Excerpts

Have some samples! These are not perfect copies from the book, as slight modifications were made for the sake of context.

Riesel Tales: Two Hunters: First (#1)

The cabin of the Salona went silent for the rest of the brief journey. Runge kept his eyes fixed on the pallid moon ahead, while Ramy's eyes wandered off to the right, catching the last few glimpses of the bustling ecumenopolis of Riesel before it drifted out of view as the ship passed through the planet's shadow.

Riesel was poorly lit for a place boasting a population of over twelve trillion, and that wasn't even close to its true capacity. The great patches of brighter and more up-to-date areas of urban sprawl were grossly offset by vast swaths of dim, ruddy cityscape that spanned thousands of miles, making the brighter areas appear as broken continents of only somewhat less-dejected beauty.

The planet's ultra-tall towers were run-down and rusty, its skies highly polluted, and its population overrun with crime. To make matters even worse, it had no official governing body — the last one had been dissolved hundreds of years prior. The only form of authority was de facto: whichever faction had the most firepower.

A holographic advertisement, spanning miles in width, sailed by on its geosynchronous orbital path and displayed misleading propagandistic messages to draw more people to the cause of the current dominant faction, the Bright Ebony Organization. While it seemed benign enough in the ads, it was really nothing more than an organized crime syndicate.

Riesel Tales: Two Hunters: Club Gig (#2)

Runge activated the Salona's automated defenses, just in case the scanners had missed anyone lurking in the buildings nearby, or if anyone happened upon the ship's hidden position while they were off doing their mission. "All done, and so is anyone who tries to touch this ship."

Ramy nodded. "Nice. Now we need to program it to say something witty before it toasts the next hapless lowlife chump who decided to test his luck."

Runge paused for a moment, thinking. "I got nothing. We should start a list."

"We really should. Hey, maybe you could take a page from the degeneracy you often revel in. Have it say 'The only people who get to touch this merchandise are the ladies,' or something similarly insane."

A dismissive huff preceded Runge's reply, "If you think that's degenerate, then you have much to learn about club life on Riesel."

"Believe me, I relish in my ignorance."

"I'd take a page from your book with something like 'Sorry, but you must be this bitter to ride,' and it shows a projection of you and an arrow pointing to it."

"That's preposterous. My level of bitterness would make this sky continent lose altitude fast enough to break the sound barrier."

"The fact that your weight hasn't done that already is a scientific mystery."

"No more mysterious than your status as an idiot-savant keeping you alive in this dump for a decade."

"Them's fightin' words."

"Yes they are, so let's channel that aggression to the bullet you'll be using to dump our target and his pals into the afterlife."

"Now you're talking."

Riesel Tales: Two Hunters: Reprisal (#3)

Is this even real? Ramy kept her ears pinned to her head in frustration as Sookaiya bellowed a long war shriek. This came just before she arrowed the Carnivorous Summer Flower down into a wide urban gorge. The maneuver was helped by the ship's momentum counterbalance only marginally, as she preferred to feel more of her ship's movement when darting between buildings and other close obstacles. A corollary to this was the aggravation of Ramy's organs, particularly her stomach — she was used to a higher mo-co setting.

Going beyond the shock of the rollercoaster ride, Ramy observed Cutolla with intrigue. She wasn't sure what sort of biological mechanisms the Fruburwha had at his disposal, but they were apparently allowing him to sit in serene comfort as his partner's cry resounded for the following five seconds.

They leveled out just below the lowest line of sparse traffic and flew for a few thousand feet southwest along the length of the trench, then darted right back up again. This strategy was to break any early tracking locks by the base's peripheral defense systems, as a speeding warship would likely be quite suspicious.

In the meantime, all Ramy could do was hold on for dear life, digging her pointed fingernails into the armrests. I'm suffering for YOU, Runge. So help me, I will lecture your ears off and mount them over the TV.

Riesel Tales: Two Hunters: Lonely Tenant (#4)

Keeping a cautious eye open, Nhauh approached the back door of Iledd's Grocery Emporium. A red aperture on the wall scanned her eyes, causing the same uncomfortable buzzing sensation that she had hoped she would have become accustomed to by that point. The aperture switched to blue and verbally greeted her in Doaqillad, her boss' native language. It was yet another bizarre alien language that she didn't speak aside from a few phrases she had learned through osmosis.

She pushed the door open and slipped into the shadows of a dim hallway. A clacking sound accompanied her closing it, and she sighed in relief that nothing had jumped her. She always felt the dagger of fearful anticipation at her neck — that she would eventually feel a hand on her shoulder or hear the approach of footsteps.

Alarm bells in her head reminded that time was ticking. She padded off to her janitorial station, little more than a glorified closet. Her tools of the trade followed a similar formula, consisting of a mop and a levitating bucket cart that followed her wherever she went. After she had gathered those tools, she left her station in a hurry — it was not short on grime, and something inside made her skin itch after prolonged exposure.

Her uneasiness would have faded over time had there been a lack of anything startling nearby, but the presence of a large, shadowy figure outside her door did wonders to prevent this. She recoiled to avoid its advance, uttering a gentle yip, and now stood in her station's doorway once more.

The towering mechanical construct ceased its journey through the hallway and turned to face her, although it lacked a face to truly accomplish this. Its form was little more than a large, gray-and-blue metal sphere with spindly arms dangling from either side. A thick, comma-like shaft extended down from the back of the sphere toward the floor, and a smaller sphere formed the shaft's terminus. No part of it was making physical contact with the floor, its gravity repellers keeping it aloft. Sitting below the metaphorical equator of the primary sphere was a name tag that read "Mr. Fyowhe - Manager."

The cybernetic Gatheeph floated motionless for a few moments before a small lens projected a translucent blue rectangle ahead of what was otherwise just a collection of sensors and lights. A pair of blue-white dots and a line formed within the rectangle, creating a simplistic mimicry of a face. The shapes formed themselves into a whimsical expression of joy with the mouth and eyes becoming half-circles — the eyes being positioned with the curve upright and the mouth as the inverse.

"Nhauh, you are on time again! Good work! Excellent! Proficient!"

Nhauh responded to his deep, mechanical voice with a weak grin, but would be cut off before she could speak.

Mr. Fyowhe leaned forward, and those eyes flipped over while the mouth became a pencil-thin horizontal line. "Proficiency requires speed and diligence. The floors are dirty. Get to worrrrk."