"Noble Defenders"
Aboard one of the newly designed dropships, the 'Widow', Alan sat patiently inside his Titan awaiting to be transported to the I.M.S Thermopylae. The trip itself was peaceful, but over the comm channels, over the battle sites still fresh with wrecked Titans and fallen bodies, the war had officially come to Typhon.
Alan was anxious, continuously unloading and reloading his weapons, making count of his additional equipment which was now missing one Firestar, and checking on Evi's systems even if he couldn't fix anything at the moment, nor could he anyways as he wasn't sure how. There had been no further contact from the Miss Fortune, no orders from higher command nor the Apex Predators, and as Alan's transport slowly flew along the outskirts of the airbase being hit by the Militia, he could see that the terrorists were now leaving empty handed.
The Widow tried to stay out of sight, although the Militia carriers were preoccupied with assaulting the I.M.C. installation, they couldn't be too careful. "Stand by, Pilot, we're ten minutes out from the Thermopylae. AO might be hot when we get there; I'm being told even the ships at drydock are being forced into action." The Widow's pilot told its passenger.
Without warning, the thick protective doors had a hole blown right, clean, through them.
"Taking fire, taking fire, this is Voodoo 3-7, we've been hit!" The ship's pilot said as they could feel another shot hit the Widow's aft, "Rear, starboard stabilizer's gone red! Mayday, mayday, may-" The pilot was cut off as the third shot rang out.
"Shit, we've gotta' bail!" Alan yelled. Without anyone to get the doors open, the Pilot had to force it open himself. Clenching his Evi's fist, he began hammering away at the heavy doors as the Widow's interior flashed red and alarms went off. The top half of the doors came off its hinges, but just as Alan started on kicking down the bottom half, the thick, green canopy of the treetops rushed into view and seconds later the Widow hit the ground and the Pilot's vision went black.
- ( o ) -
"We've got multiple contacts, three Vanguards, four no- five, six- It's the whole damn S.R.S.!" A panickedPilot said as he watched the Militia-made Titans drop down not far outside the perimeter walls. The heavy turrets on top of the walls laid down suppressing fire on the Vanguards but it did little more than inconvenience them as each of the Titans hid behind the very barriers meant to funnel them into a kill zone.
"'Paladin 6', fall back behind the entrance doors, raise hell upon anyone who gets passed us." A man sitting in a lightly decorated Ronin ordered a nearby Legion.
"Will do, Dom." The Legion confirmed.
"'4', '5', be his Vanguard, provide supporting fire when possible." The Pilot continued, "Attention all units, if you're not a 'Frontline-Chassis' stick to the rear, everyone else, up to the front!"
"Where's our fire support, Captain?" Another Pilot asked the man taking command.
"It will come, we just have to hold the line for the Draconis!"
"Incoming!"
"Everyone, brace!" Dominic shouted as the sheer volume of missiles blanketed the sky before turning down on them. The Ronin found cover wherever he could, but that would not dissuade the explosives from peppering the area with fire and explosions.
When the dust and debris settled, the Pilot rose to his feet, the chunks of rubble sliding off his Titan's chassis as he looked around to take in the state of affairs. The missiles outright wiped out a few unlucky Pilots and absolutely demolishing the walls and defensive turrets leaving only them the only ones standing in the way of a Militia victory.
"Christ, we can't bloody do this!"
"It just had to be Vanguards…"
"Everyone, pull yourselves together! You are free to engage, make them struggle for every inch of dirt! Pilots, you will not roll over and cower, if these outlaws thirst for blood then you will drown them in their own!" The man exclaimed. "All units Full! Force! Forward!"
He didn't have any good ranged weapons on hand, so he and a handful of others stayed back and could do nothing to help their comrades. As the number of allies started to shrink, the Pilot could hear their cries, curses, and yells clearer than before, there was no denying the Militia a crushing victory. As the battle ahead of them raged, a Tone rested a hand on the smaller Ronin's shoulder, "Captain, they're almost on top of us." The other man told Dominic in a calm voice.
"Thank you, Nate. Gentlemen," He began before lightening the mood, "And ladies, Luna, Jasmine, I'm not forgetting about you two. We stand here today, we die here today, but we die buying time for the rest of humanity to see an end to this war."
"I count thirty seconds." Jasmine said from her Northstar.
"Paladins, what is our goal?" He yelled.
"Not for money, not for fame, for honor!" The team said in unison.
"it has certainly been an honor fighting with the rest of you."
Despite his bold battle cry, one by one the I.M.C. Titans were being cut down with relative ease. Each Pilot fought valiantly, but for one reason or another, the Militia had the upper hand and worst of all, they were winning. "They've breached the walls, repeat, they've breached-"
It was time.
A damaged Vanguard came into sight, and the Ronin was quick to act, swiftly dashing forward and swinging his sword with one wide slash that knocked the Vanguard's chaingun out of its hands. The second swing swiped at the Militia Titan's legs and finally the killing blow was to stab the Vanguard through its chassis, killing the Militia Pilot inside.
"Watch it, hostiles on the left flank! Sorry, that's going to be all from me, farewell Pala-" Said Nate who was interrupted by static. The Ronin Titan unloaded his Leadwall into the face of another Vanguard, but the weapon was swatted out of his hands. The Vanguard he was facing tore off his Titan's canopy, but with the aid of an arc wave from Luna, and a mighty kick from him, he managed to escape.
"Consider it thanks and payback for last time, Dom." The woman said as her own Titan was riddled with gunfire before falling to its back. Dominic grabbed the Titan and returned the favor by tearing off the Vanguard's own canopy, he then grabbed his Hammond sidearm and shot the Pilot inside, but after he killed her, he looked around to see more Militia keep pouring in. They just kept coming.
"They're getting too close for my range! Multiple missile locks on me. Oh shi-" Jasmineexclaimed as a hail of missiles obliterated her Titan in the sky, its remains freefalling to the ground below.
The Ronin was all that was left outside. He grabbed his sword and slashed at an approaching Vanguard. Another of the Militia Titans came up behind him and kicked the back of his leg, forcing him to a knee, but Dominic used his phase shift to bring himself up and when he reemerged he thrusted the sword into the Vanguard's back before delivering an arc-wave to the first Vanguard, but he couldn't keep up the assault. A third Vanguard grabbed his right arm and tore it off and after that, the Ronin with a mangled leg kept himself up by using the sword as a crutch. He looked up and could see two Vanguards take aim at his exposed interior, behind him, he could hear the roar of a Predator Cannon, but he knew it was too late. However, underneath his battered helmet he welcomed death with a smile and open arms. "Too bad." He thought, as his world began to fade when the Vanguard's open fired, just before he hit the ground, the man apologized to an absent Alan whom he told he would pass on a few tricks and skills of his, but apparently fate had other plans. It was such a shame; he was looking forward to another sparing match too.
- ( o ) -
"Warning, in-internal damage detected. Warning, internal damage detected. Pilot not responding, assuming control. P-Pil- Alan, outnumb-numbered two to one." Alan could hear Evi say. He could feel the light stomping of a pair of Titans around him. The Pilot struggled to open his eyes, but he could see nothing but the dark interior of the crashed Widow, where its only source of light were the holes made in the hull's side. The ship creaked as he could hear the steps of a Titan stand upon the ship. His head hurt like hell, he could feel a trickle of blood running down his face, and his body ached from the impact of the crash. He could hear the doors above him being grabbed and when a ray of light shined on him, his eyes shot open and Evi leaped into the air using her hover jets. Once the Pilot saw that he was in the air and that there was a Ronin and a Northstar below him, he took manual control of his Titan. Painted in Militia colors of green and orange, the two new Stryders fell back several meters and waited for Alan to land.
"Would you look at that, he still lives." One of them said, with a familiar, feminine voice, "Let's get this over with and kill him now."
"Hold it sis, last time he was willing to use a human shield to block my shots. He'll do the same to you." The other said.
"I don't have time for this, out of my way!" Alan demanded, grabbing his quad-rocket launcher.
"Ah. A whole team was made and dedicated to killing you, Stassov, you've made plenty of enemies." The first woman said.
"And after our first loss, it's clear that one Pilot isn't enough to bring you down." Finished the second.
There was a tense silence in the air, but this time, it would be Alan who was the one to act first, and he had to pick his target carefully. If training and simulations taught him anything it would be that both these Stryder variants had little defensive capabilities, so, he would need to take advantage of that fact. "Pilot, you are in little condition to fight." Evi told her Pilot.
"No, I need to do this myself." He said. Truth was, he was almost certain that Evi would not be capable of fighting these two on her own, had it been only one, then perhaps she could do it.
Alan locked on to the Northstar and fired a string of five missiles, all of which managed to hit their target before the sniper could get into the air. Not dismissing the Ronin who phased away, Alan popped his electric smoke preemptively before continuing to fire on the Northstar that charged its railgun and shot at him, but the I.M.C. Pilot caught it with his vortex shield. "Enemy Titan at our six," Evi alerted her user, allowing the Pilot to spin around and fire the caught projectile right at the Ronin. Unfortunately, that exposed his back to a cluster missile and a weak shot from the Northstar's railgun. "H-Hull integrity at- 85%- 35%. Be a-aware, Pilot." Evi noted. Alan ignored the first number and kept the second in mind as he dashed out of range of the cluster missile. The Ronin returned for a slash but narrowly missed its swipe as Alan turned and fired a set of four missiles from his launcher at the Northstar but it missed. Unable to turn his weapon in time, Alan based the Ronin with the end of his weapon before unloading another set of four missiles at the Ronin.
Meanwhile, the Northstar closed the distance and launched a pair of circular discs at either side of Alan. He was curious at first, acting out on the drilled instinct in him to try and avoid them but when he tried to dash away, magnetic clamps clung to him and held him in place. "Arc wave incoming." Evi reported as the electric wave hit him and blurred his vision. Next, the shotgun-like Leadwall fired into his chest. The first shot hit, but the rest were swiftly caught by the vortex shield and shot back at the Ronin. Behind him, he could hear the Northstar hover and charge its weapon, but Alan timed his movements just right and when he heard the Militia Titan's weapon hit max charge, he too hovered into the air as it shot and took off the Ronin's arm.
"Kuya!" The Northstar's Pilot yelled as Alan grabbed the Titan by the arms. As they fell Alan made sure he was on top of the Northstar and crushed its legs when they hit the ground. He started pulling on its arms when the hatch blew open, "Need to eject!" She yelled as she flew past Alan's face. Not stopping for another second, he grabbed the fallen Northstar's rail gun with his left hand, spun around and smashed it against the incoming Ronin.
"Pilot, communications are clearing up." Evi said as she started receiving the transmissions.
"-tia just broke through second defensive line! They're going for the Draconis!" Alan heard.
"We better get over there quick!" Alan said as he began his sprint in the direction of the airbase. In a flash of light, the disarmed Ronin skid to a halt in front of Alan.
"You will not get in the way this time!" The Ronin's Pilot proclaimed.
"I do not have time for this!" Alan growled, grabbing the Ronin by its side and shoving her into a tree where she slid down and could barely get up. "Keep out of my way, your sickening insurgent group already committed the greatest atrocity by destroying Demeter and murdering millions of innocents, you shall not do so again!" Alan yelled as he continued on his way. That's when the bad memories started surfacing again, he was a little disappointed in himself that he wasn't 'recovered' from them, but there was nothing he hated more than the Militia's 'righteous cause'. They'll definitely rewrite history and tell the Frontier that they were the heroes, but Alan would never let go of the fact that they stood on a mountain of bodies and dared to call it the moral high ground. Alan broadcasted on all nearby I.M.C. channels, "This is Alan Stassov of the I.M.S. Miss Fortune to Draconis, I am enroute as reinforcements, E.T.A. ten minutes at best."
A.N.: -
As always, enjoy!
~Firetoast312
