The Devil’s Grip

Morris Dolphin

Description

A galactic phenomenon known as the devil’s comet will destroy Planet Topaz in three days. Its evil ruler, Queen Cassi, is the only one who can save the planet. The Karpenters must destroy her and free the planet from the devil’s grip.

Sujets

• Morris (historietista)
• Dolphin
• Morris
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 11 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669862147
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE DEVIL’S GRIP
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Morris Dolphin
 
Copyright © 2023 by Morris Dolphin.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-6215-4

eBook
978-1-6698-6214-7
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Rev. date: 01/11/2023
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
842409
Contents
Chapter 1The Other Enemy
Chapter 2Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter 3Birthday Party
Chapter 4Insight
Chapter 5Direction
Chapter 6Cassi and Omar
Chapter 7The Devil’s Comet
Chapter 8The City of Omen
Chapter 9The Reflex
Chapter 10The Kind Stranger
Chapter 11Joseph’s Dream
Chapter 12Sandstorm
Chapter 13The Scout
Chapter 14War in the Sky
Chapter 15The Hour
Chapter 16Oblivion
Chapter 17New Blood
Epilogue I
Epilogue II
Chapter 1 The Other Enemy
His name was Will, short for William, from the now destroyed Planet Pearl. In his life of fifty-nine years, he had been many things—a scientist, lawyer, politician, president, conman, traitor, and now a survivor. He was the last living human from Planet Pearl, onboard and in command of an enemy starship. The enemy, the Scarriddians, were hell-bent on annihilating the human race. Their campaign was working. The three terrestrial planets in the habitable zone were at their mercy.
First, Planet Jade was destroyed years ago, then his home, Planet Pearl, three years ago.
He had escaped its destruction in a starship called the Horizon, but was quickly overrun by the Scarriddians through his conniving and bargaining skills. He was able to get his life spared, and he tracked down any enemy (human) ships to escape the onslaught that had happened to Planet Jade and Planet Pearl.
There was only one human planet in the solar system left—Planet Topaz. To Will, this didn’t make any sense. Topaz was a planet that was all but destroyed anyway. Ninety-nine percent of its population was wiped out due to its experiments with its super collider. One day, it exploded, throwing radiation and death all over the planet. To his knowledge, only two cities remained—the city of Omen and the city of Kai, which barely covered a hundred-square-mile radius.
It didn’t make sense. What’s more, the Scarriddians were in control of a deadly and powerful phenomenon—The Devil’s Comet. It moved and behaved with the pattern of a comet as it swung out to the back of the solar system with a tilted oval orbit and smashed into planets with its heavy gravity of a neutron star, blowing them up from the inside out. It kept going to its next target. Nothing could stop it.
It had some type of gravity field unknown to science. Anything that got too close to it was pulled to its surface and crushed by its heavy gravity. In a sense, it was the perfect weapon. What’s more, human beings were, by nature, superstitious, and they called it The Devil’s Comet . . . Whatever it was, it was unstoppable until it came across Planet Topaz.
For some reason, the comet had passed through the planet thrice, but the comet hadn’t destroyed it. The planet had become intangible, and the comet kept passing through it. The people on Topaz must have some kind of weapon that defies physics.
On the fourth attempt to destroy Topaz, it had to work.
The other generals, Tavik and Belassco, were becoming more and more frustrated with each passing day. The seven original human races had to be destroyed: Jade, Pearl, Topaz, Earth, Kismet, Kassar, and Skallix.
Only by destroying the human races would the people of Vega, the Scarriddians, eliminate nature’s competition. At least, this is their goal , Will thought.
Deep down Will knew this was flawed, but he constantly feared for his own life. There was no place to run, no place to hide. The Scarriddians were a one-leader-superstitious race under the dictatorship of an evil sorceress named Verronna. In some systems, they referred to her as the Star Queen.
She had magic powers often spawned from the forces of darkness. Somehow, over the scant three years he had been serving with the Scarriddians, he had some type of twisted relationship with Verronna and so did General Tavik—a twisted love triangle. The Scarriddians were very close to human, except they had no hair or solid pigment to their skin. It was like a smooth, solid, light gray color with no fingernails, five fingers, or five toes.
They operated best in dim light, and their lifespans were short, somewhere between twenty-nine and forty years. If one reached the age of fifty, it was like a human being reaching the age of one hundred. They would contaminate their planet to the point where it would be unlivable and would shorten their life spans. Verronna promised them eternal life eventually, but first, they had to kill humanity and find Planet Kismet. It was their destiny.
Verronna was a master manipulator. Her superhuman abilities made it easy for the Vegans (Scarriddians) to follow her. Her dark magic was unbelievable. She possessed superhuman strength. She could regenerate any part of her body, if wounded, and she had the ability to fire from her hands a destructive force called black fire.
It was a type of cold fire the splits matter to pieces and cooks living matter to death from the inside out. It was like being frozen to death and being set on fire at the same time.
She had white hair with a few violet and pink streaks in it, with the appearance of a woman in her early forties. She always wore a black cloak and black gloves and black boots.
She carried a sword on her right side. The blade was transparent and made out of diamond. She always kept a gun on her left hip. In anger, her blade would burn with black fire. She was ruthless.
Will was thinking about this constantly. There was no place to go.
A signal went off. It was time to start the meeting.
This time, the planet would be destroyed.
He then headed for the shuttle to meet with the other officers onboard the space battleship A ries .
Chapter 2 Practice Makes Perfect
The armed guards escorted Will to the shuttle. He knew what he was in for. He knew he was never allowed to wander the battleships alone or hold any firearms. He had so little freedom.
As the shuttle took off to ferry him from the space battleship Mons to the battleship Aries , the pride of the Scarriddian fleet, he couldn’t help but be in awe every time he saw these ships from the outside.
Mons , his battleship, and the Phobos and Deimos were all two miles long, while the Aries was five miles long. All ships carried at least two hundred missiles and fifty fighter ships. He couldn’t see how a total of ten thousand surviving warriors could even conceive of a freighter-sized ship like Starcutter as a threat, especially if it’s piloted by a bunch of kids.
But in his days, he had seen what magic could do. Never underestimate the power of magic , he thought.
He got to the meeting and sat down. Everything discussed was his thoughts on the way over. Two destroyed planets and three failed attempts to destroy Topaz.
To himself, he thought, Whatever was going to happen, it was going to happen soon .
Verronna ended the meeting.
“Go back to your ships and await further orders.”
Tavik and Belassco did so. He could feel the tension from Tavik.
“Will, I want you to stay behind,” Verronna ordered.
The jealousy built up.
When Will and Verronna were alone, she put her arms around him. He knew she needed strength. Her grip was strong. Like being caught in a vise grip, her touch was scary. With no choice, he hugged her back. She looked into his eyes.
“I’m counting on you for victory, Will.”
“You know only I can give it,” he responded, but deep down he was afraid of her.
“Good. Nothing like a human to get rid of a human.”
He kissed her ice-cold face with confidence, and she let him go. To him, it was like paying a toll to a troll. Although beautiful, she was still a ruthless, repulsive killer, just like himself.
As he was trying to gather his wits, Tavik thrust him back into the room with another low-ranking soldier.
“Your Excellency, we have captured three survivors from Planet Jade. We want you to interrogate them personally,” said Tavik.
He knew what he was doing , thought Will while constantly trying to show him up. Well, if he only knew how stubborn Jadeians could be . . . good luck getting any informa tion.
* * *
Onboard Aries’s bridge, the three prisoners stood bound, shackled, and dirtied from trying to flee from their enemies. Verronna, Tavik, Will, and at least fifty other officers stood ready to torture them to death. They were afraid. Their names were Uco, Hyia, and Shim. Only one of their starships escaped the solar system, but no one, not even the three of them, knew where it went. That was Verronna’s first question. She asked Shim, but he said nothing; then Verronna, hands aflame with black fire, gr