Titan Fleet: The Invictus

by Jason J Black

  Turning a corner and about the give up on the search, Pace notices a small boy run from one door to another and thinking he had not been seen, he crawls through a hole in a wall into a room.

  “Cassy, over there, look!” Pointing in the boy’s direction and walking slowly towards the gap in the wall, Pace feels uplifted to know someone had survived.

  Poking her head through the gap, Cassy calls out to the boy, “Hey, little one, don’t be afraid, we are here to help you. Come on, we won’t hurt you.”

  A little gentle voice replies from the dark, “No, you’re the baddies, go away.” Cassy is used to being called the baddie all the time, but for once if feels good to be a goodie. It was always easy to be bad, too easy in fact, but always harder to be good and do the right thing, and this time had come in her life to help someone. If it was left to her, she would have just come to grab what she could for herself and ran with it.

  “No, we are the goodies. The baddies are gone, but they might come back, so we must hurry and go and join the other goodies at Greyfields.” There is a small moment of silence and then through the darkness appears a small white face and then another. The two faces seem to float in the air until their bodies became visible, which did seem scary at first, like something out of a ghost story. Cassy’s eyes adjusted and before her stood a little boy and a little girl holding hands, the little girl clutching a burnt rag doll. Cassy could not reach the two children and they stood in safety for a few moments, wondering if they should run into the now open arms of a kind looking lady who they had only just met.

  “But you are a stranger and we are not meant to go with strangers.”

  “My darlings, I am a stranger, but like I said, I’m a goodie and strangers are usually baddies and they might try to hurt you, but I won’t. Now who wants to see the big rover and go for a ride?” The little boy is a clever one and poses another question, “My mummy said that a stranger will sometimes say ‘do you want sweeties?’ or ‘do you want a ride?’, and mummy said to always say no.” The children take one step back. Fearing that she might lose them, Cassy sets her gauntlet to stun and takes it off.

  “See this, well this is a blaster and only adults use these. If I was a baddie, I would have shot you, but you can use it on me if you think I am a baddie, if you want, but please come out so we can take you somewhere safe.” Cassy tosses the gauntlet into the room and it slides across the floor kicking up dust as it goes, until it stops at the boy’s feet.

  “Wow, a blaster, a blaster!” Never in the boy’s wildest dreams did he ever think he would get a blaster. He hurries to put it on his forearm. It is far too big for him and fits his whole arm. He points it at Cassy, not knowing how to use it. He begins to walk towards Cassy, still holding his sisters hand. They push Cassy out into the street, Cassy’s hands up it the air in submission. As the children step out, they notice a man with a robot arm and some of his body is blue, he too has his hands up in the air. Panicking slightly, they become worried and run towards Cassy and throw the gauntlet on the floor and grip tightly at Cassy’s waist for cover.

  “Don’t let the monster hurt us. We are sorry we did not come out.” The little girl covers her eyes, but still squints through her fingers for a look at the man creature.

  “This is my brother and he is a special goodie, with special powers and you never guess what, he owns a spaceship. Do you see the blue scales? Those are magic dragon scales to protect him from baddies. Do you want to see? Come on, I’ll show you. Look I’ll pick up my gauntlet and you will be safe.” The two young children hang on to Cassy’s waist like stubborn barnacles. The children reach out to touch Pace, who has now knelt down so they can see better, and once they have felt his scales on his face they seem happier with the story that Cassy had told them.

  “You must be hungry, here eat this, it’s chocolate.” Cassy pulls out two bars of chocolate and the children are happy and don’t even notice the dead bodies around them.

  “Hey, you two want a piggy back ride to my rover?” Pace winks at Cassy. They need to be leaving and still try to get a look at White Crest before returning to camp. The two children need no second offer and are on Pace’s back as fast as the wind, he carries them to the rover and they clamber off him and up the rungs into the rover.

  “Now, don’t touch anything ok, be a goodie and not a baddie.” It was meant to be that we stopped here, Pace thought to himself; the children would have died if we had not. Now it was on to White Crest with haste, they had spent a fair bit of time there.

  The engines roared and they set off once again, leaving trails of dust behind them and not looking back.

  “Why don’t you go over to that screen, see the one at the back, and press the big blue button and play a game if you like. Do you know how to use it?” Pace looks back quickly, trying not to take his eye of the road.

  “Have you got ‘Spiron the Great’ on it?” The young boy is very adept and in no time the children are occupied. The two vehicles travel for a while and pull up at the base of a small hill. Pace powers down and tells the children to carry on playing, but they were engrossed anyway, so it was ok to leave them for a few minutes. Cassy and Pace climb up the sandy hill and lie on their bellies and look across at White Crest, and sure enough it was a hive of activity. There were loaders moving slowly about their duties, guards everywhere and supply crates by the hundreds being taken from the village out the rear towards the Flovian Mountains and the Dead Zone.

  “There goes the neighbourhood then, out the back door. How nice of them. We need to get a better look at the entrance in that mountain, any ideas, Cassy?” Cassy is looking through her eye reticule just like Pace. She zooms in at maximum, but only just makes out a large rock that seems to have been moved in the distance and a glimmer of something entering next to it. It must be a tunnel, and they had disguised the opening of it with a rock to blend in with the mountain.

  “Well, I could try to get through as a loader or I have another idea, but you won’t like it.” Pace, not liking the idea already, looks at Cassy and shakes his head.

  “Does this involve another of your crazy plans, and me getting beat up?” Cassy giggles and slides down the hill so as not to be seen. Pace joins her, “Go on then, what is it?” Cassy is worried to say because it might just work, but it will make her brother feel uncomfortable in the process.

  “I don’t want to make you feel bad and you can’t help that you are changing, but I could take you straight through as an alien prisoner for Eve to experiment on, and once through the tunnel we could plan our assault from there. What you think?” Pace once again looks at Cassy. It was just like old times; she always got him in trouble, but he was the older brother, it was his job to keep her safe and that should never change, even when you are grown.

  “Cassy, I think it is a great idea and probably the only one that will work. We will need to make you look like an alien slaver, but I noticed plenty of things along the way we could use. I will go and set the auto-pilot on the rover to take the kids back to Greyfields, they will be safe in there I’m sure, and then we can put the plan into action. You contact Greyfields and let them know our plan.” Cassy gets on her bike and begins to contact Greyfields, while Pace tells the children about their small trip, but the children are still playing their game and don’t even notice Pace talking to them and before they know it they are on their way, plastering Pace in dust as they race off. Pace joins Cassy again. She has contacted Greyfields and they are ready to receive the children and making preparations for the upcoming battle. Cassy has also found some ideal clothing for the slaver job and they are ready.

  “I will ride my bike in and you will be chained to it. I thought I would cover that arm of yours and part of your body with this brown tarp, because that is a dead giveaway for a start.” Cassy throws over the tarp and they tie it off around his arm and now he looks more alien than before. Pace hands over his gauntlet to Cassy and she packs it in her bag on her back, along with a few explosive charges and
other bits and bobs to get them out of a jam if they need it. Pace looks down at his human arm, which now also seems to have a blue tinge to it. He notices on the palm of his hand a large lump with a hole in it. He felt it opening and closing, but it did not feel out of place, which was not a good sign. Was he becoming used to being a blue and what human did he have left in him now, he wondered. Cassy, noticing the sadness on her brother’s face, tries to comfort him.

  “When we take Eve’s ship, we will get the scientist aboard to sort you out, brother. I know it must be hard for you, but you will be ok. Just believe it, see it and achieve it.” Pace smiles and puts a brave face on the whole situation, like he always did, and holds out his hands to be chained to Cassy’s bike.

  “Let’s do this, and no matter what happens to me, you get on that ship and blast off and save these good people or we have lost everything for nothing.” Pace tells Cassy. “I will always be your brother, Squirt, never forget that, and I love you.” Cassy hugs her brother before mounting her bike, her heeled leather boots clicking on the pedal.

  “Aww, don’t get all mushy on me now, brother, we got to get our game faces on, and try not to get beat up this time, that blood would be hard to wash out.” She winks at Pace and kisses him on his cheek. Pace smiles and begins to walk alongside the bike at a gentle speed. It would not be long and they would reach White Crest.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Rusty finishes off the last few welds to the new gun on the front of the Invictus and then goes inside to start the wiring job. Sam is outside talking to some scientists about the toxin knives and hands them a copy of his findings so they can make a batch.

  “We have not yet tested it on all types of blue, but it has seemed effective so far. It’s like acid to them, but as I said, their mother ship is heading this way and time is of the essence, so I would get cracking if I were you.” The group wonder off into a building and begin work. Sam spots Padley, who has converted a goods truck into a mobile hospital and she is busy treating patients, along with an older medical robot. A lot of the wounded have come for help, lucky to be alive. Stories float around like whispers on the wind, stories of wrong doings and inhumane acts of violence swell people’s heads with anger. Sam stops a family of travellers, the grandfather injured and beaten.

  “Who would do this to you? Here let me help you over there to that truck.” Sam grips an arm and helps guide the old man over to the makeshift hospital. The man on the other side of the old man speaks, “The Thorn Guard did it. They just came into our village and began to shoot the place up. Many are dead, but that was not all they did, they tortured people in the streets and raped them. I saw people being run over by trucks, over and over again, it was insane.”

  The woman behind them, who was carrying a baby wrapped in a towel, mutters to herself. “Well they are all ex-prisoners.”

  Sam looks over the old man’s shoulders, “What was that?” The woman checks her baby and looks at Sam.

  “Oh yeah, the Thorn Guard are all murderers and thieves and scum of the earth. They experimented on them all and now are able to control them somehow. It was man power that they could use instead of them being in prison you see, very clever and they make a perfect army, because they are totally controllable.”

  Sam reassures the family in a gentle voice, “Its ok, you are safe now, and they will be getting a few surprises I can tell you. Just make sure you get rest. There is a kitchen over there for food too.” Sam reaches the hospital and helps the family up into the truck, where Padley nods and gets to work.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Nova has now been on and off the Invictus a few times with things she has found, and is doing a flight check, making sure the ship is in tip-top condition. She bends over to clip a pipe on one of the landing legs, only to hear a wolf whistle from behind her.

  “Now that is a sight for sore eyes!” A well-built man is staring at Nova’s behind. She recognises the voice and turns and stands, at the same time tugging down her short skirt and pulling off her baseball cap. She runs her hand through her blond bob, ruffling her hair.

  “Len, is that you? What’s with the muscles? You’ve beefed out a bit since uni. Wow! You look hot yourself.” Nova’s cheeks are beginning to turn red.

  “I thought it was you. I would recognise that rear anywhere, and those legs that just keep going. Umm, sorry I am thinking out loud again!” Nova giggles, then walks up to Len and gives him a peck on the check and then holds on to his hand.

  “You say all the nice things a girl needs to hear, Len. The last time I saw you, you were a skinny, long-haired kid, following me around like a puppy.” Len, surprised at the warm welcome he has received, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a photo encased in plastic.

  “Remember this? You never went out with me, no matter how much I tried, why?” Nova looks at the photo. It was the two of them at a party, dancing arm in arm.

  “I remember that night; we danced till our feet fell off. I guess you were just not my type back then.” Nova hands the photo back to Len.

  “So what about now, Nova? I have changed, and the chances of us meeting are a million to one, and war is coming.” Nova begins to think about the old days and the men she has had in her life. They were rough and bad men, with no honour to them at all. She knows Len was a safe bet. He was kind, caring and would do anything for her. He used to buy her presents and wow her like a real man should. He had protected her a few times and was more of a best friend than a boyfriend, but Nova was not the settling down type, she liked to feel free, even though the last few years she had not been with a man, and not wanting to miss the chance she moves in and kisses Len smack on the lips.

  “Len, you are my type, but let’s just say for tonight I don’t need relationship, I just get hurt, but I could use a whole load of loving, if you know what I mean.” Nova kisses Len once again and he kisses her back.

  “Well, Nova, it would be a great way to go out and any hot blooded man would be a fool to pass that ass up, and it would appear good men don’t come last after all.” Nova reaches around the back of Len and grabs his butt.

  “Yours is not bad either, babe. Now, how about I show you around on my ship.” The lascivious couple eagerly enter the ship and pass Rusty on the way.

  “Hey, Rusty.” Not wanting to stop, Nova drags Len past Rusty at a hundred miles per hour in a blur of colour. Rusty lifts his head and they are gone before he can answer. Rusty smiles and carries on with his work. Nova takes Len to her room and closes the door. She begins to undress him and he undresses her at the same time, both rushing for their prize. Just as Nova is taking off her gauntlet, the screen flickers and an incoming call is waiting to be answered. What bad timing, Nova thinks but ignores it; someone else can answer it this time.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Sam looks around him. There are thousands of people, most of them farmers, scrappers and none of them fighters, but one thing stands in their favour, they are all survivors and they will keep on surviving and they will win. He notices the governor standing on a truck bonnet getting ready to say something, so Sam moves in closer to hear him.

  “Good people, good people, please listen to me.” The governor is talking through a large speaker so everyone can hear him. “We have all suffered in many ways over the years and some of it our own doing, but this atrocity no one deserved. Most of you now know why this has happened and how evil our leader has been, but there is something worse coming. An alien force is planning to destroy us, and the only way to survive is to get off this planet.”

  A man heckles from the crowd. “This is our home, and we have no ships.” The governor puts his hand up to speak again.

  “You are right, this is our home but answer me this, I thought your home is where your heart is, a place where your loved ones surround you and you live in peace with other humans who love to live the same way, but when that is threatened or taken from you, you have to move on. Not far from here, a Titan ship sits getting ready to leave the
planet, fleeing from the aliens. Now, why were we not invited on that ship? Is one human better than another because of money? We all bleed the same and need the same. So if you are planning on staying know this, you could have survived, there was a chance to escape. The good news is that the ship is still being loaded up, it is being loaded with our things, they have taken from us, the things we have made and worked hard for. So that ship belongs to us too. Make no mistake, we will have to fight for our chance to leave, but we all fight every day in the fields trying to grow crops, we fight every day mining metals miles down, we fight to live. There are people as we speak fighting to get information. We need to attack and they do this for all of us. We have been through so much already, this is a chance to live and who knows, we may find a better place to live, if we are in charge this time. We are planning a full on attack to take that ship and get off this dust rock for good. We don’t have a great deal of time. Any questions?” A few dirty, dusty hands spring up and wave in the air and the governor points at a young lady in the middle of the crowd, people turn and look at her, waiting for her question.

  “We have wounded and children with us, what about them or are you going to leave us behind? Can we trust you or are you using us like the other scum out there.” The governor wets his lips with his tongue.