Titan Fleet: The Robur Read online

  Titan Fleet:

  The Robur

  By

  Jason J Black

  Content copyright © 2016 by Jason J Black

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted at any time or by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior, written permission of the author.

  The right of Jason James Black to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  June 2016

  ISBN-13: 978-1533579126

  ISBN-10: 1533579121

  Front cover image courtesy of

  Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my Mum, Jean Irene Beatrice Mary Black, who sadly passed on 22 August 2013.

  Mum always inspired me to be happy as she always was. She had such a zest for life and was always willing to care for and help others. She told me I could achieve anything I put my mind to, and to never give up.

  This is for you Mum. For always being there for me, for encouraging me, for making me the man I am, by your teachings and respect and love for others.

  The Whispering Wind

  I sit here watching the trees blow

  Back and forth in the whispering wind

  Today is moving slowly and is so silent

  The breeze pushes on my face and cools my brow

  And in this moment life is how it should be

  Still and quiet and good

  The flowers blow to the left of me

  And the bees still buzz around unaffected by the wind

  which to them must be a challenge

  A butterfly floats by dancing along in the air to the tune of happiness

  I watch it as it lands on the stone wall by me to rest

  It does not take me long to think of you, Mum

  We are all sharing the whispering wind together

  Noticing the little things in the world makes you feel again

  I will always take a moment to stop in my day

  To feel the love and hope the world has to offer.

  Jason J Black

  Acknowledgments

  I want to thank my amazing wife, Sara, without whose help, patience and encouragement I would not be able to achieve my dream of writing novels.

  Thank you for the early morning brainstorming breakfasts, for the continuous supply of Earl Grey tea, and for the endless hours of editing and hard work.

  Thank you also for the next deadline and for pushing me to work harder to achieve my dreams.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Glossary

  About the Author

  Thank You

  Chapter One

  Eyes open and blurred with grit, the salty tears trying to wash themselves out, Megan finds herself still sat in her chair, but the chair has been ripped from its bolts and she is now led on her side near the bridge doors. There is debris all around her and as she clears one eye with her finger, the small stones of grit now not irritating her view, she can see that trees have pierced their way through the metal hull and now have become at home in the ship. Megan unclips her seat belt and pushes her body up straight to a seating position, taking a few moments to check herself for injuries. On doing this, she finds a few large cuts that have been bleeding, which she needs dressings for, but all in all she is in good condition and most importantly, alive. Her next few moments are spent cleaning her other eye and then Megan is able to stand up.

  The bridge was once an elegant place to be, with plush seats and state of the art computers and soft flooring, but now it was reduced to nothing more than a useless metal mess. Looking around the room Megan notices that Talia and the Gulmeds were unconscious and as she navigates through the debris and snapping branches to clear a path, she also notices that Titch is sparking in another corner of the bridge and seems motionless.

  Megan reaches Talia first and checks her pulse, pressing down on her neck with two blood stained fingers and finding a strong thumping pulse, which she is relieved to find; she did not want to be stranded on a planet without another human being around. Talia had a head wound and a small piece of tree stuck firmly in her leg just below her knee. Megan manages to pull her out from under a steel frame and drags her over to the bridge door, where it was less tangled with tree. Megan’s space suit was dented and torn; the metal armour had saved her life, but was also stopping her from breathing very well now, due to the metal being crushed on the chest panel, but she had to get to the Gulmeds next. She looked down to activate her gauntlet to perhaps blast away part of the tree that was blocking the way, but her suit’s power was depleted due to a core rupture, which in itself could have killed Megan outright. She was indeed lucky this day. Megan manages to climb over the enormous trunk of a tree to find the Gulmeds led on the floor next to each other holding hands and breathing. The weight of her suit is bearing heavy on all of her muscles.

  “Hey you two, you ok?” Megan asks in a gentle voice as she peers down, wondering if they were going to answer, but no reply passes their purple lips. Megan was alone, despite her friends being alive and she knew she had to make the best of the situation, so she spent some time moving the Gulmeds over to Talia, which was fairly easy as the Gulmeds’ skinny build helped in the carrying part. She had even slowly dragged Titch over too, but he was far heavier than the others, and now they all were together again so to speak.

  Megan took time to dress wounds and then rest, as she is o
ut of breath from all the carrying, dragging and lifting. It reminded her of a good workout at her local gym. Megan decides that it is too much to carry all this weight around, now that the core on her suit was not powering motors and systems, although she would miss its defence and general usefulness, the tech was useless now. The suit used to keep her so warm, she thought, as she removed the final piece and felt the cold biting air, that blew in softly through the giant opening now at the front of the ship, and nibbled at her goose-bumped flesh. She strode over to the gaping hole and grabbing hold of a hanging branch to steady herself, she looked out at her new view.

  There was a drop of hundreds of feet downwards. It must be where the front of the ship now rested, she thought. A few more feet and the bridge would probably have joined it. It looked like they had smashed through part of a forest and slid to the edge of a cliff, before grinding to a halt. They were very lucky to be alive with all that was stacked against them. At least she could breathe now and the air seemed so clean compared to Foloss.

  Megan leaned out further, not fearing the drop, and knowing that the strong tree would not let her down. The sky was an icy blue with red misty clouds floating around and some odd shaped creatures flew in the air, shrieking at each other as they did battle in the sky. Megan could see mountain tops in the distance and forest all around her. There were some clearings with what looked like water in them, and as she scanned with her eyes, she could see a strange structure to the east of them. It had tall spires, but that was all she could make out with the naked eye. If her suit had been working she could have used her helmets viewer to see it better.

  Megan returns to the others and tries to wake them once more, but to no avail. Megan decides to leave the others a message, while she goes to investigate the rest of the damage, but there was no power now and no way of recording a voice or image, so she picks up a sharp piece of metal and begins to scratch on the bridge doors and after a few moments she decides to assess the situation around them to see what was left of the ship and what they could use to make life easier for them.

  The first hurdle was to get the large bridge doors open, but looking around, Megan could see that there was nothing big enough to prise the doors apart with, so the only thing she could do was to climb out through the hole in the front of the ship and use the trees to make her way around the outside of the ship, but as Megan clambered over the scaly bark out into the open, she could hear the sounds of other creatures calling to one another. It was a very noisy planet, full of unknown things that could potentially kill them. More important things were spinning around in Megan’s head, along with fear and regret, but she decides to stay positive as this would see her through. She managed to heave herself over a large branch and uses a vertical branch to climb up onto the top of the ship. This was an amazing feeling, she had never climbed a tree before, she had only read about them in the history books. She felt happy and excited to be doing this, as it was a dream come true in many ways. Once she reached the top of the tree she was able to step onto the top of the ship and see that most of the rear was now gone. The large mechanical arm was still on top, but looking past that, she could see the mass destruction that the ship has left in its wake.

  There was a huge crater line through the trees, which were still on fire in some places, where the ship had come crashing down. The soil was dark and scorched. Metal parts lay all around, some still burning; a scene of total devastation. Smoke rose up into the air and the smell of hydraulic oil filled Megan’s nostrils, the clean air she had been enjoying was now toxic again.

  As she looked around, she began to notice a large flying creature begin its deadly swoop towards its prey, only the creature’s eyes were fixed on Megan; an easy meal on top of the ship.

  Megan notices its large shadow, as she turns to see the winged monster heading down towards her, its four wings flapping hard to gain speed and its arms at the ready to grab her, but as it grew closer, Megan could not help but see the creature’s beauty. It was crimson in colour with black stripes, a great camouflage hiding way up in the red clouds until it wanted its meal, but seeing the large jaw and razor sharp teeth was a major jerk back to reality and Megan manages to roll out of the way from the first attack, almost falling off the side of the ship.

  Megan hurries to the rear of the ship where she slides down the warm metal girder on her bum to the ground, and with her feet firmly on the floor, she turns and enters the rear of the ship to see what is left to get her out of this jam. She enters on the second floor of the ship, as the floor below which had been the loading bay was totally gone. She enters the living area, which had been totally trashed in the crash landing, but the canteen was still intact. The dead bodies from the battle before lie in pools of blood here and there, and she quickly looks around to make sure nothing had got in from the outside. Food stuff lay on the floor like confetti and the contents of the cupboards had emptied out everywhere. It was a total mess and the food was not fit now to eat.

  Megan notices the body of Captain Miles on the floor beside her. She was disappointed in him. She always thought a good captain would embrace life and protect it, but here lay a terrible, evil man, power mad and self-centred, and for what, money; but he got his just ending and she would bury him along with the other crew when she got the chance. Megan searches the drawers for weapons and finds two large kitchen knives. Just as she grips them in her hands, the creature lands outside and begins to stomp its way in through the opening at the back of the ship, crashing through metal and getting its wings caught up in wiring.

  This was Megan’s best chance to attack. At least he could not fly off with her, she thought as she walked into the creature’s line of sight, holding the two knives up, ready to slice at the creature. The creature had to lower its head to get inside the ship and must have stood over fifteen feet tall on its rear legs. Megan began her assault on the creature, believing that she should attack first taking the creature off guard, she knew if she gave ground she would lose. She sprints into action with such speed it takes the creature unawares. To the creature it was unexpected, things always ran or flew away from it, nothing had ever charged at it before.

  Megan attacks one of the creature’s legs. It looked like a good idea as its legs were thin, and she sliced at its heels as she slide under its belly and regaining her feet at the rear of the giant, she slices at the tail and then at the wings. The monster cries out in pain, but is now angered with immense fury. It whips at Megan with its tail, which hits her into the wall and then a second later, hits her with one of its wings, knocking her to the floor, while it fights the wires and the ship to turn back around.

  Megan lies on the floor hurt. The air had been smashed out of her lungs, breaking ribs in the process. Gasping, Megan tries to gain control of her body, but gulps for air. Megan regrets taking off her suit now, but it would have just slowed her down anyway she thinks, as a gulp of air fills her lungs again. She stands once more and notices the creature becoming more and more tangled in wires the angrier it got, but now it had managed to turn around and walk towards her slowly, but with determination. Megan’s back was facing outside and the creature was forcing her outside again, but all was not lost. Despite the creature’s immense strength, it was slower now and Megan began to put more and more wires in its path to entangle it. There was a small pool of black liquid outside, which had leaked from a part of the ship that was now severed from the bridge. Megan, noticing this, backs up to check what it is. She dips a finger in the liquid, all the while keeping her eyes on the advancing monster. She sniffs at the liquid, and to her joy found that it was core fluid and very flammable. She may not have a gauntlet to blast the creature to bits, but perhaps she could burn it. There were plenty of parts on fire around to grab hold of and so her plan was set. The creature’s head appeared first out of the ship looking for Megan, its wings totally ensnared with wires and metal chunks of ship. Even chairs and kitchen equipment are entangled at the creature’s sides. The squawking mass began to wal
k towards her, Megan totally fixed on it and it on her. Drool dripped from the monsters mouth, hungry for flesh and blood. The creature drew closer to Megan’s trap. She had now managed to find a burning branch, but as the creature’s breath and drool hit the top of her head, freezing her mind, she slips over in the fluid and covers herself in it too. The branch is quickly thrown out of the way, just as the creature frees an arm and grabs Megan, lifting her off her feet and her head travels towards the creature’s pungent smelling mouth of sharp teeth, bearing down on her like a portcullis. Its plan was simple, eat first, and free itself after. There was nothing Megan could do. She had difficulty in getting enough air into her lungs once again, as the creature gripped tighter and tighter. Suddenly the creature’s head pulls back, its razor sharp teeth seem to recede again now, as it let go of Megan in sheer pain. The creature had not noticed Talia limping behind it. Her suit was not damaged much, apart from her leg armour, and she had blasted it in the centre of its back several times and was now using her mechanical chainsaw to carve the creature like chicken. The saw found the creatures heart, but in the process it cuts the dangling wires and so the creature is free again. It turns, but it also slips in the fluid, crying and screeching as it tries to get free of the oily soup. Megan is free from the area and grabs the fiery branch and launches it up into the air, and it falls onto the creature, igniting it in a ball of flames that reaches up into the air like a giant mushroom. The other creatures in the air move quickly out of the way.

  Megan sweeps back her oiled hair and clears her face. She looks at Talia in astonishment. “You’re ok. Thank you. I thought I was a gone for a moment there.”

  The two women stride towards each other, glad the other is alive. Megan hesitates a few seconds, she does not want Talia to get covered in this glop, but Talia moves in for a hug.