Northwater (Saints of the Void, Book 1.5): Saints of the Void, #2

By Michael Valdez

Immediately after the events of "Blurred Weaponry (Saints of the Void, Book 1)," a new mission comes to light. Evara Stroff and her twin brother, Goner Stroff, are sent to rescue comrades that won't be able to leave the continent due to a declaration of war. The twins are sent because they are self-reliant, efficient, and brutal when necessary. The Stroffs will work together to take control of a location from an enemy of unwavering focus. This action-packed novella set between the events of Book 1 and 2 in the series, and expands on an odd world full of anime-inspired action.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Valdez
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223619147

Michael Valdez

An absolutely amateur author living in Indianapolis, Indiana.He has been writing nowhere nearly enough for many years and focuses on science-fiction and fantasy, and occasionaly melds them together.

Book preview

Northwater (Saints of the Void, Book 1.5)

By Michael Valdez

Copyright © 2017 Michael Valdez

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Afterword

Preface

Northwater is a direct sequel to Blurred Weaponry (Saints of the Void, Book 1). As such, it contains spoilers for that first novel, because of course it does. If you, friendly and generous reader, are finding this first, I hope it entices you to check out the nonsense at the start of this series (there’s plenty of it, I assure you).

Chapter 1

Turf

With her feet balanced , stable, and widely set, Evara stood on the thick branch eight or so meters up the fragrant reperoa tree, where that puma from earlier was probably getting a really good look at her. She would confront the implications of that possibility later, but for now, she was using her digital monocular to peer at a line in the distance that, without the vision enhancing device, was simply too straight, too monotone to be natural. With the monocular, she saw the hydroelectric dam she’d been told would be there, situated at a plateau and on the edge of a powerful, impressive waterfall.

Details? Goner, her twin brother, asked. She heard him through a small receiver in her ear canal. I’m a little busy with other, more clawed matters.

A small circular patch attached to her throat near her jugular would pick up what she said and send it to him the same way. Taking one hand from her device, she double checked to see if the patch was still there after her climb, and was reassured when it was.

Yeah, that’s it, Evara answered. She used buttons on one side of the monocular to change a few settings and do a laser-guided distance calculation. A direct line says it’s sixty-one kilometers away, a little over one kilo above sea level.

She continued to adjust settings by feel to change from a distance calculation to reference points. The screen her right eye was looking at and through told her she had done it right with the words Point Ref On in orange letters along the lower border. Evara made sure she was focused on the leftmost side of the dam’s retaining wall, held down a round, concave control switch to make the first mark, and a blinking orange dot appeared in her view right where she was looking. She shifted the nifty device to her right, and at the other end of the wall let go of the button to make another orange dot.  Evara waited a moment while a calculation was made, then let out an impressed whistled when it was done.

One-hundred-and-twenty meters in direct width, she revealed. That doesn’t count the curvature, either.

By the black, Goner cursed, genuine surprise in his voice. "That’s as long as any of the other five dams in the world, and this thing is just sitting here. I thought maybe it would be smaller than the standard."

Still looking through the monocular, she eyed the flat lines of the structure that made it stand out. She couldn’t see the residential tower-arch of the dam from here, and none of the external operating lights of the facade were on. This was unsurprising; agents had been sent there to investigate fairly recently because it seemed abandoned.

Please let things be normal when we get there, Goner hoped, and the ruffle of clothes meant he was changing position in some way.

Evara turned off her monocular guidance tools first, then switched off the device itself, glad that she remembered to do it in the right order. Every time she turned off the device without first cranking down any enhanced modes, she got annoyed glares from the engineering department that had to reset the internal memory. Whatever that meant...

How’s our lovely friend? she asked while latching the monocular to clips on her belt by both ends which kept it from bouncing around when she moved.

She can’t climb as high as you are, and was hidden in some shrubs, Goner told her.

The phrasing made Evara scowl. What do you mean ‘was hidden?’

She’s good at her job, I actually lost her for a second. Reestablishing...

Position? Evara wondered after a few seconds went by.

She’s to your rear-right and twenty meters away. Do you think you’ll need salt?

Evara chuckled. Do pumas care about seasoning?

You’re probably bony and shit, too... Goner added as if she hadn’t said anything. Just tasteless, no meat, nothing. Awful. I feel sorry for her that you’re her next meal.

I’ve got more muscle than you, Evara said as a matter of fact.

What!? Goner said indignantly. You can’t possibly.

I’m taller.

A handful of centimeters doesn’t add that much. Well, she’s probably staring right at you, go ahead and flex your bicep – give the kitty a show.

Evara laughed far too loudly at the unexpected joke and had to cover her mouth. No one was going to be nearby, as the puma’s scent and behavior had scared off any other animals in the vicinity, but she felt like an absolute dunce laughing that hard with a throat mic patch on.

You blew out my ear drum, Goner said through his more controlled laughter. But laugh some more, though, it’ll tighten those stomach muscles, maybe take away from of that gristle you got.

You are a terrible little man, Evara said.

Damnit, Goner said, not in response to her. Ah, shit, she moved. I lost her again while laughing at you laughing.

Evara sighed, but at least this would be a challenge. The wildcat had been stalking the human for over an hour, since the twins had left their all-terrain parked and camouflaged to go deeper in the trees. Having her brother ready and in position to shoot the puma with his sniper rifle took away any sense of danger from the situation and might make her lose her edge, which while a silly thing to think about when facing something with the weight and strength of a large wildcat, was nevertheless a consideration.

No sign of a trail? Evara wondered.

Hold on...

Rather than hold on as she was advised, Evara ducked under a branch and began to climb down the noble old reperoa. Admittedly, they could have gotten just as good of a look at the dam with twenty minutes of driving and climbing in another direction, but she had seen these trees and gotten the itch to clamber, and had used the minuscule time they would save as an excuse to do just that. It had been months since she was outdoors on anything more than a field exercise, and she didn’t realize how much she missed scampering up on branches higher and higher. On the trip that got her away from the populated areas further east on this continent – some would call that voyage an escape from authorities – she had climbed a few trees and been disappointed by the results. But these gorgeous, strong, darkwood specimens around her? They held both her weight and attention, begged her from the second she saw them to go up and up and up.

Now, coming down after scouting her destination, she couldn’t keep a happy, nature-loving smile off her face. That smile vanished when a feline roar tore through the air like a wall of arrows, piercing her. The sound echoed, a warning and a show of strength. Evara was halfway down her chosen reperoa, her feet on separate branches, and was incredibly open to attack. A short glance on all sides revealed nothing, but the roar had come from the southwest. That’s wasn’t the direction her torso faced.

Evara eyed a branch a meter below her, a thin thing that wouldn’t hold half her weight, but would help her face the puma from the direction it seemed to be coming. A few long and short taps in her earpiece, Goner spelling out S.W., meant that Evara had the right direction. A few more taps: G.L., for good luck. Goner was aiming to get himself punched in the throat.

Evara decided that getting down to flat ground as fast as possible might suit her better than only keeping an eye on the feline huntress. Rather than climb down with the same care she used when going up, she eyed the thin branch she spotted earlier, and hunkered down. The wind kicked up, and several leaves came down from the upper boughs of this and other nearby trees, obscuring her vision. She kept herself half-bent and ready to spring until her view was clear, then took a pair of deep breaths, and part-jumped-part-fell to the next level of branches down, one arm extended toward her targeted wooden hold.

This was not a long fall, one second in the air at most, and yet the puma showed her strength, her grace, her power by leaping up out of a blind spot created by the reperoa’s trunk and arcing perfectly towards Evara Stroff. The animal’s amber-yellow eyes were as mesmerizing as the fangs revealed by an open, hungry mouth, the latter like daggers coated in saliva.

Almost without thinking – there was very little time