FCP Snippet 3

 And here we go still in chapter 2:

TauG6B6-12

 

Commodore Brown Nose felt the excitement in the air around him. It was like a fine wine, something to be savored. It needed to breathe though, and his people would hopefully settle down into their usual professionalism soon.

He hadn't been in the field as a fleet commander before. It was a new heady experience for him. He was nervous but also excited. He saw this as an opportunity for early advancement if he pulled his part off properly. He was determined to do so.

His time in fleet had been as a junior officer, one time as a captain during a training exercise. Nothing on this vast a scale. And coordinating everything was a pain. Logistics too, he had his concerns there.

He didn't like having to keep his fleet as one cohesive unit. He wanted to board a battlecruiser and race ahead with his faster units. But he had no choice. The orders were to move out as a unit. That meant traveling at the speed of his slowest unit. The monitors were of course the slowest. Some hadn't been in hyperspace for decades. Getting them moving had been a royal pain. A few heads had rolled when he'd found issues with their engineering.

They were squared away though, and his ships were underway to the jump point. Most of the ships he reminded himself. Admiral Rill had taken the bulk of the fleet ahead of him. That was an issue; how was he to connect with the admiral when he had such a wide lead?

He didn't have proper resupply planned out either. That bothered him. The Admiralty assured him the logistics were handled, but he had his doubts. Something was supposed to be done in 79, but he continued to worry. Commodore Lobo would be moving through there too.

He silently urged his ships to move faster. According to the last report, Lobo was less than a day from jumping out. He had a shorter run to 84 so it was a race to see who got to 79 and any supplies stockpiled there. Whoever lagged behind might get just dregs.

He knew he wasn't going to be a happy bull if that ended up being him. He vowed to have a chat with his people to find ways to move quicker in the unofficial race ahead.

>>><><<< 

TauR14G6-15 Blue Waters and Gentle Mist

 

Commodore Lobo stared blankly out the window as his ships continued their final countdown to jump. He was aghast at his order to move out, to join the fight.

He had no choice though. He had managed to get the Admiralty to sign off on his taking the captured enemy ships with him. That was a bit of a relief. The Admiralty had also ordered him to shoot a courier off to 77 to order Commodore Black Claw to move on Triple Threat in support of Admiral Ela too.

They had not authorized him to send a courier ahead to scout and to pass on news of his impending arrival. Apparently, they had a presence in 79 and elsewhere. Supposedly there would even be a courier and ansible in 72 in a few months.

He hoped so. The communication issue was a big question mark for him, coordinating all of their moving forces was willy-nilly at best. Logistics was also a big concern as was their lack of intelligence.

He shook his head ever so slightly. He glanced at the countdown and noted they had two minutes left. So be it. He turned and settled himself in his command chair. He noted his staff seemingly relaxing into professionalism around him.

He snorted mentally.

He was not interested in winning the race to see who was in overall command. He knew that as a commodore he was out of the running. At the moment, the only person who had a clear lead was Admiral Rill and he was in the lead anyway.

Of course, if he got killed, then the chain of command could be up for grabs. There was also the issue of getting organized on the fly.

“What a cluster frack,” he muttered.

His chief of staff gave him a sidelong look but said nothing.

>>><><<< 

Full Court Press Snippet 2

 Sitrep: I was told we should be seeing FCP by the end of the week. So, it should be published around that time.

I'm finally making good progress on Bootstrap 3 after a bad start. Hopefully it will be an enjoyable read.

On to the Snippet!

Chapter 2

 

In Hyperspace

 

Admiral Ela stared at the status board unseeing. He was too lost in his thoughts, too burning with anger at himself. He'd been overconfident. He'd taken the carriers that the Admiralty had sent him as the pancrea he needed to beat the Federation's carrier force. He'd underestimated the enemy's skills.

The enemy had years of experience in carrier operations, how could he have thought his own people could compete or overcome that skill deficit with scale alone? He shook his head in anger.

Obviously, they hadn't. He had just six ships left of his task force. His two monitors and a handful of other ships, all of which were battered. Only his two monitors were classed as healthy. That didn't mean he intended to put them to the test.

His scowl deepened, and his hands curled in reflexive anger. His nostrils dilated in and out as his breathing picked up with his rage.

Three weeks had passed since the battle. Battle hell, disaster, he thought. He resented having to retreat with his tail tucked between his legs. He was smarting from his losses. He had picked up as many bulls as possible before being forced to run, so each of his surviving ships were crowded.

He technically could have bulled his way forward, but he knew instinctively he would have faced continued harassing attacks across the star system. The Federation would have no doubt bled him over and over, and he would have seen his ships falter as more and more of their systems were torn away.

His eyes stared out blackly at that vision. The visions of seeing ship interiors being blown apart haunted him. He hadn't seen it on his flagship, but he'd overheard others speak of such horrors.

Sure, he'd bled the enemy's bombers white, but according to some of the reports, their fighters could also carry torpedoes. He had no doubt that the enemy commander, the high elf Falling Leaf would have sent in those fighters to swarm him and tear his ships apart.

Of course, his monitors were hardy ships, and they wouldn't have gone down easily. They might not have gone down at all; they'd certainly torn apart the bombers that had dared come after them. His lips curled briefly in a silent resentful smirk over that small victory.

In the end, he could have gotten through and jumped to the Federation naval base … but then what? He was a tactician and a strategist; it was a simple thing to game it out. The enemy had superior speed in hyperspace; they would have raced ahead and then hit him in the next system. And they would had drawn on everything in the system to stop him.

He shook his head. No, it wasn't worth it.

He turned away from the board and stared at the bulkhead. His career was over; he knew it. He'd have to send a ship back to the jump line and eventually on to Admiral Yen. Once it got there, the Admiralty would no doubt send his relief.

So be it he thought in anger. They'd sent him with the wrong ships to do the job; he halted his spiral of resentment and self-pity. He had been one of the bulls who had been certain that carriers were a thing of the past. He'd bought into the institutional arrogance of the battle line. Now his bulls had paid the price for that.

Well, he couldn't change the past. What he could do was claim the territory they'd fought for and paid in blood for up to Deep Rivers. He would find a way to hold what he'd captured and wait for relief. He would only retreat when he was forced to do so.

He scratched under his chin at the errant hairs there. Had Falling Leaf sent her forces ahead of him? It was possible, even probable. You drove an enemy into the ground when they were routed he thought.

Drive them under your hooves and crush them so they can't regroup and come back against you. She had the superior speed …

He shook himself. He'd already cut orders to avoid the jump point. They would come in a full light hour out from it and take as much time as needed to be sure the star system was safe. Only then would he move in to reoccupy it.

He needed to find a way to defend it though; otherwise, Falling Leaf would eventually show up with her hated carriers and drive him out again.

He frowned and put the question to his staff. They too were no doubt lost in their thoughts. Keeping them busy with the tactical exercise should be good for them.

>>><><<< 

Purple Nights

 

Commodore Kal grimaced at the order to send as much supplies to 79 as possible. He was a command fortress officer, not a logistics bull. Yet Admiral Wex had left him in command.

Now the Admiralty was expecting him to step up. He was trying, but it was difficult with so little to work with. He was supposed to support each of the fleets in movement. He'd thought that meant Admiral Wex, but now they wanted more since Purple Nights was the closest naval base to the front.

Supplies were a minor issue; he could pull them from the vast stores. Those stores had been built up over the past six years after all. They'd only made a moderate dent in them with the fleet trains that had been sent out.

No, the problem was most of the support ships were already out of his AO. He had a couple of small tramp freighters that had recently trickled in but they were old and independents, not proper fleet colliers. He sent an email back to the Admiralty outlining the problem.

He received a curtly worded email back a few hours later to stop making excuses and figure it out. He shook his head and threw the problem to his staff to see what they came up with.

>>><><<< 

Full Court Press plus snippet 1!

   So, I am sticky, dealing with the humidity and sudden wind and rain from the hurricane turned tropical storm. I'm happy, I love rain. It beats the bloody 100+ we've had going for 2 weeks!

Ugh.

  Anyway, I just shot Shelby 7 off to Goodlifeguide. I sorta sat on it after Rea sent it to me a week or 2 ago. I've been wrapped up with getting into Bootstrap 3. I just finished the first act of that and shot it off to Paul to proofread. :)

So, here is the cover to Shelby 7:

There is a video on Youtube too FYI. I think:

   Just something fun I threw together. I doubt I'll do anything for FOW or BSC 3 at this time. (It is too hot to render anyway)

Speaking of FOW, or Fortunes of War:

There is that cover for future reference.

Now, on to the snippet!

Chapter 1

 

New Tau Metropolis

 

Commodore Brad Gomez stared at the plot as the exercise terminated. He didn't like the responses. The damn scenario was scary.

They had always known that if the enemy avoided the fixed defenses they would be in for a world of hurt. Their fleets couldn't go toe to toe easily. They did on occasion get the job done, but it was costly.

The enemy's actions were trending in that direction too. His lips pursed in a thin line. The Taurens were anything but stupid. They were bypassing the fixed defenses like the book dictated. It just drove home the point that you couldn't put all your trust in fixed defenses or in the stupidity of your enemy. Underestimate them at your own peril he thought as a long-ago academy instructor had said.

The battles moving forward were going to be more fluid. Rill obviously wasn't interested in playing tag. He was also alarmingly moving fast, far faster than they'd predicted. He had advanced across the west in what had to be blistering speed for the Taurens.

What had changed? The enemy knew that Broken Tooth had been sandbagged and delayed for some time. Was that it? A concern over his failures and a desire to rectify their timetable? They might be afraid of a response fleet arriving from the Federation, but he wasn't certain that was it. Or, it wasn't the only reason.

He had to wonder if they had other concerns. Like the events going on next door.

His eyes drifted to the sector plot. They found the capital near the bottom center and then drifted slightly up and to the right to Tortuga's icon.

Well, Rill should be stalled or stopped in 63 once he ran into TF 3.5 and the Fourth Fleet regulars there. He frowned and made another note to check on the status of the paperwork. The Admiralty was considering turning the detached Third Fleet task forces over to Fourth Fleet permanently. It would be nice to get that transfer tidied up … though it would make for some interesting budget and chain-of-command discussions in the future.

>>><><<< 

Commander Otto Valkova received the email from Commodore Gomez and scanned it. He was technically intercepting it for his boss as her chief of staff. The vice admiral was taking a rare day off, and he wanted her to enjoy it as much as possible. Interruptions like the latest results from the strategic exercises could wait a day he judged.

He scanned them and nodded. He snorted at the recommendations that came from the hotwash. Commodore Gomez wanted more ships—no surprise there. No commander was ever satisfied with what they had; they were greedy and always wanted more. The trick was to find the right balance between perfect and good enough he knew.

He checked the status of the sim and nodded. Fifty percent losses, acceptable, but it was just a sim. He knew deep down that it was appalling to see that carnage in real life, but he also knew it was a sim—just a computer game. They had managed to stop Broken Tooth with less after all.

He frowned and then shook his head. He was curious as to how the other department heads would react to the missive. Probably dismiss it since they couldn't push their departments any more than they already were at this point.

>>><><<< 

He wrapped his arms around her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides and her hands under her chin. That strength was humbling, crushing any nagging resistance she had harbored. Slowly he began to kiss up and down the right side of her neck. Her eyes closed as she felt her body begin to respond to his advances.

His hands were like living things though, gently beginning to undress her and do naughty things as they stroked and caressed ever lower …

Shelby paused the book and fanned herself with the tablet. She felt unseasonably warm and she knew why. She felt the flush in her cheeks and elsewhere. It had been a while since she'd felt that flush. It reminded her that some parts of her were still very human.

She snorted softly to herself as the fanning slowed and came to a halt. She was what, 60 percent human? Give or take a percentage point. She wasn't nearly as bad as Admiral Irons was with replacement limbs and his entire internal organs replaced with artificial ones.

She always wondered if that was one thing that was inhibiting her. That or just being a flag officer. It wasn't like she could just go to a dating site and sign up, even now. Discrete ones … she shivered; the heat forgotten. No, she could least afford the embarrassment some of the tabloids would drum up.

Rachel Trejo over at Knox News might understand her desire to connect to another person but she had to report to her boss. Pete still had a hair across his ass over the whole April O'Neill affair.

Her lips pursed and then her mouth opened. She looked around the room and then stared at the virtual window. It was normally set to space, but at the moment, it was showing a screen saver of a beach.

Well, who could have done that I wonder? she thought in bemusement as her eyes searched her HUD. She had to look at a shadow area to see the full HUD. Her HUD was at minimum settings since she was off duty.

Her toes flexed. She was in her silk jammies, feeling a bit relaxed. She didn't see her partner's icon initially. When she did narrow her eyes and find it she snorted.

Boni's avatar was a 2D comical one. It was asleep, eyes closed, leaning up against the trash can on her HUD. Tiny Z's floated from her mouth above her head. Her tiny hands were resting in her lap.

She snorted to herself and then rolled over away from the image on the wall. After a moment, she rolled back to watch the waves crash and the palm trees sway. Okay, it sort of fit the book. The E-book was one of those ancient trashy romance novels she'd picked up for the trip out to Tau. It had grabbed her attention because it was a forbidden fruit sort of story. The story of a wet navy officer in the early twenty-first century who met a Marine noncom and fell for him. They'd started out innocently but then continued when they'd found out the truth.

She knew she would never do something like that but the naughty sneak-around part had hooked her. And okay, well, the book was rated as a scorcher on the romantic heat meter. She believed that part of it readily enough.

Her eyes fell to the tablet and then her fingertip hit the play button, and she began to read once more.

>>><><<< 

.

The Hunt Comic #2

 So, I've been going in circles for the past few weeks trying to get this comic published. Finally it is out. Sort of.

About: A group of pirates stop at a seemingly abandoned space colony for the usual loot and plunder...

So, as I was saying, I found out a few things: 

1: I need to keep comics under 40 pages and under a certain size. That is why some of you are having issues viewing this. I apologize. Goodlifeguide had to format some pages smaller and play with the compression ratios to get the book out. I even had to cut 5 pages out of this one to get it to all fit.

2:  The comics are not for all devices. Specifically some Kindle and phones will not show them well. Sorry about that.

3: B&N doesn't like the comic either. I am running into errors there. I have to contact support since their website is all messed up and they are closed until Monday. Edit: It is up! Cool.

4: With the compression issues and page constraints the graphic novel is out for the time being. Comic #3 is also long so I will have to figure that out in the future.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9VQTHTM

B&N: ...https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hunt-chris-hechtl/1142033907?ean=2940185841242

 

FYI: Yes I'll probably have this pop up sometime in the books...someday...

 

Shelby 7 Video

 So, hit a delay with publishing Comic #2 so I decided to upload the Shelby 7 video.

It is short and sweet, just a beauty pass.

Shelby 7 will be coming out in September I believe.

Comic #1 is Publishing NOW!

 Yup, I'm publishing Comic 1:

About: Captain Sprite gives an introduction to Modern History Lecture to students during the Liberty or Death time period.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5VRR3ML

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/captain-sprites-history-lecture-chris-hechtl/1141734825?ean=2940186751502

Enjoy!

Comic #1

 Sitrep:

  So, I finished the first and second comic. Actually, I finished the second first, then went back and did the first using what I learned. :)

  Anyway, I was waiting on feedback and other stuff before publishing the first while ramping up to work on the third and fourth comics. But I ran into a series of snags.

  My plan had been to public comic #1 in late June. Obviously that didn't happen due to circumstances out of my control. :P

  I also ran into one headache after another with the last 2 comics. The Daz-Cinema bridge was 'updated' and no longer works as an example. That is the big one, as is the sheer amount of work in the next comic. (14 sets, 44 characters to port over with a limited budget and library) The weather is also another major hindrance, I can no longer render after 1pm due to the heat. 

  So for those reasons I've shelved the next 2 comics and graphic novel compilation and shifted back to writing. Shelby 7 has been finished, so that is in the pipeline behind the 2 comics. I started Fortunes of War yesterday and I've gotten into the usual blocking and outline. It is... interesting getting into writing again, and not just because it is summer and I'm trying that LibreOffice software. (Which is taking me some time to figure out)

So, that is where I'm at on those fronts.

  I usually post a couple snippets in the lead up to the publishing of a book. Instead I will publish the cover and 1-2 pages from each comic.Speaking of which:

  These comics take place during the Liberty or Death novel. Comic 1 serves as an intro to the series with a lot of shots you may recognize. I went back and reshot some of the covers, cleaned some stuff up, and applied new software and new (well, new to me) techniques to improve things while introducing the reader to the story.

As an example: Sprite is a new model revised and updated from her old version.

  If you are wondering about the format, I set it up with the standard bleed etc line using a template I downloaded from Kablam. The idea is to set myself up for a possible print in the future. We'll have to wait and see though what the future brings.

So, just waiting on the comic to come back from Goodlife. Until then have a Happy Fourth!