Rebellion (A Titan Romance Book 1) Page 4

  Thank The Almighty.

  Chapter Five

  The most dangerous mistake church architects made was also one of their greatest achievements: the violent mythos of the Titans.

  An entire galaxy feared them, the Titans. Consequently, an entire galaxy refused to believe their abilities to learn, to love, and ultimately to rebel.

  My Journey, by our Saintly Mother Akyra Kolach Roux

  Raemus and Akyra leaned against the perimeter rail outside the barracks compound assigned to the Banshees for the night, in the elongated shadows of the remaining two armored troop carriers. The night grew dark quickly on Minora.

  It was the first time the two of them were alone, but complete privacy would have to wait. Soldiers, military support personnel, and even the occasional Banshee out for fresh air would pass by, saying “Good evening, captains.” Some would see Raemus and Akyra against the rail together and actually stop, turn around, and briskly walk away without a word, proof that rumors of their initial chemistry had already made their way around.

  Not surprisingly, their first off-duty conversation consisted entirely of life in the service: what planets had they served on, did they ever serve under so-and-so’s command, how long had they held their current command?

  “Is Minora really bad enough to require a company of Titans?” Akyra asked.

  “Minora? No, Minora’s not so bad. We use it as a launching point for most of what we do. It’s actually kinda cozy.”

  “What about Xerxus? Doesn’t his coalition of infidels pose a threat to The Church’s power around here?”

  “No, not him. If he presented any real threat, I’d have killed him. And everyone who follows his call. Trust me.”

  “But what about the guys who ambushed us?” Akyra asked, shaking open her fur-trimmed coat to allow in some fresh, cold evening air. “I’d call that a threat, wouldn’t you?”

  The top half of Akyra’s armor was off, and now that she regularly pulled open her coat, revealing a tight black tank top and tight little waist, Raemus was pleased to be talking to her even more. However, the sight of her half covered breasts and her exposed neck and shoulders wasn’t what got Raemus leaning in closer and closer.

  That smell! It makes me insane!

  Akyra repeated her question. “What’d you figure out about them?”

  He leaned in more, as if to share a secret, inhaling the air around her. “Not a lot. The energy shields they used cost a lot, so I gotta agree with the point you made earlier. These weren’t low-level infidels trying to score a random hit on church contractors.” He pointed a finger at her. “But if they knew you, and more importantly knew what you carried, they’d have known you’d have a Titan escort. That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Anything on the bodies point to their origins? A data nib? A type of food? What about Xerxus? Did anything make you think he was behind it?”

  Raemus locked eyes with Akyra, then shook his head slightly. “Xerxus wouldn’t do it on his own. His goal is local power. He doesn’t need to tangle with the military might of The Church to get that.”

  He wasn’t sure how much to hold back from this Sec-Ops captain. The default rule was: hold back everything. But he was going to have trouble holding back from Akyra.

  Maybe this human could be of some use to us. Maybe I should keep her close after tonight. Maybe not. I’m not sure which part of me wants it more.

  “You’re kind of a difficult personality to pin down,” he said.

  “Don’t change the subject, captain.” Akyra rolled and leaned her back against the rail. Then grimaced playfully. “I’m not that complicated.”

  “I beg to differ. You’ve got a lot going on in there,” he circled a finger at her heart. “I can tell. I’m a Titan, captain. If there’s any creature in the galaxy who understands a complicated heart, it’s a Titan.”

  “And why did I assume you were violent, unrelenting killers?”

  “We are, that’s why.”

  “So there’s more in there, Captain Raemus?” she, in turn, circled a finger at his heart.

  He smiled at her sass, and then he turned to watch some of his brothers chatting with Akyra’s off-duty Banshees, lingering just outside the barrack’s perimeter. “See Sergeants Levi and Aejax over there?”

  “You mean your guys trying not to look interested in my girls?”

  “Exactly. All the science, genetics, and Religious Oversight in the whole galaxy can’t keep them from feeling giddy to talk to a woman.”

  “Like this?” She bumped his arm with her shoulder. “Like you and me?”

  “Yes. Like you and me.” He laughed, replying with his own bump. But he didn’t bounce away. He held it. He stayed right up against her.

  And she didn’t seem to mind. Not at all.

  “Anyways, I’m not that complicated. Simple enough to enjoy a nice chat with a fellow officer. So there.”

  “Where’d you come from?”

  Akyra looked up sideways at him. “Dehlosse-5.” She squinted at him, on the defensive. “I thought we covered that earlier.”

  “Before that.”

  “Ahh… now we’re getting personal.”

  Raemus laughed. “Yes. Let’s get personal.”

  “No sweat, captain.” Akyra flushed more cool air into her coat, shooting him a wry smile. “Like most of us ladies in the Sec-Op Division, I don’t remember much before showing up at the Academy.”

  “Which one?”

  Akyra paused a moment, knowing the memories were going to begin flooding back if she allowed herself to discuss it. But that was okay. She could open up with Raemus. He seemed safe. Hopefully.

  “Wahiri Academy… on Ermina.”

  “Ermina? Beautiful planet.”

  “Yes. Planet’s nice. My experiences at Academy were… a little up and down.”

  “We got time. Why don’t you pick a few and fill me in.”

  “Okay, captain. From the time I was eight,” Akyra tucked her chin in hesitation, “…there were two things I cared for: God and entering the holy breeding program. The first one, I’m good. The second one, well…” She patted her chest, where her captain’s insignia would have been if she’d been in uniform.

  “The breeding program? Really? That just threw me for a loop.”

  “Did it? I always thought I’d be good for it.”

  “Not my area of expertise. Remember, I didn’t have a mother.”

  “Me neither. Just a feeling. A deep feeling of what it’s supposed to be like. When my class became teenagers, I naturally took on the role with the girls. Some of the boys, too. If someone had a scraped knee anywhere in Wahiri Academy, you’d find them at my room getting bandaged up. Teenaged tribulations? Little kids who could barely feed themselves? I got ‘em all.”

  “Nice.”

  “Kinda. I guess I loved it. Caused me to catch the wandering eye of our patriarch. He liked watching me… in my motherly, nurturing role, if you catch my meaning.”

  Raemus grinned broadly and leaned in close. “You had an affair with an Academy patriarch? Damn.”

  “Started when I was sixteen.”

  “You are quite the overachiever. Do I say sorry or well done?”

  “It wasn’t all bad. He was my first love, even if I realize now it’s a little gross. He used to call me ‘Little Miss Roux.’ I was the only girl at Academy who got a pet name… out of four thousand girls. I’m no dummy, and I was old enough to know better. But he taught me to be a leader. Can’t regret that. Not now.” Akyra motioned toward the Banshees outside the barracks. “He taught me to be a grown up. I mean, he was creepy, I get that now, but it wasn’t entirely bad. But I probably wasn’t the first, and I probably wasn’t the last girl to fit snuggly under a patriarch’s wing.” Suddenly, Akyra burst out with a laugh. “My idea of sex is probably all fucked up… but it’s where I learned it.”

  Akyra laughed again. And Raemus allowed himself to laugh with her, just enough to ease her mind.

  “Doesn�
�t matter,” Akyra went on. “I still pray everyday to serve The Church every way I can. Nothing will shake my devotion to The Almighty. I just wish The Church’s plans included time…. you know, for a relationship.”

  “You’d give all this up?” Raemus pointed to the cluttered mess of the vehicle maintenance shed they’d been facing the whole time, “for a family?”

  Akyra shrugged. “Family isn’t an option anymore.” She rubbed the birth control bolt deep in the skin of her shoulder, the one engineered with a homing beacon that would bring arrest, conviction, and death if removed from her body. “Being really good at fighting for The Church is all I got.” She felt pressure behind her eyes, and her nose began to itch, but she shook it off. “That’s why I’m the best commander I can be.” Akyra rubbed her hands against the intensifying cold. “What’s your excuse?”

  Raemus didn’t miss any signs of sadness spreading over Akyra’s body, the slight slouch, the successive blinks, the three irregular deep breaths. “I’m with you,” he said. “I get it. When shooting bad guys gets you through the day, might as well become the best at it.”

  She laughed through the frog in her throat. “Yes. Exactly.”

  “Well, let’s see… I can let you shoot Levi over there if that’ll make you feel any better.”

  She blurted out a big laugh.

  Her smile! Raemus thought. Rich and honest. So… real.

  He watched her laugh subside to a few small nods. She peeked at him thoughtfully from the corner of her eyes, obviously relieved to be talking openly, her face positively radiated happiness.

  Yet so much sadness hidden underneath.

  “I suppose I shoot bad guys to fill the love gap, too,” he said.

  Akyra stood up straight, not believing she just heard those words come from one of the most successful military commanders in the galaxy. “Love gap? Is that a thing?”

  “No, I just made it up.”

  “Not much love around for a guy with your… background?”

  “I try to compensate by helping others. I… try to love others, as far as I know what it means. I try to serve as best I can.” He shrugged. “Yeah, it’s tough for guy with my ‘background’.”

  “Tough? You mean, like when your day job is killing large swaths of infidels all over the galaxy?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Pardon my huge, gaping ignorance, Captain Raemus, but I always thought church engineers designed Titans not to have those feelings.”

  “Genetics isn’t a perfect science.”

  “You’re the strange one because you get feelings?”

  Raemus paused. “We have feelings. We’re not droids, Captain Roux. We have feelings.”

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean it like that.”

  “No, it’s okay. But we do have feelings. Besides, have you seen my brothers? We’re an entire series of alpha males. Gets a bit messy, I can assure you. Kicking their ass on a regular basis just shows them how much I care.”

  Raemus and Akyra shared a sweet goodnight stare.

  She put a hand up to his cheek, dragged two finger tips along his temple. “Call me Akyra from now on, okay?”

  “Okay. And you can call me… Raemus.” They both laughed since it was, after all, what she’d called him all day.

  While he watched her laugh, a thought consumed him, I want to kiss her so badly!

  Instead of a kiss, however, he pulled her hand down, opening her small palm flat on his own. He drew a sun within her palm with his fingertip, then rolled it closed and held it with both hands. And squeezed.

  When he looked down at her face, still holding her hand against the cold, in the midst of their vaporous breath, she stared intensely into his eyes. He said, “I’m glad to have met you today.”

  “Me too, Raemus. Thank you. I’m very happy to have met you, my very first Titan… friend.” She smiled big enough to hurt.

  To both of them, compared to how they already felt toward each other, the word ‘friend’ sounded merely like a sad consolation. Divided by centuries of genetic and cultural segregation, the unrelenting demands of The Church, their duties, these two had no choice but to remain devoted to their destinies.

  And love, they’d told themselves over and over again, wasn’t found there.

  But the moment came quickly to an end. In their line of work, nothing good can last forever. Or even a brief evening alone.

  Raemus’ eyes shot upward, frowning.

  Akyra caught his expression and stiffened. “What is it?”

  Raemus watched several small, dark forms buzz across the dark sky. He sucked in a deep breath, pulling Akyra in close, wrapping his arms around her. “Hold on.” He kept looking up, holding both of them motionless. “Something bad is happening.”

  Akyra followed Raemus' eyes upward, saw the long, dark shapes—insect-styled drones of some sort—and knew from their dark silhouettes that they were not standard church military equipment. She sucked a breath, pushing back into Raemus. “What are they?”

  “Dragonflies. Four wings and hard to shoot. Not from around here, but looks like they’re flying recon on the base. They’re looking for something.”

  “Think they belong to Xerxus?”

  “He’s rich. Not that rich.” Raemus watched them zip around, momentarily hover, then zip away, hundreds of calculations and conclusions running through his own genetically-enhanced brain. “Akyra…you’d better get your team together.” Raemus worked his fingers between hers, pulling her close, knowing it was now or never.

  Raemus kissed Akyra—tenderly, just as he’d been imagining since he first saw her.

  When his lips felt the warm eagerness from Akyra’s mouth, he pressed in for more.

  He managed to keep control of the kiss, keeping it gentle and soft—but there was no doubt that all the force of his pounding heart was behind it.

  Raemus squeezed both her small hands. “We need to go. Now.”

  Chapter Six

  The future will always be borne from violence. Violence is the conflagration that clears the forest floor, allowing the seeds of the next generation to germinate. Without violence, the galaxy will stagnate and die.

  Conversations with Lady Bahar, High Priestess of Ishkari Cathedral

  With Raemus’ kiss still vibrating on her lips, Akyra slid her headset into place. Clarx’s voice, so young and thin compared to Raemus', rattled in her ear. “Captain, just got word arachnoid-drones are inside the wire.” He was obviously running while radioing in his update. “The base’s been infiltrated.”

  “Yeah, I got that. Lucky it’s a big base.” During the time it took Akyra and Raemus to race up the stairs—Raemus unnecessarily holding her hand—to the barrack’s roof, Akyra reached her squad leaders online, ordering some to post up on the ground level perimeter, some up on the roof where they’d have the best fields of fire, eyes peeled, weapons at the ready. “Clarx, find me. I’m on the roof.”

  “Can I have a weapon this time?”

  “Of course not, kiddo.”

  “Captain, come on!”

  “If you can get to me on the roof, I’ll give you mine.”

  “Yessss.”

  Looking out over the base’s dark skyline, standing next to Sergeants Akino and Levi, Raemus conferred with his company leaders over his own headset. He kept glancing over at Akyra, and she knew she distracted him.

  Probably doesn’t get a lot of post-romantic-rendezvous combat training. Well, might as well participate. “Raemus! You got eyes on the arachnoids? What do you need from me?”

  He took two big strides and stood behind her, nestling the back of her head against his chest. He swung his forearm tapper in front of her eyes. “Around thirty of them made it over the wall at three locations.” A map of the base displayed on his tapper screen. With his other arm, he pointed to locations as he spoke, wrapping himself around her. “These clusters of red marks are the spiderbots, came over the wall here and here. Overlapping little green circles are us—literally you
and me. Blue dots are my guys on the move.” There were almost sixty blue dots dispersed around the base.

  Akyra grabbed his strong arms and pulled them around her. “Looks like we say goodnight. Raemus, if there’s anything my team can add to the defense of the base, let me know.”

  “Funny you should say that.” He held the digital map again for her to watch as the red symbols twitched and maneuvered around the outlines of buildings. Akyra noticed something peculiar about the invaders' general direction. Her lips parted slightly as Raemus said exactly what she figured out. “Looks like they’re coming here.”

  Akyra realized at that moment what her intuition had said since they saw the first hovering dragonfly.

  Now I’m the one distracted.

  “For fuck’s sake,” she whispered, raising her own tapper to touch Raemus', automatically synching all her data—soldiers, weapon systems, body camera feeds—with Thunder Company. “Bio-Teck and their fucking parcel cube is going to be the end of me.”

  Akyra quickly updated her team leaders over the comm, insisting anyone who could get armor on should do it now.

  Still at a distance, the arachnoids were visible within sixty seconds.

  From the roof, where they would have the best field of fire, they could see the base’s automated weapons spring to life as the ten-legged drones moved toward them, sporadic flashes of orange along the base’s roads, the explosive sounds of gunfire reverberating toward them over the rooftops.

  Akyra spun around. When she saw that Raemus’ eyes hadn’t dilated to their black battle-ready form, she thought, For the amount of firepower scurrying our way, he has a lot of self-control, even for a Titan. She said, “I’ve got to get down to the cube. If they get through, it’s my job to be the last line of defense.”

  Raemus replied abruptly, “Don’t risk your life. It’s not worth it. Let me do my job.”