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    After the Martians
    After the Martians
    After the Martians
    Ebook61 pages51 minutes

    After the Martians

    By Steven R. Southard

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In 1901, the Martians attacked Earth, but tiny bacteria vanquished them. Their advanced weaponry lay everywhere—three-legged fighting machines, heat rays, and poison gas. Now, in 1917, The Great War rages across Europe but each side uses Martian technology. Join Corporal Johnny Branch, a young man from Wyoming, as he pursues his dream to fight for America. Follow magazine photographer Frank Robinson while he roams the front lines, hoping to snap a photo conveying true American valor. Perhaps they’ll discover, as the Martians did before them, that little things can change the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC
    Release dateMay 2, 2016
    ISBN9781619502888
    After the Martians
    Author

    Steven R. Southard

    Growing up in the Midwest, Steven R. Southard always found the distant oceans exotic and tantalizing. He served aboard submarines and now works as a civilian naval engineer. In his stories, he takes readers on journeys of discovery in many seas and various vessels. Steve has written in the historical, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and steampunk genres. Come aboard at http://sites.google.com/site/stevenrsouthard/ and voyage with his intriguing characters in tales of aquatic adventure.

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      Book preview

      After the Martians - Steven R. Southard

      Contents

      Copyright Page

      Dedication

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 5

      About the Author

      After the Martians

      by

      Steven R. Southard

      All rights reserved

      Copyright © November 29, 2015, Steven R. Southard

      Cover Art Copyright © 2016, Charlotte Holley

      Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.

      Lockhart, TX

      www.gypsyshadow.com

      Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

      No part of this book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ISBN: 978-1-61950-288-8

      Published in the United States of America

      First eBook Edition: May 3, 2016

      Dedication

      To Andy Gudgel, friend and fellow scribbler, who conceived the idea of this book. I kept inquiring (well, bugging) him about when he’d complete it. At last he tired of my nagging and said, It’s now yours. You write it. Greatest gift one author can give another! Andy, I not only dedicate this book to you, but have included you as a character.

      Chapter 1

      Wishing the thrill of danger and power would never end, Johnny Branch guided the huge fighting machine across a burned-out olive orchard.

      Yee-Haw! he whooped. He remembered training on the machines back in the States, but back then he hadn’t felt this giddy anticipation of real battle.

      Seated to his right in the cockpit, First Lieutenant Henry Wagner twirled one end of his wide moustache. Just keep your eyes open, Corporal. Stay in formation.

      Other machines in Crazyhorse Troop marched abreast with Johnny’s, spaced a quarter mile apart. Each one-hundred-foot tall machine lurched in an alien, three-legged gait among the blackened tree trunks. In this sector of Alsace in eastern France, a broad, once-cultivated valley spread before them. Only a few miles ahead lay the Rhine, the border recognized by the Allies. That border was in dispute, and the Central Powers claimed this area as German territory.

      "I don’t reckon my eyes have ever been more open, L-T. I’m just a little excited, I guess."

      Sixteen years earlier, in 1901, Martians had attacked Earth, and then succumbed to terrestrial diseases carried by microbes in the air and water. But their technology remained. Astronomers kept a wary eye on the red planet, but so far the Martians had not sent a second invasion force.

      Don’t you ever feel that way, sauntering along in these things? Johnny had to control each of the machine’s hydraulic legs individually, using Martian knobs and switches. The aliens had managed with just one creature per fighting machine, and the control panel had been designed for their tentacles. But two humans were required, one for machine movement, and the other for weapons, leaving the cockpit quite cramped.

      Maybe back when I started, Wagner answered, but I guess I just got used—

      Hold up, L-T. I just hit something solid. Johnny stomped one fighting machine leg on a nondescript stretch of dirt. He heard a metallic clang. Lemme see…

      Metal hatches, Johnny knew, often concealed underground bunkers. He bent the machine’s ‘knees’ to lower it and seized the controls of one of its dangling metal tentacles. He stretched the tentacle down to brush dirt off the metal plate beneath them. The use of heat rays in this war had made above-ground structures vulnerable. Each side now focused on discovering and destroying the enemy’s underground dugouts.

      Without warning, a dozen German-made walkers rose from concealed underground locations, surrounding them.

      Sound the alarm. The lieutenant spoke in

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