Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

eyed the pyramid. Her mouth gaped open. “Oh, no.” Violent, angry reds and yellows glowed on the vista. A boom shuttered the earth again and what appeared to be a gale-force wind caused by an explosion blasted toward her. Head over heels, the wind tossed her away from the pyramid.

A cloud appeared and mushroomed towards the sky, beautiful but deadly.

Rivkah scrambled to her feet. “What’s happening? I thought we ended this. No more war. I thought Jaxx’s death—” She fought the urge to scream. She had to get a hold of herself, to pry herself free from Jaxx. “He gave his life to end the war. The war should be over.”

Fox stood and laughed. He clapped, perhaps to get her attention, perhaps in a show of bravado or machismo. “Stop should-ing all over yourself,” he said. “Military life doesn’t have any shoulds, coulds, or woulds. Liberty just killed Jaxx, a Secret Space Program asset that the SSP very much needed. These Atlantean nutjobs know exactly what they’re doing. I see it clearly, now. They’re looking to sabotage the SSP. We need to warn our people…”

Rivkah dashed toward the domed city, Flood of Dawn. There, Liberty, the city’s leader, would know what to do. She was from Callisto. This was her home. She’d set them straight.

Fox followed.

They passed through the doorway to the glass-like domed city, their boots slapping hard on a cobblestone pathway that led to a forest a short ways ahead. Into the forest, a branch from a green needled tree slapped Rivkah across the face. Another branch, this one with a pink tufts, poofed away like blowing dandelions puffy, ripe seed heads when making a wish as Rivkah ran by.

The outside cold now transformed to warm and humid inside the dome by some type of terraforming technology the Atlanteans had. Birds chirping somehow calmed the continued mayhem outside the city along with Rivkah, her heartbeat slowing a tinge. She breathed in the soft air, the oxygen rich and bringing vital life to her lungs and body, the forest’s fragrant aroma seemingly doing the same.

Flood of Dawn was designed to soothe the senses, but she couldn’t allow herself to fall into a beauty-stupor. She needed to hold on to her anger, her alarm, her sense that something awful had just happened. She waved Fox forward, her voice low. “Come on.”

“I do my own bidding, woman. If you want to see the leader of this place, then so be it. To me, she’s a traitor.”

Rivkah picked up her pace, leaving Fox behind. The cobblestone path opened up, widening as the forest ended. A palace was before her, crystalline in nature, like all the structures in Flood of Dawn.

Liberty stood at the palace’s entrance, her long dress ruffling in the breeze. She was vocal, gesticulating fiercely, as she talked with one of her commanders. She was confused, angry. Something Rivkah hadn’t seen from her in the short time she’d known her.

“Liberty,” Rivkah yelled. “What’s going on?” She took long, confident strides toward the pair, readying herself for any attack, just in case Fox was right and that Liberty was a traitor.

Liberty motioned for the commander to enter the palace, turned, and walked toward Rivkah. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“About XO Katherine Bogle. She left us. We can’t locate her.”

“Why does it matter?”

Liberty crossed her arms. “You knew she was named in the prophecy. She was a major player. Someone we needed.”

Rivkah put her hands out, palms up. “So? Spill it.”

“She wasn’t in the vicinity. Jaxx left us, but didn’t die, which is why the battle still rages. But, we have something worse on our hands now. All Negatives are inbound and heading our way.”

A spark lit in Rivkah’s heart. “Wait, Jaxx is alive?”

“More so than ever.”

“Where is he?”

“We don’t know.”

Jaxx was alive? Her chin trembled, but she held it together. If she could jump in relief, she would, but for some strange reason, this woman in front of her was like Fox and seemingly couldn’t care less about Jaxx being dead or alive.

“Death is nothing to fear. It’s moving from one vehicle to the next, only to enter another vehicle in time. There is no pain. It is all love,” said Liberty, as if responding to Rivkah’s thoughts. “I love Jaxx as if he were my own. Our bodies are priceless and I do not take what Jaxx attempted to do—give himself for the benefit of the rest—lightly. But he’ll be back. He’ll attempt the other path to save us, to save humankind.”

“To save humankind?”

“Yes. But we must find Bogle. She’s one of the keys.”

XO Katherine Bogle fell into this mess much like Rivkah. She was the XO for a Star Carrier, Star Warden, in the United States’ Secret Space Program. After attempting to bombard Callisto, the Star Carrier met its end quickly by the Atlanteans here on Callisto. With thousands of crew, Bogle was the Star Carrier’s sole survivor.

Rivkah huffed. “Bogle tried to kill me. She killed Grenik, for God’s sake.”

Liberty lurched back, clutching her chest. “She killed Grenik?”

“Well, not necessary killed him, but purposely led us to slaughter.”

Grenik, an Atlantean, and Rivkah led a small team to kill the Kelhoon leader, a half-lizard, half-human race hell bent on killing everyone on Callisto to take everything as their own. Bogle was their eyes and their map, but instead of leading them to the Kelhoon leader, she led them into a trap, and knowingly.

Liberty narrowed her eyes. “Dakin!”

A sabretooth tiger stepped around a large brush, snarling and padding over to Liberty. He nudged her back with his cheek and gave a ferocious growl.

Rivkah jerked her head, getting into her signature Muay Thai fighting position, as if that could possibly fend the giant cat off if it attacked.

Liberty tapped the tiger’s head and he lowered into a crouch, licking her hand. She jumped on his back. “My weapon.” She put her arm out and a man emerged from the palace, a long trident in his hand. The man threw the