I’ve been finishing off the first draft of Shadow War, the final book in my Shadows of the Void series, this week, and that means I’m already cheating on my promise to post a snippet of what I was working on yesterday. I’ve looked through everything I wrote, and there’s nothing there that won’t totally give away what happens!

I’m guessing that you probably don’t want any spoilers, so instead I’m going to post the first chapter of the book, where we find out what’s been happening to Jas Harrington since she volunteered to join the fight against the Shadows.

This isn’t edited yet, so ignore any typos, and if you can’t do that, then please forgive them.

Chapter One

Commander Jas Harrington leaned forward in her seat as the battleship Thylacine came out of a starjump. In front of her a hologram blinked into life. It was a golden, spinning globe. The planet was home to a rich source of mythrin, the raw ingredient of the stupor-inducing, extraordinarily expensive, highly illegal drug, mythranil. And as such, the world was extremely likely to have been infiltrated by the hostile aliens known as Shadows.

Infiltrated, and secured.

“Forcefield maximum power, Commander,” said First Officer Trimborn.

Jas nodded. Everyone aboard knew the drill. If everything went as it usually did, they had about five seconds.

Four. Three. Two—

“Pulses incoming,” exclaimed Trimborn. The Shadow ship protecting the planet had spotted them.

“Got the origin coordinates,” said another officer. “Returning fire.”

Vibrations shook Jas’ seat and the arm rests beneath her hands. The enemy’s pulses had hit them, but the Thylacine’s force field was strong. They had plenty of power, enough for a long, pitched battle. The trick to winning was to destroy the opposition before their power ran out.

“Got visual on the Shadow ship,” said Trimborn. The ship that was firing at them appeared over the edge of the globe in the holo. Long, slim, and sprouting four curved extensions, it was of an alien make that Jas didn’t recognize. It probably originated from the planet below, built by the native population and stolen by the Shadows after their invasion.

The Thylacine’s pulses were streaming toward it.

“Fire again,” Jas said. “Full attack.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Shorten our distance, Pilot,” said Jas.

Pilot Kennewell replied, “Engaging Raptors, Ma’am.”

Acceleration pushed Jas back in her seat as the Thylacine sped toward its attacker. The barrage of pulses that preceded it were met by a similar assault from the Shadow ship. As bolts of light collided, exploded, and dispersed, the Thylacine cut through the cloud of energized particles, leaving behind a charged wake. Jas hoped it was visible from the planet below, giving the invasion survivors hope that the Unity Alliance had come to their rescue.

“A second ship’s jumped in,” exclaimed Trimborn.

The hologram confirmed his words. Another Shadow ship winked into existence behind the Thylacine, so close that the energy of its jump hit them full force, rocking the ship.

“Krat,” muttered Jas, gripping her armrests. This was bad luck. There was no way the Shadows could have messaged for reinforcements. They hadn’t had time, even if the Thylacine wasn’t already dampening their comms. It was a coincidence that Jas’ ship had happened to arrive moments before a second Shadow ship, perhaps to relieve the first or intended to double the planet’s defenses.

This battle wasn’t going to be as straightforward as she’d hoped.

“Fire away at our second target.”

“Already on it, Ma’am,” came the reply. The pulses flew out toward the new aggressor.

The officer should have awaited her order, but Jas didn’t object. Her team were battle-seasoned. She trusted them to use their initiative, and they knew it. Waiting for her command would only have wasted precious time. The new ship had a window of about a second before it could get its force field up. If they could score a hit in that time, they could do significant damage.

“Direct hit!”

The Thylacine was still zooming closer to the original Shadow ship and away from their surprise attacker. The ship they were leaving in their wake shuddered as their pulses hit it, but that was it. The holo displayed no debris.

“We didn’t breech their hull,” exclaimed Trimborn.

“Maintain fire,” Jas said evenly. “Equal pulses. Both ships.” Failure to inflict serious damage when a ship’s force field was down was rare. She leaned forward, peering closely at the new ship. It was another kind that she’d never seen before. In five years of battles, she’d seen many starships fighting on both sides of the Shadow War. The Unity Alliance ships and the Shadow ships couldn’t be distinguished by type because the Shadows stole their ships from the other side. Over time, she’d gotten to know most models and their capabilities.

Only occasionally now did Jas encounter an unfamiliar ship. Yet here were two she didn’t know. Had the Shadows begun to manufacture their own ships to their own specifications?

The second ship began its pursuit as they sped away. Jas clenched her jaw. Taking out one average Shadow ship was achievable. The Thylacine had done it often enough. Taking out two—one of which seemed exceptionally well-protected—would be tough.

“Pulses incoming.”

The ship vibrated again under the heavy fire.

“Fighters launched from Shadow ship two,” said Trimborn.

Jas’ stomach twisted. She raised her comm button to her lips. “Squadron Leader, scramble all fighters.”

In her mind, she saw the pilots in their single-seater, highly maneuverable ships as they prepared to enter space. They would defend the Thylacine against the attacking fighters. Ships’ force fields protected against high-energy pulses, but close-range, low-energy fighter fire penetrated them. Protracted fighter fire on vulnerable spots could cripple a ship.

Despite the danger, Jas hated deploying the fighters. The pilots’ chances of survival once they left the ship were terrible. In the average battle, fewer than sixty percent would make it back alive. Jas’ stats were somewhat better, mostly because she did whatever she could to avoid risking the pilots’ lives—something Admiral Pacheco criticized her for, though she’d never lost a battle yet.

But in the current situation, she had no choice.

“Kennewell,” she said. “As the last fighter leaves, hard to port.” The fighter ships would exit the ship to starboard. She needed to give them room to maneuver, and she wanted to avoid becoming sandwiched between the two Shadow ships.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Kennewell replied, her hands hovering over her controls.

The Thylacine continued to vibrate as the odd attacking pulse impacted their defenses. Their pulses were also scoring hits, however, gradually wearing down their enemies’ power levels.

Inertia pushed Jas to the right as Kennewell swiftly maneuvered the ship. Their own and the enemy’s fighters were now visible on the holo, specks of speedily moving light swirling around the ship, streaming out to meet the enemy’s oncoming specks.

“Drop force field power fifty percent. Direct all pulses at ship one,” Jas commanded, guessing that the second ship wouldn’t fire pulses through the ranks of their own fighters to attack the Thylacine. Temporarily diverting the ship’s force field to pulses was worth the risk. If they hit ship one now with everything they had…

The bolts poured across space toward the first Shadow ship. The pulses emitted were so intense they looked like one continuous stream of light leading from the Thylacine to its enemy. They swamped it with light.

Trimborn was intent on his scanner. “Their force field’s breaking down, Commander.”

“Some fighter fire hitting our bay doors,” came another voice.

Jas’ eyes swept to the interplay of fighter ships executing a macabre dance in the space between the Thylacine and the second Shadow ship. Some enemy fighters had slipped through, and sprays of flickering sparks were springing from them. The Thylacine’s fighters were onto them, however. Several peeled away from the rest and swept back toward the ship.

“We’re in,” exclaimed Trimborn.

Jas tutted. The man’s speech always became inexact when he was over-excited. “We’ve broken through ship one’s force field, Trimborn?”

“Yes, Sir…Ma’am.” He swallowed. “Yes, Commander Harrington.”

The bridge of the Thylacine trembled so violently, Jas was almost thrown from her seat. “Force field one hundred percent,” she barked as she recovered her balance. “Damage report.”

“They’ve blasted our bay doors wide open,” an officer said. “But—”

Trimborn gave a whoop. “We’ve got them!”

Jas turned to the holo to see if Trimborn meant what she thought he meant. Sure enough, the first Shadow ship’s extensions on one side were blown clean off and were spinning away into space. As she watched, another of the Thylacine’s pulses hit and cleaved the central section into two parts.

“Shadow fighters returning to their ship,” said an officer.

As if in response to the first ship’s destruction, the specks of light from the second ship sped back home. Jas frowned. Their actions probably meant only one thing, Jas realized. But surely it was too soon for that?

As the enemy fighters left the battle scene, the Thylacine’s did the same, clearing the path for pulses. Not for the first time, Jas was grateful for her smart squadron leader. Once the fighters were outside the ship, both sides’ comm dampeners made giving orders impossible. The man was acting alone.

“Ship two’s building energy,” Trimborn said.

“Fire at will,” commanded Jas. They would make the best use of the remaining time.

The Thylacine poured pulses onto the enemy ship. But, like its hull, the ship’s force field was formidable. Their attack seemed to have little impact.

Everyone on the bridge fixed their gaze on the hologram and was still. No one even seemed to breathe. The Thylacine’s pulses were bathing the enemy ship in light, so that only its outline was visible above the slowly turning golden globe.

Then it was gone. The second ship had jumped.

There was a sigh of exhaled breath, and relieved chatter sprang up.

“I want a full damage report,” Jas barked. “Begin repairs immediately, and scan the remaining ship’s parts for signs of life. Trimborn, assemble a team to sweep the planet.”

Her tone quietened the room, and heads turned to their screens as everyone went back to their tasks.

Jas frowned. That was much, much too easy. And the two new models of starships added to her suspicions. Had the Shadows had developed new tactics? She would have to speak to Pacheco the next opportunity she had.

Jas’ face became grim. Her next task was a grim one. After briefly checking that everyone on the bridge was focused on their jobs, she opened the interface on her armrest.

As the fighter pilots returned to the ship, their embedded microchips would be recognized by the ship’s computer. Jas’ interface displayed a list of pilots’ names. A dot would appear next to each as the pilot returned. Later, after the search for any missing pilots was completed, Jas would write the families of those who hadn’t been found, and tell them their loved one was missing in action, presumed dead.

She didn’t have to do this job, as Pacheco had reminded her several times, but she did it anyway. The reason was, each time that she did it, it reminded her of a pilot she had once known. She performed this personal service for the missing pilots’ families because she knew that she would have liked to receive that news, rather than be left never really knowing what had happened to him.