“We’re out of time, c’mon move move!” Wolton stood at the door to the hab-unit, watching as the other scientists rushed around like crazy, gathering as much as they could in their frenzy to escape.

The science bots were already loaded and waiting by the door. Most of their research had been downloaded into an encrypted cloud, but there were several pieces of equipment that were hard to come by and would be nearly impossible to replace.

On the sidelines watching the mad rush were two Titan Canids. They were examining their new E-Rifles the scientists had bestowed upon them a few hours ago when the TASOs first arrived. The members of the Union had been printing and stockpiling as many weapons as they could for the coming fight, but it had come sooner than they had been prepared for. After the successes with their proton flight packs, they had imagined a future where they would take the fight to the oppressors and carry out hit and run missions against vital targets and then disappear into the shadows. What they had not counted on was the Trade Alliance showing up on their front doors with an army ready to go.

“Bring everyone then!” Halen was still at the kitchen table, speaking frantically into his Net-Comm. “Anyone who is willing to fight! Come now.”

Halen stood up from his seat and looked across the room at Wolton, still waiting by the door as the remaining few scientists that had not already scattered to other parts of the building, were disassembling as much of the massive 3-D printing machinery as they could. They focused on what was vital at this point, knowing that some of the materials they could gather again later.

“We’ve got some more Union sympathizers coming now, we just have to wait.” Halen said.

“Offload the rest of these rifles to anyone that wants to fight.” Wolton replied. “We can’t take them all anyway.”

“I don’t think there’s a way out of this one.” Atani said to his old friend.

Jardan stood next to him, staring down the sights of the E-rifle. He was now in full entertainer gear, with brightly colored streamers hanging from both arms. It was the outfit he performed in several times a month for the last year, trying to incite rebellion among the Titans of the city. All the while their little group had no idea in the next AstroBloc over from them there was another rebellion beginning, with much more organization and resources than the three of them could have dreamed for. He wondered how many other little cells might be out there in the city.

“Don’t say it like that old friend. We are going to stream this to the Titannet, the whole world will see our deaths and be inspired by them. This is probably the very thing we’ve been looking for all along.”

“Perhaps.” Atani replied. “But I was hoping to do it without the whole ‘death’ thing on my end. That leaves a rather bad taste in my mouth.” He then turned towards Wolton standing by the door. “I mean, am I right doc? You do have some kind of plan to get out of here?”

“Well, after all you’ve said about your sister, it would be nice for her to be here right about now.”

“He doesn’t have a plan.” Jardan laughed, despite the bleak situation they were facing.

“My original plan would have included your sister and the three Procyons with their new proton flight packs. Now we are improvising since neither of those resources are available to us.”

Another one of the scientists, a black and white striped Mustelid came over then.

“I’m not a military strategist.” He replied while lighting a large, battered meerschaum calabash pipe thoughtfully. “But my background in mathematics will help. We have some advantages fighting in these corridors. The fighting will be more to our advantage than you might think. They will not be able to bring the full brunt of their forces upon us. Nor will they be able to flank us.” He then brought up a holo-display from his cerebral implant.

“We can post shooters on the top floors along this route, and they will have no other choice but to go through our gauntlet. Let’s get to work setting traps, you two boys come with me.” He motioned to the two Canids while puffing great clouds. “And we will pray to the suns in the heavens that enough Titans show up to arm themselves with our rifles there.”

Atani and Jardan shared a look and spoke privately through their EEG Net-Comms.

“Now they’re finally making sense. We can do traps.”

“Yes we can. Let’s go.” Jardan responded, though his words were not in real space, the smile on his maw was.

* * * *

“Sir, we’ve been monitoring all local transmissions through the Titannet.” A soldier came up behind the steel faced Lycaon Chief of Security and reported. “We have a few interesting matches.”

Rymond turned from his own overlay display in which he was receiving from the Trade Alliance headquarters lists of residents within Towerview Center. He had been watching closely as he ran the names through a predictive technology AI to narrow down the list.

The soldier brought up a holo-display in real time, and beamed the audio to the commander’s cerebral Net-Comm. One of the messages was clearly an older Titan, by the sound of the voice, asking for volunteers. “Anyone who is willing to fight! Come now.”

“Another Titan accessed the floor plans to the building inside the same hab-unit within minutes.” The soldier announced.

“Floor thirty-four.” Rymond repeated, seeing the data on his overlay that the soldier was sending. “Good work.”

Rymond had his troops combing the very top and bottom floors and they were already filling the first ten stories, as well as the top two. The patrollers from the first two floors had already concluded a thorough investigation and had been ordered to send down every Titan resident that they cleared by a complete house search. At first, he was going to let these Titans go, floor by floor, until they only had rebels left inside. But now he placed a command through his Net-Comm to have the commanders of units one through seven keep them all in the lobby. He felt having the innocents stick around would be a good deterrent for any self-destructive behavior the insurgents might be planning, such as blowing up the building. It wasn’t that he actually cared about the innocent lives, but that it would destroy any credibility these rebels might try to garner with the people if they killed thousands of innocents themselves.

“Squad units eight through twelve, assemble on floor thirty-three. Use thirty-three as a staging point. Once assembled, send everyone up one floor to thirty-four. And prepare to meet resistance.”

Hundreds of battle units marched past him to follow the order. Rymond rubbed his paws together. It would only be a short time now before the fighting began. He would have his rebels, and he would kill every last one of them tonight.

* * * *

“Fighting has started on several floors of Golden Gardens sir.” The Trade Alliance battle unit reported to the commander of squad unit thirty. The commander brought up a satellite feed on his Net-Comm overlay. The view from the outside of the building appeared as though fireworks were going off inside as muzzle flashes could be seen through the window slats on multiple floors at once.

“Great, just my luck all the good fighting is going on over there.” The commander, who was a large pred-Felid replied in contempt of his own surroundings.

“They’ve encountered a resistance cell that call themselves the New Kallerish Freedom Army.” The robot stated.

At the moment, the robotic units were rounding up all the residents of floor one-hundred-fifty, the top story of Towerview. They had most of the floor’s residents already assembled in the central park area, they were just awaiting the last few sweeps.

The commander was understandably upset by his assignment. Much like many other, if not most other officers within the Trade Alliance security forces, he had spent years studying at the prestigious Russevia National Defence Academy. There had not been any opportunities for young officers like him to make a name for themselves in real warfare for several generations now, and they salivated for the prospect of glory.

But his luck saw him leading a detachment of around ninety MV7 security units on the penthouse of Towerview Center. The upper floors of the AstroBlocs were reserved for the very wealthy and powerful members of the community. There would be little chance for poor disconnected rebels here among the elite of society.

The young commander strode down the small lane into the massive yawning park in the center of the floor. He saw a gathering now ahead of the entire floor stretching before him. Even though the park encompassed quite a massive area, there were approximately fifteen hundred residents on the top story and gathered together, they were overflowing into the corridors leading to the hab centers.

The commander gazed at the Titan assembly contemptuously. These were the pampered privileged class, not the freedom fighters that he would be able to triumph over for the glory of his CEO. Only he noticed something strange about the gathering upon approach, that made him pause to take a closer look. The outer line of Titans assembled were indeed cossetted and draped in fancy useless clothing, sweeping capes and wide-brimmed hats. Seeming to hide among and behind them though, were several that he was not so sure about.

“Unit, bring me that Titan there.” He commanded one of his flanking robots carrying sleek black Zenith Corp E-Rifles, which were different than the Trade Alliance ones. The unit followed the commander’s finger and brought forth a scruffy looking Titan from between several of the wealthy residents.

The commander gazed harshly at the rough little Rodentia. The Titan looked as though he would have been more at home on some wharf betting on pugilistic contests than on the top floor of one of Kallerish City’s Lower South Market District AstroBlocs. He wore a bandanna around his forehead and one of his outsized ears had a large bite chunk missing but was adorned with gaudy hoop earrings.

“You there. What are you doing on the penthouse? You do not look fit to even live among the lower floors of this establishment.”

The small but gruff looking chipmunk Rodentia did not answer. He stood patiently before the intimidating commander, dressed in full Trade Alliance white and blue combat armor. Only he did not seem intimidated, which struck the commander as strange. What poor Titan in rags would be brought before a fully armored unit commander representing the full might of Zenith Corp and not cower in fear?

“Answer me Rodent.” The commander ordered. The Chipmunk sneered in reply. “Scan his chip, see where he belongs.”

One of the security units grabbed the Rodentia’s hand and performed a scan. The Titan did not resist, but the cocky look he gave the commander the entire time was somehow unnerving.

“Floor eleven, Hab-unit one-forty-four.” The robot unit responded through its speaker.

“Floor eleven.” The unit commander replied thoughtfully. “What on Titan are you doing in the penthouse, rodent?”

“A better question is, what are you doing here?” The chipmunk replied defiantly.

The commander pointed at the Titan before him, noticing something else that grabbed his attention suddenly.

“What are those symbols you’re wearing?”

The chipmunk wagged his eyes and smiled but did not answer. It was as though he knew a secret that he was not letting on to the rest of the gathering. Several members of the crowd also seemed suspicious at that point, though the commander could not quite put his finger on exactly what was off-putting about them. Something about their demeanor seemed to imply that they too were privy to some information that he did not yet know.

“Those symbols he wears are unfamiliar to me. Scan those symbols.” The commander ordered the robot that was still standing beside the shabby little Rodentia. The unit accessed its databases and cross-checked them through the Zenith Corp global cloud and came back with an answer a few moments later.

“Voodoo Kings. These are gang symbols.” The robot replied.

“Gang symbols?” The unit commander laughed heartily. “You’re a filthy little ganger and you’re on the penthouse floor? Did we catch you trying to rob someone rodent?”

“Not exactly furball. I was waiting for you.” The chipmunk replied with a confrontational sneer.

“Good! Finally, a Titan with some spirit! Unlike the pathetic lot of you.” The unit commander jeered at the gathering of nobles watching impassively. “You see, this is the spirit I was hoping to encounter! When I was sent to the upper-floors I was afraid all the well-to-do dandies would be too formal and prissy to fight back. This is exactly the type of Titan I was hoping to encounter, one with a little fight left in him, so I can crush that spirit for Zenith Corp!”

“Well then.” Came a startlingly deep growling voice from behind the front center of the crowd. “Are you going to be pleased to meet me.”

“Who said that?” The unit commander demanded, but he did not have to wait long to get a response.

The entire front line of wealthy residents of the top floor of Towerview Center dropped flat to the ground in unison. At the same time, a massive Canid Wolfen in a black sleeveless vest stood and took aim with an Etcher machine pistol. Around him was a gathering of over a hundred Voodoo Kings members, all armed.

Segundo’s right eye narrowed, his left was covered with an eyepatch displaying a prominent skull in the center. A storm of bullets barked from his pistol before the unit commander could react. Several of the rounds bounced off his polished sturdy Trade Alliance battle armor, but like many of the other soldiers who had not faced real resistance in a generation, he neglected to wear a helmet. It proved to be a final and fatal mistake for the unit commander of squad unit thirty.

“Get ‘em boys!” The menacing Wolfen roared as the rest of the gangers opened fire. “Fuck Zenith Corp! For the Voodoo Kings!”

“Voodoo Kings!” The others chanted in frenzied unison.