Preparations for War is a four-book series in the setting of the Empire of Humanity, but outside the Empire. It consists of Preparing The Ground, Building The People, Setting The Board, and Moving The Pieces. The series title might be a little bit misleading to someone who just gives it a casual glance, but it is Preparations for War, more a novel in the spirit of giving the primitive natives a helping hand up, that will enable them to break free of the domination they are subject to, give them a better chance to survive the coming war, and incidentally, vastly improve their standards of living.
Calmena orbits the Epsilon Indi A. It was the result of the fractal demons attempting to capture some humans in order to breed mentally operant slaves. While there have been some successes, they are few – useful humans don’t make good slaves, especially not in terms of what the fractal demons consider good slaves.
When the Empire discovers Earth, it routinely surveyed the volume of space surrounding it, and one of the first things it found was Calmena. Were the fractal demons an ordinary opponent, the planet would have been dealt with immediately, but over the thousands of years since the fractal demons began their program, they’ve built seven Gates on Calmena; Gates that can be jumping-off points for invasions elsewhere – but can also be used the other way, as invasion routes for the demonic realms.
The Empire maintains one small base on Calmena, heavily camouflaged and in the most rugged mountains on the planet, as a place for its scouts to come and go on their missions to chart the connections to the demonic realms. But there is also a small charitable mission allowed with the intent of helping the human natives resist their fractal demon overlords and eventually surviving the coming war between the Empire and the fractal demons. It is this charitable mission that the main characters are concerned with.
Joe is a native of Earth, Grace’s nephew. Once upon a time, he planned to be an automobile mechanic, but when Grace began her dog business, he was hired as a cargo handler, and learned to be a ship mechanic. When the Empire took over, he was approached to be the ship’s engineer for Earth’s first mission beyond the solar system. They stubbed their metaphorical toes on Calmena, and Joe ended up working maintenance at Bolthole Base. He’s 22 in Earth terms when we meet him.
Asina is a native of Calmena. She was born in a human freehold, barely clinging to its freedom in the face of the fractal demons. Like all other women in a freehold, she was used for breeding – they desperately needed all the humans they could get. She has a daughter, about two (Earth) years of age when we first meet her, and she’s had three miscarriages as well. As far as they can figure, she’s a little bit younger than Joe in terms of age.
Leave a Reply