Rymond seethed with fury as he watched the insurgents fighting against his men on floor Thirty-Four through multiple feeds. He was counting the rapidly mounting losses and balked when he saw that there had already been over sixty units destroyed on that floor alone. Several more units were destroyed on other floors as the reckless guerillas used suicide bombs against the superior Trade Alliance forces. And then there was the entire loss of squad unit thirty on the penthouse floor to account for…

Reinforcements were already on the way to the top floor, even though his units that were patched into the building’s security cameras were showing that many of the gangers that had wiped out an entire squad unit had begun to disperse to other parts of the AstroBloc.

That had simply been a cowardly ambush, and the gangers would not stand up to a full assault by his troops, which is why that had instead decided to run. By far the heaviest fighting was on floor thirty-four, and it was there that he was devoting most of his combat resources. Two hundred Trade Alliance security units were on their way and would soon overwhelm the rebels there.

“Gather these people here.” Rymond instructed the robots still on the ground floor. He began directing the crowds of Titans together in a single area.

With a cruel sneer, the savage Canid instructed the robot security units nearby to gather the nearly two-thousand prisoners that had been taken from one of the lower floors. He had an idea to demoralize their enemies and break their will for resistance.

“Patch me through the local Titannet channel. Override everything else.” He instructed one of the tech specialists around him. He then raised his rifle at the gathered unarmed Titans, who began screaming in panic as a result.

* * * *

“Greetings insurgent scum. This is Chief Security Officer Rymond of the Trade Alliance. Your actions against the Zenith Corporation have now condemned this entire AstroBloc for early termination. Witness the results of your actions.” Came the display override across the Net-Comm overlay.

“No! Dear heavens no!” Rocky shouted at the display, though there was nothing he could do to stop or change it. The military officer opened fire and was joined in with a chorus of military robots and their boxy white and blue E-Rifles. “Off!” Rocky yelled the command to turn his monocle off, not having the stomach to watch the rest of the scene. He had seen enough of the gruesome and villainous display.

Bingo came over and wordlessly offered his paw. Rocky had not even realized that he had fallen to his knees while watching the display. He accepted the other Titan’s wrist and forearm and was pulled back to his feet.

“They’re going to pay.” Rocky gritted his teeth and looked into the other Titan’s dark eyes. Bingo simply nodded grimly in reply.

The pair of Titans continued through the narrow tunnel, which opened into a wide cavity. They were now in a dimly lit maintenance corridor where many of the pipes ran through the building. He looked up and saw them disappear high into the air. There was a convoluted byzantine system of ladders and walkways that led higher into the building, as far as the eye could see, and Bingo began climbing at a supernatural rate of speed. Two could play that.

“Fly!” Rocky voice activated his flight pack, half concealed under his flowing poncho, and then began to lift straight up through the vertical passageway towards the floor above him.

The Procyon watched for the numbers that were marked on the pipes to indicate which floor he was on and tensed as he drew closer to his destination. When he passed floor thirty, he drew out his Axiom machine pistol and checked the display to make sure it was still on full auto mode. When he saw the number thirty-four on the huge pipes, he directed his pack to stop rising with the EEG function.

Rocky paused for a moment, planning his next move for there was no door or access point to the floor itself from this passageway. Then an idea struck him, and he dug inside his pants pouches for some of the explosive gel that he had received earlier from the scientists for their assault on the prison. He took out the cannister and carefully sprayed a circular shape on the wall. He then instructed the flight pack to lift him two floors higher and detonated the charge.

The wall blew inward, collapsing a perfect circular hole in the wall. Rocky hovered himself lower and shut off his pack as he passed through the newly fashioned portal. The hole he had blown through the wall came out in between two hab-unit blocks. Immediately he was assaulted by the sounds of fierce gunfights from all directions. A few Titans ran past him at that point, as though they were fleeing something terrible on their heels, and he realized he recognized one of them.

“Jardan!” Rocky yelled.

The taller Canid glanced over and came his direction. He slid behind the cover that Rocky was now behind and glanced anxiously back the direction he had come from.

“We’re overrun, they’re coming! We have to get out of here!”

Rocky peeked around the corner and saw a dozen Trade Alliance combat units casually walking their direction and firing at the windows to the habitation units on both sides of the commons as they passed. Behind the dozen or so that were moving forward, many more were gathering at the other end by the elevators. Rocky’s eyes widened when he saw how many were gathered there, and more were coming up by the elevators every few minutes, there had to be nearly a hundred there already.

Rocky leaned out and began firing at the closest robot with his machine pistol. “Bingo!” He called towards the hole in the wall. A reply came from far below but was too far away to make out still.

“Where are the others?” Jardan asked as he leaned out and fired a few rounds next to Rocky.

“What do you mean? I was going to ask you! You haven’t heard from Rocco?” Rocky brought up the display on his overlay that showed their private server. Reegan was still in the room next to his name, and so was Rocco. “Rocco!” He called into his unit.

“Where are you?” Came the reply from his brother a moment later. He could hear gunfire echoing from the corridors in both directions as well as in the background of his chat.

“I made it back to floor thirty-four finally, where are you?” Rocky replied.

“I’m here too. Just entered a full-on assault it looks like. Where the hell are you? I don’t see you."

Rocky brought up a drop-down menu of display commands and modified his HUD to include an indicator for members of their private server. Suddenly a blue circle appeared behind him, all the way on the other side of the floor.

“I see you over there, I’m on the opposite end. We should try to meet up at the scientists’ hab unit I think? That’s the only direction I can go right now anyway, there has to be about a hundred ‘bots gathering for a charge on this end.”

“Same here, we had to duck into a hab unit to escape the crossfire. I can’t get out without risking getting hit from both sides.”

“I’ll try to make it to you.” Then Rocky turned to Jardan, who was watching the advance of the robots coming their way. “Let’s move.”

At that point, a miniature ball of snarling fur came rocketing out of the hole he had made and came up beside him.

“Which way?” Bingo asked, cutting straight to the chase.

Rocky pointed the opposite direction of the advancing combat units. Bingo peeked out from around the corner and saw the enemy and then looked towards the direction they needed to go. There would be a good hundred-yard distance that they would be open to enemy fire once they left the cover.

“Go, I’ll distract these scrap heaps.” Bingo smiled.

Rocky started from the sounds of gunfire directed their way and saw Bingo charge out from behind their alcove in the direction of the robots. He exchanged a glance at Jardan, and together, they began running the opposite direction.

Bingo became a prodigious whirling dervish of destruction, leaping thirty feet in a single bound and landing in the middle of the robotic horde. With his cybernetic implants, the Wolverine moved faster than the outdated Delta series battle units could track. When he reached one, he was able to tear it to shreds easily with just his bare hands, but he was firing the entire time with his large Etcher machine pistol as well.

Rocky didn’t watch the Wolverine’s progress for long, he was too busy moving as fast as he could and hoping he did not get hit in the back as he did so.

“Oh crap!”

Rocky slid to a stop, nearly falling over Jardan as five large figures walked out in front of them, barring their path suddenly. Five cybernetic mobile infantry units, the massive nearly indestructible elite units of the Empire.

“Lay down your weapons!” One of them commanded through a robotic speaker as all five turned their weapons to bear on the pair of Titans stuck in the middle.

* * * *

Timmock heard the gunshots rattling outside of the hab-unit. They sounded like they were getting closer and he was growing nervous. All the other scientists had gone out the hallway and disappeared, leaving him alone inside the housing unit. Well, he was not completely alone, he still had his unconscious patient…

Only his patient had his eyes open now and was trying to sit up. Timmock came across the room and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Be careful, don’t try to move just yet.”

“Get off me! Who are you?” Ricky asked as his eyes started to clear up.

“I’m a healer with the Union. You had a pretty bad concussion there, kiddo, I used some nanobots, but they probably need a few more hours to repair all of the damage.”

“I don’t have a few more hours.” Ricky growled. He had already reached over to the nightstand next to the couch he was laying on and put on his Net-Comm headset and powered the device on.

Hundreds of diamond shaped targets appeared on both sides of the floor when he switched the HUD display on. Then the sounds of what sounded like a full-scale war drifted to his ears from the hallway outside of the hab-unit.

“What the hell is going on out there?” He asked the Titan standing over him with a concerned look.

“The Trade Alliance sent a whole army up here to take us out. Wolton and the other scientists sent messages through the Titannet to assemble all available fighters to stand up to them. Only a few dozen showed up.”

A message was flashing in his inbox and Ricky opened it.

“Nice fight kid, but I hope to get a rematch soon. I’m gathering all the Voodoo Kings to fight, and our rivals the Diamondbacks are coming to help. We’re holding them off in the tops of both Blocs right now, hope you got a plan. Segundo.”

Ricky smiled as he read the message. He hoped he would never see a rematch against that raging Wolfen but was glad they were on the same side for now. He actually felt a little sorry for the Trade Alliance.

“I feel fine.” Ricky said to the healer who was still hovering over him. “Where’s my guns?”

Timmock pointed to a table on the other side of the room. He not only saw his Axiom machine pistol, but a long E-Rifle as well.

Ricky joined the private server to see where his brothers where after walking up and beginning the configuration process on the E-Rifle.

“Where are you guys?”

“Ricky!” Came the simultaneous reply from both brothers at the same time.

“Pinned down near the north elevators.” Rocco replied. “Could use some backup.”

“About to be taken into custody by about five CMIs” Rocky said next. “South elevators are overrun.”

“Brilliant. Can’t a guy take a nap without everything going to hell around here and you guys getting yourselves into trouble?” Ricky shook his head; he was already moving towards the door.

When Ricky got to the hallway, he looked both directions and turned the safety off, the display turning from blue to red. It was too far to see the fighting in either direction, but he could hear the gunfire and shouting drifting down the halls.

“Wait!” Timmock came running out to stop him. “The scientists made a secret weapon of sorts; you might be able to use it.”

Intrigued and needing any advantage he could get at the moment; Ricky followed the healer back inside. There on a table of a ransacked and mostly empty room was some exotic looking device.

“It’s a flight pack. Don’t ask me how it works though.” Timmock added with a shrug.

Ricky picked up the backpack sized device and slid into the harness. It was surprisingly lightweight and compact. He brought up a holo-display and found the device had already connected to it.

“No instructions?” Ricky frowned. Timmock frowned back. “No matter, I’ll figure it out as I go. Stay here, I’ll be back for you, and try to get the scientists back here too if they’re out there fighting somewhere. It’ll be easier to get everyone out at once if I don’t have to hunt everyone down.”

Ricky then went back out into the hall and looked north. He was hoping that his EEG function could help him to control the unit, but he did not have time for trial and error.

“Go!” He commanded. Nothing happened. “Take off!” Still nothing. Ricky’s face soured as he thought for a moment. “Fly.”

The flight pack roared to life and swept his feet off the ground, propelling him instantly down the hall.