Aluzia: The Bloom Chronicles, #5

By Jason Halstead

Roughneck is a standalone book in the Bloom Chronicles series by Jason Halstead.

Danis IV showed a lot of promise. It was an earthlike system with similar size, gravity, and climate. The problem was the system was out of the way of any major shipping routes and there was next to nothing else in the solar system worth the time spent exploring it.

New Horizons wasn't a bottom line corporation focused on just exploiting existing natural resources. They played a longer game – a game that involved setting up a colony to inhabit the planet and then recoup their considerable expenses over the long term.

What the would be colonists didn't, and couldn't, know is they weren't the first ones there. As quiet and idyllic as the planet seemed, it had a dark secret. For all their technology and experience, the colonists of Danis IV are about to find out they're the top of the food chain anymore.

 

Look for these Bloom Chronicles stories!

Book 1 – The Exception Clause

Book 2 – Domination

Book 3 – Roughneck

Book 4 - No Exceptions

Book 5 - Aluzia

• Language: English
• Publisher: Novel Concept Publishing LLC
• Release date: May 26, 2025
• ISBN: 9798230525301

Jason Halstead

Jason Halstead has always had colorful stories to tell. At an early age that creativity usually resulted in some kind of punishment. At long last he's come into his own and has turned his imagination into an asset that is keeping thousands of people entertained. When he's not writing Jason spends his time with his wife and two children, trying to relive his glory days as a powerlifter, or developing new IT systems for his dayjob. He enjoys reading and responding to fan mail as well, so if you liked any of his books, don't be shy! Sign up for his newsletter, find him on the web at http://www.booksbyjason.com, email him at: [e-mail], or follow him on Twitter: @booksbyjason.

Book preview

Aluzia

By Jason Halstead

Published by Novel Concept Publishing LLC

©2023

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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

For additional information contact:

www.novelconceptpublishing.com

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Ortonville, MI 48462

Editing by @PCE_Deadmeat

Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Jason Halstead’s website: http://www.booksbyjason.com

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The blue in her hair was wearing out showing her natural dark brown color at the roots. Not that she had a full head of hair in the first place, but the pixie cut she wore flipped over the worst of the burn scars. Her eyes were a pale green, like when a plant was getting by on barely enough water. She barely had any silver flakes in them either, which made her stand out as an oddity. The girl was wearing her cyber gloves too, not afraid to show off the three generation old tech her sister had given her.

Not tonight, Cara, Roma said as her grin spread from ear to ear. He shut the door behind him to the flophouse he rented a room in and turned away from where Cara sat on her calves.

Oh come on, Roma! she protested and stood up. A twitch of her feet and she hopped up as the wheels on the bottom of her boots rotated ninety degrees. She rolled up beside him and added, Something big's going down, isn't it? Roxie told me to stay home tonight.

You should listen to your sister, she knows what she's talking about, he said while he converted his wheels one foot a time. Anyway, I'm just going to the port salvage yard to see if I can score anything.

You're blowing oil, she challenged.

He finished his second boot and spun to face her. Look, Cara, not tonight, okay? If your sister told you stay home and you come out with me, I'm in trouble with her. Pissing off a mid-list bounty hunter isn't my idea of a good time.

She won't find out! Cara protested.

He ignored her and went on. What happens to me if something happens to you? You get a cut that's going to need medicine or it will fester and you'll end up losing a chunk of yourself. You're in good shape still, no tech in you. You should hold on to that.

She snorted and held her hair up to show the scarring on the side of her head and ear. Yeah, because flesh is so much prettier.

It is. It's real.

Synthetic is real too, you know. You can even feel it.

Not like it's real. Just touch. Pressure. Not warm or cold or soft or hard, Roma said. That's why I'm saving my credits for a ride off this ruined shithole of a planet instead of modding up.

Aluzia's not that bad, Cara said. We live good here in Domeopolis.

He shook a finger at her. See, even that sucks. Domeopolis? In the hundred years since they build this place they couldn't come up with a better name for it?

Does the name matter? It saves us from what happened outside.

Does it really? he smirked. What if I told you what happened outside is done and over.

She gawked at him and then asked, What? How? The great wars... they called it multiple extinction level events. Radiation and firestorms and nothing left alive. Nothing could survive that.

He waved his hand. All that shit ended a long time ago. Stuff is growing out there, Cara. Grass, weeds, flowers, tree—

Flowers?

He stopped and nodded. Yeah, flowers. Not, like, big pretty ones like you see on the streams, but wildflowers.

She gasped. You're going out there!

No, I'm no—

You are! she almost sang the words. "You're