Seppukarian_NEW WORLD DISORDER
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SYNDICATE WARS: FIRST STRIKE (co-authored with Justin Sloan and Kyle Noe)
SYNDICATE WARS: THE RESISTANCE
SYNDICATE WARS: FAULT LINE
SYNDICATE WARS: FALSE DAWN
SYNDICATE WARS: EMPIRE RISING
SHIFTING VISIONS: A MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION ANTHOLOGY
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Horror:
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AMITYVILLE: ORIGINS (Book 1 of 2)
AMITYVILLE: REVENANTS (Book 2 of 2)
FAMILIARS
RAZORBACKS I
RAZORBACKS II
RAZORBACKS III
THE DEVIL’S ARK
VERTICAL CITY: A ZOMBIE THRILLER (Books 1-4)
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Thrillers:
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ABSOLUTION: BLOOD RUNNERS (Book 1 of 3)
DESIGNATED SURVIVORS: BLOOD RUNNERS (Book 2 of 3)
REQUIEM: BLOOD RUNNERS (Book 3 of 3)
About George
George S. Mahaffey Jr. is a lawyer (don’t hold that against him), WGA screenwriter, and author. His script HEATSEEKERS was bought by Paramount Pictures with Michael Bay producing and Timur Bekmambetov directing. In addition, he’s sold or written scripts for Arnold Kopelson, Jason Blum, Benderspink, Sony, Fox, directors Louis Leterrier and Paul McGuigan, and is the creator of IN THE DUST, an action-horror graphic novel in the vein of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT to be published by Top Cow with art by Christian Duce. He has also written a bunch of horror books: RAZORBACKS II, RAZORBACKS III, FAMILIARS, THE PACT, the 4-part zombie thriller series VERTICAL CITY: A ZOMBIE THRILLER, the three-part post-apocalyptic thriller series BLOOD RUNNERS, AMITYVILLE: ORIGINS, AMITYVILLE: REVENANTS, is co-author of the five books in the best-selling, sci-fi series SYNDICATE WARS, with Justin Sloan and Kyle Noe.
World Of Hurt
Mech Command – Book 2
By George S. Mahaffey Jr.
BOOK 2 SAMPLE CHAPTER
The sun dropped like burning gold over the horizon as Jezzy and I barreled out of the hangar in our mech against the echo of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” Twilight was near and against the backdrop of the dying sun I watched an alien glider, a long cylindrical, silver-hulled craft studded with slats and stabilizers, slice through the sky.
My view viewscreen showed the outline of drones and several dozen alien soldiers landing at various points inside The Hermitage’s fence. Now you may be wondering what I was thinking about at that moment that I spied the aliens attacking The Hermitage.
Adult diapers.
Seriously, that’s what I was thinking about because I was damned sure I was gonna lose control over my bowels. But then I sucked in a breath and as the AC/DC song was ending, I flashed back to the first day of the original invasion. I’d been at home at our crappy little townhouse on William Lane, watching cartoons when the power winked out and a strange sound began to build. Strolling outside, I closed my eyes and listened to something that sounded like bees buzzing in a hive. The kind of sound that seems to be made up of a hundred little sounds. That’s what happens when hundreds of people are screaming at once, running down your street, telling you to take shelter. I walked outside and saw an alien glider hovering over my neighborhood and I swear to you, for whatever reason, I was not scared.
A feeling of … serenity washed over me, the very same sensation I was experiencing at The Hermitage. Instinctively, I knew, watching the scuds land and scurry across the campus, that I was at exactly the right place and the right time. My vision seemed clearer, colors brighter (even in the semi-darkness), and sounds more distinct. I quickly zoomed in on the enemy soldiers and saw that they were wearing the blood-red armor of the Syndicate, the alien empire whose reign of terror was supposedly over.
“What the hell?!” Jezzy shouted, seeing the same thing. “I thought we beat those guys?!”
“I guess they couldn’t quit us,” I replied.
“Back for sloppy seconds.”
I throttled our engine and the Spence mech lurched forward, stalking across the grass as terrified campus workers fled past us. I listened to the sound of the pistons and gears on our mech popping, creating a kind of rhythm that I began grooving to.
The other operators were already on the attack, blasting away at the alien soldiers and a cluster of enemy drones, mechanized fighting machines, some of which were as large and fearsome as our own.
“TALK TO ME, JEZZY!”
“WE’VE GOT ECHOES ALL AROUND!”
“IN ENGLISH!”
“BAD GUYS, YOU DING DONG! WE’VE GOT LOTS OF BAD GUYS MOVING IN TO SURROUND US!”
My eyes dropped back to the viewscreen. There looked to be about thirty or forty alien soldiers spread out just ahead, five battle mechs, and the enemy glider I mentioned before which was doing a lazy loop overhead. Basically, the bad guys had enough hardware to keep us and the other operators busy for quite a while. Lovely.
I mentally plotted a path forward when a pair of alien soldiers appeared over the faraway slope that led to the training range.
“What’s the possibility that this is another test?” I said to Jezzy, studying the two enemy soldiers. “Y’know, another simulation.”
“This is not a simulation,” she said.
“My gut tells me that it is.”
“Are you really this stupid?”
“You’d be surprised how stupid I am,” I said.
One of the alien soldiers whipped out a rocket launcher and fired it. I watched the smoke trail at the back of the rocket as it scythed up and then came down at a hard angle—
BOOM!
Detonating close enough to knock our mech to the ground. I looked back at Jezzy who frowned. “Still think it’s a simulation, smart guy?”
“Sorry,” I said.
“Why is it that nobody ever listens to me?”
“That’s the curse of being a devastatingly beautiful woman.”
She groaned and I powered the mech back up into an upright position. I thumped the controls and juiced the engine as Jezzy fired at the aliens. She gunned down one of them, but the other scud was fast. The sucker moved like a halfback, dodging our fire while pulling out what looked like a grenade. The alien flung the grenade toward us when—
Another form lurched into view.
It was Simeon!
He heaved himself forward in his shimmering, stainless steel mech. “HOW ‘BOUT YOU LET THE BIG BOYS DO THE FIGHTING?” he said over the commlink.
I watched Simeon effortlessly throw one of his machine’s metal hands out—
CRACK!
Hitting the alien grenade like a baseball bat, sending it back toward the enemy soldier where it airburst, turning the scud into bone-confetti.
Simeon turned back to us. “You taking notes, Deus?”
“We could’ve done that!” I shouted.
“But you didn’t!”
“You didn’t give us a chance!” I screamed, but Simeon was already on the run. We followed after him as he rounded the corner of an outbuilding, blasting through ribbons of smoke from several small explosions and—
BAROOM!
The side of the outbuilding exploded to reveal two alien Reaper mechs. The alien fighting machines resembled battle tanks grafted onto pairs of heavy piston-like legs. Blood red fangs had been painted on the fronts of the turrets, in between the heavy chain guns and dual rocket pods that swiveled in their housings, bolted onto the machine’s bulky arms. Above the weapons were two bubbletops, one on the front of the machine and another on the back where a pair of alien controllers sat.
I swapped looks with the flight controllers and then Simeon charged one of the mechs, so we bum-rushed the other one—
WHAM!
Hammering into the machine before it could get a shot off, knocking it back into the outbuilding.
The enemy mech crashed through the building’s drywall and metal studs, spinning to the ground. Then it forced itself over like a toppled turtle and commenced firing on us.
“INCOMING!” Jezzy shouted.
I toggled the mech’s controls, dancing between the incoming fire, just as I’d done during the various training sessions. A few of the energized rounds from the alien mech whacked our turret as we dove to the right, taking cover behind a mound of debris.
Visibility was shitty in the outbuilding, so we maneuvered according to the viewscreen. I could see the other mech searching for us and so we slithered beyond the pile of debris and a fallen girder. I glanced up and spotted a door.
“We’re too big to fit through that,” I said.
“So let’s make our own door,” Jezzy replied.
“It’s gonna be pretty expensive if we damage this building.”
“They can bill me!” Jezzy shouted.
I squared our mech’s metal shoulders and decided it was indeed time to make our own doors.
BOOM!
We barnstormed through several walls, fell to our metal knees and turned just as—
BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions buffeted us. The other mech was unleashing a volley of rockets. The Spence mech rose and focused on the incoming fire, expertly dipping to the left or juking to the right, managing to evade every rocket the mech fired. Looking back, I figure my ability to do this, to slip down into a “zone” of sorts at just the right moment was because of everything I’d endured before and after the invasion. You have to remember that for many years as a child we were flat broke and constantly moving around. The point is, when the aliens came I was already used to the bottom falling out. I was familiar with struggling and confronting adversity and so the fight against the attacking aliens just seemed like another hurdle (an admittedly greater one) to overcome. I guess you could say, I’d been preparing for something like that fight on the campus for most of my life.
We dove out of the way of the last rocket and crabbed back and around until we’d flanked the attacking mech which was still searching for us.
“OVER HERE, JACKASS!” I shouted through the mech’s bullhorn.
The enemy machine looked up and Jezzy fired four rockets into it.
The mech deflected all but one of the rockets. The final one slammed into the area just below its turret, severing a ligament that appeared to control its forward movement.
Machine oil jetted in thick, ropy spurts.
The enemy mech made a rasping sound as it wheeled spastically, marshalling its energy in an effort to pivot and fire at us. One of the rounds from its cannons thwacked off our cockpit. That annoyed the hell out of me for some reason and so I lowered our mechanical shoulder and shot forward, going airborne—
WHAM!
Drop-kicking the other mech!
Our machine’s metal feet bounced off the alien mech’s turret.
Our mech went one way and the enemy mech went another, slamming to the ground and spinning sideways. Little wisps of smoke rose from the stricken mech.
We rose before the other mech could and I rotated the mech’s mechanical arms for a kill shot. I could see the beady eye on the two alien navigators go wide and then Jezzy emptied our cannons into the enemy’s bubbletops, shattering the canopy, shredding the navigators. We paused as sparks flew, the mech sputtered, and then went up in flames.
“Danny?”
I looked back at Jezzy. “Seriously, what the hell is going on? I thought we beat the Syndicate. I thought the aliens surrendered?”
“We did,” I said.
“Um, then why are we fighting them again?”
What an excellent question! Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good answer. Instead of responding, I forced a smile and threw the mech into gear. We rumbled forward, back out of the hole we’d made in the outbuilding’s exterior wall.
The sun was gone and darkness had shrouded the land. Even though we had night-vision capabilities, I wasn’t familiar with fighting in the shadows and so it took me four or five seconds to adjust to the suffocating blackness.
We took several steps and the murkiness was split by red flares that shrieked up into the sky. I couldn’t tell who was firing them, but the flares burst overhead like fireworks, casting everything in an eerie red light. Simeon was nowhere to be seen, but the mech he’d attacked was lying on the ground, smoking, ripped in half like an old beer can.
We stomped to the right and spotted the other operators clustered on a knoll. They were under attack by the remaining Reaper mechs and alien soldiers, including reinforcements who were being dropped down from the glider.
Powering up the viewscreen, I zoomed in on the glider, watching dozens of alien soldiers riding metal leaders down to the ground.
“You seeing this?” Jezzy asked.
I nodded. It just so happened that my teddy bear was at my feet so I picked him up and manipulated his arms, miming my best, bear voice. “What should we do, Miss Jezmyn?”
I caught Jezzy’s flinty-eyed stare in a reflection of the cockpit glass, and I knew that meant one thing. It was go time again. “It’s time do what we do best,” she replied. “Bring the noise.”
What Next?
Don’t miss the other books in the Seppukarian Universe! And find the timeline map here.
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Want a FREE Mech Book? Grab it here by joining my personal newsletter.
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For the Seppukarian Universe newsletter, join here or head over to www.justinsloanauthor.com/seppukarian and join the generic newsletter there.
Either way, you’ll get a FREE BOOK!
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This book is part of the Seppukarian Universe, though it stands on its own. If you would like to check out the other spinoff series, as listed in the SHIFTING DIMENSIONS anthology.
Marines think outside the box, but what happens when they think outside the known universe and time itself?
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Whisked away through time loops that distort reality, a group of Space Marines explore different worlds and shifting dimensions as they combat an alien invasion. The edge-of-your-seat adventures in these alternative realities form the backbone of this anthology, which is full of exciting stories from debut and best-selling authors in the science fiction genre. Come aboard and experience exhilarating battles against mechs, drones, alien warriors with biotech armor, and tales of future combat that will blow your mind.
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Featuring a Foreword by Nick Cole
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Featured Authors:
L.O. Addison
George S. Mahaffey Jr.
Kyle Noe
Gentry Race
Justin Sloan
Jonathan Yanez
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You can find Shadow Corps available online today:
Death isn’t so bad if it means saving the universe.
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Fending for herself in the cauldron of a planet torn apart by an alien invasion taught Samantha how to kill. Ruthlessly efficient, her abilities have caught the attention of the Shadow Corps.
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A group comprised of deadly warriors who focus on galactic safety, using any means necessary.
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A battle-hardened warlord causing you trouble? The Shadow Corps will ruin their day.
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Her first mission puts her team up against a space dragon, death reapers, and the ultimate sorcerer.
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Samantha had better learn to master her alien magic, or be forced to watch her world, and many others, burn.
Grab it on Amazon
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And you can now get Jonathan Yanez’ spinoff series!
Because the universe can’t save itself.
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When others run from danger, Riot runs toward it.
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When others throw up, she throws down.
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And when there’s a brawl in a bar, well … she’s probably the one who caused it.
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But now, the person voted least likely not to blow stuff up by her unit has been given another mission: explore the univer
se and forge bonds with new alien races in order to save earth from another invasion.
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Backed by her ride or die crew - the only guys she’d trust on a mission such as this - and a scientist, because, well, science, Riot blasts off in a spaceship headed to distant galaxies, the fate of the planet resting on her shoulders.
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Bring the thunder is a fantastical space marine adventure with rollercoaster-like action and the kind of snarky humor you’ve come to love in movies like guardians of the galaxy.
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If you like the whiplash action of The Ember War and the ridiculousness of We Are Legion (We Are Bob), then you’ll be obsessed with the War Wolves series.
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Get your copy today to blast off to non-stop fun and war-games.
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You can check out the Syndicate Wars books, if you want the backstory for these spinoffs and this anthology. They are like the prequels—you don’t have to read them, but might have fun if you do. And the first three came from Podium in an Audiobook boxset, narrated by Allyson Johnson!
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Grab it on Amazon
Get the Audiobook free with an Audible Trial