BOOK TOUR: The Cassidy Chronicles by Adam Gaffen (Excerpt & Giveaway)

The Cassidy Chronicles Volume 5

Viva la revolucion!
The Primus, Vasilia Newling, is facing her worst nightmares:
A revolution on Luna
Titan and the Asteroids abandoning the Solarian Union.
Defections from within her own government.
All because of those damned Cassidys!
But she’s still as ruthless as ever.
And if Aiyana and Kendra thought she was playing dirty before? They’re going to see how filthy she really can get.
There isn’t room for both the Terran Federation and the Union.
This time, one is going down.
For good.
Return to the future for the fifth installment of The Cassidy Chronicles: Triumph’s Ashes.

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“This is more like it!”
Gries stared at Stone. She sounded like she was enjoying this.
Things had gone well until they’d reached the fourth level. Somewhere along the way they’d tripped an unnoticed alarm, and local security was proving to be more competent than they’d prefer. They’d swarmed the small force, nearly stopping them before Stone had led a breakout.
They’d taken some casualties; Gries would have preferred to send them back to the LZ, but he had the feeling he was going to need every body which could carry a weapon. So they limped along, eased slightly by the reduced gravity, covered by the rest of the platoon. Fortunately the CeeSea skinsuits under their battle armor had prevented any deaths as yet. He also knew the good fortune couldn’t last.
When they finally dropped a level, sealing the hatch behind them in an effort to slow security’s progress, they immediately regretted it. Here, security had been able to call in reinforcements from the former MinSec agents. Nor did they have the advantage of surprise.
It didn’t seem to bother Stone, though Gries could see Director McAllister was thinking too much about what could go wrong.
“Plan, Chief?” he said, hoping she had one.
“Find out where their bloody chamber is, blast our way through to it, grab anyone smart enough not to resist, and get off this rock. I’ve spent far more time on Luna than I ever planned. Taylor! Mac!”
The diminutive IT specialist hurried up, looking oddly comfortable with the pulse rifle in her hands, followed by the former Minister.
“Chief?” Taylor said a fraction ahead of Mac.
“Where do we go?”
“Two routes.” He winced as a piece of bulkhead ricocheted past. “Shortest route is up this corridor a couple hundred meters.”
“Short is good, but I don’t like the way those boys are dug in.”
“We can also go back to the last junction and head left. There’s a smaller passage which will get us to the other side.”
“Sounds like a better option. Mac, get into their system and shut down any cameras they have on the route Taylor’s going to show you. I want them blind and stupid. Leftenant,” she called to Gries.
He trotted over.
“We’re going to move. I want your best squad with us because we’re going to move fast.”
“Only a squad?”
She nodded. “The rest are staying with you to hold this position, along with all the heavy weapons.”
“We can do it.”
“And if you can’t hold the position, I want you to fall back and evacuate.”
Gries’ face hardened. “No, Chief. Our mission is to penetrate the Complex, capture the Empress and any other members of Artemis leadership, and extract with the prisoners and all personnel.”
“I know what our orders are, Leftenant, and I’m changing them. If you cannot hold, you will withdraw. You can argue with me when we’re both back on Njord. Besides, are you saying you and your Marines can’t hold the corridor?”
Gries was caught between professional pride and responsibility. On the one hand, he had his orders and from higher up than Stone. Honestly, he didn’t know exactly where Stone fit into his chain of command, if at all, but she certainly carried herself as someone who expected to be obeyed. On the other hand, telling a Marine she couldn’t do something was like dangling a bone in front of a dog.
Responsibility won.
“Aye aye, Ma’am,” he answered finally. A safe answer.
“Mac?”
“Working on it, the problem I’m having is their software isn’t even last generation, it’s something like nine or ten generations back and off on a weird tangent from the local techs doing their own improvisations over the years, but I’m almost done, I need maybe another minute.”
“Take your time and do it right.” Stone turned to Crozier and Taylor. “You listened?”
Both nodded.
“I need you armed. What are you comfortable with?”
Taylor looked sheepish. “The most I’ve fired is a flechette pistol. I think I should stick with it.” He patted the holster on his hip.
“Good enough; make sure you have extra mags. Nicole?”
Crozier flashed a surprisingly feral grin.
“Got an extra pulse rifle?”
“You can handle one?”
“I’ll match you on any range, any distance, any time.”
“I’ll take you up on it. Later.” She dug into the supplies the Marines had humped in and tossing a pulse rifle to Crozier. She caught it with an air of familiarity, proven when she expertly checked the charge and the magazine before sighting along the barrel.
“Nice balance.”
Five minutes later they were as ready as they were going to get.
“Move out, people.” Sergeant Monaco had been chosen to lead the squad, and she was covering the rear, while Corporal Crampton took point. Stone and Mac echoed their positions around Crozier and Taylor, and ten people slipped down the corridor and disappeared.
Gries turned to his Marines and opened the comm function on his implant.
I don’t care what the Chief said. Nobody gets through here, and nobody’s leaving. Here we hold.

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Adam Gaffen has been reading science fiction for as long as he can remember, so writing it was a natural progression. He’s the author of The Cassidy Chronicles series of science fiction and LGBTQ-inclusive novels, focusing on the exploits of Kendra and Aiyana Cassidy. He’s also written Refuge, a time-travel/vampire novella in which the vampires do not sparkle. He’s hard at work on a few projects, including the childhood adventures of Kendra and Aiyana (Memories of Aiyana) and two as-yet unnamed Cassidy novels. He lives in sight of Fisher’s Peak in Southern Colorado with his wife, Michaela, and their pack of dogs and plague of cats.

 

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