The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera

by Michael Robertson

  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 50

  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 51

  “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 sorry.”

  Chapter 52

  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 53

  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.

  A particularly loud shriek sounded out to Seb’s right and he looked in time to see a blaster shoved beneath the chin of one of the frog-like creatures. A second later its slim head turned to a red cloud and it fell limp.

  Seb stopped dead as he watched the creature’s partner wail as if her soul had been torn in two. She fell to the ground, holding her headless lover to her chest.

  It took for Gurt to shove Seb for him to switch back into the battle. A quick look to either side and he shook his head. “We can’t stay here.”

  “What?” Gurt roared as he continued to rip off shots.

  “We can’t stay here.” Seb shoved his way back between Gurt and SA and shouted to the remaining slum dwellers, “Retreat!”

  Only a couple heard him at first, so he shouted louder. “Retreat now! Pull back into the alleyways. We need to use the narrow passages to bottleneck them. Do it now!”

  The order passed through the crowd in both directions. A few seconds later those who hadn’t already done so headed for the alleys.

  Seb called to Gurt and SA, “We have to pull back.”

  Sweat glistened off Gurt’s face and he clenched his jaw. “Never!”

  “Gurt, you need to do it for the sake of everyone else. If we can get you and SA heading up each alley, we can hold our position for longer and maybe turn the tide of this battle.”

  “Gah!” Gurt shouted, but he stepped back a pace towards the alleyways. He sent blaster fire into the soldiers in front of him and the soldiers tried to fire back. Both sides had had many casualties, which had opened up the space for a blaster battle in the square. However, every time one of the crimson robes raised their weapon, they received either a green laser shot or a knife in the face for their troubles.

  Seb looked back at the alleys. Their chances might have been slim, but in the alleys, at least they had some hope.

  Chapter 54

  Seb picked the alley on the right with SA, and Gurt took Bruke left. Once they’d retreated into their own separate spaces, they had to fight their own battles. Hopefully they’d meet aga
in on the other side.

  Ever consistent, SA sent knife after knife shooting away from her. Each one hit and each one took a life. As the soldiers tried to flood into the tight space, she continued to drop them.

  Some of the slum dwellers had picked up blasters, giving SA the cover she needed when she had to pull more blades from her harness or retrieve some of her already spent ones. Because the tight space limited the Crimson advance, both sides currently held their own.

  Seb dodged blaster fire and listened to the beings dying around him. Whenever one of his side fell, another one would move forward and replace it. However, if it came to a numbers game, they’d eventually lose.

  The thought of ordering a full retreat flashed through Seb’s mind. At that moment, one of the giants next to him took a shot to the face. It let out a deep wail and then fell like a huge tree.

  Seb dodged the large body as it crashed down, the vibration of it shaking through the ground.

  The second giant roared, its fierce call booming in the tight space.

  The beast rushed forwards into the soldiers, taking several shots to the body as it advanced. None of them slowed it down.

  Every swing of the giant’s thick arms took out a line of soldiers, knocking them down quicker than they could get into place.

  Seb felt the vibration of the giant’s next roar against his sternum. But one giant wouldn’t be enough. The Crimson army were already positioning so they could regain the advantage.

  Then Seb saw something. At the back of the square, at the edge of the darkness, the thick press of crimson-robed bodies thinned a little. He squinted to make it out until he saw they were falling. They were being attacked.

  A few seconds later Seb saw the line of kids. Teenagers and young adults, they all had blasters.

  They were winning.

  Chapter 55

  Exhausted faces stared back at Seb when he looked at the army of slum dwellers crammed into the alley. The giant held the Crimson soldiers’ attention, which gave the others a moment to catch their breaths.

  “Keep it up,” Seb shouted at them. “Backup is on the way.”

  Some of the Crimson soldiers reacted to Seb’s call, looking over their shoulders towards the Crimson Palace. Their numbers had visibly thinned because of the young army of slaves, and some of the soldiers looked like they didn’t know which threat to fight, their dark hoods flicking from one opponent to the other.

  All the while, the giant continued to smash them, swinging its huge fists and knocking more down with every passing second.

  “We’ve got them!” Seb shouted again. “One final push and we’ll ruin this army.”

  The giant moved out further into the square. It gave some of the Crimson soldiers a chance to shoot into the alley again. Seb watched a slug-like creature close to him take a blast to the neck. It folded to the ground.

  Before Seb could rejoin the fight, a commotion stirred further down the alley. Some of the slum dwellers moved aside as the scrape of the metal manhole covers rang out.

  Seb looked at SA. “Something’s going on back there. Are you okay if I check it out?”

  SA nodded and continued dropping soldiers with her knives. She threw fewer now, choosing to go closer to her opponents.

  When Seb got near to the opening manholes, he saw a creature stand up and the crowd part for it. It had long hair and a straight back. It stood almost as tall as the giant and looked to be female.

  SA, the giant, and the front line of their defence had the alleyway covered, so Seb ran over and helped the next being climb out.

  A tall and rangy creature, it had a broad chest, stood a head taller than Seb, and had scaled blue skin. “We followed the arrows,” it said to him. “Followed them to the ladders.”

  “Where have you come from?” Seb asked.

  “The slums. We’ve only just finished putting the fires out.”

  “How is everyone?”

  The creature looked at the ground.

  While they talked, more beings climbed up through the holes.

  “How many of you are there?” Seb said.

  “Five hundred, maybe a thousand.”

  After patting the creature on the top of his arm, Seb pulled a tight smile at him. “Thank you. The battle was turning in our favour. I think you’ve guaranteed we’ll win this.”

  Seb moved back towards the front of the alley again. In the time he’d been away, the Crimson army had thinned considerably. Instead of queuing up to get at them, they were fighting attacks from all sides and had withdrawn into the middle of the square.

  The giant continued to fight and SA had moved out in amongst the crimson robes. When Seb stepped from the alley, he looked across to see Gurt and Bruke pushing the soldiers back too. “This is our chance,” he said to those behind him. “We need to push forward, now.”

  Seb’s army followed him out into the square.

  Fire ran through Seb’s hands and it felt like he’d broken every bone in each of them, but he could still make a fist. Deep breaths helped him draw on what little strength he had before he charged at the closest soldier, swung for them, and dropped them to the ground.

  Chapter 56

  Despite the sounds around Seb—the groans of pain, the sobs, and even the screams of some who probably wouldn’t pull through—a strange and eerie stillness had settled on the square now the fighting had stopped. It hung like the low-lying mist and stood in stark contrast to the chaos of the battle that had preceded it.

  Bodies littered the square. Bodies dressed in rags and bodies dressed in crimson. Scores of bodies as far as Seb could see. They’d all given up their lives because of one being. Some to defend her. Some to destroy her.

  Seb’s stomach tied in knots from the rancid stench of death around him. Blood, shit, and sweat curdled the air. As he looked across the square at the Crimson Palace, acrid bile rose in his throat. His rage overpowered the pain in his fists as he clenched them. They’d come this far; he now had to finish it. But first he needed to check on everyone.

  SA stood beside Seb, covered in the blood of their enemies. It glistened on her clothes and skin, dark against her pale complexion and azure stare. She panted from the exertion of the battle. He’d never seen her tired before.

  Many creatures lay on the ground, their chests rising and falling with their laboured breaths.

  Some of the slum dwellers had taken the blasters from the Crimson foot soldiers, and they walked through the fallen bodies, checking to see if they still lived. Occasionally a flash of red would cut through the darkness as they executed the creatures.

  When Seb saw the remaining frog-like being, he picked his way through the fallen bodies and walked over to her. “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  She looked at him through glazed eyes and didn’t speak for a moment. A few seconds later, she said, “He gave his life for a good cause. He died so our son can live. He’d do it again in a heartbeat.” She dropped her head and cried.

  A lump lifted in Seb’s throat as he stood over the broken creature. If he’d had any words, he wouldn’t have been able to speak them for the ball of grief choking him. Instead, he dropped down into a crouch—his legs shaking with exhaustion—and hugged her. After a great effort and several gulps, he finally said, “Thank you.” His bottom lip buckled with his grief.

  Seb left the creature to mourn the loss of her partner and walked through the carnage. Although he’d seen SA, he hadn’t seen anyone else. He hadn’t seen Sparks in the longest time.

  Still in shock from the battle and close to falling over with tiredness, Seb called out, “Sparks.” His ears rang and his head spun. He couldn’t see her anywhere.

  “Sparks.”

  As Seb scanned the crowd for his small friend, he saw the boys and young men she’d clearly freed. His heart raced harder than ever. Surely she’d made it out with them. Of course she had, the little rat could get out of any tight spot. “Sparks.”

  When Seb saw Bruke huddled down on the ground, he
also saw—“Gurt?”

  Seb ran over to the large Mandulu.

  Bruke had Gurt’s head resting in his lap. Blood soaked the area around Gurt’s stomach.

  “My god,” Seb said. “What happened?”

  “What do you think happened, you moron?” Gurt then took several deep breaths before he could finish. “I got shot, didn’t I?”

  “Seb!” The sound came from across the battlefield.

  Seb looked up and saw a boy he didn’t recognise. Clearly one of the child soldiers. He waited for him to speak.

  “The lady that just rescued us, the small one, has just run into the palace. Six or seven Crimson soldiers followed her in.”

  Seb looked back at Bruke and Gurt. Gurt’s eyes rolled in his head, but he still got his words out. “What are you waiting for, you fool? Go and help her.”

  A buzz ran through Seb’s broken hands and he wanted to touch the Mandulu. He clearly needed help.

  “What are you doing?” Gurt asked with slurred words. “Sparks is in there on her own. You need to go and help her.”

  “Seb!” the child soldier shouted again. “They all had blasters.”

  Gurt’s entire body rocked with his laboured breaths. “Do I have to go in there and help her myself? What’s wrong with you, you coward?”

  Seb watched Gurt lose consciousness again and his hands buzzed harder than before.

  The large brute came to a second later. “You’re still here? Get in the palace now!”

  A look at Bruke and the wide brown eyes of his friend stared back at him. When Seb looked over his shoulder, he found SA and the giant by his side. After a lingering look between Seb and SA, he looked back at the palace. Gurt was right; he couldn’t leave Sparks in there on her own.