The Cliff

Marianne Laurent was a simple farmer on the planet Dorado. She and her husband Andre were part of the first wave of settlers to the new planet. They had been given the farm at the very edge of the plateau, where it lay almost a kilometer above the vast jungle below. She was pregnant with their second child when Andre was taken by something that scaled the cliff. The plateau council had at least issued her a plasma rifle. She was well familiar with the weapon; her mandatory stint in the peace brigades had been far from peaceful. The peace brigades usually were easy as they tried to reestablish control for The Foundation over greater Paris after the great wars had killed 80% of the Earth’s population. And now the council insisted that she host a couple newly arriving as part of the second wave. She has to battle the creatures from the cliff, the council, a range of new arrivals, and her own feelings to find the life she and Andre had dreamt of when they left Earth a decade earlier.