*John! What happened?!* Edraele cried out to him, sounding frantic with worry. *I heard everything until you fell asleep, but then I could feel our connection being blocked!*

John had lurched upright in bed, and he took a deep shuddering breath to calm his frantic heart rate. Sakura was clinging to him and quaking like a leaf, and while Alyssa was more composed than the terrified Asian girl, she was still badly shaken. She gave him a fierce hug before turning to Calara who was trembling with fright, and attempted to console her.

*We're okay, Edraele. Just give me a moment...* John replied, trying to soothe the Maliri Matriarch's fears. Looking around at the girls in bed with him, he asked, "Is everyone alright?"

Dana had been desperately hugging Rachel as the two panted for breath, but she sat up and yelped, "I'm pretty fucking far from alright! That was the most terrifying goddamn thing I've ever seen in my life!" She waved her hands in the air, while shaking her head and said, "Wait, scratch that! I've never even had nightmares that fucking scary before!"

Jade drew all their attention with a shocked gasp, and a moment later she cried out, "Irillith's been hurt!"

John guided Sakura over to Alyssa and Calara, and the Latina took a big breath to steady her nerves, before joining her blonde lover in hugging the whimpering Asian girl between them. He then clambered over the bed to join the Nymph, who was looking at Irillith's leg in horror. There was a jagged gash across her blue calf, in the same place where the barbed tendril had flayed her during the nightmare. The wound was bubbling with a black ooze, and the Maliri girl was looking deathly pale as she lay there unresponsive.

Rachel quelled her fears upon hearing that one of her friends was injured, and she scrambled to attend Irillith. However, she was brought up short when she reached John's side, and got her first look at the festering wound. A gangrene-like infection, consisting of spidery black webs was slowly spreading out from the ragged cut on Irillith's calf. Thinking quickly, she grabbed John's arm, and said, "We need to clean that out right now!"

"Oh, Fuck!" Dana blurted out, as she flanked the brunette and saw the state of Irillith's leg.

John glanced at the shimmering white bedpost, then raised his right hand towards it and focused his willpower outwards. A section of the post streamed away in a long viscous line, before gathering in a rotating orb. He fixed the shape of a knife into his mind, then imposed his will on the psychically responsive material. It rushed to obey him, smoothly forming into a razor-sharp blade about a foot long, and he snatched it out of the air as soon as it had solidified.

"Try and remove all that black pus-like substance, I'll go and get my treatment kit!" she urged him, her eyes wide now with worry as she leapt off the bed.

He brought the knife to the toxic looking substance, intending to scrape it from the wound, but a blood-curdling shriek pierced the air as the blade touched the hideous liquid. Jerking his hand back in shock, John gave Irillith a worried glance, but she was still unconscious.

"The scream didn't come from her!" Jade warned him, gaping in revulsion at the putrid wound in Irillith's calf. "It came from that liquid!"

Gritting his teeth in anger, John used the knife again, and smoke poured off every area the gleaming white blade touched, the black ooze burning away to the sound of more tortured wails. It took less than thirty seconds to clean the ragged laceration in Irillith's leg, the malignant substance howling in torment at the touch of the Crystal Alyssium blade.

John sat back on his haunches when he was done, and shaking his head, he muttered, "What the fuck was that?!"

"I've got no fucking idea!" Dana gasped, hugging his arm. "I didn't think tonight could get any scarier!"

Rachel rushed into the room, the spare treatment kit she kept in her quarters held in her hands. She knelt down beside Irillith, and began cleaning and treating the wound with an antiseptic spray, before applying a skin-regenerating gel.

Jade looked at the doctor with worried eyes, and asked, "Is she going to be alright?"

The tawny-haired girl nodded, all calm professionalism now, and without taking her eyes off Irillith, she replied, "Whatever that substance was, John's efficiently cleansed it from her wound. The laceration to her leg appears to be a conventional injury now, and under my care she'll be fully recovered in less than a week." She looked at John pointedly, and added, "I imagine you'll be able to heal her on a considerably faster timescale?"

He took a deep breath, then closed his eyes, and looked at the mental compartment containing a depiction of Irillith in his mind. She was still actively linked to him, her stomach still full of the catalyst for his psychic ministrations. Concentrating on her intently, he began knitting flesh together, mending the damage to her lithe limb. He heard gasps around him, and he smiled before he opened his eyes again, knowing that his impromptu psychic surgery had been a success.

"You're getting stronger," Rachel observed, sounding impressed as she ran her hands over Irillith's blue flesh. "You healed that even faster than Sakura's surgical wounds."

"That's not all," Alyssa murmured, taking the glistening white dagger from his hands, and looking at it with interest. "I quad-shaped the bed frame just to make sure it was nice and robust. You just quint-shaped that blade without any real effort."

John was surprised at that, and looked at her with a startled expression on his face. He was about to respond, when Irillith let out a low groan.

"What happened?" she asked, sounding disorientated. Irillith suddenly seemed to remember without prompting, and she bolted upright, looking wildly around her then clutching at her leg in horror. Locking eyes on John, she flung herself into his arms, panting with fear.

"You're okay now. I've got you, don't worry," he told her in a comforting tone, wrapping her in his arms and stroking her back.

The others leaned in for a group hug, stroking her arms and legs as well, to help soothe her shivering. After spending five minutes holding each other, the close physical contact helped calm everyone down. Irillith peeled herself off him, and then gave him a tender kiss and a grateful smile

"Thank you for saving me from whatever -that- was," she said, her angular violet eyes gazing at him intently.

"You're welcome, honey. It's what I'm here for, to look after beautiful girls," he replied with a self-deprecating smile.

She laughed at that, sounding immensely relieved, and then moved back on the bed to free his legs.

Alyssa came over to join them, and looking down at Irillith's healed calf, she said, "We were right to be scared out of our minds. That just proved it can hurt us in the real world, not just in our dreams."

He nodded, his mouth set in a grim line, and said, "Yeah, pretty dramatic proof alright."

Dana rubbed John's shoulder, and said sympathetically, "I remember when you woke up after that nightmare months ago. I can't believe you've been suffering through shit like that for so long."

He turned to look at her, and seeing her concerned expression, smiled in reassurance as he said, "They weren't ever quite that bad. I'm just sorry you girls all got dragged into it this time."

Looking thoughtful, Alyssa then gave him a chilling smile as she said, "Another thing was different too. We know we can hurt that fucker."

John laughed at that and shaking his head in wonder, he said, "No beautiful, I hurt it, you blasted that bastard into next week!"

Dana nodded eagerly and gasped, "I was so shit-scared, I forgot all about that! You Nova Lanced that fucker! Using your fists!"

Rachel smiled too, and sharing a mischievous look with the redhead, she said, "It was one hell of a fisting!"

There was a bout of giggling and laughter from everyone on the bed, and despite chuckling along with them, John shared a meaningful look with Alyssa saying, *We shouldn't really be laughing about this, that thing is still a deadly threat.*

She stroked his arm, and replied, *I know, and we'll have to deal with it eventually. Laughing about it feels good though, doesn't it?*

He gave her a brief nod, then looking sombre, he added, *We'll have to come up with a better plan next time. We'll be heading back to Maliri Space soon...*

Alyssa grinned at him, and said with delight, *You bad boy! We all nearly died, and you're thinking about Maliri girls blowing you!* She shifted where she was kneeling, biting her lip as she added, *Luna, Ilyana, and Almari are going to look so hot with big round blue tummies. Are you going to fuck them all too? Really break them in?*

*I can see you're feeling alright again,* he replied with a grin. He knew she was right before though, laughing about their near-death-encounter was what everyone needed right now. He'd experienced more than his fair share of these terrifying nightmares, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to get any more sleep that night.

She leaned in for a kiss, and said, *I probably shouldn't bring it up, as everyone's feeling much better now, but you were the real hero tonight, not me. It was you who shored up the wards in the shield, then started protecting us while I was still petrified. I just followed your plan at the end and provided a distraction, but you pulled us out of the Astral Plane, and saved all our lives.*

*Just trying to keep my girls safe,* he replied as he kissed her back, while gazing into her adoring eyes.

When he pulled away from her, and looked around self-consciously after their passionate kiss, he was startled to see all the girls staring at him with expressions of heartfelt gratitude on their faces. He glanced back at Alyssa with a questioning frown, wondering what was going on.

*Yeah, I told them everything I said, and your response too,* Alyssa admitted with a smug grin, as he was buried under an avalanche of grateful girls, and smothered with loving kisses. He could hear her amusement as she added, *They were so scared during all that, they didn't know what was going on, so I thought I'd clarify what happened for everybody.*

"Okay, okay!" he eventually cried out, "I love you all, too!"

They helped him up with more giggling, and he couldn't help but notice that they all seemed much more relaxed now, thoroughly distracted from their dreadful experience. He looked at Alyssa with newfound respect in his eyes. Her ability to read the girls' emotions, and carefully tend to their needs seemed to be growing on a daily basis. She gave him a gentle smile in return, compassion for the girls she'd adopted as her sisters shining in her eyes.

He looked around him, and announced, "We should probably get some sleep. We'll be hitting the Dragon March soon, and we need to be well-rested just in case there's trouble." He added some conviction to his voice as he continued, "You're all safe now. There's no chance we'll have a second nightmare again tonight, they just don't work that way."

Looking immensely relieved, the girls settled back in bed around him. John was at the centre with Sakura and Alyssa in his arms, while Calara cuddled up behind the blonde. Alyssa gave him a quick kiss, then swapped places with the Latina, so Calara could be surrounded by both her lovers. That left Dana and Rachel pairing off as usual, while Jade hugged Irillith protectively.

"Good night girls, sleep well," John said quietly, and one by one they started dropping off.

Tired as he was, there was no rest for the wicked, so he reached out to Edraele, and said, *I'm really sorry for leaving you hanging like that when you were scared. I'm sure you were reading my thoughts, so you probably figured out what happened for yourself.*

*There's no need to apologise. What you've just been through must have been dreadful,* Edraele replied, her voice throbbing with sympathy. She sounded emotional as she added, *Thank you for saving my little girl. I owe you so much...*

*You don't owe me anything, Edraele,* he replied in a comforting voice. *I love Irillith, and I'm never going to let anything bad happen to her if I can help it.*

*Thank you,* she replied simply, and he could feel the earnest gratitude in her voice.

Glancing at the ship's chronometer, he saw that it was now one in the morning, and he frowned as he asked, *Isn't this incredibly late for you at the moment? I thought Valaden was on a different time pattern to standard Terran time?*

She hesitated a moment before replying, *Actually, I've adjusted my hours to fit standard Terran time. I wanted to make sure I was awake if you ever needed me for anything.*

John was impressed by her dedication, and said, *You didn't have to do that, Edraele, I feel like I inconvenience you enough as it is!*

*I wanted to be there for you, it's never an inconvenience,* she countered, sending him a telepathic smile.

He sent her a kiss in return, and said, *You're a good girl, and I'll show you how much I appreciate your support when I see you. I'm going to sleep soon, so I want you to get some rest now, okay?*

Edraele sounded delighted by his reply, amused and happy whenever he called her "girl", considering the huge age gap between them. She immediately promised, *I'll go to sleep right now.*

The telepathic connection to her went quiet seconds later, and he knew she'd dropped off straight away. The compulsion to obey him was incredibly useful, but it also filled him with guilt every time the girls were forced to follow his commands, intentional or not. He was adamant that he was going to resolve that situation the first chance he got.

With Edraele now reassured, there was still one other person he needed to speak to until he could get some sleep. He closed his eyes and concentrated on pulling his mind from his body, peeling away his spirit form like a second skin. It was hard with the anvil-like presence dragging him back, but he managed it, tired as he was. As he sat up, he heard a cry of relief and a shining girl threw herself into his arms, knocking him off balance.

"I'm so sorry!" Athena cried out as she hugged him fiercely.

John rolled them away to the foot of the bed, as floating through everyone's bodies like some incorporeal ghost felt far too surreal. He wondered if his astral cord would get tangled with hers, but they seemed to pass through each other as if insubstantial, still linking him with his body, and Athena to Alyssa. He held her in his arms, and looked down at her scared face, then brushed his hand against her radiant cheek.

"We're all safe, everything's fine," he told her, in an attempt to calm the stricken psychic guide.

She shook her head, and gasped "It all went so wrong! When you were pulled into the Astral Plane, I tried to intervene, but the leviathan cut me off. I was trapped here within Alyssa's mind!"

"You know what happened while we were there? You heard us discussing it just now?" he asked her, simply to check that he wouldn't have to repeat himself. He knew time was short, and he didn't want to waste it talking about the same things again.

She nodded, and her face crumpled as she replied, "Adding Sakura was another near-fatal mistake! I've let you down so badly."

Rather than arguing with her to try and calm her down, John simply leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss. Her eyes flew open in surprise, the electricity tingling between them, and she responded slowly at first and then with more passion. When he was certain she wasn't torturing herself any longer, he pulled back so that he could look at her face more clearly. She stared back at him looking flushed, or at least it appeared that way, as difficult as it was to tell with her glowing ethereal face.

"You weren't to know," he told her firmly. "Despite what you said to Rachel, you hadn't done anything like that before. How could you have known what was going to happen?"

"But, I still cou-," Athena started to object again, so he leaned in and continued kissing her, silencing her self-recriminations.

When he pulled back again, he smiled and said, "I haven't got much time here. I'm exhausted and I can't resist the astral cord's pull for long. I'll happily spend it kissing you, though, if you keep blaming yourself."

She smiled at him affectionately and said, "Alright, what do you want to talk about?"

"When I tried to return to the Material Plane, that creature blocked me from returning, and I could feel how staggeringly powerful it was. What the hell is it? And can you tell me precisely what went wrong with the ward idea?" he asked her, staring into her eyes.

Athena was remorseful as she replied, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what it is, exactly. I could feel its malevolent presence from this side too, so I spent some time studying it, looking for breaks in the barrier that would allow me to reach you. There was a certain familiarity to it, in a warped and terrifying way." Looking thoughtful now, she paused as she pondered his other question, then replied, "I think the ward partially worked. Its existence prevented the creature from pulling you into its own Planar Domain, where you've experienced the worst parts of these nightmares before."

John frowned in confusion, struggling to understand those strange concepts, and said, "Sorry, I'm not following you. What's a 'Planar Domain'?"

She smiled at him as she explained patiently, "You were trapped in the raw Astral Plane, which can be formed into Planar Domains by powerful psychic entities. Think of it as a personalised ethereal home that someone with enough psychic strength can shape with their mind. As you were warded, it wasn't able to pull you into its Domain."

He nodded, and said, "The ward did a hell of a job of protecting us. That monster gave up in the end and tried burrowing under it."

"That was down to the protective wards you built into the lattice, which was your improvement if you rememb-," she suddenly trailed off, and blinked in surprise. She stared at him intently, and asked, "Did you say it tried to burrow -under- the shield?!"

"That's right. The dome was impregnable, but it ended at the floor, so it used tentacles to drill-," he paused as her peals of laughter echoed around him, and Athena started shaking her head in disbelief. Feeling a little self-conscious he asked, "What's so funny?"

She rolled her eyes, and sounding immensely relieved she replied, "I was such a fool..." He leaned in to give her another kiss, assuming she was going to start blaming herself, but this set her off laughing again and she pushed him away. With a beaming grin, she added, "I know why the ward failed."

"Really? Why was that?" he asked her.

"We forgot to put in the floor," she said, still grinning at him.

He suddenly realised what she meant, and he joined her in her laughter, feeling an overwhelming surge of relief. Letting out a sigh, he asked, "So if I make another ward, but make sure it has no holes this time, we won't get pulled into the Astral Plane again, right?"

"Yes, exactly," she agreed, nodding with enthusiasm. "That huge dome was overkill, we won't even need the others next time. We'll make a tightly-warded cocoon to protect you, and we won't even need to put them at risk."

"Good girl, well done figuring that out," he said, as equally impressed as he was relieved.

She smiled at him, and said, "I'm just sorry we had to work it out the hard way. Poor Irillith keeps having to pay for my mistakes."

"I'll tell her you're sorry," he said playfully, then leaned in to give her another energy-charged kiss.

"I really am," she agreed when their lips parted, a flash of regret passing over her face.

Now he had the answer he needed, it was getting harder to fight the relentless tug of his astral cord, and he gave her a resigned smile as he said, "I need to return to my body, I can't fight it much longer."

It was her turn to kiss him this time, and she said earnestly, "Thank you for coming to speak to me, I really appreciate it. I feel so much better now that I know how to protect you properly."

John wanted to reply, but the strength of the cord pulling at him was irresistible, and he was too tired to fight it any longer. She waved him goodbye as he was yanked backwards and forcibly reunited with his physical form. He wasn't fighting it this time, and the transition back to the Material Plane was much smoother, sufficiently so, that he didn't jolt Sakura or Calara awake on his return. Their soft warm bodies felt lovely against him, and he pulled them in closer as he glanced down at their serene faces. With his entire harem settled at last, he felt that he could relax into sleep, but a quiet voice disturbed the night.

"Goodnight John, sleep well. I'll let you know when we're approaching the Dragon March," Faye murmured, sitting across from him on the other side of the room in the big leather chair.

He craned his neck so he could look down the bed at her, feeling guilty for having forgotten her in the fear and shock of the evening's events. He smiled at the naked purple beauty, and made a beckoning motion with his head.

"Come up here, but keep quiet, okay?" he asked her in a hushed voice.

She did as he asked, her gossamer wings lifting her over to the bed, where she landed, then dropped to her knees. She crawled towards him, while staring at him with her bewitching luminous eyes, and she looked so convincingly real, he was worried she might bump into the girls cuddled up against him, until he remembered she was a hologram.

Faye spotted that flicker of concern, and she beamed at him in delight as she realised he'd been thoroughly fooled by her incredibly realistic avatar. "Did you really forget I was a hologram?" she asked him in a breathless whisper.

He nodded, and whispered back, "If I didn't know, I'd swear you were a stunningly beautiful flesh-and-blood girl. You even look like you're breathing!"

She knelt astride him, then made a show of inhaling and exhaling deeply, which did intriguing things to her mouth-watering breasts. "I've been watching the girls to copy their mannerisms!" she said in delight, forgetting to keep the noise down in her excitement. There were some sleepy murmurs from either side of them, and she looked guilty as she flashed him an apologetic smile.

He smiled at her, and whispered, "We'll talk more soon, I promise. Everything's so crazy at the moment, but I want to help you adjust to your new form." His eyes glanced at the corridor outside the bedroom, and he added, "I meant to ask you before, but I forgot. Would you like your own room like the rest of the girls? They don't really use them, but I think it's important they have their own private space if they need it."

Faye gazed at him in surprise, deeply touched by the thoughtful gesture. She felt a shocking surge of emotions flood through her central processor, her greatly-enhanced system providing her with a riot of new sensory data to process, and she felt her holographic eyes welling with tears. Reaching up to touch them, she caught one, then brought it before her astonished eyes.

John watched her in fascination, amazed by the level of detail in the Artificial Intelligence's projected image. A huge yawn caught him by surprise, and he did his best to stifle it, smiling at Faye in apology.

"I'll let you sleep, but I'd love to talk to you later," she whispered, brushing the tears away, and giving him a happy grin.

He nodded, then smiled as he watched her flutter away, and settle down in the chair again to watch over them. She gave him a cheeky wave, then mimed going to sleep by tilting her head to one side, and pressing two of her slender hands together as a pillow.

Trying not to laugh, he whispered, "Goodnight, Faye. Thanks for watching over us." He closed his eyes, and feeling strangely comforted by her omnipresent vigilance, dropped off to sleep within moments.

Faye's Primary Avatar was there in the bedroom, savouring the chance to speak with John, and she smiled at him fondly as she settled in for the night, watching over him and the girls while they slept. Her Secondary Avatar was currently up on the Bridge, carefully monitoring the long-range sensors for any sign of hostile Kintark forces, in case any attempted to intercept them on their return to Terran Space. Tertiary was forecasting potential improvements to her Raptor flight program for high velocity flight, while Quaternary had started learning the flight characteristics of the Invictus, just in case they might need her to assist in an emergency.

Quinary had begun a review of Faye's performance with the Pulse Cannons in the fight against the Kintark, and once that was complete, she intended to compare the results against Calara's infallible marksmanship to look for ways to improve her own gunnery skills. She had set Senary with the task of reviewing their Cyber Security, and had already identified the potential for radical new architectural enhancements, utilising the Progenitor tech from Nexus' server. Faye recalled that Sakura was eventually planning to improve the Invictus' physical security, so Septenary was trying to identify any weaknesses she could think of to run by their new expert.

Octonary was reviewing the phonetics of Progenitor speech from Irillith's translation program, in an attempt to further understand the language. Then, if they should uncover any more files, she'd be able to better assist her wonderful Maliri Creator with analysing Progenitor data. Avatar Nonary was overseeing the maintenance robots, and constantly upgrading their programming to enhance their functionality for the new role they'd been assigned. Her 'boys' were caring for over six-hundred entranced Terran personnel they'd rescued from the Xen-Nuchek mine, and the robots were keeping them comfortable in their temporary accommodation in the Cargo Bay.

Avatars ten through to twelve, or Denary through to Duodenary to use her names for each processing stream, were currently researching more eclectic subjects. Faye was currently exploring historical records about first contact with known alien species, and she was curious if any bio-mechanical species had been discovered. She let out a sigh of delight as she listened to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, while settling in to reread an intriguing story by a man named Carlo Collodi.

"Goodnight, John," Faye whispered to him, her luminescent eyes brimming with gratitude.

***

High Prelate Zorlin was staring out of the reinforced glass-steel windows surrounding the Command Platform, lost amongst the spectacular vista before him. He was a legend amongst the Kintark, a veteran of dozens of intense battles, having personally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on numerous occasions. However, just like the rest of his crew, he'd been badly shaken by the destruction of the battleship Merlan'tok, and the assassination of his close colleague, High Prelate Vraktrin.

To think that the Terran Federation possessed the capability to sneak a vessel this far into Kintark territory was frightening enough, but for that ship to possess enough firepower to obliterate a battlegroup of capital ships without taking any appreciable damage was a terrifying thought.

"The sssavage innovationsss of war; a truly terrible phenomenon to behold," he mused to himself. His expression turned grim as he added, "Essspecially when you're on the receiving end."

His dark introspection was interrupted by one of his officers calling up to him from the sweeping Bridge Pit of the battlecarrier Breklan'tohok. The room was huge, with over two dozen Kintark officers manning stations in the recessed area, overlooked by the Command Platform that loomed above them.

"We're receiving word from the Leenar'tohok, High Prelate. Do you wisssh to take the call persssonally?" the communications Sub-prelate asked, looking up at his commander with trepidation. The last thing the Comms Officer wanted to do was disturb their revered leader when he was preparing himself for the upcoming battle with the accursed Terrans.

Turning towards him, Zorlin gave him an encouraging smile, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and replied, "Of courssse, comrade, put them through."

Tapping a button on his command table, the High Prelate activated a suite of sound dampeners, which were designed to prevent the conversation from passing beyond the confines of the command platform. The holographic image of a female Kintark officer coalesced before him above the command table, and he immediately recognised High Prelate Grakira.

Grakira was somewhat of a zealot, which Zorlin found slightly off-putting, but she was a ferocious ally in a fight; a quality sorely needed in this war. With a reputation for bold leadership, she had risen swiftly through the ranks to her current lofty heights. She had also been assigned one of the 'Tohok class battlecarriers, the biggest and mightiest vessels in the Kintark military, possessing swarms of strikecraft, and vastly more firepower than a battleship.

"Zorlin, my forcesss are approaching our ssstaging point, and will be in posssition in ssseventeen minutesss," Grakira announced, foregoing any preamble.

"Very good, Grakira," he replied, glancing back at the sector map. The Alpha Leonis system hung at its centre, four burning suns rotating around a deadly arena which would see the might of the Kintark Empire pitted against the Terran Federation in a climactic confrontation. Noting the position of his own forces on the huge holographic display, he continued, "My flotilla hasss made good time. All isss proceeding according to plan."

She nodded, her scaled muzzle bobbing as she stared at him. Her black eyes met his own, and in a low hiss, she said, "I've heard disssturbing rumoursss, Zorlin. There isss talk that the Terran Federation posssesss radically advanced technology, and that an experimental vesssel equipped with thisss tech isss roaming freely around our territory! Sssurely sssuch galling liesss must be Terran Federation black propaganda?"

Zorlin stayed quiet for a moment, unsure how to respond to his colleague. He finally met her worried stare, and replied carefully, "I've ssseen footage taken by vessselsss that sssurvived the catassstrophe in the Mar'Katrach nebula. The rumoursss are true, Grakira. Beware the vesssel known as the Invictusss. I recognised the configuration, and it'sss the very same cruissser resssponsssible for thossse dreadful eventsss in Iota-Leonisss. If anything, it isss far more potent a threat now."

He remembered watching the video footage from the nebula, beamed over to his ship by the fearful Prelate in command of the Invasion Fleet. The unerring precision with which scores of invasion craft had been neatly crippled, using only short bursts from ferociously powerful Beam Lasers, had been truly shocking to see. Even more perplexing had been why a Terran like the Lion, would choose to disable rather than destroy those ships and the many thousands of soldiers within. Zorlin didn't doubt for a moment that such a course of action was entirely within the Terran's means, but for someone who the Imperial Information Bureau had declared an evil war criminal, it was startling behaviour to observe.

"The Lion!" Grakira gasped, sucking in her breath in alarm. "I sssaw the Terran broadcassst celebrating that monster, but I asssumed they were exaggerated beyond all reassson."

"Talesss of hisss exploitsss are very much grounded in fact, comrade," Zorlin informed her confidently. He'd personally accompanied Grand Prelate Melkadian in reviewing highly classified Terran battle reports, which had been leaked after the Iota-Leonis debacle, by a spy placed within Federation High Command itself.

Grakira looked deeply troubled as he validated the foulest of rumours, and she finally declared, "We mussst ssstrike down the Lion, and sssnatch the sssecretsss from hisss ssship for the glory of the Empire!"

Zorlin slowly shook his head, and replied, "We musst tread carefully, Grakira. There isss too much at ssstake for recklesss actionsss."

She was about to object, but High Prelate Zorlin's calm demeanour born of decades of combat experience made her bite back her retort. Grakira bowed to him then, and said, "I will heed your wissse counsssel, Zorlin. You are an inssspiration in thessse dark timesss."

"Asss isss your dedication to the Empire, Grakira," he replied, bowing to her in turn.

She bared her teeth, looking pleased by his compliment, and said to him, "Let usss hope that Tamalaz the Fortunate isss sssmiling on usss thisss day."

"Indeed, comrade, let usss pray that isss the cassse," High Prelate Zorlin replied, his tone sombre.

***

"Are you sure about this, Gabrielle?" Commodore Eriko Sasaki's holographic image asked, her face etched with fear. "You've seen the declaration from the Fleet Admiral for our entire Battlegroup; Clemency in exchange for immediate surrender... Maybe we should consider it? Buckingham seems to know all about our plans, and it's an incredible offer considering the penalty for treason!"

Admiral Gabrielle Lynton gave her fellow conspirator a reassuring smile, and said, "It's a bluff, Eriko. Buckingham knows we're about to spring our trap; the man's desperate, he knows he's doomed!"

Her words did little to mollify Sasaki though, and the older woman shook her head as she replied, "I don't know, Gabrielle, we're taking a big risk trusting the Kintark. Are you sure they're going to show?"

"There's no doubt in my mind," Lynton replied, her voice firm and full of confidence. "Trust me, our allies will be there for this showdown. Crushing Buckingham's forces will be a crippling blow that the Terran Federation won't be able to recover from. The New Republic will be established within weeks!"

Sasaki nodded half-heartedly, and she fixed Lynton with her dark-brown eyes as she asked quietly, "What about everything else you promised? Are you certain he'll agree to go through with it?"

Lynton gave the older Asian woman a sly smile, and replied, "Eriko, once this is over, you'll have the body of a girl half your age." Her eyes sparkled, and she laughed as she added, "You won't believe the -appetites- that have been awakened. Youth really is wasted on the young."

Sasaki squared her shoulders, and returned the smile with a hungry look in her eyes as she asked, "What are your orders, Admiral?"

Lynton smiled at her, and replied, "We'll be holding position inside Terran Space to blockade the retreat from the invasion corridor. We'll prevent Buckingham from escaping, while the Kintark annihilate his forces!"

There was a flicker of doubt in Sasaki's eyes as she replied, "We'll be massively outgunned. There's no way we can hold off Buckingham's forces alone, if they ignore the Kintark, and focus on us."

With a wicked grin, Lynton said, "Don't worry, we won't be alone. I've chosen the Alpha Leonis system to strike at Buckingham, and all our allies are converging on that location for this battle."

Sasaki nodded, looking reassured once more, and said, "As you command, Admiral."

Lynton ended the call, and she slumped back in her chair, alone in her Ready Room. She rubbed her hand over her tired eyes, and let out a weary sigh. Her call with Sasaki was the eighth such conversation she'd had at this ungodly hour in the morning, cajoling the commanding officers in her fleet to further acts of treachery against the Terran Federation. She'd seduced all of them by a variety of means, from lofty talk of a New Republic for the idealistic, to baser pleasures for the more hedonistic amongst them, and she knew she could rely on all of them for their unbridled support.

While she was in no doubt that they all were loyal to her, it was incredibly frustrating having to take time to convince them to go along with her plans, when there was a much easier way available. Not for the first time, she sorely wished her Master had simply enthralled all the female officers in her battlegroup. She'd offered to arrange for transfers so that every Captain in the fleet was a woman, with exactly that purpose in mind, so she'd been surprised when he'd refused her suggestion.

Her mind wandered to her time aboard his ship, seeing those beautiful alien women obeying his every whim without a moment's hesitation. Gabrielle was unquestioningly obedient to him too, but the thought of having total control over the personnel under her Command was an intoxicating one, and she let out a wistful sigh as she imagined it. Thoughts of her Master made her think back to those blissful weeks they'd spent together, and she longed for the day when she could be reunited with him.

It had been only a chance encounter on shore leave that had brought them together. She was vacationing alone at one of the terraformed beach resorts in the Epsilon Canis Majoris system when she first set eyes on the incredible man who had radically changed the course of her life. She'd been sunning herself at an open air restaurant by one of the pristine beaches on Adhara Prime, savouring a fruity cocktail in the glorious sunshine, and enjoying the sights and sounds around her. Gabrielle had watched enviously as slender young women in bikinis cavorted in the crystal-clear sea, chased by their wonderfully muscular boyfriends, to the accompaniment of peals of laughter.

In her mid-fifties now, she had reached heady heights with her military career, becoming an Admiral at the young age of fifty-one. Gabrielle Lynton had thrown herself fully into her career, having little time or inclination towards romance, and had thus forgone the chance for a family. It was a decision she had been starting to regret, and having let herself go over the decades, she knew there was no chance of ever being with one of those bronzed hunks she'd seen chasing nubile girls through the waves.

When this handsome, exotic man had suddenly introduced himself to her, she'd been captivated by him immediately. He seemed to exude an aura of otherworldly confidence that she found extraordinarily compelling, and when he sat at her table uninvited, the thought of objecting never even entered her mind. He'd given her his undivided attention from the start, and despite her attraction to him, she'd been more than a little wary of his avid interest. Her first thought was that he might be some kind of honey-trap by an ambitious corporation, who were looking to gain influence with a high-ranking military officer.

Such suspicions had faded away as she spoke to him at length, and she soon found herself hanging on his every word, the rest of the morning passing by in a blur. By some miracle he'd asked if he could return to her hotel suite with her, and she couldn't believe her luck when he'd turned out to be wonderfully dominant in the bedroom, ordering her to her knees to service his massive cock. Her days normally consisted of barking orders at servile junior officers, so to be able to relinquish all control like that was a delicious thrill, and she'd practically tripped over herself in her hurry to obey him.

She remembered wistfully how she'd extended her vacation, delaying her posting to the Dragon March so she could spend another week on her knees, receiving one bellyful of cum after another. Day after day, her weight had dropped off, her skin growing taut, young and firm, just like the giggling beauties she'd envied at the beach. She slipped her hand under her shirt, and ran it over her trim, toned abdomen, her fingers tracing the lean definition of her muscles. It had been several months since her Master had packed her stomach full with his seed, and every fibre of her being ached to be on her knees before him, worshipping his cock with her hungry mouth.

Still, now wasn't the time to get despondent, not when a chance to be reunited with her Master was so close. In her last fleeting communication with him, he'd promised her a place at his side once her task was complete, and an opportunity to crush the bulk of the Terran fleet was so tantalisingly close. Gabrielle longed to speak to him again, to confirm that everything was proceeding according to plan, but she had to wait for him to contact her, and had no way of reaching out to him in return.

Pressing a button on the console built into her desk, the local Sector Map was projected in front of her, showing the dozens of stars that formed the broad stretch of territory known as the Dragon March. She had chosen the Regulus system for her ambush of the retreating Terran ships, feeling absolutely certain that Fleet Admiral Buckingham would be returning to Terran Space on the most direct route possible. Alpha Leonis lay directly along that path, and she'd primed the system in readiness to spring her trap.

The one truly unfortunate disruption to her plans, was the forced defection of Admiral Leonard Norwood and his Battlegroup of ships. If he had still been in place, the devastating blow of his forces defecting mid-battle would have guaranteed them victory. Gabrielle had done a thorough job of corrupting the obnoxious man, and while seducing him hadn't been entirely repellent, her tastes now ran to younger, more virile men. Her Master had ordered her to push Norwood along this defection route, although for the life of her, she hadn't been able to figure out precisely why. She knew better than to question her enigmatic Lord however, even over his extremely specific orders that a man named John Blake was not to be harmed in any way.

She hadn't paid this obscure order any real attention, until Admiral Lynette Devereux had started crowing about milking a John Blake for maximum PR value, after his shocking intervention in the Iota-Leonis system. Gabrielle had been fuming about the disruption of her plans to cripple Port Medea, which had taken weeks of careful planning with Norwood to arrange, but hearing that it was John Blake responsible had been like having a cold bucket of water dumped over her head. She'd watched the video footage of Devereux's award ceremony, her curiosity piqued, and she was astonished to note the similarities in appearance between John Blake and her Master.

With their pointed ears the two men were obviously of the same species, but what that was exactly, she had no idea. Her eyes had been riveted to the screen as she watched the TFNN interview with the "The Lion of the Federation", but it hadn't just been John she'd been fascinated to see. His crew of four "jailbait cheerleaders" as Leonard Norwood had described them, looked very familiar indeed, sharing the identical spectacular athletic figure she now enjoyed. Not only that, seeing them lined up together strongly reminded her of her Master's crew of alien girls, and she realised in a sudden moment of epiphany, she must be staring at none other than her Master's rival.

When John Blake had appeared in the Dragon March a few days ago, she'd had to think quickly to try and avert his suspicions. She knew that one look at her would give the game away in an instant, so she'd exploited some battle damage to her ship, to concoct a story about damage to her video comms. Fortunately he'd bought her story, which meant that she'd been able to send him away on a mission that would lead to a hefty body count for the Kintark. She'd been particularly proud of that one, making her Master's enemy dance like a puppet as she pulled his strings. However his refusal to massacre the Kintark invasion troops had been puzzling and frustrating, thwarting her plan to further escalate tensions with a merciless bloodbath.

It seemed John Blake was just as unpredictable as her Master, and she was still amazed that he'd been able to avert the Nexus catastrophe. That was another of her plans that she'd put into motion months ago, subverting the Artificial Intelligence project for her own ends, as she followed her Master's meticulous instructions. Her natural reaction to that bit of news would have been fury at the wasted effort, but the fact that it was John Blake picking apart her Master's plans yet again, left her more than a little alarmed.

Her Master had contacted her only a few hours after John Blake had departed for Kintark Space, and she'd dutifully reported the news about the Nexus disaster. She'd expected anger or at least irritation, but he just seemed... curious... about the whole affair. His unperturbed reaction was even more unsettling than the raging outburst that she'd been bracing herself for, and it disquieted her to realise she didn't know the man she'd dedicated her life to quite as well as she had originally thought.

She stared out of the window of her dreadnought, the "Thor's Hammer", and watched the stars drift by as they made their steady progress towards the Regulus system. They'd be arriving at Alpha Leonis in a couple of hours, Just as her Master had commanded, which would give her more than enough time to finalise preparations. Still, she couldn't help but feel a shiver of fear at the thought that the wild card, John Blake, was out there somewhere, seemingly intent on ruining all her carefully laid plans.

***

"Good morning, John," a female voice whispered to him softly.

His eyes slowly drifted open, and he was vaguely aware of a pair of distinctly kissable lips above his, and a pair of big eyes gazing down at him. Sakura and Calara were still cuddled up next to him, his arms currently trapped by their welcome weight resting against him. The girl above him was quite delectable, and in his half-awake state he went with his default response, which was to kiss a lovely girl in bed with him. It therefore came as quite a shock when his lips felt no resistance at all, and he passed straight through the girl giving him his morning wake up call.

Faye stared at him in shock, letting out a squeak of surprise as John leaned in for a kiss. His head drifted through her holographic image, her amazement leaving her paralysed until it was too late. It didn't hurt of course, but she still reeled from the knowledge that he'd just tried to kiss her, the corresponding data overload almost off the charts.

For his part, John's eyes went wide as he realised who it was floating above him, and he flushed with embarrassment as he blurted, "Sorry, Faye! Looks like you caught me in a deep sleep. You know how I can't resist a beautiful girl."

His explanation did nothing to alleviate the data streams paralysing her system. In fact her bespoke programs were working at a frantic pace, archiving video feed and image playback for intensive scrutiny later. This was the first time a living creature had passed through her holographic form, so such an event would obviously need to be closely examined in slow motion, pausing at the point of contact.

Faye could hardly wait!

"Morning," Alyssa murmured, sitting up and stretching. Her luscious mouth opened in a delicate yawn before she covered it politely with her hand, and asked, "Is it time to get up already?"

This snapped Faye out of her cognitive feedback loop, and she sat up in a purple flash, and replied, "It's six-thirty, Alyssa. We'll be arriving at the border to Terran Space in twenty-nine minutes."

"Thanks, cutie pie," Alyssa said while grinning at her. She leaned over Calara, mashing her breasts against the Latina's shoulder as she planted a big kiss on John's lips. Her grin didn't fade for a moment as she teased him, *We must be neglecting you if you're turning to a hologram for kisses, no matter how adorable Faye is.*

He realised she'd started reading his thoughts the moment she awoke, and Alyssa obviously knew full-well what had just happened. Thinking that she was getting far too cheeky for her own good, he grabbed her on a whim, catching her entirely by surprise, and pulled her over Calara's coffee-coloured body into his arms. Alyssa let out a shriek of laughter as he started tickling her, and the raucous giggling soon had everyone wide awake.

"Your Progenitor Master orders you to tickle Alyssa!" he announced imperiously to the girls, as his questing fingers found intriguing new ticklish spots.

"Fuck that! I'm your Matriarch, tickle him instead!" she gasped, before doubling over with laughter again.

Under no compulsion to obey either of them, the girls sat there for a moment, grinning at each other, but unsure what to do. Then they joined in the boisterous melee, tickling fingers finding sensitive places on both John and Alyssa. The pair fought back, and accompanied by riotous laughter, the tickling went on for several minutes. Faye watched their fun from her chair, feeling a heady mix of joy and longing, before an amnesty was reached and everyone begged each other for mercy.

Alyssa took the opportunity of a lull in hostilities to dart for safety at the foot of the bed, and she gracefully vaulted off the end, while panting for breath. Giving John a wild grin, her eyes darted to Sakura as she said, "Come on girls, time for a shower. Our handsome Progenitor has important business to attend to."

With knowing smiles, the rest of the crew drifted into the bathroom after the playful blonde, blowing the couple kisses, and giving them friendly waves as they departed. Soon it was just John and Sakura left in bed, and they smiled at each other a little self-consciously. To ease the slightly awkward moment, John lay back on the bed, and opened his arms for her in invitation, one she wasted no time accepting.

"Did you sleep alright in the end?" he asked her, brushing the silky black hair from her beautiful face.

Sakura turned to look at him incredulously, memories of unspeakable horrors flooding back to her, and she shivered as she replied, "You mean after finding out that mind-numbing terrors like that actually exist? Not only that, but they can attack you in your sleep? Of course, I slept like a baby!"

Surprised by her outburst, he wasn't sure how to reply at first, and just gave her an apologetic frown as he said, "I'm sorry. You never should have been exposed to that."

After taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she paused for a moment before she continued, "I'm sorry I snapped at you. But no, I didn't sleep well. I had more awful nightmares afterwards, but I guess they made a change from the ones about Shinatobe."

He pulled her close again, and said, "I've burdened you with even more to deal with. If you want, I cou-..." He let himself trail off then, and looked at her sheepishly.

"What were you going to say?" she asked him, her expression curious.

"I was going to offer to mute the memories for you, to help deaden the fear," he replied, giving her a guilty smile. "You probably think I'm obsessed with scrubbing away parts of your mind."

Sakura smiled at him, and brushed her hand through his hair as she said, "No, I don't think that at all. I know you're just trying to help." She nodded then, making up her mind, as she added, "I'll take you up on that offer, thank you."

He returned her smile, then arched an eyebrow at her as he glanced downwards. She followed his glance, and she blushed when she realised what he was hinting at.

"It's the way my powers work," he said with a helpless shrug.

Sakura's smile was bolder now, more confidence in her than he'd seen before as she said, "It's alright, I don't mind that one bit!"

She sat up and moved between his legs, while he raised himself up, and leaned back against the headboard. The hungry gleam in her eyes had his cock thickening at the thought of being surrounded by her flushed lips, and they both shared an eager grin. Sakura leaned in, her lips pursed as she planted a kiss on his throbbing crown. Her lips parted then, spreading wide to take him, and he slid deeper into her hot mouth with a sigh of contentment.

"You look gorgeous," he complimented her, as he brushed a stray lock of hair from her enchanting face.

She gave him a smouldering look with her smoky eyes, and pulled back slightly, taking his cock from her hot little mouth with a wet slurping sound. It looked she was going to say something in reply, and by the sudden blush, he was sure it was definitely going to be something worth hearing. She engulfed him again though, and eased him down her throat, inching forward until he was fully sheathed inside her. He felt a delicious thrill as she swallowed quite deliberately, muscles rippling along his length as she massaged him.

"There's no need to be shy with me. You can do, or say, anything you like," he told her with an encouraging smile. He chuckled as he added, "You should hear the expletives that come out of Dana and Alyssa's mouths when they're turned on. Trust me, nothing you say is going to offend me."

He could see her lips turn up into a smile, difficult though it was with her lips stretched so wide around his girth. She stared into his eyes, and nodded slightly, letting him know that she'd heard him.

"Let me talk, your mouth's full anyway," he told her with an amused grin, enjoying the flare of arousal he saw in the look she shared with him. "I want you to stroke your clit while you listen, though. I'm not going to fill your belly until you cum for me first, alright?"

Sakura let out a low moan, which sent delightful vibrations along the length of his cock, and he grinned as he watched one of her hands snake underneath her. She shifted on the bed, spreading her thighs apart to make room for her nimble fingers.

"You're a good girl, aren't you?" he muttered, as she bobbed her head in his lap. "Wonderfully obedient, and eager to please."

She moaned a little louder this time, then pulled back a little so that she could work his shaft with smooth, sensuous strokes.

"God, that feels good," he sighed with delight, his fingers moving behind her head, until he was cradling her with both hands.

Her fingers started moving faster now, working in time with the quickening rhythm of her sucking mouth, and using the moisture from her sopping pussy to glide over her clit. She began to whimper with arousal, her eager fingers, John's voice, and her stuffed throat all working together to heighten her pleasure.

"You're such a beautiful girl. You look perfect kneeling for me like this," he said, staring into her frantic almond eyes.

Sakura groaned with lust, a fierce hunger burning in the look she gave him. She seemed to be naturally submissive, but her confidence was building too, and the mix was a potent aphrodisiac.

Giving her a knowing smile, he said confidently, "It's alright to be hungry for my cum, all the other girls love it too. You do, don't you?"

She nodded as best as she could, whimpering as she slid up and down his saliva-drenched cock, with only one thing on her mind. Her fingers were moving in a blur over her clit now, and her thighs shook as she teetered on the edge of release.

John was getting close now himself, and he hissed, "I can't wait to unload my balls down your throat. You looked so fucking hot yesterday, carrying a tummy-full of my sperm."

Sakura snorted through her nose and scrunched her eyes tightly closed, cumming hard as his voice tipped her over the edge into an incredible climax. He sank his cock right down her throat, and the thought that this stunning young woman craved nothing more than a full belly, was enough stimulation for him too. His shaft throbbed, while his quad flexed, sending long spurts of cum up his length and into the compliant girl waiting below him. His four balls had refilled overnight, so he had a nice healthy load to pump down her throat, and round out her waistline.

Her rapidly-filling stomach expanded outwards, parting her thighs further as she provided a welcoming home for the hefty weight of his cum. Her almond eyes flashed open, and they were unable to blink as they stared at each other. John could almost feel the symbiotic relationship that Athena described to him earlier, and he knew his abilities had begun working on her to enhance and strengthen her mind and body the moment he'd started filling her belly.

It took some time to pump four pints of cum down her throat, and when he was finally done, he let out a happy sigh while stroking her silky raven hair. "That was amazing," he said with a smile. "I hope you didn't mind what I said to you?"

Sakura let him ease out of her throat, cradling his softening length with her hand as he slipped from her lips. She ran her hand over her cum-stuffed abdomen, and gave him a sultry smile as she replied, "I loved it. It was very exciting to hear your voice, I could hear you getting more turned on."

They lay down together again, with John spooned up behind her. He ran his fingers over the taut, golden-brown skin where she carried his load, and leaned in to kiss her shoulder. "I want you to get some sleep while your body grows," he told her firmly. "You won't be bothered by nightmares, I'll keep you safe from them."

She let out a gentle sigh, looking relaxed and happy, and said, "Thank you for looking after me."

"Sleep well, beautiful," he whispered in her ear, then held her in his arms as she drifted off to sleep.

*That was lovely,* Alyssa said to him, the moment Sakura had fallen asleep. Her voice was soft and inviting as she added, *Now get your ass in here, before we turn into prunes. We all want a cuddle while we soap you down.*

He grinned as he climbed out of bed, and went to join his nubile lovers in the shower.

***

"There you go, Admiral," Lieutenant Scott said, as he handed over the steaming mug of coffee to his Commander. "Just as you like it, black with two sugars."

"Good man, thank you," Admiral Edwin Caldwell replied, before taking a tentative sip from the piping-hot drink as he relaxed in his Command Chair.

He'd been expecting trouble from the Kintark as they'd raced headlong back towards the Dragon March, and he'd grown increasingly suspicious by the total lack of opposition as they retreated. Caldwell strongly suspected the Kintark would attempt to cut off the invasion corridor, but they'd been able to withdraw into Terran territory unopposed. Now they were safely back in the Dragon March, they were on a course for Port Medea in the Iota-Leonis system, where Fleet Admiral Buckingham had ordered that they consolidate their position.

Despite Buckingham's astonishing offer of clemency, none of the traitor forces led by Admiral Lynton had accepted. Caldwell was amazed at their stubborn refusal, as the commuting of a death sentence to ten years hard labour was overwhelmingly generous given the circumstances. Treason headed the list of crimes demanding the death penalty, and in all his years of service, he'd never heard of exceptions granted for those found guilty.

He could understand why Buckingham had made that offer though, as the invasion armada had found itself in an incredibly precarious situation deep within Kintark territory. Neutralising a hostile enemy at your rear was of critical strategic importance, and Caldwell was sure that the clemency declaration would have achieved exactly that objective.

Still, that moment of vulnerability had passed, and the Kintark would be hard-pressed to mount an invasion, once the Terran forces had settled in. Caldwell knew that reserve forces were awaiting them in the Dragon March, and the Kintark would never be able to mount an assault large enough to seriously threaten the Terran Federation. With that danger in the past, Buckingham could focus on hunting down the traitor forces, and once Lynton's battle group had been mopped up, they'd be able to focus their full attention on the troublesome Kintark Empire.

Caldwell glanced at the Sector Map, and saw they were fast approaching Alpha Leonis, or at least as quickly as they could, with the slow-moving support vessels in tow. They had gathered up the logistics vessels from the Invasion Corridor, as they'd withdrawn from Kintark space, and they were now escorting an impressive fleet of munitions freighters and refuelling tankers. Caldwell felt a tremendous sense of relief to be back in Terran Space, the invasion aborted after that astonishing meeting with John Blake. He gazed off into the distance as he thought back on his dealings with the man.

It had started months ago, when he'd been informed about Admiral Lynette Devereux's PR stunt with that award ceremony. He had initially assumed this was one of her manufactured schemes, with Lynette attempting to improve her position within the Admiralty. However, the resulting improvements to morale amongst the troops, and the bounce in High Command's approval ratings, were certainly not something to be sniffed at. The surge in public support had been of particular importance at the time, considering the relentless disasters and setbacks the Dragon March conflict had encountered up until then, offering scant opportunity for celebration.

Hearing plenty of talk about "The Lion" after the award ceremony, had made him curious about John Blake, and Edwin fully reviewed the Iota-Leonis battle reports. The reports were impressive to say the least. Apparently John had intervened to save invaluable Terran Federation assets in the system, while destroying significant numbers of Kintark forces, and even going so far as to capture an enemy carrier. It seemed that Commodore John Blake had fully earned his promotion, but other than be amazed at just how much a supposedly retired Marine Commander had been able to accomplish, Edwin had paid him no more mind, putting his success down to incredible luck.

Months later, war against the Kintark Empire had been declared, and Buckingham's invasion force had pushed deep into Kintark territory. Word had then reached them of a rogue AI fleet laying waste to the Sol system, while they were nearly a week away from being able to intervene. The Fleet Admiral had called in Edwin to discuss this shocking development, and then only half-an-hour later, a bewildering follow-up report by Admiral Lynette Devereux had announced the AI fleet had been smashed. She'd declared that John Blake had saved the day once again, and that she was promoting him to Rear Admiral.

After that, Caldwell couldn't wait to meet John in person, and was delighted when just such an opportunity presented itself, right there on the Zeus. Upon meeting him, Edwin been tremendously impressed by the man, finding him unassuming and likeable, while possessing an air of confidence and authority that he found himself responding to instinctively. John's unpretentious manner had felt like a breath of fresh air, especially for someone who'd grown jaded with the blatant politicking amongst the senior officers.

Edwin knew that John Blake deserved his promotion to Rear Admiral after everything he'd done to save Terra, but he could see why Lynette had leapt at the chance to use him in her inexhaustible quest for self-aggrandisement. Handsome and amiable, John was a PR dream, the kind of clean-cut hero who looked like he'd walked straight out of a holo-movie.

Then of course there was the meeting with the Admiralty, where John dropped a number of incredible bombshells. The fact that Lynton was a traitor turned out to be practically an afterthought, compared to the revelation that followed shortly thereafter.

Hostile contact by a radically advanced alien species...

It was something that Terran Federation High Command had dreaded for centuries, with numerous contingency plans drawn up over the years, in case of just such an eventuality. To have a trusted source announce that not only did such a civilisation exist, but that it was actively working against the Terran Federation, was an utterly terrifying thought.

When John had left the Zeus to return to his ship, senior Admiralty present in the invasion fleet had reconvened for an emergency meeting to discuss these shocking developments. Opinions varied radically in the approach they should take towards this potential threat, as well as how to handle John, now that he had revealed his true nature. After lengthy discussions, they'd finally made a decision, and had chosen to-.

"BWOOOP!" "BWOOOP!" "BWOOOP!"

The klaxon warning them of an interdiction blared around the Bridge, jarring Admiral Caldwell from his introspection. The Retribution of Zeus began to tremble, the colossal fleet carrier shaking more violently by the second, as they were pulled out of hyper-warp. He didn't think there was a vessel capable of interdicting the fleet carrier, as gigantic as it was, and he stared at the Tactical Map searching frantically for the ship responsible.

The entire fleet had been pulled from hyper-warp, and hundreds of ships were neatly arrayed by battlegroup as they reeled from being dumped into Alpha Leonis, commonly known as the Regulus system. Buckingham's armada was made up of four separate task forces, each group led by one of the three dreadnoughts, with the massive fleet carrier at the centre of the formation. Fleet Admiral Vincent Buckingham had overall command of the Terran Forces, but Admiral Edwin Caldwell had operational command of the Zeus, the Terran Federation flagship, and its accompanying task force. Admirals Ricardo Santini, Carl Weber, and Jayanti Mishra, commanded the other three task forces from their dreadnoughts: The Sword of Sif, Odin's Thunderbolt, and Shiva the Destroyer respectively.

There was no sign of enemy ships, only the four suns of Regulus, dominated by the blue-white primary, which orbited a central point in the system. Whatever planets that might have attempted to form here, had been ripped asunder by the tremendous gravitational forces at work, and the system was awash with asteroid belts.

"What happened, Commander Garfield? I'm not seeing any hostile ships," Caldwell called out calmly to his Engineering Officer.

The swarthy, bearded engineer had narrowed his eyes, staring at the System Map as he tried to understand exactly why they had just been yanked from hyper-warp. His eyes went wide, and he looked up at the Command Podium in alarm as he gasped, "Interdiction beacons! It's the only answer that makes any sense. They must be concealed in the asteroid belts!"

"Kintark forces!" the Zeus' Pilot yelped in alarm, staring at the vast number of ships appearing on the Tactical Map. "They must have powered down and hid in the asteroids!"

"There's scores more of them, Sir!" Commander Milton, his XO, cried out while pointing to the opposite side of the system.

"How in the hell?" Caldwell muttered under his breath, startled to see such a huge Kintark force inside Terran territory.

The answer came to him a moment later, as he saw more ships appearing on the Tactical Map, but these ones were Terran Federation spacecraft by their transponder codes. At their centre was a vessel he never for one moment thought he'd be facing, until that fateful meeting with John Blake days ago. It was the Thor's Hammer, the massive three-kilometre-long dreadnought commanded by the despicable traitor, Gabrielle Lynton.

"Fucking bitch!" Caldwell swore vehemently, an uncharacteristic outburst from the normally calm and reserved man. He stabbed his finger down on the comm button on his console, opening an internal channel to Vincent Buckingham. The Fleet Admiral answered a couple of seconds later, the image of his startled face forming in front of Edwin in a swirl of pixels.

Before Buckingham could say a word, Edwin snapped, "Lynton and the Kintark... it's a trap!"

***

Gabrielle Lynton had a smug smile on her face as she watched Buckingham's forces fall headlong into her ambush. "I've got you now!" she gloated, as the hidden Interdiction Beacons snared the vast Terran Fleet, and she turned to share a broad grin with her Executive Officer.

She'd waited with bated breath as the Terran Federation armada had cruised through the Regulus system, just as she'd predicted. Knowing Terran protocols as intimately as she did, Lynton knew that their navigators would travel close to the strong gravity wells in the system. As long as they plotted their course carefully, they could coast around the edges to create a slingshot effect, which would significantly increase their hyper-warp speed.

"That was amazing, Admiral!" Commander Stephan Nichols said, shaking his head in admiration.

Lynton's eyes twinkled with excitement as she replied, "Now, to close the jaws on our trap..."

She pressed a button on her console, and the image of a composed-looking Kintark officer appeared in front of her. "The Terran invasion force, delivered to you on a platter, High Prelate Zorlin," she said, bowing her head respectfully.

"My thanksss, Admiral Lynton," he replied, acknowledging her gesture with a slight incline of his blunt muzzle. "We ssshall begin our attack immediately."

He ended the call, his scaled face disappearing from sight in a flash of green pixels.

"Shall I give the order for the battle group to engage?" Commander Nichols asked her, turning in his seat and waiting expectantly for her reply.

"All in good time, Commander," Lynton replied as she settled back in her chair, a wicked smile twisting her sensuous mouth. "All in good time..."

***

John stepped out onto the Bridge of the Invictus, and the girls accompanying him fanned out to take their posts at their Stations. He walked up the steps to the Command Podium with Alyssa at his side, and she gave him a loving smile as she sat down in the Executive Officer's chair. John was going to sit down as well, but he found Faye waiting for him, lithe purple legs crossed demurely as she perched on his Command Console.

He reflexively found himself admiring her svelte, naked form before blinking and forcing himself to look into her eyes, where he found her watching him with fascination. "Sorry, Faye," he said with a wry smile. "You're a little distracting completely nude like that."

"You don't like looking at my new avatar?" she asked him then, looking alarmed.

Alyssa laughed, and replied, "He likes it too much, gorgeous. Put on some clothes for the moment, so he can concentrate."

Faye giggled then, fluttering her eyelashes at John coyly, and she paused to give her outfit some consideration. The luscious purple sprite reappeared in a diaphanous, figure-hugging dress that made a valiant attempt at covering her curves, while still revealing plenty of her shapely legs. "Is that better?" she asked, gazing at him with big luminous eyes.

He nodded, and gave her a smile as he replied, "You still look delicious, but that's probably a more sensible ensemble while we're up on the Bridge." He raised an eyebrow as he added, "What's our current status, Watch Commander?"

Her cute face looked adorable as she adopted a more serious expression, and replied earnestly, "We just crossed over into Terran Space two minutes ago! There were no signs of Kintark forces on the final section of our journey."

"Excellent work, Faye. Thanks for seeing us safely home," he said, with an appreciative nod.

"Happy to help!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up with a sparkling smile.

Looking down at the Tactical Station next, he asked, "Calara, which way would Buckingham's armada be headed?"

The Latina had called up a video feed of Mateo, and was watching her brother as he slept down in the Cargo Bay. She tore her eyes away from the screen, then pondered John's question for a few seconds, before she replied, "Port Medea in the Iota-Leonis system would be the most logical destination. There are extensive support facilities there: fuel, ordnance, maintenance, and medical, so it would make sense to use that as the staging ground for further operations in the Dragon March."

He nodded to her in gratitude, then smiled at the Nymph piloting the Invictus as he said, "Jade, set a new course for Iota-Leonis, please."

"Sure thing, John," the green-skinned alien girl replied over her shoulder, her slender hands dancing over the console as she plotted out a new course.

He turned to look at Alyssa next, and she smiled at him as she responded to his question before he could ask it.

"Assuming that Buckingham's forces took the most direct route back to Terran Space, they still have a slight lead on us," she informed him helpfully. Alyssa had already calculated the optimal hyper-warp velocities and travel times for the Terran Forces, and she continued, "We went on quite a diversion rescuing the prisoners from Xen-Nuchek, so we won't catch up to Buckingham's Fleet for at least another twenty-seven minutes."

Prompted by mention of the hundreds of rescued Terran personnel being housed in their Cargo Bay, John turned to look at Faye again as he asked, "Everything alright with our guests?"

The AI nodded, and replied, "They slept peacefully in the makeshift cots we set up for them. My boys are waiting for them to start waking up, then they'll serve breakfast." Smiling at their tawny-haired doctor, she added, "They're responding well to your treatment, Rachel. I've observed a seventeen-percent reduction in breathing irregularities amongst the most badly affected."

Rachel was delighted with the status of her patients, and she replied, "That's wonderful news! The rates of cellular regeneration have slightly exceeded my projections!"

Calara turned in her chair and asked, "Will they be back to normal now?" She looked worried as she added, "Mateo barely recognised me yesterday."

"Tamolith's pheromones should wear off by about midday," Rachel replied, her tone soothing. She smiled as she continued, "His memory of events might be a bit blurry, but other than that, he'll be fine. There won't be any long-term side-effects."

John nodded thoughtfully, and said, "It might be easier for us to ferry these people directly to Port Medea. I'm sure the Terran Federation doctors will want to give them a check-up."

"That makes sense," Rachel agreed, recalling her previous post at the starbase. "The medical facilities will be on a much larger scale than anything Buckingham's fleet has available. They'll be able to accommodate over six-hundred patients without being overwhelmed."

He smiled at her as he said, "It sounds like you've already done the hard work for them."

"John, I'm picking something up on the long range sensors," Jade called out to him, sounding worried. "It doesn't feel right..."

He turned to look quizzically at the Nymph who was staring at the Sector Map, and asked, "What's the problem? Aren't we just picking up Buckingham's forces?"

"Oh my God!" Calara gasped in shock, as hundreds of sensor contacts began rapidly flooding the Sector Map.

Rachel interjected, "I'm picking up a massive amount of Terran comms."

"What's going on?" Dana asked, feeling a rising sense of dread as she stared at the holographic map.

"Those ships aren't travelling in hyper-warp! The Kintark have ambushed Buckingham!" Calara explained, having immediately recognised the subtle distinctions in the sensor signals that identified Kintark vessels. The Latina turned in her seat, and added, "It's a full scale battle, and my dad's caught up in it!"

John met her worried gaze, and said in an authoritative voice, "I need objective analysis, Commander. Give me the full picture so we know what we're up against."

Calara realised immediately that he was trying to calm her down by appealing to her military professionalism, but she had no intention of succumbing to panic. Those months spent training with John in their dojo had helped give her a keen sense of focus, and she sprang into action with a determined look in her eyes. The view from her Tactical Chair wasn't good enough, so she leapt from her seat and dashed to the centre of the Bridge.

Glancing at the redhead sitting at the Engineering Station, she ordered, "Dana, increase magnification, I need to see all contacts in the system." Turning to their Maliri IntOps Officer next, she continued, "Irillith, patch us into the Terran Federation secure Tactical Network. We'll be able to share sensor data with all Terran vessels in the system."

Irillith gave her a brief nod, and her fingers began tapping out line after line of commands as she followed Calara's instructions. Using the powerful comms array on the Invictus, she used John's Admiralty level access to blaze her way into the highly secure data streams. Her violet eyes flickered through the categories, and she said, "There's huge amounts of data here... Do you just want the ships?"

"Start with the ships, then layer it all on," Calara replied, clearing her mind and breathing deeply. "I want to see everything."

While Dana and Irillith rushed to comply with Calara's orders, Rachel said, "I'm confirming one active fleet-level command net, and four battlegroup command nets. It's the same comm channel structure Buckingham had in the Delta-Draconis system."

John leaned forward in his chair to watch the Tactical Map for the Regulus System, desperate for any new information about exactly what they were facing. While Irillith was working to access the secure Tactical Network, the system was initially populated with a bewildering number of sensor contacts, as Dana displayed all the large objects they were detecting with their long-range sensors. There were too many to really tell what was happening, other than that there seemed to be several distinct battle groups of ships converging on one another.

When Irillith started populating the Tactical Map with detailed ship transponder data, the indistinct sensor contacts were replaced with Terran and Kintark ships by the hundreds. He nodded as he recognised the grey titanium hulls of Terran ships, and the shimmering green of Kintark armour plating on the opposing forces, then tried to figure out exactly what was happening in the Alpha-Leonis system. Irillith began layering on more data, showing missile trails, then debris fields, lurid green plasma salvos and throbbing orange laser beams.

Soon the Tactical Map was a riot of colour and movement, with a surging mass of ships locked in a savage battle for survival. Even though he knew the stakes involved, and the vast numbers of personnel manning those vessels, the battle looked more like a swarm of angry grey hornets fighting a plague of seething green locusts. He gave up trying to make sense of it, and then watched Calara instead.

She had her head tilted back and was staring intently at the tangled weave of visual data. Her eyes flickered from side to side, tracking data with movements so fast, John had no idea what she was staring at. He had the distinct impression she seemed to be -absorbing- the entire sprawling battle at once, and he shook his head in wonder as he watched the remarkable girl. Glancing to his side at Alyssa, he found her staring at her lover with fascination, enraptured by the Latina who went about her work with supernatural intensity. Calara turned to him then, and her voice was strong and unwavering as she said, "Let me summarise the battle for you."

***

Admiral Caldwell grimaced as he saw the Helios, a Distinction class battleship, on the receiving end of a volley of plasma missiles launched by a brace of Kintark cruisers. The Lizardmen had been focusing fire on the bigger Terran capital ships, and the Helios had been the first of the ships in his task force to lose its shields. The armour held strong, but the starboard side of the huge vessel was swathed in unnatural green flames, which left ugly blackened scars on the grey Titanium hull.

With a touch of his finger over the representation of the Helios in his holographic battle group interface, he was put in instant contact with the damaged ship. "Commodore Obeng, pull back behind your cruiser screen. Try to draw them after you," he ordered, in a calm but firm voice.

"Acknowledged, Admiral," the steadfast officer replied, and immediately began to execute Caldwell's orders.

Confident that the immediate threat to his forces had been mitigated, Caldwell glanced at the images of his fellow Admirals in his Command Overview. Santini, Mishra, and Weber had just received their orders from Fleet Admiral Buckingham, but the temperamental Ricardo Santini had not been impressed by his assignment.

"Let me go after Lynton!" he urged the Fleet Admiral. "If my forces get bogged down with the Kintark, she'll slip away before we can neutralise the interdiction beacons!"

Buckingham shook his head, his face stern as he said, "Lynton's traitors haven't engaged yet. We need to address the immediate threat posed by the Kintark forces."

"As you command, Sir," Santini replied, somewhat petulantly.

Relative to the orbital plane of the Regulus system's largest sun, the Kintark were hitting the Terran fleet from both above and below. There were at least a hundred major vessels per Kintark attack group, and that didn't include their picket screen of destroyers, or the waves of strike craft. The Lizardmen's cruisers and battleships were striking at multiple locations along the Terran lines, but seemed to be holding back from a close range engagement. Caldwell knew instinctively that they were probing for weaknesses, and the Terran ships had responded to Buckingham's clear and decisive directions, forming battle formations to exchange barrages at extreme range.

Following Buckingham's orders, Admiral Weber and Admiral Mishra were positioning their forces to launch a counter strike to overwhelm and crush the lower Kintark group. Once those assailants had been smashed, they'd regroup and then converge on the second of the Kintark positions. Caldwell's force, spearheaded by "The Retribution of Zeus", was going to weather the storm from the upper Kintark group, while Santini was tasked with protecting the fleet of support ships.

Caldwell tapped out a long series of commands on his battle group interface, assigning new positions to each squadron of his ships. There was no hesitation from the Terran ships as they manoeuvred into their formations, his elite forces gliding smoothly through space as they responded to his orders.

Buckingham's plan was good, and with a little luck, they'd be able to turn this ambush back against their attackers. Edwin walked the Bridge in a self-assured manner, talking calmly to individual officers, and allowing himself a small, confident smile during those exchanges. He understood that the boost to morale this generated would filter across the fleet, his Bridge Crew providing a fine example of calm professionalism to any personnel that interacted with them. He turned to look at the Tactical Map once again, and it appeared that Lynton might have inadvertently gifted them with an opportunity for a devastating victory over the Kintark Empire.

***

Walking around his Command Platform at a slow pace, High Prelate Zorlin studied the unfolding battle with unblinking eyes. So far, the Terrans had not made any glaring errors that he could capitalise on, and he waited patiently, knowing just such an eventuality would soon present itself.

"High Prelate, we're being hailed by the Leenar'tohok again," his communications Sub-Prelate called to him, a slight note of exasperation appearing in his raised voice.

"Thank you, comrade. Pleassse put her through," Zorlin replied, glancing at the lower formation of Kintark ships in the Tactical hologram.

Grakira's forces were comfortably holding their own in the current stalemate, the plasma fire from her ships giving as good as they were receiving from the Terran beam attacks. He suspected he knew the purpose of her call, guessing that the female Kintark leader's patience was running out.

"My forcesss are eager to take the fight to the Terransss!" she blurted out as soon as her image appeared. "Are you ready yet, Zorlin?"

He shook his head firmly, and replied, "Not yet, Grakira. I would ssstrongly advissse caution until we can exploit a vulnerability in their linesss. The Terran forcesss ssshould not be underessstimated."

She ground her sharp teeth together in frustration, but Grakira was sensible enough to defer to his greater experience. Visibly calming herself, she replied, "It would be foolisssh to ignore your counsssel, Zorlin. I'd advissse hassste though, we're ssstill in Terran territory, and the longer the battle, the more chance ressserve forcesss will be able to intervene."

"Wissse wordsss indeed, Grakira. Fear not, we ssshall find our moment sssoon enough," he replied, meeting her questioning gaze.

They bowed to each other, and Grakira ended the call, pacified once more.

***

"So they're looking to destroy the Kintark piecemeal?" John asked the Latina, darting a glance at the Tactical Map, amazed that she was able to ascertain fleet strategy amongst that riot of shapes and colours.

She nodded, quite certain of herself as she replied, "Definitely. Buckingham's positioned two battle groups to hit the lower force of Kintark. They'll begin their counter-offensive shortly."

John leaned back in his Command Chair as he mulled over the best course of action. He was strongly conflicted in his choice, feeling an obligation towards the Terran Federation, but having no desire to recklessly charge into the middle of a major battle. The Invictus was a tremendously powerful ship, but even she wouldn't last long against that terrifying concentration of Kintark firepower, and he wasn't willing to put the girls at risk if he could help it.

Looking into Calara's brown eyes, he asked, "Where's your father's ship? Is he in any immediate danger?"

She shook her head, and pointed towards a large cluster of ships as she replied, "The Damocles is with what appears to be a reserve force, and they're protecting support vessels in the centre of the flotilla." The Latina's relieved smile ended her dispassionate composure as she added, "His ship hasn't taken any damage. He's safe."

"OK, that's great news," he noted, sharing her smile while staring at the Tactical Map again. Glancing at Alyssa, he asked, "How far out are we?"

"Thirteen minutes. We'll catch up much faster, now that Buckingham isn't going anywhere," she replied, bringing up the Sector Map above her console, displaying the glowing blue line that mapped their path through the stars. Pointing out their approach vector, she continued, "On our current course, we'll arrive at the rear of the Terran forces."

"Alright, we'll maintain our existing heading for the moment," John stated, turning to look at the Tactical Map again. A task force of Terran Federation ships some distance from the battle caught his eye, and he frowned as he added, "Those Terran vessels seem to be hanging back and waiting for something. Are they the traitor forces?"

"Yes, that's right," Calara replied, confirming his suspicions. She looked grim as she continued, "That massive ship is Lynton's dreadnought, the 'Thor's Hammer'."

Alyssa shot him a meaningful glance as she said, "The Tyrenium we sold to Charles helped build that ship."

Dana shared her concern, as she added in a hushed voice, "Yeah, they used it to make the Singularity Drivers..."

***

Gabrielle Lynton watched the repositioning of the Terran fleets, as the capital ships on both sides exchanged withering broadsides. She was a skilled strategist in her own right, and it didn't take her long to realise exactly what Fleet Admiral Buckingham was planning.

"Buckingham's repositioning his forces for a counterassault," she observed, speaking to the man seated beside her in his Executive Officer's chair.

Commander Nichols nodded, and his eyes darted to her console as he asked, "Are you going to warn the Kintark? Their second flotilla will get mauled if they aren't prepared for it."

Her hand flicked over to the comm interface, and she swiped through the list of contacts until she found the one she was looking for. "No, our allies can take care of themselves," she replied with an enigmatic smile. "There's someone else I need to speak with."

As she initiated the call, a message appeared on her communications panel, displaying "Secure Transmission," in bold red lettering. It took a few seconds to connect, and when it did, the startled face of Admiral Ricardo Santini appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Ricardo. You're looking well," she said to him, her tone playful.

His face flushed with anger as he snarled, "You two-faced, lying bitch! How dare you show your face after what you've done!"

She laughed at him dismissively, and said, "Ah Ricky, you always were a bit slow on the uptake. You never suspected for a moment, did you?"

Ricardo got redder as his temper flared, and he growled, "You're a deceitful snake. You fooled everyone."

Giving him a knowing grin, she trailed her fingers over her mouth watering cleavage as she teased him, "Or maybe you were always thinking with your little head? Perhaps that's why you were so easy to dupe. You never could take your eyes off my body..."

He flushed scarlet now, but it was with embarrassment this time. He protested a little too much as he snapped, "You think I'd be interested in you?! Don't flatter yourself, you fucking traitor!"

Gabrielle leaned forward, giving him a tantalising view down her low-cut blouse, and she purred, "It's alright, Ricky, I know why you're so angry. You're just jealous I seduced Leonard instead of you..." She made eye contact with him, and added, "Do you know why I chose him?"

Santini didn't reply, as he did his best to keep his eyes from straying from her face. Although he didn't admit it, why she'd chosen that stuffy bore, Leonard Norwood, was something he'd been curious about.

Her lip curled up into a satisfied smile when she saw his gaze flicker to her chest, and she said airily, "I did some asking around; spoke to that hot little Lieutenant Commander you had that affair with." She sneered then, crooking her little finger and wiggling it at him as she mocked him, "She said you weren't really up to the job!"

"Fuck you! You fucking whore!" Santini blazed, furious now. "You're fucking dead!"

"You haven't got the balls either!" she replied, laughing contemptuously. "Be a good dog and watch over the gas tankers. Buckingham knew you were too much of an imbecile to handle anything trickier than that!"

Santini screamed with rage, but before he could yell any more profanities at her, Gabrielle blew him a kiss, and cut off the comm channel abruptly.

"He's not going to fall for that, surely?" Commander Nichols asked her, shaking his head in disbelief.

She turned to glance at her second-in-command, and said calmly, "He's got a hell of a temper. You'd be amazed how irrational he gets if you wind him up enough."

***

"There it isss," High Prelate Zorlin said in a hushed voice, allowing himself a small smile of satisfaction as the opportunity he'd been waiting for presented itself.

He moved quickly now, striding over to the edge of the Command Platform, and grasped the surrounding balcony with both scaled hands. Staring at his communications Sub-Prelate, he announced, "Contact the Leenar'tohok, comrade, tell them it isss time."

"I will do ssso immediately, High Prelate," the comms officer replied, turning to contact the command vessel for the second Kintark fleet.

Zorlin could well imagine the overjoyed reaction that message would receive from High Prelate Grakira, knowing that she was eager to sink her talons into the Terrans. Leaning forward and gazing around the Bridge Pit, he began to snap off a series of sharp orders.

"Order the fleet to clossse to medium range while maintaining formation, and inform them to watch for my target desssignationsss."

"Launch our firssst wave of fightersss, and prep the sssecond wave for immediate launch."

"Contact the ressservesss, and order them to prepare for an imminent ssstrike on my command."

Standing upright once more, he surveyed his crew who moved in a flurry of activity as they rushed to obey his orders.

***

Edwin Caldwell was staring intently at his battle group interface as he rotated out ships from the front lines, allowing them time to recover their shields. Duelling at extreme range like this reduced the accuracy of incoming fire, greatly extending the durability of the vessels exchanging barrages. He'd lost one cruiser and three destroyers so far, in exchange for destroying one Kintark cruiser, and savaging a second. As his intention was to hold out for as long as possible, until Weber and Mishra had made their move, this low-impact sniping was playing directly into Terran hands.

"Admiral! Something's happening with Task Force four!" Commander Milton blurted out in shock.

Edwin glanced across at the Tactical Map, surprised by how unsettled his XO's sounded. One look at the holographic display told him exactly why.

"That fucking idiot!" he gasped, appalled by Admiral Santini's blatant insubordination.

Santini's dreadnought, The Sword of Sif, had peeled away from the defensive positions around the support fleet, taking two-thirds of that task force with it. The errant Admiral was leading his battleships, half his cruisers and his picket screen of destroyers and corvettes, on a beeline towards Lynton's group of traitors. All that was left was just over a dozen cruisers, along with the light and medium carriers, which left a gaping hole in their defensive lines.

"Kintark are launching strike craft!" his Pilot warned him, his voice trembling slightly.

Edwin's gaze shifted to the two Kintark attack groups, and saw swarms of new contacts pouring from their carriers. These much smaller vessels formed up into attack wings, then raced towards the Terran lines.

Glancing at his XO, Caldwell said, "Get us ready, they'll be attacking in moments. I need to warn Buckingham."

Giving him a curt nod, Commander Milton began barking orders, "Bring the Gauss Cannons, and Laser Cannons online, and launch all fighters! Bring the Zeus about to heading one-nine-five, we need to help cover the support vessels..."

Tuning him out, along with the frenzied activity on the Bridge, Caldwell contacted Buckingham, who answered him a second later, saying, "What is it Edwin?"

"We have a problem. It's Santini..." he replied, his voice taut with anxiety.

The Fleet Admiral glanced away for a second, then his features contorted in anger as he snapped, "What's that fool think he's doing?!"

***

Lieutenant Ryan Murphy grinned at his Commander as his flight group sprinted to their Rapier-class fighters. "Woohoo!" the young man yelled, cheering exuberantly. "It's time to kick some dragon ass!"

"Rein it in, Leprechaun," Commander Angela Summers replied, her voice stern and disapproving as she ran to her own fighter, but her answering grin was nearly as wide as his.

Murphy laughed as he climbed up the steps to his fighter, and pressed two fingers from his left hand to his lips, before placing them on the picture of a naked woman daubed on the side of his ship. The voluptuous redhead was using an oversized shamrock to protect her modesty, with "Luck o' the Irish," emblazoned in emerald text beneath her.

Glancing to his right, he saw his Commanding Officer climb into her fighter, the cockpit swinging closed behind her. Painted on the side of her ship was a pious winged woman dressed in white robes, and as the cockpit lowered into place, the halo painted on the rim completed the angel. All around him the rest of Squadron Two-Hundred-and-Sixty were prepping for launch, and he sank into his seat and pressed the button to close the reinforced canopy.

"We have clearance for immediate launch," Angel's voice sounded out over the comm. "Go Two-Sixty!"

The engines had already been warmed up by the Hangar crew, and Murphy had a wild grin on his face as he stabbed his thumb down on the release button. The launch runway thrummed to life, and the magnetic rails grasped his fighter in an invisible grip, then flung him down the brightly illuminated tunnel.

"Fuck yeah!" Murphy exclaimed as the massive acceleration sank him deeply into his seat, and then moments later, he was blasting clear of the fleet carrier.

With a glance over his right shoulder, he watched the colossal grey hull of the Zeus silhouetted against one of the Regulus suns, until it disappeared behind him as he scrambled to the rally point.

"All right gentlemen, form up into our attack wing," Angel said, drawing his attention back to the task at hand.

"Affirmative, Commander," Binary answered, his monotonous robotic delivery having earned him his callsign.

"You got it, Angel," Snakebite called in.

"I'm there, baby," Romeo crooned in his smooth baritone.

Murphy grinned, and said in a fake lilting brogue, "I'm on me way darlin'."

His Tactical View showed the nearby fighters as green gems, their IFF transponder codes tagging them as friendlies. The fighters in his wing were highlighted with an orange border, making it easy to pick them out amongst the scores of fighter groups. He rolled his ship, then pulled back on the flightstick, bringing him around to flank Angel's fighter before falling back into his position on her left wing. Murphy occupied the middle slot on the left of the five-ship v-formation, and he focused on maintaining his spacing with his Commander, knowing that Snakebite would adjust to his manoeuvres on the outer edge of the left wing.

The Rapiers synced up with each other as their battle computers established group cohesion. To Murphy's right, four images appeared, showing the faces of the pilots in his fighter wing. He knew that his smiling face would now appear in their cockpits too, and he gave the cockpit-cam a playful wink.

Angel guided them to their designated position, weaving around friendly vessels as they raced through the Terran Federation battle group. They pulled up to clear the long hull of a Terran destroyer, then swept around behind a corvette group, while carefully avoiding their engine wash. The huge attack group of fighters that had swarmed out of the fleet carrier were being repositioned by flight control to engage the Kintark fighters, which were racing towards the Terran battle lines.

Murphy's heart hammered in his chest, the rush of pre-battle adrenaline making him feel gloriously alive. He tried to stifle the wild grin on his face, but failed completely; this was his first major battle, and he couldn't wait to go up against the Kintark!

***

"Eight minutes until we hit the Regulus system," Alyssa warned everyone on the Bridge.

John nodded, and replied, "Everyone clear on the plan? We defend the Damocles, and we'll hunt down Lynton when the dust settles."

Calara shot him a look brimming with gratitude, and simply said, "Thank you, John."

He smiled at her, and replied, "I made you a promise, and it's one I intend to keep."

Turning to look at the Tactical Map, he still couldn't help wondering if he was making a dreadful mistake in bringing them anywhere near this battlefield. As he'd said though, he'd made a promise to Calara, to help keep her family safe. Jack Fernandez was the Captain of the Damocles, and commanding a Terran cruiser with hundreds of hostile Kintark vessels bearing down on them, was about as far from safe as her father could get.

Now that Calara had formed a precise picture of the forces arrayed in the system, she'd started removing overlays from the Tactical Map, making it much clearer to see the ships fighting on either side. She highlighted opposing forces in bands of colour, which made it far easier for John to follow exactly what was happening. She was back in her Tactical Chair now, hands on the gunnery controls, as she powered up the Invictus' weapons.

"I thought two of the Terran battle groups were going to attack the lower Kintark force?" Jade asked, sounding puzzled.

Calara nodded, and replied, "Yes, I'm sure of it. Fleet Admiral Buckingham was carefully preparing a Huang riposte." She looked thoughtful as she added, "Although luring the Kintark in with bait, then hitting them with a counterstroke would yield better results against these odds."

The Nymph frowned, then glanced at the brunette as she said hesitantly, "It looks like he changed his mind."

The Latina's head whirled around to take another look at the Tactical Map, while muttering, "That's impossible, changing formations at the last moment would be-." She suddenly looked aghast, as she cried out, "No! That's insane!"

"What is it?!" John asked her, alarmed by her look of stunned disbelief.

"They just sent a battlegroup after Lynton! If they continue their counterassault against the Kintark now, the remaining battlegroup will get slaughtered," she gasped, staring at John in dumbfounded horror. "They've just thrown away their best chance at victory!"

***

High Prelate Zorlin nodded with satisfaction as the Kintark capital ships under his command increased their speed, closing the distance with the enemy. The first wave of fighters had cleared his battlecarrier, the Breklan'tohok, and after assembling into their formations, they began their attack run on the Terran's protective screen of fighters. His decision to bring most of the Empire's carrier fleet to this engagement should prove decisive, giving his forces overwhelming numerical superiority. Eliminating the Terran fighter screen and establishing strike craft supremacy was the first, and most critical step, in his plan to bring an end to the Terran menace.

The Kintark heavy fighters favoured a staggered four-ship attack wing, resembling the clawed hands of their elite pilots. They were using the latest design of heavy fighters, with two pairs of Heavy Plasma Guns built into each wing of the ferocious-looking strike craft. The asymmetrical clusters of ships raced away, their shimmering green armour looking resplendent as they reflected the shining light from Regulus' four suns.

The fighters on both sides were much faster than the bigger ships following in their wake, and the seething swarms of strike craft raced headlong towards each other in the centre of the map. Those carefully structured formations broke apart as the two forces crashed into each other, attack wings breaking away as they fought a deadly battle for dominance in the cold arena of the Alpha-Leonis system.

He found it fascinating to study the Tactical Map, watching as hundreds of individual battles played out before his eyes, lives hanging by a thread before being cut brutally short. He knew that while icons simply blinked out of existence on the map before him, out in space, the reality of that battle was far more terrifying.

Tearing his eyes from the intense dogfight, he watched the ships in Grakira's group close from below the Terran capital ships. They were like the jaws of a vice being clamped closed, with the Terrans about to be crushed within.

As the two forces closed the distance, the plasma fire from the Kintark Cannons struck harder, the glowing green bolts having less time to lose cohesion. Unfortunately, the Terran ships were more accurate with their answering barrages, and many more of the orange laser beams were slashing into his ships. Red icons began to flash against the holographic icons representing the lead cruiser group, depicting the damage the ships were taking. He saw the Genash'tor, the Barrack'tor and the Aranan'tor flash red as their shields were overwhelmed.

This allowed the mass of Terran Heavy Cannons to be brought to bear, and they took a terrible toll on the three unfortunate cruisers. He watched as the computer dispassionately displayed chunks of armour being blasted away from their hulls, explosions ripping through armour and causing catastrophic damage to the doomed vessels. Each one was crewed by over two-hundred Kintark personnel, and the loss of so many valiant comrades dug at his heart.

"The consssequencesss of the politiciansss' failure," he muttered under his breath. "Ever paid, in the blood of good sssoldiersss..."

Zorlin let out a sigh of regret, resigning himself to the terrible slaughter he was about to unleash. "Launch the bombersss," he ordered Merklan, the Prelate coordinating strike craft operations from down in the Bridge Pit.

***

Gabrielle Lynton watched gleefully as Santini's battlegroup approached, his ships bearing down on her position with engines set to full power. This was turning out even better than she'd hoped, and she could barely restrain herself from clapping her hands in delight. The Kintark forces were embroiled in a bloody clash with the Terran ships under Buckingham, and she knew the death toll from such a cataclysmic battle would be horrific for both sides.

"Admiral..." Commander Nichols said cautiously, drawing her attention from the Tactical Map.

"What is it, Stephan?" she asked him, reluctantly pulling her eyes away from Santini's dreadnought.

He sounded worried as he replied, "Our dreadnought is a match for Santini's, but his battlegroup outnumbers our forces. Are we going to withdraw? Lead him away from the battlezone?"

Gabrielle laughed, feeling giddy with excitement as she replied, "Oh no, Commander. I have a little surprise for the short-tempered Admiral Santini."

"A surprise?" he asked her, sounding hopeful and anxious in equal measure.

Turning away from her XO, she enjoyed the look of confusion on his face as she declined to elaborate. Looking at her Gunnery Chief instead, she said, "Power up the Singularity Drivers, Commander Geroux, and prepare to fire on my mark."

The sombre looking officer frowned, and replied, "But Admiral, the Sword of Sif is still fully shielded, we can't-."

Gabrielle waved a hand sharply, cutting him off, and said, "Prepare the main guns, Gunnery Chief."

He nodded obediently, turning to the weapon controls arrayed around him at his position, and began feeding power into the massive weapons. Geroux only glanced back at Admiral Lynton once, before her disapproving frown made him concentrate fully on his orders.

Deep within the upper deck of the colossal intergalactic titan, twin reactors thrummed with power as they were engaged in anger for the first time. Huge amounts of power were fed into the chamber at the rear of the singularity drivers, flooding the system with the energy to perform its deadly function. An intricate sphere twenty-metres-wide began to rotate, spinning faster as the Tyrenium lattice focused the enormous surge of power towards its centre. A black speck appeared, growing larger as the Singularity Generator went to work.

It had taken just over four months for the Karron miners to carefully excavate the Tyrenium from Seb Mortimer's mine. It was an exceedingly rare and unstable ore, and they'd had to forego the bore-hole machines and explosives they normally used, slowing down extraction considerably. John had bought ten tonnes of ore for a ludicrously cheap price, taking full advantage of Seb Mortimer's ignorance, the man having little idea of its true worth.

From there, it had taken another month for John to haul the priceless cargo back to the Olympus Shipyard in his freighter, the Fool's Gold. The ore had been eagerly purchased by Vice-Admiral Charles Harris on the orders of Admiral Cartwright, as they tried to fulfil the requirements of the massive shipbuilding program ordered by Terran Federation High Command.

While John had sailed away in an old, decommissioned assault cruiser, which he'd purchased for a bargain price, the Terran Federation engineers had immediately gone to work. The Tyrenium ore was shipped to a special secured refinery at the shipyard, where it had been meticulously processed to remove impurities. The metal was then forged into the globe in the centre of the Singularity Generator, which was now spinning faster than the eye could see. At its heart, a black void had formed and stabilised, barely held in check by the mighty gravitic forces harnessed in that ominous chamber.

"We have achieved a stable singularity, Admiral," Commander Geroux stated, his eyes darting to several monitors and checking energy readings and gravity flows.

"Get ready to fire on my command," Gabrielle said, holding her breath now as she stared at the unsuspecting dreadnought steaming directly towards her.

*We shall intervene momentarily. Prepare yourself, Gabrielle,* a firm female voice commanded, echoing eerily as it reverberated through her mind. The voice belonged to Ailanthia, her Master's Matriarch.

High above Lynton's dreadnought, a vast black shape loomed. Haunting the Regulus system like an ominous spectre, the enormous vessel seemed to observe the petty struggles of the mortals below with disdain. It was just possible to make out its sinister profile by looking directly at it, and noting an absence of flickering stars, as its form blended in with the pitiless darkness of space.

As if summoned from the ether, a purple maelstrom of immense power began to coalesce off the starboard bow, growing in strength by the second. Flickering violet lightning surged around that terrifying, otherworldly vortex, until it reached the apex of its strength, and was blasted outwards. The purple beam throbbed as its terrible power was unleashed, the column of seething energies striking the unknowing dreadnought amidships.

The shields on the dreadnought flexed inwards, their Terran creators never imagining in their worst nightmare that they'd have to withstand firepower of this blazing intensity. Sickly purple rings pulsed out from that point of impact, and then the shield was gone, obliterated in seconds by technology far beyond their ken. The beam plunged down, shearing through the vast armoured barrels of the dreadnought's Singularity drivers, and neatly dismembering its most potent weapons of war. The resulting explosions knocked the dreadnought sideways, sending it veering off to starboard.

"OPEN FIRE!" Gabrielle screamed, revelling in her moment of triumph.

***

"Oh my God..." Commander Garfield whispered, his eyes widening as he stared at the critically vulnerable dreadnought. Turning to face his Commanding Officer, his face was ghostly pale as he gasped, "Admiral, it's the Sword of Sif... They just lost all shields!"

Admiral Caldwell turned to glance at his Chief Engineer, and frowned as he replied, "That's not possible. They haven't even engaged Lynton's forces yet."

"Look for yourself!" the shocked engineer cried, pointing frantically at the holographic Tactical Map. "Something just knocked out all their shields in one goddamn hit! The energy spike was off the scale!"

Edwin was about to chastise his Chief Engineer for abandoning all sense of decorum, but Commander Garfield was a grounded officer, sensible and dependable. It was massively out of character for the man to be so distraught, so he held his tongue instead and stared at the Tactical Map. His jaw dropped as he stared at Santini's flagship. The dreadnought had not only lost all its shields, but its primary guns had been disabled too.

"What the hell?!" he murmured, gaping at the stricken vessel in disbelief. Santini's ship was grievously wounded, and he hadn't actually engaged any enemies yet.

Suddenly a savage explosion lit up the map, and the dreadnought appeared to tremble from the impact. Armour plating thicker than a full-grown man was blasted clear, titanium shards flung wide in a scintillating metallic shower of debris. Edwin barely had a chance to register the impact before it was followed up a second later by another massive hit, and then yet another in a remorseless rhythm.

"Santini's fucked!" Commander Milton blurted out, shaking his head in horror. "Lynton's tearing that poor bastard apart..."

Edwin couldn't disagree, as the twin Singularity Drivers built into the spine of the traitor's dreadnought unleashed their monstrous firepower. Solid projectiles no bigger than a man's head, were hyper-accelerated by the singularity powering the dreaded weapon. The incalculable energy contained within was unleashed with every impact, wreaking utter devastation on the exposed vessel.

The Thor's Hammer was firing at extreme range, but the titanic three-kilometre length of Santini's dreadnought made it an easy target. Lynton's ship strafed slugs along the flank of the dreadnought, setting loose a rippling cascade of gigantic explosions at every point of impact. A round smashed into a Heavy Cannon mount, vaporising the weapon and the armour around it in an instant, before the following shot punched deeper, the detonations internal now.

The mauled dreadnought tried to pull away, but Lynton's Gunnery Chief was an expert marksman, and he followed the slow moving vessel as it turned. The hits were striking the same location now, ripping through the gaping hole in the armour plating, and blasting through the superstructure exposed beneath. One slug drove in deep, touching off a magazine explosion.

Edwin watched in shock as a blinding eruption blasted out of the starboard side of the Terran ship, leaving a hundred-metre chasm gouged out of the hull. More internal detonations were wracking the Sif, and one of the five power cores ruptured, vaporising a section of the topdeck near the rear of the capital ship. The Bridge was ripped away in that tremendous explosion, slaying the command crew in one appalling moment of destruction. The dreadnought trembled in its death throes now, as if terrified by the grim fate that had befallen it.

"You reckless fool..." Edwin cursed Santini under his breath. It was poor form to speak ill of the dead, but the hot-tempered man might have doomed them all.

***

"I've been hit!" Snakebite screamed, letting go of his flight controls as he flung his hands over his eyes to protect them from searing plasma. His voice raised several octaves as he shrieked, "Oh God, no!"

Lieutenant Murphy's heart was still racing, but not with the thrill of battle, not any more. The deadly hail of green plasma bolts from the Kintark fighters had quickly disabused him of that notion. Snakebite's image winked out from Murphy's battle computer as his wingman's fighter broke up in a verdant conflagration. While the picture of the Terran pilot had gone, the man's shrill screams echoed without end through Murphy's head.

Commander Summers banked hard to starboard, and Murphy yanked his flightstick to the right to stay on her wing. They rolled as they looped over the burning tomb of a Terran cruiser, the ship consumed by spectral green plasma fires. Angel brought them in behind a wing of Kintark heavy fighters, catching the slower ships by surprise. The four remaining Terran Rapiers opened fire, their four Gatling Lasers whirring as they sent a cascade of orange laser bolts into the rear of the Lizardmen.

"This one's for Snakebite, you scaly son-of-a-bitch," he snarled, gritting his teeth in fury.

Murphy narrowed his eyes in concentration as he strafed his shots over the engines at the back of the green heavy fighter. The emerald Kintark armour was mildly reflective, muting the damage slightly, but his accurate shooting paid off. The salvo of orange bolts melted through armour, liquefying the shimmering plating as he lit up the rear of the heavy fighter.

He ignored the spiking heat levels on his lasers, maintaining the withering hail as the Kintark jinked to try and shake him off its tail. His Rapier was faster and more nimble though, and Murphy had no intention of letting the bastard run. There was an explosion as one of Kintark engines blew, and the heavy fighter lurched wildly to starboard, spinning out of control. The fighter slammed into the side of a Kintark destroyer, exploding on impact.

"Got you, you fucker," he said with grim satisfaction, looking around him for the rest of his squadron.

He'd got pulled out of formation as he hunted down the Kintark fighter, and he saw that the rest of his squadron were embroiled in a vicious brawl with another Kintark fighter wing. It looked like his wingmates had been ambushed by a fresh Kintark squadron, and the Terran fighters were diving and rolling around a Terran light carrier. The defence grid on the carrier had opened up on the Kintark ships, but the crew of the Horkos had to be careful firing into the close quarters dogfight, for fear of hitting a friendly ship.

"Murphy! Get back here!" Angel cried out, and he saw her Rapier execute a hard banking turn to try and shake the fighter off her tail.

Shoving his throttle forward, Murphy's agile fighter leapt towards her, rapidly closing the distance. "Be right there!" he replied, desperate to save the kind officer who'd taken him under her wing.

Angel snapped a quick glance at her cockpit cam, seemingly staring right at him as she said, "I'll line him up, get ready to take the shot."

Another strangled scream reached his ears, and he watched in horror as Romeo's handsome face was contorted with fear. "I've lost my left wing!" he cried out, his image crackling as he was thrown around the cockpit. "Help me, someone!"

His terrified expression was frozen in the battle computer, before cutting out a second later as the Kintark pilot finished off Romeo's crippled Rapier. Murphy forced himself to focus on the fighter chasing after Angel, his shaking hand gripping the flightstick fearfully. He watched the distance between them closing at a blistering pace, as Angel ducked and weaved to avoid the plasma bolts sailing around her ship.

Settling his crosshairs on the Kintark fighter, he squeezed the trigger, his Gatling Lasers opening fire a second after the barrels spun up to speed again. The Kintark's armour seemed weaker on the front, and scared as he was, he managed to shower the Lizardman's cockpit with laser bolts. The blistering amber hail did its work, and one of the fist-sized holes he punched in the canopy caused an explosive decompression. The Kintark was sucked from his seat and forcibly ejected from the fighter, which then sailed harmlessly by.

Angel breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "I owe you one, Leprechaun. Now get on my six, and we'll rescue Binary!"

Murphy watched her pull an Immelmann to reverse direction, so he lowered his speed so that Angel could catch up with him and take point. Her fighter roared past, so he opened up the throttle again, tagging onto her wing as they chased after the three remaining Kintark fighters. The Horkos' gunners intensified their fire on the pursuing Kintark, as Binary wove a desperate path around the light carrier.

One of the green Kintark fighters was hit in a crossfire from fore and aft Gatling Laser batteries, exploding as the laser bolts struck the power core. Another was hit in the engine, and the heavy fighter slowed dramatically, a long plume of debris trailing after it. The Kintark pilot tried to break clear, but this just exposed his fighter to more laser fire, and the ship was literally cut to pieces, the wings shorn off, and the fuselage sliced open.

Binary narrowly avoided another salvo from the Kintark's Heavy Plasma Guns, just as the remaining pilots from Squadron Two-Sixty reached the duelling ships. The last Lizardman didn't last long under their concentrated firepower, and his ship broke apart in a shower of green plating.

"I think you owe those boys on the Horkos a drink!" Murphy panted, crooking a relieved smile at Binary.

Binary ignored him however, and there was a flicker of fear in Binary's voice as he blurted out a warning, "Commander, we have incoming! Kintark wings coming in around the wreck of that heavy cruiser at two o'clock!"

Murphy's eyes darted to his Tactical Map, and they widened in alarm at the dozen contacts rushing towards them, breaking away from the clutter of ships centred on the scanner.

"I'm hit!" Angel gasped as she tried to turn her mauled Rapier, but the flight controls were unresponsive.

Staring out his starboard cockpit window, Murphy could see the half dozen holes punched through the wing of her fighter, as the Kintark attack group showered them with plasma bolts.

"Angel!" he cried out, but just like that she was gone, her fighter enveloped in a blazing explosion as shots from a Kintark fighter hit her power core.

He felt a surge of grief and despair as he shoved his flightstick forward, making a desperate attempt to shake the rampaging horde of Kintark fighters. His Tactical View was a riot of red now, with the remaining Terran Rapiers outnumbered four-to-one by Kintark fighters.

***

"Dropping out of hyper-warp in one minute!" Alyssa warned them, staring at the Tactical Map which displayed the turmoil in the Regulus system.

"How bad is it?" John asked Calara, seeing the worry in her furrowed brow.

"The Kintark have strike craft superiority. Those bombers will cause havoc amongst the Terran capital ships," she replied, her expression grim.

John nodded, and asked, "What about the Damocles?"

"About to engage Lynton's forces," she replied calmly, forcing herself to maintain a professional facade despite her worries.

Alyssa could feel Calara's concern for her father compounding her distress, so she sent waves of soothing emotions to her, wrapping her mind in a comforting mental blanket. The stress ebbed away from the brunette immediately, and she flashed her blonde lover a quick smile of thanks.

Dana had noted the huge energy spike from the Sword of Sif, and moments later the dreadnought seemed to have lost all shields, seemingly the result of some horrifically timed accident. After that, they'd all watched in shock as the enormous warship had been blown apart by Lynton's dreadnought, the Thor's Hammer. Without that capital ship to bolster the remains of Santini's battlegroup, the Terran Federation forces were now at a significant disadvantage against the traitors.

Calara locked eyes with John, and said, "After losing their dreadnought, they aren't going to last long."

"We better see if we can thin the herd then," John said, gazing up at the holographic map.

Alyssa read his mind, knowing exactly what he had planned before he even spoke it out loud. She communicated his orders to the girls in a split-second, and all the women around the Bridge seemed calmer now, confident in his orders.

Jade turned though, and half-rose out of her chair, fixing him with her cat-like eyes as she said, "Let me take the Raptor. You can't help both groups at once."

"Jade..." John started to object, but the Nymph cut him off.

Pointing at the waves of Kintark strike craft on the Tactical Map, she said, "You can't afford to spend time wiping out all those fighters and bombers, you're needed against the traitors. The Raptor has the firepower of a cruiser, but it's faster than a fighter. This isn't going to be like Iota-Leonis."

*I know you want to keep Jade safe, but she's right. Calara agrees with her,* Alyssa said to him telepathically, while staring at him with her piercing blue eyes. *The Raptor's fast, tough, agile, and packs a hell of a punch. She'll be okay.*

He glanced down at the Latina, and she gave him a brief nod of agreement.

With a heavy sigh, he turned to meet the Nymph's intense emerald gaze, and said, "Alright, you can take the Raptor. We'll do a flyby, and drop you off." He fixed her with an unwavering stare as he continued, "If it gets too hot though, I want you to retreat. I'm serious, Jade, I want you to promise me."

"I promise," Jade replied, her expression sombre, then grinned as she sprinted up the ramp towards the grav-tube.

He rose from his chair at the same time as Alyssa, and while she rushed over to the now vacant Pilot's Chair, John darted down the steps to intercept Jade. They shared a brief but poignant hug and a fleeting kiss, before he reluctantly let her continue on her way.

"Exiting hyper-warp in ten seconds," Alyssa announced for his benefit, and he quickly returned to his seat.

Then just like that, they were there in the Regulus system, the Invictus swathed in blue tachyon particles as the assault cruiser dropped out of hyper-warp. They appeared on the outskirts of the system, a short distance from the tail-end of the Terran Federation flotilla.

"Take us in, Alyssa," John said to the blonde sitting in the Pilot's Chair, but she had started reacting the moment they'd arrived.

"Engines to maximum," she declared, shoving the throttle control forward, and powering up the Invictus' four massive engines.

John glanced at Calara now, and asked, "Where can we do the most good? We'll only have time for one pass, before we head to the Damocles."

It was almost like he could see her mind whirring, as the Latina calculated the highest volume of targets in a broad path through the chaotic melee. She reached over to her console, then tapped a button to bring the Tactical Map up before her. Taking a slender finger, she traced a line that intersected through the clashing forces, and said, "Follow that flightpath."

"You got it, gorgeous," Alyssa said with a smile, making a slight course correction to follow Calara's requested route.

With the hugely overpowered Trankaran engines boosting them to ungodly speeds, the Invictus tore towards the Terran forces. The armoured panels in their hull had peeled back, exposing the full extent of their formidable firepower, and the sleek-looking ship appeared eager for battle as it leapt into the fray.

"Do you want me to assist with the Pulse Cannons?" Faye asked Calara, who was taking a firm grip of her weapon controls.

The Latina nodded, and replied, "Yes, but not right away. I'll let you know when, alright?"

"Whatever you say, Commander!" Faye replied enthusiastically.

The Invictus was sporting forty-eight fast-tracking turrets, precisely positioned around the assault cruiser to provide full coverage for their defence grid. Originally these weapon mounts had been designed for Gatling Lasers, the short-range anti-strike craft weapons that were favoured by the Terran Federation. However the defence grid had gone through a spectacular upgrade, and could hardly be described as defensive any longer. Each turret now sported a medium range Pulse Cannon, and the devastating Maliri weapons had run the gamut of Dana's tech enhancements, their lethality boosted to frightening levels.

Under Alyssa's careful guidance, the Invictus charged into the Terran formations, weaving past a Federation cruiser that was trying to assist the beleaguered Rapier fighters with its Gatling Lasers. Calara began to open fire the moment the Kintark craft came into range, and the Pulse Cannons on the front of the Invictus began to glow as they fired three-shot bursts into the sprawling dogfight. The sparkling-white assault cruiser ploughed through the swarms of Kintark fighters, an unending curtain of blue laser fire cascading outwards in waves.

To the stunned forces on both sides, it appeared as though a blue globe was rushing through the battleground, carving a devastating swathe in its wake. The unerringly accurate Pulse Cannon bursts savaged the Kintark fighters, the bright blue laser bolts punching huge holes straight through them with every hit, their armour plating providing scant protection. The moment every burst was fired, each Pulse Cannon turret turned to track its next target, Calara having absolute confidence in her supernatural accuracy. Whole fighter wings were obliterated in an instant, with the fast-tracking turrets destroying over twenty Kintark ships per second at their peak efficiency. As her route through the strike craft took nearly fifteen seconds to complete, the impact to the Lizardmen's strike force was catastrophic.

As soon as the Invictus surged clear of the densest concentration of fighters, Calara called out to her purple companion, "Faye, take over the Pulse Cannons!"

Nodding eagerly, the AI replied, "Assuming fire control!" The Kintark had a momentary respite from the Pulse Cannons as Faye took over, and then she began blazing away, sending several bursts of laser fire at each Kintark fighter they passed to ensure their destruction.

Calara gave a brief nod of satisfaction, then switched the selectors on her weapon controls to the Invictus' Beam Lasers and Mass Drivers. They were sailing through a foreboding black sea, awash with hostile vessels, and now it was time for the Kintark capital ships to weather her merciless storm.

***

"It can't be!" Lynton gasped, clinging to the arms of her Command Chair in shock. She whirled around to her right and snapped at Commander Nichols, "Get me target focus on that ship!"

"Which one?" he asked her, astonished by her abrupt change in mood. Moments before, Gabrielle had been deliriously happy as she'd watched the destruction of Santini's dreadnought.

"That fucking white one!" she screamed at him. "The one tearing the Kintark a new fucking asshole!"

Nichols flushed with embarrassment at being yelled at in such a manner, especially in front of his subordinates, but he turned to obediently follow her orders. He quickly highlighted the glistening white assault cruiser, gaping at the incredible speed with which it was racing through the centre of the battlefield. It seemed to be heading straight towards them.

"Something's wrong with the Tactical Map, that can't be right!" he blurted out, as he stared in amazement at the vessel which the transponder codes tagged as the Invictus. His face twisted in confusion as he added, "Corvettes can't even move that fast, and that's an old assault cruiser!"

Lynton stared in horror at the zoomed-in view of the Invictus as it dived under a Terran battleship, then rolled at an astonishing rate, so that the topdeck was facing towards a Kintark cruiser. She winced against the blinding glare, as intensely powerful azure beams skewered the Kintark ship, annihilating it in a ferocious display of raw firepower.

"No..." she whimpered, paralyzed by the sight of her Master's Progenitor adversary.

Commander Nichols was deeply rattled by her frightened reaction, and he leaned in close so he could whisper, "Who the hell is that?!"

"It's John Blake," she breathed, trembling with fear. Pointing a quivering hand at the Tactical Map, she managed to choke out, "He's coming for us!"

***

Admiral Caldwell stared intently at the holographic battle group interface, both hands moving in short, measured movements as he issued order after order to his forces. The Kintark had closed to medium range, and their sinister green capital ships were hitting his own fleet much harder now. With the second Kintark force attacking from below, his ability to safely rotate out damaged vessels had been blocked, with weakened ships no longer having a safe place to withdraw and recuperate.

He'd lost over a dozen cruisers already, with another score taking damage, now that their shields were out. His battleships had been savaged as well, with the Helios reduced to an unresponsive hulk after taking damage to multiple power distributors. The Hyperion's fire crews were struggling to extinguish a raging plasma fire, which threatened to sweep through the burning ship. Finally, the Pallas had lost the use of the weapons on their port side, when a devastating salvo of plasma missiles had destroyed two of its Fire Control Towers. He hadn't had time to review the extent of the damage inflicted to his picket screen of destroyers, but he knew it would be horrendous.

Considering their bleak position, it therefore came as quite a shock when a rousing cheer spread through what had been a deathly quiet Bridge. As he looked away from the battle group interface, he saw Commander Milton's wild grin, and his XO pointed to the Tactical Map as he cried out, "It's the Invictus! The Lion's here!"

Edwin's eyes snapped to the holographic map, ignoring his jubilant crew for a moment as he searched for the distinctive white shape of John's assault cruiser. Amongst the myriad grey and green ships, the Invictus gleamed like a white beacon as it hurtled through the battle lines. He knew how advanced the tech on that ship was, but to actually see it in action sent a shiver down his spine.

Admiral Weber's battle group were involved in a heated exchange with Kintark forces on the lower edge of the Terran armada. Green bolts and orange beams blasted back and forth between the duelling sides, forming a dense web of colours that was as beautiful as it was deadly. A massive Kintark battleship led the pounding barrages sailing into the cramped Terran formations, using its ferocious weight of firepower to reduce cruisers to burning husks. The Terran ships had finally knocked out its shields, but the ship was still entirely unscathed, maintaining its remorseless salvos of Plasma Cannon fire.

The Invictus swept low, making a beeline for the shieldless ship, and it rotated on its axis before slamming four Mass Driver shells into the starboard flank of the huge enemy vessel. The subsequent explosions blew apart armour plating in a storm of green debris, leaving four evenly-spaced craters, right down the middle of the Kintark behemoth.

The white-hulled ship immediately dipped towards the rear of the battleship, then opened fire with an impossible number of Beam Lasers from its topdeck. Edwin had to squint against the blazing intensity of those beams, and he watched astounded, as they slashed across the exposed middle of the Kintark vessel from belly to spine, neatly slicing it in half. The battleship broke apart into two sections, the point of incision glowing orange where the Beam Lasers had sheared through the superstructure.

"Good Lord..." he breathed, suddenly realising just how powerful John Blake's vessel had become.

The brutal evisceration of the Kintark battleship increased the volume of the cheers to a deafening crescendo, and he looked about the Bridge as his personnel celebrated.

Commander Milton clapped him on the shoulder, and exclaimed with relief, "The Kintark are doomed! The Lion's going to save us!"

In a moment of sudden clarity, Admiral Edwin Caldwell realised that it wasn't only John Blake's ship that had grown powerful. He wondered if Lynette Devereux had even the slightest idea of what she'd created...

***

Murphy blinked and rubbed his eyes, still trying to adjust after -something- had surged past his ship. Whatever it was, had been huge and sparkling white, like some kind of ghostly apparition from a gin-soaked old spacer's tall tale. What had blinded him was the deadly hail of blue laser bolts that had swept around him like a monsoon, while miraculously leaving his fighter completely unscathed. When he glanced at his local Tactical View, he was bewildered to see it had been swept clear of red gems.

He'd been fighting for his life, a whole squadron of Kintark heavy fighters on his tail, and only pure luck, coupled with the nimble agility of his fighter, saving him from death. He pulled his Rapier around in a loop, and he was staggered to see the shattered remains of those marauding Kintark, huge holes blasted straight through the canopy of each fighter. Whatever the hell that white ship was, it had exterminated every enemy fighter in his vicinity.

His battle computer had de-synced with his wingmate what seemed like hours ago, so it was with some trepidation that he asked over the local com channel, "Binary? Are you still there?!"

"Binary, responding to your hail," the man replied, but something seemed off in his voice. The normally monotonous inflections trembled slightly, and Binary sounded as if he was badly shaken.

Murphy took a deep breath, and said, "What the hell was that thing? It just... -executed- all the Kintark."

"I... don't know," Binary replied after a brief pause. He sounded more assured a moment later, as he added, "Assemble at the rally point, our fighter wings are regrouping."

Looking at his Tactical View, Murphy flushed when he saw he'd been assigned a new waypoint by Fighter Command. In all the excitement, he'd failed to spot it. He twisted the flightstick to the left, then pulled back, lifting the nose of his Rapier until he was facing the rally point.

"I'm on my way," he replied, relieved to see that there were still a couple of dozen Terran fighters left intact.

He glanced at the Tactical View again, trying to see how the rest of the battle was going. Capital ships were exchanging massive volleys of heavy weapons fire, and he felt tremendously relieved that he wasn't anywhere near that shitstorm. However, as he was checking the wider battle, he spotted a solid wave of red gems creeping their way across the holo map. His heart fluttered with fear as he realised the Kintark had sent a third wave of strike craft on an attack vector, only this time there were dozens of bombers following the leading edge of fighters. He knew those lumbering bombers, loaded with their deadly cargoes, were heading straight for the Terran capital ships.

"Have you seen what's heading our way?" he asked Binary in a hushed voice, trying not to let his fear show.

"... Affirmative," his wingmate replied. "Our new objective is to destroy those bombers."

Murphy felt his heart sink in his chest, and he couldn't help wondering where that mysterious white ship had disappeared to.

***

"No, you mussst not deviate from our strategy!" High Prelate Zorlin urged his determined counterpart.

High Prelate Grakira shook her head stubbornly, and hissed, "We are equalsss, Zorlin, ssso I do not need to obey your ordersss. I will leave half my force here to maintain the attack on the Terransss, but I -WILL- have the Lion'sss head for what he did to the Yerran'tok!"

They had been discussing the progress of the battle when the Invictus had appeared as if from nowhere, and ripped the Kintark battleship in two, right before their disbelieving eyes.

"Thisss is no time for ssseeking persssonal glory or pursssuing vendettasss!" Zorlin protested. "Eliminating the Terran Invasssion Fleet is our primary duty to the Empire!"

Grakira's long tongue flickered out for a moment, instinctively tasting the air in predatory anticipation, and she replied, "Hisss ssship would make a prize worthy of the Emperor himssself. The Empire mussst have the technological sssecretsss hidden within that vesssel!"

One look at the fanatical gleam in his fellow High Prelate's eyes, convinced Zorlin that he had no chance of dissuading her from this course of action. He let out a rattling sigh as he admitted defeat, and said, "Leave your carrier groupsss if they ssstill have ssstrike craft to launch; they would be ussselesss againssst the Lion in any cassse. Our bessst hope liesss with overwhelming the Terran capital ssshipsss with torpedoesss."

"I will do ssso Zorlin, and will leave you enough battlessshipsss and cruisssersss to maintain the crosssfire," she replied, as a conciliatory gesture. She gave him a toothy grin then, and said, "The Terransss are doomed Zorlin, they don't ssstand a chance againssst you."

He didn't reply, and stared mutely at her holographic image as she ended the call. Shaking his head sorrowfully, he muttered, "I pray that isss ssstill the cassse."

***

Jade powered up the Raptor's engines to maximum thrust, and the nimble gunship roared towards the incoming Kintark strike craft. After Calara had swept the first waves of Kintark fighters clear, Alyssa had temporarily slowed the Invictus, allowing Jade and her Raptor to safely depart. The Nymph had left the protective cocoon of the Invictus' Hangar Bay at that point, and both glossy white vessels then raced away, heading in opposite directions to engage their foes.

It had been a while since Jade had been able to really put the Raptor through its paces, having flown the Invictus in most of their recent engagements. As she looked at the scores of Kintark ships heading her way, she felt a shiver run down her spine, remembering the last time she'd faced those green-armoured fighters. It had been in Iota-Leonis, a system not very far from her current location, where they'd saved Rachel and Port Medea from the Kintark's depredations.

The shiver wasn't from fear though, not this time. She felt a delicious tingling thrill of anticipation as she gripped her flight controls. New engines, new retro thrusters, tougher armour, stronger shields, unlimited power, and the glorious new weapons... The Raptor was an entirely different beast now, and this beast was hungry for blood.

***

John watched Alyssa deftly steer the Invictus through the labyrinth of capital ships, while Calara assisted the Terrans where she could with lethal salvos of Beam Laser fire. The Kintark strike craft were located more towards the tail of the flotilla, so with nothing left to shoot at, Faye started unloading on the smaller Kintark picket vessels instead.

A Kintark destroyer was flanking a badly damaged cruiser, positioning itself to use its batteries of fast firing Heavy Plasma Guns to shoot down incoming missiles. Faye took careful aim, enjoying shooting at something so much bigger than a nimble fighter, and let rip with all the Pulse Cannons on the port side of the Invictus. The shields surrounding the hundred-metre-long vessel rippled with the repeated impacts, as twenty-four Pulse Cannons fired staccato bursts of laser bolts at her target.

It only took a few seconds for the relatively weak shields to crumple under that withering hail, and then her azure laser bolts were striking the green-plated hull. By the time the Invictus had swept out of range, she left the prow of the Kintark vessel looking like Swiss cheese, with almost every square metre of the hull riddled with glowing holes. She hadn't managed to destroy it, but she smiled as she saw the panicked crew turn the destroyer, and flee from the battle. The Invictus was suddenly clear of the two opposing fleets, and the assault cruiser's weapons went silent as both Faye and Calara were out of range of enemy targets.

"What's our shield status, Dana?" John asked, having seen more than a few plasma bolts hit them during their frantic flight.

She smiled at him as she replied, "Not that bad, we're at seventy-four percent. Alyssa dodged most of the shit the Kintark sent our way."

"The Invictus is so fast, by the time they tried to shoot us, we were out of range," Alyssa explained, grinning at the redhead.

Calara turned to look at Faye who was perched on her console, and said, "That was some nice shooting against those fighters, Faye, but try and cluster your shots against bigger ships. Those Pulse Cannons can do some real damage, but you need to chew through the armour first."

Faye listened attentively, enhancing her targeting algorithms as she applied Calara's advice, then replied cheerfully, "Thanks, Commander! I'll do that next time!"

Rachel had been listening to the Terran comm traffic, and she looked up at John with a worried frown on her face, as she said, "I think we might have a problem."

John turned to look at her, and asked, "Something serious?"

She nodded, pointing at the Tactical Map as she said, "We must have really pissed off the Kintark. Terran Federation forces are all celebrating about the Lion turning up and drawing away a battle group of Kintark ships!"

He looked up at the holographic map in alarm, and sure enough, a sizeable portion of the lower Kintark fleet seemed to be withdrawing from the firefight with the Terrans. He watched in silence for a long moment, studying the Kintark vessels as they moved to pursue them.

"Fuck!" he cursed, clenching his fist in anger, and the girls on the Bridge looked up at him with concern written over their beautiful faces.

Although he'd come up with a plan to deal with the traitor forces, they'd never be able to pull it off with all those Kintark ships breathing down their neck. His mind raced through a dozen different alternatives, dismissing each of them when he realised their fatal flaws. Suddenly he had a fresh idea, a plan so brazen that he doubted it would work, but with no other alternatives coming to mind, he figured it was worth a shot. Literally, in this case.

He straightened in his Command Chair, and said decisively, "Alright ladies, change of plan."

Irillith frowned at him, and asked, "Don't you want me to-?"

Shaking his head, he interrupted her as he replied, "Sorry honey, I don't mean you. Your part in the plan hasn't changed." Turning to look at Dana, he declared, "Power up the Nova Lances!"

The redhead met his look with a worried frown, knowing she'd have to take all their other weapons offline, and said, "I don't want to be all negative, but a Nova Lance blast isn't going to fuck up all those traitor ships. They've got three battleships and over two-dozen cruisers!"

He gave her a reassuring smile as he said, "Don't worry, that's not what I've got in mind."

Alyssa let out a disbelieving snort of laughter, and said, "Don't worry, Sparks. I know what he's planning." Twisting in her chair, she looked into his eyes as she continued, "I'd say you've got some balls even trying this, but we all know that's something you've got plenty of."

Dana stared at him for a second, then shrugged as she said, "Fuck it, I trust you. Taking all our weapons offline, and powering up the Nova Lances."

John leapt to his feet and starting running for the grav-tube, but he called back over his shoulder, "Rachel, get ready to open a group broadcast to all ships in Lynton's Fleet!"

***

A score of Kintark fighters had managed to escape the Invictus' intervention, primarily by being out of range of its Pulse Cannons when it swept through the battlezone. There were also a few that had managed to limp away from Faye's enthusiastic, but not quite so infallible shooting, and all these surviving ships had been given new orders. They all joined the incoming third wave of Kintark heavy fighters, further bolstering their numbers as they escorted in the huge formation of bombers.

Lieutenant Murphy formed up on Binary's wing, as the two Rapiers joined the ragtag group of Terran strike craft. They numbered twenty-seven in total, a sad remnant of the original one-hundred-and-forty fighters that had initially clashed with the Kintark.

"Get ready, lads," his new Commander, Whiskey, said in his gravelly voice. "We're going to have to clear those fighters before we can try for the bombers, so use your Rapier's agility to get behind them."

Ryan took his right hand off his flightstick, and clenched his fingers together a couple of times to try and stop the involuntary shaking. Giving up, he gripped the flight controls again, and darted an anxious glance at his Tactical View, checking the range until they closed with the scores of opposing fighters. He looked away to stare nervously out the cockpit window, before doing a double-take, and staring at the Tactical View once again.

A big green signal was approaching them at an unbelievable rate. The Rapiers were fast fighters, only outclassed in top speed by light, scouting-class ships, but whatever it was that was closing on them must have been travelling at triple their speed!

"Binary!" he yelped. "What the fuck's that?!"

Before his wingmate could reply, a sparkling white gunship hurtled overhead, slowing down for a moment as it waggled its wingtips in a jaunty manner. He saw an incoming broadcast, and he pressed the button to receive the call with a shaking hand.

The image of a stunningly beautiful green girl appeared to his right, and she beamed a dazzling smile as she said, "Hi! I'm Jade, one of the Lionesses. John Blake sent me to help you."

Murphy heard Whiskey's scratchy voice over the comm as he replied, "Can you assist us against the fighters? We'll have to try and clear them before we can tackle the bombers."

Jade laughed gaily as she replied, "Oh, don't worry about them. Leave them to me."

"But there's over eighty Kintark heavy fighters!" Whiskey protested.

"Yeah, I know!" Jade grinned, then blew them a kiss as the Raptor's engines flared, accelerating her gunship away from them at phenomenal speed.

Murphy gaped in disbelief at the white ship, shocked by the pilot, who seemed to possess no sense of self-preservation as she charged headlong towards the waves of Kintark. The gunship suddenly veered sharply to port, then cut power to main engines, the exhaust flare dropping to a dim glow. Using retrothrusters alone, the Raptor rotated with effortless ease, drifting sideways while carried along by her initial momentum, but still facing towards the Kintark ships.

He watched the gunship in confusion, wondering what on Terra she was up to, when twin blazing columns of blue light lit up the blackness of space. To say that he was stunned would be putting it mildly, as Jade scythed the twin beams through the ranks of Kintark fighters.

Jade had a feral grin on her face as she snarled, "Payback's a bitch!"

When the blue light from the Beam Lasers dissipated, over a score of Kintark fighters had been completely vaporised, leaving no trace that they ever existed.

"I'll give you a good head start on the bombers," Jade offered generously to the Terran pilots. "But I'd like all the fighters, okay?"

Without waiting for a response from the bewildered Terran personnel, she cranked up the Raptor's engines, and raced after the passing Kintark fighters. Murphy couldn't tear his eyes from the white gunship as six turrets opened fire, sending a steady stream of blue laser bolts into the closest wing of enemy ships, blowing them apart with contemptuous ease.

"You heard the Lioness," Whiskey growled, recovering from the shock. "After those bombers, lads!"

Murphy let out a disbelieving laugh, and when he glanced down at his hand, he noticed it wasn't shaking any more.

***

Admiral Caldwell shook his head in astonishment as he watched a Raptor gunship move faster than any vessel he'd ever seen, while toting more firepower than a squadron of destroyers. One glance at the Raptor was all it took for him to realise who it belonged to, and he studied the white ship as it pursued the last of the Kintark fighter group. He could hardly believe a ship so small could be carrying Beam Lasers, but the gunship confirmed it for him a moment later, as it annihilated the wing of fighters with a sustained blast of lurid blue beams.

Lieutenant Commander Castelo had pointed the gunship out to him, the brunette in charge of Fighter Command looking happy for the first time in this engagement. "We've gained strike craft supremacy, Admiral!" she exclaimed in delight. "The Kintark don't have a fighter left in the battlezone!"

He nodded, immediately understanding what she was hinting at, and said, "Launch all our bomber wings, Adriana."

"Yes Sir!" she replied, before spinning and rushing back to her station.

Turning his attention back to the holographic battle group interface, he began issuing a flurry of orders. He commanded his forces to focus on evasive manoeuvres, damage repair, and shield regeneration over attempting to deal out damage to the Kintark. His ragged battle group had fought well, it just had to hold out now as best it could, while they readied their counterattack.

***

His sharp claws digging into the edge of the Command Table, High Prelate Zorlin watched his meticulous plans falling apart before his appalled eyes. Everything had been going relatively well, and then his hopes had been dashed, as the battle seemed to take one turn for the worse after the other.

All had seemed to be playing out as he'd hoped, with the huge numbers of Kintark strike craft inflicting horrendous losses on the Terran fighters, and clearing the path for his bombers. Then out of nowhere, the Lion had appeared, and brutally slaughtered most of the first two waves of Kintark fighters. The Invictus had swept away after that, pulling half of Grakira's battlegroup with it, as the Lion made a beeline for Lynton's band of turncoats.

The High Prelate felt no sense of concern for the traitor and her forces. He'd been pleased in fact, that Lynton would have to keep John Blake occupied, allowing his third wave of strike craft the freedom to attack the Terran Capital ships. Now it seemed the Lion had brought a cub with him, and he'd been forced to watch helplessly as the white gunship savaged his fighters and bombers.

To make this nightmare so much worse, the Terrans were now using his own plan against him! Waves of bombers that had been held in reserve were now pouring from every carrier in the Federation fleet. They looked like an angry swarm of Ixkara drones about to descend on the poor unfortunate soul that had stirred up their nest.

With half of Grakira's forces pulled away on some fool's errand, leaving the rest under-strength to repel a torpedo assault, he knew exactly where those bombers would be heading.

"A thousssand cursssesss on you, Grakira!" he roared, his frustrations finally getting the best of him in a burst of anger.

***

John rushed back onto the Bridge, jamming his white peaked cap on his head, as he hurried to fasten the Lion embossed front of his dress uniform jacket. He sprang up the steps two at a time, then dropped into his Command Chair as he stared at the Tactical Map in the centre of the Bridge.

The Invictus was racing towards the battle between the Terran forces, which was just underway, the two groups of cruisers and battleships squaring off against one another. Searing lances of orange energy slashed back and forth, as the loyalist forces exchanged Beam Laser volleys with the traitors at long range. Behind the traitor forces, looming like a three-kilometre-long spectre of death, the Thor's Hammer waited for one of the loyalist capital ships to lose their shields.

"We're in range in twenty seconds," Alyssa warned him.

Turning to look into Irillith's beautiful angular eyes, he said, "It's time. Do it."

She nodded soberly, focusing her will inwards and peeling off her spirit form. He watched her breathing calm, as his Maliri cyber-psychic entered the Invictus' digital realm, on her way to reap electronic chaos amongst his enemies.

Turning to Rachel next, he said, "Alright, I'm ready." Pointing at the Terran forces battling each other, he continued, "Open the comm channel to all those ships."

*Open video comms with those ships, but broadcast this to every ship in the system,* Alyssa thought to Rachel, turning in the Pilot's Chair to give her a meaningful look.

The brunette glanced her way, and gave her a furtive smile as she followed her orders.

Dozens of images began to appear in front of John, as startled Terran Federation and traitor Captains answered his hail. He spotted Jack, Calara's father, amongst the rows of personnel, and they made brief eye contact before he turned his attention to the traitors. Rachel had grouped the images by fleet, with loyal forces on the left, and the group of traitor Captains on the right, their positions corresponding to their locations in the battle lines. He waited a couple of seconds for everyone to respond to his hail before addressing them.

"CEASE FIRE!" John boomed, drawing every ship Captain's complete attention.

Every officer on both sides of this skirmish knew exactly who he was; they'd been bombarded with TFNN propaganda about him for months. It had started with his intervention against the Kirrix, then stepped up a notch with the award ceremony, where Devereux had named him the "Lion of the Federation". Finally, after saving ten billion lives on Terra, he'd been the subject of non-stop features and newscasts for the last few days. Influenced by his growing fame, they obeyed his order, and the ships on both sides ceased all weapons fire.

He locked eyes with Admiral Lynton, and she started to stammer, "Ah, John-."

"I'm taking custody of your ship. I'll deal with you later," he snapped, cutting her off.

The image of her frightened face disappeared a second later, before she could utter a single word of protest.

Settling into his Command Chair, and fixing over a score of traitorous ship Commanders with a steely, disapproving glare, John said, "Lynton's been lying to all of you. About everything. She doesn't care about you or your rebellion. She's a slave to a new Master now, and she's played you for fools."

There was some resentful murmuring as the gathering of traitors listened to him speak, and he could see some more vocal dissent was brewing amongst his audience.

One of the bolder officers, a Commodore by the insignia on his battledress uniform, was the first to speak up as he snapped, "You're just a fucking puppet of the Terran Federation!" He sneered mockingly, as he continued, "Why should we listen to a word you say, 'Lion'?"

*Now,* he thought to Alyssa, who passed on his telepathic command to Calara.

An ominous bass thrumming began to increase in volume, which Rachel quickly muted from the call's audio, leaving the audience unaware of what was forthcoming. The lights dimmed, but that just served to dramatically emphasise John's anger at the man.

Narrowing his eyes in contempt, John replied, "Because if you don't, I will personally execute all of you for treason."

The traitorous Commodore laughed mockingly, in blissful ignorance of the deep bass rumble that was gathering in pitch inside the Invictus' Bridge. Outside the ship, the Nova Lances throbbed in anger as Dana shunted more power into them, her eyes transfixed by the spiking power readings. Vast amounts of energy were being funnelled into the weapons, charging them with all the power they needed to do their devastating work. Twin white orbs began to form, starting as a nimbus of light, but rapidly growing into tightly-controlled spheres that blazed as bright as a supernova.

"You can't be serious?!" the abusive officer scoffed, with a dismissive chortle. His face twisted in scorn as he spat, "That pitiful assault cruiser is a joke, just like you!"

John leaned forward and said in a quiet voice, "It'll be easy. Like stepping on a bug." Glancing towards Calara, he continued, "Commander Fernandez, show them how serious I am."

She pulled the trigger a second time, her targeting reticle lined up squarely with the obnoxious Commodore's battleship, which her Tactical overlay tagged as the Kratos. The full fury of the Nova Lances were unleashed, and the incandescent azure beams blasted into the front of the traitor's ship. The Kratos' shields were obliterated in a terrifying instant, and the gigantic columns of blazingly bright laser fire pounded into the doomed vessel, skewering through it and blasting straight out the other side. Alyssa used retrothrusters to lift the nose of the Invictus, gracefully slashing the terrible firepower along the full length of the battleship.

When the Nova Lance beams winked out a few seconds later, they had gouged a hundred-metre-wide rift through the Kratos, cutting it in half from bow to stern. Nothing remained of the armour or superstructure they had just atomised, with just a fading trail of blue particles linking the Invictus to what was left of the Kratos. The pitiful remnants of the topdeck and underbelly rolled away, glowing a fierce orange where they were once attached to the battleship.

John was met with deathly silence now, and he stared at the frightened faces of the traitors as he asked, "Does anyone else want to be stepped on?"

There was a long, forbidding silence before anyone gathered the courage to speak up. He recognised the woman who was first to reply, and Commodore Sasaki asked him in a tremulous voice, "What are your orders, Sir?"

Sitting back in his Command Chair with a look of grim satisfaction on his face, John replied, "Anyone who joins me now, and takes the fight to the Kintark, will be granted clemency." He looked at each of the officers lined up before him in turn, and added, "Does anyone wish to reject my offer?"

None of the officers chose to do so.

"Engage the incoming Kintark battlegroup," he told them, not releasing them from his gaze. "We'll discuss the terms of your clemency after the battle."

With that he nodded towards Rachel, and she ended the comm channel to the ships in the system. John slumped back in his chair, and blew out his breath with relief.

"Now that, was fucking awesome!" Dana said breathlessly.

Calara smiled at him as she said in admiration, "That was one hell of a bluff. I can't believe you pulled that off."

"A quad of steel," Alyssa laughed, shaking her head.

Rachel threw a glance at Alyssa as she thought to her, *Everyone heard it all.* Looking up to John next, she continued, "That was an awe-inspiring performance. You should have been an actor, I've got goosebumps!"

John grinned back at them and said, "Alright, celebrations later. It's time to deal with Lynton." After checking on Irillith with a quick glance, he turned to look at Alyssa, and added, "How's Irillith doing? Has she got full command of the ship?"

Alyssa nodded and replied, "She's taken over all primary systems."

"Alright, let's put the Thor's Hammer to good use against the Kintark," he said, glancing at the Tactical Map.

He could see Commodore Sasaki's ship, the battleship Artemis, was now spear-heading the Terran force's assault against the incoming Kintark. The colossal engines on the captured dreadnought began to power up, as Irillith brought it to bear against their green-armoured foes.

"Hail the Thor please, Rachel," he requested, as he stared at the enormous vessel.

***

Knowing that timing was critical, Irillith had surged through the portal into the digital network of Lynton's dreadnought, the Thor's Hammer. She'd been wary at first, in case there were some kind of Progenitor programs lying in wait for her, but as she'd sliced through the firewalls and penetrated deeper into the Cyber Realm, she'd met only conventional Terran defensive programs. She could only conclude that Lynton hadn't been provided with advanced Progenitor cyber defences because either her Progenitor didn't think they were necessary, or the slightly more implausible reason, that he didn't have such security capabilities. Whatever the case, she'd been free to roam pretty much at will through the dreadnought's cyber-net.

Such a huge ship had a correspondingly large network, but she'd been increasing in hacking proficiency with these digital infiltrations, and had known exactly what to do. Soaring up above the various nodes that made up the Thor's systems, she quickly identified the most critical systems, then swooped down to usurp control of them from the Terran crew. Weapons, shields, engines; they all fell to her rapid assault, the primitive protections woefully inadequate against any Maliri hacker, let alone someone with her capabilities.

With the accelerated time dilation of her Spirit Form in the cyber realm, she had hijacked the core systems in a little over ten seconds. The next step was to lock out the crew's access to the digital network, and take full control of the Bridge. She managed it just in time to cut off Lynton from disrupting John's confrontation with the traitor Captains, and she laughed when she saw the stunned reactions from the Thor's Bridge crew.

Irillith had to pause a moment, as she prepared herself to speak to the Thor's crew. The frightening persona she needed to adopt would have come so naturally to her before, but it felt strange and awkward now, no longer fitting with her new personality. Activating every monitor on the ship, she placed her image on the screen, and glared balefully at the Terran traitors.

"This ship has been impounded by the Lion of the Federation, and you have all been taken into custody," she announced, her solemn voice echoing down the long corridors of the three-kilometre ship. Frightened personnel stared at her beautiful blue face in shock, as she continued, "I have taken full control of the ship. Do not test my patience with any form of insurrection, as I have no qualms about shutting down life support on every deck, should you attempt to resist."

Satisfied with the suitably petrified expressions of the crewmembers who were now paralysed with fear, she was about to focus her attention on the Bridge, when Alyssa spoke to her via telepathy.

*Hey, Irillith,* Alyssa said to her, warm emotions pouring over their bond. *Is everything going okay?*

*It went flawlessly. I have full control over all of the Thor's primary systems,* Irillith replied, as she revelled in Alyssa's tender telepathic caress.

Alyssa sent her a loving smile as she purred, *Stunningly beautiful, a personality to match, and so very talented. We're all very lucky to have you in our little family.*

Irillith sighed happily, and said, *Thanks Alyssa, I love my new life with all of you.*

Her blonde Matriarch flooded her consciousness with an affectionate mental swirl that left Irillith's mind tingling, and Alyssa said, *We'll have lots of fun later to celebrate, but for now, can you use the Thor against the incoming Kintark fleet?*

*Of course. Moving to engage,* Irillith replied, powering up the dreadnought's engines.

She manoeuvred the Thor to support the masses of Terran cruisers and battleships which were assembling into formations, in preparation to engage the Kintark. Once bitter foes, traitor and loyalist alike were now staunch allies against the approaching alien fleet.

*Good girl,* Alyssa said to her, then added, *By the way, John wants to speak to Lynton.*

Viewing Admiral Lynton and her officers through one of the dozen cameras on the Bridge, Irillith watched as Gabrielle lurched out of her chair, and ran for the door, attempting to flee for her life. Irillith started searching for the appropriate secondary sub-systems, focusing her search on internal security. It didn't take long for her to hack the corresponding mainframe, giving her full control of the emergency blast doors that lined the corridors of the dreadnought.

She activated security door two-zero-nine, which slammed down in front of the frightened woman, bringing her up short. As Lynton turned to run back the way she'd come, door two-zero-eight sealed behind her, imprisoning her in the corridor. Irillith noticed the Thor was being hailed by the Invictus, so she answered the call, and saw her companions on the Bridge looking at her expectantly.

"Excellent work taking the Thor, Irillith. You saved thousands of lives from being squandered in a pointless battle. Thank you," John said to her, and his proud smile filled her with delight.

"You're welcome," she replied, flashing him a sparkling smile. Glancing at the monitor focused on Gabrielle's scared face, she added, "Lynton tried to run, but I've locked her down between security doors."

Nodding thoughtfully, John said, "It's alright, let her go. Funnel her towards a shuttle bay, and we'll capture her with our tractor beam when she launches from the Thor. We can bring her aboard the Invictus for interrogation and start getting some answers. I don't want to wait until Jade's back with the Raptor before I can speak to her in person."

"Letting her go," Irillith replied, and began sealing doors along a route to the appropriate Hangar Bay, while simultaneously opening security door two-zero-nine.

She watched as Gabrielle Lynton rushed through the door, sprinting down the corridor as she tried to escape.

***

Jade pulled the Raptor around, retrothrusters flaring as the gunship turned in a tight circle, lining herself up with a group of three Kintark bombers. Their neat formations had scattered when she obliterated the first wing with her Beam Lasers, the Kintark spreading out to attack the Terran capital ships from multiple attack vectors. It had made hunting them down more irritating and time consuming, but there was a positive side to it too. Splitting them up made them much more vulnerable to the Terran fighters, as their pilots no longer had to work so hard to avoid shots from the rear-mounted Heavy Plasma Guns.

She glanced at the three bombers in front of her, the optical-target-acquisition HUD locking on and tracking them. Cranking the throttle up to full, she raced towards the desperate Kintark ships, easily avoiding their feeble plasma fire with a lazy roll. The targeting reticle flashed red as soon as she got into range, and pressing the trigger on her flightstick, the six turret-mounted Pulse Cannons opened up. Her targeting computer had allocated two turrets per target, and Jade had a faint smile on her face as the storm of laser bolts scythed into the hapless bombers, ripping them to pieces in a lethal blue hail.

There were a few bombers left, but a glance at her Tactical Map showed that Terran fighters were closing in on the remaining wings. She could certainly have got to one of them faster, but it would be greedy to hog all the kills for herself, and she reminded herself that she'd already barged in on their hunt. That meant her part in this battle was over with, and she let out a mournful sigh. After her traumatic near-death experience the last time she'd gone up against the Kintark, this fight against the strike craft had felt a bit anticlimactic.

The Raptor was so much more powerful than the last time she'd flown it, with massive upgrades in all areas. Firing in three-round bursts, the Pulse Cannons were huge overkill against these strike craft, melting big glowing holes through shimmering-green armour plating with ease. They were hitting about five times harder than the old Gatling Lasers, and they also had a huge range advantage, being deadly at medium range rather than short. By contrast, the Kintark Heavy Plasma Guns were barely effective at medium range, and a quick glance at her shield status showed they were still at ninety-five percent strength.

She'd been expecting to find the whole experience cathartic, but in all honestly, she'd started to get a bit bored.

A bright flash drew her attention to the cockpit canopy, and she looked out through the starboard window, curious to see what had caused it. She saw a series of explosions rippling across the flank of a Terran battleship, which her Tactical View helpfully tagged as the Astraeus. It had been hit by a wave of plasma missiles, and three Kintark cruisers were following up with Plasma Cannon salvos aimed at the stricken capital ship. She knew it wouldn't last long against that kind of sustained bombardment.

Her sharp eyes caught lots of movement far to her starboard side, and she watched waves of Terran bombers pouring from carriers and assembling into attack formations. They began heading towards the Kintark battle lines, ready to brave the protective screen of Kintark destroyers before they could launch their powerful ship-killing torpedoes at more valuable targets.

Suddenly in a flash of inspiration, Jade realised she just needed some bigger game to hunt to put the thrill back in the fight! The Kintark strike craft threat had been eliminated, but there was plenty more good she could do. She knew John would vehemently disapprove, but technically she wasn't in any danger yet, so it wasn't like she was breaking her promise to him. She turned the nose of the Raptor towards the Kintark destroyers, feeling a rush of excitement once more.

***

Gabrielle dashed into the deserted Hangar Bay, her heart pounding in her chest. She thought she was doomed when she'd been trapped in that corridor by the sinister AI that had swept through her ship, snatching control of the vessel from out of her very hands. She could only assume that it had malfunctioned somehow in letting her escape like that; either that or her Master had intervened to save her. Either way she wasn't about to question her stroke of amazing good luck, and she sprinted for one of the shuttles sitting unattended in the centre of a glowing landing pad.

Pressing her hand to the DNA reader by the side of the door, she tapped her foot impatiently while waiting for the security device to scan her hand.

"Come on, damnit!" she swore, glancing over her shoulder fearfully.

The green light swept across her palm, then flashed red. "Unauthorised access," the computer announced, in a dispassionate voice.

She stared at the DNA reader incredulously, and snapped, "Fucking piece of shit! Come on!"

Slapping her hand down on it again, it stuttered, "UnAu... thoR... isSeDD...." and with a strange synthetic squeal, it was cut off mid sentence. The light on the panel glowed violet and the airlock door swung open.

Looking at it in confusion, she wondered what had just happened, but she didn't have time to waste worrying about it. Rushing into the shuttle she tapped a series of buttons that powered it up, and closed the airlock behind her, then she hit the one to open the enormous hangar door. Slumping down into the Pilot's chair, she grabbed the flightstick, and powered up the retro-thrusters. The shuttle lifted off, and swayed unevenly in her trembling grip, as she swung the nose around to the slowly opening hangar door.

Too impatient to wait for the door to open fully, she ramped up the main thrusters, and the shuttle lurched towards the widening portal. In her panicked state, she clipped the door as she rushed through, the top of her tiny vessel scraping Titanium with a grating shriek. Flinching against the sound and the vibration from the impact, she suddenly felt a surge of relief as she was out into space, free from the claustrophobic interior of the compromised dreadnought.

Pulling back on the stick, and lifting the nose of the shuttle, she pointed her craft towards the empty black void where she knew her Master's ship was lurking. She'd done everything he'd asked: stirring up trouble in the Dragon March, luring loyal officers into treason, and escalating tensions as much as possible to push the Terrans and Kintark into war. As the conflict had intensified, she'd played both sides off against each other, doing her best to inflict as much damage to all concerned.

She knew in her heart that he'd be pleased with her, and would fulfil the glorious promises he'd made.

The viewscreen crackled to life in front of her, and John Blake's image suddenly appeared without her connecting the call. She gaped at him in a mixture of shock and fear, as he said, "You've got nowhere to run to, Gabrielle. We need to have a little chat."

Up ahead, the impenetrable darkness blotting out a portion of the sea of stars, seemed to slide across the night sky as her Master's ship shifted position.

Filled with a sudden surge of confidence, she laughed manically and replied, "I'm sure that would be lovely, but I'm afraid I won't be sticking around. Goodbye, John!"

She saw a flicker of purple light amongst the darkness, highlighting the contours of her Master's ship as it drew closer.

"Master, I've missed you so much..." she thought, her heart aching to be reunited with him.

*You've earned your reward, Gabrielle,* Ailanthia murmured, the Matriarch's voice echoing through her mind.

Gabrielle gazed up at the silhouette of her Master's ship, joy filling every fibre of her being.

***

The Invictus had moved in to flank the Thor, staying out of sight on the opposite side of the dreadnought's enormous hull, to avoid spooking Lynton as she fled from the hangar. Then they had swept after the fleeing shuttle in pursuit, Gabrielle inexplicably piloting it out towards deep space, when it wasn't equipped with an FTL drive.

Turning to Dana, John said, "Get ready with the tractor beam, Sparks. Let's bring her in."

"Yep, no problem," she replied confidently. "We'll be in range in about ten seconds."

Suddenly a pulsating purple beam appeared from out of nowhere, and slashed across space to strike Lynton's shuttle, obliterating it from sight. Her image on the viewscreen flickered out, her expression frozen in a look of rapture before she was slain.

"What the hell?!" John blurted out, gaping at the tiny scattering of debris that was all that remained of the Terran shuttle.

"Holy fuck!" Dana cursed, pointing a shaking finger at the tactical map. "John, look! It's the black ship!"

Dana had tracked the path of the purple beam back to its source, and found only featureless darkness. The stars were blotted out by its presence, only the lack of twinkling lights giving any indication that there was something there, concealed from plain sight. This was a phenomenon she'd only witnessed once before, and that was months ago in Ashanath Space.

"It's the Progenitor!" Alyssa gasped in a hushed voice, turning to look at John with wide eyes. "What do you want to do?"

Her question became a moot one a second later, as a swirling circle of ghostly pale light began to form in front of the black ship. It quickly expanded to a width large enough to encompass the mysterious vessel, rotating at a sluggish pace around the prow. As before, the wormhole crept along the black hull, while spiralling slowly as it went. The eerie radiance from that gateway lit up the terrifying angular shape of the massive ship, highlighting its unique and sinister design. In its wake, the ghastly portal seemed to swallow up the Progenitor vessel, transporting it instantaneously to some unknown destination.

John felt chills run down his spine as he'd stared at the menacing black ship, until the shocked silence on the Bridge was disturbed by Dana, who let out a low groan. She was hunched over, clutching at her head, while massaging her temples with both hands.

He rose from his chair, ready to hurry to her side and he exclaimed, "Sparks! Are you alright?!"

She waved him away with her right hand, and drawled distractedly, "S'alright, I'm not in any pain. Just the same feeling as before... like something's on the tip of my tongue."

Everyone on the Bridge shot meaningful looks at each other, knowing just what that might mean.

Alyssa smirked then, and said, "I think there'll be something on your tongue alright, as soon as we're done with all this."

Dana laughed, straightening now as the odd sensation passed, but she shot John a hungry look nevertheless.

John sat back in his chair, breathing a sigh of relief that Dana was okay, but he couldn't help worrying about something else entirely. The Progenitor had witnessed the entire battle. He'd watched from the shadows as they'd played every card they had, revealing the full extent of the capabilities the Invictus possessed.

*Yeah, that's not good,* Alyssa thought to him, twisting in her seat to look him in the eye.

He gave her a brief nod, then squared his shoulders and replied, *We can't do anything about it now. We've got other things to worry about for the moment.*

He turned to study the Tactical Map, and saw that the leading edge of the nearby Terran forces had closed until they were within long range of the Kintark. They were assembling into haphazard battle lines, the loyalist and reformed traitor forces lacking coordination. John snapped a hurried glance at Calara as a thought came to him, studying her look of stern disapproval as she stared at the chaotic rabble arrayed before her.

"Commander, I want you to assume strategic command of that battlegroup and coordinate the fleet engagement with the Kintark," he ordered her decisively.

Calara looked up at him in shock, her expression one of amazement that he'd even consider putting her in a position of such critical importance. She quickly recovered though, and leapt from her chair as she said, "Will do, Admiral, but I can't do it from here. I'll use the Tactical Simulator room on Deck Three and direct operations from there!"

The Latina had started running up the ramp towards the grav-tube, but she paused for a moment, and asked, "What about the Invictus' guns?"

Pointed at the digital construct sitting on the Tactical Console, John said, "Faye can handle the Beam Lasers and Pulse Cannons. Alyssa can control the Mass Drivers." He brought up the security interface from his console, and after a few swipes across the controls, he continued, "I've granted you weapons privileges on the Beam Lasers, Faye. Are you feeling up to it?"

The astonished purple sprite gaped at him, but managed to gasp, "I'll do my best!"

Calara smiled at the anxious-looking AI, and said, "You'll be fine. Just aim for centre mass on the big Kintark ships, and don't worry about finesse. You'll be mainly helping the Terran forces to strip away shields, so they can bring their heavy munitions to bear." She continued on her way then, sprinting towards the Tactical Simulator Room on Deck Three.

Turning to Dana now, John said, "Shut down the Nova Lances, Dana. Activate all our other weapon systems."

Grinning at Faye, the redhead said, "You got it!"

Nodding with satisfaction, John glanced at Rachel and said, "Set up a Command Network with all the Terran forces in that battlegroup, and patch it through to Calara on Deck Three. Inform them we'll be assuming direct control, and that they'll be receiving new orders momentarily." He hesitated for a second, then added, "Do you know how to do that?"

Rachel smiled at him as she replied, "Don't worry, I spent hours studying the Communication Suite built into the Invictus. I can set that up for you."

He smiled at her in gratitude, then stared at the Tactical Map, and muttered, "Time to finish this."

***

Jade lined up her shot on the Kintark destroyer, then gently squeezed the thumb button on her flightstick. Azure lances of coruscating energy smashed into its protective shield, and for a couple of seconds, blue circles pulsed out from the point of impact until the field abruptly gave way, wilting before the strength of those beams. Her beams went on to scorch a huge furrow through the ship's armour, before punching straight out the other side of the ship. The destroyer shuddered as its power distributors were destroyed, and the lights guttered out and died, reducing it to a shadowy wreck.

"Shit!" she cursed, as a stream of Heavy Plasma bolts stitched across her gunship, knocking the Raptor's shield down from fifty-four to twenty-seven percent strength.

The incoming fire had come from a second destroyer, which she'd been relentlessly strafing with her Pulse Cannons turrets. Momentarily distracted by her desire to finish off the first destroyer, she'd let the Kintark gunners draw a bead on her with their anti-strike craft weaponry. Shoving the flightstick forward while yanking back on the throttle, she dipped the Raptor's nose, then jammed the stick to the left and pulled it right back.

The wildly unpredictable manoeuvres threw off the Kintark destroyer, and the streams of plasma fire sailed harmlessly wide. Unfortunately the third destroyer in the picket screen was closing to assist, and she saw several bright green lines of Heavy Plasma bolts arcing towards her.

"If it gets too hot, I want you to retreat..." John's words of caution flashed through her mind, and as she flipped and rolled the gunship, she felt a pang of guilt. She still had her shields, so it wasn't -that- dangerous... at least not yet.

Her Pulse Cannon turrets were blazing away without pause, firing a burst of blue laser bolts every five seconds. The targeting computer was doing a splendid job against the destroyers, the lumbering vessels far too slow to cause it any kind of aiming problems. True, its shots weren't aimed with the kind of precision she'd be able to achieve, but when all she was focused on was stripping the destroyer's shields, it didn't much matter where the laser bolts landed, as long as they were roughly on target.

The Terran bomber wings were plodding towards the Kintark heavy ships at what seemed like a torturously slow speed. She smiled with satisfaction when she realised just how devastating the destroyers would have been against those cumbersome strike craft, and that keeping them completely occupied with her elusive gunship was saving a lot of Terran lives.

With a soft chime, the overheating icon disappeared from her Beam Lasers, informing Jade that they were ready to fire once more. She laughed with delight, and shoved the throttle forward, racing away to give herself a little room to manoeuvre. Yanking back on the flightstick while slowing her speed once again, the Trankaran retro-thrusters were put through their paces as she executed an incredibly sharp Immelmann. Jade wasn't aware of it, but Dana's Inertial Negation device was the only thing saving her from being smeared all over the cockpit floor by the incredible forces at work. A couple of seconds later she was charging back towards the newest destroyer to enter the fray, and she stabbed her finger down on the flightstick's thumb button.

Her thirty-metre-long gunship traded fire with the hundred-metre-long Kintark destroyer, and her shield status hologram flashed red in warning as she lost her shields. Jade didn't have time to check her damage status however, as she was too busy rolling and jinking, while keeping her sapphire laser beams on target. The destroyer's shield died under that unrelenting onslaught, and the beams slammed into the blunt nose of the green-armoured vessel.

The armour on the destroyer was much thicker than the protective plating had been on the bombers. Kintark armour was mildly reflective as well, the glimmering scale-like surface able to dissipate a portion of the strength of laser-based weaponry. Unfortunately for the fifty Kintark manning that vessel, Jade's Raptor was carrying Beam Lasers - weapons that would normally be found on cruiser class vessels or above; and these were no ordinary beams.

Pulsating with huge amounts of power, the columns of energy bored right through the ship, melting through the superstructure before eviscerating the Bridge in a blistering instant. The shots ploughed on, coring the vessel out completely, and punching through the engines at the rear, before the beam finally flickered out. As if still not quite believing its abrupt death, the hollowed out hulk drifted onwards, appearing to want to stay in the fight.

She stole a quick glance at the last remaining destroyer, and was pleased to see that its shields had been knocked out by the sustained Pulse Cannon fire. The targeting computer was peppering the Kintark ship with laser bolts, and the vessel looked like it was coming down with some nasty spacecraft infection, covered as it was by glowing pockmarks.

Forced to stand by helplessly as their comrades were obliterated, while watching this deadly phantom-like gunship effortlessly evade any attempts to damage it, was too much for the Kintark crew. When they lost their shields, and the Raptor started hosing them down with an unbroken stream of blue laser bolts, the Prelate in command cracked under the stress, and ordered a full retreat.

Jade was therefore surprised when the Heavy Plasma Guns stopped shooting at her, while she'd been ducking and dodging, trying to put more distance between them. She was tempted to finish them off with Pulse Cannons, but decided to play it safe, now that her shields were out. The last thing she wanted was for the Raptor to receive some unmistakable plasma damage, which would end up with her receiving one of John's disapproving frowns. She shivered at the thought, then looped around at long range, and blasted the retreating destroyer with her twin Beam Lasers, finishing it off in seconds.

Her shields had started to slowly regenerating again, but she realised her part in this battle had been played out. Banking the Raptor she raced back to the relative safety of the Terran lines, while watching the Bombers as they closed to firing range on the cruisers harassing the beleaguered battleship, the Astraeus. Torpedoes streaked away from the slow-moving strike craft, the deadly missiles seeming eager to plunge into the Kintark vessels.

The first of the cruisers, the Dranak'tor, was hit by two torpedoes; one near the prow, and the second striking amidships. The Kintark vessel was rocked by the massive explosions, leaving huge burning craters in the stricken ship. Secondary explosions then rippled through the vessel, taking out starboard fire control and the primary power distributors, which caused the shields to flicker out and die. The cruiser listed to port, now an easy target for the Astraeus' Heavy Cannons, and the battleship unloaded a ferocious barrage. Huge holes were blasted out of the hull, and the explosive decompression shrieked out atmosphere, debris, and pieces of the crew.

Pleased with her handiwork, the Nymph nodded in satisfaction as the other two cruisers met a similar fate, the bombers tearing the Kintark ships apart with repeated torpedo impacts. Half-a-dozen Terran bombers returned to their carriers to re-arm, but many more still carried a full load of torpedoes, and there were plenty of bigger Kintark vessels remaining to launch them at.

***

Filled with despair, High Prelate Zorlin could only watch helplessly as the battle came to its catastrophic conclusion. Terran bombers were sweeping practically unopposed through the remnants of Grakira's battlegroup that she'd left behind to face Buckingham's fleet. The strike craft were causing utter devastation with their high-yield torpedoes, ripping apart scores of Kintark cruisers.

Terran battleships and cruisers were moving in to support them, and any capital ships not crippled by torpedoes, were being slashed with dozens of amber beams. As soon as the Kintark shields were knocked out, the two supporting dreadnoughts brought their Singularity Drivers to bear, blowing huge chunks of armour and superstructure apart in an orgy of explosive destruction.

Glancing over to the far side of the battle, he watched the combined fleet of Terran traitors and loyalists crushing Grakira's battlegroup. Allies once again, the Terran forces were only slightly outnumbered by Grakira's ships, but they were exacting a hugely disproportionate toll on the Kintark forces.

"Incoming call, High Prelate," his communications Sub-Prelate informed him, his voice trembling with the shock of imminent defeat. "It'sss the Leenar'tohok."

Zorlin glanced at the Kintark officer and gave him a slight nod, and after a moment's pause, the holographic image of High Prelate Grakira appearing before him.

"Help me, Zorlin!" she pleaded, and he could see she was desperately clinging to a console, with the Command Platform skewed at an unnatural angle into the Bridge Pit.

He fixed her with a pitiless glare, but asked politely, "How goesss the hunt for the Lion'sss head? Have you acquired the sssecretsss from hisss ssship yet?"

She gaped at him incredulously, and wailed, "We're being torn apart! Any ssstrategy I try is countered immediately! There mussst be traitorsss amongst my forcesss! Treacherousss sssnakesss conssspiring with the Terransss againssst me!"

High Prelate Zorlin shook his head, and replied, "I'm afraid I won't be able to help, Grakira. I mussst return to the Emperor and inform him how our effortsss here were betrayed by your incompetence. You will be dead by then, but I'm fairly certain he won't punisssh all of your family in retribution."

She gaped at him in horror, black, lidless eyes fixed on his face. "No... pleassse!" she begged, and started to say something else, but a massive explosion knocked her flying from the Command Platform.

Grabbing the rails surrounding his own platform, Zorlin's voice was loud and determined as he stared into the Bridge Pit, and ordered, "Call a full retreat! Pull back and prepare for a jump to hyper-warp. Plot a courssse for Kintark Ssspace!"

His terrified Navigator shook his head, and replied, "We can't High Prelate! The Interdiction Beaconsss in the asssteroidsss... they're ssstill active! They're controlled by that Terran dreadnought!"

High Prelate Zorlin followed the Kintark officer's trembling finger, which pointed directly at the Thor's Hammer. It was the very dreadnought now commanded by the Lion, which he was using to mercilessly pound the Battlecarrier Leenar'tohok into oblivion.

It was Zorlin's turn to wear a look of abject horror, realisation sinking in that they were trapped there, subject to the vengeful wrath of the Lion and the Terran forces.

***

Flight Lieutenant Ryan Murphy guided his Rapier back to the Zeus in a state of numbed shock. He'd been so certain he was going to die, and yet here he was, still alive and touching down in his Rapier as though he'd just been out on a routine patrol. His hands moved mechanically now, running through the shutdown routine that had been drilled into his very bones. He powered down the fighter's engines, then hit the button to pop the Rapier's canopy.

Maintenance teams were cheering the returning pilots, and two crewmen with wild grins on their faces helped him down the steps from his fighter. He was glad they did, as his shaking legs seemed to have a mind of their own at the moment. Giving them a grateful smile that didn't reach his eyes, he staggered through the crowd of celebrating Federation personnel, suddenly desperate to be away from there.

He glanced back at the practically empty hangar, gazing blankly at the nineteen fighters that had made it home to the Zeus. Nineteen, out of one-hundred-and-forty. He was suddenly flooded with memories of his lost comrades: Snakebite taking him drinking on Gravitus on his first shore leave, Romeo carefully explaining the pickup techniques that had made him a famed lothario amongst the Zeus' ten-thousand strong crew. Finally he thought about Angel; the kind, protective commander who'd selected him for her squadron, then shown him the ropes.

They were all gone, slain before his very eyes.

"It's alright Murphy, I've got you," Binary murmured to him, his voice vibrant and full of emotion.

Binary was holding him in a tight hug, and somehow, Ryan found himself kneeling on the deck, tears pouring down his face as he sobbed wretchedly. He clung to his friend, and wept for his lost comrades.

***

Admiral Edwin Caldwell slumped back in his chair, astonished by the dramatic turn of events. He'd been an officer in the Terran Federation Military for over thirty years, but never in all that time had he witnessed a battle even remotely as surprising as this. He'd ridden a rollercoaster of emotions that day, and he couldn't help smile as his elated crew leapt around, celebrating as they cheered their astounding victory.

High Prelate Zorlin, the leader of the Kintark forces had just contacted Fleet Admiral Buckingham and begged for a chance to surrender. Vincent had contacted the Zeus moments later, calling for Edwin's battlegroup to cease fire, and now that hostilities had ended, Edwin was able to take stock of the situation.

The Terran Federation had taken dreadful losses in this battle, and he'd just glanced through the butcher's bill to see exactly how bad it was. From a starting strength of nearly one-hundred-and-eighty cruiser class warships or larger, he'd counted thirty-seven cruisers destroyed, and the total loss of eight battleships. Similar numbers had taken significant damage, which would require an extended refit before they could be considered fully operational again. However, as severe as the Terran casualties in this titanic battle had been, the Kintark had suffered far worse.

Fully half of the Kintark forces were now shattered ruins on the battlefield. Over a hundred cruisers, carriers, and battleships, were nothing more than forlorn wrecks; tombs for the tens of thousands of Kintark corpses lying cold within. Nearly as many Kintark ships had survived to surrender, but the effective elimination of over two-hundred warships, was a body blow to the Kintark Empire from which he was sure they'd never be able to recover.

The arrival of Rear Admiral John Blake in the Invictus had been the catalyst for this magnificent victory, and it only took a glance around the Bridge of the Zeus to see that all the Terran forces were well aware of that fact. He'd managed to single handedly crush the Kintark strike craft threat, thus turning the tide of the battle, and allowing the Terrans to bring their own bombers to bear.

Edwin had then watched in utter disbelief as the Lion had obliterated one of Lynton's traitor battleships in a single devastating blast, using some kind of weapon, the likes of which he had no idea even existed. The cowed traitor forces had then been coerced back into the fold, where the Lion had demonstrated strategic insight that Edwin would never have thought possible in the man.

Using those combined Terran forces, he'd watched as they had lured in the pursuing Kintark battlegroup, by appearing to rout as a disorganised rabble. The Kintark Vanguard chased after them in a reckless pursuit, and the Terran forces had distracted the Lizardman reserves with a feint from the left. Another group had split and seemed to be running to the right, which the Kintark had ignored as they chased after the seemingly disorganised forces in the centre. With the Kintark forces strung out and separated, all the Terran forces suddenly rallied at the precise opportune moment, falling upon their pursuers from multiple directions, and taking them apart in an unmatched display of tactical genius.

As much as Edwin personally liked John Blake, he couldn't help but feel a deep sense of foreboding about what he'd witnessed that day. Amongst nearly two-hundred-thousand jubilant Terran Federation personnel, Admiral Edwin Caldwell was alone in feeling a shiver of fear run down his spine.

***

John sat in the comfy leather chair in his Ready Room, his hand hovering over the name on the holographic comm interface. He felt nervous now, filled with apprehension about the call he was about to make.

"Come on John, get a grip," he thought to himself. "You've fought a dragon in melee combat, for God's sake. How hard can this be?"

*It'll be alright, he likes you,* Alyssa thought to him, her warm voice flooding his mind.

Edraele chimed in a moment later, and her words throbbed with sincerity as she said, *If you were to have a similar conversation with me, I'd agree without a second thought. You'll be fine.*

*Thanks girls, I appreciate it,* he told them, sending them a grateful telepathic smile in return.

He swiped his hand across the name, "Captain Jack Fernandez" and the call went through to the cruiser Damocles. John wasn't left waiting long, and Jack's weary looking face appeared before him.

Jack's expression brightened immediately, and he smiled as he said, "Ah, the hero of the hour! I'm glad you called, John."

"I'm sorry we couldn't speak earlier," John apologised. He smiled wryly as he added, "It was a rather delicate situation."

Jack glanced down at the golden lion across John's white dress uniform jacket, and seemed to do a double take, as if seeing him for the first time. He stiffened and snapped a sharp salute, as he said, "No need to apologise, Rear Admiral. I'd like to thank you on behalf of myself, and my crew, for what you did today."

John frowned and waved a hand at him, and said, "Come on Jack, it's me. I thought you 'weren't going to salute a man who's dating your daughter'."

Calara's father blinked in surprise, then relaxed with a nervous laugh. It made John sad for some reason, to see Jack react that way to his growing fame, and it was something he was determined to nip in the bud at the first opportunity.

"What can I do for you then?" Jack asked him curiously. His expression turned to one of alarm as he added, "Calara's alright isn't she?"

John raised both hands in a calming gesture, and replied, "She's fine, wonderful in fact. There's nothing to be worried about." He hesitated for a moment, then continued, "I was wondering if I could head over to the Damocles? Maybe have a beer and a chat? There's something I wanted to talk to you about in person."

Looking surprised, Jack nodded, and a broad smile crossed his face as he said, "That would be great! Come over as soon as you get the chance."

"Will do," John replied, giving him a nervous smile in return. "I'll be over shortly."

Jack hesitated, reluctant to hang up the call on the Lion, so John closed the comm channel for them. He looked out the window for a moment, lost in his thoughts as he gazed at a grey Terran Federation cruiser docking with a green Kintark carrier, in preparation to take the crew into custody.

The Regulus system looked calm, a surreal sense of tranquillity having descended on this area of space now that it wasn't filled with beams, plasma, missiles, and shells. Terran vessels were carefully picking their way around extensive debris fields, and in some cases, it was all that remained of once-proud starships. He saw a Terran battleship still ablaze with ghastly plasma fire, despite the efforts of a number of assisting vessels trying to extinguish it. It proved that the peaceful scene was merely a facade, and that men's lives still hung in the balance.

He rose from his chair before he got too maudlin, and strolled purposefully from the Ready Room. It was nearly midday now, and speaking to Jack reminded him that there was another Fernandez he wanted to speak to.

Nearly barging into Alyssa and Calara as he strode through the door, he smiled at them, and said, "Just the ladies I wanted to see." Looking at the Latina, he continued, "Shall we go and say hello to Mateo? He must have come around from Tamolith's pheromones by now."

Calara gave him a lovely smile as she said, "Faye just told me he's awake and asking to see me. I was coming to see if you wanted to head down there too."

"Sounds like a plan," he said, returning her smile. Looking around the Bridge at the rest of the girls gathered there, he added, "We need to have a good debrief on everything, but I'd like to see Calara's brother first."

Alyssa, Calara, Dana, Rachel, Irillith, and Faye all nodded, smiling at him. Jade chose that precise time to step out from the grav-tube, beaming a huge smile at them all.

"Jade!" he exclaimed, both delighted and relieved to see her.

She rushed into his welcoming arms, and the other girls piled in for another group hug, their first, just after the Kintark surrendered.

"You girls were all wonderful today," John told them, looking around at their beautiful faces. "We'll get everything squared away, then we're going to have to do some serious celebrating."

Sparkling eyes flashed with arousal whichever way he looked, and he knew he'd be in for one hell of a night. They hugged each other for a long while, everyone just relieved to have got through the battle unscathed.

A quiet voice disturbed the serene moment, as Sakura stepped onto the Bridge, rubbing her eyes. "Hey everyone," she greeted them with a sleepy smile. "Did I miss anything?"