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

would pick up a handful of running Leonian warriors, cradling them in their arms, and protecting them from incoming fire.

“Where are we going?” inquired Jaxx, his heart pumping, his adrenaline soaring.

“Follow us. And pick up some of our troops, will ya’, fuzz face?”

Jaxx slowed and scooped up a handful of Leonian warriors. He brought them toward his chest, holding them like he’d hold a baby. He took fast strides, pounding footstep upon footstep over the hard earth, passing the burned wheat fields and onto dry grasses and high desert terrain.

A video popped on his screen, showing the troops he’d picked up now tapping buttons onto his mech’s chest. Several compartments opened. They each pulled metallic clasps connected to thick cable and attached it to the chains that crisscrossed their back. The cable was hooked into the mech, preventing the warriors from plummeting to their death if they slipped or were somehow thrown.

An alarm blared. He glanced at another screen in his cockpit.

“We have incoming missiles,” Jaxx informed Zara.

“I’ve informed your troops and they are already on it,” replied Zara.

Before Jaxx could reply, the gang of troops climbed up his mech’s chest, grasping one handhold after another, while still attached to the cables—cables that elongated the farther the troops scaled.

And the warriors were fast. One by one they reached his shoulder, got on one knee and aimed their cannons at the missiles. Blue flames zipped out of their barrels, the gun’s concussion pushing the warriors backward and into the air, the cable immediately sucking them back into Jaxx’s mech’s arms.

One missile, two missiles, and then a half a dozen missiles vanished on his screen, downed by the Leonian soldiers.

“More are coming.” The hair stood on the back of his neck. Another half a dozen missiles headed his way and hundreds more en-route to the remainder of the retreating Leonian mechs.

“Yes, we’re not out of this yet,” responded Zara.

The attackers were AI beasts with bad programming, according to Zara, and that was all Jaxx knew. Why they were attacking the Leonians in the first place hadn’t yet been discussed with him.

Jaxx’s soldiers trudged their way back up to his shoulder and crouched. They fired and again, rocketed off his shoulder from their weapon’s kickback. The cables sucked them back into Jaxx’s arms.

He checked his screen. One by one, the missiles vanished.

“Damn. They are goo—”

A blast dug into the back of a mech running next to him. Armor and fire burst outward and the mech lurched forward. Flames like a tidal wave leapt over the mech’s head. It lost all function and fell forward, its legs and arms going limp. The soldiers he carried, bailed left and right just as the mech went headfirst into the ground. The soldier’s cut their cords, landing in a somersault and popping immediately to their feet, avoiding secondary blasts exploding from the downed mech.

Jaxx shifted to the right and, still cradling his warriors in one arm, bent down and put his arm out for the downed mech’s troops. They latched on to his arm and Jaxx brought them in to his chest, then raced forward toward the hill.

“Commence opening,” said Zara.

The ground rumbled, shaking his mech with every step he took. A portion of the hill cracked in half, opening wide, exposing a creamy interior with large columns extending to the ceiling. Ships lined the back.

“Jaxx, head into the opening. We’ll see you when you get there. Out.”

Jaxx rushed forward, his heat gauge showing that his mech was close to overheating. Jaxx assumed most of the mech’s had the same issue as they ran for their lives.

A beep told him he was wrong. According to his quick, download training he had forgotten one vital component with running a mech. When the gauge was at half the heat it was now, the mech must release heat syncs, which were overloaded batteries that stored heat pressure for the benefit of the mech. If too many batteries were full, the mech would automatically release a heat sync here and there. And his combat-mech had either malfunctioned or it was being an asshole and refused to release any vital heat syncs.

He pressed a button, manually releasing them.

Nothing occurred.

He pressed again.

Again, nothing.

“Dammit,” he tapped on his heat gauge. It was nearing red and his mech was slowing, overheating. Yet, he was only a hundred meters from the hill’s entrance. “Don’t do this to me.”

His mech shuddered, then jerked to a halt. The engines whined and smoke rose from his hip gyros.

He pressed the ignition. It didn’t start. He pressed again. His troops looked up at him, worried. He waived his arms, yelling at them to exit, and to leave this soon to be pile of rubble.

They jumped, cut their cables as they landed, and hurried to the hill.

Jaxx lifted his hand and popped the cockpit. The warm smoke smacked into his face. He hacked up blackened sputum, while undoing his straps. Just a minute longer and he’d have been toast. He stood, taking off the spongy helmet and dropping it on his seat.

How was he supposed to climb down this machine? There were a few footholds and handholds from his mech’s cockpit to its chest, but this time there was no ladder from the last foothold to the ground like there was when he first entered the mech. The problem wasn’t the footholds leading down to the ground, or lack-there-of. The problem was the incoming starfighters and mechs coming his way.

He threw one leg over the cockpit’s exit and slid down to the chest where several cables hung, now unattached from the soldiers who had just used them to flee.

Kraaaakah! Kraaaakah!

Jaxx let out a bark of laughter. “Are you kidding me?!” A barrage of missiles headed his way.

15

E-Quadrant, Earth - Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

“It is time.”

“What?” Drew bolted upright, sweat dripping from his face. He was running, being chased by the G-men who’d killed his mom, ducking bullets, saving beautiful women from zombies wearing People’s Liberation Army uniforms straight from the