Storyline: by the year 2077, the US Mars program has had a functional self-sustained base on Mars for about 15 years. Cargo ships move back and forth with goods, a journey that takes just more than a year. Our hero is adventurous cargo pilot Guy Reisling. About this time, space science on Earth and star observatories conclude that a rather large asteroid will either hit the Earth, or come very, very close to a strike, in about five years. But our story is not about the meteor. The novel spans this five year period, during which time the Eastern Russian-Islamic/Ukrainian-Hindustan space program alliance on Earth, secretly launch their own ships to Mars, to take control of the US base there by force, and provide for themselves if and when the approaching asteroid actually causes significant Earth devastation. The US Mars base operations, with about 230 people who live and work there, are peaceful and scientific or research-oriented only. The base has no weapons or only very few, and functions year round in the hot and cold, very thin, almost non-existent Mars atmosphere, an airtight high-tech fortress at the feet of the towering Tharsis Montes mountains. Guy Reisling and his crew, Mars program director Lynn Rodgers-Smith, Mars-base commander Bojji-Than, and other colorful characters, have a year to prepare for the advancing Russian-Islamic ships, and then must somehow find a way to defend the base itself and residents, as the US Mars ships sent to save them, led by experienced space-pilot and Mars fleet commander Winton 'Kick' Berle, finally arrive months later. At the same time, international intrigue back home on Earth, creates an East-West conflict between the competing space-programs, and their considerable value to the future.
About the Author: Tom Luong has creative story credits/ownership and shares writing credits with Julian Phillips. Tom Luong is a Vietnamese American born in his native country just after the Vietnam War ended and raised mainly in California. Tom was born in November 11, 1976. His parents were refugees of the war and fled Communist Vietnam in the late 70's and was awarded sponsorship with a relative to live in Orange County in Southern California in late 1981. Like many Vietnamese that fled the Communism, his Dad (Mike Manh Van Luong born in 1949; Mom, Nancy Ngat Thi Le born 1954) was a POW during the war and this affected Tom in many ways. To understand about how his Dad felt during the war, Tom joined the US Army at one point and underwent basic training and was later deployed to South Korea. Tom later went to film school to hopefully make films someday about the war. After working with Julian Phillips on the first movie script, he expanded to writing books. Consequently, Outpost is the first book written by Julian Phillips for Tom Luong. Tom went to many colleges to gain a thorough understanding of the physical world and has a BS degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona in 2001. He completed film studies in 2008 and directed his first feature film "The Groundeds" in 2011. Tom is a futurist and likes to make movies about the future of Human existence.