It was the noise that hit her first.
Hundreds of rifles, rockets and fighter jets combined to create a wall of sound. Stepping into it was like being punched in the head. She could barely think straight. Columns of black smoke from a couple of wrecked Red Eye attack ships billowed into the sky, twisting and turning in the wind like tornadoes. She took a step forwards and then another, instinctively aware from her hours of playing SkyWake that she needed to keep moving.
Her visor flickered as streams of information flowed over it. A mini-map showed her objective, a red waypoint at the very top of the beach. Casey gripped her plasma rifle and pressed on, looking for her friends.
She quickly found herself flanked by dozens of gamer-soldiers, all wearing exo-suits just like hers. She saw Xander among them. He pushed past her, marching up the beach blank-faced and emotionless. If he recognized her, he showed no sign.
“Xander!” she shouted. She grabbed his arm, trying to shake some sense into him. But he didn’t even acknowledge her presence and merely pulled away. “What’s wrong with you?” she cried, pulling him back. As she did, his helmet slid backwards to reveal the wire mesh spread over his head. It flickered with flashing LEDs.
Xander pulled away from her a second time and righted his helmet before marching into the Squids’ incessant artillery fire. His face was emotionless and impassive, like that of a man possessed. The rest of the Strike Force clan waited for him to catch up. Then they advanced up the beach as a squad. It was as if they were under some kind of remote control.
Casey was about to go after them when she heard a shout off to her left. A few metres across the beach she spotted Pete and the Ghost Reapers stumbling out of their drop pods. There was no sign of Dreyfus. She went to join them.
The boys stared, open-mouthed, at the chaos around them.
“I’m dreaming, right?” Elite muttered. “Gotta be dreaming.”
A Red Eye overseer came over and shoved them forwards, shouting something incomprehensible in his alien tongue. Casey didn’t need a translator to know he was telling them to move.
That was what you did on the beach. You kept moving or you died.
“Come on,” Casey said. She grabbed her brother, keenly aware that he wasn’t wearing combat armour. The rest of her team fanned out behind her across the sand. They all ducked as a plasma shell whooshed over their heads and landed behind them, right where they’d just been standing. The abandoned drop pods and the overseer vanished in the explosion.
“What do we do now?” Fish asked, activating his energy shield.
Casey looked around at the beach. “The only thing we can do,” she said. “We fight. On me, everyone.”
The boys fell into formation, Fish up front with his shield, the others taking cover behind him. They had done this a million times before back at home, sitting in front of their monitors. Now they were here for real.
Casey clutched her plasma rifle as more artillery shells exploded around them, throwing sand and dirt into the air. She led her team forwards.
Today was going to get a whole lot worse before it got better.
Acknowledgements
Writing a book can feel like a lonely journey into the final frontier, but I am lucky to have a brilliant crew on the bridge with me. SkyWake would never have seen the light of day without the tireless love and encouragement of my wife, Louise, and daughters, Isobel and Alice. They read the first few chapters and convinced me to keep going, sustaining me throughout with love and laughter. Like pretty much everything else in my life, I couldn’t have done it without them.
A big thank you to the rest of my family – Mum, Dad and Lorna – for all their love and support, not to mention the purchase of various home computers and consoles back in the prehistoric, pre-internet days. See? All those years spent blasting aliens and collecting coins was research! Thanks too to John and Anna-Maria Groombridge for many past kindnesses.
I am lucky to have not one but two amazing agents. Andrew Mills at JAB Management has been a rock during my years as a stuck-in-development screenwriter. Meanwhile, Ella Kahn at DKW Literary Agency is a bona fide superhero. Her ability to switch between offering a steely-eyed overview of the market to giving keen notes on structure and character is incredible.
When I drew up a tentative list of my dream publishers, it’s no exaggeration to say that Walker Books was right at the top. My family has worked its way through their entire catalogue, from pre-school bear hunts to middle grade super-spies and YA vampires. I am supremely grateful to Denise Johnstone-Burt, Emma Lidbury and Gráinne Clear for championing Casey and for being such utterly wonderful people to work with. A big shout-out to Megan Quibell for her sensitivity read, Margaret Hope for her fantastic art design and Kirsten Cozens and John Moore for all their super publicity work. And a huge thank you to everyone else at Walker Books who’s been part of bringing SkyWake to life behind the scenes in secret ways I don’t even know about. You’re all amazing publishing ninjas, each and every one of you.
Thanks also to the super-talented Matt Griffin for his brilliant cover art; the super-lovely Liz Hyder for all her generous cheerleading; Nerdy Coffee Co. in Shrewsbury for boardgames, vegan cakes and general awesomeness; and the 2021 debut authors community (especially the crew of the MG/YA Good Ship collective for all the support and laughs).
Finally, thank you to you … the reader. Writing a novel and putting it in someone’s hands is nerve-racking, but it’s also a real privilege. So thank you for picking up this book. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
And remember: go with the flow…
Jamie Russell is a former contributing editor of Total Film magazine turned screenwriter and author. He has written several non-fiction books, including Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema and Generation Xbox: How Videogames Invaded Hollywood. SkyWake: Invasion is the first in a planned trilogy and is Jamie’s first book for children.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.
First published 2021 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2021 Jamie Russell
Cover illustration © 2021 Matt Griffin
The right of Jamie Russell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-5295-0162-9 (ePub)
www.walker.co.uk
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