Chapter 8 Roxi
Fracture stays close as we walk across the hangar to the conference room with the large schematic display. I find it on my tablet’s list of available signals and connect to it as Savage pulls in the Titans he wants to send on the mission.
“Room for two more?” Esthi asks with a smile.
“I don’t want any other humans going until we can secure the base,” I say, giving Savage a pointed look. “In case something happens. We won’t know the situation until we get there. If I go down, we need a backup. Esthi is the closest in capability.”
Savage nods in agreement.
Esthi enters with Armor. Paradox stalks in behind them. He has to duck to enter the room. His face is almost expressionless but still a hint angry. And I finally see what the Relics and Rogues have been talking about.
My files are encrypted and need a blood sample to open. “Fracture, can I get a prick please?”
He lets out a quick breath. “Uh, sure.”
Fracture lifts a finger and crackles the surface. Fissures race out across his skin like he’s smashed it. A quick touch makes the tip of my finger bleed. Holding it over a hidden sensor in my tablet, I unlock the files, then decrypt them with a voice command. “Roxi Angstrom, two-one-one-five.”
My security question loads, requesting my preferred metal.
“Manganese steel.”
My voice assessment program scribbles patterns across my screen, lines them up, and unlocks the files I want.
The schematics load, and I transfer them to the table’s 3D projectors.
Zones highlight in different colors: green for nano support facilities including nanotoners, solution, engineering, and storage.
There are body structures labs in yellow, raw materials labs in orange, and bays for working on ships and human augments, which I light up blue.
“Wow,” Fracture mutters. “Wish we had found you ages ago.”
“The last time I saw this place was five years ago.” I rub a pounding temple. “It could be gone.”
“Maybe we can at least get some answers,” Castor says, joining us.
“And some possible food resources,” I add. “We chose this world for its natural food supply.”
Fracture looks down at me. “Chose? As in you helped?”
I stumble over my tongue for a moment. “The Titan design branch I worked for did. We researched, voted, built, moved in, survived for a few years before this nightmare.” I motion to the screen as I load my lists of deceased members.
“Solcrue may have scavenged it,” Toriszi says in thought.
“Possibly. But they don’t tend to like fibrous foods like fruits, vegetables, and grains.”
“They like gilkyworms and sardines.” Diesel gags.
Chaos punches him in the shoulder. “You prefer old oil over that?”
“Absolutely.” Diesel finds a place to sit down and closes his eyes. He has been busy with the recent recuperation system failure.
“Nature has a way of taking over everything though, even after we destroy it,” a Relic unit named Amp says from the corner. “Cara likes to remind me of that often. Her grandfather did a lot of the terraforming in this galaxy.”
“Let’s just hope they didn’t try to obliterate the base from space,” Eon, Evo’s twin shadow-brother, says. “I lived in space for years. I saw a lot of things I wish I didn’t.”
“What ship is capable of that?” Savage asks.
“Fesskar.” I open up Crezlith’s mind map and find the ship, sending its tan, spiked silhouette to the schematic table. “It’s the only one he knows of that can decimate a city from space. It has an Incinerator weapon.”
Menace grins. “I want that one. We could zap Solcrue ships into oblivion.”
“Is genocide the goal?” A projection unit asks. Holo’s eyes shift colors as he addresses Menace from beside Diesel.
“It is what they try to do to us,” Morbid, another inky unit like Menace with similar red eyes, replies.
“We should save the ones with RS.” To my surprise, it isn’t Sefina or Celeste who speak up. It’s Fracture.
“You’ve officially broken,” a Rogue in the back mutters.
Fracture sighs. “I don’t like showing them mercy.
I don’t think they deserve it. But a few do.
Sythius helped us escape Quris. Some may try to abuse our kindness, which is why we have always followed a strict kill-first policy.
But what if we have killed those who never wanted to be under Solcruean rule in the first place? ”
He is more virtuous than I am. I see helping Solcrue as a means to an end of the war. Fracture believes in second chances.
“You’re saying that shooting Solcrue vessels out of the stars is genocide and that we shouldn’t when we all know that is what they try to do to us,” Diesel remarks.
“If we can capture any Solcrue or CSP who will talk,” Savage cuts in, “maybe we’ll be able to sway them.
But they go to a cell first, testing, then consideration.
Chasm or I will confirm if they are to be put through remedial therapy and granted any level of freedom.
And they are not to set foot on the motherships, ours or theirs. ”
“Agreed,” Chasm says. “Roxi, walk us through what happened last time so we can assess vulnerabilities.”
I stuff my tablet in the chest of my armor and walk up to the table schematic. Fracture shifts between his feet like he wants to join me but doesn’t.
He really doesn’t like being away from me. I’m starting to wonder if his programming knows what I am, or if Fracture really is attracted to me and desperate to hang on to an interested woman since he and the others will never get their female Titans.
I don’t want a relationship out of convenience. But Fracture is more relatable than the others, for me. I feel like we might actually get one another.
The cosmos knows I need a second chance. I’m just not sure Fracture, or any of them, would respect my wishes after they find out what I am.
I return my focus to the day the Solcrue infiltrated.
“Garett told Paiya we had a remote delivery coming in. He sent our most timid CyberTech to the front gates.” I tap the location.
“She didn’t even get a look at them before they shot her down.
Garett had also sent a tech to Receiving in the hangar. ”
I tap the two zones and highlight them red. “Other accesses are in these regions.” Adding the tunnels and emergency hatches to the list, I draw paths to where the goods were taken at the time.
“CSP stood their ground on Level Four, but couldn’t lock it down.
After I saw what happened on the screen from Level Five, I rushed to Level Six and got the Techs and Creators into their cells, activated, and submerged into the planet.
But workers on levels one through three all died. Forces entered there.”
“What did they want?” Eon asks. “A lot can be salvaged from space.”
“Soiridium. The Creators. Information on psychocybernetics and the cyberpsyche.” I swipe fingers up from the bottom floor to the rooms following the paths the Titans took that day.
“I tried to reach Kraken. But he was caught as he exited the stairwell. He was decommissioned. I managed to lock down five and six from Level Four.”
“Bet the Solcrue didn’t like that,” Atomizer remarks.
“No. They chased me up to Level Two. I locked down every room I could. They caught me when I stopped at Garrett’s desk. I didn’t even get to swear at him. They’d already killed him.”
Menace grumbles. “So he wasn’t valuable to them after he let them in? Think of all the things he could access.”
I select the rooms where I remember critical assets. I match them up with what’s on my list for Aegis. “Solcrue do not have Brothers in Arms. Not even temporary. So they don’t care about single allies unless they’re in power.
“Now, the escape route they took led through this doorway in a tunnel. I managed to wrestle free of them and secure the facility before they dragged me down the tunnel. I was still in my work armor, so I stuffed my tablet inside and initiated my protection shell. They couldn’t break in, just drag me like luggage.
I managed to set off the defense rocket system, which shot down the other transport before I was out of range.
But I tried to take out the Skysprinter I was on, too. Signal didn’t go through.”
“You’ve worked this over a lot,” Savage remarks as I illuminate a new set of pathways, following each body via the video footage I’ve dissected over the years.
“What were you building there?” Chasm asks.
“We were sort of a dump of dying resistance parts: Titan, Human Augment, CSP, everything. The CyberGuard Star Base was off-grid. Deimos’ Rebel base endured regular attacks.
Humanity was dying off. There were fewer and fewer humans every day.
So we were set up to house many more hibernation pods.
We just never got any civilians to fill them.
Solcrue were taking women. Men were dying off in Omega Force or in mines and factories.
“Where are the chambers located in this facility?” Rogue Omen asks.
“Sub Level Six Bravo. But even if someone were to take my blood and make me say the words to open the door, they won’t get in. Not even Evo can hack that level of security.”
“Evo can hack anything,” Eon remarks.
“He can’t get through this one. He’s not human. Creators were adamant that it be sealed off. Only Xiphos can open that compartment if something happens to…me.”
“No one knows where it’s at. Evo only has a hint of an idea,” Eon says.
“We aren’t ready for it, anyway,” I say, not thinking.
Savage covertly shakes his head at me.
“What do you mean?” Fracture asks.
“CSP is still a major threat. That was what Evo reported. They must be removed from power and influence before Xiphos will reveal its location.”
“Is this your CSP download from Crezlith?” Aera asks, motioning to an idle program with memory files I’m still sorting through.
“Aera, you don’t need to get involved in this. Evo is trying to protect you by keeping things separate.” Eon is gentle with his Brother’s mate while Evo guards Crezlith on Ravenger III.
She opens up the grid of information. “But I know these places.”