Showing results for "A Free State" in Space Opera

The alien race Akara have a secret; they've discovered the location of a planet that is home to a primitive human civilization, another ancient “seeding" of the legendary Progenitors. But, this planet lies in the territory of the Otuka, spacefaring alien predators who consider human flesh to be a delicacy and the planet to be their private hunting preserve. Unwilling to confront the Otuka, the Akara have passed the problem on to their human allies, the Lunar Free State. Now, the LFS needs to decide what to do about it.

Ian Stevens, director of the Deep Space Research Institute, isn’t interested in conducting research just for the sake of research. While the rest of the world - including the US Government - thinks that’s the DSRI’s sole mission, Stevens is actually interested in more - he wants manned space travel and the colonization of the moon. With NASA defunct, few scientific probes are being launched, and no one even talks about human spaceflight anymore. Stevens is out to change that.

Ever wonder what it would be like to live on the Moon? Just ask Aphrodite Kim, a teenage genius who was born on Luna and has lived there all her life. She knows TerraNova City well; in fact, she’s a certified tour guide, making extra money guiding rich Earthworm tourists around the Lunar Free State’s capital.

The Confederated Nations of Earth and the Lunar Free State have fought each other for decades in the Sol system and out among the stars. They’ve never had an open declaration of war, but there have been battles in space at Odin, Sacagawea, and Rothstein’s star. Lunar Marines have clashed with Confed Peacekeepers on Ragnarok and Xanadu. When the British battlecruiser Prince of Wales suddenly shows up at Ragnarok, the LFS and CNE realize there’s a new player in the game.

It’s been ten years since the Lunar Free State established itself on Earth’s moon. Since then, other Earth nations have pushed into space, but - thanks to the advantages provided by its gravity-driven spacecraft - the LFS has continued to prosper. When the research ship LFS Stephen Hawking encounters an alien probe near Saturn, though, the craft leads Hawking on a chase before vanishing into hyperspace. Now the Lunar Free State must face two facts: The humans of Earth are not the only intelligent life in the universe, and travel to other star systems is possible.

What do you do when one of your deep space survey ships discovers a fertile, Earth-like planet that isn’t currently occupied by humans or any other intelligent species? If you’re the Lunar Free State, you make plans to put a colony there—and try to keep it secret so the Confederated Nations of Earth don’t do the same. Unfortunately, though, the secret gets out, and the CNE scrambles to launch their own colony project, starting a race by both nations to make their claim to the planet.

After years of planning, the Lunar Free State is going to war, on a crusade to liberate the people of Tatanna from the evil Bugs. For Lorna Greenwood, this will be a trial by fire—her first mission with her own command, the Predator-class destroyer LFS Lynx. She’s looking to get some payback for her last trip there eight years ago, which didn’t end well.