Building Zoids in a World of Titans

(Veridia River — Southern Edge)

Rhian skipped a flat stone across the water. It bounced twice before sinking.

She picked up another one, turned it over in her palm. Smooth. Good weight. She flicked her wrist and watched it skip three times this time, the ripples spreading out and catching the afternoon light.

Behind her, voices carried from the settlement. Other children were playing near the grain store, their shouts rising and falling like birds. Mara was probably organizing a game of Titan-hunt. Tomas would be cheating already, claiming he'd spotted a Rank D when it was just a dog.

Rhian could go join them. She should go join them.

She threw another stone. Four skips.

Her fingers found the blue pendant at her chest. Alex had promised to tell her before he left. But promises didn't mean much when a kill contract was out and half the Wardens in Veridia were sharpening their weapons.

A stone plinked nearby. She looked up. Mara was jogging over, her braids bouncing.

"You coming? We need one more for teams."

"In a bit."

"You've been staring at the water for an hour."

Rhian shrugged. Mara sat down beside her anyway, plucked a stone from the bank, and threw it badly. They both watched it sink.

"Your metal man still gone?" Mara asked.

"He's not my metal man."

"Right. He's just the weird hermit who lets you watch him build things."

Rhian threw another stone. Five skips this time. She didn't feel proud.

"He'll be fine," Mara said, in the way children said things they didn't believe. "He's always fine."

Rhian nodded. She picked up another rock and held it tight, feeling the grit against her skin, and didn't throw it.

Ziya appeared along the riverbank, her dark hair tied back with a strip of leather. She carried a cloth-wrapped bundle under one arm and walked with the easy stride of someone who'd been on her feet all day and was glad to stop.

"Rhian."

Rhian looked up. "Oh. Hi, Ziya."

"Mind if I sit? My feet are killing me." Ziya settled onto a flat rock near the water without waiting for an answer. She set the bundle aside and stretched her legs out. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to make stones skip."

Ziya watched Rhian throw one. It sank immediately.

"Try a flatter one. Keep your angle low and flick your wrist—don't throw with your whole arm."

Rhian found a thinner rock and tried again. It plunked straight down.

She laughed. Ziya laughed too, and the sound was lighter than Rhian expected. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, watching the current carry leaves downstream.

"How's your father's shop?" Rhian asked.

"Busy. Borin's negotiating a mineral shipment, so I've been running things alone." Ziya picked at a loose thread on her sleeve. "Actually, I saw Alex a few days ago. He came in for parts."

Rhian's fingers tightened around another stone. "Oh?"

"He's out in the forest again, isn't he? Always hunting something." Ziya tilted her head. "What's he after this time?"

"Just a titan. He didn't say which one."

Ziya nodded slowly. Her gaze drifted to the water.

Rhian studied her for a moment. There was something in the way Ziya's expression softened when she mentioned Alex. A look Rhian had seen before, on Mrs. Gable's face when her husband came home from a long trip.

"Ziya?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you like Alex?"

Ziya's hands went still. She turned to Rhian, her cheeks coloring. "What makes you ask that?"

Rhian shrugged, keeping her voice casual. "You get a special look when you talk about him."

"I do not."

"You do. Your eyes go all soft and you stop fidgeting."

Ziya opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "He's... a good customer."

"That's not what I asked."

Ziya was quiet for a long moment. The river filled the silence between them.

"Hmm," she said finally, neither confirming nor denying. She picked up a stone of her own and turned it over in her fingers. "He's strange. Quiet. But when he talks about his work, it's like... like he's the only person in the room who can see something real."

Rhian nodded. She understood that.

Ziya threw the stone. It skipped twice before sinking.

Ziya's stone had just sunk when the first explosion hit.

Not from the forest. From the walls.

Rhian's head snapped toward the eastern rampart. A plume of smoke rose above the timber-and-stone fortifications, and a second blast followed before she could draw breath. The cannons were firing.

"What's happening?" Rhian pushed herself up, her hands muddy.

Ziya was already standing, shading her eyes against the afternoon glare. "Maybe a Titan got too close. They're scaring it off."

A third cannon shot. Then a fourth.

Then the cannons stopped.

The silence lasted maybe two seconds. Long enough for Rhian to think it worked, they scared it away. Long enough for Ziya to mutter, "See? Nothing to—"

The wall exploded.

Not a breach. A detonation. Stone and timber and Titan-plating sprayed outward in a fan of debris, and the shockwave hit the riverbank a moment later, rattling Rhian's teeth. A piece of masonry splashed into the water near her feet.

Then the alarm started. That deep, grinding horn that Rhian had heard in drills but never for real. The sound that meant a Titan is inside the city.

People started screaming.

"Move." Ziya grabbed her hand. Not asking. Pulling. "Come on."

Rhian's legs worked before her brain caught up. They ran. Past the grain store, past overturned carts, past a woman clutching a child and pressing herself against a wall. Other people flowed around them, some running toward the breach, most running away.

A squad of Wardens passed them at a sprint. Four of them, maybe five, carrying rifles and wearing the patchy gear of a rapid response team. Their faces were set. One of them shouted something about containment, but the words got swallowed by the chaos.

Ziya pulled Rhian toward a stone building with a reinforced door. The evacuation center. People were crowding at the entrance.

But Rhian looked back.

A shape moved through the dust. Big. Low to the ground. Walking with the easy, terrible confidence of something that knew exactly where it was.

The dust cleared.

Rhian's breath caught.

The Stormclaw Liger.

Rhian's chest tightened. The shape in the dust was wrong. Too deliberate. Too patient.

"What is the Stormclaw Liger doing here?"

The question barely left her lips before the Wardens moved. Four of them, rifles raised, fanning out in a standard engagement spread. Their sergeant barked an order.

They fired.

The Liger didn't dodge. It didn't need to. The rounds sparked against its hide, leaving faint scorch marks that faded as quickly as they appeared. Its mane flickered, a low hum building in the air.

One of the Wardens reached for a grenade.

The Liger moved.

It was a blur—a smear of grey and blue light that crossed the distance in a heartbeat. Its claws caught the Warden across the chest, and he crumpled before he finished screaming. The others tried to fall back, but the Liger's tail swept through them like a scythe, sending bodies tumbling across the cobblestones.

Silence. Then the hum returned.

Ziya grabbed Rhian's arm. "We need to move. Now."

They ran.

More Wardens poured through the streets. Rhian counted twelve, then twenty, pouring in from every direction, their boots hammering against the packed earth. Someone was shouting coordinates. Someone else was calling for heavy weapons.

Rhian spotted Kaelen among them.

He was pale. His hands shook around his rifle, and his eyes were fixed on the Liger with the look of a man who had realized something terrible. He looked like he was about to piss himself.

"Hold the line!" someone shouted.

The Liger stepped forward.

It didn't charge this time. It walked. Each step was unhurried. A predator that knew its prey had nowhere to go. The Wardens opened fire, and the Liger's mane flared, the air around it crackling with static. Rounds deflected, sparked, and spent themselves against the energy field.

The Liger lunged.

It tore through them. Warden armor crumpled like paper under those claws. A man screamed. Another didn't get the chance.

Rhian's legs kept moving, but her mind watched the Warden's line collapse, disciplined soldiers reduced to a fleeing crowd in seconds.

"This is not a D-rank," Ziya said, her voice shaking. Her face was pale. "That thing… that thing is at least C-rank. Minimum."

They rounded a corner, heading for the main road. The evacuation center was two blocks away. They were going to make it.

A crack of blue light split the air.

The blast hit the wall beside them. Stone exploded. Rhian felt the shockwave slam into her side, throwing her off her feet. She hit the ground hard, her ears ringing, dust filling her lungs.

Ziya was on the ground beside her, clutching her leg. Her face was twisted in pain.

"Ziya!"

"I'm fine. I can't walk, but I'm fine." Ziya gritted her teeth. "Rhian, go. The evacuation center. Now."

"No."

"I can't run. They'll come for me after—"

"I'm not leaving you."

Rhian's hand went to her pocket. Her fingers closed around something small and hard. The communicator. The one Alex had given her, in case of emergencies.

She pressed the activation rune.

"Alex! The Liger—it's at the city! The Stormclaw Liger is attacking Veridia!"