⫸ [ TIME: 18:15 AETHELGARD STANDARD TIME ]
⫸ [ LOCATION: CRASH SITE PERIMETER ]
⫸ [ STATUS: THREAT IMMINENT ]
⫸ [ GROUND VIBRATION: MAGNITUDE 3.2 ]
The jungle was holding its breath.
The usual cacophony of screeching insects and rustling ferns had died. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of the Titan Ape approaching from the north. Each footfall was a seismic event. It did not just shake the ground. It rattled the teeth in Elian's skull.
Elian stood on the roof of the Horizon Seeker. He watched the sensor feed on his datapad.
A massive heat signature was burning a path through the magnetic fog. It was five kilometers away. It was closing at a leisurely pace.
[ Target-Alpha is tracking the vibrational frequency of the Reactor. ]
[ It perceives the ship as a territorial challenger or a high-density food source. ]
[ Probability of survival in direct combat: 0.00%. ]
"I know," Elian whispered. He gripped the railing. The metal bent under his fingers. He didn't feel it. "It eats Scuttlers for a snack. We are just ants."
Below him the Giants were panicking.
Grom was trying to hold the line. He shouted commands. He struck his shield. But the fear was primal. The Tribe had spent generations hiding from Titans. The idea of standing ground against one broke their conditioning. They dropped their pikes. They looked at the trees. They wanted to run.
Elian amplified his voice.
"STAND FAST."
The mechanical roar froze them.
"RUNNING IS DEATH. THE TITAN IS FASTER THAN YOU."
Elian jumped down from the fuselage. He landed with a heavy thud in the mud. He walked to Grom.
The Foreman looked down. His eyes were wide. "Iron-Star... Stone-God comes. We must hide in deep caves."
"No caves," Elian said. "We do not hide. We redirect."
He turned to A.R.C.
"The Titan hunts by sensing energy signatures and magnetic fields. Correct?"
[ Affirmative. It is a biological railgun. It senses electromagnetic gradients. ]
"The Reactor is the brightest light in the forest," Elian said. "We can't hide it. So we need to make a brighter light."
He pointed to the East. To the edge of the ravine where the cliff dropped off into the dense jungle below.
"We are going to build a flare."
⬡ ─── ⬡ ─── ⬡
⫸ [ STATUS: DECOY PROTOCOL ]
Elian ran to the Engineering Bay. He grabbed the sack of Crystalline Capacitors (Spirit Stones) he had looted from the Cultivator ship.
He poured them onto the workbench. There were fifty of them. Each one hummed with the potential energy of a small bomb.
"A.R.C., if I wire these in parallel and purposefully short-circuit the output loop without a regulator..."
[ You will create a runaway thermal runway. ]
[ The crystals will dump their entire energy capacity in a single massive electromagnetic pulse. ]
[ It will last approximately ten minutes before the crystals vaporize. ]
"Ten minutes is enough," Elian said. "It will look like a supernova to the Titan's senses."
He grabbed a maintenance drone. It was a small hover-unit designed to weld hull plates.
He duct-taped the crystals to the drone's chassis. He stripped the drone's battery wires and connected them to the crystal cluster. He jury-rigged a remote detonator from a comms relay.
"It is a suicide drone," Elian muttered.
He ran back outside. The tremors were getting stronger. Dust was falling from the canyon walls.
◤ THREAT UPDATE ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Distance: 2.5 Kilometers
⬢ Visual Contact: Possible in 4 minutes
⬢ Status: Aggressive
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Elian handed the drone to Grom.
"Can you throw?" Elian asked.
Grom looked at the small metal disc. "Throw?"
"Yes. Throw it as far as you can. Toward the East."
Grom hefted the drone. It weighed fifty pounds. To a Giant with 8.5G muscles it was a frisbee.
Grom spun. He coiled his massive body. He released.
The drone soared. It arced over the ravine wall. It disappeared into the fog to the East.
"A.R.C.," Elian said. "Remote pilot. Catch it before it hits the ground."
[ Connection established. Thrusters engaging. ]
The drone stabilized in the air two kilometers away. It hovered above the canopy.
"Wait for it," Elian said. He watched the radar.
The Titan was one kilometer away. He could hear the snapping of iron-bark trees now. He could see the fog swirling around a silhouette that blocked out the sky.
The Titan roared.
It was a sound of pure dominance. The Giants fell to their knees and covered their ears. Elian's helmet filtered the decibels but the vibration rattled his ribcage. He looked back at the ship. The blast shields on the cargo hold were rattling. Alara was in there.
"Now," Elian said. "Light it up."
[ Engaging Short-Circuit Protocol. ]
Two kilometers to the East a second sun was born.
The cluster of Spirit Stones detonated. They did not explode kinetically. They exploded electromagnetically. A massive sphere of white Aether-light expanded in the fog.
To the naked eye it was bright.
To the Titan which saw the world through magnetic fields it was blinding.
The Titan froze.
It turned its massive head toward the East. It looked away from the ship. It looked at the new energy source. The decoy signal was raw and chaotic and delicious.
The Titan grunted. It shifted its weight.
It took a step toward the East. Then another. It broke into a run. The ground shook as the mountain of muscle charged toward the suicide drone.
[ Target-Alpha is diverting. ]
[ The Lure is successful. ]
Elian let out a breath. He watched the red dot on the radar move away from the base.
"Detonate the drone," Elian ordered. "Don't let it find the crystals. Let it find ash."
[ Confirm. Overloading core. ]
In the distance a blue flash illuminated the clouds. The signal vanished.
The Titan roared in frustration. It tore up trees. It smashed the ground. But it was far away now. It was deep in the eastern jungle.
Elian slumped against the airlock door. He looked at his hands. He couldn't feel the cold metal. His thermal skin was numb.
"We bought another day," Elian said. "But that cost us fifty crystals. We cannot afford to do that again."
He looked at the Giants. They were slowly standing up. They looked at Elian with awe. He had chased away the Stone-God with a light in the sky.
"Grom," Elian said. "Get them back to work. Double shifts."
"Work?" Grom asked. "Stone-God is gone."
"The Stone-God is just an animal," Elian said. He turned to the dark interior of the ship. "The real enemy has ships. And they are coming back."
⬡ ─── ⬡ ─── ⬡
⫸ [ TIME: 20:00 AETHELGARD STANDARD TIME ]
⫸ [ LOCATION: HORIZON SEEKER – MED BAY ]
⫸ [ STATUS: SELF-DIAGNOSTIC ]
Elian sat on the edge of the operating table.
He held a scalpel.
He pressed the blade against his fingertip. He pushed.
The skin depressed but did not cut. He pushed harder.
Finally a thin line of blue blood appeared.
He didn't feel it.
[ Commander. Your tactile feedback is degrading faster than predicted. ]
[ The Thermal-Lattice is thickening. It is consuming the nerve endings in the dermis. ]
"I can't feel the temperature of the air," Elian said. "I can't feel the texture of the tool."
[ It is a necessary trade-off. Survival requires armor. ]
"I am forgetting what soft feels like," Elian whispered.
He stood up and walked to the mirror. The grey scales on his face were spreading. They covered his neck. They crept up his jawline.
He looked like a statue.
"A.R.C.," Elian said. "When we get the Cultivation data... when we learn how they refine their bodies..."
[ You wish to reverse the mutation? ]
"I wish to optimize it," Elian said. "I want the strength. But I want to look like her father when she wakes up. Not a monster."
[ Agreed. I have added "Aesthetic Reconfiguration" to the research queue. ]
[ Priority: Low. Survival comes first. ]
Elian nodded. He put the scalpel down.
"Survival first," he repeated.
He walked out of the Med Bay. He headed for the Fabricator. The night was young and he had an army to equip.
[END OF CHAPTER 14]