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Drones Above Hell Below: Power Metal Alien Slayers
Drones Above, Hell Below is an ode and homage to all the 80s and 90s action movies about ID4, Aliens, Predator, or even Starship Troopers, stories where soldiers must combat the unknown alien forces to survive (or die trying).
It was supposed to be a payday, now it’s payback It should have been easy survey a metal-rich hell-world, collect hazard pay, go home rich and marry the girl. But easy money never is.
When Killian and his crew arrived, they expected crushing gravity, toxic ammonia winds, and endless iron dunes. They didn’t expect their own drones to turn on them. Something deep and ancient signals from beneath the surface. When the swarm strikes and friends fall, Killian makes the only call he abandon the claim, pull a risky emergency-jump home with a dying crewmate, and default on the loan. But chance and the universe have their own ideas. Now, Killian must decide to return and discover what really happened below, while keeping another eye on the high-tech military force which demands answers.
In a tech-stack where anything could be hacked, you can only trust the soldier next to you.
A relentless and inventive military sci-fi thriller of mystery, action, and first contact gone catastrophically wrong.
It was supposed to be a payday, now it’s payback It should have been easy survey a metal-rich hell-world, collect hazard pay, go home rich and marry the girl. But easy money never is.
When Killian and his crew arrived, they expected crushing gravity, toxic ammonia winds, and endless iron dunes. They didn’t expect their own drones to turn on them. Something deep and ancient signals from beneath the surface. When the swarm strikes and friends fall, Killian makes the only call he abandon the claim, pull a risky emergency-jump home with a dying crewmate, and default on the loan. But chance and the universe have their own ideas. Now, Killian must decide to return and discover what really happened below, while keeping another eye on the high-tech military force which demands answers.
In a tech-stack where anything could be hacked, you can only trust the soldier next to you.
A relentless and inventive military sci-fi thriller of mystery, action, and first contact gone catastrophically wrong.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 20, 2026
About the author
Eric Kay
5 books26 followers Hard Science Fiction Author
Author Page Linktr.ee
If you like hard science fiction and it's impact on the world then check out my novels. I have been a Data analyst / scientist for a number of years and constantly think of creative ways fraudsters and companies might go about subtracting your money. The home for the hardest indie sci-fi!
Hard Sci-Fi books:
Novella: Space Ants: Never Say Die. Classic SF about survival and exolife. Nonhuman and no AI.
3rd Novel: Near-future Cyberpunk. AI Therapy in the age of dystopian surveillance Capitalism,
Above Dark Waters Your personal EEG data is going to feed the machines your nightmares.
2nd Novel: First Contact under Europa. A Hardness of Minds More off-beat, but describes the hard problems of communicating with Europa's seafloor.
1st novel: A utopian data science fiction No Lack of Sunshine.
Author Page Linktr.ee
If you like hard science fiction and it's impact on the world then check out my novels. I have been a Data analyst / scientist for a number of years and constantly think of creative ways fraudsters and companies might go about subtracting your money. The home for the hardest indie sci-fi!
Hard Sci-Fi books:
Novella: Space Ants: Never Say Die. Classic SF about survival and exolife. Nonhuman and no AI.
3rd Novel: Near-future Cyberpunk. AI Therapy in the age of dystopian surveillance Capitalism,
Above Dark Waters Your personal EEG data is going to feed the machines your nightmares.
2nd Novel: First Contact under Europa. A Hardness of Minds More off-beat, but describes the hard problems of communicating with Europa's seafloor.
1st novel: A utopian data science fiction No Lack of Sunshine.
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May 20, 2026The book is live!
https://www.amazon.com/Drones-Above-H...
"For anyone looking to support fresh voices in the genre, this is a must-read. Spreading the word about this new and growing author is vital to ensuring we see more of this expansive universe"
https://www.amazon.com/Drones-Above-H...
"For anyone looking to support fresh voices in the genre, this is a must-read. Spreading the word about this new and growing author is vital to ensuring we see more of this expansive universe"
May 21, 2026
This is a 3-star review. I was invited to beta-read this book. While that is a fair estimate of my experience, this could easily be a 4+ star book with a bit of editing/clean-up.
The book is the story of our hero Killian who is part of a prospecting/exploring team on an alien planet. Most of the team either dies or is captured (it's unclear). Killian rescues one of his teammates and escapes back to their homebase planet via a jump drive.
Ordinarily, the jump drive creates a near instantaneous transition. But something went wrong and the jump drops them ~50 years in the future. The future is controlled by an AI that uses a social credit system to control/shape human behavior.
The humans have been back mining the planet for most of 50 years.
If you think this sounds a little like the set up for the movie "Aliens", you are right. It's still a solid premise.
The AI doesn't know what to do with Killian. It starts him off with a child's social credit score and makes him an offer if he will go back with a team to the planet. The AI has lost contact with the settlement and it has decided to send a military team to investigate.
This book has all of the prerequisites for an entertaining story. Exploration of a new world. Military action. Even a bit of a Star Trek/Kirk "putting it to" an alien logic system. IYKYK
But...the beta version has many little errors. Spelling. Changes in gender for no reason. Continuity errors (our hero was released from his handcuffs, but then was back in them).
And my pet peeve was the overuse of modern idioms. I don't believe most new/modern idioms will survive centuries from now. IMO, using modern idioms only works if the book is either humorous or just being a bit tongue-in-cheek. Modern idioms generally don't work well in serious sci-fi. Generally, less is more. One or two are excusable.
Hopefully, the author will clean up some of the more obvious issues before the formal release date. The book was generally very entertaining and engaging. I was stealing time from other priorities because I wanted to know what came next.
The book is the story of our hero Killian who is part of a prospecting/exploring team on an alien planet. Most of the team either dies or is captured (it's unclear). Killian rescues one of his teammates and escapes back to their homebase planet via a jump drive.
Ordinarily, the jump drive creates a near instantaneous transition. But something went wrong and the jump drops them ~50 years in the future. The future is controlled by an AI that uses a social credit system to control/shape human behavior.
The humans have been back mining the planet for most of 50 years.
If you think this sounds a little like the set up for the movie "Aliens", you are right. It's still a solid premise.
The AI doesn't know what to do with Killian. It starts him off with a child's social credit score and makes him an offer if he will go back with a team to the planet. The AI has lost contact with the settlement and it has decided to send a military team to investigate.
This book has all of the prerequisites for an entertaining story. Exploration of a new world. Military action. Even a bit of a Star Trek/Kirk "putting it to" an alien logic system. IYKYK
But...the beta version has many little errors. Spelling. Changes in gender for no reason. Continuity errors (our hero was released from his handcuffs, but then was back in them).
And my pet peeve was the overuse of modern idioms. I don't believe most new/modern idioms will survive centuries from now. IMO, using modern idioms only works if the book is either humorous or just being a bit tongue-in-cheek. Modern idioms generally don't work well in serious sci-fi. Generally, less is more. One or two are excusable.
Hopefully, the author will clean up some of the more obvious issues before the formal release date. The book was generally very entertaining and engaging. I was stealing time from other priorities because I wanted to know what came next.
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