Hey everyone, it's been a while. I apologize for the gap between this chapter and last. Things came up as they usually do and it's taken me some time to get back to writing (and editing). Not that I haven't been active per say, I've been working on a few more chapters but they still need to be worked on before they can be published. For now, I hope this will do. Enjoy!
"Unexpected Visitors"
Unknown System
CFRV Explorer II
2698, December 2nd
"Get that Titan strapped in now!" Ram ordered the Explorer's deck hands.
Behind him, Newg hurriedly strapped on his armor and gear. After the Sarge and the Revere's Captain had left the Revere, Fairwyn told them they had to leave the ship pronto. Gutock, Dom, Zuda, and him rounded up their gear and hopped into an awaiting Crow. They arrived just before their Ttians did.
Noughton casted a glance over at his Atlas, RX-8088. The refurbished Titan walked itself into one of the available Titan bays of the Explorer and waited for the clamps to seal. The Atlas' globe observed the clamps before entering standby mode.
Captain Sho'ko walked up to the Sarge, hands on her hips. Sarge looked at her sidelong, still keeping an eye on the workers. She waited for the sound of the cargo hold to die down before she spoke.
"I don't like you did back there."
Ram grunted. "If you didn't like it, why did you let me do it?"
Newg saw her eyes narrow. "I shouldn't have, but like you, my crew needs to earn a living."
"Ore mining and salvage not enough, huh?" Ram finally looked directly at her. "New contracts from better clients certainly help. Especially nowadays." He grinned.
The Explorer's Captain seem to shiver. "E-exactly."
"Don't look so frightened Sho'ko. Your friend's going first and we'll follow right after."
Her look of apprehension didn't disappear. The Sarge placed a hand on her arm and said something he couldn't hear. Newg finished strapping his armor on and placed his helmet on his head. For a second the sound of the cargo bay was dulled out as he helmet adjusted and synced his suit. When it read all clear, Newg collected his Hemlock and slapped a mag in.
"Sir, Private Noughton ready!" He announced.
"Que bueno!" Ramirez came over to him and thumped the locked heart emblem on his chest.
Sho'ko sensing the conversation with the Sargent was over returned to the bridge. Dom came forward next still pulling a belt into the feed of her Spitfire LMG. Next by Guttock and his G2A4 rifle slung across his back. Ram went up to each one inspecting them, his pride growing until Zuda stumbled forward adjusting his suit's neck. Ram frowned for a half second and went on wordlessly. The shame from the Revere incident still fresh.
"Mejores," Ram said, "we will soon be jumping into an unknown system possibly under IMC control. We've come a long way since Overlook and we still have a long way to go. So, let's do this and get back in one piece. Entendo?
"Sir, yes, sir!" They responded.
"Alright, saddle up."
The ready Pilots jogged over to their Titans. Noughton's Titan, "ReX" offered her hand for him to climb on to. Newg hopped up and let his Titan bring him up to the cockpit. He grabbed onto the sides and turned around to sit down. The doors closed and Newg watched the screens flicker to life. Even if nothing happened, just being inside Rex was enough to finally make him feel like a full fledged Pilot.
"Welcome back, Pilot." The default Betty OS chimed.
"Thanks Rex." Noughton replied automatically.
Noughton gripped the controls getting a feel for it. Rex was still clamped in and that wasn't about to change anytime soon, so it was hurry and wait. Newg checked the readouts like he had several times in a Hammond training pod. The comm-link clicked and then began to broadcast the ship's general channel to his helmet.
"This is Nevar Chandaress, your pilot for this leg. We'll be taking a stroll into uncharted Frontier. For those of you new aboard, this pilot has one rule – don't touch my flight stick. Other than that we should get along fine. Happy trails!" Nevar cut the link.
The Mejores chuckled in their seats. Nevar's sense of humor dulling the edge of their nervous excitement. Newg took in a deep breath then sighed. His fingers flexed over the levers then gripped them again.
"Aubrey," a man's voice came over the link, "status is green, ready for jump."
"Great, let's make Concord a thing of the past." Aubrey clapped her hands.
"Aye aye," Nevar said enthusiastically, "everyone hold on to something. We're jumping in ten, nine, eight..."
Zuda whooped and Dom mumbled something about time as the world slowly turned to white as the Jump drives fired up. Newg blinked and it was all over. The ship chatter reported back all good and then the scientists on board began calling out features and colors.
... a yellow star, there could be life here!
I count, two no three planets. Wow, that one is so green!
Newg relaxed back into his seat. Looks like it was going to be another boring drop like Overlook. More comm chatter indicated that the Revere and Huntsmen had arrived. No sign of the IMC yet or the mysterious signal they were looking for. Noughton threw his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. Looks like they were babysitting some scientists...
"What's that?" Someone asked.
"Donde?" Ram ordered.
Newg leaned forward his hands at the controls. The Sarge's voice tense and alert. Seconds passed and no one said anything over the comms. They seemed to stretch on and on. Finally Sho'ko said something.
"It was too fast to be natural, it couldn't be..."
"Yeah," Sarge answered.
"But they couldn't actually be here... oh god..." The Explorer's Captain shuddered.
"Shit," Zuda commented.
No one told him to shut up. Noughton took that as a bad sign. They must all be worried too that the IMC were here. Suddenly being in his Titan felt too tight. His breaths started coming quicker. Were they going to die in the middle of space? He didn't want his last moments of life being trapped inside a floating Titan millions of kilometers from home. Maybe he should open the hatch and catch some fresh air that might help.
"Don't." Gutock's voice told him.
"Huh!?" Noughton started, his voice surprisingly raspy.
"Don't. Open. The hatch, Noughton."
"I..." Newg began to protest then stopped.
"It's scary but if the ship breaks right now, you'll be pulled into space. Best to stay inside." The grim advice chilled Noughton.
"O-okay, sure." Noughton slowly sunk back into his seat.
Suddenly someone yelled contacts over the comms. Newg's breath caught in his throat. The comm-channel burst into competing voices all trying to yell over each other. Noughton couldn't follow any of it, it was too hectic.
He looked at the other's comm-lines to see if they were talking but they were quiet. This was insane they were about to die. Noughton desperately wanted to see what was happening out there. What were the Huntsmen and Revere doing out there? Was it one ship or a whole fleet?
"Jump!" Ram's voice said clearly.
"Are you insane!?" Sho'ko fired back.
"That planet, second from the sun. It's in the golden zone, it should be okay!"
"Okay!?" The Captain yelled. "I don't have the time to explain to you how shoddy that hypothesis is! There could be any number of bad things that could happen to us on that planet, let alone jumping!"
"It's that or die here!" Ram yelled back. "Helm plot it!"
"No! Nevar don't! You're insane Sargent!"
"I'm saving our lives!"
"Captain...?" Dom asked worried.
A scuffle could be heard over the comms followed by Nevar grunting. Then a deep rumbling followed by the sound of ear splitting screeching echoed throughout the ship. The engines hadn't finished refueling at all from the last jump. A brick ship like this still needed at least an hour or so to have any real fuel levels. Not to mention the heat sync hadn't finished cooling the engines. Panicked, Noughton tried to remember where they were in regards to the engines...
The next few seconds were a blur.
The ship swerved. The world went white. Noughton remembered falling. Suddenly, he woke up in his Titan. He was surrounded by thick trees that reached towards the sky. A rising feeling pushed up the contents of his stomach and Newg vomited all over his boots.
After coughing and spitting, Newg wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Rex, where are we?"
"Current position – unknown."
"Are we okay?"
"Chassis is intact. Superficial damage only."
"Great," He said as he inspected the cockpit for any signs of damage, "how long was I out?"
"Six minutes and twenty-seven seconds."
Noughton brought up the environmental data outside his Titan and was relieved the air was breathable with only a marginally higher oxygen level than average golden worlds on the Frontier. He switched on his Titan's environmental data recorder then synced the data with his wrist-comm so that he could have a map going for the planet.
Next, he checked his team's comm-channel for any signs that his team had made it. All but the Sarge's seemed active. Noughton hoped he'd made it through the crash, if there was a crash. Somehow him and Rex had made it here somehow.
"Rex, playback record starting from when the Explorer jumped."
"Understood. Displaying playback." The Titan's screen began running a playback of it's main camera.
Noughton watched as the docking bay shook violently as the Explorer ripped itself apart. The few deck hands still in the bay were pulled out as cargo followed them. A scream could be heard over the audio and Noughton recognized it as his own. Ram's voice ordered the clamps released as the team dropped into emergency Titanfall.
"Pause." Noughton said and looked at the Titan dropping in front of him. It had come from the right, so that must've been Dom's. "Play."
He watched Dom's Titan drop parallel to his own then shift away farther towards the planet's pole. So... north? He wasn't sure. Then half of the Explorer came into view and Dom's Titan was trying to fall in the same direction. For a brief second, Guttock's Titan appeared then disappeared a couple times. As Rex slowly fell towards the ground, Noughton lost sight of his team. He hadn't seen Zuda's Titan at all. Did he drop? Was he on the other side of the ship? Noughton ordered Rex to replay the playback a couple more times before he let it finish out with them smashing into the ground.
"Rex, are any of the team's transponders on?"
"Negative. Approximately thirty seconds after the crash all team emergency transponders were switched off." His Titan answered.
"Switched off? Not destroyed?"
"Affirmative. Titan data shared between units indicated that all units survived the crash."
"Why did they switch them off?"
In response, RX-8088 displayed a message on screen from the Sarge. All Mejores cut your transponders ASAP. IMC everywhere. Cold fear shot down Noughton's spine. His transponder had been on for nearly 9 minutes...
"Rex kill our transponder now!"
"Emergency transponder is now off."
They had to move now, staying here any longer was too dangerous. Taking control of his Titan, Newg moved Rex quickly at first then slower the farther from the site they got. Crashing all alone on an alien planet was bad enough, on one crawling with IMC? Things got quite seriously fucked real quick.
His Atlas was making good time over the flat swampy terrain but with all the tall trees around there was very little in the way of cover. Noughton kept an eye on his radar for any red blips. Overhead, he could make out the a faint steady droning noise. Similar to a ship's engine. From down here there was no way to tell which side it was on. Part of him wanted to check, the other part of him wanted to hide.
He got his answer shortly after. A drop pod smashed into the swamp about 20 meters in front of him. The silver pod's doors opened and four Spectres deployed. Noughton watched as they assumed firing positions behind two trees and opened up on him.
"Fuck," he muttered and returned fire with Rex's XO.
The thick tree's bark sprayed dust and shrapnel as he tried to pick off the Spectres. He scored a few hits on one but the other three retreated behind cover. Not too long after that, more pods crashed around him. One squad of Spectres emerged wielding anti-Titan weapons.
His radar showed them had him penned in. Noughton spun Rex around facing the new Spectre threat and cut down two of the AT units. Seeing an rocket coming for him, Noughton maneuvered behind a tree, watching the trunk absorb the impact of the blast. The blast was followed up by the ker-chunk of a mag launcher. The magnetic bombs arcing towards his Titan's metal chassis. They too hit the tree and whatever support it had left was gone. Slowly, the thick tree crashed into the swamp below.
"Aw shit!" Newg grunted firing two short bursts down range.
Two more pods crashed by his position. One was close enough that he drove Rex's fist inside crushing the Spectres. The small arms fire picked up, rattling Rex's shields. It wasn't too strong yet but Noughton had to make sure they couldn't get a fix on him.
Another Spectre emerged from the other drop pod and stuck him with a arc grenade. The EMP disabling Rex's left arm, making it harder to stabilize his XO-16. Newg had the urge to call out to his team in the blind but he tried to hold back on that impulse. He grimly accepted that their odds of survival went up the longer they weren't found.
Rex kept pushing away from the AO trying to outdistance his pursuers. The ship above the canopy must still have a fix on him. Newg was at every disadvantage he could think of. After a few more yards, he paused swung the XO-16 atop Rex's shoulder and fired a quick three round burst to minimize recoil and keep the Spectre's heads down.
The damn machines didn't know fear and kept doggedly pursuing him. Noughton pushed ahead some more, easily traversing a fallen log with Rex's stride. He turned, crouched down and laid his Titan rifle against the log, jamming it against Rex's shoulder. Newg fired short bursts then turned the Titan to swing the gun towards the next target. The movement was too clunky and difficult on the angled log to fire straight. After about four tries, Noughton swapped to the Titan's ordnance and fired a salvo into the cluster of Spectres.
At least four of the mechanized infantry went down but nearly as soon as the rockets hit, a series of pops came from somewhere inside the swampy forest. Moments later, the sound of screaming incoming rockets sounded overhead.
"Shiiit!" Newg quickly pulled from cover as a series of quad rockets kicked up mud and water in front of his position.
As he ran, Rex's left arm recuperated and gripped the Titan rifle again. Newg made short zig-zags around trees hoping to avoid getting hit as the Titan barrage opened up on him. In front of him the jungle foilage grew thicker. Noughton plunged forward, hoping to use the foilage to break line of sight with the Spectres. Instead, the foilage was a thick tangle atop a steep river bank. Rex nearly fell face forward into the water.
He quickly recovered and dropped into the deep river. The other side was just as steep and would take time to traverse. That reduced his options to up stream or down stream. Down stream felt naturally like going away from the IMC and somehow that instinct felt wrong to him. Instead, Noughton charged upstream feeling that going up hill might give him a terrain advantage over the enemies coming from the swamp forrest.
"Be a really fucking shitty place to die!" He angrily told himself.
Noughton had gone only a hundred yards up stream when IMC search drones began tracing over the riverbed. The drones were unarmed but instead were equipped with speakers broadcasting a stuffy human voice over and over again.
"All Militia and Militia sympathizers, this is Colonel Eckhart of the IMC's Planetary Security Division – Athena. You are intruders on hollowed ground. Under His vision, you cannot be allowed to leave."
His vision? Noughton rolled his eyes. Who? Hammond's? Isn't that guy a head in a jar or something?
The stuffy voice continued. "We can only promise a quick and painless death to those who surrender. Those who resist will find their end – slower. I can only hope that the traitorous Graves will join you as well when we sweep over the Frontier, cleansing it of your misbegotten ideals!"
The phrasing jolted Noughton for a moment. What the hell was this guy talking about? Who ever this guy was, he was nuts.
Gunfire erupted behind him and the drones' message ceased. Newg spun Rex's camera around hoping to see the Sarge, but instead he saw more Spectres coming from the river bank. Doing a double take, he saw that the Spectres were IMC silver and still very intent on shooting him as well. There wasn't anytime to think about why the IMC were shooting their own search drones but the image stuck with him.
Newg pushed Rex around a bend in the river and found a huge drain pipe. The structure was large enough for his Titan to fit in. Better yet, the incoming bombs might not hit him if he was under a mountain. Rex's lights automatically flared up illuminating the deep blackness. The tunnel seemed to go on forever.
He turned back around to see the pursuing Spectres setting up yet another firing line. Yet behind them emerging from the forest was a Titan. A Stryder perhaps? Yet it's upper chassis was strange. From the back of it emerged an elongated dish about 3 meters long. It was just a brief glimpse before the bright blue eye of the Titan turned in his direction. On it's face, it bore a warped and melted version of the IMC ram horns.
Noughton turned back into the tunnel. His Titan's radar picking up multiple Spectre-sized contacts. Small arms fire chipped away at his shield but it wasn't steady enough to do major damage. Just a reminder that they were still there.
"Come on just a little further silverbacks," Noughton mumbled.
The Spectres continued their chase after him. Once they were far enough inside, Newg could take them all out with a good burst of his XO. Inside the tunnel they'd have no cover giving him the advantage. A few seconds later, Newg sprung his attack.
He twisted Rex around and just as his gun faced them he opened up. The tracer rounds went high over their heads at first but Newg corrected and cut them down. Sparks and electronics rattled around the tunnel. After a few seconds, he released the trigger. It wasn't because they were dead, it was because the rest of them had stopped.
The entrance of the tunnel was filling up with the Spectres' blue lights. What looked to be three rows of them, filling in an almost semi-crescent inside the tunnel. Blocking out the light behind them was the Stryder-like Titan. It slowly knelt down, it's cameras examining the sides of the tunnel. As it got up again, the Spectres suddenly pushed forward on some unseen command.
Noughton returned fire but his XO's drum ran dry. Rex's OS notified him of multiple lock-on signatures. Noughton tried to reload the drum quickly as bursts of smoke plumed from the tunnel entrance. Archers!
Just in time he was able to put up his vortex shield. Noughton counted the eight rockets in the Vortex before he sent them back towards the Spectres. The Stryder at the main entrance put up a particle wall. The wall flashed from blue to yellow from the force of the impact. In return, the IMC Stryder withdrew the Quadrocket from it's back and fired into the tunnel's ceiling. The surviving Spectres were crushed under the combination of falling cement and rock.
When the dust had settled, broken and damaged Spectres crawled along the floor of the tunnel. Some had lost been twisted and damaged, broken by the collapsing tunnel. One or two still were active and Newg had to slug a few rounds into their bodies deactivating them.
Afterwards, the tunnel was incredibly still. The only sound coming from the light trickle of the water beneath his Titan's feet was. Facing the entrance, it was clear there was no way he could get through. Trapped, separated from his squad, and very alone. Noughton had no other option but to go deeper into the tunnel. Hopefully, he could find another way out...
