Titan's Rise: (Children of Titan Book 3) Read online

  Contents

  Children of Titan

  Prologue

  1. Kale Trass

  2. Malcolm Graves

  3. Kale

  4. Malcolm

  5. Kale

  6. Malcolm

  7. Kale

  8. Malcolm

  9. Kale

  10. Malcolm

  11. Kale

  12. Malcolm

  13. Kale

  14. Malcolm

  15. Kale

  16. Malcolm

  17. Kale

  18. Malcolm

  19. Kale

  20. Malcolm

  21. Kale

  Epilogue

  Thanks for Reading!

  About the Author

  TITAN’S RISE

  ©2019 RHETT C. BRUNO

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the authors.

  Published by Aethon Books LLC.

  Cover Art by: Jasper Schreurs

  Cover Design, Print and eBook formatting and cover design by Steve Beaulieu.

  All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are property Aethon Books.

  All rights reserved.

  Children of Titan

  Book 0: The Collector

  Book 1: Titanborn

  Book 2: Titan’s Son

  Book 3: Titan’s Rise

  Book 4: Titan’s Fury (Coming Summer 2019)

  Book 5: (Coming Fall 2019)

  Pick up the whole

  series.

  Prologue

  Luxarn Pervenio, CEO of the solar-system-wide entity known as Pervenio Corporation, stared at the pixels of light projecting from his wooden desk on Pervenio Station, orbiting just outside of Saturn’s A ring. He leaned toward the holographic screen, the smell of rare oak greeting his nostrils. On it played a recording of Kale Trass, the newly emerged leader of the Children of Titan—an offworld, Ringer terrorist cell obsessed with retaking Titan no matter the cost.

  On the screen, Kale said heartlessly, “From ice to ashes” before he exposed former Pervenio Corp Director James Sodervall to the icy surface of Titan. Luxarn had known the grumpy old wretch since he was but a boy. His father’s right-hand man when they arrived on Titan, and then his. Now, Luxarn stared at the tiny shards of ice Sodervall had been reduced to after Kale Trass had shattered his frozen body.

  Monsters, he thought. Radicals, all of them!

  Kale had yanked on the thread and caused the entire operation around Saturn to begin unraveling like a fraying rope. Nearly half a century of the hard work Luxarn had undergone assimilating their peoples, undone. By now, the entire solar system had likely viewed the recording. The United Sol Federation’s Assembly back on Earth would say Luxarn lost control. His rivals would smell blood in the water and come for his holdings—Venta Co, Red Wing Company, and whatever else sprang up.

  “Sir, we‘ve lost the Sector C hangars,” someone addressed him urgently. “All public docks are under siege... There’s… there’s too many of them.” Luxarn glanced up to see the commander of his security forces on Pervenio Station panting in his doorway. A door set on hold-open for the first time in... he couldn’t remember how long.

  “Where did we go wrong, Commander?” Luxarn asked calmly without averting his gaze from the ghastly footage. “The stars are so near. Don’t they understand? If we squabble amongst each other like the humans of old, it’ll all be lost.”

  “I... sir.” The commander took a moment to gather himself. “There are more ships on their way, stolen from the surface of Titan. Orbital defenses are failing. They hit us there first. Somehow they knew the station’s entire layout.”

  Luxarn released a weak chuckle. “Half these halls were built by Ringer hands.”

  The commander took a few steps further into the office. “Sir, we have to get you off the station before we’re overrun.”

  Luxarn stood without a word. He turned and laid his hands against the cold viewport spanning the wall behind his desk. Beyond it, two sparking halves of a destroyed gas-harvesting vessel drifted aimlessly through the icy rocks of Saturn’s rings. Another transport hurtled toward the station, its impulse drive flaring blue as it failed.

  “I gave him away at birth,” Luxarn said, “but wouldn’t it be fitting now if we shared the same grave?”

  “Sir, I don’t know who you’re talking about,” the commander said.

  “No, you don’t. And I suppose that’s my greatest failing.”

  “Sir, please. We’ll wipe all the valuable data before they can get their hands on it, and we’ll thwart this rebellion, but you need to get to safety. Pervenio Corp needs you. Earth needs you.”

  Luxarn breathed in the view of Saturn’s star-and-moon-speckled archipelago one last time. His haven of resources was meant to usher in a new golden age of humanity. When the Meteorite struck Earth three centuries before and nearly wiped out his species, he wondered if his ancestors who poked their heads up from his family’s fallout shelter ever could’ve imagined standing on a space station under siege from a group of angry offworlders halfway across the solar system.

  Progress... It was something Kale and his horde of Ringers would never understand because their ancestors fled Earth, looking for greener pastures. For three hundred years, they lived in their little paradise on Titan—until Luxarn’s family arrived, answering the call of the stars and the expansion necessary to ensure humanity was never sent to the brink of extinction again.

  “Lead away,” Luxarn sighed. He followed the commander. Kale’s pale, hard gaze watched him from the holographic screen on his desk all the way out.

  “Your new ship is nearly prepped,” the commander said. “The Ringers won’t be able to catch you, no matter how hard they try.”

  In the adjoining private hangar, a prototype starship sat perched atop an active fuel line. Constructed to be Luxarn’s personal craft, it boasted a prototype impulse drive that was the fastest of its size in all of Sol. The ship was so new it didn’t even have a name yet, but Luxarn had always found disaster to be the impetus for advancement.

  A host of corporate VIPs waited outside the closed loading ramp for boarding. All the brilliant minds and sycophants who helped the unstoppable Pervenio machine chug along. Luxarn scanned the hangar but didn’t find what he was looking for.

  “Where are the bodies?” he asked. “I requested they make the trip with me.”

  The commander paused from issuing orders to a unit of officers and turned back to Luxarn. “Excuse me, sir?”

  “The bodies of my collectors retrieved from the surface of Titan before Kale blew it all to hell!” Luxarn roared. The commander winced and swallowed the lump in his throat. Malcolm and Zhaff had located the Children of Titan hideout under a Ringer quarantine but were murdered shortly before Kale detonated a nuclear engine core on top of the place, taking nearly half of Luxarn’s armed forces with it.

  “They’ve been transported directly to the corporate med block for treatment. Didn’t anyone inform you? One is in a coma, but the doctors say without life support, he’ll die immediate
ly. The older survived exposure. They got to him just in time.”

  Luxarn grabbed the commander by his chest plate. “Malcolm Graves is alive?”

  “Barely. Lost a leg to the cold, but that still makes him luckier than his freak partner.”

  Luxarn’s hands curled into fists. That freak partner happened to be Luxarn’s illegitimate son, Zhaff. Any other time, he would’ve had the commander spaced for spouting off like that, but he didn’t know. Nobody knew the truth except for Malcolm.

  “His Cogent partner,” Luxarn corrected.

  “Yes, sir… Sorry, sir.”

  “Take me to them immediately.”

  “Sir, there is no time. You must leave now. I’ll have them dispatched on a medical transport as soon as the survivor is stabilized.”

  “I’m not going anywhere without—”

  The far entry to the hangar exploded. The deafening blast sent Luxarn staggering, and a bullet slashed across the throat of a nearby security officer, spattering red onto Luxarn’s face.

  “They’re here!” someone hollered. A horde of white-marble-faced offworld devils appeared like foaming waves through a broken dam. Pervenio officers charged ahead to return fire. All the VIPs ducked for cover, banging on the prototype ship’s sealed ramp to be let inside.

  “We’re not done fueling!” an engineer shouted before a bullet knocked him off his feet. As Luxarn watched the chaos erupt, he couldn’t help but see the irony. Surrounded by a wealth of all the fuel humanity could want for on Saturn, they lacked it at the most crucial moment.

  “Stall them!” the commander ordered one officer. “Wipe Mr. Pervenio’s office!” he directed another. He then took Luxarn by the arm and ran him in the opposite direction of the fray, leaving the VIPs behind. “This hangar is compromised, sir. We need to get you to another ship!”

  Luxarn tore free and straightened his shirt. “Prepare a medical evac immediately and have the bodies of the collectors on them.”

  “Sir, those vessels aren’t shielded or outfitted with sleep pods. You’ll be vulnerable.”

  “Which is exactly why they won’t bother targeting it.”

  “There are more capable transports in the reserve hangar. With Director Sodervall gone, I’m in charge of your safety while on the Ring.”

  “He’s dead, and last I checked, I’m still the CEO of this corporation. Take me to them now. And consider this your promotion. Ring Director...” He paused to read the commander’s tag. “…Lawrence. When I’m gone, the defense of our holdings here will be in your hands. I hope you prove more capable than your predecessor.”

  A promotion like that usually had Luxarn’s subordinates beaming, but the commander’s face filled with dread. He’d clearly expected to join Luxarn in fleeing the compromised station.

  “I’m... I’m honored, sir,” he forced out. “I won’t let you down.”

  “Start by doing what you’re told,” Luxarn said.

  The newly appointed director contacted the medical center over his com-link as they ran down the corporate wing’s spacious passage. Luxarn stopped at the first turn and glanced back. As he watched the Ringer mob swarm his upper-level employees and tear them to pieces, he made himself a single promise.

  Kale Trass and his Ringers would pay for everything they’d taken from him. His son, the Ring, trillions of credits. His father showed them mercy after the Great Reunion brought plague to their world… Never again.

  One

  Kale Trass

  Months had passed since the revolution started. Lack of sleep had all the days of unrest throughout Titan and the rest of the Ring beginning to blend together. I stood alone on my ship, holding on to the walls as she plunged through the upper atmosphere of Saturn. Wind tore across the hull and made her rattle, but there was no turning back now. The last bastion of Pervenio Corporation’s forces on the Ring waited only a few thousand kilometers away.

  I felt like I should be smiling. We’d come so far in so little time, but I knew we were just getting started. The people we were up against would never stop resisting us, and so our fight would never end.

  I sighed and raised my hand-terminal to my ear. Then I listened, as I did before every battle with the Earthers and on every restless night, to the last private conversation recorded on Pervenio Station between its former owner, Luxarn Pervenio, and Director Sodervall. The renowned Luxarn Pervenio secretly monitored everyone there, no matter what their rank. Even the wealthiest person in the Sol system needed to ensure he had a leg up on everyone and everything. Manipulation, strong-arming—that was the Earther way, and it was what had allowed him to wrest control of Titan and the Ring from my people until I, Kale Trass, took it back.

  “What is it, Sodervall?” Luxarn said on the recording. “I only have time for good news.”

  “It’s Agents Zhaff and Graves, sir,” Director Sodervall responded, the former Voice of the Ring on local news feeds. He’d been well accustomed to making composed speeches in the face of catastrophe, but his voice was shaky. “We made contact. They located a Children of Titan hideout burrowed underneath the Darien Quarantine where we believe the stolen supplies from Earth were taken. Zha—”

  “Excellent! I trust that proper preparations are being made?”

  “Of course. Sir, listen to me. Agent Zhaff was found shot outside.”

  There was a pause. “Is he all right?”

  “I’m waiting for another update, but… it was in the head, sir.”

  A longer period of silence passed until, finally, Luxarn said, “And Graves?”

  “We’re still thawing him, but it doesn’t look good.” Sodervall swallowed audibly. “Sir, what do you want me to do?”

  “My father should have let these inbred Ringers die off when we had the chance!” he growled. As if Luxarn’s father, who organized the Great Reunion between our peoples, could knowingly control the plague that crippled us.

  Before the Meteorite struck Earth more than three centuries ago, the first settlers of Titan had fled on an ark designed by Darien Trass. For all those long years, they lived free of Earther greed, hopping the moons of Saturn like their own icy, archipelago paradise. Living in peace. But the people of Earth didn’t die off entirely. They recovered and set their sights on the worlds beyond Earth, so they would never risk being wiped out again.

  Fifty years ago, they made contact, and Luxarn and his father traveled millions of kilometers across the Sol system to reunite the Earthers and the Titanborn or, as they call us, Ringers. Centuries away from Earth had left our immune systems crippled. Countless Titanborn grew sick, allowing Pervenio Corp to step in. They brought their system of credits to control us, stuffed the sick into quarantine, and reaped Saturn of valuable gases.

  “I agree, sir,” Sodervall said. “They’re a cancer to Sol. But it’s too late now. I need to know what you want me to do.”

  “To do?” Even listening through a hand-terminal, the fury in his voice was enough to raise the hairs on my reedy arms. “I want the Children of Titan exterminated, director! I want this Kale Drayton delivered to me in cuffs! Evacuate every survivor from the Piccolo until one of them tells us the truth.”

  That simple order had condemned Cora and all my former crew-mates on the Piccolo gas harvester to death.

  “I… I’ll get right to it, sir,” Sodervall said.

  “You damn well better! I don’t care what it takes, but you will restore order down there. Tear that quarantine to pieces if you have to.”

  There it was. Luxarn’s final, terrible mistake. It dispersed his forces and allowed us to break into Pervenio Station, hijack the Piccolo, and overload its nuclear-thermal engine to incinerate thousands of his officers in the Darien Quarantine.

  “Sir,” Sodervall said. “I don’t think that’s—”

  “Just do it, Sodervall! If you hadn’t allowed things to get so dreadful down there, none of this would have happened. My s—Zhaff’s blood is on your hands.”

  “Sir, are you okay?”

&n
bsp; “I’m fine! Now find Kale Drayton and end this insurgency, or by Earth, I’ll find somebody who can, and you can join the skellies in an airlock.”

  “I’ll handle it, sir.”

  The conversation ended there after a series of loud crashes, which I could only assume was Luxarn Pervenio throwing things in rage.

  Presently, my fingers squeezed around my own terminal so hard it nearly snapped. I captured Director Sodervall soon after and had him frozen to death—punishment for murdering Cora and countless other crimes against Ringers. But it was Luxarn who’d held his leash. I’d blamed the wrong man.

  Every time I listened to the recording, I felt a sickening concoction of rage and delectation over what followed. Luxarn and all those who served him had taken everything from us, but it was his arrogance that brought his whole organization crashing down. I was publicly declared the heir to Darien Trass, and hearing it inspired my people to finally fight back against Pervenio Corp and all the other smaller Earther companies with holdings across the Ring.

  None of what he demanded of Sodervall came to fruition, not even meeting me. Luxarn fled the Ring like a coward before we had the chance, but we would have our face to face one day. I swore it over and over in my head. He’d answer for all his family’s atrocities against my people.

  He’d answer for Cora…

  “Kale.” Rin interrupted my ruminations. Her hand fell upon my armored shoulder. “Kale, are you ready?”

  I stowed my hand-terminal, lowered my helmet’s visor, and turned without answering. A cohort of Titanborn fighters were arrayed in front of us in the cargo bay of my ship, the Cora. She was a prototype starship we’d stolen from Luxarn’s private hangar on Pervenio Station, complete with the finest in contemporary impulse drive tech, reinforced iridium plating, and a full complement of anti-craft ordnance.