Lupis at the time had not been aware of the hundred corporate hours that went into his ambush and therefore could not appreciate the determination that had gone into the betrayal. A dozen Zenith Corporation tech-engineers had modified the elevator and designed the Net-Comm override signals that would overcome the built in Phantasm Model 3 security features. It had taken time, but was no difficult task, for the Starcore Engineering company was, after all, a subsidiary of the Zenith Corporation, and it was they that manufactured many or most of the top-of-the-line models of personal and professional body armor across the galaxy.

Exposed now with his true appearance to the Zenith officer, Lupis’ first instinct was to attack, but he was quickly put down by an immobilization beam from one of the robots before his hands reached anything to do harm. Before he knew it, he was forced to his knees by several sets of irresistible robotic hands and placed in intellicuffs. He noticed out of the corner of his eye not only the MV1 battle drones, but also there were two Cybernetic Mobile Infantry units quietly watching over the scene, massive battle robots larger even than his armor and nearly invulnerable to conventional small arms fire. He would have been hard pressed to take them on even inside of his armor, but outside of it, he stood no chance of resisting these indestructible machines of war.

The battle drones lifted him to his feet as though his body was weightless and held him tight between a pair of them. The rest of them took up a defensive position around him. Still suffering from the effects of the immobilization beam, which had disrupted his nervous system functions temporarily, his body could not obey the commands of his brain to resist the handling.

He saw that he was now in some type of conference room and not on the floor of the casino. There was a crimson rug covering the floor with an intricate repeating black pattern stitched or sewn into it. Suddenly the doors on the far end of the room opened, and several figures entered. The rotund little crime lord Boss Rancor entered flanked by a few of his gangster bodyguards. Also with him were a few Zenith Corp officers. With that maddening greasy smile, Boss Rancor walked over to regard the captive bounty hunter.

“Ah, would you look at that? I never would have guessed…” Rancor replied with surprise while studying Lupis’ now exposed face. “Tell Cooper and Buddy they were right about the bounty hunter. I owe them a hundred credits.”

Boss Rancor then leaned closer to the sullen captive, pausing briefly to light another cigar with the same etched silver lighter and puffed some smoke into the air. Lupis coughed from the harsh taste that was now in his mouth from the lingering smoke.

“Y’see ol’ chap, we had a bet going on what was underneath that ol’ mirrored helmet of yours. I guess I lost.” He paused briefly to puff another plume of smoke into the air. “No hard feelings, it’s all just business, right ol’ chap?”

“For crimes against the Zenith Corporation…” One of the officers, a skinny Rabbid with a uniform that looked two sizes too big for his frame began. “Including corporate espionage and disobeying a direct Zenith Corp policy, you have been sentenced.”

This was a sham and Lupis recognized it immediately. He had been offered jobs in the past that would have gone against the Zenith Corp interest, but he was always careful to turn those down and had always tried to stay under their radar as much as possible. This all came from a contract that he had fulfilled with them two years ago. They must have realized that he was a dangerous asset that they did not control and wanted him eliminated because of it. At least, that was the best he could come up with at that moment. The only other explanation is if they somehow knew his true identity and past. That he had many years ago worked for Zenith Corp in another life. But he had taken many precautions against anyone ever linking him to that…

“This is Lupis?” One of the Zenith officers, a vicious little hyena stepped up and smacked the side of his face hard. “He doesn’t look so tough. He doesn’t deserve the reputation he has.”

The Hyena Zenith officer, Halden, was the captain of the guard unit that was assigned to the bounty hunter. He spoke into his Net-Comm and a dozen more Titan guards came into the room.

“Get used to being in chains criminal. We’re going to become good friends.” Halden said with a cruel smile.

The other guards escorted the battle drones who were now carrying Lupis out of the room. He would soon be led back to the terminal, where there was a transport shuttle waiting in Bay 27, the ZCAV (Zenith Corporation Auxiliary Vehicle) Triumph. Halden walked over and smiled as he saw the bounty hunter’s armor standing empty on standby mode. There were several of Boss Rancor’s thugs that were standing around it, as if a fight were about to break out between them over it any moment.

“You.” Halden pointed at them and spoke in a commanding voice. “Get away from there you peasants. That armor is mine.”

Boss Rancor’s men looked to their leader with vexation etched across their faces. Boss Rancor puffed on his cigar in a satisfied manner, and simply shrugged in response. He knew that the original deal had included the armor but knew when to pick his battles. He instead chose to call out to the captured Titan one last time.

“Enjoy your trip!” The little boss mocked.

The guard captain walked into the armor and soon grew frustrated when it did not obey his commands. He barked orders at the tech-engineers who came over to assist.

Within ten minutes they had hacked the armor and showed Halden how to close it up around him. Now encased in the famed bounty hunter’s armor, he made his way back to the bay and the Triumph.

* * * *

White hot anger seethed through Lupis’ veins like a lightning bolt. In a single moment he had relived both his betrayal at the hands of Boss Rancor and the Zenith Corporation and the fantasy world of Angela and the small little town that had been besieged by the villainous Red Pistol Brotherhood. Though reliving the part about his betrayal had probably not been part of the plan. That had come from his own stubborn subconscious.

Lupis’ eyes flew open. He had been in a sort of trance, though it had felt like months while trapped in the fantasy world, he realized that it had in truth been only a moment. He saw that his body had been moving without his consent, and he was attempting to free the disgusting tentacled octopus creature inside of its glass enclosure.

The anger intensified as he realized what had happened, how this creature had attempted to mentally dominate him, just like the one on Tuscan had. That time his suit had probably saved him, this time he had nothing but his fury to thank. The creature seemed to realize that he had lost control, for it folded in on itself and flattened its boneless body against the far wall of its tube-like prison, gleaming black-button spider eyes watched the Titan fearfully. Lupis hefted the glass case over his head and smashed it to the ground.

“Stop, what are you doing?” Lupis heard the hateful voice speaking inside of his head and it enraged him further. “I am you’re friend!” Though not spoken with true vocal cords, Lupis could hear the pleading desperation behind the thought.

The case shattered and glass and water both flew across the ground, leaving only the bulbous creature flailing on the ground, a shrieking noise like a maddening siren exploded inside of Lupis’ mind. Lupis looked down, his incensed eyes wide with fury, and smashed his boot into the slimy creature.

“I don’t have friends.” Lupis thought back at the creature, not knowing if the telepathic connection was still active or not.

For a moment, Lupis forgot all about the other leg being broken, and put all his weight on it without a second thought. He had forgotten in his madness all other injuries as well, his ribs, his wrists, everything. For a moment, the only thing that existed in the entire galaxy was the hateful creature, and Lupis’ bootheel grinding it into the ground. Eventually, the psychic screaming ceased, and the world was again quiet. All that was left was a lump of smooshed greyish alien pulp and a purplish ooze that had leaked out from it.

Lupis now remembered where he was, inside of the alien structure, searching for the survivors of the crashed Triumph, who were not that far away from him now. He also remembered the past indignities that he had suffered. He remembered his wrath, and his purpose. Lupis looked around the room once, filled with strange, otherworldly equipment like an alien control center, and then turned to leave. He knew where he had to go, and what he had to do.

* * * *

When Lupis got back to the PTC, which was still waiting for him on standby mode, he began exploring the operating system more in depth than he had before. As it turned out, there was a water mode as an option, which was convenient because he did not think he would be able to swim far with his body in the shape that it was in. As the days had gone by on this desolate alien planet, he had regained better control over the functions of his sprained wrists and bruised ribs, but the leg was most definitely broken, and unless he could get to some nanobots, would take weeks to heal.

Lupis pushed the steering controls forward and eased the personal transportation craft nervously into the water. At first, he was anxious, but soon the craft was completely in the water, and it did possess buoyancy, as the operating system suggested. Though he could not see them from inside the cab of the craft, two ports opened on the rear of the vehicle, exposing turbine propellers that began to power Lupis through the water.

The PTC’s propellers did not push the vehicle through the water at incredible speeds, a readout on the windshield was announcing speeds of about five or six knots, but it did the job, and soon, as the sun was disappearing into the horizon and the night was closing in, he spotted the dark shape of an island rising up from the water in the distance. The island looked closer than it was, and it took about an hour to reach it. By the time the PTC rolled back onto dry land, the sun had completely disappeared from the sky, leaving this strange world an inky blackness that was darker than any night he had ever experienced on Titan.

In the dark sky above, strange and possibly dangerous creatures carried out their own ecosystem, one that the Titan could not see or hear, but was keenly aware of all the same. He figured the same could be said beneath the waters surrounding the island.

Lupis brought up the operating system again on the inside of the windshield, and cycled to the global positioning system, which he had stored the results from the Triumph’s sensor scans. The GPS confirmed that he was now in the correct location, he was now within a mile of the survivors’ last position. He popped open the front hatch of the PTC and climbed out, gripping the Spectroscope and flipping the switch to turn it on. The screen flared to life on the side of the gun-like tool, exposing a faint bluish glow. He scanned the area for life forms and soon found them. The survivors were still here, and he was soon making his way towards them.

Lupis began to grow excited at the prospect of getting his revenge on the guards that had imprisoned him, especially Captain Halden. He wasn’t sure exactly what he would see as he climbed a steep hill, but he got down low to reduce his profile against the sky as he reached the crest and peered over into the dark valley below. Whatever he had imagined he would find when he finally caught up to the other survivors, it was not what he was now gazing down upon.

Instead of the guards being in control of the other criminals and condemned Titans, it was the other way around. He saw that there were a few members of the crew left alive, and they were seated around a campfire in the valley below. They looked tortured and terrified. The ones that were walking around with guns were all the criminals who at the time of the Triumph going down, had been prisoners.

And then Lupis spotted something that instantly diverted his attention. His armor was walking around. He wasn’t sure who was now wearing it, but the thought of any one of those criminals or the hateful Halden inside of it made his blood boil. He then saw next to the Titan wearing his armor a hunk of meat roasting over the campfire. He was not sure what the meat was, but his guess was it was either one of the survivors that the guards may have been keeping alive to cannibalize or one of the numerous alien monsters that inhabited the planet. Neither was particularly appetizing.

Lupis decided to watch the other survivors from his unseen position and study them before rushing in. Curiously, they had some type of experiment going on, and they were either allowing or forcing a few of the crew members to conduct it.

After a few hours it slowly became apparent what was happening. The crew members that were doing the work were likely the ship’s engineers, and they had a copper wire leading from the crescent shaped bay that they were camping near into the water. The other end was leading into one of the missing replicators. He was no scientist and wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, but as he watched them it looked like they had a magnet that the waves were forcing up and down along the copper wire, creating a small electrical current in the wire. They were trying to power the replicator he eventually deduced.

And then after several hours laying on his stomach, watching from the crest of the hill, he saw an opening. Whoever it was that was defiling his Phantasm armor, began to walk away from the rest of the group, leaving the safe radius of the glow from the campfire. Lupis moved as quickly as his broken leg would allow him to, trying his best to ignore the pain as he made his way back down the hillside to intercept.

Lupis found it hard to sneak in the condition he was in, but he crept as quietly as he could around the side of the hill, through the cover of the fungus-like sprouts that served as flora on this planet’s surface. When he came around the side of the hill, he saw in the darkness up ahead his armor standing open. A single Titan Weasel was squatting down near a cropping of fungus relieving himself. Lupis drew the knife and stalked his prey.

Under normal circumstances, Lupis’s naturally stealthy frame along with years of training and practice would allow him to sneak up on a single Titan doing his business out in the wild rather effortlessly. With a broken leg in a makeshift splint, he was not exactly at the height of his prowess and approached cautiously. He adjusted his fingers around the hilt of the knife, and he drew closer, now within ten feet of arms range. He shuffled forward, risking speeding up a little, for he knew that the Titan would soon finish and return to the Phantasm armor, and at that point, getting him out again would prove a daunting task.

The Weasel was finished and was now standing to fasten his pants. Lupis fought back the urge to panic and remained steady. He was now nearing range to strike and was preparing for a lunge when his splinted leg scraped across the ground. The sound drew the other Titan’s attention, he spun to face his stalker, and their eyes met in the darkness of the night.

Lupis needed a few more steps to be in the position he wanted to be in, but having run out of time at this point, he lunged. The other Titan had been caught off-guard but was still quick enough to throw his hands up to defend himself. The Weasel managed to grab ahold of both of Lupis’ hands, and both combatants fell to the ground in a desperate struggle for control over the knife. Lupis was the larger of the two and should have been able to overpower the other Titan, but Weasels were naturally deft and slippery, and the fact that Lupis’ wrists were still sprained leveled the playing field between them.

The Weasel pushed back against the sprained wrists that wrestled against him, and the pain that shot through Lupis was sudden and unbearable. He decided in the heat of the moment to abandon his only weapon and shifted his body weight to use it against his slender foe. Lupis managed to mount the other Titan while the Weasel swiftly adjusted his uncontested grip on the knife. Lupis rained down a flurry of elbows to the Weasel’s exposed face and managed to stun him temporarily with a well-placed strike to the Weasel’s long nose. The crafty weasel in turn, had noticed his larger opponent’s obvious weakness, and began trying to kick at the splinted leg.

The Weasel tore at Lupis with the claws of his empty hand while Lupis managed to deftly move his guard higher, pinning the other hand gripping the knife to the ground with his knee. Lupis rained down a few more strikes to draw the now nearly rabid Weasel’s guard up, suffering a multitude of claws and scratches as he did. When the other Titan’s guard went up again to protect from Lupis’ elbow strikes, Lupis scooped up the knife and tore it away. A moment later the deadly struggle was over as Lupis plunged the knife into the Weasel’s throat.

Lupis pulled the knife free as he struggled back to his feet. He left his opponent to bleed out on the alien ground and stumbled back towards his open armor. He backed into it and the suit’s internal sensors detected his unique scent signatures and quickly snapped closed around him. He was back inside his armor, and underneath the familiar mirrored helmet, his maw twisted into a cruel grin.