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

the compass gently and then picking up speed.
    â€œThere they go!” said a voice on the common channel. Zeus. “Your heroes. Your leaders. Your soldiers. The Accordance. They’ve left you all behind. Now what? I will tell you. Now you will learn what it is like to live as true, free humans.”
    â€œHe’s coming downhill,” Ken said.
    I could see the distant cloud Zeus and his team of raptors were kicking up as they raced down into the basin. A mile and a half away from us in the center of it all.
    â€œSurrender now,” Zeus shouted on the common channel. “Sit down with your hands folded and you will live to see a new day for your species. You will learn how the Conglomeration extends its welcome, even to its most bitter enemies like my own species. But remain standing and I will cut through you.”
    â€œAlways a charmer,” Amira said.
    An engineer in yellow tapped my armor. “What do we do now?” Dismont asked. I could see condensation beading the inside of his mask.
    â€œYou all have two choices,” I said. “Sit down and surrender, or run with us out into the plains. I don’t know how long your air will last.”
    â€œWhat happens if we surrender? We’ve seen the videos the Accordance plays. But you’re CPF. You’ve been on Saturn. What happens to us?”
    All we knew were the same Accordance pieces of propaganda.Dead planets. The Conglomeration’s reshaping entire species into functional forms for their own needs. But we didn’t know what happened to the people they captured and ruled over.
    The communications from places that fell went silent.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “I truly don’t know.”
    â€œThen we go with you,” Dismont said firmly.
    I looked at the dust cloud of the approaching Conglom­eration force. “That’s assuming we can even get out of here,” I said.

8
    We grabbed ammo from squads who were sitting down and folding their arms. “No judgments,” I shouted. “Just grab what you can.”
    Zeus was a mile away now, and the slow picking through surrendering people meant we weren’t moving away quickly enough. But I wanted everything we could get our hands on.
    â€œAre we sure none of the ships are coming back down for us?” Tony Chin asked.
    â€œIf they were only taking soldiers, something bad might be going down upstairs,” Amira said. “I’ve been trying to patch in, but there’s a lot of interference. That can’t be a good sign. . . .”
    One of the skyscraper-sized anti-orbital guns glowed red. Electricity sparked up its sides, gathering into a house-sized ball at the very tip, and then leapt into the sky.
    â€œI think shit’s all fucked up and shit,” Lana Smalley said.
    â€œHas anyone seen Shriek?” I asked. He would be able to provide some hints as to what might be happening. He’d seen more of this than any of us.
    â€œHe got on the jumpship,” Ken said.
    â€œOf course he did,” I said.
    â€œWe need to move,” Amira said. “Not many people standing anymore. We stick out.”
    â€œWhere are we going?” Dismont asked.
    A good question. “If the jumpships aren’t coming back down, and everything is up in the air—” I started.
    â€œNot everything,” Ken said.
    â€œCan anyone here repair a broken jumpship?” I asked on the common channel.
    One of the yellow vacuum suits in our midst raised a hand. “I’ve worked maintenance before getting promoted down to the power core and retrained. What’s broken?”
    â€œWe sucked crickets into an engine and then crashed,” Ken told him.
    â€œWe’ll need parts,” the engineer said.
    â€œAmira? Where can we find parts?” I asked.
    We were all moving as a group, trying to keep the yellow-­suited engineers in our midst. Amira broke away for a tunnel.