Gamma Nine (Book One) (25 page)

Once they
secured the entry point into the elevator they would need to find
access controls on the other side of the cargo bay, controls that
would open maintenance access between the cargo bay and the reactor
room, which was conveniently close by. Sabian and the Lancer squad
with him would take positions at the mouth of the maintenance
access and wait for the Wolves.

Remy had done a
miraculous job at organizing the plan and all of its intricate
details, but it still depended on one very important thing - the
Wolves needed to complete their part and survive. No-one even
considered the idea of leaving Locke and his men behind, everyone
was leaving the Fateful Moment together, only the dead would be
left behind. Sabian silently hoped to himself that Locke and his
wolves, including most of his Lancers, were not numbered in the
ranks of the dead by the time this trap expired.

In the back of
everyone’s mind the invisible timer still ticked down, but there
was no known zero moment, no-one knowing exactly when the end would
come.

Everyone
focused on their tasks instead, hoping that time would for once be
on their side.

Borstil’s body
exploded from the force of the monster’s blow. It had used both
meaty stumps to crush its first target, bringing both down on
Borstil’s armoured head. His armour splintered under the descending
flesh maces, cracking as his body was pulped and forced through new
cracks in the Lancer’s armour plating. The hammer-blow from the
chaotic creature had reduced the man into a pinkish paste, creating
puddles of congealed human remains on the decking where Borstil
once stood.

Worst of all
was the sound Borstil’s death had made. He had tried to speak
moments before the meat-hammers had connected. The unnatural crack
of bones shattering mixed with his gargled scream and the monster’s
bizarre howl had echoed in the reactor room, assaulting the senses
of everyone around the death scream.

It was a
gruesome way to die and far from heroic. The Wolves were steeled
against such sights, the two remaining Lancers were not, but they
had no time to let their friend and squad mate’s death interfere
with the plan that needed to be executed.

Locke was the
closest to Borstil’s death, he had side-stepped the human remains
as the Lancer had exploded, recoiling from the bone fragments
flying through the air towards him. He raised his rifle and fired
at the muscular side of the beast, yelling orders over the squad
radio, knowing the fight would be a true test for all of them.
“Move Rivers, NOW!” he yelled at his sergeant, who was standing on
the opposite side of the platform.

Rivers was lost
in thought at seeing the monster crush the Lancer on the other side
of the portal. Locke’s yelling over the radio roused him from his
mind, and he immediately moved, sprinting for the edge of the
platform.

River’s grabbed
Jay, who was firing at the beast like the rest of the squad, by his
neck armour and dragged the Lancer from his feet towards the edge,
“I need your help soldier! Follow me!” Rivers screamed at the
Lancer he was dragging, letting go of him as soon as the Lancer
regained his footing and followed the Titan.

“Yes sir!” Jay
responded, falling into step behind the Wolf.

Rivers and Jay
did not look back as they reached the edge of the platform, both
knowing that sentiment meant nothing now, they had to get to the
reactor emergency control panel hidden beneath the platform the
others were fighting on.

They dropped
out of sight from the fight, jumping off the edge onto the reactor
room’s bare floor, disappearing beneath the masses of cabling and
panels in the dark below the platform.

The monster had
chosen Locke as its next target - probably because the bullets from
the captain’s rifle irritated its flesh.

It moved on its
short but powerful legs, charging at Locke with all of its
ferocity, swinging one of its meat-hammers at the Titan’s head.

Locke dodged it
just in time, ducking under the blow as he stepped to his right,
firing at the monster again.

The beast
raised its other arm-stump to take another swing at the captain,
but paused before the swing ever came.

A volley of
bullets hit the monster in its back; the relentless fire almost
caused the beast to stagger forward, almost. The volley angered the
beast and its focus shifted again, focusing on the three humans
staring at the beast through their weapon sights.

Christian and
Nathan had switched from defensive tactics with their shields to
full offensive. Christian was kneeling, firing his Kicker into the
creature’s torso. Nathan stood over Christian, firing his own
Kicker into the head of the monster. Xander was the third, he stood
next to the brothers, firing his pistol at what he thought might be
the creature’s vital spots. In Xander’s free hand he held one of
his high incendiary grenades, ready to throw it at the beast as
soon as Locke was clear.

Locke saw the
grenade and dove to get clear of the monster, mostly getting out of
the way of the coming flames.

The beast faced
the three Titans head on and howled a challenge at them, beating
its chest in excitement, snorting at them.

Xander did not
hesitate; he primed the grenade and threw it at the giant hulk’s
tiny head, hoping to cover the beast’s body from head to toe in
flame.

The incendiary
exploded right in the face of the avatar, engulfing the creature’s
flesh in bright flames, Christian and Nathan never stopping their
volley of fire into the beast, expending the last of their ammo
reserves to soften up the creature’s outer fleshy defences.

The avatar
roared from anger and pain, the flames still burned as it rose up
on its legs, stretching its meaty arms above its head in anger as
it kept roaring, its face turned up to the roof of the reactor
room’s ceiling.

That moment,
when anger overtook reason and the lines blurred between killing to
survive and needing to kill to slate some deep hunger, was the
moment Pyoter was waiting for.

The giant Titan
struck without a word, moving like a ghost through the shadows the
fire was casting, revealed only by the flames illuminating the Wolf
and his massive blade as they ate away at the creature.

Pyoter dealt
the first of many killing blows to the creature. He swung the blade
on a horizontal arc with both hands, using all of his power to
attack the monster from its blind side. The blade bit deep, sliding
into the avatar’s torso with ease, stopping only when it hit a
cluster of bone protecting unknown vital organs.

The avatar’s
roar deepened as it felt true pain for the first time since its
biologically engineered birth, thick blood erupting from its
side.

The blow did
not kill it; the fight would not end so easily. It swung one of its
meat-hammers at Pyoter with blinding speed, trying to crush the
thing that had hurt it. Pyoter stepped away in time, seeing the
blow clearly through his own anger.

Pyoter shifted
his weight, his stance changed, bringing his blade behind him,
still clutched in both of his armoured hands.

He gave a roar
of his own through his helmet speakers, charging at the creature
again, aiming for the avatar’s neck. The monster charged at Pyoter,
flames still burning its body. The flames framed the creature,
making it look more menacing, like a demon from ancient stories,
hell-bent on reaping the souls of those before it.

Blade met flesh
and flesh met armour plating as the two reached each other, causing
the platform to shake from the duel.

Pyoter was
their best chance at killing the giant avatar of murder, and
everyone knew it. If he fell the universe would be a lesser place,
and everyone would surely die soon after.

“Grab that
display, tell me what you see,” Rivers said to the Lancer he had
pulled with him.

Jay looked
around curiously, spotting the display the Titan referred to
covered in hanging wires. Dust had piled up on the display,
probably due to the neglect this part of the reactor room had
suffered. Very few people ever ventured down here during a vessel’s
lifetime, most reactors were self-sufficient and required very
little direct interference.

Rivers was
working with Roger on a panel embedded in the floor, removing the
panel’s outer shell to get access to the inner workings beneath.
Roger was beeping and pulling at wires again, something the little
automaton seemed to enjoy immensely. “No! You daft piece of metal,
don’t pull on that. There,” he pointed at a mass of wires running
through the exposed panel, “work on those, find the thing before
you blow us all up.”

Jay used the
back of his hand to shift the piled up dust from the display,
revealing lines of scrolling text. The text reminded him of a
diagnostic program he used to run on his personal display whenever
the thing broke down. “What am I looking for sir?” he asked
Rivers.

“Do you see the
words critical, unstable or detonation anywhere?” Rivers replied
without looking at the Lancer.

“I see all
three in sequence, scrolling down the display constantly.”

Rivers looked
up at Jay; he stood up from his crouched position by the exposed
panel and walked to another panel. “Do you see the icon in the
bottom left? It should look like two rotating discs.”

“I see it,” Jay
replied, his hand hovered over the icon, waiting for Rivers to tell
him to press it.

“Don’t press
it,” River said. Rivers took a step back and punched his fist
through the panel he was examining. “On my world, we left nothing
to the OS, we did everything ourselves.” Rivers pulled a handful of
cables from the hole in the panel as his cutting tool extended from
his wrist repair unit.

The squad radio
was flooded with the sounds of the fight on the platform above
them. Jay could hear the Wolf captain barking orders at his squad.
He hesitated and listened more closely at the squad radio, hearing
voices from everyone above, which meant that no-one had fallen yet.
That thought helped him to calm down slightly.

Rivers was
looking at the Lancer, speaking with a softer and friendlier tone
than before. “Don’t worry about them, they can handle it. I need
your focus here.”

Jay nodded at
Rivers, a sign that Rivers should continue.

Rivers cut
through a large cable and pulled wires from it, with fast hands he
had rigged a bypass for himself, ignoring the ship OS for now. “Do
you see a new icon at the bottom left? It looks like the P-SEP
logo.”

“Yes,” Jay
replied, holding his hand far away from the display, in case he was
told to ignore it again.

“Press it, and
then you need to keep up. The sequence is going to go fast.”

“Understood
sir, I am ready.” Jay did not know what he was ready for, but
whatever it was he was going to have to follow the Titan’s order to
the letter. He realized without Rivers needing to tell him that it
was paramount that he make no mistakes, mistakes would mean death,
and he did not want to be the one responsible for everyone’s
end.

Rivers started
to relay the sequence of commands Jay needed to perform while he
was cutting and connecting wires. Roger was beeping furiously,
following the exchange between the Titan and the Lancer.

In less than a
minute the entire sequence of commands was complete and Jay let out
a breath he was holding.

Lights started
flashing underneath the platform, followed by a siren blaring
throughout the reactor room.

New information
appeared on the display in front of Jay, new commands were
available, including one that peaked his interest.

“Good, that is
a good sign,” Rivers said mostly to himself, he looked up at the
flashing lights and nodded before he said something to Roger,
pointing the little automaton in the direction of an enormous door
on the back wall beneath the platform.

“What’s this
sir?” Jay asked Rivers.

“Ah, I see you
noticed it. That,” Rivers stopped talking as he walked to the
display, “is the real reason I dragged you down here.”

“What do you
mean?”

“Press it and
you will see for yourself.”

Jay pressed the
button Rivers was referring to. The door Roger was at grumbled and
started opening. Slowly the door lifted, and little by little Jay
understood what Rivers had meant as the thing behind the door was
unveiled.

“This is for
you. Have fun kid.”

Jay swallowed
at the excitement, staring dumbfounded at what was beyond the
door.

“Go! I have
work to do. Roger will start the elevator to get you upstairs,”
Rivers said, turning and walking over to the display Jay had been
working on.

The Lancer took
a deep breath to gather his courage and entered the room were Roger
was waiting for him on top of Rivers’ gift.

Nathan’s shield
was being utterly destroyed, crumpling under the avatar’s powerful
blows raining down on him as he tried to draw the thing’s attention
away from the others. Nathan had moved closer to the duel between
Pyoter and the creature, yelling profanities through his helmet
speakers at the monster while he emptied his last clip into the
creature.

The creature’s
focus had shifted instantly to the human cursing at it, ignoring
Pyoter as it stomped towards its new target. It was as if it
understood Nathan and was somehow offended by the Titan’s verbal
onslaught.

Even Locke, who
had been on missions with roguish pirates as guides, never heard
some of the words his second in command had used.

Blow after blow
landed on Nathan’s disintegrating shield, already forcing the Titan
down on one knee, but Nathan never stopped taunting the giant
nightmare adamant on crushing the life out of him.

The flames had
stopped burning the creature’s flesh, turning pink flesh into
charred, ashen scabs covering its entire body. It was in immense
pain, but it did not slow it down, instead it fuelled the avatar’s
rage even more. It showed with every hit on the kneeling Titan.