Chapter I: Warning

Shit, they're all over us! Can't walk two meters without running into another IMC motherfucking titan! "Gloria! Laser shot that Ronin!" I shout into my helmets feed as I launch the last of my Archer missiles at the target while leaping over another piece of fallen building, throwing the launcher away as I pull up my R-201 from my back. An orange beam of energy impacts the Ronin dead in the cockpit, staggering it long enough for my missile to impact with an explosion of white sparks and metal rain. The Ronin falters a step but a followup barrage of Splitter Rifle shots melt the inner cockpit, the leftover chassis falling face first into the ground and detonating in an orange fireball. Stupid bastard didn't even sword block while advancing. Where's the IMC getting these dumb asses?

"Barker, where the fuck are you?! We're almost at the evac point!" I shout as my R-201 bucks in my hands, the shots downing some Specters blocking my way as I slide to avoid some of the return fire. Stupid fucker was supposed to be arriving already! I dive behind more fallen building parts to avoid a Reaper, a few of its rockets flying overhead. A quick peak cover and a linked target lock is all I need, another beautiful orange beam slicing the Reaper in two. A sarcastic, partially drunken voice finally answers over the comm. "Hey, settle down Seb. You aren't the only pilot I'm picking up today. Still gotta get Livewire out too." Son of a bitch! Livewire was supposed to be on board already! This was becoming one huge fuck fest! I snarl in frustration before retorting angrily, "Alright, alright! Climbing the building now! You better be there when I get up top, Barker! Gloria, transfer into my helmet now!" A grappling hook shoots out of my left wrist as I leap over the debris in the street, tense wire reeling me in towards the building on my right.

"Acknowledged, Sebastian. Beginning transfer. 10%...20%...30%..." a mechanical voice responds calmly and I allow myself a grim smile when I hear her weapons still firing. Good old Gloria, fighting on even as she's being transferred. She doesn't fuck up as bad as the rest of us and in the time I've been her Pilot, I don't think she's fucked up in her lifetime. Least not in sight range.

Bullets and laser shots from angry IMC ground forces follow me up the building, the wrist mounted motor reeling in the line to drag me up the wall as my keep the trigger of my rifle depressed, not bothering to aim so long as it's pointed in their general direction. "Don't worry about counting down, Gloria! I'll know when it's done!" I shout as I reach the top of the building, my hand grabbing the edge of the roof as the other slaps the rifle against my waist to dislodge a mag. I'm about to pull myself fully up when halfway exposed, a proximity warning goes off in my helmet. I duck down instantly, laser shots from a Volt nearly blowing my head off. Fuck! Guards up here too?! Really?! My R-201 slaps my waist again, slotting another mag before I raise it over the lip of the roof, firing full auto right to left and emptying the new mag.

A few screams sound and my left hand is already pulling hard, launching me a few meters upwards then quickly grabbing a spare mag off my belt to slam it into the rifle. Air's filled with buckets of lead and energy, all of it shot at me by the IMC. Some of the ones up here are knee capped but two of the whiteys are still up, aiming their guns. Sure they are. I pull the trigger of my rifle again, exploding heads into fountains of red gore with a few placed shots.

An explosion of a titan core sounds nearby along with screams of the dying, a grim smile painting my face behind my helmet as a calm voice states, "Transfer complete, Sebastian. I am ready to depart at your discretion." Emptying the rest of my mag into the survivors on the roof, I quickly swap to my last mag and check the surroundings for more hostiles, laying low to avoid the fire from below. And there's my ride. Barker's dropship rapidly approaches at an angle to the building, flying erratically to avoid the fire pointed at it. God dammit. I run towards the roof's edge, trails of lead and energy following my movements as I jump off the building onto the dropship, the phase field pulling me into the interior with a crash of armor on metal. A drunken voice quickly slurs, "Hey, Seb. Welcome aboard! Glad you didn't miss that jump!"

"Barker, you stupid fuck! You're flying drunk again?!" I shout in reply, throwing myself to my feet. Of course he is. Barker raises his favorite silver flask in his right hand to emphasize his drunkenness. "C'mon, Seb! You know I can't fly half as good sober! Hold onto something!" he shouts in a slur, the dropship doing a quick jerk to the left that throws me to the right most wall of the craft. The whole interior is shaking like a god dam orbital entry! Barker doesn't seem to notice, laughing heartily and slurring, "Sorry about that, Seb! Had to avoid a missile. And-"

Another Pilot phases into the compartment, slamming onto the floor but quickly rising to their feet. Well, we got Livewire. No one else wears armor of the Marauder Corp colors if they don't have to. The slight Pilot pulls her helmet off, red hair spilling down her shoulders as she comments calmly, "Nice flying, Barker. Is that everyone?" Livewire, always business. I do a rapid head count, counting five heads including mine. Yep, everyone's here more or less. I didn't waste any more time, moving quickly to strap into a nearby harness for the incoming jump. "Captain, what happened? I thought you were getting on first," I shout over the growing din of the ship shaking. She's quickly strapping into a harness across from me, a neutral expression on her face as she states, "Had a nice dual with two Legions. Couldn't risk the drop ship."

"Fuck, Captain! A few of us could've helped!" I exclaim but more for show. She's always like this when she knows she can handle it. A hand pats my right shoulder and my head jerks around to the woman sitting next to me. "Cheer up, you grumpy bastard. She lived, we all lived, no casualties. Jobs done and we get to relax a bit. What's the big deal?" the woman says arrogantly with a show of teeth. Ugh. Idol, an arrogant piece of shit and the god dam Ace of the group in her Vanguard. Expensive piece of shit that titan is but it can adapt to any situation far as I know. I smile in amusement to myself at the thought. Yeah, expensive piece of shit we just blew up today. I shout angrily while still smiling, "That was a fucking shit show down there! So much for recon accuracy! Limited force my ass!" The interior lurches hard downwards then upwards as Barker kicks in the afterburners, our velocity increasing and causing the interior to vibrate visibly. I reach for my cigars in their pouch on my belt only to find that a stray shot had taken the pouch off. "Oh, those motherfuckers!" I swear loudly to the growing amusement of Idol who retorts loudly, "Hey, it's a good thing! Smoking's bad for you."

"Shut the fuck up, Idol!" I shout, nearly unstrapping myself from the harness in anger as she grins at my misfortune, all broken teeth and arrogance. God dam this unit and god dam my spot in it for the millionth time. Barker slurs over the ships intercom, "Yo, kids...jump's spooled up...better keep your lunch in this time!" There's no further warning when the dropship suddenly lurches forward, time and space bending as we jump to somewhere else. I grit my teeth as the forces play hell on my innards. "Sebastian. Are you feeling well? I read that-"

"Not now, Gloria..." I growl through gritted teeth. A gasp escapes everyone strapped in as we return to reality a moment later, red warning lights blinking as a computerized voice elaborates, "Warning. Approach velocity exceeding maximum safe levels. Brace for impact." Barker kills the red lights and the warnings before slurring, "Piece of junk! I'm well within the flying speed!" A massive impact shakes me to the bones as the ship comes down hard in the landing bay, red lights winking on and off again from the hull damage. "And we're down! Good job, people!" Barker slurs as he rises from his seat. He's gonna get himself killed if he keeps flying like that without a harness on. In a slow gait, he staggers towards the rear entrance and pulls the overhead handle to open the rear ramp with a pneumatic hiss, tripping over himself to fall out the ramp in a roll.

And he's our commanding officer. This drunken washout is the one giving me my orders. Body sore, I unstrap myself slowly and painfully from my harness and double check the interior. Livewire's up and leaving along with Idol with their typical calmness and arrogance. Dam adrenaline junkies. Pincushion's steadily bringing his breathing back to normal, face straight ahead in shock. Poor kid. Barkers flying scares the shit out of him every time. I go over and unstrap him, offering a hand to help him up and saying gently, 'You alright, kid? Didn't take a bullet and not tell us, did you?" He doesn't look up immediately or answer and I shake him on the shoulder to get his attention, his head snapping up to meet me. "C'mon, kid. Flight's over. Let's get out of the ship for the next bunch."

He has a grim expression on his face as he tries to rise, nearly stumbling and forcing me to steady him with an arm under his armpit. "Easy, kid. We're all scared to shit by Barker and his flying but look on the bright side. He's got a record for not crashing," I sarcastically comment but he doesn't smile, his face gaunt and pale. Eh, he'll get over it. I let him as soon as I'm sure he can stand straight and go to go check on Albatross who hasn't moved at all when we landed, a hand on her stomach and her head lolled to one side. Rushing over, I move the hand away from her stomach to see a ragged hole punched through her side and immediately go for my helmet comm. "Shit! Hanger! We got a Pilot wounded! We need medical in here now!"

I quickly gesture to Pin with my other hand and command, "Get me something to patch her up with!" A bandage wrap hits hand and I smile at the efficiency. Good kid. Both of my hands start rapidly rapping Albatross' midriff with bandages tightly followed by both hands pressing the wound, blood now seeping into the bandages. "Alb, look at me. Alb!" I shout at her but her helm doesn't move. I quickly nod my head in Pin's direction and command, "Pin, get her helmet off!"

He moves efficiently, his hands rapidly releasing the catches on her helmet to reveal a face extremely pale and eyes closed. The light causes her eyes to open weakly before she closes them again with a grunt of pain. "Alb, don't move! You took a hit to the side! Medicals coming, just hold on!" I shout and thankfully, Medical arrives quickly, two white armored corpsman moving us aside as they tend to the wound and prep her to move to the medical bay.

We couldn't do anything else but get out of their way, my hand grabbing Pin under his arm and moving him out of the dropship. As we thump down the metal ramp, he looks frightened at being moved like this. When we hit the deck, however, I crack a smile and give him a hard pat on the shoulder while growling, "Smooth moves, Pin. You might've saved a fellow pilot back there. We'll see how she does but I think she'll live. Alb's a tough bitch and won't just die on us that easily."

Pin seems a little uplifted by the praise, his posture straightening and head raising slightly as he stutters out, "Th..th..thank you...sir..." I slap him hard on the back in reply with a laugh, nearly pushing him over. "I'm nobodies sir, kid. Just use my name," I state as he rights himself before responding timidly, "Thank you...Seb..."

"Think nothing of it. Besides, a dead Pilot aboard the ship doesn't look good on our reputation." Pin chuckles nervously as he adds to my comment, "And...what reputation...is that..?" I laugh loudly at his rebuttal. Smart kid. "Yeah, you got me there. I think you've been spending too much time with Idol. Least she got one think right. Time to unwind and get ready for the next one," I state while walking away, sore yet glad the missions over as I head out of the hanger, Pin a few steps behind.

My first stop is to go drop off my kit at the armory for repairs, Pin shadowing my movements. Still don't like him attached to me but who else could he attach to? Livewire's too high up the chain to get along with, Idol's an arrogant bitch, Barker's a son of a bitch, and Alb is prone to getting wounded. I'm no better with the swearing and the smoking but I guess that's minor flaws in comparison. My irritation finally reaches its max as I growl, "Kid, why do you always shadow me? Why can't you grow a pair and go make some man or women a happy person? At the very least, go talk with some of the other Pilots about...anything."

His response is disarming in its sincerity and quick in its execution. "You need me here. Otherwise, you'd be all alone on this ship. It's not a secret that you hate the unit." Fuck, got me again. From smart kid to smart ass. I don't bother to answer as the armory keeper asks for my helmet again, my response to turn around and leave like I always do. When's the stupid bastard gonna learn that I keep my helmet to myself? Pin chimes in on my right a few steps down the hall. "I never asked why you hate the unit because I thought you'd tell us when you're ready-"

I hold up a hand and angrily rant, "Kid, let me tell you something. I applied for the 6-4 and they put me here, going from potential advancement to the ass ends of the units." My hands gesture around me hastily as other soldiers look at me in confusion. "Angel City Elite? Yeah, we're the elite all right. Elite at being the most disorderly and unorthodox unit in the Militia. Barely equipped, barely recognized. I think the most expensive thing we've gotten recently is that Vanguard with Idol and we just got that blown up."

I round on Pin with an angry expression, seizing his shoulders and shaking him slightly with a face of aggression. "For what? A seizure op? What did we even get outta that mission?" I shout, one of my hands going to back of my head and I exhale to calm myself down, noticing the kid staring straight ahead and looking scared. Son of a bitch, I did it again. I quickly take my hands off him and gently say, "Sorry, kid. Didn't mean to rant at ya. But I guess you know why now, huh?" Pin just nods stiffly as we continue our walk towards the mess hall, my last line echoing in my mind.

What did we even get outta that mission?

As soon as we enter the open bulkhead, I take a gander at the scene of the messhall. Not a lot of Pilots in here. Most of the occupants are either staff on break or Riflemen off duty. Perfect. It means that the cook can bust out the better rations I bought. "Yo, Paul! You get that req ready for me?" I shout from across the room at the man behind counter who looks up at me with a sour look, "Yeah, I got you're god dam potatoes. Least you could do is share em with the rest of us."

"Oh, don't give me that shit. Or did someone forget that last shipment of booze we liberated from the last op?" I retort with an arrogant grin, his grizzled and scarred face look at me sourly as he starts serving up mashed potatoes and gravy with protein slices for the two of us. Don't blame us for getting your helmet blown off. We all have our day. "Booze ain't food, smart ass. It isn't an equal exchange," he retorts, sliding the trays roughly to us and almost dumping them on the floor.

Something in his voice made me believe he isn't pissed at me as I ask gently in a whisper, "Let me guess. The drop that went for the req is still MIA?" He nods his head grimly and I swear loudly. Those god dam rejects always spending more time on Harmony than needed. Didn't they know people starve when they decide to do unsanctioned R&R? I quickly look around the tables, seeing some of the poor bastards sharing pathetic meals and swear again, moving over to one of the tables and tossing down my meal to a surprised group of staff. "You need this more than me. Make sure you share or there will be hell to pay," I angrily growl as bewildered eyes following my progress back towards Paul, my voice growling to him, "Portion out the stock I bought. No one's starving today. Just give me the usual rations."

"At the rate I keep owing you and our crew delaying on the req runs, I won't have anything left for you to get paid back with," he growls lowly to me, more in respect than anger. I sigh as he portions out the normal protein amount with no sides, my anger flaring again as I growl, "At this rate, I'm gonna shoot those stupid bastards dead and do the req runs myself. This is fucking ridiculous." I give Paul a nod of thanks before joining Pin at the table, the kid eating heartily like it's the first meal he's had in months. With the barely edible shit we get, it might as well be. "Dam, kid. Slow down. Food stocks aren't going to run out anytime soon," I say jokingly as I take my seat next to him. Kids already done too. Little bastard puts away food like a god dam vacuum. He burps loudly before saying, "Wow, that's good stuff...where did you even get that stuff?"

"Hijacked a ship, did some shopping on Harmony, came back and gave it to Paul. How else?" I state in a matter of fact way, his face displaying shock at my casual description before I continue with a smirk. "If it makes you feel better, I got permission from Barker before taking his ship." Pin laughs and shakes his head, his short black hair shifting slightly before adding, "Yeah, that must've been easy since he's too drunk to say no."

Horrible racket interrupts our conversation as an annoyingly familiar voice gloats, "Well, well. Look who's enjoying themselves!" A growl escapes my throat as Idol sits down next to Pin casually, her arm wrapping around his shoulder playfully. So much for a pleasant dinner. "Such noble heroes sharing banter about life and the pursuit of court martial," she gloats while patting Pin on the left shoulder, the kid sitting straight and trying not to make any sudden moves. "If I didn't do half the shit I do, the god dam ship would stop moving altogether," I exclaim, removing my helmet to eat the small amount of food in front of me. Idol grins widely as my helmet thumps the table before gloating, "Looks like the sun's out today!" My hairless head must be reflecting some light. "Might wanna learn how to eat with the helmet on or you'll blind everyone around you, Seb!"

"If only I could. Maybe I wouldn't have to suffer your god dam arrogance," I retort angrily while slowly eating my food, her laugh cruel in response as she ruffles Pins hair. I had warned the kid not to get involved with her, a woman that'd likely fuck him and dump em in a heartbeat. "Why are you here anyway? Didn't get your fill of snide remarks today?" I growl at her, slowly losing my patience for her shit. "Oh, nothing like that," she gently retorts while moving a hand under Pin's chin, Pin doing his best to remain calm but starting to sweat and shake lightly. "I was just wondering if Pin here was having a good time with the grumpy bastard that is you," she purrs and I laugh in her face before saying, "Kid's not gonna sleep with you, Idol. He isn't so dumb that he'd court a broken heart and a broken dick." Her amusement quickly fades, replaced with anger as she shouts at me, "How dare you! I would never do that to anyone!"

"Sure, you wouldn't. You practically exude civility and grace," I say sarcastically while eating the remainder of my food with her eyes boring into me. To be honest, I had no evidence. Gut instinct told me to avoid this psycho and I let that instinct pass on to the kid. In the end, it's the kids choice to sex up a deviant, not mine. She stares at me in anger for a few seconds before I rise from my seat after finishing the ration, slamming my helm back on and turning to leave the mess hall. Before I fully leave, my head slight turns at the door and I say back to the two of them, "Use protection, kid. Or at the least, don't let off inside that woman."

I'm glad to be free of the group for a while, reaching for my cigars again and swearing when I remember they aren't there. A familiar soothing voice chimes in at last to break the silence as I walk the hallways towards the crew quarters. "Sebastian. Do you truly believe that Bethany Jackal has ill intentions towards Alexander Umito?" Gloria says calmly and I grunt to myself before answering her question. "Yeah, I do. Got no proof that she would love the kid to hurt em later but skepticism hasn't failed me yet. I hope skepticism works for the kid too." I just hope the kid thinks with his dam head and not with his dam dick when confronting that particular problem.

My hand idly goes to press the activation button on the wall and as the door slides open on my small quarters, I stop giving a shit about their quarrel.

Giving a shit's for outside this room.