"Right, Jules, you know the plan: We get in there, we clear the settlement, then the Andromeda will send down her mobile base, got it?" Asked Blisk, already sitting in his titan. Jules gave the thumbs up from outside his titan, put on his helmet, and crawled inside Double-D.
"No civies, right? Just titans?" asked Julius, and Blisk's titan gave the thumbs up. "Good."
"Alright pilots, stand by for titan fall," said Eye-glass over the hangar P.A. Jules strapped himself in, and activated the titan fall safeties, before the countdown timer started. Jules hated this part: He always felt like his stomach was going into his mouth when he was in a titan during titanfall. It was a common feeling: No amount of training could stop the feeling of nausea when dropping from orbit in a giant metal cage.
"Pilot, your heart rate has accelerated: Are you nervous?" Asked Double-D. Jules groaned.
"Of course I am Double-D. The safety systems are the only thing stopping us from smashing into the ground and crumbling like a fucking tin can."
"There is only a .00000003 percent chance the safeties will fail. We will be safe," Said DD, before putting on a soft light inside the cockpit. "The change in light will possibly lower your anxiety."
"You do this every time, DD. It doesn't help."
Suddenly, the floor disappeared out from under the titan, and they dropped into open orbit. Jules gritted his teeth, as the titan fell through the atmosphere, being engulfed in flames. He looked at the altimeter: They were closing in on the ground fast, falling at speeds that would burn a regular drop pod to a crisp. The safeties ignited, lowering the speed to a measly 60 km/ph, before hitting the ground. Double-D immediately pulled out his Expedition chain gun, and looked around. The other titans were hitting the ground around him, all adorned with Apex Predator Logos.
"Blisk, I don't have any titan signatures," said Jules, and Blisk just cackled.
"You think they got scared and ran? Of course not, that's because they're hiding in the settlement," Said Blisk, before spinning up his mini gun. "Move towards it, let's take these bastards down!"
Jules nodded, and moved slowly towards a hill. Galantis was green and lush, made of mostly giant mountains and grass fields. There were a few hills here and there, but what wasn't flat lands, was usually mountain ranges, topped with snow. It reminded Jules of what Europe looked like in the pictures his mother had sent him since her retirement. Jules crested the hill and saw a small, town looking settlement surrounded by a wall. Just outside of it looked like orchards, and Jules sighed. If he wasn't about to go and destroy bi-pedal robots, he would have gotten out of Double-D and had a picnic.
"Oi! What do you see?" asked Blisk, and Jules turned around.
"A town, an orchard, a little river – but no titans," Jules said. Suddenly, several titans dropped around in the surrounding orchard, and starting firing at Jules. He backed up, careful not to be hit by a 40mm round, or an Ion laser. "Nevermind, they're here."
"Good, wait for them to come up here, we have the advantage with the high ground," Said another Predator. The convoy of titans crested the hill, and started firing.
Jules could see his tracers hitting the titans below, cracking their shields, or sometimes penetrating them outright. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and they knew it. It wasn't long before they started to retreat, after one or two of their titans were destroyed. The town gates opened, and they lumbered inside.
"Hey, how did they get in if they didn't have civies?" asked Jules, and Blisk scoffed.
"Probably grunts. I told you, they knew we were coming. That thing is like a fortress. We'll go clear them out," Said Blisk, before more titans dropped behind them. "Scepter, Rig, Jules, engage these titans, and afterwards provide cover fire."
"Hard copy, Blisk," Said Scepter over the radio. Jules turned to see two Ions, as well as a Tone. Tone launched a round towards Double-D, who quickly activated his reflection shield. It bounced off, and hit an Ion, before disintegrating against it's shield. One of the Ions launched a shoulder laser blast, hitting Rig, who was piloting a Scorch, detonating his thermite canister. Rig's screams filled the com channel, and Scepter, who was piloting a Brute, quickly turned and launched a salvo. Ion caught the rockets with its vortex shield, and launched them back at Scepter, who promptly dodged them.
Double-D raised his chaingun, and opened fire on one of the Ions. It was a mere matter of seconds before its shield was destroyed, peppering the chassis of the Ion with AP 20mm rounds, tearing its innards apart. It's arm promptly fell off, and the pilot ejected.
"Well? Finish the job!" shouted Scepter, and Jules scoffed.
"As if, lets deal with these two first," said Jules, firing manticore rockets at the Tone. The Tone put down a particle wall, and fired a shot at Jules, whose shield had recently gone down. The round hit at an angle where it ricocheted off, and Double-D starting suppressing the Tone pilot. The other Ion fired a shoulder laser at Double-D, who then fired Manticore rockets at the Ion. They destroyed the shield of the Ion, and a single rocket penetrated the chassis. The pilot ejected immediately, as his titan's leg were blown off, leaving only the top part. The Tone decided to use the chance, and dashed towards Double-D, only to be hit by a salvo of rockets from Scepter's Brute chassis. The Tone swung back around, only to take a blast of rockets from the quad launcher, blowing off the hatch of the titan. The pilot slumped in the cockpit, and the titan dropped to its knees, trying to put the pilot back inside, its single optical unit on its head trying to focus on the pilot.
"Pilot, it isn't safe outside, please return inside the cockpit," it said, obviously unaware that its pilot was dead. Scepter fired another salvo at the Tone, destroying it completely. The three chassis sat, burning, as two pilots dashed off into the distance.
"You let them get away! They're gonna come back with new titans!" shouted Scepter, walking up to Jules' titan.
"Let them, we can take them a second time," Said Jules, before Blisk came on over the radio.
"Oi! We need support! Quick! They've got several titans inside, and we're outnumbered! We already lost Gamble and Bambino!" Said Blisk. "Jules, is your core charged?!"
"Yeah, but did you see any civies?" asked Jules, and Blisk groaned.
"No, there are no fuckin' civies you daft fucking idiot! Send your goddamn salvo or I will come up there and tear you out of your titan and smash your empty head against the ground!"
"Hellfire Core ready to launch. Mark the position, Julius," Said Double-D, and Jules turned towards the town, using a readymade targeting reticule. He placed it over the town, and released the salvo. The remaining Apex Predators were leaving the town, sprinting towards the hill, as fire rained down from above, burning everything below, including any titans or Militia infantry.
"Good job. Sorry about the threat, I was under a lot of stress," said Blisk, and Jules nodded.
"After the fire dies down, I'm gonna go down and see the damage it did: IMC still wants field updates on its prototype," Said Jules, looking down upon the flames. By now the smoke was so thick, that it blotted out the sun, the embers the only thing lighting up the area around it.
"Bloody hell, I want whatever he's piloting," said Scepter. "Took dow two Ions no problem, then literally levels a fucking town."
"Yeah, it's a goddamn WMD on legs," said another pilot named Blaster.
They sat on top of the hill, as there weren't any new objectives they needed to fulfill. They had a dropship on standby to tow the remaining 5 titans back to the Andromeda, which was three less than they had dropped with. Bambino, Gamble, and Rig had perished, while Blaster, Blisk, Jules, Scepter, and a Northstar pilot named Railway had survived. Finally, after the fire died down, they embarked downwards.
"How many titans do you think were down there?" asked Jules.
"At least 10. That was a hell of a core if you can destroy ten titans with it in one go." Blisk replied, sighing. "Whats the downside of that chassis, eh? It's got a good gun, good rockets, and a good core ability."
"No shields. I gotta be careful around heavy hitters like Tone and Northstar. Everyone else's shots can be negated by the armor pretty easily, but a charged plasma round will tear my chassis a new asshole, and a 40mm would fracture and send shrapnel inside the chassis, and I will be very dead," Jules explained. He could feel Double-D shudder at the idea. "Sorry big guy, didn't mean to upset you."
"Did you just call your titan 'Big Guy'?" Asked Scepter, before laughing. "You actually talk to your titan?"
"I've been lucky, never have had him completely totaled. He's stuck around since the days of the Atlas and the Ogre," said Jules, as they reached the orchard. The trees were burnt to a crisp, flames still licking the ground around them. The wall had almost been completely destroyed, and the temperatures outside still exceeded 50 Celsius. Jules entered the compound, and looked around, before he opened the hatch.
"Pilot, be careful, the flames are still lit, and could harm you," said Double-D, but Jules wasn't listening.
"What the fuck…" said Jules, looking around. His salvo had done more than enough damage: Only skeletons remained of the titans. But he didn't care about that.
He cared about the hundreds of unarmed, scorched bodies that he had left in his wake. They didn't look human anymore, just coal. Blood bubbled around those who had been hit by shrapnel, but for the most part they were burnt to a crisp. There were no infantry, no spectres, nothing of the sort.
Just civilians.
Jules felt his stomach rise into his throat, and his pulled off his helmet, puking onto the ground, retching out his breakfast of oatmeal. He looked up, staring right at a charcoal statue of a woman covering her child from flames, stuck in place. He stood up, taking in a 360 of the area, before falling over and puking again, sobbing in between retches.
"What's up with him?" Asked Scepter, and Blisk just laughed.
"I guess the ace doesn't have much of a stomach for civilian casualties," Blisk said, before chuckling, and opening his hatch. "Oi! Jules! Sorry for the false info, eh? My hide is more important than theirs!"
Jules got to his feet, and looked at Blisk with red eyes, filled with anger. "You made me kill hundreds of civilians."
"Eh, you get used to it mate!" shouted Blisk, smiling. "I sold you a line of bullshit, my friend. We rarely deal with titan on titan combat: We clear zones, kill VIPs, get rid of unwanted civilian resistance, because that's what we're good at."
"You weren't like this on Kumos!" shouted Jules, shaking angrily.
"Nah, I was, there just wasn't any civilians to kill!" shouted Blisk back, before laughing. "I get paid a lot more than you for killing civilians. It's like getting rid of the source of the Militia before they join up!"
Jules looked up at Blisk, his eyes filled with hatred, before he put back on his helmet. He silently reached for Double-D, who lifted him up on the palm of his hand.
"Look my friend, it wasn't anything personal, I just needed to see how effective your chassis was. You don't have the guts to fight for us. You need to be willing to kill those who don't deserve to die if you want to be a predator. We live for the kill, the fight, even if they can't fight back, we still kill them," Said Blisk, smiling.
Double-D stopped lifting Jules, before looking over at Blisk. "My pilot is already irritated. To avoid friendly conflict, I advise an immediate cease of all communication."
"Shut your metal mouth, robot," Said Blisk, before laughing. "It's a wonder how you do this job at all! The IMC regularly wipes out civilian settlements, whether it be for land, for opposition, or plainly because the IMC just doesn't like them there."
Jules turned around, looking at Blisk through his visor, and sighed. "Well, I know one thing is for sure."
"And what's that?" asked Blisk tauntingly. "You're gonna report me to the IMC?"
"No. I'm going to kill you."
Jules drew his handgun, and fired three shots, two of which landed in Blisk's chest. Blisk fell back into his chassis, yelling, before it closed, and started to move into a combat stance. Double-D lifted Julius into the chassis, immediately activated the reflector shield, and raised the chain gun.
Scepter was the first to go, his chassis unable to handle the sheer number of bullets that Double-D was sending at him. He was torn apart inside the Brute chassis, destroying the core of it in the process. Julius, now in control, turned towards Blaster, an Ion pilot, and released a salvo of manticore rockets at it. The pilot didn't have time to react. He was blown apart in seconds, dying with his titan. By now, Blisk had called down a transport, and loaded in his titan, flying away without Railway. Railway charged up a shot, and fired it at Double-D, but the reflector shield was still activated. The round ricocheted back at Railway, severing the bottom half of the titan. Double-D closed the gap quickly, and used his foot to jam the ejection hatch.
"Wait! Please for the love of god wait!" Screamed Railway, his voice filled with fear. "I thought you didn't like killing pilots! It was in your report!"
"Yeah, well, I'm sure the report also said something about me being adverse to killing civilians," said Jules, placing the chain gun on the optical unit of the titan. "However, I just killed hundreds of civilians, so I think that while I'm on a role, I'll do one more thing I don't usually do. I think I'll start killing pilots now."
And with that, Double-D fired the rest of his chaingun magazine into the Northstar chassis, tearing apart Railway's body.
"Sir, what do we do now?" asked Double-D, lifting the gun. Jules breathed deeply, before looking around.
"I think," Started Jules. "That it might be high time to switch sides."
"That is not an optimal idea, Pilot. The Militia has a 20,000 credit bounty on your head due to your ace status. More than likely they will execute you on site."
"I sort of deserve it, Double-D. But we'll just have to wait and see. Let's go back up to that Ion Chassis. I'm sure it has a distress signal on it."
"As you wish pilot. Though I'm sure if this goes wrong, I'm not going to be able to say 'I told you so' because I will have been captured for my technology, and you will be dead," Double-D quipped, shuddering.
"Yeah, yeah, hopefully not."
"Ma'am, we just got a distress signal from Aleksandr's titan," Said Whip, looking at the screen on her titan. "Even though he got back."
"Might be a civilian," said Briggs, looking over her shoulder. "Though, if there are any survivors in that town, it'll be a miracle. Looks like Brooch was wrong about our new friend: He took out a town of 341 people in the blink of an eye."
"I'll go, ma'am," said Laughlin', and Briggs shook her head.
"We're all going down, just in case it's Jules trying to bait us," said Briggs, and Laughlin' cocked her head.
"Huh, never thought of that."
"Uh, ma'am, another thing you might want to look at," Whip said, pointing at the feed. "This was taken about six minutes ago."
Briggs squinted her eyes, and realized it was the feed from one of the optical units on the Ion whose arm had been destroyed. It was positioned at the right angle that she could see the Apex Predators, and Julius, who was on the ground, head buried in the dirt without a helmet on. She zoomed in, and squinted more. "Is he… Is he crying?"
"Looks that way. But that isn't the interesting part. Watch."
The feed went on for about another two minutes, before Julius opened fire on Blisk, knocking him back into his titan. The 'Atlas' opened fire on a Brute, destroying it, then an Ion. By now most of the pilots had gathered around the feed, watching as 'Atlas' fired into a Northstar chassis, while Blisk flew away, probably back to the Andromeda, which was hovering over Galantis.
Julius and his titan then lumbered over to the Ion chassis, dug around in it for a moment, and then got out, before Julius sat down, unarmed, in the grass.
"Prepare for titan fall now! Now is our chance!" shouted Bear, running to his titan, a Legion.
"Alright, but don't engage outright! It looks like he doesn't want to fight us!" shouted Cooper, before jumping into BT.
Within thirty seconds, all the pilots were in their Titans, and in the air. They had stealth launched them, now that the Andromeda had moved around to the far side of the planet. They landed, and immediately went upright, looking around for more hostiles. Only Jules, and his titan, remained in the field. The titans converged on them, before all aiming their weapons at Julius and his titan.
"6-4! Cover the perimeter! Hunters, give them support! BT, keep an eye on his titan," Briggs said, and the titans dispersed. Julius sighed, and looked up.
"Really no reason to do that: They can't drop titans for the same reason you could only send a handful half an hour ago. They're out of range," Julius said. His eyes were red, and tear streaks cut through the dirt on his face like rivers. He stood up, and Briggs realized that he was completely unarmed. She looked around for his weapons, but to no avail. He must have left them back at the town.
"Thanks for the reassurance, but we try not to take any chances."
"My name is Julius Carper, I'm formerly a Lieutenant of the IMC, as well as an Ace pilot part of the Aquila titan program." Julius introduced himself, before offering both of his hands, wrists touching. "And I am hereby turning myself, and my titan, DD00, into Militia forces."
"And how do I know this isn't a trap? That you're not just a spy?" asked Briggs, before she looked at his neck. There was blood running down it, a knife wound about an inch deep. Barker had the same scar upon his neck, as well as many other IMC defectors. He had removed his pilot chip. He was no longer linked, physically to the IMC.
"I have removed my pilot chip, as well as removed all IMC designation tags from DD00. He is now a neutral force, and is available to be apart of the Militia titan fleet. At least there he won't be used to kill civilians," Julius said, and then gestured towards the destroyed Apex Predator chassis, where Laughlin', Whip, and what looked like Davis' titans were kicking the bodies. "Plus I kind of just destroyed a large part of the Apex Predators, so, even if were to go back to the IMC if I was a spy, I'd be dead by morning."
"Mhm," said Briggs, before opening her titan. BT kept his weapon trained on DD00, who looked at BT quizzically. Briggs walked over to the pilot, who kept his hands out, and cuffed him. "Alexandria, this is Briggs, over?"
"Copy that Briggs, everything okay down there, over?" asked Barker.
"Everything is great. We have captured the Ace Pilot Julius Carper, and are prepping for evac. We got him, over."
"Copy that, sending a dropship now, ETA two minutes, over."
Briggs looked at Julius, who didn't look smug. She expected him to be prickly, and cocky, but instead all she saw was a defeated man. Someone who had just betrayed every moral he had ever had. It wasn't a look one could fake easily. Maybe Brooch was right? He had been quietly pushed through training without the brainwashing, and then kept from seeing the dirty part of the war, like a child not being able to watch certain TV shows. She couldn't make the call yet, though. To Briggs, Julius was still the enemy.
A dropship swooped down, picking up the entourage of pilots and their titans, flying up into space once more. Briggs looked back at Julius, who was sitting in the cabin next to his titan, still cuffed, and couldn't help but shake the feeling of winning a major battle today. They had gotten rid of an ace pilot before he caused too much damage with a prototype titan. It was a win for all pilots in the militia. But perhaps a smaller battle had been won as well, she thought.
Maybe, just maybe, they had gained a new pilot.
Author's note:
Hey everybody! Thank you for all the support on this story, I'm really enjoying writing it and I'm glad you enjoy reading it! I'll try and post new updates every other day, but please don't be upset if I don't hit the deadline on the head! Thank you for reading!
