Kronos lounged on one of the comfortable nano fiber couches in the main cabin of the Kytarrus. Aegis had already withdrawn her protection and so he relaxed in just his biosuit. In one hand he held a globe full of glowing blue liquid. Aegis had helpfully informed him that it was a type of liquor distilled on Enceladus. It tasted like summer and had a kick that could peel paint. Despite the harshness of the alcohol he enjoyed the taste.

[You know that won’t cause inebriation, right?] Aegis sounded like a scolding mother.

Kronos frowned. He hadn’t expected to get drunk, but he wanted to take the edge off of his last fight. There were so many things going on, that he thought he could take the five minutes to have a drink before Astra took him to her people.

[Why not?], he asked grumpily.

[Because your metabolism is assisted by my own processes. It makes little sense to allow my charge to become inebriated. It’s a danger we can’t afford.]

[Aegis, if I want to have a damn drink, that’s what I’m going to do.]

[You can drink as much as you want. I am merely informing you that the consumption of such poison will not affect your mental state.]

Kronos snarled and then pelted the drink across the room. It shattered against the bulked and left a blue splatter of wasted alcohol.

Astra walked in right as it shattered and stared at the remains of the globe. She raised her eyebrows.

“You’re not supposed to be able to break those,” she dryly noted.

[Activating custodian droid.]

Kronos and Astra watched as a receptacle in the bulkhead opened and a small squarish droid rolled out on tiny tracks. It began to industriously clean up the spill and Kronos felt even more annoyed at its presence. When the droid removed every trace of his mess, it disappeared into its home and the receptacle closed once more.

Astra came and sat next to him.

“You alright, cowboy?”

Kronos took his time answering. He studied the dark grey fibers of his biosuit in apparent fascination while he struggled to pin down why he was annoyed.

“No,” he finally decided.

“Wanna talk about it?” The captain asked.

The titan sighed and put his hands behind his head. The couch subtly shifted until he was just as comfortable in his new position as his last. He looked up and studied the Zodiac Wheel as it spun quietly through space.

“I didn’t ask for this,” he said quietly. “On my planet, I was fighting to protect my people. I was fighting aberrations of humanity. It wasn’t complicated. It was kill or be killed and I was good at it. Fighting the Empire is something different.”

Astra nodded before copying his pose.

“I suppose that’s partly true, but if I’m being honest, the empire doesn’t seem much different from your enemies back on Hod.”

Kronos looked over at Astra while she still gazed into the stars above. “Why do you say that?”

“Because you’re still fighting for your family. You’re still fighting for your people. The only difference is the scope. Now there are other people that want your help as well. Helping them helps your family. It helps families like yours all over the solar system.”

“That’s the part I didn’t ask for.”

Astra nodded, conceding the point. “True, but you have the ability to help people. It gives you a responsibility beyond that of a normal person. Do you know what causes evil?”

“Bad people?” The titan offered.

“No, not really.” Astra mused. “There are always going to be bad people. They usually commit the acts they do because they can reason their way through it.”

She pointed a finger at the station above them. “Take the Empire for example. They killed every man, woman, and child on the Zodiac because they felt like their presence threatened the stability of the empire at large. They weighed the lives of thousands against the demands of billions.”

She dropped her hand and turned to meet the titan’s gaze. “But imagine for a second that Othrys had the ability to stop the crimes that took place. Evil would’ve been stopped.”

“But they weren’t here,” Kronos said sadly. “So what’s the point?”

“The point is that evil occurred because good people let it.”

Astra laid a hand on Kronos’ shoulder. “I know you’re a good person. You knew what the Empire was doing was wrong. If you didn’t care, then when we saved your family you would still want to work for the Empire.”

Kronos shrugged. “Orthys still has the serum that’s keeping me here.”

“You didn’t know that,” Astra replied. “You did the right thing because that was already in you. No amount of serum would change that.”

She sighed, “the truth is that you were born with gifts that I couldn’t imagine. Those gifts mean you have a responsibility to use them for good.”

She stared up at the Zodiac again. “You have a responsibility to prevent evil from happening. Not just a responsibility to your family or your people, but everyone you have the power to protect.”

Kronos pondered the woman’s words. On Hod he had almost single-handedly kept the daima from the shores of Aetolos. On the Zodiac he had dismantled the rebels and Guards alike with and without powered armor. If he had Aegis when this started, then he could’ve saved that little girl. He could’ve saved Maia and all the other citizens of the empire that we’re just trying to get by with the little means they had.

He had seen when his powers were misused. He remembered Barbarus, a being twisted by his own selfish pursuits and intent on carving out his own fiefdom while the rest of the world burned. He could walk away from Othrys, sure. But he wasn’t sure what kind of person that would make him. Would he become a Barbarus? A story passed from generation to generation about the might of a god-touched unchecked. Or could he become something more?

[You are already something more than that twisted creature. You are a Titan and I am your Aegis. We will protect those that need protecting and stomp out any evil that dare cross our path.]

Aegis sounded resolute. She sounded confident in the path that lay before them. Kronos drew upon the confidence and forged his mind with that goal in mind.

They’re right, he realized.

“I lost people I cared about on the Zodiac,” he said to Astra. “I won’t let it happen again.”

Astra smiled and he had to admit it was stunning. It reminded him of the sun peeking from behind the clouds. It showered him in its warmth.

“Good, now let’s get the fuck out of here.”

He grinned back and joined the captain as she rose to her feet. She made her way to the cockpit and Kronos still saw the signs of her injuries. She didn’t walk with the same swagger and her steps were painfully slow. It reminded him of the gulf that existed between them. It was more than ideology. He had taken more shots than her. Hell, he had tanked explosions that would’ve fried the woman. Yet, he persisted. He was more than human now. He realized for the first time what it truly meant to be a Titan.

He helped her to the cockpit and she gave him a sheepish look in thanks. When they were ensconced within the controls of the Kytarrus she slid into the pilot chair with a sign of relief. Kronos watched in shock as the chair molded around her frame and small metal tendrils extended from the chair and embedded themselves into her temples.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “Othryrian ships are something else. Kind of like Aegis, they form something of a symbiotic pairing with their pilot. I have the implants necessary to control it this way.”

[This ship is nothing like me,] Aegis savagely interjected.

Kronos chuckled and Astra tilted her head at him.

“Don’t worry. It’s just Aegis vehemently disagrees with your characterization.”

Astra laughed at that. “She would.”

The pilot rested her hands on the palm of the chair and looked out the viewscreen. Kronos took the co-pilot seat and was somewhat surprised to find that his chair didn’t link with him.

[It doesn’t need to. I’m already natively integrated with the ship systems. If you wanted me to, I could wrest away the controls and run this ship far more efficiently than a human pilot.]

[I don’t think that’ll be necessary.] Kronos told her with a measure of awe. He didn’t realize that Aegis was so powerful. If he were lucky, he’d never have to hack into another piece of technology himself. It was his most hated subject during his training with the Empire.

He felt the ship disengage from its soft dock. He tapped into the ships sensors and watched as it drifted into space like a vestigial appendage. He turned to Astra.

“Are we going FTL?” He wondered.

“No, if we fire up our Alcubierre drives this close to another structure, we’ll rip it apart. Also, it leaves a signature that can be traced by Imperial vessels.”

He watched as she tapped her fingers on her armrest and then the lights dimmed inside of the ship.

“I’m initializing our cloak. We have an ablative stealth coating that will eat any sensors in addition to active camouflage. If we coast at sublight speeds, we’ll still make it to our destination in close to twenty minutes.”

Kronos frowned. “We’re not running very far then.”

He did the math in his head and realized where they might be going.

“Jupiter?”

Astra smiled. “Yeah, that’s right. We’re not going to the planet, but we’re heading into its orbit.”

She gave him a look. “Did Aegis calculate that for you?”

Kronos’ eyes widened. “No,” he said softly. “I did it in my head.”

He whistled slowly under his breath. He didn’t realize he could do something like that.

[Aegis, did you do that math for me?] He wondered at the scope of influence the AI had on his mind.

[No, Kronos. The Imperials gave you neural enhancements. However, they weren’t active until I absorbed them and put them to better use.]

“Wow,” Astra commented. “I didn’t expect that from you.”

“I didn’t either,” the titan agreed. “So where are we actually going?”

“It’s better if you see it for yourself. It’s kind of hard to believe.”

Kronos decided to spend the time productively. He logged into the I-net via a proxy created by Aegis. He was starting to realize that her name meant protection from anything. He could surf Imperial communications with ease. He even had the ability to rifle through the systems STRATNET to see if the Imps had discovered the Zodiac’s lamentable condition. He was pleased to see that they were still undetected. He knew they wouldn’t remain that way for long, but every second were more meters between him and his pursuit.

Once he had satisfied his curiosity regarding the Empire, he turned his attention to Titan. It was strange to think of the moon as his true home. Logically, he realized that Titan was his true home. He was something of a refugee on Hod. A distant son returning to his origins from an ancient time and place. He wanted to know more about his history and his far flung people if he hoped to help save them from the Empire. To that end, he scoured the I-net for all the information regarding Othrys and their subsidiary territories of Titan and Enceladus.

He had just gotten a basic picture of his allies when Astra interrupted him.

“We’re here,” she said before smiling.

Kronos felt his heart clench with a measure of anxiety. He had spent more time than he realized in his research. He looked up and peered through the view screen. All he saw was the dark expanse of space with Jupiter rotating in the far distance like a copper colored marble. Thinking he must be missing something, he patched into the ship sensors and used them to scan the space around him. They turned up nothing but space dust and radiation.

He frowned. “Where is here?”

Astra pointed her hands toward the view screen like she was revealing a magic trick.

“Surprise!”

At her words, the space in front of them warped. A flash of cerulean light lit up the starry field as a veil was removed from their destination.

A massive umbral space station filled the view screen. It’s sheer size dwarfed the Zodiac Wheel and made it look like a child’s toy in comparison. The core of the station was a gigantic sphere. From the outside, it was difficult to imagine how many souls were aboard, but going on sheer size alone, he guessed it was many multiples of the last station he had been aboard.

Kronos could see small running lights that guided ships into vertical stripes of colossal hangars that marred the perfect sphere. Tiny silhouettes of shuttles and fighters flitted about the station like a cloud of fireflies. Their minuscule frames only highlighting that vast scale of the overall station. The center of the floating fortress was the most recognizable part of it.

Thick cylindrical pylons extended from the sphere like artificial sea anemones. Upon the head of each anemone rested dense structures that looked like stations in and of themselves. Kronos counted eight of these buildings but guessed that there were another four on the opposite side of the station.They were curved to match the spherical profile of the station and each one had five rectangular points that extended like a star. Each of these points spread out until they were almost touching the edges of their brothers. The entire effect made it look like a protective layer of armor for the nucleus within.

The crown of each anemone held a series of curved discs that ascended until they created a circular pyramid In the center of each pyramid there was a vast opening filled with the azure light of blue giant stars. It guarded the space around it like a sapphire-eyed moon. It was ever the watchful protector while the shuttles and starships floated underneath its gaze.

When Kronos analyzed the glowing anomalies with Aegis, he discovered that they were massive directed energy weapons. It was then that the titan realized what he was looking at. It was an interstellar battle station. Each weapon had the ability to crack planets and turn fleets of starships into drifting matter on solar winds. Their sheer might of it was awe inspiring to behold.

Astra gave him a moment to gawk before finally telling him the name of their new home.

“Welcome to the Argus”

“H-how do you sneak this through Imperial space?” Kronos stuttered.

The cheeky pilot gave him a wink. “Like we do everything else—very carefully.”

She laughed at his expression before leaning back into her chair.

“Come on, cowboy let’s get you to see your family.”

Astra guided the Kytarrus closer to the superstructure. As she passed the out layer of the metal sphere, Kronos felt his ears pop. He plugged into the ship's sensors and realized that they passed through energy shielding.

Kronos pointed at the anemone-like fortress they passed.

“What are those?”

“They’re self-contained stations. Othrys created them one at a time before investing into the central foundation. Each one still has the ability to separate from the central station and go on missions throughout the solar system.”

“Do they do that often?” He wondered.

The captain grimaced. “No, not anymore. The Empire has grown better at detecting our cloaking technology. It’s probably due to advancements of their own or from other technology organizations. Even though the outer coating of the station absorbs most sensors and the cloak bends light to create a field of invisibility, it can’t hide its own disruption of gravity.”

She shrugged before continuing. “It’s better to have one station that can hide in more remote locations of the system and use the vastness of space to hide our operations. We don’t want the Imps finding even one of our stations, much less something like the Argos.

Kronos was lost in thought as Astra directed her ship toward the relative top of the station. They glided toward a hangar bay that was smaller than the others. There was no other traffic entering or exiting the bay,

When they passed through the shield that protected the interior from the vacuum of space, he discovered why. The interior of the hangar was completely empty and held enough space to fit a dozen ships the size of the Kytarrus. There were polished smoke-colored floors that reflected the harsh white glare of the overhead lights. There was only one visible exit on the far side of the room opposite of the ship’s entryway. There were none of the rushing mechanics, tinkering technicians, or service droids that the titan had come to associate with other hangars.

Instead, the room appeared to be ceremonial in function. There was already an entourage waiting for their arrival. Kronos saw a platoon of warriors standing in formation.

On their heads, they wore featureless helmets that looked like three plates that came together into a point at the center of their faces. Thin blue lights spread from the central points and created a three-pointed star.

Their gray power armor appeared to be the same material of Aegis. It had the same matte quality and had similar blue accent lights throughout. Instead of fitting them like a second skin, he saw a dense breastplate with attached pauldrons that rested upon a shadowy tunic. It had full length sleeves that were capped with bracers to protect their arms and elbows.

They wore flowing black trousers that were tucked into knee-length boots. Thick nano-fabric tassels extended from their waist to create something like an armored skirt. Similar tassels descended from their backs to create a thigh length cape.

Instead of rifles like the titan expected, they wore two crossed swords strapped to their backs and held dual pistols in holsters at their thighs. Kronos own fighting style was similar and he now wondered if that was happenstance, or by design. He might have more in common with Othrys than he thought.

In front of the platoon of warriors was a single man. He wore a black tunic similar to his guardians but it was devoid of armor. The man still had the same flowing pants, but they were tucked into softer boots rather than metal greaves. The tassels that accented his uniform held a ceremonial look. There were embroidered geometric designs picked out in silver.

While the man and his entourage were interesting, it wasn’t what pulled at his heartstrings. Alongside the man he spotted his family. He couldn’t see their faces clearly, but their body language spoke to nervousness and uncertainty. His wife was holding little Agathi, while Alexios held his mother’s hand. Seeing them, caused a jolt of electricity to pierce through his body.

Without saying another word, he rushed from the cockpit and sprinted to the access hatch of the Kytarrus. Aegis sensed his intentions and unlocked the door at his approach. Without a pause, he leapt from the ship and pelted toward the deck five meters below him. As he fell, Aegis activated his armor and he crashed to the ground with a metal clang. She peeled back his helmet as he ran to his family.

“Andros!” His wife cried as he swept her and his daughter off their feet.

He twirled them around planting kisses wherever he found space. His daughter giggled as his lips found her brow and then he finally set them down.

He kept them at arms length while he studied them intently. His wife’s eyes were weary but strong. He could see anxiety written in the lines of her face, but it was quickly transforming to relief. Agathi looked cheerful and Kronos felt relieved to see that her childlike disposition hadn’t been dampened.

“It’s good to see you,” he gushed. “I’ve missed you so much.”

He turned to Alexios and then knelt on one knee so that he was face to face with his son.

“Alexios, have you kept your mother safe while I was away?”

The boy smiled at him, his relief evident.

“Of course, father. I wouldn’t let anything happen to them.”

Kronos grinned at his progeny. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

He ruffled the boy's hair before crushing him into a hug. Alexios started resting and Kronos looked down in surprise.

“Father…your armor….you’re crushing me,” he gasped out.

Kronos let him go like he was a hot coal.

“Sorry! I’m just so excited to see you.”

Kronos stood back up and drank in the sight of his family as the Kytarrus came to a landing behind him.

The unknown man coughed to catch his attention and Kronos finally looked away. He wrapped his arm around his wife and son as they all turned to face him. Now that the titan was closer, he saw that man was solidly built, clean shaven with black hair and tanned skin. His hair had white wings along the side that lent him a genteel and refined air. His deep and rich voice gave the same impression.

“Welcome to the Argus, Kronos.”

“Father, why is he calling you that?” Alexios asked.

Kronos quieted him and then released his family. He held out his hand.

“Thank you for saving my family. Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”

The man shook his hand firmly as he replied. “My name is Kato Khan. I’m the Chief Executive Officer of Othrys Technologies and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He gestured to the guards behind him and in a single fluid motion, they snapped their heels together and raised their right hands in salute.

“Your gene warriors stand ready to help you bring the fight to the Empire.”

Kronos studied the assembled unit and noticed their advanced armament, their impressive discipline, and their intimidating aura. He turned his gaze back to Khan.

“Then that’s what we’re going to do.”