With no other way to avoid it, Seb slid through the mech’s legs, punching the panel covering its right calf on his way past. The panel flew off with his heavy blow and clanged against the hard floor. It exposed wires and pneumatics. Like the strikes to its kidneys, it did nothing to slow the thing down.
Another charge at Seb, the mech dropped to its knees and slid at him this time. It blocked off his route between its legs, the circular blade coming forward with the large chrome beast.
A glance at the observation window. This time, Seb made eye contact with Moses. His black eyes. His shark-like head. His huge toothy grin.
Seb kicked off the wall behind him and dived over the top of the mech, just about clearing it as it crashed into the barrier he’d used to vault off. Its circular saw bit into the steel wall. It would have turned him into fleshy confetti had he gotten in the way of it.
As Seb recovered his breath, he watched the mech detach from the steel barrier, stand up, and spin around to face him yet again. It might have been battered, but it still showed no sign of fatigue.
The mech’s front then lit up like the sun. What had seemed like a chrome panel now revealed a bright bank of LED lights inside it. They would have dazzled him anyway, but in the stark-white space, they damn near burned his retinas out.
Seb covered his eyes and had to judge the mech’s next approach based on the vibrations shaking through the floor at him. He waited, adrenaline telling him to make a run for it, but he held his space. He couldn’t go too soon.
When he couldn’t wait any longer, the vibrations in the floor close to robbing the strength from his legs, Seb darted to one side.
Another loud crash as the mech connected with the wall behind where Seb had been. The wind from the spinning blade ran just past his torso.
The mech faced the wall, its back to Seb again. Its lights still turned the space bright, but it allowed him to see better because he wasn’t directly in its glare. He took his opportunity and rushed at it.
Just one chance to get it right, Seb punched the top of the circular saw blade as it spun. He hit it so hard, it curled down and bit into the monster’s thighs, still spinning as fast as before.
It took just seconds for the blade to eat into the metal body of the mech. The already high-pitched dentist drill whine lifted another octave higher, and the operator screamed before shutting the thing down.
The large metal shell fell onto its back. A toppled tree, it hit the white floor with a loud thud.
Still gripped with fury, Seb rushed over to the mech and punched it repeatedly, denting its shiny chrome body with each blow. He pulled panels away from it every time one of them came loose, which revealed a network of wires and electronics inside.
Once he’d ripped the cold faceplate away, Seb raised his fist but stopped just before he drove a blow into the operator’s nose. “You’re just a kid.”
“I’m twenty-one,” the girl said, a scowl of indignation on her tanned features.
“Well, excuse me, Twenty-one. With all that life experience, you must be a hardened warrior by now. What the hell are you doing in this suit?”
“Training.”
Seb still had his fist clenched and raised above her. To look into her dark and scared eyes helped dilute his fury and he lowered his threat, relaxing, but continuing to sit on top of her. “Well, you need to do better.”
“I had you on the ropes.”
Seb couldn’t help but smile. “You’ve got spirit, Twenty-one.” He then got off the broad, chrome chest of the huge mech and walked towards the arena’s exit.
Were it not for the whoosh of the jets, Seb would have missed it. It came so quickly his gift didn’t kick in. Fortunately, he instinctively threw himself on the floor.
The large rocket crashed into the white wall in front of Seb, igniting into a huge ball of flames and leaving a black scorch mark as big as a doorway on it.
“What the hell?” Seb screamed when he got up. His world slipped into slow motion as he ran back at the downed mech. The thick smoke made his eyes water.
He watched the girl shake her head as he got close. She mouthed something he couldn’t understand, the words coming out in long and drawn-out syllables as he watched them through his slowed-down perspective.
Over her again, Seb raised his fist at the girl once more, and everything returned to a normal speed. “What was that about? Are you trying to kill me? What’s wrong with you?”
It took a second for her to speak through what looked like a panic attack, tears forming in her dark eyes. After a look up at the observation window, she said, “Please, Moses told me to keep attacking you. I’m only supposed to stop when he tells me to. He said that whatever happened, I had to keep fighting.”
Heavy breaths rocked through Seb and he turned to look up at the leader of the Shadow Order. His voice echoed around the minimalist space. “You gonna say stop now? Or do I have to kill her to prove you don’t care about anyone?”
The same cold, detached, onyx stare fixed on him. The large brute watched on from the comfort of the observation room. The silence hung between them before Moses finally leaned down towards a microphone and pressed a button.
The sound of Moses’ heavy breaths swirled around the large space. It shot out at them from a hundred invisible speakers. The leader of the Shadow Order continued to stare at Seb. He then grinned wider than ever and said, “Stop.”
Chapter 2
The long, white corridor stood as sparse as the arenas it overlooked. Like the arenas, it stank of bleach. Clinical, it reminded Seb of a hospital rather than a training complex.
Large windows afforded views down into the fighting gyms like the one Seb had just battled in. As he walked beside Moses, he glanced down into one of the occupied spaces. Two mechs—each as large as the one Seb had just fought—flew around the place, sending flames and laser fire at one another.
To think of his fight only minutes ago made Seb ball his cold fists. How far did Moses want the girl to go? Would he have let her kill him?
The click of their heels called along the deserted corridor. A sharp reminder they were alone at that moment. Seb looked up at Moses, clenched his jaw, and felt the tension in his already tight fists run up into his shoulders. Despite Moses standing over ten feet tall—a good four feet taller than Seb—he’d still knock the creature out. At least twice his weight, a face full of razor-sharp teeth and a thick hide made no difference, Moses would drop like a felled tree if hit in the correct place.
When Moses looked back, he nodded down at Seb’s fists and raised an eyebrow. In a calm, rumbling baritone, he said, “What you planning, boy?”
Call him boy again and he’d find out. A deep breath and Seb turned away, looking down into one of the arenas as they passed it. He saw just one being with two blasters shooting small flying droids from the sky as they appeared from the walls at random intervals. Gurt would have smashed that simulation. The slight ache of a lump lifted in Seb’s throat to think about his friend.
“You understand we needed to test those hands, right?” Moses said. “You’re looking at me like a petulant teenager. Like you don’t understand why I told Reyes to give you everything she had. How else could we test those things out? We had to do a lot of surgery on them after your personal war on Solsans. Better to find they don’t work now than in the middle of a battle.”
“And what better way to test it. I mean, what’s my life worth anyway?”
“I knew she wouldn’t be able to kill you.”
Seb looked down at his hands while he opened and closed them. No sign of bruising from the recent fight, and no signs of damage from the war on Solsans. “What did you do to them?”
“How do they feel?” Moses said.
After he’d opened and closed them a couple more times, Seb said, “Cold.”
“They’re metal.”
“They’re what?!”
A look at Seb through his detached onyx glare and Moses said, “When you came back from
Solsans, they were like two bags of stones. Your bones were so destroyed, we had no way of repairing them. And if we did, they would have been as fragile as porcelain. So we rebuilt them. We remade the bones with steel.”
Again, Seb stared at his hands, testing their movement by flexing his fingers while he listened to Moses.
“We also fused your skin with a synthetic material to prevent it from tearing. We removed all the feeling from the back of your hands. You should be able to punch through walls now with those things. You won’t feel any pain, and your skin won’t show a single blemish. We’re turning you into a superhero, Seb.”
Seb stopped walking and glared at Moses. “Superheroes fight for good, Moses. Not credits.”
When Moses didn’t respond, Seb touched the tips of his thumbs against the tips of his fingers. He worked up and down his hands several times to be sure. “But you’ve kept the feeling in my fingers and palms.”
“Of course.”
“My hands feel much heavier. I assumed it was because my arms were sore rather than the weight of my fists.”
“Your muscles will learn to accommodate them. Soon, it won’t feel any different.”
The conversation dropped off and Seb continued to focus on his cold fists. He looked down into the next arena to see two beings fighting hand to hand. They were mismatched in size. It would have been like Sparks fighting Moses. But from what Seb could see, and the flurry of punches he noticed in the brief moment he passed the arena, the smaller one had the beating of the larger one. Never judge a book and all that.
“I thought you were going to kill Reyes,” Moses said.
“You didn’t want that?”
“What kind of monster do you think I am?”
Seb chose not to respond.
While staring ahead with a deep scowl, Moses sighed. “Anyway, it was good practice for Reyes too. She needs to learn how to handle mechs. We’re training her up so she might be of some use to us. Although I’m not confident she will be. I only took her on because I knew her dad.”
“Knew?”
“He’s dead now. He was a great Marine. He asked me to take her in and look after her. It was his dying wish.”
“And that’s how you look after people? You put their lives in danger in fighting arenas? You keep a promise to a dying friend by throwing his daughter into the flames.”
Moses stopped dead, looked at Seb, and cocked his eyebrow. “Firstly, you think too highly of yourself. You’re not the flames. And secondly, what would you have me do? Follow your lead by taking her into an unnecessary war and maybe get her killed in the process?”
Seb threw his hands up at Moses. “Unnecessary? What are you talking about, you moron? Did you see what the Countess did to the people of Solsans?”
Moses bared his teeth. The wide stretch of glistening white would take Seb’s head clean off with one bite. The low growl in his voice damn near shook the walls. “Careful, Seb. I still run this place.”
But Seb didn’t care. Screw him. “You wouldn’t be calling that war unnecessary if the slum dwellers in Caloon paid us.”
For the next few seconds, Moses stared at Seb. He didn’t deny the accusation. Finally, he said, “I’m still not happy about what you did. You went against my orders.”
“And I’d do it again.”
“If you do, don’t expect the same leniency from me.”
At that moment, two Shadow Order soldiers walked up the corridor. The snap of their heels did enough to pull Moses and Seb’s attention away from one another as they looked at them. The soldiers seemed to pick up on the tense atmosphere. They both dropped their eyes to the ground and scuttled past the pair.
They hadn’t gone far past them when Seb said, “I don’t care about your threats. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
A raised eyebrow and Moses shrugged. “You’d kill Gurt again?”
Seb’s heart raced and his lungs tightened as if his grief flooded into them. His voice wavered. “I didn’t ask him to come back for me.”
“No, Seb, you didn’t. But he did. Gurt had honour. If you understood that, you would have seen you didn’t give him a choice. He had to come back for you. It’s what any soldier worth their salt would have done. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.”
“Like you know about honour. You’re a whore to the highest bidder.”
“Thin ice, Seb. Very thin ice.”
Although Seb opened his mouth to reply, Moses cut him off. “We have a mission planned for you.”
The aches from Solsans suddenly returned. They pulled on Seb’s body, reminding him of his fatigue. “So soon?”
“It wouldn’t have been soon if you’d returned when you were supposed to. We’d planned to give you a couple of days R and R.”
Moses moved off again and Seb fell into stride with him. “How many more missions do I need to do for the Shadow Order?”
A deep booming laugh, it ran both ways along the corridor before Moses stopped again. “You’ve only done one job. Besides, what would you be doing otherwise? Fighting for small amounts of money in pits in the middle of nowhere? Don’t pretend you have something better to do.”
Seb balled his fists again and glared at the huge shark-like creature. “Finding something better than this isn’t hard. Don’t flatter yourself.”
After a shake of his head, Moses said, “Go and find the others and meet me in thirty minutes in the briefing room.” Before Seb could say anything else, the brute spun on his heel and walked away.
Still with an argument in him, Seb fought against his urge to run after Moses. Who did he think he was bossing him around like that? Although, in reality, what could he do at that moment? Refuse and he’d be back in prison.
Streaks of pain ran up either side of Seb’s face from where he’d clenched his jaw for the entire conversation. A shake of his head and he walked towards the canteen. Since he’d come back to the Shadow Order’s complex, he’d avoided the place. It wouldn’t be the same in there without Gurt giving him a hard time.
Chapter 3
The second Seb walked into the canteen, he found SA, Sparks, and Bruke. He sat with them and ate a well-earned meal of snork pie and walabi root chips before he led them to the briefing room as Moses had requested.
Seb entered the cold room first and baulked at Moses’ steely glare.
A flash of his sharp teeth, Moses spoke in a deep growl. “You’re late.”
Taken over with faux surprise, Seb suppressed his smile as he pressed a hand against his chest and said, “I’m sorry.” A glance at the clock on the wall and he smiled again. “I thought you said to see you in forty-five minutes.”
Silence for a moment as Moses tilted his head to one side. Hard to read the black stare he levelled on him, Seb waited until the shark eventually spoke. “I said thirty.”
While holding his glare, Seb flashed another facetious smile at the beast. “Terribly sorry, old chap. My mistake. It must be all those ferocious teeth in your mouth. They make it hard to hear you sometimes.” He lowered his voice and spoke as if sharing a secret with the Shadow Order’s leader. “But they are ever so scary, so it makes the sacrifice worthwhile, eh?”
Near silence fell over the small room as Seb led the others down to the seats at the front. Although he felt Moses continue to stare at him, he didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking back.
When they’d settled, Seb watched Moses open his mouth. He cut him off just before he could speak. “It’s a bit cold in here. Can someone turn the air conditioning down?”
A deep breath swelled Moses’ already broad chest and he let the silence hang again. He then pulled a three-dimensional image from a computer and projected it in front of the team. A large red globe spinning on its axis appeared, showing them its flame red surface.
“Looks nice,” Seb said as he screwed his face up at the seemingly hostile planet. “We’ve got our first Shadow Order holiday there, have we? Do they have a booze cruise?”
SA
and Sparks remained impassive to Seb’s goading of their leader. Bruke, on the other hand, tensed in his seat, his back straightening a little more than before. Although Seb felt his scaled friend look at him, he ignored his attention.
“This is the planet Carstic,” Moses said. He sped up the spinning image with a bat of one of his large hands. “It’s a hostile environment where you have to wear radiation suits outside. Any time in their atmosphere without one and you’ll be covered in tumours within ten minutes then die soon after.”
“Sounds like Blackpool Pleasure Beach,” Seb said.
Everyone turned to look at him, the reference to an old seaside resort on Earth clearly lost on them. Seb only knew it by reputation. They say the apocalypse hit there long before it swept across the rest of the planet.
“What matters,” Moses said with a hard exhale that slumped his broad shoulders, “is it’s a rough place to visit.”
The clap of Seb’s hands snapped through the room when he brought them together and squealed. “How wonderful.” Before Moses could speak, he added, “And you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever brought cancer back from a holiday before.”
Even Bruke ignored him this time.
“There’s a mining colony on this planet,” Moses said. “Its walls are lined with lead, which keeps the radiation out.”
Moses raised his hand at the image of Carstic, his fingers pinched together. He then opened his pinch wide, zooming in on the planet. It showed a large structure with a huge shutter door at the front. It looked like some sort of hangar in the middle of the hostile terrain. It jutted from the ground and seemed large enough for ships to land inside.
“So why are we going there?” Seb said.
Moses stared at Seb as if trying to work out if he was winding him up. After a few seconds, he sighed. “A parasite has got into the colony. It’s wiped everyone out.”
“What were they mining for?” Sparks asked.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 61
