Genesis - the Battle Within (Pillars of Creation Book 1) Read Free Page A

suicidally over the metal-plated corridor and brazenly towards his goal. In an instant he became a blur to human eyes, stealth was all but forgotten, he was now tearing through the corridor with no regard for anything other than closing the gap; the gap which meant life or death – he needed to clear the hallway … now! Come on Genesis you can do it , one of him encouraged.
    The last few metres closed quickly, the hallway seeming to narrow as he sped to his maximum velocity, and yet still, Genesis realised as his eyes widened in realisation, he wasn’t fast enough – he simply had run out of time, despite the machine’s age and tardiness.
    The turret finished its turn, training straight on him, the barrels clicking over as their internal mechanisms fell into place and readied to vaporise all in their path.
    Milliseconds before the first shots blasted, his pre-cognition training kicked in and alerted him to his imminent danger. With a sudden jolt, and before he’d even thought of it, his body moved for him, almost unexpectedly, as his instinct training took over.
    Genesis twisted impossibly and brutally moved in a different direction at breakneck speed, so fast that it looked as if he had somehow been in two places at once, succeeding in playing havoc with his attacker’s eyes and eluding him. With this, his last plausible chance of escape, the agile Immortal darted hard to his left and curved high along one side of the wall, way above the ground.
    Utilising this strange new angle as his runway, and barely clinging to the new surface with his nano-infused body, Genesis bolted along the wall for the remaining few metres. The instant he left the floor, the air directly behind his head rippled as it became punctuated with fire and crackling energy. The noise was accompanied by an intense heat which was so close it sent his ion shields flaring crazily to life as he flinched from their severity.
    As his Rieft talent – a strong part of the religion’s personality infused within him – had foreseen, the entire hallway where he’d previously been running erupted into laser fire, arcing wildly through the air leaving gouges in the steel, the shots trying desperately, but failing, to catch up with him.
    Right before his deadly pursuer could catch up and with a last concerted effort, Genesis kicked hard off the wall, cart-wheeling through the air and across the passageway to avoid the fast-approaching carnage.
    This final leap sent him well over the turret’s field of fire and impressively to his final destination, all accomplished beyond normal human limits and comprehension, still alive and unscathed. Accustomed to such inhuman capabilities, and in a recovering flash, Genesis took the turret’s overseer by complete surprise, landing nimbly in front of the shocked sentry. His surprise soon morphed to terror as the combined blast of his armoured ion-core and the crushing speed with which he’d reached him, sent the broken form flying like a pinwheel over the facility’s railing and into the hangar’s interior a good fifty metres below him. Genesis cringed and turned away as he saw the man’s head pop on the floor like an overripe melon.
    Ignoring the cries of the other crew members within the hangar, Genesis wasted no time in the knowledge that his enemy now knew they were boarded and were well and truly under attack. The Immortal quickly gripped the sides of the turret now that he was safely behind it, and through his enhanced strength sent a torrent of coursing energy flowing through the defined muscles cut from his back and arms.
    A ripple went through the nanos across his armour as the upper section of the turret gave some resistance for a brief moment, and then finally with a groan tore completely free. Sounds of wrenching metal was heard as the dying turret’s cries echoed down the hall, ringing out loudly towards his squad who were still a good twenty metres away and just entering the passage. Small explosions