In Search of Pi is publishing...NOW!

Wow!
Okay, so, yesterday I got the manuscript back from Rea, ran through it, added the TOC and stuff, and then sent it off to Goodlifeguide.com with the full expectation of not seeing it again for 3-10 business days.
But, in the email I added BitCreator's plea. I didn't think much about the chances of it, but apparently they heard! Heard and answered! Last night I got the email with the manuscript back. I'm still in shock.

I also just finished publishing it on Amazon and B&N. :D

About:

   Over the years the Reborn Federation has grown despite being at war with the growing Horathian Pirate Empire. Seeing a trend, the crew of the Io 11 went in search of new frontiers in the neighboring Pi sector.

  Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons sent along warships to scout the sector and begin putting an end to the piracy rampaging through the galaxy.

  It isn't going to be easy though. Pi is a vast sector with a lot of resources but also a lot of dangers. But, the various people like Emily Meia, Captain Mags Vivian, Captain Yasuno and others from Rho are up for the new challenge!

 

 

  So, yeah, there are more people involved of course, and some many familiar faces plus crossovers with the other books.

 

I'll post the links when the manuscript goes live at each place.
Edit: Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CP53H9C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524781457&sr=1-1&keywords=in+search+of+pi

B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-search-of-pi-chris-hechtl/1128560696?ean=2940159074492
 

Enjoy!

EDIT 5/4/18: Did anyone notice the alien ship in the past 2 (and possibly tonight's episode) of Agents of Shield is the cruiser I used on the cover of 1 or more of my books? How cool is that?? They did it way better though.
It got me wondering about Octane and videos again. Sigh...

ISOP Snippet 3

Sitrep: I just finished going through the edits from Rea, adding the TOC and missing bits, and then sent it off to Goodlifeguide. We shall see when it comes back.

In other news, I'm calling the tiger figure finished. I'm too lazy to hook my phone up to my PC again right now, so I'll upload the photos later.

Skipping ahead:

Chapter 2

Meridian

Lieutenant JG Bright Day checked the log and then the ship's course. So far so good. One of his eyestalks swiveled to check the engineering status boards. Nothing was yellow or red, all good there.

The bug sat back in his saddle and reflected for a moment. It was never good to remain idle for too long. He knew the XO or skipper would be coming around sometime soon, but he sometimes needed a moment to think, even when on duty.

The changes in his life were far from routine. He had been raised by a T'clock hive after his family had died in a rock slide. He had even taken on a T'clock style name since it had been far easier for his foster parents to speak.

When he had entered the academy, he had felt rather lonely until he'd somehow made a friend in David Hamerschtel. They'd jokingly referred to themselves as the dynamic duo. He'd followed David into the various courses after the academy including the ONI course.

Sometimes he regretted David's sudden insight that had led the human to discovering the Daikoku find, getting a commendation, which had led them to this mission. David's insight had been a bit more than a blessing from Lady Luck, but also good fortune since it had pushed the two of them up the ladder a little bit ahead of their classmates. David's commendation had gotten him a promotion to JG a few months ahead of Bright Day. He didn't resent his friend's good fortune, but the occasional ribbing David did over the subject was a bit wearing.

"Everything okay in here?" a familiar human voice asked from the open hatch.

The Veraxin swiveled a rear eyestalk to the XO while his forward-facing ones checked the status board. Sometimes it paid to have multiple independent eyes. "Yes, sir. The board is green. All boards are green. We are on course and on schedule," he stated.

"Ah, good," Lieutenant Glen da Souza said as if by route. "Working on anything interesting?" he asked.

"I finished a couple of problems. I was taking a break for a moment, sir. I don't like to get too deep into a problem and then go off shift. They tend to haunt me," the Veraxin replied.

The XO nodded sagely. "Especially the tricky ones. Okay, gotcha. I'm not pushing the due date back though," he warned.

"Understood, sir. I'll get the assignment in on time."

"Good. You've got an hour before you are relieved?"

"Yes, sir. Ensign Iwazaru will be on deck once he's finished his downtime," the Veraxin said, referring to the ship's A.I. He wasn't certain how other ships ran it but Captain Yasuno had insisted the A.I. stand a watch just like everyone else. And since he was an officer, he stood a bridge watch.

Glen nodded once. "Okay. I'm going off shift. Ring me if you need me but it better be important."

"Right," the bug said, making a note in the small duty log that the XO was going off shift. Technically, the XO and skipper never went off shift; they were always on call. But everyone needed sleep, even the ship's A.I.

He heard the human's receding footfalls fade off into the distance and then returned his attention to the ship's systems. Three passes were all he could stand at looking at the numbers, so he brought up the problems one more time.

Maybe if he took a different approach …

{#}^{#}

Lieutenant JG David Hamerschtel remembered Admiral Irons' speech when Meridian launched several years prior. Out of boredom he brought the file up and replayed it to refresh his memory of the time, that heady time of triumph he'd felt.

They'd been assembled as a crew for the first time. Meridian hadn't even finished her building trials yet. Right up until he'd been assigned to her he'd thought he'd been assigned to a different ship. To the current day, he still didn't know if that had been a cover or he'd been a last-minute addition.

It didn't matter. None of what had happened then really mattered anymore. He would like to think he'd grown a bit since then. He was definitely a little bit older and hopefully a little bit wiser. Though sometimes, when he got called out by the skipper, he had doubts. His finger hovered over the button before moving the slider to the bookmarked place. He then hit the play button and sat back to watch.

"The job of ONI is a thankless one. You sift through petabytes of data, interviews, video and audio files, images, decrypt files, stare at star charts until your eyes bleed, and do so much more for that one nugget of information that will make the difference."

Admiral Irons surveyed the group. "And you have to do it all the while keeping the enemy and sometimes the public unaware of what you are doing. On the public's behalf, I thank you."

"I'm not going to lie to you, what would be the point? You are going into a long-range, difficult, and some would say, impossible mission. You will be away from your friends and family for years. You might never come back. Hopefully, that doesn't happen, but the risk is there. A lot can happen in the outer dark and running into pirates is just one danger among all too many."

"The Ptah mission has been delayed multiple times. Your ship is going to blaze a trail for her and others to follow. We have already sent a single, oversized mixed squadron of cruisers in to the sector, but you will be going far farther than any of them. We have identified the possible locations of four of the six known pirate bases in the sector. It's up to you to confirm them. It is dangerous; I won't lie to you. That will take you away from your friends and families for years. I thank you for your sacrifice in that regard."

David snorted and hit pause. Yeah. You thank us he thought. But we're the ones making the sacrifice. I was an idiot for volunteering he thought with a pang of regret.

"Sour grapes?" Bright Day, his partner, asked as he scuttled into the room.

"You know me so well," the human said as he flipped the tablet down.

"Yes. We have been roommates for years after all. I know when you snore and when you need a break. And other times, like that time you caught a glimpse of some human females on a beach …"

"Yeah," David interrupted hastily. He'd had a hard time with that one, almost literally and almost embarrassingly in front of the skipper. He'd learned the hard way not to zoom in to planets and especially nude beaches.

And it wasn't just the fear of being caught as a voyeur either. It was the remorse over not being down there with them, living it up.

Two years. Two years in the ship. Two long years with no shore leave. No time off and their fresh food had gone in the first six months. Two years of breathing the same stale air, dealing with the stink, the boredom, and the same faces.

They had gotten to Pi, jumped up the chain and verified Daikoku. Along the way they'd identified a pirate-only known jump route. He didn't regret that part. But did the skipper really have to go the long haul to verify all of the bases? All in one go?

At least the skipper had insisted on dropping the occasional buoy or updating ones they ran into with their logs. That way the intelligence they were gathering would get into the navy's hands in theory. If all had gone as planned, at least one of the buoys had been stripped and its contents were on their way back to the Federation.

"Anything happen?" he asked as Bright Day removed his duty harness and then scuttled into the head.

"No. The usual. You can check the log."

"Ah," David replied in a slightly disappointed tone of voice. "Of course not."

"Trust me, Dave, you don't want something interesting to happen while in hyper. Interesting things tend to make you dead. Usually with the ship too. I'll take my chances with being bored and alive, thank you very much," the Veraxin replied from the head.

"You would. That's the problem with you. You are lazy," David retorted in mock exasperation.

"I'm not lazy; I just like playing it safe. Risks are only worth the reward when there is one to be had. Taking risks without need is just asking for trouble. Wasn't it one of your species’ ancestors who came up with the curse about living in interesting times?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I wonder about that," David muttered remembering the Chinese curse. "I'd rather have a little action then be bored to tears."

"Really? You've been crying?"

"It's an expression," David said testily as the bug flushed and then turned the sink on to finish up. He was well aware of the fact that he was being teased. "I think we've hit every movie in the database at least twice. Some more than ten times."

"Time to create mash-ups? Or pursue other entertainment? Virtual games or something?"

"When you spend so much time staring at a computer screen … I don't know," David said with a shake of his head. "I just don't know."

"And it doesn't help that this is a dry ship. I know I miss going to the bars," the bug said, surprising David as he scuttled out. "Yes, I know that is your line. I'm going off script."

David thought about it and then snorted. "Okay, so we've had this conversation before."

"Yes and will likely have it again. My suggestion is to either rack out or go for a walk."

"A walk."

"Yes, move those pudgy legs of yours—the fleshy extremities," the bug said with a wave of one lobster claw.

"You know I technically outrank you," David mocked as he put his feet down on the deck.

"So? Oh, wait, are you now threatening me to get some of the action you want? A captain's report?"

"Yeah, no, pass," David said with a shake of his head. "I wish we had more than the usual four bulkheads to look at."

"True. You could hook up a VR headset and have it guide you down a forest lane. I understand Yoki does something like that when she is jogging. Or you could do something else. Or go meditate in one of the cargo bays."

"In other words, anywhere but here?" David asked, amused as he caught on to the bug's thrust.

"Exactly. I just ate after coming off shift. I don't want to hear your gripes and have them ruin my digestion," the Veraxin said, indicating second-degree truth with third-degree amused exasperation. "I'm going to rack out unlike you. I plan to work out before my next shift tomorrow."

"Okay, okay. Maybe I'll hit the gym or something. No walks though, the XO sees me wandering and he'll think I'm bored and need extra work to keep my mind occupied again."

"I could put in a good word," the Veraxin suggested as the human slipped his footwear on. The bug buzzed in amusement as David threw his pillow at him. He easily fended it off and then picked it up to toss it back on the human's bed.

"Right," David said as he pulled out a towel. "Be seeing you."

"Not if I'm not awake and don't wake me," the bug said as he settled himself for some much-needed rest.

{#}^{#}

ISOP Snippet 2

Okay, sitrep:
Rea just emailed me and said she should have the manuscript back to me sometime tomorrow. Cool.

Spider tank:
So, I found the model on Thingiverse and couldn't resist making it. Here is the original:
https://karanak.deviantart.com/art/MBT-Firewalker-187160519

Here is my version:

  For the most part I had fun with it. The basket, not so much. I added a few little bits of my own. The spotlight and antenna. There are magnets in the turret and main gun so I can pose them if I wish.
The diorama base is made up of bits from Thingiverse and Myminifactory. The model isn't attached to it so I can repose it if I wish.

Sorry my camera in my phone sucks sometimes.

  After printing the model parts and diorama I used the hot acetone method on most of the parts to harden them and get rid of most of the print lines. Unfortunately, the process blurs some of the nice crisp lines and edges in the model. Oh well.
   It is now taking up a lot of room in my curio cabinet with the T-rex skeleton I did looming over it. :)

  I'm working on a couple side projects too, off and on. One of them has turned into a monster. Some of the projects I've tabled since last year have popped up too. I'll post those later. On to the snippet!


Still in chapter 1:

Deidra looked over her shoulder to where the skipper was sitting and looking at a tablet, and then back to her own station. As a bridge officer and department head, she had her hands full as both the ship's navigator and chief helmsman. And, on the side, she was also a shuttle pilot she reminded herself. Even after months of it, she was still dealing with the double duty. Sure, Io did a lot of the calculating for her and suggested routes, but she also missed Lessa. She occasionally leaned on the other woman when she could get a signal through to Fortuity.

She, Io, and Lessa tended to congregate and discuss the star map at every opportunity. Despite the captured database and the intel Vanessa had accumulated, they still didn't have a clear route. They knew some star systems were still there, and others might be, but they didn't have detailed data. Not the level of detail they wanted at any rate.

Fortuity had been a tramp Clydesdale class freighter. Her database had been corrupted by viruses, much like Io 11's had for years. That was why her data was patchy and they barely trusted it. The ship's navigational database had information for about forty jumps but all in the low octaves of alpha band. That didn't help them much when they traveled in the faster beta and gamma bands.

She pulled up the map again and then rubbed her brow with one hand as she scrolled through the intelligence reports with the various cover-your-ass probabilities of what areas were still there and which were dead and gone.

{#}^{#}

Fortuity

Captain Lessa ran her hands over the captain's chair again. She still hadn't had it rebuilt, though she kept meaning to. There was always something else that needed to be done, some other priority that took precedence. Her fingertips picked at the frayed riggers tape on one armrest and then she reached up to touch the pillow taped to the headrest.

The chair was much like the ship, a work in progress, so was her crew. She had learned a lot since she'd taken the hot seat. Fortuity was her chance to shine, and she was eager to prove herself.

The problem was; the old ship required a deft hand on the bridge as well as in engineering. She had some good people, but she had some very green people with them. The captain picked up a few people to man the ships from time to time, but she had learned they needed to pick the right people. Some of the people they'd picked up had just wanted a working passage and had jumped ship once they'd landed somewhere they liked.

A few hadn't worked out at all, and they'd been dumped on the next available planet with just about everyone thinking good riddance.

She frowned thoughtfully as she considered the problem. It was a delicate balance. She and the captain were more open to families, aliens, Neos, and men but only barely. She knew the captain still preferred women, and if they were in dire straits then they had no place to negotiate. Vanessa called them her “stray kittens."

Her lips pursed as she realized she had been one such stray kitten. And she also realized she kept deferring to the captain when she herself was one. She could take Fortuity off anytime the mood struck her.

But, they were a team. Also, the big Clydesdale was helpless against the pirates that infested space. She was designed to haul bulk freight from point A to point B; she wasn't really suited for the life of a free trader. For the moment, her ship was a roving warehouse for Io 11 to stockpile goods.

That thought made her sit back and feel the pillow behind her head. She wondered briefly what was going to happen when they maxed out their cargo-carrying capacity. Would they dig up an empty star system again and stockpile it? Just how much goods did they need? Sometimes she wondered about Vanessa. The older woman loved a bargain and kept buying stuff even when there was no purpose to it. Or, at least no purpose she saw she thought.

“Jump exit coming up in fifteen minutes,” the helmsman warned, breaking her out of her woolgathering.

She sat up straight and then checked the navigational way points. She nodded and then ran her eyes over the ship's systems as they finished the last translation into the lowest octave of Alpha band.

{#}^{#}

Io 11 & Fortuity

Io 11 took the lead as the two ships jumped into the P35d4409 empty star system. The star system was a crossroads with four jump points. One led to a dead-end but another led to a chain of jumps that led to a planetary system. The fourth jump, the one they were headed for, took them further into the sector and to another planetary system. It took a few minutes to update their sublight navigational charts and plot a course. Once they were clear of the jump point and underway, the plot began to settle down.

Within an hour of their departure, CIC picked up the ion trail of another ship's recent passage. The decay ratio told them it had been within fifty-five hours, which meant the ship should still be in the star system. However, she wasn't showing up on gravitics.

When the ship didn't show up on sensors, the captain ordered an active scan. Emily realized the ship had gone into stealth and was lurking there, somewhere out ahead of them. She informed the captain who had apparently come to the same conclusion.

“If she's got stealth this good, she almost has to be a warship of some sort,” she warned. “That means it is most likely a pirate,” she warned.

Zoya nodded. The obvious concern was that it was a pirate. “They know we are here and went into stealth before our flash dissipated.”

“And by now they know we're two ships traveling in company.”

“Yes, but one isn't armed.”

“They don't know that. Comm, hail them,” the captain ordered. “Transmit our IFF on an omni directional broadcast. Let's either warn them off or draw them in.”

They received a response back twenty minutes later. It was an IFF. They were surprised to find it was from a navy light cruiser, the North Hampton class Chic'ch'll.

Io picked up on the IFF transmission and checked her database. She had received an updated war book database during their stop in Syntia's World. “The information matches, Captain,” she stated, showing the snippet of data in a window on the captain's screen.

The captain looked down and studied the information and then grunted. “They are a bit far out,” she said.

“They are the first patrol of the sector, ma'am,” Io stated.

“Ah.”

“I for one am glad to see them. With them around, the pirates must be headed out,” Zoya murmured.

Deidra frowned and then nodded. “I was going to say there goes the neighborhood but you are right,” she said.

“As you were,” the captain scolded gently.

“Aye aye, ma'am,” the girls said softly as they went back to their duties.

“Comm, record a message. “This is the Io 11 and the starship Fortuity to Chic'ch'll. If you'd like to chat, or trade information, let us know.” She made a hand sign over her throat to indicate that was it.

“Good copy,” Zoya said.

“Then send it,” the captain ordered.

“Something tells me they'll want to do more than talk,” Io replied dryly.

{#}^{#}

ISOP Snippet 1

Okay, first up, a sitrep:

1: No surgery. I went to the Orthopedic Surgeon (who is now keenly interested in my books and writing is own!) yesterday, and he diagnosed I have a "Frozen Shoulder" due to the previous injury. No surgery required, so that is a relief.

2: I sent ISOP off to Rea the other day. I'm shooting for it to be published the first week of May.

3: I watched The Last Jedi last night. (Yes I'm slow, I don't do theaters) I... wasn't thrilled with it. Definitely a dirge. There were a lot of technical mistakes (like air flowing into the ship from a vacuum when Leia gets back into the ship!)
   ...But the 1 thing that really caught my eye was the Vice Admiral's sacrifice. It's not a mistake, but it is tactically and possibly strategically important. Possibly even vital. Did anyone think about the implications of that? I hope so. Can you imagine what sort of weapon that is? Load a missile the size of a shuttle or small ship with mass, point it at a target ship and have it jump to light speed. (hyperspace) It then tears through any ship in front of it, plus sprays the area with debris which causes a chain reaction to destroy neighboring ships! Dang! That would make capital ships obsolete! You'd need to maneuver your capital ships big time to keep from getting hit!

  I will admit I liked Thor Ragnarok a lot more. I definitely finally like Led Zepplin's Immigrant Song. It finally fit into something right!

4: I am near the halfway point of Pi Fight.

5: The spider tank diorama is finished. More on that in another post. I'm also making small progress steps on other backburner projects.

Anyway, on to the snippet: WOOPS! I almost posted Pi Fight! Okay, let's get this right...

Act I

Chapter 1

P35d4409 star system

The North Hampton class light cruiser Chic'ch'll was on the return journey of her loop into Pi when the captain decided a delay was in order. The ship was low on supplies but the place he picked to stop had little in the way of easily attainable materials.

"This looks like a good place to set up shop," Captain Eddie Sejong said, surveying the star system with approval. It was on the road north from the enemy's Daikoku base that was reportedly nearby. He wanted to get in closer, hell, he'd love to set up shop one jump closer but he also wanted a healthy reserve of fuel in case it did come to a battle.

By setting up an ambush in the star system and laying in wait they might bag them a pirate. If the enemy did pick them up they'd think they were their own kind. Not that he expected the pirates to be on guard. They were probably not expecting someone to be hunting them.

At least, not as long as word didn't get around about them. And the best way to do that was to knock the bastards out once and for all to make sure word didn't get around.

"Sir, is this wise?" the XO asked softly.

The captain turned in surprise to his XO. "You have a problem Shannon?"

"It's just; we're supposed to be headed home. Vampiring a prize is possible, but we don't know if and when one will come around. We are expending resources here sir," First Lieutenant Shannon Minaj stated.

"Understood. We'll give it a week and then I'll reevaluate the situation then. Do give it a little time."

"Yes sir."

It was a little frustrating that they hadn't gotten as far north as they'd hoped. That honor had fallen to Meridian. But they had an excuse, they'd been ordered to set up caches of fuel and material for other naval ships to use in the future. They had also blazed a trail for others like Meridian to follow.

It had been something of a bit of a chagrin moment to find out the extended range prowler had indeed confirmed Daikoku's presence. Their report was intensely studied by the officers. The TAO had gone so far as to load the files into the tactical computers to find a way for Chic'ch'll to try to take the pirate nest out. So far he hadn't found a single way of doing it safely.

According to the report the orbital hotel had been turned into a small resupply base. There were weapons platforms protecting it. Meridian hadn't seen any ships in port, but they had seen enough troubling firepower for him to hesitate on pulling the trigger. If any of those missiles got into the inner star system, it wouldn't be good for anyone on the receiving end.

Which just meant they'd have to get back to Tir na Nog, resupply, and then whistle up some help, Captain Sejong thought. He was pretty sure the navy would be intensely interested in taking the pirate base out and thus denying the enemy a port so close to the Federation's expanding northern border. He was pretty sure he'd have no end of volunteers to go along for the ride. It would suck if someone came along who out-ranked him and took it over and thus the credit, but that hadn't happened.

Not yet at any rate.

"Find a nice place to set up shop and then we'll wait and watch and see what comes by," he said cracking his knuckles.

{#}^{#}

Io 11

After breakfast the captain took a stint on the bridge. She took the captain's chair and pulled out a tablet. It only took a moment to go through the ship's logs and status report. Not that she expected to see anything there, if anything untoward would have happened she would have been informed.

Still, it was good practice to check. Once she did that, she turned her eyes outward and checked the status of Fortuity. Lessa had stepped up as captain, much to her surprise. She was grateful, and she had to admit, the young woman had done an excellent job there.

Meeting up with the ship in Senka had been something of a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Anytime two ships met, they would meet up and perform a trade. Along the way, they had found out from Io's electronic hack into the other ship's electronic network that they'd been hijacked by pirates.

Emily had led a boarding party under the guise of a trade. They'd taken the ship with little bloodshed. There had been few of the surviving crew, not nearly enough to man her.

So, the captain had taken charge in her usual way and taken over the ship. She'd shuffled the postings around to allow them to man all of the ships. Io had taken up some of the slack on Io 11.

Since the ship didn't have an A.I., she'd sicced Jedzia and some techs over to her to clear her computers and to do something about that. The girls had learned a lot in their fields, but they were still a ways away from replicating Io and her core programming, if that was even possible. But they were trying to approximate something to alleviate the load.

The capture of Fortuity, rebuilding her, and manning her had given the girls another project, another ship to rebuild. But it had also shown them that they didn't need three ships. She'd been tempted to leave the new ship in Rho sector. She almost had; she'd even worked with Vanessa on plans to send the ship to their secret B448c shipyard to be rebuilt.

But instead, Faith, Clarissa, and the others had come to her with the proposal that Molly stay behind. And she'd agreed.

Sometimes she regretted that, and not just because Fortuity was so slow and in constant need of work of some sort. They'd overhauled the ship three times, but it still wasn't enough. But no, that wasn't her only problem. She missed the girls on that ship and Molly from time to time.

“One loop,” she muttered. They were going to do one loop, up and around Pi and then back again to Rho. Hopefully along the way, Admiral Irons and his navy would make some headway and on the return journey they would run into an ansible so they could check in. She knew Faith. Undoubtedly, they'd gotten up to some mischief in the absence of her keen eye. She was looking forward to hearing all about it.

At least, she thought so. Sometimes she wasn't so sure. She did know one thing; they couldn't rely on her to dig them out of any trouble they got into!

{#}^{#}

In Search of Pi

Okay, I was going to leave The Turning Tide up for another week, but on the spur of the moment I decided to do this. :)
Sitrep: I finished In Search of Pi several weeks ago and it is in the hands of the Betas. If any Betas who haven't been poked want a go at it, better let me know.

What is In Search of Pi you ask? Well...

Yes that is a tug and work crew rebuilding Io 11's flank engine pod. I made it from gear from DAZ3D since I'm lazy. :D

   In Search of Pi is the first of what is turning out to be another Federation spin off series. It will eventually combine with one of the others so it will be only a couple of books.
  Back story: See, when I wrote Hunter or Hunted (one of the Io 11 short stories in one of the anthologies! Go find it if you haven't read it!) I thought of it as a lead in to another story. Then I did 6BO and I thought, wouldn't it be fun if they met?
  This was supposed to be that story, but it grew. So, I took Hunter or Hunted and tucked it in there, added a bit of other stuff, and then remembered I'd planned to do a story about the Prowler team exploring Pi. That was waaay back in Pirate Rage, I'd set things up then if you recall.
  Anyway, I added that, and before I knew it I had a full on novel going. I decided to push it up the queue and I wrote it last month since I had more freedom to operate in Pi.
You saw a piece of it in The Turning Tide.

   So, not only do you get to see the events in Hunter or Hunted, but also the aftermath, that chapter in The Turning Tide, the Federation's work in Pi, and more.

  And, I'm already working on the next book already. Yeah, I found enough material to write a second book, Pi Fight and added it to the queue as well. I decided to dive right in with it since it has enough freedom to stand outside of Liberty or Death, the next Federation book. I've finished 3 chapters of it so far. (I started it last Thursday.) Ironically, 1 of the chapters I finished, the first actually, is a crossover with Liberty or Death as well as HL3. Enough said there.
:)

In other news, I worked on a single Zoid image in the 4 days off in between books:

  Mechmaster (He's more famous with his Daleks than mecha) helped me clean the ground up with procedural generated textures and displacement maps. Fun.
  I also have the Karanak Firewalker spider tank nearly finished. I printed a few bits yesterday but I can't get the basket to print right for the life of me. It is so spindly it comes apart! I admit, I'm too much of a fumble fingered idiot with fragile stuff okay? I'm about to give up and go with the best one I've got. 6 tries at printing it are enough.
I'll post pics when I'm done.
  No! (screaming in indignant rage) Dang it, I just glued the legs to the hull and I find someone had made a remix with moveable legs! GRR! ARGH!

   Anyway, I am not enjoying the heat. It is too fricken early for 95! I am going to fiddle about a little more and then see how much more of Pi Fight I can get done before lunch. :)