M.J. Markgraf

BSE Chapter 4-63

When the collective arrived on the outskirts of the Shican system, they expected to find a sizable fleet. What they found was an entire invasion armada along with fixed installations.

“This did not spring up overnight over even over a month,” One said as he looked over the groups of ships, which included massive Shican battleships that differed from the ones that fought them for the other gate. “I do believe some of those belong to the ruling caste.”

The ruling caste of Sh...

BSE Chapter 4-62

By the time they broke orbit, the ships had been given clearance to depart. Alexander was certain nobody was happy with the arrangement, but he didn’t much care. His priority was to leave Sol as soon as possible to prevent another attack.

He did receive a few concerned calls from Councilor Young and Vice Councilor Coronado, but he ignored them for now. They were likely worried about the future of their deal with him, but he had more important concerns on his mind.

The shuttle do...

BSE Chapter 4-61

Alexander and his guards stepped outside after the sounds of the shuttle’s engines died down. He smiled as Yulia was jogging over to meet him, along with her guards and Dog. She seemed in high spirits and, going by the look on her face, had plenty to talk about.

“Alex!” she greeted him excitedly.

Alexander chuckled and picked up his daughter as she ran over to him, cradling her in his arms. “Had a good day, I take it?”

She nodded before looking embarrassed. “Can ...

BSE Chapter 4-60

“As you stated in your previous response, you were associated with Vice Admiral Fletcher. What sort of association was that?”

“That is not what I said,” Alexander responded.

“W-what? You just said so a few minutes ago,” the speaker stated indignantly.

Alexander sighed. “No. What you asked was if I had dealings with him. And I said I did.”

“That implies an association, Mr. Kane.”

“Not to me. I had dealings with the Vice Admiral for services; ...

BSE Chapter 4-59

Alexander spent the rest of the day shuttling his bots down to begin construction. To say his activities sparked interest would be an understatement. Both construction zones generated quite a crowd as his bots quickly set about laying down the building outlines.

He didn’t have the same infrastructure as he did back on Eden’s End to rely on, so he was forced to hire a foreman and bring in external materials like concrete and structural components for the buildings, but the bots handl...

BSE Chapter 4-58

Ezekiel stepped out of the bathroom after showering and dressing for the day, only to be met by the same shadowy man who worked for his father, and a very recognizable case. Doing his best not to appear surprised that the man had gotten into his hotel room, he sat on the couch across from him and waited.

The man smirked and handed Ezekiel a manila envelope. “Our target’s itinerary. We don’t want to spook him on arrival and chance him getting back to his shuttle before we can grab ...

BSE Chapter 4-57

After returning to the ship, Alexander needed something to take his mind off what happened in Arizona. At least that was his plan before his comm beeped.

He looked at it and grimaced. The STO finally called back and was waiting for a response. With a sigh, he headed for the bridge. He could take the call in his quarters, but Yulia was in there studying, and he didn’t wish to disturb her.

“Alex, I’m glad you’re back,” Vigbrand said as Alexander entered the bridge. “I wo...

BSE Chapter 4-56

“Alex, I’m glad you’re back. The STO has been contacting us every hour to try and reach you,” Vigbrand said as soon as Alexander stepped off the shuttle.

“They have?” he asked. “What did they want?”

“They want to schedule the inquiry as soon as possible. It seems something crawled up their butt recently and now they are in a hurry.”

“It probably has something to do with the Xin attacking the STO,” Alexander stated as he pondered the request. If the Na...

BSE Chapter 4-55

The Xin attacked STO space? Alexander hadn’t thought much about the Xin forces since leaving Unokane. Their attacks on the Asgardian border had continued but they had been pushed back thanks to his automated ships reaching the fleets and bolstering the Asgardian ranks.

Even the stealth satellites had noticed a slowdown in Xin forces being moved toward the border. Thanks to the comm nodes, that information had been communicated to Katalynn and her people, allowing the Asgardian forces ...

Announcement!

Sorry to disappoint everyone, this is not another chapter. More disappointment to follow.

Starting next week and lasting for about a month, I will be reducing chapter output to 3 a week, Mon, Wed, Fri. I don't want to do that, but I find myself running out of time with the extra work I must spend on editing and prepping book one for launch, along with all my other responsibilities. I will admit, there was a lot of extra work involved with prepping an audiobook that I did not anticipate....

BSE Chapter 4-54

Ezekiel glanced around to ensure nobody was following him before stepping into the alley. When he awoke, he found a note that had been slipped under his door with just an address and a time on it. He would have dismissed it if it hadn’t been for his family logo on the page.

His family’s people had finally reached out to him.

Ezekiel was surprised it had taken them so long. He had been on Earth for weeks now and had plenty of time to drink his woes away after Admiral Dufresne a...

BSE Chapter 4-53

Alexander was not at all surprised by Mr. Young’s reaction. It was pretty on par with how he expected most people to react upon seeing him for the first time.

Before they made it to the building entrance, the crowd and reporters had recovered from their shock as well, and Alexander caught snippets of questions thrown his way.

From the reporters it was stuff like, ‘Is that robot a standard BSE model? Is that what you used to defeat Harlow’s fleet, etc.’ It was rather ridicu...

BSE Chapter 4-52

Alexander deftly landed the shuttle in the assigned area. He had been surprised to learn the UEC headquarters were located where the UN had once been. He supposed there was some long-standing significance to having that as its location.

The land around the building wasn’t owned by the US anymore, or technically the NAA, it was considered STO land and thus neutral ground for the world leaders to congregate on.

He had seen the massive crowd and bevy of reporters as he came in for ...

BSE Chapter 4-51

LOCATION: UNITED EARTH COUNCIL HEADQUARTERS

SYSTEM: SOL

DATE: 2403

“Do you know what this emergency session is about?” Frank Young asked in concern as he grabbed his jacket from his Vice Councilor and threw it on before hurrying toward the door. He was new to the council position for the North American Alliance, but hardly new to politics. Still, in his decade of work within the ten-nation alliance that included the entirety of North America down through Panama, the UEC ...

BSE Chapter 4-50

Alexander was able to learn quite a bit in the few days he spent at the archives. The information he transferred directly to his tablet gave a great deal of insight into what his diplomatic position allowed him to do.

He wasn’t exempt from laws, but there did need to be actual evidence to convict him of any such wrongdoing. Any evidence used against him had to go through two separate independent experts before it could be brought before a court, with one of those groups being picked b...

BSE Chapter 4-49

SYSTEM: SOL

DATE: 2403

Alexander had a surreal sense of déjà vu upon returning to a home he only vaguely recalled from half-fragmented memories. He once again wondered how he ended up inside a robot body on the far end of human-controlled space.

While he hadn’t pursued that thread very diligently in recent years as other, more important things pulled at his attention, he still planned on uncovering those secrets at some point.

He doubted Earth would have any answer...

BSE Chapter 4-48

The first thing Alexander noticed once they undocked was that their shadow had vanished. That was less comforting than he hoped. He would have preferred to keep an eye on someone who might have nefarious intentions.

That being said, he wasn’t about to sit around and wait for them to pop back up. The fleet formed up and headed toward the jump point. It would be another month-and-a-half-long journey to reach Sol if everything went smoothly. It was hard to believe that Unokane was about ...

BSE Chapter 4-47

Alexander exited the hangar with his two guards, leaving Yulia behind. She hadn’t been happy about not getting to explore the new station, but after what Krieger told him about the system, he didn’t trust anyone in Epsilon Indi.

He also thought it was fishy for a company such as Gravitational Solutions to set up in such a place. The only reason Alexander could think of for doing that was that they were doing things they didn’t want known.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the...

BSE Chapter 4-46

The fleet lined up to jump through the hypergate. This wasn’t the first time Alexander had gone through a hypergate, but it was the first chance he got to watch it happen in such detail.

The last time he had gone through one was aboard Zephyr. Alexander loved Jasper’s transport ship, but it didn’t have the same quality of sensors and optics as a dedicated military vessel. After many upgrades and years of improvement, Alexander knew the sensors and optics aboard Grace were now more...

BSE Chapter 4-45

Ganos City was a few hours away if Alexander traveled like a conventional flight route. He didn’t plan on wasting that much time though. One of his stipulations for meeting with the governor was the ability to transition using a quicker sub-orbital hop so he could take advantage of the shuttle's much faster speed outside of the atmosphere. That would cut over an hour off the trip.

While traffic control wasn’t too thrilled about the change, they sent him the flight plan. Soon, Alexan...

BSE Chapter 4-44

As the group entered a conference room, Mr. Baru was the first to speak. “I’ll be perfectly honest, Mr. Kane. Your arrival in Ganos has caused quite a stir.”

“It has?” Alexander asked in surprise. He knew that was the case in smaller systems, but he had assumed a system as busy as Ganos would be used to such things.

Baru chuckled. “Indeed. While some corporations have their own armed ships, they are rarely seen in such numbers. Even when they are, it is usually a few g...

BSE Chapter 4-43

Before they left Varlen, Alexander had to declare his route. Civilian ships weren’t required to do that, but his ships were armed and fell into a grey area within STO law. The poor crew left behind to man the station while it was being decommissioned were just trying to cover their own asses. He could hardly blame them for that.

Alexander wasn’t bothered by the request. Willard was already aware of where he planned to go, and the man could have passed that information on to anyone b...

BSE Chapter 4-42

Bonus chapter to celebrate hitting 200 chapters on RR. Enjoy!

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“This is unacceptable!” Willard screeched over the video call. “The orders specifically stated that you were allowed to bring a diplomatic vessel. Normally that is an unarmed vessel, but I let that slide. Bringing an entire fleet is out of the question.”

Alexander was glad Yulia wasn’t on the bridge to witness the grown man�...

BSE Chapter 4-41

The party was over and Alexander left the apartment bright and early the next day while he let Yulia sleep in.

Before stepping out, he left a note for her to spend the rest of the day with her friends. He would pick her up when it was time to leave.

A little while later, Alexander strode into the new Navy Command Center. If you could even call it that. The area consisted of three converted rooms in Atrium D. One was Krieger’s office, while the other office was shared by his othe...

BSE Chapter 4-40

After tracking down Katalynn and returning to his office for a chat, Alexander asked, “Did you know how the Lokis function?”

“I did,” she admitted. “As do all Jarls. Even though they say they do it to grow trust, it tends to cause fewer Jarls to seek their service.”

“Gee, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to work with people who have multiple personalities,” Alexander stated sarcastically. “And if you knew, why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Woul...

BSE Chapter 4-39

Katalynn strode into Alexander’s workshop a few hours later. “You’re in luck, Jarl Kane. With a bit of physical persuasion, my people managed to convince the Loki aboard Valkyrie to come down and speak with you. He is in your office.”

Alexander winced at that. “Roughing the man up wasn’t necessary.”

She snorted. “He wasn’t harmed, just brought against his will. I suggest you go speak with Loki before he finds a way to escape from your office. Two of my people are...

BSE Chapter 4-38

Two weeks later, the Asgardian delegation arrived. It consisted of Katalynn’s entire fleet, but only the Valkyrie would be accompanying Alexander on his trip to Sol.

Since he had been aware of their arrival, he had taken steps to ensure there was no knee-jerk reaction from the Blueridge.

Thankfully, Captain Rhys was a lot more level-headed than Willard. He actually contacted Alexander as soon as he learned of the warships.

“Mr. Kane, going by the fact that your fleet has...

BSE Chapter 4-37

“While I was impressed by the ship schematics, I’m rather looking forward to seeing the interior,” Krieger admitted from the copilot’s seat in the shuttle.

They weren’t alone on the flight up, there was a whole group in the back of the shuttle, but Alexander had chosen to fly it himself since it would be the shuttle that resided aboard the new heavy assault frigate. It was a smaller ship than the old pirate shuttles that he had refurbished, but it could carry the same amount o...

BSE Chapter 4-36

Vice Admiral Ezekiel Willard thought he would finally get to leave the backwater system now that the Blueridge was repaired, but when he sent Captain Rhys to confirm what was taking so long, the man returned with upsetting news.

“What do you mean he doesn’t intend to leave for another two months!” Ezekiel demanded.

Rhys cleared his throat. “He wishes to attend his daughter’s birthday before departing.”

“Daughter? That’s preposterous. The man is trapped in a t...

BSE Chapter 4-35

“More weapon testing?” Lucas asked in excitement. “It isn’t even my birthday.”

Before Alexander could comment, the younger man hurried off to grab another crate from the shuttle.

“Is he like this every time the pair of you come out here?” Krieger asked.

“Only when weapons are involved,” Alexander replied as he set up the FE cannon once again.

“I can hear you!” Lucas yelled from the rear of the shuttle. “And who doesn’t like to fire off a weapo...