All Comments on 'Three Square Meals Ch. 095'

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication to the story you have spun an epic and we are very privileged to be along for the ride

I have a bad feeling about this. Especially for 2 Assassins.. please let them live.

Great chapter! But it looks like John won't get to make many babies. I'm sure one matron will notice that she has lost contact with a reporter and will get John underway. Buckingham will end up being discharged, violently? Well my best guess how this will come to pass.

Keep up the great work Tefler!

Another great installment. Can barely wait for the next chapter. Please keep them coming and coming fast.

The Terran fleet looks like its about to be totally screwed. Even if they win, their fleets will be ruined. The dragon emperor just threw everything he had at the terrans... worse, I get the sinking feeling that there's a kirrix fleet just waiting for the border fleet to leave.

Damn, that evil progenitor is a smart bastard. He weakens all his ancient rival's colonial planets by getting the 4 races to fight each other. Meanwhile, his personal fleet isn't even scratched.

Will our hero move fast enough to get the vital shield tech? gain a brimorian alliance? and reinforce the ashanath and trankarans in time?

talk about a nailbiting cliffhanger....

Brimorian alliance unlikely. The Kintark are now equipped with their shield-tech and John is going to requisition it when he comes back to destroy the invading fleet and rescue his reporter. It'll be around that time that high command decides to test their upgrades against the Invictus and we see the kill switch embedded in their software used for the first time.

Instead of coming to Terra for destroying the kintark army, maybe john can directly go to kintark empire and kill or arrest the emperor like he did with glowing queen and ask kintark to withdraw. That way he will have kintark force to help with BSP.

An addict.

Yet again you deliver the Great Great Great Grandmother Of All Cliff Hangers!!!!

And you keep dangling Fayes new body before us like the mirage of an oasis to a severely dehydrated dessert traveler. GRRRR!!!

Well this time, it certainly will not be enough with The Invictus to save Terra. Enter the Maliri fleet.

I must have forgotten something important. Far far far back, i seem to recall something about Buckingham being a traitor. Why haven't he been dealt with?!!!! And to top it off, now he has lost his marbles!.

Well this certainly was a chapter with lots and lots of information. Things are heating up to an inferno!!!

Tefler, even though you are evil as the devils grandmother(cough, chough, cliff hanger, cough, chough) I must say this was once again a marvelous chapter. Actually one of the best so far.

Keep up the good work. I hope it won't be too long before the next chapter. Sorry, I promise, i am trying to be patient here. You are doing a marvelous job here. Delivering such large chapters so often. BUT REALLY!!! THAT CLIFFHANGER WAS EVIL!!!. Uhhh.... Sorry. I am better now. Thank you for a marvelous read!

This chapter had the tragedy that many, myself included, asked for. That was very welcome since the last few chapters were very "nice". But while it gave this chapter more colour than some of the fluffy, nice ones, it was very bitter sweet. It brings more emotional power to the story but it is painful to actually read the tragic moments. Great read and I'm excitedly waiting for the trove of future developments that were put into motion. Sometimes after chapters like this one I am left thinking "how on Earth is he going to sort all this out?"

But you always do in a most spectacular way.

You sir, are a stark, raving mad, genius!! Well played on having the lizards regroup and hit back. From what little that we've seen of the Kintark emperor, he's a raving egomaniac, if his brother was anything to go by. Buckingham, is easily as bad, letting his pride overrule his better judgement. Making a decision that brash and ignoring all tactical and military sense is going to cost him mightily! Bravo sir!

I have a sense as to how things will play out and this is my best guess;

Firstly, Admiral Devereaux will likely disobey Buckinghams order and contact John and let him know what's going on/beg for his help. If she pulls it off and John saves the day, with a Maliri battlegroup or two in tow, then she would be ideally placed to take over as Fleet Admiral, being one of two of the Admiralty that John can trust. Of course, this nonsense can't be happening again, so he may just gift her with a spot among his ladies, as a means of keeping the Terran Federation in line.

Secondly, they are going to find Jehanna and her assailants and deal with them in a most gruesome fashion. They may be T-Fed soldiers doing their job or corporate bagmen following the instructions of their bosses, I don't know. Either way, whatever they're up to, will most likely be halted by John and Co.

Finally, the Kintark Empire is going to need it's house cleaned, specifically, the Emperor meeting the same fate as his idiot brother. Therefore I see a jaunt into Kintak space happening, to do just that and the possible establishment of a new Kintark republic, as evidenced by the senators and political opponents that the Emperor had imprisoned.

Keep up the good work! I eagerly look forward to the next installment!

I need a reminder of where everyone is.

Marliri fleets are in some unusual places at the moment. They are helping the Ashanath and the Trankarans, but have delayed helping one to help the other. A fleet is heading into Brimoran space (with another soon to follow?) at a time when the Brimorans have just sided with the Kintark. Meanwhile, some Marliri ships are in dry dock. I can't remember, does this leave any Marliri external borders less defended, or are they covering everything because they don't have to defend internal borders anymore?

Terrans are abandoning their borders, but there will be a least one fleet (squadron?) to cover a key spot or two. We can't forget the wildcards of Charles and Voss though. Do they have unexpected ships we are going to see in this battle?

As for the others, I assume we are going to see that the Drakkar survivors are helping the Ashanath. So, that's a new piece on the board. Will the Trankarans have any surprising forces now that they are united behind the Glowing Queen?

Then of course, there is who has what tech. The Feds have tech from John that is at least one generation older right? Does Voss have anything at his disposal the Feds don't? I can't remember what John gave the Ashanath, Trankarans and even the Maliri. Did the Marliri get the best of everything but armour? I assume that is one piece of tech that can't be given away (at least at a degree of reforming) because of the psi shaping required.

Yes, I could go try to re-read the answers, but there is just so much story and I can't remember how many chapters back everything is. And all of the above doesn't even cover the disposition of enemy forces.

On a different note, I just want to say that I can't see how the Terran Federation could have gotten so strong with such a weak government. The current modus operandi must be fairly new. There is just not enough professional bureaucracy that a large government and military requires.

Of course, John is going to find out about this invasion. There are so many options as to how. One of the Admirals could decide to break ranks. The Ashanath could find out and inform Alyssa telepathically. The Maliris heading to help the Ashanath/Trankarans could find out either by seeing something the Terrans or the Brimorans are up to. Calara's family could let them know. Someone new (ie random) might play a role. Finally, the Invictus could just stumble into the battle again.

The Maliri feel like friends in a way that the Ashanath and Trankarans just aren't. It feels like friends are going to die this time. While the good guys are in for a shock, at least they have a few surprises being put in place for the bad guys.

Nice writing, damn you actually have me hating a character

Another amazing chapter Tefler. It looks like John is going to get his shield tech from a Kintark ship and not have to go to the Brimorians for it.

This had the cruelest cliffhanger ever. I LOVE IT! :P I don't know what's going to happen next, but clearly there's going to be an epic space battle on the horizon. Who ever supplied the kintark with their new shield tech is debatable at this point. It could have been either the Brimorians or the opposing Progenitor.

I do hope the next chapter is out for Christmas

so the other progenitor made his move, gave them al the tech they needed and started to squash the federation.

regardless of not being notified with the maliri fleet already going to protect other races there will be no resources available and the invictus alone will not suffice.

the king is (gonna be) dead, long live our lizard overlords!

Been a follower since chpt 1 and I’m still loving this.

TF is gonna get thrashed. Wonder how Olympus will fare. Maybe when the dust settles, Charles will be bumped to high command due to the admirals in the fleet dying...but who am I kidding? I'm not lucky enough for all the admirals opposing John to die fighting the kintark, especially buckingham and weber!!!

Not sure how many named characters will die...teflar added the side story of the three captains, only to kill 2/3. He added Murphy and the new fighters, so you have to wonder, since they'll be fighting on buckingham's fleet carrier, will either the admiral or the pilot, or both die? Then there's the fact that Calara's father and brothers are all probably going to be in the big battle, with the father and one of the brothers on the same ship...twisted as it is, maybe Jade won't need to roleplay as Maria if John ends up eventually consoling the grieving widow.

And the heroes only get so many saves before they run out of luck, in a story this long and well written. After just saving Calara, will the reporter be sacrificed for the story? Live or die, I predict that in trying to save the reporter, John and crew will end up going straight to her location, finding the Nymphs that weber has been experimenting on in the same place. I had been hoping for a confrontation between John and the admiralty in the high command briefing room, but the kintark had other plans.

Maybe, with the local empires all going to hell in a hand basket at the same time, when they survive this invasion (and they will, or, let's face it, the story's over!!!), John will get serious, have a hero-rising-to-the-occasion moment, and kick progenitor-John's ass once and for all, realizing the full knowledge and power that the evil guide was locking away, as well as being free to use so much power that was tied up imprisoning his evil twin, that he can use so many more powers and for much longer stretches. Also, will John be as smart/gifted with all the knowledge locked in his DNA once he has full access? I'd be interested in seeing what he and Dana could come up with in the engineering lab together.

Once John is free of his evil twin, with full access to the progenitor tech in his DNA, will he just slap it all on the Invictus, or will he retreat to Ganthalus to start building his version of a progenitor ship (maybe with an upgraded Invictus docked inside? Progenitor ship, Invictus, Raptor...it's space nesting dolls!). Much bigger than the Invictus, though that will mean more gunners (rescued Nymphs?), wormhole drive, bristling with nova lances, singularity drivers, quantum beam weapons, all with there own progenitor power cores, and cannons, etc,. All that, but white, instead of black, and with the Sparks custom touch.

I can't imagine what she will do once she gets access to all the progenitor plans. All her innovations so far, was she just unconsciously copying progenitor tech, or will John have made her smart enough to go beyond the originals? It seems like all progenitors have the same tech, just depends on the size of their fleets and armies of thralls as to who wins. I'd love to see her upgrade the Reaper cannons to progenitor quantum beams, like a miniaturized version of the main gun on the Legacy. The power requirements would be insane, so it would need to have a larger power core, maybe even a backpack size. I would kill to see Irillith, Rachel and the rest, save Tashana, running around like hot versions of Baze Malbus!!!

Finally, the babies. Say he beats this progenitor, there will probably be more in the future. Will John have nothing but daughters with his crew(just willing them all to be female progenitors like Alyssa, complete with white hat Athena guides)? Rather than a vast army of thralls, will he build a massive fleet of progenitor ships, run by his children, to protect the empires he has taken under his protection, maybe even making just one big empire after he inevitably ends up in control of the Terrans? Will he be able to repopulate the Nymphs, while removing the slave imprinting in their DNA? Will he be able to link his children to his matriarchs without the Gift, since they will already be made up of half his DNA, thus already/permanently linked using his DNA as the psychic catalyst?

better stop now befroe I end up writing my own story length post.

...she'll have to return to her body through the monster-filled grey fog.

Will she find a way to clear a path herself?

If not, will John astral walk to her rescue?

And if so, will he become so enraged at PJ trying to drag him back, hampering his ability to rescue her, that the final confrontation will take place in mere microseconds on the Astral?

Meanwhile, back in Terran space...

And what about Jehanna?

Tune in for our next thrilling episode!

Seriously, Tefler, outstanding work. A triple cliffhanger! Can't wait to see how the various threads are unwound.

Personally this is a fantastic series

Thank you very much

Yep, didn´t even read from page 5 on.

Sitting this one out till at least two more chapters are out.

Always hated this part in a tale and with having to wait weeks for the next chapter, it´s downright torture. ;)

See y´all next year. xD

-bkwrm36

well done Tefler. You out did your self on this chapter. You have so many ways to take the store, but you will do the best . THANK YOU ZEKE7474

This is so cool.

A great setup with a wide range of possibilities. What a cliff hanger... Cliff hangers.

I do hope we manage to get the next chapter in before Christmas...

What a great Christmas present that would be for all us Tefler and TSM fans.

Keep up the brilliant work !

*weeps softly*

This story is so gripping. I can't wait for more....hopefully before Christmas...?

Yes! I can't wait for the next chapter! Tef, you're so cruel ending it here, but the chapters have to end somewhere. 10 pages is long. Anyway, there are some new developments with Jade, Edraele, & the Maliri in terms of psychic power & energy tanks, as well as a few new advancements in the weaponry department. I was hoping to see more advancement before a big battle, but this will do. Finally some more action coming up! I'm ready to see more growth come in the heat of battle. Also curious to see how the Invictus stacks up against the new Kintark Shields. Argh! I hope the next chapter comes soon! I can see this whole battle & rescuing Jehanna taking up at least the next 3 chapters! Write Faster Tef! :P

More....

Lots of stuff going on! I hope your typing fingers are flying. I am already waiting for the next chapter.

Please, Tefler, we're begging you! Put the chapter out before Christmas...

Ouch ouch!!

What a chapter! I can't wait to see Faye in her suit.

And what's the problem with Adm. Buckingham?

His hubris may be the end of him....

Ive spent the last two weeks reading this series, its awsome and i cant put it down. Pls add more

When is John gonna face his evil side that lies in him. He has essentially ignored this after Alyssa helped lock him up. It hasn’t been addressed that he will battle his evil side even though it happened 50 or so chapters ago

So all this fighting with the other progenitor, all his manipulations of different races to go to war and yet even though he could have wiped out John's ship in one shot he chose not to....

Anybody else see it yet?

He's the progenitor that lost his family in the prior war and debatably his sanity, so he created John Blake the half-progenitor and human to become the protector of his creations. All these challenges are just to boost John's potential against the darker threat... John's half human bit keeping him moral and true mixed with progenitor for an immortal protector

-eb

Tef,

Your story and plot lines in the TSM universe are awesome. As a reader I’m able to go back and research little things that I forget or misremember. You have to pull the strings of your web for the chapters ahead.

I’m glad it’s you doing the pulling. Keep it up.

Hey Tefler,

Congratulations on this stupendous interstellar ride you've taken your readership on.

So I was thinking Brimorians are like fishes right? they must take swimming very seriously. All our hero needs to do is get Jade to impress them with her olympic swimming prowess and make the deep pool her fish buddies, our hero becomes the grand fishing overlord or whatever...

Hey presto! John gets shield technology and the Brimorians sign onto his grand alliance. Admit it, I am a genius...

waiting for more tech stuff...

Scotty

I loved how this chapter started out relaxed with everything seemingly under control -- Edraele was rescued, plans adjusted, "loose ends" taken care of-- Then, almost imperceptibly, each time the scene shifts back to Dragon March, more tension is added. As the tension begins to ramp up, the contrast between the scene on the Invictus and that in Port Medea grows, eventually erupting in a tremendous battle.

Well done!

Also, I can't believe the temerity of Buckingham to think he could defeat John. His little trap to draw John in by kidnapping Jehanna as bait is not going to work. But what will John do with him afterwards? Whatever it is, let's hope that justice is served.

Why do I get the feeling that Camilla is about to join our heroes on board the Invictus? Tef.. Please let this be true!

Great Chapter. The Port Medea destruction surprised me, i was expecting another last minute rescue. It was strange seeing one the places of proper significance in the TSM universe fall. Quite a few other significant things have happened as well. As always, I'm in awe of how you've inter-weaved those with some milder moments.

Matt.

I think Fleet Admiral Buckingham will be relieved of duty. The other three Admirals (Devereux, Caldwell and Mishra) know he’s ape shit crazy. I’m sure all meetings are recorded for historical purposes if nothing else. So; with Buckingham keeping the whole Terran Federation in the dark about their impending doom and the massacre in the Dragon March, it won’t be a far stretch. Additionally; when reviewing said meeting recordings it’s discovered that he’s conspiring with Peterson to round up and preform experiments on all the remaining Lenarrans (a.k.a. Nymphs), and having Jehanna Elani abducted; there by making John Blake an enemy of the Terran Federation. If the remaining Admirals have a snowballs chance, they’ll throw Buckingham and his cult under the bus and request Johns help. I just hope he doesn’t leave the Maliri open for attack.

Fleet admiral douchebag is about to eat a dick.as soon as John finds out he had Jenna kidnapped and has taken the nymphs not to mention leaving earth and the rim worlds to get fucked by the lizards he's gonna skull fuck that dude and use his blood for lube.lol I'm glad I'm not him.

The Invictus and John need to hyper warp straight for Norwood's Dreadnought and have Irillith take it over and just space every freakin body. Have Faye take over some of the escort ships (we know she can--she has done it before). While the Invictus is battling the Dreadnought's escort ships that Faye is not comandeering, the Dreadnought turns on them first with energy weapons until they are neutralized and then hammers the kirrix capitol ships at long range, one at a time, as the Invictus takes out their shields.

The shield defeating gauss cannons, main cannons and the photon lasers can attack the cruiser shields while letting the Valkyrie and Raptor work together against them as well as part of a defensive shield for Calara's father and brother. Sakura uses her cryokinesis again to keep the photon lasers on the Valkyrie on ice so she can do continuious fire...making her as powerful as 18 regular Terran Cruisers (6 times the firepower x 3 because of no cool down cycle) all by herself...That means she can take out the Kintark Cruiser shields with one shot each...leaving them vulnerable for the Raptor to kill...leaving a few for John's future father-in-law so he can save face of course.

But the Valkyrie just has to take one out using it's badd azz sword...like run up to it head on and duck underneath at the last second and just rip the belly out of the Kintark Cruiser as they pass...gutting it in the process. Now THAT would be bad ass!

Then, just as the battle comes to a stalemate, the Maliri fleet pops in on their way to the Trankarans (with a slight detour) and tips the scales against the Kintark...Taking out Capitol Ship shields with their three Nova Lances for the Invictus and Norwood's Dreadnoughts (and the Terran's of course) to pummel them.

The Kintark broadcast a sue for a cease fire and Terran High Command refuses. John then takes command and tells all three fleets to stand down. Fleet Admiral Buckingham overrules him and John turns off the power cores to a few upgraded Terran Fleet assets in the field (One of them being Buckingham's ship) and asks the rest of High Command if they might want to reconsider.

John and High Command have a come to Jesus meeting with Sakura, Alyssa, and Jade in attendance. Buckie gets out of hand and is dismissed/demoted/forcefully retired. Weber goes with him....and in the process working within their minds, Alyssa finds out about the Nymphs and Jahenna...and she just gets so pissed she mind wipes their asses...right in front of the rest of the Admirals...and when she comes out of her spirit walk she looks at the others and asks who wants to be effin next.

After that, the rest of the Admirals all seem to be reeeeeaaaallly cooperative.

Of course, Irillith takes Norwood's Dreadnought as a war prize.

John takes Norwoods Dreadnought with him to Kinta and has another Come to Jesus meeting with the Emperor...and reinstates the Federalist Government. The Kintark join the Alliance, the Terrans end up not having much choice but to join, and everyone starts joint operations against the Kirrix and massive ship building programs.

I wonder if they're building telepathic circuits into Faye's body. We know that the Ashanath have telepathic receivers since they use them to talk to non-telepaths, and it isn't unreasonable that a telepathic transmitter is possible as well. Hopefully they did so that Faye can get the full experience.

Relatedly, I wonder if we're going to see more non Matriarch to Thrall telepathy? Is the end game for the entire crew to achieve an Ashanath like shared telepathic plane?

The Brimorian women are better looking than the men! Not sure if John wants such pointy teeth so close to his... *coughs*

C'mon Tefler, you know you want (at least) one more alien girl at John's side. ;)

If the baby is a boy, he will be like Dad and can become immortal.

If the baby is a girl, she will probably be special but will need someone's cum to be immortal.

My question, does John watch his daughters die or feed them his cum?

When can we expect the next thrilling installment?? U are the master of cliffhangers...!!

Hey everyone,

I just finished chapter 96. It's up on my Patreon site and I'll be working on editing it over the next week or so.

Tefler

Thank you for the update

They would be immortal no matter what. The only reason the crew needs to keep feeding is so they have progenitor DNA inside them keeping them superhuman. An offspring of a progenitor has that DNA pre-installed anyway. It's one of the reasons why john's doing this, even if it's not mentioned yet: it allows almost all of the maliri to eventually become immortal by having the leader of their house be a progenitor.

Besides, Alyssa is now a progenitor, despite having zero relation to any other progenitor. Female progenitors can exist, it's just that the evil ones would never choose to have a daughter in the first place. Which actually gives me an idea, maybe in some corner of the galaxy, there is a female progenitor with legions of male thralls? Would probably be a good sequel villian.

Anyways, the fact that these kids are going to be so powerful is a reason why john really should be careful about having tons of kids in so short a timespan. Any offspring is going to be a handful to manage, and every kid is going to have their own inner guide that's going to lead to the worst case of teenage rebellion that side of the galaxy. If the crew doesn't help every kid through that existential crisis, one of them is going to go full Anakin Skywalker on their ass.

On a different note, now that so many things are happening in the story, maybe it's time to have a few people go on their own for a mission? Jade and Sakura could go on a mission to terra to deal with the admirals and jade's kin.

...I'm still holding onto my pet theory that John's kids won't automatically be Progenitors. For a race that focuses quite a lot on breeding, it seems unlikely that it would be that basic--that all male offspring are full-blooded Progenitors. Even if they can choose the sex of their children it seems like eventually it would only lead to trouble. They're an intensely territorial species by all accounts, and the galaxy can barely handle 2 or 3 of them, let alone dozens.

I think that Progenitors only reproduce more Progenitors if the father specifically chooses his child to be a full blooded Progenitor. Otherwise, it will just be the species of the mother. We know the thralls bred from the Maliri weren't really half-breeds, they were full Maliri, so the concept is there.

The other possibility is that you can only have a Progenitor child with a female Progenitor. It seems rather unusual that John would just randomly have the ability to turn Alyssa into one, unless it was part of their life cycle. This would also add some interesting layers to his eventual decision to have children with her.

On offspring, i agree that it won't instant progenitor babies: i think it will be like the queen bees of a hive: all the ants are born the same, but only a few are fed the royal jelly that makes them future queens.

I disagree on Alyssa though: the fact that Alyssa is a progenitor is anything but normal. Usually, progenitors intentionally stunt the growth and minds of their thralls and supress their powers.

Alyssa may actually be the first female progenitor, or at least one of the first progenitors that was not born as a progenitor from the start. We don't see Mael or that new asshole giving thralls any kind of real power over them, because they would view that as dangerous to their safety. They keep a monopoly over power, constantly.

However, that does leave Alyssa in an interesting position. Maybe through her they can figure out the origins of the progenitors and why they're so fucked up. They could have been good once, right?

So is Voss a traitor or a capitalist hoping to make more money on a improvment on ineffective weapons.

John seems to be very far behind his projen cousin.

Regarding Progenitor babies, my assumption all along has been that boys will be Progenitors and girls will be Maliri or Terran, depending on the mother. An episode a couple of chapters ago alluded to John's concerns for what might happen if this is the case, so I'm assuming John also thinks that having any sons will lead to... drama.

Regarding the upcoming battle for Terra, it would not surprise me if the Invictus shows up to save Jehanna and suddenly finds itself embroiled in a battle with the Kintark. I'm hoping that the Terran fleet upgrades supplied by Henry Voss will be enough to keep the losses from being too great.

I find it really sad what the feAR of losing your power can do to some one in power. I like Buckingham's character when we first met him, but now he is a Dbag.

No, Voss met with Charles and we learned that he was investing his vast wealth to re-arm the Terran Federation any way possible -- not for profit, but to save the Federation.

I think Voss's efforts will either play a pivotal role in the coming battle or in its immediate aftermath with the admirals.

A Kintark fleet marches upon Terra itself, equipped with massively improved shield tech. They have broken intergalactic laws in their attack, but the other members are either busy, crippled, or spread too thin to assist the Terran Federation.

Jehanna Elani has been kidnapped by (probably) TFed agents in order to glean information about John and the crew. Unlike the girls, John and Alyssa have no way of ascertaining her location (John was naive to think that the TF wouldn't see her as a target)

Faye is finally getting her body. But knowing Tefler, we're 14 chapters away from actually having a grand reveal (you gotta admit, this has been the biggest tease in the series!)

The Enshunu Empire, known for their cruelty and sadism, have restored the Underworld to full functionality. It sits on Terran and Maliri territory, but is it defensive or offensive in its capability? Mael'nerak saw the Achonin as a threat, so I'm sure the Enshunu will use the base for their twisted ideals.

The Brimorians seem arrogant and cruel themselves, which isn't good for the assassins traveling into their space. John and the girls will have to visit Brimorian space eventually (can't believe its been so long since John first talked about his intergalactic roadmap). Hopefully they're a progenitor receptive species and he can meet a new girl (John needs more exotic girls!)

John needs to confront his Progenitor Guide in his mental prison. Hopefully the girls joining his mental picture means they can help him when the battle begins. As of now he's still not close to equalling PJ's power.

The astral monstrosities are hounding John at every turn, now even affecting Alyssa's abilities. If you remember, they first started to attack when John refused to be corrupted by his Progenitor tendencies. As he strays further from the Progenitor path, the beasts have honed in on him more and more. Why do the creatures want him to inherit such a tyrannical path?

The Dark One seems intent on both pushing John to greater feats and power, all while crippling the galaxy's factions (Don't forget when he tipped over the Ashanath and Drakkar figures).

When will John and the girls go into Kintark space to visit Arcadia? So many answers are there, but perhaps he is putting it off in fears of what he could find.

Since the twins have bonded, we haven't really experienced the effects of the bond (it seemed they could share one consciousness across two bodies, but is that it?). Curious to see how they grew since then, to go along with Jade's growing powers.

Speaking of Nymphs, when and how will John save the kidnapped Lenarrans? I have a feeling it will tie into Jehanna somehow (two birds with one stone if you will), but what happens once they are saved?

Who created the Progenitors? (Rachel was clear that Progenitor DNA was tampered with)

We've been good all year, does this mean we'll get a new chapter under the tree by Christmas? :3

I think Arcadia lies in Kirrix Space not Kintark Empire

I tried to call Bigfish the dolphin to learn what’s coming next, but his comm code is unlisted, I lost his business card, and the Kintark have taken out the comm beacons!

Curses!

Thanks Tef!

HillCountryCowboy

How does Fleet Admiral Charles Harris sound?

Tefler,

I know this is out of left field, but I think Alyssa is missing out on a huge revenue stream right now in her march towards galactic commercial dominance.

I am re-reading TSM from the beginning to kill time waiting for the next chapter, and am currently at the first meeting between the Invictus crew and the Fernandez clan, where Calara and John are changing into sparring gear in her childhood bedroom. There are Hologram/posters of ships, including her father's Damocles, on the walls.

Where are the Invictus memorabilia? shouldn't Alyssa be massively marketing anything they can? (Through her shell companies, of course.) Invictus holographic posters. Raptor posters. Crew posters, both group shots, and solo. Pinups. Crew swimsuit holo calendars. Crew bobble head dolls. Paragon armor action figures, including Vice-Admiral Blake, complete with sword action. Collect the entire crew, with the Lion and his Lionesses with different colored shoulders for the Lionesses. (Not sure how to depict the Maliri girls faces. Maybe golden masks inside the helmets.) Invictus models, and toy versions, both with working docking bay for the Raptor, sold separately.

Not only will this bring in millions, if not billions of credits, but it will make it even harder for the admiralty, if they survive the Kintark invasion, to go against the Invictus and John, with such a large cult following. (I'd love to see Buckingham and his cronies gone, but storywise, I can see how being unopposed by any but the other Progenitor would get boring quickly.) Not to mention even more funding for the orphans project and the trading post budget. (I can't wait to see what Alyssa's aesthetics and Dana's tech obsession have jointly designed for the stations. They need to be more advanced technologically than Terran counterparts, but nothing that would shift the balance of power if it was stolen. The Invictus can't protect them all, and if they did, it would give away their secret ownership, hopefully buried behind Irillith's masterful hacking and Alyssa's cunning web of shell companies. Don't want the Admirals even wondering who owns them!)

Lastly, please tell me that John had Dana make some kick ass design upgrades for the Ashanath fleet. I don't mean Nova Lances or Singularity Drivers, but everything short of them, but balancing energy with ballistic weapons, not just the armor collaboration with the Maliri. All that power in the Progenitor knock-off power cores, and they are so weak??? Dana should be tickled pink to be asked to design, at least the main systems, of a new Ashanath fleet of ships. As long as she doesn't go insane and make the saucers (what in the world is their obsession with that shape???) look like sea urchins, bristling with weapon barrels.

litreader

I don't know how the Progenitors have survived as a race seeing as how territorial and confrontational they seem to be towards each other. There's the whole paraphrased joke about how Progenitors reproduce...carefully. Although this might explain why John's mother wasn't ordered to take John with her when she escaped. They might not want to raise the proverbial viper in their own nest. This would also explain why the Progenitor tech is hardwired into their DNA. If all Progenitors hit-it-and-quit-it when siring a son, the sons would need the info to reach their full potential.

Now for my wish list, so to speak.

Female Progenitors!!!

I'm thinking that Progenitors tend to stick to siring daughters, seeing as they have that option in every sperm already, so as to increase their armies of servants. (Although I can't figure out why, this being the case, the Maliri have been engineered to have a birthrate skewed towards female births...) Given Progenitor's normal treatment of women, I doubt that a Female Progenitor is a natural occurrence in any way.

Therefore, Alyssa being a Female Progenitor, made that way by John subconsciously, is the way to go forward. If, when he impregnates a woman, he uses his sperm, his psychic catalyst, at the moment of conception, to choose not only a female child, but a Progenitor female, it would take far less energy than it did to convert Alyssa.

Also if he gives a copy of Athena to guide all his children, even any males, it could drastically change things, especially if he tweaks the natural tendencies of his son(s) away from the destructive instincts. Keep the kick ass abilities and skills, but less despotic leanings.

If nothing else, making his daughters Progenitors from conception will nip any need to feed them his sperm in the bud. Let's face it, even though this is Literotica, twincest is hot, Daddy robbing the cradle is a major turn off for me, plot not withstanding.

I'm not sure what female Progenitors could use as a psychic catalyst. Female ejaculate doesn't have the same physical parity as sperm, though I guess there could be some sort of Progenitor (i.e. John) engineered microbe, virus or bacteria in it that could serve the same catalytic function. We might not have seen it's effects with Alyssa and the girls due to them being bonded to John through her as Matriarch, since he usually gets his sperm in them first anyway. I wonder if Alyssa tried to recruit a girl for John, like a Maliri, while John was with some of his other girls, would that girl become solely Alyssa's thrall?

Finally, how to recruit men without making them "drink" it.

You've got a brilliant doctor on board with Rachel. What if she came up with a way to take one of John's sperm samples, separating out the sperm themselves, and creating an injectable, or IV form. They would only want to use it for friends and allies, of either gender, whom they want to help health and longevity-wise. Charles Harris, the Fernandez clan. You wouldn't want to make the same level of bond as John has with his current girls.

This way, he can keep Calara's family alive and healthy, so she doesn't outlive them. They can then serve on the Invictus, or the version of the Progenitor ship John and Dana eventually design and build, and live on the guest room level for privacy.

This alternate delivery method would allow there to be no disruption of relationships between Jack and Maria Fernandez, or Mateo and Jack's medical intern, Lt. Emily Campbell, if that gets any more serious. It would cut out so much talented male crew he could add if John keeps stealing their women!

Plus, if any or all men added to the crew brought their own women along, it would avoid the subject of John sharing his girls with other men. I always felt that if you're going to have a harem, do it right; no sharing the women except among themselves.

It being the 28th century, and John's preference for smart and capable women, we can do away with the eunuch guards and the locked wing of the palace, but a little harmless flirting is as much as I care to see his ladies doing with any other men than him.

@litreader9696. I think the best upgrade the crew could devise for the Ashanath is a psychic control system for drones. They could then use their command and control network to its fullest. They could have enormous guns for planetary defense and a swarm of incredibly fast and hard drone fighters to protect themselves. No one would want to attack their home world then.

@brireader

For planetary defense, both the Ashanath home world and colonial planets, an overwhelming fleet of drones, controlled via their psychic net wouldn't be a bad addition to their defenses. However, as so many sci-fi stories have shown, a defense based on only one system, is just asking for the bad guys to work around it.

i.e. Stargate SG-1 when the Tolin relied solely on ground based insanely powerful energy cannons that could, and did, kick the crap out of its targets, but left the planet wide open when the enemy disabled the whole system, except the one that team SG-1 asked the coolest alien race ever, the Nox, to conceal. (The Nox...the ONLY aliens that can make pacifism look totally kick-ass and cool!)

As a failsafe system, hidden inside an artificially created asteroid belt of secret hangars, like the AI fleet, or even an artificial placed planetary rings system, would probably work. The planetary population, whether Ashana or colony, could form a psychic net to control the hidden drone fleet until reinforcements from the standard fleet can arrive.

It would be interesting if Dana could come up with a portable device, based on the psychic boost in the psy-shaper, but like a belt-worn device, with a miniaturized Ashanath power core, but instead of trying to perform a specific action, would actually be for the sole purpose of boosting the wearer's psychic strength. An entire army, or even planet of Ashanath wearing these, boosting the whole population, collectively could be harnessed for who knows what. I leave that to Tefler. lol

Basically, you have a good idea, which I can see dozens of ways to expand on, but it comes down to this; putting all your eggs in one basket invites disaster.

In addition to, and preceding implementation of the drones, once Dana figures out the psychic CNC receiver for the drone ships, they need to radically redesign their fleet.

(TEFLER- Please, I want to know what the thinking is behind the Ashanath using a disc shape for ALL of their ships and vehicles. It can't be the most efficient shape for all situations, so it must be cultural somehow.)

Up till now, I have imagined the ship from the black and white 1951 Michael Rennie & Patricia Neal version of The Day The Earth Stood Still as what the Ashanath saucer ships looked like.

If Ashanath ships are flat on the bottom, and built up from there, Dana could double the space for power cores and weapons by expanding downward, rather than just scaling up the dimensions of the existing designs. As a stopgap until a new design can be finished and construction began, this is where it gets weird, and totally Ashanath, take two existing ships, invert one and connect them bottom to bottom so to speak. With their anti-grav technology, they could be set up like the cities on Ashana, half upright, half inverted, with an anti-grav tube connecting them.

Once they are connected, the existing engines could be removed in favor of larger, upgraded engines and FTL drive, centralized between them. The same goes for all other main systems that take up large amounts of space. larger units will take up less space than two separate systems, freeing up room for more power cores and/or weapons systems. Since many weapons systems are mostly external, barring mass drivers and the like, all the reclaimed space can go to power cores and ordinance storage for the new ballistic weapons.

Either this, or just remove the hull from the bottom, and add on new sections like they did on the Invictus, just on the bottom, not the middle.

I'm sure "Dana", wink, wink, would have no problem coming up with at least an overview design, with just the minor details left for the Ashanath to finalize, both for the hybrid short term design, and for any "Dana Special" designs for the new construction plans. She could probably come up with a hybrid design in an hour, and each new ship model in just a few hours per ship class. I highly doubt they will want ships on the same scale as Terran dreadnaught and fleet carriers, and not just because they are so much smaller than Terrans.

More power packed into smaller packages is the best way. Maliri capital ships stopped before reaching dreadnaught size, and still have Nova Lances, so bigger would be wasteful, especially with a declining population pool for manning them with larger crew complements.

(BTW, I don't remember mention of any ballistic weapons on the Maliri ships???)

and now endeth yet another run-on comment. I need to kill time waiting for the next chapter to be posted somehow! ;p

On your comments for the Ashanath:

The Ashanath are already building asteroid based defensive systems. It was mentioned in the story when John was contacted about what to do with the marooned Drakkar (who may be turned into marine contingents??). And John's suggestion for more of a balance with both energy and projectile weapons was taken to heart as well.

As for the saucer shape, turning them into spheres is the best and most efficient use of space. It gives better coverage angles for the weapons systems, creates more volume inside for power cores, capacitors, etc. since a sphere is the most efficient container, it reduces the power required to turn the thing due to reduced rotational torque, and the outer plated shell will absorb impacts and energy blasts much more efficiently by spreading out the impact/energy over a larger surface area (even deflecting a lot of it due to the curved nature of the sphere).

The defensive energy shielding would also be more efficient and stronger since field strength would follow the shape of a sphere's more efficient and compact surface area equation rather than the more expansive cylindrical equations of other's ships.

I think the 'psycically linked' Drone idea for a carrier sphere is a great idea, but make the control systems ship based and CNC scalable and transferrable when one carrier is disabled. This could easily be accomplished with hive communication technology.

I think the drones should have 6 relatively small multi-directional engines set at the apexes of an inscribed cube within the fighter sphere giving it extreme thrust for its size and major directional thrust for maneuverability (like a simple raised 4 opening pillbox design) which would eliminate the need for massive numbers of thrusters and make the drones capable of bouncing around space like a superball. Of course it would need a mini Progen server so it could coordinate all the multi-threaded commands coming in over the psyonic receiver.

It could have 6 equally spaced Progen capacitors to absorb energy hits when the shields fold (shield generator) and provide energy for sustained fire, mini photon lasers (pairs that can be slightly independently aimed or used in double barreled synchronous mode for more sustained power on target). Say 10 pairs on a sphere set equally apart from each other (simply rotating the fighter droid sphere would allow for continuous fire rates) so half of them could be concentrated on any one target if need be. Of course, a centralized Progen power core. And it should have 10 sets of Dana's new and improved Gaus Cannons on high speed gimbal mounts.

You would need one pilot, one tactical officer/captain, and 4 gunners (2 Gauss and 2 photon) for full coverage without overloading a gunner.

Such spherical fighter droids would need be no larger than the Raptor but be even more maneuverable with loads more firepower.

Why doesn’t the Terran Federation have a failsafe/defense plan in place to at least slow down the Kintark like Carla used against the Drakkar invading the Ashanath home world? While the Admirals were circle jerking about the incoming invasion the only plan dictated to them was rally the troops and bend John over in the process. Do they honestly think no one will contact the Invictus and inform him of the rapid redeployment of Terran Federation forces, be it by the Federation or one of the bordering Empires? As for there ever becoming a Fleet Admiral Charles Harris. I can’t see that happening, having served in the military and worked at Brigade and Corps levels. Charles is a great guy but he doesn’t have the connections, if it weren’t for John he’d never made Admiral. At that level it’s very political and cut throat, only through his connections with john is he able to sustain his current position and he’s currently not seen as a threat to the other Admirals.

Where is the President of the Terran Federation? The Ashanath have a High Council, the Maliri and Trankarans have a Queen. I know the military runs military operations but even they answer to a higher power. Why hasn’t John been requested by him/her for a recognition ceremony or some other formal gesture of gratitude?

Dana boosting the Ashanath wearer's psychic strength. Origami would be a way to down size the device until needed by the wearer

At the very least they should deploy lots of bombers and mine layers with interdiction modules around the gravity wells of the most likely attack routes. A softball sized ball of titanium would do a heck of a lot of damage to a cruiser which would then take out several other ships as it explodes into its own dibris field. Put millions of those in clusters in front of the interdiction modules in a line that are in turn surrounded with clusters of mines at the point the fleet will come out of hyperwarp from the beacons and have scores of bombers there in range to loose everything they have...minimal crew.

Then turn off the interdiction beacons at intervals when the first wave hits...so the rest of the fleet runs into the depris field at hyperwarp speeds.

Also have cruisers tractor beam in asteroids into their projected paths for additional debris.

With a little luck you could take out a third of their fleet before they reach the Core Worlds.

after reading this chapter a few times i realize it's got to be the opposing progenitor supporting the kintark. Because the only thing that makes sense on how the kintark got into TF territory is the use of one of those wormhole generators.

Yeah, we already heard the kintark emperor talking about the progenitor though.

A man named John got a tip from some deep spacer called "Mad Jonah". And then he met a girl who changed everything.

Space battles, psychic powers, cyborg ninjas, damsels in distress, laughs, cries, loss, love...

...and three square meals a day!

Thanks Tefler for two years of one epic tale, and all the wonderful memories within. Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Here's to two more years of belly filling adventures.

Cheers,

Patrick

Happy two year Anniversary Tefler. And may all your fans (me included) continue to N'Joy the marvellous stories you share (year round presents) online. Cheers

Easy-nuh-man.

Any update on ch96 tefler ?????

No sign of chapter 96 in the queue. Probably no Christmas present this year. Looking forward to 30 or 40 awesome chapters in the year to come. Thank you Tefler your saga is the best since Prolonged_Debut10's epic series.

Thank you to all the commenters here for adding to the joy in reading this saga. Merry Christmas to all and may the new year bring happiness, health and many satisfying chapters of 'TSM' to all.

DePaul

Love the story. Really like the idea of drone ships but maybe unmanned. What about cloaking ability it would be cool to cloak missiles or drones or even the ship.maybe with the new shield tech

Dave

Merchandising. Holy crap. This is not some 'ha ha, nice one' idea, but a seriously legit one. For all the reasons litreader9696 mentioned, it is an incredibly powerful tool and moneymaker. It seems like exactly the sort of thing Alyssa would do.

I think it will be good if dana can create all The elements in the Progen Periodic Table & how much bye thinking of the elements & pointing the palms of her hands & it appears.

Dana unlocks new progen tech like the shield's & wormhole gen & the full progen ship spec's.

There might be some extremely potent and compelling character developments that might fit into the story before it is over.

There has been sporadic impatience with the Chapters where the action is low and the crew work on the ship, their gear, and their relationships.

Whatever fits with Tefler's imagining becomes the story.

It still feels worthwhile to ask for opinions, since feedback works for Tefler.

If the characters and their relationships get more attention, am I correct that most readers will just become more deeply invested in the action when it happens?

Assume the personality implications will be very juicy and questions answered.

There seems to be an urge to race down the slopes towards the stories finish line. Character focus is the key to keeping any rush in pacing from rearing its head.

I keep coming back to the "Mad Jonah(?)" character that got John and Co started, is it possible he's in on this mix somehow? Good, bad, or neutral?

No update on ch96 tefler ??????

Its christmas eve give it a rest :-)

Tefler, are you gonna be a secret intergalactic santa?

Putting the second ebook up on Amazon has gotten priority but now that is done. Tefler could share Chapter 96 here, but he has also started on Ch97 and that might take priority too. I have suggested to him several times that he keep a couple of written chapters ahead of what is posted.

He likes to check feedback, because he finds it interesting. He might not have time for reading and responding, so the main incentive for posting would be wasted.

Tis the season of too much to do.

to Tefler and all the other TSM fans out there. I hope your Christmas is blessed with family and friends, and filled with love, joy and comfort. And may we remember all who don’t share those blessings, and strive to make the world a better place.

Above all, let us reflect on the greatest gift, and the reason for the season, Jesus Christ.

Love to all,

hillcountrycowboy

I've finished editing chapter 96, so I'll submit that for moderation today.

Part 1 of chapter 97 is up as a preview on my site, and I've commissioned some new artwork which is up there too (a nude of Alyssa on the Fool's Gold!)

EBook 2 is now available on Amazon too. It's another special edition like the first one, with new scenes added and improved versions of chapters 11-20!

Merry Christmas!

Tefler

Merry Xmas tefler!!!

for the love of the snowman! please let the merry moderators be drunk enough to post this chapter like NOW!

P.s. my nose is red and chapter 96 better be up there before my ears get red too....💣

Rudolph

Personally, I'm not looking for more action OR more character development per se, but a different balance of the two. It feels like the story has big blocks of action followed by big blocks of character stuff, repeat. Both end up feeling like they are dragging on for too long.

What I'd like to see, and I realize this could be difficult given the scale of battles lately, is that the character blocks and action blocks be blended together more so that neither one feels like been dominating or absent in the recent past.

The other thing that may be throwing people off is that the pacing is confusing. The recent fighting may well prove to be skirmishes on the scale of the overall story, but they've felt like giant, epic battles. To go from that to a couple chapters of mostly talking gives a bit of emotional whiplash. You feel like the story is building to a climax, then get shut down for half a dozen chapters. People expect a rising action profile, not a saw toothed one. You can easily dismiss it as formulaic if so inclined, but there is a reason action stories tend to front load the talking and back load the big action sequences: it works.

One thing I want to clarify regarding saw toothed action sequence comment: I'm referring to having multiple low action chapters followed by multiple high action chapters, repeating. Within a single chapter, starting with talking and building towards action would be OK. Both give an effectively saw toothed profile, but multiple chapter long saw tooth is what gives the jarring pacing. In other words, small teeth are good, large teeth are bad.

All of that said, it would probably be a mistake to make too drastic of changes to the story at this point. If anything, it would probably amplify the existing pacing confusion and possibly compromise the epic scale that we've come to expect from this story.

I don't think Jimn's comments about pacing apply. This is a serial not a movie or even a novel. Changing up the pacing is pretty much a requirement for this genre. It help keeps the narrative fresh after 95 chapters. I feel the size of the 'teeth' is altogether suitable for the style of story being told.

Benonai

It's hard to escape some of the pacing issues because the story is a serial. With a complete story, you would just keep reading to get to the next battle. Instead, we have to wait. So, that makes the pacing in the story seem slower than it actually is.

Even some of Hollywood's most successful writers have challenges getting a good balance between character development, world building and plot. You see it talked about all the time when a movie fails to live up to the pre-release hype.

Teffler is still developing as a writer -- as most writers do as they continue to write more. As we all know, his universe building is amazing, and his action sequences are exciting. He gave himself a real challenge though with a magic power and John's nurturing making all the gals such strong, well-balanced individuals. While each of them have personality traits that get highlighted along the way, they can often feel interchangeable when interacting with John -- such as in the bedroom. Calara's mom, by contrast, interacts much differently with John. (I, for one, really enjoy her scenes for that reason.)

The sex has been another challenge. There's an old joke that sex has three instructions: Step 1 - In. Step 2 - Out. Step 3 - Repeat as Necessary. With 95 chapters, it gets hard to write a new twist on the sex, but it's not like Teffler can just drop it now -- it would be too big of a change in tone. As erotica writers get more experience, the way they combat this is with what happens before the clothes come off. They also take the characters on a sexual journey. While Teffler has dealt with a couple of taboos, he gave himself another writing challenge when he made that gals fall in love with everything kinky so quickly. As erotica authors write more, they also spend more time in the heads of their characters. Stories become as much about what characters are thinking and feeling, and less about what they are doing.

As I have said before, this is a critique, but not a complaint. I love the story and look forward to each new chapter. I just recognize that the serial nature of the writing, the length of the story, the constraints built into the storyline and Teffler's development as a writer all contribute to the comments people have about the pace of the story and what the story needs more or less of.

well done on your comment on Tefler's work . He is doing much better with this story

I think he is doing just fine. Keep up the good work Tefler!!!!! Thank You ZEKE7474

Great comments. Some nice analogies. I can see what you both mean. I guess here's where Tefler's "style" of writing comes into the picture. Without understanding his priorities it is difficult to predict the kind of growth he can be pointed towards. I wish though that he has an incentive to take that next step, regardless of his ratings or public appeal. That kind of sophistication is realistically only possible on longer chapter breaks. Still, i won't be surprised if he does it despite the shorter release periods - he's that good.

Matt.

A very merry Christmas to one n all.

Thanks for the comments, they made for interesting reading. :-)

This story plays out more like a tv series than a movie, with the build up to action and then the combat itself happening every 4 chapters or so. I only noticed this recently when I was working out how I'd break up all the existing chapters into eBooks.

So the story normally follows roughly this kind of formula:

Chapter 1: Plot/character development

Chapter 2: hints at next battle more plot/character development

Chapter 3: Battle chapter

Chapter 4: Post-battle review, repairs, what they're planning next

I'd say the reason that you get a couple of chapters focused on them chatting, is because there are travel times between the big battles, where they get a bit of a breather from the action. It's also very difficult to break up action scenes for some character development without breaking the dramatic tension in an ongoing battle, which means they have to discuss events afterwards during the lull.

The scale of the battles have also increased dramatically from the early days, as they take on more powerful opponents as the crew have grown stronger. The major consequence of that, is I can't just throw random short combat encounters in and make them anything other than completely trivial. Like the rescue of that Ashanath Merchant from the sole Drakkar cruiser (which was intended to just be trivial, as it was there only to foreshadow the Battle of Ashana).

We're well into the second half of the story, so most of the fights now will be major conflicts with far-reaching consequences. When I start the sequel, there'll be a different mix of plot/action/character development, but that's a little way away yet. :-)

Tefler

Well telfer, your story has been good from the start and it continues to remain addictive. I also don't think i'm the only one that feels that way. Because i pretty honestly don't think i can name that many stories that accumulate 50-100 comments every effing chapter. Personally i'm hoping ch 96 pops up soon because with as many cliffhangers as there are in this chapter is just cruel. In the most delightful way possible.

I've been trying to figure out a good reason (other than straight up economics) for all those "shut down & decommissioned" Maliri defensive bases (equivalent to the Genyia station) to continue to remain mothballed.

Doesn't make sense to let any defenses be less than maximum capable, *knowing* (not just guessing!) that there's another Progenitor out there *actively* operating against the Maliri/Ashanath/Trankaran/Human alliance (The MATH alliance HA!).

(OK, I know, the humans aren't there just yet, but the Admiralty is seriously asking - begging - for the kind of spanking that will involve Buckingham & his cronies either all getting really ugly-gacked or at least any survivors of said spanking realizing 'the error of their ways' and causing them to have a change of heart WRT John & the girls, which *should* then get the humans and everyone else all on the same side...)

Surely at least Calara would be thinking about reactivating/improving ALL defensive facilities, even if they weren't necessarily fully staffed just yet: the Maliri are sending fleets of ships out all over the place, and in doing so are seriously neglecting their own defenses. They need more ships/crews/state of the art upgrades, ASAP.

Yesterday would be OK. Last week? Even better! Last month would be even more ideal...

Seems like it would be a "relatively" cheap intermediate step to reactivate the old defensive starport bases, and up-arm them with latest & greatest shields/power cores/nova lances/mass drivers & metric-buttloads of EMP missiles similar to those that the Kirrix were using...

Then there are minefields: nice, explodey, fleet-killing minefields...

-Springboard-

When does ch 96 go up? Just re read the whole story from ch 1....!!I need ch96 soon before insanity sets in....lol

Chapter 96 is now showing as awaiting Moderator's Approval. This usually, but not always, means that it will go live tonight at midnight Pacific time.

(And Tefler -- sorry for writing Teffler so often ;-)

Thanks Tef!

Kinda figured you´d do this, so didn´t read #95 ´till #96 was up also....man what a great read so far...gotta go, gotta go...tell you more after 96...

Here we go again, and on so many fronts. Pushing 100 chapters now and only getting more intense and enthralling. Go Invictus. 🚀