“Think not that your word and yours alone must be right.”
–Sophocles, Antigone
“All right,” Darren said, as they came to a ventilation grate. “We’re here. At least, we’re as close as we can get through the shaft. It’s sealed going forward.”
“Very well,” Tatenda said, looking into the mass of men and women in the watch room. “We can go from here. Thank you, Alesia, and you, Sergeant. We will not forget you.”
“Nor we you,” Lessy said, giving both men a brief hug goodbye. Darren, for his part, saluted once more. He watched them step out of the vent and into the hallway.
“Brave men,” Darren said. “Hope I’m not condemning them to death.”
* * *
“I took a stun-prod to my larynx. Alex got it working, kind of. Then I ate him…it’s a long story.”
“Well, tell it to me later. Something’s up, and I don’t trust it,” Eyrn said.
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve got the Lem’s crew on the detention level, I’m in the cell with them. I’ve got Naskia and Niall with me, we were working with them, trying to show at least a little hospitality.”
“Okay, makes sense.”
“Well, Kir is getting very insistent that Nas and I leave. Immediately. Something about scanning for human germs.”
Rixie frowned. “Well, that doesn’t make sense at all. He could do that with Titans in the cell. The scanners wouldn’t have any problem with it…unless….”
She looked back at the pad in horror.
“Don’t leave, Eyrn. Whatever you do, don’t leave that cell, unless you’re taking every human with you. I’m on my way.”
“I under….” Eyrn said, before the feed cut out.
“Shaka. They’ve cut comms,” Rixie said. She grabbed Alex, stuffed him in her pocket (he didn’t complain; he had a terrible feeling that he knew why) and ran out into the room, where Ulala and Tig were hugging it out.
“I need you four,” she said. “You’re deputized. Come with me.”
“What?” Tig said. “Where?”
“Detention level. I’ll explain on the way.”
* * *
“Centurum Oden…have all Titans cleared the cell?”
“No, sir.”
“Clear them,” Solis said. “By force if you must. Ten minute countdown is active….now.”
Kir looked up, and pointed to two armed guards. “Get the Titans out of there.”
“Oh, shaka,” Eyrn said. “This looks bad.”
“Why would they want us out of here? Why?”
“It’s fairly obvious,” Xú said. “They don’t want you in the way.”
“In the way of what?” Naskia asked.
Eyrn didn’t answer; instead she looked down at Xú, aghast. “Aerti would never. Never. He’d die first.”
“Doesn’t have to be him, does it?”
Eyrn’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Kir!” she said. “Stop this! You know this is wrong!”
Kir looked down at the console. “Eyrn…I have no choice.”
“Like hell. You’re a good man, Kir!”
“My orders come from the top,” Kir sighed. “From above Navarchos Bass. I….”
“You do! You don’t have to obey this order! It’s wrong, Kir!”
“You will need to comply with the peacekeepers,” Kir said, his eyes closed. He killed the intercom.
“Nas?” Eyrn said, calmly.
“Yes?”
“Hang onto my bracelets, will ya?” She pulled them off, and handed them to her sister-in-law. “Shang Xiao, get everyone back.”
The first guard came through the floor. “Dr. Bass, Dr. Freeman….”
He didn’t complete the thought. Moving faster than seemed possible, Eyrn spun out of the way, and leapt a full unit into the air, kicking him hard in the face. He staggered back, and was caught with another kick to the groin, and then he felt his legs go out from under him, before he collided with the deck, unconscious. Eyrn plucked his stun-pod clean and armed it, and pushed out of the room, stunning two other soldiers down in her wake.
“Eyrn?”
“I’ll try to get you space, you get them the hell out of there,” Eyrn said, diving around two more guards and stunning them.
* * *
Tatenda and Viktor had not gotten halfway to the watch room when all hell broke loose. Deciding quickly that discretion was the better part of valor, they sprinted back to where Darren and Lessy were waiting.
“What’s going on?” Tatenda asked Darren as he reached the grate.
“I don’t know,” Darren said. “Nothing good. Wait here with Lessy,” he said, stepping out into the corridor and toward the chaos.
“I’m coming with!” Lessy said.
“No! You’re keeping them safe. That’s an order,” Darren said, sharply.
Lessy wanted to follow, but she knew he was right. Someone had to watch out for Tatenda and Viktor.
“All right. You stay safe, too.”
“Bright-eyes, you know Lysis wouldn’t forgive me if I left her with the kids,” he said with a grin, as he broke into a trot.
* * *
“They’re gonna kill them,” Rixie explained.
“What?!” three humans and two Titans shouted in unison.
“I don’t know on whose authority, but they need the Titans out so that they can kill the humans,” Rixie said, sprinting through the corridor. “There are a couple ways – the detention center’s ventilation system, electric shock, but….”
“Imperator!” Aertimus cried as he joined them at a junction. “Solis…he’s got it rigged. He’s going to kill the humans.”
“I know,” Rixie said.
“How did you get your voice working?”
“Not the time, sir.”
“Right,” Aerti said. “All comms are locked out. We need to get to the detention wing.”
“I know a shortcut,” Rixie said, vectoring for an accessway. “Who’s running the show down there? Who’s Solis’s man?”
Aertimus was quiet as she opened the hatch.
“Sir? Who’s the bastard?”
“Kir,” Lysis said, from Aerti’s pocket. “I’m sorry, Rixie.”
Rixie showed no outward sign of emotion. She closed her eyes, and took three steadying breaths. “Okay,” she squeaked. “Follow me.”
Titan Station had been designed with a series of accessways, partially to allow for repairs, but also to allow for movement of personnel in the event of insurrection. These latter accessways – the red line, they called them – had fallen into disuse thirty years ago, and it had been a good eighteen years since they’d even bothered to tell senior officers about them. When an imperator stationed here twenty-three years before had programmed her access codes into the system, Commander Aquesil had flatly told her that nobody used it. It was just a formality – one Imperator Rixie Tam would be the last to go through.
The imperator outranked Commander Aquesil, so she’d taken it upon herself to explore the red line thoroughly. By the end, she was certain that it would be of no use to smugglers – it was only of minimal use for defense – and put it out of her mind. They’d essentially decommissioned the red line, but they weren’t going to fill them up with cement, and eliminating the code locks was more trouble than it was worth; so long as an officer was active in the system, his or her codes were live.
As of this morning, Rixie Tam was active in the system.
Rixie smiled as she punched in her code, and saw the first door of the line pop open. Dust and debris greeted them; it wouldn’t be particularly fun, but it would get them where they were going.
As they entered, she smiled even wider; they hadn’t even bothered to take them out. She entered her code again, and opened a weapons locker. “Projectile tasers,” Rixie said. “Titans, grab one. Humans…I only wish you could.” She was gratified to see the old weapons were still charged and operational, even if they’d seen better days.
Aerti grabbed a taser as well. “Hope we don’t need them,” he said, following Rixie through the small tunnel. Ulala grabbed one as well.
Tig grabbed three.
* * *
“Priority One message from the Navarchos Imperii, ma’am.”
Lauryna sat back in the captain’s chair, and frowned. There was no reason the Navarchos Imperii would contact the Gyfjon directly. Whatever orders he wanted her to follow, she should be hearing them from Navarchos Bass or Archiploiarchos Tam.
“On screen,” Gwenn said. “Navarchos Solis, sir, how may I help you?”
“Hello, Captain Gwenn. You are ordered to depart the Sol system and return to Rigel Kentaurus. Immediately.”
“Sir? We haven’t heard anything from Navarchos Bass.”
“Navarchos Bass is no longer reliable; I am removing him from command of Gama fleet. You are to maintain radio silence, and depart the Sol system. Now.”
Lauryna hoped her poker face was holding up. “Acknowledged. Should we at least notify the Xifos?”
“I have ordered Captain Los to board the Xifos and take control; Archiploiarchos Tam cannot be trusted, given her long service with Navarchos Bass. You have a history with him too; it would be a shame if your career were to end today as well.”
“Acknowledged, sir. I will have our helmsman plot our course, we will depart Titan under radio silence.”
“A wise decision,” Solis said, and looked down at his pad. “Solis out.”
Lauryna sat back. “Crewmate Riases, lock down all comms. I want nothing going in or out of this ship. That’s an order.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
Lauryna looked over at Rovlan Tam. “Commander, what do you think?”
Her executive officer frowned. “Ma’am…this is gorram unusual. Crewmate Riases, have we received formal notification that Navarchos Bass has been removed?”
“No, sir.”
Tam looked at Gwenn for a good moment. Then he looked around the bridge. “Captain,” he said, knowing full well this could cost him his career, “I believe that under article two, the Navarchos Imperii has issued an unlawful order, bypassing the chain of command, and directing us to act in direct contravention of protocol.”
Gwenn looked back at Tam, and smiled, sadly. “Commander, I concur. Helm, position of the Xifos?”
“Xifos is in high orbit of Neptune, ma’am.”
“And the Minatar?”
“Last reported position was in high orbit around Jupiter.”
“Ms. Horous,” she said, to the helm officer. “Plot an intercept course for Neptune at maximum controllable speed. Unless….”
“Ma’am?”
Captain Gwenn stood up, and took a couple steps forward. “This is going to put us in opposition to the Navarchos Imperii, folks. I will not hold it against any of you if you wish to leave your post.”
Horous looked over her shoulder, and gave her captain a smile.
“Why would we do that?” she said. “He’s not our captain.”
“Well said,” Tam chimed in.
“Tactical station ready, Captain,” said Mija Haedta, the second officer.
“Captain,” Riases added, “Comms standing ready. We know you’ll steer us true.”
Lauryna looked around her bridge, heart swelling. “This is either going to be our finest hour, or it’s going to land us in the dock. Either way, it’s an honor to command you. Ms. Horous, engage.”
* * *
“Why on Earth would we go in there?”
“Look,” Naskia said, somewhat more sharply than she meant to, “I don’t know what they have planned, but it isn’t good. I may be big, but I can’t carry all of you. But if you go in this bag….”
She held out the small duffel bag that the blankets and supplies had been packed into; it wouldn’t be comfortable, but all eighteen humans would fit – nineteen, if Niall went with. Of course, she’d have to convince them that this wasn’t a disaster waiting to happen, and she was having some trouble with that.
The humans had scattered around the cell, as made sense, given that Eyrn was still fighting in its doorway. They knew damn well that if she fell, those security guards would be on them in a second. Being gathered up into a handy carrying bag didn’t seem like the best strategy to Yelena Bobrova, and she said so.
“If we split up, and run for it, they can’t catch us all!” she said.
“But they can catch some of you. Look, I’m trying to save your assess – Niall, can you back me up?”
“I’m not sure they’re wrong, petal,” he said.
“I am,” a stern voice called. “Captain-Lieutenant! Get in the damn bag.”
“Ma’am, if we split up –”
“We live together, we die together!” Xú shouted, as she led a group of five officers at full pelt across the room.
“But….”
“We don’t have time to argue! That’s an order, Yelena!”
Bobrova straightened her spine. “Aye, ma’am,” she said. Then, to the five men and women who surrounded her, “You heard the Shang Xiao. In the bag, double time!”
Then, hesitating, she said, “Okhuyénno! Commander Marachera, I read you loud and clear!”
“What the devil is going on, Yelena?” buzzed the voice of Tatenda Marechera in Bobrova’s ear.
“We’re pinned down. Two Titans were assigned to help us, they think that we’re in danger of being harmed. They’re…they’re trying to help, but the guards….”
Tatenda looked grim. “I’m on my way.”
“Don’t you dare, Tatenda!” Xú called, as she reached her crew. “Sitrep.”
“I’ve got Viktor. We got separated from Ted. We’ve received assistance from humans, and one of the giants. They are not all bad. We’re maybe a kilometer from your position.”
“Copy that. You stay there. You hear me? I am not having you rush into a fucking abattoir. We’ll call you in fifteen minutes, hopefully with a rendezvous point.”
“Aye aye,” Tatenda said. “You stay safe, Shang Xiao.”
Xú directed traffic into the bag. “All right,” she said, as she became the last to enter, “let’s just hope Eyrn can get us some space to maneuver.”
* * *
Darren had to fight the urge to stop and watch Eyrn. The god damn twat was pretty amazing when she took her antigrav dampeners off, even in Archavian gravity. On Titan, she was moving almost as if gravity didn’t exist. She was using her ability to float, bounce, and battle against a steady stream of guards intent on gaining entry to the cell containing the humans.
He recognized that she couldn’t hold out forever, not without help, and while he was more than willing to throw himself into the line of fire to protect her, he had a better idea. He knew that someone else had to be down here, it was just a matter of cutting her loose.
With the watch room in chaos, Darren clambered up to a station that had been abandoned hastily by an officer who was currently unconscious; he smiled as he recognized the officer had failed to secure the terminal. All he had to do was read through the list of prisoners – relatively short, all things considered – and remotely open the right one.
It took a bit of doing – the controls were not to human scale, of course, but Darren had plenty of practice with that. Soon enough, the door he wanted to open quietly opened.
Sorcha saw the door pop open; she’d heard the commotion outside, but had no idea what its genesis was; she still felt like crawling in a hole and dying, and she was pretty sure that leaving her cell, even with the door open, would just get her into more trouble.
Still, she walked to the door; if your cell door opens when you’re in jail, you almost have to. She looked out at the watch room, and saw three more guards running down the hall to help the two currently fighting someone. Most of the consoles were open, save for one where….
Darren?
She followed his frantic gestures, and looked back at the fight, carefully.
She wasn’t consciously aware of closing the eight units between her cell and the nearest two guards, but she was very aware of bringing their heads together with a satisfying thud; she charged forward, leaping over two other guards on the floor, and laid a vicious tackle on another. She leaped up, and faced another peacekeeper armed with a stun-prod; he came at her wildly, and she simply stepped aside, allowing him to collide with the wall. She grabbed his stun-prod, and hit each of the three remaining guards in sequence, knocking them out.
“Down!” her Aunt cried from behind her, and Sorcha dropped without hesitation, a taser prod just missing her head. Eyrn, finally free of guards, leapt the five units to the center of the watch room, and decked Kir Oden, who had fired the shot.
“Watch room secure!” she called.
“Not quite,” Darren said.
Twenty guards were moving down the hall, slowly and deliberately, fully armed with lethal weapons and clad in battle armor. They were a good hundred units away, but it didn’t matter. It was the only hallway in or out of the watch room. They had them pinned, and they would be there in less than a minute. Even as Naskia exited the cell with a bag of humans, it was clear the battle was lost.
Eyrn looked at Nas, then Darren, then Sorcha. She rearmed the taser and flipped it to Sorcha, who put it on her hip; she spun her stun-prod into position.
“Naskia,” she said, “Get behind us.”
“No,” Nas said, taking the bag behind them. She set it gently on the floor, then picked up a stun-prod from where one of the guards had dropped it. “Shang Xiao, whatever happens, stay back.”
“Petal,” Niall said, from the crush of humanity.
“You too, sweetie,” she said. “Darren, you figure out a way to get them to safety.”
“Got an idea, buttercup, but…twat, you know you can’t win this.”
“Don’t have to,” Eyrn said, steadily. “Just have to avoid losing for long enough. Tell Aerti we did our best.”
Darren leapt from the console – not really a risk in Titan’s gravity – and alighted on the ground. “All right, Doc….”
Niall, however, had climbed out of the bag, and was walking to stand with his immense wife, daughter, and sister-in-law.
“Doc, that’s suicide.”
Niall kept walking; he did not look back. “Darren,” he said, soberly, “If I lose them…suicide would be preferable.”
Darren sighed. But he didn’t seek to stop him. Niall reached Naskia, and touched her gently on her ankle; she looked down from above, and blinked back a t
ear. She didn’t argue. She just knelt, and picked him up, and placed him in a pocket. She understood. They’d be together, at least.
“All right, who’s the captain?” Darren said, as the other humans got out of the bag.
Xú stepped forward. “Xú Mùlán.”
“Darren Xanthopolous. We got us a situation, don’t we? I’ve got an idea,” he said, pausing to look over his shoulder. “Just a second, ma’am.” He looked at the three giantesses. “Twat! You give ‘em hell!” Darren called. “That’s an order.”
“Yes, Sergeant!” Eyrn called back. They guards were shouting, now, weapons high, maybe ten units away. They closed steadily, calmly. They had them badly outnumbered. They were trained well; there was no need to panic, no need to rush.
The three women each took up a defensive position. Maybe the guards were going to use lethal force, and maybe they weren’t. They didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. The three women each took up a defensive position, and prepared to die.
Looks like we’re all set for Docar crisis 2.0. What happens next will largely depend on how long it will take the Floor Leader to make contact with the various Imperial forces in the Sol Terra system.
I saw in the wiki that the Emperor has the power to immediately discharge an Imperii, provided that the Imperii perpetrated at least three separate offenses against the Empire. I wonder if this will come into play in the near future.
“Looks like we’re all set for Docar crisis 2.0.”
Yep. And I called it ! 😀
Well he’s murdered a man in his office (1), went around the chain of command when giving Kir orders (2), went around the chain of command in relieving Bass of his command (3), appointed a replacement on Aerti’s flagship without going through the chain of command (4), ordered the assassination of a group of peaceful, unarmed space explorers (5), failed to report the situation at Titan Station to the floor leader (6), and gave an unlawful gag order about the situation at Titan Station (7).
So that’s seven separate offenses that I count so far. Even just half of those would put him in a cell next to Syon Fand.
I mostly agree with you, but since humans are still officially only Class Two, (4) can’t really be called assassination. Rather, Ziah ordered the killing of a group of sentient beings in custody, none of whom were any sort of threat. Also, Ziah murdered Tobin Gernhatt.
Posted to soon. I meant (5).
Gernhatt was my #1.
You’re right of course. Not sure how that managed to slip my mind.
Well lookie at all the Titan groupies here……Next thing I’ll know ya’ll be throwing underwear up on the stage…..In the meantime yours truly will take the persona of the surly roadie having to lug the heavy equipment around and cleaning up the mess…
Theres more to this than meets the eye… mmmhmmnmnnnnmnn…
The butler did it………….. oh wrong story…
Sweet action
Hey what’s up with the pic? Sorcha on the right, tall Eyrn on the left? And dark skinned Natalia? Idk who that is in the middle frankly
Naskia I mean
Naskia is on the left and Eyrn is in the middle.
Since when is she black? Every pic of her I’ve seen is brown hair petite and white with freckles?
If I’m not mistaken, two different persons make the renders, OpenHighHat and butre3004. The character design varies greatly between the two, even for a given character.
I think this render is from butre (?)
DX does his own render. Characters do look different in each individual’s mind. And in this case they’re also 20 odd years older.
If they do get killed, it will be a glorious death for them, its just too bad it all had to be females, would like to see a male or so to have the honor of a glorious death in battle. If I could I would be with them.
Good chapter..Niall now has the chance to play Charlie…….
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6d/e7/4f/6de74f15d29d578eb068be2cef7fd913.jpg
Orr.. it could be Darren’s Angels…..(Lysol would kill him tho’) 🙂
I always dig chicks with kicks..
I’ve been waiting a long time to see Eyrn fight without the dampeners, and here it is.
She fought without dampeners in the very beginning of Exile. She took out two guards and took the doctor hostage.
Thanks, I sometimes forget things I haven’t read in a year or two.
Didn’t she still have the implanted ones in then? I am too lazy to go check it myself right now. Apparently I have to go read the wiki finally, to figure out the details you guys have all memorized intensively.
She never had the implanted ones removed. It was determined that the procedure to remove them wouldn’t be practical and that it was just much better if she just used the wearable one to counteract the effect of the implanted ones. Without the wearable ones, she’s much faster and probably about as strong as Sorcha.
She’s also that strong because she grew up in Earth’s gravity and ate the food (army mostly) – primary function is to feed soldiers. Even though she wasn’t a military girl she was influenced by the military and could be considered to be a army brat…….
So I’m guessing thats why she and Aerti hit it off so well…
To elaborate on what soatari said, Eyrn indeed still has the implanted antigravity devices that enabled her to live on Earth without getting crushed by its gravity. Since those implants were inside of her while she grew up, they’ve fused with Eyrn’s circulatory system to the point that removing them was deemed too risky. And “whomever meddled with it” (unknown, but presumably the US military) made the implants tie into Eyrn’s central nervous system as well, with the result that even deactivating the implants would cause significant brain damage. Therefore Eyrn was given a couple of bracelets that suppress the effects of her implants so she can live normally in places with Archavian and similar gravity without hitting the ceiling with every move because the antigravity from her implants no longer has Earth’s heavy gravity to act against.
By the way, my memory is not so good that I can conjure all these details off the top of my head. It’s just that I usually remember enough that I can find the relevant sections of the various stories by using keywords, enabling me to reread the specifics. In this case most of the information came from Titan: Exile, chapter 19.
“And Tig grabbed three” because of course she would. Let’s hope they get there in time to use them. This also means all humans from the two groups are converging on the same spot. Let’s hope it’s safe for them when they arrive.
I was hoping to see Eyrn go into gravity free badass mode. Of course Niall’s in a tough spot, can’t really blame him as it’s his whole family. 20 Tys ago I’m sure Darren would have been right there with Eyrn.
Anyone else concerned that there’s a titan ship above Jupiter, rather than just the edge of Jupiter’s orbit? There’s another human ship, same type as the Lem out there.
Seems like Solis’s goal might be to crush Earth’s space-faring outright.
Solis, latest accomplice bio tells me who he’s working with, I think: Arna Krou Los (born 2078 MA in Walak, Senedj XXII, Federation Province) is a Titan man and an officer in the Space Exploration Corps, currently in command of the Imperial Starship Minatar. Federation province is the home base for the xenophobic Titan Party who doubtless fear eventual human citizenship tipping the balance of power in the legislature to non-Titans. Looks like the mission was to create the crisis on Titan without actually ordering Bass to kill the humans then use their death to relieve Aerti and Lemm of command, then send Gyfjon out of Sol System, freeing Solis and Los to literally blast Earth back to the stone age with Xifos & Minataur. Lauryna has to block Los from getting control of Xifos and the gang on Titan have escape detention and stay alive till Kir comes to his senses and surrenders or Rixie kills him.
Didn’t catch that, that’s definitely worrying. What’s worse is for all we know it may have already happened, since the crew of the Lem hasn’t had any contact with Earth in hours.
If the Federation doesn’t have a hand in Solis’ actions I’ll admit they make a spectacular red herring.
I can’t imagine even Ziah ordering a direct assault on Earth. It’d be too overt. Covering up the presence of a tiny spaceship is one thing (and even that is proving troublesome). Expecting an orbital bombardment of Earth to remain unnoticed is idiocy. It’s much more likely that Ziah intends to use something that looks like a natural disaster, or the humans destroying themselves. Things like a virus or nanobots. I doubt any of the starships in Sol Terra right now have any such thing aboard.
Solis has already warned Kir to expect a messy aftermath. That might be intentional: Start violence targeted at humans that are portrayed as a threat and divide popular opinion in the empire, attracting the more conservative members of the major parties to join the Titan Caucus. Not unlike the approach the Nazis used to leverage a small extremeist faction into power.
Yeah. An overt attack would end up pushing forward what Solis wants to avoid. There would be some internal conflict, and then a rush to bring humanity into the fold and provide recovery aid to Earth. Overall it would also likely cause a dramatic shift imperial politics away from titan dominance, and the conservatives would lose their dominance as well, and likely not regain ground for a generation at least. The event would be a massive black mark on Titans specifically, worse than anything they’ve ever done before in their recorded history, which is saying a lot.
@Locutus of Boar:
Portraying non-titans as a threat might work for the other non-titan species, but humans?!? We’re talking here about the species so tiny that even toddlers can kill them just by being careless for a moment. The species so helpless that they’d be extinct if it weren’t for the titans protecting and looking out for them. I doubt the Titan Caucus could even convince its own constituents of the human threat, let alone the general populace.
Yeah, it’s worrying. The orbit of the fifth planet marks the edge of the Restriction Zone; so does Ziah Solis consider the human ship exploring Jupiter (that’d be the J.K. Rowling) to be out of bounds or not? Depending on that, the Minatar might have been there to make sure that the humans weren’t going to try going to Titan, might have been there to intimidate the humans into staying within the Restriction Zone, or might even have shot down the J.K. Rowling already. Adding to the uncertainty is that Ziah has been getting more and more unhinged as time goes by and the situation continues to defy his attempts to get everything under control so the whole thing can be kept under wraps.
The girls have to hold less than 10 minutes because Rixie and Aerti have to get everyone in detention evacuated through the back door before the device triggers. We find out how fast the old Gyfjon still is because she has to outrun Minatar with Los in command before he reaches Xifos. And, finally we may be about to get a glimpse of the bigger picture assuming Solis is still on his timeline.
Does Titan Station have a self-destruct button? Or is it just the cell? Either way, I wonder which of our heroes is going to bite the dust. No real evidence but perhaps Aerti or Eyrn. I’m guessing Sorcha is the title character of Hybrid but it could easily refer to the whole lot of life extended humans as well.
Assuming DX will kill one of main characters which is not sure, it isn’t gonna Eyrn because i think TinyDann is not kind to kill his characters. But there will be caualities otherwise it doesn’t look credible.
Well of the three ladies, Naskia is physically weakest, lacking Eyrn’s gravity inhibitors and Sorcha’s genetic advantage. If some Titan in that room dies, then she’s the most likely to go.
Aerti keeps sticking in my head, a military man going out in a glorious battle.
The Gyfjon and the Minatar are both Kuklopes-class starships, so they’re probably about equally fast. What’s really going to determine which ship arrives first is how far away Jupiter and Saturn are from Neptune at the moment.
Once again received no email alert for this chapter posting.
Yeah, I’m really not sure what’s going wrong. I may need to switch us to a new subscription service, which would be annoying….
I’ve had that problem since I signed up for it almost a year ago , kind of gave up any hope and resorted to daily visits to the site.
Counting on checking every morning, after checking at bedtime. After I read new posts, I check my email to discover when it was posted. That has been working pretty well for me… ;-}
I’ve had a couple not go through, but the last few have been fine. Only issue I’ve been having lately is that damn “Find friends” or whatever popup that keeps appearing on the site.
Kir, you do have a choice, the only choice you’re legally obligated to make: Do Not Follow Unlawful Orders! Your success there today would have guaranteed you a worse fate than what Solis tried to hold against you. Your failure makes you a seditionist. Either way your life is ruined and your name disgraced. You tried to murder a group of innocent space explorers just so your niece’s application would be accepted? She’s from a younger generation, so she could very well be someone who believes in human rights. She’s going to be utterly disgusted with the actions of her uncle.
Looks like Eyrn actually got some proper martial arts training over the years, and learned how to use it without the inhibitors, but now they’re up against armed and armored guards. Let’s hope the Navarchos and Magister-Imperator get there soon to disarm that powder keg.
One thing to remember is that to Kir humans are just pets, astronauts or no. He’s not murdering a group of innocent space exploreres, he’s doing the equivalent of putting down a pack of dogs, on direct orders of a superior officer.
And while Kir convinced himself that he had no choice because his niece, I suspect that the truth is a combination of being too convinced of the Navarchos Imperii’s eventual triumph to defy him and actually wanting the Narvarchos Imperii to succeed because then Ziah will cover the whole thing up, including the repeated blunders of Kir’s underlings which are otherwise likely to bring Kir’s military career to a disgraceful end.
*reads the title for this chapter* oh that can’t be good…
But wow that ending was just epic. Eryn and Sorcha back to back badasses. All of our Titans willing to lay down their lives. If they make it through this, this is their finest hour.
Whether all of them make it through this or not Kir better pray none of them find him.
wow the battle has began! with go for it girls!
The guards aren’t the problem: “Ten minute countdown is active….now.”
They’re already out of the cell they were in. Unless whatever that countdown is for will hit the hallway as well, I think they’re in the clear. Though whatever the plan is has to look like an accident, so with the cell door open, they might be in danger if the plan was an environmental system failure.