Chapter 10 Fracture
Roxi keeps to herself as we load onto the Fuck It, a scrapped-together ship built by Rogues.
Our brother teams, which include Vandal, Siphon, Sarge, Thyristor, Jackknife, and Capsule, are on Scythe, the stolen CSP ship that used to decommission us.
She muttered something about CSP learning how to abuse their power and then refused to get on that vessel. It is why our team is on the FI.
I think it’s better this way. A CSP ship, converted to the rebellion or not, will still be more predictable to any Solcrue or CSP who might be in the area or occupying the base.
The FI is a new creature engineered by my Rogue Brothers while they were stuck in the Iridithetium belt and bored out of their cyberpsyches. It can do things that stun even me.
Flashbomb is a capable pilot. I sit beside him in the copilot’s seat.
All Rogues can fly. But he seems exceptionally capable with the new Rogue vessel and all its extra features.
Seeing what my Brothers have built makes me certain they have more than the ability to follow orders and do as they’re told.
They are like Savage, who built his own companion, a one-wheeled, one-eyed, one-armed droid named CB.
We leave Aegis and Rogue Fleet behind with the Rebel and Relic ships awaiting the Scavenge order, hiding in a debris field no doubt from the cruiser Roxi blew up years ago.
It seems to have gathered in a dead space between the planets of this solar system.
Castor and Atomizer sit behind us with Armor and Paradox.
Savage chose the teams. I’m just glad we have our only CyberGuard Brother with us… with Roxi.
“Why can’t we just set up camp here?” Flashbomb asks as he takes us into the atmosphere of Planet Lencio. “I mean, look at that beautiful green world.”
I monitor navigation, keeping my eyes on the charts for unwanted vessels in the area. “Scans of the surface show no activity.”
“That’s good.” Roxi leans back in her seat with a look of dread in her eyes.
“But we have to stay mobile. We can’t be isolated to a planet, or we’ll be burdened with fortifying it.
And you do not have the numbers to stand a chance against thirteen thousand enemy ships.
They will annihilate us. It is why we must get in, take everything, and get out. ”
The closer we get to the surface, the more Roxi grips her armrests.
I stretch back from my seat to offer her a hand, where she is belted in behind me. She takes it and holds on tightly.
“Are you afraid Solcrue will come?” I ask her.
“I’m more scared of what I will find. And…
what I might not. By the time I was free, the Rebels I was with were too involved in staying alive back in the Solcrue system.
We didn't have the defense systems, fuel, or an opening to come out this far to see if there was anything left. I still would’ve had to come with them.
After years away, I just didn’t want to.
I still don’t. But your fleet can save all the good stuff and protect anyone left in hibernation. The Rebels didn’t have that.”
Roxi’s breathing quickens as we endure the reentry burn phase. “But if something happens to me, you will all be much worse off if you don’t know and don’t have these things.”
“Just tell me what you need. I’m staying with you,” I reply.
“We all are,” Paradox booms.
She suddenly sits up, releases my hand, and pats down all the weapons on her body. Roxi unbuckles and scrambles into the back.
“Roxi?”
Castor taps me with a swirling blue hand and trades out.
Castor>>Fracture: Go see what she’s up to.
I catch up with her in a back room. She has pulled open drawers of parts and wedged her feet between cabinets as the ship banks toward the planet.
“Hand me an igniter from that upper cabinet, please. Level Four, a MicroAggression.”
I find the blue cell she needs and hand it to her.
She snaps it into whatever she’s building, flips an array of parts over, latches several into place, and adds the action from a pulse rifle and a barrel from a shotgun with an unusual adapter I’ve not seen before.
Roxi engineers quickly and assembles even faster.
Then she draws a vial of blood from herself and slips it into an injection port, closes up the housing, and locks it with a thumbprint.
Flashbomb>>Fracture: We’re landing in five.
“Time to go,” I tell her.
She picks up her weapon, rips a strap out of a bin, and slings the gun over her shoulders. Grabbing her two handguns, she puffs out a breath. “Now I’m ready.”
I stay with her as she walks toward the rear ramp. Flashbomb sets us down in a cluster of trees and ignites a cloak modeled after Eon’s chameleon synthskin. When the ramp drops, she leads our group out and into a grassy meadow, surrounding what should be the base, only I can’t see anything.
Flashbomb and Castor give me wild looks like Roxi might have Void Delerium and all of this was for nothing.
We meet up with Supercharge’s crew as they unload from Scythe. Thrusters decelerate, and the grasses stir in the light breeze. Hills rise and fall in gently rolling clusters around us, covered in dense trees.
It is a lush world. I agree with Flashbomb; I want to stay. Part of me considers what it would be like to build that house on the nearby hill that Roxi wants. But I cannot give her the children she desires. We have yet to find a CyberTech who can make us fertile.
“What’s up, Sarge?” Castor asks.
Supercharge leads his team into formation beside ours. “What was wrong with Scythe?”
Castor shrugs. “Bad memory, maybe?”
I wish I knew, too. But Roxi didn’t want to talk about it.
She scans the area, circling us like she’s our protector. It’s a behavior that leaves us all a bit confused.
Flashbomb>>Local: What is she looking for?
Atomizer>>Local: I’m more concerned with feeling like we’re dinner.
Supercharge>>Local: I’ve never seen a human guard us like this.
Vandal>>Local: Does she really think she’s capable of protecting us? She is tiny and fragile.
Roxi stops and squints back at Vandal.
Every Brother over the telenet falls eerily silent.
“Stay close.” Roxi leads our group away from the meadow to an unusually flat area among trees.
Vandal>>Local: Okay, anyone get weird vibes from that moment?
I’ve seen Roxi’s eyes up close. I know she has Titan displays in her lenses.
Fracture>>Local: Maybe she can hear us. Guess you should be on your best behavior.
Supercharge>>Local: That should happen anyway…Vandal.
Vandal>>Local: Awe, come on. Where’s the fun in that?
I stop listening to my Brothers when Roxi checks something on her tablet that scans her face and eyes. A rumble beneath our boots makes us look around. Brothers cluster up tighter with the group. Grass gives way as a crack in the ground encircles us.
Roxi is completely calm as she looks up, eyes radiant with blue light, and a blue Titan shield ignites over our heads. The round platform lowers into the ground.
Vandal>>Fracture: Oh good. I was starting to think Atomizer was right for a change.
Atomizer>>Local: …
Castor>>Local: Don’t play into Vandal’s scheme. He’s just trying to piss you off.
Atomizer>>Local: That would require me to care what he thinks of me. But dull blades don’t intimidate me. They’re just abrasive, all noise and no cut.
Vandal>>Local: Ouch.
Most humans would call our conversations distracting, but over the telenet, they aren’t. We’re all still scanning, still ready with hands on our weapons, waiting for someone to try something as walls of stone rise around us.
Flashbomb>>Local: Anyone else think this is really cool?
Thyristor>>Local: I’ve never seen anything like it either.
We finally descend to a passageway with large doors, leading in three directions.
Roxi walks to three screens, one by each door, and lets each scan her biometrics. When the third is finished, she rejoins us, moves into the center of the platform, and places her fist over her heart in a Titan salute. “For freedom, I will die. For love…” Her eyes find mine. “I will endure.”
My ultromotor races as the platform lowers one more floor. The ceiling closes up and shimmers with a chameleon skin.
Vandal smirks as he tilts toward me.
Vandal>>Fracture: That motor is going to blow if it moves any faster.
It’s all too surreal. Roxi has access to a facility we’ve only dreamed of finding. And she associates me with…love?
That can’t be right.
She leaves the platform and stops outside a door. Roxi turns back to us as we unload. “Just so everyone is prepared, I was the last, taken before I could…do anything about the bodies.”
I now understand why she didn’t want to come here.
“Lockdown procedures siphon oxygen and try to preserve the environment, so in the event we’re able to return, we can assess this situation fully.” Roxi holsters her gun and closes up her helmet, then rests her hand on the door’s scanner. Her suit’s ping appears in my local area network.
The screen beneath her hand flashes like a heartbeat.
Rebel Roxi>>Local: I would appreciate it if you would let me see, video, and approve of each body before we move them to the platform and bury them in the meadow.
I hear a host of clickbacks.
Rebel Roxi>>Local: Thank you.
The doors hiss and crack open, letting in air.
Roxi leads us through an isolation chamber that scans every single one of us.
Blue lasers swivel over my body like the others.
Our Titan codes and names load on the screens around the room.
It isn’t until the scanners stop that the green lights start blinking over each of our profiles.
When we’re all cleared, the internal lock opens.
Roxi doesn’t enter. She looks down at the woman slumped in the corner by the control panel, a bullet through her chest. Swaying between her feet, Roxi shakes her head and looks away.
I ease up beside her and rest a hand to her back.
Roxi speaks to us over her suit’s communicator. “I should’ve been able to stop them. To see it coming. Something.”
My Brothers peer inside at the hallway filled with downed CyberTechs and CSP personnel. None of them cross Roxi’s position. They all wait, like we are trained to do.
“You could not know what was on the mind of Garett,” Vandal remarks.
She clenches her teeth, inhales, and glares up at me. “I couldn’t prove a gut feeling the way I wanted, and that's not enough to justify security changes.”
Lifting her tablet, Roxi scans the young woman’s body, circling into the hallway. Her visor dances with images like her eyes are projecting them inside her helmet.
“What the fuck?” Castor mutters. “What is she?”
I shrug. “I thought she was human. Augmented.”
Castor doesn’t look convinced.
Castor>>Fracture: That’s Holo’s skill. She also has pilot tracework in her fingers.
Fracture>>Castor: Hydramidium bones too. I think Sin tried to make her into a Titan like her brother did with Navi.
Roxi takes the things from the woman’s pockets, but leaves her necklace, then steps back. Her shoulders visibly rise and fall. “Okay, someone can take her back to the platform. We will bury them in the meadow. Just…stack them up for now.”
Castor volunteers. He collects the woman’s stiff body and walks out. The deeper we move in the base, the colder it gets. And I think the lockdown system also chilled the air to preserve evidence.
Down the hall, we encounter fallen CSP soldiers, all men, a male CyberTech, and a female in gray coveralls. Roxi videos, scans, and searches their bodies but leaves jewelry like necklaces, earrings, and metal bands around their fingers. Then we take turns carrying them to the platform.
The passages are covered in blast marks as we make our way deeper into the base. It is filled with broken glass screens and bloodied schematic design tables. The overhead lights are bright and switch on as we enter each area, ensuring we don’t miss witnessing the devastation.
We pass lab stations and translucent white cylindrical chambers that hold an eerie familiarity. Roxi glances back at us. “Is everyone still good?”
She gets a host of clickbacks but doesn’t wince at the racket like most humans. Then she kneels by a Titan with blue-gray synth skin and multiple arms. His body is frayed open in the chest, exposing long tentacle shapes in his husk.
Roxi asks for help rolling him over, so I get down and oblige. Kraken is a heavy unit.
She hangs her head as she inspects his injury.
“Is the core damaged? I ask.
“His ultromotor is shot.”
“That’s not what I asked, Roxi.”
She squints at me, then lifts his armored top and feels around. “Backup is intact.”
“Rhee, Diesel’s mate, can fix him. She builds ultromotors now.”
“You’re kidding. The Kilthrian?” Roxi looks away for a moment. “You think he’s salvageable?”
“Just needs a power generation unit. Kind of Diesel’s thing. They’re an effective team. I wager they can get this Brother back online.”
Roxi rests a hand on the side of his face. “He gave his life for mine. The last to die.”
“Take him?” I ask.
“Okay. The others too, just in case.”
Paradox lumbers over. “I will carry him.”
“Thank you, Paradox.” Roxi motions into the room where Solcrue bodies litter the desks and the floor. Four more Titans are among them. “This is where I stopped the Venom squadron.”
“You?” Flashbomb asks in shock.
I’m less surprised after watching Roxi build the weapon she did. If my assessment is correct, she built a more mobile version of the blue bomb, the Solcruean vaporizing weapon.
Roxi looks over at him. “Yes. But not without the sacrifices of my… Of this Titan squad.”
So Roxi was in charge of a Titan squad? How was she not considered in our chain of command?
Something isn’t quite adding up, and I’m back to doubting who she really is. But I know, no matter what, I will follow her to the end. I feel it in my core. Every nano machine in my body responds to her.
I just hope I don’t end up like Kraken.