Chris Hechtl

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

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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.

~///*\\\~

 Sitrep: Starting to ramp up on writing Shelby 10.

This snippet is from the story The Tour, a Federation story:

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Agnosta

 

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nohar Yellow Tiger Rajestan was nervous but did his best to fight the jitters down. He’s been in stasis pods before; this would be no different.

He just didn’t like confined spaces. The pod was bad. But the coffin was a temporary evil; it meant he’d be asleep for the journey ahead.

He still wasn’t certain what possessed him to take on the journey. Orders obviously, though with his rank he could have gotten out of them had he wished. General Anhueser’s personal request and reminder that it could help him with his ongoing fear of travel too. His therapist Maddy had also been on that wagon.

He glanced at the nurse. She looked impatient.

“I’m going,” he muttered.

She indicated the pod.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered as he climbed in.

“It’s like taking a nap, sir.”

“I’m a warrant. Don’t call me sir.”

“Sorry, Warrant … ah, Chief Warrant Officer … um …”

“Chief is fine. Not that we’ll know each other long,” he growled. The nurse smiled and began to hook him up. A jack was attached to his implants to plug him in and monitor his vital signs. Additional sensors were attached for backup purposes.

“Can you leave the door open until I’m asleep?”

“That’s against protocol,” the nurse said with a frown. A doctor out of his range of view cleared his throat. She looked up. “… But I guess so, Chief.”

“I know; I sound like a kid,” the cat muttered, ears back. His fur was up. He knew he was anxious.

“Just try to relax, sir. The drugs can’t take hold until you relax,” the nurse said, voice dropping into a calming lilt.

He growled something but she kept moving. He could smell her since she was so close. Humans tended to like perfume and this one liked jasmine. It was a bit cloying, clogging his nostrils. He fought the urge to sneeze.

“Just close your eyes and picture a nice sunny day. Taking a nap in a hammock on a porch maybe …”

He let his eyes droop and then close.

“That’s good. Now, I’m attaching a Somnetic Delta Wave Inducer,” the nurse said. “It will help you fall asleep.”

Nohar grimaced but didn’t reject that. He had used the device a few times when anxiety had gotten the better of him and he’d needed to sleep. It was better and safer than drinking himself to sleep to avoid the nightmares. He felt the device being placed on his forehead. After a moment, there was a slight click sound and then he started to feel lethargic.

He heard the nurse say something in an approving voice and then nothing more.

---#---

Major General Pasha 101001 looked out the window as the shuttle continued to climb to orbit. As missions went, this one was better than most. It was also long overdue. He just wasn’t certain about it.

He had pitched the idea of an inspection tour to the Admiralty several years ago. He had thought it had been forgotten until a decision on high had come up. He’d been a bit wistful about seeing home again and had hinted about taking an assignment there or retiring. Apparently, that had made certain parties volunteer him for the mission.

His basic inspection tour had been bloated. The navy had provided one of their super fast couriers but they’d tagged their own IG inspector onto the mission. He’d been fine with that until the Marines had coughed up two of their own IG officers.

His staff had been pared down from seven to five including his AI Jack. One of his staff was First Lieutenant Angie Samara from the army AG office too, replacing his adjunct. That had been irritating. Not that he really needed someone to hold his bag.

Officers from Inspector General’s office from any branch of government were generally not well received. They were very much into nitpicking down to spot-checking the number of nuts and bolts in containers.

Pasha thought of his mission as showing the flag, going around and showing off to the public as well as the military personnel that the military did care about the individual bases and so on.

Of course before each arrival and supposed colonoscopy, the commanders of the AO would be busy scrambling to get everything neat and tidy. The rank and file might complain about such antics but it served a purpose. Well, correction, several purposes, Pasha thought. One was to put everyone on notice that they were checking in and cared about getting shit right. The second concept tied into the first; it was that if they were going to try something stupid, think twice, big brother was watching.

The third they all knew about already was for publicity and morale. The troops felt better when they knew that the bosses actually cared about them and their welfare. Listening to some of the troops and seeing them show off their skills was also important.

The senate Military Affairs Committee had gotten wind of the mission and sent their own representative from the senate IG office. He had yet to meet her.

He’d put his foot down at any additional people when he’d heard the mutterings about other government departments wanting to tag their own people in. The last thing he needed was a love boat with a couple dozen petty bureaucrats. Besides, the little courier could only handle eight passengers. Going with more people would have meant a bigger ship, which would have been slower and would have defeated the purpose of doing it fast.

Fast hell, he thought as the shuttle’s main engines cut off and they drifted to the station in orbit of the moon. He’d be lucky if the mission was completed in four years. He was expecting delays that would run them to five easy he mused darkly. He glanced over to his crew. They were all looking out the windows. He snorted to himself and then closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. Better to meditate than get drawn into some last-minute paperwork or some such nonsense.

---#---

 Sitrep: Some minor changes to the Bast cover. I'll get on that project probably tomorrow.

On to the snippet!

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Time Zone

Rita Geffen was having a normal day or thought she was. She came out of her building and put her ear buds in. She headed to her scooter to head to work but then stopped when she noticed everything was frozen.

She smiled, thinking it was some sort of flash prank. She’d heard about them played years ago. She thought of the people as mannequins or like a mime. But when she went over to touch a woman walking midstride, the woman didn’t react.

Even her dress was fluttering and the wind was blowing her hair. It remained out like that.

She looked around and saw a plane in the sky, just frozen in the air. Off to her right, she saw a distant helicopter. Again, just frozen. She spun in place and saw other things just frozen there. A flock of pigeons were nearby; one was pooping on someone. She could see the poop just hovering in the air.

“What the hell is going on?!?” she demanded loudly.

~~~~~~

Rashid Bashar had been working in the tunnels underground. His phone had no signal and of course no internet. When he came out to check on things, he found that the phone was still losing battery power faster than it should. It kept trying to find a signal. He had to put it on plane mode to keep it from draining the battery. He was confused about it until he looked around and saw the bustling market frozen in place.

“Allah …?” he asked in disbelief, eyes wide in surprise. It was near dusk and everything was just frozen. He didn’t understand. Nothing made sense.

~~~~~~

There was an eerie silence; it was so quiet it was scary. Like the calm before a storm, like when all of the insects went silent just before something happened. There was no sounds of birds, no insects, no machinery, no people talking, nothing at all. Darren Monroe realized how much you just tuned out all of the ambient noise until it was gone.

 “God, this is freaky,” he muttered.

He hadn’t understood what was going on. He still didn’t. It was 9 am and just … stuck. The sun didn’t move, the people didn’t, nothing did except him. He’d tried to take a nap and hoped it was just a bad dream, but when he opened his eyes, the world was still frozen. Even Max, his old buddy, was frozen in his dog bed licking his privates. The scene made him snort. Someone should make a sculpture of it or some such, he thought.

He pulled out a generator and plugged in an old radio from the back of his closet. But of course it didn’t work. He finally got a clue and tried his old CD collection. Those worked thankfully.

He didn’t have many; he’d inherited them from his uncle and just stuck them in a box because his mother had insisted that they’d be valuable some day. Now he was glad he’d kept them. The same for the DVDs.

Just hearing sound again helped him feel a little better. The situation was freaky, and he didn’t understand what the hell was going on but hearing the Top Gun album helped him somehow.

~~~~~~

Sergeant Ezra Falk of the Israeli army made his way through the apartment and saw everything and everyone just stuck in place, frozen in time. When he got outside, he looked around to see birds, planes, cars, people, all things that had once been in motion were just frozen still. Things that were falling were just stuck.

“Hello? Anyone in there?” Ezra asked as he waved a hand in front of the woman’s frozen face.

“Freaky, it’s like no one is breathing … and who the hell am I talking to again? You can’t hear me!” He turned around and looked to see everyone and everything just stuck in time.

“Does anyone know what the hell is going on?” he demanded.

There was just silence. No sounds of anything at all.

“This has got to be the weirdest damn dream I’ve ever had,” he muttered as he stormed back inside.

~~~~~~

Tammi Cabot started to make some headway on what was going on. It didn’t make sense but some rules were starting to become apparent to her.

Like that other people were frozen but if she got close to something, it began to move. The first time that happened it had startled her. She hadn’t expected it. But then it froze again.

She pictured a bubble around her, some sort of field that was allowing stuff to move.

She tried various ways to interact with stuff and then people. It didn’t work with the people though, at least not the same as the inert items. She wasn’t certain as to why.

One thing she did find was that once the item moved out of whatever bubble was around her it just stopped again.

She tried tracing a paper airplane she made, moving along with it. That was fun.

“Either this is a dream or God is nuts,” she muttered as she wandered around to see the sights and take pictures. She might as well make the best of the situation.

~~~~~~

Debbi Jordan was hysterical as she looked around at all the frozen people and things. She thought that she was dead. “I’m in hell? This is hell?”  she cried going through some hysterics until she began to hiccup. She finally hit the bottle and got drunk. She eventually passed out and never woke up again.

~~~~~~

Darren made a hell of a mess while eating a tub of ice cream and watching a DVD. He thought of a scene and snorted and then snickered. It reminded him so much of the first Home Alone movie. “Hey, I’m eating junk and watching smut, Someone better stop me!” he caroled loudly. As expected no one answered.

He started to get headache and thought it was eye strain. He shut off the DVD and got up to pee. As he walked down the hallway, he started to feel a little better.

In the bathroom, he peed and then hit the lever to flush the tank. Water actually went down but the tank didn’t refill. He played with the lever and then took the tank top off and fiddled with the innards, totally confused as to why it wasn’t filling.

He finally gave up after a moment and decided to deal with it later.

He opened the medicine cabinet and took an aspirin for the headache and then downed some water to wash it down and then went to eat.

~~~~~~

Lance Stewart made his way home and moaned when he saw his wife frozen. He studied her for a long moment and then gently touched her. The whole world was frozen; he didn’t know why. But he didn’t want to be alone.

~~~~~~

Tammi Cabot continued to record her video diary. She took tons of photos and video of people frozen in the air. She then dictated her thoughts, unsure why, or who would see it.

She spent a lot of time video recording strange stuff. It was amusing, and she started to look for the truly bazaar stuff.

~~~~~~

Darren went to sleep on his bed with his phone on his chest hoping it was all one bad dream. The alarm on the phone went off sometime later; He checked it hoping it was a call. He instead saw that it was a carbon monoxide detector. He was confused and rolled to the side feeling a bit disoriented.

It was still broad daylight outside. That confused him until he remembered the world being frozen. But that was a distant unimportant thing. He looked at the phone in his hand once more.

He’d set that app up at his mother’s nagging. He didn’t understand why it went off. His head hurt more and he was tired. He was very sleepy; however, it was a pain in the ass to sleep with it being broad daylight out.

He wasn’t going to go to sleep at all with his bladder full he realized. Well, it was time to do something about that he thought blearily.

He got up and coughed, and then he had to hold out a hand to steady himself to get down the hallway to the bathroom. Again, he noted that it was still daylight out. He held the phone in his free hand and wondered why he felt like he was hung over.

When he got to the bathroom, he looked out the window and saw that yes, everything was indeed still frozen still. He let out a long suffering sigh.

He unloaded his bladder again but this time he had nothing to flush tank when he hit the chrome lever. He grimaced in realization of that problem as the smell of his own urine wafted up to his nostrils. “Gonna have to plunge that or something,” he muttered as he got into the medicine cabinet and got another aspirin. He fumbled the bottle and lid but finally got one out. Of course several spilled on the counter, down the drain, and on the floor.

He didn’t care at the moment. He just wanted the pain to go away.

He popped the pill in and then took a swig of water from a bottle he kept on the counter. He used to have a cup for tap water but the damn ants had been all over it and groused him out. He leaned against the wall and wondered what the hell was wrong with him now.

~~~~~~

 Sitrep: So, Goodlifeguide is a bit saturated at the moment so no garuntees that we'll see the manuscript back before the upcoming holiday.

In other news, I noticed some blog posts complaining about my covers. So, I spent the week poking around at 8 of them. I tried a few before with mixed results. This time I took a piecemeal approach with many. Some are enhanced with AI some like Regeneration have no AI enhancements, I just shifted the point of view.

To be clear: Same book, just new cover.

 

I will be replacing the old covers with these in the coming days.

 Sitrep:

I sent MV8 off to Rea on Monday. She got it back to me yesterday, and I did the edits and then sent it off to Goodlifeguide for final formatting. There are... 5 stories? Two new original science fiction, 2 Federation stories, and 1 PRI story.

We'll see if I get it back before Memorial Day. Fingers crossed.

In other news, I've spent the past week running 8 of my old covers through SeaArt to enhance them. I am wrapping up the last one but I'm torn. I'm not sure if I should go with the enhanced original design or one of Bast.

I'll post the new covers in a later post.

Anyway, on to the snippet!

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Invasion

 

Yep, another alien invasion story. But this one has been kicking around for a while. I think it came up after seeing some of the invasion stories where humanity looses initially? Like Falling Skies and such. Of course, I have to put my own twist on things. :)

Glen Aurellius was out hunting but aware it wasn’t a good time for it. Most of the animals were active at dawn and dusk. But he had to hunt; he only had so much food on him. His backpack was filled with odds and ends to help him survive but was light on fresh food.

He really needed to stop for a while and try to smoke whatever he caught so it would last longer. Either that or trade the excess again or give it up rather than have another survivor try to rob him of it. It wasn’t worth the fight.

He heard some motion in the ferns up ahead and paused. He knelt slowly, feeling the ache in his knees from the motion, but he ignored it as he pulled his bow up and notched an arrow.

The animal that came out of the bush was a feral pig, maybe six months to a year old. It wasn’t very bright; it went for the pile of nuts and berries he’d left out as bait.

He lined up his hunting arrow and made certain he had a solid shot before he let loose. The arrow swished and hit the pig in the shoulder. It squealed in surprise and tried to run but stumbled.

He snapped another arrow up and shot the beast before it got too far. He wasn’t in the mood to chase it. That arrow hit the head though and had a point not a broad head. It didn’t have the power to penetrate the skull. It stuck out like one of those spears used to torment fighting bulls.

He didn’t think of that much as he pulled a third arrow and shot it. That caught the pig in the ass. It stumbled and then fell as its movements and the broad head arrow tore something vital within it. It finally fell gasping into the ferns and dirt.

Glen went over and used his bowie knife to slit the throat as the pig twitched. He didn’t want it to come back to life. He knew he was being stupid; you were supposed to wait until the kill was dead but he didn’t feel safe.

He watched the blood flow as he pulled his arrows and examined them. He flicked a bit of gore off one and frowned at the tip of the second arrow. The metal was okay but the arrow wood behind it had a slight crack. That’s what he got for using a point and not using composite arrows.

He shook his head and cleaned the tip on the bristle hide of the fallen beast. He was going to eat well tonight even though he wasn’t too fond of pork. Oh, bacon was fine, but ham was a bit greasy.

Still, food was food.

He put the arrows in the quiver and set it on top of his pack and the bow and then got to work. He pulled a camping rope out and tossed one end over the tree limb above. He knotted the other around a rear leg and then yanked it up. Once the pig was jacked up, he tied off the rope and gutted it.

He was working fast and dirty, there was no telling what was in the area. A bear, wolverine, big cat, or anything else. The smell of blood would attract other predators soon enough. The flies would get fierce too in the early summer heat.

He flicked a fly away and then began to portion the pig up. It was only eighty pounds or so, sixty with the offal unloaded. He left the head and some of the bones behind. He wrapped the rest in a piece of plastic and then tested it as he got up.

At forty-two he thought he could handle the pack and meat but it was not going to be a pleasant haul. He was going to need to find shelter soon as well as some firewood. Once he was somewhere dependable, he could break the meat down further.

Scavengers were welcome to the leftovers or ex-wives, whichever came first he thought in amusement.

He had been married and divorced twice. He’d been something of a JOAT, bouncing around with careers. He’d never really found his calling. His dreams of being in the military had died when he’d been injured in a football game. From there he’d moved on to a few other career paths. He had loved science fiction though, which was why he’d ended up on the west coast.

Now he was trying to make it back to the east coast to the old family farm, if it even existed. Picking his way on foot was a bitch though. There were no vehicles running; anyone stupid enough to get one going usually ended up as target practice for the bastards in orbit.

Involuntarily, he glanced to the sky. It was not quite noon; he had plenty of time to find shelter.

He heard a commotion ahead of him and instinctively paused and then turned. He wasn’t certain what it was but he didn’t want to encounter it with so much weight and his primary weapons locked down behind him. At the moment, he had his machete and knife available.

He walked around a big tree but then paused and slowly put his hands up at the sight of an alien Centaur standing there holding a rifle. A human in camo was standing next to him.

“Well, what do we have here?” the guy said. “I didn’t know we ordered take out, but I think we’ll take it to go,” the guy said.

Glen had a sinking heart. The sounds of something moving in the brush intensified. He turned his head slightly and saw another Centaur charge up and then stop. It snorted at him. It was holding a rifle in its arms casually.

“Um, hi, guys?” Glen said.

The other human snorted. “I believe lunch is served,” he said as he indicated that Glen should unload.

Glen sighed and hoped it was just a robbery.

~~~*~~~

 So, a few days earlier than I'd intended, but better than on April Fools I guess?

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The Cadre has been rebuilt after the disastrous battle in Horath over a decade ago. They are better and more dangerous than ever before but they will need all of that and a healthy dose of luck for their greatest challenge to date. Round 2 is shaping up with the pirate empress in Sigma Sector. The fleet believes that they have located El Dorado. Jethro McClintock and his team are itching to settle the score.

Meanwhile forces are swirling around Jethro's family. Will he survive the battle to come? Will his family?

 

Amazon: Siege

 B&N: To be continued

 Sitrep:

So, I received the manuscript back from Goodlifeguide this morning. I'll be uploading it this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

 On to the snippet!

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Chapter 4

 

Antigua

 

Zuhura and Jethro managed to pry Bagheera away from his gaming system but the other siblings were busy. The trio of adults took Ember to the zoo. Ember was wide-eyed and a bit fearful of some of the larger animals. She did enjoy the petting zoo briefly; that enjoyment ended when a pig blew snot on her fur.

She had fallen asleep on her mother’s chest at lunch. The boys took off to ride a roller coaster through the aquarium area while Ember took a nap in the shade with Zuhura.

When they returned, they were a bit damp and giddy. Zuhura was amused by their antics as they playfully swatted at each other. She ended up trading with Jethro in order to go on a ride with her younger brother.

Jethro curled up next to Ember in the shade of the tree. There were other families nearby. He watched the little imp sleep. She rolled onto her back and stretched and then curled up on his arm. After a few minutes, the arm started to fall asleep. When he tried to move it, the little imp locked onto it with her paws to keep her warm pillow in place.

He snorted and resigned himself to his fate for the time being.

“She yours?” a fox asked softly. He looked over to where the Vixen was nursing a trio of pups.

“No, my granddaughter,” Jethro admitted.

“Granddaughter?” the vixen asked blinking in confusion. Jethro flicked his ears. “Well, there is quite a family resemblance.

“Something like that,” Jethro admitted and then yawned. The fox looked politely away and after a moment looked down tenderly to her trio as they finished up nursing.

Jethro relaxed and waited for the others to return. He knew he was going to feel a lot of guilt over leaving the little imp behind but it couldn’t be helped.

<<(O)>>

Suqi slipped down the hall and then waited. Her lead robot had cleared the path but she paused when something glittered in the vent. She checked the corner with a scope and noted the glitter again and then carefully changed position.

Tricky, she thought as she rested her hand against the wall. Her AI sent out a single stream of nanites out and down the wall. It took time but for the moment she had time to spare.

The nanites went around a hatch and then into the vent. They found a small sniper robot waiting there. It had a camera lens and barrel ten centimeters from the vent. If the user hadn’t bent the vents apart to allow the barrel and camera to get a good shot and view, she wouldn’t have picked up on it.

She couldn’t hack it without the other side noticing. Nor could she just shut it off, that would alert them of her location and that their trap had failed.

Instead, she had the nanites form a camera above the robot camera and then take a snapshot of its view out the vent.

She then directed her AI to create a false image with a web of nanites over the vent. It took time. There were a lot of nanites to move into position and program with the RGB, but eventually, she had replaced the view with a false image.

Only when it was finished, did she move out carefully.

She grinned slyly and then hand signed her team to begin moving out again. That was a trick she had picked up from Sabu, and it was nice to use it against him.

<<(O)>>

Sabu had a feeling that his sister was up to something. Their respective platoons were on Orbital Fortress 9 training against each other in a cleared section of the massive station. It was far better than a virtual game session, allowing them to employ some real world tricks and toys to test out in real world conditions. So far so good.

He knew his sister was highly motivated to get revenge for his trouncing her in the last exercise. Well, he had no intention of going down easy even though he was playing the defender in this round.

She had found his sniper hide but had missed a patch of light sensitive nanites he’d put up as a tripwire at the corner. That told him her approach path.

He had his squad activate a series of mines. The claymores were thin, coated to look like the bulkhead. When Suqi’s squad came around the next corner, it would go off.

<<(O)>>

Suqi’s robot crept around the corner and then paused. It was programmed to stick to the shadows and to the sides of the corridor. It tripped the sensors for the claymores and the mines went off.

The bot was covered in pink paint and immediately shut down, falling over in a simulated death. Suqi narrowly missed getting splattered.

“Missed me, bro,” she murmured as she deployed a second bot; this one she directed to climb the wall and then hang from the ceiling. It would move slower but it wouldn’t trip any pressure sensors on the ground.

She winced when a second claymore went off with a loud thud and the bot was ripped off the ceiling and went flying into the wall across from her.

Unless of course he’d thought of that too.

Well! She thought as she reconsidered her options.

<<(O)>>

General Lyon smirked as Sabu and Suqi faced off. He had traveled with the two platoons to the fortress in order to umpire the exercises and possibly even participate in a few of them.

So far Sabu seemed to have picked up the tricky side of Jethro’s lessons. But he refused to underestimate Suqi. There was something to be said about the female always being deadlier than the male of the species. No doubt because they liked to be underestimated.

The training and prep for the assault was going well. Pretty soon they would be ready to move out.

<<(O)>>

Bagheera was playing a first-person shooter and managed to win the match using a few tricks his dad had taught him. It was a simple matter of finding the right spot to snipe and having an escape plan if they spotted him.

When he took out the enemy medic trying to revive a shooter, that more or less won the match for his side. They easily captured the objective.

As the match cleared, the other side complained about being taken out by a pro. He grinned. “I am a pro.”

“Dude! Not cool! Vets have their own servers!” a couple of players complained.

He blinked. “I’m not a vet,” he said, trying to cut in. It took a couple of tries before he got through their complaints. That earned some disbelief and raspberries.

“Look, my dad is a sniper. I picked up some tricks from him.”

“Marines or Army?”

“Well, he was in the marines.”

“Oh, he’s out now?” one of the gamers asked. “Why?”

“No, he’s in the Cadre.”

The disbelief was almost palatable and then people went ballistic with excitement. He became peppered with questions about the Cadre to the point that the next match countdown was forfeited. The team he had been on wanted to keep him but they wanted to play too.

He was annoyed when he pulled back to the main forum only to find out that word of who he was had followed. He was besieged by players wanting him on their team or wanting information about the Cadre. It bugged him. They were more interested in him for his dad than for his own skill set. That irritated him so much he ended up logging out.

When he logged in later, he was flagged with an email and then an alert that his ID had been frozen. Incensed he emailed corporate to find out why and found that they had been told to do so by the FBI.

He was confused. “Look, I’m not a piker …”

“We cannot reactivate your ID. You’ll have to speak to them and create a new ID,” the customer service chatbot warned.

“Are you serious?” he demanded, incredulous that he’d lost all of his stuff as well as his points and prestige. He had been about to make the next tier damn it!

A knock at the door made him look up.

“It is for you,” Bast said from his computer.

“Damn it, leave my PC alone!” he growled as he got up. “Who is it?” he demanded. A video screen window opened, and he saw the video camera image of two people in business suits. They looked either corporate or … “Ah hell,” he muttered.

“Bagheera McClintock?” the lead agent asked as he opened the door.

“Yes?” Bagheera asked. He had his headphones around his neck.

“My name is Agent Smith; this is Agent Roberts,” the male agent said, indicating his female companion. “We are with the FBI.” He showed off his credentials.

“What is going on? Is my mom okay?”

“She’s fine. This has to do with you.”

He blinked and then his eyes narrowed. “What did I do? Do I need to call a lawyer or something?”

“You aren’t under arrest. We just need to clear up a few things,” the junior agent said soothingly.

He blinked and started to relax a little.

“You spoke about the Cadre and your father in a chatroom and in the forums earlier this evening?”

“Damn it …,” he muttered. “Is that why my account got locked? Look it was stupid I know. Someone was bitching about my being too good, and they thought I was a ringer. I said I learned from my dad.”

The lead agent nodded sagely.

“Your account was locked because you broke protocol. Are you aware of the secrecy act in regards to the Cadre and their family members?”

“Yeah,” he sighed heavily. “I know; I screwed up.” He felt his ears flatten. Something his mother had taught him was not to make excuses, especially to the authorities or to her.

“I’m proud of my family. I should be able to show it,” he muttered resentfully.

“We get that. But you need to understand that they need to work from the shadows to work effectively. And for their safety and your own, you need to help them keep their anonymity,” the lead agent said patiently.

“Okay, fine,” he growled. He wasn’t looking forward to starting out as a nugget again though.

“If only to keep from a repeat interview from us?” Agent Smith asked. “We could of course take this downtown, take a day or two …”

“No, no, I’ll be good. Honest. I know I screwed up. I’m sorry,” Bagheera said hastily. The two agents looked amused.

Bagheera rolled his eyes. The agents looked at each other and chuckled a little.

“Just remember, people can and will bait you. They’ll try to get details out of you. Some of the best cons out there gather the data and use it to steal your identity or to get you into trouble in other ways.”

Bagheera looked a bit affronted.

“And yeah, we know, you are too good to get caught out like that. Believe me, we’ve heard it before,” the female agent replied dryly. She shook her head in resignation at the stupidity of some people who thought that they were invulnerable. “Just think it through before you say something. Even something minor can get you into trouble.”

“Loose lips sinks ships?” Bagheera asked amused.

“Exactly.”

“I’ve been told that a few times. I’ll try to be more careful.”

“Good.” They shook hands and departed.

<<(O)>>

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Chapter 3

 

Antigua

 

Jethro continued to deal with the pain of loss of Lil Red. Shanti continued to blame herself. Both had been to a therapist but it helped to talk to each other. “I was supposed to keep her safe,” she said.

Jethro shook his head. She sounded so … broken. Like it was her fault. It wasn’t; they both knew that. She hadn’t been home; it had been a freak crash during an air show that had killed their adopted daughter.

“You can’t be blamed for a freak accident! Murphy maybe, but not you love. It happened. We can’t wrap them in cotton and keep them safe forever.”

“You’d think she’d be safe at home! I should have insisted she stay with you.”

“It happened,” Jethro sighed. “It is something that … the rest of us will have to live with. I love you,” he said softly.

“I love you too,” she murmured back, kissing her fingertips and then holding them out to him. He smiled tenderly to her holographic image.

A blinking LED caught his attention. He knew it was time up. He reached out for a phantom caress of her cheek. She smiled tenderly and closed her eyes and seemed to rub into it.

“I won’t tell you to stay safe. I know you too well,” he said.

She chuffed.

“But watch your six and kick ass.”

“Yeah,” she said huskily. “We have to go.” She dashed a tear and then straightened up and nodded. “Kick some pirate ass. I love you.”

“I know and I will. And I love you too,” he said. “Thanks, Captain,” Jethro said as he looked up.

“You’re welcome, Chief. Terminating virtual chat,” Commander Enki replied.

<<O>>

Jethro prepped for work quietly. “Was that mom?” Baghera asked sleepily. He was the black panther male of the quartet. All four had a ways to go in the maturity department. A bit of that was because he hadn’t been around to be a father. He was trying to make up for lost time but it wasn’t easy this late in the game.

“Yeah, she had to go; sorry, you lot were asleep.”

“Was she here?” Bagheera asked, looking around in confusion. He sniffed the air, his brows knit still in confusion. “Wait, I don’t smell her.”

“No, it was a holo call. Brief,” Jethro explained patiently as he cleaned up the kitchen.

Bagheera blinked in confusion. “Oh,” he said.

“Red is …”

“They cremated her body and will ship it back as a diamond,” Jethro said quietly.

 Bagheera blinked again and then yawned. “Damn,” he muttered. “It is … is she really gone?” he asked and then ran a finger under his nose as he snuffled.

“I’m afraid so,” Jethro sighed softly. Some of the family were still struggling with the loss. Red had been their adopted daughter and an older sister/aunt/sitter to each of the litters. They were each dealing with the grief in their own way. The FBI as well as the Cadre had each offered a grief counselor to the family. So far he wasn’t aware of anyone taking them up on it.

The first litter were buried in their work. They were more mature and knew intellectually such things were bound to happen eventually. The sudden reaction was what caught them off guard.

“Mom should have left her here to be safe with us,” Bagheera muttered bitterly.

“Red was an adult; she wanted to be with your mom to help her out and so she wouldn’t feel so alone.” Jethro shook his head.

“Yeah? And it cost her her life!” Bagheera flared.

A corner of his father’s mind recognized anger as one of the stages of grief so he kept to reason. He didn’t want to provoke the fragile truce with his son or make the irrational anger turn towards him.

No, it wasn’t irrational, the anger was real. It was just adrift without a target as they all were, he reminded himself before he spoke.

“No, a freak accident did. She was at home safe. It could have happened here as easily as their or anywhere,” Jethro said, trying to keep his tone even. Bagheera glowered at him. “When fate chooses to snip your thread, it's a part of the circle of life.”

“Oh gah, not that shit again,” the smaller black panther said voice rich with disgust. He snorted harshly.

“It is what it is,” Jethro said with an ear flick of a shrug as he felt his fur stiffen. Bast shook her head on his HUD. He took it to indicate a lost cause. “Some things are just out of our control. It sucks. Trust me, I’ve felt it. I still feel it.”

He reached out to touch his son but his son turned away and headed into the bathroom. The door clicked shut with a sound of finality to the argument.

Jethro escaped to his commute to work while he could.

<<O>>

Jethro saw motion in the hallway near the floor as he walked through the new section of the base. His attention flickered from thinking about the list of things he had to do to prepare for the movement to curiosity. Bast rolled her eyes on his HUD and highlighted a familiar feline figure crouching in the shadows.

He chuffed softly in amusement and pretended to ignore her in passing. Ember had figured out how to cloak in order to try to sneak out of the crèche again. She was good, but she had been tagged with an IFF tag and her cloak was only good if she didn’t move. She didn’t have implants or an AI to manage her cloaks so everything ran on instinct.

He turned suddenly and swooped in to catch her and swing her off her feet. She growled in surprise as he held her with one arm under her armpits and the other under her bottom as he leaned over her and gave his invisible prey a cheek rub.

She mock growled and her ears went flat but he chuffed and purred. After a moment, she started to purr in response.

A tech saw him cheek rubbing something and holding it but whatever it was it was invisible. The human stopped and stared until Jethro tickled his prey. Ember growled and lost focus and faded into place in his arms giggling and squirming. “Stop!” she said in a high pitch giggly voice.

Jethro churred and laughed at her and hugged her tightly. The observer then blinked and puckered his lips and looked away. After a moment, he shook his head and walked off.

“So, what are you doing out and about, young lady?” Jethro teased. “Aren’t you supposed to be with your friends?”

“No nap,” she growled as he slung her up to his shoulder. She began to play with his ear in retaliation.

“Really? You don’t like to nap?”

“No,” she pouted as he walked to the crèche.

“Uh huh,” he said. “Do they know you are gone?” he asked in a light voice. She suddenly looked shy.

Bast rolled her virtual eyes and sent a text out to the crèche as well as Zuhura.

Just as she did a security alert came over the 1MC to look for a lost black kitten.

“I think they know you are missing. Your mommy is going to be upset,” Jethro warned.

Ember looked a little contrite but then flicked her ears.

Find out supposed to be in crèche. Snuck away in naptime.

Zuhura arrived outside the crèche. She was clearly exasperated with her wayward charge.

Jethro play fought to hand her over, eventually relenting with a mock pout. Ember giggled. The byplay lightened the mood.

“You aren’t supposed to leave the crèche without an adult, young lady,” Zuhura scolded.

“She’s getting good at being sneaky,” Jethro said. “She almost got past me,” he said. He shrewdly tickled her. “Almost,” he teased as she shrunk back and giggled and then growled and play swatted at him.

She might be playing but her eyes flashed, her ears went back and she started in with her trademark head cock that said she was ready to get feisty.

“Uh oh,” Zuhura laughed. “Now you’ve done it,” she chuffed. She pretended to hold her charge away from Jethro as Jethro pretended to box with her and then hold his arms out on either side and then move in to strike. She couldn’t look in both directions and growled ears flat.

Zuhura chuffed as her father used one hand to distract and the other to strike. The head cock came out again.

“I think they need to learn to wear this little lady out a bit more before naptime,” Jethro observed.

“No nap!” a certain kitten said, crossing her arms and instantly pouting.

“Yeah,” Zuhura said with a snort as she took the kitten into the crèche. “Thanks, dad.”

“Anytime,” he said with a wave to the kitten.

<<O>>

 Sitrep:

So, yesterday I was at the hospital waiting on dad's pacemaker install and heart checkup. He's good, ignoring doctor/nurse's orders as usual so... normal. That is a relief? Maybe? 

Anyway, while I was out Rea finished Jethro 9's edits and shot it back to me. I just dealt with the final edits and shot it off to Goodlifeguide.

On to the next snippet!

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Chapter 2

 

Antigua

 

Jethro called a family meeting. Cleo and Shy were on their way home and arrived before the Cadre members did.

Bagheera complained about the interruption when Cleo went into his room and practically dragged him out by his ear.

“Will you sit down and shut up? This is important,” Cleo growled.

“How do you know that?” Bagheera demanded as the toilet flushed in the hallway bathroom. The sink turned on for a moment.

“I can tell just from looking at them,” Cleo retorted, nodding her chin at the Sabu, Suqi, the holograms of their AI, and Jethro.

“This isn’t another lecture about getting a job or going to school is it? I mean, I am taking classes …” Bagheera insisted.

“Believe it or not this isn’t about you,” Sabu rumbled quietly. Bagheera glanced at him and then fell into a pensive silence when he started to pick up on the vibes in the room.

“Yes, well, Zuhura and Ember will be joining us in a bit. But …,” Jethro broke off and glanced to the side as Shy left the bathroom and sank into the seat next to Cleo. Suqi reached out and grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

She looked at her and noted that Suqi was looking grave and sad. Her ears were back. She looked to Sabu and saw similar looks coming from him. She felt her ears go back as trepidation mounted. “What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked.

“Did the cancer come back in White?” Cleo asked suddenly. Bagheera felt the mood shift and slowly sank into a chair. Sabu reached out and patted his shoulder gruffly.

“No …,” Jethro said slowly.

“I’ve got a class in an hour and a half …,” Cleo warned.

“You may want to skip it,” Suqi said softly. She looked expectantly to Jethro.

Jethro felt his insides twist. Bast gave him a sympathetic look.

“There is no easy way of saying this,” he said. He wiped at his eyes. The kittens all stared at him. The ones who didn’t know suddenly had an inkling. All of their ears were back and eyes wide.

“There was a crash on ET …”

“Mom!” Cleo wailed, lunging to her feet.

Jethro and Suqi immediately shook their heads. Suqi pushed Cleo down gently. Slowly she sank back into her chair. “If not mom …?”

“I’m afraid Red was killed by a fighter that crashed into their apartment complex. Your mom is fine,” Jethro said roughly. He paused as there was a knock at the door and then it opened to reveal Zuhura and Ember. Zuhura was somber and Ember had clearly picked up on the vibes and was looking troubled and confused.

Cleo and Shy teared up as Suqi tried to comfort them. Sabu hugged Bagheera. Jethro got up and hugged Zuhura, squeezing Ember between them until she nipped him.

He chuffed in amusement and felt her little arms wrap around his neck. He took her from her adopted mother and hugged her for a moment. “Sorry, sweetie, we just got some bad news,” he murmured.

“I’ll say,” Bagheera said. He got up and went to his room and slammed the door. The others watched him go and then gave out a soft collective sigh.

“We each deal with grief in our own way,” Sabu said as he still looked at the door.

“Give him a moment. We’ll talk to him in a bit,” Jethro said.

<<(O)>>

Jethro had to deal with the flood of sympathy from friends and colleagues.

Hurranna texted him that she had received the news. She sent her condolences to Jethro and the family and stated that she’d be by later for a hug.

He appreciated that.

<<(O)>>

Chief Warrant Officer Ox and his dwarf counterpart Warrant Officer Mariah Willow were putting their finishing touches on some of the robots when he received an email about Riley. He shook his head.

“What?” Willow asked. Minotaur and Peggy were busy going through lines of code with their respective debug bots to clean it up.

“Riley will be in town shortly. But she said she has a gig and can’t chat tonight. Oh, well,” Ox said with a flap of his ears as his hands continued to assemble a robotic leg. There were some delicate connections but his massive fingers handled them easily.

It helped that he and Minotaur had a master grade level of control over his implants and nanites.

Minotaur and Peggy looked up and then both turned to their respective partners.

“What?” Willow asked. “Finished all ready?” she asked.

“No. We have news,” Peggy said.

“Out with it,” Ox said absently.

“There has been a death in the McClintock family,” Minotaur said in a bass rumble. Ox stopped what he was doing and looked up sharply.

“Suqi and Sabu?”

“No. Lil Red was killed on Epsilon Triangula.”

“Oh, damn,” Willow said. “Isn’t that Jethro’s adopted daughter?”

“Yes,” Peggy replied.

“Please send our condolences,” Willow said.

“Done,” Peggy said.

“Minotaur, do the same. And tell Jethro I’ll check in with him when he’s ready,” Ox said gruffly.

“Understood,” Minotaur replied.

Ox went back to working, but after a moment, he pushed the robot leg aside and sat down heavily.

Willow patted him on the shoulder gently.

<<(O)>>

 Sitrep:

So, all of the betas are done with J9 and I sent it off to Rea Saturday. So, here is the first snippet!

 

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Antigua

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jethro McClintock noted the flutter of the wind, picked up on the heat rising and ran mental calculations even as Bast fed him the data. What he saw matched her data roughly so he fed it to the sniper.

The sniper was a new recruit to the Cadre, Sergeant Manoox. The sergeant had sniper qualifications from the army but seemed to struggle with accepting data from his AI.

“Target at two-five-six-one meters. Up one point five. Wind at nine o’clock six clicks.”

“Two-five-six-one up one point five, winds… got it,” the sergeant replied in a text through their implants. The duo was side by side so their respective AI had established a wired nanite link between them. That facilitated conversation so they could not be picked up or overheard.

“Send it,” Jethro growled.

The sergeant gently squeezed the trigger. As always it came as a surprise to them.

The round went down range and slammed into the target.

“High point two,” Jethro observed. “To the right point four.”

“Roger,” the sergeant said as he made adjustments.

Another sniper fired a shot off to their left. A target plinked.

“Send it,” Jethro ordered.

This time the round hit dead center as expected.

“Good shot. New target…” Jethro moved on across their zone as the first target reset.

<<(O)>>

Sergeant Suqi McClintock noted the target hit and smiled. She was dialed in. She quickly made it through the qualifications and then rose when her spotter cleared her. Half muscle memory, half training she cleared her weapon and looked around. Sabu was finishing up his quals to the far left of her. Their father Jethro was in playing spotter for another student.

She glanced to her right to see Hurranna wrapping up her quals. The lynx sat up when she finished and stretched and then scratched at her back.

“Getting old?” Suqi texted.

Hurranna turned to her, stuck out her tongue and then stretched again. Suqi chuckled.

Chief Warrant Officer 1 Hurranna was their ‘aunt’. She had grown up with their father and others on Antigua Prime. She had served with them in Sigma Sector hunting pirates, though she had done so in a fighter as a Marine pilot while Sabu and Suqi had been sergeants in the Marines.

All 3 had been tapped to join the Cadre. They had done a bit of soul searching and then had agreed much to the chagrin of their respective commands. It was that or get rotated home to serve in a training force or standing guard duty at some building somewhere. None of them wanted that.

Hurranna had been threatened with a commission a few times. She had considered it but hadn’t liked dealing with the paperwork and the headaches involved with being a commissioned officer. As a warrant she could get to the rank of a CAG but not much further. She had said that she hadn’t considered getting out of the pilot seat until she had found out that the Cadre also used pilots.

Since she had finished her integration she had taken up duties with the shuttles that occasionally moved the Cadre to distant exercise locations.

Hurranna joined Suqi at the table where the weapons were laid out. “It took a little bit to get my eye back in I admit. But it’s like riding a bicycle.”

“If you don’t practice regularly you forget the tricks,” Suqi retorted.

“Like I said, like riding a bike. Once I had a refresher it all came back,” Hurranna replied.

Suqi flicked her ears.

“So, what’s next?” Hurranna asked.

“The finals for camouflage for the second half of the class. Since you already passed it, you lot can head in and pack it in,” Chief Humble stated. He was a big albino Neogorilla.

“Take your weapons with you,” the chief growled as the duo turned to leave. “Turn them in to the armory and clean them. You know the drill.”

The girls sighed. “I hate getting my nails dirty,” Hurranna mock whined.

“I hate chipping a nail,” Suqi said, pretending to look at her nails. Her claws came out as she examined them.

“My heart bleeds,” the chief said gruffly, rolling his eyes at them.

The girls smirked at each other. “Want to get our nails done after this?” Hurranna suggested.

“Sure,” Suqi answered. She turned to the chief. “What do you say chief? I think hot pink is your color,” she teased.

“Pass,” he growled. “Get out of here before I throw you two out. And you two are small enough that I can do it too,” he said eyeing them.

“I think he means it,” Hurranna chuckled as the duo put their sniper rifles into their carrying cases and then headed off.

“I’m sure he’s just a softy at heart,” Suqi said. The chief roared and both girls startled and turned back to him. He was growling at another student.

“On the other hand…” Suqi drawled.

“Yeah, maybe we should tease him later,” Hurranna agreed with a nod.

<<(O)>>

   So, Amazon is offering me to Beta test AI generated Audio Books. (Virtual Voice Narration) To be clear, this is a Beta test, and I don't do audio. I've flirted with it a few times but I never got into it. My 1 time listening to it for myself was in the 90's when I found Anne McCaffrey had produced a tape of Dragonsong. That was... different.

Anyway, I have converted 5 books so far. They are available on Amazon and Audible.

 New Dawn

Bootstrap Colony 1

Noah's Arks

The Roo Collective

Jethro goes to War 1

  If there is sufficient interest I will convert more. Not all books can be converted. (word count is limited to under 240k so big books are a no)... I'm curious as to how they work out. Obviously there will be issues (possibly funny ones) with pronunciations and such.

 

  At the moment they are using an American female voice. I don't know how to do alternate voices. (it was mentioned that they may extend it to have different voices do different characters at some point) I was tempted to try the British female voice but held off. I'm not sure if you the listener can play with the voice on your own.

Enjoy!

 Sitrep:

I have finished 4 books and they are with the Proofreaders:

Jethro 9 Siege

 To be published April 2025

Multiverse 8

 To be published June 2025

Shelby 9 Peacekeepers

 To be published August 2025

Tales of the Federation Reborn 7 Winds of Change 

 

To be published in October 2025