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“Occupied Earth”

Rating:

5 Small Stars
Occupied Earth

I kind of liked the first book in this series, although as I mentioned it turned out to be a horror story, but really didn’t know where it would lead. Well, now I know! It’s still in the venue of a horror story, but it’s been explained a lot more now.

Captain Clayton Cross has had a career change! Boy, is that an understatement. Last time we read about him, he was the Captain of the UNES starship Forerunner, one of three Earth colony ships sent out to find a new place for humanity to live. Unfortunately, he and his crew came across a hostile planet where a couple of his crew-members were attacked and became infected with a life altering virus. One was a scientist named, Dr. Lori Reed, who subsequently got pregnant and delivered a strange child. That child was thought to have been the cause of horror aboard the Forerunner on it’s long journey back to Earth.

The child known as Keera Reed was something of a monster in looks. And obviously not well received by the Forerunners crew. But, they didn’t have to live with her during the seventy years it took them to return to Earth, because one of the cloaked aliens stole aboard the Forerunner and kidnapped Dr. Reed and her offspring, Keera. That ship was FTL capable while the Forerunner was not. It’s crew made the journey in cryo-sleep; rotating out for two-weeks of duty and then back to sleep. The alien ship got to Earth a lot faster and earlier than the Forerunner.

That’s where the story turns really bad. Captain Clayton Cross is now a garbage truck driver! Yeah, that’s about a dramatic career change as you can get. His new job takes him our of New Houston, a walled city, into the Wastes where he dumps his garbage. Earth has now been conquered by the aliens known as the Kyra. They are a merciless bunch of high-tech aliens in a war with other aliens only known as the Chrona. Humans are being used a breeders for their army. When a couple has a child, it is allowed to grow until its teens and then given a virus that will either turn them into Chimeras or Dregs. Chimeras were physically altered humans that took on many of the characteristics of the Kyra and then were sent to the front lines to fight in the war. Dregs were those humans who didn’t take to the virus that well. They became mindless monsters living off anything and every thing and better off dead. These Dregs lived in the Waste lands, were killed when seen, if possible, and could infect normal humans with their blood.

So, Captain Cross, now just Clayton, drove his dump truck to the Wastelands and dumped his garbage. Yet, it wasn’t always just garbage. Sometimes, hidden in his load was vital supplies needed by the Resistance. The Resistance wasn’t that active yet, but it did give some hope to those humans trapped in the walled cities. Truth be known, the Resistance wasn’t very large and wouldn’t be of much help for a long time to come.

Clayton had resisted joining the Resistance because he thought they were too few and didn’t have the right leadership. Besides he had a wife who was now expecting a child and he didn’t want to endanger any of that. That all changed the night he got caught delivering supplies to the Resistance and could never go back to the city.

This is a very exciting book. I like Mr. Scott’s writing. Although this book does cover a longer period of time, he makes it seem natural. Every part of the story has some kind of excitement so that none of it bogs down and becomes dull. I think you’ll like what you read her. I’m not sure how the story develops from here, but I know I’m going to be reading more.

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