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

by Michael Robertson

  As Seb and Sparks walked across the dark square—bodies of both their enemies and allies littering the ground—Seb did his best to keep his eyes up. “So much death,” he said to Sparks as he continued to drop the wax pebbles like breadcrumbs.

  Sparks sighed. “I know. And all because of one woman.”

  “One woman who ran away like the coward she is.”

  “She’ll get hers.”

  Seb stepped over body after body and shook his head at the utter destruction around him. “I hope you’re right.”

  “The good thing is everyone else seems to have gotten out of here.”

  Because of the sheer weight of dead bodies, Seb hadn’t noticed the place had been evacuated.

  When one of the fallen beings next to Seb groaned, he jumped to the side and stared down at it. It was a Crimson foot soldier, its hood covering its face like the rest of them.

  Before Seb could react, Sparks dropped down next to the creature and whipped its hood away.

  Both of them stepped backwards at the sight and Seb said, “My god, what happened to you?”

  But the creature didn’t reply. Red livid skin covered in scars, it looked like it had been given a facial with hot coals. Maybe human at one point, maybe not, its lips had melted away, revealing blackened teeth and receding gums. Although it opened and closed its mouth, no words came out.

  The creature had no eyelids, its milky-white eyeballs suggesting it had been blinded. The way it moved its head as if scanning the sky backed up Seb’s thoughts.

  It finally made a sound and uttered the first word of its plea in a dry rasping voice, “Kill …”

  Sparks shot it in the face. “It may be our enemy, but I can’t leave it like that.” She then pocketed the blaster she’d just picked up.

  “So much unnecessary suffering,” Seb said as he stared down at the poor creature.

  The pair of them moved off again, dropping the white wax pebbles as they went.

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Seb and Sparks walked toward the two alleyways they’d used earlier. They chose the one SA and Gurt had emerged into. The ladders were much closer to the sewer’s exit. The sooner they got away from the elevated city, the better.

  The manhole covers had been replaced, although when they stepped close to one, it shifted as if it had something beneath it.

  Sparks pointed her recently acquired blaster at it.

  “They might be friendly,” Seb said and put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down.

  “It’s okay. I’ll only shoot if I have to.”

  When the shock-white skinned, blue-eyed, red-lipped leader of the sewer dwellers’ face appeared, Sparks raised her weapon.

  “No,” Seb said.

  “You know this thing.”

  “Yeah.”

  Sparks lowered the blaster and they watched the perpetually moving creature climb from the sewer. He stood up, his arms, legs, and head all twisting and turning. Each limb moved completely out of sync with the others.

  Seb laughed to look at Sparks’ face. Her wide eyes were magnified by her thick glasses. Unblinking, she swayed from side to side with the creature’s movement as if hypnotised by it.

  “Chosen One,” the leader of the sewer dwellers said with a bow.

  “Chosen One?!” Sparks snorted a laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”

  After he’d nudged Sparks in the side of the face with his elbow, Seb returned his attention to the leader of the sewer dwellers.

  “You’ve done a great thing here today,” the strange creature said, tilting so far one way and then the other he looked like he might fall over. “We want to help you get away.” He then looked down at the wax pebbles in Seb’s hand.

  “These are—”

  “I know what those are. She’s used them in the sewers before.” The creature pulled back his right sleeve to show livid burn scars on his otherwise pale arm. “If you give me all you have, we’ll make sure this place goes up like a rocket.”

  Just before Seb could offer them to him, Sparks pulled him in close. “What are you doing?!” she said.

  “Giving them to him so we can get out of here.”

  “And what if he’s lying?”

  “I don’t think he is.”

  “Why, because he hero-worships you?” Sparks tutted. “You humans and your egos.”

  But Seb ignored her. After slipping his bag from his shoulders, he put it on the ground, opened it up, and pulled the plastic tub out. He dropped his few remaining pebbles in his hand in with the others and handed them over.

  It took a few seconds before Sparks tutted again. “Fine! I’m trusting you on this, Seb. Or should I say Chosen One?”

  Despite Sparks’ attitude, Seb saw the uncertainty on her face. There had to be something to them calling him the chosen one and she knew it.

  The leader of the sewer dwellers bowed at both Seb and Sparks as they walked past him. Seb let Sparks down the ladder first.

  “We won’t let you down,” the twisting and turning creature said. “We’ll make sure this city burns. Please get to the edges of the slums so you’ll be safe.”

  Seb nodded at him. “Thank you.” He then plunged into the darkness of the hole leading down into the sewer.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  If anything, Seb ached more than before as he and Sparks neared the dark sewer’s exit. Although just the two of them had walked through the dank tunnels—making them an easy target—the squid-like creatures hadn’t bothered them.

  When Seb looked down at his still-clenched fists—his hands locked that way because it caused him the least pain—he saw lumps and bumps he’d not seen before. Swollen and battered beyond anything he’d ever experienced, they looked like two bags of marbles rather than hands. They’d need a lot of rest to heal.

  Seb’s heart sank to see a crowd of slum dwellers waiting for them by the exit. He barely had the energy to keep himself upright, and now he had a sea of faces before him. Exhausted, distressed, and, worst of all, expectant faces. They’d given everything to fight with him and now he had to say something. But what?

  If he thought on it for too long, he wouldn’t ever speak. A deep breath and Seb said, “Today’s been hard.” The emotion of the day cracked his voice and he felt Sparks’ long hand touch the base of his back.

  The crowd watched on in silence.

  “You’ve fought like warriors and you’ve won. But what is winning in war? The square was painted with the blood of the brave and the bold. Our enemies looked like they could beat us, but we overcame the threat with great strength, and for that you should feel proud.”

  Still silent.

  “I can’t imagine what you are all feeling now. Nothing I can say will bring back the lives lost in that battle, but the Countess has been overthrown. There’s no life left for her here. We didn’t get to her before she escaped, but there’s nothing for her to return to. Nothing.

  “I need one last thing from all of you. We need to get to the edge of the slum so we’re as far away from the elevated city as we can be. The sewer dwellers are going to light it up for us.”

  The beings still didn’t move.

  “I can’t tell you what will come after this. The choice is yours. You now have a chance to establish democracy on Solsans. I hope you make the best of it. Now is the time to rebuild. To show your fellow beings the love they deserve. You’ve earned this together.”

  Where Seb had only seen stillness, he now saw some nodding heads and heard grunts of approval from the crowd.

  A gap then opened up in the press of bodies and Seb’s world ground to a halt. He saw SA, Bruke, and the one remaining giant from the battlefield. The giant held Gurt in his arms.

  Floppy like wet fabric, Gurt lay still, motionless, dead.

  Panic reached up and choked Seb as he looked from the dead Gurt to SA and then to Bruke. Bruke cried as he walked forward.

  “No,” Seb said and shook his head. “No, it can’t be.”


  He stepped back a few paces into the darkness and funk of the sewer. He shouted, “It can’t be!” His voice echoed back through the tunnels.

  Sparks grabbed Seb’s arm to halt him.

  Seb wanted to run away and she knew it. The simple action from his small friend showed him the futility of it. He couldn’t run away from this.

  Another wave of hot grief ran through Seb, and suddenly his knees couldn’t cope with his weight.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Were it not for Bruke and SA, Seb wouldn’t have left the sewers’ entrance. The sight of the dead Gurt took the last of his strength from him and he couldn’t walk any farther. An arm around the shoulder of each, he let them lead him to the edge of the slum.

  The giant walked by their side. Stoic with its head held high, it moved with the respect of an undertaker as it carried the body of Gurt. Sparks remained close to Seb too.

  At the edge of the slum, the giant walked over to the line of dark trees and put Gurt down just in front of them. He folded the Mandulu’s arms across his chest and wiped a gentle hand down his face to close his eyes.

  Now Bruke and SA had let him go, Seb found the strength to walk over to his downed friend. He pulled Gurt’s blasters from each of his hips and put them in his hands. He couldn’t help but smile at the image in front of him.

  When Seb looked back at the others, they smiled too. “He wouldn’t want to be sent off in any other way,” he said.

  None of them disagreed with him.

  Despite the dampness in the misty air, the wood on the ground just inside the densely packed trees seemed dry enough. Seb picked up a handful of it and placed it over his friend. After he’d repeated the process a couple of times, the others seemed to get what he intended to do and they helped him.

  A tap on Seb’s shoulder as he hunched down to place another stack of sticks over Gurt, and he turned around to see Janina. Anxiety seemed to twist her features and Seb’s heart leapt. Although, when he looked behind her, he saw Jawty, Phulp, and Jince.

  Seb let go of a relieved sigh. “Thank the stars, I thought you were going to tell me the kids were harmed.”

  The anxiety lifted from Janina’s face and she smiled through what seemed to be sadness. Her red eyes were glazed with tears. Instead of speaking, she stepped forward and hugged Seb. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear.

  Seb pulled back. “It’s okay. I couldn’t walk away from this planet with her in charge.”

  “Thank you for that too, but”—Janina looked over her shoulder to see the kids playing—“thank you for never saying what Phulp did to you in front of the kids. I know he sold you out, and you could have tarnished his name, but you didn’t.”

  “It doesn’t mean I wasn’t angry with him,” Seb said.

  “And so you should be.”

  “Although, when I saw his dead body and I saw you guys, I suppose I understood where he was coming from. And maybe in his situation I would have done the same thing. Survival ain’t easy in a place like this.”

  “We appreciate your forgiveness.”

  And it was forgiveness, although Seb hadn’t ever seen it like that. He shrugged. “Just understanding where he was coming from. He seemed like a good egg, and like anyone would, he put his family first.”

  Janina pressed her hands together as if in prayer, nodded at Seb and said, “See you around, Seb Zodo. Solsans will never forget you.”

  His words caught in his throat, so Seb nodded.

  As she walked off, Janina and the kids turned to wave at Seb. He couldn’t help but smile at them as he waved back. They’d done the right thing for this planet.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  The orange glow turned into a blur through Seb’s tears as he watched his friend’s body burn. Maybe the Shadow Order would have wanted Gurt’s corpse back, but he’d decided not to give them the option. They needed to send him off now, in their own private way.

  At that moment, SA drew a deep breath beside him and Seb’s tears ran freer than before. Before she’d uttered her first note, he knew what she’d do.

  The same perfect tone they’d heard from her in the slums, SA let out a single celestial chord. Her voice seemed to silence the entire planet.

  SA continued to sing, the undulations of it rising and falling as she let her grief out for her friend.

  Choked and crying harder than ever, Seb turned to face the Crimson Palace on the horizon. It still stood as a huge silhouette, slightly darker than the darkness of night surrounding it. Although the symbol of oppression on the planet had been gutted and robbed of its power, just one final act remained.

  One after the other, Seb’s friends moved beside him while SA continued to sing. They all looked over the roofs of the slum at the elevated city in the distance. The heat from Gurt’s burning body warmed Seb’s back.

  After a particularly long and pained note, SA stopped. As if driven by intuition, she’d left just the slightest pause before it came.

  At first it sounded as if the planet had inhaled sharply. A quick draw of air and an entire section of the elevated city lit up like a star, dazzling Seb and forcing him back a step. It burned brighter than anything he’d seen since he’d been on Solsans, and a second later, an almighty boom shook the ground as if the sky had split.

  Flames pushed out of the sides of the Crimson Palace and the spired inferno fell.

  The slum dwellers cheered as the palace dropped and Seb smiled through his tears.

  A few seconds later deep cracks pounded through the city. Each one boomed like thunder. One, two, three, four … and suddenly the elevated city fell too.

  It sounded like an avalanche, like a hailstorm of boulders.

  The crowd cheered louder than before. And so they should.

  “If Gurt could have chosen his funeral,” Seb said, “I’m sure this wouldn’t be too far away from what he’d want.”

  A look both left and right and Seb saw all of his friends crying like him. After a deep breath, he added, “And what a way for the sewer dwellers to go. I’m not sure they would have fit into the new united society. They had some very antisocial practices.”

  The sound of a ship’s engines came from behind them, and when Seb looked back, he saw the Shadow Order had arrived. He looked at Bruke for a moment. “I suppose you’d best come with us, then.”

  Bruke’s jaw fell loose. “You mean it?”

  “Sure. I’ve seen how you fight. We need that in our team. Right, guys?”

  “Yep,” Sparks said.

  SA smiled, her eyes aglow.

  “Thank you,” Bruke said. “Thank you so much. I’d love to come. Thank you.”

  “Come on,” Sparks said and tugged on Bruke’s arm to pull him toward the ship. “We’ll need to get you some clothes to wear though, I’m not looking at your nakedness for any longer.”

  Left alone with just SA, Seb looked at the burning city for a few more seconds before turning his attention on her. “Thank you for coming back for me. I couldn’t have made it without you guys.”

  SA looked straight at him as if she saw inside him. The smile on her face suggested she liked what she’d seen.

  Before Seb could say anything else, she held out a long and graceful hand. Seb took it and together they walked past the burning remains of their good friend in the direction of the Shadow Order’s ship.

  Now he had to go and face Moses.

  End of Book Three.

  Thank you for reading The Crimson War - Book Three of The Shadow Order.

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  About the Author

  Like most children born in the seventies, Michael grew up with Star Wars in his life. An obsessive watcher of the films, and an avid reader from an early age, he found himself taken over with stories whenever he let his mind wander.

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  SIXTH CYCLE

  Nuclear war has destroyed human civilization.

  Captain Jake Phillips wakes into a dangerous new world, where he finds the remaining fragments of the population living in a series of strongholds, connected across the country. Uneasy alliances have maintained their safety, but things are about to change. -- Discovery leads to danger. -- Skye Reed, a tracker from the Omega stronghold, uncovers a threat that could spell the end for their fragile society. With friends and enemies revealing truths about the past, she will need to decide who to trust. -- Sixth Cycle is a gritty post-apocalyptic story of survival and adventure.