Titan Fleet: The Invictus Part 11

"This is Robert Pembroke, the Governor of Greyfields. Whats been going on here, Rob?" Rob sits in his leather seat, one of the arms hanging down broken, but still he finds comfort.

"Well, Eve happened my friends. They came in and took anything that was any good, along with all the food in our stores. They killed a lot of our people without a care. We have heard that the other settlements have been hit too and many are dead. She took all the resources, where to, I dont know and why I dont know, but I plan on finding out." Rusty opens up his litepad and activates the projector viewer for all to see.

"I will tell you whats going on, Eves plan is simple. The resources here are spa.r.s.e, they have been for years, but we share and we survive. But Eve was not happy with that, she has been rebuilding a t.i.tan s.h.i.+p in the dead zone for years and has had supplies brought in from a mining planet and has kept it all secret. She sent up several s.h.i.+ps to find new planets, I presume to live on, four s.h.i.+ps in total, two salvage and we have just found out that two were wars.h.i.+ps."

Rob leans forward, "You say wars.h.i.+ps, I was not aware of this, nor of the t.i.tan s.h.i.+p, so she plans to blast off and leave us to rot, eh, well I got news for her."

Rusty displays more on the screen. "On the salvage s.h.i.+ps, one of which is our s.h.i.+p, she places military troops for protection, or so she says, but the military teams had planet destroying missiles with them to destroy Foloss after she had left, but we found all this out and put a few spanners in the works. However, in the process we were attacked by a number of large s.h.i.+ps belonging to the blues, I even fought off one blue single handed. The fight was immense and I showed it what for. Well, to cut a long story short, the mother s.h.i.+p is heading this way to kill Eve, due to a bad deal going wrong, where Eve traded people for tech. Am I right on that part, Ca.s.sy? That is what you wrote in the report." Ca.s.sy nods.

Rusty continues, "We may have two days at best, maybe less, I have been asleep since then. This is my Captain, Rob, his name is Pace." Pace walks over to Rob and shakes his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Captain, do you have a plan with all this?" Rob asks. Pace takes control over the litepad.

"I do, yes. Just here is where Eves s.h.i.+p, the Fahrenheit sits waiting for lift off and if what you say is true, she must still be loading that s.h.i.+p with supplies. Now, it will hold a lot of people, tens of thousands at a guess, we need to get aboard the s.h.i.+p, take control and blast off before the blues get her, and not leave a trace, because they will follow us given the chance." Rob clicks his fingers to a woman and tells her to radio the other settlement right away, and with this Ca.s.sy asks for permission to join the woman to radio her husband which Rob grants.

"If they have left Hawkesbury, then they must be near White Crest. I heard tell of a tunnel once there, through the mountains that led to the Dead Zone, but it was the Dead Zone and laws were laws, so I thought it was an old wives tale until now. If we can round up people from Hawkesbury that are left behind, and survivors here and other small farmsteads, then we will have a sizable force to tackle Eve." Rob looks to Pace.

Pace closes down the viewer. "One problem, you have no weapons to deal with Eves guards, there are thousands of them." Pace puts the litepad into the hands of Rusty once more and pats him on the back for doing a great presentation. Rob shares a sly grin and stands once more.

"Many years ago I started to put aside a few things, for if things went wrong and if you follow me, Im sure you will agree we have plenty of fun things for the populace to use." After opening a giant steel door, Rob leads everyone down some metal stairs. They reach the bottom to find another steel door which they open. As they all pa.s.s through, they are shocked to see a large warehouse full of weapons and armoured rovers and jet bikes, along with armoured suits and weapons made for war. There was also a giant lift to raise the floor up to the surface. The giant doors above must have been covered with sc.r.a.p and dust, so went unnoticed to Eves forces and that was why the governors house was so well guarded.

"Now that is nice." Pace is busy eyeing up an armoured rover. He had lost his last one when he fought his first blue. Its large tracked wheels were made for carrying heavy items and sure enough, instead of carrying heavy sc.r.a.p, it carried two twin-linked blasters on the top and the hull was thicker too.

"They are nice, top of the range s.h.i.+elds, cloaking device and can run anywhere. I can see you appreciate great machines. Its yours, take it. I have two anyway and cant drive them both." Rob tells Pace.

Ca.s.sy is looking at a jet bike, which was more her style, and running her hand over the seat she has fallen in love with it. She had followed the group down stairs, when she noticed the room above was empty on her return, after contacting her husband. Rob walks over to Ca.s.sy and switches the jet bike on and starts it up. The engine is loud and strong as Rob revs it up. As he does so, he talks to Ca.s.sy so the others cant hear their conversation.

"Did you contact who you needed? I trust all is well, oh and your captain, why is he half blue? Can he be trusted? I just need to know who I am working with, you see and trust around here needs to be seen. Now, I know he is friends with Rusty, which goes a long way, but I am just doing my job."

Ca.s.sy replies, "Yes, thank you and Norma has contacted some of the settlement and they are making their way here as we speak, she is still trying some others. The blue, well, he is my brother and has been infected by the blues, but he is fine. You can trust him for the rest of your days, no matter what colour he is, it is what is inside that matters, not what you see." Rob nods and tells the group that they can take whatever they want and need as a gift for warning them, and he then walks over to Pace and the large rover, which now Pace is sat up in with the door open. Rob looks up at Pace, who is beaming with joy at his new present and leans in to disconnect a black square object from the underside of the rover.

"Whats that, Rob?" Pace looks down, he is sat quite high up, at least five feet high off the ground.

"Sorry, I was just being safe, because you were blue and I did not know if I could trust you or not. If there was any trouble, I could have made you go boom, thats all." Pace for a second feels insulted that he was not trusted, but then finds the funny side of it, and also understands why Rob had precautions, which was fair enough. He had noticed the device as he stepped up the rungs into the rover, and knew it was a bomb, but wanted to play along for a while to see if Rob said anything.

"I understand, but don't take me for a fool. There is a second one under the arch at the rear, and also one on my sisters jet bike. I think, from now on, we should all just be honest with each other, eh?" Rob realises he cant get much past Pace and agrees with him and taps Pace on his foot that hangs down out over the door, at the side of the rover.

"Agreed. Now, lets press on, shall we. We have plenty to do." Pace turns his back on Rob and slowly steps backwards down out of the rover and down the steps to the floor once more.

"That runner over there, I could use that too, if you dont mind. We have no means for escape if our s.h.i.+p gets into trouble." Rob has plenty of runners and supplies. It is just food supplies that he is running low on.

"Its yours." Rob walks over to two robots stood in their bays, motionless and activates them both. He waits for them to come online and then gives them orders to move things and help where they can, and they move off about their work.

"Pace to Nova, things are ok here, so feel free to come over and grab some supplies and get Anc on repairing damage to the s.h.i.+p. We need to use this window of time to get the Invictus tip-top again." Nova nods and turns off her viewer on her gauntlet and sets the s.h.i.+ps alarm, so that if anyone goes near it that should not be there, they will set the perimeter alarm off. The large doors open above Pace, moving the bits of sc.r.a.p and dust to the side, and the floor lift groans under the weight of the machines it has to bear. It has not been used much in recent times and rusty dust falls down off the humongous corkscrew device, but eventually the floor lifts up to meet land. Pace drives the rover off the lift, along with Ca.s.sy on her bike, both with smiles. They pull up next to Rob.

"We are going to check out White Crest, if we can get close unnoticed, and let you know what we find, ok. We need to recon before we send in the guns." Rob is next to Pace in his rover, the two men shouting slightly at each other because it is still blowing dust around them. They are sat side by side with their doors open when in front of them, just coming in to view, they see a ma.s.s of rovers and jet bikes and people walking.

"There is your army, Rob. We will get going and be in touch soon. I will leave you to explain to the others, after all, you are a governor and it is what you are good at, eh?" Smiling with a cheeky grin, Pace and Ca.s.sy shoot off towards White Crest, leaving two lines of dust in their wake.

Chapter Sixty.

Rusty is busy too. He has commandeered a robot to take components on board the Invictus. His plans are to increase power output and make the s.h.i.+p harder to damage in a fight, something that will pack a punch too would be nice, he thinks to himself. He pa.s.ses a pile of sc.r.a.p and notices an old large tunnel boring blaster. Due to its incredible power, it had to be used from s.p.a.ce where there is no gravity or else one blast would send it off like a shooting star, and would split the planet in two.

"Oh yes, thats the boy. I can modify this. We need a crane, robot, and a few miles of cable." Rusty inspects the old machine. It was a long time since he had even seen one, let alone one working. Yes, it would be extra weight to the s.h.i.+p, but would give an alien vessel a run for its money for sure. The robot had worked fast and in no time at all it returns with a crane, which Rusty fixes metal straps and hook to, and it is ready to hoist its lost treasure up. The metal straps creak and the crane hoists the lump up to the front of the s.h.i.+p, just below the new wormhole dish. Rusty stands on top of it, swaying in the wind, and looking where to place the first welds, to attach it to the s.h.i.+p. The robot holds it steady and Rusty begins work. He wants to impress everyone with his skills as he felt embarra.s.sed by his drunken state.

Nova is also looking around and notices Rusty atop a swinging lump of metal.

"What are you doing to my s.h.i.+p? You go careful up there, ok. What is that thing?"

Rusty shouts back down, "Its a surprise that youll like, believe me." Nova raises her eyebrows and lets the crazy man carry on being happy, as long as the s.h.i.+p is in one piece, that is all that matters.

"Oh Rusty, the rear thrusters need work too, thanks." Nova continues along her way, pulling a hover trailer behind her to carry things back to the s.h.i.+p. After about half an hour of work, she notices a pair of shoes. She cant believe her eyes and looks around her to check that no one is looking at her. When the coast is clear, she scoops up the shoes and stuffs them under her jacket. She cant wait to inspect them later; it has been a long time since she has seen shoes like these. With a spring in her step, she finishes her rounds and heads back to the s.h.i.+p, eager to try on her prize.

The governor is busy greeting people as they arrive and he and his men distribute weapons and share what they have. There are thousands of people now camped out in the area, some small fires are now flickering, the wind has gone and the dust has settled, and there is the sound of laughter and people chatting and babies crying. There was going to be a meeting at 7pm to discuss plans, so people were cooking early and sharing food and stories and it was not yet dark, at 1600 hours there was still a fair amount of daylight left on Foloss to get things done.

Chapter Sixty-One.

Ca.s.sy and Pace are near Hawkesburys walls. These huge walls were built to keep out creatures that would otherwise prey on the people inside. Pace decides to take a quick look around his home, if he could, and maybe pick up a few personal items, but as they pa.s.s through the gates, all they see is death and destruction. Buildings have been destroyed, people litter the streets, bodies broken, burned and dismembered. How could people do this to each other, when there was an alien threat looming? Surely Eve needed every human to trade or fight, but no, it appeared not. They were all nothing but a number to her and as long as she was ok, then people suffered.

Pace and Ca.s.sy leave their rides behind at the gates and wander down the streets towards the market place. The stench of bodies rotting away in the heat of the day was unbearable, so they activate their helmets for fresh air to breath. They reach the market place, which is in much the same way, stalls burned and everything has been looted at the cost of life. They stand in the centre of what was once a thriving city, which had its struggles but is now torn and barren, beaten and lost. The feeling of sadness weighs on their hearts like a sinking anchor, making them both feel sick. How could a fellow human be so destructive to another human? Each person who was dead had family and friends, and for each person dead a hundred people would be in mourning, if they were alive after this ma.s.sacre. Every generation lay together in this b.l.o.o.d.y mess, many people Pace had known for a long time. Hopeful to find survivors, they both press on; searching alleyways, in houses and shops, but everything had been picked clean.

Turning a corner and about the give up on the search, Pace notices a small boy run from one door to another and thinking he had not been seen, he crawls through a hole in a wall into a room.

"Ca.s.sy, over there, look!" Pointing in the boys direction and walking slowly towards the gap in the wall, Pace feels uplifted to know someone had survived.

Poking her head through the gap, Ca.s.sy calls out to the boy, "Hey, little one, dont be afraid, we are here to help you. Come on, we wont hurt you."

A little gentle voice replies from the dark, "No, youre the baddies, go away." Ca.s.sy is used to being called the baddie all the time, but for once if feels good to be a goodie. It was always easy to be bad, too easy in fact, but always harder to be good and do the right thing, and this time had come in her life to help someone. If it was left to her, she would have just come to grab what she could for herself and ran with it.

"No, we are the goodies. The baddies are gone, but they might come back, so we must hurry and go and join the other goodies at Greyfields." There is a small moment of silence and then through the darkness appears a small white face and then another. The two faces seem to float in the air until their bodies became visible, which did seem scary at first, like something out of a ghost story. Ca.s.sys eyes adjusted and before her stood a little boy and a little girl holding hands, the little girl clutching a burnt rag doll. Ca.s.sy could not reach the two children and they stood in safety for a few moments, wondering if they should run into the now open arms of a kind looking lady who they had only just met.

"But you are a stranger and we are not meant to go with strangers."

"My darlings, I am a stranger, but like I said, Im a goodie and strangers are usually baddies and they might try to hurt you, but I wont. Now who wants to see the big rover and go for a ride?" The little boy is a clever one and poses another question, "My mummy said that a stranger will sometimes say 'do you want sweeties? or 'do you want a ride?, and mummy said to always say no." The children take one step back. Fearing that she might lose them, Ca.s.sy sets her gauntlet to stun and takes it off.

"See this, well this is a blaster and only adults use these. If I was a baddie, I would have shot you, but you can use it on me if you think I am a baddie, if you want, but please come out so we can take you somewhere safe." Ca.s.sy tosses the gauntlet into the room and it slides across the floor kicking up dust as it goes, until it stops at the boys feet.

"Wow, a blaster, a blaster!" Never in the boys wildest dreams did he ever think he would get a blaster. He hurries to put it on his forearm. It is far too big for him and fits his whole arm. He points it at Ca.s.sy, not knowing how to use it. He begins to walk towards Ca.s.sy, still holding his sisters hand. They push Ca.s.sy out into the street, Ca.s.sys hands up it the air in submission. As the children step out, they notice a man with a robot arm and some of his body is blue, he too has his hands up in the air. Panicking slightly, they become worried and run towards Ca.s.sy and throw the gauntlet on the floor and grip tightly at Ca.s.sys waist for cover.

"Dont let the monster hurt us. We are sorry we did not come out." The little girl covers her eyes, but still squints through her fingers for a look at the man creature.

"This is my brother and he is a special goodie, with special powers and you never guess what, he owns a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Do you see the blue scales? Those are magic dragon scales to protect him from baddies. Do you want to see? Come on, Ill show you. Look Ill pick up my gauntlet and you will be safe." The two young children hang on to Ca.s.sys waist like stubborn barnacles. The children reach out to touch Pace, who has now knelt down so they can see better, and once they have felt his scales on his face they seem happier with the story that Ca.s.sy had told them.

"You must be hungry, here eat this, its chocolate." Ca.s.sy pulls out two bars of chocolate and the children are happy and dont even notice the dead bodies around them.

"Hey, you two want a piggy back ride to my rover?" Pace winks at Ca.s.sy. They need to be leaving and still try to get a look at White Crest before returning to camp. The two children need no second offer and are on Paces back as fast as the wind, he carries them to the rover and they clamber off him and up the rungs into the rover.

"Now, dont touch anything ok, be a goodie and not a baddie." It was meant to be that we stopped here, Pace thought to himself; the children would have died if we had not. Now it was on to White Crest with haste, they had spent a fair bit of time there.

The engines roared and they set off once again, leaving trails of dust behind them and not looking back.

"Why dont you go over to that screen, see the one at the back, and press the big blue b.u.t.ton and play a game if you like. Do you know how to use it?" Pace looks back quickly, trying not to take his eye of the road.

"Have you got 'Spiron the Great on it?" The young boy is very adept and in no time the children are occupied. The two vehicles travel for a while and pull up at the base of a small hill. Pace powers down and tells the children to carry on playing, but they were engrossed anyway, so it was ok to leave them for a few minutes. Ca.s.sy and Pace climb up the sandy hill and lie on their bellies and look across at White Crest, and sure enough it was a hive of activity. There were loaders moving slowly about their duties, guards everywhere and supply crates by the hundreds being taken from the village out the rear towards the Flovian Mountains and the Dead Zone.

"There goes the neighbourhood then, out the back door. How nice of them. We need to get a better look at the entrance in that mountain, any ideas, Ca.s.sy?" Ca.s.sy is looking through her eye reticule just like Pace. She zooms in at maximum, but only just makes out a large rock that seems to have been moved in the distance and a glimmer of something entering next to it. It must be a tunnel, and they had disguised the opening of it with a rock to blend in with the mountain.

"Well, I could try to get through as a loader or I have another idea, but you wont like it." Pace, not liking the idea already, looks at Ca.s.sy and shakes his head.

"Does this involve another of your crazy plans, and me getting beat up?" Ca.s.sy giggles and slides down the hill so as not to be seen. Pace joins her, "Go on then, what is it?" Ca.s.sy is worried to say because it might just work, but it will make her brother feel uncomfortable in the process.

"I dont want to make you feel bad and you cant help that you are changing, but I could take you straight through as an alien prisoner for Eve to experiment on, and once through the tunnel we could plan our a.s.sault from there. What you think?" Pace once again looks at Ca.s.sy. It was just like old times; she always got him in trouble, but he was the older brother, it was his job to keep her safe and that should never change, even when you are grown.

"Ca.s.sy, I think it is a great idea and probably the only one that will work. We will need to make you look like an alien slaver, but I noticed plenty of things along the way we could use. I will go and set the auto-pilot on the rover to take the kids back to Greyfields, they will be safe in there Im sure, and then we can put the plan into action. You contact Greyfields and let them know our plan." Ca.s.sy gets on her bike and begins to contact Greyfields, while Pace tells the children about their small trip, but the children are still playing their game and dont even notice Pace talking to them and before they know it they are on their way, plastering Pace in dust as they race off. Pace joins Ca.s.sy again. She has contacted Greyfields and they are ready to receive the children and making preparations for the upcoming battle. Ca.s.sy has also found some ideal clothing for the slaver job and they are ready.

"I will ride my bike in and you will be chained to it. I thought I would cover that arm of yours and part of your body with this brown tarp, because that is a dead giveaway for a start." Ca.s.sy throws over the tarp and they tie it off around his arm and now he looks more alien than before. Pace hands over his gauntlet to Ca.s.sy and she packs it in her bag on her back, along with a few explosive charges and other bits and bobs to get them out of a jam if they need it. Pace looks down at his human arm, which now also seems to have a blue tinge to it. He notices on the palm of his hand a large lump with a hole in it. He felt it opening and closing, but it did not feel out of place, which was not a good sign. Was he becoming used to being a blue and what human did he have left in him now, he wondered. Ca.s.sy, noticing the sadness on her brothers face, tries to comfort him.

"When we take Eves s.h.i.+p, we will get the scientist aboard to sort you out, brother. I know it must be hard for you, but you will be ok. Just believe it, see it and achieve it." Pace smiles and puts a brave face on the whole situation, like he always did, and holds out his hands to be chained to Ca.s.sys bike.

"Lets do this, and no matter what happens to me, you get on that s.h.i.+p and blast off and save these good people or we have lost everything for nothing." Pace tells Ca.s.sy. "I will always be your brother, Squirt, never forget that, and I love you." Ca.s.sy hugs her brother before mounting her bike, her heeled leather boots clicking on the pedal.

"Aww, dont get all mushy on me now, brother, we got to get our game faces on, and try not to get beat up this time, that blood would be hard to wash out." She winks at Pace and kisses him on his cheek. Pace smiles and begins to walk alongside the bike at a gentle speed. It would not be long and they would reach White Crest.

Chapter Sixty-Two.

Rusty finishes off the last few welds to the new gun on the front of the Invictus and then goes inside to start the wiring job. Sam is outside talking to some scientists about the toxin knives and hands them a copy of his findings so they can make a batch.

"We have not yet tested it on all types of blue, but it has seemed effective so far. Its like acid to them, but as I said, their mother s.h.i.+p is heading this way and time is of the essence, so I would get cracking if I were you." The group wonder off into a building and begin work. Sam spots Padley, who has converted a goods truck into a mobile hospital and she is busy treating patients, along with an older medical robot. A lot of the wounded have come for help, lucky to be alive. Stories float around like whispers on the wind, stories of wrong doings and inhumane acts of violence swell peoples heads with anger. Sam stops a family of travellers, the grandfather injured and beaten.

"Who would do this to you? Here let me help you over there to that truck." Sam grips an arm and helps guide the old man over to the makes.h.i.+ft hospital. The man on the other side of the old man speaks, "The Thorn Guard did it. They just came into our village and began to shoot the place up. Many are dead, but that was not all they did, they tortured people in the streets and raped them. I saw people being run over by trucks, over and over again, it was insane."

The woman behind them, who was carrying a baby wrapped in a towel, mutters to herself. "Well they are all ex-prisoners."

Sam looks over the old mans shoulders, "What was that?" The woman checks her baby and looks at Sam.

"Oh yeah, the Thorn Guard are all murderers and thieves and sc.u.m of the earth. They experimented on them all and now are able to control them somehow. It was man power that they could use instead of them being in prison you see, very clever and they make a perfect army, because they are totally controllable."

Sam rea.s.sures the family in a gentle voice, "Its ok, you are safe now, and they will be getting a few surprises I can tell you. Just make sure you get rest. There is a kitchen over there for food too." Sam reaches the hospital and helps the family up into the truck, where Padley nods and gets to work.

Chapter Sixty-Three.

Nova has now been on and off the Invictus a few times with things she has found, and is doing a flight check, making sure the s.h.i.+p is in tip-top condition. She bends over to clip a pipe on one of the landing legs, only to hear a wolf whistle from behind her.

"Now that is a sight for sore eyes!" A well-built man is staring at Novas behind. She recognises the voice and turns and stands, at the same time tugging down her short skirt and pulling off her baseball cap. She runs her hand through her blond bob, ruffling her hair.

"Len, is that you? Whats with the muscles? Youve beefed out a bit since uni. Wow! You look hot yourself." Novas cheeks are beginning to turn red.

"I thought it was you. I would recognise that rear anywhere, and those legs that just keep going. Umm, sorry I am thinking out loud again!" Nova giggles, then walks up to Len and gives him a peck on the check and then holds on to his hand.

"You say all the nice things a girl needs to hear, Len. The last time I saw you, you were a skinny, long-haired kid, following me around like a puppy." Len, surprised at the warm welcome he has received, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a photo encased in plastic.

"Remember this? You never went out with me, no matter how much I tried, why?" Nova looks at the photo. It was the two of them at a party, dancing arm in arm.

"I remember that night; we danced till our feet fell off. I guess you were just not my type back then." Nova hands the photo back to Len.

"So what about now, Nova? I have changed, and the chances of us meeting are a million to one, and war is coming." Nova begins to think about the old days and the men she has had in her life. They were rough and bad men, with no honour to them at all. She knows Len was a safe bet. He was kind, caring and would do anything for her. He used to buy her presents and wow her like a real man should. He had protected her a few times and was more of a best friend than a boyfriend, but Nova was not the settling down type, she liked to feel free, even though the last few years she had not been with a man, and not wanting to miss the chance she moves in and kisses Len smack on the lips.

"Len, you are my type, but lets just say for tonight I dont need relations.h.i.+p, I just get hurt, but I could use a whole load of loving, if you know what I mean." Nova kisses Len once again and he kisses her back.

"Well, Nova, it would be a great way to go out and any hot blooded man would be a fool to pa.s.s that a.s.s up, and it would appear good men dont come last after all." Nova reaches around the back of Len and grabs his b.u.t.t.

"Yours is not bad either, babe. Now, how about I show you around on my s.h.i.+p." The lascivious couple eagerly enter the s.h.i.+p and pa.s.s Rusty on the way.

"Hey, Rusty." Not wanting to stop, Nova drags Len past Rusty at a hundred miles per hour in a blur of colour. Rusty lifts his head and they are gone before he can answer. Rusty smiles and carries on with his work. Nova takes Len to her room and closes the door. She begins to undress him and he undresses her at the same time, both rus.h.i.+ng for their prize. Just as Nova is taking off her gauntlet, the screen flickers and an incoming call is waiting to be answered. What bad timing, Nova thinks but ignores it; someone else can answer it this time.

Chapter Sixty-Four.

Sam looks around him. There are thousands of people, most of them farmers, sc.r.a.ppers and none of them fighters, but one thing stands in their favour, they are all survivors and they will keep on surviving and they will win. He notices the governor standing on a truck bonnet getting ready to say something, so Sam moves in closer to hear him.