Newsletter: Limit of Infinity Happenings 25.12.20
Sent out 25.12.2020 to 608 fans.
![]() And Happy New year as well! |
Writer Update! The Battle for Allegra books are now dropping, book seven is live right now. Be sure to check it out! 🙂 Also, I’ve got a special Christmas story that I put together! It takes place a little bit before The Limit of Infinity series starts and follows our hero Clive Ranger on a special Christmas operation that he ran before his time in Paradise. I hope you all enjoy! The usual short story of the week is directly below the Christmas story. Short Story! The Limit of Infinity: Christmas Special (I hope this is better than the Star Wars Christmas Special) Christmas Abroad Clive Ranger  Shaking his head, Clive chuckles softly at the man that is sitting across from him. The man had been complaining incessantly ever since they had left their base. Letting out a long breath, Clive finally says, “You and I both know that this mission is a lot more important than just dropping off some food.” “If it’s so important, then why are there only seven of us?” the man fires back pointedly as he motions around the cramped truck that they are in. Weary eyes stare back at Clive and the man as they look up from their thoughts. Everyone was tired. Everyone would have preferred being home right about now. “Because we didn’t need a bunch of manpower,” Clive shrugs as he tugs on the collar of his shirt in a weak attempt to cool off. Between the combined body heat of seven burly soldiers and the planet’s natural stuffiness, Clive was sweltering. “At least we know that the crew we’re dropping all of this off for will enjoy it,” another man finally sounds, “That makes all of this at least a bit easier.” “That it does,” Clive agrees as he looks over the merchandise once more. The narrow aisleway that follows the length of the vehicle is heavily ladened with a huge array of goods. Thanks to the sheer amount of it all, Clive can’t even see several of the other people who are with him thanks to how much stuff they are carrying. “It’ll make for a fine Christmas indeed,” the second man notes as he lets out a nostalgic sigh. “Hopefully we’ll be able to make it back to base in time to celebrate Christmas ourselves,” Clive nods. The truck lurches suddenly and throws everyone to one side. Several discontent groans and harsh comments directed toward the drivers sound before everyone falls silent once more. Everyone knew that they got the short straw and that this mission was the last thing they wanted out of their Christmas. “Hey, Charlie,” one of the men that Matthew can’t see sounds after several minutes. “What?” Charlie grunts. Seemingly unfazed by the gruff response, the unseen speaker says, “You never told us what Christmas was like for you when you grew up.” “That’s because I don’t like thinking about it, Oscar” Charlie snaps. “Oh, come on,” Oscar presses, “You heard all of our stories.” “Yeah? So what?” “So… why don’t you return the favor?” “I don’t think so,” “It can’t hurt, Charlie,” someone prods. Several others join in and Charlie finally relents. Clearing his throat, he starts, “Well, my family used to get together around whatever kind of tree we could track down. More often than not, we’d just make a tree though. Those sad things didn’t even look like trees most of the time…” Several people chuckle at the thought of such a sad excuse of a Christmas tree. Charlie lets out a shaky breath and his voice cracks as he continues, “I haven’t seen my family for the last six years. I don’t even know if they’re even alive anymore.” “We’ll get to see our families again soon,” Clive quickly pledges, “Soon as this war is over.” “Not all of us,” Oscar quietly points out, “Mine’s gone.” Sighing, Matthew says, “Mine too, but we can find new families. Adopted families, if you will.” Charlie laughs and a smile crosses his face. Still smiling, he chuckles and shakes his head a bit. A twinkle glints in his eye before he recollects, “Last year I had a family invite me to their Christmas celebrations. We were stuck in the siege of Goshen… I knew that the family didn’t have the food to spare, but I still showed up. I don’t know why, guess it was something about missing family… Anyhows, I ended up eating probably half the food on their table before I realized that the kids hadn’t even been able to eat their fill.” “Well, was the food good at least?” “Oh, no,” Charlie laughs, “It was horrible. But being with a family made it feel so… holy. Felt like I was back at church after all this time. I forgot about all the stuff I’ve done since I got into this fight.” “Mmm,” Clive nods as a peaceful smile tugs on his lips. He loved the moments that he lost himself in the beautiful moments of life. “Well, back to the story,” Charlie interrupts everyone’s thoughts, “I ended up leaving their party early and I raced back to where my team and I were holed up at the time. I grabbed all my rations that I could find and raced back. Scared the family silly when I pounded on their door, but they said that I made their Christmas.” “Sounds to me like they made yours as well,” Clive nods. Sighing loudly, Charlie nods, “Yeah, that they did.” “Guess that’s exactly what we’re doing here now,” one of the men announces hopefully.Short Story! Picking back up with Gideon here, enjoy! Accolade Chapter Twenty West of Paradise, Galatia  Gideon cowers even lower to the ground as a bird suddenly flutters overhead. He casts a longing glance up to the creature and he momentarily wonders how such a helpless and frail creature could survive out here in the hybrid-infested wilds. As he eyes the bird, Gideon watches it hop between a few branches in the tree canopy before it takes flights and abandons him and his companions.  “I’m thinking that the place is abandoned,” Sylvia announces after a few moments of silence.  “Well that much is obvious,” Gideon sarcastically agrees and chuckles.  In front of him the vast concrete structure stands in stark contrast against the greenery around it. Vines, moss, and a massive array of small foliage are beginning to overtake the building and larger plants have long since retaken the area around the building.  The dark grey structure itself if situated in a valley that is surrounded by some smaller hills. Part of the building appears to have given way and fallen into the peaceful river whose banks must have risen since the building’s construction. Gideon isn’t certain, but he thinks that he can just make out the forms of several smaller outbuildings beside the large main building. However, thanks to the large amount of foliage, he can’t be certain.  “I meant there aren’t any hybrids,” Sylvia clarifies with a slightly irritated tone.  Letting out a strained breath, Meghan whispers, “I’m not so sure, something scared the birds on the far side of the complex and it wasn’t us.”  Clearly not dissuaded, Sylvia points out, “Well we can’t just wait here forever,”  “I’m not sure if we should just rush in either,” Gideon reminds her, “We decided to scout things out from up here first for a reason. We don’t have the manpower or the firepower to take on much.”  “Well we’ve got the womanpower!” Meghan exclaims unhelpfully.  Rolling his eyes at Meghan’s comment, Gideon sighs. When no one says anything else, he continues, “If we’re going to go in then we’re going to have to set some traps behind us as we go so nothing can sneak up on us.”  “We’re going to have to find somewhere defendable in there soon too,” Sylvia adds.  Nodding, Meghan agrees, “Yeah, night’ll be here soon, and I don’t want to get caught out in the open again.”  “What do you think this place used to be?” Gideon asks when no one makes any moves to descend from their lookout point. Something about the dark, overgrown buildings added an unneeded amount of spookiness to the entire setting.  “My guess is an old town,” Sylvia ventures a guess, “There are a bunch of old foundations all around that look big enough to have been houses.”  “All Pre-Inundation, I’d bet,” Gideon nods as he finally realizes why he couldn’t make the smaller structures out for sure before—they were just the remains of buildings.  “Yeah,” Sylvia agrees.  Shuffling for a moment, Meghan clears her throat and inquires, “What’s up with the big building though? It seems so out of place out here on its own.”  “Looks like some sort of open-air hangar,” Gideon notes as he looks at a series of large landing pads on top of and attached to the building. Most of the pads are nearly indistinguishable thanks to the plants that made quick work of most of the flat surfaces, but some concrete is still peeking out here and there.  “It’s a spaceport,” Sylvia announces confidently.  “A what now?” Gideon asks with a breathy and confused chuckle.  “It’s where spaceships used to land,” Sylvia answers.  “Spaceships?” Gideon presses, still very much confused.  “Yeah,” Sylvia nods.  Seemingly just as lost as Gideon, Meghan inquires, “You going to let us in on what you’re talking about, or are we just going to have to pretend that we’re following?”  Sighing, Silvia starts, “This little secret is what got me stuck in the Stalwart Program. As it turns out, we’re not alone in the galaxy.”  “You telling us there’re aliens out there?” Gideon laughs as he points to the heavens.  Nodding, Sylvia affirms, “Aliens and a lot more humans like us. The Coalition cut us off from the outside worlds for some reason. My mom let it slip once that there were other planets run by the Coalition and I just had to know more. I wanted to know why they decided to cut us off from everyone else too. They didn’t like me looking around, so they sent me here.”  “What all did you find out?”  “A whole lot of nothing.”  “Nothing? You just told Meghan and I a lot more than we ever knew.”  “But I didn’t figure out why any of this is happening. There are so many other planets that we could live on—why are they keeping us here?”  “Maybe we’re some sort of lifeboat for humanity?” Meghan offers.  Furrowing his eyebrows, Gideon probes, “Lifeboats? Aren’t those supposed to be safe places? Nothing about this planet seems lifeboat-like to me.”  “Well maybe that’s the thing,” Meghan continues down her train of thought, “Maybe they figured that no one would think to check a planet full of monsters for some humans that are hiding out.”  “And who would we be hiding from?” Gideon asks, wondering how Meghan could have come up with this whole scenario.  Laughing at Gideon, Meghan condescendingly answers, “The aliens, duh.”  “From the files I went through, I’d say that’s not the case,” Sylvia shakes her head.  “Then what is it, oh wise one?” Meghan demands in a demeaning voice.  “I don’t know for sure,” Sylvia shrugs, “It sounded like this was all some sort of sick experiment or something. I don’t know. All I can say for sure though is that this isn’t a lifeboat for humanity.”  “Eh, I’m not convinced,” Meghan shrugs back as she turns her attention back to the ruins before them. A moment passes and she rises to her feet and says, “Let’s get down there to find out what’s the big deal.”  Everything is current to this week on my website, and, as I said before, I gave the website a facelift! Accolade was the main recipient of said facelift, so I hope you all love the new navigation for it. https://calebfast.com/2020/12/02/accolade-home-page/  Weekly Promo! Here’s a sweet selection of promos for all of you! ![]() Here’s the weekly Midweek Madness promo! I know I can’t write enough for all y’all, so I share these so you can find other authors …just don’t forget about me! ;P https://storyoriginapp.com/to/7XTnP5X ![]() Here’s another Midweek Madness promo! Here’s a slew of clean fantasy, sci-fi and paranormal stories. 🙂 https://storyoriginapp.com/to/QFHDzrO ![]() Here’s a sci-fi only promo that I hosted! If you’ve got a KU subscription you might want to check this promo out! https://storyoriginapp.com/to/0m2t6Sc ![]() Here’s another sci-fi-only promo geared toward KU readers–anyone else can check it out too though! https://storyoriginapp.com/to/fk5XGXu ![]() The Battle for Allegra: Secured Book Seven of The Battle for Allegra is now LIVE! It’s also at it’s holiday price of just 99 cents! Pick it up on Amazon today! US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P3R8JCF UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08P3R8JCF AU https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08P3R8JCF CA https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08P3R8JCF  Thank you for exploring the future with me! -Caleb Fast Stay safe, and stay awesome everyone! |