AMERICAN PRAETORIANS

Spheres of Influence

Some of you might have seen a little short story that I put out through Wargate Nova a few weeks ago. Well, the main story has now begun. A “Peacekeeping” Mission That Might Be Anything But Lieutenant Bannon and his phalanx of Corvanite warriors have already seen some of the worst that the irregular war between the reptilian otuchans and the human latecomers can offer. Or so they think. First Sergeant Draven, trying to hold his company of Zolarian citizen soldiers together, has been on the desolate planet of Zhogalgan longer than Bannon. He’s seen even more. Yet while they are both there as peacekeepers, they are not there to help each other. Spheres of influence and empires clash, on a dry, harsh world that might become the flashpoint in an interstellar war! So begins a new military science fiction series, in a universe that I hope to explore at great length in the years to come. Get Spheres of Influence, Book 1 of Edge of Imperium, on ebook or paperback. Audio is coming on August 27. Check out a preview here: This series is the first in a universe that I’ve been working on for a long time, even before the

Galaxy’s Edge Fan Expo AAR

It has been a while. It’s been a busy summer, and the blog has suffered, plus we had to skip the stream last month. We’re back now, though, and Walt Robillard, the Wargate Books Trunk Monkey (his actual job title) joins us to talk about the Galaxy’s Edge Fan Expo, which went down in Oak Harbor, WA, last weekend, as well as books, science fiction, fantasy, dogs, knives, martial arts, interesting violence in interesting places, and anything else that might come up. (Walt’s also the author of the sixth Order of the Centurion novel, Callsign Valkyrie, as well as the Forgotten Ruin spinoff Underspire.) Come join us. We’ll be on YouTube, Rumble, and X/Twitter again.

Galaxy’s Edge Season Three Chat

The Emperors, Nick Cole and Jason Anspach, join us this month to chat about Galaxy’s Edge Season Three. GE changed a lot when it launched in 2017 with Legionnaire, and it’s not often a series can go this long with such a fanatically dedicated reader base. Nick and Jason have also been both friends and publishers of mine, lending advice, support, bringing me in to contribute to the Order of the Centurion series, and publishing The Lost (plus a couple more upcoming series). Come and join us. We’ll also be on my Twitter/X account: https://x.com/AmericanPraeto2

Guns, Mags, and Words – David Reeder Joins the Stream

This month we’re joined by the founder of Breach Bang Clear and one of the first to really help get the word out about the American Praetorians series, back when your host was just getting started. Writer, SPOTREPS contributor, and web guru David Reeder. Dave was one of the first enthusiasts about the American Praetorians series, after I sent him a copy of Task Force Desperate in the hopes that Breach Bang Clear would review it. In fact, he put the review on Military.com’s Kit Up, which got the book some visibility it would not otherwise have had. He is also a SPOTREPs contributor, having written two pieces for that anthology. We’re doing the stream slightly differently tonight, streaming on YouTube, Rumble, and Twitter/X. Come and join us. The Twitter stream will be on my profile: @AmericanPraeto2

Legacy of Terror

A Military Junta Turns to Piracy And the Blackhearts Get Called In for a Rescue But There Are Other Threats Just Out of Sight… When the repressive military government of the tiny country of Costa de las Joyas seizes a US-flagged cargo ship, a response is inevitable. However, given the small nation’s proximity to Venezuela and Colombia, the US government has decided that a subtle approach is called for. Brannigan’s Blackhearts are called in, but not to retake the ship. Regime change is the mission, but it will be regime change by proxy. The Blackhearts are hired to break out an imprisoned dissident, to act as a rallying point for the country’s rebels. However, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend… As the picture becomes clearer, the Blackhearts must decide between the lesser of two evils. Or neither. Book 13 of the Brannigan’s Blackhearts series is live today, in Kindle and Paperback. Get it now. And, if you haven’t dipped into the series yet, you can start with the first book, Fury in the Gulf. Or, the standalone novel that was eventually folded into the continuity, Kill Yuan.

Legacy of Terror Chapter 3

“Contact left!” Carlo Santelli’s bellow was cut off a moment later by a crackle of gunfire that echoed off the forested hills, as the lead element turned and poured bullets into the targets arranged along the hillside. After the first burst, Joe Flanagan, lean and black bearded, rose, turned, and dashed for the opposite hill, sprinting almost exactly three seconds before he turned, dropped to the prone, and picked up the fire again. The rest of the element, consisting of Kevin Curtis, John Wade, Tom Burgess, and Ignatius Kirk, followed somewhat more raggedly. In Curtis’s and Wade’s case, they’d simply held and kept up the fire a little bit longer, while Kirk was moving a little slower these days. The retired Special Forces soldier had been through the wars, and while he’d mostly recovered from wounds taken on an earlier job with the Blackhearts, he still didn’t have quite the speed or the endurance of his younger days. Tom Burgess, his salt-and-pepper ponytail waving behind him, was almost right behind Flanagan. Outside of the kill zone, the second element, with Miguel Gomez taking charge, had immediately taken cover and then started to maneuver around to the flank. Vincent Bianco, as

Legacy of Terror Chapter 2

Present Day John Brannigan was not a happy man. It wasn’t that life was bad. Nor was it the company. His relationship with the man behind the wheel of the SUV currently rolling through Alexandria, Virginia, wasn’t nearly as adversarial as it once had been. Mark Van Zandt, formerly General Van Zandt, USMC, had overseen Brannigan’s precipitous and unwilling retirement from the Marine Corps, many years before. Since entering the private sector himself, however, Van Zandt had worked with Brannigan and his small team of mercenaries, the men who called themselves “Brannigan’s Blackhearts,” enough that he’d changed. No, the discomfort wasn’t about sharing a ride with Van Zandt, or even the business casual that was pretty far from his usual attire these days. No, it was entirely about where they were. He’d bent over backwards in uniform and out to avoid Northern Virginia, the Beltway, and DC itself. Now here he was, right in the belly of the beast, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. Of course, he could just go home. But there hadn’t been a lot of action for the Blackhearts since Prague, and he knew that the other boys would be disappointed if he

Mongol Moon Live

No, we’re not reading Mongol Moon on stream, but we do have the author, Mark Sibley, joining us this month. As a fellow Wargate author, and also an author of near future war scenarios, we should have a lot to talk about. Even with the inevitable tangents. Come and join us on YouTube, Rumble, or Facebook. (We might experiment a little with Twitter next month, which will require cutting one of those destinations out.)

Legacy of Terror Chapter 1

Forty Years Ago Carlos Hierro looked up at the brassy sky overhead, squinting against the scorching sun. They had run out of water hours before, and he was sure the soldiers down below knew it. That was why there had been only sporadic exchanges of gunfire over the last hour or so. They know they only have to wait us out. He shook his head as he looked around at his comrades. Adalberto was no longer moving. He had bled out from his wounds sometime in the last few minutes. They simply no longer had the medical supplies to save him. The others, all ten of them, were ragged, sunburned, their lips cracked from lack of water, most of them down to their last couple of magazines. Nilo and Omar weren’t going to be able to go far even if they ever had a chance of breaking out, Nilo with a broken leg from a soldier’s bullet as they’d reached this little refuge in the rocks, and Omar nursing a gut wound that would be his death. Carlos knew they were all dead men. He glanced up at the sky again. Here, in the last moments, he found he

The Starship Troopers Stream

So, this might be technically a little late, but Starship Troopers was all over the internet a week or so ago. We’re going to talk about it. The book, the movie, and how bug people don’t understand what “fascism” is. Of course, it being the AP/Slack Ops crew, this could go all sorts of ways. Since the book is more an exercise in political and leadership philosophy than a straight mil-sf story, this could get deep. Come and join us. We’ll be on Rumble, too. (Rumble doesn’t seem to play well with WordPress, or that stream would be embedded here, too.)