Titan Fleet: The Robur

by Jason J Black

  “She will be fine, she just needs rest. Umm, Jaro will need a little bit of work before I go. Press that, will you.” Drax instructs Anc to activate a console nearby for a body scan to engage, and the light passes over Jaro’s body, showing a few broken bones and concussion.

  “A few broken bones, I can fix these without any problems, and then we will bring him around.” Drax works on Jaro with his new Key, and brings Jaro around quickly after ten minutes. “Commander Jaro, I must leave you in charge for the time being, until Megan awakes. I must return to Steg and attend the offspring.” The Commander rises up and stands wobbling slightly, but then regains his firm stance and salutes Drax, before Drax leaves in a hurry down a secret tunnel, the door closing behind him as quickly as it opened.

  “Commander Jaro, the crew of the Invictus needs our help to fix their ship, and then we may need to assault the Oakthians mothership to rescue Nova and the others. We have no enemies near us on the surface, they are dead, and no incoming drop pods. A few ball ships in space, but nothing to worry about.” Titch awaits Jaro as he walks on to the bridge and takes command. Anc stands guard over Megan and he is also ready to protect the crew, if she were to take another funny turn. Jaro takes a seat on the bridge and instructs Titch to take off and head for the Invictus, while using the ships cloaking device to appear invisible to the mothership.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Talia helps Pace connect the last of the wiring loom, and they both then move to the power panel on the wall to switch the power back on. It was hard work trying to repair the ship while floating around. The power button was pushed in, and the engine began to whirl and buzz, as the giant power core began to see life once more. Lights began to flicker, and acting quickly, Pace switches the outer ship lights off, so they did not alert the Blues and blow their rescue attempt. The information was great that Titch had been relaying to them, and the hypergyron 4 now came on line.

  “There’s my girl, well done, Higgy!” Pace pats the engine like an owner does his pet. Higgy was the name they had fondly given to the engine, as this was the heart of the ship. Pace and Talia drop gently to the floor as gravity was restored on the ship, and checking the panel all systems seem to be running as normal, which was indeed a blessing. Pace always believed this was the best ship in the Titan Fleet, even if she was small.

  “Let’s get to the bridge and see what we can figure out.”

  Talia follows Pace, removing her helmet. It was hot in there and it was good to breathe the ships air once again, it just felt cleaner in the lungs. Talia sat in Nova’s chair and began to ready her controls, while Pace sat down back in his seat and noticed a small ship leave orbit and head for the Invictus.

  “Commander Jaro to Captain Pace, do you read?” asks Jaro looking at his screen for an answer.

  Pace looks down, not recognising the face before him, but he knew he was a Tarkon and any Tarkon was a friend of his.

  “Yes, Commander, I am reading you loud and clear.” Pace smiles and gets comfortable in his seat. “We will rendezvous with you in four.” Pace hopes that they are not seen by the mothership, and like a thief in the night, the small craft lands inside the loading bay and is welcomed by the Invictus.

  “Commander, the bridge is on the second floor, you are most welcome to join us. Who do you have with you?” Pace hopes the answer is Megan and Anc, and that they had not been left behind.

  “Do you have an infirmary, Captain?” enquires Jaro.

  Pace is quick to answer. “Yes we do, third floor, who needs help?”

  “Megan changed into… something, and now she sleeps, that is all. Anc and Titch are also with me on board.” Jaro instructs Anc to take Megan up to medbay, and then sort out Titch, while he makes his way to the bridge.

  Jaro finds that everything is in darkness, which was fine by him, he could see well in the dark due to his race living underground most of the time. The doors to the bridge open and Jaro walks in and over to the captain.

  “Captain, how may I serve you?” Pace is happy to have Jaro, and everyone else, on board and gestures him a seat at Sam’s console.

  “Please take a seat. We are going to drift towards the mothership, and then disrupt their shields, so we can fly straight into their hanger and work from there. It will be a bit of a gamble with the whole getting out again part, but we will rescue the others and get them out one way or another.”

  Jaro nods, takes his seat and powers up his console, and readies the auto turret guns to fire at will on his mark.

  “Ok, Talia, it’s up to you to get us close while I charge the big gun. Thrusters only, but be ready for full thrust when those shields go down, and I need a fast landing, no pressure,” smiles Pace, with a determined look on his face. The Blues had not only captured his crew, but also his family, and that was something in the universe worth fighting for. Nothing would stop them from reaching his family, and if they all died together, then so be it.

  Drifting closer and closer to the mothership, the Invictus creeps forwards. It takes a fair bit of time, but finally they are close enough to put their plan into action. The bridge doors open and a tired looking Megan stumbles in, rubbing at her eyes and then warming her neck with her palm.

  “You got room for one more, Captain?” Megan bends over and kisses Pace smack on the lips. Her passion was felt in an instant and much needed for the both of them. Pace’s heart pounded in his chest, as it came as a surprise to him just how a kiss could feel so good. He had missed the warmth of her and her love, something he would never lose again. Megan stands up and gives him a cheeky smile and looks at the others.

  “Yeah, so we are an item and I have missed him. Expect more of that around the ship, if I were you.” Talia smiled at Megan and felt that things were beginning to get better. All they had to do was get the others back in one piece, and looking at the size of the ship before them, she knew it would be a challenge.

  Anc had been working on Titch. He was not an expert, but Titch was looking better. He had his own power supply and could even move both of his arms. One of his eyes was still damaged, and his legs were too badly damaged, and Anc did not have the know-how to fix them, but he did stop the flow of hydraulics fluid, which was a life saver for Titch.

  “Okey dokey, so my legs are no good, perhaps we could find a couple of wheels in the scrap components box, I think some spares were kept on board in case of an emergency.” Anc shuffled through the parts until he found two large cogs on spindles. They would get Titch around if he wielded them to his body, and he could pull himself along until they got Padley back and then she could fix him better.

  “That will do.” Titch begins to take tiny pieces of jagged metal from his waste, so they could get a good wield. Anc picked up the two large cogs and moved them to the bench that Titch lay on, and then uses a grinder to get the metal clean, so he could get a good strong wield. Sparks drop onto the floor and the first wheel is held into place by Titch, while Anc turns the metal into glowing red liquid. At least Titch will be mobile and would not need carrying for the time being.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Rusty’s eyes begin to open. He felt sick and disorientated, his mouth was dry and his head was drooped downwards looking at the floor. He must have been out for some time, he thought, as he began to come to his senses. His neck felt stiff and he was cold. He found that he had been chained up by the arms and was dangling next to the alien that he had tried to rescue. The creature beside him was asleep, hanging motionless, but still breathing.

  Rusty moved his head around to get a better look, to see if the Blue was still in the room. It had gone for now, which was good. The room was dark with only a couple of dim lights to the sides of the room. A large light above his head blinded him when he looked up, and stopped him from gauging how big the room was. A large dish on the floor, with a grated hole in it, looked like a giants hand basin. Rusty had lost his helmet and had a tube shoved up his nose, obviously to aid breathing. His space suit had gone, and the worst p
art of it was, his woolly hat had gone too. It was the only thing he had in the world that his mum had made him for before she died.

  Infuriated, Rusty began to try to free his chained wrists. The metal bit into his skin, like hungry piranhas, and blood began to flow down his arms from the cuts. He struggled for a while, but his body weight pulling down on his wrists soon tired him, and so he just hung there silent. He stared into one of the corners and noticed a large pile of bones and body parts. Was this the way he would go out, he thought, his mind trying to find a solution.

  As he shivered and felt sorry for himself, he heard noises from outside the broken door. He could see a large, tall Blue hovering past the door, followed by several Blues dragging Nova and Sam along behind them. They slid across the floor, bumping slightly, and then Rusty could hear them being taken into a room, and the sound of their metal suits being stripped from them and thrown to the ground, and then after a few minutes, the rattle of chains, before silence once more. Then the large slam of a heavy metal door. Rusty, all this time, had been fixed on the doorway out into the corridor. He could not believe that he had been so stupid. He should have stayed with his friends, and then they would at least be all in the same room together when they died. Then again, maybe that would be a fate worse than death, to see your friend be torn apart in front of you.

  As he looked on, wondering what would happen, a green gas crept into the room. Rusty knew the tall Blue was coming back down the corridor. Rusty dropped his head back down and looked out the corner of his eye, hoping the Blue would just walk by. The cloud of gas entered his room, followed by the floating Blue, his crooked metal fingers closed in a knot in front of him as he glided forward, towards the two hanging captives. Rusty closed his eyes, but squinted and looked through them, like you would watch a scary part of a horror film. Rusty wanted to shout out for help, but it would not be of any use to him, so keeping still and pretending was his plan for now, no matter what.

  The slender Blue reached up and grabbed Rusty’s cheeks in his hand and then squeezed them together, making a butterfly shape with his lips and slicing his cheeks in the process. Rusty held strong and did not flinch. He could see the creature’s eyes staring at him for a reaction. A few seconds pass, which seems like years to Rusty, and the Blue let’s go, and then grips the face of the alien in chains next to Rusty. The alien wakes up with a jolt and begins to struggle. Rusty can hear its frightened thoughts, as the alien could not speak through lips, and the Blue tears out one of the aliens eyes and pops it into his mouth and chews on it like a gobstopper. Blood pours down the aliens face as it wriggles for a few seconds, before passing out with the pain. The slender Blue claws at the alien a few times, leaving large gashes which also begin to bleed. The blood now slowly dripping onto the floor, and colouring the dish with an orange stain. The Blue walked to the bone pile in the corner and was occupied by something there.

  Rusty needed to think fast. He did not want to die this way, and he wanted to get his friends out, but he could not get free of his chains. He jangled them a couple of times, before the Blue looked around to see who was moving, so Rusty quickly pretended to be asleep. The Blue rushed back over and inserted a bone from the pile into the swinging alien next to him. This would keep the wound from closing over, just like getting sap from a tree, thought Rusty, catching a crafty look. Then, flicking the blood off his fingers, the Blue grabbed hold of Rusty once more by the face, this time giving Rusty a shake. The shake was so violent that Rusty was forced to open his eyes, as it was making him feel sick inside. His eyes popped open and the Blue had now awakened his victim.

  “Human, you will suffer the same fate as your prime lady. You will die slowly, a painful death as all humans,” whispers a snake like voice with a crackle on his tongue. Trying to respond, Rusty babbles out words until the Blue releases his jaw.

  “What ever happened between you and her, pal, I don’t need to know about. I don’t care even if you were lovers, it’s not my business.” The Blues face, now just hovering a foot from Rusty’s, responds once again in a low voice, the words slithering into Rusty’s ears like slugs over cabbage.

  “Your race deceived us, and now the deal between us has been broken for all of time. Extermination to eradicate your race is the only solution.” Rusty’s head is racing and his body is full of adrenaline. How could he answer that and live. He shakes in fear, the fight or flight responses not doing him any good, as he could not escape. It was obvious that time to talk things over was at an end between the two races. Then again, these Blues wanted to eat the whole universe and found it funny to pick on the little guy.

  “Go on then, kill me, take a bite now if you want. You may defeat me, but the human race will be back to avenge me, mark my words!” shouts Rusty, before he is silenced once again by the vice like grip to his face. The metal prongs of crooked evil began to move towards his left eye and then pierced his eye socket, and with a slow pull backwards Rusty loses his vision. The pain is inconceivable as he goes in to shock, and passes out instantly from the wound. The Blue once again pops the eyeball into its mouth and chews his face unaffected by Rusty’s words. The blood poured down Rusty’s face and then continued down his chest, then his leg, until it dropped red splashes into the dish below him, mixing with the orange blood like an abstract oil painting.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  “Firing the big gun, get ready to get us in there. Three, two, one.” The Invictus shakes with power like a V8 engine, and the blast of energy fires from the front of the ship towards the Blue mothership, where the power disrupts the shields just as planned.

  “Now, Talia, now!” cries Pace, with a certain amount of excitement. “Anc, prepare for war, meet us in the loading bay.” Pace wants to get in and out as fast as he can, and is monitoring the life stats of his companions inside the mothership. He notices that Rusty’s vital signs drop drastically.

  Titch now has wheels and with a fair amount of speed, he can pull himself along well and soon reaches the bridge.

  “Captain, what do you require me to do?”

  Pace answers Titch quickly, with a million things going through his mind, any mistake now could be their undoing. “When we land, take control of the ship and turrets, and be ready to lift off and get us out of here fast, Titch.”

  Titch rolls over to Talia and waits to take control. His wheels screech as they stop. “Okey dokey, Captain, Sir.”

  Talia looks at Titch. He was back to his funny self again, and she knew they would have a great escape. It was so good to see him up and running again.

  “Hey, Titch, nice wheels, I love them,” smiles Talia, as she navigates into the hanger, which to their surprise was empty, apart from the runner and a few ball ships, but no troops, no welcome party.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Talia touches down next to the battered runner. The landing gear grips the ground with a thud and Talia, Jaro and Pace rush down the lift to the loading bay, just as Anc lowers the ramp onto the floor. Titch had done a couple of repairs to Anc’s shoulder, which seemed to have fixed his arm movement, as he activated his weapons systems ready for battle.

  “Ok, we only get one chance at this. Let’s get our family back.” Taking his hands off his hips, Pace runs out of the loading bay of the Invictus, followed by his team and makes his way to a door at the rear of the runner. He is heading in the direction his map is guiding him, to the personal trackers that glow red on his heads up display on his helmet.

  Two large ball ships spring up in the air and begin to fire on the crew. They had not attacked the ship when it first landed; they masqueraded as empty ships, as they were no match for the Invictus. What the two Blue pilots did not realise, was that Titch was in control of the ship, and had set the turret guns on the Invictus to blast to smithereens any Blue or alien ship detected. The turret guns rang out like giant church bells and the two ball ships explode, showering the hanger with spinning, hot, molten metal shards that sound like hailstones on the ground. Jumping down
from the top of the runner and surprising everyone, Padley almost gets shot. She had stayed out of sight, as she was a medic droid, not a combat one. Pieces of metal ship bounced off her metal skin.

  “Good to see you, Captain. Padley at the ready for orders.”

  “I almost shot you, you made me jump out of my skin!” Pace shakes his head in relief that he had not blasted her. Padley scans Pace quickly.

  “Your skin appears intact, Captain, and no other injuries are detected.” Pace grins, but is in too much of a hurry to stop and explain that it was just a saying.

  “Progress report, Padley?” asks Pace in a hurry.

  “The crew are all alive and have exited the hanger at that door. We met with strong resistance, but overcame the forces.”

  “Ok, Padley, stick with Anc, we may need you.” The door is quickly opened and they step into a dark corridor. It is empty as their lights scan the way ahead of them. Talia is at the front of the group scouting slightly ahead, her shield light lighting the way, like a beacon of hope from a lighthouse. Jaro strides behind Talia with his shield held at the ready, so Talia can fall back if she needs to. Pace follows with Megan at his side, and Anc takes up the rear guard position.

  “We are so close, but I don’t like it, nothing has tried to stop us yet,” whispers Pace to the others. Talia reaches the end of the corridor and peers around the corner. She can see some cell doors. Stepping out of one of the doors is a slender Blue, shrouded with a green mist which seemed to be alive. This creature was dragging Rusty by the leg across the floor. Leaning back, so as not to be seen by the Blue, Talia lifts up her fist to signal the others to stop and be quiet, which they do, and then she peers back around the corner, to see a blood stained trail being left on the floor, and a torn Rusty, who to Talia looked dead, being pulled into a different room.