{"id":34626,"date":"2025-09-17T05:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T09:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=34626"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:47:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T22:47:52","slug":"hear-ye-hear-ye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/hear-ye-hear-ye\/","title":{"rendered":"Hear Ye, Hear Ye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update:<\/strong><\/p>\n

To verify my ownership of “The Sniper” for the Royal Road folks, I am adding this note to show I also control Orion’s Cold Fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We interrupt the daily progression of actual civil war to bring you a message about a fictional civil war story.\u00a0 I\u2019ve finished the manuscript for my book, \u201cThe Sniper.\u201d\u00a0 Now I\u2019m looking for beta readers.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking for folks to read the book and give me their honest feedback.\u00a0 Also I\u2019d like to disseminate the book to friends and family who you judge would be a good fit for the book based on your estimation and if they agree to read it I\u2019d like to get their opinions too.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking to get this book out to the largest group of people possible to see whether it is something that people will want to read.\u00a0 So after reading it if you think it\u2019s appropriate for people you know let me hear that too.\u00a0 And remember, I\u2019m not a fragile author.\u00a0 If you think it sucks, say so, but also tell me why you think it.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested leave a comment to that effect and I\u2019ll e-mail you a copy of the story.\u00a0 Now this is just a pdf.\u00a0 No nice cover, no actual paper.\u00a0 Just electrons.\u00a0 But I will guarantee that this sniper is nothing like the actual sniper we\u2019ve had to hear about for the last week.<\/p>\n

And just to remind you here\u2019s the beginning of the book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chapter 1 – An Object Lesson<\/p>\n

Joseph Boghadair was set up at a loophole in a small prefabricated metal building at the top of the mountain that contained the Icarus Mine.\u00a0 His .50 caliber sniper rifle was trained on the narrow road that led up to the mine.\u00a0 He could see a line of black SUVs about a mile and a half down the road and he was getting ready to start firing on the convoy.\u00a0 His first shots took out the engine of the lead vehicle thereby halting the convoy.\u00a0 His second volley took out the engine of the last car in line thus trapping the rest of the vehicles between.\u00a0 Then at a more leisurely pace he took care of the other eight vehicles.\u00a0 By this point the passengers were crouching behind their disabled cars and randomly firing handguns and automatic weapons in Joseph\u2019s general direction with almost no discernible results.<\/p>\n

After about half an hour a few of the men in black body armor attempted to reach a stand of trees about 300 yards away to their left.\u00a0 Joseph put a few well aimed rounds in front of their path and they quickly retreated back to the supposed safety of their not-so-mobile-autos.\u00a0 Joseph snorted wryly at their shyness.<\/p>\n

An hour after that a helicopter approached the mountain from the opposite direction to Joseph\u2019s loophole.\u00a0 Walking over to a window on the other wall he could see a distant Blackhawk approaching at relatively high altitude.\u00a0 Joseph then began his preparations for their reception.<\/p>\n

Between crew and troops, the Blackhawk had a dozen men on board.\u00a0 And more importantly it had a couple of Hellfire missiles.\u00a0 From a very safe distance away it targeted Joseph\u2019s position and fired.\u00a0 The missile struck precisely on target and obliterated the steel structure almost completely.\u00a0 All that remained was the foundation of the structure around the mine shaft, now clogged with debris.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawk landed about three quarters of a mile from the mine entrance.\u00a0 At this point the agents, hunkered down behind their vehicles, began to stream toward the helicopter.\u00a0 By the time they reached the aircraft the troops had exited and were waiting for their rescued brethren to arrive.<\/p>\n

FBI Special Agent in Charge, George Chastain assembled both teams and briefed them on the updated mission plan.\u00a0 \u201cWe will proceed to the mine head and look for any human remains.\u00a0 We will collect whatever we can retrieve for lab analysis and attempt to seal the mine head until qualified personnel can be assembled for recovery operations.\u00a0 It is presumed that the target, Joseph Boghadair was killed by the missile strike but we will take no chances.\u00a0 He was an extremely dangerous individual and should not be approached by anyone without backup and prior approval from leadership.\u00a0 In addition to his war record it is believed that Boghadair is responsible for the shooting deaths of forty-six people in the last six months with thirteen of those people being FBI personnel.\u00a0 No one enters the mine until remote sensing equipment is brought in.\u00a0 Alright, proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agents formed two groups.\u00a0 Apparently, SUV agents and helicopter agents must not bond very well.\u00a0 But before they were more than a hundred feet from the helicopter the ground began to quake so powerfully beneath them that they were irresistibly knocked off their feet.\u00a0 And while they were clawing at the ground for dear life, they could see that the high ground where the mine head was located had collapsed into the earth.\u00a0 The roar of that collapse was more frightening than the initial earthquake and some of the agents hid their heads under their arms in abject terror.\u00a0 When the mountain stopped shaking the men started to collect themselves and stand up.\u00a0 When they looked around them, they were astonished.\u00a0 A circular pit had opened up centered on the mine head.\u00a0 It was a thousand yards in diameter and so deep that only blackness could be seen at its center.\u00a0 Several cracks had formed outside the circular pit.\u00a0 One of these had nearly swallowed the Blackhawk.\u00a0 It was on its side and half buried in the crevice.\u00a0 Its rotors were fractured and it wouldn\u2019t be flying away from this landing.<\/p>\n

Chastain went over to the edge of the crater and just stared down into the blackness below.\u00a0 Then he went back to his team and started giving orders to begin a retreat from the stricken mountain.\u00a0 He was trying to think of what he was going to tell his boss.\u00a0 Nothing reasonable came to mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: To verify my ownership of “The Sniper” for the Royal Road folks, I am adding this note to show I also control Orion’s Cold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,1289,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[1290,265,4484],"class_list":["post-34626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-my-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-the-american-archipelago-book-1-the-sniper"],"yoast_head":"\nHear Ye, Hear Ye - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/hear-ye-hear-ye\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hear Ye, Hear Ye - 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