Prologue: One Frontier destroyed, a new one opens
2732, Harmony
This was his first visit to Harmony, and it will certainly be his last.
"Pilots, your objectives are to lay siege on the Frontier Militia's headquarters and cripple the Militia forces. Leave no enemies standing. General Marder out." From the radio, the ARES division commander briefed the IMC troops abroad the Remnant Fleet. This was a joint mission between the IMC's Remnant Fleet and the ARES division, where they will go hand in hand cripple the homeland of the Frontier Militia and its military resources, before destroying the planet with a newly built Fold Weapon.
Inside the Remnant Fleet's hanger bay, along with the other Pilots and MRVNs, James Eystein prepared for the upcoming battle against the enemy. With his Atlas Titan ME-5931 systems up and running, he entered his titan and piloted her into a drop pod and prepare for Titanfall onto Harmony. Being an IMC combat pilot for nine years, he knows what he had signed up for, putting his life on the line combating against the Militia to maintain peace and order in the Core systems and the Frontier. But this time it's different: not only does he and his comrades will carry out a war of attrition on the Militia Headquarters, but also aiding the IMC to destroy Harmony.
"Damn, when will this end?" James lamented, while chatting with his comrades.
"What's that? This operation?" through the coms, another Pilot asked.
"All of it… Decades of war, and us IMC still haven't put the Militia to where it belongs, decades too long." James sighed.
"Attention, ETA to drop zone is within 10 minutes, all Pilots prepare for Titanfall." As Commander Spyglass alerted the IMC troops, James and other tens of Pilots closed their cockpits, preparing for the impending battle of Harmony.
"No time for second thoughts. Let's concentrate on our objective and give the Militia hell." the other Pilot answered, he then closed the cockpit of his Tone Titan, waiting for the drop.
"Yeah, about that, maybe even die on Harmony, unless we escape in time before ARES blasts us with the Fold Weapon." James responded sarcastically, aware that the chances of survival is slim at best for this operation.
10 minutes later, the Remnant Fleet deployed the IMC battalion on the outskirts of the Militia HQ. Following the IMC commander's lead, James and the Pilots begin to advance forward and breakthrough, eliminating the oppression. The twilight sky of Harmony was bombarded with IMC and Militia airships battling against one another, filling the sky with chaos and destruction. And the battlefield? Complete hell. The once green plains are replaced with ashes and fire, hundreds of bodies, both organic and robotic, IMC and Militia infantry alike scattered across the battlefield. Notwithstanding the deaths and destruction, the two sides continued their violence on one another to the death, both for the sake of victory, for their people, for stay alive…
"Enemy Titan down." ME-5931 informed her Pilot, after ripping out an emery simulacrum from its Legion and crushing it to bits, then knocked the Titan away, before roaming the warzone to help out their comrades in trouble. The Pilot breathed heavily as he scanned, the threat of death is imminent, ruined Titans, goblins and other vehicles paved the battlefield filed with fire and smoke. the unfortunate IMC troops, either get crushed by Titans, burned by enemy Scorches… "Shit… Shit…" James mumbled to himself, while trying to maintain his cool as combat tensions grow high. Shifted his attention to a small group of IMC grunts, fleeing from a Militia Titan as it stepped on its victims, he piloted ME-5931 and shot a laser towards the enemy's cockpit. Knocked back and in response, the Militia Titan fired volleys of Quad rockets against ME-5931, which were caught by the IMC Titan's energized shield and reflect back towards itself. Saw the enemy staggered, ME-5931 towards the enemy Titan with a quick maneuver, to whom the Militia Titan tried to resist by an attempt to throw a punch against ME-5931, which, unfortunately, was intercepted by ME-5931's hand, she then disarmed its limb off with a laser shot, thrashed it and tore open the hatch, revealing the Pilot inside, who screamed for his imminent death. James then shoved the splitter rifle into the cockpit and fired, terminating the enemy.
"Thanks Pilot, we were almost meat paste if you didn't show up." Saved by James, the squad of seven grunts thanked him, before continuing their way to breach the perimeter with Archer launchers, while aiding the nearby Allied Titans to fight against the army of Militia Grunts, automated infantries, Reapers, and Titans, for the IMC's victory.
"Multiple Titanfall signals detected; I recommend you group up with friendly Titans to increase survival." Told ME-5931's AI to James's helmet. With that, James hurried his way up towards the base, prepared to fight to the death with his comrades, while laying waste to the ground infantry with the splitter rifle.
As James piloted ME-5931 towards the Militia base, he was met with the sight of a Vanguard-class Titan, the Militia's own production of war machines, defending its homeland at all costs, terminating an IMC Northstar with his Broadsword. An Ion Titan tried to ambush him from behind with a laser shot, yet the Vanguard narrowly dodged the shot and made haste to close the gap between his ambusher. No sooner than the Vanguard grappled the Ion and back thrown it to the ground than unleashed a barrage of missiles from his shoulder-mounted missile turrets, destroying the Ion and its Pilot. Then, it set its sight on ME-5931. James evaluated his foe. It's apparent that the enemy he is facing is from the SRS, given the orange Prowler insignia on its chest. Serial number EM-0893. Given the advanced design of the Militia homegrown war machine, James knew this would be a hard battle to win against, but he wouldn't go down without a fight, not even when this planet is at the brink of collapse… If he's lucky enough.
"Dodge this." Instinctively, James activated ME-5931's laser core at EM-0893, firing a concentrated beam of laser at the chassis. Realizing the danger, the Vanguard absorbed the energy with a Vortex Shield, before phasing out of space, avoided James' offense, then reappearing from behind and emptied its Leadwall shotgun towards the IMC Titan's back, following-up by sweeping ME-5931's leg, unbalancing her, then attempt to stab her using the electrified Broadsword. In retaliation, James' Titan caught the sharp edge of the giant sword, directing it towards the ground, then fired the Splitter Rifle against the Militia Titan, to whom it evaded by hovering away by meters away.
"Structural integrity at 50 percent." ME-5931 reported. "Shit…" the IMC Pilot cursed under his breath. Just as he looked up the sky, and see numerous IMC dropships jumped to Harmony's atmosphere, and receiving new mission parameters from Marder.
"The Fold Weapon will commence firing in 2 minutes, we'll send evac ships to your location." Yet, just as a shed of hope glimmers, the Remnant Fleet's Commander objected.
"Negative, firing of the Fold Weapon will result in irreversible catastrophic losses to Remnant Fleet's resources and further IMC casualties. Executing commander override, drop ship evacuation, cancelled." Spyglass split out the harshest words towards the battalion. "What do you think you are doing, Spyglass!?" from the coms, James could hear his commander berating the artificial intelligence, while it continues to give the command. "All capital ships, autopilot mode engaged, forcing jump ships to minimum safety distance..."
"God damn it!", realized himself and his comrades being abandoned by their higher ups, James angrily smashed his hand on the cockpit, then he gazed at Harmony's sky, watching the Remnant Fleet and IMC jumpships left Harmony's atmosphere… but what's done is done. Realized himself and the IMC troops are being abandoned, he breathed heavily in denial, knowing there's no escape to this battle.
With his fate decided, James decided to fight on for one last battle, knowing death is inevitable. He focused his attention on the enemy Vanguard, whom, like him, aware about the impossibility of escaping Harmony, as Militia fleets slowly jumped out of the atmosphere also. At least he would do it by his own way, to die with honor. He then piloted his Titan to fire at EM-0893 with everything at his disposal, to which the Vanguard Titan used its broadsword to block the projectiles as it closes the distance between the IMC Titan. Out of options, ME-5931 then resorted to melee combat, narrowly dodging a horizontal slash from EM-0893's Broadsword. Yet the Vanguard Titan dashed forward one more time and performed an oblique slash on the cockpit, stumbling the vulnerable IMC Titan.
"Structural integrity at 35 percent." No sooner ME-5931 warned James than EM-0983 tried to thrust the broadsword towards James, trying to end his life. Panicked, James struggled to hold back the sword with EM-5931's hand…
While struggling, From the cockpit, James looked at Harmony's sky, seeing an anomaly of white and blue streaks of lightning, particles of rocks levitated as his visor glitched with static. The Pilot inside EM-0938 also sensed this irregularity and looked up the sky, as a black sphere formed right above them… The sphere was so apparent that both the IMC and the Militia knew what awaits them from the Fold Weapon…
Realizing there's no escape, the two Titans gave up fighting, andgazed at the black hole, while sensing strong seismic pulses emitting from the ground. In an instant, the two chassis levitated up at an accelerated rate as if they were being sucked in by the anomaly outside of Harmony's atmosphere, as large chunks of the planet's crust began to break, revealing its magma and core… Harmony is destroyed.
"Warning, entering vacuum space…" ME-5931 spoke to James with a distorted voice, before strong static interference got ahold of her systems and shutting down, severing the titan link between herself and James. Felt his breathing become harder, as oxygen levels dwindle rapidly the closer, he left the remnants of Harmony. James sat on his cockpit alone, as he felt being hit by thousands of debris, physically and mentally. James closed his eyes, thinking about his life, while slowly waited for the inevitable…
Of all his life, he expects himself to die in the line of duty, but not like this, being abandoned by the IMC, dying all alone, with no one but his Titan to accompany him…
2077, Earth
After what it seems to be minutes of silence and darkness, the IMC Pilot opened his eyes. Still, nothing. Except, the Heads Up Display of his visor rebooted, displaying the OS systems right before his eyes…
REBOOTING…
USER_CONNECTED_RESTORING_SYSTEMS_TO_ME-5931
Realized that he's not dead, James tried restoring his Titan link, recovering much systems possible from the catastrophic event.
OCULAR SYSTEMS: FUNCTIONAL
MOTOR FUNCTIONS: MARGINAL
James opened ME-5931's hatch, to see the outside world. Much to his surprise, the moment the Pilot exited his Titan, the first thing he saw is a sky full of stars, along with a moon, illuminating the surface, revealing greenish nature of trees, grass, animals… "A forest, huh…" James remarked with suspicion, contemplating whether all of this was a reality or dream…
"Pilot, I'm glad to see you are alive and well." As James pondered on that thought, ME-5931 spoke from behind, surprising her Pilot. "Glad to see you are still in one piece as well. Where do you think we are in? this is definitely not Harmony."
"Scanning… strange, my signals detect no IMC personnel on this planet, but scanning nearby flora and fauna on your visor, I believe our location is on Earth."
James couldn't believe what she's saying, after all this mess, he was transported back to the IMC's home planet Earth, yet unable to reach contact with the IMC!?
"Scanning, unknown Titan signal nearby. I advise you make contact with them to increase the chance of survival" ME-5931 reported. "Fine, ill check to see what's going on." With that, the IMC Pilot equipped his arsenal and Jumpkit, ready to make contact with the other survivor, while trying to make sense to what's going on…