Read The Exiled Earthborn for Free Online Page A

too short to be Xalan. It raised the rifle and Lucas instinctively reached for a gun he did not have.
    The figure’s head jerked right and blood sprayed out of the side of the shattered helmet. The suit of armor dropped to the ground as if the body inside had evaporated entirely. A man strode through the flames from inside the main room. It was Mars Maston, uniform scorched and ears bleeding, clutching a long silver energy pistol. He met Lucas’s eyes briefly, but his attention was soon caught by the body below him. He immediately dropped to his knees.
    “Cora!” he yelled. “Cora!” He attempted to find a heartbeat as Lucas had and discovered the same sickening truth. He smashed his hand against the stone and turned a fierce gaze toward Lucas.
    “Come, now!” he shouted as he rose to his feet, lifting the still smoldering Corinthia. He put her over his shoulder and clutched his pistol with his free hand. Lucas stumbled over to the dead invader and picked up his weapon, which strangely resembled a shortened version of the Xalan rifles he’d become intimately familiar with.
    The scene inside was chaotic. The entire room was on fire and bodies littered the ground, including two armed guards on either side of Lucas as they entered. There were audible screams, but through the smoke it was impossible to tell where they were coming from. Lucas stumbled over a body. His ears still rang and smoke filled his lungs.
    Ahead, two more armored figures streaked with red marched through the carnage, firing at those stirring on the ground or attempting to flee. They saw Maston and Lucas too late and were each met with a round to the skull. Lucas’s instinctive shot from the energy rifle vaporized his target’s head entirely, much to Lucas’s surprise.
    “Asha!” Lucas called out, but heard only unidentified shrieks in reply. “Asha!”
    “This way!” Maston shouted as he pulled him in the direction of the large throne, Corinthia’s body dangling down his back. The central serving table was in splinters and a circular blast pattern on the floor seemed to indicate it was the origin point of the explosion. In the distant smoke, more armored figures lumbered about. Lucas fired indiscriminately at them, but couldn’t tell if he was landing any shots. How had they gotten past Tannon’s security? Another one entered from the balcony they’d come from. It was clear this was an aerial assault. The newly arrived intruder took a pair of rounds from Maston and went down. Lucas saw palace guards enter from a passageway on the other end of the room and engage the armored troops as surviving civilians scrambled for safety behind them.
    They approached the throne and Maston waved his hand, which drew out a holographic interface from the ancient, and now blackened, marble. He moved various virtual pieces around, and with a groan, the massive seat slid forward on the ground. At the base was square hole with a metal ladder.
    “Inside!” Maston yelled.
    “No!” Lucas replied as loudly as he could muster, ash burning his lungs. He turned back to the fiery room.
    “Asha!” he yelled hoarsely as he walked toward the inferno. Maston tried to reach for him, but with Corinthia on his back and a weapon in his hand, he couldn’t stop him.
    And then, there she was.
    Lucas saw two armored men dragging a woman with curled black hair over her face, clad in an unmistakable red dress and a jeweled necklace reflecting the flames around it. They went around the corner and out the balcony entryway on the other side of the room.
    Lucas tried to sprint, but almost fell. He braced himself against the wall and continued forward as fast as he could manage. It was hard to even understand what hurt in his body anymore. A flood of adrenaline had shoved the pain away for later.
    Stepping over another dead guard, he reached the opening. Rounding the corner with his rifle barrel, his sudden and unexpected appearance caught a man standing there by complete