Page 14

After three hours of lying with Sefina, my operational parameters are back in the green. Fracture’s awake and nudges my mind that he needs some rest. He’s been keeping his scanners running just in case Sefina fell asleep. Her eyes blink slower, and I know she’s about to be.

Sweeping the loose hair from her face, I admire her in the pale light of my digibadge. The desire to taste her one more time has me inching closer.

Her lips respond to mine, confirming our last kiss wasn’t a dream.

Sefina hums a note of comfort as if she enjoys the affection. It’s an intoxicating sound that makes my titanhood hard, and me ache to feel every inch of her. But we have bigger concerns. We aren’t safe here. And I won’t do to her what so many others already have.

I wrap her up in the blanket and free the rifle strapped to her bag.

“Where are you going?”

she mumbles.

“Patrol. I’ll be back soon.”

“Watch out for traps.”

I want to call her bossy or make a remark about how that’s a no-brainer. But I fell for it once already, literally. “I will. You rest. I’ll be back soon. Fracture’s watching the cave.

Sefina catches my hand as I start to leave and draws it to her mouth. But instead of a kiss, she curls her tongue around my index finger.

My ultromotor surges into action, thrusting energy into my body. The hot, wet velvet of her tongue summons a hungry growl from me and makes me think about burying myself in her despite my reservations and our current mission.

“Sefi,” I rasp.

“That’s better,”

she simpers.

“How? Now I’m just going to be thinking about coming back to you instead of the mission.”

She cracks open her eyes and smiles at me. Sefina drifts off to sleep again without an explanation.

I get up and stalk out of the cave, adjust my pants into a more comfortable position for my raging erection, and lift my rifle so I’m ready to fire if I discover any movement.

The area around us is clear of any soldiers, CSP or Solcrue, and welvirs. But as I pan toward the place where we exited the tunnels, as best as I can recall, I see a flurry of creatures on four legs fighting over something they’ve caught. I don’t know what it is because it no longer shimmers or pulses.

Keeping my eyes on their movements, I hike downwind from them toward the outpost, hiding behind short trees and bushes until I’m at the border wall. I scale the cracked concrete by wedging my fingers and boots on the thin ledges and then make my way to the top. Most Solcrue build their facilities on planets the same way: two levels of concrete or metal with an open-air landing pad in the middle and at least one watchtower. This one is concrete and older than most I’ve seen.

I’m not as trusting of Sythius as Sefina is. She knows him better than I do. But I’m not waiting to find out if he’s planning to turn on us.

Menace>>Fracture: Welvirs have taken the tunnel exit where the hoverlift is parked. I’m eliminating the outpost threats I can, but keep scanning.

Fracture clicks back twice to confirm he’s received my message.

I continue crawling along the wall until I find a guard on patrol. After monitoring his movements for a few minutes to let him check in and make sure he’s alone, I drop from the wall and crush him under my weight.

I steal his ammo, guns, and voltstick, then dig a quick hole in the dirt with my hands, roll him inside, and push the dirt back over him. The process takes me a few short minutes, and I’m back to climbing the wall again. I repeat the process until I’ve cleared the border wall of on-duty soldiers, then scale the tower and set my feet down silently on the wood deck.

Slinking around to the door, I ease it open so that it doesn’t make a sound. The solcruean guard on duty sits in a metal chair, hand down his pants, watching a video of an officer taking his human anaja. His gluttonous chuckles as he touches himself makes a vicious rage boil inside me.

I ease up behind him, draw a knife from my belt, and slide the blade up against his throat.

He takes in a sharp breath and freezes.

“You should not find joy in others’ misery. That’s my job.”

I make the kill quick, which is more than he deserves.

Outside, the sun’s first light touches the distant mountains. I’m running out of time to utilize the cover of darkness. I crouch at the edge of the platform and look down at the landing area and the junker’s ship sitting on the pad.

It could easily hold a hundred humans or a hefty payload. The rear propulsion looks familiar, like something from a human military ship. It’s been modified beyond recognition, but I wager it’s worth stealing if we can get our hands on it.

Menace>>Fracture: Can you fly this?

I send him a video of the ship over our mental network.

Fracture>>Menace: Looks like a converted ZeusJuicer. Probably a BoltBurner model. But yes. I wager I can fly that with 89% probability.

Fracture>>Menace: We are packing up now. Sythius says the range extender should be on the ship. That’s how he was transported here. Three Solcrue squads run the outpost with one CSP.

Menace>>Fracture: Correction, two Solcrue squads left. I have yet to encounter the last two CSP personnel. Unlocking the front gate.

Fracture>>Menace: On our way.

“What the hell is that?”

someone calls out. “Is that a fucking gargoyle?”

I look in the direction of the voice and find two CSP soldiers looking up at me. One is mostly augments. The other bears strange physical resemblance to Leah, Savage’s mate.

Joey and Lenarro.

I lift my rifle and fire at them as they run for cover and shout.

“Titan! There’s a Titan in the outpost!”

Soldiers come out of rooms all over the yard, some in uniforms, others in boxers. I fire at the first three and render them inert. I could take cover and play this with caution, but we’re low on time if we’re going to make it off of Ellipsis before the fourth mothership and her armada arrive. We need the range extender, and I’m full of energy and fresh purpose with the taste of Sefina on my lips.

I jump over the railing and fall three floors to the surface of the landing pad. I drop to all fours, below the bullets flying at my body, and charge into the gatekeeper’s room.

He swivels, expecting an upright Titan by the position of his rifle, leaving him vulnerable. Launching myself at him, I crush him into the wall. Bloodied concrete rains around me as I free his grenade belt. A simple twist ignites one, and I toss it at the gates.

Menace>>Fracture: Boom boom at the gate in three, two…

The grenade blows and disintegrates the doors. Clouds and bits of wood debris fly through the air. I twist another and throw the entire belt toward an approaching squad, then run across the landing area in the direction of the ship’s ramp. The BoltBurner’s rear ramp is down, but as I duck under the belly of the ship to clear it of combatants, two soldiers step out from behind landing gear. The range is too close for rifle fire.

I drop below their crossfire and let them take each other out. A third fires from behind a toppled workbench. I take cover behind the landing gear and check my ammo.

One round left? Fucking great.

I have one option. I count my attacker’s twenty rounds, the magazine capacity of the rifle he’s using. When I know he’s reloading, I step out, aim my rifle at him, and fire.

By the math, I’m down to the two CSP cowards who ran into a distant room. But I’ve been through enough battles to know anything can happen. I can’t see their radiant silhouettes in the building, so I have to assume they’re on the ship, hidden behind thick metal, or already underground.

Switching to a handgun and my knife, I skirt the ramp and aim inside. Whatever they’ve been doing, it has the look of repairs. Tables with parts are spread out in the landing area. Nothing on them looks essential, but Fracture will know better. I send him visuals as he signals to me that they’re inside.

One of the rooms flashes with a blue light I remember well.

Fracture approaches in a makeshift pair of pants from a blanket with a rifle in his hands. He moves slowly but fluidly, more like a human. When he stops beside me and squints over his rifle at the room I’m looking at, I know he’s remembering it, too.

“Can’t be a Titan chamber, right?”

I say. “They were all destroyed on Titan.”

“Agreed.”

Fracture glances behind him and motions Sefina toward the ramp.

She and Sythius climb inside the BoltBurner and search the rooms. Fracture joins them. I back inside the ship, keeping my eyes on the outpost rooms, especially the one with the strange blue light.

Menace>>Fracture: Ship status?

Fracture returns seconds later, dragging the body of a Solcrue off of the ship. “Just need a few parts.”

Sefina and Sythius join him at the tables as Fracture points to the parts he needs.

I hike down and scan the outpost over my gun as they pick up armfuls of parts. “Hurry. I didn’t catch the CSP soldiers.”

Walking the area, I keep my eyes moving along the perimeter. Sythius hikes up and into the ship first.

“Don’t move.”

The words are so quiet I almost don’t hear them.

Sefina freezes on the ramp.

Alarm rips through me. I duck into the shadows of the ship’s ailerons and slink around the ramp. The two CSP soldiers stand back to back, one with a gun on her, the other guarding him.

Joey, Leah’s half-brother, takes an item from her hands. “I’ll take that, thank you. Sorry, I couldn’t spare you. Tell my sister hello when you get to Hell.”

He’s going to shoot her. I feel it in every synthetic fiber of my body. I charge at them and throw everything I have into pushing them away. Sefina hunkers down as I crash into the men. I transfer so much momentum to them that I feel Joey’s ribs crack. He drops the item as he and Lenarro fly across the yard and smash into a spread of tables littered with parts.

I land hard, get up, and fire at them as Lenarro peels Joey up and bounds out of the outpost with the strength of a Titan.

Fracture bends over to pick up the part Joey dropped when his shoulder begins to fragment. “Menace?”

He looks down at himself in terror. “He’s here. He’s still here!”

“Who?”

“Quris!”

I look around him and see a naked synth man that looks exactly like Quris standing in the yard, holding a pair of radiant bars that thread green strands of light around Fracture, slowly disintegrating him and drawing his pieces into the field.

I drop my knife and grab Fracture’s arm. “Sefina, go!”

She tosses the parts down and lifts her rifle. “Fuck that!”

“Don’t bother!”

But she shoots at him anyway. Every flaming bullet absorbs into his shield.

Fracture writhes like he’s in pain. Quris is siphoning Fracture’s fragments. I’m holding him together.

“You’re going to tear me apart!” he cries.

I holster my gun and draw the only weapon I know can pierce Solcrue shields.

Fracture’s feet slide in the dirt, half of his body now hovering in shattered pieces. “Let me go.”

“I’m not losing another Brother. Get down.”

Fracture slumps to his knees. I let go and watch his arm instantly fragment. I turn and run toward Quris. Sefina shouts at me, but I can’t afford to stop.

I flick the zembi open and ignite the blade as I bound through a cloud of Fracture’s pieces toward Quris. Drawing the blade up, I steady it in two hands and launch myself for his shield.

He grins like he expected as much. I hope I haven’t made another mistake. But I’m committed. I can’t change course mid-air, not like Thruster.

The world pulses and warps around me as I enter the phase-shifting controllers Creators used on all of us to help us discover what made us unique. My teeth elongate. My skin thickens into armorderm, and a deep lust for blood fills me.

My momentum slams into the shield, but the zembi slips through with ease, piercing Quris’ chest. His shield drops. He looks down at the glowing blade and laughs. “You can’t kill me. I’m immortal.”

“I killed you with a coilgun!”

Sefina shouts, firing off a shot that tears through his shoulder. “And a bomb!”

Quris’ grin sickens me. “Do you really think Creators ever truly die? How do you think we got this good at building you?”

I draw the blade up and zigzag it through his insides. Quris chokes and collapses. As he falls, another Quris charges out of the room where I saw the blue light.

“Why don’t you stop?”

Quris roars, firing wildly at me. His body isn’t quite as stable as the last, and he staggers in my direction like he’s a drunk hotskin fresh off the line.

I spin the zembi back and steady it in my hands. “Because you took Sadina from us!”

I slash him through the middle as Sefina gasps not far behind me, but I don’t have time to think about it. I just have to hope she’ll let me explain later.

Another Quris runs out of the door. Another flash of blue light.

Fucking hell.

“You should accept defeat!”

Quris shouts in triumph. “I can do this all day. You can’t!”

Sefina shoots him several times as she charges after me. “You bastard!”

We advance on the room with the light. The next Quris barely leaves the door. I’m on him, teeth digging into his throat before he can utter another word.

Sefina shoots the one leaving the chamber as I scramble up, claw a hand into the computer controls, and rip them out of the cloning chamber’s frame. The lights flicker off, and the engines whir down.

I turn to her out of breath. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you. I just didn’t want you to cry when you could sleep.”

Sefina punches me. “Anything else you’re keeping from me besides the fact that my mother was a fucking Stealth Titan?”

Sadina was her mother? It takes a moment for the idea to sink in, but I can absolutely see the resemblance.

Yes. That I’m in love with you. Please don’t hate me. Please don’t leave. But I say nothing because I know it’s her choice, and how I feel doesn’t and shouldn’t matter, not when life is this close to ending every single day, and I’m the only thing standing in the way. My duty must come first.

Menace>>Fracture: Tell me the ship is running and you have the range extender.

Fracture>>Menace: A-firm.

The ship hovers off of the ground. I lead the way out to the ramp, Sefina following behind me, looking pissed. I’m still on high alert for Joey and Lenarro.

“Menace!”

I turn to her, grab her by the waist, and toss her up onto the hovering ramp, then jump up beside her.

Menace>>Fracture: Can you blow the chamber? We don’t need anyone salvaging that and using it against us again.

Fracture>>Menace: Guns are inoperable until I can get them repaired.

Sefina’s still shouting at me. I ignore her as I take the igniter cell out of a handgun and toss it below. My rifle is out of ammo, so I take the rifle from her hands and fire down at it. There’s no time to be gentle or ask nicely.

She scoffs and crosses her arms as the wind picks up, and we lift higher above the valley. But when I hit my target and the exploding igniter sets off a chain reaction that sends a heatwave up around the ramp, Sefina quiets and peers down at the blast.

The hot wind in her hair and the fire plume reflecting in her eyes make me crazy with need, but I have dug my own grave, keeping the truth from her about so many things.

I extend the rifle. “I’m sorry, Sefi.”

She squints at me, then storms into the ship without her rifle or another word.

I fear any progress I’ve made with her is gone for good.