Chapter 66

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* Consort Tamolith made John a deal: she'll free the prisoners if he kills Kindralax, her 100-foot-long mate. It turns out Kindralax wasn't immortal after all.
* Calara finishes off the Bershan'tok and Vell'tor, the last remaining Kintark ships after their engagement of the Terran fleet.

## Summary

As the team makes its way down into the toxic mines on Xen-Nuchek, they notice all the prisoners there are Kintark. The prisoners were overlooked by overseers with pistols and whips, and four guard towers.

John, Alyssa, and Rachel took out the guards while Dana took out the overseers. Balrac, one of the Kintark prisoners approaches them. He was a senator who was imprisoned several years ago for objecting to the indulgences of the Emperor and his caste, who believe they are immortal gods. Balrac had overheard the guards talking about a feeding room that Terran captives were taken to. The Consort, Tamolith, is mated to the Emperor's brother, Kindralax "The Destroyer."

Eventually they came across Tamolith with six dragon children playing by her. John introduced himself as a Progenitor. She said the Emperor mentioned that he'd been in contact with another Progenitor who offered his support for galactic conquest. Tamolith offers the release of the prisoners in exchange for killing her mate, Kindralax, who has served his purpose and is now tedious to live with. Since both Progenitors and dragons claim to be immortal, it would answer an interesting question: *Which one is right?*

John pretended to consider it, but he knew he'd accept for multiple reasons:

1. He'd avoid a fight with Tamolith while she was surrounded by prisoners.
2. It also avoided the question of what to do with the dragon children, who were probably still dangerous.
3. They planned to fight Kindralax anyway.
4. By doing a favor for Tamolith, he might be able to gain some influence among a faction of the ruling caste of the Kintark Empire.

They headed into Kindralax's lair. "*Here be dragons.*" (Well technically, genetically engineered, overgrown lizards made by the Kintark Empire.)

In the last stages of the Terran and Kintark fleet engagement, the battle hadn’t gone well for the traitor vessels. The Kintark forces had numerical superiority, and the Terran ships included a number of carriers which were no good at this kind of point-blank brawling. The few strike craft they had launched had ended up being savaged by the overlapping point-defense nets from the tight formations of Kintark ships

Commodore Wheeler's battleship, the Phobos, was getting slaughtered by High Prelate Tedaktu's battleship, the Bershan'tok. Wheeler's mistake was that he had focused on eliminating the cruisers first, hoping to rout the opposing fleet when their losses grew too great. He didn't know Tedaktu had no intention of running because his favorite nephew had been killed in the first cruiser destroyed by the Phobos. The Bershan’tok ignored the rest of the Terran fleet, while he focused on the Phobos.

The Phobos had been the last Terran ship as its inevitable explosion looked like a miniature supernova on the tactical map. All that was left of the Kintark was one severely damaged cruiser left to support the untouched Bershan’tok.

Calara, full of righteous fury, wanted to take the rest herself, telling Irillith to save her energy in case John and Alyssa needed to tap them for power. She vaporized the Bridge of the cruiser using Beam Lasers, and shot Mass Drivers into Bershan'tok's Power Core, triggering a reactor breach.

John, Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel arrived in Kindralax's lair. Kindralax was well over 100 feet tall and equipped with a double-barrelled Plasma Cannon, and a shielded generator. John gets over his dread when Dana is in danger, but every sword cut John makes is quickly healed. Justice Laser Rifle shots prevent regeneration by cauterized the wound, but since Kindralax is shielded, John will have to kill it with pyrokinesis. He sliced through the chain holding the cube shield generator, and the girls opened fire. Using their distraction, he sliced through Kindralax's rear left leg above the ankle, causing Kindralax to fall. John finished it off by driving his sword through its cranium and up to the hilt in its brain.

As they were leaving, John spotted a console with a paused message from Tamolith. Apparently she warned Kindralax they were coming.

Faye practices flying the Raptor.

Tamolith was gone when they returned from Kindralax's lair, but she left a message for them. She had received a notification from Kindralax's bio-implant confirming his death, forcing her to conclude that rumours of their immortality were over-exaggerated. She doesn't want to stick around someone who can kill one of her kind, but still honored their agreement. The Terran prisoners will obey John's commands.

Rachel finds the prisoners were dehydrated, but haven't been exposed to enough sulphur dioxide to see any adverse side-effects.

Calara use beam lasers to clear out an enormous stretch of jungle to park the Invictus and evac the freed prisoners.

Edraele lets John know that Tashana's still alive, traveling around a pirate base named The Underworld, run by a man named Hades.

Sakura thinks Alyssa looks like one of the cheerleaders from her university’s zero-g football team she thought was stunningly beautiful. Alyssa goes down on Sakura, displaying her skills as a Grand Mistress of the Sapphic arts. John breaks Sakura in. Now John's overdue for a nightmare.

Grand Prelate Melkadian received a recording from Consort Tamalith of the Bridge in the Bershan'tok as it's destroyed by the Invictus. Prelate Khardhas tells him it's the same ship that destroyed the Merlan'tok and the other ships within minutes [63].

Melkadian goes to speak to the Emperor, who tells him to get the Brimorian ambassador. As he leaves to do so he sees a cowled figure garbed in black who stood beside the Emperor's dais. Something about him shook Melkadian to his core.

### Allies

* 1 Cruiser (Invictus)
* 1 Progenitor
* 1 AI
* 7 Thralls

### Enemies

* Kintark fleet
* Terran fleet
* 16? Kintark Guards
* Kintark Overseers
* 1 genetically engineered lizard (Kindralax)

### Enemy Ships Killed

* All Terran ships - Kintark ships
* All Kintark ships but the Bershan'tok and a cruiser - Terran ships
* 1 Battleship (Bershan'tok) - Invictus
* 1 Cruiser (Vell'tor) - Invictus

### Enemy Soldiers Killed

* 1 genetically engineered lizard (Kindralax) - John (Sword)

### Enemies Soldiers Killed

* 4? Kintark Guards - John (Railgun)
* 4? Kintark Guards - Alyssa (Railgun)
* 4? Kintark Guards - Rachel (Railgun)
* 3 Kintark Guards - John (Railgun)
* 1 Kintark Guards - Alyssa (Railgun)
* Kintark Overseers - Dana (Lasers)