Waking the Sleeping Giant has been published!

Yipe!
Things are moving quicker lately. I went through the upload process less than 2 hours ago and walla! It's up!

 

   Still recovering from the battle of Sol, Terra has gone on the offense in a desperate attempt to push the enemy back and bottle them up in the Rho sector. Terrans have to come together like never before to rebuild.

Meanwhile, in Rho, the conquered colonies struggle for survival. Pyrax however has done the impossible, they have taken out the conquer's ships and have given themselves some breathing room. Jack Lagroose is aware that their respite might be brief, at any time an enemy ship could come into the star system with blood in their eye.

But one thing Jack is certain of is that one way or another, Terrans won't go down without a fight. And the Taurens are about to find out if they've Woken the Sleeping Giant!

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5R9Z7L/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491864629&sr=1-1&keywords=waking+the+sleeping+giant+hechtl

I was told it is already on the Nook, but I can't find it. I'll post a link when I get one.

Edit:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/waking-the-sleeping-giant-chris-hechtl/1126188527?ean=2940157248680
 Thanks Duncan!

WtSG snippet 2

Still in chapter 1

Republic's bridge crew watched as the two destroyers moved out smartly to hunt the small Tauren ships down. The task force had jumped in too close and too quickly for either ship to jump into hyperspace. Within twenty minutes, the destroyers had entered their engagement zones. The fleeing ships hadn't responded to hails to surrender so they had been destroyed in succession.

“Nice,” the XO murmured in appreciation.

The captain glanced at her and then back to the main view screen. “Well, that's that,” the captain murmured with a nod of approval. It meant that not only was the enemy denied any details about Sol but also about the battle that had been fought there. It was a load lifted off of his shoulders. “Log that and my commendation for quick work,” he ordered.

“Aye aye, sir,” Ensign Sam replied.

The captain sat back in his chair and reflected a bit on the turn of events. Two hundred and eighty-seven ships had been destroyed in what the historians were already calling the battle of Sol. Twenty-two ships had survived, but many had been damaged. Only four of that number had been proper warships.

Over forty-one thousand sailors had been killed in the carnage, many of them in the militia ships during Admiral Lewis's last run or in the ships that had stood in the defensive line near Mars. Several of the ships in the defensive line had put themselves into harm's way in a last desperate effort to save a population center.

Out of all of the derelict ships, only 153 people had survived in the air bleeding darkened wrecks long enough to be rescued. The media had been filled with reports of heart-tearing messages from sailors to their loved ones as their air ran out. Some had even sacrificed themselves in order to allow others to live.

Forty-one thousand dead didn't compare to the millions that had died in some of the stations, habitats, and on Mars and Earth. Just one of the strikes had caused a tsunami that had wiped out a good thousand-kilometer stretch of coastline on Earth. Millions were dead or homeless.

He scanned the bridge with an edge of satisfaction in his gaze. There were still a lot of rough edges, but they were getting there. He had a good solid team. The ship had a few teething issues, but the bugs were known. They were knocking the bugs down or minimizing them as time went by.

It was a headache for some of the engineers since they were literally writing the book on the ship and its maintenance. He knew that Commander Tisdale was up to the task. The chief engineer loved to get his hands dirty. He winced internally at the thought of the guy's keyboard though.

His eyes briefly lingered on the holo console where Republic's A.I. stood at parade rest. Ensign Sam, known as Uncle Sam to some of the crew, was one of the first A.I. to join the fleet and was still a question mark to some of the crew. After Ensign Nelson and Central's defense of Mars and Earth went public, the public's perception of A.I. had shifted once more. Like it or not, A.I. were there to stay, virtual citizens of their civilization.

And like many citizens, some had stepped up to offer their services to the growing Confederation Navy. A few on the crew still harbored reservations about the patriotism, but no one was going to question it out loud at the moment. They needed every hand, even the virtual ones. The Ensign's contribution and occupation of the ship's electronic network allowed them to shave ten percent of the crew and run down a lot of the bugs, many of them in the software. That had endeared him to the engineers. His taking on a lot of the paperwork had lifted a lot of the headache off the ship's yeoman and officers, which had gone a long way to make them happy as well.

But the crew was still feeling out his role and how to treat him. Sam seemed easy going with everyone, something Saul appreciated. But he had passed an order to treat the A.I. as an officer.

The A.I. and cyberists were still taking apart the captured alien databases, but one thing had come out right off. The aliens had terrible computer security. There was also tantalizing clues that they lacked A.I. at all. That news had been one of the reasons the starships in the pipeline had been refitted to give them an A.I. computer core. Captain Bao was still getting used to the concept that the ship was Sam's body. He wasn't certain if the entire experiment was going to work out long term or not.

(@)()(@)

Ensign Sam made his virtual rounds like clockwork. He first checked the ship's internal network for any problems. There weren't any reported; all of the readings were normal. That took 1.3 seconds to complete. He then switched to check the task force network and status, then updated the log. Once that was accomplished, he checked the crew's health.

Once he had finished the rounds, he had 4.5 seconds to think, a long time for an A.I. without priority processing going on. Inevitably, his thoughts turned to the crew. It looked like he and the crew were settling in. There were still some rough edges. He'd noted a few sour talks about him among a few of the crew, but they were coming along. He had come to realize within his first full cycle of being online that organics took time to process interpersonal relationships.

And to be fair, so did he. He was still learning about his crew and how to deal with the interactions. His databases seemed chaotic on a moment-to-moment basis, something he also needed to learn to deal with.

He checked the camera feed in the bridge and then switched to the feed from the officer's wardroom. He had found that the formal dinners had some rich interactions to study. He made certain the recordings were running so he could scan them at speed and process them with any processors that were currently idle and then went back to making his virtual rounds once more.

WtSG snippet 1

Well! Goodlifeguide just shocked me and sent me back WtSG early! WOW!
So, I'll be publishing sooner than expected. As in most likely tomorrow!

Here is a snippet anyway:

Chapter 1

 

November, 2236

 

The crews of the two Tauren dispatch ships did their best to keep their small ships functional as their ships’ Alpha bulls tried to figure out what to do. They'd had plenty of time to discuss the situation, but they had not come up with a solution of their dilemma.

The two ships were trapped in a sector of space unfamiliar to them. Their flagship's navigational database had carried the full star charts of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the flagship and the rest of their task force had been blown into clouds of dust and debris in the alien home herd star system several weeks away.

Their ships had been in the rear of the fleet and had managed to escape. They had burned a lot of fuel to get to the alien world and more fuel in their escape. They had enough fuel for a couple of short jumps and then they would be utterly helpless. Neither ship had enough fuel for the long hyperbridge journey back to their home even if they knew where to start the journey at.

“Hyperspace emergence!” a technician on duty reported over the ship's intercom.

The ship's Alpha bull woke blearily and then stumbled onto the bridge. “Report?” he demanded.

“A hyperspace emergence.”

“Vector?” the ship's Alpha demanded. He was unkempt having just woken. Many of his crew looked slovenly. He saw the tech's ears flatten and then look at the plot. The ship's Alpha followed that line of gaze reluctantly to see the emergence point and a projected backtrack of their vector.

“Never mind,” he muttered. “I can see it for myself.”

“What do we do?” the tech asked quietly.

“We run. Fast,” the ship's Alpha bull said as he took his seat with a sinking heart. He was fairly certain they wouldn't be able to run far or fast enough.

(@)()(@)

The Terran Confederation cruiser Republic and her small task force of nine ships cleared their hyper wake within a minute of their arrival at the Altair hyperbridge jump point. To the crew's surprise, within minutes of the ship's arrival, the plot blinked with two red icons 2.4 million kilometers away. “There are two ships at the jump point. Both of them match the profile of the ships that escaped Sol,” a CIC rating reported over the intercom as their sensors cleared the dissipating energy discharge and started to get more distant sensor returns. “They are running,” she said flatly. Vectors were projected on the plot. “There is no sign of a hyperdrive charging in either ship at this time,” the tech reported.

“Order Tau Chan and Dragonheart to go after them. ROE applies. If the aliens won't surrender they are to take them out,” Captain Saul Bao growled coldly.

“With pleasure, sir,” a communications rating replied.

(@)()(@)

The destroyer Tau Chan's orderly bridge was grimly patient as they hunted down their prey. There was a sense of anticipation, of determination, maybe just a little bit of vengeance in the crew's thinking, Captain Presley reflected as she watched the range fall.

She was okay with that. She had the same feelings herself.

She wondered why the little ship hadn't tried to jump to hyperspace. Had they considered the option? Or had they tried to throw all of their power at their sublight engines in order to get out of range? It hadn't worked obviously.

“We are in firing range, ma'am,” the TO, Lieutenant Raul Hong, reported.

“No response to hails,” the ship's A.I. reported. “ROE is clear at your discretion, ma'am.”

Captain Chloe Presley nodded thoughtfully to the A.I.'s avatar and then turned to the TO, shifting slightly in her chair to see him at his station. “Do you want to fire now or let them sink a bit better into your basket to make sure you get a clean shot?” the captain asked mildly, arching an eyebrow his way. The TO had the final say in any engagement per protocol.

Lieutenant Hong cocked his head then shrugged. “I'd leave them twisting in the wind personally; I don't give a rat's ass how much they suffer. But I want to see how well we can hit a target at range.”

“On your order, guns,” the captain said with a nod.

The lieutenant nodded once as if to settle himself. “Aye aye, ma'am. All forward gun mounts, target the ship and open fire,” the TO ordered, turning to his section.

“Payback's a bitch and so am I,” Captain Presley murmured as her ship hunted her prey down. Her eyes glittered as the weapon turrets tracked and began to spit fire at the fleeing alien ship. Each of the destroyers had four single-barrel weapon turrets on their dorsal and ventral surfaces. They had six point-defense turrets on their flanks along with four missile tubes buried in the bow.

A cruiser like Republic had double barrel turrets twice as large. There were six on each surface along with twelve point-defense turrets and twelve missile tubes. She'd seen the new battleships being laid down; they had double and triple turrets as well as twice as many point defense turrets and missile tubes. There was some talk about trying to find a way to shoehorn in specialized turrets, but for the moment missile tubes doubled for offensive missiles as well as counter missiles.

She liked Tau Chan; she felt like she had just the right mix of speed and power. The turrets allowed her to fire off bore to some degree, as long as the super structure or the ship's own hull didn't obstruct the firing angle. She would have preferred more decoys and ECM, but one couldn't have everything.

At least she wasn't sitting in a fat slow carrier watching someone else do the shooting. Well, she was, she glanced at the TO, but at least Tau Chan was doing the shooting. All a carrier had was point defense turrets anyway. The crew of a carrier were referred to as chauffeurs by many in the battle-line community.

She glanced at the plot and then nodded subtly. The range was still long but falling steadily since their ship was faster. She couldn't see the weapons fire normally. Lasers and rail gun rounds were invisible or nearly so in the case of the fast-moving rounds, but Ensign Chan the ship's A.I., also known as TC to some of the crew, had thoughtfully highlighted the weapons fire for her viewing pleasure.

“Yeah,” a helmsman muttered as the alien ship bucked and tried to dodge the incoming fire.

“Let's make this quick. I want bragging rights with Dragonheart,” the captain urged. “First mount to score a hit gets a scoop of ice cream tonight,” she said.

“Aye aye, ma'am,” the TO replied with a nod as he leaned over one of his section tech's chair to look over her shoulder. He murmured orders to her.

A moment later the captain was gratified to see a barrage chase the enemy ship until it was boxed by the port turret. One clean shot hit the little ship in her stern, just above the drive thrusters. A second hit made her buck and her shields fluttered and then went out. A third hit near her dorsal surface made the ship falter and then her drives cut out. Tau Chan's starboard turrets walked their fire into the stern of the ship after that. After a moment, the concentrated fire tore the little ship apart.

There was only a little satisfaction in killing a ship that was running from her and couldn't fight back. But there was absolutely no guilt whatsoever Chloe thought as she heard the bridge cheer lustily.

“Good shooting, guns, damn good work,” the captain said as the crew cheered. The cheers settled down after a moment; within thirty seconds they were back to their normal professionalism.

The captain turned to a rating. “Com, send a report to Republic. Let them know the target has been destroyed, and we will scan it before returning to our station.”

“Aye aye, ma'am.”

“And raise Dragonheart. I want to razz Captain Brenslaw,” the captain said maliciously as she rubbed her hands together.

The TO shook his head and chuckled.

(@)()(@)

Waking the Sleeping Giant

Okay, here is the cover first off. I've been sitting on it long enough:

   The ships are from CGtrader.com this time. I modified them only slightly. For the record, that is a Tauren warship taking a torpedo strike from the fighters and bombers you see. It was an interesting scene to make. I was even tempted to animate it again.

  BTW: I got the manuscript back from Rea Monday. I've been so wrapped up in other things I haven't made much progress finishing adding the remaining front/back matter. That is very unusual for me I admit. For that matter I've got a specific Court-Martial scene in mind for the sneak peak... but it is only partially written!

 Speaking of CM, a sitrep: Okay, now that things are relatively back to normal (As normal as it gets here, though my landlord is still coming around daily to paint and make messes) I've been getting into writing Court-Martial. 3 out of order chapters in act I have been completed as of today, however I hit a snag a moment ago. Upon review I realized I goofed up the first 2-3 chapters and now I need to do a bit of a rewrite, so I'm in a funk/fudge about that.

   In other news, I made some print project progress. The T-Rex skeleton (all 27 inches!) I've judged complete and I've put it away for now. I'll try to remember to get a photo sometime, though I admit, my phone is acting up. I've also called Tychus and Raynor done, though I need to mount them to the stand I printed and painted. I still need to finish Lieutenant Morales and paint her and the quinjet, anthro cat, and others as well.
1 printer is idle, but the other has been taken over with projects for dad. lol. He's run out of room in the curio cabinet and has asked me to print truss shelves like I did for my Zoids and print projects. I've been doing that all week.
   FYI: I have not gotten around to the Jethro figures yet either. That is going to require me learning to airbrush, and taking the time to do it. Not to mention space to do it in. We're still working on that.

I'll keep you posted when Waking the Sleeping Giant is off to Goodlifeguide and when I expect to get it back. I'd like to publish by Easter, but it isn't all up to me, and the longer I take to get it to her, the less chance it will happen I admit.
The next blog posts will be snippets from that book. :)