Military/Sci-Fi
Date Published: September 6, 2022
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
FNG: noun. informal. Military term, “F****** New Guy”: a person just out of training or newly transferred into the unit, who either hasn’t proved their worth or doesn’t know how to operate properly due to lack of experience.
“Welcome to Black Spear.” With these four words Cole West is immediately thrust into the shadowy world of the military’s most deadly black-ops program. No warning. No training. No choice but to buckle up as Black Spear conscripts him to fight against a paramilitary group of renegade veterans known only as “Terminal.”
Terminal is no ragtag militia but a veritable private army of disgruntled soldiers with one mission: Stop at nothing to topple the government they think failed them. Armed with a highly volatile bioweapon capable of absorbing the properties of other contagions, they plan to wash the country clean through an ocean of blood.
It’s up to Cole West and Black Spear to prevent Terminal’s terrorist attacks and stop the insurrection before it can happen. To survive in Black Spear, West will have to prove himself. But even on day one, there are no second chances…
EXCERPT
There are days in your life when you’re hit with that proverbial fork in the road. Most of the time you aren’t aware of it until after it’s far behind you. Both of my parents dying had been like that. So had deciding to enlist, but today wouldn’t be like that at all. I could see this fork in the road clear as day, and it came about with those two simple words. Black Spear.
It explained what Vaun had said to Tarly in his office. A name-drop that silenced every smart-ass remark I would have made in any other circumstance.
Black Spear – a name spoken in hushed whispers in every branch of the military, while often joked about by the junior ranks in the same way they joked about the Men in Black. It was the great boogeyman of the military community. Assassinations. Espionage. International subterfuge. Destabilizing and deposing dictatorships. The type of shit that would’ve gotten Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum hard.
Throw a stone at a group of Marines and you’re bound to hit a guy who knows a guy in Special Forces or CounterIntel. But nobody knew anyone in Black Spear. The reason why is quite simple: Black Spear wasn’t supposed to exist. People said it was bad luck to even say the name. When I was new, I was warned that just Googling “Black Spear” was a surefire way to end up as a missing person’s case. Talk of them emerged like rumors passed around on a smoke break, a dark shadow people tried to lighten up by painting as a joke.
But it was here. And it was real. And I sat in a room with a man who had me fully convinced that it was no laughing matter.
About the Author
Born and raised in California, Benjamin J. Spada has had a lifelong passion for storytelling. Benjamin, a self-described “Professor of Batmanology,” is a dedicated taco aficionado, and proud Fil-Am and lumpia enthusiast who has served in the United States Marine Corps for the past decade. He has taught martial arts , operated as a section leader in the Wounded Warrior Battalion for our nation’s wounded, ill, and injured, and served overseas to help train our foreign military allies in defense against chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. He has trained Marines, sailors, federal agents, and other friendly forces in individual survival measures. Despite these grim assignments, he has carried on with equal amounts of sarcasm and stoicism. When out of uniform, Benjamin is an avid sci-fi and horror movie fan, tattoo collector, comic enthusiast, and two-time holder of the Platinum Trophy in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. FNG: a Black Spear Novel is Benjamin’s debut novel. Benjamin lives with his wife Jacqueline and their three daughters, Elizabeth, Isabella, and Alexandra, in Oceanside, California.
Contact Links
Website | Facebook
Twitter: @spadaben
Purchase Link
Sounds excellent! Thank you for sharing!