by JustinSloan | Jun 27, 2017 | Snippets
I wanted to share this start to the short story I included in the anthology with CC Ekeke, Chris Fox, and JN Chaney. Why? Because I think it’s going to be a big part of one of my next two solo projects. Let me know what you think please.
(Also, we always appreciate people buying the anthology – it’s in KU!)
Bloodbag Suppressors: A young Marine wants more than anything to go fight “goldies,” an aggressive alien race. To do so he means to join the best of the best—an elite squad made up of vampires, the only race able to truly cause damage to the enemy.
Brent pulled at his other hand, trying to keep his elbow bent as best he could to avoid Sarah’s near perfect arm-bar she had on him. She was strong, he’d give her that, but he wasn’t about to tap out, not today, not with the panel watching from behind their protective glass.
He shouted in frustration, then rolled into it and let his elbow land extra hard on her throat just long enough to break her hold so that he could regain his footing.
It wasn’t technically a strike, and though her eyes flashed red, she only snarled slightly at him before leaping up and preparing to take him down again. But this time, he was ready—a quick side-step as she leaped forward, and he faked a roundhouse kick with his right leg before bringing out his ka-bar knife to slash down across her neck and then, while she was still cursing him, bring the blade up and into her chest.
This time there was no question she was going to hurt him. She pulled him close, ignoring the blade still in her chest, and looked about to tear his neck off when a voice crackled over the loudspeaker and said, “Very well done. Sarah, if you’d please…”
Her nostrils flared and she licked her lips with a menacing look, but the red glow faded from her eyes.
Before letting him go, she leaned in and said, “If I see you out there, you’re fucking dead. Remember that, blood-bag.” Her warm, moist tongue flicked at his neck, and then she had released him and was walking away.
At the doorway, she stopped, pulled the knife out, and threw it so that it stuck into the matt at Brent’s feet.
She mouthed, “Fuck you,” before disappearing through the doorway. The metal clanged shut behind her.
“Now, Brent, move on to the shooting demonstration,” the voice on the speakers said.
He gave the panel a nod, trying to clear his head. He had to admit, he’d nearly pissed himself when Sarah had thrown the knife like that, and been even more terrified when her mouth had been at his neck, but he couldn’t let them see any weakness.
He approached the rifle rack and took down his favorite plasma blaster. Waiting for it to recognize him by placing four fingers on its side, he closed his eyes and focused. If he pulled this off, he’d be one of the elite. He could finally say he joined the 15th Marine Space Fleet for a reason. His father would look at him from Heaven or wherever the hell people went when their planets exploded while still inhabited, and Brent could stand with pride.
“If you’re ready,” the speaker voice said. “Commence.”
Brent opened his eyes to see the yellow strip along the side of the blaster, signaling it was synched with him and ready.
He turned to the wide, open room. It reminded him of the hanger bays they’d practiced fighting skills in at boot camp, two years ago when he had no idea what he was getting himself into.
Little did he know at the time that, had he stayed behind and went to The Empiric University like his father wanted, he would’ve died alongside everyone else he’d known his whole life.
Sometimes, he wished he had, but that was before he was given this opportunity to join the elites fighters, to be one of the best.
And to get his fucking revenge.
by JustinSloan | Jun 11, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED (Book 1 is now available on Amazon! Book 2 launches in 3 days)
The book’s about to launch, so here you go! FINAL SNIPPET!
Mortar rounds began dropping as an airborne drone sliced by, distending a mass of metallic tentacles that ensnared a female resistance fighter. Giovanni watched the drone pull the screaming woman up into the air until she was barely visible, and then it dropped her.
The woman shrieked, windmilling her arms, falling through the air before her body broke apart on the roof of an adjacent house.
“Fuckers!” Calee said, pulling up next to Giovanni. She had a Hafnium rocket launcher over one shoulder and was hungry for targets.
“Cover me!” she said, and Giovanni did, turning and firing several rounds as the drones regrouped and menacingly moved forward.
The chain guns on the drones turned night to day, spitting fire continuously, as Calee dove for cover. She scrabbled behind a brick wall and rose and fired her rocket.
The missile arced up and then came down on a hard angle, detonating on top of another drone, splintering it into five smoking pieces. (more…)
by JustinSloan | Jun 6, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED (Book 1 is now available on Amazon! Book 2 on preorder)
As far back as Giovanni could remember, the monsters had come for him in the blue light of pre-dawn. There was the one he was convinced lived between floors in his house, for instance, the slithering monstrosity with ten, whippet-thin arms that lurked in the ductwork, emerging in the wee hours to harvest the “crusties” that lay at the corner of his eyes. And then there was the spider-like thing that hid in the piping, reeking of sewage, crafty enough to crawl up out of the sink after dark to nibble on his toenails.
Giovanni hadn’t thought about these things for years, but as he sat in the back of a tactical vehicle, watching the gruesome Syndicate drones fall from the sky, it all came rushing back to him with the suddenness of a punch to the face.
Luke and Calee were at his side, the three of them gazing up into the early-morning sky, heavy with hovering gliders. They could see the mechanized killing machines dropping out of the open ports on the vessels’ bellies like demons jettisoned from some terrible birth canal, riding metal leaders called ‘ratlines’ to the ground, ready to conduct a sweep of the northern part of the city of Las Vegas.
“Same thing’s happening at most other major cities,” Luke said. “We’ve got reports coming in that major offensive operations are over. They’re not really attacking in full force anymore.”
Giovanni took this in. “Surgical strikes?”
“More like snatch and grab operations,” Calee replied. “They come down, raise some hell, and suck up anyone over the age of eighteen. Lately, they’ve been targeting some of our operators. LRP units coming in from the field.” (more…)
by JustinSloan | Jun 2, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED (Book 1 is now available on Amazon! Book 2 on preorder)
“Enough!” someone shouted. Samantha looked up to see one of the other boys around fifteen or sixteen, black, broad-shouldered, and bespectacled appraising her.
“What’s your name?” the bespectacled kid asked.
“Samantha,” she said. “But I go by Sam.”
The bespectacled boy nodded. “I’m Arnel.” He pointed to the tall boy that Samantha had knocked down. “That’s Blake.” He pointed to the other boy next to him, “Carter.”
Samantha nodded and pointed to the boy on the ground, the one that Blake had been pointing the stick at. “What’s his name?”
“Seth,” the boy on the ground croaked. “My name’s Seth.”
“How come you’re messing with him?” Samantha asked, gesturing again at Seth.
Blake stood and dusted himself off. He grabbed his stick back from Samantha and iced her with a look. “Because he almost gave us away to them, that’s why. He broke the first rule of this place.” (more…)
by JustinSloan | May 29, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED (Book 1 is now available on Amazon! Book 2 on preorder)
Samantha ran headlong through the broken cityscape, listening to the sound of the metal monster that was hunting her. She ducked behind a charred school bus and took to her heels, slingshotting across an intersection that revealed the aftermath of a Syndicate attack. The road was bottlenecked with wrecked machines, upraised sections of road, fallen buildings, and clusters of bodies in various states of decay. A real horror show as far as the eye could see.
Catching her breath, Samantha looked back and gasped. An alien drone, one of the really big mothers was visible, just down the street, striding forward like a mechanical spider.
The drone pistoned its spiked metal legs into the bricks on the side of a building and scampered up and scoped the terrain before it. Then it vaulted forward, before—
BOOM!
Landing with a terrific thud in the middle of the street, mushrooming debris into the air. The machine was almost translucent black with red streaks, the color of beets, as tall as a construction crane, and as heavily armored as an entire tank battalion.. Samantha listened to the sound of gears straining with it, heard the echo of hissing valves and snapping pistons as its armored turret swept left and right, searching for her.
It was midday but cloudy and so what looked like headlights on the thing’s turret snapped on, red lasers lancing out, cleaving the shadows that lay between what was left of the city’s financial district. (more…)
by JustinSloan | May 27, 2017 | Snippets
UNEDITED – Follow at www.Facebook.com/SyndicateWars (book now live on Amazon)
A base liaison officer led the Marines from the armory down a short set of stairs and through various anterooms until they hit a catwalk bolted onto the far side of the mountain. The catwalk extended behind an armored bulwark called “Block Thirteen,” which was notched with cubbies where Marines could sleep or shoot through firing holes.
Here and there were missile batteries and robotic chain-gun cannons pointed at the sky that could fire one thousand thirty-millimeter rounds per minute. Next to the weapons were phalanxes of anti-missile devices hooked to their own targeting systems—close-in cannons on swivel bases that fired chaff and tungsten penetrator rounds, designed to destroy any incoming alien missiles and artillery.
The Marines stopped and Hayden went down the line, assigning each a cubby. Quinn humped her gear down toward the end of Block Thirteen and dropped it in a cubby next to Renner’s.
Quinn stashed her rucksack at the back of the cubby and peered through a gun slot. Everything was green, the immense jungle below spreading out in every direction. She made sure the others weren’t looking, then withdrew her cellphone, a battered iPhone that had seen better days. She opened her photo album and started at the beginning, flipping through photos of her daughter from the moment she was born up to the present, her eighth birthday. Sammy aged right before her eyes and Quinn fought to suppress the tightness in her throat, the burning at the edges of her nose. She wanted badly to call her up, to check on her folks, but she knew that was forbidden. Intel had briefed the Marines and warned them that the use of cellular devices might be used by the enemy to track movements and positions. Knowing SouthCom like she did, bastards who cared about nothing more than winning, she figured they probably had cellphone suppression around the base anyway.
Music echoed, and Quinn set down her phone and peered around the side of the cubby. Renner was on his stomach, listening to some classical music while staring at a collection of religious figurines. (more…)
I wanted to share this start to the short story I included in the anthology with CC Ekeke, Chris Fox, and JN Chaney. Why? Because I think it’s going to be a big part of one of my next two solo projects. Let me know what you think please. 