Chapter 3

Five hundred and three new recruits fresh out of basic training, twelve non-com’s, five commissioned officers and one Epistratichos marched the grueling 15 mile distance from Atlantis city to the distant Camp Clearwater, each with full load with rifle, marching three by three along the loose dirt path, under the oppressive midday sun. The only thing louder than the unified stomping of 521 pairs of standard issue Avalonean military combat boots, was the deep bass drum beat and the rhythmic chorus of voices belting out the words to Epistraticho Xanthopolous’ marching cadence

It was common for officers to ride horse back on ruck marches, but Epistratichos Xanthopolous was in a particular mood this morning and so they walked, Epistratichos included.

“I should have joined the baker’s guild.” A young lad whispered to the woman marching to his left.

The pixie haired blond kept her eyes forward, but grumbled in return. “Then quit.”

Eliud groaned, struggling to keep in step. “Heh, tempting…it would be easier than this.”

Barti-Beckchi Adoni Raptis risked her commanding officers wrath and whispered harshly. “If I wanted easy, I would have listened to my mother and become a tailor!”

“A tailor has a purpose at least.” The woman matching to the other side of Adoni added her two cents. “There is no shame in that.”

“We have a purpose too, Ourania.” Adoni defended, her voice rising to a dangerously high volume.

“Tayas Mons is so well protected; one would have to be quite the fool to come with in a thousand cubits of Atlantis. The bandits are gone; who are we going to war with?” Eliud offered, his voice was diplomatic, but whiny.

Adoni paused, she felt an incredible drive to tell them both they were wrong, but doubt like a serpent crept up on her. “It never hurts to know how to defend ourselves!” Adoni retorted at last, attempting to shake away the doubt.

“Defend ourselves form them? If the titans wanted to come for us, what chance would we have?” Ourania spat, as if they very notion was offensive.

Adoni had no response to give, so she kept quiet focused her eyes forward and marched. In the distance the call to stop was made, row upon row of recruits ceased their march as the Lokagos and Ilkogagos began to make their way through the ranks, inspecting the recruits. Each soldier stood at attention, back’s straight, eyes forward, and arms flat at their side.

They had reached Clearwater, the inner most Avalonian military outpost in defense Atlantis city, and the last line of defense before the city itself. Next was Camp Georgia, than Niagra, and finally Whisky, Tango and Foxtrot, which marked the end of the titan restriction zone, and the beginning of untamed wilderness. Further past there was Tayas Mons, which was strictly outside Atlantian jurisdiction.

“Fifteen minutes….wash up, get hydrated, and take a piss.” Epistratichos Xanthopolus paced slowly back and forth in front of the front line. “Make sure your feet are dry, and your neck is covered. We move in 15!” Darren shouted, as the recruits moaned and groaned and broke apart.

“Sir?” Palemst Jorenton questioned, after taking a long drink from his canteen.

“You heard me, Palemst.” Xanthopulus said simply, eyeing the road before them with purpose. They were just in sight of Clearwater, a small modestly fitted, manned outpost; it was another 12 miles to Georgia.

“Sir, permission to speak freely?” Jorenton asked with a stale frown.

Darren sighed softly. “You’ll prattle on anyhow, go’head.”

“These cadets have already completed their Ruck march…and you just ran them 15 on top of that? What’s on your mind sir?” Jorenton stood right of Darren, eyes on the road ahead, trying to figure out what his superior officer was fixated on.

“Got a something to do at Georgia outpost, Palemst.” Darren said at last, looking back to Jorenton.

“Sir? All of these cadets passed basic….”

“I am aware of that Palemst.” Darren’s focus remained elsewhere, the wheels in his head were churning.

“Is this about the conversation we had in your office, sir?” Asked Palemst Jorenton.

Darren nodded his head and turned to face the mass of soldiers in the distance. He watched the young men and women, most of them already looked exhausted but none of them seemed ready to quit. The Atlantians were anything but quitters.

“Huval, what do you see over there?” Darren spoke in a low calm voice.

“The recruits…sir. Five Hundred and….”

“I know…but what else.” Darren asked again.

“Men and women in uniform sir? I see Camp Clearwater and the Bristel gate?” Jorenton tried again.

“Do you know what I see, Soldier?” Darren looked back at his underling for a moment, there was a calm smile on his face.

Huval Jorenton shook his head.

“Potential,” Darren said, with emphasis, “limitless potential, in each and every one of them.”

“Sir, what good is potential, against the titan empire?” Palemst asked, grimly.

“The planet we come from, Palemst, isn’t much different than Avalon. It’s a bit bigger, and the place wasn’t built for us by a billionaire Santa-tooth fairy-fairy godmother . Earth wasn’t tailored to our needs at all.”

“Oh?” Palemst Jorenton, like many others, always paid close attention when Darren spoke about Earth, it was quite the subject of fascination, for many.

“Oh, it’s true. We weren’t scooped up by a giant space shop, and thrown into a comfortable little valley full of giant passive grazers, dumb juicy meat birds, and rich fertile terraformed soil. The whole human race, at one point or another held its hope in a few half starving, mostly naked, hairless monkeys. “ Darren paused, the confused look on the soldiers face begged for more information.

“Think about it, all the elements. Mammoth’s got their tusks right? The Birds got claws, feathers. We had nothing, we aren’t very fast, can’t do much damage on our own. Few of us alone would make for easy pickings for something big enough, with lots of teeth. That’s what we had to face down, predators bigger than us, faster, stronger, but we had one thing Palemst, we were damn smart, we ARE damn smart.”

“So are the titans.” Jorenton said, dejected.

Darren narrowed his eyes, and began to move in close. “Most predators back home have speed, muscle, power. But do you know what makes human beings a terrifying force to be reckoned with?”

The soldier shook his head.

“We are persistant, we endure. Imagine, Palemst, you’re running from a preditor…you run…for hours, days even…as far as you can, as fast as you can. You’re tired, weak, exhausted and hungry. You stumble to the banks of a river to take a drink, and then look back. Your eyes can hardly believe it, there in the far distance, you can only just make it out. There it is, like something outta your nightmares. That hairless bipedal ape, still on your six, because Jorenton, we are not fast, and we may not be that strong, and we may have to make our own claws and teeth… but we endure, we perceiver, and we’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth if we have to. “

“But the titans….”

“My Point is, we carved out one hell of a life for ourselves on a hostile, dangerious planet, starting from scratch Palemst! With no technology, with no help, we build temples, we carved out the land, and we dominated the globe. We built cities, tamed beasts stronger, faster and bigger than us. If we didn’t have it, we built it! Men built temples to the sky by dragging rocks through the desert sand. We flew to the gat’dang moon. We sent robots all over the universe looking for something, because our own globe wasn’t big enough to satisfy us anymore!”

“…”

“Small, smooth skinned, hairless monkeys, survived long enough to become the human race, because we endured, because we are one gat’damn hell of a species Huvul. Because we take risks, the status quo ain’t enough for us.”

“Came from Monkeys?”

“I’ll explain it to you later.” Darren sighed. “The titan’s ain’t immortal, they bleed soldier I’ve seen it! Avalon is our turf Huval, here, we got the upper hand. This is where the gloves come off, Avalon is all you got soldier, it’s your home,  are you telling me you’re willing to leave it in the hands of Tarsus corp?”

“I…I guess not sir.”

“Good.” Darren turned to face Jorenton once more. “Then you’d better learn to slay giants!”
Huvul Jorenton was quiet; he looked at the troops gathered. Did they really have as much potential as Darren was suggesting? Were human beings, really as remarkable as all that?”

“These guys and gals can do it, Huvul, they just need the right motivation.” Darren focused on the recruits. “And I think I know just the thing.”

***

“Tayas Mons control, this is shuttle Elysium, requesting clearance for departure.” Taron Dande leaned back in his chair behind the helm, and spun around once for good measure.

“Tayas Mons to Elysium, you are not clear for departure, I repeat, not clear for departure. Remain docked and await further instructions.” The familiar voice of Legatus-Imperator Tam unexpectedly crackled from the radio in response to the request.

Taron blinked, then after a moment smiled and leaned forward. “I’m sorry Tayas Mons, but could you repeat that? I seem to be having some trouble hearing you through the interference!”

Alex sat beside the helm, on the auxiliary systems console beside Sophia, who was gripping the base of the console tightly. Being blind made takeoff uneasy for her.

“Just take off, Taron. What’s the worst that could happen?” Alex muttered, hoping Rixie couldn’t hear him.

“You’ll blow an engine coil before you budge those mooring clamps, Elysium. That’s ‘the worst that could happen.’” Rixie responded, though her voice was amused.

“Tell ‘control’ that if she doesn’t let us take off right this second, it’ll be a long time before I make Jotunn style gok’ma nsougaht for her again.”

There was a long pause at the other end.

“…You’re bluffing.”

Taron covered the radio transmitter with his hand. “Is that a ‘food’ thing or a ‘sex’ thing?” he asked, intrigued.

“Try me! A food thing, but as far as she’s concerned it might as well be both.” Alex smirked, responding first to Rixie and then to Taron.

Taron looked mildly impressed before he remembered the situation at hand. Rolling his eyes he leaned over to speak into the transmitter again. “Tayas Mons, we have precious cargo on board, time is of the essence. Again, we are requesting permission to depart? Please?”

“You’re damn right it’s precious cargo Elysium!” The voice on the other end of the terminal barked.

“Oh for the love…” Alex muttered.

Dr. Brinn Pria shoved past Taron and leaned close to the terminal. “Tayas Mons, if we promise to take really good care of the precious cargo, will you clear us for departure?” Brinn winked at Alex, who was starting to feel a little embarrassed.

The radio crackled, but there was only silence from the other end.

Alex shook his head and hopped over from one terminal to the other. “Tayas Mons, this is Captain Alex Carey, what is your reason for delay?”

“Well, I’m certainly not trying to stall you, if that’s what you’re implying!”

“Right, goodbye Tayas Mons!”

There was a long silence on the other end, then the muffled sound of a mild struggle. When the radio crackled back to life it was a new voice on the other end. “Apologies for the delay, Elysium” Pryvani’s smooth voice flowed from the radio. “We had bit of a minor mutiny on our hands, but I can assure you we are back on schedule. I am authorizing the release of your mooring clamps right this moment. Have a safe flight. Oh, and Alex darling, Rixie told me to send you her best!”

“Thanks Tayas Mons.” Taron chuckled as he initiated takeoff. “Elysium, over and out.”

Brinn took a step back from the helm and then two more over to where Sophia was sitting. The titan carefully sat down and set a hand next to the little human. “Zara and I are brewing some tea in the back. Would you like some?”

“Yes, thank you.” Sophia nodded, and felt her way onto Brinn’s hand. “Tea sounds nice.”

Brinn smiled affectionately and held Sophia close to her chest, before turning to Alex. “What about you, Precious Cargo?”

“No thanks, I’m good. I’ll stay up here with Taron. Have fun though.”

Brinn nodded. She snuck a kiss onto Taron’s cheek, and disappeared through the cockpit doors.

“Rixie isn’t used to being separated from you is she?” Taron said, spinning idly on his chair.

“She’s a Titan. What more can I say?” Alex shrugged. “She probably just doesn’t like the idea of me having adventures without her.”

“I get it.” Taron said, using his foot to stop the chair spinning. He pulled himself towards the controls and began to input departure commands.

“Though, I’m sure you feel the same way when she runs off without you.” Taron said coyly.

“I…well it doesn’t bother me too much.” Alex lied.

“Is that why you often sneak off to join her?” Taron grinned.

“That was only the one time… maybe twice… Well, twice she knows about… But fine, yes, I get your point.” Alex chuckled. “That’s because I get bored, not because I don’t trust her.”

“I think she trusts you just fine. It’s everyone else in the universe she isn’t sure about.” Taron suggested, as the ship’s engines shook, bringing the Elyisum to life.

“She probably has a point, in that case.”

“So what’s Loona Armac want with you anyhow?” Taron asked, looking up to an overhead console to check on the ships auto departure coordinates.

“Well, she’s had her way with Dr. Freeman and Darren, so now she’s focusing her scopes on me, I guess.” Alex said with a straight face and a shrug.

Taron’s eyebrow arched inquisitively.

Alex laughed. “An interview. She wants to hear my side of everything. You know, as a human from earth, or whatever. And one who is in a relationship with a titan and who’s experienced life in the empire, both the good and the bad. As a journalist she wants to hear my heroic tale of adventure!” Alex boasted, puffing out his chest.

“She should interview Zhan, in that case. He’s way more interesting than you are!” Taron teased.

Alex deflated. “Oh gee, thanks! You know I took Trell down too, I’m as heroic as anyone!”

Taron laughed. “Sure sure, but you have to admit, he did it in a much better way.”

“Well I didn’t have a moltav cocktail on hand. Otherwise I’d have blown her up too.” Alex crossed his arms.

“I’m only teasing. You’re both amazing, and deserve respect. Loona won’t have enough memory on her pad to record all the awesome.”

Alex huffed. “Damn right.”

***

Dhan turned down another street and stepped up onto the ledge of a decorative fountain that sat in the middle of the square. The center of the fountain had a stone effigy of one of Pryvani Tarsuss’ ancestors spouting water out of her mouth, it was likely some sort of symbol for life giving water from the goddess, Dhanyale wasn’t exactly paying attention, nor did he take the time to carefully read the stone inscription at the base.

“I fracken told her not to wander off.” The young engineer grumbled, trying to get a good look over the crowd.

He was sweating, partially from the heat and partially from exhaustion. Dhan was used to the leisurely ease of Archavia gravity and found the heavy weight of Avalonian gravity harsh and oppressive.

Of course Kymie was nowhere in sight, so Dhan turned to his data pad and searched through his contacts, finding the one he was looking for, he turned away from the direct  sunlight and waited for the other end to pick up.

A curly redhead with a cheerful disposition and a bubbly voice greeted him with a bright smile. “Good afternoon Dhanny! How’s the mobile beta test going?”

Dhan smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “Hey Myona…Well, mostly good…seem to have a handle on random phase outs, I think Shaar was right, it was an energy problem. The new bio-cells distribute energy much more efficiently. But…well…we kinda have a problem….”

In the background, Dhan could hear a series of loud crashes and bangs, followed by the loudest string of the most creative profanity he’d ever heard. “If he lets anything happen to my prototype I’ll….” The new voice was drowned out by a convenient series of loud crashes, though Dhan could easily fill in the rest.

“Shaar sends her best!” Myona smiled warmly “So, what’s up? You ok? You look flustered.” Myona asked with a look of concern.

“I’m fine.” Dhan replied sharply. “Look, I just need you to track Kymie’s emitter and send me the coordinates.”

“Sure, I can do that! No problem.” Myona beamed. “Two of you get separated?”

Dhan simply nodded.

“Ok…think I found her. Oh, she isn’t too far from you. Sending her location to your GPS, you should be able to track her with your pad now. You know, in the future you can prevent this from happening by syncing your data pad with….”

“Thanks Myona, bye.” Dhan said, hanging up while the perky titan was in the middle of saying something to him.

It wasn’t that Dhan was trying to be rude intentionally; he just wasn’t keen on social cues and diplomatic protocol. Dhan had spent most of his life with Dr. Selil, through no fault of her own; the mechanically gifted young human had no interest in interaction with the world of titans, and didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about making time for his fellow human beings either.

Though, his issue with the titan species stemmed down much further than just anti-social tendencies, Dhan was in fact terrified of titan-kind. A condition casually called titan-shy. It in fact referred to any number of born phobias that prevented a human from adoption based on their inability to adjust to, and live with titans. Dhan in particular had a crippling fear of titans, as an animal of pre would a predator. Experts referred to a phobia as an irrational or extreme fear or aversion towards something, Dhan refused to apply this definition to his fear of titans, as in his mind, there was nothing irrational at all about fearing a species so large and easily able to destroy you, in any number of intentional, and unintentional ways.

Dr. Selil and Kymie were the only two Dhan seemed able to tolerate. Kymie had earned Dhan’s trust, painstakingly over nearly six months while Dr. Selil had owned Dhan since he was a small child, and over the years he had grown accustomed to her. But even with them he was a ball of nerves, which didn’t seem like any sort of way for one to live. Still, he was vehemently against moving to Avalon. Dhan was far too in love with technology to move to a ‘backwards, primitive rock’ like Avalon.

Kymie had done wonders to help Dhan expand his horizons. Because of her, he got to see the world outside the Tannhauser Gate university biology department, with the help of Dr. Selil, she helped him put his mechanical prowess to use in a productive manor, and when she wasn’t being hounded by Dr. Freeman, she even tried to help him work on dealing with his fear of titans, even if he wasn’t very cooperative about it.

Which was part of the reason they were on Avalon now, word had passed through the mossa-berry vine that Dhan was rather skilled at scaling down titan technology. Though he refused to work directly with Myona Barreda, Pryvani Tarsus, or titan other than Kymie, he would work with the human residents of Tayas Mons and Avalon, which was enough to get the job done anyhow.

Shaar had to then act as an intermediary between him and Myona, unless they spoke over a distance. Shaar, however, was a terrible diplomat, and had about as much patience for the task as could be expected.

Dhan examined his pad, a map opened up and there he could see a flashing red dot that was moving north, and a stationary arrow, which was him.

“Alright, time to locate the stray and get out of this heat!” Dhan said, stepping off the stone step.

Though he hadn’t the chance to get much further, it happened too fast for him to process. One moment he was stepping down on solid ground, the next he felt a strong force impact with his stomach. He looked up in time to see a cloaked figure invade his field of vision, his pad was torn from his hands, his white lab coat ripped off, then he was thrown off balance and shoved backwards into the fountain basin.

“Hey!” Dhan protested, as he sunk backwards into the water. He tried to catch which direction his assailant ran off to, but the figure easily blended in with the uncaring crowd, who seemed all too used to what was happening to care.

“Gorram!” Dhan cursed, this definitely complicated things.