In the Age of Interstellar Travel, the gift of an unlimited energy source helps humanity reach the stars. But every gift has its price.
A thousand years after joining the Galactic Trade Community, Earth is on the verge of collapse. With the planet over-populated and depleted of energy resources, a no-prospects energy miner like Axel Ryan has only two choices: enlist in the military or forge his own path.
Believing he has a calling beyond the perimeters of a life of service, Axel plunges into a quest in search of the rarest energy source in the galaxy. The power of a Stardrive could solve Earth’s energy crisis and secure Axel’s future. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one hunting for it.
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Mercenaries-for-hire.
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Cyborg bounty hunters.
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Gangs of cargo pirates.
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Trade Commissioners.
Encountering one danger after another, Axel’s survival depends on determining potential allies from those eager to see him dead.
The fate of Earth as well as his own hangs in the balance. But how can Axel beat the odds against him and claim the energy source? Or is it destined it fall into the hands of one eager to wield it for mass destruction?
Excerpt
An explosion rocked the room. Throwing them all to the floor.
"Warning, hull breach imminent,” the station emergency system said in calm, female tones.
Axel, blinked, shaking his head. A buzzing sound filled his mind. He thrust himself to his feet, ignoring the pain in his body, and sought out Ellie. She was on the ground a half meter away, her mother kneeling beside her. He shook his head again, but it didn't stop the ringing in his ears. Had he blacked out? How long did they have? Not more than a moment or two before the pirates gained entry and came gunning for the wealthy hostages he`d promised them they could have.
"Warning, hull breach imminent,” the station emergency system repeated.
"I know!" Rose shouted. "What the hell happened to the emergency bulkheads?" She struggled to help Ellie to rise, but Ellie was batting her hands away.
"No, no, no," she whimpered, as if in pain.
“Christ.” Axel lurched toward her. What the hell had he done? No ship was worth this.
"Warning, hull breach imminent.”
“Escape pod. Now!” he shouted. Built for two, the women would be protected by the automatic defence system on board, while the pod sped them to the safety of the nearby Terran colony on Europa.
“Oh God,” Rose said, panic clear in her voice as she checked Ellie over. "I think its her leg."
“I’ll bring her. Just go!” Axel picked up Ellie, ignoring the way she winced and screamed as her left foot banged his thigh, and hurried in the direction of the escape pod.
Smoke was seeping in around the edges of the main door, making the red light of the emergency system a hazy mist. The sound of stressed metal reverberated throughout the room. As did the resonant hum of blasters being fired.
“This is all your fault, you bastard!” Rose screamed at him, speaking aloud what Axel already knew to be true. It was his fault. All of it. The betrayal. The hurt. All of it.
The pod door slid open with the touch of Roses hand. Her expression sparked with hatred as she pressed herself into the upright harness of the cylindrical tube and reached for her daughter. Axel helped Ellie into the other tether as he counted the seconds in his mind, willing the main door to hold just a heartbeat longer. One, two, three—
Boom!
The stressed metal exploded, breaching the room.
“Axel!” Ellie screamed. She reached for him, her green eyes wide.
“Only room for two,” he said and hit the release button.
The capsule door slammed shut, separating the two women from his view. Then it was gone, disappeared down the launch tube.
Queen Killer: Legacy Hunter, Book 1
Star Keeper: Legacy Hunter, Book 2
To survive, Axel Ryan needs to run.
There’s a price on his head, and the most ruthless bounty hunters in the galaxy are on the hunt to claim the prize. Axel knows he should disappear into the stars and continue his quest for Stardrives. But Element Cruz has resurfaced after six months of staying off the grid, and she’s in danger.
Axel tracks Ellie to an illegal slave auction where the Star Keeper of Endaria is being sold—a woman whose empathic abilities are rumored to enable her to communicate with Stardrives, and whose worth far exceeds the amount of credits Axel can legally gather. What Ellie intends for the Star Keeper is Axel’s guess, but he does know she’s not the only interested party.
Mercenary pirates. The galactic military. And a Trade commissioner with a particular interest in Ellie are all closing in on the auction.
Axel’s plan is simple. Crash the auction. Save Ellie. Then, continue his search for Stardrives. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans.
Thrust into a life-or-death situation, Axel must embrace his destiny to save them all… or die trying.
There was rain and then there was rain, and in Element Cruz's opinion, Cooper's Paradise was the wettest, most soul-drenching moon she’d ever had the misfortune to encounter in all her travels.
She didn’t know who the original Cooper had been, but this place was no paradise. The once-thriving colony had long since abandoned the moon and left for sunnier and more lucrative— so she assumed—prospects to carve out a living. What was left of the mining site had become a haven for smugglers and criminals of every variety. Leaving her new spaceship, Star Child, unmanned and unprotected while she attended to business hadn't been an option. And even with Jase, the cyborg she'd reprogrammed to serve her wishes to guard it, she had her doubts as to whether it would still be in one piece when she returned, or if she'd find it stripped and sold on auction and Jase sold along with it.
This place was exactly the kind of hell hole she'd been told to avoid all her life. Which made it exactly the kind of place she needed to be right now.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Galactic Outer Rim, Azzi System
IN THE VASTNESS of space, the Core cruiser loomed, its exterior lights and the glow of distant scattered stars the only illumination that brightened the darkness. To the helpless light cargo ship that drifted without working engines or defensive shielding, the Core cruiser seemed like a spectre of certain doom.
The cruiser was not there to help. It was there to hunt.
But the captain of the cargo vessel reached for the inter-ship comm, one last time. “Core cruiser, Intrepid. This is Captain Axel Ryan of the Queen Killer. My ship is dead in space. We surrender to your assistance. Please respond.” He spoke as calmly and clearly aspossible, and waited. The Queen Killer hadn’t a frelling hope of escaping the inevitable outcome of this altercation, but it was important to remain calm even in the face of certain doom. For one thing, the lives of five other crewmates depended on how well he played his part as Captain Ryan right now. And for another, the Queen Killer deserved an honourable demise and not one choked in fear.
The silence from the Core vessel lingered.
Axel frowned and turned to Element Cruz, who stood beside him. “I don’t think they want to chat about it.”
She shrugged. In the onboard lighting of the ship, the soft curves of her face seemed resigned. “Did you think they would?”
Axel shook his head. “Not really.”
“We did blow up an entire squadron of their ships.”
“Well, that wasn’t our fault,” Axel said. “We suffered a weapons malfunction because of the Stardrive.”
“A weapons malfunction? A weapons malfunction is when your weapons don’t fire or they misfire, not totally obliteratefifty something ships.”
“Their missile cannons are coming online, and now within range, Captain,” Shiznit said as he scanned the readouts on the display.
Axel nodded. This was it then. The end of the line for the Queen Killer.
Axel Ryan thought all hope was lost.
The Freedom Collective has been forced underground by the Trade Corporation pursuing them at every port of call. Out of options, the Dark Horizon is abandoned as the galactic military closes in.
Then, in a miraculous twist of fate, Axel’s uncle, Henry, is discovered alive.
Having vanished over five Earth years ago, Henry’s knowledge of Stardrives could save them all... if they can get to him. Locked inside the walls of the Fatal Fortress, Axel’s crew must achieve the impossible to break him out.
Armed with the schematics of the prison and his ragtag team, Axel will stop at nothing to free his uncle. Little does he know, the price of salvation will be higher than he ever imagined. Confronted by a face from his past, Axel is forced into a reunion he would have flown galaxies to avoid...
"SHIZ, YOU'RE DOING that thing again," Axel said in a side-whisper to the frozen-in-awe Gho’bar.
The lift had brought them to the level of the Athenaeum, and the trio stood in front of a pair of ornately carved wooden doors, the length of which loomed at a height easily twice that of Axel's.
Caree placed her hand on the Gho’bar’s forehead. "Shiznit is feeling overwhelmed by the majestic size of this place, reminds him of... home."
"I...I..." Shiznit stuttered as he came out of his momentary paralysis. He glanced from the doors to the garden surroundings. “This doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t there be guards or something?”
The lack of any kind of welcoming party or even sentry equipment did seem odd. Axel tried his comm. “Ellie? Can you see anyone inside the Athenaeum?”
There was a pause, and then Ellie’s voice came over the comm. “Axel! Where are you? I lost you on tracker as soon as you went into the falls. I’ve been trying to raise you over the comm, but—” static interrupted and her voice broke up as she spoke, then cleared. “…you’d better hurry. There’s Core ships on long-range. Axel? Are you there? This stupid comm keeps—” The comm signal hissed into static and didn’t come back online.
“Cutting out,” Axel finished with a frown. That wasn’t good. Without contact with Ellie, they were on their own. And it sounded like the Core were on their way. “We’d better get moving.”
The tall doors before them seemed innocuous but could be hiding anything. And if Ellie was having trouble getting through on the comm and couldn’t see them on the trackers, then the Athenaeum had some seriously heavy shielding protecting it.
“Caree? Can you sense anything through those doors?”
She batted an insect away from her face with a frown. Down in the tunnel, the multi-winged bugs hadn’t been a bother, but in the open, they were beginning to swarm again. “I do sense something inside there, but can’t say how many beings there are, or if they are pleased we are here.”
"Fair enough. Only one way to find out.” It wasn’t like they had all day to stand there thinking about it anyway. Axel moved toward the door. “We’ve respected the local customs, so I believe they will open their doors to us." He raised a hand and knocked on the door twice. "You know, I thought they might have had better technology though, like a..."
The doors folded inwards on their hinges and opened to a square lobby just two meters long at each side.
Axel peeked his head inside the white room. “No scanning devices. No guards.” He walked inside the Athenaeum followed by the others. The door shut behind them, sealing them in silence. “I guess we’re in?” To the left and right of the lobby, a corridor extended. “Which one do we take?" Axel asked.
Caree closed her eyes. "I can't pick up on any specific direction. Something is here, but not present."
"What the frell does that even mean?" Shiznit asked.
"It’s possible entry is automatically granted to those who pass their tests to get here. But I don't feel comfortable thinking it's that easy." Axel looked down both corridors. "Maybe we should split up? Take both paths and see where they lead?"
"Oh frell, how did I know you would say that?" Shiznit asked. “You're not happy unless you're scaring me."
It’s a race against time to find Amasis.
Caree’s life is in danger and the Visitors are the only ones who can save her. Yet little is known about the mysterious homeworld of the aliens, as those daring enough to venture there have never returned.
Pursued by bounty hunters and the ever-tightening noose of Rosamunde Cruz and the Galactic Trade Corporation, Axel, Ellie, and their team risk everything in search of answers that could save Caree’s life. But when Tobias suddenly goes missing, the crew begins to fear their fate is already sealed.
Axel Ryan jolted awake.
He sat up in his bed, his pulse pounding as he tried to make sense of the sound that had broken his sleep. The echo of the loud bang reverberated through his mind. What had that been? An explosion?
Emergency lighting bathed the nighttime shadows in red as an alarm began to sound.
The Galactic Horizon hotel’s holographic automatic attendant flickered to life from the emitter on the bedroom wall. “Warning, environmental breach. Emergency controls activated. Please remain in your suite until further notice.”
“Frell that.” Axel reached for Ellie lying next to him and shook her gently. For all her being a kick-ass tactician, Element Cruz was one hell of a heavy sleeper.
She stirred and blinked at him, the discordant alarms chasing sleep from her expression. “What the frell is going on?”
“Something just blew up.”
“What? Inside the dome?”
“Yeah. Not sure how bad, yet.”
The auto-attendant flickered by the wall, blank expression revealing nothing of what had caused the breach. But with the alarms blaring and the emergency system activated, they had to assume the worst and the hotel was no longer secure. Karolta was a backwater planet prone to high heat and storms, the small domed city of Lux relatively off the radar of interest. It had been a good place to hide out for a few days. But with gang lords running the cities and a high rate of corruption, it wasn’t unusual to see fights break out. Was the attack on their hotel an innocent coincidence? Or had the Core found them?
Ellie’s gaze steadied on his as if she were thinking the same questions. “We need to get the others.” She threw off the tangle of sheets and headed for their enviro suits. “Caree? Dad? Anyone?” she called into her comm.
“We’ve been compromised. Code Black. Get out now,” Tobias Cruz said over the secure channel. His words cut off with a grunt.
“Shit. Dad? Dad!” Ellie pulled on her suit in a fluid motion as Axel did the same with his. “Dad?!”
“Code Black means communication lockdown and immediate evac,” Axel said. “He can’t answer you now.” Axel checked his blasters. Fully charged. He handed them to Ellie and grabbed a second pair.
“Yeah, I know. It means we’re frelled.”
Dark Horizon: Legacy Hunter, Book 3
Fatal Fortress: Legacy Hunter, Book 4
Phoenix Rising: Legacy Hunter, Book 5
Excerpt
Excerpt
Excerpt
"We’ll be returning to Amasis to free the others once we’ve awakened your people, won’t we, Hendrix?"
"Of course." He avoided looking at Caree and focused on the viewscreen. He didn’t need to see her to know she was questioning his motives. Her distrust of the situation had been apparent since he’d first convinced her of the need to leave Axel and the others behind so they could get help to free them. He couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t trust himself either if he were in her position. He’d done a lot of things he wasn’t proud of to get to this point, and she knew it. And once his people were awakened, she and her child would be outnumbered, leaving her in a vulnerable position. But he had no intention of kidnapping her baby as the aliens on Amasis had tried to do. The mind-eaters were more of a threat than she understood or remembered.
“Why did we have to leave them behind again?”
“The grays have them held captive, and there were too many mind-eaters for us to fight alone.”
“Mind-eaters?”
“Yes. Remember? The assholes who feed off your mental energy and frelled with your head by making you forget they exist?” She’d forgotten them again, though her mind had held onto the idea longer this time. But the constant need to remind her of what had happened was becoming beyond annoying.
“Oh. Right… oh, yes! We need your people to help us fight them. Your species is their natural enemy.”
“Yes.”
“But why is that?”
“In my natural state, my mind isn’t the same as yours. I don’t retain memories the same way. My species remembers who the mind-eaters are, and that threatens them. So, they try to kill us, and we try to kill them.”
“Okay.” Caree scanned the viewscreen. “But where is your ship? This is the same nebula that the Core searched, but they only found a decoy ship. Right?”
“Yes.”
“Rosamunde Cruz wasn’t happy.”
“Yeah.” He smiled, remembering how pissed the CEO of the Cruz Galactic Trading Company and Earth’s representative to the Galactic Trade Corporation had been when she’d found that what she’d thought was a real ship was just a simulation. “Rosamunde Cruz is a double-crossing bitch who wants to enslave my people. She can go fuck herself.” There was no damn way he’d ever let anyone find the ship that the last of his kind called home, least of all a power-hungry psychopath like her.
“Language,” she said with a scowl and a glance at the sleeping baby. “He picks up things very quickly.”
Hendrix managed to contain his eye roll, but just barely. The baby couldn’t even talk yet, but Caree was quickly turning into a prissy mother. “You’re certain you can sense nothing out there?” he asked her. He halted their forward momentum and checked his scanner readings. No other ships were around them, but he needed to be sure with the gamma radiation causing interference. He wouldn’t put it past the Core to have a few ships in the nebula still scanning for any clues to where his ship might be located.
She nodded. “This area of space is empty of intent, except yours. Are you sure your ship is here?”
“Oh, it’s here all right.”
He focused on morphing his suit pouch into the piece of tech he’d acquired some time ago, which he’d coded to his specific DNA. The quantum field generator was always with him, no matter what he chose to make it look like to others. He attached the palm-sized device to the Queen Phoenix’s main computer console while Caree watched in attentive silence. It took a moment for the device and ship to calibrate, but only a moment.
“You just need to say the magic word to see it,” he said.
“Which is?”
He stared at the viewscreen as he activated the device. “Asshole,” he said with a grin.
War has come to the galaxy.
In the wake of her father’s untimely death, Element Cruz raises the battle cry for the Freedom Collective. To save the doomed planet, Axel Ryan travels to Earth to put his uncle’s theories about Stardrives to the ultimate test. Now, more than ever, they need their entire team to succeed.
But Hendrix has disappeared and taken the time-traveling starship, Queen Bohemia, with him.
Time is running out. Rosamunde Cruz is on the warpath, determined to remove any obstacle—including her own daughter—that dares stand in her way of absolute rule over the Galactic Trade Corporation.
Corruption.
Betrayal.
Extortion.
Axel, Ellie, and their friends must navigate through it all to bring Rosamunde to justice and restore peace to the galaxy. Buckle in and hold on tight as we journey to the stars in this action-packed conclusion to the Legacy Hunter series!
Book 7 LOST LEGACY coming soon
Also Available
Unknown Realms - including Microscopic Mayhem: A Galactic Misfits Adventure starring Shiznit.
While on vacation at a resort space station, a young misfit named Shiznit must travel through time and battle a sentient Yeast Beast to save his crewmates from certain death.
THE ARTWORK
03
We are fortunate to have comic book artist Ash Madi design some character profiles for us.
Axel Ryan
Axel Ryan is the nephew of historian and explorer, Henry Ryan. Refusing to settle for like as a miner, like his father and 4 older brothers, Axel sets of to follow his missing uncle's trail and clues to try and save his dying planet, Earth.
Element Cruz
Element Cruz, or Ellie, as she prefers to be called, is next in line to the family's trading company. The feisty heir would prefer to travel the galaxy, and be with the man she loves, Axel Ryan. But when he betrays her and steals her ship, she's ready to show that she's not a woman you want to ever cross.
Shiznit
Shunned by his own people, Shiznit is a native of the planet Gob’harchreig (pronounced Goober Cragg) and sent to assist Axel and Hendrix traverse the cursed mountain. His vast knowledge and kind nature sees him and Axel rapidly strike up a friendship.
Hendrix
Hendrix has been a friend of the Ryan family for years, especially having a strong bond with Axel Ryan's missing uncle, Henry. Hendrix oozes charm, but can he be trusted?
Iris
A female bounty hunter and pirate who's as deadly as she is beautiful. Anyone not on her side can soon find themselves in deadly peril, and her face may be the last you'll see
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The web spins tighter...
The Trade Corporation’s control over the galaxy tightens when the assassination of a key Freedom Collective conspirator is ordered.
With the clock ticking, Hendrix and Caree race to awaken the last of a shapeshifting species in hopes of recruiting them to aid in freeing Axel, Ellie, and the galaxy’s supply of Stardrives imprisoned on Amasis.
Parasitic mind-eaters infest the planet and shifters are the only natural predator of the vampiric species. However, convincing the shifters to help could be complicated when their kind have been mercilessly hunted to near-extinction for centuries.
Can Hendrix convince the shifters to join the fight to save the galaxy? Or will awakening the mimetic species be an even greater threat than Rosamunde Cruz?
Core Shifter, Legacy Hunter book 6
Excerpt
Lost Legacy, Legacy Hunter book 7
OUT NOW