Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 15

Comic #1 is Publishing NOW!

 Yup, I'm publishing Comic 1:

About: Captain Sprite gives an introduction to Modern History Lecture to students during the Liberty or Death time period.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5VRR3ML

B&N: Delayed. Check back for updates. :)

Enjoy!

Comic #1

 Sitrep:

  So, I finished the first and second comic. Actually, I finished the second first, then went back and did the first using what I learned. :)

  Anyway, I was waiting on feedback and other stuff before publishing the first while ramping up to work on the third and fourth comics. But I ran into a series of snags.

  My plan had been to public comic #1 in late June. Obviously that didn't happen due to circumstances out of my control. :P

  I also ran into one headache after another with the last 2 comics. The Daz-Cinema bridge was 'updated' and no longer works as an example. That is the big one, as is the sheer amount of work in the next comic. (14 sets, 44 characters to port over with a limited budget and library) The weather is also another major hindrance, I can no longer render after 1pm due to the heat. 

  So for those reasons I've shelved the next 2 comics and graphic novel compilation and shifted back to writing. Shelby 7 has been finished, so that is in the pipeline behind the 2 comics. I started Fortunes of War yesterday and I've gotten into the usual blocking and outline. It is... interesting getting into writing again, and not just because it is summer and I'm trying that LibreOffice software. (Which is taking me some time to figure out)

So, that is where I'm at on those fronts.

  I usually post a couple snippets in the lead up to the publishing of a book. Instead I will publish the cover and 1-2 pages from each comic.Speaking of which:

  These comics take place during the Liberty or Death novel. Comic 1 serves as an intro to the series with a lot of shots you may recognize. I went back and reshot some of the covers, cleaned some stuff up, and applied new software and new (well, new to me) techniques to improve things while introducing the reader to the story.

As an example: Sprite is a new model revised and updated from her old version.

  If you are wondering about the format, I set it up with the standard bleed etc line using a template I downloaded from Kablam. The idea is to set myself up for a possible print in the future. We'll have to wait and see though what the future brings.

So, just waiting on the comic to come back from Goodlife. Until then have a Happy Fourth!

Hold the Line is publishing now!

 So, sorry for the delay, it was out of my hands.

Still, it is being published before the long weekend, so there is that. :)

  In other news, I finished the second comic last night and it has been proofread once and will be sorted out and then sent to the rest of the Betas soon.

On to the book!

   The war in Tau sector continues to boil as the Federation struggles to fend off the Tauren Confederation. The Taurens have taken losses but that has only made them angrier. They've worked to consolidate their territorial gains while finding ways to redress the balance back in their favor.

  Vice Admiral Shelby Logan can see a light at the end of the long tunnel but she still has to lead her people there… and survive!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2L1197D

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hold...

Rest In Peace

 I received a text before sunrise this morning that my Aunt Cindy has unfortunately passed away.

  She battled various cancers over the past few years. She was always a feisty fighter though, and rose to each challenge with the love and support of her husband and family. This last battle unfortunately she didn't win. But she fought valiantly and she will be missed.

...Especially her cheekiness as seen here when I texted her "Happy Birthday Blondy," back in 2019. lol

Rest In Peace

Shelby 6 Snippet 6

 Sitrep:

So, Rea sent me the book back this morning. I just finished the edits and I'm about to shoot it off to Goodlifeguide for final formatting.

I also just uploaded the short teaser promo video I did to Youtube:

   In other news, I'm still working on the comic and R2. I'm printing some replacement parts now. Also, for some reason I'm being aggressively spammed by phone scammers this morning. Apparently Mark Rober's pranks got didn't stop them. I am getting calls every 2-5 minutes on my land line claiming Amazon has a $999 Iphone in my cart and I need to respond to them. lol

Ugh. Luckily I'm not in write mode so I'm not tearing what little hair I've got left out. 

Anyway... on to the snippet!

 

TauR7-21

 

Commander Bluenose watched his boss warily. He'd liked the idea of being Admiral Yen's chief of staff since it was an out-of-the-way assignment in the northern reaches of the confederation. A nice place for his family to set down roots for a while. His wife hadn't been happy about being far away from the moving and shaking initially, but she had finally admitted that she liked being able to have a stable home.

Admiral Yen was known as a hoof-dragging old bull, stuck in the past. The recent changes had thrown him several times. The commander mentally shuddered as to how the admiral would have reacted if he'd been somewhere else, like say, in Purple Nights.

The admiral reacted badly to change and to new orders. So getting someone from the Admiralty asking stupid questions and demanding results for things out of their control had him in what the commander privately called a tizzy.

“What do they expect out of me? Miracles? No, we don't have any reports from the northern attack force! Damn it, if we get them, we'd pass them on! Why do they keep asking shit they should know?” he complained caustically.

“I'm certain it is just someone covering themselves, Herd Leader. They have to know we'd pass on the report if a ship came in. They might think the report was misplaced on their end.”

The bull's nostrils flared as he digested that soothing platitude.

“Maybe,” he rumbled after a moment. He looked away, clearly disgusted with the overall situation. “It's not like we don't have the same problem, waiting,” he said with a shake of his massive head. “I can't do anything about that. If we send ships out to see if there is a courier in transit, they might miss them. I'd get called out on waste by the IG's office,” he threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

“There are a few things we can be working on, Herd Leader.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you wanted more training with the new units …”

“Which we don't have.”

“There are some in the pipeline …”

“But we have to expedite their movement.”

“Yes, Herd Leader. But we do have access to the simulators and sim packages. We also have some of the intelligence reports from the early engagements. If we toss those over to intel and operations, they can throw some training packages together for our people to go over. Briefing material too.”

The admiral grimaced as he considered that for a moment. Slowly he began to stroke his beard, a sign he was calming down and actually considering the idea objectively. “They'd be out of date,” he finally rumbled.

“We … can use the latest intel we have and petition the Admiralty to see what is still up to date and what needs to be corrected. They occasionally send us reports. They've been more on us about progress as of late. Isn't it time we get on them to send us material to better prepare?” the chief of staff asked slyly.

The admiral slowly nodded. “You may be on to something. At the least it will deflect whoever is on our case and get them on someone else's.”

The commander nodded in relief as he began to mentally outline what they needed to do and the most diplomatic way of requesting updates he could manage.

>>><><<< 

Perfect Mountains

 

Retired Admiral Kox was not thrilled at the crew who had arrived to gut a section of his station. Well, not gut the station, but take some of the ships outside it. He was the curator of those old ships. He might not have appreciated them as he probably should have, but he was a product of his generation. He'd been a battleline veteran.

He'd taken on the job of president of the museum to watch over those ships. He couldn't be prouder that some had been selected to be reactivated and sent back into service. He just wasn't certain of the timing or the choice in ships.

There had been some dark rumors that the ships would be sent to the breakers or used as targets in an exercise. But that had ended when he had received an electronic letter formally informing him that the ships were to be refurbished and reconditioned before commissioned back into naval service.

They would be making history again in other words.

The three carriers were not that popular; his guides generally skipped over them in tours. But now they had interest, so it was a pity to see them go. He'd ordered his people to document as much as possible about each. He'd tried and failed to get a list of things the navy intended to rip out. He could have pulled the material out and kept it for other ships, but that was not to be. It would have saved them the trouble, but apparently, they weren't interested in what he had to ask or say.

What was that line? Oh yes, old sailors don't die; they just fade away. Or the young ones just wish them to do so he thought sourly.

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Shelby Snippet 5

 Sitrep: I finished the rough out of images for Comic 1 (the second produced) yesterday. I'm going to get into post work (maybe) today. 

I managed to do a lot of minor work on my R2 yesterday, (I've been a busy big ass hairy beaver, yes I know, complete with buck teeth) so progress on that front too.

On to the Snippetttt....

Chapter 4

 

Minox IV

 

Admiral White Skin tucked his hands behind his back as he stared blankly out the big picture window in his quarters. One might call it bleakly, though he wasn't quite resigned to the inevitable just yet. People passed by outside, oblivious to his inner turmoil. Perhaps that was for the best.

They had received word that Admiral Broken Tooth was on the march north and should be taking 63. If he got it done in time for Admiral Rill to arrive then they would be back on track in some ways.

In others though... he grimaced.

Senator Mel had come out with the discrepancies in timing of the war and how it was not playing in the Confederation's favor just before his arrest. It had been an open secret among the establishment, something everyone knew but no one could fix or wanted to draw attention to. They were just pushing to get as far into Federation territory as they could with the hopes that the Federation would be slow on sending reinforcements. After all, the Federation had their own concerns, both domestically and with the pirates.

Domestically they had politicians much like his own who wanted to eviscerate the military in favor of their own pork troughs. And of course the aftermath of the pirate plagues.

The pirates were also very much a threat in Sigma, which was a sector on the other side of Rho, so most of the Federation's naval efforts were tied up there.

Unfortunately, they had underestimated the Federation's willingness to fight. The initial read had been part bluff and part a play for time. Now they knew better. The Federation navy was hitting far and above their throw weight. He had to admit that in large part that was also due to in the institutional arrogance of his own navy.

They had downplayed the threat of carriers and small craft operations in their own minds over the centuries. That was incorrect, and history itself proved it during the first encounter between Taurens and Terrans. They had erred in not learning from those mistakes and it was costing them dearly.

He was doing his best to make it right, but it was an ugly thing to see in present time. The optics didn't pan well with his civilian bosses or the public either. They just saw a rising body count and ships being thrown away seemingly for nothing.

His eyes cut to his own reflection ever so briefly. If they only knew how bad... his eyes cut away. He shook himself in irritation.

They were making headway to set things right. Some of the old ships were still in mothballs, they were dredging them up and refurbishing them. They had also set upon a crash course of building carriers and small craft of their own. The first of those units should be with the various fronts by now, Admiral Broken Tooth had acknowledged he'd received his units just before marching on 63.

It would be nice to see them blunt the effectiveness of the enemy's small craft enough to get the upper hand again. It just wasn't natural to have the advantage in numbers and mass and yet still be torn to shreds...

>>><><<< 

Director Blacksight checked the logs but there was nothing new other than an ansible coming online to report. He would get a domestic update in a few days, but his concern was on the front and the Federation.

He had inherited his job when his last boss had the unfortunate luck to be born female and be scapegoated for the Federation's ansible attack. His head should have been on the chopping block as well, but he'd lucked out there.

He checked the fronts again and then sighed as he turned his attention to the domestic side of things. Not that he wanted to do so. Right now it was a white hot mess.

The president's order to arrest Senator Mel had sent shockwaves through the establishment. The public didn't know that the senator had died from a heart failure during an intense round of questioning so they were stonewalling on that. Eventually the news was going to get out.

His staff had fallen all over themselves to clear their own names. A few hadn't taken the rough handling well, and had also been 'cleaned up as a routine precaution.'

Senator Mel's run had made some waves beforehand, they might have been absorbed by the usual day to day things going on except for his arrest. They now had a new flavor as the media and congress tore apart everything he said down to the minute detail and debated it before the cameras. The party was doing its best to hold the line and throw accusations of treason against him, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before cracks appeared there. They had to be uncomfortable with the senator being MIA.

>>><><<< 

Shelby 6 Snippet 4

   So, I had the blue screen of death while trying to render the last few scenes of the first comic. I'm leery about shooting them now. I'm trying to find work arounds that still have the visual impact I wanted to express. It is not easy.

Anyway, while my PC renders I am doing bits on my R2 and thinking of other things...and worrying.

I have 3 shots left for the rough out, lets hope I don't run into anymore problems.

On to the snippet!

Chapter 3

 

New Tau Metropolis

 

Vice Admiral Shelby Logan tried to relax in her chair as she checked the status board. She grimaced when she caught herself doing it. Nope, nothing new, just like the last check she'd made 2 hours ago.

You'd think the recent win in 63 by Janice and carrier crews would have her doing cartwheels, but no. That euphoria hadn't lasted more than a moment; she'd known something Janice hadn't. There was a new threat bearing down on the star system and eventually the capital.

Operations and Intelligence had tried to squeeze as much information as possible about this fleet. They had little to go on other than the intelligence picked up in Tau-O79XP. Fortunately, the captain in command of the raiding squadron had been smart enough to abort the mission and return to the neighboring star system with the news. That news had been transmitted by the hidden ansible in the destroyed star system.

They didn't have a timeline on the movement yet. Nor a path, there were 2 to follow. They did have a starting point, T-12 according to the latest report from Commodore Piercing Gaze. The high elf had combined information from that report with the deep background they had built about the Confederation naval forces. Some of the information had been culled from the ansible attack, other bits and snippets from the captured diplomatic team.

Of course, all of that intelligence was old and suspect without proper confirmation. But it was all they had to go on at the moment.

There were a lot of unanswered questions, like the route they were taking, timing, and composition of the force. Did they have carriers? It bothered her not knowing.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Boni, lieutenant Bonibi her A.I. asked.

“Willing to play sounding board?” Shelby asked with an arched eyebrow.

“If it helps, sure. What is on your mind ma'am?”

“The western force. Hell, the northern one too, though that one seems to be taking its time putting in an appearance.”

“But it is moving down. Just slower than anticipated. Commodore Falling Leaf and TF 4.4 really blooded his nose. Enough that he's learned caution.”

“True,” Shelby said. She had dispatched the high elf commodore to run down the fleeing pirates. They had done so, but had been ambushed by the Taurens on their way home. They had managed to fight their way out of the ambush, but not without heavy losses.

They had inflicted a lot of pain in response though, and that might be why the opposition admiral was playing it cautious.

The Xenophobic Tauren Confederation had initially had an arrogant attitude towards naval warfare. Initially it had seemed they had disdained the threat of carriers, which was why she'd formulated a response centered around them. Carrier forces could punch well above their weight if handled properly.

Unfortunately, she was limited on the number she could put into play. They could and did take horrific losses when fighting a prepared enemy.

They'd thought they'd had the advantage until the Taurens had surprised them by deploying their own carriers with Admiral Broken Tooth in the south after their initial engagements. From what Piercing Gaze speculated the carriers might be a new thing. The survivors picked up in 63 were being rather remarkably tight lipped about the subject.

The Tauren carriers had thrown her plans into doubt. “Could Ela be delaying to wait on his own carrier force to catch up to him?”

“There is a nasty thought,” Boni said as she wrote it down in Shelby's HUD.

Shelby grimaced ever so slightly.

“What does Rill have in the way of carriers? And how much intel does he have on our abilities?”

“Ouch,” Boni said as she put that up too. “Are you considering sending some of the cruisers to get a peak?”

“It's a thought. But the only place we know he might pass through is 79. I don't like the idea of missing them and sending our people behind the lines.”

“They know the risks ma'am. They have superior speed and can find ways to get around a moving fleet.”

“True.” Shelby nodded slightly. They might pass a Tauren fleet in hyperspace without even seeing them, or vise versa. It was the mix up in real space that was every captain and flag officer's private nightmare.

“Is it worth it though?”

“I don't know,” Shelby sighed. “We need the intel. The problem is, we have fingerprints on some of the Tauren carrier designs, but not all of them. How close do we have to be to get a solid look at them?”

“If they are smart they won't allow that look. Or they'd draw the spy ships in to get a look but use their carrier's long range punch to wound or destroy them.”

“I know,” Shelby said as she scrubbed her face slightly. “Damn.”

“That's why they pay you the big bucks ma'am,” Boni said gently.

“I know. Pass those questions on to Brad and his staff. Get their thoughts on them.”

“Yes ma'am.”

>>><><<< 

Shelby 6 Snippet 3

 First off, Happy Mother's Day.

It has been an interesting and busy day. Now things are winding down and I remembered to post this. :)

Chapter 2

 

Tau-Bin63A4

 

Commodore Janice Yu felt mixed feelings about the recent battle and victory. It was great to finally stop the Tauren bastards, but it hurt to see the butcher's bill that spelled the costs involved. A lot of good people wouldn't be seeing home ever again.

SAR was still out, despite it being over ten days since the battle. They were working to find any remains at this time, whether they were friendly or not. The burial detail was busy.

Word of the victory had sparked celebrations on the planet. The media had sent in coverage of victory celebrations elsewhere too. That was nice. She appreciated the pat on the back, but she appreciated Shelby sending her additional reinforcements more.

Word was getting out about another Tauren juggernaut headed their way, this one from the west. The rank and file and civilians might still be riding a euphoria from the latest victory and spoiling for a fight but she was nervous.

This was an unblooded enemy. Yes they had no idea about fighting them... or so her staff insisted. She wasn't so certain about that. Information flowed 2 ways, even if a bit slow for the Taurens.

She smirked ever so slightly unconsciously. Striking their ansible had been a brilliant move on the part of Admiral Irons. It had cut the Tauren's command and control, intelligence, and sabotage activities at the knees.

She closed her eyes briefly. Damn it felt good to finally win one! She opened her eyes slowly. They'd been forced back despite winning several minor victories over the past 3 years. This one really hurt the other side too. She was pretty certain Admiral Broken Tooth wasn't going to be in command for much longer.

She had wanted to follow his route up with a natural conclusion, race ahead of him like she'd sent forces to hit Admiral Brewster in TauR34-80 after his first failed attack on Mayweather Station, in order to finish the job.

Unfortunately, the news of the new juggernaut had put a stop to that. She frowned thoughtfully and then shook her head. She wrote a reminder to her staff that the enemy had some sort of intel on their abilities up to the point of the fleet's launch. It was all out of date of course, but it was there.

Whether or not the new enemy commander took advantage of that information remained to be seen.

According to the latest reports from Shelby, the pickets between her and this incoming force were to fight a delaying action. The raiders that had been on their way to raid Mayweather Station had been backstopped to help.

She was grateful for their courage. Even though they had won in 63 she still hoped to blood and stall the bastards for as long as possible. Hell, it'd be nice if someone managed to bloody their nose enough to make them turn around! But again, she couldn't count on something like that.

“It would be nice though,” she muttered under her breath as she finished her memo and shot it off into the electronic void.

>>><><<< 

Governor Magistrate Ebenezer Scrooge snorted as he looked out the window. The pubs were still open, he could hear the singing through the evening air. It was as if they thought they'd won the war, not just a single battle.

He did have to admit he was grateful that the war had not come to his world. At least, not yet at any rate.

>>><><<< 

Lieutenant Governor Bob Cratchet scratched at his fur. The male bonobo sniffed as he saw the light under his boss's door. The old man was burning the midnight oil again, typical of him. He might have had some work done but he was still the type to not sleep much. Something about a bad experience around Christmas time.

He had to admit, it had done the old man and their world quite a bit of good. Scrooge had turned over a new leaf after that night and had become a paladin for his people, working tirelessly. He might still get grumpy and crotchety, but he worked hard.

He did have a fondness for children though, and a connection to Tim, especially around Christmas. His right cheek dimpled in a slight smile before he returned his attention to the memos.

“Eh? Cratchet? What are you getting on about here at this hour?” a familiar grumpy voice nearly made him jump out of his fur.

He turned and blinked. “Ah, just finishing up some reports sir.”

The old man was leaning on his cane. He eyed him over his bifocals and then snorted. He reached out and poked the bonobo with the brass tip of his cane. “It'll keep. Whatever it is, it'll keep. Go home Bob. Go see your family.”

“Yes sir,” the bonobo said as he hit save and then signed out of his system. He was amused as the old man watched him gather up his coat and leave. “Good night.”

“Good night old friend,” the old man replied and then hobbled off to his security escort.

>>><><<< 

PFC Bolt was grateful but a bit annoyed at the reprieve. He knew a lot of the other Marines had been looking forward to mixing it up with the Taurens. Personally, no, he was glad he wasn't going to get shot at or bombed today.

Besides, the reprieve meant they had more time to prepare, which meant more time to find all sorts of fun ways to mess with the enemy. That and train their militia recruits.

>>><><<< 

Tim Cratchet heard about the victory. He saw the celebrations and was grateful. Everyone was treating the evacuation as a false alarm. There were even some querulous people, some of them business owners who wanted to sue for the disruption in their businesses. He shook his head at that nonsense.

The government had a duty to protect the population from an incoming threat, whether that be from a fire, a hurricane, or from invasion. Just because the threat didn't strike doesn't make them at fault for being cautious. Better to be cautious than to not and be caught out.

Still, it was a bit vexing to see the ungrateful ones coming out. Fortunately, for the time being they were few and far between at the moment.

Currently they didn't know about the new fleet headed to them. He had no idea when that news would be released.

>>><><<< 

Shelby 6 Snippet 2

 Still in Chapter 1:

Once the senior officers were established with coffee in the wardroom, the link to the other ships came up. Captain Chandrek quietly outlined the problem they were facing. For the escaping ships it was a no brainer.

“We can't just run blindly. We have enough fuel for one more jump. That will get us to a star system where we'll be dead and caught,” he finished.

There was a long silence.

“We can sit here for months. But the beaters will catch up,” the XO said slowly.

“Correction, eventually the flash of our arrival will get to someone looking in this direction,” the ship's A.I. stated. “I calculate one day and 23 point two more hours before the flash of our arrival gets to the ships at the jump point.”

“So, should we move?” the XO asked as he looked at the captain. They had burped their RCS to get them drifting in the general direction of their destination jump point to get them away from their arrival point but hadn't done anything more. They didn't dare, they were low on fuel so they couldn't use much of it to maneuver, and using gravitational drive would alert the enemy of their presence and direction.

“Yes. The question is to where and on what course,” a captain stated.

“Unfortunately, we skipped through this star system to bypass their defenses. So we didn't get much of a look at what was around,” another stated.

“We do have a partial look,” Lieutenant Ginny Worsham, the flagship's sensor officer stated. She pulled up a holographic map of the star system.

The data was from their previous jump in and the jump out so it was short ranged. It was also out of date, but they all knew that. It was also focused on the enemy's defenses. There were point sources in the inner and outer star system.

“Gravitational drives, shields, and neutrino emissions,” Ginny stated as she brought up the outer system icons.

“Put our intended escape route up,” a captain suggested. The jump point to Tau-R36-83 came up.

Icons were highlighted around there.

“There is one gas giant in proximity to it but on the wrong side,” Lieutenant Merkowitz complained.

“Yes I see that,” the captain mused.

“We could double back. Really screw them up,” someone suggested half heartedly.

More than one captain shook his or her head at that idea. Captain Chandrek's headshake ruled it out completely.

“Okay, so what do we do then?”

“What about if we played the long game?” a captain asked slowly.

“Explain?”

“Go for more fuel is the obvious thing we have to do.”

“So obvious they might anticipate it.”

“Which means they'll stake out that gas giant and any refinery platforms there,” the TO said worriedly.

“So? We do the unexpected. It's what we're good at, right?” Merkowitz asked with a slight smile. He had a rough course in mind but it was going to be tricky to pull off.

“You have something in mind?”

“I need to run the numbers to be sure, but...” the navigator leaned in and pointed out a course none of them anticipated.

The groans and disbelief came fast but Captain Chandrek asked them to wait and hear him out. When they did the captain tentatively agreed to the plan.

>>><><<< 

Commodore Char arrived in the Stiff Breeze star system and his staff transmitted his command's IFF as soon as the hyper wake cleared.

When he ordered a sitrep he was surprised to find that there had been no sign of the enemy passing through the star system. There were ships scattered around the jump point and further out along a general heading the way he'd come.

A larger net painted itself on the plot as he watched. Ships were all over the place looking for something.

“Where did they go?”

He was finally connected to Admiral Three Finger twenty minutes later through a tachyon relay. “Herd leader, what is going on?”

“We received confirmation of their arrival four days ago. But we haven't seen them.”

“Did they skip?”

“There was no signature of a hyper skip,” the admiral stated with a scowl in his voice.

“So... they are still here?”

“Yes.”

“The fuel,” someone said urgently. The commodore turned to his chief of staff who indicated the gas giant near the 83 jump point and then the larger plot with T-3.

It took a moment for the commodore to catch on to what his chief of staff was implying. When he did his eyes widened. “Admiral,” he said slowly.

“Yes? You have a hypothesis?”

“Yes. I left Captain Thunk behind in T-3. He witnessed the enemy go after a civilian fuel refinery. They captured it and took some fuel. Could they be after more?” he asked carefully.

“That is a possibility. Given the report of combat damage sustained in the battle in T-9 that is my working hypothesis.”

The commodore nodded as someone on his staff silently highlighted ships around the gas giant.

“I am cutting you orders to move to a least time course between the gas giant and the 83 jump point commodore.”

The commodore's nostrils flared but he nodded. No doubt once the enemy saw the trap waiting for them they would try to run. “Yes herd leader.”

“Good. Get there quickly and plug any holes you see. Command out.”

>>><><<< 

Shelby 6 Snippet 1

 Sitrep:

  So, I am still working on the last 3 scenes of comic #1. There are a lot of people and a lot of things to do for just 3 images. Fun. Hopefully I can get the pieces all together and rendered by next week.

On to the snippet!

Chapter 1

 

TauG9-2 Stiff Breeze

 

Captain Tim Chandrek stared at the plot as his bridge crew worked at their stations and duties. He ignored the occasional surreptitious look his way. He knew what was on their mind, the same thing that was on his own mind.

He had 6 light cruisers under his command. They had managed to penetrate Confederation space up to T-9, TauG6R33-9 before they'd been driven back. Along the way they had scuttled dozens of civilian vessels and platforms, and probably put the fear of the Federation in the population.

All good things, and in the grand scheme of things probably great for the war effort. But he wanted more.

He'd gotten more in the form of pulling intelligence material from the bots and viruses the ansible attack on the Confederation had sown. His A.I. and ONI people had sown more electronic spies and saboteurs.

And he wanted more.

His people had picked up all sorts of information about enemy civilian and military traffic. Better still they had forced the enemy to redeploy units to hunt him down. That had probably cost them something somewhere. And his stubborn refusal to just die had to have sprayed egg on some faces. They really wanted his ass on toast.

His lips quivered in an almost smile as his errant mind thought that thought.

But he still wanted more. His lips stilled.

He wanted to get out of Confederation space. More importantly, get his people and ships out, and the intelligence they had gathered. The stories alone were worth a few beers. He could care less about the medals and promotions at this point. Life had its own sort of appeal. He had no interest in ending his prematurely.

Which was what brought him to the present conundrum.

His squadron had been on fumes before getting to this star system. They'd managed to scavenge enough fuel for 2 jumps. Now he was down to 1.

South to Purple Nights was obviously out. Purple Nights was a major naval station of the Confederation. Not unlike the massive naval station he was seeing in the inner star system before him.

North there was a jump point to a dead star system, in fact it was the one he'd come in on. It was supposed to be known only to the pirates, but apparently one or more of their ships had been captured with intact navigational databases at some point. The Confederation knew about the route and had a picket in the dead system.

Worse, it was a dead star system. Which meant it was a spacial desert. There was nothing to scavenge there in the way of fuel to continue their escape. Whatever was left there was cinders spread far and wide over the former star system. Dust in the nonexistent solar wind, he thought.

In order to make good on their escape he needed enough fuel to jump 4 more times. Five would be the safe bet.

Which brought him around again to his present dilemma.

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“Think the skipper has a plan?” Bob, one of the sensor techs asked softly.

“No idea. Why are you asking me?” Patrick Star asked his colleague softly.

The yellow Neocat glared at his partner. “Why are you asking me?” he demanded.

“Sorry.”

“I don't have a clue either,” Bob huffed.

“Then let's focus on our jobs and less on chatter,” the bosun said. The 2 techs looked sheepish but then dutifully returned their attention to their implant feeds and the screens in front of them.

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Lieutenant Merkowitz had to wonder if the skipper was going to call a senior staff meeting shortly, or call the other ships, or do something. He obviously didn't have a plan, or had decided to abandon his previous one.

He knew why since he was the ship's chief navigator. They were short on fuel. The skipper had to be aware of that, and he had to be aware that there was some sort of trap in the inner star system. There were also beaters chasing them in the form of a battle cruiser squadron with another squadron or 2 of cruisers.

That meant they had to find a way to outrun them. At the moment though they were sitting 4 light days outside the star system in stealth, well away from the established jump point.

He'd anticipated a skip. He didn't like doing them but he'd been more or less resigned to another to get home. But apparently their damage was such that the skipper had rethought the plan. Hence their current stop.

He looked over to the captain.

The captain caught the look and grunted. He hit a switch on his armrest. “Senior officers to the wardroom. Comm, set up a link to the other ship captains. We're going to have an old fashioned pow-wow.”

He then rose and nodded to the navigator and to the XO to follow. The ATO grimaced but took charge of the bridge.

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