Rebellion (A Titan Romance Book 1) (6 page)

W
ith Raemus’ kiss
still vibrating on her lips, Akyra slid her headset into place. Clarx’s voice, so young and thin compared to Raemus', rattled in her ear. “Captain, just got word arachnoid-drones are
inside
the wire.” He was obviously running while radioing in his update. “The base’s been infiltrated.”

“Yeah, I got that. Lucky it’s a big base.” During the time it took Akyra and Raemus to race up the stairs—Raemus unnecessarily holding her hand—to the barrack’s roof, Akyra reached her squad leaders online, ordering some to post up on the ground level perimeter, some up on the roof where they’d have the best fields of fire, eyes peeled, weapons at the ready. “Clarx, find me. I’m on the roof.”

“Can I have a weapon this time?”

“Of course not, kiddo.”

“Captain, come on!”

“If you can get to me on the roof, I’ll give you mine.”

“Yessss.”

Looking out over the base’s dark skyline, standing next to Sergeants Akino and Levi, Raemus conferred with his company leaders over his own headset. He kept glancing over at Akyra, and she knew she distracted him.

Probably doesn’t get a lot of post-romantic-rendezvous combat training. Well, might as well participate.
“Raemus! You got eyes on the arachnoids? What do you need from me?”

He took two big strides and stood behind her, nestling the back of her head against his chest. He swung his forearm tapper in front of her eyes. “Around thirty of them made it over the wall at three locations.” A map of the base displayed on his tapper screen. With his other arm, he pointed to locations as he spoke, wrapping himself around her. “These clusters of red marks are the spiderbots, came over the wall here and here. Overlapping little green circles are us—literally you and me. Blue dots are my guys on the move.” There were almost sixty blue dots dispersed around the base.

Akyra grabbed his strong arms and pulled them around her. “Looks like we say goodnight. Raemus, if there’s anything my team can add to the defense of the base, let me know.”

“Funny you should say that.” He held the digital map again for her to watch as the red symbols twitched and maneuvered around the outlines of buildings. Akyra noticed something peculiar about the invaders' general direction. Her lips parted slightly as Raemus said exactly what she figured out. “Looks like they’re coming
here
.”

Akyra realized at that moment what her intuition had said since they saw the first hovering dragonfly.

Now I’m the one distracted.

“For fuck’s sake,” she whispered, raising her own tapper to touch Raemus', automatically synching all her data—soldiers, weapon systems, body camera feeds—with Thunder Company. “Bio-Teck and their fucking parcel cube is going to be the end of me.”

Akyra quickly updated her team leaders over the comm, insisting anyone who could get armor on should do it
now
.

Still at a distance, the arachnoids were visible within sixty seconds.

From the roof, where they would have the best field of fire, they could see the base’s automated weapons spring to life as the ten-legged drones moved toward them, sporadic flashes of orange along the base’s roads, the explosive sounds of gunfire reverberating toward them over the rooftops.

Akyra spun around. When she saw that Raemus’ eyes hadn’t dilated to their black battle-ready form, she thought,
For the amount of firepower scurrying our way, he has a lot of self-control, even for a Titan.
She said, “I’ve got to get down to the cube. If they get through, it’s my job to be the last line of defense.”

Raemus replied abruptly, “Don’t risk your life. It’s not worth it. Let me do my job.”

However, Akyra had already snapped back into commander mode, tracking assets—enemy and friendly—on her own tapper. “What? It’s my
job
to risk my life. You of all people should know that. My
job
is protecting that fucking cube.”

“Okay. And
my
job is to protect you.”

“Better get to it then. I need a weapon.” With that Akyra leaped off the second-story roof of the barracks.

The Titans froze in surprise, their jaws dropped. Levi added, “What the fuck?”

Just then, Clarx burst up the last set of stairs to the roof, panting and heaving so preposterously he could barely stay on his feet. Raemus, Akino, and Levi turned around to the clamor.

“Captain Raemus?” Poor Clarx, short on breath, could barely talk. “Where’s… where’s Captain Roux?”

Raemus thumbed over the edge of the roof, smiling.

Clarx’s put his hands on his knees and looked down, trying desperately to get oxygen after his long sprint to the barracks. “Shit.”

Akino said, “Heck of a commander you have there. Should I throw you off the roof after her?”

Without the energy to lift his head, Clarx managed to wave off the suggestion with a few fingers. He turned, hobbled back to the stairs, and attempted to go down again just when six Banshees in full red body armor, including helmets and weapons, banged into him one by one as they came up to the roof, almost taking him off his feet. The last one up shouted through her helmet, “Clarx, get your damn gear on or you’re gonna get hurt!”

Raemus turned back to look over the roof, where Akyra had landed. She was gone, of course, already inside coordinating the defense of her contract and her career. The arachnoid-drones scrambled through the avenues toward them, the thundering sounds of gunfire growing closer.

They’d be on top of Akyra in less than a minute.

“Shit,” he said silently to himself as he realized that the chances of the spiderbots seriously hurting anyone escalated dramatically if the Banshees fought back too hard. Which is what seemed about to happen.

His brain was designed not to underestimate anyone, but he’d done so with Akyra. He’d never known any modern human willing to risk its own life for a the sake of honor.
That was a quality humanity lost a thousand years ago
, he thought.
I hadn’t even fed it into my calculations
.

Raemus’ brain instantly computed the boundless possible outcomes of this engagement—as the first six arachnoid-drones tumbled around the corner in a startling cacophony of metallic clattering.

Without a word to Akino or Levi, Raemus spread his arms and leapt from the roof. By the time he landed atop the first arachnoid-drone, fully primed to rip it apart with his bare hands, his eyes had completely blackened.

S
tealing
the Bio-Teck cube was an insane gamble. But it worked. Nobody outside Raemus’ chosen few knew he was behind the raid—not even half of the Titans.

In the darkness of the early morning hour, Raemus locked the rear cargo hatch of a Raptor that now held the Bio-Teck cube and powered its enviro-controls. He stepped around the rear corner, waving “all clear” to the pilot.

The pilot engaged the thrusters and began take-off operations. Nothing too hasty. Just a routine scout mission in the aftermath of a base assault. Nothing to draw unwanted attention.

The big question eating at Raemus was: did Bin Ar-Drezar, his mentor for years who knew him better than anyone, suspect this double-cross?

If he did, Bin Ar-Drezar wouldn’t risk an immediate fight. Not within the base perimeter. That would cost way too many lives, very possibly his own.

There was no precedence for eliminating a rogue Titan commander, but surely the best way was from a great distance. It made sense Bin Ar-Drezar would let him get off base.
Then
kill him.

Raemus needed to use this to this advantage because, truth be told, he had no desire to stick around. He needed to escape Bin Ar-Drezar’s intelligence network quickly. And that meant getting all the way to Pergamon, a green lush region a thousand kilometers to the north.

Before Raemus made his escape, he needed to get the
one
thing he didn’t want to leave without. That is, the one
person
. Question was, how?

Akino interrupted Raemus’ thoughts. “Got confirmation our man in Pergamon has arrived. He’ll be ready for the cube long before it gets there.”

Raemus nodded.
Good, things are going mostly as planned
.

Akino added, raising his voice against the increasing roar of the Raptor’s engines, “Sir, let’s just order the cube destroyed.”

“No. We need it, Akino. Never underestimate the leverage potential of something you hate.” Raemus turned to Akino in the dim blue light of the thrusters as they revved up. He waved Akino away from the blast area toward an area they could better hear each other. “I assure you, Akino, if there’s something in this galaxy you hate so much, then someone will feel compelled to have it. I
need
that cube as leverage.”

“To who?”

“Don’t know yet. Xerxus maybe?”

“If you say so. Let me just go on record that I want it disintegrated in front of my own eyes.”

Raemus clapped him on the shoulder. “You still might get that chance. If that’s what I decide, it’s all yours.”

“It disgusts me.”

“I know, Akino. We need to contact Xerxus first. He’s the unknown variable.”

“I pray to The Almighty you’re right about our chances with him.”

“Having a common enemy doesn’t guarantee anything. I wish it did.”

“But then—”

“But then we have to try. Bin Ar-Drezar will have a lot of weapons at his disposal once Captain Roux’s superiors figure out the delivery was botched.”

“And how long for that?”

“Depends. Depends on how honest Captain Roux is with them. Depends on how honest Ar-Drezar is with them. Believe me, brother, a little dishonesty might be best course of action for everyone involved. No one will want to admit they’ve lost a Bio-Teck cube. For our part, the best way to keep the ruse going is playing along with the Banshees. If Captain Roux goes hunting for her lost parcel—as I suspect she might—then we go with her. We stall her long enough, and in the process we keep up the facade that we’re doing our job protecting her.”

“Even if Bin Ar-Drezar’s onto us?”

“I suspect already he is. But I also suspect he’ll let us get as far away from him before making any moves. Patience is his best trait.”

“And the one trait he could never teach you.”

Raemus laughed. “To each his own. That’s why I keep you around, brother.”

Akino laughed with him, for he had far less patience than Raemus.

As he watched the Raptor, now the most valuable asset within countless lightyears, lift away from the tarmac and begin its long journey to Pergamon, he smiled. Everything about his life was changing. And for once, he felt like he did the right thing.

I must find a way to stay near Akyra
, he thought, watching the Raptor’s blue glowing thrusters fade into the dark sky.
She doesn’t know anything about this region. And heaven forbid she actually picks up the cube’s trail and makes her way to Pergamon. She may be a solid commander, but Xerxus—no matter who’s side he ends up on—will make her whole team disappear. We can’t let her go out there on her own.

“So we continue rolling as their escort?” Akino asked as the Raptor’s distant rumble made way for the early morning silence. “Just like before?”

“Just like before. Except this time, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.”

“Captain? One question. What happens to the Banshees once we reach Pergamon and the cube?”

“I don’t know yet, Akino. I really don’t know.”

Perhaps if I explain everything to her, she’ll understand why I did this. Perhaps if she sees that I’m capable of giving all of myself for a greater cause, she’ll see that I have some humanity, too. Perhaps enough humanity to be worthy of her forgiveness.