Elias Griff stepped off the transport ship with his helmet under his arm with the other transfer pilots walking around him. The transport hanger for the MCS James MacAllan was massive as MARVs roamed the area for maintenance and Titans moved about. Griff was transferred from his Scout squadron that provided reconnaissance and detailed base information for Militia bombing/raids. They were with the 24th Scout platoon in their regiment and they wore bold Black/Orange numbers on their shoulders that said 24th.
Griff loved the hustle and bustle of the big rigs (ships) when they were pre-mission status. People were busy and focused, it added a strange vibration to the air that left you feeling excited.
Griff's LT shoulder bumped him out of his stupor and he followed him into the non-descript briefing room adjacent the hanger. Griff sat down and placed his helmet on the table as the LT began to clean off the board, his fellow squad mates entered the room. Each member of the squad had a partner and was assigned a role based on skill; Griff belonged to Talon Group 1 with his partner Jordon, for close range combat and recon. There was Talon group 2 which was the second half of his group with Dougherty and Swan. The other half was Eagle Eye Group which consisted of Baker and Keen who provided over watch with sniper rifles. The commander was LT Rush who always aided one side of the team for command support. All the team worked side by side using Stryder Titans except the LT who used an Atlas.
Everyone settled into their seats and Jordon tapped Griff on the shoulder as he sat down.
Griff leaned in, "You know what this is about?"
Jordon shook his head, "Nah, I was hoping you did. You always pick up pieces of stuff from the other pilots."
Griff smiled, "I wish, nobody is talking. Everyone is worried though."
Jordon nodded and pointed at the LT, "We are about to find out."
LT turned to face the group, "Good morning team and welcome to the MCS James MacAllan. Don't get to comfortable because we won't be staying long." He pointed the board "We are being called to investigate the Planet codenamed "Midas". The planet gets its name from the high concentration of gold and copper which saturate the atmosphere giving the planet a golden tint from space."
LT turned on a projector and then walked to the back to lock the door and dimmed the lights. Everyone looked at one another with intrigue written on their faces, this was going to be good.
LT resumed his briefing with a clicker in his hand that turned on a projector screen; it showed an over view of a facility located on the planet.
The projector made an audible click.
"What we are about to discuss is considered Top Secret and doesn't leave this room. What you are looking at is a Militia research facility on the outskirts of IMC space. Its main function was to research in Pilot augmentations to help combat the IMC Specters. Research included advanced prosthetics, exoskeletons, and even advanced regeneration capabilities, the details of these however I cannot say because they won't tell me. This is as much about the facility as I have been told so now you know as much as me, I wish we had a better picture but this is as good as it gets. Let's get started."
The projector clicked to a new slide.
The slide showed the top of concrete looking structure with the people being illuminated by White hot heat signatures. Multiple figures could be seen inside the facility but what they were doing or who they were was impossible to see.
LT continued "These images were taken from one of the monitoring satellites in orbit. It a birds eye view and it's the best we can do. No security cameras were inside the facility and all communication was done through encrypted reports. This image was taken 7 days ago and last report showed business as usual until this snapshot."
Click.
The imaged showed an almost identical one to the last but a quick look showed one of the bodies was black meaning their body heat was below normal which suggested death.
Click. Click. Click.
Each new slide showed more dead people as the remaining survivor's positions began to become more erratic and further apart.
"Shit." Whispered Keen in a soft voice through her hand.
"They were panicking," Said Swan "They were trying to get away from something."
"It was in the room with them." Stated Griff
Click.
The final click showed the same picture but it was all dark marks, no white ones.
The lights came back on and the LT turned off the projector, "That was just the first floor, the only floor that was able to be monitored by satellite. We assumed the same thing happened inside the deeper base levels but due to the nature of the atmosphere, this planet was picked for its ability to not be monitored from space. Questions?"
Griff raised his hand, "Any communications since zero hour?"
"None, the whole base has gone dark."
"How about power?" asked Jordon
"Power will have to be restored on site, we have to assume everything is off."
"Are we the first team to be headed in?" Asked Baker
"Yes," the LT smiled grimly "All of your security clearances have been raised for this mission and after our mission is complete, a second team will be sent in for clean up."
"What is our mission sir?" said Griff
"Our mission is to infiltrate the facility and ascertain what occurred inside. Collect any information that we can for the command staff concerning the attack only. All other things you see or find that are not mission related are not to be handled in any form. We are under strict orders to not collect or transmit anything. I mean this with as much seriousness as I can team, the word "treason" was used when they briefed me before you arrived."
Swan whistled loudly and Griff looked at Jordan.
"What the hell is in there LT?" asked Dougherty
"We will find out when we get there." Replied LT
"Once planet side, what's our infiltration plan?" asked Griff
The LT seemed to perk up a bit as this was the team's bread and butter and less of a darker subject than treason. "On the top of the facility is a maintenance access way which MARVs maintain and filter the air. We will be breaching the access way through a hatch and entering the facility through there. It will provide an entrance through the base's generator room and into the first floor of the facility. After that we will be on our own."
"How did supplies get into facility if it was locked down so tight?" asked Keen
"Airdrop. We don't have access to open the cargo hold on the outside, but once inside there is an override to open it so supplies could be dropped in and then the hatch closes."
LT looked around the room "Anything else?"
Swan voiced the most obvious question that everyone was thinking, "What killed them?"
LT shook his head, "We don't know."
"We have nothing? Was it IMC?" asked Jordon
"We don't know" stated LT "The facility is supposed to be completely sealed from inside, nothing should have gotten in. No pathogens, nothing biological or anything for that matter shows up on our sensors. And we have no obvious signs if it was the IMC."
"So we're blinding walking in?" asked Griff
"For now. We will have a better idea once we are boots on ground and inside. Anything else?" The LT seemed slightly exhausted from having so many unknowns for his team.
Swan spoke up, "Titan loadout?"
"Standard Unit assigned Stryders with the Command Atlas, as per operating procedures. Guardian Chips are installed inside the Stryders and my Atlas will have nuclear core for an emergency. Plasma Railguns for Eagle team and XO-16s for the Talons."
"Any specialty loadouts for ground teams?"
"Dealer's choice for ground team but DMRs and Krabers for the Eagle team. I suggest you think carefully about the inside of the facility for loadouts Talon team, Close quarters are probably your best bet."
"What's the team position for infiltration?" asked Baker
LT ran his hand through his hair, "Eagle team will provide over watch from a nearby hillside as Talon makes the approach, I'll be running a command post from Eagle's position. Once you make entrance into the facility, your helmet signals will begin to map the facility from the inside as you move. Be methodical and check everything for Intel, I can't give directions as you progress expect for where you have already been so map as much as you can. Remember whatever you find is all we will know so keep me updated as you move."
"When do we leave?"
"Time now is 1643, we leave at 0100 so meet at the hangar bay 2 at 0030. Check gear, Titans, and then sleep, if you have no further questions…" He looked at each of them and then said "Dismissed."
The whole team stood up as the LT left the room, they all spilled out of the room in various directions to handle things before the mission began.
Jordon and Griff hung back till everyone else was a good distance away then spoke.
"What the hell man?" said Jordon
"I know our whole job is to get other people Intel but it seems weird that now we aren't allowed anything. No Intel, no maps, and no known enemy? "
"I feel a little kid again. Like the grownups can't tell you real world problems because you can't handle it."
"What could be so bad that they can't tell us?"
Jordon nodded deep in thought.
Griff smiled, "I know what it is."
Jordon smiled back, "yeah?"
"Mutants."
Jordan laughed, "That makes total sense! Like 8 foot tall people made of solid muscle carrying titan weapons."
"You're stupid."
"Whatever Griff, I bet you 50 credit its mutants." Jordon waved his arms over his head and make random noise.
Another pilot walked by with Sergeant Stripes and watched as Jordon flailed about.
"Hey!" he shouted at them, "Act like you got brain in your skull pilot!"
Jordon dropped his hands and both he and Griff turned to the Pilot.
"Sorry Sergeant." They said in unison
He nodded at them then walked off but not before Griff saw a tag on the side of his uniform, blue square with two white lines with "GEN 3" on the bottom. Griff turned to Jordon, "Who was that?"
Jordon shrugged, "Some uptight jerk with stripes is who he was and did you see his tab? What was that?"
"I saw it" said Griff, "I saw someone else with a different one earlier, it was red/black with a white mark with some tiny stripes and it said "Gen 7". What is that? Is it an award you think?"
"Whatever it is, it's got nothing to do with me." He turned to leave, "I'm going to go check the loadouts, and I'll meet you for chow before we crash for a couple hours."
Griff nodded, "Ok, I'll run diagnostics for the Titans and then meet you."
Jordon waved in acknowledgement and headed the ships armory while Griff headed to the Titan bay. He was glad for a partner like Jordon, they had enlisted into the militia at the same time and even had the same pilot instructor when it came time for them to move forward within the ranks. Jordon was all business when it was mission time but when it was down time, he never failed to make you laugh.
Griff nodded at the group of Grunts near the Titan bay doors who were watching the titans move around the bay and have maintenance done. One of them turned to Griff, "Excuse me sir?"
Griff turned to them and the group got quiet as they all sort of pushed together to hear what he had to say when the grunt asked, "It is as cool as it seems?"
Griff smiled and looked them over, they were all Class 3 rifleman, bottom of the barrel and fresh out of militia boot camp by the looks of them.
"It is the greatest job in the whole of the Militia." He stated, "Nothing beats the training, the missions, or the titans."
"We thought so," he said gesturing towards him and his buddies. "We all want to be pilots someday."
Griff patted him on the shoulder, "Good luck, I mean it. It's a long road but you'll never regret it."
"Thank you sir" he and his buddies turned back to the glass, they all seemed filled with renewed confidence for their respective dream as they went back to watching the Titans.
Griff headed into the bay and looked around for his teams Titans, this wasn't their normal ship which they work out of. The MCS Reinhardt was a slightly smaller cruiser that they normally all called home when they weren't on missions but this was obviously a big deal since LT was getting briefed by the big wigs on a flagship.
There titans were tucked into a small bay in the back where Baker and Keen were working on their Titans. They gave small signs of acknowledgement at Griff who returned them with a small wave. He headed towards his and put his helmet on. The visor lit up from the inside and a small diagnostic began to run in the left hand corner,
JUMP KIT-[ZERO ERRORS] [FUEL OPTIMAL]
WEAPONS/SIDEARM -[RE-45] [UNLOADED]
WEAPONS/MAIN- [NOT LISTED]
ORDINANCE -[NOT LISTED]
COMMUNICATIONS -[GROUP TALON, EAGLE, WING. CONNECTED]
Griff watched as the system picked up each of his team members location and bounced the signal back to him. He waited for the last one with a smile on his face.
TITAN CONNECTION -[ONLINE]
A Stryder picture appeared in the right hand corner of his helmet display and a deep robotic voice filled his helmet.
{HELLO PILOT
"Hey SID, how's things?"
{I AM OPERATING AT PEAK EFFICIENCY
A MARV approached and pressed a button on the remote it was carrying, the holding locks on SID disengaged and he stepped out of his holding bay. The Talon Stryders were painted a darker gray with a mix of camouflage/foliage patterns with the Titan being a 23 foot tall 30 ton machine of pure destruction.
{READY
Griff held up his arms as SID reached down and grabbed him as the center cockpit doors opened and he (Griff) was placed inside his Titan.
The cockpit was dark for a moment as the visual display turned on and showed him the outside world. Griff flexed his hands and settled into his seat.
{SWITCHING TO MANUAL CONTROL
"Thanks SID. Give me a diagnostics run of all systems and lock in settings for Titanfall."
{COMPLYING
The visual display flickered once as the systems reset and ran their individual checks and soon SID's voice filled the cockpit.
{DONE
"Perfect. How is the Guardian Chip affecting systems, is it working correctly?"
{IT IS PREFORMING AS INSTALLED. I AM NOW PROGRAMMED TO MINIMIZE DAMAGE TO PILOT WHEN FIRING DANGER CLOSE
"Good, wouldn't want to cut me in half with a stray round would we?"
{NEGATIVE
"Run Titanfall touchdown simulation and I'm going to check the inside pilot kits."
{RECEIVED
Griff began to check the inside of the cockpit for the various items he normally kept inside, like medical supplies and emergency ration kits. Each one was refilled after mission of replaced should his titan be destroyed but it never hurt to put hands on all your equipment to make sure it was where it was supposed to be.
Griff leaned up and grabbed the emergency hatch to make it was sealed and ready should he have to emergency eject.
{PILOT
"Yes?"
{YOU ARE BEING APPROACHED BY AN UNKNOWN PILOT. I RECOMMEND A FLANKING MANEUVER.
Griff chuckled, he never regretted swapping out the standard OS titan system for SID. Most Pilots preferred Jeeves for the butler touch but something about SID appealed to him.
Griff reached up and flipped the intercom switch, "Need something?"
The pilot tapped his helmet.
Griff understood. "Channel 5"
A voice filled Griff's helmet, "Are you Talon 1?"
"Yes."
"Your squad is being requested in the main bridge conference room."
"Alright, I'm on my way."
Griff flipped the intercom switch and spoke to SID. "Maybe the mission timeframe changed, run cooldown and lock into the holding bay. See you in a bit."
The main cockpit opened up and SID grabbed him out and placed him back on the ground.
{I AM MISSION READY
"Thanks SID."
Griff accessed the group communication network and spoke, "LT you there?"
"I'm here Griff, you on your way?"
"Yes sir, leaving the titan bay hangar. What's going on?"
"Just get up here."
"Understood."
Griff looked for his teammates and found them all heading upstairs to the briefing room. They all waited outside the closed door and Griff could hear the LT inside but couldn't make anything out. As Griff leaned in the doors opened and he stumbled slightly forward into the briefing room. He heard his squad snicker at him from behind but stood up straight and looked around. There was a bunch of old people and some other pilots sitting at a table facing towards him. The only one he recognized was Sarah Briggs, the newly minted commander of her own corps called "Marauder".
The Officers began to pick up the papers in front of them and leave the room and LT Rush turned to face them.
"Time line has changed, we go now."
"Why?" asked Griff
"Someone inside the base turned on a distress beacon."