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

by Michael Robertson

  “Whatever happens,” Seb said, “we’re going to win this war!”

  Seb raised his voice to a shout, his call rushing out into the square. “Whatever it takes!”

  This time all of the beings yelled in response, the call rushing at him as a wall of sound.

  Riled up like the rest of the crowd, Seb bounced on the balls of his feet as he took them in for a second. He then spun around and walked out into the square.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  The scene looked no less intimidating a second time. As Seb stepped from the alleyway with his army behind him, he looked at the crowd of crimson robes in the square, waiting for them.

  A wave of negativity threatened to drag Seb back and grind him into inaction, but he pushed through it and strode forwards. If he lost his nerve, what would that say to the others?

  The Crimson army remained still and silent.

  When Seb caught movement in his peripheral vision to his left, he looked across the square and saw SA and Gurt lead their fighters out of another alleyway. They had the two giants with them, who stood at the front of the pack.

  Seb nodded, and both SA and Gurt returned the gesture.

  The sides of Seb’s vision shimmered, his world ready to slip into slow motion at any moment.

  The Crimson army continued to stare at Seb as he led the slum dwellers towards them. Silent and resolute, they looked like they could spring to life at any moment.

  The shuffle of footsteps sounded out as the only noise in the area as Seb and the dwellers closed the gap between the two armies. When they had just five metres of dark and damp ground separating them, he stopped.

  Seb stared at the Crimson soldiers and the Crimson soldiers stared back. A sea of faces hidden in shadow, it made them impossible to read.

  The Crimson army had lined up with the smallest at the front all the way back to the two monsters Seb and Sparks had seen when they’d hidden in the Crimson Countess’ hangar. As large as the giants with SA and Gurt, the monsters looked like they could crack skulls for fun.

  As the army of beings from the slums filed out of both alleyways, SA, Gurt, and Bruke came up to the front of the pack and stood beside Seb and Sparks.

  Gurt wore his usual deep scowl and SA stood as serene as ever. Bruke continued to look on the verge of a panic attack. He looked how Seb felt.

  Time seemed to freeze as the two armies continued to size each other up. Now they’d all gathered in the square, Seb saw the reality of their situation. The crimson robes outnumbered the slum dwellers. They had at least a third more beings. And no doubt all of them had blasters on them too. It must be why they lined up like they did. It would allow the taller fighters to shoot over the heads of the smaller ones.

  “This is going to be fun,” Gurt said from the side of his mouth, loud enough to carry across the square. Some of the robes shifted as if struggling to hold themselves back.

  A tall figure then stepped forward from the opposing army. Although he wore a crimson robe, it ran slightly darker than the crimson of his brethren. Clearly their leader, he called across at Seb, “Turn back now before it’s too late.”

  Seb didn’t reply, but Gurt did. “You turn back, you stinking rat.”

  If the insult bothered the creature, it didn’t show it. “I’m addressing the residents of Caloon now,” the Crimson soldier said. “You have no business here. Mother has always been kind to you and will continue to provide. But you need to turn back now. You stay here, you die. Simple.”

  “Been kind?” Gurt said and pointed over his shoulder. “Have you seen how they live down there?”

  Silence washed over the square.

  The leader of the Crimson army looked like he might say something, but Seb spoke before he could. “My turn now. We don’t have an issue with the Crimson foot soldiers. You throw your robes down now and we absolve you of your crimes. We understand you’ve been brainwashed by the Countess and we forgive you. But if you keep those robes on, we’ll roll right over you to get to her. Either way, the Crimson bitch will fall.”

  Gurt gave Seb a punch of encouragement on his arm. The hard blow sent him stumbling away from his teammate. When he looked at the large Mandulu, a grizzly grin split Gurt’s wide face. “That’s the spirit,” he said.

  The robed leader pulled back into its army and dropped into a defensive crouch. The others around it all drew their blasters as one and pointed them across the square.

  “You say you don’t have a problem with the beings in the slums,” Seb said, “yet you oppress them. You bully them and you exploit them. As much as we’d love to take you up on your offer, we’re going to respectfully decline. The Countess’ reign ends now. It ends today.”

  The Crimson leader didn’t respond. He stared at Seb and Seb stared back, his saliva turning into a paste in his dry mouth. The edges of his world blurred. They’d waited long enough.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Even with his world now in slow motion, the green laser blast caught Seb off guard. A trace of it flashed through his peripheral vision from over his left shoulder, and before he’d registered what had happened, it had sunk into the dark hood of the lead Crimson foot soldier.

  An explosion of blood and brain matter popped into the air as a red mist and time stood still as if everyone held their breath.

  The lead soldier swayed for a second. Then his legs shook and buckled beneath him.

  As the creature fell, Seb turned to Gurt beside him. The large Mandulu had his blaster raised and pointing in the direction of the soldier he’d just shot. A half-smile lit up his wide face and he shrugged. “I got tired of all the talking.”

  Not that Seb had the time to respond.

  It started as a rumble and then swelled through the crimson crowd as a loud collective roar. The army then rushed forward as one.

  The slum dwellers responded with their own battle cry, but they remained still. Because he stood at the front, Seb had to lead the charge.

  The ground shook beneath Seb’s feet. He couldn’t wait any longer. A raised fist and he ran forward, the stampede of both sides sending thunder through the dark rock of the elevated city.

  Seb’s ability to see everything in slow motion worked against him sometimes. In situations like the one he currently found himself in, it gave him more time to see the extent of the red wall rushing at them.

  Seb narrowed his focus and looked ahead. Despite not being able to see the faces of his opponents, he saw their weak spots. He clenched his fists moments before the two sides collided.

  Punch after punch, Seb dropped one soldier and then the next. Some had hides so tough they hurt his hands, but every one of them went down under his flurry of blows. Several of the soldiers had weak spots low down, so he kicked out a couple of times and they folded as easily as their comrades.

  The Crimson soldiers led with blaster fire, but they’d lost their formation. They seemed to drop as many of their own in the crossfire as they did the slum dwellers.

  The battle quickly fell into hand-to-hand combat, the Crimson army swapping blasters for bats and bludgeons.

  While Seb worked his way through the crowd, he caught a glimpse of the minotaur by his side. The large creature carried a hand axe and removed limbs and heads with every swing. A wide arc and he planted his sharp weapon into a skull before ripping it out with a spray of blood. A one-creature army, he took twenty or so soldiers out right in front of Seb.

  Then a small Crimson soldier no bigger than about three feet managed to get close to the minotaur. It pointed a blaster up and pulled the trigger. The red beam left the gun and travelled straight through the bottom of the minotaur’s thick chin. It thrust an explosion of flesh and bone into the sky.

  Seb’s stomach lurched to watch the minotaur fall, his heart hurting when the creature looked his way. Maybe he showed nothing more than the shock of his life leaving him, but it looked like accusation sat in his onyx glare. They’d followed Seb into battle. He’d promised them freedom.


  Despite his desire to reach down and put his hands on the minotaur, the beast had passed. Nothing could fix him now. Before Seb could think on it any further, the minotaur’s body vanished beneath the stampede of Crimson warriors.

  Seb screamed so loud it tore at his throat. He faced the next rush of attackers. Three quick jabs and three soldiers fell.

  The sound of another blaster went off and then another one. When Seb looked at the battle, he saw the Crimson soldiers follow the lead of the one who’d dropped the minotaur. They all aimed their blasters at the sky and pulled the triggers, turning it red as they executed the slum dwellers.

  Even though he saw everything in slow motion, Seb’s head spun at how quickly his army fell.

  Suddenly Seb saw Gurt in the battle. He looked to have adopted the Crimson soldiers’ tactics—adopted and mastered them. The red beams in the night’s sky were joined with green flashes. Despite the green blasts coming from just one blaster, they balanced the colour of the battle as Gurt blew the soldiers’ brains out one after the other. The smell of singed hair and blood scented the air.

  Then Seb saw SA. She moved with the grace of a ballerina. It seemed effortless as she spun through the carnage, executing any enemies in her way, her knives an extension of her fluid limbs.

  Seb searched the crowd, but he couldn’t see the others. No Sparks; no Bruke.

  Four quick blows and Seb dropped four more soldiers. “Sparks,” he called, but he still couldn’t see her. Another blow and then, “Sparks.” Still nothing.

  A crowd of several Crimson foot soldiers jumped back to Seb’s left as if forced away from something. He threw a series of quick jabs on his way over to the disturbance and found Sparks crouched down with her finger on her watch. She seemed ready to electrocute anyone who came close to her, her teeth bared in a snarl.

  The soldiers she’d shocked closed in again, so Seb rushed across to stand in front of her. When the crimson robes halted, Seb raised his fists, his arms weak with exhaustion and sweat running into his eyes.

  One of the soldiers laughed, so Seb lunged for the creature. He drove a blow into the centre of its shadowed hood and its legs buckled beneath it. It hit the ground. A blue flash and a loud buzz and Sparks electrocuted the soldier. Another shot of singed hair scented the air.

  The other soldiers paused for a second before all rushing towards Seb as one.

  Everything turned into a blur and Seb moved on instinct. Exhausted from the fight, he heaved deep breaths and drove blow after blow into the creatures’ faces. He dropped them all.

  Once they’d all gone down, a slight lull followed, and Seb’s entire frame rocked with his fatigue.

  Before he could do anything else, Gurt stormed into the space and ripped off a line of rapid shots into the downed soldiers. The smell of cauterised flesh wafted up from the corpses and different coloured blood leaked from them.

  Gurt scowled at Seb, a dark set to his large features. “Do I always have to clean up after you?”

  “What else are you good for?” Seb replied.

  A flash of mirth winked across Gurt’s face before he stepped forward and sent several more uppercut green blasts into the sky. Bodies fell in his wake like wilting flowers.

  One of the downed soldiers seemed to be a similar height to Sparks. Seb quickly whipped its small robe off and handed it to his friend. “Here.”

  She stared at the garment, her purple eyes growing larger behind her glasses. “What’s that for?”

  “We need someone to get into the palace and free the boy slaves. You’re better doing that than fighting out here.”

  Although Sparks looked like she wanted to argue, she didn’t. Instead, she took the robe from him, threw it on, and said, “Thanks for saving me.” Her face vanished behind the shadow of the hood. She looked down at the dead soldier Seb had de-robed before looking back at him. “See you soon.”

  The second she ran into the crowd, Seb looked up to find more soldiers charging at him. A deep breath did little to help him recover. Pains streaked up either side of his face from where he clenched his jaw, and his lungs felt ready to burst. Not that he could stop now. He loosed a loud scream and lunged at the closest soldier with a right blow.

  Chapter Fifty

  Where Seb thought his body had ached before the battle, it now went to another level as fatigue kicked in. He still landed the blows he needed to land and still knocked out as many Crimson soldiers as he had before, but now he felt a strange detachment from his actions, almost as if his body was working on autopilot.

  Every blow hurt Seb’s hands more than the previous one and the air stank. He’d fought before but not against so many beings. The smell of sweat, shit, and blood swirled as a heady mix around him.

  As Seb buried a punch into another Crimson soldier’s dark hood, fire ripped across his knuckles. The creature must have had a horn of some sort. But like the others, it fell to the ground. They all fell to the ground.

  Because of his slow motion, Seb had time to examine his hand as the creature fell away from him. A deep red gash belched blood and turned his fist slick.

  A brief pause and he looked around. His already hammering heart skipped. The crimson robes were winning. They’d overpowered the creatures from the slums and pushed them back towards the alleyways they’d emerged from.

  For the first time since they’d been in the sewers, Seb saw Bruke. He’d never seen him this way.

  Consumed with berserker rage, Bruke’s soft brown eyes were frenzied, his teeth bared. He worked through the crowd of soldiers almost as easily as Seb did, his huge powerful arms driving them back as he flung wild blows.

  When Bruke grabbed a smaller soldier and pulled his arms clean from his body, Seb winced. Bruke seemed oblivious to the horror of it, using the bloody stumps to beat the next three soldiers back.

  Just before Seb could return to his fight, he saw the red laser blast. It sailed through the air, missing everyone in the dense crowd until it sank into the centre of Bruke’s chest.

  Seb’s world stopped as he watched his friend collapse.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  “Bruke!” Seb called and shoved ally and enemy aside to get to him.

  Because of his distress, Seb could only focus on his fallen green friend. It took for SA to leap past him and fight the soldiers before he noticed the pack descending on him.

  The ground shook when Gurt leapt over Bruke and next to SA. Together they fought like they always did, giving Seb the time he needed to focus on his friend.

  Seb fell to the hard ground—the collision with the rock smashing through his knees—and lifted Bruke’s head into his lap.

  Stark fear stared up at him from Bruke’s mahogany gaze. When he opened his mouth to speak, blood bubbled out, the red standing in sharp contrast to his pale green scales.

  “It’s okay,” Seb said while stroking his scaly head. “Don’t try to speak. Everything’s okay.”

  A fish dragged from water, Bruke opened his wide mouth and gasped for breaths as he lay there. Seb looked at SA and Gurt. They did a good job of holding the Crimson attack at bay.

  As soon as Seb had seen Bruke fall, his hands buzzed. But now he sat over him, they almost hummed with the vibration tingling through them. Like in the frog creatures’ hut, he put his hands on Bruke’s wound.

  Very little happened for the next few seconds, Bruke’s blood oozing up through Seb’s fingers.

  Seb’s hands buzzed so hard he felt the tingle in his arms. But it didn’t seem to be working. Bruke’s mahogany stare glazed as if he’d pulled back into himself. Or as if some part of him had slipped away.

  Over the next few seconds, Seb stared at his friend and watched his lights turn out. Bruke stopped moving, his mouth open wide as a frozen moment in time.

  Seb kept his hand on Bruke’s chest, but he could see he’d gone. The world blurred through his tears and he whispered to his friend, “I’m so sorry.” A lump as sharp as broken glass wedged in his throat. “I’m so, so s
orry.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  When Bruke woke with a gasp, Seb jumped back and raised a clenched fist at him in a defensive response. He ground his jaw as he looked down at his grinning friend, his heart hammering. “My god! I thought you’d died.” A look at the place where the hole had been in his chest and Seb saw it had healed over.

  Bruke felt where he’d been shot. When he looked back at Seb, wonder and awe stared from his pale face. “What did you do?”

  But Seb didn’t answer. Instead, he removed his backpack, dropped it on the ground, undid it, and handed his blaster to Bruke. “Here, use this.”

  Before Bruke could respond to him, Seb jumped to his feet and joined SA and Gurt. He moved in next to them and helped the fight against an increasing amount of Crimson soldiers.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Because he didn’t have a projectile weapon, Seb had to move in front of Gurt and SA. Blood ran from his throbbing hands and every punch hurt more than the last. But he still dropped the Crimson soldiers as regularly as he had before. The pain didn’t matter; as long as he could fight, he would.

  Knives flew past Seb on one side and blaster fire on the other. As a trio, they advanced the attack of their entire army, cutting into the swell of crimson robes. At least that was what he’d thought.

  It took for Seb to look left and right to see they were part of just a small unit still moving forwards. Many of the other beings had been overwhelmed. Now a phalanx rather than an advancing line, if they didn’t watch it, the crimson robes would cut them off and slaughter them.

  The battle lit up around Seb with the screams of many falling allies. They had no chance against this experienced army.

  Red blaster fire lit up the sky and the air reeked of spilled blood as the Crimson soldiers continued to slaughter the slum dwellers.