Armageddon (62 page)
But I was wrong.
They’re sending me away,
far
away, and now I’m never going to have a chance to enjoy eternity with my wife. Those kids we always said we’d have—she’s going to have them with someone else while I’m gone. When life gives you shit, you sure as hell can’t make lemonade.
Usually you just step in it.
PREVIOUS BOOKS
IN THE DARK SPACE SERIES
Dark Space I: Humanity is Defeated
HUMANITY IS DEFEATED
Ten years ago the Sythians invaded the galaxy with one goal: to wipe out the human race.
THEY ARE HIDING
Now the survivors are hiding in the last human sector of the galaxy: Dark Space—once a place of exile for criminals, now the last refuge of mankind.
THEY ARE ISOLATED
The once galaxy-spanning Imperium of Star Systems is left guarding the gate which is the only way in or out of Dark Space—but not everyone is satisfied with their governance.
AND THEY ARE KILLING EACH OTHER
Freelancer and ex-convict Ethan Ortane is on the run. He owes crime lord Alec Brondi 10,000 sols, and his ship is badly damaged. When Brondi catches up with him, he makes an offer Ethan can’t refuse. Ethan must infiltrate and sabotage the Valiant, the Imperial Star Systems Fleet carrier which stands guarding the entrance of Dark Space, and then his debt will be cleared. While Ethan is still undecided about what he will do, he realizes that the Imperium has been lying and putting all of Dark Space at risk. Now Brondi’s plan is starting to look like a necessary evil, but before Ethan can act on it, he discovers that the real plan was much more sinister than what he was told, and he will be lucky to escape the Valiant alive… .
Dark Space II: The Invisible War
THEIR SHIP IS DAMAGED
Ethan Ortane has just met his long lost son, Atton, but the circumstances could have been better. After a devastating bio-attack and the ensuing battle, they’ve fled Dark Space aboard the Defiant to get away from the crime lord, Alec Brondi, who has just stolen the most powerful vessel left in the Imperial Star Systems’ Fleet—the Valiant, a five-kilometer-long gladiator-class carrier.
THEY ARE LOW ON FUEL
They need reinforcements to face Brondi, but beyond Dark Space the comm relays are all down, meaning that they must cross Sythian Space to contact the rest of the fleet. Making matters worse, they are low on fuel, so they can’t jump straight there. They’ll have to travel on the space lanes to save fuel, but the lanes are controlled by Sythians now, and they are fraught with entire fleets of cloaked alien ships.
AND THERE IS NO WAY OUT
With Brondi behind them, they can’t go back, and they can’t afford to leave the last human sector in the galaxy to the crime lords, so they must cross through enemy territory in the Defiant, a damaged, badly undermanned cruiser with no cloaking device. Making matter worse, trouble is brewing aboard the cruiser, dropping their chances of survival from slim … to none.
THE DEFIANT IS STRANDED
Ethan and his son, Atton, have been arrested for high treason and conspiracy, crimes which will surely mean the death sentence, but it’s beginning to look like theirs aren’t the only lives in jeopardy—the Defiant is stranded in Sythian Space, and the vessel which Commander Caldin sent to get help has used all its fuel to get to Obsidian Station, only to find out that the station has been destroyed. Now the Defiant’s last hope for a rescue is gone, and everyone on board is about to die a cold, dark death.
HUMANITY IS STILL FIGHTING ITSELF
Meanwhile, the notorious crime lord, Alec Brondi, is plotting to capture the remnants of Admiral Hoff’s fleet, just as he captured the Valiant, but Hoff’s men are on to him, and Brondi is about to get a lot more than he bargained for, forcing him to flee to the one place he knows will be safe—Dark Space.
AND A NEW INVASION IS ABOUT TO BEGIN
But Dark Space is only safe because the alien invaders don’t know exactly where it is, and now they have a plan to find it which will threaten not only Dark Space, but the entire human race.
Or Get All Three for a Special Price
DARK SPACE WON THE BATTLE
Humanity has just won a major victory against the invading Sythians—the first victory in the history of the war. The savage Gors have joined forces with Dark Space, and now for the first time since the invasion, it looks like the tide is turning. But the Sythians weren’t defeated. Humanity just bloodied their noses. Now they know where Dark Space is, and they are coming back for revenge.
THE WAR STILL RAGES
Admiral Hoff Heston is secretly terrified of what’s coming, but he’s lulling people into a false sense of security. He needs to buy time. The people of Dark Space are not as alone as they think.
AND EVERYTHING IS ABOUT TO CHANGE
Avilon, a lost sector of humans, has remained hidden and untouched by the Sythian invasion. No one knew they even existed, except for Admiral Heston. Now he must send a mission to contact them and get help, but what humanity finds there will change more than just the course of the war against the alien invaders … it will change the very nature of their existence.
THE SYTHIANS INVADED AGAIN
Dark Space, the last refuge of humanity, is overrun; its citizens are either enslaved or dead. The relentless Sythians have slaughtered humanity wherever they could find them, and now only a few hundred survivors remain. Desperate to escape, these few chase rumors of a lost sector of humanity and end up on Avilon, a planet covered with a vast, kilometers-high city that lies hidden and shielded from the rest of the galaxy by its impossibly advanced technology and its benevolent ruler—Omnius, the Artificial Intelligence who would be god to his human creators.
HUMANITY FOUND REFUGE ON AVILON
Omnius reveals that no one really died in the war—he couldn’t save them from the Sythians, but he did find a way to record the contents of their brains and resurrect them all in the bodies of immortal clones. Omnius keeps a record of everyone’s mind in order to make predictions about the future and prevent people from making mistakes. The result is a perfect paradise where you can be assured of a happy, successful life for the rest of eternity—just so long as you are willing to give up your freedom and submit to Omnius’s will. If you refuse, you can live in the Null Zone, a city that lies cloaked in shadows below the immortal paradise where Omnius reigns supreme. In the Null Zone humanity has its freedom, but the result is chaos, death, and forced separation from everyone living in the Upper Cities of Avilon.
PARADISE FOR SOME IS A PRISON FOR OTHERS
To Ethan Ortane, who spent years exiled on a prison world in Dark Space, Avilon and its utter lack of freedom is the Netherworld incarnate, and Omnius the Devlin himself. His son, Atton, is not so sure—it’s hard to argue with Omnius’s governance when death and suffering have become just a distant memory. Even better, it looks like Avilon with all of its advanced technology might finally be able to put an end to the Sythians. Omnius is sending his Peacekeepers to Dark Space to rescue the human slaves and take the fight to the invaders….
THE ROAD TO THE NETHERWORLD IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS…
Despite the Sythian apocalypse, Omnius knows that humanity’s worst enemy has always been itself. Darkness lies in the human heart and if paradise is to be maintained, that darkness must be contained. For Omnius the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by a mathematical equation: the choice with maximal benefit for humanity and minimal detriment is always the right one. And with his ability to predict the future, who could be better suited to making those judgments? But when the looming detriment defies the very purpose of Omnius’s existence, the benefit that outweighs it depends very much on one’s point of view….
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasper T. Scott
is the USA TODAY best-selling author of more than twelve novels, written across various genres. His abiding passion is to write science fiction and fantasy. As an avid fan of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, Jasper Scott aspires to create his own worlds to someday capture the hearts and minds of his readers as thoroughly as these franchises have.
Jasper spent years living as a starving artist before finally quitting his various jobs to become a full-time writer. In his spare time he enjoys reading, traveling, going to the gym, and spending time with his family.