Fracture

The Fracture War, Book 1

In a fractured world, a powerful bond may be the only thing that can save it…

The Beryllian people are nearly extinct thanks to the Skellyds, a robotic species who have invaded Beryll and turned its cities into factories, manufacturing more Skellyds out of the inhabitants of the planet.

A powerful Beryllian couple emerges from the ruins to fight back, but their victories do not come without risk. Bazin and Miaxa prefer to go on missions alone, but there is a growing sentiment amongst the Beryllians that bonded pairs have a weakness. It’s true that if one of the pair dies, the other follows, but the core bond bestows a strength that only those who bind themselves to another fully understand.

Bazin and Miaxa must fight against invaders, traitors, and an expanding movement to purge their world of all weaknesses as they forge a powerful bond that will defy death in the fight to save the Beryllian population from total annihilation. Can this bonded pair survive the attacks against them and those that would tear them apart forever, or will the bond that connects them prove to be more powerful than the traitors who want them dead?

Don’t miss out on the first, enthralling story in The Fracture War!

Excerpt:

Cloaked in a blanket of darkness, there was not a trace of the former vibrant life that had once enlivened every street corner of Yuxn City. Thick, ashen smoke spiraled upwards into the starless night sky. Not even the auroras that normally stretched across the expanse in colorful rivers shimmered there. A murky, inky fog clung to the desolate buildings, mirroring the dismal gloom of the haze.

Three of its highly visible skyscrapers transformed, the city had been changed. Their regal, towering spires, once proud symbols of distinction, cruelly distorted into a squat, misshapen abomination. A fiery blaze of red and orange glowed from within.

They’d seen this a thousand times, the cities of their planet commandeered into industrial production zones, the residents gathered up, herded into cauldrons, where the metals of their frames were melted and re-shaped into Skellyd war machines. Or worse, their existing bodies taken over by a Skellyd consciousness—

A shiver wracked Miaxa’s frame as her lip-plates curled and her core burned. If anyone were still alive, they would be in the factory. But that was also where they would be if they were dead.

Miaxa exchanged a grim glance with the large dark mech beside her, the sentiment quickly superseded by an unmistakable thrill. If there were no survivors, there’d be no surviving Skellyds either, not when they were done with them. The Skellyd Hunters were on the hunt, and they would avenge the poor souls within.

Creeping forward into the shadows of the factory, the duo moved like apparitions, their steps quiet, intent deadly, ready for anything, weapon systems fully online.

A Skellyd guard ambled out, Miaxa’s lip-plates curling again. Bipedal with two arms, a head with symmetrically positioned optics, audials, olfactory sensors and lip-plating, energy contained within armored frame, it was disturbing how similar Skellyds could be to Beryllians. There was only one easily visible difference, their optics glowed red.

On the inside were emotionless robots, no thoughts or feelings of their own—

Miaxa pounced, materializing a blade from her right hand, cutting the cables that powered his CPU, dropping him to the ground.

Pride in his coremate infusing the bond between them, Bazin watched in uninhibited glee.

[One down,] Miaxa said through their bond. [You can have the next one.]

[I would rather watch you do that again.] Unrestrained hunger reflected in the glow of his blue optics.