Titan Fleet: The Robur

by Jason J Black

  “Ok, go hide. Don’t come out until I shout ‘Now’.” Pace walks back over to the door and waits for the others to hide in amongst the dead bodies on the floor. Talia and Megan turn off their shields for now, as their brightness would give them away. The smell was terrible on the floor, the skin and brain matter was everywhere, but it was a good chance for them to drag things out until the ship got to them. Once everyone was hidden and still, Pace began to hammer on the door of the room, trying to get a response from the leader. He slammed his metal fist into the door and it caught the attention of the leader after a few seconds.

  “Come on, you and me, boss man. What? Ya chicken or something? What you waiting for? Let me out. I’m going to kick your ass you skinny little freak!” A sound of chains is heard on the roof of the room, and then Pace falls over, as there is a sudden jerk and the room is pulled on chains by the two giant monsters that pulled the other room before. The rumbling floor and shaking room is too much for Pace to actually stand up, so he rests on the floor until the room stops, and then he gets to his feet and readies himself.

  “Here we go, stay calm everyone.” The walls begin to shake and dust falls down into Pace’s eyes, and then the sound of air rushing in. It was a putrid air, but thankfully he was wearing his suit and would not breathe in the toxins that circulated outside his suit. The walls fall and crash to the floor, sending dust and debris outward. Pace leaps up out through the dust, using his suits thrusters, in the direction of the leader and adjusts his course once he can see his way. He is heading fast towards the unsuspecting leader and Pace plants the first blow, smack bang onto the leader’s crooked jaw, sending the leader back-flipping through the air in disbelief and dazed. Pace blasts forwards to meet the leader once more, before he could come to his senses, and plants a second blow swiftly, followed by a third strike to the chest area with his poison sword sliding deep into the aliens flesh.

  Pace rides the body down to the floor like a surfboard, until the leader crashes on his back. Pace pulls out the sword and lifts it high into the air. Every Blue in the arena is fixed on Pace and every move he now makes. Sam’s toxin is now pumping into the leader’s body and he is writhing and screaming on the floor. The attack was a major success and a total surprise to everyone. The crew lay still, waiting for the call, but all they really wanted to do was jump for joy, but Pace was suspecting more to come. Metal fingers locked into a tight ball and pounded the face of the leader. He was defenceless and now beginning to melt from the inside outwards. Pace grabbed the leader by his head and lifted him up, the body swinging like a rag doll in the air. Pace then plunged the end of his sword into the leader’s eye and popped the eye out on the end of his sword, and then flicked it into the Blue crowd, which was silent and shocked.

  “An eye for an eye!” shouted Pace in a stern steady voice. The creature’s blood began to run down, trickling onto the dusty floor. The blood made patterns in the sand as it splashed down. With a mighty swing of his sword, the leader’s head became detached and was now hanging in the metal hand of Pace. Pace holds the head high in the air for all around to see, and the crowd of Blues becomes silent.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  From a glow in the roof of the arena drifted a second leader into the fray. He looked a little different. He was wearing an armoured suit and hovered pointing at Pace for a few seconds.

  “Yeah, that’s right scumbag, this is your end, if you choose it!” Pace dropkicked the head up towards the second leader in the air, who catches the head before dropping it in fright back down to the floor. Pace stands firmly on the ground, goading his enemy to fight him. It was good to feel like a point was made, and that they did have a chance at life. The floating leader begins to chant something in the air, and a red mist begins to form around it, swirling around like a tornado. The Blues below cringe and cower at this sight. This meant something bad was about to happen, Pace guessed, and the arena began to empty as the Blues vanished out of sight, to avoid the doom that was inevitable.

  “Oh, you going to try to scare me with your red crap, eh? Well news for you, pal, I have seen the likes of you before and you don’t scare me.” Pace knows that within him he carries the green haze and this will keep him alive, and so it will be an even fight.

  The others look up from the floor and can’t believe that Pace has not yelled for them yet to help. Pace begins to fire his blaster up at the leader, in a vain attempt to disrupt his chanting, all the while time is ticking and soon enough the Invictus may arrive. A distant booming sound can now be heard, which can only mean the big gun on the front of the Invictus is tearing through decks to get to them.

  “Hey, come on, I don’t have all day,” shouts Pace, taunting the leader to launch its first attack on Pace, the red mist missile impacting where Pace once stood.

  “Poor shot. Why don’t you try again?” yells Pace up to the angry floating menace. The creature slowly drifts downwards until it is just two feet from the floor, and it is now hovering near the eager crew that are poised for their surprise attack.

  More red projectiles fly towards Pace in an epic attempt to kill the human hero, but they are quickly dodged by a nimble Pace. Dancing out of the way, Pace dives into a roll and recovers quickly to his feet, only to be attacked by a sneaky Blue from behind, who has gone unnoticed until now. Pace reaches up with his powerful arm and slingshots the attacker over his shoulder towards the Blue leader, taking him slightly off guard.

  The leader waves his arms and more and more Blues begin to drop down from the ceiling. The leader has tested his adversary and now it was time to leave. Floating on the red mist upwards, he blasts several of his minions with the evil red mist and they fall to the ground moaning and screeching in pain. The leader then escapes, followed by a newly formed bodyguard.

  Pace punches a second Blue in the jaw and notices not only that several Blues were charging at him, but the two giant Blues were now also walking towards him. The creatures that shrieked had now come to their senses, and were now empowered with the red mist, and this was getting worse by the minute.

  “Now!” shouted Pace, as he faced four Blues charging at him. His companions timed their attack perfectly. It was like the floor had swallowed the Blues like a sinkhole. Blaster fire and blood sprayed everywhere, and then his friends were stood at his side once more.

  “Sam, Nova, use your jets to lift Megan and Talia up to the stands over there. It will be a good vantage point to fire down on those giants. Then we will take out their ankles and hope the Invictus gets here before we are all squashed.” Pace points up to the empty seats deserted by the fearful Blues.

  The roaring of the jets and the dust kicking up distracted the Blues a little, and Pace had enough time to read the first red coloured enraged Blue warrior. Pace began to feel a little bit hazy in the head, and he could feel a refreshing wave of peace and energy wash over him, like a cold shower on a hot day. The green helpers in his body were just making sure this would be an even fight, and several blows are exchanged as he engages three enraged creatures, who beat upon him like a drum. Paces feet were placed well and he weathers the first attack well. The aliens circle him, like stalking injured prey. However, Pace was no prey this day and firing one of his jets, he swiftly glides across the dusty ground and plunges his sword into the closest attacker. Pace lifts him up and slices upwards at the same time, and the creature is almost cut clean in two. Blaster fire is now heard in the air and groans from the two giants are heard. The giant creatures were heading for Pace, but now had changed their minds to attack the others up in the stands.

  The Invictus was drawing closer, and the floor rumbled and shook with the running of the two giants, which shook Pace and his foes to the ground. Megan and Talia were high up, and even with the jumping giants below, they were safe from their grasps, for now anyway. The two creatures hammered on the walls which supported the stands, to try to bring them down. Huge chunks of stone began to crumble to the floor. Sam and Nova flew around the monsters like an
noying flies and blasted away at them, not really doing much damage at all, just infuriating the creatures more into a frenzy.

  The rumbling and shaking now stopped, Pace rose to his feet and dived towards the second red enemy and its blood splashed the third attacker in the eyes, and a mixture of red and green melded together in a torrent storm. Pace took several wounds, which were only superficial and went unfelt, due to the healing power of the force of helpers within his blood, and now floating around him warding off the deadly red mist. A tiny war going on unseen within the two mists.

  Standing on the head and crushing it, Pace calmly steps towards the last red attacker, its fangs ready to take blood and its claws full of broken metal. The red fury within it was helping Pace in a way. Being frenzied meant that mistakes were being made. The creatures’ brains were not as large as their masters, and so they just were not clever enough to out-think Pace and his quick moves. The whole crew had become battle hardened now, after fighting these creatures, it was the only way or you were dead. The last red makes its decision to leap at Pace, and turning his back to the creature, he ignites his jetpack just at the perfect moment. The red is blasted in the face with a million degrees of burning heat, and falls to the ground, skin and bone melting, where Pace was just stood. Pace flies through the air, his helmet targeting system going mad at the closest giant, he fires a salvo of missiles off into the air, and like angry bees they attack the tentacles, making them curl up and retract from their work on the wall. Pace can see a gap in the swaying mass of shocked tentacles and lands on the giant’s neck, and quickly begins to stab down into the scales, breaking some scales in the process.

  Nova and Sam keep the other giant occupied. They all know that these creatures will not fall easy, and most of their attacks must feel like flea bites to these giant armoured demons.

  “Captain, brace yourself for a blast.” The voice of Jaro is music to Pace’s ears, and waving at the others and signalling them to hit the floor, a massive bright light almost blinds them all, as a blast from the front of the Invictus evaporates the middle of the arena floor, and the Invictus rises up through the dust and flying debris.

  “Open fire on the two large creatures,” commands Jaro, not realising that Pace is clamped to the back of one. White hot beams of light splash onto the bodies of the giants, cutting and severing tentacles. It is like a meteor storm to Pace, who tries to get out of the way, but is now tangled in a mass of dead flesh. He cannot seem to free himself. The others cry out at the same time to Jaro to stop. Pace is hit several times by friendly fire, before the turret guns stop. Lucky for him, most of the damage has been done to his mechanical arm, which he had used to shield his face with. It buzzed and popped, but he was still hanging on for dear life.

  The other giant turns and begins to run at the Invictus, while the giant that Pace was stuck to falls to one knee and props against the wall, obviously badly wounded and breathing deeply.

  Megan, wanting to help her love to escape, stands up and leaps over the side of the wall down onto the giant below to try to free Pace, but the giant has now got its second wind and grabs at her as she travels down towards its head. Two snake-like tongues wrap around her body and shield, the shield power working overtime to keep her safe. The creature draws her close to its mouth and Megan can see several bodies that lie between its jagged teeth. She thrusts her spear up into its gums and blasts the creature several times. When it loses grip of her, she clambers up over its face, stopping once to stab at its eye with her spear, to give it more to think about, before traveling up over the top of its bald head and sliding down the back of his neck, like a child on a slide. After cutting away a few large pieces of burnt flesh, she can see Pace trying to free himself, but his legs are trapped with the weight of the tentacles.

  “Hey babe, let’s get you out of here and back home, eh?” Megan smiles as she slices at the dead skin, freeing one of Pace’s legs quite quickly. The other giant is almost upon the Invictus, when a second blast from the large gun goes off. The massive burst of energy hits the giant on the right hand side of its chest, and blows off his right arm and half of its body. The giant lets out a mighty roar and collapses to the ground with a shuddering thump and slides backwards across the floor. The Invictus rocks slightly, hovering in the air and then manoeuvres to land on solid ground, and the loading bay door begins to make its whirling sound, slowly opening.

  Megan avoids being clawed by the giant’s large hand trying to scrape her from its body, and continues to cut Pace from the heavy sludge of flesh. As soon as she is done, Pace stands and throws his arms around Megan in a loving embrace, and holding on tight, the two lovers blast off the back of the giant using Pace’s jets, which blister the back of the giant, who is not rising to his feet.

  “Ok, Jaro, lift off. We will fly aboard. Be ready to shut that door and get us out of here.” Pace is flying as fast as he dare, Megan just smiling at him through his helmet. She felt safe again in the arms of her love, something she had missed on the planet. Megan gripped Pace tightly as they turned and met with Anc in the loading bay. They landed on the metal deck and gathered their composure and looked back behind them. The giant that they were fighting was now running towards the Invictus and it was not happy. The large gun on the Invictus was on recharge, but Sam and Nova blast at its feet with everything they have. Sam has Talia hanging on to him, as she had no jetpack like Megan. Talia drops two small detonators onto the giant’s shoulders, that drill into its scales, and as it stumbles and lands face first in the dust, they have a few seconds to get on board the Invictus, greeted by the others, thankful they are all alive.

  Anc presses the door button and the ram begins to close, while Pace and Megan jump into the lift with Sam and Nova and Talia, and head for the bridge.

  “Punch it, Jaro!” yells Pace, wanting to get off this prison. The giant once again rises to its feet and is not beaten yet. Its hooked claws dig into the floor and he sprints off like a runner from his block. The Invictus is heading down the tunnel it had made in the ship when they hear a large bang on the rear of the ship.

  “Anc, see what that was,” orders Pace, as he enters the bridge, followed by the crew. The giant had jumped into the hole and had now landed on the rear of the ship, and had begun to tear bits off the back in anger, trying to disable the ship. Anc reaches the controls of the giant crane arm at the rear of the ship and operates its control panel. The large arm, that was designed to collect salvage, swings towards the giant and crashes into its back, clawing at its wounded back, digging into its flesh and then tearing out a large chunk of meat, and then swings in for the second attack. The second swing catches the giant in the face, gouging its cheek and jaw as it turns to face the arm as it hangs on the ship. The arm begins to retract, but is grabbed by the giant Blue, who is now trying to pull it from its base, but for now the metal is holding, and it is keeping the creature from tearing the ship apart.

  Pace has taken his helmet off and Jaro has given up the command chair. Nova sits next to Titch and takes control of the ship, she had missed her seat.

  “Thanks, Titch, I will take it from here,” smiles Nova. Sam and Talia take their seats and man the turret guns.

  “Is that thing still with us?” Talia looks into her view screen on the turret and presses a small hand held trigger. The two small detonators she had dropped on the giants shoulders explode, rocking the ship left to right. The detonators may have been small, but they packed a hefty punch. The explosions tear away and melt the giant’s shoulders, and it loses its grip on the ship, but finds the arm of the crane with a few undamaged tentacles. It floats behind the ship like a flag flapping in the wind. The crane arm begins to bend under this enormous pressure and the ship controls are heavy. The Invictus bounces off the tunnel walls, many of the decks were on fire and lit the way back down towards the main hanger that they arrived in. A few blasts later from Talia’s turret and the large menace was blown away from the ship and was incinerated by the engines. Nova was in full
control of the ship once more and was dodging falling metal struts.

  “Ok everyone, open fire. Let’s do as much damage as possible on our way out!” Pace begins to fire and the others blast away too. It felt good to be able to blast things to pieces and not be chained up with no hope. Explosions of metal like confetti, were flying around outside the ship, they were indeed doing a fair bit of damage. The mothership was enormous, almost planet sized, so the damage was probably minimal, but it felt good and it was damage.

  “Coming up on the hanger, Cap.” Nova gets Pace’s attention and points at the main screen on the bridge. “The shields are down and we have a window, I am taking it, and here we go, hold on.” The Invictus is jostling around like a spin dryer. Everyone inside is hanging on and all eyes are fixed on Nova and her excellent piloting skill, as she avoids several large pieces of broken ship on her way out of the hanger. Everyone is holding their breaths and gripping their seats and have stopped firing for now.

  “Yeeessss!” shouts an elated Nova. “We did it.”

  Pace looks around at everyone. The happiness is clear across their faces, and for a moment everyone forgets the mothership and the horrors they have all been through. Until reality kicks in with a ship shaking blast from the mothership. The Invictus is pushed forward by the blast and one of the engines has been targeted and was now fluctuating. It was obviously damaged.

  “Anc and Titch, see what you can do in the engine room, please. Nova, get us out of here.” Pace should not have let his mind wander; these aliens never gave up, they were relentless in their attacks. “Get us to the other side of the planet. Let’s see if we can keep enough distance from their shots, and maybe use the planet’s gravity to sling shot us towards the Fahrenheit and the rendezvous point.” Pace and the others open fire on the pursuing mothership. It is slow moving and they may have a chance to outrun it. Lights dart across space and bounce off the shields on the mothership. They had been fixed once more and now, from several more hangers, ball ships could be seen on their scanners and they were approaching fast. Now the Invictus was facing away from the mothership they could not even use their best weapon.