The Swarm Cycle is a collection of stories written around a concept introduced by the Thinking Horndog about an alien invasion and Earth's reaction to it. The intent is for it to be a public, multi-author universe after the fashion of the popular Naked in School stories.
The Sa'arm, a tripedal race with some physical resemblance to a cross between a mushroom and a lizard but with a hive mind, is sweeping across this galactic arm toward the center. They communicate by some sort of ESP, and ignore any race that does not. In their path is the Confederacy, a Galactic civilization that universally practices nonviolence -- and Earth...
Interested authors should visit our wiki at: https://swarmwiki.tampaad.net/index.php?title=Main_Page This describes canon for the Cycle -- the rules, if you will. We have an author support group, but are suffering issues over the email list. Contact Thinking Horndog or Zen Master.
The process of pickups and extractions had been long known, but one woman with the heart of a true warrior had not stumbled on one during the first few years. Now the Confederacy Marines have shown in and told her its time to go to the stars.
Chris has spent half his life in abuse and misery. Then the grey wall came down and the Confederacy tech that can mould bodies offers a powerful means of payback.
Set in Thinking Horndog's Swarm Cycle, this pickup story follows two very different families extracted from the same location. Jason stops to help a young girl walking home in the snow, and... Why would Bob White's Covey decline to be picked up - on multiple occasions? Readers advise me that I should let you know characters from "THE Harem Tales" and "Woody" begin to appear in Chapter 2. Having read these stories will help. A character list would not.
With AIs watching everything, all the time, how can humans mutiny against a tyrannical, sadistically abusive, Captain? Boats knew Captain Dreck had to die. How? Then, what? My thanks to TrunkMonkey, Doc, the late pcbondsman, Steve, Fred, and Reluctant Sir for their editing, proofing, and altogether making this a better read. Note: A few real people and places inhabit this story, but everything is fiction. Even cited opinions.
Despite the rabidly pacifistic outlook of the Confederacy, the war it wanted humans to engage in on their behalf against the Sa'arm was nothing but brutally violent. What if humanity could employ some of its history to implement other more elegant tactics that could end this existential threat, instead of just doing what the AI's thought was best? A story for vets, ham radio ops, history buffs, engineers and art and culture lovers.