“Wooooooooot!” Sparks shouted through the radio. She screamed so loud it distorted through the speakers in Seb’s cockpit.
Everything moved fast, much faster than Seb had grown used to during combat, but he managed to send three more shots out and take down two of the remaining six ships. Still slightly out of control, he flew straight on a collision course with one of the Crimson fleet. The pilot had the good sense to get out of his way, saving both of them from a crash.
A sharp turn, so abrupt Seb could have sworn he heard his brain rattle, and he faced the fleet again. Several more shots and three of the four blew up in front of him.
“I thought you couldn’t shoot?” Gurt called to Seb through the radio.
“I couldn’t,” Seb replied. “Looks like I just learned how.”
Although Seb got on the back of the last ship in the fleet, he couldn’t shoot at it. Sparks sat directly in front of it. If he missed, his friends would melt in a hot explosion like the Crimson fleet had. A tilt forward on the flight stick and he sped up as he rushed towards his friends and the final enemy ship. When he saw the front of the fleet’s ship glow green, he shouted at the radio, “It’s charging up a shot.”
“I can’t do anything to get it off my tail,” Sparks replied.
Seb tilted the flight stick even farther forward and sped up.
The green glow on the front of the Crimson fleet’s ship burned so brightly it nearly dazzled Seb. He forced his ship into a dive before he yanked the stick back, flipping his nose up at the base of the enemy’s vessel. A squeeze of the trigger and he sent two green blaster shots toward his target. Both hit, and the ship exploded into a ball of flames like all of the others had.
“We did it!” Seb yelled as he watched the pieces from the lead ship fall from the sky.
“You did it,” Sparks replied.
“Why didn’t that ship on your tail just fire their blasters?”
“You have to be much more accurate with blasters,” Sparks said. “They wanted to make sure so they charged a cannon pulse. If they’d have gotten that shot off, it would have hit us without fail and we’d be dead. You saved us, Seb.”
A wide smile stretched Seb’s face and he looked at SA staring back at him from the screen. He then looked out of the window into space and an image of his mother flashed through his mind. Something had unlocked in him at that moment. He could fly a ship where he previously had no clue. The lunatic in the sewers came back to him. His mother had given him something special and it felt like he had much more to come.
Chapter 56
Although SA’s face had been on the screen in Seb’s console for the entirety of the dogfight, Sparks now popped up and beamed a grin at him. “You did it, Seb! You did it.”
Out of breath from both the exertion of flying and the panic that he would watch his friends die in front of him, Seb caught Sparks’ infectious smile and grinned back. “I did it.”
Sparks leaned close to the screen and whispered, “And did your ability kick in?”
Seb’s smile broadened. “No. I did it all at high speed.”
When Sparks’ tiny jaw fell loose, Seb laughed again. “Well done,” she said. “Well done.”
The small face of Seb’s friend disappeared to be replaced by Gurt. A stern look on his face, Gurt pushed his bulbous chin forward, his broken horns prominent on the screen. He then dipped a nod. “I suppose you’ve got some use after all.”
Whether he meant it as a joke or not, Seb laughed anyway as Gurt walked away.
SA’s face popped up. The brilliance of her gaze pulled the air from Seb’s lungs, and for the first time since he’d gotten in the ship, time slowed down. It seemed like his ability kicked in to make the most of the moment.
After she’d stared at him for what simultaneously felt like forever and an instant, SA blinked slowly and smiled.
Seb’s body rippled with gooseflesh and a lump lifted into his throat. He had no words as he looked back at her.
Still in shock when Sparks appeared on the screen again, Seb listened to her instructions.
“We need to get out of here. We’re going to make the jump to warp speed in a minute and we can drag you through with us. I’m going to connect you to our ship now. See you on the other side, yeah?”
Still having a dry throat from his interaction with SA, Seb nodded at Sparks.
They remained connected to one another, so although Seb couldn’t see Sparks, he heard her. “Right, everyone, sit down and get ready. Jumping to warp speed in five … four … three …”
On three, Gurt appeared on the screen. He’d taken SA’s spot in the co-pilot’s seat.
“Two …”
Gurt winked at Seb, a smug look on his fat face. He then reached forward as if to press a button on the console in front of him.
The screen suddenly went black. Seb stared at it for a second or two longer before he looked up through his windshield. The boosters on the back of Sparks’ ship with George Camoron and the rest of his team glowed so brightly they left flashing lights in his eyes.
The ship then shot away from him, the large vessel quickly turning into a dot on the horizon. It didn’t drag Seb with it. With the darkness of space in front of him and the planet of Solsans behind, he looked back down at the screen that had shown him the others in their ship.
It remained black.
Chapter 57
Alarms blared, lights flashed, the ship shook, and Seb couldn’t do anything to slow it down. He might have learned how to fly a ship and shoot from one, but he hadn’t mastered the art of landing yet. As the forest came into view, he pulled his seatbelt on and let go of the flight stick.
The tops of the trees slapped against the bottom of the ship, dragging their branches along its metal body with a screeching sound. A second later Seb hit a more solid part of a tree, which spun the ship out of control through the densely packed forest. Several loud bangs shook the vessel before he hit the ground.
The heavy shock of the crash landing left Seb’s ears ringing and his head spun. A headache stretched from his forehead from where he’d head-butted the dashboard, and his body felt as if his skeleton had been taken apart and put back together with a piece missing.
Once Seb had unclipped from the seat, he stood up and nearly fell over again. A deep throb ran from his collarbone all the way across the front of his chest from where the seatbelt had taken the bulk of the impact. He winced at the pain and drew deep breaths.
The ship leaned at an angle because the right side of it had planted into the soft ground. Seb had to hold on to his seat to remain upright.
The screen that had linked Seb to the other ship had been shattered in the crash, but the light on the speaker beneath it still blinked. A crackle and Gurt’s voice came through. “I did as you said.”
“Thank you,” Seb replied as he tried to blink his dizziness away.
“The others weren’t too happy, but I told them it was your wish to return. That you wanted to go back for the Crimson Countess, but you didn’t want to jeopardise our mission. Or put any of us in danger. Especially SA.”
Seb’s voice went shrill. “You said that?”
“Am I wrong?”
Seb ignored his question. “Make sure you get that rich idiot back to his daddy, and then enjoy your rest.”
“We’re dropping him off and coming straight back. We’ve already agreed on it. You can detach the speaker we’re using now. We can stay in touch so we can find you again.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Yep. No.”
“What do you mean no?” Gurt said.
“I want to do this on my own. It’ll be dangerous and I don’t want you all risking your lives. I’m the one who wants to make sure the Crimson Countess dies.”
“I’m afraid you don’t get to make that choice. I wasn’t happy about cutting you loose like I did, and the others certainly weren’t happy with me. The only way I can square it is if I come back and help.”
Seb pau
sed for a moment before he said, “Sorry, I’m going alone on this one.”
Pouches hung from each arm on the pilot’s seat. Each pouch contained a blaster. Seb removed one of them, aimed it at the radio and pulled the trigger.
The blaster kicked in his grip and an explosion of light and electrics filled the cockpit. A few fizzes and pops and Seb ruffled his nose at the smell of burning plastic.
The smoke cleared and Gurt’s voice came through the radio again. “You missed, didn’t you?”
A frown darkened Seb’s view of the console in front of him and he pulled the trigger again.
This time the radio—rather than the console it sat embedded in—exploded in a shower of sparks, silencing Gurt and leaving Seb as he wished to be, well and truly on his own.
Seb stood up, slipped the blaster he’d used to shoot the console into his back pocket, and stumbled out of the ship.
Surrounded by fog in the dark forest, Seb turned around to look at the path he’d ploughed with his crash landing. A gap had been torn through the trees, the smell of sap and evergreen needles rich in the air. A large trench ran through the soft ground from where the ship had touched down.
Seb then turned back and faced the slum and elevated city of Caloon. The Crimson Countess would regret ever coming to his attention.
Aches sat in every muscle in Seb’s body and he dragged a deep breath in through his clenched teeth. But the pains would pass, and one way or another, the Countess would pay for everything she’d done.
End of Book Two.
The Crimson War - Book three of The Shadow Order
Edited by:
Terri King - http://terri-king.wix.com/editing
And
Pauline Nolet - http://www.paulinenolet.com
Cover Design by Dusty Crosley
Michael Robertson
© 2017 Michael Robertson
The Crimson War is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, situations, and all dialogue are entirely a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously and are not in any way representative of real people, places or things.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Chapter 1
Had he not known the palace existed, Seb would have struggled to see its dark silhouette on the horizon. But he knew it existed. He knew it all too well, and he’d be going back there soon.
The spire stood as a toxic needle loaded with poison and piercing the sky, spreading its venom through every millimetre of Solsans. It stood taller than anything else in the city. Already on the elevated part of Caloon—seemingly miles above the slums below it—it shot up five, maybe ten, times higher than the next tallest building.
To look at the Crimson Palace clamped a rock of anxiety in Seb’s stomach. Anxiety and guilt. He’d left the boy-soldiers behind when he’d escaped. He’d left without confronting the Countess, but he couldn’t leave Solsans without doing something about her. The Crimson bitch needed to be overthrown.
A deep breath did little to relax him and Seb continued to grind his jaw as the suffering of the pitiful city ran through his mind. The boys slaughtering their families … the poverty in the slums … the fires to make it seem like the Crimson fleet protected the city rather than subjugated it.
Seb turned his back on the inky silhouette in the distance. He’d deal with the Countess when he got to her.
The ship he’d taken from the hangar shone like a mirror, the reflection of the large full moon a spotlight on its metal body. Highly polished chrome, the only marks on it came from Seb’s crash landing. It showed just how little action the Crimson fleet saw. Shaped like an arrowhead, it had a sharp point of a nose and a wide back.
The trench the ship had cut into the moist earth ran about a metre deep. The air stank of pine and soil from the carnage of Seb’s landing. Mist hung thick around him and clung to his skin like sweat. A permanently dark, damp, and cold planet, he could already feel the atmosphere working its insidious way into his joints. The frigid reach of Solsans sent a dull ache through his bones.
If Seb remained still for too long, he’d grind to a halt. He walked over to the ship and looked at the solid chrome back of it. There were three buttons on the outside: two red and one green. Because it had been open when he stole it from the hangar, he didn’t know which button to press. Logic told him the green one, so he reached out and touched it.
What had looked like a solid wall split and a ramp eased slowly out of the back of the ship. Seb stepped out of its way and watched it unfurl like a large chrome tongue.
Seb’s footsteps gave out a gentle tock when he walked up the metal steps and entered the back of the vessel.
What little light Seb had to see by came from the full moon above. Since he’d been on Solsans, he’d not noticed a single cloud and the moon had always been a large and perfectly formed orb—at least he’d have enough light to guide him. Although it did nothing to penetrate the deep shadows lurking inside the ship.
Because of his haste to get away from the palace, Seb now took in the back of the vessel for the first time. From what he could see, it looked about big enough to accommodate four humans. It could fit more—many more—but there only seemed to be seating for four.
The hard walls inside the ship threw the sound of Seb’s heavy breaths back at him. Apart from that, he heard nothing else.
The gap where the back door had opened allowed in a splash of moonlight. It showed Seb a small drawer in one of the walls. When he pulled it open, it screeched as if nearly rusted shut. The raking, scratchy sound pulled his shoulders to his neck.
At first Seb couldn’t make out what had rolled forward. A dark lump, he pulled it from the drawer, squinting in the poor light as he held it up. It seemed like … A flick of the switch and a magnesium glare of torchlight flooded his vision. It blinded him and he dropped it. The loud bang of it hitting the ship’s floor went off in the still forest like a gunshot.
It took several blinks and a lot of rubbing his eyes for Seb to regain his sight. He bent down, picked up the torch, and pointed it around the inside of the ship. The glare from the bright chrome threw the torchlight straight back at him, forcing him to squint.
When he turned the light on one corner, Seb nearly dropped the torch again and stumbled backwards. He shook, the torchlight wobbling in his grip, but he kept it pointing out in front of him as if aiming a blaster at an enemy.
Not that the torch would do anything against the figure staring back at him.
Chapter 2
The figure stood taller than Seb by a couple of feet. At least eight feet tall, it looked like it had died some time ago. Locked tight from rigor mortis, its wide mouth hung open in a silent scream as if it had been in agony when it passed. From the look of the cuts and welts on its skin, it most probably had.
Seb ran the torchlight up and down the length of the creature’s body. Although it looked slightly human, it had longer limbs and a shorter torso than anyone he’d met. Its wrists were bound and tied to the ceiling above its head, and its shoulders twisted upwards from bearing its weight. Its ankles had also been tied together like its wrists and were anchored to something on the floor. It had dark blue, almost purple skin. Maybe its natural hue, maybe bruising from how hard it had been beaten by whoever had done this to it.
Now his heart rate had settled down a little, Seb focused his torchlight on the thing’s torso. Deep gashes ran across it from where it had clearly been whipped with something. A look to the floor and he saw what appeared to be a fuel hose coated with dried blood and chunks of cured flesh. Whatever this thing had done, it had pissed someone off. No doubt the Count
ess had something to do with it.
Seb grew braver with each passing second. A corpse couldn’t hurt him, right? He stepped a pace towards the inanimate creature. Then he heard it. Faint, almost imperceptible, it sounded like breathing.
Seb’s pulse raced again, but he didn’t step back. His voice, although no more than a whisper, echoed in the near silence of the abandoned ship. “A-are y-y-you okay?”
Other than the slight breaths in and out, the creature didn’t respond.
“Excuse me,” Seb said, a warble in his voice as he spoke a little louder. “Are you okay?”
Still nothing.
He had to cut it down.
Because the creature stood taller than him, Seb had to press up against it as he reached up to untie its wrists. Now closer to the thing, he turned his face to the side. It did little to help him avoid the tang of rotting flesh. This thing had been kept alive long enough for its deep wounds to get infected and curdle. Its breath came out as a slight push of warmth against Seb’s face and it smelled like a disease.
Although he’d initially looked away when he reached up for the creature’s bindings, Seb had to focus on them if he were to free it. He put the torch in his mouth—biting down on the end to hold it in place—and looked up.
The torchlight shone on the long face of the creature. It had huge nostrils and a wide fish-like mouth. Suddenly, the thing’s eyes flew open and it gasped.
Seb jumped backwards, stumbling for a couple of paces before he fell and landed on his arse. The hard metal floor sent a shock up his spine that threw stars across his vision.
The long-limbed creature—livid, confused, and tortured—thrashed against its restraints. Seb remained on the floor, shaking from the adrenaline surging through him as he watched the wild beast. He fumbled around for his torch and shone it at the thing, careful not to blind it.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 36
