After being declared an All-State Baseball and All-League Basketball player, he obtained his state and federal Therapeutic Massage License to become a successful Sports Therapist & Instructor. During his life adventures so far, he has become a father of three, a world traveler, an avid researcher, and a successful author.
Also by Brandon Ellis
Mars Colony Chronicles
Martian Plague
Martian Ark
Martian Insurrection
Martian Earth
Martian Legacy
The Ascendant Chronicles
Project Atlantis
Destination Atlantis
Colony Atlantis
Beyond Atlantis
Enigma Atlantis
Other Authors at Hudson Indie Ink
Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Stephanie Hudson
Sloane Murphy
Xen Randell
C. L. Monaghan
Sci-fi/Fantasy
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Devin Hanson
Crime/Action
Blake Hudson
Mike Gomes
Contemporary Romance
Gemma Weir
Elodie Colt
Ann B. Harrison
Project Atlantis
Ascendant Chronicles #1
Project Atlantis
Ascendant Chronicles #1
Copyright © 2020 Brandon Ellis
Published by Hudson Indie Ink
www.hudsonindieink.com
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referred to in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Project Atlantis/Brandon Ellis - 4th ed
ISBN-13 - 978-1-913769-62-8
For Audrey
Prologue
May 7th - Plano, Texas - Global Safety Administration
A loud buzz catapulted Jon to attention. His feet fell off his desk as he sat straight. His eyes wide, his glasses slid down the bridge of his nose. Pushing his glasses up, he studied the image that filled the largest of the screens on the wall in front of him. He froze. Tingles traveled down the back of his neck. “What the hell?” He dug into his pocket, pulled out a flip phone, and dialed a number.
“Paul…Paul. Get up here. No. Just—” Jon sighed. “I don’t care how late it is. Get your butt up here and see what TECS IV sent back.”
Paul cursed in English, Japanese, and Urdu, just to make his point. “Tansho,” he said. “Better be worth it.”
“Quit your bellyaching. We have data like you would not believe.” Jon hung up. He wheeled his chair over to a keyboard, pressing the right arrow key, bringing up the next picture.
He ran his hands through his receding hairline and squinted, not understanding exactly what he was looking at. “Are those…? Seriously? Are those jet fighters?” He eyed row upon gleaming row of craft. Surely, they had to be shadows? “Yeah, doofus, like there are ‘jet fighter’ shaped shadows on one of Jupiter’s moons.” The craft were bulkier than any jet fighter he’d ever seen. He hit the right arrow key. It took him to the next image.
The office door opened. “Jon, why the hell did you get me out of…?” Paul stopped, mid-stride. “Holy shit! No way. A pyramid?” His mouth hung open. He stared at the image for several seconds. “Do we call the Colonel? I mean, what do we do?”
“Hold on. You’ve got to see…” Jon pounded his keyboard. “Satellite TECS IV recorded these images two days ago. The cameras were at twenty-nine degrees north, thirty-one degrees east, and this is what they recorded on Callisto’s surface…”
Paul slumped into his chair. None of his training had prepared him for what he was seeing.
“That’s right,” said Jon. “There are holy-shit jet fighters on one of Jupiter’s moons.”
Paul stood slowly and slunk towards the screen. “Go back a frame, back to the pyramid.”
Jon hit the backspace key.
“Can you zoom in on that?” Paul tapped on the screen on the wall. He pointed to a symbol embedded into one of the stones near the pyramid’s capstone.
Jon clicked on his mouse, highlighted the area, and zoomed in. “There you go.”
The symbol had two circles inside a larger circle, like a bullseye. A perfect cross stood in the middle. One line extended the length of the symbol and the other line extended the width. Paul spun around. “What does the symbol mean?”
Jon wheeled over to a laptop, hitting the keys as fast as he could to pull up the internet and search the symbol's meaning.
Paul leaped over a chair to get to his own laptop, snagging his ankle and crashing face first onto the floor. Piles of papers slid off the main desk and on top of him.
“Can’t find the meaning,” Jon blurted. “Too many options.”
Pushing himself up, Paul looked over at Jon. “This whole thing has to be some shitty practical joke. Check to see if anyone hacked the system. We’re being played. No, more like punked.”
“I’m already on it.” Jon perused the firewall. “No prompts. Checking for remote users.” He buzzed through screen after screen, his lips a tight, straight line. “No, nothing. And, no odd updates either. We’re clean.”
Paul rubbed the back of his neck. “What the hell is a pyramid doing on a Jupiter moon?”
“Pyramid? What the hell are jet fighters doing on Callisto?”
“Sure, sure,” said Paul. “But jet fighters could come from anywhere. So, there are alien races with advanced tech. Big deal. We always knew that was a possibility, but pyramids, man. Do you know what it takes to build a pyramid?”
“There is more than one,” Jon said, clicking through images.
“How many more?” Paul asked.
“Three, on some type of hill in this crater.” He pulled up another image.
“The surfaces of those pyramids are almost untouched. They are damned-near perfect. This is amazing.” Paul plopped down on a chair beside Jon. “Pull up the symbol again.” He traced the symbol with his finger. “A religious symbol?”
Jon leaned back and shook his head. “You’re
