Book One of the Jack Commer, Supreme Commander Series
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After the evacuation of the Earth’s population to Mars, the crew of spaceship Typhoon I must fight native Martian terrorists led by their new human Emperor, political agitator and traitor Sam Hergs. But Captain Jack Commer compromises the mission when he kidnaps the Emperor’s consort and falls in love with her. Published by Sortmind Press paperback: Reviews at Beauty in Ruins and Goodreads |
Synopsis
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In 2033 Captain Jack Commer is ordered to drop the planet-wrecking Xon bomb to end the Final War, forcing a hasty evacuation of the remnants of Earth’s population to Mars. But by June 2034 previously unknown native Martians have risen in rebellion, led by their new human emperor, the traitor Sam Hergs. Amid family squabbles arising from the presence of four Commer brothers aboard his ship, Jack finds himself in the deep Martian desert battling Martian insurgents armed with shatterguns that crack their victims into millions of jagged pieces of glass. Jack’s ship, the Typhoon I, is sent to Mercury to destroy a Martian death ray designed to incinerate what the Martians now consider a despoiled Mars. En route, Jack and his copilot brother Joe make time to tell Jim, the third Commer brother and ship’s navigator, that their dreamy, incompetent fourth brother, ship’s sensor officer John, will be dismissed from the Typhoon I after this mission. But when the attack on Mercury fails, Jack and Joe find themselves marooned in deep space. After Jack and Joe eventually come to yet another Martian base on Venus as captives, they escape their cell and spy on Emperor Hergs ordering the Martians to use their telekinetic Amplified Thought program to vaporize all the planets in the solar system. Fleeing the enemy base in a stolen pleasure saucer, they encounter Amav, a young woman brainwashed to become Hergs’ consort. Jack immediately falls in love with her, and to his astonishment, freed from Hergs’ brainwashing on the journey back to Mars, she reciprocates. |
Characters
Jack Commer, Typhoon I pilot
Joe Commer, Typhoon I copilot
Jim Commer, Typhoon I navigation officer
John Commer, Typhoon I sensor officer
General William C. Scott, Supreme Commander of the United System Space Force
General John J. Douglas, the Alien Hunter from the Alpha Centauri war
Sam Hergs, traitor to the human race and Emperor of the Martians
Amav Frankston, Consort to the Martian emperor
Dar, Leader of the Martian Council to the emperor
Huey Vespertine, USSF Academy dropout and AresNet commentator
Harri McNarri, Typhoon I Physician/Engineer
Phil Sperry, Typhoon II Physician/Engineer
Contents
1. Survey
2. Saucer
3. Standdown
4. Aboard the MATS
5. General Douglas
6. Noises in the Night
7. At the Carpet, or, Is This the General?
8. Shattergun Terrorists
9. The Search
10. The Translator
11. Finback Attack
12. The Prescience
13. Mission Briefing
14. The Commer Brothers
15. The Stowaway
16. Towards a Socialist Solar System
17. The Ice Ray
18. The Typhoon I
19. Marooned
20. The Commer Crater
21. The Boards Are Erased
22. You Are My Prisoners!
23. Serving His Majesty the Emperor
24. Strange Mental Vibrations
25. Flight Hanger A
26. Confrontation
27. Planetary Engineering
28. The Spacewalk
29. Stalemate in Space
30. The Huey Vespertine Report
31. Conference
32. Amav
33. The Typhoon II
34. To the Boudoir
35. The Ritual
36. Return to Earth
All words and images (except the published cover) copyright by Michael D. Smith