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.”
