Defiant Blade #1
_ **Fight and Flight** _ She didn't have a name. Only a serial number assigned her while growing in the tank. "Born" barely a year ago, her body fully mature but with a brand new mind, her time since then had been divided between endless tests and...
Harbinger, Chapter 9
"We are almost at the deployment coordinates," Optimus said through the team's comms. "Five more minutes." Acree glanced around at the others seated in Optimus's trailer. Jack sat beside her, leaning against the wall, clad in his new armor and holding...
Harbinger, Chapter 10
"They've reached the target area," Ratchet said with a sigh as the stat displays on each team member cut out. "Whatever Airachnid is using to jam comms and transponders, they're within its range. We can't see what's happening and won't hear from anyone...
Elsewhere, Chapter 12
"Astra," Asuka shouted as she followed the rest of the group sprinting through the corridors to the control room, "any idea what the power build-up is?" "Sensors have detected multiple power sources at equidistant points throughout the hull. Their...
Arena, Chapter 1
"_Uhhhhh..._" Dylan Engstrom opened his eyes and found himself on a hard metal surface. "What...?" The last thing he remembered was sitting at his desk, sipping a cup of coffee, and preparing to join his buddies for a few hours of mayhem in _Grand...
Elsewhere, Chapter 11: One Wrong Move
"What the hell is _that_?" Asuka glanced to the left to find whoever had just spoken. Her gaze landed on several guys who looked like extras in a western vid--but after everything she'd seen, it was probably safe to assume they really _had_come from...
Freelancers, Chapter Nineteen
"Excuse me! Do you have a moment?" Dakka finished putting her armor on without looking up, assuming the woman had called out to someone else in the marketplace outside C-Sec headquarters. "Excuse me?" The voice was suddenly closer, directly behind...
Harbinger, Chapter 2
"So," Jack said as the team crept through the _Harbinger_'s dark corridors, "what do we call you?" He looked up at the Airachnid clone. He'd noticed over the last few minutes that she'd grown more nervous the deeper into the ship they explored. "I feel...
Elsewhere, Chapter 10: Intercept Course
"Dropping out of hyperspace," Astra said. "Beginning scan." _I hope this is the one._Asuka braced her hands on the central console and stared at the holofield. _Gotta get some shuteye soon._Even though her prosthetic body didn't require rest, her...
Freelancers, Chapter Eighteen
"I've only been doing this for about two years," Trent said. "My parents moved to Illium for a job opportunity when I was little, and they've been working at the Nos Astra spaceport ever since. When I hit my teens, I got into that phase where you want...
Freelancers, Chapter Seventeen
"Here's what Elias Kelham told me about the Cerberus base on Chasca," Valeria said once everyone sat at the corner table in the mess hall. "There's a team of twenty-eight scientists working on various research projects--'research' meaning simply...
Arena, Chapter 2
"Well, that's not what I expected." Dylan turned around slowly and took in their surroundings. He and the alien females stood in the middle of a street with a set of vehicles in front of them. Wheeled vehicles, but none of them familiar to him. They...