Robert G Williscroft

Slingshot is a love story-about a man, a woman, another man, another woman, some gender bending...and a machine, the largest ever built. Slingshot is a mystery-about a missing aviatrix, a conspiracy, a true-believer. Slingshot is an adventure-about following a dream, the ocean-deep, outer space. Slingshot is about constructing the first space launch-loop stretching 2,600 km between Baker and Jarvis Islands in the Equatorial Pacific. It's about high finance, intrigue, unlimited ambition, heroism, fanaticism, betrayal...and about opening space to the common person. The setting is the day-after-tomorrow. Technology has advanced, the web is more pervasive than ever, but human ambition and greed remain unchanged. In Slingshot, Alex Regent, Margo Jackson, and Klaus Blumenfeld reach for the stars as they blend their skills to create the world's first space launch-loop, backed by major software money. Environmental fanatic Lars Watson with his team of young eco-terrorists are funded by opposing financial interests, who will go to any length to halt the project. Reporter Lori Kutcher indiscriminately applies her own personal skills to ensure it is she who reports the unfolding events to a watching world. With a cast of 69, Slingshot takes you from Seattle's world financial district, to the ocean bottom at 5,000 feet off Baker Island, to the edge of space 80 km above. You play with dolphins and battle sharks. You fly and sail and dive, you work and play and love across the vast panorama of an Equatorial Pacific being put to leash to serve humanity's surge into outer space. While its accurate science and precise engineering will appeal to hard science-fiction buffs, Slingshot's major focus is the grand journey, the opening of outer space to the common person by men and women who loom larger than life as they work, play, and love.

A super-secret, off-the-books spy organization; a security-clearance starting at Top Secret and going up from there; an attack by giant squid during a thousand-foot dive while breathing an exotic gas; a cat's whisker escape from death during a three-day decompression-and that's just the first two chapters of Operation Ivy Bells, before the action really gets underway. In a fast-paced, personal narrative, J.R. "Mac" MacDowell details a breathtaking series of events during a super-secret intelligence gathering operation at the height of the Cold War. Riding the nuclear submarine Halibut, Mac and his saturation diving team surreptitiously enter Soviet-controlled Sea of Okhotsk on a proof-of-concept mission. They install a tap on an underwater communications cable at 400 feet, and narrowly escape death when a storm snaps Halibut's anchor cables. They retrieve missile parts from a Soviet missile-test splash-zone, getting caught in a sonar-web set by the crafty skipper of an old Soviet diesel submarine. Mac's divers temporarily disable the sub, and Halibut escapes to Guam, dogged by the sub Skipper. Having proved the concept, they return in a Halibut, outfitted with skids so she can sit on the bottom, to attach a 12-thousand-pound pod to the cable for future retrieval. In the missile splash-zone, they lock in deadly underwater combat with Soviet divers. With the free world at stake, they capture one and kill the rest. Halibut's submariners and saturation divers finally return home without ever publicly revealing their crucial contribution to winning the Cold War, receiving an unpublicized Presidential Unit Citation.

Saturation Dive Team Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Mac McDowell faces his greatest challenge yet, leading the team into a critical Cold War mission. With a security clearance above Top Secret, Mac and his off-the-books deep-water espionage group must gather Russian intel to avert world war. Join nuclear-submariner Mac as he extreme-dives to a thousand feet, battles giant squids, and proves what brave men can achieve under real pressure, the kind that will steal your air and crush the life out of you. Operation Ivy Bells: A Mac McDowell Missionupdates the popular bestseller by Robert G. Williscroft, a lifelong adventurer who blends his own experiences with real events to craft a military thriller that will take your breath away.

Although presumed dead, Saeed Ismail resurfaces following the events of The Starchild Compact to lead a global Jihad.Aided by Founder Asshur, besieged Israelis on Earth make their way to Mars. Under Rod Zakes, the Iapetus Federation expands to include the human-settled parts of the solar system, protected by Dmitri Gagarin's Federation Security Force.While global Jihad rages, the Starchild Institute on Iapetus develops a form of wormhole transportation, but will this new technology be ready in time to rescue Sam Houston and all that is left of the United States, the beleaguered Lone Star Federation?Can wormhole technology solve the task of moving millions of people from Earth to Iapetus?While Earth sinks into medieval barbarism, off-world humanity struggles to survive and prosper in the far reaches of the Solar System - and beyond.

Although presumed dead, Saeed Ismail resurfaces following the events of The Starchild Compact to lead a global Jihad.Aided by Founder Asshur, besieged Israelis on Earth make their way to Mars. Under Rod Zakes, the Iapetus Federation expands to include the human-settled parts of the solar system, protected by Dmitri Gagarin's Federation Security Force.While global Jihad rages, the Starchild Institute on Iapetus develops a form of wormhole transportation, but will this new technology be ready in time to rescue Sam Houston and all that is left of the United States, the beleaguered Lone Star Federation?Can wormhole technology solve the task of moving millions of people from Earth to Iapetus?While Earth sinks into medieval barbarism, off-world humanity struggles to survive and prosper in the far reaches of the Solar System - and beyond.

Jumping from orbit using little more than a spacesuit and a re-entry pack "The Daedalus Files are four science fiction stories that blend the boundaries of fact and fiction as seamlessly as the late master, Michael Crichton. They're the type of story that leaves you asking questions and discussing with your coworkers in the break room." - Dr. Dave Edlund, USA Today Bestselling Author, The Peter Savage Thrillers Set in the world of Slingshot, Navy SEAL Derek "Tiger" Baily and his SEALS Winged Insertion Command develop the experimental Gryphon hardshell wingsuit from the initial version 7 to the enhanced Gryphon-10 MK 4. Tiger makes a basejump from Slingshot, 80 klicks up, and finally, the team drops from LEO-Low Earth Orbit. Eventually, when the presidential front-runner is seized by pirates for ransom, Baily's 6-man SWIC team must hurtle around the world, staging critical re-entry for a rescue, challenged to solve life-or-death problems with only seconds to spare. Can they survive? Will they effect the rescue? Join Tiger Baily as he and his SWIC team work to perfect the Gryphon and then employ it in combat.

Jumping from orbit using little more than a spacesuit and a re-entry pack "The Daedalus Files are four science fiction stories that blend the boundaries of fact and fiction as seamlessly as the late master, Michael Crichton. They're the type of story that leaves you asking questions and discussing with your coworkers in the break room." - Dr. Dave Edlund, USA Today Bestselling Author, The Peter Savage Thrillers Set in the world of Slingshot, Navy SEAL Derek "Tiger" Baily and his SEALS Winged Insertion Command develop the experimental Gryphon hardshell wingsuit from the initial version 7 to the enhanced Gryphon-10 MK 4. Tiger makes a basejump from Slingshot, 80 klicks up, and finally, the team drops from LEO-Low Earth Orbit. Eventually, when the presidential front-runner is seized by pirates for ransom, Baily's 6-man SWIC team must hurtle around the world, staging critical re-entry for a rescue, challenged to solve life-or-death problems with only seconds to spare. Can they survive? Will they effect the rescue? Join Tiger Baily as he and his SWIC team work to perfect the Gryphon and then employ it in combat.

The Starchild Compact is an epic tale of beginnings, of roots, of what might have been, and what might be. The Starchild Compact is an adventure of heroic pro- portions, commencing on a planet 500 light years distant, arriving here just a few years from now, and ending up in the far distant expanses of the Universe. Jon Stock takes his exploration team to Saturn's moon, Iapetus, that Earth scientists have determined may be an artifact. Following launch, they discover Saeed Ismail, a Jihadist stowaway, who hopes to sabotage the mission. They arrive at Iapetus, determine it is a derelict starship, and eventually meet with the Founders, descendants of the starship builders. Their revelations impact the entire Solar System with momentous implications going backward and forward in time, paving the way for a joint push to the distant reaches of the Galaxy.

In Daedalus, Navy SEAL Derek "Tiger" Baily, irreverent member of the SEALS Winged Insertion Command (SWIC), makes a harrowing first base jump in the experimental Gryphon-7 hardshell wingsuit from the edge of Space. He test-flies the armor-plated Gryphon-10 in Daedalus LEO, catapulting into space by Slingshot and dropping from a record-obliterating 160 klicks. Testing the enhanced Gryphon-10 MK 4in Daedalus Squad, Baily's 6-man team believes it is fully prepared for hurtling around the world and staging critical re-entry, but challenged to innovate life-or-death solutions with only seconds to spare, it might not survive intact. Then the presidential front-runner is seized by pirates for ransom in Daedalus Combat, and the SWIC team is called to action where it must literally improvise on the fly with everything to lose. Join Tiger Baily through all four adventures in sci-fi master Robert G. Williscroft's Daedalus series, now collected for the first time as The Daedalus Files: SEALS Winged Insertion Command (SWIC).

In Daedalus, Navy SEAL Derek "Tiger" Baily, irreverent member of the SEALS Winged Insertion Command (SWIC), makes a harrowing first base jump in the experimental Gryphon-7 hardshell wingsuit from the edge of Space. He test-flies the armor-plated Gryphon-10 in Daedalus LEO, catapulting into space by Slingshotand dropping from a record-obliterating 160 klicks. Testing the enhanced Gryphon-10 MK 4 in Daedalus Squad, Baily's 6-man team believes it is fully prepared for hurtling around the world and staging critical re-entry, but challenged to innovate life-or-death solutions with only seconds to spare, it might not survive intact. Then the presidential front-runner is seized by pirates for ransom in Daedalus Combat, and the SWIC team is called to action where it must literally improvise on the fly with everything to lose. Join Tiger Baily through all four adventures in sci-fi master Robert G. Williscroft's Daedalus series, now collected for the first time as The Daedalus Files: SEALS Winged Insertion Command (SWIC).

They discover a Dyson Sphere under construction by microbots, but the bots are scavenging one part of the sphere to construct another. And where is the civilization that designed this massive project?"This is cutting edge, hard science fiction at its finest. This broad-minded, far-sweeping saga is both realistic and daring. The reader feels that yes, this is what the universe is like and what man's role in it will come to be." Professor John B. Rosenman, Norfolk State University.The starship Andromeda stops at the Keid triple-star system on its voyage of discovery and stumbles on a derelict Dyson Sphere. The starship is attacked by microbots scavenging one part of the sphere to repair another. They map the sphere and discover several primitive races inside-humanoid, feline, and saurian. They investigate the internal structure of the Dyson Sphere with its hundred-kilometer wide tubes filled with fast-moving magnetic fluid, and I-beams with hundred- kilometer wide plates and thirty-kilometer wide flanges that are one hundred meters thick. They eventually meet digital uploads of the race that built the sphere.Then the explorers discover that the Dyson Sphere's star is about to produce a superflare that could destroy all life inside the sphere and possibly even the Dyson Sphere itself. The explorers mount a major rescue effort to save the uploads and sapient races.

They discover a Dyson Sphere under construction by microbots, but the bots are scavenging one part of the sphere to construct another. And where is the civilization that designed this massive project?"This is cutting edge, hard science fiction at its finest. This broad-minded, far-sweeping saga is both realistic and daring. The reader feels that yes, this is what the universe is like and what man's role in it will come to be." Professor John B. Rosenman, Norfolk State University.The starship Andromeda stops at the Keid triple-star system on its voyage of discovery and stumbles on a derelict Dyson Sphere. The starship is attacked by microbots scavenging one part of the sphere to repair another. They map the sphere and discover several primitive races inside-humanoid, feline, and saurian. They investigate the internal structure of the Dyson Sphere with its hundred-kilometer wide tubes filled with fast-moving magnetic fluid, and I-beams with hundred- kilometer wide plates and thirty-kilometer wide flanges that are one hundred meters thick. They eventually meet digital uploads of the race that built the sphere.Then the explorers discover that the Dyson Sphere's star is about to produce a superflare that could destroy all life inside the sphere and possibly even the Dyson Sphere itself. The explorers mount a major rescue effort to save the uploads and sapient races.