Random Snippet 1 from Phoenix Rising

Jennifer’s breath howled in her ears as she ran down the river, shin deep at that point, each step splashing more freezing cold water onto her soaked fatigues. Behind her, in the distance but closing, were four men, their flashlights bouncing as they ran. How could things have gone from quiet to running for her life AGAIN?

Things had been quiet, and she’d moved past another suit and four patrols, until fifteen minutes ago when two men stumbled upon her. The resulting firefight would’ve rivaled a holovid in its ferocity and speed with which everything happened. In less then two seconds, both men were dead and blood ran down her arm from being winged by a 14 millimeter round.

God her arm hurt, every step making it throb in agony. Jennifer had been through a lot on the farm, broken bones, torn ligaments and they all had hurt, but nothing like the pain coming from where the bullet had torn through the upper layer of skin. A bloody, red line marked the path the hollow point had followed on its brief, but potentially deadly flight.

She kept up the pace, her long legs driving like pistons, steadily pushing her further, but they were starting to burn with that deep muscular burn that came form long exertion. The man pursuing were starting to drop back by the second, and that sent shivers down her spine as a awful realization crossed Jennifer’s brain: they were herding her, using pressure to force her towards their goal, which probably was the warm, loving arms of a skin suit.

What am I doing here? I could’ve stayed home on the farm, rode horses, herded the cattle, and had a quiet peaceful life. But no, Jennifer, you wanted to see the galaxy! Hope you enjoyed it, because there won’t be anymore.

A large, dark shape strode across the river and stopped before illuminating itself. Jennifer slid to a stop and looked up at the skin suit, and it’s operator behind ballistic resistant glass. The man looked at her like a person would an ant and sneered, the hateful action tugging one corner of his scarred mouth up to look borderline demonic. She sucked in a deep breath and looked at the water for several seconds as blood dripped from underneath her coat and into the clear water, to be absorbed and washed away like tears in the rain.

Anger started to build up inside her and she looked at the operator and shook a fist. “What are you waiting for, asshole! Do it! Do it!”

The men in pursuit stopped several hundred meters behind her to avoid being killed by friendly fire and she could hear them talking amongst themselves about how easy it had been to run her into the arms of the waiting tank. Microphones inside the suit allowed the operator to hear the conversation as he started to raise the machine’s right arm…

And all hell broke loose.