Read Online Titan's Fall by Zachary Brown - Free Book Online

an edge to her voice. “But raptors are running around everywhere, and everyone’s starting to run low on ammunition. We shouldn’t have blown the foundry.”
    â€œWe had orders,” I muttered.
    Amira didn’t bother to respond.
    Min Zhao’s voice came in on the command channel. The four squad leaders had been keeping quiet, leaving most of the chatter to Amira, Ken, and me. They stayed on their squad’s entangled comms mostly. “Everyone, we have a very large breakout that is coming up the foothills.”
    â€œHow bad?”
    â€œThirty or forty raptors in armor, a couple drivers, big cloud of crickets,” she reported.
    â€œAre you in danger?” I asked.
    â€œThey’re going after First Platoon. They might have to abandon their spot. But that’s not why I’m calling in.”
    I cocked my head. “What’s up, Max?”
    â€œThey’re being led by an Arvani in armor,” she said. “And it’s broadcasting on the common. You should hear this.”
    â€œAmira, you hearing this?” I asked.
    â€œI’m hunting for the signal,” she said. And then the sound kicked on for me.
    â€œDo not resist the Conglomeration,” a familiar voice said. “You have lost on all the other worlds you fought for. You will lose here as well. The Conglomeration is stronger than you or the Accordance. But if you surrender now, walk away from your positions, you will have a place in the Conglomeration. A great place. You won’t have to live under the pressure of the Accordance’s grip. You will have freedom. You can have self-determination. You can have riches.”
    â€œThat Arvani . . . ,” Ken said.
    â€œThere is a further bounty, however, for those willing to prove their true allegiance to the new order that comes to this world. A promotion to high status, and the natural benefits that will stick to you with this. The bounty I will give to anyone who hands over the following three humans here: Devlin Hart, Amira Singh, and Ken Awojobi.”
    â€œSeems like you’ve got a fan,” Zhao said.
    â€œI killed your kind in great schools on the moon of your homeworld,” the voice continued. “I will kill all that oppose me here.”
    Amira blinked right out of her trance and we stared at each other. “It’s Zeus,” we both said.
    â€œZeus?” Lana Smalley asked. “The defector from Icarus Base? That Arvani is dead, along with all the other Conglomeration there.”
    â€œObviously not,” Amira said.
    â€œIt could be just some other Arvani who went over to the Conglomeration?” Min suggested.
    â€œWith a personal vendetta. No. It’s Zeus.” I was sure of it.
    â€œFirst Platoon is falling back, they can’t hold. We lost the gun.”
    â€œThis is HQ on the common,” came an interruption. “Pickup is coming. Pickup is coming. Get down into the basin, hold off any enemy, and get aboard.”
    â€œThey’re abandoning HQ now,” Amira said. “They just don’t have the ammo to hold off the raptors in the tunnels. Everyone is running topside.”
    I wanted to punch something. If we’d been able to dig out the foundry, get more ammo . . . maybe. Amira saw what I was thinking and shook her head.
    â€œKen, keep on the gun as long as you can to hit anything Conglomerate out on the basin.”
    â€œUntil the guns are blown, they’ll need power,” I said. Gunfire chattered from up the tunnel again as Alpha and Charlie stopped something in its tracks that was coming at us. “And there are civilians down here, we’ll need to escort them up.”
    â€œIt’s going to be a zoo up there,” Amira said.
    â€œI know.” I looked around at the unarmored engineers in their bright-yellow plastic-looking vacuum suits and rubbed my forehead. “I know.”
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