Free Sample
Preview from chapter one
The Hounds of War
Kira Lee Scott
Prelude
I’m not sure how much longer I can hide from it, or how I’ll die when it catches me.
No doubt it’s going to involve teeth or claws.
Maybe both, or maybe something much, much worse.
There's also not much doubt that it will catch me eventually…
I'm Denise Eckles, originally from central Florida and I guess you’re wondering what kind of mess I’ve gotten myself into this time…
I was on duty at Arecibo 2 the night their presence was first detected.
An eight mile wide blob in the Oort cloud was heading for us at a fairly brisk pace when it suddenly began to slow.
That got our attention.
A week later, as it swung around Jupiter in a classic slingshot maneuver, we knew beyond a doubt that we were dealing with sentience, and the world leaders were put on notice to brace for a possible close encounter.
Seventy-two days later, they began to land on the dark side of the moon and we realized they were actually a swarm of ships the size of aircraft carriers. Two hundred and seventeen of them, to be exact and as they came in, they cleared the moon’s orbit of every damn satellite we had there.
The world held its collective breath for almost a year after that, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but when it did, that shoe turned out to be a size 16eee Stormtrooper boot.
We thought they were aliens when they first landed on Earth, but in the end, it turned out to be worse.
Much worse.
They were us…
Almost two centuries ago, as mankind began populating low earth orbit, then making moves towards Mars, a small band of seemingly suicidal but like minded scientists, engineers, medical researchers and an assortment of military men and women, made their way aboard the forty-five Starliners and NewGlenn motels as well as every loaded transport, and all of the tanker vessels that were currently circling our world, commandeered them as peacefully as possible, and left Earth orbit, never to be seen or heard from again.
Everyone assumed they would eventually run out of fuel, or food, or something, at which point their lives would end and they could begin to fade into obscurity.
Till now.
The day the Miroths, as they came to be known, landed on Earth, they did so with a flash and a bang…