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

hourglass. The two-suns in this planet’s system shone above, lighting everything, including Jaxx.

Several Agadon starfighters flew overhead, their heavy rocket boosters spat out blue fire.

Jaxx's console told him the starfighters flew at thousands of miles per hour. It was a wonder he could see them at all. Must be the mech-tech at work.

Jaxx tapped some buttons on the console, bringing up an Agadon starfighter blueprint. A holographic image of a starfighter popped up and spun in front of him. The craft had long wings that curved ninety-degrees halfway and jutted forward several meters past the craft’s nose.

“Commence!” yelled Zara.

Each Leonian combat-mech crouched, then jumped, igniting their boosters. They blasted out of the opening.

Jaxx pulled a lever toward him, putting his mech into a crouch, then released the lever and pressed his mech’s feet boosters at the same time, shooting him out of the underground facility. He lifted over the lip and landed on a wheat field. He lunged back and vibrated violently as a missile cluster bombarded his position.

He balanced himself and checked his diagnostics. A few missiles had singed his mech’s legs, melting a thin layer of armor. Nothing catastrophic.

He took a step forward and halted, spinning his cannon barrels online, readying to step around a few Leonian mechs in front of him.

An explosion jerked his head back and he shielded his eyes. The eruption dying down and he lowered his forearm. A Leonian mech in front of him teetered forward, armor on fire, internals spraying sparks like an active volcano. It smashed, face-first, into the wheat field.

Another Leonian mech moved backward, absorbing the shock. A sizzling blue electricity spiraled from its crown to its armored boots. It lurched forward, and in a flash, the mech raced across the wheat field, and unsheathed its sword. The more steps it took, the more of a blur the mech became.

It slammed into an Agadon mech. The Agadon wavered as the Leonian dug its sword through the enemy’s torso. Fire blasted from the Agadon mech and slabs of armor dropped to the ground. Puffs of smoke rose where each slab fell. The Leonian slashed upward, slicing through the Agadon mech’s chest, neck, and head, sparks and fire splashing against the Leonian mech, like blood.

The Agadon teetered but was so compromised, the Leonian only needed to swat its palm onto the Agadon’s shoulder to push it over and onto its side. The Agadon’s metal crashed upon the ground, and a secondary glow of fire burst toward the heavens.

An alert blared in Jaxx’s cockpit. Adrenalin shot through him and his heartbeat quickened. He scanned the battlefield.

An Agadon mech landed a clip from him, pointed its arm in Jaxx’s direction and shot a burst of cannon fire.

Jaxx’s mech reeled back, its shoulder absorbing the shock. His cockpit shook and his torso twisted, while its hips and legs remained planted in place. He narrowed his eyes and twisted back around.

The Agadon ran in his direction.

Jaxx lunged forward and went into a run himself.

The Agadon lifted his mech’s arm and a blaster popped up. It shot several slugs Jaxx’s way.

Jaxx side stepped. In the next moment, he lifted his mech’s arm and smacked a fist into the Agadon’s outstreched arm, then zipped two shoulder mounted cannon slugs of his own into the enemy mech’s belly. Armor blasted outward and melted and fell, pelting the ground, running off the mech like hot butter.

The Agadon maneuvered away and sent an avalanche of cannon fire at Jaxx.

Jaxx anticipated and crouched, his mech’s actuators growling in the process. He pressed a holographic weapon’s button on the console, demagnetizing his sword, letting it drop toward the ground. He brought his mech’s arm behind his back, catching the sword at its hilt, and swung it at the Agadon’s knees.

A waterfall of sparks shot out as the Agadon mech’s joints failed. The sword cut through, toppling the Agadon onto its side. The ground shook on impact.

Jaxx jumped into the air, landing flat footed on the Agadon’s mechanized chest, caving the armor inward.

He shifted his mech’s view screen from forward to holovid cams near his mech’s feet, seeing green fluids sludging out of the mech’s chassis, exposing gold and silver wires bundled and torn in half.

He switched cam views and dug the tip of his sword into the mech’s neck, severing the head. A sea of flames exploded as wires, valves, and hydraulic dynamos split in two, charring the ground.

He picked up the enemy mech’s head and held it in front of his cockpit, eying the enemy pilot—the asshole invader, someone like Slade or worse yet, like Fox and the Kelhoon slime that invaded Taiyo when Jaxx was in the Secret Space Program.

To his surprise, the Agadon was human-looking with wider eyes, grayish skin and no hair. He was hooked into the mech via several hoses and wires that dug into the top of his skull. He looked taller and wider than the average human, his neck only a few inches in length.

The Agadon bared his teeth, screaming words that Jaxx couldn’t hear. He threw his fist in the air.

Jaxx dropped him, instinctively knowing what was coming next and jumped his mech away from the impending explosion. The mech’s head detonated and blew into a thousand pieces, spinning Jaxx off his feet and landing him onto his mech’s hands and knees. His eyes widened when he saw a handful of Leonian warriors glaring up at him in the wheat field, their translucent shields up, covering themselves.

One dipped his head at Jaxx and waved his hand forward, ordering Jaxx to follow them into battle.

Jaxx pushed off the ground, standing his mech upright. An enemy starfighter zoomed across the sky and descended toward the troops Jaxx had almost crushed. The starfighter’s cannons lit, strafing the ground, barreling in on the Leonian soldiers.

Jaxx adjusted his targeting. His mech wined as the missile casing in his mech’s chest opened. He pulled the trigger.

Whooooshka! Whooooshka!

His hip gyros acclimated to the missile’s pushback. A second later, the starfighter went up in