Hundreds of TASO soldiers and TA security robots gathered in the lobby watching the indicator light to the mag-lift descending. Targeting systems inside the lobby waited patiently to track the first target that stepped out. They were all expecting trickery and the commander had them step away from the doors in case their enemies were sending explosives down the lift. A few minutes went by and there was finally a soft beep and the doors opened.
Instead of tricks, the mag-lift contained only three Titans, and they stepped out to face hundreds of Trade Alliance gun muzzles pointed at them.
“Who is this Rymond?” Ricky called across the huge expanse that stretched before them. “I heard he was looking for us.”
“Ah, you must be the rebels.” Came a loud voice from quite a distance. They watched as a small detachment came out from the huge army before them and moved forward.
At the head of this detachment was a dangerous looking mottled Canid with fierce eyes trained on the brothers. He was flanked by dozens of robotic Delta MV1 combat and MV7 security units, all with their weapons trained squarely on them. Most bore the signature blue and white Trade Alliance paint job, but there were some black Zenith Corp paint schemes that could be seen as well.
“It’s good to see that you finally do something noble and unselfish with your pathetic existences.” Rymond said. “Just a few little Procyons, after all of this, it turned out to be just a few little Procyons. A pathetic lot like you don’t deserve to breath Titan air. While real Titans work to build society and security, Titans like you do nothing but take and destroy. I hate the lesser races, you’re all alike. All you do is destroy our great society from within like a great cancer. This will be a cathartic experience.”
“You ‘real Titans’, as you call yourselves are the ones who do nothing but take and destroy. You elites are all alike. Titans like you live only to gather more power over others. Or more accurately, since you’re just a middleman pawn for the real elites, all you do is labor to gather more power for the elite to enjoy and enforce their dominion over others. Titans like us just want to live our lives the way we deem best without someone like you imposing your idea of what that should be.”
This drew an uproarious cheer from the gathering of civilians on the other end of the building. Every last one of them rose to their feet and counted their voices alongside this sudden spokesperson against the tyranny that had so long oppressed their lives.
“Uneducated initiate class Titans like you have no idea how to actually do that. If you were left to your own ways, it would be complete chaos. And sadly, your actions here have condemned this entire sector as traitors to the planet.”
“It was only the three of us who had anything to do with this.” Ricky said, causing the other leader to pause. “Anyone else that may have engaged your units were only acting in self-defense. I want to make it clear that we are giving ourselves up for no other reason to save these lives here. We are prepared to die today, at some point it’s everyone’s duty to stand up and be counted. Do we have your word that after you kill us or whatever you plan to do, that you will let these Titans go?”
Rymond’s face distorted with some undercurrent of rage. He seemed to be incensed that these petty rebels before him would ask or demand anything from him. In fact, it seemed as though the reality before him that these three Procyons were doing anything but cowering in terror and begging for their lives infuriated him. Ricky thought about the words of the Wolverine reaper that power only respected power and knew that they were true. These were not real lives that these corporate pawns saw before them, the Procyon brothers along with everyone else in the building were little more than worms to their eyes. They were commodities to be used and discarded for nothing else besides their own benefit.
“You will give yourselves up immediately. You are in no position to ask for anything.” Rymond barely contained his rage enough to let these words come out in the common tongue.
Rocco’s fingers adjusted on the grip of the proton rifle he still held nervously. It had been his idea that they began blasting as soon as the doors opened. It was his older brother’s voice of reason that had said they needed to draw the leader out to get a good shot on him. That had proved to be true, but he was not sure why they were now still waiting. The Canid seemed a small target at this distance, flanked by robotic security units, but he was confident that one of the brothers would get him before the return fire would kill them all. He gave a sideways glance to Ricky, waiting for a signal.
Instead, Ricky dropped his E-Rifle. It was out of smart rounds anyway and would be a gamble at this range. His two brothers looked frustrated when they saw this, and it took them a long moment before they reciprocated the action and dropped theirs as well.
“Great, now we don’t even get to go out in a blaze of glory.” Rocco muttered. “Somehow I didn’t expect my death to be like this. I wanted to go out with a roar, not a whimper.”
“I always expected your death to be highly embarrassing with your head caught in something way too small.” Rocky chuckled.
Ricky stood at the forefront of his brothers and locked his hands behind his back, they glanced over and did the same, following his lead.
“We’re ready tail-wagger. Gun us down like the big important Titan you are. Just know that you aren’t killing three Procyons in the lobby of Towerview AstroBloc, but you are gunning down all of Titan this night.”
Rocco’s face scrunched up, not expecting a speech. “Hold on are you…?”
Rocky nodded with a smirk and tapped the side of his Net-Comm headset. “He’s not the only one that can live-cast. Only his live-cast was merely local, we’re casting globally. Take it Wolton.”
Wolton took over control of the live-cast at that moment, and replayed the previous footage of the Trade Alliance gunning down the nearly two-thousand residents in the lobby earlier, most of which looked to have been cleared out already from what the brothers could see.
“This is Star-Child, leader of the Gothamir Union, speaking to every male and female on Titan. Over the past century we as a species have traded our liberties and freedoms to a group of unaccountable bureaucrats for some promise of safety. This turned out to be an illusion. Nowhere in history has totalitarianism ever made a people safer.”
“I for one would much rather live in an unsafe society where tomorrow may look a little scary because it hadn’t been planned out for me by some faceless overlord. They promise us security but they only care about their security and prosperity. They keep us down and divided, huddled in the little hab-units they so graciously grant us, with the rations they provide monthly and expect us to be thankful we receive anything from them at all in return for our labor and our lives. They lie to us and tell us our fight is between the Canids and Felids, the Rodentia and the Procyons, the carnis and herbs, the preds and non preds. All of these are blatant lies! They want you to believe that you are alone in your growing frustration and misery, that there is no use speaking against them! That’s why they restrict so harshly our words, because words still have meaning and power. Words represent ideas. They can twist words and semantics to make day seem like night and wrong seem like right and have done so for generations, but truth is still truth, like the morning dawn crowning as a new day begins.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“We’ve contacted many other freedom movements that are growing across Titan at this very moment. We have debated political topics fiercely in the past months. One truth that rings true above all is that the Zenith Corporation is not the true enemy of the people. You are! Cowards! Idiots who care more about modern trends and useless entertainment more than your own freedom! One Titan rising above the crowd demanding to be worshipped does not scare me, it is the thousands of others who bow to him and help him carry out his plans, who is the danger! You are the enemy! Every one of you listening to my voice let this happen. You sat there while they did this and did not fight back. While they turned the Titan people into nothing more than cattle, livestock to be milked and butchered when they choose. But now it is time for the masses to gather, for us to stop being divided. For all the freedom groups to come together for these brave Procyons’ sacrifice! Now it is time to stand and be counted! Let them try to silence all of us! From this day forward with a roar like thunder, this regime will no longer face divided pockets of cowering resistance, small voices in the night…they will face the wrath of Titan United!”
The transmission cut off and Rymond howled in fury, drawing his weapon to his shoulder before even giving an order to fire. Another sound now came from outside at the same time, that temporarily diverted his attention. At first it was not discernable, but as the rising and falling pitches drew closer it became apparent that it was the voices of many outside the tower. They were singing a chain-gang workers song. Then the sounds of battle erupted from all around the outside of the building, but the song did not cease. It could be heard even above the rattling gunfire and sporadic explosions.
With his quick, naturally thieving Procyon hands, Ricky reached back and drew the Axiom still attached to the side of his pack. Ricky and Rocco both drew their secondary weapons, and all fired at the same time.
As this gunfire erupted inside, the front door was ripped off the sturdy hinges and flung aside as a female scream shook the cavernous room with a resounding echo. Amiga erupted into the lobby with her flight pack and plowed into the rear forces with such an impact that robots and soldiers flew in every direction as if hit by a great explosion.
The brothers used this distraction to activate their own flight packs, and just as the robots in front began to fire at them, they were already moving towards the sides of the room, towards the shops lining the rear wall near the mag-lifts, looking for cover.
Ricky landed inside a stall that was shredded with gunfire immediately. Electronics exploded and wooden shards bounced around as the whizzing bullets charged past him. There were so many rounds coming his direction he could do little else than curl up in a fetal position.
Rocky managed to evade the incoming fire momentarily and fired his machine pistol at the crowd after finding the side of a shop to hide behind. Rocco was also able to return a few bursts of fire before he was forced to duck inside a kiosk as glass shattered all around him from the storm of incoming bullets.
“Kill those three!” Rymond screamed and charged forward firing an E-Rifle with his detachment of TA security units.
At that point, the bulk of the other TA forces were now occupied with a terribly angry Foxen female that was wreaking havoc among their ranks. The bullets seemed to bounce harmlessly off her fur, and her furious unarmed strikes took down dozens of robots every second. She managed to clear a straight path to the helpless residents who had been used as hostages.
Three hulking CMIs armed with proton rifles stood in the clearing and opened fire. The bullets did little damage to her, but the superheated plasma rounds made up for that. The bright blue explosions hit her with such force that they blew her backwards, and her fur and skin smoked from the impact. As the three Mobile Infantry Units stalked after her, the Titans grew angry and finally decided to make a stand. They would no longer cower in place waiting for the Trade Alliance to decide whether to shoot them all dead or not like the previous group.
With angry howls, the crowd surged forward and leaped upon the closest TASOs they could lay their hands upon. Numerous soldiers and robots managed to gun down several of the attacking Titans, but they were outnumbered severely. The wave of Titan life came against them and overwhelmed them within minutes, their cry could be heard even through the sounds of bullets being fired into their numbers and ruthlessly cutting them down. They managed to wrench rifles from the robots and soldiers and fired back. Some simply found blunt instruments and pounded their adversaries. The wave of anger and frustration swept through the entire crowd until they were all involved in the riotous offensive, clamoring for corporate destruction.
As the chaotic scene of carnage played out on the other end of the floor, closest to the front doors of the AstroBloc, the three brothers were still pinned down by the much smaller detachment of TA forces swiftly advancing upon them on the other side of the building. These units spread out to flank them and would overrun their position within moments. They would have, except for a bright blue plasma burst that streaked by and exploded against one of the advancing robots. Another one followed immediately, and the robots struck with these blasts ceased operating and were destroyed on impact.
Several of the advancing units turned their attention towards a Felid leaning out of an opening that had been blown in the wall. He picked another target and fired again. At the same time, another Titan beside him, a Wolverine, leaned out and fired a prolonged burst from an E-Rifle that destroyed the heads and processing units of a dozen more of the robot soldiers. The cybernetic Titan did not need special smart rounds to effectively target his enemies, as he had many onboard combat processors built into his own neurons. Before the units fell, his assault was followed by a grenade that exploded inside their ranks with a fiery blast.
Ricky opened his eyes to see the stall he had been hiding behind was riddled with hundreds of holes, but the shooting had stopped. He looked through the holes and saw only a few remaining robots, and they were all shooting in another direction now. Between these, he saw the Canid commander leading with an E-Rifle and still advancing, fired a short burst in this other direction.
“Explosive.” Ricky voice activated his Axiom machine pistol and the magazine well whirred and moved about to accommodate.
Ricky stood up from behind cover and Rymond saw this, their eyes locked across the room. With a sneer, the Trade Alliance security commander wheeled his rifle towards the Procyon, who was already pointing a pistol at him. Rymond quickly squeezed the trigger, popping a three-round burst. Ricky held his ground as his HUD monocle gauged the distance and targeted his opponent. His HUD lit up green and he squeezed the trigger at the same time his enemy did.
Rymond’s eyes went wide, having a fraction of a second to see the explosive round coming at him. The round hit true and the security officer exploded within his armor, which fell smoking and leaking bodily fluids. One of the rounds hit Ricky, and he went down also.
Gunner and Bingo came out of their alcove firing at the remaining robots that were still standing. Within a few minutes these also were added to the others that lay scattered along the ground, useless scraps of metal and circuits. They made their way across the room to rendezvous with Rocky and Rocco, who were standing at the stall checking on their fallen brother.
Ricky was helped to his feet and Gunner made a quick bandage out of cloth scraps to stem the bleeding. The bullet had gone through his side between his ribs but looked to have missed his lungs.
“I can’t believe you got hurt again!” Rocco said while trying to carry his brother. Ricky shrugged him off angrily.
“Put me down I can walk, you oaf.” Ricky attached his pistol to the magnetic side of his pack.
Together the brothers and their two new allies walked towards the large hole in the front of the building where the front doors used to be. In the background, the riots still raged as thousands of Titans continued to fight the remaining Trade Alliance Public Relations occupiers.