All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 069'

It's going to be another monster sized one!

I've written 26k so far, but I'm only on day 3 out of 10 with their journey to the Underworld. I don't want to break up the chapter into smaller chunks, as it will fit together better as a single chapter (and I might go back to part one and change a couple of things before releasing it).

So my plan is to release what I've done so far to Patreon, and the entire chapter will be up on here in a couple of weeks time once I've finished the second half.

Sorry for the wait, but hopefully it'll be worth it!

Tefler

So here's a little thought experiment for you Tefler, and anyone else who's interested: given all the advanced tech and other stuff we've seen in the 3SM universe that is considered as sci-fi in our world, what do you think the Sci-Fi genre in 3SM looks like, if that genre even still exists?

Here's another way to put it. Say you actually lived in the universe as set forth in this story, that it was real and all this stuff such as space travel, aliens, lasers, etc. was all common, everyday material. Now imagine that you browsed the Web, much as you do now, looking for stories in the Sci-Fi genre, or you went to the movie theater (they still exist, right?) to see a Sci-Fi movie. What sort of stuff would you expect to see in the Sci-Fi stories on the Web or in that Sci-Fi movie? Again, keep in mind that most, if not all, the stuff that we consider science fiction today is now science fact in the world of 3SM. When science fiction today becomes science fact tomorrow, what moves in to become tomorrow's science fiction?

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that John might be giving Sakura psychic abilities? We know she's being tailored for combat, and John has seen how effective psychic abilities are in that arena, what with Athena saving his ass and absolutely destroying Mikaboshis troops and the fight with the dragon, so it makes sense for him to subconsciously accept that those abilities would increase her effectiveness as a soldier and bodyguard for the girls.

I don't think a normal progenitor would ever do that, no matter how much more effective it made his thralls, but we know that John is so far removed from their normal, they'd probably have a shit fit in disgust if they ever realised it.

It would be interesting to see what Rachel finds out from her dna analysis magic if she takes another look at Calaras dna, what with the reader on the Raptor not working for her.

Telfer, thanks for writing a great story. I've read the entire thing from chapter 1 to 69 twice over the last week, it seems I can't get enough.

That's a very thought provoking comment Jedikhan.

I guess scifi for Terran citizens in the Federation would cover things like teleportation, exploration of AI, the more fluid merging of man with cybernetics and what that holds for humanity, that kind of thing.

There was an amazing pc game called Alpha Centauri which came out nearly twenty years ago. As you progressed up the tech tree, you started moving into real far future tech. I'd imagine those techs would be the equivalent of scifi for a civilisation several centuries more advanced than us.

Tefler

If you want to get next level, rebuild the Invictus with Polymorphic Architecture. If they need a bigger ship, it unfolds and becomes a bigger ship. If you take that a few extra dimensions then we are talking TARDIS tech instead of straight Origami.

Another facet of Polymorphic design is that it would be able to fix damage. The ship gains regeneration capacity.

I think it would be great if they had something like the super bowl so we could see the celebrations across space even if it is from an unexpected source such as the library. This would also of course be a day of pure peace so that all races could participate. Just as a thought about last night

Reread ch 52 when they meet Trankarans

OK as ridiculous as Dr who technology may be to introduce for this story, think about the possibility of polymorphic ship design from this perspective, what if the ship went into a situation where they wanted to transport a larger number of people for whatever reason... When they get competent enough then the whole crew could join together with John to lend him psychic strength and technical expertise to create a force field to contain atmosphere while he also reshapes the outside of the ship to create a larger internal hold size... There's a shape changing ship using only abilities that the characters have so far developed and used, not for this purpose granted, but still just using abilities already demonstrated

Dude you just forced me to recalibrate the scale for cool ideas.

It's gonna be a long two week for me.....but i am excited for chapter 70 coming along nicely..

This is sci-fi right? Which by definition is fiction. I agree that in our "limited" understanding of the concepts at work in Tefler's universe many of these things are not possible. If someone were to be able to truly understand these concepts they would be inventing their own Invictus and soaring through our universe. If it is such a burden to put up with this story don't read it. There are constructive criticisms and then there are picky attacks on unimportant fictional details. Some of us fans get carried away with speculation about story arcs and fictional characters and science, but it's just fiction and entertainment. That it's realistic enough for such speculation speaks to the authors talent at storytelling. Please feel free to submit your story for review and enjoyment.

Now for my speculation.

Construction of a new Invictus would take much longer than a refit and would probably not happen until the crew decides to settle down in Maliri space if at all.

With Dana's ability to enhance weapon designs it is reasonable to assume that she will find a way to fit the additional weapons into the current hull. The addition of new hard points will be less challenging than the installation of her inertial negation device. Force multiplication can be accomplished with drones controlled by Faye. Without cabins, life support and cargo area the drones will be much smaller and require less power. The lack of space during the trip from regulus to port madea is due to the fact that the Invictus was designed for a ships crew of less than 100 and a compliment of 400 marines and they were transporting over 600 evacuees from the mines and 800 patients from the battle. Johns crew will never grow to those kind of numbers. Still plenty of room for additional armaments and an additional power core if needed beyond Dana's expected power core upgrade. I like the idea of a cyborg type body for Faye with a biological body and cybernetic brain. A collaborative effort by Dana and Rachel.

Thanks for the grand effort Tefler. A truly entertaining piece.

TP

Man, that's a heck of a tease. :)

Re: Sakura

I'd have to go back and check, but I think John says that he's deliberately optimizing Sakura for her new role. I think whatever psychic abilities she's developing are deliberate.

Most of my comments would be rehashing any previous "Atta Boys" from myself and a lot of your readers, so I´ll just say that you make the carousel ride absolutely ´edge of the seat´ and I thank you for it...but I really, really am enjoying the dreams I´m experiencing with the crew. I like the tech talk and the problems you solve with Dana and the rest, especially Irillith, but my dreams, hell I´m going to bed early just to get into one of the girls again, hahaha. Thank you.

I imagine Sakura specializing as a hand-to-hand combat expert with telekenetic powers on par with Athena, except she doesn't have to limit-break to use them. She'd be like a jedi!

As for her being able to see the psychic connections, maybe she could develop an ability to identify where the Progenitor is by tracing back the lines. And as an equalizer for John and his harem, she can snap the psychic links, severing power from the thralls to the matriarch to the Progenitor.

Re: Rachel, I think she's got the idea from the evo-chamber footage to start DNA manipulation from a medical approach. Where John has to enthrall to change a being, Rachel can 'upgrade' an entire species, like Dana upgrades tech. Consider a Maliri army with Kintark regeneration abilities.

It seems only fitting that you end chapter 69 with a "69" battle off. Just my train of thought LOL. Thanks again for all this, I await the next installment.

noel5474

Just caught up all the chapters in a 1 week fury...

Now I have to start waiting took. ..

Keep up the awsome work your fans love it.

Will be built for hand to hand and being able to trace and maybe break connections. But also she would have gained a 3rd Helix mean some sort psychic power may pyrokenesis or electickenesis. My guess is she will be as strong as John if not stronger than him same with agility. Which will be 2nd time gave someone a 3rd Helix first being Alyssa. These are just my thoughts anyone else thinking along the same lines as me.

I love it! Space opera that's got it all, PLOT, campy humor, character build. It's all the sci-fi I love; farscape meets flash Gordon, star Trek meets Serenity. And the icing on the saga is all the sexy fun.

Thank you Tefler for the wonderfully woven tale I cannot wait to escape into. So much so, I couldn't help but to want to read it again,

Second read through, first time commenting.

So masterfully written, you got me all doe-eyed and begging for more!

Tefler, I hope you have read the story fate of terra from intrepid fate. he had made his AI to create their clones and using nanites to download their consciousness and his AI is also capable of enjoying sex also have some trick up her sleeve by making her pussy vibrate during sex with the help of nanites.

Glad you enjoyed it. Reaching chapter 69, I knew I had to reference that somehow! :-)

Tefler

Well done getting through the whole story in a week, it's a lot to read through now. :-)

I'm pleased you enjoyed it, and there's lots of fun stuff coming up soon!

Tefler

People have mentioned Intrepid Fate's work before, but I haven't read any of it yet. Isn't that the story that was really good, but left incomplete?

Tefler

Thanks for the effusive praise! It's always great to hear that someone has enjoyed the story, and there's still lots more to go.

I was thinking about the sequel on my drive into work this morning, and I'm excited to get into that. Ive still got to finish 3SM first, and there was that pesky high fantasy epic I've been mulling over too... There aren't enough hours in the day! :-)

Tefler

Yeah, Intrepid Fate is one of many authors on here who started a decent story then up and vanished without finishing it. I haven't read his work recently, but if I recall correctly, his main character pretty much starts out over powered, unlike John in your story. However, Intrepid's story stops just as the possibility of a real threat to the character starts to manifest.

There might be a few ideas you could borrow, but all in all, I'd say do your own thing.

yes that one, Tefler. its like author just disappeared but the story is quite good weather its incomplete. now JC the continuer is continuing this story.

ted online is AI story and also have consciousness of protagonist download to three different world(normal,virtual,and online) and he always jump from one world to another and one clone to another. if these ideas is worth then give them a try.

While I will be fine with anything that allows Faye to interact more with the crew, I would like to see her keep her ethereal form, but gain the ability to sense touch. (Somewhat like she noted John passing through her.)

Likewise, I would like to see her have the ability to use energy stimulation to cause a reaction in others -- much like we might use electrical stimulation perhaps combined with heat and subsonic sound vibration.

Some very interesting discussions here so thought I'd add my £0.02 (I'm British so my opinion is worth more :P though for how long that remains the case is another question). So in order;

I think the Invictus is getting to the same point the Phalanx armour was, in that there's only so much upgrading and retrofitting you can do before you're just better of starting from scratch. As much as I like the Invictus (and it will definitely be useful for propaganda purposes given how famous it's become) the engineer in me is really excited to see what Dana can do, given free reign and the most advanced tech and materials outside of the BSPs stuff

As for Faye/Athena, they have mostly the same problem, but I think its more different than people think. For both of them, cloning has been suggested as a method of giving them a body. Now I don't like this since imprinting a mind onto a brain is erasing the mind the brain would have had naturally. It's too similar too what happened to Sakura

Personally I don't think Faye needs a body necessarily, just a way to physically interact with everyone and I think the training equipment John used with Yamamoto could do that. Having said that, it depends on what Faye actually wants so I think it's time Allysa spoke to her in private so plans can be made accordingly (and while she's at it, I would have so many questions for Faye about her experiences, her psychology, how even simple concepts like maturity apply to her and so on).

With Athena, I think the last nightmare gave us the solution. When Irillith came back with the black ooze in her wound, it showed that things can be pulled from the Astral Plane into the Material. I think it will take a lot of power but John and Allysa together should be able to pull Athena through when the time comes

The Astral Horrors are very interesting. Going back to look at the early nightmares, it looks like they are trying to tempt John to evil and only turn against him when he refuses. This suggests that the horrors and the Progenitors usually work together but then the fact that the Progenitors have prepared a way to block them suggests otherwise. At the minute my two main theories are that either the Horrors are older Progenitors that either lost physical form or "ascended" or the Horrors are similar to the Chaos Gods of 40K. They feed of the pain and strife of sentient beings but are unable to affect the Material Plane themselves so they make deals, offering power in exchange for causing the death and destruction they feed off. I think the Progenitors were experimenting with using genetic engineering to improve their psychic abilities when they fell under the influence of the Horrors.

And finally, the BSP (damn this was a lot longer than I thought it would be). We know the BSP knows about John and we know he doesn't want him killed (not just because of the order he gave Gabrielle, he could have killed John at Regulus and could absolutely have killed him in the Drakkar fight). It's almost certain he sent Mikaboshi and he's been careful to make sure John knows he exists, but doesn't know anything about him. It can be assumed that he can hack the computer infrastructure of every empire, so he knows everything that's going on and can manipulate things accordingly. Given all of this I think it's probable that John's being deliberately trained. The BSP is manipulating events to an ever increasing difficulty to force John to get stronger, while ensuring he survives to face the next challenge. The BSP knows John's ideas about how he wants to do things and that John won't like the way a traditional Progenitor works. So either the BSP has the same ideas as John and wants to work together (possibly because he broke free of the Horrors influence and passed that freedom down to his son, John. This also offers an answer to why the Progens dissapeared; some broke free, some didn't and civil war broke out) or he is certain that John will never be strong enough to challenge him or he just doesn't care (risky and suicidal tendencies from extreme boredom? Mael'nerak didn't seem to be coping well in the recordings we saw). Either way definitely very interesting.

Wow that was a lot more than I was expecting to write! That was good fun thanks for the entertainment and congratulations Tefler on creating a world and story that can handle this, frankly ridiculous, level of scrutiny

There was a question brought up in comments about whether this story and or author are great. Has it made you smile? Has it brought a tier? Have you grit your teeth? Have you reacted emotionally to it? Have you been entertained? My own answer to all the above is a resounding YES!! What more can any artist ask for? Oh, MONEY!! 8D By that measure, I consider both the story and the author GREAT!!

I have made a "tangible" contribution to our artist and it gives me a warm fuzzy to think I was able to help him with his new PC :)

My thoughts about Faye. Not sure why, but I hope you don't fall into the creative gravity well of yet another version of Star Treks Data / Borg. Rather, please consider the potential of nano tech as alluded to earlier. Faye could have an energy supply unit that also acts as a storage for nanos that she could manipulate to create any shape and have tactile input. I'm thinking electro magnetic manipulation. Yes she could assume any shap or separate the bots to become invisible. Think bubble. Microscopic bots based on Alyssium. I did see where you wanted only one shape shifter but if the bots had light absorption / reflection abilities then she could look like anybody, including John. Her mass would be neggilable (check spelling) though she would be touchable and able to experience touch as well again think of a bubble.

Specialized craft / ships, multiple ships, larger ships, Robotron any one? please say yes!! Also, With new / more ships John and company don't have to be there while they are constructed.

Fatigue of Invictus ought to be easily corrected with stress relief reforging ect. through telekinesis and ought to have already been done. Please let us consider her as old in design only. Structurally, she is new.

More thoughts on nano tech mobile nanos could be used on the surface of body armor using Faye to determine path of projectile / energy, light whatever and reinforce point of impact on the surface of the armor moving bots to where needed without adding much in the way of mass. They could also be used to create shells or bubbles to increase the interior of the Invicus as needed situationally - the orgami effect thought of above :) A shape shifting ship.

Story telling vs. physics. To paraphrase another "Great One" Issac Azmov, The universe is so vast, so old, with such a long future yet to come, that if it can be imagined, then at some point in the present future or past it does, has, or will exist in reality.

Let it go Grumpy, Hak, whomever. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story!! this is as much about people and character as science and adventure!

Singularity drivers, it was my understanding that the singularity is the "projectile" as well. We accept that black holes exist. We accept that they are in motion, that their paths are not rays but arcs and that their direction is ever changing from the influences of other objects along their path of travel. if we can accept that we can believe that a driver can work without understanding how. It would seem to me that there could be no defense against it as it would consume shielding as a matter of course you could only get out of its way (shrugs) the more it consumes the larger it gets. The thought occurs, how long do they last? That's space litter for real!!

To those of our merry band that are addicted to our hero - and I mean TEFLER!!

Those of you that are rewarding him through Patreon already know that he gets his reward by chapter, not by word or by line. The longer the chapter, the longer the interval between chapters, the less he earns. He is in fact shooting himself in the foot for his art. This is a demonstration if his real character to me, his honor, and his integrity. We can respect him as a person as much as an artist.

You may blush now Tef!!! Lol

Hi,

You mention that BSP is trying to train John, but even if he is, he is still "doing evil" killing all of the humans and Kintark. This says to me that he can't hold the same ideals as John.

In my mind, they are either related or BSP is bored and just playing games. Neither one suggests a clear motive to me however. John must have potential to have something that BSP wants, but doesn't possess it yet. Thus if he is being trained, it surely isn't benevolent.

This rambled a bit, but basically, it seems to me that there is no clear motive yet, and we will have to wait to see how John becomes more valuable in future stories.

"to keep the same agility when you double the mass you have to quadruple the energy available to move it. Eventually you don't have room for all the added thrusters."

Maybe, Maybe not. it depends how inertial damping works. It may be that you have to feed energy in and the amount you feed in is directly proportional to the amount of inertia you displace. On the other hand it could be more hand wavey than that. Inertial dampers might bleed off energy in a different way with the result that there is a power relation rather than something linear, so the experienced gravity or inertia is in a simple case say the square root of actual force. get a 4 g acceleration, only experience a 2 g force. Progenitor Inertial damping might then use cube or higher powers with a cubic damper, then Jades 9g tolerance would mean the raptor would maneuver at around 730 G.

accelleration to get earth/mars orbit in 10 minutes might mean you'd need much higher powers, maybe 6 or 7 to not end up smeared over the inside of the ship

Yeah that's a fair point, I forgot about that. Maybe he's rationalised it with the good old "Greater Good" excuse but even so.

Updating the list of what's known of the BSP

Facts

Manipulating events causing war, death and destruction

Knows John's identity

Has chosen not to kill John multiple times

Safe Assumptions

Knows John's morality, method and loyalties (through observation and TF broadcasts)

Knows all secrets and intel of all empires (via hacking and spies)

Less Safe Assumptions

Wants John alive and more powerful (don't know why)

Knows John will fight against him but either doesn't care or doesn't think John can beat him

This is definitely something we're going to have to wait and see for. Hopefully Calara can shed some light soon (I assume the DNA thing is her being given psychic powers to better track and understand the BSP)

Nope: Calara is not having a change in her DNA-profile.

I noticed this and made a comment on it, but Tefler shot that down and out as a glitch in the reader.

What is now known about chapter 70 that it contains a ten day travel to the place Tashana is currently living and that it will be a huge chapter of at least 13 pages long according to Tefler's patreon page.

Chapter 71 will be the extraction of Tashana with possible more mayhem and violence. Maybe that area will be left with a possibility of more respectable standard of living, because it was hinted to be a cut-throat society, where only the strongest ruled, and no law was respected.

So chapter 72 will possible deal with a new round of upgrades for the Invictus, bonding with the Maliri matriarch under Eldraele and renewing the ties with the repair-crew and bodyguards.

Question is will Tashana be a new member of the crew? It will be nice to have an historian on board, but what other skills does she have? That said will Jehanne also become a crewmember for the PR-actions and as a political analyst. For her it will be being in Paradise, having scoop after scoop and makeing the TF forces look like an incompetent organisation. They are not, but the Invictus and the Raptor are so powerful at the moment that the TF forces can not compete with them on equal standing.

B.T.W.: Will the master-assassin Amatsu Mikaboshi have his headquarter where Tashana is now i.e. in the Wastes or is it elsewhere?

Sorry, I thought I had the correct name but that was way wrong: Updownhorseboard, my excuses for naming you Updownwashboard. Not checking what I was doing so me bad boy.

I'm pretty certain Tef was being sarcastic about the DNA reader, you might want to read that again ;)

No problem. It is a silly name, it was inspired by xkcd 936 (Lit doesn't allow links in comments)

How about Jehanne becoming a tv person in maliri space as they tv/holonet channels are boring ?

So, I was thinking about TSM this morning, and it occurred to me that despite Alyssa's hugely powerful psychic abilities, she doesn't ever try to read her enemies during battle. We know she can read people besides John and the other girls, but she's always been in the same room or line of sight with those people. On the other hand, I got the (possibly flawed) impression that the Ashanath don't require line of sight.

If she could read people at range during battle, imagine being able to maneuver the ship to avoid shots before they're fired, based on reading the intentions of the opposing gunner. (granted, Jade does most of the flying these days, but still) Or being able to "see" around corners while sneaking down a dark corridor somewhere. These are potentially huge advantages that aren't being used.

Of course, reading minds in that way could potentially be story breaking if allowed, and there are plenty of ways to explain away the option in-universe. Things like limited range and/or line of effect (other than with John and the girls, due to their bond), too hard to isolate the opposing gunner from all the other minds on a ship, or not being able to map a mind to its physical location are just a few possible explanations that could be used.

Folks probably shouldn't share info shared from the supporters section of Patreon. It undermines efforts to get people to sign up. If Teffler hits his goal, we will all benefit.

No criticism intended -- just a heads up.

I've been seeing a lot of discussion about replacing the ship and so on. Currently they are looking at doing a major refit in order to change out the main guns. Or at least that is what we are assuming based on the new tech acquired. It has been stated several times that the ship is literally built around the mass drivers. Since they are opening up the ships structure anyways it would make since to reinforce said structure with new and stronger materials in the process for a very minor delay. Also weapon hard points are typically structurally optimal locations allowing for forces generated to be spread to the rest of the structure. With a few minor tweaks I would think the crew could allocate 10 to 20 percent more weapon mounts due to optimal positioning over what (cheapest bidder) T-Fed engineers could cook up. After all the ship was meant to be a troop carrier; not a mobile weapons platform.

Many comments have stated that the Invictus has the edge in regard to maneuverability over the BSP. Unless I am forgetting some integral plot point, I don't think we have any idea what type of maneuverability his ship actually has. From my recollection each time we have come across the BSP the only movement the ship has made is to enter its wormhole. Please correct me if I forgot a part of the epic (quality and length) story. As always Tefler keep up the amazing work

Yeah... We really haven't seen that ship move. And it din't really "move into the wormhole" either..... The wormhole moved over it, if I remember correctly.....

Ok am boring

I just like to see if telfer has anymore on that ?

Review

Wow, that was good! I loved the aftermath and how it played out. Mateo in particular was well written. John cockblocking him was really funny to me for some reason.

Rachel creating the cure for dana's old scar was adorable. I wish we could see more of those two as well as all the other couples in the crew. (Alyssa and Calara, Rachael and Dana)

My previous thoughts last chapter about potential characters who fight by mind-reading in the heat of battle still have a lot of potential for Sakura I think. She was shown to have physic powers this chapter.

Normally I would think her status as the fighter would be obvious given her old persona, but she had all her robotic sweet transhumanistic upgrades removed courtesy of Rachel. Maybe she'll be forced to redesign and implement them again(be a good side-arc for Dana and Rachel to design that). She would be another safeguard against progen-John/progenitors in that scenario, since she wouldn't entirely be running on her biology. Also gives her a similar advantage to Faye, a computer is harder to read using your mind.

Anyways, back to her being physic and a fighter. We've seen brute power with physic abilities in Alyssa, as well as engineering, strategy and more from the crew. But what we haven't seen yet is someone who is able to use those abilities to predict what others are going to do. And as someone who understands fighting, that would open up all sorts of opportunities in combat.

Not having to guard yourself in certain ways if you know nothing's coming that direction. Being able to lure people in. Knowing when to pump the gas when the enemy is flustered and weak. Being able to react to anything seemingly anything at the last moment, giving the appearance of being seemingly invincible. Being able to ignore the problem of creating openings when you attack someone zealously is huge: anytime you expose a weakness the enemy will unknowingly let you know instantly before they can take advantage of it. She could totally be the melee fighter of the crew.

She won't be invincible, even if regular enemies are child's play. because I think the crew needs to graduate into fighting fellow badasses and not just waves of lizard and human fodder. The other progenitor wouldn't have as good a crew as John due to the emotional connection thing, but there have to be some loyal to him that would be considered "elite" enough to go toe to toe with individual members of the Invictus. I'm an absolute sucker for long drawn out duels of skill between different types of fighters. Total. Sucker. I dream of those sorts of grand fights.

"What's your name? Alyssa? Heh, well I guess you could say we're each other's counterparts. The powerhouse physic of the ship, right? Just your friendly neighbourhood nuclear warhead. What say we get on with it already, sweetheart? Everyone else's already started their own fights....."

It's well worth a read, even in its unfinished state.

One of the saddest things is to see a great story cut short, and the world having no clue why.

Are we ever going to find out, what happened to his mother?

As John gave the information to Calara and nothing else was done.

Apart from that I truly am loving this story and can't wait for Ch.70 when it's comes

Keep up the good work tefler

Calara is looking into that now. Chapter 70! :-)

You tell us not to but then you give out spoilers about what is in part 1 of chapter 70. That is just mean =P

Well, Tefler is the only one to give hints of what is coming into a next chapter; he is trying to persuade people to get access to his Patreon-site, so he gets paid for this work.

I think that spoiling SOL and this site with hints from others is much worse. They can reveal things and thereby literally spoil the fun of the readers and also making of comments not so amusing. I have had some courses in laser-design, FTL-design and space-travel which were fun to read, just by speculating if something was possible and or adaptable in the story. Comments are also a feedback to clarify things and a possible way to give hints to Tefler what his readers expect, and for him a reason to do something way out of the box. That makes comments so readable, so funny, and not a waste of time to read.

The template so far has been to rescue a damsel in distress, who then joins the crew (except for Irillith and Faye). All i can remember about Tashana is that she's Irillith's twin, that Adraele knows she is still alive and located in the Underworld, that she preferred archeology and history to Maliri palace intrigue, and that Irillith framed her to remove her as a rival for power in their House.

I wonder, if instead of being a poor soul trapped in a terrible situation if she might instead be an opponent, or even an implacable foe to John, as he is a, or the, Mal'nerak (sp?). Just because she avoided Maliri intrigue and empire building as a girl doesn't mean she didn't learn to assemble power and allies, after all her whole environment growing up was steeped in Machiavellian maneuvering.

What if she's the one who set the assassins on John? There is obviously bad blood between Tashana and Irillith and Tashana and Edraele. Perhaps she's also become adamantly opposed to the Maliri being enthralled again.

But then again, I'm just a dumb ol' cowboy. Thanks Tefler, you're writing a tremendous tale. I went back to the beginning and re-read the story, and it seems you're getting more surefooted every step of the way.

I see it one of three ways:

The unclaimed Wastes are an old Progen's headquarters and Tashana has permission to go do archeology if she shares her findings with Hades and she has 'some' autonomy.

She is a prisoner and is being used/abused for knowledge/information (the implants and cybernetics used on Sakura).

She is Hades or part of the underworld power structure.

I also see her going as ape as Irillith when she sees John the first time and realizes what/who he is.

I'm convinced of about the sister, is that with all her knowledge of the progenitor history, If she joins the crew, then John will tick off his innocent Librarian fantasy

well, if she is a thrall then john can recognize her after seeing because then she had have white hair which are different from maliri. and if she is a thrall then john have to find a way to break her bond from BSP and rebound her to him otherwise BSP will take all power instantly from her living her dead.

Tefler, huzzah and hurrah for a wonderful rip roaring saga. On the weapons discussion I think you have already got the ultimate weapon in the nova lances . Dana just needs to figure out the power configuration which you have hinted at several times. The size of the ship doesn't matter because you have already used the path of increasing the reformation of the telekinetic substance increases its strength so you could carry on down that route. Augmenting this with the finalized power layout which improves power available for cooling as well as a switch to a Gatling configuration would allow fewer beam weapons which could fire more rapidly. The freed up points could be used for Gatling style particle or projectile weapons perhaps unturreted mounted in fixed positions a la Schrage Musik used by the Luftwaffe in WW2.

Well that's my 2 cents. My ten cents is keep up the good work!

I'm thinking with the war on pause, John and crew will have more time to do small excursions like they did in the beginning. Imagine Tashana being like Indiana Jones. John and crew go collecting Progenitor relics and adding even more tech to the Invictus.

Tefler and my co-readers

I have an idea. john and party are traveling through maliri space after rescuing tashana and then suddenly there is BSP in their track and a small fight broke in which invictus and reptor is destroyed and BSP think that john is no more and left. next after BSP left then they emerge from the debris of invictus with faye's system and everyone envelop in john's round sheild and then he moved them to maliri with telekinesis and built new ship from scratch. it will give them some time and element of surprise in there last fight when they revealed they are lion and lionesses.

what do you think about this friends if you want to say something negative then please say nisely because I think it will be good.

I hope we will be able to read ch70 by 20th Feb tefler

I think faye should design a new ship so Dana can build a monster of a ship with a lot of fire power.

I've written 40k so far, so it's been going well. I'm about half-way through part two, and I'm hoping to get a big chunk of it done over the weekend. The 20th seems reasonable. :-)

Cheers

Tefler

Why do I get the feeling that we are going to find Tashana with an old progen ship and Dana will instantly know how to make it work. I think it will be big enough that the Invictus will have its own dock.

Wow! Invuctus destroyed is super idea!! Sister with relic ship!! Sweet! 0.0 These two ideas are just elegant!!

If Sakura can "see" links / connections... Can she find Johns mom?

Singularity drivers on a dreadnought are only good due to others kill the shields but a lone dreadnought not as good as they have to break the shields first.

So if Dana halfs the length and the range is about the same as beam/nova lasers, then they can swap for mass drivers.

Well thats what i think anyway

Oh crap 9 more days. Oh well.👅 an epic wait for the next chapter thats going to be 7 0 !!!!!! I can't wait!

Barrel length effects accuracy far more than range.

I think it's awesome John's marrying his entire harem, just hope the federation doesn't retain today's stodgy laws.

On other news, I just got engaged, I proposed with a emerald and saphire navel piercing set in silver & white gold.

I think rings are too common, navel piercings as engagement jewellery seemed unique & original.

You can use that in the story too, unlike rings, navel piercings don't get lost that often, they represent a higher commitment, they look hot.

John could give those out too! The girls would have to remove rings when pleasuring each other with fingers, but a belly piercing wouldn't get in the way and would act as a constant reminder.

Your stories are more than enough to pay for. It's just... I'm broke. wish I could read all of your work as soon as you get done with it, but sadly I am unable to. Have a great night/day.

This will require Dana to develop a radically better heat sink material...something Tefler has already alluded is on the way.

Upgrade the laser pulse cannons and their mounts to incorporate 4 or 6 barrels instead of three into a very quickly rotating Gatling laser configuration. This can be done with a little more miniaturization (something Dana has not done to the laser pulse cannons yet) and upgrading the mounts with more responsive servos (to increase target acquisition speed). This allows for a fully continuous, yet still pulsed, laser stream from each rotating gimbal mount. Increased energy levels, along with the increased heat sinks would at least maintain (if not increase to full beam laser capability) the range/lethality/target acquisition and engagement of the total current system with half of the necessary hard points.

Strategically place the upgraded Gaus Cannons on the now available hard points. This can be done with a hardened and upgraded (Multi-folded Crystal Alyssium) gimbal mount (something akin to the current US Navy Sea Witch) which is both dependently and independently auto tracking and which incorporates a small inertia dampener to provide the capability to give very high fire rates and deliver devastating broadsides across a very wide fire arc.

This would maintain, or possibly even increase, the laser based firepower while providing enough mass driven projectiles to take out armor that can be swiveled into firing position rather than fixed so the maneuverability of the Invictus would not be compromised on the battlefield.

Oh, and do the same with the Raptor... ;-)

Have Irillith create a Trogan software package into each race's comms network to link them in a proprietary interface with each other and the Invictus.

Hanging out for it!

Barrel length effects accuracy far more than range.

That is true on earth as air and gravity effect it but in space should be no gases and only micro gravity if any so a bullet should keep going in a line until it hits something

I was mainly thinking of cutting range to be of use and getting the barrels short enough to fit the 200m mass drivers space

Sorry I haven't been very active on here recently. Between chatting with patrons and working furiously on the next chapter, I haven't had much free time!

I've written 26k of part 2, so it's nearly done now. I've got a handful of important scenes to write to wrap it up, so the entire chapter will be about 55k words or so, which will make it one of the biggest ones yet!

There was a lot I wanted to cover in this chapter, so I really hope you enjoy it. You can probably expect to see chapter 70 by the end of the week, or perhaps just after next weekend.

Cheers

Tefler

You are faster than plenty of other favourite authors by a factor of ten.

Quit apologising.

Some people never understand how good they get it.

Don't bundle it in worries, they will wait.

Tefler, if it become 55K words long then it is the largest up until now. Chapter 59 was the largest with 53.2K words and a whopping 16 pages long, so you aiming for a scheduled length of about 16 pages long, that will be a long read.

I am hoping it will be next Monday, just after 17 days; that will also the longest wait up until now.

Yes PussyLickersRus, I'm right with you on your scenarios. Poor Tefler, I could see Tashana's story as a freestanding novel, and I hope some day it is! Mikipub, it's true, the Wastes and the Underworld are unknown territory for all, lots of things can happen!

I wonder if it was intentional that the strength of lasers and beam weapons follow the order of the light spectrum. Orange Terran beam lasers as less powerful than green Kintark, vs blue Malari, vs purple BSP. Following that logic, ultraviolet rays should be the next discovered beam strength and then we start getting beyond the visible spectrum. X-rays and Gamma rays?

Wondered the same thing. Which actually brings up an interesting point. Shorter wavelengths are more energetic and can easily be redirected while longer wavelengths are less so and are not as easily redirected. Kind of begs the question, would an ultra long wave length laser penetrate shields without having to blow them out? Is there a point where the wavelength would pass through the energy wave of a shield and still have a devastating impact on a ship?

What about an interactive wave that was long until it interacted with shield harmonics and used those like video on a carrier wave and use a ship's own shield energy against it's hull?

Hmmmmmm.

First: There has to be a Progen element that makes for a superconductive heat sink that can be used to cool down the Invictus lasers and Nova Lances almost instantly.

Second: There has to be a Progen element that makes a superconductive, ultra high yield capacitor that can be used to redirect energy weapon use against the armor into energy for the weapons systems.

Third: There has to be Progen tech that will grow a body based upon DNA input.

Fourth: There has to be a Progen Quantum energy weapon schematic in Dana's subconscious.

First: We know that a human brain can be programed by a cybernetic implant due to the cybernetic memories Sakura has that are unlike normal memories.

Second: We know that John's cum can create nerve, muscle, bone, blood vessels, brain tissue, etc.

Conclusion, create a cybernetic implant that has a Faye copy and coat it with a bubble of stem cells to get things started. Have John climax into it and work on creating a full, biological body for Faye that has a hybrid humanoid/cybernetic brain.

TaDah!!!! Body for Faye!

This is entirely consistent with the current story realities and is easily doable.

Faye learning she has to eat, sleep, dream. Her first climax, heck...first kiss! Her first period! Hormones! This could be comedy central!!!!!!

"unlike rings, navel piercings don't get lost that often, they represent a higher commitment, they look hot."

No offense, but absolutely could not disagree more on several levels.

First, the navel on a woman is an erogenous zone....I don't want anything in my way.

Second, I would rather gag on skunk nasal vomit. Very unattractive in my opinion.

Third, John is a traditionalist.

Dont matter if you like them or not every time they sallow they get reset to template and skin gets healed, like tattoos did plus john has already said he dont like piercings

Buy and install a new fan/heatsink until you can upgrade. Death by overheating comes out of nowhere.

AND, unless you have made a copy of your work on a thumb drive, the old disk drive will not be read by the new operating system....so even with an upgrade you cannot just install your old hard drive as a secondary and get anything off of it.

When you get the new fan/heatsink also get the silverized heat paste that helps transfer the heat from the cpu to the heatsink on the new fan or you will still have issues. I am sure your problem is with the deterioration of that paste. Happens more often than people realize

My suggestions for a new system:

You are using it as a word processor, so the latest and greatest gaming PC is a waste...even though these suggestions will still be a good gaming system.

Get one that has an I7 processor for longevity, yes.

And 32 gig of ram.

If you go with digital drives get a mirrored system as those fail without warning but the speed at which they operate is astounding.

Definitely go for the larger screen, ergonomic keyboard, and a full sized tracker ball rather than a mouse (you will hate it for a month, but after, you will never go back).

Get something akin to the Professional version of Microsoft Office if you can't get the real thing...there is a difference for a professional writer. Get an Office for Dummy's book or two...well worth it for the insider tips and tricks and program insights.

Gigabit Ethernet card, multi SSD reader, re-writable blue ray, embedded wifi and wireless connectivity just in case your hard line develops a fault in the wiring to your router.

Finally, get an uninterruptible, battery based, power supply (over just a simple surge protector) because the battery is the best surge protector there is as well as it gives clean power to your system as it ignores power fluctuations and gives you time to finish what you are doing before you have to sign off due to a power failure. (set this to audible alarm at first just so you realize just how bad your power supply grid is then set it to silent after a week for your sanity.)

The problem is that John's sperm is acting as an agent, it induces a body to adapt to his template.

Stem-cells are the base upon a body is created, so bringing them in contact with John's seed does not need to have the effect that is needed.

So: first the body should be grown out of a number of stem-cells with a partial brain consisting of the brain-stem - the basic life-support regulator of a body which does not have any 'higher' brain-functions so the body does not have a 'personality' - then the bio-computer should be installed with Faye's core-programs and connections to the network, and as the last step the bio-computer should be connected to the neural system and activated.

One mayor problem is how the computer is powered. Sakura had a (partial?) amputation of a side of her brain to make place for the bio-computer, so Faye can have two working in tandem but powering those is the problem. Yes, a body produces electricity, but can that be used for a computer? Heat is also a problem, but that could be transfered to the blood as a coolant.

Enough problems to be solved by better technicians so Rachel will have work to do. Dana will have to help for the computers in micro-miniaturization of the chips.

to buy anything exotic, a standard PC will do everything you need as a writer. only buy something better if you want to run enormous spreadsheets, or play the latest games. otherwise you're just pissing your money away. You only need a standard version of office too. the professional versions only add professional database abilities, not extra upgraded Word versions (or they didn't last time I looked).

probably worth shelling out for a USB hard drive caddy for your old PC hard drive to rescue old files too

we've now had 3 or 4 possible ways to build it, all of which are interesting

Can't wait for the next chapter......I'm starting over lol started this story ...no...... book 3 days ago and pretty much havnt put it down yet I literally called in sick twice just so I could read it without stopping lol keep it up bro very well written!!!!!

From a creators perspective I actually recommend the surface pro 4 especially with the recent price drop since the 5 is releasing next month.

mass drivers is a very powerful weapon for those ships that don't broke with lasers weapons. what is the possibility of to mix crystal allysiam with some element so that it don't react to electromagnetic field and then use it as bullets so that it can easily broke the hull of ships.

if I am not mistaken someone has mention that sheilds are no more than magnetic field. if it can done then it is also a good weapon advantage for them.

Large amount of material but it is a very clean draft.

FatherSin

While the idea of crystal alyssiam bullets to bust through ANY armor is attractive and amazing, there is a small problem....

Etherium is required to make it. That is a RARE substance in this universe... The Ashanah have mined it out of all the areas that they have explored. It is a finite product.

It would be wasteful to shoot it away. Unless there is a way to recover it, you are pissing away a valuable resource with every shot.

Dana would have to figure out a way to CREATE more of the ore, before they start using it for ammunition....

My thoughts on the matter.

Coming online on Patreon by Wednesday!!!! Grab your women and popcorn boys poppa is comin to town!

"While the idea of crystal alyssiam bullets to bust through ANY armor is attractive and amazing, there is a small problem....

Etherium is required to make it. That is a RARE substance in this universe"

But as you said, Dana has shown she can manufacture elements...so not an issue.

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

yall are mixing your metals up, go back and reread the ashanath chapters to fix that then reread the trankaran chapters to find out they got more of it from them, follow that up by rereading the maliri shipyard chapters to see that dana can make any metal she wants.

Just a fun thought, alyssiam is crazy durable right? Reshaped enough, I wonder if we xould make a arnor piercing flak canno. If it I know it would be unusual, but if it has the armor penetration, hundreds of pea sized holes all over a ship could do massive damage. Maybe Flak is the wrong word. Nearly unbreakable shrapnel bombs lobbed through space.

Side question, do we know how the shields work in TSM? Are they reactive, static? Are they generated from seperate points? If ao when one fails can the others still work? Could they be made to rotate out, like a phalanx rotating fresh troops into a gap in the armor so to speak.

If they are one static bubble, as they get weak do things get through more, or is it onve the capaciters empty ot goes from full protection to none.

Is it harder to repel physical matter like a shell or missle, than laser or plasma?

I could go on for way longer but last question, is solid matter vaporized, just forced to lose momentum, or physically repelled away like a magnet and two of the same pole?

The hint seems to be that psychic power use on Ashana causes Astral matter residues to deposit as an Orange dust. Bauxite type dust. An ore.

Their source for AEtherium will be the astral plane.

Just a guess that fits.

I agree with all of you. if they want to fucked some specific part like power core,engines or command podium of any ship it will be a great use.

Etherium is psi active so after the battle/fight all they need do is open cargo bay and reach out with they mind and pull the bullets back ?

They're already using Crystal Alyssium tipped rounds in the Punisher railguns that Dana created, and we don't see the crew trying to recover those. And if they are using the Crystal Alyssium on the mass driver rounds, which I imagine they are, keep in mind that the rounds explode shortly after impact, so there really isn't much of anything left from the round to recover; it would all be atomized along with the interior of the target.

With regards to the shields, adultlink, we haven't been told explicitly how shields work, but we've spent a good deal of discussion in the comments on the topic. What we do know can be drawn from the way we've seen the shields work so far. First, the shields seem to be static, as they first have to be activated before they can protect the ship. Second, they a full bubble that provides complete protection until they are overwhelmed and drop. Third, solid projectile type weapons seemingly have no effect on shields, regardless of how much kinetic energy the round has, hence why Terran ships first have to use beam weapons to drop the shields of target ships before they can bring the favored heavy cannons to bear. It seems that just about every weapon except solid projectile type weapons are effective against shields. And fourth, the round is likely vaporized when it hits the shields, because as we saw when John fought a shielded robot in the R&D lab controlled by the Nexus fragment, the round from John's railgun hit the shield and then just disappeared, having no effect on the shield whatsoever. Hopefully that answers all your questions. We might learn more when John goes to visit the Brimorians for the shield upgrade.

thats ok assuming you hit with them, otherwise they are flying out in all sorts of directions, not losing any speed. half an hour later, they could be all over the place, you'd spend the next chapter chasing fleeing munitions If you were stationary after a half hour battle you'd need to search 200 billion cubic kilometers for a bunch of objects the size of artillery shells and that's assuming they stick to the speed of current tank shells.. ship speeds would make this problem several orders of magnitude worse