Unfortunately, a week wasn’t anywhere near enough time to train the twenty or so new additions to the team. They did have enough suits of power armor for all of them once Sam made some repairs and Dan updated their runescripting, but having the equipment didn’t make the new hires combat ready.
Abe and William had all too much fun drilling them on how to use their suits. He wasn’t entirely sure if the ‘drill sergeant screaming in your face’ thing was re...
2020-03-31 04:47:45 +0000 UTC
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“Look Mr. Thrush,” Bessie DuBlanc spoke to him in a tone of voice that promised disappointment. “The City of New Orleans appreciates everything you’ve done for us. Hell, we know that your team has been the only reason we’ve been able to catch a breath from those damn swamp monsters-”
“The Orakh, Mayor DuBlanc?” Dan asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Whatever they call themselves,” Bessie waved a hand dismissively. “They...
2020-03-28 04:35:58 +0000 UTC
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Daniel Thrush’s sword whistled through the air, redirecting the pole axe of an Orakh warrior with a quick tap and a clang of metal as he danced to the side. Time trickled forward at a crawl as he bent backward, letting another axe blade swish through the space he’d occupied a second before. Dan had his spellshields active, but as he quickly found out the raw strength and weight behind an Orakh’s halberd would make short work of his defenses.
Of course, tha...
2020-03-17 06:40:31 +0000 UTC
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Lieutenant Colonel Hans Bowman crumpled the report in his hand in disgust and threw it to the ground. He snorted. He should probably stop calling himself a Lieutenant Colonel while he was at it. The army that granted him that rank had already disintegrated into a collection of warlords. Sure, some of them still worked for the local civil authorities, but that seemed like a death sentence to Bowman.
Civil authorities were what led humanity to the brin...
2020-03-13 02:41:45 +0000 UTC
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Garnash sat on his throne, a pair of shamans attending him, as he stared at the image of the blue and green planet in the viewing crystal. Numerous servitors shuddered as he shifted his bulk, afraid that they would draw his attention. Garnash was known for adding his servitors and thralls to his seat of power, a rough piece of craftsmanship cobbled together from black iron and bone.
He leaned forward, blinking his beady golden eyes before pointing at a mote of l...
2020-03-12 03:06:32 +0000 UTC
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“Where is she,” Dan grabbed LT’s heavily burned shoulder, forcing a hiss of pain out of the other man. “I don’t have the time or will to play judge, jury and executioner for you but I will if I have to. Just let me know where Sam is and I’ll leave and never look back. With the System it will take more than some burns to finish you off.”
“Sub basement two,” LT winced at the strength of Dan’s grasp. “The keycard is on my lanyard. ...
2020-03-10 05:01:06 +0000 UTC
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“This is going to be an absolute mess,” Dan’s voice was heavy as he turned to look at Jennifer and William. “It’s time for us to get the hell out of here before things get any worse.”
“Worse?” William stared at Dan in disbelief. “How in the seven hells could anything get worse? Our government is in shambles. Ibis knocked the entire thing over, elevating the most craven and corrupt collection of parasites that has ever sunk the...
2020-03-08 23:51:49 +0000 UTC
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Dan made it to Rosslyn without much trouble. The soldiers on both sides were too focused on their battle around the Capitol to spare one individual running through the night much of a second thought. Once he left Washington D.C. it only took him about fifteen minutes to find the park. Then it was a matter of waiting and trying to quell his anxiety as the sounds of gunfire and explosions reached out to him despite his distance from the fight. He hadn't gott...
2020-03-05 05:40:40 +0000 UTC
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"Daddy?" Jennifer cocked her head to the side as she looked at the officer. "We need to get you out of here right away. The Thoth Foundation put too much into planning this for you to get out of it alive if you stick around to fight things out."
"Did your little traitor boyfriend tell you that," the gun was pointing at Dan once again as he tried his hardest to look inoffensive. "He stole government research before he switched sides. Our dossier on hi...
2020-03-03 04:07:16 +0000 UTC
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Creeping into the city was easier than Dan expected. Given the Capital's foreboding atmosphere he had anticipated roving squads of CHT partisans preventing people from moving freely. Instead, the streets were almost completely deserted. The majority of the city's residents were long gone, having escaped well before the armed paramilitary groups began clashing with government forces.
Dan frowned slightly as they jogged toward the Capital, taking in the peri...
2020-03-02 05:30:41 +0000 UTC
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It only took Dan and Jennifer about twenty minutes to find the nearest road, but that hardly helped. The road itself was a winding gravel affair that stretched endlessly through the woods. The snow covering the road itself was unmarred by tire tracks as far as Dan could see. He didn’t really know where he was or how much time had passed since the snow had fallen, but standing around wouldn’t get them any closer to Jennifer’s Father.
At first they wal...
2020-02-27 03:04:23 +0000 UTC
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“I need to go back Dan,” Jennifer was pacing back and forth as images from Earth played on the scrying stone. Fires burned in the streets of Washington DC as armed figures darted in between high rises. Occasionally a plane or helicopter flew overhead. No one could tell who was winning or losing via scrying, and from the sound of the overheard news programs, the media didn’t have much of an idea either.
The story was the same in London, Moscow, Paris,...
2020-02-25 07:06:43 +0000 UTC
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Dan spent the next couple of weeks in the gym trying to perfect a fire aura spell. He couldn’t control anything about the situation on Earth, and even thinking about it stressed him out, so Dan tried to focus on what he could control. Improving himself. Meditation and training weren’t the perfect solution to the constant well of anxiety that was terrestrial news, but they were a welcome outlet for his stress, aggression, and anger.
He hadn’t h...
2020-02-24 06:10:44 +0000 UTC
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After yanking the beacon’s cable out of the teleportation panel, Dan followed Gregory to the scrying chamber. Stepping into the room he waved at Jennifer to get her attention while she stood hunched over the scrying stone.
“Welcome back Dan,” Jennfier spoke distractedly, her eyes glued to the disc of stone in front of her. “I managed to find a hotel in America. They’re just leaving a tv playing the nightly news on repeat. I figured it would...
2020-02-20 06:12:39 +0000 UTC
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Dan pulled up mental walls to ward off the effects of Willot’s mana. Despite his efforts, Dan had to admit to himself that he was more than a little shaken. Whether it was the mana or the elf demanding his own death, he was more than a little off of his game. Luckily, Jennifer was mostly silent as they followed their guide to the station’s bridge. As much as he usually appreciated her banter, it just didn’t feel like the time.
“What’s your ...
2020-02-19 05:59:27 +0000 UTC
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Dan blinked away the mental static from teleportation. He was kneeling on a teleportation platform somewhere else, his sword still in his hand. He stood up and looked around, taking in the metallic room that resembled the void ship’s teleportation chamber complete with an oversized teleportation beacon. The only real difference was the humans here weren’t wearing armor. Instead most of them looked like technicians monitoring the heavily magical equipme...
2020-02-16 19:41:48 +0000 UTC
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Sneaking onto the ship itself was almost disappointingly easy. With the number of Tellask soldiers nearby, Dan kept expecting one of them to point up and sound the alarm. Instead their numbers gave them a false sense of security. By and large they were focused on either their own tasks or day to day trivialities. Still, it seemed like at least someone should have looked up from their game of dice or cooking a stew to notice the pair of humans jumping from ...
2020-02-12 02:44:01 +0000 UTC
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“So what do you call your fans?” Dan asked Jennifer after catching up with her. He could tell by the stiffness in her shoulders that she was still fairly pissed off at Reggie.
“Fans,” she responded curtly. “I keep them interested through gameplay and occasional question and answer segments. Darkstryke has always been a bit of a whore, playing things up for his viewers and trying to curry favor with them. If someone wants to unsubscribe from...
2020-02-10 03:54:23 +0000 UTC
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Dan and Jennifer raced through the alley. The rattle of high caliber gunfire guided them toward the next problem spot, and fairly quickly they exited just behind a line of soldiers. Two light armored vehicles were blocking the street and burning merrily as the coalition forces took cover behind them and periodically opened fire on a slowly advancing wall of Tellask infantry holding tower shields. In between the two lines of soldiers, a pair of elves were fightin...
2020-02-09 18:31:51 +0000 UTC
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A) If you can read this, thank you for sticking with me as I write this.
B) If you would like a thank you as I publish on Royal Road please let me know your username (either via pm or in the comments) so I can publicly thank you for your support.
2020-02-06 04:53:49 +0000 UTC
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The influx of military equipment let the coalition forces push fairly deep into the landing site. The Tellask didn’t have a good answer for the 50 caliber machine guns affixed to the humvees. The weapons easily overpowered the low-level man portable spellshields worn by the infantry and bear calvary causing the regular infantry to retreat on all fronts.
At first, the coalition forces lost one or two humvees to charging war lizards, but quickly the vehicl...
2020-02-06 04:51:48 +0000 UTC
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Dan ignored the fight in the sky above him. Even if he could have contributed with a combination of gravitational easing and force bubble, he suspected that launching himself into the sky would make him a prime target for elven mages. Ahead of him, a team of soldiers jumped into the hole created by an artillery shell and began setting up a light machine gun.
He charged past them only to realize that the soldiers still running towards the city were getting...
2020-02-05 03:10:51 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 24 - Retaking the Amazon (I)
Dan’s relief was palpable when the walkie talkie chirped at him. Jennifer and him had only been stuck in the tree for a couple of days, but the environment was beyond rank. The Imperial troops only came by firing spells into the canopy once or twice more, but both of them were reluctant to leave their hiding spot. If there were any Lythals in the patrols, Dan knew that they would be detected the min...
2020-02-03 23:09:06 +0000 UTC
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Now that I'm slowing down to a more manageable rate (2-3 hours of writing every night was wiping me out) there will be more editing and advanced chapters. My goal is to release 3 chapters a week 'normally' and to have at least 3 chapters written in advance here.
The first tier will get the next chapter, the second tier will get all advanced chapters, and the third tier is mostly there to support me.
Also, if you want a thank you in the header of a chapter, please let me kn...
2020-02-03 03:00:45 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 23 - Monsters and Prey
Dan frowned as the war lizard crashed through the jungle, Imperial soldiers fanning out to either side of it looking through the undergrowth for him and Jennifer. Despite the gravity of the situation, he couldn’t help but think that they needed a better term for the gigantic quadruped lizards covered in spellshields and magical weapons. Technically ‘war lizard’ was accurate, but it seemed a bit anticlim...
2020-02-03 02:57:49 +0000 UTC
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For the purpose of giving a shout-out, please let me know who I should be giving said shout out too (I know some people might not want me using their real names).
Right now I'm trying to edit the first 25 chapters of Book 1 as I think hey could use some heavy reworking, but I thought that providing a PDF version of Book 1 (if anyone wants it) would be appreciated while I try to find the time to edit and write ahead.
2020-01-21 03:50:51 +0000 UTC
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To those supporting me, thank you for chipping in. I'm going to try to spend this weekend getting a couple of chapters ahead. My general plan is still to release chapters as I write them once I get a few ahead, but this way you will have access to the rough drafts first (and hopefully it will give me a bit more time to edit my work before publishing).
As for anything else (message board, discord etc) let me know if you're interested and I'll try to set it up.
DNAJest...
2020-01-17 14:58:39 +0000 UTC
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I really don't know how to do exclusive content properly, but I am uploading an early draft of a science fiction + magic (I would call it science fantasy, but the 'science fiction' portion leans in the 'harder' direction).
It's a work that I'm half very proud of and half very frustrated with and have been meaning to revisit. I love the universe I've created and I love the main character, but the magic system feels like it needs more work and I worry that I haven't fleshed out the...
2020-01-17 03:19:11 +0000 UTC
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