Liza shares Scavenger's Mission

Scavenger’s Mission

By Liza O’Connor

Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

Post-Apocalyptic

Blurb

Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her parents want.

In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger.  While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.

Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort with little to do other than arrest the occasional scavenger.

For the first time in his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger and he’ll have to arrest her.  But first he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His videographer has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is astounding!

He forgoes arresting her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.

Meet MAC: The Artificial Intelligence that runs the SkyRyders Corps.

Upon seeing her arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent; they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its top asset and soon she proves her value. 

But…the SkyRyders remain a male dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a regimented Corps?

Excerpt

When Logan read Philly his orders to report to MAC, the flyer nodded and apologized.

“For what?”

“You have no idea what this inquiry is like for us.”

“Evidently not. I would think it would be simple. Tell the truth and get rid of your problem.”

Philly whispered so softly, Logan could barely hear him. “But what if that doesn’t happen? What if the problem remains and now wants payback?”

“You have to have faith in the system, soldier.”

“The system doesn’t always protect a lowly flyer, sir. In this case, it may not even protect you.”

“Are you threatening me, Philly?” Logan asked in surprise.

“No, sir! I would never… I think the world of you. You’re everything a flyer should be. It’s my goal to be like you. I only meant there are some people who defy control and can twist situations to their own benefit.”

“You have no reason to fear DC anymore, Philly.”

“I want to believe you, sir, but…”

“But what?” Logan prompted when Philly seemed reluctant to finish the sentence.

Philly glanced at the bathroom door. “You weren’t even able to protect her, sir.”

His comment made Logan angry. Not only had he failed to protect Alisha, but his entire crew believed a personal relationship existed between himself and Alisha, and worse yet: that he thought her far more important than any of them.

“I can’t tell you what to believe, Philly, but understand this. My squad is very important to me, and as a member of my squad, Alisha Kane is important but no more so than you or Jersey or Ginnie. I’ll admit I’ve failed to protect all of you from DC. However, I had no idea what was going on until Alisha arrived. She’s the first of my crew to tell me the truth.”

Philly grimaced at his words but held his ground. “She almost died for that, sir. The only thing that saved her was some incredible flying. If it had been me, I would have died on the first stall-out.”

Logan sighed. “I get your point. And once we get this behind us, you’ll find I’m going to be far more involved in my crew, no matter how many complaints of interference my captain sends. But Philly, when you report to MAC, tell the absolute truth. It’s your only chance to get out from under this and get on with your career.”

SALES LINK

The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 1

Scavenger’s Mission

AMAZON

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

OTHER BOOKS BY LIZA O’CONNOR

SCIENCE FICTION

The Multiverse Series

Sci-Fi Soap Opera with humor, romance, and science

The Gods of Probabilities

Surviving Outbound

Surviving Terranue

Surviving Sojourn

Artificial Intelligence Series

Sci-Fi/Romance

Public Secrets

Birth of Adam

The SkyRyders Series

Sci-Fi Romance

Scavenger’s Mission

Scavenger Falters-coming 2017

Scavenger Vanishes-coming 2017

Liza O'Connor shares How to Motivate Soldiers in Scavenger's Mission

How to Motivate Soldiers

General Powell likes for his men to stand out and sparkle. So after a battle his approbations and punishments tend to be heavy handed. However, in the Ridge battle, which would have been a disaster had Alisha not been able to teach fifteen Ryders how to perform a vertical drop in less than an hour of training, he declared that everyone did a superb job except for Colonel Sparkes. Sparkes he ran through a meat grinder for not knowing information about the Drug Cartels. It didn’t matter this was the first time MAC had sent them after a Cartel.  But then it was the first time a cartel had taken over the Wind Farms to store their drugs. MAC depends on the electricity from those Wind Farms, so it wanted the nest of vermin removed. But neither MAC nor any Ryder comprehended what they were going up against. Only Senna knew a bit from the month she spent with Denny on the streets. He knew everything about anything that might improve his chances of surviving one more day.

Scavenger’s Mission

By Liza O’Connor

Blurb

Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her parents want.

In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger.  While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.

Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort with little to do other than arrest the occasional scavenger.

For the first time in his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger and he’ll have to arrest her.  But first he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His videographer has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is astounding!

He forgoes arresting her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.

Meet MAC: The Artificial Intelligence that runs the SkyRyders Corps.

Upon seeing her arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent; they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its top asset and soon she proves her value. 

But…the SkyRyders remain a male dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a regimented Corps?

Excerpt

Sparkes sighed and stood up. “Can’t say I’m looking forward to this one. The general has forewarned me I’m in for a public beating.”

Alisha looked up in outrage, but before she could protest, Sparkes stopped her. “For my initial battle plan and for failing to get proper intel on the situation.”

“That’s not fair! He obviously didn’t know about Wednesday being market day either. And the plan we took into battle was a complete and absolute success.”

Logan agreed with her arguments. He hadn’t known any more than Sparkes about “market day”. Drug raids were new. For years they’d been doing nothing but fighting terrorists and scavengers. This had been their first drug raid. Still, the speed with which Alisha came to Sparkes’ rescue caused a distinct tension in his stomach.

“Yes, and he took that into consideration, so I won’t lose my rank, but I will take a beating. It’s important for the men to know you can’t just perform well some of the time. You must do so all of the time.”

Alisha turned to Logan. “Under the same criteria, I shouldn’t receive any commendations either.”

“That’s true,” Logan said. “However, to not give you a commendation, the general would have to explain to his men what you did to undo your tremendous contributions of the day, and he doesn’t wish to officially charge you with disobeying an order. So, for the benefit of the troops, you will receive your commendation.”

“That’s not fair treatment. If he’s going to hold Colonel Sparkes responsible for intel he didn’t know, then he should hold me responsible for orders I disobeyed.”

Her continued defense of Sparkes pissed him off. “He feels your rapid escalation to captain may have left you unprepared to make good decisions under stress. It is my duty to train you as quickly as possible. And any future failure on your part will be seen as a failure on my part as well, so when I say you will accept your commendations today without incident, I hope you understand it’s an order and not a request.”

“Yes, sir.” She lowered her eyes.

“Then go to the mess hall and round up the squad. I’ll be down directly,” Logan snapped.

SALES LINK

The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 1

Scavenger’s Mission

AMAZON

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

OTHER BOOKS BY LIZA O’CONNOR

SCIENCE FICTION

The Multiverse Series

Sci-Fi Soap Opera with humor, romance, and science

The Gods of Probabilities

Surviving Outbound

Surviving Terranue

Surviving Sojourn

Artificial Intelligence Series

Sci-Fi/Romance

Public Secrets

Birth of Adam

The SkyRyders Series

Sci-Fi Romance

Scavenger’s Mission

Scavenger Falters-coming 2017

Scavenger Vanishes-coming 2017

Scavenger's Mission, book 1, a snippet

Sometimes trouble can be a good thing...  A change in the weather caused Alisha's catcher to deflate at 5,000 feet. For any other flyer, this would have meant floating the chute like a parachute into the Cully River only to be devoured by meateaters, but Alisha deflates her chute entirely and rides the winds, focused on the bank. Only to survive the impact, she will need to re-engage the chute to act like a break before she hits the ground. (She's never tried this before, but it's the only chance she has at surviving.)

Alisha focused on her desired landing site, estimating her speed and mentally calculating the time she’d need to open the chute. Trusting her intuition, fifteen feet above land she pulled the toggles to reopen the catcher.

Within less than a second, she felt the jerk of the harness as the chute opened and slowed her descent. Unfortunately, the catcher was pulling her back toward the river.

Damn it! I opened it too soon.

Collapsing it again, she stretched toward the shore and hit hard on the soft, marshy edge of grass.

The grasses softened her impact, but it still took a few moments to regain her senses. She lay precariously on the riverbank with her feet dangling over the edge. Careful not to wiggle her legs or feet, lest she entice a meat-eater to jump from the water for a tasty morsel, she reached out, grabbed the bottom stalks of the tough river grass, and slowly pulled her body forward.

***

“Flyer in trouble,” the old toll-taker yelled, pointing into the air. “One of yours?”

“Damn well better not be,” Logan said as he watched the flyer with a collapsed catcher soar at an angle over the Cully River, heading toward the left bank. Logan saw no way this would end well. Yet through some incredible manipulation of the collapsed catcher, the flyer actually landed on the edge of the bank. Unfortunately, his legs dangled over the water.

“Poor fool,” Logan muttered, knowing the inevitable tragedy about to occur. At the first wiggle of those legs, the meat-eaters prowling this section of the river would break the surface and pull him under.

Logan watched in amazement as the flyer slowly pulled himself onto the bank without seeming to move at all. Only when his legs were two yards inland did the flyer stand. Logan followed the direction of the flyer’s attention and saw his catcher had fallen on the east side of the river.

“Damn lucky fool,” Logan declared as he hurried to the catcher.

Only later does he realize the 'fellow' is a young woman....

The SkyRyders Series

Sci-Fi Romance

Scavenger’s Mission

Scavenger Falters-coming 2017

Scavenger Vanishes-coming 2017

Scavenger Falters, book 2, a snippet

A Snippet from Scavenger Falters

Jack gently pulled her into his arms. “I would have retrieved your catcher if it had been nothing more than regulation gear. He’s just mad because I had the opportunity to do it and he didn’t.” Jack paused and then added. “And maybe because you were coming on to me shamelessly.”

“I was not!” she countered, angry that her plan had been so transparent.

“I’ve seen enough flirting to know it when I see it. You were definitely hitting on me. Now either you’ve changed your mind and you do want to sleep with me, or you and Logan had a fight this morning and you wanted to make him jealous.”

Alisha leaned her head into Jack’s chest. “I don’t want to sleep with you Jack!” she growled with certainty.

“That’s good, because if you were seriously coming on to me, we’d have a problem.”

She glared up at him. “Am I that repulsive?” 

“Not at all,” he assured her, stroking her cheekbone. “You are absolutely breathtaking, but my heart already belongs to someone else.”

“Then why are you so nice to me?” she demanded.

“Because I think you are the most extraordinary person I’ve ever met and I enjoy your company immensely.”

Alisha gave him an apologetic smile. “Thanks, I think you’re pretty swell too….as a friend.”

“I know. Your heart’s taken as well. But these old guys, they don’t cave easy.”

Alisha was on the verge of denying it was the colonel, but she hated lying to Jack, and he wouldn’t have believed her denials anyway. He knew her too well. “Is it that obvious?”

“Actually, no. You’ve got the general convinced there’s nothing going on, and he’s a sharp old bird, always looking out for that sort of stuff.”

“Then how’d you figure it out?”

“Give me credit! I’m a brilliant visionary, able to pull together bits of intel and develop the enemy’s strategy—no wait that’s you. Well, then it’s probably because the speakerphone was still open when Logan confessed he loved you.”

“Did the general hear that?” Alisha asked in horror.

“Fortunately, no. I was the only one there, working desperately on creating battle plans for two scenarios: if you could do the impossible and if you could not. It’s a good thing you did the impossible, because my other battle plan truly sucked. Powell would have stripped me down to private if I had put that one in play.”

“You can’t tell anyone about Logan,” she said. “It’s very important to him, so important that he’s willing to give me up rather than to have anyone find out.”

“I understand better than you can imagine. And someday, I’ll share with you why, but right now, General Powell is going to flay me alive if we lose any more time dallying in Broadtown.”

“We could just fly back,” Alisha offered.

Jack looked pained. “Alisha, I said I retrieved your catcher, I didn’t say it was in one piece.”

Alisha took a deep breath to stall off more tears. “This day just keeps getting worse.”

“Don’t worry, having the general grill you for every detail of your flight will make the first half look downright pleasant in retrospect.” He reached into his bag and retrieved a manual. “And to liven the trip, I’ve brought an up-to-date version of the regs. The general has put me in charge of making certain you don’t disobey any further regs. In fact, since I’ve a prior history of involving myself, any infractions you do make will go on my record.”

“That’s not fair!” Alisha objected.

“No, but he’s pretty sure it will be effective, both in the speed you are taught the regs, and in reminding me never to put my career on line for anyone again.”

She hated that Jack had put his career in jeopardy for her, all because she hadn’t known a recent addition to the regulations, which required her to sign out before going airborne during battle. Alisha opened the book. “Are there any more stupid ones like 14.69.2?”

“Hey, there’s a bright side. You’ve one less to learn today,” Jack teased. “And while I’ve got you cheered up, I should warn you that due to a sudden influx of Broadtown and Doakstown Ryders, there are insufficient quarters and we’re going to be roommates for the next couple of weeks.”

“That doesn’t sound right. I should be bunking with the captains, not a colonel.”

“Trust me when I tell you that’s out of the question. You will be bunking with a colonel. You could bunk with Colonel Drake from Doakstown, but I should warn you, he snores louder than morning mess call.”

“Why can’t I bunk with Colonel Logan, if the general doesn’t believe anything is going on?”

“Two reasons: first Logan would never agree to it. He’d go sleep with Drake before sharing quarters with you. And second, the general wouldn’t agree to it, because he wants to preserve Logan’s good reputation. If you two bunked together that would create speculation that DC’s accusations are true.”

“But what about your reputation?” Alisha countered.

Jack laughed and shook his head. “My reputation is so ruined, that nothing can harm it further. Besides we are already a couple in everyone’s eyes, so it will only seem natural that you should choose to bunk with me.” 

The SkyRyders Series

Sci-Fi Romance

Scavenger’s Mission

Scavenger Falters-coming 2017

Scavenger Vanishes-coming 2017

MEET THE RYDERS