A Sample of my Heretofore Unnamed Sci-Fi Novel

Cyle tried not to see what he was seeing, he tried to reject that it was happening around him. All he let himself do was direct his men to flank the beasts, direct them to fire and use as much force was necessary to bring the humongous black masses down. He couldn’t control his breathing, but it shot through his nose and mouth hard, fast, and hot. His hands were shaking, his grip on the blast pistol tight and straight. His finger was pulling the trigger, leveling the pistol and readjusting for recoil.

It wasn’t going down fast enough, and the two behind it charged through the line, scattering the soldiers. One man was unfortunate enough to have his leg snapped under the beast’s weight as it ran through the Seventh and Eighth regiments. His howl of pain wasn’t as brutal, wasn’t as savage as the beast looming over him. In a flash of movement, its jaws had clamped down, removing another man’s head. His neck sprayed blood as his heart beat its last, and the eyeless thing turned to stare them down.

Tylic moved first. He stepped away from them, shouting some kind of obscenity that Cyle was blocking from his mind. The females stood to the right, away from him, and Ferodin crouched next to the darker man, blast rifle raised but quiet.

It moved. The eyeless, black thing leapt at them with its jaws gnashing the broken bones of its enemies. The blood drool hung from its open maw as it roared at them, so close that Cyle could feel the fine, bloody saliva mist and rotten breath upon him. Superheated blast slugs sunk into its flesh and when the thing’s long, armored tail swung at them, Arourin tumbled over.

As soon as the Primus could spare a glance to look at her, the creature’s head exploded. Tylic dropped the detonator pin of his thrown blast charge, offering Ferodin his fist in a friendly exchange. Septimus slapped him on the back, and Arourin smiled. Revy pointed into the crowd. There were still the other two to deal with, and after them, the lowborn.

“I’m fresh out of charges, sir.” Cyle’s hearing slammed back into his head with a bang that confused him. He looked at the men around him, motioned them to him with a swing of his head. They pulled back and took cover behind a barricade that the Eighth had been occupying before everything had gone to shit.

“Tell me that you all saw something I didn’t.” Cyle pointed at Tylic, and then looked at each of them individually.