Post #271 September 13 2021 “Terra Troopers” Several posts ago, I mentioned that I am developing a new series of stories called Terra Troopers. In this post, I want to provide a little more detail about this proposed new series. The basic premise is that warfare and conflict between states has now (several hundred years into the future) migrated underground. States attack each other with subterranean vehicles called geoplanes and use this technology to create earthquakes and seismic tremors on demand. Criminals and non-state actors use the technology to extort others for money and demands. How might this come about and what might happen if it did? The initial novel is titled Aftershock and should become available in the latter half of 2022. In this story, a criminal cartel called Red Sword (with ties to the People’s Republic of China) uses geoplanes to hold entire cities and nations hostage to terrible destruction from below ground. A US Geological Survey seismologist and an Army intelligence officer believe a recent increase in quakes is not caused by natural forces. Fighting a disbelieving bureaucracy, they work to prove their thesis and find that possible recent tests of a Chinese subterranean vehicle are related to these tremors. But convincing their own superiors of this as well as confronting this new menace with effective countermeasures is difficult and forms a good part of the story. Eventually, the US Army forms an Underground Strike Command, out of existing armored divisions, to fight off Red Sword. USGC eventually evolves into US Terra Guard, which will have the same relationship to the Army as the Marines do with the Navy and Space Force with the Air Force. The series of up to 10 novel-length stories that follow will show how Terra Guard evolves and develops as well as detailing their many missions against adversaries making use of this new theater of conflict. A few of the story titles will be titles like “Geoplanes,” “Fault Zone” and “Subduction.” I have 10 titles already laid out but no outlines as yet. Aftershock will be the initial title that lays the groundwork (so to speak) for the whole series. I envision each story as a standalone novel, about 100,000 words (160-180 pages) but all part of the greater story arc as Terra Guard battles Red Sword (and indirectly China) beneath the Earth’s surface. This series will obviously depend a lot on geology, geophysics and seismology. Many of the settings will be underground, in geoplanes and otherwise. I’ll try to make the science understandable, deployed in small chunks and as accurate as I can, consistent with the narrative demands of the stories. I’ll have to do a lot of research to provide believable background for the series. As indicated above, I see these stories as likely set in the 22nd century, far enough away to provide some room for imagination and the unexpected. Major characters will include Major Jake Swift, an Army armored division officer and probably a tank commander, who gets assigned to Underground Strike Command and later becomes a leading advocate and tactician for the newly formed Terra Guard, a sort of Billy Mitchell of the subterranean world. Additional characters could Colonel Jurgen Lubeck, another Army armored forces import and Major Krystal Payne, an Army G2 (Intelligence) specialist and possible love interest for Swift. Of course, I’ll also have key figures from the US Geological Survey, and adversary bigwigs inside Red Sword and the Chinese Ministry of Defense and government. All in all, Terra Troopers will be a fairly major undertaking, if I decide to do this. As yet, I have no outlines for any story, not even Aftershock, the kickoff tale, but that should come. I’ll need detailed outlines for each story, major character bios, science background for the settings and the technology, some ideas on how Terra Guard would be organized and structured to complete its mission. In my previous series Tales of the Quantum Corps, Quantum Troopers and Quantum Troopers Return, I used the UN as the guiding agency. But in Terra Troopers, I intend to come back to the good old United States and make Terra Guard fully American, with adversaries and conflicts a natural outgrowth of events going on today (2021). Oh, and by the way, my imaginary vehicles—the geoplanes—can function as submarines in the ocean as well and could even show up beneath the surface of other worlds in our Solar System, like the Moon and Mars. Look for Aftershock at Smashwords.com and other fine ebook retailers sometime in the latter half of 2022. I’ll keep you up updated on this big new project. The Word Shed will take a 2-week hiatus for me to spend a few weeks on a late-summer beach vacation. We’ll post again on October 4. Hope you had a great summer and a memorable Labor Day. In upcoming posts, I’ll detail how my current series The Farpool Stories is advancing to its conclusion. I’m currently writing the first draft of The Farpool: Diaspora and will conclude this series with The Farpool: Destiny sometime in the first half of 2022. See you October 4. Phil B.