A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Peloran

by on April 14, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Peloran scout service is more closely related with the border patrol than they are with the various battle fleets. They live on even smaller ships than the border patrol, and they spend most of their lives skulking around in hyperspace clouds, stray asteroid fields, or anything else that can hide them from detection. They are the unparalleled watchers of everything that happens in Peloran space, and they have become very good at finding anything that anyone does not wish to be found. Most scouts are nearly as nonviolent as their planetbound brethren, but the other Peloran consider them to be the most disreputable members of their entire race. Those Earthborn humans who’ve met them say that the scouts are more “human” than any other Peloran they’ve met. Whether that is a compliment or not is certainly colored by your point of view.

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Christian

by on April 13, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Christian Mack was a famous actor back before The War. But few people realize he was a Master Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps before Contact. He organized many of the “disagreements” over who owned what colony during that time. Reports say that he was a vigorous debater who liked to speak with his rifle and enjoyed bringing the filibuster to the other side. I can attest to that. He came home after Contact and only then became the actor an entire new generation of people grew up with. He was a century outside the service when The War came and he volunteered to serve again. The brass considered him more Actor than Marine and sent him to join the Cowboys. Thank God they did that. He was always a valuable man to have on my wing, and I trusted my life to him more times than I would have believed possible. You may wonder after reading this why he did not step up to lead the Cowboys when Major Johanson died. The answer is that he was still a sergeant at heart. So he called me and asked what my orders were. Then he gave me a suggestion like any good sergeant does for his wet-behind-the ears officer and waited for me to come to grips with my new command.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Rio

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

Christian and Rio were famous network detectives when The War came upon us all. They had a weekly program, with several seasons already on the streams, where Christian and his beautiful assistant investigated computer-related crimes all over the Solar System. They had the whole film noir motif down real good, and Christian and Rio were household names everywhere that mattered. Rio was just a personal assistant back then. An AI. But she had her own network pages, calendars, and you could even purchase an official Rio personal assistant for your own use. I actually had her installed in my car’s computer, and used to put on dark shades and pretend we were off to some secret meeting as I put the pedal to the metal. You could almost say I knew Rio before she became a real person. But that wouldn’t really be true, because the real Rio blows the old Rio away in every way that matters.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Flying United – May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

by on April 11, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I try to stay away from modern politics here. Try and fail more than I’d like. The reason is that I like to tell stories in a universe where we did enough right that people like to live in it.

But days like today make me shake my head. Seriously. At what moment did the people at United finally wake up and think “this might not have been a good idea?” Has it happened yet? Do they realize that they actually did something wrong, or do they still think of this as “re-accommodating” passengers?

Let me be clear here. Having a paying passenger beaten bloody and dragged unconscious off the plane is not “re-accommodating” the passenger. And it blows my mind that a sentence like that actually needs to be written down.

So it was Sunday. Everybody wanted to go home to their families or to their work. So nobody wanted to give up their seats. Even when offered 800 bucks. Fine. I understand that. 800 bucks doesn’t go as far as it used to. So what do you do? You keep upping the offer until somebody DOES accept it, or you decide that it makes more sense to get your four employees to their destination a different way.

Busting out the Police State tactics and breaking heads doesn’t make you any friends. It really doesn’t. If anyone involved in this still has a job when the fallout clears, I hope they remember that. And if they still have a job, and I hope every potential customer of United remembers that fact as well.

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Forge of War

by on April 10, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

“The Shang are painting us with sensor sweeps,” Betty reported and glanced towards one of the displays where it showed a complex diagram of colors. “We’re scattering and jamming below detection levels. But I think they’re getting suspicious.”

“Prepare to break and attack on my order,” Charles transmitted as they continued to close the range. “Use old weapons packages only. Let us keep our full capabilities to ourselves for now.”

“Roger that,” Jack returned with an approving smile.

“Approaching detection levels,” Betty reported as the sensor display began to flash. “I can’t keep them in the dark much longer.”

“Break in three,” Charles ordered.

Jack tightened his hands on the controls and ran his hands over a display.

“Two.”

A T&J song about bad guys biting the dust began to play.

“One.”

Power flowed from capacitors, flooding defensive and offensive systems with enough power to light up small cities.

“Break! Break! Break!” Charles ordered and the world exploded in time to the screaming of a steel-stringed guitar.

Deflection grids came alive and fire control systems locked onto their targets. Gravitic cannons reached out and twisted the very fabric of gravity between the Shang formation and the incoming Cowboys. Deflection grids collapsed and armor buckled as focused gravity tore the plates apart. Laser turrets pulsed into unshielded flanks, vaporizing armor and weapons alike…

 

Forge of War is the first novel I published, and is available as one of many rewards in An Atlas to Time, Space, and Bonfires. There’s a kickstarter for it right now in case you’re interested in seeing a couple dozen stories by different authors. And this one, of course.

An Atlas to Time, Space, and Bonfires Kickstarter

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