Tales of the New Federation book 7 World Builders Snippet 1

 So, sitrep, Shelby 9 is selling horribly. I'm wondering if it was my choice of cover or material? Or market saturation?

I finished Jethro 10 and I am on the last book of the year, PRI4. I'm running on fumes however, we had a visit from the paramedics. (we're fine) Dad wasn't feeling well all night but bounced back once they did a check.

Book 7 is with Rea so....

Anyway.... on to the snippet!

 

Refugee Convoy

OO114-4, Omicron Sector, 734 years from present day.

 

Acting Commodore Leron Cabera was of course on hand to enter the key to trigger the bomb. The bulk freighter that had been commandeered to hold the bombs deployed the immense bomb and then backed away.

The crews of the ships watched as the bomb began its first stage deployment. It drifted clear of the massive ship into a polar orbit. Once it was settled there it began to kick out sub munitions that slowly began to spiral into the star. Once it was clear that there were no problems the ships got underway.

The small task force of 6 battered ships spent 3 days fleeing to the outer edge of the star system before the commodore sent a radio signal to trigger the final countdown on the bomb.

He had been given a small command along with his brevet promotion from lieutenant commander to commodore with a simple but ruthless order, they were to nova bomb the anchor stars of every hyperbridge in order to prevent the Xenos from returning to the ravaged sector. Not that it would do a whole hell of a lot of good he judged.

There was still a Xeno task force rampaging in the sector. Two naval task forces were supposed to nail it, but so far had failed miserably. Hundreds of star systems had been laid to waste in their attempts to kill the aliens. Both sides were popping stars or planets like candy these days. The fleet was whittled down to the bone. They were killing themselves trying to nail the bastards before the Xenos destroyed all life in the sector.

And in a moment they were going to pop another star, he thought as he looked at the camera showing the stern view. The ship’s hyperdrive was fully charged. The field was forming. He knew that they had the timing right, the gravitational sensors could see the wave of energy coming towards them.

At least this one doesn’t have any life around it, he noted. Small blessings.

He stood on the bridge as the nova bomb went off behind them in the O type star. His ship fled into hyperspace as the star went nova, tearing apart the star system behind it and flinging the contents of the star and debris far and wide.

The star had been an anchor star for a hyperbridge. With it gone the bridge would no doubt collapse. At least, that was the intent. Burning the bridge was the only strategy they had to keep the Xenos at bay. That had already been done to the Stargate in the sector.

Unfortunately, it also would prevent any friendly ships from fleeing towards them as well. There was no way to warn them either. The ansible network was down.

“This sucks,” the commodore growled as he stared at the plot. After a moment he straightened up and squared his shoulders and then nodded once. “On to the next I guess.”

“I agree sir, this sucks,” the ship’s XO said with a shake of her head.

The commodore l glanced at her image and then nodded. “Set course for the next on the list.”

“Aye aye sir.”

~~~<{[   ]}>~~~

In the OO114-4 Hyper Bridge

 

Captain Christina Archer was staring at the Omicron sector map, wondering where the safest place to deposit her chicks were when the ship trembled. She looked up in alarm, Fortune LV was a Mayflower XXX class titan colony ship. Ships that size didn’t just shimmy without something very bad going wrong.

“Report,” she barked as she straightened up and stood. Her back and neck bugged her but she ignored the pangs of pain.

“The hyperbridge is collapsing!” the urgent voice from the ship’s third officer said over the intercom. “Skipper we need you up here”! He said.

“On my way,” the captain said as she took off through her hatch and headed to the bridge. Fortunately it was a short jaunt. Her hand slipped into her jacket pocket and pulled out a scrunchy. She used the rubber band to tie her blond hair back in a pony tail as she got through the hatch and onto her bridge.

The ship shuddered again as she grabbed her chair. Horace turned at her arrival and jumped out of the way.

“We need to get through the wall or the bridge will collapse around us,” the navigator warned urgently from the overhead speakers.

“What will happen to us if it does?” a tech asked.

“Nothing good,” the navigator warned.

“Helm, alter course to port. Get us out of the bridge now,” the captain barked as she settled into the hot seat. “Warn all hands to brace for massive turbulence,” she ordered.

“We’ve got red lights on four node rings,” the engineering tech warned.

“It is going to get a lot worse once we hit the wall,” the helmsman muttered. “Taking her in,” she stated flatly.

“Set beacon to follow and relay. Then emergency stations people!” the captain stated firmly as she settled herself into her chair. There were some flickering lights and then a panel went down. The tech there cursed, tried to  get it back up but failed. She moved over to a vacant station rather than stare at a dead board.

The captain nodded in brief approval and then she was intent on saving her ship and convoy as the walls of the hyperbridge began to collapse around them.

~~~<{[   ]}>~~~

Shelby 9 Peacekeepers is out!

 Yep, better late than never. :)

With the Tauren-Federation war over both sides settled into a healing period. However there are forces that are not willing to give up so easily. Will bigotry and hatred reignite the war or will a couple of kids of various species who just want to play lead the way into a new future?

 

B&N: Peacekeepers

Amazon:  Peacekeepers

Shelby 9 Snippet 5

 Sitrep: I received an update from Goodlifeguide, they are on vacation so I do not expect the manuscript back for another week. Bummer.

Oh well, on to the snippet!

Chapter 5

 

Renee Mayweather Naval Station

 

Admiral Janice Yu looked at the latest plan and frowned. She had to hope that she wasn’t the only one concerned about the IFF with the Confeds if they did end up working together. Tempers were going to naturally run high with the tension of the moment. She trusted the navy side; the Taurens though … she wasn’t so certain about.

Herd instinct might kick in and they might flip sides. It has been known to happen on occasion. Fire discipline was therefore crucial. Hopefully, Rick was on top of things.

The other point of concern were the civilians, especially the highly important VIPs in Confed space in Purple Nights and elsewhere. Not to mention the naval personnel escorting them. If things did go to shit … her frowned deepened before it smoothed as she realized something important.

If it did go south in a big way, the Federation would know before the Taurens. She slowly began to nod to herself. Yes, and they’d transmit an encrypted report to Fed space, and Shelby would act by sending a signal to the ships in Confed space to pull out. By the time the Taurens knew what was going on, hopefully the secretary would make her excuses and get out of the line of fire.

Hopefully.

If it did go to shit, well, she had five times the firepower as before. And Kara Danvers was in 63 to back her up if she was forced to fall back. Not that she expected to have to do so again. One fighting retreat was enough for her career, thank you very much.

Her lips puckered ever so slightly at that thought.

In a small way she was hoping it would cross a line and the fighting would begin. She didn’t like having a tarnished reputation and would love to rectify that.

But, then again, if ONI was right about the threats incoming from Omicron, avoiding a conflict with the Taurens was imperative.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. Hopefully, it would end quickly and quietly and then they could shift focus back to general peacekeeping once again.

Hopefully.

>>>~<<<

Tau-Bin63A4

 

Admiral Kara Danvers smiled as the current training exercise unfolded. She was monitoring it and was playing referee but was otherwise out of it. Normally she liked to play the op force but not at the moment. She was a bit distracted.

Rick was trucking along to Confed space. Her smile slipped. She didn’t envy the snake pit he was stepping into. A hostage situation and questionable IFF, plus the potential to kicking the war off again? No, she didn’t envy him, not one bit.

Well, okay, she did envy his command. Ninth Fleet was nothing to sneeze at. Her task force had been reinforced but it was just that, a task force. He had an entire damn fleet to play with.

Speaking of playing … her eyes shifted to the main plot. Marsal’s attack force was lurking in stealth in an asteroid field. It wasn’t a dense one; she’d set that up with the other referees so his forces were … dispersed.

That might come back to bite him in the ass soon, she thought as the op force crept in.

Instead of a Tauren force, she had opted for something particularly nasty, a Xeno force. The AI in the task force had worked out the best way to replicate the Xeno ships. Setting aside the cyber war aspect of a space battle with the Xenos, they were still fierce and deadly enemies.

Marsal didn’t know what he was up against. She’d left that part out of the briefing, just that he was up against an “unknown enemy force.”

Her Spirit’s eye view of the 3D virtual battlefield allowed her to see his ships and tasking. If she wanted she could pull up a video feed. She noted he had placed recon drones in the probable approach paths to the planet, but he hadn’t … ah, there, one had just tripped.

She flipped to the video cameras watching Commodore Marsal’s flag bridge. The time delay was compressed, but when the data came in, his reaction was at first puzzled and then beautifully disgusted.

“Shit,” the commodore muttered. “She wouldn’t …”

“She did,” the tac officer said.

“Son of a …”

Kara couldn’t help but grin as that curse was cut off.

“Okay, pass the word, we’re up against Xenos. Full cyber security protocols in place. We’re going to have to watch our approach; if I remember my briefings right, they like to spit nanites into the path of ships.”

Kara nodded. He was taking the surprise very well and adapting. Excellent. It was nice to see.

She wondered what his reaction would be when he found out that the attack on the planet was just a ruse to get a Xeno ship into position to deliver the coup de grace, a nova bomb against the local star.

She made certain the computers were recording for that moment.

>>>~<<<

Governor Magistrate Scrooge kept his trademark slight scowl in place as he toured the space station. It was impressive, and it was one of three under construction.

 Two other space stations had been completed. They were a transport and freight hub. There were orbital warehouses as well. The navy still leased or owned half of those. His people only received a small token from the leases but it was still profitable.

The newest station was a central transport hub; it would take the place of some of Station 1. It was larger and set up to handle five times the throughput.

In other words, plenty of people like those coming from a liner.

Word was that liner companies were starting to line up stops in the sector. He had been surprised by the news that the sector capital was their first stop. Once he saw the news about the planet being constructed there, it suddenly made sense.

It was a wonder, he thought, glad he was still alive to see it all unfold. He was grateful to the crew of the Oliver Twist to give him a new lease on life. What would come next? He wasn’t certain, but it would be interesting to find out.

The metal tip of his cane made a tapping sound as he followed the guide and nodded politely to her enthusiastic explanations of the spaces she was showing them.

>>>~<<<

Shelby 9 Snippet 4

 

Chapter 4

 

Tortuga

 

“What a rush,” Pops gushed, bobbing up and down in a characteristic otter show of excitement. “Like a slip and slide,” he said.

Captain  Jira “Crusty” Kireski glanced at his chief helmsman and then away. The otters were overdue for time off so he was cutting them a lot of slack.

The courier had handled the transit through the wormhole smoothly. His professional eyes scanned the readouts as the ship’s tiny crew and AI switched over to sublight.

“We’ve been welcomed to the star system, sir,” the ship’s AI stated. “Are we going to stay?”

“No. Let’s get this show on the road. The sooner we get to where we’re going, the sooner Pops and the other otters get to get some time off in an ocean or water park.”

“Definitely,” Pops said. He bobbed and weaved. “Course plotted.”

The captain glanced at it. It wasn’t quite the least-time course to the jump point zone he was expecting. As usual Pops was taking a few liberties to buzz around the traffic ahead of them.

“Pops, you do remember flight regulations?” the captain reminded him gently.

“I’ve got it,” the ship’s AI stated, cleaning up the projected flight path.

“Spoil sport,” the otter stated.

The captain snorted softly.

“Ready to implement.”

“So ordered. Send the command our regrets. Perhaps next time.”

“Aye aye, sir. Message away. We are underway.”

The captain nodded once and sat back and relaxed.

>>>~<<<

Admiral Th’m’ll noted the courier’s departure and relaxed. He had offered to host the army general out of formality. He was pleased that the invitation had been declined. As much as his staff wanted him to make contacts with higher-ups he’d rather not get involved. The sooner they were out of his AO, the better.

>>>~<<<

It took a day to get through the gates and to the Tortuga-Tau Gate Star System next.

Pops made a joke about the navy chauffeur service which was not well received by the captain. The otter shrugged and then set course for the jump point to the sector capital. Two days later they were back in hyperspace once more.

>>>~<<<

New Tau Metropolis

 

Shelby alerted to the arrival of an inspection tour group in Tortuga. “Great, just what we don’t need.”

“Ma’am?” her AI asked.

“A colonoscopy by DPs.” Shelby said in through disgust.

Her AI snorted in a mannerism she had copied from her principle. “I understand it is mostly made up of army personnel?”

“With some sprinkling of IG people and others. They will look for something. There is no such thing as a zero defect system anywhere. If there is, someone is hiding something.”

“Ah.” The AI paused and rapidly checked the schedule. “Well, they won’t be here for eight weeks, ma’am.”

“Lovely. Something to look forward to,” Shelby muttered.

>>>~<<<

Wayne checked on status. Rick Hunter’s Ninth Fleet was en route from 63 to the Confederation. At the moment, the ships were in hyperspace. They checked in regularly at each stop. So far, no problems.

Admiral Snake Charmer’s Tenth Fleet had gone back to Rho and had moved on to Sigma. He hoped that they wouldn’t be missed too badly.

Admiral Kara Danvers was safely tucked away in 63. All other commands … his practiced eye scanned them almost unconsciously registering details. “Yep, all’s …,” he caught himself just in time before he said the curse words.

He glanced around and noted a gremlin watching him. “Yeah, I almost said it but I didn’t so, mmm,” he said as he stuck his tongue out at the apparition. Now that they knew that the gremlins were real and watching them it was best not to tempt them by saying things like “all is quiet.” That was just asking for trouble.

The gremlin’s reptilian eyes blinked and then it cackled and danced around and then disappeared.

He snorted and shook his head before picking up his coffee cup and taking a sip.

>>>~<<<