THE RED SEA

THE RED SEA: REBELLION

*The Red Sea Rebellion | Day 1, Hour 0*

It didn’t start with speeches. It started with a garrote.

*03:14, Monarch Loyalist Command Ship “Oathkeeper”*

The first throat opened in the galley. A cook loyal to the Cold Prince looped carbon wire around the captain of the guard’s neck and pulled. No sound except a wet zip. Blood hit the fryer oil. It hissed.

The cook wiped his hands on his apron, picked up the captain’s head by the hair, and walked to the intercom.

“Blackwater Actual,” he said, blood dripping onto the mic. “The kitchen’s closed.”

He dropped the head. It thumped once, rolled, and left a thick smear across the deck.

*03:16, Engine Room*

Engineer Mara Voss used a plasma torch. Not how it was meant to be used.

She cornered the Monarch’s “Observers” — the pale officers with no shadows — against the reactor housing. First one raised his hands. She cut them off at the wrist. Cauterized stumps, so he lived long enough to watch.

“You logged my brother as ‘acceptable losses’,” she said.

The torch took his head off at the jaw. The top half clanged against the bulkhead. The bottom half stayed standing for a second, tongue still twitching, before the knees gave out. Blood jetted from the neck in time with his heart. Three pulses. Then it was just gravity.

She tagged the other two before the alarms even started. Deck plating ran red and tacky.

*03:20, Bridge*

This was Kade.

No monologue. No frost. Just steel.

He walked onto the bridge with Dima’s old combat knife. The Monarch’s admiral turned, started a sentence about treason.

Kade didn’t let him finish.

Backhand swing. The blade went in under the ear and came out the other side. He twisted. The head came free with a sound like pulling a boot out of mud.

He set it on the navigation console, facing the crew. Eyes still open.

“Choose,” Kade said.

Half the bridge crew dropped their weapons. The other half drew.

Blackwater Actual came through the bulkhead 4 seconds later.

Finn used a hull-breach axe. First swing took a lieutenant from collarbone to hip. Split him like firewood. Organs hit the deck with a slap. The smell punched the room — copper and opened bowel.

Rook liked knives. He got in close, grabbed a comms officer by the jaw, and sawed. It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t fast. The spine took three cuts. Blood sprayed across the viewscreens, turning the Red Sea outside into a red smear.

When it was done, 22 seconds total, the bridge was ankle-deep. Boots made sucking sounds when they moved.

Kade picked up the admiral’s head and keyed the fleet-wide channel.

“The Red Sea doesn’t kneel anymore,” he said. Blood ran down his forearm, dripped off his elbow. “If you serve the Monarch, we’re coming. If you serve Earth, open your hangar doors.”

He threw the head at the camera. Feed cut.

*03:21*

All over the fleet, knives came out. Orders were ignored. Monarch pins got ripped off and shoved into mouths before throats were cut.

The rebellion wasn’t a speech. It was 4,000 murders in 10 minutes.

And the Red Sea drank every drop.