Hi guys, we have Natsuya Uesugi stopping by today with his new release grydscaen: Dark, we have a fantastic exclusive excerpt and a brilliant giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway!❤ ~Pixie~
Dark
Natsuya Uesugi
A clandestine meet occurs in the Echelons under cover of darkness where Top Secret intel on the stock market changes hands. The insider tip gets the gothic hacker Jester engaged in a high tech game. Parliament votes to lower harsh stock market regulations fueling the Corporation’s bottom line, a payoff from ministers who were propped up by illegal corporate campaign donations. Ordered by Jester, the teenage hacker Rom infiltrates the largest high volume brokerage house causing wild gyrations in trading. When Jester triggers an insidious stock market payload, all hell breaks loose threatening the pristine City. Will Zoon, the leader of the Triumvirate, get roped into the fray? Can Raven, the government hacker, put the cryptic clues together before the market crashes? Find out in grydscaen:dark. Whose side are you on?
Exclusive Excerpt!
Rom goes to Hack nightclub
Rom stood on the street corner at a lamppost lounging, headphones blaring electronica to block out the noise. He watched people shuffle about aimlessly down the alleyway trying to get away from the chaos. There were people shoving and yelling on the main streets, placards and signs held high, fights breaking out randomly in the fray. The shouting and chanting of “Down with the Elite government” rang through the air. The riots were everywhere, affecting all main streets in the Echelons. There were beatings and the Newsfeed had broadcast numerous rapes that had happened overnight and two in broad daylight just this morning.
There were three Zone Police officers at the alleyway where the entrance to Jester’s hacker guild was. Rom gave it a few more minutes but the cops didn’t clear out. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trench coat and abandoned his position.
He sneaked down the sidewalk east towards Hack, the tech and ware nightclub and saluted the bouncer playfully who let him in without carding him. Rom had a birthday yesterday, still too young to get into Hack though his fake ID said otherwise. He let his birthday go by. He was unimpressed, taking his iodine pills on schedule just glad to have survived the year without getting radiation sickness.
Rom took the back stairs to the second floor and found the hardline terminals at the rear of the dark room. The DJ booth was to the left near the computer entertainment setup where hacking was executed, the code projected on the wall sized display board in the middle of the room. He pulled the headphones off his ears letting them rest around his neck. Hack’s DJ in a trance set, the senso enhanced music created a low ambient buzz that left a feeling of excitement on the room. Rom pulled out the chair in front of the far left NEK hardline terminal and sat down softly clasping his hands in his fingerless gloves and stretching his fingers. He pulled a pin drive out of his pocket and attached it to the front port engaging, fingers flying across the keys as he logged in.
Rom pulled his handheld out of his pocket and sent a text to the Hack prize desk. A few minutes later the prize desk operator came over waving a red data card.
“You asked for the fix?”
“Yeah. It encrypts the traffic, no trace back, cycling, no IP?” inquired Rom.
“The same. Any code and data is wiped on session exit. Messages display for five seconds then ether, gone.”
“Solid. I want it,” smiled Rom and stood up.
The prize desk operator grabbed the back of the chair yanking it out of the way and leaned in inserting the data card into the terminal. A prompt came up and he typed a string of code that displayed in white characters across the black screen then hit the Command button. A popup flashed with a message that displayed on screen: ‘Full encrypt. No trace back. Fix secure until logoff.’
The prize desk operator pulled the data card out and smiled wide. “All set. Now don’t destroy the government on that thing.”
“Exactly…” chuckled Rom.
The operator patted him on the shoulder and left as Rom sat back down and navigated to the pin drive, copied a script and loaded it onto the terminal.
grydscaen series!
Lino just wanted peace. All he got was war.
In the year After Colony 2055 there was the Great War. SenseNet government scientists harnessed their knowledge of nuclear weapons and created a new form of energy. This kedek energy was a natural found occurrence that existed in pools far inside the planet. Harnessing this energy into weapons called kedek bombs, scientists warned these weapons were unsafe and should never be used.
The draconian Atlantea Federation conquered more than half of the world’s territories. A group of islands and nation states formed the Pacific Territories and in a single brave act retaliated in a battle known as the Blood Red Incident. The Atlantea Federation responded with wrath releasing the kedek-based Dionysis Effect nuclear bomb stolen from the SenseNet. The untested weapon’s radioactive fallout created Codess which manifested as psychic powers.
Pacific Territories’ society was segregated into citizens and non-citizens. Only citizens could reside in the pristine City. Non-citizens were left with poverty and strife in the Zone where the bomb had gone off, or in the Echelons with the Red Light District, drugs, and crime.
A group of hackers rose up to combat government oppression and injustice by the Zone Police. Enforcement squads rounded up psychics nightly taking them to work camps in the toxic kedek mines. The Terror Hack used guerrilla warfare to fight the Elite government. The Packrats, a cyber terrorist organization vowed to regain control and free society through cyber revolution. Run by the elite hacker Faid Callen, he created the Packrat Sprawl and set up the Runners, Wastes, Acolytes, Hosts, Prophets and Mobile Command. Each faction possessed deadly skills and laws in the Packrat Code that ruled their actions. Civil war ripped at the heart of society.
The son of the Viceroy, Lino Dejarre had psychic power. All he wanted was peace. He joined the Psi Faction as a clandestine psychic operative and was tasked to capture Faid Callen and quell the violence. When the Atlantea Federation attacked the City, Lino found himself once more answering the royal edict and forced to become Sub Viceroy and rule as war raged around him.
Separated at age nine and banished from the royal family, Riuho Dejarre’s hatred for Lino grew as he tried to scrape out a life in the slum level Echelons while Lino lived in the pristine City. Stripped of his citizenship, Riuho vowed he would get revenge and did everything in his power to thwart Lino’s every move. From his first encounter with the Atlantea Federation, Riuho found his place and the resources to get what he desired.
The Atlantea Federation attacked brutally on the ground and also threatened the Pacific Territories’ space colonies. Lino and his Psi Faction team were roped into global diplomacy, inter-colony politics, covert missions, battleships, and space battles where they encounter the Atlantea Federation head on. When Riuho once more enters the fray, the high stakes game threatens to destroy everything for which Lino has worked.
Intrigue, psychic powers, clandestine operations, treaties, politics and a hacker revolution. From space battles, to kidnappings and assassinations, and battleships off the coast, grydscaen is filled with in depth characters and richly detailed storylines that peak your interest and keep you coming back for more.
About Natsuya Uesugi!
Natsuya Uesugi is a systems analyst and ethical hacker by day and a manga artist and a writer by night. With an MBA in International Management and a minor in Japanese, Natsuya insists on showcasing diversity in his writing using his Japanese, Native American and African American heritage.
He studied animation and game design in art school and has published the grydscaen manga “A Storm’s Coming” which features the LGBT teen Rom from “grydscaen: dark,” and two manga in the yaoi series “graphic noiz.” Two episodes of the short anime “A Storm’s Coming” is available with a third episode planned. Four counseling centers are currently using the “A Storm’s Coming” novelette to help LGBT homeless youth and troubled teens with self esteem.
He is author of the dystopian cyberpunk “grydscaen” series, the dark fantasy trilogy “”The Seer of Grace and Fire,” and the yaoi novels and manga “graphic noiz.” He enjoys skydiving, cosplay, watching anime in Japanese, watching French news, World Cub futbol, eating ramen and anything with matcha, and writing poetry.
Website | Facebook | Facebook Author Page | Twitter | Amazon Author
Giveaway!
Win ecopy of grydscaen: tribute and A Storm’s Coming one shot manga!
Sounds like a interesting read. Congrats on your new book!