The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera

by Michael Robertson

  Phase one was to release chaos. Phase two was to pull the slaves together so they could wipe out the planets, like we saw on Kajan.

  And phase three?

  Total annihilation. They’re going to wreck every planet. Reduce them to rubble so they can rebuild the galaxy in their image. They plan to take what’s useful to them—like resources and tech—and destroy everything else. The slaves will get even more coherent in their attacks.

  The ship continued to shake and vibrate, but they were still doing more damage to Enigma than Enigma did to them.

  And how long until they initiate phase three?

  After a couple of taps on her screen, Sparks looked up at him again. It’s been set in motion already. We have fifteen minutes before the psychic blast goes out.

  Seb looked at the vast palace and its multilayers and shook his head. Fifteen minutes isn’t long enough to blast our way through, is it?

  Sparks shrugged.

  So if we want to be certain, the only way we can take their broadcasting device down is to land and go in on foot?

  I think that’s a safe assumption.

  At that moment, a loud boom shook the ship. Even in slow motion, Seb only saw the aftermath, so he couldn’t blame Reyes for missing it. The explosion of red from the thick cannon blast turned to mist in front of them as all the dials in the ship spun. Alarms sounded and lights flashed before Reyes said, “Hold on. We’re going down.”

  Chapter 36

  The impact of the ship hitting the ground jolted Seb forward, white light punching through his vision as he connected with the back of Sparks’ seat, nose first. Fire flared through his sinuses, and he clapped his hands to his face as he fell to the floor.

  The ship had hit the ground so hard, even SA fell over. Sparks and Reyes were strapped into their seats. Seb watched SA stand up, his head spinning. When he felt damp on his top lip, he wiped his nose with the back of his hand to see a trail of blood streaked across it. It could have been a lot worse. Then he looked out of the front windscreen … Enigma’s army were running towards them en masse.

  One of the large cat-like quadrupeds burst ahead of the pack. It leapt towards them, hitting the windscreen with a thud. The glass remained intact. Stronger than the steel hull of the ship, the beast must have seen the futility of attacking from that way because it ran over the top of the vessel, its feet thudding against the roof. A second later a loud bang connected with the back door.

  More creatures came at them, laying down laser fire as they charged. The windscreen held, black marks from the blasts but nothing more. They ran past the ship, joining the cat around the back. The vessel shook from their assault.

  Only just getting to his feet, his head spinning while his nose leaked blood, Seb held on to Sparks’ seat so he didn’t fall as it rocked. Vision blurred through watering eyes, he looked around them as if he could find inspiration from the inside of their shuttle.

  More footsteps thundered over the top of them. More of the cat-like creatures. They had wide shark’s mouths filled with sharp teeth. They had thick jaws loaded with muscles that looked like they could crush rocks. Although, as yet, they hadn’t managed to bite through the steel hull of the ship.

  The hammering continued against the back door as the front cleared. Sparks stared at her screen before showing it to Seb. The dots of Enigma’s army mostly remained in the palace. “They must be protecting the transmitter,” she said.

  Seb continued to hold on against the shake of their wrecked ship and looked at the scorch marks on their front windscreen. “How long before phase three?”

  “Fourteen minutes.”

  A look at the back door showed Seb it had buckled from the attack driven against it. It wouldn’t be long before they busted in. He glanced at SA and Reyes. Both of them stood ready to fight, for what good it would do; they had no chance against the army outside.

  An orange glow then dragged Seb’s attention away from the back door. Sparks had a blowtorch in her hand. “Where did you get that from?”

  She pointed at an open panel. “Most vessels have them. Any active ship needs emergency repairs at some point.”

  “And what do you plan to do with it?”

  Instead of replying, she turned to the wall closest to her and started to drag a smouldering line down the metal. “Just keep them busy at that end. Hopefully I can open an escape route for us before they realise.”

  Seb rushed forward and banged against the other side of the door. It seemed to work, the creatures roaring and shouting in response, their blows landing harder than before. The entire ship rocked as if they might turn them over. He banged again and shouted, “Enigma will fall.”

  A roar unlike any he’d heard before. A deep resonance to it, it made the ship hum from the vibration. Then silence.

  Although Seb turned to the others and opened his mouth to speak, something clattered into the ship’s door before he could. It hit them so hard, they slid across the stalt desert like a hockey puck.

  They came to a halt about fifteen metres away. Fifteen metres closer to the palace. Daylight shone in around the door’s seal from where the beast had bent it. It wouldn’t hold up to many more attacks like that.

  A rush of feet came at them. A second later the army they’d left behind crashed into the back again, shoving them closer to the palace for a second time.

  Maybe the same creature, maybe a different one, another deep roar ran a vibration through the soles of Seb’s boots. Then the gallop of an almighty beast headed their way. It sounded like it had taken a long run-up.

  Boom! It hit the ship again, pushing them closer to the palace. It bent the door, so they could now see out of the gaps between it and its frame. At least forty creatures charged at them.

  Before Seb could react, SA and Reyes ran at the gap, poked their blasters out, and opened fire.

  Although they fired blind, the screams from the other side suggested they were hitting something.

  It gave Seb a moment to look at Sparks as she pulled back a flap of steel. She’d made a gap large enough for them to climb out. She looked at him. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “One of you two hold them off,” Seb said to SA and Reyes. “The other one needs to come with me now.”

  Reyes shoved SA after Seb before returning to the gap in the door.

  No time to argue about who went, SA accepted it and followed Seb out of the hole. A large rock of stalt nearby, he ran to it and she followed. The army remained occupied by Reyes around the other side of the ship.

  Where Seb had expected to see Sparks come out next, she didn’t. “What are they doing?”

  Then the shooting stopped. Seb and SA looked at one another.

  Reyes burst from the hole with Sparks behind her.

  Despite the vociferous cries from Enigma’s army, Seb still heard the pulsing bleep. The look in both Reyes’ and Sparks’ wide eyes confirmed what he thought the noise meant.

  Sparks overtook Reyes as the beeps grew louder, skidded behind the rock with Seb and SA, and pressed her back to it to use it as a shield between her and the ship. Reyes slid behind it a second later.

  All four of them gasped for breath as they listened to the last tone, a beep longer than the others. It ended with an almighty boom. A bright explosion of fire, the heat searing as it blew a strong gust at them. Were it not for the rock they’d shielded themselves behind, they would have melted where they crouched. Scorch marks about ten metres long on either side of them stretched in the direction of the palace.

  The mist of vaporised bodies rode on the wind, some of it laying cold pinpricks against Seb’s sweating skin.

  When the ship crashed down again, the impact of it landing shook the ground.

  As the smoke cleared, Seb peered around the rock. None of the soldiers had survived. Very few body parts remained, the blast enough to obliterate most of them. He felt bad for fighting the slaves on the other planets, but any being associating with Enigma deserved everything they
got. A look from the wreck to the palace and back again, he patted Sparks’ back. “Well done. What did you do?”

  “All ships have a self-destruct function.”

  After nodding at her, Seb said, “Now we need to get into that control room. How long until phase three?”

  “Twelve minutes.”

  Chapter 37

  SA led this time, bursting out from behind the rock and running across the crystal ground straight at the main entrance to the palace. Enigma’s guards knew they were there, so there seemed little point in stealth. Seb followed behind with Reyes and Sparks, watching the grace of his love as she drew one knife for each hand and threw them.

  Even with his world slowed down, Seb hadn’t seen the guards. Yet, by the time SA’s blades reached the palace’s entrance, two heads poked out to meet them. The knives landed true, both of them hitting the centre of the guard’s faces and burying to the hilt.

  Both of Enigma’s soldiers fell forwards out into the open. Were they not moving at a flat-out sprint, Seb might have said something, but SA didn’t need his compliments. She knew what she could do. They just needed to get inside before they were faced with an army.

  SA jumped over the two dead guards, armed herself with two more knives, and threw them into the palace.

  Seb heard the sound of laser fire and watched several red traces of it shoot from the palace out across the stalt desert beyond. With Reyes and Sparks beside him, they reached the palace’s open entrance in time to see the last guard fall, a line of blaster fire ripping into the ceiling above as it toppled backwards with its finger still on the trigger.

  Seb raised his arms over his head as crystal shards rained a sharp spray on top of him. When he pulled them down again, he looked at the back of his forearms to see small pieces embedded in his sleeves. Thankfully he hadn’t chosen to wear a T-shirt.

  The immediate danger over, Seb looked around the huge open space, gasping as he took it in. The sheer magnificence of the place nearly took his words away. “It looks like something from a fairy tale.” He sighed. “It’s a shame we have to tear it down.” A large open entrance, it had a huge sweeping staircase in the centre with pillars running up either side of it. An almost perfectly square room, it had a first-floor landing running all the way around it. Both the first and ground floors had multiple exits.

  Reyes said it before Seb could. “Where are we going, Sparks?”

  Although Seb looked at Sparks and watched her open her mouth to reply, he lost sight of her before she spoke. The green-eyed brilliance of the woman in white dragged him into his mind. She stared straight at him. Not angry, but powerful and all-knowing. He and his friends had just entered her domain. She’d been waiting for him.

  The woman in white then vanished, and Seb’s sight returned. When he looked at the faces of his friends, he saw them all staring at him. A lingering connection with SA, he could see she knew. She’d known all along.

  “You okay?” Sparks said. Then, after a second, she helped him out by saying, “We need your call.” She pointed at one door and then the one next to it as she said, “Door number one, or door number two?”

  The words made sense, but Seb couldn’t process them as he looked from one of his friends to the other. As much as he didn’t want to say it, he winced and said it anyway. “I have to do something.”

  “What?” Reyes said.

  “I need to go. I think I know where Enigma’s leader is. I need to go and see her.”

  Sparks this time. “Why don’t we take down their transmitter and rescue Bruke first?”

  Shaking his head, Seb looked across all three faces again. “You can do that without me. I need to do this.” To SA more than any of them, he said, “I’ve been having visions too. I saw the Pillar of Peace, and then I started to see a woman in white. I think this is why I’m here.” Back to the others, he added, “I think if I go, it’ll improve your chances of getting to the transmitter and Bruke.” SA still hadn’t said anything about his visions. He spoke exclusively to her. Take care of them, yeah? I know you can do this. I’ll see you on the other side.

  The blank expression on SA’s face threw Seb. Even when pissed off with him, she usually responded. SA, can you hear me?

  Nothing.

  “SA?”

  She looked at him.

  “I just spoke to you in your head. You can’t hear it, can you?”

  Crow’s feet spread away from the edges of her pinching eyes. A second later, she shook her head.

  “It must be something to do with the stalt and the transmitter,” Sparks said. “Hopefully if we take the transmitter out, we’ll be able to communicate through her again.”

  “Okay,” Seb said. “I’m guessing we’ll find each other when this is done.”

  Although Reyes spoke with a calmness in her voice, her furrowed brow contradicted it. “Surely the fact that we can’t communicate is a reason to stay together?”

  Seb shook his head. “I need to do this, and I need to do it on my own. I have a feeling that we’ll all be in less danger if I go alone. She’s waiting for me for some reason. She wants something from me. The least I can do is distract her so you can get on with saving the galaxy from her.”

  It looked like Reyes might argue, so Seb didn’t give her the chance. His attention on SA, he walked over to his love. One thing about being able to speak to one another in their heads meant he didn’t have to say anything too personal out loud. While holding her hands, he looked into her bioluminescence. He could get lost in it. “One more fight and this is done. I love you, my sweet.”

  For a few seconds, SA looked from one of his eyes to the other. Although she couldn’t speak, she didn’t look like she wanted to. She understood better than anyone. She leaned forward and pressed her warm and full lips against his. For that moment, time stopped.

  When SA pulled away, her taste still on his mouth, Seb’s heart lifted and he smiled. Everything would work out. It had to. Any more words would ruin it, so he simply turned his back on his friends and ran towards a door leading in the opposite direction to where they were heading.

  Chapter 38

  As Reyes watched Seb run in the opposite direction to where they needed to go, she clenched her jaw and balled her fists. Who the hell did he think he was? How dare he leave them now? They were about to go to war, and he thought the best thing to do was run away. But she still didn’t call after him or make any effort to drag him back. If their time together had taught her anything, it was that she could trust him. Whether she thought he’d made the correct call or not didn’t matter, she had to focus on her part in all of this and let him do what he needed to.

  SA and Sparks—guided by Sparks’ map—had already set off. One last glance at Seb as he disappeared through the doorway in the opposite direction to them, Reyes then took off after her friends.

  The hard crystal floor sent jarring shocks through Reyes as she ran. Such an unforgiving surface, the violent shock of it felt like it almost kicked back against her steps. Stealth went out of the window too, her boots slamming against the solid ground.

  To see SA and Sparks vanish around a corner inspired Reyes to pick up her pace. It was not the kind of place she wanted to get lost in. When she ran through the next door after them, SA and Sparks had stopped just out of sight. Too slow to react, she went over the top of Sparks and crashed down against the hard ground, the abrasive surface ripping fire along her palms as she put her hands out in front of her and skidded over the rough crystal.

  But the pain from the fall vanished when Reyes looked at the room. Her jaw fell loose and her breath caught in her throat. “Where the hell are we?”

  SA couldn’t answer, and Sparks looked more concerned about getting back to her feet after Reyes had sent her sprawling too. The light on her computer screen suggested it had survived the fall.

  After Reyes stood up, she spun on the spot, still at a loss for words. A long rectangular room, it stretched at least ten metres long and three metres wide.
Like the entrance to the palace, it had a first-floor landing running around it about two and half metres above them. It looked like there should be doors up there, but she only saw plain walls. The ground floor looked the same. Other than the door they’d entered through, there didn’t seem to be any way out.

  A loud shoom snapped Reyes to attention. The door they’d just run through slammed shut so quickly she’d not even seen it happen. Had she not just entered through it, she wouldn’t have believed it had been there in the first place. Although she shared a look with SA and Sparks, none of them spoke. It was like they were all waiting for something worse to occur.

  The shoom this time rang around the room in stereo. Doors opened all around them: four down each wall on both the ground and first floors. Two opened at each end, save for the one they’d entered. Twenty-three open doors out of a possible twenty-four.

  Blaster fire entered the room through every door. Then the guards came in. In Seb’s absence, and with SA’s lack of communication, Reyes had to lead. The butt of her blaster pressed into her shoulder, she ran at the closest group of soldiers.

  About ten guards in their close proximity, when shots flew from behind Reyes, it told her SA and Sparks were backing her up. She pulled her trigger, her entire body shaking with the blasts.

  Although Reyes focused on their closest attackers, she had an awareness of the room filling with soldiers. Suddenly all the doors slid shut again. They now had no way out.

  While they focused on the ten or so guards closest to them, blaster fire came their way from what must have been at least one hundred soldiers now in the locked room. Shards of stalt exploded from the walls, nearly as deadly as the laser fire that had birthed them. They stood no chance. So much for a plan of action; when Reyes looked around, she said, “We’re screwed.”

  SA couldn’t respond, and Sparks didn’t. Instead, the small Thrystian slipped a pair of dark goggles over her eyes, fished something from her pocket, and threw it into the middle of the room.