As Sparks vanished through the space, Seb gritted his teeth and found an extra burst of energy. Sweat ran into his eyes and his throat dried because of the hot environment.
Before Seb got to the path through the rock, another wave of fire came at him.
Seb ran backwards to see the blasts and his stomach lurched as he anticipated a fall on the uneven terrain.
At least forty indigenous creatures charged in their attempt to reclaim their queen’s crown, which had already vanished with Sparks. Maybe male, female, or both, the quadrupeds were the size of lions and dressed like ninjas. Black cloth covered their entire form save for a cut-out slit exposing their yellow eyes and a hole so they could use their huge jaws. They were each armed with a blaster on a leather thong around their necks. It slowed them down to turn bipedal, but when they did, it allowed them to send another volley of fire at Seb.
The bars of red and blue laser blasts spewed forth in their third assault. Seb dodged all of them again, his ragged breaths slow as his world moved at a fraction of the real speed. Although he could see the creatures’ weak spots, he ignored them. He’d lose if he stopped to fight.
Before the creatures could loose another round of fire, Seb came to the pathway through the rock and ducked into it. The planet’s thin atmosphere made every breath less effective than the last.
The red terrain on the other side of the wall seemed redder than the side Seb left behind. The rocky landscape burned a deep crimson like fresh blood.
A space of about fifty metres separated Seb from the huge mountain Sparks headed for. Halfway there already, she ran for a large metal shutter embedded in the side of it. Their intel had told them they would find a hangar nearby and, so far, the information they’d received from the Shadow Order’s databank had been spot on.
Before Seb followed Sparks across the open space, he stopped. Out of breath from the run and with the dry taste of dust in his throat, he forced his words out and called to the small Thrystian, “How long will you need, Sparks?”
Sparks spun around so she ran backwards and cupped her mouth to call to him, “Come through when you hear a ship’s engines start up.”
A deep breath to try to level himself out and Seb gave Sparks a thumbs-up before he turned back to the gap he’d just run through.
The first of the quadruped ninjas burst out and Seb ambushed it with a punch to the forehead. The thing didn’t see it coming and its momentum carried it forward despite its head being snapped back by the blow. Out cold from the attack, the beast slid along the hard ground face first.
The next one came through and Seb kicked it in the same spot. It wouldn’t be a challenge to knock them out one at a time, but he’d be overwhelmed if he tried to do it to all of them.
Hot from the run and the red planet’s elevated temperature, Seb knocked three more out with quick jabs, each one connecting with the hard skulls of the beasts. The next deep breath he took smelled of wet dog. In fact, it reeked of it, and he ruffled his nose as he looked at the dirty unconscious aliens.
Seb opened and closed his stinging hand to try to ease the deep pain already in it. Too focused on his fist, he missed the next attacker, which jumped over both the bodies of its unconscious friends as well as Seb. Before he could deal with it, three more came through the gap.
Seb ran at the creature that had jumped him and knocked it out. The beasts behind quickly caught up and surrounded him, their deep growls rumbling like race pod engines. Yellow eyes glared at him from their black masks and they snapped their wide mouths. Their lips pulled back to reveal their black needle teeth. Each bite could take his head clean off. Matted brown fur hung from their maws, clogged with what looked like congealed blood from their last kill.
One lurched forward and Seb kicked it under its jaw, careful to avoid puncturing his shoe on its sharp bite. It yelped and pulled back, but it stayed conscious. This couldn’t last long; there were too many for him to fight.
A glance at the gap in the rocks and Seb saw more stalk through the space. They all watched him, their heads dipped low and their shoulders lifting on one side and then the other as they strode forward. Confident in their dominance over him, their rattling growl joined with the others around them.
Just one of the creatures stood between Seb and the hangar. He lunged at that one and drove a punch to its hard forehead. He could have sworn he heard his hand crack. Numbness spread through his fist, but he took off toward the mountain. Blaster fire hit the ground around him and sprayed him with chips of red rock.
Just a few metres clear of the group, Seb turned to see he hadn’t made a dent in their numbers. They came through the crevice like a flood. What he’d thought to be forty of the brutes now looked like seventy or more. A plague of beasts rather than a pack. Although, they seemed less interested in using their blasters now.
Pinned between them and the mountain, Seb had no hope of distracting them until he heard an engine start up. Hopefully, Sparks had a plan B.
Every tired step against the hard and rocky ground snapped through Seb. Clumsy with exhaustion, he didn’t have the strength in his body to compensate for the unforgiving surface. With sore hips from the run, a throbbing hand from the fight, and burning lungs because of the planet’s thin atmosphere, he used the beasts’ slathering and phlegmy rattle to spur him on.
As Seb closed down on Sparks, he saw the shutter in the side of the mountain lift by no more than thirty centimetres. Enough for her to get through, but it looked tiny for him.
When Seb looked behind him, the creatures had gained on him. The ones at the front remained on all fours while a row further back now stood on their hind legs as they released another round of laser fire.
Most of the shots went woefully wide, but one came so close to the tired Seb he only managed to avoid it at the last moment. A fizz and then the acrid reek of his singed hair snaked up his nostrils from the near miss. Were everything moving at full speed, he’d be dead a hundred times over by now.
Sparks had said to wait until he heard a ship’s engines, but what did she expect Seb to do? Dance for them until she’d finished?
Before he’d reached the shutter embedded in the blood red mountain, Seb heard the whoosh of a booster. One thing about Sparks, she never let him down—apart from the time she’d robbed him.
With the partly raised shutter just metres away, Seb turned to see another wall of red and blue fire. He dropped to the ground and every shot flew over him. Metal sparks exploded from the shutter as a firework display while the lasers played a tattoo against the alloy barrier.
As Seb rolled along the ground, the beasts’ stampede ran a heavy vibration through his back. The desire to turn and look at them fought for his attention, but he shuffled forward and slipped his left leg and foot into the hangar on the other side of the shutter.
The beasts continued their charge as a landslide of chaos. Seb slipped further into the hangar, but his chest and head trapped him. He turned his face to the side and looked at the oncoming rush of animal ninjas. Despite trying to pull his body through to safety, he remained stuck.
Seb pushed up with both hands against the cold metal shutter. He strained so hard his head spun and his tired lungs burned. He managed to lift it by another few centimetres, but he still couldn’t get through.
The first of his pursuers caught up with Seb and stamped down on his right arm. Its huge, clawed paw—easily the size of Seb’s head—pinned him to the hard ground and sent sharp pains through his bicep.
The rumble of the creature’s rasping wheeze filled Seb’s ears and he smelled blood on its hot breath.
Seb’s eyes watered from the sharp sting on his shoulder blades as the rough ground tore him to shreds with his fight to get through. But with more beasts closing in, he had to keep going and tugged against the one that had him trapped.
The creature lifted its foot, tucked its opposable thumb in to make a fist, and drove it toward Seb’s face. By taking the pressure off his arm, it freed him and
gave him the chance for one last attempt to get away.
The ground shook from the creature’s punch. A slowed-down vibration through the rock because of Seb’s perception, the blow would have crushed his head had he not moved it.
Seb thought he’d gotten free until the beast pinned him again, this time getting his lower arm.
Like it had with Seb’s bicep, a deep burn seared his forearm and it quickly turned numb beneath the heavy pressure. Blind to what was occurring on the other side of the shutter, he felt warm metal tap against his hand. The creature’s blaster!
Despite being pinned down, Seb reached up with his right hand. He had enough movement in his wrist to catch the blaster and snap it from the leather thong around the monster’s neck.
The weapon hit the ground and Seb saw it through the gap amongst the collection of paws on the other side. It lay just in reach. He moved quickly and rolled over to use his left hand to snatch the blaster, angled it up, and pulled the trigger in one fluid movement.
The creature who had him pinned screamed and ripped its large foot away.
Seb withdrew into the hangar just as the metal shutter shook with the collision of several large bodies.
Chapter 2
Unlike the dry and sparse planet, Seb found the hangar to be crammed with objects. Ships, tanks, buggies … The chrome on all of the vehicles glittered in the space as stars would in a night’s sky, and the entire place reeked of engine grease. Strip lighting ran along the ceiling and stood in stark contrast to the dark red glow of the planet outside the hangar. It forced Seb to squint against the glare, his eyes stinging from the violent change in his surroundings.
The deep rumble of a ship’s engine rolled around the space and Seb felt the vibration of it run through his feet. He scowled as he looked for which ship made the sound and finally saw a fighter on the other side of the hangar. Sparks sat in the cockpit. A quick scan of the gleaming ship and Seb saw she’d picked one large enough to make the jump to hyperspace, but small enough for a dogfight. Just the thought of a battle in space tightened his stomach and sank dread through him. The walkway to the ship lolled from the vessel like a metal tongue, and he ran for it with what little strength he had left in his aching body.
Once he’d halved the distance between him and the ship, Seb saw Spark’s tense face turn to horror in the cockpit. He looked behind to see the creatures who’d chased them were forcing the shutter higher and several had nearly shoved their way through.
Still armed with one of the creatures’ large blasters, Seb held it with two hands and fired. Despite the shutter being big enough to cover a gap that would let a tank into the place, he missed it completely and hit the wall next to it. An explosion of red rock blew away from the impact and did little to slow the creatures down.
Seb fired again and this time he hit the shutter. As it had done on the outside when the creatures had shot at him, his blast exploded in a shower of sparks. Although a spittle of fire rained down on the beasts, it only made them flinch before they continued to force their way in. “Damn it,” he said as he turned around and willed his tired body toward the ship.
With about five metres to go, Seb looked behind again to see four of the large creatures had made it in. They stood on their hind legs with their blasters raised and fixed him with their yellow stares.
Then Seb saw them: a cluster of blue barrels as tall as him and twice as wide right beside the shutter. They looked like they contained fuel.
The blaster kicked as Seb shot at the barrels, but the blue laser missed them, hitting the shutter again with another splash of orange sparks. The four creatures that had made it through into the hangar jumped to the side. Everything remained in slow motion for Seb as he tried a second shot.
This time Seb went too far the other way and blew up a small mechanic droid. The sad bot fell instantly limp from the impact.
Just before he got to the access ramp for the ship with Sparks in it, Seb stopped, closed one eye as he looked down the sight of the blaster, and fired a third shot at the barrels. A whoosh sounded out when it hit and a huge fireball smothered the four beasts inside the hangar. Flames instantly drew lines around their forms as they burned, and a rush of hot air collided with him. It carried the reek of singed hair with it and hit him so hard he stumbled backwards.
The hard metal of the access ramp tapped beneath Seb’s footsteps as he ran up it and entered the ship’s hull. The tang of smoke rushed into the ship with him.
Sparks stood wide-eyed inside the small vessel and breathed on the edge of a panic attack. Seb grabbed her slim shoulders and shook her so hard her head snapped back and forth. The glaze lifted from her stare and she jumped to life. She moved to a wall of buttons by the ship’s exit. Several quick taps and the access ramp pulled back into the ship’s body with a whir. She then ran for the cockpit and Seb followed her.
Sparks didn’t seem fazed by the wall of screens and buttons in the cockpit, but when she looked again at the fire Seb had ignited, she froze momentarily and watched it burn out.
The explosion had blown the shutter clean away from the hole, and although the fire had taken out a few of the creatures, the rest of them now charged into the hangar. Seb nudged his small friend. “Come on, Sparks, get us out of here.”
A volley of blaster fire rushed at them as the beasts all reared up with their weapons. The blasts shook the ship when they connected with its metal body. With everything back to a normal speed, Seb watched Sparks shake as her fingers danced across the ship’s control panel. Although he wanted to scream at her to hurry up, he bit his tongue.
The creatures continued to swarm into the hangar and sent another wave of shots their way.
The ship shook and Seb heard a fizz from where they connected with something electrical. “I don’t think we can take much more of this, Sparks,” he said.
Just as the third wave of fire came at them, a loud whoom sounded out and Seb now saw the creatures through a light blue filter. The blaster fire hit the ship’s shield and diluted on impact with a wet pop.
Before the creatures could change their method of attack, Sparks grabbed the controls and lifted them a metre or so from the ground. The ship swayed as she fought for control of it.
“I thought you knew how to fly one of these things,” Seb said, seeing the beasts back down on all fours and racing towards them.
“I do … in principle.”
“In principle?”
Instead of replying, Sparks clenched her teeth. She pushed hard on the lever in front of her and the ship shot forward, throwing Seb back.
The pain of hitting the metal rear wall clattered through Seb as it jarred his skeleton and he hit the floor in a heap. Unable to stand up against the ship’s hard acceleration, Seb remained where he was and watched the steel of the hangar shoot past them. Seconds later, it gave way to the void of a black star-studded sky.
Exhausted and sweating from the getaway, in pain from the fight, and still out of breath, Seb sank into his posture and managed a half-smile. “Well done, Sparks,” he said, tiredness tugging on his frame. “Well done.”
Chapter 3
“Uh … Seb?” Sparks said.
Seb opened his heavy eyelids, lethargic from the lure of sleep nearly dragging him under. After they’d taken off and he’d been flung back into one of the steel walls, he’d crawled over to a nearby padded bench and lay down on it. Everything ached from their escape, so he’d closed his eyes to let his body rest.
Before Seb could reply, Sparks repeated, “Seb?”
Seb groaned as he sat up, a deep throbbing headache pulsing inside his skull. When he saw Sparks open her mouth to call him again, he cut her off, “It’s okay, I heard ya.”
“Well, answer me then.”
Seb got to his feet—his legs wobbly with exhaustion—and stumbled over to Sparks. Too tired to shout across the ship, he walked up behind her. “What do you want?”
Sparks pointed one of her long fingers down in front of her.<
br />
An entire console of lights, buttons, and levers stared back at Seb. “I don’t know what any of that nonsense means. What are you pointing at?”
When Sparks tapped her long finger against a circular screen, her fingernail clicked as it connected with the glass. The screen had a blob in its centre and concentric circles surrounded it. Seb saw the pulsing dots in the bottom half of the screen and his tiredness left him. “Damn.”
Without another word to Sparks, Seb ran to the back of the ship and looked out of the large rear window. The dots he’d seen on the screen manifested as a cluster of ships behind them.
“Get in the turret now,” Sparks called back to him.
A hatch lay in the centre of the floor. Round and with recessed handles, Seb pulled it up to reveal a ladder in a tight tunnel. It led to the turret attached to the base of the ship.
Seb climbed down the cold metal rungs, the space so enclosed it amplified his panicked breaths as he descended.
At the bottom of the ladder, Seb dropped into the large padded seat and gripped the two blaster handles to aim the gun behind them. The turret clung to the bottom of the ship as a transparent dome. Only just large enough for him, the vessel couldn’t have been native to the planet they’d just escaped from. No way would one of the ninja creatures fit into the space.
When Seb leaned left, the turret spun so quickly it made him dizzy. It did the same the other way when he leaned right to try to straighten it. With subtler movements than before, he gently encouraged the turret around so it faced the ships on their tail.
As he watched their enemies get closer, his heart on overdrive, Seb drew a deep breath to encourage everything to slow down around him.
A few seconds later nothing had changed other than the enemy ships had gotten closer. Everything moved at the same fast pace. So fast Seb saw their attackers as a blur.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 18
