In the speed boosted time dilation, Bodybag’s finger slid slowly back on the trigger.
“Then let’s turn it up!” DaemonS sprang her energy shield up a moment before the rocket fired. The blast detonated point-blank on the blue hemisphere and all of the energy was redirected back into Bodybag. The compact woman took the force square in the chest and was blown backward.
DaemonS sprang to her feet, unloading two flaknel bursts into her former teammate. The body splattered across the floor in a large red mess.
A dozen seconds later Bodybag’s voice returned to the comm, “Nice to ‘ave ya back ‘oman. Now we can really play.”
“Bring it on!” she answered. Blood raced through her veins and adrenaline flooded her body. It was great to be alive. She was playing the game she loved, and once again it was just a game.
End Credits
Writing
Edwin H Rydberg
Character Design
Edwin H Rydberg
Story Inspiration
FPS video games
Author Clothes
My darling wife
Sci-Fi Discussions
My amazing daughter
Writing Support
The Yorkshire Novelists
Promotional Support
Promoting Yorkshire Authors
Interior Formatting
Quantum Dot Press
Cover Design
Lightspeed Dreams
Inspirational Music
Live to Win / Paul Stanley
Run This Raid (Run this town parody) / College Humor!
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark / Fall Out Boys
I Will Not Bow / Breaking Benjamin
Game On / Waka Flocka Flame (feat. Good Charlotte)
Nothing Can Stop Me Now / Mark Holman
Castle On The Hill / Ed Sheeran
Till I Collapse / Eminem
Human / Rag’n’Bone Man
Fade in to the depths of space.
Somewhere on the edge of the galaxy, a small barren world is visible in the distance, orbiting a brown dwarf star.
Stars slide across our view until we see a strange pod that has lain dormant for eons. It is awakening. Its obsidian surface, glowing with unfamiliar alien markings, splits and breaks open, the casing drifting away on the solar wind.
The entity within is of an unusual nature. Neither organic, nor technological, nor entirely existing within the framework of known physics, it begins to grow. Like a seed putting out roots, the object expands, digging into the lattice of local time-space, breaking through the bonds that separate dimensions. Rapidly its girth and depth increase until it has claimed its domain and locked into its territory.
Where once there was little more than the sparse matrix of deep space, there now resides an immense alien ring. At its center is a gaping tunnel into someplace not of this universe.
We zoom back from the extraordinary sight as if watching with concern. Indeed, the event does not go entirely unnoticed. The only being capable of its observation prepares for war.
About the Author
Edwin H Rydberg has had his head in space ever since he saw the original Star Wars movie in the cinema as an impressionable eight year old.
For a while he thought he might like to build giant robots.
Or travel into space.
Or unravel the secrets of life.
But he’s found that writing science fiction allows him to do all three.
Edwin can be found at AlternateFutures.co.uk, PromotingYorkshireAuthors.com or in various writing groups.
Thank you for reading
If you liked Game, Set, Deathmatch, please leave a review on Amazon or your favorite book distributor and why not tell a friend? Also, be sure to watch for Emergent Sea, the next stand-alone book in the Dreams of Mortality series.
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