Last Life (Lifers Book 1)

by Thomas,Michael G.

  “I reckon I’m out of a job, so what the hell?”

  The Titans were powerful, but they were also Human, of a kind. Rob and his Janissaries had no such restriction. They were like tanks; impossible to stop once they were moving. The enemy from Saturn’s distant moon had at last met their match, and the shock of the encounter rocked them. The advance slowed and then halted. For long minutes, they fought toe to toe, and the surface was a churning fog of smoke, dust, and blood. Men fought and struggled, fought and died, and bursts of gunfire made complex patterns in the air. Everywhere, the dead and wounded littered the ground. The Janissaries were like a rock anchoring the rebel lines, and each Titan attack failed as they came up against a solid wall of the cybernetic creatures.

  The Janissaries followed a single directive. They were incapable of anything else. Ordered to attack and kill the Titans, they killed them in large numbers. The moment came when the first Titan took a step backward, then the next, and the next. They weren’t beaten but were a blunted sword. And then they gave ground and retreated. The first defeat they’d suffered so far.

  Cage watched them go back and took a moment to inspect the damage to his body. His suit had taken a half dozen hits, and he knew he’d need urgent repairs to his limbs, but he was alive. Rose was alive, and she was bent over a body lying in the dust. Rob. He ran over to her. “What happened?”

  She looked up, and there were tears in her eyes. “I wish I knew. One moment he was fighting, and then they hit him with so many shots it tore him apart.”

  Him. Not it.

  “He’d already given the orders, so the Janissaries kept fighting, thank God, but he’s hurt, hurt bad.”

  He knelt down beside her and looked through the darkened visor over his face. “Rob, can you hear me?”

  But it wasn’t over. A barrage of shells came down, fired from the Titan side. A last ditch effort, and they hit both sides indiscriminately. One Janissary lost an arm, and it picked it up to use as a club. The Titans made one last try, and still the fight went on. The RedCorp troopers and rebels fell back, stunned by the savagery and the casualties, but not the Janissaries. On they fought, even as their number dwindled by the minute. Cage turned from the fight and looked again at Rob. There was nothing. No movement, no response. He was a machine, and the machine was broken.

  “I’m afraid he’s gone, Rose. I’m sorry.”

  “No! I want Travers out here now! He has to fix him.”

  “I don’t think…”

  “Get him out here!” Her voice allowed for no argument.

  Cage looked back at the battle as more Titans fell back.

  “We have to finish this. You’ll have to pass the message on to Travers. We’ve got them beat.” He climbed to his feet and up onto the carcass of a wrecked carrier so they could see him.

  “Listen to me!” They watched him and waited, “It’s time to take back Mars! The Titans are stopped, now we send them home in body bags. With me!”

  He jumped down and started running. When he looked behind, they were all coming, heading toward the beleaguered Janissaries. With a final roar, they smashed into the battle line, and the shooting started again. Gunfire tore into both sides, but this time the Titans gave ground. Some even turned to retreat, and then the unthinkable happened. Two entire platoons withdrew at speed. Holes appeared in their lines and the Titans were broken.

  “Run them down!” yelled one rebel.

  For the next thirty minutes the bizarre alliance of Earthers, corporate Martian soldiers, and rebels pushed the Titans back from the burning port. Dozens of craft lay blackened and ruined on the pads and landing strips. The Titans unloaded more and more equipment as they erected emergency barricades around their beachhead, desperate to stop the rout turning into utter defeat. Some Martians moved too close and were cut down, leaving a blood-soaked killing ground between both sides. As quickly as that the battle was over, and the Titans had been cowed but not annihilated. Now it was simply time to count the casualties on both sides, regroup, and prepare for whatever was to come.

  Martians, rebels, and RedCorp went to work erecting temporary defenses at every possible place, and dragging the wounded to safety. Barely an hour later, a messenger approached the control center with a large antenna extended up from his back, bearing a single white flag. Lazlo spotted the figure and hit a button on the control system. An image of the Titan soldier enlarged to show a battered but proud warrior standing upright, and waiting. It was confirmation enough it was almost over, and all of them in the control center breathed a sigh of relief.

  “They want to surrender?” said one of the officers.

  Laszlo shook his head.

  “I doubt that.”

  At the same time, the communications officer caught his attention. He was a rebel, but clearly one with a military background of some kind. His eyes scanned past Laszlo and on to Jamison.

  “The enemy commander wants permission to land at the port. He suggested a truce. They want to talk. What do we tell him?”

  Jamison had been looking out the viewport at the tattered flag hanging from the aerial array across the spaceport, the rebel flag, the flag of Justice. Alongside him was the grim looking Laszlo; the man’s arm hung from a bloodied sling, but he looked as fierce and commanding as ever.

  “Well?” Jamison asked him, “What do you think, Director?”

  He said the words with scorn, but it was still an honest question.

  Laszlo shrugged. “Listen to him, and see what he wants. We can use the time to prepare. Our people need to be ready. It’ll take an hour at least before he can get here.”

  Jamison nearly smiled as he heard him describe them as ‘our people.’ But he glanced at the comms operator. “They want to negotiate?”

  “I guess so, Colonel.”

  “Very well. I want security units down there on the landing pad, RedCorp and ours. We need to show a unified front against this man.”

  He looked back to the group. Ortiz, Cataldi, and Cage were all there, and he found it hard not to grin. He was exhausted, and the chance of victory felt like a drug to him.

  “We beat them. I can’t believe we did it.”

  Ortiz nodded.

  “Yeah, we did. And look at the cost. We’ve won the fight and lost just as much.”

  They looked back to the screen, as well as the wide windows that provided a grand view of the spectacle before them. The relief quickly turned to stunned horror at the carnage, until Cage stepped up to the glass. He looked back to the others.

  “We can rebuild the port, and the city, and those that survived will make Mars stronger for it.”

  His eyes moved along the group of enemies.

  “We’ve done the impossible today.”

  “Yeah?” said Hartmann, “What exactly?”

  Cage tried and failed to stop his upper lip trembling. He felt the hate burning through his veins, yet he knew it was to no good. There’d been enough killing, enough for a lifetime.

  “We’ve shown what Earthers and Martians can do when we have a common enemy.”

  He pointed to Hartmann.

  “You wanted to attack Earth to bring us to heel to serve your new masters here on Mars. Instead, we’ve shown what happens when we work together.”

  He turned back to the window and looked out at the single, heavily armored Titan with the white flag, still there, stationary and waiting patiently.

  “United we’re an unstoppable force, and these Titans know it now.”

  Epilogue

  RedCorp Command Centre, Tharsis Landing Ground, Mars

  The room was silent, with only the occasional tap of boots as people came and went. The fighting was over, for now. Each of them waited with trepidation for what was to come. The gunfire may have stopped, but that didn’t mean the battle was over. Jamison regarded his other senior commanders. Ortiz, Cataldi, and Cage, all filthy and exhausted from battle. There was a strange mood in the air, an odd mixture of elation and dread. Jamison glanced back
through the large windows and shook his head.

  “Maybe they want a prisoner swap.”

  Cage and Cataldi nodded their agreement. Ortiz just glared.

  “Or maybe they want to sue for peace. You saw the damage out there.”

  He rubbed his left cheek as he gave their predicament some thought.

  “Tell Vos and Bowen to make sure the prisoners are secure, and bring them up here. We may need them.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  They’d put the cops to doing what they did best, locking up the bad guys until they’d decided their future. Ortiz continued to freeze him with her cold stare, and he shrugged it off. “Anna, at least we can see what they want.”

  “You know what they want. Land. Planets. To get away from that freezing hellhole they call home. They didn’t even issue demands when they arrived. They are invaders, that’s all.”

  “They won’t just leave, Anna. We might have to strike some kind of a deal, otherwise the fighting will never end.”

  “We can beat them,” she snarled, “Kick their asses back to where they came from. One more attack and they’re history. We could wipe them out where they stand. One last assault with everything we have.”

  His gaze fell on Cage. “What do you think? Is it possible we could beat them? Ortiz is right, we did beat them once.”

  “The Janissaries beat them. We just lent them a hand. We lost almost a hundred dead, and you don’t want to know how many wounded. Almost half of the Janissaries are gone. If we send them in again, it’ll be a massacre.”

  Hartmann nodded his agreement, much as it pained him to do so.

  “Cage is right.” Those three words stunned them all, Cage in particular. Hartmann, the veteran of fighting battles on Mars, continued, “Beating the Titans is more than facing them in battle. They could bomb the cities, and the civilians would take heavy casualties. You have to decide what price you’re prepared to pay, a price in lives. Besides, the Titans won’t fall for the same tactics again. Next time around they could win. If we can find a way to end this without taking more casualties, we should listen to them.”

  Jamison nodded. “I also agree. We’ll talk first. We can always fight later.”

  One of the guards looked into the room. “They’re here.”

  Just two seconds later, the double doors swished open, and a Titan marched inside. He wore the same heavy armor as those on the battlefield, and his face was covered, hidden behind multiple layers of plated armor. This was the first time Cage had been able to look at their armor under bright lights. It was much less sophisticated than he expected, and little different to some of the gear he’d used in his early years with the Lifer units. The soldier entered the center of the room and then stopped, turning his gaze from left to right.

  “Captain Kauri.”

  That was all he said as he examined the room. Once satisfied, he made a barely audible sound, and a second, even larger man entered.

  Cage nearly stepped back as the individual entered the command center. He wore the same heavy black armor, with a thick pattern as dense as the tread on a tractor tire. No weapons, and no helmet, but he looked like he could tear a platoon of infantry apart with his bare hands. Face lined and scarred by a hard, tough life of nightmare horrors, and beneath the armor, his body was huge. The eyes were more of a shock, like nothing they’d seen before. Huge, luminous, and as black as the armor he wore. A deep black, and he was expressionless. As if the searing hell of Titan had burned every vestige of humanity from his soul. The massive man paused, and then marched past them and stood before Jamison and Laszlo. His eyes glinted a dark ferocity, but his expression betrayed nothing.

  “General Dax, 8th Peacekeeper Division. I bring a message from Titan.”

  Laszlo laughed. “Message? I think your invasion force was enough of a message, General.”

  The Titan shook his head. “You know nothing, Martian. This is not an invasion force. If it were, Mars would be ours by now. We are peacekeepers, and we’re here because you called for our help.”

  “What the hell did you just say? Peacekeepers?” Jamison shouted.

  “Are you deaf, Martian?”

  Jamison’s eyes narrowed, and his hand drifted to a pistol on his belt. The General almost smiled, and his desire for more violence was transparently clear. The rebel leader stopped in time.

  “Explain yourself.”

  The General let out a long, irritated breath.

  “Martians cannot be trusted. You fight with the Earthers, but to what end? Your plans are clear to us, as is your desire to establish dominance over Earth. To make yourselves even more powerful, until you can take over the whole of the Solar System.”

  His eyes moved about the room, picking out individuals before settling back on these two.

  “Titan will never let Mars dominate the region. That is why we are here, to maintain the balance of power with our peacekeepers.”

  Dax pointed at the smoke and fires still raging throughout the spaceport and landing grounds. “You can see what one division of my soldiers can do. How many more do you think I have waiting to join the fight? We can take this planet anytime we want. Now…here are our terms.”

  Jamison ignored him and turned his back on the Titan. He looked to Laszlo, who gave him a slight nod. Then back at Dax.

  “General, we just gave you a good licking. Your ships are stranded on our planet, and I doubt you can bring in reinforcements, not for a long while. Here are my terms, and I suggest you listen carefully. Accept them, or burn.” The Titan grimaced, but remained silent, “You have twenty-four hours to pack up your gear and leave this world. Leave, and never come back.”

  Dax laughed.

  “And if we don’t? You want us to finish what we started? I assure you I can bring another division here at a moment’s notice.”

  Jamison opened his mouth to speak, but General Hartmann limped closer and interrupted him.

  “Then our troops will cripple your ships, and leave your people to freeze to death on the surface. Forgotten and ignored. Your air and power can only last so many days. Instead of a soldier’s death, you will spend your last hours in frozen horror, knowing the thing you wanted to stop defeated you. An alliance of Earth and Mars.”

  General Dax laughed loudly, and every one of them fell silent.

  “You will never work together.” His eyes shifted to Cage, “I can sense the hate in this room, and it is not toward me. What if I offered an Alliance between the rebel freedom fighters on this world, and Titan?”

  Hartmann interrupted. “No way, you Titan scum.”

  General Dax gave a subtle signal to Captain Kauri, barely a shudder of his hand, and without a moment’s hesitation, the man whipped out a hidden pistol from inside a flap on the front of his armor. The gun lifted to chest height, aimed directly at General Hartmann. It barked twice, but Cage was already in the way. The bullets slammed into his torso, throwing him back into General Hartmann. Rose stepped out from the shadows and ran into the open.

  “Noah!”

  She tried to rush to his aid, but strong arms grabbed her, and held her back.

  “No,” said Jamison, “He can do this.”

  Cage groaned in pain, but though he’d received a hideous wound, his augmented body could take so much more. Captain Kauri deactivated his helmet, laughing at the exhausted and wounded man.

  “I see you’re accustomed to pain, mercenary.”

  Cage coughed up blood and spat it on the floor, much to the Titan’s amusement. General Dax looked on, unmoving, as his subordinate clenched his fists. The Captain then deactivated his helmet, and the unit slid back, each section making a gentle clicking sound. He was utterly bald, with pale skin and dark, sinister looking eyes. He nodded to the various people watching, not one of who had moved to intercede.

  “See? There is no unity or loyalty amongst you. None here that will…”

  Before he could finish his sentence Cage was in front of him, pushing forward with every ounce of
power left in his body. The actuators in his legs pushed him forwards with such force that he lifted the Titan from his feet with the impact. Both crashed into the nearby computer panel, smashing it to pieces, and sending sparks in all directions.

  “Stay back!” Laszlo shouted, “Let him end the fight.”

  Captain Kauri ducked to the left and repeatedly slammed his fists into Cage, with every blow followed by a grunt of pain. Yet for all the hits, Cage was still in the fight. He pulled back his right arm and slammed it low into the Titan’s groin. The Captain groaned, bent over, exposing his head for a second. Cage wrapped his arm around the neck, and in a single movement snapped it. The sickening sound of the break followed by the lifeless body of Captain Kauri falling to the ground.

  General Dax watched the body fall, and then looked at Cage. He could see the bullet holes, and the crackling of the short circuits in his body. Cage spat more blood onto the floor and focused his attention onto the Titan.

  “I’m no mercenary, General. You have our terms. It’s your choice.”

  Dax hesitated, perhaps considering moving against Cage, but now he was alone, and Jamison and Laszlo had already drawn their weapons. The mood had shifted inside the command center, and he knew it. Shifted against him.

  “Until next time, Gentlemen. I will hold you to the twenty-four hours we agreed.”

  He turned to leave, but Cage called after him.

  “What about your Captain?”

  General Dax said nothing, passed through the doors, and vanished from view. As the doors closed, several of those inside breathed an audible sigh of relief. Cage dropped down onto one knee, now almost unable to stand. Both General Hartmann and Rose grabbed him, helping him to his feet as he tried to shrug them off and protest he was fine.

  Jamison stepped out in front of him and shook his head. “Look at you, Cage. Don’t you think you’ve taken enough punishment for one day?”