Gamma Nine (Book One) Read Free

capable of breaking out of the dead zone
and pushing further into the safe zone. Our planet killing weapons
were not yet operational and we were left with a tug of war with
the Beast for over fifty years. Neither side gained ground,
everything hung by a thread as the stalemate could not be
broken.
    Our resources
were limited and in some sectors dwindling dangerously low. The
sectors that were safe were mostly newly colonized planets in the
Galactic South. Only a few of the sectors were first generation
colonies. Production and colonization took time and manpower,
things we didn’t have in abundance. We needed something new and
powerful to push back at the Beast. We needed to retake our lost
sectors and re-unite our star kingdom. We needed what the faithful
still among us called a miracle. The answer came not long after our
hope had begun to fail.

Chapter
Zero.One
Rise
    “ They were the tip of
the sword. They were the first to deploy and last to withdraw. They
made the best of a dire situation, achieving victory where most
could only see defeat. They numbered only a few thousand, yet their
bravery never wavered in the face of evil and insurmountable odds.
Because of them we were given more time, because of them we were
able to rebuild. The Titans were the hammer and shield of
humankind, but as history taught our race - all Titans must
fall.”
    The great minds
of our time spent every waking moment after Subjugation Day - the
name we had given the day the Beast had awoken - trying to find an
answer to the Beast. Intellectuals, engineers and tacticians worked
tirelessly for decades, scavenging for resources to build better
weapons, and research new ones. There were many new breakthroughs
in the fields of weapon development and soldier enhancements, but
none of them were enough or viable on the field of battle against
the Beast.
    Chief Scientist
Thomas Wexler from the planet New Horizon P-SEP research centre
gave us the answer we had been searching for. He brought together
multiple fields of research and made them all work in unison to
create what he named The Titan Project.
    The Titan
Project consisted of a new type of mechanized suit, manually
operated by its Operator from within. These suits were named
Articulated Refuge Constructs, or ARC suits as the Operators called
them. Operators were enclosed by the strongest materials known to
humankind. Anctinium armour plating covered an Anctinium-mesh suit,
and beneath the mesh suit the liquid nanites protected the outer
epidermis and internal organs from within. The Liquid Nano Robotic
system was injected into an Operator’s body when interfacing with
the ARC suit. The liquid nanites healed any damage an Operator
could sustain during operation. Interface plugs were surgically
implanted into all Operators in the limbs and spine, with the most
important plug situated at the top of the spine just below the nape
of the neck. Without these plugs, Operators could never control the
ARC suits to their full potential. It is said that the surgery to
implant the interface plugs for the ARC suit was excruciatingly
painful.
    Only the
bravest and the best soldiers that could be spared from the armed
forces were recruited and put through trials. The Titan Trial was
the worst kind of military training known to man, gruelling and
sometimes just cruel. Recruits were stretched mentally and
physically beyond what could be considered acceptable levels. Out
of over ten thousand recruits less than half survived the trials,
and implantation and calibration with the ARC suits claimed even
more lives. By the time the few thousand Titans that survived the
trials were ready, more than sixty years had passed since
Subjugation Day. The Titans were broken up into smaller squads
before deployment and Operators maintained their former armed
forces ranks.
    Their first
deployment would be on the frontline, on the planet Arkelis in the
Iona sector. The Beast and soldiers from the armed forces had been
waging war