For your reading pleasure, I have decided to post a sample chapter from my novel,
The Fallen. If you like what you read, then you can pick yourself up a copy by clicking the link at the bottom of this entry.
Enjoy! :)
“The suns are finally setting,” I said, relieved. I grabbed my uniform and put it on, strapping on my Psi-Blaster when I was finished. I walked down the hall to join the rest of the army outside.
“Gentlemen, we’ve survived the fi rst day. Now, let’s spill the blood of every alien scum that walks this dust bowl!” the general boomed. We yelled in acknowledgment and charged out of the base. The five of us (Spekter, Mafisto, Chronos, Hawkeye, and I) just sauntered along, unconcerned.
“Ready?” Mafisto asked us.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Chronos replied.
“What about you, Mafi sto. Are you ready?” I asked.
“I was born ready,” he replied, grinning. “And you?”
“Ready and able,” I said. Spekter was silent.
“What about you, Spekter?” I asked. He was still silent. “Spekter, answer me,”
I said, looking slightly irritated.
“The better question is, are you prepared to accept the fact that quite possibly
we won’t be talking together again?” he asked with worry on his face.
“We’ll survive, Spekter. You’ll see,” Mafisto said.
“Always the pessimist,” I said. He growled.
“A pessimist is an optimist with experience!”
“Whatever,” he growled again. Suddenly, we heard a single shot ring out in the
distance.
“Talk later. Time to fight,” Mafisto said, drawing the War Hammer. I readied my
Blaster, and Spekter placed his Chakram on his arm launcher. Chronos synthesized a
gun, and Hawkeye drew his axe. We charged over the hill only to find a few hundred
HELL Demons and a strange looking man riding one of them. The man was only about three feet tall. He had silver hair and red eyes. He was definitely alien, as he had massive pincers instead of hands. He wore a triangular crown. Our men were firing volley after volley at the Demons, only to be shredded to bits by the approaching mass. The only thing that could stop them was a Thermite grenade to the face.
If you’re wondering what Thermite is, it is a substance that burns so hot it ignites
the hydrogen in the air. It only took twenty of these to take out the Demons, including
the one that the alien being was riding. He got up, brushed himself off, and then
grinned. He began to glow and then float! Finally, he spoke, and in English, at that.
“You don’t get it, do you? You can’t stop us. No one can! You will be crushed
and thrown into the wind just like so many other civilizations. All your knowledge
and technology will be used to benefit the Syndicate.”
“Not if we take you down first!” a man among the soldiers yelled, firing at the
alien. The alien merely looked at the energy he discharged, and it stopped in its
tracks. Everyone’s jaw dropped.
“Tisk tisk. Such weak weaponry. I don’t even know why the Syndicate sees
your species as a highly evolved race. Oh well, I just take orders. Now then, would
you like your death to be slow and painful, or quick and clean?” the being asked,
grinning. The army replied by opening fire. It proved to be in vain. The beams
stopped no more than a centimeter from the being. Everyone stopped firing, looking
on in horror.
“No, no. Sorry, this simply won’t do. Allow me to return the gesture,” he said.
His glowing body began to increase in intensity until it looked as though a brilliant
blue flame surrounded him. Then, with a wave of his hand, the beams of energy
diverted back to those who opened fire, killing them instantly. He lowered his hand
and simply said, “Too bad. Now then, who’s next?” Everyone looked at each other
and began to move back. “Now, now. Playtime isn’t over yet.” He took up a running position. Then, in
the blink of an eye, he decapitated 200,000 of the soldiers with his pincers, their
bodies dropping to the ground as he landed behind them. We weren’t going to stand
by and watch this massacre anymore. We lunged at him in unison, only to be blown
off with the immense energy that surrounded him. “Well, looky here; more playmates. Do you want to join the game as well?” the being asked, turning his head and grinning. His grin quickly subsided when
Hawkeye’s axe dug into his leg.
“How do ya like that?!” Hawkeye pridefully said. The alien merely grabbed
hold of the blade and wrenched it out. Hawkeye couldn’t believe his eyes when the
wound quickly healed. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his own leg.
“I should like to ask you the same question,” the being replied. Hawkeye cried out in pain, trying desperately to wrench the axe from his femur. With Hawkeye taken out of the fight, it was now Chronos’s turn to fight the unstoppable menace. He took aim with his rifle and fired shot after shot. The only place the energy didn’t pierce was his head. He looked down at the holes that ravaged his body and laughed. Chronos fired more shots. This time, however, the energy stopped in front of the alien. The holes in his body grew smaller and became fully healed. The rifle evaporated, leaving Chronos defenseless. “Ouch,” he said, that same sadistic grin on his face. “Just because you put on such a glorious light show, I think I’ll let you live to see the rest of them die.” The beams careened back towards Chronos, piercing him in the arms and legs.
“Enough of this! You face me now!” I yelled, taking up stance.
“Wait, Striker. Not just yet,” I heard Mafisto say. “He’s mine.”
“Oh, all right. Just don’t get yourself killed.” Mafisto nodded and revealed the Bone Snap. He took up stance, his cape fanned out by a small breeze.
The alien just crossed his arms and said, “Oh, really?”
Mafisto lunged at him and swung the Bone Snap at the alien’s head. The alien
just stood there. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the Bone Snap passed right through
the alien’s head without even damaging him. Again Mafisto swung, and again it
passed through him.
“H... His… m… movements! They’re so fast that Mafisto can’t hit him!” Spekter said. His jaw dropped while he pointed at the being as Mafisto continued to attack.
“Okay, I tried playing fair. Now it’s time for you to taste pain,” Mafisto said as
I sensed his psionic emanations skyrocket. His eyes glowed, and a massive force
collided into the being.
“Hmm… feels a bit drafty. Hey, laughing boy, give me your cape,” the being
said, infuriating Mafisto.
“Why you! I’ll crush you!” Mafisto said as he dropped the force onto the being’s
head. The being just stood there.
“I crush you! I destroy you! You sound like one of those cheesy comic book
heroes you humans read about to entertain yourselves. And like those worthless
drawings, you can’t back it up,” the being said. Mafisto dropped his weapon and removed his armor. He again lunged at the being, throwing punch after punch, each time missing the creature. Then, with little
effort, the being quickly tapped Mafisto in the gut with his knee and sent him careening
our way. He landed against the dune we were standing on, spitting up blood.
“Next victim,” the being said mischievously. Spekter stepped forward. Then,
without a word, he raised his hand to his temple, firing his particle beam. He quickly
fired the Chakram. The beam hit him in the chest, and the Chakram cut clean through
his right arm. He simply picked it up and tossed it to Spekter.
“Complementary backscratcher,” he said as another arm burst out of his shoulder.
He raised his clawed hand into the air and dropped it back to his side.
“Now, feel my wrath! The wrath of the all powerful Tierano!” the being said, revealing
his identity. A loud whistling sound was heard overhead. As Spekter looked
up, he saw twenty large lights, which then slammed into his body, making him bleed
profusely. Seeing that all my friends were lying on the ground desperately crying in
pain, I began to get angry.
“You want to try your luck, too?” Tierano asked.
“Allow me to answer that by kicking your teeth down your throat!” I replied. I could tell I angered him. He frowned and took up a stance I had never seen before. His right claw was pointed at me, but his left claw was crossed over his abdomen. I took up my own stance and stared him down. We lunged at each other, and the fight was on.
His speed was incredible. Even with my skill, I was unable to touch him. But
on the other hand, he was unable to touch me. Unable to hit each other, we jumped
back into ready positions.
“It appears we are evenly matched, Tierano,” I said, out of breath.
“Don’t kid yourself,” he replied. The energy around him dissipated, and he took
up the same stance he took just before he killed all of those soldiers.
“It’s true that you’re fast, Tierano, but I’m faster,” I said, ejecting my tiger
claw.
“You’ve got to be joking. What chance do you have against me with those metal
toothpicks of yours?”
I replied to this by lunging at him. He did the same to me. We then were caught
in a twisted sword fight. Unlike me however, he cheated by blasting energy at me
from someplace as concealed as his knee or even his eye. I staggered. He began
to stab me multiple times in the arms and torso, causing me to cry out in pain. He
would try to slash at my neck, which I would block with my robotic arm. I retaliated
by slashing at his head. This process repeated about twelve more times, each
more violent than the last. More blood from us was spilt each time. Unlike Tierano,
however, I couldn’t regenerate after every slash.
“Feeling tired, are we?” Tierano asked as he slashed me in the side. It was true.
Even with my superior skill, I was simply loosing too much blood to stay awake.
“Tierano, I have a way we can end this,” I said.
“Oh? Do tell.”
“We charge each other with all the speed we can muster. Then, we try to cut
each other’s head off.”
“I like,” he replied. He took up the stance that he had assumed before
his killing spree. I took up my own stance. It was the stance I assumed just before
using the Eraser technique. First we stared each other down. Then we began to
walk, then trot. Before we knew it, we were jogging, running, and sprinting towards
each other. I was a blur, my blood drenched blades glowing transparent blue. He was
also a blur to the normal eye, his energy erupting from all around him. I jumped up
into the air and lunged for his neck. He floated higher, matching my height. As you
already know, my aim is not the best with the Eraser. Instead of hitting his neck, the
middle blade struck and cut the crown he was wearing clean in two. The two pieces
fell to the ground, as did he.
“W, What happened?” Tierano asked.
“Are you playing dumb?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Who are you?”
“My name is Striker, a name you will remember well, tyrant!” I raised my claws
into the air to strike the final blow.
“Please, I know not what I have done, and I assure you that it was not of my
own accord,” he said as he cowered.
“You honestly have no recollection as to what you have done?”
“The last thing I remember is being on one of those forsaken command ships
and having something they called a controller crown placed on my head.”
“I see.”
That is the last thing I remember of that instance. Could that be the reason for
me lying here? No. I recall waking up and being informed that I had collapsed from
blood loss. I must delve deeper into my mind in order to discover my reason for
lying here...
