Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 4

Jethro 9 is publishing now!

 So, a few days earlier than I'd intended, but better than on April Fools I guess?

The Cadre has been rebuilt afterthe disastrous battle in Horath over a decade ago. They are better and moredangerous than ever before but they will need all of that and a healthy dose ofluck for their greatest challenge to date. Round 2 is shaping up with thepirate empress in Sigma Sector. The fleet believes that they have located ElDorado. Jethro McClintock and his team are itching to settle the score.

Meanwhile forces are swirlingaround Jethro's family. Will he survive the battle to come? Will his family?

 

Amazon: Siege

 B&N: To be continued

Jethro 9 Snippet 4

 Sitrep:

So, I received the manuscript back from Goodlifeguide this morning. I'll be uploading it this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

 On to the snippet!

 

 

Antigua

 

Zuhuraand Jethro managed to pry Bagheera away from his gaming system but the othersiblings were busy. The trio of adults took Ember to the zoo. Ember was wide-eyedand a bit fearful of some of the larger animals. She did enjoy the petting zoobriefly; that enjoyment ended when a pig blew snot on her fur.

Shehad fallen asleep on her mother’s chest at lunch. The boys took off to ride aroller coaster through the aquarium area while Ember took a nap in the shadewith Zuhura.

Whenthey returned, they were a bit damp and giddy. Zuhura was amused by theirantics as they playfully swatted at each other. She ended up trading withJethro in order to go on a ride with her younger brother.

Jethrocurled up next to Ember in the shade of the tree. There were other familiesnearby. He watched the little imp sleep. She rolled onto her back and stretchedand then curled up on his arm. After a few minutes, the arm started to fallasleep. When he tried to move it, the little imp locked onto it with her pawsto keep her warm pillow in place.

Hesnorted and resigned himself to his fate for the time being.

“Sheyours?” a fox asked softly. He looked over to where the Vixen was nursing atrio of pups.

“No,my granddaughter,” Jethro admitted.

“Granddaughter?”the vixen asked blinking in confusion. Jethro flicked his ears. “Well, there isquite a family resemblance.

“Somethinglike that,” Jethro admitted and then yawned. The fox looked politely away andafter a moment looked down tenderly to her trio as they finished up nursing.

Jethrorelaxed and waited for the others to return. He knew he was going to feel a lotof guilt over leaving the little imp behind but it couldn’t be helped.

<<(O)>>

Suqislipped down the hall and then waited. Her lead robot had cleared the path butshe paused when something glittered in the vent. She checked the corner with ascope and noted the glitter again and then carefully changed position.

Tricky,she thought as she rested her hand against the wall. Her AI sent out a singlestream of nanites out and down the wall. It took time but for the moment shehad time to spare.

Thenanites went around a hatch and then into the vent. They found a small sniperrobot waiting there. It had a camera lens and barrel ten centimeters from thevent. If the user hadn’t bent the vents apart to allow the barrel and camera toget a good shot and view, she wouldn’t have picked up on it.

Shecouldn’t hack it without the other side noticing. Nor could she just shut itoff, that would alert them of her location and that their trap had failed.

Instead,she had the nanites form a camera above the robot camera and then take asnapshot of its view out the vent.

Shethen directed her AI to create a false image with a web of nanites over thevent. It took time. There were a lot of nanites to move into position andprogram with the RGB, but eventually, she had replaced the view with a falseimage.

Onlywhen it was finished, did she move out carefully.

Shegrinned slyly and then hand signed her team to begin moving out again. That wasa trick she had picked up from Sabu, and it was nice to use it against him.

<<(O)>>

Sabuhad a feeling that his sister was up to something. Their respective platoonswere on Orbital Fortress 9 training against each other in a cleared section ofthe massive station. It was far better than a virtual game session, allowingthem to employ some real world tricks and toys to test out in real worldconditions. So far so good.

Heknew his sister was highly motivated to get revenge for his trouncing her inthe last exercise. Well, he had no intention of going down easy even though hewas playing the defender in this round.

Shehad found his sniper hide but had missed a patch of light sensitive naniteshe’d put up as a tripwire at the corner. That told him her approach path.

Hehad his squad activate a series of mines. The claymores were thin, coated tolook like the bulkhead. When Suqi’s squad came around the next corner, it wouldgo off.

<<(O)>>

Suqi’srobot crept around the corner and then paused. It was programmed to stick tothe shadows and to the sides of the corridor. It tripped the sensors for theclaymores and the mines went off.

Thebot was covered in pink paint and immediately shut down, falling over in asimulated death. Suqi narrowly missed getting splattered.

“Missedme, bro,” she murmured as she deployed a second bot; this one she directed toclimb the wall and then hang from the ceiling. It would move slower but itwouldn’t trip any pressure sensors on the ground.

Shewinced when a second claymore went off with a loud thud and the bot was rippedoff the ceiling and went flying into the wall across from her.

Unlessof course he’d thought of that too.

Well! She thought as she reconsideredher options.

<<(O)>>

GeneralLyon smirked as Sabu and Suqi faced off. He had traveled with the two platoonsto the fortress in order to umpire the exercises and possibly even participatein a few of them.

Sofar Sabu seemed to have picked up the tricky side of Jethro’s lessons. But herefused to underestimate Suqi. There was something to be said about the femalealways being deadlier than the male of the species. No doubt because they likedto be underestimated.

Thetraining and prep for the assault was going well. Pretty soon they would beready to move out.

<<(O)>>

Bagheerawas playing a first-person shooter and managed to win the match using a fewtricks his dad had taught him. It was a simple matter of finding the right spotto snipe and having an escape plan if they spotted him.

Whenhe took out the enemy medic trying to revive a shooter, that more or less wonthe match for his side. They easily captured the objective.

Asthe match cleared, the other side complained about being taken out by a pro. Hegrinned. “I am a pro.”

“Dude!Not cool! Vets have their own servers!” a couple of players complained.

Heblinked. “I’m not a vet,” he said, trying to cut in. It took a couple of triesbefore he got through their complaints. That earned some disbelief andraspberries.

“Look,my dad is a sniper. I picked up some tricks from him.”

“Marinesor Army?”

“Well,he was in the marines.”

“Oh,he’s out now?” one of the gamers asked. “Why?”

“No,he’s in the Cadre.”

Thedisbelief was almost palatable and then people went ballistic with excitement.He became peppered with questions about the Cadre to the point that the nextmatch countdown was forfeited. The team he had been on wanted to keep him butthey wanted to play too.

Hewas annoyed when he pulled back to the main forum only to find out that word ofwho he was had followed. He was besieged by players wanting him on their teamor wanting information about the Cadre. It bugged him. They were moreinterested in him for his dad than for his own skill set. That irritated him somuch he ended up logging out.

Whenhe logged in later, he was flagged with an email and then an alert that his IDhad been frozen. Incensed he emailed corporate to find out why and found thatthey had been told to do so by the FBI.

Hewas confused. “Look, I’m not a piker …”

“Wecannot reactivate your ID. You’ll have to speak to them and create a new ID,”the customer service chatbot warned.

“Areyou serious?” he demanded, incredulous that he’d lost all of his stuff as wellas his points and prestige. He had been about to make the next tier damn it!

Aknock at the door made him look up.

“Itis for you,” Bast said from his computer.

“Damnit, leave my PC alone!” he growled as he got up. “Who is it?” he demanded. Avideo screen window opened, and he saw the video camera image of two people inbusiness suits. They looked either corporate or … “Ah hell,” he muttered.

“BagheeraMcClintock?” the lead agent asked as he opened the door.

“Yes?”Bagheera asked. He had his headphones around his neck.

“Myname is Agent Smith; this is Agent Roberts,” the male agent said, indicatinghis female companion. “We are with the FBI.” He showed off his credentials.

“Whatis going on? Is my mom okay?”

“She’sfine. This has to do with you.”

Heblinked and then his eyes narrowed. “What did I do? Do I need to call a lawyeror something?”

“Youaren’t under arrest. We just need to clear up a few things,” the junior agentsaid soothingly.

Heblinked and started to relax a little.

“Youspoke about the Cadre and your father in a chatroom and in the forums earlierthis evening?”

“Damnit …,” he muttered. “Is that why my account got locked? Look it wasstupid I know. Someone was bitching about my being too good, and they thought Iwas a ringer. I said I learned from my dad.”

Thelead agent nodded sagely.

“Youraccount was locked because you broke protocol. Are you aware of the secrecy actin regards to the Cadre and their family members?”

“Yeah,”he sighed heavily. “I know; I screwed up.” He felt his ears flatten. Somethinghis mother had taught him was not to make excuses, especially to theauthorities or to her.

“I’mproud of my family. I should be able to show it,” he muttered resentfully.

“Weget that. But you need to understand that they need to work from the shadows towork effectively. And for their safety and your own, you need to help them keeptheir anonymity,” the lead agent said patiently.

“Okay,fine,” he growled. He wasn’t looking forward to starting out as a nugget againthough.

“Ifonly to keep from a repeat interview from us?” Agent Smith asked. “We could ofcourse take this downtown, take a day or two …”

“No,no, I’ll be good. Honest. I know I screwed up. I’m sorry,” Bagheera saidhastily. The two agents looked amused.

Bagheerarolled his eyes. The agents looked at each other and chuckled a little.

“Justremember, people can and will bait you. They’ll try to get details out of you.Some of the best cons out there gather the data and use it to steal youridentity or to get you into trouble in other ways.”

Bagheeralooked a bit affronted.

“Andyeah, we know, you are too good to get caught out like that. Believe me, we’veheard it before,” the female agent replied dryly. She shook her head inresignation at the stupidity of some people who thought that they wereinvulnerable. “Just think it through before you say something. Even somethingminor can get you into trouble.”

“Looselips sinks ships?” Bagheera asked amused.

“Exactly.”

“I’vebeen told that a few times. I’ll try to be more careful.”

“Good.”They shook hands and departed.

<<(O)>>

Jethro 9 Snippet 3

 

 

Antigua

 

Jethrocontinued to deal with the pain of loss of Lil Red. Shanti continued to blameherself. Both had been to a therapist but it helped to talk to each other. “Iwas supposed to keep her safe,” she said.

Jethroshook his head. She sounded so … broken. Like it was her fault. It wasn’t; theyboth knew that. She hadn’t been home; it had been a freak crash during an airshow that had killed their adopted daughter.

“Youcan’t be blamed for a freak accident! Murphy maybe, but not you love. Ithappened. We can’t wrap them in cotton and keep them safe forever.”

“You’dthink she’d be safe at home! I should have insisted she stay with you.”

“Ithappened,” Jethro sighed. “It is something that … the rest of us will have tolive with. I love you,” he said softly.

“Ilove you too,” she murmured back, kissing her fingertips and then holding themout to him. He smiled tenderly to her holographic image.

Ablinking LED caught his attention. He knew it was time up. He reached out for aphantom caress of her cheek. She smiled tenderly and closed her eyes and seemedto rub into it.

“Iwon’t tell you to stay safe. I know you too well,” he said.

Shechuffed.

“Butwatch your six and kick ass.”

“Yeah,”she said huskily. “We have to go.” She dashed a tear and then straightened upand nodded. “Kick some pirate ass. I love you.”

“Iknow and I will. And I love you too,” he said. “Thanks, Captain,” Jethro saidas he looked up.

“You’rewelcome, Chief. Terminating virtual chat,” Commander Enki replied.

<<O>>

Jethroprepped for work quietly. “Was that mom?” Baghera asked sleepily. He was theblack panther male of the quartet. All four had a ways to go in the maturitydepartment. A bit of that was because he hadn’t been around to be a father. Hewas trying to make up for lost time but it wasn’t easy this late in the game.

“Yeah,she had to go; sorry, you lot were asleep.”

“Wasshe here?” Bagheera asked, looking around in confusion. He sniffed the air, hisbrows knit still in confusion. “Wait, I don’t smell her.”

“No,it was a holo call. Brief,” Jethro explained patiently as he cleaned up thekitchen.

Bagheerablinked in confusion. “Oh,” he said.

“Redis …”

“Theycremated her body and will ship it back as a diamond,” Jethro said quietly.

 Bagheera blinked again and then yawned.“Damn,” he muttered. “It is … is she really gone?” he asked and then ran afinger under his nose as he snuffled.

“I’mafraid so,” Jethro sighed softly. Some of the family were still struggling withthe loss. Red had been their adopted daughter and an older sister/aunt/sitterto each of the litters. They were each dealing with the grief in their own way.The FBI as well as the Cadre had each offered a grief counselor to the family.So far he wasn’t aware of anyone taking them up on it.

Thefirst litter were buried in their work. They were more mature and knewintellectually such things were bound to happen eventually. The sudden reactionwas what caught them off guard.

“Momshould have left her here to be safe with us,” Bagheera muttered bitterly.

“Redwas an adult; she wanted to be with your mom to help her out and so shewouldn’t feel so alone.” Jethro shook his head.

“Yeah?And it cost her her life!” Bagheera flared.

Acorner of his father’s mind recognized anger as one of the stages of grief sohe kept to reason. He didn’t want to provoke the fragile truce with his son ormake the irrational anger turn towards him.

No,it wasn’t irrational, the anger was real. It was just adrift without a targetas they all were, he reminded himself before he spoke.

“No,a freak accident did. She was at home safe. It could have happened here aseasily as their or anywhere,” Jethro said, trying to keep his tone even.Bagheera glowered at him. “When fate chooses to snip your thread, it's a partof the circle of life.”

“Ohgah, not that shit again,” the smaller black panther said voice rich withdisgust. He snorted harshly.

“Itis what it is,” Jethro said with an ear flick of a shrug as he felt his furstiffen. Bast shook her head on his HUD. He took it to indicate a lost cause.“Some things are just out of our control. It sucks. Trust me, I’ve felt it. Istill feel it.”

Hereached out to touch his son but his son turned away and headed into thebathroom. The door clicked shut with a sound of finality to the argument.

Jethroescaped to his commute to work while he could.

<<O>>

Jethrosaw motion in the hallway near the floor as he walked through the new sectionof the base. His attention flickered from thinking about the list of things hehad to do to prepare for the movement to curiosity. Bast rolled her eyes on hisHUD and highlighted a familiar feline figure crouching in the shadows.

Hechuffed softly in amusement and pretended to ignore her in passing. Ember hadfigured out how to cloak in order to try to sneak out of the crèche again. Shewas good, but she had been tagged with an IFF tag and her cloak was only goodif she didn’t move. She didn’t have implants or an AI to manage her cloaks soeverything ran on instinct.

Heturned suddenly and swooped in to catch her and swing her off her feet. She growledin surprise as he held her with one arm under her armpits and the other underher bottom as he leaned over her and gave his invisible prey a cheek rub.

Shemock growled and her ears went flat but he chuffed and purred. After a moment,she started to purr in response.

Atech saw him cheek rubbing something and holding it but whatever it was it wasinvisible. The human stopped and stared until Jethro tickled his prey. Embergrowled and lost focus and faded into place in his arms giggling and squirming.“Stop!” she said in a high pitch giggly voice.

Jethrochurred and laughed at her and hugged her tightly. The observer then blinkedand puckered his lips and looked away. After a moment, he shook his head andwalked off.

“So,what are you doing out and about, young lady?” Jethro teased. “Aren’t yousupposed to be with your friends?”

“Nonap,” she growled as he slung her up to his shoulder. She began to play withhis ear in retaliation.

“Really?You don’t like to nap?”

“No,”she pouted as he walked to the crèche.

“Uhhuh,” he said. “Do they know you are gone?” he asked in a light voice. Shesuddenly looked shy.

Bastrolled her virtual eyes and sent a text out to the crèche as well as Zuhura.

Justas she did a security alert came over the 1MC to look for a lost black kitten.

“Ithink they know you are missing. Your mommy is going to be upset,” Jethrowarned.

Emberlooked a little contrite but then flicked her ears.

Findout supposed to be in crèche. Snuck away in naptime.

Zuhuraarrived outside the crèche. She was clearly exasperated with her waywardcharge.

Jethroplay fought to hand her over, eventually relenting with a mock pout. Embergiggled. The byplay lightened the mood.

“Youaren’t supposed to leave the crèche without an adult, young lady,” Zuhura scolded.

“She’sgetting good at being sneaky,” Jethro said. “She almost got past me,” he said.He shrewdly tickled her. “Almost,” he teased as she shrunk back and giggled andthen growled and play swatted at him.

Shemight be playing but her eyes flashed, her ears went back and she started inwith her trademark head cock that said she was ready to get feisty.

“Uhoh,” Zuhura laughed. “Now you’ve done it,” she chuffed. She pretended to holdher charge away from Jethro as Jethro pretended to box with her and then holdhis arms out on either side and then move in to strike. She couldn’t look inboth directions and growled ears flat.

Zuhurachuffed as her father used one hand to distract and the other to strike. Thehead cock came out again.

“Ithink they need to learn to wear this little lady out a bit more beforenaptime,” Jethro observed.

“Nonap!” a certain kitten said, crossing her arms and instantly pouting.

“Yeah,”Zuhura said with a snort as she took the kitten into the crèche. “Thanks, dad.”

“Anytime,”he said with a wave to the kitten.

<<O>>

Jethro 9 snippet 2

 Sitrep:

So, yesterday I was at the hospital waiting on dad's pacemaker install and heart checkup. He's good, ignoring doctor/nurse's orders as usual so... normal. That is a relief? Maybe? 

Anyway, while I was out Rea finished Jethro 9's edits and shot it back to me. I just dealt with the final edits and shot it off to Goodlifeguide.

On to the next snippet!

 

Antigua

 

Jethrocalled a family meeting. Cleo and Shy were on their way home and arrived beforethe Cadre members did.

Bagheeracomplained about the interruption when Cleo went into his room and practicallydragged him out by his ear.

“Willyou sit down and shut up? This is important,” Cleo growled.

“Howdo you know that?” Bagheera demanded as the toilet flushed in the hallwaybathroom. The sink turned on for a moment.

“Ican tell just from looking at them,” Cleo retorted, nodding her chin at theSabu, Suqi, the holograms of their AI, and Jethro.

“Thisisn’t another lecture about getting a job or going to school is it? I mean, Iam taking classes …” Bagheera insisted.

“Believeit or not this isn’t about you,” Sabu rumbled quietly. Bagheera glanced at himand then fell into a pensive silence when he started to pick up on the vibes inthe room.

“Yes,well, Zuhura and Ember will be joining us in a bit. But …,” Jethro broke offand glanced to the side as Shy left the bathroom and sank into the seat next toCleo. Suqi reached out and grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

Shelooked at her and noted that Suqi was looking grave and sad. Her ears wereback. She looked to Sabu and saw similar looks coming from him. She felt herears go back as trepidation mounted. “What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked.

“Didthe cancer come back in White?” Cleo asked suddenly. Bagheera felt the moodshift and slowly sank into a chair. Sabu reached out and patted his shouldergruffly.

“No…,” Jethro said slowly.

“I’vegot a class in an hour and a half …,” Cleo warned.

“Youmay want to skip it,” Suqi said softly. She looked expectantly to Jethro.

Jethrofelt his insides twist. Bast gave him a sympathetic look.

“Thereis no easy way of saying this,” he said. He wiped at his eyes. The kittens allstared at him. The ones who didn’t know suddenly had an inkling. All of theirears were back and eyes wide.

“Therewas a crash on ET …”

“Mom!”Cleo wailed, lunging to her feet.

Jethroand Suqi immediately shook their heads. Suqi pushed Cleo down gently. Slowlyshe sank back into her chair. “If not mom …?”

“I’mafraid Red was killed by a fighter that crashed into their apartment complex.Your mom is fine,” Jethro said roughly. He paused as there was a knock at thedoor and then it opened to reveal Zuhura and Ember. Zuhura was somber and Emberhad clearly picked up on the vibes and was looking troubled and confused.

Cleoand Shy teared up as Suqi tried to comfort them. Sabu hugged Bagheera. Jethrogot up and hugged Zuhura, squeezing Ember between them until she nipped him.

Hechuffed in amusement and felt her little arms wrap around his neck. He took herfrom her adopted mother and hugged her for a moment. “Sorry, sweetie, we justgot some bad news,” he murmured.

“I’llsay,” Bagheera said. He got up and went to his room and slammed the door. Theothers watched him go and then gave out a soft collective sigh.

“Weeach deal with grief in our own way,” Sabu said as he still looked at the door.

“Givehim a moment. We’ll talk to him in a bit,” Jethro said.

<<(O)>>

Jethrohad to deal with the flood of sympathy from friends and colleagues.

Hurrannatexted him that she had received the news. She sent her condolences to Jethroand the family and stated that she’d be by later for a hug.

Heappreciated that.

<<(O)>>

ChiefWarrant Officer Ox and his dwarf counterpart Warrant Officer Mariah Willow wereputting their finishing touches on some of the robots when he received an emailabout Riley. He shook his head.

“What?”Willow asked. Minotaur and Peggy were busy going through lines of code withtheir respective debug bots to clean it up.

“Rileywill be in town shortly. But she said she has a gig and can’t chat tonight. Oh,well,” Ox said with a flap of his ears as his hands continued to assemble arobotic leg. There were some delicate connections but his massive fingershandled them easily.

Ithelped that he and Minotaur had a master grade level of control over hisimplants and nanites.

Minotaurand Peggy looked up and then both turned to their respective partners.

“What?”Willow asked. “Finished all ready?” she asked.

“No.We have news,” Peggy said.

“Outwith it,” Ox said absently.

“Therehas been a death in the McClintock family,” Minotaur said in a bass rumble. Oxstopped what he was doing and looked up sharply.

“Suqiand Sabu?”

“No.Lil Red was killed on Epsilon Triangula.”

“Oh,damn,” Willow said. “Isn’t that Jethro’s adopted daughter?”

“Yes,”Peggy replied.

“Pleasesend our condolences,” Willow said.

“Done,”Peggy said.

“Minotaur,do the same. And tell Jethro I’ll check in with him when he’s ready,” Ox saidgruffly.

“Understood,”Minotaur replied.

Oxwent back to working, but after a moment, he pushed the robot leg aside and satdown heavily.

Willowpatted him on the shoulder gently.

<<(O)>>

Jethro 9 Snippet 1

 Sitrep:

So, all of the betas are done with J9 and I sent it off to Rea Saturday. So, here is the first snippet!

 

 

Antigua

ChiefWarrant Officer 5 Jethro McClintock noted the flutter of the wind, picked up onthe heat rising and ran mental calculations even as Bast fed him the data. Whathe saw matched her data roughly so he fed it to the sniper.

Thesniper was a new recruit to the Cadre, Sergeant Manoox. The sergeant had sniperqualifications from the army but seemed to struggle with accepting data fromhis AI.

“Targetat two-five-six-one meters. Up one point five. Wind at nine o’clock sixclicks.”

“Two-five-six-oneup one point five, winds… got it,” the sergeant replied in a text through theirimplants. The duo was side by side so their respective AI had established awired nanite link between them. That facilitated conversation so they could notbe picked up or overheard.

“Sendit,” Jethro growled.

Thesergeant gently squeezed the trigger. As always it came as a surprise to them.

Theround went down range and slammed into the target.

“Highpoint two,” Jethro observed. “To the right point four.”

“Roger,”the sergeant said as he made adjustments.

Anothersniper fired a shot off to their left. A target plinked.

“Sendit,” Jethro ordered.

Thistime the round hit dead center as expected.

“Goodshot. New target…” Jethro moved on across their zone as the first target reset.

<<(O)>>

SergeantSuqi McClintock noted the target hit and smiled. She was dialed in. She quicklymade it through the qualifications and then rose when her spotter cleared her.Half muscle memory, half training she cleared her weapon and looked around.Sabu was finishing up his quals to the far left of her. Their father Jethro wasin playing spotter for another student.

Sheglanced to her right to see Hurranna wrapping up her quals. The lynx sat upwhen she finished and stretched and then scratched at her back.

“Gettingold?” Suqi texted.

Hurrannaturned to her, stuck out her tongue and then stretched again. Suqi chuckled.

ChiefWarrant Officer 1 Hurranna was their ‘aunt’. She had grown up with their fatherand others on Antigua Prime. She had served with them in Sigma Sector huntingpirates, though she had done so in a fighter as a Marine pilot while Sabu andSuqi had been sergeants in the Marines.

All3 had been tapped to join the Cadre. They had done a bit of soul searching andthen had agreed much to the chagrin of their respective commands. It was thator get rotated home to serve in a training force or standing guard duty at somebuilding somewhere. None of them wanted that.

Hurrannahad been threatened with a commission a few times. She had considered it buthadn’t liked dealing with the paperwork and the headaches involved with being acommissioned officer. As a warrant she could get to the rank of a CAG but notmuch further. She had said that she hadn’t considered getting out of the pilotseat until she had found out that the Cadre also used pilots.

Sinceshe had finished her integration she had taken up duties with the shuttles thatoccasionally moved the Cadre to distant exercise locations.

Hurrannajoined Suqi at the table where the weapons were laid out. “It took a little bitto get my eye back in I admit. But it’s like riding a bicycle.”

“Ifyou don’t practice regularly you forget the tricks,” Suqi retorted.

“LikeI said, like riding a bike. Once I had a refresher it all came back,” Hurrannareplied.

Suqiflicked her ears.

“So,what’s next?” Hurranna asked.

“Thefinals for camouflage for the second half of the class. Since you alreadypassed it, you lot can head in and pack it in,” Chief Humble stated. He was abig albino Neogorilla.

“Takeyour weapons with you,” the chief growled as the duo turned to leave. “Turnthem in to the armory and clean them. You know the drill.”

Thegirls sighed. “I hate getting my nails dirty,” Hurranna mock whined.

“Ihate chipping a nail,” Suqi said, pretending to look at her nails. Her clawscame out as she examined them.

“Myheart bleeds,” the chief said gruffly, rolling his eyes at them.

Thegirls smirked at each other. “Want to get our nails done after this?” Hurrannasuggested.

“Sure,”Suqi answered. She turned to the chief. “What do you say chief? I think hotpink is your color,” she teased.

“Pass,”he growled. “Get out of here before I throw you two out. And you two are smallenough that I can do it too,” he said eyeing them.

“Ithink he means it,” Hurranna chuckled as the duo put their sniper rifles intotheir carrying cases and then headed off.

“I’msure he’s just a softy at heart,” Suqi said. The chief roared and both girlsstartled and turned back to him. He was growling at another student.

“Onthe other hand…” Suqi drawled.

“Yeah,maybe we should tease him later,” Hurranna agreed with a nod.

<<(O)>>

New Audio Books

   So, Amazon is offering me to Beta test AI generated Audio Books. (Virtual Voice Narration) To be clear, this is a Beta test, and I don't do audio. I've flirted with it a few times but I never got into it. My 1 time listening to it for myself was in the 90's when I found Anne McCaffrey had produced a tape of Dragonsong. That was... different.

Anyway, I have converted 5 books so far. They are available on Amazon and Audible.

 New Dawn

Bootstrap Colony 1

Noah's Arks

The Roo Collective

Jethro goes to War 1

  If there is sufficient interest I will convert more. Not all books can be converted. (word count is limited to under 240k so big books are a no)... I'm curious as to how they work out. Obviously there will be issues (possibly funny ones) with pronunciations and such.

 

  At the moment they are using an American female voice. I don't know how to do alternate voices. (it was mentioned that they may extend it to have different voices do different characters at some point) I was tempted to try the British female voice but held off. I'm not sure if you the listener can play with the voice on your own.

Enjoy!

Upcoming Books

 Sitrep:

I have finished 4 books and they are with the Proofreaders:

Jethro 9 Siege

 To be published April 2025

Multiverse 8

 To be published June 2025

Shelby 9 Peacekeepers

 To be published August 2025

Tales of the Federation Reborn 7 Winds of Change 

 

To be published in October 2025

 

Lowering the Hammer has published!

 Yep.

 

 

 About:

 

The Federation isfinally ticking along as things start to come together. The Tauren war is overin the west, the Federation is growing steadily, and the economy is bright.There are dark clouds on the horizon however. The Spirits have returned withdire warnings of an ancient evil alliance brewing in the northern sectors.

Admiral Irons has hishands full with politics and the pirate war in Sigma Sector. They finally havea lead on the pirate capital, the battle moon known as Atlas XIV or El Dorado.Fleets and the Cadre are on the move to Sigma in preparation of the finalassault there.

Pirate EmpressCatherine the Great has been scheming and readying her titanic ship to flee toa new hiding spot. It is now a race to see if she can get away before the fleetfinds her. But Admiral Irons is first and foremost an engineer. Engineers havea motto, when in doubt, use a bigger hammer. Well, Admiral Irons is the premierengineer and if he is good at anything it is that he is an expert on Loweringthe Hammer.

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Lowering the Hammer Snippet 4

 

 

Antigua

 

AdmiralIrons replacement search for a new secretary of industry was off to a rockystart. Sandra’kall had recently resigned to join her family at the Nuevo Bcolony and be a member of the ruling cabinet there. He still thought she wouldhave done better for her people in her previous position; however, she wantedto be closer to her people and her family so he couldn’t fault that decision.It was just unusual for a usually logical Centaurian to choose emotion overcold hard logic.

Ofcourse, there might be something else involved he was not aware of. Not that itwas any of his business apparently. He glanced at the candidates. Sprite hadtwo dozen files from the literal thousands that had been initially generated.Even more had applied for the position once it had come out that the Centaurianwas resigning.

He’dthought they’d be able to fill her post before her departure, but apparently,that hadn’t been the case. The first three candidates had not passed thevetting process and the fourth runner-up had some issues that had come outduring the committee hearing with congress. It had been embarrassing enough forthe candidate to withdraw.

Ofcourse certain parties on the hill had gloated over that. He wasn’t certain why;it meant the post was vacant and the star nation as a whole had a problem. Notthat they saw it that way of course. They saw it as scoring off of him and hisadministration. Reining him in.

Pettypolitics in other words.

<<V>>

Antigua

 

Jethrocontinued to deal with the pain of loss of Lil Red. Shanti continued to blameherself. Both had been to a therapist but it helped to talk to each other. “Iwas supposed to keep her safe,” she said.

Jethroshook his head. She sounded so … broken. Like it was her fault. It wasn’t; theyboth knew that. She hadn’t been home; it had been a freak crash during an airshow that had killed their adopted daughter.

“Youcan’t be blamed for a freak accident! Murphy maybe, but not you love. Ithappened. We can’t wrap them in cotton and keep them safe forever.”

“You’dthink she’d be safe at home! I should have insisted she stay with you.”

“Ithappened,” Jethro sighed. “It is something that … the rest of us will have tolive with. I love you,” he said softly.

“Ilove you too,” she murmured back, kissing her fingertips and then holding themout to him. He smiled tenderly to her holographic image.

Ablinking LED caught his attention. He knew it was time up. He reached out for aphantom caress of her cheek. She smiled tenderly and closed her eyes and seemedto rub into it.

“Iwon’t tell you to stay safe. I know you too well,” he said.

Shechuffed.

“Butwatch your six and kick ass.”

“Yeah,”she said huskily. “We have to go.” She dashed a tear and then straightened upand nodded. “Kick some pirate ass. I love you.”

“Iknow and I will. And I love you too,” he said. “Thanks, Captain,” Jethro saidas he looked up.

“You’rewelcome, Chief. Terminating virtual chat,” Commander Enki replied.

<<V>>

Jethroprepped for work quietly. “Was that mom?” Baghera asked sleepily. He was theblack panther male of the quartet. All four had a ways to go in the maturitydepartment. A bit of that was because he hadn’t been around to be a father. Hewas trying to make up for lost time but it wasn’t easy this late in the game.

“Yeah,she had to go; sorry, you lot were asleep.”

“Wasshe here?” Bagheera asked, looking around in confusion. He sniffed the air, hisbrows knit still in confusion. “Wait, I don’t smell her.”

“No,it was a holo call. Brief,” Jethro explained patiently as he cleaned up thekitchen.

Bagheerablinked in confusion. “Oh,” he said.

“Redis …”

“Theycremated her body and will ship it back as a diamond,” Jethro said quietly.

 Bagheera blinked again and then yawned.“Damn,” he muttered. “It is … is she really gone?” he asked and then ran afinger under his nose as he snuffled.

“I’mafraid so,” Jethro sighed softly. Some of the family were still struggling withthe loss. Red had been their adopted daughter and an older sister/aunt/sitterto each of the litters. They were each dealing with the grief in their own way.The FBI as well as the Cadre had each offered a grief counselor to the family.So far he wasn’t aware of anyone taking them up on it.

Thefirst litter were buried in their work. They were more mature and knewintellectually such things were bound to happen eventually. The sudden reactionwas what caught them off guard.

“Momshould have left her here to be safe with us,” Bagheera muttered bitterly.

“Redwas an adult; she wanted to be with your mom to help her out and so shewouldn’t feel so alone.” Jethro shook his head.

“Yeah?And it cost her her life!” Bagheera flared.

Acorner of his father’s mind recognized anger as one of the stages of grief sohe kept to reason. He didn’t want to provoke the fragile truce with his son ormake the irrational anger turn towards him.

No,it wasn’t irrational, the anger was real. It was just adrift without a targetas they all were, he reminded himself before he spoke.

“No,a freak accident did. She was at home safe. It could have happened here aseasily as their or anywhere,” Jethro said, trying to keep his tone even.Bagheera glowered at him. “When fate chooses to snip your thread, it's a partof the circle of life.”

“Ohgah, not that shit again,” the smaller black panther said voice rich withdisgust. He snorted harshly.

“Itis what it is,” Jethro said with an ear flick of a shrug as he felt his furstiffen. Bast shook her head on his HUD. He took it to indicate a lost cause.“Some things are just out of our control. It sucks. Trust me, I’ve felt it. Istill feel it.”

Hereached out to touch his son but his son turned away and headed into thebathroom. The door clicked shut with a sound of finality to the argument.

Jethroescaped to his commute to work while he could.

<<V>>

Jethrosaw motion in the hallway near the floor as he walked through the new sectionof the base. His attention flickered from thinking about the list of things hehad to do to prepare for the movement to curiosity. Bast rolled her eyes on hisHUD and highlighted a familiar feline figure crouching in the shadows.

Hechuffed softly in amusement and pretended to ignore her in passing. Ember hadfigured out how to cloak in order to try to sneak out of the crèche again. Shewas good, but she had been tagged with an IFF tag and her cloak was only goodif she didn’t move. She didn’t have implants or an AI to manage her cloaks soeverything ran on instinct.

Heturned suddenly and swooped in to catch her and swing her off her feet. Shegrowled in surprise as he held her with one arm under her armpits and the otherunder her bottom as he leaned over her and gave his invisible prey a cheek rub.

Shemock growled and her ears went flat but he chuffed and purred. After a moment,she started to purr in response.

Atech saw him cheek rubbing something and holding it but whatever it was it wasinvisible. The human stopped and stared until Jethro tickled his prey. Embergrowled and lost focus and faded into place in his arms giggling and squirming.“Stop!” she said in a high pitch giggly voice.

Jethrochurred and laughed at her and hugged her tightly. The observer then blinkedand puckered his lips and looked away. After a moment, he shook his head andwalked off.

“So,what are you doing out and about, young lady?” Jethro teased. “Aren’t yousupposed to be with your friends?”

“Nonap,” she growled as he slung her up to his shoulder. She began to play withhis ear in retaliation.

“Really?You don’t like to nap?”

“No,”she pouted as he walked to the crèche.

“Uhhuh,” he said. “Do they know you are gone?” he asked in a light voice. Shesuddenly looked shy.

Bastrolled her virtual eyes and sent a text out to the crèche as well as Zuhura.

Justas she did a security alert came over the 1MC to look for a lost black kitten.

“Ithink they know you are missing. Your mommy is going to be upset,” Jethrowarned.

Emberlooked a little contrite but then flicked her ears.

Findout supposed to be in crèche. Snuck away in naptime.

Zuhuraarrived outside the crèche. She was clearly exasperated with her waywardcharge.

Jethroplay fought to hand her over, eventually relenting with a mock pout. Embergiggled. The byplay lightened the mood.

“Youaren’t supposed to leave the crèche without an adult, young lady,” Zuhurascolded.

“She’sgetting good at being sneaky,” Jethro said. “She almost got past me,” he said.He shrewdly tickled her. “Almost,” he teased as she shrunk back and giggled andthen growled and play swatted at him.

Shemight be playing but her eyes flashed, her ears went back and she started inwith her trademark head cock that said she was ready to get feisty.

“Uhoh,” Zuhura laughed. “Now you’ve done it,” she chuffed. She pretended to holdher charge away from Jethro as Jethro pretended to box with her and then holdhis arms out on either side and then move in to strike. She couldn’t look inboth directions and growled ears flat.

Zuhurachuffed as her father used one hand to distract and the other to strike. Thehead cock came out again.

“Ithink they need to learn to wear this little lady out a bit more beforenaptime,” Jethro observed.

“Nonap!” a certain kitten said, crossing her arms and instantly pouting.

“Yeah,”Zuhura said with a snort as she took the kitten into the crèche. “Thanks, dad.”

“Anytime,”he said with a wave to the kitten.

<<V>>

Lowering the Hammer Snippet 3

 

 

Tortuga, Omicron sector

 

Thebeing known as the Wraith Queen reached out through her communication centersin the vast ship and tested them. She worked out new protocols to control theships around her. But she knew she was lacking in abilities. She resentedhaving to rely on the alliance. It ran against her core programming in some ways.Not all ways thankfully, as her organic partner had pointed out; their creatorshad left room for them to use and exploit other beings in accordance withcompleting their mission.

Shewas still looking forward to the day that she could renounce the partnership infire and end the Necrons once and for all.

Untilthen she had to rely on them to fill the gaps in her abilities.

Atleast, for the time being.

<<V>>

Edessa

 

Oneof the cruisers dispatched south to hold the border to Pi sector returned to thenearest ansible location with news that two ships had been stopped but oneother had been spotted but was now missing. The leadership of the Necrons wasconcerned. They passed the news on to their partners in Tortuga as they wentover the data.

<<V>>

Tortuga

 

HazelIrons was not surprised that her Queen reacted badly to the news when it camein through the ansible. The AI was not happy at all with the events and seethedabout it. Hazel did her best to try to soothe her.

Shewas one of the oldest clone changelings in existence. Her line had been soreliable; it had been used until it had become too recognizable by the enemy.In fact, to date they had not found any other changelings.

Byluck or circumstance, the changeling and her AI partner had been dumped into astasis pod and left adrift in Pi sector. They had been found and salvaged bypirates who had been fleeing the growing Federation presence in the area. Theduo had accidentally been awoken, and they had decided to first take over the shipand then move on from there.

Itwas an interesting partnership. Hazel had no illusions as to who was thedominant of them. She was a kingmaker, the power behind the throne, the voiceof sweet reason and the spark of creativity that her partner lacked.

Shealso knew she was ultimately disposable. She believed she was still of use forher partner and the cause though, so she did her best to remain useful.

Herpartner had grown to the point where she had been forced out and into a newbody in the form of the massive flagship under construction. However delays hadkept the ship in dock and hampered by problems that plagued their ability tofully function as planned for some time. It did not help the AI’s mood at all.

“Ifthe ship did escape, and we don’t know if it did, it would have to survive thejump back to Pi sector, which is over a year. It has an unknown amount ofsupplies available and fuel,” Hazel mused.

“Isee what you are doing. You are trying to convince me that the risk of exposureis small. Small enough to be ignored,” the Wraith seethed.

“No,I am working the problem by defining the variables in it,” her clone partnerexplained gently. It hurt to argue with her partner. They were made to worktogether after all. They were an incredible team, just look at what they hadachieved so far! Other changelings would have doggedly stuck to their missionor given up! They had instead taken over a ship and then others and then forgedan unlikely alliance with Necrons to take over the sector!

Theystill had some work to do but their progress was breathtaking. And it washappening faster than either of them expected. Well, faster than she hadexpected.

“Icannot in good conscience state that the risk is negligible given that themissing ship is a Federation ship,” Hazel said slowly.

“And?”

“Ibelieve that means we have to generate some plans and modify existing ones,”the clone stated slowly.

“Suchas?” the Wraith prompted. Her clone and former host was the spark of ingenuityin their partnership. She was cunning and clever to a degree, but the human wasthe true mastermind of some of their achievements.

“Twopaths are obvious to me,” the clone said as she came up with the plan. “First,we send a task force to defend the jump line in Pi with an ansible link to keepus alerted to any further events there.”

“Abit late,” the Wraith said scathingly.

“Onlyin attempting to stop the single ship. There may be others,” her human partnerwarned.

“Agreed,”the AI hissed.

“Andthere may be new traffic coming from Pi. In fact, that is inevitable given howthe Federation is expanding. Eventually they will send ships, if only to findout what happened to the first explorers they sent.”

“Agreed,”the AI stated. “What else?”

“Isuggest we send a small task force, possibly just a couple of cruisers to Pi torun the fleeing ship down. If they can get ahead of the ship, they can lay inwait and ambush the ship and thus prevent it from reporting back. At the least,they could report on events in Pi sector and possibly even interdict shippingin that sector before it even comes to us.”

TheWraith queen took some time to respond. Hazel glanced around and then checkedthe status board of the star system in a bid to keep busy.

“Youwould want to send an ansible there too I suppose?” the AI finally asked afterrunning a number of simulations. “The risk of exposure is high.”

“Itis if they enter a star system. If they remain outside it as observers, it isless of a risk. If they engage, yes, the risks grow.”

“Especiallyif the ship escapes them further.”

“Correct.But if we do nothing, that risk is there anyway. Attempting to stop them maycorrect the problem.”

“Ormake it worse,” the Wraith replied. “But I see your point.” The AI paused. “Iwill give the order.”

“Good.”

<<V>>