Cascade Smith: The Hydra Sanction

THE HYDRA

A giant sea serpent of Greek mythology with nine heads, one of them immortal. The task to slay the Hydra was the second labour of Hercules – no easy task, as for every head cut off, another would grow in its stead.

To kill the Hydra, its immortal head must be cut off then cauterised in flame.

It is the year 2031, and Australia has just turned back a Chinese invasion force in the naval Battle of the Arafura Sea, ensuring stability in the South Pacific for the foreseeable future.

But China is playing the long game, moving its focus to a massive cyber-attack across the West, aimed at world domination through stealth in lieu of military conquest.

To this end, China’s MSS has developed Hydra, the most advanced quantum computer the world has ever seen, and in 2032 they start to use it, successfully attacking the governments of the Philippines and then Japan with devastating effect.

The ‘brain’ of Hydra is sunk 1000 feet deep in the Dragon Hole, a sinkhole in the South China Sea, from where it beams attack codes to eight satellites orbiting the key capital cities of the West.

America’s NSA identifies the location of Hydra, but President Sigourney Owen rules out a tactical nuclear strike, as that would be a prelude to a Third World War.

It is resolved to mount a commando operation, with US Navy SEALs launched by submarine to attack the Dragon Hole with a specially-designed depth charge code-named Hercules.

Four SEALS volunteer for the suicide mission.

One of them is Cascade Smith.

Elimination

This is the world. This is our world. This is my world. My world is not fair. My world is cruel. My world is indifferent to all that inhabit it. In my world, life is cheap. In my world, evil excels. In my world, the good are condemned, while the bad proliferate. There are many people who inhabit my world. To the east, there is the fascist ‘paradise’ of Antrioch. There, women dominate all. There, the leader decides what is right and what is wrong. There, humanity is unaffordable. To the west, there is the democratic country of Allia. There, they think they’re free.

Are they really free, though? It’s a funny thing, freedom. It’s often when we believe that we possess it that it’s furthest from our reach. To the north, there is my home, the socialist utopia of Spidred. Here, there is little to do but think and freeze. Often that is the best strategy for survival. Is it enough to consider? Or must we act in consideration? That’s what’s left to contemplate in this part of the world. Technology has supposedly freed us.

Are we truly advanced? Or are we merely tomorrow’s obsolescence? Sometimes I wonder. Will this world thrive? Will it move forward to a better future? Or is it doomed to destitution? I do not know, but, I’m sure that I will have fun finding out.

Day of the Dinosaurs

A young child goes missing visiting a dinosaur-themed park on the Island of Crete in Greece. Despite a worldwide search, he is never found. It is only later a disturbing picture emerges concerning his upbringing. The dinosaur park has been built in a crater created by a meteor many millions of years ago. Unknown to the park’s owners, fragments of the meteor have affected the animatronic creations, empowering them with intelligence. There is also an ancient myth concerning a Messiah-like child who will change the course of history. New technology, the internet, and artificial intelligence will play their part in bringing about the prophesied Armageddon.

Saving Static

In an era of humanity’s expansion across the stars, Castor and his extraordinary partner Jist, an illegal lifeform with unique abilities, embark on a daring mission: the removal of a perilous moon. Their quest leads them to the notorious prison planet ‘Paradise,’ where Master Quillion, the sole expert capable of executing the complex and outlawed procedure, languishes for a past lunar disaster.

Escaping Paradise’s iron grip is merely the first hurdle for the intrepid duo. Hunted relentlessly by Paradise Planet security eager to recapture their fugitive, and pursued by ‘Tracer,’ an AI Homorph from the Office of Illegal Lifeforms (OIL) determined to ensnare and reprogram Jist, Castor and his companion must navigate a treacherous path through the cosmos. Their search for the indispensable mining engineer Cormand, the only lieutenant Quillion trusts, intensifies, unaware that Cormand may harbor a thirst for vengeance against Quillion for the loss of his family in the previous cataclysm.

Amidst the vastness of space, Castor and Jist’s destinies intertwine, teetering on the edge of survival as they confront the perils of their mission and the ghosts of the past.

Skimmer – Tic Tac

The Sphere of Gilgamesh is being installed on all Skimmers by Ngarra’s crew. It is a new technology that will make Xtract mining drones autonomous and able to learn group behaviour. Meanwhile, a grid buoy anomaly has appeared and becomes the focus of interest in ‘the Area’.

The mimic program has been deployed by the Chinese-owned GlobeCorpMining deep sea mineral harvester, and if combined with the sphere and its red queen sequence will take control of the grid.

During completion of overdrive trials for the alternate propulsion system installed on Skimmers a confrontation occurs between all parties.

The Methuselah Tree

Life in the quiet village of Magen in rural Surrey is turned upside down when a new motorway bypass is proposed that will cut through ancient woodland.

Callum Kemble’s decision to make a stand to protect this woodland sets off a chain of events that has major implications for the small village. Mysterious, unexplainable phenomena start happening, and the village is inundated with people trying to find an explanation for a glowing, sceptre-like object that suddenly appears close to a two-thousand-year-old yew tree growing out of a granite mound by the woodland.

Is it some type of weapon, or a portal key to another world? The military want to contain it and then study it; the scientists want to back-engineer it, and then there are the collectors of such antiquities that will do anything to get their hands on such artefacts for their own reasons.

None of them know where this is going to lead and just how much their lives would be changed forever, all started off by a small protest to protect an ancient woodland and a two-thousand-year-old yew tree.

McMurdo Village

What happened to Fred 12? The asteroid made the planet fall, but its location is unknown. McMurdo Village in Antarctica is settling down to life post the 2047 catastrophe. Dense forest covers most of the planet. Something strange is Iurking in the forest outside of the village, as well as the prehistoric creatures. What can it mean? All inhabitants of the planet are located in the village, even the scientists that were scattered around Antarctica.
An expedition to the former Island of Crete comes across a lost city in what was the Mediterranean Sea. What could it be? The McMurdo team make some startling discoveries in the city some that will change the history of the human race. How will these discoveries affect the remaining vestiges of people left on the earth?
In McMurdo village, something is stirring: a huge dark shadow falls over the village. The ground is shaking and people are running around terrified.
What is happening? Can the village survive?

Evacuation

After a high-stakes, nighttime chase, a flying saucer is shot down, landing intact in a freshwater lake at the East Yorkshire seaside resort of Hornsea. The authorities, under the guise of discovering a small-yield atomic bomb, evacuate the entire town.

John Phillips returns home to Hornsea, ignoring all warnings. As he explores the eerily silent town, now plunged into pitch darkness, his curiosity leads him to the freshwater lake.

From his hiding spot, John watches as authorities haul not an atomic bomb, but a UFO out of the water. Suddenly, a bright light transfers the alien pilot’s consciousness into John’s mind. The boy agrees to help the alien return to its saucer. Despite being pursued by an army of security forces equipped with state-of-the-art technology, John manages to get the alien back to its ship. However, fate has other plans. What follows is an extraordinary adventure with life-or-death consequences for John.

End Day

The story unravels in the dusty dryness of Baghdad, Iraq, which reminded Jake of Woomera, and the Colony of Clones. Living in a science-fiction reality, Dago from the Colony sees it as his duty to take control in his hero-quest to take-over as a world leader.

A spume of volcanic ash erupts at Medina and Mecca, forcing thousands of gallons of oil-enriched emissions skywards. This in turn affects Muslim pilgrims as they make their way through the Zamzam valley to the Ka’bah, Islam’s most holy site.

Adventure lies ahead, querying the tomes of antiquity. Dago had done it again:

First the bomb at the Vatican and, now, the eruption at Medina and Mecca; boundaries are crossed in an all-consuming blur. Dago’s appearance does not raise eyebrows, as a unique saviour is common to many religious beliefs. Dago believes that by unlocking the genome he and his sister, Mary, obtain their potential, becoming not only world leaders but gods. Dago sets out on his hero-quest, dragging Ator with him, boasting they are perfect organisms made for the survival of their selfish genes.

From antiquity to the modern day, the reader is engaged in a journey of discovery that could define either the future, or end in the destruction of mankind.

Elan – The Martian

Many of us imagine and dream of visiting Mars without the slightest understanding of what life there would be like. In this novel, a young Martian creature, Elan, who looks exactly like us, comes from Mars to learn about our civilization and to teach us about his own. In this intriguing science fiction tale, Elan regales us with fascinating stories about life on Mars, where advanced technology and a superior lifestyle leave us yearning to know more.

As Elan demonstrates his extraordinary capabilities and highly developed skills, we become entranced by his presence. Not only is he intelligent, handsome, and romantic, but his generosity is unparalleled. However, a single encounter involving a marijuana cigarette reveals his true intentions and the real reason behind his visit to our planet.

Join Elan on this thought-provoking and eye-opening adventure that will challenge your perceptions of life beyond Earth and leave you questioning the possibilities that lie within the red planet. Elan the Martian is a science fiction novel that will take you on an unforgettable ride through the stars and into the heart of an alien civilization.

Bestowal

We were created by the Bestower, and placed on the world to rid it of its native life, unpleasing to Him. He gave us the living Bestowed to sustain us and replace what was there before. Thus say the priests, but now that myth is questioned: Native life has evolved; why not ourselves and the Bestowed that came with us? Are not all native, and necessary for survival? The evidence is contentious: Exterminate, or conserve? There is increasing dissension and the threat of war.

In this struggle, a policeman, a conservationist professor, a refugee, an archaeologist, an archpriest and many others play their parts. Amid the rising tension, a historian digs deep into the myth and its origins. It is, though, the development of her physicist husband’s wild cosmological theories that add to the confusion; material can be made to vanish, but to where, and how?

It is a masterful colleague who sees a practical use for the discovery, and by trial and error, the great Evaporator is developed in secret, its true purpose concealed. As rumours abound, both sides in the conflict seek to prevent its use. At the last moment, an attempt at sabotage has far-reaching consequences.

Colony of Clones

Colony of Clones, the second book in an evocative sci-fi trilogy, explores the perilous politics bubbling up in an experimental community of human clones.

Rex and Dago, cloned from iconic historical figures, grapple for control over their fledgling settlement isolated from the outside world. Brilliant outcast Ator, cloned from Galileo, challenges the colony’s questionable doctrine before being banished by its authoritarian leader.

The clones, copied from the bone shards of ‘genetically superior’ personages, grow up ingrained with a heightened sense of superiority, entitlement and independence. But as clones based on long-dead people struggle to find identity and purpose, fissures split wide open and they find themselves navigating a world that is anything but certain.

When visitor Jake is brought to the secretive colony by the increasingly paranoid Dago, he bears uneasy witness to the psychological distress catalysed by experimental human cloning devoid of ethics. Dago’s own sister Mary grapples to break free from the trauma of being a clone caught out of time.

Probing the devastating ramifications of playing god in a lab, Colony of Clones examines human cloning through an absorbing character-driven narrative full of intrigue, thought experiments, and moral complexity.