Dark Fate, Chapter 77

Chapter 77 – The Work Begins

The next morning, I woke up to breasts in my face, and a pleasant warmness around my shaft. Not that I was complaining, or anything, but she wasn’t moving, and I could hear the rhythmic breathing of the girl sleeping, which meant that I must have fallen asleep in that position. Not the worse way to wake up, I assure you.

I tried to move, but immediately noticed that both arms were pinned down by other women. Again, not complaining, especially since it took a lot more weight than a woman’s body to make my arm fall asleep. Hooray for System-enhanced physique!

Anyway, I managed to get my head out from between the lovely breasts that were trying to smother me, and found myself looking into the sleeping face of my succubus future daughter, Lilith. Turning to either side, I saw the lamia ranger Zoe (thankfully in her blue elf form) on one side and Captain Elalana, the knelfi commander of my sole warship. Both girls were just as naked as Lilith and I were, and were curled up against me. I’m sure that, if they could see it, some harem-obsessed weeb would get an explosive nosebleed at the site, due to all the cuteness on display.

Fortunately, I was the only one who could see all of this, which was all for the better since I was struggling to remember how I got to this position. After the initial briefing, I spent some time handing out skills to people who needed them for their roles, and recharging my MP when I ran low. Then, I invited the Captain to dinner, since we needed to get a rapport going, if there was going to be fighting. There was definitely some wine served with dinner, but… well, I couldn’t remember anything else after that, which must have meant that I drank quite a bit of wine.

Lilith stirred, interrupting my attempts to remember what must have been quite a fun night. Smiling down at me with her red eyes, she whispered, “Mmm. Morning, Daddy. Want me to help you with your morning wood?”

I groaned as she squeezed her muscles around my shaft, which was enough to wake the other two girls. Zoe just yawned, and then snuggled closer to give me a kiss. “Oh, Master! It looks like you got started without us!”

Elalana, however, was not so nonchalant about what the situation. I felt her stiffen as she suddenly realized the position she was in, and what it meant for last night. She groaned out loud, though whether that was from regret, or because she was hung over, I couldn’t tell.

Either way, Lilith interrupted my thoughts again by slowly grinding her hips against me. Looking up at her smirking face, I sighed, and grabbed hold of her waist. “Fine. We have a bit of time until breakfast is ready, anyways.”

(Later)

Later, when all was said and done (in several positions, and with all nine holes available to me), I was showered, dressed, and down in the dining room, eating breakfast with a contented Zoe and Lilith, along with a rather embarrassed captain. Looking over at the knelfi, I grinned. “Don’t worry, Captain. It isn’t always like this. But you should eat up. The Hellspawn is launching today, along with the shuttles that should have been delivered. We need to get people up to their new stations.”

The captain blinked as she looked my way, and blushed. “I-I’m sorry, Master. It is just, well, I’ve never done anything like, uhm, last night, or this morning, before. It is customary amongst my clan to remain unsullied before marriage, and doing… such things with a family member is completely out of the question.”

I had to laugh at that. “Yes, I can see why you’d say that. Actually, a lot of humans feel the same way. Even I, before the System turned me into what you see now, held those views, at least as they applied to family. But you have to understand that succubi and incubi are different from other creatures.”

“What do you mean, Master?”

“Let me ask you something. Do knelfi families eat together? Do you sit at a table together, all eating a dish prepared by the same person?”

Elalana looked confused. “Well, yes. I think that’s a common thing for most species, at least the ‘civilized’ ones. The more bestial or feral races aren’t the same, from what I’ve heard, but I’ve never looked into it. Why?”

I chuckled. “Because, my pet, to an incubus, sex is just the same as a cooked meal is to you. A blowjob is like a cup of coffee, a bit of a pick-me-up to get you going, and invigorate you for the day. Keeping an incubus celibate is like starving a knelfi of food.”

“So, it is just another kind of ‘breakfast’ to you?” I could hear the incredulous tone in her voice. Not quite certain she could believe me, no doubt.

“Yes, though I won’t deny that we do have a strong sex drive. Keeping an incubus or succubus satisfied is often more than what a single person can do. And, if you haven’t had time to build a harem of partners, like most young incubi or succubi, well, it would be a poor family indeed that just let their kids starve, yes? Wouldn’t that be the truly ‘immoral’ thing?”

“I am sorry, Master. It is just a lot to take in. “

“Ha! I expect so. But, enough of that. We have to load everyone up and get them where they need to go.”

(Bridge, Hellspawn, Asteroid Belt)

Standing on the bridge of the Hellspawn, just behind the Captain’s chair, I smiled as I watched the plot. There, just where they were supposed to be, were my shipyard, manufacturing platform, automated colony builder, and mining pods. Using the shuttles, the last of the crew for the shipyard was now up, out of Earth’s gravity well, and settling in to their new home. Likewise, the station’s crew and the mining crews had also been brought up.

I reached over to touch the Captain’s shoulder. To her credit, she barely stiffened at all when I touched her. “Captain, I know that it has been a bit since your crew was aboard a ship, and this ship is completely new, fresh from the System Shop. Your people need the rust knocked off them, and this ship needs to be properly broken in, so that she can perform at the highest levels. With that in mind, I’d like you to do a full shakedown cruise through the system.”

Captain Elalana nodded slowly. “I would have suggested the same thing, Master. Any particular waypoints you want to include in the cruise?”

“Oh, just Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto. Keep things simple. Also, run in stealth as much as possible. While the majority of the cameras in the system are around Earth, that doesn’t mean there aren’t probes elsewhere in the system. And I’d rather keep this ship as a trump card until it is necessary to reveal you.”

I paused, considering the next part. “Speak with your officers. This ship has better armor, shields, and weapons than a standard Oscuns-class, as well as a better main reactor, and improved heat sinks. I want to know what her operational limits are, since I know full well that they are nothing like what the ‘book’ would say about them.

“However, I also want you to consider what improvements you might make. There’s still room for upgrades, as well as some empty hard points on the hull that could take new weapons. I’d like recommendations on what you might want to fill them with. Also, as we design new systems, we can change out some of the components for our custom ones, if we need to.”

Captain Elalana nodded. “Aye, Master. That we can do. Though it might be best to leave at least a couple of the hard points open, to mount mission-specific modules. Whether it is specialist weapons, external fuel tanks, scanning equipment, or whatever, being able to reconfigure those external mounts would allow us to have a greater degree of utility both on the battlefield and off it.”

“An excellent idea. I will get with our new design team, and have them start working on possible kits. What about the current weapons, though? How well is the Hellspawn armed?”

“Frankly, Master, this ship is a beast. I would put Hellspawn up against a cruiser, and say she would give as good as she got, or better. The point defense laser grid is a standard design, though it focuses on quantity, rather than quality. Not a bad design, all told. The ion cannons are shorter range, but hit harder and faster, while the grav-lances hit harder and further, but slower than the traditional laser batteries. Add on some antimatter torpedoes on top, and you have one very nasty beast.”

She shook her head, looking back at the plot. “And that’s without even talking about the Hellfire Cannon. The normal plasma cannon is powerful enough, and definitely no fun to be on the other side of, but the Hellfire? That’s another thing entirely!”

“Oh?”

“Yes, Master. First off, it is a near-light kinetic weapon. That alone is enough to scare the pants off anyone. And while it says that the range is four light-hours, that’s only because they needed to put a range on it to sell it, and ‘anywhere in a solar system, if you do the math correctly’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

“Right, I can see that. Anything launched at that speed is going to keep going until it hits something. Sir Isaac Newton is still the most dangerous man in the universe, even with magic.”

“Sir?”

“Ah, human physicist, wrote common equations for gravity and forces. One of his laws of motion was that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest. Without outside forces acting on it, obviously.”

“I see. Well, the same theory holds true with the System, though there are more forces to consider than just natural ones. Either way, that is correct. The round will continue until it hits something, and that something will have a very bad day, unless forces slow the round enough in that span.”

“Very well, continue.”

“Second, the Hellfire Cannon is extremely stealthy. While a plasma round will have a distinct profile on scanners that can easily be spotted by any sensor technician, the rounds fired by the Hellfire are nearly impossible to see without gravitic sensors. Even then, you’d need an array the size of a planet to catch it in time to avoid the incoming rounds. The cannon itself produces an EM spike when firing, but most of that can be redirected back into the ship’s capacitors, and the round itself is not charged while in flight.”

“So, we could use this to effectively snipe enemy ships, if we wanted?”

“Yes, sir. That is, in fact, the role that the Hellfire was originally developed for, as a long-range first-strike weapon. With it, we can strike from stealth, and kill or cripple an enemy ship before it even knows we’re there. And even if the EM pulse from the gun’s firing is detected, that pulse only moves 5% faster than the round itself. At a range of a light-hour, that leaves only three minutes to respond to the attack and get out of the way.”

“Three minutes is plenty of time, especially for a well-trained crew, but if the round itself is as stealthy as you say, then it may take them that long, at least, to figure out they’re under attack by kinetics.”

“At least, Master. Kinetics fell out of fashion in space combat due to the fact that you have to keep physical ammunition on board, and the lag between firing and arrival allowing ships at further than knife-range to try and evade. Meanwhile, plasma is typically better at short range, since they don’t run out of ammo so long as the ship has power. For most ships, that’s a powerful consideration.”

She took a breath, and said, “But the impact of a shell like the Hellfire Cannon fires, at the speed it is going? That would be a devastating impact, if it hit. Even battleships would be hard pressed to take more than one or two of those impacts in quick succession.”

I grinned. “Well, if one or two won’t do it, then getting five or six should work, yes?” Yes, I could see it now, a swarm of corvettes or gunboats, firing big guns, to take down larger ships. I would recreate the wolfpacks of the Second World War, and take down any pirates that thought my home would be easy pickings.