by Scott Moon
Dog grunted. Leaning on his battered riffle, he struggled forward. His thick but lanky arms and broad frame looked like a poorly constructed mock-up of a human scheduled to be built before funding for the project expired. Back hunched, eyes losing focus, he ignored what the others were staring at and descended a trail into dense wilderness. “Jojo left a trail. Probably on purpose. He wouldn’t abandon us here.”
Dwarf stared, still too angry to talk about their friend’s disappearance during the hardest fighting.
“I’ll go after him,” Rickson said.
“We all go or no one goes,” Kin said. He checked his weapons, finding one bullet in one pistol to accompany his sword. “That’s the best way to stay alive on this planet.”
“LOTTERY or death!” Dog shouted.
Silence gripped the crowd.
“Most of you sorry heaps of Reaper dung wouldn’t be able to function away from this planet. The first time you gathered up your urine and feces for reclamation, the residents of a more civilized world would send you to a mental hospital,” he said. “Help me out, Kin.”
Jojo slipped between Kin and the others with understated intensity controlling his expression. “We could just take the ship and leave everyone. Selecting superior samples of the humanity and those with specialized skills would be the intelligent course of action.”
Dog turned slowly, a dark sound growing deep in his throat. He stepped toe to toe with Jojo and leaned down. The similarities between his movements and a Reaper about to eat a human face were startling and charged with emotion. “You will leave on the ship. I’m staying here, so give me a list of who you want. Maybe I will consider it.”
“Only a fraction of these survivors can leave on the ship. Dog Rolston and Dwarf have already told them there will be a lottery for who can go and who must stay behind,” Rebecca said.
“I have to stay,” Kin said. “You know why.”
Rebecca grabbed the back of his neck and pressed his forehead to hers. “Droon is dead. Don’t freak out on me.”
“A dead Reaper is a good Reaper,” Kin said, intending to say more but lacking the energy for real bravado.
Do not die, Kin-rol-an-da.
Droon’s words echoed over and over. Kin could not stop thinking about them. A lifetime ago, he had decided to spare the Reapers, hoping to strand them on their home world. Since then, he had learned what they were and that they were created by the very people they now hunted. He thought they would be content to hunt the other monsters on Hellsbreach, though Rebecca reported that a surprisingly large number of Droon’s followers had made it out of Meridian Canyon before the nuclear blast sealed the place forever. Some of Droon’s final thoughts had been about a Reaper Queen named Solaa who wanted Clavender to take her hunting all through the universe.
Clavender was gone.
Droon was dead.
Kin was tired.
“I will stay for a while. Help the people here survive until you bring back a rescue mission,” Kin said.
“I tried to rescue you once before, remember?”
“It worked, mostly,” Kin said, surprising himself with a laugh. “This is the best place for me. I always believed I was the last man on Hellsbreach. This time, I intend to get everyone off or die trying.”
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More Books and Stories
Enemy of Man
(Book One in the Chronicles of Kin Roland)
Earth Fleet never forgave Kin Roland’s failure at Hellsbreach. Changed by captivity and torture, hunted by the Reapers of Hellsbreach and wanted by the Fleet, Kin hides on a lost planet near an unstable wormhole.
When a distant space battle propels a ravaged Earth Fleet Armada through the same wormhole, a Reaper follows, hunting for the man who burned his home world. Kin fights to save a mysterious native of Crashdown from the Reaper and learns there are worse things in the galaxy than those hunting him. The end is coming and he is about to pay for a sin that will change the galaxy forever.
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Surviving Earth Fleet justice and a Reaper vendetta was only the beginning. Now Kin has real trouble.
With the Grand Army of the Mazz Empire descending on the planet to destroy ancient enemies and Reapers sweeping across the landscape leaving terror and death in their wake, Kin learns the truth of his supposedly invincible enemies. The largest military expedition in history isn't that of a conquering force. The Mazz are on the run—fleeing extinction and Kin knows desperate enemies are dangerous.
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Weapons of Earth
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With the fate of humanity at stake, there is only one way for the Traitor of Hellsbreach to make things right.
After a battle that erased people from existence, Kin Roland faces betrayal, intrigue, and the ultimate decision. Reapers, Slomn, and all the deadly monsters of Crashdown have not prepared him for his return to Hellsbreach. He swore to never again set foot on the red wasteland. The truth awaiting him in Blood Meridian Canyon will force him to a desperate alliance. A creature that even the King of the Reapers fears will drive Kin across the Red Plains of Sorrow with the fate of humanity in the balance. There has only ever been one decision for Kin Roland… the right decision.
Weapons of Earth is the final book in the Chronicles of Kin Roland trilogy, a military science fiction adventure that fans of the movies Aliens and Predator will love. This series is the for anyone who has dreamed of suiting up in a Starship Troopers dropship and assaulting a planet with a band of brothers ready to snatch victory from impossible odds. If you enjoy books by Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, John Steakley, John Ringo, and David Weber then you’ll love this book they inspired.
Buy the climactic conclusion to the Chronicles of Kin Roland trilogy today!
Sgt. Orlan: Hero of Man
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Sergeant Jack Washington Orlan has a specialized skill set and a variable emotional range. He is a man built to dominate his enemies and paint planets red. As the ruthless victor of any engagement, he appreciates sunsets after well fought battles. The graffiti on his Fleet Single Person Assault Armor is equal to the work of a master engraver; his heavy hands create things of awe-inspiring beauty as he growls at loneliness.
It isn’t easy being the meanest dog in the pack.
Everything changed and nothing changed after Hellsbreach. The Hero of Man bounty didn’t last long and the Fleet wasted no time aiming him at the next war like a weapon with a pulse.
Sergeant Orlan, trained in every discipline of personal combat, never expected to be a father.
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Die Like A Man
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