After a gloomy meal, they decided to move on to the old research facility just outside the Huygens settlement. That was where Third Cohort had set up their last defenses, where Tribune Jones had commanded the entire ground operation. As well, they would search every downed dropship along the way. They made sure to pick up every spare magazine they could find, some food and a few extra fuel cells that looked operational. Then they set up watch, to try to get some sleep before they moved on.
51.
It was the third Earth day on the surface and they were entering the smashed up perimeter where Third Cohort had made their last stand, when Ethan saw movement in his peripheral vision. He squinted, and sure enough, it was a legionnaire, peeking out from behind a barricade. Not knowing where the enemy were located, he couldn´t shout at them, but he waved as best he could, and, after a moment, the unknown legionnaire waved back.
He signaled the others to follow him and walked toward the legionnaire. Once he got there, the unknown legionnaire, who turned out to be a woman, threw her arms around him. They hugged for what seemed a long time before they parted. He saw through her visor that she was crying, and he had no problem understanding why. She must have thought she was the only human left on Titan. Then she used hand signals to show him which channel to switch to. He did and they could finally speak.
"I didn´t think anyone else had survived," she sobbed. "We heard that Second Cohort were wiped out and then we were being overrun and I ran and ran. I hid for two days inside a downed dropship before I dared take a look. Oh, I am Legionnaire Irina Valentina, Third Cohort, Logistics... Oh my God, it´s so good to see you!"
Her smile made Ethan smile as well. Yes, it did feel good to see another human survivor.
"Legionnaire Valentina, Irina, do you know of any other survivors?" Ethan asked and she nodded affirmatively.
"Yes, yes, there is one, but he is hurt. A tech specialist from the Cohort Tech Support platoon. You´ll meet him soon enough."
By now, the others had come as well, and they all followed Irina through the ruins. She crept through a hole in the wall of a collapsed building and they came through one by one. Once everyone was inside, she introduced them to a man who laid in a corner, and who seemed to be in pain with sweat and a grimace on his face. He seemed to be at least forty, and carried the rank of signifer, which wasn´t a very common rank anymore. It superseded optio, but deferred to decurion. From his age and rank, Ethan guessed he´d been with the Legion from the very beginning and he might’ve also been a veteran of the Lumin War.
"Legionnaires, this is Signifer Mahmod." The signifer waved her off.
"Enough with the rank Irina. I´m in no shape to make decisions, even if I outrank everyone here. I´m Aram," he said through gritted teeth. They all introduced themselves.
"I take it you´re out of morphine," Ethan said. Aram nodded.
"Yes, yes. There was a third as well, badly wounded, who got the last injections before he passed away."
Ethan gave Aram his last shot. Some of the others still had theirs, so they’d be fine for a couple more days.
"So, a signifer in the Cohort Tech Support platoon..." Ethan began as Aram sighed happily, after finally finding some relief from the pain.
"I repair stuff." the signifer slurred.
"What kind of stuff? Weapons?" Ethan asked, excitement rising his voice a bit.
"Well, not weapons. Comms systems, engines, control systems... I´ve been a legionnaire for so long, I guess I can repair most of our gear. Not weapons though, that´s a different specialty..."
"Could you repair a dropship?" Ethan blurted. The signifer chuckled, but then he seemed to realize Ethan was dead serious, and steadied his eyes on Ethan´s.
"Of course I could. But... Irina, tell them." Then his eyes glazed over and he fell asleep.
Ethan turned toward Irina.
"What he meant—ah, we´ve talked about this, and it´s really not an option..."
"Legionnaire, talk to me," Ethan said, a bit harsher than he meant to. He didn´t apologize though. Irina straightened and cleared her throat.
"Sir, Optio, Signifer Mahmod can repair anything sir. And there is a dropship we´ve been looking at that´s not too beat up for repair. He said the engine is a piece of cake — his words — and since he´d had some training, he could fly it. Basically, all it needs is a working gyroscope, since the old one was smashed, either from the shot that brought it down or from the emergency landing itself. You should see it, the pilot´s still inside, frozen, but he managed to put it down. If there had been people on board, they would have lived... Well, anyway, Aram could have repaired it. If he had a spare gyroscope. Which he doesn´t. Its placement is just so vulnerable and all the other dropships we´ve checked are so damaged that we haven´t been able to find a single working gyroscope." She seemed to realize Ethan didn´t understand any of this, before explaining the details.
“The gyroscope is a device that is used for orientation. In fact, it has many uses, but the one we´re interested in is the attitude indicator. If you can´t see, you have to rely on this instrument in order to know where you are located in relation to the horizon. Without a gyroscope, the attitude indicator is worthless and, well, in this thick atmosphere, we wouldn´t see anything but clouds twenty or thirty meters above ground. We´d have no idea where we were and could be going full speed straight toward the ground with no way of knowing. We´d probably crash within minutes."
"A gyroscope, heh," Ethan replied. He turned toward the others. "Any ideas?" No one answered.
"Where can we get this thing, other than from a dropship? What else uses a gyroscope?"
"Oh man..." Julian sighed. Everybody turned toward him, waiting for him to explain.
“It´s a longshot… Look, most things that need to orient themselves will be using a gyroscope in one form or another. Planes, rockets, even infopads, they all use them. Robots too.” He waited until the realization dawned upon the rest of the group. “It could be Lumin tech is totally different, but from what I´ve seen so far it really isn´t. So it´s worth a shot. We have to capture a mech droid."
52.
Ethan led as they crept toward the building inside the former garrison. So far, he´d only seen a single mech droid, and they had avoided it like the plague. If a single one discovered them, they would be toast within seconds. They had quickly discarded the idea of capturing a live mech droid, since those were just too formidable an enemy to a few lightly armed and armored legionnaires. But after hours of contemplation, Aram, who had woken up again and entered the discussion with valuable insights and knowledge, had an idea. During the initial fighting, the Cohort´s techs had discovered a signal from inside the settlement, and before they were overrun they had figured out that the mech droids seemed to be at least partially remote controlled. So Aram had presented an idea: What if they managed to immobilize a mech droid remotely? To do that, they needed to reach the control center where, most likely, Lumins were controlling the mech droids that did the fighting for them. The problem was that they had to find it, it would be heavily defended, and they had no way to communicate with the Lumins. The one asset they had though, was that the Lumins must’ve, by now, assumed that the human counter attack had been completely routed. No one would expect them, if they could manage to pass whatever defenses they had set up.
And here they were, Ethan, Ariel, Julian, Will and Pole, sneaking through ruins in the unforgiving Titan weather, which, at this time, had become an asset as well. Irina and Aram had given them directions and showed them where the salvageable dropship was located. By the time Ethan and his team returned with the gyroscope, if they returned at all, Aram promised he´d have the craft in working condition, ready to do the final repairs to the attitude indicator. They only needed to hold off the enemy until he fired up the engines and took off. Far too many uncertain elements for Ethan to like, but they had a plan, one that might just work, and everyone had an important role to play.
A sound made Ethan jump
. A door creaked open. A huge mech droid passed just a few meters off. It strode by and every step sent shivers through the icy ground. Ethan felt every step it took until it passed another building, out of sight. He let out a relieved breath. Then he steeled himself and peered past the open door. An airlock. He signaled Julian to come closer.
"Any way to override the airlock?" Ethan asked. Julian nodded.
"If we do, the air, or whatever the hell these Lumin bastards breathe, will be their main concern for a few seconds. Whichever alien bastard´s inside will be scrambling to fix the broken airlock, or take whatever measures they have to in order to save themselves. While they do, we´ll step inside, close the door. It looks armored and should hold any mech droids out for at least a minute or so to figure out a way to immobilize one of their mech droids, or maybe find a spare part or something. That´s your call, you´re the tech, and then we´ll find a way out."
"It´s a dumb ass plan," Julian replied. Ethan chuckled.
"Isn´t it? Now move it, before the door closes."
Julian slipped inside the airlock and began working on the airlock controls. The outer door was already beginning to close and the rest of them slipped in behind him. Pole slid a solid metal rod into place to keep the door from closing behind them. For a few seconds, it looked like the door would crack the rod and close anyhow, but the rod held — barely.
"Titanium," Pole said. "Aram gave it to me."
Julian kept working on the inner door of the airlock and the waiting was nerve racking. Ethan tried to count the seconds, but his concentration failed him and he gave up on it.
"I just hope someone finds us one day," Will said drily.
"Shut up," Ariel sneered at him.
A few seconds later, Julian turned toward them and smiled through his dirty visor.
"Well, this is it," he said. Ethan gave him a nod and his friend opened the inner door wide.
Cold, dirty Titan — air rushed in from the outside and four Lumins who sat at what appeared to be work stations turned toward them. Taller, but strangely human-like, with two arms and two legs, thin wispy clothing, large slanted eyes and small mouths with jagged teeth that uttered unintelligible sounds in a frenzy, the Lumins were in an odd way... beautiful. How can these beings be such ruthless murderers? One of the Lumins picked up what had to be a weapon and Ethan shot it, straight in the chest. Another began to stagger, shaking as it did, while another tried to help it. Both sagged to the ground, closed their eyes and froze to death before their very eyes. Ethan checked the visor´s readings. The temperature inside had been as high as the tropics back on Earth. Putting two and two together, he realized the Lumins needed extreme heat and would die quickly when exposed to cold. Perhaps they were even more vulnerable to it than humans. He mentally filed the information. That might be useful one day. If they survived today, that was.
The final Lumin had escaped through an emergency exit and closed the door firmly behind it. Ethan ran across the room and opened it. Outside there was only an empty hallway. He realized they didn´t have time to follow the Lumin, and closed the door again. That one would cause trouble it they weren´t quick about it, he thought. Julian checked all the work stations, before he decided on one and sat down. Then he began working the controls, testing all options on the completely alien devices.
"Right, aha, crap, okaaay..." he spoke to himself, just like Ethan remembered from school. He smiled for a moment, before he focused on the task at hand. He gave Pole a nod and the tall legionnaire began to pry at the rod holding the outer door in place.
"Give me a hand, someone," Pole said. Ariel stepped over to help, and together they managed to move it, enough that the heavy door snapped it off and closed. Now they were truly locked in.
53.
"See that one on the screen? I don´t know what I did, but it´s not moving anymore." Julian pointed at a mech droid standing still, just outside the facility.
"Is it dead? I mean, will it discover us, even if you stopped it from moving right now? Do you think it has some form of autonomy?" Ethan knew it was an impossible question. Julian just shrugged, or rather, it looked like a shrug. Hard to tell with the suit.
"No idea. Do we have a choice?"
"No."
"Then this is our window. The Lumin that escaped will raise hell within minutes, if not seconds."
"All right," Ethan said. "We´ll use the escape door the Lumins used. I wish we had another way, but we don´t. So let´s move it."
Everyone scrambled out, weapons held ready, even though they knew they wouldn´t do squat if they stumbled into the mech droids. But they didn´t, and within minutes they were outside. Still careful though, they crouched and ran from one cover to the next.
"Follow me," Ethan said and pointed. Everyone followed and they moved, quickly but quietly. A loud sound, like a siren, began to wail. The alarm.
The mech droid stood quietly, as if waiting for them and everyone stopped.
"No use in getting us all killed. Stand by. It´ll only take a minute," Julian said. Then he stepped forward. Ethan waited for the mech droid to discover his friend´s presence. Any second now. If it did, Julian was dead and likely the rest of them too. But the mech droid didn´t move.
Julian knocked on its chest, then its head. Nothing. Then he produced a sharp tool and began to twist the plates open. First, the mech droid´s chest, then its head. Ethan followed everything, while keeping a lookout for other mech droids that might be coming for them.
Julian walked around and began prying open a plate on the mech droid´s back. He tossed the plate aside, and stuck his hand inside. Then he triumphantly held out what looked like a child´s toy, before he came running back to them.
"Got it! I got it, dammit!" he said. Ethan slapped his shoulder, grinning.
"Right, let´s go find the dropship."
54.
They ran toward where Aram had said he and Irina would be, and soon enough they saw it. Out of a hundred dropships, it could only be this one. A few holes and several scorch marks were the only things showing that this craft had been shot down. But then again, one of the holes sat straight in front of the pilot´s seat.
"Come quickly," Irina shouted from the open side hatch. She was holding the handles of a machine cannon attached to the craft. It was a weapon that would remain stashed inside while entering the atmosphere, to be pulled out and put to use as support for ground troops in the few situations that a dropship had to be used this way. Normally, the dropships were used purely as troop transports though, so it wasn´t a common weapon. Now though, Ethan expected them to need it. Having a .120 caliber machine cannon could make a big difference when facing mech droids.
"Julian, take the gyroscope to Aram. The rest of you guys, set up a defensive perimeter." He thought for a second, before addressing Irina.
"Any way to dismount that gun of yours?"
"Sure. It´s too heavy for me to use effectively though." She replied.
"Just do it. Will, help her out. Set it up over there," he pointed, "and be ready to shoot at anything that moves."
Within a couple of minutes, they were in place. Ethan sat in front of the dropship while Ariel covered the right flank and Pole the left. Will and Irina manned the machine cannon, ready to chew up anything that came at them.
"Julian, how long?" he asked.
"Two minutes, three tops. Aram says it´s tricky, the gyroscope has to be placed just so that-"
"Stop, just help him out. I don´t understand any of it anyhow."
They waited some more.
Shots rang out, and Pole staggered backwards, hit several times. His helmet exploded and his suit ripped open with blood spurting out through his back. Immediately, the machine cannon began to hammer at the advancing mech droid. Mech droids. There were two of them. So, Ethan thought, the control center was operational again.
"Julian, how long?" he shouted. A series of shots landed in the slush next to him and he threw himself down, while firing blindly.
&
nbsp; "Seconds, just..." Julian´s voice was breaking up.
"Now!"
Julian shouted, but he didn´t have to. The dropship´s engines came to life with an overwhelming noise that Ethan hadn’t ever heard. He got up and ran over to the hatch. Then he aimed at the closest mech droid and fired.
"Get inside, move, move, move!" he shouted at Ariel. Then he turned toward Will and Irina.
"You too! Get moving. Fire as you go." None of them moved.
"That´s a negative," Will replied. Then, to Irina, "I can handle this, now go." She hesitated.
"Go! I outrank you, and right now I´m giving you a direct order!" he said.
She didn´t move at first, but then she suddenly turned and ran for the dropship. She reached it and Ethan shoved her inside. As he climbed on board, he saw the .120 cal rip into the nearest mech droid, where it staggered and fell.
"One down, one to go," he heard Will´s calm voice in his helmet.
"Will, if we can take down the second one we might..."
"No. Leave while you can. Get the intel back to the Legion. I´ll cover you."
"You just took out one, together we can..."
"Optio Wang, I said no. That was just as much luck as we´ll get. I´ll keep the second one busy, but not for long. I´m already running low on ammo. Now get the hell off this stinking rock!"
The dropship took off from the ground. It shook badly, but it seemed steady enough that Ethan didn´t think it would come crashing down any second. So far, so good. Aram wasn´t an experienced pilot, but he managed to control the craft, somehow. Then the dropship began to climb, higher and higher. Within seconds, the clouds covered the ground and he didn´t see Will or anything else anymore. An explosion too close for comfort rocked the craft, and Ethan then knew more enemies were coming. He finally sealed the hatch.
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