Titan Fleet: The Invictus Part 1

t.i.tan Fleet:.

The Invictus.

By Jason J Black.

Dedication.

This book is dedicated to my gorgeous wife, Sara, who has supported me through thick and thin, not only while I have been writing, but also throughout our 20 years of marriage.

Sara has been responsible for keeping my spirits high, encouraging me to write, and also for having the arduous task of editing this book, and I thank her with all my heart for helping to make my dream come true.

Chapter One.

The sun beats down once again on the inhabitants of Foloss. A new day has begun. The sand kicks up from the ground like little tornados grasping at ankles. Large smudges of blue and red blood eats into the ground, eagerly escaping the heat.

Footstep after footstep, Pace slowly tries to make his way back to the city with his prize. Dragging behind a large hideous creature with his one arm, the other had been ripped off by the creature in an epic battle for survival. Drip, drip, drip flows the blood from his gaping wound. With every drop he grows weaker, his eyes start to feel heavy and as he stumbles over a rock, he thinks to himself that this was probably not such a good investment after all. His head slamming into the dust, he can't take any more and defiantly he slips off into unconsciousness.

Chapter Two.

Pace now can see things clearly. He had travelled out on his rover, after seeing a s.h.i.+p explode in orbit and debris falling to the ground, to the area that was in flames. Arming his gauntlet with explosive shot, he moves cautiously towards a large generator for the salvage.

A large piece of metal hits him from the left and a huge being pounces on him, tearing at his left arm with its metal claws and eventually severing his arm, after taking a blast of explosive shot to the head. The creature, still clinging on to his arm falls back with a mighty roar, but then regains its footing; readying itself to finish the job it had started. Rus.h.i.+ng with an unreal speed, the creature slams into Pace once again, this time slas.h.i.+ng at his stomach with no luck. Pace stumbles backwards, his arm outstretched, clawing at something to grab onto to steady himself. His hand finds a polron capacitor and in an instant he realises what he must do, and uses the two broken p.r.o.ngs to electrocute the creature in what he can only imagine to be its eye. The skin is turned from a blue-purple to a black char around its eye. It found its mark with vengeance.

But the creature is not done yet, by any means. It craves flesh plain and simple, and as it begins to swipe at his legs, Pace fires another shot into the creature. It seems with no effect, as the creature is still coming, and Pace is running out of ideas. The creature finds bone once more, in the hole where the arm used to be, and flings Pace up into the air to fall again, hitting beams on his way down. Then the creature begins its final run for Pace. It can only mean Pace's death. Pace screams out loud in pain and rolls over lining up his next shot, but he knows the creature is a tough one and he fires the second round into the fizzling generator which explodes, cutting the unsuspecting creature in two.

After a second or two, Pace pushes himself up to his feet and marks the location as his on his mapper. He grabs the head and part torso of the creature and begins to walk. He is not happy because his prized rover was also taken out in the blast, but the salvage should be plenty enough to buy something new.

Chapter Three.

In the white light around Pace there appears some colour, and then he begins to make out some simple shapes. Then more colour, and a room starts to form around him. He feels a tugging on his left hand side and he tries to focus on a figure, but it all seems a blur to him. He tries to speak, but can't, so watches on for a while until the figure notices that his eyes are open.

"Don't worry, you will be ok. Different, but ok, and alive is all that matters right now. So rest, sleep a while. I will be here when you wake." The figure moves over to a table and blurs out of sight.

Waking abruptly, Pace scans the room for the creature he had just fought. Sitting up, he realises that he is alone, and no creature is to be seen. He was in a medbay and felt good once again. He looks to his left arm wondering how he had pushed himself up, only to find a large metal robotic arm attached to his shoulder and as he begins to feel it he finds it so alien to him that he wanted it taken off straight away, and his own arm put back on. He reaches for the b.u.t.ton to call the nurse who arrives at his bedside in seconds.

"Yes sir. How can I help?" The robot reaches out towards Pace gently stopping him from falling off the edge of the bed.

"I want my arm, not this, this thing. What is going on? I want answers NOW!"

Getting a head rush of blood, Pace slips back against his pillow in eager antic.i.p.ation of answers.

The robot smiles and her white face seems to redden a little bit.

"Sir, you were almost dead, and we could do nothing with what was left of your arm. We got the best in we could and we re-built you again. It is not so bad having robot parts you know, sir." The robot injects a sedative into Pace and brings over a mirror. She holds it by his left side and moves it slowly around to the back so he may view better.

"However, sir, we had to use some of the creatures muscle and skin to seal the wound completely. Our bio-engineer cross matched your DNA with the creatures and found a good match in some ways."

"Some ways! What have you done to me? Robot! Tell me!" Pace grips the edge of the bed with his new arm and crushes the metal strut. The robot moves close, seemingly unmoved, and takes his pulse.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you will be fine. My name is Padley, sir, not robot. We have rights too, you know."

Chapter Four.

Pace awakens once more to the sound of hustle and bustle of a new morning. The air scrubbing unit in his apartment is making the usual grinding noise, and it has been two weeks since Pace had left medbay. It is finals day at the academy so he thinks to himself; all has to be clean and ready to go at 0900 hours. He checks the clock and it is only 0600 hours.

Ah, perfect, he thinks as he rolls back his sheet and puts his feet on the cold floor. He goes into his bathroom and takes a shower in the grey water and then puts on his clothes and picks up his tool belt, leaving his gauntlet behind. He will not need the gauntlet today, as he has to pa.s.s his engineering course, so he can earn more money to be able to buy a s.h.i.+p and get off this hot rock. He stuffs the last triangle of toast into his already full mouth, squeezing it in and chewing briskly, with scant regard for breathing as he closes the hatch to the walkway above, and begins to walk down the under-tunnel towards the academy. He pa.s.ses by the endless rows of sc.r.a.p dealers to the hatch, pushes his ID card into the slot and the hatch opens out into a small lobby, spotlessly clean, free from dust and sand. He pa.s.ses through a large door into a waiting room where he takes a seat on a bench next to several people fussing over their tools and gear. Pace smiles and thinks how well organised he is compared to others, and how the last few weeks were a challenge to say the least. He knows life is all about now, this moment, this day.

"Hey, move up wont you?" Standing before the man next to Pace is a beautiful red haired woman. Her hair is long and curly, and as the light catches it, it flickers like waves of fire. The man smiles and lets the woman sit down. Her eyes meet with Paces and they both exchange a smile, and then Paces name is called over a loud speaker.

"Engineer Joseph Pace. Room one, please," says a stern voice. Pace finds the room quickly and the hatch opens as he arrives. He walks in to find three people sat at a desk and a large robot in the middle of the room tattered and broken. It looked like it had been in a war and not been repaired in years. The woman sat at the middle of the desk looks up from her computer screen and smiles before announcing her task. She did not mention her name, nor did the others who, it seemed to Pace, were part of the military somehow. Not that the military was used much anymore.

"I would like you to do something with this robot, Pace. This is your chance to s.h.i.+ne." The woman points over to the robot and waits quietly.

Oh great, thinks Pace, what do they want me to do with that, its a rust bucket for sure and it probably doesn't have a working gyron to power it. He removes the back panel with his power driver tool, and he was right, no gyron to be found. The wires were a mess and there had been a small fire where the gyron had melted down. Turning around and standing up tall, Pace looks at the grey haired woman, and with gritted teeth tells the truth about what he has found.

"It depends on what you want it to do really, I could patch into its reserve power supply if it still works, providing thats not melted too, and get it walking for you."

The woman stands up and walks over to Pace and runs her hand along the robots arm.

"I would like you to get it combat ready. You have fifteen minutes before it needs to be ready, starting now."

Pace has a puzzled look on his face. Combat ready? This is not a defence robot, nor is it a robot with much power.

"Time is ticking." The woman sits back down and a large gla.s.s defence screen is lowered in front of the desk for protection.

Pace springs into action, he knows something is coming. He begins to mumble out loud to himself about power, and digging deep inside the robot he finds a polron capacitor. He smiles to himself. Could this help a second time around? He quickly finds the reserve power generator and patches the capacitor to it, to store power and then dispense the power through that capacitor to some of the other systems. It will take ten minutes for the capacitor to charge from the trickle power supply, but the robot would have full power for five minutes. Power supply solved, he thinks to himself. Um, now a weapon. Pace looks around, but there is nothing. Um, robots have s.h.i.+elds to avoid damage in hostile places. If I can overload the s.h.i.+eld on the arm, the power when the arm touches something would be pretty nasty. Pace smiles and connects up the last few wires before popping the back panel back on.

"Ok, its ready. Now let me in with you. There is just over a minute left." Pace taps on the screen, but emotionless eyes are all that stare back.

"Can you hear me?" A red light begins to flash and a black container is lowered into the room. Pace switches the robot on and stands behind it with his hopes and heart in his mouth. The robot buzzes and its head turns to Pace and speaks.

"Thank you, sir. Awake at last. What is your command?"

Pace shouts "Defence!" just as the container doors swing open.

A blue and purple creature appears from the shadows. One of its eyes is missing and half of its body is of robotic design.

"You must be kidding me, you sick, sick people." Looking at Pace, the creature stood menacingly strong and proud. As it began to move, the robots capacitor kicks in and full power was now in flow. There was a blue electric glow to the robots left hand and Pace watched as the robot clamped its feet into the floor like diggers. The creature ran towards the robot, not as fast as Pace remembered it running before in the plains, but with a strong thumping of metal, which would give you nightmares for years. The creature attacked the robots left arm. Ha-ha! Bad mistake, thought Pace. The connection was a good one and the creature was sent flying into the gla.s.s s.h.i.+eld, making the people in the room jump up in fear. By biting down on the robots arm, the creature had felt the full force of the overridden power surge and one naked wire had been enough to blow it off its feet, and now it struggled to get back up. The robot just stood its ground, not moving.

"Get him!" yelled Pace, wanting the robot to do as much damage as possible before the power failed in the system.

"No sir, I am conserving power, and I am attempting to tap into the power conduit below me." Pace notices concrete dust rising up from the robots feet. It must be drilling down through the floor. A st.u.r.dy robot, this one, he thinks. The creature is attacking once again. Even before Pace has time to think, it tears a chunk out of the shoulder of the robot and tosses it to the floor in front of Pace. Pace moves out of the way, making himself the target, and buying time for the robot.

"Come on, you and me; lets do this once and for all. COME ON!" Pace clenches his metal fist and is at the ready, but to his surprise the creature is not interested in him. It wants the robot. Pace launches up off his feet and swings at the creatures head, and a bone crus.h.i.+ng blow it is too, as the creature is thrown again to the floor.

"Fight me, d.a.m.n you!" Pace begins to pound the face of the creature over and over again, a blue and purple mess beginning to appear around it head. A clanging loud noise is heard above and a second container is lowered into the room. A second creature appears different from the first one, but larger in size and shape. Pace stands up and crushes the first creatures bleeding head once more, this time its a killing blow.

"No contest." Pace cant believe he does not have a scratch on him, but by this time he turns to see the second creature is flying through the air at the robot. The robot takes a direct hit to the chest, but the creature only gets a mouthful of rusted metal for his trouble. The robot swings once more, electricity flowing into the second creature and charring its skin. The creature falls back, pulling the robot on top of him, exposing a wire that the robot had linked onto. The concrete had given way under the pressure, but the robot had stood strong. The weight of the robot was holding the creature down for now, and the robot was pounding at the head and chest of the creature. There were screeches of pain from it and blue and purple blood spraying all over the room. Has this fight been won, thought Pace, or had he jumped the gun, he realised, as a third container was starting to be loaded. Crying out a warning to the robot, Pace cant believe his eyes, and with quick thinking he grabs the power supply from the foot of the robot and, whilst being electrocuted himself, he runs over to the screen and slams the wire into it.

With a ma.s.sive explosion, the screen shatters and the occupants behind the desk get showered with hot molten plastic, and are thrown back by the blast. Pace then dives over the desk himself and looks at the computer screen. Manically stabbing at b.u.t.tons, he manages to stop the third container from being dropped into the room. At this point the grey haired woman is being picked up by the two men, who then stand with their gauntlets at the ready to defend her. With the last of its power the robot anchors itself to the wall strut with its other foot, and fires a chain-like grapple through the second creature, pinning it to the ground.

The last words from the robot were still resounding in Paces head, "Thank you for my freedom."

"You call this a test, you sick b.a.s.t.a.r.ds? I should kill you all too!" Pace slams his red hot metal fist down onto the table. He stands composing himself for a minute, shaking his head in disbelief.

A gentle hand touches the blue skin on his shoulder, and a soft voice whispers, "Now the universe is your home and mine." Pace turns around and staring back at him is the red-haired woman. "My name is Megan Frost and you have excelled in your finals, as have I." Blood is dripping from her forehead and mouth. "You see, we were chosen for something. I don't know what yet, but that grey-haired woman is the Prime Lady, so choose your words well around her." Smiling at Megan, Pace looks down at her hand on the blue alien skin.

"Dont touch my filthy alien skin; I don't know if you will catch something." He puts his hand caringly on her shoulder. "Thanks for calming me down though; its been a hard few weeks. You ok?" Pace asks Megan.

"I am ok thanks; I just want to know why they tried to kill us in separate rooms, thats all." The two blood covered engineers look towards the Prime Lady for answers, and as the Prime Lady sits back down at her desk, the security team arrives and blasts the creature, that is still trying to get free, into a thousand pieces. Two maintenance robots start to clean the room of debris, and one begins to cut the chain off the robot hero.

"Engineer Frost and Engineer Pace, it is simple, we had to test you both to see if you were up to the biggest challenge of your lives."

"Which is?" Pace is still red with anger.

"For some time our planets resources have been dwindling - food, energy and metals. We think our way of life will end in as little as two years, if we dont do something about this. A few years ago we sent out ten salvage cla.s.s s.h.i.+ps from our t.i.tan fleet, and for a while supply pods were being sent back and forth, and things were slowly getting better. However, we now have just two s.h.i.+ps left out there, The Forge and The Anvil, having lost contact with the other s.h.i.+ps, and we have not had any supplies back in two months now, so we have pulled all our best resources together, and the very best in all aspects of our strengths, to send out our two last s.h.i.+ps. We need the best out there so we can survive. That is where you come in. We had to test you this way to see if you can go up against the worst that s.p.a.ce can throw at you, and those creatures are the worst we have seen so far. What we need is resources and fast. Think of your families and friends and home. It is your chance to s.h.i.+ne and be our heroes."

"So who would you have sent out if I failed my test today, and why, oh why did you save that creatures life that almost killed me a couple of weeks ago?" Pace turns his back to the Prime Lady and leans against the table looking at the robot that had just saved all their lives. "That robot has more honour than you, and at least he wanted to keep me alive, and you could not even be decent enough to tell me your name. Why should I work for you?"

"Enough!" bellows the Prime Lady, standing once again with now reddened cheeks. "How dare you turn your back on me, and for your information you should know my name and what I look like. I am the Prime Lady for crying out loud. You have two choices. Choice one, take 20 lashes for endangering the Prime Ladys life, and spend the rest of your days being a test dummy in more of these rooms; or become a captain of a s.h.i.+p that can save the planet." There are a few moments of silence before Megan turns to the prime Lady and says, "Well Lady Eve, I know your name and have all the skills too. I want it on record that if Pace does not take the job, I will dance at the chance of being captain." Megan smiles at Eve then looks at Pace for his answer. Pace is already looking at Megan in distrust, but also with respect. He turns to Eve.

"I will take the job, but I choose the crew if that works for you. No more tests!"

Brus.h.i.+ng off a print out, Eve hands it to Pace with a smirk.

"You can choose four people. I choose the security detail and that is not up for negotiation. You fine with that?"

Frowning at the paper, Pace asks, "Umm, any robot help included?" Still looking at the damaged robot being now towed away, Pace waits for the answer.

"There are two bays per s.h.i.+p Pace, use them well." Pointing at the robots foot as it goes out of view, Pace shouts with excitement.

"Stop! I want him. Bring him back, oh and a medbot I met. I think her name was Padley." Moving closer to Eve, Megan in a soft voice repeats the offer to be a captain, this time to the other s.h.i.+p. All the time she is thinking, this is in the bag for sure.

"Im sorry Megan, I have a captain for the other s.h.i.+p already, but it does need a first officer if you are interested?" Megan thinks for a second and likes the idea, but she is still too far away from her dream yet, but it is a good stepping stone at least, but before she can give Eve her answer, Pace with a smile on his face says, "I need her as my first officer. Im sure that is what you were going to say Megan, wasnt it?" Megan smiles at Pace and flicks her hair back. It floats on the air like a red mist.

"I think it might work out for you." Eve says, then starts to walk towards the hatch and beckons them both to walk with her.

"You have just over a week to choose three more crew. I will send Chief Mortis along in the next few days, as soon as he arrives with his men. Go home and rest, and tomorrow you can see your s.h.i.+p. 0700 sharp. Dock one." Eve and her two guards walk through another hatch and close it behind them.

"So Pace, fancy some food? Im starved. I know a nice little place near here. Come on, my shout." Megan tugs at his arm and they walk arm in arm for a moment like old lovers, towards the restaurant.

Chapter Five.

"I cant remember the last time I had a girl on my arm for a dinner date," laughs Pace. Once they arrive at The Stalact.i.te restaurant, Pace opens the hatch and Megan walks in and is seated at a table. Pace sits opposite her, just happy to be out of the academy with a pa.s.s and as a new captain, which was unexpected. He pours Megan some water from the jug on the table and then himself. They both take a few moments to order their food, and look out over a drop and out through a cave mouth. The moss and other hanging plants glisten and sparkle like small stars.

"You wont regret it you know Pace. I am a hard worker and I like to get the job done, but just one thing before we set off into the stars. Just a word of warning; never, ever shout at me. I dont tend to shout at people and I dont expect to be shouted at. You remember that and we will be just fine." As an afterthought she added, "I had a bad boyfriend once, say no more."

Looking up, with a mouthful of food ready to slide to the depths of his belly, Pace chews faster so he could answer, but then chooses to listen instead.

"I dont know what you think, as we have only just met," Megan continues, "but I think we should have a united front when it comes to the crew, and I will always back you. I dont like the idea of having gung-ho heroes on board, do you?"

Taking a moment to eat a mouthful of soup Megan looks into Paces eyes. Pace looks back and is wowed by her beauty. Her blue eyes s.h.i.+mmered like stars in the night sky, her red hair glowed like autumn leaves, the way she moved, so gracefully was mesmerising. It is as if time stands still and everything in the universe is balanced again. He had not thought this way for some time now. Maybe he will see how things go for now, but the future, who knows, he thinks with a grin.

"You know what I think? I think we think the same, and to be honest Im a bit worried myself. Let us today make a promise that we always discuss with truth, and never hold anything from each other, and before you say it, I know we are not married, but we cant afford to lose it out in s.p.a.ce, we must lead by example. We will have a back-up plan should anything go wrong." Almost choking on her soup Megan laughs and pats Pace on the hand.

"Darling, I have had a lot worse offers in my time, and who knows, if we put up with each other long enough it might happen, but I expect a big wedding and no expense spared." Eating another mouthful, Megan feels a flutter in her belly just thinking of the wedding, and after all Pace is quite cute. Ok, the arm thing is a little different, but he seems nice and not too arrogant for her liking, s.p.a.ce might be fun after all, she thinks.

Pace is taken aback by Megans answer. Wow, he thinks to himself, this is what flirting used to be like, maybe I will hang on to this rocket ride and see where I end up this time.

"Dear lady, I would take you to the stars and back if I could. Oh wait, are you busy say in around a week? How about we see where we end up, but I would hold on tight, I like my s.h.i.+p to fly fast and hard." Pace beckons for Megans hand, standing up to leave, hoping she will take the offer, and to his surprise she grabs his hand, and with the other hand on her way out through the hatch, she swipes her gauntlet and pays the bill on the cash register as she pa.s.ses by.

"Well, Im going your way, Captain, I think it may be fun trying. Maybe sometime we could flesh out some rules or something, if you are not too busy of course." Flus.h.i.+ng slightly red in the face and neck, Megan thinks to herself how much she has enjoyed herself, and she has hoped she has not gone too far this first evening.