by Rowan Bishop
Frankly, he felt the agitation himself. He’d led the best of his loyal brothers to this far away land, cut off from supplies, alienated from the way of life they always knew. Now they were about to be targeted by an onslaught of forces that now meant he’d led them to their death. Galactic forces were now on the planet, already closing in on Pergamon. Bin Ar-Drezar was moving in, too, an angry father figure come to destroy his unforgivable, disobedient prodigy.
Nothing had gone as planned.
On top of that, Akyra, the first person he’d ever loved, pushed him away every chance she could. Yet it was obvious to him—and everyone else—that they still loved each other.
Is this all we can manage? Can’t we find a way to love each other, even if it’s to be our last days.
For Raemus, he’d been willing to sacrifice himself and whatever else was necessary to fight for the downtrodden people of Minora. Now, he wouldn’t even have the chance to do that. The great cause he wanted to serve, to prove his humanity with, was ripped away from him. That ate at his heart most.
Come on, Xerxus. Show your true colors and fight with us!
Raemus was gathering his thoughts along the forested paths surrounding the abbey, when he saw First Valarae Sergeant Klipssen seated alone atop a massive fallen log, also far away from anyone. He resisted the urge to call out, knowing how much she loathed him. He knew she blamed him for seducing Akyra. He knew she disliked the growing relationships between several humans and Titans.
But she was on her game. And when she heard his movement, she jumped to her feet and tried closing down her tapper without him seeing.
It was too late, however, to hide such things from an experienced Titan. Val concealed something.
Who was she communicating with that she needs to cover up?
Instead of showing the contempt she’d felt for him in the last week, she began acting very odd. “Hello! Captain Raemus? Good morning!”
Oh no. A realization hit him in a flash, as clear as day. She’s going to betray us.
“Good morning, Sergeant Klipssen. Please, don’t let me interrupt your time alone. I know how rare it is.”
“No trouble, captain. It’s good to see you. But… I was just heading back down to the abbey. Please, excuse me.”
With that, Val moved back to the path, heading briskly toward Ishkari.
Of course there’d be a traitor. Why not? But what’s she planning? Who is she secretly communicating with?
He watched her progress down the path, and just as she rounded a stand of trees out of sight, she passed Corporal Clarx Nilsson coming his way.
“Captain Raemus!” Clarx yelled from a distance. “Can I have a word with you? Captain Raemus! Oh my, I’m glad I finally found you.”
What now, little guy? More bad news?
Raemus waved the male Banshee up the path. “Corporal Nilsson, get over here! What’s got you all worked up?”
“Well…” As usual, Clarx was out of breath in Raemus’ presence. “We should talk.”
“We should? Where’s Akyra?”
“No, Captain Raemus. We should talk. You and me.”
Raemus raised his eyebrows at Clarx. He motioned to the same massive log Val had been on. “Have a seat.”
“No… no, I’ll stand, I mean if that’s okay. It’s just… about Captain Roux.”
Raemus felt his heart miss a beat. “Clarx, get talking. What’s going on?”
“Well shit, captain. She loves you.”
Raemus’ mouth opened, but he didn’t know what to say.
Clarx still panted slightly, more nervous than anything. “And you love her, right? Isn’t that what this whole thing is about? I mean, I think it is. You do love Captain Roux, right?”
“With all my heart, Clarx.”
“Okay…” Clarx kept looking away from Raemus’ intense downward gaze, but somehow he managed the courage to keep looking back. “I know you have this great cause you’re willing to fight for. And I know Captain Roux has a career she’s willing to fight for. But it just seems like those things are all messed up now. Kinda? Am I right?”
“It does seem that way.”
“Well then, what the hell are you going to be fighting for when Colonel Weir gets here?”
“What are you trying to say, Clarx?”
“Captain Raemus, we’re all here fighting so you and Captain Roux can love each other. That’s why we’re fighting tomorrow. All of us. All the Titans. All the Banshees. We might not say it out loud, captain, but it’s true. It’s just that, well, you and her need to start doing the same.” Clarx looked him dead in the eye. And held it. “Don’t you think?”
“Thank you, Clarx. She doesn’t seem to want to love me, I’m afraid.”
“You don’t let her, captain. You’ve been so wrapped up trying to find ways to serve everyone else that you don’t let her, the one person who loves you most, serve you back!”
Raemus swallowed hard.
A giant wave of thoughts and emotions slammed into him, and it spun him around. Literally. He looked down the path toward Ishkari.
“Captain?”
Raemus lifted his head and laughed up to the forest canopy. He laughed loud and deep. Then, he turned abruptly back to Clarx, still wide-eyed, not even sure if the Titan had understood him. Grabbing his head with both hands, Raemus planted a big, fat kiss right on Clarx’ forehead. And laughed again, rubbing his stubbled scalp.
“Clarx! You are, by far, the bravest human I’ve ever met! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.”
Raemus strode the path back to the abbey in light, bouncing steps, even jogging occasionally, leaving poor Clarx alone, confused whether he did the right thing—or just completely screwed everything up.
Akyra did the thing she always did the eve before battle: she cleaned and maintained weapons.
They had plenty, too. Personal weapons included simple carbine plasma rifles, kinetic rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and countless shells, recoilless rifles. And of course, the heavy duty turrets atop their two armored troop carriers. If deployed well, those items could hold back an advance force for a minute.
Maybe two minutes.
Not much more.
Her heart sunk even more.
They were all going to die tomorrow.
Then again, each Raptor contained about ten times the firepower of all the Banshee’s weapons systems combined. Since Colonel Weir advanced without waiting for reinforcements from Dehlosse-5, the Raptors were going to be the most powerful assets on the battlefield. But there were only ten. And Colonel Weir came with the entire Sec-Ops division stationed on High Orbit Anchorage.
Maybe they were evenly matched.
But then again, there was the wild card. What was Xerxus going to do?
Shit, maybe he’ll just watch. Or maybe he’ll join Bin Ar-Drezar just long enough to kill us all, then take the Bio-Teck cube for himself.
Dammit.
They were all going to die tomorrow.
Finally, Akyra just laughed. Standing alone in the gun turret of her own vehicle, she put a can of lubricant to her temple, and laughed. She knew she was going to die, and she found the whole thing absolutely hysterical.
“Akyra?”
She spun round to see Raemus standing only a few meters away from her carrier. “Raemus? Hi.”
“Care to share the joke?”
“Just thinking about how we’re all going to get our asses handed to us tomorrow.”
“Hilarious, isn’t it?”
But Akyra’s face twisted, and her eyes clamped shut. Please don’t cry in front of him. Be brave, Little Miss Roux. Don’t cry!
“Sweetheart?” Raemus deep voice never sounded so kind. “Akyra? Come on down. Let’s talk about this, can we?”
Akyra didn’t love at first. Then she nodded, wiping away the few runaway tears. She pushed herself onto the roof and swung her legs over the edge.
Raemus stepped to the vehicle, holding up his arms to catch her.
By then, plenty of Banshees and Titans around the abbey saw them talking. They edged closer, hopeful to hear, for they knew the lovers hadn’t spoken in days. Not out of anger but from a sad, hopelessness. They watched Akyra slide off the armored carrier into Raemus’ powerful arms. Then, they watched as Raemus and Akyra held onto each other, without a word, for a long, long time.
Only a few hours later, the two teams mounted up, beginning to move forlornly away from each other. The two captains barely had a chance to talk, let alone make love to each other for what would have been their second—and last—time. There was still so much preparing to do.
But they didn’t need to say everything. They both knew each other’s hearts. Even during the week they drifted apart, they always knew what the other thought. Didn’t they? At this point, confessing their love openly, in earshot of everyone at Ishkari Abbey, everything seemed be as it should be.
“Do we have a chance?” Akyra had finally asked.
Raemus pulled her close, pressing her head against his chest. “It’s not in our hands, my love.”
Akyra sighed deeply, not mournfully. Just happy to finally, once again be against this magnificent, Titan heart. “Seems The Almighty has a funny way of reminding us of that. Do we pray for Xerxus?”
Raemus just laughed. “I’ll pray for him the second I know what he’s going to do.”
Then, in a few quick whispers, he told Akyra of his suspicions of Val. It wasn’t hard for her to believe.
“Good evening, captains.” Clarx had side-stepped his way to them.
Akyra straightened herself up, quickly pulling her hair back from her face. “Hi Clarx. How’s your prep coming?”
“Fine. I guess.” He looked back and forth between Raemus and Akyra. “Do you think since we’re already up against a shitstorm that I could… you know… maybe this once carry a weapon?”
Raemus smiled and Akyra laughed. “I need you to be my voice to outside world, Clarx.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “You know that.”
“The outside world is here, captain. They’ve come to kill you.”
Raemus’ laugh echoed throughout the abbey and the surrounding forest. A few others laughed, too, revealing just how many soldiers were eavesdropping at this point.
Akyra opened the back hatch of a carrier, pulled out a rapid-fire plasma blaster with an auxiliary grenade launcher attached. She could barely lift it with one arm, but managed to throw it at Clarx. “Don’t go and shoot anybody you know, okay kiddo?”
The weight of the weapon almost took him off his feet, but he merely staggered, the extreme joy of his greatest wish coming true keeping him upright. “Oh captain! Thank you, thank you! You will not regret this!”
“I already do. Now beat it. Glory to The Almighty.”
“Yes, sir! Glory to The Almighty!” Clarx turned with the weapon awkwardly cradled in his arms, leaving the captains just as Akino, Aejax, Rayeley, and Emilia approached.
Finally, an hour after sunset, Raemus and half his team powering up their Raptors and climbing into their vehicles. They were the first wave to move away form Ishkari. They needed to move to terrain that would give them any advantage they could get. And they wanted to get as far away from Ishkari Abbey as possible.
And if he got lucky, Raemus was to find the mysterious leader of the armed, local fighters. And hopefully talk some sense into him.
Akyra leaned into Raemus’ Raptor to kiss him. “When are you going to take me up in one of these?”
“How about the day after tomorrow?”
“Say hello to Xerxus if you find him. Tell him to stop trying to kill me.”
She stepped back from the blast zone of the Raptors thrusters, tucking her hand under her chin as she watched the five Raptors liftoff into the sky, burning the night momentarily blue.
Chapter Twenty
Even the Titans had—as a distinct species—the capacity to evolve in response to an adversarial environment. For Titans, that adversary was the recently dispersed Golems, the horrifying new soldier series.
It was a mistake for church architects to ignore what effect the presence of Golems would have upon the Titans. But the mistake was almost excusable, for the predatory Golems and the rebellious Titans were never supposed to occupy the same galaxy at the same time.
The Scientific Histories Vol II, by Mal Ar-Malen
The advance scouts of Colonel Weir’s Sec-Ops troops made their first strike early the next morning. Nothing too disruptive. As scouts, their job was to lob phosgene oxime-charged shells into possible enemy locations. The reaction of the enemy often revealed information more valuable than direct hits of incendiary artillery.
But the message was clear: we’re here to fight.
Akyra knew Sec-Ops tactics. She’d lived them for many years. But those days were over.
As she began watching the tactical display from the hologram table in Raemus’ converted office in Ishkari, she thought, Knowing what’s coming doesn’t always mean I can prevent it.
And it infuriated her. She leaned over the hologram image with Akino, who’d stayed with half the Titan force at the abbey as a quick strike force.
She grabbed her headset. “Clarx, I need you in the office.”
But there was no reply. She waited five minutes before trying again. “Clarx, dammit, we’ve got a job to do. Let’s go!”
“Captain Roux, look.” Akino scrolled the projected mountains and valleys until a cluster of green and blue circles moved to the center of the table. “Here’s your boy.”
Akyra leaned in close to read the text hovering over the icons. Sure enough, one of them displayed Clarx’s ID. “Dammit, what’s he doing?”
Akino pointed to the other blue circles—Titans in the field—in the same area. “That’s a recon sortie, captain. He’s running with the big boys.”
Akyra’s heart sank. She wanted to be proud of him, but she didn’t like it.
“Don’t worry,” Akino said. “He’s with Captain Raemus.”
“Why?”
Sure enough, the icons for both Clarx and Raemus were next to each other on the hologram, and she estimated by scale that they were within a quarter kilometer of each other.
Please Raemus, take good care of him.
Before she had time to actually get mad at Raemus for stealing her radio operator, Jexica and Valarae entered the office.
Valarae said to Akino, “Can we have a moment with Captain Roux?”
Akino looked at her cooly, then pointed to the door. “Be my guest.”
Valarae tried to puff up in front of the Titan, but the result didn’t achieve much. Instead, they stood there facing off.
Jexica looked to Akyra with pleading eyes.
“Sergeant Akino, please.” Akyra turned slowly to the Titan. “May I have a moment with my team? Please.”
Akino grabbed some gear, saying politely to Akyra, “Of course. Take your time.”
When he was out the door, Valarae started right in. “Captain, we got a solution.”
“What? Solution to what?”
“To all our problems,” Jexica said.
Akyra held up both palms. “Both of you, stop. Wait.” She wanted to talk to Jexica, but rank was rank. “Val, what’s got you worked up?”
“We steal the Bio-Teck cube. Right now. We take it back, and we get the fuck outta here. Colonel Weir is our only chance at getting us off this planet. Maybe back in the division.”
Akyra felt like someone slugged her in the gut. Out of nowhere. She sat down on the edge of the hologram table, dazed. “Steal the Bio-Teck cube?”
Valarae clinched her fists. “We steal it back, sir. It’s ours. Half the Titans are gone. Jexica knows where it’s at, and it’s ours for the taking. We get it back to the colonel!”
“Colonel Weir? Shit, Val. You know him better than any of us. What you do think our chances would be?”
“Good.” She paused. “Great!”
Jexica added, “He probably wouldn’t execute us righ
t on the spot. You know, probably.”
Akyra held up a palm again, pinching the bridge of her nose with the other. “Wait, wait.” The idea was so completely glaring she felt mystified that she hadn’t thought of it. “Give me a second.”
She didn’t have a Titan’s intuition, but all the variables quickly began to fall into place. Distract the Titans, rush the hazardous waste storage chamber two thousand meters away, which is probably unguarded at this point.
“But how do we get away without the Titans being suspicious?”
Valarae stood up proudly, gesturing with her hands. “We have Colonel Weir… come to us.”
Akyra screwed her face at her first sergeant. “How?”
“Leave that to me.”
Akyra’s knees began to go weak, even without the weight of her full body on them. Her breathing slowed, and she began to see spots.
She needed to walk. “Give me a sec, ladies.” And she began pacing the length of the office, hands on her hips, trying to get feeling back to her extremities.
Steal the parcel cube back from Raemus.
She felt physically sick from the words. Not because they involved so much risk, but because they made so much sense. It was the Sec-Ops thing to do.
“Jex, you’re the smartest person on this team. What do you think?”
“Captain, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t agree with Val.”
Akyra walked back to the hologram table, toggling the image to find Raemus again. She zoomed in several times, making his blue icon more distinct from the other soldiers around him. She stared at his hovering ID.
Valarae stepped up. “Captain, what do you think?”
Akyra was so mixed up inside she needed both hands on the table to balance herself. “Shut up! Both of you, just shut up for a minute.” She hung her head and took a deep breath, almost gagging.
Valarae latched onto Akyra’s tone. “Captain, this is fucking ridiculous. It’s the only way. There shouldn’t be any hesitation!”
Akyra lifted her head to Val, who leaned in so close she could feel her breath. Then, she raised a single eyebrow, speaking calmly. “No. We stick to the plan.”