The funeral left a bad taste in John’s mouth. Part of that was from being forced into going in the first place. He didn’t feel bad about putting those men down, nor did he care about their families. If they didn’t want to die, they should have walked away.
The other part of the funeral reminded him of all the backstabbing and political maneuvering back in the old country. Considering Pappy’s age, maybe some of the other families within the Klein lineage were trying to take over....
2024-05-21 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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John walked back into town with the deer slung over his shoulder. He had made sure to dress it before taking it back, but some blood had still stained his jacket.
That was a bit annoying, but more so was what stood waiting for him at the edge of town.
A group of men appeared from an alley between one of the houses, blocking the street. The last to take his place did so with a hobbling gait and John could see a metal brace over the man’s leg. John glanced around to see everyone e...
2024-05-20 12:12:54 +0000 UTC
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The woman sighed and pulled out a wooden box from behind her desk. “Not as much as I would have liked.”
Curious, John looked inside and saw a collection of parts. Parts that he recognized. He frowned as he looked up at her.
“My Uncle was correct, the one gun was unfixable, but I was able to salvage some parts from it. This is just what’s left over.” She walked over to a locked cabinet and opened it up. It had a nice selection of scoped rifles inside.
John had wonde...
2024-05-20 11:34:48 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 20 of BSE is up! A little past the thirty days I gave myself, but not by much. Hard to believe I wrote over 115k words between Tarnished and BSE in a little over a month. Crazy! That's the equivalent of an entire book. The last time I wrote this much was when I wrote Mana System chapter for writathon, and that was only about 65k words.
With Chapter 20 of BSE out, this will be the last chapter of the quirky robot until June 3rd. But fear not! Tarnished chapters will sta...
2024-05-16 00:05:01 +0000 UTC
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Alexander found it hard to care about anything for the next few days. He simply went through the motions like he had back when he worked for Yuri. By shutting himself off from the outside world and letting his body run automatically, he didn’t need to be reminded of what was going on. This was essentially his version of sulking. Not that he could truly sulk, it was more like just letting his mind go blank.
This wasn’t the same state he entered when he accidentally created weapons. H...
2024-05-15 23:57:17 +0000 UTC
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Alexander was just finishing up a work order when Mingyu Na came through the door followed by five security officers.
He put down the tool he was holding and looked at the Captain. “So this is it then?”
“I told you when we spoke earlier that this was the most likely outcome.”
“You did. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Don’t be like this, Mr. Kane. None of the Captain’s wanted this outcome. But we have to be practical. Petrov Station only has a...
2024-05-15 01:33:30 +0000 UTC
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Mingyu sighed as he exited the conference room. It had been four long hours of back-and-forth discussions. While he despised Omni and everything they stood for, he would give the Omni representative his due, the man had done his homework.
It was annoyingly frustrating. The only real opportunity they had to keep Mr. Kane’s discoveries out of the hands of the greedy giant was to hope the man flubbed the case. With everything they had thrown at Mr. Pembrooke today, that chance was quickl...
2024-05-14 00:52:27 +0000 UTC
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When Captain Na had left, Alexander got it into his head that he could just repeat his success with Sinorus engines instead.
After doing some research on the Omni competitor, Alexander scrapped that plan. Turns out they weren’t any better than Omni. He had found dozens of articles condemning the Coalition-backed manufacturer’s shady business practices. When he tried to find similar articles on Omni, he found nothing. Considering who won the war, it wasn’t hard to figure out why.
2024-05-13 01:02:02 +0000 UTC
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Made it to Chapter 20 of Tarnished just in the nick of time. This will be the last chapter I post of Tarnished until the series goes live on RR on the 20th. I plan on doing two chapters a day for the first week on RR, so Patreon will see an additional ten chapters that week. And 5 more the following week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make 2 more weeks of that happen, but I will give it my best try.
I will also still be posting BSE chapters until I reach the 20-chapter mark. Wh...
2024-05-12 01:14:36 +0000 UTC
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With some of the armor retrieved, for study by Travis the artificer, and the unknown group seemingly vanishing into the deep wilderness, John wasn’t sure what to do.
There was the option to chase the two walkers and recover the last of the miners, who were taken prisoner, but he dismissed that idea. When he had first set out after Jacob, he had expected to encounter a group like the bandits that attacked the train. Instead, it was a group that was well organized, well funded, and work...
2024-05-12 01:04:28 +0000 UTC
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John helped to remove the remaining corpses from the suits. He wasn’t a stranger to moving corpses around, unfortunately.
The bodies were all piled up near the first one that Travis had bisected in his rush. The smell had already attracted birds, which likely meant larger predators weren’t far behind.
When he turned back around, he found Travis eagerly inspecting one of the suits. John was forced to throw a small rock at him to get his attention.
The man jerked. “Huh?...
2024-05-11 00:35:24 +0000 UTC
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Let me apologize for not getting these chapters updated to the lower tier sooner. I had so much going on this morning with the RR launch that it completely slipped my mind.
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“So, what did you think of him?” Mingyu asked as he and Eva walked through the garden district that ran along the shopping center of the eighth ring. This was one of his rare visits to the station, and he intended t...
2024-05-09 23:38:42 +0000 UTC
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After finishing a recent repair job, Alexander decided to take a break and head down to the terminal to order some supplies as a few of his printer materials were running low. And maybe check his merchant account to see how much money his patent had earned him.
When he checked his account, he was surprised to see a message waiting for him.
Hello Mr. Kane,
You don’t know me but a mutual Captain friend told me of your improvements. I was skeptical until I checke...
2024-05-08 22:46:25 +0000 UTC
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“I can’t fix that scrap, but perhaps, with some luck, I can make you a new one,” The man relented after John vehemently complained. “But don’t expect something as crude as that firearm. We may be in the ass end of nowhere, but we aren’t savages.”
John ignored the unintentional barb. He had heard worse over the years. “A pneuma rifle won’t do. Not if this group comes back.”
The crazy-haired man scoffed. “It’s not like you're hunting big game. You need someth...
2024-05-08 00:17:11 +0000 UTC
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John followed the trail back through the hills until he came to a fork in the path. There was a fresh tail leading straight south, he tugged his horse to follow the trail. About an hour after that, he caught up to the group of survivors.
They were sitting around a fire, eating some small game. Since nobody but the Sheriff had a gun, he was pretty sure it was him who had taken down the animals. Honestly, John was surprised the group had made it this far considering their condition.
2024-05-06 23:47:46 +0000 UTC
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Theodore Pembrooke smiled when the ramp to his ship finally closed. There were two reasons for his happy mood. The first was he could finally remove the ridiculous helmet and vac-suit. Despite the tailored fit, it was still annoying to move around in and it had served its purpose anyway. Now the Captains would think of him as some scared planetsider. A bit of simple misdirection to throw them off and get them to underestimate him. Theo was born and raised aboard a starship. He didn’t even s...
2024-05-05 22:12:54 +0000 UTC
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Mingyu stomped down the ramp of his ship, steam still billowing off the cooling thrusters. He was annoyed. More than annoyed, he was angry.
His ship the Moonlit Destiny had planned for a six-month deployment in Gliese 667’s outer belt to look for and extract precious metals. Less than three weeks into the trip, he received a communication to return. And for nothing other than some pompous core worlder here to throw his weight around. The Destiny’s sensor officer had picked up the sh...
2024-05-05 21:51:09 +0000 UTC
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Alexander tossed the six bent and twisted pieces of junk that had been weapons into the smelter. After almost having two customers accidentally stumble upon him making one of the restricted weapons, he determined that anything he could learn from keeping them around did not outweigh the risks of getting caught with them.
A few people did glance his way, but it was only passing interest at him, rather than what he was melting down. After about twenty minutes, the machine spat out six dif...
2024-05-05 01:20:29 +0000 UTC
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Wilkes walked up to stand next to the Captain. It had been about a week since they arrived but it was finally time to leave. The robot had just finished the last of the repairs and packed up his printer. He didn’t have anything against the robot, or the person supposedly controlling it. He just didn’t like things he couldn’t understand.
“You sure about this Captain? Or should I start calling you Jasper now?” The pilot asked in jest.
The Captain glanced over at him before...
2024-05-05 00:58:17 +0000 UTC
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John was awoken by someone nudging his leg. It wasn’t the nudge that got his attention though, it was the flare of pain from his still-injured leg that did that. He immediately realized he had passed out after the attack. Either through shock or blood loss, he couldn’t say. But somehow he was still breathing.
“You alive?” The Sheriff asked.
John’s response was a groan as he opened his eyes. “What happened to the last enemy?”
“Funny thing, that. Some of the wo...
2024-05-03 23:57:05 +0000 UTC
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“You done?” John asked. He knew he looked like hell warmed over. His outfit was chared and torn where it wasn’t covered in dirt and pine sap.
“Almost,” The man chuckled. “So, Mr. Gunslinger, what’s next.”
John took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, grimacing at all the dirt he felt. “I can’t imagine they didn’t hear the explosion. So either we are walking into another trap, or our quarry will be gone. Either way, I suggest you pray if you believe...
2024-05-03 00:21:53 +0000 UTC
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Alexander peered into the engine cone of the Zephyr. It had been perforated in a dozen places and a large chunk was missing off of one side.
He was pretty sure he could fix it if he had a big enough printer. But he didn’t and that wasn’t the problem. Other components of the engine were also damaged. It was a miracle the thing hadn’t exploded.
Alexander lowered himself using the industrial lift. It was time to break the bad news to Captain Daniel.
He found the man speak...
2024-05-02 00:56:36 +0000 UTC
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The Zephyr limped into Pertrov Station trailing a thin line of smoke from its port engine. The smoke came from the ruptured electronics systems along the side of the ship and not the fuel system, thankfully.
An undocumented asteroid, that was too small for their scanner to pick up, punched through their deflector shield. The shield slowed it down significantly, but the foot-long rock still tore a large gash down the rear of the ship. The Zephyr was an old ship, so it had its fair share ...
2024-04-30 23:51:04 +0000 UTC
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John was surprised to see the Sheriff ready and waiting for him as he rode up the next day.
The man flicked his cigarette on the ground and crushed it underfoot. “You’re late.”
“And you’re early. You ready? We won’t be stopping until dark.”
Instead of answering, the man swung himself into the saddle of his horse and turned it toward him. “Don’t worry about me, I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.”
John acknowledged the man’s words with a slight t...
2024-04-30 01:14:36 +0000 UTC
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John didn’t know who this Jacob fellow was, but he had to have some presence about him to con forty-plus workers into following him in the wrong direction.
Considering what he knew so far, he suspected that might be deliberate misdirection to throw anyone off his trail. If John were trying to stay out of sight, he would have done the same. Head out East, and then turn North until he was heading back West. Well outside the city and any possible spotters.
Being hours old, the trai...
2024-04-30 00:49:06 +0000 UTC
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John walked into the Foreman’s bedroom alone. The Sheriff had left shortly after the Doc, taking the Deputy with him to wait outside for the undertaker.
That was probably for the best, especially with the Sheriff’s bubbling resentment of him. John didn’t take it personally, he had experienced targeted hate for who he was, what he was, and what he did more times than he could count. The man would either get over it or he wouldn’t.
As he stepped through the doorway into the ...
2024-04-29 00:47:18 +0000 UTC
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After rounding up the bodies and securing the guns, John found a fallen log to sit on. He grimaced as he sat down, finally acknowledging the pain he had been in for most of the fight.
John might be tougher and faster than most people, thanks to his unique circumstances, but that didn’t mean he was invincible. With a grimace of pain, he gingerly removed his overcoat. The thick leather of the coat had fared quite well against the bullets fired at range, but he saw at least two holes in ...
2024-04-29 00:29:25 +0000 UTC
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Yulia returned a few days later. He didn’t ask why she hadn’t shown up the prior day, and she didn’t offer. She just sat back on her stool and started talking.
Initially, when the girl first showed up, Alexander didn’t want her around because he assumed she would disrupt his work or injure herself. There was still that chance, but the more she talked, the more he was glad for her company.
It didn’t take him long to realize why. He hadn’t had a proper conversation with ...
2024-04-28 00:38:45 +0000 UTC
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As you can probably imagine, the breadth of knowledge a seven-year-old has about history isn’t great. Despite that, and the fact that Yulia liked to go on random tangents, Alexander did actually learn some things.
He learned about a war that took place. Yulia only knew of this fact because her father had served aboard a ship but the war had ended before she was born. He was curious as to the timeline of this war. Maybe it would explain how he ended up out here. Alexander woul...
2024-04-26 23:23:46 +0000 UTC
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John knew using himself as bait was a dumb idea, but he had no better options. At least none that would allow him to get to his horse before getting shot in the back. Things weren’t all bad, he still had a range advantage once he reached the remains of the camp. The pneuma rifles may be accurate but they were only lethal out to about four hundred yards or so. Past that, you might be able to hit your target, but you were more likely to piss it off rather than kill or wound it. His long rifle...
2024-04-25 23:58:19 +0000 UTC
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