Future Warfare, Drones Versus Alien Kaiju, An Excerpt From Matters of Destiny

I'm working on my next novel to wrap up the Exocrisis Blue main story arc.  In Exocrisis, the world has been invaded by the alien Blue Newts and mankind united to fight them to a stalemate.  Exocrisis made me extrapolate near future military tech and write something that seems feasible, even if large combat robots are involved.  Drones play an important role in Exocrisis Blue too, replacing manned fighters in my future universe.  So, after an alien invasion, massive changes to the international order, here is a good chunk of an early chapter involving attack drones against an alien monster from my upcoming novel, Matters of Destiny. 

Navy drone launch, courtesy of the United States Navy (attribution here).

Captain Williams had received the level one alert issued by CINCPAC and was slightly surprised that there was a bogey in the Sky Hope Security Zone.  Checking the map display, his air carrier was the closest patrol ship, being some 150 kilometres from the bogey.  “All hands to battle stations.  All hands to battle stations.  This is not a drill.  We have an unidentified surface contact in the security zone that is moving slowly towards Sky Hope.  Upload target coordinates and launch the ready alert,” he ordered the Carrier Air Group Commander or CAG.  An alarm klaxon sounded as if to emphasize the situation even more.

The flying air carrier, Lexington, was a twenty thousand ton, bulbous flying wing that was mostly an airship.  Without the lift generated from the wings the ship would begin to gently descend to the surface as its helium cells made it just slightly negatively buoyant.  Air carriers were mostly constructed from lightweight composites and propelled by turbo fans that were electrically powered by a chemical fusion plants, like those found on heavy combat mechs.  At its maximum speed of  250 kilometres per hour, the Lexington wasn’t going to break any speed records, but it could travel completely around the world before refuelling.

The super aircraft carriers of the early 21st century were completely obsolete by the end of 2030s, and had been replaced by these new flying carriers.  These new carriers were designed from inception as drone carriers.  They were smaller, mostly crewed by robots, and stealthy between their active camouflage and radar deflecting construction.  These carriers operated without escorts, and delivered their squadrons of supersonic attack drones into battle from a stand-off distance.  Human piloted fighter aircraft had been almost completely replaced by unmanned drones due to the advent of laser weapons.  The autonomous drones were cheaper, more maneuverable, capable of pulling high-G maneuvers that would incapacitate a human pilot, factors that made them more survivable and expendable at the same time.  A drone could still be remotely operated by a human pilot, but a squadron of six drones usually had only one human squadron leader in the kill chain to both guide it and authorize weapons use.

The left side drop bay doors flipped opened in the bottom of the carrier.  There were two long bays running down each side of the carrier.  A squadron of drones hung suspended from their cradles some 10,000 metres above the ocean far below.  One squadron of drones, the ready alert, was always ready to launch on immediate notice, while the other five squadrons could be armed and readied within fifteen minutes.  On the CAG’s orders, the squadron dropped free from the ship nose down.  Their afterburners kicked in during free fall to have the fighter squadron arc back up in a parabolic curve then turn towards the unknown contact at maximum speed, breaking the sound barrier as they went.

The carrier’s bridge and combat information centre (CIC) were both in one large room located within an armoured compartment in the middle of the carrier.  Automation and integrated workstations had now put control of all of the ships systems in one place.  Touch sensitive display consoles that controlled the ship and its weaponry were grouped by related function and organized in a semi-circle in front of the captain and XO’s stations, and all personnel faced forward towards a large set of displays at the front of the bridge.  The main display showed the forward view in front of the ship with tactical and strategic displays along side showing the view in front of the shop along with tactical and strategic displays along side it.

“Ready alert is away.  The Gunslingers report they are fully operational,” the CAG reported to the captain.  “Arming and fuelling the White Knights is under way.”  In the hangar, robot arms and a small human crew were working quickly to ready the next squadron.

***

The tactical operations officer notified the captain that a long range reconnaissance drone was coming up on the contact and put a visual up on the main display.  The view of the ocean in front of the carrier vanished and was replaced by clouds racing by.  The video was being transmitted from a Albatross III reconnaissance drone, one of many wide-winged, solar powered drones that patrolled the security zone for months at a time.  The drone descended below the light cloud pocket it had encountered and the bottom of the video feed showed an altitude of 1000 metres, with an airspeed of 300 kph.

There were a series of gasps from the bridge crew as the video feed locked in on a strange beast that pulsated and glowed yellow from within.  It resembled a crested jellyfish floating above the sea, with a frilly beard around the base and masses of long tentacles below it.  A band of dark black eyes seem to circle it around the body’s midpoint.  It was hard to get a scale on it until you looked down and saw the waves breaking against the tentacles that reached into the ocean.  You could understand it was big and a couple of hundred metres high, but you weren’t sure.

“What is that thing?” Williams asked aloud. 

“Don’t know,” the XO replied.  “Sure looks like some kind of weird alien jellyfish to me.  The thing is actually floating in the air.  Probably some kind of Blue Newt critter.  Data has been forwarded to HQ. Maybe the AIs can tell us.”

“Drone will be overhead in two minutes,” the tactical officer chimed in.  “Gunslingers will intercept in four minutes.”

“That thing shouldn’t be possible,” the captain spoke again.  “The square-cube law says no living thing could support itself at that size.  Is it even organic, or is it some kind of machine?“

“Looks organic to me,” the XO replied, “run a full scan of that thing.”

The tactical officer spoke again.  “Drone indicates that the thing does not return on radar.  Ladar is painting it and it looks like it is about three hundred metres high.  The main body at the top is about 75 metres high, with a diameter of 50 metres.  Thermal indicates the thing is hot, almost 400 degrees celcius.”

“That’s crazy.  Its hotter than molten lead,” Williams spoke again.  “Recheck the instruments.”

The picture was suddenly a wall of static, then it restored just a little to see the tentacled beast flailing tentacles in a grainy image.  The visual broke up again and restored a little, then broke up again.

“Drone reports massive radio interference,” the tactical officer reported.  “The thing is doing some type of broad spectrum electromagnetic jamming, almost like an EMP.  The body is heating up. It is almost a 1000 degrees now.”

Captain Williams was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this.  “Order the drone to maintain distance.  We’ll have the Gunslingers do a close-in pass of that thing when they arrive.”  The picture from the recon drone broke up into static again and then re-established itself as the Albatross began to circle the alien beast.

***

The Albatross had only made a partial orbit in the next minute when the tactical officer yelled out.  “Heat spike!”  The picture from the nose camera of the drone showed a bright flash from on of the many eyes on the alien jellyfish and the image violently shuddered, then showed the surface of the ocean.  “Albatross is falling.  Reports heavy damage, with no response from the tail.  It is going down, sir.  Looks like it got hit with some kind of directed energy weapon.”

“I guess we know it’s hostile.”  The XO spoke up.  “Orders, captain?”

“Weapons free.  Take that thing down.  Have the Gunslingers hit it with everything they got.”

“I suggest we rearm the White Knights for anti-ship, sir, “ the CAG spoke up.  “The Gunslingers are primarily armed for air to air.”

“Make it so,” Captain Williams replied.  “Prep all of the squadrons, anti-ship.  That thing is big, but it is going down.” 

***

“Sheriff,” Fast Eddie Wilson, the Gunslingers squadron commander was ready for action.  Both he and his assistant commander were already in their flight pod in the Boom Room.  The Boom Room housed six virtual reality command pods, each of which commanded a squadron of drones.  All of the pods were currently occupied during the alert, with each squadron either in flight or arming. 

The Gunslingers pilots sat in tandem in their pod, surrounded by a 360 degree view around the lead drone, and control consoles with flight controls in front of them.  Both pilots wore  helmets with a transparent full face visor that partially obscured their faces when the heads up display (HUD) projected on it.  Eddie guided the lead drone, and issued orders, with Roscoe acting as his backup and attack coordinator for their six drones.  The AI controlled attack drones could fly and attack completely autonomously, but human pilots commanded them and could fly them as required.  A human component was still essential in the kill loop for coordinating tactics, target identification, and weapons release authorization.

Eddie was a veteran pilot, unlike his assistant, he was old enough to have flown jet interceptors before the last of them had been decommissioned just over a decade ago.  He always felt a little detached when flying drone missions as it didn’t have the same impact as being in a cockpit in the middle of the action.  He could still get into the mission, but the thrill wasn’t the same.  After watching the recon drone feed and and the shooting down of the drone, he had bad feeling about this mission building in his gut.  Maybe it was just the strangeness of the alien monster, but he was glad he wasn’t in a cockpit facing that thing right now.  Looking forward he could see the alien monster straight ahead of the lead drone and slightly lower.  They were sixty seconds out.

“All drones report ready,” Roscoe called over.  If he showed any nervousness, it was hidden in the excitement of his voice.  This would be his first combat mission.

“Let’s do this by the book,” Eddie replied to reassure Roscoe, but it was probably for both of them.  “Attack Pattern Alpha.  All weapons hot.  Select Jackhammers, mass fire.”  Eddie wished their drones had been armed with Sea-lance anti-ship missiles, but they only had a mix of air to air missiles and the general purpose Jackhammer missiles.  Still, each drone carried four Jackhammers and also had a 25mm gatling cannon that could be used for good effect.

“All drones to max combat speed, fire all missiles at 10 km, then break off.  We’ll reform at point delta and come in for gun runs if it isn’t dead yet.” 

The drones confirmed their orders visually on the helmet HUDs.  They began to assemble into a dispersed ragged line based on the lead drone, following the designated attack pattern.  The drones did not come in directly, but weaved and bobbed in their formation to dodge possible enemy fire.  Eddie was not directly piloting the lead drone, but worked with the AI, and both human and computer counted down the seconds till weapons release.

Internal weapons bays opened up on the drones and the Jackhammers dropped out in pairs from each drone.  Twenty four missiles burned in at three times the speed of sound.  Contrails converged in from the drones wide front into one point where the alien monster was.  “Missiles away,” Eddie called out.  “Drones breaking off.”

Behind the retreating drones, the monster seemed unaware of the missile wave closing in, its tentacles slowly moving in the air and in the water where they touched the ocean.  Suddenly, it seemed to realize the danger that was incoming.   The mass of tentacles began flailing in the air and the body pulsated with flashes of orange.  The temperature of the beast rose as it generated energy.  Long duration beams of energy shot from a half dozen of its eyes.  The beams swept through the air at the incoming missiles.  A half dozen missiles exploded in the air, but the other relentlessly closed in.

Jackhammers were designed to engage ground targets like tanks, spider-mechs, the big robotic HARM units, or bunkers.  They packed a hundred kilogram explosive warhead shaped to punch through armour while providing a large blast effect.  Eighteen of these warheads detonated in rapid succession against the beast’s body.  Explosions and big clouds of dark clouds of smoke obscured the beast for a half minute.  Tentacles could still be seen flailing through the air, but it did not look like the slowing death throes of an animal. 

The air began clearing and the pilots and the bridge crew of the carrier gasped.  There were a good dozen holes in the side of the creature which was a bright orange now.  Yellowish protoplasmic fluid oozed out of the holes in the creature’s thick hide.  Even as they watched, the holes could be seen to be shrinking, the creature was healing.  Static filled the picture for a moment as more electromagnetic interference burst from the creature.

“Holy Crap,” Roscoe exhaled.  The thing had taken a beating ad was still going.

“That’s not good,” Eddie added.  “We’re going to need more missiles, or bigger ones.  Let’s try for the eyes on that thing.  It’s got to have a weak spot.  Drones, Attack Pattern Delta.  The things got some kind of energy beams protecting it, but we’re going in with guns.  All units to use maximum speed and evasion.”

This time, the drones formed into a wide arc and began closing in.  They were widely dispersed and randomly dipped and weaved in high-g maneuvers that would have killed a human pilot. The alien monster saw them coming in further out this time and began to fire its beams at them in rapid succession.  At first, the drones were successful at evading with the maneuvers designed to counter anti-air lasers, but as the distance dropped, the beast’s accuracy was telling.  One drone exploded, then another, but four drones were still on approach.  

At two kilometres, they began to slightly straighten out and begin to fire at the creature’s eyes in long bursts of their cannons.  At fifty rounds in a burst, several of the eyes were struck, and they burst open in great gouts of dark fluid.  The beast seemed to react as if it were in pain.  Tentacles arced high into the air and some seemed to be covering some of its eyes.  The drones fired several more bursts to less effect and then passed over the alien monster at high speed.  More eye beams burned out and another drone exploded.  The remaining Gunslingers did an incredibly tight turn and began another attack run.

Beams and cannon tracer rounds blazed through the air.  Another drone exploded on the way in and another drone exploded on the way out.   Two more eyes on the beast were taken out.  Less than a couple of minutes had passed and only one craft from the squadron of multi-million dollar drones had survived. 

“Gunslingers are withdrawing,” Eddie, “Squadron has suffered heavy losses, 5 drones down..”  He looked in the at the receding alien monster through the rear camera on his drone.  There were still a couple of dozen of eyes left on the alien thing.  “I hope it doesn’t heal as fast from those hits on its eyes.  I recommend that we try to hit it at standoff range with anti-ship missiles and multiple squadrons to swamp its defences.”

“You did good,” Captain Williams replied back.  “That thing is tougher than anyone thought.”  The entire bridge crew had seen the action first hand.  “We’ll do better next time.  We’re already arming for anti-ship and we’ll stage the next one to hit it as hard as we can.” 

“Yes, sir!” Eddie responded.  He then exhaled hard, the intensity of the moment had been greater than he expected.

Turning to his XO, the captain then said, “Get CINCPAC on the horn.  We might need more firepower.  Request railgun cruisers and more carriers.”

***

Neo Ace New Release and Kickoff Sale

Hello!  A quick introduction is probably in order.  I'm Peter Lok, a science fiction writer based out of Canada.  I have been working on my Exocrisis Blue universe while I also maintain an author's blog and a Japanese pop culture blog.  Exocrisis Blue is an alternate future where the Earth has been invaded by the Blue Newts who were fleeing a dying homeworld.  During the Alien War, humanity finally turned the direction of the war against the Newts by developing the giant HARM robots based off of captured alien tech.  The war changed the geopolitical order on Earth, ending in an uneasy peace where the Newts consolidated their tropical and subtropical holdings.  For more information on the world of Exocrisis Blue and the HARMs, please check this link to my author's blog.

For the last year I have been writing and revising my novel Neo Ace.  It was just published as an Amazon ebook in the UK, USA, and Canada in June 2014.  This novel is about the story of Jake and Mayumi, two cadets at the Neo Ace Academy, who are going to be involved in events that will shape the future for both human and Newt.  This story is military SF, but with a good touch of anime inspired mecha tropes (since mechs are Japanese inspired anyhow).  While the protagonists are teens, a rich cast of adult characters drives the story along, the way things should happen in real life.  This story should appeal to all types of science fiction readers and anime viewers.  Neo Ace is a self-contained story arc, but the full Neo Ace story concludes in Neo Destiny.  Neo Destiny promises more world building, political machinations, character development, and epic battles involving mechs and conventional forces in high tech battlefields across the Earth.

Promotional Period
Neo Ace is available for approximately $2 US, half of the regular price (Amazon does some kind of adjustment), until the beginning of August.  Please consider buying a copy and providing some positive reviews, even if brief, on Amazon, as word of mouth is the only way an independent author can get ahead.

I have previously written a short story, HARM, and a novella, Raid on Kahamba, that are independent prequels set in the same universe.  Both HARM and Raid will be free for a limited time to promote Neo Ace.  Give them a read to see if you would like Neo Ace!

Limited Time Free Story Giveaway

• HARM is available for free from July 4 to 8, 2014.
• Raid is available for free from July 11 to 13, 2014.

Please click through to my publications page for the direct links to the various Amazon bookstores.
Check the price to see if it is still free before clicking the buy button!

Link to My Science Fiction Publications Page.

Thanks for your time in advance.

Neo Ace Action Excerpt
...
The platoon’s six HARM units were rapidly advancing in a skirmish line a quarter of a kilometre wide through a pine forested valley floor.  Trees and branches were effortlessly brushed aside or smashed by the rapid walking pace of the robots.  Every so often a laser shot from the spider-mechs would flash by, but it was mostly the HARM units sniping at the retreating enemy.

Jake was the acting platoon leader, positioned in mid-line in HARM #3.  In his cockpit, he studied the tactical display on the console in front of him.  They had engaged the advancing spider-mechs from concealment in the hilly woodland terrain, their HARM unit active camouflage systems blending them with the surrounding woods.  Their first volleys of fire had brought down four of the nine mechs.  They had then started pursuing the retreating alien Newts.  His shot meant that five were now down.  Return fire from the enemy had been ragged, but HARM #5, piloted by his friend Bing, had taken some torso damage and wasn't aiming as well.

"We have orders to hold this position, not pursue," Mayumi reminded Jake from  HARM #1.  "We have already stopped the breakthrough."

"I think Mayumi's right," Toshi added from HARM #6.  "My father says Newt units don't break very easily – they are not cowards.  This could be a trap to draw us out. "

"I know your dad is a mecha pilot in the Japanese Defence Forces,” Jake responded.  “I really think we have them on the run.  They’ll never break through to Central City if we take these guys out.  We have the initiative and should take it."

Jake looked at the tactical display again.  He projected the map for everyone to see and used his finger to point out a position.  "We won't move that far out of position if we can take them out before they exit the valley between these two hills. Geraldo, Mayumi, take the left flanking hill.  Bing and Toshi, take the right hill.  Mary and I will pursue and keep the pressure on.  You guys run for those hills and take them out from above."

"Jake’s plan sounds good to me," Geraldo spoke out in Hispanic accented English.  "We should take advantage of the situation."

"I'm in," Mary added.  She preferred a standup fight over waiting any day.  "Eliminated Newts won't be back."

After a bit of hesitation, Bing, assented too.

Mayumi agreed when it was obvious that everyone was in.  "Okay," she quietly added.

"I don't think we should be doing this," Toshi finally agreed, "but let us try it."

"Thanks, Toshi.  All units, move out," Jake ordered.  They were going to win this one in a big way.

Mayumi and Geraldo in HARMs #1 and #2 swept forward to the left and began running for the top of their hill.  On the right, Bing and Toshi in HARMs #5 and #6 began running for the other hill.  In the center, Jake and Mary in HARMs #3 and #4 widened the distance between them and increased their pace to a jog to begin closing in on the retreating mechs. 

Over the next several minutes the pursuing HARMs began to gradually overtake the retreating enemy, reducing the distance between them less than a kilometre.  Exchanged shots were few between the two sides as visual contact was poor between them.  Even though they were eight metres high at the top of their main weapon blister, the spider-mechs were almost impossible to see in the trees as they were short enough to disappear into them.   The taller 12 metre height of the Fenrir HARM units put them at tree top height much of the time,  but it did not make much of a difference in the fight.

There was a small explosion in the air near the spider-mechs.  "Damn, that was my last RPV," Mary commented.  "At least they know we're still here."  Recon drones were invaluable, but did not last long on the modern battlefield against point defence laser systems.  She just wished they had full equipment load outs for their units.  This fight would have been over long ago if they had Helldart missiles and a couple of Typhoon missile pack equipped HARMs.

The distance between the two pursuing HARM units and the four retreating enemy mechs had closed to 800 metres, and the enemy mechs had moved between the two hills.  Jake's HARM had moved closer to the base of the left hill while Mary had closed in on the right hill.  During the chase they had split themselves to snipe at the enemy from two different angles.

"You guys in position?"  Jake inquired.  From his tactical display he could see the locations of all of the HARM units, but not their status.  It looked like both sets of flankers had crested their hills.

"Almost there," Toshi responded, "I'm looking for a firing position."

"Same here," Geraldo added in.

"Shit!"  Bing suddenly yelled out.  Blue enemy markers appeared on the tactical display along the far downslope of each of the flanking hills.  "Enemy  contacts just crested the hill.  I'm engaging."

"It's a trap!"  Mayumi called out.  "Enemy Hunter class mechs!  Engaging!  Coilgun to full power."

Events had suddenly turned on them.  Jake couldn't believe his tactical display.  Each of his flanking pairs was suddenly outmatched by a squad of three Newt Hunters.  Unlike the spider  mechs, the Hunter mechs were advanced anthropomorphic mechs with a Newt body form, the enemy equivalent of their Fenrir mechs.   Each Hunter had three pairs of  limbs, with the rear two pairs for movement and the front pair for manipulation.  They resembled giant armoured lizards carrying laser cannon with their two front limbs.

"Fall back!"  Jake called out.  They were in a bad situation.

"Popping smoke,"  Bing responded, "but they're too close.  I don't think  we can disengage."

Jake didn't hesitate in his response.  "We're coming to back you up"
...

About the Blue Newts

The aliens are named the Sh’thimori or the People of the Water.  Before this name was known, the humans knew them as the Blue Newts from the dead bodies they recovered.

They are six limbed amphibious beings that walk on four of them and use the first two limbs as arms with three fingers on each hand. Their heads appear like flat-headed newts with large golden eyes with a mouth full of short sharp teeth.  They prefer to eat their food raw.  There is a vestigial tail.  Their skin is slick and wet that is normally light blue-grey in colour but it can change colour to show their emotional state.  It is blue hued when relaxed, more orange when agitated.  Communication occurs via low clicks and clucks and the odd use of limited range telepathy by certain individuals with the telepathy gene.  They see well in low light, but bright light hurts.  On Earth they wear goggles in bright sunlight.

Their home world terrain is a hot, very humid water world with many archipelagos of thousands of islands.  It circles a red giant star.  They prefer hot, moist climates and prefer to live in marshy, coastal, or swampy areas.

They are a matriarchal society and live in nest communities that can achieve the size of mega cities.  Leaders can be either male or female.  Nests have many relationships to other nests and nests often specialize in a task or duty.  Most of the young do what their families have always done.

They give birth to live young – newtlings.  There are usually pairs of infants born to a mother and the children are communally raised.  Maturity is long, similar to a human, but some abstract reasoning doesn’t fully develop until they hit puberty in their teens.  Sexual activity is governed by cycles and there are pair bonds that develop.  The children tend to get into a great deal of mischief when they are young and need to be constantly watched / guarded.

The newts have a caste system that organizes the various nests.  All nests are equal in value / rights, but governing decisions are decided by nests that perform important governing functions.  There is a great congress that decides on a ruling council.  The Sh’thimori do not have raw ambition as a psychological attributes so they naturally put the collective race before their own. They do have feelings of achievement and pride which pushes them forward to advance and promote themselves or their collective.  The working toward the greater good can be seen as cold or calculating by humans.  They do live in harmony with nature as they evolved and lived at the waters edge.  Things like pollution and disturbances in nature affect them quickly.

Some nests are specialized for extremes such as warrior, thinker, mediator, and explorer.  They may have minor genetic engineering modifications to enhance their abilities such as intelligence, endurance, speed, strength, and tougher skins.  These specialized castes are treated with reverence and are not allowed to interbreed with other nests of a different designation.  They are guardians of the pure race – the natural body.  All nests work side by side on a mission, and the caste differentiation only applies for the command structure.

It is known that the aliens came from a dying world, are vaguely humanoid amphibians, are blue in color and don’t understand us well at all.  Not very much is known about their culture, but it is known they are not part of a hive mind.  Their biotech is very advanced and hundreds of years ahead of ours.  They don’t really want to exterminate us, but don’t trust us, and needed to weaken us.  Their home world was dying, it was from an old red sun.  Too hot.  World was roasting.  The Newts were not the first civilization to originate on their world.  They had a forerunner species that was Newtlike but went extinct or left the world.  Newts will not use nukes first as they know the world is fragile.

Great Mother Egg, or Shre’lor
Newts have a belief in the Mother Egg or Mother Sea.  The egg was lost during the destruction of the Newt mothership at the end of the Alien War and was recovered ten years later from the Kahamba research facility by a CAJUN special forces raid.  The artifact now resides at the AO research facility in Edmonton, Canada.

The Shre'lor is an egg shaped crystalline object about ninety centimeters tall and weighs almost a hundred kilos.  It is quite dense. It is translucent, with a smooth surface.  It glows with a faint amber light and also seems to generate a faint amount of magnetism and heat.  It the Newts holiest religious artifact. Faint crystalline lattices can be seen inside the object, as if they were holographically etched.  Could be a computing or information storage device, a power source, or something else altogether.

What Is My Audience for Mecha or Military SF?

I was just thinking the other day about what my audience size is as I write "realistic" military SF with a mechas in it.  While I don't have any real numbers, I went through it as a thought exercise.  The goal was to figure out how to write my Cover Blurb for Neo Ace.  My first step was to determine the approximate size of the science fiction and anime audiences.

I used the number of registered users on Reddit for the rough statistics.  You can see that SF fans outnumber anime fans, but only by 22%  (anime is big as a genre).  There is a mecha forum, but it doesn't have many members compared to the anime forum, but I figured the numbers were low as anime companies in North America wouldn't sell to 1% of the market for mecha anime so I guessed the number was closer to 5% of the number of anime fans.  For military SF, there is no forum - weird, but not surprising as I can't find a marketing channel for this audience either.  I guessed that military SF fans were about 10% of the SF fan base as Amazon classifies about 10% of the SF books as military SF.  Publishers must be making money, so they'll publish what can sell.

Military SF / Mecha SF / Anime / SF Audience Overlap (click to enlarge)

Having come up with these numbers, I did a real quick Venn diagram with the overlap with the various fan bases.  Military SF and Mecha Fans belong to their appropriate larger bubble. There is a big problem determining the overlap where the sets of fans meet, but based on my past experience, here's what I figure.

Anime and SF fans crossover, and it is larger than what the diagram shows.  However, I'd be surprised if fans that read SF and watch anime overlap by more than 50%.  I think it is probably way lower, like 20 or 25%.  The number does go up if you include other non-written - say visual media (TV, movies).  I'm a writer though, so I'll go with the lower number.

Then, out of these two big audiences, you want the mecha fans and the military SF fans.  This is a sizable number of fans even at 10% of the overall fan base, and it would be wonderful to get both.  Military SF fans are mainly written media fans as there just isn't that much visual military SF.  Mecha fans by definition are visual fans as it is mecha anime. The crossover here is unknown, but I believe it is low again just because of the parent set numbers. 

So, based on all this, what do I do for marketing my Exocrisis Blue books?  I think the intersection of mecha fans and military SF fans is small.  I also tried to market my ebooks in the mecha forum on Reddit and I didn't get too many bites.  There were some fine folks who liked it and downloaded the book, but the numbers were tiny compared to the 1000 members in the forum.  I like both SF and anime so I cross over, but many people are more specialized.

Neo Ace is a military SF novel, but it has 30 ton combat robots operated by human pilots.  It is written to be realistic, especially when used with combined arms operations with regular military units.  Note that I used combat robot instead of mecha; this is the type of word phrasing I was debating on using.  Mecha is for anime fans, not military SF fans in general.  Mechs also implies western robots versus eastern mecha.  After looking at this, I'm going to be changing my marketing so it is aimed at military SF, the larger audience of readers (probably 5 times larger).  I think I went down the wrong road in my earlier efforts.   I still found readers, but not as many as I would like.

Anyhow, thanks for listening to my ramblings.


More Scifi Topics

After The Alien War

The Aftermath of the Alien War

The fighting was heavy in both Africa and South America and the countries there were severely devastated by both the aliens and foreign troop interventions.  The surviving countries are now strongly independent and wary of the other Human Alliance member nations.  Some tactical nuclear weapons were even used on their soil, but no foreign aid was received for the devastation that was done.  While the remaining Human Alliance nations had enough troubles on their own, their unwillingness to help other countries in need convinced these countries the outside world was not their friend.  Some limited shipments of medical supplies and food were sent from Canada and Japan to Brazil during their crisis, resulting in the formal trade ties that exist today. However, Brazil only has limited trade and diplomatic ties to other Human Alliance members such as the European Union and True America. Africa is a complete basket case that is xenophobic to outsiders with constant skirmishes against the Newt colonies there.

Japan held out well in the war after being invaded and utilized captured alien technology to build mechas with active molecular armour and rail guns.  It is rumoured that some South American nations like Brazil have special deals with the aliens.

During the war and the ensuing chaos, half of the human race or 4 billion people perished. Vast stretches of the world are now run by warlords and / or are no man’s lands.  Many nations were shattered and no longer exist.  The United States and Russia were dealt  major hammer blows and are shadows of their former selves.  The USA has fragmented into east and west, with some states pretty much obliterated.  Northern China is split by the powerful Tianjin and Xian factions, with the powerful remnants of the People’s Republic of China is based out of southern China, with the new capital in Guangzhou.  Hong Kong / Shenzen Special Economic Zone is the powerhouse of the PRC now.  The European Union is still powerful, but badly devastated by the war.   Central America is controlled by the Newts from southern Mexico down to Columbia and then into central Brazil.  The Brazilians emerged semi-victorious from the war and control much of South America directly or indirectly.

Canada was blasted, with a meteor impact devastating Toronto, but the western cities survived more or less intact.  Vancouver and Seattle were devastated by an earthquake four years later and rebuilt. Canada is now basically Western Canada with Ontario gutted by the destruction of Toronto.  Quebec is now Free Quebec (or Quebec Libre), a more autonomous province with its own military, but still part of Canada.  The Atlantic Provinces are now part of the US East or the True United States of America.  Alaska is Alaska.  Canada is allied with Pacifica or US West.  Trade goes north from Churchill Manitoba through the ice free NW Passage.

Ten years after AA  (After Armageddon or After Arrival).

• European Union is now lead by France as the Germany was greatly devastated by the war.  A great deal of rebuilding has happened.
• Brazil – or the Brazilian Empire.  It rules South America except for neutral Chile. Brazil has a Guyana Space Base that was captured from the European Union and works with them for space launches.
• The former eastern United States of America – also calls itself the True United States. A very conservative Christian religious democracy originally started in the power vacuum at the end of the Alien War.
• The former western United States is now Pacifica and represents the ideals closest to the nation from which it originated.  A former president from Chicago started this nation in a revolt from the tyranny of True America.
• Japan is once again an economic powerhouse with close ties to Canada and Pacifica.  Japan has had brush fire wars with the PRC even though it has simmered down.  They support the northern Chinese factions.
• China has fractured into a southern block which is now the Peoples Republic of China, and multiple northern factions.
• The Pan-African Alliance is lead out of South Africa.  This block is allied with the PRC which provided aid to the African continent.
• Australia is independent along with New Zealand.
• The Russian Federation stretches from Europe to the Pacific.  It is a strong power block that heavily influences its neighbours.
• India and Pakistan have set aside differences to be their own power bloc with ties to the Middle East, Russian Federation, and PRC / Northern Chinese.
• The middle east, the -stan countries, Iran, Iraq all have ties to the Russian Federation. 

A good chunk of Earth’s tropical and subtropical lands had been occupied by the Newts, who had either pushed the humans out or now lived in a tenuous coexistence with them.

Almost seventeen years later

It is a relative period of prosperity for the recovering nations.  Much of the world is still devastated, but the countries that were least scarred absorbed huge numbers of skilled refugees and began reconstruction.  People are optimistic, but there is a societal trauma that lingers.  Many Americans are now Canadians.  There are also many Japanese living in Canada as the countries have major trade and exchange relationships.  Australia is the major southern trading partner for Japan and the PRC.

More Exocrisis Blue universe articles.

The Alien War

The Alien War lasted a year and a half.  Amazing brutality was practiced by both sides, with no quarter given.  No aliens have ever been captured alive.  The war began with alien landers dropping off their spider bio-mechs that left a trail of destruction behind them.  Using their powerful beam weapons, they ravaged the countryside around them in a scorched earth type campaign.  They did not attempt to occupy ground, but just destroyed human population centres and infrastructure.  Manufacturing facilities, bridges, military bases, power stations, refineries and more were targeted.  Their role was to knock out the human race as an organized force.  Mankind dropped its differences and formed the Human Alliance under the leadership of the United States.

A single bio-mech could take on a regular army battalion and only the heaviest gun weapons could hurt it.  The bio-mechs have a type of energy enhanced armour, called active molecular armour, that can regenerate the surface and make it denser.  Each bio-mech has a supporting set of mini-bugs – drones that fly and crawlers for close support / small space work. Nuclear weapons were used in a limited fashion against them, but it was major overkill.  The alien energy weapons made attacking aircraft obsolete as they could be easily shot down. Massed fire with supporting artillery could take down the bio-mechs, but the mechas are fast and move out of the kill zone quickly.

At the beginning of the Alien War the aliens started out with a vastly superior hand.  It was a desperate war of attrition for humanity as vast amounts of equipment and soldiers were expended to just blunt the alien advances. The tide began to turn in the eighth month  with the development of tank mountable coil guns that could defeat the alien armour and the mass combat deployment of HARM units in the tenth month to use them.  Within the next six months the aliens were driven back to their enclaves and the war was at a stalemate.  Initial onslaughts and gains by the Blue Newts were mostly taken back or being fought over still. 

The Newts had taken their primary territories in the subtropical and tropical areas of the world which suited them.  At one point, they pretty much owned both Africa and South America, but lost territory in the second half of the war.  They ruled New Guinea, a swath of Africa from the central Congo to the Indian Ocean, Central America, and a large portion of the Amazon Basin.  In many of the areas around their territory there was lawlessness due to governmental collapse.  The pirates of the Caribbean became a reality again. Warlords and other pirates flourished in the aftermath.

NEWT FACTS

The colony fleet had one large mother ship or master vessel with 12 other smaller colony vessels.  This master vessel stayed clear of the action out at one of the L4 points and only sent planetary shuttles down.

The Blue Newts sent in their smaller colony ships which had atmospheric entry capability.  Three landed in Brazil, three landed in Africa, two in Borneo, two in Guatemala, and two in New Guinea.  These ships became colony hubs and were used as administration centers and also as a source of raw materials for colony expansion.

This was never a combat fleet.  It was a colony fleet.  Nukes were launched by the Human Alliance against these foothold colonies, but they were easily destroyed by the Newt orbital defences and their landing shuttles.  Missiles were easy to kill in the boost phase and were still good targets in space. 

It is suspected the Newts may have some deep space ships left, but none have been seen since the Alien War.  One wonders if there is another invasion wave coming from their home world.

In the closing weeks of the Alien War, the Human Alliance, hatched a desperate scheme to destroy the alien mothership.  The Americans, Russians, and Chinese seized orbital space back from the aliens with a combination of space attack drones and massive ground based laser cannon.  They then launched a fleet of nuclear armed drone shuttles after mothership.

The attack worked as a number of the drone shuttles were actually powerful, single use, x-ray laser weapons.  They utilized nuclear bomb pumped x-ray lasers to cripple the defenses of the mothership and allow the remaining nuclear armed drones to finish it off.  It was the Human Alliance’s last unified response as the aliens used fusion bombs on Beijing, Washington D.C., and Moscow.  It was a very clear and calculated response to the nuclear armed powers that was accompanied by the first communicated message of the war.  "Destroy our most valuable asset and we destroy yours.  We are here to stay on our terms."  This was the only use of nuclear weapons by the aliens and the world has been in a cold war state since.  The destruction of the capital cities killed the President of the United States and the Chinese Premier along with much of the central government.  Both nations were already stressed to the breaking point and were plunged into chaos and civil war.  The Russian Federation survived in a much better state as the President had been in a different location.

The crippling of the alien mothership provided just enough warning for the a massive evacuation of the vessel.  Shuttles and escape sections scattered from the mothership until the drones hit with their nuclear payloads.  The escape sections of the ship were lifeboats.  Sections and pieces of  debris came crashing to Earth all over the equatorial band from the mid-Atlantic all the way to the middle of the Indian Ocean.  Orbital space became a no mans land with neither side in total control.

More Exocrisis Blue universe articles.

The Blue Newt Arrival (The Invasion)

Astronomers had spotted the incoming meteor swarm late and governments had to prepare for the worst with barely a month of warning.  These meteors were not global extinction causing events, but they were large enough and fast enough to obliterate cities on impact.  A single meteor strike would have been bad, but there were hundreds of them.  Several were much larger too, capable of causing sizable tsunamis in both the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans where they were projected to strike.

The space faring nations of the 21st century only had limited space-based weapons capability to target a just over a third of the swarm with nuclear weapons.  The largest rocks and the ones striking on home territory were given priority.  The United Nations was in an uproar over this self-serving behavior, but the nations with the means protected their own first.  Still, a few weapons were diverted from meteors that would strike in Siberia or North Dakota to save major cities like Karachi and Sydney.

The northern hemisphere was hit the hardest, particularly North America and Asia.  This was the Armageddon Event.

The meteors would strike over a 12 hour period, impacting over most of the planet as it rotated.  Ninety percent of the intercepted rocks were destroyed, including the largest ones.  The world breathed a sign of relief that was cut off as the remaining meteors struck home.  The devastation had been intense around the globe with fires raging out of control everywhere.  Casualties were still in the millions despite the evacuations.  The Earth was covered in a thin smoky haze during the day and burned a fiery red at night.

Hundreds of cities spanning the globe had been destroyed or damaged.  In the United States, Grand Forks, Wichita and Knoxville had been hit, but an interception malfunction had allowed San Diego to be destroyed by a nearby impact.  Tragically, Toronto in Canada, had also been devastated when another interception had only partially succeeded.   In Europe, Sheffield was a smoking crater along with Dusseldorf and Krakow.  Nairobi was gone and so was Hyderabad.  In China, the destruction of Shanghai had stunned the country due to another failed interception. 

As the dust cleared, the aliens landed.  They had stayed hidden behind the asteroids in their stealthy ships.  Their attack was a complete surprise. They had used the asteroids to disrupt humanity without resorting to nuclear weapons.  When we were weak and unprepared, they attacked.

More Exocrisis Blue universe articles.

Explosive Mecha Showdown At Cold Lake

Neo Ace Status
The chapter 30 draft is now up at Wattpad.  The final showdown between Geraldo, Jake, and Mayumi happens.  You can have a look at the draft of Neo Ace over at Wattpad here for free.  There are more chapters to go, but I'm going to stop posting at chapter 30.  When the KDP Select goes live to promote the final ebook, I'm going to have to take it down while it is in KDP Select anyhow.  So enjoy while it is up there for now.


I'm now finished revisions and am pretty sure that Neo Ace will be out after Christmas.  It'll be a miracle otherwise due to the high workloads for various people.  It is actually funny that my novel is supposed to end a few days before Christmas too.  It just worked out that way as it was based on events that happened in the first semester for the mecha pilot cadets.  I think I managed to pull of a great blend of characters both old and young that gave the story depth and wasn't like "students save the world - something that anime seems to do."  If there was any mecha anime influence it would have been closer to Evangelion with the older folks calling the shots, but with the cadets playing important roles.  In the next novel's story arc, the cadets do play a much larger role, but again, the more experienced pilots and leadership will propel the story along.

Do I Use KDP Select or Not? And all About Ebook Production for my Mecha SF.

I just put the chapter 28 draft up on Wattpad this morning, and the combat inside the GAC labs comes to a conclusion.  You can have a look at the draft of Neo Ace over at Wattpad here for free.

Nice and frosty on my garage window. Canadian winter in Edmonton :)

I've managed to give the first eleven chapter of Neo Ace a second proof and am having my copy editor do the third reading.  Hopefully, I'll get through another ten chapters or so this weekend.  Now that the writing for the book is complete I have to think hard about how to promote it.

I like to tell stories but am not a big promoter or PR guy.  I understand business and sales though.  So here are the steps to producing a book for me.

1. You need a product to sell and promote, so the first step is to have a product or products preferably.  I've written a short story, a novella, and now a short novel set in my Exocrisis Blue universe.  Obviously if you're going to create some serious intellectual property, or a brand, you also need to think up a catchy names and background too.
    
2. So, now that you have a product, you need to have packaging / art.  I've already done the cover art for Neo Ace myself.  It is passable and looks fairly good, but a professional graphic artist could do better, especially if I had commissioned or licensed some mecha art of the right style.  However, this costs $$$ and you really have to think that you'll get your money back.  If I was writing romance, I would not hesitate to use a pro artist and pay the $250 to $500 for a pretty good cover.  In this genre, there is plenty of stock art and photos to use and the artists know how to use them.  For mecha scifi, if you want mecha art, this is HARD.  You'll be looking for mecha artists who are not book cover people and the licensing could be expensive.  Finding compatible art is also difficult as all mechs are different - not like having a couple kissing or something which is generic.  You will need a large cover image that can be shrunk down.  Make sure your cover looks good when it is postage stamp sized.
   
   BTW, for mecha SF / military SF in my case, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get my money back on the cover art.  I'd have to sell at least 200 copies at $3 a pop to break even with a little bit of beer money.  The artist makes the money here.  This genre sells, but unless you're established, have tons or reviews, or a great social network, I don't think you'll get your money back soon.
    
3. Converting your Word document to an ebook.  Some people hate Word, but I use it professionally for work and I love the tool despite its idiosyncracies - you won't find a better tool - and simpler is not better).  Follow the directions on Amazon to convert it and you won't have too many problems.  Keep your formatting simple in this case and check the conversion on multiple ereaders - also watch the font size.
    
4. Finally, your book is ready.  I'm assuming you have a KDP account to do direct publishing on Amazon.  I haven't tried other ebookstores, but I will eventually.  I'm going to have to get ISBN numbers, but this is free in Canada for Canadian authors.  Once you set up the account, publishing is pretty straight forward and there are many articles and even instructions on the KDP website.
    
5. This is the hard part for me.  I have my blogs (Tokyo Excess, Peter Lok), my Exocrisis Blue facebook page, my Amazon profile page, my twitter feeds, but I can tell you, it isn't moving my books at a terribly fast rate.  I'm pretty sure there are more people out there who would like my writing, but I can't reach them right now.  So, what do I do to make the best of my situation?
   
   You could pay for advertising like ads on Facebook or Google.  This might be a good idea, but it will cost money again.  You can try having review sites review your book.  Review sites might not look at your book unless you already have reviews and it might cost money or you are in a waiting queue.  You could promote it on forums like Reddit, Goodreads, etc., and other blogs.  I've read that having many Facebook or Twitter followers is a nice exponential force multiplier - they can get the word out quick, but you need followers in the thousands.  It is like 100 or a 1000 sales to one if you have this channel available.
   
   Since I'm in this for the long haul (that is to say years to a decade), I don't have to race on this.  Trickle sales will do.  Big sales would be great.  I'm selling to the long tail, so the long haul only helps me as I sell more books over time.  So what is my major tool for promotion?  It is my blogs, and enrolment in KDP Select.  KDP Select allows me to put my ebook for free for five days for every ninety day period.  The downside is that it is exclusive.  If you read the Amazon contract carefully, you are not allowed to put a sample chapter anywhere else electronically (you're supposed to link to Amazon instead).  So you are stuck on Amazon for three months before you can opt out.
    
6. For my Neo Ace book, I was really wondering if I should use KDP Select for it or my other books.  I finally decided that I should use KDP Select at least one more time.  My reasoning is as follows:
   
   • I'm only on Amazon, so the exclusive clause is not a big deal.
   • What is a big deal is the fact that I would have to remove my Wattpad chapters to comply with the contract terms.  I'd leave stubs up to keep the pages alive, but would have to remove the content for the 90 days.  Right now, it is just the draft content up there, so I'd put up final copies of the first six chapters after the KDP Select period.  If I had 30,000 views on Wattpad this would be a no go, but I don't, so it is okay.
   • Giving copies away for free has worked for me in the past to get reviews and downloads.  Since nothing is costing me money up front, and my major investment is personal effort, getting read is GOOD.  The free promo should sell more books.
   
   
7. Pricing Strategy.  My short story and novella will remain at 99 cents (can't go any lower on Amazon).  My ebook will sell at 99 cents for the first month, then go to $2.99 or $3 to infinity and beyond.  $3 is a reasonable price for an ebook novel.  I have problems myself paying more than $5.99 for an ebook as I keep thinking I'm being ripped off. 

That's all for now.  Thanks for listening to my ramble here - which was just blasted out as I typed.  And yes, please buy or pick up a copy of Neo Ace in December when it becomes available on Amazon!  And tell your friends.