John Jones

by on August 19, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

One of the reasons I’m fairly certain I know who John Jones was before he joined Wolfenheim is what he did after signing his new name on the dotted line. He analyzed the laws in the Alpha Centauri, looking for loopholes we could use. And I mean all the colonies of Alpha Centauri. American, Russian, Chinese, and Western Alliance. Every colony, by every government, corporation, or private organization. He studied every single one of them, and while in the middle of the largest War in human history, he used those laws to give us access to resources and venues we never would have been able to use otherwise. Most people still don’t realize that a sizable percentage of our budget and colonists come from non-Western Alliance citizens and organizations. Nearly a thousand of our people are Chinese or Russians who just want out of this mess, and they never would have joined if John Jones hadn’t reached out and looked for them. I’m very happy to have John Jones on my team.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Melissa

by on August 18, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Melissa is unique amongst the fighter cybers in that she joined the Wolfenheim Project before her pilot did. She’d been part of Megan’s merry little band of mayhem makers for a month before he showed up, and she maintained her membership in good standing until the day we left. Melissa was one of the heavy weapons specialists, and I think she had a bit of an adrenalin rush complex. Or whatever passes for one of those when it comes to cybernetic intelligences. She was definitely a big gun nut, and it was something else to see her whipping out her big guns as she walked into battle with another of the Hurst assassins sent to deal with Old Man Callahan. Walked. She had this idea that if they saw her hiding behind cover, they’d think she was afraid of them. So she walked into battle, guns blazing, and dared the bad guys to shoot her.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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The Gemini Affair

by on August 17, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Jack grew up in a world at peace. His only interests were partying and girls. Two decades of War changed the galaxy and left Jack with no home to return to. Seven decades after War’s End, Captain Jack Hart was a man at peace once again. His ship represented the freedom to live wherever he wanted. He could fly anywhere from Earth to the furthest frontiers of human expansion on a whim and a prayer. And his cargo holds could carry whatever luxuries people wanted wherever he was going.

All of that was endangered when he ran into a mysterious freighter while on a routine trip to the Pleiades Cluster. What secrets did it hold? What mysteries did it hide? Why was it skulking around the heart of the Pleiades Cluster? Why did it open fire the moment it saw his ship? And what would the answers to those questions do to the foundations of the world Captain Jack Hart had built his life on?

The Gemini Affair on Amazon

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John Jones

by on August 16, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

John Jones was born on Mars. Think about it. Let it sink in for a moment. Then move along. The real John Jones was a lawyer on Mars, using the hyper-intelligence that came with his particular reaction to the Peloran Treatments to study the law and weaponize it against the government. He specialized in government corruption cases, tracking down and prosecuting governmental abuse and waste throughout the Martian system. He was one of the very few lawyers with the knowledge and experience to work in every Martian colony, whether they were of American, Chinese, Russian, or other lineage. And many Martians give him credit for helping to unify the legal codes of every Martian colony, the first step in creating a united Mars. This all assumes that I have correctly deduced who John Jones was before he joined the Wolfenheim Project. I could be wrong. It’s happened once or twice, you know.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Branan

by on August 15, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Branan were limited to normalspace by the stellar geography they lived in, so they spent centuries preparing colonization fleets that traveled a century or more across ten, fifteen, or even twenty lightyears to new star systems. They left their homeworld behind, knowing they would never see it again in their lives, in the search of new lives on new frontiers. They built powerful industrial economies in all six of the Betelgeuse stars, and then colonized six more systems with nineteen stars up to twenty lightyears away. The youngest of those colonies was centuries old when we made Contact, with a larger population, a higher industrial base, and more advanced technology than any of our colonies. There were more Branan living under their twenty-five stars than there were humans in our one hundred star systems. And then we gave them hyperspace.

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