Steel for Hire

Galactic Mercenaries, Book 1

By: Richard Fierce

Narrated by: Max Simshauser

Some jobs turn you into a zombie. Literally.

Captain Jayde Thrin of the cargo ship Determination has one goal: make enough money to retire in style. Her small mercenary crew travels the universe taking on odd jobs, but when a botched gig lands them in hot water, it’s up to Jayde to figure out their escape – and their survival.

The nearby mining planet M44 provides an opportunity to refuel and make a quick buck, but there’s more going on in the mines than anyone realizes. What Jayde expects to be an easy job turns out to be one of the hardest yet, especially with the outpost overrun with the undead.

Steel for Hire is the first episode of Galactic Mercenaries, a space opera series about zombies, space battles, alien invasion, and a misfit crew trying to survive in a dangerous universe.

©2019, 2024 Richard Fierce (P)2019 Richard Fierce

Threadbare part one

There’s not much to this other than your standard zombie plot … in space.
The story is just an outline that never details the world, characters or action. There’s a memory where Jayde says the child’s face burned off, but there’s no cries of agony or buildup to make us care.

Imagine being told the monster got Drake, Vazquez, and Hudson and then being told Ripley took out the alien. Without the details to paint a picture in our mind, it’s just rattling off redshirt names.

I’m assuming Jayde and her crew are all single, white, and of standard build because I can’t recall any details to give them personalities or backstories beyond their various experiences with the infected dead.

There’s no ending. I listened to the first three novellas and each was just “look, zombies! Pew. Pew. Faceless death.” and then on to the next mission.