by M. R. Forbes
Caleb reached out through Ishek, trying to link with the Relyeh’s mind. A wave of pressure passed over him. He could sense the alien, but he couldn’t get inside. It was blocking him.
The man recognized the effort. The shotgun shifted from Caleb’s head to his arm, where Ishek was connected.
“You came through the portal,” he said. “From where?”
Caleb noticed the Relyeh wasn’t trying to get into his head. The barrier he had constructed seemed to work both ways. “A long way from here.”
“You’re human. And you have an Advocate. Where else could you have come from?” He stared at the Skin. “That’s Axon if I’m not mistaken. Who the hell are you?”
“It’s a long story. We can talk about it over a cup of coffee or a beer if you want. I’m just as interested in what you’re doing here.”
The man laughed. “I bet you are. Did Nyarlath send you? Did she finally figure out how to work the damn portals? Because if she did, she doesn’t need me anymore. And if she doesn’t need me anymore, then she sent you to kill me.” He took a threatening step toward Caleb.
We should kill him and be done with it.
“I don’t know who Nyarlath is,” Caleb said. “You’re trying to figure out how the portal works. That explains why you have it connected to a power supply.”
“Which just blew to shit when you came through.”
Caleb froze, realizing how lucky he was that the portal had power. If the wormhole on the Seeker hadn’t been able to make the connection...
“You have a mental shield against the Collective. How?”
“You don’t know?” He laughed. “I thought things were getting interesting before, with that sheriff running around out there. Now we’ve got a human with an Advocate coming through an Axon portal, and Nyarlath didn’t send him. The implications make my head hurt. Well, not my head. This meatsack’s head. Anyway, point one—the upside to the Collective is infinite knowledge. The downside is that it’s tough to keep secrets. When the secret is more important than the knowledge, it’s best to sever the link. You could learn to do it with enough practice. Point two—if you aren’t from Nyarlath, you’re a dangerous complication. And the last thing we need are more complications. Point three—you aren’t going to get enough practice.”
Caleb could tell the man was going to use the shotgun before his finger ever tensed on the trigger. He was already moving, dropping at the same time he snapped a hand out and into the weapon, knocking the barrel toward the ceiling. The gun fired, the shell pulverizing a huge chunk of cement. He punched the man in the chest, the force of the blow knocking him back and through the door. The man growled, trying to get the shotgun back in line.
Caleb was on him in an instant. He grabbed the man, throwing him roughly to the floor and ripping the shotgun from his hands. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want answers.”
“It doesn’t matter what you or I want. We’re just cogs in the same ugly machine. I serve Nyarlath. Who do you serve?”
“Arluthu,” Caleb replied.
“Arluthu?” The man smiled. “You got the shit end of the deal, didn’t you? Bad news for you then. Earth is almost ripe.” He licked his lips. “And you won’t be around to see Nyarlath savor it.”
The man produced another gun from somewhere behind him, his hand moving so fast most people wouldn’t have been ready for it. But Caleb wasn’t most people. He had noticed the twitch in the man’s hand and the focus of his eyes taking aim. He fired the shotgun and the shell punching a large hole in the man’s shoulder, taking off his gun arm.
The man grunted, losing blood in a hurry. He lost something else too. A small, dark shape crawled out of the wound. It resembled Ishek, except it was a quarter of the size.
It tried to escape, but the corridor was cement, and there was nowhere for it to hide. Caleb brought the stock of the shotgun down on it, crushing it against the floor.
He exhaled, dropping the shotgun. There was a rusted steel door at the end of the corridor past the dead man and another on the left. He stepped over the corpse and pushed open the left door, turning his head away as dark smoke billowed out. A small reactor rested against the back wall. The concrete enclosure around it was scorched from the power surge he had created with his arrival.
He quickly tried the other door, shoving it open with his shoulder and escaping to the outside. Cold air bit at his face as he moved out and away from the door, the smoke evacuating with him.
He took a dozen steps through a blanket of snow, getting clear of the smoke before stopping and turning around. The portal was in some kind of hardened refuge, like a Cold War fallout shelter. A small house rested above and behind it, about twenty meters away. The lights were on, and he smelled something cooking.
His mouth watered instantly. Real Earth food. It had been so long. Only not really. Two hundred years felt like a few weeks. Everything had happened so fast.
He made his way around the bunker to the house, climbing the steps to the porch. He didn’t hear or see any movement inside. He looked in through one of the windows. A pot of stew cooked on a portable stove. It probably belonged to the man he had killed. The Relyeh he had killed.
He went back to the door, finding it unlocked. He let himself in and went to the kitchen, searching the cabinets until he found a bowl. He turned off the burner and scooped out some of the stew. He could tell the meat was chicken by the bones.
He sat down, leaning back in the chair for a moment to let the stew cool. Nyarlath. That sounded like the name of another Relyeh ancient. Arluthu’s brother?
He had already killed one of them. If he had to, he would kill another. And he would get word to the settlement on Proxima about the Relyeh, the Axon, the Inahri…everything.
One mission completed. Another one beginning.
It had waited two hundred years.
It could wait until he finished the stew.
Thank you for reading Declaration
I truly, truly appreciate that you spent your time and money on this series. Your support is more valuable to me than you likely realize.
I understand the end for Caleb isn’t a finite, definitive end, and some of you may feel a little unsatisfied with that. My apologies if that’s the case for you.
Silver lining? The Forgotten universe books are written as separate shorter series so we both have more options. I don’t want to drag you into a single 20+ book series where you might start to feel meh after book nine, but then in book thirteen I write something you’d think is really awesome but you’ll never know it because you stopped reading. This way you get the closure of a bigger story arc, with the potential for another arc with a character or characters you love.
I also don’t want to get ten books into a series and then want to write something else and leave you hanging for months while I work on it, or get trapped writing something I’m not feeling, causing the storytelling to suffer. I did that when I first started publishing, and it wasn’t ideal for anyone.
My ultimate goal is happy readers who come back to my stories again and again. I hope you’ll be one of them.
So what does that all mean?
Assuming you continue to support the Forgotten universe books, then Caleb will be back. I’ve already got the story in mind. I think it’ll be really fun to write and read. But like Netflix or HBO or any producer of media, if the idea isn’t profitable it needs to get cut. I only have so many writing hours in a day and total in my lifetime, and this is the food I put on the table and the roof I put over my head.
How can you help?
Easy.
1. Consider leaving a review on any or all of the books in the Forgotten Colony series (or any of my books you’ve read).
2. Head over to mrforbes.com/notify and sign up for my mailing list so you’ll know when the new stories are out. I’ll only snd you new releases and book recommendations (if you opt-in to them). And I don’t share my list with anyone.
3. If you haven’t already, con
sider picking up a copy of Forgotten (mrforbes.com/forgotten). It’s the book that launched the universe. It ties in well with this one and feeds into Earth Unknown (mrforbes.com/earthunknown), another bestselling Forgotten universe series.
4. If you’ve read the other Forgotten universe books (or even if you haven’t) get ready, because Sheriff Duke is coming back in a new standalone Forgotten series - Forgotten Fallout, coming in March. Want to know when it’s out? mrforbes.com/forgottenfallout
If you’re already caught up in the Forgotten universe or you’re interested in any of my other books - there’s a more complete description in the next section of this book, or even better you can check out my backlist at mrforbes.com/books.
Thank you again for your ongoing support.
Cheers,
Michael.
No Planet For Good Men
Forgotten Fallout, Book One.
Sheriff Duke is back this March.
Don’t know Sheriff Duke? Meet him in Forgotten (mrforbes.com/forgotten) so you’ll be ready when this one hits.
Welcome to the Forgotten Earth. An Earth shattered by war against vicious invaders. An Earth where the survival of humankind hangs by a fraying thread.
And it’s about to get worse…
Hayden is a lawman in a world without law. A good man in a world desperately in need of heroes. He’s about to be confronted with a room of innocents slaughtered by a strange alien weapon. A weapon used by a man who can’t be killed.
Isaac is a Marine in a world without order. A good man in a world gone bad. He’s going to wake from a forced two-hundred year slumber and learn that the man who murdered his son is somehow still alive.
Two good men. Two frightening discoveries. Two paths to one terrible revelation:
The war is over, but the invasion may not be.
Coming in March. Want to know when it launches? mrforbes.com/forgottenfallout
Other Books By M.R Forbes
M.R. Forbes on Amazon
mrforbes.com/books
Forgotten (The Forgotten)
mrforbes.com/theforgotten
Some things are better off FORGOTTEN.
Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him.
That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content.
Until a malfunction forces his Engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.
Until she contacts him, breathless and terrified, to tell him she found a body, and it doesn't belong to anyone on board.
Until he arrives at the scene and discovers both his wife and the body are gone.
The only clue? A bloody handprint beneath a hatch that hasn't opened in hundreds of years.
Until now.
Earth Unknown (Forgotten Earth)
mrforbes.com/earthunknown
A desperate escape to the most dangerous planet in the universe... Earth.
Nathan's wife is murdered. The police believe he's the killer, and why wouldn't they? He's a disgraced Centurion Marine pilot, an ex-con, and an employee of the most powerful crime syndicate on Proxima.
The evidence is damning. The truth, not as clear. If Nathan wants to prove his innocence and avenge his wife, he'll have to complete the most desperate evasive maneuver of his life:
Steal a starship and escape to Earth.
He thinks he'll be safe there. He's wrong.
Very wrong.
Earth isn't what he thinks. Not even close. What he doesn't know isn't only likely to kill him, it's eager to kill him.
If it doesn't?
The Sheriff will.
Starship Eternal (War Eternal)
mrforbes.com/starshipeternal
A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…
Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
(War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)
Hell’s Rejects (Chaos of the Covenant)
mrforbes.com/hellsrejects
The most powerful starships ever constructed are gone. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. The attackers are unknown. The orders are clear: Recover the ships. Bury the bastards who stole them.
Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. As a Highly Specialized Operational Combatant, she was one of the most respected Marines in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe.
Not for long.
The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey happens to be one of them. The deal is simple: Bring back the starships, earn your freedom. Try to run, you die. It's a suicide mission, but she has nothing to lose.
The only problem? There's a new threat in the galaxy. One with a power unlike anything anyone has ever seen. One that's been waiting for this moment for a very, very, long time. And they want Abbey, too.
Be careful what you wish for.
They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They have no idea.
Man of War (Rebellion)
mrforbes.com/manofwar
In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.
Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.
Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.
Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.
Earth was lost.
It was never forgotten.
Fifty-two years have passed.
A message from home has been received.
The time to fight for what is ours has come.
Welcome to the rebellion.
Or maybe something completely different?
Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)
mrforbes.com/deadofnight
For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:
Finish the job, or be finished himself.
Balance (The Divine)
mrforbes.com/balance
My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain
my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.
Now, I’m dead.
Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...
I met Dante Samghieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.
I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.
Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.
Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and recover the Holy Grail.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.
Wait. It is.
Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)
mrforbes.com/tearsofblood
One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.
