Gravity Storm: Order of Scion book 3, page 27
“This way,” the grubworm alien said.
They followed him into a larger room that was sealed off with plastic strips that hung from the ceiling. It was much colder in the back room. There were several metal tables and big hooks that hung from the ceiling. To one side was a small storage room. The butcher pointed to the room with the blade of the Cidian dagger.
“It ain’t much, but won’t nobody see you in there.”
“We are in your debt,” Arq said.
“If this thing holds an edge, we’re square,” the butcher said. “I close up in six hours. You’ll need to find someplace new then.”
“Would it be possible for you to direct us to a place where we might hire a ship to take us off-world?” Qwii asked.
“The Rusty Thruster is where most of the spacers hang out,” the butcher replied. “I’ll draw you a map.”
Mitch stepped into the storeroom. There was nothing but junk in the little space. He had to duck his head to get in, and his hair brushed the ceiling. But there were no windows. He let his senses flow out from the building and he could picture his surroundings in his mind. The pig-faced mercs carried war hammers made of Cidian, and some had laser weapons too. He picked up a group of them one street over, moving swiftly down the streets.
Arq closed the door. It was dim in the little storeroom. He sat on a crate and leaned back against the door where a poster hung showing the various cuts of meat from an animal that Mitch didn’t recognize.
“We are safe for now,” Arq said. “But we must get off this world soon.”
“How do think the others fair?” Qwii asked.
“If they are smart, they should blend in,” Arq said.
“And if they’re not?” Mitch asked.
“This enemy, whoever it is, wants us dead,” Qwii said. “That much is certain.”
“What do you know of G’all Gotha?” Mitch asked.
“Very little,” Arq said. “Before today, I wouldn’t have argued that he was even real.”
“There is much we must consider,” Qwii said. “The universe has changed for us.”
“And not for the better,” Mitch said.
“It is up to us to track down this threat,” Arq said. “We must find G’all Gotha or whoever is behind these attacks, and stop them.”
“That will be no mean feat,” Qwii said. “We don’t even know where to begin looking.”
“There is one place I know,” Arq said. “Or should I say, one person?”
“Fors’No,” Mitch said.
Arq nodded. “He must answer for what happened on New Terra and he might have the information we need to deal with the threat to the Order.”
“How are we going to find him?” Qwii asked.
“That is easy enough. We shall return to the Terra System and let him come to us.”
Mitch didn’t have a problem with that at all. In fact, he welcomed the idea of finding Fors’No and getting the answers they needed. And if the alien had hurt his friends, Mitch would make him wish he had never heard of the human race.
“I cannot argue with this plan,” Qwii said. “But shouldn’t we meet with the other survivors?”
“After what happened here, we cannot trust that any gathering won’t draw a surprise attack,” Arq explained. “We have lost much, my brothers. But our fight is only beginning. If you do not wish to join me in going wherever it takes us, I will understand.”
“I’m with you,” Mitch said.
“As am I,” Qwii added.
“Then, we go,” Arq said, with more defiance in his voice than Mitch had ever heard before, “and we find a way to end this threat, once and for all.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader, thank you so much for joining me on this journey. The Order of Scion has been a labor of love. My goal at this point is to create a series that does the expanding Scion Universe justice. I hope that Gravity Storm does just that. And book four. Supernova is an explosive next book in the series. As I pen this note, I’m also hard at work crafting the next book. I’ve included a few sample (unedited) chapters to give you a taste of what is to come. My hope is to have Supernova (Order of Scion book 4) available by early June. You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram to get regular updates on my progress, see some of the concept art I’m using to stay inspired, and learn a little more about my writing process. You can also join my mailing list at www.TobyNeighbors.com and/or follow me on Amazon here.
Read on for a sample of Supernova. Coming June 2024.
SUPERNOVA CHAPTER 1
Mara James, Sergeant in the Colonel Marine Corps, was a captive on an alien ship, but she had certain privileges, which was why she was on the Bridge as the ship approached the trade world of Pappisbad in the Ventron system. As a prisoner she tried to remain calm and keep her emotions in check. It was best not to let her alien captor know what she was thinking or feeling, but it was difficult to hold back the wonder and awe she felt seeing Pappisbad.
“The entire planet?”
“Most of it,” Fors’no said. He was a Cadish alien, a tall biped, very thin, with a round head, no nose, and thick jowls that were filled with pointed teeth. How he came to speak her language was a mystery to Mara. There was so much she didn’t know. Humanity had barely ventured out of their home system, and yet she was looking down at a world so full of intelligent buildings there wasn’t one part of Pappisbad that wasn’t part of the massive city.
“Even the oceans?”
“There are sections of the oceans that have been built upon,” Fors’no said. “It is one of the central trade planets in this galaxy.”
“Have you been outside the galaxy?” she asked.
It was fortunate for her that Fors’no liked to think of himself as superior to humans. It wasn’t racism exactly. Fors’no was what he called a Fray. Mara hadn’t yet sorted out the main differences, but she knew the Fray had control over gravity just like the Order of Scion. In her mind, the Fray and the Order were like two sports teams. They both did the same things but for different reasons. They both had the same, almost supernatural, abilities, but they claimed to have gotten them from different sources. Mara and her companions on Fors’no’s ghost ship were learning to sense and control what he called The Power. It was what she thought of as gravity, only she was learning that it was much more than what held people to the surface of a planet.
“No,” Fors’no said. “But my Master has.”
Their ship was descending quickly through Pappisbad’s atmosphere. There was none of the usual rocking or shaking that usually accompanied a space vessel’s descent through a planetary atmosphere. That was due to Fors’no’s control of gravity. Mara could sense the bubble around them. She could feel the planet’s gravity reaching up toward the ship, holding the layers of gas and microscopic matter in place. But it wasn’t connected to the alien space ship the way it naturally would have. Fors’no surrounded his own vessel with a barrier that held it, and everything around it, including the air she was breathing. Inside the bubble the ship had it’s own gravity, not unlike a planet, but completely in the alien’s control. And he manipulated the gravity waves outside the bubble, moving the vessel in any direction he wanted, even at great speeds. All the while, the people inside the ship were protected from the sense of motion. It was a lot like watching a movie on a display screen. She could see their movement, but she couldn’t feel it.
“And the enemy is still here?” Mara asked.
“Those that survived,” Fors’no said.
“Why?” Mara asked. “Why not flee the planet?”
“My master surrounded the world with Fray ships,” he said.
“Could they have stopped them?” Mara asked.
She knew that conventional weapons, from bullets to missiles, were useless against the Fray and the Order of Scion. In the same way that Fors’no had constructed a bubble around his ship and used his control of gravity to direct it through space, they could do the same to any projectile fired toward them.
“Stop them? It is not as you probably think,” Fors’no explained. “We do not fight with bombs. There would be no explosions, but there are ways.”
Mara felt a shiver race down her back. There were times when her captor seemed almost human. He was, in a fashion, teaching her to utilize the gravitic power. But ultimately he was a violent taskmaster who wanted her for the physical fighting abilities she provided. He placed no value on human life, perhaps he didn’t value life at all, in any form. Mara was no stranger to killing. She was a Colonial Marine after all, a veteran of many battles. But Fors’no wasn’t talking about fighting the Order of Scion. He was talking about exterminating it.
“So they have gone to ground,” she said. “How will we recognize them?”
“He will look like you,” Fors’no said.
Another wave of unease crashed over Mara. It was like stepping out into a freezing rain shower. Her heart rate increased and it took all her self control to keep a poker face and not give away her anxiety to the alien who held her captive on his ship.
“Like me?” Mara asked.
“He is human,” Fors’no said. “The first of his kind accepted into the Order of Scion. Perhaps you know him. He will be the only human on Pappisbad. My Master is monitoring the planet. He and his companions were last seen in the Vogart district. We will search there.”
Mara knew exactly who Fors’no was talking about. Lieutenant Mitch Murphy was, for a short time, her CO. He had been assigned to Leo Squad right after completing the LE Protocols. He was bright, strong, fast, and even though she knew her feelings for Mitch colored her perceptions of him, she thought he was compassionate. It was the character trait that had led him to leap off the shuttle that would have taken him to safety so a father and child could take his seat. It was the reason he fought to protect a handful of refugees on New Terra, and probably the thing that made the Order of Scion want him in their mysterious group to begin with.
“What are we do when we find this human?” she managed to ask.
“We are to capture him alive,” Fors’no said. “He was brainwashed by the Order of Scion. We will free his mind. His companions will die. You will lead your team to contain the human.”
“Understood,” Mara said.
She turned her attention to the planet. She could see lines of air traffic criss-crossing the huge city wide planet beneath them. Her blood seemed to have turned to ice. She didn’t know what to do, or how to proceed. There was no way she would fight Mitch Murphy, but she had to protect her companions. She had been abducted along with Corporal Cameron Gustav, code name Jingo, and Corporal Lee Jenkins, codename Flash. They were the only surviving members of Leo Squad. And their alien captor wanted them to capture their old commanding officer. It was an impossible order. But she wasn’t sure if she could turn on Fors’no, at least not without being slaughtered for her betrayal. Which is exactly how the alien would see it. He had offered to teach her the secrets of the power he wielded. In exchange, he expected complete obedience. It would be a choice that might cost her everything. And while she couldn’t imagine hurting Mitch Murphy in any way, if they captured him and brought him over to the Fray side would it really be so bad? She couldn’t say for certain. There was just too much she didn’t know. She was a Marine and used to following specific orders, not formulating strategies or making command decisions. But she knew they needed a plan for their mutiny. When the time came to switch sides, they would have to be ready.
SUPERNOVA CHAPTER 2
The street was packed with people. It reminded Mitch of catching the train home after a long day at the office. The San Francisco Bay metropolis was massive. In the financial district where Mitch had worked seventy hour weeks for over a decade of his life, had no less than six million people on any given day. The evening rush hour saw pedestrian areas packed with people. He often walked to the train platform shoulder to shoulder with total strangers. If a person had fallen down they would have been trampled by the throngs of people.
It wasn’t quite that bad on Pappisbad, but it was clear that he was in the middle of a busy time of day, perhaps a standard shift change period, or if the businesses closed down, it was quitting time. Most of the people, aliens all to Mitch who was the only human on the planet, seemed to be headed in the same direction he was. There were two turns to make still before he reached the tavern that the butcher had given them directions to. Mitch had studied the crude map, along with his companions Qwii and Arq. They were Nagani, a race of intelligent, white fur covered biped aliens. Both were in shock from the attack on the Order of Scion’s gathering on Pappisbad. Mitch was still new enough that he wasn’t saddled by the same level of intense grief that held his companions in shock. Thousands of members were killed in the attack, and more would undoubtedly die as they were hunted down on the planet.
Juj, one of the trio of Nagani aliens who had recruited Mitch had been killed. His friend and tutor Hollis was also a victim of the attack. There were many more members of the Order that were missing, or that Mitch hadn’t seen in the aftermath of follow up attacks. Whoever had targeted them knew exactly what to do in order to kill as many of them as possible. What the Order of Scion would look like after the heinous attacks on Pappisbad, he couldn’t imagine. But in the moment his chief concern was getting his friends off world without getting hurt. Arq had already injured one leg. Something had hit the alien’s ankle and caused a little swelling and tenderness. Mitch knew things could be much worse, which was why he insisted they leave the butcher shop the back way, and individually. Perhaps their enemy’s henchmen were still searching for them. Arq and Qwii could blend into the throng of aliens on Pappisbad, but Mitch couldn’t. Not only was he a taller, more imposing figure than most of the alien races on the trade world, he was the only human being. That fact made him stand out to anyone who was looking for him. And would put his Nagani companions in danger if they stayed with him while they made the move from the butcher shop to the tavern where they hoped to find a ride on a ship leaving the system.
Hiding in the butcher shop’s storage room for nearly six hours had given Mitch plenty of time to think. His military training had been brief, but strategic thinking had been one of the markers that was picked up in the compatibility testing the CMC did before offering him a chance to undergo the Latent Enhancement procedure. The enhancements had transformed his body, bringing out the latent physical attributes he had never developed, but also developing certain parts of his mental capabilities too. He had warned the masters that gathering the entire Order of Scion together in one place was dangerous. Especially on the heels of the attack that destroyed the Scion Academy on Vodex. Of course they hadn’t listened to him. He was one of the newest members of the Order, and they couldn’t fathom the sort of attack that had transpired at the Hyperion Compound auditorium. It had been well planned. Mitch knew that it wasn’t something thrown together at the last minute. Their enemy had known what they were going to do and where they would gather to do it. Mitch had no idea how the auditorium had collapsed, or why the Order hadn’t sensed the danger. But it wasn’t just the destruction of the massive building that had cost so many lives. It was the follow up attacks by the first responder drones. Someone with clout on Pappisbad had set that up and while Mitch knew nothing about the planet or it’s civil administration, he had a strong hunch that their enemy had operatives inside whoever was in charge of the rescue droned. And someone had managed to turn the power back on to the collapsed auditorium. Mitch might not have realized that too was an attack if the power hadn’t been shut off almost immediately. He certainly wasn’t thinking about it after narrowly surviving the collapse and trying to help save the members still stuck in the debris from the building. But when it had come back on the severed power lines threw dangerous amounts of electricity shooting down through the rubble in an attempt to go to ground. Anyone near the powerful currents would have electrocuted. And the surge of electrical power had also started numerous fires in the debris. The poor souls still trapped might be burned up or suffocated by the fire.
It was a nightmare situation, one that would surely haunt Mitch for a long time, but only if he managed to escape Pappisbad alive. There were hundreds of Fray ships in orbit. And thousands of aliens working for the enemy on the surface of the planet. Any of them that realized who Mitch was would try to murder him, or his friends. They were still in grave danger. Every moment they remained on Pappisbad, or in the Ventron System, they could be discovered, targeted, and attacked.
The Rusty Thruster was not a glamorous establishment. It was on the edge of what was clearly a shift away from practical shops that sold everyday goods, from containers to clothing to a wide range of resupply goods for the nearby landing port, and into what seemed like a very popular entertainment district. Mitch, being taller than almost all the other aliens around him, could see down the wide street to where bright, flashing signs lit the gathering darkness in a bright, artificial colors. He couldn’t read the signs. His tutelage in the common language had been vocal only. He could speak it, and understand much of it, but he couldn’t read or write it yet.
The seedy tavern he and his companions had been directed to by the butcher was easy enough to recognize. The Rusty Thruster had what looked like a miniature spaceship with its main thruster broken off. The lights blinking on the sign came from old, burned out wiring rather than a programed display. Still, it served the purpose of drawing one’s eye toward the sign. Mitch could smell the cheap, fermented beverages being sold inside as his hand reached for the tavern door’s handle. When he stepped over the threshold he stopped and let his eyes adjust to the gloom. It was darker inside the tavern than out. And yet, despite the fact that he was millions of light years from Earth, on a completely alien world, he easily recognized the Rusty Thruster for what it was—a bar serving alcohol.
