The future family saga continues in the scfi novel, Lines. The serial continues. 

Thank you for reading this free chapter of the scifi novel, Lines.  

- Josh

Chapter 2: Off-world

A vacuum of power is created, and the war of the economic clans spreads out as a cosmic tide. Soldiers clad in mechanized exoskeletons and remote swift tanks fight across the deserts of Earth and Mars. Metal carcasses burn and char. Thousands of rounds of depleted radioactive ammunition litter the battlefields as harsh smoke from the hydraulics covers the surrounding areas. A stalemate in the terrestrial deserts comes after weeks of conflict. The two factions, the Mercurios and the Zaibatsu, then set their satellite weapons platforms, once used to protect the planets, on each other. Satellites and supply ships become torches across the skies leaving smoky vapor trails behind in the atmosphere. 

Supply lines are disrupted and machine parts, computer technology, raw materials, as well as people stop reaching Mars, the outer annulus space stations, and the colonies on the moons of the gas giants. The cost of the war worries the Great House Council on Earth after communications to the outer solar system are cut off. They decide to act, but before they do, a hidden entity intervenes and infiltrates the satellite weapons. The systems shut down and won’t respond to commands from their masters. The Zaibatsu, believing the Mercurios have created a new cyber-weapon, act. 

In the communications chamber of the White Palace, a message is received by Denis Mercurio and he accepts the transmission. A holo-emitter on the console projects the human form of a Zaibatsu envoy dressed in yellow ceremonial robes.

“What do you wish?” Denis asks as his father walks up behind him with crossed arms.

Continue Chapter 2