“We’ve got to move, Meg. We are sitting ducks. It would have been a better fight if the Gulmeds had not locked themselves in there,” says Talia pointing at the tower.
Megan looks over, disappointed with the Gulmeds. “True. Let’s get to that door and see if they will let us in and if not, then we leave them to it and get back to our ship, and defend there. At least it has shields.” The two women nod and spring up and make a mad dash for the tower, avoiding blaster fire along the way. It was like running through a deadly rain storm. The door was facing away from the fire, so it was a relief, when they got there, not to be fired upon, but Talia notices a grey face peer around the corner, and pushing Megan to one side, her blaster finds its mark and the body, along with a gaping hole where the grey face used to be, is blown away as a message for its kin to see.
“Let us in!” shouts Megan, smashing the door with her armoured fist. For the first time in a little while, Steg’s face appears on Megan’s gauntlet.
“We are locked in, not sure how to get out, but we will take care of this. Hold tight.” Steg smiles and then disappears.
The giant robot slowly makes its way towards the tower with its troops in tow. Stone and metal are raining down on the two women trying to take cover in the doorway, every now and then coming out of cover to fire.
“Let’s see what this does, shall we?” Steg knows this enemy was the old enemy of her ancestors. They were in league with the Oakthians, or Blues as the humans called them, and were once allies with the Gulmeds, living in peace until the old Master betrayed them, killing billions of her kind in a trade for flesh with the blues.
Pressing a triangle button on her screen, which then turned from green to red, Steg looks on the camera outside to see large spikes shoot up from the ground all around them. It was as if the floor had reached up to kill everything at once. The spikes were metal, covered in moss and old bodies from the battle of old. The approaching enemy stood no chance; there was nowhere they could stand without being impelled. Even the giant robot was unbalanced as the metal spikes lifted it off the floor, and as it crashed down backwards, the metal spikes impaled it, damaging some of its systems, and its flesh parts began to weep blood. Maybe this thing could be destroyed after all, thought Megan, watching the robot writhe around trying to get back to its feet.
Screams of the shrouded figures echoed around them as they died in agony, and the screeching of metal parts, grinding like nails on a blackboard, made the women’s teeth vibrate. The sharp spikes are retracted, and as they drop back into the ground they take their new victims with them, although some of their body parts could still be seen in the bloody mess above ground. The giant robot is clambering to its feet when it takes a huge blast of golden power to the chest, tearing a large hole and metal parts drop to the ground. The blast had come from the jagged metal post, which was now being recharged with power, and many blasters were also now aimed at the robot, blasting away small bits of flesh and metal. It sounded like rain on a tin roof, but it was not enough to stop this tank as it rose once more, now determined to rip apart the golden tower. It was back on its feet again, and Talia and Megan now watched as they noticed that the head of the giant was in fact a cockpit of sorts, and it looked as though it had a pilot.
Talia zoomed in her helmet lens, and low and behold, she recognized the face before her. “No way, it can’t be.”
Megan also zooms in, and confirms her findings. “It’s him alright.” Captain Miles had returned to get revenge. His blue tainted skin and the evil look on his face said it all. The robot giant leaps into the air, taking small amounts of damage as it glides through the air, until it crashes onto the tower, its arms and hands clawing at the structure, ripping chunks of stone and metal from it with ease.
“I don’t think so, you blue dog!” shouts Steg as she activates the towers shields and gives them an extra boost of energy. The immense energy beam sends the robot out of control. Its power core unit has been overloaded and it’s beginning to overload its systems, which can only mean a core breach. The once Captain Miles would have gone down with his ship, but he was now a Blue and survival was now its only option. The head of the giant robot detaches from the rest of the body and launches at one hundred miles an hour and disappears up into the red sky. He had escaped once again.
The robot, now without a pilot, spins out of control, the core getting brighter by the second, and knowing that if they get caught in the blast, they will fry for sure, Megan and Talia begin to hammer harder on the door.
“Let us in, let us in. Now!” cries Megan, as the door opens and they are both pulled in to cover. A huge explosion rocks the tower and the crew are shaken violently to the floor, where they all lay looking at each other, happy to be alive and catching their breaths. Talia begins to laugh and then they all join in.
“Why are we laughing?” asks Drax. No one can answer, but they all feel better.
Running her hand across her forehead, Megan ponders over the return of Captain Miles. She sits up, her stomach muscles pulling tight, and then she rises slowly to her feet.
“The Blues regenerate, but I have never seen this before. We must make sure, if we encounter them again, that they go down and stay down.”
Talia dusts herself off and also returns to her feet, helping Steg up in the process. Drax is still laughing at nothing, and stops to help Steg also.
“The creatures we just encountered were once our ally and we lived together in peace. They are a race that dwell in the woodland and seem to merge with the land, almost going unnoticed to the creatures that may otherwise eat them. Then some of our people began to go missing, never to be seen again. We could not prove where they went until one day, one of our scouts followed a captive and an Oakthian ship was waiting in a clearing to barter a deal with our ally.”
Interrupting Drax, Talia moves closer to hear Drax better and asks a question. “So what happened then, Drax? Did the Gulmeds go to war, and who are these people?” Drax frowns and dusts off some debris from Talia’s shoulder.
“The shadow people we call the Almak, and yes, we did go to war, but even though the Almak were no match for us, they had a new ally, the Oakthians and they almost wiped us out, as you know. We left our home behind with our other ally the Tarkons, who helped us to fight and to escape, and we all populated a second planet together, but the Blues found us and we had to move once again. So we left the planet together in as many ships as we could.”
Megan joins in with the conversation, interested to find out more. “So the Tarkons and the Gulmeds left together? So where are they now? I thought you said you were the last of your kind.” Drax checks the computer screen to check if it was safe yet to go outside.
“We agreed to meet at a point in space, but the Tarkons are a race that did not want to leave without a fight, so they gave the Gulmeds a head start and defended our rear. However, the Oakthians soon caught up with us, and that is where we met the Invictus, having lost most of our people. It is a possibility that a few outposts still exist. We could try to find them, if ever we got off this planet, and possibly some may still be at the sacred grounds, who knows.”
Megan feels saddened at the loss of his race and pausing a moment, she wonders if she would survive this planet, but then courage fires up in her heart once more. She was alive and had been through hard times.
“Do you think anyone made it to the meeting point?” asks Megan politely and softly.
“Maybe, there was a good chance. We sent messages out to the outposts to rendezvous with us at an old floating hulk of a ship, something the humans built many moons ago. The plans were to repair the ship and make it our home, so we could keep moving.” Megan realizes what Drax is talking about and is excited to hear about a piece of her history.
“We call them Titan ships. They can hold an enormous population. I would love to see one in the flesh.” A beeping sounds on Megan’s gauntlet and the coordinates which Drax had sent to her are loaded instantly.
“The
re you go, Megan. That is where it is.” Megan is delighted, but now all she needs is to get off the planet.
“I need to get to Titch. Is the coast clear now, Drax?” asks Megan, moving quickly to the closed door. The door opens and reveals a scene of devastation. The trees are on fire and the ground is blackened like volcanic ash. A large bird creature is screeching and flapping its wings as it tries to get back into the air, but it too is on fire and not wanting to see it suffer, Megan fires a few gauntlet blasts and it lays still and quiet, free from its agony. The smoky air fills Megan’s lungs, now that her battle helmet had retracted. She hated those things as they were so claustrophobic and numbed her senses. Her eyes scan around for any Almak that may be lurking, and then looked at the pile of metal embedded in the tree. Hurrying over to see if there was anything left of Titch.
“Please, be ok. Be ok,” whispers Megan to herself, not wanting the others to hear as they step out of the doorway. Megan prizes some of the wreckage from the tree and notices a small metal hand twitching, wires dangling from it like willow branches swaying in the wind. Talia joins Megan and also begins to cut pieces of metal away with a small laser cutter. Fifteen minutes later the torso of Titch can be seen, dented and pierced with gaping holes, oozing hydraulic oil out onto the surrounding metal.
“I think he is done for. We don’t have the tech to fix him here, Megan.” Talia stops her laser as Megan turns her head to look at her.
“Yes, but he still has power and his eyes keep flashing at me. He is one of our crew, we will not give up on him.” Megan continues to claw at the twisted metal.
“All I’m saying is, we just can’t carry him, he will be too heavy.” Talia places her hand gently on Megan’s shoulder and rubs slightly. Megan knows that what Talia is saying makes sense, he would be a heavy lump to lug around in this terrain.
“Drax, this city we are heading to, does it have transports?” Megan asks. Drax closes the door to the golden stone monument. It still throbs with power and will defend the area on its own now.
“Yes, it should do, it is a large city with many defence systems. However, the condition it will be in is anyone’s guess, as I said before, we have never set foot inside and we only have a map of the sacred grounds. Our race left in a hurry, not looking back.”
Megan smiles and begins to tug on Titch. She makes trails in the scorched ash as she moves him towards the tower.
“Help me put him next to the tower, where he will be safe from harm, and we will return for him later with a transport.” Talia and Drax join in to help Megan and they soon rest Titch against the golden tower and then walk back over to the wreckage to see what supplies they can save. There are a few dried rations and a small amount of water, but the rest is not saveable at all. They use some of the tarp and rope to fashion some make shift bags and bundle the supplies into them, along with some proximity mines that had not gone off, and looking back at the devastation behind them, they all realize the trip has just got a lot harder for them all.
Talia picks up her smouldering drone, and that too was of no use now, so she tosses it on the ground beside her and programs the remaining drone to scout the area ahead of them, but after that battle anything and everything for miles would know a something big had just taken place and would be on high alert.
The crew of the Robur walked slowly and carefully though the ash and then back into the forest. The animals were quiet in the area; probably scared away by the blast from the cyborg. Talia checks Megan’s suit power core and her own and the two suits were doing fine. They were dented and scratched, but otherwise working. The defence shields had turned off now and the cooling system was keeping their bodies at normal temperature. They seemed to be moving quicker now, without the large trailer and they could get though gaps better. They were all eager to get to the sacred grounds.
Talia is walking at the front when she suddenly stops. She holds up her arm to see what her drone sees. It is hovering quietly thirty feet up, cloaked and viewing another clearing in the forest. Talia looks closer at her screen as Megan catches up to her and views over her shoulder at the video feed. Drax and Steg also catch up, they are moving steady now.
Steg, catching a glimpse of the video, smiles. “Those are the sacred stones that guide the way to the sacred grounds. They must have started to shine when we powered up the first monument.” The viewer shows a small circle of large golden glowing stones, and then smaller stones leading off down either side of what looks like an old cobbled, paved road, lighting the way forward.
“Excellent. You have found a road. It should be easier from there to find our way on our map, which was given to us by the queen. Here Talia, I’m uploading our map to your drone now.” Drax loads the map to the drone, so it can find its way better, and this would save a lot of time too. It was one less worry that Drax had to think about.
Talia walks down a small embankment and through a bush to the path and looks at the glowing stones. They did indeed light up the path, and she felt more relieved now to see more of a civilization and less of a hopeless forest, even though they were still in the forest. She felt safer now, as did the others.
After a few minutes of looking at the golden stones, the Gulmeds were happy to continue, muttering to each other in their own tongue and smiling.
The drone sped off at speed, still keeping a good distance and height, it analysed vegetation looking for those deadly giant plants, and also for the Almak and Blues and anything else that could pose a threat.
Talia was the next to follow, enjoying the walk on a solid surface, knowing that somewhere at the end of this path they would find a new home, somewhere easier to defend.
Megan is walking behind Talia on her own, the Gulmeds just behind her. She can see that the night is beginning to close in on them, but this time she does not mind, she is on a road lit by glowing stones and if anything bad happens, they would be found. Then the reality hits her again. They were still stranded on this planet and no help seemed to be coming, and the last she saw in space, that was a hostile place to be too, and so she still favoured her chance of survival better here and now. But nothing stays quiet for long, she thought, as she could hear an alarm on Talia’s gauntlet ring out like a church bell.
Running to catch up with Talia, Megan and the others are beckoned to find cover.
“Get off the path now. Hide and stay quiet,” Talia tells the others. They all act quickly and disappear off the path and away from the light of the stones. It is dusk now and the light is fading fast and the darkness begins to surround them. They all look down the path as they hear a roar of thunder that growls louder and louder, getting closer by the moment. Talia is the first to see what is making the noise. It is an armoured rover, different to any she had seen before. It is covered in bones and rotting bodies, and it is followed by an armoured truck, also covered in death, with windows glowing with a putrid green. Everyone watches on as the spiked wheels grind to a halt next to the large stones glowing in the circle. A sliding door opens at the side of the truck and what looks like Almak begin to pour out of the side, but these Almak are wearing armour adorned with bone and look a menacing sight due to their size and obvious bloodcurdling demeanour. Their faces are still shrouded with a hood and cloak, and they all possess two shorter rods, one in each hand as they set up a perimeter. Everyone is silent. The door opens on the rover and a large, well-built figure, also shrouded steps out, followed by Captain Miles. He had obviously gone to get help.
Zooming in on the small army now stood in the stone circle, Talia’s drone goes unnoticed and she manages to get audio and patches it into the rest of the crew’s gauntlets on a secure frequency. The drone has a great view now, and the figures are lit up by the golden stones. They can see the well-built figure clearly. He is dressed in dark green armour with giant bird skulls as shoulder pads, golden chains with talons on the ends hang down from his waist, and he is clutching a large spear which glows and unnaturally bright white.
Steg recognizes the
spear as an old Gulmed artefact, but not wanting to give herself or the others away, she grips a branch in anger with hatred for this figure. The large figure rolls back its hood, its long torn cloak flapping slightly in the breeze, and points with its free hand and as it turns, everyone viewing can see its long drawn out face, grey in colour with patches of green, and covered in small horns. Its eyes were sunken back and were just black with hate, death and destruction. He was clearly the leader.
“Find them and bring them to me now!” yelled a gruff voice. His men, who were stood so still, sprang into action and began to fan out into the surrounding forest.
This is all we needed, thought Megan. How are we going to get out of this? Talking was probably not the best option, but neither was fighting them, so we are going to have to sneak off and live to fight another day.
Talia’s face popped up on the screens of the panicked faces of her friends.
“Don’t worry, I have a plan. There is a cave mouth near here, start heading there now and I will meet you there.” The location of the cave was given and they all began to move slowly and quietly to the cave, all apart from Talia, who by now had climbed up a tree and was perched on a branch like an owl looking on its prey. Little did everyone know, but Talia was a well-trained Deep Ops scout, and also a highly trained assassin. That is why Prime Lady Eve Thorn, the leader of planet Foloss, had employed her to go aboard the Invictus in the first place, so that if things got out of hand, she would do what was needed to take control back, but the problem was, she began to love the crew and the way they made her feel, like she belonged to a family, and so she did the right thing for once in her life. But now it was time to settle an old score with Captain Miles.
As the Almak dispersed out into the forest, Talia moved in closer to Captain Miles, moving quickly along a tree branch onto the next tree, not making a sound. A few minutes later one of the Almaks returns to make a progress report. The drone above records everything that is said for Talia to hear and see.
Titan Fleet: The Robur Page 8