Daedalus Squad E-Book

Robert G. Williscroft

• Herausgeber: Fresh Ink Group
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Daedalus Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 62

Beschreibung

Derek “Tiger” Baily and his SEAL Winged Insertion Command (SWIC) jump from orbit to test the enhanced Gryphon-10 MK 4 hardshell wingsuit for combat applications. Every contingency has been planned. The 6-man squadron believes it is fully prepared for hurtling around the world and staging critical re-entry, but challenged to innovate life-or-death solutions with only seconds to spare, Baily’s team might not survive intact. Fly with Tiger and the SWIC on a mission that surely will test the limits of their training in Robert G. Williscroft’s third installment following Daedalus and Daedalus LEO.

Leseprobe

Daedalus Squad:SWIC Squad Drop from Low Earth Orbit

Copyright © 2019

by Robert G. Williscroft

All rights reserved

Fresh Ink Group

An Imprint of:

The Fresh Ink Group, LLC

1021 Blount Avenue, #931

Guntersville, AL 35976

Email: [email protected]

FreshInkGroup.com

Edition 1.0    2019

Images by Robert G. Williscroft

Book design by Amit Dey / FIG

Artwork by Anik / FIG

Cover design by Stephen Geez / FIG

Associate publisher Lauren A. Smith / FIG

Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 and except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, no portion of this book’s content may be stored in any medium, transmitted in any form, used in whole or part, or sourced for derivative works such as videos, television, and motion pictures, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Daedalus Squad is a work of fiction. It contains real science and engineering, but the author makes no claims for the authenticity or accuracy of these elements. Any reference to individuals, governments, corporations, or entities is purely the result of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or governments, corporations, or entities, past or present, is entirely coincidental.

Keywords: Amelia Earhart Skyport, Australia, Baker Island, Coronado, Fred Noonan Skyport, Free Fall, Gryphon, Hawaii, Howland Island, Hypergolic, Jarvis Island, Keith Lofstrom, Launch Loop, Lagos, Madagascar, Orbit, San Diego, SEALS, Spacesuit, SWIC, Wingsuit

Cataloging-in-Publication Recommendations:

FIC028020 FICTION / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction

FIC002000 FICTION / Action & Adventure

FIC028010 FICTION / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019914485

ISBN-13: 978-1-947867-62-8 Papercover

ISBN-13: 978-1-947867-63-5 Hardcover

ISBN-13: 978-1-947867-64-2 Ebooks

This story is dedicated to the U.S. Navy SEALS who may already be working on a concept like the Gryphon.

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Cast of Characters

Daedalus Squad

8,000 Meters Above Death Valley

Coronado—San Diego—Several Days Earlier

Coronado—Gryphon-10 Mk 4

Coronado—Max

Coronado—Squad Drop Prep

Howland & Baker Islands—Prelaunch

Amelia Earhart Skyport—Prelaunch

Amelia Earhart Skyport—Launch

Slingshot Rail

LEO

LEO—Squad Drop

Death Valley—Bird Strike

Death Valley—Snag

Daedalus Squad—Finale

Please Post a Review for Daedalus Squad

Excerpt from the first chapter of Slingshot

Words of Praise for Slingshot

About Robert G. Williscroft

Other books by Robert G. Williscroft

Connect with Robert G. Williscroft

Daedalus Squad Glossary

Several people contributed to the creation of this series.

Most significantly, my wonderful wife, Jill, whom I first met when I returned from a year at the South Pole conducting atmospheric research, and who finally consented to marry me nearly thirty years later, pored over this story with her discerning engineer’s eye. She kept my timeline honest and made sure that regular readers could understand fully the arcane details of the Launch Loop and the Gryphon.

Hard science fiction authors Alastair Mayer, John Clark, and Prof John Rosenman, and USA Today bestselling author Dave Edlund reviewed the manuscript and offered their editorial insights.

Lauren Smith from Fresh Ink Group applied her professional associate publisher’s eye to improve the story.

It goes without saying that any remaining omissions, errors, and mistakes fall directly on my shoulders.

Robert G. Williscroft, PhDCentennial, ColoradoOctober 2019

Slingshot is my novel about constructing the world’s first Space Launch Loop. The book was launched August, 2015, at the International Space Elevator Conference in Seattle, and resides on the desk of every Space Elevator scientist in the world. Space Launch Loops appear in the subsequent books in The Starchild Trilogy, and anyone familiar with my Trilogy knows all about these commercial space launch systems.

When I discovered the Gryphon rigid wingsuit, the Daedalus stories pushed themselves into my consciousness. The first story is a consequence of Slingshot’s skyports effectively being 80 km tall wingsuit base-jumping towers. The second story, Daedalus LEO, follows naturally from the first—a drop from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This story is a consequence of the proof-of-concept LEO drop. In this story, an entire SWIC squad drops from LEO together, in preparation for the final tale, an actual combat drop.

SEAL derring-do is real, the science and technology are real, the Gryphon rigid wingsuit is real, and I suspect that something like SWIC will become part of the U.S. Navy SEALS in the relatively near future.

Robert G. WilliscroftCentennial, ColoradoOctober 2019

SEALS Winged Insertion Command (SWIC)

Navy Capt. Brad Nelson—Commanding Officer SWIC.

Lt.Cdr. Tom Spitzer—Executive Officer SWIC.

Mother—Controlling computer in each Gryphon-10

Max—Full-size Gryphon-10 simulator

SEALS Winged Insertion Command Three (SWIC-3)

Lt.Cdr. Derek “Tiger” Baily—Narrator, Commanding Officer SWIC-3.

Lt. Jim Fox—Executive Officer SWIC-3.

Master Chief Jerry Boldt—Master Chief SWIC-3.

Senior Chief Bob Baxter—Master Chief Boldt’s second.

1st Squad—SWIC-3

Lt. Roger “Rog” Brook—Squad Leader

Chief Douglas Slade

Petty Officer 1st Class Francisco “Jerico” Rodriguez

Petty Officer 1st Class Ronald “Cappy” Caplan

Petty Officer 2nd Class Peter “Pete” Farwall

Not participating in the drop

Petty Officer 2nd Class Benjamin “Benny” Williams

Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher “Piggy” Pigwell

Petty Officer 3rd Class Clyde “Cowboy” Horseman

Launch Loop International (LLI)

Sam Davidson—Slingshot Director.

Apryl Searson—Chief Diver EMT.

C-130 Hercules

Lt.Col. Randal Dorsey—C-130 Hercules pilot

8,000 METERS ABOVE DEATH VALLEY

“What the fuck was that?” someone yelled. It sounded like Jerico Rodriguez—a bit of Hispanic twang. Then I heard a loud crunch as my heads-up display went crazy.

“Shit!” I yelped as my hardshell wingsuit commenced rolling hard to the right. Mother automatically torqued my wings to compensate but without much success. I activated my hypergolic rocket, but nothing happened.

I cleared the alarms in my heads-up display and moved them to the right corner. I could see my squad in formation behind me as I lost altitude on a rolling plunge from 8,000 meters. Chief Douglas Slade’s blip moved above my position.

“You got a hole the size of Cappy’s head in your right wing,” he said, referring to Petty Officer First Class Ronald Caplan. “You ain’t got no UDMH left.”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered.

“I got a problem here, Control,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I briefly described my situation. “I need some immediate help to get out of this.”

CORONADO—SAN DIEGO—SEVERAL DAYS EARLIER

Derek “Tiger” Baily again. I suspect you remember my base jump from Fred Noonan Skyport and my LEO drop or you wouldn’t be reading this. Have you seen Gryphon-7 and Gryphon-10 hanging in the Smithsonian Atrium? They’re a bit worse for wear but pretty cool to look at.

I’m still with the Teams—the U.S. Navy SEALS, and continue to command SEALS Winged Insertion Command Three, SWIC-3 for short. The way things are in the military right now, I’m probably stuck with my present rank, Lieutenant-Commander.

We were about to do a proof-of-concept LEO drop with an abbreviated 6-man squad using Gryphon-10 Mk 4s. I took the lead on this one, pushing my 1st