Eradication: A Space Opera: Book Four of The Shadow Order Read online

  ERADICATION

  BOOK FOUR OF THE SHADOW ORDER

  MICHAEL ROBERTSON

  CONTENTS

  Edited and Cover by …

  Mailing List

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  About the Author

  Other Authors Under the Shield of Phalanx Press

  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

  Eradication - Book four of The Shadow Order 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.

  MAILING LIST

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  CHAPTER 1

  Seb looked up into the glowing yellow eyes of the huge mech on the other side of the arena. The mech stared right back at him, leaning forwards, looming over him. His hands were cold, but when he balled them into fists, they felt stronger than they ever had, like he could punch through rock … through metal.

  Twice Seb’s height, if not more, the gigantic steel brute charged at him, the floor shaking beneath its heavy steps. It dipped its head as it ran and clenched its large fists as if in mockery of the puny human form it faced. A massive metal humanoid, each of its balled hands were the size of boulders.

  Despite Seb’s slow-motion perspective of the fight, the huge beast closed the space between them in a flash. What had been an expanse of clinical-white floor was reduced to just a few metres in a blink. Thankfully, he didn’t have to see it move in real time.

  Seb scanned the beast’s large body, but he couldn’t see a weak spot on the chrome monstrosity. When it pulled its right arm back, he did all he could at that moment and ducked its wild swing. Not that avoiding a fight would keep him alive for long; he had to take the thing down somehow.

  The mech’s momentum carried it past Seb. The vibration of its footsteps ran an earthquake through the floor, blurring his vision. It made it impossible to see the pneumatic pole that punched from its waist. As thick as Seb’s torso, it jabbed into his side, driving the wind from his body and sending him flying across the arena as if he weighed nothing.

  Seb’s entire skeleton shook with the vibration of hitting the wall and nausea clamped tight in his guts. The metallic taste of his own blood flooded his mouth.

  A second or two passed where Seb fought to stay conscious. Were it not for the heavy steps descending on him again, he might have let himself black out completely.

  Standing up on wobbly legs, Seb pulled a deep breath into his lungs. After spitting a mouthful of red on the white floor, he fought to get his breath back as the mech closed on him once again.

  The brute lifted both of its large fists this time, its glowing eyes fixed on Seb as it charged forward. Its silence as it ran unnerved Seb more than anything. Sure, the effect of its actions made sounds, but whenever he’d had an opponent, he could hear their struggle in their grunts and snarls. He could measure their fatigue. The mech fought with a cold and clinical detachment. The only tiredness this opponent would feel would come when its batteries drained. Designed to bring about his utter destruction, and clearly more than capable of the task, it brought its fists crashing down at him.

  Seb rolled to the side and jumped to his feet again. The boom of the mech’s blow shook the arena, and he struggled to remain upright. Cracks splintered away from where the mech hit the floor and streaked through the white expanse as if the hard concrete was made of glass. The blow would have turned him to mist had he been caught beneath it.

  A glance up at the window to the spectator area and Seb saw Moses smiling down on the fight. Acid burned in his guts to watch the smug grin on his shark face.

  Deceptively fast for its size, the mech spun on Seb again. Its plain chrome body no doubt hid more surprises like the battering ram in its waist. It picked up speed as it charged forward.

  Seb pulled in a deep breath of the bleach-scented air and waited as the creature closed in on him.

  At the last moment, he rolled to the side again to avoid another hard attack. The entire arena shook again, the windows to the spectator area buzzing from the second pounding against the floor. It left a similar crater to the first one.

  Now the gargantuan had its back to Seb, he darted forward and landed two quick punches to the beast’s kidney area. His blows felt cold and hard, and they left two large dents on the monster’s chrome body. If he punched any harder, it felt like he could get through the mech’s outer shell. Although, despite his power, it seemed to only do cosmetic damage to the large figure. It hadn’t slowed it down one jot.

  The mech turned around and ran at him again. A circular saw popped from its waist. The mech wore it like a spinning tutu. The galaxy’s most dangerous Swiss Army knife, Seb gulped to look at its latest weapon.

  The saw blade rotated so fast it turned into a blur, even in slow motion. The high-pitched whine o
f it bounced around the enclosed space like a dentist’s drill; the scream of it turned his knees weak.

  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?”