Chapter 1 - A New Objective
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[Operation Unholy Fury - 21:32 - Frontier - Destroy the New Genesis Super Weapon]
A blazing, devastated ship smashed into the ground, violently shaking the land across the battlefield. IMC, Militia, Titans, Pilots, and soldiers were scattered across the battleground in an all-out war at the IMC base, Infinity. A series of explosions along the main frontline finished off some of the grunts that had been there using the concrete and wrapped metal as cover but that cover proved to be no match from a barrage of missiles from an enemy Tone titan.
A charred black enemy Scorch titan was about to unleash a wall of thermite on the few militia survivors but was swiftly interrupted by a titan crashing the distance, slamming the titan back, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. This titan punched into the cockpit of the Scorch and ripped the IMC pilot out from within. The titan crushed the pilot in its grasp before kicking the leg of the Scorch to topple the pilotless titan onto the ground before slamming its fist through the hatch of the IMC titan completely destroying it.
The titan responsible for the kill dashed to avoid a laser beam from an IMC Ion titan, using a building as cover, they reloaded their X-06 chaingun before peeking out of cover again
"Pilot, the New Genesis superweapon is about to fire." A somewhat mechanical male voice said warning his pilot, speaking to his pilot that was currently at his controls from within the cockpit. This was titan RO - 4421, a Vanguard-class Titan, piloted by Captain Raylan J Drake of the Militia. RO was painted black with small orange stripes on various parts of its body. One on each arm just above the elbow and one above and below the knee joints. Its X-06 chaingun was similar in color as well. One notable piece of writing on the titan was the word Ghost just above its vent on its left.
"They've gotten nowhere with this," Raylan muttered between himself and his partner, he turned to see an opening in a building that could be exploited. It was a collapsed doorway but Raylan knew how to bypass that.
Using the enhanced wrist-mounted time-warping device on his hand he shifted both himself and his titan through time in less than a millisecond. Yet despite time traveling the base was still under attack from the militia. This was a previous operation that had failed to destroy the IMC superweapon, Raylan knew this so he was using this battle as a way to navigate between the battle then and the one they faced in his time. Noting the doorway wasn't collapsed he swiftly dashed himself across the field, only getting about halfway.
Raylan activated ROs vortex shield, pulling in enemy fire both from titans and anti-titan weapons, just as he reached the other side he threw the various ammunition back toward the IMC, firing them back mainly on other IMC titans.
Raylan maneuvered RO through the doorway into the structure leaving his militia allies to fight in the open. After moving through the doorway Raylan warped again back to the present day, he'd bypassed the collapsed doorway and was now in a good flanking route. Moving through the building a series of explosions were heard on the other side back on the main battlefield.
Raylan ran down the structure interior but was met with at first a complete spectres. Not paying them much mind he crushed them all underfoot but as he rounded a corner he came face to face with an IMC Ronin titan.
The enemy titan swung its leadwall shotgun to face Raylan but Raylan bashed it out of the way with his own weapon. He followed up with a swift kick to the body of the Ronin. The impact sent the slightly smaller titan flying into the concrete wall, shattering it on contact.
Pushing the attack Raylan dashed over to the downed Ronin to finish it off, however, as he swung to punch into the cockpit the Ronin phased out of danger meaning Raylan punched the small behind it.
Raylan spun on the spot knowing the Ronin would appear any second, he was right. The enemy titan reappeared but closer to him than the Captain had expected. Not being able to fire off his gun in a melee fight he elbowed the Ronin across the faceplate.
The Ronin was stunned for a brief moment but recovered quickly and retaliated by dashing into RO with enough force to break them both through the already damaged wall, both titans dropping their weapons as they landed.
"Shields holding," RO informed his pilot as the Ronin landed on top of them. Leaning up the Ronin went to strike him with a two combo punch but was kicked off.
As both titans recovered the Ronin drew its blade and charged at the Vanguard titan. Preparing for some CQC, Raylan dashed as well closing the distance. This cut off the usability of the sword since it needs slightly more range to be effective over fists.
With the IMC titan on the back foot, Raylan held onto the arm of the Ronin so it couldn't retract to swing again. Three punches were delivered to the IMC titan before the Ronin dashed back again forcibly breaking the grasp RO had on its arm.
"Enough you Militia trash!" The enemy pilot barked out, clearly not taking the beating lightly. The IMC Ronin charged its blade and held its ground waiting for the Vanguard to move. Raylan couldn't help but eye roll at the comment, that was a poor taunt on his part.
Seeing an opportunity Raylan ran toward the Ronin waiting for it to swing. As the Vanguard came within range of the sword he swung just as Raylan knew he would. Avoiding the hit Raylan warped again back to the past assault as to evade the swing. He wasted no time in wrapping back.
His position had changed as the Ronin had missed the strike leaving the Vanguard on the dead side of the sword. The IMC, in a panic, turned back toward the Militia Vanguard titan but was immediately grabbed. RO hauled the titan over itself, slamming the back of the titan into the ground. Next came the rocket pod as Raylan fired off several missiles at point-blank range into the cockpit of the Ronin. All that could be heard were the screams of the dying IMC pilot and the explosions of the missiles that killed him.
"Titan destroyed, no damage sustained," RO informed his pilot who swiftly looted the Ronin of its blade and holstered it on his own titans back. Raylan moved back to retrieve his chaingun before running to a building as cover. "We must hurry Raylan, we must reach the weapon before it fires."
"Copy that RO." A swift response, Raylan sights lay on a rocky pass just on the edge of the IMC facility, along the ridge were multiple IMC Northstars and Legions blocking the path he wanted to take.
"Captain Drake," A familiar male voice called over to Raylan through ROs communication system. "So you decided to join us did you?" The voice half-joked, showing his comfort when speaking to Raylan. The voice was Commander Keith Manson of the Militia Advanced Recon Battalion.
Raylan himself smirked under his helmet from within ROs cockpit, "What can I say, I'm a workaholic." He sarcastically responded, hearing a series of explosions in the distance.
"I assume you finished your mission? IMC Commander Gibbs is dead?" The Commander asked but truthfully already knowing the answer. He knew what Raylan was capable of, if this guy wasn't dead then he had to be invincible.
"Eliminated," Raylan responded choosing to say no more about his assignment. "We're getting nowhere fast." He stated, changing the subject to the matters on hand.
"I've noticed, the IMC isn't letting this go without a fight and we're out of time. The New Genesis weapon is about to tear through the fleet if we can't stop it." He stated grimly, you could hear the Commander was in a fight of his own judging by the repeated sound of a 40mm gun going off.
"I've got something that might work," Raylan informed he was referring to the device attached to the back of his Vanguard titan. The armored device was a phase bomb designed to counter the explosion of self-destructing superweapons. After the events of Typhon, they couldn't afford to have planet surfaces being blown to pieces. "I've got the phase shield device with me but I need to get close enough to the weapon and my path is currently blocked." His coordinates were sent to the Commander as well as the coordinates of the path he planned to follow.
"We've got your back if you get your ass there in time!" The Commander called back to him, "Alright boys!" He yelled clearly not speaking to Raylan but the other Militia titans that were by his side on the battlefield. "We got enemies along the ridge, time to clear them out for a friend!"
At that moment you could hear the firing of hundreds of rockets. Raylan looked back in the direction he knew the Commander would be as hundreds of missiles fired from Militia Tone titans all swarmed toward one location. The ridge.
Hundreds of explosions riddle the ridge, ripping apart anything and everything that was once there. Trees, walls, titans and soldiers, not a single thing was left apart from the flaming wreckage.
"Path is clear on you end, move it, Drake! We don't have much time!" The Commander yelled once the barrage was finished. "We'll hold on here, you do your thing."
Wordlessly Raylan moved from the cover and they ran toward the ridge, reaching the ridge there wasn't much left apart from the mangled and twisted remains of the IMC titans that once stood there.
Taking no mind of that, Raylan pushed onto the other side of the facility. Along the way, he came across an enemy mortar team that he quickly took apart. His chaingun making short work of the spectres he found but to his surprise, a Northstar fired off a shot just ahead of him but it wasn't toward Raylan. In fact, the IMC Northstar had yet to notice the Vanguard titan.
Using this chance Raylan maneuvered his way around the side of the Northstar, once he reached the desired distance he pulled the sword from ROs back and strike the leg of the Northstar causing it to crash to its side. Flipping itself over it attempted to react but Raylan swung the sword at the plasma railgun knocking its barrel away from his own titan. Lifting the blade he plunged into the cockpit of the Northstar killing its pilot and the titan instantly.
Having no time to respond to the kill an indicator lit up on ROs hud displaying there was an enemy lockout from behind. "Anti titan lock on." RO clarified in that brief moment.
Instinctively Raylan swung his free hand in that direction and activated his vortex shield to catch the incoming projectile. It took a second longer to reach the shield but he caught the rocket that had been fired at him. He launched it toward the structure at the other end of the opening he stood in. What caught his attention were the numerous IMC grunts that were along the rooftops of the facility.
Not wasting any more time he pulled out ROs' missile pod and locked onto each soldier in sight. He fired off the rockets each hurled itself toward the grunts. Having no time to react to a rocket-propelled missile each grunt was hit with the rocket completely obliterating them on contact.
"Hostiles eliminated. We must keep moving Raylan." RO spoke to his pilot as he turned to the destroyed Northstar again. He holstered the chaingun onto ROs left shoulder, the IMC Ronin sword holstered on the right. Raylan picked up the plasma railgun and continued on to their objective.
They met some resistance in the form of more spectres and IMC grunts but also stalkers however they all proved to be of no real threat to Raylan or RO as they quickly dispatched them. Raylan cut through a partially collapsed structure to bypass the open areas. He wanted to remain as undetected as possible, limit the potential damage on the phase shield while he fought his way to the weapon.
As Raylan reached the main reactor and weapons platform of the New Genesis superweapon he was met with one final obstacle to overcome as he was swarmed by four reapers and a heavily customized IMC Tone titan. A bright red Tone with the skull of a wolf as nose art on its face late. This was the IMC pilot that went by the name Seeker, a known thorn in the side of the militia for a long time now.
"This is where you die pilot." The voice of the pilot Seeker inside the Tone spoke to the Vanguard titan.
The Tone pilot Seeker immediately deployed his particle wall and fire off his first shot. Raylan, quick on the draw, pulled up his vortex shield and caught the first shot but the IMC Tone was smart enough to realize he was safe behind his wall but he ceased firing. Instead, he fired off a small sonor pulse. The pulse echoed throughout the room, it didn't take a genius to realize what the town has done.
Raylan dashed off to the side to avoid the incoming reaper missiles, catching a few in the process before firing upon one of the reapers, severely damaging it.
The IMC Tone didn't let up though as he left the cover it had to follow Raylans retreat, firing off more shots. The next two shots were a hit but they were nullified by the Vanguards shield however that wasn't the main threat as a small volley of rockets came hurtling toward them. The first few made it through Raylan guard, striking his titan but the others were caught by his vortex shield.
"Shields severely damaged, be cautious pilot," RO warned his pilot, the shields were a spec on his hud. Another hit and the shields were dead.
While the Tone was out of cover Raylan fired off the missile to one of the four reapers that stood nearby. He completely destroyed one of them with the Tones salvo while he quickly spun to the previously damaged reaper.
He fired off a single shot of the stolen plasma, the shot ripped through the already damaged reaper causing it to explode upon destruction. Two reapers down, a Tone and two to go.
But his actions left him open as Seeker fired off another two shots, both of them hitting their mark.
The shields were dead and he'd taken a hit with a 40mm. Using his vortex shield he crashed the distance as he caught another few shots from Seeker but this time he pulls out his own missile pod. Locking onto the two remaining reapers he fired off the volleys hitting both of them causing the machines to stumbled from the impact and the damage caused.
Raylan flung the 40mm rounds he'd caught back at the defenseless Seeker. There was no escape, he took the shots but was unfazed by the minor damage done to his shields. But that wasn't the point of Raylan closing the distance as he reached the distance he wanted he fired off a half-charged shot of the plasma railgun. The shot devastated Seekers shields but they remained intact for the moment. The second shot from Raylan was blocked as Seeker redeployed yet another partial wall.
Knowing he wasn't going to damage him while Seeker hides behind the shield he charged another plasma shot at one of the two remaining repears destroying it in a single shot to a weak point on its head. His actions though earned Raylan and RO another two heavy hits from Seeker but luckily he hit the more armored spots on the Vanguard.
Raylan swiftly and decisively came up with a plan, he warped out of this time zone to the past. Luckily for Raylan and RO there weren't any hostiles on the other side for them.
Seeker on the other hand was stunned, he'd never seen a titan disappear the way they had. He'd seen a Ronins phase shift but this was on a different level, he wasn't reappearing.
"Where is he?!" Seeker called out to his titan. Turning on the spot for any signs on the militias titan reappearing.
"Nothing on the scanners." His titan informed him, using all his available assets to locate this militia titan.
Unexpectedly Seeker got a heads-up display. "Warning, enemy pilot on board." His titan informed him, the hud displaying that an enemy pilot was rodeoing his titan in an attempt to either remove a battery or attach a grenade to his Tone.
"Clever bastard." Seeker swiftly deployed the electrical smoke countermeasure in an attempt to dispatch the pilot but the hud ceased its display. Seeker spun on the spot and dashed through the smoke, on the other side he found the enemy pilot, Raylan, backpedaling whilst he fired off a charged rifle shot.
Seeker attempted to swing a punch at Raylan but once again he warped out of existence avoiding the possibly lethal strike.
The final reaper leaped over to Seekers side also in search of the enemy pilot and titan but along with Seeker failing to find him.
Then, out of thin air, reappeared the Vanguard titan RO, a charged and ready plasma shot fired instantaneously. The power and impact devastated the shield since the shot was at such close range, the impact itself forced the Tone backward in a slight stumble.
The Vanguard titan ducked low to evade the heavy gun that was swung wildly and tackled Seeker from below, knocking him off his feet.
With RO being on top of Seeker he struck the hatch of the Tone, damaging the titan slightly however it wasn't going to be enough to finish it off. Seeker was skilled enough to counter some of the strikes as they came however he was just biding his time.
Raylan knew that too, he pushed off the titan and dashed off to the left to avoid a small volley of reaper missiles. A stray missile or two did strike Seeker but they struck the right arm. No real damage was done by that friendly fire though so no party paid it no mind.
"Minor damage sustained. All major systems are undamaged." The Tone spoke to his pilot, checking through its systems. It was merely structural damage to the titans' armor, not its functions.
Raylan countered by firing off a plasma shot at the reaper to stun it, for the time being, it was half-charged so it didn't finish it off, something he have to keep in mind.
Seeker adjusted himself and jumped back up from his disadvantageous position on the ground and countered by firing at the Vanguard titan. His shots were caught by its vortex shield but Seeker, regardless, pushed forward toward the militia titan in an attempt to put them on the backfoot. His plan was somewhat successful as Raylan backed off to get cover but he was failing to do damage to him with the vortex shield still intercepting him.
However, Raylan once again warped himself and his titan out of danger just as he launched the ordinance he'd caught back at his attackers. Most of the projectiles struck the last reaper, the damage down was enough to finish it off.
Four down, one titan to go.
Seeker in an attempt to figure out the militias strategy back off to a corner off zone, he re-deployed his particle wall once more and crouched his titan down. His eyes sharp for any signs of the lone militia titan.
"New Genesis Weapon is about to fire. All personal brace for a power surge." A machine like voice echoed through the facilities' communication system, alerting everyone to the limited time they had before the main event.
That's when Seekers hud lit up, displaying both a message and the super weapons statistics. The New Genesis superweapon roared to full life, fully charged, orientated, and was firing any minute now. All Seeker had to do now was make sure it fired without issue.
That brief moment of broken attention would prove lethal as Raylan reappeared already passing through Seekers particle wall, he tried to counter but Raylan had bashed his titans gun from his hands leaving with only his fists.
"Weapon lost, engage, and re-arm immediately." Seekers titan informed him rather pointlessly considering Seeker could already tell.
Fighting back Seeker gripped the plasma rifle Raylan held as both pilots and titans struggled back and forth. The IMC Tone titan being of equal size held its ground against the Militia Vanguard titan, this only made the struggle last that bit longer but eventually, Raylan made a move.
Pushing the plasma gun against the Tones body he then suddenly pushed it under one of the Tones arms and grabbed it again on the other side. Raylan dashed to the Tones left side still gripping the plasma rifle, RO twisted his body in a manner that put an enormous amount of force on the Tones elbow joint.
"Bastard!" Seeker muttered out as warning signs came up across his hud informing him that his titans are was being damaged. He tried to fight back but Raylan finished the move off by pushing down on the Tones arm, using his Vanguards weight to break the arm of Seekers titan.
An unforeseen accident to come of this was the now bent and broken plasma rifle but Raylan discarded that swiftly.
Being disorientated by the severed arm Seeker spun and swung his titans still functional arm, however, Raylan intercepted the hit and caught the fist and countering with an uppercut, stunning the Tone before being knocked onto its back with a kick.
Finishing it off Raylan moved closer to the downed Tone, leaped into the air, and landed foot first through the enemy cockpit. A small scream pierced the air for a moment before the Vanguard foot crushed the titan beneath it.
"Pilot, we must deploy the phase shield immediately, the weapon is about to fire," RO informed his pilot, his sensors detecting the built-up energy within moving inside the weapon.
Raylan examined ROs systems and hud, they were running out of time. If this weapon fired the militia would suffer catastrophic losses as well as resources. This could turn the tide of the war in the IMCs favor if the fleet was to be obliterated, that was not an option.
"Raylan!" The voice of the Commander called out, "We're out of time! Get out of there! Militia forces are withdrawing, we're outnumbered, outgunned and taking a beating! Move your ass!" An explosion could be heard through the transmission, cutting off communication with the Commander. Raylan didn't know if the Commander died in that but he had no time to worry about that. Although his orders fell of deaf ears, not a chance was he leaving now, not when he was this close.
He turned to the reactor core for the New Genesis superweapon, he rushed toward it picking up Seekers 40mm canon as he did. He reached the reinforced bulkhead to the reactor, not wasting any more time RO punched a hole through one of the hinges of the bulkhead and with all its strength began to rip the door off.
It took more time than either Raylan or RO liked but the door was ripped off allowing access into the main reactor. Moving in Raylan leaped out of ROs cockpit. You could now fully see what Raylan looked like as a pilot. He wore darker clothes, a mix of black and brown. His helmet was that of the iconic x shape with an orange stripe directly across the top of his head. A kukri blade sheathed on his shoulder and a data knife attached to below his ribs on the left. In his hand was a custom G2 rifle, black in color with a suppressor attached. On his back was the charge rifle he'd used to engage Seekers titan with, while on his hip hung a B3 wingman sidearm. He, of course, had his standard kit, jump kit, tactical equipment, and two arc grenades. He was kitted out better than most but that spoke to the line of work he was in.
"RO, drop the phase shield," Raylan instructed his titan who immediately did as ordered. RO crouched down and placed the device between them. Sparks began to fly as the reactors core and the phase shield device fought, RO used his body to protect Raylan has he began to activate the device.
"Thirty seconds." The machine-like voice from before called out.
"Hurry pilot, we need to evacuate," RO instructed his pilot as he observed Raylan making short work of the device.
"Just a bit longer, we can't go anywhere yet," Raylan responded to his partner, he tapped a few more buttons as the device became active. The core within rumbling to life indicating the system was functional.
"Ten seconds, nine, eight, seven…" The same voice echoed throughout the facility. The whole facility began to shake, red lights and sirens lit up and deafened the reactor room. This was it!
"Pilot, we must move," RO stated once again, holding out his hand for the pilot to climb in and jump aboard. They need to move out of the reactor, put distance from the phase shield.
However, the phase shield sparked toward Raylan, zapping him with a blast of energy, knocking him to the ground. RO moved over to his pilot and leaned over him in a defensive manner.
Raylan was about to speak to his titan as he noticed the time-warping device on his wrist begin to glow blindingly bright. He gripped it as he felt it begin to painfully shock his arm, he attempted to claw at it or disable it but his efforts were futile.
"Two, one." The voice finished the countdown as the weapon roared to life, at that moment not only did the phase shield activate but its sparking energy drew itself into the device on Raylans wrist.
"Raylan, we're not making it out, stay low," RO said to his pilot as he completely covered him with his titan frame in an effort to protect him. Ignoring any and all other issues, his main focus was to protect his pilot and he was sure as hell going to.
He was not going to lose his pilot.
Everything came together as all the noise, shaking, and light eventually faded to black. The last thing Raylan saw was the device on his wrist blind him with a white, painful light before he lost consciousness and everything went silent.
/_\
Darkness, a soft whistling of the wind, sweat on his face, that's all Raylan could see, hear, feel, his mind hazy, throbbing slightly. Bearable but irritating to say the least. His eyelids were heavy, he struggled to open them for a moment, his senses told him he was laying on something soft yet course. He moved his hand, grasping at what he lay on. Raylan instantly knew what it was, sand, and lots of it.
His body was sore but seemed uninjured, at least that meant he wasn't dead, well hopefully it didn't. It was mostly his left arm that hurt, right where the time-warping device had been mounted to be precise.
Slowly Raylan forced his eyes open, the first thing he saw was his helmets hud but for some reason, it was half-covered. Realizing it was sand he shifted slightly to see the sand fall, he pushed himself up feeling the weight of the sand shifting and sliding off his body.
His eyes adjusted through his visor and that's when he realized where he was. Sand as far as the eye could see with only small rocky outcrops popping in and out along the way, no clouds and blistering sun. It was a god damn desert.
'A desert? How…?' Raylan thought to himself both confused and curious as to how he got he and where exactly here was.
"Pilot, you're awake." A voice spoke to him, a voice Raylan knew all too well. He rolled over onto his butt to sit upright. Kneeling a few feet behind him was RO, his titan, and partner. "Glad to see you are unharmed." He added at the end once he'd gotten a complete view of him. He'd scanned his unconscious form earlier to make sure he wasn't dying but to see him up and moving again was reassuring.
"Glad to see you too RO, all systems good?" Raylan responded, a smile forming on his face under his helmet. At least he wasn't alone here.
" All systems functioning at peak capacity. Vanguard titan RO-4421 combat-ready and awaiting orders." RO responded swiftly, "Everything is good Raylan." A more casual response to his pilot as well.
"RO," Raylan began again, this time taking a slightly more serious tone, "Where are we?" A simple question really but one that was the most pressing.
"We're currently located in the core system, planet earth to be precise." His titan informed him, to say he was confused and shook at hearing those words would be an understatement.
Raylan glanced around, shakily standing as he did. Still, no matter which way he looked all he saw was rocks and sand, not a single sign of civilization anywhere.
'This can't be earth, this isn't what earth is meant to look like. It's a core world and yet it's like this?' It was hard to swallow the concept that this was indeed earth. The birthplace of humanity being in what appeared to be bad shape, seemed almost impossible in his head yet his titan told him it was. While it was hard to believe he trusted his titan, if he said this was earth then it was earth.
"How did we get here? We were fighting for the frontier not too long ago." Raylan both asked and stated at the same time, his eyes darted between himself and RO examining them both to see they were both unharmed. All RO had was a few cosmetic scratches here and there from their last battle.
Raylan paused for a moment, "RO, do you have any communication lines to the militia?"
"Negative, all communication attempts thus far have failed. All channels used by the militia can't be located by my systems. It's as if there are no signals." Alright, that was worrying to say the least. No way to contact the militia while they were standing on a mainly IMC controlled planet.
"None? Damn." Raylan muttered to himself, "What about IMC frequencies, we could put a hidden message on their channels and hope militia spies are listening in."
"Negative, I have tried every form of communication channel. Most of which are dead or not responding. I'm not picking up any form of human communication at all, my systems indicate all forms of interstellar communication has been destroyed. Only local systems remain." RO informed his pilot. The titan stood from its crouch, its gaze still firmly fixed onto his pilot and friend.
Raylan stood motionless for a brief moment contemplating what to ask next however RO spoke again. "I did, however, manage to find an unknown network that I have access to. It's not recognized by the militia but its systems seem more developed than that of the IMC."
"What have you managed to find?" Raylan asked curiously, he did a quick check of himself and his equipment. He saw all his equipment was still with him, his G2 rifle however lay on the ground next to where he'd woken up. If he kept all his equipment than he'd assume RO did too as well as pilot weapons stored inside ROs cockpit. He knew an L-Star laser rifle, a set of satchel charges, and LG-97 Thunderbolt were stored in there just in case he ever lost his primary weapons. RO himself seemed to have his weapons too since he still had his X-06 chaingun and the stolen Ronin sword on his back while he held onto the stolen 40mm canon they'd gotten from the IMC Tone.
"My systems are shifting through usable data but it will take some time. This network is more advanced than the IMC however I seem to have access to a large portion of the network. Reason: Unknown." RO explained to his pilot, his scanners had been scanning around the area for any signs of technology or humans however he'd yet to find anything in a large radius.
"More advanced than the IMC?" Raylan found that odd, the IMC was known for its technological advances, especially in its robotic and android systems. "Can you identify a name for this network? Are they friendly or hostile?"
"Unknown if they are allied with the Militia or the IMC however my access to the network means they do not see me as a threat or have yet to detect me in their system." RO continued to explain, "The network is under the system name of YoRHa."
"YoRHa?" Raylan stated. It wasn't really a question for RO to answer more so just leaving it in the air for either of them to think about. Raylan had been in service with the militia a long time, he'd done things no others would, some of which he isn't proud of but he'd never come across anything under the name of YoRHa before.
"Raylan, I have located data that might prove useful in our current situation in a file marked Earth and Humanity. Accessing now." RO informed his pilot. All either could do was wait for the information to come through. Hopefully, this went smoothly for them, all they needed was hell to rain down on them.
However, what these two were up to didn't go unnoticed by the faction in question.
/_\
Everything seemed to be going as smoothly as it normally did aboard the YoRHa Bunker. The operators went about their daily routines, scheduled contacts with surface agents, data analysis, and system maintenance.
The Commander of YoRHa herself had yet to receive an issue for the day. All surface agents and system operators were carrying out their missions with no problems that needed to be addressed by the Commander.
That was about to change.
"Commander!" One of the operators in the command room spoke out, "I've detected an unknown entity within our systems." She informed her commander. A number of other androids in the room took notice of her words, how could some foreign entity access their systems?
"Cut off their access immediately, do damage control on what they managed to access. I want a full report on what they got. Give me further details on what exactly they're doing." The Commander countered, her tone calm and collected. "Put up any useful information on the screen." She ordered turning her attention to the large screen in the room, she only had to wait a few seconds for the screen to update.
The random operator continued as she began to activate protocols to counter the intruder, "An unknown system has gained access to classified files, so far we've been unable to fully identify who this is, however, I can confirm they are neither YoRHa nor resistance in nature." A series of data streams came up on the screen as well as a digital map of the area the signal came from. "This system is neither machine race nor alien in nature though, I am unable to pin this target to anything specific whether it's a non-sentient system or not but I almost have a grid reference."
Her words only made the Commander and others in the room both worried confused and curious for various reasons. Who could access their network and yet not be related to either side? YoRHa or Machine.
"Put its location on-screen, has there been any recent activity in the region?" The Commander inquired if they could locate the source of the intrusion they could destroy it if required.
"Affirmative Commander," The operator replied, "Its signal was traced to a desert region. Not much is out there but earlier our sensors detected a massive surge in energy in the area however it appeared and faded within a second." The digital map highlighted an area of the desert, so while they didn't have a precise coordinate they had a search grid to begin with.
"Does this individual or object have a system name?" The Commander figured if this was a free agent not related to any side they'd have some kind of codename or username to gain access to their restricted files.
The operator paused for a moment trying to pick out a name, luckily she found one. "Yes Ma'am, designation RO-4421." That's all she could find on it, however.
RO-4421? A designation like that had previously never been heard of. Hearing that name caused a few of the operators to whisper among one another wondering what it could be.
"Who and where are the nearest agents?" The Commander asked, her thought process now focused on the search and destroy. They couldn't allow anyone else to access the system the way this thing had so easily done, this intruder needed to be eliminated before their data fell into enemy hands.
"Units 2G, 2B, 9S, 4D, and 6H are not far from the target location. Flight units would get them there within thirty minutes if sent now Ma'am." The operator informed the Commander. She was awaiting the order to send the flight units and have each agent's operators inform them of their new objective.
The Commander observed the data on the screen, "Inform those YoRHa agents of the situation and send flight units to their location. I want them as a squad to locate and destroy the intruder asap, this is a search and destroy mission. In the meantime I want a team to analyze this individual and gather as much intel on them as possible." The Commander told the operator, "Get to work people!" She ordered as the operators all began to work on their required tasks. The operators to the surface agents in question all immediately attempted to contact them to update them on their new objectives.
The Commander continued to gaze at the incoming data, she had a strange feeling telling her something was off about all this but for now, she had to focus on protecting YoRHa assets, that was her current main priority.
If only she knew.
/_\
Raylan had been going about checking his weapons making sure they were all loaded and ready for a skirmish, they were in possibly hostile territory so they had to be combat-ready at a moment's notice.
"Pilot, my access has been revoked. I can't gather any more intel or data for our current situation." RO regretfully informed his pilot. "However I do believe I have something."
"Keep it brief if possible, if they pushed you out it means they don't want us there. We could be found out and possibly tracked." Raylan explained, he straddled up his weapons and held onto his G2 rifle awaiting what RO had to say.
"According to the data I gathered, it seems we're not in our own time." He began swiftly.
"Our own time?" Raylan questioned before looking at the disabled device on his wrist. His mind came to several conclusions but waited for RO to continue. Best hear everything first before making one's final judgment.
"We're in the future, how far is unknown but this is indeed what earth would end up like in our timeline." RO explained, "This all happened as a result of advanced sentient alien contact on the frontier. A war sparked between humanity and this newly discovered alien race however their number far exceeded that of humanity. Humans were forced out of the frontier and onto the back foot, this forced old enemies to come together in an attempt to save humanity."
Listening to this was both hard to swallow and somewhat depressing to hear, knowing humanity had to fight a war for survival and by the sounds of it one they had lost mostly at the beginning.
"These aliens used biological weapons and machines to fight their war, humanity was pushed back to the brink of extinction with earth being the final planet that had any human life remaining on it." It all sounded so bleak, "However it is said humans fled to the moon and took shelter there. A well-disguised colony was established on the moon's surface and underground. Humanity survived but only just, they await the chance to return to earth and recolonize the planet once again."
Hearing all this Raylan felt so conflicted, on one hand he'd just learned that humanity had pushed to the brink of extinction, not to mention how his home, the frontier, was probably destroyed just as badly as earth probably was. Everyone he knew and everything he'd fought for was gone in this timeline. But he could feel relief at the thought that humanity lived on somehow, on the moon.
"So the Militia and IMC came together in an effort to protect humanity…" Raylan stated, it truly made it seem like their own wars among themselves seem so trivial. They'd kill each other for resources, freedom, money, and land yet when humanity was threatened as a whole they came together. That was worth something at least.
"Pilot, the militia is no more in this timeline. We have no superiors to follow meaning it falls to you to lead us in this situation." RO told his pilot. They had no mission or objective, they needed purpose and direction if they were going to survive this.
It took Raylan a moment, he was still coming to terms with what he'd just heard but he knew better. He knew they had to continue on, they needed to contact the humans on the surface and truly figure all this and maybe even figure out how to return to their own timeline if that was at all possible.
"Alright," Raylan began turning to fully face his titan, "Our mission is to contact the survivors on the moon and figure out how to return home if possible. But for now, we must focus on ourselves." Raylan readied himself alongside RO, "We need to get out of here, this isn't a secure area. We're unsure if YoRHa is allied with the survivors on the moon or not so we need to retreat, gather intel and supplies and plan from there." A fair strategy, knowledge of something doesn't mean one is allied with it but first, they needed supplies and resources.
"Operation: Wolf Pack - Objective: Survive."
"Copy that pilot," RO responded, he picked up Raylan and placed him on his shoulder. They'd make better mileage if the titan carried the pilot. "Until we can rendezvous with other humans we are on our own."
"When are we not…" He half-joked, Raylan took the offer and climbed aboard, "Keep your scanners open for possibly friendly channels or hostile contact." He found a stable position on his titans' frame and held his G2 rifle as he observed his surroundings.
RO nor Raylan needed a response for that, instead, RO asked, "Which way do you recommend pilot?" No matter which way they went all they could see was desert.
Raylans hud lit up displaying cardinal directions, from his training he knew which would be best to pick. "Head North, between three-forty and twenty degrees." He instructed his comrade who immediately began to briskly walk in that direction.
All they had, were each other.
Raylan sat atop his titan thinking to himself, 'Just like it always is.'
This thought might prove to be so wrong and so right in a number of ways.
C1: End
Not much to say here so I'll keep it brief. I thought of this idea and so I decided to write it. Not sure how long the story will be but it should be an interesting ride until then. It's similar in nature to my other Titanfall x Nier story but this one is more action-y for reasons you'll understand as you read.
Have any critics, ideas or suggestions feel free to share them whether, through review or PM, I'm always up for a chat.
I've rambled on long enough so I'll wrap this up. Thanks for reading!
AlcatrazDGold - Peace!