Star Exiles: A SciFi Military Epic (Ascension Gate Book 4) by Justin Sloan

Author:Justin Sloan [Sloan, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Speculative
Publisher: Elder Tree Press
Published: 2020-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

18

Trent, Reshodan

Each step was another reminder to Trent how much like Earth this planet was. He had no doubt that they would reach a place that took him out of that feeling eventually, but at the moment with the grass, trees, and pleasant scent like roses drifting through the air, he almost wished he had crash-landed here instead of back on Remald. Then again, Feras walking nearby was a great reminder of why he ‘almost’ wished that, but not quite.

It wasn’t until they were well into the small forest that he started noticing the strange trees, taller than the others and with purple, jagged leaves that spread out wide. A gust of wind sent purple down from these in small, floating pieces that resembled snow. Maybe some form of local pollen, he thought, bringing his helmet back on with the thought.

Something moved to his right and he startled, turning to see what looked like a hairy lizard eyeing him. It leaped out, causing him to pull back and prepare to defend himself—only it wasn’t going for him. The lizard’s trajectory took it out toward the purple, wings unfolding as it flew across, grazing on the purple pollen as it went.

“Beautiful,” Feras said, watching the creature as it landed on a tree opposite them, hanging upside, down. It scurried around, then jumped again, going for more of the purple food. Then more appeared from surrounding trees, so that there were at least a dozen of those creatures zig-zagging around in the air.

The group kept walking, soon leaving the flying lizards behind.

“These Reshodan will attack us?” Trent asked.

“It’s likely,” Gray admitted. “But we don’t have the slightest clue as to what they have been up to all these years.”

Trent paused at the edge of the clearing, hand held out to stop Feras from advancing.

“What is it?” Feras asked.

“There.” Gray was pointing, apparently having seen what Trent saw. Up ahead just over the horizon, a large cruiser style ship was moving through the air slowly. Clearly on the lookout for something. Or maybe someone?

“It seems to be on patrol,” Feras said. “See the way it’s turning there, covering its tracks?” She pointed to the right, then to the left and, kneeling, let out a gasp. “As expected, another one of those stone gates.”

Trent followed her lead, eyes searching that direction, and nodded. He could make out the edge of the curved stones. It wasn’t clear if this was actually a gate like the one they’d seen, but it definitely could be.

“What do you make of it?” he asked.

“My thought is, if there is one to our right over there, and one to my left here, that ship over there might be circling over a third. If they form some kind of pattern.”

“And on that note,” Gray said, indicating the sky through the trees to the left, “there’s another ship.”

Sure enough, Trent saw the edge of another ship through the foliage. It kept moving, gone from sight.

“I’m guessing we’re not the first ones to come through some sort of portal,” Farah said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.