The Titans is a 2022 short story written by Tim Lebbon, published as part of the anthology novel Predator: Eyes of the Demon.
Plot[]
Seventy-years-old Jeremiah Beck lives his life as a librarian at Hamilton Station, a base on the surface of Titan, a small moon being terraformed by Weyland-Yutani. For sixteen years he managed the terraforming base's library in order to provide a "safe haven" for two-hundred Weyland-Yutani working personell, given them a chance to relax from dangerous and demanding ten-day shifts.
But live hasn't always been like that for Jeremiah. As a young man, he was a Corporal with the United States Colonial Marines, serving for the 13th Spaceborn regiment. His platoon unit, called "The Unluckies", were ordered to investigate an incident at Rankin Station, encountering a hunting party of Predators, which took up base at the abandoned station. The marines fight the predators, but ultimately being slaughtered, Jeremiah being the sole survivor of this encounter, managing to reach an escape pod after setting the station to self-destruct, heavily wounded and being chased by a similar wounded female Yautja, which he nicknamed "Luna". Beck was rescued, but suffers from nightmares about the incident, his fallen comrades and Luna ever since.
One day, he is greeted in front of the libraries entrance by a newly arrived woman named "Bindy". She starts to ask Jeremiah questions about the Rankin Station incident, bringing back bad memories almost immediately. Suddenly an explosion ripps through Hamilton Base. Rushing to a window and taking a view outside, Jeremiah's worst nightmare has come true. An old and battered predator ship sat down at the landing pad, Beck knowing immediately, that Luna finally found him, wanting to take revenge on him.
Sensing, that the predator will create havoc and inflicting heavy civilian casualities to get her revenge on Jeremiah, he finds his strength and determination, willing to protect the civilians. Amidst the chaos, Beck moves toward the entry point of the predator, arming himself with a pistol and a long-bladed knife in the process. He is able to locate Luna, get her attention and move to hangar bay two, being informed by the stations chef engineer about a readied vehicle, he could use to lure the predator away from the station. The predator is hot on Jeremiahs tail, but he manages to get into the "Sandbug" vehicle, start it up, and escape through the bay doors outside, Luna giving chase and firing with her shoulder-mounted plasma caster, constantly damaging the vehicle. Finally, at the edge of a dried out methan lake, the vehicle brakes down and Jeremiah is forced to make his last stand, confronting the predator face to face.
Instead of starting the fight he throws away his pistol, angering Luna, who anticipated a hand-to-hand fight to settle the score with him once and for all. She slammes a glaive in Beck's chest, piercing him, and lifts him above her head. Enjoying her moment of triumph, Jeremiah is able to slash her throat with his knife, mortally wounding Luna. The predator tries to activate her self-destruction failsafe, but is unable to do so, because of her mangled hand. Finally the two enemies lay close together and stare at each other awaiting certain death.
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