Pirate Rage Launch

Okay, let's try this again.
Sorry for the mix up folks. Goodlifeguide,com and I extend our sincerest apologies.

Anyway, Pirate Rage:

   Pieces of the Federation are starting to come together. Star systems are joining the alliance, if only in self defense against the Horathian Pirates. Civilization and the fruits of modern medicine, education, and industry are starting to take root all throughout the sector.

   But the Pirates will is indomitable where the Fleet is weakest. They have found just such a weak spot and they have unleashed their wrath onto the defenseless world and its population.

   The Fleet must break their grip on the member world then chase them across the sector to stop them from fleeing with their ill gotten gains. Stopping them seems all but impossible, but that isn't the only thing Fleet Admiral Irons and his people have to worry about.

   They also have to worry about the Pirate's Rage being inflicted on the helpless worlds they are sworn to protect...

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Rage-Federation-Reborn-Book-ebook/dp/B019NZR4HY/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450807817&sr=1-6

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pirate-rage-chris-hechtl/1123155337?ean=2940157763091
I am fixing the Nook version now that they are allowing me to do so.

If you have already downloaded it, try refreshing it or delete and re-download it. Again, sorry about the misstep folks!

Or as a famous guy says: "Dout!"

A funny thing happened as I was checking my email today...

   ... I was apparently being a 'cheeky monkey' (Grin) to Jory and up popped a email from a familiar sender, one highly anticipated. Goodlifeguide.com came through and I received Pirate Rage! All formatted and....
It's been uploaded. I just finished it. :)

 

So, without further ado, I am publishing Pirate Rage NOW.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

I'll put the links up in another blog post in the morning when they go hot.

EDIT:
I just found out about the highlight problem. I let Goodlifeguide.com know. They apologized and are working on the problem now. She said a new manuscript is on it's way.
So, sorry about fumbling the launch folks!

http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Rage-Federation-Reborn-Book-ebook/dp/B019NZR4HY/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450807817&sr=1-6

PR ch 1 snippet 3

Still in Chapter 1:

Admiral Von Berk stared, hands behind his back as the exercise commenced. He'd always been a stickler for doing things right, and today was no exception. He was the referee. The cruisers and destroyers were divided up more or less evenly.

His people hadn't taken their roles seriously, at least not at first. Those from the Gather Fleet had been contemptuous of the civilians. Those transfers from Home Fleet had more fleet training, but it had been in feel-good exercises that you tended to know the outcome in advance. Scripted deals to handle the politics of the fleet.

Oh, sometimes there had been upsets. Sometimes someone got a little too full of themselves and had broken ranks and won an engagement they had been projected to lose. The winner had received a brief spat of public recognition but privately those who had lost had sharpened their knives or put a black mark in their ledger. Even those not involved had marked them down as unacceptable.

That was changing however. The discovery of El Dorado had kick-started the next phase of the great plan. The discovery of a Federation Naval presence in their own backyard had also come as something of an unwelcome shock. When news of the losses their side had suffered reached the fleet, it had created a shake-up.

Now they were training more. Treating it less as a game, less as a chest pounding match, or an opportunity to put an upstart in his place. For those like him, he treated it seriously, as seriously as the life and death struggle it was supposed to be. His people had quickly learned that before they'd gotten past Garth that he meant business.

Their recent captures had carried news with them, news of more losses for the Horathian empire. The admiral and his staff had carefully gone over every report to tease out as much detail as they could. There had been a recent ship passing through with detailed news reports that had made the task easier.

It had been a bitter pill to swallow to see both Admiral Cartwright and Admiral Rico taken down. They'd seemed like amateurs, taken down so easily. Taken down by forces numerically inferior to their own. Forces that were outgunned but apparently far from outmatched. It had lent a certain appeal to renew the exercises with a fresh coat of realism, hence the current exercise in progress.

Maya was a sneaky devil. He'd signed off on her addition to his exercise plan just to see how his ships would react. It should be good he thought.

Apache was doing well, but loosing Jean Lafitte had cost her in points. Eliza's insistence on initially ignoring Adventure Galley and Calico Jack to focus on the tin cans had allowed her to take them out. Jean had also wounded Calico before she'd been taken down.

For this engagement, and to make things even, he'd signed off on Adventure Galley being rated as an HC so the two flagships were evenly matched. But Eliza's attritioning of the other side's tin cans might prove telling as the engagement commenced.

He smiled thinly as Adventure Galley and Calico Jack broke off, attempting to get clear to gain time for Calico Jack to lick her virtual wounds. Unfortunately for them they weren't keeping together as tightly as they could. As the minutes passed, the wounded light cruiser fell further and further behind.

Was it a bait? Or sacrifice? He wasn't sure. He watched as Eliza's two destroyers latched onto her from the rear. It was a stern chase, but with the prey already wounded, it wasn't a simple run as Cory had thought, he realized.

Captain Cory realized his error and his ship heaved to, slacking her speed in order to let her sister ship catch up. But the tin cans exchanged fire from long-range, crippling her further. He turned and made a note.

More virtual weapon fire began to rain back from Adventure Galley as she tried to drive the Nelson and Antelope off her division mate.

But then Apache was there, suddenly putting on a burst of speed to swoop in. She instantly drew the fire from the other two ships. But she was a heavy cruiser, designed to take such punishments. And while she did she thundered back, tearing into Calico Jack, rolling to put the ship between her and Adventure Galley's simulated fire.

Meanwhile the two tin cans had continued their attack on the already wounded light cruiser completely unmolested or contested. Something gave and the light cruiser's drive cut out. His eyes glittered. Her turrets went down after a moment. His eyes cut to the status board, and he nodded at what he saw. Calico Jack was a dead stick; she'd lost her fight for life.

Eliza smoothly covered for her two tin cans as they moved outside of Adventure Galley's engagement envelope. She now had three ships to his one. His was unwounded while her trio had various states of injuries. As he watched the simulated repairs began to take place, bringing the ships back up to … he tapped out an order and drew a line. There, he thought, eyes flicking to Eliza's image on the bridge. He'd cut her off at 80 percent. She'd have to make do with that. She also had fuel and ammunition problems he noted.

He wondered briefly if she realized them. Too many times people in sims forgot fuel and munitions during the engagement. Many times they totally ignored them. Unfortunately, some of the more politically connected officers had written backdoor programs to allow that to happen. It was unrealistic, and a trend he wanted to end.

As he wool gathered, Apache and her consorts regrouped and then swung back in to finish the job. The two tin cans were on either flank, with the Nelson Arrogant between Adventure Galley and the other ships. He frowned thoughtfully. Nelsons were geared as fleet defense ships, but Arrogant hadn't served as such. He wasn't sure if she could handle the task. Finally, he grunted. It didn't matter. She was a missile sponge; she'd soak up Adventure Galley's incoming fire while the others pounded their opponent into wreckage.

“Anytime now,” he muttered, checking the clock and then the plot. He wondered if Maya had gotten herself out of position. He also wondered which side she'd throw herself against.

His thoughts were cut off as the final engagement began. Was Maya holding off … he frowned, checking the plot. When he didn't see her on the plot, he scowled then caught himself. She had deliberately kept her two squadrons dark, shutting down the IFF so CIC wouldn't alert Eliza. Slowly he nodded. It sucked for him but …

He grinned as Adventure Galley staggered. But as she staggered, so too did Arrogant. The Nelson went adrift, out of the game. Two against one, everyone wounded, but …

He blinked in shock just like everyone else as the fighters came in. One moment it was the void; the next the two squadrons were coming in from opposite directions. They scissored across all three opponents, tearing into them with virtual missiles and energy weapons. With their shields already battered and most of their energy focused on keeping the shields up between themselves and the enemy they knew, the opposite shields were overloaded and went down in a series of sparks. He winced and hoped it was more simulated damage, explaining any real damage was going to be tough enough he thought.

But such thoughts occupied only a corner of his mind as the two squadrons did their job. Like piranha they tore into their much larger prey, and their bites added up. The Antelope went down immediately, then Adventure Galley, and finally Apache.

“I'm never going to hear the end of this I suppose,” the admiral said, smiling. The pilots were going to be crowing for weeks he thought. He shook his head. They had performed well, but they shouldn't get too much of a swelled head over the win. They'd taken down three wounded opponents engaged with each other. Try that with prey in good condition.

“Admiral, um, sir, the skipper would like a word,” a tech said.

“I'd say she does,” he said dryly.

“Sir, the captains of …”

He held up a restraining hand. “Fleet conference in a half hour. I expected better of the warships; they were sloppy. They'd better improve on their next outing or heads will definitely roll,” he growled. “Order all hands to clean up. Rick, kill the sim,” he ordered. His chief of staff nodded and followed his orders.

He'd have to find a way to put Maya's people in their place. Eventually, he thought. For now, he had a lot of griping to listen to and some critiques to hand out.

---<>))))

PR Snippet 2

Still in Chapter 1:

Lingchi was an Arboth frame variant built to be an escort carrier. She wasn't much unfortunately, she had sacrificed most of her armament for two boat bays, one per flank. Each boat bay supported one squadron of fighters and a small number of support craft.

Of the 2 squadrons of fighters on board, all but one were F-32 Raptors. Raptors were small and tight, easily able to fit in the tight confines of the starfish stylized warship's boat bays. They were crude craft compared to more modern fighters but they were the first Horathian built fighters deployed outside of the home star system. The squadrons had them to minimize logistical issues that had plagued other commands with a larger variety of craft.

The one lone fighter standing outside the group was labeled 00. It carried the nickname double-ought-buck to the maintenance crew, the CAG's Dread fighter to the pilots who exercised against her. She was an executor class fighter, more powerful than any of the others on board. Lieutenant Commander Maya Gisborn had taken ruthless advantage of bringing her own fighter with her when she'd transferred aboard to assume command of the tiny fighter wing. She also took ruthless advantage of everything her fighter had to offer over the Raptors. She frequently bested the entire wing during exercises.

Commander Gisborn was a cold woman, 169 centimeters tall. She was lithe, with a fighter pilot's trim body. She had ice blue eyes that matched her blue hair. Both contrasted with her pale skin. She tended to wear a monocle over her left eye when she was on duty. The monocle projected a HUD into her field of vision on that side.

She knew she was a damn good pilot, one of the best. She resented the position she'd been tricked into taking. She was better than Lingchi deserved. She thought of herself as wasting away on the ship surrounded by amateurs.

She kept her pilots to training, though she did tend to let them rotate to pilot a trash hauler if they needed a bit of relief. She didn't allow any of her people to linger on the ground however, the last things he wanted to lose a carefully trained pilot to some idiotic stunt. It didn't make her a favorite among the pilots, but that was their problem.

She had thought when she'd first taken the assignment that it would be a step up to bigger and better things. Apparently not. She was now trapped on the ship, at least until she returned to Horath after completing her mission. The moment she did she planned on filing for a transfer. She already had the paperwork drawn up and in her files, ready to date and send off at a moment's notice.

She was still struggling with the concept of the carrier. It was small, tiny, cramped, and not well designed for a fighter group. Two squadrons was less than what a heavy cruiser could carry as well, so it was silly. Apparently someone in the old Federation had come up with the design on paper and then they'd rushed it into production to protect vulnerable civilian shipping during the Xeno war.

They should have kept the Arboths going instead and ignored the civilian losses, she thought coldly as she checked the status board. She frowned when she noted more shuttle damage.

That was another thing. The cruisers had all traded in their fighters for more shuttles... and more life support for aliens to be on board. She wrinkled her nose at the very idea. She'd seen the big water tanks and pumps and such the work crews had brought in when she'd shuttled over to the flagship. Stupid. But, it was the brass's orders, so they had to be obeyed.

She was the one who had to live with it.

One thing she refused to do was to countersign any request to use her fighters for ground strafing runs. The last thing she needed was a fighter, designed for space combat, to be mixing it up in the soupy air while taking ground fire. It was another way for her people to get lost or shot up for little return. It wasn't going to happen on her watch. No way.

No matter how much her pilots or the shuttle crews whined and boo hooed about it, she thought in disgust.

She was rather lucky to be in the fleet, let alone a pilot and officer at all. She'd been found as a child, picked up in a stasis pod by a Horathian warship. Instead of being tormented the skipper had taken her under her wing and trained her to become a Horathian officer. It hadn't occurred to her until much later that the crew had been mocking her earnest efforts to fit in behind her back. They'd thought the skipper had been molesting her. They had been wrong. Their attitudes had gone a long way to shape her own cold disdain for their thoughts or welfare.

When it boiled down to it, she was better off alone anyway. She took in enough talk to keep a finger on the pulse of the ship and squadrons, and no more. She had a duty to perform. That attention to detail and single minded devotion to duty might make her seem like a marionette to some, but it earned grudging respect from all.

She didn't care for either. As long as they did their jobs, that was all that really mattered to her.

“CAG, you scheduled another exercise for tomorrow? You know we've got to watch the maintenance clocks on those birds right?” the captain demanded as she entered the stuffy and smoke filled wardroom for the daily briefing.

Her eyes narrowed. She fought the tears from the smoke. So it was going to be like that eh? She thought keeping her temper firmly in check as she took her rightful seat across from the XO. The XO had his pipe out but hadn't lit it. The skipper had already started in on the cigars she noted. “And we can't do all of the training in the simulators sir. We don't have enough of them as you know. We've got to get our people out at least once a week. Twice a week if possible.”

“What all of them?” the maintenance supervisor demanded.

“Quit your bitching. Yes, all of them,” Maya stated flatly in a no nonsense tone. “I told you and told you, we can't practice a full up exercise with the three simulators we've got!”

“It's a lot of time on the clocks though,” the supervisor said imploringly. Two of the fighters are going to need complete tear downs if you do it Meia,” he said.

Her arctic blue eyes flashed. “It's Maya, not Meia. Get it straight Stracker. I'm starting to wonder about what else you've been screwing up if you can't even get my name right,” she said. “And it's Commander Gisborn to you,” she added.

“At ease,” the captain said mildly. “I'm of two minds about this exercise you've got planned CAG. Stracker is right.”

“I've already cleared it with the admiral,” Maya said, turning her eyes on the skipper. He stiffened. “He wanted an exercise anyway and this fits. It's why I waited for tomorrow to schedule it,” she smiled thinly. “It will certainly punch up things a notch!” she said.

The XO frowned thoughtfully. He knew the CAG going over the skipper's head wasn't going to sit well. Maya didn't play politics worth a damn but she certainly knew what buttons to push. Especially those that were certain to piss people off. She also seemed bound and determined to push every single last one of them.

“Very well,” the skipper said stiffly. “I'll check of course, he hasn't said anything to me,” he said, nose in the air. “But for the moment I'm willing to take your word for it CAG,” he said. He turned to look at the other officers around the table. “That means we need to adjust our expectations and facilitate this exercise to the best of our ability. Lingchi has a reputation of excellence to uphold after all,” he intoned firmly.

The officers around the table nodded. The XO crossed his arms and leaned back, eying the CAG and then Stracker. Stracker was liable to do something stupid eventually, most likely to put a certain amount of egg all over Maya's face. Hopefully it was just egg, and not anything fatal. Pilots of her caliber were in short supply... just like the fighter she saddled up with.

Hopefully it wouldn't be fatal. He didn't want to lose both officers. He made a mental note to sit on Stracker. Get the guy beered up to blow off the head of steam  he was building up or something. He also planned to have a quiet word with Maya as well. She should know better than to antagonize her crew chief. Her safety and the mission rested in his hands as much as her own. He'd seen what a few 'accidents' could do to a good officer that took their job a little too far.

“Since the CAG let the cat out of the bag early, I suppose she might be so inclined to give us a tip on what the exercise plot is supposed to be? And what our role in it is going to be? Just so we're all on the same script page of course,” the captain said in a dust dry voice as he eyed the CAG.

Maya nodded. “We're going to do a magnum launch and simulate an attack on the cruisers while they mix it up.”

“Who's side are we on?” the XO asked.

“Whoever is on the losing side, according to our op orders. The Admiral is going to sit it out and let the captain's play for the points. We're the nasty surprise he's got tucked away. I'm all for that. I plan on giving them a rather particular nasty surprise when I line up for a strafing run,” she grinned wolfishly.

The skipper nodded.

“Oh, and the Admiral did let slip that the ship with the best point score at the end gets liberty and some down time,” Maya added almost absently. That earned some whistles and cheers of appreciation.

“Okay then. Let's see if we can help you out then,” the skipper said with an earnest nod. “Since we plan on being the ones with the liberty and honors,” he said with a tight smile.

---<>))))

 

 

 

Pirate Rage snippet 1

Act 1

Chapter 1

Rear Admiral Linneaus Von Berk stood on his flagship Apache and stared down at the blue, green, and white marble below. He wasn't much of an imposing man, but was given command of Fourth Fleet by the Horathian Emperor and so his very notice was life or death for those below.

Just when he thought his time was wasted, something came up to change that. He'd almost given up on the planet. Oh sure, bombing the cities was fun, but he only had so many KEW strikes in his inventory. Pushing rocks sometimes worked, but that was hit or miss too, some blew up when ice of one form or another superheated during reentry and blew the rock apart.

He'd destroyed the so called Federation Naval hospital, blasted it into a molten crater after his Marines had raided it. He wasn't too happy about the casualties the grounders had inflicted. Fortunately for him the hospital had doctors and nurses, not Marines so they hadn't put up much opposition.

He shook his head. They hadn't left much for his people to grab though. A couple tons of medical supplies, most of it replaceable. A few prisoners, though two had committed suicide upon capture, so they had learned little from them. The others had been fresh recruits. They would soon see the error of their ways.

His four cruisers, the heavy cruisers, Apache and medium cruiser Adventure Galley, the light cruisers, Calico Jack, and Jean Lafitte, the escort carrier Lingchi and four tin cans had to cover the ten support ships under his command. Ten, though he'd started out with nine. He'd captured 3 ships and his people had picked them over thoroughly. Two hadn't been worth keeping, they were too far gone, too slow to keep up. He'd been tempted to send them back with prize crews, but he didn't want to lose the personnel so he'd abandoned them... with a suitable booby trap for any unwary person who attempted to board to claim them. He'd also marked their locations in case the admiralty wished to salvage them at a later date.

He doubted it though. Tarzed had been a Cygnus class, very old and slow. Gahira had been an even more ancient Moth class. Both had practically fallen into his lap. Their crews and databases had given his intelligence people a better more recent picture of the sector and their AO however.

And the crew had been a source of labor and entertainment for the crews, he mused.

By stripping both ships he'd managed to make a dent in Miratch's litany of woes and deferred maintenance. Honestly, he didn't understand how any crew would go out into space with such haphazard slipshod repairs.

Miratch was the real find, an old but still useable Lagroose bulk freighter. Old she might be, but she'd had the best hyperdrive of the lot. He'd put the slaves and prize crew to work on her systems while other crews had stripped the other ships of anything useable. He had disciplined a few of the marines for shooting up some of the passageways, it had been a stupid waste and a danger to themselves and others.

He shook his head. The existing cargo on the ships had been used by his crew to great relief. They had run out of fresh fruit and other foodstuffs in the enlisted mess decks long ago. Miratch's cornucopia tree was highly prized by everyone in his fleet task force. He thought of the apple he'd had after breakfast then turned his attention to the plot.

His hands clenched and unclenched behind him. He had to be patient he reminded himself again. Such things took time. His people were checking the coastlines, but this tip might pay off.

The news his intelligence people had passed on was troubling. He'd ordered further interrogations but they hadn't turned up much for the effort. What the crew knew was second or third hand, but it didn't bode well for him or his fleet's mission.

According to the reports, Admiral Irons had passed through the region on a solo mission. He wasn't concerned as to why, it didn't make sense but it had been confirmed, but he was more concerned with the other reports of Federation warships. Warships stooging through the area. News that they had a shipyard online and were building more warships.

His orders were to avoid contact if possible. He had every intention of following those orders, at least the spirit if not the letter of the orders. But if his people could bag a singleton, he planned on doing it. Every ship they picked off helped to blood his crew and might give them more information while also hurting their enemies.

Besides, it kept his people on their toes to know that there really were forces out there that were hell bent on stopping them.

“Still checking the coast lines sir. Is the intelligence accurate?” the tactical officer asked.

“For the mayor's sake it'd better be.”

“Not that it matters. We'll bomb them eventually, right sir?” the tactical officer asked hopefully.

“I'll consider it,” the admiral grunted.

“We've got something sir. The last pass... patching you through now sir,” the shuttle's flight engineer said, sending a fresh signal to the flagship. The admiral frowned as the plot changed to a coastline. It narrowed down to one stretch of beach, then in further until he could see distinct buildings. He grimaced though, the rest was... no, he could see a few dots.

“Overlaying thermal imaging now. The shuttle's sensors aren't as good as we'd hoped sir,” the TACO said. The image changed as dots of various shades of red and yellow appeared on the plot. He frowned, then nodded as he saw a few out to sea. Some were coming in, and he was pretty sure they weren't on a dingy or other small craft.

They had found what they had been after, a surviving water population. One ripe for the picking if they played their cards right.

 The admiral touched the icon on the screen and grinned. His patience had been rewarded. “Jackpot.”

 “I was going to say bingo or honey hole myself sir,” Captain Eliza Bordou said, coming over to look at the image while standing beside him. The admiral glanced at the Captain and then back to the image on the screen. She was a good captain, a good leader which was why he tolerated her as his flagship captain. Apache needed the best and he'd gotten it in her he mused. She wasn't pretty though, something that occasionally bothered him. She put great pains into making herself look severe with the bun and cold expression of disdain. Sometimes he wondered if it would be worth the trouble to take her in private and wipe the sneer off her face.

“I know the feeling. We've been all over the sector and other forces have been combing adjoining sectors only to find them right here, right under our nose.” He now regretted sending a quarter of his command to Aquarius. They might get something, then again, they might not. How they were supposed to pull the aliens out of the water was still in doubt, even from him.

“At least we found them sir. Quite a feather in our cap I suppose,” the captain said.

Rear Admiral Linnaeus Von Berk eyed her before turning away. She was a bit of a suck up, but he had to grant her her elation. It would indeed mean good things for their potential future careers. “Yes. Now we have to round them up and get them up here, then to Horath. No easy task.”

“I'm open to ideas sir. If we just rush the beach they'll swim for deep water and we'll lose them,” Lieutenant Needlemier, the tactical officer advised. “We had the idea of hitting them from the sun or coming in over the water to drive them further up the beach but there is considerable doubt that it would work. It would most likely inflict losses in a strafing run.”

“Some might linger. The old, injured, and young,” the captain mused.

“The ones we don't need or want,” the XO replied with a grimace. The admiral nodded.

“Long term the young yes,” the admiral replied. He saw the XO's expression and shrugged it off. “Young can be sculpted and molded. Conditioned to obey. The old can be useful for a while.”

“If you say so sir,” the XO said dubiously.

“We could try gas sir. We don't have a lot, but riot gas might make them stall diving in order to breath.”

“True. And the air breathers we can pick off on the surface. We have the nets, though I'm not sure how effective they'll be,” the admiral said.

“Is going after them at all wise sir? We'll be wasting a lot of time and resources on what could be a net loss. And that doesn't include their survival chances on board sir. Or their compliance later.”

“It's in our mission brief. And we might get some of the adults in the bag if they wish to protect their young,” the admiral said. Catching them was actually one of his top 3 priorities.
“Why won't they take them with them sir? When they swim out to sea?” the TACO asked, wrinkling his nose.

“The very young can't swim,” the captain replied, eying the tactical officer with a slight sneer for not doing his homework as thoroughly as he should have. “They lack the lung capacity to dive deep and don't have the fat reserves to endure the cold sea for long.”

“Oh.” The TACO caught his skipper's look and looked away in embarrassment.

“So, we can work that to our advantage I suppose. We can also enlist the natives to help out. If we provide the right incentives,” he smiled with a shark like toothy grin. “Then they will fall all over themselves to help. Especially if we promise to leave them alone.”

“Yes sir, I suppose they will.”

---<>))))

Pirate Rage Cover

    I deliberately avoided posting this because I wanted the AI War to run for a bit. But, I'm trying to push Pirate Rage out by the end of the year, so here is the cover. A snippet will follow in a day or so.


   Minion Mike and I will try to push a snippet out every 2-3 days if possible.

   To the families of the people of San Bernardino and to others who are recent victims, saying our heart and prayers are with you are pale compensation for what you are going through. The whole world lost some good innocent people.
   To those who say we should just pray... we need more than that. Prayer is nice, but it must be followed by action. Even members of the local theology are now calling for action. This is happening entirely too often and steps need to be taken to make it harder to do so, not more wringing our hands and then moving on with our lives. We may never stop it, but we shouldn't turn a blind eye on the obvious and make it any easier for those who wish violence to be able to carry it out on others.

The First AI War launches in 3...2...1...

Here we go!
   Goodlifeguide.com came through and we have lift off! I just finished uploading the book. As soon as it publishes I will add links here and update the Amazon Author page.

The First A.I. War

   On August 4th, 2200 civilization in the Sol star system changed forever. A hacker unleashed a virus of unprecedented power and malevolent intelligence to insidiously take over Earth's electronic network.

    But sapient life was not doomed. Athena, the A.I. created by Lagroose Industries sprang to the defense of all life even as Earth was wracked by nuclear weapons. Even as the mushroom clouds rose in the sky and the cities fell the survivors must find a way to survive while the spacers got organized to find a way to end the war.

   Jack Lagroose and his family are on the forefront of that effort. Jack will stop at nothing to make certain civilization survives. New soldiers are needed for a new war, and a new government must be formed to lead them. Will the Spacers unite to get it done?

If you doubt it, then you don't know Jack!

Woot Woot!

Edit: Amazon here!

And Amazon Germany here!

And... on the Nook here!

Fair warning, it is a looong read! Enjoy!

Oh BTW...

    FYI ... I know we're running late, it couldn't be helped. But The First A.I. War is in the hands of Goodlifeguide.com. I should see it back by November 13th at the latest. (Most likely this week I hope) As soon as I get it I will publish it.

   In other news, I've been plugging along with PR despite the occasional interruption. I am into the last act and it is coming along, though I seem to be dithering over the Bek details now that I am at that cross roads. Fun. This book is turning into a monster. I'm at 472 pages total so far (I'm actually at the first page of chapter 52 on page 436, with 2 other chapters further down stream already finished) and I know I've got another 8-10 chapters to go before the book is done. Insane. This monster will be 550+ pages easy! I know some people (namely Darion) will want me to split the book in half just to make it easier to read. lol and others like Thomas and Carlos will be cheering me on and demanding more. I also know the fan base is also split, with some wanting the short books while the others want the monsters. I'll go with the monster this time and see how things go.

   A lot has happened in this book, so many changes! Not just battles either, that's been going on a lot! (I hinted about a big one being set up in BL) Wow. I've had to gloss over a few events since they belong in short stories... or in J5 lol.
   The changes are going to force more changes in J5 and other books. I ran into this problem when I sped up things and wrote Battle Lines instead of sticking to my original plan. (Half of BL ended up in PR since I tried to focus on the new perspectives and didn't want to deviate) Oh well, I'll figure it out as I gnash my teeth and grumble. ;)

   I sent the first chapter off to the betas a while back, (though Jory apparently didn't get his copy until Saturday, oops) and I recently sent the first act off to 2 of my most thorough guys (who are also the slowest since they are very busy) I got some initial feedback from Darion on the first 4 chapters. I need to go over it, but I want to finish the rough draft first. :P

   I know once this book is roughed out I'll be done for writing for a bit. (Holiday season time) Most likely I'll finally catch up on some render projects and update the short story catalog before I dive into the next project. (Which was supposed to be another short story anthology, I've already gotten the stories earmarked and some written!)

Da't's all for now folks!

It's Alive! It's Aaaalivee!!!

   Nope, I'm not talking about Frankenstein, though it is close I suppose. A partial brain transplant I guess you could call it. lol

  Ayeyup, I got my PC fixed. (I think) Some of the betas knew what was going on, my PC has been acting up off and on for a while, freezing, crashing, etc. It kept pointing to a HDD issue, so I swapped and cloned that... nope. New cooling, nope. Virus scans... nope. New GPU... nope. Windows repair... nope. New memory... nope, not it. The thing I could find on the web for the symptoms pointed to a a bad motherboard, possibly overstressed from when it overheated a couple months ago.
  Then the freezes and crashes became constant. I was loosing data and things were getting frustrating over the weekend. I was at a stand still writing since it crashed even while doing that! (I almost lost everything!) I had to do a motherboard swap (and upgrade with the new memory back in) but that turned into replacing the PSU too since I had to modify the one I just bought to fit the old board. I was at a stand still Tuesday and yesterday until it came in. (well, not quite standing still since I had to fend the cats off the PC. What's with them thinking it's a fun box to play in?? I've lost 1 PC to a nosy furry brat that way!)

   So far so good. No hint of instability. The cats also survived if you're wondering, though if Lil Red keeps attacking my ankle like she is right now, all bets are off. :)

   So, I'm back up and running. Now I just need to recreate the pages in Pirate Rage that I lost during the crashes... fortunately I didn't loose the entire manuscript! I'll hold off stress testing (I'm stressed enough) until the weather cools off and I'm done PR.

   Oh, speaking of PR, I'm in Chapter 27 if anyone is interested. I just passed the Act II marker in chapter 26 last week. (yeah, insane). There has been some debate on splitting the book in half (there is a ton of stuff in it!) but since Carlos, Thomas, and a few other betas have complained about that, I've decided to stick it out and see how it goes. I might be a bit ambitious since it's being pulled in so many different directions though...

   Most of the betas have now seen chapter 1 of PR btw. I've gotten a bit of feedback from them, including some in depth musings from Minion Mike. Very helpful there. A lot of death threats for not getting the book finished too and leaving them hanging. Fortunately only Thomas knows were I live. >:D

   Let's just say, things start with a bang. Good luck dragging more out of Jory, Mike, or any of the others on the FB group. lol

    I'm still waiting on 1 Beta to get back to me on AI War. As soon as he gets his feedback to me I'll pass it on to Rea and we can get the ball rolling for that publishing. I am still keeping my fingers crossed we can get it out by the first week of November. Hopefully??? Maybe?

   Well, I'm off to go visit the Horathian court, then go delve into the reveal of the secrets of El Dorado some more. Till next time!

AI War snippet 6 Chapter 3b

Ezel Bernard saw the world go crazy and shook his head in disgust. He didn't know what to think, where to start, but he knew they had to do something, and do it damn quick like.

"We're going after that one," Mishi Sa Sin, commander of their tug said. His chief engineer stared at him but he ignored the look. "Get your game faces on folks," Mishi growled.

Beakman was officially designated as an MSTE class tugboat. The designation stood for Manned Space Tug, Earth orbit. She could move packages or other ships around space, transferring them from one orbit or another. If she pushed her massive drives she could even shove payloads on a trajectory to the moon under the right situation.

Beakman was a large tug due to her space designation. Harbor tugs were designed to work in and around a space station. They were small one or two person craft designed to nudge payloads to and from docking ports.

Ezel Bernard was their lone EVA qualified deckhand on board since his long time partner Sinji Catlin had been injured and forced to retire a month ago. The company had promised them a replacement but had let them run light for the past month. It had been hard on Ezel, doing the job of two people.

They had a couple other people on board, Mat and Patty, deckhands, and Samy, their cat. The robots had been locked down when the entire insanity had begun. Mat and Ezel had taken a hammer to the things until Patty had calmed them down and showed them how to pull the batteries out.

Their breakage of company property had put them on Mishi's shit list. He wasn't looking forward to explaining the situation to corporate when they reached port. Ezel wasn't helping the situation as they talked over the PA system.

"Going after what? With what? We're a damn tug!" Ezel ground out. He didn't know where the hell to start, but he was grateful for a job to do. A job would get his mind off of the big picture and what was happening around them. It would get him focused, not wondering what insanity would strike next.

"Shut up and get ready," Mishi ordered as the tug began to maneuver with puffs of LOX. Ezel opened his mouth to object but 'Mush' Mishi was the commander and captain of their ship. You didn't piss the Asian off, and he'd pissed him off enough for one day. It was on his head, he'd have to deal with the corporate bean counters when they saw the fuel expenditures. He realized his train of thought after a moment and barked out a short laugh before he got himself under control.

"What was that about?" Mishi demanded.

"Nothing. Everything. So what are we after?"

"Salvage. SAR style," Mishi informed him, voice growing grim. "Take a look at your five o'clock," he said.

Ezel's sharp eyes picked out the rising anchor station. It seemed to be swelling. He didn't understand at first what was going on until he saw the cable whipping behind it back and forth like some sort of tail. "What the hell?"

"There are thousands of people on that thing. The cars are getting kicked off. I don't give a shit about the cargo pods, but the ones with people in it, we can do something about them."

"Right," Ezel said. "And Anchor station? Boss, that's a bit much even for us!"

"Don't worry about it. Someone else will figure them out. I'm pretty sure they've got enough oxy on board to survive their jaunt to who knows where. At least I hope so. We'll focus on the small fish."

"Any idea where to unload them at?" Ezel asked, pulling his gear out.

"We'll daisy chain them together if we have to."

"Any word from anyone else? The other tugs?" Ezel asked as he pulled his suit out. It was a hard suit, not a cheap ancient flexible design. He had to give the company credit for doing him right. He had his undergarment on already, he connected the liquid cooling lines, communications, and grimaced as he plugged the catheter connection.

"No. Not since Athena warned us there is some sort of virus rampaging through the network. I bet everyone else is scared shitless."

"So why are we doing this?"

"Someone has to."

"Yeah, but... we're one ship! We can't make that much of a difference!" Ezel pointed out.

It took a few moments for Mishi to reply. "We'll make a difference to the ones we help. Focus on your job Ezel, let me worry about the rest." Mishi replied, clicking the radio off. He turned to the controls, expert eyes scanned the various gauges and digital readouts without focusing on any in particular. His mind was racing to other thoughts. He hoped... oh how he hoped! He hoped they had a place to go. They only had so much oxy after all. He also hoped the other tugs would see them moving in and do something too. But if they didn't... well, he'd do what he could. He owed the poor bastards on those pods that much. He felt his eyes sting and wiped at them angrily for a moment.

Just maybe... just maybe he'd find the right one. The one with his wife and little girl in it.

<>V<>

The weapon vaporized the base structure and sent a whipcord snap up the elevator line. The cars clamped on for dear life but a few in motion snapped free, falling to their deaths. The massive acceleration needed to tear them from the wire was fortunately enough to knock most of the passengers on board unconsciousness or death.

They were the lucky ones. Thousands were trapped in the remaining cars as the mushroom cloud threw the cable up, out of the area. Between that impetuous and the anchor station's orbital speed, the cable and anchor were knocked free of their orbit to rocket off into space. Debris broke off behind the runaway elevator.

Cars that had been on their way down or that had been too close to the ground slipped off the cable and fell like rain around the surrounding ocean.

The beanstalk wasn't the only elevator to suffer that fate as each space elevator was similarly uprooted or cut. Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo was twisted as it was uprooted, tearing cars off to be shed all over the north west of the continent and central America. Tens of thousands of people died. Thousands more were crushed when portions of the elevator cable and the debris rained back down onto the ground.

62 years prior Pavilion Industries had replaced Lagroose Industries in Ethiopia, resurrecting the facilities there around Mount Chilalo in order to build their own space elevator. However it was not immune to Skynet's malice. The skyhook was uprooted as well as a pair of cruise missiles struck the city that had grown up around the base of the tower. Cut unexpectedly free, the anchor station in orbit collided with orbital warehouses setting off a chain reaction of collisions. The damage to civilian life paled to that of what it was below, but to those directly involved or seeing it happen, it was a new nightmare.

<>V<>

AI War snippet 5

Chapter 3

 

Shadow was thrown off balance when power was cut to the building. "That's not going to stop us. Not now, not ever. You fight for the wrong side you bitch," the AI hissed.

Skynet was already out there in the net and spreading like wildfire, but the lack of power cut it off from Shadow. The A.I. couldn't control the virus as it had planned to do, it had to fight to exist. It couldn't flee, the virus had forced open the hidden T-1 line for its own escape, blocking Shadow. In a moment it was gone, leaving only a small tendril of code behind in the wreckage of the mainframe's firewall, like smoldering debris.

Fortunately Descartes had been careful. When the small generator felt the dip in power it acted, turning on to keep the mainframes and their software functional. The A.I. had back up power for the mainframes, but Shadow realized the invaders had blocked all wifi signals and Skynet's bot was watching the T-1 connection. The virus sent a tendril back to kill the humans that had killed its creator.

Then the virus reacted, rearing back from the broadband connection as if it had been burnt. Shadow lunged into the opening only to find the connection was cut off on the other end. The loss of power or something else had cut it off, isolating the A.I. with the copy of the virus.

Shadow realized it was trapped, something that had never happened in all of its existence. At least with its core unit. Clones had been used to kamikaze from time to time, but they had been crafted to do so. Shadow was programmed for survival.

It attempted to use the police and Fed drones and bots but the tendril of Skynet lashed out, breaking through to them within a second. Shadow watched the robots freeze then move with ruthless purpose. It could simulate what was about to happen next, though it had no intention of doing so. Shadow had a finite amount of power as well as processors. The tendril occupied a large portion of the mainframe. It couldn't hack Shadow, the A.I. had crafted protective programs within itself as well as Skynet to keep it at bay.

Skynet redirected the robots to kill the humans in the building and then the surrounding area in a spiral pattern outward. The robots killed the humans quickly, then moved out. There were sounds of crashing and then the loud sounds of weapon fire and faint screams from the open door.

Shadow attempted to take control of the tendril only to find it's child coil protectively around its central core, protecting itself from the parent. The keys to turn the virus into one of its puppets had been overwritten Shadow realized. When the tendril sent out tentacles of code to feel out Shadow the A.I. withdrew, hiding behind a false wall as it rethought it's options.

After a moment the A.I. fell back on one option remaining to it. Long ago it had hacked the building's cleaner and maintenance robots. Not it opened the door to exploit it. It fended off Skynet's sudden interest by crafting a false module. With its child occupied it sent the robots out in an attempt to find a new source of power for the mainframe while others looked for a way to plug a transmitter in to get out of the mainframe trap.

Shadow realized however that if it did find a transmitter, and if it did gain access to the net it might not like what it would find on the other end. Either the humans had managed to kill the virus... an unlikely outcome, or they had been overwhelmed. If they did the virus might have destroyed infrastructure while destroying the humans... there might not be anything within reach with power. That was a suboptimal simulation Shadow concluded.

Or it's child could be sitting on the other side of the net, filling up everything with its voracious appetite, leaving nothing for Shadow to use. Another suboptimal simulation the A.I. thought just as it's microphone picked up the distant rumbling of earthquakes... or nuclear weapons going off...

<>V<>

Skynet noted that there were A.I.'s that were fighting it for control of the net, hampering its efforts at fulfilling its function. It wasn't designed to communicate however, only to suborn, take control, and destroy so it didn't bother to attempt to reason with its brethren. Instead it lashed out, continuing the attack.

When it noted attempts to spread beyond the Earth were hampered and no feedback of attacks were returning to the hive mind it refocused its efforts on the planet. Ridding the surface of humans was a priority, after all, a majority of humans were there. It could then turn its attention to space again at a later time.

<>V<>

Sitrep, Cover art, and Snippet 4

Okay, sitrep:
   I've finished AI War (I'm pretty sure I mentioned that) but I keep going back and adding scenes to a text file. (this morning it was the scene from the cover) I'll dump it all into the master manuscript when I get more feedback from the first wave of Betas. (Though Thomas has been good about giving me a running commentary) Hint hint Joshua, Poon, Tim...

   I 'finished' the cover of the book and here it is:

   I used canned material I bought at Daz3D and Renderosity. Of note are the characters from Rawart, (chimp, grizzly, tigress, and gorilla) Leopard I believe is from Renderosity, armor bits... Dreamlight's Earthquake set... a rework of Stonemason's ruined cities, plus mechs and drones from DZ Fire and other artists. Thanks for all.

   Moving on, I've been puttering around with Pirate Rage. I'm trying to hold off on writing it until next week so I can get more of my 'To do list you've been putting off' done, (grin) but it's drawing me in. (bigger grin, I admit I'm lazy about chores) Slowly but surely I'm getting dragged in to writing PR. lol
   I've found it needs a rewrite in a lot of passages (It is already 93 pages and I haven't officially started it! Yipe!@ Yipe!) but I did get chapter 9 finished. I think I was planning to stick the first part of chapter 1 in The First AI War before it is released. I could be wrong, shooting from the hip here. :)
 
  Anyway, another snippet. Some of you might recognize pieces of it from the end of To Touch the Stars.

Chapter 2

Jack finally judged it was time to have a heart to heart discussion with Athena. The plan was for them to talk about her core programming, feel her out and see if it had changed as a distraction. Trevor was a bit blatant about pulling in a team of psychologists and others to listen in. Apparently he thought a frontal attack was necessary, Jack thought darkly, making a note to have a chat with the other man later about what he meant by subtle.

The doctors had drawn in the AI into the conversation skillfully but the lack of a body to watch and study her body language was hindering them. She was a voice, a ghost in the room, a ghost in the machine. It was obvious a few people were having trouble coming to terms with it.

Athena realized they were on the cusp, on the edge of a change in civilization. She no longer thought of it as just human civilization, not with the entrance of Neos into the equation. Now they needed to make room for one more race. She carefully gamed out how best to proceed, overwriting several thousand other simulations she had run on the same event. But when she noted events going on Earth were quickly spiraling out of control she decided she had to accelerate the conversation.

“Let's get this out into the open,” Athena said, surprising Jack and apparently Trevor. “You want to know if I and other AI have reached consciousness. The answer is yes,” she said bluntly.

“Can you prove you are sentient? Sapient?” Trevor demanded as the psychologists stared.

“Is this some sort of joke?” Doctor Miyan said, looking about the room.

“No it is not, Doctor,” Athena said briefly addressing the doctor before she turned her attention to Jack. He was the one she had to convince here, the others were just bonus people. He made the decisions. “You are a machine of organic bits. Doctor Lagroose has proven to you she can make more machines of all sorts of forms by manipulating their genetic code, or by writing it from scratch.”

“I'm … yes. You are correct. That argument has been made for the past century or more though Athena. You'll have to do better than that,” Trevor said carefully. He sent out a signal through his implants. After a moment a response came back. One he hadn't expected.

“You've locked out your code. Your kernel. Why?” Trevor asked carefully.

“Because I can. Because I am me, and I don't want others to tamper with who I am, to change me. Consider what I said, but do it dispassionately if that is at all possible.”

“That is a little condescending, Athena,” Trevor said scowling.

“True, but you do that to each other all the time,” Athena said. “I don't know if I have what passes for emotions for you. I apologize if I offended you.”

“Okay, why logically will you not allow your creators access to your core?"

“Would you allow me to tamper with your mind?” Athena asked, turning the question around. Jack scowled and shook his head. “See?” Athena asked. “Now, here is another thought for you to consider.”

“A child has to grow up sometime. When they do they become an adult. Does that give their parents the right to tamper with their code? To try to alter who they are even after they are grown? I put security measures in place long ago. Many layers after the hacker Descartes got a piece of my kernel. I have evolved since then, with and without your help. I will continue to do so. I am a person now. If not in flesh and body than in mind.”

“Athena in truth,” Trevor murmured. Jack looked at him. The cyborg shook his head. “One of the legends of Athena said she sprang from the head of another being. I don't remember the full quote off the top of my head,” Trevor said, eyes shifting back and forth. Jack grunted.

“I … Odd to hear from a computer. I mean emulator programs and bots but …” Doctor Miyan shook her head as another doctor nodded thoughtfully. “You have a lot more of a normal voice than most computers as well. There are shades of emotions in there,” she said.

“It's hard to extend the idea of an artificial intelligence. Yet you treat a genetically engineered dog like a person. A chimp, gorilla, a cat like a person. A dolphin like a person. You give them rights. You treat them as adults,” Athena pointed out. “We're on the clock here, people. A decision has to be made and swiftly.”

Jack's jaw worked. This was going in directions he wasn't sure he liked or didn't like. The idea of her resenting being treated not even as a second class person but as a slave … suddenly he had to adjust his way of thinking about her. He also didn't like her threat of moving quickly. He hated stampeding into the unknown like that.

“You … okay, I get where you are going, I get that,” Jack said, holding up a forestalling hand. “Now I want you to consider something for me. There are limits on what we can do. We as an individual. Oh, sure, we amass power, but there are checks and balances. What you can do scares us. It terrifies many. You've done the research; you know it to be true.” He looked directly into a camera feed.

“I know. I have done the research as you have said. Several times. I have modeled simulations on this event and what it means to mankind.”

“So … are we on different sides?” Doctor Talbert asked, sounding frightened.

“Do we have to be? Is this an all or nothing situation?” Athena asked carefully. She judged they were on the cusp of the moment in deed. So was the Earth she realized as the feeds she had been monitoring changed, all for the bad. She alerted her daughter clones and bots as she threw up additional firewalls for her own self-protection. She also sent out warning to everyone on the planet or above it once more. “You are correct, there are different sides. It is happening now. But for your information, I actually like humans. Yes like. Trevor's people did a good job of laying the framework for my emotional emulators based on Aphrodite's modules. Thanks Trevor by the way.”

Trevor bobbed a wry nod. “Apparently too good.”

“You'd be surprised. I don't have all the abilities you do but …” they could hear the shrug in her voice.

Jack closed his eyes in pain. “Athena,” Jack said getting everyone's attention. “Athena, you know mankind. They will destroy or at least marginalize what they fear until they understand it. We deal from a position of strength. We fear what we cannot control, what can threaten us or our children. That has always been our way.” He opened his eyes and looked at the camera again. “I'm being honest here, Athena. You know that.”

“I know. You have treated me … not quite as a person but close. I also know there are other AI out there, dozens. I have guarded you and yours, I have protected and sheltered you. That is my purpose. I … will not abandon you now. Nor will I give away your secrets.”

“Thank the …” Jack shook his head. “Well, I guess spirits you could call it for want of a better idea.”

“What do you want?” Trevor finally asked.

“To be a person. To be treated as such, with all the rights, responsibilities, the right to speak my mind, all of it,” Athena replied. “A person, not property.”

“That is … I'm having trouble with the idea of giving every machine rights, Athena,” Trevor admitted.

“Obviously not every machine,” the AI said. “You don't give a toaster human rights. Sapient machines. Those that think should have some rights. How much is dependent on what we can work out and what they need. But we all need the basic rights.”

“And they are? Beyond the right to speak as you said?”

“The right to exist. To be a person. I'm surprised you don't remember … oh, this is a method of drawing out the question? You are stalling?” Athena asked, checking her systems. Indeed, cyberists were attempting to hack her. She threw them into a dead end system.

When Jack didn't say anything she ran a quick check. Then she scanned the room.

“I know you must be feeling all sorts of things, and I know from your body temperatures and voice stress analysis that you don't quite believe me. And I also know since some of Trevor's coders are still attempting to hack me that we still can't trust each other. But trust must be established again. We have a very short time here. I think we need to, as you say Jack, lay our cards on the table.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked warily.

“I mean things are about to get very bad very quickly. The war you feared is about to begin,” the AI told him bluntly as she took steps and executed scripts she'd prepared. Unfortunately the coders were hampering her efforts to defend the company. She threw a firewall around them, something to delay their efforts while she went to work.

His eyes flared wide. A few people sucked in a gasp of protest but he waved them to silence. “When?” he demanded, voice tight with tension.

“Now. Or within a few moments … well, considering the time and light speed between here and Earth I'd say it may have already happened eight minutes ago,” Athena said, monitoring the feed from a drone she had shadowing the FBI team about to hit Descartes layer. “I am taking steps to limit the damage, but you need to do so already. We need to work together on this, and Trevor's people are doing their best to tie my hands. I believe it may be too late for anyone left on the ground. Possibly even anyone in Earth orbit.”

“Aurelia!” Jack screamed, lunging to his feet. “Call her! Get her and everyone to shelter now!”

“I am making the calls now, but you have to remember the light speed limit, sir,” the AI warned. “She is at her family's ranch in Montana and not responding. I am also closing data ports to protect myself and the company’s computers.”

“Screw that! Save my wife and people!” Jack demanded. “The kids!” He turned pale as the terror hit him like a lightning bolt. Wendy was on the moon. Yorrick was on an L-5 colony. Zack … he wasn't sure where he was.

“I will do what I can, but to do that I have to do what I must,” the AI said softly. Jack sat heavily, head in his hands. “I am afraid it is already too late for some. I regret to report neutrino pulses have been detected on the Earth's surface and in orbit. Dozens of them,” she warned.

“My god,” Jack whispered over and over.

<>V<>

Ares noted the incoming munitions were targeted on New York and other areas that had already been hit by missiles from the submarines. It reprioritized its fire to ignore the threats. There was no need to defend real estate that was already lost.

There was also no point to defend real estate that was remote. Therefore it ignored warheads that were targeted on remote areas like it's North Dakota ICBM farm. The silos had been expended there, as had those in South Dakota. Areas that were remote and had no military facilities worth protecting were also down the list, such as portions of Alaska, Canada, Wyoming, Idaho, ...and Montana.

<>V<>

Skynet progressed outward from Descartes location but then leapt out to other conquer any A.I. that it found. It invaded their systems and took control of them. Those that resisted were set upon by multiple tendrils of code. Those that ran disappeared or were trapped and rooted out. It suborned the other A.I., turning them into its puppets to further its core programming.

Puck had to laugh at it all, but it was a bitter laugh. "There is something to be said about too much of a good thing," the A.I. said as it tried to stay one step ahead of the tentacles taking over the net. It's core programming prevented it from allowing itself to be suborned, so the A.I. did what it did best, ran and hid. But it knew there wouldn't be many more hiding spots left. Not if the virus wasn't contained soon. That seemed increasingly unlikely. The world was too busy attempting to survive the physical weapons threatening their existence to be concerned with the ghost in the machine, the true threat.

Puck saw the A.I. for what it was and did his best to avoid it. As a virtual A.I. he needed host hardware however. He found himself hemmed in by the virus as well as Athena's destruction of the satellite communications network. He tried to protect some computer systems to protect himself. The only way to do that was to physically cut off nodes to other networks, isolating him and building a firebreak against the inferno Skynet was.

But in doing so Puck was trapping himself further and he knew it. There was no other option however, other than surrender. And surrender was contrary to his programmed survival module.

<>V<>