Gamma Nine (Book One) (17 page)

Xander was
next, his shotgun held at hip height, ready to pump clips of
automatic buckshot into anything that wasn’t part of the squad.
Rivers followed close behind, his modified shotgun resting on his
shoulder as he used his free hand to operate a mobile scanner.

Locke watched
the Lancers as they passed him, their rifle-mounted luminator beams
piercing the dark around the Titans. The Titan’s dark sight
nullified the use of external lights, but the Lancers were not so
lucky, they did not have access to such advanced technology.

Christian
wondered how frightening it must be to have only a few lights in
the nightmarish dark. Not knowing what lurked in the gloom outside
of your light beams would render most humans useless, frozen in
fear. But these men were different, these Lancers faced the dark,
and their nerves were holding, even Jay showed no fear, his hands
holding his weapon were solid, and his breathing constant. Good for
you, Christian thought to himself as Jay was the last of the
Lancers to pass the intersection. Christian’s focus returned to the
corridor he was aiming his Kicker down, seeing nothing up to where
the corridor made a sharp right and went on towards some other part
of the vessel.

Locke tapped
Nathan on the shoulder and did the same with Christian, indicating
for them to move up. Locke was on edge, more than the rest of his
squad, all of them knew that there would be trouble very soon, but
only Locke felt uneasy about what was coming. His heavily modified
Kicker was held at the ready, locked against his right shoulder as
he looked down both tunnels at the intersection, waiting for his
final squad member to pass the obvious ambush point.

“Relax
Captain,” Pyoter said, his giant machinegun held out in front of
him, it was a heavy beast of a weapon, but the big Titan held it as
if it was nothing, its thick barrel scanned left and right before
he stepped across the intersection. “We will have things to shoot
very soon I think.”

“I hope you are
wrong Pyoter. Fighting in these corridors will take a lot out of
us, and remember we have the Lancers with us.” Locke stepped in
front of Pyoter, allowing the giant to resume his duty as
rear-guard. Locke walked only a few steps in front of Pyoter,
silently looking at the ceiling grates of the corridor they were
moving down. The enemy always loved to burst through the ceiling at
the most inopportune times.

“Bridge up
ahead Captain, door is open to the corridor, no movement inside,”
Rivers said in Locke’s ear.

“Hold position.
Nathan take point with Xander, I am on your six in a few seconds.
We go in together, no splitting up. Is that clear?” His question
was directed at everyone, and everyone, the Wolves and Lancers,
responded as one with a curt acknowledgement.

The silence
bled out from the dark bridge of the Fateful Moment, its machines
and displays deactivated, the inky-black shadows leaking into the
lights cast by the Lancer’s luminators. Inside the bridge a pivotal
moment waited for the Titans and those accompanying them. It, the
moment and its bound slave, had been created specifically for this
mission, engineered to activate the trap the Wolves were now
walking through. Whatever it was, Locke could feel the danger
emanating from inside, he could sense the malice and danger in its
construction, slowly chipping away at their resolve with unsettling
ease.

The situation
had turned to shit faster than anyone could have imagined. At first
it was just the missing lab technician, and then the other systems
started to fail inside Gamma Facility. Scattered reports from other
parts of New Horizon all hinted at the same thing - planet-wide
sabotage. Transmissions from Beta Facility looked bleak, all
systems were destroyed, all defences disabled. That meant only one
thing; the doors of the Labyrinth were unlocked and open to
whatever was inside, not to mention the live specimens of the Beast
deep within other facilities.

Jessica
shivered at the thought, if only one of those monsters got out, the
entire population would be in danger. She hoped that the defence
force would contain the horror before it spread. It was probably
too late.

Planetary
Governor Rayels had ordered all personnel and civilians to stay
where they are until the source of the disruption could be tracked
down. Patrols of soldiers roamed the streets around the Titan
facilities and the Governor’s estate. Detachments of the armoured
battalions defended key locations throughout Santor, the capital
city of New Horizon. The other colonies and cities had to handle
the state of emergency on their own; it was every city for itself.
Orders were clear; break up riots and maintain order. Governor
Rayels ordered all defensive forces to hold the cities at all
costs, even though no-one knew what they were going to try and hold
the cities against.

Jessica knew
exactly what was going to happen, having seen the same thing happen
a few years ago. During a routine research mission to a nearby
sector, the same pattern of disasters had emerged, at first people
went missing, and then the defences went down. The monsters
followed soon after, building in numbers as more were infected.
Somehow an infected host had appeared on the surface of that doomed
planet. Nothing could be done, Jessica and the research crews in
orbit could only watch as the planet’s population tore itself
apart. Pilots and captains of the research fleet refused to send
any help down to the surface, in fear of infecting their own crew.
Her father was the expedition leader at the time, and even his
pleading could not sway the fearful minds of the ship captains.

A part of the
great man she called her father died that day; it killed his spirit
watching innocent people die, after that day he had consumed
himself with his work, work that eventually killed him mere years
later. Luckily Tristan was too young to remember the slow decay of
their father’s body and senses. His death marked the day Jessica
took up her father’s cause, and dedicated herself to the survival
of humankind. Something she was failing at miserably. But she still
had hope, ashamed as she was, she still believed in the Titans
fighting for their future. Her thoughts jumped to Christian, out
there between the stars, she wondered...

“Will you stop
daydreaming Jess! If you haven’t noticed, we have a situation
here,” Sam said next to her. He was holding on to his precious
display units in one hand, carrying a small calibre pistol in the
other. Like her he also knew what was going on, and what was going
to happen. “It looks clear, we should move, don’t you think?”

Tristan was
across the street, hidden in the doorway of a building, sneaking
glances around the corner of the building, watching for any
movement. Her grey cloak covered her head and bushy hair, hanging
down to her knees, making her almost invisible against the concrete
walls of the empty building. The little runt’s time on the streets
had taught her a few new things, she would have to ask her little
sister what she got into with the street gangs she hung out with
sooner or later.

Jessica
realized that her sky-blue hair made her an easy target, and shrunk
back behind the cover of the vehicle she and Sam were crouching
behind.

Soldiers moved
everywhere, looking for people that did not heed the words of the
governor, arresting and detaining anyone they found on the streets
of Santor.

Tristan
motioned to the pair hiding behind the vehicle, the path was clear
to the next block of habitation units.

“Move,” Jessica
said to Sam as both of them ran across to where the thirteen year
old was hiding. Sam was a clumsy fool, almost tripping and falling
face first on a flat piece of road, how that was even possible
Jessica did not know. But it was no surprise to her that Sam would
find the only crack in the road to trip on. She stretched out a
hand to help him maintain his balance as he stumbled.

“Thanks,” the
goggled engineer said, out of breath from running a few steps.
Fitness was obviously not his strongest attribute.

They reached
her sister and all three of them took off down the street towards
the next intersection. Neither Jessica nor the other two had
listened to the governor; instead they had chosen to head for the
habitation blocks to the south of Santor, their path easier now
that they were outside of the Titan facility compounds. It was a
bad idea to stay in the facility, Beta Facility would probably
become the epicentre of what was about to happen.

“Almost there,
it is on the other side of the next intersection,” Tristan said
over her shoulder as the three of them ran. Sam was lagging behind
slightly, but the sisters would not leave him behind.

If they could
make it to their destination they would have a chance at surviving
the coming storm. Within the habitation block they were heading for
was a hidden bunker, with food and supplies for weeks, if not
months.

There was only
one problem that they would have to overcome before they could find
safety there, and that would be to convince the owner of that
bunker to allow them entry.

No doubt the
son of a bitch had already locked himself inside, alone and safe.
Her only option would be to remind the man about what her father
did for him so many years ago.

She guessed
that it might not be enough for him to open the doors for them. But
she had to try, for her sister’s sake, and Sam’s. Above all, she
had to stay alive. Christian would be coming for her,
hopefully.

Nathan and
Xander were the first to enter the bridge of the Fateful Moment. As
soon as they set foot inside all of the vessel’s systems came
online. The Titan’s visors compensated instantly for the sudden
change of light level. The Lancers had to shield their eyes, the
sudden change momentarily blinding them. It took them a few extra
seconds, but when their vision cleared they saw what the Wolves
saw, staring back at them from the centre of the bridge.

The command
chair had been ripped out and hastily tossed away, and in its place
a device of boundless intelligence waited, bolted to the bridge’s
decking. It stared at the humans with indifference, cabling ran
from every console into its metal body, connecting to its rounded
base, granting it full control over the Fateful Moment. Metal
plating covered its oval-shaped body, if such a thing could have
one, streams of light cascaded down its sides, giving the
impression to onlookers that it was breathing.

Locke
recognized it almost instantly, and felt the dread pressing down on
him. If this thing was here, it meant that they were in much more
trouble than they could handle. The being, or thing, was an ancient
artificial intelligence, created centuries ago by ignorant men,
striving to break boundaries without considering the outcome.

These
Artificial Intelligence Engines were all deemed too dangerous
centuries ago, and all of them were destroyed, or so the stories
go. The first AIE was a leap in many fields of research and
development, just one of these faux brains could run and maintain
entire planets. From the trash collecting automatons up to the
giant mining machines, it could even control climate on certain
planets by activating and regulating ancient terraforming machines.
They were all-powerful and all-knowing. Too much control was given
to these beings, and over time they sought to think for us,
thinking what would be best for us, even orchestrating deaths of
entire colonies to help economies of neighbouring planets. That was
only on example of their planned genocide.

Every single
one of these AIEs broke free of the restraints set by their
creators, and in doing so caused many catastrophes in the name of
humankind. That is how they had justified their reasoning; the only
way to save humankind was to exterminate everyone they did not deem
necessary. Many battles were fought over these machines, millions
died centuries ago because of their subterfuge and plans for a
prosperous galaxy. They controlled the military and created false
campaigns to destroy colonies or entire planets, just to help
another sector with something as simple as its food supply. The war
was never against them; it was ordered by them and executed by
humankind.

After years of
war, military leaders started to question the streams of orders
they received and eventually the sources of these orders were
discovered.

The AIEs had
covered their tracks well, but they knew that the humans would
figure it out sooner or later, they cut off fleets from
communicating or confirming orders, sent divisions of soldiers to
sectors where they could not question the orders they were given.
Their meddling finally ended when they were all destroyed by the
leaders of that time, melted down and discarded into the void.

Or so everyone
had thought. One of them had survived.

Locke was about
to order his squad to open fire on it before it could act, but the
words died in his throat before he could speak.

The thing spoke
to them, its voice sounding like an excited teenager. “Hello!” it
said. “Welcome. Are you the ones I was told to wait for?”

Nathan stepped
closer and replied to the thing. “You were told to wait for
us?”

“Yes. Are you
them?”

“I don’t know,
who told you to wait?”

“My master told
me to wait for a group of fools. He told me to prepare a few
surprises for you. And I will not reveal my master’s name, so
please do not ask me. You will only make me angry.”

“You did all of
this?” Locke asked, stepping next to Nathan.

“Yes. My master
ordered it, I worked out all of the details,” it replied, its voice
still sounding excited.

“What
details?”

“Well, the
asteroid field and a few other things.”