The air was thick with the stench of smoke. Tom Stone’s crimson helmet only provided the barest of protection against the odor. Towering plumes of smoke tainted the sky as flames danced and devoured hungrily, consuming everything in their path.

Tom Stone dug through the twisted and mangled metal that had once been two giant mechs called Titans. The red one had been his own Titan, the Phoenix. The Karkinos Titan had belonged to Scott Taylor, the leader of the Omega Knights.

“Red, do you copy?”

Control had re-established contact through the comms in his helmet. Tom ignored the pleas to answer as he pulled torn sheets of metal and knocked over debris. With his Omega Force armor, the fire couldn’t hurt him. But even if it could, he wouldn’t have stopped.

After several minutes of digging, he noticed an arm clad in green. Tom focused on the arm, digging out the surrounding metal, until he was looking at the Green Knight.

“Control, this is Red Knight. I’ve found Green.”

“Red…listen to me.” The voice had softened compared to when Tom was disobeying orders from the Phoenix cockpit. “We’re—we’re not picking up any vitals…”

“Then your fucking system is broken. I’m looking right at him.”

Tom stared into the emotionless black visor. He gently nudged the figure, careful in case of any broken bones.

“Scott, it’s me. We made it out.”

No response came from the Green Knight. Just that black visor staring blankly back at Tom.

“Scott…?”

Tom shook Scott with some added firmness. No movement.

“Scott, this isn’t funny…”

Tom reached down and found the mechanisms to release the helmet. It dissolved into microscopic nanomachines and retreated into the rest of the suit to reveal Scott’s head. And what Tom saw was Scott’s eyes fixed in a fearful but blank expression.

A tightness gripped Tom’s chest. For the briefest of moments, it felt like he forgot how to breathe. As he stared at the lifeless body, his head kept running with different scenarios.

Just keep watching. He’s going to gasp for breath any minute now.

That gasp never came. Tom fell back, his helmet-covered head resting on one of the torn pieces of the Karkinos.

Now he’ll wake up. He’ll stick his head right above mine and say something like, ‘Why are you sleeping on the job?’

Tom closed his eyes.

Just concentrate. You’ll hear him move soon.

At first, there was just the crackle of the flames dying out. But then, a new sound. Something that seemed to resemble footsteps. Tom opened his eyes, a sense of hope and relief suddenly inflating his chest.

“Tom…?”

Someone calling out his name. But it wasn’t Scott’s voice. Tom sat up and looked around the field of destruction. Moving closer to him was a figure clad in blue armor. Tom got to his feet and the Blue Knight ran towards him. Once close enough, the Knight embraced Tom, but he kept his arms at his sides.

“Oh thank god…they said you survived…”

“They…?”

The Blue Knight broke the embrace and reached hands for the helmet. It dissolved just as Scott’s had, retreating into the suit and revealing the face of Rachel Kim, a young woman of Korean descent with short, black hair.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Control. They said…” Rachel’s voice halted. She closed her eyes to hold her composure. “Emily, Michael…Scott. They…”

Tom tilted his head to the side, staring at her through his helmet’s visor. The helmet’s HUD identified her name and rank within the organization.

“What about them? Scott’s right here. He’s—”

Rachel took a deep breath. “Tom…Scott’s dead. They all are. We’re—we’re the only ones left.”

Tom shook his head and went back over to Scott’s body. “No, no, that’s not possible. We’re—we’re the Omega Knights. That power…it makes us special. We’re different!”

He kneeled by Scott’s body and put his hands on his fallen leader’s chest. Rachel watched in stunned silence as Tom tried to perform chest compressions. He attempted CPR, trying to blow into Scott’s mouth.

“That’s not going to work,” she muttered.

“We’re different…” he said. “Not like others. We’re special, we’re…we’re…”

Rachel kneeled down beside Tom. She put a hand on his back, trying to stop him. “It’s too late for CPR.” She grabbed his shoulders to try easing him away. Tom broke from her and went back to his futile attempts at resurrecting the dead.

“He can make it!”

“Tom, that’s enough! You’ve got to stop!” Rachel’s tone grew more forceful. She managed to pull him up to his feet, but Tom shoved her back and returned to Scott’s body. She sighed. He would not give in willingly. “Dammit…”

“We can save him! The Omega Force, it can—”

Rachel closed her eyes as the nanomachines flowed from her armor and reformed her helmet over her face. She held her arm out and energy coursed from the armor into her palm, forming a blue-tinted bow with a line of blue light serving as the string. Rachel drew the string back and an arrow of pure electricity forged itself. As she took aim at her target, lining up Tom in her sights, the HUD on her visor warned her that a fellow Knight was in range.

“I can see that…” she whispered. “Hopefully he’ll understand why I had to do this.”

She released the string and the electric arrow flew from the bow. The arrow struck Tom right in the back. His body seized up, the electricity surging through his body, arms flailing. He fell unconscious on top of Scott.

Rachel lowered her arm, the bow disassembling into the nanites and returning to her armor. She opened up her comms channel back to headquarters.

“Control, this is Blue Knight. I’ve had to incapacitate Red. He just…” She stopped herself, not sure of how to answer. “He wouldn’t accept it.”

“Copy that, Blue Knight. We have a team en route to you right now. As soon as you get back to headquarters, the Quantum Group is going to require a full debrief as we undergo damage assessment.”

“Understood.”

“We’d like to confirm, though—you’re absolutely certain that you and Red are the only survivors?”

Rachel closed her eyes behind her visor, swallowing her own emotions. “Yes, I’m certain. I’ve got visual on Green right now and I checked Yellow and Pink before I met up with Red. We’re the only ones left.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end. Rachel almost questioned whether they heard her. Before she could say something, Control came back with a response.

“Thank you for the confirmation, Blue. Please stand by until the team arrives.”

“Sure, standing by…” she muttered as she closed the comms channel. “Just sit here and twiddle my goddamn thumbs, I guess…”

----------------------------------------

Dr. Candace Wu, a middle-aged woman with her hair tied in a tight bun atop her head, strolled with purpose down the corridor. By her side was Agent Marcus Kane. He was a good foot taller than her and built like a tree trunk. His craggy face bore the marks of a lifetime of service, and the only other sign of his age were the bits of gray at his temples.

The pair were silent as they entered a darkened room with just a single beam of light in the center. Marcus gestured for her to go forward.

Candace stepped into the light and three massive, holographic screens appeared around her, showing the images of three individuals cloaked in shadow.

“We’ve gotten confirmation,” said Candace. “Scott Taylor, Emily Dawson, and Michael Gray have all been killed in action.”

“What’s the damage assessment, Dr. Wu?” asked one of the three.

“All five Titans have suffered extensive damage. The team is examining the wreckage right now. There’s no telling how long it will take to get them operational again.”

“And the Titan spirits? We need to ensure the Omega Force can be transferred to the chosen successors.”

Candace looked at the screens in disbelief. “We lost three of our own today. Three heroes who’ve proven themselves in battle at least a dozen times over. Can we please just…take a minute?”

She heard a grunt of disapproval from Marcus.

“That’s not an option, Dr. Wu,” said another of the three mystery figures. “The Quantum Group is all that stands before this plane of existence and breaches from hostile worlds. The Omega Knights is our first and only line of defense.”

“We understand how…sensitive this is, Doctor,” said the third. “But we must put our personal feelings aside for the good of humanity. The Omega Knights must stand at a constant state of readiness. Agent Kane, do you have the successors lined up?”

Candace sighed and lowered her head. There was no talking with them—emotionless avatars who couldn’t care less about the people they burn through.

“Yes,” said Marcus. “We’ve got the potentials marked and ready for approach.”

She stared at him in disbelief. Candace knew he could be cold when he was in professional mode, but even in this situation?

“Then begin the recruitment process.”