Some of the technology behind SWARM (an Article on SF underpinnings)
The key technology to the Star Force series (besides the interstellar transport mechanisms) are the factory machines used by all the races to produce whatever they need. The concept behind these is similar to 3D printers, which are exploding quietly out there in the marketplace. See the youtube video below for a demontration of a steel object producing 3D printer, being sold as a cheaper method for producing elaborately shaped metal objects. If you visualize these devices as much more automated and advanced, you have a "factory" of the type Kyle Riggs works with.
Adding in nanite constructors for detailed work, one can see turning raw materials such as ground-up metals into finished products. The future is now!
-BVL (Feb. 2012)
MECH ZERO: The Dominant released on: Amazon or BN (Jan. 2012)
Out along the rim of the galaxy hangs a loose configuration of some sixty stars known as the Faustian Chain. This whorl of sparkling suns is rich in planets and occupies an irregular volume of space some twenty lightyears in diameter. From an external viewpoint, the Faustian Chain presents a colorful display of plasma-streams, luminous nebulae and sparkling pinpoints of light.
The human colonists who settled the Faustian Chain were aware the region had recently been populated by other species—beings that had all but vanished after waging devastating wars thousands of years in the past. Little was known of them, but certain areas in which their artifacts still persisted were proscribed by interstellar law....
MECH ZERO is a novella set at the beginning of the Imperium Series. This story is a prequel to the outbreak of war. The series involves early human colonies in a region of space previously occupied by a vicious alien species.
New Release: CONQUEST (STAR FORCE SERIES #4)
Available at Amazon and BN
CONQUEST is the next chapter in the great interstellar war between all living creatures and the machines. Star Force must stop the machine invaders once again--but how?
In the fourth book of the Star Force series, Kyle Riggs has freed Earth from the chains of the Macros--but at what cost? The Macros no longer trust him. He is a mad dog that must be put down--and all Star Force must be stamped out with him. The war expands in this story, and mankind is once again faced with annhilation.
CONQUEST is a military science fiction novel, the fourth book in the Star Force Series.
MECH (Behind the Scenes)
MECH 2 is, unsurprisingly, the second chapter in the Imperium Series. What’s it about? Like “MECH”, which has been a top 10 bestseller in all SF books on Amazon (Kindle or not) for the past several months, it is an SF alien invasion story. Unlike most alien invasion stories, however, it doesn't take place on modern Earth, but rather on a human colony in the future.
What’s in it? A new planet (Neu Schweitz) and new varieties of offspring (alien forms) and plenty of new hapless characters. The story also involves some of the characters lucky enough to have survived the first book. The tone of wild action, darkly humorous people and a limited-tech future world will continue.
In case you are new to the universe of MECH, or just want to read about the design decisions behind it, the technological state of things in MECH was carefully chosen to support the storyline. I specifically wanted to avoid the traps that befall many SF series, in particular those that allow some form of FTL (faster-than-light) tech. It’s absolutely critical to the books that there is no FTL, and this detail underlies the entire worldview behind Mech.
Why is removing FTL tech so important? First of all, I don’t really believe we will easily, if ever be able to do anything faster than light. No communications, no transport, nothing. In fact, traveling at even 90% lightspeed will be very difficult without the discovery of some brand new physics we don’t currently know about.
But besides my non-adherence to the Star Trek standard of “warp drives” in this series, why is this tech detail important and story-changing? Imagine if you will, a modest stellar empire some three to five centuries from now. This "empire" includes, say, fifty relatively Earth-like worlds. Without FTL, it might well take a century to cross the oceanic void between stars to get from one end of the empire to the other. In fact, an empire in any real sense of the word becomes impossible in this scenario. A rebellion or civil war could occur on a nearby colony, perhaps only five lightyears away, and the people who are supposed to be “in charge” on the homeworld would not even know it a colony was rebelling for at least five years. If they sent out a battleship immediately, it would take at least five more years to get there, giving the war ten years to play out. The conflict would have been won or lost long before even the closest world could even react. In truth, there is no real way to govern colonies on other star systems without FTL. Each one would be very independent. Every planet would be a closed system, a universe unto itself.
Further, the worlds would quickly begin to diverge socially and culturally. Rather than the planet-wide melting pot we now live in, where racial and cultural divides are vanishing, they would once again flourish. Preposterous, you say? Think about exactly what kind of people would agree to become colonists, to separate themselves from everything they know to do the harsh work of starting fresh on a new, and probably uncomfortable, world. Without FTL, going out to conquer a new planet circling a distant star would be a one-way trip into the dangerous unknown. Cut-off from the homeworld, frontier families would have to be at least as brave and adventurous as those who colonized the pacific islands in the age of sailing. They would likely be people who were outcasts or separatists of some kind. Think of the Mayflower Calvinists, the Conquistadores, Captain Morgan's pirates or the debtors that were sentenced to Australia. Then think of the hobbit-people recently discovered on the island of Flores....
As an author, this is a bonanza of story-telling opportunity! No longer do I need to envision a future full of people in zip-up, spandex jumpsuits who all think and act alike. No more must my heros fly around in identical starships, beholden to some all-powerful central government. Each human world is truly a world, a place unique in the galaxy—aware of the others, but fairly unconcerned about them. Interstellar war would be virtually impossible to conduct, just as a war between Australia and Brazil would have been a logistical nightmare in, say, 1800. Culturally remote from the other worlds, each planet in my vision would be free to pursue its own destiny... for good or ill.
Better still, this backdrop is a playground for my mind when a new hostile species arrives on the scene. Due to isolation, each world has no choice but to fend for itself when faced with a real threat from outside. Other worlds don’t even know what is happening until it’s far too late to offer aid. Each story is a death-match. A fight to the finish with the winner taking all as two species struggle over an isolated planet.
Welcome to the universe of MECH. In the second book, as in the first, an isolated world with its own culture, peoples, struggles and identity will make contact with the ravenous alien forces of the Skaintz Imperium. Mayhem will naturally result.
"Sarah and the Shrade", a scene from Mech 2 by Tony Jackson:
The Weirdness that is MECH (Sept.)
MECH 2 released on: Amazon or BN (Nov. 2010)
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