After a brief chase, the security vehicle managed to escape the roadblocks before the fleet of police vehicles arrived and was soon making its way onto the busy highway. The two vehicles they had eluded seemed to have not been sure of the security van as their primary target, for they were not pursued for long.

They had to navigate the old-fashioned way, devoid of sensors or GPS technology, as Bingo had to shut down most of the advanced tech to keep Zenith from being able to easily track the vehicle. Because of his unique cyborg implants, he became his own GPS system, and could access a map system via the Titan-net.

“How much farther is this place?” Rocco, always growing antsy when not currently engaged in some activity asked the others.

“Not far now.” Came the reply from Eligah, who had managed to explain where they needed to go to the cyborg driving. He had managed to memorize the surrounding area from his Net-com well in advance, and had committed it to memory. “I think you’ll need to turn off the next exit.”

By now, the first hints of the sun’s soft glow were crowning the flat deserted horizon. The only vegetation that broke the landscape were rows of exotic tropical palm trees, that seemed rugged in nature, and proliferated the area. The first rays of the golden dawn reflected gloriously from the leaves of these trees, in red gold and green hues. If the group were not being chased by Zenith security forces, it would have been a magnificent, breathtaking sight to behold.

“Are they still following us?” Rocco asked.

“Looks clear. But probably.” Came the reply from Bingo up front. “I still see flashing lights behind us in the distance, but it doesn’t look like they know exactly where we are.”

“The dig site isn’t far.” Eligah responded eagerly. “We’re getting closer now!”

“What’s so special about this dig site anyway?” Rocco asked.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.” Bingo replied from the driver’s seat.

“Tune to the News Network!” Ricky said to the other passengers.

They did so, and found a report on multiple attacks across the planet on Zenith sites. There were two drone production sites on Gunrock that were being reported as destroyed, Lothan, Rodan, Warsong and several places within the Federated Territories were all reporting armed encounters with insurgant forces.

“Wolton. Come in.” Ricky was instantly trying to contact the other Procyon back in Kallerish.

“Ricky, how’s your mission going?”

“What’s going on? The news is saying that there are attacks all over.”

“Halen and I have been engaged in supplying E-rifles and trying to produce more of the flight packs. But Timmock, the Titan you saved from that detention facility, helped organize with some of the other cells. There were resistance cells like the Union on every major continent just waiting for someone to organize them. This is only the beginning, and we have you all to thank for much of it.”

“Are there any cells or whatever out here on the Rook Coast?” Ricky was thinking on his feet. “We could use some sort of distraction. A group of some kind of rebels attacked Zenith while we were in the middle of it. Maybe they have a leader or something you can contact?”

“I’ll talk to Timmock and see what we can do.”

“Right on.” Ricky disconnected the call.

Ricky then winced as a sharp pain shot through his side. He lifted his vest and saw blood from a leaky wound.

“That looks bad.” Eligah remarked. “Shrapnel?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Feels like I got some too.” Rocco turned his leg to see one of his pants legs peppered with shredded holes.

The vehicle exited the highway, leaving the general flow of traffic and was now traveling down a dusty, nearly deserted road in major disrepair.

“Let me look.” Eligah began examining Ricky’s wound. It did not look very deep and he could see the shiny metallic sheen reflecting off of a piece of metal sticking out. The problem was that there were no medical supplies or first aid kits available.

The old Titan quickly improvised, realizing that some of the archeological tools in his pack might help. He dug around until he found a small pair of tongs that would work well enough for tweezers.

“I can get it out, but we don’t have any bandages. Can you tell how deep it is?”

“Just get it.” Ricky growled. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was becoming acutely aware of the shard sticking into his ribcage.

A sudden commotion behind them jostled Ricky and Eligah. Rocco, whose wounds were less severe, quickly began wrestling against the pleasure bot he had brought along, despite the many protestations.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“I thought you said you had turned that thing off!” Ricky yelled. “You bloody moron, get rid of that thing!”

“I did shut it off!” Rocco managed to get on top of the female robot, which looked for all outward appearance to be a regular female Titan. Despite its robotic nature, it was not built to withstand or overcome the body weight of a large Titan such as Rocco. Though it’s previous owner had used it for combat purposes, it in fact was not designed for such activities but was instead designed for other encounters entirely. “I got it, settle down.”

Rocco managed to once again find the emergency override switch that put the robot into a sleep mode. Instantly the arms and legs stopped lashing out and went limp. Rocco smiled proudly, to which Ricky just sneered.

“There is an upside you wanker.” Rocco tore away at the long white robe the female bot was wearing, heedless of any modesty on her behalf. “Here’s a bandage.”

“Right then, keep it steady for a moment.” Eligah called up to the driver before looking back at his new patient.

“Ready?”

Ricky took a deep breath.

“Go.”

The small tongs plunged in, exploring the edges of Ricky’s wound and roughly trying to gain hold of the metal chunk lodged inside of his flesh. The Procyon was expecting a rush of pain, but the mixture of ripping, tearing and burning that filled his senses was overwhelming. Through gritted teeth he swore and swore loudly.

“Fuck…me!”

“Almost got it now, keep steady…” Eligah kept his attention on the task at hand. Not with the compassion of a doctor, but a single-minded orientation much more suited to an archeologist.

Despite the even handedness of their driver, who was half machine and had total control over the vehicle, he had little control over the composition of the neglected road in which they were rapidly traversing. A pothole caused the van to rock just as the old Titan managed to gain hold of the obstruction, causing the tongs to slip painfully. Ricky swore again and Eligah started over from scratch.

“There now, be patient. Almost got it now.” Eligah continued his work unabashed by the temporary setback.

“That’s easy for you to say…” Ricky growled through gritted teeth.

The elder Titan was no surgeon and pretended no such thing, this time when he got the edges of the tongs alongside the object, he wasted no time in ripping it straight out of the wound.

“That’s a good male. Got it!” Eligah announced triumphantly while holding the jagged piece of metal up with the tongs.

“Great. You’d make a lousy Doc.”

Eligah simply laughed it off and took the white cloth offered to him from Rocco and began bandaging the wound as best as he knew how. It was far from professional medical care, but would have to do for now.

“Something up ahead. Is this the place we’re looking for?” Bingo called over his shoulder to the others in back.

Eligah leaned forward to look out the windshield. Directly ahead of them was a partially unearthed ancient city, with a few white tents and other temporary structures set up, and a veritable army of worker and security drones swarming all about the site.

‘By Jove, that’s it!” Eligah exclaimed with a half crazed ecstatic look in his eyes.

Ricky looked out across the hundreds of robotic figures performing tasks across the dozen or so acres stretched out before them and shook his head sadly.

“We’re all out of ammo, two of us are wounded…having second thoughts?” Rocco asked when he saw the gesture.

“Fuck no, of course not. When did we ever let a stupid thing like reason or odds get in the way of a perfectly good dangerous situation? C’mon fellas, let’s go!”

* * * *

The Skullia-One had torn through the weak fleet of defenders that came rushing out to intercept them from well out. The multitude of guns on the ship rained down with apocalyptic fury, and the entire battle was over in less than a half-hour.

The massive ship was perhaps one of the most heavily armed and armored battleships in the entire galaxy. While the defending fleet would have given trouble to most other attackers in the same situation, it would truly take another battleship class spaceship to threaten the massive vehicle. While the captain of the Skullia-One had no doubt there were probably distress calls being made as the skirmish raged on and such ships were likely on the way, there was no doubt that there were none stationed here and thus, the pirates were able to take their prey by surprise once more.

Crazy Tooth had joined the fight with the much smaller but still deadly secondary ship, which he was now calling the Bone Heart. Within an hour of the two ships devastating the defenders ranks, they were approaching the enormous hollowed out asteroid that contained Zenith’s secret facility. Instead of the usual plan, which was to send out dozens of landing and boarding craft in advance, Sabre Khan simply scanned the facilities and once found, he docked at the nearest bay.

As expected, there was a sizable Zenith defender force waiting for them when the doors dropped on the massive pirate ship. As ardent as the mechanical defenders were in their unwavering programming, they found a screaming, bloodthirsty mob of crazed pirates that emerged from the ship equal to the task.

Many of the crew died that day assaulting the base, and many more were wounded. Despite this, the facility had not been as heavily armed or defended as it perhaps should have been, in part due to the secretive nature and remote location. This was a top-secret base in a barren section of Titan space that surely no one except the highest executives within Zenith Corp. itself were ever supposed to know about, let alone find deep within the asteroid field.

Once the initial defenders had been overrun, the pirate crew enjoyed the run of the place and began looting everything they could. Sabre knew their time was limited though, and eventually Zenith would send more capable forces to deal with them. In the reaches of space, it could take several days before a distress call could reach the nearest Zenith outpost, so they had a little time at least. He had ordered his men not to kill any Titans within the facility and in short order, they had all been rounded up in one place.

The pirate lord had a very specific reason for his nonviolence policy in this situation. When he finally stood before the assembly, Sabre Khan revealed his plans.

“We have spared your lives for one reason, and one reason only.” He addressed the forty or so scientists and workers that oversaw the lab operations. “You will perform the procedure on me immediately.”

One of the smaller scientists was brave enough to protest, though they all seemed to hold the same hesitancy in carrying out the demands.

“We can’t. Zenith protocols are precise on the matter. Only specifically approved test candadates…”

With lightning reflexes, the pirate lord drew his saber and ran it through the protesting Titan. He purposefully did not aim for the heart, in order to draw out the death throes of the suffering scientist for as long as possible. It was a bit of theatrics meant to dissuade any further protestations. The display worked as intended, and almost immediately, several other workers stepped forward to offer their assistance.