IMC Chapter 10

The next day, Sergeant Reynoso marched into the crow's roost with her usual air of military certainty. I was staying in the corner of shadows, much like Travis Mercury when I met him, sipping my coffee quietly. I did not want any attention since I woke up from my dream.

Reynoso tossed a blueprint map onto the table and ordered everyone to gather around. That included me as well. It was the map of an IMC fuel refinery. The novice I was at observing blueprints, even I could notice that there were no defensive structures around this refinery.

"This is the Sandtrap Refinery that is currently under siege by the 1st Militia Fleet. Part of being on the defensive is sitting on our resources. But if we lose this refinery, there will be hell to pay. It could severely limit our own fleet movements in the Yuma Sector."

"Sergeant, how come we pulled off the snow planet? We almost had Graves in our hands," Samurai said as he leaned on the table. This question that was irrelevant to our mission brought out an absolute fury from the leader of the crows. Reynoso slapped her hand so hard on the table the rest of us backed away a single step.

"Goddamnit! Not another question out of you, Samurai. If anyone else asks about Unon II, I will personally ruin your fucking day. Is that clear, pilots?"

We nodded gravely. She let out a sigh and went back to the blueprint map. "As you can see, there are no defenses or walls on this map but this is an original blueprint. Since then, the IMC has heavily fortified the station with walls all around the perimeter and heavy turrets, here and here." She pointed at two opposite corners around the outside of the refinery.

"The good news is that the walls were designed to prevent hostile titanfalls. They are close enough to the main refinery that ships have a difficult time dropping a titan inside the perimeter."

"Why not just drop the titan on the wall? Crush the wall and make a hole." Blackbeard grunted.

"The walls are high enough a titan cannot jump over it from the outside but not tall enough to be weak. They are thin in a sense that if a titan were to land on the wall it would probably in all likelihood tumble and shatter the incoming titan. So all you would have is a ruined bomb and a wall still standing in the sand."

Blackbeard nodded and let Reynoso continue again.

"The bad news is that the Militia has Sandtrap completely surrounded. Nothing has come out or went in for weeks. The soldiers holding the garrison must be running low on food and ammunition by this point. We have received reports saying there has been atmosphere shelling every day and infantry assaults sporadically. The Militia almost got in too with a covert team trying to enter through the pipelines. But a grunt named Hadley heard the footsteps in the pipe and opened up the fuel lines. No movement has been reported in the lines since."

"Is that how we are going to break the blockade, by sneaking in?" Dragon rubbed her chin with narrow eyes.

"No. This ship, the IMS Colossus, is not the flagship of the IMC for no reason. We are going to tear and burn a hole right through the siege. We have fifty ships next to us and we are going to drop right here." Reynoso then pointed to the west side of the Sandtrap refinery.

"Militia forces are garrisoned at these outlier buildings. We can count on pilots and titans as our opposition, as well a battalion of grunts. We are going to drop full force inside our titans. If we can overwhelm them in the beginning they may give up right away if our star cruisers can shut down their reinforcements. If not, we root them out. You can see there are multiple tunnels here in open space. A lot of tunnels with close quarters combat will happen beneath the sand. Samurai, your shotgun is going to be needed down there, along with you Blackbeard."

Both of the men nodded. They were thick and strong looking. I am sure they were more than willing to flex their massive shoulder muscles down in the tunnels against Militia grunts and pilots. When I did not hear my name for that section, I knew where I would be assigned.

"Since Travis is not going to be down there with you gentlemen, I will be accompanying you. That leaves you Krout, and Dragon. You are going to be topside in the sand and holding back any Militia counter attacks from these buildings here. Be conservative with your ammunition. If we fail and get pushed back into the Sandtrap Refinery, we have no idea when the next supply drop will be. But like I said, it is paramount that we do not lose this station. An IMC garrison on BFE doesn't matter, but Sandtrap definitely does. Any questions?"

Blackbeard raised his hand. It seemed odd to see a gruff looking soldier make such an action. Reynoso nodded at him.

"As long as I have been in the crows, we have never been included in any main assaults or defensive tactics as this one is. What has changed our combat description?"

"A whole fucking war," Reynoso shot back. She seemed to be in a particularly foul mood today. "We are a part of the last human pilots, Blackbeard. Commander Blisk wants this done right so he is sending us in. We are his to dispose of," and with that, Sergeant Reynoso turned around and left the crow's roost, leaving the blueprints of Sandtrap on the table.

I glanced over to the two scolded men, Samurai and Blackbeard. Blackbeard shook his head with a tsk-tsk and then said, "my God. I cannot believe how attractive that woman is when she is angry."

"C'mon Blackbeard, let's go have us more brews before we got to be sober for battle in—," Samurai held up his wristwatch. "Three hours, we got to make these count if we are going to die in some stupid, sand tunnel. Are you coming along Dragon? Krout?"

Dragon shook her head, "I'm fine, I'm going to look some more at these blueprints." For some reason, I suddenly didn't want to go drinking. An amazing development considering the brutal dream I had the night before. Samurai still regarded me as strange since he heard me speaking German in my sleep. I told them that I would be staying to rest some more.

"Aye, I bet you need to practice your German anyways, Krout," Blackbeard grinned through his mass of black, facial hair. The two men left and only Dragon and I were in the roost. She sighed once the door closed. "Those boys are going to drink right up until the drop second, I swear." Then she looked at me. "When we first met on the IMS Havoc, you smelled a lot like booze. Now, I haven't seen you look at the stuff."

I never realized that my drinking was so apparent. I remember being thankful that my Spectre security detail didn't have nostrils so they couldn't smell the whiskey on my breath. Always need to follow IMC Pilot Protocol. But it was interesting that Dragon had noticed.

"I can't really explain it Dragon. It's not that I've given it up, I just don't feel like getting hammered."

"Call me Jennina, please. Since we are going to be fighting together, we might as well get to know each other," she smiled. A glitter of softness fluttered in her blue eyes. A feeling like a punch in the gut told me that I may not be talking to a hardened killer but a woman at this very moment. "I don't blame you for not drinking. I try to avoid it most of the time because it reminds me of the time before this war, when I would drink with my squad mates. We would go round after round after burning down some Militia garrison. It was all very easy back then."

Jennina lowered her face and grimaced. I imagine that it must have been very difficult for her to open up like that. Women pilots in the IMC had to keep up with the men. That means they had to trade in their high-heels for combat boots and emotions for aggression. Yet, I couldn't believe that she had described my feelings so precisely in detail.

"I remember doing the same thing. I remember my friends. I remember their faces and their jokes. Our confidence. I even named the Spectres in my bodyguard detail after my friends, Jimbo, Harrison, and Gracie. They were all killed in combat but I named robots after them."

"I hated having those stupid robots around all the time. They are so noisy. But I am sorry for your loss. The 40th Squadron was in plenty of tough battles."

I sat down on the bunk and leaned on my knees. The bruises and aches and pains were only slowly healing in my body. "Yeah, the 40th, was in quite a bit. But in most of the battles we lost."

Jennina stepped forward and squatted in front of me. "Don't be saying things like that. They'll only tear you down. We can still pull out this war." She reached out and took my hand. "Besides, the Militia isn't near as clever as they think they are."

This was the very first time I had held a woman's hand since Alice. Her touch was warm, and deadly soft. That must have been why they called her Dragon because her body temperature was very hot. Her features made her a respectable woman but she was not exactly beautiful. At first, I wanted to jerk my hand away, to salvage my dedication to Alice. But the warmth sailed down my arm and into my heart where it knocked on my ribs, only seconds from titanfall. I held her hand tight.

I am the last marooned sailor in a drowned world.

And there could be a mirage of a boat on the horizon.

Jennina smiled. "I am curious as to what you were dreaming last night. I had no idea that you actually spoke that language."

I looked down. My thumb was caressing her knuckles without my permission. "I have not spoken like that in years. Not since I left Earth to travel to the Frontier."

"You came from Earth too? You are full of uncharted mysteries, Krout."

"Call me Kax. Where are you from?"

"I'm actually not from Earth; I was born on the Frontier in Angel City. When we tried to get Barker, it was fun having home field advantage."

"I'm sure not many Militia pilots were happy about that."

"The ones that met me weren't. But my family wasn't exactly ecstatic about me joining the IMC. Plenty of other kids in my neighborhood disappeared and we were all pretty sure they enlisted in the Militia. I think my parents were more sympathetic to them than to me joining up."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"You don't talk very much. . . What did you dream about?"

"Last night?"

She nodded. My gaze drifted down again to the hand I was holding. Relentless ambivalence pulled me to shreds. My love for Alice screeched at the thought of betrayal. It made my skin crawl back into itself until I was nothing but a black hole in space. Yet, with the same ferocity was my vitality. It grabbed for life and a new beginning to shed the heavy cloak of despair. Perhaps then I could find a purpose after this miserable war. I took a deep breath and told Jennina about the disaster at Corporate—and how I lost Alice.

A tiny tremor unlocked inside, like the snap release of a button. Telling her made it more real than ever before. Jennina telling me she was sorry and that Alice must have been a lovely woman made the death even more real. Alice's death wasn't something I could avoid any longer; as much as I had tried to stifle the pain and pass it away as something trivial. From naming robots to berating memories of friends, the time had finally come.

I am a forest fire in a blizzard. I am an indecisive man at the edge of a cliff. When I kissed Jennina, I could feel the snowflakes of winter upon my face. Cold on my lips, and then blistering heat. In that blaze of trees and ravaged titans was a dragon, full of fury and life. She pushed into me until I was flat on my back. I pulled her hair to expose her neck and kiss the delicate skin. She moaned and slid her hand up from the bottom of my shirt. I went back to kissing her lips and we pressed tighter and tighter together until I could not tell where the ice ended, and the fire began.

I drew my fingers through the cooling sweat on her back. I traced the reason she was nicknamed Dragon. On her skin was the largest tattoo I had ever seen. A dragon's back obscured most of her back in scales and ink. The wings curved up into her shoulders and arms. The dragon was scarred from bullet wounds and long slashes that were not manifested by the artist's tattoo gun. The healed bumps on her skin were real when my fingertips caressed over them.

"Your hands are cold," Jennina Kerrigan sighed as she tried to get her breath back. She did not cringe like a new or inexperienced lover. She had loved many times, I could tell. She knew how to claw at my back without making marks and knew how to squeeze her hips. I took off my fingertips from her back and laid my palm over her chest where the head of her tattoo dragon roared in eternal silence. The flames in its eyes were synonymous with the passion of Jennina. The dragon enwrapped her body with claws and wings and left me a smoldering pile of ash on a snowy mountainside.

Jennina rolled over and kissed me once more. It was a slow, deep kiss. When she said that we needed to get to know each other better since we would be fighting together, I wondered if she had done this type of introduction to everyone she fought beside. I didn't care.

"I don't tell anyone this," as she gazed into my eyes. "But I hate Sergeant Reynoso. You see, Blisk never communicates directly with the crows. I used to bring the orders from him to the crows, but now Nina Reynoso does it. She forfeited her rank as commander to be with Blisk, when it used to be me."

I had no idea what to say. I guess I never thought how secret plans could be passed around the IMC without Vice Admiral Spyglass knowing about it. It was only in personal quarters of commanders that they were not recorded. That allowed Blisk to do what he wished with allied combatants.

"I'm scared that would make you hate me. Everyone hates Blisk, so everyone hates those he has been with. But, I had to be honest with you."

"Well, you already go what you wanted," I said.

"I know, it was shitty of me."

"No, you are a woman in the IMC. I am just a winter soldier. We never know what comes tomorrow."

"Winter soldier? I guess that explains why your touch is so cold. But I liked warming you up." She kissed me, wrapped her firm legs into mine, and whispered, "And I think I loved it."

She must have known what a risk it was to say those words so close. Like holding a loaded gun to my frantic brain. But I couldn't believe that I let those words flow into me and scald the inside my chest. I kissed Jennina "Dragon" Kerrigan, again.

Prepare for Titanfall in: 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1

My Stryder titan decimated the sand and already bullets were hitting the shields. Reynoso wasn't kidding about a hot landing zone. I brought up the XO-16 Chaingun and held down the trigger. The bullets came at a slow rate first, but then sped up to an insane rate of fire. The barrel of the gun flailed around like a toddler tantrum but I still ran forward and sprayed the bullet hose all over the Militia position. Five titans charging up a hill either eliminated everyone on it, or sent them running for their lives. The Crows were the only pilots in this area in the first wave of this assault on Sandtrap. Spectres landed by the company size next to us and the comms were lighting up with ecstatic cheers from those IMC grunts who had been under siege in the refinery.

The Militia initially pulled back from the hail of bullets, rockets, and triple threat grenades. They assumed their 1st Militia Fleet held undisputed aerial dominance. Well, boo hoo.

We took the top of the sand dune in the center of the battlefield and spread out to form a firing zone perimeter. In a half circle we spread out to take on any Militia counter-attack that was imminent. The Militia lusted for this refinery as much as we needed it.

Jennina was on my right and I had the left flank. If any titans came out to oppose us, I was to sweep around and flank them. Until then, I was laying down fire to put the Militia back in their place. Jennina was in an Atlas Titan and fired bursts from her 40 mm cannon. Militia buildings and turrets crumbled under our relentless fire. As I reloaded my chaingun, it felt strange that a week and a half ago I was stepping onto a frozen planet. A sandstorm generated from our continuous fire danced out into the desert horizon.

Finally, the counter-attack we were waiting for shattered the sky. Nine Militia titans dropped from the sky just beyond the Militia buildings and sat in their shield domes.

"Just nine? These dumb Militia kids obviously can't do math." Blackbeard chuckled into the comm. This was going to be five IMC titans versus nine Militia titans. Normally, we would be accused of being ignorant of basic math principles. However, every IMC pilot knows they are worth two Militia savages. And that is being incredibly generous.

"Heads up crows, we got enemy air support coming in as well." Sergeant Reynoso warned us. An incoming beep blared in my cockpit and I dashed out of the way as a bomb from a fighter jet slammed next to me. The bomb sent up a tremendous plume of sand and gravel all over me and Jennina. The fighter screamed overhead and back into the night sky.

"And I thought it was just going to be another boring day," Samurai added.

"Sergeant, they just are putting fire and Dragon and me over here. This is probably where they are going to hit first." I readied my chaingun and waited for the first titan to emerge from the cover of the buildings.

"Okay, we are going to hold this hill. Samurai, take that Stryder around and make that flank maneuver count."

"Roger that, moving out."

I remembered how Harris called this dancing. I could feel my leg servos getting antsy. The first Militia titan, an Ogre, came around the corner. Sending in the armor first.

We answered big for big. Blackbeard and Reynoso trudged from the top of the sand dune in their Ogres.

"Dragon! Two Atlas' flanking on our Ogres."

"Got it, let's get there."

It is hard to recount the next few moments. Titan fights can sometimes be drawn out over a long period of time or sustain only a few seconds before fire and blood is spilled all over the place. Jennina and I barreled head first into the battle and I remember there being lots of bullets and rockets incoming. The Atlas titans that tried to flank our Ogres noticed us and tried to hold us back but Jennina caught a ton of ordinance while I dashed back and forth to avoid the fire. She sent back the vortex shield and it eradicated the shields of one Atlas. I launched a punch with my left hand and put a tremendous dent on the cockpit of the Atlas. Its buddy tried to punch me back but I dashed past and its metal fist only kissed air. I whirled around and started peppering the attacking Atlas with Chaingun fire. It tried to lock on with its 40mm cannon but it was taking too long to aim. Each shot zinged past my cockpit and hit the mountainside. Jennina finished the other Atlas and the pilot ejected.

"Shit! Two flanking Stryders right on top of me. I'm out of vortex." She said into the comm.

I ditched the Atlas to help out Jennina. It was firing into my posterior and the shields were taking a pounding but I still sprinted away to fight off the Stryders. Either Jennina planned to love me so that I would protect her more fiercely or I was just hell-bent on not losing another woman in my life. A rocket salvo from the shoulder of my titan made a direct hit and then I started to shoot the nearest Stryder until it was nothing but Swiss cheese. Jennina's Atlas took too much damage and an automatic override ejected her into the sky with an extra cloak on her body. I was dancing with the other Stryder and trying to mind the other Atlas taking pot shots at me with the 40 mm. A thump landed on my hull and Jennina called in a friendly on board.

"Get off and get to cover, Dragon. My shields are almost down and they won't protect you for long."

"Got it," she said and then I heard her hiss into the comm as she injected herself with a stim to race into cover.

That miserable runt of a friendly pilot has left your titan, boss.

I dodged a cluster missile and punched at the knee of the last Stryder.

"Sid, that's no way to talk about a lady."

Right boss, that miserable lady is clear of your titan.

The magazine on my chaingun emptied and the enemy Militia pilot promptly ejected. A large knock rattled my cockpit like a shark trying to eat through an aluminum foil cage.

Warning! Severe damage sustained.

Another 40 mm cannon shot landed home before I could dodge out of the way. My control panels sparked and the systems began to read critical.

Time to eject like the pansy you are, boss. Eject—Eject—Ej—

I reached down and yanked the lever between my legs and in the blink of an eye I rocketed into the night sky. My decimated Stryder tumbled into the sand. I activated my cloak and scanned the battlefield to find a good place to lay down suppressing fire. Reynoso's Ogre was still dealing truckloads of pain all around with an angry triple threat grenade launcher to any Militia titan foolish enough to mess with her and Samurai's Stryder was still streaking around the right flank and burying titans in explosions from his quad rocket.

I hit the sand and bypassed the rookie Militia pilot in his Atlas titan. I figured to let him celebrate probably the first time he doomed a titan. He had another thing coming though if he wanted to take on Sergeant Reynoso, the former CO of 40th IMC Squadron.

My cloak ran out of energy right as I was about to pass a squad of grunts. I unloaded the entirety of my rifle clip and then finished off the last one with a single shot from my Hammond Pistol. I didn't have time to admire all the bullet holes in the wall behind me where I had used my jumpkit. I hurried to where Jennina's position was indicated on my forearm map.

We linked up and moving from window to window we laid down fire on the advancing Militia. Bullets clanged and zipped by our heads. We had to toss a couple of grenade back out or just abandon the room altogether. Jennina was an expert shot with her Hemlock BF-R. Together, nothing that moved made it past the bottom of the sand dune. She even picked off a Militia pilot that was using their jumpkit to try and get the flank on us.

I was reloading my G2A4 Rifle when Sergeant Reynoso came onto the comm. "What's your status up top?"

With spent bullet casing all around my boots I glanced out the corner of the window and two Militia titans were pushing sand with their legs right towards us.

"The situation is getting hairy, ma'am. But we are holding out for now," Jennina said as she pressed her fingers to her ear.

"Get down here, now! Samurai is down and Blackbeard is wounded. We need to hold these tunnels and I am running low on ammunition. The IMC can take the surface with a second wave. I just can't get any Spectre support down here. They won't listen to a goddamn thing. Hurry your asses up. Hey—What the—!?"

(static)

Jennina looked up at me. "We gotta get down there right the hell now."

Before I stirred, I saw in the corner of my eye an IMC Spectre standing rod straight and its C.A.R. sitting idle in hand. Militia gunfire was shredding the room to pieces but that machine just stood there. It was disobeying all combat protocols. It was right behind Jennina.

"Jennina, move." I said and shouldered my rifle and was almost aiming right at her. Her eyes went wide but luckily she did move closer to the wall. I fired three shots into the head of the Spectre just as it was about to raise its sub-machine gun. As it died it pulled the trigger and sprayed bullets over the top of my head.

When the machine hit the floor, Jennina saw it was an IMC Spectre that I had just gunned down.

"What the hell are you doing, Kax?"

"Graves was right. There is something wrong with the machines. Have you noticed the Militia hasn't been attacking with any Spectres? They are practically not using them anymore."

"Look, I don't know what you are talking about but we got to get down to those tunnels."

"Fine, you see a Spectre, shoot it."

"Whatever, let's go."

Jennina led the way out the room and into the hall. Our boots echoed in the refinery and the sounds of battle chased us as we used our jumpkits to bypass a downward set of stairs. As we ran, the comm lit up with simultaneous screams and unbidden curse words. I was following Dragon when Blisk came on the comms, "Pilots report! What is going on down there? Repo—!"

I never heard the rest because someone had grabbed my arm from a dark room and slung me into the shadows. I tried to raise my rifle but the shadow knocked it out of my hands and slammed a fist into my comm on my ear. They knew exactly where that would be. I threw a wild punch with my right but the shadow easily ducked it and delivered a strong line of knuckles into my stomach. Before I could do anything, a knee bashed into the side of my leg and crippled me.

"You always weren't that good at hand-to-hand combat, love."

That voice—!

"Who the hell are you?" I shouted and tried to push the ghost right back into the underworld. She deflected my shove and got behind me. Her hands went around my head and I thought that this was it, the sound of my neck vertebrae snapping would be last thing I would hear. She pulled off my helmet and tugged me around to push her lips violently into mine. They were lush, familiar, and unmistakable.

I reached up and took her blonde hair. I held a ghost. Was I dreaming this too?

"It can't be . . ." I muttered as my eyes adjusted to the dark.

"It is, it's me, Kax. I'm Alice and I'm not dead."