by Rowan Bishop
Raemus and Tomohiko scrambled to get to him, to provide back up, to offer any chance of escape. In the video feeds, Akyra watched the green underbrush blur under Raemus’ furious stride as he tried to close the gap, firing his weapon as best he could toward the red triangles in his visor—and not the lone blue circle.
Raemus and Tomohiko simultaneously entered a clearing in the woods just in time to see Clarx, stranded in the middle, illuminated by a streak of light breaking through the high forest canopy, take round after round into his body armor, dropping to his knees.
The Titans immediately opened fire on the commandos who’d left their own rear flank exposed, killing them all quickly. Raemus continued yelling even after his weapon stopped firing.
When he scrambled to the center of the clearing, he dove to to the ground, grabbing onto Clarx, himself motionless on his knees, leaning slightly. Already dead.
Raemus didn’t need to read the vitals on his tapper. The wide punctures in Clarx’s chest plate told him what he feared. He’d been too late to save him.
Back at the HQ, Akino watched their movements from the hologram table, white-knuckling the controls as he willed Raemus and Tomo to make it in time. Instead, he was forced to watch as Corporal Clarx Nilsson’s icon froze in place, shifting slowly from blue to grey.
Through Tomohiko’s body cam, he witnessed his captain gently lower Clarx’s body to the forest floor, when he detected something he’d never heard before, not once. It was faint. Muffled. Almost strange.
Raemus was crying.
Akino and Emilia both cursed under their breath. Emilia turned to Akyra. “Captain?”
But Akyra wasn’t showing any sadness. Her eyes suddenly looked on fire. She exploded with anger. “Sergeant Peeters, Sergeant Akino. I’m going.”
Akino, always the tactician, asked, “Where? Captain Raemus says it’s better if we stay back and hit ‘em hard when he calls us in.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe I’ve been hanging out with Titans too much. Because, I’m going to do the unexpected. I’m leaving now… to kill them.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Humans do strange things, Korin. Which explains why we do strange things, too.
Rarely do our intentions ever appear to be what they really are. We inherited this complex, irrationality from our human forebears, and we’re stuck with it, an enigma sometimes to ourselves.
Don’t forget, Korin, how Raemus convinced Xerxus to betray Bin Ar-Drezar. On the surface, it made no sense!
The Collected Letters of Sergeant Vixus, Titan Class
The lush, green valley spread open for hundreds of kilometers, marked with deep crevices, sloping clines, a river, and among all that, smaller valleys that divided the whole into distinct parcels. It was within these smaller valleys that each military leader located the bulk of his forces.
To the north, Xerxus established himself on one of the highest points, able to witness the unfolding battle below at his leisure. His command center, a simple round skimmer with enough room for tactical computers and an entourage of trusted officers, hovered far above his troops. From here, he watched the distant Titan Raptors swoop down upon Colonel Weir’s division, brutally retaliating against Weir’s first destructive waves of attack.
The Titans had already taken losses. They’d lost life and hardware. And three Raptors.
He noticed the vagabond Sec-Ops team still in their midst, too, creating their own havoc. The Banshees. Mostly women, strangely. He still had no idea why that was the case. But they took losses, as well. Perhaps their sharp-witted leader was still alive. Perhaps not. Xerxus hoped she was still in the fight. There was thousands of Minorans already preaching about her role in their future. He could use that to his advantage. Which is why he’d made Bin Ar-Drezar promise to deliver her if, if by chance, she survived the day.
That highest representative of the loathsome church was farther back, the scum Bin Ar-Drezar. He had worked with him when he thought there was a chance of taking the Bio-Teck cube for himself.
If only he could harness the power of the newly engineered Golems, already rumored to be more powerful in stature and force than the dreaded Titans. Their technology was advanced, for Golems could be produced full-grown, without the need to raise them as youngsters, without the lengthy, brutal indoctrination methods.
He watched his own hologram displays, representing the battle below. He watched the Titans switch tactics several times, luring Weir’s troops into trap after trap, annihilating them piecemeal. Xerxus smiled at the sight. After all, he didn’t mind seeing The Church’s investments break apart and run in terror.
He knew Raemus. He’d become acquainted with him over the last several years, studied him, appreciated his service to the underprivileged outcasts of Minora.
But he still remained a Titan. Not a human. That single fact kept Xerxus from committing his troops to tip the scale of the battle.
He now knew Bin Ar-Drezar would never hand over the Bio-Teck cube. He knew the only way to secure it for his army was to defeat Raemus himself.
Xerxus rubbed his brow in the heat of the sun. He said to one of his closest officers, who was tattooed head to foot, “At this rate, they’ll kill each other off within the hour.”
The officer replied, “Perhaps that’s a good thing. Then we simply go home.”
Xerxus looked at his display, identifying which icon was Raemus’ Raptor. “No. Today we finally fight for something much larger than ourselves. It would be a shame upon us if we missed such a virtuous opportunity.”
“You sound like Raemus himself, your honor.”
Xerxus nodded. It didn’t feel much like an insult to him. As he watched the ebb and flow the battle, he was still unsure of his next move. He still needed a sign. He still needed to think.
“What the fuck is that fucker thinking!” Tomohiko shouted over the comm from his ground vehicle.
All the Titan leaders hoped this heavy handed assault against Colonel Weir’s forces would convince Xerxus to jump into the fight on their side. But they watched their displays as the powerful mastermind behind the planetary insurgency did nothing. Still nothing.
And it was starting to piss them off.
“Fuck!” Levi shouted back, himself part of the infantry unit pushing toward Bin Ar-Drezar’s battlecrawler. The battlecrawler, a heavily armed, brutally destructive mobile office for Religious Oversight, just became an important target. Levi’s unit was trying desperately to outmaneuver the towering transport because it just began firing explosive shells toward all six of the Titans and Banshee locations.
“Raemus, we need to do something,” Akyra said to her true love over their private channel.
“I know,” Raemus answered from his Raptor.
Akyra embedded herself within Rayeley’s squad. She was deep in the forest, participating in a deadly game of hide and seek with two other Sec-Ops teams, teams she knew by name. There was no reservation about shooting anyone with a Sec-Ops uniform, however, for the battle quickly escalated into vengeful violence. Especially as Akyra had seen Val through a brief break in the dense forest, restored to a new, clean suit of battle armor. She wasn’t for a moment tempted to look the other way.
“You need to connect with him!” Akyra shouted.
Raemus knew that. But connecting with Xerxus seemed an impossible prospect at the moment, especially as he dodged and weaved his Raptor around a continual barrage of scatter flares from Bin Ar-Drezar’s battlecrawler.
Unless…
Akino’s firm voice broke in, “Captain, you’re breaking engagement. What’s going on?”
Akyra looked up though the trees and saw glimpses of Raemus’ white Raptor flying away from the battle. Fast, with all his thrusters wide open.
He was flying north.
“I’m going to connect with Xerxus,” Raemus replied.
Levi responded, his voice muddled while running at top speed and preparing to fire his weapon, “Well, tell him I think we should all be friends
!”
Raemus switched his weapon systems to rockets. “I’m firing on him.”
At least eight voices clamored over the comm at the same time, some Titan, some Banshee, “What!”
Bin Ar-Drezar studied his wall mounted displays to confirm his suspicions. Every indicator showed that Raemus was flying away from the battle toward Xerxus’ northern position.
But why?
No one in the battlecrawler had been alerted to a message between the two, encrypted or not. From all Bin Ar-Drezar could see, Raemus was preparing to attack Xerxus. Alone!
“Friar Blixus, I want all sensors focused on Raemus’ sector. I want to know everything he and Xerxus do in the next five minutes.”
What are you doing, foul heretic? Bin Ar-Drezar thought, lifting a small vial containing a squirming Ghula insect. He shook the vial, pinched the plunger, and drank the juice. His gaze remained on the display. Is this some tactic I taught a younger Raemus? Perhaps years ago?
“But your excellence, we are taking heavy fire from the Titan ground troops!” There was desperation in the young man’s voice, for the battlecrawler was beginning to sustain heavier hits from units hidden within the wide, dense forests of kolach trees.
Bin Ar-Drezar already lashed out in rage several times that day, and he held back no venom from his intelligence specialist on the bridge. He began screaming. “In the name of all the saints and their blood! I will kill you myself if you don’t do everything I say from this moment!” He watched Raemus’ Raptor quickly closing the distance to Xerxus. “If Raemus isn’t dead by the end of today, I will execute all of you for apostasy!”
In a fit of Ghula induced fury, he roared, hurling a touchscreen binder across the bridge against the far wall. He was sweating profusely. Red-stained tears ran down his white painted face, the last dose already taking full hold of him.
Not only had the combined Titan-Banshee force mounted a successful counter attack, but it was obvious they began to divert their energy away from Colonel Weir’s army and toward the battlecrawler.
All of them, that is, except for their leader.
“Your excellence, Raemus is firing on two of Xerxus’ units!”
“What? He’s really attacking? Why?”
Sure enough, Bin Ar-Drezar saw it happen on the display screens.
Two icons representing rockets sped across the screen and disappeared as they converged with insurgency units along a high ridge.
“Ha!” Bin Ar-Drezar was nearly delirious, pulling at his robes. “He’s killed himself. The fool has just killed himself and all his damned followers!” With his screams, he slammed a fist onto the wall display, directly on Raemus’ icon. “Friar Tobin, track Raemus’ Raptor with weapon systems. Xerxus will undoubtedly begin striking the Titan force in the valley.” He pushed his face against the screen, gnashing his teeth on Raemus’ icon, now hovering over another set of Xerxus’ units, completely vulnerable to return fire. “Raemus will be mine. He will be mine!”
“Your excellence, the Raptor is firing again on Xerxus! And we are now sustaining extremely heavy fire from the forest!”
Bin Ar-Drezar wiped his face against the display, smearing white paste and red tears on the organic plexis. He stepped back, holding out his arms. “Damn all of them, I want Raemus!” He spun round to the frightened friars of Religious Oversight, who had only heard rumors of Ghula rage, and never seen it in their highest officer. He screamed at the screen with clenched fists. “Xerxus, shoot him down! Give me… Raemus!”
A tremendous blast rocked the bridge, sending Bin Ar-Drezar, already in the drug-induced blur, to his knees.
“Your excellence, Xerxus’ units are on the move! They’re on the move!”
Bin Ar-Drezar turned back to the wall displays, spittle now flying from his mouth at every word. “Show me. Show me!” He clawed at the white paste that covered much of the display, streaking the images even more until he could make out nothing.
He charged Friar Blixus at the sensor station, ripping him from his chair to the floor. His shouts now competed against the shuddering cacophony of regular impacts from shots from the valley floor. He screamed with everything he had. “Show me!”
Half of Xerxus’ force was indeed on the move, cascading down the valley walls toward the battle. They moved at an incredible speed, and there were a lot of them. Even in Bin Ar-Drezar’s wildest dreams, he had no notion that Xerxus had been hiding such a vast army around the planet.
And they will kill them all. They will kill all the Titans. They will kill the Banshee witch. They will even kill every Sec-Ops soldier under Colonel Weir. And I will breed my Golems, and The Church will have no choice but promote me to the core. I alone will carry the day!
“Sir, we’re tracking artillery bombardment from Xerxus’ command position. Sir, he has artillery in the air!”
Bin Ar-Drezar sat back in the euphoria of the moment, the Ghula drug still burning through his brain. He looked at the screen of the sensor station. He saw the position of Raemus’ Raptor, now moving parallel with Xerxus’ advancing army. Why hasn’t anyone fired on his aircraft? Why hasn’t Xerxus fired back at him? He’s an easy target!
“Your excellence! I’m forecasting the incoming artillery coming at us, sir!”
“What!”
“Sir, we have multiple heavy artillery inbound. Xerxus has targeted… us.”
“But how? Wha—”
Bin Ar-Drezar never finished his last sentence. But in his drug stupor, he didn’t feel any pain, either. Not as the fifteen kinetic warheads, traveling at 2.5 kilometers per second, struck his personal battlecrawler as it lumbered forward, disintegrating every part of its body, including every human inhabitant, in quick succession, into smaller and smaller fractions of matter. The impact sent shreds of metal, dirt, and flesh in every direction. When the black cloud drifted in the wind, only the towering feet of the crawler remained.
Nor did he have any idea Xerxus already directed the rest of his insurgency toward Colonel Weir’s regrouping division.
The armies of the galaxy’s repressive theocracy had no where to retreat. They died courageously, however, fighting ruthlessly until they were all dead. Every one.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Only with each other’s love can we heal.
Only healed can we love and be loved.
That silly little paradox is what makes us human—all of us.
So come to us. Share the wounds in your heart. Come worship The Almighty.
Conversations with Lady Bahar, High Priestess of Ishkari Cathedral
The ceremony would be a simple affair. Akyra and Raemus would make vows to each other, much in the same way humans did thousands of years before. The abbess of Ishkari, the highest ranked member of The Order of Penury, would declare them bonded for life. Just as the couple requested.
Only when they were united as the head of their new Titan-Banshee family would they honor the dead. Just as the dead deserved.
Of those who survived the battle, only Jexica and Alexio were absent from the affair. Along with Xerxus’ intelligence officer, they boarded one of the remaining Raptors that morning, escaped the scanners of High Orbit Anchorage, and rocketed away from Minoran space. The three of them were off to investigate the best way to deal with the Golem threat about to face them.
With the help of Rayeley and Emilia, Akyra Roux dressed herself in a simple red kaftan, embroidered at the neck. It was the most elegant garment the poor abbey could provide, and she graciously accepted. The Banshees put most of their effort into her hair, therefore, working red ribbons into braids that they built into a high crest down the middle of her head. What meant most was the pendant hanging on her neck, Sol’s Hand, given to her at their Shu’ri. For her and all the warriors from Zebra—Titan and Banshee—it was a metaphor to take back from The Church, to restore to its original meaning, a symbol of the galaxy’s future, of their own hope.
Akyra didn’t mind letting the ladies of the abbey and her team wrangle
over her attire for the ceremony. She actually enjoyed that the situation was not in her control.
In fact, she thought she just might be able to get used to it… occasionally.
She also didn’t mind that Xerxus and his high guard joined them for the celebration at the abbey, either. The wildly tattooed man, dressed in his humble black toga to show respect to the couple, had come to their side after all. And he had done so in response to Raemus’ violent reminder that he should value honor above all else. This validated Xerxus in her eyes. He came to their side, after everything, for the very best of reasons.
By the time Raemus came out to the center square for the ceremony, he joined all the cheering, singing children of the orphanage who swarmed Akyra. He also wore red, a simple laborer’s outfit, cleaned and smoothed. It was, frankly, the only non-military thing within a hundred kilometers that would fit over his broad, muscular shoulders.
When he took Akyra’s hand, he said simply, “You look beautiful.”
They removed their shoes, and hand in hand they walked up to the smiling abbess.
In the bright sun of the Minoran sky, among the growing cheers and laughter of children, the abbess began to led them in their vows.
Every Titan and every Banshee looked in awe at both Raemus and Akyra. More so than after their Shu’ri, now they were the spiritual and political leaders of their rebellion. Not because of their ranks or deeds of valor—but because all of them believed in the power of their love.
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