The Crimson War: A Space Opera: Book Three of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

A blaster shot came from behind Seb and flew over his left shoulder. It ran so close to his face, he felt the heat of it against his cheek and smelled his own singed hair. It sank into the hood of the lead soldier and dropped it. Several more shots followed after it in rapid succession. They flew through the air like lightning, even through his slowed-down perspective of things.

  Fortunately the soldiers hadn’t reached the hole they’d made, so when Seb got there first, he continued to attract the fire and let SA slip out behind him.

  Seb tried to let Gurt through next, but the large Mandulu shoved him so hard, he shot from the hole, stumbled, and landed on his knees against the dark and rocky ground outside. A sharp sting lit up his kneecaps, but he pushed through it as he stood up again.

  Gurt followed through after Seb and sent blasts flooding back into the space. It seemed to hold the soldiers back.

  “Now, Sparks!” Seb shouted.

  But Sparks didn’t move. Her pale face had turned paler and he could see a shake running through her small frame.

  Gurt continued to keep the soldiers pinned in with his fire, but he wouldn’t be able to hold them for long.

  “Sparks!” Seb called again.

  When she still didn’t move, Seb ran to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “You can do this. I’ll protect you, I promise.”

  It seemed to be what she needed to hear. Sparks ran forward and sent a small blue bolt from her watch. It hit one of the white pebbles.

  Flames instantly rose from the ground. It didn’t look like much to start with, so Seb shouted to the others, “Get back!”

  Although the other three looked at Seb like he’d lost his mind, they all backed away with him.

  By the time they’d got about twenty metres clear and close to the spectators Bruke had rescued, the fire had spread both ways across all the pebbles. The flames were only half a metre tall at best and the soldiers had gathered at the hole, ready to step out.

  Gurt sent more blaster shots to keep the soldiers pinned in and said, “I’m not confident in your plan, Seb.”

  Before Seb could respond, a deep whoosh sounded out. A gust of warm air pulled them toward the pit and then shoved them backwards as the wax pebbles exploded as one.

  Seb thrust his arms out to the sides to keep his balance and noticed many of the beings with them fall over from the force of the explosion. The bright glow blinded him and he raised his guard as a shower of splinters flew from the arena.

  The blast turned the bottom of the pit to dust and the rest of it fell to the ground like a controlled explosion. The entire structure dropped on top of all the soldiers inside it.

  It took just seconds for the cylindrical building to turn into a bonfire. The flames ate through the wreck and rushed up into the night’s sky, lighting the slum up.

  “Wow!” Gurt finally said, still on his arse from where the explosion had knocked him down. “I should trust you a little bit more, eh?”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  When the dust and smoke had settled, Seb couldn’t see a single soldier nearby. They must have all gone down with the pit. Even if they hadn’t all made it in, none of them would have survived being close to the entrance.

  The crowd who’d left the arena gathered nearby, most of them watching on with shocked expressions, many of them still sitting on the cold ground from being knocked down.

  “This is what the Countess uses to drop on the slums from the ships.” Seb pulled one of the wax pebbles from his pocket and threw it back at the large burning structure. It glowed magnesium white for a second before making a loud bang.

  “This is what she’s killed your families with for years.”

  The crowd watched on in silence. What could they say to that?

  The heat from the burning pit spread, raising sweat on Seb’s brow and turning the air hot around him. He itched beneath his filthy flight suit and stepped a few paces back.

  Seb addressed the crowd again. “If the Countess didn’t know we were coming before, she certainly does now. We’re going into the elevated city in an hour. Meet me at the entrance to the sewers then. And bring torches. It’s dark where we’re going.”

  Chapter Forty

  “So what are we going to do now, hotshot?” Gurt said.

  When Seb looked at the large Mandulu, the hostility he’d aimed at him in the past didn’t seem present. “I thought you said you trusted me now?”

  A shake of his head, his large mouth pursed tight, and Gurt said, “No, I don’t think I did.”

  Seb took it in the good humour he thought Gurt intended and turned his attention to the sheer face of the elevated city in front of them.

  As Gurt’s words vanished, near silence surrounded them again, despite the considerably large crowd behind them.

  At first Seb looked up the huge craggy wall at the elevated city on top. It always seemed like an impossibly high climb from their current position. The sheer height of it served to remind the slum dwellers they didn’t belong up there. Regardless of their aspirations, they’d never be one of the elite.

  Then Seb returned his attention to the darkness of the sewers inside the black rock. Despite it being on their level, the shadowed crevice seemed even more intimidating than the high climb. Even on a planet that never saw daylight, the void they’d have to step into took the darkness beyond anything he’d seen before. It seemed to feast on any shimmer of light that dared enter.

  As thoughts of the strange creatures swimming through the waters occupied Seb’s mind, his heart rate sped up. Deep breaths did little for him at that moment. Every hard exhale formed as white mist in front of his face. What if he led half of the slum into the sewers and they never made it to the city above? But he couldn’t think like that. If they fell, he’d fall with them. He couldn’t promise them any more.

  A look behind at the crowd of beings and Seb couldn’t see how far it stretched. From where he stood, it looked like every being who could fight had turned up. Every bit of space not occupied by a hut had a creature standing in it. The bodies were packed in so tight, the creak and crash of falling dwellings popped through the air at random intervals from where the paths couldn’t contain the press of bodies.

  Many of the slum dwellers had torches and crude weapons. Batons, metal bars, Seb even saw some blasters.

  After a look at his friends, Sparks nodding for him to do something, Seb walked over to the nearest hut. He shoved it with his foot and most of it shook apart from one wall.

  Once Seb had climbed up on the sturdy wall, he saw the slum much better. The crowd stretched further back than he could have imagined and it glowed with the naked flames of what looked like hundreds of torches.

  Despite the size of the crowd, the near silence overwhelmed Seb. An occasional collapsing hut. A cough here and there. But other than that, they all watched him, waiting for his instructions.

  Seb cleared his throat. The beings in the fighting pit had already heard it, but he needed to say it again. Ten times the amount of creatures were now gathered around, if not more. They needed to hear it from his mouth.

  “This is it!” Seb’s eyes wandered over the crowd to the burning fighting pit in the distance. It sat on the horizon as a huge bonfire and filled the air with the smell of smoke.

  “This is your time to take your planet back. This is your chance to reclaim your lives. The Countess has crushed you for too long. This is the time to make her pay.”

  The previously static crowd shifted and swayed, clearly roused by Seb’s words.

  “Today we march on her palace and we won’t leave until it’s rubble.”

  Some of the crowd made noises of approval and many nodded their heads. The almost paralysing tension in Seb’s body eased a little as he got into the swing of it.

  “I’ve seen what she’s done to you all, and I’ve heard it’s happened for years. Today we come together as one and we overthrow her rule. Today is the day where everything changes.” Seb raised his voice and punched his fist in the
air. “Today is ours!”

  The crowd cheered.

  “We don’t want to kill the foot soldiers, but if they’re stupid enough to stand in our way, then we will. I believe most of them aren’t the creatures you remember them to be. What they once were has been beaten out of them because of the Countess’ brainwashing. Today, we’ll make sure she can’t do it to anyone else.”

  The crowd cheered again.

  “After today none of you will live in fear. You’ll be able to live as a democratic state. You’ll set the rules, not her. Now who’s with me?”

  The crowd erupted.

  “We’re going to make Solsans a planet to be proud of. We’re going to overwhelm that bitch and make sure she can’t oppress anyone ever again.”

  The crowd screamed, waved their weapons in the air, and swayed their torches from side to side.

  Before Seb could say anything else, a whoosh of engines raced through the sky above them. He looked up to see the Crimson fleet. Amongst them were the ships the Countess had pretended belonged to their enemies.

  “See?” Seb shouted as he pointed at the sky. “All of the ships are hers. She wanted you to fear an outside threat so she could pretend to protect you. But she’s the one that’s been bombing you all along.”

  In hindsight, Seb should have seen it coming. They’d made a statement by burning down the arena, so of course the Countess would strike back. When the hatch on the bottom of the lead ship opened, a cold rush gripped him.

  Seb’s world slowed down as he watched on and nausea clamped his stomach tight as a slow bomb fell from the ship.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Explosion after explosion lit up the slums, shaking the ground with every bomb’s landing. The vibrations ran through the wall Seb stood on, threatening to level it.

  The army Seb had gathered remained safe. They stood too close to the elevated city for the Countess to bomb them. But that didn’t help any of the creatures who’d stayed back because they couldn’t fight. Many children would be in the burning dwellings.

  After the last bomb had fallen and the ships had withdrawn, silence swept across the slum. But it only lasted a second, driven away by a torturous and distraught wail. Children and adults alike, many of the beings in the slums cried as they burned.

  Flames rose up from every building behind the army and stretched so high into the sky they hid the previously burning fighting pit.

  A look down at the others and Seb saw Sparks. She seemed on edge, her face pale, her eyes wide. She chewed her bottom lip and bounced on the spot as she edged towards the dark entrance to the sewers. The flames wouldn’t get to them, but she didn’t seem to trust that.

  Seb looked over the frantic crowd and shouted to be heard above the sounds of pain and the pop and crackle of fire. “The Countess is doing this to stop us. She fears us.”

  Many of the crowd looked back at the flames.

  “I promise you one thing, the bombing will only stop when the Countess falls,” Seb said. “She will do this to you for as long as she lives.”

  They knew that. Seb could see it in the faces that looked at him. Although, many of them had loved ones suffering in the flames.

  They’d have to do this with a smaller army. Seb said, “Anyone who needs to go back, do it now. Your loved ones are more important. The rest of us will move forward.”

  The crowd shuffled and moved as some remained and others left.

  ***

  It took a few minutes to see the extent of the exodus. About half the group remained.

  As Seb looked at the specks of fire from the torches of those rushing back to help their loved ones in need, a lump rose in his throat. So many innocent people had died at the Countess’ hands already. She’d pay for every life she’d taken.

  Half of what had been a large crowd still left them with a chance. The ones who remained seemed more agitated than before, more desperate to get into the elevated city. With courage and anger on their side, they could overcome anything. Hopefully.

  As Seb studied the remaining crowd, he made eye contact with the minotaur creature he’d met in the slums previously. The one who’d tried to fight him. The large brute stood a head above most of the beings around it and it looked up at Seb. Where it had stood in his way after he’d buried Phulp, it now stood beside him going into battle. He nodded at the creature and the creature nodded back.

  In another part of the crowd, Seb saw two giants. Both of them stood even taller than the minotaur. They’d easily take down ten opponents at a time. Maybe they could win this. Maybe they’d be okay.

  The time for words had passed. Seb hopped from the wall he’d been standing on and walked toward SA, Gurt, Sparks, and Bruke. He nodded and walked straight past them, heading for the dark entrance to the sewers.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  At the head of hundreds, if not thousands of beings, Seb pulled his shoulders back, filled his lungs with the stench of the sewers in front of him, turned his torch on, and strode into the void.

  The torch had seemed like a good idea, but the complete darkness of the sewers feasted on the pathetic beam. About to lead an army into a place where he had no control, Seb took another calming breath and pushed on.

  However, once Seb had ventured about thirty metres into the sewer, the line of beings following him brought enough torchlight in with them to light the place up. The collection of naked flames flickered and shimmered. It manipulated the shadows, but at least they could see where they were going.

  At their first junction, Seb stopped and saw a thick arrow pointing down one of the tunnels. It glowed with a wet bioluminescence as if it hadn’t been there long.

  “What the hell?” Gurt said.

  “It’s okay,” Seb said, his voice echoing up the tunnel ahead of them. “We can trust these markings. They must be guiding us to the ladders leading up to the elevated city.”

  Sparks stepped forward and sniffed the arrow. A screwed-up nose and sneer of revulsion and she said, “What have they used to draw it on with?”

  Somehow Seb had been oblivious to the smell of the arrow until now. The entire place stank, but now Sparks had pointed it out, he caught a whiff of rancid meat and stepped back a pace.

  Bruke walked up to the slimy mush. A few seconds later he stuck his finger into the stinking mess and tasted it.

  Seb’s stomach lurched to watch his green friend.

  “Sea cucumbers,” Bruke said.

  “You just ate that?” Gurt asked.

  “They’re perfectly edible,” Bruke said. “There’s a certain kind of sea cucumber that lives in the sewers. Their blood glows like this. I think whoever’s made these markings must have used the blood of those creatures.”

  “That’s sad,” Sparks said.

  But Bruke shook his head and placed one of his large hands on Sparks’ small shoulder. “Don’t be sad. Sea cucumbers, although tasty, are the most vicious little things I’ve ever seen. If they get a chance, they sheathe their enemy, or a part of their enemy”—Bruke looked down at Seb’s crotch and Seb stepped back a pace—“and they strip it of the flesh in seconds.”

  When Bruke pointed down at Seb’s crotch again, Seb nearly said something, but Bruke cut him off. “I’ve seen someone’s finger stripped to the bone before.”

  Seb did have his hands covering his lap. He breathed a relieved sigh.

  “I’ve also seen a male’s penis ripped to shreds.”

  “Bruke!” Seb said.

  A shrug and Bruke said, “The less of them there are in this world, the better. Also, whoever drew this arrow did it at a great risk to themselves. Sewer cucumbers are expensive on account of how hard they are to catch and kill. The amount of fingerless cucumber fishermen is unbelievable. You must have some good friends down here, Seb.”

  Because they’d stopped for a few seconds, a lot of the creatures behind had caught up to them and Seb felt their collective attention on him. He didn’t need to be talking about the sewer dwellers’ prophecy now.
“Right,” he said. “Let’s not hang around talking about this. We need to get to the ladders leading up to the city.”

  But of course Gurt wouldn’t let it go. As they walked—the echo of hundreds of footsteps in the huge tunnel—the large Mandulu called to Seb, “So who are these creatures down here you’ve become friends with?” Despite standing right next to him, he spoke with a loud enough voice for many of the beings behind to hear him. “Is it anything to do with that nutter who called you the chosen one?”

  As Gurt’s loud guffaws rang through the sewers, Seb listened to the rushing water beside him. Too much noise and surely the squid-like creatures would come for them. Although they couldn’t silence the rumble of hundreds of footsteps, so Gurt’s loud voice probably made no difference.

  “Come on, Seb,” Gurt said when Seb didn’t reply. “Tell us about your fan club of shit-eating lunatics.”

  “If it is anything to do with the beings down here, Gurt,” Sparks said, “you should probably shut up about it. We’re in their domain, so the last thing you want to do is upset them. If you have any kind of a brain, that is, which I’m still trying to ascertain.”

  Gurt instantly shut up and Seb smiled down at Sparks.

  The deeper they plunged into the sewers, the faster Seb’s heart beat. When he looked behind at the line of beings, he couldn’t see the end of it. Torches stretched all the way back and around the bend. He’d led a lot of creatures down here. What if one of the large squids attacked them?

  Seb shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. They had to keep going.

  When they arrived at a ladder, Seb stopped and turned to Gurt. “Can you wait here and take one in every four beings that come through?”

  “You trying to get rid of me?” Gurt asked.

  Seb nodded. “Yep.” Before Gurt could respond, he said, “I need you to wait before you start climbing. We need to all go up the ladders at the same time. Also, I want the Shadow Order members to be the first ones into the city. We don’t know what’s waiting up there, so we should be the ones to face it. When you get to the top, head for the square in front of the Crimson Palace. We don’t know where we’ll come out, so we need a meeting point.”