A shadow swept across the icy surface of the Titan valley carefully darting
to-and-from gigantic rocks protruding out of the sand.
Suddenly, the silhouette stopped in its tracks and crouched beside an unmanned
slick, eyeing the massive
Collective base but a mere fifty yards from his position.
He took out a small communicator and gingerly punched an 8-digit number.
"Gavyn Fox of Titan recon division 7 reporting to base, do you read?"
Gavyn silently whispered, awaiting a reply from his command center.
"We read you clear as hell Fox...So?" a voice muttered vaguely from the box
"I'm real close to them bastards now, I'm definantly in sniping range..." Gavyn
replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice
"...I see two guards outside...ones asleep I think, the other looks like he's
not too awake either..."
"Good, Gavyn, just be careful around there, if they detect you, that's a bag of
toys you don't want to open."
"Roger, Gavyn Fox out"
He flipped a lid over the number panel and shoved the device in his back
pocket.
"Rocks, ledges, sumtin'..." he mumbled to himself while looking for a good area
to snipe from
"There we go! Perfect!" he picked up his gear and slanked over to an overhanging
rock ledge in the eerie orange glow of Saturn, at night, that was the only
source of light on Titan, but it worked great for night operations.
He pulled a silver tripod out of his pouch and began to unfold the three spindly
legs.
Next he pulled out a big black box, almost like a suitcase, and flipped the
two gold locks on each side, then he flipped the top open revealing a shining
silver Particle Accelerator, personalized with his signature, of course.
"Come on baby, we've got a mission to do" he spoke to the gun as if it were his
best friend, perhaps it was, Gavyn had never had a family, and didn't take to
other people very well, he was ornery and stuck to himself a lot, never letting
anyone else know how he was feeling, or what was bothering him.
He reached over to his pack and pulled another black box out, this time what he
yielded from it was a light charger, he locked the charger into the side of the
weapon and blew the dust out of a hole in the center, the only thing left was
the ammunition.
"Oh shit..." Gavyn said in despair
"Where's my ammo, oh God..." he frantically rummaged through the brown bag for
his ammo case, at the same time remembering how he had been showing off his PA
in a bar on the Tarsus station
"I must've forgotten to pick up my ammo box! Damn this!" Gavyn bellowed in spite
of himself
One of the guards across the valley rustled and looked around quickly, his
eyes darting insanely everywhere.
"Yo Pete, didjou here that, man?" the guard nudged his comrade with a beckoning
elbow.
"Aw, dude, why you gotta always wake me up for? It's prolly a trummel cat or
summat..."
"Ain't no cats man...it spoke, like English man! It's a person man!" the other
guard spoke fearfully, a paranoid look on his face.
"Well go check it out, 'man!'" Pete screamed mockingly at the frightened guard.
"Max, you can't be so scared if yer gonna be on the night shift, those Titans
will pull some dirty tricks under cover" he continued.
The guard named Max stood up from his chair and stretched, then bending over,
grasping the strap of his Assault Rifle.
"Fine, I'll go, man" Max declared scared as ever.
"That's a good guard" Pete mumbled half conscious.
Meanwhile, across the valley on top of that overhanging ledge, Lt. Gavyn Fox
lay in wait, watching the dark figure of the guard trudging toward his foothold.
The dark gray Assault Rifle gleaming under Saturn's orange light.
Gavyn slowly began pulling his silenced pistol from the holster on his thigh,
"These night guys never wear combat suits" he thought, "This'll be easy as pie"
his mind focused on the guard, as he locked a tiny scope to the top of the
pistol, and snapped a magazine into place.
"Come on, you bastard" Fox said silently in his mind "Jes a little closer..."
He raised the point of the pistol, the guard called Pete had been long dozed
off, he wouldn't notice at all.
A dim pop rang through the air, and a cloud of red engulfed the guard's head, as
he fell to the dusty surface of Titan.
Gavyn blew playfully on the muzzle of the gun, spun it with skill, and slammed
it back into the holster.
"If all these guards tonight are like this, I don't see what's so hard about
these infiltration's" the sniper whispered.
Then, after gently returning the Particle Accelerator to its protective case,
and stuffing the rest of the paraphernalia into his bag, Gavyn rolled off the
overhang, and dusted himself off, then began making his way towards the looming
stronghold.
Chapter 2:
"I'm seeing him again..."
"Who my lord?"
"I am seeing the boy..."
"I think you are just tired...you have been sitting there for three hours
now...
why don't you go to your quarters and rest, my lord..."
"I am not sitting, I am meditating, when will you understand pathetic
mundane?"
"Y, yes my lord, I will leave you be..."
A robed man quickly hopped out of his kneeling position and scampered to the
door, touching the palm lock, a section of the black wall slid open, revealing
the massive Collective command ship Messiah CV-10, brightly donned in black and
red, traditional Collective colors.
"One more thing before you go, Feng, would you bring me some more crystals? I
need to verify whatever this is I am seeing..."
The old man was sitting
with his legs crossed, staring at a small bright blue sphere that was floating
in mid air without any support.
"Yes, my lord, your will is my command...For peace and justice!"
Feng
then performed the Collective salute, quickly standing erect and crossing his
arms across his chest, and making two tight fists.
"For peace and justice..." the old man said half heartedly, still
concentrating on the floating ball.
Outside the Lords quarters, Collective technicians dabbled with computers and
studied holograms of various areas on Titan
"The rebels are concentrating at Morgan base again...they are retrieving a
new shipment of Hornets from the Europan dissidents." A massively built man with
a shaved head and a gash across his right cheek stepped forward into the dim
green light given off by the hologram
"They must be stopped...our armor is planning on raiding Morgan base in a mere
three days, I expect that Europan transport destroyed by then, or this ship will
be turned into a living hell...do you understand!?"
A crescent circle of 7 men nodded in unison, these men were the Collective Arms
and Support Initiative (CASI) an elite band of the finest military officials
fighting for the Collective cause, they were responsible for all actions taken
against the Titan rebels and the Europan companies helping them, their decision
was final and deadly, no one else but the Lord Heerveth had more power. The bald
man is Galan Dagos, the leader of the CASI, and the second most powerful man in
the Collective Empire.
Galan stood a magnificent 7 feet tall, and he was all muscle...not the kind of
person you would want to meet on a dark street in the middle of the night. He
received the gash over his cheek in a knife fight with Roland Hall, a Titan
executive positioned at New Taiwan.
Out of nowhere, a technician in a far corner of the complex hollered over the
bustle of the thousands of people inside.
"Radar reports something large heading our way...no...this thing isn't large,
It's GIGANTIC!"
This caught Galan's attention from across the room.
"Let me see that screen!" he screamed back across the room, while darting toward
the technicians post.
A massive group of various Collective workers huddled around the technician
madly punching buttons on his keyboard.
"Out of the way, step aside, I need to get through...I SAID MOVE!" Galan
pressed his way in between the horde.
"Right there, Sir." The technician pointed out a large red blip on the radar, it
was heading directly for the Messiah.
What Galan saw shocked him, "I want a live satellite feed on that ship...NOW!"
the angered Galan ordered.
Technicians stumbled through the crowded halls into the intelligence room
where the satellite command codes were kept, the intelligence room was separated
from the rest of the ship by a long narrow corridor littered with Automated
Machine Guns which hung out from the sides of the hallway…people who walked the
hall must have a specialized ID tag that recognizes them as a Level 3 or higher
technician or scientist, if the visitor did not have this, they were immediately
gunned down. The intelligence room was of the utmost security.
"We need a feed at 36, 2, 24 immediately!" a feebly Technician gave the order,
the Technicians name was Diego Simmons, his specialty was radio and satellite
reconnaissance
others ran towards a massive monitor and began to type the coordinates of the
approaching vessel.
The Messiah was currently docked in a vast volcanic cavern roughly 30 miles
from the Morgan Base defense outpost.
Whatever was coming for the Collective ship was probibally originally on it's
way to Morgan Base itself, with supplies and whatnot.
Simmons! Get over here quick! A scientist connecting wires to the to the
Satellite console issued for the Technician to come to where he was kneeling.
Diego finished imputing the last of the coordinates before making his way over
to the console to see what the scientist wanted.
"What? What is it now?" he beckoned anxiously.
"Look at this!" the scientist pointed out a cut wire sparking madly under the
dark shadow of the machine.
"Who did this!?" Diego questioned aloud spinning around to look at the others in
the room, but what he found was a 12-inch combat knife positioned between his
eyes.
"Uh...eh..." the technician was caught by complete surprise, his eyes as wide
as a quarter, crossed and staring at the silver steel poking into his forehead.
A tall man in a green suit stepped to the side of the knife-bearing Infantryman.
His suit gleamed brightly; dozens of golden medals littered the chest and arms.
In the room, the other three technicians stared in horror at the single
scientist (which now lay dead under the satellite console, victim of a
well-silenced pistol) blood staining his bright white lab coat. In their
company, a small Titan recon squad began filing out from a vent in the ceiling.
"So..." he began "You are Diego..." he was staring at Diego's light blue ID tag.
"Diego...? What do you do here?" the man questioned the frightened Diego.
"I...Uh. I" he stumbled for words but nothing legible came from his lips. A
small trickle of bright red blood was slowly running down the edge of his nose.
The other Collectives in the room backed farther away from the Titans until they
were against a bright red collective logo on the wall.
"Well, if you tell us, we will let you live." The man continued, but all that
came from Diego were muffled words and utter gibberish.
The man in green motioned his hand in the air.
"Kill him." The order rang through the air as the man holding the knife to
Diego's forehead applied pressure to the hilt sending the blade through his
skull. The technicians eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his limp body
crumpled at the feet of the soldier, which bent over and retrieved the knife
from the bleeding forehead of his victim. A female technician that had been
watching the ordeal fainted and hit the floor with a thud.
Two Titan soldiers jogged across the small puddle of blood beside Diego's
deceased body, their boots splashing in the watery red mess. They then began to
drag the corpse off into a secluded area; a small trail of red marked their
path.
The man with the medals was none other than the Titan Elite's High Storm
Commander, Roland Hall. Back from New Taiwan and back in active duty.
Roland dallied around the room a bit, staring up at the dozens of monitors
dotting the walls, through one, he saw a zoomed in camera positioned on the TSAF
(Titan Space and Aeronautics Force) Liberator, a MASSIVE Titan Dropship that
held 1/6th of the entire Titan Space Force's arsenal. The Liberator was only
slightly smaller than The Messiah was. Although the Messiah was only but a
simple command post and recon unit, it was armed with 16 Dual Maklov "Falcon"
Plasma Anti-Aircraft turrets, and 4. MM-VII Missile Batteries that fired a
whopping 12 simultaneous laser-guided self propelled missiles, which locked onto
the nearest target available. The Liberator, however, carried it's own miniature
army, consisting of SF-2 "Asp" fighters, SF-14 "Mosquito" fighters, SB-1 "Rhino"
space-bombers and 4 Commissioned Titan Militia drop-ships including the TD-23
"Whiskey" the TD-8 "New Orleans II" the TD-36 "Catherine" the fourth ship is
borrowed from the Titans "allies" the Europan Mercenaries, it's name is the
RSS-King Edward III, it is currently in repair for a dis-functional engine.
Roland snapped as if from a daydream to the voice of his Lieutenant. "Mister
Hall, Sir!"
"Yes?" Roland stared into the face of a beautiful young woman in a suit almost
as donned with awards as his.
"Corporal Halloway is picking up a large energy frequency from behind that
door!"
Roland glanced over to see Corporal Halloway clenching the sides of his head,
shaking slightly as he tensed the grip on his helmet. Matt Halloway was the
squads only Psionic, and he was well trained, for this, everyone trusted his
perceptions.
Roland turned his head to view the black sliding doorway that almost blended
completely into the wall, except for a small gray slit running a zigzagged
pattern down it. This was the door that led to the main complex, and also the
one guarded by Auto-Guns. This was not known by the Titan intruders, given they
had come through the ventilation system above the intelligence room and were
able to slip in un-noticed.
Roland then began to question the other technicians as his medic tended to
the un-conscious female body lying motionless on the steel floor.
"What is beyond that door?" hey directed his inquisition to an old man with two
odd tufts of silver hair protruding out of the sides of his head, and a scruffy
gray mustache.
"Nothing...nothing at all..." he replied nervously.
"You are not lying to me...are you? If you tell the truth, you will be spared"
Obviously the old technician didn't buy Rolands propaganda, (although it was
true.) and continued with his lie…
"No sir, that hall just leads to the main complex...it's completely unguarded."
Roland needed some verification, and he knew how to do it.
"Matt?" he beckoned to the Psionic sitting with his legs crossed on a
computer keyboard.
"Could you...?" he asked, Halloway had been listening, he knew what to do.
"Sure, Boss." He muttered as he closed his eyes tight.
He suddenly fell back, lifeless, onto the computer screen, his head slowly
squeaking down the glass.
"What is he doing?" A young technician asked from the corner he was "hiding"
in.
"It's Remote Viewing" Roland replied. "It's completely normal for him to do
this, we are trying to see if the Old Man is a liar, or if he's helping us…for
his own good I hope it's the latter."
"Oh." The technician mumbled as he again rested his head in the corner.
With this comment the old technician gulped in despair, realizing his mistake.
Roland new this already, and he smirked evilly in the old mans direction.
Just then, Matt's body re-animated and his eyes shot open.
"8 machine guns on the wall, the first two, closest to a really big room were
the clearest, I don't know why."
With the verification, Roland pulled his silenced Auto-Pistol out of it's
leather holster and fired two rounds in the old mans neck, the man slumped into
a lying position and gurgled aloud for a couple of seconds, and then silence.
By this time the Medic had brought the female technician back to
consciousness, She arched her head up and looked at her company.
"Wha...what happened heee...OH MY GOD!" She was staring into the lifeless eyes
of the old technician. This horrid sight causing her to faint again and the
Medic to let out a hopeless sigh.
"I wonder why the Machine Guns closest to the complex were giving off a
brighter signal" the Lieutenant questioned herself out loud.
"They are automated, and will kill anyone who doesn't have clearance for this
sector!" the young technician that was still sitting in the corner yelled out at
Roland.
Before Roland could fully process what he had said, a message came over the
intercom:
"WE HAVE RECEIVED A WARNING SIGNAL FROM THE INTELLIGANCE / RECON ROOM AND ARE
SENDING A TEAM TO INVESTIGATE! IF THERE IS ANY PERSONELL STILL IN THE ROOM, STAY
PUT! WE ARE COMING TO ASSIST YOU!"
"Now the guns closest to us are giving off the same signal! The automation
system must be giving off heat, that's why they are brighter!" Matt exclaimed
over the message.
The Titan soldiers readied their Assault Rifles and got into a defense position
on opposite sides of the doorway, Roland and the Lieutenant readied their
pistols and the Medic (now ignoring the un-conscious woman) loaded a magazine
into his PDW.
Two Collective voices yelled something illegible from the other end of the door,
as the tapping sound of a palm touching the lock rang into the small room...
End Of Part 1.
Note From Brer: "This is a double-path story, this simply means it follows
the paths of two characters/groups, I.E. Roland Hall and his squad from the
Liberator, and Gavyn Fox the Infiltrator at
Ft. Fulton, in these story types, the two paths are related to one event and
eventually meet toward the end or at various points in the story. I.E. the
Redwall series by Brian Jacques (My favorite series and author by the way,
second author Is Tom Clancy, hail to the king.) Brian Jacques uses the
double-path system in all his books (he actually uses a triple, or even
quadruple path system,but that is difficult for the un-experienced) I am trying
to make this story a 6 part series, with one story connecting onto the next, all
the parts will be roughly the same size as this one…the story is confusing now,
it will unfold and get better...Honest...Like a Boy Scout. Post in the boards
your opinion, I love to hear them.