Fate's Reprisal E-Book

Cw Scott

• Herausgeber: Cw Scott
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The war lasted minutes, but the fight is far from over… PFC Kent Nielson, ex-Special Forces, finds himself disgraced, stripped of rank and thrown on a backwater world.His career all but over and his tour nearly up, resigning is the only option. When an otherworldly ambush tears through his platoon though, he soon realizes his life could indeed get worse.In his plight to discover what happened to his unit, and the rest of the planet, he discovers something much more sinister than a mere invasion. Powerful players with their own agendas are involved...And Nielson wasn’t meant to survive.

Leseprobe

Fate’s Reprisal

Book One of the Corporate Alliance Series

Copyright © 2015 by C.W. Scott

[email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Illustration © Tom Edwards

Cover art by Tom Edwards: [email protected]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 1

Dark clouds swept across the night sky, blotting out what little light the stars and moons cast. Rain scented the air, ensuring they would have a cold and muddy evening.

Private First Class Kent Nielson stumbled and cursed. He refocused his attention on the ground as he shuffled along at the end of the center squad. He glanced up occasionally to make sure he didn’t run into any of the small shrubs that pockmarked the ground, or the short scraggly growths that passed for trees on Corinth. The low-light enhancement built into his helmet visor hadn’t worked since he got it. He regretted not jumping through the hoops to get a replacement.

PFC Kent’s understrength Marine platoon had run an aimless search pattern since being dropped off on the edge of the Fringe three days earlier. Officially, they were looking for a downed shuttle. According to the locals, the stricken craft lit up the sky as it burned through the atmosphere and crashed to the west. The platoon assumed it had to be smugglers. Whatever the case, a drone could’ve covered the same area in an hour. Unofficially, it sure seemed like someone had told the lieutenant to keep his unit scarce for a few days. The boss sure found a great place to lay low.

The handful of nearby settlements were little more than small abandoned farms and a few homes built in anticipation of settlers that never arrived. Nothing human lived out here anymore except a few diehards looking for privacy. The few roads around simply ended in random fields. Same with the unfinished water and mechanical lines.

The sky opened up and Kent ground his teeth. Within moments, water sloshed inside his boots. The old viro-suit worn under his armor, which normally kept him dry, now held water against his skin, chilling him to his bones and slowing his movements. The light nano-weave armor he sported over his suit did wick some water away, but nothing helped against rain that came in sideways. Thunder shook the ground and traveled up his boots. The platoon’s grumbling only added to the staccato of the rain. Three days of patrolling, complemented by blisters, unwashed bodies and field rations, had everyone ready to break.

The weather punctuated Kent’s failed career perfectly. After six months at this post, and many more failed requests for a transfer, he fell into a slump. He couldn’t even rate a slot as a fleet Marine despite his experience. Why they hadn’t just kicked him out, he would never know. His stint, his entire career, would be over in a couple weeks anyway. He could just walk away, but this wasn’t how he wanted to finish out this chapter of his life. A pension wasn’t even an option. That would take another eight years. Eight more years of traipsing across this planet would drive him insane. They were little more than glorified babysitters, watching over the planet’s naval depot in a time of peace.