Scavenger’s Mission
By
Liza O’Connor
How did an AI responsible
for Merit Assessments
take control of the SkyRyders?
It all began with a corrupt 5 star General named Cohen. Once he
was removed (shot in the head) for selling the SkyRyder weapons to the
Russians, Czechs, Scavengers, and local drug dealers, the need for an AI became
clearly apparent. Men are corruptible, but a quality AI machine is not. So
while in a state of embarrassment that a 5 star General could have become so corrupt
and none of the Generals’ Council knew, they bought MAC, to properly assess
Ryders, not just on flying, but ethics as well.
Technically, MAC only assesses SkyRyders, but since all
SkyRyders are promoted or demoted based on MAC’s assessment of flying skills,
knowledge of the regs, and integrity, it pretty well assures that the crème is
going to rise to the top. Or so the theory went. In truth, new Ryders are often
told by their captain to dunk their test or there will be painful
repercussions.
MAC can also intervene when a General submits a battle plan.
If it doesn’t like the plan, it can be sent back to do again. It can also make
mandatory changes in the personnel the general plans to use in his battle if it
believes the wrong Ryders have been chosen. This annoys General Powell
immensely, but MAC actually can enforce who gets to play. It’s rather ironic
that captains have more control of what actually happens to Ryders than a 3
star general does.
But that’s a part of life. No matter how hard you try to make
something better than what you had before, there will be blindspots that
threaten the entire system. One blindspot is that MAC ignores most of human
behaviors. It can be years before MAC calls you up for assessments once you
reach captain. It spends most of its efforts trying to screen out newbie
troubles. The Cartels are constantly trying to get saboteurs into the SkyRyder
ranks.
So when an injured new cadet arrives and lands in a manner
it’s coding says is impossible, MAC performs a virus check before having the
flight test continue.
Scavenger’s Mission
By Liza O’Connor
Blurb
Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her
parents want.
In a single month,
Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger. While testing her new flying skills in the
Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash
landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes
forever.
Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort
with little to do other than arrest the occasional scavenger.
For the first time in
his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger
and he’ll have to arrest her. But first
he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His videographer
has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is
astounding!
He forgoes arresting
her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and
integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it
will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.
Meet MAC: The Artificial Intelligence that runs the
SkyRyders Corps.
Upon seeing her
arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent;
they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its top
asset and soon she proves her value.
But…the SkyRyders remain
a male dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes
with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a
regimented Corps?
Excerpt
“But wait, it gets better,” Riley assured Logan. “I tell her
MAC wants it done again, and she says, ‘I don’t think I can do it better than
that.’ When I tell her she can use her own catcher, she changes her mind. ‘Then
I can do better,’ she tells me.”
“She knew she should only be taking it once. The poor kid
probably thought she was on the cusp of failing. I still don’t understand why
MAC asked her to do it again. She’s injured—why would it do that?”
“I don’t know why it required her to repeat it unless it suspected someone had tampered
with its parameters. On the second flight, Alisha flew exactly as ordered. I
told her to make a straight line to the tree, and she did. Since until today a perfect straight-line cross-wind was
impossible, MAC should have balked on the second test. Yet it seemed very
satisfied after the second run. And get this—after the test is over, it tells
me to ask her if there’s anything else she’d like to show us. How’s that for
weird?”
Logan was less amused. MAC knew she was injured. Why was it
pushing her so hard? He sighed. “She no doubt took the offer.”
Riley laughed. “Oh yeah, she had a few other things to show
us: a forward vertical climb, some somersaults, then a forward-downward descent
using that surfboard thing of hers, another absolutely straight cross-wind
track, and my favorite—a harness-release landing. Do you realize the advantage
a harness-release landing would give us when entering hostile territory?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen that one. And it would be incredibly useful
if we can teach it to our combat flyers.” What he didn’t want was Alisha to be
the actual flyer going in under fire. “Did you hold your ground when she headed
right toward you?”
“Yeah, I did. Mostly because I was too shocked to even think
of moving. She said you stuck as well.”
“I did, but the rest of my crew took a dive. Truthfully,
though, I didn’t see how she was going to pull it off. Still, I told her to
land in the circle, and after hopping across eight of them, I was confident she
could stick the last one.”
LINK
The SkyRyder’s Series,
Book 1
Scavenger’s Mission
About the Author
Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They
hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an
adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New
Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white
sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and
raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur
photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her
entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.
SCIENCE FICTION
Sci-Fi Soap Opera with humor, romance,
and science
Sci-Fi/Romance
The SkyRyders Series
Sci-Fi Romance
Scavenger Falters-coming 2017
Scavenger Vanishes-coming 2017
Sounds like an exciting story! Does your many interests and places you've been lend a hand to the unique quality of your writing?
ReplyDeleteSounds like an exciting story! Does your many interests and places you've been lend a hand to the unique quality of your writing?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly provides fodder for my stories.
DeleteWithout question my flying planes, hanggliding, and parachuting all had input to the new form of flying winds that takes place in this book. But then so did the simple act of holding my hand out the wind while my mother drove the car. That was my first understanding of windforce and lift. Later, in school I was taught the mechanics of why lift occurs, and whatever I forgot was reinforce when I became a pilot.
But almost all my stories have a bit of my life in them. And oddly, some of the craziest bits (which readers say are over the top and unbelievable) are taken directly from my crazy life.
Sounds like a fantastic read.
ReplyDeleteTweeted.
Thank you Daryl!
DeleteI love this book. I worry about the MAC though because of AI can sometimes become a little over the top as it thinks it knows what is best. At least MAC seems kind.
ReplyDeleteYou are very perceptive. However, rest assured that MAC remains behaved through this 3 book series. All bets are off, there after. But then I haven't decided if I will publish those books. lol. They are disturbing.
Delete