by Drak Bibliophile | Jul 1, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 26 Chapter Nine When one would make a surprise attack on the enemy, he should avoid the major roads and seek out the lesser ones. Then attack. –Takeda Nobushige UEPF Spirit of Peace Ensign Esmeralda Miranda sat on a...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 29, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 25 This morning, a two-man Condor sat on the deck, with eleven more resting behind it. The gliders sat on lightweight rolling frames. The frames might be recovered, when the gliders launched, but they were...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 26, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 24 “It would be hard to call them ‘happy circumstances,’ now wouldn’t it?” was Khalid’s retort. “You can dwell on that to your heart’s content, Alix, but, longer term,...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 24, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 23 Chapter Eight Whoever makes me unhappy for a day, I will make suffer a lifetime. –Empress Dowager Cixi Task Force Macera, surrounding Task Force Jesuit He’d given it his best shot, Macera had, but his best...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 22, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 22 SdL Megalodon, off Santa Catalina Island Extremely low frequency communications had never been on Balboa’s wish list, even though it might have allowed communications down to hundreds of meters of depth. ...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 19, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 21 Chapter Seven All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. –Clausewitz, On War Santa Cruz,...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 17, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 20 Aguilar led the way to a set of weapons racks. Inside them, secured with chains and a rotating irregular bar, were more than a score of shotguns. “The trick,” Aguilar said, “is in the...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 15, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 19 The young Balboan tribune – short, brown, and stocky – answered through a Zhong-descended Balboan interpreter. He was as level-voiced as possible given the stresses inherent in his very vulnerable position. ...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 12, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 18 It was also crawling with antaniae, the septic-mouthed winged quasi-reptiles that fed on the young and the weakened and the foolish. Though they looked reptilian, the Mandarin name for them translated out to,...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 10, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 17 Chapter Six The difference between stupid and intelligent people – and this is true whether or not they are well-educated – is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. –Neal Stephenson, The...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 8, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 16 And that’s why I picked this spot. Marciano held out one hand, palm up. Automatically, an RTO placed a handset in the palm. Just as automatically, the general raised it to his face. He saw the...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 5, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 15 San Juan del Norte, Cordoba When Tsarist-Marxism and the notion of the planned economy had finally gone under, in Volga, and the Cordoban government had lost its deathgrip on the breast and nipple of international...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 3, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 14 ***** His ship was already listing badly and down by the stern when Liu’s smudge-faced, filthy, and apparently singed damage control chief reported in. He was wet nearly to the...
by Drak Bibliophile | Jun 2, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 13 Chapter Five No, I have no right to rank with the great captains, for I have never commanded a retreat. –Moltke the Elder. Over and on the Mar Furioso, North of Santa Josefina At about fifty miles out, the...
by Drak Bibliophile | May 29, 2020 | KratmanSnippets, Snippets
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath – Snippet 12 ***** Marqueli was speaking on the stage now, talking about truth in advertising, her relationship to Carrera through his wife, Lourdes, but also how Jorge’s medical care preceded any relationship except that of...