Wednesday, 4 June 2025

5 June: 156

Today is day 156 of 2025. 10 facts about the number 156.

  1. The A156 is an 11 miles (18 km) long road that runs between the A57 near Saxilby to Gainsborough. This road runs entirely within Lincolnshire beside the border with Nottinghamshire.

  2. 156 degrees is the internal angle of a pentadecagon, a fifteen-sided polygon.

  3. The Roman numeral for 156 is CLVI, and in binary it’s 10011100.

  4. Clock will strike 156 times in the course of a day.

  5. The Alfa Romeo 156 is a compact executive car produced by the Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo. It was introduced at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show as the replacement for the Alfa Romeo 155.

  6. Frengers: Not Quite Friends, But Not Quite Strangers, is the third studio album by Danish alternative rock band Mew. The second track is called 156.

  7. London bus number 156 runs from Wimbledon Bus Station to Vauxhall Bus Station.

  8. The British Rail Class 156 Super Sprinter is a diesel-hydraulic multiple unit passenger train.

  9. 156 Xanthippe is an asteroid in the central region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered in 1875 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Austrian Naval Observatory, in present day Croatia. It is named after Xanthippe, the wife of the Greek philosopher Socrates.

  10. In numerology, the energy of the number 156 is creative and independent. The energy is optimistic, curious, and self-sufficient. It tends to explore new ways of doing things and it doesn't mind being alone while doing so. It is also social, though and is also sensual, curious, and witty.




Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

Tuesday, 3 June 2025

4 June: The Battle of Magenta

The Battle of Magenta occurred on this date in 1859. 10 things you might not know:

  1. The battle was fought between Napoleon III with 54,000 troops and 58,000 Austrian troops under General Franz Gyulai.

  2. Magenta is a town in the Lombardy region of Italy just west of Milan. Its name comes from Marcus Maxentius, a Roman general and emperor who had his headquarters there.

  3. At the time, Magenta was part of the Austrian empire. Italy was made up of a number of small states, not yet unified into the country we know today. Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour was the ruler of Piedmont in Northern Italy. He was ambitious and wanted to conquer the neighbouring regions of Lombardy and Venetia. There was a problem, though. Those places were controlled by the Austrians.

  4. Meanwhile, Napoleon III wanted to go down in history as a mighty conqueror like his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte. He and Cavour decided to join forces in order to help each other achieve their ambitions.

  5. Napoleon moved his troops to Italy by train, making it the first mass movement of troops by rail.

  6. Neither of the two generals expected a battle that day. Napoleon didn’t think the Austrians would have any significant forces in position to block his advance. He thought the Austrian army was further south, and that he had time to get his own troops into position at his leisure by the end of the day.

  7. Gyulay wasn’t expecting a battle either and had actually intended to give his troops a day off.

  8. While in gaming terms this battle was what would be called a random encounter and fought only by a fraction of each army, more than 4,500 French soldiers were killed or wounded and 5,700 were killed or wounded on the Austrian side. The result was a narrow victory for France.

  9. Napoleon and his army went on to enter Milan, and went on to take Brescia, Florence, Parma and Modena. Gyulay withdrew his army to the Chiese River east of Milan, and resigned on 16 June.

  10. A red aniline dye created soon afterwards by a French chemist was named Magenta to commemorate Napoleon’s victory.



Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

Monday, 2 June 2025

3 June: Lacrosse

On this date in 1876 Lacrosse was introduced in Britain and Canada. 10 things you might not know about the game of lacrosse.

  1. Lacrosse is the oldest sport in North America, having been played by Native American tribes since the early 17th century and before. They called the game “baggataway”.

  2. The name lacrosse came from French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf, as he watched Huron tribesmen play the game in what is now Ontario. He called it la crosse, "the stick" in French. The missionaries didn’t approve of the game, because it was violent and involved betting. Betting was an integral part of the game. Each player was required to give up a personal item such as a trinket or a knife, or even a horse before the game began. These items were on display during the game and awarded to the winners in each quarter.

  3. To the Native Americans, it was more than just a sport. Young men played it as part of their training for war, and it was sometimes used to settle disputes. There was also a spiritual aspect, a ceremonial ritual in which the players were giving thanks to the Creator or Master. In those days, a game of lacrosse involved teams of anything up to a thousand men on a field several miles long, and a game could last several days. The first lacrosse sticks were essentially giant wooden spoons with no netting, and the ball would be made from wood or deerskin stuffed with hair. After the game there would be a ceremonial dance and a feast.

  4. In 1763, Ojibwas used the game to capture a fort. They invited the British soldiers at Fort Michilimackinac (now Mackinaw City, Michigan) to watch a game. As the soldiers were distracted by the game, the players worked their way closer and closer to the fort’s entrance, burst in and massacred the troops.

  5. The first official written rules were written in the mid 19th century by a Canadian dentist called Dr. William George Beers. The first official lacrosse club, the Montreal Lacrosse Club, was founded in 1856.

  6. Lacrosse is the official state sport of Maryland and the official summer sport of Canada.

  7. Lacrosse was included in the Olympic Games in 1904 and 1908, though never since, at least at time of writing. It will be contested at the 2028 Olympic Games in the lacrosse sixes format.

  8. Talking of formats, there are several different ones, all with different rules and equipment. These include field lacrosse, women's lacrosse (first played in Scotland in 1890), box lacrosse, lacrosse sixes and intercrosse.

  9. Lacrosse has been described as “the fastest game on two feet”. The average player can run 3-5 miles during a single game and it’s not unknown for the ball to travel at 80mph during a shot. In 2013, a record was set by Mike Sawyer who shot a ball at 114mph. The lacrosse goal is 6 feet high and 6 feet wide, making it one of the largest goals in sports. This means the goal defender has to be fast and agile in order to defend it.

  10. The governing body is World Lacrosse, which is the only international sport organisation to recognise Native American tribes as sovereign nations.



Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

Sunday, 1 June 2025

2 June: 153

Today is day 153 of the year, so 10 facts about the number 153.

  1. The British Rail Class 153 Super Sprinter are single-coach diesel-hydraulic railcars intended for service on rural branch lines.

  2. There was also a 153 series of trains in use in Japan from 1958 until 1983.

  3. The third time Jesus appeared after his resurrection, it was to the disciples, who’d been fishing all night and had caught nothing. As soon as Jesus arrived on the scene, they caught 153 fish (Gospel of John (chapter 21:1–14)). Jerome, a fourth century A.D. Catholic priest and theologian suggested that these represented all species of Fish and the meaning was that there is room in the church for all races. 153 could also be seen as a symbol of God’s abundance.

  4. 153 was considered by St. Augustine to represent seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and ten requirements of God.

  5. The A153 is a road entirely in Lincolnshire in the east of England.

  6. 153 Hilda is a large Asteroid discovered by Johann Palisa in 1875, from the Austrian Naval Observatory at Pula, now Croatia. The name was chosen by the astronomer Theodor von Oppolzer, who named it after one of his daughters.

  7. London bus route 153 runs from Finsbury Park Interchange to Liverpool Street Station.

  8. Shakespeare’s sonnet 153 begins: “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep: A maid of Dian's this advantage found, And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep; In a cold valley-fountain of that ground.

  9. Untitled #153 is a colour photograph made by American visual artist Cindy Sherman in 1985. In 2010, a print was auctioned for $2.7 million, making it one of the most expensive photographs ever sold. It’s a self-portrait, depicting a woman lying in the ground covered with Mud.

  10. The numerology energy of 153 is tolerant and idealistic. It is a philanthropic energy constantly alert for hints of new ways to help. It is inspiring, creative and appreciates beauty. It is tolerant of ideas, religions, and thoughts contrary to its own.



Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

Saturday, 31 May 2025

1 June: Pembrokeshire Day

Today is Pembrokeshire Day. 10 facts about Pembrokeshire.

  1. Pembrokeshire is a county in south-west Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the north-east, and by the sea.

  2. Its coastline is spectacular and has been made into a national park, the only one in the UK primarily designated for its coastal landscape. Most of the park lies within 2 miles of the coast, and nowhere is more than 10 miles from it. There are more than 50 beaches and a coast path which is 190-miles/310 km long. The length of the coastline altogether is 420km and the are of the Park is around 615 sq. km.

  3. The largest town, and the county town, is Haverfordwest, which is an important road hub as it is situated at the tidal limit of the river Cleddau. The name of the town means "ford used by heifers (or Goats)”. "West" was added in the 15th century, to distinguish it from Hereford. Other towns in the county include Milford Haven, Pembroke, Fishguard and Tenby.

  4. There’s also a city, which is smaller than many of the towns. St David’s is the smallest city in the UK with a population of around 2,000 people (its cathedral is pictured above). City status was granted to St. Davids in 1994 on the anniversary of Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne. St. David’s cathedral and Christian heritage were the reason for making such a small place a city. St Davids has been a major site of pilgrimage since medieval times. Pope Calixtus II made a decree in the 12th century that “two pilgrimages to St Davids were equivalent to one to Rome”.

  5. Pembrokeshire is home to the biggest theme park in Wales, Oakwood Theme Park, which also boasts the highest sky swing in the UK.

  6. The county flower of Pembrokeshire is the thrift – clostog fair in Welsh. It means Mary’s pillow, and was given this name because its leaves look like a cushion. It has a pink flower and is found along the coast in cliffs or saltmarshes.

  7. There are also some ancient forests. The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales is restoring a lost temperate rainforest, also known as a Celtic forest, in Trellwyn Fach, near Fishguard. There’s also Tŷ Canol Wood, where you can see bio-fluorescence under ultraviolet light at night. It has been described as "one of the most magical and special woodlands in the UK."

  8. Milford Haven Waterway is the second largest natural harbour in the world after Port Philip in Australia.

  9. The highest point is Foel Cwmcerwyn at 1,759 feet (536 m), in the Preseli hills.

  10. Famous people from here include: Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), born in Pembroke Castle in 1457; Robert Recorde, the mathematician who gave us the = sign; the novelist Sarah Waters; and the actor Christian Bale, who was born in Haverfordwest.



Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

Friday, 30 May 2025

31 May: Dark Side of the Moon

On this date in 1972 Pink Floyd began recording Dark Side Of The Moon. Here are 10 things you might not know:

  1. The first song to be recorded on this date was Us and Them.

  2. The concept of the album is mental health and the fragility of life. The title, Dark Side of the Moon, is nothing to do with outer space but rather the archaic idea that one's mental state fluctuated around the phases of the Moon.

  3. Pink Floyd almost had to abandon that title, however, because another band, Medicine Head, released an album with the same title in spring 1972. Pink Floyd had to scrabble around looking for an alternative title, and came up with Eclipse. However, the Medicine Head album bombed and didn't make the UK Top 40, which meant Pink Floyd could use the title after all.

  4. The cover art is by graphic artist George Hardie. His brief was to come up with a "simple and bold" design. He went with a beam of white Light shining through a prism and splitting into the colours of the spectrum. Well. Almost. Six out of seven, anyway. The colour indigo does not appear in the artwork.

  5. Before coming up with the final cover art, Hardie considered using an image of the Marvel Comic character the Silver Surfer.

  6. The band tried out the album, in its entirety, on live audiences more than a year before the album was released. The first performance was at Brighton Dome on 20 January 1972, although what Roger Waters called a “severe mechanical and electric horror” prevented them from performing the whole thing that night, they played it on the other dates of that tour.

  7. The album was recorded at Abbey Road studios. Roger Waters decided to record interviews with people working at the studio at the time, asking them everything from their favourite colour to their feelings about mental illness and death, an incorporate some of the replies into the recording. The line “There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the Sun” came from doorman Gerry O’Driscoll. Waters interviewed Paul McCartney as well, but didn’t use any of his replies as McCartney “found it necessary to perform, which was useless, of course. He was trying to be funny, which wasn’t what we wanted at all.” However, The Beatles did find their way onto some versions of the album. The song Ticket to Ride was being played as O’Driscoll delivered his classic line, which appears at the end of the track Eclipse.

  8. Dark Side of the Moon is the fourth best selling album of all time, after Michael Jackson’s Thriller, AC/DC’s Back in Black and the soundtrack of The Bodyguard featuring Whitney Houston. It has spent over 900 weeks on the American charts and is certified 14× platinum in the United Kingdom.

  9. While recording the album, the band would take breaks to watch the TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. They were such big fans of the show that when they heard the Monty Python team were having difficulty raising the funds to make a film, they stumped up 10% of the movie’s budget from the proceeds of Dark Side of the Moon. So they were at least partly responsible for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

  10. While on the subject of films, it’s commonly said that the album can be played alongside Wizard of Oz, starting the record at the moment the MGM lion roars for the third time, the music synchronises with the action on screen. For example, The Great Gig In The Sky coincides with the tornado which carries Dorothy to Oz, and the final heartbeats on the album play just as the Tin Man reveals he doesn't have a Heart. This idea was first put forward by Charles Savage in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in 1995. The pairing is sometimes referred to as The Dark Side of the Rainbow, the Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd. However, the band deny that there was ever any connection. Alan Parsons said: "a complete load of eyewash ... If you play any record with the sound turned down on the TV, you will find things that work." As far as he was concerned it’s merely apophenia the tendency to perceive connections between unrelated things. Drummer Nick Mason commented, “It’s absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with The Wizard Of Oz. It was all based on The Sound Of Music.”


Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

Thursday, 29 May 2025

30 May: 150

It's day 150 of 2025! 10 fun facts about the number 150.


  1. 150 is the sum of eight consecutive primes (7 + 11 + 13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29 + 31).

  2. There are 150 psalms in The Bible book of Psalms.

  3. There are 150 degrees in the internal angle of a regular dodecagon.

  4. 150 Nuwa is a large Asteroid discovered by James Craig Watson in 1875, and named after Nüwa, the Chinese creator goddess.

  5. London bus number 150 runs between Becontree Heath Leisure Centre and Lambourne Road.

  6. The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation plane designed for flight training, touring and personal use.

  7. 150 metres is a rarely contested sprint event in track and field. It is not an IAAF-recognised event.

  8. It is the number of degrees in the quincunx astrological aspect explored by Johannes Kepler.

  9. The British Rail Class 150 Sprinter is a class of diesel-hydraulic multiple unit passenger trains, developed and built by British Rail Engineering Limited.

  10. The A150 was a road between Wisbech and Long Sutton. This designation is no longer in use, and that road is now the A1101.


Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback