Gwenna

By Gerard Whittaker

Following a catastrophic battle a marine is lost in time and space and hunted by an army of alien monsters. No problem, for his name is Simon Percival and he dosn't take prisoners.
But it is when he is left holding an alien baby that the fun starts!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerard Whittaker
• Release date: Jul 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466029668

Gerard Whittaker

Once I was a soldier, getting blown up a few times convinced me that a change of career might be a good idea.However, given some of the jobs I've done since, being shot in the chest could be preferable to being stabbed in the back. I'm happily married with my wife helping me proof read my books. I've studied military history, used most types of swords and medieval weapons. I spent a few years learning how to write and had my fair share of rejection slips. I'm still hoping to see my work in print. However, in the meantime, I want to share my worlds with the world at large. Perhaps someone might suggest ways to improve my writing. I've enjoyed writing "When Twilight Falls" intending to develop the story slowly with an ever increasing threat level. I've written about fourteen books so far, not all were completed. I was half way through a novel about an alien invasion with modern day US Airtforce taking on flying saucers. Then I saw a little film called Independence Day and sulked for a month. There are too many Sci-Fi books written for children in my opinion. So I'm trying to write for adults, if that includes a bit of sex then so be it. Heroes are just normal people in extraordinary circumstances. When they get the job done, they are still just your average Joe with all the weaknesses of you or I. For some reasons most of my worlds are not very nice, I suppose the good worlds don't need saving. So there is plenty of scope for temptation in many forms for the 'Heroes' to fall into. When you put yourself in their place, wouldn't you give in to temptation too? All the best to one and all. I wish you the best of luck in avoiding temptation. I've just uploaded a short novel called "The Streets of Bucharest". I'm still working on the full sized book and expect it to be online shortly. I'm sorry I screwed up not loading the full version. But I did give it for free to make up for my mistake. The Full version of The Streets of Bucharest is now online. It's only 40,000 words but I hope you will enjoy it. Just finished rewriting an old book of mine "The Bonds of Time". It was an experiment in erotic drama with a lot of BDSM thrown in. For anyone interested it also gives a short description of Aeden, a couple of years after the founding. It was not a very nice place when TIME was first being formed for self defense, and long before the Cosmic Guardians were even thought of to protect the Multiverse. Finished Isralla and now working on a sequel called Enryn, using a new slant, telling of a war from the Marines' point of view. I'm writing these with as little sex and as much action as the characters will let me. So if anything goes wrong, blame them! Date 13 December 2010 Thanks for the rating, for a writer who lives and works alone any kind of a pat on the back is very welcome. Sometimes I am intending to finish "Of Dusk and Dawn" in the New Year. But I admit to getting writer's block and being side tracked by Isralla and Enryn. I hope these books will keep you all amused till I can get back to D&D. A word of warning, I've finished a new book called "The Cloud Knights". A sort of cross between Biggles and Sharp, set in a crazy world you will not recognise. So if you like the idea of bi-planes versus airships, politics and treason, and a hero determined to rise from the ranks to become a Cloud Knight, fighting for freedom in a world where everything is for sale to those with the rank to claim it. Then you might like it! Currently working on a sequel called the Sky Knights, which will be big. And if that works I might round off the trilogy with the Star Knights. I also draw my own book covers using DAZ Studio which explains how I keep uploading new covers. Gerard Whittaker

Book preview

Gwenna

By

Gerard Whittaker

Gwenna

By Gerard Whittaker

Smashwords edition.

Copyright by Gerard Whittaker, 2011

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Prologue

An enormous blow struck the turret as it fell away from the mothership, and the plasma bolt fried the shields in an instant as power overloads flared throughout the vessel. Simon groaned as he fought his way back awake from the comforting oblivion he had just escaped. A second blow struck the hull tearing through the armour near the emergency FTL module, leaving his only way home a molten inferno. He grabbed the flight controls and managed to pull the turret away from the attacking ship just as a third bolt of energy missed him by a hundred meters.

He looked back to see the Shalom racing away towards hyperspace, a tattered wreck with all her shattered turrets glowing as flames and smoke trailed from them. His was the only one that had managed to disengage before being destroyed, and that had only been delayed by a few minutes at most. The rest of his gunnery crew were hanging dead from their harnesses, shattered by the first shot that had been targeted with pin point accuracy at the crew compartment, and Simon wasn't sure why he was still alive.

The main section of the attacking armada followed the Shalom, pounding her failing shields as they sought to prevent her escape, as the ship's main weapons tore her way through any ship in her way with massive firepower. Soon a dozen alien ships fell to the Shalom's weapons, exploding into nothing but sparks as the Destroyer fought her way to freedom, but yet more ships raced to catch up with all weapons blazing away at the Earth ship.

The aliens were simply known as the Pests, they had only been seen in person once and were half insect and reptile, with six legs and four arms, and an insane attitude to ships more powerful than their own. Normal merchants they would pass by with disdain, but if they saw a human warship that could pose a threat to even one of their ships they would swarm in from half a sector away to destroy it at whatever the cost to themselves. Whether they even had a planet was open to question, most thought their warlike instincts would have destroyed it millennia ago, and that they were now a totally space born species.

Sergeant Percival, the com chattered, stop playing with that ship and cover our butt.

Turret three is a near wreck, crew dead, but I'll see what I can do, he gasped and banked to miss another broadside, swinging back on target and unleashing a fusillade of metal slugs from his Gauss cannons that struck at nearly the speed of light, exploding into flashes of pure white energy against the enemy's shields. The next fusillade a second later penetrated the shields and tore into the ship's armour, turning tons of super hard alloy into glowing plasma that erupted away from the doomed ship. Simon now fired his primary weapon and a hundred meter wide ball of green plasma penetrated deep inside the alien ship and erupted in a catastrophic blast that tore through the vessel from stem to stern, leaving bits of wreckage floating free in space.

He banked the Turret back to the main battle as a dozen bolts of energy struck his armour, leaving more holes than ship as he accelerated into the alien swarm. Only one thing I can do. Shalom I'm going for the Omega option.

Understood, the Comtech sighed. God be with you.

Simon tapped out the code that would turn the crippled turret into the biggest bomb since the Big Bang, and ran for the survival pod. He strapped himself in and slammed the escape switch and the pod was ejected from the rear so fast it was nearly light speed and the acceleration knocked him once more unconscious.

Turret Three reached the alien armada and ignited her antimatter containers, exploding with the might of a sun going nova! But as the blast ripped through the Pests' ships it reacted with the aliens' fuel source which magnified the blast a thousand fold.

The survival pod was caught in the unimaginable blast and ripped away from reality, tumbling through space far from the usual shipping lanes and even farther from the human habited sector and into the unknown.

It was nearly a full day before Simon regained consciousness and realised the enormity of the situation. The pod was a wreck with only a tiny emergency beacon still working. He spent days trying to fix the pod and attract help, but was falling through space without any hope of rescue. He took the isolation for a week while trying to send a distress call and then gave up, the supplies were running out and the air going stale.

All Simon could do was activate the emergency stasis chamber and climb in to enjoy the ride into the future. I wonder if I still get paid while I'm in this thing? he sighed as the drugs kicked in and the chamber lit up with the light blue stasis field. Then he fell into an eternal sleep as the pod tumbled through space and time.

Chapter one

Awake

The fist struck his head like a sledgehammer, knocking him off the table and half way across the room. Simon staggered into the wall in shock and confusion, unable to remember where he was or who had hit him.

He glanced up at the green alien in surprise, seeing that all it wore was some kind of kilt and a weapons belt. Then saw the remains of his lifepod against the outer hatch. So he'd made it after all! The alien swung once more with a size twenty fist and Simon went flying across the room again, sliding down the other dirty green wall for a change, to lay gasping on the metal floor as the fetid atmosphere left him dizzy. That was when his anger ignited. Survivors of lifepod disasters should be woken by medical teams and not sadistic brutes! The being was chortling in a reptilian hiss of enjoyment, as if beating up helpless humans was his favourite sport.

He had a few seconds to examine the brute, he was humanoid, that wasn't a surprise, most aliens were, but the green scaled skin and yellow tusks were quite impressive, as was the seven feet of muscles that even now were driving yet another blow into his guts.

Never try to sucker punch a marine twice!

As the alien slammed his fist into Simon's kidneys he twisted and the blow hit the floor hard. Something cracked and Simon hoped it was the alien's fist. An unearthly bellow echoed through the room as the creature screamed in agony, and Simon lashed out with a side kick at the exposed knee. The thing stumbled and teetered on the point of overbalancing, and Simon sprang to his feet to kick the other knee, and as the beast fell to the floor, he lunged with an elbow strike into the throat. Cartilage crunched under the blow as the alien started to choke and die.

As Simon staggered back he heard movement in the next chamber, the door slid upwards and three more of the beasts entered the room to see their dying comrade. They howled in rage and ran towards the Marine.

He saw a sidearm on the dying beast and threw himself towards it as the others reached to grab their own guns. Simon landed first, his fist slipping around the butt with ease and fired from the holster, hitting the first in the gut, who wind milled around throwing the last two into confusion.

He fired again twice killing both in a split second with beams of red energy.

An alarm sounded throughout the chamber and all Simon could think to do was grab a survival pack from the lifepod and collect the other three pistols. He hadn't time to even examine the lifepod's data bank, so he had no idea where or even when he might be.

The confusion from what could be hundreds of years in cyro sleep and the attack before he had even woken up left him running in a daze. He blundered through dimly lit chambers, seeing what could have been a space ship repair business, or more likely a chop shop for recycling stolen parts. Kareebii, he finally remembered the species he was fighting. But nothing more.

A blast of power flashed past his right shoulder and he turned to fire back and kept on running as a Kareebii warrior fell dead in his wake. Another leaped from an open door to grapple with him, the stubby claws ripping into his combat fatigues and knocking the pistol to the floor. Simon drew his combat knife and slashed out back handed through the green throat and then plunged the blade point first into where the thought the heart should be. He snatched up the pistol and continued running without a backward glance at the monster who didn't even realise he was already dead.

Farther up the corridor a dozen Kareebii charged from a side chamber and saw Simon with confusion mixed with disdain, as if they couldn't believe that a rabbit had turned on the dog. The moment's hesitation cost them dearly as he fled through them firing instinctively, leaving half dead and the survivors chasing him screaming blood oaths about vengeance.

Two more stumbled in through a door in front and Simon shot them both without warning and charged into the brightly lit alleyway beyond.

He turned at the corner and stumbled into a swarm of alien life forms, none that looked familiar at all. All had the right number of arms and legs, but were covered with fur, feathers, scales or even shells. With his mind overwhelmed by the sights and aromas of half a hundred alien races he tucked the pistol down his jacket top, crouched down