Chapter 9: Sefina
Watching Menace take the fall is devastating. It’s the perfect Titan trap: a fallen brother—even if it is a cheap replica with no internal components—and a Titan crying out in pain, coming from an opening too narrow to see much through the top.
I have failed Menace.
I used to be something important. I had a family to protect. Now, I just protect pieces of families and a few Titans as needed. It’s difficult to not feel like I am incapable of my sentinel duties when I was so close to Menace and still let him become the next victim in whatever maniacal plan this is. I’m not as strong as I expected I would become.
I’m far more broken than I ever feared.
But I’m a lot angrier.
All Menace has done for the last day is protect and care for me. He’s not the monster I thought he was.
Menace fell for the trap just as someone had hoped because it’s ingrained in him to not leave a Brother behind. Whoever they are, they know Titans.
I have to go get him.
I want to scream in rage, but I can’t if I want to keep my cover. So I bottle it up to use later and steady my gun in my right hand as I scan the area for the actual access shaft that Solcrue are likely using.
As I walk through the forest around the trap access, I notice a section with a few crushed leaves and broken branches. I slow and track the lightly worn path between bushes to a crack in the mountain.
The rock is dry inside, and the air carries the scent of starship fuels and hot plastic out of the depths. A Titan sensor in the walls swirls in green lasers over the passageway.
If I trip it, they’ll find me, and I’ll never reach Menace. There’s a tiny hole between boulders to my right. I peek through and push my bag to the other side. I climb up and slide myself in feet first, so I land upright. Collecting my things, I weave back into the mountain, following the corridor until I encounter a junction.
It’s rather quiet, almost too quiet. I try to think about which direction would get me closer to where Menace has fallen, but all I’ve done is head further away from him. Taking the passage to the left leads me to a door. Through the window, I see a hangar and a large, familiar, bounty hunter’s ship. Either Hunter Kuthar is working for the Solcrue again and not trading with rebels, or he finally lost a battle, and someonetookhis ship.
“Hey!” A scaly green soldier calls out an intruder alert over his radio and then fires off a shot at me from his rifle.
I dart down a crack in the rock that looks like a servants’ passageway, something too small for most Solcrue because they’re taller than the average human. He no doubt knows where it dumps out. I don’t, but it’s my best option for now. There’s no one down here but me.
He doesn’t follow, so when I find myself in an intersection with a drain grate in the floor, I take the opportunity to escape a predictable path. I slip under the metal panel and drop into a creek that the Solcrue likely use for handling sewage. I follow the murky water, knowing it has to dump out somewhere with a larger exit than where it entered.
The water crashes into another channel with periodic drains overhead. Hearing voices, I climb onto a rock and listen through a drain grate as best as possible.
“There’s a human in the servants’ corridor near the hangar. Make sure she dies there.”
“Sir, there are only three of us left and five exits there. Our other two teams are at the outpost waiting for Titans. Reinforcements keep getting shot down.”
“I don’t care what you have to do. Make it work.”
“Send me with two of Tachner’s crew.”
“No. His squad stays with me. We’re not letting this one get away either.” The Solcrue’s shadow passes over the drain. I get down and follow him as he walks along the outposts’ corridors.
I track him to a dead end. He enters a room that doesn’t stay with the creek. When he opens the door, I hear the sound Menace and I detected from the access. Except it isn’t just any Titan. Now, it’s coming from Menace.
My heart stutters at the sounds of him in agony, and I fear more time has passed in my search for him than I realized.
I’m in the right place.I just have to find a way to get up there.
“We’ve got intruders, Quris. Get the information we need so we can blow this place. We don’t need to hand over any more tech to those metalheads. They’re already breathing down our necks.” The Solcrue officer’s words always linger a bit too long on the S sounds for my preference.
Damn snakes.
He turns and leaves. “We’re prepping to launch back toMarst.”
I track the waterway to the next topside drainage, then climb up onto the rocks and lift the grate in the dark room. Sliding it aside, I raise my gun, expecting someone to come over and look inside. When no one comes, I haul myself into the room.
