Recon by Devon C Ford

Val Penny ♦ January 11, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

I am thrilled to take part in the book tour for Recon – The Expansion 1 by the exciting fiction author Devon C. Ford. The tour is being run by Love Book Tours and I highly recommend it to you. Today, enjoy an intriguing excerpt from this gripping new book.

The Blurb

The universe is expanding, and so is humanity’s reach.

Years after clean energy ended the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, a lull of peace encompasses all of humanity. Some think we should travel to the distant corners of the galaxy, others oppose the idea, thinking that the harnessed singularity reactors are unnatural.

When a terrorist group attacks the Lunar colony, members of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force are affected in different ways.

Years later, Lieutenant Commander Kyle Torres comes face to face with old friends, as he’s thrown into an assignment that could change everything: a reconnaissance mission with huge implications for humanity and science.

Start the epic journey as Earth begins its venture into deep space, where not everything is as it seems. From Devon C Ford, the best-selling author of the hit Post-Apocalyptic series, After It Happened.

The Excerpt

Lunar Arrivals Port

“What was that?” Jake Santana asked, his ears pricking up and his brow knitted.

“What was what?” Jamie Paterson answered. His head was half-buried in a shipping container full of machine parts.

“I heard it too,” the young ensign, Kyle Torres said ominously. “It sounded like it came from the arrivals area. Come on.”

The three of them walked out of the freight hangar, where the pilot and crew of the detained ship were waving their arms and shouting about their rights being infringed. Jake and the others ignored them, hearing more sounds that made their spines tingle.

“Something ain’t right,” Jake said. His left hand dropped to the service pistol holstered on his thigh and hovered there. The standing orders not to draw a weapon unless fired upon echoed around his skull. He didn’t draw it, but he kept that hand on the grip, which made him swing the other arm awkwardly as he ran. They rounded a corner, hearing shouts of alarm interspersed with gunfire, then put their heads down and ran the two-hundred-meter length of the tunnel separating them from the main part of the lunar space port.

“Alpha one from alpha one three,” Torres squeaked into his radio mic, the panic making his voice sound younger and more vulnerable than he already was.

Jamie looked to him, and received a shake of the head when no answer came. Jamie tried his own radio, shouting the hail louder and more firmly than Torres had done. He repeated the call, but heard nothing back.

As they neared the end of the tunnel, all three breathing heavily from the run, Jake decided to complete the trifecta and try his own radio.

“Alpha one fr—”

A scream tore the air, a person bellowing in guttural pain or anger, followed by the high-pitched, chattering thrum of automatic gunfire.

Their radios erupted as one and the gravelly sound of their commanding officer’s voice filled their minds.

“All hands, this is Commander Dassiova. Lunar Port is under attack. I say again, we are under attack. All hands: battle stations. All hands: battle stations.”

The warning sobered everyone who heard it. Jake, Torres and Jamie all drew their sidearms and stacked up against the wall at the corner before Jake nodded and stepped out with his gun raised. Another metallic chatter of rapid-fire rounds answered his movement, shattering the tiles of the wall and punching holes through the cover where his head had been only moments before.

“One shooter,” he said, gasping for breath among the dust. “Automatic weapon. Thirty meters.”

“Draw fire,” Torres said, his voice rising in the panic.

“No,” Jake snapped. “Keep your head down.”

“We need to move, Seaman,” Ensign Torres said, a hint of sudden fire in his words.

“The wheel’s right,” Jamie said as he mocked the young officer. “We’re pinned down here, and that rifle will puncture the dome if we don’t take him out soon.”

Jake thought about it, his mouth set into a thin line as he considered what he had to do. He didn’t like it one bit.

“You two break for cover over there,” he said as he pointed across the wide tunnel intersection. “I’ll take the shot.”

They took off, running low and fast and holding their breath for the few seconds it took for the shooter to dial in their location. The gun sounded again, plumes of debris erupting behind the two runners and growing dangerously close to their heels as they darted across the space. Jake took a breath and stepped out. His gun was up, sighting along the barrel held steady in both hands to where the shooter had been. He squeezed off five fast rounds.

The chattering gunfire stopped abruptly as the shooter fell to the ground. Jake took two long breaths, staring at the body of the first person he had killed up close. After a beat, he started toward him.

When he was ten paces away the body blossomed in slow-motion, expanding outward in flame as the explosives strapped to his chest detonated. It was only a small charge, but it was enough to blow the body apart and fling the twisted remains of the automatic rifle past Jake’s head. The velocity would have killed him if he had been just a pace to his left. The other two caught up with him. Jamie said nothing, but Ensign Torres looked ashen. Jake steeled himself and took off at a dead run toward the sound of more gunfire and screams.

The Author

Devon C. Ford spent a career in public services undertaking many roles until he took up writing and editing full time in 2016.

After It Happened throws a different spin on the collapse of society being set in the UK. Sequels to this series were announced for 2018.

Other works include a futuristic dystopian setting in the Defiance series, WW3 post-apocalyptic in The Fall, 1980’s genre Zombie apocalypse in Toy Soldiers and New Earth: ARC; a sci-fi/post apoc story. Late 2018 saw the launch of a military sci-fi series, Expansion. 2020 saw the launch of collaborative projects including the hit alien invasion/post-apocalyptic crossover series, Rise.