The Meteor Men - Delta Rise Read online

About the cover. The Orion is the newest and largest of eight basestations. In a geosync orbit, she must constantly maneuver to stay in one place high over the Atlantic Ocean. Her 2 km. long hull [1 km in diameter!] rotates every 1.3 minutes for a rim speed of over 250 kph. Seemingly stationary, her central core creeps continually in a slower motion to maximize her solar panel array. Then there’s the thermocouples... space ops... communications... oh, never mind. Let the parade begin...

  ‘Recon by HUD.’ Pvt. Thompson [223rd Battalion] pretending to be doing something in an action at Lyell ‘A’ crater, Moon.

  The center of activity for all things Lunar.

  ‘866 ‘Hells Bells’ lines up for a combat drop over Africa.

  A century of transport.

  Right out of the box. Standard configuration for an LC-866 straight from the factory. This might last three days to a month - depending on her Captain. Though developed in the late ‘70’s specifically for the insertion of combat Troops, her modular design allows her to maintain a cutting edge status even to this day. With variants ranging from an unarmed version devoted solely towards cargo delivery to a gunship version devoted to delivering ordinance with lethal accuracy, she will continue to remain effective for the foreseeable future. Truly the ‘DC-3’ of our time.

  ‘866 Profile.

  ‘866 Profile.

  ‘866 over the Florida Keys on a training mission.

  This image makes evident the complete lack of any clear windshield – noteworthy of most spacecraft. Viewscreen technology makes a better view for the occupants.

  Flight of four. Flyby at the 2095 Paris Aero-Space Expo.

  ‘SAM’ provides the fireworks. The ‘866 ‘Hatchet’ in an action over Central America. Captain Kramer’s only comment: “I’m glad it wasn’t a near miss”.

  West Point class freighter. Largest in the fleet. This design came online in the early ‘90’s mainly to fill the growing need to transport 866’s from basestation through the atmospheric burn to target locations Earthside. These freighters can also deliver cargo to any airstation large enough to accommodate their majestic size. Outbound is a different matter. These ships require the use of a launch ramp to attain an orbit above the Earth atmosphere.

  ‘Takin’ some heat in the seat’. Nose high, the VMI [Virginia Military Institute] just prior ripping into the Earth’s atmosphere. This class of craft is named after famous military academies.

  Canard wings extended. Each in this class is named after various astro-anomalies. An early ‘80’s design to take advantage of the then newly developed launch ramps, these vessels can also achieve an orbit on their own (with the aid of ‘booster paks’). A good design found lacking when the transport of several LC-866’s is required. A specially designed version of this class can still only accommodate two ‘866’s.

  Operations on the Orion. The huge West Point is made dwarf by the basestation Orion as the Presidio looks on from temporary docking. The Annapolis is off in the distance having just departed.

  It was found that the enormous size of this basestation is required to minimize the motion-sickness factor while still achieving a comfortable rotational gravity. Deceptive here is the hollow nature of the basestation. Barely visible at this distance are the four stories of cylindrical veneer that do the actual rotation with the endcaps being whatever stationary is required to maintain the massive solar panel. The remainder is mankind’s attempt to corral space itself; a huge docking area large enough to accommodate over three hundred vessels, service tugs, space lanes, etc.

  The rotating cylinder constitutes enough square footage of living space to rival a small city. Being the byproduct of every nation across the globe, the Orion is truly an international city. Also home to various manufacturing facilities as well as her service to Lunar travel she is economically viable as well.

  Construction on this scale can only be achieved with the resources made available by her reason for being; the Moon. This answers the question ‘what came first – the chicken or the egg?’ (the correct answer is ‘the rooster’, but that is a different argument).

  Meet the man who has ‘a rocket in his pocket and a roll in his soul’.

  Katamma Reach

  Lagos High

  Tranquility Badlands

  Available at your favorite eBookstore.