Gamma Nine (Book One) (41 page)

The display in
front of Gray filled with static and then began to focus. Shapes
became clearer and edges became smooth. Within moments two ship
captains were staring at each other, silently sizing one another up
as all void captains did when meeting one of their opposite
numbers.

Gray said
nothing, the moment he had been planning, and hoping for, was
almost here. Whoever spoke first would be the loser, Gray knew
this, and he doubted Vincent’s arrogance would allow him to fathom
the idea of psychological edges others might have over him. Gray
could see Vincent’s superiority just by the way he sat and watched
with unblinking eyes. The man was not stupid, but his arrogance
allowed a hint of ignorance to creep into his personality, and this
was what Gray was going to use against the bastard.

“I thought you
were dead,” Lord Vincent said, his voice filled with his royal
arrogance.

Gray smiled,
not at the comment, but rather because he knew he had the son of a
bitch right where he wanted him. Gray remained silent, shifting in
his chair as if to show Vincent that he is annoyed and not
impressed by his words, or even his appearance.

Lord Vincent’s
mouth curled into a snarl, slamming his fist into the extravagant
throne he sat in. “Answer me you scum!” he said, his voice rising
in pitch as his anger grew.

Still Gray said
nothing and just kept smiling, scratching at the stubble of grey
hair on his chin.

“I am still a
master of this race and your superior in command! You will answer
me Captain!” Vincent’s anger was enough to almost manifest into the
physical realm.

“My superior?”
Gray finally said. “Looking at you now Victor,” the name spoken
with venom, “I see nothing but a pathetic excuse for a human. You
are a master of nothing but slaves and hollow loyalty. I pity your
crew and everyone that has ever served you. Your actions here, and
whatever you are planning, invalidated everything you have ever
done for our race. Most of all, Victor, I pity you as much as I
pity an insect before I step on it. Your words, and your elaborate
power, it means nothing to any of us. You have lost the right to
order me and my crew around.”

Lord Vincent
remained quiet for a minute. He struggled to contain himself. “You
will die, and I will watch you burn up with your ship. I will make
an exception, killing your home world next. One by one I will wipe
anyone who has ever heard of you and those precious Titans from
this universe. And then I will piss on the ashes of your family
name. You will be forever damned and so it will be written in
history. You and everyone you call an ally will be dust and bone,
forgotten forever.” Lord Victor let the words hang in the air, his
intention as always trying to strike fear into his subordinates,
that is the only way he knew how to control situations.

But he was not
dealing with his slaves. No, he was dealing with free-thinking
soldiers, something that was far more dangerous to his master plan
than anything else.

Gray chuckled
under his breath. “And I thought you were going to ask me to
surrender or something.”

“You and your
family are all dead. I will personally slit the throat of any child
or grandchild you have fathered!” Lord Vincent was furious, his
temper flaring out of control as Captain Gray’s insubordination
pierced his calm exterior.

“You are too
late, they are already dead. You will have to find something else
to threaten me with.” Gray replied.

Lord Vincent
relaxed slightly as he shifted in his chair, lowering his clenched
hands to the arm rests of his throne. “Everything,” he mumbled
mostly to himself, but he raised his voice as he continued, “I will
kill everything and everyone in my path. The blood of millions of
humans will be on your hands. You will learn what it means to be
truly alone, Willis.”

The use of his
first name angered Gray slightly, but he did not show it. “Then we
will have to stop you,” Gray said, keying in a code in his command
chair out of sight of Victor’s cold eyes.

“Don’t make me
laugh you old fool. You have nothing but a ship and a few men. Your
Titans are on New Horizon, and they will die there, I will make
sure of it. The other Titans that still lived are all dead, I have
seen to it. The Grim Wolves are the last of their kind,” Lord
Vincent laughed as he spoke, his anger turning once again to
arrogance.

“We shall see,”
Gray said with disgust in his voice.

“Indeed we
will.”

“You have lost
touch with what our mission was Vincent; you have been blinded by
power and greed.”

“Do not lecture
me about our mission, I am upholding our ideals. I just found a
faster way to reach them. You cannot teach me any more you
fool.”

“Wrong,” Gray
said, nodding at Remy to his side. “An old bastard can still teach
a child like you a few things. Now!” Gray yelled at Remy.

Lord Vincent’s
eyes widened as he saw the light grow around the Hyperion’s hull.
The conversation had given Gray enough time to charge his BEAM
drive for a short jump. Gray had been stalling. He could do nothing
as Gray got the final words in before the Hyperion jumped.

“Tell me
something Victor. How long does it take for your behemoth to
charge?” Gray could be heard laughing as he spoke again. “First to
the finish then?” he said as the display in front of Victor filled
with static.

The Hyperion
vanished from sight, its BEAM drive carrying it away from the
traitor’s fleet. Gray knew that he had only bought them a few
hours, and Victor’s escort ships would be faster at reaching New
Horizon than their command ship. But nevertheless, he had given
them some time to get back and rescue the Wolves.

Hopefully they
were still drawing breath.

Nathan held up
a hand to silence his brother before he said something that he
would regret. “I see it. Is it her?” he asked Christian, his
brother was shifting from one armoured boot to the other, his
brother’s body language showing Nathan that his brother was at a
crossroads.

“I think so,”
Christian replied.

“That is not
good enough. You have to do better than that.” Nathan’s tone was
serious, heavy with annoyance from what was becoming a problematic
situation.

Christian
turned to face Nathan, slipping his shield behind his back. “I can
feel it. It is her,” he said, the certainty in his voice was
clear.

Nathan nodded,
that was enough for him, there might have been issues between him
and his little brother, but he trusted Christian’s judgement. “I
will handle it. Go outside and find Lemink, tell him to send some
of his men to guard the civilians.”

“Thank you,
brother,” Christian said, the words difficult to form because of
the rocky past they shared.

“Don’t thank me
yet. The rest won’t be happy to hear we are leaving.”

“We?” Christian
asked, puzzled.

“Yes...we, now
go.”

Christian
nodded and left the morgue without pushing the subject. Already he
felt a little better knowing his brother trusted him enough to have
his back in a situation like this.

Nathan took a
deep breath and opened a channel to Gabriel, private so the rest of
the squad did not hear the conversation.

“Say again,”
Locke said, fending off a monster with bone blades for limbs
lunging towards him. “Are you joking?”

“No Gabriel,
Lemink will protect the civilians. We need to investigate the new
beacon. It might be a high value civilian, someone we might need,”
Nathan replied.

“How could you
possibly know that?” Locke asked. His voice strained as he cut a
bladed arm off that was trying to pierce his chest armour.

“Let’s just
say, there was a feeling.”

“Crap,” Locke
replied, “you will have to explain that “feeling” to me
later...”

There was
silence for a moment, Nathan waiting for Locke to continue. He
could hear the captain breathing hard as heavy weapon gunfire
erupted nearby.

“Go. You have a
few hours. If you aren’t at our primary extraction point by the
time we need to leave, we leave without you.”

“I understand
Gabriel, we will be there.”

Christian
returned just as Nathan finished speaking to Locke. Nathan switched
of the squad radio and with his thumb pointed it behind him,
meaning only one thing - we are leaving, ready up.

Christian
understood instantly. Lemink’s men were already filing into the
morgue, seeing to the civilians and taking up positions to cover
the morgue’s only entry point.

“We can’t go
out the front, take the stairs, we can jump to the next building
from the first floor,” Nathan told his brother.

Without a word
Christian ascended the stairs with his brother right behind him.
Within a few seconds they were looking out of the first floor
windows at the front of the medical facility. An ocean of bodies,
mutated and human, feverishly battled for survival below them. The
Titans were like lights in the darkness of the monstrous tide,
around them the Lancers gathered and mounds of dead beasts piled up
as they died. Tracers from the weapons mounted on the vehicles lit
up the shadows as they blew mutated bodies apart.

Nathan took a
moment, stepping up to the window before he spoke. “I hope you are
right. We will all die if you are wrong about this.”

“I am certain,
Nathan. I would not leave unless I was compelled to.”

“You always
were a sap for the ladies. Let’s go before I change my mind.”
Nathan turned and broke into a sprint, heading for the windows
overlooking the internal areas of the old medical facility.

Christian
followed his brother, matching his speed as they rushed towards the
largest window.

In a crash of
broken glass they leapt through the window, sailing over a small
gap between the administration building and an abandoned building
which use to be a children’s ward. The Titan brothers landed
without losing speed, and soon they disappeared into the darkness,
moving as fast and as silent as they could. They were heading for
the western perimeter, slipping through the gaps in the broken
walls around the facility within a few seconds after jumping down
to ground level.

Their departure
had gone unnoticed. Christian breathed deep as he led the way to
the beacon in his visor, it was still pinging back. As his muscles
started to burn from excitement and the cocktail of stimulants
pumped into his blood by the Nano machines, he silently hoped that
he had not just doomed everyone.

The shadows of
the dying Santor swallowed up the two Titans as they traversed
broken barriers and abandoned cars at full sprint.

In a handful of
moments Christian would know if he had made a mistake or not.

Little did
everyone know, but his rash decision was a miracle just waiting to
become reality.

If they
believed in it enough that was.

The others did
not believe it at first, but there was no time to really think on
it. Xander had made a joke about going with, seeing as there were
fewer monsters in the direction they were heading.

At least the
spirits of the squad was still high, even though the laughter died
almost instantly as battle instincts replaced humour.

The fight in
front of the medical facility was relentless, neither side giving
the other any room to gain the upper hand. One moment a swathe of
beasts would be cut down, opening up a gap in the tide of mutant
flesh washing over the human defenders, the next moment a Lancer
would die horrifically, breaching the psychological defences of
every defender nearby.

Another Lancer
fell just as the laughter died, his mutilated body falling
awkwardly into the blood soaked paving. Blood flowed out of the
dead, mixing with the mud and stone beneath the battle’s feet.

The sound the
ground underneath made was a sickening schlop schlop as boots and
mutated appendages danced for survival.

Pyoter had
sheathed his giant blade, its keen edge dulled on mutant flesh and
bone. The Lancers around him fought with blind fury, using whatever
weapon they had at their disposal to kill the monsters assailing
their position. The larger than life Titan fought shoulder to
shoulder with the Lancers, protecting as many as he could while he
crushed heads and ripped limbs from bodies with his bare hands.

But it was not
going to be enough; the tide was closing in around Pyoter and the
Lancers at his side. They had already been pushed back from their
original position, their backs now against one of the convoy’s
vehicles. Pyoter saw the tide shift again as an explosion cleared a
hole in front of him, blowing bodies to pieces, showering
everything in the vicinity with filthy gore. He glanced over to
Xander’s position, the explosive expert giving him a nod to accept
his silent thanks. Xander resumed his vigil over the Lancers under
his charge, using his pistol to blow the heads off anything that
came near, and his free hand reaching for devices on the belts
looping around his armoured form.

The short
reprieve gave Pyoter an opportunity to try something. In one motion
he jumped on the vehicle behind him, sidestepping the body of the
recently deceased gunner of a heavy machine gun mounted on the
armoured hull.

“Cover me!”
Pyoter yelled at the Lancers and everyone else close enough to hear
him. Pyoter gripped the heavy machine gun with both hands and
lifted with all of his strength.

Godwaker
announced itself again, turning flesh into pulp as a short stocky
creature tried to climb onto the same vehicle Pyoter was on.

For a moment
nothing happened, and only the straining sounds of Pyoter’s
strength bubbling to the surface could be heard over the radio.

Pyoter groaned
louder, veins in his body bulging as his armour leant him even more
strength. The heavy machine gun came loose with the sound of
ripping metal and breaking bolts. One moment the giant Titan was
crouched, groaning as if he was taking a massive shit, the next
moment he had planted his feet on the armoured hull and raised the
massive machine gun in his armoured hands.