Page 5

I wake on Armor’s chest, still naked from our impromptu lovemaking hours earlier. Stowaways have needs, too, and not just for food and water.

Armor has tucked an arm under his head and now watches me. Data fills his eyes in rapid lines.

I know Titans were once humans, male soldiers that died in battle, made immortal by the symbiotech and cybernetic engineering of Creators. Most don’t remember being human from what I know. As strange as it is to think of having sex with a cyborg, I’m not sure he is entirely one.

Maybe memory blockers didn’t work on him? He definitely still knows how to do a few things Titans weren’t trained in.

“Feeling better?” I ask, embarrassed that I caved to third base and a home run on the first date when it wasn’t even a date; it was a rescue mission.

“Yes, thanks to you.”

I focus on the data again. “What are you working on?”

“Communicating with other Titans.”

“Oh.” That’s generic and not helpful.

“Position?” he asks.

My heart lurches into a sprint. I’m dehydrated from our sweaty night together, and yet my pussy slicks with fresh urges I struggle to tamp down. “Any.”

He cocks his head like he doesn’t understand. “What was your job before you ended up here?”

I sit up on him, thinking we’re likely going to need to get him moving to the other Titans.

I’ve been tracking Titan communications on the surface since I arrived and know they’re planning an escape.

It’s why I broke my cover and finally took a chance to meet up with a Titan squad.

“I can be anyone anywhere. I’m a member of GMARTR, Gray Man Active Recon and Tactical Resistance.

“Solcrue killed the men in our camp who couldn’t work the mines. They took many others, including my sister. Only a few of us from each mining camp and colony were trained as Grays. I have a forgettable face and a photographic memory.”

“Unforgettable,” Armor gently corrects. “I will always remember you. And I swear to dedicate all my days of operation to your protection, GMARTR Esthi.”

“That’s sweet, but I don’t think you can promise that. Not in this era.”

He looks up at me with pain and shivers like he’s fighting a sudden rush of it. “You reject my offer of servitude?”

It’s then that I remember my instructor telling me about the Titan’s punishment protocols. “No. I’m honored.”

The tremors shut off. He melts with relief. “Thank you.”

I can’t tell if he wants to serve me or if he’s just grateful that I’m not rejecting him because of the pain it causes. “Can I make a request?”

He nods. “Your orders are my command.”

“Scrap those stupid punishment protocols. That is not what you need out here.”

Armor gives me a wild look. “You mean, delete them?”

“Yes, fuck! I have never understood how those help in any situation. Titans are not a threat to humanity. You all used to be human.”

Armor nods. “Done.”

“Now get rid of your servitude protocols. That’s bullshit, too. I want you with me if you want it, like last night. Not because programming demands it. I’m not tolerating a machine waiting for my approval to act. I need you on your toes, especially with the mutant wolves tracking us.”

Code scrolls across his eyes. An appreciative smile touches his smooth gray lips.

“I guess listening to Commander Leah Krader’s freeing request didn’t process completely.

It just knocked down my emotional program barriers.

Now, if I promise to help you find your sister, will you help me find one more Brother?

I’d feel better if we traded help instead of you just assisting with what I need. ”

Sounds like a decent plan. I get to my feet and start climbing back into my clothes. “Teamwork is the only way to increase odds of survival. But I think you have more than one Brother buried, yes? So let’s just play it by ear.”

Armor gets to his feet, slowly retracts his wing from the doorway, and scans the palely lit desert below.

“Do you have any more food?” he asks.

I free the protein bar packed in the pocket where my empty water bottle sits and hand it to him. “I have a few more, but not many. Berries and jerky. That’s it.”

“How much?”

When I’m clothed again, I sit on a rock and watch him fold his wings up and climb back into his pants.

His boots are mostly toasted, but they’ll hold together for now.

I admire his contoured backside for a brief second before his pants cover him again.

“Enough for a few days for me. Doubt it’s enough to feed many more. ”

Armor hums in deep thought as he chews the bar.

“Karambit will get us more. Possibly Javelin and Mace. I will free Carver first. He can access the others. Many are still in hibernation. A few may have been rendered the Black Death. But if we can get to Catalyst and fuel him, he can charge the others.”

“How many of you are there?” I ask.

“Forty-four in total.” He glances down at me. “We cannot dig at your pace. That’s why we need Carver. The BlazeStar leaves in two days. That is the only ship large enough to hold all of us and get us off Ellipsis.”

Armor walks out of the cave, stops, and glances back. Insecurity hides in his radiant eyes. “Do you want me of your choice?”

“Right now?”

A light smile touches the corners of his mouth. “In general.”

He’s having doubts after last night. But he’s not the only one. Knowing he still wants me with him makes me more eager to keep going. “Did not expect to dig up a Titan dragon and definitely not one who’s attracted to me.”

“I’m a Titan shield , not a dragon,” he corrects.

I shrug as I join him in descending the hills to the desert.

“Can’t believe you dragged me all the way up here,” he mutters. “You’re so small.”

“I am committed to my duty,” I counter.

“I didn’t mean that as an insult, more as an observation of your impressive resilience. I am one of the largest Titans produced. That could not have been easy.”

“You are my only thread of hope, of a connection to the world. We needed each other. Still do, but for a different reason now.” When he looks over at me, I wink. “You pack quite the rifle under your armor, Armor .”

He laughs in a bashful way that exposes just how human his emotions are. “As long as you liked it.”

My pussy slicks just thinking about bonding with Armor. “Pretty sure I’ve topped out with you. Anyone else would pale in comparison.”

“You choose me? You don’t even know me.” Armor surveys the desert plains and then checks on me.

Titans are all built with the same loyalty, protective nature, and honesty. The only real differences are in their designed skills and a few personality quirks.

“I want you to be mine,” he adds. “But I know that was fast. I don’t know what came over me.”

“I did.”

His face darkens a little. “Esthi.”

Stars, I love the way the depth of his voice rumbles through my core. I grip the straps on my pack to ground myself. “I’d like to be yours. But I won’t claim you as mine.”

“Please do.”

“It feels too out of place because of what you are and what I am. I don’t want to feel in any way like I’m implying that I own you because you were treated like tools, objects, and things for so long. It just doesn’t feel right.”

Armor scans the dirt around the hole I dragged him out of hours ago. “Then I have not yet proven my humanity to you. I will work on that soon. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

I sway between my boots. “That’s not what I…”

Armor squats down and launches himself high in the sky.

In my night vision goggles, I watch his wings spread and guide him in a downward death dive.

Then he binds his wings tightly around him, forming a point, and slams into the desert so hard he vanishes below its surface and slings waves of crumbling dirt into the air.

The ground shakes beneath my feet. I run to the hole and look down, fearing the worst.

Armor punches at the rock around another Titan, who’s feet-up in the dirt. A wolf howls in the distance. I draw my gun and hope he can get Carver out quickly.

“We must go. The mutant wolves have come through our area before.” Armor hauls a Titan out of the soil, gathers him in his arms, and jumps out of the hole. “We will come back for the others. Carver is offline. We need to replenish and recharge him to have any hope of recovering the rest.”

Armor gets down on a knee. “Climb on my back. We must move fast. You will run too slow.”

“Slower than you, but that’s still kind of a dick thing to say.”

“I am sorry. It is the truth.” Armor jerks his head toward his back. “It’s important to know your limitations so you can compensate for them and give yourself the proper advantages to win. I am the advantage now. But I cannot guard us while I carry both of you. I need you to guard us.”

Hooking my arms over his shoulders, I let my body dangle between his wings, then wrap my legs around his waist and draw my handgun. “Ready.”

Wolves snarl a short distance from our position.

“Hang on.” He gets up and sprints away from the approaching pack, a perpendicular path to the cave’s entrance. Slowly, the wind starts to pick us up. Armor finds a small hill in the desert, sprints up it, and leaps off.

The cooler night air doesn’t provide the lift I imagine he would get during the hot days, but we still glide into the trees. As we near the ground, he folds his wings back and keeps running.

My body bounces as trees whip by us, and it’s difficult to target the wolves trailing our position. I fire and tag one as Armor nears the entrance of the cave. He stops just inside. I get down to guard them, but the wolves take an interest in tearing apart their fallen packmate instead of us.

Armor lays Carver down like he’s made of glass, then stacks boulders in front of the doorway before returning to Carver’s side. When I inspect the Titan, I see why. Carver is covered in blades. “I don’t think we’ll free everyone in time without his help. Can you do anything?”

I’m not sure. But the way Armor looks at me, pleading for a solution, I know I’m going to try everything I can.

Setting my bag on the ground, I pull out my tablet, spare batteries, and wiring kit. “If you can handle his sharp body and open whatever ports he’s got, I’ll do what I’m capable of.”

Armor rolls Carver onto his stomach and opens a port in his side near the kill switch. “This is closest to his core. Taking a bore unit apart requires a Titan medic’s knowledge. I would charge him myself, but I can only connect to a generation unit like most Titans.”

I survey the plug connection. “I’m going to need a minute.”

Armor nods but looks tense.

“What?”

He shakes his head once. “Clover of the BlazeStar feeds me updates on the situation. It is difficult to be patient when we have so little time left. I was buried for so long that this all feels like it’s happening very fast. But I have been dreaming of this day and all the things I would do if I was ever free again. ”

“Even if we don’t make it off the planet with the others, we will survive. All forty-five of us,” I tell him. “We will find another way to escape.”

“You really believe that?”

I meet Armor’s doubtful gaze. “We will because we choose to make that opportunity. I was trained to mend things in the shadows so others might live in the light. We will find a way to make it happen.”

Time to see if my cybertech skills are up to the task.