Beta Results

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Beta Results

So far most all the feed back for the rough draft beta version of the book Admiral’s Nemesis has all been positive.

If you haven’t yet had the chance yet please head on over to pacificcrestpublishing.com and sigh up to be a beta reader and let us know what you think. But if you’re going to get in on the beta action you’ll need to act fast! It won’t be too much longer before we close the beta and and move to publishing. So please head on over and help us make this book and this series the best it can be.

many thanks,

The Deposed King

1 comment

  1. Jamison - July 29, 2017 2:57 am

    What follows is a piece of the Archibald story, that is some backstory on a teenage Tractoan redhead girl that is a Lieutenant Lancer on his ship. This okay? Any good? Should I rewrite it?

    (I have italicized words to denote things, or to show thoughts of Archibald, but they won’t transfer here, so all the words look the same, sorry about that.)

    Sigrunn’s introducion backstory:

    She is beyond nuts, but then, she is Tractoan. Archibald mused as they moved forward, carefully, since by now everyone other than the Tractoans in the group were tired of the relentless ambush attacks. They’d lost four men to those attacks, and no one was eager to be the fifth. Archibald was worried how long his, formerly, shiny armor would hold up, since the droids were going largely out of their way to target him whenever they had the chance.

    Sigrunn, on the other hand, had just said it was the mark of a successful War Master that his enemies were so determined to come after him. She was an odd blend of practical, professional warfare and ancient sword and spear, battlefield glory seeking warfare. He’d gotten the Intel files on her when she and a chunk of ‘her’ people had been transferred to his command, and the file had read like some sort of epic fantasy novel.

    It seemed, that crazy Sigrunn wasn’t from Argos, or any of the nearby city states.

    She hailed from Syracuse, a prosperous city state on the far side of the continent that the Tractoans had settled, and was far removed from most of the quarrels of their neighbors, since they had two mountain ranges, a major river and a massive lake between them and the rest. The founders of the city had journeyed far after their original home had been destroyed some centuries ago, according to the local history anyway. Sigrunn claimed she was a daughter of a low level house, and a third daughter at that, so one would notice if she vanished from home, and had after hearing about the new Warlord Montagne and his army in the stars, had left her home to join up.

    Archibald was willing to believe everything except the low level house bit. She was too well trained and used to commanding for that, brutal monarchy based culture or no. He knew she was a younger sibling, since he was a middle child in a pack of five, and could recognize some of her behaviors since he’d been the same himself for a long time.

    As for her trek across half a continent, that was actually true, if insane.

    It took her a year and a half, and that was after word had traveled about Messene and Warlord Montagne. She started off alone with her supplies, a riding beast and her own personal weapons, and began the long trek from Syracuse to Argos. She didn’t arrive alone though.

    They headed down the corriodor towards the bridge, almost to their goal, and Archibald wondered if this was somewhat similar to what Sigrunn had gone through.

    On her journey, she had slowly acquired companions. First, a few former slaves and a couple of warriors who were looking for some sort of quest. Then a pack of road bandits had attacked them, were defeated by them, and the ones that weren’t killed joined up with her. After she’d passed her first city, and before reaching the next one, she came across a true, bloody oddity. Datneous.

    A powerful warrior who’d been captured after a bloody battle, the people who captured him were still afraid of him, but also wanted to make a statement with him, so they cut his hands off, and tossed him with the slaves, figuring he’d die. They sacked a nearby city, and Datneous had made some of the local women and young girls that were tossed in with him a bargain; if they would feed him, and tie some battle axes to his arms, he would break them out and protect them.

    During a battle with a rival army, they had their chance, and took it.

    Datneous got his revenge, and then began wandering the empty countryside with the women by his side, killing many who thought to take them as slaves. Then they’d run into young Sigrunn, heard about her decision to go to Argos to join the star born, and then heard how they could restore or at least replace limbs, and he’d signed up right there, the women with him. More stops on her road came, finding and saving babies left to die by conquering rivals, scattered survivors of lost battles, even more bandits who wanted something more, aimlessly wandering cripples or refugees, all joined and followed her.

    Soon the other cities started calling her the Holdless Mistress, as an insult. Later, after she fought her way out a city that had erupted into civil war, and brought a lot of people with her, the nickname changed to Mistress of the Roads, or Mistress of the Empty Road, and then finally, the Road Mistress. She had become, much to her amusement and annoyance, some sort of folk hero.

    Her nomadic ‘Hold’ fought a few battles on their long trek, endured various palace intrigues and political fights, and at long last, made it to Argos, where they were almost mistaken for an invading army.

    Fortunately, the misunderstanding was quickly cleared up, and then she and those with her found their way to Messene, City of the Star Born. She and most others had joined up with the MSP, while the rest stayed to live in the city of Messene, their own fresh start. And now, here she was, far from her world, clad in power armor, yet still wielding a sword, and fighting enemies, droids or otherwise, and loving every minute of it, it seemed.

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