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Andromeda Chapter Fourteen
Nearly three miles outside of Meadowvale, Cerberus stood firm as a sentinel on the hilltop overlooking the small, rural village in the distance. The last few hours had been deathly silent since his team had begun infiltrating the town in search of their target, and all the while he knew that the Pentagon was eagerly awaiting his report more than a thousand miles away. It was only a matter of time.“Cerberus! Cerberus, come in! This is Nexus!”Cerberus raised a hand to the earpiece he was wearing as Nexus’ voice broke the intense silence like thunder. “Go ahead,” he said steadily.“I have positive locations on Andromeda and Ajax! Both are here right now!”“Ajax,” Cerberus muttered to himself as his eyes twitched in surprise. “He must be trying to reach her first.”“He is,” Nexus responded. “What’s the plan? Should we split up to take them both?”“No,” Cerberus answered. “Andromeda is the target. Once we take her, we’ll deal with Ajax. All units, switch to the uplink and converge on the
Andromeda Chapter Fifteen
The doors of Fort Pershing military installation's command center flew open as a battle-hardened officer stormed into the room, a black-leaf insignia on his chest.“What’s going on?” he demanded sternly.“Colonel Conrad!” a young E-5 greeted him, a look of apprehension and uncertainty scrawled upon his face. “Sir, we’ve just been given clearance to mobilize by General Floring from Division. The Pentagon is reporting an assault taking place in Meadowvale and is requesting ground and air support immediately.”“An assault?” Conrad responded in disbelief. “From what? Do we have any eyes on?”“We have a Reaper inbound, sir.”The MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle was already in the air, traveling at over 200 knots across the barren rural landscape toward Meadowvale. In no more than seven minutes, the drone was already circling the small town and aiming its Multi-Spectral Targeting System down upon the small town that had been turned into a battlefield.The camera zoomed in on Adams Street,
Andromeda Chapter Sixteen
“Anna, stop!” Jason shouted. He grabbed Anna by the shoulders to try to pull her away from Abigail, but she only shook him off and tightened her grip around her neck. Abigail’s eyes were clenched shut and she could no longer breathe. “Please, Anna! Let her go!” Daisy squealed, tears falling down her face. Anna ignored their pleas. It was as though she could not even hear them. The only thing she could feel was the burning rage inside her. There were no thoughts, only anger. Jason wrapped his arm around Anna’s neck in a last ditch effort to pull her away. Anna suddenly whipped around to face Jason and Abigail collapsed like a rag doll, struggling to catch her breath. Jason was caught off guard as Anna tackled him to the ground. He was completely unprepared as she pinned her arm against his throat. He tried in vain to push her off of him. She was far stronger than he ever imagined. All Jason could do was stare up into her eyes of fury. “Anna,” he uttered feebly, the weight of her arm
Andromeda Prologue
Somewhere deep in the Rocky MountainsThe light fixtures along the ceiling flickered sporadically. A lone man sat at a desk in a confined office space, hunched over and focused intently on what he was writing. He appeared to be around forty, with thinning dark hair combed over his bald spot. He wore a lab coat that was worn and covered in black smudges. Behind his glasses, his eyes were unblinking and weary with exhaustion.The lights flickered again over his head, followed by a rumbling that lightly shook the desk. The man glanced up at the lights with a look of hard suspicion. The rumbling ceased as quickly as it had begun, and the only sound to be heard was a faint buzzing coming from the fixtures. The man looked over at a landline phone that was sitting on the desk. Next to it sat a digital clock which read 3:17 am. The man winced as the exhaustion crept over him at the sight of the time. Everything was silent for a moment, but as if on cue, the telephone rang with a loud and pers
Andromeda Chapter One
One year laterAnna’s eyes flew open as she woke up with a start. Her bed was drenched in a pool of sweat. She groaned as she sat up and rubbed her head, which was throbbing lightly. Stranger than that was the numbing sensation in her right arm. She cast her eyes slowly around the dark room. What was once a dusty attic had been made up into a teenage girl’s bedroom. It had only been hers for a year, but it was the only bedroom she could remember having. It was the only place she truly felt safe and at home.Anna stood up and lumbered quietly over to the window at the end of the room. Normally, she would wake up to the sunlight rising over the flat Nebraska plains, but now it was barely the break of dawn. The sky was tinted a deep blue that indicated morning was not far away. Anna stepped over to a dresser that sat next to the window. She turned on a small lamp that sat atop the dresser and looked into the vanity mirror standing against the wall.The first thing she saw when she looked
Andromeda Chapter Two
The town of Meadowvale, Nebraska was the image of a small, country village. It was situated on the edge of Arthur County in the middle of a vast farmland. It was a tight knit community in which everybody knew one another, perfect as the only home Anna could remember calling her own. Despite that, as she sat in the passenger seat of her family’s Ford 150, driven by Lynn, on her way to her first day of school, it was still like stepping into a whole new world.Downtown Meadowvale was small, yet bustling. It only consisted of a handful of streets, but chief among them was Adams Street, which ran the full length of the populated town center and had a variety of markets, restaurants, and small town ma and pa businesses. Anna always liked coming down here. It was certainly a different environment than the countryside.There were only two school buildings in Meadowvale, both of which stood just beyond the far side of the town center. The first building they came to was the elementary school,
Andromeda Chapter Three
The morning sun cast its light upon the surface of the Potomac River, creating a picturesque yet imposing canvas of the capital city of Washington, DC. The helicopter flew over the vast river and touched down on the helipad on the northern side of the massive structure that was the Pentagon. As the propellers slowed to a stop, the rear ramp descended. From the interior of the helicopter, Dr. Park emerged. As he made his way down the ramp in an electric wheelchair, he was greeted by a group of armed soldiers. At the head of the party, a tall, burly man stood in contrast with the rest of the group. He wore an open leather jacket that billowed in the wind caused by the propellers and a pair of black sunglasses over his cold and solid expression. He seemed to be staring off into space until the wheels of Park’s chair touched the helipad, and then he turned his attention to him.“Dr. Park?” the man’s low voice called out over the roar of the helicopter.“Yes,” Park replied as he wheeled o
Andromeda Chapter Four
Several weeks had gone by since the first day of the new school year in Meadowvale, and Anna believed she was settling in well. Much of the stress and anxiety she brought with her that first day had been all but relieved, and her parents were proud to see her excelling so well in her classes. She struggled a little in her humanities classes, but she proved impeccable in courses such as biology and especially Algebra; in fact, she was performing so exceptionally in Algebra that she was promptly moved up to Calculus, but not even that was able to slow her down. She was learning almost as fast as her instructors could teach, and it was not long before she became something of a hero among her classmates who suffered a bit more at the subject and were constantly asking her for help. She had to admit that it was getting annoying to have the other kids approaching her the minute they did not understand something, but if there was one upside to it all, it had to be that she was in the same Ca