by Rowan Bishop
“Okay. Did you… see it in the dark?”
Akyra grunted, shook her head, and yanked more cable slack for Polli, who didn’t need it. “No. I didn’t.” She wiped away her smile permanently, letting Gayla know the conversation ended. Because she also didn’t enjoy lying to anyone on her team. Truth was, of course she saw it in the dark afterwards. And it was awesome.
Once Gayla moved on, Akyra heard Polli laugh under the carrier.
“Shut up down there.” Akyra kicked one of Polli’s boots sticking out from under the carrier. “You get no answers, either.”
That was when the low, steady voice of Alexio, lead sniper for the Titans, came over the comm. “Captain Raemus, we have a single person standing in the grass field half a kilometer south of us.”
Akyra slipped her headset into position in time to hear Raemus respond. “Copy, Alexio. What else?”
Being the Titan sniper, wherever Alexio perched himself to provide overwatch while the teams went about their vehicle maintenance, he was in the best position to see. “Just a guy. Standing in a field with a hood wrapped around his head. And a walking stick. He’s got a rifle of some sort slung over his shoulder. But it doesn’t look like he wants to use it. Kinda looks like he’s just waiting for something to happen. Can I shoot him?”
“Just a local with dangerous sense of curiosity?” Raemus asked.
“I guess,” Alexio replied. “There’s not even a smugglers' depot within a hundred kilometers. That’s one hell of a pleasure stroll. Maybe I should just shoot him.”
Akyra interrupted, “Captain Raemus, this is Captain Roux. I’m sending up a drone. I’ll open the feed to you.”
“Sounds good, captain.”
But by the time Akyra had the drone airborne, she’d stood up to look down the convoy for Raemus, and to her confusion, she saw several of the Titans looking in the opposite direction from the solo figure in the field.
They were looking up into the boulder field.
What are they looking at? Why aren’t they talking on the convoy’s comm channel?
With her human eyes, she couldn’t make out anything. But when she looked to her tapper’s video feed from the drone, whose A.I. knew to actively seek threats and targets, she saw the main camera quickly pan to the boulder field—where six red triangles sprung up on the display.
Oh fuck.
“Banshees, this is Roux, we’ve got possible hostiles in the boulder field, quarter kilometer to the north, six maybe more.” She tried reading data from the drone feed as she ran to her side of the carrier to grab her helmet and carbine rifle, but most of the drone’s sensors were blinded by what were surely energy shields.
So close to a military convoy, the mere presence of energy shields were enough for the drone—along with every Banshee and Titan—to consider them a threat, whoever used them. Whoever just sneaked up on their right flank could only have one intention.
No way I’m letting whoever you are take a shot at one of my girls!
However, the first round of the brief firefight struck the front corner of the carrier, only a quarter meter from Akyra’s head.
Even with her helmet now on, the sound startled Akyra, and she jumped back, seeing the fist sized chunk missing from the carrier’s armor plating. She barely had time to spin and squat all the way down behind the carrier before three more rounds banged into the front corner of the vehicle, barely missing her again.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” she yelled into the comm, much louder than she meant to. But then, this mysterious enemy almost took her head off, so she forgave herself this time.
She flattened herself against the carrier’s massive front wheel, trying to control her breath.
“They’re targeting Banshee Leader,” Alexio announced through the comm, still a voice of calm. “Again, they are targeting Banshee Leader. Front vehicle.”
Well shit. I think he’s right.
Akyra pushed her head down under the troop carrier to look for poor Polli, who was, sure enough, sprawled as flat as she could be, looking up to Akyra, panicked. Akyra said nothing but put out her palms: stay there, don’t fucking move.
Staying as low as possible, she edged toward the rear of the carrier, trying to get a visual on anyone else. Several seconds later, Rayeley, Jexica, Clarx, and six other Banshees, simultaneously deciding that being in the open was not the best course of action, joined her.
“Hey captain,” Rayeley said, slumping next to Akyra, sliding up her helmet visor. “I think the hostiles are trying to shoot you.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“What assholes.”
Akyra asked, “Did you see what Raemus’ team is doing?”
“Yeah, looks like they’re trying to shoot them first. Where the fuck is Polli?”
Akyra smiled, thanked The Almighty for people like Rayeley, and then pointed under the carrier.
Rayeley bent all the way down, looking underneath. “What’s up, Polli! What the fuck kind of soldier gets pinned down under a vehicle during a firefight?”
Akyra leaned down, too. “Stay there, Polli.” She toggled her visor to display the feeds coming in from not only the drone but also any of the soldiers up and down the convoy.
Six red triangles still loomed within the boulder field.
Valarae, Emilia, and seven other Banshees had begun moving into the boulder field, struggling to maneuver around or under the huge natural obstacles without exposing themselves.
By now, most Titans were armored and helmeted, themselves beginning to move in a coordinated way along the edge of the boulder field. Half of them moved left, half right.
Looks like Raemus is going to outflank our flankers.
The Titans that remained with the convoy stayed on the far sides of their vehicles, for even the fearless Titans knew better than to poke their heads up when enemy snipers were involved.
Even if they’re really bad shots.
Raemus' voice came in through Akyra’s headset on their personal channel. “Akyra, you okay?” It wasn’t the calm, self-possessed captain she’d been getting to know.
He sounds pissed!
“All good, Raemus. Me and a couple ladies are kinda stuck here. What’s the plan?”
“These guys just tried sniping you. I’m going to kill them, that’s my plan.”
Well… can’t argue against that.
“Hey Raemus, when this is over, I think I’m going to finally ask what’s in that Bio-Teck cube.”
Raemus didn’t answer right away. “Yeah? What makes you think I know.”
A few more heavy rounds smacked into the other side of Akyra’s vehicle.
Rayeley looked at Akyra inquisitively. “What’s he say?”
Akyra reached up and covered her mic. “You were right. He’s gonna kill them.”
Rayeley slapped Akyra’s armored shoulder. “Fucker’s in love.”
Akyra kept scrolling through as many feeds as possible. “Shut up, I’m trying to watch out for Val.” Akyra’s voice lifted and took a stronger tone, “Val, you using the drone feed?”
“Affirmative, captain. We’re moving up through the boulder field now.”
“Okay. Val, as far as anyone can see you’ve still got only six hostiles. And they’re not moving.”
“Copy.”
“Also, you’ve got Titan support twenty meters to your left and right.”
Why aren’t the hostiles moving? And if they’re trying to snipe us, why the hell do they keep firing at nothing? That’s only going to make us keep cover. Doesn’t make sense.
Akyra was just about to check in with Raemus, who, like her, stayed back to coordinate the advance of his soldiers, when the situation changed entirely.
As if the enemy waited for enough Titans and Banshees to move into boulder field—and away from the convoy line—they began a suicide rush over the boulders toward Akyra.
It happened very quickly.
The enemies, cloaked in their powerful energy shields, were nothing b
ut a blur as they leaped along the top of boulders, dropping down when Titan or Banshees fired their kinetic weapons in loud, cracking bursts, brilliant in the dusk light. Plasma weapons were too dangerous with comrades among the boulders.
The enemy’s objective was immediately clear to everyone: rush Akyra’s position with explosives and manually detonate them.
And the quarter of a kilometer between them and Akyra shrank fast.
Occasionally, muzzle flashes erupted from within the boulders. Green circles in her visor assured her that everyone was alive and still moving. But three of the red triangles stopped advancing along their routes, hopefully dead.
“Get Akyra cover!” Raemus shouted angrily over the comm. “They’re moving on her! Cut them off!”
Rayeley and the other Banshees, realizing it was do or die, climbed the sides of the carriers, sticking their heads and weapons over the top to get a bead on the whatever came at them.
They fired immediately as the remaining three blurs vaulted around the last line of boulders directly toward Akyra’s position.
In a flurry of horizontal movement, four green armored Titans leaped in front of Akyra’s vehicle, catching the hostiles mid-flight and yanking them with tremendous force to the ground—only to have their suspicions confirmed when one of the cloaked men detonated his explosives.
The shock wave ripped across the front of the convoy, and Akyra felt the impact like someone had dropped her from a three-story building. The four Titans who saved Akyra under Raemus’ orders took the worst of it. And when the low echo of the blast finished rumbling along the boulder field, tumbling into the forests of the rising mountains above them, those Titans were covered in white dirt. And lying very still.
Akyra scrambled all the way atop her carrier and looked over the edge to the other side. She put a hand to her mouth, trying to suppress a gasp. Oh no! Please no, no, no!
There was stillness for a moment. The sounds of shouting within the boulder field. The thumping of Raemus’ boots as he ran up on the scene.
Finally, one last shot cracked the air as Alexio shot the lone figure in the field, ending the engagement.
Raemus sat alone, stewing in his frustration twenty meters away from anyone else. He’d ordered every available recon drone airborne while they finished refitting the vehicles and—more importantly—tended his four soldiers that survived with only minor injuries while tackling those… fuckers who tried taking out Akyra! Titan armor was designed to absorb some of the concussive energy from such explosives, but it was far from perfect.
Nothing was going to get in their perimeter tonight.
Akyra at least attempted to walk up quietly, but there was no such thing as sneaking up on a Titan. Especially not in armored boots. While walking on gravel.
“Well…” she said, “it’s not the first time someone tried to kill me.”
Raemus stood, first taking her by both hands, then stepping forward to wrap his arms around her. “Dammit, Akyra.”
For five minutes they held onto each other in silence.
They moved to a boulder overlooking the convoy line and, sitting next to each other, they quickly discussed the obvious points of the engagement: It was a suicide mission from the get-go. The enemy had cleverly used the tricky boulder field to lure soldiers away from Akyra’s position. They’d intended to use the explosives all along. If Raemus hadn’t foreseen the possibility of the final rush, then Akyra would be dead. Also, they wore energy shields just like the enemy used in Akyra’s first ambush—which were extremely expensive and hard to acquire.
Akyra added, “And who the fuck was that creepy loner on the field?”
Raemus shrugged. “Would you still dote on me if I say I don’t know? I’m more curious how he got there without Alexio seeing him.”
“I’d settle for you telling me what you do know. Like what do you really know about the Bio-Teck cube.”
Raemus scratched his forehead and looked away.
“Raemus. Talk to me. What do I need to know?”
Raemus shifted on the boulder toward Akyra. “Okay. You want to know what’s in Bio-Teck’s specimen cube? Okay, I’ll tell you.” He rubbed his scalp and tucked his hair behind his ears. “The new series of man-made soldier is inside that cube.”
“What?”
“Inside every Bio-Teck cube—sent by Sec-Ops courier to every outpost in the galaxy with a Titan company—is the next generation of genetically-engineered soldier.”
“Must be really tiny soldiers.”
For the first time, Raemus didn’t laugh at Akyra’s joke. “Or at least enough genetic material for labs on base to incubate full grows. Smart-ass.”
“Holy shit, Raemus. Why the hell didn’t you tell me this?”
Raemus narrowed his eyes. “Because you tell me everyday that you don’t want to know.”
“Then… what’s wrong with the current generation?” Akyra leaned forward to look him in the eye. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Want the short story? Irregularities started showing up.”
“Like you care too much?”
Raemus did laugh this time, completely surprised by her perceptiveness.
“Close to it. Pre-Titan generations were engineered with qualities similar to us: heightened senses, heightened cognitive skills, environmental adaptation, heightened levels of aggression and reaction… nothing you probably don’t know about. But what really sets Titans apart is what Bio-Teck calls Profuse Value Assimilation. Which is just fancy talk to say ‘intuition.’ Augmented intuition. We can feel our way through most situations based on very small details that most soldiers—humans in particular, sorry—would overlook.”
“Smarts, good looks, and intuition?”
“The point of a powerful intuition is battlefield dominance, nothing else. At least, that’s the idea. Any good commander, like yourself, knows the importance of intuition when plasma blasts start popping all around, and you can’t think straight.”
“Sure. Intuition is faster than thinking.”
“Problem is, it turns out that if you create a bunch of highly motivated soldiers, give them heightened aggression and determination—but you also give them the ability to intuit the universe they’ve been thrust into: one out of every twenty Titans will start intuiting too much. Like we start placing value judgements on our missions. Or on our targets.”
“The exact opposite of why The Church created Titans in the first place.”
“Last thing church architects want are big soldiers with big weapons, figuring out that they don’t quite believe everything they’ve been told. Especially once they realize they don’t like being told what to do.”
“I take it you’re one out of twenty?”
Raemus waved a finger at a few of his guys standing security. “All these Titans… all of them are. Taken me a couple years to pull them from other stations around the galaxy.”
“The Titans left back at Zebra?”
Raemus shook his head. “Some of them are just in too deep. Maybe they can’t shake the grip of Religious Oversight. Maybe they tried to imagine a lifetime of thinking for themselves and didn’t much like it.”
“Will they turn against you if Bin Ar-Drezar orders them to fight you?”
“Doubt it. Bin Ar-Drezar is too smart to bring them anywhere near us, just in case they change their minds last minute. I bet he’s got them on base lockdown. Maybe he’s already lifted them to High Orbit Anchorage. That’s what I’d do.”
“Can’t imagine Titans would be okay with that?”
“Remember, most Titans are really good at taking orders.”
Akyra examined Raemus in the final moments of the horizontal sunlight, before the local sun drifted below the wooded mountains of Pergamon they planned on pushing deeper into the next day.
Then, she turned her attention to the Titan medical specialists making their rounds among the large, stoic, wounded soldiers who’d saved not only her life but those of Rayeley, Polli, Clarx,
and six others.
Most of the wounded Titans were already being tended by Banshees. Polli held the hand of Tomohiko, whispering to him sweetly, in comforting tones. Rayeley, Emilia, and Gayla were there doing the same, but Akyra couldn’t see who was with whom.
But there was no denying it anymore, they were caring for their own Titan sweethearts.
Raemus pointed to the makeshift field hospital, mostly expandable cots and dim lights, where he also saw the Banshees tending his wounded brothers. “Your team is a very special group of ladies.”
A warm feeling filled Akyra’s heart. She knew they were special, and it gave her immense pride to hear him acknowledge it. “You know, we do have two men on the team.”
Raemus chuckled. “Like Corporal Nilsson?”
“Yeah, Clarx.”
“I like him. He’s very dedicated to you.”
“And I’m very dedicated to him.”
“Akyra?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s not a lot of humans out there like you. You lead with kindness and caring. You look at me with kindness and caring. I don’t get that a lot from humans. Not purebreds, anyway.”
“What about the townspeople back in the desert? During our Shu’ri, I never experienced such hospitality.”
Raemus looked sideways at her. “Not purebreds. Not like you,” he said. “Most people on Minora—just like the rest of the galaxy—are spinoffs from tangent genetic projects hundreds of years old, if not older. Most of these people are just… lost, forgotten experiments. And they know it.”
Raemus leaned into her shoulder, happy to feel her press back.
Akyra leaned her head against his arm and sighed. “So Raemus, how do you know so much about humans?”
“I study you.”
“You spy on us?”
Raemus laughed. “Books, Akyra. My tapper is loaded with more books than I’ll ever be able to read.”
“Oh.” Akyra laughed, too. “Right.”
“Humans have a long, sordid history. Lots of violence. Lots of painful politics. But a long time ago, in the time before the Sol system was forbidden, every crisis humanity faced was met with a powerful altruistic force that set everything right.” He paused. “It makes me wish I had a history like that. Not the violence. I get plenty of that. But the kindness, the caring. A long time ago, unconditional love, that was the greatest virtue of all, the one that made humans human.” He paused again. “I wish… I wish I had that.”