The Crimson War: A Space Opera: Book Three of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

The next family Seb approached backed away from him before he could speak.

  Seb drew a deep breath to shout to all of them around him, but the sound of splintering wood cut him short.

  When he looked across the slum and saw three Crimson soldiers tear down a hut, he ducked back into Phulp’s old dwelling. The others must have been about to follow him out because they blocked the doorway. He had to shove them back in so he could enter.

  While he sat in the dark hut with the others, Seb listened to the soldiers and ground his jaw. Someone screamed. It sounded like a female, but he couldn’t ever be sure. Human sound recognition only worked when applied to humans; it could have come from the biggest male of their species.

  A heavy thud and then an oomph as if someone had just been kicked. The voice he’d taken to be female screamed louder. It must have been the one on the receiving end.

  Another thud and another scream.

  Another thud.

  The creature seemed to be sobbing as the thuds rained down on it.

  Before long, the mewling creature’s sounds vanished and just the thuds remained. Seb looked at the others in the hut with him. None of them spoke and they all stared in the direction of the sound, both their eyes and mouths wide open.

  It lasted for another few minutes before Seb heard the soldiers walk away and the rip and crack of another hut being torn down on their way past.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Seb waited for about five more minutes before he left Phulp’s old hut again. A crowd had gathered around the area where the Crimson soldiers had been.

  Seb rushed over, elbowing his way through the malaise. When he got to the front, he looked down and flinched at the sight. “My god!”

  A small being, no taller than about three feet, lay with its mouth wide open and its eyes glazed. Although his hands tingled, he couldn’t do anything to help her. She’d already died.

  Several more of her species huddled around her and sobbed. Fury turned over in Seb’s stomach and he tasted bile in the back of his throat.

  A large rock remained where their hut had been. The soldiers must have used it to destroy the place. Seb stood up on it and addressed the crowd. He punched his left palm with his right fist as he said, “We need to do something about this.”

  The creatures looked at him, silence hanging around the place.

  “If we let this brutality continue, it will never end.” Seb pointed down at the grieving family. “Look at these poor things. They’ve lost a loved one today. What will it take for you lot to do something? Will you all have to lose loved ones before you’re ready to stand up and fight? Will you need to lose more than one? I don’t know about you, but I won’t take this anymore.”

  The disinterested looks and even open hostility Seb had received prior to the beating had gone. A look across the crowd of faces and he saw he had their attention now. He pointed down at the corpse again. “They’ll pay for this!”

  Some of the beings nodded, but most of them didn’t. Although, they didn’t challenge him either. A look over at the silhouette of the palace in the elevated city and Seb repeated, “They’ll pay for this.”

  ***

  The crowd soon dispersed, but they’d listened to Seb. They’d heard him for the first time. Before he headed back to his hut with the others, he turned to the grieving family. “If there’s anything we can do for you, please let us know.”

  None of the creatures responded.

  “I also want you to know this won’t go unpunished,” Seb said.

  What looked to be an older female stepped forward and held both of Seb’s hands in her own. She stared up at him with tears in her eyes.

  For a few seconds Seb stared back.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Seb didn’t reply. Instead, he turned from the grieving family and went back to the hut with the others.

  ***

  They sat in the hut in stunned silence for a few minutes before Seb broke it. “Something about that setting worked.”

  The rest of the group looked at him.

  “They listened to me for the first time. It was like the violence lowered their guard and banished their scepticism. The violence made it hard for them to ignore the reality of their situation. This won’t go away unless they do something about it, and with it so in their faces, they had to accept that.”

  Another few seconds of silence and Seb said, “There’s only one way to get this lot going. I have an idea.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Why are we here?” Bruke asked.

  Seb cast a glance around the place before he looked away from Bruke and down at the small being next to him. It had antennae and the damp skin of a slug, but it looked more like a hairless rabbit than anything. Janina and the kids had stayed back at the hut. They weren’t in a place suitable for children. He didn’t answer his friend.

  They’d managed to get a seat in the middle of the crowd just a few metres from the box with the Crimson foot soldier in it. They were in a similar spot to the one they’d been in previously.

  The former champion of the pit, the soldier in the box stood taller than Seb—as most champions did—and it seemed to lack a moral compass. The fighters lived or died dependant on its mood. Even the champions died if they looked like they might beat his record. Utterly ruthless.

  Seb looked across at the creature as he stared down at the pit. At least, his hood faced towards the pit. Because he couldn’t see his face for shadow, he could only guess where the creature focused its attention.

  Chatter swelled around them as the arena filled. Beings of all shapes and sizes squeezed onto the circular benches, shoulder to shoulder as they all faced the pit in the middle. Who would be next to fight?

  When Seb looked back at Bruke, he saw the lizard-like creature still waited for an answer from him. “We’ve come here because I figured this would be a good place to reach a lot of people. An opportunity for the revolution to be heard.”

  What would have been eyebrows if Bruke had them shot up and his eyes spread wide. He looked around before returning to Seb and dropping his voice to a whisper. “But you can’t speak out in a place like this!”

  “If we’re to start a revolution, Bruke, places like this are exactly where we need to be speaking out. Sooner or later we’re going to be kicking that bitch’s door in. We need to get comfortable with confrontation.”

  While chewing his leathery bottom lip, Bruke looked out over the crowd and frowned. Although he didn’t argue, he looked to be doing everything he could to contain it. As he twisted his hands continuously around one another, he kept throwing paranoid glances at the Crimson soldier in the box.

  Seb looked at the Crimson foot soldier too. Although, unlike Bruke, he didn’t fear him. He wanted a reaction from him. Now he’d come here with chaos in mind, he wanted to openly challenge the creature in his own pit.

  Most of the Crimson soldiers bore a resemblance to the Grim Reaper, but the soldier in the box looked more like the image of death than many of the others. A long and slim frame, he hunched over like a vulture waiting for the next being to prey on.

  Butterflies flipped through Seb’s stomach to be in a fighting pit again. The buzz of anticipation as the gathered people’s excitement grew. Even here, where any spectator could be singled out and made to fight, the crowd seemed hyped for the event. It could never happen to them. They’d never be made to fight in the pit—until they were.

  Every part of the arena had been made from wood. Patched up every few metres, it had definitely seen better days. It would probably serve it well to be torn down and rebuilt again, but the Countess didn’t seem like one to invest in infrastructure. Maybe it would take for the arena to collapse before she did anything about it.

  A snap of a bolt sent silence through the active crowd. The creak of large hinges and a door in the pit’s wall opened up.

  A small amount of light shone through the doorway out into the fighting arena before the large champion steppe
d forward and blocked it off.

  The champion had such a huge frame it had to duck to fit through the immense doorway. Seb grinned to watch it. In the time since he’d been away, he’d forgotten about the size of the current champion. A monster of a fighter, it must have been ten feet tall at least. Its solid arms were thicker than Seb’s torso and its huge fists were the size of boulders. Although, he couldn’t see it in its full glory yet because it wore the red robe of a foot soldier, its face hidden in shadow.

  A small Crimson soldier appeared in the ring and looked at the gathered crowd. Its voice echoed around the space. “Beings of Caloon, I introduce you to our current champion. He’s won eleven straight fights—all with fatalities—and it doesn’t look like he will be losing anytime soon. The purse for beating him stands at fifteen thousand credits, enough to change any slum dweller’s life. He’s fought around the galaxy on behalf of the Countess and now he’s here, showing you all what he can do.”

  The brute seemed to purposefully stamp his feet with every step as he circled the ring and stared up into the crowd. It had the desired effect, its stomping gait sending a vibration through Seb’s seat.

  “The one,” the small commentator said, “the only, the Great Gamboaaaaaaaa.”

  The crowd jumped to their feet. All except Seb.

  As Seb sat among the celebrations, he watched Bruke whoop and holler with the rest of the crowd, and he smiled. He then looked farther down to see the Crimson soldier in the box. The shadowed hood stared his way and he stared back.

  Even though the crowd had died down and everyone had taken their seats again, Seb and the soldier still stared at one another. As he watched the boss of this arena, he listened to the commentator.

  “So do we have any challengers today? Anyone who wants a shot at fifteen thousand credits?”

  While still staring at the head of the fighting pit, Seb stood up and raised his hand.

  Silence swept through the place and no doubt everyone looked at Seb at that moment, but he kept his attention on the soldier in the box.

  “Can he fight?” the commentator said.

  Like Seb, the creature in the box hadn’t looked anywhere else. While still looking at Seb, he raised his arm and gave a long thumbs-up.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Seb slipped his backpack off and handed it to Bruke. He spoke from the side of his mouth so no one else heard him. “Hold onto this for me. There’s a blaster in there. You may need it.”

  Although he took the bag, Bruke frowned and shook his head. “You can’t go down there and fight that thing.”

  Seb smiled at his friend. “Trust me.”

  Everyone in the pit looked at Seb, but he looked at the soldier in the box and the soldier in the box stared back at him, its long body leaning in his direction as if it had something to say.

  After he’d shifted past the slug-like creature next to him, Seb moved past a couple of other beings before he got to the stairs leading down to the pit.

  Slow and deliberate steps, he breathed in the smell of blood and sweat. The funk of hundreds of bodies crammed into a small space mixed with the reek of a thousand deaths.

  The creature in the pit, the Great Gamboa, paced back and forth and stared at him. A rumbling growl like a large engine came from the thing’s hood. Easily six feet wide, the creature would undoubtably punch like his fists had rocket propulsion.

  When Seb got close enough to the pit, the commentator addressed the crowd. “Beings of the galaxy, I can’t promise a decent fight today. By the look of things, it’ll be over within seconds, but please welcome the optimistic challenger.”

  No one clapped and Seb couldn’t help but smile to himself.

  “And on the other side, the undefeated, the indomitable, the powerhouse himself, the Great Gamboaaaaaaaa.”

  At that moment, the Great Gamboa threw his robe off to reveal the hulking brute beneath. Black skin, emerald eyes, green hair, and a body where even the muscles had muscles. The square-headed creature roared so loud Seb put his arms out for balance in case the pit crashed to the ground.

  After looking at Seb, who still had his arms out, the Great Gamboa threw his head back and laughed. His entire frame bounced with his mirth and his grin spread wide enough on his square face it looked like he could bite Seb’s head off in one go. “Why are you even trying this, human?”

  But Seb didn’t respond. Instead, he waited for a couple of assistants to put a ladder up against the wall so he could climb into the arena.

  When he got down to the same level as the Great Gamboa, Seb swayed and looked up at the brute. He rolled his shoulders and snapped his head from side to side to loosen his neck.

  “Tell you what,” the Great Gamboa said as he looked at the crowd, “I’ll fight you with one hand tied behind my back. How does that sound?”

  “Like foolishness,” Seb said.

  Tension snapped through the creature’s thick body and he leaned towards Seb as he roared, “What?”

  “It sounds like a stupid thing to do. You’re judging me on how I look, but you don’t know how I fight. I’m confident enough to come down into this pit and fight you as you are. What does that tell you?”

  “That you have a screw loose.”

  The crowd erupted into laughter and Seb looked up at Bruke, who hugged his backpack and wore the same anxious expression he’d had since they’d entered the pit. “Fine,” he said. “Tie one of your hands behind your back, if you’re that confident.”

  The Great Gamboa’s square jaw tightened and he looked down at the fight announcer beside him. “Do it.”

  “Huh?”

  When the Great Gamboa shouted, the walls of the place shook. “Do it! Get me a rope.”

  The fight announcer jumped clean off the ground and scurried away through the door the Great Gamboa had entered via.

  A few minutes later, he returned with a thick rope. It took several beings to bind the Great Gamboa’s arm, but they did it.

  The entire place had been silent since the commentator had gone to get the rope. It seemed like an unprecedented move for this pit.

  “Okay,” the commentator said as he stepped between the two fighters. He looked first at the Great Gamboa. “You ready for this?”

  The Great Gamboa grunted.

  “Challenger?”

  Seb nodded.

  When he’d stepped away from the pair, the commentator looked up at the soldier in the box and the crowd watched on as if holding their collective breath. The soldier in the box nodded, so the commentator sighed before he called, “Fight!”

  As always happened when Seb fought someone twice his size, the Great Gamboa had the confidence to charge straight at him.

  Seb’s world slipped into slow motion on his opponent’s first step, and he watched the beast’s large square head sway from side to side with his clumsy gait. As often happened with larger creatures, the Great Gamboa had a bigger weak spot than most. His entire head stood out like a beacon.

  On the first charge, Seb ducked beneath the Great Gamboa’s haymaker, dropped to the ground, and swept his tree trunk legs away.

  Because he only had one arm free, the Great Gamboa ran for several teetering steps before he fell face first against the hard ground of the pit.

  A look up at the crowd and Seb saw the shock on every face. They all watched on in silence. He turned to the commentator and shouted, “Untie his arm! What a ridiculous creature to think he could fight me with only one hand.”

  The Great Gamboa looked far from happy when several beings rushed into the ring to untie him, but he didn’t stop them. When they’d finished, he jumped to his feet and roared again.

  On his second charge, Seb watched the Great Gamboa’s slow and lumbering footsteps. The beast had a long reach, so when he swung with one fist and then the next, Seb ducked them both and stepped closer to his opponent. He had to jump to deliver his uppercut to the brute’s hard chin, but he caught him clean anyway.

  Like he’d done before,
the Great Gamboa stumbled forward for several steps and hit the ground hard. The vibration of his landing sent a creaking noise through the fragile wooden arena. The Great Gamboa didn’t get back to his feet.

  Seb crossed the dusty pit, his own gentle footsteps and his heavy breaths the only sound in the place. Despite having already knocked out his opponent, he had to make sure. He didn’t need him getting back up again. He rained a flurry of punches down on the Great Gamboa’s large square face. Four in quick succession, it felt like hitting a rock.

  After he’d stepped away, the haze of the fight lifted and Seb’s world sped up. He looked at the silenced spectators. He then focused on the Crimson soldier in the box and winked at him.

  Seb raised his fists in the air. They were covered in the blue blood of the Great Gamboa. He spun on the spot and looked at the crowd. Now they would hear why he came here.

  Just as he drew a deep breath to speak, the lights in the place went out and the arena fell into total darkness. Seb’s already pounding heart sped up and he whispered to himself, “What the hell?”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The darkness lasted for no more than a few seconds, but as Seb stood there—his world slowed down because of the perceived threat—he lived every single beat of it.

  A wet squelch sounded close to Seb and he raised his fists, ready to fight. The flash of a blaster lit up in the crowd, the blip of the laser fire making him jump and stare up at the blink of light before it died out.

  A buzz of electricity came from high up at the back of the arena.

  By the time the lights came back on, Seb was already smiling. He looked at the two dead guards in the pit with him and then to SA. She stood no more than a foot away. A calmness swept through him in the face of her serene bioluminescent gaze. Even with everything in slow motion, he hadn’t heard a single one of her footsteps.

  Gurt stood in the box where the Crimson foot soldier had been. The large creature now lay on its back, smoke rising from the shadowy hole hiding its face. When Gurt looked down at Seb, he grinned from ear to ear. Seb grinned back and dipped the large Mandulu a nod.