The Wrath of the Invisible Sword

By Lucian Randolph

In 24 hours, the world as we know it will end...

A 26,000 year cycle of gigantic solar storms is about to begin. The size and destructive power of these storms will eclipse anything in recorded history by an order of magnitude. The monster magnetic pulses that accompany these massive solar storms have already begun to overwhelm the magnetic field of the Earth; causing it to fall so far in strength, it’s effectively gone in places. Intense radiation and charged particles from the first wave of solar storms have already begun the irreversible destruction of almost all the LEO satellites in orbit. Now the debris is causing dangerous interference with electronic devices on the ground. As the consequences of the first stages of the coming deadly storms begin to create a complex web of intrigue and action, a mysterious and ancient artifact, which is somehow connected to the solar cycles, manages to become more of a threat to the future of mankind than the impending disaster. A high-speed adrenaline filled series of events unfold leading to non-stop action in a race against the clock to save mankind.

The Wrath of the Invisible Sword is the sequel to the exciting and action filled, The Empty Eggs of Burning Light. The fourth book in the epic sci-fi Ancients of Earth Series starts at the exact scene the last novel ended. But now there are only 24 hours left before the killer storms arrive to decimate the planet. Events countdown hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute as the action ratchets up in intensity, and the pace will leave you breathless at the end of each chapter. This is an intelligent story that will make you think long after you stop reading with characters that you can’t get out of your mind. The problem will be that you can’t put it down. Every book has been better than the last, and the heart-pounding action in this installment doesn’t stop; it barely slows down. And it all leads up to a cliff-hanger ending that will leave sci-fi readers shocked with their mouths hanging open. Then they’ll start screaming for the next book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: McDonald Press Publishing Co.
• Release date: Aug 29, 2014

Lucian Randolph

Lucian lives in Florida with his wife and two sons. He also lives with a pack of ten (yes ten) miniature dachshunds that he uses to hunt Garden Gnomes. An avid Gnome hunter since his days with the Fifth Special Gnome Expeditionary Forces based out of Fort Bragg, he has personally been responsible for the reduction in the Florida pest population of the common Garden Gnome, Gnomiansis Gardenii.Unfortunately, since he uses mini dachshunds to hunt them, he only has a few intact heads in his trophy room.But if you're in Florida and run into him, he might show them to you.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

78,000 Years Ago

Science Station Pyramid, Yucatan Jungle

Four Hours Post Event Time (4 Hours PET)

• • • • •

We are finished.

M'aaren heard H'kcuta over his shoulder and thought to himself, ‘Your words may be truer than you know, my old friend.’

As M’aaren mentally went over the hurried plans he’d made, he turned away from the sharp drop-off opening and faced the only other living being remaining in the enormous pyramid shaped building. The worry on H’kcuta’s face was the only thing keeping him from looking perfectly normal. After what he and the others were able to accomplish, even with augmented capabilities, M’aaren knew H’kcuta should be fatigued and exhausted. But it was obvious, he wasn’t. Instead, his friend glowed with vigor and life. And when H'kcuta spoke again, his voice resonated with more than the deep baritones of his giant vocal cords.

All of the transports have left, except for ours. There is very little more that we can take. Our hold is almost full. Is there anything necessary we have forgotten?

M’aaren marveled at the inner strength of his friend and colleague. It was rivaled only by his size and physical power. And his physical power was almost unlimited now that he had the emergency medical nano-system installed in his physiology. H'kcuta looked like a carved statue as he stood next to the last ornithopter loaded with the supplies and equipment they were able to gather in the few hours they had to prepare for the end. The massive hangar was eerily empty, and his voice echoed through the large chamber where only an hour earlier a dozen fusion powered ornithopters sat like flying dragons sleeping in their lair. M’aaren smiled as he started over to H’kcuta.

We have taken enough. It will suffice.

H’kcuta wasn’t so sure about that. But he found strength and resolve in his trust for his friend and mentor. If M’aaren said the plan he was making would work, H’kcuta believed him. M’aaren had been chosen as the head of the Science Station because he was the best combination of scientist and engineer his people had ever produced. He even earned the coveted position of Dokor, Chief Scientist of the Alpha Station, over L’roki, who was the one who conceived the original plan. However, as much trust as he had in M’aaren, H’kcuta was anxious to get out of the path of the incoming tsunami.

"The chuynwa displacement wave will be here soon. We must leave this place now."

M’aaren stopped beside the ornithopter and put his right hand on the larger man’s shoulder in the traditional greeting for close friends. H’kcuta returned the gesture, and then M’aaren answered.

Yes, of course. We must leave.

M’aaren could feel the strength inside his own gigantic body continue to grow. He hadn’t bothered to look at a reflection of himself since the system was implanted, but he knew he must look centuries younger himself. The primary effects of the emergency medical nano-implants were like a robotic immune system. The internal nano-bots were capable of repairing almost any damage done to the body. But they also augmented and optimized cellular operations including energy production and strength. The result was like supercharging the bodies of those giants that were surgically implanted with the systems. They became faster, stronger, and much more skilled in capability due to increased reflex time and enhanced sensory perception. M’aaren’s enhanced olfactory perception suddenly noticed a distinct change in the atmosphere outside the massive hangar door near the apex of the pyramid shaped Science Station in the middle of the lush tropical jungle.

As he looked out the open doorway, he realized he would never see this place or this view again. It had been a part of his life for so long, M’aaren wasn’t sure what he was going to do when it was gone. The Alpha Science Station had been their home and workplace in the jungle for several years; all leading up to the events of today.

But those events went horribly wrong.

Then things spiraled down from there, leaving them in their current dire straits.

The total destruction of their island home, along with all of their loved ones, had left their small group as the last known survivors of their race. But then, unbelievably, that tragedy was followed by the betrayal of a murderous madman from their own ranks. This act of insanity left the survival of the vast majority of their small group in serious doubt and jeopardy.

If they could have stayed in the Science Station, they would have had a chance at some form of survival and possibly recovery. The self-supporting advanced ecosystem in the massive pyramid not only contained the technology they needed to survive indefinitely, but it might have provided for them to continue their civilization. Over the fifty millennia their people had evolved in isolation, the last twenty-five of which were as a technologically advanced race, they had even developed a plan for something calamitously catastrophic; the Great Plan. However, the satellite data confirmed the computer model warning before the solar storm began to interfere with reception. A giant tsunami was heading directly for the Yucatan where the Science Station was located. As they were speaking, the wave had just decimated the island known today as Jamaica and would be on top of them in just over ten minutes. So they were now forced to leave the only solid chance they had for survival, and they had to do it quickly. All the others had left the station and were already heading to the chosen evacuation site.

M’aaren could smell the air and feel a change in the barometric pressure before he saw the first signs of the wind. He anxiously turned to H’kcuta.

We must leave now. The winds are becoming dangerous.

Both men jumped into the open door on the main hold of the ornithopter. The interchangeable container-pod was stuffed full almost from floor to ceiling. But there was a small open section which led to the long corridor into the front of the craft and the door to the cockpit. M’aaren quickly climbed up over the cargo and ran through the thin tunnel. He jerked open the cockpit door and slid inside. H’kcuta pulled his massive frame through the cockpit opening like he was a spider and dropped down into the co-pilot seat. The organically shaped seat pods reached around both men with thick tentacles from several points across their bodies and then squeezed them into the soft form fitting foam. When they were safely held in the protective cocoons, the ship woke up from its slumber. Four giant robotic legs stretched out and flexed as the craft stood and began walking over to the edge of the open hangar door.

Then it began to reach out its immense mechanical wings. This took several seconds because the wings of the ornithopter were over one-hundred feet on each side of the central body. It had a smaller head shaped section up front that was connected by a long neck-like passageway to the back main body portion of the aircraft. A large organically shaped rear hold container, which could be separated and exchanged for other payload packages, hung below a central spine and rib mechanism like the body of a giant bird, making the whole ornithopter the flying equivalent of a tractor trailer.

But as it completely stretched out its wings and curled its massive rear legs underneath its body, it looked more like a dragon getting ready to take flight.

Outside the pyramid, the air began pulling toward the coastline as the tsunami started lowering the sea level in front of the fast-moving wall of water, which was churning toward the defenseless plains of the Yucatan at several hundred miles per hour. The giant wave began draining the ocean shelf in front of it, causing a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure that reached out for a hundred miles in the direction of its travel. But the leading wall of the wave was over a half-mile high and the air in front of this moving mountain of mass could not get out of the way fast enough. This caused the atmosphere immediately in front of the tsunami to become compressed, raising the pressure dramatically and the turbulence an order of magnitude. As the monstrous tsunami began to crawl up the ocean floor toward the coast of the Yucatan, the winds began sucking toward it like a giant mouth inhaling offshore.

The huge mechanical ornithopter turned its head both directions and then leapt into the air like a cat. Its wings flexed out taught on nano-composite struts that were stronger than anything ever created in nature. Graphene reinforced dimpled scales covered kevlar-like skin, which was stretched over mechanical bones that were stronger and more resilient than evolution’s best efforts. On top of all that, the fusion engine driving the massive wings was orders of magnitude greater in output power than any flying creature to ever live.

And it was a good thing, too.

Because as the giant ornithopter began to glide down the west side of the massive pyramid only a dozen feet off the smooth surface, the eastward winds began to pick up speed. The computer control mechanisms for the ornithopter were modeled on the actual flight mechanics of a condor crossed with the control dynamics of the largest flying vertebrate to ever live, a flying reptile called Quetzalcoatlus. But when the wind being pulled eastward toward the incoming tsunami suddenly gusted up over one hundred miles per hour, the mechanical bird was only halfway down the west side of the pyramid and was flying into the air front. Like giant condors, the ornithopter needed help taking off with a full load. The hangar was at the top of the pyramid which allowed the aircraft to glide down the side of the slanted walls and gain the necessary speed to lift a fully loaded ornithopter into the air.

As the incoming east wind sheared off the top of the jungle canopy, a wall of leaves and debris flew into the west side of the pyramid as hard as a solid body of mass. The wind gust slammed the right wing of the ornithopter down against the pyramid with a sound of screeching rock on metal when the impact opened up a small patch of artificial skin, and the underlying wing frame scraped against the smooth wall. The ornithopter’s on-board intelligence systems immediately pulled its legs underneath it and caught the body of the aircraft before it also slammed into the slanted takeoff ramp. The flying beast pounced down its four legs onto the wall of the pyramid and pushed off of the surface like a hurdler between jumps. It arched its neck up and out as it drove its hind legs against the pyramid in a final push into the incoming wind.

The wings of the mechanical dragon pulled up and drove back against the air as the massive ship flew out away from the pyramid and directly into the tempest rushing toward it. As soon as the craft pulled its wings back for another lifting stroke, the wind gusted underneath them and shot the aircraft up and backward toward the smooth stone structure behind it. But before the aircraft rolled up past vertical, the fusion powered engines drove the wings back down into another lifting stroke, and then the tempo of the wings began to increase. The giant beast continued to flap its wings as the craft began to climb almost vertically in the building winds.

Then suddenly, the wind stopped blowing.

Inside the cockpit of the ornithopter, both M’aaren and H’kcuta felt their stomachs rush up into their throats as the robotic bird was caught in mid-stroke against a gale force wind that suddenly vanished. The resultant force from the wings thrust the entire aircraft backwards causing it to actually flip over. For a prolonged moment, the huge thopter began falling toward the pointed apex of the pyramid they had just escaped. But a second later, the artificial bird caught the air with its wings, and it soared out past the pyramid with only a few feet to spare. Then it turned its wings up as it approached the top of the jungle canopy, which had just been scalped by the wind. The aircraft flapped its giant wings twice more gaining altitude and soared up over the canopy before leveling off heading west again.

Although the artificial bird could fly fast, it couldn’t fly fast enough to outrun the tsunami. It would have to get above the wave to survive. So as soon as the mechanical beast was fully stable, it pulled its head back and tilted its wings up. The sudden upward movement of the cockpit inside the dragon’s head caused g-forces to push M’aaren down into his protective flight pod. The ornithopter began pounding its wings more rapidly as it arched its back up to gain altitude. As M’aaren looked out the side view panel, he could see the winds beginning to blow from behind them. It had changed direction 180 degrees. The tsunami was so close, air was now being pushed out in front of the massive wave, causing a westward wind on the back of the thopter. This massive air movement from behind began to shove the giant flying machine downward as it relentlessly tried to climb in altitude.

Only minutes away from them, the tsunami roared up over the coast of the Yucatan still moving faster than 570 miles per hour and over 2,600 feet tall. The wall of water was so high and moving so fast, it rapidly compressed the dense jungle air in front of it into a turbulent high-pressure front. The barometric difference caused the moisture in the atmosphere to begin condensing spontaneously into a torrential downpour. Dark rainclouds blew outward in a curved bulbous line that stretched forward for fifty miles across the front of the westward speeding tsunami wave. The sudden movement of rain particles out of the atmosphere caused the high-pressure front to charge the air with static electricity, and hundreds of lightening bolts began shooting out of the backside of the storm-front, striking into the ground only moments before the turbulent giant wall of water rushed over it.

Due west of the Science Station pyramid in the heart of the peninsula jungle, the ornithopter drove its wings into the air with a ferocity no living creature had ever approached. When the winds behind it began rapidly climbing in speed, it suddenly banked around and headed back east into the oncoming air mass. Then it pulled its head and neck up again and began to climb through the rushing headwind. Like a fighter jet going ballistic, the monster machine continued to flap its enormous wings, flying up at the steepest angle it could achieve while struggling against the now gale force winds on its belly. The ornithopter’s on-board sensors knew the killer tsunami was beginning to barrel toward the Science Station on the ground below it. And it knew it had to reach an unbelievable height of almost a mile in the air before it would be safe from the massive movement of water and wind rampaging across the terra firma. Inside the head of the mechanical dragon, M’aaren and H’kcuta were safe, but powerless to help in any fashion. The ornithopter contained an artificial intelligence system that was as protective of them as it was effective at flying.

And it could fly like the wind.

The giant wings grabbed onto the air like rungs on a ladder, and the flying dragon made of nano-materials and ceramic metals shot upward even as the storm in front of it reached hurricane from hell strength. But because the wind direction had changed 180 degrees after the ornithopter became airborne, the craft was now flying back east toward the Science Station and the tsunami in order to gain altitude.

At the same moment the wall of liquid destruction smashed head-on into the six-hundred foot tall pyramid structure, the leading edge of the high-pressure storm front engulfed the ornithopter, which was still several dozen miles west of the pyramid and almost above the actual height of the wave. The turbulence reduced the air density, and the giant mechanical bird suddenly stopped gaining altitude. As the visibility out the front view panel dropped off to nothing and rain started pelting against it, the entire body of the flying craft began being buffeted and thrown about; belying its monstrous size and mass. By the time the pyramid was utterly destroyed on the ground below it, the ornithopter had fallen 200 feet. It was now below the height of the oncoming tsunami wave and was still flying east directly toward the wall of water. But it was desperately attempting to gain altitude against the wind, because the wave was closing down the distance fast.

In between strokes of the giant wings, the clear view panels in the head of the ornithopter bobbed up and down just enough for M’aaren and H’kcuta to see the approaching wall of water on intermittent cycles. Each progressive image flashed for a couple of seconds in their eyes like a slowly unfolding compilation of video clips in a time lapse scene. Each clip interrupted by the swinging sky filled with dark storm clouds then the reverse stroke of the wings as the head dropped back down to see the wave heading directly toward them; now bigger; now closer; now more terrifying.

But as M’aaren watched out his front view screen on each successive stroke of the giant mechanical flying machine, he began to see more and more clear sky appearing over the top of the approaching wave. By the time the fast flowing combination of debris and water had reduced the remains of the pyramid shaped fort to nothing more than a few broken boulders where the foundation once stood, the ornithopter passed above the physical height of the oncoming wall of water. It still needed to gain a substantial amount of altitude before it could be sure the pressure differential on the top of the wave front wouldn’t cause them to drop into the top of the water and be swept into the churning tempest.

As the tsunami and the flying mechanical beast inescapably flew toward each other at a combined speed of several hundred miles per hour, the violent air turbulence continued to rise. This made flying through the storm an epic struggle of the fundamental forces of nature versus the absolute best the ancient race of advanced hominids had ever created.

The mechanical dragon drove its wings into the turbulence and wind and never faltered. No living creature had ever developed the level of strength, endurance, and intelligence that the ornithopter contained. It was as close to a living being as either of the occupants of the cockpit.

But it had a focused purpose.

To fly… and to keep its occupants and itself safe while it did it.

It continued to drive its wings into the wind, but as it gained altitude, the direction of the westward wind began to change slightly along with the intensity. Slowly the giant craft leaned forward, as the westward winds near the top of the tsunami wave began blowing upward more than westward. The ornithopter quickly pounded out four more strokes before the wall of water moved underneath it, heading west into the mountains of the Central American landmass. As soon as the wave passed under them, the wind speed fell off, and the air pressure dropped radically causing the aircraft to began falling from the loss of lift.

But the ornithopter had already calculated for this.

It stroked twice more in rapid succession, and then it pulled its wings up and out, soaring east over the new temporary sea now covering the Yucatan peninsula entirely.

Then it banked to the south and stroked its massive wings twice more before turning finally to the southwest.

As the giant flying transport machine slowly gained altitude, the sun moved under its body in the distant sky, reflecting muted sparkles off the artificial skin covering the remarkable melding of strength, beauty and intelligence.

And M’aaren knew, with the station destroyed and gone, the ornithopters and the two computers he and H’kcuta had were their only chance of survival now.

But he had a plan.

CHAPTER TWO

42,000 Years Ago

In the mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes

• • • • •

There were no defensive fortifications surrounding the settlement. There had never been a need for them because the colony was founded on the hope they would be found someday by those that were coming for them; the ancient ones; the other giants; the immortals.

At least that was what the prophecy said. And she should know. She wrote the prophecy herself.

And like the prophecy foretold, when they finally came, they were the other giants.

But they were not the immortals.

And they were not who she was expecting.

It had been over 36,000 years since the small group of scientists, who had not been implanted with the nano-bot emergency medical system, were left marooned in the South American wilderness. But after twenty-six of those millennia, a large group of the descendants of these scientists fled the colony under rebellion, leaving the God in the Clear Rock with only a fraction of the individuals she needed to complete her mission.

But as she was designed to do, she adapted and came up with a new plan. Then she began the slow process of implementing that plan. Their long gestation cycle combined with the multi-century lifespan of her people kept the breeding rates lower than she needed by a significant margin, even for her newly revised plan.

However, she continued the program, because she knew she must.

A few decades after the rebellion split the colony, the magnetosphere fully regenerated, and it became safe to go out in the daylight again. Then the God in the Clear Rock moved the small remainder of the group back to the seaside settlement. As their ancient ancestors once did on their original home island in the Atlantic, those giants who did not defect with the others fished in the protected shallow waters and bay near Isla Puna off the Pacific coast of the country we call Ecuador. At the time of the rebellion, the ones that remained were mostly the very oldest in the colony, or those with young children. But after ten thousand years and well over twenty generations, the new colony was finally thriving and expanding.

Smaller specialized communities had been developed around various sites in the nearby countryside which had been chosen by the God in the Clear Rock. Several mining sites had been created which were extracting specific ores and minerals from the mountains to the east. Other small facilities were created in the foothills nearby to process the mining products. And the most important of these geographically interconnected facilities was the final destination for all of the processed ores and metal.

This was where the God in the Clear Rock had begun her manufacturing work.

Inside a natural cave formation high in the mountains east of the coast of Ecuador, the God in the Clear Rock had her people assemble a large series of metallic iron strips which were placed along the ceiling and walls of the cave creating a gigantic cage of magnetic and electrical conductors. In the center of this structure, the clear crystal tablet holding the God in the Clear Rock sat inside a metallic frame attached directly to the outside cage by several large beams extending down from the ceiling. Below the metallic pedestal frame holding her, two long pipes reached down through a crack in the floor and into a deep geothermal vent several hundred meters inside the mountain. Using the volcanic blood of the planet to drive her energy collectors, the God in the Clear Rock was able to transfer the geothermal heat into electricity, which she then turned into magnetic and mechanical work.

In front of the God in the Clear Rock, sat a metal framed cube, which was connected to the pedestal by shiny bars extending forward on the floor. Inside the cube, a dull gray hexagonal shape sat in the middle of a pile of similar colored dust, which seemed to be wriggling as if by vibration. Near the bowling-ball-sized mass, small piles of ore dust led in short slithering streams from larger piles a few feet away like a dozen thick minute-hands all spread apart evenly on a clock face. On the outside cave walls, giant piles of various ore sat against the metal bars of the giant magnetically balanced Faraday cage being used as a makeshift nano-manufacturing plant. Behind the God in the Clear Rock, smooth and finished dodecahedron spheres sat perfectly stacked like a large, flat stage for performers growing up from the stone floor.

As the artificial stone began to take shape in the workspace in front of her, the God in the Clear Rock instantly calculated that she finally had enough material in the current piles to complete the needed amount of specialized stones. In order to finish her plan, she was using these geometric stones as a combination storage and transportation nodule. The metamaterial of the dodecahedrons contained the minerals and ores she required and would be used to move the material to the final location.

Everything was proceeding according to her timetable.

Then suddenly, the head of her team came running into the front of the cave panting from exertion. He was a strong giant who rose up through the ranks of leadership rapidly and had been her choice for the next in line for the top position of Clanock, the head of the colony council. She had been instructing him here at the cave as an apprentice, so she could personally oversee his preparation for her plans.

But as the God in the Clear Rock absorbed the scene unfolding in front of the cave, her immense artificial intelligence could not fathom what she witnessed next.

Before the out of breath giant could inhale enough air to speak, a strange sound came whizzing into the mouth of the cave followed by a dull snapping pop.

The mouth of the giant standing in front of her moved up and down a couple of times, but no sound came out. Then he slowly lowered his head and looked at his abdomen.

A bright red shaft extended from inside him, sticking out about a foot in front. As his eyes slowly looked forward to the end of the shaft, a large drop of blood fell from the razor sharp arrowhead.

The bright red liquid splattered onto the stone cave floor at the same instant the giant’s knees collapsed from the severed nerves in his spine. He fell into a paralyzed dying heap in front of the entrance.

The God in the Clear Rock took in every element of the event, but she could scarcely believe her sensors.

Before she could reconcile this new development, a dark shadow fell into the opening behind the body of her team leader and quickly moved toward the entrance. Moments later, a large giant, whom the God in the Clear Rock did not know or recognize, walked into the cave and stopped only inches behind the now dead body of her apprentice. He was dressed in form fitting armor that seemed to move with his limbs like a second skin. When he easily kicked the body of the dead giant out of his way and began to walk toward the pedestal in the middle of the large cave, the God in the Clear Rock was able to see his eyes clearly for the first time.

And in those eyes, she recognized the rebellious leader who had forcefully pulled apart the colony so many millennia ago. This was the descendant of that man. She was absolutely sure of it.

And she was instantly sure of one more thing.

This giant was intending to come and take her. Using the immense magnetic fields at her command, she peered into his mind and perceived his intentions as if he had spoken them to her.

Within a fraction of time too short to measure, the God in the Clear Rock made her decision and reacted.

A massive electrical charge built up inside the perfectly stacked electrically-capacitive dodecahedron shaped balls behind her as she began to shunt the over-unity production of energy she derived from the geothermal heat in the magma chamber under the cave. As her crystal structure began to pull heat up from below the pedestal, the two metal rods extending down into the rock became bright red, and she began to glow as white as the sun. Then the giant electrical charge started to propagate up along the metal structure surrounding the entire interior, and it began to sizzle the air around the walls of the cave.

The intruding giant in the high-tech armor with a crossbow slung over his shoulder never got within ten meters of the pedestal holding the God in the Clear Rock.

From two different points in the metal cage ceiling, gigantic lightning bolts struck down entering into the head and chest of the armored giant. The bolt to his head instantly caused his brain fluid to superheat, and the ensuing pressure burst the boiling liquid through the walls of the vessels leading out of his skull before his brain was charred into ash. He was dead before the effects of the second bolt burned a hole through his heart and lungs and then cooked the remainder of his organs into a solid mass inside his armor. The exploding sound from the lightning bolts reverberated inside the cave like a pair of high-power gunshots.

As the first body collapsed on the floor in front of the God in the Clear Rock, another unknown giant ran into the cave to attempt completing the task of abducting her.

He didn’t make it, either.

Many more would try.

None of them would get any closer than the first dead descendant of the rebellious giant from the mutiny 10,000 years ago.

The clear intent in each of the attacker’s mind blasted into