The SkyLine Series Box Set
SkyLine's Box Set
(Episodes 1 to 3)
Kennedy King
Contents
Acknowledgment
About the Author
Also By Kennedy King
SkyLine: The Dragon Commander
Chapter One: Colliding Worlds
Chapter Two: Dark Developments
Chapter Three: Into the Impossible Fray
Chapter Four: Change and Fear
Chapter Five: Suzy’s Borderline B&B
Chapter Six: The Yellow Squire
Chapter Seven: Survivors
Chapter Eight: Links
Chapter Nine: A Deal for Everyone
Epilogue
SkyLine: The Captain, The Billionaire Boat, and the Dragon Crusader
Chapter One: Outer Rings
Chapter Two: Echoing
Chapter Three: Outerworlds Outlaw
Chapter Four: Before Dawn
Chapter Five: A Lunar Leap
Chapter Six: Shooting Stars
Chapter Seven: Higher Orders
Chapter Eight: Deep Blue
Chapter Nine: Dark Wings
Chapter Ten: Replaceable Parts
Chapter Eleven: Anchors
Chapter Twelve: Icy Rings
Chapter Thirteen: Blue Light Burglary
Chapter Fourteen: A New Mission
Chapter Fifteen: What Weighs on Wide Wings
Chapter Sixteen: The Billionaire Boat
Chapter Seventeen: Counsel of Captains
Chapter Eighteen: Power of Choice
Chapter Nineteen: An Extra Set of Wings
Chapter Twenty: World of Dusk
Epilogue: Splintered Fates
SkyLine: The Dogs of War
Chapter One: Gaps and Shadows
Chapter Two: The Dogs of War
Chapter Three: Council in the Clouds
Chapter Four: A Look Back, a Way Forward
Chapter Five: A Bag of Marbles
Chapter Six: Field Test
Chapter Seven: Real Cold
Chapter Eight: A Pillar of Industry
Chapter Nine: Maiden Blood
Chapter Ten: Will of the Council
Chapter Eleven: The Other Side of the Wall
Chapter Twelve: Whispers in the Dark
Chapter Thirteen: The Clear Path
Chapter Fourteen: Two Coups
Chapter Fifteen: Seven Tears
Chapter Sixteen: Firestorm
Chapter Seventeen: Deepcloud Pillar
Chapter Eighteen: Gods and Men
Chapter Nineteen: Sunset
Epilogue
A Word from The Author
Also By Kennedy King
Other Experiences by the Author
© Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.
It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.
Acknowledgment
Thank you to my family and my fans for supporting me in this writing journey to continue providing you with all with the best and most immersive novel experiences.
www.kennedykingauthor.com
About the Author
Kennedy King loves to write Science Fiction and intertwine it with romance and mystical creatures. Her latest series is the SkyLine series that provides all the elements science fiction fans and fantasy fans adore. When she’s not writing, she loves playing with her 101 puppies, beating her rivals in a great game of squash and traveling the world to be inspired for more adventures.
Also By Kennedy King
Start at the beginning of the SkyLine Universe
SkyLine : The Dragon Commander
http://mybook.to/skyline1
It's 2350. Cold Fusion, AI nanotech cops, and the SkyLine between a dying Earth and a developing Mars are parts of life.
Major General Christopher Droan has survived a crisis. It left him with trauma and a deeper understanding of his dad’s distrust for technology.
Now all he wants is to focus on the love of his life, Sheeba.
It’s a turbulent time to be a Major General, even one resigned to desk work. But the calm can only last so long. When tragedy strikes Precinct 117 in Shanghai, Chris and his unit are forced to gear up again.
What waits for them in the heart of a robot with a beta personality matrix will change the planets on both ends of the SkyLine, mankind, and Major General Christopher Droan, forever.
SkyLine : The Captain, The Billionaire Boat and the Dragon Crusader
http://mybook.to/skyline2
The balance between human and Dragon rests on the shoulders of a young pilot on her first mission.
Dawn Redding. An Admiral of the World Crisis Committee, she stands on the threshold of the life she gave everything for. She only needs to bring in the galaxy’s first outerworld outlaw.
What waits for her crew at the edge of humanity’s reach; the land of the Dragons: redemption, or damnation?
Other Experiences by the Author (Kennedy King)
Love of Olympia : Tournament of Stars (The Olympia Gold Series Book 1)
http://mybook.to/loveofolympia
Life was more simple as a servant.
I’m destined to work under the boot of the Gold Standard for the rest of my life, to pay the debt of my dead father’s addiction to the most violent competition in the galaxy.
The competition I’m participating in right now.
Everyone in my crew are servants. My best friend Devin and I obeyed the Totalitarian Corporation all of our lives. Not anymore.
Today, we fight for our freedom!
If we fail, the Corporation will destroy us.
The odds are high, but I never felt so strongly about anything else.
Is my will to survive enough to see us through?
Experiences by Other Authors in the Mind of Khan Studios Universe
The Enixar : The Sorcerer’s Conquest by Mikkell K Khan
http://mybook.to/enixarsorcerer
A sorcerer king, his wise advisor, and a young sorceress hiding her growing powers race to find an ancient power once thought lost.
The power to control the universe... or to destroy it.
The Enixar : The Sorcerer’s Conquest is a novella and dynamic introduction to an epic fantasy series you won’t be able to put down! Complete with a strong female protagonist, Sorcerer King, and political intrigue, this series dives into the core of Epic Fantasy and Science Fiction that fans will love.
SkyLine: The Dragon Commander
Chapter One: Colliding Worlds
The first time Finch’s shimmering station pass beeped in rejection, he attributed it to the Precinct he’d been assigned. Everyone in Shanghai and the surrounding metroscape knew what kind of shape Precinct 117 was in. The recent influx of those crazy nanotech sentries from the WCC helped, and there weren’t many fringe extremists against them this side of China, but Finch was getting ahead of himself. He needed to get inside first. He swiped the card three more times before he thought it might be another test. Between his new partner and his rumpled old supervisor, the tests had hardly ended with his graduation from the academy. The door beeped back the red shut-out light every time.
“Just my luck…” Finch muttered, seemingly to himself. The wall-mounted speaker crackled alive.
“If you’re going to fall back on luck, you might as well leave your badge on the step,
rookie,” grumbled the doorman. So he was listening.
“Door lock still busted? Or is it my card?” said Finch.
“Probably both,” laughed the doorman. The door swung out with a push from another rookie from his office. It was the young man only a few years Finch’s senior, who held the desk directly across from his. Of all the people Finch had met in his three weeks on the force, Greg was the only one he could form a remote connection to.
“We’ve got bots that can be a table or a gun, but no functioning door,” Greg shook his head while he let Finch in. He sucked down a deep breath of cool, pure air. Finch was still adjusting to the transition from the overcrowded, humid haze of Shanghai’s regular atmosphere to the filtered inside of a WCC-supported Precinct.
“So why didn’t you send your Squire to let me in?” Finch raised a sandy blonde eyebrow.
“New ordinance. Costs the Precinct millions more to pay for the Squires than it does for us. They don’t lift a shapeshifting finger unless it’s something we can’t do ourselves,” said Greg.
They headed through the glum halls to their office. The shimmering teal track of tube lights overhead made everything visible, but in such a drab light it made the Precinct even more depressing than it was by default. Sure, some Precincts in India and Afghanistan saw action, but 117 was a relic of times before the WCC, before the SkyLine changed everything. A time when law needed enforcing, when the life of the planet wasn’t at stake.
“While we’re on Squires… how are things with your new partner?” asked Greg, while they paced. Finch took a glance down every crossing hallway before he started.
“Strange. Really strange. I mean - I knew it’d be weird, with his… what’s-it-called, a personality matrix?” fumbled Finch.
“Yeah. I could hardly believe it when I heard. A drone with a heart of gold,” said Greg.
“Don’t know about gold… but he does apologize for everything. And he’s a little… clingy? Always asking me if I’m alright, or if I need anything. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was him driving the Precinct bills through the roof,” Finch marveled. That was around the time Finch and Greg made it to their office. A grid of cubicles adorned with glowing instant-coffee canisters and splayed manila files made it more their homes than their tiny, stacked one-room apartments.
“Well, the software is in beta. Poor guy is just a kink to be worked out,” said Greg. He sunk into his worn, swivel office chair. “Didn’t they give him a human-sounding model number too? No wonder the thing’s confused.” Greg spun in his chair to face his desk just before a digitized voice piped up behind Finch’s head.
“Mr. Finch!”
“Ah! DA-Vos, too loud!” Finch gasped. He wheeled to face a black onyx oval, the faceless face of his partner. Finch could see the whites of his own eyes in the reflective surface inches away. “And too close.”
“Sorry, Mr. Finch! I am still adjusting my proximity settings for appropriate socialization,” said DA-Vos. The jet-black, seamless, man-shaped machine took one small step back.
“How about one more step? Let’s say… two feet between us, at all times?” said Finch.
“Yes, very good, Mr. Finch,” said DA-Vos, the glossy black of his face lighting lavender when he spoke. Purely for human convenience, the chief had explained, Squires with a personality matrix were assigned a gender. According to this odd rule, DA-Vos was officially a “he”. First it made Finch laugh, when it was so common for people to change genders as they grew into themselves. Then the less humorous idea of rights for thinking machines poked into his mind.
“And drop the Mr. too. Just Finch is fine,” he forced himself not to mumble for the fifth time.
“Yes, of course, Mr. Finch,” said DA-Vos. Finch groaned. Greg’s chuckles, while his own Squire sat silently beside him, didn’t help. Finch almost jumped back when DA-Vos jerked up his arm. His shapeless, metallic tentacle reformed itself before Finch’s eyes into a perfect imitation of a human hand. He sighed, and took DA-Vos’ glossy new fingers for a firm shake.
“DA-Vos, I… appreciate the gesture, but handshakes are typically at the beginning or end of a conversation. And maybe a little less abrupt? You’re going to scare someone if you do that outside the Precinct,” Finch told him. A long breath escaped him when he remembered he hadn’t even clocked in yet. Finch’s brother was off in a lab somewhere developing faster Fusion jets for magnetrains, and here he was parenting a gigantic, robotic man-baby in the slums. Just my luck, he thought, and this time he meant it.
“Understood, Mr. Finch… apologies, but my analytics show that after three weeks as partners, we should be more closely bonded. I was only extending a friendly gesture,” said DA-Vos. Then the light on his face glowed blue. Sure there was an AI in there, running the whole nanotech show. Sure, Finch knew some immeasurably complex code was calculating the closest thing a computer could simulate to “emotion”. Still, he couldn’t have been prepared for the words that came through that blue glow. “Why do you not like me, Mr. Finch?” Finch could only stare into the radiating metal, in search of the mind inside.
“DA-Vos… it’s not that I don’t like you,” said Finch. How best to say this, to so new a psyche, natural, or artificial? “Humans don’t run on analytics. And… you can’t force a bond. It just has to happen. It’s part of being partners.”
“I see…” DA-Vos’ face glow returned to its neutral lavender. Then the door from the main entrance slammed shut, marking the Chief’s entrance. Every officer, human and Squire, straightened up before his procession.
“At ease, you beanbags,” the Chief grumbled. “Office meeting in five. Time for your new route assignments.” On his way, he took a deep glowing pull from his cigarano. The health benefits of vaporized sage and chamomile filled the Chief’s chest with each deep breath. He disappeared behind the door to his office with no further word. The office resumed its previous casual shuffle.
“Think his blood vessels would burst if we hid that thing from him?” whispered Greg, about the cigarano. Finch turned to answer, but stopped when he noticed a color he’d never seen before, on DA-Vos’ face. His light smoldered yellow.
“DA-Vos?”
“Do… do you not hear that?” murmured DA-Vos.
“Hear what?” said Finch. Greg turned full around to face both man and Squire.
“Do… do robots understand humor? Is that a joke?” said Greg.
“No… no joke… it’s…” DA-Vos’s yellow tint deepened, brightened, to show his concentration on something unheard to the others. “Do what? You want me to… no. I said no!”
Greg’s hand flew for his pistol too late. The sharpened spearhead arm of his own partner pierced him through. The Squire pinned his gushing back to his desk. When Greg slumped away, it turned its light, now crimson metal face on Finch, too shaken to move. It’s arm reconfigured into an open-ended barrel, swimming with prismatic light. DA-Vos’ body opened as a black steel blanket around his partner just in time. The Squire fired three shining lasers before it moved on to another officer, at another desk.
“Remain quiet, and still, Mr. Finch,” said DA-Vos’ voice, inside the black dome of his reformed mass. His purple face-light glowed in the dark.
“A-alright…” Finch whimpered. His partner’s body kept him safe from the Fusion rays, but only muffled the screams. He could still hear every last one of his fellow officers blown away, skewered, and incinerated by their Squire partners.
In the lavender dark, Finch felt every word about the bond between partners like a knot in his stomach. He felt rather differently about his luck, too.
-
Major General Christopher Droan. It sounded so impressive. It sounded so profound. Just what his dad would have wanted for him. What it didn’t sound like was just what it was: a magnetrain ride from the literal and figurative forest of high-rise towers in Beijing to a pointlessly huge office. It wasn’t always this way. There were times, before man-machine partnerships had become standard, before the WCC supplied
their Precincts with Fusion equipment, when Major General meant what it sounded like. Missions. Firefights. Eradication of the last few fringe groups still that opposed the World Crisis Council. Still, Chris left his desk full of cases to manage, with a certain skip in his step. He hung by a muscular arm from the overhead rail of the speeding magnetrain with a grin on his face. He would trade it all again, for what he had now. The Precincts and their Squires could have the sprawling cityscapes of layered apartments, offices, and vertical garden terraces. He had his apartment on the sixteenth floor, where he raced to now, and his apartment had the only thing he really needed.
“Sheba!” Chris popped the lock on their apartment door with his key card. “Did you get my message? I’m so sorry I’m late!”