Showing results by author "Chris Kennedy" in All Categories

I just wanted to tell my neighbor to shut up. Hi, I'm Jack Taylor, a romance author from Earth—though you probably haven't heard of my planet yet. It's not part of the Galactic Consortium, and that's a good thing for the shady alien races lurking in the shadows, ready to snatch up anyone they can.

The Phoenix Initiative is over, and war is on the horizon. Nigel Shirazi, Speaker for the Mercenary Guild, has prepared the guild as best he can, but there was no way for him to plan for the events that are unfolding. An ancient enemy has emerged from the depths of the galactic past, with weapons and strategies unseen since the Great Galactic War. The Kahraman of old are back, and they’ve had five years to fortify their position in the Seeleth system.

Bjorn Tovesson III, commander of Bjorn’s Berserkers, has returned to Earth. Bear Town is a smoldering ruin, and the Berserkers’ reputation is in the gutter. As Bjorn tries to chart a course for the Berserkers’ future, ghosts from the past haunt him. Meanwhile, the Information Guild and the Union Credit Exchange clash over the future of the Galactic Union’s economy. The Information Guild seeks to eliminate the red diamond standard, giving it sole control of the currency system, but the Union Credit Exchange harbors ambitions to become a guild in its own right. 

Having destroyed the starkiller located at Aneb-4, the alliance of Goltar, Spine Patriots, and the Midnight Sun Free Company have gained a bit of breathing space from the criminal organization known as the Endless Night. But the Endless Night isn’t done. They have two more starkillers in their possession, and they are ready to use them against a civilization that no one - especially the Mercenary Guild - is going to miss. Their target: Sol. Although victorious on Aneb-4, the alliance only has the façade of combat power; they need time to re-equip and rearm…time they don’t have.

It's the 22nd century. Humanity has taken its first steps into the galaxy, and we've found ourselves in a vast playground of alien races and cultures. As the newest players on the universal stage, though, we're at the bottom of the food chain. Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates humans from the majority of the other races. While some of the stories deal with mercenaries, others introduce listeners to the other guilds, organizations, and races that make up the landscape of the Four Horsemen universe.

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.

Lieutenants Lance Baker and Sofia Jimenez saved Earth in the fateful battle against the aliens who’d been intent on its destruction. But there’s a problem: One of the enemy carriers got away. Not only that, but it jumped to a star that’s out of reach of Terran jump technology, and it’s probably going for reinforcements. The final battle to save Earth resulted in the destruction of most of Terra’s defensive forces, and Lance and Sofia still have no idea what’s waiting for them among the stars.

Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in November, 1993. Instead, he woke up in August, 2125, in a binary star system 152 light years from home. Without any memory of the otherworldly abductors who spirited them away in cold sleep, Murphy and 100 other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic. Promising to return to the 55 Tauri B system after completing a distant mission, they leave the twentieth century castaways with a daunting objective.

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.

We were barely holding our own against the military castoffs of the Overlords, though—how can we expect to fight in the front lines of a galaxy-wide war against the upscale technology of the new enemy, the Kardons? Lance and Sofia will have to upgrade Uplink Squadron with new weapons and tactics if they’re to last beyond the first few minutes in this new way of war. But when they meet the new enemy in battle, it becomes obvious that the Overlords aren’t telling us everything, and Lance and Sofia are forced to wonder if they’re fighting for the right side.

When Todd’s critically damaged ship dropped out of hyperspace near the human colony world of Azure, he had no memory of his past. He didn’t know who he was, or even what he was, and the humans didn’t either. That didn’t stop the colonists of Azure - they took him in, anyway...even though they didn’t understand how he could do some of the things he could do. Todd and his descendants consider themselves human - eight-armed and water-breathing - but human, nonetheless. After 70 years living among humans, Todd’s descendants are going back out into the Union to make their mark.

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.

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. Enter the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. Enter a galaxy not only of mercenaries, but also of Peacemakers, bounty hunters, and even a strung out junkie.

Edited by best-selling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, Tales from the Lyon’s Den includes 18 all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of best-selling authors - and some you may not have heard of...yet.  

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.

Nigel Shirazi, the Speaker of the Merc Guild, knows that war is coming and he’s not ready. He needs to build up the mercenary forces after years of war, and he’s proclaimed the Phoenix Initiative to give people who want to start new companies the opportunity to do so. CASPers are cheaper and financed at lower rates, and the government of Earth is offering bounties to take the mercs from alien races off the planet. Now is the time!

First contact has been made, and Earth's militaries and its premier mercenary companies stand ready to take their first tentative steps outside the solar system. With a galaxy of aliens to explore and fistfuls of credits to be made, follow along as the Four Horsemen select their contracts and venture forth to meet their destinies. 

The Goltar were marginalized, and the Veetanho did everything they could to make the galaxy forget the Goltar had ever existed. The Goltar went quietly, pretending to sulk and accept their fate but they never did. They worked in the shadows, amassing power and resources, always looking for the right time and right opportunity to re-emerge and strip the hated Veetanho of everything they owned. In the depths of the Spine Nebula, a fly-over region known only for the bad luck of its inhabitants and the dangers that lurks in its fringes, the Goltar have a secret weapon.

It was a normal Sunday morning at Teledyne Industries. Until the missiles started flying, and Joe Rinardi had 10 minutes to get out of the nuclear blast zone. A Teledyne specialist, he was one of the best, and equally adept at escape and evasion as he was at killing obsidian agents. When the bombs started dropping, though, he was given one final mission that he had to complete: travel to Philadelphia and kill the obsidian managers that Teledyne ran out of missiles for. After that, he could be free.

The Omega War is in full swing. Earth has fallen to General Peepo’s army, and the surviving human mercenaries have taken refuge at the hidden Winged Hussars’ base in New Warsaw. On Earth, the defensive forces fight to keep the hearts and minds of their fellow humans, but Peepo’s plans are slowly converting the people to her way of thinking, and the Mercenary Guild troops continue to root out the forces arrayed against them.