Rebellion (A Titan Romance Book 1) (3 page)

Clarx’s voice broke in, “Outpost Zebra, this is Banshee Leader, we are now receiving
heavy
fire from multiple locations, north and south of our convoy. We are sustaining casualties. We are in need of our escort. What’s the ETA on our escort?”

Akyra was regaining her senses. She pushed up her visor to see better within her vehicle, sucking deep breaths. It was then that, without the distraction of the multiple data feeds cluttering her view, she saw Kudzu crumpled on the floor next to Clarx’s seat. She looked intact, but she didn’t move. Seeing her there, knowing the blast hadn’t blown her clear off the roof, was a great relief to Akyra. This planet crawled with infidels, and losing a soldier during an engagement meant knowing that the body would be, dead or alive, horribly defiled, probably a bloody trophy for Xerxus and his devout followers.

Using her forearm tapper, she opened up her direct link to Clarx. She pivoted her seat toward him again so their knees almost touched. “Clarx!” she shouted in her mouthpiece over the whine of the vehicle’s engines. “What’s up with that escort?”

“Zebra says there’s a delay. Ten minutes.”

Another huge CRACK slammed their vehicle, and the two of them rocked wildly in their shoulder straps.

“
Ten
minutes
!” Akyra yelled, without the need to shield Clarx from her anger. She looked past Clarx’s shoulder to the eight soldiers bouncing in their seats in the rear of the carrier. She switched back over to the team comm, shouting, “Rayeley, I need a turret gunner and a medic up here now!” Then, switching back to her private link with Clarx, said, “This thing will be
over
in ten minutes.”

Akyra opened up the menu on her forearm tapper to the three drones attached to each vehicle. She growled that she hadn’t done so earlier, tapping the controls, sending the drones careening out of their nests to their preprogrammed stations half a kilometer above them. From that vantage, she saw just how bad this ambush, already two minutes old, really was.

Six
more
red triangles lit up within her visor feed, like numbers of an old analogue dial, surrounding their convoy in every direction.

Oh fuck, Little Miss Roux. What have you got your team into?

* * *

A
kyra examined
the readout in her visor to evaluate damage to the rear vehicle. It was bad. Two of the huge drive wheels on the right side titled grotesquely. Which meant it didn’t go anywhere.

Which meant the
whole convoy
didn’t go anywhere.

This is exactly what the ambushers tried to do: disabling one vehicle would halt everyone.

While she tried processing all the tactics and logistics of a firefight going south, other questions distracted her.

Was this ambush random?

Was this ambush a part of some larger threat to her girls or the outpost?

Or worse,

Was this an intentional ambush trying to steal the Bio-Teck cube she was contracted to deliver?

If the last question was true, then the hostiles pounding her location were far more superior than any ragtag, infidel insurgency Colonel Weir outfitted her Sec-Ops team to handle.

Clarx broke into her train of thought, “We have airborne Raptors inbound from the north-east. Looks like our escort’s decided to show up.”

“About time. Get them on the radio.”

Two feelings hit Akyra’s pounding heart.
Gratitude
that her mission still had a chance of success. And
anger
that she hadn’t been able to deal with this threat, while protecting her soldiers, on her own.

That last feeling disappeared when a barrage of rockets from one of the aircraft careened over her vehicle, striking an enemy location to the south, creating huge spires of red dirt, flame, and metal. She wasn’t a young ego-driven lieutenant anymore. When life and death were at play—and especially the success of her mission—winning was winning no matter how much help she received.

Besides
, she thought,
this escort was supposed to be with us!

She checked the display in her visor, watching the carnage of the rocket fire, saying to Clarx, “Shit, I didn’t even know we
had
any enemy
there.”

Clarx added, “That’s what I call suppressive fire!”

“Damn right. Now if only we could roll out of here.”

“Titan’s tapped into our datalink.”

Good
.
At least they’ll see the stats on the disabled vehicle
.

“They’re not following protocol,” Clarx said. “They checked on the stats for the Bio-Teck cube first.”

Two Raptors wailed as they cut low over the convoy.

“Banshees, this is Thunder Company, flight of five Raptors,” a deep, calm voice said over the comm. “You’ve got enemy north and south of the road. We're going to post up on your perimeter and clear them out. Sit tight.”

“This is Banshee Leader Actual,” Akyra replied to the voice in her ear, using the term “actual” when she
actually
spoke for herself over the radio. “Negative on sitting tight.”

Akyra popped open the hatch above her seat and climbed halfway out to watch the Raptors roar into stationary positions, their white hawk-like hulls a terrifying sight to any enemy of The Church. The enemy assailants shifted their brilliant blue plasma bursts upward toward the assault aircraft.

Akyra nodded to the new turret gunner next to her, still relentlessly hammering away at the enemy positions along the north ridge.
No, Banshees don’t “sit tight” very well
.

The ambushers tried to put up a fight, but they were doomed. The Titan aircraft pummeled every one of their locations to dust.

Every direction around Akyra’s convoy was a fury of explosions from rockets streaking diagonally from ship to ground. The convoy became surrounded by violent walls of the dirt, fire, and debris.

It was over in a minute.

* * *

B
y the time
the mighty Raptors settled to the ground, Akyra stood completely on the roof of her heavily built black vehicle, watching the dust settle around her, toggling through the video feeds of her airborne drones. She wasn’t prepared to trust that all the enemy threats had been destroyed.

Through her visor, she also watched canopies open around her as some members of Thunder Company, probably Titan officers, began to dismount their Raptors.

She’d seen Titans before, always at a distance, always far enough to keep the mystery of who these genetically-engineered soldiers were—and what the rest of the galaxy gossiped them to be capable of. But she’d never been this close. Never spoken to one. Never looked one in the eye.

And yet one of them stepped away from the rest. From the two red vertical stripes—curiously painted on in a sloppy way—on his battle armor’s broad chest plate, she identified that he was a captain. Just like her. He removed his helmet as he approached the vehicle that she stood on.

First thing, Akyra was a little surprised he had hair, in fact a little longer than most men she knew. She assumed all men in the service kept their hair, like Clarx, buzzed short.

Then again, these aren’t men.

Are they?

They sure look like men. Incredibly strong… capable men.

Then,
Oh my lord. His eyes!
They were black. Almost entirely without whites.

The Titan captain looked up to her as he approached, staring thoughtfully, as if he were as curious about her as she was of him.

Akyra called out to him before he got too close. “Well hello! You must be our Titan escort!” Her voice was strong and clear, despite shouting through her helmet.

Standing in the dirt, still ten meters away, the Titan captain fixed his gaze on her, pointing to the lopsided rear vehicle, its massive rear wheels smoldering. He called out, “Everybody okay?”

“Oh yeah.” Akyra reached up and pulled off her own helmet to better look at this giant soldier. The cold, arid desert air cut into her cheeks and the sweaty skin on her neck. “We’re all good.” The way this big male stared at her inquisitively made her stomach flutter in a way that was
not
a result of the recent battle.

Hatches all along the convoy opened as Akyra’s red armored soldiers—27 women and 2 men—rose from their vehicles, removing their own helmets, even poor Kudzu who wasn’t going to be the only one to miss
this
sight. All the women wore their hair braided into tails of various colorful designs.

At the same time, the rest of the green armored Titans emerged from their aircraft around the convoy. They also removed their helmets, which in this moment felt like a reciprocal, cordial gesture.

“So,” Akyra said, “You’re our Titans.”

“And you,” Raemus replied. “You must be our humans.”

A low laugh broke throughout both groups.

The two captains locked eyes for a long moment. Then for reasons neither would have been able to articulate at the time, they smiled at each other.

Polli, Akyra’s driver who’d risen through the roof hatch next to her, quickly tried tidying her braid. “Handsome bastards, aren’t they?” Then whispered, “What’s up with their eyes? They’re black.”

Handsome as fuck, actually,
Akyra thought. “Polli, don’t whisper. They’re Titans. They hear everything you say.”

Akyra called down to the Titan captain, “I think you guys just saved our butts.”

Raemus still had a huge smile on his face. “Yes. We did.” His voice was a thick baritone, barreling through the planet’s dry air. “It’s our job, really.”

Polli crossed her arms. “Oh good. They’re funny, too. Who knew?”

Akyra stopped smiling. “A little late getting here, don’t you think, captain? Just saying.” With that, she stepped over her vehicle hatch and dropped from his sight.

R
aemus watched
the female captain drop through the roof of her vehicle, her long brown braid trailing after her. It was another moment before realizing he was still smiling up to where she’d been standing. The vehicle’s driver, with a striking multicolored braid, standing halfway out of the roof hatch, flittered her gloved fingers at him. “Hi there.”

He finally came to his senses and looked away, chuckling at himself.

That female captain was something!

But he couldn’t say exactly what it was that grabbed him so hard by the guts.

Thunder Company’s second-in-command and Raemus' most trusted noncommissioned officer, First Sergeant Akino, walked up behind him. “What, is the whole pack of them good looking? I think my boner’s about to crack through my dick plate.”

Raemus glanced at Akino over his shoulder, a smile barely concealed at the edge of his mouth.
Leave it to Akino to say the things I can’t.
“Seems to be, brother. For once I’ll agree with you on something.”

“Well… now what?”

Raemus turned back to the human captain’s armored carrier, waiting for her to come out to him. “Now? We escort these humans and our Bio-Teck parcel cube back to the outpost.”

“Safe and sound?” Akino asked incredulously.

Raemus motioned with a finger to the convoy’s silent drones high above them, recording and transmitting everything to the military station in orbit, as well as to Bin Ar-Drezar who was surely tapped into the datalink back at the Religious Oversight tower.

He turned his attention back to the human captain stepping from her vehicle. His pupils finally contracted to normal size, but he could still make out every detail about her.
She’s absolutely beautiful
.
I’ve never seen a purebred female walk with such poise!

He finally answered Akino’s question, “Yes, absolutely safe and sound
.
Sergeant, we need to know who these hostiles are and why they tried to get their hands on
our
Bio-Teck cube. Have some of the team start checking bodies.”

Akino began passing on the order into his headset before Raemus finished speaking. Then back to Raemus, “Captain, if we don’t get our hands on that cube, we’re all dead. Don’t forget, these are
humans
.”

Raemus’ spine stiffened. He looked up and down the convoy, at all the well armed humans gawking at him. The hairs on his neck rose.

Do I still detest humans so much? True, the pain they forced me to endure as a child was so long ago. But on a child?

He watched Akyra approach, her red feminine contoured armor shining elegantly in the cloudless sunshine.

Time will never change the fact that my human handlers were wrong: a child does not need to suffer to gain such strength.

Raemus finally replied to his trusted brother. “I know, Akino. Beautiful, yes, but unfortunately for them, entirely human. Bear with me. Our plans have obviously changed.”

Titans may embody devastating force. But humans are cruel and self-serving without limit. Don’t worry, Akino, the scars on my skin will always remind me of my hatred.

Akyra finally joined Raemus and Akino in the light of the brilliant yellow sun, jumping right to the point. “I have an important package that needs to get to Zebra as soon as possible.” Looking up at Raemus, she showed no reservations about the significant difference between their heights. “What are the chances of getting my vehicles there in one piece?”

Raemus looked at her seriously. “You stick with us. We’ll get you there.” He pointed to the disabled carrier. “Don’t know about
that
one.”

“I’m not losing a vehicle.”

“You have extra soldiers to leave for a guard detail? You need to assume your little welcome party isn’t alone out here. And they
will
be back. By the way, looks like someone gave you quite a bloody nose.”

Akyra grimaced, pinching her nose and examining her hand. “Fuck,” she whispered to herself. “Okay, fine.” She pulled a secondary headset from her shoulder segment and slipped it over an ear. She began privately discussing options with Valarae, her own first sergeant, who stood on the roof of the lead vehicle, arms crossed, watching from twenty meters away.

Despite the cold air, Akyra had been sweating during the ambush, and now her smell drifted from the gaps of her body armor around her neck. Raemus knew how potentially distracting a female like this was going to be to
his
mission, his
real
mission. After all, he was designed to be the pinnacle of male aggression and strength.

Church engineers had, in an earlier soldier series, attempted to suppress the libido necessarily accompanying these traits, but such suppression was futile—if not laughable. Powerful males containing the necessary passions of war-making would also be powerhouses of lust.
Which means if a female is going to be as good looking as this one, she’s gonna be trouble to somebody. To whom? Akino? Tomohiko?

Raemus had devoted much of his meditation and prayer to controlling the agitations—and often the rage—that rose against an unsatisfied libido of Titan magnitude. While many of his Titan brothers visited the sanctioned pleasure caravans that would sometimes move through the towns surrounding the base, Raemus practiced controlling his body.

Captain
Raemus was a commander of one of the seven most lethal companies of soldiers across the galaxy. Self-control was one of the most important elements of his success. Sacrificing his powerful libido was, as he saw it, the only way to serve his master, The Church, and those devoted to it. Even as his views of the universe evolved, he was still a servant. His needs were nothing compared to the greater glory of The Almighty.

Then again, he was reeling not only from the smell of this human female, but also from her battle-tossed hair, her womanly-shaped red armor, and even her adorable frown as she simultaneously communicated with her subordinates through her headset and fumbled with her bloody nose.
She is definitely the one in charge of her team, not her team sergeant. That’s rare. I like that.

She regularly looked up to him as she spoke into her mic, and he noticed it with pleasure, giving him an impression he’d never suspected his entire life:
Leadership is very, very sexy
.

“Captain,” Akyra said, “how confident are you that we can reach Zebra without further enemy contact?”

“You’re safe with us. Not likely anyone will tangle with the Raptors when they’re in the air.”

“Listen, I know this is your area of operations, but accurate fire from that distance,” Akyra nodded to where some disintegrated enemies billowed smoke half a kilometer away, “tells me that this ambush wasn’t thrown together by local yokels.”

“Not only were they accurate, but they used energy shields. Not cheap stuff.”

Akyra looked out along the ridge of foothills to the north, turned, and looked south. “Fine. Let’s get rolling, can we?”

“Negative, captain. I’ve got two teams headed out to examine bodies. I need to know who just tried to relieve you of your load.”

“Captain, we need to go. Investigating hostiles is not in my contract.”

“I understand, but I’m sorry. I have a job to do.”

“I’m confused. Isn’t your job to escort my team and its parcel to Zebra? I’ll admit I don’t like relying on anyone else’s firepower one bit, but right now I do. And as much as I want to report to my superiors in orbit
who
tried to intercept my delivery and kill my girls, my priority remains getting my package to Bio-Teck Labs on your base as quickly as possible. Now, captain, how can we make that happen?”

Sergeant Akino grunted behind Raemus and looked away, smiling.

“Captain Roux, I promise you, you and your team—
and
your Bio-Teck cube—will be on base within the hour. I personally guarantee the safety of everyone here.”

Akyra held his stare, obviously conflicted about not being able to call the shots herself.

This fact wasn’t lost on Raemus.
She likes being the boss, that’s for sure.

She took a deep breath, eyes locked with Raemus. “Well…” She bit the corner of her lip. “Do what you gotta do. I guess you’re in charge.”

Raemus unlatched a glove and pulled it off, holding out a hand. “I will take care of you. I promise.” His robust, genetically-engineered heart beat extra hard in his chest at the thought of feeling her bare hand. “My name is Raemus.”

Holding his gaze the whole time—and just a little longer—she pulled off her own glove, and gripped his hand. Hers felt small in his. Not fragile. Just right.

When was last time I touched a female? Purebred or not?

“Okay,” Akyra said. She gave him a half-smile. “Roux. My name is Roux.”

Introductions without title or rank in such situations was outside the norm.

Which was exactly why that robust, genetically-engineered heart felt even more ready to beat right out of his chest.

She’s going to be trouble.