Blood Red: The Relissarium Wars Space Opera Series, Book 2 Read online

  Makram slammed his blade against Theo’s. Sparks flew when the metal collided. The force of the attack was enough to push Theo’s blade out of his defensive line. However, he leapt back the instant Makram swung down at Theo’s leg. If it had connected, Theo was certain that the blade would have at least left a large lump on his shin. That was if it hadn’t fractured the bone. Makram wasn’t holding back. The new commander jumped back as well. He stared at Theo. He hadn’t expected the recruit to be able to dodge his swing. It seemed that Theo had absorbed enough training to keep himself away from an obvious strike.

  “Not bad, junior,” Makram sneered. “I see you did learn a few things from our four-armed comrade. Perhaps you’d like a turn.” Makram stepped back, and held the sword with one hand. He extended his free arm out to one side, to make it seem useless. The hand that held the sword moved to a forty-five-degree angle from the plane of Makram’s body. The stance was designed to make him seem open: an easy target.

  Theo knew better. He leapt at Makram. He struck down hard against Makram’s sword with his own blade. A split second before impact, Makram snapped his hand onto the hilt of the sword and brought it over Theo’s blow. With both hands on the hilt, Makram powered it down on Theo’s right shoulder.

  Somehow, Theo pulled his body out of the way at the last possible moment. The dull blade struck, but the blow glanced off its target. A direct one would’ve broken Theo’s collarbone. The strike sent excruciating pain down Theo’s right arm. Theo pulled back, and managed to keep his guard up. He set his teeth to block the pain from overwhelming him.

  Makram taunted him. He swirled his blade around in his hand. “See what happens? You slip up, you get hit. Think about what might’ve happened against three Yasta monks with sharp blades. You’d have lost your arm and bled to death.”

  “Makram, that’s enough!” Cierra called out sternly to him. She’d been quiet, so far, but if it went on much longer, Theo could be badly hurt.

  “Shut up,” Makram growled at her. “I’m giving your brother-in-law an important lesson. You want him to stay alive?”

  “I don’t want him broken before his first time out!”

  Makram turned to Theo. “Want to try some more?”

  “Let’s do this.” Theo nodded. He wasn’t about to show weakness in front of Makram. He had a feeling that he would never live it down if he did.

  Makram went back into his guard. “Seems like he’s got some guts, Cierra. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get them spilled all over the ground.”

  “More guts than sense, if you ask me.” Cierra mumbled from the side of the training field.

  This time, Theo timed his attack right. He ran in at his opponent. Theo swooped in with his hilt held in a high guard. He brought it over Makram’s sword blade. Before Makram could parry, Theo pulled his blade under Makram’s sword. Now, Makram’s head was open.

  With four inches to the target, Theo rocked his sword blade into the side of Makram’s helm. Sparks flew. Theo felt Makram’s head move out of line. Theo jumped back to see the effect of his strike. Pride mixed with fear. He may have landed a blow, but was it worth risking Makram’s wrath? Theo had a feeling that he wasn’t the kind of man to leave his grudges at the edge of the practice field. Makram was quickly back in a guard, but Theo could see the dent he had made in Makram’s helm. He sensed the pain in Makram’s eyes. At last, he’d made it count, even if he had incurred Makram’s rancor in the process.

  “Hey, guys! Playtime is over. Hubard wants everyone at the main conference room, right away.” Theo glanced to the side of the field near Cierra to see who had spoken to them. Kurga was waiving them over.

  Next to the big humanoid stood Rix, the robot. Theo knew they’d watched the fight between him and Makram. He knew they’d intervened at the right minute. Theo had no doubt that the new commander would have struck out with fury to reclaim his pride if no one had stepped in. He also had no doubt that he would have ended up in the medical ward because of it. Makram might be able to ignore the women, but now there were two other witnesses. If he seriously hurt Theo, it wouldn’t go well with the Carbonari leadership.

  Theo watched, as his opponent lowered the sword. While Makram glared at Theo, Cherish walked over to them. She gently took the blade from Makram. Cierra went to Theo. She carefully tugged his blade away from him. Both men removed their helms. They continued to stare at each other. Makram looked down at his helm. He fingered the dent on the side of it while he decided how he was going to react. He was the commander now, after all. How he responded to situations like the one they were in could make or break his team’s trust in him.

  “Not bad,” Makram lifted his eyes back to Theo’s face, while he spoke, “for an inexperienced fighter. You sucker-punched me when I wasn’t focused. Guess I had it coming. Keep in mind that you won’t be so lucky the next time.”

  Theo nodded slowly. He still hadn’t blinked, on the off chance that Makram was thinking about trying anything. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “I’ll tell the quartermaster they need to get better helms out here.” Walked over to the bench and set his dented helm down. “Someone could get seriously hurt using these low-grade ones. Tell Hubard I’ll be along after I’m changed.” He turned his back on Theo, and then marched off to the practice hall to dress out.

  “It’s because they’re not supposed to be used with live metal.” Cherish grumbled, and shook her head, as he walked away.

  “What was his problem?” Kurga squinted after Makram’s retreating figure. He was a good seven feet tall, and covered in white hair.

  “The sparring didn’t go the way he planned it.” Cierra turned to Theo. Her voice was somber. “Makram blames you for Yareck’s death. He’ll never admit it, though.” Theo stopped in his tracks. Yareck, the team leader on the Carristoux raid, had never made it back with the others. Now, not only did Makram have to deal with the loss of his friend and teammate, he was also filling his position as commander. Theo felt a small pang of sympathy towards his new leader, as he tried to stuff Makram’s anger towards him into a corner of his mind, where it couldn’t distract him.

  Along with the others, Theo picked up his practice gear. They headed to the conference room. Theo asked about going to the locker to change, but Cierra told him it wasn’t really necessary. Makram had only used it as an excuse to leave the field sooner. Hubard didn’t call everyone together often, so the gathering meant whatever he needed to tell them was very important.

  “I see you three were training.” Hubard looked them over as they entered the conference room. “How’d it go?”

  “Very educational.” Theo commented as he sat his training gear to one side. He was still wearing his body armor, when he sat down at the conference table. Although Makram had yet to materialize, everyone else who was part of the new Strike Force Retaliation team was there.

  “I’ve called you all together,” Hubard began, “because of what I’ve discovered about this new mineral. The one we intercepted from the Carristoux Regional Militia post.” He waved his hand, and an image of the mineral slabs—which they’d risked life and limb to obtain—materialized overhead.

  Theo gazed at the image. Everything in his life had been turned on its head, thanks to Cierra and the Carbonari. What did they have to show for their efforts? Some strange mineral that no one really understood. He had gone from his hard, but complacent, life as a farmer, to a recruit for a rebellious organization that wanted to take down the empire. Theo tried to clear his mind and focus on what Hubard was saying.

  “When our double-crossing friend Garth contacted me about this mineral, I didn’t believe him. Garth was a smuggler and, it would appear, not one we should ever have trusted.” There was a murmur of agreement from the room. Garth’s little scheme to steal the mineral before they could get to it nearly cost everyone their lives.

  “However, the Relissarium—that’s what I’ve decided to call it—has shown itself to be of great value. It has subatomic propertie
s I still can’t believe. It took me a long time to find the perfect use for it, which I would like to demonstrate to you today.” Hubard walked over to a small cloth in the middle of the room. He pulled it off two oblong shapes.

  Beneath the cloth were two mounted sword blades. Both of which were about twenty-four inches in length. They didn’t appear to be made of any metal that Theo was familiar with. Honestly, he had never seen anything close to it before. The swords each had a semi-circular handgrip, but it was a fairly standard design for most personal weapons. Unlike infintium blades, the ones before them were black in color.

  “Behold, the Relissarium blade!” Hubard picked up one, and balanced it in his hand. “Light, versatile, and will cut through anything—as long as you use enough applied force.”

  “Anything?” Cherish sat up straighter in her seat, and leaned forward.

  “Anything.” Hubard confirmed, excitedly. He walked over to another cloth. The old engineer pulled it away to reveal a block of metal, about twelve inches in length. It had the silver appearance and slight glow of infintium. Hubard moved away, so everyone could see it.

  Murmurs spread across the table. The team gave one another interested glances. Theo had witnessed some of what the Relissarium could do back on Carristoux. Putting the mineral into the shape of a blade could change the tide of wars. Something like that could give the Carbonari the advantage they needed to overthrow the Yasta monks, and the empire.

  Hubbard continued with his demonstration, and patted the block of metal in front of him. “Yes, this is a block of infintium. Hardest substance in the known universe. Until now.” He raised the black sword blade over the silver block, and brought it down in one quick stroke. Theo didn’t know Hubard could even move that fast. He had made the same mistake with Garth back in the market. Theo made a mental note to stop underestimating people. He was slowly learning that not everything was as it appeared.

  There was a shower of sparks. The infintium block was shorn into two. Everyone jumped up in shock. There was no heat from the infintium block, or smoke of burning metal. The blow had been clean and decisive. Everyone examined the separated blocks, and expressed admiration. Makram let out an impressed whistle as he entered the room. “That was astounding. I saw it from the hallway.”

  “Glad you liked the demonstration,” Hubard told him with a smile. “I’m going to call these new swords ‘lasana blades’.” He carefully passed the swords around, so everyone could examine them.

  “Where did you come up with that name?” Cherish gently cradled one of the blades in her metal hands. She was all too aware of how easily she could damage her hardware with such a weapon. If it could slice through infintium, it would make short work of her.

  The older man tilted his head to the side, thoughtfully. “I can’t remember. It does have a nice sound to it though, you have to admit.”

  It was a few days later, when they learned about the mission. Theo and Cierra were out on the practice field with Cherish supervising, once again. Cierra showed him some basic grappling moves, to take down an unarmed combatant. They were about to face off for another round, when Cherish stopped them.

  “Stop! Practice is paused, until I finish receiving his message.” Cherish held out her hand to hush them.

  Theo let out a short breath. They were just getting to the good part of the combat sequence that Cierra was showing him. Theo hated it when Cherish received internal messages. It made him feel as if he were being intentionally left out of a conversation. He was also curious about why Cherish even bothered with an external communication device if she could receive messages and transmissions without using one.

  Cherish blinked her eyes rapidly as the message she was listening to ended. “The Grand Council wants us to hit a Yasta monastery. They want some intelligence that the Yasta seem to have gotten their hands on, and we were selected for the job. We leave tomorrow. All of us are to go, including Theo.”

  An involuntary smile spread across his lips, but he quickly wiped it off of his face when Cierra glared at him. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Cherish. “Tomorrow? Why so soon? What’s the hurry?”

  “It’s some kind of religious holiday for them. The monks will be busy elsewhere. The Grand Council thinks it will be the best time to strike.”

  “What’s the objective?” Theo piped up in the conversation. He figured that since he was a member of the team now, he had a right to know. Besides, if he was going into harm’s way, he wanted to know what he was risking his life for.

  “We are supposed to infiltrate the inner chambers of the monastery.” Cherish cocked her head to one side as she spoke. Theo had the impression that Cherish was listening to the transmission again while she spoke. “Oh, some more good news. We’ll have one of those new lasana swords that Hubard showed us the other day. Cierra, you get it. Hojae and Makram are allowed infintium blades, as well as the others on the mission, except for me. Since I have internal weapons, the Grand Council thought it was unnecessary for me to carry any additional ones.” Theo could only speculate what kind of internal weapons Cherish was equipped with. Whatever they were, he doubted that he would ever want to be on receiving end of them. After all, he had seen her shooting skills in the last mission they were on. Her marksmanship was impeccable.

  “Was that all they said? That’s not much to go on.” Cierra worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

  “The rest of the plan is coming in code, so give me a second or two to translate. Then I’ll tell you. It’s a good thing I can retain this, since I’ll have to let the others know about it later, too.” Cherish turned her head to the sky to concentrate. Her lips moved silently, for a few moments, as she decoded the transmission. “Hojae will go in first as a pilgrim of some kind. He’ll pretend he’s there to visit the monastery for the festival. There are several Yasta monasteries on his home world, so he should be able to easily come up with a reason for the visit. He’ll arrive in advance of us. You two get to go in with Makram and myself, to infiltrate the place. Hojae will wait on the outside to create a diversion, in case we need one. Our final goal is a small data sphere that the monastery keeps inside the inner chambers. It will be marked, so we’ll know what it is when we find it. Do either of you have any questions?”

  “I’m sure we’ll have them later.” Cierra sighed. Judging by her body language, Theo had the impression that training was over for the day. “We might as well go in and tell the others. Everyone needs time to prepare.”

  An hour later, everyone on the Strike Force Retaliation team was gathered in the conference room. Makram leaned back in his chair, at the head of the conference table, and crossed his arms over his chest. He brooded over the task before them. “Infiltrate? I’d rather just go in and shoot the place up. We’re supposed to take out an entire monastery full of soldier monks on our own? How do they expect us to do that? I don’t like it. It has to be a suicide mission.”

  Hubard shook his head. Makram had always been a shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy. Still, Hubard had his suspicions that Makram’s lack of reservation when it came to spilling blood was part of the reason the council had selected him as the new commander. “The council doesn’t want any bodies left behind. A blood trail can be traced to the Brotherhood. It would give the emperor all the excuse he needs to launch a genocidal war against us. You go in, get the data sphere, and leave as few footprints as possible. With luck, the Yasta will never be able to pin the break-in on us.”

  “Fine, but if we engage the enemy I’m killing as many Yasta as I can. They’ll pay for what they did to Relisse.” Makram knew how to pump up a room. Everyone applauded, with Theo clapping the loudest. Other differences aside, at least he and Makram shared an intense hatred for the Yasta. It was amazing how having a common enemy brought people together.

  Cierra spoke up hesitantly. “There is one thing I wanted to bring up. I think Theo should carry the lasana blade.”

  “What? Why should we give him our most power
ful weapon?” Makram scoffed at the idea. “He can barely handle an infintium blade, why give him the only lasana blade?”

  “That’s exactly why he should have it. I’ve tried those lasana blades. With enough force, they’ll cut through any material we put it up against. If Theo has one, he’ll be more likely to survive.” Her eyes flicked over to Theo, who was staring at her in disbelief.

  Makram chewed it over in his mind. “Fine. He can take it.” He turned to Theo, and jabbed his pointer finger at the new recruit. “Just understand that the blade is worth more than you are. You take a hit, we save the blade, and leave you there.” Theo smiled and nodded in response. A nervous lump bobbed in his throat, but he did his best to hide it.

  “Now that you have that sorted,” Hubard interrupted, “I need to acquaint you with the basic Yasta monastery layout. Pay attention, because only Cherish has the ability to download a copy of the map. We can’t risk sending you in with a physical copy in case you’re searched or captured. The only diagram the rest of you will be able to take into the monastery is what you manage to memorize before you go.” Hubard made a gesture, and a new image appeared in the air over them.

  It was a picture of a walled monastery with five sides, the way the Yasta liked to build them. The monastery was situated behind rolling hills. Theo assumed it was a general schematic instead of the exact monastery they would encounter. In the middle of it, a large stone structure rose to the sky, with steps that led to a platform on the top.

  Hubard adjusted his spectacles, surveying the diagram he was showing them. “That’s the ziggurat in the middle. Don’t let the surface level fool you. It can be deceiving. Most of the actual monastery is underground. We know that the offices, vaults, and living quarters of the monks are subterranean. That design allows the surface to appear harmless and serve for religious functions. However, I guarantee you, the moment they sense trouble, those warrior monks will swarm out to the surface. For instance…” Hubard showed a brief video of a quiet monastery at an undisclosed location. Suddenly, it was under attack by a brigade of men in red clothes. In one blink, the ramparts of the monastery were filled with monks, who fired back. They mercilessly chopped up any assailants that made it over the walls.