by Christi Smit
“Where is Sam?”
“Back there,” Ben pointed in the direction of the databanks behind sliding glass doors at the other end of the lab. “He has been here helping the entire time, refusing to let anyone enter the databank room.”
“Keep me updated, we need to get our work back. I won’t accept that the last eight years of my life was an utter waste.”
Ben nodded in acknowledgement and went back to typing furiously on his keyboard.
Jessica’s stress rose with every step she took towards the databanks, this was a complete nightmare, and it felt unreal to her. The lab’s security systems were infallible.
She entered the databank room without knocking or allowed entrance, this was her lab, and not even Sam would deny her entry.
“Sam?” she called over the data-storage towers, “where the hell is he?” she added, but mostly to herself.
“Oi, down here Jess, are you alone?” Sam’s voice came from between two of the rows of data stacks at the far end of the room.
“Yes...why would you ask me that?”
“Get over here, you should see this.”
Jessica made her way to where Sam was, to her surprise the little runt she called her younger sister was crouched down beside him, concentrating on what Sam was doing.
“Tristan, where have you been?” she asked the frizzy-haired dwarf.
“Here. Where else would I be?” Tristan replied without looking at Jessica.
Tristan Saxe was only thirteen years old, frizzy, dirty-blonde hair framed her youthful face in wild tufts of curls. Her piercing, blue eyes watched from underneath the wild mop of hair, her thin wiry body crouching next to Sam. Jessica realized how much she looked like their departed mother, and she even had the same personality as their mother. Difficult but sharp as a razor, smarter than other children her age.
Jessica ignored the little runt’s attitude, instead shifting her attention to Sam. “What’s going on here Sam?”
“Shush,” he said, “get down quick. Let me show you.”
She did as she was told. She shut up and crouched down on the opposite side of Sam, her sister finally giving her a faint smile as they looked at each other.
“Look as this Jess, whoever did this was smart, but not smart enough.” Sam said to Jess, pointing at one of the displays he had set up around him. He had plugged directly into the databanks, searching for the cause of the problem.
“What am I looking at Sam?”
Sam sighed as he looked at her through his goggles. “It was an inside job, look here and here,” he pointed at the display again, highlighting logins from a lab technician. “I traced this login to all of the activity last night, there’s only one problem though.”
“Not another one.”
“There is always a problem of some kind, huh sis?” Tristan asked with hint of sarcasm to her voice.
Jessica ignored the dwarf’s words and focused on what Sam was saying, he was babbling again.
“...yes yes, problems and some more problems, nothing that we can’t fix.”
“Why are you watching the lab through the video feeds?” Jessica asked him, referring to the second display on his lap.
“Oh, yes, that is part of the problem. You see, the person that did all of this never left; there is no entry into the exit log with their user date. This person, Technician Fisher, is still here, but we can’t see to find him anywhere.”
“Fisher is pretty easy to spot. He is a chubby guy with coffee stains everywhere.”
“He isn’t here, he was on duty last night, his user login was used to get into the systems, everything was deleted, and then he just vanished. Look for yourself.” Sam handed Jessica the display.
“That can’t be.” She did not look at the display. She stood up and looked at the lab with her own eyes, trusting them more. After a few minutes of looking at everyone in the lab, she knew Sam was right. Technician Fisher was not there.
“Shit, where could he be?” she said as she crouched back down.
“That’s the problem,” Tristan said, taking the display from her sister, intent on finding Fisher as well.
“Sir, forward scanners are pinging back with a multitude of anomalies.” The officer at the helm reported to Captain Gray.
“What kind of anomalies?” Gray asked, still strapped into his command chair, never leaving the bridge during a jump.
“We are too far off to get any details, but the exit point will be bumpy.”
“Bumpy? Is that a nice way of saying we might die once we get out of the jump?
“Uh...I did not want to be so forward Captain. Yes, we might die.”
Remy sat up straighter behind Gray, fiddling with her straps to get them free, always willing to step up and sort out a problem on the bridge.
“Stay put my dear, not until the jump is done.” Gray said with a glance in her direction.
She stopped fiddling immediately, instead speaking around Gray in the direction of the helmsman officer. “Send the data to my display.”
“Acknowledged, sending the data to you now Ma’am.” The officer pressed a sequence of buttons on his own display, swiping the data to Remy’s display terminal she held in her hands.
Remy’s eyes darted from side to side as she read the data scrolling on her display, concentrating so hard that Gray could see the veins in her forehead pulsing with strain.
“Whatever it is Captain, it’s definitely more than one and it’s directly in our path as we exit our jump,” she said without looking up.
“Are we in trouble Remy?” Gray asked her.
“Not yet, we will have to exit with extreme caution. I am calculating new vectors for evasive manoeuvres, relaying it to navigation now.”
“Good girl. Helm, keep an eye on the anomalies. Navigation, check those vectors and confirm Remy’s plan.”
Two affirmatives echoed on the bridge, one from the officer at the helm and the other from the watch officer in the navigator’s chair.
“Remy, warn Captain Locke that there might be a delay in mission.” Gray looked over his shoulder at the young woman. “Tell him he needs to finish up before we reach the Castern Sector, the Titans need to be ready in a few hours, and inform Commander Sabian to ready his troops. These anomalies might not be a natural occurrence.”
“Yes Captain.” Remy responded, already hailing Locke on the Titan’s encrypted frequency.
Captain Gray resumed his watch over his bridge, his mind now heavy with the new information. He hoped it was asteroids causing these anomalies and not the enemy. He preferred to be smashed against a giant space-rock, instead of being overrun and consumed by hostiles. Gray had witnessed many vessels fall under the teeth of humankind’s enemy many times, he could still hear the screams, still see the faces of people dying. His crew deserved a better death than that.
Locke froze as he listened to the message Remy was relaying over the radio. Stopping mid-run to make sure he heard everything, the adrenaline build up in his ears made it hard to hear anything above the rush of battle.
Nathan halted beside him, scanning the firing zones from nearby obstacles for his brother. “Trouble?” Nathan asked his Captain.
“There’s always trouble, better to ask me what flavour the shit soup is today.” Locke replied sarcastically.
“So, what flavour is it then?”
“It’s a particularly nice bouquet of turd and protein paste.”
Nathan sniggered, sweeping his Kicker side to side, his tactical mode seeing nothing.
Locke finished listening, replying with only a word of acknowledgement to Remy. “The jump might be compromised near the exit point. We have to be ready for anything, before we exit the jump. No more stalking, we take the FNG now and go resupply.”
“Agreed, I will tell Pyoter to drop what he is doing and prepare the main chamber for our arrival.”
“Call the Queen, we might need her ship, tell her to warm it up and stand ready.”
After a few moment
s Nathan replied with confirmation from Pyoter and the Queen. Pyoter was heading to the main armament chamber and the Queen was rushing to find her co-pilot before heading to the docking bays.
“Ship scanners show that Corporal Quinn is on the south side of the pit. We split and take him from both sides, together. You take the left, I will take the right. We force him to the middle and then we take him down.”
Nathan nodded and ran in the direction Locke had ordered, never lowering his rifle for a second.
Locke moved to his determined side and started sprinting down the right wall of the pit.
The two Wolves would strike in unison, converging on their unsuspecting prey from the sides, neutralizing the rookie as soon as possible.
In Titan terms that would be within moments, one Titan was a handful, two would be impossible to fight off, especially the two most dangerous Wolves of the pack.
The Wolves had found him, pinning him down with unrelenting fire. One fired from the left, the other fired from the right, expertly hidden behind cover, never giving away their positions to their target. Both Wolves kept moving as they fired, Christian was unable to pinpoint exactly where they were at any given time, and even his advanced tactical sight could not calculate their trajectories fast enough. His prey sight could not see anything either, the obstacles too thick to penetrate.
With every volley of fire the danger came closer to him, forcing him to flatten himself even more against the obstacle he was hiding behind. More than a few bullets had hit his armour, gouging marks in his armour plating. The gouges were not deep, only scraping at the paint, revealing the bare Anctinium underneath.
Christian had only one option, he had to break cover and move north, down the central trench of the fighting pit. It was not the ideal tactic, it would make him an easier target, but it would be better than being shot at while sitting still like a coward. Unwittingly his decisions would spring the trap the two Wolves had set for him.
He waited for a gap in the volleys, waiting for one of them to reload before he moved. As soon as the fire from the one side stopped for a few moments he made a break for it. The central trench of the pit was slightly lower than the rest of the pit’s floor, with shoulder height obstacles scattered along the trench sides at intervals of a few feet.
Christian kept moving, almost reaching full sprint before he noticed the fire had stopped completely, and he did not spare it a second thought, figuring he had outpaced their accuracy by sprinting away. He could not have been more wrong.
They had funnelled him with all of their ammunition, running out soon after their target broke from cover. They moved as one, mirror images of each other, making their way to the centre, aiming for an interception point close to the edge of the central area of the chamber.
Christian heard them only moments before he saw them. Captain Locke stepped out behind an obstacle in front of him, stopping dead in his tracks as his brother appeared behind him. Neither of them spoke before they charged at him, not feeling the need to boast or provoke their target before taking it down.
Both of them charged Christian at the exact same moment, charging within arm’s reach in only a few steps. Locke went high and Nathan went low. Christian dodged Locke’s elbow blow to his visor but was too slow to step out of Nathan’s path. His brother slid feet forward into the back of his armoured legs, flipping him over unto his stomach. Christian hit the ground hard, he had to recover almost instantly, Locke’s armoured fist hit the ground next to his head just as he rolled away from the captain. The captain’s force had dented the metal decking of the pit, a blow that would surely have breached his suit had it connected anywhere on his body.
Nathan was on him as soon as he rolled away from Locke, lifting him up by his left arm and leg. Nathan was a Titan to every extent of the word; he lifted Christian above his head, like he was bench pressing the rookie Titan’s body.
His brother brought him down face first into the decking, cracking his visor and raising a chorus of alarms from his suit OS. It was clear that the previous two Titans he had encountered had taken it easy on him. These two on the other hand were very serious about disabling or killing him.
The sudden connection with the pit’s floor brought lancing pain with it, pain he thought he could not feel. Hot pain pierced his chest and shoulders, his face bleeding from the impact with the ground and his visor. But it was not over yet, the pain disappeared as soon as it had surfaced, the Nano machines releasing pain stimulants directly into his organs and blood stream, already repairing any damage throughout his body.
He pushed himself up to his hands and knees, spluttering inside his helmet, trying to clear the blood from his visor.
“Stay down.” Nathan said to his brother. “It’s over.”
“Never. I can still stand.” Christian replied with a mouth full of blood.
“Let him stand. He has something to prove.” Locke added, standing close by.
“In a fair fight I would mark the both of you.”
“The enemy does not subscribe to the same fantasy of battle decorum as you do little brother. They kill you without mercy, and rip your innards out without even thinking of honour or the family you might be leaving behind. Their savageness makes them deadly. You will see it when you face a horde for the first time. The beasts in the Labyrinth were nothing more than domesticated pets compared to the wild ones out there.” Nathan said, pointing at nothing specific, but his meaning was clear - out there in the galaxy.
Christian stood, his limbs searching for more strength. Nathan’s single blow had been devastating. He stood, shaking a little at first but calming and refocusing enough to continue the fight.
“Then you should not stop. I will fight until you disable me.”
“I almost like him more than you already Nathan, kid has guts.” Locke said to his second in command.
Nathan looked at Locke and just shrugged in mild amusement.
The lapse in concentration gave Christian the opportunity to unclip his Kicker from his back and point it at Nathan. He was fast enough and the other two Titans could only watch in silent surprise.
“You should make sure that” Nathan did not get a chance to finish his sentence.
Christian pulled the trigger of the unknown attachment he had grabbed earlier, hoping that it would be something to at least help him with the current situation. The weapon’s capabilities far exceeded the hope he had placed on it.
A streak of lightning erupted from the weapon, arcing towards Nathan. The blue streak of super-heated light hit Nathan in the chest, tossing him from his feet over an obstacle. Christian could only hear a grunt as his brother hit the floor out of sight. Nathan did not rise; his entire body was paralyzed by Rivers’ magical weapon attachment.
One down, one to go, he thought. He looked at the weapon cradled in his hands, understanding why Rivers loved his creations so much. The battery meter above the trigger was red now, it seemed that the weapon had only one shot before it had to recharge or reload. He would need to ask Rivers about its maintenance later.
Locke stared at the FNG, more surprised than anything else. Corporal Quinn had fired an experimental weapon at his own brother, regardless if it killed him or not. Doing whatever it took to survive or win was a good quality to have as a Titan.
“Well done. But you chose to shoot the wrong Wolf.” Locke said to Christian, rushing at him again, this time even faster than he had before.
Christian knew that Captain Locke would attack with full force, and for the first time he felt fear.
Chapter Three
Fateful Moment
“The galaxy is a perilous place. There is more to fear than just our common enemy. Derelict vessels and orbital stations drifting in the void kill without purpose, appearing in the path of other vessels or falling from the sky on unsuspecting colonies. An inexperienced captain can never survive out there in the dead zones.”
-Admiral Milne, MIA, Captain of the Gravenstein - Lost with all hands, 2571
- 62 ASD
Christian woke up as Pyoter slapped the side of his helmet. Pyoter muttered something but he could not understand the words at first.
“...gave you a good beating, huh?” Pyoter said, the words finally becoming clear to Christian.
“Who did?” he asked Pyoter, his tongue slurring through the words.
“Nyet, has the Captain knocked a few memories loose?” Pyoter helped Christian up. He was seated against the main armoury’s northern wall.
“I can’t...remember. Did the Captain win?”
“Of course he did,” Rivers added from a work bench on the other side of the armoury. Rivers was busy fixing his cracked helmet visor. “You went down like a drunken teenager, we had to scrape you off the pit’s floor and drag you in here.”
“All I remember seeing was my brother flying and then Captain Locke saying something. After that it went dark.”
Nathan snorted at his brother’s words, leaning against the table Rivers was working on. “You are going to pay for that, firing an untested weapon at me.”
“It did the trick didn’t it? I got you, no matter how I did it.”
“Got me? You were lucky, you took an unnecessary risk with a shitty piece of equipment,” Nathan was clearly angry at Christian, every word dripped with held back anger. “Next time you should think before doing something so stupid.”
“Whoa now Bear, you can say what you want, but don’t go bad mouthing one of my babies. It’s not their fault they were made by my perfect hands.” Rivers patted some of his creations on the table next to him. “Isn’t that right my little ones? Daddy is proud of all of you.”
“If you try anything like that again, your ass will be bouncing back home.” Nathan turned his back on Christian, ending the conversation before he lost control of his rage.
Christian did not reply, instead he chose to keep silent, his brother was impossible once he was angry. The best course of action would be to not say a word and never mention what transpired ever again.