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The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.5

Chapter Five

No Time For Guilt

The strange chalk-like writing was fast becoming something of a personal hatred for Wesley. He did his best to ignore it as much as possible, but lying in his tent staring at the tarp that served as the ceiling made it a little tricky.

It was scrolling across the bloody tarp and had continued to return every time he ignored it, both last night and this morning.

He gave in and read it just to get it to go awa...

The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.4

Chapter Four

One Shot

Wes lay in the grass and tried his best to look like a rock. A few dozen feet away was a pair of Flat Horn Deer. The buck was massive, muscles rippling on its legs as it stomped one hoof. The horn he had come for lay at the feet of the victor. 

A slight disagreement over the doe would have been Wesley’s guess, but now there was a dead buck and one very happy buck. The doe didn’t seem bothered either way, which see...

The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.3

Chapter Three

Hearty Hello

Licking the rim of the upended canteen failed to miraculously summon any extra water. He tried twice more anyway and wiped his hand across his sweaty brow. Water was something they never had to think about back home. It was just always there. The only time he had thought about it at all was when he was trying to decide between regular or sparkling.

Suddenly, it all seemed much more important. 

His feet felt...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.32

Chapter 32

Exploration Mode

“Are you sure about this?” Lucy asked again. 

The AI was not used to being unable to interact directly with the world. She had a body for so long and had become so adapted to being able to affect the world around her that it was proving difficult to have that taken from her. The repairs were taking a lot longer than she had expected.

The anxiety was coming out in weird ways.

“Yes, I’m sure,�...

The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.2

Chapter Two

Hiking Blues

Wesley’s first shot went well wide of the beast. The bang was loud, but it didn’t even shy away. It kept coming: paws eating up the ground as it charged toward him with blood slathered across its muzzle. 

He adjusted the range with trembling fingers and tried to settle his breathing. The recoil kicked against his shoulders, and the hyena stumbled just for a second. He pulled the trigger again and aga...

The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.1

Chapter One

Details

“Does this look like technology from the Second World War to you?” Todd sneered as he plucked Wesley’s iPhone from his pocket.

“It certainly does not!” Andy’s sycophantic voice was as grating as nails on a chalkboard. 

“Sorry, I forgot I had it,” Wes lied. He had just been hoping no one would notice. Who included the Medic in the lineup anyway? Inspections were for troops, right?

“Look, Wes...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.31

Chapter 31

Surprises.

The security center was dark and silent when she arrived. The warning lights were out, and the messages had vanished from the walls themselves. 

Improvisation was the name of the game, and Nellie attached a spare camera from her suit to a long metal pole, using it to scan the interior of the entranceway before easing herself inside, watching the turret slots for any sign of a fresh threat.

They had destroyed the...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.30

Chapter 30

Solo

First things first. 

Nellie went over and checked out the suit Lucy was wearing. It was still showing faint power signs, but that was about all. Whatever in the suits was run by nanites had been wrecked.

Nellie was still a little low on nanites herself; the feeling of them streaming from her nanite forge was still more of a trickle than a flood. That meant repairing the suit would have to wait until her own levels wer...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.29

Chapter 29

Shutdown

There was no pain, not at first. That was the strangest thing. Large parts of her body had just shut down, but Nellie was not in any pain. It was almost enough to prevent the mounting panic, but not quite.

She lay, staring out of one eye at Lucy's blank, empty face. Slowly, a single piece of ash fell into view, drifting and swirling in the hot air until it settled on the visor, blocking her view as it landed directly in fron...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.28

Chapter 28

The Outer Ring

…..

ACCESS GRANTED!

“We’re in,” Quad hurried back away from the door as the others took positions on either side of it.

This was their first foray into an I.E.S. facility while it was still powered, and taking every precaution in the book was now their default setting. 

They wouldn’t open so much as a toilet seat without being ready to blast anything that moved. 

Nellie slowl...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.27

Chapter 27

Magma Power

“N.S.S. Indomitable, to Bly’s Rest,” Nellie called over the comm line. “We are on approach to the planet and expect to lose contact in five minutes.”

“Bly’s Rest, reading you,” Dar’s voice came back. “I have a message for you from Paren.”

“Go ahead,” Nellie replied.

“Message reads: I will have the first satellite ready in twenty-seven minutes. I can have it in orbit within two hours...

The Rifleman - Starting May 29th

Hey all,

I am looking forward to welcoming you all to my new world and introducing you to my new protagonist.

While this book is firmly rooted in the fantasy side of Science Fiction and Fantasy, I think there will be something for everyone in the tale.

As I announced earlier, this will be a special event. So, instead of a few chapters a week, there will be daily chapters right up until the book's completion. In all, it will take slightly longer than two months to pos...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.26

Chapter 26

The blinking comm line.

Crush was just sitting down at the desk that had been hurriedly set up at the base of the new tower when Nellie wandered over to eavesdrop shamelessly. True, she could have done it from where she had been standing, so this was almost the polite version.

Sort of.

Cara leaned down and whispered something to him, and Crush flicked his eyes her way and nodded off to the side of the screen. Nellie got the hin...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.25

Chapter 25

Progress Report.

“Administrator Salem to all department heads, progress report meeting in two hours,” Salem called over the nationwide announcement system. There was probably a station somewhere in the universe where that would not be necessary, but it was here on the Bly’s Rest. 

She had put thought, effort, and care into designing a lovely set of offices for the department heads to use. They were efficient, had direct li...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.24

Chapter 24

Trading

“Mister Bil-Tor, let’s talk,” Nellie smiled.

“Uh-oh,” Bil hung his head.

“What?” Nellie asked, surprised by the response. 

“That means we need to negotiate,” Bil-Tor shrugged. “I’m not exactly good at that.”

“Well, actually,” Nellie said with a grin. “For the things you asked for, we don’t. You can have the shuttle we used back on the hub for planetary travel. Keep it as ...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.23

Chapter 23

Splitsville

“So, let me get this straight,” Crush said, putting his feet up on the desk dividing him from Duke. “The council, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the residents of this quarter are the problem?” 

“That is not what I am saying,” Duke insisted. “We are offering those who do not like the direction the colony is headed the opportunity to leave and then govern themselves in another location. You will...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.22

Chapter 22

Making a bad situation worse.

“All of you fuck off; I want to speak to my brother,” Brenda said as she strode into the Council chambers.

“We are members of this Council, too,” Hadrian protested.

“Do you want to stay?” Brenda shrugged. “That's fine, but open your mouth, and I’ll shut it for you.”

“It’s good to see you,” Duke smiled. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Brenda laughed. “From what I can te...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.21

Chapter 21

A Colony in Peril.

“What are the results?” Nancy asked anxiously. “Did we win?”

“Brix has been replaced as Mayor,” Hadrian said with a frown.

“Then why, can I ask, are you frowning?” Warrick growled. “Did our candidate somehow fail to win?”

“No, but it is the numbers that are the problem,” Hadrian said, throwing the pad down on the council table. “I am beginning to think we may have made a seriou...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.20

Chapter 20

Snapshots.

“Ambassador Banjo to Bly’s Rest, Ambassador Bajo to Bly’s Rest,” He grinned into the comm handset as he made his daily call up to the station to give a progress report.

“Bly’s Rest, receiving,” Dar sighed heavily over the comm line, “And for the last time, you are not the Ambassador.”

“Yeah, well, I’m the one in charge down here, Dar, mate,” Banjo said with a wide smile. “Adds up to the same...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.19

Chapter Nineteen

Expansion

Nellie supervised loading the extra Pre Fabs into the Indomitable for a return trip to the moon. There were several of the large cubes, as well as several sets of equipment and then came Paren with her little friends.

Watching them cross the bay was like watching someone part the seas. Her four feet clocked smartly across the deck plating, almost lost by the dozens of sharp feet trotting alongside her.

The secur...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.18

Chapter 18

An old Friend.

“Captain?” Remy knocked politely on the outer hatch to her quarters, where Nellie was busy trying not to worry about the strange egg in the sands of the volcanic planet. Over a week and a half had passed since they disturbed it, and the thing had not moved, grown, or even twitched once since then. A ring of sensors now circled the area, and one of the screens in her quarters was always dedicated to those readings. <...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.17

Chapter 17

Council Meeting.

“It seems Marshall Crush has caused another problem,” Nancy said, her face twisting in distaste. 

“This was clearly not his doing,” Duke countered. “The problem is with my sister’s crew.”

“We only have his word for that,” Warrick said, sitting forward. “We all know the kind of punishment Crush, and his people hand out. Can we honestly be sure that the crew of the Last Chances was even i...

Patreon Special Release - Coming soon.

Hey all,

As I announced today, one of my weekly titles has been semi-retired.

Well, I hate to announce bad news without some good news as well.

I wanted to do something special to show my appreciation for you all, and I think I have the perfect way to do that. My new title, The Rifleman, is reaching a stage where I am happy to start releasing it, and I have decided to do so in a different way from my usual.

As such, starting in just over three weeks, I will be releasi...

Waystation - A Difficult Decision

Hey all,

As those of you who follow the story know, I am currently in the process of writing Volume 5 of The Waystation. I am sorry to say that I will not be releasing any more chapters in that Volume for a while.

The story and its characters are very dear to my heart, but I am afraid to say that it is simply not selling very well. To put it mildly, the release of the first two volumes of the story has not gone well. Initially, I had intended to continue the story anyway bu...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.16

Chapter 16

The Red Planet

Nellie's heart raced as the Resurgence pierced the upper atmosphere, plunging into a truly primordial world. The skies were a tumult of thick ash and smoke, their presence a stark reminder of the planet's volatile nature. The landscape, a vivid tableau of glowing red lava tracks and bubbling pools of acid, seemed to echo the very depths of hell.

Visibility shifted from miles to meters with very little warning as they d...

Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.15

Chapter 15

Industrious

“The first thing we need to do is build more shuttles,” Salem stated, consulting her now-packed clipboard of notes. It was strange that the synth insisted on using it, given how much easier it would have been to use a pad, especially one of the new, improved models using the scavenged I.E.S. tech. Still, there was something about actual paper that seemed to soothe the uptight woman. 

“I think it would be wiser ...

The Waystation - Vol5 - Ch.8

Chapter 8

What happened on Earth

THE SU(Rest of title Obscured) - UK Newspaper - Date Obscured

Mysterious Lights Descend on London

Widely reported instances of strange light, noises, and visions have been reported by this newspaper as being part of a more significant attempt by Russia to attack our upcoming national election, but events overnight in London have us wondering… Has our wa...