Shadow Worlds: A Space Opera Fantasy (Shadow Corps Book 2)

by Justin Sloan

  Carma’s face had gone pale.

  Hadrian wasn’t done. “You think any of your planets are safe if we fall apart? They won’t be! The enemy has a far reach, and in this case they’ve taken some of your people and enslaved them. What will we do about it?”

  Samantha stepped forward, the thought hitting her as she said, “It’s up to the Shadow Corps. We’re their only hope.”

  Hadrian turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “You’re an emotional ball of craziness today, you realize that?”

  First Samantha chuckled, then Napalm, and then the rest of them. Even Agathe was laughing. Samantha shook her head, holding up a hand.

  “Nobody should have to see their planets being destroyed, nor their people.” With a deep breath, she turned back to Hadrian. “We save them, we stop the enemy from being able to manipulate the minds of our allies?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “And you think that’s connected to the Potentate on Earth? To whatever happened back on Entono Fos?”

  He nodded. “And, possibly, the Guardians. One is dead, but there are still two out there. If we can find a way to save them instead of destroying them, we’ll have scored a major victory for the alliance.”

  “And, sorry to sound selfish here, but I have to look out for the human race, this might stop the Potentate from descending into even more madness.” She thought about it for a moment, and then turned to the team. “Everyone, I’ve been a wreck today. I get that, but I’m going to say it’s been a trying time for all of us, and ask that we put that behind us. We have a mission. Are you with me?”

  “You know we are,” Napalm said, glancing over at Carma. “And not just because the universe is threatened, but because we’re a team, and teams stick together.”

  Samantha looked at Agathe, waiting.

  The Acome woman nodded. “Hell, you’re a bitch sometimes, but you’re our bitch. Let’s show them what we’re made of.”

  Hadrian cleared his throat at that, but Samantha didn’t care. She’d own it.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked.

  “They were blowing their way back into the chamber I was in,” Hadrian replied. “Where I created the jump point. They’ll likely reach it any minute, if the whole damn mountain doesn’t fall in on them. With the tech I saw, I’d imagine they can figure out how to make it work.”

  “Leaving us… where, exactly?”

  “I’d say that leaves us in a bit of a kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out situation,” Napalm interjected. “Get in there with all the firepower we can muster, and do some damage.”

  Hadrian looked down at his ankle, grunted, and said, “That’s right. Dex, how fast can you get me healed up?”

  Dex moved over and knelt, wrapping one of his layers of cloak around the hurt ankle.

  It’s bad, Dex communicated. We need to get the armor off of you, fix it up as well as your foot. If you can sit this one out—

  “No,” Hadrian replied firmly. “That’s not happening. We’ll just… deal with my ankle when this is over.”

  “We can’t have any liabilities in there,” Samantha stated.

  “You’d call me a liability?” he scoffed. “Coming from the girl who just broke orders to run after a fantasy fling?”

  She simply nodded.

  With a sigh, he nodded his head, then said, “I’ll stay in the main chamber, providing firepower and doing what I can to protect you. Once you’re through, I’ll guide Dex mentally, and if there’s trouble, escape back through the jump before you all. Deal?”

  “Agreed.” It felt odd telling Hadrian what to do, but she knew she was right in this case.

  “Wonderful.” He motioned for everyone to follow him to the jump rooms. “We have to move fast and get back in there before they’ve secured the room, or we could be walking into a death trap.”

  They had just reached the doors to the jump chamber when Carma spoke up. “And once we rescue my people…?”

  Hadrian looked around at all of them. “Here’s the thing. I won’t be able to sustain multiple jump points in such a close proximity to each other. If we cancel out one, we could make another. But that leaves us without a quick retreat option.”

  “To be clear, they can’t get to Earth now?” Samantha asked. “Their only jump point was in that chamber we’re discussing?”

  He nodded. “It must have been left over from one of Karstrack’s ploys, only accessible by the Scrapulent with their added power. Otherwise I would have been able to uncover it before now.”

  “And since Karstrack is out of the picture, they won’t be able to make another.”

  “That’s correct. As long as we keep them out of that chamber, I can destroy their jump point at the same time as the one I established.”

  “So the plan,” Napalm said, “to be clear, is to stall long enough for you to get that done while we clear the path. Then we get in, save whoever we can, and then give you space to create a new jump point?”

  Hadrian nodded. “As long as I set up the receiving point here before we go, I can create a jump point back to this ship. It takes energy, which I am somewhat lacking at the moment, but should be good to go when it’s time. I’ll just have to rely on normal weapons to fight, instead of my powers.”

  The others nodded, ready to get to action. They made their way through the armory room, pulling various guns and swords from the wall. Carma grabbed her crescent blades, and then they entered the jump chamber.

  Its walls glimmered as the light began to glow from the octagon in the middle. They waited as Samantha took her point at the lead and motioned for Dex to come up alongside her. “We’re going to need Kwan, Ferder, Agathe, and Voira providing cover fire. Hadrian, do your thing, of course. Carma, you’re with me and Dex for hand-to-hand, if it should come to that. Explosions need to be at a minimum, to avoid collapsing more of the mountain, right?”

  “Probably smart,” Hadrian agreed.

  “Right. So then, Napalm, join Kwan for shooting, but be ready in case we need to bring down the house. If it comes to that…”

  “Let’s not let it come to that,” Hadrian said. “At least, not until we’re out in the open. There’s a main area after the tunnels where the fighting will get rough. We’ll take the passage to our right.”

  “So,” Napalm said, frowning at Hadrian’s ankle, “no staying behind? You’re going to try to keep up on that thing?”

  Hadrian tilted his weight, cringed, and then put his weight back again. “Dex, if I mess it up to insane levels, like it’s almost falling off… you’ll still be able to heal it?”

  Dex just stood there, then finally shrugged.

  “Right. I’ll take that as a yes and do my best.” Hadrian took his spot in the octagon. “On your mark, Sam.”

  Samantha pumped her fist, with a look around at her teammates. They were all as ready as her to show the duckholes what the Shadow Corps could do.

  “Go.”

  With that, Hadrian initiated the jump.

  And then they were flung through space, appearing in a large room that reminded Samantha of a temple she had seen in a movie. What had it been, she wondered as she stumbled out of the jump, eyes adjusting to the darkness. Something about an archeologist… finding rare objects and having great adventures. If only this were so simple.

  A cracking sound pulled her back to the moment, and she looked up in time to see a puff of smoke near a pile of rocks. Explosions sounded, followed by silence.

  “They’re coming,” Hadrian said, preparing a massive plasma blaster he had brought with him. “Clear the passageway, and then I’ll dismantle the jump point. Not before.”

  “Maybe I should have asked this before we came in here,” Samantha shouted over the sound of more explosions. “But what exactly are we facing out there?

  “Scrapulent,” Hadrian stated, “are a rare class of humanoids, or what were once humanoids. They began playing with biotech that could alter the mind and body, only it started taking over. They w
eren’t always evil, and in fact it started as selfless. They were willing to sacrifice themselves for testing, so that others could use this tech to survive illness or injuries. The bio in the biotech was corrupted, influenced by the Great Deceivers, as my theory goes, and the rest… is history.”

  “Right,” Samantha said. “But I mean physically. What sort of firepower do they have?”

  He sucked in a deep breath, then said, “Ever have nightmares? I mean like the type with people who are half spider, snake, and other versions of insanity? They also have allies back there, groups making all manner of mechs. We can expect a good fight.”

  “Wonderful,” Samantha replied. “At least we never get bored.”

  “Killed, maybe,” Napalm said with a chuckle. “Maimed? Fairly likely. But never bored.”

  Before Samantha could come up with a witty retort, the rocks exploded toward them.

  13

  Scrapulent Base

  “Shields!” Samantha shouted, and the front line of her team held up forearms, ducking, while the second row stood and did the same. A line of blue energy shields formed, protecting them from the blasts of rocks.

  Just as the shields were starting to flicker as their energy faded, Samantha saw dark forms come scurrying out through the opening, moving along the walls. Sitting here waiting for her shield to die wasn’t the path to victory.

  “Move out!” she shouted, and then motioned for those behind her first. “We’ll close the opening, if you can get to the wall-climbers!”

  As one, the forward line charged, using shields for cover as they fired. All they needed to do was reach the opening, and then they could stop the blasts from making it out here.

  Samantha’s pace was interrupted by a dead Scrapulent falling in front of her. Jumping over it, she saw its spider body twitching, as if refusing to admit the death of its host. She landed on the other side and rolled, coming up with a series of shots that took out one more Scrapulent from the rocks above the opening, then two other fighters who had emerged into the room.

  Carma was at her side, spinning with her crescent blade in one hand, a blaster pistol in her other. She shot two Scrapulents on the wall while cutting open another that had just lunged for her.

  The rest of the team continued their fight from behind, while Carma, Dex, and Samantha pushed into the opening and began an assault on the forces there. A wave of corpses fell before their wrath, but more pushed through the narrow tunnel, barely tall enough for Samantha to swing her sword.

  With a well-placed thrust, she sent a shockwave of electricity through the enemy. Half of them fell to the floor, twitching, while several tall ones with large canines charged for her, screaming bloody murder. She lifted her rifle and shot, but they apparently had energy shields protecting them, because the shots fizzled out.

  Allow me, Dex communicated, blade flashing as he moved like the shadows. His cloak trailed behind him as if he were pushing through water.

  Sam gasped. A line of purple light followed his blade, shining across each of his targets. They fizzed brightly and popped, and then the blue of their energy shields faded away as they disintegrated.

  Damn, that was amazing! Samantha communicated as she charged in, Carma at her side, to finish the now unshielded enemy off. Assassin upgrades?

  Maxed out, he replied as he prepared for the next wave. Since I didn’t use any of my skill points on electricity, like you.

  It wasn’t a total waste, she countered. Watch this.

  She darted forward, ran along the wall, and leaped, landing in the midst of a group of fighters just taking aim where she had been a second ago.

  They turned with confusion as she lifted a foot and then brought it down hard. As she had hoped, it triggered a shockwave that sent the enemy spasming on the ground. Her sword finished off the closest one just as another brought his blaster to her head. The shot hit her dead on, then doubled back onto the enemy’s shield.

  Lucky thing you upgraded your defense, Dex communicated. He blasted the enemy several times until the shield broke, then stabbed him through the face.

  “Dick,” Samantha shouted as she kicked the fallen enemy, even though he was dead. She wasn’t fond of having shots fired at her head, and hadn’t known her armor could take that. “Why wouldn’t our armor just start with max defense, anyway?”

  It evolves with you, Dex explained. It’s not that they give you less developed armor, it’s that the biotech elements have to adapt to you. Also, I think it teaches the younger among us about resource management.

  Go ask the fighters of Earth about me and resource management, she countered.

  He just shrugged, and then turned back to the fight.

  “Secure!” Napalm shouted from the room behind them. A moment later they had joined Samantha’s group in the tunnel. Hadrian came limping behind, like a giant injured bear.

  “That wasn’t there before,” he noted.

  Samantha glanced around. Hadrian was indicating a series of spinoff tunnels. They looked like they had been hidden behind walls at one point, judging by the debris around them, but now were only somewhat obscured.

  Movement showed in the darkness ahead, followed by more blasts. She deflected them with her shield and said, “It might be another way through?”

  Hadrian nodded. “It’s worth trying.”

  “They could lead anywhere!” Agathe countered, leaning around a pile of rubble to send several blasts down the hallway. “We could be trapped.”

  “And going that way?” Samantha shook her head. “We’re destroying them, but if we keep this up, we’ll bring the whole base down on us. We have honestly no idea what we’ve stumbled onto, right? How big their forces are, I mean.” Another blast came through, hitting a broken column beside her head. “This way, we get them off our tail and do what we do best… stick to the shadows.”

  A few smiles came her way, but Agathe still looked skeptical.

  Samantha sighed. She was going to have to earn that woman’s trust, somehow. But at this moment, she decided it was best to focus on making this mission successful, no matter what.

  “Napalm, can you seal us off?”

  He held up his shield and gave her a nod. “It could take us into worse danger, but at least it’ll be something different.”

  As the group worked their way into one of the side tunnels, he pushed out and the entire place shook. A moment later, Napalm came diving into the narrow passage, a blast of fire behind him.

  “That should hold them,” he said, smiling wide.

  “You enjoy this, don’t you?” Samantha asked.

  He laughed. “I plan on enjoying my job while I do it. If I didn’t like blowing stuff up, I would’ve become a rock counter.”

  She returned his laugh as they worked their way forward, only able to see by the dim light of their suits. Hadrian walked in the middle, while Dex—able to best divert attacks—had taken point, leading them in case they ran into trouble.

  The passages led in the direction they wanted to be heading, according to Hadrian. Explosions and shouting came from the other side of the walls at times, and they could see movement through the occasional crack. Soon the tunnel forked, and the group stopped, unsure which way to go. Hadrian paused, hand to the wall, peering through one of the holes. These seemed more deliberate than the cracks, as if they had been put there to keep an eye on the other side.

  He cursed under his breath, then motioned Samantha forward. When she put her eye up to the hole, she saw strange beings with purple skin that scrunched up on their bald heads, eyes completely yellow and slightly glowing.

  She turned back to Hadrian with a questioning look.

  With a gesture to his wrist he pointed at the hole again. She looked, and this time noticed they wore shackles. A line of green light glowed on each one, and she could see a red area that was not lit up. So there were more slaves here than just Carma’s people, Sam realized.

  Who are they? she asked.

  They come from the Sha
dow Worlds, came his mental reply. If they’re here, this is both bad and good. I’ll explain more once we’ve set them free.

  Set them free? It was Dex this time. You have high hopes for a small group such as our own.

  Hadrian clenched his jaw, then nodded. We have no choice. We must set them free if we want their people on our side, in hopes of getting an audience with their leadership.

  Dex and Samantha glanced at each other, and she imagined he wore a frustrated expression like her own. Still, she couldn’t argue the merits.

  Samantha glanced back at the group, waiting expectantly in the darkness of the tunnel.

  She pointed to herself, Carma, Hadrian, and Ferder, then motioned to the right. The rest, she pointed left and whispered, “Shadow Worlds people being held against their will. We have to break them out, silently if possible. Are you all up for it?”

  Nods all around.

  “We meet back here,” Hadrian whispered, and then the groups split. Samantha’s group moved stealthily, pausing once while a group on the other side of the wall sounded close, then again when they had to take down a team of Scrapulent that came slithering and clattering into the tunnel.

  It was over in an instant, with Samantha and Carma taking the lead on the hand-to-hand. Moving through the passage with the corpses in the way was the difficult part, at least without getting purple blood on their clothes.

  Soon they realized the tunnel had been taking them into an ascent, and Hadrian put a hand on Samantha’s shoulder to tell her to pause. The action nearly caused her to have a heart attack. She took a deep breath and then held it, listening.

  Beneath them was a low hum, a mechanical sound like machines running.

  “This is it,” Hadrian whispered. “Let me check on the others.” For a moment there was silence, then Hadrian nodded. “They think they’ve found something, that it might be the entrance to the point where the Shadow Worlds dwellers are being held. I told them to get in there as soon as possible. If we both move at once, it means it’ll be harder for the Scrapulent and their allies here to focus on either location.”