M.J. Markgraf

BSE Chapter 6-41

“You want to arm the guard forces with a full military kit?” Damien asked dubiously.

“I would prefer not to, but if the Shican reach the ground, the guards are going to need every advantage they can get just to survive. And not just them. I want to arm every single person who is trained in hand-to-hand combat or weapons of any kind.”

“Everyone?”

Alexander nodded.

“You’re putting the kill switches in the suits and weapons, right?”

“No,” he re...

Corebound Chapter 11

Jacob spent the next few minutes querying the station AI and reading the documents it provided to see if he could learn more, but the computer was nearly as useless as Melody when it came to specifics. This time, it wasn’t because it was damaged; it just didn’t have the information.

Apparently, whoever decided to decommission the site hadn’t seen any reason to inform the AI as to why.

The Sovard Accord didn’t cover any specifics about the station either. It was more of a b...

BSE Chapter 6-40

And I'm back! I hope everyone had a good holiday if you're in the US. If not, I hope your week was as relaxing and productive as mine. Without further ado, enjoy the chapter.

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“What’s up, Alex?” Lucas asked the moment he entered the conference room.

“I’ll discuss it in a moment, just waiting for one more person.”

Lucas shrugged, then greeted Rush and the others before taking a seat and grilling th...

BSE Chapter 6-39

Thesska didn’t need to order his people to fire; they knew their jobs. When he glanced at the tactical display, he was surprised to see that the humans had arrived so far away. They were barely within range of lasers, but they were approaching rapidly.

“How many ships?”

“A little over two hundred, Emperor,” the sensor operator responded.

Less than a third of his fleet size? What the hell were the humans thinking? Were they making a last stand or were—he cut that ...

Corebound Chapter 10

Jacob’s drone waited in front of the large cargo door as an overhead light flashed in warning. At least he assumed it was a warning.

Then the door groaned open, and a wall of air slammed into his drone. The heavy unit only rocked slightly, but if he had been standing there in person, he probably would have been knocked off his feet.

Eventually, the wind started to die down, and with it came the sound of a wailing alarm and a prerecorded message. “Alert, docking bay pressure mi...

BSE Chapter 6-38

G-1 floated next to other units exactly like it. They waited in deep space, invisible and silent, but ready to act as soon as they received orders. Eventually, a vessel appeared. They and the other sixty-four units like them had been activated, and it was time to carry out their missions.

The EFEC swordfish relayed their new instructions before vanishing once again. The group quickly verified the information. Two of them split off from the others to carry out the primary strikes that ha...

Vacation

I'll be taking next week off for the holiday. Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving if you're in the US. If not, it's still a good time of the year to spend with family.

Corebound Chapter 9

Jacob worked his jaw as he rubbed at his temples, wishing he could make the lingering pain go away. Choosing to go with only one information packet had been the right choice. The eiraxins were also monsters for including simulated pain in a virtual space.

He could sort of understand why they had included pain responses. Much like with a real body, pain was an indicator to stop doing something. That didn’t mean he had to like it. So far, the only upside to being digital was not having ...

BSE Chapter 6-37

“Hello, Mr. Kane. It’s been over a year since we last spoke. We assumed you passed off all correspondence to Admiral Krieger.”

Alexander used his avatar to smile awkwardly at Admiral Patel’s comment. Part of that awkwardness was because he had retaken his old robotic form before meeting with them. He thought it wouldn’t be such a big deal since he had lived that way for years, but being back in his robot body made him feel wrong.

“Sorry for that. With the war ...

BSE Chapter 6-36

SYSTEM: STAGING GROUND

DATE: 2405

It had taken a few months, but they had arrived at the system they named Staging Ground to collect the last of the stragglers from human space, and to top it off, Thesska was in a fantastic mood.

Thesska had just finished purging the commanders who had failed to return to the armada when he ordered them to. Most had been aware of what awaited them, but they could not refuse an imperial edict without casting their entire clan into exile. Desp...

Corebound Chapter 8

The door to the main power facility rumbled open, shaking the entire floor. Jacob was sure something wasn’t working right inside the structure, but he wasn’t concerned about the mechanism behind the door, so long as it opened.

It did require power, similar to when he had to open the fabrication center door, but instead of recklessly jamming exposed wires from his drone into the door control, he came up with another solution. One he was quite proud of, if he did say so himself.

BSE Chapter 6-35

SYSTEM: UNKNOWN

DATE: 2404

Twelve vessels appeared outside of the unnamed system, their passive scanners quickly cataloging the system traffic before they moved on to avoid detection. Their stealth composite hid them from most sensors, but they knew the enemy sensor ships could penetrate that passive defense, given time.

Their job wasn’t to target every single Shican world; it was to locate the enemy’s manufacturing hubs and capital and strike those places after the data...

Blue Star Enterprises Book 1 is out now!

Trapped in a robotic shell, one man must reclaim a future he can't remember.

In a distant future, Alexander scrapes by in a rundown repair shop while secretly searching for answers to his fragmented past. He has skills he can’t explain and only foggy glimpses of who he used to be.

His solitary quest takes an unexpected turn when he crosses paths with a sharp-witted ...

Corebound Chapter 7

Now that the fabrication center was up and running and all of Jacob’s cobbled-together repairs were replaced with proper components, he checked the work lists that Melody had created.

He was confused at first when the fabrication center was absent on both lists, until he realized it must be showing as green. It took a few cycles to figure out how to access that report, but he managed to do it thanks to the tip Melody had provided before it went offline again.

He was right. Sitti...

BSE Chapter 6-34

LOCATION: EDEN’S END

SYSTEM: UNOKANE

DATE: 2404

Alexander and Lucas watched from the control room as the twelve EFEC Swordfish undocked from the old temporary ring station, which had been upgraded many times over and turned into a military anchorage.

“How long did you say it would take for these to reach the Shican’s border?” Lucas asked as the ships maneuvered into formation.

“A week to be on the safe side,” Alexander replied.

Technically, they...

BSE Chapter 6-33

The pair of automated stealth ships trailed the enemy resupply vessels as they communicated back and forth through their tight beam laser link to determine the best course of action.

“We need to alert the fleet,” the first vessel said.

“Obviously,” the second vessel replied. “We need to determine an attack plan first.”

“That wasn’t part of our mission,” the first vessel added.

“No, but it will improve the odds of success,” the second replied.

BSE Chapter 6-32

SYSTEM: ULFRHEIM

DATE: 2404

The fleet dropped out of warp, and Vitor gave an order to adjust their course ninety degrees from the world as he waited impatiently for the sensors to update. Soon enough, the long-range data started coming in, and it was a wall of red.

“Any sign of the Union fleet?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“No, Admiral,” the sensor operator confirmed a moment later.

He wasn’t surprised to hear that. Char had been pretty clear ...

BSE Chapter 6-31

SYSTEM: EDEN’S END

DATE: 2404

“Is there anything you can do?” Krieger asked over the comm.

The Asgardian and BSE fleets had pulled back after the destruction of Skarn. While no lives were lost in that attack, that didn’t mean they were winning. Krieger’s plan to keep the enemy’s breakaway fleets occupied to hopefully stall the advance of the Shican armada had worked, for a time.

Unfortunately, the Grand Commander was a much more aggressive leader.

“...

BSE Chapter 6-30

Thesska clenched his teeth together so hard, he could hear them creak audibly, but he didn’t stop as his subordinate continued his report.

“Three more clan fleets have reported they were under attack by human forces. Their comm connections went dark shortly after their last communication. Other commanders are demanding to join the hunt, and are starting to show signs of succumbing to their bloodlust. What would you like us to do, Grand Commander?”

Thesska knew what the human...

Corebound Chapter 6

No Corebound chapters next week.

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Despite the damage to the rest of the ship, the fabrication center was in relatively good shape. It wasn’t undamaged, but there weren’t any rents open to space or entire sections of wall or ceiling collapsed.

Jacob spent time going over every device, which took quite some time since he had to sort through the data that Melody had given him. When he was done, he had a ...

BSE Chapter 6-29

Even though Alexander had his answer for how to work around the gravitational bleeding issue, it still took a full day of simulation testing to find a configuration that both worked and wasn’t so complex that it would be a nightmare to maintain.

His idea to wrap the gravity plate was a good one, but the inhibitor had to be tuned and placed at a slight angle so it focused the field to a certain point, almost like a lens. Unlike a lens, however, it wasn’t amplifying the gravity; it wa...

Corebound Chapter 5

Jacob stared at the large open rent in the corridor that spanned twice the length of his drone and gave him a nice view of the stars outside the ship. He had finally located an unblocked path, and this was it.

He mentally cursed and tried contacting Melody again, but there was still no response. He couldn’t be sure, but he would bet it had been days since they last spoke. He was starting to get worried.

He may not entirely trust the scatterbrained and damaged AI, but it was key ...

BSE Chapter 6-28

Alexander’s comm pinged. When he read the message, he smiled. Then he yelled loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “Good news, Krieger’s mission was successful!”

The room erupted into cheers. Alexander was glad he was here with the engineers to celebrate the victory. The victory wouldn’t have been possible without their diligent work while he was gone.

Alexander celebrated with them, but internally, he knew the victory would only slow the Shican down. Humanity ne...

BSE Chapter 6-27

Vitor cursed and rubbed at his arm. He had been walking along when the plating in front of him failed. It caused him to tip forward, landing hard when the next plate’s gravity pulled him back down.

He knew he should be using the mag boots, but they slowed him down too much. He took minor solace in the fact that he was not alone. Half the fleet was reporting partial gravity disruptions aboard their ships, and the problem was growing with each passing day. He would have reached out to C...

Corebound Chapter 4

Now that Jacob had a working power core and new treads, he needed new arms and another set of treads. He wanted to get the other unit mobile so he wasn’t relying on a single damaged drone.

On that topic, he bumped against the other maintenance drone and managed to push it out of the gap in the floor that it had been trapped in. He jumped to the other unit and tried to move it back on its own recognizance, but the smooth wheels had little traction on the metal flooring.

Instead o...

BSE Chapter 6-26

The fleet departed the next day, and Alexander wished them good hunting. With the existing gate network, they would arrive at the front in just under two weeks.

Based on the Grand Commander’s estimated whereabouts, the fleet would have just under a week to enact their plan before the Shican leader arrived to take control of the armada. The most recent reports showed that the enemy fleet was already starting to act more unified as the Grand Commander got closer, which was a weird thing...

Corebound Chapter 3

Jacob had to pause. He was pretty sure the AI had just taken a dig at the U.S. for not adopting the metric system. Honestly, it was probably justified. The whole imperial units of measure were dumb. He had grown up learning them in school, and he couldn’t even recall half of them. Like, how long was a mile in feet?

He shook his head. Those were thoughts for another time. “Melody, please have the drones repair themselves and get started on the fabrication center.”

“I’m af...

BSE Chapter 6-25

Alexander felt the vibrations in the floor as the shuttles took off outside. He had never noticed those in his previous body, and wondered just what else he had missed as he walked into the defunct GS facility.

Most of the massive warehouse had been emptied out at some point, but he did see a few racks along the outer wall still filled with crates of gravity plates.

The room was filled with engineers and workers, all going over the plans for the new manufacturing line. Lucas was h...

BSE Chapter 6-24

Alexander and Four were nearly done making the changes when Yulia and Serina walked in.

His daughter hopped up on the far side of the workbench to use it as a seat while Serina came over to work with Four.

“Can you finish the rest?” Alexander asked.

Four nodded.

He thanked her and walked over to speak to Yulia. Before he did, he cleared his throat and gave her a pointed look. She seemed to realize what she was doing wrong and hopped off the workbench.

“Sorr...

Corebound Chapter 2

Without seeing any other option, Jacob agreed. “Fine, I’ll be your captain.” He had no idea what that entailed, but it certainly seemed better than dying. “Is there like an oath or anything?”

“No, Jacob. All I required was your agreement. The merging process shall begin shortly.”

“Huh? Merging process? I don’t like the sound of that. Can’t I, you know, sit in a chair and give you commands?” Jacob tried to struggle, but quickly realized the foolishness of that...