The Last Gryphon
, by Kearns, F. James
- ISBN: 9781098308278 | 1098308271
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 9/1/2020
The Last Gryphon is a Sci-fi action adventure set 1750 years in the future. Mankind has long since abandoned an ecologically wrecked and resource depleted planet Earth and spread out from their cradle world. This was accomplished through great and powerful mega-corporations. The discovery of space folding technology allows for near instantaneous travel and communication between settled star systems. Now, nearly two millennia later the corporation is everything. They control all aspects of life within humanity's settled territories using genetically engineered super soldiers known as gene-soldiers to repress any sign of dissent and to fight wars with rival corporations.
Marik, one of the two main characters in the story, is one of these gene-soldiers. He has been taken from line service after a lifetime of leading gene-soldier infantry and placed in an intelligence role. Marik is uncomfortable in this position, but he excels in the more violent aspects of the job. Lately he has become somewhat cynical as he has been exposed to the darker side of civilian life. Not every decision is as clear cut as it was on the battlefield.
The story opens with Marik detained on the backwater mining world of Hesperus IV. His cover role is that of a minor smuggler running contraband for a smuggling cartel that is headquartered in the Hesperus system asteroid ring. He was detained upon landing with a cargo hold full of illegal drugs. In order to maintain his cover he surrenders to the planetary peacekeepers, the local police force. It is at his initial arraignment for smuggling that he is able to overhear a conversation that leads him to believe that his cover is blown. He effects a violent escape from the courtroom, disappearing into the smog choked industrial streets of the Capital City of Hesperus IV.
While Marik is escaping from Peacekeeper custody, we meet Rhea, the other main character in the story. Rhea is a young girl, only eight years old. She has been the property of Psy Corp. for nearly half of her life. She is an extremely powerful psychic, and when her powers first manifested at age five, she was plucked from a state run orphanage and placed in a Psy Corp. training facility. The training is brutal and indifferent, and Rhea suffers greatly under the thumb of the corporation. She decides to escape and bends all of her efforts to effect that escape, finally achieving success in the opening chapter. After leaving the training facility, she makes her wandering way to the planetary spaceport where she sneaks aboard a battered light cargo hauler.
The cargo hauler that Rhea has sneaked aboard is Marik's ship. He creates an explosive diversion at the spaceport and blasts his ship off planet, completely unaware that he has a tiny stowaway. When he does find her, her obvious fear touches something inside him, and he takes her under his protection. Neither of them are aware of the forces arrayed against them as they set out.
Marik also does not know that he is a prototype of a new generation of gene-soldiers; a failed prototype. The corporate government of the Confederated Systems wants to erase their mistake before senior shareholders and the public at large discover the unstable super-soldiers within their midst. Rhea is being hunted by Psy Corp. They want to retrieve their lost property as she is a valuable and powerful asset. Lacking this knowledge, Marik continues with his mission and attempts to link up with a contact, but not before getting a few answers and some revenge from the smugglers who sold him out.
From the smuggler's hidden facility Marik and Rhea return to Hesperus IV, where Marik makes contact with his partner and lover, Jerika. Jerika is a beautiful redheaded femme fatale. Her portion of their mission consists of insinuating herself into the upper echelons of society as a courtesan and then feeding Marik the intelligence he needs to accomplish his assignment. She is also part of the conspiracy to eliminate Marik. As s
Marik, one of the two main characters in the story, is one of these gene-soldiers. He has been taken from line service after a lifetime of leading gene-soldier infantry and placed in an intelligence role. Marik is uncomfortable in this position, but he excels in the more violent aspects of the job. Lately he has become somewhat cynical as he has been exposed to the darker side of civilian life. Not every decision is as clear cut as it was on the battlefield.
The story opens with Marik detained on the backwater mining world of Hesperus IV. His cover role is that of a minor smuggler running contraband for a smuggling cartel that is headquartered in the Hesperus system asteroid ring. He was detained upon landing with a cargo hold full of illegal drugs. In order to maintain his cover he surrenders to the planetary peacekeepers, the local police force. It is at his initial arraignment for smuggling that he is able to overhear a conversation that leads him to believe that his cover is blown. He effects a violent escape from the courtroom, disappearing into the smog choked industrial streets of the Capital City of Hesperus IV.
While Marik is escaping from Peacekeeper custody, we meet Rhea, the other main character in the story. Rhea is a young girl, only eight years old. She has been the property of Psy Corp. for nearly half of her life. She is an extremely powerful psychic, and when her powers first manifested at age five, she was plucked from a state run orphanage and placed in a Psy Corp. training facility. The training is brutal and indifferent, and Rhea suffers greatly under the thumb of the corporation. She decides to escape and bends all of her efforts to effect that escape, finally achieving success in the opening chapter. After leaving the training facility, she makes her wandering way to the planetary spaceport where she sneaks aboard a battered light cargo hauler.
The cargo hauler that Rhea has sneaked aboard is Marik's ship. He creates an explosive diversion at the spaceport and blasts his ship off planet, completely unaware that he has a tiny stowaway. When he does find her, her obvious fear touches something inside him, and he takes her under his protection. Neither of them are aware of the forces arrayed against them as they set out.
Marik also does not know that he is a prototype of a new generation of gene-soldiers; a failed prototype. The corporate government of the Confederated Systems wants to erase their mistake before senior shareholders and the public at large discover the unstable super-soldiers within their midst. Rhea is being hunted by Psy Corp. They want to retrieve their lost property as she is a valuable and powerful asset. Lacking this knowledge, Marik continues with his mission and attempts to link up with a contact, but not before getting a few answers and some revenge from the smugglers who sold him out.
From the smuggler's hidden facility Marik and Rhea return to Hesperus IV, where Marik makes contact with his partner and lover, Jerika. Jerika is a beautiful redheaded femme fatale. Her portion of their mission consists of insinuating herself into the upper echelons of society as a courtesan and then feeding Marik the intelligence he needs to accomplish his assignment. She is also part of the conspiracy to eliminate Marik. As s
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