Mostrando resultados por autor "Chris Kennedy" en Todas las categorías

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.

It’s the 22nd century. The galaxy has opened up to humanity as a hyperactive beehive of stargates and new technologies, and we suddenly find ourselves in a vast playground of different races, environments, and cultures. There’s just one catch: We are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain, and there’s only one way for humanity to move up - by becoming mercenaries. In every mercenary’s life, though, there comes a time when things go wrong and even the best laid plans go awry.

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.

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.

The Dusman have accepted the Humans as allies but have given no indications as to what their long-term intentions are. Their goals have to be large, though, as they continue to spread their influence across the Human colonies…and beyond. Fighting continues to rage between the guilds, both in the shadows and out in the open for all to see. Although one of the Synthetic Intelligences has been killed, the others are now restive, acting from the shadows to affect events galaxy-wide. As the end of The Guild Wars draws near, one thing is certain—the tempest will rage until the very end.

Staff Sergeant Markus ‘Spartan’ Nicolos is one of the Intelligence Department’s best. A hacker who can beat any code, he’s in charge of communications intercepts for the Golden Horde’s Computer Operations section. Spartan used to be a frontline CASPer pilot - until he lost his entire squad in an ambush. He also lost his edge in the attack, and he swore he would never pilot a CASPer in combat again. Everything changed, though, when he came up with an idea for a new type of scout CASPer - one that would prevent what happened to him from ever happening again.

Caledin knew he could never go home. Two decades after losing his family to Zhretennais saboteurs, the former Ajenite naval officer made his living as a pirate, prowling the shipping lanes and picking off rich Zhretennais merchant vessels. For the most part, he’s content, and he tells himself often that the Free Ship Rampart and his crew are all the family he’ll ever need again. But then the Rampart stumbles upon a strange lifepod deep in the black nothingness of space. And against all the odds, the occupant in stasis—a girl named Siolene with ancient, royal DNA—is still alive.

From the outside, The Lyon’s Den doesn’t look like much; there isn’t even a sign. But Mercs of all species know that if you head to Southwest Houston, near the Starport, there’s a particular run-down strip mall that looks like it’s been abandoned for years. The glass door second from the south end of the strip is plastered over on the inside with blue paper, and the faint golden outline of a rampant lion is the only clue.

On the African savanna, the male lion is the lord who watches over his family, while the females of the clan do the real work. Joel “The Lyon” Lyons thought that owning a mercenary company would be similar—he could sit back and allow the Lyoness to run the Pride. Everything would go well, money from successfully completed contracts would flow like water into his bank accounts, and everything would be as easy as it had been for him when he’d owned a chain of highly successful restaurants.

Edited by Jamie Ibson and Chris Kennedy, We Dare is a collection of 15 all-new stories that explores the use of augmented humanity in the near future. From getting a new personality loaded with the skills you need for a mission to nanobots that keep you from being killed to creating an indestructible tank, anything is possible!

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.

Thirteen outstanding authors. Thirteen aviation stories that never happened. Throughout the human experience, historians have wondered, “What if?” What if Americans had fought on the side of Germany in World War I? What if Germany had invested in naval aviation in World War II? What if Russia had started World War III? Wonder no more, for these questions, along with many others, are answered within this audiobook.

Taylor Van Zant, the owner of Swamp Eagle Security, thought he was doing a good thing when he destroyed the slave ring operating out of Droxis, even though the slavers blew up the red diamond mine there as they tried to escape. Unfortunately, the mine belonged to the synthetic intelligence running the Merchant Guild, and it was…displeased with the mine’s destruction, so it put out a death contract on all the members of Swamp Eagle Security.

The Sutton siblings have pulled off the unthinkable—they defeated a Cowlee force led by one of the princes and returned with more forces than Terra previously had at its disposal. But the Cowlee fleet remains in the Sirius system, unsuspecting, waiting for the return of a prince who will never be back, and the Suttons have an idea on how to make the fleet their own. With very little to lose and everything to gain, the general authorizes their plan, hoping to gain an edge they desperately need over the alien Cowlees.

The Dusman offered to let humanity become their servitors, but the leaders of Earth’s Four Horsemen were unified in their decision: No, thanks. With the Dusman returning in strength, though, and steadily growing their influence and armed presence, humanity finds itself in a difficult place. The Guild War continues to rage, with planets becoming increasingly desperate for nonexistent help, while the Mercenary Guild continues to sit on its hands, despite Nigel Shirazi’s attempts to break the deadlock.

With the Merc Guild opening up contracts again, it’s Zuul eat Zuul to get one, as there are far more companies looking for work than there are contracts to be had. So when Taylor Van Zant gets an inside line on a 30-million-credit contract for Swamp Eagle Security, he races to Karma to throw his hat in the ring. Unfortunately, Taylor arrives to find that the other North Florida mercenary company - the River Hawk Defense Group - is also bidding, and Taylor is forced to watch as they steal the contract out from under the Eagles.

Harmon Tomeral and his friends wanted nothing more than to go to space, and they have beaten the odds, time and again, to get there. They developed a mech and won the Top Fleet Marine competition. They brought back a battle cruiser 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.

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.

Salvage System is a beacon of hope, and a number of other races continue looking toward it as an inspiration for how to live and govern themselves, and - in some cases - for assistance in defending themselves and throwing off oppressive regimes. But the galaxy is a big place, and many of the races in it aren’t friendly. Would these forces like to take over Salvage System and acquire its resources? Absolutely.

With Alexis Cromwell shot in the back by her XO and the fleet in ruins, the Humans have run back to New Warsaw to lick their wounds, but the Merc Guild now knows the location of their hidden base, and they are in hot pursuit. Led by the New Era, a dreadnought built for the sole purpose of destroying humanity, they are an unstoppable force.