City Stories 3: https://www.books2read.com/ChromedMeltdown
Night’s Champion
Could just one night change your life forever?
Valentine Everard and Danielle Kendrick have the Night’s Favor: they are werewolves. There are many who would steal the Night’s dark gift from them. The Night’s Champions must face down the corporate interests of Big Pharma, battle with masters of dark Vodou, and make their last stand against both vampires and the Riders of the Apocalypse. Armies fall. Zombies roam the street, and no one is safe. The world is close to its final Judgment. What can a handful of souls do against the powers of the heavens?
Book 1: https://www.books2read.com/NightsFavor
Book 2: https://www.books2read.com/NightsFall
Book 3: https://www.books2read.com/NightsEnd
Glossary
Acceleration Couch Crew couches support crew members during high-G maneuvers. They are fitted with gimbals allowing free movement. Their dynamic gel system supports all points of the body in both positive and negative G, providing some protection against grayout, blackout, redout, and G-LOC (G-force induced Loss of Consciousness). They remove the need for G-suits in modern spacecraft, although many space suits are still equipped with anti-G technology anyway.
Artificial Gravity Artificial gravity is generated through use of a configurable energy density field of positive mass at the defined base of the ship. It uses the same technology as an Endless Drive, except in reverse (Endless Drives use negative energy, whereas positive is needed to simulate gravitational effects). Artificial gravity can be used in any situation where a significant power source exists to create a configurable energy density field (typically a reactor, although large yield capacitors and fuel cells have been known to work for brief periods).
Blaster A weapon that fires streams or bolts of plasma (high energy ionized gas). They deliver high energy to targets in the form of heat. They are effective weapons against most targets, although heat-shielding (ablative or insulating) has been shown to be an effective armor against them.
Bridge see Guild Bridge.
Cargo Freighter (also, Merchantliner) A large cargo starship used by traders in and between systems.
Carrier The largest class of warship, carriers stock many smaller fighter craft for deployment.
Ceramicrete A composite construction material commonly used in the manufacture of structures. It is very strong and durable, and can be manufactured to be impact and heat resistant (even to weapons fire levels).
Console Any type of personal terminal. Keyboard and gesture controls are still prevalent. Keyboards are especially useful on consoles mounted to the arm of a ship suit.
Corvette A smaller, lighter attack craft than a destroyer, corvettes are mostly used for coast guard duties in-system.
Crust Spacer slang for planet.
Crustbuster A large payload thermonuclear weapon, deployed against planets to disrupt the surface crust. Typical designs yield energy sufficient to crack most Earth-sized worlds to the core, yielding wide scale destruction and loss of life. Their use in war or insurrection has typically been infrequent and as a last resort, because the world they are used on becomes inhabitable for most forms of life forever. More common uses include destruction of enormous asteroids.
Destroyer A large warship. These are reconfigurable bastions of destruction. They can be deployed solo or as a part of a fleet, often alongside carriers.
Empire The ruling dictatorship of the wider human civilization.
Endless Drive The Endless Drive creates negative space energy (a “bow wave”) to pull a vehicle at effective superluminal speeds. Endless ships don’t exceed the speed of light, but rather contract space in front of them and expand space behind it (space is doing all the hard work). The exigent concern with Endless jumps is the violation of linear time. Endless Drives are equipped with buffers to stop crews exceeding human tolerance for the experience of linear time; while human perception of linear time may be an illusion, it is a convenient one. If the buffers break, allowing the ship to move too fast, then human consciousness falters (resulting in mild to severe mental illness) or is extinguished entirely. Endless Drives are difficult to use near gravity wells and in such circumstances are guaranteed to malfunction. This and other safety concerns has shifted common FTL to the Guild Bridges, although privateers still often run free traders with Endless technology. The Empire Navy also use Endless Drives as it is often inconvenient to disclose locations of sensitive operations to the Guild.
Esper Slang for those considered abhorrent creations of the Empire. Esper is a term taken from Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP, hence ESPer). Espers can read minds, and often control them. Espers were created through genetic manipulation.
Fab see Fabricator.
Fabricator Similar in concept but not scale to our 3D printers, fabricators (or ‘fabs,’ for short) are capable of printing components out complex materials. Part forge, high quality fabs can manufacture materials to high levels of precision. They are the preferred method of component construction. Military vessels of sufficient size often carry fabs for repair and outright construction of everything from hull metal to dropships. The Guild has the best fabricators available, high precision devices some say can print to the demanding levels required by AI mind crystal.
Faster than Light Travel (FTL) There are two discovered forms of FTL; Endless Drives (using theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre’s concepts), and Guild Bridges (Einstein-Rosen Bridges).
Fergelic, Dominic Dominic is Emperor in Waiting, son of Emperor Prirene III.
Free Trader A starship that operates under legal Guild charter for commerce or transport.
FTL see Faster than Light Travel.
G Slang for gravity or gravities. A unit of measurement based on Earth’s 1 standard gravity.
Grav see Artificial Gravity.
Guild Bridge The Guild maintain a set of Einstein-Rosen bridges throughout human space. These allow instantaneous travel without violating the concept of space time, as they create wormholes through space. Einstein-Rosen Bridges require endpoints (the Guild Bridge) which are operated on a strict schedule between star systems. They are used for transferring everything from whole starships right down to small messenger probes.
Guild The Guild is the dominant technology provider in the Empire. They have a rigid code of conduct that governs all members awarded and maintaining a Shingle. The primary source of Guild revenue is via the Bridges (see: Guild Bridge) they maintain for safe, instant FTL. Many merchant vessels prefer the use of Guild Bridges over the use of Endless Drives due to safety concerns. The Guild is best known for their Engineers who breathe life into starships, but they also provide Shingles for other practices such as medicine.
Hard Black Slang for outer space, especially as it relates to the vast expanse of vacuum between solar systems.
Heads Up Display Any display type that overlays instrumentation across a user’s field of view, removing the need to check auxiliary readouts. The most common types utilize augmented reality to highlight items of interest in the user’s field of view. Normally they are projected light onto visors within helmets or on starship windscreens, but holo designs are not uncommon.
Heavy Lifter A freight starship capable of atmospheric drops. They derive their name from “lifting heavy” loads from crusts into orbit. They can be used to ferry items to orbiting craft such as freighters or destroyers that are not atmosphere-capable. They can also be used for direct runs to other systems, although their small cargo bay (as compared to freighters) makes them less efficient. Captains using them for this purpose would prefer the term, “boutique.”
Holo Slang for items such as shows and movies displayed on holo stages.
Holo Stage A 3D projection stage. These are common across the known universe as they provide a more natural method of content consumption than older 2D display styles. 2D displays are still prevalent especially in HUDs.
HUD See Heads Up Display.
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Hypo Slang for a jet injector, a type of medical injecting syringe that uses high pressure instead of a hypodermic needle.
KG Kilogram.
Kilo Abbreviation for kilogram.
Kinetic A type of weapon that fires physical rounds. Many PDCs use kinetic rounds as opposed to lasers, masers, or particle beams, due to their efficacy against most types of object.
Klick Slang for kilometer.
Laser A type of directed energy weapon using coherent light. Ship-mounted lasers tend to be used for carving through ablative shielding or surgical strikes against critical systems. Hand-held laser weapons are designed to superheat the liquid inside humans into steam very quickly, causing an explosion of the remaining tissue.
LIDAR Acronym for LIght Detection And Ranging. LIDAR uses coherent light to make digital 3D representations of objects.
Luna Latin name for the Moon.
Maser A type of directed energy weapon using microwave radiation. Ship-mounted masers are most effective at disrupting enemy comm arrays and personnel in equal measure. They are out of favor as hand-held weapons due to a longer time to death as compared to blasters.
Navy The Empire space fleet. The Navy patrol human space to protect against threats like pirates.
Nuke A thermonuclear weapon of mass destruction. Very old but reliable technology, used in configurable payloads for ship-to-ship combat, city assaults, and the destruction of entire worlds (ref: crustbuster).
Organics Slang for organic life, but most typically referring to intelligent life. Humans are ‘organics.’
Particle Beam A type of directed energy weapon that fires particles with minuscule mass.
Plasma Cannon see Blaster.
Point Defense Cannon (PDC) PDCs are installed on almost every starship to protect hulls from impacts from things like meteoroids. They are also useful defense against torpedoes, although generally ineffective against railguns due to the high velocity of railgun rounds. PDCs can be kinetic or directed energy weapons.
Power Armor Armor that is motor-assisted, often used for deployments on high-G worlds. Configuration often includes vehicle weapon mounts, allowing a higher degree of flexibility for infantry deployment.
Prirene Dynasty The Prirene Dynasty has stretched back over two hundred years. It holds the ruling seat of the Empire.
RADAR Acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. RADAR uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, and velocity of objects.
Radiation Sickness A constant hazard of space. Many crews take daily medication to ward off radiation sickness. It’s as much a part of shipboard life as making sure your O2 is topped up. This means that a mild dose of radiation is unlikely to kill you if treated in time, but massive doses are still dangerous.
Railgun A kinetic weapon that fires high velocity rounds by way of a pair of conductive rails. They are often mounted on larger ships and make a dramatic statement when fired against enemy vessels.
Reactor Starships use fusion reactors. The most common design is the ICF (Internal Confinement Fusion) style of reactor. These have a variety of safety functions that make them suitable for spacefaring needs, including containment fields in case of malfunction. Larger starships can eject faulty reactors into the hard black.
Rig Slang for maintenance equipment commonly worn by Guild Engineers about starships. These double as space suits for zero atmosphere maintenance on the exterior of a starship’s hull. The design incorporates a visor with configurable HUD for instrumentation and telemetry, and a set of programmable servitor arms for complex manipulation of equipment.
Shingle A guild badge of practice, allowing the holder to a) claim they are Guild certified and b) ply their trade as a Guild craftsperson. They are notoriously hard to get, requiring years of study and excellence in your field.
Ship Suit Slang for spacesuit. Generally denotes a space suit for a specific ship carrying crew logograms and/or color themes.
Sol Latin name for the Sun. Often used to describe Earth’s solar system (e.g., “The Sol system”).
Space Suit Clothing worn to keep humans alive in the hard black. They provide protection against vacuum, temperature extremes, and radiation. Military models are often fitted with armor to protect against blasters, lasers, masers, and kinetic rounds. They often provide additional protection against high-G maneuvers.
Spacer Slang for those who crew on a starship, civilian or military.
Terra Latin name for Earth.
Tonne Metric ton, equivalent to 1,000 kilograms.
EXCERPT: DRAGON’S RUN
Running Forever
This is the third time Father’s come for me.
Grace stood, head bowed so hair fell over her face. She jostled for position in a line of desperate, dirty people trying to enter Starfire Station. They smelled of despair and coming off them were waves of doubt/sadness/endless journey. Grace didn’t know what to make of so many people with so little hope, but she knew what to make of the Empire troops waiting beyond border control. The station’s air cyclers were working hard, but still couldn’t keep the heat from rising from the press of so many bodies.
Her lane held four families ahead in the queue. Grace came here on the Immortal, a starship so old it might live up to its name. Captain Topham hired her as a deckhand, his thoughts reeking of gullible/cheat/lie/steal as he’d looked down at her fifteen-year-old face. It was his intent to rob her of hard-earned wages that led her to break into his quarters, stealing two fistfuls of good Empire coin before slipping from the Immortal.
The rest of the crew, a surly uncommunicative lot, were in a different immigration lane. Last time Father sent people for her, they’d boarded her starship before it docked. She’d blown an escape pod for cover, then hid on the boarding party’s ship, escaping with her own hunters. This time, they laid a trap onboard a station. Empire soldiers already swarmed the Immortal behind her. There was no escape that way, and besides, it would be hard to explain to Captain Topham why she had so many of his coins.
A family made it through the screening gate ahead, the holo above blinking NEXT PLEASE. Three families to go. Only a handful of minutes to come up with another plan.
Beyond the screening point, Grace saw a group pulled aside. A girl roughly Grace’s age was separated from a wailing mother and an angry father. An Empire soldier shoved the girl against a wall, blaster muzzle to her head, ignoring her cries while another trooper scanned her. Grace hunched her shoulders, trying to ignore the panic/run/run/run from the girl, and the hate/desperation/fear from her father, and the please/no/help/someone help from her mother. Their emotions made Grace’s heart quicken in response, the thud-thud-thud loud in her ears.
Grace’s father never felt like that about her. She looked down, ashamed.
A commotion from two lanes to the right drew her eye. One of the Immortal’s crew was receiving similar attention from Empire soldiers. Leslie Casque had crewed with Grace these last three weeks. He was dirty, skinny, and so full of hate for all things in the universe she wondered how he could bear it. The reason Empire soldiers held him against a wall, weapons and voices raised in equal measure, was because Leslie Casque had stolen Grace’s sword.
She’d known it was him from the lingering smell in her cabin. Aboard the Immortal, she had no options to recover it. A young woman shouldn’t have a sword hundreds of years old. She shouldn’t have a sword at all. Grace planned to convince Leslie to give her sword back once on Starfire.
The soldiers took the sword, and as an afterthought, Leslie. Grace watched her weapon taken away, feeling her own rising hopelessness. She might have borrowed some from the people around her, but Grace felt she’d earned it this time. She’d gotten the feeling honestly, without the guile she used to survive on the run from the Emperor’s right-hand man.
Father will never give up.
Grace felt a nudge on her shoulder, giving a glare in return. She took in the sad eyes and fatigue/tired of an old man wearing a ship suit well past its use-by date.
Its elbows were patched many times over. He nodded past her. “It’s your turn.”
Sure enough, the three families ahead of her passed into the belly of Starfire Station while she ogled a desperate family and an angry young man. Grace was out of options. Beyond this gate were the hungry claws of her father’s soldiers. She felt trapped but had no way out. Run now, and she’d be caught.
Be calm. Be the deep blue ocean. Feel its weight and comfort. Grace nodded her thanks to the old man. He hadn’t earned her glare, but she was frightened, and alone, and shouldn’t have to fear her father. Squaring her shoulders, Grace stepped into the screening station. Behind armored glass, a slightly pudgy man waited. He looked bored, eyes not meeting hers, and the slight stubble on his face said I’ve been in this damned box interviewing migrants for at least ten hours, so be kind.
Grace reached deep, below the sadness and the desperation, and into the cool of the ocean. She could be strong, and she could be kind. Grace walked to the armored glass, resting her elbows on the sill beneath a speaker. “Hi.”
“Name?”
“Ayako Tanaka.” Grace Gushiken was a name known throughout the Empire. Ayako Tanaka was a tourist Grace encountered on Europa. Ayako’s stolen ident cards rested in Grace’s pocket.
“Tanaka, huh?” The man leaned forward, tired yet interested at the same time. His uniform was an unflattering gray, yellow banding around his shoulders reminding Grace of an anemic wasp. His uniform’s holo badge said Redwood, C, before the letters were replaced with Have a pleasant day. “First time on Starfire?”
“Yes,” gushed Grace, bouncing on her feet. “I’ve heard so much about it.”
“Uh huh,” said Redwood, C. He glanced at the Empire soldiers waiting to take Grace away to a home full of terror, or to mine salt for the rest of her life. “You don’t look like a Tanaka. You want to know why?”
Grace felt careful/cunning/opportunity from the man, but nothing suggesting he would throw her to the wolves. “I don’t know why, Mr. Redwood, sir.”
Ganymede Steel Page 4