Titans Ch 00

Hi everyone! Long-time reader, first time author here. This was originally meant to be a short story, but quickly approached novella length. Fear not though, I have the next 10 chapters or so already written up and I'll be posting the first few one after the other, uploading as soon as the previous one is approved. If there's interest in my story, the chapters I already have written should buy me enough time to finish writing before I run out of content to upload.

This story blurs the lines between Sci-Fi and Fantasy (you'll see why about halfway through this chapter) and will involve MF, FF, MFF, light BDSM and hints of Incest/Taboo (not actual blood relatives; again, wait and see). It's not exactly literature to go down through the ages, but I had a blast writing it so I hope you'll enjoy reading it. Without further ado...

Are you sitting comfortably?

*****

The transporter shook and rumbled as it tore through the space behind space on its journey across the stars. Captain Alexander Murray stayed steady on his feet as he walked the gantry around the gigantic mechanised humanoid hanging in the cramped cargo hold. Each forearm was bigger than he was, and he certainly wasn't small, with broad shoulders and a towering physique. A bundle of lenses forming a rough approximation of a face glared down from above a gaping chest. A comprehensive looking series of analogue dials surrounding a harness within the cavity of what would be the ribcage. As he wandered around the metal man, panels and flaps slid open at his touch. Large, gloved hands turning valves and pressing buttons with methodical precision. Closely stacked behind his machine - with just enough room for the walkway - was a second chassis. Its pilot had managed to lift the right hand into a cupped position, and she was lounging along the wrist, head in the palm, her long hair draped over the fingers. Lieutenant Anna Carroll's mech was shorter and stockier than the longer and sleeker counterpart, and it had a long tube resting over each shoulder, mounted on the upper back. The woman herself, while only slightly shorter, was more slight than the Captain - though she was by no means unfit - and had blonde hair to his dark brown.

When Captain Murray passed between the mechs, the Lieutenant nimbly sprang from her perch to hug him from behind.

"Take it easy Alex," she chided gently, "you've checked all the systems three times now, you know they're all good."

Alex could feel her soft breasts pressing into his back, even through two layers of force-reactive armor. Not for the first time, he cursed the fraternisation rules for mech pilots despite the good reasons behind them, and he carefully but forcefully pried her hands from where they had been resting on his chest and turned to face her. He held her wrists in his hands, but she pressed her body against him just the same. Anna gave him a playful smirk, lips inches from his. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew she would get away with it. The little tease. He looked down at her, her cheek rested on his shoulder and deep blue eyes stared back at his own matching pair.

"Come on Mr Grumpy," she taunted him in a mock little girl voice, "have a game of cards with me and the navigator, you could do with unwinding."

Alex sighed, all thoughts of disciplining her leaving his mind, or at least all thoughts of official discipline; he had a few ideas of how to punish her for the teasing that were relentlessly circling in his hindbrain.

"Alright," he acquiesced, dropping her hands and stepping back, "I hope you have something more interesting than poker though, I don't feel like taking all your money again."

The Lieutenant laughed easily.

"We could always play for something other than money," she said innocently, thumbing the fastenings on her suit of armour.

The Captain felt himself growing hard despite his best efforts, and laughed nervously.

"You want to play strip poker with the navigator? Be my guest."

She pulled a disgusted face, and he laughed again, grabbing her by the shoulder and steering her towards the front of the vessel.

*****

The navigator was a spindly, decrepit young man, with thick black veins sprawling all over his skin, converging at the point where the wires of the ship's systems fed into his bulbous head.

"Three," he said in a small voice, tapping the two face down cards piled in front of him and causing him to shift slightly in the rigging that suspended him above the floor.

He turned to his left, peering at Anna with solid black eyes. Most would have found it disconcerting, but the two mech pilots were used to it by now. Lieutenant Carroll thought for a moment, contemplating the two cards in front of her and the one in her hand.

"Four," she said finally, looking at Captain Murray.

He barely hesitated.

"Call," he challenged.

The Lieutenant grinned, flipping over her two cards revealing two artistically rendered roses. She then reached out to the pile in front of the navigator, flipping the top card to show a third rose, and the bottom to show a grinning, black skull. She swore loudly and colourfully, and the two men burst out laughing. Even some passing bridge staff chuckled along, the trio had become a regular fixture on the month long journey and they had gotten over their initial shock at the woman's foul mouth.

"It's been really great having you two here," the navigator wheezed, "it's nice to have someone intelligent around to talk to."

"Aww, we'll miss you too big guy!" exclaimed Anna, clapping him on the shoulder and sending him swinging in his supports.

Alex just smiled and nodded his thanks at the compliment. The navigator winced, then screwed his face up in pain.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked.

Anna went white as a sheet, and she stammered out an apology, but the navigator held his hand up to her and shook his head.

"Not you," he expelled past gritted teeth, "it's something... it's... it's..." his head shot back and his eyes opened, his black eyeballs now had little pinpricks of white light emerging scattershot like stars.

"SLIPSPACE ANOMALY!" he screamed, and the ship bucked and groaned, tossing everyone except the navigator around like ragdolls.

Alex wrapped Anna in his arms and cushioned the blow as they were flung against the wall. The breath was knocked out of him, but the armor hardened upon impact and absorbed any real damage that could have been done. Gravity righted itself and they fell to the floor, struggling to their feet to see the navigator writhing and contorting as he hung there. The white lights had spread across his eyes and now they blazed like suns as he fought to regain control of their tumble through the ethereal realm of slipspace. He suddenly snapped his head to face the two officers. Nearly blinding them with his eyes.

"Get to your suits, I'll extend the field and you might be able to get out of slipspace."

His voice was strong now, and hummed with with unknowable power. They didn't even stop to acknowledge him as they raced back down the corridors to the cargo hold. The walls started to buckle and bend and they could hear the roar of boundless energy beyond them. The air smelt like a thunderstorm, and the captain could taste a metallic tang in the back of his throat.

The two giant metal humanoids swung like chaotic pendulums from their mounts on the ceiling. Anna ran for her seat and was knocked flying by the arm she had been sat on such a short time ago. Alex had been going for his own seat, but detoured to catch her. He hauled her to her feet and dragged her along the gantry, ducking under the flailing limb. She was dazed, but accepted his help and clambered up into the cockpit and began fumbling with the straps.

"Don't you go spacing out on me Lieutenant!" he yelled over the ever increasing cacophony.

She looked up at him, regaining some focus, and nodded grimly.

"What's that soldier?!"

"Sir, yes sir!" she responded, as loud as she could but still barely audible.

"We are the best of the best!" he started.

"The toughest part of a mech is the pilot!" she finished the motto.

He slapped a button inside her mech and the chest plate slid into position, shutting her in. He jumped back and sprinted to his own seat, grabbing the hand of his robot to help him corner and leaping up, putting his arms through the straps before his ass had even touched the chair. As the cockpit closed around him he reached behind him to grab a short wire ending in a thin spike, which he slid into a metal socket on the back of his skull with a grimace.

As the neural spike clicked home, his vision lit up with floating displays and he felt his awareness of his own body fade away as he took control of the mech. He looked down and the array of lenses focused on the floor as it opened, a swirling purple maelstrom danced across the protective field some fifty meters below. Here and there flashes of black space were visible, but none big enough for the mech to fall through. Alex established a communication link with Anna.

"Wait for my signal, then release the docking clamp," he ordered.

"Affirmative, sir," came the uncharacteristically formal response.

He watched and waited, pieces of the ship went whipping by the hatch and were obliterated as they hit the field. The maelstrom pulsed, and a large gap appeared.

"Drop drop drop!" he signalled.

Anna's mech blew its clamp with a bang and fell out of sight. Alexander's clamp released and he began to plummet, then stopped with a crack and the sound of tearing metal. The mech's limbs thrashed wildly as he fought to free himself from the unseen obstruction.

"No no NO!" he cried out, as the hole in the slipspace storm wobbled and began to close.

Metal creaked, and there was another crack. Captain Alexander Murray lurched head over heels into the unknown.

*****

He awoke to darkness and muffled voices. Alex hung limply from his crash restraints, the only lights came from the day-glo parts on the backup dials. He dimly lifted his head after a great deal of protesting by his muscles and checked the readouts; nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though the mech had gone into sleep mode while he was out. He vaguely remembered firing the retro thrusters far too late into re-entry, late enough that he would have chewed out Anna for a week if she'd done it in training. His pilot suit had taken the worst of the shock, but he felt bruised all over from the sudden deceleration. There was a heavy knock on the outside of the cockpit. He shook himself awake, and reached to reinsert the neural spike which had become dislodged. The hard shell of the mech was a relief from his aching meat body. As the power cell hummed into life, the muffled voices outside turned into shouts. The camera flickered on, and he saw large, drooping faces looking on as he lay foetal in a small crater in a primeval forest.

He unfurled and stood up. The figures backed away and he realised that it wasn't just a trick of perspective. As the mech stood upright it towered, some ten meters tall, but the three figures that surrounded him matched him in height, and even exceeded him by half a meter or so. They were potbellied, and clad in furs that could have come from a mammoth. One of them looked old, and leaned on a staff that looked like an ancient ship's mast complete with crow's nest. The tallest one had a club that was literally an entire tree trunk stripped of branches.

"Okay," he muttered to himself, "That's new."

Any further speculation was cut off as the third one roared and hurled a fist at him. Captain Alexander's combat instincts kicked in and he caught the punch on an armoured forearm. The giant howled in pain and staggered back, clutching at his knuckles, which seemed to galvanise the other pair. The tall one bellowed and stomped, pounding the ground with his club. Alex ignored the display and deftly punched him in the chest. He felt a crunch through the mech's feedback circuit, and the bellowing turned to a gurgle, but the one that had thrown the first punch had recovered and grappled him from behind, attempting to tear off the head. A diagnostic report came in, the neck joint was holding, but most of his weapon systems were still offline, either damaged or still warming up - there was no way of telling yet. He would have to do this the old fashioned way.

A metal boot flattened the giant's foot into a bloody mess, causing him to relinquish his grasp. As he limped backwards, the mech rotated at the waist and grabbed him by the throat. With a whir of hydraulics Alex crushed the beast's neck. Sensors beeped in warning but he couldn't dodge fast enough to avoid the club that threw him off balance. Gyroscopes strained and he stretched out his arms, coming upright again in a low crouch. The club came around again, but this time Alex was ready. A long, wide blade extended from each wrist across the back of the hands - hissing as the energy field around them powered up - and he caught the club with one of them, slicing it in half. The other blade whipped around, cutting the giant diagonally from hip to shoulder. The creature's skin was tough and leathery, but the blade was designed to spear through tanks, and it cut through it like butter.

While this was happening, the elderly giant had backed off, and had been chanting and gesturing with his staff. Alex had been content to ignore him for now, but that proved to be a mistake as he gestured with the tip of the staff and a bolt of green fire exploded across the mech's hull. The protective shields snapped on only to be immediately overloaded. The captain sat in shock as his systems attempted to make sense of what had happened. A huge burst of energy had thrown almost all of his sensors out of calibration. The sudden influx of heat had had one positive side effect though, as he received a notification that one of his weapon systems had warmed up; the plasma gun. He raised an arm, and a ball of white hot gases arced out and hit the remaining giant in the stomach as it gawped at him. It burned through skin and seared organs, and the last of his assailants fell down, dead.

Captain Murray stood in silence, taking in his surroundings and attempting to process the insanity that had just happened. The trees around him were tall, and several had branches that had been broken as he made his landing. The two corpses at his feet were leaking blood onto the floor, which was pooling in the crater, and the third crackled and popped as the fat and muscle cooked. With most of his sensors rebooting he had to rely on sight alone, but he still managed to spot the blur of movement between the trees to his left. He stared and stared, willing some of his scanners to come back online so he could locate the source of the disturbance. There were no animals, not even birds: they had all been frightened off by the disturbance. The undergrowth was thick, save for a few game trails; there was no way he could spot anything putting any effort into hiding. His thermal vision finished restarting, and he switched it on, following the trail of hotspots to a thick tree. Moving as carefully and as quietly as a giant mech could, he approached.

As he rounded the tree a red splodge appeared on his vision. He switched back to the visual band camera with a thought, and saw a cowled woman pointing a drawn bow at him. She was cloaked in green, and a dull brown tunic was tucked into a scabbard belt at her waist. Her skin was pale and freckled, and a pair of emerald green eyes stared defiantly at him down the shaft of a steel tipped arrow, fletched with mottled grey feathers. Wisps of fiery red hair poked out from her hood, framing a beautiful, scowling face. Alex pulled back from controlling the mech to pinch the bridge of his nose inside the cockpit.

"What the fuck is going on here?" he asked himself.

Still, there was another human in front of him, who was still his best bet for food and shelter besides ration packs and the mech until he could be picked up, despite her obvious distrust of technology.

The thought of being picked up suddenly sparked his curiosity, and he checked his navigation system to determine his location. The pilot gave a sharp intake of breath as the lack of any beacon signal presented itself; he was clearly far, far out in the middle of nowhere. Rescue from out here could take years.

"What manner of beast are you?" said the woman in front of him, startling Alex.

The mech had been stationary for some time, but she hadn't lowered her weapon. He thought quickly, now was the time to make a good first impression. Slowly, so as not to startle her, he dropped to one knee. Activating the external speakers, he announced himself.

"Captain Alexander Murray, mech pilot, at your service citizen."

"I did not ask for your name, creature," she accused, "What are you that stands like a giant yet slays three of them with ease?"

He blinked. This must be a backwater planet indeed to have never seen a mech deployed in battle. He reached for the button that opened the cockpit, then froze. His reactive armor could handle an arrow with ease, but at this range she could probably put it into his head without being too skilled, and something about her stance said that she was very skilled indeed. He felt the top of his helmet in the storage rack, debated putting it on, but clipped it to his belt instead. Better she see a friendly smile than a faceless drone. He also took an H-MAC pistol - the standard weapon supplied to all mech pilots - and holstered it loosely. Better safe than sorry.

When the plates that made up the front of the cockpit began to withdraw, she started, twitching her aim between the face and the opening. When Alex was revealed, her expression changed from fear to confusion. He unplugged the neural spike, and hit the quick release on his harness, standing on the lip of the opening.

"Hi," he waved awkwardly down at her, "Nothing to be afraid of, just a mechanised combat chassis."

When her face remained blank, he explained further.

"It's like a giant robot I control from within."

"You speak nonsense," she shook her head, "What are you? What is

that

?"

"Well... I'm a human," he began slowly, "And that..."

He looked at her again. There were hints of some sort of metal chestplate beneath her tunic, and she wore leather greaves, bracers and pauldrons.

"... it's like a really big suit of armour?" he tried again.

She seemed to accept this and lowered the bow slightly, releasing some tension from the string. He jumped to the ground, grunting as his legs sent a shock of pain up his bruised spine, through his ribs and down his right arm. She kept her aim trained on him as he slowly moved away from the mech, gesturing for her to inspect it. She gingerly let go of the string, holding the arrow and the bow in her left hand as she touched the cool metal of the frontmost leg.

He looked over the outside himself, furrowing his brow at the dent and scorch marks where the mysterious missile had hit near the shoulder. Whatever the green fire had been, it had done significantly more damage than the anti-tank rounds he had shrugged off in his last encounter with enemy forces, before he started the journey that had led him here. He could see the nanite paint starting to grow in over the wound again, but the dent would need bending outwards, which would require a fusionforge. He somehow doubted there would be any of the cutting edge manufacturing machines on this planet.

"You need to come with me to the headquarters," she announced, shaking Alex out of his contemplation, "The General will want to speak to you."

Finally, some good news

.

An organised military meant interstellar communications at some level in the ranks. He might be able to get out of here sooner than he thought. He might even be able to contact Anna.