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

“I’m doing what I wanted to do the day you grabbed him from Peru.” Fox took a few more strides and reached for Slade’s pistol. Fox grasped for the gun, his hands covering Slade’s. The pistol shoved Jaxx’s head forward.

P-taaff.

A gunshot went off, the lead bullet lodging into the floor next to Jaxx. He exhaled sharply and turned in a crouch, ready to leap into action and take names.

He didn’t need to.

Fox threw Slade to the ground, their hands and arms locked. They wrestled for the pistol’s sole possession. The weapon flung from their grip and slid away. Slade bared his teeth, somehow getting into a standing position.

He then went low and swiped a kick at Fox’s legs. Fox lost balance and landed on his side. Slade jumped on him, face red. The guy’s temper took hold, took over, and both fought like wild animals.

Fox kicked, landing a hard foot against Slade’s stomach. Slade rolled away and dove for the pistol. He snatched it into his hand. Fox leaped for him as Slade pulled the trigger.

“You—” Fox curled into a ball, hands tightly against his stomach. He moaned. “I can’t believe…”

Slade went to his knees, eyes wide. He frantically placed his hand on top of Fox’s to help stop the bleeding. Gun in his other hand, Slade pointed it at Jaxx. “Don’t just stand there. Get a medic—”

Before Jaxx could move, Slade stood and lunged at him and grasped Jaxx’s shirt. He shoved Jaxx into a wall and raised the pistol. Jaxx caught Slade’s arm, pushing Slade’s arm in the opposite direction.

Jaxx’s pent up energy rose from his central nervous system and blasted outward. Slade’s eyes widened, his mouth gaped as a force shoved him backward. The colonel went to get up and Jaxx took a giant step forward, sending a fist against Slade’s chin. The man closed his eyes and landed knocked out on the floor.

Clattering boots down the corridor pounded in Jaxx’s ears. He spun toward the open doorway. Troops rushed inside.

Jaxx motioned for them. “Colonel Roberson shot Captain Fox. Hurry. Fox is bleeding out.”

A few soldiers dashed Fox’s side. Fox’s breaths were shallow, and like Slade and Shaughnessy, his eyes were closed. The difference, his face was pale, his eyelids fluttering.

A man touched the captain’s neck, feeling for a pulse. “It’s weak and thready, but he’s hanging in there.” More men came in, surrounding the victim.

Jaxx slipped out of the room, passing several guards. “I’m getting a doctor. Move away, please.” He weaved through a couple more soldiers, barking, “Let me through. Gotta get a doctor. Move it.”

Jaxx picked up his pace, moving swiftly through the lobby. He kept his head low. He had to stop whatever invasion Slade planned. The discovery of a lifetime, Atlanteans perhaps, but pyramids, domes, obelisks, and other structures from an advanced civilization a definite, and he had to suck it up, and erase that potential from his mind. The wonders of what that society possessed, the new technology he could learn, the hieroglyphs he could translate and acquire information from, he’d have to forgo. For the sake of those inhabiting Callisto, for the sake of everyone on this ship, he had to turn this craft around. But most importantly, for the sake of a potential Solar System war Slade may cause.

14

Charlotte, North Carolina - Earth

Drew sat on his porch, the end of the world as he knew it on his mind. “How long are you going to stand there and not say anything?”

The screen door squeaked open. “Sorry, Sir.” It was the girl. She’d been standing there a while, too afraid to make a noise.

It was morning and Drew gazed down the road. The streets were bare, unhappy, his neighborhood nearly empty of neighbors who most likely fled this portion of the United States, or the entire east coast. He didn’t know.

“Mya is your name, right?”

The girl stood behind him. “Yeah.”

“How old are you?”

“Six.”

Drew patted the ground, asking Mya to take a seat. An abrupt sensation came over him. For a moment, he felt like the father figure he never had. A wall of responsibilities showed its ugly face on the other side of his mind. He pushed it away as fast as he could. Drew sucked at responsibility. The only thing he was good at sucking was a joint. “Where’s your mom?”

Mya sat next to Drew. “She isn’t awake yet, sir.”

“Is your Dad in the military?”

Mya nodded.

“Do you know how I knew that?”

The girl shook her head and picked at the ground. The poor kid. Drew imagined she had no idea what was going on, why her life had changed and what was next, where they were headed—if they were headed anywhere.

“Because you keep calling me, sir.” He pointed to the clouds. “I don’t like to be called sir, because that’s my dad’s name, Slade Isaac Roberson, and when you take his initials, it spells S-I-R, Sir. He’s the reason we have this fu...bad situation at hand. Please don’t call me Sir anymore, okay?”

“Oh...”

Mya’s mom pushed open the screen door. Her hair disheveled, her eyes swollen from crying, or lack of sleep, or both. “They shut off the electricity.”

Drew slumped. “Those motherfu...mean people. They couldn’t leave it on? They can’t give us people a break before we go insane and start killing each other before the coming apocalypse?” He was kidding—sort of.

“We need to jet out of here.” For the last few days that Drew had gotten to know her, she was a straight-shooting, no bullshit kind of gal. To the point. Not one of those annoying, ‘I’m going to question the crap out of you until you guess what I’m trying to get at’ type of people. He liked her. “We need a car. Did any of your neighbors leave one around?”

“I already checked. Nothing.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Camila, why didn’t you tell me your husband was military?”

Camila pointed down the street. “It doesn’t matter. He knows stuff and told me to take Mya