Three Square Meals Ch 78 - Complete!

It seems like John is making a hive Progenitor out of the girls . Instead of hording all the power to himself h, he has been elevating the girls to wield Progenitor like power. They have been enhanced without John losing anything & they each have so far returned a whole lot more than they've taken , Dana's inventions & improvements on weapons , Rachel's work with understanding the Progenitor DNA & medical treatments & cures , Alyssa growth in Psychic powers , Carla's tactical genius & marksmanship ,Irillith's comuter hacking & infiltration & growing electrical powers & so on. Instead of having to face just John BSP will have to face a coordinated team of supremely powerful beings .

bigdawguw65

Mac, I think that line you're referring to is John alluding to his plan to activate the third helix of the Terran girls, or in Sakura's case, giving her more power. And I have to agree with Sharkbait, I don't see PJ coming out to play any time soon. He's locked away tight, and it has been said before in the story that John would have to consciously break PJ out of his prison in order to confront him. When that happens, it's an all or nothing deal; PJ can't be locked away again after. Either John deals with him once and for all, or PJ takes over...permanently.

Jedi Khan

I'm curious, what do you think this dialogue means? "He paused for a second, then asked, *You know what I’ve been planning. Do you think they’re ready?* *Yes,* Alyssa replied simply." I think I totally misunderstood it perhaps...

Don't see PJ making an appearance anytime soon. Am wondering how much tech John will be trading with the Ashanath. Obviously they have been holding back with the proginator tech do John should score big there. And now that the Ashanath have been exposed as been horribly vulnerable with 100% dependencies on energy weapons. In order to make the Ashanath able to protect themselves will John share Danas upgraded Hevy and Gauss cannons

MJHSharkbait365

I have this sneaky feeling that Dana will end up coordinating repairs to the Legacy...! Any cliffhanger theories? Is John going to let PJ out to play?

Tefler, as I read Chapter again I noticed you tied in your Truckstop Takedown. Keep up the great work and look forward to see what happens next.

Tef made a comment yesterday on this post saying he has 8k done.

Jedi Khan

Not necessarily, Kenny. We saw at the Battle of Regulus that Terran bombers were able to use their torpedoes to cripple either a Kintark cruiser or battleship (not sure which) that still had its shields up. A secondary explosion knocked out the ship's shields, opening it up to a finishing blow from the Terran heavy cannons.

Jedi Khan

Tefler, you posted about a week ago that you had written the first 2.5K of Chapter 79. Is it time for an update?

Evan

I think you have to get the shields down first before you can use torpedoes.

Arakasi

Good stuff John. You could also do a spin on the Ashanath gravity well/mine ambush and stage several of these "pods" in the area where they would drop out of hyper warp and have yourself a more damaging ambush (compared to just mines alone). Some type of target acquisition and assignment computer/scanner on top with torpedoes facing each direction, not that it would really matter which way it faced

Dennis Aston

Tefler: I have a suggestion for an upgrade for the Raptor. Have Dana create some shaped charged, armor piercing crystal tipped, auto homing, target discriminating torpedoes that can be inserted as a rack module through the front loading door of the cargo bay...two racks, one after the other, separated by the back end of the rack modules, which can be expelled via small charges. If you have a miniature Progen power supply and 4 directional thrusters with half a dozen thrusters as the main propulsion: It could easily hold 50 Dana improved torpedoes that way and be much more effective against larger targets. Have the initial 50 torpedoes go after engines, one or two apiece depending on the size of the ship, and you have effectively eliminated a minimum of 25 enemy capital ships or 50 smaller vessels in a matter of minutes. Eject the first pod, and do the same. Taking out 50 capital ships or 100 smaller vessels within minutes of engagement is a serious strategic advantage. And you don't have to take out their shields to do it. They could be shoot and forget weapons due to being able to discriminate which targets to hit...so you do a quick fleet insertion via a hyper warp jump to get into the middle of them, release the torpedoes, and hyper warp back out of range. Reload inside the Invictus cargo bay and hit them again via regular engines (due to the now littered battlefield). The Raptor is the perfect vessel for such a fleet insertion mission as it is immune to energy weapons, is the fastest ship in the field by a large margin, and is more maneuverable than any ship out there. This would also help negate any Brimorian shield advantages the Kintark are about to field.

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

great as always,

Recharging your batteries is always a good thing.

Big Dude

I'm guess John and the girls don't care one bit about showing off their powers is it means saving lives. Besides caring for the Ashanath they will do anything it takes to save lives. Agreed the Ashanath may be totally terrified of John and the girls afterwards, but he would rather deal with that than let them die.

MJHSharkbait365

I was just thinking, this next chapter there are bound to be some scenes where the 4 in the boarding party do some crazy fighting in front of one or more Ashanath. If the Ashanath see Alyssa floating, throwing hex shields and lightning around with John doing his thing and Sakura playing little invisible buzzsaw they are going to seriously lose their, umm, stuff. Maybe not the average Ashanath but the council for sure, they know what he is. Especially if they see Alyssa as I am not sure if they know all a matriarch can do. We know Valada can do telekenisis but what are the differences?

Dennis Aston

Did it give you any ideas? I googled singularity drivers and found where they were used in a game, and then spent the next 10 minutes seeing where the technology eventually went (when are we getting Graviton and/or quantum drivers Tefler?). I know. It's never enough for us, but if we never ask you may never write it....

Dennis Aston

Thanks for all the comments everyone! I took a couple of days off to play "Endless Space 2" and have been busy crushing the alien menace under my despotic bootheel. For the glory of the Terran Federation! I'm getting back into chapter 79 now and have written 8k so far!

Tefler

Hmm, S/O to TEFLER, you promised version numbers, now give em to us! ;)

It was a viscious rumor that there was supposed to be a part 2 for 78.

Dennis Aston

psst...the file doesn't have a different title for each version...

GrandPaM

I don't think we've seen the team scale any actual cliffs yet. You want to make that happen, Stacey? Given the wit you've displayed with the previous offerings, I imagine that this can prove to be fertile ground.

Jedi Khan

Arrrrgggghhhh! You cliff hanging bastard!!!!!!!!!

But then there would be no reason to give Dana an upgrade!!

Arakasi

She hacked across star systems in Terran space which has a comms relay network. Without that she s limited to the ships comms. However, since the battle is taking place around a planet, I would think that the Invitus comms relay should be powerfull enough for her to hack any ship around the planet.

Arakasi

Dana was attached to the Ashanath "Legacy". It got all beat to hell, not sure how much it could move on it's own..

Muledrvr

threw a curveball at us tefler, i thought irillith would have taken over controls for the vessel dana was attached to and change course.....

That's a good idea, just not sure it's in Faye's wheelhouse.

Youkai-sama

Calara turned her head towards Faye, I’ve got an idea. How many avatars can you spare and still manage to keep the Invictus safe? I need to keep four actively involved counting the bridge, manning the interior security and electronic security as well as my primary for coordination. However that leaves eight available, what do you have in mind? Can you ask Irillith a question for me? Sure Commander, what do want to know? I would like her to hack the biggest ships, open the airlocks like she is doing and then notify you and move on. That should leave an unmanned ship available for one of your avatars to take control of. If we do this correctly this will be a force multiplier. However I don’t want you or Irillith to do anything that you’re not comfortable with. At any sign of trouble you both come back, understood? I can do that Commander! If you relay your commands to me I’ll keep my avatars busy with whatever you want them to do!

Roy Meyer

I have a suggestion for the continuation of the fight.

Roy Meyer

Actually Tefler said he was taking the week off to play with his new computer. (ducks all the incoming) JUST KIDDING!

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Must have gotten in his monitors today!

Tefler, are you still on schedule for today for Part 2?

How many words done on ch 79, Tefler? We really are too impatient. Me especially. LOL

Wookey

I'm looking forward to Jade going She-Hulk!

Wookey

Oh fuck! Dana about killed me. When she said "I'm gonna need bigger engines", all I could hear was Tim the Toolman Taylor grunting about more power! I'm in stitches!

Lord Winter

What a cliffhanger!

Akamai Kekoa

Hopefully the missing 10-15 pages has the solution to the hanger...... (hint, hint.....)

Muledrvr

LOL Stay off the sub comments and you should be "alright"..... "Mostly"..... LOL

Muledrvr

You and me both. Gets addictive

Dennis Aston

Man I wish this could be a movie but there is simply too much here. This is more like a 10 part series. I mean, without much backstory you could take just the Nexus fight piece and and make an epic movie out of it. One of Tefler's strengths I think is his level of detail like you showed above but the problem with that is it all takes time for those little detail scenes.

Dennis Aston

It does seem like the next logical step in Calara's evolution. Now that Dana has received a major 'upgrade' with the activation of her psychic ability I can't wait to see what Tefler comes up for the other girls.

It looks as though, if John wants to use Calara's tactical genius more efficiently in multi-species battles, he's going to have to activate her psychic powers to be able to link directly to other commanders. Whether it be ship commanders or fleet commanders. Distracting Alyssa while she's in direct combat, by using her as a relay, can only lead to bad things.

She was in Paragon armour. "They could all see her excited grin through the clear-crystal faceplate of her Paragon armour as she added, "Valkyrie ready to kick some ass!" "

There are still a lot of Darkkar floating around & Tashana might still see some boarding action . I'm sure some WarBoss might think to try & grab the white super ship.

bigdawguw65

Really thought Tash would have been in the boarding party with Alyssa because to the communications link, you can never have enough guns in a boarding action, and pistols are often better for close action

On the surface of Ashana, not far from the secret facility that housed the Progenitor monoliths, a small rodent known locally as a Savrit dug in the orange dirt, foraging for Reworb grubs. It felt a slight vibration and dug faster, thinking the grub it had sniffed out was trying to escape by burying itself deeper into the sandy ground. The trembling intensified and the Savrit lurched out of the hole it was digging, looking around in fear in case a predator approached. Its short ears twitched and its orange fur bristled, not able to sense anything beyond the violently shaking ground. Thoroughly spooked, it bolted for its nest, all thoughts of dinner swept from its tiny mind by an instinct for self-preservation. This is one of the best scenes you have written in the entire chapter.I literally imagined whole scene in my mind from Simple rodent to Terrifying Progenitor ship. Keep up good work Tefler. If TV series or Movie adapted from this book, then don't forget to include this scene.

That cliff hanger is absolutely inhumane. I cannot wait for the next chapter.

Great now I can't wait for next chapter ( psst that's a good thing ). On another note still hoping for more boarding actions from Drakkar ( sue me I love boarding actions :) P.S. What's with this lone dropship ( the one that pinned Dana ) heading to Ashana surface, was it only this one ?

Mech! My first thought when Dana climbed into the cockpit, last chapter, was: "Why the f*k didn't she design it to be piloted in Paragon amor." The armor could easily be linked to the sensors and controls of the Mech. It provides additional protection. In case of fatal damage to the Mech, the pilot is still combat ready.

Nekronom

I enjoyed until the end when I knew I was on the last page and read "You know what I've been planning. Do you think they're ready?" and I realized that you had ended on another cliffhanger, though I should not erally be surprising at this point.

Malthe Mørk Mejlby

Excellent chapter Tefler loving it all.

Mick Peaper

Excellent chapter. Enjoyed it immensely.

1000 patrons now...congrats, Tefler!

That cliff hanger Tef! Ermagerd 2-3 weeks is gonna be torture!

999 Patrons now

That's quite the list! It looks like I've got my work cut out for me! :-)

Tefler

I wrote her first combat scene yesterday! ;-)

Tefler

Tef. You are quite the writer. I like the fact that you continue to make these chapters unpredictable. You've also got us looking forward to so many other aspects of the story to be fulfilled. Tashana & pyrokinesis, Mikaboshi, Sakura's skills, more Progenitor tech, facing Progenitor John, separating & saving Athena, fighting the monster on the astral plane, finding John's mom, getting Brimorian shield tech, continuing to heal the Maliri, getting to the bottom of all the mess that has been stirred up & final showdown with the other Progenitor. I'm missing more of the detailed stuff that goes in between, but so far this is my comprehensive list.

No. This is the whole chapter, with first half edited. Thus, it is version 1.

Excellent chapter. I did notice an odd sentence. When the Drakkar launched torpedoes at the legacy "The Ashanath gunners were not a patch on Calara though, and the beams of red light sailed high or low, the weapons too slow and inaccurate to target the fast moving and relatively tiny torpedoes." I don't think that's what you intended. It's definitely going to be a difficult wait for chapter 79 😢. When I reached the end of the chapter it was like "NOOOOOO!!!!"

Another fantastic Cliff-Hanger ending keep up the good work.

My mistake, I see its the whole chapter. Thanks again great chapter.

Hey Tefler, just finished reading Chapter 78 part one. Great, great, great, and can't wait for the rest. THANKS

Ahhhh! Tef I have been waiting to sakura in a melee battle ever since she started training with John and got her crystal allysium swords! Why must you keep teasing me!

Pass go and collect >$1625 (less Patreon's commission) don't you mean... LOL

Wookey

2 minutes later its 995.

Wookey

994 Patrons..... so close to 1000

Wookey

Ooooh! Freaking. Awesome! I swear that I popped a filling gnashing my teeth when the chapter ended. Great work, as always.

MuddMaxx

It's nearly 1am so I'm off to bed! It was fantastic to hear that you guys enjoyed the latest chapter and hopefully you won't have to wait too long to find out how the battle ends. I'm planning to finish off the rest of the fight, then I'll put up part 1 as a preview of chapter 79, so you can see it even faster! :-)

Tefler

The Nova Lances and Singularity drivers have triple the range of the Beam Lasers and Heavy Cannons. As the Invictus is charging the battleships, they take a detour to test the Gauss Cannons on the cruisers: "She (Alyssa) pulled up to rush past a group of three black Drakkar cruisers that were harrying a formation of six disc-shaped cruisers, two of which had already been mauled by purple Beam Laser fire. " There's a couple of PoV switches, then: "Irillith had already fallen into a trance by the time the Invictus reached hacking range, her mind soaring through the Invictus' gateway as she stormed the furthest of the three remaining battleships from Vekrok's retinue. " That's when they finally reach the last three battleships from Vekrok's retinue (and promptly smash them!)

Tefler

Nice ch but i noticed that the last 3 battleships that was escorts for the overlord change to cruisers ? When faye and cala started using the new guns

Thanks for that one! It's meant to be "Rathus". He's the Councillor that assists Dana with the refit in Chapter 26.

Tefler

This is just the first part of this chapter folks. The rest is coming Thursday!

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Really enjoyed reading this chapter! I know the quality of a story is exceptional when I feel the frustration of reaching the end.

Ah Shit O Great One! Got to the head of the class, pass GO and collect the $200.00. This chapter's description is beyond mere words. Exceptionally well done. Once I started I could not stop reading. You have had what I thought were great chapters previously but in my humble opinion this has got to be one of your very best. I am very proud to be one of your admirers.

Great chapter. Loved how Faye got in on the action. Damn Cliffhanger. Looking forward to how this battle ends.

Anthony Kester

Damn that cliffhanger is just mean. Another fantastic chapter, eagerly awaiting the next.

Byroz

I think that the fireball eyes might be something Dana gets in her next upgrade... It will be interesting to see some other side effects of her emergency upgrade though...

You know, with the strength of these metals I am wondering at what point if these guys try to breech a hull that that aren't going to blow themselves off of it. I know in this case at least one of them was a drilling action but it doesn't seem feasible anymore.

Dennis Aston

The cliffhangers kill me but this chapter was great, love the battle scenes

More more more Please 😍

clauskj3r

Ohh noo not another cliffhanger aargh great chapter though can't wait for the next instalment keep em coming tefler

Jim lynch

It is 10-15 pages short again...

Keep up the awesome work... love this story... BTW: Is it Councillor Rathus or Councillor Ralthus... or are there two of them...? lol EDIT: They are both used four (4) times each in Chapter 78, whereas previously, only Councilor Rathus (no L) was mentioned prior to this chapter.

GREAT!! haven't had a chance to read it yet & already being bombarded by comments about a cliff hanger . That will teach me to try & get some sleep when posting is imminent .

bigdawguw65

Tomorrow!!!!???? I wanted it this afternoon......damn.....sigh.

LOL, first they diss on Dana's name for the mech, then John doesn't give her the fireball eyes. She's gonna be torqued. On the other hand, I can see her using her new abilities to do some extra tinkering with...well, with everything. Besides, if she can get her hands on more Progenitor technology or schematics, I think she'll end up a happy camper.

I need to go back and check again but it felt like a paragraph of shooting by jade was replaced with Dana. Anyone else see that or was I off base? Oh and also... Tefler due to the nature of that cliffhanger the next chapter is out tomorrow right?

Grimlakin

I don't think anything was more drastic than Jade's death cliffhanger. The amount of outraged emails i received was epic! :-)

Tefler

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. :-)

Tefler

Great chapter! I love the fact that the girls pre-loaded, so to speak! Always wondered why that didn't occur to anyone after they discovered his healing abilities.

Cheers!

Tefler

If you wait, then there'll be a lot less errors as there's always more that get picked up with each pass. After I finish this next edit, that will be the bulk of the additional scenes/dialogue changes etc.

Tefler

Haha! Yeah, it seemed like a decent stopping point! :-)

Tefler

Heh, yeah that feedback was actually really helpful. Everyone came up with lots of great names, but sadly I could only use one...

Tefler

It's always fun coming up with new ideas for stuff for them to do!

Tefler

There's more thrills and spills in store, hopefully it should make for fun reading!

Tefler

Thanks! It was an interesting one to write. :-)

Tefler

Only because you guys love it. ;-)

Tefler

:D yeah, that should be bow to stern, or fore to aft.

Lord Winter

Just thought I'd mention - "tearing it apart from aft to stern. " Aft is the back of the craft - so is the stern...

Such an evil cliffhanger :-D. I'm really looking forward to reading what happens next :-)

so just finished and omg the cliff hanger...this one was almost as bad as when you had jade die... but thank you for this. and the scene with faye i was just telling my gf how they could have pulled off exactly what you did(yes she reads this with me we find the series incredibly well written) so congratz on another well done series

Morris Crawford

Great Chapter Tefler.

Great chapter. Now picturing how the cliffhanger will turn out...

This is the moment I hate the most! Do I read this version? or do I hold out and bare the pain for two more days for the final version?? AAAAGGGHHHH! The indisicion hurts almost as much!

Wow.... YOU LEFT IT THERE?!?!? ARGHHHHHH!!!!!

Muledrvr

Well spotted! I've just fixed that now and I'll update a new version with the edit I'm working on atm. :-)

Tefler

Awww Tefler Cliffhanger, Also Page 64, 68 you have tachyon Lasers, rather than Photon Lasers for Dana's Valkyrie

only read part of it and i love the story arc tie in and the way you accommodated all your readers with the mech name

Morris Crawford

Fantastic chapter - the array of tricks which Blake and the girls have are just bloody amazing - now I am dying to read 79 - 😎

Kim Biel-Nielsen

Let me just say how much I hate your cliffhangers. I love everything else, but that cliffhanger is gonna have me messed up all day, trying to imagine what you have in mind.

Sergio Snek

Fabulous chapter, Tefler! An interesting cliffhanger...

Evan

FFS Tefler, ANOTHER cliffhanger?!? :p

Morningfrost

Awesome!!! Thanks Tefler for what will surely be an exceptional chapter. Plus I just finished work and have the next two days off 😁 (live east coast Australia)

Damn, that's my productivity down for the rest of the day.

Byroz

Yyeeaaahh boy, thanks!

WeirdWhirl

Yay!!

Muledrvr