Last Gryphon (ePub)

The Last Gryphon is a Sci-fi action adventure set 1750 years in the future. Mankind has long since abandoned an ecologically wrecked and resource depleted planet Earth and spread out from their cradle world. This was accomplished through great and powerful mega-corporations. The discovery of space folding technology allows for near instantaneous travel and communication between settled star systems. Now, nearly two millennia later the corporation is everything. They control all aspects of life within humanity's settled territories using genetically engineered super soldiers known as gene-soldiers to repress any sign of dissent and to fight wars with rival corporations. Marik, one of the two main characters in the story, is one of these gene-soldiers. He has been taken from line service after a lifetime of leading gene-soldier infantry and placed in an intelligence role. Marik is uncomfortable in this position, but he excels in the more violent aspects of the job. Lately he has become somewhat cynical as he has been exposed to the darker side of civilian life. Not every decision is as clear cut as it was on the battlefield. The story opens with Marik detained on the backwater mining world of Hesperus IV. His cover role is that of a minor smuggler running contraband for a smuggling cartel that is headquartered in the Hesperus system asteroid ring. He was detained upon landing with a cargo hold full of illegal drugs. In order to maintain his cover he surrenders to the planetary peacekeepers, the local police force. It is at his initial arraignment for smuggling that he is able to overhear a conversation that leads him to believe that his cover is blown. He effects a violent escape from the courtroom, disappearing into the smog choked industrial streets of the Capital City of Hesperus IV. While Marik is escaping from Peacekeeper custody, we meet Rhea, the other main character in the story. Rhea is a young girl, only eight years old. She has been the property of Psy