Veil Riders , livre ebook
171
pages
English
Ebooks
2021
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171
pages
English
Ebooks
2021
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
19 avril 2021
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781662911170
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
1 Mo
The Veil Riders follows the adventures of abnormal humans going into a fantastical world. Humans for decades have wondered what it would be like to go into a world unknown and journey forth to find the subjects of their mythos, and the temptation was too much to ignore. There was however a kink in this plan, as their world had been infiltrated far before the Veil ever showed them the way to the other side of the mysteries of their own histories, and the Veil Riders quickly find themselves pinned as the enemy, and used as a device to further the plans of the beings that had been controlling the destiny of humanity.
Voir
Publié par
Date de parution
19 avril 2021
EAN13
9781662911170
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
1 Mo
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
The views and opinions expressed in this book are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of Gatekeeper Press. Gatekeeper Press is not to be held responsible for and expressly disclaims responsibility of the content herein.
The Veil Riders: A Tale By Guardbro
Published by Gatekeeper Press 2167 Stringtown Rd, Suite 109 Columbus, OH 43123-2989 www.GatekeeperPress.com
Copyright © 2021 by Guardbro
All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
The cover design and editorial work for this book are entirely the product of the author. Gatekeeper Press did not participate in and is not responsible for any aspect of these elements.
ISBN (paperback): 9781662911163 eISBN: 9781662911170
To my wife Jamie, thank you for Supporting me and being by my side though all these years.
To my Mother and Father, good job, but It’s a miracle I survived this long.
To my Grandfather Ron, thank you for Fostering my love of reading.
To James and Megan, You are the ones who got me here.
And to my many Fans and Readers, Let’s climb to glory.
Catch me online atyoutube/guardbeardia_beardio
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 After Action Report
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
UF DIE HEIDE blüht ein an kleines blu-umele-” “A “Shut the hell up, Dregs.” e raucous rattle of laughter echoed up and down th e cave tunnel as the formation of militia members marched through. e so und of their voices bounced off the walls and wrapped around the cavern as if the mountain itself was laughing with them. At the head of the formation was Tom Yule, a large man at six-foot even and heavy-haired, a braided beard running down his chin with shaggy, curly hair falling outside of his +eld green patrol cap. e man he was speaking to was Dakota Dregs, a wiry man that grinned at Yule cheekily. Dregs was from New York, Yule from Oklahoma, and almost a ll the States of America were represented as the seventy +ve men and women walked into the darkness, their ash lights casting shadows on the damp, rocky walls. e hills of the Appalachian Mountains were always steeped in rumor and mysticism; folk tales and hearsay oen speaking of people going missing, miners that mined so deep they were never seen again, weird shadows that stalked the depths of the forests, and noises unknown to human ears calling out from within. Children spoke of whispers amongst the bushes, and glittering lights deep in the woods that tried to lure those out, within. It was rare that a child was actually dumb enough to chase the sparkles in to the dark green boughs of the trees, until one was. Little Emellie McCaline was the one child to throw the modern world into chaos and bridge the gap between fantasy and reality, dragging the whole of humanity in with her to the realm in between. With her small, size +ve shoes she would leave an imprint on the lives of millions. It started out with a simple missing persons report fr om her Mother, as little Emellie failed to show up for dinner at the time they agreed on. e trail was quickly tracked by a pair of search dogs (Rosko and Rosie, both very good canines who deserve many treats for their hard work), leading their handlers up to a wide-mouthed cave. e history of the cave was brief, and much of the writings from past miners, inspectors, and t he odd spelunker all came to the same conclusion: “Do. Not. Enter.” A pair of rescue personnel were hooked to drag lines and slowly entered the cave, their head lamps +ghting to illuminate the fathomless darkness before them. ey called out for little Emellie as they walked along the winding pathway that had been carved out from the rock by miners decades before. Aer getting half way in, they noticed that the path changed, going from roughly hewed rock to smooth walls, as if carved away by impossibly hot beams of energy, or large circular blades that cut deep and straight, forming out this artery in the mountain. When reporting this information, a quick search showed no evidence of such devices ever being used in the in the sha’s history. is irregularity was a part of the cave’s legacy, and also a part of its warning. Aer the rescuers had spent an hour in the depths of the cave, the surface crew witnessed the drag lines suddenly tighten around their spools, only to go slack in a single inhale of breath. e team truly began to panic aer they w ound back the drag lines, working the mechanisms as fast as their fear fueled muscles could manage. ey found the lines severed in a way so clean and devoid of shredding, that it was a s if a giant scissor had come down and chopped the line clean in half. e rescuer’s radios remained silent as those outsid e called out for those in the tunnel to respond to their calls. e only thing that answered back was the static on the other end and the whispering hollows that called out from the inner walls of the cave mouth. A few of the team ran into the cave, going in as far as they dared, and stopped right where the footprints of those before terminated. eir hair stood on end, rippling up and down their bodies as they stared into the impossible black, a darkness so deep and intense that not even their LED ash lights could pierce the murk that ran along the walls. By the time they emerged from the cave opening, they were drenched in sweat and covered in small wounds from colliding with the walls during their rapid escape. No matter who they sent in during the following days, whether it was human, animal, or robot, nothing ever came back from the ‘e
Veil’ as some began to call it. e disappearance of the rescue crew, the missing child, and the mysticism about the cave caused many in the scienti+c and cryptozoology communities to take an interest. Aer just a few days of studying and r unning tests, the +ndings spurred on even more communities to compile their own experiments o n e Veil. Eventually, a breakthrough was made when a pair of college scientists were abl e to somehow receive and understand a signal from the Veil itself. e signal was the very essence of chaos, as the budding scientists found it to collide and scatter across every spectrum of sound and light known to mankind. To capture and make sense of the tangled signals, they began to attack it with every piece of equipment they could manage to get their hands on. In their words, they ‘threw as much shit at the walls as they could’, and the things that stuck were worked into their system of translating whatever it was that was coming through. Aer many late nights staring at glowing screens and rubbing tired eyes, a recognizable pattern appeared. What they got out of this pattern … was a language they could not understand. Anyone who studied languages and alien dialects creamed their shorts aer learning the news, and began to tear apart the message to try and understand it. It turned out to be a combination of ancient Ce lt, Icelandic, and some version of Welsh, which made a lot of different people’s ears perk up, and the entire world waited to see what the team would put out. Hours of blood and tears went into the work of translating the alien dialects, but the words came one night on a screen surrounded by huddled li nguists: “Break the Veilwas much (there smugness from the people who coined the name +rst)and enter where your ancients walked. Take with you the mountain glass, bind yourself, and come see the world of dreams.” e smarty boys who translated the scrabbled signals realized what the other bit of extra signal was, and working with the linguists, +gured out what this ‘bind yourself’ talk was. It was a return code of sorts, which they assumed would need to be etched onto obsidian, a fragile volcanic glass that would cut the shit out of you w ith little issue. e government, who had jumped in mid way and was paying for all of this, w as suddenly in the business of rock collecting and paying top dollar for any chunk of o bsidian they could get their hands on. e other nations of the world were almost ready to inv ade it seemed like, all of them jockeying to try and hem the United States into letting their own assets join in, but the President, a very … prideful man, at the time, wasn’t going to let them on American soil. “is cave, our cave, is a very nice cave, and I only want Americans going inside that cave. You could say it’s, ‘Ca-ve-se Closed’ on letting others in. Okay? Okay.” ere were small tests done using the obsidian marke rs, sending in scouts to search the other side within a short distance of the opening. e reports on what they found on the other side, and its … possibilities, made the United States suddenly very protective of its new little nest egg. Any reports and news on what they found were stopped within minutes, and no longer were journalists or news agencies allowed near the cave. is did not sit well with the other countries in the slightest, and suddenly the Americ an borders were bristling with military hardware around every single edge the United States had. For the +rst time in history, America was pointing her guns in every direction at once. is did, however, lead to a man power problem. A problem of who would delve inside the Ve il, be disposable at the same time, and could be easily replaced with larger quantities if the notion came. e American government and its military advisers pleaded their cases, stat ing that the country needed its military personnel for possible conicts from the other nations, and that they had invested money and training into their more professional soldiers. Ide as were thrown around until a bright idea came from the branches of the Army and the Marines, both of the advisors having been leaning towards each other and talking the entire time. es e two had their own assets on the inside during the main cave exploration, and acquired nugg ets of critical information. is information that had been fed to the Army and Marine advisors had their brains working over time. e scouting parties sent ahead did not venture too far past the Veil opening, taking rock samples from just a few feet within. e more adventurous of the scouting party poked their heads outside the mouth of the cave on the other si de and scooped up soil samples, even digging down to take core samples on the untouched interior. What they found was promising, and the elements discovered just within the rock of the cave were as alluring as the wide open spanse of land and timber that sat in the distance.
A light bulb had gone off in their heads, and they b rought forth their combined efforts to the other members of the cabinet to deal with this dilemma of manpower. “What about a volunteer militia?” e Marine adviser asked, poising the question to those around him. e Army advisor followed up behind the Marine advis er without missing a beat. “ere are more veterans and militarily inclined citizens in the general population than there are actual active military from all the branches combined. A lot of them already have the training, and some of them even have their own gear and weapons. A little bit of funny money thrown their direction and perhaps they could be the well armed guinea pigs to establish a foothold on this ‘new world’.” While a few of those in charge were not keen on throwing American civilians into the meat grinder purely in the interest of saving money, oth ers were leaning towards saving their professional soldiers for whatever may happen when they announce what they +nd on the other side. If they found large deposits of gold or platinum, larger and more militarized nations may try and make a gambit for supremacy, something they simply could never allow to happen. This special little cave could be the +nal piece of puzz le when it came to absolute domination of Earth’s markets, allowing the United States to control every piece on the chess board. In the end, those in power agreed that a few dead voluntee rs was worth the risk of controlling the entire planet. Word spread from around the internet that they were looking for a few good citizens who were willing to go into the Veil and explore a realm known to none. Most of the professional mercenary companies were looking more to capitalize on the soon-to-come war they could all smell stinking on the wind, and others were too afr aid to risk getting gored open by some mythical beast, or ‘risk leaving the light of God and never going to heaven’ if they died. ere were, however, those who dreamed of seeing a land o f the fantastical … and killing whatever lived there if it was hostile. Yes, those brave volunteers of the Militia were down for a little cave diving, and the pay was good enough to boot as well. It was money so good that it was almost irresistible when linked with the promise of actually being able to do the things read about in fantasy novels and sci-+ adventures. It would be worth noting that, indeed, a lot of the volunteers for this expedition were more or less garnered from the far corners of the internet, and more than a fair share would not be missed if something went awry. Aer all, what is more disposable than a bunch of veterans and militia members that wanted a crack at shooting a Dragon with a machine gun, or blowing a Gryphon out of the sky with a Carl Gustav anti-tank weapon. e American government signed off on the equipment, cut the checks, and sent the merry men and women on their way, their unit patch being a gun toting u nicorn wearing aviators. eir gear was a scattered collection of many different countries and military surplus, some even going as far as to only take the Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOT V), offered by the U.S Military just to have a set of armor plates. To say the American volunteers were a walking military surplus store … would be an understatement. When it came to weapons, the U.S Military offered th eir ‘best’ for the volunteers, which were mostly sand +lled Gulf War leovers and a bunch of rattly M9 pistols. Yule took one of those M9s, calling it an old friend he could always travel with, and managed to +nd a stack of magazines with a functional follower spring. A lot of the poorer volunteers took the M4’s, M16’s and such quite readily, while others used their preferred weapon from their own armory. One of the volunteers, another veteran that went by ‘Savage’, spoke up in the darkness. “Anyone else wondering why they gave us all the old ACU pattern shit? You’d think they’d at least give us some Marpat to wear …” “Why would they waste Marpat on a bunch of dead men ?” Quipped the unit’s other co-commander, an army veteran that went by Koko. e cave once again +lled with laughter, while Yule chewed idly on a large corn-cob pipe in his mouth and panned his ash light from side to si de, looking for the Veil to pop up. His Daewoo K2 rattled slightly as he stopped, and Koko held up his +st. e formation of volunteer militia came to a halt as the two Commanders peered ahead into the void, the resolute darkness behaving like a possessed misty fog.
“ey weren’t kidding,” Murmured Yule, pushing his pipe to the other side of his mouth with a slight knock of his teeth, “Damn thing chews up all the light. We’re supposed to just walk into this fuckin’ thing?” “Yeah, sounded like bullshit to me too, but it’s wh at we signed up for.” Koko replied, eagerly hooking his thumbs into his chest rig. “I’m glad we dressed for the occasion.” Chuckled Yu le, and the two men looked at each other’s tropical themed button ups. “That’s a big cave …” Koko murmured. Yule held his hand cupped in front of his mouth, so his voice sounded hollow. “For you.” ere was more tittering behind them, as jokes were traded back and forth amongst the other troopers. “Marker check!” Yule barked out suddenly, the report echoing down the cave as everyone held alo their fragile obsidian recall markers. Yule saw that everyone had theirs held alo, and he nodded, turning back towards the inky unknown of the Veil. “One for the money …” Yule whispered, stepping forward towards the otherworldly portal with his rifle gripped in his hands. Koko breathed out harshly, matching step with Yule “Two for the show …” “ree to make ready.” Yule answered back as his arm entered the whirling void, his esh suddenly going numb as if he was getting instant frostbite. “Here we fucking go!” Roared Dregs, and one by one the militia volunteers entered the unknown.
*** e shocking and brutal cold of the transition was harsh enough to suck the air from the lungs of all who dared pass through it, and both Yule and Koko came out the other side of the Veil heaving for air and clutching themselves, frost giv ing every exposed piece of their body and clothes a light sprinkling of ice and verglas. “H-h-holy sh-sh-shit!” Roared Yule, shaking his arm s and legs to get the feeling back in them. Koko crashed into his back from behind and sent him ying forwards, scrabbling at the walls of the cave as his legs fought to remain jelly-like and unyielding to his commands. Koko’s feelings on the matter were similar as he ro lled onto his back, having crumpled to the ground in a heap. “What in thehellman! ey didn’t say anything about nothing being able to breathe!” His voice echoed up and down with Yule’s as he clamped at his ears with his palms, rubbing them painfully as his feet stamped at the ground. e same reaction was shared with all of the volunte ers as they exited the Veil, some of them falling temporarily unconscious as they hit the warm air, their system not knowing how to handle the shock of the transitioning from the warmth of the cave to the sudden arctic blast of the Veil. Aer the chorus of screams was +nally over, Yule and Koko checked over all of their troopers, and then moved back towards the Veil entr ance. ere was a pause, and then four crates appeared, barely poking out from the black and the surfaces riddled with ice. At least they keep their word I suppose… Yule thought, and they began yanking the crates all the way through the Veil. ese were to be their rations and survival gear, enough to keep them fed, watered, and warm until they were due to rendezvous back with the team on the other side. Everything was split up among the troopers as well as extra ammo distributed to those who desired it, just in case. e call to move out was o rdered, and the volunteers began their walk through the cave towards the entrance. “It smells different here.” A voice echoed from the rear, and indeed, many of those who sniffed at the air found it to smell different. Older … yet somehow cleaner. Koko pointed the barrel of his FAL down at the dirt of the cave path, gesturing towards a lone line of boot and foot prints. “Tracks.” “Heads on a swivel people.” Yule called out to thos e behind him, and he squatted down, eyeing the prints curiously.
What he found was a set of small ones, and multiple other sets of larger ones. Yule sniffed a little and ground his teeth onto the stem of his pipe. He had told himself he would try and +nd that little girl’s body if he could, but how the hell could he even promise that there would be a body to +nd in the +rst place. ere was no telling what was near the outside of this tunnel, and even less of an idea what was beyond even that. As quietly as they could, and ries at the low ready, the volunteers stepped along the path until they turned a corner, and dusky sun light drifted down the sides of the jagged rock. “Daylight.” Yule murmured, and he gripped his K2 firmly. “Boys we’re near the exit, I want those weapons on +re, and if you got a giggle switch, get it chuckling.” Koko called out, and began clicking the settings of his optical sight to deal with the incoming light Near the center of the formation, two male voluntee rs were crouched low to the ground, one holding a K98 rie while the other held an En+e ld tightly, the bayonet already attached. “Gon’ get me an Elf babe, just you wait Toby.” Toby shook his head silently, and slapped the other volunteer on the chest to get him to pay attention. ere was a chorus of clicks as all the w eapons went hot, word of the command making its way down the formation. A heavy weapons team racked their crew served machine guns, locking into place the bolts of multiple M249’s, 240B’s, and a single M2 that they all had agreed should be nicknamed ‘Black Betty, Bamalam’. ey had her and her tripod ready to deploy, being carried by a pair of female volunteers that looked as if they had just come in from a speed metal concert. e U.S Army almost didn’t part with the M2, but the question of “What if theres a fucking Dragon?” was enough to let the volunteers borrow an older model. Black Betty’s date and number marked her as an ancient Ko rean War model that was a warehouse queen, and aer dusting her off, spraying her down with enough Whale sperm (a coined term for the lubricant used by the U.S Army) to drown a small child, and giving her a good wipe up, she was good enough for mowing down Elves and Dragons if anyone could guess. e formation crept forward right to the mouth of th e cave, and the so warm air of an unknown morning sun caressed the faces of Koko and Yule. “As planned?” Yule said, poking the edge of his patrol cap bill around the edge of the cave lip. “Yeah, as planned.” Koko affirmed, his trigger finger trembling just as hard as Yule’s was. “Go!” Koko roared as Yule raised up his K2 and launched forward, the two of them rushing out of the cave in split directions. e rest of the unit poured out of the cave entrance like a horde of ants that got wind of a cherry lollipop, running the number of steps they w ere told to. Each member of the unit bounded forward to set up a quick cascading line of +re to cover every direction, forming a giant U-shape from the mouth of the cave. e crew served machine guns ran out and set up on whatever high ground they could +nd, mostly being the edges of the cave and it’s connected hill. e air was clean and crisp, warm and inviting, as i f it was an old friend welcoming them back from a long journey. e sun rising from the horizon was so vividly colored that many of the volunteers had trouble yanking their eyes from it. A few camera clicks from cell phones were heard … and someone was going to get a smack for it. A few minutes passed as everyone stared out around them. e area was free of buildings or any unnatural structures, with only a few clusters of trees nearby and other larger hills in the distance. A rather long tree line could be seen alm ost seven hundred yards away, and a volunteer who took care of hummingbirds back home took note of the specimens of avians that hung in the air. Ones that ew around them overhead and in the distance were very similar to the ones that he had seen through his years of bird care, and the volunteer found that to be somewhat comforting. Eyes peered through sights, gu n barrels swung back and forth slowly, and everyone searched for targets that may lay in the distance. Aer a solid +ve minutes of silence, Yule and Koko waved at each other, signaling they saw nothing, and got the lads in order. A female volunteer on one of the 240B’s cursed angrily and picked at a wedgie, growling to her female compatri ot that the two of them wearing combat
