In honor of Slumrat rising to the top of Rising Stars, I have written the first Side Story! All new characters! Foreshadowing! Ominous Pronunciations by the ethically dubious!
I really like it.
And my patrons on Patreon get everything two weeks before RR, so guess who's getting a double update Friday? Yep. It's you.
Thank you so much for all your support. It really does mean the world.
2023-04-13 13:46:53 +0000 UTC View PostTruth floated, dead at the bottom of the well. No strange dreams, no spiritual journeys. Dead. Unquestionably and irretrievably. If the observer had brows, they probably would be rubbing them with frustration.
“Comms! Is the bird down?!” Truth bellowed. His ears were ringing from all the explosions. He hoped the Comms operators were still alive.
“The Redhawk is perched in the field behind us. More incoming hostiles. We have to evac NOW, Sarge!”
MISSION UPDATE- PERSONNEL AND CARGO TO THE TRANSPORT AT ONCE, FORSAKING ALL OTHER OBJECTIVES.
Truth was moving before his brain processed the order. He grabbed a shell-shock...
2023-04-11 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe carriages raced for the secondary airstrip, the backup identified by Plan C. The only reason Truth had any hope whatsoever that their enemies did not already hold it was that the “airstrip” was a flattened stretch of scrub-like desert that some wildly optimistic local tried to turn into a farm. Nowhere was it listed as an airfield. It was a little rammed earth house, a shed made of thin sticks, and a big flat bit of desert in the middle of nowhere. Fingers cros...
2023-04-10 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe mission was simple- escort the package from the pickup at the dock in the fishing village of Itum, County Hostfa, in the Ressilaud Free State, to the hand-off at an airstrip three hundred kilometers inland. The “airstrip” in this case is a reasonably flat stretch of scrub-filled desert twenty minutes drive from the village of Rezum, County Iilofa, still in the Ressilaud Free State.
Ressilaud was indeed a very free state. In that, there was no effective law enforcement. It was ge...
2023-04-07 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostIt was the double whammy- a miserable teenage child wailing about luxury Truth couldn’t have imagined two years ago, throwing an absolute fit, and then, when she got him alone, inviting him to… do something about it. With his muscly arms. She just needed someone. Someone strong enough for her. Someone she could rely on, not like her absentee parents. Truth was absolutely dead at this point. Even knowing this was a setup, she hooked him. Her soft h...
2023-04-06 17:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostTruth ran out into the club. Club staff were running over to the VIP booth with large sheets hanging from curtain rods. In seconds, they had the whole booth cordoned off. Truth burst through, the young idiot on the ground and frothing at the mouth. The party girls huddled against the back of the couch, looking shocked.
Truth took one look and whipped out a few bone slivers from their case. “Anybody spell him?”
“I got a detox off, but it’s not ...
2023-04-06 17:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostHe collapsed on his sofa at the apartment. The apartment, in its entirety, wasn’t nearly as nice as the private cabin on the flight home. Should he invest in an upgrade? But Harmony was doing his national service soon. It will be just Sophia and Vigor most of the time. The apartment would only get bigger and bigger. Especially since Sophia would be going to college after her national service. Or before, if she got a deferment. Same with Vig, p...
2023-04-06 17:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostCaptain Clavegaugh looked her usual collected self. She nodded at Truth (who had to control the instinct to salute) and then directed him to his seat. “You have a lot of questions. Sit, listen, then ask.” Truth nodded. Clavegaugh continued.
“This first part I’m saying with my military hat on. I reviewed the recordings from your drop armor. You put down so many enemy combatants so quickly, there was no chance of any organized resistance. ...
2023-04-06 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThey landed at Lowi International, which served the world with spellbirds that could hold three hundred people in varying degrees of comfort. He walked over to the ticket counter, directly ignoring the snaking, pythoning queue. He rapped his knuckles on the counter in front of the harried woman who was desperately sorting through her screen. “I need a flight to Harbin. Right now, or as soon as possible. Give me the best available seat.”
She loo...
2023-04-06 16:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostTruth activated the body reinforcing enchantments on his armor, racing for the nearest oversized needler as the built-in cannon gathered energy. He hacked at a howling bandit, still in agony from the blast. The bandit’s head cleared the emplacement and was still rising when Truth went in.
There were three more terrorists in the sandbagged AA emplacement. They must have been scrubs- they had their needlers up and working. Two of them missed. From three met...
2023-04-06 16:50:01 +0000 UTC View PostTruth lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling. He felt like he had all these words inside of him, but they were so jumbled together that he couldn’t possibly get them all out. He wanted to tell the sibs that-
He didn’t remember how old he was, but if he closed his eyes he could see it like he was still there. Mom had turned the water as hot as it would go, scalding hot, and she put little Harmony’s hands under it and held them there and he screamed a...
2023-04-06 16:45:01 +0000 UTC View PostTruth was in an odd mood as he walked into the PMC. He was still thinking over the scene in the Vice Principal’s office. The matter just… ended. There would be no negative comments in the siblings' permanent records. No problems with their college applications. The kids that were bullying them would be suppressed, and their parents given a quiet, but firm, word. The teachers too, for that matter. Not because of the moral rightness of his case nor ...
2023-04-06 16:40:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe fastest way back to Jeon, specifically Harban, and even more specifically, the Sibs, was complicated. There were no airfields near Chil Perdermo. There was, however, a brilliant international airport two hours down the road in Okepuela. Okepuela being the beach paradise that Sergeant Murthey had promised Truth and where the party bus was headed. However, Truth was not prepared to wait two hours to make it to the city. He certainly wasn’t prepared to spend t...
2023-04-06 16:35:01 +0000 UTC View PostHarsh lights lit the warehouse interior. Whatever they were doing here, the outlaws wanted to make sure nothing got missed. Truth could see his targets- the half-naked slaves, necks rubbed red and raw by the iron collars they used to wear. Now with glowing green beams of light pouring from their eyes, their faces twisting into demonic forms as their bodies withered and twisted to better suit its new owners. They were slaves no more- or at least, not slaves to an earthly mast...
2023-04-06 16:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to the Slumrat Rising Patreon, where you can access chapters up to two weeks ahead of the public releases. Yep, that's right, you can read up to TEN chapters in advance. A couple of small quality-of-life things- those coming from RR will know I don't number my chapters on there. By overwhelming demand and the great good sense of my readership, chapters will be numbered on Patreon.
The second thing to know is that I am currently in the "Simplify ...
2023-04-06 16:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post