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 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).

Williscroft’s usual attention to technical detail and firsthand experience with military ops pays off in these wild tales set in the world of his Slingshot, about the first wingsuit jump from a launch loop, then from LEO, followed by a squad of jumpers, and finally, their jump into live combat. The idea of jumping from orbit using little more than a spacesuit and a re-entry pack goes back at least to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, and I’ve used it myself, but Williscroft puts a new twist on it as Navy SEAL “Tiger” Baily makes the jump first from 80 km and then LEO. Another fun ride, if your idea of fun includes death-defying action. The test and training runs are over; now it’s time for the SWIC to see real action. . . .

— Alastair Mayer
Author of The T-Space Series

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