by Bob Mayer
The tsunami pushed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, channeled between the shores and devastating them, but losing power. By the time it reached Everett, shielded by Whidbey and Camano Islands, where Nosferatu and Nekhbet were, it was barely ten feet high and they weren’t even aware it had struck.
But Tasha and her boyfriend had gone to the edge of Paine Field and watched the surge come ashore.
They knew what it meant.
A few second later the Earth rumbled and Nosferatu and Nekhbet were aware of that as the ground swayed under their feet. They waited several seconds but there were no aftershocks.
The tsunami spread north and south and west. Along the western North Pacific coast it lost power the further from ground zero, but it was still an incredibly powerful force.
A handful of human survivors, a fraction of those who’d been there before, were wiped out.
Three American nuclear submarines, lying silent and deep in the Pacific, were damaged but survived.
The tsunami would strike Hawaii, the other Pacific Islands and the east coast of Japan. All with diminished force but appreciable power.
The rumble of the initial explosion rippled through the Earth, particularly following the Ring of Fire around the Pacific.
For the time being there were no aftershocks, but the planet had sustained a powerful explosion at a vulnerable spot.
The future was uncertain.
THE FACILITY
Asha and Joseph watched the Core on the flexpad screen.
“It’s going to hit,” Joseph said. “Is the Swarm trying to destroy the sun?”
“I doubt it could,” Asha said. Then she understood. “The virus.”
They were both so mesmerized by what they were watching that they hadn’t noticed the change in the Facility. Joseph was the first. He walked over to the window and looked out. The Metabols were walking along the road toward the exit from the Facility. The inner door was open and some were already in the tunnel.
“Asha!”
She looked up from the flexpad. “What?”
“They’re going outside.”
Asha joined him. “Come. We must follow.”
“The virus?”
Asha shook her head. “Nosferatu says it has burned out. And the Swarm have left.”
They left the building and trailed the Metabols out of the Facility and down the tunnel.
THE FYNBAR
Turcotte watched the Swarm Battle Core race toward the sun. As large as the Core was, 6,000 miles in diameter and 4,000 polar, it was dwarfed by the sun, over 430,000 miles in diameter. The Core became a smaller and smaller black dot, that Turcotte could only glance at, even on the screen, every few seconds, given the sun’s brightness.
SWARM BATTLE CORE
Darlene ‘felt’ the heat even though she had no body left. She felt what the Core felt. The intense heat searing the outer, dead hull. Burning it away, inch by inch, then foot by foot, then yard by yard, faster and faster as the Core approached the blazing star.
There was not just a sense of the increasing heat, but also shock. That the Swarm had been defeated. Scale had never sacrificed itself so completely in order to battle the Swarm as had just happened.
The Core was disintegrating, layer by layer, at such a pace that that outer hull was breached well before impact was even close. The Core imploded, the pieces and parts vaporizing.
Not a single solid piece was left to impact with the surface of the sun.
OUTSIDE THE FACILITY
“She’s gone,” Sofia said. “We felt it. At the last moment we felt her.”
The Metabols were spread out in the valley. For some it had been years since they’d gone outside. The clouds were grey and threatening. A light drift of ash floated in the air, slowly settling.
Asha glanced at the flexpad. There was no sign of the Core. She folded it and put it in her pocket. Rex was scampering about, among the children, receiving many head rubs and hugs.
Sofia was looking around. “The Fades are out there. Moving away.”
“You can sense them?” Asha asked.
Sofia nodded. “In a way. They are grey objects in a grey world.” She turned to face Asha. “This is the end of the beginning. Everything will be different from here on out.”
PAINE FIELD, WASHINGTON
“If I can’t feed on them,” Nekhbet complained, indicating the two Russians, “what is your plan?”
Nosferatu indicated one of the airliners parked on the tarmac. “We have transportation. There will be survivors. More than just these two.” He put an arm around Nekhbet’s thin shoulders. “We will make do. Don’t you trust me, my love?”
THE FYNBAR
The Core was gone. The Swarm was defeated.
Turcotte slumped back in the pilot’s depression, all energy drained.
There was nothing coming from the implant. While the lack of pain was a relief, the nagging worry of what it was, who had put it in, and what it meant about him lingered. But he shoved that aside for now.
He looked out to the stars. How long would it take one of the Swarm warships or scouts to make contact with another Core? If they made contact at all, given the random nature of Core movements?
Where was the mothership? Were they safe?
He wearily turned the Fynbar toward the planet.
He could see the dark smear of ash covering most of the planet. How would that affect the climate? Of course, humans had been doing a number on the climate for a long time anyway. Would the lack of industry and cars and planes and all the rest offset the cloud cover? That was a question for the scientists; if there were any left.
How many were left alive on Earth? Asha and the Metabols. Who else? Surely some submarine crews. Some survivalists in the middle of nowhere? Turcotte had no idea how thorough the reaping had been. Pile on top of that the Danse and the odds were downright lousy.
But out of over seven billion people there had to be some. And that would be enough to start over.
Start what, though?
Turcotte laughed out loud. He could imagine what Yakov would say to his dark musing—he was being just like a Russian. So true.
The reality was that they had just pulled off the impossible: defeated a Swarm Battle Core.
That was enough.
Turcotte headed into the atmosphere.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The remaining Swarm warships and scout ships were vectoring toward interstellar space in a seemingly random pattern, each one on its own. They faced an interminable journey at sub-light speed in interstellar space.
But they all shared one thing. A message about this solar system to relay to any Swarm Battle Core they came across. The message was simple. It consisted of a star location and a warning:
Beware this place. Here there be humans.
THE END
THE STORY
(AS FAR AS WE KNOW, SO FAR)
Aliens, called Airlia, came to this solar system over 10,000 years ago. They established their headquarters on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean called Atlantis. They were an outpost in their ongoing war against a species known as the Ancient Enemy, or more concisely, the Swarm.
The leader at Atlantis was Aspasia. After time passed, he felt secure from the interstellar war and stopped reporting to the Empire. A force was sent, led by Artad, to determine what had happened. In the meanwhile, two humans from another Airlia colony, Donnchadh (who would be known as Duncan) and Gwalcmai, where the people had instigated a successful revolt against their Airlia overlords, arrived on board a small spacecraft, the Fynbar, after being dropped outside the Solar System by a commandeered mothership. They helped sow the seeds of a Civil War between Artad and Aspasia.
Atlantis was destroyed and Aspasia and his followers were banished to a base on Mars. Artad established his base at Qian-Ling in China where he ruled as the first Emperor. Other of his followers established the First Dynasty in Egypt, where Airlia ruled over men. During that reign, half-breeds, the spawn of Airlia and
human consorts, were born. These became known in human legend as the Undead.
A covert civil war was fought through the ages by various agents of both sides, both humans and otherwise, until it exploded into World War III when an attempt was made by corrupted humans to fly Artad’s mothership, hidden at Area 51. The details of all of this are in prior books, with Book 1 in the series covering the attempt to fly that mothership and why it had to be stopped at all cost, because engaging an FTLT drive would draw the attention of the Ancient Enemy.
Humans succeeded in defeating both Artad, Aspasia and their corrupt followers, but that didn’t end World War III. Rather than coming together, various nations and factions fought each other. The leaders of the revolt against the aliens, a Special Forces soldier, Mike Turcotte, and Lisa Duncan (as Donnchadh was now known) were forced to destroy the last attempt by surviving Airlia on Mars to finish a FTL transmitter to contact the Airlia Empire and summon help. In doing so, Duncan sacrificed herself by crashing Artad’s mothership into the array.
(A lot of other stuff happened over the course of nine books, such as King Arthur, the Great Wall of China, Jack the Ripper, ancient Egypt, an attempt at a second Black Death, etc. etc. but you get the drift).
When Atlantis fell, Duncan and her mate founded a small group of humans called Watchers. Their mission was to keep tabs on the Airlia and their minions throughout the ages. To watch and wait. A splinter segment of Watchers broke off led by the man known in legend as Merlin: the Myrddin. This group was determined to do more than watch. They believed their mission was to insure the survival of mankind. In the previous book, Redemption, Turcotte and his team, tried to determine what the Myrddin were up to.
The leader of the Myrddin, Mrs. Parrish, had established the Facility, a self-sustaining, underground eco-system, where they kept the Chosen: 5,000 children, who were destined to be the future of mankind. Even before World War III and the overthrow of the Airlia, the Myrddin had determined that Earth was doomed, whether by climate change, disease, nuclear war, the Airlia, the possible arrival of the Swarm—in sum, the odds were against sustainability. The plan was to seize the damaged mothership in orbit, repair it, load the Chosen, and then wipe out mankind with a combination of three potent viruses: the Danse.
The plan was well underway when one of those factors arrived at the edge of the Solar System: a Swarm Battle Core came out of FTLT.
As the Core traversed the Solar System, a desperate race emerged for the future of mankind. Turcotte and his team managed to get some people on board the mothership; Nosferatu, one of the undead, and his partner Nekhbet, joined forces with them and came upon the means by which the Myrddin planned to disperse the Danse around the world; and a woman claiming to be Nikola Tesla’s granddaughter also joined with them and helped move a group of apparent cast-offs from the Chosen—the Metabols—into the Facility, once the Chosen were on board the mothership.
And that is where we stand now as the Swarm Battle Core finally arrives at Earth orbit.
Author Information; Excerpt; Copyright
For a summary of the series so far, go to after Author and book information.
This book is also available in audiobook at Audible HERE
The next book in the Area 51 saga will be published late 2018:
AREA 51: INTERSTELLAR
Information follows author and book information.
The Area 51 saga in order:
Area 51
Area 51: Reply
Area 51: Mission
Area 51: Sphinx
Area 51: Grail
Area 51: Excalibur
Area 51: Truth
For the story of Lisa Duncan and her mate, Gwalcmai, read Area 51: Legend.
For the story of Nosferatu, Nekhbet, Vampyr and the other half-breeds from the First Age of Egypt, read Area 51: Nosferatu.
Area 51: Redemption
Area 51: Invasion
Area 51: Interstellar
An excerpt from the bestselling series Atlantis, which Terry Brooks has labeled “Spellbinding” follows author and book information.
For free eBooks, short stories and audio short stories, please go to http://bobmayer.com/freebies/
Thanks to Beta Reader: Robert Miller
About the Author
Thanks for the read!
If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review. Cool Gus likes them as much as he likes squirrels!
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Bob is a NY Times Bestselling author, graduate of West Point, former Green Beret and the feeder of two Yellow Labs, most famously Cool Gus. He's had over 70 books published including the #1 series Area 51, Atlantis, Time Patrol and The Green Berets. Born in the Bronx, having traveled the world (usually not tourist spots), he now lives peacefully with his wife, and labs. He’s training his two grandsons to be leaders of the Resistance Against The Machines.
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ALL SERIES
THE CELLAR SERIES:
1. BODYGUARD OF LIES
2. LOST GIRLS
NIGHSTALKERS SERIES:
1. NIGHTSTALKERS
2. BOOK OF TRUTHS
3. THE RIFT
The fourth book in the Nightstalker book is the team becoming the Time Patrol, thus it’s labeled book 4 in that series but it’s actually book 1 in the Time Patrol series.
TIME PATROL SERIES:
THE GREEN BERETS SERIES:
THE DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY SERIES:
AREA 51 SERIES:
ATLANTIS SERIES:
THE SHADOW WARRIORS:
(these books are all stand-alone and don’t need to be read in order)
THE PRESIDENTIAL SERIES:
THE BURNERS SERIES:
THE PSYCHIC WARRIOR SERIES
STAND ALONE BOOKS:
THE ROCK
I, JUDAS THE 5TH GOSPEL
COLLABORATIONS WITH JENNIFER CRUSIE
DON’T LOOK DOWN
AGNES AND THE HITMAN
WILD RIDE
NON-FICTION:
PREPARE NOW—SURVIVE LATER
SURVIVE NOW—THRIVE LATER
SHIT DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN I: THE GIFT OF FAILURE
SHIT DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN II: THE GIFT OF FAILURE
THE COMPLETE WRITER BUNDLE
THE NOVEL WRITERS TOOLKIT
WRITE IT FORWARD
102 SOLUTIONS TO COMMON WRITING MISTAKES
THE WRITER’S CONFERENCE GUIDE (free)
WHO DARES WIN
S
All my novels and series are listed in order, with links here:
www.bobmayer.com/fiction/
My nonfiction, including my two companion books for preparation and survival is listed at
www.bobmayer.com/nonfiction/
Thank you!
EXCERPT FROM ATLANTIS
ANGKOR KOL KER: THE DROUGHT AD 800
It was well into the first month of the wet season but not a drop of rain had fallen. Concern in the first week had turned to fear by the fourth week. As the water level of the deep moat fell, so did the will of the occupants of the capitol city. Anxiety was spreading like a sickness from person to person and mother to babe.
The city had taken the people over five hundred years to build. Within its watery protection lay all their wealth, memories and the graves of ten generations of their ancestors. It was the most advanced and beautiful city on the face of the planet.
Thousands of miles to the west, Charlemagne was being crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the Eternal City, but this place deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia dwarfed even Rome in comparison. It was the center of a kingdom extending south to about the Srivijayan Empire of Sumatra and the Shailandra Empire of Java. To the northeast, the Tang Dynasty of China ruled, while to the west, in the Middle East, the tide of Islam was rising. The capitol city of Angkor Kol Ker, the heart of the Khmer empire, held architecture the likes of which Europe would not see for half a century. But within the empire lay a Shadow--a dark place, which closed off all travel toward India and the world beyond.