correct spelling in British English.

FUCK NO!!! How could you do this!? I had the feeling this was going in this direction. Poor Tashana. I ended up just skipping the last part where she obviously convinced Tsarra. Gawd. I just can't read this. I always hate it when the authors make this turn for the worst. It's so cliche and cringy that all I can say is, I didn't expect this low blow from you.

Sorry for the rant.

> Gawd. I just can't read this. I always hate it when the authors make this turn for the worst. It's so cliche and cringy that all I can say is, I didn't expect this low blow from you.

So are John owed the pleasure of winning just because they exist? Are they owed to get no resistance from others, especially when its clear they want to take over all Maliri?

If the author did not do this it would have been a soup opera. But now it resembles a little more realism, where no one is owed an easy victory where the enemy just bows their head.

I've been enjoying this epic for 10 days nonstop. The twist, the turns the ups and downs and in all this time everything seemed to be answered logicly and within the story. I therefore only have one glaring question how in the world did she get past four different house navies that were given a heads up to look for the head of houses ship to the other side of enemy lines. Please explain with an answer other than space is big.

Thanks for the awesome store

Mike

As painful as it is to read the Tashana portions of this arc, technically she is doing everything right. She's pretty much the only person in the galaxy to realize what massive threat John potentially is and she also knows the effect him and his thralls have on her biology. So what does she do? She refuses to talk, she refuses to listen, she refuses to even look at them and as soon as she can she flees and gathers allies to try and stop him. Yeah from the audience PoV this is painful because we can see the hurt this causes her family, but there's no way for her to know this without risking the one person in the galaxy best positioned to stop him and she's way too smart for that.

"You mean have any of them freaked out at taking orders from an unchained AI?" she replied, her luminous eyes meeting his. Shaking her head before he could respond, she added thoughtfully, "No, but the Maliri crawling along the maintenance tubes did look a bit unsettled when I started gloating about how wonderful it was to see organics on their knees." Loving this re-read for the second time....

Tefler, sorry to be making a negative comment but you just hit one of my pet peeves, used by so many in the news media, both TV and radio. This feeds into Horned Lizard’s comments and your response.

“none of them are trained psychologists.” None is a singular noun so proper wording should be: “none is a trained psychologist”!

Wolrab🐝

Enjoying your story immensely. Flows well

As for the negative comments... You do realize your reading chapter 74 and your complaining about the story? It's like reading 3 books and moving forward to the 4th book, while moaning about the story line

It's sci-fi \fantasy

74 chapters into one of the top two stories ever written and the Grammer police show up. We'll, NONE of us appreciate your comment and NONE of the characters stopped and corrected the comment in the story so apparently NONE of them or NONE of us cares. Go back to perusing loving wives stories where they will eviscerate you for your attempts at 'learnin' us on how to speak good'.

BTW, excellent storyline. I can't stop reading. My wife thinks she's lost me.

I hate this part due to the utterly nonsensical way she acts out if free and hatred. If she had actually calmed down to think about her situation along with the knowledge she must have of their power unless she didn't know they were psychic, which I doubt, then she'd realize a progenitor wouldn't care about tryin to appeal to his thralls and that surely wouldn't be happy. That said the Valaden women sure are hell.

Re: FVLL3N's comment: a person is only as free as the tool they think with, and her mind has been bludgeoned pretty badly by physical and mental trauma, not to mention she's got a bad case of the Valaden Tumor Crazies. I don't see her behavior as nonsensical, so much as irrational (and she has many things preventing her from being rational at the moment).

It's hard to read this part of the story, partly because it is all too plausible for her to behave that way. I don't know about other people, but what makes a story compelling for me is when it's full of plausible-behaving people, not minmaxed high-score machines standing in as characters.

The downed guards were found by the next shift. Tashana has a 12h head start. Those are some brutally long shifts.

- Kal'adayn

I feel sorry for Tashana. Why do they hunt her? She escaped and even is she wanted to go back to the Wastelands, that’s her choice. She is not on this earth to make her mother and sister feel better, they have to live with the consequences of their behavior, even if they are changed. The changing makes it even harder for Tashana, because they forced Tashana to change her personality because that was the only way she could survive, not because she choose to change.

And I think she is right. The girls are not free persons anymore, they are even not themselves. Offcourse they feel happy and think that this is the best life they can live, their behavior is altered. Their sole purpose is to make John happy. And obviously John will be happy when Tashana is part of the team, so she will be hunted and pushed around till she is under his spell. And yes even Alyssa’s behavior is altered. She was not a girl that would brag about her own accomplishments, she was not a girl that would act like a madam pimping out her own man and she was not a girl that would judge others without looking at herself. She kills/or wants to kill/ everybody who stands in her way, but when others behave like that they are seen by her as unworthy people. John is a real Progenitor. He just chooses another way to handle his powers, but the end result is the same. He makes sure the world looks like he want it to look.

Materials used to construct the new portions of the Invictus's hull and superstructure: a few chapters back, when Dana was working to create Crystal Alyssium, the Grand Engineering Overlord noted that when a small amount of Etherite crystals were added to regular Maliri crystal (six times titanium strength), it about doubled the crystals strength,.. but it didn't liquify, and was not a good material for reshaping to further strengthen,.. but at around 10 times titanium strength already it was an excellent material to start work on the new Invictus hull with,.. The chapters state that Crystal struts were used, but no mention of whether it was just the regular crystal (6X titanium) or if it was Dana improved crystal (10X titanium) that they were using on John's ship,.. an then some Crystal Alyssium was also used,.. plus 30 percent more ship had to be armored,.. so more Crystal Alyssium,.. I still think they could've started by making a completely new hull and superstructure from scratch, and not lost much time at all, and had a stronger ship when done,.. ;-) TTFN

I have been having a weird thought when they were talking about John's mother and along about the same talking about a progenitor and his ship. What if John's mother happens to be them progenitor?

They can't have redundancy in their power supply because a core breach could cause a cascade failure? Do they not have surge protectors in the future?

Fun fact. Identical twin DNA isn’t identical. The DNA is identical at the moment it splits in two, however in the next few weeks the DNA undergoes about 5 to 15 spontaneous mutations. So there are 10 to 30 different base pairs between the twins. That’s 30 differences out of about 6 billion base pairs. This was discovered in 2021 so it’s new knowledge.

Enjoying this. No complaints.

Improvements in Power cores, wiring, power couplings, etc, ... along with building about a new 1/3rd of the ship, .... I still think they could've saved the Invictus from being cut in half and laid a new keel using the Maliri Crystal (the 10 times Titanium version), ... and run all the wiring and such through the new ship, .... the completed ship should be both stronger and lighter (removing all of that Titanium from struts, decks and walls) assuming there is a weight savings with the Maliri building material, ... they could remove the Nova Lances from the Invictus and eventually return the Invictus to Charles (a retirement gift?), ... but the Author needed to keep the heroic ship using the same awesome name, ... a purely subjective decision on Tef's part, but I didn't like the chopping up of the old girl, ... then with this new ship's hull and superstructure, the CA armor would be backed up with 10x strong support, ... and they could grow or shrink areas of the new ship, different from the old assault cruiser, ... and with no ghost pains, Alyssa could more easily visit the smaller Med Bay, ... make some rooms bigger and make a few duplicate / redundant facilities, ... like the officers lounge, and the armor equipping room, and the command center, and they could use another auxcillary ship besides the Raptor, .... and they definitely need a brand new, Grand Engineering Overlord improved, (test) firing range, redesigned from the ground up, I'm sure the Maliri could offer a few improvement ideas, also some of the Maliri simulators would be awesome too, for all kinds of training purposes, Faye and Irillith could max out the upgrades on them, ... okay that's it for my current rant, ... see ya around the galaxy, ... ;-) TTFN

John has his Recruiting Room and the Dragon Consort has her Feeding Room. In one you get fed and in the you are the food.

@Anonymous. Surge Protectors. What’s being talked about is called a ‘Cascade Failure’ it’s a very real thing in electricity distribution. The problem with a power surge isn’t the amount of power in the surge at all and often the surge is below or even far below the normal maximum power in the system. The surge problem is that it’s a surge, as in the power is at one level and in use and it’s varying smoothly as systems are used and turned off and on and so on, then the surge happens and a power spike of some level greater than the system is currently at runs down the line. This surge has the line power going from one power level to a higher power level instantaneously, so the system is essentially hit by a wall of power. So it’s not necessarily about the total power but far more about the abrupt power increase.

So yes surge protectors. Since surges happen at any power level and all can be devastating it’s difficult to protect from them all. For instance blocking or protecting against power levels less than your normal max would essentially throttle your power to the lower level. How you do it for real, such as lightning protection in Twisted pair copper telephone wires in the ground is to install surge protection at the point the line enters the house. The ‘gold standard’ when I did it 15 years ago in Darwin Australia, the most struck by lighting place on earth, was to use a Seims BlueCap surge arrestor. As far as I know it’s a large capacity fast charge/discharge capacitor. So lightning strikes the ground and induces a charge/surge in the telephone line. This surge flows down the line to the house and the idea is that it hits the surge arrestor setup in a Madison box on the wall outside the house, the surge charges the capacitor instantly and then discharges over time. This changes the hard smash of the surge into a drawn out gentle flood of power but over a longer time. I had 6 Madison boxes and the surge arrestor in them literally blown up into little pieces and burning the paint off the wall, but I would of had countless saves that I never knew about. So in laymen’s terms there is skinny lightning and then there is fat lightning and then there is that fat lightning that seems to persist and pulse a bit and you can only protect from so much. Mind you the house telephone wiring and the router and the computer and the phone were never damaged in any way, so explosive failure still protects the line.

Now even better. The entire Territory of the Northern Territory of Australia was shut down for days in total because of a cascade failure. No one except emergency services were allowed to leave home. A far flung power stepping station was destroyed by lightning. The surge went back up the line and while almost everything physically survived the surge protection activated at EVERY substation in the power grid and caused an emergency shutdown of the power plant. So it took 3 days to start the generators back up and then lose the switches at every substation and junction in the territory. The power generation and the switching has to be finely balanced and stabilised again before the next switches are closed. Oh and these emergency switches are physical switches, huge fuckers capable of the loads in high tension power lines and they are literally all over the Northern Territory. Many only reachable by helicopter and others by 4 wheel drive tracks and in extremely remote areas. So yeah slow process and some areas were without power for 14 days. That’s a cascade failure where the protection worked flawlessly but unfortunately completely as the surge was so powerful that it overwhelmed an entire grid in a territory 1600 km tall and 1000 km ish wide. So imagine if shit started blowing up as well, that induces even more surges to the lines and can even build a surge.

So yeah surge protection is a thing and in light I g areas houses are protected. I’m sure the space ship is protected as LASERs requiring electricity if being charged or discharged and were then to be destroyed in battle while operating would definitely induce a surge. So that would be protected for amongst other causes. The best way is to design surges away by doing competent circuit design at the start. Circuit breakers are not surge protection but over current protection to stop the wiring in your walls from catching fire, nothing else.

Also it’s a pretty hard and fast wiring rule that you don’t have more than one power source switched (active) in a circuit at a time. You just can’t balance the load EVER. You might have say solar and a generator power at your camp so they both may be connected and running together but there will be switching somewhere maybe in a all in one power connection distribution and solar MMPT controller and this magic box will switch BETWEEN power sources depending on its settings but only one will have the load connected.

(FYI it’s the same for water, never more than one pump in the line. You don’t pump to another pump. You pump to a reservoir of some kind and then pump out of that with the next pump.)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"I'm just grateful to be part of the team!"

On this refit, they have a lot of improvements in Weapons, Power cores, wiring, power relays, power couplings, etc, ... along with the building of about a new 1/3rd of the ship, .... I still think they could've saved the old attack cruiser Invictus from being cut in half had Dana get those talented Genthalas engineers to lay a new ship's keel using the Maliri Crystal (the 6x or the 10 times Titanium version), ... and if they had begun a few weeks before John and Dana actually got back, then they could've also run all the wiring and such through-out most of the new ship, .... the completed ship (named the Leo) should be both stronger and lighter (removing all of that Titanium from struts, decks and walls), I am assuming there is a weight savings with the Maliri building material, ... they could remove the Nova Lances from the original Invictus and eventually return that Invictus to Charles (a retirement gift?), ... but the Author needed to keep the heroic ship using the same awesome name, ... a purely subjective decision on Tef's (the Author's) part, but I didn't like the chopping up of the old girl any more than John did, ... So then, with this new ship's hull and stronger superstructure, the CA armored hull would be backed up with 10x strong support, so no longer fragile as an egg, hard only on the outside, ... and they could grow or shrink areas of the new ship, different from the old assault cruiser, ... and with no ghost pains, Alyssa could more easily visit the new and smaller Medical Bay (no bad ole psychic echoes), ... the azure engineers could make design changes for some of the ships rooms to be bigger and to make others redundant facilities, ... like the officers lounge, and the armor equipping room, and the command center, and they could use another auxiliary ship or two besides the Raptor, like a drop ship and maybe a super strong and fast corvette, .... and they definitely need a brand new, Grand Engineering Overlord improved, (test) firing range, for all Dana's new weapons, ... a range that is redesigned from the ground up, I'm sure the Maliri could offer a few improvement ideas, also some of the Maliri training simulators would be awesome too, for all kinds of training purposes, Faye and Irillith could max out the upgrades on them, ... okay that's it for my current rant, ... see ya around the galaxy, ... ;-) TTFN

And what's wrong with the idea of building up those little Grey ladies into 5ft 9in athletic / warrior psychic powerhouses for the ship's crew (adding perhaps a medic, an engineer, some marines / security and a few bridge-crew too, 6 to 10 total), ... just because they are small and flat to start with, doesn't mean that they would remain that way after John's psychic cum enhances them, .... think about it, ... they could help reshape the Crystal Alyssium too, just depending on how strong John (and Tef) make them, ... ;-) ttfn