Starfall
The novel begins with Ryan looking
down at the ruins of Idaho falls. It
has been four days since they arrived in Idaho. On the second morning out of the
redoubt Krysty came into contact with a dying woman via telepathy.
The group traveled towards Idaho falls to find the woman.
Ryan and Jak are on a recce when
they come across an wreaking yard that contains a couple of dozen slaggers and
several prisoners. They know that the woman Krysty has been in contact with.
During this time Krysty comes into
full telepathic contact with the woman she sensed before.
The woman is surprised to learn that Krysty isn’t a member of her
people, isn’t one of the Chosen. The contact lasts for several minutes and the
woman pleads with Krysty to help her.
As Ryan and Jak were trying to
figure out a way around the slaggers when they are attacked by a ghoulie.
JB, Mildred and the others spot a
small group of mounted sec men approaching at the same time they hear Ryan’s
pistol go off.
Jak and Ryan make their way towards
the others as the slaggers set loose a pack of hounds.
Several more Ghoulies on the way back to JB and the rest attack them.
The others figure it would be best if they met up with Ryan as there is a
chem storm brewing. They have to
get shelter. Several of the dogs
attack but they are not impeded by the distraction.
They are so close to the dying
Doomie that she is able to take possession of Krysty. The contact and possession feel like the worst jump nightmare
she has ever had.
JB and Dean are able to kill
several of the baron’s men that were approaching from the other direction.
They do it mainly for the mounts, as they will need them for sure.
All combatants hear the sound of approaching wag from the junkyard. Dean finds himself trapped and without a mount.
A motorcycle comes barreling down towards him and he shoots it in the
tank, causing it to catch fire. He
almost shoots a little girl who appears which gives a man brandishing a knife
the chance to attack.
Ryan finds himself under attack
from a group of slaggers in a Jeep. It turns out that Deans attacker is not one
of the slaggers, it’s actually the father of the little girls father. She
pleads with Dean not to kill him and he stays his hand.
Ryan leaps behind the corpse of a
horse and uses the body as cover from the fire coming from the Jeep.
With the cover he is able to kill several of the slaggers in the jeep.
He manages to meet up with the rest of the group and they decided to head
into the fortress because the storm is approaching rapidly.
The group fight their way into the
base and secure it. The released prisoners join them as well, knowing their
chances of survival have just gone up. But
it isn’t long before they figure out that the barons men are after the
prisoners as well, not just there to wipe out the slaggers.
Krysty comes face to face with the
woman that she had been in mental contact with. Ryan demands that she release Krysty but the old woman tells
her that it is now impossible to do so.
They learn a great deal about the
chosen and from what they learn it appears that the chosen are suffering from
genetic defects probably from inbreeding. One
of the prisoners, a man named Elmore confirms this information.
The old woman goads Ryan into
attacking her. It isn’t a vicious attack, it’s simply one that puts the
dying woman out of her misery. Krysty
breas out of the woman’s mental prison and is powerless to stop Ryan from
killing her. She suddenly finds herself in the woman’s lifeless body.
A group of sec men call for a truce
after Ryan almost kills one. He
allows them to approach and get the wounded man and they speak, telling him they
are looking for a specific man they believe the slaggers are holding prisoner.
Krysty awakens and finds herself
back in her own body and in total control.
She sees Dean listening at the floor.
He breaks through with his knife and is attacked by a feral dog.
After killing it and getting a serious chewing out from Ryan he and Jak
head into the tunnels lead to.
The leader of the sec men is named
Naylor and he tells Ryan to check the men for a tattoo on the inside of their
arms. He checks them all and finds
that Elmore does indeed have the tattoo they are looking for.
Elmore is part of the Heimdall
foundation, a group that Ryan and the others had encountered several months
previously in Nevada. He tries to plea with Ryan for his life but Ryan won’t
listen.
Phlorin decides to show Krysty the
extent of her powers and actually stops Krysty’s heart.
She screams twice in shock and fear.
Deep in the tunnel Dean hears it and wants to go back. Jak talks to him
and calms him down, and they continue out.
Krysty starts breathing again, much to everyone’s relief.
But she has to some how figure out a way to force the other woman out of
her mind. They learn a great deal more about the chose from Elmore.
They discover that one of the leaders in his ville is the son of a
Chosen.
Naylor contacts Ryan again and the
one eyed man demands a show of faith. He tells the sec leader to execute the man
who lead the attack. If they do
that he will turn Elmore over to him.
Dean returns and tells them that
the tunnel opens at the river. Before Naylor can do anything his group are
attacked by more of the Ghoulies. Ryan and JB use a couple of grens to trap the
place and they take the entire group into the tunnel.
When they leave the tunnel they
hear sounds of pursuit and find their way to the warf.
They see a boat and are going to kill the owner but he shows no fear and
that impresses Ryan. The sailor has his sons with him and Ryan forces him to push
out into the river. They open up on the pursuers and wipe most of them out but
three of the survivors with them are killed.
Once they are out of range of the
attackers they get to know the owner of the boat. They sit down for a drink and
barter. The owners name is Morse.
JB offers to repair eight weapons that Morse and his boys had salvaged in
exchange for the use of the boat. As
dark approaches Morse wants to put out the anchor but Ryan forces him to shore,
into a cove. Morse has no choice but to do so, albeit reluctantly.
They leave the ship and are
instantly set upon by river leeches but it isn’t too much of a problem.
After they make camp Ryan talks to Elmore about Donovan.
He wants to know how to find Donovan in case the man is killed.
He does get the location of the Heimdall foundation.
The group disembark from the ship
and hit the shore. They are attacked by leeches but not the huge mutant variety
kind, just regular versions. When
the annoyance has been dispatched Ryan, Jak, Dean go hunting and bring back
plenty of wild game for the group to eat. They make camp.
After the meal Dean nearly gets
into a fight with the Mores boys and Ryan does nothing to prevent it. Morse
backhands one of his son’s in order to shut him up before he causes more
trouble. Both JB and Ryan know that
they have made and enemy with the man.
The next day they rig up the rope
to the ship because the water is filled with deadly fish and to try and enter
the water would mean a quick and painful death. The old woman did what she could to keep Krysty from getting
her rest so she gets her revenge by making passionate love to Ryan.
During the trip up river Mildred
gives the suggestion to Ryan that they should attempt an exorcism with Krysty,
figuring that with her believe in the supernatural that it might help her force
Phlorin out of her mind.
Ryan learns from Morse that there
is a trading post on the river bank that they will be arriving at in a few days.
Learns that it’s run by a woman and her son and is quite prosperous.
They eventually make it to the post and tie the ship up at the dock. As a
single group they head to the fortress post and make contact.
It doesn’t go very well. Ryan is about to give up and head back to the
ship when Doc manages to break the ice and they enter.
Docs charm wins over the owner, who
is named Annie. Her rooms are all
taken up but she allows the group to bunk in the barn, where it will be at least
somewhat warm and comfortable.
The rest of the group settle in at
the barn while JB and Ryan barter for the ammo and clothing they all need.
They get everything they need but Annies son Max leaves an unspoken
threat about defending the post if they need it.
They return to the barn and Ryan
considers making a break for it back to the boat when he notices one of the
Morse boys trying to get a better look at Krysty as she bathes. Jak notices it
as well and hits him with throwing blade, taking part of his nose off. This
causes even more a rift between the group.
Doc spends the afternoon with Annie
and he learns a great deal more about the woman and her home.
She eventually seduces him and the old man has some fun.
That evening the group is invited
to eat with Annie and her other guests. The baron and his sec men show up. As a
group they sit down and eat.
After the meal Ryan JB and Krysty
meet the Baron in person. They talk
and Ryan doesn’t give away more than he needs to. He discovers that the baron
is hunting for something, he is quite convinced that there was something more
than people know about the war and he is heading north to find a piece of a
space station that crashed months before in Mars Arena.
They head back to the barn and that
evening Ryan and Krysty try to make love but Phlorin makes it all but
impossible. They give up. As dawn
approaches the attack that Annie was expecting happens. She mans the huge 20mm
cannon that they have as defense. Ryan and the others are afraid of losing the
ship to the cold hearts so they take the fight straight to them.
During the fighting Ryan manages to
corner one of the cold hearts and finds out why they are attacking.
They fight their way to the ship and push off. During the battle Ryan
gets shot in the arm and is dumped overboard into the river. They find him and
pull him aboard. It takes 4 days for them to reach their destination to meet up
with Donovan. The journey is very
hard on Krysty. She is quite
literally getting worse by the day and when they finally find Donovan his ship
is under attack by river pirates and is rapidly taking on water.
They fight off the pirates and
finally meet the man Donovan. They
tow the ship next to the shore and set up camp.
Donovan is going to have to call in some big favors to get the help they
need for Krysty and Ryan knows it.
Donovan has seen the situation with
Krysty before. Both women died
before they could be helped. It is the inevitable conclusion.
Turns out that the Heimdall
foundation people had a piece of the space station but it had been stolen by the
river pirates. Ryan offers to give
the data in exchange for getting the help that Krysty needs.
The next day they help get Donovan’s ship ready enough to travel and
set off for the Foundation. Both
Ryan and Donovan talk about the river and how they have it dammed during the
year so it can receive the water it needs.
By evening they settle down with
the others at the foundation camp for a meal.
After the meal is done Donovan and Ryan talk about the situation with the
pirates. He wants Ryan’s help with it in exchange for helping Krysty.
He tells Ryan that he would more than likely help even if the pirates
were not a factor. But to him it is
a fair exchange.
Donovan takes Ryan to a hidden
redoubt they discovered near by and Ryan opens the door easily. It’s only two
rooms, the gateway and an armory. They take the weapons for the attack on the
pirates.
Next morning the camp is a flurry
of activity while Ryan and Donovan lead a small force to take the fight to the
pirates in order to inflict as much damage as possible before the pirates know
what hit them.
They attack the Camp and kill quite
a number of pirates before one wakes up and starts the fight.
Jak and Dean are able to damage several of the pirates ships before they
are forced to steal the Pirates main flagship and lead the river pirates on a
merry chase. They take the pirates
into an ambush point where even more are wiped out. But it isn’t enough.
The fight leads right back to the
dam and here they blow the walls of the canyon, trapping the pirates in the
cistern. They then proceed to blow the dam, sending the water to the foundation
base and wiping out the pirates nearly to a man.
That night at the new camp,
Donovan’s sister arrives and pulls Phlorin out of Krysty’s mind and she is
finally free to make her recovery. After she gets her rest they head to the
gateway and make the jump out.
End of Starfall