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

by Justin Sloan

As Samantha cut through her opponents, she turned and saw that Kwan and Napalm had taken cover with their rifles, while the other three went for hand-to-hand.

  Suddenly, the Dexetilaitite was back, appearing beside her with a slash of its sword. Then it was on the other side of her, slashing again. Neither connected, because her own robes were alerting her, spinning her without thought. She saw the creature stumble back in apparent confusion, and she struck. Her sword tore through cloths, ending the Dexetilaitite in an explosion of shadows that blinded the room momentarily.

  But Samantha could still sense her enemy, thanks to her robes, and she was attacking, tearing through surprised opponents. Ferder was there fighting too, she could tell, still using the Shadow-made glasses even though his sight had returned. Kwan, the old softy, had let him hold onto them for now, since Ferder knew best how to use them in situations like this.

  Soon their vision returned and half the room was dead. Captain Praks roared out in anger and charged, pulling light toward him, a wildness in his eyes as his face took on bear-like features.

  He slammed into Samantha and sent her sword flying, then would have had her if not for Carma stepping in, then Voira, the two holding him back. A shot rang out and took him in the thigh, just as several of his minions charged.

  Next thing Samantha saw was Praks pulling back, shouting in frustration, and a woman pirate pulling out a massive blaster cannon.

  “Down!” Napalm shouted, grabbing Kwan and leaping with him. The pair landed next to Samantha as the wall behind them disintegrated. Carma was on the shooter in a second, slicing through her with her crescent blades, while Samantha and the others recovered to see that a fight was in progress outside as well. While they were fighting Captain Praks in here, they now saw why he hadn’t received the reinforcements he had called for. Hadrian and the others had them occupied in the floating fortresses, and as they watched, Ferder took over one of the fighter planes and began engaging the enemy planes as well.

  “That’s how we do it!” Samantha said. Realizing she had lost her sword, she pulled out the crescent blades, gave it a jerk so the blades emerged, and then charged Praks.

  Captain Praks’s eyes went wide. He quickly stepped back onto a dais, then pressed several buttons on the hologram display that showed from a section of his forearm. The dais started to rise, lifting him up into what she now saw was an opening above. Samantha leaped from the wall and threw herself up to Praks, landing on the dais just before it pushed up and out of there.

  Now it was just the two of them. She was alone with Captain Praks, a cloth with a faint light coming through tied around his wounded thigh. He used the moment to attack, barely limping in spite of the shot, and lunged, coming at her with a modified cutlass with a red line of light glowing along its back. When his sword hit her blade, it created a line of fire that shot out at her like a flamethrower.

  Luckily, she was fast. Dodging out of the way of the flames, she stumbled back and found they were beside one of the trees, some of the metal spikes aimed right at her. She dropped and rolled out of the way, recovering as blasts from his pistol exploded the tree.

  Praks fired again, the last blast hitting her arm so that her shield blocked it, and then fizzled away. Now she had no shield, which meant she had to be careful. Especially with that flamethrower sword.

  This had to end, now. Instead of waiting for his next move, Samantha leaped to her feet and charged him, heaving him up with her enhanced armor. He dropped the pistol, both hands on the hilt of his sword, and plunged it downward.

  A glimmer caught her eye, and she figured it was her best option. Slipping a leg behind his, they fell together and hit the ground before the sword had a chance to reach her. And then they were gone, not falling as they had before, but squared off in a world of shifting color. Flashes of green and then red, streams of light as if out of clouds, but the wrong colors and from every direction.

  The ground near her feet rumbled and then moved like something large was beneath, slithering past at great speeds. Another spot moved and then burst open—Praks, clawing his way out of the earth and covered with those slimy things that Hadrian had called slugs but certainly weren’t like any slugs back home.

  He was nude, covered in dirt and now bleeding from the slug attacks. And as she stumbled back, she realized she was without clothes again as well.

  It didn’t matter, except that it left her so vulnerable. The slugs had spotted her, and some were abandoning him to move for her. The trees were there, surrounding them, bending their spikes down and toward her as if by the wind, but fully in control of their motions.

  “Is this what you wanted?” Praks shouted, standing and stomping on the slugs, kicking them out of the way. He lunged for one of the metallic tree branches, breaking it off and spinning to take down two more slugs before turning it on her. “You all come to our planets, telling us how to live our lives. You have no right!”

  She copied his move, working to break a tree branch. But as she did, the other branches attacked her, tearing flesh. A scream worked its way out in frustration, and then she had the weapon and lunged. But he was already there, catching her with a hard plunge into her arm.

  “When it’s all said and done, they would remember us as the outlaws, but the ones who fought for liberty,” Praks said, with a gasp of air that clearly had something else to it. His eyes took on a wild look and he cursed, stumbling backwards. “You shouldn’t have brought us here, we… we don’t belong here.”

  “Huh?” She pulled back, confused.

  “This… place. It’ll be the end of both of us, but you first.” He came in for another attack, but this time she saw it coming and focused on her training, moving quickly to bring her branch into his side, connecting.

  “That wasn’t lethal,” she said, pulling the branch out and staring as the blood began to seep from his wound. “But it will be if you don’t get help. How do we get out of here?”

  He clutched his side, falling to his knee, and laughed. “I’m telling you, it’s not as easy as that. It’s the reason I’ve chosen this place as my fallback point. It’s only for when I’ve grown desperate, only for the most ruthless pirates. But this…? It’s not so much of a here, as in our heads. The only way out is if a friend is nearby to pull you free. And sorry, missy, we have no friends here.”

  Again he prepared to attack, but she had heard enough. With a quick step forward, she grabbed his head by his long, tangled hair, and slammed her knee into his face as hard as she could. She let him fall back, blood gushing from his side and his nose now.

  More movement around her and slithering beneath the ground. She stepped back, holding the pointed branch with its metal tip, ready for anything.

  Or so she thought.

  When skeletal hands began to rip their way out of the ground, followed by a massive sand snake that lunged for her, she nearly screamed out loud. Instead she rolled out of the way, cringing as the skeletons began to stand.

  What had he said? It wasn’t real?

  The sand snake came at her again, this time grabbing hold of her forearm and tearing her skin before she managed to shake it off. Her heart was thudding and she felt the sweat tickling her spine. And then the skeletons were on her, their bones sharp, tearing her flesh further.

  She fought them desperately, using everything she had learned in her training. Everything that is, except for her mental training from Dex. The meditation. If this was indeed some sort of mental projection, even a mental transportation to another plane, or a hallucination, it didn’t matter. She could beat it.

  More attacks came and she gave it her all, throwing herself at them and striking them mercilessly with her branch until there were no more. She collapsed to her knees on the verge of tears. It was almost too much, especially when the ground started shifting again.

  But no. She was certain she could get through this.

  She lay there on the verge of death, imagining her mother returning to Earth to never see her again. The sor
row in her eyes. If anything, this was enough reason to push on, to fight. She couldn’t allow it to be so.

  Struggling to stand, she pushed all pain aside and focused on the meditation, on her mental skills Dex had shown her so many times. Even if this place could hurt her, it wasn’t real. Or maybe it was, in some twisted, alternate dimension sort of way. But no matter how real it was, she refused to let it beat her.

  Not today. Not ever.

  With a final exhale to push aside all negativity, all outside influence, she found herself, was able to even see herself. Not nude and bleeding to death as she thought she was, but lying there, in a puddle of that strange, glowing, liquid metal. Her armor was on, and she was wobbling, head rolling, and then… she sat up straight.

  Alert.

  Alive.

  No more of this. She pushed herself up to her feet, but could feel the blood, warm on the inside of her armor. The purple clouds were around her, settling into heavy walls of fog. It was so isolating. She felt so alone. But at least she was back.

  “HADRIAN!” she screamed. “Anyone?”

  Nothing.

  She stumbled, hands out. Hadrian…?

  Again, just the dense fog. The ever-present nothingness. And then…

  Samantha, hang tight. We’re coming! Hadrian communicated.

  “In three, two, one,” Jackal’s voice sounded mere seconds later, and then in a burst of wind the fog blew away as the Noraldian appeared, lights blaring down on her. The ramp opened and Dex and Hadrian were floating toward her like angels come to whisk her away. She pulled herself to her sword, refusing to leave without it. As her fingers found it, her eyes landed on movement. Praks was inching away from her, slowly clawing his way to freedom from the taste of her wrath.

  “Wait, he’s still alive,” Samantha said. “We can end this!”

  “No, we can’t,” Hadrian replied, taking her arm and pointing. She followed his motion, and at first wasn’t sure what she was seeing. More swirling fog, more lights. And then with a roar of engines, a fleet of ships appeared, each at least as large as the Noraldian and honing in on their position. “We need to regroup, find a way to attack unnoticed. Not like this, or we lose.”

  They’ll blow the Noraldian out of existence, Dex communicated.

  Samantha knew they were right, and in her shape, all she wanted to do was lie down in the med bay and be treated. That or die, but she figured the former was the more responsible of the choices.

  “Get me out of here,” she demanded, and so they did. As one they lifted into the air, and soon they were back on the Noraldian, Jackal flying them up and out of there even as three-quarters of the enemy ships gave chase.

  When they pulled out of orbit and Jackal threw on the high-speed thrusters, she knew they were safe. And when they pulled off her armor and covered her in Dex’s healing robes, she knew that, at least for now, she would live.

  But as they were leaving, a transmission came through, filling the ship’s speakers without the permission of Hadrian or anyone onboard.

  “Napalm, son, I know that is you. This is your father, and I promise you this. For your betrayal, you won’t leave the Shadow Worlds alive. We’ve rescued my captain, my right-hand man, Captain Praks. He’s become like a son to me, the son you failed to be. When you’re ready, Napalm and friends of my traitorous son, turn and fight, so that you may die.”

  Then they were out of there, gone, leaving it behind, and Samantha closed her eyes to let the healing process take over.

  Epilogue

  The ship pulled into port at Worsan’s home base, one week after their fight at Death’s Swamp. They had exposed Captain Praks’s hideout, injured him, and revealed the real man behind it all—Napalm’s own father, a man known as Brimstone. Like father like son, or so the saying went. Napalm had told Samantha all about it as she lay in bed, healing. About how his father had an explosive personality, literally, and had put Napalm on the edge of morality, pushing him to new limits until son had enough and turned against father.

  Now they were finally getting the Shadows to their home, but it was more than that. A war against the space pirates had to be orchestrated, along with a rescue mission of the last dragon, the only remaining Guardian of the Three Kings that made up Orion’s Belt. Funny, Samantha thought, that the last of the Three Kings was, according to Hadrian, a she. But she shouldn’t really have been surprised. The days of attaching gender to titles had long ago vanished, including the idea of “Sir” in the military attributed to males only. It always sounded odd to her, but hey, it was a new world. One that varied vastly from the classic movies and games she had been raised on.

  The Shadow people were nothing like Samantha had expected. Instead of dark, solemn warriors, they were a lively folk. Upon receiving the survivors in their midst, the locals threw together a feast for the gods, breaking out strange, circular musical instruments and offering various dishes from across their star system.

  Napalm and Carma took to dancing, leaving little room for the mind to wonder how they were getting along. Kwan and Ferder shared battle stories over mugs of some local brew, and the others were in a circle with Shadow men and women around a chemical fire that sent off some sort of intoxicating scent. One whiff of it up close had sent Samantha into a fit of smiles, so she wandered off, away from it. While she appreciated the gesture, danger still loomed out there, ready to strike, and they had much left to accomplish.

  She left all of this behind to find Hadrian leaning against a table, hands folded across his chest as he observed. It was clear he was eager to move on as well, but wanted to let the team have their fun.

  “So now the real black ops stuff comes?” she asked him.

  He nodded, glancing over to her as if he had something he was debating telling her.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  A moment’s hesitation showed her he wasn’t going to open up, not just yet. Instead he replied, “We can’t go toe-to-toe with them, not without the Elders’ support. And I haven’t been able to work that angle, yet. I will set up the jump point here, but even then it will be associated with the ship for now, until I can set up a stable point somewhere else. We don’t have time to fly back and deal with Entono Fos Prime, nor Earth, not while the Guardian is at risk.”

  “I’m glad to hear you’ll be with us,” she admitted. “Leading is great and all, but it can take its toll.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve done more for this universe than many fully grown people, human and otherwise.”

  She turned away, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.

  “Besides,” he said, “you’ll continue to lead. I will take a couple members of the team and work the pirate angle, see what I can learn about the whereabouts of the dragon, while you and your team assassinate the pirate leaders. We can’t have them working with the enemy. They’re too close to home.”

  “Roger that, sir,” she replied. “When does it start?”

  “Immediately.”

  She stretched, feeling the new scars and almost enjoying the proof of what she had been through.

  “Good. I’m sick of lying around,” she said as her hand found the hilt of her sword, glad to have recovered it, like the pieces of her soul had been reunited. “Let’s go kill us some sons of bitches.”

  THE END

  Author Notes

  How awesome that you’ve joined me through the second book - I hope that means the third too, since it’s already out! I wanted to Shadow Worlds to bring us out to a new part of space, and then have Shadow Fleet (book 3) stay there for a bit before sweeping back around to wrap up a few of the threads out there. Such as…

  Who is Samantha’s father?

  Where’s that pesky third space dragon?

  And many more!

  By the way, did you all catch the connections between these books and the ones I’m doing with Jonathan Yanez (War Wolves)? If not, go back and read, but I’ll give you a hint - it has to do with the dragons. Maybe I’ll
leave it at that and then bring it up again in the book 3 author notes, because that will come into play more in book 3 as well.

  For book 3 I want to wrap it up, but leave it open to much more - so it’ll be up to you all if the series goes on past there.

  I have more books in the Seppukarian Universe coming soon. Jonathan’s third book hits shortly after this one, and it is already up for preorder (Light Em Up). LO Addison has finished her first draft, and it’s a nice, long one. Some of you like longer books, so we listened. Also George has his Seppukarian based High Mech Command books coming, and those should be epic.

  I have big plans for a whole new universe that I mentioned in my last author notes. It’s looking to be huge, and already I have an audiobook company wanting to buy the audio rights, when the book hasn’t even been written yet! Pretty sweet, right? Those books deal with biotech and genetic engineering on a space station and in a world where Earth has just started exploring the universe and terraforming and all that. And so much more… (If you’ve read my short stories in recent anthologies I was in, you’ll have a hint about where the stories go).

  And of course there is the Valerie’s Elites series - my spinoff from the Reclaiming Honor books. Valerie (a vampire) goes into space to help fight for Earth’s survival, joining the rest of the Etheric Federation and the Bad Company. I hope you’ll love these books as much as I’ve loved writing them with coauthor PT Hylton. He’s amazing.

  So stay tuned for all of those, and more! I might even have some interesting pen name books coming soon, but will have to update you further on those when the time comes.

  Enjoy book 3, coming soon!

  Best,

  Justin Sloan

  www.JustinSloanAuthor.com

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