He spun and painted the hallway in laser fire.
A single retaliatory shot sailed past his head, followed by the thud of a body hitting the floor.
He didn’t stop to check this one, because he was running out of time. If they didn’t already know, the noise would have alerted the principals that an intruder was running loose in their building. They’d come after him in force or, worse, accelerate their schedule and flee before he could detonate the bombs.
He tossed a bomb through an open door. One to go.
Richard: “Two guards ahead to your right, between you and the rear exit.”
He pressed himself against the wall and peeked around the next corner. The hall opened up into a small entryway, where two men stood, guns at the ready.
The distance between him and the targets was such that if they wore defensive shields, the initial fire might not take them out. Dammit, he shouldn’t have given up his other grenade to Mendoza.
He readied his blade…and kicked the wall.
A beat later one of the men rounded the corner. David knifed him in the gut and drove him forward, straight into his partner, who was advancing behind him. The three of them crashed into the opposite wall, all flailing limbs and waving weapons.
Richard: “You’ve got a third guard coming up behind you from the exit.”
David managed to wrench his blade up through the man’s stomach, and he quit struggling. Behind him, the second man’s gaze locked on David .
In one motion David let go of the blade, dropped the body between them, swept his Daemon up and fired into the man’s chest as the man’s gun arm swung around.
The man’s gaze went blank as he slid down the wall.
A thud resounded behind David, and he whirled around to the exit, weapon still raised.
Navick stood in the doorway behind another body crumpled on the floor, a Daemon resting at his side and two holos floating on either side of his face. He shrugged. “I decided I wasn’t doing much good acting as your eyes if I couldn’t see half the threats. Thought I should come help.”
David chuckled raggedly. “You thought right. Thanks.” He reached in his pocket, retrieved the last bomb and stuck it on the interior wall by the door. “Let’s get out of here and blow this place.”
“Music to my ears.”
They cleared the area beyond the exit and headed for their former vantage on the hill.
“Uh-oh. Tai and company are on the move. They’re coming our way, or the exit’s way.”
The enemy was about to slip the net. David glanced behind him. They’d covered thirty meters from the building. “Run.”
Navick didn’t hesitate, and they sprinted toward the outskirts of the compound. Three strides later, he sent the detonation signal.
The shockwave hit his back like a rocket-propelled furnace blast. Then he was airborne. Then the ground was above him. He tucked his body in and landed on his shoulder in a dreadful show of a combat roll.
After blinking woozily a few times, he painfully wrenched his neck up to survey the scene. The entire command center and several of the surrounding buildings were engulfed in flames, their façades breaking apart and collapsing into rubble. “Navick?”
“Over here.”
The pained response had come from his left; David pushed up onto his elbows and used his forearms to crawl over to his new friend. One of Navick’s pants legs smoldered, and a cut on his forehead seeped blood, but he looked okay, all things considered.
“You good?”
Navick waved a hand in David’s general direction. “I’m good. But it’s two beers.”
“What?”
“You owe me two beers.”
David nodded in weary agreement as the mission comm channel announced the arrival of the reinforcements. “Oh, and by the way? It’s nice to meet you.”
“What’s past is prologue”
— William Shakespeare
THE STORY OF AURORA HAS COME TO AN END,
BUT THE STORY OF AMARANTHE IS JUST BEGINNING
BOOK 1
EXIN EX MACHINA
( A MARANTHE ♦ 11)
AVAILABLE NOW IN EBOOK, PAPERBACK AND AUDIOBOOK
***
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A UTHOR’S N OTE
I published Starshine in March of 2014. In the back of the book I put a short note asking readers to consider leaving a review or talking about the book with their friends. Since that time I’ve had the unmitigated pleasure of watching my readers do exactly that, and there has never been a more wonderful and humbling experience in my life. There’s no way to properly thank you for that support, but know you changed my life and made my dreams a reality.
I’ll make the same request now. If you loved SHORT STORIES OF AURORA RHAPSODY , tell someone. If you bought the book on Amazon, consider leaving a review. If you downloaded the book off a website with Russian text in the margins and pictures of cartoon video game characters in the sidebar, consider recommending it to others.
As I’ve said before, reviews are the lifeblood of a book’s success, and there is no single thing that will sell a book better than word-of-mouth. My part of this deal is to write a book worth talking about—your part of the deal is to do the talking. If you all keep doing your bit, I get to write a lot more books for you.
This time I’m also going to make a second request. These stories were independently published, written by one person and worked on by a small team of colleagues. Right now there are thousands of writers out there chasing this same dream.
Go to Amazon and surf until you find an author you like the sound of. Take a small chance with a few dollars and a few hours of your time. In doing so, you may be changing those authors’ lives by giving visibility to people who until recently were shut out of publishing, but who have something they need to say. It’s a revolution, and it’s waiting on you.
Lastly, I love hearing from my readers. Seriously. Just like I don’t have a publisher or an agent, I don’t have “fans.” I have readers who buy and read my books, and friends who do that then reach out to me through email or social media. If you loved the book—or if you didn’t—let me know. The beauty of independent publishing is its simplicity: there’s the writer and the readers. Without any overhead, I can find out what I’m doing right and wrong directly from you, which is invaluable in making the next book better than this one. And the one after that. And the twenty after that.
Website: www.gsjennsen.com
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
G. S. JENNSEN lives in Colorado with her husband and two dogs. She has written thirteen novels and short story collections, all published by her imprint, Hypernova Publishing. She has become an internationally bestselling author since her first novel, Starshine , was published in March 2014. She has chosen to continue writing under an independent publishing model to ensure the integrity of her series and her ability to execute on the vision she’s had for them since their genesis.
While she has been a lawyer, a software engineer and an editor, she’s found the life of a full-time author preferable by several orders of magnitude .
When she isn’t writing, she’s gaming or working out or getting lost in the Colorado mountains that loom large outside the windows in her home. Or she’s dealing with a flooded basement, or standing in a line at Walmart reading the tabloid headlines and wondering who all of those people are. Or sitting on her back porch with a glass of wine, looking up at the stars, trying to figure out what could be up there.
Title Page
Contents Overview
/> Books by G. S. Jennsen
Timeline
Map
Introductory Note
Cover Art
RESTLESS I
SOLATIUM
APOGEE
RESTLESS II
VENATORIS
RE/GENESIS
MERIDIAN
Author’s Note
About the Author
Collection Blurb
Short Stories of Aurora Rhapsody Page 16