Lupis stood on the shore weighing his options as he watched the crude boat began to float away saddled with passengers. The massive Ursid stood above the rest, staring him down. His power cells were still low, now at about 21 percent, and following them through the water would tax his system. But after the short firefight, as they were preparing to shove off and only killing two of them, his bloodlust was not satisfied. With a snarl, Lupis shoved his pistol angrily into the suit’s leg drawer that snapped close automatically. He stood on the shore watching the boat disappear into the distant waters like a horror vid villain watching his prey escape.

When the boat full of Titans had disappeared into the horizon, Lupis opened the armor so that he could exit. He calculated the risks involved and decided he would need to let them escape for now. He would have to wait until morning and try to recharge the power cells for a few hours before following them. If he didn’t, he risked catching up to them only to lose power when he most needed it to kill the rest of them. Lupis kicked a large blue and yellow speckled mushroom type thing angrily and began pacing. By then they could be far away.

But then another solution came to him suddenly. He had nearly forgot about the PTC still sitting open on the other side of the island. He jogged hurriedly back to it and sighed a breath of relief when he saw it sitting just where he left it. He backed into the single seated craft and closed the hatch, then he drove it back to the other side of the island, stopping in front of his armor. He once again engaged the hatch and stepped outside. He next stepped back into his armor and thought the commands into his CPU to engage in the wireless power transfer. He had to go back to the PTC once more to confirm the action, but within a few minutes, the PTC was wirelessly charging his suit’s power cells.

It took about a half an hour to even the power cells out. When he shut the power transfer down, both his suit and the PTC were both at around 50 percent. The PTC had more charging capabilities than his suit, the solar generators were always on, and it also had a hydro charger when it traveled through the water. The turbines powered the craft and the power cells. This he figured would be plenty for now.

Lupis opened the hatch to the PTC and left it open. He would not fit in the vehicle with his armor with the hatch closed, so he left it opened and hoped the craft would not take on too much water and become waterlogged. He then drove it into the water and hammered down the throttle. He was quickly moving through the water after his prey. They had a head start but he knew he could make up that time with his motorized vehicle verses their Titanpowered craft. He pushed the steering column down and soon had the PTC skipping across the water at nearly nine knots.

It did not take long for Lupis to catch up. The sun had gone down once again by the time he saw the shadowy outline of land, and using the suit’s low light vision, he eventually spotted one of the makeshift boats along the side of an opening where a river met the large body of water he was currently traveling. He had at first thought it to be an ocean but was now beginning to suspect it was in fact a rather large lake. His suit’s sensors could probably tell him for sure, but he just didn’t care enough to use the extra energy at this point. Lupis looked at the boat and slowed down as he passed, it looked like the boat had been damaged and they probably had to abandon it.

Lupis aimed the PTC into the mouth of the wide river and began heading down it. It was not long until he came upon an area, much like the other river he had discovered, where several tree-like appendages rose from the depths of the dark water. He steered around them deftly, while also being careful not to travel directly under any of the hanging pulsating sacs hanging from some of the branches. He didn’t much care to guess what these were, he preferred just to stay away from them altogether.

And finally, he came upon something deeply unsettling. Emerging from the shore on his right-hand side of the river was another tower, like the one that he had explored a few nights ago. And there along the shore he also saw the other boat. This was the place to land his PTC, and he quickly found a gentle enough slope that he could drive right up out of the water. Once out of the water, Lupis quickly leapt out and began searching for clues.

Lupis found evidence of a struggle immediately. He saw three dead Titans laying in a twisting tangle of vegetation. His suit’s targeting system found and marked spent cartridges along the ground. So maybe the criminals had turned on each other? Maybe there had been a coup from the leadership of the mighty Ursid? If so, he appeared to have won the struggle, for he did not see the Ursid’s body along with the others. Lupis quickly began tracking the signs of movement through the area and began heading towards the ominous building.

He was surprised when the tracks led him not up to the building itself but continued past the structure. He kept following and eventually came upon a sloping hill, with a vast valley stretching out before him. Down below he saw two things. He saw one of the groups of criminals, led by the massive Ursid Haze, and a breathtakingly gargantuan cave opening in the side of a hill. The group seemed to be studying this opening cautiously. Lupis decided that this was his chance and engaged his armor’s stealth system. He then began creeping down to get closer to the group of Titans below.

Lupis swiftly crossed the distance, and studied the group as he drew near, trying to mentally decide which ones to attack first and categorize them in order of which presented the greatest threat to him. He was surprised when he got close enough to hear them speak, as that’s what they were doing, discussing how to proceed into the cave apparently. Only they weren’t making much sense to Lupis’ understanding. They seemed to be understanding each other, but to the bounty hunter they sounded like the icy grip of madness had overtaken them.

And then Lupis thought back to the Triumph’s medical bay, and the diagnoses he had received, that there were spores inside of him, doing universe knew what to his body. He remembered the shores of that river, where he had strained out and discovered unknown multitudes of contaminates and parasites. And not to forget the high oxygen level in the atmosphere, which over long periods of times can also do harm to higher brain functions.

If these Titans had not been more discriminate than he, it was possible even now that they were being overtaken by any number of alien viruses or parasitic conditions. His blood froze in his veins when he thought that something might even then be taking over his own functions, but the strangest thing of all about the situation was that though the Titans in front of him seemed to be speaking nonsense and gibberish, the others seemed to understand each other.

And then as Lupis grew near enough to lay hands on the trailing member of the party, he froze in his tracks. There were wriggling tendrils, insect-like feelers growing out of his face and writhing on the gentle breeze. Also, his fur had been present only in patches, weird scales covered the naked flesh that the bounty hunter could see, along with bubbling spores of a truly horrific and alien nature. A powerful aversion came over the bounty hunter as he thought a command into his helmet to open the leg port and eject his sidearm.

His suit’s targeting system went to work immediately, and with one of his Roland model Series III E-machine pistols now in hand, he dropped the stealth suddenly and opened fire. Before they could react to the sudden threat, three machine pistol bursts prattled off and three Titans dropped dead where they stood.

The remaining Titans all turned at once, as though they both sensed and reacted to the bounty hunter with one mind. The nearest criminals lunged, the others drew pistols and rifles that they had plundered from the guards and security drones when the Triumph crashed. Lupis’ targeting system kicked on, and the onboard CPU began recording dozens of facts immediately. The types of weapons that were now being pointed at him, the ammo count in each one and many more facts were scrolling through his HUD. Among these, his system recognized something that he had suspected.

“Warning. Unknown infection detected.” Gabriel announced internally.

The first two Titans were now close enough to grapple and using the suit’s servo motors that both allowed him to use his broken leg more naturally and enhanced his already athletic agility, Lupis shucked and jived between them, keeping just out of their reach. He punched out and sent one sprawling to the ground, the other he pointed his pistol at and fired a burst point blank, sending crimson and pink brain chunks into the air.

Lupis spun away as another tried to grab him, his hand went to his belt loop and a moment later his energy sword extended from the hilt. Lupis became a small, armored tornado of destruction. His sword slashed and cut down several Titans that were close enough to reach, and his pistol shot down those that were just beyond reach. He expertly kept some of his enemies between him and the guns aiming at him, but between sword strikes managed to shoot every one of them down. His armor protected him from the few shots that the infected Titans managed to hit him with.

The fighting only lasted a few moments, but when it was over, where once there was a crowd of Titans, there now stood only the tall, armored bounty hunter, Haze opposite him with an E-rifle trained on him and his two most trusted bodyguards. The ground was now littered with dead Titans like a grim garden. Haze was flanked by two Canids that were not quite as large as he was, and Lupis sized them up as a butcher would size up a slab of meat.

Lupis was now in a standoff between the large Ursid and his two men. His pistol was trained on Haze, and all three of their rifles were pointed at him. He knew his armor could take a few rounds, but rifle rounds were much more powerful than pistol rounds, and he wasn’t sure how many direct hits it could take if they all three fired at him at once.

“Flabbergothy Ygottha bhleddthla gorbla.” The mighty Ursid roared. Lupis thought it was gibberish, but the purpose in which the other Titan spoke made him think.

“Translate.” Lupis thought into his helmet’s Net-Comm.

“Error. No known language.”

“Do you even understand me still?” Lupis spoke through the suit’s speakers.

This seemed to catch them off guard, and they began speaking the gibber-talk between them.

“Gabriel, does that even fit the criteria of language?” He thought quickly while they were still talking.

“Affirmative.”

This sent a wave of ice over Lupis. So whatever microbes and parasites that were attacking those Titans was somehow also taking over the mind. No, he realized, it was rewriting their minds, for the reaction they had when he spoke showed approximately the same level of confusion that he had towards their strange sounds. It was somehow changing their language, but to what? Was he listening to some ugly chattering alien language? Or was this somehow some sort of plant speech? He thought back to the alien octocrab creature that had tried to take over his mind and shuddered. Were those things native to this planet? Were they out there even now, watching them? And if the wildlife could communicate telepathically, what then could the plantlife do?

“If you can even understand me, listen carefully. Focus on my voice. Something on this planet is affecting you negatively.” Lupis spoke slowly and clearly through the speakers. “I do not know if it was something you ate or some parasite in the water, but something is…changing you.”

“Blootha!” One of the Canids cried out startled. “Blootha em’yaata! Kindrasa ghulnhah probean!”

This drew the other’s attention for just the right moment that Lupis needed. He recognized the panic, and guessed correctly that they were about to fire on him.

“Stealth.” He thought into the system, and then quickly dove to the side.

The three Titans’ rifles began barking and erupting fire from their barrels, spraying them wildly in the direction that Lupis had last been. But Lupis was no longer there. He moved around behind them while retrieving his second pistol from the other leg drawer-holster. Something loose within the drawer almost fell out but he ignored it at the time. He positioned himself directly behind the three Titans, who had now run out of ammunition in their magazines. From nearly point-blank range he fired bursts from both machine pistols into all three.

The Canids dropped dead as their bodies shredded from the bullets passing through but the Ursid only appeared to grow angry by this gesture. He turned and charged, and Lupis braced himself for impact. It was almost as if the Ursid could see him through the light bending technology which dropped as soon as the big Titan collided and tackled his armored opponent to the ground. Both sidearms went spinning out of Lupis’ grasp and he instead began wrestling with the enraged monster which had gained a mounted position over him.

The blows rained down on Lupis’ helmet like blows from a sledgehammer, and quite frankly took him by surprise with power and ferocity behind them. Now that the Ursid was face to face, Lupis could see the changes more clearly. He also had weird feelers growing from his fur, his eyes were no longer white, but a greenish color and he was missing patches of fur. The scales and pustules were mainly concealed underneath the tattered prison jumpsuit, but Lupis caught a glimpse of them.

The grappling contest continued for a few minutes, the angry Haze straining mightily against the servo motors in Lupis’ armor. Lupis was impressed by the power behind the raging Ursid’s muscles, but as he diverted more power into the limbs of his suit, he knew it would ultimately be a losing battle his opponent fought. As he pushed back against his enemy’s strength, he slowly fought his way back to his feet and out of the compromising position. The Ursid struggled back, filled with supernatural fury, but could not overcome the Starburst Industries’ superior mechanical efficiency. The Phantasm 3 was considered a specialist armor and not one typically prized for its power like the Colossus MK series, or even the Andromeda HLS or the Contructo 500 construction armor units. Despite this, the superior craftsmanship and mechanical engineering on all Starburst armors were legendary and easily overcame the Ursid’s raw fury.

Lupis was able to get behind the Ursid and wrapping his armored arms around the other Titan’s neck and head, began a chokehold that robbed the contaminated madtitan’s body of air. He squeezed against the Ursid’s struggling and Haze’s protests began to grower weaker. But before he lost consciousness, both Titans noticed something that drew their attention suddenly from their own life and death struggle. Several figures began emerging from colossal cave opening.