Heartbreaker

(A TITANFALL FANFICTION)

[Because Why Not]

The Author has rated the following literature:

E / G / PG / M / MA-15+ / R-18+ / X-18+ / RC

M By the classifications laid out by the Australian classifications and ratings board for Film, Television, and Video Games.

The Following Contains:

Moderate Impact Course Language

War Themes


Transcript of Audio Journal Entry of Militia Pilot Jeremiah Hollowday, A.K.A. 'Hunter-Killer'

Fucking…(audible sigh)…I'm getting jittery again…Alright, this is Jeremiah Hollowday, code name Hunter-Killer. Whether that's for hunting down and killing IMC or because I kill those the IMC send to hunt me, I don't remember. Pilot of Atlas Class Titan, serial designation HB-1988. My name for 'im? Heartbreaker. Time and Date…(sounds of movement)…My watch is broken….Fuck it, I'm probably just going to say this again in three hours but, eh, may as well right? Okay…The shaking has come back again. The Doctors, nurses, medics. The lot of them tell me it's a miracle I'm still alive. Let alone standing. And I decide it's in my best interest to not tell them about the rematch burn cards. There's a reason they only let Simulacrum's use stim now. Me being the exception. I've served Three years, Seven months with the Militia, or was it Six years? Fuck it, either time it's the same. One year a foot soldier, the rest a Pilot. In my first four months of being a Pilot, I went through Five Titans. I'll admit that it's because I thought the nuclear eject sequence was the core ability, when I was actually detonating the core. Then I linked with Heartbreaker and someone finally told me where the button to use the core ability was. It's the opposite side of the Pilot's seat. Combat efficiency increased tenfold. I was linked with Heartbreaker for Two months, I was injured in the last battle I participated in, I don't remember the name. So I was just lying in a bed for a month before I convinced the higher ups to link me with another Titan. That was hard. I got HB, so we practised for two months. My first combat deployment with Heartbreaker once I was healed was Demeter…That's where I earned the name Hunter-Killer…(audible sigh)…They say I'm not right in the head, that I've got some kind of mania…I'm inclined to agree half the time…The other half I'm racked with some kind of shakes or something…I'm told I have muscle spasms and a dependency…I just take another shot and go on fighting…They might have a point 'cause that was bad phrasing. I'm not even sure of the time half the…time…I know damn sure I'm not kept around for my ability to speak…(sounds of movement)…(sounds of pain)…I…Fucking hell…I got nothing against them…They're Pilots too…But those Simulacrum bastards got it fucking easy…(sounds of pain)…Arh, HB! Open the hatch…(End Entry)

The front hatch of the admittedly outdated Titan opened, sending the Pilot inside sprawling to the ground in front of the kneeling Titan. The Pilot grunted and groaned with pain as their limbs straightened, then the muscles contracted, leaving the Pilot to face the sky on their back as their arms, legs, back muscles all contracted, leaving them twitching and spasming.

"Pilot, are you okay…?" The Titan spoke with a low, intimidating voice of male qualities.

The Pilot's spasms eased off, visible signs of the fit becoming less obvious. The Pilot kept their gaze behind their helmet locked to the trees and skies above.

"HB, I know you mean well. But there is a reason I installed more than one OS chip in you, five of them, or something."

"Correction, Pilot. All but one of your installed OS chips immediately failed. The one that did not, I am currently using."

"Then default; Betty."

There was a moments pause.

"Is this better Pilot?" The Titan's automated voice came out with a softer, feminine tone.

"Yeah, Heartbreaker. The Sid OS 'Intimidate, annihilate, exterminate' stuff is fine. But it does fuck all to denote compassion."

The pilot kept their gaze to the sky. Watching the trees sway, clouds pass, and the smoke of the destroyed Titans from an IMC hunter squadron billow up, thinning out as the time passed.

A hollow, pained laugh filled the clearing.

"Attention Pilot, possible hostile detected." The Atlas raised from its position, giant XO-16 chaingun being brought to bear in its arms, facing the direction of the laughter.

"This…this is the great Hunter-killer…?" The voice was feminine.

The pilot rolled over in an attempt to find the speaker. He spotted her, she lay in a crater with the chassis of an Ion class Titan in pieces scattered around her. There were piles of bodies near her. Statistics for the IMC, just a reason to add another thousand credits to his bounty. The Pilot rolled back over to stare at the sky. The pained voice continued.

"Th…they made you out as a demon. Nothing definite," The pilot shakily moved to stand, motioning for the Titan to lower their gun, though not holster it. "W-we only got whispers of the dreaded Hunter-killer and what you did on Demeter…"

"No survivors…I hunted them, some slipped through." The Pilot spoke.

"The fact there were more reports, made the commanders think you were a Simu…simula…"

"No, so long as I live I will never become a Simulcra." The pilot turned to gaze at the dying IMC Pilot.

"…Turns out now…It's funny to me…You, you're just…" The Pilot started walking to their adversary. "…You're a wreck, can hardly stand, an addict, use an outdated Titan. A disappointment to the legend formed from hushed whispers…"

"If I'm a disappointment, addict, can't stand, a wreck…Then what does that make you?" The Pilot stood over the woman now. Looking down behind a helmet to someone not 10 minutes prior was trying to kill him. "Is this the dead making peace with their own thoughts or an idiot overdramatising a flesh wound…?" He asked the woman.

"You shot me, you judge." The woman bit back. For someone literally at the mercy of the person they were trying to kill they still had a lot of fight. Makes sense why they were chosen in the first place.

"I think your wound might be fatal." The Pilot looked down at the spot the woman was holding on her stomach, red seeping around it.

"You're a medic now Hunter-killer…? Going to show mercy t-"

"My name, is Jeremiah…Hollowday." The Pilot, Jeremiah, made to supress the tremors that were starting on his hands.

"He has a name…what now? I promise you my fealt-"

There was the loud report of a gunshot that filled the fractured clearing.

There was another blossoming red mark on the IMC Pilot, under her breast, where someone's lung would be. They could only look down at the wound, futilely covering it with their hands.

"Looks like your wound is fatal." The enemy Pilot looked back up at Jeremiah. "You know my name. I wouldn't have let you live anyway, but I figured you'd prefer to know the name of the person who you thought only four Pilots and Titans could take down. I may not remember much of it…But was Demeter not enough of an example to how this would go?" Jeremiah took off his pilot's helmet, revealing the brown tanned skin of his face, and his tired, almost translucent blue eyes.

"Know my name and face…Heaven or Hell, wherever you end up…May you find peace."

The IMC Pilot looked to her killer's eyes. "Th-thank you, my…my name is Ca-"

There was the sound of another discharge. Leaving a lone survivor standing in a clearing, surrounded by destruction.

Jeremiah lowered the Hammond pistol from where he held it, before holstering the pistol. A final red mark appearing around the new hole in the IMC helmet.

"Speak not the name of the dead, so one does not disturb the spirits peace." The Pilot spoke to the corpse. "It's better for you to remain nameless, remain faceless, so I don't feel the guilt of killing a person, I merely killed someone who terrorised the Frontier. The IMC won't remember you as a person, merely a statistic." The Militia Pilot turned, stumbling in his return to his Titan.

"Was that necessary Pilot?" HB asked his Pilot.

"The dead are better therapists than most people."

"How so Pilot?"

"The dead don't react to the horrors man is capable of."

"Noted, Pilot."

The cockpit of the Titan popped open, allowing Jeremiah access inside. He sat in the Pilot's seat, though did not take control. Instead preferring for Heartbreaker to travel to their destination. There are advantages to having an over five year old Titan: Regenerating shielding, Warpfall transmitter with dome shield generator, no Titan battery for the newer class of Pilot to try and steal, provides a chuckle when the clamber up there and die from the electric smoke because they weren't trained to pop the hatch and fire straight into the Titans servos and shit. Makes it easier having a Titan live so long. Much easier to convince someone like Sarah Briggs that a Vanguard Titan A.I. would be beneficial for the Titan. Of course, the Titan OS' had to be kept. SID comes in handy, and Betty is just delightful. And of course, Not restricted to the guns and upgrades the post-Demeter Titans are stuck with. Of course, adding in Titan battery slots were a must along the side, If anything just to pro-long the doomed state if it were to come to that.

A tired, aching body sat in the Pilot's seat of an Atlas class Titan, travelling towards a pick up point to rendezvous with other Militia personnel. In the seat sat a tired man.

A tired man alone with his thoughts. Body breaking at every turn…There's a reason only Simulacrum use stim now.


I Have started another story. And just like most of my stories, I have no idea where it goes from here. Just like an evil genius, I need a plot!

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