It’s been a while since I did one of these, so I thought I’d share a quick excerpt from my current WIP. This one is from chapter 2, where Khalil Al-Marikh is introduced. He and Estee are the two major viewpoint characters of this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This excerpt hasn’t been edited yet, so any typos or other mistakes will be fixed before I publish the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nLieutenant Khalil Ibn Yusef\nAl-Marikh tapped his earpiece with one hand and held onto his seat\nwith the other as the lightly armored rover bounced on the uneven,\nrocky ground. His driver, Private Andre Cernovich, seemed to be in a\ngreat hurry to arrive without even knowing their destination. That,\nor Cernovich was simply joyriding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cSergeant Peters, this is\nKhalil. What do you have for me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve found what looks\nto be the scientists\u2019 expedition compound two klicks out from the\nspace elevator. Our heat sensors show that it\u2019s inhabited. What do\nyou want us to do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOn the display screen just\nbelow the windshield, a green dot blinked to show the sergeant\u2019s.\nCorporal Cernovich swerved and headed in that direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cAre they armed?\u201d\nKhalil asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cNot from what we can\ntell. Though they may be armed with bows and arrows like those\nnatives who shot at us on the way in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nKhalil remembered the look\non their shuttle pilot\u2019s face as the arrows had clattered against\nthe cockpit window. His men had proceeded through the brush with\ncaution, though thankfully, the natives hadn\u2019t shown up since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cHold your ground and\nwait for us to join you. We\u2019re about five minutes out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cCopy, Kali. We\u2019ll\nestablish a perimeter and await your arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe connection cut out.\nKhalil focused his attention forward as the roar of the rover\u2019s\nengines not quite managed to drown out the sound of the native\nwildlife. The ground, though rocky like his Martian homeworld, was\ncovered in high grass and patches of thick brush. The mountains,\nwhich had appeared red from orbit, weren\u2019t yet visible in the\npre-dawn twilight. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThere was no denying the\nalienness of this world. From the large double moons and the strange\nconstellations to the thick, musty scent of the air, the inescapable\nsense of otherness seemed to permeate everything. It set Khalil on\nedge almost as much as Cernovich\u2019s driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe rover hit an unusually\nlarge bump, and the resulting bounce nearly flung his gunner, Private\nVance, into the air. A chorus of angry profanity was the predictable\nresult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cDammit, Andre, you drive\nworse than my drunk grandma!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cStay frosty,\u201d Khalil\nordered, scanning the horizon with his heat sensors. The wheels of\nthe rover cut through the grass like a hot knife through butter, and\nthe dry, dusty air blasted Khalil\u2019s face. The landscape was so full\nof life, it was difficult to tell which targets were harmless and\nwhich posed a potential threat. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAs they rounded a large\nrocky outcropping, a swarm of enormous insects took to the air. Vance\nimmediately opened fire. The crack of laser fire mingled with a shout\nof surprise, which gave way to whoops of victory as dozens of the\nbugs exploded in a shower of splattered guts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cHold your fire,\u201d\nKhalil ordered. \u201cIt\u2019s just the native wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cDamn, Kali. Did you see\nthe size of those things?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cGet used to it,\nprivate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nHe glanced up at the\ntrigger-happy teenage marine. Khalil was barely eighteen Terran years\nhimself, which still put him ahead of most of the soldiers under his\ncommand. Any older, and the forty years of crysostasis they\u2019d\nundertook to get here would have significantly reduced his\nprobability of surviving the voyage. Even the main force, which was\nstill on the outskirts of the system, was staffed almost exclusively\nby teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nUnlike most of them,\nthough, Khalil had never had the luxury of a childhood. His parents\nwere refugees twice over: first from Iraq, and then from Earth.\nKhalil had never been to his family\u2019s ancestral homeland, but he\ndid have memories of their Syriac Orthodox Church in Los Angelos\nburning as the Sharia police looked on. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nHe drew a sharp breath and\nput such thoughts from his mind, refocusing on the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThere, Cernovich,\u201d he\nsaid, pointing to a spot on the map near Sergeant Peters\u2019s current\npositon. \u201cDrop us off there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cGot it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nA few minutes later,\nCernovich brought the rover to a stop behind a small hill. Khalil\nchecked his rifle and dismounted with Vance and Cernovich. Tensions\nwere high, but none of them said a word as they took up positions in\nthe waist-deep grass and prepared to move out. Khalil checked his\nearpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cAre you there,\nLieutenant?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSergeant Peters\u2019s voice\nsounded uncannily loud in Khalil\u2019s ear, now that they\u2019d left the\nrover. Even the buzzing of the native insects seemed quieter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re here, Peters.\nWhere are the others?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cSpread out to the east\nof the target, with a good overlook position on the right. Hold your\nposition; we\u2019ll come to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI copy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nA few moments later,\nSergeant Peters materialized from the shadows with Specialists\nMikhailov and Martinek. Green and black streaks of face paint covered\ntheir faces, making effective camouflage in the high grass. Peters\nwas the taller one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWhat have we got?\u201d\nKhalil asked quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the scientists,\nall right. The dome gives it away. Gilbert and Baier are in position\non our right flanks, with Matheson on our left and Ahiga on the far\nside of the compound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cGood work,\u201d Khalil\npraised his noncom. \u201cGot a vantage point?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cRight this way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nHe followed his sergeant\ninto the high grass, switching his goggles from infrared to heat\nsignatures. Almost immediately, he could make out the rest of the\nplatoon. They had spread out over a distance of almost a hundred\nyards, some of them prone, others creeping forward. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nUp ahead, on the other side\nof the rise, he made out structures. Most of them were made of clay\nand native mud, and still radiated traces of heat from the previous\nday. A couple of them were dome-shaped, though, and clearly not made\nfrom native material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cHow long have you been\nmonitoring this compound?\u201d Khalil asked quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cOnly since we arrived.\nShould we wait until daylight, or move in now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nKhalil looked skyward, as\nif to seek out their eyes in orbit. If they\u2019d deployed their probes\nfirst instead of sending out the marines, his men might have had\nadvance notice of this compound. Then again, with a mysterious alien\nstructure towering above what appeared to be an otherwise virgin\nplanet, he couldn\u2019t blame his superior officers for wanting to\nestablish a beachhead first. Speed, not stealth, was their chief\nadvantage now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cMove in,\u201d he said\nsoftly. Peters nodded and made a quick cutting motion with his hand.\nAll around them, the marines moved quietly forward as they began to\nconverge on the compound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s been a while since I did one of these, so I thought I’d share a quick excerpt from my current WIP. This one is from chapter 2, where Khalil Al-Marikh is introduced. He and Estee are the two major viewpoint characters of this book. This excerpt hasn’t been edited yet, so any typos or… Continue reading WIP excerpt: Edenfall<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[509,934],"tags":[474,985],"class_list":["post-12574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edenfall","category-genesis-earth-trilogy","tag-excerpts","tag-wips","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-3gO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12575,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}