Showing results by author "Chris Kennedy" in All Categories

Harmon Tomeral and his friends wanted nothing more than to go to space, and they have beaten the odds, time and again, to get there. They developed a mech and won the Top Fleet Marine competition. They brought back a battle cruiser from an unknown system and made it their own. They made allies who helped them achieve great victories, and they, ultimately, founded new colonies in what has become known as the Salvage System.

With the alien hordes dominating the land and sky, humanity did what it did best—it created the Guardians, massive mecha that were able to take the battle to the aliens, and rushed them into production. But with four continents already about to fall, there was just one question—would they make a difference? Find out today in The Last Stand.

Caledin knew he could never go home. Two decades after losing his family to Zhretennais saboteurs, the former Ajenite naval officer made his living as a pirate, prowling the shipping lanes and picking off rich Zhretennais merchant vessels. For the most part, he’s content, and he tells himself often that the Free Ship Rampart and his crew are all the family he’ll ever need again. But then the Rampart stumbles upon a strange lifepod deep in the black nothingness of space. And against all the odds, the occupant in stasis—a girl named Siolene with ancient, royal DNA—is still alive.

Sixteen years ago, during a pause in the Algarian War, Duke Alessio Valente implemented a coup in the Star Kingdom of Narantea, killing King Altan Kotaro and Queen Brooke Kotaro. Before he died, though, the king gave his four children, Kellye, Yoshi, Jonatan, and Jayme Kotaro, to four trusted advisors and told them to take them to where they’d never be found.

With the Merc Guild opening up contracts again, it’s Zuul eat Zuul to get one, as there are far more companies looking for work than there are contracts to be had. So when Taylor Van Zant gets an inside line on a 30-million-credit contract for Swamp Eagle Security, he races to Karma to throw his hat in the ring. Unfortunately, Taylor arrives to find that the other North Florida mercenary company - the River Hawk Defense Group - is also bidding, and Taylor is forced to watch as they steal the contract out from under the Eagles.

The Sutton siblings have pulled off the unthinkable—they defeated a Cowlee force led by one of the princes and returned with more forces than Terra previously had at its disposal. But the Cowlee fleet remains in the Sirius system, unsuspecting, waiting for the return of a prince who will never be back, and the Suttons have an idea on how to make the fleet their own. With very little to lose and everything to gain, the general authorizes their plan, hoping to gain an edge they desperately need over the alien Cowlees.

Ripley facing down the Xenomorph Queen. Sarah Connor fighting the Terminator. David Weber’s Honor Harrington. Science fiction novels and the silver screen are full of badass women kicking butt and taking names. Sometimes it’s the momma bear persona stepping up to defend her young, but, other times, she’s just the meanest one standing—bionic arm or not!

Analysts have long predicted that China would go to war to reintegrate the province of Taiwan. It isn’t a matter of “if;” it’s a matter of “when.” For decades, the only thing that has kept China from invading Taiwan is the American promise to defend it, even if that means World War III. To date, China has not been ready to go that far. But what if China figured out a way to put the United States on the sidelines of their fight to regain Taiwan? Would they do it then?

The war with China was over and Lieutenant Shawn ‘Calvin’ Hobbs just wanted his life to get back to normal. The hero of the war, he had a small ream of paperwork to fill out, a deployment with his Navy F-18 squadron to prepare for, and a new girlfriend to spend some quality time with. Life was good. Until the aliens showed up.

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, but even the light can't keep away all that goes bump in the night. From rituals and witches to summer slasher and sunny horror, this anthology has it all.

Taylor Van Zant, the owner of Swamp Eagle Security, thought he was doing a good thing when he destroyed the slave ring operating out of Droxis, even though the slavers blew up the red diamond mine there as they tried to escape. Unfortunately, the mine belonged to the synthetic intelligence running the Merchant Guild, and it was…displeased with the mine’s destruction, so it put out a death contract on all the members of Swamp Eagle Security.

Chief Warrant Officer Benjamin “Benno” Sanchez has devoted over 20 years of his life to the Alliance of Liberated Systems’ Navy, defending his colony world from the continued encroachment of the Terran Union. His young daughter has been virtually orphaned for years, but his time away is coming to an end. On Adelaide, 14-year-old Mio Sanchez chafes at the limitations placed upon her. With her father away and her mother long since passed, she struggles with an indifferent foster family and yearns to leave her simple life and join her father in the Alliance Navy.

Calvin and the crew of the Vella Gulf have a surprise for the Efreet, though; they have returned to Terra with the ability to cross between the universes like their enemy. Armed with personal transporters and jump modules for their ships, they’re now able to take the fight to the Efreet. But will they be in time to prevent Terra’s annihilation? As the Efreet continue their inexorable onslaught on all fronts, Calvin only knows one thing. The answers to all of their questions lie beyond the shroud of the universe.

Lieutenant Paul Anderson is a Guardian driver, able to pilot the massive, thirty-meter-tall mecha “Point Break” from his cockpit high above the ground. There are only two problems—the Alliance won’t let him arm the giant mecha, and even if he could, he’s a long way from where any of the fighting is occurring. When Paul learns his mother’s been killed on Lewa, he wants to get some payback… but he can’t.

In 1949, the government of the Republic of China fled to the island of Taiwan. For nearly 70 years, mainland China wanted to take the island back and unite the nation under one flag, the Communist flag. Their desire was thwarted by U.S. support for Taiwan, until the Chinese conceived and executed the perfect plan to keep the U.S. out of the war for Taiwan, an invasion of Seattle!

With war afoot, James Sutton and Will Johnson are tasked with chasing down the Cowlee stealth ship that has the coordinates to Earth. If the ship makes it back to the Cowlees’ home world, life as we know it will end. Meanwhile, Holly Sutton is ready to attempt the jungle warfare school on Salchan. But when it doesn’t go as planned, she’ll be lucky to escape the swamps with her life.

Although Will Johnson and the Sutton siblings didn't gain as big an edge as they had hoped by attacking the Cowlee fleet in the Salchan system, they successfully captured an enemy cruiser and returned with a new ally in their fight against the Cowlees. They also returned with an opportunity—having destroyed most of the enemy battle station in the Shirgan system, the way was open into Cowlee territory, where a blitzkrieg attack might throw the Cowlees off balance and keep them away from Earth for a while longer.

A half millennia ago, Siolene’s enemies took everything from her, including, they thought, her life. Against all odds, she survived in cryo stasis, and thanks to the pirate captain who rescued her, she built a new family and a new life as Queen of Ajen. But old enmities die hard, and when the lives of her children are threatened, there is only one choice left for her: Siolene must trust in her found family, in her husband, and in his enigmatic fixer as they return to face the enemy on his own ground. It may cost her everything she’s built, but Siolene cannot fail.

Lieutenant Commander Shawn “Calvin” Hobbs has saved Seattle, traveled to the stars and forged alliances with alien races. With the latest war concluded, he turned his attention to deciphering the strange rod an ancient alien civilization gave him as a test. Was a little “down time” to work on the project too much to hope for? Yes. Something or someone is destroying the starships of the alien Aesir race. The elven Aesir are in need of help, and all the signs point to Calvin as the hero they need.

Lieutenant Commander Shawn "Calvin" Hobbs and the crew of the Vella Gulf have gone back in time to get the technology they needed to beat the enemy in their present. There’s only one problem. It doesn’t exist.