Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm

by Doug Dandridge

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2: The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military and capture the civilians. And the humans find that their weapons will soon cease to function. So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they use it with a vengeance. Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods. And the other peoples of the planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an Ancient Prophecy. But will it be enough?

  Refuge: Doppelganger: Set thousands of years after the arrival, Kurt von Mannerheim, the Immortal Emperor of the Imperium of Free Nations, must give up everything to save his Empress, the Elfin Princess Gwenara Elysius von Mannerheim. The world is at a crisis point as the Evil Tarakesh Empire, under its Immortal Emperor Heinrich Stuppleheim, prepares to overrun the world with its Nazi Ideology. And Kurt must face a creature of legend that may prove too much for even his physical and mental abilities.

  Other Fantasy

  The Hunger: Abused wife, drug addict, prostitute; Lucinda Taylor had been victimized by men all her adult life. Left for dead by her pimp, Lucinda was turned by a passing vampire. When he is destroyed she becomes a free agent, slaking her hunger for blood on the bottom dwellers of society, the type of men who once victimized her. The crime boss of Tampa is her next target, and the City by the Bay is about to become a bloodbath. But can Lucinda avoid those who are hunting for her; the Priest, the FBI man, and a pair of Vampires who would like nothing better than to send one Avenging Vampire forever into the dark?

  Daemon: A Steampunk Fantasy. The world is dying, the victim of the magic used by society for the last three hundred years. Daemon Corporation thinks they have the answer, stealing the life from other worlds, bringing from other dimensions the intelligences that inhabit them for sacrifice on Earth. But something has come with them, a force that is killing the employees of Daemon Corp. It is up to Forensic Mage Detective Jude Parkinson to find a way to stop the unstoppable, while keeping the head of Daemon Corp from silencing him to keep the dark secrets of the company out of the public eye.

  Aura: Triplets are born on a world where the magical Aura decides the fate of its owner. Ariel is a girl with more than double the normal Aura, destined to become a mighty Priest or Mage. Aiden has a less than normal Aura, and is destined to be a soldier or laborer. While Arlen has no Aura at all, and is seen as an abomination in the eyes of the Church of Baalra the Dragon God, which has no power over those with Negative Auras. Fate will rip the siblings apart, then bring them back together as they battle to defeat the Dragon God and leave the Evil Empire, before Ariel is taken as the Avatar of Baalra, his mortal vessel on Earth.

  New Imagination Unlimited Newsletter

  Sign up for my free Newsletter at Mailchimp, for insights into my writing, future projects, promotions and new releases. The Newsletter will come out at least twice a month, and will always contain something new.

  Excerpt from We Are Death, Come For You.

  “It is time,” said the rough voice of the Arena Master.

  Darcy Suarez looked up at the reptilian face that glared at her from the open door. The Arena Master was old for his kind, among a people for whom old age was something undreamed of. At full height he might have come to the fifteen year old’s chest. Stooped as he was he came to just above her waist. If he had any fear of her greater size it did not show. The sharp claws on feet and hands, the ripping fangs of his mouth, indicated that his kind was superior to hers in other ways. Darcy shuddered as she thought of how she had seen a male in his prime rip one of the bigger humans in her party to shreds, to the satisfied roars of the crowd.

  “Am I to fight?” asked Darcy in the language of the Hsszat, her throat rasping as she tried to get out the proper words.

  “You are to watch, as always,” said the Arena Master, his head bobbing on his neck in a symbol of assent as his four green eyes looked into hers. “You are too valuable to us, Darcy, in other ways.”

  So I can interpret for you when you try to talk my people into surrender, thought the teenager, bobbing her head in mimicry of the reptilian. Even though I know what surrender will bring them.

  Darcy followed the Hsszat male through the winding corridors of the ship. Not laid out in any kind of order that the human could define, the ship was crowded with the aliens. The ship had a reptilian stench that she had grown used to, but could still distinguish on the edge of awareness. There were males and females of the various casts moving around, most heading for compartments where they could watch the scheduled spectacle. No elders. Elders didn’t live long in this society, where there was no medical care. Only the strong were to survive, to hold off death for the time they needed to serve him. No children or adolescents. They were kept separate from the general population, fighting among themselves, only the strong surviving to ascend to adulthood.

  The Arena Master continued on, waving his hand in the three fingered symbol of their God. He was considered one of the priests of the race’s awful religion, respected and honored for death’s love of his existence, living far beyond the pale of most.

  The arena opened at the far end of the corridor. Darcy always thought of it as the cleanest part of the ship. Refuse did not pile up here as it did in most of the rest of the huge vessel. The sand floor was kept sifted and cleansed, in honor of the God. As Darcy entered with the Arena Master the hundred thousand Hsszat in attendance jumped to their feet and let out a loud hiss, their equivalent of a cheer.

  She looked down on the floor and felt herself pale as she recognized the combatants for this day. Jeremy was her age, but big for any age. He faced Jayden, a big black man built like a gladiator. She had hoped it would be a match of Hsszat against man. At least then she would be able to silently cheer one of the combatants. In this battle one of her people was sure to die, and the thought sickened her.

  Darcy wished that she was someplace else. Anyplace but here, on this ship of nightmares. She thought back to the world she had once known, on the planet that was opening up to mankind. She had her parents, her brothers and sisters, in a large family such as sprung up on new colonies. There had been horses to ride, dogs to romp with, cats to play with while she lay in bed. Native animals to watch with wonder. All gone. She had seen the surface of the world after the Hsszat had finished with it. A lifeless cinder, without even the atmosphere to support new life. The humans had done nothing to provoke them. Nothing except to exist, to live and love and laugh. And for that, like all other forms of life in the Universe, they must die.

  “My brothers and sisters,” hissed the Arena Master in the sibilant language of the Hsszat. “Today, as on all days, we celebrate the beneficence of Grodassz, God of Death, who is joined in eternal battle with Frislatt, his demented brother God, who raised the infestation of life, and spoiled the awful bareness of the Universe.”

  The crowd rose to its feet, hissing roars coming from a hundred thousand throats. Darcy could visualize a thousand viewing compartments on this ship, each filled with tens of thousands more of the dinosauroid creatures. And in the other four ships of the fleet, millions more. All here to watch the blood sport that was the sacrifice to their God, and the center of their religious observances.

  “These beings stand before us,” said the Master, looking down into the arena where the two humans stood, panting in the heat. “They are examples of the evil of Frislatt, who seeks to place the infestation of life, the impure filth of biology, across the clean tapestry of the Universe. To these we say no.”

  The word rang out loudly in the arena as the hundred thousand throats took it up.

  “No,” yelled the Master again, pointing his finger at the humans. “We follow the will of Grodassz. To eliminate life, until there is none left in the Universe, at which time we will join the dead, and the cosmos will once again be devoid of life.”

  The crowd went wild, roars of Grodassz reverberating around the indoor stadium. Darcy wanted to put her hands over her ears, but refused to show her distress.
She looked out over the thousands of snouts pointed toward the dark representation of the God at the head of the arena. That God was very much in the form of the Hsszat, though of a solid black color that seemed to suck in light. Unlike the green, tan and orange coloration of the race.

  “Combatants,” yelled the Master to the two men below, who looked up at him with sweat beading down their bare skins. “On the signal you will fight. The winner will live for another day. The loser will not. Your best is expected. Anything less will result in the death of both.”

  The men nodded and raised their arms. Long triple claws of steel were strapped to those forearms. Steel claws were also strapped to their feet. They would fight with the representative weapons on the race.

  Darcy was again taken by the crude construction of those weapons. It matched the crude construction of the compartments of the ships. She wondered if they even had nanotech, the marvelous technology that made human construction so smooth and finished. She had asked that question once of the Arena Master. She bore the scar on her cheek of his reply, a clawed strike and a hiss of blasphemy. She never broached the subject again.

  “Attack,” yelled out the Arena Master, and both humans moved.

  Jeremy and Jayden both came forward, shuffling due to the foot claws. Both had fought in the arena before. Both had obviously been victors, or they wouldn’t have been here. Only one would leave today. The other would become food for the Hsszat, fed into their protein banks. The men circled while Darcy held her breath. Jeremy was of her age, about a year older. She hadn’t known him on the planet, but had talked with him on the ship. Jayden had been a friend of one of her uncle’s, well known to the family. He had been kind to her before the invasion, and doubly so after. She held her hand over her mouth, afraid to say anything. She wanted them both to live, and knew that would not be the outcome.

  Jeremy moved first, swinging a hand at Jayden. Jayden blocked the claws with his own and kicked clumsily at the boy. Jeremy arched back, but was caught on the thigh by one of the claws. Blood ran down his pant leg as he shuffled back, pain in his eyes. Jayden pursued, a grim look on his face. Darcy knew the man didn’t want to kill the youth, knew that it hurt his heart to do so. If he didn’t they would both die.

  Jeremy blocked strike after strike from Jayden. Mostly with his claws. A few times with his arms. Blood ran down his arms into the sands of the arena. Jayden pursued, a determined look showing that he wanted to end the torture to Jeremy. But Jeremy didn’t want to give up and fought back, hard.

  Jayden said something as he raked a foot claw down Jeremy’s leg, then grabbed the boy’s shoulder. Darcy could read the man’s lips. I’m sorry, he said, as he pushed his left hand claws into Jeremy’s stomach. Jeremy screamed and doubled over. Jayden brought the claws on his right hand up to Jeremy’s throat, slashing hard and deep. Blood spurted out, Jeremy’s eyes rolled up into his head, and the boy slid limply to the sand. Jayden stood over Jeremy, a look of anguish on his face.

  The guards entered the arena, long poles held at the ready. They attempted to herd Jayden away from the body on the sand and out of the arena. Jayden would have nothing of it. He slashed at the poles with his arm claws, howling like an animal. The man sliced himself on his own chest with the claws and smeared the blood on his face. The guards looked up at the Arena Master, who gave them a signal that sent them from the sands and back to their compartments under the stands.

  The Arena Master raised his hand in the air and traced out another signal. The crowd roared, and a large, muscular Hsszat, almost a meter and a half tall, stepped from a doorway under the stands. This being was unarmed, with the exception of his natural weapons, giving him at first glance the same armament as the human he faced. Of course, his armament was something he was used to carrying his entire life. Armament that didn’t hinder his movements in the least.

  Jayden looked up as the Hsszat entered the arena. His eyes changed as soon as he saw the other being, going from sad to angry in the space of a second. Anger turned to rage, and the big man walked toward the Hsszat warrior.

  The Hsszat took a trio of long steps toward the man, building speed and momentum, then jumped into the air, feet leading, long claws extended and pointed toward the man.

  Jayden swung at the left foot of the creature, putting all of his strength and fury into the strike. The Hsszat, seeing the strike coming, moved its leg up at the last second. Jayden’s blades cut superficially into the calf muscle of the big carnivore. The Hsszat hissed slightly, then drove both legs into the abdomen of the man. The dinosauroid straightened its body and ripped down, slicing through the stomach muscles of the man. Blood spurted and ran, and a thick coil of intestines spilled out of the wound. The intestines themselves ruptured open along cut lines, spilling their foul smelling contents onto the sand.

  Jayden’s eyes lost their fury as the man realized he was dead on his feet. He swayed for a moment, the Hsszat swaying its neck back and forth with him. The head then shot forward and rotated to the left, jaws opening wide. It took the larger man in the throat, teeth clamping down to sever the windpipe and open up the veins. Jayden jerked in the jaws for a moment, his hand slapping at the leathery snout, trying to loosen the grip. The man was dead an instant later, eyes rolling up to show whites as his knees buckled. The Hsszat warrior followed the man down to the ground, jaws locked, then released to let the body flop limply to the surface. The warrior stood, his mouth open, blood dripping from teeth. The warrior roared, a roar repeated by the crowd.

  “Death,” hissed the Arena Master, thumping his staff on the floor that sounded like a gong. “Death has visited the arena. Death has snuffed the life from two infested with it. Death is always the winner. To death we pledge our service, that he may more easily visit and release the infestation of life.”

  The crowded arena sounded with the repetition of the priest’s chant. Darcy wanted to cover her ears and hide her eyes. She had done so in the past, and had been forced by hard hands to watch and listen to it all. She shuddered as she looked down at the two bodies in the sand, surrounded by the wet patches that were their blood. She fought the shudder and stilled herself. It was no use showing any kind of emotion around these creatures. To do so only left one open to more hardship.

  “Your lessons await you,” said the Arena Master as the warriors and technicians flowed out of the arena. Another Hsszat was waiting when Darcy turned. Darcy looked down as soon as she glimpsed the old female, lest her hatred be seen as a challenge. Grozzit, thought Darcy, seeing the missing toes on the right foot.

  She followed the female out of the viewing platform and into the crowded and filthy corridors of the ship. She avoided looking at any of the passing Hsszat in the face. All were charged by the violence they had just witnessed. Any might respond to a straight look, especially from a creature they considered inferior, as a challenge to be met by immediate response. That such response would lead to their own death wouldn’t stop them. Sometimes the race reminded Darcy of a collection of preschoolers, reacting instead of acting.

  “Get on the machine, little one,” said Grozzit, bowing toward the computers sitting on the desks. This was a training area for the young, who would all be engaged in learning combat activities at this time.

  Darcy selected a machine that was familiar to her and logged in, using the circular boards that accepted the hand claws of the Hsszat. Her small fingers fit easily in the holes, and in a couple of seconds she had the computer up and running. The first half hour of the lesson was the language and customs of the Hsszat, her normal fare. The rest of the two hours consisted of Darcy answering questions as the screen showed her images of her old planet, information gleaned from the data banks of the world. Darcy answered the questions, knowing as she did that she was helping this enemy learn about her people. Tears rolled from her eyes as images of horses, herds of cattle, or fields of wheat shone across the screen. I will destroy you, she promised herself once more as she watched the world that no longer existed scroll be
fore her. No matter what it takes.

  After was another hour of learning of the Hsszat. She knew they planned to use her against her own people. She in turn learned all she could about the Hsszat, that she might be able to use it against them.

  Table of Contents

  “Take that,” yelled the Tactical Officer, getting lock on the now straight path missile. A laser sho...

  Dedication

  Books by Doug Dandridge

  Cast of CharactersThe CapitalGrand High Admiral Gabriel Len Lenkowski:

  Timeline

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  EpilogueCONUNDRUM SYSTEM, APRIL 18TH THROUGH 19TH

  About the Author

  Books by Doug DandridgeScience FictionThe Deep Dark Well TrilogyThe Deep Dark Well

  Excerpt from We Are Death, Come For You.