The Ember War (The Ember War Saga Book 1)

by Richard Fox

  ****

  From his perch on a Mule’s open rear hatch, Standish watched the thorns comprising the Crucible shift like a sea urchin fighting against the tide. Torni ducked down next to him, watching the spectacle over his shoulder.

  “That is just freaky, isn’t it?” Standish asked.

  “You’re worried about what the Crucible is doing, but not why we’re sitting in the center of it while it…moves?”

  Standish stiffened.

  “Hey, why are we sitting out here? Sergeant Cortaro?”

  Cortaro and Lieutenant Durand floated out of the cockpit, pulling themselves toward the open hatch via handrails running along the cargo hold.

  “Captain Valdar said something small is coming through the gate,” Durand said. “We’re supposed to pick it up.”

  Standish did a double take at the lieutenant.

  “Do we need our rifles? We haven’t had a lot of luck with sudden alien encounters,” Standish said.

  “You keep talking and your big mouth will catch whatever’s coming through,” Cortaro said. He pushed a lifeline harpoon to Standish, who put the harpoon to his shoulder. The device would shoot a magnetic plate connected to a carbon fiber line and the internal winch would reel in whatever the plate attached to. Torni got one too.

  Durand spoke to the other pilot through the IR, sending minor course corrections.

  A point in space ahead of them twisted, distorting the light around it. A black circle grew from the point and a white lump of metal shaped like a rounded squash burst forth. The disk vanished and the metal, which looked like a life pod to Standish, rolled in the void.

  “Ready harpoons,” Cortaro said. “Keep your lines slack until you anchor.”

  The spinning pod slowed and the two Marines hit it with their harpoons. They bolted the winches to either side of the cargo hold and the winches pulled the pod closer.

  “Adjust Y-axis by six degrees, slow relative speeds to zero on my mark,” Durand said. She backed away as the pod floated into the drop ship. The white metal was pitted and scarred. Four blisters, evenly spaced across the surface, looked like they were glass, encrusted with ice on the inside.

  The pod cleared the hatch and the Marines detached the harpoon lines.

  “Mark,” Durand said. The pod hung steady.

  “Latch it down, hurry,” Cortaro said.

  Standish hooked flat yellow fabric line into the hull and tossed the slack over the pod. It bent against the pod as it crossed. Standish moved to the other end of the hull and caught the hook from another line that Torni sent over, crisscrossing the other line. Standish hooked the new line to the floor and the cargo straps tightened over the pod, squeezing it to the deck.

  Standish stood up and peered into the icy blister.

  “I wonder what’s inside.” He tapped the blister with his knuckles.

  A hand slammed against the inside of the pod, a hand twice the size of a man’s with four reptilian fingers.

  THE END

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  Thank you for reading The Ember War. I want my next book to be better than the last, and for that I need your help. Please leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads and let me know what you liked, and where I could improve.

  If you’d like to get in touch, please drop me a note at Richard.r.fox@outlook.com and I promise to answer every email.

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  Also By Richard Fox:

  THE RED BARON

  At the dawn of the First World War, Manfred von Richthofen sought glory. What he found was misery. Sentenced to a meaningless staff position after losing his first battle, Richthofen joins the fledgling German air force and discovers his deadly talent for air to air combat.

  In the air, victory and renown come at the expense of other men’s lives and with a burden that grinds against his soul. To the soldiers and people of Germany, he was the pride of an empire. To his foes, he was the Red Baron. As wounds to his body and spirit mount, Richthofen learns that even heroes have limits. As the war enters the final stages, finding the strength to keep fighting will be his greatest battle.

  The Eric Ritter Spy Thriller Series:

  THE CALIBAN PROGRAM

  When the CIA summon young Lieutenant Eric Ritter to Pakistan, they throw him into the cloak and dagger war against al Qaeda. A war Ritter isn't ready for.

  INTO DARKNESS

  A Deadly ambush leaves two soldiers in terrorist hands, and their only chance at rescue is the connection between Eric Ritter and the al Qaeda mastermind behind the attack.

  THE SOCOTRA INCIDENT

  Somali pirates hijack a fishing boat smuggling a nuclear warhead and a frantic race for the weapon ignites. Al Qaeda wants the bomb to strike a devastating blow against the West. The North Koreans want the nuclear weapon back before their role in nuclear terrorism is exposed. The CIA want their operative Eric Ritter to seize the bomb intact for later use…and Ritter doesn’t know why.

  THE BELTWAY ASSASSIN

  An assassin murders one of the shadowy Directors of the Caliban Program-a covert arm of the CIA that operates beyond the bounds of law and morality. As the targeted killings of America’s elite continues in Washington DC, the investigation falls to two men who don’t trust each other, Eric Ritter and Greg Shelton.