Sandstorm Box Set
The Complete Dystopian Sci-Fi Series (Books 1-4)
By
T.W. Piperbrook
Find him at
T.W. Piperbrook
www.twpiperbrook.com
www.facebook.com/twpiperbrook
©2020 Post Script Publishing
Cover Design
Jeff Brown Graphics
Typography
Polgarus Studio
Editing & Proofreading
Cathy Moeschet
Technical Consultants
John Cummings
Studio A.
Table of Contents
Preface
SANDSTORM Prologue
Chapter 1: Neena
Chapter 2: Raj
Chapter 3: Neena
Chapter 4: Raj
Chapter 5: Neena
Chapter 6: Gideon
Chapter 7: Darius
Chapter 8: Neena
Chapter 9: Gideon
Chapter 10: Darius
Chapter 11: Neena
Chapter 12: Raj
Chapter 13: Darius
Chapter 14: Gideon
Chapter 15: Neena
Chapter 16: Raj
Chapter 17: Neena
Chapter 18: Darius
Chapter 19: Neena
Chapter 20: Gideon
Chapter 21: Raj
Chapter 22: Raj
Chapter 23: Neena
Chapter 24: Raj
Chapter 25: Raj
Chapter 26: Gideon
Chapter 27: Neena
Chapter 28: Darius
Chapter 29: Darius
Chapter 30: Neena
Chapter 31: Raj
Chapter 32: Darius
Chapter 33: Neena
Chapter 34: Raj
Chapter 35: Neena
Chapter 36: Gideon
Chapter 37: Darius
Chapter 38: Neena
Chapter 39: Gideon
Chapter 40: Neena
Chapter 41: Raj
Chapter 42: Darius
Chapter 43: Darius
Chapter 44: Raj
Chapter 45: Neena
Chapter 46: Neena
Chapter 47: Gideon
Chapter 48: Neena
WINDSWEPT Preface
Chapter 1: Samel
Chapter 2: Samel
Chapter 3: Neena
Chapter 4: Helgid
Chapter 5: Neena
Chapter 6: Neena
Chapter 7: Darius
Chapter 8: Gideon
Chapter 9: Helgid
Chapter 10: Darius
Chapter 11: Neena
Chapter 12: The Abomination
Chapter 13: Gideon
Chapter 14: Neena
Chapter 15: Neena
Chapter 16: Darius
Chapter 17: Helgid
Chapter 18: Neena
Chapter 19: Gideon
Chapter 20: Neena
Chapter 21: Neena
Chapter 22: Neena
Chapter 23: Darius
Chapter 24: Darius
Chapter 25: Neena
Chapter 26: Gideon
Chapter 27: Neena
Chapter 28: Neena
Chapter 29: Kai
Chapter 30: Neena
Chapter 31: Neena
Chapter 32: Neena
Chapter 33: Darius
Chapter 34: Darius
Chapter 35: Neena
Chapter 36: Neena
Chapter 37: Kai
Chapter 38: Kai
Chapter 39: Kai
Chapter 40: Gideon
Chapter 41: Kai
Chapter 42: Kai
Chapter 43: Neena
Chapter 44: Gideon
Chapter 45: Helgid
Chapter 46: Raj
Chapter 47: Raj
Chapter 48: Samel
Chapter 49: Neena
Chapter 50: Raj
Chapter 51: Gideon
Chapter 52: Helgid
Chapter 53: Raj
Chapter 54: Raj
Chapter 55: Neena
Chapter 56: Gideon
Chapter 57: Neena
Chapter 58: Raj
Chapter 59: Neena
Chapter 60: Darius
Chapter 61: Raj
Chapter 62: Neena
Chapter 63: Darius
Chapter 64: Thorne
Chapter 65: Neena
Chapter 66: Neena
Chapter 67: Thorne
Chapter 68: Thorne
Chapter 69: Neena
Chapter 70: Neena
Chapter 71: Neena
Chapter 72: The Man
DUSTBORN Preface
Chapter 1: Neena
Chapter 2: Neena
Chapter 3: Raj
Chapter 4: Neena
Chapter 5: Raj
Chapter 6: Neena
Chapter 7: Neena
Chapter 8: Raj
Chapter 9: Gideon
Chapter 10: Kai
Chapter 11: Darius
Chapter 12: Neena
Chapter 13: Raj
Chapter 14: Neena
Chapter 15: Darius
Chapter 16: Neena
Chapter 17: Raj
Chapter 18: Raj
Chapter 19: Darius
Chapter 20: Gideon
Chapter 21: Raj
Chapter 22: Neena
Chapter 23: Bryan
Chapter 24: Bryan
Chapter 25: Raj
Chapter 26: Bryan
Chapter 27: Neena
Chapter 28: Neena
Chapter 29: Bryan
Chapter 30: Bryan
Chapter 31: Neena
Chapter 32: Raj
Chapter 33: Raj
Chapter 34: Neena
Chapter 35: Raj
Chapter 36: Raj
Chapter 37: Neena
Chapter 38: Neena
Chapter 39: Neena
Chapter 40: Raj
Chapter 41: Raj
Chapter 42: Sherry
Chapter 43: Bryan
Chapter 44: Raj
Chapter 45: Raj
Chapter 46: Bryan
Chapter 47: Neena
Chapter 48: Neena
Chapter 49: Bryan
Chapter 50: Bryan
Chapter 51: Raj
Chapter 52: Raj
Chapter 53: Bryan
Chapter 54: The Watcher
Chapter 55: Darius
Chapter 56: Neena
Chapter 57: Bryan
Chapter 58: Raj
Chapter 59: Bryan
Chapter 60: Darius
Chapter 61: Raj
Chapter 62: Bryan
Chapter 63: Bryan
Chapter 64: Neena
WAR TORN Preface
Chapter 1: Neena
Chapter 2: Bryan
Chapter 3: Raj
Chapter 4: Samara
Chapter 5: Samara
Chapter 6: Bryan
Chapter 7: Samel
Chapter 8: Raj
Chapter 9: Samel
Chapter 10: Raj
Chapter 11: Bryan
Chapter 12: Samel
Chapter 13: Bryan
Chapter 14: Sherry
Chapter 15: Raj
Chapter 16: Bryan
Chapter 17: Neena
Chapter 18: Kai
Chapter 19: Neena
Chapter 20: Neena
Chapter 21: Sherry
Chapter 22: Raj
Chapter 23: Bryan
Chapter 24: Neena
Chapter 25: Bryan
Chapter 26: Neena
Chapter 27: Raj
Chapter 28: Adriana
Chapter 29: Adriana
; Chapter 30: Neena
Chapter 31: Sherry
Chapter 32: Neena
Chapter 33: Neena
Chapter 34: Neena
Chapter 35: Neena
Chapter 36: Neena
Chapter 37: Raj
Chapter 38: Raj
Chapter 39: Bryan
Chapter 40: Sherry
Chapter 41: Neena
Chapter 42: Samel
Chapter 43: Raj
Chapter 44: Neena
Chapter 45: Samel
Chapter 46: Neena
Chapter 47: Neena
Chapter 48: Raj
Chapter 49: Bryan
Chapter 50: Louie
Chapter 51: Sherry
Chapter 52: Sherry
Chapter 53: Sherry
Chapter 54: Neena
Chapter 55: Raj
Chapter 56: Ed
Chapter 57: Neena
Chapter 58: Bryan
Chapter 59: Sherry
Chapter 60: Neena
Chapter 61: Neena
Chapter 62: Neena
Chapter 63: Neena
Chapter 64: Neena
Chapter 65: Raj
Chapter 66: Neena
Chapter 67: Neena
Chapter 69: Neena
Chapter 70: Bryan
Chapter 71: Neena
Chapter 72: Kai
Chapter 73: Neena
Chapter 74: Kai
Chapter 75: Samara
Chapter 76: Samara
Chapter 77: Neena
Chapter 78: Kai
Chapter 79: Kai
Chapter 80: Neena
Chapter 81: Kai
Chapter 82: Neena
Chapter 83: Neena
Chapter 84: Neena
Chapter 85: Louie
Chapter 86: Neena
Chapter 87: Neena
Chapter 88: Neena
Chapter 89: Louie
Chapter 90: Nicholas
Chapter 91: Neena
Chapter 92: Neena
Chapter 93: Neena
Chapter 94: Neena
Chapter 95: Kai
Chapter 96: Neena
Chapter 97: Kai
Chapter 98: Neena
Chapter 99: Neena
Chapter 100: Neena
Chapter 101: Neena
Chapter 102: Neena
Chapter 103: Raj
Chapter 104: Neena
Chapter 105: Neena
Chapter 106: Gideon
Epilogue
Afterword
Email & Facebook
Other Things To Read
Preface
Writing ideas come from the strangest places.
Sometimes they creep into our heads while we are on the cusp of sleep. Other times they tug at our subconscious as we go about our normal routines. In this case, the idea for Sandstorm came from a song title, which spawned a full-fledged world, filled with characters and a premise that I couldn’t ignore.
As the idea solidified, I envisioned a colony on a harsh desert planet called Ravar, its members cut off from their counterparts on Earth and forced to make do with limited resources. Over time, and with no communication from the supply ships or from Earth, the colonists accepted that perhaps this new planet was their home, and that they weren’t leaving.
New caste systems emerged. Stories and rumors developed into truths. And new generations would be taught the most important thing they needed: to survive.
The SANDSTORM series is the story of a young woman on a harsh planet, trying to provide for her family, but it is also the story of a group of outcasts, forced to come together and fight for the only world they know.
In this story, I pay homage to some of my favorite sci-fi classics, while (hopefully) providing some new twists and turns!
I hope you enjoy the SANDSTORM series!
Tyler Piperbrook
May 2018
SANDSTORM
A Dystopian Sci-Fi Story
Book 1 of the Sandstorm Series
Prologue
Something hissed at Akron.
He lifted his torch higher, inspecting the gloomy walls of the cave. Shadows grew and fled on the red, sloping stone on either side of him. Somewhere in the darkness above him, wings fluttered. He flicked his eyes upward, watching a bat’s shadow flit from one perch to another.
Another, louder hiss bounced off the walls. Something he couldn’t see was giving him a warning.
From outside, he heard the howl of the wind and the pelting debris from the sandstorm, from which the cave sheltered him.
His eyes searched the darkness.
Several crevices in the walls spoke of hiding places from which something might spring. But Akron couldn’t see what he’d alerted. He clutched the long knife in his hand as a thin scrape echoed around him. Sweat traced trails down Akron’s cheeks—sweat he was afraid to wipe. The humid cave felt even hotter.
Another hiss. A slither.
He turned.
A snake slid from the shadows, flicking its tongue as it exposed its venom-filled fangs. The light of Akron’s torch reflected off its black, oval eyes and its brown body. Akron froze with fear. He recalled the last time he had encountered a similar reptile. The venomous, six-foot-long creature had slid out at him before he’d had a chance to retaliate, striking the top of his boot. Those twin marks—still visible on the worn leather—should’ve warned him to stay away from the caves.
And yet here he was.
Slowly, the snake coiled, rubbing its keeled scales together. It inflated its body in a gesture of attack. He had seen several such creatures strike the colonists unaware, sending them into sicknesses that caused fiery pain and death. Those people had spent their last moments gasping for air, whispering for someone in the heavens to save them. Akron didn’t wait for a dose of deadly venom. Stepping forward, he hacked downward in a quick swing as the snake leapt.
Blade cleaved flesh.
The reptile’s head fell.
A last hiss was cut short as the snake’s mouth opened and closed and its tongue flicked. The back end of its body twisted angrily, following a chain of commands from its separated brain.
Akron blew a relieved breath and stared at the dead animal for a long second. The torch cast shadows that could easily be another menacing, deadly creature, come to bite him. It took him several moments to convince himself the danger was over.
Bending down, he speared the animal’s head, lifted it up, and carried it to the wall, finding a small crevice where he could stuff it. Thick boots or not, he didn’t need to chance stepping on its still-venomous head.
Returning to the snake’s body, he realized his luck. The six-foot animal was one of the largest he’d seen recently. Its meat would feed him a day or two—enough that he could spend the rest of his trip exploring. The snake was deadly, but delicious.
Unslinging his pack from his shoulders, he tucked the snake’s body into his game bag.
The wind continued howling outside, close enough that he could hear it, and still feel a faint gust of it as he traveled deeper and away from it.
Akron held his torch high, stepping even more carefully than before. The light revealed the cave’s giant, sloping red walls. Some places were smooth, but others were craggy, or recessed deep into places he couldn’t see, home to other reptiles and insects, some of which could be just as deadly. Akron knew better than to stick his hand in any of those holes.
He’d learned a lot of things, in his twenty years on his home planet of Ravar.
Ever since he was a teenager—old enough to ignore his parent’s warnings and the laws—Akron had traversed the two enormous, cave-filled formations jutting out of the desert on Ravar’s surface, creating protective walls on either side of his colony of Red Rock. In the times of his great-grandfather, the colonists had mined the caves, extracting metals and other things of value that could be traded or exported. Old, gaping slashes told the tale of their hard work, all
those years ago.
Now, the caves were forbidden.
Generations ago, Akron’s people had lost contact with Earth’s supply ships. Most speculated Earth was dead. The more cynical of the colonists guessed that the mining mission had been aborted, and a decision had been made to strand the settlement. Whatever the case, The Heads of Colony warned the colonists away from the dark, winding caves. Too many of the early colonists had fallen to their deaths, been trapped, or gotten lost. Even if The Heads of Colony hadn’t ordered people away, most were scared by stories of vicious, cave-dwelling animals, or warded off by the humidity and hot temperatures in the caves’ many tunnels. The punishment of the loss of a week’s crops wasn’t enough to outweigh Akron’s curiosity.
He’d never been caught, and he didn’t plan to be.
Akron preferred the solace of the caves to the loud, abrasive tones of his people, chatting about the wives they’d take, or the game they’d kill. Most in his colony made him uncomfortable. Out of the two thousand people among whom he lived, Akron had few acquaintances, and fewer friends.
Sometimes he slipped to the edges of conversational circles, listening to people talk of the day’s heat, or the Green Crops—none of which were green enough—that grew by the southern bank of the colony’s river. Occasionally, he’d add something, but too many conversations ended after he spoke, with people either shuffling away or ignoring him. Few sought him out for anything other than a passing question. Akron’s lack of confidence might as well have been drawn on his forehead.
His parent’s pressures didn’t help.
They wanted him to marry. They wanted grandchildren. It wasn’t that Akron didn’t dream of finding a woman, as well, but his few attempts at conversing with the young females gathering water down by the river were followed by awkward silences. The best he’d received was polite laughter.
And so he’d thrown himself into his exploration.
The caves didn’t ignore him when he talked. They didn’t smirk when he went past. And they held secrets of which he could only fathom. He’d dreamt about exploring them ever since he’d taken his first steps outside his mud brick house and saw the red, massive formations looming high above him on either side of the colony, like the twisted appendages of some fantastic creatures, planting their massive girth into the sand. He felt as if he was one of the first colonists, before Earth had abandoned them, or died.
One day, he’d make a discovery that would change the way the colonists felt about him. No one would ignore him when he brought back something that changed their lives. It might be worth the risk of breaking the rules.