Chapter 63

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* John is the one who ordered Edraele to assassinate the Matriarchs and eldest daughters, according to her. (Chapter 58)
* The team finishes healing Sakura and she wakes up.
* The Invictus and Raptor annihilate a supply base and incapacitate a fleet of invasion ships.
* Norwood defects, and they arrive at Buckingham's location.

## Summary

Alyssa thinks Admiral Lynton's "broken" video comm is suspicious, and she seems to know a lot about John. Maybe she's working for Norwood and is leading them into a trap. John says they haven't been hiding their hyper-warp speed. Calara had studied Lynton a lot, and sending them off to assault the base fits in with her strategic thinking. Calara pulled up a holographic image of her dreadnaught, confirming it had minor damage near the comms relay.

John fucks Jade in her true catgirl form.

Luna thinks Matriarch Tsarra Perfaren is still a threat. She's relatively young, but she wields a lot of power. Edraele assures her she's taking steps to deal with House Perfaren. By the time John returns home, she should have everything in place for him.

Ilyana's impression of John is that he wouldn’t approve of the assassinations. Edraele disagrees. "*I’m quite sure John will approve of everything I’ve done. I am following his orders after all...*"

Edraele and her three guards head to Docking Bay 32 in Genthalas where the Galaena Serine was waiting. She sends a telepathic command to her engineers and they run over to her. Edraele announces that in gratitude for the work they've put in on the recent, she's arranged a visit to the border stations for all of them. Their primary contact at Geniya, Ceraden, will assist with arranging for suitors.

When John went to mentally check on Sakura's healing, he was surprised to see that the connecting power lines for all of Edraele’s Maliri engineers and assassins had grown brighter.

The neutron star in the middle of the Mar'Katrach Nebula, called the Mar'Katrach Pulsar, has an effect on sensors; the interference it generates would completely block Terran and Kintark long range sensors. According to Dana, their enhanced Maliri-based sensor array should only lose about half its effective range. To navigate, the Kintark use a pathway of beacons. If the signal they pump out is strong enough, then ships would still be able to pick them up against the background interference using their short-range sensors. A good analogy would be using a safety line in a blizzard.

Ten minutes from the nebula, Calara spots a big Kintark fleet. The huge armada appeared to be pulling back from some distant border location and was now vectoring in towards the nebula. Since the team will arrive at the nebula about twenty minutes before they do, they decide to hit the base hard before the Kintark arrive. If the team can devastate the refueling and rearming capabilities, it’ll put that big fleet out of action for longer. Calara can cause a lot of damage in twenty minutes.

When they got to the nebula, the sensors picked up dozens of planetary invasion craft. There was a huge formation of the enormous troop transports, each of which carried two thousand soldiers. The invasion force was arrayed off to one side, leaving a wide field of refueling stations and munitions dumps clear for the incoming fleet.

They spotted a fleet of ships heading towards a brightly glowing line of navigation buoys, which highlighted the path out of the nebula. There was a huge Kintark battleship in the center, flanked by four cruisers, and followed by two bulky carriers. Surrounding them in a picket formation were at least a dozen destroyers, and the entire fleet was creeping carefully through the ephemeral nebula, feeling its way toward the nav-buoys.

The kilometer-long battleship was covered in shimmering green plating, which looked like scales as they interlocked over the curved hull. Interspersed amongst all that armour, the surface bristled with dozens of Plasma Cannon gunports, along with the telltale launching racks for Plasma Missiles. Calara identified it as the Merlan'tok, the ship that killed Commodore Walker and wiped out his fleet. Calara wants payback.

John asked for an objective analysis of which assets has the highest strategic value, which made Calara rein in her emotions. Wiping out the troops will have a significant impact on the Kintark Empire's invasion plans. Destroying the refueling stations and munitions dumps will have an immediate and dramatic strategic effect on the Kintark’s ability to resupply vessels near the border.

John has a flashback to Galon Prime. He doesn't want to kill all the troops. He's been in their place. So they decide to just disable them. Jade will hit them in the Raptor, and since the Merlan'tok had its shields down they can ambush the fleet, giving Jade another six minutes to clear out more of the base.

John asked if Irillith can cyberjack Kintark vessels. She says, "*Sssalar merta ith nosssharlisss!*" Unfortunately, John's Kintark is rusty. Irillith's isn't. "*I said: Their deaths will be glorious!*"

John allows Faye to fire the Invictus' Pulse Cannons as long as she follows Calara's orders. Faye's job take out any strike craft that launch from the carriers. If any escape to harass Jade in the Raptor, it puts her in grave danger, and she won’t be able to destroy as much of the supply base.

Prelate Khardas was freshly promoted to commander of the Jernak'tor, having previously been part of the Kinta homeworld fleet, working as subordinate to Grand Prelate Melkadian. When he'd received this promotion from his Commanding Officer, he'd been informed that his cruiser was being assigned to High Prelate Vraktrin's fleet. Vraktrin was a hero amongst the Kintark after his glorious victory against the despicable Terran Federation war criminal, Commodore Walker.

High Prelate Vraktrin had contacted him only a few hours earlier, announcing that he had received special orders, and it was time to go hunting for Terran villains once more.

He was about to commend his crew for their excellent performance on a training drill when a blinding flash snapped his attention to the System Map. "*By Tiemeth the Dessstroyer! What wasss that?!*" The glaring, azure lance felt like it had been seared across his retinas. Before they had a chance to react, the blazing flashes arced out again. Malgil, his Engineer Sub-Prelate, informed him they were Beam Lasers. Prelate Khardas stared in shock at the Terran cruiser that had appeared out of nowhere,

The powerful beams lashed out again, burning into the battleship Merlan'tok for the third time in twenty seconds, spearing through it in over a dozen places and causing it to tear apart into four seperate chunks. The section housing the power core detonated in a colossal explosion, which sent the rest of the tattered hull remnants tumbling away on a blastwave.

The Terran vessel turned its attention to the cruisers next. Four Mass Drivers smashed into topdeck of the cruiser Lissen'tor, shortly followed by a solid sheet of blue laser blasts finishing it off. Its crew had been slow to react, having still not got their shields up, and the despicable Terrans punished them for it.

Prelate Khardas' ship began to open fire on the freakishly quick vessel, but while Hasira, his Tactical Sub-Prelate, was an excellent shot, she struggled to land more than half a dozen hits from the Jernak'tor's rapid firing Plasma Cannons on her target. The shots hit the cruiser's shields, but the energy was harmlessly dissipated.

The cruiser Zarkin'tor began to open fire with its plasma cannons as well, but the barrage went nowhere near the terrifyingly potent Terran ship; the shots burned into the last of the four Kintark cruisers, the Jerman'tor. "*By Malganth the Betrayer!*" The evil Terrans ruthlessly exploited this treachery with their lasers.

Next the Jerman'tor turns towards Prelate Khardas' own ship, the Jernak'tor, and began to open fire on them. Prelate Padaar from the Jerman'tor hailed Khardas, explaining that the "*fucking Terrans*" have hacked their ship.

A second later, sixteen Beam Lasers opened fire from the Invictus’ topdeck, slamming into the carrier Tivash'toh, which had managed to get its shields up in time. But the white ship rolled over effortlessly, then opened fire with the eight Beam Lasers on its underbelly, gouging a huge furrow along the starboard flank from aft to stern. The carrier had started launching fighter and bomber wings from the launching runways, and the pulsating blue beams instantly obliterated every strike craft they touched. Now that the destroyers had been vaporised, the Invictus began to ruthlessly exterminate any remaining strike craft that attempted to flee, blowing them to pieces in a hail of blue laser bolts.

The Tivash'toh’s gunners finally began to retaliate with Plasma Cannons. Streams of volatile plasma bolts arced across the gap between the two duelling vessels, and some of the barrage struck home. Khardas could see the shields start to weaken as green circles rippled outwards with every impact.

Khardas yelled at his pilot, Sub-Prelate Gorchir, to chase them, but a deep voice behind him roared at them not to engage. It was Vorgrax, a huge lizard, and apparently one of the Royal Guard. He ordered them to flee, despite dooming the invasion craft. They must warn the Emperor.

Alyssa brought the Invictus about, ignoring the cruiser, and focusing on the last of the carriers. which closely resembled a stirred-up nest of furious hornets. The Kintark heavy bombers were forming attack wings, then turning to face the Invictus. The waves of fighters had another target in mind: Jade, currently in the Raptor running amok through the fuelling stations and the munitions dumps.

John ordered them to forget the carrier for the moment, and head off the fighters before they can double-back to intercept Jade. The second carrier had peeled away, fleeing directly away from the base, so the fighter wings had needed to sweep around to intercept the gunship. Alyssa had carefully positioned the Invictus right in the center of that flightpath, so that they’d be able to protect Jade. Calara takes over from Faye and quickly takes care of the 30 fighters flying after Jade.

Despite the shields only at 28%, they decide to go after the carrier before they can prep the second wave and send strike craft after Jade. Unfortunately they'd have to let the last cruiser go, as it was escaping in a perpendicular course to the carrier, and the opposite direction to the invasion craft.

Calara obliterated a wing of heavy bombers, before the carrier launched another wave consisting of three wings of fighters. Suddenly, a series of explosions rocked the massive ship. Irillith's been busy. She closed the runway blast doors a second after they launched the bomber wings. The explosions were the torpedoes detonating with the impact.

There was no sign of the armada yet by the time they caught up to the troop transports. Calara neatly sliced away the twin engines, careful not to destroy the transports.

Prelate Khardas watches the Tactical Map in horror as the white Terran ships annihilated the supply base and incapacitated the fleet of invasion ships. "*By Valssstraz the Vengeful, damn you to Hell!*" They headed to Kinta to warn the Emperor.'

Rachel is done with Sakura's surgery. John calls Lynton, who tells him she has terrible news. Admiral Norwood has defected. John tells her they had figured it out. Lynton gives him Buckingham's coordinates.

Norwood was leading a battlegroup in his dreadnought, the Vengeance of Hera. A large number of ships assisted him when he turned on the loyal vessels. Once the loyal ships were destroyed, the traitors fled.

When John told Gabrielle about only disabling the 100,000-soldier transport fleet, she was rightfully incredulous. "*Why not just destroy them?*" John didn't want to butcher "helpless" soldiers.

Alyssa laid in a course to reach the Fleet Admiral, just under seven hours away in the Delta Draconis system.

The team checked on Sakura, who was now looking perfectly healthy, despite still having a rounded belly.

Dana and Rachel go over Shinatobe's tech and enhancements.

* **Black sword:** Strong and sharp but not as good as John's Crystal Alyssium blade
* **Nanoweave mesh outfit:** Bends light around her body
* **Synthi-print glove:** Copies DNA
* **Signal jammer:** Blocks all electronic signals in a tight radius
* **Implants and enhancements**
	+ **Synthetic kidneys:** Purify toxins and poisons
	+ **Subdermal ceramic plating:** Can deflect ten millimeter hollow point rounds
	+ **Nose filters:** can seal off to protect from a gas attack, or analyse and track scents.
	+ **Artificial lung:** Survive without oxygen for 15 minutes
	+ **Adrenal booster:** Pumps adrenaline to her major muscle groups, allowing quick movement
	+ **Reflex booster:** Massively speeds up reflexes
	+ **Deactivatable pain receptors:** prevent feeling pain
	+ **Wrist data jacks:** hooked up to the CPU in the artificial brain, allowing for data transfers to and from consolea
	+ **Brain:** Advanced Maliri tech that locks out a person’s higher brain functions, turning them into a fully controllable cyborg
	+ **Data port in back of head:** Four slots
		1. Infiltration techniques
		2. Sword-based martial arts
		3. Explosives, poisons, and torture
		4. Mission types
	+ **Bionic eyes:** Infra-red, ten-times zoom, facial recognition, smart-linking, and built-in cameras that hook up to the cybernetic brain (likely used to record kills as proof for clients)
	+ **Ceramic nails:** Can be elongated into razor sharp claws
	+ **Augmented muscles:** Denser muscles, providing enhanced strength

John talks to Jade about her memory coming back. Jade had confided in Irillith she started remembering her entire past (Chapter 53), and when she died Irillith blurred it out to everyone (Chapter 60).

John cheers Jade up, and Alyssa is happy when she realizes John seems to know just what to say to all of them. Then, a terrible thought flashes through her mind as she suddenly realises just how easy he'd be able to manipulate them all for his own personal agenda, making Alyssa feel guilty for even thinking that about him. Although she didn’t doubt John's motives, she wondered if his recent increased perceptiveness was another Progenitor ability manifesting itself as he grew in power.

Alyssa looked at the metaphysical representations of the girls in her mind. Calara's worry for her father and brother radiating from her crystal image, but other than that, she was happy and content. Irillith was delighting in the unquestioning acceptance she felt from the other members of their group.

Dana asks if John really fucked Jade as a catgirl. John wasn't pleased Alyssa had told her.

Sakura wakes up thirsty, and Alyssa gives her some water. Suddenly, she gasps and shrinks back when she recognizes Alyssa as the girl who attacked her. In all fairness, Sakura was trying to kill them.

John introduces Alyssa, Rachel, and himself to Sakura, reassuring her they won't hurt her, and that they were working to free her from Amatsu Mikaboshi.

Alyssa asks if Sakura rembers her talking to her subconscious. Sakura vaguely remembers. She notices her round belly and then looks at John in awe as she realizes who he is based on Alyssa's explanation. He's a Progenitor who roams the galaxy helping good people, and bringing evil people to justice. He has superhuman abilities and can heal girls with his... cum.

Sakura starts to remember the circumstances of everything. Her life before Shinatobe, her life as Shinatobe, and her fight with them. However, she thought it had only been a couple years. When she finds out it's been over 75 years, she asks about her parents. John gives her the bad news. When she wanted details, he brought her to Calara, who fills her in. Sakura's father passed away ten years ago, and her mother six. It was peaceful for both of them. They never had any other children, and there is no record of other surviving relatives.

Calara showed Sakura two videos of them. The first was their appeal for her return. In it, a middle aged Asian couple, both looking haggard and tense with worry, make astatement to plead with their daughter's kidnappers to contact them with their demands. They'll meet any price.

The second one was taken 40 years after she was abducted. They announced that they were setting up the Sakura Honami trust, so her memory can live on by providing grants for students, so that they can study the law that she loved so much. She believed in justice, and they want others to pursue her dream.

Sakura asked Calara about Mikaboshi and the three men who kidnapped and raped her. Mikaboshi escapes, and the others were never caught or charged for other crimes either. John offered to pay for law school for her. "***Fuck the law!** It failed me, and my parents. What justice did any of us ever get?*"

Sakura doesn't want John to wipe her memories. She wants revenge. She wants to join them and help catch him. John doesn't think she's in a state to make a life-changing decision.

Rachel walks in to inform John they're about to jump into the Delta Draconis system. There’s a massive Terran Federation fleet there, including Fleet Admiral Buckingham’s flagship.

Cliff and Barry find a ship with no life signs and decide to take it to sell. They pull it in the Hangar Bay of their ship, Scamander. When they open it up, Mikaboshi kills them and steals their ship. He wants to choke the life out of John Blake.

### Allies at Start

* 1 Cruiser (Invictus)
* 1 Gunship (Raptor)

### Enemies at Start

* 1 Battleship (Merlan'tok)
* 4 Cruisers (Lissen'tor, Zarkin'tor, Jerman'tor, Jernak'tor)
* 2 Carriers (Tivash'toh, ?)
* 12 Destroyers
* Dozens of Troop Transports

### Enemies Killed

* Merlan'tok / Battleship (Invictus)
* Lissen'tor / Cruiser (Invictus)
* Jerman'tor / Cruiser (Irillith via Zarkin'tor)
* Zarkin'tor / Cruiser (Irillith)
* Tivash'toh / Carrier (Invictus)
* **Carrier #2** / Carrier (Irillith)
* 30 Fighters from **Carrier #2** (Invictus)
* Heavy Bombers from **Carrier #2** (Invictus)
* 3 Wings of Fighters from **Carrier #2** (Invictus)