Sample Content
This story is about 3000 words or 28 standard book pages.
(This file includes one promotional story that bring it to about 7,500 words or 40 standard book pages.)
Promotion Story Included:
Blood Manor (Uncivilized Boxing Action Series #1)
Good. He snuck forward and slowly made his way over to the one he had selected. Standing up behind the man after crawling prone through the sand. He used a small knife to cut into the power unit in this one's chest. There was a spark from the front and Tank slowly lowered the man to the ground using his knife.
The clothing fit poorly. Tank wasn't exactly the smallest cyborg and even though this one had been close, metal parts stood out where they shouldn't have.
It will have to be ok, he thought.
"Ready to go?" Jose asked through the team's private radio network.
"I'm all dolled up and ready for the party," came Mike's reply.
"Yes," Tank said.
Jose started walking towards the factory. Most of the men in the big camp outside would not recognize Jose and Mike for what they were unless they looked closely, but Tank was another story. twenty years of modifications had given him a more than inhuman look. He would be easy to spot if he wasn't careful.
Tank edged around the side of the camp and came to an alleyway of darkness that spread between the tents and a few of the small fires the army of men were burning.
He snuck down the alley and stopped. Movement to the left. A man stepped out and looked straight at him. There was a moment as that one's eyes adjusted to the new shape in the darkness.
Tank didn't hesitate. He kicked the man in the leg and stabbed him in the side of the head. The man rolled to the ground with a thump.
Tank looked around. Did anyone hear that? He hoped not.
TANK
TANK SCIENCE FICTION SERIES #1
(SMASHWORDS EDITION / Copyright Kenneth Guthrie 2011)
Tank and his team have a job - a big job. Unfortunately, their manager/sniper has got them in a bit of trouble. 500 cyborg soldiers and a bunch of nukes make for a rough fight that will leave the team scarred and broken in a fight that will take them to their limits.
MECHANIZED MAN
Tank was sitting on a small burnt log surveying the scene while cleaning his weapon. They had found a small pocket of defenders who had resisted their attempt to take resources from them.
He understood their determination. The world had been at war for over 100 years now without respite and the remaining true humans were dying out of starvation.
He considered his body. It was certainly handy. He didn't eat or sleep. He only fought. In fact, there was nothing else that he wished to do more than kill. He guessed it was part of his reprogramming.
Still he was human.
A bullet ricochet off his helmet. About time, he thought. He lifted his weapon and quickly slammed the bolt back in. He rolled to the side and slammed a clip into the receiving port. Another bullet fell to his side. He returned fire on the position indicated by a bleeping red dot.
A burst of flame exited the end of the weapon and there was a hail of sand and stone in the distance. Part of the hill fell to the ground and he could see with his zoomed in vision a human shape flying up into the air to fall the 300 or so feet to the ground.
Nice shot, he congratulated himself.
He sat back down on the log and pulled out his cleaning stick again. There would be more around who would probably fall into his trap sooner or later.
"Yo! Tank!," Mike yelled over the network, "We got a big money job."
Mike came out of the small well kept office in the town that had been set up as a base camp for the mercenary teams to receive contracts.
Tank stood up from where he had been sitting on a bench next to a female cyborg. She was quite pretty and when he had flesh and those types of feelings he would have asked her out. Now he wondered if she was really a guy.
Mike was a tall man who had only undergone some of the customization possible as part man and machine. He was the team's manager and sniper, so it wasn't really necessary for him to be fully plated up.
"Come on. I'm getting bored here. What took you so long?" Tank asked grumpily.
"As I said, my grouchy friend, it is a big money contract," Mike assured him in his usual upbeat way.
"You say that about every contract. You expect me to believe you now?"
"Of course, don't I always tell the truth?" Mike asked innocently.
Tank rolled his mechanical eyes.
"No."
"Oh, well... there has been the occasion where things weren't as planned."
"Weren't as planned? Are you mad? What about that contract to take that hyper train last month? I got dragged for nearly 30 kilometers."
"That was unfortunately," Mike said with sympathy.
Tank put his hands up. Mike was the happiest cold blooded killer he had ever met. Mike would happily kill women, children and babies, but would always be ready to tell a joke about it afterwards.
"Whatever. What's the job?" Tank asked testily.
"US Combined Army wants us to take a small factory."
The US Combined Army was one of the biggest sponsors of mercenary missions and one of the only territories to have a working economy not purely based only on war.
"That's fine. Where is it?"
"In Mexico."
"Where in Mexico?" Tank asked.
"Umm... Hell Plane."
"Hell Plane? Are you kidding me? The home of the most hardened army in the world."
"It's 4,000,000 dollars."
Tank stopped complaining and stood still for a moment. He wouldn't have done the job for a smaller amount of money, but 4,000,000 was quite a lot.
"Ok, let's roll out," he said after a minute or two of deliberation.
"Yes, sir," Mike said with a fake salute and a smile to the female cyborg.
4,000,000 was a lot.
"Hell Plane? Are you mad?" Jose was Latino, but he may as well have been Tank's brother considering how similar they were.
"Yes,” he said calmly before adding, “It's 4,000,000 dollars paid on competition."
That shut him up.
"Alright then. When do we leave?"
"Today."
The team was a good one. Mike was their sniper, Jose their heavy artillery man and Knife their infiltrator. Tank was their leader.
They left the small dimly lit bar and walked out into the sunlight again. The street was dusty and the old concrete was broken, but the buildings were relatively new and well painted in the hot desert sun.
They arrived at their little shop with only a few minutes of walking. It was one of the various small storage compartments hired out to mercenaries to store their equipment when entering the town.
He nodded to Vic the guard bot at the gate. Vic was an X70 model. Not the latest, but he had a suicide bomb inside of him that could wipe out a small town. That earned him quite a bit of respect. You didn't want to piss off someone who could blow you and your men up with a single processed command.
He opened the door to the storage space and let them in. Knife walked by and gave him a glare. He had never heard Knife speak and he usually communicated through gestures or the little keypad on his arm that would send out a short text based message to the others. He wasn't happy about going to Hell Plane.
"Cheer up, big boy," Mike said to Knife who tensed up, "You'll be fine."
Knife was 5 foot. He didn't like anyone who talked about his size.
They got their gear and walked out to the open aired vehicle they used to get around. Mike took the driver's seat and started the engine.
"Ready, kids?" He tried to sound like a father on holiday with his children.
"Shut up and drive," Tank replied.
FACTORY
"How are we supposed to get through that?" Jose asked.
Over 400, maybe 500, came Knife's text.
Tank looked at the two of them. The scene below wasn't pretty. There was at least 500 cyborgs and men down there surrounding the broken down factory.
"What type of factory was it, Mike?" he asked casually.
"A weapon's factory, I believe."
"What type of weapon's factory?" he continued.
"Nuclear, going by the registration information.
"Are you kidding me? You mean there could be one or more nuclear weapons down there and you took the job?"
"It is 4,000,000."
Knife got to Mike first.
"Ouch, you didn't have to slap me so hard," Mike said rubbing the back of his head.
Idiot, the text flashed.
Tank had to agree. Maybe he should have a talk to Mike again about not trying to get them killed.