Authors Note: I don't own anything of what I write here.

Okay, if you have any questions, the second chapter will begin with a timeline for how things went. Because this IS quite some years after Titanfall 2. Also, this chapter will have only one mention of Mass Effect, and even that is really subtle.

And remember, any feedback is appreciated.

Edit: some slight grammar corrections, and the -This- dialogue format was replaced "This". Nothing else.


John woke up on the the New Frontiers. He was lying on the floor of hangar three, but it looked trashed. The dropships were flipped over, and the atmospheric fighters were all over the place. He got on his knees, and looked around, trying to find a specific Bear Transport, with a black paint.

There were fires, and the ceiling collapsed in one place. Sheppard also saw a Titan in the hangar, trying to flip back the ships. The walls were dented, and the logo of the 6-4 was scratched so much, he wouldn't have recognized it, if he didn't know what to look for.

He tried to stand up, but he was too dizzy and disoriented to do that, and fell, when he tried to do it anyway. He felt a dull ache in his left leg, and looked at it. It was pierced by a long metal shard, which probably came from one of the wrecks. Now that he knew it was there, it hurt a lot more. He tried to shout for help, but he was too weak to do anything. Furthermore, he was too tired to do anything.

The darkness slowly took over him.


Sheppard and his team was standing in one of the goblins, which took off from the New Frontiers in the first wave. Their section commander came back from the front of the craft, and gave a quick report.

"Alright, people, we have some pirates here. Probably the leftovers of the Marauders." Everyone paid more attention after that point. The Marauders were the people, who joined the Militia back then, because that was the easy way to get away with murder and stealing. They were called Marauders, because many of the came from the now disbanded Marauder Corps. Thus, they had top training, top equipment, and clever people. "We are dropping you off near a small smuggler settlement, so you should have a safe landing, but keep your eyes open. And again, the objective is the capture of Johnathan Kiora, the presumed leader of the Marauders, but a kill is also accepted." He pulled a lever, and the ramp behind him opened. "And be careful, you know how much Gates likes to write death reports. Now go."

Sheppard looked at Ashley with a questioning look, and the girl just smiled back, and ran out of the ship. Sheppard followed closely, and hit the ground then activated his suits combat functions.

"Okay, Sheppard, where now?" Asked Kaiden, who just landed behind them.

"Kiora's last known location is an underground shelter left behind from the Titan Wars." Sheppard answered, as he checked his smart pistol.

"That idiot escaped into a bunker built 50 years ago? I thought he was a good tactician." Came the words of confidence from Otto.

"Now is not the time to talk about that." Ashley warned the guys. "We need to go, before we're..." She was probably about to say something about the guys arguing, but she was cut off by the sound of the dropship smashing into the ground.

Sheppard looked around, looking for the weapon, which might have shot down their ride. He found no such, so there were two possibilities. Either it came from long range, which means they can be targeted anytime, if they are in the open, or it came from an orbiting ship. Neither of these two were good. Artillery meant wrong intel, but bombardment meant having lost the battle up above. Sheppard jumped inside a building and told his team to do so as well. He checked his HUD, but saw only four of the original friendly tags, marking his team.

"Dammit, who is here?"

"Present, but I saw the ship fall on the building, where Henry went to provide cover." Reported Ashley. Great, so they lost their marksman. Not like the others had bad aim. Most Pilots could hit a dime from a hundred meters with a pistol. But henry took it one step further. Sheppard saw what the man was capable of, and he was impressed. A normal marksman Pilot can hit the same dime, from the same distance, while wall-running, and the dime is falling. And Henry could double on that.

"I'm also here, and Kaiden is in the next room trying to patch himself, though it isn't anything serious." That was the life of a pilot. If you're hurt, it either heals quick, or kills you (Unless it's limb loss. That's shit to deal with). The medical nanites in their body made sure to heal anything, they can, but the brain is simply too complicated, so it's still irreparable. The nanites' ability to replicate stem cells and transport them to the damaged area saved countless lives. What Ingram said also had another meaning. The only name, which has not been mentioned yet was Otto, so he was gone as well.

"Okay, we'll keep going. Let's say the intel was right, so we have to get to the bunker before they can evacuate. Kaiden," He turned to the man who just came into the room. "you okay?"

"Yes, sir. Just some bruises."

"Good, because you'll take over the marksman role. You got the training, right?" To which Sheppard only received a nod.


He woke up laying next to a wall. He was alright, but still a bit dizzy. He stood, up and tried to place the corridor in the ship. It must have been still near the hangars, as the engineers' and mechanics' logos were all around the place. It was probably close to hangar three, as well, because there were other wounded near him. There were some, he could identify. Thompson, the "Maniac", or Ingram for example. He booted his armors HUD, and checked on her. A huge weight was lifted from him, when he realized, she was just knocked out. The next thing he did was check himself. He had a pair of broken ribs, a heavily bruised knee, but he was almost completely healed by now. The bigger problem was the concussion. Still, he had to find the rest of his team.

Each step was a fight itself, but he somehow managed to get back to the hangar. There were a lot of people, carrying either bodies, or rubble. Then he was approached by a figure in white armor. Her armor identified her as Gates.

"Dammit Shep, go and take some rest."

"Ma'am, where is the rest of my squad? I found Ingram, but not the others."

"Yeah, She was knocked out real good. Ashley got out of it with some small scars, but Kaiden is critical. They said, he lost his right limbs, and is generally in a real bad shape." Here Gates looked all over Sheppard again, and continued. "You'll have to explain how you got out with the VIP alive, and in your hands. By the way, he died in the crash. Still it was a... good job."

The voices began to dampen, and he just sort of stood there.

"Sheppard, you there?" Came Gates' voice, but it seemed too distant to care. His sight slowly turned ninety degrees right, and he lost his consciousness again, the moment, he hit the floor.


"Dammit Kaiden, we need covering fire." Sheppard shouted into his helmet.

There was silence for a couple seconds, during which the team only waited behind cover, then they got an answer.

"Sorry, I was held up by some guys." Here he stopped for a bit. "Sheppard, one had an IMC patch and a suit, I didn't recognize. It had the word ARES on it. You know anything about that?

"Yeah. And it's bad. They were the guys responsible for recovering precursor artifacts. If they're here we need to get Kiora five minutes ago."

The next moment, the little team saw a dozen bullet trails, and got a go from Kaiden. They were still a kilometer from the old bunker, but they didn't see any hard opposition on the path they wanted to take. Kaiden rejoined them, and they proceeded with the mission.


Sheppard woke up, for the third time. He looked around, only to see Ashley standing next to his bed. She was still in her armor, but her helmet was somewhere else. She held a tablet in her hands, and cursed sometimes.

"What happened?" Was all Sheppard managed to say.

"Short version: We were led into a trap. Long version: The ARES made a deal with the Marauders to protect them. In turn, what remained of them in terms of tech was given to the pirates. We thought they wouldn't see us, when we jump near the planet, but they did. The New Frontiers had to hide behind one of the moons, while reinforcements arrived. It took severe damage, lost a couple engines, Titan bay 3 and 4 is basically gone. The secondary bridge also took a hard hit. Vented before the people inside knew anything. As for the ground part of things, Even I'm not sure, and I was there. Whoever is leading ARES now, must have wanted us to take Kiora. There's no way it was so easy to take him alive."

Johns mind was starting to turn back on, after hearing the story, and he started remembering what happened to him.


They were inside the bunker for about five minutes now. Two minutes ago they realized they had the wrong schematics. They saw guards. Plenty of them, in fact, and none of them managed to get away. Sheppard was about to let out a loud curse, about why is the base so big, when they found a large sealed metal door.

They looked at each other, Ingram place a couple satchels on the door, and they checked their equipment. Sheppard queried his available gadgets on the HUD, and started reading

STIM: AVAILABLE

PULSE BLADES: 2

HARD COVER: NONE

PHASE SHIFT: ONLINE

HOLO PROJECTORS: ONLINE, AVAILABLE

CLOAK: ONLINE

GRAPPLES: 3

FIRESTARS: 2

GRAV STARS: 1

He started a countdown, which he shared with his squad.

3...

2...

1.

The satchels blew the door, and two pulse blades instantly flew inside. The next thing Sheppard saw was his team darting inside the large circular hall. He held his G2 high and started shooting at the highlighted targets' knees and arms. After all, taking the VIP alive was always a bonus. After a couple seconds the noise settled, and Ashley asked him to come in.

In the middle of the room, was a bloodied figure, kneeling. Sheppard stepped to him and punched him in the face, and the guy blacked out.

"Ingram, please upload the nanite blocker to the port on his neck. Kaiden, Please secure a way out of this place, and find a bird for us. I don't think the New Frontiers can do that at the moment." He was interrupted by the muffled grunt of their new captive.

"Incompetent. You know, how many mistakes you made?"

"Well, says the guy, we captured." Pointed out Ashley, with a satisfied tone.

"I was in a situation, I really should not have been in. I have lost more here, than you think. But you were terrible. You specifically once stopped, and gave some of my men a clear shot on you. Had they not been incompetent, as well, you'd be dead."

"But I'm not!" An angry Ashley shot back.

"Fair point. You did win. Also, I'm not dead yet, so I assume the mission was capture." The man said, as if to sound confident.

"No" Sheppard interrupted, before the man intimidates Ash any further. "We have a capture, or kill. Though, we do get a bonus for you being alive. It's not a large bonus, though, so I'd keep my mouth shut, if I were you." The man seemed to back down, looking surprised. Then, John got a message from Kaiden.

"Alright, I made a clear path. There should be nothing bothering you on your way, Kaiden out."

Sheppard looked at Ashley and told her to go forward, and watch for hostiles. He made their captive stand up, and dragged him along.

Nothing really got in their way, except for a squad of grunts. Ashley took them out before Sheppard could even raise his smart pistol. Sheppard had no idea, why there were no pilots. Was this a trap? Didn't feel like one, or so his guts told him. They came to the surface quickly, and went inside an abandoned residential building. John told Ashley to watch over their guest, and he went outside. He looked around, his G2 in hand. He wanted a vantage point, and the house, they used would actually do rather well, so he jumped onto the wall. He grabbed onto it, ran on the surface, until it became too tilted, then jumped inside a window. Inside, he ran up a stairwell, seeing the abandoned toys of kids in the rooms, he passed through. He finally came out into the shining sun.

The battle was everywhere. This was supposed to be a quick extraction, and now the entire 23rd fleet was engaged in combat. Both in space, and on ground. Dropships made runs for the surface, many getting shot down by turrets. Then he tried reaching his ship.

"Sheppard here. We have the VIP alive. Need extraction. If unavailable, then I request Titanfall."

"This... ew Front... got yo... Stand... Titanfall."

Sheppard looked up at the sky, and tried to make out the stars. The planet they were on had a very active astrologyst community, so there were many named constellations. He put all of them on his HUD, and tried to see what didn't belong there. Then he saw it. A single, bright dot, growing in size.

He felt a stomp in the distance. His friend would come just in time.

Then, there was a large boom. More observant people could notice that it was actually two separate explosions happening at the same time. One was the sound of a Titan touching the ground, the other was the boom of a 40 mil hitting the building Sheppard stood on.

As a result, John was knocked off, and landed in a roll, then stood back up quickly. His Titan stood up, and the Link came on. John now had another pair of eyes. It's not like switching between what he sees. A Pilot sees both at once. His own vision, and their Titan's.

"DT set a particle wall! -John told his Titan."

"I agree, Pilot. Multiple hostiles approaching. You may want to embark." The machine voice came back.

"Nah, not yet. We need to take out at least a couple before we reduce our firepower. Hold on for a sec." He switched channels. "Kaiden, where the hell are you? Me and Ashley are about to be attacked by at least a full squad."

"Sorry, I'm helping Ingram get a ride."

"That's now secondary." A shell hit dangerously close to him. He jumped onto the wall, but quickly leapt onto another, and continued, until he was close enough, then he jumped on a hostile Titan. He knew he'd have to work fast. Ho tore open a battery port, and pulled it out. He tore off the lower section of the battery, and tried to put it back, but before he could perform the final turn, the Titan deployed electric smoke. He had no intention of getting fried, so he jumped off, onto a nearby building. John whipped out his Archer, but held his fire for now. "You get here now. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

Sheppard turned his thoughts back to the battlefield. DT was handling things pretty well, considering everything. There's no way, he can get back on that same Titan again. It will be extra alert. But if DT could get off a shot at its back, it would blow the still exposed battery, and kill it. Yep, that's a plan. He forwarded this to his Titan, which acknowledged it, and kept firing. John knew he would have to draw the attention of it, so DT can take a shot. He grabbed a firestar, and threw it at the Titan. It turned around immediately, to see where it came from. To the surprise of the pilot sitting inside, he blew up the next moment, leaving behind only the legs of the Tone chassis.

"Nice job, DT."

"I already told you too many times, to call me DoT. And there is still much opposition." Said the machine, as it started to shoot again. "Attrition is starting to wear me down, I need more help."

"Okay pal, I'm coming. Kaiden is on the way, as well. He'll be here in a couple minutes." He aimed the Archer again, and mumbled to himself. "Hopefully."


"But what happened? Who came to save us?" Asked John Ashley, his helmet in hand.

"The 2nd Fleet was nearby." Joined another voice, Admiral Xuen, the leader of the 23rd fleet. "They got our emergency transmissions, and came. It was pretty one-sided after that. I hate to owe Jacob, so I hope getting rid of Kiora was worth it." Here she looked at Sheppard with doubt in her eyes.

"No good news, sir." Ashley cut in. "He was way too easy to capture. We haven't even met Pilots until extraction. At this point he was most likely just a puppet. And if I'm right, the new guys are ARES." Here she paused and looked at Sheppard, expecting him to continue. John saw this, and started talking.

"Admiral, if ARES has access to the Marauders' resources and contacts, they will be a huge problem in a week at best. I have experience with these guys, from Typhon, and I think we would be better off, if the IMC came back instead."

"Commander Sheppard, the IMC was a much more formidable enemy." The Admiral interrupted.

"Yes, but they at least agreed not to blow up planets, and laid out general rules of war." Sheppard said quickly, defending his point.

"Yes...I guess that's true. Anyway, get yourself and your squad together. Come and meet me in my quarters after that, I have orders for your unit."

"Sir, one of my men is still critical. Lost multiple limbs. Last time I heard, he was still on the table. And we are down by two men."

"Well, still. Visit him, and get the rest of you presentable. Sorry, but I took the job in your name."

"No worries, sir. We'll be there."

"Good. Now go and actually rest a bit. That's an order."

John nodded, threw a quick salute, and went to his quarters with Ashley following him. Both were really tired, and worn, so there wasn't much talking. After around ten minutes, they were both in their bunks, sleeping.

John was really tired, but kept dreaming of his past fights with ARES, mostly the ones on Typhon. Not many Pilots managed to get out of there alive. Only the best, and they were heavily decorated after. Especially Cooper. John couldn't help but feell like Coopers victory involved a bit more luck, than skill. Maybe he felt even... Jealous. After waking up from the fourth nightmare, one, he remembered every time, he woke up from it, he decided to just write an after-action report.

It was a strange dream. Didn't feel like one. It was Sheppard flowing near a fold artifact, in space. In the distance, he saw a large star-like construct. It looked beautiful. It resembled, well, a star. It had a large circle in its middle, and there were sun-ray looking arms expanding from that central point. However, it was in a nebula, and a large part of it was obstructed, but if Sheppard saw right, that part appeared to be burning.

This, however only lead to questions, which no one could answer, so just rather went back to writing the report.


John fired the Archer. And the Titan dodged. Whoever was inside that Ronin, was very skilled. The Vinson Titan Chassis' were starting to become outdated, but said Pilot could still make the Stryder variant dance. Still, without its firends, a Ronin is no match for a Vanguard 3. Most Titans got recharging shields as a refit. Not The Vanguard 3. It was on the plans since the original planning phase.. It had every available ordnance, defense, and utility gadgets installed. And the chassis itself was upgraded as well. If necessary, it can even fly indefinitely, due to it's advanced thrusters. And fly it did. Sheppard saw the Titan gracefully rise, and stop above its opposition. DT then released just about every rocket he had. An unguided rocket salvo flew down right next to a couple of Cluster missiles, supported by a pair of inciendiary traps. In the meanwhile, the XO-24 roared, and spat electrified bullets. It was a sight to see. The enemies tried to scatter, but they were too grouped to do anything. Sheppard counted with joy. One Legion, the annoying Ronin, and a Monarch were instantly destroyed. An Ion, and a Scorch were trying to get away, but still took huge amounts of damage. The Ion lost an arm, and it's precision laser was probably gone as well. The Scorch looked like it had trouble walking, and its hands were full of shrapnel, so he probably won't encounter a thermal shield. Thank the gods for that.

"Pliot, I exhausted my ordnance. Help from friendlies would be highly beneficial."

"Yeah, well... Kaiden is not yet here, so..." He would have continued for sure, but a shot rang out, and DT was knocked back. Sheppard quickly used his Titans vision to find the new opponent, and saw a Northstar. It was reloading its Railgun, and put up a particle wall. Sheppard analyzed the situation, and came to the conclusion that embarking would be his best options. He sprinted hard, and leapt off the building, he was hiding on. While he was mid-air, he got a message from Ashley.

"Heard the booms, need help?"

"Not yet. Kaiden's on the way." He replied as he touched the next building. He ran hard again, and ended it in a slide, which took him off the building. But he did not fall. John found himself in the hands of his Titan, with the hatch open. He jumped in, and the hatch shut close.

The HUD came on, and he linked. This feeling was, how Sheppard imagined a mind-meld. He was the Titan, and the Titan was him. He raised the Titans arms, and activated the gun shield.

The Northstar was back by this time, having reloaded, and it was looking down the barrel of its weapon. Sheppard saw this, and dodged. And again, and again, and again. If they keep it up, Sheppard would have to find cover, to recharge the dodge thrusters. But the Northstar missed the next shot due to Sheppard moving around unexpectedly, and stepped back to reload. The next moment the Northstar took off. And it maneuvered very quickly. Sheppard ran a quick system check to show damaged, or otherwise unavailable systems.

TITAN STATUS:

Cluster Missile Racks Empty.

Rocket Racks Empty.

Shields working at 80% max capacity due to damaged emitters.

Sword unequipped.

Major hull damage on lower torso. Repair kit required.

And indeed, when Sheppard lunged forward, the left leg of the Titan did feel a bit sluggish. He saw the Northstar open one of its missile pods, and aim. DT told him, to watch out, and so John rolled left in the wide street, as the Missile hit a building behind him, the secondary explosions still barely hitting the shields of the Titan. John stood back up quickly, and kept charging toward his target.

When he was about to hit the small chassis, it suddenly raised into the sky, leaving John to slide under it, as he tried to stop. There really was no good counter-action to a VTOL hover, besides blasting your ordnance into the hovering Titan, but that's not something, John could do at the moment, and DT notified him of this.

So John, left without good options, choose something of his own. He did it before. Not with DT, but he did this exact thing before on Typhon.

He turned back to his own vision, and flipped on a couple switches in the cockpit. Then he went back to being the Titan. He shook himself, and launched up into the sky. By this point he was sure, the plan would probably not work, but it was too late to do anything about it.

He flew towards the Northstar, which kept itself in balance. And so, it was likely surprised, when the Vanguard 3 slammed into it. Sheppard knew, he had to get the combat down to the ground, or the Titan would just fly away. To do so, he punched it in the back, as they were chaotically flying around. One giant ball of brawling metal. The punch didn't seem to have much effect, so Sheppard had to get creative.

First, he tried to poke out the core, and when that didn't work due to the shieldings thickness, he changed to instead getting rid of its thrusters. First, he tried to pull them off, but they were just too good of a construction to be ripped off. Then he tried twisting, and turning, but it only changed the direction, in which it was facing.

And that gave the idea. Sheppard suddenly turned two thrusters at the same time towards the chassis of the Northstar. That definitely had an effect. The plating started to melt away, and John could now tear out the two thrusters from their weakened sockets.

The lack of two of its thrusters made the Northstar unfit for flight, and its Pilot must have realized it, as he ejected, leaving the Titan to blow up in Johns face. He wanted none of this, and let go of the abandoned chassis. The explosion still threw him off, but it did not break the shields.

Then John realized, he was still in the air. He balanced the Titan, but by now he was up at least two hundred meters. Wouldn't be a pleasant fall.

The altitude display on the HUD started to drop rapidly, but John managed to fire the thrusters in time. Then, he realized, he wouldn't be able to stop entirely. Now, the Vanguard could even handle a fall from orbit by itself, and still come out unharmed, but when Sheppard let go of the Northstar, they were already going down, and had a considerable amount of speed.

John quickly queried the expected impact velocity, and DT instead just told him to prepare for a hard bump.

CRASH.

John opened his eyes, to see the Titan reboot, from the inside. He quickly went back to the Link, and switched to his Titans eyes. The scorch was on the way to them, just a street away at this point.

John stood back up, and readied the XO-24. His shields were beginning to recharge, although, they stopped at around 40%, meaning many of the emitters were fried. Still, he figured he could take on the Scorch, even in this battered state.

John aimed, and the Scorch came around the corner. John started pouring lead from his machine gun, and shot his flaming opponent with the Vanguards shoulder mounted precision laser. The laser hit the left vent of the large hulking chassis, basically tearing it off.

Just then, John took a thermite canister to his chassis' arm, knocking off his aim. In itself, that wouldn't have been a big problem, but his stray rounds slammed into a tall silo, breaking its supports. The silo started tilting, and Sheppard had to move. By the time he got out of its way, the scorch had already reloaded, and was aiming at him. John was about to hit it with an energy siphon, when the Scorch suddenly recoiled, and its arm fell off. Upon closer inspections, one could have made out the small rockets smashing into it from above, courtesy of Major Kaiden Alenko.

Under the sustained mortar barrage, the Scorch fell quickly. After all, said barrage was meant to take down heavily fortified structures, not Titans. Sheppard regained his composure, and exited the Titan, giving back control to his AI.

"Kaiden! Nice of you to drop by. By any chance, have you seen an Ion with one arm?" Sheppard asked, while reviewing the damage report DT gave him.

"Yes, sir. Took care of it. It was pretty banged up. I think I did it a favor, by killing it." The newly arrived Pilot answered, as he took off his helmet.

"May I ask you, where you were? It was rather hot here. I mean, DoT and I handled it well, but you know..." John tried joking, as he applied the repair kits forr his Titan.

"Yes. Nice job, commander. Saw that flight in the end. Not gonna lie, I wouldn't do that, unless my life was on the line." Kaiden said, as his Titan came around the corner. It was a very new chassis, the Predator. It is so new, in fact, it was still in the experimental state. It was a derivative of the Tone, but took it to the next level. It was all about locating enemies, and taking them down from range. It used a Railgun, modified to embed a tracker on hit, which can be used as a marker for close air support, or basically any smart munitions. It also had a particle wall, as due to allocating most of the cores output, the shields were severely weakened. The chassis was also equipped with a pair of adept pods, the missiles from which can even be used as mortar shells, each of these pods housed enough missiles to take down numerous titans. It also had another ability. It can increase its core output, and channel it into its echo-locators, basically giving a clear visual image of everything in its effective radius, for as much, as thirty seconds. Fifteen more, if you would risk melting the reactor casing.

It was the opposite of the Vanguard 3. The Vanguard relied on conventional combat. The most non-conventional piece of equipment it has are the electric smoke charges. In return, it was much better equipped with conventional weaponry. It had so many external shield emitters, it was hard to count. It could project particle walls, deploy a vortex shield, and had a deployable gun-shield. And then it had the energy siphon, which basically uses the power from the hit Titan, to recharge your shields. And then, there are the Offensive abilities of the Vanguard. The two Fenrir pods, each housing 12 rockets, a precision laser, and a cluster missile. They were truly some of the finest pieces of weaponry, the Ex-Militia engineers came up with. The Vanguard didn't lack in utility, either. Starting with the four inciendiary traps, the ability to fly, and the latest, the Phase dash. It was a piece of equipment, which goes back, as far as Typhon. Yet, it's still not entirely understood, even today. If Sheppard got it right, the current theory is that it places the Titan inside an alternate space, which the computer on-board creates, which mimics the environment in normal space. The computer has limited capacity, however, so time inside this artificial space has to be limited, to avoid glitches, or crashing reality. But most importantly, something that always bothered Sheppard was the lack of a core ability on his Titan.
On the other hand, the Predator was much more focused into a specific role. That was the hunter, finding enemies, relaying their location to friendly units, or taking them down from far, limiting damage to the Titan. It was more focused on the abilities, having a weapon specifically modified to mark enemies, the mortar shells, or its 'core ability'. Sheppard would have switched to one of these ability-Titans, but he had grown to the Vanguard.

"Alright, Kaiden. No need to praise me. Just wanted to survive." Sheppard said, as he dropped from the back of his Titan. It was almost completely repaired, besides some minor damage on the lower torso, but the paintjob was all scratched, to the point, where calling it battle-scars wouldn't fit.

"Sure, if you say so." Kaiden replied with doubt in his voice, which only made John roll his eyes.

"By the way, what will Ingram get us? We got Titans here, so we would have to find at least a small transport, to take them back."

"Yeah, I already told her to leave the crow. She said she found a Bear, and she'll be here in a minute." Kaiden said, as if it was nothing.

"What? That's great, Kaiden. I should probably nominate her for a promotion. Never gets much appreciation." Sheppard said, with a hint of guilt in his voice. He switched channels. "Oh, Ashley! You can come out. We'll have extraction in a minute, or so, and we've dealt with all hostiles."

"Thank god." Said her annoyed voice from Sheppards helmet. "The guy was starting to get on my nerves."

"Told you to shoot him, if he's too much trouble." John said, but this time out loud, towards the door, as he saw Ashley, and their captive emerge from the building. He would have asked, how what was exactly the problem with Kiora, but Ingram arrived with the Bear. It had a matte coating, and wore the logo of the Marauder Corps. John and Kaiden quickly loaded on their Titans, then Ashley took aboard their guest, and finally the two guys went in. The large sliding doors closed, and the relatively small ship took off, towards a battle, no one was ready for.


The small team was sitting in the cockpit, gossiping about one of the other squads, as the auto-pilot took the ship out of the planets atmosphere.

"I'm telling you, Jane, and her squad are completely insane. Last time, they were deployed behind enemy lines, that Thompson guy started wall-running in front of the enemy grunts. They say, he ran so fast, he wasn't even hit once. He supposedly did it as distraction, so his team could come back with so much data, the techs are still going through some of it." Ingram completed her little story.

"Yeah... There's no way. I mean, I've seen some grunts, but most DO have good enough aim to hit a pilot in the open, given time." Ashley cut in, sounding tired.

"Look, I'm not saying, he did it word-to-word, but the nickname 'maniac' has to come from a real basis." Ingram responded, but it came out, sounding condescending. -Sorry, that came out wrong. But my point still stands.

"I saw the guy during one of the Mars raids. He really is fast." Said Sheppard.

"You see? That's... "Ingram would have surely completed that sentence, if she wasn't cut off by Kaiden.

"What the... Wow. That's... Bad." Was all he said, while looking at one of the radar screens.

It showed the battle. And boy, did it escalate, from the last time, they've seen it. The 23rd fleet was most likely ambushed. Sheppard went to a different computer, and brought up the same screen there. The battle was chaotic. Formations were broken, and the blue of the Alliance mixed with the dark-yellow of the Marauders. The ships were marked, using unique icons. For an example Sheppard spotted the large blue rectangles, which marked the Alliance MacAllan class troop carriers. Most were locked in battle. And when a troop carrier has to go in close quarters combat, you know shit's not good. His eyes, however quickly found one, which wasn't in an engagement. The New Frontiers. John queried the ships status, and wasn't surprised to find out, it actually suffered damage. However, it looked like the ship didn't have the damage, usually required to withdraw it from combat. That meant, Xuen wanted them extracted really bad. Suddenly one of the MacAllans inside a larger cloud vanished, and no one had to guess, what the reason might have been.

He turned back, to see Ingram already in her pilots seat, holding the joysticks, which controlled their transport. Sheppard turned to her.

"How much resistance do you think we'll run into?" He asked, while he checked his armors EVA functions.

"Not much at best." She started. "Still, a quickly ascending transport WILL draw attention."

"Ingram, this doesn't have ANY guns to defend ourselves." Kaiden choose to join their conversation.

"Yes." Ingram answered, sounding frustrated, while Ashley just sat in the back, next to the table. She was probably getting her armor ready for space.

Sheppard looked really annoyed at their lack of defenses, so he started thinking. First, it was about asking the fleet for an escort, but that would only draw more suspicion. They could circle the planet, and go in, undetected, but the increase in time would put the fleet at risk.

And then he got an idea. It was one of those ideas. Nevertheless, they didn't have many other choices. But before he had any time to think more about it, the alarms on-board began to scream in an unbearable tone.

"Inbound Space-borne interceptors. One ship also sent us a missile. It's heat tracker, by the looks. I probably can't shake it." Ingram reported. Sheppard knew, he had to propose his plan now, or morale would collapse.

"Kaiden, Ashley. Come with me. Get ready for space. Ingram, the moment we're out of the cockpit, seal yourself in here, but keep us informed. If the missile comes anywhere in visible distance, send us its position."

The three of them made their way into the cargo hold, where the two Titans were already waiting. Sheppard switched to in-squad comms, and told his team to do so as well.

"Kaiden, Ashley, please go out the airlocks, and attach to the hull, using your mag-boots. You'll have to shoot down the missile. I'll take out the fighters." He finished, then headed for his Titan.

"Well, this is going to be a first." Ashley mumbled.

"Ingram, please, depressurize cargo hold." John said. He could feel his suit switch to his backup oxygen pack, and felt the filters start quietly humming. By the time, he looked up, the airlock was sealed, and the others were gone. "Okay, DT. I'm coming in." He said, as he remotely opened the Titans hatch, and climbed in.

"Guys, the missile is closing in. It'll be visible in a couple seconds." Ingrams voice came from his helmet.

"Ash, Kaiden, you all heard that?"

"Yes. We're following closely. The moment we see it, we'll fire. Right, Ashley?"

"Damn straight." She answered simply.

"Guys, you have to shoot it down." Came Ingrams voice again, but this time it was more agitated.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm trying to line up my shots." Ashley said, sounding afraid, and angry.

Suddenly, a shockwave threw the ship. It was really strong.

"How close was that?" Was all John was managed to ask.

"If it was any closer, I'd be cooked." Came Kaidens voice, relief radiating from his voice.

"Okay. Come back in. We still have the fighters to take care of. Ingram, how much time, til those hit us?"

"About a minute, until I would be comfortable taking shots in their place. I can avoid getting hit for two minutes at best, and we can take few of their bullets." She finished, still sounding alarmed. She had every reason to be, but still. John wasn't used to her being like this.

"We're here." Announced Kaiden, as he entered the cargo hold, with Ashley tightly behind him.

"Nice shot. Get in your Titan. Ash, you take a charge rifle, and help us."

Then, John activated the Link. He was already sitting in the Titan, so he had no difficulties, switching to his companions visual receptors. He stood up in the Titan, almost reaching the ceiling. He loaded the XO-24, and told Kaiden to be ready.

Then, they waited. Waiting for a minute in a situation like this is like eternity. And this time was no different. By the Time, the first shot hit them, John had already thought of about fifteen scenarios, where they would die. However, after receiving the hit, he instantly contacted Ingram.

"Blow the doors."

And the large sliding doors on both sides of the transports back were torn off by the hydraulics blowing up. He could now see out into space. A familiar sight. But he was not looking for the familiar part. what he sought was much easier to find, and he did. Two small, fast-moving lights. He took aim, and began shooting.

The interceptors dodged, to no surprise, and he adjusted his aim. He was pretty sure, his chaingun hit at least one, but it was hard to tell from this distance, even with the enhanced vision, his Titan provided him with. Then, the ship shook, as he saw Kaidens projectile head out into the dark, and one of their pursuers blew up.

"Nice job. One more to go." He wanted to continue, but Ingram cut in.

"Okay, they haven't sent anything else, and we crossed the green line, so we're safe, if you can kill that one." Ingram sounded a bit relieved this time.

Sheppard took aim with one of the precision lasers, in one of the adept pods. And he fired. He saw the beam hit, and cripple the enemy fighter, but it didn't blow. He tried to hit it again, but it drifted away, and he missed.

John told the two others out here with him, to stay alert, while he talks with Ingram.

They acknowledged, and he shut down his Titan. The Titan defaulted into a crouching position, and opened its hatch, letting Sheppard out. This time, however, he pulled out a large green chip from the seat under him. It had the scratched letters: "DT-0103". He put it inside a pocket on his armor, and made his way into the cockpit.

"Ingram, nice flying." He complimented the only pilot in his team of Pilots.

"Thanks. By the way, good thinking, commander. I may have flown nice, but without you, that missile would have taken us all down." She looked to the corner, where her sights fell upon a man, knocked out, with a virus, uploaded into his neural port.

"Yeah, I hope he's worth it." was all, John managed to say.

They spent the rest of the journey sitting quietly, with John sometimes checking in, on Ashley and Kaiden.

"This is the New Frontiers, welcome home, away team. We'll find you a nice and cozy hangar, and you can land." Said the Shuttle-coordinator on the ship, a man named George Teller.

Sheppard was about to respond, when the screens went red, and the ship started shaking. He glanced at the radar, and suddenly an entire strike-group was scattered near the New Frontiers.

"Ingram, get in a hangar. NOW!" He shouted, knowing full well, even if he just said it, it would have had the same effect.

However, it appeared to be too late. The Bear transport shook, and John could Ingram swear. The lights flickered, and John was pretty sure, he felt a bit more of their acceleration.

A quiet curse, and a huge force slapping him in the head were the last things, he remembered, before waking up on the ship, for the first time after their crash.


Authors note: If you managed to somehow go through this, then thanks. Means a lot.

You all know what they say about reviews. They're supposedly good for the author to receive many. xD

Also, please tell me about typos.