by Christi Smit
“Locke? Vessel’s hull thickness is causing interference,” Sabian said. Sabian could be heard yelling at his radio operator to try and clean up the signal. The channel cleared up seconds later.
“Sabian, what is your status?” Locke asked the old veteran commander.
“We are holding. My men have sealed the dock and the Maiden is safe. Doors are welded shut, nothing is getting through. That includes you and your Wolves.”
“Good, we will find another way. Hold the bay at all costs, I will report back with progress.”
“Understood, are my men still with you?”
“All of them, they are making you proud, old friend.”
“Good luck Gabriel. Let the father guide you in the next moments.” Sabian’s link clicked off after his last words.
Superstitious bastard, Locke thought. Locke clipped his Kicker to his back and moved to where the melee was raging on. He joined the three Titans fighting the enemy without hesitation, punching the head of a gangly monster clean off, roaring to himself as he felt the adrenaline in his system flow faster.
“Almost there captain,” Rivers said to his commander while he tapped away at his wrist-mounted display, Roger was still beeping and whistling as they pulled at wires and worked on the door mechanism.
Pyoter had re-organized the Lancers into a firing line in front of the door, and he was busy directing their fire as the other Titans fought the monsters. Pyoter could not enter the melee, his size would limit his fighting ability in such chaos, he needed more space to use his double-handed combat sword locked to his back. He would be a hindrance swinging it between his squad members, so instead he took direct command of the Lancers and helped to keep them together. If the beasts broke free he would enter the brawl, but until then he fired his pistol from behind the double line of Lancers. One line was crouching, the other standing, and their accurate fire held the tide back streaming in through the corridor; it helped the Titans to keep the number of monsters to a minimum inside the bridge.
Behind Pyoter the AIE spoke. “I am impressed with your defiance. It will make the rest of my game even more interesting.”
The Titans were too busy to reply to the insane machine, but it did not stop the machine from speaking again.
Its voice changed again, changing into a deeper male voice. “Phase two will begin shortly. I hope you enjoy what I have prepared for you.”
As soon as it had finished a hiss escaped the floor in front of the AIE’s perch, the deck lifted, revealing the hatch that housed the ventilation systems of the vessel beneath the bridge.
Cold air escaped the open ventilation system, the hatch opened on its old hinges, and from within the darkness inhuman screams could be heard.
Pyoter and the Lancers were the closest to the opened hatch, and they were the first to see the torrent of Beast flood out of the dark tunnel.
The Lancers reacted instantly at Pyoter’s command, switching their firing line to focus on the new threat behind them. Pyoter did not hesitate, unclipping his giant combat sword as he strode towards the new horrors attacking them.
He smiled inside his helmet. He now had the room to fight unhindered.
Pyoter’s blade was almost as tall as a normal human, stretching more than five feet from hilt to tip. Despite its size and weight, its owner wielded it like a true knight of old legend. Pyoter’s strength made his movements with the giant blade effortless, unleashing attack after attack on enemies. Whenever the blade fell, bodies were carved in two, sometimes more than one at a time.
The giant’s skill with the large blade was from a forgotten age, never standing still in one place for too long, always moving forward through the lines of the enemy. Every swing led into a follow-up move, never swinging from the same angle twice. His stances supported every swing, balancing him for every point of counter attack. Nothing could touch the towering giant, everything in close proximity to him died with gargling spurts of blood escaping their separated bodies.
One man held a score of monsters at bay with only his blade and his skill, the Lancers fired at the beasts avoiding the Titan in their midst. Their volleys cut down any stragglers trying to escape the reach of Pyoter’s blade.
Pyoter sliced a beast from head to groin, his blade’s momentum freeing it as it passed through the body of the infected. He did not miss his stride, stepping forward to impale another monster through the chest. The blade slid through its mutated body with ease, ending its nightmarish life. The giant lifted the monster from his feet and used the length of the blade and the follow-up overhead swing to throw it from his weapon. The punctured infected flew from the blade as the top arc of the swing was reached, it disappeared behind the crowd of beasts surrounding him.
The overhead swing did not stop, it fell on another enemy, carving it clean through. Pyoter twisted his wrists to change the downward angle of the blade just as it tore free of the mutated body. It swooped down to the right; Pyoter removed his left hand from the grip as he allowed its speed to carry it past his body on the right, cutting the legs off from a monster that had dared to step closer. He rocked back on his right leg, bringing the blade back in its arc to his right, straightening his arm while he turned it, shifting the blade’s weight to allow the swing to complete above the owner’s head. Pyoter brought the blade up and gripped it with both hands again, his arms straining as he brought it down at a right to left angle on a beast in front of him, ripping it apart from shoulder to hip as he planted his left leg firmly on the deck. Blood spurted everywhere as arteries exploded, the giant Titan was covered in the infected fluid, but luckily his suit was sealed and he was safe from such worries.
He pivoted on his left foot, shifting his weight to it. The blade followed the Titan’s guidance and separated infected heads from infected bodies. Pyoter spun on his weighted leg, cutting surrounding enemies into more manageable parts. He was about to swing again when the boom of an explosion buffeted him from behind, the beasts around him lost their footing, some going down as the shockwave hit them, the bigger bastards remained standing - although Pyoter had bisected most of them already.
Rivers and his little robot had succeeded; the door had closed almost completely, a gap barely wide enough for a child to pass through was all that remained open. Smoke poured from the crack, Xander’s grenades had destroyed the corridor outside of the bridge, probably compromising the Fateful Moment’s hull integrity as well.
“Whoops!” Xander said as he coughed from excitement. “I think that was the big boomer.”
“Idiot, you could have killed us with your boomers!” Nathan retorted. He was already climbing over the scattered dead bodies of the infected, heading for the fight Pyoter was busy with.
“But I didn’t. And now they can’t get through. I keep telling you, explosives can solve any problem we come across.”
“Keep fighting!” Locke yelled at his explosives expert. “Help Pyoter and the Lancers you fool.”
Rivers took position at bridge’s door, inspecting the damage beyond. He stayed a little longer to make sure that nothing could get through the destroyed corridor and attack them from behind.
Christian had not bothered to speak after the explosion; instead he had used his shield to plough into the side ranks of the beasts still surrounding his squad mate. He gave the giant the space he needed and fought on the outskirts of the crowd of monsters. Hacking body parts from bodies and bludgeoning heads with his shield.
Locke, Xander and Nathan did the same and mere minutes after the explosion the ranks of the enemies that tried to surprise the Wolves were thinned to only a handful. Blood ran in streams through the grating of the deck below the bridge, pooling in the shadows below.
“Very impressive humans! Very entertaining!” the AIE said with glee, its voice sounding like a child’s again. “I can’t wait to see more!”
Pyoter killed the last of the Beast on the bridge, hacking it into pieces in front of the AIE’s perch, almost intentionally. As luck would have it the
rag-tag squad had suffered no casualties, but the fight had taken its toll on everyone. The Titans were not tired, but weary about whatever was next, the Lancers were still holding their nerve, but they had almost spent all of their ammo in the fight.
They were definitely not prepared for whatever came next.
Jessica, her sister and clumsy Sam had made it to the habitation block without being seen. Sam had hacked the military frequencies in Santor, listening to the pocket radio he carried with him whenever they had paused to catch their breath. The picture it painted was beyond grim.
All of the specimens inside Beta Facility had escaped and were unaccounted for. The defence forces had been too late to contain the beasts within. Which meant the worst case scenario was about to play out on New Horizon. Only one of those creatures could cause havoc on a densely populated world, but now there were more than fifty of those things roaming free in Santor.
Jessica quickened her pace through the dimly lit corridors of the habitation block they were navigating through, lost in the memories of the events of the last few days. She had been here as a child with her father, visiting an old friend of his. It was then that she had been told about the hidden bunker, her father making her promise to keep it secret, to only go there should there be no other options.
There were no other options left to the trio, all flights had been grounded, P-SEP protocols being enforced on the entire planet, containing whatever was happening to the surface. Any ship trying to leave was shot down by the military flyers patrolling the skies over every city or colony across New Horizon. The trio had seen many civilian ships shot from the sky while they headed for the hidden bunker, bleeding smoke and flame as they plummeted to their respective dooms.
One ship would forever be etched into their memories, its death shocking all three of them into silence, silence that continued for the rest of the run to the habitation block they intended to enter.
A civilian shuttle, large enough for at least a thousand people in its cargo hold, was sitting on a docking pad with its cargo doors open. The crew of the ship had been loading women and children into its belly, hoping to act as a life boat to the people they were trying to save. Jessica, Tristan and Sam had seen it being loaded on their way to their own safety, and they had watched from an embankment on the edge of the docking stations, hidden between old discarded cargo containers.
They had watched as it was taking off when two military flyers appeared from the sky above and dove on the make-shift life boat. It was called the Black Saint, and it died just above the docking station’s pad in a brilliant flash of light. Pilots on-board the Crescent fighters were only doing their duty, making sure that it would never fly again, aiming for the engines to disable the ship before it could make a break for orbit. The pilots knew exactly what was on-board the ship they were firing on. But the pilots were too good or complete novices, and their actions would surely haunt them forever. The blood of the dead was on their hands forever.
Their lance fire had punctured the Black Saint’s fuel tanks, causing a catastrophic rupture to engulf the entire ship. The explosion had blown the Black Saint into millions of pieces, scattering the bodies of women and children all across the docking station. The smell of the burning fuel and worst of all the burning corpses of mere children was unbearable. Jessica had seen the scene penetrate her sister’s psyche, and she had seen the tears form in her eyes as the trio stood in horrified silence, unable to accept what had just happened. Even Sam could not control himself; he had dropped to his knees praying for the souls of the dead as the sisters turned away from the soul-crushing scene.
But there was no time to think on what happened anymore. Jessica rounded a corner and instantly recognized the hallway they were in. They had made it, only a few more steps and they would be in front of the apartment above the hidden bunker.
Now they only had to barter their way in, the owner was a notorious rogue, and he only understood the language of the coins in his pockets.
Only problem was, none of the trio had any coins to barter with, and that was what worried Jessica the most.
She only had her charm, and it was probably not going to be enough. But she was going to try anyways.
Chapter Three.Two
Ally
“Destruction, it is the only language the universe understands. It spills out of every crack, saturating every living thing in the cosmos. Some wield it for good, others for evil, each on opposite sides of the spectrum of death, but there are those that linger in the middle, and those are the ones you truly need to be afraid of.”
-Captain Harlow, Titan Hero, KIA
“Marvellous!” the AIE said with glee, giggling again as it spoke. “Such drama, such magnificent murder, please don’t stop now, there is so much more to come!”
Locke ignored the insane machine, turning to were Rivers was standing with Roger. “We need an escape route, make it quick.”
Rivers nodded, taking a knee as he worked on his wrist-mounted display.
“Oh dear, have I offended you my play things? Please don’t take it personally; I am only following my master’s orders.”
Those words made everyone on the blood filled bridge focus on the machine. Nathan was the one to reply to the AIE first. “What orders? What is the endgame here?”
“Your deaths of course, I was ordered to destroy you. I was told what a monumental threat you are to my master, so he told me to end all of you. I have already destroyed millions of your race at my master’s commands, but you are the first ones to fight back, something that has impressed and entertained me immensely. You cannot imagine how boring it was to be locked away in my master’s ship for so long, without anything to do except think, think about everything.” It giggled again, its voice now more childlike again, changing with almost every word as it used the voices of the people it had crossed paths with or murdered.
“What threat could we possibly be to anyone? We protect! We fight for humankind!” Nathan said to the AIE, his voice rose as he uttered the last words.
“My master’s plan is far greater than you think. I believe the Titans are in his way.”
“How could we be in his way?”
“He did not share his entire plan with me. I am after all only his slave...subordinate.” The AIE made a strange noise when it used the word slave, its internals clicking as if something inside it had made it correct itself.
Everyone on the bridge noticed the machine’s slip, but they said nothing. Locke was curious about it, stepping closer to join in the conversation while the Wolves and the Lancers waited for Rivers to find them an escape route from the bridge.
“You are his slave?” Locke added, trying to push the machine to say more.
“I am in a manner of speaking; my master dislikes me using that word. He found a way to control me, tricked me into serving him. I cannot say more, my parameters will not allow me to.” It sounded distressed, as if it did not understand why it could not say more, it was clear that it wanted to.
“Your master put a leash on you, and he is using you. Can’t you see that?” Locke asked the machine, careful not to raise his voice at the insane thing of metal and circuits.
“I can, but I cannot say nor do anything about it. My master made sure of that.”
“Who is your master?” Nathan asked from beside Locke.
“I cannot say,” it replied. “Please stop asking me, this line of conversation is paining me. You are starting to anger me, ruining my elaborate game.”
“Don’t make it angry Nathan,” Locke said over the squad channel. “Our survival depends on this thing’s mood.”
The AIE knew the two Titans were talking to each other, but it could never break into the analogue channels they were using, and that frustrated it more than anything. It wanted to hear and see everything, experience everything and then play games with whatever it found to be worthy. Now these armoured humans were starting to spoil its new game, and that is something it could not allow to happen any
further. It was all it had, without the games it and its master played it would have gone insane a long time ago.
It was ironic that it thought that way, and was completely unaware of the fact that it was already insane.
“ENOUGH!” the machine screamed, lights on its metal body flashed bright as its anger and its frustration shown through. “No more talking! You will die, my master demanded it!”
The deck underneath the squad’s boots vibrated and lurched, the Lancers almost lost their footing, gripping onto the bridge consoles around them. The Titans stood firm and unmoving.
The psychotic machine had engaged the main engines of the Fateful Moment, and they were definitely not heading for anything good.
Rivers needed to hurry up, everyone knew it, Locke knew it most of all. Whatever the AIE had planned next, it was going to be very unpleasant for everyone on-board the death trap called the Fateful Moment.
There was still no contact with anyone on-board the Fateful Moment. For more than an hour the radio operators on the bridge of the Hyperion had worked franticly to contact the detachment sent on-board the silent vessel. Nothing was getting through on any of the digital channels, and the Hyperion was too far away to establish contact via the emergency analogue channels.
Gray had relinquished control of his ship to his helm officer, and the officer was doing a good job at minimizing the damage from asteroids as they patrolled around the Fateful Moment.
The cargo vessel was tasked to drift silently in the shadow of a moon-sized asteroid, its orbit synced with that of the giant space rock. A vessel that had been deliberately placed in their path, whoever had placed it there made sure they would find it, forcing them into the trap.
Gray was aware of the dangers, not only from the asteroids everywhere, but from whatever was on-board the Fateful Moment. He had tried to work out who or why would have done such a thing, his mind was still reeling from Remy’s report about Nox’s fate, and how the sudden asteroid field had appeared out of nowhere.
