Mostrando resultados por autor "Chris Kennedy" en Todas las categorías

Fourteen outstanding authors. Fourteen worlds that never were. Throughout the human experience, historians have wondered, “What if?” What if Japan had been on the side of the U.S. in World War II? What if things had been just a little different in the Falklands? What if Russia had started World War Three?

In the late 2020s and early 30s, corporations managed to render the major governments of the world obsolete. The big corporations owned most of the territories as well as the majority of the world’s wealth. While many of the old traditions were still observed in various parts of the world, the true power was with the corporations. In the late 30s, what would be known as the Corporate Wars began as larger companies initiated hostile takeovers in a whole new fashion. Employees, armed with corporate weapons, warred for dominance. It was a bloody time.

The Peacemaker-enforced ceasefire brought an end to the hostilities, but not a resolution, and now it’s up to the Four Horsemen to forge a lasting peace. Alexis Cromwell, despite her pregnancy, heads off to Capital with Nigel Shirazi to obtain justice from the enigmatic Mercenary Guild Council, but when they arrive, they’re quickly embroiled in galactic politics, and find out the situation is far, far worse than they could possibly have imagined.

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.

Tald is the first SalSha Peacemaker Candidate…ever. Some would say he’s not smart enough or good enough to be a Peacemaker, or that the uplift designed to make him a “Sha” failed in his case.

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, environments, and cultures. As the newest players on the universal stage, though, our position is readily apparent - we're at the bottom of the food chain.

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.

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.

We've come a long way in the forty years since the Shongairi attacked Earth, killed half its people, and then were driven away by an alliance of humans with the other sentient bipeds who inhabit our planet. We took the technology they left behind, and rapidly built ourselves into a starfaring civilization. Because we haven't got a moment to lose. Because it's clear that there are even more powerful, more hostile aliens out there, and Earth needs allies. But it also transpires that the Shongairi expedition that nearly destroyed our home planet ... wasn't an official one.

On May 1st, 2067, the world fell. One thing Zebadiah Pratt - or Zee to his friends - won’t abide, though, is slavery, even in a Fallen World. So when friends of his find a shipment of gene-modified child slaves, he knows something must be done. There’s only one problem: The slaves came from an island owned by the infamous Dr. Laroue, a noted geneticist and the creator of many of the imprints the Obsidian Corporation used to create its super-soldiers. He’s going to need help.

The Dusman offered to let humanity become their servitors, but the leaders of Earth’s Four Horsemen were unified in their decision: No, thanks. With the Dusman returning in strength, though, and steadily growing their influence and armed presence, humanity finds itself in a difficult place. The Guild War continues to rage, with planets becoming increasingly desperate for nonexistent help, while the Mercenary Guild continues to sit on its hands, despite Nigel Shirazi’s attempts to break the deadlock.

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.

Betrayed from within by a rogue Synthetic Intelligence, the alliance has been fractured and is on the run. The Sontags have retreated to defend their homeworld, the Kardonians have lost theirs, and a Legastian fleet advances on Earth, with little to stop it but a couple untested airwings. Meanwhile, two enemy cruisers continue to chase Lance Baker. Sent by the Legastian queen, they won’t stop until he’s been destroyed.

A joint task force of humans and synthetic intelligences (SIs) has defeated the Overlord’s Fleet Twenty-Seven, and peace reigns throughout the region surrounding Earth...for now. But the Overlords are sure to return once they find out their fleet was destroyed, and they’ll be back with a strong enough force to ensure the Terrans don’t win a second time.

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!

In the late 2020s and early '30s, corporations managed to render the major governments of the world obsolete. The big corporations owned most of the territories as well as the majority of the world's wealth. While many of the old traditions were still observed in various parts of the world, the true power was with the corporations. In the late '30s, what would be known as the Corporate Wars began as larger companies initiated hostile takeovers in a whole new fashion. Employees, armed with corporate weapons, warred for dominance. On May 1st, 2067, it all ended in a nuclear fire.

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.

Five years ago, aliens destroyed a carrier and its airwing at Jupiter without warning. Since then, the Earth’s nations have learned to work together, and they want to know more about the aliens who appeared, attacked, and vanished without a trace. The Americans have provided a new carrier. Chinese technology has made going after the invaders possible. And the Russians have developed a new control system that will give the craft never-before-seen capabilities. Mankind’s next war is upon us, and Uplink Squadron is the tip of the spear.

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.