Rocky entered the cabin and took a seat in the pilot chair. Minutes ago, the Reaper cyborg had alerted the brothers that they were now approaching the Rook Coast. The Rook Coast was technically part of the Federated Territory, which was a centrally located continent, one of the largest on Titan, but the Rook Coast largely operated as it’s own tiny kingdom within a larger one. There were dozens of large cities along the coast, but the largest one, Furwood, which was also home to much of the entertainment industry for Titan, was where they were heading.

Rocky punched in some new coordinates after bringing up a 3D holo map above the control console. They were now traveling through the ocean much closer to the surface than they had been and as such, had put behind the black abyss and were now traveling through an enchanted blue wonderland where the light played off the surface of the waves and danced in playful patterns all around them.

“I’ve never been underwater.” Came a gruff voice entering the cabin of the ship.

Rocky turned to see Bingo, the Wolverine cyborg. He was looking out the front and side windshields in amazement.

“Me either. Not to this extent.”

Bingo squeezed his way next to the Procyon and looked down the side window at the dark depths below them.

“I imagine some truly horrible terror of the deep down there.”

“That’s called thalassophobia. Fear of the ocean.”

“Thasslasa fuck yourself. I’m not scared of anything ya goof. I can just imagine it is all.”

“Ah. I forgot, we are traveling with the truly fearless cyborg here.”

Bingo huffed and sat back in one of the passenger seats behind the cockpit. The exterior floodlights on the craft briefly illuminated something passing by the watery depths and it sent a cold chill down the Procyon's spine. Probably just a large fish he thought, and it was best to leave it there. Within an hour, the craft finally neared the shores of Furwood and he called back to his brothers in the back through the intercom system, while cutting the main thrusters.

“Yo.” Rocco was the first to come through into the cabin, followed a minute later by their eldest brother Ricky.

“What is it Rocky?” Ricky asked warily. “More trouble?”

“No trouble. We’ve arrived.”

“We have?” Rocco asked excitedly, he was obviously tired of being cooped up inside the small spacecraft and could not wait to get out.

“We have.” Rocky responded. “But that leaves a big question. What do we do now?”

Ricky saw the dilemma. They had somehow managed to stay undetected so far and could not risk being caught by the authorities now. Furwood no doubt had a spaceport, but without valid codes they would not be allowed near it. There was also no way of knowing exactly what type of security the city had aimed at the ocean.

“I’m running some scans now.” Rocky pointed at the large computer monitor on the dashboard. “From what I can tell there doesn’t seem to be any sonar or radar aimed directly at us, but I won’t be sure until the scans are complete.”

“Right.” Ricky went out from the cabin into the back, where the rest of the passengers awaited news.

“Did we make it?” Reegan asked nervously.

“Looks like it.” Ricky returned. “We can’t risk surfacing and trying to land at a pad.”

“Which means we’ll have to swim to shore?” Amiga sat forward on the couch.

“That’s possible if you bring the ship close enough to shore.” Eligah nodded thoughtfully.

“We’re going to need you though.” Ricky nodded to the old Prairie Dog. “This is your show here, we don’t have the foggiest notion of where to go.”

“So let me take one of the flight packs, and I’ll carry the old Dodger to shore.” Amiga suggested. “And I’ll be able to gage if we can sneak in or if they’ve got the shore monitored too heavy.”

“Right. I was thinking along those lines.” Ricky nodded to the younger female Prairie Dog then. “We have to leave someone with the ship just in case. And it has to be someone that can operate it. That leaves you and Rocky.”

“I could remain plugged into the ship’s AI.” Bingo remarked as the others came out behind him from the flight cabin.

“You’re too valuable to leave behind. If things go sideways, I have a feeling we’ll need you.” Ricky returned.

“It’s fine, I’ll stay back.” Rocky offered, drawing surprised glances from his brothers. Out of the three, he was the least attracted to violence and dangerous situations, preferring instead to lose himself within his Net-comm.

“Me too.” Reegan smiled sheepishly at the much taller Rocky, who smiled back.

Ricky wanted to think it over longer, make sure that he was planning for any situations that they might find themselves in, but with everyone inside the ship staring at him waiting for him to make a decision, he made it.

“That works.”

Amiga retrieved the flight pack from the back room and slid her arms into it, buckling it around her waist. Rocky piloted the ship to the surface and broke just the top of the hull over the waves, and they immediately heard the light sounds of rain pinging off the steel hull. The waters were calm enough and they did not want to risk surfacing completely and possibly giving away their position, so they instead opened the top airlock portal, and she exited through that with the scientist in tow.

Next up Ricky and Rocco climbed up and out through the airlock. They emerged into the crisp night air and saw a picturesque full moon bobbing above the dark still waters surrounding the ship. They climbed through the portal and out onto the hull of the ship, waiting for the cyborg to follow them up. It was not raining as hard as it sounded from down below, but that could change at any moment.

The Procyon pair watched the gentle glow from Amiga’s flight pack pass over the waters and shut off on the dark shore a few hundred feet out from them. They waited a few minutes to make sure the beach did not suddenly swarm with attack drones, and when it didn’t, they decided to leave the relative security of the ship behind as well.

Both brothers flipped on their flight packs and Rocco picked up the Cyborg, who, despite his rather small size, was deceptively heavy, likely due to whatever metal implants were involved in his physiology. They hovered across the waters at a slow pace and found themselves moments later touching back down on a beach near Amiga and the old Prairie Dog scientist.

Ricky nodded silently to the others and looked towards the lights of the city distant, at the same time the sounds of activities and gatherings maybe only a mile up the beach drew their attention towards a large pier.

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The group made their way down the soft sands of the beach towards the pier to orient themselves first. When they drew near, they saw throngs of Titans taking leisurely strolls across a long boardwalk, where the lights from dozens of stores and bodegas invited passersby to stop and have a look around.

A cool breeze drifted across the beach from the ocean, tempering any humidity that might have been in the air during the day. It was a pleasant mild temperature along the beach, and obviously the perfect night for many of Furwood’s citizens to take a nighttime stroll in the coastal air.

The group paused briefly at one of the first open air restaurants they came across. Eligah was the only among them with many credits to their name, and he funded the purchase of some sandwiches before they continued on their next journey.

“So good.” Rocco closed his eyes to savor the taste as he took a huge bite. “Non replicated food, finally. I could die right here and not regret a thing.”

The replicator inside the research vessel truthfully did not have many recipes for food, it had been equipped with only the bare minimum for long term survival. While this meant the raw material storage that the replicators drew from to make food with would not run out for perhaps months when fully stocked, this did not mean that the quality of the replicated food agreed with the palette of the passengers.

The group paused to finish their meal at a community bench on the boardwalk near the beach while Eligah took some time to study the city with his Net-comm. Ricky looked around him at the other Titans while the old scientist got his bearings. He was not familiar with this area and had no way of knowing if there was a significant criminal population here or not. They had decided to leave behind their conspicuous E-rifles and instead only had their more easily concealable Roland machine pistols. They were comparatively analogue weapons, with no aiming assist features and no heads-up display. They would just have to hope they could avoid trouble for the time being.

“All right.” Eligah eventually announced. “I think I have my heading. The dig site should be just northeast of the city.”

“Lead the way.” Ricky responded.

With that, the group followed the old Titan off the beach and into the city.

* * * *

Atani watched listlessly out the tall windows of the Astrobloc, taking in the vast sights of the city below. The lights from thousands of carriage drones and commercial vehicles traveled about roads below, and through the skylanes flitted thousands more hover vehicles. Between these programmed travel lanes one could observe uncountable security drones hovering about the city. Their numbers had tripled since the rebellion as the Trade Alliance and Zenith forces had been scouring the city for the Procyons that had been featured in the Net-Comm broadcast, using facial recognition AI patterns.

Though the brothers had managed to escape the city with the Union’s help, there had been over a hundred other arrests in the days that followed. It was a little unclear whether these arrests had been legitimate insurgents and rabble rousers or just unfortunate scapegoats that the Trade Alliance Security forces could tout to the public as a job well done. Whatever the case, Atani had wisely chosen to remain indoors with his head down following their insurrection.

The Foxen looked out across the psychedelic smog that reflected the colors of the sunlight and wondered how his sister was faring. They had been hiding among rebel groups for the past few years, mainly traveling about, but this new group that called itself the Union had connected these disparate rebel cells across the city and were working on forming a united rebel network that spanned the entire globe.

This network, dubbed Titan United, had leadership that consisted of think tanks in nearly all major cities across Titan. Here in Kallerish City, on the continent of Gothamir, the group of scientists that they had run across that were friendly with the Procyon Wolton, that the others had saved from Marshall Industries and brought here, were working hard to network everything together, and were working with other cells in the Federated Territories, Gunrock, and Warsong.

Atani sighed at the landscape as he contemplated his situation. He had not undergone the same experiments that had been performed on his sister. He had fled when the Zenith robots showed up and managed to evade them. It was not for several days after the fact that he had discovered that Amiga had gone missing. He had written her off as gone for good or maybe worse, dead, as the nearly four years went by that Zenith had stolen from her, confined to a black site research facility in northern Gothamir.

Atani had managed to slip through the cracks in the system during that period of time. Never had he been skilled in the sciences or skilled labor, having no useful skills that he’d learned in his life, neither was he thrilled by the prospect of a future of a lifetime of mindless labor that had been the lot of so many of the lower class of his peer group. He had instead learned the hard ways of the few that managed to carve a life outside the Zenith system, and that sadly consisted of light criminal activity. Never had the Foxen been much of a criminal, and certainly not violent, he had managed to get by on petty theft and what many would consider confidence schemes. He had learned early the old axiom, a fool and his credits are soon parted, and he did his best to help part them.

Towerview Astrobloc had been locked down and dangerous since the battle. TASO security drones combed the labyrinth halls doing random searches on residents but the truth was that it was very difficult, even for thousands of robotic units, to completely monitor a building so large. They had so far managed to evade the security forces, but there had been talks of moving their operations to the Sky Center Astrobloc on the other side of the sprawling city of Kallerish. For now, however, Atani simply idled his time away in the hallway outside the hab unit he’d been staying in, and occasionally visiting the large Sportatorium.

Something caught the Foxen’s keen eye suddenly, drawing him away from his window musings and back down the dim hallway. This section of the building was not a great hub of activity, so was relatively quiet, but it was not out of the ordinary to see Titans coming and going. There was instantly something different with the Titan that he saw coming down the hall, the dimensions were striking, even from a safe distance.

The figure was much taller than normal, even for a bigger species such as a Canid Wolfen, or a larger Catus like a Puma. The shoulders were too wide, and it was at that point that Atanis realized that the figure was large because it was a powered suit. As the figure came closer it became more apparent. The powered suit had a featureless mirrored faceplate which made the figure inside, down to the species unidentifiable.

Atanis watched the figure pause momentarily before heading towards the door that led to the hab that the scientists were headquartered inside. His limbs froze up involuntarily. Was this armored figure a special security agent?

“Crap, where are you when I need you, Amiga?” He muttered.

Atanis was unarmed, all of the weapons were either inside the Hab unit that Wolton and the rest occupied or in another one on the third floor that was used as storage. He wanted to turn and run, and nearly gave into the strong urge, but steeled himself and forced himself to follow. He didn’t know what was happening but he would try to come to their aid.

The armored bounty hunter did not wait for him however, he kicked open the door with piston assisted leg muscles and his targeting system found several Titans inside. Two armed Titans drew weapons at the armored figure, but Lupis was faster, his sidearm had already been handy before entering the room.

Lupis’ pistol barked fire twice, putting holes in both armed protectors. With the guards dropped and laying lifeless, he turned his attention on a cowed scientist. His armored fist shot out and snatched the small mustelid up by his shirt before he could scramble away.

“I’m not going to ask twice.” Lupis thought into his armored EEG function, which forced his thoughts out through the suit's speakers as speech. “I’m looking for several Procyon rebels. Where are they?”

The Mustelid looked terrified as the armored figure picked him up off the ground. Words failed the scientist, his mouth moved, but no intelligent noise came forth. His armor gave him notice that there were several more Titans within the hab unit, likely hidden.

A gunshot ran out, followed by a twang as the bullet ricocheted off the carapace of his armor. Lupis turned his helmet to see a Foxen holding an E-rifle standing by the doorway. Atanis’ hands were trembling as he held the rifle, which had done nothing to damage the armor.

“Leave him alone.” Atanis commanded, his voice not coming out nearly as authoritative as he’d hoped.

Lupis dropped the small scientist. He was not here to kill these Titans anyway. He had no qualms killing Titans, by the score if it helped him achieve his mission, but if he could get the information he needed without a bloodbath it would be preferred. He was amoral, not a psychopath.

“All I need is an answer.” The speakers of the Phantasm armor sounded. "No one else needs to die."

Suddenly Atanis eyed the armored figure in a new light. There were urban legends about just such a bounty hunter, a killer of males females and cubs alike…

Atanis had a choice before him at that moment. If this was really the feared bounty hunter known as Lupis, then one choice likely would lead to certain death, not only for him, but for the leaders that were present for the entire Union. His head drooped in shame.

"The Rook Coast." Atanis could not even look up at the mirrored faceplate. "That's where they went."

Burning with shame, Atanis gave his new friends up, along with his sister who had gone along with them. But he was confident he could get advanced warning to them and let them know of the danger. But the large armored figure pointed the sidearm at him.

"Then that's where we're going."