Titan Fleet: The Invictus

by Jason J Black

  “Stand clear, danger.” A huge buzz of power hits Tom like lightning, lifting him off the ground only to flop back down.

  “Again!” cries Talia, shuffling away from Tom on her bottom, smearing a train of blood on the floor. Pace puts his arm around Talia to comfort her, but she shrugs his arm off and stands up. She realises that Tom is gone and runs out of the room with haste in her heels. Running faster than she has ever done before, she is soon at the bridge doors. They open with a swish and she is soon sat at a console.

  “Nova, patch me in to a turret gun, they killed Tom.” Nova can see the hurt and pain in Talia, but still calls down to Pace to check it’s ok to use the big guns.

  “Do it, Nova. I’m tired of playing games, it’s time for pay back.” shouts Pace, helping Padley to the medbay with Tom’s body.

  Pah-boom, pah-boom, yell the turret guns, as Talia fires at the evading ship, as it skips up and down amongst the stars. At last contact, the small ship is hit and as it spins like a Catherine wheel out of control towards the Robur, Talia smiles and lets out a small sigh of happiness and carries on firing, only now she has the Robur’s attention. The Robur begins to turn around, but it is too late. The small ship containing Briggs and Shanks ploughs into one of Robur’s engines. With a huge explosion, the engine on top of the ship is cleaved from the Robur. In an instant the small runner is vaporised and no trace is visible.

  The shock wave is felt on the Invictus and everyone is sent flying to the floor. Fragments are spinning everywhere, and a flicker and so many colours in one place blinds Nova who brings the Invictus to a halt. Nova’s screen comes to life and a very angry Captain Miles becomes visible.

  “Where is your so-called captain and what in the stars is going on. I should just blast you out of the sky. Why are you firing on me?” Just as Miles finishes his sentence, Pace enters the bridge and walks up to the screen to talk to Miles.

  “I know all about your little plan, you piece of filth, and I have lost some good people over it and that ends today. I don’t give a stuff who you are or what your history is, but I will warn you now, Miles, you won’t hurt me or mine again and that’s a promise.” Interrupting Pace, Miles smiles and in a smarmy voice tries to worm his way out of the mess he is now been found guilty off.

  “I’m not sure I know what you mean, and you should not go around trying to throw your weight around, Captain, because there is always someone bigger and better. Now I suggest you get your asses over here and fix my ship, and I will not press this any further, got it!” Pace begins to walk up and down the bridge with anger, just wanting to blow the creep out of the stars, to somewhere he would rot for a billion years.

  “I know about the plans to destroy our home world and to settle elsewhere, and we heard Briggs and Shanks talking with you, so spare me the crap, eh? Now what you are going to do, is hand over your missile or we will take it from you, the choice is yours.” Standing still with his arms crossed, Pace waits for Miles to make a move. The screen goes black, giving Pace time to collect his thoughts. He opens an open channel on the ship and warns everyone to prepare for a fight, and in the time it would take you to click your fingers the whole crew were ready and at their stations.

  “Captain, the Robur is still turning slowly but they are powering their weapons and shields, and also I’m picking up some ships heading into our sector and they are moving fast.” Nova has the engines at the ready and the shields are up. She is so calm in this moment, and feels one hundred percent again, her hands gripping the controls to the ship. “Cap, on screen now.” Nova brings up the screen. They can see a small ship that has been damaged, followed by several other ships firing upon the smaller ship.

  “The small ship looks in trouble. Can you raise its captain, Nova?” Several buttons are hit and a few minutes of waiting pass, until a blizzard of white on the screen, interrupted by some clear and chance to see the small ship’s crew. A purple face stares back, with four burning orange eyes. Its head is thin and narrow and goes to a point on the back of his head. It has a small mouth and its body is of a slim build.

  The alien begins to speak its own language, but it is not pleasant to human ears, and this is seen on the faces of the crew. The creature gestures that he will send a device over once they get close. The screen is black once more. The small ship fires a bolt of light at the Invictus, which goes straight through the shields onto the bridge, and a blinding light flashes which hurts the eyes of everyone. When their eyes adjust, a square box is floating in the room. It is glowing orange and small beams of light dash in and out of it like fireflies, examining everything and everyone. Sam stands up and holds out a small scanner to scan it.

  “It is of no compound we know of, it’s like pure energy but what I don’t know what.” Sam is so taken up by the light that he touches it, and in an instant is transported to the alien ship. He is surrounded by a few purple aliens who gently tough him and guide him to a seat. Sam is not scared at all, in fact he feels like he has known these aliens all his life, so he is happy to cooperate. A small beam of orange hits him in his temple and then it bounces around the room, before hitting an odd shaped screen.

  “Hello and welcome.” Sam was caught off guard. How on earth could the alien learn his language so quickly? Not wanting to be rude, Sam greets the alien in their transporter room, before being led down some corridors. All the while, the ship was being shaken by shots from the large ships behind it. Everyone seems so calm, which is really odd, but they are aliens, he thought. He was led to what he could only think was their bridge, where he could see a worried Pace shouting at the screen, obviously angered at his crew mate being abducted.

  “Sir, I’m fine. I think they needed to learn our language. This ship is amazing, sir.” The purple alien sat in a large chair, that Sam assumed to be the captain, lifted his hand up and began to talk to Pace.

  “Hello and welcome. I am what you say; a leader and we seek assistance please. Our power supply is running low, we are.” Boom! The comms are lost and the small ship has been hit with a massive blast from afar, something just out of range of the scanners.

  “Ok, target the first ship behind their ship and give it something to be worried about.” Pah-boom, pah-boom! The guns roar into action, ripping small holes in the side of the first large ship. The small alien ship limps between the Robur and the Invictus, safe for now. There are two large ships now firing, one at the Invictus and one at the Robur. Huge chunks of metal fly in all directions. Despite having shields, pieces of ship are torn off the two human ships.

  “We need to help each other, agreed?” A face appears once more on the screen. It’s Captain Miles covered in blood, his bridge is on fire and he has lost a second engine. “We are humans, aren't we?”

  Pace flicks the answer switch on his console. “Some of us are, but some of us are just evil, but I agree we need to do this. Do you know what they are?” Miles bends down and lifts up a dead blue head.

  No, thinks Pace, not again. This will be a hard fight. “We need to concentrate our fire on that first ship, Miles, and I don’t think it will be going down easy. We will settle our differences after this has blown over.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  The crews on the two human ships are focused on the first large ship, which is currently firing on the Robur. Those who are watching on screens are amazed at the size of the ship and how it seems to shrug off a lot of damage, but it is large and they are small so perhaps speed will be an advantage. With hope in their hearts the crews and ships work together and hit what is believed to be the engines and their efforts seem to be paying off, as the ship looks like it is slowing down a little. Nova is in her element and avoiding a lot of fire. When she is just one hundred feet from the enemy vessel, she notices a shimmer in the side of the ship and a large round ball is seen to pass through the hull without effort, out into the darkness of space. It darts towards the Invictus and despite Nova’s lightning reflexes and her amazing skill, she cannot shake the ball from the rear o
f the ship and it is now joined by a second ball, following the ship like a kite in the sky bobbing from left to right. The shimmer on the alien vessel is getting larger and now a dozen more balls are spinning around, heading towards the Robur and Invictus.

  “This does not look good, Cap.” Nova is now beginning to quietly worry. Talia blasts at one ball with the big turret gun and it explodes, emptying its occupants into the cold of space. A few blue creatures bounce off the windows of the bridge, frozen now forever in time.

  “Oh crap!” yells Megan, “It was full of blues.” A resounding thud is heard, followed by two more on the hull of the Invictus. The sick feeling everyone on the ship is now feeling is sheer and utter fear at the thought they were about to be boarded a second time. Pace disappears for a few moments and returns with the knives that he and Sam had designed.

  “Well, let’s hope these work. Talia, you stay on the bridge with Nova and keep flying and firing and seal the door ok. Megan and I will see what we can do about our unwelcome guests. Contact Miles and get him to use his death missile on that first ship. We will ready the second missile. It’s our only chance; we can’t fight them all like this.” The bridge doors close, the concerned faces now red and scared.

  Pace and Megan contact Padley and Anc to do sensor sweeps in the ship, and instruct Anc to go outside and get whatever has latched on to the ship off in a hurry.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Anc quickly gets to a hatch and exits the ship, his feet now being magnetised so he can walk freely outside the ship. Upon exiting the ship, Anc notices a large ball object stuck to the outside of the ship. It is attached by four legs, which have melted into the ship, bonding them. Anc moves closer for a better look, only to be met by a large creature, in what looks to be an armoured spacesuit of some kind, and this thing looks like it means business. However, it is finding things hard outside and is hanging on like a barnacle.

  Anc launches an attack towards the creature, which is totally taken off-guard. Anc’s large metal fists find the creatures backbone, and the two grapples are fired through the creatures armour, spine and body exploding through the front of its body, pushing fragments and fluid out to float in space for it to see. The creature writhes in agony, but is now seeking revenge and turns to face Anc. These blues are some tough aliens, Anc thinks.

  It has four arms, protrusions like horns all over its body, and has evil red burning eyes. It looks a very dark blue with lava red veins all over its face and probably its body too. It is a lot different to the blues Anc has encountered before, as they were light blue in colour. The creature has now wrapped two of its arms around Anc’s body, and the other two arms begin to pound down on Anc’s shoulders. A second and third blue appear and also begin moving towards Anc, jumping large distances towards him with little effort. They must be from another ball, Anc thinks.

  Not bothered by the first creature, Anc is able to walk with the creature attacking him towards the ball, until he is standing next to it. He uses his burst plasma cannon on the leg of the ball and which shatters it into a thousand pieces. Anc quickly shoots off the remaining legs and punches the ball in the direction of a jumping blue creature. The ball smashes into the creature with such force the ball and creature are sent flying into space, with the creature spinning past a turret gun. Talia has it in her sights and blasts it to smithereens; bits of metal and blue ooze go everywhere, to the great pleasure of the shooter.

  Anc waits for the other blue to arrive nearby and uses his light shield to deflect it towards a large chunk of ship spinning out of control. The creature is impaled by the splintered surface of the metal and bounces off the Invictus like a beach ball blown by the wind. Anc now turns his attention to the blue hanging on for dear life, and wraps his large metal arms around this creature. His grapples retract back into his arm. There is a massive blast of heat from Anc’s chest as his inferno incinerator kicks into action. The blue screams out once again and struggles to get free, but to no avail. Slowly the blue is burned alive, until it loses grip of Anc and turns into ashes, which disappear not leaving a trace of the blue apart from some skin that has stuck to Anc’s chest panel.

  Anc makes his way to the second ball and makes light work of the legs once again, and watches it leave the ship for good. The last ball seems to be empty, as Anc can see inside, so he detaches the ball and loads it in through the cargo hold for examination and study.

  “Captain, some may be on board the ship, but the outside is now secure.” Anc begins to scan once again, this time inside the ship, while Pace turns to Megan in the canteen.

  “Let’s head towards the lift and see if we can claim our ship back, eh?” Pace presses the button for the lift and the door opens. The lift is in darkness and as the couple approach the door, a set of red eyes appear in the dark, but before anything else can happen something hits Pace on the blue flesh of his body, sending him flying backwards, and in the same instant a large set of arms grab Megan by the head and she is pulled into the dark screaming.

  The doors close and Pace tries desperately to get back on his feet, but looking closely he has some sort of parasite attached to him, which seems to have embedded itself very well into his blue hide. Not wanting to think about himself any longer, Pace gets to his feet staggering a little; he is far more concerned with the safety of his new love. Thoughts rush through his mind at a million miles per hour. Is she still alive, where is she? He needs to be moving faster. What will he do when he catches up with whatever attacked them? Fearing the worst now and with an upset stomach, Pace falls into the lift. This thing attached to me is not being kind and is probably poisoning me, he thinks as he readies his knife and blaster.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The dark blue creature is clutching Megan so tightly now that she can hardly breathe. It has her tucked under his arm like a rag doll. They had exited the lift and now the creature was planning on eating Megan for dinner. She is flung around the room several times before she comes to rest on the floor. She has several cuts and feels like she can’t take anymore.

  The creature picks her up by her long red hair. She cannot stand being thrown around like this, and she hated having her hair pulled as a child. Something snaps inside her and Megan begins to see red, anger begins to burn inside like an uncontrolled, primal, guttural rage, burning in her gut, eager to free itself. Her heart races and she no longer feels the pain. Her mind begins to go blank as the fury takes over her normal functions; the bio-enhancements were awake once again.

  As the blue swings Megan around, unconcerned about anything, Megan’s hair changes from a gorgeous shiny soft mane to a thundering barbed fury of tentacles of twisting spikes of hardened Titanium. The mass of sharpness impales the creatures hand and thunders into its veins, shooting along at light speed, growing longer and longer. Megan’s hair is beginning to fill the room and has engulfed the creature so much all you can see is its head. Megan’s feet land softly on the floor and her eyes are now fixed on the creatures head, her hair is twisting and turning so fast that just the friction alone must be unbearable.

  Chapter Forty

  There are signs of a struggle in the lift, by what Pace can see, but no blood, which is good. The lift moves down a floor and the doors slide open. Pace steps out and cannot believe what he is seeing. What he knew as a delicate, caring woman has now turned into something vicious and unforgiving, but at least she was on his side. Megan lets out a scream just like a banshee, and what was once a large evil monster about to feed, becomes a new colour on the walls of the loading bay. The creature’s head tumbles to the floor with a soft mushy squish and it rolls towards Pace, before coming to a stop at his feet.

  “Megan, sweetheart, it’s me, Pace. You ok, babe?” Pace, afraid to move any closer, now has the undivided attention of this woman of thunder. Megan begins to move her hair towards Pace, the waves of menace darkening the light as it gets closer to him, like an impending doom.

  “Now sweetheart, if you want my side of the bed all yo
u have to do is ask. We can talk about this.” Pace is trying to joke and move at the same time. There is a haziness behind her eyes that only Pace can see and she is not in control at all. Pace backs into a corner and he knows he is in trouble. He did not think it would be his girlfriend that killed him that day. The red sea of hair lifts him up and pins him flat against the wall. Fingers of hair move around, prodding his now infected blue skin. Oh, great she thinks he is a blue now and that will not end well. Megan’s hair moves in for the kill, and Pace tries to grip the hair that is heading for his face with his powerful metal arm, but the servos and power plant struggle with the force trying to destroy it. The air is slowly being crushed out of his lungs and Pace's head is beginning to feel light.

  Suddenly a man’s voice is heard, loud and proud. “First Officer Frost, put that man down now and get to your post. What do you think you are doing?” The voice is like an off switch, instant and effective. Megan falls to the floor unconscious, her hair jumps and flicks around the room for a few moments, until it looks normal once again on her head. Pace, now on his hands and knees catching his breath, looks up to thank his rescuer.

  Pace smiles with the biggest grin ever. “Rusty, you son of a gun. It’s good to see you buddy.” Rusty extends his hand and helps Pace to his feet, a large spanner in his other hand.

  “Oh this, ahh, this was just for plan b. Now, I think ya owe me a drink, eh?”

  Pace laughs. “Yeah, you deserve one my friend.” The two friends grab Megan and carry her to medbay, where Padley is waiting to help.