The unpromised land

Time hasn't stopped after the apocalypse. After the long nuclear winters, a few continue the struggle for survival in the irradiated wastelands. Then, a new order emerges, with a directive to destroy whatever freedom remains in its fortified enclaves and the surrounding Outlands. Kane, once its trusted and feared warrior, is now a fugitive driven to fathom the past and unravel the future.

Secrets of the stones

On the Emerald Isle, stone megaliths guard the old ways and the people who returned to them. In this cradle of Celtic lore, Kane searches for clues to the fateful enmity that shadows their hopes. But not even his fierce will nor Brigid Baptiste's empathy for the ancient ways and Grant's warrior instincts prepares them for an encounter with a woman whose ancient earth magic and otherworld technology bring them shatteringly close to the truth.

Between hope and damnation lies their future...

First Printing: December 1997

Total Pages: 348

Written By: Mark Ellis

Savage Sun: Book Summary

The novel opens in a small ship on the Irish sea, on January 19^th 2001. Three people are heading to the isle of Great Skellig. A priest, a man named Morn is taking a woman named Fand to complete a pact that was made many hundreds of years before.

The American, a man named Karabatos is going with them to ensure that the pact is completed. The small group meet another priest near an ancient tomb. Karabatos kills the man and forces the others into the tomb, where he then kills the other priests. They head deep into the Tomb and awaken Enlil, the Na Fferyllt. The creature strips Fand naked and rapes her as Karabatos watches. He ends up killing Morn. Fand swears that she and her offspring will never help the creature.

Two months have passes since the group returned to Cerberus after the mission in the Gobi desert. Kane, Domi, Grant and Brigid are in a sand cat heading towards an outlander ville where Domi had grown up.

Lakesh found out that the Barons had planned to harvest the ville for genetic material and sent the group to help them evacuate before it occurred. They arrive in Cuprum, but discover that they are too late to do anything. The only person left is an old man named Makayu.

The ville had already been cleaned out by the Magistrates. They find the corpses of the villagers near by, drained of all blood and soft organs. Two Deathbirds arrive and attack them. One kills the old man and chases after Kane.

In order to escape the helicopter, Kane hits the river and is swept nearly five miles away. The other Deathbird attacks the sandcat containing Grant and Domi. They do manage to shoot it down.

Kane, while making his way back to the others on foot finds out soon enough that the crew of the other Deathbird are tracking him on foot. Kane stumbles upon one of the Magistrates and takes him down. He steals a motion tracker from the mans wrist and leaves.

He finds his way back to the other Deathbird and discovers that Salvo captured and tussed Brigid up like a Christmas turkey. It's a trap and Salvo hits Kane with a tranquilizer gun. Salvo gloats over capturing Kane and Brigid. He is about to kill her when Grant and Domi arrive in the sandcat.

Salvo has no choice but to agree with letting Kane and Brigid go, but he keeps the Gattling gun of the Deathbird trained on them as he takes off and heads back to Cobaltville.

The five day ride back to the redoubt is strained and quite, each person lost in his or her own thoughts. When they get back to the redoubt, Kane fights his way past the redoubt personnel and goes straight to Lakesh. The techs try to stop him, but Lakesh forces them to leave.

Kane is furious that the mission was not only a bust but that they nearly got captured in the process. Lakesh was afraid that something like this would happen. He and Brigid head off to decontamination, angry at the answers they got.

Later that night Domi arrives at Grants quarters, but unlike the other times, she isn't trying to seduce him. She cries in his arms at the loss of her ville.

At three in the morning they are asked to come meet with Lakesh. He informs them about the baron's personal vendetta and the formation of the Grudge force against Kane. Here they learn that a second, possibly third alien race is involved. Kane decides to see how Balam would react to the news. The confront the Archon about this possibility of this. Instead of the usual speech they actually seem to surprise the creature.

They are to take a special device that Lakesh created to Ireland to test it out, and see if they can get it to work. The data they could gain would be invaluable to Lakesh. The closest gateway is the one located in the wildroot compound. They head back to bed to get the rest they are going to need before the trip.

The next day at midnight the arrive at the gateway armed and ready to go. They waste no time and jump to England. Setting out almost immediately they all feel relatively good, except for Kane who had a very odd jump Dream about being the legendary Ka'in.

Before they can leave the compound, they are attacked by six figures who suddenly appear on the motion tracker that Kane took off the Magistrate. The group attack them using Flash Bang grenades and take them into custody. They are part of the Imperial Dragoons, and the leader of the group is Lieutenant Galt.

They are taken to New London and escorted to the fortress of Lord Strongbow. He's not British, much to their surprise when they meet him. In the interrogation Lord Strongbow uses a Psi to scan the group and she explains what they are doing there.

Strongbow, after the interrogation, tells them that he is going to escort them to Ireland so they can complete their mission. He reveals that he does indeed know a great deal about the Archon directive and probably even more about it than the Baron's do.

The group are then taken to a sitting room while their guest rooms are prepared. Knowing that they will need as much rest as possible, they all go and take a cat nap. Several hours later Kane awakens and goes to the washroom. Morrigan, Strongbow's Psi, is waiting for him. She tells him that she lied to Strongbow about the scan she preformed on them, and just how vile, and evil the man really is.

She hides as Strongbow's lieutenant, Galt arrives. He informs Kane that he is to meet with Strongbow.

The entire group meets and Strongbow orders Brigid to start up the item they brought from Cerberus with them. Reluctantly she does so, and the energy that it produces collates into the face of a woman who attacks Strongbow. He is unharmed, but his sunglasses are knocked off and his reptilian eyes are revealed to the group.

Lakesh goes back to Cobaltville and is surprised when he is summoned to meet with the Baron. During the meeting, the other members of the trust are present. Baron Cobalt announces that a traitor is among them. Lakesh is very nervous about this, and is greatly relieved when the baron informs the trust that it is the man called Abrams who is the traitor.

Abrams is dragged away and the meeting is resolved. On his way out, he takes the elevator with Salvo. To Lakesh's surprise, Salvo shoots him with a dart gun and takes him captive. Salvo knows that Lakesh is in league with the preservationists and is going to prove it, no matter the cost.

After seeing just how Strongbow has been changed, he demands that they head with him deep into his fortress where he shows them the physical remains of Enlil, as well as three powerful Celtic artifacts. It turns out that he had used part of Enlil's genetic code to modify himself and his Dragoons. The creature died just after having sex with Fand and impregnating her.

Strongbow is in actuality Lawrence J. Karabatos, the man who forced the union between Fand and Enlil. He placed himself as well as the pregnant Fand into cryonic suspension and woke up well after everything had settled. After leaving Ireland he went to England and set out creating the Dragoons.

Fand did indeed conceive. She gave birth to a hybrid, a baby girl who has the mixed blood of all three races.

The next day they take a boat towards Ireland. The new Britaniers see a fog bank that they are unable to navigate past. Brigid, Kane, and the others don't see the fog. Kane spends time talking to Morrigan, and Kane finds himself attracted to her. But Before they know it, the ships sonar picks up a large number of figures approaching from below the surface.

A large group of creatures the Dragoons call Selkies attack and inflict horrific losses on the Dragoons. But in the end, with Grant and Kane's help, they repel the creatures. Morrigan is grabbed by one and pulled overboard, as well as Brigid. Once again, Kane acts without thought for his own safety. He dives in after the two women.

Unable to keep up to the creatures, he almost drowns.

When Brigid awakens she is inside a castle, a guest of the Celts. She encounters a Selkie who speaks two her and tells her his name is Diuran. She asks him if he's a mutant or a genetically engineered creature, but all he says is that he is what he is. Morrigan meets her and takes her so she can get cleaned up.

That complete, she takes her to a very ancient part of the keep where she witnesses a psionic recording kept in the rock. She learns a great deal about the deal that was struck so many years before.

Back on the ship Grant and Domi force the crew to close in on the shore. They disembark and shortly afterwards encounter a group of Celts. In a display of skill and strength, one of the Celts wounds grant, but not enough to cause permanent injury. It was just enough to show him that he meant buisness.

They are taken to meet the rest of the tribe, as well as their leader. They also meet mother Fand, the woman who had been raped so many years ago by Enlil.

Kane finally awakens and struggles his way to the surface. Then he struggles to shore and loses consciousness once again. When he awakens for the second time he finds that he is at a stone pillar. A beautiful woman named Fand meets him and calls him Ka'in. He remembers his soul's past, but refuses to accept it as the truth.

The princess Fand insists they go together. He has no real choice but to follower her.

Morrigan explains to Brigid the history of the place, as well as the history of the Selkies who live with them. She shows her an ancient artifact, one that wasn't stolen by Strongbow.

Grant and Domi talk together with Mother Fand. They learn that she survived the war, and gave birth to the Hybrid. As much as she wanted to hate the child, she couldn't. She grew to love the girl. She did try to kill young Fand when she was six, but was unable to bring herself to do so.

As she finishes her story, she is informed that a group of people from the Avery are approaching. Though they are not at war, the two groups are not the best of friends either.

Back in New London Strongbow goes into his private laboratory and awaits the activation of the unit that Brigid has with her. He has created his own gateway system based on the theories that Lakesh came up with.

Fand is doing everything in her power to unlock all of Kane's soul memories. She even goes as far as having her friend and servant use a Harp of Danaan technology on him. They are inside an incredibly ancient Danaan site of power. She drops her robe and desperately wants Kane to love her. However Kane is able to shrug off the effects and gently knocks Fand out.

Brigid and Morrigan go to meet with the Clan. They end up meeting with Grant and Domi, and discuss the situation with Mother Fand. Both Brigid and Grant are worried about Kane but are certain that he isn't dead.

Kane gives Fands robe back to her and tells her to dress. She is enraged but still tries to make Kane listen to her. He tells her straight that she is nothing but a hybrid of three separate races. Her attendant, Aifa tries to use the harp on him. Kane is sick of being attacked and shoots it out of her hand.

Fand tells Kane that she is mentally linked to Strongbow due to their shared genetic heritage, and she can feel his lust for her. She begs Kane to help her confront him and end it. He agrees to help her. She then asks him if he could ever love her. His response to her is to kiss her.

Everyone arrives at the Danaan sight of power. Including Brigid, Domi and Grant. Mother and daughter are reunited at last. Brigid sets up the interphaser and activates it. Daughter Fand was supposed to control it, but it turns out that Strongbow actually controls her. He sends a Dragoon through the newly created gateway portal.

The Dragoon is dispatched. Kane and the others decide to take the fight to Strongbow. They arrive one at a time and are under fire from the Dragoons. They fight back as brutally as they can. Brigid is responsible for killing Lieutenant Galt. Kane uses a Celtic war spear to impale Strongbow and tosses him into the portal to the awaiting arms of Mother Fand.

The Dragoons are broken and their reign of power has ended. But the group is trapped inside the laboratory, as the only way that they could open it disappeared with Strongbow. The only choice they have is to open the interphaser and try to use it to get back to Cerberus. They activate the interphaser and take it's memory core with them. One at a time they step into the portal and disappear.

Inside Cobaltville, Lakesh is being brutally beaten and interrogated by Salvo and Pollard.

End of Savage Sun