Monthly Archives: June 2024

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Liberty Con 2024 AAR

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Hey everyone! LibertyCon 2024 is here and gone, a weird mix of too fast and too slow.

The hotel and convention center both had some challenges this year, though the Convention Staff, with their fearless leader Brandi managed it all brilliantly. The staff here all care and love the convention which makes all the difference, especially when there are hiccups with everything else.

I saw and met some great people, which is always the highlight of any convention. There are the greats like David Weber, John Ringo, Sarah Hoyt, and others. There are also some wonderful people that I have seen every year for a decade, like Terry Maggert, Mark Wandry, JF Holmes, LawDog, and Chris Kennedy. Others are those I have known online but only now met in person or only now met.

LibertyCon is like a family gathering, where it takes 30 minutes to get anywhere because you end up stopping to talk with everyone along the way.

I could wax eloquent about the awesome panels, the variety of conversations, the incredible dealer room, and the phenomenal consuite. The truth is, all of that pales in comparison to the awesome people I meet here every year.

LibertyCon has continued to impress and I look forward to next year, only 363 days until the next one!

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The Star Engine Snippet 3

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Here is the third snippet of The Star Engine, coming July 12, 2024. Be sure to preorder from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3V9blRc

Sidewinder felt some regret as his decoy element died, yet they had not died in vain.  Those ships had drawn the majority of the enemy fleet out of position.  His larger force now had an uncontested approach to the planet and he’d have the opportunity to strafe their planetary facilities and then attack the enemy fleet as they came around the planet.

And it would be a victory.  The seventeen ships he’d sent in had been his oldest and slowest, crewed by those of his kind that he found most expendable.  Sidewinder’s main force consisted of over forty vessels, the largest of which would be considered cruisers by the humans he faced, though their armaments were more on par with battleships and their shielding systems would let them sustain far more damage than any purely human ship.

Close with the planet and sweep around, he sent to his ship commanders.  Do not give them time to reload their fighters.

His enemy had fought well and some part of Sidewinder appreciated that.  Rarely did he face a skilled opponent.  Sidewinder would at least give him a quick, clean death.  Besides, he didn’t want to take any casualties from a massive missile strike like that.

You fought well, he thought to himself, sensing the enemy fleet shift to meet this new threat, it is a shame I’ll have to kill you.

***

Admiral Collae watched with calm, dark eyes as the enemy fleet swept in, their swift vessels already in cover behind the planet.  He didn’t pause to wonder how they had arrived, whether they had made use of stealth systems or timed their emergence from Shadow Space to allow their other force to draw him out.

None of that mattered.  What mattered was that they were square on an approach to Force Manticore and the three freighters sat idle, drives on standby, no more a threat than any other cluster of freighters in the system.

“Activate Manticore,” Admiral Collae snapped, gauging the enemy force’s approach.

The three freighters had been massive cargo transports, designed to carry bulk goods between hungry core colony worlds.  Each of those freighters massed more than a battlecruiser, but they had none of the strengthened bulkheads, armor, or power generation.  They were slow, graceless, ugly vessels that Admiral Collae had acquired for one purpose.  His engineers had gutted the ships, ripping out cargo bays and replacing them with cheap, single-use missile launchers.

They were mobile missile attack platforms and as the enemy ships came within point-blank range, his crews triggered all of those missiles in one massive salvo.  He had no way to control that salvo, not even with all the ships in his fleet could have done so… but the facilities on the planet had far more computing power and transmission capability.

The enemy ships hesitated as that huge salvo went in, and that affirmed Admiral Collae’s theories on this foe.  They were alien, they were powerful… but they still felt surprise.

Point defense systems fired and alien ships went into evasive maneuvers, yet they could not, would not, stop all those inbound missiles.  Admiral Collae had trapped them.  No force so small could weather such an avalanche of fire.

***

Sidewinder spared a moment of appreciation for the trap, even as the missiles flashed towards him.  It was a beautiful move, he could admit.  Clever, wonderful opponent, he thought to himself.  A shame that I cannot tell him so in person.

The missiles began to detonate amidst his lead vessels and Sidewinder’s mind went to an option that none of his kind would ever have considered.  It was suicide… worse, it risked everything that his species had long worked against… yet it offered the only chance at saving his ships and returning to defeat his opponents.

Faster than any human could have given the order, much less implemented it, he brought up his force’s shadow space drives and triggered a blind jump.

***

Admiral Collae felt a spurt of surprise as three quarters of the enemy force vanished, a moment later the entirety of his missiles detonated in chain that burned far brighter than Golgotha’s tiny red star.  Balor never use an emergency jump, he thought to himself.  As far as he knew, their drives weren’t even capable of it.  For that matter, even for humans the action was akin to suicide.  There was only a thirty percent chance of any ship emerging at all from a blind jump.  Often enough, the ships that “survived” such events were little more than twisted hulks, their systems overloaded and their hulls shattered by gravitic shear forces.

“Stand down from battle-stations,” Admiral Collae barked.  “Begin recovery operations.”  He would give his people a chance to celebrate their victory… yet it wasn’t one that he felt like celebrating.

He would rather have finished the enemy, destroyed them utterly.  With the blind jump, he didn’t know how many might have survived or where they might have gone.  They could all be dead.  They could be damaged, or they might, with some kind of psionic skill, emerge perfectly fine.  He didn’t know… and not knowing would eat at him.

“Well done,” Admiral Collae nodded at his people.  He pushed his concerns aside.  Later he would contemplate the ramifications.  For now, as always, he must appear to be fully in control.

***

“What the hell was that, do you think?” Alanis asked, staring out the armored windows of the command center for Purgatory Prison Station on the surface of Golgotha’s not-quite planet.

The flash had illuminated the entire surface and the glare had been bright, brighter than the day that the surface never saw, orbiting a red dwarf star that emitted the vast majority of its radiation on the infrared spectrum.

“I don’t know,” Lizmadie said, looking up from the communications console, “but it knocked out all of our remaining communications systems, our sensors… just about everything.  Massive electromagnetic pulse.  Half the base’s surface systems are cooked and…”

The base’s lights flickered and died.

Princess Lizmadie Doko growled, “We just lost power.  The fusion reactor is deep-buried but I think we blew half the fuses in the base itself.  We’re going to be down for days, maybe weeks…”

“Ma’am, that is, Princesses…” Lieutenant Ambrosio said from the doorway, “You need to see this.”

They followed him outside.  On the way, Alanis fumbled with a flashlight, but it seemed the same pulse that had knocked out the base systems had fried it too.  Of course…

Outside, on the same platform that Major Scaparetti had threatened her from, she followed Lieutenant Ambrosio’s gaze upwards… and gasped.

The entire sky was alive with witch-fire.  It must have been a massive electromagnetic burst to make the magnetosphere of the planet glow so powerfully.  While some part of her appreciated the beauty, especially as the diaphanous colors illuminated the world, softening the harsh planes, most of her was thinking over the implications.

“This would have to be a world-wide effect,” Lizmadie said next to her, echoing her thoughts.

“Communications and defenses could be out everywhere… not just here.” Alanis nodded.  She clapped her friend on the shoulder, beginning to smile, “Get everyone together.  This is our chance!”

They’d freed themselves from capture, they’d managed to get weapons and equipment, to take over an entire prison facility, their captors none the wiser.  They had a shuttle and they could have slipped into orbit, taken a ship, and escape the system.  For anyone else, that might have been enough.

That wasn’t enough for Alanis Giovanni.  She was going to capture the entire Star Engine… and this was her chance.

***

Science Fiction, Writing

Now on Sale: The Fallen Race

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In preparation for the release of The Star Engine, I’ve put the The Fallen Race on discount for the next 7 days (17-24 June 2024). If you haven’t read The Fallen Race, the first book of the Shadow Space Chronicles, here is your opportunity to get it!

http://amzn.to/1FzQRRq

Humanity has fallen.

Earth has become a charnel house, the bones of twelve billion inhabitants moldering in ruined and gutted cities, victims of their own governments. Earth’s remaining colonies are besieged. On two sides, aliens bent on the eradication of humanity continue their unstoppable march, capturing world after world.

Baron Lucius Giovanni, Captain of the War Shrike, finds himself in a position to stand and fight. The son of a renegade officer and a social outcast himself, he nevertheless refuses to give up. Lucius has few resources: a forgotten colony in a backwater of space, his ship and crew, and the rumors of a lost fleet that might hold the key to the survival of the human race. He’ll take on pirates, aliens, and his own treacherous allies in a bid to save humanity.

Lucius will not give up. He will not go quietly into the night. He will stand against humanity’s foes and he will prove that while humanity may have fallen, they will rise once again.

Science Fiction, Writing

The Star Engine Snippet 2

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Here is the second snippet of The Star Engine, coming July 12, 2024. Be sure to preorder from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3V9blRc

Sidewinder watched as the human fleet launched their fighter craft and their ship drives went hot, the ships shifting position to form a defensive perimeter from his ships coming in above the ecliptic plane.  He would have preferred to catch them unawares with the sneak attack, but he didn’t regret the loss of surprise.  Some part of him relished in the chance to fight an enemy on more even terms.

Fixer was right, he thought to himself, we are no longer Balor… we are hybrids.  His parent species would not have felt enjoyment at the thought of a challenge, they would not have felt any real emotions at all.  They were a hive mind, made up of individuals who existed for the collective whole, with no more personality or emotion than a terrestrial ant.

Still, it didn’t change his goal here.  The humans could not be allowed to hold the Star Engine.  They must be defeated and eradicated.  Every one of them would have to be hunted down… and while Sidewinder didn’t view that task with pleasure, he at least felt relief that the force readied itself to face him instead of fleeing.  Best to get it all done with.

Sidewinder sent a message to his ships, Prepare to repel fighters and missiles.

***

The enemy ships tightened their formation and their drives, shields, and weapon systems all went live.  Admiral Collae’s dark eyes studied those emissions, particularly those of the ship’s weapon systems.  These enemy ships didn’t seem to mount missile systems.  The reports he had seen described immensely powerful gamma ray emitters, powerful by any standard, but at wavelengths where they bypassed defense screens.  The magnetically contained plasma that formed the defense screens could be adjusted for a variety of threats, but Admiral Collae’s engineers had been unable to find a solution for particles at that highest end of the spectrum.

They seemed to use the same emitters for their point defense weapons, splitting the beams a dozen or more times to engage missiles.  At close range, that left them the options of firing at enemies or defending themselves from missiles and fighters.  That would be an advantage to Admiral Collae’s forces.  Also, the weapons were slow to fire, which meant they could be over-saturated.  “Engagement Pattern Delta,” he said.  “Order the first launch… now.”

The first ten squadrons launched two hundred and sixty fission warhead missiles, followed a moment later by a staggered launch from the next ten squadrons, and then the next ten squadrons.  Half of his fighter force launched their missiles, across a set of purposely staggered firing parameters.  In all, over a thousand missiles headed towards those seventeen ships, their flight times staggered across forty seconds.

Admiral Collae watched those salvoes go out, even as his gaze went to the transports of Force Manticore.  They had just reached position and he noted that the captains of all three vessels had positioned them exactly where ordered.  Excellent.

***

A staggered launch, Sidewinder thought to himself.  He approved of the tactic… but he wasn’t his deceased predecessor, Hunter.  He sent the order out to the force without hesitation, his mind making the calculations for the inbound missiles, the ship’s systems tied into his mind directly through psionic link.

He could sense those missiles on their way in, a skill that he had practiced and rehearsed.  He would not allow the clever humans to hit him with unseen missiles.  That had been how Hunter had died, a failure who had lost far too many resources in his death.  Sidewinder’s mind reached out, amplified and augmented by the minds of his ship’s crews, and he sensed every one of the inbound missiles, directing his ships to stagger their fire across the entire inbound wave in an interlinked sequence designed to let their weapons recharge in time to engage again and again.

It wasn’t perfect.  Just because he could sense a missile’s location didn’t mean he could predict where it would be when his light-speed weapons engaged.  Yet it was far more effective than any merely human engagement and of the thousand missiles, less than ten penetrated the defenses to detonate against his ship’s shields.

***

“Negative on the battle damage assessment, sir,” Captain Thompson reported.

“Unfortunate,” Admiral Collae grunted.  Yet that was why he had held back half of his fighters missiles and all of his shipboard missiles.  He watched as the four hundred fighters began docking to rearm… but he didn’t think they’d make it in time.  The enemy ships came in too fast, their drives far faster than they had any right to be.  I’m tired of being at a disadvantage in technology.  That was their entire purpose of being here: to gain the advantage.  Yet Spencer Penwaithe’s manipulations and Marius Giovanni’s planning and efforts had yet to produce any tactical advantages.

“Go to engagement pattern Bravo-Bravo-Three,” Admiral Collae said.  “Hold missile fire until I give the order, all vessels, engage with energy batteries as your designated targets enter your engagement envelope.”

His formation shifted.  Deep in the bowels of the converted Chxor dreadnought, he was insulated from much of it, but he could sense the tension in his people even so.  This was an enemy they had faced before.  This alien threat was behind attacks that had already annihilated dozens of colony worlds… and most of his crews were drawn from the survivors of those colonies.

The eagerness in his people’s actions and voices as they readied themselves gave him a sense of satisfaction.  They didn’t fear this enemy.  They were eager to fight and eager to stand against them.

The enemy force flashed into the engagement area and their powerful batteries fired, lancing out and smashing through defense screens, armor, and hull as if it were non-existent.  Their attack lanced down, driving towards the heart of Admiral Collae’s fleet.  Destroyers and frigates vanished under that powerful weapons fire… yet they didn’t die alone.  His converted Hellbore and Four-class cruisers engaged with their powerful energy weapons as the ships closed into range, their immense spinal mounts firing, blasting into enemy ships again and again.  Enemy shields flared and died, enemy ships erupted into brief-lived stars.

Admiral Collae’s command ship shuddered under several impacts, and then the enemy ships were almost within his formation.  “Fire,” he snapped.

Fifteen hundred missiles lanced out.  The enemy had clearly saved some of their main weapons for the purpose of engaging those missiles, but they weren’t enough, not at such close range.  Dozens, hundreds of missiles erupted in the enemy formation and while the small, swift vessels dodged ten missiles for every one that hit, that still meant that many ships were hit by over a dozen missiles each.

The enemy formation vanished, eradicated in the span of a few heartbeats, yet Admiral Collae’s gaze went to sensor display, drawn by a shout from his sensors section.

“Admiral, enemy ships detected along Axis Golf!”  That was on the other side of the Star Engine, and his ships and those of Commodore Caras were out of position, especially with how close those ships were.  The only ships between the planet and this oncoming fleet were the three freighters of Force Manticore.

***

Science Fiction, Writing

The Star Engine Snippet 1

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Here is the first snippet of The Star Engine, coming July 12, 2024. Be sure to preorder from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3V9blRc

Prologue

October 22, 2410

Golgotha

Unclaimed Space

Admiral Collae opened his dark eyes and activated the door to his quarters.  The communications rating outside the door froze, one hand still raised to rap on the hatch.  “Yes?” Admiral Collae asked.

To the rating’s credit, she straightened and reported sharply, “Sir, we’re picking up a group of unidentified vessels approaching from outside the system’s plane.”  Approaching off the axis of a star system’s plane of rotation was a standard tactic for those attempting to escape notice.

He didn’t rise from his chair, not yet.  If these ships were within weapon’s range, his ships would have already been going to battle-stations.  He had time, and it wouldn’t do for his people to think he was nervous.  “Any matches for ship classes?”

“No, sir, though they are similar to the emissions signatures of the reported alien craft that we encountered at Kapteyn’s Star,” Her response was crisp and professional, her voice level.  Admiral Collae approved, especially since he knew that this rating had lost her older brother at that engagement.  Dispassionate and intelligent, I will have to ensure she continues her advancement.

“Very well,” Admiral Collae said.  “Inform the Captain that I will be on the bridge in a moment.”

She snapped out a crisp salute and Admiral Collae toggled the switch to close his hatch.  He looked over at his guest, “So it begins.”

Spencer Penwaithe gave him a nod, his expression sour, “It was bound to happen sooner or later.  Marius wasted too much time with his idiot daughter.  You can hold, I assume?”

“Of course,” Admiral Collae stood.  He moved a chess piece into place.

Spencer gave a snort of amusement and took it.  “That’s check… and mate, I believe.”

“Indeed,” Admiral Collae nodded, his expression stony.  Spencer Penwaithe always won their games, but chess never had been Admiral Collae’s game, anyway.  “If you’ll excuse, me, sir?”

“Yes, of course,” Spencer rose as well.  The tall black man adjusted his suit jacket and tie, “Do let me know when this unpleasantness is over.  I’ll be in my quarters.”  The career manipulator seemed dismissive of the battle.  Then again, Spencer Penwaithe’s fights had always been ones fought in the shadows, where as often as not he’d eliminated his foes with daggers to the back while proclaiming his friendship to them.  All well and good, Admiral Collae thought to himself, but not much use in a space battle.  He was glad that his superior would not be joining him on the bridge.

It would have been awkward if he had to order him removed.  Admiral Collae didn’t need an amateur joggling his elbow.

***

“Ship count is seventeen, sir,” Captain Thompson reported as Admiral Collae stepped onto the bridge.  “They’re coming in emission silent, systems in standby mode.  We might not have picked them up without the facility’s sensors.”

“Yes, of course,” Admiral Collae took a seat in his command chair.  He listened to the rest of the briefing with half an ear as he contemplated the geometry of the approaching battle.  The standard question in this circumstance was to see if the enemy would come into weapons range with their systems still on standby mode.  If they would, then in theory they would be easy prey.

Admiral Collae didn’t bother with that approach.  It would be one thing if this were some pirate scum.  It was quite something else when he knew he faced an enemy that had not faced a significant defeat in over a million years.  This was nothing more than a skirmish to them, at this scale, and Admiral Collae would have to be a fool to let them get within range.

“Orders to Carrier Force Harpy, launch all fighters,” Admiral Collae growled.  “All Screen Force Bravo elements, fall back and link up with our main force.  Screen Force Alpha, move to our rear quarter.”  He paused as he considered the alignment of vessels.  “Force Manticore, withdraw to Point Golf Three.”  Force Manticore were three huge freighter vessels in orbit over the Star Engine.  Sending them to Point Golf Three put them below the facility, opposite the approach of the enemy force.

“Order Commodore Caras to Point Zulu One and Captain Vestillius to Point Zulu Two,” Admiral Collae said after a moment.  That put the renegade Centauri Confederation ships and Marius Giovanni’s forces out of the main axis of the fight, but he didn’t entirely trust them anyway.

“Yes, sir,” Captain Thompson replied.  As the orders went out, Admiral Collae ran a hand down his craggy features.  Now, he thought, let us see how intelligent a foe we face.

***

Reading

Kal’s June 2024 Update

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Hey everyone! It’s June already, which means 2024 is pretty much halfway over. I’d set a goal for myself of publishing a book a month this year, so I’m a little behind, I need to write more.

June will have me working on two books to try and get caught up. I’m working on the sequels to Dead Train, which I’ll be working with Cannon Publishing to get ready and released.

This month I’ll also be at Liberty Con in Chattanooga. It’s got to be one of my favorite conventions, so I’m really looking forward to it. I always come away excited and inspired.

For other stuff, I’m getting The Star Engine ready for release, with a last round of editing and all the marketing stuff, to include book trailers. I’ll have snippet posts here starting soon, so you all can look forward to that.

Out on the horizon, I’ll start work on the 8th book of the Shadow Space Chronicles hopefully in July, I’ll have some crafting/painting YouTube videos out soon, and I’ll be looking at fall conventions that I can fit into my schedule.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!