Джон Шеттлер - Nexus Deep

An exploration of St. Michael’s Cave at Gibraltar by Fairchild & Company leads to a hidden mystery beneath the Rock, and far to the east, the isolated atoll at Eniwetok receives some very unexpected visitors. The surprising developments set the destroyer Takami on a dangerous collision course with Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Gromyko, when the Russians set out to cleanse the timeline of all contamination, including their own! Events lead to a dramatic battle at sea that neither side ever expected.

Book 29, Stormtide Rising , covers the Allied forces campaign in Tunisia. The Germans conceive a bold new plan that sends Rommel west to the heartland of Tunisia where he confronts the American Army under General Patton. The Axis forces launch Operation Sturmflut (Stormtide) as the famous names etched in the original history at Kasserine, Faid, Gafsa and El Guettar will again see the rising tide of war.

At the same time, Hitler presses his daring invasion of Iraq and Syria in Operation Phoenix , while launching the cream of his airborne troops against the British outpost on Crete with a much belated Operation Merkur . As Guderian pushes into the heartland of Persia, Hitler sets his eyes on the richest prize in the world—all the oil the Reich will ever need to fuel the fires of war. Yet before Guderian can drive south, he must first secure his lines of communication. That necessity leads to a dramatic battle for the ancient capital city of Baghdad, with both sides risking all they have to rule the hour.

Meanwhile, Fedorov and Karpov face the grim reality of their situation and come to a decisive conclusion about how they must proceed.

In Book 30, Ironfall , the war continues in 1943, as Japan launches a bold new attack against the Fiji Islands that leads to a decisive battle off Yasawa. In Syria, Erwin Rommel unleashes a classic flanking attack towards Damascus with “Operation Eisenfall,” as the Allies attack Kesselring in Tunisia with Eisenhower’s “Operation Hammer.”

Then, as the German 11th and 17th Armies slowly grind down the last of Soviet resistance in the Caucasus, tensions reach a breaking point when they meet Volkov’s forces dug in west of Maykop. The Führer has ordered his legions to take and occupy that place, and Ivan Volkov chooses to stand his ground. The war in the east now threatens to spiral out of control, with new fighting erupting on every frontier when General Zhukov opens his Spring offensive in a massive attack towards Kharkov that now threatens to reshape the entire front.

Meanwhile, Elena Fairchild finally learns the fate of the men she sent into the hidden passage beneath St. Michael’s Cave, and also makes a surprising discovery that will give her the means to find and retrieve the key that was lost on the Battleship Rodney . As she plans her mission, Fedorov and Karpov arrange a meeting with Volsky and Gromyko to discuss their new plan to shatter this altered meridian by traveling to 1908.

In book 31, Nexus Deep , the Fairchild Group launches its mission to seek the key lost aboard Rodney , even as the Allies close the door on the war in North Africa with Operation Chariot. As the 5th Panzer Army dies in Tunisia, Hitler must now find a way to shore up Armeegruppe South while also finding divisions to guard the West.

Both sides now plan operations for the late Spring and early Summer. The Allies must decide whether to strike at Sardinia or Sicily in an attempt to topple the regime of Mussolini and knock Italy out of the war, while the Germans must choose from several operations in the south, Habicht, Panther and Zitadelle. The Soviets plan new offensives of their own that will prove, once and for all, that the tide of the war in the east is shifting.

Meanwhile, the work of Lord Elgin is strangely mirrored by the action of his son, the 8th Earl, and a seemingly small squabble on the China coast at Canton escalates into an event that has sinister implications for the quest Elena Fairchild has undertaken. Then, just as Fedorov and company begin to finalize their plans for the mission to 1908, Admiral Tovey makes a dramatic request.

Detailed information on the battles covered in each book, including battle maps, is available at www.writingshop.ws.

KIROV SERIES – SEASON 1: Kirov

1) Kirov

2) Cauldron of Fire

3) Pacific Storm

4) Men of War

5) Nine Days Falling

6) Fallen Angels

7) Devil’s Garden

8) Armageddon – Season 1 Finale

KIROV SERIES – SEASON 2: Altered States (1940–1941)

9) Altered States

10) Darkest Hour

11) Hinge of Fate

12) Three Kings

13) Grand Alliance

14) Hammer of God

15) Crescendo of Doom

16) Paradox Hour – Season 2 Finale

KIROV SERIES – SEASON 3: Doppelganger (1941–1942)

17) Doppelganger

18) Nemesis

19) Winter Storm

20) Tide of Fortune

21) Knight’s Move

22) Turning Point

23) Steel Reign

24) Second Front – Season 3 Finale

KIROV SERIES – SEASON 4: Tigers East (1942 – 1943)

25) Tigers East

26) Thor’s Anvil

27) 1943

28) Lions at Dawn

29) Stormtide Rising

30) Ironfall

31) Nexus Deep

32) Prime Meridian

More to come!

Award Winning Science Fiction:

Meridian – Meridian Series – Volume I

Nexus Point – Meridian Series – Volume II

Touchstone – Meridian Series – Volume III

Anvil of Fate – Meridian Series – Volume IV

Golem 7 – Meridian Series – Volume V

The Meridian series merges with the Kirov Series, beginning with Book 16, Paradox Hour, when the Meridian team discovers the catastrophic damage to the continuum created by the battlecruiser’s unexpected shift into the cauldron of WWII.

Classic Science Fiction:

Wild Zone – Dharman Series – Volume I

Mother Heart – Dharman Series – Volume II

Historical Fiction:

Taklamakan – Silk Road Series – Volume I

Khan Tengri – Silk Road Series – Volume II

A publication of: The Writing Shop Press

Nexus Deep, Copyright©2017, John A. Schettler

Much of this dialogue is paraphrased from Lord Nelson’s own letters.

The letter presented in this narrative was very much in accord with one that Manstein had written in the real history, recounted in his own record of these events in the volume “Lost Victories,” page 453, quoted here in part, with adaptations to account for the alternate history being presented in this volume.

In the real history, The Hermann Goring Division crossed the Straits of Messina on June 20, 1943. The Allies did not launch Husky until July 10.