Kwelengsen Swarm (Logan's World, Book 3) by David M. Kelly

 

Release date: May 18, 2023

Subgenre: Military science fiction, Space opera

 

About Kwelengsen Swarm:

 

How long can one man keep fighting?

Logan's dreams of a peaceful life on Kwelengsen have been shattered. A final battle with the Corporate forces seems inevitable and will cost all the settlers' lives unless he can get them off planet. But with deadly new species appearing all around, the remaining survivors find themselves battling enemies on multiple fronts.

And when the settlers start behaving in strange, inexplicable ways, Logan must fight to uncover the reasons behind their sinister death wish. But with Corporate reinforcements on the way, he's fast running out of time.

Kwelengsen Swarm–the endgame is survival, but who is the enemy?

 

Excerpt:

 

One

 

"And yet there is only one great thing
To live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world."
— Inuit poem

 

The early morning sun washed the foliage around Logan Twofeathers with a dull, pink light that made the tree trunks look black and tinged their leaves the color of old blood. The sun had done little to warm the air yet, and the moss below his feet was slick with dew. Not that he felt it inside his self-contained TACS combat armor. He kneeled at the top of a shallow rise overlooking a thick expanse of native Kwelengsen trees, a single narrow path vaguely visible through the canopy as it meandered north toward the distant ridgeline. The mountains slashed west, a series of almost black serrations dominating the horizon like thick blades.

A week ago, he and the rest of his team had been escorted under those mountains and along the trail he was now contemplating. So much had happened since then it was hard to believe so little time had passed. This was where the giant gorillasaur creatures had attacked—that being the name Neeta Havji had subsequently given them. He hesitated to use the word "ambushed," despite feeling as though that was exactly what had happened. The word implied too much deliberate thought for comfort, and the creatures had shown little beyond animal instincts so far. Despite that, he was well aware how Earth creatures, and even people, had often been dismissed as savage and brutish in the past.

The sky was clear, for which he was grateful. The flying lizards had spent hours after the Corporate attack swooping around the caves devouring any bodies left behind, and in the days since, at least one or two had been constantly wheeling around looking for easy pickings. The only thing airborne was the small dot of the sentinel drone he'd launched, weaving over the treetops in long arcs as it scanned for signs of danger.

So far, it hadn't detected any threats. Logan got to his feet awkwardly and followed the trail, his movement hampered by wounds that were still healing and the makeshift repairs to his suit. He'd spent the last couple of days refurbishing it with parts scavenged from those used by Ogawa and Lwao. And although he'd managed to bring the suit back to life, without the equipment to tune the components properly, it was a partial fix at best.

The trail dropped into the shallow valley, the trees rising above him and plunging him into a shadowy gloom. His suit's systems automatically adjusted the image on his visor, brightening the view to make it as clear as if the sun were high in the sky. Logan took the further protection of setting the sensors to scan for infrared signals, adjusting the level to avoid everything glowing like a neon display. That, combined with the sentinel's feed, should be enough to stop anything from catching him unawares.

 

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About David M. Kelly:

David M. Kelly writes intelligent, action-packed science fiction. He is the author of the Joe Ballen sci-fi thriller series and the short story collection Dead Reckoning And Other Stories. He has been published in Canadian SF magazine Neo-opsis.

David’s interest in science and technology began early. At the age of six his parents allowed him to stay up late into the night to watch the television broadcast of Neil Armstrong stepping on to the surface of the moon. From that day he was hooked on everything related to science and space.

An avid reader, he worked his way through the contents of the mobile library that visited his street, progressing through YA titles (or ‘juveniles’ as they were known back then) on to the classics of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Harry Harrison.

David worked for many years in project management and software development. Along the way his interests have included IPSC combat (target) pistol shooting, crew chief on a drag racing team, and several years as bass player/vocalist in a heavy rock band. He also managed to fit in some real work in manual jobs from digging ditches and work on production lines to loading trucks in a haulage company.

Originally from the wild and woolly region of Yorkshire, England, David emigrated to Canada in 2005 and settled in Northern Ontario with his patient and supportive wife, Hilary. Foot surgery in 2014 temporarily curtailed many of his favourite activities – hiking, camping, piloting his own personal starfighter (otherwise known as a Corvette ZR-1). But on the plus side, it meant a transition from the world of IT into life as a full-time writer—an opportunity he grasped enthusiastically.

David is passionate about science, especially astronomy and physics, and is a rabid science news follower. Never short of an opinion, David writes about science and technology on his blog davidmkelly.net. He has supported various charity projects such as the Smithsonian’s Reboot The Suit and the Lowell Observatory Pluto Telescope Restoration. He also contributes to citizen science projects such as SETI@home.

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