New Praetorians 1 - Sienna McKnight

by R. K. Syrus

  “Oh!” The flighty physician stops in her thought tracks. “I thought you were going to ask me something hard. That’s easy. My boss always insists we keep up to date with everything, just in case. Though falling out of a helicopter and the other, uh, things that happened, definitely low-probability bimodals. You’re in the super-secret hospital wing of your father’s house.”

  Suddenly, it was not just a concussion making her head spin.

  Uncle Bryan, you got some explaining to do.

  Thank you for reading

  New Praetorians 1: Sienna McKnight.

  The next volume is:

  NEW PRAETORIANS 2:

  SHETANI ZERU BRYAN

  Available soon on Amazon.com

  Sarge Bryan watched helplessly as Sienna McKnight fell from a speeding helicopter. He was certain the brilliant, accomplished, and brave woman he had known since she was a girl was dead. Almost certain. He has to know for sure. He has to get back to the hostile sands of Khorasan’s Wandering Desert.

  Twenty-three years ago, Sergeant Shetani Zeru Bryan was on the military plane that brought Sienna and her adoptive parents home to North Carolina. A steadfast friend to the McKnights, he has supported and mentored Sienna throughout her life. The shocking secrets he has harbored for years might save her, or could turn out to be the most dangerous

  revelations yet.

  To get advance alerts on book release dates and free items, send an email with “list” in the subject line to:

  syrus.rk@gmail.com

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  NEW PRAETORIANS WIKI

  1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta: 1st SFOD-D, a unit of the US Army garrisoned at the Base, along with a small auxiliary squad.

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  2016: The first year the Refugee Olympic Team joined the Games. The athletes competed under the Olympic flag.

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  Adaptive Execution Office (AEO): A segment of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense). AEO was created to accelerate the transition of DARPA technologies from concept to active use for the military and private-sector partners. Rumored to be headquartered at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex bunker in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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  Ansible: Popular name for an artifact recovered by the exploration team of Everett and Akan. Its dimensions, known properties, and exact location are classified. There are no known photographs of the object, only artists’ renderings.

  Ursula K. Le Guin coined the word “ansible” in 1966 to refer to a system of faster-than-light communication. How this term came to be applied to the object in question is not clear. However, the term began to be used shortly after its retrieval from the Bentley Subglacial Trench in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica.

  According to FREENET conspiracy blogger &OrwellLives!, the object defies photographic recording, both digital and analog. Everyone claims to see a different glowing shape inside a so-far-impenetrable shell. &OrwellLives! also claimed governments are developing weapons systems and mind-control devices using Ansible-based technologies, as well as employing it as a beacon to offer wealthy interstellar species visas to come live on Earth.

  Other names include Antarctic meteorite Everett-Akan MBL/BST 00001, The Aleph, The Spirit of Rajan, and Elemental Squark ñt.

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  The Base: The Special Forces section of the large US Army installation outside Fayetteville, North Carolina.

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  Bellingshausen Station: A Russian Antarctic station at Collins Harbor, on King George Island; rumored to be home base to the next generation of nuclear subs and specialized Arctic cyborg units of battalion strength.

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  EEL round and launcher: Electrostatic Enveloping Ligature.

  A less-lethal round used almost exclusively by Special Forces military due to its cost and specialized training requirements. The projectile employs a combination of electrostatic epoxy resin, nano-charges, and a small internal mechBrain to disable enemy fighters at up to one hundred meters. The concept is a combination of the Mossberg X12 and the M320 40mm grenade launching platform. EEL rounds are also known as Sea Cucumbers or Goober rounds, due to their gelatin-like appearance. US Army designation: M588.

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  Formula 0 Racing: Originally an amateur university student-run event, zero fossil-fuel emissions racing has been taken over by large corporate sponsors. The annual races overseen by the governing body still include the original track along the Eyre Highway a 1,660-kilometer (1,030 miles) paved road linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Claims of cheating and corruption on the part of race safety officials are constant during the active season.

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  Hinge: Slang for a US Navy lieutenant commander (LCDR), Officer O-4.

  Refers to the cranial procedure that is supposedly mandated as soon as a naval officer is promoted to this rank. Half of his/her brain is removed and a hinge is inserted that allows for reattachment of the removed gray matter if required. The hinge limits the LCDR’s head movement, O-4s are constantly nodding in the affirmative and saying, “Yessir, yessir” when in the presence of the CO.

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  Hovercopter: A generic term for the V-560 and variants manufactured by Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, and Lichtwerks. Persistently called “helos” by Navy personnel.

  This fifth-generation tiltrotor aircraft employs captive induction as primary thrust instead of rotors. Maximum speed and range are classified but estimated to be 300 knots and 1,000 nautical miles, respectively. Advances over the Valor and previous FVL craft include significant increase in visual and sonic stealth due to incorporation of guanine nanocrystal mechanisms on exterior and the unique design of the nacelles.

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  IceCube Neutrino Observatory: A neutrino telescope near the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Its thousands of dark-matter energy sensors are distributed over a cubic kilometer of volume under the ice.

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  Khorasan: A newly sanctioned nation in Central Asia; its constitution requires it to have open borders and accept all refugees regardless of origin, race, or religion.

  Geographically, Khorasan incorporates the former Afghanistan and a section of previously uninhabitable wasteland connecting to the coastline. Administered by Worldwide Help International (WWHI), the south of the country has been transformed into an area often referred to as the Fertile Spear. This is the last sanctuary for many desperate refugees from all over the globe. The north retains its traditions and stubbornly resists change.

  Other historical map redrawing initiatives in the region by superpowers have included:

  The Durand Line (1893) which established Afghanistan as a buffer zone between British and Russian interests in the region.

  The Wakhan Corridor (1873)

  Russian Turkestan (1867-1918)

  The post-WWI dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of artificial states the boundaries of which overlapped tribal, ethnic, and linguist identities.

  Pax Syriana (Lat., “Syrian Peace”) a concept invented by superpower think tanks during the late 20th century to describe a hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East. Some models proposed erasing post-Ottoman borders and re-establishing the Persian Empire to improve stability and benefit commerce.

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  Licht/Net: A photo
n- and neutrino-based communication network. In most countries it has replaced the Internet. Many people surveyed were not aware they were using the system because mobile devices and computers connect automatically, without charge. It is a single network but known by different names in different countries, notably Lux/Net in English-speaking countries, Réseau/Lumineux in France, and 光ネットワーク (Hikari/Nettowāku) in Japan.

  An early demonstration of the principle that every light bulb in the world could be a communications node was documented in a 2011 TED talk in which modulation of the light from a single LED transmitted far more data than a cellular tower. Licht/Net is now ubiquitous due to cost factors and the network being entirely wireless. Handheld and other devices connect via light emitted by Licht/Net-enabled bulbs or panels. Inside the light sources, photons interact with a neutrino stream generated by Lichtstrom particle colliders. Data is transferred to the central switching hub (the supercolliders formerly known as CERN), then the process is reversed, completing the network.

  The most distant member of the network is the Chinese space probe “Adventurer” 冒險家 in its mission to Eris (planetoid 136199, discovered 2005). On the date of landing, Eris will be approximately ten billion kilometers distant from the Earth.

  Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) still exists, but due to Licht/Net’s services being free and unlimited globally, fiber-optic and other networks carry much reduced traffic. Primary legacy users are gamers, pornographers, and fraudsters. Fake money transfer schemes are often carried out through .trans domains registered in the Balkan republic of Transnistria (Републикэ Молдовеняскэ Нистрянэ).

  Licht/Net site addresses are designated by /* top level domain names with /licht being the equivalent of .com. The network supports the exchange of LichtCredits, the virtual national currency of the Lichtstrom and an open transaction conversion system which provides most of the benefits of a single currency with fewer disadvantages. Known internationally as LuxBucks, Argent d’alion, and 電気マネー (Denki mane).

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  Lichtstrom: A corporate nation between Switzerland and France.

  Based on top of the physical structures of the privatized CERN supercolliders, it serves as the world’s leading information hub. Lichtwerks Corporation is primarily involved in communications systems, but is expanding into aeronautics and materials science. Dr. Wolfgang Licht’s most high-profile project is a space elevator system, currently under construction.

  While often translated into English as “light storm,” Lichtstrom translated from German means “luminous flux.” In photometry, this is the measure of the power of light perceived by the human eye.

  Other corporate nations in history include Rhodesia and the East India Company.

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  MARSOC: United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, the Marine Corps’ contribution to Special Operations Command.

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  mechBrain: A portmanteau slang term for any mechanical device or system which demonstrates interactive behavior. Often used disparagingly when the mechBrain is perceived to frustrate human intentions.

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  Metcalf-Chang device: A neural PET scanner. Manufactured by a division of Eurolincx Corp.

  Its sales literature claims it can interpret brain activity to a high degree of pragmatic competence. Essentially a brainwave to text/image machine. It’s currently restricted to governmental use. Detractors claim it is merely a different version of the fMRI brain scans used decades previously as documented by Gallant et al. Initial test subjects scanned by device prototypes have filed lawsuits claiming dementia and other side effects.

  The name refers to West Point Professor Dorothy Metcalf, MD, nPsychD, and Noonian Chang, a reclusive researcher at Ao Kazan Corporation in Japan. The device is based on their work, but its construction did not involve them.

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  microSwarm: A coordinated unit cluster of small aerial drones.

  Used for civilian and military purposes, they can carry chemical or biological payloads and deliver them with high precision. Worldwide Help International is one of the few non-governmental organizations (NGOs) known to employ microSwarms, often using them to immunize or cull remote herds of animals. Agricultural microSwarms are used to pollinate essential crops in areas where insect pollinator numbers are not adequate to ensure a stable food supply. Terran models use visual, olfactory, and DNA sensors to achieve highly accurate targeting. Once initialized, command and control is decentralized. A number of drones may be incapacitated without disabling the swarm. Communication between drones is normally frequency-hopping ultrasonic. Marine models typically are nested inside larger conveyances such as Ao Kazan cetacean robots until they are close to their final deployment zone.

  Offensive military uses of microSwarms are prohibited under the protocols of the “Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects” (Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols, and their Commentaries).

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  Miggle: Slang for the revolver-style six shot Milkor Multiple Grenade Launcher. The USA designated variant M32A1 has been adopted the Marine Corps and by USSOCOM.

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  Neutrinos: Elementary particles with very small mass which move at near light speed.

  Neutrinos interact only via the weak subatomic force and gravity. Many pass through the Earth without any known interaction. “A neutrino of moderate energy could easily penetrate a thousand light-years of lead.” - David Griffiths. Neutrinos can be created in nuclear reactions such as those that take place in stars, supernovae or Earth-based reactors. Neutrinos are the primary carrier wave of Licht/Net. Neither the “flavor” of neutrino Dr. Licht uses, nor how these particles are modulated into wireless signals, which can be interpreted by mechBrains in phones and other hardware, is known.

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  RAPTEK: [unsubstantiated FREENET rumor] Railgun: Ansible Powered Test Kit. A DARPA-developed, single-soldier weapons system based on Ansible-derived energy generators in contravention to international treaties.

  The US Navy tried for years to create a working railgun system for its Zumwalt-class destroyers. DARPA is said to jealously guard this technology and the only alleged prototypes are being tested by the US Army at an undisclosed facility.

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  Red Mist (Rubri a’ris polyaminopyridine): An extremely useful local and general anesthetic commonly found in military and civilian hospitals. It is also used recreationally. Its popularity has surged due to low toxicity, general availability, affordable street price, and the drug’s uncanny ability to mimic other narcotics the user has previously enjoyed.

  The compound was developed through genetic manipulation of the venom-producing cells of scorpions. Its characteristic red color and typical aerosol delivery mechanism have resulted in its popular name. A catalyzed compound, the drug only becomes active when in contact with certain types of metals. In medical use, these are pins or staples inserted into anatomical regions to limit the desired anesthetic effect. Clinical anesthesia is achievable even in cases of extreme blood loss. Among recreational Red Mist users, studs and piercings employed as catalyzers are ubiquitous. Vinegar renders Red Mist inert and not identifiable as a controlled substance.

  Trade names include Glazitraphane and Xanitanyl.

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  scRamjet: Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (aka “flying stovepipe”), a form of supersonic air-breathing engine and the aircraft employing them. Military versions operate up to speeds through Mach 6 (4,600 mph; 7,403 km/h).

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  scrolls: Flexible, expandable filament screens which have replaced most tablets and portable monitors. Often housed in cylinders about the size of a fountain pen; larger, more expensive versions can expand to 38x68 inches. Opaque and rigid when locked open, they are
compatible with all existing software and touchscreen drivers.

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  Stymphalian drones: Successor to the X-47B and the latest graduate of DARPA’s J-UCAS program.

  A semi-autonomous stealth unmanned combat air vehicle. Designed to continue operation even when cut off from ground control. Stymphalians independently coordinate with other mechBrain-enabled weapons platforms. Payload is classified but estimated to be at least 2.5 tons. A flex-munitions module allows the aircraft to decide what sort of payload to deploy at the last minute. Choices range from thousands of antipersonnel cluster bomblets to UAV expendable mode (colloquially known as “kamikaze mode”), transforming the entire drone into a single multistage bunker-buster. The fleet was temporarily grounded after a friendly-fire incident over the Ess Alüm peninsula.

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  TYR Lens: A large desalination and electricity-generating station floating in the Gulf of Oman.

  Along with the Great Wall of China, the Giza Pyramids, the ELON Transatlantic Hyperloop, and the wind-powered undertaking to thicken the Arctic ice cap, Project HODUR, the Lens is one of the largest engineering projects in human history. It is the first large-scale use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Most of its sixty-square-kilometer (average visible above surface) area is composed of calcium carbonate and was manufactured by the MOFs in the same fashion as mollusks produce seashells.

  The Lens is a large energy plant. A combination of direct and stored solar energy as well as algae-biomass-generated free electrons (through exploitation of the TYR quark effect) power an extensive electrical grid. Total generating capacity is classified, but has been estimated to be in the terawatt range. This energy is also used to desalinate seawater from the Gulf of Oman. Drinking and irrigation water is pumped through aqueduct-style pipelines throughout the Central Asian region. The target of numerous terrorist attacks, it has never suffered significant damage.

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  US-SOCOM: United States Special Operations Command. Oversees various Special Operations Component Commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.