Rebellion (A Titan Romance Book 1) (17 page)

A
kyra and Akino
were once again in the Titan HQ, examining Pergamon from the hologram table. Raemus was back in the field. Half of the Titans were with him. Half of the Banshees operated under his command, too. Rayeley had volunteered her squad, for she always wanted to prove she was ready for a fight.

Valarae was no where to be found. This surprised Akyra, not because she and Raemus both suspected that she wasn’t trustworthy anymore, but because…
Where the fuck could she go?

Ishkari Abbey was almost one hundred kilometers from the large sloping valley Raemus selected for the final battle. Both Colonel Weir and Bin Ar-Drezar’s forces dug in two hundred kilometers farther south.

But the highlight of their morning so far was the new icons that showed up just before dawn. The computer assigned them the color purple, initially projecting the text “Unknown units, unknown loyalty” over them.

Akino had opened his tapper, replacing the text by typing “Xerxus assets, unknown loyalty.” Akyra noted the last two words. So much was hanging on them.

Had Xerxus made any decision in the night?
Akyra rubbed her forehead.
I can’t believe I’m rooting for an infidel psychopath who tried to kill me. Twice.

“Captain Raemus, this is Sergeant Akino.”

Akino switched the comm to amplify through office audio system. “Hey, brother. This is Raemus. Go ahead.” His voice boomed through the air, his deep baritone rumbling within Akyra’s chest. It felt… oddly sexy.

“Okay, I haven’t picked up movement from Weir’s group or Xerxus for over an hour. My guess is that they’re checked in. Ar-Drezar’s assets are basically behind Weir, so they’ve probably combined forces.”

“Copy, Akino. Stay in touch.”

Akyra knew the provisional plan, but one of the most successful strategies of Titan commanders was shifting tactics, often dramatically, in the middle of an engagement.
Maybe this is why Raemus is the only alpha male I’ve ever met who was such a good communicator
, Akyra thought. Being skillful at communicating any changing plans was crucial to staying alive.
So that makes sense.

According to the provisional plan, she had some time to check in with her remaining team, which was Emilia’s squad, Jexica’s sniper team, and Polliana and the other vehicle commanders. As she stepped into the bright Luminara sun from the Titan HQ, she realized how much she counted on Clarx as her radio operator. Even though he’d be mostly silent, doing his job often via his tapper, she liked having him around. There was nothing so gratifying as having a loyal buddy to boss around at whim.

The Banshees remaining at Ishkari Abbey did what any group of well-trained, ferocious badasses would be doing: they were eating. A lot. She found them in the building adjacent the orphanage.

“Captain, any sign of Sergeant Klipssen?” said Staff Sergeant Scarlex Mathus, one of Emilia’s team leaders. It was no secret that Val had gone AWOL in a fit of fury. While Akyra was just as happy to see her go, Val had been the lead non-commissioned officer, and every sergeant felt uneasy without her.

“Sorry, Scarlex. If I knew more, I’d tell you. Scoot over, will you. I’m starving.”

All the women in the make-shift chow hall smiled to each other. Specialist Jaessa Agnersson, the heavy gun operator in Emilia’s squad, gently elbowed Akyra’s good arm. “I bet you are.”

The room erupted with laughter.

Akyra talked through a mouthful of bread. “Nice, ladies. I’m
not
the only one getting laid around here, so I don’t need any special attention. Now eat.”

Jaessa was about to lean in to ask how Akyra’s shoulder was doing when Akino nearly kicked in the door. Everyone spun round to see this opinionated, fierce Titan’s blank face.

Akyra was already on her feet. “Akino?”

“Captain, it’s Corporal Nilsson.”

“Clarx?”

“He’s in trouble.”

Akyra grabbed Emilia by the collar and sprinted back over to the hologram table within seconds. Akino was trying to explain to her, but she could barely hear him as she scrolled the image, scanning unit icons. She mumbled something, whispering to herself. Emilia heard her captain’s fear, herself saying, “No, no, no…”

A handful of red triangles glowed among the friendly icons. As Akyra zoomed in, she saw that the red triangles weren’t just intermingled. They surrounded one of the blue circles. In fact, they surrounded the blue circle with Clarx’s ID over it.

She hammered on her headset. “Raemus, what’s going on. You got Clarx?”

But Raemus didn’t answer. From the position of the icons, it was obvious he and two other Titans tried desperately to close in on Clarx’s attackers.

Akyra dropped onto a bench and opened her forearm tapper, accessing all the commander data feeds, including Raemus and Clarx’s body cameras.

From here, within two minutes, she watched Clarx die.

Some of Weir’s commandos had barged into Raemus’ recon unit, completely by accident. Neither side had a chance to regroup for the firefight. And Clarx, without the experience of years in the field, ended up separated from his group.

And Weir’s commandos took advantage if his mistake.

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.”

T
he 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.

* * *

“
W
hat 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!
”

* * *

B
in 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.