Shelby 9 Snippet 1

 Okay here we go!

FYI: I am doing away with the intro and going with a "Where we Left Off" instead.

Chapter 1

 

In Hyperspace

 

UFN-54P continued its journey to Confederation space without incident. The Poltergeist II class was a recent arrival in the sector. It had taken the opening of the gate to allow the small ship to get to the sector quickly and efficiently.

Most of the prowlers had been assigned to Pi and Sigma fleet. First Lieutenant Herod Higgins, aka HH was her ship captain. He had initially been put out over being passed over for Sigma. Sigma was where the action was, most of the prowlers had been assigned there to try to find the damn pirate base.

He had to admit, they hadn’t had much luck. According to the community they had been trying for decades but couldn’t stick to the tail of a ship when they latched onto her long enough to divine out where they were going. The bastards were aware of the trick and if they so much as smelled the hint of a tail they changed course at random intervals.

Apparently enough data had been compiled… and some other intel to give them a clue. Word was Batmobile had turned up after going AWOL in an unauthorized mission to the neighboring sector. The prowler had been sent to verify where the battle moon was lurking.

Then there was Pi sector. Over a half a dozen prowlers had been sent there. Word was that something was coming to the north in Upsilon and ships were being sent there. He knew that the prowler The Bus had been sent into Upsilon well over 2 years ago to scout. He wished them the best of luck.

None of that mattered as far as his mission was concerned though. The crew… and captain for that matter might have been... dismayed at being sent to Tau, but they’d been sent with a purpose. His lips twitched ever so slightly at the thought. Sure, it had been after the Confederation had fallen, but they had been sent to scout the Confederation and verify that they were playing ball with the Federation and sticking to their side of the agreement.

Which was good considering that the Taurens were not playing ball and had reportedly broken out into a civil war. He shook his head gently. It looked like his ship was sailing into a combat zone after all. Lovely.

Well, they were going to have company. Admiral Hunter’s Ninth Fleet was trailing behind them. His mission was to pop into enemy controlled space, have a look-see, and see if they can find their missing people, then get out and get the intel to Ninth Fleet ASAP.

That was the plan at any rate, he thought as his practiced eye checked the status of the ship in a casual scan of the systems. All nominal.

“Care for a game captain?” Sparkles, the ship AI asked.

“Sure,” he said with a shrug as he turned to the AI’s avatar. “It beats doing paperwork.”

“Yes it does sir,” the AI replied as the 3D chessboard materialized.

>>>~<<<

TauR15-1 Purple Nights

 

Secretary of State Moira Sema sat on the shuttle and idly looked out the window without really seeing the view. She had decided to remain in Confederation space with Undersecretary Fred Muggs to continue the confederation talks. Given the insurrection and potential for civil war on their side, she had decided it was imperative to remain and not be unavailable in hyperspace for periods of time.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Fred, quite the contrary. He wouldn’t be where he was if she didn’t trust him implicitly. But having her on hand as well gave them double oomph to try to salvage the peace treaty with the Confederation and build a lasting peace in the region. Neither of them wanted it to come apart with the potential civil war in Confederation space… that could and probably would easily spill over into Federation space.

The delay was delaying their return to the sector capital as well as the Secretary’s delay on her return to Antigua. But they were making some headway. It was glacially slow, but she felt like they were building up trust with their Tauren counterparts.

They needed something more though. Minor acts or exchanges to thaw things further and help bridge the gap that was there. Those acts could be orchestrated but would be better if they were natural.

Until something broke they just needed to keep at it. As long as the two sides were talking they weren’t shooting, she reminded herself. That was one of the primary axioms of State Department and she held to it firmly.

>>>~<<<

Fred Muggs nodded in approval at the site of the proposed embassy. It worked out well. It was not an ideal site, it was far from the capital city and spaceport, and it was away from the towns. But it was on land that was cheap; they had bought ten hectares of land that could not be used for farming because the soil was too rocky, heavy clay like, with too much heavy metals and salts for the favored crops of the planet.

They were paying a premium price for the land, but again, that was fine. They would make it work.

>>>~<<<

Upcoming Books

 So, next book up is Shelby 9 Uneasy Truce.

The characters are AI enhanced but initially rendered in CG by me. 

I sent it to Rea yesterday and I'll be posting the first snippets in a day or so. Expect the book in late July or early August.

After that in October:

Tales of the Reborn Federation Book 7 Winds of Change:

Another hybrid image. Characters enhanced in AI. That manuscript is with a few of the Betas. If any of the Betas want a crack at it, please let me know.

Finally in the pipeline for this year is Forging Alliances Book Book 1 of the Second Xeno War:

 

 Expect that in December. That cover was interesting to make and no, it isn't AI. That is CG.

Again, if any Betas want a crack, let me know.

Next year we have Shelby 10 Occupation:

The ground is AI, the drone I got from Artstation and is wicked cool. 

Expect that in February of 2026.  

Same deal applies with the Betas.

I have 2 more books to write this year. I'm holding off, my family has been pushing me to work on my R2-D2 and get my health issues like my eyes resolved. I am making minor progress with the R2 each morning before the heat kicks in.

Speaking of which, I better get on it again. :)

More later!

Multiverse 8 has published!

 

They say time stops for no one but for Rita and Darren, they found that not to be true. Glen Aurellius found himself drafted into an alien led army and fought to survive.  A group of military and civilian personnel found themselves on a tour of Federation space… and Necron-Xeno Alliance continued spreading darkness across the cosmos.

These stories and another are all in Multiverse 8…

 

 Amazon: Amazon

 

B&N:  B&N

 

PS: This is Book 92!!

Multiverse 8 Snippet 5

 Final one.

Running into issues replacing the covers on Amazon and B&N. 🙄

Typical.

Anyway... on to the last one!

 

Research and Development

Eugene Ryans, husband to Deidra, the queen of the realm, and king consort? He snorted at the idea. Whatever his title was these days, he had a problem. Well quite a few actually but the one currently causing him headaches was the plan to build the bombers to strike back at the pirates on their continental island three thousand kilometers east of the Imperium’s eastern coastline.

 The plan was to build the craft in factories inland to protect them from the pirates. Actually all of the aircraft were built inland, so it wasn’t much of a big change. He just wished that they could do the same for ships. Build them in blocks and then ship them to an assembly drydock? He shook his head. It wouldn’t work. The pirates were watching the coast and apparently had spies all over the coast.

The bombers seemed like the smart plan to take on the enemy, to strike from afar and break their will. That was the general idea anyway. Putting it into practice was still an issue though.

He’d shot for the moon with the idea of building a jet bomber. Max had laughed that off so he’d been forced to scale back to something more tangible. He had realized that Max was right; a jet engine let alone a bank of them in a modern aircraft was still light years out of their reach. After all, the Imperium was still less than a decade out of the medieval dark ages. Pre-gunpowder! They were still struggling with modern medicine and tech like electricity was like black magic to them. They were still trying to modernize them to the point of using indoor plumbing, schools, agriculture.

He grimaced in exasperation. Another list that went on and on, he thought with a pang.

Max Howlett, the chief engineer of the realm, had recently made it clear that the B-29 Stratofortress that they had recently settled on was out of their league too. At least, for the foreseeable future. Which was why they had scaled down again to a B-25 Mitchell bomber that could barely make it to the enemy coastline one way.

How to get it back was a problem in itself. The pilots had been talking about rigging a bomber as a tanker and doing some sort of in-flight refueling or something or other.

He made a soft puttering sound at the thought. He wouldn’t want to try to refuel over the sea. What if they failed? That would suck.

The bomber project was a big project, on par with the other aircraft but oh so much more complex. Just trying to work out what they could use in existing production lines was probably giving the logistics people fits. Then there were all of the small farms that would have to be built and the politics around them, security concerns … power … he grimaced.

There was a big concern that a lot of their tech was falling into the wrong hands somehow. Evidence of that was that the pirates had fielded a carrier of all things. It was pre-World War II style, but the damn thing had raided the Nuevo Imperium some time ago. They had also fielded a craft that had shot up one of their PBYs and forced it to land.

Which was another problem. How to find the crew, the craft, and how to rescue them.

Well, first things first, get eyes on the scene. That meant flying, which meant a bomber outfitted with surveillance gear flying at altitudes that the pirates only dreamed about.

If Max and his miracle workers could do it.

---+--+-{0}-+--+---

Max Howlett was a big guy with hands covered in calluses, cuts, and perpetual dark stuff under his fingernails that could be from any number of things. He was the chief engineer of the Imperium and a rather busy man.

At the moment, a very busy and frustrated man, he thought with a pang.

He had been tasked with building a bomber to take the fight to the enemy. It was one task among many really, but at the moment, it was the one at the top of his ever-growing pile of things to do before he shuffled off this mortal coil.

He had struggled to design it, though he’d made some headway, but then Eugene had thrown him a curveball and asked for an updated version.

He understood Eugene’s reasoning. Why make a period correct bomber when they could make it faster, safer, with more range and more lifting ability?

There were of course issues though; there always was. He didn’t have the blueprints for anything. They’d thought that they could use the PBY engine off-the-shelf, and he’d worked from that basic assumption for weeks only to find out recently that they were too underpowered to do the job. They also had a tendency to overheat, and two engines had cracked blocks from bad castings. One had thrown a rod, which had torn an engine up. Fortunately, the plane had managed to limp back to land on the water near the coast and had been towed back to a port.

He frowned. Eugene was supposed to be in charge of where to place the factories and the politics involved. There was a lot of concern about people learning the wrong things and how that tech could be misused if allowed in the wrong hands. Duke Medicini was one such concern.

He rubbed his brow. Honestly, what they were doing was so far in advance of what others had that he doubted they’d understand. They could of course sabotage a factory.

He looked up in concern over that thought and then made a puttering sound. Best not to think of that. They were having enough issues with quality control and just getting their current stable of aircraft into the air let alone keeping them in the air.

He rolled his shoulders and neck and then went back to looking at the design document. It was almost a blank page. There were links to common parts with other aircraft, but they were sparse compared to what was needed.

He snorted. To think Eugene had tried to talk him into building a jet! He had nixed that idea, which had killed the idea of a jet fighter to use as an escort. Eugene had downgraded the project twice so far.

He scrubbed his face. There had to be a way to do it. He was looking at a complete engine redesign though, and that was causing a massive headache. Until he figured it out, he couldn’t work on anything else.

“Boss, we’ve got a fire at the LVP plant. And Cecily called to say she’s running late,” Jer, one of his assistants, reported as he leaned into his office.

“Shit. I’ll be right there,” Max growled as he saved his work, what little there was of it, and got up to go investigate.

---+--+-{0}-+--+---

Multiverse 8 Snippet 4

 Here is a snippet from the story Rolling Tide of Darkness:

UO5-16 Destroyed Hyperbridge Star System, Upsilon Sector

 

The first Necron-Xeno alliance convoy arrived in the destroyed star system with the usual explosion of expended energy as they exited hyperspace.

There were twelve ships in the convoy; they immediately sent out four cruisers to scout ahead of them. The rest of the task force then reoriented and set sail for the neighboring star system. It would take a few hours to cross to a point where they could jump into hyperspace once more.

Hazel Irons III was awake upon their arrival. The second generation clone was eager to get started. She knew there was a ticking clock; she needed to prove herself to her queen before an ansible transport arrived and the link to the alliance was established.

She also needed to set her hooks into the sector quickly. She was aware that their partners would no doubt be sending their own expedition. After all, they had been the ones to send the first two Preserver ships and find the partial hyperbridge to the virgin sector.

Her lips quivered in a smirk. Well, virgin to her queen for the moment. But like many virgins facing invasion, it would not be a virgin for much longer.

Soon the rather small and mostly unpopulated sector would be conquered and added to the collective. It would become a place for the alliance to grow more ships and fighters for the war to consume the galaxy. It would be a new unknown front against the Federation forces in the Tau sector.

All of that had to wait, however. She had a mission to perform. To do that, she had to push and exercise her limited initiative to dig her hooks into the sector as quickly as possible.

Once the Necron and AI navigators were ready, the ships jumped into hyperspace once more.

~///*\\\~

UR34DP-17 Empty Star System -Necron Cryptorium Preserver II

 

Cerberus, the Guardian of Tomorrow, stomped through the hidden base’s alabaster and black marble corridors to the command center.

He didn’t need to move in haste but did so because of the urge to do something, even if it was little.

“Report,” he barked, red eyes glowing with anger and purpose.

“Ship arrival detected,” a Necron voice whispered.

“Multiple ships detected,” another voice stated.

“Passive sensors are too far out to get a definitive identity,” the first voice whispered.

The knight paused and turned to the Caretaker as she gently laid a hand on his arm as if to brush past him. She glided into the room and then paused.

“Defense is my domain,” he warned.

“So be it. If we are in need of defense, you will of course be in command. But for the moment, we continue to hide.”

“Agreed,” the knight commander growled.

~///*\\\~

Hazel noted that there was no attempt to contact them upon arrival. That was irritating. She had been warned that the base was hidden. “Olly olly in free,” she whispered.

She saw the Necron ship captain turned to her.

She shrugged. “Worth a shot,” she joked. He did not react to her attempt at levity.

“Tough crowd,” she said as she looked around the room. “Have we established that there is no one else in the star system?”

“Confirmed,” a Necron sensor tech reported.

She looked to the captain. “May I suggest we transmit our IFF and any codes to get the Cryptorium to report its presence?” she asked mildly.

The Necron ship captain went over to his throne and tapped in a command. After a moment, a pulse could be seen echoing out from the flagship in a wave. A second pulse of information followed a moment later.

Attempting to make contact with the Cyptorium was important in the grand scheme of things, Hazel noted. The question was would they reveal their presence?

~///*\\\~

The Caretaker was on hand when the signals came in. The first identified the ships as from the alliance; the second was a command to contact the ships. That would of course reveal their location within the star system. “It has been confirmed. They are friendly and are aware of our presence,” she said with a look to the knight.

The rest of the council had been woken from their stasis slumbers and were present.

“Do you concur that they are not a threat.”

“They are not a threat … for now,” the knight ground out, clearly unhappy with anyone knowing of their location.

~///*\\\~

The ruling council was wary of the order to reveal themselves. Instead, they bounced a signal off of several rocks to hide their location.

The bounces delayed the conversation. It was ultimately in their favor; other than the order to reveal themselves, the newcomers did not have any other codes or a message from the Gravemind or Guiding Intelligence.

~///*\\\~