Titan Fleet: The Robur

by Jason J Black

  “Yes! See, I fire no blanks!” Everyone is smiling and laughing. This gun could pack a punch, and was now recharging.

  Sam destroys two more ships with his turret guns and then notices the mothership.

  “Umm guys, we may have to rethink what we are doing and, like, turn around.” The giant Blue ship had restored its shields once more and now was moving fast towards the Invictus. Nova looks on her screen to see Talia’s face smiling at her.

  “Elusive here, and I brought a few friends along, hope you don’t mind.” The fighters engage the ball ships as quick as a flash and a great space battle coloured the darkness like an artist on canvass. Ships tore apart everywhere. The Tarkon pilots were indeed ruthless and well trained. The Elusive was avoiding fire and blasting great holes in the ball ships’ fighting lines. Pace and Talia were operating the turrets, and Dell was flying through gaps that few pilots would attempt. They were only just fending off the massive attack.

  “Nova, do you see that?” Talia is watching larger ships pass through the shielded hull of the mothership. They were the size of the ships they had fought before, and they did not fare well back then.

  “Yes, I see them. They are heading towards the surface. We have to try to stop them.” Nova notices the mothership come to a stop, and she heads towards the first smaller ship to exit the mothership and begins to fire on it. “How long, Rusty?”

  Rusty turns and smiles. “Been asked that before too!” The laughter broke the stress and rephrasing the question, it is Nova who is red this time. She tips her baseball cap down slightly to avoid eye contact and is trying not to giggle again.

  “No, seriously, when will the gun be able to fire again?”

  Rusty takes a look at the recharge time. “About five or so minutes. Sam, can I reroute power from your lab?”

  Sam nods, he is still concentrating on destroying ball ships and over time he had got a lot better at it. “Just leave the power running to the mech bays, I have a project there I have been working on,” replies Sam, not wanting to miss a shot.

  “A project? When were you going to tell us?” Nova looks away from her screen for a moment.

  “I don’t tell everyone everything, some things are works in progress and need to be field tested first, before I get excited and rave about it.” Nova’s eyebrows twitch up and down and her attention is turned back to the war outside the window.

  A Tarkon fighter, just passing in front of them, explodes. The pilot, ripped out into space, turning a frozen white colour and the ship drifts like a paper boat on a stream. The remaining Tarkons roar at the loss of their comrade and begin to fight harder, weaving in and out in formation and devastating the ball ship armada until they all are close enough to engage the first ship closing in on the planet. The Invictus and the Elusive begin to open fire on the large ship, while the Tarkon fighters mop up wave after wave of ball ships.

  Rusty fires the big gun for a second time. This time it was a smaller target and it wipes out the ships shields. The Elusive is taking a hammering, but the shields are still holding strong. Tell joins The Elusive and covers her, destroying three ball ships in the process.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Thanks, Tell. You’re a star!” Talia asks Dell to get closer to the Invictus and the large ship and begins to attack also. Two more Tarkon pilots are lost in the fight and now only three remain, so Tell takes charge and with a nod to Dell on his control panel, Tell sprints off with the two other Tarkons on a ram rage. They fly straight into the blue ship without its shields. It is a piece of cake and they begin to attack from the inside out. Flickers of light and explosions begin to crack open this large ship, and although the Invictus and the Elusive are taking more small blaster fire, they are at least in one piece. As the large ship explodes in a blinding light that shakes the other ships violently, they all sing out with joy. One less thing to worry about, they all think, until they notice that Tell and the other two brave Tarkons did not make it out alive.

  “Dell, I am so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” Talia is lost for words and Pace looks down at the floor and remains silent.

  “He lived, he served and he died a Tarkon.” Dell falls silent and continues to pilot the ship with gritted determination. A second large ship has now emerged and is also heading for the planet, but there is no sign of a third, which was somewhat of a relief. However, the mothership resumes firing on the Invictus and the Elusive. Pulse after pulse hit the ships and begin to buckle their shields.

  Talia looks down at the back of Pace’s head, and rubs her chin and bites her top lip.

  “Captain, we can’t take this sort of grief all day, any ideas?” asks Talia, fresh out of ideas herself.

  “If only we had a few PD1s, they would give a bit back, but we only have that big gun on the Invictus. I am not sure if that is enough to end things, unless we get those shields down. We do have great shields on the Elusive, but then they were designed by the Gulmeds. Umm, patch me through to the Invictus, Dell.”

  Dell patches Pace through and the whole crew of the Invictus is listening in on their control panels, as they fight off more ball ships and dodge green beams from the mothership.

  “Hey Cap! How’s things?” asks a preoccupied Nova, half smiling and half looking at her screen.

  “How often can you fire that big gun of yours?”

  Rusty looks up and Nova shakes her head at him, before he has chance to make a comment. “Not now, Rusty.”

  Nova responds to Pace. “About every five or so minutes, it has to recharge, why?” Nova banks the ship hard right, avoiding several green beams and then regaining her composure.

  “Can you recharge it faster at all?” asks Pace, while making calculations on his screen. The numbers and graphs are racing in front of him, like cars on a formula one track. Nova looks at Rusty and Rusty answers the question for her.

  “No, Captain, not really, we are down an engine, umm.” Rusty begins to question himself and the ship, and for a few moments he mumbles to himself and gets out of his chair and begins to pace up and down the bridge, before exiting the bridge and heading towards the engine room below. “I could use the power from one of the engines, but then we will be a lot slower and be more of a target, but it may buy us a few minutes.”

  Pace smiles. He knew Rusty could come up with something, he was after all a genius.

  “Ok, get to work. My plan is, the Elusive will take up position just in front of you and we will be your shields. Every time you can fire, we will duck down and you will blast away. We will return to a position in front of you while you recharge. It’s all I’ve got at this time and worth a go.” Nova nods to herself, it is a good idea, taking the fight to them, but her mind wonders if the Titan ship could be of use.

  “What about if we contact the Fahrenheit, and get that big old Titan ship over here to help?”

  Pace quickly comes to an answer. “No, definitely not! The ship is full of children, they are the last of humanity, and we can’t put them in the middle of a war. You crazy?”

  Nova realises that indeed that would be silly, but that ship could be the answer to their prayers. “Yes, but…..”

  Pace interrupts Nova before she can finish her sentence. “Answers still no, kid. I’m sorry.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Rusty has made himself busy, adapting the engine systems to compensate for the power for the large cannon on the front of the ship. It was a great find and he was so glad that he had equipped the ship with it. He finds the main power console and unscrews the cover to find all sorts of wires and smaller components.

  “Now I have to wreck my brains to remember this,” mumbles Rusty to himself, just as Padley enters the room. The slender white robot rolls into the room on her wheels, which pop back up into the bottom of her feet when she comes to a stop.

  “Are you feeling ok, Rusty?” Padley leans down to analyse Rusty’s condition. “Your heart rate levels and blood pressure are elevated.” Padley fires out two wires fr
om her chest which grip around Rusty’s wrist to measure his stats.

  “Hey! Get off, will ya! I’m working here. I’m fine,” replies a disgruntled Rusty, shaking his wrist to get rid of the wires. He continues with his work, ignoring Padley as she stands there motionless, collecting his data until she had finished and then the two wires float back to her, like long hair blowing in a gentle breeze.

  “If you require assistance, I have knowledge of mechanics and bio mechanics, should you require them.” Rusty just waves off Padley and she leaves the room to patrol the ship, which was one of her new protocols. They did not want a repeat of what happened before when a Blue assassin got aboard.

  “Cap, if we challenge the mothership, the smaller ship will get to the planet, what then?” Nova can see on her console that the smaller ship is very close to the planet.

  “I know, but we take out the biggest threat first, the others are deep underground anyway, so they will be fine.” A rush of realisation washes over Pace like a hot shower. “Why are the Blues here? To kill the Gulmeds. They don’t know that we are not the Gulmeds. They are sending that other ship down to clear the city. The city has a few guards now and the power is on, a big give away that someone is still there and we are up here defending it.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The Almak infiltrator has now had a chance to make it to the ground and has made his way through some of the back streets, avoiding the defence towers and the patrolling Tarkons. He slithers his way through the dark like a snake, until he reaches the door of Lori’s make-shift cell. The Almak peers through the door to see a half woman and half Blue smashing up the room. The blue scales run over her face and body like twisted armour. She is still mutating and she has grown over seven feet tall now. The Almak looks in on her with terror, he hated the Blues deep down, but had no choice but to work with them. Lori was still recognisable by her face and hair, which had not changed too much, apart from growing in size, and Lori was no longer able to control herself. She was now a Blue, with death and destruction on her mind.

  The Almak was sent to make sure that Lori had changed, and to find any weak points in the city. His task was complete, so he rewires the door panel and the door slides open. He quickly springs up onto the roof top, out of sight of the monster that walks out slowly underneath him, sniffing at the air before it runs off growling and smashing buildings as it goes.

  The noise created is enough to alert a Tarkon soldier, who runs around the corner straight into Lori, who sends the Tarkon back-flipping backwards into a building. The soldier contacts the captain and raises the alarm, before raising his shield and running towards Lori for an attack, blasting at her with his gun. Lori raises her now muscular arm to protect her face and the blaster fire just glides off her scales, like butter on a hot knife. The Tarkon adapts and slides his gun into its holster, and in one movement he launches himself into the air and draws a large glowing hammer which smashes down onto Lori’s arm and the Blue is sent stumbling back a few feet in shock. The Tarkon is dwarfed by Lori, but he launches several more blows, and each time Lori moans. The blows are not breaking her scales, but they are leaving bruises. Lori reaches out to grab at the Tarkon’s shield in an attempt to pull it from him, her hand only finds sharp solid metal teeth biting back at her like a rabid dog. She retracts her hand and punches a building to her left. The whole corner of the building is obliterated and is sent towards the Tarkon, who is buried in the tons of rubble.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Megan’s eyes open and the familiar faces of Drax and Steg look down with smiles for their friend.

  “Hey, Steg, how are you feeling? Have you had the babies yet?” Megan slowly rises to a seated position and gets a better look around.

  “The babies are all doing fine, thank you, Megan. How do you feel?” Megan looks down. She is no longer dirty or blood stained, but is dressed in similar white robes to the Gulmeds and is feeling great.

  “Wow! I am clean and I feel good. What happened to me? I was in the cockpit, holding my leg, and then I dreamt of Pace and then I can’t really remember.” Drax helps Megan to her feet and walks her around the room a few times to see if she would limp, but she was able to walk fine, so the healing process went well.

  “You were rescued by Pace and brought here to be healed. You were in a bad way and almost died. Captain Pace is currently in space with Talia, fighting a Blue mothership and we, ourselves, are under attack it seems, although the Tarkons have engaged the Blue who has got in to the city unnoticed.”

  “I remember now, it is coming back.” Megan stops walking and then it pops into her brain like a light being turned on in a dark room. “Lori is here too. I remember Talia telling me. I need to see her, where is she?” Megan touches Steg’s arm and congratulates her on the babies while waiting for Drax to get up the plans to the city.

  “Here is where she is contained, and don’t forget your spear. I have added a modification to it, so you will be able to electrocute an area around you in the future, if too many monsters get close. It must have been frightening for you down there.” Drax hands Megan the spear. It glows gold with blue crackles of lightning running down it. Drax also pulls up Megan’s hood and shows her a device inside of it. “This will open up communications with whoever you want to talk to, and the mask will help to target enemies and show maps of where you are. The small box on your belt is your force field, just like ours. It will light the way and protect you. We must both rest now. You can stay with us or leave, but we will be hidden for some time, so our nation can grow once again.” Megan looks up and gives Drax a huge hug and then Steg.

  “I will be fine. It looks like Anc is there, and you should rest. It is sad to say goodbye, but I am sure I will see you both one day soon, but before I go was it a boy or a girl?” Megan smiles waiting for the answer.

  “We have not yet counted them all, but I would think around eight to ten...” Megan butts in before Drax could finish.

  “Eight to ten kids, wow, you will be busy!”

  Drax grins along with Steg. “No, eight to ten thousand ‘kids’, as you would call them. They are all very tiny yet, and in pods to help them grow, but soon they will be standing tall and proud to be Gulmeds.” Megan was both astonished and impressed with Steg. All that time she had carried them and struggled with the pain.

  “I am sure they will grow wise and strong, just like their parents. Farewell, and thank you for fixing me up again.”

  “It was an honour to meet you, Megan. There are plenty of ships in the hanger, take one as a gift.”

  Megan waves as she walks towards Anc, who is busy picking up parts that have fallen from Titch.

  “Hey, Anc, you here for me? Let’s go find Lori shall we? I want a chat with her, and then we will grab a ship from the hanger and join Pace.” Anc lifts Titch up and shows Megan the robot and its condition. “On second thoughts, you go find a ship and fix him up. I will shout for you when I am done with Lori.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Running along one of the streets, the Tarkon commander notices a darkened figure crouched on top of a building, spying on something. The two Tarkons with him stop, and with a few hand gestures, they head off to fight the Blue giant, while the commander finds his footing on the stonework leading up to the roof, where the Almak sits motionless. As the Tarkon commander draws near, he can see the Almak is on his communication device, and not wanting to stop his conversation, the commander pauses, waiting with his hammer held high, ready to deliver a crushing blow. The communication soon ends and the Tarkon brings down the hammer onto the head of the Almak. A horrible bone braking crack is heard and echoes around the city, as the hammer splits open his head, like a nut from a shell, and the Almak flops to the floor dead.

  “Expect Almak, men, they are in the city.” The commander jumps down off the roof and heads towards the main defence tower that overlooks the gate, and all is well. He stands next to the tower at the ready to rush what ever gets in.

  Chapt
er Thirty-Seven

  Lori, in her mutated form, has now swung up on to the roof tops and the tower in the area has begun to fire at her. She knows she is no match for it, so uses the buildings as cover and she tears large statues apart and uses the stone from these and from collapsed buildings, and launches them into the air at the tower to try to destroy it. Two Tarkon warriors are now chasing her on the ground, but not getting close to her.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Megan looks on her hood map and can see everyone in the city, but she cannot see any lifeforms in Lori’s apartment cell. Megan rushes to the apartment and sure enough, the door is found open and on inspecting inside, Megan finds no one.

  “Damn her, she must have escaped,” moans Megan, looking for revenge. She continues on through the streets unaffected by the defence towers, until she meets up with the Tarkon Commander.

  “You in charge here?” The Commander turns his head sharply to look at her and he pulls off his helmet to reveal his orange scaly skin. The top of his head is tattooed with strange markings. He needed to cool down.

  “Yes, you must be the Megan, Drax told me about. The other human, the Talia, is in space. I am, indeed, in command of my men here.” The Tarkon salutes Megan.

  “Do you know where the prisoner went?”

  The Commander replies, after wiping his brow. “No. However, there is a large Oakthian running about the city causing us problems, and I just killed an Almak spy, so anything is possible. Are you here to fight?”