A2089 Novels

[The Dark Avenger]

it seems likely to me that the publication of other A2089 novels (ie the rest of the Standing series) depends on success for the first one. So here's an outline of what I had in mind for the rest of the series. Standing Together is written, and Standing Firm was about 1/3 done last time I worked on it.

Standing Together

Ambushed, betrayed and disowned, 'Shotgun' Mike Halsey returns to Britain in late 2086. Like Halsey, Britiain stands alone. Having successfully resisted EuroForce attempts to reintegrate the islands into the European Federation, Britain faces a new offensive.

Driven from the south of the country, Free British forces throw together a scratch defensive line from the Humber to Manchester. Halsey joins a militia unit assigned to defend Leeds; his Mek experience gains him a place in a forlorn-hope anti-Mek unit.

After the Euroforce offensive is blunted at the Humber Line, a plan to hook around it is launched. EuroForce Meks make and amphibious landing on Teeside, targeting largest of the few Mek plants available to the British. Halsey is part of the tiny force defending the plant, and with all available units engaged on the Humber Line there is nothing to stop EuroForce from destroying the Mek works.

Nothing but Mike Halsey, piloting an experimental Mek stolen from the Teesside plant.

The loss of the Teesside Mek plant will spell the end of Free British resistance. Not imediately, but without Warmeks there is no long-term prospect of victory. The EuroForce masterstroke faces minminal resistance... except for Mike Halsey, defiantly standing alone.

 

[The Dark Avenger]

Standing Together

The USA, in keeping with the old military maxim of not reinforcing defeat, has refused to become embroiled in a war that is obviously already lost. When Free British forces somehow manage to cling to their shaky positions along the Humber Line and the Teesside Mek Plant is saved, the USA reconsiders its decision.

Lady Elizabeth Sinclaire, self-proclaimed regent of Great Britain in the name of the critically wounded Queen, seeks to rally the British people. Many are in favour of reintegration, others are no longer willing to believe that the fight for independence can be won. Sinclaire needs to present her own people and the USA with a victory; proof that EuroForce can be defeated.

Her agent is the maverick Mek officer Shotgun Mike Halsey, now commanding a special-operations group loyal directly to Sinclaire. Against the advice of her commanders, Sinclaire orders what little remains of the Free British forces to come out of their positions on the Humber Line and launch an assault on Euroforce. Halsey's force is to prepare the way for the offensive.

Meanwhile, a US fleet stands ready off Iceland, prepared to fight through to Britain with Meks and supplies against whatever resistance EuroForce might mount. But only if Sinclaire can furnish a victory. As the offensive disintegrates in the face of EuroForce resistance, hope begins to fade. A counteroffensive breaks the Humber Line, driving northwards towards the remaining industrial centres of Free Britain.

Thrown down in the path of the EuroForce advance, Halsey and the special combat group are ordered to buy time for a new defensive line to be formed. This is obviously a measure designed to simply stave off defeat for a little while; defence offers no hope of victory and will simply prolong the agony.

And so a final gamble is made, committing every remaining Warmek in Free Britiain in what can only be a last hurrah... unless the Americans decide to come to the air of their old ally anyway, in defiance of orders and against all the principles of strategy.

In the final hours of the EuroForce counteroffensive, Halsey and his allies stand together against impossible odds as the US fleet battles through the North Atlantic in the hope that their intervention might not be too little, too late.

 

[The Dark Avenger]

Standing Firm

Joint US and Free British forces have driven EuroForce southwards, reclaiming much of Britain and rallying new support for independence. But now the Nordic League, long neutral but unfriendly to Britiain, threatens to join the fight on the side of the European Federation.

The Nordic League fears that Britain might become simply an outpost of the USA, and will not accept this. Elizabeth Sinclaire, too, feels that the price of US intervention may be annexation. Free Britain cannot possibly hope to fight for independence a second time, so perhaps the only remaining decision is to choose a master; Europe or the USA?

Pro-US sentimement is running high, and the legitimacy of the Free British government is under question. A pro-annexation party challenges the exisiting government, whose power is little more than a house of cards. Never ratified by the Sovereign, the government is open to challenge and is losing support. But with the Queen dead , her husband missing, and all remaining heirs under age, Sinclaire has a problem.

Her own claim, that Her Majesty recovered conscisousness long enough to confer the regency upon Sinclaire, has been exposed as a lie and now the house of cards is crumbling. After all the sacrifices made so far, Free Britain is dissolving into infighting over legal technicalites which will determine who gets to make the big decisions - though these decisions are likely to come down to who to surrender the nation to.

On the verge of collapse herself, Sinclaire sends Mike Halsey on a mission into the ruins of London, searching for the last remaining members of the royal family. He does indeed find a symbol to unite the British people and to legitimise the goverment, but not quite what he or Sinclaire expected.

 

[The Dark Avenger]

Standing Tall

United at last, Free British forces begin to drive out Euroforce from British soil, assisted by their American and Nordic League allies. The shaky alliance, and the future balance of power in Britain, is threatened by internal differences and agendas.

Meanwhile, the war is spreading. Halsey's speical combat group are deployed for a covert mission in the Pacific, and there uncover a conspiracy going back decades. The death of Halsey's Father, 'Angel Dave' Halsey, was not due an equipment failure at all; his experimental spaceplane was sabotaged. Indeed, the entire project was destroyed except for one working example hidden in a remote base.

Halsey is ordered to destroy the craft to prevent it from being captured by forces of the Tiger Combine, but instead decides to steal it.

Meanwhile, EuroForce is driven into a permiter along the south coast of England and is beginning to evacuate its troops. Nordic, US and British forces race to be the first to capture Dover Castle, the EuroForce command post. Learning of the deadly trap laid there, Elizabeth Sinclaire orders her troops to be first into the castle at any cost. Their sacrifice will secure British independence, and Sinclaire feels she is damned anyway. So what is one more sin?

Yet she remains bound by a promise made long ago, a promise to Mike Halsey that if she ever threw him to the wolves, Sinclaire would tell Halsey what she was doing and why.

 

[The Dark Avenger]

Last Man Standing


Mike Halsey refuses to hand over the spaceplane he has captured, and instead uses it to launch a suicide attack on the orbital headquarters of IPEX, the corporation behind his father's murder. A corporation that seeks to control the 'high ground' of space and to dominate the governments of Europe, America, and the Tiger Combine.

Even as Halsey and his team rampage though the orbital base, the corporate plan unfolds. Powerplays in the European Federation propel a chosen general to power; new legislation in the USA gives virtually unlimited power to the corporation. An assassin strikes in Britiain, decapitating the nation's government and threatening to ignite a new civil war.

On the battlefields of Earth, Warmek forces fight for dominance of the planet, while equally decisive political battles are fought in quiet rooms. With control of the three major power blocs on Earth, it seems that the IPEX powerplay has succeeded even though the orbital capital has been destroyed.

Aboard a crippled spaceplane in Earth's orbit, a critical decision must be made. Might corporate dominance unify the world and end the wars now raging? If it is opposed, will victory simply grant humanity the opportunity to destroy itself? IPEX has shown itself willing to start wars to achieve its aim... can it be trusted with the fate of the world? Can anyone?

Halsey and his team make their decision and dive their spaceplane into Earth's atmosphere. Their destination is Paris, where General Jean Lavalle is consolidating his hold on the European Federation. Calling for help from old friends and enemies, Mike Halsey informs the world of the IPEX conspiracy and goes to confront his old enemy in his lair.

Shotgun Mike Halsey has declared war on the IPEX corporation, and let the cards fall where they may.

It is 2089, and the War of British Independence is over.

The Armageddon War is about to begin.

 

[Da Boss]

All sounds awesome to me - Esp as Lady Elizabeth is still a major character

Looking forward to them immensely

 

[lastbesthope]

I want all of those, you know I'll buy them, and help with any proofreading too

LBH

 

[lastbesthope]

Standing Alone is up on Amazon for Kindle

UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Standing-Alone-ebook/dp/B005MZ8WLC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317148430&sr=8-2

USA

http://www.amazon.com/Standing-Alone-ebook/dp/B005MZ8WLC/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1317148446&sr=8-12

LBH

 

[Ewan]

Standing Alone is up on Amazon for Kindle

UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Standing-Alone-ebook/dp/B005MZ8WLC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317148430&sr=8-2

£3.83 is an excellent price

 

[The Dark Avenger]

Standing Alone is an excellent book.

Of course, I would say that... but there's at least one person who agrees with me (and exists outside my head).

 

[lastbesthope]

Standing Alone is an excellent book.

Of course, I would say that... but there's at least one person who agrees with me (and exists outside my head).

+1

LBH

 

[MongooseMatt]

Just to beg a favour - if anyone has read Standing Alone, we would be very grateful if they could leave a review here;

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MZ8WLC

 

[Captain Jonah]

Done.

Now lets be having the next few, I hate waiting for sequels :lol:

 

[lastbesthope]

Review posted

LBH

 

[lastbesthope]

I just realised that the link Matt agve was to the amazon.com listing.

I took the liberty opf posting the same review on the amazon.co.uk site as well

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Standing-Alone-ebook/dp/B005MZ8WLC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1317325928&sr=8-3

LBH

 

[BFalcon]

Already on my wishlist, LBH..

Won't be getting it though - some SOBs in the Traveller forum got me reading the Honor Harrington series... and I'm still wading through them... I can't put them down now.

I'll be getting it when I'm done though.

 

[Captain Jonah]

They are good books and if you put aside the high G drives idea its a very Traveller universe with its long trip times and being out of contact with Superiors theme.

Well worth a repeat read. Plus aside from the 12/13 HH books there are the compilations, 5 or 6 of those, the torch series, the saganami island series. A good 20+ books there.

If someone had a lot of time it may be worth Travellerifying the HH universe.

 

[Rick]

Good idea, but it would probably have to be unofficial - I believe that another company has the rights to do an rpg.