All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 057'

Tefler,

Once again you don't fail to deliver with an epic tale. A pleasantly different style of chapter, not a full on sex chapter but not a full on relaxation chapter either, I like it. To get back to the title however, I simply do love the mind games going on at the moment, from the exploration aboard the Invictus (Dana's schematic frustration, Alyssa expanding her capabilities with Crystal Alyssium, John's toying around with the psychic manipulation of elemental forces and Illrith's imminent Technokinesis) to the assassination attempt against Edraele turning into a counter strike mission. Can't wait to see what fun and mayhem awaits everyone in Ch. 58.

Good chapter! Looking forward to seeing the next one.

YASSSSS!

Well now, things seem to be developing nicely, both with the crew and with Edraele's little scheme. Should be interesting to see how Edraele's "not a trap" plan plays out.

I do have a few questions though, first regarding the armor. As mentioned, the new armor has built-in heat sinks that will adjust the outer layer of the armor to match the ambient temperature to make them invisible to thermal imaging, but I've got to wonder if there's an upper and lower limit to what it can match, i.e. will it try to match the cold void of space and/or the searing heat of a volcanic world? Also, what's to keep those temperatures from transferring to the inner layer and thus to the wearer?

Also regarding the armor, have you given any more thought to the idea regarding the company that sold John the original Phalanx armor that I suggested some time back? I know you said you were tempted by it, and I hope you still are. If you want, you can drop me a PM on the forums and I'll be happy to help clarify the idea, make it more tempting...I mean, feasible perhaps. ;-)

I hope during the course of developing all this new armor, metals, and stuff, Dana has also developed a way to shape the metal via conventional means, i.e. when there isn't an insanely powerful psychic around to shape it. Basically, that would equate to a means of mass production. Alyssa is powerful, but she wouldn't be able to plate anything larger than the Invictus, a fleet, or an army fast enough. Alyssa is great when it comes to small batch production, but the next step is mass production, and she's not capable of that. Yet.

Irillith...poor girl. I do hope they find some way of easing her into her new powers. Throwing her into a room full of computers was a terrible experience for her, much like it was for Alyssa walking into the Ashanath market place the first time. At least for Irillith, she won't be hearing the voices of dozens of pervs admiring her curves. Maybe for Irillith's training, put her in a room with a single computer console with limited data access that can be scaled to match her ability to process? But then again, this all assumes that John and the girls realize Irillith's power involved technology.

P.S. On another note about the armor...when I saw the new armor was being called Paragon armor, I just couldn't help but think of the scene from TFS's DBZA where Goku tries on the armor and then says "Look Vegeta! I'm just like you! Paragon till death."

To this story and to this chapter, I simply say Bravo.

Dana wants the schematics to the Terran Federation's most powerful weapon, the Singularity Driver, so she can miniaturize it? Seriously? WTF?!? Does the Invictus not have enough firepower as is with a pair of Nova Lances, which I must point out are weapons that are meant to be put on battleships not assault cruisers, and a boat load of turreted beam lasers? Do they really need to add a dreadnaught-class weapon to the Invictus' already deadly arsenal? They're not even half-a-week out of dry dock for the weapon refit, and Dana's already looking to add to it? Or does Dana plan on doing something even more insane, such as making a version that the crew can carry like a rifle or bazooka?

Good grief Tefler.

Just...just...just carry on, damn it. I'm hooked and have been for a long time. You'd have to do something drastic to get rid of me at this point.

I thought she was an active crew member now but no mention of her. Hope she doesn't take being ignored too personal.

So John is headed towards some melee combat next chapter.

The ice power will be useful against Kintark with their cold blood.

While John's suit will be pretty cool I am sure, when are we (And by we, I mean us readers and the crew) getting a mech? I mean its seems pretty unfair that you showed us that you have mechs and have yet to give us one to play with.

I think after we pick up that reporter to be the P.R. department on the next mission when we swing back for Irillith's she could be our battle harddened mech pilot.

By the way sorry if I am sounding greedy, but I am loving you story way to much.

Where was Faye (digital Snooze land)? Though she would be fluffing around at the armour testing at least.

As picked by other commentators, that the assassination attempt was a ruse to trap main players, into some more formal Maliri alliance. Chapter 58 will be very interesting in these future developments.

Mal

AGAIN .... Thank you for sharing your wealth with me ... us all!!!

Very well thought out, written, and presented..... I am so hooked on this story it is hard to describe...... Keep up the excellent work.

Can you please progress thr plot, felt really dull having to wait soo long and they dont even get anywhere.

pls reduce the sex part and let us have more story. tks

This chapter was quite interesting and while a little slow, I felt like it was needed so the crew could rest. While they were resting they still accomplished a lot. There are so many situations gearing up that a little quiet was needed. Thanks for the nice read.

Ed Parachini

Thermals pick up the heat of solid objects, not the heat of the air. A poorly insulated power line in a wall can give their position away. Even if the sensors somehow scan the visible surroundings, the perfect camouflage will only work in one specific direction. Having a squad of 2 watch with thermals will show distortions to both of them.

I'm so happy about another chapter! The development was interesting and I look forward to seeing more about the assassins.

I have to agree with the previous comment about thermal invisibility. Just how visual invisiblity requires re-transmitting whatever is behind you, thermal works the same, someone would see an empty shadow against any backdrop where the armour was standing.

Why yes I have. You had better be writing 10 hours a day working on Ch: 58

I was waiting for John to take a swing at something that had no real value to test just how sharp and strong the new sword is.

Keep up the great story.

Dave

I really enjoy it when you make upgrades period. whether it is the ship, armor suits, or weapons I wish you would go into more. 1 thing I have to say at this point in the story the sex really needs to be toned back quite a bit and more story please

Use the "Find" function on your word processing program of choice to look for variations "she/they looked up lovingly at him" in the whole body of work and see how often it shows up. If it shows up more than 20 times, consider alternatives in all but 2 or 3 cases. Unless the tone is intended to be parody-cheese, then move along, move along... ;)

relly loving this story . point to ponder what if the shadowy assassin is relly johns mother for a twist ? and just got to say it with the new armour upgrade iron man any body. lol keep up the great work tef waiting on tender hooks for ch58 ;-]

U gotta start knocking them up. Lol

Parasitic game theory says that a culture turns on itself for many excellent reasons.

Resource competition.

Predator Prey dynamics of population maintenance. This puts the population in both roles so that it is optimizing itself for threat avoidance and aggressive selection.

The culture will tend to return to a combined community with surprising relief and power when given the right stimulus. Infighting is a way of stealthily maintaining a competitive advantage.

The Terrans et al are about to see a massive example of this I suspect.

Any way you could help me figure out how much more resistant to energy weapons and mass weapons the new shielding on the Invictus is?

Thank you for updating and god speed.

Irillith is a technomancer. Calling it!

As soon as a new chapter appears I use every spare minute to read it. I'm addicted.

Just mean. This was a bit of a teaser chapter. But, we are all glad youre back from the vacation.

Leaving us hanging... Again...

(1) Regarding Irriliths powers; obviously some cybermancy/psychic-computer link thing happening. Seems pretty obvious that this is her "gift"... Heck, John alredy assigned her the station on the bridge.

(2) Johns armor... Teaser? (hopefully a much more durable version of the gals armor); what extra features?!?

(3) Dragons march goal; is Calara monitoring her brothers situation and/or the traitors current actions?

(4) Power core and engine "imperfections"; when will this much needed upgrade happen? They need it to power the weapons already installed... This should be higher on the To Do list than the federations uber-weapon (which they cant power).

(5) Malari assasination/attack plot... Again teaser only.

(6) Faye: Where is she? Are there holographic emitters throughout the ship now, or not? (Could be quite a defensive anti boarding feature... Spoofing false defenders, hiding passageways, etc.) Also, will she be able to interact with John quasi-physically in the training simulator? What will her role on the ship be?

When Irillith mentioned seeing numbers and letters before she blacked out it kind of reminded me of Scarlett Johansson's character in the movie "Lucy". Maybe John's 'gift' affects Maliri women like concentrated CPH4? Notice how a small dose has the ladies acting like a bunch of sugared up Smurfs. =D

Yikes! Thanks for pointing that out, I missed it completely. I've edited the chapter accordingly and submitted a corrected version!

Thanks for the nice comments, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter!

Quite a lot of important things happened in this one, but a lot of it was lead up and preparation for upcoming plot. With everything that happened with PJ, and then the Maliri distraction during the refit, John needed to reconnect with the girls.

I've written about 5k of chapter 58, and hopefully you'll all enjoy the payoff to the build up on a few things I've been teasing you with.

Regarding Faye, she's been mulling a few things over up on the Bridge, but she gets some attention in chapter 58!

Cheers

Tefler

That was a strange film. I loved the build up and the premise of the story, but the ending was rubbish, and it just sort of fizzled out. It was a shame, because I was thoroughly enjoying it, then it just ended!

Tefler

many plot lines going at the same time.

Irillith - we all "know" will have some sort of access to the "matrix" aka Neo

edrael - the trap is closing, still need a way to explain how she does it with the new personality

Invictus weapons - seem to have enough, until we read a battle... don't see the need for them to be able to blow a planet up

Invictus engines - need upgrade already? can't handle the Nova lances, and now will also have "Death star" weaponry??

Armor - seem sexy and all, but would have gone with a more "mini-mech" theme.

maybe shoulder mounted laser like predator?

also with it being bright white what is the point of thermal camo?

Jade (still #1 for me!) - come on! give her something better to do than being Dana's assistance? and we still haven't seen her fight in a long time (other than being a taxi driver :( )

Once I got started, I blasted through the first 56 chapters, as this is an addictive series. So this is my first comment. Thank you Tefler for your work. You have created some wonderful characters. The pacing of character introduction was good - you have us a chance to get to know each of the ladies before adding another to the harem. As somebody else alluded to, our fearless protagonist needs to start with some serious impregnations! Well done.

This story is so great that it' hard to be patient for the next chapter! It's worth the wait, especially when you post 15 pages of story. Was bit disappointed with how short this chapter was, but it's more story at least. Hopefully not such a long wait for the next chapter. I can't wait to see the events unfold. What happens with the treachery in the Federation? What happens with the Maliri conflict? What possibilities are opened up when Dana figures out the power core & engine design shortcomings? What about the assassin? Is he linked to the progenitor activity? Is he the other progenitor? So much more to come! Keep up the good work!

This is my favourite story, and I wait with baited breath to find out the ending to this teaser.....like the length of the story, just keep going!

Sh... sh... short? It might not cover the biggest timespan, or the most events, but short?! Seriously?

You guys have to remember that one page on Literotica is like five or six in a regular format. This chapters 6 pages comes in like 42 pages and 20k in words.

Good chapter Tefler! Just a little build-up for the next.

Yeah, I agree with Anon on this. I'd just like to point out that there are books -fully flushed out books that take part in a series- that only sum up to approx. 80-100k word count. Now, a large majority of the chapters here are anywhere from 15-20k or more. Tefler has, under this example, written at least EIGHT NOVELS. To say a 20k word chapter is short, is like saying that the world is flat. It just isn't true.

Brilliant five stars again just wish I could read the next chapter right now, but I'll try to be patient, (no choice really!).

Jedi, in a rather sublime tribute to your writing said, "Irillith...poor girl. I do hope they find some way of easing her into her new powers. Throwing her into a room full of computers was a terrible experience for her, much like it was for Alyssa walking into the Ashanath market place the first time. At least for Irillith, she won't be hearing the voices of dozens of pervs admiring her curves."

Frankly I agree with him, but my point is this. Bravo! I cannot think of a single writer....ever....who could take a character that EVERYONE hated and wanted to see spaced, in a matter of just a few chapters, turn her into such a powerfully positive character as to evoke such sympathetic emotions from readers. Touche'

Wasn't he supposed to marry Calara since she had a family that would care about such things?

As to complaints about the frequent and repetitive sex scenes, I would not worry, readers can just skim these sections if they like: this is literotica after all.

You said, "Thermals pick up the heat of solid objects, not the heat of the air."

To continue with your thought--Thermal receivers don't actually work that way.

What they pick up is differences in heat levels between the ambient surroundings, including air, and color the image with powered pixels representing those differences in temperature (older generations are less sensitive to changes than the newest military stuff which needs only a degree or less difference in temp to pick up and display the item from the surrounding air and solid objects.)

If one is just doing thermal imaging and the suit is the same temp as the surrounding air, assuming there has not been a drastic change in room temperature recently so the walls are hotter or colder than the air temp, the only way to pick up a person is by noticing a blank space in front of a valve, pipe, crate, chair, etc.

One would not really see the person...just would not see anything immediately behind them. Have you ever spent hours looking at a security screen? Your mind dulls rather quickly...and such an aberration would go unnoticed unless you were on very high alert and expecting to see something...and knowing what to look for.

AAAND: Thermal targeting systems would not work against that. Even if you manually assigned the suit as a target, the targeting system, if thermal, would not lock on.

SOOOO: in a dark room, thermal targeting HUD's on opponent weapons would be useless.

Re: Crescent Rose and chapter length:

Yes, you're right, 6 literotica pages takes a surprising time to write. I write quite quickly, but with editing time included, each chapter takes me roughly 30 hours for 20k words. The reason this chapter is -only- 20k, is that I was away on holiday, and unable to write for a week.

Re: PLRus:

I was surprised at just how much Irillith was hated when I first introduced her. It was quite deliberate, but it was still interesting to see how much she was loathed! After that, it was a fun challenge to try and turn that around, and make her sympathetic, and then eventually likeable. I'm glad to hear that people have warmed up to her now. :-)

Re: Anon - engagement:

John proposed to Alyssa and Dana in the shower, after their secretary roleplay. They talked about him proposing to Calara and Jade as well, and the Nymph just happened to be first!

Tefler

Please set up a patreon or Paypal or something so those of us who want can contribute towards your work! Such a body of well enjoyed writing for free? Take my money!

For those who say that you should reduce the sex and focus on the plot, I would say that you should skip over any sex which does not add to the character development, advance the story, or present an enticingly new scene (this is erotic literature, after all). But that is exactly what you do!

Tefler, you have been doing very impressive work for some time and have become my favorite author. We would really like to contribute for your dedication and hard work you have been doing. Patron is a good platform for that if you want to do it.

Admirer of your work

Ray

Unless I missed something somewhere..... I am surprised that no one, neither the characters, nor the readers, has caught that Jade shifted ONLY HER HAND/PAW!!!!!!!!

I know she has been practicing, but that is NEW in the story as far as I remember. (and I just finished rereading from CH4....)

That will come in handy pretty soon back at TF HQ or Olympus I think. (Capturing/confronting the traitor).

Amazing as always tefler great chapter it's good to have you back it's been really interesting to see the development of Irillith she went from this blue devil women I wanted to see die to an actual decent person can't wait to see how her powers develop as always can't wait for the next chapter. PS if you ever want to start a patreon me and a bunch of other people would gladly contribute to your work

Loved the chapter. If it hadn't been so full of teasers and cliffhangers it might of held off my withdrawal symptoms from this story for a few more days lol. I agree about the sex scenes, big things should be included, but for a lot of "waking up to a blowjob" that might just need to be condensed down to a sentence or two and then it's like a fast forward to them doing breakfast to discuss the plan for the day or something.

Also a mild criticism, all of the women on the Invictus body wise have become basically clones of each other. While it fits well with the story and is explained, it does make the sex scenes a little....blah. There is no viking tall blonde, or shorter curvy latina, etc. All the sex scenes in a way seem interchangeable, the emotion aspect is diluted due to Alyssa always being involved in it mentally and physically they are all the same.

Like I said, mild criticism, no one(especially me) is here for jerk it material after 57 chapters. I'll do a separate comment to why I am here!

Hope you enjoyed your vaca Tefler!

So Dana is a mechanical genius and loves armor and weapons. John is strong, fast, getting to be master with a sword, master with guns, etc. Jade can transform into different shapes(at one point my idea I'm getting at was hinted in a previous chapter).

Imagine:

1) Jade as a dinosaur

2) Covered in armor made by Dana

3) with John riding her

Look up the image for the book "The Dinosaur Knights" by Victor Milan to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Tefler --- PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!!!!

Does the creature has to be in existence for jade to shape shift herself into?

Back in the pool, she shrinked herself to enjoy the pool. Now if the answer to above question is NO, than I think jade can transform herself in a creature (horse, Dino) with a very thick hide(sorta bulletproof), being ridden by John. Armour for a Dino seems absurd but it's Dana so can't say anything.

Since the sword wasn't hot after flame ran out so I think john can envelope himself in fire along with jade. Don't forget the deadly sparkly claws of Jade.

Now imagine:-

1) John riding a Dino jade

2) Both lovers enveloped by fire

3) With jade's sparkly claws striking the ground as she hunts.

Ray

At a time when I have need an escape from extreme stress. With mourning the death of my father and dealing with eviction and unemployment at the same time. My mind spins and devours desperately needed sleep. I am truly thankful for the brief escape your writing gives me in the wee hours of the morning. I have enjoyed this entire series since my father died. Many nights it has been this story has distracted me from thoughts of my father and of losing my home . If anyone knows of someone that can provide a mircale to save my family home even a short term mortgage so I can sell on my own terms would help. Sorry didn't mean to bring everybody down. Once again thanks for the well written story, it has been nice to escape with.

Especially with her new ability with her claws. Which probably means she can do the same with her rhino horn...Jade has definitely taken it up a notch in her beat-the-shite-outa-baddies ability levels.

Hope we can see her in action soon...been a while.

I'm sorry to hear about your father, MountainTX. It sounds like you're having a terrible time at the moment, and I hope you see some light at the end of the tunnel soon.

Tefler

In an earlier chapter, John and the girls walked on a beach somewhere if I remember correctly. They did not have weapons with them. A group of people became pushy, and Jade then instinctively changed her hands to paws to defend her "mates".

It is however the first time that I remember where she changes her hands to paws at will.

You have a point with lakeside walk and the drunks. but that was only claws, not paws, I think.

Shuffles up to Tefler looking disheveled in my hoodie.

"Hey may I need a hit of TSM" I whisper.

"Sorry not carrying today." He replies.

"Oh fuck man you gotta help me! I'm jonesing bad!" I beg

"You'll get it when its ready, now bugger off and let me write." He replies turning back to the keyboard.

Dejected, scared and depressed I head back to the real world.

"Goddamned TSM junkies." Tefler mutters as he taps on the keyboard.

Stacey x

It's all my fault! I really have to be more careful with my metaphors. Though I too am having a bit of trouble getting by without another hit of TSM.

This probably coming multiple chapters too late but there is one mystery that Tefler has left us with that has yet to be solved. During the storm on Olympus, when John and the girls were fooling around in the bedroom there was an intruder in their apartment/house as highlighted by the final paragraph:

"Back in the lounge, Rupert the butler scanned the ornate lamp that had crashed to the ground, and was now lying shattered in a dozen pieces. He scooped it up, and rolled off silently to the underground bunker that contained a mass fabricator that would create a replacement. It would only take a few hours to complete, and then he could replace it back on the mezzanine, with his guests none the wiser as to the disturbance of the carefully maintained perfection of the complex."

Who the intruder was exactly has never been revealed, could it be Irillith's sister or some other unknown agent we are yet to come across? Please Tefler, can we have an answer to this question which has not been hinted at for the past eighteen chapters?

There was no visitor. It was a while ago and I haven't revisited that chapter yet, but I'm pretty certain John or one of the girls had broken the lamp themselves.

One of the special features of a planet-wide luxury resort is that the automated housekeeping replaces all damaged house items when the VIP/celebrity guests are out of their rooms.... rockstar musicians most likely get a higher billing rate because of this.

Although that would have been a fun idea, there wasn't anyone lurking around on Oceanus during the storm. Alyssa flung the lamp off the mezzanine level with a wild telekinetic surge.

It was the first time she'd been able to manipulate anything that wasn't infused with Etherite, even though she wasn't conscious of having done so at the time. It was a hint that her telekinetic powers were starting to manifest much more powerfully.

Tefler

.

That fuck in the stormy weather was one of the best.

I was confused about how the lamp was broken but now it is completely obvious.

I wrote this at the end of the last chapter when we learned TSM was going back to the Dragon March conflict a few short weeks after John was told not to interfere there again by his Admiral friend. I saw this as a necessary rescue mission for Calara's family and went with a likely scenario. Now that Tefler is well into and almost finished with Chapter 58, I was wondering if anyone else had some ideas how this might unfold. Here is what I wrote.....anybody have other ideas?

So this is what I am anticipating. Calara's family are in mortal peril from that Admiral's traitorous machinations and John and Co. uncover it just in time to save her Father, Brother, and countless other lives by taking on a Kintark battlegroup and kicking butt and taking names. The Raptor single handedly kills off all the fighters and bombers assigned to kill off dad and then saves bro's ship from annihilation by a Kintark Cruiser.

The Invictus kills or captures two heavy carriers, 2 dozen assorted battleships, cruisers, frigates, and umpteen dozens of fighters, repels boarders, launches a boarding action with battle bots and faye to rescue prisoners on the second, now disabled heavy carrier in the middle of the battle, and everyone gets a nova burst medal for outstanding kickassidness!

What do you think happens?

In response to Pussylick I think your general outline is pretty much how it'll go with some exceptions. The big one being that I don't think all of Calara's family will survive the encounter. Doing this can set the tone that just because you have a name and are a good guy, doesn't necessarily mean that you have total plot-armor. If I were to guess who would die, it would be either her father or eldest brother, possibly both.

With everything they have done to the ship I've been thinking for the last few chapters that maybe it's time they design and build a whole new one. Some of the things, like cutting a hole clear through it for the inertia system, would weaken the core of the ship. If they designed themselves a new ship things like that, and multiple fusion cores....., could be designed into it without weakening the structure or making the ship seem more and more unbelievable......

Another thing that has bugged me is how fast the refits always are. You keep making work that realistically should take a couple weeks only take a few hours

And the kinetic weapons.... (Mass drivers) to me you've always been ridiculously underrating how powerful they are. Even a half kilo slug impacting at say a third the speed of light will have the force of 50 Hiroshima bombs.

Apart from these, admittedly minor, gripes.... I love this series

This whas a totaly awesome gripping episode...... cant wait for the next

PLEASE DONT TAKE YOUR TIME TO POST THE NEXT ONE.

If the Kintark are also being manipulated, then they are unlikely to deserve having their fleet destroyed.

I love this story and the comments. ..lickerRus, your ideas are so interesting you could create a parallel story from another point of view...maybe the Admiral or folks on the Dragon March. Now if you could write that and publish in between Tefs...we could be reading all the time!. It's a big universe out there and this seems like a wonderful epic story opportunity.

Someone else may be manipulating the Kintark from the shadows, but the Kintark are still making the choice to engage in this war. Unless the Kintark leaders (who I believe are men) are mind controlled by a Progenitor, they have made their choice to follow this course of actions and deserve whatever consequences their actions have earned.

Okay, it is possible that they have been completely hoodwinked and believe that humans are baby eating monsters so all this is to save their children. If so, then we need to sort this out and protect them, but having met a few I think they're pretty happy with all the killing.

That whole "border skirmish"/undeclared war, could have started with a simple misunderstanding. OR....... The traitor in the TFed could have started it. OR.... A progenitor could have started. The beginning of the conflict has not been revealed yet by Tefler. It has been lightly covered, if I remember right, but not in enough detail to us yet.

A LOT of wars, here on earth, have been started by a small group wanting a piece of ground or a resource, and the governments were not involved at first.

Most real warriors, terrorists (cowards) excluded here, do not like war. Yet, they are willing to die in one. The ones who start the wars are rarely, if ever, the ones who fight in one. That will never change. But war is war...it is death and destruction...and it should remain that way so it is something sane men and women attempt to avoid. Those who fight in it do have a decision to make...and they decide to fight...therefore they accept the possibility of dying by the same sword they wield. To believe you can appease those who want war is nothing less than a childish, idealistic view of the nature of beings who are at the top of the food chain. We are predators...we must eat meat and consume the amino acids they contain to survive and live healthy lives (I have never seen a total vegetarian of over 15 years that was healthy...and I have known quite a few). A man of violence will not be assuaged by words but only by the very sword he wields. And he laughs at pacifists because he will own them.

ive been binge reading this great story for the last few days, and now i have to sit and wait for more. AAAARGHHH!!!

please keep it coming!!!

I'm enjoying your stories a lot. I was wondering however if you have a time frame of when the girls become pregnant. Will it be at the very end of the story? Will you write about the children? Great job so far.

Tefler has updated his membership-page with some info on chapter 58: 18.5K for part 1 and 1.5K (possible more now) for part 2.

I know I want to read it ASAP, but if this continues we can expect a huge chapter again after maybe another week.

Sigh, waiting for a new chapter, boring... except for reading the comments off course.

Herman Grootaers

Edraele has a plan. She wants as many assassins as possible.

I would guess that in Maliri strategy, having all of the best assassins is a game winner.

I think Tefler said somewhere that the lamp was broben by alyssa accidentally lashing out with telekinetics as she just started growing into her ability around that time. Its a great piece of forshadowing that is wonderfully subtle too! There are little bits like this in many of the chapters which is whi I am re reading the series... again!

just finished love the story can hardly wait all the plots and side plots drive me nuts

just want more Kudos to a great story teller

thanks much

paps

I've written about 19k for part 1 of chapter 58, and it's just being edited at the moment. I've written 3k of part 2, but I've been stricken by a deadly bout of man-flu, so I'm just recovering from that at the moment. You can probably expect to see Chapter 58 out by about Friday next week.

Tefler

Sorry to hear that you got the flu; although it is very early in the year for it.

Take your time, your health is more important then our greed for a next chapter, because we will enjoy ourselves with rereading the story to see what we want better, faster, more bad-ass, more intrigues, outgeussing you,... must I continue with possible options for comments?

Herman Grootaers

I think you caught it from me. Sry.

Their ship keeps getting more powerful but they are still only one ship.

Right around now they are approaching the realm where they don't need numbers.

They can't be caught.

Many ships probably can't hurt them.

In a damage trade they can punch far above their weight.

This is multiplied by the missed shots ratio being skewed in their favour.

All those beam lasers in turrets with their speed and maneuver rates, will let them fly in a circle at max range around a target. Calara won't miss. Jade will dodge almost all return fire.

This might turn future battles into hunting season.

It will turn political with peace enforcement as their conflict role.

It leaves them in good place for making allies.

Tefler, what the hell is a "man-flu"? You know what, whatever. As long as it don't kill you, I don't care. Just get over it, get back to writing, and try not to catch it again. :D

To the Anon about the Invictus upgrades: we haven't even gotten to the shield upgrades yet. Dana's done some improvements on the default shields that the ship came with, making them a bit stronger, but not by much. But you're right, the Invictus is one hell of a ship. It's going to be nigh impossible to catch and hit, while still being able to deliver pinpoint damage that far exceeds it's original class.

Also, yes, it will leave them in a good place to make allies, but only so long as they don't interfere with said allies. With their current plan of action, that pretty much means that they're probably going to be pissing off the Terran Federation high command, if they haven't upset them already. Sure, they've been able to drum up a lot of positive PR with the populace, but the people in charge are probably a bit ruffled. They don't like the idea of having such a powerful ship running around in their space outside of their control. It's a challenge to their authority, and most military regimes hate that.

John's on track to becoming persona non-grata number one within the Federation if he's not careful about his current course of action. Taking out an admiral, even a "traitorous" one, tends to be a bit of a touchy subject for militaries.

Man-Flu: https://goo.gl/nHxyAQ

(Link shortened because copy/pasting long links can be annoying on this site due to included line breaks.)

First comment ever after years of lurking. Greatest story, so worth the wait.

Best line in the whole story - AI yelling "Ramming speed!"

To Jedi_Khan:

I think Terran Federation command will be happy to have the Invictus around when their AI driven ship goes awry and starts killing other Terran's. They will come crawling to them to help stop it. It will take Faye and Irillith at max abilities to help the rest of the crew stop it.

But before the Admiral is sorted out, before the Invictus single handedly wins the Kintark conflict, before the new shields, before the addition of singularity drivers...the Invictus needs to solve its energy problems.

I disagree. Blowing up your reactors by overloading them, and the drifting through space without being able to steer makes for a great story!

There was a slight pause for a moment while Alyssa was thinking, and she eventually replied, *We've added Irillith to the crew since then, and you've also got Edraele as a second Matriarch. You and I intensified our connection as well, so you must be siphoning off more power from that.*

and

"Calara wasn't kidding, you look worn out," Alyssa told him with concern.

Edraele nodded knowingly, and asked, "You've been using your personal energy reserves to heal Luna, Almari and Ilyana, haven't you? You need to be careful doing that, especially as some powers use much more energy than others."

John was using just his personal energy all day when he was healing 23 Maliri women, climaxing twice, and doing all the heavy lifting with the weapons on the refit. Rather impressive....even more so than what Progen John did with the Trankaran interdiction... Which I find interesting.

Additionally, Ioelena was the Maliri woman who slipped off the ship and Jade saved. When she was the contact for the assassins the, gig was up.

So this free game just released on steam a couple of weeks ago: Fractured Space. Now even if you aren't into video games, go to the game's website and click on the ships available(it's around 30). Pretty cool descriptions, abilities, weapons, types, etc.

It's gotten me even more hyped for this likely huge upcoming space battle in TSM.

Here is Tefler's description of ship classes from Ch 56 comments:

Strike Craft (these have different roles, so are hard to compare):

Fighter (Good v strike craft)

Bomber (Good v large vessels)

Dropship (few guns, lots of troop capacity)

Gunship (Multi-role)

Federation ship classifications:

Corvette

Destroyer

Frigate

Light Carrier (not including firepower from loaded strike craft)

Assault Cruiser

Cruiser

Heavy Cruiser

Heavy Carrier (not including firepower from loaded strike craft)

Battle Cruiser

Battleship

Dreadnought

"There is one downside," Dana admitted reluctantly. "The Paragon armour has the same magnetic repulsion field that I built into the Phalanx armour, but you can't use that in flight mode. The magnetic field interferes with the anti-grav field in the boots and vambraces, so I've set it to deactivate automatically if you start flying. If there's a lot of incoming conventional rounds, you don't want to be caught while flying, which means you'll have to watch out for solid slug anti-aircraft fire."

Why not just miniaturize a shield generator which will deflect both the laser and slug anti-aircraft fire? We already know the shield generators work with both the anti-grav fields and thrusters because it works on both the Invictus and raptor with their, now integrated, core stiffened, anti-grav units that keep them from being squashed bugs with their new thrusters... And when Dana figures out the design flaws in the power cores, she can miniturize them just like she did the originals and make the suits pretty much impenetrable with greatly enhanced shield power. This would also deal effectively with the non-ferrous solid slug issues I mentioned in an earlier chapter.

I think Dana already mentioned she couldn't produce a shield generator for the suits from when she first started working on them in an earlier chapter. Even though she has since been able to nearly double the shield strength from Malari technology, miniaturizing it to fit unencumbered on the power suit still eludes her. Perhaps when they finally get to the last destination in John's refit expedition, she'll have learned enough on the alien tech to miniaturize it for the suits.

Miniaturize a power core, a rail gun, high explosive grenades...but not a shield generator? She can create new elements using a fusion reactor and charged anti-matter, can reverse engineer any tech in the universe...but she can't miniaturize a shield generator? Convenient.

Well how about looking at it from another view point. Terran ship shield generators are a miniaturisation of the massive planet-side shield generators and have already been made a small as possible for smaller strike craft and can't be made any smaller but when they get the shield tech from the Brimorians it will be a radically different design concept which will allow for miniaturisation. Another thing to note is that a drastic improvement in stats or miniaturisation has only occurred after new tech or new element has come into possession by the Invictus team. Also if Dana could miniaturise the shield tech why would they go to the Brimorians?

Tef.. wish ur doing well now n on the road to a speedy recovery.. the story can wait.. you just get back in shape soon enuf without losing the sanity of ur mind or ur limbs in the process.. ;-) ;-)

Wish you well..! Cheers mate..!

Neil

It is always fun to follow the posts on each chapter. There some great imaginations following this story.

Anon comment 09/30/16 'Invictus Upgrades'. Good point. With the upgrades that have happened there is the potential for future battles to turn into 'hunting season'.

PussyLRus. You noted that the energy issue is a priority fix. You then get into miniaturised shields for the new armour and make a fair point 'If Dana Can' produce all these other amazing innovation WTF not a miniaturised shield generator?

Anon came back with 'Shields'. He/she also makes a good point. Why would they bother visiting the Brimorians at all if Dana can miniaturise shields? The other end of that argument is that she has already upgraded the Maliri shields. So if she's so brilliant why couldn't she double that strength again?

I actually think the story arcs and the journey we on are better served by incremental improvements. 'Open season' on all enemies without any risk to the Invictus due to its vast technical superiority would actually be boring for me.

Tefler also tries to paint the girls as brilliant but not infallible. I like that human touch.

So I hope the story requires that trip to the Brimorians to acquire shield tech. Pussy I suspect your energy core point may require a trip back to to the Ashanath. I hope so because if I'm right the other fun part of this story is trying to second guess Tefler.

And I trust you are feeling better by the way.

The other Dave

In regards to why Dana is using a magnetic field for the armor suits rather than a miniature shield generator is probably two fold.

First, shields require a lot more power and are more sophisticated than an outright magnetic field. Shields would stop any incoming fire dead in its tracks, whereas a magnetic field can deflect and redirect rounds away from the body. It takes a lot more energy to stop something cold than it would to adjust its course enough for it to miss the target.

Here's a little experiment to demonstrate the concept which you can try in your bathroom or kitchen sink. Turn the water on and put it on a high flow

(I recommend not using hot water). Stick your hand in the flow with your palm flat, facing up. Note the pressure the water exerts on your palm. Now, angle your hand somewhere between horizontal and vertical. You'll notice that the pressure the water exerts on your palm is reduced. In this experiment, you flat hand represents the shields while your angled hand represents the magnetic field; your flat hand was trying to stop the water, while your angled hand was merely redirecting it.

The second reason why Dana is using a supped up magnetic field rather than a shield is because the suit probably already has magnetic clamps built into the boots and maybe other parts as well that would allow the person to remain attached to the hull of a ship in space. And as had been established in a previous chapter, a magnetic field would interfere with a shield, so it would be impossible for the magnetic clamps to be used at the same time as the shield.

With the massive increase of the firepower and maneuverability of the Invictus, I'm curious how Tefler plans to keep the story exciting.

Judging by how it is going, Tefler is going to keep the tension by raising the level of adversaries. John has been really darn lucky so far that none of the currently existing Progenitors has noticed his existence.

We know that there is at least one active Progenitor and there might be several inactive Progenitors. They are unspeakably old and all we know of their technology is that the Ashanath have their super drives and generators by back-engineering 20 thousand year old Progenitor technology! (Okay, I deduce that part, but I'm pretty sure of it.) There's no telling how much hot water John can get in.

With godlike power comes godlike enemies.

"With godlike power comes godlike enemies."

That's right. They've only faced pretty low powered bad guys so far, with nothing too crazy. Things change though, and powerful heroes attract powerful foes...