After finally being able to find the correct frequency for the Miravallian defensive network, explaining who he was to at least a dozen subordinates, a man identifying himself as General Piton came onto the horn. He sounded very excited to be talking to Captain Beaurigar.
“Beaurigar! You’re stationed in Harren Falls, yes?” the gruff voice demanded.
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“Was it you who brought down the bridge over the River Cleave?” he pursued.
“Well, yes, sir. We didn’t have much choice,” Beaurigar pointed out.
“Don’t apologize, dammit!” the general thundered. “Yours is the only good news we’ve had in three damn days of fighting. We intercepted and decoded a message from the Dommies front line general in the Crest saying that he had lost twenty-five tanks and two hundred men in an ambush at the bridge and that the bridge was destroyed. You and yours are getting a bucket of medals if we survive the next few days.”
“It was actually more like forty tanks and seven hundred fifty men killed or captured,” Beaurigar pointed out matter-of-factly.
“Seven hells, give me all the details, Captain,” Piton demanded excitedly and when Beaurigar had finished his story, he added, “Three separate victories by a homegrown militia! I might be able to convince the royal family to lift the communication blackout if we lead with this story.”
“Communication blackout, sir?” Beaurigar repeated.
“The Archduke didn’t want it to be made public as to just how bad it is. Doesn’t want people losing confidence in the government,” Piton explained.
“Just how bad is it, sir?” he asked.
“The Dommies took Highskye and then went up the river to Greybridge,” he said. “You probably saw that on the news before the blackout. Greybridge fell within a day and without the bridge being destroyed. That allowed even more forces to cross our border. At the same time, troop barges dispatched across Cliffside Lake from Dominion territory landed in the Duchy of Kentbourg, subduing it easily before marching west into our territory. They have taken Carriage Cross and the Pisca Peninsula. We stopped the bastards at the Godly River and the Alethian Gulf with a counterattack. I imagine we have you to thank for preventing the second half of their pincer attack from marching down the Crest at us. For now, Alethia and Philatheos are safe.”
“That’s something at least, sir,” Beaurigar said, but his heart was not in the words.
“It gets worse, captain,” the general said. “The Elysing Alliance signed a treaty with the Dominion a few hours before the invasion. They invaded the Bolero Valley two days ago. Our soldiers in Appleton threw them back rather easily, but we’ve had to make hard choices regarding our soldiers stationed in the Rift and at the Mirror Pass.”
Beaurigar was not used to superior officers explaining the entire military’s strategic difficulties to him. “Sir, why are you telling me all of this?” he asked.
There was a moment’s pause on the radio. “Because right now, the Dominion and her allies hold almost a third of our country,” he responded. “Our army is barely holding them out of the rest of Miraval in a line that stretches down the Alethian Gulf, the Godly River, and into the Rock Maze. Add in the incursion into the Bolero Valley, and we are stretched too thin to attempt to retake Carriage Cross or the southern entrance to the Crest. What I am saying, Captain, is that you are all alone up there… and you are behind enemy lines.”
To Be Continued…
An Earnest Plea for Your Help
Hello, good reader.
First of all, a heartfelt thank you for making it to the end- I hope you enjoyed the journey.
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About the Author
Justin Bohardt became a writer because he realized early in life that creating alternative realities was infinitely preferably than living in the existing one. A former reporter, he moonlights as an auditor for a Fortune 100 insurance company while crafting new worlds in every second of free time that he can find.
His fiction has appeared in magazines such as Hungur, Outposts of the Beyond, Potter’s Field, The Drabbler, and Micro 100; while his poetry has been featured in Scifaikuest, Aoife’s Kiss, The Martian Wave, and Champagne Shivers. Bohardt also contributes to the occasional trade publication and teaches the occasional class. He resides in Iowa with his family.
Please visit him online at: http://gggeflat.wix.com/justinbohardt
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Also by the Author
Parliament of the Profane I: Summum Omnium Bonus
As the history books teach us...
1945. A trio of superheroes known as the Triumvirate have revealed themselves to the world. These people with powers only previously heard of in comic books- the ability to fly, superhuman strength and speed, and mastery of the elements- helped the United States to win World War II. With the blessing of the U.S. government and financially backed by the military-industrial giant CPI Corporation, the Triumvirate became fighters of crime and communism in equal parts while championing American values.
1990. For the first time ever, new humans develop super-powers and an entire generation of meta-humans joins forces with the Triumvirate to form Operation Scimitar. While not nearly as powerful as the seemingly eternal members of the Triumvirate, these new heroes became the front line soldiers in a war against the supervillains who have replaced the Red Menace as the greatest threat to the American way of life.
2014: Gwendolyn Beckett was merely doing her patriotic duty, submitting herself to testing and training at CPI's Operation Scimitar Headquarters after her extraordinary power to melt metals with her mind manifested itself. That was the last thing she remembered, before she awoke bound and hooded, listening to a roaring crowd that is waiting to see her fight a fellow meta-human to the death in a gladiatorial arena. As Gwen battles to stay alive, a splinter faction within the U.S. government, led by a cryptic meta-human who calls himself Seether, is plotting her rescue because they believe that a secret is locked away in her mind. That secret could overturn everything that people thought they knew about meta-humans, could bring crimes to light that have gone long unpunished, and could shed light on a conspiracy millennia in the making. More importantly to Seether, that secret could answer the one question that has plagued him since he woke up off the coast of Nagasaki in 1945 with no memory and powers similar to the members of the Triumvirate: what the hell is he?
Available on Amazon here and CreateSpace here.
Parliament of the Profane II: Fides Uberrima
In the second book of the Parliament of the Profane trilogy, Nate Greene, better known as Seether, has finally regained those memories lost after the nuclear explosion in Nagasaki during World War II and at last understands what he is. When the world was still without form and void, he went by the name Azrael, and he served Heaven as the Angel of Vengeance and the instrument of God's Wrath. For six thousand years he had been confined to Earth, a punishment for taking up arms against the Throne during the Morning Star's rebellion, and for six thousand years, he has fought evil in whatever form it has taken.
With the machinations of Preston Ward and the Triumvirate temporarily thwarted, and many meta-humans loyal to the sinister CPI Corporation slain, there will still be no time for Seether and his allies to celebrate their victory.
Ward and the two surviving members of the Triumvirate are still on the loose, and a new organization called Fides Uberrima, a cult capable of wielding an incredible power, have thrown their support behind Ward's endgame, an endgame that remains frustratingly elusive to Seether and his companions.
As Ward reaches the culmination of his life's endeavors and Fides Uberrima preaches the coming of the apocalypse, Seether will need to reach back into his distant memories to truly understand the grave peril the world now faces and find a way to defeat the ultimate threat to humanity.
With the machinations of Preston Ward and the Triumvirate temporarily thwarted, and many meta-humans loyal to the sinister CPI Corporation slain, there will still be no time for Seether and his allies to celebrate their victory. Ward and the two surviving members of the Triumvirate are still on the loose, and a new organization called Fides Uberrima, a cult capable of wielding an incredible power, have thrown their support behind Ward's endgame, an endgame that remains frustratingly elusive to Seether and his companions.
As Ward reaches the culmination of his life's endeavors and Fides Uberrima preaches the coming of the apocalypse, Seether will need to reach back into his distant memories to truly understand the grave peril the world now faces.
Available on Amazon here and CreateSpace here.
Parliament of the Profane III: Gloria Deo
Coming Soon!
The gates of Pandaemonium have been opened and shadow daemons have been unleashed upon the world. Preston Ward’s goal of eradicating humanity is approaching fruition, and humanity’s only hope for salvation- Azrael and his meta-human Nephilim cohorts- have been captured, killed or scattered to the wind.
Ward’s soul, now possessing the Serpent- the shadow drake responsible for man’s original sin, has a final weapon to unleash against those who fight to save humanity. Azrael’s oldest opponent, responsible for the angel of death’s own fall from grace, will be set free from his prison at last to ensure the destruction of life on Earth.
Partisan
Book 1 of the Invasion of Miraval
The Grand Duchy of Miraval is a small, picturesque country of great snow-capped mountains, rich alluvial valleys and plains, and grandiose sections of woods and waterlands strategically located between the world's two great powers. The past two decades have seen Miraval forced to go to war twice with the Dominion, their belligerent, saber-rattling neighbor to the north. Miraval ceded territory to the Dominion in each of those wars to earn an uneasy peace, but most Miravallians knew that the Dommies were just biding their time. The Dominion would come for the entire country sooner or later and every citizen would be called upon to fight.
Raslan Dagenham, better known as Dag, was a simple hunter and an incredible shot who cared nothing for what went on in the world beyond his town of Harren Falls in the rocky, forested hills of the Crest. Since his father died fighting the Dominion in the Great Strife, his only interest had been seeing to the survival of his siblings and mother. The return of his brother Aleksian from university, bearing news that the rumors of an impending Dominion invasion are likely true, coincides with news that several northern cities have fallen to a Dominion advance of tanks and airships.
Under cover of darkness, an advanced Dominion force launches a surprise assault on the Dagenham's home town, bringing a distant war into the brothers' back yard. Spurred on by Aleksian's patriotism and his own desire to protect his home, Dag picks up his rifle in defense of Miraval and goes to war. Allied with his brother Aleksian, a few National Guardsmen, a couple of constables, and a ragtag group of volunteers, Dag will make a stand to save his hometown and possibly his country.
Available on Amazon here and CreateSpace here.
Guerrilla
Book 2 of the Invasion of Miraval
For Dag and Alex Dagenham and their ragtag group of partisans, militia volunteers and National Guardsman, the defeat of the Dominion forces invading their homeland was but a small victory compared to the crushing defeats suffered by the hopelessly outmatched Grand Duchy of Miraval. Nearly a third of their country has fallen to the military onslaught of the mighty Dominion, and the mountainous woodlands know as the Crest, the Dagenham brothers’ home, is now cut off from the rest of Miraval.
The Dominion military, incensed at even a single defeat at the hands of a group of peasants, hunters and farmers, knows that resistance in the Crest must be eliminated before they can advance their army further into Miraval. A massive column of Dommie infantry and tanks, supported by newly designed steel-hulled airships, is being sent into the Crest from Dominion-occupied Miraval to quash the insurrection once for all.
Trapped behind enemy lines, the brothers Dagenham must scramble to prepare another defense of their home against a massive force that will not underestimate them again.
Available on Amazon here and CreateSpace here.
Saboteur
Book 3 of the Invasion of Miraval
Coming Soon!
Winter has fallen in the Crest and across Miraval, and everywhere the war has reached a seeming stalemate. The Dominion invaders have refused to advance further into Miraval with a strongly outfitted militia force to their rear, and have settled into a tactic of trying to starve out the Miravallian holdouts in the Crest.
Knowing that they will not survive the winter without help, Raslan “Dag” Dagenham agrees to take his commandeered airship, the Godsfury, from the Crest to the capital of Alethia. The Miravallian capital is not in much better shape, but the promise of an ally and a new source of weapons and supplies in the powerful Barony Confederation has presented itself. It merely requires the destruction of the Citadel, an impregnable fortress buried deep in the mountains of a Dominion puppet state, the Elysing Alliance. The massive artillery of the Citadel has the capability of reaching Barony cities and the Confederation will not commit to helping Miraval with that threat still in place.
With no other way to save the people of the Crest, Dag agrees to lead an infiltration force into enemy territory, all while dealing with sabotage attempts from within his own ranks and Dominion irregulars that seemed determined to assassinate the brothers Dagenham.
111 Souls
Infinite Universe (Finite Ways to Make a Living) Book 1
A decade has passed since the Gael conquest of Earth and her allies, and Captain Matthew Jennings has a ship and a good crew: a Cajun first mate that fought with him in the Gael War and cooks like an angel, a doctor from Scotland who picked up his trade while serving a life sentence in prison, and an engineer from Pasqua, a being whose entire race seemed to be born engineers. Jennings’s only problem is that they are flat broke. The universe might be infinite, but the number of ways to make a living was not.
After their last bounty hunting job went south, the crew of the Melody Tryst finds themselves with no money, no fuel, no food, and several pesky warrants currently outstanding for their arrest. So when the leader of the Gael occupation force offers Jennings a life line in the form of a plain and simple bounty hunting job, he reluctantly accepts, even if it means working for his former enemy.
The job is a simple bounty hunt, collecting a radical college student named Michelle Williams, who stood accused of treason, terrorism, and being a member of the Terran Resistance. As much as Jennings despised the Gael, he held an even greater hatred in his heart for the Resistance. As far as he was concerned, they were a bunch of pretend soldiers who had not bothered to pick up a weapon in the Gael War and now bombed civilian targets in the hopes of hitting the occasional Gael or human collaborators.
Not everything is as it seems.
Michelle Williams has been on the run for weeks after seeing her boyfriend get murdered, and has been forced to dodge multiple assassination attempts, escape police custody, and deal with gangsters that would sell her into slavery. Most importantly, she had no idea why any of this is happening to her. The closest she has ever come to actually committing a crime is when she and some of her college friends staged a sit-in in her college’s a
dministrative building as a demonstration against the Gael’s occupation of Earth.
What neither Matthew Jennings nor Michelle Williams know is that the Gael Overseer Pahhal has a list of one hundred eleven humans- one hundred eleven humans that the Gael desperately need, the mere prospect of their capture having driven his people to go to war with Earth. One hundred and ten of those humans have been captured- Michelle Williams is number one hundred eleven.
As Jennings and his crew expend every resource to find Williams, they find themselves on the wrong side of a diminutive Russian bounty hunter whose viciousness is immeasurable, an interstellar crime lord who enjoys trafficking in the flesh trade, a coldblooded assassin who freelances for the Resistance, and the humans of the Terran Gael Force, an army made of those who chose to collaborate with the Gael. All of whom are hell bent on killing Matthew Jennings and claiming Michelle Williams for themselves.
Surrounded by fire on all sides, Captain Jennings begins to realize that the plain and simple bounty is a hell of a lot more complicated than he could have ever imagined and that he is the center of plans that have been ten thousand years in the making. All in a day’s work though for the captain of the Melody Tryst.
Available on Amazon here and CreateSpace here.
Sanguine Starscapes
A Collection of Short Stories
Humanity has left Earth to truly explore the stars, but what of those who remain in the shadows, feasting upon humanity's blood? Would they not follow their prey into the depths of space?
Sanguine Starscapes is a collection of four short stories, each taking the vampiric myth into the stars. Humanity may transcend the bounds of their home planet, may colonize worlds, and may create an idyllic future, but they cannot escape that which is immortal. And the immortal cannot escape the call of blood.
Partisan (The Invasion of Miraval Book 1) Page 12
