Resist: Captured Earth, #1

By TJ Nichols

Capture is a soldier's worst fear, but all his training couldn't prepare Sergeant Josh Rayne for what it meant to be caught by the alien invaders, who have claimed the desert in Western Australia.

 

Josh believes he is the only man left alive from the teams sent out to spy on the aliens, but in the alien prison, he is reunited with his lover and fellow soldier Xavier Fisher. There is no time to celebrate though as Xavier is gravely injured and in need of medical care.

 

With the exfil date fast approaching, they have to escape before the ship leaves without them.

Book one in the Captured Earth trilogy. For readers who like action, explosions, and don't mind a little gore with their gay romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TJ Nichols
• Release date: Jul 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223158998

Book preview

Chapter One

The Simpson Line has been declared. Danny lowered the radio. He ripped the battered hat off his head and tossed it to the ground in frustration. The gray stockman’s hat had seen better days. After over a month and a half in the scrub and desert, all of the six-man team had been better. Their uniforms and boots were scuffed, ripped, or just missing and replaced with whatever they could scrounge in the deserted towns. They were all rough around the edges, gritty with sand, and doing their best to follow the mission to the end when every instinct told them to run.

Or maybe that was just Josh.

He scratched at his beard, then took a swig from the bottle of rum they’d found in the house. Another empty town, not even a dog left behind. Most of the time, there wasn’t even a possum left up a tree. The silence was unnerving. He took another drink, then passed the bottle to Beau.

Beau accepted the bottle and paused from repacking his gear. What does that mean?

We left home without our passports. Josh Rayne glanced up at the pink and orange hued sky. Another gorgeous sunset, the kind tourists had once written home about. There would be no more campaigns trying to bring tourists to Western Australia. Western Australia no longer existed. Which meant they were no longer in Australia. It was a damn waste to hand it over to the Geckos—what the humans had started calling the tall, tailed, and lizard-like invaders.

The aliens had landed and set up without asking for permission. Satellites had gone down the same day. He’d been recalled from leave, and here he was. His gaze tracked the blood stain over the porch and down the steps. The drag marks in the dirt were faint but still there. He wanted the bottle of rum back just so he could drink to oblivion and pretend this wasn’t happening but given that he was in charge, he had to act like it. Any word on the mission and exfil?

Danny picked up the hat he’d stolen at the first homestead they stopped at and jammed it back on. He wore it all the time, even though they only moved at night. That was a courtesy call. Nothing has changed.

It’s all fucking changed. We haven’t been able to raise the other two teams in over a month. Don’t they give a shit? Did the Army understand what they were finding, or not finding, out here?

And now this.

Australia had called it quits on defending half the country. What the hell was happening in the rest of the world? If not for a weekly check in from HQ, it would be easy to believe there were no other humans left on the planet.

Josh closed his eyes and tried not to remember the echo of the screaming and yelling in the middle of the fire fight. Then nothing. He’d hoped it was because Bravo’s radio had been shot to pieces.

Xavier was dead, and Josh had to keep going like it didn’t matter.

He opened his eyes and drew in a breath. This time, he avoided looking at the blood stain. It was harder to ignore the bullet holes and scorch marks where the occupants had tried to fight off the invaders.

Apparently not. Danny licked his peeling lips but didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. The way he looked at Josh was enough. They hadn’t looked at him the same after that last call they’d received from Bravo.

For the first night, he’d held himself together, focused on walking and refused to let grief consume him. He hadn’t wanted to believe that Xavier was dead.

Then they’d reached what had been a settlement. Three small houses and a whole lot of blood. There’d been so much blood but not a single body.

It wasn’t where Bravo team had been killed, but it might as well have been.

He’d broken and cried and wished he was dead too.

Since then, the other five men in his team had kept an eye on him. They couldn’t afford a weak link out here. He’d never been that man before. He’d done three tours in the Middle East, and he wasn’t going to let any gunned-up Gecko stop him from getting home—was Perth still home when it wasn’t part of Australia?

He breathed out; he’d peel open the hurt when he was on the ship with a cold beer in his hand and Xavier’s personal effects in the other. He ran his fingertips over the grip of his pistol.

Geckos died and bled like any enemy. And now each one that he killed was for Xavier.

Where are we, Chris? Josh asked. For the moment, he was still in charge. They hadn’t removed him, and they were still a team. But now they knew their boss had been screwing another soldier in his spare time, and they just looked at him like he was a head case.

Maybe he was.

He’d known it was a bad idea to get involved with a soldier—hell, he knew he was no catch—but it had happened anyway. Xavier was a survivor, same as all of them.

Had been a survivor.

Fucking Geckos.

Chris held the map that had plotted their course through the outback, they were supposed to round up civilians and get them headed toward the coast, toward the waiting Navy ship. Perth was too far south for them to walk to, and Geraldton no longer existed. It had been bombed to little more than a crater the week before they’d been deployed.

Five days from Gecko Base One, Chris said. I think we’ve got enough fuel to get there. There should be an Aboriginal community on the way.

Danny groaned.

Josh pressed his lips together. They all knew there would be no one there. There’s no point in stopping there.

The closer they’d gotten to the base, the older the signs of life had been. They’d stopped hoping to find survivors after the first two homesteads. It had gone from rescue and recon to recon only. The last part of their orders was to get eyes on the base and report back.

Then pray the promised ship would still be there when they reached the coast for extraction from what was now Gecko country.

Right then. Let’s pack up and head out. The sooner we get eyes on the base, the sooner we can go get that cold beer.

They’d spent the day at this once nice homestead. They’d raided the cupboards, had made damper, and eaten cereal with long life milk. They’d thrown tins of fruit and baked beans in the ute for later. The ute was borrowed from the first empty town. No one was going to report it missing.

After securing the site, they’d filled up all their water containers from the nice full tank and siphoned off fuel into their stolen jerry cans. Then they’d slept in beds and showered.

A small reprieve from what was waiting for them. Knowing that the government had ceded half the country to the invaders just made it all that much more futile.

Eyes on the base. Since the Geckos shot down anything that could fly, it had to be done the old-fashioned way. They had to creep up on the base. But it was so fucking quiet some nights, it was hard to believe the Geckos didn’t hear them coming.

Maybe they were already preparing a welcome committee.

Josh climbed into the tray. Danny joined him while the other four sat in the cab. Rolling around the back of the ute were some of the metal bits Josh had pulled off two dead Geckos. There was what looked like a robotic arm and something that had been on another’s stomach. The two Geckos scouts had gone down pretty easy, and it had been nice to see them bleed.

When the blood had stopped flowing, the metal parts had been easy to lift off. Beneath the metal had been a raw stump of an arm and what appeared to be an open gut wound, something that should’ve required major surgery, not robotics.

Tomorrow, they’d hide the ute and make sure it was ready for the drive to the coast, the ship, and then home…or at least safety. They were on schedule to get eyes on the base.

So far, the Geckos hadn’t worried about ships. Drones, missiles, planes, satellites—anything that flew—were all gone with in the first couple of days. And Australia wasn’t the only country to be invaded. Josh had seen that on the news before getting the recall to base.

He'd argued with Xavier on the drive back. The knife in his heart twisted. He shouldn’t have.

What are you thinking about? Danny nudged Josh’s boot.

Josh lifted his gaze. Moonlight glinted off the metal cab. Tonight didn’t feel like a good night to be out. Do you think the rest of the world is still out there?

Danny nodded. He had a wife and two kids back in Perth. They’d have sent everyone east.

"Evacuated Perth and