Showing results by author "Mike Shepherd" in All Categories

Vicky has cleared Dresden of the so-called Security Specialists of the Bowlingame crime family. Every Redcoat is dead on that planet...and good riddance. Vicky thought she had killed that family twice: first when the Empress and her dad died at the Battle of Cuzco, then when she captured all the uncles and brothers who'd done their best to keep the government going.

Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald's father could have showed up to walk her down the aisle, but she's not really bothered about that. Then, suddenly, she is. It turns out he didn't make the wedding because he's broke and living nearly homeless in an abandoned, half-built palace. How'd that happen? News isn't coming out of Dad's side of the empire, so it looks like Vicky may need a battle fleet to go pay Daddy dear a visit. Oh, and four or six brigades of infantry and tanks.

Grand Admiral Kris Longknife is rampaging across the stars, kicking butt and taking planets away from the Iteeche rebels. She asks her grandparents, Gramma and Grampa Trouble, to came out to spend time with Kris' kids while she is gone. Meanwhile, back on the Iteeche Imperial Capitol planet, intrigue and power plays continue. Within 50 kilometers of the Imperial Palace are a dozen clan factions that dream of seizing the purple from the hand of the young emperor.

Kris Longknife has discovered that this desk job is not at all what she expected. Being desk bound hasn't even decreased the number of assassination attempts! Then Kris gets home to find her two kids playing with an Iteeche. Ron has come back to human space with a request. Should Kris take it? Can she finally get some straight answers for her Grampa Ray, King Raymond to most? Does she risk taking the kids into a situation with a whole lot of unanswered questions?

Vice Admiral Kris Longknife’s honeymoon gets cancelled when she hears that the space raider’s home world may have been discovered. Finding where the raiders came from could be the key to saving humanity. If only uncovering their secrets was that easy. As Kris returns home, she ends up tangling with a mutinous crew determined to take off on their own.

Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Victoria Maria Teresa Inez Smythe-Peterwald, daughter of wealth and power, was raised to do little except be attractive and marry well. Then everything changed - her brother, her father’s favorite and the heir apparent, was killed in battle by Lieutenant Kris Longknife, daughter of the Peterwald’s longtime enemies. Vicky vowed revenge, but her skill set was more suitable for seduction than assassination, and she failed. Angry and disappointed, her father decided she needed military training and forced her to join the Navy.

Admiral Kris Longknife should have known the job offer was too good. Still, she jumped at the chance to be the first human emissary to the Iteeche Empire. Only when she got there, and met the Emperor, a teenage kid swamped by his throne, did Kris find out that there was a little civil war going on in the Iteeche Empire. The loyal forces were losing, and they needed the best fighting admiral they could get. So they got Kris Longknife.

Kris Longknife has been assigned to The Wasp, the best warship beyond the Rim of Human Space. But while hunting for pirates, Kris stumbles upon something. It's a plan to kill one of the members of the aristocratic Peterwald family - and the would-be killers are setting her up as the assassin.

Born into a family of wealth and political power, Kris Longknife turned her back on high society and followed a different family tradition by joining the Marines. But now she finds herself relieved of duty. She's gotten in the way of someone's agenda - to bring down her father, the Prime Minister of Wardhaven.

Kris Longknife is back - and ready for battle. Kris has been given her first independent command in the very remote system of Chance, an assignment that's as much exile as promotion. But Kris isn't on the job long when she captures pirates hiding the location of an uncharted and unpopulated planet of miraculous technology.

Having used unorthodox methods to save a world - and every sentient being on it - Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife is wanted across the galaxy for crimes against humanity. For her own safety, she’s been assigned to a backwater planet where her Fast Patrol Squadron 127 enforces immigration control and smuggler interdiction. But Kris is a Longknife, and nothing can stop her from getting back to the center of things - not when all hell is breaking loose.

Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has precise orders: seek out, engage, and destroy pirates, slavers, and drug lords operating beyond the rim of human space - without interfering in Peterwald family affairs. But when slavers kidnap a 12-year-old girl, Kris's mission becomes personal. And if destroying the pirate compound flattens some Peterwald interests - well, to hell with politics.

Kris Longknife encounters some peaceful aliens who have come to warn humanity of an unidentifiable force that is roaming the galaxy, obliterating everything in its path - a path now leading directly toward the human worlds.

An original novella in the "fast-paced, exciting military SF series" featuring Kris Longknife. Kris Longknife is back home from her galactic adventures, but her entire Fleet of Discovery has been annihilated. Now, humanity finds itself at war with an alien race more monstrous than anyone could have possibly imagined. General Terrance "Trouble" Tordon, Kris’s great-grandfather, is given the task of calming the panicked politicians, some of whom blame Kris for the disaster and would like to eliminate the ever-bothersome Commander Longknife.

Kris Longknife is back in the good graces of the brass - and to demonstrate that, they've promoted her to Admiral. Now her mission is to find the home base of the space pirates who are plaguing the fringes of the galaxy. But no mission is ever simple when your name is Longknife. And this time the complications range from the military to the personal, as Kris finds herself - reluctantly - having to make some command decisions about her future....

You can't keep a good woman down - Kris Longknife returns. Once again, Kris finds herself caught in the crosshairs of unknown enemies who want her dead. Factions, both legitimate and underground, vie for control of the planet New Eden. And someone is taking advantage of the chaos to unleash a personal vendetta against Kris.

Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.

Kris Longknife had no choice about growing up rich and pampered. When she did have a choice, she joined the Marines. But now, a friend needs help halfway across the galaxy - and with a military heritage coursing through her blood, it's time for Kris Longknife to be a hero.

While summoned to the Imperial Iteeche Court to be humanity’s Emissary, it turns out that what the Iteeche really want is a fighting admiral! You see, they’ve got this huge civil war going, and the Imperial side isn’t doing so well. Kris now has command of the entire Imperial Combined Fleet. Sort of. The Iteeche Empire has a 10,000-year-long history. There is nothing that won’t say, “We’ve always done it that way,” pointing to a track record lasting for thousands of years. Even when Kris reminds them they’re losing, many have a hard time changing.

The foolish Iteeche clans that hauled Grand Admiral Kris Longknife back to the Iteeche Capital and interrupted her campaign against the rebels, are dead. Very dead. Their clans are disgraced and their palaces in ruin. However, while Kris was handling that noise, the rebels took back one of the planets she had recently captured, Arteccia, and are planning to take more. Now it's time once more again for Kris to kick butts and take names. However, life is never easy for a Human in the Iteeche Empire.