The funeral left a bad taste in John’s mouth. Part of that was from being forced into going in the first place. He didn’t feel bad about putting those men down, nor did he care about their families. If they didn’t want to die, they should have walked away.
The other part of the funera...
2024-05-21 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostJohn walked back into town with the deer slung over his shoulder. He had made sure to dress it before taking it back, but some blood had still stained his jacket.
That was a bit annoying, but more so was what stood waiting for him at the edge of town.
A group of men appeared from an a...
2024-05-20 12:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe woman sighed and pulled out a wooden box from behind her desk. “Not as much as I would have liked.”
Curious, John looked inside and saw a collection of parts. Parts that he recognized. He frowned as he looked up at her.
“My Uncle was correct, the one gun was unfixable, but I...
2024-05-20 11:34:48 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 20 of BSE is up! A little past the thirty days I gave myself, but not by much. Hard to believe I wrote over 115k words between Tarnished and BSE in a little over a month. Crazy! That's the equivalent of an entire book. The last time I wrote this much was when I wrote Mana System chapter...
2024-05-16 00:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostAlexander found it hard to care about anything for the next few days. He simply went through the motions like he had back when he worked for Yuri. By shutting himself off from the outside world and letting his body run automatically, he didn’t need to be reminded of what was going on. This was ...
2024-05-15 23:57:17 +0000 UTC View PostAlexander was just finishing up a work order when Mingyu Na came through the door followed by five security officers.
He put down the tool he was holding and looked at the Captain. “So this is it then?”
“I told you when we spoke earlier that this was the most likely outcome.”<...
2024-05-15 01:33:30 +0000 UTC View PostMingyu sighed as he exited the conference room. It had been four long hours of back-and-forth discussions. While he despised Omni and everything they stood for, he would give the Omni representative his due, the man had done his homework.
It was annoyingly frustrating. The only real opportu...
2024-05-14 00:52:27 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Captain Na had left, Alexander got it into his head that he could just repeat his success with Sinorus engines instead.
After doing some research on the Omni competitor, Alexander scrapped that plan. Turns out they weren’t any better than Omni. He had found dozens of articles condemn...
2024-05-13 01:02:02 +0000 UTC View PostMade it to Chapter 20 of Tarnished just in the nick of time. This will be the last chapter I post of Tarnished until the series goes live on RR on the 20th. I plan on doing two chapters a day for the first week on RR, so Patreon will see an additional ten chapters that week. And 5 more the follow...
2024-05-12 01:14:36 +0000 UTC View PostWith some of the armor retrieved, for study by Travis the artificer, and the unknown group seemingly vanishing into the deep wilderness, John wasn’t sure what to do.
There was the option to chase the two walkers and recover the last of the miners, who were taken prisoner, but he dismissed...
2024-05-12 01:04:28 +0000 UTC View PostJohn helped to remove the remaining corpses from the suits. He wasn’t a stranger to moving corpses around, unfortunately.
The bodies were all piled up near the first one that Travis had bisected in his rush. The smell had already attracted birds, which likely meant larger predators weren...
2024-05-11 00:35:24 +0000 UTC View PostLet me apologize for not getting these chapters updated to the lower tier sooner. I had so much going on this morning with the RR launch that it completely slipped my mind.
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“So, what did you...
2024-05-09 23:38:42 +0000 UTC View PostAfter finishing a recent repair job, Alexander decided to take a break and head down to the terminal to order some supplies as a few of his printer materials were running low. And maybe check his merchant account to see how much money his patent had earned him.
When he checked his account, ...
2024-05-08 22:46:25 +0000 UTC View Post“I can’t fix that scrap, but perhaps, with some luck, I can make you a new one,” The man relented after John vehemently complained. “But don’t expect something as crude as that firearm. We may be in the ass end of nowhere, but we aren’t savages.”
John ignored the unintentional...
2024-05-08 00:17:11 +0000 UTC View PostJohn followed the trail back through the hills until he came to a fork in the path. There was a fresh tail leading straight south, he tugged his horse to follow the trail. About an hour after that, he caught up to the group of survivors.
They were sitting around a fire, eating some small ga...
2024-05-06 23:47:46 +0000 UTC View PostTheodore Pembrooke smiled when the ramp to his ship finally closed. There were two reasons for his happy mood. The first was he could finally remove the ridiculous helmet and vac-suit. Despite the tailored fit, it was still annoying to move around in and it had served its purpose anyway. Now the ...
2024-05-05 22:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostMingyu stomped down the ramp of his ship, steam still billowing off the cooling thrusters. He was annoyed. More than annoyed, he was angry.
His ship the Moonlit Destiny had planned for a six-month deployment in Gliese 667’s outer belt to look for and extract precious metals. Less than thr...
2024-05-05 21:51:09 +0000 UTC View PostAlexander tossed the six bent and twisted pieces of junk that had been weapons into the smelter. After almost having two customers accidentally stumble upon him making one of the restricted weapons, he determined that anything he could learn from keeping them around did not outweigh the risks of ...
2024-05-05 01:20:29 +0000 UTC View PostWilkes walked up to stand next to the Captain. It had been about a week since they arrived but it was finally time to leave. The robot had just finished the last of the repairs and packed up his printer. He didn’t have anything against the robot, or the person supposedly controlling it. He just...
2024-05-05 00:58:17 +0000 UTC View PostJohn was awoken by someone nudging his leg. It wasn’t the nudge that got his attention though, it was the flare of pain from his still-injured leg that did that. He immediately realized he had passed out after the attack. Either through shock or blood loss, he couldn’t say. But somehow he was...
2024-05-03 23:57:05 +0000 UTC View Post“You done?” John asked. He knew he looked like hell warmed over. His outfit was chared and torn where it wasn’t covered in dirt and pine sap.
“Almost,” The man chuckled. “So, Mr. Gunslinger, what’s next.”
John took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, grimaci...
2024-05-03 00:21:53 +0000 UTC View PostAlexander peered into the engine cone of the Zephyr. It had been perforated in a dozen places and a large chunk was missing off of one side.
He was pretty sure he could fix it if he had a big enough printer. But he didn’t and that wasn’t the problem. Other components of the engine were ...
2024-05-02 00:56:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe Zephyr limped into Pertrov Station trailing a thin line of smoke from its port engine. The smoke came from the ruptured electronics systems along the side of the ship and not the fuel system, thankfully.
An undocumented asteroid, that was too small for their scanner to pick up, punched ...
2024-04-30 23:51:04 +0000 UTC View PostJohn was surprised to see the Sheriff ready and waiting for him as he rode up the next day.
The man flicked his cigarette on the ground and crushed it underfoot. “You’re late.”
“And you’re early. You ready? We won’t be stopping until dark.”
Instead of answering, th...
2024-04-30 01:14:36 +0000 UTC View PostJohn didn’t know who this Jacob fellow was, but he had to have some presence about him to con forty-plus workers into following him in the wrong direction.
Considering what he knew so far, he suspected that might be deliberate misdirection to throw anyone off his trail. If John were tryin...
2024-04-30 00:49:06 +0000 UTC View PostJohn walked into the Foreman’s bedroom alone. The Sheriff had left shortly after the Doc, taking the Deputy with him to wait outside for the undertaker.
That was probably for the best, especially with the Sheriff’s bubbling resentment of him. John didn’t take it personally, he had exp...
2024-04-29 00:47:18 +0000 UTC View PostAfter rounding up the bodies and securing the guns, John found a fallen log to sit on. He grimaced as he sat down, finally acknowledging the pain he had been in for most of the fight.
John might be tougher and faster than most people, thanks to his unique circumstances, but that didn’t me...
2024-04-29 00:29:25 +0000 UTC View PostYulia returned a few days later. He didn’t ask why she hadn’t shown up the prior day, and she didn’t offer. She just sat back on her stool and started talking.
Initially, when the girl first showed up, Alexander didn’t want her around because he assumed she would disrupt his work or...
2024-04-28 00:38:45 +0000 UTC View PostAs you can probably imagine, the breadth of knowledge a seven-year-old has about history isn’t great. Despite that, and the fact that Yulia liked to go on random tangents, Alexander did actually learn some things.
He learned about a war that took place. Yulia only knew of this fa...
2024-04-26 23:23:46 +0000 UTC View PostJohn knew using himself as bait was a dumb idea, but he had no better options. At least none that would allow him to get to his horse before getting shot in the back. Things weren’t all bad, he still had a range advantage once he reached the remains of the camp. The pneuma rifles may be accurat...
2024-04-25 23:58:19 +0000 UTC View Post