From an objective perspective, the operation looked well planned out and choreographed. Two dozen armored personnel carriers sped past the sentries and guards trailing clouds of dust in the desert terrain, who stepped aside and let them pass. The Zenith forces had a huge advantage on their side, and that was the hive mind collective ability for all their mechanized and robotic forces to be able to communicate freely, regardless of distance.
From Bingo’s perspective on the outskirts of the site, he saw two helicopters land in the middle of the area at the same time the line of vehicles approached. Several more security forces extracted from the helicopters, and not all were mechanized. He could clearly see from his vantage, two informally dressed Titans, not in any uniform, step off one of the helicopters and immediately step to the front of the gathering assembly of militarized units.
Bingo frowned and swore under his breath. He knew there was no way to cross that assembly of enemy forces and get to the others at this point. Not to warn them or help them escape. There was really only two viable things he could think of to do in the situation he was in. He could turn tail and flee. He had a good chance of escaping since it seemed like the enemies below had their full attention on the others. Running was not really in his nature though. The only other recourse then would be to go down and attack them from behind, cause a distraction and hope it was enough to allow the others a chance at escape.
What could a single cyborg do against such a gathering of troops, he pondered. With him unarmed and so many guns down there against him, it seemed like certain suicide. He didn’t know where the female Foxen was taken off to, but he couldn’t help thinking how this would be a perfect time for her to show up and save them all again. He knew this was unlikely, but still, he leaped down into the trenches to attack.
* * * *
“Hello? Hello? Bingo? You there, mate?” Ricky tapped the side of his monocle, which seemed to have been operational still.
“I lost communication also.” Rocco chimed in quickly. He adjusted his monocle into target assist battle mode and instantly a hundred or so target reticles appeared in real time over his vision. “Shit, we got tangos!”
“We’re surrounded!” Ricky saw them too now. He turned to Eligah. “Find a place to hide. We’re fucked, but maybe you might be able to escape if you lie low.”
Eligah slinked away into the shadows of the depths, neither Procyon brother had any time to contemplate or even register this act, for within mere moments, a sizable detachment of battle drones were coming down the hollowed out tunnel straight for them.
“We should have looked around to see if there was a second entrance.” Rocco mused while the shadows coming down the corridor loomed larger and closer.
“I did. I set my Net-com to survey the area. There ain’t any. That’s the only way in or out down here.” Ricky pointed up the tunnel where a group of armed forces were coming towards them.
“Figures.”
“Well, I guess from the time we left Gunrock we all kinda knew this was how it would end. Eventually.” Ricky shrugged.
“Not me.” Rocco disagreed proudly. “I always thought we’d make it off this bloody rock.”
“And do what? Go where? Zenith owns everything.”
“We could have taken to a life of I dunno, space piracy right? Fancy a bit of outlawing in space. Adventures, females…”
“You’ve lost it. You’re proper mental at this point.”
“Oh don’t tell me I’m mental! You never had any sense of fun. Since the time we were kits you always had to be so damn…”
“Sorry to interrupt…” A voice cut in down the corridor leading topside.
Both brothers stood out in the open, directly before the steep ramp leading back up. There was no reason to try to hide or even fight back. They made no attempt to run or hide, but neither did they fall to their knees and interlock their fingers behind their heads in any submissive position.
A lead Titan came to the bottom of the corridor to stand before them. Surprisingly enough they led with a live Titan and not expendable battle robots. They both noticed he was a Canid and dressed casually as opposed to being garbed in a Zenith uniform. This Titan came before them with no armor and no visible weapons. But he also did not appear to be very concerned for his own safety. That could only mean…
“You’re one of Zenith’s super soldiers?” Ricky stated the question more of a remark than a legitimate inquiry.
“What a good guesser you are!” The Canid laughed. “And you must finally be the insurrectionists from Kallerish City.”
Rocco’s face contorted in anger.
“Fuck you. You’re a bloody insurrectionist. And so is your mother.”
Ricky leaned in and whispered to his much larger and misguided brother.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“An insurrectionist is a rebel. It’s not an insult.”
The Canid laughed. He did not show an ounce of outward fear in the face of his adversaries. There was probably good reason for that, Ricky mused. If he was anything like Amiga, then there wasn’t really much that the pair of them could do to harm this Titan, even if they’d been armed with more than empty magazines.
“Well now. I must admit I’m a bit disappointed. After all the chase and fighting in Furwood back there. You two managed to escape an extensive grid search…I mean I doubt you two have any idea how many resources have been diverted into your capture.”
“No we don’t. How many?” Rocco asked.
“A lot. Well, I mean, not only the division of robots that were sent here but the fact that they sent me should tell you something. And I’m not alone either. The rest of my team is on the way.”
“Splendid.” Rocco replied.
“Smashing.” Ricky returned at the same time.
“After all the trouble you put Zenith through and we finally catch you and you don’t even put up a fight? Are you surrendering then? How disappointing.”
“We ran out of bullets.” Ricky shrugged.
“So you’re not just gonna kill us then?” Rocco asked skeptically.
“No not yet. You fellas are to be made an example out of. I imagine there will probably be some sort of public execution or the like. I’m not sure that’s all above my paygrade. They’ve attributed all of the damage back in Kallerish squarely on you…and hell, they’re still tallying all the damage here. You two Titans may be the single greatest threat that Zenith has faced in five years!”
“Cheers.” Both brothers nodded to each other and replied in unison.
“Well? Come along then if you’re surrendering.”
“Who said that?” Ricky kept his eyes defiantly on the supertitan before them. He turned briefly to regard his brother before continuing. “No, I supposed neither of us has any interest in being on display for your corrupt corporate masters. No, I think we’re gonna throw down.” He pulled the energy knife from the sheath on his belt, and clicked the button, flaring it to glowing life.
Beside him, Rocco nodded grimly and produced his twin batons, giving them a whirling flourish for good measure.
“Come now. You traveled with a specimen like me for enough time now to realize how futile that would be? You must realize there isn’t a single thing you could actually do to harm me right?”
“Yeah, we’re well aware of that. And you have to know by the Gothamir broadcast that our interest in being taken alive is at an all-time low. Now shut the hell up and fight.”
The cordial smile splayed across the Canid’s maw turned cruel and wicked instantly. He surged forward with enhanced reflexes faster than the brothers could react to or anticipate. Using only a slight gesture, like one would react to a small cub, he crossed the distance and shoved them both back against the temple wall with such force that the air in both of their lungs blasted out, leaving them stunned.
“Fine, we can play that game too I suppose. It’s the robot god that wants you alive, I couldn’t care less.”
With the speed in which the supertitan could move, Ricky readied himself for death mentally. A simple twist of his wrist could break their bones or end their life.
Just as Ricky accepted the inevitable, and the futility of fighting against this genetically enhanced soldier, something unbelievable happened that took a few seconds for the Procyon to properly process in his probably concussed brain.
The Canid snarled and tightened his grip on the pair, preparing to snuff out their lives with ease. But instead of killing them, he instead began making choking noises, and his eyes went wide in shock. The Canid supertitan then went into convulsing fits, before his grip on them slackened and simply hung in midair limp and lifeless.
“What the…?” Ricky could not understand the images that his eyes were sending to his brain.
But then it became clear. A sword materialized, sticking straight through the Canid from behind, the sharp tip ended a mere inches away from Ricky’s face. The materialization continued up the handle of the sword, until a figure appeared standing behind the Canid gripping the instrument of his death.
This figure was much larger than the now dead Titan hanging from the end of his sword, and Ricky realized that was because it was a Titan encased in a sleek battle armor. The battle armored Titan lowered the sword and unceremoniously pulled it free from the Canid, allowing the body to slump to the ground.
Despite the featureless, mirrored visor of the armor helmet relaying no discernable Titan emotion, there was something angry and menacing about the massive looming figure.
“Cheers for the save. But who the hell are you?” Ricky finally managed to take command over his motor functions and ask.
The armored figure did not answer. Instead, it turned back towards the entrance ramp leading up. While the now dead supertitan Canid had broken off from a much larger force to confront them personally, there was no doubt possibly a hundred or more Zenith targets up there, and probably many still within the tunnel. This became more than apparent when marching sounds from many robotic legs began.
The armored figure waited silently while the robot march drew closer every moment. Ricky wanted to ask what he was doing, for it made little sense to rescue them from the Canid just to allow an army of robots to kill or capture them. But then Ricky looked down to the armored gauntlets of the figure and began to understand the plan.
In one hand, the katana like sword, still slick with blood was still clutched with palpable menace, but the other handheld a small hilt-like object, like a staple gun, and Ricky realized from the mines of Gunrock that this object was a detonator.
Once a sizable force occupied the tunnel and were just beginning to pour into the chamber with them all, the armored thumb pushed the button on the top of the detonator device. A deafening explosion rocked the chamber, followed immediately by the entire tunnel leading down to them collapsing. In a moment, the entire division of Zenith battle drones was buried under tons of soil.
The few robots that had escaped the collapse were quickly dispatched by the hulking power armor and the deadly sword. Only after the final robot was destroyed did the armored figure turn to once again regard the two Procyon brothers.
“Now then. As a matter of courtesy…you’ve been apprehended.” Came a booming, impassive robotic voice from speakers somewhere in the helmet. “You’re now in my custody. Don’t try to run or plead for me to let you go. There’s no point.”
“So, then you’re not with Zenith obviously.” Ricky began, trying to work the situation out in his head. “But you aren’t here to help us escape either?”
“No.”
“How’d you do the trick turning invisible?” Rocco asked.
The figure did not answer, but instead seemed to be listening for the sounds coming from outside the now collapsed tunnel. Ricky turned around to see with dismay that much of the temple area had also been buried underneath untold tons of soil.
“You’re what…a bounty hunter?”
The armored figure did not answer the question directly, but instead handed them both cloth tunics.
“Put these on.” He mechanized voice insisted. Ricky wondered if there was an actual Titan somewhere in that metal, but at this point, didn’t see much of a choice than to comply. He did not know who had put a bounty out on them, but perhaps it was better to take their chances with them rather than Zenith.