STORM FROM THE SHADOWS – snippet 92:
In many ways, Josef Byng was a typical product of the SLN, according to the ONI file. He came from a family which had been providing senior officers to the League Navy for the better part of seven hundred T-years; he’d graduated from the naval academy on Old Terra; and he’d gone directly into Battle Fleet, which was far more prestigious than Frontier Fleet. He was a second-generation prolong recipient who was just over a T-century old, and he’d been an admiral for the last thirty-two T-years. Unlike the Royal Manticoran Navy, the SLN had not developed the habit of routinely rotating senior officers in and out of fleet command to keep them current both operationally and administratively, and it looked as if Byng (or his family) had possessed sufficient pull to keep him in what were at least technically space-going commands for virtually his entire flag career.
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IN THE STORMY RED SKY – snippet 24:
Adele gave a mental shrug. She could only hope that Beckford’s aircar arrived before Das and Forbes found themselves at the end of the pier together. The governor could avoid awkwardness by dawdling, of course, which he should be able to figure out on his own. His record in Client Affairs–she’d looked Das up, of course–was good if unspectacular.
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IN THE STORMY RED SKY – snippet 23:
The harbormen were sauntering back toward the pier now that they’d unrolled the floating bridge till it reached the outrigger. Woetjans and a team of spacers were lashing the free end to the landing stage; Adele noted that the connection was very loose.
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STORM FROM THE SHADOWS – snippet 91:
“We’ve been hailed by the Monicans, Ma’am,” Captain Armstrong said from Michelle’s com screen. “Finally.”
Her voice was dust-dry, and Michelle chuckled as her flag captain added the final word.
“And they said?” she inquired.
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STORM FROM THE SHADOWS – snippet 90:
“Well, this is a fine kettle of fish,” Michelle murmured an hour later as she gazed at the data codes on the master plot.
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IN THE STORMY RED SKY – snippet 22:
The remaining structures were one or two stories, built from precast panels; windows ran the full height of the walls. They were painted in varying bright pastels, though, and the flowers and geometric designs stencilled on the walls gave them even more individuality.
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STORM FROM THE SHADOWS – snippet 89:
Chapter Twenty-Three
Just under twenty-five T-days after leaving Spindle, Michelle Henke’s flagship crossed the alpha wall into the star system of Monica. Michelle sat in her command chair on Achilles’ flag deck, watching her displays and wondering what sort of reception she and her ships were likely to receive.
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IN THE STORMY RED SKY – snippet 21:
CHAPTER 7: Hereward on Paton
“You can lower the ramp now, Woetjans,” Daniel called. He straightened the sleeve of his best 2nd class uniform and mused aloud, “I wonder if I ought to have worn my Whites?”
Hogg snorted. “To meet the governor of this pisspot?” he said. “I don’t bloody think so, master.”
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STORM FROM THE SHADOWS – snippet 88:
“And assuming we could provide you with documentation of such harassment, just what would you do with it?” Pélisard asked.
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IN THE STORMY RED SKY – snippet 20:
The only unexpected vessel below was the Spezza, a Hydriote transport of 5,000 tons. Adele dug into her particulars; the commercial code “protecting” them could be opened by any halfway competent signals officer in the merchant service. To Adele’s surprise, she found that the Spezza was under charter to the Ministry of Defense on Xenos.
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