Hi everyone,
As some of you might be aware, I've faced a few personal setbacks in the last couple of months. As a result, I'm no longer able to write Andrew's story at the pace it deserves. I will be taking a short break for a month or so to try and get my personal issues back on track, so that I can commit some more time and energy to the...
2025-08-18 05:55:08 +0000 UTC View PostDonna was not particularly fond of morning exercises.
Oh, she understood the need for them. So did the rest of the former Phoenixes. Enemies could attack at any time, and the luxury of a good night’s sleep was not always available to a soldier.
They were proper soldiers now, with ranks, uniforms that didn’t double as combat armou...
2025-07-27 02:16:55 +0000 UTC View PostI was in the Mumbai lab when the intercom buzzed. “Mr. Belessar, this is Sanika from reception. You have, um, some visitors.”
“Who is it?”
“Sir, it’s some police officers. Shall I ask them to wait?”
I blinked. In my experience, American cops didn’t ‘wait’ to meet you - the Indian police seemed oddly polite. ...
2025-07-13 15:28:38 +0000 UTC View PostFor the leader of the League of Reform, frustration was part of daily life.
He only needed to look at a news site. Violence. Corruption. Inefficiency. All simple, solvable problems that were never addressed, because of the all-pervasive miasma that suffused every democratic nation:
Stupidity.
Beggars on the streets, a hundred a...
2025-05-11 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostI’d hoped to be able to get back to the lab after the speech. Naturally, that did not happen.
A visibly frustrated Kalachakra informed me that the Prime Minister wanted to ‘have a word’. Which meant that, post-speech, I was left kicking my heels in a tent, surrounded by grim-faced security personnel.
<Nanocloud>: They’r...
2025-05-11 13:30:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe conversation with Indradhanush left me tempted to grab a Greyhound and make another trip to Pune. However, that would have been somewhat rude. I was a guest in this country, after all.
Instead, I busied myself with working on the Superfighter design, and brushed up on my protein synthesis process. The molecules I was making were now st...
2025-04-19 14:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“I’ve never seen that girl before,” Porcupine said. “And…. Prajyot wouldn’t have just run off.”
I paused the video. “For what it’s worth, I agree with you. He’s not acting normally. Not a word to his companion, not even a glance, and he just gets in the car - before even she does.”
“You think he might have bee...
2025-02-02 12:30:04 +0000 UTC View PostAfter Kalachakra and the general had left, I spent a long time thinking.
The ambush had added another mystery to my ever-growing list.
Why were the Hierarchy attacking the Earth Defence Bases in particular? What did we have there that could threaten them?
Why did the aliens unleash a timed plague on us? Economic war...
2025-01-18 18:30:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe BAE-Dragonfly office slash lab in Mumbai had meeting rooms, like any normal office. Even if most of what we did here was mad science, inventech, and highly classified military planning, it wouldn’t have felt right without a conference table and flip board.
Currently, I was seated at one such conference table, sharing a cup of t...
2025-01-11 14:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe Traveler assigned to ship our first lot of octanitrocubane was a short, squat man, who had apparently not been informed of the nature of the cargo. “This calls for hazard pay,” he complained. “I wasn’t told this stuff could explode.”
“You’re getting the same rates as an alien defense mission,” Clegg explained to him pat...
2025-01-05 08:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs usual, Nancy from reception was the one to announce my visitors. “Mr. Belessar, they’re here!”
“I presume you mean Anne and her classmates?”
“Yes!.... Ahem, I mean, yes, Miss Drake and her classmates are here. Mr. Drake is giving them the safety talk and the PPE.”
“I’ll be down shortly. And I will ask...
2024-12-22 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostSergeant Giuseppe Umbro was no stranger to the foolhardy. Enough of them had walked through the door of Recruiting Station No. 27 over the years, wanting to sign up for the good fight.
He’d seen too many come back with shattered limbs and vacant expressions.
The job of a recruiter was not, as some assumed, to shepherd every w...
2024-12-17 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“The Cabinet Committee for Security is now in session,” announced the civil servant at the end of the table.
Ramnath Narayanswamy knew he should recall the man’s name. It was hard, though. There were just too many people he had to meet, every single day, all seeking him to fix one thing or the other.
He preferred being out and ...
2024-12-08 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post
An image of Belessar with his Lightning Hammer.
Equipment: Nanofibre Weave Combat Armour
Armament: Lightning Hammer Mark One.
(AI Art.)
2024-12-08 12:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post(Worldbuilding post.)
Belessar has developed several different versions of powered combat armour ever since he slapped together sheets of carbon nanotubes and called it nanofibre weave.
This post covers the specifications of the various types of Integrated Armour systems that Belessar has developed and used. It is for reference purp...
2024-12-04 04:12:59 +0000 UTC View Post
An image of five Phoenix Company members - Maria Sins, Donna Bartoli, Kristina Sabo, Cassandra Crane and Lavina Carpenter - outside the courthouse after the Battle of the Courthouse Steps.
Equipment: Nanofibre Weave Combat Armour, version 1
Armament: Laser Rifles.
(AI generated.)
2024-12-01 12:43:55 +0000 UTC View Post“Mr. Belessar, it’s Nancy from reception,” the intercom buzzed. “Commodore Pemberley is here to see you.”
“Please send her in,” I replied.
Pemberley looked more relaxed than the last time we’d met. “Belessar. Thanks for coming through with the suits.”
“You’re welcome. And my apologies, I didn’t realize...
2024-12-01 10:31:43 +0000 UTC View PostThe problem with most tech is energy storage.
Energy governs everything in combat. When tanks are possible, why do armies still use infantry instead of just making half a million of them? Because making a tank costs energy, shipping it to the combat zone costs more energy, getting it to move costs energy, and firing those awfully large can...
2024-11-26 17:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi folks!
Thank you for sticking with 'The Hero Without a Past' for the last two years. I've had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it to.
While I intend to continue Andrew's and Anne's story, right until the end, there are some other stories that I have also written - some as exercises, some in response to ...
2024-11-24 17:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post“Today, we are going to review certain basics,” explained Professor Palamar. “And then apply them to the methods of your unit, to see how they can be improved.”
Anne tried hard to concentrate on the class. She’d done the required reading, especially after last time. That didn’t stop her from being nervous.
Not about the c...
2024-11-24 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Mr. Belessar?” the buzzer on my table sounded. “It’s Nancy from reception. Your ten o’clock is here.”
“Send them in, please, Nancy,” I replied, adjusting my armour. It wasn’t often that I suited up in the office, but meeting with other ultras - any ultras - always called for a certain degree of precautions.
Dyzer s...
2024-11-18 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“You talking to Nick yet?” Sally asked.
Anne swallowed. “I haven’t had a chance yet. He hasn’t come to school since he got back from America.”
“There’s these things called phones. I know both of you have them.”
“I can’t just call him.”
“Suit yourself. He’s back in class today, tho...
2024-11-13 15:30:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe Nanofibre Weave Fabricators were running full-tilt when I reached the factory the next morning.
Every few seconds, a Fabricator spat out a sheet of fullersteel, to be wheeled away to storage. With the stores almost depleted after my ‘appropriating’ them for the suits, there was plenty to be made up.
Forklifts ran ...
2024-11-02 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe halls of Sandhurst Military Academy had become a somewhat familiar sight for Anne over the past few weeks. After the weekly sessions on Military History and Economics, she’d begun to gain some familiarity with the premises.
The Academy students wore a mix of uniforms, mostly the greens, whites and blues of the British forces, but the...
2024-10-26 14:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostOnce the legion of officials had left, Gideon called me, Armand, Elizabeth Giles and William Clegg into the conference room.
“Elizabeth and I had quite the discussion with our friends from Her Majesty’s most Brittanic government,” Gideon announced. “One that was filled with varying acts of anger, threats, tears, and various episode...
2024-10-19 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA week after kicking Heath out of my office, Pemberley came to visit.
She looked less than happy as she was shown into my office by Nancy, who kept giving her the stink-eye. “Belessar.”
“Commodore.”
“I’ve been hearing things.”
“I’d recommend an ENT, unless you want a quick dose of Cure.”
Pemberle...
2024-10-12 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe September breeze ruffled the grass at the cemetery.
She’d been here before. More than once, unfortunately; war was a fickle thing, its toll seen in places such as these.
At least it was peaceful.
Nicholas stood beside her, staring at the headstone. “Is that… him?”
She nodded. “That’s him. Or ra...
2024-10-04 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostFarnborough was larger than I remembered it.
In my month of absence, the factory had undergone another expansion. More warehouses, more staff, more and more rolls of fullersteel and nanofibre weave coming off the production lines and being set apart for fabrication.
During the past month, the firm had been stockpiling as ...
2024-09-28 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post<Nanocloud>: Andrew? You awake?
I groggily shook off the chains of sleep. It was…. three-thirty in the morning? Meaning ten o’clock in London.
Anne didn’t usually call so late.
<Belessar>: I am now. What’s up?
<Nanocloud>: Need to talk. I had a bit of a screw-up.
<Belessar>: Are...
2024-09-21 16:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt only took Droneacharya a moment to spot the distortion by the wall.
Smiling, he walked over to the chair at the head of the table, keeping his back to the distortion. He sat down slowly, savouring the seconds as the distortion gradually - slowly - moved forward, feet lighter than a cat’s tread. He waited for it to stealthily crawl beh...
2024-09-14 05:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post