Bøger af Kal Spriggs

"You are put in a corner and you have to get out. I have to believe that you can always get out." --Etgar Keret The Centurions are going home. For Jiden Armstrong and the others who have fought to assemble a fleet capable of liberating their planet and rescuing their refugees, this has been a tremendous effort. It has cost the lives of hundreds and Jiden has tackled one impossible task after the next, so that her people, her family, can return to the world of her birth. Except, this is only the beginning. In defying the Guard, the Centurions have made themselves the target for the most powerful forces in human space. The UN Star Guard will throw spies, saboteurs, and even entire fleets at them if it means stopping them. Because if a group of mercenaries from one tiny planet can thumb their noses at the Guard, then anyone can and that could spell the beginning of the end for them. The Guard are willing to fire on the civilian refugee ships if that's what it takes. Valor will have to safeguard the exodus of Jiden's people, all the way back to their homeworld.

I have been a killer, a spy, and an executioner, now I am being sent on a mission of peace. My name is William Alexander Armstrong. I've worked my way up through the Drakkus Imperial Military Institute. I've made friends and alliances along the way, and I've somehow managed to keep my soul. Now, though, I've received a mission I never would have expected. The Drakkus Imperial Space Korps has sent my friends and I to build an alliance with neighboring star systems. Our ship is on loan, to show the skill and training that Drakkus can provide, even as we gift them ships and weapons. It's a tall order, because in the past, all that Drakkus has brought has been raiders and chaos. Even if our offers of peace and alliance are accepted, there are other threats, enemies old and new that have it out not just for the Drakkus Empire, but have personal grudges against me and my friends. If I don't figure it out, if I don't work out who to trust and show them that there is a way forward, then I might well find myself in the middle of a war. A weapon loaned out is one that may come back in enemy hands.

"We fight not for ourselves, but for future generations, though we may not live to see it." -Izhak KatznelsonJiden Armstrong has fought and bled for her homeworld of Century, now she has to put it all on the line. The UN Star Guard, the self-appointed rulers of humanity, have decided that the Centurions are a threat to their control of human space.The Guard have detained all the refugees from Century for use as hostages. They plan to force the Centurions into the front lines of the fight against the alien Culmor Empire, there to fight and die until none remain.Before they act, Jiden has a narrow window to save her people. It will require extreme risk and a no-fail mission, and that's only the beginning. Because the Star Guard have run roughshod across many worlds and the only way for the Centurions to save their people is to ignite an uprising in the heart of one of the Guard's strongholds.Jiden is taking on the most powerful military in human space. She and her teams have no allies, no support, and no reinforcements. If she fails, then her people and even her newborn children, will pay the price. Because the Guard realize they are losing control and they will kill entire planets if that's what they have to do to remain in power.Valor must carry the uprising because the alternative is the destruction of all that Jiden knows and loves.

"There's no trust, no faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, all forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers." -William Shakespeare I am William Alexander Armstrong, and against my better judgement, I have sworn an oath to serve the Drakkus Empire. I have given my word to serve the dreaded Imperial Intelligence, because it is the only way I can see to protect my friends. But a plan is afoot, and I might be the only one to stop it... or to help it along. A powerful nobleman plans to overthrow the Emperor. Only, I'm the one Imperial Intelligence will send to stop him. Every instinct I have tells me that I should walk away, that the Drakkus Empire is rotten to the core and there's no saving it. It may not be just the lives of my friends on the line, it might be the fate of billions of people across the Drakkus Empire. It is down to me to figure out whether I should stop the coming civil war, to throw myself into the way of danger again, or to stand aside and be forsworn.

"He who would be free must strike the first blow." -Frederik Douglas Jiden Armstrong faces a threat bigger than any she has ever seen before. The Star Guard dominate human space, and they have decided to destroy the Centurions. They plan to throw the Centurions into battle, again and again, until none are left. The Centurions are left with a choice... to bow to the stronger forces of the Star Guard or to strike a first blow and be free. It falls to Jiden to make that first strike, to lead a commando raid to seize the ships needed to fight the alien Culmor Empire. Because if she doesn't, then her people, her planet, and their very way of life will vanish forever.

There is nothing common about valor. That goes doubly true on the world of Drakkus Prime, where scheming noblemen and slaving pirates fight for power and wealth. My name is William Alexander Armstrong, I am the son of murdered parents, an escaped slave, and I have hidden in the last place anyone would think to look for me: among the children of the elite at the Drakkus Imperial Military Institute. I have made allies of a renegade princess, a talking civet, a host of orphans, beggars, outcasts, and a mad artificial intelligence who happens to be my sister. Right now, that puts me in a position to avenge my family against the Drakkus Pirates who want to kill me and my friends. Which is a good thing, too, because their shadow wars on the streets have erupted into full-scale gun battles. If no one stops them, they could engulf the Drakkus Empire in civil war and kill billions. I might be able to act to stop them. The only problems I face are an intelligence agent determined to find out my secrets, enemies who hate my guts, and a multi-star-system plot that has just embroiled my homeworld in war on a scale not seen in generations. For me, it is just another day.

You can never go home. Alannis Giovanni has followed in her family's footsteps and joined the United Colonies Fleet. As a bare Ensign, she's been assigned to the Fleet's newest, most powerful cruiser, the Constellation, on it's maiden voyage: a simple show-the-flag mission that should be good for her to learn what it is to be an officer. But things are never simple. At their most distant port, they come across allies in need. The Ghornath species are in search of their origins and an array of enemies are trying to stop them. The crew of the Constellation will have to face pirates, aliens, and uncover a ten thousand-year-old secret in order not just to save their allies, but to thwart a threat that might well catch the rest of the Fleet off-guard. These battles will test Alannis, force her to grow and become the officer that her position and blood demand of her... yet the greatest threat may be one she is the least prepared to face.

They stole my life, so I stole one right back. My name is William Alexander Armstrong. I come from a long, honorable, military family. My grandparents were heroes back home... but not me. Kidnapped by pirates, I've had to fight to survive on the streets of an alien world. Only now, I've got a way out. The only trouble is, my way out is to serve in the enemy's military, hidden under a stolen identity. I've got to hide who I am, build alliances, and hope to keep my head down at a military institute where one in three trainees don't survive. But hiding isn't in my blood. I'm an Armstrong, I'm born to fight, born to lead... and in this case, that might be the only thing that saves me. Because something is rotten at the Heart of Drakkus Prime, and stolen identity or not, valor may be the only thing to save the day.

Thief. Orphan. Beggar. Spy. KillerThey say that without the dark, we would never see the stars, without losing the light, we can never truly see it. Well, I've lost the light, I'm in a dark place, a planet where the sun never shines. My name is William Alexander Armstrong. Pirates took everything from me: the lives of my friends and family, my freedom, and even my honor. But I'm not going to let them take my drive. I'm going to escape, I'm not going to stay trapped, working as their slave. I'll work with the cast-offs of society: thieves, beggars, and murderers. I'll work with genetically engineered critters and mad doctors. I'll lie, I'll cheat, I'll steal, and I will kill. I will do everything I can to escape. I might be lost, I may be forsaken, but I will find my way to freedom, and when I do, I will bring fire and destruction on those who took everything from me.

For over 225 years, the United States Army has fought every enemy of the nation from around the globe, but now there's a threat never before seen and it comes in the form of a transmission from a nearby star.The transmission shows a war, a war on a scale never seen by man. And that war is on Humanity's very doorstep. Major Daniels knows that Earth isn't ready for that kind of war. In an era of fighter jets and smart-phones, we don't have the technology or infrastructure to begin to fight aliens with the power to travel the stars.But that's the impossible mission set before him and his team. The United States will need defenses, ships, stations, bases, and weapons capable of fighting that enemy. The first hurdle: finding a way to stage supplies and materials in orbit for the massive surge in space infrastructure. It would require every scrap of lift capacity in the entire world five times over and Major Daniels has to find out how to do it fast.His solution is simple: build the world's biggest gun and start firing payloads into orbit. The execution is what's wrought with peril. Because even if bureaucratic infighting and simple physics aren't enough to stop his project, then real enemies here on Earth might well be.Daniels has to figure out the problems with his Vernian Space Gun and keep an eye on his back, because some nations on Earth see the alien threat as an opportunity to settle old grudges and they don't care about what might happen to all of Mankind in the process.

Lieutenant Commander Forrest Perkins is haunted by ghosts. He's lost his ship and most of his crew, he's been accused of being an enemy agent, and the woman he has come to love has been officially declared dead. He's a man with nothing left to lose... which is why he's about to do the unthinkable. His plan is simple: steal a prototype warship, assemble a crew, and hunt down the man behind all this: Marius Giovanni. To do that, he's going to have to find a place whose location is shrouded in mystery. It's a star system that has been erased from the star charts, a star system of ancient alien ruins, rumored to be haunted and cursed, and a place where death and misery befalls all who venture there. Forrest will have to go to the Ghost Star. Where better to bring the woman he loves back from the dead?

Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather. Jiden's life at the Century Military Academy is forever changed when she is asked to volunteer for a special program. They want to implant her and other cadets with a special, prototype neural computer. It will make them smarter, more capable, and able to split their attention between dozens of activities. Her friends jump at the opportunity... but Jiden isn't so certain. She sees it as her duty to volunteer. Despite all of her doubts, it's a duty she owes to her world and to her friends. But as things begin to go wrong, as her life is put in danger once again, Jiden quickly realizes that she may have shouldered a duty that she can't bear. The implants might be driving her fellow cadets violently insane... and Jiden may be next. She will need to muster every ounce of courage, every bit of intelligence, in order to save her friends. Even then, her own survival might be too much to ask. But Jiden doesn't know how to back down, and she'll do her duty no matter the cost

"Blood is inherited and virtue is acquired, and virtue in itself has a value that blood lacks."-- Don Quixote Jiden Armstrong has lost nearly everything. Her home world and most of its people have been captured by alien invaders. All too many of the cadets and personnel she served with have been killed in the defense of their planet. The Century Planetary Militia's starships and fighters thrown away by Admiral Drien to cover his cowardly retreat. All that is left is a meager inheritance for the survivors: a handful of ships, off-world accounts, and refugees willing to give all they have to save their homeworld. Multiple factions of survivors compete to control those resources. Some, like Jiden's grandmother, want to build up a force to liberate their planet. Others, like Admiral Drien, want to gain the support of a stronger power and let others do the bleeding to save Century. Jiden, as before, is in the middle of it all. She will have to manage meager resources while she trains up new recruits to save Century. Because whether they can acquire more resources or not, the Centurions are going to save their people. Jiden knows that in the end: all the wealth and power of Century doesn't matter; the true inheritance of Century is the willingness to shed blood to save it.

Baron Lucius Giovanni, Captain of the battleship War Shrike, finds himself without a home or nation, his ship heavily damaged, and crew in bad shape. The odds against their personal survival are slim. The time of humanity has come to a close. The great nations have all fallen, either to the encroaching alien threats or to internal fighting and civil war. The aliens who seek to supplant humanity, however, have not taken one thing into account: Lucius Giovanni. He and his crew will not give up - not while they still draw breath. If this is to be the fall of humanity, then the crew of the War Shrike will go down fighting...and in the heat of that fight, they may just light a new fire for humanity....

The Renegades are running out of time. Captain Mike Noguchi has led his band of Renegades out of the heart of a interstellar war, forged them together into a privateer crew, and has learned of an ancient alien facility that may hold clues to a conspiracy which seems bent on his crew's destruction. But that facility is on a planet conquered by the Chxor. The Renegades will need to slip across the battle-lines, infiltrate a conquered world, and find their way inside a facility which has kept its secrets for untold generations. Along the way they'll need to fight genetically engineered monsters, a psychotic military commander, and an entire army of Chxor. Yet even if they manage that, some secrets may be too much for them to handle. Their enemies have already done terrible things with the knowledge found there... can the Renegades survive secrets from outside of time?

How do you know right from wrong if every memory, every thought in your head was put there by your enemies? In a near-future, humanity has begun to spread throughout the stars. In the process, they've awakened abilities hidden within their own DNA. Psychics have begun to appear at ever-increasing rates with abilities that range from mental manipulation to mass destruction and beyond. Empowered by public hysteria and fear of psychics, Amalgamated Worlds has taken over. Their powerful combination of military and security forces, control of media and communications, and manipulation of internal threats has created a police state that spans all of human space. Shaden Kirroy is a product of that police state. Designed to be a weapon for use against his fellow psychics as well as any civilians who step out of line, he is an artificially enhanced psychic. He is a blank slate, his past erased and replaced with engineered loyalty to Amalgamated Worlds. Yet Shaden realizes that something is terribly wrong. As his world begins to unravel, as he realizes the horrors of what was done to him, Shaden must find a way to free himself, to unlock the prison of his own mind.

Ari lives in the shadow of death. Ari is a combat veteran who has chosen to leave the military behind and live a quiet, normal life. He's got a few problems though. For one thing, the cops think he's a serial killer. For another, a vengeful politician has put Ari in his crosshairs. To make matters worse, Ari has a guardian angel... and not just any angel, Ari's protector is the Angel of Death. When his life is in danger, people start to die, and Ari's guardian can sometimes be indiscriminate whose life he takes when protecting him.That's not even the worst problem. Death wasn't assigned to him by mistake. An ancient werewolf wants Ari dead and even with death on his side, Ari might not survive.Ari needs to find a way to stay alive, to clear his name, and most importantly to get out from under the shadow of death and live a normal life... even if it kills him.

The greatest threat is the one that you don't see coming. Lieutenant Alannis Giovanni has proven herself in battle, but now she has to face a far more personal threat. Her ex-husband, Reese, plans to activate an alien superweapon located at the Temple of Light that could devastate entire star systems and Alannis is the only one who can stop him. She and the crew of the UCS Constellation will have to fight off Reese's other pursuers, infiltrate pirate bastions, and defeat aliens bent upon the destruction of humanity in an effort to stop Reese from activating the superweapon. It's a dangerous mission, one where a single misstep could not only doom entire star systems, but embroil the United Colonies in a multiway war. Yet Alannis has little choice. She has to stop her ex-husband no matter the cost. It's a race to the Temple of Light, and whoever gets there first will have the power to destroy worlds.

Life isn't fair. Jiden's parents barely scrape out a living on the dry, dusty world of Century. Jiden wants more for herself and she is ready to step into a bright future, one which may lead her far from the frontier world of her birth. She's just got one obstacle: five months of military school. She'll be away from her friends, subjected to long hours and a crushing work load. Yet as the challenges mount, she finds that there may be more to life besides comfort and security... things like duty and service.

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." -Norman Cousins Jiden Armstrong has seen death and destruction, visited upon people around her. She has spent the past three years attending the Century Military Academy in the hopes that she can protect her people. Now, though, she has lost those most dear to her. Worst of all, the people who did it were coming after Jiden. She's going to have to rebuild her life. Jiden will have to fall back on her friends and her family to recover. She's going to have to find a new reason to live and come to terms with her losses... and her enemies haven't given up. To them, Jiden Armstrong is another pawn in the game... one that is inconveniently placed. They're going to keep coming after her so long as she stands in their way and if Jiden can't stop them, then the people paying the cost of Jiden's valor may well be those closest to her.

The past calls you back. Jiden made the decision to join the Century Military Academy after her attempt at a normal school ended in disaster. She's embraced this new chapter in her life and she's ready to do her best. But this new start isn't all that she expected. Her relationships with her friends have changed since she's been away, her classes are harder than she expected, and things aren't quite what they seem. Jiden learns that she made enemies when she chose to return to the Academy, and those enemies will settle for nothing less than her death. Jiden is going to have to dig deep, she's going to have to fight with everything she has, not just to succeed, but to stay alive. Jiden isn't afraid of the challenge, because the military life isn't just a simple decision, it's her calling in life.

Baron Lucius Giovanni has done the impossible: not only has he held the alien Chxor at bay, he has taken the fight to them and liberated human worlds. Yet humanity's implacable foe has drawn a line in the sand. They will hold Nova Roma at all costs... or see it a scorched ruin. Lucius must aid Nova Roma's Emperor and liberate his homeworld, but along the way he must also deal with old and new adversaries and with a conspiracy that seeks to usurp control of his fleet. Nova Roma's Emperor is going home, and Lucius will go beside him, for if he cannot overcome these obstacles, then humanity's last hope will be overcome and the Chxor will enslave and exterminate the remaining free worlds.

The Renegades are coming out of the cold. They have escaped from an alien prison, stolen a ship, survived pirate attacks, and now they are finally returning to civilization. Yet civilization brings all new threats. Old enemies await and new enemies abound. They'll have to work together to survive, even as their own pasts and fortunes seek to tear them apart. Along the way, they'll face an infamous assassin, slavers, bounty hunters, and get caught up in the biggest war that humanity has ever seen. Because the Chxor are coming and if the Renegades won't help stop them, who will?

In times of chaos, there are those who fight for money, for power, or just to survive. In feudal Japan, they were Ronin. In the post US Civil War, they were desperadoes or hired guns. In the chaotic times of the collapse of human civilization, they are men, women, and aliens without shelter or succor. When no one else will take a stand, they stand for themselves. They are deserters, murderers, pirates, and worse... they are the Renegades.

The Tyrant's time has come.Winter has come to the Five Duchies, a time of bitter cold when noblemen scheme and commoners wonder how to feed themselves through the long, dark months.In the far north, the Warlord Tarjak Rusk stirs his forces, guided by the wizard Xavien, Herald to the dark spirit Andoral Elhonas. Xavien knows that the time has come when the Five Duchies are vulnerable... and with the might of his master behind him, Xavien could conquer the civilized lands as an undisputed tyrant. In the Duchy of Masov, Duke Hector the Usurper faces a civil war, brought on by the survival of Lady Katarina. If he doesn't squash this rebellion with the coming spring, he'll face a war on two fronts. Yet even if he wins victory, it will be a hard fought one against his own people, leaving scars that might never heal or even shattering the Duchy into splinters. The fate of the Five Duchies might well be decided in Masov, but if Hector and Katarina cannot resolve their differences, then they'll only be the first to fall to the raiders from the north. Only if they can unite against him can they seal the fate of the tyrant.

Baron Lucius Giovanni has managed to buy the human race a brief reprieve from the two alien races which seek humanity's extinction. In the process, he has become the leader of a new nation and the commander of a powerful fleet. However, victory comes with consequences. Without an imminent threat, old feuds have sparked back to life and tenuous alliances falter. There are also old enemies who cannot forget that Lucius has what they want. He must find a way to hold off scheming rivals, sociopathic psychics, and even former friends. If he can't do all that and take the fight to humanity's true enemies, billions may die under alien servitude.