Shadow Corps

by Justin Sloan

  “First time?” Napalm said, glancing over at Samantha with an amused smile.

  “It’s incredible,” she replied, returning her gaze to their surroundings.

  “And it never loses its magnificence.”

  “Eh.” Carma, on the other side of him, shrugged. “I’ve seen more impressive.”

  “I don’t mean here, exactly,” Napalm said with a hint of annoyance. “I’m talking about the feeling each time you enter a new planetary system. For me, it’s always like I’m opening my eyes for the first time.”

  Carma scoffed. “Men are always so…”

  “Inspired?”

  “I was going for touchy-feely emotional babies.” She leaned forward to smile at Samantha. “Nothing like us, am I right?”

  Samantha pursed her lips, unsure what to think of that, but shook her head. “I happen to like men, and think being impressed by the beauty of all this is respectable and makes sense, actually.”

  Carma rolled her eyes. “One of those.”

  “Wait, on your planet, are there any women who like men?” Napalm asked.

  With a shrug of disdain, Carma turned back to watching their approach. “There’re freaks in every culture.”

  Sam couldn’t help but laugh out loud, earning her a stern glance from Hadrian.

  “We have company,” he said, giving them a look that told them it was time to be quiet. With a swipe of his hand, the screen in front of him faded to black. It was replaced with the image of a man that looked like Carma—mostly human, but more elegant. He looked too beautiful to be human. His curly, dark hair perfectly accentuated his olive skin and stark green eyes. His navy blue military uniform clung to his muscular chest in a way that made her shift in her chair. She started to feel uncomfortable looking at him.

  Napalm cleared his throat and gave her a look, to which she blushed and made sure to avoid his gaze.

  “Commander Blaze,” Hadrian said and held a hand across his chest in greeting.

  The man, Commander Blaze, did the same and frowned. “Hadrian... I can’t say I’m not surprised. Especially given the company you’ve chosen.”

  “She’ll stay aboard the ship, if needed,” Hadrian said, “but will not be harmed.”

  Commander Blaze raised an eyebrow as if he wasn’t used to being addressed like this, and for a moment Samantha thought they might be discussing her. But then she saw the way Carma was glaring.

  “Proceed,” the commander finally said with a nod, but paused. “If it were anyone else but you, sir…”

  “Let’s all be happy I’m me, then,” Hadrian replied with a grin.

  With another salute, the screen returned to the image of space. They were pulling in closer to a planet, mostly brown with large patches of green and blue. As they approached, they could see tall hills that rose up into a thin layer of scattered clouds.

  “It’s… inhabitable?” Samantha asked. “By people like me, I mean?”

  Hadrian left the final piloting to his captain and turned to her with a nod. “That’s right. Much of the universe Earth hasn’t yet discovered has pockets of planets very similar to Earth. When humans are ready to expand, they will find doing so isn’t as much of a hurdle as they thought. Especially if I’m still around to help with gates.”

  “That puts even more questions into my head,” Samantha replied with a laugh. “You have a way of doing that with your answers.”

  He smiled knowingly. “We’ll get to them, in time.” Turning to his captain, he added, “Take her in, but to the eastern side of port, over by those hills.” He gestured. “I want to ensure we don’t run into trouble, and be just as sure nobody on board goes out to cause trouble.”

  Carma scoffed. “You insult me.”

  “Is it below you?” he asked, turning to face her.

  “Not at all, but going against your will is. You lead this team, and I’m on the team. If there’s one thing my people are known for, it’s for loyalty to chain of command.”

  “That’s the one thing?” Napalm said, trying to hold back a laugh.

  “That and slapping the shit out of idiots when they need it,” she replied with a cold stare.

  Hadrian cleared his throat. “I am glad to hear we won’t have any problems.”

  Carma and Napalm turned forward, but Samantha thought they did a pretty poor job of hiding their irritation at each other.

  The captain lowered the ship, putting thrusters on at the last minute to slow the landing. Soon they were staring out at a spread of pinkish earth, a city in the distance and hills surrounding them.

  It was a city not unlike New York or San Francisco, Samantha observed, though smaller. Tall buildings met the clouds in spears on one side, domes and orbs on the other. If this was an outpost of rebels and insurgents, they had been at it for quite some time, and hadn’t felt much need to hide, she observed.

  “That’s why Carma isn’t impressed with this place,” Napalm offered as they unstrapped and prepared to disembark. “These planets are largely populated by exiles from her own system. Men who went into hiding and eventually formed an insurgency in her planetary system’s back door.”

  “With men like that…” Samantha caught herself, not wanting to vocalize that thought.

  Apparently, Napalm figured out the rest. “Why would anyone be enemies with someone so good looking?” He laughed. “Your world must be an odd one, if that’s how everyone thinks.”

  She blushed. “Of course it isn’t. I just mean, well… I have no idea what I meant.”

  “That’s the power their kind has over us simple folk,” Napalm said, then nodded at Kwan, who quickly glanced away, caught in the act of watching Carma storm out of the control center. “Isn’t that right, Kwan?”

  “Shut up,” Kwan said, curtly, earning him a laugh from Napalm. He held out his hands as if to say he rested his case.

  They had finished preparing. An additional ten crew members that Samantha hadn’t even known were on the ship had lined up with guns and swords.

  “Gear up,” Hadrian said, nodding to the weapons.

  “I thought we weren’t expecting trouble?” Napalm took his sword, then eyed a corrosion rifle. “How bad might this get?”

  “That depends on how much the commander talks.” Hadrian grabbed a rifle and tossed it to Samantha. “But it’s not them we’ll have problems with, I’d imagine. Rather, someone in hiding outside the city.” His captain entered at that moment, and he turned to address the man. “Jackal, I’ll send you with credits to deal with this commander. Use them if they’ll be enough, force only as a last result. Make sure he knows we were never here.”

  Jackal nodded, then returned to the bridge to ready for his side mission.

  Soon the main group had departed the ship and were setting up a perimeter, Hadrian having Sam stay close.

  “The Elders think there’s a spy on this planet, and I think you might be the key to finding that spy.”

  She glanced up at him, wondering what he meant.

  Without offering more, he turned, eyes scanning the horizon and over to the hills.

  “Come, Sam,” Hadrian said, motioning for her to follow. “The rest of you, stay on lookout in case there is trouble.”

  She stood and followed him away from the group, wondering what was happening. A glance back and one look at Carma’s questioning glare showed they didn’t know either.

  On and on they walked, until soon Hadrian was leading Samantha through a passage between tall hills, cut through rock as if someone with massive swords had carved out the area. For a long time, there was an awkward silence between the two, until finally Hadrian said, “There was a reason we chose that specific simulation.”

  “Which was?”

  He assessed her as if debating how much he should say, then sighed. “First, you tell me what you’ve been keeping from me.”

  Her heart started pounding and she looked away. If he was asking, he already knew, she realized.

  “There was a boy…”
>
  He nodded. “I observed, Sam. Don’t forget that we were on my ship, after all.”

  She shrugged. “I figured he was part of the simulation, nothing to worry about.”

  Hadrian considered this as they walked. “It’s possible, yes. Maybe it would have been the truth, except that… as far as I know, no boys are on this planet.”

  She frowned, confused. “This planet? But…?”

  He paused, motioning to the lake ahead of them, surrounded by hills. Barely visible in the distance was the hill where she had sat with that boy, and not far off from where she stood now, the camouflaged town she had originally mistaken for trees.

  “It… it wasn’t a simulation at all,” she said, realization dawning. “But…how?”

  “Jump points,” he replied. “Set up on various points on different planets throughout the universe, though many have been found and destroyed by our enemy. Your mission, though you didn’t know it, was to explore while training. None of us expected any of you would come across this information, and what we suspect to be the hideout of this man, but you did. What worries me is how you did.”

  “You think it could be a setup?”

  He nodded. “That boy… could very well be leading us into a trap. An ambush. Someone might have been watching on his end too, waiting for us to show up.”

  “So why are we here?”

  His eyes shone with excitement. “The best way to walk into a trap is knowing it’s a trap. Besides, we need this man. If there’s a chance he’s here, we have to face the risk of extracting him for questioning.”

  “Let me get this straight,” she said as they continued walking toward the camouflage town, “you sent each of us to different planets for training, but knowing we might find this person?”

  “There is no better way to train than to be doing it for real, but we figured this way you wouldn’t let fears hold any of you back. And we only sent you to planets within the galaxy where we suspected he would be hiding, precisely where our redirected path has taken us.”

  “Well then,” Samantha said, not sure what else to say, “you’re welcome.”

  Hadrian laughed. “I’ll thank you if this all works out, but haven’t forgotten your little omission about the boy.”

  “Doesn’t he seem inconsequential at this point?”

  “You think so?” Hadrian glanced down, his expression looking haggard. “Well, you’re wrong. I just don’t know what role he has yet to play.”

  She bit her lip to keep from saying more. It wasn’t just that she wanted to believe the boy wouldn’t cause trouble. He had helped her. She had spoken with him, and couldn’t believe he was dangerous. In the small amount of time she had known Ralod, she had started to think he could make a good friend. Maybe something more… or maybe more of a brother to her.

  But an enemy? She couldn’t see it.

  “To your left,” Hadrian muttered, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

  She glanced over, not seeing anything, then noticed a movement in the darkness. Hadrian led the way toward the camouflaged hideout.

  More figures were moving, and now they were coming in fast.

  “Just ignore them until they’re upon us,” Hadrian said.

  “You mean… let them ambush us.”

  He scoffed. “If you think these guys are capable of truly ambushing us, you vastly underestimate our abilities.”

  “Your abilities, you mean. I haven’t been able to control mine since…”

  “Since you saved your mother?” He nodded, understanding. “You just need to find yourself again.”

  They kept walking through the darkness, ignoring the ambushers behind them.

  Even in the darkness, there was no question that this was the place Samantha had come with Ralod. It was a strange sensation, walking through a land you had thought was part of a video game, but had just learned was real.

  “Was this the place?” Hadrian asked. “The place he brought you?”

  She nodded.

  Hadrian paused, frowning. “He wants us to find this man. He wants us to find him too, but why?”

  “You think it’s a trap?”

  Hadrian nodded. “When dealing with groups like this, everything’s a trap.”

  They approached the compound, entering to find it empty. Hadrian didn’t look surprised, and began moving between barrels and other objects along the wall. Suddenly his head jolted up, turning to the left.

  “There!” Hadrian shouted, pointing to a man who was running, taking for the hills.

  With a flick of his hand, energy surged as if hit by a heat wave. The escapee was flung into the air, straight back and toward them, where he fell on the ground with a groan and a thud.

  “Where’s the boy?” Hadrian demanded.

  “He comes and goes,” the man replied, slowly pushing himself up onto his elbows so he could see his captors and study Hadrian. “Now that you’re here, I’d imagine we won’t be seeing him again in these parts.”

  “And yet, we’ve found you.”

  “They insisted I stay,” the man replied, sneering. “As… bait.”

  “Bait?” Samantha repeated, then turned, eyes searching the hills as she heard a familiar whirring. “Dammit!”

  She had just spotted the dark shapes moving at them over the water—drones, mechs, Kolack of all shapes and sizes, and more forces in the hills.

  It was an ambush.

  12

  CLAMNOR SOL: THE HIDDEN COMPOUND

  Napalm, Kwan, and Dex stood at the mouth of the passage between the hills, each on edge. They had heard the sounds of blasters and shouts from the direction Hadrian had gone with Samantha, but they had been ordered to stay put.

  “Something big’s going down,” Napalm said, staring out into the darkness. “We’ve gotta act.”

  “If I act without authorization, I betray Hadrian,” Carma argued. “I gave my word.”

  “And if they’re in trouble out there?”

  “I don’t know how long you’ve known him, but the day Hadrian’s truly in trouble is the day I surrender on behalf of my kind. Screw the universe at that point, right?”

  Napalm shook his head, thinking back to stories he had heard about what had happened to Hadrian’s world. He wasn’t as invincible as this Carma lady seemed to think.

  More shooting sounded. He was about to turn and tell Carma that she could stay there by herself, then, when he heard a muttered curse and then the sound of footsteps running.

  He spun, confused, and found Dex and Carma staring after Kwan as he ran in the direction of the sound of fighting.

  “Huh,” Carma said, eyes darting between the other two.

  “Kaja!” Kwan shouted in Korean, and then bursts of light came from where he had disappeared into the darkness. An explosion followed overhead, then another. A drone fell from the sky, landing several paces from the ship.

  “I think this constitutes self-defense now,” Carma shouted. “Agreed?”

  “Damn right I agree!” Napalm shouted, and even Dex made a sound of affirmation.

  “Then let’s get some!” Carma drew her sword and darted out into the night, Dex and Napalm close behind.

  Drones were exploding as Kwan showed how badass ROK Marines really were, but more were swarming at them from the direction of the city. Napalm turned and pulled energy from the air around him, then blasted it at the drone in the middle. The drone exploded and took down several others in its vicinity, while Carma dropped a dozen more with well-placed shots.

  Turning to look for Dex, Napalm saw that creatures were coming down from the hills. Some had purple skin barely visible under their brown cloths, and he recognized them as mercenary aliens his kind called Kolack—the word for a plant very similar to Earth’s eggplants.

  He had always loved squishing those little bastards when he got the chance. Seeing Dex floating through them like a shadow and chopping them to bits, he shouted, “Save some for me,” sent two more blasts of energy up to destroy more d
rones, and then ran off to help fight the Kolack.

  “Where you going?” Carma demanded as he hurried past, turning to see. Her eyes went wide, and then Napalm saw why.

  Kwan was running back their way, dodging left and right as a small army came after him. Close behind zoomed a cruiser, shooting lasers.

  Napalm sighed at the thought of putting off the Kolack squashing, and instead focused his energy on the cruiser. He probably only had one or two more good blasts in him, so he made sure this one counted. His energy struck the front of the cruiser, causing an explosion that left much of the ship intact so that it careened into the surrounding drones, knocking them from the sky before it hit the ground with an explosion.

  As the fire and smoke cleared, a larger ship appeared, dwarfing the cruiser in size and apparent firepower.

  “Commander Blaze,” Napalm said, his voice dripping with irritation.

  “This is my night,” Carma muttered at Napalm’s side, hefting up her sword as Commander Blaze’s ship faced their direction and lowered to set down more troops.

  Kwan was engaged in combat against two soldiers who had appeared from the hills, and now Napalm saw more men coming at them.

  “Maybe there’s another way?” he shouted to Carma. “I mean, other than killing everyone?”

  She was about to respond, when a fluttering sounded and then a thud. Napalm spun to see Hadrian, Sam in one arm and a strange man with wild, purple hair gripped firmly with his other hand.

  “Kill them all, but I want a word with the Commander,” Hadrian commanded.

  A loud sigh came from Carma, just before she shot another drone out of the sky. “Can I pretend I didn’t hear that and just slit his throat?”

  “No.”

  “Fine.” She ran forward, sword at the ready, and shouted back, “I’ll keep him alive, don’t worry. But I don’t like it.”

  “That’ll do,” Hadrian called back, and then glanced around at the chaos. “We don’t have time for this.”

  Tossing the man to the ground and then releasing Samantha, he started shooting out blasts of energy as Napalm had taught him long ago. Napalm laughed with excitement as he watched this master of the craft go to town on their enemies.