Three Square Meals Ch. 057

"We don't necessarily have to wait that long," Alyssa said, her voice turning husky and seductive. "We can always include our exotic blue-skinned girl and make it a foursome. I know Calara thoroughly enjoyed feeding her earlier."

The Latina gave the blonde girl a knowing smile, and said, "You're just trying to make me blush, but I've been around you too long for that. I've already been thoroughly corrupted by your debauchery." She glanced up at John, then watching Alyssa she continued brazenly, "You're right, it was lovely gazing into Irillith's violet eyes when she licked me to a wonderful orgasm. We had a nice cuddle afterwards, and I feel closer to her now, just as you intended."

John laughed and shaking his head in disbelief, he asked Alyssa, "You're getting each of the girls together with Irillith as a team building exercise?!"

Alyssa shrugged, her bright blue eyes sparkling in the light as she replied, "It's the fastest way of smoothly integrating her into the team. I can't think of a better way of building trust between the girls than them sucking your cum out of each other. Besides, Irillith looks so hot with that euphoric look she gets as she has her first taste, and I wanted everyone to see that. Our lovely new Maliri girl ends up getting her tummy packed full of spunk regardless, so it satisfies multiple objectives at once."

He chuckled, and said, "Unconventional methods, XO, but I can't see any reason to object. Carry on."

Calara giggled as Alyssa snapped to attention, and said, "Will do, Commodore!"

Dana and Rachel strolled into the room at that moment, carrying several armoured helmets in their arms. They smiled to see everyone looking so happy, and after glancing at each of them, Rachel asked, "What did we miss?"

"We were just discussing Alyssa's current team building exercise," Calara explained to them with an arched eyebrow.

Dana grinned and said, "Yeah, that was so hot when I sat on Irillith's face, and she sucked all that spunk out of me. She made me cum so hard, and was so appreciative afterwards, it was lovely!"

Rachel nodded her agreement as she said enthusiastically, "It was wonderful to see her loving going down on me, and I could have spent hours gazing into those gorgeous eyes of hers. She's already been a great help to the team, but she's really starting to feel like one of us now."

When John glanced across at Alyssa, she winked at him, and gave him a smug smile. He quickly grabbed her to give her a solid tickling, and she shrieked with laughter as his playful hands found all her ticklish spots. The others waited patiently, laughing at their antics, until John finally relented and helped the breathless blonde girl to her feet.

Dana, and Rachel handed out the armoured helmets, and when John took his from Dana, he looked at the redhead quizzically. "What are these for?" he asked, quite intrigued.

"It's a helmet. You wear it to protect your head," Dana explained patiently, then giggled when he approached her with tickling hands at the ready. She quickly darted away, pleading "Wait! Wait! We need them for the demonstration!"

John laughed, and swatted her on the rump before rejoining the others.

"Switch to Thermal-imaging," Dana explained, smiling at John as he winked at her. "I'm going to show off one of the new features of the Paragon Body Armour."

"That's a bold name for the armour," John said teasingly. "Are you sure it's going to live up to it?"

"Absolutely," Dana said succinctly with bold confidence.

He smiled at her, and said, "Proceed with your demonstration then, Chief Engineer."

She produced a remote, which she brandished dramatically in the air. "All got Thermal-imaging switched on?" she asked them, looking at each of them in turn.

When everyone nodded, she pressed a button on the remote with a soft click, and they were suddenly plunged into darkness as she turned off the lights in the Cargo Bay. The Thermal-imaging kicked in, painting the room in cool shades of blue, apart from each of them who stood out sharply in bright shades or red and orange as the helmet cams picked up their body heat. Dana grinned and pressed another couple of buttons, opening the double doors into the Cargo Bay, and activating the loading lift down from her Engineering Bay.

After a ten second wait, she said, "Now, keep your eyes peeled. Can any of you see Jade?"

Her audience looked around, staring out across the Cargo Bay, and searched for the telltale red glow from the powered body armour. Calara wandered over to look behind the storage containers full of ore, but they could see her shrug as she walked back to them.

Dana sounded gleeful as she said, "Now, switch to Mag-view. Where is my elusive Nymph assistant?" They switched views as instructed, and all the metal from the decks, walls and ceiling shone up in bright shades of white. They had to blink for a while to try and adjust their eyes to the glare, while Dana continued, "Normally you'd never use Mag-view in an all-metal environment like a ship, but it's useful for the purposes of this demo."

"I see her," John said, spotting her standing in the open on one of the maintenance gantries. "But only because she appears as a dark figure against all this glare."

"Exactly!" Dana said enthusiastically. "Crystal Alyssium is mostly crystalline, hence the name, so we'll only appear as faint ghosts on Mag-view. You'd never use Mag-view like this because of all the glare, so we'll be pretty much invisible to it when it matters."

"Very impressive," John said with a grin. "How did you make her invisible to Thermal-imaging?"

"Do you remember that flight suit we got off that Kintark pilot? It had heating tubes built into it to warm up their cold-blooded bodies. I copied their design, but put my own spin on it. The Paragon suits have an inner and outer layer of armour, just like the Phalanx body armour had, and modified heatsinks are incorporated between the layers. Temperature sensors detect the ambient heat levels, then adjust the outer shell of the armour to match the temperature. Instant invisibility to Thermal-imaging!"

Shaking his head with admiration, John said, "Alright, you can consider me suitably impressed so far. What next, Grand Engineering Overlord?"

Dana grinned with delight, and said, "Now it's the really fun stuff. Turn off the image enhancement overlays please."

They did so, using the helmet HUD to deactivate Mag-view, and leaving them in pitch darkness once more. John could hear Dana pressed another button on the remote, and it emitted a soft beep, before the lights in the Cargo Bay began to gently illuminate the room in a soft glow as she brought them up to their normal levels. Realising that the helmets were no longer needed, they took them off, then looked up at the Nymph to get their first look at the Paragon armour. Jade was still standing atop the maintenance gantry a good twenty metres above their heads, and they were all looking her way as their eyes adjusted to the increasing light.

John let out a low whistle when he got a glimpse of the new armour, and said, "When I mentioned figure hugging, chromed-up bodysuits, you know I was joking, right?"

The new Paragon suit that Jade was wearing left the observer in no doubt that the wearer was female. The new body armour made the old Phalanx suit seem bulky and cumbersome in comparison, as it neatly followed the contours of Jade's spectacular figure. The vambraces and armoured boots bulged slightly, and when Jade turned for them, they saw a ridged protrusion around her shoulder blades, which fitted neatly on her back. The suit was the glossy, sparkling white that John had expected, and at the shoulders, the armoured plates showed a holographic image of a wise-looking green lioness.

"I love the design," Rachel gasped, seeing it for the first time too. She smiled at Dana, and said, "I had no idea you were so creative!"

Dana shot Alyssa a look, and said, "I'd love to claim the credit, but that's all her handiwork."

Alyssa took a sweeping bow, then grinned at the girls as she saw them all nodding approvingly. She turned to look at John, eager to see his verdict, but she looked alarmed when she saw his concerned expression.

"Don't you like the design?" she asked him, sounding worried.

He shook his head, and said, "It's not that. You'll look smoking hot in that armour, and if you were trying to distract male troops, bravo! mission accomplished! No guy is ever going to be able to shoot a girl who looks like that." He paused and studied her apprehensive face, then added gently, "But a battlefield isn't a beauty pageant. Yeah, you'll get more manoeuvrability, and will be a slimmer, harder target to hit, but that armour must be paper thin!"

Alyssa looked relieved when she realised why he was concerned, and smiled as she glanced at Dana, who explained, "You're forgetting just how tough the ultimate material is. I've also refined my armourcrafting techniques, and was able to eliminate a lot of the useless substructure between the plating layers. The new armour is at least twice as tough as the old enhanced Phalanx suits, and you can take the odd Heavy Laser hit without worrying about it penetrating."

John wasn't quite sure he could believe that, but seeing the absolute confidence in Dana's expression, he ceased his objections. He turned to Alyssa, and said wryly, "I just hope I'm not going to be running around looking like I'm in a skintight bodysuit!"

She frowned, shaking her head in confusion as she said, "No, you wanted assless chaps didn't you?"

The blonde girl giggled in delight at his expression, and he laughed with relief a moment later when he realised she was joking. "You nearly had me going for a minute there," he admitted with a grin.

She slipped her arm around his waist, and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she said reassuringly, "Just fucking with you, Commodore. Don't worry, you'll look the part."

He hugged her to him, then turned to look at Dana, as he said, "Alright then, Sparks. What's next on your list of exciting new features?"

The redhead looked up at Jade, then made a beckoning gesture to the Nymph, who was watching her attentively. Jade nodded, then calmly stepped off the maintenance gantry causing the audience to gasp in alarm. Instead of crashing to the floor, there was a golden flare behind her, and the familiar sound of retrothrusters filled the Cargo Bay. She held out her hands to steady herself, and she gently descended to the ground before landing lightly on her feet.

Dana looked overjoyed at John's stunned expression, and said calmly, "Yes, that's right. Now we can fly."

Before their astonished eyes, Jade lifted smoothly off the ground, hovering in place for a moment, before suddenly racing up towards the ceiling. She raised her hands, which slowed her speed, just as the bright golden glow from the back-mounted thrusters dimmed. Turning in the air, she flew in a graceful loop around the Cargo Bay before dropping down to the deck in front of them once more.

Jade pulled off her helmet, and said enthusiastically, "It's so easy to use! I've only been practicing for half an hour in the Hangar Bay."

John laughed heartily, and grinning at Dana, he exclaimed, "Alright, that's pretty awesome! How does it work?"

She grinned back at him, equally as excited, as she replied, "I miniaturised the Trankaran retro-thruster tech, and fitted one in the back, below the suit's power core. The slight bulges at the wrists and calves contain anti-grav generators which help stabilise and guide your flight. The back-mounted retro-thruster is much more powerful than the thrust the anti-grav can generate, so you just use the fields to help point you in the right direction, then go forward."

Jade nodded, saying, "It sounds much more complicated than it is in practice. When you activate flight mode, you'll be surprised how instinctive it is to use."

"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."

John shrugged, and gave her an enthusiastic grin as he said, "We can work around that. I can't wait to have a go myself!" His eyes gleamed as he added, "Anything else in these new wonder suits?"

Dana nodded, and turning to Jade she made a gun out of her right hand, and pointing it at the Nymph, she said, "Pow!"

Jade smiled as she put her helmet back on, and then slumped to the floor, lying prone as if unconscious. Dana walked over to her, beckoning her audience to follow, then squatted down on the floor next to the incapacitated Nymph.

"What are you up to now?" Rachel asked, her professional curiosity piqued.

Dana smiled up at the brunette, and said, "I had the idea for this feature after your scrape with the Trankarans. You told me that when Irillith got hit, Alyssa levitated her out, right?"

Rachel nodded, and said, "Yes, that's correct."

"So would have happened if Alyssa had been hit too?" Dana asked her pointedly. She didn't bother to wait for an answer, and stated rhetorically, "You'd have been fucked, wouldn't you? There's no way you could have hauled out two KO'd girls on your own."

Frowning, Rachel said, "I can't disagree with you there. Even trying to drag Irillith out on my own down all those tunnels would have been a nightmare."

Dana looked grim, and said, "Plan for the worst, but hope for the best." She flipped up a tiny concealed panel on Jade's waist, and pressed her thumb to the small square. It flashed green, and she closed the panel again before standing up. As she stood upright, Jade's armoured form gently rose from the ground, still positioned exactly as she had fallen.

Rachel stepped closer, then walked around Jade before crouching down to look underneath her. "Is the armour locked in place?" She asked, quite fascinated.

"Yep, exactly. I figured it would be best not to risk further injury from unnecessary movement, so the armour keeps the patient rigid until they can be evacuated and treated," Dana explained as she danced backwards, with Jade floating along behind her, easily keeping pace. "The anti-grav generators in the boots and gauntlets keep the patient hovering behind whoever activated the medevac control. The control is protected by a DNA reader, and is linked to friendly Paragon suits, but for this demo, I'm carrying a special transmitter that works in the same way."

"How many people could I tow out at once?" Rachel asked, nodding appreciatively.

Dana shrugged, and said, "There's no limit, so the whole team if necessary. If you're leading out more than one of us like this, proximity sensors in the suits will prevent them bashing into each other. As the suit follows along automatically, it frees you up to fight your way clear if you have to."

Rachel grinned, and looked delighted as she said, "I've been worrying about how I'll be able to pull you guys out of danger ever since the fight with the Fulmanax. If we didn't have Irillith's grav-sled with us, evacuating Alyssa up that slippery slope would have been horrendous."

Dana nodded, frowning at the disturbing thought. Her expression brightened as she said, "In the same scenario now, we'd be able to just fly out of those tunnels, with Alyssa floating along behind us. We'd have been out of there in a couple of minutes, max."

"It's a really well thought out feature, thanks so much!" Rachel said to her best friend, as she gave her a grateful hug.

Dana smiled, and said, "Let's just hope we don't have to use it!" When Rachel released her, she walked over to Jade and flipped up the hidden panel and pressed the button again. It flashed green as it recognised her genetic code, then gently lowered the Nymph to the floor before unlocking the armour with a click. Jade flipped up to her feet, moving with impressive agility that was unhampered by the Paragon Body Armour.

John walked up to Jade and Dana, and pulled them in for a hug as he said, "Thanks girls, that was an incredible demo. The new armour features are phenomenal!"

They both hugged him back, and Dana glowed with pride at his praise. "I'm so glad you liked the new armour! I thought up most of these ideas weeks ago, but I didn't have a chance to put them all together until now," she said with relief. She grinned at Calara, and added, "Actually a lot of the flight mode controls were her idea."

The Latina waved her away, and said, "Nonsense, I just gave you a few suggestions at the start, you did all the hard work."

John beckoned her over to join the group hug, and she laughed merrily, and joined them anyway. He turned to look at Alyssa, and said, "I'd give you a hug for the impressive design work, but I'll wait until I see my own armour, just in case."

She laughed gaily, and then skipped backwards towards the loading lift, gesturing for them to follow as she said, "Come on then! Let's go take a look!"

They broke apart from the group hug, and followed Alyssa over to the lift. John looked at Jade, and asked, "How did you get on with learning how to construct the Paragon Armour? Was it very difficult?"

Jade shook her head as she fell into step beside him, and said, "Dana's a very patient teacher, so it wasn't too hard to pick up."

Dana smiled fondly at her new assistant and said, "Alyssa was right about you. You're a very quick learner, and an excellent student."

The lift started to rise into the air, as John placed an arm around each of their shoulders, and said, "Sounds like you two make a perfect team! I'm really glad to hear it's working out for you both."

They smiled at him happily, then everyone looked up as the panels in the ceiling retracted to the side, allowing them to access Dana's workshop. As they ascended through the gap, John darted looks around the Engineering Bay, as he tried to spot his new suit of Paragon body armour. The girls were all watching him with amused anticipation, and they grinned when his eyes widened in shock, as he set eyes on his new Paragon suit.

Alyssa smirked as she studied his expression, and said, "Yeah, that's the kind of reaction I was aiming for."

***

The two House Loraleth agents walked with practiced indifference along the bustling corridor in Genthalas Shipyard, wearing jumpsuits emblazoned with the crossed blades insignia of House Valaden. To the casual observer, they appeared to be a couple of House Valaden technicians that were calmly going about their business. In reality, their every sense was heightened as they kept alert for danger, while being extremely wary not to give away their carefully maintained cover.

Loraleth agents Avelissa and Renaya had arrived on-station a couple of hours earlier. They had been prepared new identities as recently transferred technicians, there to assist with the extensive fleet upgrade currently underway at Genthalas. Security was tight on this busy section of the massive shipyard, but no one had questioned their identification tags so far, and they had been able to pass unimpeded to the small but functional quarters they were sharing.

The first order of business had been to perform a brief reconnaissance to get the lay of the land, and the two agents had split up to cover their allocated sections of this part of the station. Nothing seemed to be overtly alarming, but they both sensed that something was slightly amiss aboard Genthalas. Matriarch Edraele Valaden was here at the shipyard, and with her legendary reputation for arbitrary acts of malicious cruelty, they expected the Maliri here to be tense and fearful. However the mood aboard the station seemed to be uncharacteristically... happy. Both agents had noticed these disconcerting white-haired engineers strolling around, chatting and laughing amiably with their dark-haired colleagues.