“Stall them!” the commander ordered one officer. “Wipe Mr. Pervenio’s office!” he directed another. He then took Luxarn by the arm and ran him in the opposite direction of the fray, leaving the VIPs behind. “This hangar is compromised, sir. We need to get you to another ship!”
Luxarn tore free and straightened his shirt. “Prepare a medical evac immediately and have the bodies of the collectors on them.”
“Sir, those vessels aren’t shielded or outfitted with sleep pods. You’ll be vulnerable.”
“Which is exactly why they won’t bother targeting it.”
“There are more capable transports in the reserve hangar. With Director Sodervall gone, I’m in charge of your safety while on the Ring.”
“He’s dead, and last I checked, I’m still the CEO of this corporation. Take me to them now. And consider this your promotion. Ring Director...” He paused to read the commander’s tag. “…Lawrence. When I’m gone, the defense of our holdings here will be in your hands. I hope you prove more capable than your predecessor.”
A promotion like that usually had Luxarn’s subordinates beaming, but the commander’s face filled with dread. He’d clearly expected to join Luxarn in fleeing the compromised station.
“I’m... I’m honored, sir,” he forced out. “I won’t let you down.”
“Start by doing what you’re told,” Luxarn said.
The newly appointed director contacted the medical center over his com-link as they ran down the corporate wing’s spacious passage. Luxarn stopped at the first turn and glanced back. As he watched the Ringer mob swarm his upper-level employees and tear them to pieces, he made himself a single promise.
Kale Trass and his Ringers would pay for everything they’d taken from him. His son, the Ring, trillions of credits. His father showed them mercy after the Great Reunion brought plague to their world… Never again.
One
Kale Trass
Months had passed since the revolution started. Lack of sleep had all the days of unrest throughout Titan and the rest of the Ring beginning to blend together. I stood alone on my ship, holding on to the walls as she plunged through the upper atmosphere of Saturn. Wind tore across the hull and made her rattle, but there was no turning back now. The last bastion of Pervenio Corporation’s forces on the Ring waited only a few thousand kilometers away.
I felt like I should be smiling. We’d come so far in so little time, but I knew we were just getting started. The people we were up against would never stop resisting us, and so our fight would never end.
I sighed and raised my hand-terminal to my ear. Then I listened, as I did before every battle with the Earthers and on every restless night, to the last private conversation recorded on Pervenio Station between its former owner, Luxarn Pervenio, and Director Sodervall. The renowned Luxarn Pervenio secretly monitored everyone there, no matter what their rank. Even the wealthiest person in the Sol system needed to ensure he had a leg up on everyone and everything. Manipulation, strong-arming—that was the Earther way, and it was what had allowed him to wrest control of Titan and the Ring from my people until I, Kale Trass, took it back.
“What is it, Sodervall?” Luxarn said on the recording. “I only have time for good news.”
“It’s Agents Zhaff and Graves, sir,” Director Sodervall responded, the former Voice of the Ring on local news feeds. He’d been well accustomed to making composed speeches in the face of catastrophe, but his voice was shaky. “We made contact. They located a Children of Titan hideout burrowed underneath the Darien Quarantine where we believe the stolen supplies from Earth were taken. Zha—”
“Excellent! I trust that proper preparations are being made?”
“Of course. Sir, listen to me. Agent Zhaff was found shot outside.”
There was a pause. “Is he all right?”
“I’m waiting for another update, but… it was in the head, sir.”
A longer period of silence passed until, finally, Luxarn said, “And Graves?”
“We’re still thawing him, but it doesn’t look good.” Sodervall swallowed audibly. “Sir, what do you want me to do?”
“My father should have let these inbred Ringers die off when we had the chance!” he growled. As if Luxarn’s father, who organized the Great Reunion between our peoples, could knowingly control the plague that crippled us.
Before the Meteorite struck Earth more than three centuries ago, the first settlers of Titan had fled on an ark designed by Darien Trass. For all those long years, they lived free of Earther greed, hopping the moons of Saturn like their own icy, archipelago paradise. Living in peace. But the people of Earth didn’t die off entirely. They recovered and set their sights on the worlds beyond Earth, so they would never risk being wiped out again.
Fifty years ago, they made contact, and Luxarn and his father traveled millions of kilometers across the Sol system to reunite the Earthers and the Titanborn or, as they call us, Ringers. Centuries away from Earth had left our immune systems crippled. Countless Titanborn grew sick, allowing Pervenio Corp to step in. They brought their system of credits to control us, stuffed the sick into quarantine, and reaped Saturn of valuable gases.
“I agree, sir,” Sodervall said. “They’re a cancer to Sol. But it’s too late now. I need to know what you want me to do.”
“To do?” Even listening through a hand-terminal, the fury in his voice was enough to raise the hairs on my reedy arms. “I want the Children of Titan exterminated, director! I want this Kale Drayton delivered to me in cuffs! Evacuate every survivor from the Piccolo until one of them tells us the truth.”
That simple order had condemned Cora and all my former crew-mates on the Piccolo gas harvester to death.
“I… I’ll get right to it, sir,” Sodervall said.
“You damn well better! I don’t care what it takes, but you will restore order down there. Tear that quarantine to pieces if you have to.”
There it was. Luxarn’s final, terrible mistake. It dispersed his forces and allowed us to break into Pervenio Station, hijack the Piccolo, and overload its nuclear-thermal engine to incinerate thousands of his officers in the Darien Quarantine.
“Sir,” Sodervall said. “I don’t think that’s—”
“Just do it, Sodervall! If you hadn’t allowed things to get so dreadful down there, none of this would have happened. My s—Zhaff’s blood is on your hands.”
“Sir, are you okay?”
“I’m fine! Now find Kale Drayton and end this insurgency, or by Earth, I’ll find somebody who can, and you can join the skellies in an airlock.”
“I’ll handle it, sir.”
The conversation ended there after a series of loud crashes, which I could only assume was Luxarn Pervenio throwing things in rage.
Presently, my fingers squeezed around my own terminal so hard it nearly snapped. I captured Director Sodervall soon after and had him frozen to death—punishment for murdering Cora and countless other crimes against Ringers. But it was Luxarn who’d held his leash. I’d blamed the wrong man.
Every time I listened to the recording, I felt a sickening concoction of rage and delectation over what followed. Luxarn and all those who served him had taken everything from us, but it was his arrogance that brought his whole organization crashing down. I was publicly declared the heir to Darien Trass, and hearing it inspired my people to finally fight back against Pervenio Corp and all the other smaller Earther companies with holdings across the Ring.
None of what he demanded of Sodervall came to fruition, not even meeting me. Luxarn fled the Ring like a coward before we had the chance, but we would have our face to face one day. I swore it over and over in my head. He’d answer for all his family’s atrocities against my people.
He’d answer for Cora…
“Kale.” Rin interrupted my ruminations. Her hand fell upon my armored shoulder. “Kale, are you ready?”
I stowed my hand-terminal, lowered my helmet’s visor, and turned without answering. A cohort
of Titanborn fighters were arrayed in front of us in the cargo bay of my ship, the Cora. She was a prototype starship we’d stolen from Luxarn’s private hangar on Pervenio Station, complete with the finest in contemporary impulse drive tech, reinforced iridium plating, and a full complement of anti-craft ordnance.
She was a one-man warship capable of fending off attacks from the worst manner of scrap pirates hiding throughout the asteroid belt… or helping take down the remnants of Luxarn’s forces around the Ring. Like his personal recordings, the Cora was one of the many technical marvels earned during our takeover of Pervenio Station. Its name was my single addition.
I switched on my helmet’s com-link. “I am now,” I said.
“I was hoping you finally decided to listen to me and stay onboard,” Rin replied, her voice now over coms.
I shot her a disapproving glance. Her visor obscured her face, half of it a mess of mangled flesh and sinew from an explosion when she led a mutiny against an Earther ship captain long before I met her. The scars made her appear like something from a nightmare, though the sight barely affected me anymore. Ever since our revolution started, she was by my side almost every second—plotting, fighting, figuring out what was best for the Ring. It was tough to find any Titanborn who’d lost more at the hands of the Earthers than her, and her coarse disposition made sure everyone around her always knew it.
“Director Lawrence ran security at Pervenio Station,” I said. “How many of us do you think he spaced there?”
Lawrence currently led the last remnants of the Pervenio security forces stationed around the Ring. According to reports, at least a hundred of them were on board a luxury cruiser, ready to make their final stand. We would’ve sent the ship spiraling down into the crushing depths of Saturn if they hadn’t managed to take a few vital Titanborn hostages before commandeering the vessel. But now we were going to get them back.
“I know,” Rin replied. “But I’m not the one responsible for our people.”
“No, you’re not.”
“We can handle this mission easy. If you were to get hurt…”
“Gareth will protect me.” I nodded toward my towering guardian, standing at the back of the other Titanborn fighters waiting for us. Like Rin, he too had been with me since the start of the revolution.
He grunted his agreement as he walked over. He didn’t say a word because he couldn’t. He could only converse through sign language. The Earthers had stolen his tongue long before we ever met.
“Something just smells wrong about this, Kale,” Rin said. “They’re desperate, and I know what that’s like. Nobody will judge if you stay behind. You can spend some more time in the cockpit with that ambassador you’re so fond of. Whatever she is to you these days.”
I ignored her last comment. “They took your half-sister, Rin. Isn’t Rylah important to the cause?”
“I know who they have!” she snapped.
I turned my head so I could glare directly at her. Out of my periphery, I noticed the Titanborn fighters watching us. They couldn’t hear what we were saying since we were on a private line, but the look Rin and I exchanged had them visibly concerned.
Rin drew a deep breath. “My apologies, Lord Trass,” she said. “As your aunt, it’s my job to protect you whenever I can. Gareth and I will take care of the Pervenio mongrels and bring Rylah back. You can trust us.”
“You’re starting to sound like my mother,” I said.
“Fine, then come,” Rin groaned. “Just don’t ever tell me that.”
“Are you two ever going to get along?”
“Do you have a time machine?” Gareth signed to me.
“She kept you from your father and your birthright,” Rin stated, unamused. “She’s lucky she’s your mother.”
“And you’re lucky you’re my aunt,” I countered. “I’m tired of hearing about it. We’re here now anyway, so let’s end this together.”
“As you command.” She turned to face straight ahead and, after a few seconds of quiet, said, “You took your g-stim, right?”
“You’re doing it again, Rin.”
She grumbled something under her breath. I shifted coms to our unit-wide channel.
“The Pervenio mudstompers out there have taken one of our own!” I shouted. “A member of my family! Let us show them what it means to be Titanborn!”
“Missiles launched,” voiced Aria over the com-link, right on schedule.
She was my ambassador to Earth, and the woman currently flying the Cora. I didn’t like placing her in the danger of combat, but with Rin needed to lead the assault of Director Lawrence’s ship, she was the only experienced pilot who could handle an Earther vessel as advanced as the Cora.
“Should be me flying,” Rin remarked.
“Please no,” Gareth signed. “I don’t want to puke again.”
“You’re welcome to stay,” I said to her. She ignored me.
“Ships in position,” Aria announced. “Prepare for dispatch.”
In unison, the Titanborn soldiers accompanying us rotated to face away from the ship’s exit ramp. Rin, Gareth, and I crossed their ranks to the very back, ensuring we’d be the first out the door when the time came.
“Today, we finally take back the Ring!” I yelled. Dozens of Titanborn fighters voiced their agreement. Gareth pounded on his chest plate.
“Oxygen on! Wings down!” I spread my arms, stretching the tensile nano-fabric strung between them and the sides of my suit. Everyone else did the same. “From ice to ashes!”
The echo of my soldiers repeating that phrase was one I’d grown used to. I closed my eyes as the words rang throughout my helmet. I remembered my first time soaring across Saturn from the Sunfire, how my hands shook and my heart pounded. Now they were both still.
A rare period of calm took hold. No gunfire or explosions. Nobody asking me what to do. I pictured Cora’s eyes, as blue as Neptune. Then the exit ramp fell open, and my body was yanked backward by the winds of Saturn. Even with a g-stim alleviating the stress of being under the intense gravity of the Ringed World, nothing could ever prepare me for that feeling. Especially considering I hadn’t taken my stim despite Rin’s prodding. My winged suit would keep me alive, and I wanted to feel everything.
My muscles were pulled in every direction. My stomach felt like it was in my throat. I opened my throbbing eyes and reveled in the pain. The tension racking my body was just the distraction I needed.
Saturn’s ruddy atmosphere whipped across my visor as we pierced the sky at incredible speeds. Bolts of lightning coruscated in the distance, as long as a Departure Ark. The great gray blob of a Pervenio luxury cruiser named the Ring Skipper encompassed most of my view straight ahead. A handful of smaller Titanborn ships surrounded it—gas harvesters that we’d stolen back mostly. Hundreds of soldiers soared toward flaming breaches in the hull.
“Redirect two degrees west,” Rin instructed over coms, her voice sounding a thousand kilometers away as the wind howled.
I lifted my left arm a smidge to alter my heading. The entire squadron turned with me, like a flock of gulls on ancient Earth. At least, everybody except for one. In the second row of our formation, one of my people must have raised his arm too much and got caught in a wind stream. His body plummeted uncontrollably toward the depths of Saturn until he was obscured by the thick clouds.
I looked away. Everything happened so fast my people didn’t have much time to train. All the scattered cells of the Children of Titan emerged under my command after Director Sodervall’s execution, but it wasn’t enough to fight. Most of the soldiers were factory-workers or hydro-farmers. Like me, they were thrown into the cauldron of war without a second to breathe.
“Hold steady,” Rin said, choosing to ignore what had happened.
The Ring Skipper neared. Bullets lashed out through one of the breaches in its upper hull as another Titanborn squadron entered. A few of those clinging to the rim were hit and tumbled out into the abyss. Pervenio wasn’t going to go dow
n easily.
“Level out over the hull,” Rin said. “Velocities are synchronized. Come down slow around the breach. Beta squadron will clear the dining hall for us.”
My immediate view became a wall of gray metal as we soared a few meters above the ship. The first squadron to engage our target breach pushed forward. I lowered gradually over the hull until my hands were close enough to grip the jagged edge. Magnetized gloves ensured I wouldn’t slide away after I retracted my wings—a new improvement to our armor that allowed for boarding operations such as this.
“Alpha engaged,” Rin said. “Prepare to drop in…”
I ignored her. I couldn’t hear anything through my helmet except for roaring wind, but I could see the flashes of muzzles below. We were late to the fight. I pulled my body forward, my powered armor providing the strength to fight the storm, and plunged into the ship. The wooden floor cracked beneath my feet as I landed in the luxury cruiser’s ostentatious dining room. The tables were fastened, so they hadn’t been sucked out by pressure change, but most were broken or flipped, peppered with bullet holes.
A squadron of my men was already among them, firing at Pervenio resistance positioned behind the corner of every entrance into the room. I reached back, removed my pulse rifle, and took aim at a chunky Earther decked out in Pervenio regalia. He was getting too bold about poking around the corner, and the next time he did it, I’d have him squarely in my sights.
“Protect Lord Trass!” Rin screamed.
Before I could squeeze the trigger, the whole of my squadron landed around me, and I was lost in a sea of white armor. Rin grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved me into a crouch. Through a forest of limbs, I saw Gareth charge the doorway. When the officer I was aiming at popped out, Gareth riddled him with holes.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Rin yelled at me over our secure line.
I brushed her off and hurried to catch up with Gareth. With our unit’s reinforcements, we were taking the dining room with relative ease. All the crystal chandeliers and the garish paintings hanging on the walls were in tatters along with the Pervenio defenses.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 53
