Maelstrom - of Trades and Plunders: Maelstrom, #790

By Daniel L. Raven

The world has become a hard and dangerous to live in place since the catastrophic event now known as The Great Dry. Centuries have past since that disastrous time and the climate has changed to a hot and scorching heat. Scouring storms roam the planet, treacherous sands suck down all they can in dangerous currents and huge twirling maelstroms. Water and food is hard to come by.
Of the billions of people only a handful have survived the world-altering cataclysm, but those who did have adapted. The struggle for life continues and people make a living any which way they can. Hunting for water, hunting for food...

And killing each other over it ...

 

Between the island nations of Gems and Central Dominance two ships meet and clash in combat, a flurry of dust and sweat and blood.

One of these ships is filled with traders, sailing these treacherous desert sands selling, buying and trading goods, food and water. All in order to make a decent living.

The other ship is filled with rovers and pirates, bent on earning their living by stealing and plundering everything they can get their hands on. No matter who gets hurt along the way.
Or killed.

As this battle for survival and existence ensues, who will prevail?

 

(novelette - 11.200+ words)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel L. Raven
• Release date: Oct 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798224810321

Book preview

MÆLSTRØM

of Trades and Plunders

790 aGD.

By: Daniel L. Raven

Dedication

***

In my quest to get all the stories that whirl around in my head to paper, the Maelstrom stories are more or less the first one to be scribbled down. So these adventures in this world are dedicated to the art of writing, I guess. I hope you have as much pleasure in absorbing them, as I did in writing them.

Happy reading!

Copyright

***

Copyright © 2023 | Daniel L. Raven

Cover design & copyright © 2023 | Daniel L. Raven

4th edition | expanded edition

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Chapters

***

Dedication

Copyright

Chapters

Preface

Map

Intro

Chapter 1 - Attack ...

Chapter 2 - ... and Repel

Chapter 3 - Enter ...

Chapter 4 - ... and Exit

Chapter 5 - Things lost

From this Author

About the Author

Note

***

The MælstrøM series is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

A major cosmic catastrophe has befallen the solar system. Comets, large enough to be planet killers, coming from the dark and depths of space, graced the planet, damaged the atmosphere and caused major tectonic shifts, earth quakes and tidal waves. And all-out chaos.

Billions of people died in that disaster. Most of the planet's water got vented into space through the damaged atmosphere, pulled out by the gravity of the comets, and vaporized in the cold and vast darkness. After the comets grazed the planet, they struck the sun, where most of them burned up or exploded. The force of the blasts made a big gas bubble ‘brake off'. It started orbiting like a little sun of its own around its big sister. Because of the heat, the last vestiges of open water on the planet vaporized and disappeared.

More people did in the aftermath of the disaster, from radiation, from heat, from thirst.

A small group managed to survive by hiding underground in large caves. There they spend decades in fear and anguish, waiting for their end. But against all odds they survived. Then, when the radiation lessened, they decided to get out, go up and into what was left of their world.

The surface of the planet was left bone dry and where once oceans ruled, now a fast desert landscape awaited all that gazed upon it. The world had become a hot and scorching place, where the few human survivors now had to scramble day in and day out for food and even more for the little water they managed to gather.

The magnetic fields of both planet and sun had gone haywire and the oceans of sand were moving and shifting and streaming just