clifford vanmeter

Space Opera in the grand tradition, featuring Geos Ah'rion Rassas rel Pen'atha, the half-breed man tracker and Federation marshal known as Orion the Hunter. This series takes place hundreds of years in mankind's future, in a time just after a great interplanetary war. The Federation is in its infancy, a product of the fragile peace that came out of the bloodshed and barbarism of the decade previous. Orion is among an elite force tasked with hunting criminals across the gulf of space and bringing to justice the smugglers, black-marketeers, and other war criminals still running wild on the fringe worlds. Scarred and deeply flawed, Orion is a product of the war, growing to manhood in the filth and degradation of an internment camp. His alien family casualties of the war. His human family unknown.

Season One contains five complete space opera short stories:

• Why the Weirwan? - A pulse-pounding murder mystery aboard an isolated and remote outpost.
• Whiteout - Orion crashes on a distant ice world and must tend his injuries partner, fight off deadly ice worms, and still pursue the criminals whose escape brought them here.
• Danni & the Pirates - Danni and Orion separate to pursue Enoch Ranier, one of the most wanted war criminals in the Federation. While on her own, Danni finds herself trapped aboard a high-jacked freighter fighting for her life.
• Into the Woods - With Danni's fate unknown to him, Orion pursues the arrest of Enoch Ranier and is pursued himself through the deadly forest of a world settled by religious fanatics. Hunted to the point of exhaustion, can one marshal defeat a posse determined to seek his death and the freedom of their beloved religious leader at all costs?
• Scars - Enoch Ranier is finally coming to trial for his crimes, but a deadly religious militia targets Orion and a key witness. Will they survive long enough to see justice done?

Orion's adventures take him across many worlds and put him face to face with the worst of humanity and its alien allies. The wounds of war are still seeping, the racism and bigotry are still raw, but Orion is one of the beacons of hope despite his personal darkness. These stories are post-dystopian, set in a Federation determined to build a better future. They are stories in the classic space opera tradition of Leigh Brackett, John Scalzi, and E.E. "Doc" Smith.