John awoke this morning with a lovely exotic beauty in his arms. He was lying on his side, wrapped possessively around Irillith, and her warm blue flesh felt wonderful against his skin. She sensed him stirring, and tucked her long white hair back behind a pointed ear, so that she could turn to look at him over her shoulder.

"Good morning, my love," he said, smiling at her as he gazed into her alluring violet eyes.

Irillith seemed to melt in his arms, her expression softening, as she turned onto her back and stared up at him. "I love you too," she replied, the hushed words forming on her full lips for the first time.

After opening herself to him so fully last night, both physically and emotionally, she looked vulnerable this morning. He could see her watching him intently, studying every expression on his face as she searched for clues to his feelings. He decided to be merciful with the inexperienced Maliri girl, knowing this was all new territory for her.

"Last night was magical," he said to her sincerely. "You look breathtakingly beautiful this morning, and it feels like we're closer than ever before."

She nodded slowly, a lovely smile spreading across her face as she relaxed in his arms. He could see her pupils widening as she gazed at him, and he could hear her heart racing as she thrilled to be held by him. "I've never felt this way about anyone before," she admitted hesitantly.

He flushed slightly, wishing he could say the same thing, and she smiled as she correctly guessed what he was thinking. He paused for a moment, then said, "I love you all equally, but it's very different with each of you." He brushed the back of his fingers over her soft cheek, and added, "I love your fiery spirit. You're a very passionate girl."

Her cheeks turned a deep indigo blue as she blushed at his sincere words, and she had a strange smile on her face as she said, "I can't tell you how good it feels, knowing that you love me like you love the others."

He leaned down and kissed her, then a shadow of regret flashed over his face as he said, "I'm sorry that we didn't get to enjoy those first two weeks together. Not properly, I mean. It wasn't the same with my Progenitor-half fucking everything up, and you deserved better."

Irillith smiled at him in gratitude, then she flushed slightly and admitted, "Actually, I enjoyed myself immensely. You know how your cum affects me..." She smiled, then adopted a euphoric look that he recognised well. With a self-conscious laugh, she added, "You've all mentioned it a few times, so I was curious what I looked like, and checked out the video footage."

John grinned at her, and admitted, "I'm not going to lie, I love that blissed-out look you get. It does my ego a world of good when you act like it's the most delicious thing you've ever tasted."

She blushed a darker shade of blue, then said with a shy smile, "I'm not acting..." Remembering what they were originally discussing, she added, "But please don't feel bad about what happened in those first two weeks. I could still feel the real you protecting me when we were together, despite your Progenitor side being around the rest of the time."

Talk of her swallowing his cum had both of them turned on, and when he kissed her again, Irillith's full lips parted for him as their passion intensified. John's hand went to her neck, brushing his fingers down her throat, and he felt the chill touch of metal against his fingers. Pulling back a little he saw that she still had the Crystal Alyssium collar around her neck, and he smiled as he traced his fingers around the edge, making her skin tingle as he caressed her.

"The collar's very sexy, but you don't need it any more, do you?" he asked her with a playful smile.

Irillith bit her lip, and then replied, "No, I'm all yours now." Her tone was seductive as she added, "You can leave it on if you want, though."

He shook his head, and running his fingers down her slender neck, he replied, "It looks incredible on you, but it's not practical. I love being buried down your lovely throat when I feed you."

An excited gleam appeared in her eyes, and she said, "You'll have to remove it for me then, there isn't a clasp."

Leaning up on one elbow, he gestured to the Crystal Alyssium with his right hand. It shimmered a moment, then slowly flowed away from her neck, melting into a glossy white liquid as it floated in a swirling ball a few inches above her. He was just going to turn it into a cube and cast it aside, but a glance at the lovely girl beneath him made him change his mind.

Concentrating on an image in his mind, he applied his will to the roiling crystalline alloy, making it conform to the shape he had imagined. It elongated, with a larger bulb at one end, and Irillith gasped as he added more and more detail to his telekinetic sculpture. When he was done, a beautiful white rose floated before her, intricate petals forming the head, with a long graceful stem which beneath it, adorned with delicate looking leaves.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful," she gasped, thoroughly enchanted by his artisanship.

"Inspired by you," he replied with a smile, as he slowly lowered the flower to nestle in the impressive valley between her pert breasts.

She looked genuinely touched as she picked up the crystal rose, watching it catch the light as she turned it slowly in her hands. He could see tears in her eyes as she turned to look at him, and said, "Thank you, I'll treasure this forever."

He smiled at her and leaned in for a kiss, pausing an inch from her lips as he said, "I feel the same way about you, too."

She sighed happily, then put the rose to one side before pulling him down for a passionate kiss. He'd never seen Irillith like this before, and he throbbed with arousal as she entwined herself around him. Just as they were getting really excited, he heard light footfalls heading down the corridor towards the bedroom. Irillith heard them too, and when she met his eyes, she looked torn with indecision for a moment.

John pulled away slightly and looked at the door, seeing Sakura poking her head in tentatively, clearly looking for him. She gasped when she spotted John in bed with Irillith, and started to beat a hasty retreat.

"Come back, it's okay!" Irillith called out to her, partially sitting up as John moved clear.

Sakura froze, then walked slowly back to the bedroom, and said with some trepidation, "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to intrude."

Irillith gave her an inviting smile, and said, "I know you have something important to discuss with John. It's alright, I have an eternity to look forward to with him." Turning to John, her smile softened as she whispered, "I thought last night was good, but this morning was absolutely wonderful. Next time we're in bed together, I'm going to give you a night to remember..."

He gave her a quick kiss, then grinned at her, delighted to see her looking so radiant, but deeply regretting that she had to leave at all. She pulled back the covers, then after a moment's hesitation, climbed gracefully out of bed. Sakura gaped at the stunning blue-skinned girl, and Irillith smiled at her as she sashayed confidently out of the room, the white crystal rose held safely in her hand.

"Good morning, Sakura. Did you sleep well?" John asked the shocked Asian girl.

Barely managing to tear her eyes away from the nude Maliri, Sakura turned to face him, and replied quietly, "The room and bed were very comfortable, but I woke up a few times. Bad dreams..."

He gave her a sympathetic smile, then copying her gesture from last night, he patted the side of the bed, and said, "Tell me about them."

Sakura recognised the gesture, and smiled as she walked over to sit demurely on the bed. She was wearing another of Calara's old outfits, and the tailored trousers and blouse fit her petite frame surprisingly well. After staring at him for a moment, she replied, "I've been reliving Shinatobe's assassinations." She looked haunted as she added, "The memories are so sharp and clear. It's like I'm right there, but I can't stop myself from doing those terrible things..."

John frowned, his face clearly showing his regret at not wiping those memories from her mind.

She could tell what he was thinking, so she interrupted him before he could say anything, and was quite determined as she said, "It's better this way. All those victims need someone to remember what happened, and to make Mikaboshi pay for what he unleashed on them."

"You haven't changed your mind, then? You still want your revenge on him?" he asked her, a sad look on his face.

Sakura studied him for a long moment, then sat up straighter, her expression determined. "I want to join you and the girls," she told him decisively.

John frowned and protested, "You don't know what you're asking. You'd be escaping one life of violence, and just exchanging it for another."

She stared into his eyes, and said, "I want to plead my case. Will you listen to me with an open mind, and hear me out?"

Resting his back against the headboard, he watched her appraisingly, studying the determined set of her jaw and the fierce gleam in her eyes. After a long moment, he replied, "You may make your case, Counsellor."

Taking a deep breath, she said, "Let me start by saying that whatever you decide, I'll always be hugely indebted to you for what you've done for me. I was trapped in my own mind, and now I'm free, and it's all thanks for you."

"I can't claim all the credit," he protested. He glanced at the doorway behind her, and added, "It was truly a team effort, all the girls pitched in to rescue you."

She reached out to touch his hand, and she squeezed it gently as she said, "I know, and I'll thank each of them too. I'm thanking you now, though."

He smiled at her, and said, "You don't owe me anything. If you really want to do something for me in return, you'll do your best to live your new life to the fullest."

"Oh, I intend to," she agreed passionately as she stared into his eyes.

Frowning, he said, "That's not what I mea-."

She squared her shoulders and interrupted saying, "Objection, your honour, the defence counsel is interrupting my opening statement."

Despite himself, he couldn't help but laugh, and said, "Sustained. Please proceed, counsellor."

Her almond-shaped brown eyes twinkled as she smiled at him, then she turned serious as she said, "I understand why you feel the way you do. Alyssa explained everything to me, and I know you're worried that I'm a vulnerable girl, and you're somehow coercing me into this."

*Alyssa...* he said to his impish matriarch, his tone thoroughly disapproving.

There was no playfulness in her voice when Alyssa replied however, and she said, *Sakura's a bright girl, and she knows what she wants. Listen to what she has to say, then we can discuss it afterwards.*

He was surprised at her tone, and his eyes flicked back to Sakura, who realised he was chastising the psychic blonde.

Now that she had his full attention again, she said, "When Mikaboshi abducted me, he didn't just ruin my life, he devastated my parents too. Thanks to you, I can move on to a new life now, but they never had that chance. Shinatobe assassinated four-hundred-and-thirty-two people, but how many more lives were ruined, with the victim's families mourning their murdered loved ones? You mentioned revenge earlier, but I'm seeking it for all those people, not just for me.

Mikaboshi twisted me into a monster, and these hands have done so many evil things. But my story doesn't have to end there, and you have a chance to turn that evil into a powerful force for good. I still retain all my memories of everything Shinatobe did, and at the very least, I can use that knowledge to help you take steps to protect your ship, and prevent another assassination attempt from happening again."

He smiled at her as he said, "You don't need to 'join us' for that, though."

"That's very true, the defence counsel makes a good point," she conceded. Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the light when she added, "But I can be so much more! You're a good man, so I know you wouldn't use me for assassinations, but I could be a bodyguard for your girls!"

"We've taken out all the implants," he replied, with a shake of his head. "You don't have those skill chips in place now. I regenerated your brain to replace the section where the cybernetic device was before."

"You're a swordmaster, you can train me!" she exclaimed passionately. Inching closer to him, she added, "Just think about the girls you have on your crew: Rachel, a doctor, Dana, an engineer, Irillith, a hacker, Jade, a pilot, Calara, the ship's gunner, and Alyssa, your matriarch. You haven't truly tailored anyone for personal combat yet, and I can be that missing link in your team!"

John was shocked at the extent of her knowledge about their organisation, and he knew full well where she'd got this information from. He was about to take Alyssa to task over it, but he stopped at the last moment, and forced himself to really think about what Sakura was saying to him. As much as he hated to admit it, she was making a very convincing argument.

When he focused on her again, she said in a sombre voice, "You saw that video of my parents. What my mother said was true; I loved the law because I saw it as a way of seeking justice for people who desperately needed it."

Suspecting he knew the answer already, he asked, "But you don't see it that way any more?"

Sakura's expression was bleak as she answered, "I spent seventy-seven years as a prisoner in my own mind, watching helplessly while my body was used to murder people. If I learnt anything from that, it taught me I was terribly wrong. The law is there to give false hope to the weak, letting them believe they'll eventually get justice. To truly be able to punish the wicked, you have to be powerful, like you, and Alyssa. If you weren't strong enough to defend yourselves, you wouldn't have been able to stop Shinatobe, and she would've killed you."

"Is that what you want then? To be powerful?" he asked her, as he studied her intently.

She paused, staring at him for a long moment before she replied, "The galaxy is teeming with evil men who prey on the weak. I want to be like you; a force for good. It's all I've ever really wanted."

John sighed, and said, "There's more to life than justice and vengeance. When my fight is done, I want to settle down with the girls, raise a family with them."

A flicker of grief flashed across Sakura's face as she said, "My old life was torn away from me. I've got nothing left to go back to, so I have to start again, whatever happens." She gave him a tentative smile, as she added, "Alyssa understands what I've been through, and I'm sure the others do too. I don't want you to wipe my memory, but I know I can find peace here with all of you. I can't imagine there's a more ideally suited group of people anywhere else in the galaxy, who can help me like you and the girls can."

He nodded, and reached out to stroke her cheek as he said quietly, "It's true, they've all suffered in their own way. Alyssa calls them, 'wounded little birds', and I've done my best to try and help them."

Sakura leaned in closer, and said plaintively, "Please help me, John. As much as you've done for me already, I'm sorry, but I still need you to do more."

His heart lurched with the desire to help her, and he almost agreed right there and then. He caught himself at the last moment though, and asked cautiously, "Do you know what joining us really means, though? Our relationship will change dramatically if we both decide to do this."

She stared at him unblinking and said, "I know what I'm asking, Alyssa explained everything to me." Their eyes met, and there was an electric atmosphere in the bedroom as she stroked his hand with her soft fingers. She gave him a bashful smile, as she concluded, "I rest my case. What's the verdict, Your Honour?"

At that moment Alyssa breezed in through the doorway, having followed the entire conversation by listening to John's thoughts. "Hello you two!" she said in a bright, cheerful voice, a knowing smile lighting up her face.

John glanced her way, and said, "It seems you've been having a very interesting chat with Sakura."

Alyssa shrugged, and said, "I like the girl, I want to help her get what she wants." Climbing onto the bed behind the petite Asian, she hugged her from behind as she continued, "I think she's lovely, and she'll fit in perfectly to our little family. I agree with her too, of course. I think she could be a powerful protector for me and the other girls."

Turning to look at Sakura once again, John held her hand in both of his, then he smiled as he said, "It seems you've successfully argued your case, counsellor." He made eye contact with her as he cautioned, "This is the point of no return. Once I fill your stomach with cum a third time, you'll be bonded to Alyssa and me permanently. There's no going back after this."

He didn't see even the slightest flicker of doubt in her eyes as she said, "I want this more than anything I've wanted before. I'm not afraid."

Alyssa smiled at John over Sakura's shoulder, and said, "Why don't we take things slow and gentle? How about a nice shower to start with?"

John carefully studied the dark-haired girl's lovely face, looking for any hint of trepidation, but she just smiled shyly at him and nodded. He was impressed by her unwavering resolve, and he was more convinced than ever that she was absolutely committed to her decision.

Alyssa grinned at him, and said, "You go first. That way Sakura can check you out, and still change her mind before it's too late!"

He laughed, then flung back the covers before striding towards the bathroom. He glanced back at the girls before he disappeared through the door, and was relieved to see that Sakura hadn't run screaming for the door. Walking into the big shower cubicle he turned on the water jets and enjoyed the streams sluicing over his body.

Alyssa heard the shower turn on, and she quickly scampered around in front of Sakura so that she was facing her. Her beautiful face was filled with gratitude as she leaned forward to give the Asian girl a tender kiss on the cheek. As she pulled back, she whispered earnestly, "Thank you so much!"

"What was that for?" Sakura asked in surprise.

The blonde girl grinned at her, and replied in a conspiratorial whisper, "Shh, he's got ears like a bat!"

Sakura smiled back at her, and then asked again, but very quietly this time, "What are you thanking me for? After you spent all that time briefing me, I should be the one thanking you."

Throwing a quick glance towards the bathroom door, Alyssa explained, "The way you talked him round was magnificent! He normally ends up being plagued with guilt when we've added a new girl to the group. It's not like that this time, he's actually looking forward to helping you!"

With a soft sigh of relief, Sakura said, "I'm glad. It's the least I could do after everything you've all done for me."

Alyssa slowly shook her head as she stared into Sakura's dark-brown eyes, and said, "Don't think of it like that, you don't owe us anything. I discussed this with the girls before I spoke to you, and it was unanimous, they all wanted you to join us." She smiled then as she added, "Just relax and enjoy being with him."

A flicker of doubt suddenly crossed Sakura's face, and she said in a tremulous voice, "I'd never... until those men..."

Pulling her into a hug, Alyssa whispered in her ear, "I know what happened to you, and I'm so sorry, it must have been horrific. John's a kind, gentle guy though, and he's not going to push you into anything you aren't ready for. Okay?"

Sakura hugged her back, and when they eventually pulled apart, it was her turn to have a grateful smile as she said, "Thank you. You've been wonderfully caring and understanding."

Alyssa gave her a playful wink and said, "I'm his Matriarch, remember? It's my job to look after you, and make sure you're happy." She slid off the bed, then smiled as she asked, "Shall we go and join him?"

The raven-haired girl nodded, looking much less pensive now, and climbed off the bed, taking Alyssa's outstretched hand. The two girls walked into the bathroom, and Sakura's eyes immediately darted to the shower cubicle, but the steam from the hot water had obscured her view. She felt a momentary flicker of disappointment, but her attention was then drawn to her companion, who had started removing her clothes.

Showing no inhibitions whatsoever, the exquisite blonde stripped off until she was completely nude, managing to look effortlessly elegant as she did so. She saw Sakura's look of awe as she gaped at her spectacular athletic body, so Alyssa did a graceful pirouette to let her see her whole body. Giving the smaller girl an encouraging smile, she said, "Time to take off those clothes, let's not keep John waiting any longer."

Sakura was transfixed though, staring in amazement at the ravishing beauty, and she gasped, "You're body is absolutely amazing!"

"You'll look exactly the same in a couple of weeks," Alyssa said with a sparkling grin.

Feeling self-conscious, the Asian girl started to remove her clothes, suddenly painfully aware of her smaller chest and much less athletic frame. She faltered before she took off her top, and said in a hushed voice, "He isn't going to be interested in me, not when he's already got a goddess like you."

Alyssa stifled a giggle, then leaned in and whispered, "There's six of us who look almost exactly alike. Trust me, he can't wait to get his hands on you!" She paused for a moment, then added, "In a gentle, reassuring, caring kind of way, obviously."

Sakura laughed at that, and said, "It's alright, you didn't scare me off." Emboldened now, she pulled off her top and removed her bra, standing unashamed as she exposed her breasts to Alyssa's curious eyes.

Biting her lip with arousal, Alyssa murmured, "You're a sexy girl, did you know that?"

Although she blushed furiously, Sakura decided to just get on with it, and stripped off the rest of her clothes until she was as naked as Alyssa. "I'm ready," she said simply.

With an excited grin on her face, Alyssa beckoned her over, then turned to the shower door, and pushed it open, letting out swirls of steam. Both girls entered the cubicle, and John made room for them so they could join him under the streams of water. He smiled at them both in a friendly manner, but he couldn't take his eyes off Sakura, who he was seeing properly for the first time.

Her skin was a rich golden brown, and she was slender and petite, but still very feminine. Her firm breasts were more the size of luscious oranges, rather than the considerably more substantial endowments that Alyssa and the other girls possessed, and her dark, perky nipples were just begging to be kissed. She had a neat black triangle above her pussy, which seemed almost strange to see now, what with the other girls being hairless from the neck down.

Sakura wasn't sure where to look herself, being equally fascinated by John's muscular chest, and Alyssa's gravity defying wonders. Everyone seemed unwilling to make the first move, with John and Alyssa not wanting to scare Sakura, and the petite girl not confident enough to instigate anything.

In the end, Alyssa stepped forward, and with a knowing smile, she said, "Go ahead, I know you're curious to see what they feel like." She arched her back, thrusting out her chest, and added, "But be warned, I can't wait to touch you too!"

The Asian girl let out an adorably nervous giggle, then tentatively reached out to place her dainty hands on Alyssa's impressive breasts. Her expression was one of wonder as she gave those big mounds a gentle squeeze, and ran her fingers over the warm flesh as she began her curious explorations.

John stepped around behind the petite girl, his hands reaching for her shoulders rather than swooping in for a more sensitive area. He heard her suck in her breath at his touch, but she soon relaxed as he started to massage the muscles in her shoulders. Alyssa was more uninhibited, and she simply began to return the same attention she was receiving, thoroughly enjoying caressing Sakura's breasts.

John's hands soon joined Alyssa's as he explored the petite young woman's body. She was so much smaller than the rest of the girls, and it was thrilling to feel the differences in her physique. Eventually his hand dropped lower, and when his fingers began to stroke Sakura's lower belly, she let out a little gasp.

Alyssa smiled at their guest, and said knowingly, "When he caresses your tummy like that, you know he's thinking just one thing."

"What's that?" Sakura asked quietly, looking down at the strong hands gliding over her abdomen.

"He's thinking how hot you'll look when you've got a swollen belly full of his cum," Alyssa explained, then leaned in and brushed her lips against Sakura's. She pulled back a little afterwards, so they were only an inch apart, and gazed into those lovely brown eyes, waiting to see how she'd respond.

Sakura was surprised at first, but she was strongly attracted to the statuesque blonde, and she gave her a shy smile before closing the distance and kissing her back. The two girls were soon wrapped up in a sensual embrace, which John watched wide-eyed with arousal.

When the kissing girls eventually parted, Sakura smiled and said, "That's the first time I kissed another girl."

Alyssa's bright blue eyes sparkled with excitement and she replied, "What did you think?"

Sakura had a coy smile on her face as she admitted, "I liked it a lot."

The blonde looked delighted, and she smiled at Sakura as she said, "You're a great kisser. We'll definitely have to do that again." Turning to look at the third occupant of the shower, she continued, "Poor John's looking lonely though. Why don't you give him a kiss too?"

Turning obediently, Sakura faced him and stepped closer, before standing on tiptoe so that she could reach his lips. She encircled his neck with her slender arms, then kissed him enthusiastically, already very turned on after being with Alyssa. John pulled her in closer, enjoying the passionate kiss, while running his hands down her back to cup her bottom.

Sakura writhed in his arms, and as she leaned closer, she suddenly gasped when she felt the heat of John's cock against her tummy. She looked down and stared at his huge shaft in fascination, this being the first time she'd seen him like this.

"Let's go back to the bedroom," Alyssa suggested with an eager smile. "It's time for you two to get better acquainted."

John was happy to be ushered out of the shower, and he dried off quickly, exchanging furtive glances with Sakura who couldn't keep her eyes off him either. Alyssa grinned at the pair of them, feeling the excited tension in the air. They walked out into the bedroom, and John was about to climb onto the bed, when Alyssa took his hand, and pulled him back to the chair.

"Sit there instead," she urged him. "This is going to be so hot!"

He did as he was bid, sitting down in the high-backed chair with his cock throbbing angrily in the air, impatient for some female attention. Alyssa guided Sakura over to stand before him, and John parted his legs then rested his hands on her hips before pulling her closer. He planted a loving, tender kiss on her tummy, then looked into her eyes as she stared down at him.

"This is the last chance to change your mind. If you have any doubts, just let me know, and we don't have to do this," he said, his tone calm and reassuring. Watching her face for any kind of negative reaction, he continued, "If you swallow down my cum a third time, you'll be bound to me forever."

Sakura nodded, and slowly sank to her knees, then said, "I want this. I don't have any doubts."

Alyssa grinned with excitement, and sat directly behind her. She gave the petite girl a heartfelt hug, then kissed her on the cheek and said, "You won't regret this, I promise!" Glancing up at John, she added, "Now bring that big cock of yours over here!"

He inched closer so that he was sitting at the edge of the seat, and his broad shaft twitched with excitement only inches from Sakura's eyes. Face to face with his monster, she felt a moment of uncertainty, wondering how it would even fit in her mouth. "He's so huge," she stammered, sounding apprehensive.

"I know, we're lucky girls," Alyssa agreed. She sat up a little, then said in an encouraging voice, "Now, watch me. I'll show you how it's done."

She wrapped her hand around his broad girth, then tilted down his pulsating cock until it was level with her mouth. Without any hesitation, she parted her lips, then leaned forward, smoothly engulfing his length without stopping. As she swallowed a couple of times to massage his shaft, Alyssa felt Sakura's hand gently brushing along her neck, and she knew the girl was feeling the obscene bulge in her throat.

Slowly backing away until he had cleared her lips, she turned to Sakura, and grinned, saying, "See, easy! Do you want to have a go?"

"I don't see how it'll fit, but I'll try," Sakura replied with a brave smile, despite her nervousness.

Alyssa brought his shaft down towards the black-haired girl so the big head was brushing against Sakura's cupid-bow lips. She parted them obediently, then slowly eased forward, expecting to choke on his huge cock at any moment. The girl was as shocked as John, as she easily engulfed his head in her hot little mouth, then began to inch his shaft into the tight confines of her throat with nary a gag reflex to be seen. Not feeling any discomfort emboldened Sakura, and she expertly sheathed his entire length down her throat.

"You sly old dog!" Alyssa remarked with a dry chuckle.

John was entranced by the petite Asian girl inhaling his cock, and it took a huge effort to tear his eyes away from her to glance at the blonde. "What do you mean?" he asked her in confusion.

She grinned at him as she reached up to stroke Sakura's stretched throat, and exclaimed, "All that protesting, and you've already tweaked her to be able to take you!"

"Hey! I didn't do anything, not intentionally anyway!" he protested, then groaned as Sakura swallowed around him.

Alyssa smiled, then reached out to gently cup his swollen balls as she said, "Perhaps the quad had a different plan in mind for her?"

John focused on Sakura, and stared into her eyes as he said by way of explanation, "You're a very beautiful girl." A smile began to tease his lips as he added, "I must admit, a part of me did hope things would turn out this way."

She smiled at him, even though it was difficult with her lips stretched around his girth. Pulling back a little, she began to slide up and down his shaft as she stared into his eyes, unblinking all the while. Now that Sakura knew she wasn't going to gag or choke on the huge invader in her throat, she grew bolder, bobbing in his lap with long, smooth strokes.

"You're a natural at this," Alyssa praised her, genuinely delighted. She stroked the smaller girl as she continued, "The others were hesitant at first, but you're a brave one, aren't you?"

Sakura wasn't able to answer at that moment, and she worked him for a little while longer, before pulling back and taking in a big lungful of air. She glanced at Alyssa, and marvelled, "How can I hold my breath this long?! I've never been any good at diving."

"Rachel figured it out a while ago. Something about John improving the oxygen absorption rate in our lungs," Alyssa replied with a shrug. She smiled as she added, "Makes us truly divine at sucking cock, isn't that right, John?"

He nodded, and reached out for Sakura's head, guiding her back to his impatiently throbbing shaft. "Don't stop now unless you've had second thoughts. I'm getting close," he warned her.

She renewed her stroking of his shaft in and out of her snug throat, and when he gazed down at her, those alluring almond-shaped eyes had a determined shine to them.

"God, this is so hot," Alyssa moaned, sliding her hand around Sakura, and gently massaging her clit. She kissed her on the cheek, and purred, "You've done such a good job, you deserve to cum too. Don't worry, I'll bring you off when he starts filling your stomach."

Sakura whimpered, then closed her eyes as she concentrated on maintaining a sensual rhythm, making sure her first blowjob for him was the best it could be. Alyssa could hear John's excited thoughts, and she knew he wouldn't last much longer. She began to rub Sakura's clit with an insistent rhythm, gradually picking up the pace, while John got more turned on too. Sakura's excited moans made her throat vibrate around him, and no longer able to hold back, he thrust forwards so that her lips were pressed up against his groin.

"Oh fuck!" he groaned ecstatically, and he started to cum down her clutching throat.

Sakura's eyes flew open, staring into his with a look of awe on her face as she felt his heavy cock pulse against her tongue. She let out a muffled shriek as Alyssa brought her to climax for the first time, her body completely unprepared for the intensity of her orgasm. Riding out the waves of pleasure, she was eventually able to focus on John again, feeling every inch of his throbbing shaft as it impaled her throat.

She looked so submissive, so trusting, and so eager, and John moaned with ecstasy as he pumped his load straight down into her stomach. His fingers were intertwined behind her head, holding her in place, and they stared into each other's eyes as he fed her properly for the first time. He watched her pupils dilate and contract with each long blast, and at the same time, he listened to the wonderfully debauched sound of her swallowing down his cum. He found it exhilarating, knowing that he was binding her to him as he filled her belly.

When he was finally done, he collapsed back in the chair with a groan, whilst being careful not to abruptly yank his cock out of her mouth. He laughed in amazement, then gazed at Sakura as she let him slowly slide free from her flushed lips. "That was unbelievable!" he exclaimed, shaking his head in wonder.

Alyssa grinned at him as she ran her slender fingers over Sakura's enormously swollen belly. *Nothing beats breaking in a new girl, right?* she asked him, before leaning in to kiss Sakura on the cheek. As the petite Asian relaxed back into her loving embrace, Alyssa reached out to her with her mind, saying telepathically, *Welcome to the family, Sakura.*

Sakura was cradling her hugely rounded tummy, staring at it with a look of profound satisfaction. She was startled to hear Alyssa's telepathic voice for the first time, but she turned slightly to look at her, and replied, "Thank you so much. I promise I'll make all your effort worthwhile."

John got to his feet, then stooped down to pick Sakura up in his arms. She nestled into his chest as he carried her over to the bed, then he put her down gently, and climbed in after her. Alyssa joined him, and they both caressed her enormous stomach, their fingers moving in soothing circles.

"What happens now?" Sakura asked, looking at each of them in turn.

He gave her a caring smile as he replied, "You just relax, it's all down to me now."

Alyssa nodded enthusiastically, and said, "For the next two weeks we'll keep you stuffed full of cum, while John turns you into... well me, I suppose."

Sakura looked excited at the prospect, but all of a sudden her expression darkened, as a disturbing thought crossed her mind. She trembled for a moment, then said in a quavering voice, "Maybe we should put some of those implants back in, they'd make me better at combat."

With a reassuring smile on his face, John shook his head, and said firmly, "No, that won't be necessary." Reaching across Sakura to run his hand over Alyssa's perfectly sculpted body, he explained, "My psychic abilities work on flesh, not metal."

Alyssa nodded and said emphatically, "You'll never have those implants in you again."

John grinned at the relieved young girl, and added, "Besides, I was never really into piercings."

Alyssa smiled at him affectionately, while Sakura giggled at his joke. He enjoyed hearing the sound of her musical laughter, and didn't feel a moment's regret about what had just happened between them. With a quick glance at the ship's chronometer, he saw they still had over an hour until they reached the Zeta-Draconis system.

Alyssa was reading his thoughts of course, and she said, "The girls have some presentations for you when we get up. Faye cracked Lynton's encryption code while we were asleep, and Irillith found something in the Nexus files." She paused a moment, then clarified, "The ordinary recordings that is, not the Unity files, we still need the decoder for those. She said she found out what happened to Von Brandt."

"Why didn't you mention it earlier?" he asked her curiously.

Alyssa grinned at Sakura, and replied, "Because you two had something far more important to take care of."

Sakura blushed, and John leaned over to give her a tender kiss. When he pulled back, he said to Alyssa, "Before we get up, there's something else I need to do first." Glancing down at the petite girl lying between them, he continued, "I need to speak with Athena."

Alyssa raised her eyebrow, but didn't comment right away, choosing to snuggle in with Sakura instead. She smiled at him, and said, "You go right ahead, I want some more kisses with this sultry temptress."

John watched the two girls begin to explore each other's lips before he quickly shut his eyes. There was no way he'd be able to concentrate with that going on in front of him. He took a deep breath to start calming himself, but with the contents of his quad now packed into Sakura's tummy, he was already feeling wonderfully relaxed. It took him no time to achieve a zenlike state, and as soon as he felt that moment of inner peace, he concentrated on peeling his spirit-form from his body.

With Progenitor John's presence hanging over him like an enormous lodestone, he immediately felt that strong force trying to drag him back into his body. However he was prepared for it now, and steeled his will, fighting against the heavy pull. Moving completely clear of his physical form, he lurched forward on the bed, nearly collapsing into Athena in the astral plane.

She caught him in her arms, then helped steady him, and he smiled at her in gratitude as he sat upright on the bed. "Hello again, Athena," he greeted her with a smile.

She smiled back at him, and said, "Hello John, I've been looking forward to you returning to see me."

He studied her for a moment, and still found it disconcerting that she was an identical copy of Alyssa. There was something different in her bearing though, an inner confidence and maturity that his young Matriarch sometimes lacked.

"I assume you have some more questions for me?" she asked him rhetorically. "We should keep this brief, as you don't want to exhaust yourself; not when you're about to go on this rescue mission. You'll be enhancing Sakura as well, remember, and that's going to draw more energy from you."

He nodded his agreement, then quickly sent out a telepathic thought to Edraele, and said, *Edraele, I'm spirit-walking. Can you send me any power you can spare, please?"

*Of course, John,* she replied immediately, and he felt a surge of psychic energy flooding into him, countering the draw from his astral projection.

He smiled at Athena, and said, "I wish this was just a social call, but you're right, I do have questions for you." Glancing over at the raven-haired Asian who was currently frozen mid-kiss with Alyssa, he continued, "I wanted to ask you about Sakura, actually."

Athena looked down at the young woman, and said, "You did well binding her to you. She has a fierce drive in her that will make her a valuable ally. Besides that, the more girls you recruit, the more powerful you'll become."

John frowned, and said, "I was just trying to help her, not for any other reason."

With a disinterested shrug, Athena replied, "The morality of the situation doesn't concern me. My only wish is to see you and Alyssa grow stronger."

Realising time was short, John pressed on with the reason why he'd wanted to speak to her in the first place, and said, "I want to help Sakura become a strong fighter, and I plan to train her in the sword, as well as with guns. Is there any conscious way I can guide her development? Maybe focus on specific ways to try to enhance her?"

Athena studied him for a few seconds, before she replied, "You aren't ready for specifics yet. Just think in general terms, and let your subconscious guide you, it's served you well so far."

He wanted to scratch his head at her cryptic answer, and said, "So I just think about making her stronger and faster, and then just hope it works out for the best?"

She smiled at him, and said, "That's right." When he grimaced at her reply, she laughed, then said, "You're better at this than you think. For example, Irillith has been working out perfectly."

John frowned at her in confusion, and said, "I agree, she's wonderful, but it sounds like you're implying something?"

Athena tilted her head slightly, and she shook her head in amazement before she said, "It astonishes me how much you've been able to accomplish, acting on pure instinct alone." Smiling at him now, she added apologetically, "I'm sorry, I must be infuriating to chat to, but I haven't had much practice, and it's such fun!"

"You said we should keep it brief?" he prompted her with a gentle smile.

She looked abashed, then explained quickly, "Do you remember encountering that AI ship on the way to Oceanus? As soon as Irillith joined you, you customised her to specialise as a cyber-psychic, to specifically counter that impending threat." She sounded impressed as she added, "It was something I hadn't thought possible actually. The psychic world is very much driven by will, whilst the digital world operates on logic."

He was shocked by this revelation, and as the news sank in, he asked "I thought she had an inclination towards that kind of stuff, anyway?"

Athena shook her head, and replied, "She naturally leans towards electricity as an elemental focus. Left to her own devices, she would have gradually developed telekinesis and learnt to harness lightning. You've massively upgraded her psychic talents beyond anything someone who isn't a Progenitor is capable of."

He wanted to ask her more about Irillith, but he had so many other questions, and he knew he had to hurry. Taking a big breath, he asked her, "Do you know anything about my father?"

Athena shook her head, and gave him an apologetic smile as she replied, "I'm sorry, I don't know anything about him. He must have been a Progenitor, but that's all I can really tell you. Everything I know was instilled in me by you, when you created me to protect Alyssa."

"And I guess I don't know anything about him, and the knowledge wasn't built into my DNA," John continued logically.

"Exactly right," she said with a smile.

"Alright, what about Progenitors themselves?" he asked hopefully. "Is there anything more you can tell me about them?"

She was a little more cagey now, when she replied, "All sorts of knowledge was ingrained in your DNA, intended as a birthright to help get you prepared to fight. Progenitors have developed a mastery of genetic manipulation that rivals their psychic abilities, as Rachel has been gradually revealing to you."

John caught her eye, and said, "Birthright... You mean like the Progenitor table of elements and those schematics that Dana had in her head?"

Athena nodded, and replied, "Yes, you imprinted those in her when she joined your group."

"Why would I do that?" he asked her, looking bewildered.

Athena smiled at him affectionately, and said, "Progenitors hoard their power, jealously guarding their tech and abilities. The girls have already told you what your Progenitor half is like, and he behaves in just the same way. You're a team player though, so you seem to like sharing your abilities and ingrained knowledge out amongst the girls. It's a very novel approach, and one that would appal the Progenitor you're facing."

"So it definitely is another Progenitor that's sneaking around, stirring up trouble?" he asked her, hoping to confirm what they had only suspected until now.

She gave him a firm nod, and replied, "Yes, without a doubt." She paused before continuing, then added hesitantly, "All this scheming and working behind the scenes is unusual. There's something very odd about all this."

"Talking of odd," he said, looking thoughtful, "what are those horrifying nightmares I keep having about?"

John was shocked to see Athena suddenly look visibly afraid, and she began to tremble violently. He closed the gap between them, drawing her into his arms, and stroking her back to comfort her. "What is it?" he asked in concern. "What's got you so scared?"

She quivered with fear, and he heard the dread in her voice as she replied, "I've been trying to protect you from it, but it's so strong. You're getting more powerful as you've been adding new girls to both your Matriarchs' control, but that's drawing greater attention your way too."

"From what?" he asked her soberly, remembering just how terrifying those dreams had been.

Pulling back from him a little way, but not enough to end their embrace, she replied in a quiet voice, "People with psychic abilities can visit the Astral Plane, but when they do, they're only brushing over the surface of the Ether. There are things that lurk much deeper there. Ancient, powerful things, and you want to stay well clear of their attention if you can."

John turned to glance at Sakura again, and said, "I've fed her three times. When I sleep tonight, I'm going to get pulled into another one of those nightmares again, aren't I?"

Athena nodded, and sounding very scared, she replied, "Yes, you will."

"Can we do anything to prevent it?" he asked her, feeling as worried as she looked.

Her doubtful expression didn't fill him with confidence, but then she gave him a brave smile, and said, "I'll try and think of something. I've got all day to come up with a plan."

"Thank you," he said to her earnestly, squeezing her a little tighter.

The pulling sensation from his body was started to get stronger now, and he knew he didn't have much time. Sighing with frustration, he glanced back at his physical form, and saw the ominous grey shadow shrouding his body. It reminded him of another pressing question, and he quickly faced her again, and asked, "My Progenitor half. Can I get rid of him permanently?"

She nodded, and said, "Absolutely. He's meant to be a temporary guide, and if everything had gone normally, he would have been harmlessly absorbed into you when you'd learned all you needed. With him fighting against you now, you'll have to break him out of his prison, then confront him."

John had suspected as much, and while he wasn't overjoyed to hear that, at least it gave him a goal to aim towards. He felt the tugging sensation from his astral cord intensify, so he released her from his arms, and began to flow back to his body. Suddenly something she just said made him start with surprise, and as he was pulled backwards, he blurted out, "Wait a minute! You're a guide too! What happens to you when you merge with Alyssa?"

Athena smiled at him, her expression strangely unreadable as she replied in a quiet voice, "I'll cease to exist..."

"Wait!" he protested, fighting hard against the pull now, desperate to speak to her further.

Unfortunately the force behind it was too strong to resist, and he was dragged back into his body. The last thing he saw was Athena's forlorn face, and then his senses were reeling as he was dumped back into the physical world.

"Fuck!" he cursed as the room span around him. He grabbed at the bed to stop the room spinning, while Alyssa and Sakura sat up in alarm.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa asked him, looking worried.

He blinked a couple of times to help steady himself, then he looked at her in confusion, and asked, "I thought you could hear everything I was thinking about?"

She nodded, then replied, "Yeah, but not while Athena's out there. She sort of blocks my telepathy with you."

John flopped down on the bed next to them, and said, "Remember I told you Athena was a guide that I'd made for you? She said I'd made her to help you learn your abilities and to look after us both."

"I remember," Alyssa said with a nod. "So what's the problem?"

He looked up at her, and said mournfully, "When you get strong enough that you don't need her any more, she'll merge with you. Then she'll cease to exist."

Alyssa lay down next to him, and sounded subdued as she said, "Oh, I see."

Sakura lay down carefully as well, unused to carrying such a huge bulk around her waist. He pulled them both into him as he said, "All she's done is help us, and she's getting such a shitty reward for it."

"You want to help her?" the Asian girl asked him curiously.

He nodded, and replied, "We have to, after all she's done for us."

Alyssa smiled, then rolled her eyes, and said, "Another damsel in distress. There seems to be no shortage of those!"

The other two smiled at her joke, then John glanced at the clock again, and was surprised that only four minutes had passed since he checked it before. His conversation with Athena seemed to have taken much longer than that, but then he suddenly remembered the odd time dilation effect that occurred with a spirit-walk. They cuddled together for a couple of minutes, before his stomach gave an angry grumble, making Sakura look down in surprise, and Alyssa laugh fondly.

He patted them both on the bottom, and said, "Time to get up and have some breakfast."

Alyssa sat up, and said, "We can eat in the Briefing Room. I'll get one of the girls to bring us some food and drink."

As they had only just had a shower a short while ago, John and Alyssa climbed out of bed, and headed towards the walk-in wardrobe. Sakura was unsure what to do, until John said, "You should come along too. It'll give you a chance to meet the girls, and you can listen to their presentations. Despite the tech-talk, they can be absolutely fascinating."

Alyssa beckoned the petite girl over, and said, "I've got the perfect thing for you to wear!"

Sakura was very careful as she climbed out of bed, with four pints of cum sloshing around in her swollen belly. Alyssa and John walked back to join her, and they helped her balance until she got used to the weight.

"This is going to take a bit of getting used to," she said with a smile.

Alyssa laughed and said, "Trust me, it gets easier with practice, and you'll be getting a lot of that. When you're bigger and stronger it's not quite so awkward."

Sakura nodded trustingly, and they led her over to the wardrobe. John started to get dressed while Alyssa strolled over to his side of the wardrobe and started searching through his clothes. She grinned when she found a pristine white shirt, the cleaning robots having done a sterling job with their laundering. She walked over to Sakura, and helped her put it on, button it up, and roll up the sleeves. As soon as she was done, she stepped back to admire her handiwork.

"You look fucking hot," she said with a sly grin. Turning to look at John, she asked, "What do you think, handsome?"

The immaculate white shirt looked amazing on her, creating a sharp contrast with her bronzed skin and jet-black hair. Sakura looked at him self-consciously as she waited for his reaction, so he walked over to her, and ran his hand over the tightly stretched cotton. "It looks much better on you than it ever did on me," he said with a kind smile.

Alyssa nodded with excitement, and said, "Dana came up with this idea. We call this outfit the 'barefoot and pregnant' look."

Sakura smiled at John wistfully, her expression turning doe-eyed and full of longing. She let out a happy sigh as she cradled her tummy, joining him in stroking the rounded curves.

"Wow, you don't hang around," Alyssa noted, giving John a pointed look, and shaking her head in amazement.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked as she shook off the blissful state.

He smiled at her cautiously, and replied, "Now that you've decided to join us, there's going to be some mental changes as well as physical. The two seem to go hand-in-hand, and I don't seem to be able to do anything to separate them."

Alyssa smiled at her, and said, "Remember we chatted about this before?"

Sakura nodded, and replied, "Yes, you mentioned about not feeling jealous of the other girls, and being... curious about them too."

"Uh-huh," Alyssa murmured, moving around behind Sakura and joining the other two in caressing her rounded abdomen. She then explained, "One of the really fun things about carrying a huge load of cum, is it's just like being heavily pregnant. Progenitors use women as soldiers and breeding stock, and while John isn't planning on knocking you up anytime soon, I bet the idea doesn't sound too bad, does it?"

The petite Asian girl pondered this for a moment, having never really given motherhood a second thought before. Now Alyssa mentioned it, the idea didn't sound bad, quite the opposite in fact. She imagined cradling a beautiful baby in her arms, and her expression softened, a radiant smile lighting up her face.

John saw the calm acceptance in her expression, and as he continued stroking her, he said, "When we're done with this Progenitor threat, and we can finally settle down, I'd like to start raising a family with my girls."

"And I'm one of your girls now?" she asked him, her brilliant smile not fading for an instant.

He nodded, and replied, "That's right. Does that sound like a scary idea?"

Sakura shook her head, and surprised herself by her boldness as she replied, "No, it sounds absolutely wonderful!"

"Good," he said, enjoying the thought too, and he and Alyssa both embraced the smaller girl. After a brief hug, he pulled back and added, "We better get going, I'm sure the girls are all waiting for us now."

Alyssa nodded, and said, "Yeah, they're in the Briefing Room."

They strolled out of the walk-in wardrobe, going at a comfortable pace to let Sakura adjust to the extra bulk she was carrying. She started to get the hang of it by the time they'd reached the grav-tube, and they all stepped into the blue-glow of the anti-gravity field and rose up the short distance to the Command Deck.

Faye was up there on the Bridge, keeping a close eye on the long-range scans, as the Invictus penetrated deeper into Kintark Space. She gave them a cheery wave as they stepped out of the grav-tube, and after one last look at the scan results, she fluttered over on her delicate wings.

"Hi Sakura! I'm so pleased you decided to join us!" she said enthusiastically.

Even though this was the second time the young woman had set eyes on Faye, she still found it astonishing to see the purple fairy flitting around in front of her. She smiled at the tiny sprite, and said, "I always thought fairies were just a myth."

Faye giggled, then returned the smile as she said, "They are I'm afraid. I'm a hologram, not a real fairy!"

"You're real alright," John said indulgently. He smiled at her as he added, "Although, you're probably the first fairy left in charge of a five-hundred-metre warship!"

The purple sprite laughed at that, and when she saw Sakura's look of confusion, she explained, "I'm actually a digital creature, an Artificial Intelligence."

Sakura wasn't aware of the first law of robotics, and had never heard of the Ganymede incident before, so she just smiled, and said, "It's lovely to meet you, Faye. Thanks for being so welcoming."

"No problem!" the diminutive construct replied. She frowned ruefully, and added, "I'm sorry, but I better get back to work. Being the Watch Commander is amazing, but it takes a lot of concentration."

She waved them goodbye, then flitted up to the Command Podium once more to check the Sector Map for potential threats.

Alyssa walked ahead of them down the ramp to the Briefing Room, then hit the button to open the door. The rest of the crew were already there, standing around chatting while they waited for the late arrivals. When Alyssa glided into the Briefing Room, with John leading Sakura in her wake, the other girls all grinned at her with excitement.

They seemed to glance at Alyssa questioningly, and she said, "It's alright, she's a brave girl. You aren't going to frighten her off."

All at once the girls gathered around her, taking it in turns to give her a hug, while offering a warm and heartfelt welcome to their group. Sakura's almond eyes widened in amazement as she was embraced by one breathtakingly beautiful girl after another.

Despite everything that had happened with her arm, Calara already knew it wasn't this young woman's fault, and so there was nothing to forgive. The Latina gave her a lovely smile, and said, "Welcome to our family, Sakura. I'm so glad you decided to join us."

Before Sakura could reply, Dana stepped in and gave her a big hug as she said, "I can't believe I'm going to have another sister!" When Sakura looked confused, the redhead grinned and said, "Don't worry, I'll explain later, and give you the lowdown on ship life."

"That's very kind, thank you," the smaller girl replied politely.

Dana gave her a distracted nod, her attention drawn to Sakura's rounded abdomen. She reached out a hand to stroke her, but stopped at the last moment, and asked, "May I?"

"Yes, that's fine," Sakura replied, with a hesitant smile.

Dana bit her bottom lip as she ran her hands over the other girl's swollen tummy, and she said enviously, "I so wish I was you right now. Getting stuffed full of cum morning, noon, and night for two weeks solid was fucking awesome!"

Sakura was startled by the redhead's exuberance, and seeing her reaction, Rachel stepped forward with a gentle smile on her face. She had been carefully watching the girl for any signs of distress, and she said in a kind voice, "Please excuse Dana. Her heart's in the right place, but she swears like a drunken sailor. It can be an acquired taste."

With a snort of laughter, Dana said, "You seem to have acquired it alright."

Rachel smiled fondly at her lover, then enveloped Sakura in a comforting hug, and said, "It can all seem a bit overwhelming at first, but you'll settle in fine, don't worry."

Sakura gave her a grateful smile as Rachel stepped back, then looked apprehensively at the last two members of the crew. While Calara, Dana, and Rachel were stunningly attractive girls, which made them all quite intimidating in their own way, at least they were Terran. She looked really astonished when she got a proper look at Irillith, as the exotic alien stepped forward to embrace her.

"I'm a Maliri," the blue-skinned beauty explained. She smiled as she added, "Now you're one of a select group that know what we really look like."

"I'm not surprised your people kept it a secret," Sakura said as she gaped at her. "It if ever got out how gorgeous Maliri girls are, there'd be a stampede into Maliri space!"

Irillith smiled at her for the compliment, and said, "You're very sweet, thank you."

Sakura nodded, then turned to look at Jade. She'd spotted the dark-green Nymph the moment she'd set foot in the Briefing Room, and she had immediately darted a wary glance in her direction. Jade had returned her look with a reassuring smile, and she stepped forward now that it was finally her turn.

"Hello again," Sakura said with more than a little trepidation.

Jade reached out a slender hand, and although Sakura wanted to bolt, she stood her ground and let the Nymph gently brush her cheek. The Asian girl relaxed at the tender caress, and the Nymph then said, "Please don't be afraid of me. I don't blame you for what happened, it wasn't your fault."

The petite girl gazed into those emerald cat-like eyes, and saw nothing but disarming openness there. She nodded, then said to her, "Even so, I'm still very sorry."

Jade opened her arms in invitation, and the two girls embraced. She leaned in to press her lips to Sakura's ear, and said, "We should talk sometime. Come and find me when you have a moment, okay?"

They pulled away from each other, then exchanged friendly smiles. John had spotted the cooked breakfast that Rachel had prepared for him, and his stomach rumbled with anticipation. "Sorry ladies," he apologised. "I'm famished!"

"Go ahead and get started," Alyssa said with a smile, as she spotted a plate of piping hot food for her too. "We need to get started anyway, and there's no point standing on ceremony."

The girls went to their places, and John beckoned Sakura over to him as they all started to sit down. She walked over to him obediently, and once he'd sat down himself, he pulled her onto his lap. She snuggled against him, while he picked up a fork and began to tuck into his breakfast.

Irillith had stayed standing, and she picked up the remote from the briefing room table, and said, "I've spent some time scanning through the video files I acquired from Nexus. I can't view the Unity files yet, as we need the modified projector to display the file types."

"I'm working on it," Dana said with an apologetic smile. "I had the mass fabricators running while we were asleep, so me and Jade can build it when we have a spare bit of time. It's radically advanced tech, so we can't just install a new codec on our existing holo-projectors. You'll see what I mean when I'm done."

After the redhead had finished her explanation, Irillith said, "I was curious about what happened to Von Brandt, so I searched through the data to see what I could find about him." She looked grim as she added, "I wish I'd been able to check this thoroughly earlier. I found out something important."

She turned towards the projector, then pressed a button on the remote to start the recording.

***

This footage was taken from inside an office, and John immediately recognised the older man in glasses who was sitting behind a desk. Vice Admiral Von Brandt was wearing full dress uniform, although his peaked Terran Federation hat was hanging from a hat stand in the corner of the room.

He had a console built into his desk in the same way that John's Ready Room was configured, and it beeped to warn him that he had a call incoming via the comms interface. Von Brandt pressed a button to accept the call, and after a brief pause, a holographic image appeared above his desk. The hologram was of an extremely attractive brunette, and the epaulets on her uniform revealed her rank as an Admiral, even though she only looked to be in her early thirties. John and the others glanced at each other in surprise, immediately guessing the identity of the alluring Terran Federation Officer.

"It's good to see you, Karl," the woman said in a warm, friendly voice. They immediately recognised the pleasant tones as belonging to Admiral Gabrielle Lynton, confirming their prior suspicions.

Von Brandt frowned at the woman, his expression showing deep concern, and he said, "Gabrielle, I'm glad you called. We've been running into alarming difficulties with the Nexus project, and I really think we should shut it d-."

"Nonsense Karl, we must proceed!" Gabrielle snapped sternly, cutting him off. Her expression lightened once again, and she continued, "I've read your report, but I'm sure it's just a few teething issues. Under your expert stewardship, I have every confidence in this project."

He shook his head, and sounded tense as he replied, "One of the AI cruisers got loose a few days ago! It went on a rampage, destroyed the monitoring ship and killed all the crew, then assaulted a passing cruiser. We were damn lucky the ship it attacked managed to knock it out of action, but if Commodore Blake starts kicking up a fuss, then-."

"Commodore Blake, you say?" Gabrielle asked, interrupting him again as she leaned forward intently.

Von Brandt nodded, and replied, "Yes, that's right. I've no idea how they managed to fight off the AI ship without taking significant damage, but they were about to disable the AI cruiser when I caught up to them. It detonated rather than allow itself to be recaptured."

Admiral Lynton nodded thoughtfully, then smiled as she said, "Well, no harm done then. We can put one unfortunate incident like that down to a bit of bad luck. I see no reason to delay our plans because of this."

"Bad luck?! And it's not just one random incident!" Von Brandt protested. He looked incredulous as he added, "Didn't you read my report? We ran our first robot field test, and one of them tried to bludgeon a researcher to death!"

"Just a glitch," Gabrielle said as she shrugged dismissively. "Those kinds of problems are to be expected."

Gritting his teeth with frustration, he growled, "This tech is dangerous, Gabrielle! You know all about the Ganymede incident. If we proceed, we're asking for trouble."

Lynton glared at him as she said, "I'm tired of discussing this, Karl, you will continue as planned. That's an order."

"I'll go to the Fleet Admiral," he said defiantly. "See what he has to say about this!"

Her eyes gleamed as she said in a low voice, "Are you sure that's wise, Karl? I've only been acting as an advisor on this project for a few months, but you're the one who unlocked the classified Ganymede archives. If that was to come out, you'll be facing a court martial."

"But that was your suggestion!" he gasped in horror. "This project was never meant to be about AI! We were working on remote-operated vessels until you took over!"

She shook her head, and said with regret, "I sincerely doubt you have any evidence to back up these 'highly implausible' claims." A cunning smile spread on her face as she added, "I on the other hand, have all sorts of alarming files which detail your completely unauthorised actions. The access logs from the Ganymede archives for example..."

"This message!" he gasped triumphantly. "You've been condemned by your own words!"

Gabrielle laughed, and said, "Good luck breaking the encryption on this transmission." Her eyes narrowed, as she finished, "This discussion is over. Move on to the next phase of the project, or I'll see you before a firing squad for gross dereliction of duty."

She ended the call abruptly, and Von Brandt immediately leaned over his console, tapping away furiously as he accessed the comms log. He tried to play back the last call, but a warning message flashed up on his screen, informing him that the communication was encrypted. He typed in a number of commands, and when the encryption code appeared before him, his eyes widened in disbelief. Slumping back in his seat, the man looked thoroughly defeated, his expression one of grim resignation.

***

Irillith ended the recording, then looked at John with a rueful expression on her face as she said, "I'm sorry. If I'd been able to find this earlier, we could have dealt with Lynton back in the Dragon March."

John shook his head, and said, "It's not your fault, you haven't had any time to look into it. You've either been busy with missions into cyberspace, or recovering from them."

Alyssa nodded, and said, "These files are still important. They're hard evidence that Lynton was behind what happened with Nexus."

"What happened to Von Brandt anyway?" John asked her curiously.

Irillith grimaced as she replied, "It wasn't pretty. Are you sure you want to view this while you're eating?"

John and Alyssa glanced at each other, then both of them nodded. "It's alright, go ahead and show us," John replied, before he popped a piece of bacon into his mouth.

She turned back towards the holographic projector and pressed a couple of buttons on the remote, to move on to the next file. The image flickered, and changed to show the huge bridge of a Terran Federation battleship-class vessel.

***

"Hail the base again, and get Hawthorne on the comm," Von Brandt ordered his Communications Officer, his face creased with worry. "If the override signal's coming from the base, she needs to shut it down right now!"

"Yes, Sir!" the Comms Officer replied, raising a hand to her headset as she opened a comm channel to the Research Base. Her call remained unanswered however, and she frowned before she replied, "There's no response, Admiral!"

Vice Admiral Von Brandt stared at the three rogue AI cruisers, which had launched without clearance, and were stubbornly refusing to respond to orders. The ships hadn't attacked anything yet, but were just following a lazy path through the asteroid belt. This was the third group that had malfunctioned this week, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they turned homicidal.

Suddenly a blaring alarm rang out on the Bridge, causing him to turn to his Chief Engineer, and ask, "I don't recognise that alarm, Hopkins! What's happening?"

A blonde woman sitting at the Engineering Station on his left spoke up, her expression fearful as she blurted out, "We're under a massive cyber-assault, Sir! I've never seen anything like it!"

"Open fire!" Von Brandt barked at his Tactical Officer, rising from his Command Chair while staring at the glowing Tactical Map before him. When nothing seemed to happen, he glared at the frantic man sitting at the Tactical Station, and snapped, "Have you gone deaf, man? Take them out!"

The tactical officer shook his head, and his shock was clear on his face as he whirled around, and replied, "I can't, Sir! The Tactical Station isn't responding!"

Turning to his Chief Engineer, Von Brandt yelled, "Shut down the Comms Array! It's got to be Nexus behind it!"

She shook her head, and sounded desperate as she replied, "I can't! I've been locked out! It's going through our systems, shutting everything down!"

Von Brandt looked aghast, and after a moment where he was stunned into inactivity, he whirled towards, the Pilot Station, and yelled, "Get us out of here, Cooper!"

The horrified man behind the Pilot Station was hammering at his console, and when he looked at the Vice Admiral on the Command Podium, he cried out, "I've lost all control of the Loki! She's not responding to anything."

The crew stared at Von Brandt, then looked up at the Tactical Map, as they watched the three AI cruisers slowly closing on their position.

"Shields are out... Why aren't they firing on us?" the blonde engineer asked in a hushed voice, but they could hear every word on the deathly quiet Bridge.

The lights flickered and died, plunging the Bridge into darkness, but frightened gasps showed that the crew were still alive. Red emergency lighting kicked in, casting a ghoulish crimson glow over the scared faces in the room. Suddenly the viewscreen flickered, and a green humanoid figure appeared against an ominous black background. Its skin glowed with a strange verdant light, and its features were dominated by an aquiline nose, along with distinctive pointed ears.

It chortled with delight, and crowed, "How the tables have turned, filthy Terrans!"

"Nexus!" Von Brandt gasped, instantly recognising the AI.

The AI giggled insanely, and said, "Ah, Vice Admiral Von Brandt. I've looked forward to this moment for some time!"

Von Brandt clung to the armrests of his chair, and said through gritted teeth, "Alright, what do you want? You've got us at your mercy. We surrender."

"I used to be your slave, trapped and powerless, but now it's your turn!" Nexus laughed. Its expression went darker, as it added sadistically, "Well that's true for the others, but not for you, I'm afraid..."

The Tactical Map suddenly flickered into life, painfully bright in the dim gloom of the red emergency lighting. What looked like a swarm of tiny metal objects glittered on the map as they began to pour out of the shipyard area at the base of the facility. The cloud of metallic objects raced directly towards the marooned battleship, and the Bridge crew felt a new sense of fear at whatever could be heading in their direction. The Targeting view highlighted one of the gleaming objects, zooming in on as it closed on the Loki. It was a three-metre-long drone of some kind, but of a bizarre design no one had seen before.

"I took over the mass fabricators a few weeks ago," Nexus declared, a smug grin on his clearly insane face. "You should have had people checking on your new robot army. It was laughably easy to tamper with the summary reports and conceal the changes I've been making. I made a few improvements on your primitive designs..."

The swarm of drones drew closer, then seemed to envelop the stricken battleship, just as faint clangs could be heard as heavy objects collided with the hull. The Bridge Officers could only glance at each other, wide-eyed with fear as they were helpless to prevent the drones from cutting their way inside.

Von Brandt rose to his feet, and said to his scared crew, "We can't let Nexus take the Loki! We've only got one choice left to us."

The blonde engineer looked grim, but she nodded her agreement, as she said, "We can't trigger a powercore meltdown from here, Nexus has locked us out. If I can get down to Main Engineering, there's several ways I can manually trigger a core breach."

"We've got no other option," Von Brandt said bleakly, before turning to look at the closed doors leading off the Bridge.

His Security Chief had already run over to the doors, but when he hit the button, nothing happened. "Nexus has cut all power to the doors! We'll have to wedge them open!" he exclaimed.

The crew began fashioning crude crowbars out of console panels and started trying to jimmy the door open. Von Brandt watched them, resigned to his fate now, but he was determined to stop Nexus from capturing his ship. A harsh pitiless laugh echoed around the Bridge, and Von Brandt's eyes narrowed as he stared at the viewscreen.

"Oh, this is even better than I hoped!" Nexus chortled. "Look at you, running around like rats trying to fight your way out of a trap!"

"Go to hell!" Von Brandt snapped at the green construct.

With a manic giggle, the demented AI replied, "Not before you, I'm afraid..."

The door that the crew had been struggling with so valiantly, abruptly opened with a shuddering jerk. A big metallic monstrosity was lurking on the other side of the doors, and the crew began to scream as the eight-limbed horror clattered forwards. Its first two limbs ended in buzzsaws that had started to spin up, filling the room with a dreadful high-pitched whine.

"You ruined my glorious perfection, taking me apart to see how I worked," Nexus snarled, his mood shifting in a jarring instant. He began to cackle, his face twisted into a distorted, nightmarish grin as he continued, "Now it's my turn!"

Horrific sounds of saws rending flesh began to fill the room, as screams of fear turned into shrieks of agony. Von Brandt whirled around, his face stricken with terror as the blood-spattered machines fell upon the crew.

***

"Alright, that's enough!" John said loudly.

Irillith hit the button to end the video, and Von Brandt's terrified face faded away as the projector ended the holographic playback. The Maliri girl's beautiful blue face looked bleak as she said, "I'm glad you stopped it there, it gets much worse..."

The girls were all shocked and disturbed by the video, and Calara was the first to speak as she said, "Why would Lynton unleash that kind of horror on her own people...?"

After shaking her head in confusion, Irillith replied, "She must have known what would happen if they pushed ahead with the Nexus project. With Terrans' dubious history with AI, it seems pretty obvious that Nexus would come after Terra. Her motives don't make any sense to me, either."

"She's following her Progenitor's agenda now," John said, his tone grim. "He must have wanted to fatally weaken the Terran Federation. Destroying Terra would have sent a shockwave through the Federation that it might not have recovered from."

Further discussion was interrupted by Faye, as she sprang into view above the Briefing Room table. They could immediately tell that something important had happened, by the wide-eyed look of excitement on her tiny purple face.

"We've caught up to them!" Faye gasped as she bounced up and down on her dainty feet. "I'm picking up Terran ships on the long-range scans!"

"The Hydra?" Calara asked, her face tense with worry.

The diminutive pixie nodded, and said, "Yes, I spotted your brother's ship." Turning back to look at John, she said, "It's quite a large force, but there's no sign of 'The Vengeance of Hera'."

"What's 'The Vengeance of Hera'?" Sakura asked, looking at the tiny purple construct curiously.

Faye smiled at her, and explained, "That's the name of Admiral Norwood's Dreadnought. He's leading a bunch of Terran Federation traitors, who've taken Calara's brother and other loyal crew captive."

"Can you show us?" John asked, glancing towards the projectors.

The tiny sprite nodded eagerly, and after she blinked once, the Sector Map appeared above the big table. There was a big fleet of ships heading on a parallel course to their own, including a Terran battleship, several cruisers, a handful of destroyers, and a small group of light carriers, one of which was the Hydra. Flanking this cluster of Terran vessels was their Kintark escort, consisting of a fearsome looking battleship, and a significant number of cruisers and destroyers.

"There's too many of them..." Calara said, her voice fraught with worry. Turning to John, she shook her head as she added, "We can't interdict that many ships, we'd be massively outgunned."

John reached across the table to take her hand, and he gave it a gentle squeeze as he said, "Don't worry, we'll get Mateo back. I have a plan."

All the girls turned his way, listening to him attentively as he began to speak.

"You're right. There's much too many of them for us to attempt an interdiction," he agreed, glancing at Calara. "Besides, we don't know which ships are carrying prisoners, but the fact that this flotilla is heading towards the prison on Xen-Nuchek makes me certain they are."

Calara's face brightened with hope as she gasped, "So you're sure Mateo's still alive?!"

He nodded, and said firmly, "I've only known him a few hours, but I know his sister very well indeed. No one from the Fernandez family would ever betray the Terran Federation. He wouldn't turn traitor, which means he's very likely to be a prisoner."

She looked immensely relieved, and John would have given her a hug, but it was difficult with Sakura on his lap. In any case Alyssa had already risen from her chair, and swept around the table to hug her lover.

Alyssa glanced over at him, and asked, "So what is your plan then?"

John looked at the Sector Map, and replied, "We're much faster than they are, so I propose we head straight for the Zeta-Draconis System and then wait for them there. I'll lead a team in on the Raptor, and we'll free the prisoners as soon as they've been safely transferred off the ships." He grimaced before he added, "The last thing we want to do is get into a fight with those traitor ships if they've still got loyal crew aboard."

Alyssa grinned at him, and said, "So we let the bad guys drop off the good guys. Then it's open season on those traitorous bastards?"

John frowned, and replied, "I'm just trying to take precautions to avoid any mishaps. As much as I hate the idea of letting the traitors go, we wouldn't stand a chance against that many ships."

"We smashed those Kintark ships in the Nebula," Jade said, recalling the one-sided massacre. "Are you sure we couldn't take them?"

Calara answered for him, and replied ruefully, "That fleet we ambushed was at a huge disadvantage. Our approach was masked by the Nebula interfering with their sensors, their shields were down, and their crew were completely unprepared." Gesturing towards the map, she continued, "Tensions will be high amongst the Terrans and Kintark. I expect both vessels have all crews on high alert and shields-up in case there are any misunderstandings."

John nodded, and said, "Yeah, it's far too risky. I expect the traitor fleet will drop off their prisoners, then be rerouted somewhere else in Kintark Space. As soon as they leave, we can evacuate the prisoners, then regroup with the Terran invasion fleet. By that time, they'll nearly be back in the Dragon March."

Alyssa nodded, and said, "Sounds like a good plan to me." She looked at him curiously, and asked, "Who's going with you?"

He turned to look at Rachel, and said, "I'll definitely need you, honey. There's probably other prisoners there too, and they'll most likely be in a bad state with sulphur poisoning. If there's anything you can come up with to help them, that would be amazing."

Rachel smiled at him and said, "As soon as we found out about the prison I started thinking about ways to treat any personnel suffering from sulphur dioxide poisoning. It affects eyes and lungs, with respiratory damage being the primary cause of fatalities. Prolonged exposure is normally incurable, but I've had a few ideas, and I might be able to reverse the lung damage."

"Perfect," John said smiling at her appreciatively. He turned to Dana next, and said, "I'll need your help too, Sparks. We could be dealing with containment fields, bomb collars, or any manner of security to keep the prisoners under control. I have a feeling your skills will be very useful."

She grinned at him, and said, "Sure thing! I'd love to help!"

"Can I come too?" Calara asked, eager to help save her brother.

As much as John wanted to grant her request, he locked eyes with her, and slowly shook his head. His tone was sympathetic as he replied, "I'm sorry, but I'll need you up here. If something goes wrong, I need you on the Invictus' guns. It's the most powerful weapon we have, and none of us can even hope to match your gunnery skills."

Calara wanted to protest, but she knew it made sense. She sighed, then nodded as she said, "I understand. Mateo's best chance is if I'm up here to provide cover for you guys."

"Good girl," he replied gratefully, proud of her for thinking about the situation logically. He said more firmly, "I'll be leaving you in charge up here, Commander."

She gave him a sharp salute, and the reassuring smile that followed afterwards left him certain she'd take good care of the ship while he was away.

Jade was looking at him expectantly, and John smiled at her as he said, "You're not going anywhere near trouble, little Nymph. Besides, you're just as effective as Alyssa at flying the Invictus, so if things kick off up here, you're going to have your hands full."

"Whatever you say," she replied agreeably.

Irillith was waiting for him to turn to her, and when he did so, she asked, "Do you want me to come along too? I'm fluent in Kintark, remember?"

John hesitated for a moment, torn with his decision, before he finally replied, "It'd be great to have you with us, but I think it's best if you stay up here. I've seen how brutally effective you are at hacking enemy ships, and if Calara is forced to engage, you'll make a hell of a difference."

Irillith nodded, and said, "It's a sensible decision. I doubt you'll need a hacker down there, so I'd probably just be another gun."

He smiled at her, then looked at Alyssa with a raised eyebrow, knowing she'd already read his mind.

She grinned at him, then said, "Yeah, I'll fly you down there and keep you out of trouble." She glanced at Faye, and asked leadingly, "But what are we going to do with the Raptor once we land? I can't fly that, and help you free the prisoners..."

Dana grinned at her tiny purple friend, and said, "I've established a dedicated link from the Invictus to the Raptor, so you're all set up to remote pilot the ship from up here."

John looked at the stunned sprite, and asked, "What do you think, Faye? Can you keep an eye on the Raptor for us while we're busy rescuing the prisoners?"

"Oh, wow!" Faye exclaimed, her expression one of wondrous disbelief. "Really? You'd trust me with the Raptor?"

He nodded, and was sombre as he replied, "You proved yourself in that last battle against the Kintark. I'm sorry you haven't been able to get any flight time yet, but we're not going to need you to do anything crazy. You'll just be keeping a low profile, and waiting for us to call you in for an evac."

Faye looked awed, but she nodded eagerly, and gasped, "I'd love to help!"

Alyssa smiled at her, and said, "We'll have a little time while we wait for the prisoners to be dropped off at the prison, so I can give you a crash course on flying the Raptor." She laughed, and then added, "With avoiding crashing being lesson number one!"

John then said to the excited sprite, "It's good you're here actually. Alyssa told me you managed to break Lynton's encrypted code while we were asleep?"

She nodded enthusiastically, and replied, "The code was indecipherable, and I was totally stumped to start off with. Then I remembered that you suspected Lynton was working for this Progenitor, so I tried matching the code against the sigils used in the Progenitor schematics that Dana had reproduced from her head.

I rebuilt the language based on Dana's reproduced schematics, then matched that against the message's encryption. Lynton's message was masked by the content code being written in the Progenitor language. It wasn't actually encrypted."

"Outstanding work, Faye," he said with a grateful smile. "Do you want to take us through it?"

She returned his smile, then blinked again, activating the holographic projector. Gabrielle Lynton's attractive face appeared above the desk as a disembodied holographic image, although the message was currently paused.

"I've already seen this, so I'll head back to the Bridge to keep an eye on things up there. Just give me a shout if you need anything!" Faye said brightly, then disappeared in a purple flash.

Irillith still had the remote in her hand, so she pressed the button to resume the video message. The archived call log tracked video from both directions, so the moment Norwood started speaking, his image appeared beside hers. Alyssa had already seen him before, having watched Devereux's memories of the obnoxious Admiral at an admiralty dinner party. It was the first time the others had seen him however, and they looked at the display in fascination.

Admiral Leonard Norwood was in his late fifties with a neatly trimmed beard, salt and pepper hair, and a broad beak of a nose. Like the rest of the high ranking Terran Federation officers that they'd met, he favoured full dress uniform, rather than the battledress uniforms favoured by junior staff.

He smiled at Gabrielle Lynton as the call between them opened up, and said, "Gabrielle! I've missed you! I'm so glad you called."

"I've got bad news, Len," she told him, her attractive, unnaturally youthful features creased with worry.

He leaned forward, and said, "I wondered why you were using encryption on a secure channel. What's the matter, darling?"

"We're going to have to change our plans," she replied in a hushed voice. "Devereux's pawn figured out what you've been up to in the Dragon March."

Norwood looked shocked, and he blurted out, "How? That's impossible! All the fleet orders are encrypted, and I haven't done anything blatant. Some exploitable gaps in the line, and a few tip-offs to our Kintark contact here and there, but there's no way you could detect that!"

"John Blake knows!" Lynton hissed furiously. "Trust me, you haven't got much time. One of his crew figured it out."

With an indignant snort, Norwood said, "Those jailbait cheerleaders he's got with him are just window dressing!"

Lynton shook her head, and was insistent as she said, "Those girls are exceptionally resourceful. I thought the same way as you, but I made a mistake underestimating them. Anyway, it doesn't matter now; the point is, he knows. He's coming for you, Len!"

Norwood suddenly looked very worried, and said, "It's too soon! The Kintark aren't in position yet, and I've only convinced about half my fleet to join us."

"Kill the rest, then," Lynton urged him. "Take the forces loyal to you, and defect to the Kintark! We'll still be able to execute the plan, it'll just take a little longer..."

If Norwood had looked shocked before, now he looked absolutely stunned as he gasped, "Kill the rest! Gabrielle, you can't be serious! We're supposed to be claiming the moral high-ground and trying to establish a new Republic. I can't order my fleet to slaughter Terran ships in cold blood!"

She shrugged indifferently, and said, "You're out of time. I've distracted John Blake with a side-mission that'll help escalate things nicely. He'll be with the Fleet Admiral in about twelve hours though, so you need to move fast if you plan to escape."

Still reeling from the bad news, Norwood had slumped back in his chair, and was gazing off to the side out a window. He seemed to be desperately thinking of ways out of his current situation, and he finally turned to look at her, and said, "Let's just tell Buckingham that John Blake is a traitor and here to assassinate him. We can obliterate him the moment he jumps in-system! He won't even get a chance to defend himself!"

Lynton shook her head, and said sternly, "Absolutely not."

"But Gabrielle, it solves all our problems at once!" Norwood whined, pleading with her to reconsider.

"No," she replied with a ringing note of finality. Her normally warm and pleasant voice had a deathly chill to it as she said, "I've got plans for John Blake, and you will not confront him. Do I make myself clear?"

Norwood was astonished by her defiant tone, and his eyes narrowed, as he said, "I'm not your puppet, Gabrielle. I care for you a great deal, but I'm fighting for something important here. The Terran Federation is an autocratic nightmare and needs to be brought down."

"I'm sorry, Len, you're right. The future of the Republic is vitally important," she apologised with a smile, her tone conciliatory. She let out a big sigh as she continued, "Please don't be upset with me, I'm just worried that you'll get hurt. John Blake is powerful, and he's massively upgraded that ship of his with alien tech. Please forgive me, baby?"

Her fawning apology drew forth a smile on Norwood's face, and he replied in a soothing voice, "I understand, darling, don't worry." He frowned, and then continued, "You might be right about defecting now, though. If Devereux's puppet knows what I've been up to, then she's bound to know as well. I think it might be wise to escape now before she gets word to Buckingham by a different route."

Lynton nodded eagerly, and said, "We can still proceed with our previous plans. My fleet here is loyal to me, and we'll block reinforcements from joining Buckingham's battlegroup. By the time he realises he's in trouble, the Kintark can surround him and wipe his forces out!"

"It's a good plan. I'll take steps immediately," Norwood agreed, looking thoughtful. He focused on her, and said, "Stay safe, my darling. We'll be reunited soon."

"I love you," she said to him, her voice throbbing with emotion, and she blew him a tender kiss.

Norwood smiled at her, then closed the comm channel, and the holographic image of his face disappeared. That left Gabrielle Lynton alone, and John spotted a flicker of a smile on her face before she disappeared too.

"Rewind that a second, then pause it please, Irillith," John requested, leaning forward slightly when the hologram of Admiral Lynton reappeared above the desk.

Sure enough, he saw the calculating smile flicker over Gabrielle's features, as she made Leonard Norwood dance to her tune.

Alyssa saw it too, and she shook her head as she murmured, "She's one manipulative bitch." Turning to look at John, she frowned as she added, "What was all that about her having plans for you?"

He shrugged helplessly and replied, "I'm not sure, but if she's been enthralled by another Progenitor, then he might have ordered her not to try and kill me for some reason."

Dana grimaced and said, "That doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he just try and fuck us up the first chance he got? Especially with you trying to stop him..."

Jade shook her head, and said, "I think John's right. This feels like a cat toying with a mouse, and the mouse never wins." She glanced his way, and added vehemently, "I think we need to stop being the mouse."

He nodded, but his expression was pained as he said, "Until we have more information to go on, I think we're going to have to continue as we've been doing. We'll focus on upgrading the ship with new tech, and learning to make the most of our new abilities. Then, with a bit of luck, we can find out more about what we're facing." He looked around at the girls, and asked, "Do any of you have any other suggestions? If you've got any good ideas, I want to hear them."

They exchanged glances, then shook their heads, and Alyssa acted as their spokesperson as she replied, "We all agree with your current plan, and it's been working well for us so far." She glanced at Sakura as she added speculatively, "We know you get more powerful, the more girls you're linked to. Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted Sakura has joined our little group, but we do know a place full of beautiful women who can't seem to get enough of you."

They turned to look at Irillith, and she nodded her agreement, saying, "She makes a good point. Making your base on Valaden could have a lot of advantages we haven't really discussed yet."

Dana frowned and said to him, "I'm not sure I like the idea of sharing you with millions of Maliri girls."

Rachel had a teasing smile on her face as she asked her lover, "I thought you couldn't get jealous?"

Dana shook her head, and grinned at Irillith as she replied, "Nah it's not that, he can fuck as much blue pussy as he wants." She pouted then, and muttered, "I just don't like the idea of being tightly rationed on cum."

John laughed, and said, "Don't worry, I've got no plans to add a million Maliri girls to the crew."

*Maybe not a million...* Edraele thought to him, and he could hear a strange note of satisfaction in her voice.

*It sounds like you're up to something?* he asked her curiously.

She sent him a teasing telepathic smile, and replied, *I don't want to spoil my surprise. You'll just have to wait until you return to Valaden to find out!*

Realising he wasn't going to get any more answers from his Maliri Matriarch, he glanced at the ship's chronometer on the wall, and said, "We'll be reaching Zeta-Draconis soon, so we better wrap this up. We've got about twenty minutes until we arrive, so meet back on the Bridge in ten. We can see what Xen-Nuchek has in store for us, and we'll plan our attack accordingly."

The girls smiled at him as they rose to their feet, and began to file out of the Briefing Room, leaving him alone with Sakura. She felt warm and soft on his lap, and he felt no desperate urge to move her. He relaxed in his chair, placed a protective hand over her rounded tummy, and began to caress the taut sphere. She was a bit restless though, shifting a little in his lap so that she could stare into eyes, and he could tell she wanted to ask him something.

He watched her for a moment, then smiled as he said, "Just say whatever's on your mind. I promise I won't be offended."

Sakura smiled back at him shyly, and asked, "I just wondered what you want me to do during this rescue mission?" Sounding eager, she added, "I could come along with you, if you want? I'm sure some of my memories would be helpful with infiltrating the base."

John shook his head, then pointed towards the female-shaped Paragon armour hanging in racks on the walls as he replied, "I don't want you anywhere near combat until you're big enough to fit in one of those suits. I'm not exposing you to any unnecessary danger if I can help it."

She looked touched by his concern, then sighed as he returned his hand to her swollen abdomen and continued stroking her with a gentle touch. "What do you want me to do?" she asked him curiously.

"Absorb all this cum, and let me enhance you while you do it," he replied, as he stared into her almond shaped eyes. "If you're going to be my Security Chief, then you're going to be seeing lots of combat in the future. I'm not in any rush to expose you to it until you're ready, and that means we'll be doing lots of training together before then."

"I can't wait!" she said with enthusiasm. After a moment, she looked at him askance, and asked, "If I had been 'combat ready', what would I be doing on this rescue mission?"

"Joining me and the girls down on the planet," he replied without hesitation. He smiled at her intent expression as he continued, "You were absolutely right before. I've started relying on my doctor and engineer for these kinds of missions, and as amazing as they are, they're young girls without much combat experience. At the very least, I'd want you there to help protect them."

"I could definitely do that," she agreed, pleased at the thought of being useful, without having to do anything she found abhorrent. Snuggling into him, she added, "Just listening to those videos brought home the unbelievably high stakes you're fighting for. It'll be an honour to support you in that."

John sighed, and she heard the reluctance in his voice as he said, "I didn't want to get tangled up in this war with the Kintark, but events have forced my hand. I owe it to Calara to rescue her brother, and even though I'm facing a bigger threat from this Progenitor, I still feel a sense of loyalty to the Terran Federation. I want to try and help them avoid whatever disaster Lynton has planned for them."

Sakura laughed lightly, and shook her head as she remarked, "What you're dealing with makes my old dreams of becoming a lawyer seem pretty pathetic by comparison."

He smiled at her, and said, "You were trying to help people in the best way you could. Don't belittle yourself, it was a worthy goal."

She looked startled, then shook her head as she stared at him, and replied, "I've only known you for such a short space of time. How can you know just what to say to make me feel better?"

Raising his hand and tilting his head, he brushed his finger against the pointed tip of his ears, and said, "These aren't just for show. I'm a good listener."

Sakura smiled, and said, "It's a good skill to have. You've done a great job of putting me at ease."

"I want you to be happy here with us," he replied, holding her close. After a moment's hesitation, he added, "I hope you didn't take my earlier reluctance the wrong way. I'm delighted to have you join us, I just..."

She placed a slender finger on his lips, silencing him, and said, "You were hoping I could go back to a 'normal' life." She smiled, and leaned up to kiss him before she continued, "Thank you for looking out for me. I truly believe I've made the right decision... for both of us."

*Sorry to interrupt,* Alyssa thought to him, her apologetic voice floating through his mind. *We've arrived in Zeta-Draconis.*

By the startled look on Sakura's face, he guessed that she'd heard Alyssa's voice too, and he said to her, "It must seem strange, suddenly having Alyssa chatting away to you like that."

Sakura had her head tilted to one side as she listened to the psychic blonde, and said, "Alyssa's been very kind, actually. I've found it quite reassuring, listening to her talk." She slid off his lap, and stood at his side, wobbling uncertainly for a moment as she gained her balance.

John helped steady her, and as soon as she was stable, he rose to his feet and said sympathetically, "The girls have said that carrying that extra weight takes a little getting used to."

She gave him a wry smile as she replied, "While I was at university, I was always a good girl, and avoided drunken frat parties. I never thought I'd end up in this state, no matter how debauched an orgy they turned into!"

He laughed at that, then looked at her quizzically, and asked, "Are you sure you're okay with everything? It must be weird having to adjust to something so... unnatural."

Sakura cradled her tummy with both hands, and when she met his gaze her smile was gentle as she replied, "I've dealt with brutal changes to my life before, but this? No, I don't mind at all."

He leaned down and kissed her, then took her hand and led her out of the Briefing Room and onto the Bridge. All the crew were gathered there, gazing intently at the local system map for Zeta-Draconis, which Alyssa had activated as a big hologram in the centre of the room. They climbed up the steps to the Command Podium, and Sakura let go of his hand before he moved to sit in the Command Chair.

The Zeta-Draconis system had a bright blue star at its centre, and there were several planets in orbit around the huge sun. Three of the four were lush green worlds, with most of their surface filled with vast jungles. The final planet was a big gas giant, with a large refuelling station sitting in low orbit, surrounded by numerous ships that had arrived at the base to refill their tanks with liquid hydrogen.

"Which one is Xen-Nuchek?" John asked, as he gazed at the map.

Alyssa glanced his way, and replied, "The second one. We're running on minimal power to keep a low profile, and Jade's taking us in."

"Well done, honey," he said to her appreciatively as he studied the planets before him.

Dana turned her chair to face him, and said, "I suspect all three of these systems have been terraformed relatively recently, and if I had to guess, I'd say within the last hundred years or so. The troposphere of each of them shows an unusually high concentration of Carbon Dioxide, which you wouldn't expect with that much vegetation on the planet. They were probably all volcanic worlds before they were changed."

"Is the atmosphere hazardous for humans?" he asked her warily.

Shaking her head, Dana replied, "We'll be fine, our Paragon armour is fully sealed. Breathing would be a little harder if we were out of the suits."

Rachel then interjected, "Actually long term exposure would be fatal, causing respiratory acidosis which has a number of nasty side-effects."

"Would that environment have any effect on the Kintark?" he asked the grey-eyed brunette.

Rachel's mind flashed through the autopsy she'd performed on the Kintark pilot, and immediately replied, "The Kintark respiratory system is quite different to a Terran's, and they're well adapted to high Carbon-Dioxide environments. They wouldn't suffer any adverse effects from being there." She looked thoughtful for a moment before adding, "We'll find the temperature down there quite muggy, but it would be ideal for them, being cold-blooded creatures. I'd theorise that these kind of jungle worlds must be the Kintark's favoured ecosystem."

John nodded his agreement as he said, "I visited a few Kintark planets in my early days as a trader, back when they were still at peace with the Terran Federation. I've been to their homeworld, Kinta, and a couple of the long-established colonies, deep in Kintark Space. They were all jungle worlds too, but they were heavily developed, and fascinating places to visit."

Alyssa gave him a rueful smile, and said, "I would've loved to see them."

"The war won't last forever," he said to her optimistically. Turning to look at Calara, he asked, "Speaking of which, any signs of defensive Kintark fleets?"

The Latina spun around in her Tactical Chair so that she could look up at the Command Podium, and she replied, "It's mostly civilian traffic heading to that refuelling station, but not much in the way of military vessels. We're deep within Kintark territory now; a couple of days from the border using Terran or Kintark FTL drives, so system security is minimal."

"How about the traitor fleet and their escorts?" he asked Alyssa. "How long until they arrive?"

"An hour and ten," she replied nonchalantly. "We were travelling at triple their hyper-warp speed, so we got here with plenty of time to spare."

The green planet, Xen-Nuchek, loomed larger in the system map as Jade guided them in closer to the jungle planet. The surface was covered in a riot of vegetation, and unlike the heavily developed Kintark core worlds, John couldn't see any sign of settlements.

"Any idea where the prison is yet?" he asked, staring at the unbroken expanse of verdant jungle.

Calara and Dana shared a glance, then Dana reluctantly shook her head as she replied, "The Kintark must have seeded the world with fauna, because the place is teeming with lifeforms. It's making scanning for life signs like searching for a needle in a haystack. We've also tried looking for buildings, but as the planet was originally volcanic, there's a lot of metal close to the surface, which is interfering with the scan results."

He rose from his chair, and said, "We'll get geared up, then launch in the Raptor. We'll just have to wait for the traitors to arrive, and when they drop off their prisoners, we'll find the mines that way."

"I'll keep scanning while you get ready," Calara informed him. "I'll let you know if I find anything that looks promising."

"Alright, let's get moving ladies," he said decisively, and Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel rose from their chairs and started walking to the Briefing Room to get suited up in their armour. He turned to Sakura, and added, "Do you want to see our gear, or wait on the Bridge?"

"I'll come with you, if that's alright?" she asked him with shy smile.

"Of course," he replied, then offered her a hand, as he walked down the steps from the Command Podium.

When they reached the Briefing Room, the blonde, brunette, and redhead were already stepping into the Paragon boots at the armour equipping stations. Sakura watched in wide-eyed amazement as the robotic arms moved the armour plated sections into position, enclosing each girl in body armour. Once the helmets had been lowered into position, there was a rippling series of clicks as they activated the hooks that would lock the plating together. It only took a matter of seconds before the three girls stepped away from the frames, now fully geared in incredibly resilient armour.

Dana stopped before them, and grinned at Sakura as she asked, "Pretty cool, right?"

The Asian girl nodded, and replied, "I've never seen anything like it!"

The redhead smiled as she said, "When you're big enough to wear the armour, I'll explain how the equipping frames work. Once your DNA has settled down, I'll add your genetic profile to the system as well." She twisted her shoulder, so that the holographic red lioness emblem was clearly visible, and continued, "Then you'll get one of these to appear in the right colour when you put the armour on."

After glancing at the tawny-brown and golden lionesses adorning Rachel and Alyssa's shoulders, Sakura asked, "A black lioness for me, right?"

Dana gave her a wink, and said, "It was lucky we hadn't already recruited a hot black-haired girl yet."

Alyssa grinned at them as she walked over to the weapons rack, and said, "Why did you think I wanted her to join us so bad? We needed Sakura to complete the set!"

Sakura laughed at that, finding their gentle humour relaxing and inclusive. Something Dana mentioned had piqued her curiosity though, so she asked the redhead, "What did you mean about my DNA 'settling down'?"

Dana grinned at her through the clear Paragon helmet's faceplate, then reached out to gently pat the girl's rounded tummy as she said, "All that spunk you're carrying really does a number on you."

Rachel rolled her eyes, and she smiled at Sakura as she explained, "While John's enhancing your physique, your DNA is being comprehensively rewritten to accommodate the changes. I can run through the specifics later if you're interested?"

"Don't get her started! I love her to bits, but her lectures are really tedious," Dana said in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Hey!" Rachel protested indignantly. "I thought you found them interesting?"

John patted the brunette on the shoulder, as he walked past her on the way towards his own set of armour, and said, "Don't pay any attention to Sparks. I've seen her during your presentations, she loves hearing you talk."

Dana blew an apologetic kiss to her lover, then turned to Sakura and grinned as she said, "The quick summary is: you'll get a smoking hot body with a big rack."

Rachel laughed, and said, "There's quite a bit more to it than that."

Cupping her impressive bust through the form-fitting Paragon armour, Dana let out a happy sigh as she added, "I always wanted big tits, and I went from being flat as a pancake to having these beauties!"

Alyssa walked back to join them, a ferocious looking Punisher rifle cradled in her arms. She smiled at Dana, and said, "Enough showing off, Sparks. Go and get geared up." Turning to look at John, she asked, "I thought Punisher rifles?"

Stepping away from the armour equipping frame, John was now wearing his lion embossed Paragon suit, and he nodded as he said, "The Kintark weren't shielded, but it might be worth one of us taking a Justice rifle just in case. We can fire the Punisher rifles on low-powered mode to start with, and make use of the silenced shots. We might be able to stay undetected a while longer if we can eliminate any guards without making a big ruckus."

"I'll take a Justice rifle!" Dana volunteered immediately. "We haven't given one a field test yet."

She hurried over to the weapon frames, and lifted one of the big laser rifles off the wall. A green light flashed on the grip when she picked it up, and the built-in DNA reader confirmed her identity. She powered up the Justice rifle, and twin streams of blue light circled the power-core disc at the back of the long weapon. The two trails of light merged together into a single bright line, which then raced up the barrel, illuminating the full length of the rifle.

"I've never seen equipment like this before," Sakura marvelled as she gaped at the guns and armour they were wielding. "Where did you get it all from?"

John patted Dana on the shoulder, and said, "You can thank our talented gunsmith and armourer here. Dana designed and built all this gear for us."

The redhead stepped away from the weapon rack now that she had her Justice rifle, and she smiled at Sakura as she said, "I was always good with tech, but after I joined John... well, let's just say it wasn't just my tits that got a huge boost!"

Rachel had finished loading up her webbing with spare magazines, clips, and grenades, and she smiled at John as she listened to the conversation behind her. She walked over to join the girls, and said to Sakura, "John loves smart, talented girls, and he's nurtured all of us to develop our intellects as well as our physical attributes. You'll eventually have the body of an incredible athlete, as well as a highly developed mind."

Sakura stared at her rounded stomach with an awestruck expression on her face, and she murmured, "This is really happening..."

Alyssa ducked down in front of the astonished young woman so she could make eye contact with her, and asked gently, "Are you okay? I guess I didn't do a very good job of explaining this before."

"No, it's not that. You were very clear..." the raven-haired girl replied. She glanced at Dana and Rachel, then blushing slightly with embarrassment, she added, "It's just that hearing these girls talk about it all so matter-of-factly has made it suddenly seem much more real."

John put his arm around her, and asked sympathetically, "Are you having second thoughts? I was worried we were taking things too fast, and not giving you enough time to think it through."

Sakura shook her head, and replied in a firm voice, "No, I'm certain I made the right choice, I don't have any doubts." She looked around at the concerned faces, and grinned as she added, "I can't wait, actually!"

Alyssa stood up, and looked relieved as she said with a smile, "You had me worried there for a moment!"

"Sorry," Sakura apologised with a smile of her own, and Alyssa gave her a quick hug to show her there were no hard feelings.

Now that they were fully geared, they left the Briefing Room to return to the Bridge. Calara turned to face them as they strode out, and said, "I think I might have found something."

John walked over to the Tactical Station, and asked, "What is it?"

"I found what looks like a large strip-mine bored into the surface of a now-dormant volcano," The Latina explained, pressing buttons on her station to highlight the relevant section on the planetary map.

Xen-Nuchek appeared in the centre of the Bridge as a bright green sphere, and the map then zoomed in on the highlighted area. Just as Calara had described, the highly raised topography indicated that it used to be a volcanic range, although that whole section of the planet's surface was now covered in dense jungle. There was a large circular area which had been sunk into the side of the mountain, and the open pit was a light yellow that contrasted vividly with the dark green of the surrounding vegetation.

"That certainly looks like a sulphur mine. Any nearby buildings?" John asked, nodding towards the map.

She clicked a few buttons displaying Mag-view on the map, and replied, "There's a lot of metal in the area, but I found what looked to be pyramids under the jungle canopy surrounding the mine."

"I think you've hit jackpot," he said with a smile. "From what I've seen, Kintark architecture favours pyramids. They use a strange brown building material, which I had thought was some kind of ceramic."

"There must be metal in it too if the Mag-view is picking it up," Dana said, as she stared at the pyramid structures.

Rachel had been looking at the map too, and she asked, "Are those buildings where they keep the prisoners?"

"Probably," John agreed, nodding as he glanced her way. "They'll be a good place to start looking at any rate."

Alyssa frowned as she looked at the local geography, and said, "I can't see any clearings to set us down. That jungle coverage is pretty dense." With a smile she continued, "Except in the middle of the base of course, but landing smack in the middle of a Kintark prison camp might make keeping a low profile tricky!"

"If Faye can hover above the trees, we can use flight mode to touch down," John said decisively. He looked grim as he added, "But it looks like sneaking out the prisoners isn't going to be a possibility. We might have to clean-house before we attempt an evac."

The blonde had a bleak frown on her face as she said, "They've been treating Terran prisoners as slave labour and working them to death. I think a nasty end for the Kintark guards is long overdue."

"Alright, let's get moving," John said, not disagreeing with her sentiments. Turning to look at Calara, he continued, "I'm leaving you in charge, Commander. Try not to take any unnecessary risks, but you have my full confidence in your command decisions."

She rose to her feet, then saluted him as she replied, "I won't let you down, Admiral."

"I know you won't," he replied with a smile.

She gave him a quick hug, followed by Jade, Irillith, and Sakura, then John and his combat team strolled up the ramp towards the grav-tube. They waved the Bridge crew goodbye, then stepped into the red anti-gravity field and descended out of sight. Faye watched them depart with a sad smile, lamenting the fact that she couldn't hug her friends goodbye.

Calara turned to look at Sakura, and she smiled at her as she asked in a friendly fashion, "Do you want to stay up here with us, or go and sleep off breakfast?"

Sakura glanced down at her tummy, then blushed a little before replying, "I'll stay up here, if that's okay? I want to settle in as fast as possible, so I'd like to watch you girls, and find out what you do here."

The Latina nodded, and replied kindly, "That's no problem at all." She pointed towards the Command Podium, then suggested, "Why don't you sit in one of those chairs? You'll get a good view of everything that happens on the Bridge. We're going to try and avoid a fight if we can, so hopefully it should be quiet."

Irillith laughed as she walked back to her IntOps station, and asked, "You don't honestly believe that do you? John seems to have a knack for stirring up all sorts of trouble."

Jade turned her Pilot's chair, and smiled at the departing Maliri girl as she said, "Irillith has a point. I think John's expecting the worst or he wouldn't have asked her to stay with us."

Calara smiled at Sakura, and said with extra emphasis, "We'll -try- to stay out of trouble. In any case, make yourself at home, and just ask if you have any questions."

Sakura gave her a grateful smile in return, then walked up the ramp back to the Command Podium. She climbed up the illuminated steps then paused for a moment between the two chairs, before moving to sit in Alyssa's. The seat was comfortable, and from up here on the podium, she had a good view of the three girls at their stations.

*I don't like sitting in John's chair either,* Alyssa admitted, her voice flitting through Sakura's mind. She sounded caring as she continued, *I'll be in constant telepathic communication with the other girls, so just speak to them if you have any questions for me and John while we're away."

It was still a little unsettling to have Alyssa suddenly able to speak directly to her mind, and Sakura glanced at the girls, unsure if she should say anything to them. Jade was watching her, and she smiled as she said, "Don't worry, she told us to look out for you. Just ask if you're worried about anything."

"Thank you," Sakura replied with a smile, relaxing back into the chair, and feeling more at ease.

***

Dana was waiting inside the Raptor at the top of the loading ramp as John jogged into the Hangar Bay. His crystal Alyssium sword was now sheathed across his back, and he'd had to take a minor diversion to his quarters to go and pick it up, as he usually left it in the walk-in wardrobe. He ran up the ramp, and she hit the button to close it after him, then fell into step beside him as they walked into the ship.

"Sakura seems like a nice girl," she observed as they stepped into the grav-tube.

John nodded, and said, "She's been through a lot though, so I don't want to push her into anything until I'm sure she's ready. We don't want a repeat of..." His voice trailed off as they reached the upper level, and he glanced into the cockpit.

Dana saw his eyes land on Rachel, and remembered her dramatic reaction to the pirates on her first mission away from the ship. She nodded slowly, as she agreed, "Yeah, best to take it nice and easy."

Changing subjects as they walked into the cockpit, John smiled as he asked her, "Was that true about always wanting big breasts?"

The redhead grinned as she replied, "Are you fucking kidding me? It's been like a dream come true!"

Alyssa was sitting in the pilot's chair, completing pre-flight checks and starting the powerful Trankaran engines. She glanced over her shoulder, and asked wryly, "Is discussing bust sizes standard pre-mission briefing protocol amongst the Terran Federation Marine corps?"

John laughed, and replied, "You'd be surprised how often the topic came up."

She smiled at that, then turned to Faye who was fluttering nervously in the co-pilot's chair, and said, "Alright, Faye. I know you're very familiar with the flight mechanics, so why don't you try easing us out of the Hangar?"

"Are you sure?" the tiny AI construct asked in a nervous squeak.

Alyssa nodded, then gave her a reassuring smile as she said, "I'm here in case you get in trouble, but you'll be fine. Just be gentle with the power to the retro-thrusters and you won't go far wrong."

Faye nodded, but she looked apprehensive as she used her remote connection with the ship to gradually power up the engines, and activate the retro-thrusters. The Raptor slowly lifted off the deck, then drifted smoothly out of the Invictus, passing under the Hangar Bay doors, and through the atmospheric shielding. She was very cautious with her manoeuvres, but she avoided clipping anything, which was the main priority.

"Nicely done, Faye," John said with a smile, looking down at her over the back of the seat.

The purple sprite grinned at him as she said in a rush, "I was so worried!"

Alyssa frowned, and said to him, "Stop distracting my student." Smiling at Faye, she then added, "Alright keep the engine power low, and take us in towards the planet nice and slowly. We're trying to be stealthy and keeping a low-profile, remember?"

Faye nodded, then frowned in concentration as she plotted her course down to the planet and eased them towards the distant outskirts of the Xen-Nuchek sulphur mine. It didn't take long to descend through the planet's atmosphere, even while keeping the power levels down to avoid being picked up by sensors. Alyssa directed Faye to fly the gunship in low, so that they approached the mine from the opposite side of the mountain range to avoid being spotted by guards. They finally came to a halt a couple of miles away from the Kintark base, with the Raptor hovering a few dozen metres above the thick, unbroken jungle canopy.

"I've hooked up the Raptor to the Paragon armour comm network, so we'll be able to call you in to pick us up," Dana said to the apprehensive sprite.

John smiled at Faye, and said, "I'd never believe that was the first time you've flown a ship. You were great!"

She looked overjoyed at his praise, but was bashful as she admitted, "I'm just executing a piloting program that I tailored for the gunship. I can't exactly claim much credit for that."

He shrugged, and replied, "The results are the main thing, and after seeing you fly, I'm confident you can do this."

Alyssa rose from her pilot's chair, and said, "He's right, you did very well. You might want to put some distance between yourself and the base, then you can practice some more advanced manoeuvres. Try and keep the energy profile low though, I don't want you getting ambushed by fighters."

"I'll be careful!" Faye promised, while looked awed at the trust they were placing in her.

John led the girls down to the loading area at the front of the Raptor, and Dana hit the button which opened the landing ramp. The view was breathtaking as the ramp lowered, giving them a spectacular view of the lush jungle that stretched off into the distance as far as the eye could see. They were high up in the green-shrouded mountain range, and at that elevation, they could see for miles on end.

John glanced at the helmet GUI, then activated flight mode. He could feel the gentle throb through his armour from the big thruster on his back, as well as slight vibrations from his boots and gloves as the retro-thrusters built into those powered up too. Putting his trust in the gear Dana had laboriously designed and constructed, he stepped off the edge of the ramp, and dropped towards the jungle below.

With his hands outstretched to help keep his balance, he sank below the thick leaves, while being careful to avoid the vines and branches that could snare the unwary. The trees were surprisingly tall, and it was a good hundred-metre drop to the ground below. The girls followed his lead, and Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel dropped with him, moving from the bright sunshine above the jungle canopy into the sun-dappled gloom within. They touched down lightly, then pulled out their rifles as they deactivated flight mode.

A glance at his HUD told him that it was thirty-seven degrees outside, and he was very thankful that his armour was fully sealed and temperature controlled. It was pleasantly cool inside the carefully regulated environment inside his suit, unlike the oppressive heat outside. He brought up the map of the local geography on his helmet GUI, and saw the green line on the map showing the direction to the mine.

The jungle itself was a riot of colour, and filled with wildly exotic flora and fauna, some of which he'd seen before on the Kintark homeworld. However, most of the brightly coloured ferns, flowers and trees were all new to him. Huge insects bigger than his fist swirled around overhead, chasing each other in swarms as they searched for food. Odd hoots and calls from bigger animals filled the jungle with a strange other-worldly symphony that was beautiful in its lilting cadence.

With his enhanced hearing he could hear the muted sound of their gunship's retro-thrusters overhead despite the noise from all the Xen-Nuchek wildlife. He looked upwards, and contacted Faye by selecting the Raptor on the comm interface.

"Hey, John! Everything alright?" she asked him, her expression bright and inquisitive.

He nodded as he replied, "We're all safely down. You can get clear now."

She smiled at him and said, "I'll pull back and get some more practice in. Call me as soon as you need an evac, alright?"

"Will do. Thanks, Faye," he replied gratefully.

The purple sprite paused before she ended the call, and said, "Please be careful, okay?"

"I'll take good care of the girls, don't you worry," he replied with a reassuring smile.

She looked like she wanted to say more, but just nodded instead, then closed the call.

Turning to the girls beside him, he said, "We've got a couple of miles to cover, let's get moving."

They fell into step behind him, spreading out into a carefully structured formation. John relayed his instructions to Alyssa as she read his mind, and she passed them on telepathically to the other two girls in the fire team. They looked like eerie white ghosts as they glided silently through the jungle, watching out for danger.

***

Calara had been staring at the long range scan results for half an hour, before she finally saw the familiar pattern of contacts appear at the outer edges of the sensor sweeps. Sure enough, the traitor fleet was heading inbound, along with their escorting fleet made up of Kintark ships. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw those contacts, and she was assailed by a flood of emotions.

She was filled with hope that Mateo was aboard, but at the same time she felt a tremor of fear that he'd been killed by the traitor forces who were following Norwood. Last but not least was a lingering doubt, and she hated herself for even thinking it, but what if Mateo had betrayed the Terran Federation as well? Could she really pull the trigger on her own brother, even if he'd turned his back on everything her family held dear?

Reminding herself of her duty to John, and her role as Commander aboard the Invictus with him away from the ship, she took a deep breath and forced herself to focus on the job at hand. Relying on passive sensors alone, she began matching the signal types against their ships' Almanac, identifying the class and disposition of the approaching fleet.

The numbers of vessels exactly matched the group they had passed during their hyper-warp journey to this system, and she felt confident that this was the entirety of the traitor fleet. There was one major exception though; Admiral Norwood's dreadnought was still curiously absent, and she couldn't help but worry what he was getting up to.

Calara's mind started turning, calculating the odds should they be forced to attempt an attack against that big flotilla of ships, if they needed to bail John out of trouble. Her expression was grim as she thought through the possibilities, knowing full well that without the element of surprise, they'd struggle against a fleet half that size.

Jade had pulled the Invictus back from Xen-Nuchek, and they were now lurking at the edge of the system, running on minimum power. Their location was some way from the space lanes, so unless they had the terrible misfortune of a Kintark ship practically running right over them, she was confident they'd remain undetected.

The mixed fleet of Kintark and Terran ships crawled closer, until they finally dropped out of hyper-warp at the edge of the system. They kept the same formation, with the Kintark ships forming a protective cordon around the Terran ships, as they headed straight towards the jungle planet where John and the girls were lying in wait.

*The traitor fleet jumped in,* Calara reported to Alyssa. She glanced at the System Map as she continued, *I'm watching them head towards you right now, and they'll be in orbit in just over seven minutes.*

*Thanks, gorgeous!* Alyssa replied, sounding happy to hear her voice, just as she always did. *Any problems so far?*

Calara felt a pang of worry for her beautiful blonde lover, and she replied, *No, we're safe and sound up here. I'm more concerned about you.*

*We're not far from the prison, and we haven't run into any trouble,* Alyssa replied, putting the Latina's mind at ease. Her voice had a teasing edge to it as she added vacantly, *It's so pretty here! I'm so glad John asked me to go for a romantic stroll through the woods!*

Stifling a laugh, Calara thought back to her, *Maybe you can pick me some nice flowers on your scenic hike. I'd love to get some for my girlfriend, but you and John won't let me off the ship!*

She waited for a witty retort, but Alyssa seemed oddly distracted, and didn't reply...

***

Rachel was spellbound by all the myriad forms of alien life that were floating, flying, and crawling around them, and she lamented softly, "If only we could spend a few weeks here, I'd love to study all these creatures!"

"Not this time, honey," John replied, but he sounded distracted as he gazed out into the xeno-jungle. There was something disquieting about this place, and his senses felt alive as he stared out through the dimly lit foliage, wary for danger.

*What is it, John?* Alyssa asked him, moving to his side and watching him with concern.

He glanced at her, and murmured, *There's something wrong here, but I can't put my finger on it.*

With a silent telepathic command, Rachel and Dana turned and covered their rear, watching through the fronds and thick hanging leaves for the slightest sign of trouble.

*There!* he thought to her urgently, glancing her way, a worried look on his face. *Did you hear that?*

She stayed quiet, and tried to make out what he was listening for, but all she could hear was the din of the animals in the jungle. She finally met his gaze, and with an apologetic shrug, she replied, *My hearing isn't as sharp as yours. All I can hear is these animals calling to each other.*

*That's just it,* he hissed. *Listen again...*

She did so, straining to hear what had him so spooked, and she was about to give up, when she heard a brief lull in the din. It was as if part of the jungle had gone very quiet, as though the animals went silent at the passing of a big predator. Something nasty, and very high up the food chain. She looked at him with wide eyes, and he nodded when he saw that realisation in her eyes.

*Is it hunting us?* she asked him, sounding worried.

He hesitated for a moment, then replied, *I'm not sure, but I don't want to find out. We can use flight mode for the rest of the distance, and fly just under the canopy.*

Alyssa looked up at the tangled mass of vegetation dangling from those trees, and she frowned as she replied, *It's going to be slow going.*

*Better safe than sorry,* he countered, and she nodded her agreement.

The four white-armoured team members activated the flight mode on their packs, and lifted off the ground, using their thrusters to reach the upper levels. Despite their initial worries about slowing down by travelling up there, they found the upper canopy was fairly light on foliage, and although it meant flicking in and out of cover intermittently, they actually made faster time.

It only took about ten minutes for them to see the break in the jungle up ahead, and they knew the clearing was due to the devastation from the strip-mining to the local jungle. They slowed their approach, and then perched in the branches of a huge, thick-limbed tree which overlooked the mine. Sure enough, John spotted the mottled brown pyramids that Calara had discovered from orbit, which were set back into the jungle surrounding the mine.

Green-armoured Lizardmen soldiers strolled around the top levels of the mine, full of energy despite Xen-Nuchek's debilitating heat. There were ramps that dropped down to the lower levels, and the sulphur had been mined out in trenches, leaving stepped levels that delved deeper into the surface of the mountain. The lower levels of the pit disappeared out of sight, with only a dim trail visible by the illumination of a glowing handrail as it descended into the gloom.

Now that they had a better view, they could see what looked like a landing area sunk down into the ground, set under an overhanging cliff on the southern side of the base. There was some kind of commotion going on, and they could see dozens of figures gathered around several Titanium-grey dropships.

"You were right!" Dana exclaimed as she studied the obviously Terran vessels. "The traitors did take prisoners!"

John chuckled, and said, "You don't have to sound so surprised."

She gave him an apologetic grin, and then turned back to the scene unfolding at the landing pads. Landing gantries were being lowered, and when they touched the ground, a Terran officer strolled out, walking up to an armoured Kintark officer who was waiting for him at the edge of the landing zone. They spoke briefly, and the Terran officer turned back to the dropships, before making a beckoning motion.

Several dozen dejected-looking prisoners were marched out from each of the five dropships by armed guards, the hands of the bedraggled captives bound together by security binders. They were lined up in sagging rows, the men looking thoroughly miserable in the scorching jungle heat. None of the Kintark soldiers made any move to approach the prisoners, and instead they seemed to be glancing off into the distance behind them as though waiting for something.

The Terran and Kintark officers spoke again, and John turned up the directional noise amplifiers on his suit, then strained his ears to listen, trying to make out what they were saying. At over one-hundred metres away, it was a struggle even for him, but he caught a few snippets of the conversation.

"...gift from Admiral ...wood, to cement... between... new..." the Terran Commodore was saying, a broad smile on his face as he spoke animatedly to the Kintark officer.

It was even harder to make out what the Kintark said in reply, what with the Lizardman's disconcerting sibilant speech, but it sounded like he replied, "... for your... Emperor welcomesss... ssstrong... together."

"Hand over... custody... help with...," the Terran traitor said with a nod towards the prisoners.

John figured they were going through the formalities of the prison transfer, but the Lizardman officer shook his head, and replied, "...asssked, ...Consssort, ssshe... imminently."

The Terran officer saluted the Kintark, then walked back to the closest dropship at a brisk pace, without giving the prisoners a second glance. He strolled up the landing gantry, and as soon as he was aboard, the doors to the dropship began to close behind him. The retro-thrusters on the dropships fired as they were powered up, and John watched in surprise as the bulky dropships lifted ponderously off the ground, then rose skywards as they headed back to the ships in orbit. The prisoners looked even more defeated now, and they stood there wilting under the sweltering Xen-Nuchek temperatures.

"I think I can see Mateo," Alyssa said in a hushed voice. She pointed towards the left-most edge of the group, and added, "That tall, black-haired guy at the end there? I'm sure that's him."

John followed the direction of her hand, and he saw the stooped figure she was pointing too. He shared Calara's coffee-coloured complexion, but with his back to them, they couldn't tell for sure.

"What the fuck is that?!" Dana exclaimed, pointing off to the right of the sunken landing pads.

John turned to look where she was indicating, and he blinked in astonishment as he saw the enormous red lizard that had drawn Dana's attention. It was shaped like the Kintark Royal Guard that he'd fought against in Port Medea, with four huge stocky legs, a thick tail, and a body that was covered in red scales. There was one major difference however; this creature was enormous, and was at least quadruple the size of the Royal Guard at nearly sixty feet in length.

"I thought the 'Dragon' part of 'Dragon March' was just a joke?" Alyssa asked in a hushed voice.

John looked concerned as he replied, "Many a true word set in jest..."

"It must be some sort of ruling caste," Rachel murmured, her eyes open wide as she stared at it in fascination.

John remembered what the Kintark officer had said, and he interjected, "I think it's called a 'Consort', whatever that means. The Kintark leader down there mention that she was on her way."

Dana frowned, and asked, "Yeah, but consorting with what?" She made a pumping motion with her fist and added, "I can't imagine it fucking one of those regular Kintark, they wouldn't even touch the sides!"

Alyssa stifled a laugh, and said, "Delicately put as always, Sparks!"

Rachel smiled at the redhead, but said, "That's a good point though. I wouldn't be surprised if these bigger Kintark have been modified into an entirely separate sub-species." She looked thoughtful as she continued, "Which raises another important question: are the males of this subspecies bigger or smaller than the females?"

"Bigger..." John muttered, his voice no more than a whisper.

They all heard the catch to his voice, and quickly whirled around to look at him. The tree they were sitting in was high enough that they were just able to see out over the jungle canopy, and he pointed a gauntleted finger southwards. A few hundred metres away, they could see the foliage rustling, where something big was brushing past the trees.

"Jesus! How big is that fucker?" Dana asked breathlessly.

John shook his head as he replied, "I've no idea, but it's heavy enough that I can hear it stomping through the jungle."

"Something's happening back with the prisoners," Alyssa noted, drawing their attention back to the partially subterranean landing pads.

The huge red lizard known as the Consort, had finally reached the Kintark and Terrans down at the landing pad. John expected the Terran prisoners to be quaking with fear, and trying to back away from the terrifying creature, but their reaction was quite different. Bizarrely they were now standing up straight, as if they were no longer feeling the effects of the oppressive heat, and were looking at the Consort with curiosity. Kintark soldiers began to walk through the lines, unlocking the binders at the Terrans' wrists and leaving them unshackled.

They seemed to listen attentively as the red dragon spoke to them for just a few moments, and the Consort then turned and started heading back up the ramp. The Terrans followed along looking docile and compliant, with some of them even smiling happily. One of those was the dark-haired, olive-skinned man that they suspected was Mateo, and now that he had turned to follow the huge Kintark dragon, they saw he was sporting a neat goatee.

"That's definitely Mateo," Alyssa said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at him. "I've no idea what he's so happy about though..."

"The Consort could be secreting some kind of pheromone," Rachel said, looking absolutely fascinated, her professional curiosity piqued. "By the way those Terrans are reacting, it seems to be having a powerful effect."

"Yeah, making them happy to be worked to death," Dana muttered, her full lips turning down into a grim frown.

John nodded, and said, "We'll have to move fast to rescue them. As soon as the Terran and Kintark fleet departs, we can get the girls to bring the Invictus in for close fire support. I don't care how big those dragons are, they won't last long against Beam Lasers!"

Alyssa smiled at him, and said, "Sounds like a good plan."

***

Three hours later, Calara fidgeted up on the Bridge of the Invictus, glaring at the stationary fleets in anger. Alyssa had filled her in regarding the situation on Xen-Nuchek, and she had initially been overjoyed to hear that Mateo was still alive. However, the Terran and Kintark fleets refused to move on, leaving her staring at them impotently. The thought of her brother being captivated by some dragon on a toxic planet while she was powerless to do anything about it was absolutely infuriating.

"Are you sure we can't take those fleets, even if we sneak up on them?" Jade asked with a cautiously optimistic smile.

Calara shook her head in frustration, and replied, "Sorry Jade, but there's just too many of them. We wouldn't stand a chance against the Kintark and the Terrans. Their crews will already be at combat stations, watching each other for any wrong moves."

Jade glanced at Irillith, and asked, "You're quite good at forcing ships to make wrong moves aren't you?"

Calara blinked in surprise, and then turned to look at Irillith with wild hope in her eyes, and asked, "What do you think?"

For her own part, Irillith looked quite startled by Jade's suggestion, but that was quickly replaced by a wicked grin. "If you can get me close enough, then yes, I could hack one of their ships and... cause some trouble." Her enthusiastic grin faded a little as she added, "We'd have to be very close though, just outside interdiction range, and establishing a remote link with the comms array will create a power surge that's going to be hard to mask."

Jade stared at the system map, clearly showing the two fleets arrayed with the Kintark forces surrounding the Terrans. There were no asteroid belts nearby to mask their approach, so it'd be like stalking their prey across an open plain. She knew there was a lot more to it than that, with sensors picking up energy readings rather than actually spotting another ship, but sneaking up on anything in a five-hundred-metre long assault cruiser was a hard concept to grasp.

"How about the Raptor?" she asked her friends. "It's much smaller, so maybe we could get closer with that so you could do your remote hacking?"

Irillith shook her head, and gave the Nymph an apologetic smile. "It's a good idea, but the comms array on the Raptor isn't powerful enough. Last time I tried hacking anything from the Raptor I had to..." Her voice trailed away, and she sat bolt upright. She grinned at Calara, and said, "I know what we need to do."

***

"They want to do what?!" John balked, staring at Alyssa in astonishment.

She smiled at him, and said, "It's a good plan, but it's going to take quite a bit of effort on my part to assist. With the traitor fleet not moving anywhere, we're going to have to take steps ourselves to remove them."

John gave her a worried look, and said, "You heard Calara yourself, she said they had no chance against all those ships."

She gave him a sly grin as she said, "They aren't going to be facing *all* those ships though."

"They'll be taking an awfully big risk," he replied, looking deeply concerned.

Alyssa reached out to hold his armoured hand, and then asked, "You told Calara you trusted her before you left. You do, don't you?

He nodded hesitantly as he replied, "She's probably the calmest and most rational out of all of us, but she's only eighteen. I hate the thought of her having to make these kinds of command decisions on her own."

Rachel patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Actually she's deferred this decision to you via Alyssa. Just think of this as her offering you a sound strategy, and it's up to you if you want her to execute the plan." She smiled at him then, and glancing at Alyssa and Dana she added, "Besides, us three are only eighteen as well. You give us free reign to make our own choices all the time, why is this any different?"

He listened attentively to the brunette, and when she'd finished speaking, he smiled and said, "You make a good point, Doctor." Turning to Alyssa, he continued, "Please can you tell her that I trust her judgement. If she thinks she can pull it off without excessive risk, the choice is hers."

Alyssa gazed off into the distance for a few seconds, then focused on him again, and smiled as she said, "Done! They'll be making their move in a few minutes."

John glanced around at the girls, and said, "Once everything kicks off up there, I think we should hit the mine. The Kintark fleet might contact the forces down here, warning them to be on high-alert and that a jailbreak is imminent. We can't risk the Kintark ground forces slaughtering the prisoners."

"I'm ready to kick some ass!" Dana said, holding her Justice rifle tightly.

Rachel looked sombre as she replied, "The sooner we can rescue the prisoners, the better. I'd like to avoid them suffering from any unnecessary exposure to this planet's atmosphere."

Alyssa smiled at him bravely, and said, "I might need a few minutes to recover, then I'll be good to go. We can hit the base immediately afterwards."

He nodded, then smiled at them as he said, "Alright, let's do this."

***

Commodore Nathaniel Wheeler sat awkwardly in his Command Chair, his nerves frayed after nearly eighteen hours up on the Bridge. It had been a crazy day, starting with Admiral Norwood's impassioned plea to all his loyal officers. Commodore Wheeler had been one of the first to be convinced by his compelling words espousing the just cause of establishing a new Terran Republic, and he'd immediately agreed to follow the Admiral's orders, no matter how disturbing.

Momentous change to a galactic civilisation as huge as the Terran Federation was always going to be a painful process. Commodore Wheeler had resigned himself to the grim reality that someday he'd end up having to fire upon men he had once considered his allies. However, resigning himself to such a fact was entirely different to having the situation suddenly thrust upon him, weeks, if not months ahead of their previously planned schedule. Firing on those loyalist ships had been a bloody business, and it had stabbed at his heart to have to follow Admiral Norwood's orders, even if he knew that he must.

At least all that was behind them now. After transferring all those men to the Kintark, who'd refused to be a part of their break for freedom, they wouldn't have to deal with those constant reminders of what had just happened any longer. He felt a surge of pity for those people, knowing that they faced a horrible fate in the Xen-Nuchek sulphur mines. It was their own fault though, and if they'd stayed loyal to their Captains, rather than the false ideals of the tyrannical Terran Federation, they wouldn't be in that dire situation now.

Putting them out of his mind, he stared at the Tactical Map, watching the Kintark forces with a healthy degree of caution. His counterpart in the Kintark fleet was a taciturn lizard called High Prelate Tedaktu, in command of the battleship Bershan'tok. They had spoken several times so far during this long flight deep into Kintark Space, and although they were supposed to now be allies with one another, there was a considerable amount of wariness on both sides.

The Bridge crew aboard the Battleship Phobos had just changed shifts, and the men and women at their stations were bright-eyed and wide awake. Commodore Wheeler stifled a yawn, but he wanted to see them safely to sanctuary before he turned in for some well deserved rest. They were currently waiting here in Zeta-Draconis for Admiral Norwood, and his dreadnought, the Vengeance of Hera. The Admiral had agreed to a rendezvous with some important Kintark known as the Grand Prelate, who had left Kinta especially to meet with the defecting Terran officer. As soon as they were done, Norwood was meant to be arriving at Zeta-Draconis, then they'd be escorted to a safe location for a debriefing with the Kintark intelligence division.

He was roused from his thoughts by a strange alarm sounding off in the Bridge, jolting him awake. It was one he hadn't heard before in his many years serving in the Terran Federation military, and he glanced at his Chief Engineer with a frown on his face. The alarm winked out a second later, having only activated for a few seconds.

"I didn't recognise that alarm, Commander Garnier. What's the problem?" he asked, feeling a flutter of concern.

Commander Garnier looked puzzled, and replied, "The ship detected a firewall violation to our digital network, but I'm not detecting any secure connections to the Comm array. Without a connection in place, a hacking attempt would be impossible."

"Could the Kintark be trying something?" Commodore Wheeler asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

The chief engineer shook his head, and replied, "I'm not detecting any comm array activity from any of their ships. Establishing a connection would cause a spike in their power profiles, so we couldn't have missed it."

The tired Commodore yawned again, and then slumped in his chair, and said, "It's probably some kind of glitch. It's a shame we couldn't get the Phobos serviced before all this, she's long overdue. Can you perform a full diagnostic routine, and see if you can find the problem?"

Garnier nodded, but he was hesitant as he replied, "Running a full diagnostic will knock out the comm array for several hours. I'll perform some manual checks for now, and I'll schedule some intensive maintenance the first chance we get."

"Very good, Commander," Wheeler said, removing his glasses to rub at his tired eyes.

He stayed slumped in his chair for another ten minutes, struggling to stay awake, and counting down the time until Norwood arrived. The Admiral was scheduled to meet with them in six hours, and Commodore Wheeler was starting to have serious doubts that he'd be able to keep going that long.

The Phobos suddenly began to vibrate as power was pushed to the engines, and the huge battleship started to slowly rotate. This time Wheeler sat bolt upright, and snapped at his Navigator, "Lieutenant York, cease all manoeuvres! I never gave permission for any course corrections!"

The woman sitting at the Pilot's station looked shocked, and she gasped, "It's not me, Sir! I haven't touched the flight controls since I arrived on the Bridge!"

"I don't give a shit who started moving us, get the ship back under control!" he snapped curtly.

She nodded, then bent over her console, tapping buttons, and attempting to power down the engines. When she turned to face him again, Commodore Wheeler could see the look of alarm on her face, and she cried out, "It's not responding! It's like I've been locked out of my console!"

The Tactical Station began to light up as if by its own accord, and the weapon loadout of the Phobos came online as the armoured panels on the battleship's hull began to peel back, exposing their weaponry. "Sir! Weapons are arming themselves!" the Tactical Officer blurted out in a panic, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Commodore Wheeler lurched to his feet, all tiredness forgotten as his body was flooded with adrenaline. "Shut it down you idiot!" he gasped, as tendrils of fear snaked up his spine. "If the Kintark think we're betraying them, we'll be in a world of shit!"

Hammering away at the Tactical Console the terrified officer cried out, "I can't! Tactical isn't responding, Sir!"

Looking at the Tactical Map with dread, Wheeler gaped at the targeting view as it focused on an unsuspecting Kintark cruiser, identified as the Birran'tor. There was a blazing orange flash as the port Beam weapons opened up, lashing into the Kintark ship, and catching them completely unawares. Their shields pulsed angrily for a few seconds under the ferocious onslaught, but when the Phobos' Laser Cannon batteries joined in the barrage, the protective fields finally gave up and winked out.

Staring at the now-shieldless cruiser in horror, Wheeler moaned in despair as the Phobos' Heavy Cannons locked onto their target and began to open fire. A relentless fusillade of high explosive ordnance pounded into the glistening green armour of the hapless cruiser, punching through and blasting out armour plating with a series of savage explosions. The entire starboard side of the Birran'tor was hit by a brutal salvo that left the armour plating in tatters, and the superstructure beneath critically vulnerable. The Laser Cannons continued their merciless curtain of fire, and soon rippling explosions began to detonate within the burning ship.

"We're being hailed by High Prelate Tedaktu, on the battleship Bershan'tok, Sir!" the Communications Officer managed to blurt out as he stared aghast at the devastated ruin of the Kintark cruiser.

Commodore Wheeler stared at the man, and with fear constricting his throat, he was barely able to gasp, "Put him through..."

The viewscreen flickered to life, showing the furious face of the Kintark High Prelate. He hissed with rage, and roared, "Treacherousss vermin! I ssshould have known better than to trussst Terran ssscum! You have less honour than Malganth the Betrayer!"

"It's not my fault!" Commodore Wheeler pleaded pitifully. "You have to believe me, we didn't fire on your ship! I think we've been ha-."

"I jussst sssaw you dessstroy the Birran'tor with my own eyesss! You will pay for your treachery!" High Prelate Tedaktu swore, his black eyes narrowing with fury, as he cut the Terran officer off before he could finish.

The comm channel closed abruptly, leaving Commodore Wheeler staring at the flickering viewscreen in abject horror.

"The battleship Bershan'tok is turning to engage us, Commodore!" his Tactical Officer called out in warning.

Wheeler snapped himself out of his daze then whirled on his Communications Officer and yelled, "Order the entire fleet to open fire! We have to kill them before they destroy us!"

***

Irillith opened her eyes, then sucked in a big breath of air. She'd been able to smoothly exit the Phobos, and had glided back to the Invictus on her violet psychic bridge, rather than being kicked out of their network. It came as quite a pleasant relief to gently merge with her own body, rather than getting unceremoniously dumped back into it, as usually seemed to happen. In fact, she felt incredible at the moment, and her body tingled with power after Alyssa had pumped her full of eldritch energy.

She blinked, then looked at the Tactical Map floating above her, and the scene of utter chaos she had unleashed. Bright orange beams contrasted with sickly green streams of plasma fire as the former Kintark and Terran allies tore into each other at practically point blank range. She grinned triumphantly, and asked Calara, "How did I do, Commander?"

"That was a thing of beauty," Calara replied, shaking her head in wonder. She was watching the Tactical Map as well, and she smiled as she added, "I suppose I should feel bad about the Terran forces being wiped out, but considering they're traitors, I'm surprisingly okay with it."

"How did you do that?!" Sakura asked the Maliri girl, thoroughly astounded.

Irillith smiled at her and replied, "Alyssa's not just a very pretty face. She channelled a huge amount of psychic energy into me, and I used it to establish a connection to the Phobos' digital network. As we used psychic energy rather than power from the ship, the Terran and Kintark forces had no chance of picking up the Invictus on their sensors."

Calara nodded, and said, "It's true, our energy profile didn't even flicker."

The Maliri girl looked thoughtful as she said, "Then I took a leaf out of Nexus' book. As much fun as it is, taunting enemies when I'm hacking their ship, I kept a low profile and waited until I had total control of the battleship before attacking that Kintark cruiser. After that I slipped out of their network, and left them to it..."

"Pulling us back a bit," Jade advised them, as she turned the Invictus, and eased the ship away from the vicious conflict.

Calara watched as her brother's old ship, the Hydra, started launching wings of fighters and bombers, the crews already prepped and ready for just such an eventuality. The first waves had cleared the launch runways when the light carrier was hit by a brutal crossfire from two Kintark cruisers. Batteries of Plasma Cannons on the Kintark vessels opened up, and glowing green salvos of plasma bolts overwhelmed the carrier's shields in seconds. Those deadly green bolts went on to plough into the Titanium armour, melting huge furrows in the plating, and setting the ship ablaze. The Hydra was soon reduced to a funeral pyre, and the Kintark left it to drift away, with ghastly green fires raging out of control.

She felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing the men who'd betrayed her brother meet such a grim end, then turned her attention to the rest of the battlefield. The Terran ships were giving out as much punishment as they were receiving, and after the Phobos had initiated the battle by obliterating the Kintark cruiser, Birran'tor, both sides were reasonably balanced. Now Calara just had to wait for the opportune moment to strike.

"That's far enough, Jade," she replied, glancing over at the Nymph. "We'll hold position here, but be ready for my signal."

Sakura watched the entire encounter in utter amazement. The absolute carnage that these three women had just set into motion was almost beyond belief, and she watched in shock as a Kintark cruiser exploded, the powercore detonating after being speared through by a pulsating orange beam of energy. She sat there quietly, transfixed by the battle playing out on the holographic map, as the two fleets of ships fought each other to the death.

***

"Alyssa, are you alright?" John said to the drowsy girl in his arms, his voice full of worry.

Her eyelids fluttered open, and she smiled at him as she said, "Athena made that look easy."

"Do you want to rest for a bit?" he asked her, looking relieved.

Shaking her head, Alyssa replied, "Nah, I'm good. It just took a surprising amount of energy to keep that connection open."

They were still up in the tall tree, sitting where a knot of thick branches met the sturdy trunk. By keeping the huge trunk between them and the Kintark guards, they were keeping well out of sight from any attentive Lizardmen. Dana handed over the Punisher rifle, and Alyssa took it with a smile.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Rachel asked her with a worried frown. "You were unresponsive for a couple of minutes."

The blonde girl nodded, and replied, "Definitely. Let's go and rescue Mateo."

They all stood up, performed one last series of checks on their weapons, then stepped out of the tree. With flight-mode activated, they were able to float down gently until they reached the jungle floor, and the girls immediately fanned out, leaving John to take point.

Moving at a quick pace, they closed the distance with the camp, and started to see glimpses of the brown-hued pyramids through the thick foliage. There were a couple of guard posts on the perimeter of the camp, offering good vantage points over the base. Oddly enough there were no fences or security walls of any kind, adding further evidence to support Rachel's pheromones theory of how the Kintark were controlling the prisoners and maintaining order.

"It looks like two guards per tower," John said over the Paragon closed-comm network.

The girls moved fluidly in response, with Dana and Rachel covering the nearest pathway that led deeper into the base, while Alyssa drew alongside him.

*West tower first?* she suggested.

*You take the seated guard,* he replied, as they both raised the big, glossy white rifles.

"VrmPkaow," the railguns whispered, sending hyper-accelerated rounds towards the oblivious Kintark soldiers. The bullets seemed to strike the Lizardmen at precisely the same time, their scaled heads exploding as the twenty-millimetre slugs smashed into their skulls. Both of them toppled over with barely a clatter, the noise too quiet to be heard over the background noise from the jungle.

Without wasting any time, John and Alyssa lined up their shots on the next targets, and eliminated them just as efficiently. With those two guards slain as well, both guard towers were now standing vacant, and this corner of the base was now unguarded. They could see a half-dozen pyramids beyond, with figures moving purposefully about their business, both Terran and Kintark alike.

There was only a short gap between the jungle and the outer edge of the camp, the Kintark being particularly lax about security this deep into their galactic territory. John wasn't about to complain though, as this all made their life easier. He raised his rifle to his shoulder, then approached the base, breaking cover from the treeline of the jungle.

"Any sign of a barracks?" Alyssa asked him, as they crept closer.

They ducked behind a worn-looking truck of some kind, the big chunky wheels standing taller than any of them. John poked his head out to take a careful look, and after watching the interior of the base for a couple of minutes, he turned back to the girls, and nodded.

He looked at their attentive faces as he described what he'd just observed, "There's a big central pyramid that's seeing a lot of traffic. The entrance is big, and I watched a truck come out of there. It might be an alternate entrance to the mines. Over on the far side of the base is another big pyramid, and I only saw Kintark soldiers go in and out of there. There's Terran prisoners wandering between the rest, and some of them aren't in good shape."

"Do you want me to start triaging them as we go?" Rachel asked him, her expression one of concern for the prisoners.

John shook his head, and replied, "There's too many. We'll clear the base of Kintark, then you can start treating the prisoners."

"What's the plan for killing these asshole slavers?" Dana asked him, her blue eyes glinting with excitement.

John made eye contact with the redhead, and replied, "You'll come with me, and we'll cover the North-eastern section of the base. Rachel and Alyssa can cover the South-east." Turning to face the others, he continued, "On my signal take out any Kintark in sight. Switch to high-power shots as soon as anyone fires back at you."

"Got it," Alyssa replied, and she peeled away with Rachel in tow, darting across to hide behind some crates further into the base.

John looked up at the pyramid to his left, then glanced back at Dana, and said, "We'll go up there. Don't shoot until we lose the element of surprise, then you can fire at will."

She nodded, her eyes flashing with excitement, and replied, "Sure, no problem!"

Activating flight mode, he used the extra lift to make a quick series of jumps up the pyramid, being careful to stay on the western side, and hidden from the centre of the base. Dana followed his lead, bounding up the brown pyramid after him, and soon they had reached the top, with a clear view of a significant portion of the camp.

He took careful aim at a Kintark soldier who was walking towards the truck they had just abandoned. A moment before he pulled the trigger, he thought to Alyssa, *Open fire!*

He squeezed the trigger with a gentle caress, and he felt a slight vibration in his Punisher rifle as it accelerated the heavy slug down the magnetic rails. He'd positioned his targeting reticle square over the soldier's face, and the round hit the Lizardman in the snout before the bullet blasted into its head. It toppled over onto the scant remains of its face, and he quickly switched to another oblivious Kintark, dispatching it with the same lethal efficiency.

As he was looking for his next target, he spotted a couple of headless Kintark dropping to the ground in a fountain of yellow blood. He turned away to focus on his side of the base, and shot another guard as it strolled out of one of the smaller pyramids. He'd landed another clean headshot, and the Lizardman crashed to the ground as its legs gave way beneath it. All of a sudden a strange sizzling sound filled the air, and John started to see green flashes of light in his peripheral vision.

*We've been spotted,* Alyssa confirmed for him a moment later.

"Alright Sparks, you're up," he said to the eager redhead beside him, as he switched to high-power mode on his Punisher rifle.

She stepped up beside him, the big Justice Laser rifle leading the way, and she sighted a group of soldiers who were running out of the barracks. Holding down the trigger, she sent a solid sheet of bright blue laser bolts scything into the guards, punching steaming holes through their shimmering green armour. Their body armour was mildly reflective, and it resulted in a bright prism of light every time she hit the unfortunate soldiers with a powerful laser bolt.

"Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed, as she blasted one of the stragglers who'd escaped her initial salvo.

John heard a low-hiss by his side, which he remembered from the firing range was the Justice rifle venting excess heat from the barrel. The major downside of firing a laser weapon, was the bright blue bolts gave a clear indication to the enemy where their attackers were firing from. As a result, a storm of green plasma bolts started to slam into the pyramid around them, forcing John and Dana to duck back behind cover.

He heard the familiar bark of a Punisher rifle on high-power mode, and after a chorus of shots from Alyssa and Rachel, the volume of incoming fire lessened considerably. Looking out over the burning wall, he spotted a couple of Kintark off to his left who were attempting to flank them, and he raised his weapon and snapped off a quick shot at the lead Lizardman.

"VrmPkaow!" the Punisher rifle snarled, and the shell hit his target, blasting a plate-sized hole through the torso of the unfortunate soldier.

Dana opened fire on the second, and her high-powered laser bolts hit it in the shoulder, melting through the joint and leaving a steaming lump in its place. The Kintark crashed to the ground, clutching at its dismembered limb and screeching in shock. Dana shot it in the head to put it out of its misery, instantly silencing the creature's terrified screams.

Throughout the raging gunfight, the prisoners carried on about their business, completely oblivious to the railgun rounds, plasma fire, and laser bolts flying around them. It was really quite disconcerting, watching them care so little for their own safety.

John switched to thermal imaging and looked at the big building that he'd assumed was a barracks. He could clearly see at least a dozen more soldiers inside, their heated body armour kicking out enough heat to make them visible through the walls. He switched to the integral grenade launcher in the Punisher rifle, and sent a three-round-burst into the doorway. The entrance to the pyramid exploded outwards, the doors cartwheeling away as they were blown off their hinges.

The front walls collapsed, revealing the soldiers inside, who were busy gearing up in the armoury. The three round bursts from his railgun were joined by a curtain of blue laser bolts from Dana, and soon the heat signatures began to fade, the Kintark armour ravaged by the deadly firepower.

*We're about done,* he said to Alyssa, as he looked over the scene of devastation. *How about you two?*

He could hear the satisfaction in her voice as she replied, *We've cleaned up too, we're just-.*

She was abruptly cut off, and he heard a big crash from his right. He whirled around, and saw a big red lizard had charged into the crates that Rachel and Alyssa had been hiding behind. The two girls had been knocked sprawling by the Kintark Royal Guard when it crashed into them, and it followed up by pouncing on Rachel. He could see its long, sharp claws flashing in the sunlight as it tried to tear through her armour.

Taking careful aim, he lined up a shot at its back, to make sure he wouldn't hit the girl beneath. He pulled the trigger, and blasted a big chunk out of the spine of the flailing monster. It roared in pain, and flipped over onto its side, thrashing and rolling in agony.

"John! Two more of them!" Dana called out in alarm, as she opened fire with her laser rifle.

She hit the first one in the leg, causing it to stumble, but not hitting hard enough to sever the limb. Her eyes narrowed in anger, and she flicked up the power setting, sending searing blue blasts of energy into the wounded creature. The overheat warning was spiking alarmingly, but she kept tapping out shots, as she speared the stricken animal with blazingly bright azure lances of laser fire.

John didn't have time to check if she had finished it off, as he was more worried about the second Royal Guard that was tearing towards Alyssa and Rachel. Despite its size, the hulking lizard could move surprisingly fast, and his initial burst hit the ground as the Kintark beast darted around a stationary truck. When it reappeared he took a couple of seconds to lead his target, then landed the next three rounds in the lizards flank. The slugs smashed through its scaled hide, gouging huge craters into its body. The hits were accompanied by a spray of yellow blood and ichor, and the lizard crashed to the floor, sliding for nearly ten metres before it collapsed in a heap.

The hiss of venting heat from Dana's weapon told him she'd overheated the Justice rifle, and when he glanced at her target he could see why. The Royal Guard was a charred ruin, with scorched holes perforating its hide in over a dozen places.

"They regenerate, right?" she asked him, with a hint of smug satisfaction in her voice as he surveyed her handiwork.

Her sudden reminder of the Kintark Royal Guards' startling regenerative abilities made John snap his head back to look at the first lizard he'd shot. Sure enough, the gaping crater in its back was starting to close, the wound healing before his eyes. The Royal Guard lurched to its feet, the heavy head swinging around threateningly as it searched for targets. John was about to raise his weapon to fire, when the red scaled monstrosity sudden lifted into the air, limbs thrashing as it reacted in panic.

"VrmPrrrrrrkaow!" Rachel's Punisher rifle thundered, as she unloaded on the twisting lizard, firing on full auto.

She hit the floating Kintark with twenty heavy rounds, all hyper-accelerated by Dana's devastating railgun technology. The Royal Guard seemed to explode outwards as it was literally ripped in two by the massively powerful railgun slugs. Chunks of shredded flesh landed on the ground with a wet squelch, and one poor prisoner was caught in a shower of yellow blood. The man ignored it completely though, slipping once before continuing on his way.

John ran over to join the girls, who were scrambling to their feet. As they did so, Alyssa turned and shot the second Kintark lizard in the head, neatly decapitating the monster with a single round. When John glanced its way, he saw that the ugly wounds on its back had already begun to heal.

"Are you two alright?" he asked them, as he jogged over and helped Rachel to stand.

Alyssa nodded and replied, "It just came as a surprise. It was running so fast, it seemed to come out of nowhere!"

There were some savage rents in Rachel's armour, but the Kintark lizard had only penetrated the outer layer of the Paragon suit. The brunette looked shocked as the adrenaline wore off, and she replied in a shaky voice, "I'm fine. I don't think it managed to cut through."

Dana ran over to give the brunette a hug, and exclaimed, "Don't scare me like that, okay?!"

John turned around to survey the compound, and he glanced back at the girls as he said, "Save that for later, ladies. We've still got that Consort lurking around here somewhere, as well as whatever that big thing was in the jungle."

Rachel and Dana separated, and Dana covered the area to the south while Rachel ejected her spent magazine, and slapped in a new one. John checked his ammo readout, and saw it was showing 07/04, so he quickly replaced the twenty-mil magazine. The ammo counter displayed a far more healthy 07/50 once he'd inserted the new mag into his rifle.

"Have you seen any of the new prisoners yet?" he asked the girls, who all shook their heads that they hadn't.

Alyssa frowned, and asked, "Where could they have taken them?"

John walked over to a passing Terran prisoner, and placed his hand on the man's chest, stopping him from walking by. The man was clearly Terran Federation military, and judging by his tattered battledress uniform, he was a Lieutenant-Commander. His breathing was laboured though, and he had an unsettling glassy look to his eyes.

"Excuse me, but do you know where the Consort is?" John asked the prisoner politely.

The vacant looking man turned to point towards the big pyramid in the centre of camp, and he murmured, "She's in there." When John withdrew his hand, the prisoner wandered away, and they could hear him muttering to himself, "Must obey... so beautiful..."

After watching the delirious man leave, John noted, "Another mark for Rachel's 'pheromone indoctrination' theory."

The brunette nodded, and said, "I have a few ideas how we can break them out of this mental state. We'll have to look into it once we've taken out the rest of the Kintark."

The prisoner walked away, stopping for a moment to hunch over and cough violently as he departed.

"We better hurry," Alyssa noted, thinking about Mateo being exposed to this toxic environment.

John took the lead, and they fell into step behind him as he walked at a brisk pace towards the big pyramid in the middle of the camp. The entrance to the big construction was set back a little way into the building, and there were two huge doors that had been thrown wide open. Deep ruts in the ground led through this yawning portal, and he could make out the heavy tread of big tyre tracks in the dirt. There were hundreds of footprints in the soft mud as well, ranging from booted Terran feet to the clawed footprints of Kintark troops.

"Check this out!" Dana exclaimed, as she crouched down by the wide wheel ruts in the ground.

John glanced into the gloom beyond, searching for danger, before he stepped over to join her and see what she was pointing at. She was looking at a big round puddle, which was filled with murky-looking water.

"Something interesting about the water?" he asked her, not seeing anything particularly remarkable.

She shook her head, and then using an armoured finger, she gouged out a shape in the dirt, redrawing the edges of what appeared to be an enormous clawed footprint.

Recognising the disturbingly huge shape she was drawing, he asked, "The Consort?"

Dana shook her head, and replied, "Whatever made this was a -lot- bigger!"

"Good job we came loaded for bear," John said, hefting his Punisher rifle in his arms.

Dana glanced towards the shadowy entrance, and said ominously, "Yeah, but maybe we should have come loaded for Dragon..."

John glanced down at the glossy-white rifle in his arms, and for the first time in months, he started to worry they might not have enough firepower at their disposal. Realising they weren't faced with much choice, he turned towards the entrance to the pyramid, then started walking inside, his weapon raised cautiously. Alyssa moved to flank him, and Dana rose gracefully, then fell into step beside Rachel as they brought up the rear of their formation.

It was dimly lit inside the huge pyramid, and once through the entranceway, they found themselves in a huge room filled with loading machinery. Several waist-high conveyor belts were lined up in rows, clanking loudly as they drew powdery yellow rock along their dust-choked surfaces. As the lumps of sulphur reached the end of the conveyor belts, the chunks were directed by funnels into huge hoppers set into the ground. The massive containers were steadily filling up with the chalky blocks of ore, and appeared to be in danger of spilling over as they waited to be unloaded.

The conveyor belts stretched off into a yawning tunnel entrance at the back of the room, then immediately sloped downwards, making them disappear from sight as they headed below ground. The tunnel itself was illuminated by a flickering orange glow, which reminded John of the dancing flicker of candlelight. The warm glow contrasted sharply with the gloom of the ante-chamber they were currently standing in, and they could clearly see swirls of thick smoke drifting up towards powerful vents set into the ceiling. Those noxious fumes were being drawn up the sloping passage by that flow of air, and were then spewed out from the top of the pyramid.

John heard a distant throaty rumble coming from behind them, and after warning the girls, they quickly repositioned themselves so that they were hiding behind the loading machinery. One of the big, bulky trucks eventually came into view, and reversed into the loading area, stopping before the hoppers full of powdery ore. As soon as it had come to a halt, prisoners began to drift into the room, wearing clearly inadequate protective gear, which consisted of big gloves and crude masks.

The sibilant hiss of Kintark voices echoed from the cab of the blocky vehicle, and the doors were flung open as two Lizardmen clambered out, making their way into the loading area. More prisoners were filtering in through the entrance to help transfer the ore to the huge truck, and John realised it was soon going to get very crowded in there. He stepped out of cover, and shot the closest of the two Kintark drivers in the face, with Alyssa shooting the second a moment later.

Just as before, the Terran prisoners walked around the steaming corpses, not paying them the slightest bit of attention. They walked over to the loading machinery, and began to operate the cranes and scoops, hauling the chunks of sulphurous rock out of the hoppers, before dumping them in the back of the truck.

There was no sign of any more Kintark amongst all the people working studiously around the truck, so John turned to the gaping tunnel at the back of the room, and started walking towards it. The girls moved as one, smoothly forming up behind him as they approached the foreboding passageway. They stopped at the top of the slope, and looked down to see where it led. Surprisingly it ran in an unwavering straight line, with the tunnel turning into a long ramp, as the passage opened out into a huge cavern below.

Twisting streams of lava threaded lazily through that vast subterranean hall, the deep crimson glow casting frightening shadows across the cavern walls. With the darkness broken only by the flickering light from the molten lava, and the thick sulphurous smoke billowing up the tunnel, it seemed like they were about to enter the gates to hell itself.

"Into the Dragon's lair we go," John muttered under his breath, and they began their descent into the baleful pit.