Doug Dandridge's Blog, page 2

Alita: Battle Angel. A Must-See Movie.

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Now, I really don’t do too many blogs on movies, and then not so soon after release. I was not familiar with the Manga origins of this movie, and knew nothing about the character or mythos. I happened to see a trailer for it during Aquaman, one of my favorite DC movies along with Wonder Woman. It looked interesting, maybe something I would catch eventually, on Netflix or Blue-ray. Then, last week, I was checking out the movies at AMC, making sure I wasn’t missing any of the upcoming superhero flicks, or maybe a good scifi. The superhero movies have not been as interesting as before, and very little good scifi has been released in the last couple of months. But I saw that Alita was listed, along with three of the trailers. I watched the trailers and was sold. So I ordered up my Imax tickets and went to the show, hoping it would be entertaining.

Was it ever. More than entertaining. Mind blowing. I normally try to get writing ideas from movies, and this one filled a basket with them. I have seen a lot of movies, starting with a bunch of flicks when I was a child. The Sand Pebbles, 2001, Thunderball, all of the really bad Beatle movies. I lived for the Friday night horror movies, followed by the Saturday afternoon movies. I estimated the other day that I have seen at least five thousand movies (this doesn’t include all the TV series). Maybe ten thousand. Maybe more. I tend toward the fantastic, scifi, fantasy and horror, along with war movies. That doesn’t mean I won’t watch a romantic comedy, a straight out comedy, a police thriller, but movies about the fantastic are my bread and butter. And this is my new favorite movie. One of the best I have ever seen. I only go to Imax to see spectaculars. I saw the one on Churchhill last year, The Darkest Hour, but that was not a film I needed to see in Imax. Dunkirk was. All of the Marvel and DC movies are. And this one definitely is. I saw it on Thursday, its opening day, and went back to see it on Sunday. In fact, I’m going to see it again this Thursday, the last day it’s in Imax. And when the Blue-ray comes out it’s mine, with an extended edition to follow. Unfortunately, even though thousands of people are trying to promote the movie online, fans, not the studio, the Imax run is almost over.

So, what was it about this movie that captivated this sixty-one-year-old movie goer and lover of the fantastic? Great sets, terrific CGI, action sequences as good as any I’ve ever seen. Produced by James Cameron, known for his groundbreaking effects, and directed by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City). Three Academy Award Winners; Christof Waltz, Jennifer Connelly and Mahershali Ali, who all turned in terrific performances. But the show was stolen by Rosa Salizar, who, with the aid of CGI, played the cyborg girl Alita. She made me believe this was a naïve teenage girl who was new to this world, full of wonder and hope, who evolves into the kickass cyborg warrior she really is. A lot of people talked about the big eyes turning them off. To me it added a dimension of charm. Her facial expressions were spot on, and made the character warm, relatable, and realistic. It was not perfect, but it was so damned entertaining, with no boring spots, that I give it a 10 out of a 10.

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Some minor spoilers ahead: The story revolves around Doc Dyson Ido (Waltz), who finds the head and core of the cyborg in a scrap heap, with a still functioning and preserved adolescent brain. He gives her the body he had built for his deceased daughter, who was the reason he and his wife, Chiren (Connelly) had been thrown out of the skycity of Zalem by Nova (Edward Norton). Alita has no memory of what she is, until she rescues the Doc from a trio of killer cyborgs, and turns out to be a fighting machine like hasn’t been seen on this world in 300 years. There is a love interest, a new body, and a contest of a Rollerball like game in which all of the other players have been paid to kill her. As said before, the action sequences are excellent, but so are the quieter moments, the emotional times between her and Hugo, a young man determined to make it to Zalem, and Doc, her father figure. There are many other cyborgs in the city. Some just people who replaced body parts lost, or for improvements. Other Total Replacements, basically only their head and brain in a robotic body. Some of those are pretty cool, some are nightmares, but all add to the completeness of this world.

So, why am I writing this blog? The movie is not doing as good as it should in my opinion. The theater was nearly empty both times I saw it. Maybe because so few people are familiar with the source material, and are unwilling to take a chance on it like I did. Or the panning by critics in Newspapers and Rotten Tomatoes (which has a 93% audience score against 50% by that of critics). Or maybe even the YouTube critiques. Most of those are positive, though not all, but thousands of people are commenting on the negative ones that they don’t agree with the critic. I posted a positive comment on everything I could find on YouTube, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDB. And the feedback on the positives are a wonder to behold. Thousands of them. Many are echoing my feelings that this is one of the best scifi movies ever. On the Facebook page as well. I want this movie to have a sequel. It might get one, since the worldwide first weekend was about a 143 million, but the US was only 23 million. People need to see this movie, a 200 million production.

An aside on critics. I remember years ago when Thor came out, a critic for one of the Chicago papers wrote that Thor was great when he was a fish out of water with no powers, but then they had to ruin it with those stupid super powers. He didn’t get it, and I still think most critics don’t get movies that aren’t mainstream dramas. I say if you liked the Marvel movies, even some of the DC movies, you will be blown away by this one. It was, in my opinion, better than the last couple of Avenger movies, and I loved those. I know I was blown away, and I hope to see the sequel coming out in a couple of years.

Trailer from Alita on Youtube.

Clips from the movie.

IGN Review.

Those In Peril is Out: My First Shot At Alternate History.

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Those In Peril.

And definitely not my last. As many of you know, I have been in two of the Four Horsemen anthologies, and did a novel (When Eagles Dare) in the series. I met James Young at a Libertycon when I was moderating a panel with seven participants. James came into the room and became the eighth. James is a graduate of the Upper Hudson School for Boys, also known as West Point, and is a knowledgeable student of history. He approached me with the idea of doing a story for an alternate history volume on naval warfare. The one rule, not a whole lot of stories on alternate Leyte Gulfs. No problem. I have wanted to write alternate history for a while, and am planning a series based around WW2 (I know, done, but definitely not the way I’m going to do it). But I also had another idea. One that I thought would make a good novel. The problem was time. I would have to live to a hundred to write every idea I had. But maybe a longish short story?

Off Long Island came from an idea I had about the Washington Naval Arms Treaty. For those who don’t know, there was a concern in Britain about the looming naval arms race after WW1. The world was broke after the war, with the exception of the United States, which held debt from almost everyone else. Everyone wanted a larger fleet, but most saw the possibility of going bankrupt trying to fund it. The Washington Treaty was the attempt to stop this arms race. A very successful attempt that limited the navies of the UK and the US, as well as those of Italy and Japan, which were saddled with a smaller size than either wanted. Battleships were limited to 35,000 tons and fourteen-inch guns, though a few sixteen inchers had been built previously. Most countries played with the wording of the treaty, and reported their ships’ empty weight instead of battle ready to sail. Of course, Japan eventually backed out and built the Yamato, the US started putting sixteen-inch guns on their ships, and the Germans, who had never signed the treaty, built the Bismarck and Tirpitz.

Before the treaty both the US and UK had new superships on the drawing boards. The Brits were going to go with battleships in the fifty-thousand-ton range with eight eighteen-inch guns. Along with them would be battlecruisers of about equal displacement and sixteen inchers. All would be fast ships, and the UK would have a battle line second to none. Or would they? The United had decided to go with ships just as large, in most cases a little swifter, with an armament of sixteen sixteen-inch guns, and the same armament in a nine gun configuration for the battle cruisers. The battleships had the same main armament weapons layout as the cancelled Montana class which was seen as the answer to the Yamato. The guns had a longer range than the eighteen inchers of both the Japanese and the Brits, and the weight of sixteen shells was slightly more massive than either eight or nine. Of course, we know what the answer was to the Yamato. The airplane, and the Montana’s were cancelled.

The central ideas for the novel, and thus the short story, was this. There was no Washington treaty, and the UK was forced into a disastrous building war with the US. Tensions were heightened, and as nations tend to do, both concentrated on war with the worst-case enemy. Something happened. I had never finalized what that something was, but in the short story there is a clash of two destroyers, and both go down with all hands. Instant war, and I didn’t have to assign blame (hey, I have a lot of readers in the UK, and I didn’t want to villainize that nation.)

So, war is declared, the United States invaded Canada, the Brits bomb Southeast Florida from the Bahamas, and the UK sends a relief expedition to their possession in the North. After that they try to teach the Colonials a lesson, and range down the East Coast punishing the Americans. And then they meet, Off Long Island. It was a fun story to write, and I hope my fans enjoy it, and possibly give the other writers a try if they haven’t. Chris has helped some incredible writers to gain recognition, while using the talents of the better known. Will I be doing another with his company? Possibly. I have projects of my own. My first traditionally published series. Finishing up what I already have out there. Four more series in the planning stage. But I would be very open to doing more short stories in his anthologies. In fact, with the popularity of their brand, and the talents of the writers working in his Factory, I consider it an honor to be considered. So go out there and get Those In Peril, and find out what might have happened if some things had changed.

The Hundred Worlds Anthology is out.

The Hundred Worlds is an ambitious new project combining the talents of thirteen old hands and new writers to tell the tales of a common universe. It can be bought in Amazon.US here, and in Amazon.UK here. It already has nine reviews at Amazon.US, and a five star average (I’ll let you do the math).

A couple of years ago at Liberty Con in Chattanooga I was on a veteran’s panel with John Holmes (JF Holmes to those who follow his work). He is a retired Army Sergeant First Class (E7) who served in artillery. As a former grunt I won’t hold that against him. I was asked if I wanted to contribute to an anthology. It would include some well-known indie writers as well as some who were just starting out and needed the exposure. Which is how I found myself involved in this anthology. Together, though most of the work was from our philosophically minded retired platoon sergeant, we developed a dystopian world of the future. The United Nations has gone from bad to worse, and controls the food supply of all the outworld colonies. They have controlled and restricted weapons, and deny the existence of aliens other than the one species that is common knowledge. Obviously invested in the status quo and not wanting anyone to change it. They use brutal methods, up to and including murder, to get rid of dissenters. Of course this has bred the dissent they wanted to avoid, but outright revolt is impossible when all the crops planted are incapable of producing viable seeds, which have to be distributed by the UN on a yearly basis. Toe the line or starve.

I was interested, and decided on a story where an ex-UN Marines decides to get back at the Citizens, those who enforce the draconian laws of the United Nations. To do so they use the leverage they gain by having control of many of the families of people who might be rebellious. So the story was titled leverage, as the rebel uses this system to lead some Citizens into a trap on the Terraforming Mars. If you like my other work, I’m sure you will like this one, and the anthology is the only place you will get it. Add to that a bunch of short tales of many other authors, and this is one you don’t want to miss. Fifteen stories for $2.99 on Amazon, a can’t beat it deal.

John actually started a publishing company, Cannon Publishing (what else would an old artillery sergeant call it), with the plan of using established authors to help new comers get some traction. I’m all for it, and wish someone had been doing this when I started out.

Okay, now to the Author List: Myself (Doug Dandridge), JF Holmes, Jon Del Arroz, James Schardt, Lucas Marcum, James Peters, Sean McCune, Daniel Humphreys, Bart Kemper, J.K. Robinson, T. Allen Diaz, and John M. Olsen. Some you may have heard of, some not, but all are writers you will want to sample and follow on down the road.

Next up: I will be discussing my soon to be released novel in the Machine War saga, and will be embarking on a new blog genre, video games. What I like about some of them, what they could have down better. See you then.

Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Book 3 is out. And Surviving Michael.

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I recently released another collection of Exodus stories in the Tales of the Empire Series. Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Book 3: Capitulum is a collection of five stories about the capital of the Empire. It can be found on Amazon.UK here. I have wanted to do this book ever since the release of Beasts of the Frontier. The first two books in this series did very well. Exploration Command sold over 5K books, while Beasts did 4K. To put this into perspective, a lot of anthologies put out by well-known authors, some NYT bestsellers, don’t do as well. So, I started on the title story in this collection two years ago. It fills in a lot of details in the backstory of the Empire, tales I didn’t have the space to include in the novels, which already had too many characters according to some.

Capitulum revisits the Yugalyth problem, and the investigation by Capitulum PD Lt/Fleet Intelligence Captain Ishuhi Rykio and his team. In Emigration we look at the attack on the Jewel system and Capitulum through the eyes of a married couple. Prior to the attack, he wants to stay in Capitulum, the safest place in the Empire, while she wants children, something hard to do on reproductive restricted capital planet. Capitulum turns out to not be so safe after all. In Search and Rescue the attack is examined from the perspective of a Customs/Search and Rescue cutter in the twin planet system. In Dead Eyes the master assassin Angel Martinez, the Angel of Death, is given and assignment to take out a member of the Elysium Embassy Staff. And in the process meets up with a man as deadly as he, Cornelius Walborski. And finally, for those who wanted to see a stronger Empress Jennifer, we see her in her role as a physician, facing the deadliest organism ever released in Imperial Space. It’s think on your feet or die for the good doctor.

People have asked me why I do these kind of books, and just don’t concentrate on the main Exodus: Empires at War series. I love that series. It was responsible for my ability to become a full-time writer. However, it is difficult to keep a long running series fresh. Sometimes I need more time to come up with ideas. Sometimes the new ideas are popular, sometimes not. Sometimes the motivation is there, sometimes not. I have always said that I could never get writer’s block. This is true, because I have hundreds of ideas, most of which don’t fit into the Empires or War storyline. So I write other things. Sometimes they do well, sometimes not, but I still feel compelled to write them. That will continue on into the future.

So, if you want to learn more about the background of the Empire, get this book. $2.99 for 67K words of stories, about the same per word as my novels.

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The back of my house after the storm.

Michael caught me completely off-guard. I came back from the FSU Women’s Soccer match on Sunday, November 7th, to see the news that there was a tropical storm off Yucatan that was predicted to head right for me. It took off at warp speed, throwing fish and dolphins into the air in passage. By Tuesday night it was right on target, and I thought it would go right over Tallahassee. It was predicted to be a Category 2. No big deal. I live in a brick house and have been through many 1s and 2s. Then. Overnight, it was upgraded to a Category 3 and predicted to be a 4 before hitting the coast. And then it was predicted to become a 5, with 150mph winds. Yikes. At least the plot was showing that the eye was not going to pass over my house. Kudos to the National Weather Service for their prediction of timing and path. Not so much for the strength prediction. If I had know that a Category 5 was heading my way I would have thrown the cats in my car and headed to Jacksonville.

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The only real damage to my house.

At most we got 80 mph winds in twenty to thirty second gusts. Not enough to rattle my double paned windows. Enough to make some noise dropping branches on my roof. And definitely enough to drop a monster tree on my back fence, thankfully completely away from the house. It did take out my back fence, my side fence, the power lines, the traffic light on the road behind me, and blocked the road. The trifecta. Power went off at just after 1PM, while I was updating the storm on Facebook and following it on a webpage. Just as the eye was touching the coast. I didn’t get my power back until Sunday afternoon, and cable wasn’t on until Wednesday, on and off until Friday afternoon. It really set me back on a number of projects. I’m finally getting it under control.

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No way through for a car, but the guy on the bike got through.

I was ready for this storm, kind of. After Irma last year turned out to be nothing by the time it got to us, and completely missed the target. I got a generator, plenty of candles, lots of rechargeable devices. Water and food. Didn’t have enough gas for the generator and ended up throwing out everything in my fridge. All of the devices save one didn’t live up to my expectations. And the full gas tank in my car was inaccessible to syphoning. So, I learned, and will be better prepared for the next one. It wasn’t fun living in a cold, dark cave for five days, especially when I had stuff I needed to do. Still, I was much better off than people to the West of me, or those on the coast who lost their entire towns.

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Glad it wasn’t me/

And now the excerpt:

Another holo popped up, showing a schematic of the robot, large areas blinking red.

“The damned thing is attacking the robot,” exclaimed Chan, her voice actually rising. “Its structure is as tough as battleship armor, and large sections of it are being dissolved.”

“What about the walls of the chamber? The door?”

If it was attacking the robot with so much fury, what was it doing to break out of that room. Its function was clear, get into the population and infect as many people as possible. There could be no end to that. It could infect everyone in the city who didn’t get out in time, then move across the planet, doing the same. If people got off the planet by ship or wormhole, carrying the substance, it could establish itself on other worlds. Jennifer doubted it could destroy the Empire. But if it even damaged several worlds, including Jewel, the heart of the Empire, it could devastate the industrial efforts and moral of the nation.

“Get a look at the door before the robot goes down,” she ordered Kellis.

The scientist nodded and moved the camera, getting a grainy image of the door. The lens was already under attack, and with the push of a panel Kellis rotated another one from out of the storage compartment and into place.

The door that had sealed the room was almost gone, only a few strands left. The contamination tent was also dissolved. While the clamshell door was showing sign of severe damage. Kellis panned the camera, showing that the walls were also in bad shape. A pan up showed that the vent cover was almost gone as well, and soon the contagion would be flooding the ventilation shafts. Most would be swept away by electromagnetic waves into the furnace that filtered the air. No matter how tough this thing was, it couldn’t survive the ten thousand degrees of plasma the air would be swept into. But not all of it would be swept away, and some would eventually get through the ventilation system and out into the hospital.

If only we had the warrant officer in one of the isolation rooms lower down, thought the Empress, mentally smacking herself that they hadn’t done so. There they could have flooded the room with all kinds of hard radiation, of even superheated plasma itself. Here, they were helpless.

Possibly the Marines could burn it out with their particle beams. She had her doubts. They might be able to spray the room and get most of it, but surely some would get away, attacking them and everyone else on this ward.

Jennifer reached over onto Kellis’ board and hit a panel.

“This is an Imperial order. All personnel on the ward are to move themselves and their patients to the break room at the end of the corridor. Any patients who can’t be moved are to be sealed in their rooms. I know that’s not what most of you would want, but it’s the best we can do. Repeat, everyone evacuate, seal the patient rooms, and seal the breakroom.”

“You think it’s going to break out?” asked Sean, his face appearing in a holo bubble.

“I think so. And the only thing we can do right now is buy time.”

“I want you out of there,” hissed her husband. “Now. We can set up isolation on the other side of the doors and make sure you’re okay. But I want you out.”

“And I’m not coming. Not while I have patients in danger here.”

Sean didn’t say another word, probably realizing it would do no good, though his eyes continued to plead with her. Finally, he shook his head. “I won’t try to force the issue. This is your area. But please, try to survive. This galaxy will be a cold dark place without you.

“Chan,” said her husband, shifting gears. “Find something to stop that thing. I’ll give you a duchy for your trouble.”

“I don’t need a duchy, your Majesty,” said Chan, her sense of being offended echoing in her voice. “I just need the kingdom you provide for me here. My best people are working on it. We’re fabricating the things in the lab as we speak, so we can figure out how to kill them.”

“Is that wise?” asked an alarmed Jennifer, imagining the contagion getting out in the research laboratories and running amok.

“We will be reproducing it on an isolated lab asteroid, one with an antimatter device ready to turn it to plasma. If it gets out the casualties will be minimal.”

Jennifer wondered for a moment why Chan had such a facility, unless it was to investigate bio weapons of her own. The doctor part of her didn’t like that idea, though the Empress part saw how it might be necessary to save Imperial lives.

“I wish there was some other way to do it,” said Chan, true regret in her voice. “If we had a sample of what you have there, or from the other outbreaks, it would go faster.” Now her voice was brimming with excitement. “Still, we have your scans, so we should be able to replicate them from nanotech.”

“Do you have all the data you need?” asked Sean, rushing his words, a sign that he was anxious.

“Not really,” admitted the admiral. “We can build their physical structures. What we can’t do, without a physical sample, is reconstruct their programming. We’ll just have to hope that doesn’t contain some unexpected surprises.”

Jennifer wanted to say that all surprises were unexpected, lest they not be a surprise. Since that would add nothing to the conversation, she kept her mouth shut, something she had learned in medical school.

“I’m shooting over some more information to you, Admiral,” said Dr. Kellis, pushing panels on his board. “That’s probably the end of the robot. I have eight more diagnostic chambers, but the contagion has eaten into the core of the machine.”

The Empress did some quick calculations in her head. “It must have between six and eight hundred kilos of mass now. If it gets to us here, figure a couple of thousand kilos just from the living matter it absorbs.”

“We’re not going to let it get that mass,” said Sean in a soft voice, trying to calm herself and himself at the same time.

“How did you control the contagion on the other breakout points?”

Sean was silent, and Jennifer thought about how difficult this must be for him. He already had so much on his plate, and now he had to worry about something out of his area of expertise.

“If I may, your Majesty,” said Chan, an edge of anxiety in her voice as well. “The two ships were vaporized by other vessels. One of the facilities was hit with a gigaton warhead, the other with multiple particle beams.”

“That is not going to happen here,” blurted Sean.

“Your Majesty. You know that if that thing breaks containment, we’re going to have to do the exact same thing here.”

“But, Jennifer…”

“Will be dead and her mass feeding that thing,” said the Empress. She didn’t like that thought any more than did her husband. But she had to face reality here. Once she and the others here were gone, it wouldn’t matter. “You will have no choice. I don’t think sending in more Marines is going to be the answer. Unless they can blast every particle of it, it will escape. And you will again be left with the decision to vaporize the entire building.”

Next Up: A series on Adventures in Indie Publishing, as I detail some of the new things I am trying out to increase exposure and sales.

When Eagles Dare (Four Horsemen Tales Book 5) is Out.

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Today was the release day of When Eagles Dare (Four Horsemen Tales Book 5), by Seventh Seal Press, Chris Kennedy’s company, written by Doug Dandridge. That would be me. You can find it at Amazon.US and Amazon.UK, as well as all of the other Amazons worldwide. This is my first novel in the Four Horsemen Universe created by Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey, which now includes a bunch of other very good authors. It has been a most successful series, and part of its success is the marketing genius of Chris. Releasing a book at least once a month, often every three weeks, is part of that genius. And that requires more than one author. Actually more than two. I have written six books in a year, so it is possible with two, but is very difficult, as books don’t always come out of our minds and onto the keyboards as fast as we would like. Of course, if the stories aren’t good, nothing else really matters. Anyway, it works for them, and the sales and award nominations appear to back up the method.

I first got involved in the 4HU with the anthology, For A Few Credits More, released at last year’s Liberty Con. The story I wrote for that anthology, With The Eagles, followed mercenary leader Jonah White Eagle and his company on a couple of missions to rescue hostages, and piss off the criminal syndicate who was making a fortune on the people they were taking captive. In the process Jonah and his people earn the enmity of the aliens who run the criminal enterprise. They want revenge. Now, most of the books in the series, as well as most of the stories in the anthology, involve mercenaries in CASPers, the multimillion credit mecha/battle armor suits that even the playing field for humans against much more physically capable aliens. Great idea, and not one I wanted to pursue. I thought about what humans could do without the suits, in situations that required sneaking. Stealth, the art of getting into position, gathering intelligence, and making a kill.

That story was fun, and I considered writing a novel for the 4HU. I talked with Chris a DragonCon 2017, and we agreed I could write a novel, possibly in the main series. From there I went on to my other projects and didn’t touch base with Chris again until around February of this year, the same time I turned in the first book of the Kinship War series to Arc Manor. Unfortunately, even though it finally freed up some time, I had taken too much, and the slot in the main timeline of the series was no longer available. No problem. I told Chris I would come up with something else. I thought of the Fierce Eagle Company and exploring their specialty in a novel. An opportunity to sell a story to another anthology, Tales From the Lyon’s Den, came up, and I signed on for that one about the same time I signed the contract for When Eagles Dare. I came up with the name, among several others, and Chris loved it. It had a resonance with the movie and book that so many people were familiar with, something that would ring a bell. But not exactly the same. I came up with the story, outlined it, and started writing, planning to have it to Chris in a month. Like most plans, things didn’t work out, and I didn’t get it done until three months after signing the contract.

When Eagles Dare follows the Fierce Eagle Company as they perform a mission on a very unusual planet where a criminal enterprise, along with their own unusual mercenaries, are running an operation to harvest the planet. There are intelligent creatures on the world, slaves for the syndicate. Someone has hired the Fierce Eagles to scout out the compound so a force of CASPer equipped mercenaries can come in and take it. Things go bad from the start, and the mercenaries must traverse a number of deadly environments to get to the target and perform the mission. Bad news follows bad news, but Jonah White Eagle and his team have never given up on a mission, and this is not about the be the first time.

There were a lot of novels ahead of it in the queue, and it was first come first serve for publication. Fair, and I can’t fault the method. It works to put out books regularly, but not to release a flood of them all at once. Anyway, here it is, polished, proofed and ready to go. If you like any of my past work, I think you will love this one. I’m asking my readers to go on over to Amazon and pick this one up. It’s available on Kindle Unlimited as well if you have that subscription service.

Will I do another book in the 4HU? I can see it happening, but so much depends on how well this book does. That’s why I’m depending on my readers to give me a boost. While depending on the 4HU hardcore fans to look up some of my other work. One time or part of a greater future effort, I think this is a very good military science fiction tale, one that fans of the genre will enjoy. Now, I’m not going to include an excerpt with this one, but here’s the blurb from Amazon.

The mission Jonah White Eagle and his Fierce Eagle Company had taken was nearly impossible. Land on the middle of a 7.5-mile-high plateau, walk six miles to the edge of the cliff, and scale down the 39,000-foot-high cliffs to the foothills of the canyon below. Nothing to it, right? But then there was the swamp they had to cross, full of large indigenous life forms that thought Humans made good snacks. And the rivers, full of other killers, they would have to negotiate.

And then there were the Xlatan, a race of six-legged killers guarding the target. A relatively new mercenary race, although one more established than the Humans, the Xlatan were supposed to be tough. Maybe not—quite—as tough as the Besquith, but close enough to give a number of other merc races the chills when they went up against them.

The Fierce Eagle Company only needed to traverse the planet, stay alive, and then surveil the operation the Xlatan were guarding to gather intelligence for the CASPer-equipped merc company that was enroute to destroy the operation.

The mission would have been nearly impossible, all on its own. There’s just one more thing, though, that they don’t know. They’ve been set up, and the heavy forces aren’t coming.

Still, anything is possible…When Eagles Dare.

Tales From the Lyon’s Den: Stories from the Four Horsemen Universe is out.

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Tales From the Lyon’s Den cover

Today is release day for Tales From the Lyon’s Den (Lyon’s Den for short from here on). Nineteen authors, eighteen stories (for those doing the math, yes, there was one collaboration in the anthology), over one hundred and sixty thousand words (most novels are about a hundred thousand or so, so this is a thick book). This is my second anthology in the Four Horsemen Universe (4HU for short from here on). And to everyone who will wonder, no, I have not stopped writing in my own universes. However, this was a fun gig, a great universe to write in, and I couldn’t resist. I also know a lot of the authors in this volume, either personally, having met them at cons or workshops, or by reputation. All are what I would consider very skilled at their craft, capable of writing very interesting stories. I don’t consider myself a great literary writer. I write good entertainment, good enough that a lot of people buy and enjoy it. But we have some future stars in this lineup.

Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey have created a monster of a series. Lots of books, lots of authors, a huge central story arc and a bunch of side stories. A great series to get into as it is large and growing and promises to provide a lot of great reading for the military science fiction fan. They could have done well by themselves, but instead they opened the universe up to other authors such as Kacey Ezell and Kevin Ikenberry. And myself. And they opened it up to even more with the anthologies. It was a win-win. Chris and Mark gained new stories and the possible attention of other fan bases, while anthology authors were able to get their names out there to a new audience. The 4HU is a great thing in my opinion, opening up a whole new universe to explore and a great group of authors to sample. I recommend, if you haven’t read the 4HU, to go out and get this anthology, and then start getting the novels, including, ahem, the one I will talk about in a bit. If you have already read a book or two in the universe, or all of them, what in the hell are you waiting for. Go out and get Lyon’s Den, right now. Until you do, I will be sending psionic waves your way, forcing you to do my will. You have been warned.

In other news from the 4HU, there is a card game in the works, along with a Kickstarter campaign. The Omega War 4HU card game needs your help, troop. So, if you want this project to succeed, get on over there and plop down your credits. I had been remiss in doing so, and just gave them a few of my hard earned bucks.

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When Eagles Dare Cover.

I will not be talking about my other projects on this blog. Just know that there are bunch of them, including books in several of my series, and some new stuff. But the one I want to talk about here is. When Eagles Dare, my novel entry into the 4HU will be out next month. I am exciting to be finally getting my foot in the door in this successful franchise with this novel. Those who have read my story, With The Eagles, from the anthology For a Few Credits More, will recognize many of the characters. And I introduce a new mercenary race, as well as some original aliens. I think fans of mine will like this novel. No, it isn’t Exodus: Empires at War, but it has the same gritty action and combat as those books. I would appreciate it if you would saunter on over to Amazon on release day and pick this one up. Coming in October.

Next up: My Adventures in Self-Publishing. What I have done right, What I have done wrong, What I am experimenting with now. I think this will be of interest to people who are already self-published  or currently trying to make it.

Galaxy’s Edge Issue 34. I’m There, Baby.

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I walked out to my mailbox this afternoon, expecting to pick up the usual suspects. Bills, loan offers (everyone wants to give me money), maybe some appeals to charity (and the ones I’m already giving to need to stop selling my information, it’s just draining their potential donations). And there, in my box, were two copies of Galaxy’s Edge Issue 34, edited by Mike Resnick. I have met Mike on several occasions, at DragonCon, LibertyCon and during the two Sail to Success cruises I attended. But I’ve never been published in anything that Mike edited, until now. I’ve known a lot of people who have been published in this magazine, and now I’m among them. Cool.

Also included with my short blurb is the advertisement, Phoenix Pick Introduces Kinship Wars, a new shared universe, www.KinshipWars.com . This is the reason for being for this story, an introduction into the Kinship War universe, which I have developed. Book 1 is in the hands of the publisher, and should be out in ARC copies by next month, published for real in March of 2019. I am currently working on Book 2, and hopefully there will be a Book 3. Journey’s End introduces the reader to the sublight colony ships that opened up the colonization of space, before warp drive became practical. Things don’t go as planned, and the awake crew has to come up with a way to change course without having the fuel to do so. Sort of like the old Golden Age scifi stories where some little known fact of science was used to solve the problem.

If you would like to learn more, this issue can be bought at http://www.galaxysedge.com/ . I would love for all of my fans to go over there and pick up this issue. If you are not familiar with the magazine, they publish a bunch of great stories each month from newcomers and old pros, and a digital copy is only $4.99. I would love for everyone who reads my work to pick up one, and help get the excitement going for the upcoming Kinship War series. As for myself, I’m ecstatic to be on the cover with such people as Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Silverberg, Robert Sawyer, Gregory Benford, Bill Fawcett, Jody Lynn Nye, and Charles Sheffield. And I think Larry Niven is mentioned in there somewhere.

The Chronicles of the Eirish: Book 1: The Lich’s Horde.

 

 

 

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Avalaible on Amazon.US and Amazon.UK. as well as all the other iterations of Amazon out there.

This fantasy novel was just released last night on Amazon, and is now available world wide. It definitely has a military slant to it, and I typify it as Military Fantasy, a term I had heard didn’t exist at a DragonCon panel three years ago. Readers who like the Refuge series will love this book. I believe that even the die hard military scifi fans of Exodus will love it. It definitely isn’t fairies and unicorns. The battles are dirty and intense and much like my space opera ground battles, only different.

Now I know that the rabid Exodus fans will be complaining that I’m putting something out that is not Exodus, lol. Sorry, but many more Exodus books will be coming out, probably another at the end of September. And this book, in its original iteration at least, was written many years ago. So, I’ll tell you the story behind this novel.

Back in 2004, or was it 2005, I wrote a fantasy called The Chronical of Connor McMenamin. I showed it to several friends who were big time writers, and was told I wouldn’t have any problem selling it. Well, I sent it out to the three publishers who at the time were accepting unsolicited manuscripts and received form rejections. Unfortunately my friends weren’t aquisition editiors. Book 1 was the first part of a trilogy. When I started self-publishing I decided to not put it out, since I didn’t have time for another series. Fast forward seven years or so, and I decided to revisit the idea, only twenty years earlier in the series and with another cast of characters. And so this book was born, starring Connor’s father, King Rory. I did thorough research on the people of the ancient world, and came up with a jumble of groups and their ancient gods. I noted that most peoples of the ancient world were eventually conquered and absorbed into some other group. I didn’t want this in my world, so I came up with the idea that the Gods protected their own. Wars were possible, fringe lands could change hands, but the core lands were jealously guarded by their deities, who had more power on their home territories than any invaders. The other idea was that gods gained their power from their worshippers. Not a new idea at all, dating back to the days of the pulps, in fact. The third idea was that of the Walking Gods, former deities who had fallen from heaven when they lost most of their worshippers. Super beings, greater than human, with some of the divine in them still. But mortal, capable of dying. The novel came to about ninety-five thousand words. I started self-publishing with other works and never had time to send it out, and again, didn’t want yet another series until I was finished with some that were already out.

I brought a couple of chapters of The Lich’s Horde to a workshop, where it was critiqued and commented on by a big time editor with a major company, as well as a major award winning writer. The editor liked it, but had some problems with the mixed mythology and some of the formatting. Now, I learned to write by reading other writers, and didn’t have all the Chicago Manual of Style rules down. So I bought the manual and started learning. The funny thing is that even following those rules exactly has led to some arguments with other professionals. Go figure. It’s a no-win situation. I went in and changed a lot of the background, cleaning it up. I also talked with a big time agent at the workshop, and thought that I had nailed down someone who had represented a bunch of best selling authors. As soon as I had the novel cleaned up, and brought it to under ninety thousand words, cutting unmercifully at the agent’s recommendation. I finally got it off to her and waited. And waited. Four months after I sent it off I pinged her, and was told that she didn’t have the copy I had sent her. The copy she had acknowledged receipt of when I sent it. I sent her another copy and waited, and waited, and pinged again, three months later. She replied that she had read it several times and just couldn’t get into it. Which meant she would not represent the book. Funny thing about agents. If they don’t love it, they won’t try to sell it. Try doing that in retail and see how long you last.

I had also seen the editor several times over the last eighteen months, and he hadn’t asked about the novel. Even when I mentioned it he didn’t express any interest. At the workshop he had said that he wanted to see it first before any other house. Now, no interest, zilch. So I decided I didn’t want to have to wait the year to year and a half to get this published if I sent it to their slush pile. And possibly receive a rejection letter after waiting a year. I already have a traditionally published book coming out that the publisher and his editor love. I mean love. The editors comments are that she loves this scene, that scene, the other scene. They love it so much so that we are going to do a third book, beyond the two book contract. I have given up on the other publisher, the one I had always dreamed of doing a book for. As another successful independent author friend has said, they know where I am if they want to talk. I no longer have the time or energy to pursue them.

The story? A Death God kills the worshippers of his brother, the Sky God, and gains power. The Sky God falls to earth and becomes a Walking God. The nomads under the control of the Death God go on a campaign to conquer other lands, other peoples, and throw other Gods to Earth. With the power of their evil deity behind them they are able to conquer the cores of other lands and depose their gods. The Walking God travels to the lands of a king who hates his gods for allowing his wife to die in childbirth. The same king, Rory McMenamin, that the last wizards in the Western world are traveling to see to seek refuge. Because divine magic users, read that as priests, hate the idea that someone else, read that wizards, could actually control as muc power as they do.

The setting is not the traditional high fantasy world, where the armor that great great granddad wore in the same as the current characters are using. Things have progressed, and most are at a Renaissance era of technology. The book is full of action, huge battles, pikes and muskets, cannon and knights, verses nomad horsemen and an undead army they have raised from the fallen of the lands they have conquered. I went over it, added in twelve thousand more words (thanks, big time agent, for asking me to shorten it to a point where it didn’t meet my requirements for a published novel.). In reading it, while doing the rewrite, it was like I was reading a new work, and frankly it excited me. So, if you like hard and gritty fantasy, no unicorns or faeries, but definitely some demons and a lot of gross ass zombies, this might be the book to you.

I’m heading to DragonCon tomorrow. This could well be my last one, since the crowds are wearing on me, it’s expensive, and quite frankly the expense is not advancing my career as I had hoped. I can only get a couple of panels a year. I understand. They spend big bucks on big name guests and they have to get them in front of the fans. But two panels is just not enough. I could possibly do two smaller cons next year that would offer more exposure. But I am going this time, and will have after action reports to blog about in the coming month.

Currently the book is listed on Amazon.UK as Low Fantasy. I don’t even know what in the hell that is.

The Third Trip Out West, Part Sixteen: The Flight Home and What I Learned.

I woke up after much too little sleep, crawling into the lobby for breakfast, then getting my stuff together for the flight out. I was sure that I was carrying more stuff than on the way in, including some books. I put a few of the books in with my CPAP, hoping that my bags were under the fifty-pound limit. I had heard some horror stories on the way out about people having to pay over a hundred dollars more for an overweight bag. Then I hauled my stuff up to the lobby and asked them to call a cab. After a few minutes of sitting I decided to wait outside.

The sound of jets was very noticeable outside. I was about a mile from Nellis AFB, and there had been a lot of jets in the air the night before. I looked up and over at the sound and saw four jets cruising through the air in a diamond formation. A little later a couple of them were flying at each other. I was wondering if these were the Thunderbirds, the US Air Force precision flying team. I found out later that they were. And also, much later, that one of the pilots had died in a crash. They put on a good show, but precision flying is a dangerous business, they and the Blue Angels are always losing pilots. The taxi finally pulled up, and I rode in the front with the driver and talked on the way.

The driver told me his daughter was interested in becoming a writer, and I gave him a card so she could follow my blog. We had an interesting conversation about a number of subjects. We got to the terminal and he was very helpful in getting my bags out, and soon I was checked in at the American Airlines outside check in, my large bag weighed (I came in five pounds under the limit!) and I was heading into the terminal and the dreaded TSA checkpoint.

What I don’t like about TSA, even when they are nice, which isn’t often, is the lines you have to get into and the hurry up attitude of everyone. I don’t hurry well. I have learned to have my computer bag already out of my carryon so I can save time. I got everything into their containers and through the scanners, and went through the person scanner without a hitch. Then it was to the trams to the actual gates. They actually didn’t try to rush me this time. That’s good, because I never hurry up when rush, and in fact slow down.

What always cracked me up about McCarran International were the slot machines and other gambling games all over the place. There was a whole bank of them by the gates, with an attendant to make change for people wanting to play the slots. Las Vegas doesn’t want you escaping with any money they might be able to get. In three trips I have spent a total of seventy cents on the slots, and that was at the Piute Indian Truck Stop outside of Valley of Fire State Park. I know the house has it rigged to win enough to make a living, and I’m not really interested in helping them.

I tried several times to get in touch with Budget and tell them that they car was not coming back. At least not today. All I could get were messages, and I left a couple of my own letting them know what was going on. I finally gave up. I had a flight to catch, and my message let them know what happened. I would deal with the mess when I got home.

I had bought seat upgrades to get more leg room, and that actually made the flight more comfortable. The seats still were butt numbing, but you could actually get up without making your fellow passengers move for you. A really nice young man helped me to stow my bags overhead, I strapped in, and started a conversation with the guy in the Virginia Tech shirt. He was a true fan, and knew a lot about my school as well, so we had a good conversation about sports and what had happened in the day. I made a comment about how I really hated the Uconn Women’s Basketball Team, and the nice young man beside me said, “and we were getting along so well.” That was when I noticed the Husky on his sweatshirt. Oops. We still got along for the rest of the trip.

We landed at Charlotte International on time, and then it was another long walk to another gate. First, I checked to make sure they hadn’t changed the gate. That had happened in the past, and I had made the long trudge to a gate only to find that the flight had been changed to another terminal. Somehow one of the food courts was on the way, and I stopped at a BBQ place to get a full meal. Not too bad for airport food, and I wish I could remember the name so I could shout them out.

The flight to Tally boarded on time, then sat out away from the gate for about fifteen minutes before moving. I never did find out what was going on, but since I was a prisoner on the plane it really didn’t matter. Again I got the extra leg room, which meant I didn’t have a seat in front of me since that was the arrangement of the first class section. The young lady next to me was an FSU student and I talked with her a bit, then went to reading. We landed close to on time in Tally, then had an inordinately long wait for baggage. I had to crack up when they announced arrival at Tallahassee International, and advised that we check the gate of our connecting flight if this wasn’t our final stop. Yeah, check the gate at Tallahassee, the International Airport with four gates.

Last time through I had to wait for the second shift of taxis. With the baggage delay, and another bunch of passengers from another flight getting theirs, I was afraid it was going to happen again. And it was getting on to midnight. Fortunately, almost everyone else here had someone waiting for them, and there was a cab right outside the exit. Another cab ride, another conversation, and then I was home. The cats were all waiting for me (except the black cat, who as usual was hiding when I’ve been away for more than a day). All healthy and asking for petting. Even Bobbie, my eighteen year old bobtail who has been diagnosed with kidney failure for the last year and a half. He’s thin as a rail and is always drinking water, but as soon as I sat down in my office he was in my lap, purring away. Tough kitty, and I was glad to see him.

I slept the sleep of the dead that night. I had held up for two weeks of constant travel, a couple of sleepless nights, and the wonder of seeing some of the most beautiful places on Earth. It took a week to get back to normal, whatever the hell that is.

It had been a good trip. I had seen a lot, learned a lot, experienced a lot. Not everything had been good, but that was life. Fortunately the hit and run had not injured me, the snow had not forced me to stay up in Canyonlands, I hadn’t been mugged walking to the strip. I saw a lot of beautiful country, met some interesting people, learned some valuable lessons. I can’t wait to do it again. Later I would go through the hassle of dealing with Budget and the Insurance companies. The adjuster for Geico, my company, out of Arizona, was great, and smoothed everything over, so there was that. My premiums went up, but not by a huge amount, so I’m sticking with them.

I had nailed down all the locations for my post apocalyptic novel, had my spirits lifted, and made it back in one piece. What could be better. Next time I will avoid going into crowded areas like Las Vegas on a holiday weekend, and driving strange interstates under construction at night. I also learned that unless I get in much better shape, a problem at my age, not to sign up for adventures like four wheeling through the desert. I spent way more money than I should have, but met and talked with some interesting people. Starting off with Wonderhussy, the woman who does travel vids of the Great American Southwest and was my guide on my first full day out there, to the Lion Keeper at Lion Habitat Ranch, to all the Park Rangers, and finally to the people on the plane. I have learned through the years that the best thing you can accumulate are memories, and this trip crammed a lot of them into my brain.

Exodus 14 is out, and other news.

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Exodus: Empires at War: Book 14: Rebellion. In the UK an be bought here.

Over nine months after the last book, Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retaliation, was released, I am proud to announce that Exodus: Empires at War: Book 14: Rebellion is out. A lot of obstacles got in the way of this book being released earlier. I had other projects that needed to be completed, some new opportunities, and some finishing up on series that had still not reached a stopping point. More on that last later on. First off, I needed to come up with an idea for the book, and when I finally got around to putting it first in the queue, the idea still eluded me. Finally, in mid-July, my imagination came alive and voila, there was the idea, and the book was ready to be written. I put in many five thousand word days, fourteen in a row at one point, but here it is.

Now, the good news for Exodus Fans. Some of the opportunities I took advantage of, which will definitely be paying off in the future, played havoc with my normal production schedule. I usually put out between five and six books a year, four or more in one of the two Exodus series, Empires at War and Machine War. This year I was not able to keep to that schedule, and I took a financial beating that wasn’t helped by taking a long trip to Nevada to tour that area. That will also help in the future when I start on a new series, probably next year. Frankly, I need to get some books out in my most popular series in order to repair the financial damage. So, I will be working hard to attempt to bring four more books in the series out before the end of the year. I might not make it, but it won’t be for lack of effort. So, two more Empires at War and two more Machine War. I may be closing out the Machine War series by book 6, but don’t worry, fans of that series. The main characters will be joining the war on the Ca’cadasan front. I had planned to end Empires at War after another couple of books, but now it’s looking like at least four more in the series, possibly six. I also plan to do two more Tales of the Empire short collections, and will start, by the end of next year, on a line called In The Beginning (tentative title), a series of six to eight books detailing the history of the wacky nation known as the New Terran Empire. So, there is still a lot of Exodus to come.

I have been accused by some people of only being in it for the money. Not quite true. Even if I wasn’t making a living at this I would still be writing. But to make a living I have to write works that people want to buy. That I’m not only in it for the money, I point to the Theocracy and Refuge series. Neither sell great, but I enjoy writing them, and there are enough fans of both series that I don’t want to just drop them in the middle of the story arc. I will try to get in the third Theocracy book next year, and book 6 of Refuge probably soon after. I had been planning to finish off Refuge at that time, but I think that by stretching it out in time I might be able to see myself doing two more. For people who are fans of the series, talk it up with friends, people at conventions, online. The more it sells, the more I will be willing to write in that series.

Now, to the opportunities. I have finished book 1 of a new series for a traditional house, Arc Manor, the publisher of Galaxy’s Edge magazine. It took a lot of time, and I had a harsh task master as an editor, but I learned a lot about writing. I doubt I would have gotten such an opportunity from anyone else. I have a second book due, and the publisher is amenable to putting a third on the contract after seeing the first. I will also be working on book two of Kinship War, as the series is called, during the fall. We are hoping that it will be a hit, and will open up a shared universe for other authors to write in. The second opportunity came from Chris Kennedy, whose publishing company is behind the very successful Four Horsemen Universe that he, Mark Wandrey, and now so many others write in. If any of my fans haven’t read any of their books, you need to go and get some and start reading. My novel, When Eagles Dare, will be coming out shortly. I also have a short story in another anthology set in the Universe. The other anthologies did really well, and I recommend them as well. Also, my short story, Alone, will be coming out soon in Chuck Gannon’s Lost Signals of the Terran Republic anthology.

I will also be releasing two other books in the next couple of weeks. One is a military fantasy, set in a gunpowder technology era. I wrote it years ago, well before Exodus was even a glimmer of an idea. An editor at a major house was interested in it, but frankly, I’ve got my traditional novel coming out, and I don’t want to wait a year or two for it to be accepted (or rejected) and finally make its way to production. The other is a science fiction/horror novel called Soulless, not for the timid or the young. Also written years before I even conceived of Exodus, it was praised by several of the instructors at a workshop where I presented the first two chapters. After that my harddrive will be cleared of unpublished finished works, with one exception that will have to wait.

So, for those who are mostly fans of Exodus, there will be more coming along, and soon. For those who are fans of Refuge, there will be more, but I can only afford to release one a year. And I have ideas for other series, which will be making their way to print over the next couple of years. I’m hoping to have a very productive couple of years ahead. If I can keep the body together I will be writing for years to come. I have no plans to retire from this job. I am still looking into getting more of the Exodus books produced as audiobooks, something I am constantly asked. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get the producer of the first five interested in doing any others. I had one narrator lined up, but he dropped out from the project soon after agreeing to do it. I can’t afford to produce them other than as a royalty share, and to do that I have to get a narrator to sign on. I have thought of doing it myself, but I really don’t have the time. It would cut into my writing time, and besides, I have lots of allergies, and getting through fifteen minutes without throat clearing is a challenge. I will be posting the job for Exodus 6 once again, but there are no guarantees. For those who have been following this blog for the travelogue of my last trip out West, I will be putting out the last chapter this Friday. And now for the excerpt:

“I think we’ll take this one first,” said the admiral, pointing to one of the projector ships. “Sinbad can go after this one, while Stuart takes this one.”

“Very good ma’am,” said the tactical officer, imputing the information into his board, setting up the attack profile for the squadron. He looked over at the com officer, who nodded back before sending the orders out through whisker laser.

“We should start configuring for attack in twenty-five minutes,” said the tac officer, frowning. “It means we won’t be sucking out heat for the fifteen minutes before the attack, but I don’t think it a good idea to delay any longer.”

“Very well. Then that’s what we’ll do.”

“And how do you want to attack the rest of them?”

“Let’s see how we do with the initial attack before we start planning the others.”

The tac nodded in agreement. Not only would they not know how much of a force they had to attack the remaining enemy until after the first strike, but they wouldn’t know what the enemy was going to do before then. She hoped she still had three battle capable capital ships after that strike, but there was no guarantee. There was never a guarantee in combat.

The bridge crew waited. They had nothing to do but relay information to the squadron commander, and transmit her orders to the command bridges of the three ships. The real fighting would be handled by the command teams of the warships, maneuvering and firing at the orders of their captains and the skill of helm and tactical officers.

Mei reached up and wiped the sweat from her brow. She checked the temperature, and found that the environment of the bridge was still as cool as ever. Nerves was her thought. She had thought that by now she would be used to the tension before entering combat, but it never became any easier.

“Ships are configuring their wormholes for combat,” called out the com officer, his voice cracking slightly from the tension.

And now we find out how alert they are, thought Mei. They wouldn’t start producing heat immediately, but it would come, and they would no longer be as stealthy as before.

“Wormholes are set,” said the tac officer.

“Donut is reporting that the accelerators are spun up,” said the com officer. “Reactors at full power.”

Maybe I should have gone with missiles, thought the admiral. Wormhole launched missiles would have been instant kills when they hit, but she had a never heard of anyone firing them this close to a star. She wasn’t sure why that bothered her, but her instincts told her that the particle beams would be a better option in this situation.

She took one last look at the plot, trying to time it perfectly. The sensor officer turned toward her and said the words that took that option away from her.

“We’re being painted with lidar, ma’am.”

“Now,” shouted the admiral, her excitement at finally going into action taking control of her voice.

The well drilled ships all accomplished their actions within a second of each other. Electromagnetic fields came up at full strength, cold plasma injected as soon as they were formed. Laser rings took a couple of seconds to come up to full power, but counter missiles and offensive weapons were ready in an instant. And grabbers boosted up to full power, pulling their ships onto different vectors at five hundred and thirty gravities, then a couple of more, sinking the crew back into their acceleration couches as six gravities came over them in an instant.

Eight million ton warships now moved into the attack like they were fighters. Helms took control of the particle beams, slaved to their joysticks as the holos over their stations showed the aim point. Tactical officers continued to control the lasers and missiles, concentrating on defending their vessels.

The Jean de Arc vectored around the star, using its gravitational field to swing into the same orbital path as their target. They closed at thousands of kilometers a second, twisting, turning and rolling to avoid the lasers that the enemy was now firing their way. The ship shook from a hit, the damage to the hull causing the outgassing that provided unintentional thrust. Some missiles erupted from the enemy. Mei sucked in a breath

“They’re counters, ma’am,” called out the tac officer. “Not offensive weapons.”

“Firing,” called out the helmsman from the control bridge. The ship shook again as the counter thrust of the particle beam worked against the pull of the grabbers.

The forward viewer on the flag bridge showed the enemy superbattleship, highlighted against the brilliant globe of the star, sitting a couple of million kilometers below. The particle beam struck out, hitting dead center on the enemy vessel, going off for a moment, then connecting again as the helmsman adjusted the ship and his aim.

Particle beams were red in air due to the friction cause by protons flying at relativistic speeds through the gas particles. In space they were normally invisible. But this close to the star, in space that had greater particle density than further out, the destruction of antiprotons on the outer edge of the beam, contacting star plasma, had much the same effect. The angry red of the beam made aiming easy for the helmsmen.

Where the beam hit intense fire lived. Antiprotons exploded into particles as they touched matter, while making the atoms of matter blast into similar particles. The force of the strike, antiprotons moving at just under the speed of light, sent the fire deep into the hull after blasting through the armor.

Still, the ship was tough, and the beam would not kill them quickly. What they did was erode away all the electronics and installations for a hundred meters on each side of the strike, degrading defenses.

“Firing missiles,” came another voice over the intercom, the ship’s tactical officer releasing six missiles from the forward tubes. The missiles arced out, then in, avoiding the particle beam, then striking the hull of the enemy ship. One was knocked off course on the way in, one was detonated by a second laser. Four hit, each releasing a gigaton of force into the hull of the ship.