AN: 7/9 chapters. Getting close to the finish now. Yeah, I'll probably do an epilogue, combined with world-building author's notes. Also, when it's done, this will mark the first major fanfic I've managed to complete (though it was the last one to be started, go figure).


Anna shifted uneasily in her sleep. Elsa was watching from the top bunk, leaning down, using her still weak arms to steady her as she hung half in empty space. If the redhead was her friend—now an almost undeniable truth—Elsa wanted to show her the same kind of care and affection she herself had been shown. Wanted to. I can't. I'm getting too close. I know I promised myself I'd let her in; but was it too soon? Elsa sighed, dragging herself back up with some effort.

They were nearly back to the Frontier proper from Barker's planet. The return trip would be more direct, taking only a day and a half. It was apparent that speed was more important than stealth here, MacAllan making no attempts to hide his ultimate destination. Elsa considered that the plan might simply have been so audacious that the IMC would never believe the Militia would try such an attack—she certainly wouldn't have.

Anna continued to toss and turn below her, and Elsa had no idea what to do. No idea how to help. Except, of course, the way Anna had helped her. Elsa sighed again, climbing down the ladder on legs still unsteady from their fresh life. At least her body was hers now, not some random female form they had just happened to have available. Sitting on the deck next to Anna's bed—because it was easier on her body than kneeling—Elsa took the redhead's hand in her own.

Anna rolled towards her, a subtle smile on her lips. The redhead didn't wake, but her fingers seemed to protest when Elsa withdrew her hand. The blonde patted Anna's hand, then whispered to her, hoping she would hear it in her dreams.

"I need sleep, too, okay. It's been a rough week for me." Anna seemed to writhe around under the covers, then her arm flew out so fast it nearly clocked Elsa on the side of the head. Then Anna started to snore, various limbs falling limp. Elsa rolled her eyes. "Thanks Corazon, that'll really help me sleep."

Elsa struggled back up into her bunk, pulling an extra blanket around her shoulders. The techs had finally gotten the EC systems working again, but now they seemed to be permanently set five degrees too low. The sounds of Anna's snoring faded as her sleep deepened, and Elsa found herself drifting off, reflecting on the fact that it was nice to have a friend, even if she didn't really know how to be one in return.

Morning came and went without incident, Elsa choosing to spend most of it working out in the gym. She had to, she knew, if she wanted her current clone to have any reasonable level of strength any time soon. Strength, endurance, cardio; all the major disciplines got at least a look in. So, apparently, did Anna. Elsa huffed in annoyance, rolling on to her back. This body really wasn't fit, she lamented to herself. Barely fifteen push-ups in a set.

Anna threw a towel at her, and Elsa was about to protest when a bottle of water was pressed into her hands. She wanted to say something, but MacAllan's voice came across the intercom.

"Crew, this is MacAllan. Good news—we got what we needed off that tower. Only one thing remains between us and Demeter—the greatest concentration of IMC power on the Frontier. If our attack on Demeter is gonna have any chance of success, this airbase must be destroyed. Bish has the details."

"The airbase is defended from local wildlife by three towers," Bish began his explanation. "Like the one we saw in our last mission. Using the data from that mission I've created a device that will take down those towers. I call it the 'icepick'. Because every ship in our fleet will be needed at Demeter, a full scale aerial assault is not an option; but if we take out the towers, the wildlife will finish the job. Sarah?"

"Covert ops will handle the towers." Sarah's voice was assured. "Pilots, I'm asking you to guard our backs. Our fleet at Demeter is counting on us to come through. Get to your dropships and ready up. Good luck."

Anna looked down at Elsa with a wry grin, extending her hand. The blonde took the proffered hand, hauling herself upright before laying out on the length of a bench. Anna lay on another bench nearby, talking softly before she activated her Ripcord.

"I'll still be here when you wake up, okay?"


The Crow lurched with translation shock as its jump drive spooled down, the night seeming to envelop it as it arrived. The starboard hatch opened, Sarah leaning out. She was wearing only light combat fatigues and her signature bomber jacket. A Hammond 2011 was strapped to her right hip, and dangling from her left was the modified dataknife contraption that Bish was calling the 'icepick'. The reason for that was now obvious to Anna, because the damn thing looked exactly like an old style icepick mountaineers would use.

"This isn't gonna be easy." Sarah shouted over her shoulder, barely audible over the jetwash. "Titan Pilots, keep the IMC forces focused on this area while I take out the towers!"

The Crow began to hover, lowering itself towards the roof of a command bunker at the southern end of the airfield. Bish turned on the small access ramp to the cockpit, addressing Sarah directly. Anna suddenly began to wonder if there might have been something between them, then dismissed the thought as incredibly unlikely. Bish was practically married to his machines and gadgets, and Sarah, after a moment's consideration, seemed far too much of a badass to be involved with the genius scientist who was improving everyone's Titans.

"This is your stop." Bish was almost shouting to be heard over the whine of the engines. Sarah tucked and rolled, coming up in a knife-fighter's crouch on the roof of the support building. "Good luck!" Bish was shouting out the open hatch, possibly unaware that his words would never reach her over the din of the jetwash. The Crow circled to the west, hovering just past a Phantom resting on the hardstand, surrounded by maintenance equipment.

"Sarah, I've got you linked up on comms, we'll keep them busy over here." Bish's voice crackled over the radio.

Anna watched as Elsa leapt from the dropship, rolling as she landed, springing from a crouch into a side flip that planted her feet against a stack of crates just to her right, jetpack helping her power forwards, towards the hangar entrance. During that same time Anna landed hard in a three point crouch, dusting herself off and unlimbering her Spitfire. Kristoff landed beside her, unslinging his Longbow DMR. He pointed past the crates and maintenance gear, over the gantries in the hangar.

"IMC Titans. We better help our boys," He leapt high, his jetpack boosting him further, and he scrambled up onto the wing of the Phantom, Anna following behind him. Two Militia Titans, Atlases, were just fighting off drop-shock and unlimbering their weapons. Anna knew her Sidewinder would be useless at that distance. She ran forward, diving from the wing of the Phantom and into the hangar proper.

Barker's voice, slightly slurred, came across the tactical channel. "Hey, Pilots, Sarah can't be in two places at once, so you're stuck with me on this one. I'll be handling Titan production for this operation. Don't screw with me, I got one helluva bad hangover. Barker out." Anna ignored it. As long as she could call Olaf down on time it didn't matter who was providing build support.

"Kristoff, strip their shields!"

A pencil-thin beam of orange light slashed overhead, and disruption static flickered through the last of an IMC Atlas's shields. Anna ran up the wall to her right, jetpack boosting her onto a mid-level platform at the side of the hangar. A 40mm round from one of the Militia Titans stripped the last of her target's shields, and she lined up with her Spitfire, heavy recoil throwing her aim off until she could wrestle the gun in line with the target, recoil settling into its stable firing pattern.

It wasn't as effective as a chaingun, but it was still ripping chunks from the IMC Atlas, wreckage littering the hangar floor. It was also enough to draw the attention of that Titan, along with that of an enemy Pilot. Anna hit her cloak, jumping out the window beside her, scrambling up the side of the hangar, towards the roof. A rattle of SMG fire came from the far end of the roof, followed by a massive echoing report. Anna came over the ridge of the roofline just in time to see a female Militia Pilot crumpling to the ground, a high velocity trail tracing back from her to the firer.

Two Longbow rounds whined from the antenna and girder structure next to the IMC sniper, followed quickly by a return round from that Pilot's Kraber. Anna could hear Kristoff cursing. She advanced, opening up with her Spitfire, hoping enough shots would get past the metalwork the IMC Pilot was using for cover. More would have if her belt hadn't run dry, and she cursed, running along the roof and drawing her pistol, emptying it at the same collection of girders and comms equipment in the vain hope of keeping the IMC Pilot's head down.

A round from a Wingman punched clean through her leg and red tinted her vision. Another Longbow round whined from the rooftop, ricocheting from the girders. That sniper is fucking blessed, she thought savagely, throwing a satchel charge in a high arc, knowing already it wouldn't travel far enough. Another Kraber round boomed out as two more Longbow rounds struck the top of the hangar, a third going completely wild. Anna knew she'd lost Kristoff's covering fire.

The IMC sniper was frantically working the bolt on his weapon, and Anna had managed to reload her RE-45 autopistol. She was bringing it in line as she ran, then she heard an ominous triple-beep as the world exploded in searing thunder.

She woke in the clone bay, cursing. "Arc mines."


Elsa hit the ground behind the inert Phantom and rolled backwards, tucking into a ball, drawing her sidearm as her trailing leg righted her, ready to spring into action. The IMC Pilot leaping from the bunker behind the auto-turret was firing his R101 Carbine as he fell. Impacts kicked up chips of asphalt and several rounds punched through Elsa's torso. Her reply was to rip out six rounds in half as many seconds, the IMC Pilot hitting the tarmac next to her with a dull thud.

Reloading her C.A.R., Elsa dashed forwards, towards the lower north entrance of the control bunker behind the auto-turret. Two Spectres ate a hail of lead, falling to the ground bucking and sparking. Elsa slammed another mag home and leapt at the wall to her left, using her jetpack to spring off it and sail through the second level door to her right. The control bunker was empty save for a pair of Marvins, armed with nothing more threatening than fire extinguishers.

To her left there was a doorway out to the platform supporting the auto-turret. She dove through it, up a small ramp in front of her, and then jumped and fired her jetpack to land her feet against a large warning sign. Sideways. She hit stim and sprinted along the sign, vaulting from the end of it and on to the top of a small support hangar with a cargo lift. Several generators lined the top of the hangar, and the upper wall was high enough she could no longer see the rest of the airbase. A Longbow made a distinctive snap-crack nearby, and a Militia sniper leapt from his perch as a 40mm round slammed into the comms dish he'd been hiding behind.

"Enemy Ogre," He explained, unlimbering his charge rifle. "Need some support."

Elsa unslung her Archer, leaping over the top of the support hangar and onto the shieldwall between the upper landing pad and the main hangar. A 40mm round detonated behind her, blasting chunks of reinforced concrete from the shieldwall. She was moving sideways as fast as she could, Archer gaining a continuous tone. She fired, leaping from the shieldwall to land behind a generator cart, slamming another rocket into the back of the Archer's launch tube. From somewhere nearby came the zap of a Charge Rifle firing, a pencil thin beam lancing through the Ogre's shields.

Vaulting the generator cart, Elsa brought her Archer to bear once again, noting the insignia on the Ogre's breast—a shield marked with a bullseye. A Vortex Shield caught the heavy round from the Archer, and Elsa leapt forwards, plummeting through the open access ring for the munitions store below. The blast from the redirected rocket was enough to buffet her as she fell, but she hit the ground in a graceful three point landing, swinging her gun around to sweep for enemies.

Elsa turned to the north, just in time to see two more IMC Titans rush through the main hangar; a Stryder and an Atlas. Damn could I use Marshmallow right about now. She glanced at the build queue timer. Ninety seconds. Fuck. But there was something else she could do—she could call on her allies. At least one of them she knew she could trust.

"Corazon! Main hangar!"

"Little busy. Right. Now." The reply was punctuated with a grunt of effort. Elsa heard the thunderous report of a Spitfire going off in close quarters. "Hold. Fucking. Still."

Elsa had leapt against and vaulted over the stacked containers to her right, hauling herself onto the roof of the main hangar.

"They don't like it when I ride 'em," from the tone of Anna's voice, Elsa could almost imagine her smiling. "Makes it more—"

Sarah's voice crackled across the tactical channel. "Bish, I've made it to the access point of the north tower. Light resistance, but the bulk of their forces are occupied."

"Copy that, Sarah. Pilots, keep taking out the IMC forces."

Elsa didn't need Bish's instructions to do that, throwing an arc grenade through an open access hatch in the roof, watching with satisfaction as it took out a squad of Grunts and two nearby Spectres. Something else flashed, surrounded by disruption static. Elsa dropped onto the gantry running beneath the access hatch, glancing from it to angle her fall behind the fleeing IMC Pilot. Steadying her aim she put a dozen rounds in the female Pilot's back. Then she threw her second arc grenade at a cluster of Spectres rushing in from the west, the current surge fusing their joints and wiping their circuits.

"Alright Bish, I'm in." A direct feed popped up in Elsa's retinal display of the northernmost tower around the airbase. "I'm using the 'icepick' on the north tower now. Watch this!"

In the feed Elsa watched as static raced up the tower, arcing from odd protrusions to the mechanical array at the top of the structure. Explosions raced up the tower, its sides seeming to billow out slightly before three key seamlines failed, ripping the tower into rough thirds, tumbling to the ground. The impact threw up dust and debris and was heavy enough for Elsa to feel through the soles of her feet as she sprinted out the western end of the hangar, and turned south, towards the support hangar and cargo elevator.

"The north tower is out of commission." Sarah's voice crackled over the tactical channel again.

"Nice job Sarah, keep me updated on your position." That from Bish.

There was a pause, then what might have been distant gunshots.

"Bish, I'm headed to the east tower! I've picked up a pursuit force over here but I should be able to lose them in the service tunnels."

Elsa scrambled up into the mid-level of the support hangar, coming face to face with a very surprised IMC Grunt. He fell flat on his back, firing his shotgun. Elsa dodged the worst of it, emptying several rounds into him before catching his fleeing companion with a snap-kick that pitched him from the far window. A gruff, annoyed voice sounded on her private channel. Barker.

"Your Titan's ready. You want it or not?"

Elsa threw the drop beacon out the window she had kicked the Grunt through seconds ago, then leapt from the balcony there to hang against the lower wall of the main comms tower. A massive green blur screamed past, kicking up a cloud of dust as it hit the tarmac. Elsa sprang from the wall, falling such that her left hand caught the grab handle on Marshallow's open cockpit, swinging her around, down and into the Ogre's cockpit. She used that momentum to close the cockpit as her back hit the back of the seat.

"Alright Marshmallow, let's go scrap the IMC for good."


"Zap-zap motherfucker," Anna spoke with a savage grin, obliterating an IMC Pilot with her Arc Cannon.

"Thanks for the save," Kristoff's Titan, smoking from several telling impacts, lumbered past her own, plunging down into the gap around the munitions store before cutting into the hangar. Anna dashed forward, her Stryder hitting the bottom with a heavy clang, turning to the right and the eastern field where the IMC forces seemed to be accumulating in greater and greater numbers. Because Sarah's heading for the east tower, right.

IMC Grunts surged from the lower levels of the airbase, and Anna blitzed up the low ramp from the munitions store to the C3 bunker. In the distance, well beyond the perimeter of the airbase, she could see IMC carriers and heavy cruisers taking on fuel and munitions for the coming battle. Beyond that was a mountain range—or at least it had looked like one until it moved. A herd of leviathans, like on Barker's planet.

An AT rocket from a Grunt detonated against the leg of her Stryder, chipping the armour and damaging her shields. Other Grunts were lining up behind him, unslinging their rockets and taking aim at her Titan. Finger already on the trigger, Anna gave her Arc Cannon a second's worth of charge. Lightning arced between the closely packed Grunts, lancing out to fry their missiles as it forked between them. Nothing was left of them but a pink mist and the tang of ozone in the air.

A quartet of Spectres barely made a sound as Anna ran them over with her Stryder. Her Arc Cannon was charging again, not lacking for targets either. At least a dozen IMC Grunts, maybe more, with more spilling from the command bunkers every minute. Blue-white lightning described a jagged, devastating chain, ripping apart the Grunts' formation with contemptuous ease. Her Titan rocked with repeated heavy impacts, and Anna dashed left, behind the enclosed ramp for the upper landing pad. She was already charging her Arc Cannon.

An IMC Atlas dashed into view, Quad Rocket spitting projectiles at an incredible rate, unleashing a rocket salvo as it closed. Anna just managed to re-centre her reticle before discharging the Arc Cannon. Pulling the secondary trigger sent a cluster missile spiralling across the short distance between them, detonating against the IMC Titan's shields. Then she dashed back and to the side, opening the range as the IMC Atlas reloaded, a yellow glow flaring from its core indicating its Pilot had just disabled all weapon safeties to increase his damage output.

Anna's Titan rocked back, staggering under the fusillade, armour sloughing off in great chunks, entire plates falling intact to the ground on which they fought. Her Arc Cannon shot went wide, harmlessly grounding into the tarmac. There was a great sizzling crack and the IMC Titan rocked hard, stumbling to the right, rockets flying wild and blasting chunks out of the tarmac before it could turn to face this new attacker.

A full spread of multi-target missiles dove from on high, slamming into a hastily erected particle wall. A fully charged Plasma Railgun round destroyed the wall. Anna dashed forward, thankful for the opening Elsa had created for her. Her Arc Cannon flashed, scrambling the systems of the IMC Atlas as she dashed closer, swinging hard with her right arm. The combined momentum from the dash and the Titan punch was enough to send the IMC Titan careening into the wall several metres behind it.

To her right Anna could see a flare of light, and the sudden arcing of disruption static around the east tower. Sarah was doing well.

"East tower is coming down." Sarah gave an update on the tactical channel. "Only one more to go. Bish! We've 'icepicked' the east tower, but my team's been wiped out down here, and my shooting arm's useless."

Anna popped smoke, helping to scramble her enemy's systems, before dashing back to charge her Arc Cannon once more. She was a skirmisher, close work was her forté, but not hand to hand. Bish's voice crackled and broke as Anna discharged her Arc Cannon at the struggling IMC Titan.

"Can you st—? C—ou get—there?"

"They've blocked the path to the main tower! There's no way I can get to it now!" Sarah was starting to sound just a little desperate. They couldn't come so far and fail at the final hurdle.

"Enemy Titan has ejected." Her Titan's onboard AI helpfully informed Anna that the IMC Atlas was no longer a problem. Micromissile impacts from a Sidewinder began ripping at her shields, leaving tiny pockmarks in what little armour she had left. She dashed back, looking up, charging her Arc Cannon and searching for the IMC Pilot.

"Sarah, I'm sending you the coordinates of one of the the airfields." In the background Anna could hear Bish's hands flying across his various keyboards. "It should take you away from the IMC pursuit team. If you can 'icepick' an IMC access console we'll still have a chance to take out the last tower."

"Copy that Bish, I'm headed to the surface! Have a Crow on standby for medevac!"

There was a loud clang on top of her Stryder's hull, and Anna hit the button to open the cockpit, swinging out one-handed, the other collecting her Spitfire. She spun in mid-air, seeing the IMC Pilot leaping from the back of her Titan, an R-97 SMG in his hands. Rounds peppered the ground around her while empty casings spewed from the ejection port of her Spitfire. Red hot impact marks scarred the tarmac around both Pilots. A crackling sizzle tore a three metre gouge across the ground between them, the overpressure shockwave enough to make them stumble.

Anna threw a satchel charge as the IMC Pilot jumped back, throwing an arc grenade. Both pieces of ordnance detonated when they met, lighting from the arc grenade frying the satchel charge's detonator, triggering it early. The IMC Pilot was caught in mid-air by a massive bolt of lightning.

"Enemy Pilot eliminated." Her Titan's onboard AI sounded almost pleased with itself.

"Good boy, Olaf."


Elsa swung around in her Ogre, display suddenly overcome by disruption static. A massive impact sent her staggering, what was left of her armour hitting the surface of the upper landing pad with a horrendous clanging cacophony. The lock warning appeared on her HUD, and atop the shieldwall she saw an IMC Pilot with an Archer taking aim at her. A Plasma Railgun round whipped through the space the Pilot had just vacated, and his Archer fired.

The glow behind it was pinkish flame, but ahead of it, through the casing, was the telltale glow of a Titanhammer warhead. That Pilot was already slamming another round home. Elsa raised her Vortex Shield and dashed forward to catch the first missile. She fired it back at the IMC Pilot, the range close enough that it was impossible to miss. The missile slammed into the shieldwall below the Pilot, throwing his body into the gap between the ordnance lift and the main hangar. The range was also close enough that the missile's blast stripped more armour from Elsa's Titan.

Impacts rattled the Ogre and Elsa turned, seeing an IMC Atlas armed with a chaingun firing at her, shredding her armour as the chaingun began firing faster and faster. She raised her partially re-energized Vortex Shield and swept her reticle across the enemy Atlas, painting it for her multi-target missiles. The enemy Titan stopped firing, waiting for her Vortex Shield to collapse. Elsa dropped the shield, firing everything collected back at the IMC Titan.

The Atlas weathered the impacts, firing its own slaved warheads and spinning up its chaingun again. Elsa looked at her status readout and knew immediately there was no saving her Titan. She dashed forward, hitting the override failsafes, and yanked on the ejection handle between her legs. As her Ogre detonated in a nuclear fireball Elsa shot skyward, reaching a peak of a hundred metres above the landing pad. Titan scale slugs tracked her up, tracers whipping past her until something slammed into her side. Then something hit her in the neck and she was longer falling.

"Fuck!" She shook her head, a slight twitch racing down her arms as she dropped from the clone bay. It wasn't that she'd died—she'd suffered a few deaths in this battle—it was the annoyance at not being able to immediately continue the fight. In another time she might almost have been impressed with the IMC Pilot's skill. But not now. Not when they were this close to achieving their objective of taking out Demeter's support fleet.

Collecting her weapons and activating a satellite uplink didact, Elsa checked the battleROM. The Militia were leading, some 240 points to the IMC's 183. It seemed wrong, somehow reducing the war to the level of a game—but those numbers represented the losses any enemy force was willing to suffer before abandoning an objective. Even one as critical as the airbase defending Demeter. It seemed odd to her that the rules of war would be so formalized, even when fighting as part of the Militia. She couldn't have known the Militia strategists were using it to keep track of local forces that couldn't be diverted to stopping the attack on the repulsor towers.

Elsa ran through the warpfall conduit, arriving in the northeast sector of the airfield, near a massive supply truck that managed to dwarf even Titans with its scale. She jumped towards it, running along its flank before springing off in mid-air to land on a stack of crates at the main hangar's eastern entrance. To her left was a small ship tractor, several Marvins idling around it. Beyond them was a group of Spectres, and Elsa began firing as she launched herself through the air, destroying one, then two of the Spectres as she sailed across the gap. The third Spectre fell to a jump-kick that hurled its top half over a low barricade while its legs slumped to the ground.

Slamming a fresh magazine home, Elsa searched for a new target. Something flashed nearby on her minimap display. An IMC Pilot armed with an R101. Elsa ran at her, hitting stim and firing from the hip as she charged. The IMC Pilot turned with the first impact, aiming down along the sights of her carbine. Hot lead crossed the distance between them, slamming into Elsa's shoulder and throwing off her aim. Elsa jumped for the nearby crate stack, hanging off the side of it with one arm, spraying the few remaining rounds in her C.A.R. at the IMC Pilot. Her weapon ran dry a moment later and she jumped back, hands a lightning blur as she reloaded.

Elsa dropped, bullets chewing out the locking mechanism of the crate she had been using for support, drawing her sidearm as she fell. The IMC Pilot managed to dodge the first two shots, and another round hit Elsa squarely in the stomach. She staggered sideways, wincing, firing another three rounds from her Hammond P2011 before diving into an open crate and behind cover. She didn't stop moving, running along the outside wall of the hangar, heading east. Something exploded behind her. Something flew past above, and like an avenging angel Anna opened up with her Spitfire LMG even before she'd landed, the thunderous report deafening at that short range. The IMC Pilot never stood a chance.

"Whew. Thanks Corazon."

"Any time."

And then they were off again, Elsa continuing east, Anna heading to the west. Sarah's voice sounded pained when she spoke over the tactical net. She might also have been panting with exertion.

"Bish, I've made it to the airfield! What do you need?"

"Locate a fighter launch console. I can configure the system for remote activation with the 'icepick'."

"Okay Bish, I've 'icepicked' the console! I'm getting on the medevac and I'm outta here! Good luck!"

Elsa landed in front of a confused IMC Grunt, hitting him with a snap-kick that folded him in half. She hoped Bish's plan would work. So, too, did MacAllan.

"Can you make it happen Bish?"

"It'll come down to how much time we have left, but yeah, I think I got this, Mac."

Elsa began sprinting for the northern end of the airbase, and the covered stairway there that led to the upper landing pad and the control facility. We'll get you that time, Bish. Her satellite uplink had just shown her a great concentration of IMC forces on the upper landing pad, and she would do her best to thin those to nothing. She hit the wall feet-first at a dead sprint, hitting stim so she surged up and out of the upper stairhead like a shot from a gun.

Two arc grenades sailed from her hands, one into a tightly packed cluster of Grunts running for the lower level of the command tower; the other directly at a Spectre standing up after jumping from an IMC Goblin overhead. The twin detonations threatened to overload her senses as she surged between them, C.A.R. spitting lead, mowing down another pair of IMC Grunts scrambling for cover behind a generator housing.

Her gun ran dry as another Spectre landed in front of her. She fired her jetpack, a devastating jump-kick throwing the Spectre nearly to the open hatch for the munitions lift. Elsa tucked and rolled, rounds from a pair of Grunts passing harmlessly overhead. Her pistol was up and ready as she ran, firing three shots at each, dropping the half spent mag and slamming a fresh one home. Not breaking stride she holstered the sidearm, grabbing a larger magazine from her webbing and rammed it home, racking the charging handle on her C.A.R..

"Need a ride?" came a cheerful and familiar voice as a slightly battered Stryder appeared on the western ramps.

"Rockets up," Elsa informed Anna as she landed on the back of the other Pilot's Titan, unslinging her Archer.

"Let's go hunting. I saw an Atlas down at the turret's command bunker."

Then the Stryder was sprinting down the ramps, dashing sideways around the switchback, never losing momentum. Elsa could appreciate that kind of speed. She flipped open the targeting window of her Archer, taking aim at the IMC Atlas dead ahead. Anna hadn't been wrong, and as blue-white lightning arced from her Titan's weapon to the enemy, an Archer heavy rocket slammed into the same target, staggering it and reducing its remaining shields to nothing, also destroying a not insignificant chunk of armour.

Elsa fired again as Anna hit the enemy Atlas with her cluster missile. The other Titan dashed back, out of line, and in its place stood an Ogre. Two Ogres. She heard Anna mutter something about not saving anything, and then she watched as lightning arced into the newcomer, lancing out to the side, catching the Titan that thought it had escaped from harm. Then Anna popped smoke and dashed sideways, turning to sprint under the upper landing pad's munitions store.

The Stryder cut left almost immediately, dashing forward around the circular lift platform to end up at the side entrance of the main hangar. Anna cut left again, and Elsa watched the brightening glow of the Arc Cannon's core. The Stryder dashed forward, then turned and dashed to the right, emerging behind the IMC Titans. Titans busy engaging an Atlas slamming enhanced 40mm rounds into them backed up by a Stryder with chaingun, currently dashing forward, spewing lead, rockets, and electric smoke as it slammed into the IMC line, breaking up any cohesion the attack might have had.

Anna slammed into them from behind, leading with a cluster missile that followed the instant shot from a fully charged Arc Cannon. Only then did Elsa lock and fire her Archer—she hadn't wanted to betray their position of advantage. One Ogre turned, erecting a particle wall, then turned back to the Stryder next to it, punching it hard enough to send it reeling into the support structure for the auto-turret next to it. Elsa switched targets, Archer slamming into the back of the Ogre not protected by the particle wall.

"Pilot, your Titan's ready." Barker's gruff and highly annoyed voice came over the comm. "Make it last this time!"

Elsa threw the drop beacon directly ahead of them, and even as the second Ogre turned to level its 40mm cannon at them, Elsa was running across the top of Anna's Titan, leaping from it like a metallic springboard and landing in her Titan's dome shield. She pulled herself up with her right arm, grabbing the left stick with her left, turning around to face the enemy even before pulling the cockpit closed.

Through the dome shield she could see the telltale blue-white glow of a core overload, and suddenly the friendly Stryder Pilot's aggressive—but seemingly reckless—assault made a lot more sense. Both IMC Ogres dashed backwards. The one with the Triple Threat suddenly met a powerful haymaker, reeling back. The other, armed with a 40mm cannon and showing the bullseye shield was met with a blast of lightning from Anna's Arc Cannon.

Aiming in, Elsa waited precious seconds for her weapon to charge. A barrage of Titan scale grenades rocked her mount, and as the other Ogre reloaded Elsa saw her chance. The Plasma Railgun bolt crossed the distance in a fraction of a second, punching clean through the IMC Ogre's right arm, staggering it. A half spread of multi-target missiles continued the assault, followed by another railgun round—this time punching hard into the heavy Titan's reactor core. This was capped off by a bright orange beam spearing down into the Ogre's reactor from well behind it.

Yet even with its armour shredded and on the clearly losing end of a fight the IMC Pilot didn't give up. Instead, Elsa saw the dull yellow glow of a core overcharge, and the Ogre's shields suddenly sprang back to life, doubling in strength. Then Laski's Ogre dashed forward, armoured fist slamming into her Titan and making her rattle around the cockpit. It was perhaps the first time she could truly appreciate the excessive padding at her back.

Then Laski fired again, his 40mm rounds staggering Anna's Stryder, rocket salvo finishing the job. Elsa's railgun round was caught and reflected instantly by an orange glowing Vortex Shield. Elsa turned, lining up a shot against the shield cored Ogre on the opposite side of the battle, painting it with another half spread of multi-target missiles. The missiles hit home, but the Plasma Railgun round went just slightly wide, punching through the IMC Ogre's thigh instead of its torso.

Another impact staggered her Titan, and Elsa turned, dashing sideways, out of line from the distant Ogre, slamming a powerful haymaker into Laski as his Titan closed. On the back of Laski's Titan she could see a female Pilot ripping into the maintenance access panel, trying to maintain her footing as she swung a Spitfire in line with the delicate internal systems.

"Now hold still," Anna's voice echoed across her private channel. "This brain surgery is very delicate." The statement ended with a decidedly diabolical laugh. Almost to the level of melodrama, actually. Elsa sighed, rolling her eyes. It was alright if Corazon wanted to be witty, but not at the expense of combat effectiveness. But it still only took seconds for Anna's Spitfire to destroy the vital gyros, hydraulic lines and anything else slightly useful behind that panel, effectively dooming the Ogre. She heard someone scrambling over the top of her own Titan as she dashed back, but she knew there wasn't enough distance.

The only way to escape was to eject, and Elsa hit the safeties as she yanked on the ejection handle and launched herself skyward, Anna being launched up with her by an overcharge pulse through the Titan's frame. As they fell back to earth Elsa looked to the south east. She could see IMC fighters, Phantoms and Viper assault dropships, rising into the air.

"Mac, it's working! I've got remote control of the IMC ships!" Bish was ecstatic. "I'm gonna use 'em to cut down the tower."

A display feed popped up in her retinal implant, and Elsa watched as a squadron of hijacked fighters flushed their entire ordnance payload at the tower. Specifically at the base support stays and weak upper stay. The tower began to topple sideways, and everyone could hear Bish's jubilant shout over the tactical net.

"Timber!" Regaining his composure somewhat, Bish continued to talk. "Pilots, all towers are down, I repeat, all towers are down. Watch out for the incoming wildlife—they won't play favourites between you and the IMC."

"Great work, people. We'll head to Demeter within the hour." MacAllan was full of confidence. "It's time for the main event. MacAllan out."

"Bish, patch me in to the IMC." MacAllan continued his broadcast as Elsa and Anna climbed the side of the auto-turret's support bunker, ending up on the roof. They ran for the zipline at the far end, the one that ran to the upper landing pad. "You read me Graves? You know what's coming. All-out assault. Doesn't have to go down like this."

"A lot's changed in the last 15 years since you wore this uniform, Mac. I won't let you walk away this time." Elsa was so surprised she almost fell from the zipline. She knew that somehow Graves and MacAllan had a history, and that they'd had their wargames, but she hadn't thought that Graves was the one to let MacAllan escape. She'd thought that that was all MacAllan's doing; that Graves had had nothing to do with it.

"Have you really made a difference in the IMC, Marcus?" MacAllan hit back with his most telling question. "Or did you just turn into another company man along the way? All I see is bloodshed. I don't see any change."

Graves's reply, coming as the IMC Goblin shot into the distance, sent a chill down their spines. "Then we'll let the endgame decide—who's right, and who's dead."


Anna smiled warmly as she sat up, reaching out to take Elsa's hand. "See, I told you I'd be here when you woke up."

Elsa laughed, standing. "Well, when we both Ripcord from the same place I don't get much of a choice, do I?"

"Guess not," Anna conceded. "Come on. I think we can make it back to our quarters before we hit Demeter. It'd be nice to wake up in a bed, right?"

They talked as they walked.

"Right," Elsa sounded distracted. Anna frowned, trying unsuccessfully to figure out what was bothering the blonde; what was bothering her friend. There was a whole mess of things it might have been, but Anna couldn't single any one item out from the rest. Not without more data.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, Anna, just… I'm worried. We're so close now. The Demeter gate is the key pipeline for IMC reinforcements coming to the Frontier. Not just for fuel and supplies, but as a jump bridge too. I've seen the defences. I'm sure MacAllan has too. I'm just—I'm not sure any of us will make it to the surface, let alone into combat. And we've got no idea what MacAllan's plan is either—but Graves does."

"I think you're thinking too much about this. We're Pilots. Soldiers, first and foremost. We're immortal. We can pilot Titans. No one else can do what we do."

"But don't you want to know why we're fighting?"

"For the Frontier, Elsa. To keep the IMC out. To stop a brutally oppressive regime."

"That's the big picture—and it's a good picture—but I want to know how these little battles all add up. What's MacAllan's endgame, and why did Graves seem so convinced it would leave one of them dead?"

Anna sighed, wrapping an arm around Elsa and pulling her into a loose embrace as they walked. "I don't know, okay. Sometimes it worries me too—but MacAllan's got us this far. I trust him enough to know he'll see us through to the bitter end, no matter what that is. Not knowing sucks."

Then Anna stopped, standing on tiptoes to plant a kiss on Elsa's cheek. "It's alright. We'll know what he plans to do in an hour."

"If we live out that hour." Elsa shook her head. "Even without the fleet, Demeter remains an anvil of defence. Things tend to go 'splat' when they hit an anvil."

"Yeah, but I feel like MacAllan's gonna hit this anvil with a tactical nuke."

Elsa stopped mid-stride, face completely blank. Anna could see a furious intensity building behind her eyes. Then Elsa blinked, looking up. "That's his endgame."

"What—what is?"

"The primary fuelling stations on Demeter use nuclear reactors—only way to generate enough energy to keep those pumps going. Same goes for the gate. Energy requirements are insane, so those reactors are big. Every IMC Pilot is taught that defending the reactors is the keystone to defending Demeter. MacAllan used to be an IMC Pilot."

Both women staggered slightly as the Redeye completed a short range jump. Alarms blared instantly, and thunder echoed through the hull as heavy turrets and primary weapons opened up. The assault on Demeter had begun.