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FREE ON KINDLE Dec 11/12/13
The really fun part of this book is that you get the feeling that you have heard the story and recognize the players , but I ascribed this to Scholes solid grip on the Norse mythology and plainly he can weave a wonderful tale. Scholes indeed would be that person around an ancient cookfire that could mesmerize with the flame and the tale. ~ Excerpt of review on Beam Me Up
Book Description:
After the destruction of the home worlds of the super power empire of the Brell, a lone soldier acquires custodianship over all of the residual power and knowledge of his race. He then travels into the future in search of revenge.
In the long journey up through the well of time he witnesses the emergence of new powers for both good and evil. One of them the super power empire of the Tolden. Another the dark powers behind a vast inter-stellar network of subjugated worlds.
After a battle that takes him to both the beginning and end of time, his struggle against the nemesis of his race leads to a final confrontation in a place thought to be only stuff of myth and legend.
This novella is fast paced and action packed.
Author Bio by David K Scholes:
In the 7 years I have been writing speculative fiction I have written more than 120 speculative fiction short stories.
My publications include six collections of short stories and two novellas. All of which are on Amazon. My most recent publication is “Daughter of the High Lords and other Speculative Fiction Stories.” Published in July 2014.
I have been a regular contributor to both the Antipodean SF and the Beam Me Up Pod cast sites and am fast becoming a regular to the Farther Stars Than These site. I have also been published on a variety of other sci-fi sites including the Bewildering Stories and 365 Tomorrows sites, and the former Golden Visions magazine.
I have written two sci-fi series: the 12 part “Alien Hunter” series for then Golden Visions Magazine in 2011/12 and the “Trathh” series for the Beam Me Up Pod Cast site in 2012/13.
I am currently writing a new (as yet unnamed) collection of speculative fiction short stories and also a “Human Hunter” series (the first four stories in the arc have been published) for the Beam Me Up Pod Cast site.
Excerpt from Chapter 1 The End of Empire
A long time ago
Somewhere in our Universe
For long millennia they traversed the stars and even the dimensions as easily as we humans of Earth might walk to a house in the next street. Far more than just a super power empire, this benevolent, near omnipotent race, took it upon themselves to make up for what they perceived as Gods failings.
Some thought this great race even monitored the different alternate realities. Maintaining a permanent presence in that supposedly most mythical of all locations where all the realities briefly converge, The All Place. There to ensure there were no unexpected and unwanted convergences.
Some even persisted in the view that, in some unknown and unknowable way, this greatest of all races helped mitigate against interference in the time stream. Through an alliance with an entity that may have been nothing more than purest myth. A name still quietly spoken of, in some quarters, even today; the entity Times Guardian.
For most of those long millennia there were none to challenge these true titans. But even God has enemies.
It is said that all great empires come to an end. That they contain within themselves the seeds of their own destruction.
An inevitability that even the mighty Brell could not avoid.
Their many enemies formed an alliance. Initially unwieldy but brought together with a singular focus. By a dark, vast and manipulative intelligence that may not even have been native to our plain of existence. An intelligence possessed of inconceivable power in its own right. Though basically a scheming, manipulating and coordinating, utilizer of the knowledge, efforts and energies of others. Some might even have said a leech had they known more of this entity. It was all of these things and much more. An intelligence that understood the Brell in a way that they never understood it.
The Brell Empire was vast indeed. Laying under the protection of the greatest star fleet ever known. A fleet that, through unlimited teleportation capabilities, could seemingly be anywhere and everywhere and in force at the same time. Added to this, the more distant worlds of Empire lay under the protection of permanently present, out posted Brell soldiers. These were the ultimate star troopers. A single such warrior capable of defeating, or at least holding off, an advanced high technology army, even a small star fleet, until reinforcements arrived.
Still other worlds formed part of a loose alliance. With no out posted soldiers, they were not part of Empire, but were regarded as friendly to the Brell. It was understood that such worlds would enjoy the benevolent protection of empire. Should it be needed. Though no one expected that it would.
For any race or group of races to have conquered all of the Brell and Brell allied worlds would have taken eternity. Yet not all these worlds needed to be conquered. Far from it. Most of the alliance worlds and many of the more distant Brell worlds, and their out-posted soldiers, were bypassed. To be taken at a later time.
At first the reverses were small. Defeats of small groups of Brell starships and soldiers before the Brell could very quickly bring larger forces to bear. These were perceived only as minor set backs. Yet the orchestrated attacks on empire continued to gather momentum. The aggressors constituting many, many different alien races had been drawn from the far flung reaches not only of our own Universe but from myriad dimensions.
The true orchestrator and prime mover of the attack on the Brell Empire managing to instill in all the attacking races an unshakeable unity of purpose and hatred of those they fought. Though in many cases that hatred needed little encouragement.
Even the mighty Brell were surprised, over time, by the increasingly high level of coordination between such disparate alien races, cultures and technologies. Even lesser alien races lacking faster than light travel were somehow drafted into the conflict and temporarily provided with that capability. Just for long enough to get them into the inferno of battle. Then they were on their own. Inevitably the lesser aliens races, the lesser technologies, became the cannon fodder, so that the greater technologies, those closer to the level of the Brell, could advance.
It became such that the attackers were everywhere at the same time, overloading even the Brell capacity to respond. An endless stream of starships of all shapes, sizes, and designs moved inexorably onwards and inwards to the heart of the Brell Empire.
No words can describe the price paid for the advance by the countless civilizations drawn into the conflict. Sacrificed to the cause. Possibly the most ignoble cause since the beginning of time. Yet still they came.
Starships, star cruisers, star destroyers, star frigates, battlewagons, troop transporters, star fighters, troop transporters and the star troopers that traveled within them, without limit, without end, forever grinding down their enemy. Sheer numbers negating the much vaunted technical advantages of the Brell.
And the ultimate enemy of the Brell, the dark malevolence that had started it all, interfering, knowingly, and tellingly, whenever and wherever it’s massed legions appeared in danger of failure. Which happened often enough. For it’s part a war by proxy against its greatest ever enemy. The only enemy capable of challenging it.
The once many friends of the Brell were conspicuous by their absence and lack of support. To declare open support for the Brell, by communication or physical act or otherwise was to signal one’s world for eventual destruction. To remain silent and do nothing might just possibly save that same world. Too openly side with the attackers would demonstrably save that same world.
In one of the darker if not darkest times of our Universe, indeed of our entire Multiverse, and to our eternal shame, almost none of the allies of the Brell rose to their aid. Those few that did paid the ultimate price.
If that fabled entity, Times Guardian, the great alleged protector of the time stream did in fact exist at all, he chose not make himself known at this most crucial of all times in Universal history. Many concluded from this that the entire concept of a single entity inter-temporal protector was just a fabrication, that the Brell and the Brell alone had protected the time stream.
Finally, war came to the heart of empire, to that most sacrosanct place of all, the home star system of the Brell.
A final battle, in and around that system that seemed to last for all of eternity.
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