Phoenix Rising: The New Glasgow War, #4

By CN Stoesen

Low crawling across the roof, she ruined her dress and reached the lip of the building. Her training clicked in.

Checking the rifle, she set the grenade launcher to fire.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The New Glasgow marines are ready to battle, but will they be able to fight alongside their new allies?

The only constant in Rachel Duncan's life is change. Old enemies become allies, as new dangers threaten the Union. Battling their way through contested space, the New Glasgow Marines must survive the journey to link up with an old rival.

Joining the defenders of the mining colony of Gascony, Rachel takes her marines back into the fight once again to fight a common foe on a distant planet.

Outnumbered, Duncan must use all of her skills to take control back from the Me'eritim. An enemy that they know little about.

This is the fourth book of the New Glasgow War series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Stoesen
• Release date: Mar 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386937333

Book preview

Phoenix Rising:

A Story of the New Glasgow War

Book Four of the New Glasgow War Series

By CN Stoesen

February 27, 2018

Version 1.00

Copyright © 2018 CN Stoesen

All rights reserved.

Cover By Philip McClimon

Dedication

Thank you so much to my wife and son for their love and support. I couldn't hope for a better family. After all, they put up with my nonsense constantly. And thanks to the quirky little town of my friends' invention. It's a fun playground. Thanks for sharing.

Free Fall

Sign up for the mailing list and read the prequel for free.

Chapter 1

Hunting

Billy Driscole sighted in his rifle on the head of one of the cats. Well, he wasn't sure what the hell they were, but they reminded him of a cheetah he saw in a book about old Earth animals, same yellow fur with black markings. These critters didn't seem to have tails.

His rifle was ancient. It was as long as he was tall. The barrel was a composite metal ceramic material, and the stock was a light plastic. It used an old fashion bolt action design that loaded cased rounds rather than modern case-less designs. It looked more like a walking staff than a weapon. His grandfather had made it long before Billy was born and was built to last after he left this life.

Ammunition was scarce. He could make a few rounds from old spent casings. Still, he only had a dozen he could shoot. He loaded one of his precious cartridges into the rifle. He took a deep breath and resettled behind the weapon.

His breathing was slow. He had a good position with a solid rest. He found his target again. This one had been yelling at the others. It was stripped to the waist. He could see that its chest was mostly covered in a fine white fur that extended down to its stomach. Unlike Billy, this creature appeared to be physically fit, while Billy had a paunch from too much drink.

He laid the cross-hairs of the scope on the top of the creature's head and squeezed the trigger. The weapon barked as it fired. Billy lay down without looking to see the results of his shot. To better camouflage his efforts, he had sprayed the area in front of his shooting blind with water to prevent any dust from being kicked up from the shot. As such, a single shot fired might not be tracked back to his position.

He laid still and counted. He wanted to wait for ten minutes before looking at the results of his work. Time crept by slowly. Since he didn't hear any firing from the claim below, Billy felt certain he'd gotten away with this.

Once the time had passed, he raised the rifle again and looked through the scope. The squatters on his claim fanned out in a defensive perimeter. They had weapons up and ready. There were two of the critters on the ground. One had a shattered skull, and the other was clutching an arm and screaming.

It surprised Billy that the creature's screams couldn't be heard from his position. It looked to be in great pain. Still, two for the price of one wasn't a bad exchange for his precious ammo. There was a cat that was bent over the crybaby. Hell, it was just a broken arm. He'd had worse. He was attempting to help. Probably was some kind of medic.

He smiled. A nap was in order and then he would return to his shack once night fell. A good day's hunting from his perspective. He took a sip of water and lowered his hat. Sleep came easily to the grumpy man.

...

Litter Leader Chatul lay bleeding on the ground. His brains splattered all over a soldier writhing on the ground screaming in pain. His arm torn open from the shot that killed his officer.

Tendua arrived quickly and applied first aid to the wounded Me'eritim. The rest of the litter had taken cover. A few had their weapons handy. If it was anything other than a single shot at them, they would have been in trouble.

Tendua finished working on the trooper Billee. When the cat wouldn't stop screeching in pain, the medic slapped him hard across the face.

Stop disgracing your pride, growled Tendua at Billee.

The noise stopped. Several of the other soldiers looked over at the wounded man with disgust.

Pride leader Aryeh was wearing his armor and ran over to Tendua.

What happened here?

There was a sniper. They fired one shot and killed Chatul. The round passed through into this weakling. Said the medic.

Did anyone see where the shot came from?

The assembled litter just shook their heads to the negative.

Ba'agh spoke up, Sir, I believe the shot came from that direction.

He was pointing to a small hillock that was mostly in line with the direction of the shot based on where Billee and Chatul lay.

Running bent low, Aryeh ran back to the headquarters tent. He told the communications officer to raise the ship in orbit above their position.

An hour later, a shuttle flew low over the hillock. The scan results came back negative. There were a few local lizards sunning themselves upon the rock.

...

Billy Driscole woke to the sound of the shuttle approaching.

Shit, did the damn cats think of something useful to do?

He lay under the camo net and tried to imagine good thoughts. He could see through the weave of the fabric the shuttle running low over the ground. But they were a good four hundred meters from his actual position. They were looking at the small hillock he first observed the cats from. This was important information for him. The idiots thought he was in much closer than he really was. His grandpa's rifle was accurate out to two kilometers. That was why those heavy bullets kicked like a cranky mule.

The thought made Billy laugh. They attempted to import mules to the colony. But the local lizards thought they were the tastiest thing they had ever seen. In the end, they domesticated the local reptiles to take on the hauling for the wildcat mines. Keeping up vehicles was expensive on a backwater planet like Gascony. Billy had little use for the FUP and its rules, but he sure hoped they would come and drive out the squatters.

Once the ship returned to orbit, it was dark, and Billy rolled up the netting and headed back out to where he had left his lizard and rode to his campsite.

Chapter 2

Sidelined

Major Dietler sat in his command post and stared at the message. It has been over a month