Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Brandon Ellis (ebook reader for comics txt) 📖

herself forward, dragging herself just as another energy charge zipped into her foot, slashing her boot open, exposing blood and singed skin. She screamed in pain, cringing, biting down hard and hobbled on one foot until she made it to the ramp.

Another shot clipped her shoulder and spun her around, tossing her to the ground.

She felt a thump next to her. It was Fox, using his body and striated suit to deflect any shot directed at her. He slapped the cannon onto his back, magnetizing it in place. He picked her up, rushing her up the ramp and into the dropship. He shut the ramp, placed her on the bed, then strapped her in.

The ship shook from the oncoming fire, but its armor was thick. Fire from hand held weapons would do little damage, if any.

He sat at in his pilot’s seat. “Time to get you back to Flood of Dawn, Rivkah.”

The dropship lifted, then bolted forward, leaving the combat zone.

47

J-Quadrant, Solar System - Flood of Dawn, Callisto

Rivkah was back in Flood of Dawn, sitting in a healer’s room. A zap went through her thigh and she yelped, jerking back, slapping a device away from the healer’s hand.

The instrument hit the floor, bouncing up and down on the crystal tiling. To Rivkah’s untrained eye, the thing looked like a small spray gun.

The healer stepped back and glanced down at the medical instrument. She wiggled her hand from Rivkah’s sharp smack. “It’s fixed, Miss Rivkah Ravenwood.” She bowed and walked out of the small room and down a hall.

Rivkah moved her leg. “Holy shit.” It was better. Beyond better. How did they heal her so fast?

Right now it didn’t matter. She needed to find Bogle and fast. If Fox hadn’t saved her own ass, Rivkah would be splattered all over an East Rise street, much like Grenik.

A knock echoed in the room. It was Liberty. “We’ll be resting up and getting back to the front lines tomorrow.”

Who were we? Liberty hadn’t even come close to touching any front lines. Instead, she sat back in her luxury and monitored the battles. Saying you would have been more accurate.

“Bogle betrayed us.” Rivkah’s nose flared. “Let me find her.”

“She’s gone.”

“You can’t find her?”

Liberty shook her head. “No, and we don’t know why. It’s as if she just vanished.” She walked to Rivkah and sat on the medical table alongside her. She touched Rivkah’s upper back. Rivkah calmed and almost dropped to the floor in relaxation from Liberty’s soothing touch. “We rest up.” She stood and bowed, then exited the room.

“I guess that’s that.”

Rivkah was more than ready to kick butt and head into action and help push these Kelhoons off of Callisto, but apparently she wasn’t allowed—not yet.

“Tomorrow,” she told herself, remembering the young girl.

Boots clanked down the hall and Rivkah stood. She took a few steps toward the door to see who was coming.

Fox turned the corner, nearly bumping into her. “Whoa,” he said. “Watch it.”

Rivkah stepped back. “What are you doing here?” She needed to know why he came back and why the hell he was helping the Atlanteans, and most importantly, her.

“I do what I want and when I want.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“Nah, that’s not even close. Do I have to repeat myself to get the truth?”

“I’m here to right a wrong. A big wrong. Slade—”

A siren sounded and the crystalline walls that made up the room changed from beautiful translucent white to a dimmer glow.

Rivkah cocked her head to the side, pushing Fox out of the way. She dashed forward and out into the hall, seeing a mass of Atlanteans glaring up at the hallway walls, also wondering what the hell was going on.

Did the Kelhoons send a force to attack Flood of Dawn?

“Rivkah,” came a voice.

Rivkah spun on her heels. Liberty strode toward her and fast. “What is it?”

“We have to go. Jaxx changed his mind.” She continued down the hall, glancing over her shoulder. “Fox, we need you as well.”

“What do you mean—” Rikvah stopped mid-sentence as Liberty rounded a corner, disappearing from view. She turned, staring at Fox. “Looks like we gotta go see what the hubbub is about.”

“What the hell did Jaxx do now?” Fox grunted, moving by Rivkah, marching down the hall where Liberty had gone.

Rivkah followed, her mind spinning. If Jaxx came back, then that meant…

Her heart fell. Yes, Jaxx was a pain in the ass, but he had become her pain in the ass, even though she would never admit it to the poor bastard’s face, and him coming back meant one thing—he returned to give his life for all the inhabitants of Callisto and to end a prophecy he was born to fulfill.

He wasn’t a wimp after all. He was a hero.

Yet, she didn’t want him to die. Not today. Not ever.

48

J-Quadrant, Solar System - Callisto

Jaxx hovered over Callisto. Whatever shields had blocked her mighty cities from view had been decimated. She was bare, smoking, vulnerable. He felt her pain, at the cellular level. If he left, he’d be the coward he’d always feared he was. If he stayed, he was dead meat. If it had just been him, he’d have stepped on the gas and been out of that quadrant and headed back for Earth, just as fast as his ship could carry him, but Rivkah was still down there. He could save her. He had one act left in him and it was the one that counted.

He turned the ship back towards the apex of the pyramid that had shot him out into space. As soon as he held the thought that he was to return, the light from the pyramid swallowed him whole. The bolt filled him from his crown to his soles, activating DNA he didn’t know existed.

He passed through the King’s Sarcophagus and deposited his body on the stone table that graced the center of the chamber, deep inside the pyramid.

Rivkah stood over him, her face blank and unreadable.

Liberty