CAVE IN THE SKY is here!
ZostaMax survived, but only just. New Ancestors arrive, creating a new orbit of power. Caught between a centuries old cold war of political manipulation, military escalation, and expanding colonies, ZostaMax faces something incomprehensibly more powerful, more dangerous, and entirely unknown. Can he keep his sanity in the face of the truth? And if he does, will the truth take him back to civilization?
Book 2 of The Descendant Saga, Cave in the Sky pushes the series deeper into epic space opera and military science fiction, expanding the conflict to a new galactic scale.
Now available in E-book, paperback, and audiobook.
👉 Visit the Cave in the Sky Amazon page:
Hello, and welcome to the slightly delayed but very important December 2025 issue of Tight Beam.
The delay, is because we finished the book. The second book in The Descendant Saga, Cave in the Sky is available! Check it out here:
Now you know the reason the the delay, and what we have been doing. The second important thing we have to share with you, is what we are doing next. Nerd Smith Consolidated LLC now has it’s own website. It’s empty for now, but our goal for January is to build a new website and set up a new store page there too. Not just our 3D printed trinkets on Etsy. But real merch for true nerds and sci-fi fans. A new year, bringing a fresh new look for the publishing company. NSC LLC can continue to bring you the creative and curated new classics.
In celebration of the release of book two, Cave in the Sky, we included bellow, a the short story from the author Chace “Blue light”. This is a canon event within The Descendant Saga.
“Big Sarge, isn’t this a waste of time? If they tracked the debris from orbit with satellites and confirmed the wreckage with drones, why do we have to hike out here to look at it too?”
“Private, this is the army, everything is a waste of time, but we’re low ranking, so we’re out here on captain’s orders to look at this stuff, because they waste our time, not the captain’s time.”
The private panted for breath in between replies, his boots crunching in the leaf litter as they struggled up the side of the mountain. “What is even the point of coming to look at this stuff?”
“Who knows what the science nerds might learn from it, it’s alien metal. It might be a whole new kind of metal or something.”
“It fell from orbit. What are they going to learn from some random metal? It’s going to be all burnt and melted and twisted and…”
“Private, shut up. That’s above both our pay grades.” Both men pulled up short as a group of small birds flushed from a tree ahead of them, scattering and squawking over the mountain side.
The Sargent keyed his radio. “Corporal, come in. You set off the birds, something happen up there?”
He waved at the private to stop. The younger man gladly sunk to one knee, breathing hard under the weight of all his gear, silently glad to have the cool mountain air fill his lungs as the exertion threatened to overheat him. They waited, listening to the fuzz of static in their headsets. No answer came.
“Corporal, answer me,” repeated the Sargent.
“Should we try for Dobeki?”
The Sargent shot the private a look from under the rim of his helmet. “You know why they call me Big Sarge?”
“You’re like ten centimeters taller than Dobeki?” replied the private.
“Because he’s fuckin’ little sarge. Shut up and let me work. Corporal, come in, your batteries die?”
A light flashed ahead of them, a sharp blue that made the private wince. Big sarge jumped sideways, skidding in all the leaf litter as he came to rest behind the scaly bark of an old twisted tree. “Private get to cover, get your weapon ready.”
The young man looked at him confused, a burst of static played over the radio, screeching in their ears, the private winced, big sarge pulled the headset off from under his helmet and cinched his chinstrap down.
The private had never seen big sarge fasten his chin strap before, this was serious. With a grunt, he got back on his feet, unlatching his weapon from his chest. He carried the squad’s automatic weapon, and he extended the support arm, that mounted to his waist holding the bulky weapon up.
The static came over the radio again, so loud Sarge could still hear it from the headset even as it dangled around his neck. The private flinched as the noise assaulted his ears. “turn off your radio!” Sarge whisper shouted at the private as he shuffled over behind his own tree. Another flash of light came from higher up the mountain, filtered through the trees.
The Sargent reared up, shouting from deep in his chest ensuring he was heard in the way only Sargents can. “FALL BACK!”
The overlapping sn-sn-sn-snap sound from higher up on the mountain told him someone was shooting as the repeating supersonic craps of a rail gun’s projectiles echoed in the valley.
The blue light flashed again. The Sargent swore under his breath as he shrugged out from the straps of his back pack, letting it tumble into the leaves behind him. He called to the private as he retrieved his bag “If you see something move, shoot it until it stops moving”
“Something? Anything? The rest of the squad is up there.”
“Not anymore, private, mouth shut, eyes open.” He pointed up the slope with one hand as the other fumbled with the zipper of his pack.
He yanked the pack open and the tree behind him exploded in splinters and bark as the blue light flashed again, the heat burning the hair off big sarge’s arms. “open fire!” he shouted to the private as he pulled a plastic case from out of the back pack.
The private’s eyes watered, his vision still swimming from the blinding flash of light. The air was thick with the smell of tree sap and burnt wood, the private could taste it as he still gasped for air from their hike. His shoulder still against the tree trunk he rolled around to face up hill. He didn’t see anything, and the optic on his weapon didn’t indicate anything either, but big sarge had given and order, he held the trigger down and sprayed sintered projectiles from his rail gun over the mountainside.
The Sargent yanked the drone from inside the plastic case and turned it on before he heaved it in the air. Its fans kicked on and it hovered three meters up, the down force from its half dozen rotors stirred the leaf litter. “Keep firing!” He shouted over the whine of the drone’s electric motors.
The private let off another long burst into the trees as the Sargent entered commands into the drone from the keypad on his wrist. A clang and a whistle told the two men that one of the private’s rounds had ricocheted. “Shoot it again!” shouted the Sargent.
“Shoot what!” The private’s voice climbed an octave higher with fear.
“They’re here!” the Sargent bellowed as he punched another key and the drone zipped off, the squeal of its electric motors growing sharp as it went to max power and sailed up into the air, the noise fading as the drone was swallowed by the mists looming in the valley.
“They can’t be here! That wreckage fell from orbit, I heard the battleship scored a hit with the main guns.”
The Sargent readied his own weapon. “I said shoot it again!”
The private fired more, shouting in fear as he did, eyes closed as he swung his muzzle back and forth over the mountainside. The Sargent leveled his own rifle, the display inside his optic scanning, but his weapon’s sensors finding nothing as he looked over the leaf litter. Silence filled the valley as the private let off the trigger again. No more ricochets, not another hit scored.
The silence drug on, the stillness unnerving. “We’ve gotta get out of here. Make ready to move, I’ll cover you, fifty meter sprints.”
“Big sarge what about the rest of the squad?”
“They’re dead, we gottaa move, or we will be too!” He tightened his core as the hairy veteran readied to fire. “Go! Go! Go!” He shouted to the private as he squeezed his trigger down, swinging his muzzle in a ninety degree ark, spreading his rail guns fifty round burst across the mountainside. He paused, looked for any signs of movement and fired another long burst, his rounds kicking up the leaf litter again.
He glanced over his shoulder as he saw the private skid in the detritus, tumbling down the slope as he fell, scrambling in behind another tree. His head and muzzle came back up. “Set!” his voice carried.
“Moving,” replied Big Sarge as he got his feet under him, leaving his empty pack and the case for the drone where they lay, making his own charge down the slope. The snap, snap, snap told him the private’s rounds were passing over his head as he fell back.
Big Sarge sprinted as fast as he dared down the mountain slope, his eyes frantically scanning his path, hoping he didn’t find a root or branch or rock amongst the leaf litter the hard way. He passed the Private and kept going. Selecting another tree, he slowed, and threw himself down in brush beneath the trunk, rolling from his chest, over his right shoulder onto his back and around onto his chest again as he angled himself back up hill, crushing the headset for his radio in the process. “Set” he shouted, between pants, trying to steady his vision through his rifle’s magnifier. The private didn’t move.
He fired a burst from his rifle. The private still hadn’t broken cover when the burst ended. Big Sarge shifted his focus, scanning the private through the optic of his rifle. Through the magnification of the scope he could see the private slumped against the trunk of the tree, the mechanical arm that braced his weapon still attached to his waist, but hit right arm, shoulder and head had been removed from his torso, and lay next to his body in the leaves, the helmet having slipped from his head and rolled further down the slop.
“Damn…”
There was a flash of blue light.
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The Descendant Saga 