Showing results by author "Chris Kennedy" in All Categories

It Takes Even More Kinds…Of Aliens! Harmon Tomeral and his friends wanted nothing more than to go to space, and they have beaten the odds, time and again. They developed a mech and won the Top Fleet Marine Competition. They brought back a battlecruiser from an unknown system and made it their own. They made allies who helped them achieve great victories, and they ultimately founded new colonies in what has become known as the Salvage System.

The allies could sneak a fleet behind enemy lines and destroy the infrastructure the Overlords were using to push them to the brink of existence. As long as the allied fleet didn’t get trapped and obliterated, everything would be great. But they got trapped and obliterated.

Sixteen years ago, during a pause in the Algarian War, Duke Alessio Valente implemented a coup in the Star Kingdom of Narantea, killing King Altan Kotaro and Queen Brooke Kotaro. Before he died, though, the king gave his four children, Kellye, Yoshi, Jonatan, and Jayme Kotaro, to four trusted advisors and told them to take them to where they’d never be found.

In the late 2020s and early 30s, corporations managed to render the major governments of the world obsolete. The big corporations owned most of the territories as well as the majority of the world’s wealth. While many of the old traditions were still observed in various parts of the world, the true power was with the corporations. In the late 30s, what would be known as the Corporate Wars began as larger companies initiated hostile takeovers in a whole new fashion. Employees, armed with corporate weapons, warred for dominance. It was a bloody time.

Betrayed from within by a rogue Synthetic Intelligence, the alliance has been fractured and is on the run. The Sontags have retreated to defend their homeworld, the Kardonians have lost theirs, and a Legastian fleet advances on Earth, with little to stop it but a couple untested airwings. Meanwhile, two enemy cruisers continue to chase Lance Baker. Sent by the Legastian queen, they won’t stop until he’s been destroyed.

Lieutenants Lance Baker and Sofia Jimenez saved Earth in the fateful battle against the aliens who’d been intent on its destruction. But there’s a problem: One of the enemy carriers got away. Not only that, but it jumped to a star that’s out of reach of Terran jump technology, and it’s probably going for reinforcements. The final battle to save Earth resulted in the destruction of most of Terra’s defensive forces, and Lance and Sofia still have no idea what’s waiting for them among the stars.

We were barely holding our own against the military castoffs of the Overlords, though—how can we expect to fight in the front lines of a galaxy-wide war against the upscale technology of the new enemy, the Kardons? Lance and Sofia will have to upgrade Uplink Squadron with new weapons and tactics if they’re to last beyond the first few minutes in this new way of war. But when they meet the new enemy in battle, it becomes obvious that the Overlords aren’t telling us everything, and Lance and Sofia are forced to wonder if they’re fighting for the right side.

But the Legastians don’t know fear, and they were already beating the Overlords. Will the addition of the AIs help or hinder the alliance? The fighting at Surrapsis has shown the Legastians are willing to do whatever it takes—including kamikaze attacks—when necessary to win a battle. And, with only a little head start, they can quickly get a toehold on a planet that is both hard and costly to eradicate.

Through skill, determination, and a good bit of luck, the allies were able to turn away the Overlord attack. Not only were they able to hold them off, but several of the enemy vessels have also been added to their fleet.

A joint task force of humans and synthetic intelligences (SIs) has defeated the Overlord’s Fleet Twenty-Seven, and peace reigns throughout the region surrounding Earth...for now. But the Overlords are sure to return once they find out their fleet was destroyed, and they’ll be back with a strong enough force to ensure the Terrans don’t win a second time.

Five years ago, aliens destroyed a carrier and its airwing at Jupiter without warning. Since then, the Earth’s nations have learned to work together, and they want to know more about the aliens who appeared, attacked, and vanished without a trace. The Americans have provided a new carrier. Chinese technology has made going after the invaders possible. And the Russians have developed a new control system that will give the craft never-before-seen capabilities. Mankind’s next war is upon us, and Uplink Squadron is the tip of the spear.

The slaughter is on! Across the galaxy, human mercenaries are being ambushed, and an ever-increasing number of companies aren't returning from their contracts. Someone even appears to be plotting the demise of the premier Four Horsemen companies, and disaster for the other three companies has only been averted by the narrowest of margins. Sansar Enkh, the president of The Golden Horde, knows her company is likely to be next, but has no idea who is behind the attacks, or when they will strike her beloved Horde.

The Corporations—the wielders of power in a society not long from now—brought about the end of civilization as we know it, nuking each other to the point where it collapsed. Ishmael doesn’t know any of this, though; in fact, he doesn’t know anything about himself when he wakes up in this shattered world. All of his autobiographical and episodic memories are gone, and along with them, any knowledge of who he was or anything in his past. Worse, he has made enemies of some very important people, and they are after him.

Nigel Shirazi was first in line for the chairmanship of Asbaran Solutions, one of the prominent "Four Horsemen" mercenary companies. First in line...until his drinking and temper caused him to fail out of college and get disinherited by the family. Now he leads the life of a playboy, enjoying a stipend from the family to stay out of the way. But someone is out to get his family, and Nigel is all that stands between the hidden enemy and the destruction of Asbaran Solutions and the Shirazi family.

Tald is the first SalSha Peacemaker Candidate…ever. Some would say he’s not smart enough or good enough to be a Peacemaker, or that the uplift designed to make him a “Sha” failed in his case.

After getting shot down over Tau Ceti, Uplink Squadron commanding officer Lance Baker has come to the realization that Earth is fighting for the wrong side in the ongoing galactic war. The only problem—their allies, the Overlords, control the Solar System, and to do anything other than what they bid is suicide for humanity.

When Todd’s critically damaged ship dropped out of hyperspace near the human colony world of Azure, he had no memory of his past. He didn’t know who he was, or even what he was, and the humans didn’t either. That didn’t stop the colonists of Azure - they took him in, anyway...even though they didn’t understand how he could do some of the things he could do. Todd and his descendants consider themselves human - eight-armed and water-breathing - but human, nonetheless. After 70 years living among humans, Todd’s descendants are going back out into the Union to make their mark.

For Colonel Mulbah Luo and the Kakata Korps, their initial contracts with the Mercenary Guild had them defending Earth. Honest work, they were led to believe, keeping the citizens of Earth safe from alien pacification in their own way. As the occupation continues, however, their eyes are opened to the fact that the hand gripping their throat is slowly tightening.

On May 1st, 2067, the world fell. One thing Zebadiah Pratt - or Zee to his friends - won’t abide, though, is slavery, even in a Fallen World. So when friends of his find a shipment of gene-modified child slaves, he knows something must be done. There’s only one problem: The slaves came from an island owned by the infamous Dr. Laroue, a noted geneticist and the creator of many of the imprints the Obsidian Corporation used to create its super-soldiers. He’s going to need help.

After a stunning victory at the Merc Guild shipyard of Golara, the leaders of the Four Horsemen mercenary units of Earth have decided it’s time to take back the colonies the Merc Guild has captured, and the Horsemen split up to liberate them. While the Merc Guild still has humanity outnumbered, Alexis Cromwell, the leader of the Winged Hussars, has incorporated the ships captured in Golara into her fleet, and she hopes the Humans can achieve local superiority across four systems with her new battleships and her Egleesius cruisers.