by David Beers
Alistair moved then.
He catapulted off the ledge, hit the ground in a somersault, and was back on his feet, rushing for the water. Caesar had not entered yet. He stood at the edge, shaking his head at Alistair's stupidity.
The three hit the purple river at the same time.
The water rushed over Alistair, pushing him downstream of the massacre. He swam as fast as he could, the suit helping to propel him. The helmet processed the water and allowed oxygen in.
Alistair tried looking upstream, but the transparent purple water had turned opaque red, all of it flooding toward him. The brave's blood had mixed with that of the eels he'd killed.
The screams had stopped, and that meant only one thing. The eels were feasting but would soon come for them.
Alistair swam faster, unable to tell where his friends were. He looked upstream every few strokes and let his HUD tell him of any dangers. He was a quarter-mile from the riverbank when it spotted the first eel.
Incoming, twenty seconds.
Alistair didn't try to swim faster. He knew it would be futile. Rather, he stood against the rushing river, fully realizing that brave's strength for the first time. Even with his armor on, the rushing water nearly toppled him. The eel launched from the water just as its brother had earlier. Alistair's Whip was faster than the brave's blade, and the lasers sliced the thing’s head off. It gave that awful scream.
Incoming, five seconds, his HUD read.
Alistair didn't have any idea where it was coming from. Certainly not upstream.
He turned, facing downstream and hoping his armor had sensed it. The creature's head was at his, the needle teeth inches from his helmet. Alistair ducked, and the river bowled him over. He hit the eel's middle, and the creature wrapped itself around him like an anaconda. They tumbled downriver, Alistair barely holding onto his Whip with his right hand while he fended off the snapping creature with his left.
The thing's dead eyes belied its intelligence and instinct. It wrapped itself around Alistair's midsection, trying to lever his ribs into his internal organs while its teeth snapped at his helmet. Alistair couldn't get a purchase on the riverbed. He tumbled over and over, his head going beneath the water before coming up briefly. He felt his way against the eel, using all his strength to keep the fully-muscled body from decapitating him. Despite his helmet delivering oxygen, his lungs couldn't suck any in. The armor was keeping the creature from breaking his ribs, but he couldn't expand his lungs.
He had to kill it. That was the only way to make it out of this.
If there was any way to. More had to be swimming at him at this very second.
Alistair let go of the eel's head with his left arm, letting the creature lunge for his helmet. It was the only way to get his right hand close enough and was a gamble that would end in death for one of them.
The eel's teeth hit his helmet on the right side as his Whip sliced through its flesh.
He felt the lower half go limp, the screech filling his ears. The head was still on his helmet, the needles having pierced the metal, but Alistair ripped the lower portion off while tumbling downriver.
He hit the riverbed, the eel's head dislodging from his helmet.
Incoming, five seconds.
Alistair felt the strength drain from his body. He swung the Whip forward blindly, slicing through red water and having no idea if he was hitting anything. Something grabbed his left arm at the same time something wrapped around his left leg.
Then he was wrenched free of the river. A giant’s hand was on his left bicep. Alistair had no idea if belonged to friend or foe, but he knew what the gray tube around his leg was.
The eel's head rushed for Alistair's throat, and he cut it in two with his Whip. The head kept flying forward, screaming, and hit his shoulder before falling to the ground, its jaw weakly opening and closing.
Alistair hit the ground right after it hard. He instinctively brought his Whip up, ready to cut down whatever was on him, and only in the last second pulled it back. It was Caesar.
"Stupid, boss. Stupid, stupid, boss. You nearly died."
Alistair let his body relax, falling limply against the yellow soil. His Whip retracted, and he stared at the green sky. Blue clouds floated across it.
"Stupid," the giant said again before standing.
"He's right," Thoreaux responded, walking toward the two of them. "What the hell were you thinking, Pro?"
He watched the clouds, unmoving. "I thought someone should watch him die. It was a brave act."
"Well," Caesar said, "yours was a stupid act. Come. Get up. We have to move quickly."
Alistair knew the giant was right. He slowly got to his feet. "Run a damage check," he told his armor. An outline of his suit appeared on the HUD. He'd taken damage on both calves and his torso, but surprisingly not his helmet. The eel had barely sunk his teeth into it.
"Thoreaux, aren't you supposed to be watching my six, my blind areas?"
"Blind areas aren't stupid areas, Pro," his second said from ahead of him.
True enough, Alistair thought and followed his friends into the jungle.
Twelve men and women sat around a long, rectangular table. Each had a DataTrack in front of them and was staring at the New Ganges River. Each felt they had just witnessed something impossible, and for the first time, each felt a twinge of fear.
The man at the head of the table's name was Binsum Tinsert Immorium Dax. Everyone in his life referred to him as Bin, or Lord Dax, depending on the relationship.
Binsum Tinsert Immorium Dax was staring at something he’d never thought would happen. The entire scene he had just witnessed struck him as, well, something out of a dream.
To sum it up, a dreadnought had shot a missile-like vessel at their planet. It had been shot too quickly for the planet's defensive systems to react beyond sending sonic waves to alter its original landing spot. They had managed to place it inside one of the Institute's war ranges, and Bin had hoped that would be enough.
However, more of this dream came next. One of the gigantes who had been crowned Lord Magnus stepped out of the ship, along with two strange men Bin had never seen before.
They proceeded to fall down a cliff, avoid rifle fire, and then… Well, perhaps out of everything, that was the most improbable part. The New Ganges River had been built, and the eels in it bred so the overly brave and dumb gigantes would try to cross it to prove their worth. The eels were bloodthirsty monsters that had ripped apart everyone who’d tried crossing except the returned gigante. However, even he hadn't killed an eel, but this new man had killed several before being ripped out of the water.
Now they had crossed the river, the dead bodies of gigante and eels alike floating downstream, and the satellites had lost sight of them in the jungle.
More, this man who had killed multiple eels—which should be impossible by Bin's standards—held a weapon Bin had only heard about in stories. The legendary Whip, carried by Titans on Earth.
"I'm a bit confused," Thera said from the head of the table. "Can anyone explain to me what we just witnessed? Perhaps you can, Alrain?"
Alrain was an older gentleman who had been with the company since Bin's father founded it. He was head of security and had assured everyone at this table that the Ganges would stop the group. The old man was now slumped in his chair, looking at the forest in front of him—one he could see into. Slowly, he straightened. "I believe you saw what I just did, Thera. So you can keep your judgments to yourself. Nothing like that has ever happened in the history of this company."
"I—" Thera started.
"Stop, both of you," Bin said. "Bickering right now isn't going to change anything we just witnessed." Bin's father had stepped down years ago, and in a way Bin didn’t necessarily trust. It was unexpected and left him with a company board full of people he hadn't chosen, who were probably still loyal to his father. The infighting was worse than Bin had imagined, but until now, he’d needed these old people to help him navigate a company
he'd thought he'd have another twenty years to learn about. "Do we know who the other two are yet? They've had the faceplates off multiple times. What are the facial scanners saying?"
Verish, sitting next to Bin, tapped the DataTrack, and two faces showed up in front of Bin's. "The man on the left is named Alistair Kane. What you saw him fighting with wasn't a fake. He's a former Titan, and from what InterGal says, he is wanted by the Commonwealth. The man on the right is a run-of-the-mill Subversive, also wanted by the Commonwealth, but he's only known due to his length of time with the Subversives. This Kane is a high-value target."
"Great. The Commonwealth has no dominion out here," Bin said. "So can someone please fucking tell me what the hell they're doing here with a gigante?"
No one at the table said anything. Everyone stared at the two faces in front of them, either reading—or pretending to read—the brief bios presented.
"All this high-paid fucking talent sitting here, and no one can tell me anything?" Bin spat.
Again, the table remained silent. Bin rubbed his hand roughly across his face. "Alrain," he said as he placed his hand back on the table. "What are the chances of them surviving the clan?"
The old man glanced over from the other end of the table. "I would have said zero, but I just told you the chance of them crossing the Ganges was zero, and clearly I was wrong there."
This was giving Bin a godsdamn headache. He had a business to run. "And the dreadnought above? Any word from them?"
"Silence," Thera responded. "They clearly understand we've cut off all communications between them and their three entrants, but they aren't responding to us, nor are they moving closer to the planet."
Bin leaned back in his chair. "Well, I'm certainly not meeting with the bastards. Whatever they want here, it isn't business that pays in credit. Send an envoy down there and have it talk to the Titan. This is all completely out of control. We've got five Institutes running, and I don't have time to deal with this insanity." Bin looked around the table. "Any questions?"
Everyone at the table shook their head. This might be the first opportunity for him to fire some of these ancients. All the infighting and bickering might end with these newcomers, and regardless of what they wanted, Bin wasn't going to let them get off the fucking planet.
Alistair kept his somewhat damaged armor on because the heat on the planet was awful. The suit kept him cool, but Caesar looked miserable.
They trampled through the jungle. Alistair didn't ask where they were going. He'd learned his lesson about moving silently. Caesar would tell him what he needed to know when the time was right. Beyond anything else, they didn't want to get ambushed in this jungle.
He kept his Whip at the ready, sometimes cutting down vines and plants that blocked their way.
Alistair's HUD kept up with the time they'd spent moving. About two hours into their hike, Caesar paused.
"What is it?" Thoreaux whispered, in the middle between Alistair and the giant.
Caesar turned his head toward the sky. Alistair followed his look, and the armor allowed him to hear what Caesar already did. Some sort of copter was flying overhead.
"The makers," Caesar whispered. His face was full of awe, and he got down on his knees as the sound of the copter grew louder.
Alistair stepped next to his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's no need to bow. Not to them, the makers, or anyone else. Stand up with me. Be on your feet when they arrive."
Caesar was still staring at the sky. He blinked a few times as if Alistair's words were sinking into him, then found his leader's eyes. "They are the makers. They kill indiscriminately. They will kill us for coming here."
"They're not going to kill me, Caesar. Not here in this overgrown jungle. Please, do not meet them on your knees. Meet them on your feet like a free gigante."
Caesar dropped his eyes, and it was obvious how much of a struggle it was for him to get to his feet. A mental thing, not physical, because of how badly these men had treated him and how badly they still treated the creatures living on this planet. Slowly, Caesar returned to his feet, though he didn't look fierce about it.
The sound of the copter grew louder, and Alistair finally saw it above the canopy. It hung in the air for a few seconds. He watched as five humanoid beings jumped out of the side with ropes attached to them. They crashed through the canopy, breaking branches and vines alike without a care for the damage they caused.
We're not dealing with humans, Alistair thought, knowing that bones and armor would have been broken or damaged in such a fast fall.
They landed about fifty feet in front of Alistair's group, and he saw the ropes that connected them to the copter were metal strands. The beings in front of him were droids, though not like any Alistair had ever seen.
Thoreaux either. "What am I looking at here, big man?"
"The maker's servants," Caesar whispered, unable to shake the mysteries from his childhood. The myths.
The droids had pointed heads that formed a beak instead of a mouth. Their eyes were bright green, and their metal exoskeletons blended with the environment around them, turning the exotic colors of this strange jungle. It would make them great killing machines if they had to go up against the giants.
Alistair stepped forward, his Whip at his side. Thoreaux had unholstered the MechPulse from his leg. Alistair wasn't concerned about a battle here. He and Thoreaux could take out these five by themselves if Caesar couldn't get over his past. If they'd wanted to kill him, they would have sent more.
The droid looked at Caesar for a moment, something akin to disdain on his metal face. "You dare not bow to me, servant?"
Caesar said nothing, but he did step forward, joining the other two.
So the droids had cognition or something approaching it. "We bow to nothing," Alistair said. "Why are you here?"
The other droids formed a semi-circle around the one in the middle, their metal skins adapting to the colors of the jungle around them. The middle one spoke. "That is the question my masters want answered. Why are you here? And you, servant? Why have you returned?"
"We're here for the rest of his kind," Alistair told the metal creature.
It paused for a moment and looked at those standing next to it. "That's not computing for any of us," it said after a second. "Can you say it in a different way?"
Now it sounded like a computer, not a petulant child. Alistair's Whip dropped farther toward the ground. "I came here to free the gigantes. All of your Institutes will fall. Your labs where they're bred. Everything is going to crumble before I leave."
The droid was quiet for a second. Its eye lit up bright green when it spoke. "I've recorded the answer, but I haven't transferred it yet. Are you sure that's what you want me to respond with?"
Alistair nodded. "Tell whoever sent you that we're coming for them."
The droid cocked its head to the side. "I have heard of suicidal creatures but never met one. We are well met."
The metal cords pulled the droids back up to the copter, leaving the space before Alistair empty. Alistair looked up, watching as the droids were rushed away at a speed that would have injured most men.
"Maybe a more diplomatic tone would have been better," Thoreaux said from his right.
Alistair turned to look at Caesar. The giant was walking deeper into the jungle. "Come," he instructed from ahead. "This place is marked for death now. We must hurry."
The giant, though he didn't think of himself in that way, saw the maker's servants land. He listened from a safe distance, more than shocked that someone would speak to the servants like that. When he was younger, the giant had seen someone cut down for daring to glance at the servants. Since then, no one the giant knew had ever dared look at them.
Speaking to them in that fashion was...blasphemous.
The giant didn't know the other of his kind who led the humans away. He knew the humans were wearing strange armor he'd never seen before, but he didn't concern himself about that.
He'd liked the way the human had spoken to the servants. He realized the entire place would be in flames soon, the humans and the large one with it, but he couldn't help but enjoy it.
Such talk was why he was out here hiding on his own. Of course, he would never have dared speak to a servant like that, but to others of his kind? He sometimes found himself unable to keep words like those from escaping his lips.
"This place is marked for death now," the one like him said.
That was the truth. The giant slowly picked his way farther from the group and then took off, knowing very well what was coming toward them all.
Bin was alone in his office, far away from where the human and his lackeys traveled.
"Have the main envoy deactivated and retooled," he told his assistant, who stood in the doorway.
He'd just watched the discussion between the droid and former Titan. He was looking at the holovid, barely comprehending what he'd just heard. He leaned back in his chair and wondered if the droid was right in his assessment. Was the former Titan suicidal, as well as the other two traveling with him?
"Contact Alrain," he told the AI.
A moment later, the old man's face replaced the Titan's on the holovid. "Yes, sir?"
"I'm sending you the coordinates where we found the intruders. I want you to light the whole place up," he told his head of security.
The old man paused before responding, looking pensive. "Sir, I don't mean to tell you your business, but that will disrupt the game. We've never done anything like this before. I hardly think it necessary to do so over three intruders."
"The game will be fine," Bin responded. "If anything, it'll create a different parameter. We can probably mark the winners up thirty percent from it. Just light the place up, all right? How long will it take?"
Alrain looked away for a few seconds. "Based on the coordinates, we should be able to get a team there in an hour."
"Try to make it quicker. I want that place on fire, and those three burned alive within it."
