Echoes in the Pine: The Bastard Section (Extinction ‘98 Book 1)

In November 1998, a routine British Army training exercise in the freezing Scottish Highlands descends into an absolute bloodbath. Corporal James “Tug” Wilson and his unit—the misfit “Bastard Section”—expect horizontal sleet and blank rounds. Instead, they are hunted by Veilreavers: towering, biomechanical predators equipped with active camouflage and razor-sharp scythes. This isn’t an isolated incident; it’s the vanguard of a global extinction event.

Forced to fall back and fortify a muddy Cumbrian valley dubbed Delta-Echo-Six, the surviving squaddies must evolve to fight a relentless alien swarm. At the heart of the resistance is Private Frankie “Mac” Mackenzie, a fierce, foul-mouthed South London sharpshooter, and her Section Commander, Tug. Forged in the brutal reality of the apocalypse, their professional distance shatters into a desperate romance as they fight to keep the remnants of their unit—and a vulnerable group of civilian survivors—alive.

As a brutal winter drags on, ammunition dwindles, and the Veilreavers grow smarter, the Bastard Section is pushed to its absolute physical and psychological limits. Outgunned and cut off from the world, they must hold the line at all costs. The first installment of Extinction ‘98 is a visceral military thriller where 90s squaddie grit meets a terrifying fight for human survival.