“I can’t guess, Governor.”

  “Me neither. Where’s the damn chair?”

  “Coming, sir.”

  Jackson lowered his head and closed his eyes. “I screwed up.”

  “I know.”

  “You weren’t supposed to agree with me.”

  “I’m sorry, Jack. But you really, really screwed up.”

  “I thought I could handle it.”

  “Because you’re arrogant. It’s not completely your fault. Your life has been far too easy up till now.”

  “I could put you in jail for talking to me like that.”

  “But you won’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because if you have half a brain in your head, you’ve realized by now that you need to start listening to people other than yourself. A lot of good people died today, Governor. And it’s your fault.”

  Jackson felt the accusation in his gut. Sudden, wrenching guilt. It was his fault—all of it. He had thrown the Guardians to the wolves, and now the colony was in silent chaos, as vulnerable and confused as it had ever been.

  “My wounds,” he said.

  “Your spine was melted at the 12th thoracic,” Rathbone said. “Completely severed. We can’t give you prosthetics with that kind of damage.”

  “You’re saying I’m never going to walk again?”

  “Not necessarily. We have some advanced options, but considering the current state of the colony, you might want to be conscious right now.”

  The door opened, and the nurses came in with a simple wheelchair—little more than a lightly padded seat with a motor beneath and a joystick on the left armrest.

  “Help me up,” Jackson said. “Get me to the chair. I need to see Beth.”

  “Governor, your wife…I don’t know if this is a good time,” Rathbone said.

  “Why not?”

  “She’s still in shock. To be honest, I don’t know if we’ll be able to help her.”

  Jackson’s heart dropped. “All the more reason for me to see her then. Help me.”

  Rathbone nodded, and the nurses pulled off the blanket. He was naked underneath, and they quickly removed his catheter and helped him into underwear and a gown before shifting him to the wheelchair.

  “Take me to her.”

  Doctor Rathbone led the way, with Jackson rolling behind her. The doctor was right. He didn’t have time to waste on his legs, repairing them or mourning them. The colony was in trouble, and it was his fault.

  He had to fix it.

  Somehow.

  They took the lift up to the next floor. Rathbone stopped in front of the door to her room, facing him.

  “Are you sure you want to see her? It’s…troubling.”

  “Get out of the way,” Jackson said.

  Rathbone stepped aside. Jackson rolled into the room, his eyes tearing up as soon as he saw Beth lying in bed, head shaking back and forth, eyes moist, small groans of fear escaping her.

  He went to her bedside and tried to take her hand. She screamed at the touch, pulling it away without looking. It was like a knife to his heart. He looked back to Rathbone.

  “There’s nothing you can do for this?”

  “We can put her in a coma,” she replied. “Otherwise, no.”

  “Beth. Oh, Beth.” He stared at her face, so beautiful and so disturbed. “This is my fault, my love. All of it is my fault. I let my pride get the best of me, and look what happened. This planet isn’t what we thought it would be. It isn’t what we were promised.”

  He lowered his head into his hands, body shaking as he sobbed.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. We should be in our mansion by the river, toasting our new home.”

  He straightened up, wiping his eyes, realizing the tears weren’t going to help.

  “Governor Jackson Stone, one way or another, you will have no choice but to fight. The only decision you can make is who and what you will fight for.”

  Jackson remembered what Sergeant Harai had said to him during their first meeting. In that moment, he would have given anything to delay his decision. He would have, and did, agree to anything to save himself and Beth. To save Metro. But he couldn’t hide from the truth any longer. The truth had put his wife here and massacred his officers.

  “We still will — one day. I promise. I can’t change the past. I can’t undo the mistakes I made. But I’ll be damned if Metro is going down easy. I’ll be damned if we’re going to fade away without a fight. This isn’t the home we expected, but this is our new home, and I’m going to fight for it. Do you hear me, love? I promise you that.

  “I’m going to fight for it.”

  Thank you for reading Destruction

  Thank you so much for sticking with the series and picking up Destruction. I know this one ended a bit dark, and I’m sure some of you are especially unhappy about Sheriff Dante. But you know how the old saying goes - it’s always darkest before the dawn.

  If you loved the book and can’t wait for the finale, please show your support for the story by leaving a review (mrforbes.com/destruction) and telling potential readers how great you think the series is.

  The last book is called Declaration. Do you want to know when it’s out? mrforbes.com/declaration

  If this is your first foray into the Forgotten books and you’re looking for something else to read before Declaration drops, I recommend picking up Forgotten (mrforbes.com/forgotten). It’s the book that started it all, ties in especially well with this one and feeds into Earth Unknown (mrforbes.com/earthunknown), another bestselling Forgotten universe series.

  If you’re already caught up in the Forgotten universe or you’re interested in any of my other books - there’s a more complete description in the next section of this book, or even better you can check out my backlist at mrforbes.com/books.

  Again, thank you so much for your support. If you have Facebook, please stop by my page sometime at facebook.com/mrforbes.author. I’d love to hear from you.

  Cheers,

  Michael.

  Other Books By M.R Forbes

  M.R. Forbes on Amazon

  mrforbes.com/books

  Forgotten (The Forgotten)

  mrforbes.com/theforgotten

  Some things are better off FORGOTTEN.

  Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him.

  That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content.

  Until a malfunction forces his Engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.

  Until she contacts him, breathless and terrified, to tell him she found a body, and it doesn't belong to anyone on board.

  Until he arrives at the scene and discovers both his wife and the body are gone.

  The only clue? A bloody handprint beneath a hatch that hasn't opened in hundreds of years.

  Until now.

  Earth Unknown (Forgotten Earth)

  mrforbes.com/earthunknown

  A terrible discovery.

  A secret that could destroy human civilization.

  A desperate escape to the most dangerous planet in the universe... Earth.

  Two hundred years ago, a fleet of colony ships left Earth and started a settlement on Proxima Centauri...

  Centurion Space Force pilot Nathan Stacker didn't expect to return home to find his wife dead. He didn't expect the murderer to look just like him, and he definitely didn't expect to be the one to take the blame.

  But his wife had control of a powerful secret. A secret that stretches across the light years between two worlds and could lead to the end of both.

  Now that secret is in Nathan's hands, and he's about to make the most desperate evasive maneuver of his life -- stealing a starship and setting a course for Earth.

  He thinks he'll be safe there.

  He's wrong. Very wrong.

  Earth is nothing like what he expected. Not even close. What he doesn't know is not only likely to kill him, it's eager to kill him, and even if it doesn't?

  The Sheriff will.

  Starship Eternal (War Eternal)

  mrforbes.com/starshipeternal

  A lost starship...

  A dire warning from futures past...

  A desperate search for salvation…

  Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.

  After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:

  They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.

  Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.

  Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.

  They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.

  (War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)

  Hell’s Rejects (Chaos of the Covenant)

  mrforbes.com/hellsrejects

  The most powerful starships ever constructed are gone. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. The attackers are unknown. The orders are clear: Recover the ships. Bury the bastards who stole them.

  Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. As a Highly Specialized Operational Combatant, she was one of the most respected Marines in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe.

  Not for long.

  The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey happens to be one of them. The deal is simple: Bring back the starships, earn your freedom. Try to run, you die. It's a suicide mission, but she has nothing to lose.

  The only problem? There's a new threat in the galaxy. One with a power unlike anything anyone has ever seen. One that's been waiting for this moment for a very, very, long time. And they want Abbey, too.

  Be careful what you wish for.

  They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They have no idea.

  Man of War (Rebellion)

  mrforbes.com/manofwar

  In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.

  Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.

  Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.

  Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.

  Earth was lost.

  It was never forgotten.

  Fifty-two years have passed.

  A message from home has been received.

  The time to fight for what is ours has come.

  Welcome to the rebellion.

  Or maybe something completely different?

  Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)

  mrforbes.com/deadofnight

  For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:

  Finish the job, or be finished himself.

  Balance (The Divine)

  mrforbes.com/balance

  My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.

  Now, I’m dead.

  Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...

  I met Dante Samghieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.

  I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.

  Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.

  Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and recover the Holy Grail.

  It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.

  Wait. It is.

  Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)

  mrforbes.com/tearsofblood

  One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.

  The power of magic.

  Eryn is such a girl. Born with the Curse, she fights to control and conceal it to protect those she loves. But when the truth is revealed, and his Marines come, she is forced away from her home and into the company of Silas, a deadly fugitive tormented by a fractured past.

  Silas knows only that he is a murderer who once hunted the Cursed, and that he and his brothers butchered armies and innocents alike to keep the deep, dark secrets of the time before from ever coming to light.

  Secrets which could save the world.

  Or destroy it completely.

  About the Author

  M.R. Forbes is the mind behind a growing number of Amazon best-selling science fiction series including Rebellion, War Eternal, Chaos of the Covenant, and the Forgotten Universe novels. He currently resides with his family and friends on the west cost of the United States, including a cat who thinks she’s a dog and a dog who thinks she’s a cat.

  He maintains a true appreciation for his readers and is always happy to hear from them.

  To learn more about M.R. Forbes or just say hello:

  Visit my website:

  mrforbes.com

  Send me an e-mail:

  michael@mrforbes.com

  Check out my Facebook page:

  facebook.com/mrforbes.author

  Chat with me on Facebook Messenger:

  https://m.me/mrforbes.author

 

 

  M.R. Forbes, Destruction

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
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