Weylan

by on October 19, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

Michelangelo. Raphael. Leonardo. Donatello. The greats. Artists that will live on throughout human history as some of the best who ever lived. They influence how we see the world to this day. Angels for one. Human-shaped? Check. Wings? Check. So what happens when many of us meet our first Weylan? Human-shaped? Check. Wings? Check. It is a logical connection for our minds to make, even if it is false. The Bible describes angels rather differently, but when it came time to make beautiful art, our greatest artists chose to humanize them. That also is logical. They were creating art for humans, and it would not live forever if we did not enjoy it. As I say. Logical. But there is no doubt that our legacy of art influenced our eventual Contact with the Weylan.

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Weylan

by on October 18, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

I met my first Weylan at Sunnydale. That’s true of a lot of alien races, by the way. I grew up knowing that aliens existed, but most of them outside the Arnam weren’t really part of my world view. The Arnam love water almost as much as me, so that made us birds of a feather, so to say. Fish of a scale? Whatever. The point is, I never met a Weylan until Sunnydale. And I can’t say I ever really thought about them either. They had no influence on my Earthborn life. So the first time I met them was when their fleet arrived to support us at Sunnydale. I’ll be honest. The first thing I thought was…angels. Seriously. Look, we’ve all seen the religious art. The Christmas tree toppers. The cute little wrist jewelry dangly things. So don’t be judging me.

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Weylan

by on October 17, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Albion gengineers built the Weylan to be capable aerial soldiers. They succeeded in creating an entire new race of humanity who could wield any standard weapon while flying without any technological assistance. That alone would have made the Weylan a wild success. But their ability to concentrate on multiple focuses at a time, and cooperate with others of their kind, made them a genuine breakthrough in biological science. Flying and fighting starships had always been the province of computers that followed the orders of their human commanders. No human could operate the systems at the speed or accuracy required to survive combat. The Weylan changed all of that.

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Wolfenheim Rising

by on October 16, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Malcolm winced as the destroyer lurched, and three of her escort fighters simply disappeared, but the survivors stayed in formation and continued to fire at the incoming stream of missiles. She was an Austin-class destroyer, the best American destroyer ever built, and she would not go down easily. But she would go down if someone didn’t do something about it. Which made it a very good thing for her that someone was about to do something.

“All fighters, attack pattern Alpha,” Smith transmitted.

Malcolm glanced at Dawn and she nodded back. She was ready. He smiled as the grav generator powered up again, the main fusion drives fired at maximum power, and they effectively slammed on the brakes. Blue fusion torches filled space with kilometers-long blue beacons of light, broadcasting to everyone with eyes that they were coming.

But the Shang didn’t have time to do anything as the fighters closed into firing range. It was a perfectly executed high-speed attack coming out of complete darkness. Malcolm continued to chuckle as he imagined the Shang crewmen trying to come to terms with the idea that suddenly they were the ones in danger.

“All fighters, fire for effect,” Smith ordered in an iron tone.

“Hello, boys,” Malcolm said with a nasty chuckle as the fighters opened fire. “We’re ba-ack.”

*******

Wolfenheim Rising is available from the following storefronts:

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The Hyades Cluster

by on October 15, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

If Capella is the highway to the Hyades Cluster, and if Elnath is the outer gateway, then Kappa Tauri is the innermost gate. Its two system primaries are bright and hot F-type stars just outside the inner Hyades Cluster core. They are lightyears apart, but there are a dozen other stars within ten lightyears of them. Some are amazingly hot and massive in their own right, and all of that gravitic interference converges on a single point. It is a highway through hyperspace linking Elnath with the heart of the Hyades. It was the single point in the Hyades defenses that the Chinese could not afford to lose, because we could flow reinforcements into the cluster with ease if we ever took it. That is why the Chinese reinforced it so heavily after we struck Elnath. And that is why we did not strike Kappa Tauri.

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