{"id":29,"date":"2015-05-18T03:17:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T03:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2025-11-21T20:50:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T01:50:04","slug":"five-moons-entangled","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/?page_id=29","title":{"rendered":"Five Moons: Entangled"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_431\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-431\" style=\"width: 368px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Five-Moons-Entangled-Book-3-ebook\/dp\/B08CPJCKBF\/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-431\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5Moons-entangled-510.jp_-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Five Moons: Entangled\" width=\"368\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5Moons-entangled-510.jp_-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5Moons-entangled-510.jp_.jpg 510w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 368px) 100vw, 368px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-431\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Five Moons: Entangled<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Evil men conspired to have a starship destroyed to hide the evil they had done. They intended for its crew to disappear forever without a trace. They flew an unmarked ship into space docks and marked it for destruction. They thought that was the end of it, but in all of that chaos, the anoza found me. They chose me to save the Five Moons. I didn\u2019t know any of that when I bought a ship that was never meant for sale. I didn\u2019t know any of that when I first stepped foot upon its decks and changed everything \u2026 But I know it now. And save the Five Moons? Damned straight I will.<\/p>\n<p>I am Dallas Blake, outworlder to the nines. By the end of the war, I had lost everything: my wife, my daughter, my whole family. The Mercenary Expeditionary Forces under Sarsen Tabbot leveled my home world, so there was no place left for me to return. I was left with no other choice but to start my whole life over.<\/p>\n<p>So I went to the Union Fleet space docks to buy a war surplus scout-class ship. Instead, I unknowingly bought the Tesseract. The ship was nothing I expected, but everything I needed. And you know that crew they thought was lost and gone forever? Well, think again. Now my crew and I fly from world to world, going wherever we are needed. Making a difference starts with us.<\/p>\n<p>If you ask the other intelligent species, they will tell you fast and quick that mankind was cast into the outer darkness because of the evil in our hearts. Just ask Captain Ravi Chandrakar, of the Union Cruiser Star Jammer. I am sure he would agree with that. Especially after that ever-conniving gangster-turned-politician, Al Simmonds, brought the whole region beyond the Seven Pillars back to the brink of war. Captain Chandrakar is still cleaning up that mess.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Al Simmonds is still out there on Daggan-7, conniving his next fiasco. And as for Sarsen Tabbot? She would tell you herself, \u2018It ain\u2019t over till the fat lady sings.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>So, as you can see, I have my work cut out for me. How about you? Can I talk you into putting on your recon armor, grabbing your pulse-rifle, and joining us? Would you like to make a difference? But I do have to warn you: The action never stops for the crew of the Five Moons.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Please enjoy my sample chapters down below.<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Please purchase my books from these fine retailers.<\/h3>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/amazon_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1132 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/amazon_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"98\" height=\"34\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/amazon_1.jpg 899w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/amazon_1-300x104.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/amazon_1-768x267.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 98px) 100vw, 98px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Five-Moons-Entangled-Book-3-ebook\/dp\/B08CPJCKBF\/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Five Moons: Entangled on Amazon as an eBook, Paperback, Hard Cover, or AudioBook<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Book-Icon.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1091 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Book-Icon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"88\" height=\"88\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Book-Icon.png 370w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Book-Icon-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Book-Icon-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 88px) 100vw, 88px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Five-Moons-Entangled-Book-3\/dp\/B08CPLDSQZ\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paperback Version at Amazon<\/a><\/h4>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/1031901\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Buy this book on Smashwords<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/1031901\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1117\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Smashwords.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/book\/x\/id1522976190\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">APPLE<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/s\/2940164181642\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BARNES &amp; NOBLE<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardners.com\/Search\/KeywordAnonymous\/eBook?Keyword=9781005955137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GARDINERS<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/store.kobobooks.com\/en-us\/Search?Query=9781005955137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KOBO<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/search?query=9781005955137&amp;language=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SCRIBD<\/a><\/h5>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Five Moons: Entangled<\/strong> is now available on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.audible.com\/pd\/B07DPVXL2Q\/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-118904&amp;ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_118904_rh_us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Audible.com<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_767\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-767\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.audible.com\/pd\/B07DPVXL2Q\/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-118904&amp;ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_118904_rh_us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-767\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/entangled-Audiobook-Cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Five Moons: Entangled\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/entangled-Audiobook-Cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/entangled-Audiobook-Cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/entangled-Audiobook-Cover-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/entangled-Audiobook-Cover-1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-767\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Five Moons: Entangled<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-388 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Readers Favorite 5star\" width=\"124\" height=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Readers-Favorite-5star.jpg 1830w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 124px) 100vw, 124px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/readersfavorite.com\/book-review\/five-moons\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ANOTHER 5-STAR REVIEW FROM READERS&#8217; FAVORITES!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo for Readers\u2019 Favorite.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Five Moons: Entangled is a work of great imagination, an intriguing story that is laced with nonstop and heart-pounding action. Readers are immediately introduced to well-sculpted and interesting characters, a solid cast they will love to journey with as they discover new worlds and realities. The pace is fast and the page-turning story is heightened with suspense and dialogue that drive the plot forward. The concept of a universe in danger isn\u2019t uncommon in science fiction, but when such a concept falls into deft hands, it becomes a gripping and entertaining story, and Parker\u2019s hands are skilled. Science fiction fans will easily be drawn to this emerging and powerful voice in the genre. This is one of the rare science fiction books I will recommend to readers looking for something that is well-crafted, engrossingly entertaining, and fast-paced. It will be a thrill to follow the multi-layered, spell-binding conflict carefully executed by a master storyteller.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/readersfavorite.com\/book-review\/five-moons\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read the entire review<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Amazon Kindle eBook<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>File Size:<\/b> 1793 KB<\/li>\n<li><b>Print Length:<\/b> 175 pages<\/li>\n<li><b>Publisher:<\/b> Five Moons Publications; 2 edition (July 8, 2020)<\/li>\n<li><b>Publication Date:<\/b> July 8, 2020<\/li>\n<li id=\"sold-by-merchant\"><b>Sold by:<\/b>\u00a0Amazon.com Services LLC<\/li>\n<li><b>Language:<\/b> English<\/li>\n<li><b>ASIN:<\/b> B08CPJCKBF<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Amazon Paperback<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><b>Series:<\/b> Five Moons (Book 3)<\/li>\n<li><b>Paperback:<\/b> 210 pages<\/li>\n<li><b>Publisher:<\/b> Independently published (July 9, 2020)<\/li>\n<li><b>Language:<\/b> English<\/li>\n<li><b>ISBN-13:<\/b> 979-8665020464<\/li>\n<li><b>ASIN:<\/b> B08CPLDSQZ<\/li>\n<li><b> Product Dimensions: <\/b> 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Sample Chapters<\/h2>\n<h1>Prologue<\/h1>\n<p><em>Clay of Earth, know this to the very core of you: yours were the people cast into the outer darkness because of the evil in their hearts.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A gift was made to them of Tesseract, but they were found unworthy.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Clay of Earth, you do not see how entangled in each other\u2019s fates you are.\u00a0 Each life is entangled in all of the others, and now mine is with yours.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Clay of Earth, Leaf in the Wind, you are of them but not like them.\u00a0 We found you full of darkness from your trials at the hands of the most evil, yet in your despair, you became the empty vessel.\u00a0 Into that empty vessel, we poured the light of truth.\u00a0 And so you found beauty in the light of four moons.\u00a0 My soul sings songs of joy in that.\u00a0 You are welcome.\u00a0 And so the next step together we must take.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Leaf in the wind, the gift that once was made to the unworthy was only the first step.\u00a0 Beyond the Tesseract is all that really matters.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212; The Fifth Moon &#8212;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Chapter One: In the beginning.<\/h1>\n<p>In the beginning, there was peace.\u00a0 Dallas Blake was a leaf in the wind, and life was good.\u00a0 That all seemed like a million years ago now.\u00a0 Then war came.\u00a0 The Syndicate\u2019s mercenaries waged a war on the Union like no other, tearing lives asunder, destroying everything in their path, leaving only sadness and chaos in their wake.\u00a0 The mercenary forces under Sarsen Tabbot leveled Dallas\u2019 home world.\u00a0 They killed his wife and daughter.\u00a0 They killed his whole family.\u00a0 And that changed everything.<\/p>\n<p>At first, Dallas was full of pain and anger.\u00a0 That turned into rage, and Dallas took his pound of flesh, but in the end, that left him empty, and sad, and alone.\u00a0 It left a big hole in his heart.\u00a0 Once more, Dallas became the leaf in the wind.\u00a0 He filled that gaping empty hole inside of him with silence.\u00a0 Every day he had to force himself to put one foot in front of the other.\u00a0 He buried himself in his studies so he wouldn\u2019t have time to remember.\u00a0 He refused to allow himself one second of self-pity.<\/p>\n<p>Then came the end of the war and once more that changed everything.\u00a0 Union Fleet no longer needed the millions of veterans that now suddenly found themselves alone on the outside, embroiled in the chaos that ensued.\u00a0 His past swept away, Dallas had no choice but to start over.\u00a0 So he went to the Union Fleet space docks with all good intentions.\u00a0 He intended to start his life over.\u00a0 He intended to buy a war surplus scout-class ship.\u00a0 Instead, he unknowingly bought the Tesseract.<\/p>\n<p>In the beginning, Dallas walked onto the decks of the Tesseract, and that changed everything.\u00a0 But, Dallas was still empty, and sad, and alone.\u00a0 Jessica, his oversexed but highly talented artificial copilot, changed that.\u00a0 Jane, the ship\u2019s motherly android cook, changed that.\u00a0 His good buddy Hack, the maintenance android with an attitude, changed that.\u00a0 And most of all, his beloved Mariah, tough little cookie to the very artificial core of her, changed that.\u00a0 Even the ship itself changed.\u00a0 It took on a new name &#8212; the Five Moons.<\/p>\n<p>And all of that was fine until he discovered that Mariah Jane Harrington, Jessica Ann Miller, Jane Marie Schultz, and Henry James Merritt were all listed as the crew of a starship like no other, a starship made with alien timequake technology.\u00a0 They were not listed as artificials at all but as humans, lost in the line of duty.\u00a0 Once more, knowing that changed everything.<\/p>\n<p>That set his mind on fire to uncover the truth.\u00a0 After all, the truth shall set you free &#8212; right? Isn\u2019t that what they tell you? Well, they couldn\u2019t have been more wrong! He got the truth alright.\u00a0 Special Forces Admiral Johnson eventually gave him the files.\u00a0 Now, there was a full dose of the truth if he had ever seen one.<\/p>\n<p>Dallas read the Special Forces report of the rescue mission by Captain Michael Jacobi, in total disbelief and disgust.\u00a0 It said that when the rescue craft arrived at the site of the time-space disaster, the ship was so distorted that it was no longer recognizable as the Tesseract, but there was an anoza ship alongside.\u00a0 Captain Jacobi was not at all upset to find that none of the human crew had survived.\u00a0 Oh, really? He was, however, very upset when he found out that the anoza had moved their essence into the artificial intelligence processors onboard the Tesseract just before they died.\u00a0 Now there you go!<\/p>\n<p>Then the anoza summarily informed Jacobi that they intended to \u2018restore\u2019 the crew, but he would not hear of that.\u00a0 Oh no! Of course not! Jacobi could not allow the anoza to restore what may have been the only witnesses to what had actually happened.\u00a0 Oh, no.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t have any witnesses to expose the evil that was done purely as the result of human greed and arrogance.\u00a0 Oh, no.\u00a0 He sure couldn\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Captain Jacobi insisted that all of the artificial intelligence processors be shut down.\u00a0 The anoza were outraged, and rightly so! They called him a murderer! They were upset that the humans were about to kill four of their own, stubbornly refusing to listen to them, but what was new about that? The arrogant, self-righteous humans hadn\u2019t listened to anything that the anoza had told them.\u00a0 So, why should this be any different? Jacobi quoted some stupid human laws about desecrating the deceased, but by that point, the anoza had heard enough.\u00a0 They left, never to be seen again.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since he read that file, Dallas was determined that Jacobi\u2019s report would not be the final word.\u00a0 He sat quietly in the mess of the Five Moons eating some of Jane\u2019s finest homemade pickles remembering all of this, calm on the outside.\u00a0 Normally, all of this ran down the back roads of his mind like a distant rumble of thunder, but sometimes, when he least expected, that storm unleashed its fury on him.\u00a0 He took in a deep breath and exhaled the vile rage that storm had dredged up.<\/p>\n<p><em>I am a leaf in the wind<\/em>, Dallas thought to himself.\u00a0 Another deep breath returned his mind once more to calm.\u00a0 As Dallas finished his pickles, he chose instead to remember the Five Moons\u2019 first mission to rescue Emma from the mercenaries and Sophie from the growls.\u00a0 That changed everything too.<\/p>\n<p>~~~<\/p>\n<p>Across the sector from Dallas, on a world far away, mercenary Sub-Commander Rhianna remembered that mission too but from a totally different point of view.\u00a0 She remembered that it had all started with a running gunfight.\u00a0 Somehow, the Union scum had found the base, and that changed everything.\u00a0 That was the beginning of the end.\u00a0 That forced Santo to move the timetable for his invasion of Panara-5 up to right away.\u00a0 It forced Santo to move his mercenary battle group quickly forward or lose the element of surprise.\u00a0 Santo could no longer wait to develop a line of support.\u00a0 He had to leave this small group of people to that task alone.\u00a0 Santo left Rhianna in charge here because that was her specialty \u2013 material support.<\/p>\n<p>And what brought on that running gunfight? A small group of greedy bastards trying to make a pile of gold for hanging on to some little girl named Emma.\u00a0 And what good did that do them? None! That\u2019s how much good it did them.\u00a0 For all of their sneaking and conniving, the damned locals stole all their gold right out from under them! Well, there you go! If that wasn\u2019t bad enough, Santo pitched a fit when he found out and had the lot of them executed.\u00a0 So, there you go! At least Santo got the base fixed back up and secure before he left.\u00a0 He even left Rhianna with two orbital transports, for whatever good they would do her now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think back to the day that we watched them leave,\u201d Rhianna spoke her thoughts out loud to Lucia.\u00a0 \u201cThere was no thought of them not coming back.\u00a0 \u2018See you soon,\u2019 they said when they left to take Panara-5 from the Union.\u00a0 How long ago was that? A year\u2026 maybe more?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost two,\u201d Lucia corrected her.\u00a0 \u201cBut worse, they went quiet on the com.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuiet? Hell! They disappeared altogether.\u201d Rhianna voiced her anger and worst fear.\u00a0 \u201cThey abandoned us here! They left us here to rot\u2026 forever, without hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStop that! There is always hope.\u00a0 We just have to survive; that\u2019s all,\u201d Lucia argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, you hit that squarely on the head.\u00a0 That\u2019s all we are left with now \u2013 trying to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIshmael hasn\u2019t given up hope.\u00a0 Every day he tries something new,\u201d Lucia told her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore like he is trying my patience.\u00a0 The man isn\u2019t good for much,\u201d Rhianna continued to complain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018isn\u2019t good for much?\u2019\u00a0 He works hard at whatever tasks you give him,\u201d Lucia reminded Rhianna.\u00a0 She was tired of Rhianna\u2019s incessant bitching and complaining.\u00a0 Besides, Lucia liked Ishmael.\u00a0 He was not your typical arrogant, aggressive Merc man.\u00a0 He was quiet and soft-spoken.\u00a0 He had a gentle face, despite his size.\u00a0 His excellent physical condition was the result of necessity.\u00a0 It came from being forced to defend himself from the likes of the more aggressive Merc men.\u00a0 In fact, Ishmael had quite a reputation from those who had tried, and failed, to beat him.<\/p>\n<p>~~~<\/p>\n<p>Kiroc was not at all like Ishmael.\u00a0 He was the typical aggressive, assertive Merc man, but he was not big, nor strong, nor a good fighter, like Ishmael.\u00a0 Kiroc also had a vile temper at times.\u00a0 Today, Kiroc was just plain angry at every damned thing, so he was out hunting.\u00a0 Kiroc hunted growls.\u00a0 He hated them.\u00a0 Kiroc had a long list of everything he hated, but for now, he could hate the growls.<\/p>\n<p>These growls were nasty beasts without a doubt, like mountain lions on steroids.\u00a0 As if one of them alone was not bad enough, they hunted in packs.\u00a0 A pack of hungry growls could rip a man to shreds in minutes, so Kiroc hunted them in a pulse-cannon walker.\u00a0 That was a lot safer than hunting them on foot.\u00a0 The walker was made from alloys and carbon fiber materials tough enough to survive on a battlefield, so even the most ferocious pack of growls was no match for it.<\/p>\n<p>Ferocious was a good description of growls.\u00a0 The beasts were almost unbelievably ferocious.\u00a0 If you killed one and left the carcass, the others would find it and devour it or fight over it amongst themselves.\u00a0 These things were so bad that prides of them lived openly on the grassy plains near the edge of the forest.\u00a0 Sometimes, they hunted prey in the forest, but most of them could be found on the grassy plains where grazing animals could easily be found for a handy snack.<\/p>\n<p>Because he hated these things so, Kiroc had hunted them to extinction for a 100km radius around base camp over the past year or so.\u00a0 The problem was, when you live in growl territory, clearing an area only created a vacuum for more growls to fill\u2026 And so they did.\u00a0 In the meantime, in the absence of the growls, everything else flourished.\u00a0 That made it an even more attractive vacuum for growls to fill.<\/p>\n<p>While that had worked in Kiroc\u2019s favor in the past, lately he wasn\u2019t doing so well.\u00a0 He had recently begun to venture beyond his 100km hunt zone to find what few of them were left.\u00a0 Rhianna wasn\u2019t happy at all when he was gone hunting for days, sometimes for weeks on end, but quite frankly, he didn\u2019t give a rat\u2019s ass anymore what she thought.\u00a0 He had two weeks\u2019 food and water.\u00a0 He told her where he was going, so frak her if she didn\u2019t like it.\u00a0 Hunting was his only outlet.<\/p>\n<p>The pulse cannon walker was like wearing an exoskeleton.\u00a0 In it, he could walk or run, and jump.\u00a0 It could crouch down low to hide.\u00a0 It could move very fast or silently very slow.\u00a0 It made Kiroc the big man that he was not.\u00a0 In his mind, it made him the invincible fighter.\u00a0 Kiroc moved on farther out, to a valley he could see in the distance.\u00a0 If there were any growls left, that would be where he would find them.<\/p>\n<p>~~~<\/p>\n<p>Ishmael worked all morning on the task list that Rhianna had given him.\u00a0 He was the most technically competent one of the group, so his main task was to keep this whole place running.\u00a0 Every morning, his first task was to check all of the fusion reactors to be sure they were fine and had plenty of fuel.\u00a0 He never told Rhianna that the reactors would run just fine for a hundred years without him ever checking them at all.\u00a0 He never mentioned that the fuel already in them would last even longer.\u00a0 He never told her that the maintenance androids knew exactly how to fix any faults, either.\u00a0 Instead, he used that time for his own purposes.\u00a0 It was his quiet, peaceful time, free from Rhianna\u2019s constant bitching and complaining at him.<\/p>\n<p>Ishmael wandered behind the buildings into one of the orbital transports.\u00a0 He quickly found its quantum-com.\u00a0 Sure, Rhianna had already tried that.\u00a0 Sure, all she got was bad news, but then it got worse.\u00a0 After a while, no one even bothered to answer her calls anymore.\u00a0 That was the pits of despair.\u00a0 Oh, they were out there all right, but the few that were left had abandoned them to their fate.\u00a0 That\u2019s when Rhianna gave up hope for a rescue and became very bitter.<\/p>\n<p>Ishmael refused to give up, but he needed a plan.\u00a0 He sure did not lack for time to think, so that is what he did.\u00a0 He gladly took on all of those useless tasks that Rhianna insisted on listing for him every day.\u00a0 While he went through the motions of those tasks, he was deep in thought.\u00a0 If the Merc forces were as scattered as what he had heard over the com when there was traffic, then there had to be some of them scattered this way, or so he reasoned.<\/p>\n<p>Today he would start looking for them.\u00a0 He just needed to be persistent and not give up.\u00a0 Despite his lack of formal training, Ishmael was quick to learn whatever he needed to.\u00a0 So, for hours he sat, studying the built-in manuals, working the quantum-com, trying to make contact.\u00a0 He learned to program alerts to his personal network node for all of the popular meeting nodes on the Merc network.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_48\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48\" style=\"width: 183px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/DDP_logo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/DDP_logo.jpg\" alt=\"Double Dragon Publishing\" width=\"183\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-48\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Double Dragon Publishing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Released by Double Dragon Publishing April 12, 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>eBook Information:<\/b><br \/>\n<b>ISBN-10:<\/b> 1-77115-297-4<br \/>\n<b>ISBN-13:<\/b>\u00a09781771152976<br \/>\n<b>Genre:<\/b> Science Fiction\/Dark Fantasy<br \/>\n<b>eBook Length:<\/b> 168 Pages<br \/>\n<b>Published:<\/b> April 2016<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Paperback:<\/b> 182 pages<\/li>\n<li><b>Publisher:<\/b> CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 19, 2016)<\/li>\n<li><b>Language:<\/b> English<\/li>\n<li><b>ISBN-10:<\/b> 1532835485<\/li>\n<li><b>ISBN-13:<\/b> 978-1532835483<\/li>\n<li><b> Product Dimensions: <\/b> 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please visit my other site too <a href=\"https:\/\/fivemoonscifi.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fivemoonscifi.wordpress.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evil men conspired to have a starship destroyed to hide the evil they had done. They intended for its crew to disappear forever without a trace. They flew an unmarked ship into space docks and marked it for destruction. They thought that was the end of it, but in all of that chaos, the anoza &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/?page_id=29\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Five Moons: Entangled<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1673,"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions\/1673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fivemoons.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}