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

What he wouldn’t give to see their faces now, as his ship roared past the damned proof that he’d been right all along. The Lady of Atlantis statue was identical to the Lady of Elche stone in every regard, save size. Where one was miniature, the other was gigantic, but there could be no doubt in anyone’s mind: they were the product of the Atlantean imagination. He’d been right and they’d been wrong. It didn’t mean shit. That life was over, his colleagues left behind to rot on an abandoned planet, his new life stretching out before him, with death gnawing at his ankles. There was no time to indulge in revenge fantasies. He had to get his friends to safety and come up with a plan to rid the galaxy of evil.

He veered to the left and pulled back on his control stick, hugging the gray and white hills that neighbored East Rise.

Kiyo-zan leaned forward, pointing, “Kono-saki.”

“Up ahead?” Jaxx’s eyes followed Kiyo-zan’s finger. “Yep, inbound. We’ve been found.” The transport ship’s alerts went haywire, and the cockpit dome light changed from a natural daylight to battle-ready red. Several Agadon starfighters were descending from the black clouds, their overly extended wings were tipped with weapons that began glowing a molten orange.

Jaxx tapped the console, irritated at its slow warning system. Kiyo-zan warned him of the inbound enemies before the sensors. “A little late for the alarm, aren’t ya?” He turned toward Zara. “Strap in.”

Were the Kelhoon already in combat with the Agadon? The Kelhoon engaging the Agadon would be a good thing. Because for the first time in a long time, the Kelhoon couldn’t focus all their fire power on Callisto. They had enemy combatants of their own. They were going to be the stitch in the Agadon’s side and the Agadon the stitch in the Kelhoon’s side, giving Jaxx some time to end this war, to end both the Agadon and the Kelhoon threat. He’d eradicate two dick-headed races, unless they did it for him. How sweet would that be? If they took each other out?

“We don’t have any weapons, Jaxx,” stated Zara. “We are like an injured red-billed brandzill flying.”

Jaxx pulled back on the control stick and then right, taking the craft around a hill, moving through a massive gorge.

He closed his eyes and rolled them back. He took a mighty breath. His body tingled, then expanded. All went silent and an aura of colors enveloped his vision. A spiral of black and white spun in front of his third eye. He exhaled and became one with the craft.

He opened his eyes and turned sharply. A red energy bolt zoomed past him, pounding into the side of a hill. Three Agadon fighters were now inbound, directly on his bow. Their cannons rotated and sucked in, pushing out violently, sending ion charges his way.

He spun the craft on its side, the bolts missing. He brought his ship into a low yo-yo maneuver, rolled the transport craft’s nose into a turn, and dropped it into a steeper angle, causing the three Agadon’s in pursuit to overshoot. He had to sacrifice what little altitude he had for an instantaneous increase in speed, and it worked.

He pulled behind an Agadon starfighter. He knew he couldn’t pull the trigger, because there was no trigger to pull. Perhaps they wouldn’t see his bluff—that his ship was weaponless—and would hightail out of there to save their own asses.

No such luck.

One of them spun on a dime, something only Jaxx could do. Well, Jaxx and one other.

Not good.

It had to be Taz—the Agadon that had the same powers as him.

“Shit, that sly pain in the ass is back,” said Jaxx, pulling away, lifting his craft above the hills. A blast shuddered against the transport’s belly and Jaxx was thrust back into his tight, inflexible body. He grasped his control stick.

Zara grabbed Jaxx’s shoulder. “Land this thing before we go up in flames.”

“I’m already on it.”

Another hit rocked the craft. The display screen blipped off and on. The craft fell from the sky, the instrument panel flickering off, then powering on, then off again. They were in a free fall and the ship spun wildly in circles.

“I don’t have control,” yelled Jaxx.

He glanced at his altimeter. A hundred feet until they met the ground.

“Brace for impact.” Jaxx grabbed the sides of his chair, pulling himself into a ball.

Fifty feet.

A beep rang through the cockpit.

Twenty feet.

Everything went offline and the craft went silent.

Five feet.

The transport ship slammed into the ground, rumbling on impact. The floor buckled and the ship convulsed upward, bouncing off the ground. The restraints around Jaxx broke, catapulting him forward and into the cockpit window. It shattered, glass shards spitting everywhere, and somehow, the base of a hill started to come closer and closer to Jaxx.

No, he was coming closer to it.

He covered his face with his arms and hands. He bounced backward and expelled a gush of air when he hit the hard, frozen ground.

2 J-Quadrant, Solar System - Flood of Dawn, Callisto

Rivkah tumbled to the ground, heat sinking into her upper back. She screamed. Her legs lost all sensation. Her arms were no use. She couldn’t break her fall. Her face skidded across the rocky snow.

She struggled to push herself back up, but her limbs weren’t complying, they weren’t moving. She closed her eyes and conjured up a vision of electrical impulses zipping from synapse to synapse. They wouldn’t zip, no matter how she tried. In fact, they weren’t struggling at all. They weren’t even firing.

She knew she had been shot, but did it sever her spinal cord?

Her nose was buried in the snow. She quickly moved her head, laying her cheek against the frigid ground.

At least there was something that could move.

Her lip was split open. Blood dripped on the snow. Her nose oozed red. She could feel the snow, cold on her cheek but freaking frigid as the arctic on