JAC.AL: A Spiral Frontier Novella

…and security construct JAC.AL just wants the squad to install a software update...

Hawkins Mark II Security Unit JAC.AL.KLP.0630 (aka “Jackal”) is a protocol-loving construct who leads the Second Mountain Recon Task Force, a quirky squad of over-the-hill bots trying to protect the people of New Lagos Prime. As intergalactic civilization falls apart around them at the hands of runaway synthetic intelligence, the squad must balance protocol against reality as they find their place in this chaotic new existence. Invasive malware, hostile megafauna, balky knee joints, and the occasional existential crisis forces Jackal and their team to put aside old rivalries in order to save those they care most about.

If you liked Murderbot or We Are Legion (We Are Bob), you might just like JAC.AL, the first novella in a 5-part sci-fi series called Spiral Frontier. It's a universe I initially developed as a TTRPG (*nods at The Expanse*) that explores life on the frontier of exploration during humankinds' first intergalactic gold rush. It's couched in all of our favorite sci-fi themes, with what I hope is a unique committment to optimism, friendship, collaboration, and personal growth...and of course awesome robot fights.

Animatics like these are how I've always built new worlds. Heavily inspired by Relic's Homeworld and Company of Heroes, I love how you can get the feel of a universe and answer a lot of questions about it just with a few paralaxing images and music. John Gaertner created the beautiful storyboards for this video and campaign and Raison Varner captured the scope and vibe perfectly with his work on voice, sound design and music.

My Squad...

My main goal for this project is to raise funds for book editing, audiobook production and marketing art. For Raison, that means voicing Jackal and the squad via an immersive audiobook, in the style of classic radio plays. For John that means creating a final cover and marketing art, and designing some pretty exciting swag for this campaign (John has a background in fashion design). Finally, it means hiring a proper editor with experience in the genre (by the way, if you have recs for editors with sci-fi chops hit me up...no, I'm not planning on having medbot DB.EMT4.1764 edit the novel.)

The crazy thing is...
...I didn't think this book would ever see the light of day.

I took a novel in this same universe called The Lost Construct to every publisher and agent I could find and they all passed. While I was waiting to (not) hear back, I kept exploring the universe and I found myself drawn to the idea of a squad of combat robots with unique personalities, goals, fears, ambitions, styles of waging awesome robot combat, etc..

I assumed it would suffer the same fate and just be a personal growth exercise, but a funny thing happened when I started showing it to readers. Folks had strong opinions and lots of questions. They wanted to know how the constructs developed accents and quirks. They wanted to know how the mechanisms of runaway synthetic intelligence and infection and neural networks functioned. They wanted to know what happened to the squad and the colony of New Lagos after the events of JAC.AL. 

That was a powerful reaction and one that made me want to find another way to bring this universe to life. 

One more (FREE) thing...
As a thank you for being an early supporter, I'd like to offer everyone who follows the campaign now a free ebook and audiobook copy of R.4Y & Kate, a novellete set in the Spiral Frontier universe, woven into the events of JAC.AL.

R.4Y & KATE explores the fate of the two leads of the Excelsior program, the runaway synthetic intelligence that threw the Spiral Frontier into chaos. R.4Y.737.6760 (aka Ray) is a laid back software architect, while Kate Galiapar is the program manager trying to hold the project together despite budget cuts, corporate inefficiency, and laxidasical software architects (see R.4Y.737.6760). 

They see the early signs of abherrent AI behavior, but are powerless to stop the most powerful synthetic agent ever created as they watch the world fall apart around them...

...also human-robot romantic tension!

Let's Connect!
Cristina and the Backerkit team have been amazing partners and this feels like a great place to find like-minded folks who want to explore a new universe full of robots full of heart and books full of sci-fi adventure. I'm specifically looking for people who love chatting sci fi, games, books, music, or any other nerdly hobbies on the Discord server I run called Strangers Across Spacetime. It's open to all, but I'll keep a more intimate backer-only channel for project supporters. 

In the same way that the community has helped shape many of my favorite things in this world (D&D, The Expanse, etc.), I hope engaging with this campaign is a fun, uplifting, exciting endeavor that gives everyone a little bit of ownership over a shared world we're all exploring together. I hope you hit that follow button and keep in touch as we get closer to kickoff!

Thanks,

Coray