It was the expression upon the big man’s features that haunted Ryann now — he just couldn’t get it out of his mind.
At first, when he had seen the tears upon Grande’s cheeks, he had taken them for being tears of sadness.
But the more he thought about it, he began to understand that Grande had faced the world upon his own terms, and had died alongside the people that were closest to him, on the ship that he had been born upon and called home.
He had lived out his life according to his own rules.
No, they were tears of pride that he shed.
There had been no fear or regret in the eyes of Jean-Baptiste Grande.
EPILOGUE
“So, where are we headed?” asked Ryann painfully as Grayell and Angelique helped him into the elevator.
“Don’t worry about that,”muttered Grayell. “We’re safe in hyperspace now, that’s all that matters. Let’s just get you up to the Infirmary and let the medics look you over.”
“I’m fine,” protested Ryann.
“Yeah, you look fine,” laughed Angelique sarcastically. “I mean, after all, you’ve only been half-suffocated, chased around a ghost-ship by a mutant spider-droid, shot at, hit by —”
Her words were cut off as a sudden jolt rocked the elevator. The lights flickered for a moment, before coming back on in a dim, sickly glow.
Ryann went to speak, but a great crash split the air, and the three of them were thrown to the floor.
They lay there in a heap as the sound rolled away to an eerie silence.
“What the hell was that?” breathed Angelique fearfully. “For a moment I thought the elevator was falling down the shaft.”
“That wasn’t the elevator,” cursed Grayell, pulling himself up to his feet and hitting the button to take them to the control decks. “That went through the entire ship. Don’t you hear it? The drives are down.”
He helped Angelique get Ryann up to his feet, and they waited anxiously in the semi-darkness as the elevator sped them up to the bridge.
The moment the doors slid open they were met with a cacophony of alarms. The bridge was a chaos of personnel all frantically working at their stations. Red emergency lighting cast an urgent glow over the scene.
At the centre of the room Ryann could see Mellarnne, Grayell’s inseparable companion. He was standing at the scanner table yelling orders across the room.
“Mellarnne! What the hell’s happening?” called out Grayell as they hurried towards him through the throng.
“Grayell! You need to take a look at this!” he called, nodding to Ryann and Angelique as they approached. “Ryann, Angelique, I heard what had happened — glad to see you’re safe.”
He didn’t wait for a reply, but turned back to his readouts, running his hands over the controls to the scanner table, quickly bringing up the display projections. Bright lines and readouts flickered into life, hovering in the air above the table, a holographic view of the space around the Defiance.
“Are we under attack?” demanded Grayell impatiently, peering at the displays.
“Not as such no,” replied Mellarnne. “We’ve been knocked out of hyperspace — some sort of power surge — maybe a proximity field or a —”
His voice trailed off as the scans came into focus.
“Oh my god,” he whispered.
The bright circle that represented the Defiance’s position on the scanners was just one dot amongst hundreds of bright points of light, so many that at first Ryann had mistaken the view for a star chart. They were surrounded in every direction.
“What is that?” whispered Angelique hesitantly. “Are they, are they all ships?”
“Each one is a Luminal battleship,” croaked Mellarnne. “There must be a thousand or more.”
“That’s half the Luminal fleet!” stuttered Angelique in disbelief. “What the hell are we going to do?”
She looked in horror from Mellarnne to Grayell, but they could only stare at the scanners in shock, unable to take in the enormity of the battle fleet that surrounded them.
“Ryann?” she croaked in fear, turning towards him. “What can we do?”
“There’s nothing we can do.”
Ryann heard his own voice as though it were being spoken by another:
“It’s over.”
THANK YOU
Thank you for purchasing and reading this book.
If you enjoyed it then please, leave me a review on Amazon, and browse my other stories.
Many thanks,
I G
***
For more information on the author visit:
www.ighulme.com
HEAVEN’S WAR
Coming next to the LUMINA series…
The Third Book in the LUMINA Series
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INTO THE FIRE
The First Book in the LUMINA Series
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The Ghost-Runners may hold the key to saving the galaxy.
But Ryann Wade is still going to take them all down…
***
Life seemed idyllic for acclaimed academy trainee Ryann Wade.
Until the day the Invasion shattered humanity, along with Ryann’s perfectly laid future.
Only the Ghost Runners, a secretive group of maverick pilots operating alone outside of the military - bring hope as war rages across the galaxy.
Humanity looks to the Ghost Runners... but Ryann strives to find them first to satisfy his own thirst for revenge...
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★★★★★
"Amazing sci fi space opera that is Action packed from the getup..."
Reader Comment
Read the thrilling Heavenfield series from I.G. Hulme…
THE HEAVENFIELD SERIES:
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A war rages in the shadows for control of a terrifying new world.
But the door should never have been opened.
They're coming…
***
But hellbent on stopping them is Alexi, a hero amongst Exiles, leading his team of covert ops.
They understand the new rules of war...
In the shifting reality of the Heavenfield, fears can be made tangible and used as weapons, and subliminal messages can be triggered like bombs that alter the very reality around them.
As events spiral out of control, government agencies, clandestine military groups and supernatural forces all wage a secret war that threatens to bring the world to the very brink of destruction...
***
Hailed as a 'Modern-day Classic of Science-Fiction', the Heavenfield is the first book
