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Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 55

Lys’ eyes flickered to the hand on her shoulder, her eyes narrowing. “What is with headman’s sons and being full of themselves?”

She grabbed his wrist and wrenched it in a twist. He screamed and tried to pull away, but she jerked him back toward her without letting go. He stumbled, trying to regain his balance and perfectly positioning himself for her.

She swept his leg, catching his ankles and sending him crashing to the ground. He landed hard on his stomach, the air rush...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 54

The next morning, they resumed the march to Tradow.

Lys walked near the front of the company, her eyes scanning the road ahead. The path was rough, winding through hills and dense patches of trees. Despite the challenging terrain, they made good progress.

There was no sign of bears. Or fire lizards. That was welcome.

Their luck changed on the second day when a quick moving rainstorm drenched the area, turning the road into a muddy quagmire. The low sections between the hills...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 53

The morning sun fought to pierce the thin forest canopy as Lys emerged from her tent. She stretched, her muscles stiff.

Around her, the camp was already stirring, the smell of fried potatoes luring recruits to wakefulness without a roll call.

It was already well past dawn, and they hadn’t been roused. That was a hint that it would be a ‘lazy’ day. They weren’t going to be moving out, then.

She made her way to the wounded to check on them, especially the ones from Gro...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 52

Lys’s jaw dropped as a monstrous thing burst from the bushes.

The creature was nothing like she had ever seen before. Its scales gleamed where the sunlight punched through the thin forest canopy, creating a moving pattern of iridescent green and gold that seemed almost otherworldly. Its eyes, a piercing yellow with a black line for irises, glared with unrestrained fury at her and the company.

She had seen nothing like it before—but she had heard about something like it in stor...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 51

Lys rose at dawn, packing her kit. She joined the other recruits at the muster point, stifling a yawn as Sergeant Swift’s regular boom cut through the morning mist.

“Alright, listen up!” Swift barked. “We’ve got a long march ahead of us today. Trekhill, you’re Group Leader for the week. Move them out. We’re on the march!”

Lys blinked. Group Leader. Her?

Technically, she’d known that it would happen, eventually. She’d even watched the other group leaders c...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 50

News of their goal quickly spread through the column as Lys trudged along with the rest of the recruits, pack and kit on her back. The sun beat down mercilessly, just like it had been doing for the last few days. Summer really had stuck its roots in.

She glanced at her companions. They looked tired.

“Has anyone been to Tradow before?” Lys asked.

The others shook their heads, their eyes fixed on the dusty road ahead.

Woodrow finally broke the silence. “I heard it�...

July Plans, June Recap

June was a real rollercoaster of a month.

Demoness had that big drama during release, but thankfully seems to have not been derailed by the haters. The stress from those attacks probably took off five years from my life, but I'm still going.

The Sigma16 and Lastia alternating tempo seemed to work good, although I ended up having less and less time to work on things and it ended up going much slower than I hoped. But it was still decent progress!

For July I had planned to sta...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 49

Lys relaxed on a log while the other recruits chatted, their voices mingling with the crackle of the fire. She leaned back to stretch, her stomach full from the hearty stew they’d eaten for dinner.

“I can’t believe we made it in time,” Plainfield said, plopping down beside her. “I thought for sure Swift was going to have our hides.”

Woodrow chuckled. “You worry too much. We’ve got this down to a science now.”

“Easy for you to say,” Stormwell grumbled. �...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 48

Lys woke at dawn. She stretched and then began packing her belongings. Before lights out, Tilledge had informed her she’d be going back to her recruit group. There had been a handful of goodbyes and then everyone had gone to bed.

Her tent came down easily. The motions were familiar now, and she dealt with it with practiced efficiency.

As she made her way to the muster point, Lys spotted Plainfield, Woodrow, and Stormwell. The familiar faces were a relief, but she wished that the...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 47

Lys gritted her teeth as the stretcher jostled. The pace was hard, and that meant the group had to take turns carrying her stretcher. The summer sun beat down mercilessly, and it was humid despite being before noon.

Sweat trickled into her eyes and her pack, balanced precariously on her legs, felt like a lead weight.

As the day wore on, Tilledge pushed the group relentlessly, leading them through more than just the run after the very brief respite of lunch. Lys watched from her po...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 113 - Second Rescues

Talia watched as the spiders swarmed over the makeshift training grounds. Her eyes flickered from group to group, tracking their progress.

Hot Pink pranced atop a mound, demonstrating the proper stance for firing lasers. The spider’s legs twitched with excitement as she showed off the new gear.

Nearby, Dapple held court with a cluster of newcomers. Her steady stream of chirps and clicks carried across the clearing thanks to her communicator’s speakers.

As each group mast...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 46

Lys jolted awake while her heart pounded in her chest. The darkness of the night was broken by the flickering light of a lantern held over her. That almost sent her rolling out of the cot, but she recognized the other mercenary and restrained herself.

It was Sergeant Yasir Goshen.

“Please tell me I’m not dreaming again,” Lys croaked. Her voice was still hoarse. She wiped the sheen of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand as she sat up.

He didn’t reply. In...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 112 - Perspective Shift

Talia perched atop the CRD-X9, her new MK2 armor gleaming in the harsh sunlight. The vehicle’s treads churned the desert sand, sending up plumes of dust. Behind her, a convoy of trailer-equipped CRD-X9s trundled along, laden with equipment for the spider nest’s future fabricators.

She shifted, the armor’s bulk forcing her to adjust her position. The suit’s inability to fit into her vehicle cockpits was a minor annoyance.

Everything was always a tradeoff, it seemed. At lea...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 45

Lys clung to the rope, her knuckles white as she forced herself to look down. Vertigo hit her like a physical blow, the world spinning beneath her feet. She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on the rough texture of the rope against her palms.

“Easy there, Lys,” Dax called from below. “Just take it slow. One step at a time.”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. The climb down was worse than the one up for sure.

It had taken nearly an hour for her to be able to br...

Sigma 16 T2 - ​Chapter 111 - Plans

Talia sat down at the console and activated the machine. The hum of electronics filled the air.

The inside of the Bootstrap module was eerily unchanged from her last time inside—dark lighting, soft sounds of machinery, and a coating of dust that had materialized thanks to the sand she had probably tracked in at some point. Everything outside had changed dramatically, but not here.

[Query: What would User like to work on?]

She leaned back, the seat groaning under the weight...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 44

Lys watched as the White Dragon infantry formed tighter squares, their shields locked together as they carried ladders and other equipment up the steep hill. There was no way for her to tell where the other recruits were in relation to the rest of the formation, though.

The enemy ranged units had perched atop the earthen walls and began to rain arrows down upon them. The deadly projectiles clattered against the shields.

“Alright, it’s time,” Sergeant Tilledge said. “On you...

Mercenary of Lastia - Table of Contents

Blurb:

Thrown from her life in a tranquil forest village into the fires of fate, Lysandra must reinvent herself in a world ruled by men, mercenaries, and questionable morality.

Defiance in the village of Thornfield comes at a high price.

When Lys stands up to Caius, the privileged son of the village headsman, her life spirals into chaos as she flees to spare her family from vengeance. Alone and destitute after her hoped-for sanctuary burns to the ground, she finds her only...

ShipCore - Table of Contents

In space, isolation is a slow killer. Company quickens the pace.

Waking up adrift in an ancient battleground, Alex is left dazed and confused with no clue how she ended up trapped aboard a failing vessel. With only a mysterious voice in her head to guide her she must act in order to survive.

Every piece of the puzzle she collects only leads to more questions about her origins and the star she's trapped around might not be as deserted as she first thought....

Sigma 16 - Table of Contents

Blurb:

Talia, the daughter of a wealthy conglomerate CEO, harbors an unquenchable adventurous spirit.

Wishing to make her own mark on the universe and avoid the boring life of corporate drudgery, she joins the droves of new human explorers combing through unexplored space in humanity’s newest diaspora from the core worlds.

Her resilience is put to the test when her brand-new exploration corvette crashes onto an uncharted planet, Sigma 16. Despite the sudde...

Newly Summoned Demoness - Table of Contents

Blurb:

In a world where darkness lurks, one girl's fate will shatter centuries of stagnation.

Elania's life takes an unexpected turn when demon-worshiping cultists summon her to their world, aiming to revive their dead god. When their hated foe strikes, she escapes into Eladu's darkest depths.

Amidst savage predators and underground monsters, Elania discovers her newfound abilities are both a formidable ally and a haunting burden that threatens to reshape ...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 43

Lys’s hands trembled slightly as she checked her climbing harness for the third time. Each strap was secure and snug. If she had thought praying to Bunzard would have been enough to get her out of the mission, she would have vowed to become a priestess on the spot.

Alas.

The weight of the arrows in her pack felt like they would pull her down. There were a lot of arrows, at least eight bundles, and her pack was light. The others had pulled out almost half of her stuff and spread ...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 110 - Questions

The CRD-X9 came to a halt. Talia flipped the hatch switch and then clambering out.

The bootstrap base sprawled. Only the old module she had sheltered in remained in its familiar spot, near the mining tunnel leading to the depleted Durasteel deposit and abandoned spider nest.

Vehicles still moved up and down the ramp. She wasn’t sure what that was about. Underground storage, perhaps?

She refocused. Questioning the prisoner and getting things ready to take back to the spider...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 42

Lys arrived at the skirmishers’ camp area. Apprehension bit at her, but the only thing to happen was that Sergeant Tilledge greeted her with a curt nod and pointed to an empty spot near the edge of the tents. “Set up your tent there, Trekhill.”

She nodded and got to work. Pitching her tent was simple enough. She had done it hundreds of times by now.

It was a new issue, her old one having burned. The canvas felt rough against her fingers. Her older one had been a little nice...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 109 - Adjustments

Keeping the spiders from chasing the Blues out into the desert wasn’t easy. Talia spotted a few bolting forward, rushing toward the damaged boundary. “Dapple! Hot Pink!”

The two spiders turned toward her, attentive, and scurried over to listen. “We can’t let the others run out of the jungle,” she said, her voice firm but gentle. The two spiders tilted their heads questioningly.

“Can you stop them? Get them to come back?” Talia asked.

They chirped at her, then...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 41

Lys stood in formation with the others, her gaze fixed straight ahead as she tried to ignore the hollow feeling in her chest. The recruits from other groups arrived. They looked little better than her own group. Although there were a lot more of them.

That stung slightly. Her training group had bore the very heavy brunt of the enemy attack.

Swift stepped forward. “Listen up! We’re reorganizing the groups back into sections of twenty.”

Lys frowned as she ran over the nu...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 108 - Horde

Dapple and Hot Pink chirped at the other spiders rapidly. Talia waited, her nerves on edge. Suddenly, Dapple’s forelimbs lifted her off the ground, holding her up in the air.

“Hey!” Talia protested, squirming slightly.

Hot Pink moved forward toward the other spiders. “Talia-warm-nice-friend! Not-taker! Help-fight-kill-Takers!”

The other spiders pulled back, clearly wary. Talia couldn’t help but wonder how Hot Pink could consider her “warm” since she was alway...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 40

Lys trudged back to her group’s tents. Everything was a blur as exhaustion pulled at her. The sight that greeted her was one of devastation.

Her tent lay trampled, its canvas torn and muddied. Others had fared even worse, reduced to charred remnants or torn beyond recognition. Arrows littered the ground, leaving behind a sea of splintered shafts and sharp points stuck into everything.

Peder was there, already busy gathering the scattered debris. Lys joined him, picking up arrow...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 107 - Evisceration

Talia aimed her PAR, the suit’s aim-assist locking onto the Blue soldier sprinting toward the tunnel. The rifle barked, a burst of projectiles tearing through the target. He crumpled, lifeless.

A warning beep sounded, and an icon flashed on her HUD. She dove behind a chunk of building as plasma fire erupted from a turret. Flames licked over her cover, and her suit screamed warnings.

“Neo, we need to upgrade these modules when we get back to the Slim Girl!” she shouted, frust...

Mercenary of Lastia - BtLH - Ch 39

Lys half-carried, half-dragged Garrett through the chaos of the camp, his blood soaking both of them. Tents flapped in the wind, many of them smoldering from the flaming arrows.

They reached the medical tents, which were far enough back that they had avoided being set ablaze. Wounded men lay on cots and pallets, their moans and cries filling the air.

“Medic!” Lys shouted, her voice hoarse. “I need a medic here!”

A harried-looking man hurried over. “What’s the pro...

Sigma 16 T2 - Chapter 106 - Carnage

The LIRUs led the way deeper into the jungle, past the destroyed remains of the Blue platoon—or company? Talia wasn’t entirely sure on the numbers or how the Blues would divide their combat formations.

Her HUD displayed her own unit’s progress, the green dots inching closer to the nest. She glanced at Dapple, perched on the edge of an APC that had pushed through the jungle terrain without getting stuck.

“Is there a nearby entrance to the Nest?” she asked.

Dapple c...