A New Frontier

by Rogue Pizza

What would you do if you suddenly had a ship full of people you had to suddenly take care of? Follow the story of this Militia Pilot who now has the responsibility of taking care of his father's ship and crew along with the military personnel that came with it. Not only that but how shall he react when he realize that he is in a new frontier?

1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Pilot = Elite Infantry, pilot = Military personnel that operates a aerial vehicle. Grunt = Common foot soldier, grunt = new recruit . . . It's going to get confusing anyway

Chapter I:

Prologue

Two years after the end of the Campaign . . .

()()()()

2:41 PM, Meni II, Pharri Spaceport

"If your asses ain't on the evac ships in thirty seconds, your shit out of luck!"

Bullets impacted into the concrete a couple feet behind a fleeing Militia Pilot, his G2A4 rifle smacked against his back with every long stride he took. The Militia Grunts around him were panicking, there was no evac for Grunts, only Pilots. It didn't matter for long for the Grunts around the fleeing Pilot as they were slaughtered by the pursuing Atlas Titan who had made it seem that its mission in life was to eliminate the fleeing Pilot. The 20mm rounds from the Atlas's XO-16 Chaingun quickly took care of Grunts unfortunate to have happened to wander out onto the street as it passed by. However, the Pilot it was chasing was an entirely different story. Fully utilizing his Jumpkit, the Militia Pilot used the surrounding debris and narrow streets to evade the lethal ammunition that was never far behind him.

After rounding a corner and with seventeen seconds left on the clock before evac pulled out, the three story civilian building came into view. His task was get to the top of it before the time ran out. Any other day, it would have been a piece of cake for him to make it up there, but with the Atlas right behind him and with it knowing exactly where he was going, made the task slightly more dangerous. As if an answer to his unsaid prayer, two more Titans started rushing toward him from the objective. However, instead of the white and blue that designated IMC personal and Titans, the ones rushing toward him were two lovely colors of orange and sage. The Militia Atlas's 40mm Cannon along with the Stryder's Quad Rocket flashed and smoked as they launched a barrage of fire at the pursuing enemy Titan. The Atlas, now seeing that the tides had changed quickly boosted sideways down an adjacent alleyway.

While the IMC Titan was being manned by a Pilot, with a quick look with his HUD, he found that his two saviors were in fact, being operated by AI's. Not wasting any time, the Militia Pilot jumped and boosted his way to the top of the friendly Atlas. Once he was situated on top, he boosted himself up the rest of the building and pulled himself onto the roof only to find a nasty surprise waiting for him. Four Spectres were shooting at the dropship but only seemed to slightly chip away at the spacecraft's shields with their weapons.

When he pulled himself up onto the roof, all four of the robots quickly registered his presence. But before they could aim their weapons, the Pilot vanished. A second after the figure vanished, the head of one of the Spectres was ripped off shortly before the robot's carcass was thrown at another, pinning it to the ground. With a loud bark of a gun, a hole was blown in the chest of the third Spectre, disabling it permanently. However, when the third Spectre was destroyed, the Cloaking of the Pilot vanished revealing him to the Spectre who immediately trained it sights and fired. The Spectre's R-97 Compact SMG's rounds slammed into the Pilot causing him to stumble back slightly. But the Pilot's Kevlar held turning the few deadly shots that hit him into severe bruises.

With two more shots from the Pilot's B3 Wingman, the final Spectre was reduced to a sparking heap of metal. The Militia Pilot holstered his sidearm and ran toward the transport with a mere seven seconds left. He passed through the dropship's shield uninhibited and took a quick look around the ship's small interior. Other than the two pilots that sat in the front flying the dropship and the Marvin that sat near the exit ramp, he was all alone. None of the other Pilots had made it to the extraction point, either they were dead or delayed and soon to be dead.

"Wait! Don't leave yet!"

The Militia Pilot turned toward the open door to find two Militia Grunts who had abandoned their weapons and made it to the roof using stairs, sprinting toward the evac ship. The Pilot shouted to the two flying the ship, "Hold on we got friendlies a couple seconds out!"

One of the pilots glanced out the window to the side before they took ahold of the controls, "Their only Grunts, we're pulling out now!"

A bullet flew between the two pilots and impacted harmlessly at the foot of the main pilot. The two flyers looked back to see the Pilot holding his sidearm toward the two of them and with a stern voice and commanding voice said, "Wait."

The Pilot quickly motioned with his free hand toward the Grunts, "Get your asses on!"

Another few seconds and they would have made it onto the evac ship, if the one Spectre pinned under its dead comrade hadn't reached out and grabbed one of the Grunt's ankles. The grappled Grunt let out a shriek helping him identify the individual as a female. The other Grunt quickly turned around and started stomping on the Spectre's arm, trying to get it to release his friend. To make matters worse, the Pilot could see several metal hands grasping onto the side of the building as more Spectre's started to pull themselves up.

"We got several Titans incoming, we have to get out of here now!" One of the pilots shouted back.

His statement was met with the Pilot throwing a bag toward the front of the ship to have it stick to the back of one of the pilot's seats. While the two flyers were not ground infantry, they both identified the small bag as a Satchel Charge. The two of them looked at the Pilot with horrified expressions as the Pilot jumped out while saying, "You leave without us, you won't make orbit."

Any Spectre clawing its way to the roof was quickly met by the Pilot's precise Semi-Auto G2A4 rifle. The Pilot slid to a stop in the crouched position next to the two Grunts as he dispatched two more Spectres, "What's taking so long?! Get her out of there!"

"I don't have anything to get her out with!" The Grunt screamed as he continued to stomp on the Spectre's arm. The Spectre itself which was still active seemed very keen on getting out from under its dead robotic friend to kill the three Militia in front of it. However two shots from the Pilot's rifle to its face stop it all together. The female Grunt merely kept her head down as she continued to sob through the gunfight going on around her.

Once they had a brief pause in newly arriving Spectres, the Pilot shoved the Grunt to the side, reached down, and ripped the Spectre's arm out from the shoulder joint. He quickly picked up the woman and shoved her into the arms of the male Grunt. The Pilot picked up his rifle and began to pick off newly arriving Spectres while the two Grunts made a break for the evac ship which was fifteen seconds passed it extraction time.

A couple seconds passed before the Militia Pilot looked out into the distance to see something that made his blood chill. Several IMC Pilots were rapidly approaching across the rooftops with various weapons, and he was almost out ammunition for both of his weapons. Deciding that it was now time to get the hell out of dodge, he once again shouldered his rifle, did a one-eighty, and sprinted as fast as he could for the evac ship screaming at the top of his lungs as he did.

Seeing that he was approaching, the pilots began to pull the ship away in preparation of Jumping to orbit. However the Grunts had yet to make it to the ship yet and by the time they had made it to the edge, the ship had already pulled to a distance they couldn't jump. However, to a Pilot, it was quite literally a hop, skip and a jump away. The Pilot grabbed the two Grunts by their uniforms and jumped as hard as he could while he activated his Jumpkit.

The three of them slammed into the hold of the dropship and rolled into the opposite side of the ship that they had entered Pilot didn't bother sitting up as he screamed through his helmet comm, "GO GO GO!"

The two pilots began pressing numerous button on their consoles in rapid succession, "We got missile locks!"

"Ten seconds to Jump!"

"We got got several Titans tracking us!"

"Six seconds to Jump!"

The ship began to shake and rock even more than it had before, "Shields depleted, our hull is taking serious damage!"

"Jumping in Three . . ." Spects of lights dotted the sides of everyone's vision.

"Two . . ." A orb of blue light appeared in everyone's vision and began to rapidly expand and glow brighter.

"We aren't gonna make it!" Screamed the co-pilot.

"One . . . Mark!" A blinding white light overtook everyone's vision for a brief second before the light dissipated in flecks of blue lights as their vision returned to normal.

The Pilot sat up and looked out the nearby cracked window, thankfully the windows on dropships were reinforced in case they were cracked or else the vacuum of space would have sucked them out. One of the pilots looked back to the three survivors, "Nobody touch anything, or else you might poke a hole in the ship."

The two Grunts sat up up and tore off their helmets. The male had ginger hair with brown eyes while the female had bleached blonde hair with brown eyes as well. Both Grunts hair never passed their shoulders as was regulation. But what caught the Pilot's attention the most was that they both looked to be in their teens, twenty at most. The two teenagers in front of him began to kiss passionately, disregarding him and the other two pilots entirely. The two of them had been through quite a lot, they both deserved to have a little moment to themselves.

The two of them broke their kiss after about half a minute and continued to just hold each other closely before the boy broke the silence, "I thought we were both done for down there."

"Why did you try and help me? You could have died! What about our promise?" The girl asked.

"I know what I promised, but that is one promise that I will never fulfill. I would rather die with you than leave you behind to the mercy of those IMC dogs."

"And you two have me to thank that these two flyboys didn't leave you behind." The Pilot finally spoke up.

The two Grunts turned toward the Pilot and began practically bowing to the Pilot, "Thank you," The boy started, "Without you, we would both be dead. But I had to ask, why did you help us?"

The girl nodded her head in agreement with what he guess was her boyfriend. The Pilot sighed before speaking, "There is a feeling that you get deep down inside of yourself when you're the only one that made it to the evac point. That feeling of regret, sorrow, pity, and most of all, shame. Why did I get to live while everyone else was left behind? I have felt this many times before, and each time it happens, it just eats away at me more and more. When I saw the chance to make the ride back to the ship a little less lonely, I didn't hesitate to take it. Being the sole survivor isn't a blessing, it's a curse, a punishment."

The two Grunts just sat there, processing what the Pilot had told them. Even through his helmet's speakers, they could tell that he wasn't that much older than the two of them. They were unable to ask any of their questions when the Pilot beat them to the punch, "Rank, Name, Age, and favorite ice cream flavor."

"Uh . . ." The girl began, "Private First Class Malon Rivans, seventeen but I turn eighteen next week. Ice cream . . . uh . . . Mint Chocolate Chip I guess."

The Pilot sighed, "Christ, not even eighteen and you almost died today."

The boy spoke up when the Pilot glanced at him, "I'm Corporal Jonathan Rivans, nineteen, Cookie Dough."

"Rivans? Are you brother an-"

"No!" Jonathan practically shouted before lowering his voice, "We were married before our first deployment. We both joined the Militia because we want to fight for a future that we can raise family without fear from the IMC."

Malon nodded as she wrapped her arm around one of his. The boy smiled at the contact and gave the girl a light kiss on the forehead. The Malon turned her attention back to the Pilot, "And who are you, I would like to know who saved us."

"Same here." Jonathan added.

The Pilot removed his helmet revealing his blonde hair with natural brown tips. His eyes were a light blue, similar to sky's on a sunny day. A faded scar stretched from just under his eye, diagonally down toward his jawbone.

"Lieutenant Colonel Talon James Ryker, twenty-two, and Cherry Garcia."

The two Grunts, now realizing that they were talking with a high ranking officer, quickly threw up salutes. Talon waved them off with a sigh, "Please don't salute me. I'm only a officer in name, in all honesty I should be a Staff Sergeant at most if I wasn't bumped up the ranks. Hardly have any officer training at all."

Both Malon and Jonathan looked at each other confused by the Pilot's words, but they both dropped their salutes as requested by the Pilot. A questioned sat in Jonathan's mind for a good minute before he couldn't hold it in any longer, "If I may sir, may I ask why a Lieutenant Colonel is fighting on the ground? Shouldn't you be back on the Solar Spirit, coordinating the attack?"

"As I said, I have hardly any officer training at all. I do better as better as a soldier than a strategist." Talon reached over to Malon's ankle and pried the Spectre's fingers off in one smooth action before tossing the arm to the side, "Rather be on the ground fighting than telling another to do the fighting for me anyway."

"We're two mikes out from the Solar Spirit." The co-pilot called out from the front.

The main pilot leaned over in his chair and shouted back to the three of them, "Hey, Pilot. Come get this Satchel Charge off my chair already, it's a little unnerving."

Talon stood up and sauntered his way over to the still primed explosive, with a couple clicks on the small interface, the explosive gave out a low beep before Talon pried it off and attached it to his waist again. While the Pilot retrieved his ordnance, Malon was deep in thought. She had heard the name Ryker before but she couldn't place her finger on where exactly she heard it. In fact, she could remember that she heard the name quite often around the Solar Spirit.

It finally hit her when Talon sat back down in front of them, "Ryker! You're the son of-"

Talon let out a loud groan unbefitting an officer of the military, "Please don't remind me. I hate being compared to that man."

Not understanding the history or the current situation of the Ryker family, the two Grunts decided that it would be best to remain silent for the rest of the trip back to the ship.

()()()()

3:10 PM, Solar Spirit

The Solar Spirit was an identical copy to the IMC's now destroyed IMS Sentinel. During a surprise attack by the Militia on a IMC resupply base, Pilots of the G-COR or more commonly known as Griffin Corps managed to seize a IMC carrier during the attack and take three hundred prisoners which made up the carrier's crew. Being the ones to steal the ship, Griffin Corps commanding officer transferred himself and his fighting men and women to the pristine ship. The IMS Melancholy was soon rechristened as the Solar Spirit and had been serving the Militia for around a year now.

The Solar Spirit now carried two thousand fighting Militia men and women with a crew of five hundred and two hundred more non-combatants. The Militia had struck gold by stealing the IMC carrier, weapons of war being already welded into the ship. Titan construction facilities allowed for rapid construction and deployment of Titans for Pilots on the ground anywhere. The ship also had a small munitions factory built in to allow for the manufacture of arms and ammunition for when the Solar Spirit would be on extended deployments. Another less used edition was the vehicle factory that added with the munitions. While the facility had the ability to produce both ground and aerial vehicles, the ship would have to physically land to deploy the ground vehicles. The vehicle facility had been modified to produce the Militia's trademark cheaper yet still effective Crow dropships and Hornet fighters instead of the more costly IMC Goblin dropship and Phantom fighter. The ship came equipped with Drop Pods for rapid deployment of infantry but many of the larger ships had Drop Pod systems built in as well as Spectre racks for the small time rapid construction and deployment of Spectres. Something that the Militia had managed to shove in some of the remaining unused space was the ability to conduct small mining operations. On long deployments and cut off from any other Militia support, the Solar Spirit had the ability to deep scan a planet and land on the surface that had ore or minerals they required. With the assistance of Titans, they could have a small operation in a little over sixteen hours.

Weapons of war weren't the only thing built into the ship. Multiple research labs had been built into the ship as well, each being able to hold several sciences inside. The Solar Spirit's non-combatants were made entirely up of scientists, medical professionals, and archaeologists. The job of these men and women varied, depending on what walk of science they were from. Some of them worked on better food preservation or food replication, others worked on improving the Militia's gear while few others constructed cybernetic limbs for those Pilots who had lost limbs in combat. The medical professionals kept the soldiers alive and tried to get them back to the fighting as soon as possible. The archaeologists who were less prevalent on the ship were there to catalog any ruins found on the surface and secured before hand.

Normally, scientists wouldn't place themselves on a military ship serving on the front lines. However, when word got out that the Jump Core in the Solar Spirit had been identified as an experimental type, several scientists immediately offered up their services in order to study the Core and see if they could possibly replicate it. The Jump Core of the Solar Spirit was a giant step in Warp Core technology, it had the ability to make pinpoint Jumps with only a five meter potential error. If the Solar Spirit wanted to make a precise jump to stop three meters the surface of a planet, it could do it. Once the first few scientists came aboard, others slowly trickled on.

()()()()

The dropship floated up into one of the under-belly hangers that was spread out across the underside of the ship. When the Crow dropship landed, it creaked and groaned before the weakened ship fell apart slightly. The sudden change in the ship's structure caused the three standing infantry to fall to the ground. All three of them looked at each other for a second before they all burst out laughing, the ship had just managed to hold together back to the hangar before finally giving up. The main pilot walked quickly passed the three laughing infantry but not without sending a glare at the unhelmeted Pilot before forcing the loading ramp open. The co-pilot merely collected a couple things before hurrying off after the main pilot.

The main hangar of Solar Spirit was clustered returning ships and Pilots who had made it out of the fray. Several crying military personnel entered Talon's vision as he searched for someone, hoping that a friend of his had made it back unlike the others who the weepers were now mourning. While most of the grieving personnel were Grunts that hadn't been deployed who were distraught about those left behind, a few Pilots could be seen crying as well having lost another fellow comrade.

Talon finally found who he was looking for when he saw brown haired Pilot helping another helmeted Pilot who had taken a few bullets through the leg. Once the injured Pilot was sitting on a nearby crate Talon ran out with his arms spread, "Trevor!"

The brown haired Pilot in his late twenties wheeled around with a grin on his face, "Well, well, I see a certain Lieutenant Colonel has disregarded orders once again."

The two Pilots gave each other a brief firm hug. Trevor continued to smile at Talon until he glanced over Talon's shoulder to see two grunts walking off a wrecked dropship in the direction Talon came from. The grin quickly turned to a scowl, "You didn't do it again, did you?"

"Come on man! Don't be like that, they are human beings just like you and me!" Talon responded.

Trevor sighed as he placed a hand on Talon's shoulder, "Talon, they're Grunts. They're expendable. Pilots are a valuable resource in this war."

Talon brushed the hand off, "You sound just like my old man."

"I take that as a compliment."

"You shouldn't," Talon began, "If start saying that Grunts are just an expendable resource, then how are we any better then the IMC?"

Trevor pointed an accusing finger at Talon, "Don't you dare compare us to the IMC, we're fighting for the freedom of the Frontier while all they want to do is to turn a profit! To win, sacrifices must be made!"

Talon was an inch away from Trevor's face as he screamed, "And just how many more have to be made?! We are literally leaving people behind because we can't bother to spend the resources to rescue them! Every time we fail to do our job, more of our own people are killed! Just like when James Mcallen failed to properly overload the reactors on Demeter."

"James Mcallen is a hero to the Militia, he is the reason the Militia are winning the war!"

"James Mcallen is a murderer! If his so called perfect planned worked, thousands of Militia soldiers would still be here today!"

A sharp right hook was delivered across Talon's face, causing him to fall to the ground. Trevor seethed with rage, "I know how you feel alright! I lost my sister on Demeter, just like you lost your brother! Not a single day goes by that I don't wish it was me instead of her! But here I am, I was there on with her on Demeter but fate decided to take her and let me live. And I don't need to hear the story for the hundredth time about how you sat there with your brother as the radiation slowly killed him!"

Talon stood up with a hand on his bruised cheek as Trevor took a deep breath to calm himself. With a quick look around the hanger, Trevor found that they had attracted the attention of nearly everyone within a hundred meter radius.

Trevor shook his head and sighed as he placed another hand on Talon's shoulder, his voice now calm, "Look . . . I, um . . . I'm sorry. I know Demeter is a touchy subject and we both lost someone close. But you gotta remember the good things, I mean, we did meet each other on Demeter."

Talon pulled Trevor in a tight hug, "We're gonna win this war, right? We're gonna win it for Johnny and Diana, right?"

Trevor sighed again as he patted Talon on the back, "Yeah, we're going to win it not only for them, but all of those who didn't make it out. Now stand up straight man, at least look the part of an officer even if you don't like it."

The officer took a couple steps backs and stood up straight, "I apologize for yelling."

"Same here, and punching you as well."

Talon had a small smile across his face, "Might be able to get you court-martialed for that."

"Yeah right, the Militia may be a military but we don't have anything along those lines." Trevor counter with a light chuckle.

Before Talon could say any retort, the PA system in the hanger caught their attention, "Lieutenant Colonel Talon James Ryker, you are to report to the bridge immediately. Lieutenant Colonel Talon James Ryker, to the bridge immediately."

Trevor took a deep breath, "Nice knowing you man."

"I've dealt with it before, I can do it again. You owe me a drink later you bastard." Talon waved to his friend as he started to head into another potential fight.

()()()()

The bridge door hissed open as Talon approached and closed swiftly behind him with another his as well as a clunk signaling that the door had shut. Crew members sat at their stations, managing reports or constantly checking ship systems among other things. The bridge of the Solar Spirit was rectangular with consoles running around the all along the wall except for the for which was where a large view port was located allowing the bridge crew to stare out into the void whenever they wished. Several real time holo-map tables sat in the center in the room to allow for coordination of troops planetside or ship to ship combat in space. Hanging back from the viewport was a chair, in the chair sat a man with fading platinum hair, a cup of coffee rested in one hand while a datapad in the other.

Talon walked up to the chair and saluted, "Lieutenant Colonel Talon Ryker reporting sir. Was there something you needed General?"

The chair spun around to face Talon, the man's Militia colored uniform was neat and pristine as if he had if clean and pressed mere minutes ago. Wrinkles dotted the man's face which contradicted his wrinkleless uniform and made the man seem like he was in his seventies when he was really in his early fifties. If one would look into the aging man's eyes, the everyday person would just see a old man with brown irises. But those with trained eyes could look past the physical appearance and see that even though this man is old, he carried a lot of experience and his share of burdens.

The man looked up from his datapad at the young soldier, "You did some good work down there soldier, even though you were ordered to stay on the Solar Spirit numerous times. With this data that you and Wraith Squad secured, we can now start implementing this new Spectre tech within our own ranks."

What the General was referencing was the IMC Spectres that were used against Militia Harvesters. Namely the Sniper Spectre which used a Longbow-DMR sniper or a Charge Rifle which were identified by their black with red trim paint job. What made these Spectre's even more terrifying is that they had the ability to use the Pilot's Cloaking ability. Another thing that had been given to the Spectre's could only be described as a 'upgrade' for the Spectres. Spectres under the control of the IMC now had the ability to rodeo Titans which was troublesome for Pilots everywhere. Another but less common one was the Suicide Spectres that had been created and was easily identified by their bright orange paint were interesting but not nearly as much as the Sniper Spectre.

"In light of your exploits on this mission, I am hereby promoting you to the rank of Colonel. With this new rank you will no longer have to participate in ground operations and will rather help coordinate the attack from the bridge here. You will be issued a new uniform when you turn in your gear except for whatever sidearm you wish to keep. Also, I will be assigning you your own personal guard to protect you. Understood?"
"Yes bu-"

The General turned back toward the viewport and started to look over his datapad once again, "Good, go turn in your Pilot uniform and get a officer's. I expect you back here on the bridge at 1700 hours."

"General, with all due respect, I don't deserve this position. I have hardly any officer training and I do better with boots on the ground rather than up here. I request that I be demoted to Staff Sergeant and earn my way up the ranks properly."

The General turned slightly and eyed Talon, "Are you questioning my judgement?"

Talon took a quick look around the bridge, if he had to guess about three-quarters of the bridge crew had their eyes on the two of them. The young Pilot knew exactly what he was about to do, "Yes sir, I am."

The General set his coffee and datapad down before he stood up. The man eyed Talon for a minute before leaning in so his threatening voice was heard only by Talon, "It would be wise that you would not do so in the future Colonel. You are dismissed."

Talon sighed, "You've been like this ever since Johnny died, I don't need you to pro-"

"Not another word Colonel! You are to get your officer's uniform and report back here at 1700 hours. Am I clear?!" When Talon didn't respond immediately, the General shouted again, "Colonel Ryker, am I clear?!"

Talon clenched his teeth in anger before he said those four words he hated most of all, "Of course, General Ryker."

Without another word, Talon's father sat back in the chair and turned to face the viewport while Talon all but stomped out of the bridge. He continued on for a couple turns before he stopped to face the wall. Ever since the death of Talon's brother and General Andon Ryker's eldest son, the General had been doing everything he could to keep his remaining son off the field of battle. This prove more difficult than it should have been because that son wanted to fight the IMC for various reasons. In order to get Talon off the battlefield, Andon started to promote Talon numerous times. Once a soldier was promoted to a certain rank, they start to see less and less combat and more coordinating the attack from the safety of a ship. Despite being ordered to remain, Talon snuck off the ship each time Pilots were deployed by blending into different groups. This time, he managed to tag along with the famous Wraith Squad, Pilots who specialized in Covert Ops and were trained by none other than M-COR's famous Covert Operations leader, known only as Sarah.

Due to Talon's rapid promotion, the Pilot had little officer training. He could lead a small strike team of other Pilots into battle but above that, there wasn't much he knew. Unlike his father, Talon wasn't a tactician, he was a soldier meant to be put on the frontlines. His father's obsessive protective behavior had been a pain in Talon's backside for about a two and a half years now. He had tried requesting a transfer to a different Corps such as the Marauder Corps or M-COR. But for his transfer to be approved, he needed the commanding officer of Griffin Corps to approve it. His father had been in command of Griffin Corps for four years now making transfer impossible. He considered of going AWOL and hoping to come across another Militia fleet but he believed that would just make things worse.

Rage built up to a point in Talon where he needed an outlet or else he was going to go insane. The Pilot brought his arm back and punched the wall with as much force as he could muster. The hallway metal groaned and bent under the impact of the Pilot's fist. It took a little effort to remove his hand, when he did he brought the hand close to his ear and flexed it. He could barely hear the whirring noise from inside his hand which was all the mechanical bits moving back and forth. He found the Spray-Skin on his knuckles had been scratched off from punching the metal wall.

"You really should treat those things with more care. The Doc worked hard to build those for you."

Talon turned toward the sound of the voice and gave an official salute, "Greetings Master Sergeant!"

The large chocolate skinned man let out a deep laugh before giving Talon his own salute, although not a serious as Talon's "You know, I should be the one saluting you first now."

Talon lowered his hand and chuckled, "Well, you did drill it into our skulls that we were suppose to salute you every time we addressed you back in basic. I guess old habits die hard. Was there something you needed?"

"Nah, just wanted to tell you that the Doc wants to do a check up on your limbs. Wanted me to send you his way if I saw you. Oh did you hear the news? We are heading to Kevan 4 for fresh troops, bunch of fresh recruits coming aboard and I have been given the privilege of breaking the new Pilots in. Even though we are just popping in for a day, I know what you're going to be doing."

Talon face flushed slightly, "S-shut up, I have a obligation to visit them whenever I go there."

"Sure, an obligation. Whatever you call it, you better cherish it. I hear we are going to put on a seven month deployment after that so be sure to have fun." The man of African descent gave a casual wave as he walked in the direction of the bridge.

The Pilot continued to stand there with flushed cheeks for a while before he started making his way toward one of the science labs. The labs were their usual pristine bright white color which all the labs were. Various tables piled with vials containing unknown substances, computers with complicated equations or lengthy words on the screen, and numerous electronics with unknown uses filled the room. Men and women in white lab coats were constantly moving around the lab, performing various tasks whether it be about something on the table in front of them or on their datapad. It wasn't that hard to find the person Talon was looking for, the man was always off in his own little corner, hunched over and working on some sort of gizmo that its uses were only known to him.

"Hey, Doctor Einhart, you wanted to see me?" Talon called out.

The elderly man stood up straight and looked for the source of the voice. A bright smile crossed his face when he saw Talon approaching, "Ah Talon, my boy. I trust you are doing well."

Doctor Einhart's thick German accent didn't interfere with his speech but every so often he would say a word from his native language and the fact the accent made him stand out more than most. Talon smiled in response but began to look around the lab, "Could be better but could be worse. Have you seen Jackie around here?"

Einhart sighed under his breath, "She's around but you have got to stop leaving her with me when you're sneaking out."

Talon let out a high pitch whistle which attracted almost every scientist's attention. A moment later Talon called out, "Jackie, come here girl."

The sound of claws scraping across the floor sounded throughout the room. A few scientists moved out of the way of a creature that was smaller than the tables it was running by. After about few moments of hearing the sound, a small black, white haired Jack Russell Terrier with a cybernetic front right leg came barrelling around the corner of tables, skidded across the smooth floor, slammed into a table, scraped across the ground as it attempted to gain traction again, and sprinted over to a crouching Talon awaiting his loyal companion.

Jackie, as the dog went by, flopped onto its back to allow Talon to start scratching its belly. Soon after he start, one of Jackie's hind legs started to shake rapidly letting Talon know she was in bliss. Once Talon sat down, Jackie rolled over and hopped into Talon's lap and laid down as the Pilot began to pet her.

"Well, who else was I supposed to leave her with? If she can't find me, she always goes to my father and that's how he learns that I snuck onto a transport. She likes you and so I thought, 'Einhart doesn't do that much, he can watch Jackie for me. I'll just leave her in his office as a surprise'." Talon replied innocently.

Einhart let out a drawn out sighed, "That surprise was her tearing up two of my PhDs and relieving herself in the corner of my office. And having a dog running around the lab und distracting the other scientists isn't really productive."

"You could just have a Marvin clean up the mess in your office and everyone loves this little girl, I mean, her face is the symbol of Griffin Corps. Besides, don't you have fifty-five other PhD's? About three of them are in fields that I can't even pronounce. "

"I had sixty-one in total but Jackie has torn seven of them up and chewed on another three." A beep sounded from Einhart's personal datapad, he took a look for a second before turning back to Talon, "The room I wanted is now ready, shall we?" Einhart gestured toward one of the lab's exits.

Talon picked up and carried Jackie in the belly-up position and fell in behind Einhart as the dog repeatedly licked Talon's chin. Multiple Militia soldiers and crewman scratched the dog's belly if they happened to pass by, giving Jackie brief stages of bliss about every minute. After a short elevator ride and another minute walk, the three of them walk into a modified operating room which walls and floors matched the labs. Talon deposited Jackie onto the ground who began to follow its owner closely behind.

The Pilot laid down on the bed in the center, as soon as he did, Scotty decided to join him, "Jackie, no. Down girl."

He was met with a low gruff from the dog, Talon pointed a finger toward the canine, "Don't sass me, down girl."

Jackie let out a low whine as she jumped down from the bed, her metal appendage making a slightly more noticeable sound than the rest of its limbs. The dog went off to one of the unoccupied corners, spun around a couple times before lying down with his owner still in her vision.

Einhart tapped a couple times on a nearby console before various mechanical arms started to descend from the ceiling, Jackielet out a low growl as they did. The arms descended around the table and circled around Talon a few times.

Talon looked over to Einhart who was standing next to him holding a syringe filled with a clear liquid, "Yes or nien to the sedative?"

"Nah, I've gotten to used to the pain mostly. Besides, I don't want to be loopy for an hour because I can't handle a moment of pain."

The Doctor nodded before placing the syringe onto a nearby trolley and heading back to console. With a couple more taps, the mechanical arms began to move closer to each of Talon's four limbs. Talon began taking deep breaths bracing himself for the pain that was about to come. Einhart looked over the console at Talon again for confirmation, the Pilot merely nodded before taking sharp intake of air.

With one final beep, all four of Talon's limbs were disconnected from at once. Talon let out a muffled scream of pain which lasted a couple of seconds before he returned to deep breaths. Jackie stood up and bark a couple times at the sounds of pain erupting from her owner, but slowly laid back down when the sounds subsided but kept her head raised in case anything else happened. The mechanical arms were carried off behind Talon to where Einhart was waiting for the them. The Doctor removed the cybernetic appendages from the grasp of the arms and began to open the limbs in various places checking the inner workings.

"Remarkable." Einhart commented after a few minutes of silence.

"What is it Doc?" Talon asked as he unsuccessfully tried to turn around to get a look due to an absence of limbs.

"Your limbs have been through various combat situations and locations for two and a half years and yet they have not needed repairs or modifications."

Talon let out a low chuckle, "Well, you made them. I guess you just outdid yourself more than you thought."

The Pilot heard some objects moving behind him but didn't bother to try and get look, "These cybernetics are the jewel of my entire scientific career thus far, a lot of the tech in your limbs are experimental and yet everything has been running perfectly."

"I thought the Spectre program your crowning jewel?"

A grim look cross swept over Einhart's face that went unnoticed, however the sorrow in his voice was easily noticeable, "The Spectre program was . . . a mistake. I thought I was making them to take care of criminals and pirates. When I learned what the IMC was really doing with them . . .

Talon tried to quickly change the subject, "Well, I'm Glad your happy about the arms, so am I. I try to take good care of them. I mean the strength and speed boosts are nice so I check and clean them up every time I finish a mission. Trevor helps."

"Hmm . . . the cybernetics show no hint of wear and tear even after this long . . ." Einhart's voice dropped to a low mutter, "Perhaps I can try something a little more advanced next . . ."

"What was that Doc?" He asked as he tried to look around again.

"Nothing dear boy. Everything appears to be in perfect condition like it has the previous check ups. How is your body reacting to the cybernetics?" Einhart asked as he walked back into view.

Talon gave a shoulderless shrug, "The first couple weeks were the worst but now, feels like I have had these metal limbs all my life. I'm still stunned that you managed to make synthetic nerve endings that links with my nervous system giving me the ability to actually feel things with my hands, getting shot in the arm hurts though."

"As I said, these limbs are the crowning jewel in my career thus far." Einhart tapped a couple things on his datapad before looking back to Talon, "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to hold onto the left arm for awhile. There is something I might be able to do to improve the efficiency."

A scowl crossed Talon's face, "I only really need one arm now since my father has effectively taken me off the battlefield. He's even assigning me a bodyguard to protect me, freaking obvious that he is just using that guard as a way to keep tabs on me to make sure I don't sneak off."

Einhart nodded to himself as tapped a couple more things onto his datapad, "I should have part of what I need when we leave Kevan 4, I will be borrowing your arm a couple times to finish up what I have in mind but I have other things I need to deal with."

When Talon's right arm was shoved back into the socket, several whirring and clicking noises were emitted from the before the arm twitched slightly. After the twitch, Talon flexed the fingers of his reattached arm getting the feel for it again. The mechanical arms above Talon placed the two legs back into their respective positions resulting in similar actions of the arm. Jackie got to her feet when she saw Talon throw his legs off the bed and stood up.

Einhart shook up a spray can before grabbing Talon's wrist and spraying the substance onto his knuckles. The metal gray color of his knuckles slowly faded as the Spray-Skin covered his knuckles making it look like a normal hand once again. The Doctor looked suspiciously at Talon who merely looked away sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head out of embarrassment.

A strange sight awaited Talon when he finally bid farewell to Einhart and walked out into the hallway with Jackie right behind him. Trevor saluted him, "Colonel Ryker, I have been assigned to you as your personal guard. As per the General's orders, my main task is to maintain your well being. Such as preventing you from participating in any ground or aerial operations."

"You mean only preventing me from participating in any ground or aerial operations, don't you?" Talon smirked.

Trevor dropped the salute, "Pretty much, yeah."

A loud sigh erupted from Talon as he brought his hand to his face out of annoyance. Without looking up, Talon said, "Scotch, the good stuff, two ice cubes, I'll meet you in the lounge once I get a uniform switch."

Trevor saluted once again, this time with a grin, "Right away sir, I'll secure the bar to make sure the area is safe."

Talon gave a half-assed salute in response, "Get going you douchebag."

()()()()

11:57 AM, Militia Medical Space Station: Sanctuary, In Orbit around Kevan 4

The one armed Colonel was getting tired of all the pristine white walls and floors he had been seeing. He was tempted to find a bucket of paint and then go wild with it for as long as it would last. At least he managed to get Trevor off his back during his visit. Talon's officer uniform matched his father's in every way except for the ranking symbol of Colonel that had been stitched onto his right shoulder sleeve. Right below the symbol was the patch with the words Griffin Corps below a picture of Jackie's face with her tongue hanging out. His left sleeve had been folded up multiple times and was kept folded via a pin. A B3 Wingman rested in its holster on Talon's right leg but if a fight broke out, he was in trouble when he needed to reload.

Talon had followed directions around about fifty corners and down an elevator like he had many times before. After exiting the elevator, the ex-Pilot walked up to a reception desk for the area. Men in lab coats and women in nurse outfits moved across his field of vision as he walked up to the large donut type desk. Various bit of chatter could be heard as well as the groaning of patients in pain. A nurse shot up from behind the desk as Talon approached, having finished whatever she was doing under the desk.

The nurse took notice of him when he placed a hand on the desk. A smile flashed across her face, "How may I help you sir?"

"I'm here to visit Yurika Anderson." Talon responded as he began to drum his fingers on the desk.

"Name?" The nurse as she picked up a nearby datapad.

"Talon Ryker."

She scrolled through the datapad before slowly running her finger down the datapad, probably looking through a list of names. After a few moments passed, the nurse set down the datapad, "You're all clear. Being a hospital, I'm gonna need you to surrender your firearm for the duration of the visit."

Talon removed the sidearm from its holster and flipped on its safety before handing over to the nurse who almost fell to the floor when she took ahold of the firearm. It took a bit of effort for her to move the pistol to somewhere below the desk before she got back to work on whatever she was doing.

The Pilot once again followed the route he had taken many times before. It was another minute before he came to the room he was going to. He took a peek into the door window to see what exactly was going on inside the room. A petite girl with long blonde hair sat in a hospital bed reading a book. Not something from a datapad but honest to god, hardback book. Books with hard or even paperbacks were rare these days but some prefer the feeling of a book in their hands. Her blue eyes matched the color of the sea as seen from space on the planet below, most people would guess the girl's age to be around fifthteen or sixteen when in reality she nineteen years old. The girl's skin color was a shade of brown, giving the impression she tanned regularly when it was her natural skin color.

After a deep breath, the door hissed open and Talon stepped into the room. The girl had yet to notice Talon when he walked in or when he sat down on a stool next to the bed. Talon had been in this situation many times before, Yurika had an extreme case of tunnel vision, being able to shut out almost anything and focus on reading or whatever she may have been doing at the time. He pulled out his datapad and started to play a game on it, waiting for Yurika to find a stopping place or finish the book, looking at the amount of pages she still had to go through, he hoped she would find a good stopping point soon.

A half an hour passed with the only sounds in the room coming from the machines hooked up to Yurika, the pages turning on her book, or the various sounds emanating from Talon's game. Talon shut off the app when he finally heard the book smack close and Yurika let out a satisfied sigh. She blinked a couple times and looked around the room, her gaze swept for Talon for a brief second before snapping back to him.

Yurika looked shocked, "Talon?!"

After a quick look back to his datapad, Talon smiled, "Thirty-three minutes this time, almost a new record."

"Y-you weren't here for a half an hour!" She exclaimed in disbelief, "What page was I on when you walked in?"

Talon thought for a second before replying, "Page fifty-two I believe."

Yurika quickly opened the book to where her bookmark was, only to slowly shut it again with a flushed face. Talon motioned for her to say it, Yurika sighed before responding, "Two twenty-five . . . You could have tried to get my attention you know."

"But you looked like you were enjoying yourself."

"You dummy, I prefer spending time with you than reading a book."

Talon's face turned tomato red , "Don't say things l-like that out of the blue!"

Yurika giggled to Talon's response as she quickly turned the tables, she reached and grabbed his only hand and held it between hers, "Even though this hand is made of metal, it brings me warmth."

The embarrassed Pilot looked away, "You can thank Einhart of his ingenuity, he is currently working on the other arm in case your wondering."

She giggled again, "I don't mean a physical warmth, it's a type of warmth that you feel only in your heart. A special type of warmth."

Talon slowly looked back to the girl in the bed, Yurika had been his friend since he was seven years old. They had both grown up together on a recently colonized planet at the time called Apep. He and his brother always watched over Yurika as two older brothers, protecting her from bullies, stray animals and various other things she was afraid of. But the moments Yurika actually spent outside were few and far between due to a disease she was born with at birth making her stay indoors quite often since she couldn't go outside very often. Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as Brittle Bone Disease could be traced back in her family to a few known family members however the disease seemed to only has a relatively low chance of appearing.

How the two Ryker brothers met the girl was the two brothers were doing batting practice when the ball sailed through the window of the Anderson household. The two boys tried to sneak away but their father caught them and forced them to confess to the crime. The two parents were understanding and forgave the two boys. The mother lead them up to a room and opened the door to reveal a pale skinned girl lying in her bed with the baseball in her hands. The baseball had sailed through her window and landed directly in her lap.

From that point on, the two boys would visit the sick girl whenever they could and told her stories about the outside world. They would smuggle things into room such as bugs, various types of plants and even a kitten at one point. But they were usually always found out by Yurika's mother who would them promptly chased them out of the house only to let them back in a couple days later. She let her daughter keep the kitten however when the boys left it there. When the war broke out with the IMC, the entire colony on Apep was displaced, forcing them all to evacuate the city. Yurika's father was called into action in the fight, it was later learned that her father had fought in the Titan Wars many years before. When he returned to the fighting, he was given back his old rank. General Anderson later succumbed to some wounds he received in battle a month before the battle of Demeter. The Militia's First Fleet, which contained the Militia's famous M-COR and G-COR was then taken over the infamous hacker Cheng "Bish" Lorck and the Stealth Operative Sarah. Due to Yurika being the late General's daughter, she was moved to one of the finest medical facilities the Militia had stolen from the IMC to date.

After a raid on one of the many IMC Spectre construction facilities, Andon Ryker was promoted to General himself and was given control of the Militia's Second Fleet which Griffin Corps was folded into along with a bunch of other fledgling Corps that had just left basic training. The Solar Spirit was made the flagship of Second Fleet when it was captured, beforehand, the flagship was a Brick Ship much like First Fleet's Red Eye.

Yurika began tracing Talon's palm with her finger causing the battle hardened Pilot to tense up, "Heh, you're always so cute when you tense up like that."

Talon ripped his hand away, "Stop teasing me alright. It was funny when I was a child but now . . . just don't do it."

Yurika scooted over on her on her and patted a now empty next to her, "All right, you can crawl in now."

"What are you saying you idiot?!" Talon exclaimed.

Yurika looked dejected, "Aaahhh, come on. You use to come and over and crawl into my bed whenever there was a storm."

"That's because I thought you might be scared."

"I happen to actually like thunder and lightning unlike a certain someone." She eyed Talon with a smirk on her face.

"S-shut up already, I'll do it." Talon responded ashamed as he stood up and moved closer to the bed.

"Yay!" She clapped as she began to pull back the covers on his side.

"I'm only doing this because you asked, got it?"

"Oh, I do adore tsundere boys." She thought. Once he was settled in the bed, she threw the blanket back over which settled just below his chest.

Yurika threw arms around his neck and pulled herself closer, after a brief silence she broke the silence, "This brings me back."

Talon couldn't help but nod in response, "Yeah, we were so young back then and everything was so peaceful. Are you sure I can do this?"

"It's fine, the nurses don't usually come in here unless I request something or there is an emergency. I see you have a neat officer uniform instead of that dirty Pilot uniform you used to wear whenever you visited, what's the special occasion?"

"My father has effectively taken me off the field of battle, he even assigned Trevor to me as a personal guard to prevent me from sneaking off. He could have assigned anyone but he chose Trevor, probably because he feels like he owes Trevor for saving me back on Demeter, so he is basically taking him off the battlefield as well."

Yurika hugged Talon a little tighter, "Now I don't have to worry as much when you get deployed, knowing that you won't be fighting on the ground anymore."

"That's the thing, I don't want to be sheltered, I don't want special treatment. I want to be down there, boots on the ground with everyone else. I have no training on how to lead a group of more than ten guys at most, even if I did, I know my father wouldn't listen to what I had to say. How am I supposed to fulfill my promise to you if I can't do anything?"

"I don't care about that promise anymore. I just want you to be safe, I want you to be there with me after this is all over. You're the last thing I have, all of my family and friends are dead, except for you. I know I may be a bit clingy but that's because I . . . I do love you, Talon."

Talon leaned over on his side and wrapped his only arm around Yurika's back and pulled her closer, "I-I know. You've told me everytime I visit you."

Yurika buried her head in his chest, "Then why don't you ever give me a real answer? You always just feign ignorance or change the subject whenever I tell you."

After years of holding it in, Talon finally gave in to Yurika's question, "You know that place I snuck you out to, that place down by the river?"

"Back on Apep, you mean the place where the trees bloomed like sakura trees?"

"Yeah, in the spring, the river would be full of flower petals, just a river of pink for miles. Go the right few days and you can be there while all the petals are falling of the tree, gives the impression of pink snow. I decided a long time ago I was going to confess to you in the middle of the falling petals. That's why the promise of me taking back Apep is so important to me, if I want to confess to you then I have to take back our home."

Yurika remained silent for a couple of minutes, stunned by what Talon had just told her. All these years she had thought that Talon had loved another . . . or he was gay. But now that she had heard the reason why he couldn't confess, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

After what seemed like a small eternity to Talon, Yurika finally broke the silence, "Well, then take back our home already. I may be patient but even I have my limits."

Talon and Yurika cracked up laughing. The two of them continued to lay there discussing many things such as the battles Talon had been in since his last visit, the fights he got in with Trevor and Andon, how Jackie and Doctor Einhart was doing, and the new question of what the two of them were going to do together once the fight with the IMC was over. They talked for hours non-stop, not a second of silence ever came between them. The only difference now from all the pastimes Talon had visited was that Yurika was latched onto him. Talon would never admit but he did enjoy the time when he was close to her. Just because he couldn't confess didn't mean they couldn't have some personal contact.

Five hours into Talon's visit, the two of them started to hear a commotion out in the hall. After about a minute of commotion, the door to Yurika's door hissed open and Trevor rushed into the room caked in sweat. A nurse was hot on his heels but was quickly called away, something was going on causing people to be running from place to place.

Talon mocked Trevor as he pulled up the covers further as if he was naked, "Oh my Trevor, you interrupted something important, could you come back later?"

"They took Viniea."

Talon shot up an eyebrow, "Come again?"

Trevor sucked in a couple more breaths of air before he continued, "A large IMC force consisting of Spectres and lots of human ground forces just overwhelmed our defenses all over Viniea and now it's under their control."

Talon shot up from the bed, eyes wide, "Viniea! That's a single Jump from here!"

The sweating Pilot nodded, "All of Second Fleet is being mobilized now, you need to get back to the Solar Spirit now."

The one armed Pilot began to get out of the hospital bed when he was stopped by a hand on his arm. He turned to see Yurika with a look of worry and terror across her face. Talon wanted to stay with her, but there had to be something he could do to stop the IMC. He leaned over a gave a kiss to Yurika which lasted a couple seconds.

"I will come back, I promise you." Those were Talon's final words to Yurika as he leaped off the bed and started running after Trevor.

()()()()

5:07 PM, Solar Spirit Bridge

The door to the bridge barely had any time to open before Talon rushed through with Trevor hot on his heels. The fly back to the Solar Spirit was hectic to say the least, almost all personnel had been planetside when the word of the attack came through. Everyone was moving quickly just to be back to their ships before the IMC decided to show up at their front door. Communications were a mess with everyone scrambling to get somewhere. Bridge personnel were running back and forth across the room, leaving to do one of many tasks off the Bridge or sitting in their seats at their consoles, reporting on situations throughout the ship.

Andon was up from his chair, shouting orders at some of the crewmen or requesting an update on different situations. Talon and Trevor came to a halt a couple feet away from the General, "Colonel Ryker and Sergeant First Class Hopkins reporting, sir."

Talon's father swiveled around to them and without missing a beat, and started issuing orders, "Hopkins, get back down to the hanger. We need to know how many people we got coming in, comms are flooded so I can't get a clear enough situation on what's going on in the hanger. Report what's going on via your datapad."

Trevor gave another salute before disappearing back through the door the two of them came through. Andon turned to Talon once the other Pilot was gone, "Colonel Ryker, you are to remain here. That is all."

"General, the-"

"That is all!" Andon shouted before Talon could finish.

Talon, after the few past years, finally snapped. He grabbed his father by the collar and lifted him into the air with a single mechanical arm and screamed, "I have fuckin had it, dad! I am a goddamn soldier, not some fragile doll to be kept hidden away! Yes, I am the only family you have left-"

"Colonel Ryker, put me down this instant!"

The Pilot shook his arm, jolesting Andon a bit, "Shut up! I am done listening you! I am sick and tired of getting special treatment. You're not my father, you're just a god damn dictator!"

The whole Bridge was silent, the only sounds coming from the various consoles around the room and the Solar Spirit's VI broadcasting the occasional message. Several Bridge personnel had drawn their weapons when Talon had picked up Andon and currently still had them trained on the one armed Pilot. No one dared moved as to not accidently have a firearm discharge.

Andon looked down at his son, his eyes full of rage but his voice calm, "Colonel Ryker, you are to put me down. You will then be escorted to the Brig and held there until further notice.

The armed personnel took a step toward Talon, his grip tightened on his father's collar. He wished that he had grabbed his neck, because he would have crushed Andon's windpipe right about now. He could easily slam his head into the metal floor, most likely splitting it open.

A loud beeping noise came from a nearby terminal, the crew member stationed there turned to look at why the noise had started. The crew member's eyes went wide, "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! Over a hundred IMC ships just Jumped into Kevan 4's orbit and are quickly moving into weapon's range!"

Everyone on the Bridge looked out the large viewport, a large cluster of blue and white ships were slowly making their way toward them. There was no way that the IMC could have that many ships, after the Battle of Demeter, the IMC lost the only place their ships could Jump in from the inner colonies. Space was full of black holes, planets, asteroid belts and various other dangers, most Jumps were done through safe Jump Lanes, only smugglers dared used the uncharted routes. There was no way . . . unless the IMC had found another safe Jump route and established a base where the Jump point was. Any other day, Second Fleet could have stood up against this attack until First Fleet showed up but with their pants caught down between their legs, it was going to be a one sided slaughter.

"Get us out of here."

Talon looked back up to his father, Andon's gaze was stuck on the rapidly approaching ships, "We can't abandon everyone here!"

The General's voice remained calm and steady, "Signal to the other ships to Jump to safety as soon as they can."

"What about all the people still plantside or in the medical station?!" Talon asked, his grip began to loosen on his father's collar.

"Helmsman, close all hangar bay doors and plot a course to the nearest safe system. Begin Jump on my command."

Talon sank to his knees as he let his father go, "Please . . . I don't want to leave her. I can't! Please, let me at least get her. I promised her. She's all I have."

The helmsman shouted back to Andon, telling him everything was ready to go. Andon looked down at Talon and for once in a blue moon, he could see regret in his father's eyes, "I'm sorry Talon. There's no other choice."

"Begin Jump procedure."

Talon stared blankly into space as his father moved away from him. He had just lost Yurika, the one person he loved, and he never got the chance to say it. The IMC would most likely destroy everything, the space station as well. There was no way for him to quickly get her on board, and if they did somehow managed to get her on board, it would most likely be too late to flee.

Flashes coming from the IMC ships indicated that they had just started firing their ship-to-ship weapons. The ship began to rock as its shields began to take the initial volley of fire. The helmsman began to rapidly press various buttons on his console, "Jump coordinates are now locked in. Jump core almost at hundred percent charge. Jumping in three . . ."

The familiar white on the edges of Talon's eyes started to appear, "Two . . ." A blue orb once appeared in the center of his vision. Images of Yurika flashed across his vision, not as a side effect of the Jump but from his own subconscious.

"O-"

The ship shook violently as a massive explosion sent everyone who was standing to their backs. The blue orb and white lights on the edge of his vision began to shift and change unnaturally. Talon's head started to pound as if he was developing a bad migraine, and the fluctuating lights in his vision made it all the worse. Metal began to to creak and groan as several more explosions shook the ship.

"We took a direct hit to our Jump core!"

"Well shut it down!" Talon heard Andon shout off to his left. Was Talon the only one being affected by the lights in his vision or did he just have a worse case?

"We can't! Our systems are going haywire! It appears that the Jump core is still charging at an exponential rate and it's nearing three thousand percent charge!"

Andon once again screamed at the top of his lungs, instead of anger this time it was fear, "Three thousand?! That shouldn't be possible! Shut it down! Shut everything down! If that go goes off, Second Fleet will be wi-"

With one final bright flash of white light that made the sun seem like a small candle flame, everything then went black.

()()()()

Two and a half years ago . . .

Demeter

Seven minutes after Reactor Core Overload . . .

Talon felt like he was in a sauna when he awoke. His memory will a bit fuzzy but the details started coming back to him after a couple of seconds. James Mcallen had to manually overload the reactor core on Demeter, setting off a huge chain reaction that spread across the entire planet. After M-COR couldn't overload the reactor as planned, they went with the more direct method that lead to the death of almost everyone planetside. While M-COR had lead the assault on the main reactor core, G-COR was given the task of covering their flank by attacking various IMC military outposts. The attack was going well, the outposts were more lightly defended than anticipated, most of the soldiers stationed there had been moved to defend the reactor core.

But when Mcallen said he was going to have to overload the core himself, Andon who was a Colonel himself at the time, started sending down as many dropships down as he could get ahold of and started pulling G-COR troops out as quickly as possible. Thanks to Andon, only forty percent of G-COR was caught in the resulting blast instead of seventy percent that had been deployed on the planet at the time. However, Talon and Johnny were part of the forty percent that wasn't able to make it off the planet before the chain reaction went off. While their group of soldiers had managed to make it onto a transport, the chain reactions went off before they were able to make orbit. It was the dropship that Talon was in that saved his life, while they weren't caught in the explosion, the concussive force alone from the explosion was strong enough to knock it out of the sky.

After a quick look the smoking insides of the dropship that once held eight evacuees and two pilots, Talon found himself to be the only one moving. When the dropship crashed, Talon had been flung to the front end of the craft. His hand reached out to find a solid handhold to help him up. He happened to push the pilot's seat next to him causing the chair to swivel toward him. A dead body fell across his legs, the co-pilot's body sat laying face up, glass shards from the windscreen stood upright in the dead crewman's upper body from the head to the stomach. Talon quickly pushed the body off, needles of pain shot through his right arm. After reaching behind him, he managed yank something sharp that was wedged in his shoulder. A piece of glass with his fresh blood had sliced into him when the ship crashed.

With another quick look behind him, he learned that the front end of the craft had dived nose first into some concrete structure. While the co-pilot had been impleaded by glass, the main pilot had multiple rebar rods sticking in all over his body from the concrete. A loud groan originated from somewhere down where the drop ramp was. Talon saw a figure trying to prop himself up against the side of the craft. It was a few moments after that when Talon's helmet HUD reactivated after the crash forced the helmet to do a reboot. Talon started to move quickly toward the figure when his HUD identified the figure as Johnny Ryker.

Talon limped and fell over next to the figure with a loud grunt, "Jo- Johnny, you alright man?"

Johnny slowly turned his head toward him. Talon became tense when he saw his brother's helmet with a large gash in it rendering the HUD destroyed. As Talon tried to remove his helmet, he felt something grasp his wrist tightly. Johnny coughed violently and wheeze before he spoke, "N-no. Don't take off your helmet. There i-is radiation e-everywhere."

"What about you! Your rebreather is useless with a hole in your helmet! Just stay still and conserve your strength while I try to find another helmet" Talon shouted.

Johnny wheezed for a couple more seconds before speaking, "I'm already a d-dead man. Us Pilots are res-sistant to radiation but with this amount and no r-rebreather, you might as well just sign your death contract."

Talon crawled around to the six unmoving bodies, checking their helmets. Five of them were Grunts who had their helmets and rebreathers broken one way or another while sixth one was another Pilot. Talon started to have hope when he turned the body over to remove the helmet only to find the reinforced glass that made up the HUD had been shattered, fragments of the glass sat impaled in the Pilot's skull.

"T-Talon, come over here. I haven't got much time left."

The Pilot reluctantly crawled back over to his dying brother. Talon deactivated his HUD so Johnny could see through the helmet to his face. The older brother saw tears streaming down his younger brother's face. Johnny swung his arm and placed it on Talon's shoulder before shaking him slightly.

Through the crack in his helmet, Talon could see a faint smile, "D-do me a couple small favors for me, little bro. Take care of dad, I'm not sure how he'll react to my death but you two are the only family you both have left."

Talon nodded, Johnny wheezed a couple more times before continuing, "Take care of Yurika as well. With m-me gone, you're her only friend left. Do me additional favor and name one of you guy's kids after me."

Even the current situation at hand, Talon couldn't help but get a slight tinge of red across his face, "Shut up you idiot. Be serious here, just take my helmet, we're about the same size."

Johnny squeezed his shoulder tightly, "One last thing, promise me that you w-will survive this god damn war."

Talon didn't know what to say, his brother was dying right in front of him and he couldn't do anything to save him. He knew that even if he was to give his helmet to his brother, he would just be killing himself as well. All he could do was comfort his brother now as he passed on.

"Johnny, I p-"

His brother's hand slid off his shoulder and fell silently to the ground. Johnny's head leaned slightly to the side as one final breath escape the now deceased body. Talon didn't know how to react, in the blink of an eye, his brother was no longer with him. All that was left behind was a irradiated corpse. The last survivor of the crash just remained silent for awhile, taking in the fact that someone he had known all his life would no longer be with him.

Finally, Talon placed his hand on his brother's head, "I'll take care of dad, I'll marry Yurika, and I swear on my life that I'll end this fucking war at any cost."

The determined Pilot reached down and ripped off the dog tags that belonged to his brother. He then went around the crashed ship and removed the rest of the dog tags and deposited them in a pouch that once contained a clip of ammunition for his G2A4 that now sat to the side, bent in half. Talon walked to the back of the and tried opening the ramp but nothing happened as he pulled down the lever several times.

The side window to the Crow dropship laid shattered as well and with a little effort of pushing debris out of the way, Talon managed to make a big enough crawlspace for him to fit through. But before he left, he hobbled back over to his brother and removed the weapon in his holster, his B3 Wingman.

Talon didn't have to cover his eyes from the sunlight as emerged at the surface as his helmet dimmed the light for him. The land around him that once held many building now laid in utter destruction. A select few building managed to survive the concussive force from the explosion while most building now lay flat save for the few fragments that still stood. Now that he was out in the sun, the microwave feeling he had before upgraded to a sauna within a oven. However, with the various implants in his body, Talon would be able to survive the radiation filled area, for a limited amount of time.

The Militia Pilot began to limp through the area, looking for any sort of transport whether it be military or not. It was a strange feeling to him, not that long ago, this entire area had over several thousand fighting men and women duking it out with the opposing faction. But now, most of them had been turned ash or buried by the ashes of others. Talon could make out the burnt wreckage of a few Titans, but with the color burnt off, it was impossible to tell which side it had fought for.

Talon knew he had to hurry, no doubt the Militia fleet was preparing to leave the system. And if he didn't make it back before they did, he was going to have to take his chances with the IMC or hope whatever ship he found could make Jumps to different systems. After what seemed five minutes of looking, Talon could make out what looked like a relatively undamaged IMC Goblin dropship. Sprint hobbling over to the thing, Talon raised his weapon as he approached the craft.

When he heard what sounded like crying, Talon activated his Cloak on a whim and found it to still be working. The ramp was currently lowered which allowed Talon to lean around the corner and peer into the ship with his weapon raised. An IMC Pilot with his side to Talon sat crying with another IMC Pilot across his lap, rocking back and forth humming some tune unknown. From where he was, he could make out the deceased IMC Pilot's figure to be a female's while the one holding her was a male's. Talon stepped closer silently and brought his hand cannon up to look down the sights at the Pilot's head.

Right before he pulled the trigger, the Pilot spoke, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't protect her, mom. I promised her that she would she home again but . . . God damn it, take me! I'll do anything, just don't take her from me! Please!"

The Cloak finally wore off but the IMC Pilot had yet to notice Talon standing behind him with the revolver still pointed at his head. It was clear that the man had just lost someone close to him, but whether it was his girlfriend, wife, or sister was unknown to him. Whoever he may have lost, he was in the same boat as Talon in more ways than one. Talon wasn't familiar with the systems of a Goblin Dropship, while they may be somewhat familiar to the Militia's Crow, he didn't know which buttons did what and he was pretty sure there wasn't a manual anywhere nearby. Right now, his only option was to get this Pilot in front of him to help him, either through force or peacefully if at all possible.

Talon cleared his throat, causing the IMC Pilot to wheel around toward him. The Pilot was shocked when he realized that he was staring down the barrel of a high-powered pistol. Not wanting a bullet to be lodged in his brain, the IMC Pilot remained perfectly still.

The Militia Pilot spoke calmly, "Who was she?"

Talon's prisoner was a bit confused by the question at first, but he didn't seem happy when he realized what he was asking, "What's it to you?"

Talon brought back the hammer on the B3 Wingman which gave a loud, definitive click, "Let me remind you that you are the one with a gun pointed at him. Answer the question."

"She was my sister, happy?" The IMC Pilot's irritated tone hadn't left, but Talon found it bearable.

"How did she go? One of us get her?" When Talon said 'us', what he meant was Militia.

The IMC Pilot shook his head, Talon tilted his head confused, he could see what looked like a bullet wound on the female, "Was she impaled by something in the blast?"

Again, he shook his head. Talon was honestly curious now, he couldn't think of any other reason why she might have something like a gunshot wound, "Then how . . . if you don't mind me asking."

Talon could hear the IMC Pilot take a deep breath before answering, "Damn IMC officer shot her."

The two of them remained silent for a minute, it took some time for Talon to process what the IMC Pilot had told him. It could have been a trick to catch him off guard but that didn't seem likely. Before Talon could ask anything else, the IMC Pilot continued, "My sister was a combat medic. She always wanted to be a medic, she wanted to save people regardless of who they were. But that's what got her shot. After my team cleared out a building, there were two injured Militia Grunts bleeding out. Without a second thought, she ran over and started to help them. Not long after our commanding officer came into the room and saw her helping the two Grunts. Long story short, he ordered her to shoot the two Grunts. She refused so . . . he shot her . . . and I shot him. The other Pilots were about to take me under arrest but then we got the word that the core was going to overload soon, they all bugged out. I picked up my sister, barely made it to a transport before it took off. Luckily, we were the only ones who made it. The explosion knocked us out of the sky but the ship is relatively intact. . . She bleed out just a few minutes ago."

"That's . . . quite a story." Talon had lowered his weapon and holstered it. He chuckled, "Guess we both lost family today."

"How did they die?"

"In a way, you could say a Militia officer did it. . . but it was a little more indirect."

The two Pilots remained silent for another minute before the IMC Pilot spoke up, "Fuck this war."

"Amen to that, brother."

The IMC Pilot carefully moved his sister's body off of him and stood up to face the person that was once his enemy and pushed his hand toward him, "Specialist Hopkins."

Talon took the hand in a firm handshake, "Sergeant Ryker."

Hopkins nodded his head, "Well, Sergeant, shall we get off this radiation filled rock?"

"You know how to fly one of these thing Specialist?" Talon inquired.

Hopkins scoffed at him, "I'm a better flyer than I am a soldier."

Talon smirked, "So you're a better pilot than you are a Pilot?"

A loud sigh came from Hopkins as he closed the ramp and started walking up to the front of the dropship, "I'm going to start hating you again real soon."

Talon smiled as he followed closely behind his new friend, "I'm going to enjoy our friendship, however brief it may be."

The two Pilot removed the two dead bodies who were once the operators of dropship that had died on impact. They placed the two bodies in the back next to Hopkin's sister before they each took a seat at the front of the ship.

As Hopkins began pressing various buttons and flipping a couple switches, the Goblin sputtered to life. Talon merely turned to face Hopkins and stared at him until the IMC Pilot turned to look at him. In a monotone voice, Talon said, "I have no fucking clue how to get this thing off the ground."

Hopkins brought his hand to his helmet and began to rub the visor as if he was rubbing his eyes. The IMC Pilot leaned over Talon and pressed a couple more buttons, "Hmm, gonna have to fly this thing manually into orbit. Jump core is warming up but it won't be ready for quite a while. If we leave now, it will be ready right when we break orbit. Talk about inconvenience."

Another minute by before the Goblin lurched off the ground before steadying. After Hopkins checked the systems again, he took ahold of the controls and started flying up at a forty-five degree angle. It about another five minutes before the dropship made it through the atmosphere. Although what was waiting for them off the planet didn't make Talon really happy.

Several IMC ships were waiting in orbit. Phantom fighters could be seen flying all over the area, a chill went up Talon's spine when several fighters diverted from a squadron and started moving closer to him. As they were approaching, Talon's hope rose slightly when his helmet could still pick up Militia signals but they were far out, if he wanted to get there in one piece, he would need to plot a Jump there but he wasn't the one flying the ship.

Talon turned his head to face Hopkins who was already staring back at him. The IMC Pilot eyed the sidearm that rested in its holster on Talon's leg. A silence hung between them for a couple moments, but they both knew what was about to happen.

However, before any of them could act, a transmission came through the console of the dropship, "Unidentified Goblin, state your name and rank or we will fire."

The Phantoms surrounded the dropship, an alarm started ringing letting the two of them know that the fighters had a lock on them. Hopkins pressed a button next to the flight controls, "This is Specialist Trevor Hopkins, requesting permission to land anywhere."

A minute passed before the voice through the speaker came back, "Specialist Hopkins, you are to land at the IMS New Hope and surrender yourself to security personnel. You are under arrest for the murder of an IMC officer, will you comply?"

"Well shit, looks like we're both going to be sharing a cell."

Trevor said nothing as his grip on the controls tightened. If Talon wanted to make it home, he needed Trevor on his side, "Hey dude listen, my father is a high ranking officer. If we make a Jump now, we might be able to catch up with the Militia fleet. I promise you that I will have them cut you a break . . . and I will make sure your sister has a proper burial."

At the mention of his sister, Trevor turned to look at Talon. The Militia Pilot felt kind of bad, he was playing off of Trevor's weakness. The IMC would probably give his sister a proper burial but Talon managed to sweeten the deal by offering him a possible way to escape custody.

"Does the Militia really want freedom?"

Talon was surprised by the abrupt question. It took him a second before he could recover, "The Militia is made up of pirates, mercenaries, criminals, and plenty other unsavory folk . . . but we are united, to liberate the Frontier. Yes, we want freedom."

Trevor took a deep breath before he pressed another button, "Yes, I will comply."

Talon was shocked but Trevor turned to face him right after, "Plot the Jump coordinates."

Without a second thought, Talon began to punch in the coordinates of where he was picking up Militia frequencies. Talon gave the thumbs when everything was ready. Trevor immediately began to maneuver around their Phantom escort and fly as fast as the ship could go, they didn't want to Jump in case a stray Phantom or another Goblin happened to fly in front of them as they made the Jump, so they needed to at least get clear of the IMC fleet.

They had to have had at least five Phantoms on their tail, shooting them with a variety of weapons. And yet, Trevor never lost his cool. The IMC Pilot nimbly avoided a majority of the incoming fire, only being clipped by a bullet every now and then that was deflected by the weakening shield. To prevent the other larger ships from firing on them, Trevor flew close to an IMC ship leaving the Phantoms as the only option of attacking unless they wanted the high risk of friendly fire.

Despite being slower and less nimble than the Phantoms, Trevor managed to keep the enemy pilots guessing. His flight pattern was irregular making turns and pivots in all different direction. Fighter craft usually needed to lead their target in order to hit them but without being a able to lead, all they could do was spray and pray. Trevor managed to somehow avoid the lock-on missiles by flying close to an IMC ship, messing up the heat targeting system and causing it to lock on to the warmer and larger ship. Bullets were a different story however, while Trevor managed to avoid most of it, the constant fire kept whittling down their shields at a quick enough rate so the shields couldn't regenerate.

The chase continued on for a couple of minutes as Trevor tried to get them clear of the fleet and out to open space. Problem was, as soon as they cleared the fleet, the IMC didn't have to worry about friendly fire anymore. For them to survive, they would need to Jump as soon as they clear fleet and survive the fire coming from the pursuing the Phantoms.

The Goblin rocked when a Phantom managed to get in a successful missile strike, bringing their shield's down to nail biting levels. Trevor punched a couple more buttons before shouting, "Let's hope your friends ask questions first, and blow shit up later!"

Talon watched the console in front of him as the Jump core charge up, "Jump Coordinates locked in! Jump in three . . . two . . . one, mark!"

Once the blinding light subsided, they both could see a single Militia Brick ship positioned not too far away from them. The words 'Lunar Ray' were printed in bold on the side of the ship. Immediately as they came out of warp, all sorts of alarms started going off letting the two of them that they were being targeted.

Talon quickly opened communications, "Lunar Ray, power down your weapons! Your targeting a friendly!"

A moment later, Talon heard a voice come back through, "State your full name, rank, and serial number for confirmation."

"Talon James Ryker, Sergeant, 18-275-296."

A minute passed, Talon just leaned back in his seat but Trevor still had his hands gripped tightly on the flight controls. Talon began to take off his helmet when he remembered that the Goblin was probably still filled with radiation. Instead, he pulled a clump of dog tags out of one of his ammo pouches and removed a single tag from the clump before he shoved the rest away. Talon wiped the dust that had been covering it when he had removed it. His brother's name and serial number had been engraved onto the small piece of metal, now it was one of the few things he had left of his brother.

A voice came through the speaker again after a couple minutes had passed, "You may land in hangar B, a security team will me-"

Some shouting and the sounds of a struggle came through the communications, the two Pilots looked at eachother wondering what was happening. A smile broke out across Talon's face when a voice came through, "-lon! -s that yo-"

Talon responded, "Yes Colonel Ryker, still requesting permission to land."

Andon breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank god. I thought I had lost you, is Johnny there with you?"

Talon hesitated for moment, "Hey dad . . . we need to talk."

"Oh . . . is he alright?"

Talon sighed before continuing, "We are enroute to hangar B, our ship is contaminated with radiation. Requesting decontamination teams to meet us."

The two Pilots heard the mic ripped away and the voice of the first man came back through, "Roger that, and Sergeant, uh, you said 'us'. Is there another person with you?"

Talon looked at Trevor for a second, "Yes . . . an IMC Pilot."

"Uh . . . can you say that again, it sounded like you said an IMC Pilot."

"That is correct, security teams are not to shoot him. Without him, I would have never made it off planet. There are extenuating circumstances but this man is to be treated as a friendly. Understood?"

"Uuuhhh . . . yeah . . . roger that. I'll . . . inform the security team. Hangar B, decontamination teams are ready to scrub."

Once the communications closed, Talon looked toward Trevor, "Well, I hope that's enough."

"Think I can join the Militia?"

"Maybe, could always use another Pilot. You will certainly be placed in the brig, but I'll talk to my father and get you a better room at least. You got me off that planet and past the IMC fleet, that will mean something to him." Talon patted Trevor on the shoulder before directing him to hanger B.

As they entered the hangar, the two of them could see several armed Titans and about twenty Pilots accompanied with at least a dozen Grunt squads, all of their weapons pointed at them. Talon sheepishly looked toward Trevor, "That's one heavily armed security team."

Trevor set down the ship with the ramp hatch toward the security. Talon went in front of Trevor, the reasoning for that was pretty easy to figure out. Once they were by the ramp, Talon glanced once more back to Trevor who gave him a nod. Talon lowered the ramp, all the weapons were trained on the two of them. Even though they were his friends, he still felt a little chill go up his spine.

A Atlas Titan stepped forward, a voice boomed through its speakers, "Step off of the dropship and come out into the open with your hands up!"

The two Plots slowly walked off the ship and lined up side by side in front of what could become their firing squad very quickly. The Titan pointed its weapon at Talon, "Sergeant Ryker, place your firearm and data knife on the ground and kick them over. IMC Pilot, remove any weapons you have and do the same."

Talon placed his brother's B3 Wingman and data knife on the ground as Trevor removed his RE-45 Autopistol and his data knife as well. As soon as the weapons were kicked over, a Pilot ran out from the crowd and quickly picked them up before moving back into the crowd.

"Our decontamination team will now be scanning you, any sign of aggression will be meet with lethal force, understood?"

The two Pilots nodded, two Grunts wearing much bulkier gear than the others walked over to the two of them, judging by the weight of the gear, all they could do was walk. The Grunts walked over and started to wave geiger counters over the two of them. Apparently, Talon had enough radiation on him to kill five adult men while Trevor only had enough to give the average man radiation sickness.

Before they were lead off to the decontamination chamber, Talon shouted to the group of soldiers, "There is the body of a female IMC Pilot still on the ship, we request that her body is cleaned with us."

The man within the Atlas remained silent for a second, "Fine, we will get you a stretcher, but you two will carry her."

Once they were given the stretcher, Talon and Trevor quickly but carefully lifted Trevor's sister onto the stretcher and was removed of any weapons. Once the body passed the security check by the two Grunts, the two Pilots carried the body through the hangar into a chamber within the hanger. Once inside the chamber, the door closed shut, and they were ordered to remove their clothes, place them in the corner and take a towel if they wanted to look a little more decent. Before discarding his gear, Talon took the dog tags and held them tightly. After Talon, Trevor, and Trevor's sister had towels covering their important bits, several alarms started going off followed with the voice, "Decontamination in progress."

The process was a lengthy one, through the entire process the two of them just had to stand there while the decontamination took its course, "So . . . Things could be going worse."

Trevor stood there in silence as the chemical filled hot water poured over him, his brown hair covered his eyes. Talon tried to think of something else say but just couldn't, he understood how Trevor felt losing a family member but it just wasn't something you talk so easily about. He still had to tell his father what happened with Johnny, and he had no idea how that was going to go. Talon started to wish he made an attempt to bring Johnny's body along at least, that might have made things easier but he left it rotting on a radiation filled planet.

Talon sighed, still thinking of something else to say. But Trevor decided to say something of his own, "I don't care what happens to me, just make sure my sister gets a proper burial."

"I will, it's the very least I can do after you got me through the IMC blockade. I'll do what I can do about getting you a better room." Silence hung between them for about a minute before Talon continued, "You said you wanted to join the Militia, why? You could just sit out the war in a comfy cell."

"I was actually born in the Frontier but on a planet under heavy IMC control. When the war started escalating, me and my sister were drafted. We were originally just supposed to be your average cannon fodder, but both my sister and I demonstrated remarkable skills in basic training and we were commissioned as Pilots. In truth . . . I didn't want to to have any part of this war, my sister either. But now . . . they took my sister from me, and I want revenge. I want to kill every IMC Pilot I come across."

Trevor's voice started to rise in anger, "All my sister was doing was patching up another human being. All she wanted to do was become a doctor after the war was over, but now . . . they took her future so now I'm going to take theirs! I am going to slaughter anyone who sides with the IMC! I'm . . ."

Talon placed a hand on Trevor's shoulder causing the angry Pilot to pause, "Calm down there buddy. There are people on the IMC's side because they were forced into it. We've managed to bring a little over a thousand Grunts over to our side. Although, you might be the first Pilot we've managed to turn."

The building rage slowly left the former IMC Pilot after a few deep breaths, "Well, there is definitely a first for everything.
A brief chuckle was shared between the two mostly naked Pilots before silence returned for the rest of the cleaning. The entire process took at least an hour before they were given fresh clothes to put on. The two Pilots, now squeaky clean, stepped outside the chamber with Trevor's sister still on the stretcher between them only to be met with the security personnel that had met them when they got off the ship. This time, all the weapons were only pointed at Trevor.

"Out of the way, that's my son up there. I am a Colonel and I am ordering you to get out of my way!"

The sea of bodies parted to allow the commanding officer through toward the front of the group. Talon set down the stretcher and grappled into a bear hug with his father, "Thanks for waiting up."

"I knew you weren't dead, I knew it. Call it father's intuition. I was able to delay the jump out of the system being the highest ranking officer on this ship, crew wasn't happy about that but . . . I'm just happy you made it back."

Talon's grin faded, "Yeah . . . I wish I could have brought back more but this is about it."

The Pilot handed over the dog tag to Andon who took it and held it carefully like a small fragile doll. The Colonel studied the tag for a minute before a single tear ran down his cheek, "Looks like-" Andon made a couple sniffling sounds before continuing, "Looks like it's just me and you now."

"Yeah . . . at least he is with mom now." Talon brought himself out of the encroaching depressing mood and gestured over to Trevor, "This is Trevor. A former IMC Pilot. He wants to join up with us, he is one of the best flyers I've ever seen."

Andon leaned in close to his son, "We can't take that risk, we should just throw him into a cell."

"With all due respect Colonel, without this man, I would have never made it off of Demeter, let alone the IMC blockade. You once told me that every single person born on the Frontier should have the opportunity to fight for its freedom." Talon pointed to his new friend, "That man there was born on the Frontier but he was drafted by the IMC. Now he is looking to get revenge for the IMC killing his sister. He could also give us some intel on Spectre factory locations."

"I'll do you one better, how about the location of the man who created the Spectre program in exchange for issuing me a uniform change, some weapons and a chance to fight those IMC bastards." Trevor spoke up.

Andon pushed Talon to the side slightly as he approached Trevor. The Colonel looked the man over in front of him, studying everything he could about the man, "You speak of Doctor Einhart? You know where to find him?"

"I know a place in which we can use to find him, a lightly defended IMC Intelligence Relay. I can tell you everything you need to know about that relay from what defenses it has down to the food in the mess hall. I was posted there for a while."

"Hmm, are those your only conditions?" Andon asked.

Trevor was about to nod when he looked back to Talon, " . . . One more thing, I want to fight alongside him."

Andon looked back to his son which the man was pointing to, "You trust him Talon?"

Talon studied Trevor once more briefly before smirking, "You better not hold me back, Specialist."

"Wouldn't dream of it Sergeant."

Hello my fellow readers, I wanted to post this after I finished the first season of a Jedi in Fairy Cloth but I've been dying to do something with mechs. While the story of Titanfall was near non-existent, it still had fun gameplay and I've been wanting to do a story with it for awhile. I also really like the VanDread series which I first watched way back when but I come back to it every now and then and still enjoy it. I had a different version of this story planned for awhile but I decided to scrap it and it happened a couple more times. This is version 5 I believe. I will still be wrapping up A Jedi in Fairy Cloth season one and then I will be starting season two of Shadowrunner of the Void but I will be writing this as well.

I would also like to say this series here is heavily inspired by VanDread Halo by Freedom Guard. I highly recommend you also read his series, I had a really good time reading it.

Anyway, join me next time on

Chapter II:

Adrift

Until next time, stay classy, Rogue Pizza out