Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 46
March 7, 2015
Multiverse 2 snippet
Okay, I just got the manuscript back from Rea this morning, and after a couple of hours I've gone over it, added the TOC and appendix, then uploaded it to Goodlifeguide.com for final formatting. We should be seeing it back in 10-14 days. If not sooner. :)
In the meantime, here is a snippet to wet your appetite. There are 11 short stories in the book, 4 of them are from the Federation universe. 1 was supposed to be the short story at the end of Ghosts from the Past but I ran long on that book so I pulled it. Here is a piece of it...
Lewis and Clarke
On the trip out to Hidoshi's World, Second Lieutenant Craig Lewis and his people were too busy to get nervous. Every waking moment they were busy training, running sims in VR and in holds set up as shoot houses. The few officers and noncoms had created various contingency battle plans based on their limited intel and what the book had to offer. They did their best to simulate them, then critique the end results. “Get it right, people!” was a favored rant from acting E-5 Sergeant Padre Rutledge.
Padre was a father figure to the troops, but he could be a hard ass when required. Craig was fairly certain the admiral and Lieutenant Gustov would sign off on his bumping Rutledge from E-4. He needed an experienced noncom badly. He had three, one per ten-man squad; he had bumped Race Bannon from PFC to Lance Corporal and Hadji also to Lance Corporal to help fill the last voids in his command chain. Hadji's buddy John Quest would serve as a good PFC, though the young blond man had a bad habit of getting into mischief. Lewis shook his head. Race was right. Idle hands were at play there, though their training did keep everyone pretty damn busy.
He was still limited to himself and Ensign Sing Xe as officers, but he'd work with what he had available. It bothered him that if something happened to them the platoon would be up a creek. He had to remind himself he had a duty to everyone including the people on the planet to stay out of combat as much as possible and direct the various battles from afar. That was going to be a bitch. It would let him and Sing pilot the mechs and drones though, which was a small consolation prize.
Besides he mused, he was fairly certain both senior officers considered their mission a long shot. There would be a lot of people who wouldn't be coming back from it. Hopefully, not as many as he feared, he closed his eyes. One would be too many, too damn many. But he also knew that any one of his people would gladly give their lives to save the people on the world they were about to assault, to save people they had never met. And if they killed some of the bastards along the way, well, that was just gravy. His lips twitched in a small grim smile.
All of the marines and the liberated civilians they had along for the ride were crammed into Collier 2, formally known by the Horathians as Tender T12783, the Clydesdale freighter turned liberated collier. Lieutenant Herschel was a good captain though; he ran a tight ship. For him this wasn't just retribution and payback, it was coming home to liberate his homeworld. He kept everyone busy, too busy to worry about what they were up against. The other two ships were the tanker and Deinara. Deinara was outfitted with most of their support equipment as well as their rail guns. She was a medium-sized freighter though, far smaller than Collier 2 or Lassie.
Apparently the battalion had squeezed into the medium freighter and escorts by placing all of their shuttles and a good part of their cargo on the hull of the ships. To have that many bodies in such a confined space was still mindboggling however.
They had thirty marines including the two officers in a short platoon. Sergeant Bannon's squad was outfitted with powered armor. All the other marines were outfitted in standard armor. There were four heavy weapons teams and the rest of the marines were shooters.
To supplement their numbers, they had thirty mechs, android troopers that they were uncomfortable with using. There were also forty drones of various makes and models including four of Bounty'ssecurity dog drones. They had tons of gear, nearly a hundred tons of gear from Admiral Irons, not just for their use but to help rebuild the colony. They had to recapture it first. Lewis had also borrowed a half a dozen squids to act as corpsman and field medics for his short platoon and three techs to keep the machines in line.
They worked themselves twenty-hour days into exhaustion, then underwent sleep teaching at least three nights a week for six hours each time to supplement their training further. They kept training until they responded like veterans using muscle memory, the training to follow orders, and relying on their training instinctively to get the job done and stay alive. One half day a week they had off to get caught up on laundry, inventory, and other chores. Many did them as quickly as possible and then racked out to get what sleep they could.
They could only simulate explosives and weapons fire in both VR and in the shoot houses. Likewise the initial drop was to be made by their Skyhawk and three civilian cargo shuttles. Keeping one shuttle in reserve was prudent, but Xe expressed his doubts repeatedly. His theory was for them to hit hard with all six shuttles and then pull one back for the reserve later. They weren't even counting the two cutters Deinara had. They could land four people in a drop and needed a long runway to do it.
Those were worrisome holes in the plan; a lot could go wrong right from the beginning screwing the entire op up. Another problem was that they could also only simulate the usage of mechs and drones virtually. That was a major point of contention with the leadership, along with how to use them effectively. Ensign Xe wanted to keep them in reserve or have them fight on their own while Hadji wanted to use them as cannon fodder, to soak up the enemy's fire until the real troops landed and dug in at a different location.
Lewis on the other hand knew they had finite resources and knew he couldn't waste them. But he also knew they would be expended; that was a part of any operation. People as well, they were going to take losses; it was inevitable. He made himself face it. Just about every simulation confirmed that fear as well. They were using opposition forces that were as tough as they were now; his people were winning but taking loses. He tried to explain to them that it may be a game now, but they couldn't soak up that fire and win. They could win the individual battles yet still lose the war if they were cut to pieces by attrition. It was just one thing among a hundred that sometimes kept him up at night.
It had taken them seven and a half weeks to transit the 4.9 light years from B100 omega to the outskirts of Hidoshi's World star system. What a name, he thought, shaking his head. What a mouthful! Did the natives call it that he wondered? He snorted, finishing off his coffee. Training was over; they were now feverishly working on final preparations for the performance of their lives.
And now it came to this, Lewis thought as he stood watching the screen in his tiny cabin. They had just exited hyper two days ago and were cautiously entering the inner system, passing through the Oort cloud on their way in. Deinara was lagging behind with the tanker, but by design both ship's crews would be picking up a choice selection of rocks to be used later on. They would catch up soon enough.
It bothered him that they had so little intelligence. A Horathian battalion had been sent in led by a Colonel Wizenbek as the invasion commander with a Lieutenant Colonel Zin as his political advisor and battalion commander. A battalion could mean anything from nine hundred to twelve hundred soldiers. They had equipment; he knew that. How much was another question and in what quantity of each category and quality. Also, what they had captured on the planet.
He ran a frustrated hand through his short cropped hair. High and tight, just like the regs said. He'd come to realize it was the best haircut he'd ever had, easy to maintain, and hell, he looked good in it. He frowned as he looked at Zin's profile.
Commander Sprite and Lieutenant Defender had dumped a profile for him from the captured ship's computers. How Zin had tucked away an entire battalion in two colliers and a couple of corvettes … he shook his head. His intel specialist, Race, was going over the raw dump and assembling a better picture in his free time. Which wasn't much, Craig thought with a pang. Race had to be with his squad to train and oversee them since he was their noncom, but he was doing double duty like just about everyone else. He so wished the AI could have coded a dedicated intel AI for him. Some support, any support in that field would be nice right about now, he judged.
“If wishes were fishes,” Craig murmured, going back to the briefing. He studied Colonel Wizenbek; the stocky man was a by-the-book officer. He wasn't very flexible. But his XO and advisor was a different story. He looked at the cold eyes and the Asian male's overall look: blue burning eyes, high cheekbones, bald with liver spots, and thin almost skeletal hands. The colonel looked intimidating in his sharp black uniform.
He was fairly certain Wizenbek would be in the HQ, so he was confident they would decapitate his leadership in the initial strike. That left Zin to deal with, the greater of the two evils. He was tempted to hold off on hitting the HQ. Wizenbek might tie Zin's hands and bumble his way right into the marine's hands. But he couldn't count on that. He exhaled slowly, trying to cleanse his frustration. They'd just have to deal with it when the situation arose he thought.
Zin was some sort of zealot, also according to the short bio they had on him, some sort of doctor. He was a diehard believer, which meant he was most likely going to fight to the bitter end. There was no point giving him a heads up and a chance to surrender; that would just give him time to disperse his forces or do something drastic to the population.
Zin's second-in-command was a Major Alercon. There was little on him, not even an image of him. Nor of his any of his other officers, though one or two had names mentioned in the files. Apparently Race hadn't gotten that far yet.
He sighed and set the tablet down, then rubbed at his jaw, and then scrubbed his tired eyes with his hands. Probes had been sent out through the solar system and all three ships maintained a vigilant watch with their long-range sensors. The sensors were almost useless, however, since most of them were civilian grade. They just confirmed the basic information about the star system that they already knew. It was a G class star system, a couple of Jupiter class gas giants and the three planets, one of which was Hidoshi's World. The planet was an Earth class, 1.03 atmosphere, 21 degree axial tilt; she'd been terraformed at some point to be habitable. That might explain her orbit. She was in a wide orbit, in for a short brutal summer, long cooling-off autumn, then an even longer brutal winter according to the Galactic Encyclopedia entry. He shook his head. Well, this was the time to mount a campaign. He hoped it was short.
The probing did turn up a few minor treasures; the squids found a couple derelict ships and debris floating about the system. Apparently they were happy about that, though there was some doubt that any of the ships were salvageable.
“Sir, we're getting a signal from the planet,” a rating said over the intercom.
“Oh?” He looked up in surprise. “How did they know we were here?”
“I don't know, sir; we're still three AU out. Captain Herschel implemented op plan Trojan horse under his authority.”
Craig nodded. Trojan horse was simple; they would come in pretending to be more Horathians with additional troops and supplies for the garrison. That would make Zin's people relax and eager to meet and greet them. Every commander wanted more troops and equipment; there was never enough. And to pacify a planet? With a population in the low millions? With millions of places for people to hide? That took a lot of boots on the ground and a lot of work.
Most likely Zin's people had taken casualties as well, at least he hoped so. The population might have rolled over initially, but hopefully someone somewhere had put up a fight, even if it was brief one. A guerrilla campaign would also be nice. A nice sniper, maybe an IED.
Hell, technically he should be wishing Zin was complacent. It would make his job initially easier. In a way he was in the same role Zin was in less than six months ago. Hoping the planet was ignorant of his true intentions. What was that saying about surprise? He shook his head. He didn't have the time to look it up.
“Is the captain sticking to the plan?”
The rating cleared his throat in surprise. He had been about to cut the link, thinking the marine had forgotten about him. “Yes, sir, he is,” the rating replied.
“Good. We don't want them to recognize one of our own people, now do we? It's too early to give the game away.”
“Aye, sir. The skipper is sticking to audio only. He's using a scrubber to garble up the voice a little, and a healthy dose or two of static to cut the chatter down to a minimum.”
“Which will make Zin's people want to get more information once we're closer or in orbit. Tell them they can wait for news,” Craig said, then a thought hit him. “You know what, see if you can slip in there something about special orders for Colonel Zin on a flash chip. They are to be turned over to him specifically. That should put him neatly in the cross hairs.”
“Do you want us to get his location, sir?”
“Don't be too obvious about it. If he insists on a hand off to a subordinate at the spaceport, just say it's his choice to countermand orders or something to that effect. Don't get too cute or piss him off.”
“Aye, sir.” The rating paused. “Sir, we've backtracked the signal to its source. Sensors have found a ship in polar orbit of the planet.”
“Can you dump it to my screen?” the marine asked, now concerned. There had been nothing in the debrief about a ship left behind. If it was really a ship, they could be in trouble. The ship could run and possibly even slip past the admiral. Hell, most likely could slip past him if he'd already jumped! They could even radio a warning to Zin. That was a problem.
“It's odd, sir. Here is the image,” the rating said, sending the link to the marine's tablet. Lewis looked down at it, then picked it up as he frowned. The image was a spec but definitely a ship of some sort. It glittered; apparently, it had wings of solar panels. As he studied it, the sensor officer refined the image, putting up data in brief flashes of information around the ship. “According to this, no life signs have been detected within the ship? What's with the panels?”
“That is correct, sir. According to the spectrograph she's a cold ship. No outgassing, no signs of life. Her thermal signature is also too low to support life.”
“That is … odd.”
“It is too early to speculate, but the captain believes it is a derelict that has been turned into a space station by the natives,” the rating stated.
“But we don't know that for sure,” Lewis murmured.
“No, sir. Um, the captain asked if you wanted to dispatch a boarding party when we get into orbit.”
“Definitely. I'll alert my people. They've got six days to prep,” Lewis said grimly. “Ask the skipper if he or your communication's people can work out some sort of way to jam the ship's transmission without being obvious,” he said.
“Simulating a solar flare might work, sir. I'm not sure. I'm the acting communication's officer, sir. I'll look into it and get back to you.”
“Good man,” Lewis murmured, getting to his feet. He had orders to pass on. “You do that. In the meantime, I'll be with Ensign Xe.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
>*…*<>*…*<
In the meantime, here is a snippet to wet your appetite. There are 11 short stories in the book, 4 of them are from the Federation universe. 1 was supposed to be the short story at the end of Ghosts from the Past but I ran long on that book so I pulled it. Here is a piece of it...
Lewis and Clarke
On the trip out to Hidoshi's World, Second Lieutenant Craig Lewis and his people were too busy to get nervous. Every waking moment they were busy training, running sims in VR and in holds set up as shoot houses. The few officers and noncoms had created various contingency battle plans based on their limited intel and what the book had to offer. They did their best to simulate them, then critique the end results. “Get it right, people!” was a favored rant from acting E-5 Sergeant Padre Rutledge.
Padre was a father figure to the troops, but he could be a hard ass when required. Craig was fairly certain the admiral and Lieutenant Gustov would sign off on his bumping Rutledge from E-4. He needed an experienced noncom badly. He had three, one per ten-man squad; he had bumped Race Bannon from PFC to Lance Corporal and Hadji also to Lance Corporal to help fill the last voids in his command chain. Hadji's buddy John Quest would serve as a good PFC, though the young blond man had a bad habit of getting into mischief. Lewis shook his head. Race was right. Idle hands were at play there, though their training did keep everyone pretty damn busy.
He was still limited to himself and Ensign Sing Xe as officers, but he'd work with what he had available. It bothered him that if something happened to them the platoon would be up a creek. He had to remind himself he had a duty to everyone including the people on the planet to stay out of combat as much as possible and direct the various battles from afar. That was going to be a bitch. It would let him and Sing pilot the mechs and drones though, which was a small consolation prize.
Besides he mused, he was fairly certain both senior officers considered their mission a long shot. There would be a lot of people who wouldn't be coming back from it. Hopefully, not as many as he feared, he closed his eyes. One would be too many, too damn many. But he also knew that any one of his people would gladly give their lives to save the people on the world they were about to assault, to save people they had never met. And if they killed some of the bastards along the way, well, that was just gravy. His lips twitched in a small grim smile.
All of the marines and the liberated civilians they had along for the ride were crammed into Collier 2, formally known by the Horathians as Tender T12783, the Clydesdale freighter turned liberated collier. Lieutenant Herschel was a good captain though; he ran a tight ship. For him this wasn't just retribution and payback, it was coming home to liberate his homeworld. He kept everyone busy, too busy to worry about what they were up against. The other two ships were the tanker and Deinara. Deinara was outfitted with most of their support equipment as well as their rail guns. She was a medium-sized freighter though, far smaller than Collier 2 or Lassie.
Apparently the battalion had squeezed into the medium freighter and escorts by placing all of their shuttles and a good part of their cargo on the hull of the ships. To have that many bodies in such a confined space was still mindboggling however.
They had thirty marines including the two officers in a short platoon. Sergeant Bannon's squad was outfitted with powered armor. All the other marines were outfitted in standard armor. There were four heavy weapons teams and the rest of the marines were shooters.
To supplement their numbers, they had thirty mechs, android troopers that they were uncomfortable with using. There were also forty drones of various makes and models including four of Bounty'ssecurity dog drones. They had tons of gear, nearly a hundred tons of gear from Admiral Irons, not just for their use but to help rebuild the colony. They had to recapture it first. Lewis had also borrowed a half a dozen squids to act as corpsman and field medics for his short platoon and three techs to keep the machines in line.
They worked themselves twenty-hour days into exhaustion, then underwent sleep teaching at least three nights a week for six hours each time to supplement their training further. They kept training until they responded like veterans using muscle memory, the training to follow orders, and relying on their training instinctively to get the job done and stay alive. One half day a week they had off to get caught up on laundry, inventory, and other chores. Many did them as quickly as possible and then racked out to get what sleep they could.
They could only simulate explosives and weapons fire in both VR and in the shoot houses. Likewise the initial drop was to be made by their Skyhawk and three civilian cargo shuttles. Keeping one shuttle in reserve was prudent, but Xe expressed his doubts repeatedly. His theory was for them to hit hard with all six shuttles and then pull one back for the reserve later. They weren't even counting the two cutters Deinara had. They could land four people in a drop and needed a long runway to do it.
Those were worrisome holes in the plan; a lot could go wrong right from the beginning screwing the entire op up. Another problem was that they could also only simulate the usage of mechs and drones virtually. That was a major point of contention with the leadership, along with how to use them effectively. Ensign Xe wanted to keep them in reserve or have them fight on their own while Hadji wanted to use them as cannon fodder, to soak up the enemy's fire until the real troops landed and dug in at a different location.
Lewis on the other hand knew they had finite resources and knew he couldn't waste them. But he also knew they would be expended; that was a part of any operation. People as well, they were going to take losses; it was inevitable. He made himself face it. Just about every simulation confirmed that fear as well. They were using opposition forces that were as tough as they were now; his people were winning but taking loses. He tried to explain to them that it may be a game now, but they couldn't soak up that fire and win. They could win the individual battles yet still lose the war if they were cut to pieces by attrition. It was just one thing among a hundred that sometimes kept him up at night.
It had taken them seven and a half weeks to transit the 4.9 light years from B100 omega to the outskirts of Hidoshi's World star system. What a name, he thought, shaking his head. What a mouthful! Did the natives call it that he wondered? He snorted, finishing off his coffee. Training was over; they were now feverishly working on final preparations for the performance of their lives.
And now it came to this, Lewis thought as he stood watching the screen in his tiny cabin. They had just exited hyper two days ago and were cautiously entering the inner system, passing through the Oort cloud on their way in. Deinara was lagging behind with the tanker, but by design both ship's crews would be picking up a choice selection of rocks to be used later on. They would catch up soon enough.
It bothered him that they had so little intelligence. A Horathian battalion had been sent in led by a Colonel Wizenbek as the invasion commander with a Lieutenant Colonel Zin as his political advisor and battalion commander. A battalion could mean anything from nine hundred to twelve hundred soldiers. They had equipment; he knew that. How much was another question and in what quantity of each category and quality. Also, what they had captured on the planet.
He ran a frustrated hand through his short cropped hair. High and tight, just like the regs said. He'd come to realize it was the best haircut he'd ever had, easy to maintain, and hell, he looked good in it. He frowned as he looked at Zin's profile.
Commander Sprite and Lieutenant Defender had dumped a profile for him from the captured ship's computers. How Zin had tucked away an entire battalion in two colliers and a couple of corvettes … he shook his head. His intel specialist, Race, was going over the raw dump and assembling a better picture in his free time. Which wasn't much, Craig thought with a pang. Race had to be with his squad to train and oversee them since he was their noncom, but he was doing double duty like just about everyone else. He so wished the AI could have coded a dedicated intel AI for him. Some support, any support in that field would be nice right about now, he judged.
“If wishes were fishes,” Craig murmured, going back to the briefing. He studied Colonel Wizenbek; the stocky man was a by-the-book officer. He wasn't very flexible. But his XO and advisor was a different story. He looked at the cold eyes and the Asian male's overall look: blue burning eyes, high cheekbones, bald with liver spots, and thin almost skeletal hands. The colonel looked intimidating in his sharp black uniform.
He was fairly certain Wizenbek would be in the HQ, so he was confident they would decapitate his leadership in the initial strike. That left Zin to deal with, the greater of the two evils. He was tempted to hold off on hitting the HQ. Wizenbek might tie Zin's hands and bumble his way right into the marine's hands. But he couldn't count on that. He exhaled slowly, trying to cleanse his frustration. They'd just have to deal with it when the situation arose he thought.
Zin was some sort of zealot, also according to the short bio they had on him, some sort of doctor. He was a diehard believer, which meant he was most likely going to fight to the bitter end. There was no point giving him a heads up and a chance to surrender; that would just give him time to disperse his forces or do something drastic to the population.
Zin's second-in-command was a Major Alercon. There was little on him, not even an image of him. Nor of his any of his other officers, though one or two had names mentioned in the files. Apparently Race hadn't gotten that far yet.
He sighed and set the tablet down, then rubbed at his jaw, and then scrubbed his tired eyes with his hands. Probes had been sent out through the solar system and all three ships maintained a vigilant watch with their long-range sensors. The sensors were almost useless, however, since most of them were civilian grade. They just confirmed the basic information about the star system that they already knew. It was a G class star system, a couple of Jupiter class gas giants and the three planets, one of which was Hidoshi's World. The planet was an Earth class, 1.03 atmosphere, 21 degree axial tilt; she'd been terraformed at some point to be habitable. That might explain her orbit. She was in a wide orbit, in for a short brutal summer, long cooling-off autumn, then an even longer brutal winter according to the Galactic Encyclopedia entry. He shook his head. Well, this was the time to mount a campaign. He hoped it was short.
The probing did turn up a few minor treasures; the squids found a couple derelict ships and debris floating about the system. Apparently they were happy about that, though there was some doubt that any of the ships were salvageable.
“Sir, we're getting a signal from the planet,” a rating said over the intercom.
“Oh?” He looked up in surprise. “How did they know we were here?”
“I don't know, sir; we're still three AU out. Captain Herschel implemented op plan Trojan horse under his authority.”
Craig nodded. Trojan horse was simple; they would come in pretending to be more Horathians with additional troops and supplies for the garrison. That would make Zin's people relax and eager to meet and greet them. Every commander wanted more troops and equipment; there was never enough. And to pacify a planet? With a population in the low millions? With millions of places for people to hide? That took a lot of boots on the ground and a lot of work.
Most likely Zin's people had taken casualties as well, at least he hoped so. The population might have rolled over initially, but hopefully someone somewhere had put up a fight, even if it was brief one. A guerrilla campaign would also be nice. A nice sniper, maybe an IED.
Hell, technically he should be wishing Zin was complacent. It would make his job initially easier. In a way he was in the same role Zin was in less than six months ago. Hoping the planet was ignorant of his true intentions. What was that saying about surprise? He shook his head. He didn't have the time to look it up.
“Is the captain sticking to the plan?”
The rating cleared his throat in surprise. He had been about to cut the link, thinking the marine had forgotten about him. “Yes, sir, he is,” the rating replied.
“Good. We don't want them to recognize one of our own people, now do we? It's too early to give the game away.”
“Aye, sir. The skipper is sticking to audio only. He's using a scrubber to garble up the voice a little, and a healthy dose or two of static to cut the chatter down to a minimum.”
“Which will make Zin's people want to get more information once we're closer or in orbit. Tell them they can wait for news,” Craig said, then a thought hit him. “You know what, see if you can slip in there something about special orders for Colonel Zin on a flash chip. They are to be turned over to him specifically. That should put him neatly in the cross hairs.”
“Do you want us to get his location, sir?”
“Don't be too obvious about it. If he insists on a hand off to a subordinate at the spaceport, just say it's his choice to countermand orders or something to that effect. Don't get too cute or piss him off.”
“Aye, sir.” The rating paused. “Sir, we've backtracked the signal to its source. Sensors have found a ship in polar orbit of the planet.”
“Can you dump it to my screen?” the marine asked, now concerned. There had been nothing in the debrief about a ship left behind. If it was really a ship, they could be in trouble. The ship could run and possibly even slip past the admiral. Hell, most likely could slip past him if he'd already jumped! They could even radio a warning to Zin. That was a problem.
“It's odd, sir. Here is the image,” the rating said, sending the link to the marine's tablet. Lewis looked down at it, then picked it up as he frowned. The image was a spec but definitely a ship of some sort. It glittered; apparently, it had wings of solar panels. As he studied it, the sensor officer refined the image, putting up data in brief flashes of information around the ship. “According to this, no life signs have been detected within the ship? What's with the panels?”
“That is correct, sir. According to the spectrograph she's a cold ship. No outgassing, no signs of life. Her thermal signature is also too low to support life.”
“That is … odd.”
“It is too early to speculate, but the captain believes it is a derelict that has been turned into a space station by the natives,” the rating stated.
“But we don't know that for sure,” Lewis murmured.
“No, sir. Um, the captain asked if you wanted to dispatch a boarding party when we get into orbit.”
“Definitely. I'll alert my people. They've got six days to prep,” Lewis said grimly. “Ask the skipper if he or your communication's people can work out some sort of way to jam the ship's transmission without being obvious,” he said.
“Simulating a solar flare might work, sir. I'm not sure. I'm the acting communication's officer, sir. I'll look into it and get back to you.”
“Good man,” Lewis murmured, getting to his feet. He had orders to pass on. “You do that. In the meantime, I'll be with Ensign Xe.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
>*…*<>*…*<
February 17, 2015
Battle Lines Snippet 3
Hi,
Okay, here it is:
They sipped at the EM spectrum the best his little ship could, logging everything for future analysis. They didn't have the computer support to process even a tenth of the data however. “Sir, at this rate we'll be full up in a day,” Jim said when the captain came back on shift the next morning.They had identified 11 possible ship contacts in orbit of the planet. 7 of them were of appreciable mass, either a destroyer or freighter. The others were unknowns, they were still attempting to get positive ID's on the large ships.“We're scheduled to be here for longer,” the new captain stated mildly. Didn't anyone plan for this? No, of course not, he thought pedantically. Send a damn frigate on a tin can's mission. “Were you on this all night?”“Yes sir.” The captain frowned thoughtfully. Jim looked okay but he had circles under his eyes. The kid had the energy of youth and his implants so he could handle it, but the work load and stresses involved were taking their toll.The captain crossed his arms and looked down his nose at the rating. “Then you've got a problem. Solve it. Compress the files.” He frowned thoughtfully and then nodded to himself. “In fact, compress anything we don't need now as well. Restrict recreational use on the computer net. And move some material to hard copy backups.” He was curious about how the rating would do on this little test. It would push him a bit and might expand his horizons. It would go a long way to see if the young man was ready for more responsibility.Jim nodded. “Aye aye sir. It's a drop in the bucket though sir.”“It's a start. Are we filtering?”“Our ears are picking up what we can sir. Filtering? I don't think... no sir.” Jim shook his head.“Do so. We don't need the spectral noise of the gas giant or local star. Strip that out.”“Yes sir.”“Do the same for anything natural once it's been tagged and identified. Map its location and then filter it out. That should help.”“Yes sir, it should.”“Once you've nailed down the artificial sources tag them for further analysis. But have someone keep an ear out for new sources as well. Just in case.”“Aye aye sir.”He worried over being in the system though, he didn't want to blow his very first mission. The frigate wasn't set up for stealth however so they had to wing it. Three days on station. Just 72 measly hours and then they could jump out again.---<>---<>---On the third day they got additional confirmation of occupation of planet. It was grim, Jim could barely listen to it. Hassan had tried but he didn't have the stomach for it. He shook his head. He didn't envy intel's job, not in the slightest.Come to think of it, they should have sent a spook along for the ride. Not that they had room... he frowned thoughtfully. Hopefully Admiral White would have one assigned to his staff. He shrugged such problems off his shoulders. He had other concerns. Like if White was actually going to make the rendezvous. He had his doubts.They had also gotten positive fingerprint ID's of each of the ships in the star system, EM from the ships when they were broadcasting. Any that were under power allowed the watching observer to fingerprint their drives. They gathered any other intel data they could without going active.“Air getting a bit thick isn't it?”“Don't worry,” Jim said.“Just saying.”“We're fine. Technically we could get almost all the way back if we reduced mass. We'd be a jump short but it could work. Could. Not that I have any intention of trying it.”“But sir, what if we wait too long at the rendezvous and they are delayed or never show?”“Then we're screwed.” That earned a wince. “We all knew the risks going into this people. It's worth it.” He glanced at the clock. It'd damn well better be he thought.“What's that smell?” Jim asked, sniffing the air.“I swear you're worse than my sainted mother,” Adel growled shaking her head.“Don't ask a lady to admit she's ripped one,” Ensign Nissan Ham the navigator said maliciously.“Funny,” Adel growled. “Very funny,” she drawled, giving the Neochimp navigator the stink eye. The young woman giggled.“Mind your stations people. Work on the jump list,” the captain said mildly. When Jim sniffed the air again the captain sighed. “I knew they should have crewed this ship with midgets.”“Or elves sir. Five to one of us sir,” Jim said with a grin.“Something like that. Are you okay with computer space?”Jim bobbed a nod. “It turns out we had some flash memory sticks in one of the storage containers sir. The XO found them this morning and we've been using them,” he said, indicating a bank of jury rigged electronic storage devices hooked up to his station. The captain leaned over slightly to get a look. They were by the man's feet, hooked up to some sort of hub to the port.“Just don't step on them or the admiral might keel haul you,” the captain warned as he straightened. He glanced at the clock. One minute until they could leave. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Adel also superstitiously looking. He snorted. It wasn't like they needed to look, they could put the countdown on their HUD. But that was distracting.When the clock hit zero he nodded and straightened his shoulders. The bridge crew looked at him expectantly for the order. “Time to go. Helm, bring us about. Navigation I want a soft translation into hyperspace.”“A soft translation sir?”“Low band. If you can, find us a rock to hide behind while we do it.”“Sir? We can't be near any appreciable mass or...”“I meant between us and the enemy. Run the numbers, even a planet or moon in system. We need to time it so our flash of departure isn't seen.”“I see sir.” The navigator frowned as she ran scenarios. “This will take some time sir. I'll need to simulate each ship's point of view carefully.”“Just do your best.”“This would be quicker and easier with an AI,” the navigator grumbled. Captain Gruber ignored her gripe. Sometimes they had to do their own grunt work, not rely on an AI or someone to do the heavy lifting for them. He turned his eyes to his XO and chief engineer. “Something to add Lieutenant?”The XO shook his head. “No sir. They didn't notice our arrival so let's hope we can get out the same way,” the XO stated. “If we're far enough out and with enough scatter between us and them we may get lucky.”“Exactly.”---<>---<>---
Okay, here it is:
They sipped at the EM spectrum the best his little ship could, logging everything for future analysis. They didn't have the computer support to process even a tenth of the data however. “Sir, at this rate we'll be full up in a day,” Jim said when the captain came back on shift the next morning.They had identified 11 possible ship contacts in orbit of the planet. 7 of them were of appreciable mass, either a destroyer or freighter. The others were unknowns, they were still attempting to get positive ID's on the large ships.“We're scheduled to be here for longer,” the new captain stated mildly. Didn't anyone plan for this? No, of course not, he thought pedantically. Send a damn frigate on a tin can's mission. “Were you on this all night?”“Yes sir.” The captain frowned thoughtfully. Jim looked okay but he had circles under his eyes. The kid had the energy of youth and his implants so he could handle it, but the work load and stresses involved were taking their toll.The captain crossed his arms and looked down his nose at the rating. “Then you've got a problem. Solve it. Compress the files.” He frowned thoughtfully and then nodded to himself. “In fact, compress anything we don't need now as well. Restrict recreational use on the computer net. And move some material to hard copy backups.” He was curious about how the rating would do on this little test. It would push him a bit and might expand his horizons. It would go a long way to see if the young man was ready for more responsibility.Jim nodded. “Aye aye sir. It's a drop in the bucket though sir.”“It's a start. Are we filtering?”“Our ears are picking up what we can sir. Filtering? I don't think... no sir.” Jim shook his head.“Do so. We don't need the spectral noise of the gas giant or local star. Strip that out.”“Yes sir.”“Do the same for anything natural once it's been tagged and identified. Map its location and then filter it out. That should help.”“Yes sir, it should.”“Once you've nailed down the artificial sources tag them for further analysis. But have someone keep an ear out for new sources as well. Just in case.”“Aye aye sir.”He worried over being in the system though, he didn't want to blow his very first mission. The frigate wasn't set up for stealth however so they had to wing it. Three days on station. Just 72 measly hours and then they could jump out again.---<>---<>---On the third day they got additional confirmation of occupation of planet. It was grim, Jim could barely listen to it. Hassan had tried but he didn't have the stomach for it. He shook his head. He didn't envy intel's job, not in the slightest.Come to think of it, they should have sent a spook along for the ride. Not that they had room... he frowned thoughtfully. Hopefully Admiral White would have one assigned to his staff. He shrugged such problems off his shoulders. He had other concerns. Like if White was actually going to make the rendezvous. He had his doubts.They had also gotten positive fingerprint ID's of each of the ships in the star system, EM from the ships when they were broadcasting. Any that were under power allowed the watching observer to fingerprint their drives. They gathered any other intel data they could without going active.“Air getting a bit thick isn't it?”“Don't worry,” Jim said.“Just saying.”“We're fine. Technically we could get almost all the way back if we reduced mass. We'd be a jump short but it could work. Could. Not that I have any intention of trying it.”“But sir, what if we wait too long at the rendezvous and they are delayed or never show?”“Then we're screwed.” That earned a wince. “We all knew the risks going into this people. It's worth it.” He glanced at the clock. It'd damn well better be he thought.“What's that smell?” Jim asked, sniffing the air.“I swear you're worse than my sainted mother,” Adel growled shaking her head.“Don't ask a lady to admit she's ripped one,” Ensign Nissan Ham the navigator said maliciously.“Funny,” Adel growled. “Very funny,” she drawled, giving the Neochimp navigator the stink eye. The young woman giggled.“Mind your stations people. Work on the jump list,” the captain said mildly. When Jim sniffed the air again the captain sighed. “I knew they should have crewed this ship with midgets.”“Or elves sir. Five to one of us sir,” Jim said with a grin.“Something like that. Are you okay with computer space?”Jim bobbed a nod. “It turns out we had some flash memory sticks in one of the storage containers sir. The XO found them this morning and we've been using them,” he said, indicating a bank of jury rigged electronic storage devices hooked up to his station. The captain leaned over slightly to get a look. They were by the man's feet, hooked up to some sort of hub to the port.“Just don't step on them or the admiral might keel haul you,” the captain warned as he straightened. He glanced at the clock. One minute until they could leave. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Adel also superstitiously looking. He snorted. It wasn't like they needed to look, they could put the countdown on their HUD. But that was distracting.When the clock hit zero he nodded and straightened his shoulders. The bridge crew looked at him expectantly for the order. “Time to go. Helm, bring us about. Navigation I want a soft translation into hyperspace.”“A soft translation sir?”“Low band. If you can, find us a rock to hide behind while we do it.”“Sir? We can't be near any appreciable mass or...”“I meant between us and the enemy. Run the numbers, even a planet or moon in system. We need to time it so our flash of departure isn't seen.”“I see sir.” The navigator frowned as she ran scenarios. “This will take some time sir. I'll need to simulate each ship's point of view carefully.”“Just do your best.”“This would be quicker and easier with an AI,” the navigator grumbled. Captain Gruber ignored her gripe. Sometimes they had to do their own grunt work, not rely on an AI or someone to do the heavy lifting for them. He turned his eyes to his XO and chief engineer. “Something to add Lieutenant?”The XO shook his head. “No sir. They didn't notice our arrival so let's hope we can get out the same way,” the XO stated. “If we're far enough out and with enough scatter between us and them we may get lucky.”“Exactly.”---<>---<>---
February 16, 2015
Battle Lines cover
Okay, I finished this over the weekend.
This was fun to make. I had intended to have a lot more in the battle (actually a battle from the climax) but when it started to get busy with the missiles and missile pods I called it. :)
Oh, the people on the bottom. Center in blue undress uniform is Fleet Admiral Irons. (He's returning everyone else's salute) Behind him are Admiral Subert and Admiral White.
On the left is a Neogorilla, I don't think that is the chief warrant officer, if I remember correctly he has blue fur. (Not sure) Beside him is an elf, or as close as I can get to 1 in Daz. In the foreground (the gray guy) is a Gashg. (again as close as I can get to one in Daz)
On the right side center is a woman in a skinsuit, then the Raven Chimera is LTCMDR Wong. (Freshly promoted) and then the short guy is obviously Commander Vestri Sindri, beside him is Captain Samuels, and behind them is a Naga. (or as close as I can get to one again in Daz) Again, I was tempted to throw more people into the scene (even a Veraxin) but I decided to call it.
Jory hit me up about Admiral White's not having his cap tucked in his elbow (oops I guess it slipped and he caught it) and that no one salutes on board unless reporting to a commanding officer. (actually he was very much a nitpicking brat when he first saw that image, him and a female cohort of his) I thought of this scene as more of a... show of respect. :) I liked it better than everyone clapping and cheering.
I am planning to get into Jethro 4 sometime this week after maybe doing some more character art. (I only have a couple of people left on my list to do)
I'll put another snippet of BL or MV2 up in a day or so. (I may pass it to Minion Mike or Jory to put up on the FB group first...)
This was fun to make. I had intended to have a lot more in the battle (actually a battle from the climax) but when it started to get busy with the missiles and missile pods I called it. :)Oh, the people on the bottom. Center in blue undress uniform is Fleet Admiral Irons. (He's returning everyone else's salute) Behind him are Admiral Subert and Admiral White.
On the left is a Neogorilla, I don't think that is the chief warrant officer, if I remember correctly he has blue fur. (Not sure) Beside him is an elf, or as close as I can get to 1 in Daz. In the foreground (the gray guy) is a Gashg. (again as close as I can get to one in Daz)
On the right side center is a woman in a skinsuit, then the Raven Chimera is LTCMDR Wong. (Freshly promoted) and then the short guy is obviously Commander Vestri Sindri, beside him is Captain Samuels, and behind them is a Naga. (or as close as I can get to one again in Daz) Again, I was tempted to throw more people into the scene (even a Veraxin) but I decided to call it.
Jory hit me up about Admiral White's not having his cap tucked in his elbow (oops I guess it slipped and he caught it) and that no one salutes on board unless reporting to a commanding officer. (actually he was very much a nitpicking brat when he first saw that image, him and a female cohort of his) I thought of this scene as more of a... show of respect. :) I liked it better than everyone clapping and cheering.
I am planning to get into Jethro 4 sometime this week after maybe doing some more character art. (I only have a couple of people left on my list to do)
I'll put another snippet of BL or MV2 up in a day or so. (I may pass it to Minion Mike or Jory to put up on the FB group first...)
February 3, 2015
Battle Lines
First off, a sitrep: Okay, I am a bit more than 1/2 way through the book, I am up to chapter 17 which is another tie in to J4. It's tricky handling such situations as I mentioned to 'Minion Mike'. I am on track to finish Act II by the end of the week. (I hope)
Thanks for the offers of Red Bull but I'll pass. lol I think I'm doing just fine as is. (Though I used to write a lot faster when I had sugar!)
Oh, I did this a while ago, I forgot to post it. This is Cheetahra from Agnosta. (I don't remember what generation she is) She is in the current time period. (Irons)
I have roughed out a lot of the characters. (I even accidently did 2 versions of Sindri!) I'll put them in scenes and render them later. (rendering takes hours and I want to write!)
Anyway, I just (a few minutes ago) gave Minion Mike the latest BL snippet. Here are both in 1 dollop. The following is RAW. I did a quicky spell check but none of the betas have fact checked it. (Sorry about the formatting)
ACT 1Chapter 1 Lieutenant Commander Ssri'allth, Naga captain of the Arboth Yris'ka'thlooked around the bridge of his shiny new command with an air of approval. They still had some rough edges but they were getting there. He wasn't at all sure about the hyperdrive, they had yet to do a full jump but he was confident his new crew could handle whatever problems were thrown their way. Not bad for a former midshipman time lost. He'd been sleeping the sleep of ages on the derelict liner White Star before Fireflyhad rescued him and the others. He'd taken a few positions, winding his way up the chain of command to be the XO of Wendigo before taking on his beloved Hecate as skipper. Now his most recent transfer was again onward and upward. He had been transferred to newly built Arbothclass destroyer, the first named after a Naga hero. Commander Yris'ka'thhad distinguished himself during the Xeno war. He'd fought to defend Malta, one of the Navy's bases that had been handling the refugee crisis. He'd taken on a Xeno capital ship squadron with only a jury rigged squadron of small ships to back his Arboth class destroyer up. They'd performed valiantly, hitting and running before they had been pinned down and destroyed, but they'd destroyed five times their weight in hardware in return and bought the navy precious time to evacuate the base and get additional forces into the area to cover the refugee convoys. It seemed appropriate then that he was her skipper. The Yris'ka'thwas Rear Admiral Amadeus White's flagship for the time being, most likely not for more than a year. They'd passed all of their trials and were busy with working up exercises while also planning their first offensive expedition. Hecate'stop slot had been taken over by former XO Lieutenant Gruber who had been promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant in order to take over the captain's position on the frigate. The Mantaclass escort frigate had been outfitted, painted black, refueled, and then sent on a perilous journey to scout the jump chain to Protodon. She had been replaced by a pair of newly constructed Horseshoe crabclass frigates on their first shakedown cruise. They had green crews and untried ships. Hecate had an experienced crew which was why they had been selected for the mission. Even her new XO Lieutenant Riot was an old hand with the small ship's class. The frigate had orders to leave a chain of recon satellites in her wake. They weren't carrying enough for each jump point, just 1 per star system. There orders were to scout Protodon from outside the B-458 jump zone and then jump back and meet Admiral White's force in B-458. The Naga captain worried about his old ship and crew's mission as he stood beside the Admiral. He coiled his tail and then rose on it up off the deck and his legs to stand near the admiral's height. It was difficult but worth the effort he thought. Such considerations quickly left his mind as he focused on the frigate and her upcoming scouting mission. Along with a better sensor package the small frigate had taken on extra food, fuel, and atmo for the trip, stuffing every cubicle of the ship and even storing containers on the hull. They still wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back to Antigua though, it was a 1 way trip. And to take on that amount of extra mass something had to go. Some of that mass would be dumped allowing them to pick up speed, but not enough. She had sacrificed her external and internal ordinance. If she got in a fight she would get chewed up or destroyed pretty quickly. Not a pleasant thought. Admiral White seemed worried about sending in an untested crew with a new captain. Captain Gruber had a lot to prove and that worried him as much as his inexperience in the captain's chair did. Sometimes that eagerness to prove oneself could be someone's undoing. “Hassan can handle the job admiral. I know it,” the Naga captain. “I've trained him. The admiral turned to look at the Naga and then grunted. He didn't say anything, just turned back to the view screen. They watched the ship spool up her hyperdrive and then jump silently. The brief flash of light as the ship departed made the Neochimp grimace. His fists tightened behind his back but he gave no other outward sign of discomfort. That flash was a problem for the ship but hopefully not a big one. “Well, that's that. They are on their way sir.” The chimp nodded as he turned back to work. “Then we'd better be soon. No more last minute delays. If we can't bring it with us now we'll leave it behind and it'll have to be shipped to us later. What are we missing? Other than a lot more metal to back us up.”“It's in the pipeline sir. For now we'll do our best with what we've got,” the Naga replied.The Neochimp eyed his new flag captain and then nodded slowly. “That we will. So, let's be about it then,” he drawled. “We have a rendezvous to keep. And some pirates to kill.”“Aye aye sir. Logistics is still in flux. But Commander Sprite has set up another simulation with Lieutenant Fletcher sir. The intel is old but it is all we have to go on until we get Hecate's data dump.” “Understood. Let's see what he's come up with.” “Aye sir. Any word on any more ships?” “No,” the neochimp heaved a sigh. “Your ship is the last we're going to be assigned from Antigua before we move out.” “I was hoping admiral Irons would see fit to swap out a couple of the pickets since they are making more steadily now.” That was true, the yard was churning out a gunship every week, a corvette every 2 weeks, and a frigate every 4. “I was as well. But many of the ships still need a shake down to get the bugs out. I'm also not thrilled about throwing green crews into combat. No offense,” Amadeus stated looking at the Naga.“None taken. I've earned my spurs though in Destros and Mandolin sir.” The admiral nodded. Ssri'allth had been a young militia recruit barely out of the larval stage of his initial life cycle when the gunship he had been serving on had fought off pirates who had come into Destros to prey on the swarms of refugees there. He'd served his ship and captain well according to the records. They had went on to fight a scrap in Mandolin with a Xeno scout six months later. His ship had been battered but he'd survived and had been drafted by the navy through then Lieutenant Vargess. “I know. That's why I requested you as my flag captain.” He didn't add that he'd wanted Captain Vargess but Admiral Irons had been too stingy to loose the other man's services. He had to admit the captain was busy dividing his time between his ship and overseeing operations in the star system. Running ops was tricky, he had to coordinate with all the other departments to make certain everything ran smoothly. There were already a lot of hiccups with the issues with the yard. “To think one damned virus could do this much damage,” he said, shaking his head. “Yes sir. It's thrown our timetables into the sand storm,” the Naga stated. “But one cannot plan too far ahead without running into the god Murphy's meddling anyway,” he stated. “True. Too true. Okay, let's go see what Fletcher has set up for us. I'm betting he cranked in the intel Firefly sent along about that Cutlass so we'd better take the simulation seriously if we want to get through it with our head and asses intact.” He understood the need to train hard, to simulate worse case. But he didn't want to scare his people too badly either. He was also concerned that if they had too many bad dress rehearsals Irons would call the whole thing off until they could get more ships. That was the main reason he'd pushed to get Hecate out into space right away. Now they were committed. “We'll do a hot wash after dinner.”“Aye aye admiral.”---<>---<>---They'll be fine,” Commander Sprite said from the holotable behind him. Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons turned to her avatar and then back to the screen he had been watching. TF22 had just departed in a flash of light.“They're running late. Three days behind schedule.”“That's because we had problems with the logistics on our end. And the Marines needed a replacement for Sergeant Snorkle. To get crushed like that by a falling crate...His injuries couldn't have come at a worse time.”“I know.”“Captain Ssri'allth can handle his ship,” Lieutenant Fletcher stated.“I know. He's good otherwise he'd never have taken her on. I'm not really worried about them.”“Then what are you worried about?” Protector asked. “I can tell from your vital signs that you are concerned about something.”The admiral exhaled slowly. “Sindri. I'm grateful on the one hand that they pulled out all the stops to build Yris'ka'th but on the other hand...” he stopped and shrugged helplessly.“You didn't like that they went behind your back to do it? Chancing the schedule? There was some slippage and some juggling of the convoys, but they did a damn good job. That was quite an effort,” Sprite said.“I know. They pulled out all the stops to get that ship out of the dock. They played musical slips to get her in and out and built. I know they wanted to time her completion for when we were slated to return.” He smiled slightly.“And damn near killed themselves in the process,” Sprite observed. “Weren't they a bit put out when we didn't return as planned.”“The effort wasn't wasted,” Lieutenant Fletcher stated.“No, but we had several people down for exhaustion, nine injuries, fortunately none fatal, and six cases of brown out and 1 burn out. That's what I didn't like.” The admiral said. He flicked a signal through his implants to shut the screen off as he went to his chair. “We lost some experienced people. We can't afford that. We can't kill ourselves like that and get that sort of return.”“But it was worth it to get the ship.”“Trading trained people for a ship? I suppose so in some cold logic. But loosing them meant the schedules were juggled all to hell. It ricocheted down the pipeline. Fortunately Kinja and Sindri got a handle on it when they did.”“You mean Vargess did. He caught it early on.”“Yes. He pulled their chestnuts out of the fire. But you see what I mean though?”“I see it in theory. This is going to be a long campaign. Slow and steady like the turtle versus the rabbit's sprint and then fool around. I think we need to find a happier medium though,” Sprite said.“Set the pace. We're going to pick up the pace, that was what I was planning. Now people are leery about it. Though they shouldn't be. They handled Yris'ka'th so they should know they can handle it. Just not at such a breakneck speed.”“True. Which is why we have the second tin can slip built and the third nearly finished. And you have an appointment with Commander Wong and the destroyer pipeline industrial complex. Which means,” Sprite heaved her equivalent of a sigh. “I get to be unplugged. Again.”“Looks that way,” the admiral said with a shake of his head. He rubbed his jaw again and then looked at the plot. TF22 would be all right. Amadeus knew his business. He exhaled again and then stood. “Let's be about it, shall we?”
---<>---<>---13.9 weeks from her departure from Antigua Hecate jumped into the outer reaches of the Protodon star system well short of the B-458 jump point. Over ten million kilometers short, almost as if they'd planned it that way Captain Gruber thought with a slight trace of a smile of approval. It wasn't a perfect act of astronavigation, he'd wanted to be a bit closer in, but it would do the captain thought with a grudging nod of approval to the Neochimp navigator. They needed to conserve as much fuel as possible for the trip home he reminded himself. While they sat there they scouted the system from afar with their eyes and ears, barely drifting in at less than 1kps. “Good work nav, helm. Get some rest,” the captain ordered to the helmswoman and navigator. Petty officer second class Adel Shazam nodded wearily. She would most likely barely sleep the first day. That would be rough but the stress of wondering if they had been spotted would eat at her. Not that they had to worry too much. By the time the enemy saw them and reacted they would be on their way out. And if they did happen to come they could always jump out long before they got within weapon's range.“We have positive confirmation of an enemy presence sir,” the communication's rating stated. He held a hand to her ear.“Don't you mean negative?” the captain asked as he sipped at his coffee. He could see the plot forming up. A few ships were there so he could see what Jimmy meant. “Sir?”“Never mind. What do you have for me?”Jim frowned and then seemed to shrug the quip off. “We definitely have signs of occupation sir. There is unrestricted chatter going between the planet and the ships in orbit. We're picking it up. Some of it is encrypted but the majority is not.”“Why encrypt when they have the planet? And that's just radio chatter right? Not laser?”“No sir. We'd have to be closer and in line of sight of the transmissions to get a look at that sir.”“Go on Jim,” the captain stated as he set his cup down in it's holder on his arm rest and came over to the rating's station. He leaned over the man's shoulder.Jim looked up to his boss and then back to his number 1 screen. He pointed to the ships in orbit. “Sir, at least two of these ships are transports, the small one and the medium class Clydesdale here,” he said, flagging the two ships. “There are two tin cans as well, possibly a third. There are some smaller ship's, I haven't broken them down by class yet since I've been focused on the planet. As you can see, several freighters too. We're locking down the other ship types now.”“Understood.”“It seems that the transports are in a different group than these ships sir. They are recent arrivals. Something is going on, I'm not sure what.”“A swap meet?” Adel asked from the doorway. They turned to look at her. “You know, a spacer's swap meet. Spacers get together and trade goods and stuff. Crews swap, marriages, swap cargo and passengers, news, stuff like that.”“Oh.”“I don't know. I'm not sure... it doesn't feel like that but I could be wrong,” Jim stated slowly. “The freighters seemed to be paired up with the tin cans sir.”“Oh?”“Yes sir. I'm not sure why.”“I think I do,” the captain said straightening. The ratings turned to look expectantly at him. “Remember that ship that got away? And it's partner the Cutlassthat Firefly took down?” He checked the front of his turtleneck sweater for coffee stains. He hated wearing white, it showed everything.“You're saying these are raiding pairs sir? Did we ever figure out what they are after?”“Intelligence isn't saying.”“If they even know,” Adel murmured.“Enough. Keep listening.” He pointed to the helmswoman. “You go eat and rack out. That's an order.”“Aye aye sir,” the two ratings said in unison. Jim snorted. Adel left. She seemed to dodge someone and then kept going. The captain turned back to his half filled cup and the plot.They heard a throat clearing in the open lock. The captain turned to see his XO and chief engineer standing there. The XO indicated the chair and then tapped the doorway meaningfully. The captain's stomach rumbled as if on cue. He couldn't help but smile slightly. “Yes, right. Dinner. I'll check in after supper then. Don't wait up on me,” he said. “You have the bridge XO.”“I have the bridge aye sir,” the XO said as the captain left the bridge.---<>---<>---
Thanks for the offers of Red Bull but I'll pass. lol I think I'm doing just fine as is. (Though I used to write a lot faster when I had sugar!)
Oh, I did this a while ago, I forgot to post it. This is Cheetahra from Agnosta. (I don't remember what generation she is) She is in the current time period. (Irons)
I have roughed out a lot of the characters. (I even accidently did 2 versions of Sindri!) I'll put them in scenes and render them later. (rendering takes hours and I want to write!)Anyway, I just (a few minutes ago) gave Minion Mike the latest BL snippet. Here are both in 1 dollop. The following is RAW. I did a quicky spell check but none of the betas have fact checked it. (Sorry about the formatting)
ACT 1Chapter 1 Lieutenant Commander Ssri'allth, Naga captain of the Arboth Yris'ka'thlooked around the bridge of his shiny new command with an air of approval. They still had some rough edges but they were getting there. He wasn't at all sure about the hyperdrive, they had yet to do a full jump but he was confident his new crew could handle whatever problems were thrown their way. Not bad for a former midshipman time lost. He'd been sleeping the sleep of ages on the derelict liner White Star before Fireflyhad rescued him and the others. He'd taken a few positions, winding his way up the chain of command to be the XO of Wendigo before taking on his beloved Hecate as skipper. Now his most recent transfer was again onward and upward. He had been transferred to newly built Arbothclass destroyer, the first named after a Naga hero. Commander Yris'ka'thhad distinguished himself during the Xeno war. He'd fought to defend Malta, one of the Navy's bases that had been handling the refugee crisis. He'd taken on a Xeno capital ship squadron with only a jury rigged squadron of small ships to back his Arboth class destroyer up. They'd performed valiantly, hitting and running before they had been pinned down and destroyed, but they'd destroyed five times their weight in hardware in return and bought the navy precious time to evacuate the base and get additional forces into the area to cover the refugee convoys. It seemed appropriate then that he was her skipper. The Yris'ka'thwas Rear Admiral Amadeus White's flagship for the time being, most likely not for more than a year. They'd passed all of their trials and were busy with working up exercises while also planning their first offensive expedition. Hecate'stop slot had been taken over by former XO Lieutenant Gruber who had been promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant in order to take over the captain's position on the frigate. The Mantaclass escort frigate had been outfitted, painted black, refueled, and then sent on a perilous journey to scout the jump chain to Protodon. She had been replaced by a pair of newly constructed Horseshoe crabclass frigates on their first shakedown cruise. They had green crews and untried ships. Hecate had an experienced crew which was why they had been selected for the mission. Even her new XO Lieutenant Riot was an old hand with the small ship's class. The frigate had orders to leave a chain of recon satellites in her wake. They weren't carrying enough for each jump point, just 1 per star system. There orders were to scout Protodon from outside the B-458 jump zone and then jump back and meet Admiral White's force in B-458. The Naga captain worried about his old ship and crew's mission as he stood beside the Admiral. He coiled his tail and then rose on it up off the deck and his legs to stand near the admiral's height. It was difficult but worth the effort he thought. Such considerations quickly left his mind as he focused on the frigate and her upcoming scouting mission. Along with a better sensor package the small frigate had taken on extra food, fuel, and atmo for the trip, stuffing every cubicle of the ship and even storing containers on the hull. They still wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back to Antigua though, it was a 1 way trip. And to take on that amount of extra mass something had to go. Some of that mass would be dumped allowing them to pick up speed, but not enough. She had sacrificed her external and internal ordinance. If she got in a fight she would get chewed up or destroyed pretty quickly. Not a pleasant thought. Admiral White seemed worried about sending in an untested crew with a new captain. Captain Gruber had a lot to prove and that worried him as much as his inexperience in the captain's chair did. Sometimes that eagerness to prove oneself could be someone's undoing. “Hassan can handle the job admiral. I know it,” the Naga captain. “I've trained him. The admiral turned to look at the Naga and then grunted. He didn't say anything, just turned back to the view screen. They watched the ship spool up her hyperdrive and then jump silently. The brief flash of light as the ship departed made the Neochimp grimace. His fists tightened behind his back but he gave no other outward sign of discomfort. That flash was a problem for the ship but hopefully not a big one. “Well, that's that. They are on their way sir.” The chimp nodded as he turned back to work. “Then we'd better be soon. No more last minute delays. If we can't bring it with us now we'll leave it behind and it'll have to be shipped to us later. What are we missing? Other than a lot more metal to back us up.”“It's in the pipeline sir. For now we'll do our best with what we've got,” the Naga replied.The Neochimp eyed his new flag captain and then nodded slowly. “That we will. So, let's be about it then,” he drawled. “We have a rendezvous to keep. And some pirates to kill.”“Aye aye sir. Logistics is still in flux. But Commander Sprite has set up another simulation with Lieutenant Fletcher sir. The intel is old but it is all we have to go on until we get Hecate's data dump.” “Understood. Let's see what he's come up with.” “Aye sir. Any word on any more ships?” “No,” the neochimp heaved a sigh. “Your ship is the last we're going to be assigned from Antigua before we move out.” “I was hoping admiral Irons would see fit to swap out a couple of the pickets since they are making more steadily now.” That was true, the yard was churning out a gunship every week, a corvette every 2 weeks, and a frigate every 4. “I was as well. But many of the ships still need a shake down to get the bugs out. I'm also not thrilled about throwing green crews into combat. No offense,” Amadeus stated looking at the Naga.“None taken. I've earned my spurs though in Destros and Mandolin sir.” The admiral nodded. Ssri'allth had been a young militia recruit barely out of the larval stage of his initial life cycle when the gunship he had been serving on had fought off pirates who had come into Destros to prey on the swarms of refugees there. He'd served his ship and captain well according to the records. They had went on to fight a scrap in Mandolin with a Xeno scout six months later. His ship had been battered but he'd survived and had been drafted by the navy through then Lieutenant Vargess. “I know. That's why I requested you as my flag captain.” He didn't add that he'd wanted Captain Vargess but Admiral Irons had been too stingy to loose the other man's services. He had to admit the captain was busy dividing his time between his ship and overseeing operations in the star system. Running ops was tricky, he had to coordinate with all the other departments to make certain everything ran smoothly. There were already a lot of hiccups with the issues with the yard. “To think one damned virus could do this much damage,” he said, shaking his head. “Yes sir. It's thrown our timetables into the sand storm,” the Naga stated. “But one cannot plan too far ahead without running into the god Murphy's meddling anyway,” he stated. “True. Too true. Okay, let's go see what Fletcher has set up for us. I'm betting he cranked in the intel Firefly sent along about that Cutlass so we'd better take the simulation seriously if we want to get through it with our head and asses intact.” He understood the need to train hard, to simulate worse case. But he didn't want to scare his people too badly either. He was also concerned that if they had too many bad dress rehearsals Irons would call the whole thing off until they could get more ships. That was the main reason he'd pushed to get Hecate out into space right away. Now they were committed. “We'll do a hot wash after dinner.”“Aye aye admiral.”---<>---<>---They'll be fine,” Commander Sprite said from the holotable behind him. Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons turned to her avatar and then back to the screen he had been watching. TF22 had just departed in a flash of light.“They're running late. Three days behind schedule.”“That's because we had problems with the logistics on our end. And the Marines needed a replacement for Sergeant Snorkle. To get crushed like that by a falling crate...His injuries couldn't have come at a worse time.”“I know.”“Captain Ssri'allth can handle his ship,” Lieutenant Fletcher stated.“I know. He's good otherwise he'd never have taken her on. I'm not really worried about them.”“Then what are you worried about?” Protector asked. “I can tell from your vital signs that you are concerned about something.”The admiral exhaled slowly. “Sindri. I'm grateful on the one hand that they pulled out all the stops to build Yris'ka'th but on the other hand...” he stopped and shrugged helplessly.“You didn't like that they went behind your back to do it? Chancing the schedule? There was some slippage and some juggling of the convoys, but they did a damn good job. That was quite an effort,” Sprite said.“I know. They pulled out all the stops to get that ship out of the dock. They played musical slips to get her in and out and built. I know they wanted to time her completion for when we were slated to return.” He smiled slightly.“And damn near killed themselves in the process,” Sprite observed. “Weren't they a bit put out when we didn't return as planned.”“The effort wasn't wasted,” Lieutenant Fletcher stated.“No, but we had several people down for exhaustion, nine injuries, fortunately none fatal, and six cases of brown out and 1 burn out. That's what I didn't like.” The admiral said. He flicked a signal through his implants to shut the screen off as he went to his chair. “We lost some experienced people. We can't afford that. We can't kill ourselves like that and get that sort of return.”“But it was worth it to get the ship.”“Trading trained people for a ship? I suppose so in some cold logic. But loosing them meant the schedules were juggled all to hell. It ricocheted down the pipeline. Fortunately Kinja and Sindri got a handle on it when they did.”“You mean Vargess did. He caught it early on.”“Yes. He pulled their chestnuts out of the fire. But you see what I mean though?”“I see it in theory. This is going to be a long campaign. Slow and steady like the turtle versus the rabbit's sprint and then fool around. I think we need to find a happier medium though,” Sprite said.“Set the pace. We're going to pick up the pace, that was what I was planning. Now people are leery about it. Though they shouldn't be. They handled Yris'ka'th so they should know they can handle it. Just not at such a breakneck speed.”“True. Which is why we have the second tin can slip built and the third nearly finished. And you have an appointment with Commander Wong and the destroyer pipeline industrial complex. Which means,” Sprite heaved her equivalent of a sigh. “I get to be unplugged. Again.”“Looks that way,” the admiral said with a shake of his head. He rubbed his jaw again and then looked at the plot. TF22 would be all right. Amadeus knew his business. He exhaled again and then stood. “Let's be about it, shall we?”
---<>---<>---13.9 weeks from her departure from Antigua Hecate jumped into the outer reaches of the Protodon star system well short of the B-458 jump point. Over ten million kilometers short, almost as if they'd planned it that way Captain Gruber thought with a slight trace of a smile of approval. It wasn't a perfect act of astronavigation, he'd wanted to be a bit closer in, but it would do the captain thought with a grudging nod of approval to the Neochimp navigator. They needed to conserve as much fuel as possible for the trip home he reminded himself. While they sat there they scouted the system from afar with their eyes and ears, barely drifting in at less than 1kps. “Good work nav, helm. Get some rest,” the captain ordered to the helmswoman and navigator. Petty officer second class Adel Shazam nodded wearily. She would most likely barely sleep the first day. That would be rough but the stress of wondering if they had been spotted would eat at her. Not that they had to worry too much. By the time the enemy saw them and reacted they would be on their way out. And if they did happen to come they could always jump out long before they got within weapon's range.“We have positive confirmation of an enemy presence sir,” the communication's rating stated. He held a hand to her ear.“Don't you mean negative?” the captain asked as he sipped at his coffee. He could see the plot forming up. A few ships were there so he could see what Jimmy meant. “Sir?”“Never mind. What do you have for me?”Jim frowned and then seemed to shrug the quip off. “We definitely have signs of occupation sir. There is unrestricted chatter going between the planet and the ships in orbit. We're picking it up. Some of it is encrypted but the majority is not.”“Why encrypt when they have the planet? And that's just radio chatter right? Not laser?”“No sir. We'd have to be closer and in line of sight of the transmissions to get a look at that sir.”“Go on Jim,” the captain stated as he set his cup down in it's holder on his arm rest and came over to the rating's station. He leaned over the man's shoulder.Jim looked up to his boss and then back to his number 1 screen. He pointed to the ships in orbit. “Sir, at least two of these ships are transports, the small one and the medium class Clydesdale here,” he said, flagging the two ships. “There are two tin cans as well, possibly a third. There are some smaller ship's, I haven't broken them down by class yet since I've been focused on the planet. As you can see, several freighters too. We're locking down the other ship types now.”“Understood.”“It seems that the transports are in a different group than these ships sir. They are recent arrivals. Something is going on, I'm not sure what.”“A swap meet?” Adel asked from the doorway. They turned to look at her. “You know, a spacer's swap meet. Spacers get together and trade goods and stuff. Crews swap, marriages, swap cargo and passengers, news, stuff like that.”“Oh.”“I don't know. I'm not sure... it doesn't feel like that but I could be wrong,” Jim stated slowly. “The freighters seemed to be paired up with the tin cans sir.”“Oh?”“Yes sir. I'm not sure why.”“I think I do,” the captain said straightening. The ratings turned to look expectantly at him. “Remember that ship that got away? And it's partner the Cutlassthat Firefly took down?” He checked the front of his turtleneck sweater for coffee stains. He hated wearing white, it showed everything.“You're saying these are raiding pairs sir? Did we ever figure out what they are after?”“Intelligence isn't saying.”“If they even know,” Adel murmured.“Enough. Keep listening.” He pointed to the helmswoman. “You go eat and rack out. That's an order.”“Aye aye sir,” the two ratings said in unison. Jim snorted. Adel left. She seemed to dodge someone and then kept going. The captain turned back to his half filled cup and the plot.They heard a throat clearing in the open lock. The captain turned to see his XO and chief engineer standing there. The XO indicated the chair and then tapped the doorway meaningfully. The captain's stomach rumbled as if on cue. He couldn't help but smile slightly. “Yes, right. Dinner. I'll check in after supper then. Don't wait up on me,” he said. “You have the bridge XO.”“I have the bridge aye sir,” the XO said as the captain left the bridge.---<>---<>---
January 21, 2015
Multiverse 2
Finally! Some air!
(Sorry Ruby, I couldn't resist! lol)
Anyway, I have finally come up for air. I finished the rough draft of Multiverse 2 Saturday, and just finished the rough draft of the cover art 3 hours ago. I have sent it to a couple of the Betas and Mechmaster to get their take before I post it here.
There are 11 stories in Multiverse 2. Plus the sneak Peek of an upcoming book. I hadn't planned on so many Fed stories but... shrug. Oh well. The good news is Multiverse 3 is already 6 story treatments and climbing. lol Here are the M2 stories:
Virus (mix drama sorta scifi)
Fantasy:
Elementals
Scifi:
Survival
Penance
The Santa Brigade
The Pack
Last Assault of the Emperor
Founding of the Federation stories:
Island of Moreau
Bumper and Boomer
The Good Ship USFP Lollipop
Wandering Engineer Story:
Lewis and Clarke (The story that was supposed to be at the end of GP, not the third act like people have talked about)
Minion Mike and Poon currently have the manuscript. (Mike has been ominously quiet) Jory has already put dibs in for next in line as soon as MM finishes... (So you can pester him Jory, not me!) Poon finished his first pass and is now sending me corrections. If any other Betas want in on this please let me know.
Okay, let's see... a lot of fires going on in the FB group and in the previous post's comments! Wow. Jory and minion Mike clued me in something was up but I was hunkered down writing at the time. lol I can say a lot of stuff will be seen in future books. Most definitely. And the maddening stuff... well, you'll have to wait and see right? :) Even some of the Betas are breathing down my necks for me to come clean! lol
Oh, I am aware I owe a couple of snippets. Sorry, as I said, I've been preoccupied. I'll try to skim a few off by this weekend. At least 2. Let's call it that okay? 2? Yeah, that works for me. I'll get around to it. :)
Future plans:
I have altered my writing schedule for the next couple of years. (Yeah years, I'm that booked up now! Right to 2019!) Instead of jumping into Jethro 4 Recruiting Drive (which is going to need a rewrite after BL) as I had planned I am instead diving head first into Battle Lines . (It sets up J4) I had intended a time skip but as you know with the events in GP and Bringer of Fire and Light and other stuff things are moving quicker than anticipated.
I had planned to work on the cover of Multiverse 2 all this week... I'm still in art mode so I think I'll dive back into some more 3D projects while stamping out other fires. I did a couple ships a while back, I need to clean them up and post them here. I also have planned to do some character portraits. Horatio Logan, Admiral Subert, Admiral White, Captain Mayweather, Governor Randall, Sindri, Protector, Cheetahra, and others if I have time. Oh, that Raven guy definitely. I have most of the stuff I need to model and dress them... I think. Hmm... any ideas? Requests?
(Sorry Ruby, I couldn't resist! lol)
Anyway, I have finally come up for air. I finished the rough draft of Multiverse 2 Saturday, and just finished the rough draft of the cover art 3 hours ago. I have sent it to a couple of the Betas and Mechmaster to get their take before I post it here.
There are 11 stories in Multiverse 2. Plus the sneak Peek of an upcoming book. I hadn't planned on so many Fed stories but... shrug. Oh well. The good news is Multiverse 3 is already 6 story treatments and climbing. lol Here are the M2 stories:
Virus (mix drama sorta scifi)
Fantasy:
Elementals
Scifi:
Survival
Penance
The Santa Brigade
The Pack
Last Assault of the Emperor
Founding of the Federation stories:
Island of Moreau
Bumper and Boomer
The Good Ship USFP Lollipop
Wandering Engineer Story:
Lewis and Clarke (The story that was supposed to be at the end of GP, not the third act like people have talked about)
Minion Mike and Poon currently have the manuscript. (Mike has been ominously quiet) Jory has already put dibs in for next in line as soon as MM finishes... (So you can pester him Jory, not me!) Poon finished his first pass and is now sending me corrections. If any other Betas want in on this please let me know.
Okay, let's see... a lot of fires going on in the FB group and in the previous post's comments! Wow. Jory and minion Mike clued me in something was up but I was hunkered down writing at the time. lol I can say a lot of stuff will be seen in future books. Most definitely. And the maddening stuff... well, you'll have to wait and see right? :) Even some of the Betas are breathing down my necks for me to come clean! lol
Oh, I am aware I owe a couple of snippets. Sorry, as I said, I've been preoccupied. I'll try to skim a few off by this weekend. At least 2. Let's call it that okay? 2? Yeah, that works for me. I'll get around to it. :)
Future plans:
I have altered my writing schedule for the next couple of years. (Yeah years, I'm that booked up now! Right to 2019!) Instead of jumping into Jethro 4 Recruiting Drive (which is going to need a rewrite after BL) as I had planned I am instead diving head first into Battle Lines . (It sets up J4) I had intended a time skip but as you know with the events in GP and Bringer of Fire and Light and other stuff things are moving quicker than anticipated.
I had planned to work on the cover of Multiverse 2 all this week... I'm still in art mode so I think I'll dive back into some more 3D projects while stamping out other fires. I did a couple ships a while back, I need to clean them up and post them here. I also have planned to do some character portraits. Horatio Logan, Admiral Subert, Admiral White, Captain Mayweather, Governor Randall, Sindri, Protector, Cheetahra, and others if I have time. Oh, that Raven guy definitely. I have most of the stuff I need to model and dress them... I think. Hmm... any ideas? Requests?
January 5, 2015
Ghosts from the Past is going live!
That's right, I am publishing GP now. Finally. :) I
just
got it back from Goodlifeguide.com
Fleet admiral John Henry Irons has been busy.
After waking in the Senka system he has crisscrossed the system, having a series of adventures and ups and downs along the way. He's made some new friends and met old ones. He has also made some powerful enemies.
But the call to war is inevitable. Those who thrive on destruction wish him and the civilization he is trying to rebuild ill will. The boot of oppression is already on a part of the sector thanks to the Nazi like Horathian pirates.
Admiral Irons must lead a rag tag group of former pirate slaves and military personnel back to one of the few places he hopes will help stem the pirate tide. Once there he'll have to face the politicians, then dig up his one ace, a secret from his past.
But some ghosts should remain buried...
As soon as I get the links from Amazon and B&N I will put them up here. :)
It is up on Amazon. You can thank Daniel for the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Past-Wandering-engineer-Book-ebook/dp/B00RUDQPQ8
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghosts-from-the-past-chris-hechtl/1121002589?ean=2940149887255&itm=1&usri=2940149887255
Thank you to everyone who helped get the book out. Very cool. :) Now I need to get through Multiverse 2 so I can get back to Battle Lines, Jethro 4... but first I need my right wrist and arm to heal again...sigh
Carry on and enjoy reading. :D
OH! Please, if you have a problem with reading the book (not that I expect it, but you never know with the different devices out there) let me know here or let Amazon or B&N know before you put it in a review! Thank you!
Fleet admiral John Henry Irons has been busy.
After waking in the Senka system he has crisscrossed the system, having a series of adventures and ups and downs along the way. He's made some new friends and met old ones. He has also made some powerful enemies.
But the call to war is inevitable. Those who thrive on destruction wish him and the civilization he is trying to rebuild ill will. The boot of oppression is already on a part of the sector thanks to the Nazi like Horathian pirates.
Admiral Irons must lead a rag tag group of former pirate slaves and military personnel back to one of the few places he hopes will help stem the pirate tide. Once there he'll have to face the politicians, then dig up his one ace, a secret from his past.
But some ghosts should remain buried...
As soon as I get the links from Amazon and B&N I will put them up here. :)
It is up on Amazon. You can thank Daniel for the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Past-Wandering-engineer-Book-ebook/dp/B00RUDQPQ8
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghosts-from-the-past-chris-hechtl/1121002589?ean=2940149887255&itm=1&usri=2940149887255
Thank you to everyone who helped get the book out. Very cool. :) Now I need to get through Multiverse 2 so I can get back to Battle Lines, Jethro 4... but first I need my right wrist and arm to heal again...sigh
Carry on and enjoy reading. :D
OH! Please, if you have a problem with reading the book (not that I expect it, but you never know with the different devices out there) let me know here or let Amazon or B&N know before you put it in a review! Thank you!
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year!
First off, Happy New Year!
I passed Ghosts from the Past on to Goodlifeguide.com Sunday. They were on vacation for the holiday however so no movement on the manuscript until after today I am afraid.
I have made some progress with Multiverse 2. I have 3 stories in it, it is just under 100 pages. I am shooting for 300 pages so if it starts creeping up to that mark I'll start dropping stories I haven't finished yet for the next book like I did before. :)
I have also been pecking at Battle Lines. :)
The past several days we (the betas and I) have been discussing various things. We've been working out some of the specs for some of the ships as well as discussing the weapon turrets, grades, ranges, etc.
I finally got around to modeling the Newmann, Arboth, Arboth escort carrier variant, Nelson, and Nelson flight VI refit. (I used my library of RJ001's ship parts for them) I also took a stab at the Derfinger remodel. (I am going to use a model from Skynet and Simon on Renderosity I think) It is insane however, I am still gibbering over the thing. I certainly wouldn't want to go up against it!!
I class the Nelson as a light destroyer and the Arboth as a heavy destroyer. More on that later. :)
Here is the Nelson. I used 4 ships to make this ship. I honestly don't remember if I described it in Fools Gold or other books, and I am too lazy to check right now. lol
The Flight V version (A hasty upgrade during the beginning of the Xeno war) has an appliqué armor shell over the dorsal side to cover some of her vitals. She mounts lasers and gauss weapons not phasers, grasers, or other weapons. She also has 4 missile tubes in her bow, along with 4 fixed lasers and a fixed graser with 4 lasers encircling it. You can't see it well, but there are 2 boat bays tucked into her flanks in the 1st notch.
The weapon like things on either chin are actually emergency thrusters on an armature. She can kick them on to brake or move the armature to maneuver.
The 2 spinal mount boxes in the bow under the shroud are actually her sensors and bow deflector.
Here is the Flight VI version. This is the latest upgrade.
This version replaces her old laser turrets (that lacked integrated sensors) with modern cruiser grade point defense phaser turrets. However the necessary modifications and additional power demand meant the number of turrets were cut in half. She keeps her 4 missile tubes, but gives up the 4 fixed lasers in her chin for an additional graser/laser cluster. She looses some of her magazine space but gains speed since her launchers have been updated.
Her gatling gauss turrets and fixed stern facing gatling have been replaced with modern gauss turrets. They are more powerful and fire at the same speed. They also require less maintenance but do require more power.
The appliqué armor is thicker and modern too. Everything possible was updated. Only the frame and basic shape are the same. SPOILER ALERT! This is the version Antigua and Pyrax will be building eventually. (along with Arboth and other destroyer classes) I believe, checking my notes, there were 2 Nelsons under construction in J3. Both will be Flight V versions with minor upgrades/updates. (It is easier to build a known ship from blueprints than change it mid construction) I'll have all sorts of stuff about the ships later. ;)
The Flight VI version has a wider notch for the boat bay. You can see the difference.
Hmm... I think I'll hold off on the Arboth and other ships since they need a better texture job.
Oh, if anyone asks, in a fight between an Arboth and a Nelson I'd put my money on a Arboth. She has more missile tubes in her bow, is bigger, and has single tube graser turrets to go along with the phasers and gauss turrets. She would chew a Nelson up easily.
Okay, that's it, I'm done for the evening. Ice cream is calling my name! :D
Have a safe and Happy New Year everyone!
I passed Ghosts from the Past on to Goodlifeguide.com Sunday. They were on vacation for the holiday however so no movement on the manuscript until after today I am afraid.
I have made some progress with Multiverse 2. I have 3 stories in it, it is just under 100 pages. I am shooting for 300 pages so if it starts creeping up to that mark I'll start dropping stories I haven't finished yet for the next book like I did before. :)
I have also been pecking at Battle Lines. :)
The past several days we (the betas and I) have been discussing various things. We've been working out some of the specs for some of the ships as well as discussing the weapon turrets, grades, ranges, etc.
I finally got around to modeling the Newmann, Arboth, Arboth escort carrier variant, Nelson, and Nelson flight VI refit. (I used my library of RJ001's ship parts for them) I also took a stab at the Derfinger remodel. (I am going to use a model from Skynet and Simon on Renderosity I think) It is insane however, I am still gibbering over the thing. I certainly wouldn't want to go up against it!!
I class the Nelson as a light destroyer and the Arboth as a heavy destroyer. More on that later. :)
Here is the Nelson. I used 4 ships to make this ship. I honestly don't remember if I described it in Fools Gold or other books, and I am too lazy to check right now. lol
The Flight V version (A hasty upgrade during the beginning of the Xeno war) has an appliqué armor shell over the dorsal side to cover some of her vitals. She mounts lasers and gauss weapons not phasers, grasers, or other weapons. She also has 4 missile tubes in her bow, along with 4 fixed lasers and a fixed graser with 4 lasers encircling it. You can't see it well, but there are 2 boat bays tucked into her flanks in the 1st notch.The weapon like things on either chin are actually emergency thrusters on an armature. She can kick them on to brake or move the armature to maneuver.
The 2 spinal mount boxes in the bow under the shroud are actually her sensors and bow deflector.
Here is the Flight VI version. This is the latest upgrade.
This version replaces her old laser turrets (that lacked integrated sensors) with modern cruiser grade point defense phaser turrets. However the necessary modifications and additional power demand meant the number of turrets were cut in half. She keeps her 4 missile tubes, but gives up the 4 fixed lasers in her chin for an additional graser/laser cluster. She looses some of her magazine space but gains speed since her launchers have been updated.Her gatling gauss turrets and fixed stern facing gatling have been replaced with modern gauss turrets. They are more powerful and fire at the same speed. They also require less maintenance but do require more power.
The appliqué armor is thicker and modern too. Everything possible was updated. Only the frame and basic shape are the same. SPOILER ALERT! This is the version Antigua and Pyrax will be building eventually. (along with Arboth and other destroyer classes) I believe, checking my notes, there were 2 Nelsons under construction in J3. Both will be Flight V versions with minor upgrades/updates. (It is easier to build a known ship from blueprints than change it mid construction) I'll have all sorts of stuff about the ships later. ;)
The Flight VI version has a wider notch for the boat bay. You can see the difference.
Hmm... I think I'll hold off on the Arboth and other ships since they need a better texture job.
Oh, if anyone asks, in a fight between an Arboth and a Nelson I'd put my money on a Arboth. She has more missile tubes in her bow, is bigger, and has single tube graser turrets to go along with the phasers and gauss turrets. She would chew a Nelson up easily.
Okay, that's it, I'm done for the evening. Ice cream is calling my name! :D
Have a safe and Happy New Year everyone!
December 24, 2014
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
I'm not going to inflict another goofball poem rewrite this year on everyone. But I am going to finally upload my annual 3D Christmas card:
The image was made from stuff and poses I bought or got for free from Daz3D. The gorilla, chimp, polar bear, and snow leopard were made by Rawart.
If only all wars were waged this way... Have a safe and happy holiday folks!
The image was made from stuff and poses I bought or got for free from Daz3D. The gorilla, chimp, polar bear, and snow leopard were made by Rawart.If only all wars were waged this way... Have a safe and happy holiday folks!
December 19, 2014
Ghosts From the Past
Okay, here is the cover:
I didn't put Irons in the shot. (he is on the shuttle) The boatbay is from Renderosity, as is the shuttle. (remade by me) The asteroid base is also from Renderosity. (both parts of it)
The characters, cart, and props are from Daz 3D. I put my own touches on everything. (including the boat bay textures and layout) Let's see, there is a Panda, Dog, 3 humans, and the chimeran in the foreground. Oh, and someone or I should say, something else...
Special thanks to Mechmaster for helping me get the textures right.
Write up:
Fleet admiral John Henry Irons has been busy. After waking in the Senka system he has crisscrossed the system, having a series of adventures and ups and downs along the way. He's made some new friends and met old ones. He has also made some powerful enemies.
But the call to war is inevitable. Those who thrive on destruction wish him and the civilization he is trying to rebuild ill will. The boot of oppression is already on a part of the sector thanks to the Nazi like Horathian pirates. Admiral Irons must lead a rag tag group of former pirate slaves and military personnel back to one of the few places he hopes will help stem the pirate tide. Once there he'll have to face the politicians, then dig up his one ace, a secret from his past.
But some ghosts should remain buried...
This will conclude Irons Wandering time period. I had planned on a time skip but well, events were taken out of my hands. You'll see when you get to read it.
I just passed the manuscript to Rea today. I am still waiting on feedback from a few of the betas. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get it out before the end of this year. Hopefully. Maybe.
Next up is my annual 3D Christmas card. :)
I didn't put Irons in the shot. (he is on the shuttle) The boatbay is from Renderosity, as is the shuttle. (remade by me) The asteroid base is also from Renderosity. (both parts of it) The characters, cart, and props are from Daz 3D. I put my own touches on everything. (including the boat bay textures and layout) Let's see, there is a Panda, Dog, 3 humans, and the chimeran in the foreground. Oh, and someone or I should say, something else...
Special thanks to Mechmaster for helping me get the textures right.
Write up:
Fleet admiral John Henry Irons has been busy. After waking in the Senka system he has crisscrossed the system, having a series of adventures and ups and downs along the way. He's made some new friends and met old ones. He has also made some powerful enemies.
But the call to war is inevitable. Those who thrive on destruction wish him and the civilization he is trying to rebuild ill will. The boot of oppression is already on a part of the sector thanks to the Nazi like Horathian pirates. Admiral Irons must lead a rag tag group of former pirate slaves and military personnel back to one of the few places he hopes will help stem the pirate tide. Once there he'll have to face the politicians, then dig up his one ace, a secret from his past.
But some ghosts should remain buried...
This will conclude Irons Wandering time period. I had planned on a time skip but well, events were taken out of my hands. You'll see when you get to read it.
I just passed the manuscript to Rea today. I am still waiting on feedback from a few of the betas. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get it out before the end of this year. Hopefully. Maybe.
Next up is my annual 3D Christmas card. :)
December 2, 2014
Progress Report
First off, I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a good holiday. We did, even though I was exhausted by the time it was over. I now have a ton of fried turkey (all dark meat) leftover. I'm getting tired of turkey Panini's already. And my darling sister made off with the leftover butternut squash... this time with my blessings. :)
I bought a bunch of stuff for future cover art and other projects from Renderosity and Daz during their Black Friday sales. Sad, I was buying that stuff instead of other stuff. (Okay, I did get some virtual Christmas Shopping in but not much.)
Dad is sick so I've pretty much stopped any work on the cover art to GP, (as well as some discussion on the website and other projects) and have just been logging the corrections the guys have been sending me for GP for the past couple of days. If I can get dad to EAT and DRINK then we think he'll bounce back faster. But he's pig headed and just wants to sleep. Grr... Now you know where I get that trait from. :P We got him in to the doctor's today. Hopefully the meds will kick in and he'll start getting healthy again. He's going to be underfoot (Funny that since he's bigger than me at 6'8"!) for the rest of this week. Then he and the brat pack are off for Christmas break... whimper... ugh.
The good news is most of my holiday decorations are up... except 1 stupid set of icicle lights I need to exchange and then get back up on the roof. Joy. At least the tree and my 2 town scenes look good. :)
Oh, I almost forgot. I changed 'New Beginnings' to Battle Lines. The betas know why. Have fun trying to get it out of them on the FB group, they don't know much of the plot. I was driving myself 'coo coo' as my sister likes to say working on rewriting it from the ground up during Thanksgiving and decorating the tree Friday. ....That isn't really good news since I now have to rewrite the treatments for other books too and find somewhere I can stick the original plot of New Beginnings in somewhere.. :P
Buut... it should be a lot more... interesting to write. I will finally be able to write the space battles I've wanted to write!
Happy Holidays everyone!
I bought a bunch of stuff for future cover art and other projects from Renderosity and Daz during their Black Friday sales. Sad, I was buying that stuff instead of other stuff. (Okay, I did get some virtual Christmas Shopping in but not much.)
Dad is sick so I've pretty much stopped any work on the cover art to GP, (as well as some discussion on the website and other projects) and have just been logging the corrections the guys have been sending me for GP for the past couple of days. If I can get dad to EAT and DRINK then we think he'll bounce back faster. But he's pig headed and just wants to sleep. Grr... Now you know where I get that trait from. :P We got him in to the doctor's today. Hopefully the meds will kick in and he'll start getting healthy again. He's going to be underfoot (Funny that since he's bigger than me at 6'8"!) for the rest of this week. Then he and the brat pack are off for Christmas break... whimper... ugh.
The good news is most of my holiday decorations are up... except 1 stupid set of icicle lights I need to exchange and then get back up on the roof. Joy. At least the tree and my 2 town scenes look good. :)
Oh, I almost forgot. I changed 'New Beginnings' to Battle Lines. The betas know why. Have fun trying to get it out of them on the FB group, they don't know much of the plot. I was driving myself 'coo coo' as my sister likes to say working on rewriting it from the ground up during Thanksgiving and decorating the tree Friday. ....That isn't really good news since I now have to rewrite the treatments for other books too and find somewhere I can stick the original plot of New Beginnings in somewhere.. :P
Buut... it should be a lot more... interesting to write. I will finally be able to write the space battles I've wanted to write!
Happy Holidays everyone!
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