Pilot

The groan of a lone figure was heard in the middle of a clearing. Standing up he looked around, all the while he clutched his head. He checked his body to check for any injuries but found none, he sighed in relief at that. Checking the space around him he saw a couple of items which belonged to him. Leaning against a tree was a cylindrical item, two smaller cylinders jutted out from the bottom, each pointing opposite directions from each other.

He walked over to it and looked over it. He found no noticeable dents or warps to the metal. Nodding, he strapped it behind his hip. Looking around a bit more he saw laying inside a tree was an elbow like item. Climbing the tree he grabbed it and looked it over, it's twin barrels were clean and all seamed intact, thankfully he had some ammo on him.

Scrounging around he was eventually able to find all of his personal kit, well all but his helmet. Rubbing his face he moved some white locks from his forehead. Wherever he was he needed to find a camp of sorts. Dusting himself off he decided to go north. Walking in the area he felt relaxed at the surrounding areas, it felt nice being able to walk around and enjoy nature.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

Turning around he saw a lone man, he had a large axe slung over his back. His figure was well built but not too swole. He noticed he wore simple clothes, but the majority were either dirty or scruffy. He also noticed he was wearing his helmet. It was white with a u shaped visor that glowed blue, it wasn't the standard X visor. In all honesty it looked more like a mouth than a visor.

He simply raised his hand and pointed at the helmet "that's mine"

"Oh? Is it now? Last I checked I found it in the forest"

"Still, it's mine"

"Sorry, you know the rules. Finders keepers" The man grabbed his axa and swung it in an arch. He rested it on his shoulder. "So, how about you give me all of that gear you have, and I promise you won't die"

"Hmm...No" He pulled out the elbow like weapon.

"Never seen anything like that, what's it called?"

"It's an alternator. What are you?"

"Me...well, I'm a bandit. Of the Branwen tribe"

"Is that supposed to scare me?"

"Most people are" he said irritated

"Well I'm not most people"

"Well then, what are you?"

He smiled "Me? I'm a Pilot"

The man stood there, after a bit he started laughing. He dropped his axe and grabbed his stomach. "R-really a pilot? What are you g-going to do? There's no plain to fl- ACK"

The man collapsed, his head 90 degrees farther than it should. The boy that stood before him disappeared in a blue light. Behind the man appeared the boy, he flickered on and off for a bit and tapped something on his arm.

He leaned down and removed the helmet from the man. Looking at his face he had a scruffy beard and light hair. Looking over his helmet, he saw the majority of it was how he left it, except a large black tape smeared across the side. Removing it he saw his name under it.

'Whitley 'Whit' Schnee"

Nodding, Whit equipped his helmet. He saw his hud light up and recalibrate. Walking past the man's body he continued walking north. He overlooked his Alternator and checked it's ammo, he currently had a full mag but didn't know how much spare he had.

Looking at the sky he sighed and continued to trek.

Whitley scavenged the area, he had found a crash site of sorts. There was a unique looking craft, definitely not something he had seen in the Militia. Looking around he wasn't able to find anything of use, the pilot was dead. Looking at the main body he noticed how the damage was mainly holes around the area. If he were to guess pirates of sorts, most likely they were trying to steal whatever was inside. From the looks of it the crash was a couple days old, but it still showed signs that it was being picked apart.

Wandering around the outskirts of the crash he noticed bike marks, there were some footprints but the majority seemingly disappeared. Well all but one, he saw what he assumed was a bike mark of sorts. It leads deeper into the forest. Activating his jump kit he began to hop from tree to tree.

His momentum built up and every now and then he would slide across the floor. Looking above the tree line he saw that the sun was starting to set. Knowing he needed to make a camp somewhere he chose above the ground, who knew what kind of creatures he could find here.

Resting on a branch he removed his helmet, sighing he rummaged through his packs. He found some rations and began to eat them. He knew he would be here for a while, how long until the 6'4 noticed they lost their most recent member. A thought came to Whit, where was his titan?

The events prior to this were a bit foggy for him but he was sent out to explore uncharted territory, after making the jump he crashed through some asteroids and the ship was damaged. The last thing he remembered was BP throwing him out of the ship with a chute. He twirled his knife in his hands, he wondered where his friend could be.

He felt the branch he was on shake a bit, looking over he saw a small black raven. Whitley scooted over and tried to kick it off. It squawked indignantly as he swept his foot at it.

"Come on. Shoo"

He tried once more and it flew away. Whitley sighed and layed back down. Then something came to him.

"Since when were Ravens common in the Frontier?"

Equipping his helmet he ran after the Raven, he made sure to keep his distance so as to not scare it away any more. Running across the treeline he noticed the bird began to descend and Whit followed. Upon doing so he noticed a wooden wall. It looked prehistoric, the idea of using wooden pikes as a fence seems outdated to him, same with the idea of tents. He noticed there were a lot of people wandering around.

They reminded him of the guy from earlier. That however didn't matter, he noticed a woman with a bone mask exiting a tent, behind her was a blonde girl, she had a mechanical arm, most likely a prosthetic. He noticed how the girl and the woman stood face to face apart from each other. The two began to go blow for blow.

All things considered, the fight sucked. It really did, and who could blame whit. When you've seen Titans battle it out, pilots running on walls and performing insane feats the fight really did seam underwhelming. It wasn't until a massive whit knight burst through a tent that caused the fight to stop. Whit watched with some interest, that was until a girl with white hair and a sideways ponytail emerged from it.

He felt like he knew the person but couldn't quite remember where. There was some banter between the trio and eventually the woman opened a red portal with her sword. Whit activated his cloak and dived into the camp. Wherever the portal led, there was a chance it could lead to civilization. He saw that the two girls were prepping a yellow motorcycle, and he slid into the portal.

Exiting it he saw a man holding a flask. Whitley quickly jumped off the railing behind the portal and clung to it, just in time too because his cloak had disappeared. He heard the man talk and then heard more voices. Peaking over the edge he saw that the two girls were now talking with the man. Eventually they all went inside the building and Whitley breathed out in relief. Climbing up the railing he looked around him. Jumping to the roof he decided that a quick dinner would be helpful.

It had been a couple of days since he had arrived in Mistral, he heard a local call it that, and was currently running towards a large building. Going through the events he saw a large explosion emerge from the building and news reports made it out as if something big was going on.

Running inside he saw a group of people fighting another group. Currently it looked like they had things under control and Whit didn't want to intervene. He did however notice that there was an elevator shaft, cloaking himself he pressed the button to go down and it opened.

He didn't know where it led to, but he hoped it was someplace good. Once the doors opened, he hid behind a pillar. There he saw two women fighting each other, they had massive swords and wings behind them.

Whit didn't know what to make of it but he did notice a massive door. Walking towards it he saw a girl with a massive wound across her gut. He walked past her and tried to find a way to open the door. It seemed like a bust, until he remembered something else.

Uncloaking himself he slung over his charge canon and began to fire at the door. The first two shots seemed to not do much, but the third one showed that the metal was heating up. It wasn't until the 5th shot that the metal began to melt. Using up his last shot he made a decent sized hole in the middle. Crawling through he came face to face with a lamp of sorts, he rubbed his face and sighed.

"Really, they're fighting for this?" grabbing it he went back through the hole and cloaked himself. Activating his jump kit, ran across the walls of the place and landed on the elevator entrance. He saw it ding and from it emerged a tan boy. Entering the elevator he pressed the up button and saw the group still fighting. He ran past them and eventually made it outside.

Uncloaking himself he saw local law enforcement already cuffing some people and other brightly colored children talking to them.

Walking out he jumped through the rooftops and eventually stopped. He scanned the lamp and couldn't find a way to open it. Sighing he sat down and began to fiddle with it.

Whit trekked through the snowy regions past Mistral, having given up on the lamp he decided his next best course of action would be to find his Titan, a vanguard class named BP-0450. Knowing he would be crashed somewhere he needed to find a way to locate him. Luckily he found a place called Argus nearby, it led to a military port so it would be useful to search through their database. Last thing he needed was to know that the local military found him and was currently bisecting him.

Trekking through the sun wasn't too bad compared to the night. He noticed a flashing light of sorts, so he decided to speed up. Eventually he found what it was. It looked like an abandoned snowmobile. Looking over it he noticed that it was low on fuel; he also noticed that it was powered by electricity. Searching through his gear he found a supercharger. Connecting it to the vehicle's battery he activated it. Turning it on he saw the fuel dial move to max fuel and smirked.

Hopping on it he sped through the snow, eventually making it to Argus.

Sneaking into the military base was easier said than done, but eventually Whitley was able to do it thanks to his cloak. Of course the more mechanical aspects of the base took some time to figure out. Standing in front of the main terminal he began to look for files that relate to large mechanized walkers.

He did find something, it was named Project Paladin; from the look of things it seemed to have succeeded but wasn't popular amongst the public. Digging deeper he found something of interest, Project Paladin 2.0. Looking into it he found it blocked by a password, pulling out his data knife he found an opening and inserted it into the computer. After a bit the code opened and there he found what he was looking for.

Apparently the project was based off of a mech they found off the coast of Atlas. The mech has a self sufficient AI but there is some difficulty in accessing it. Looking around Whitley found that it was being held inside Atlas' main research facility. The only way to get in was by plane...Whitley was a pilot, so how hard could it be to fly one?

Opening a door Whitley ran across the walls of the facility. He had placed a marker on where BP was, now it was just trying to locate him. He opened up his comm link to try and establish a radio connection with his titan.

"BP, this is Whitley. Do you copy?"

"..."

Whitley scowled. After a bit of running he found the main hangar. Hiding behind a terminal he saw BP hoisted up. In front of him was a man with a beard, a woman flanking his left, a ginger his right, and in front was a man with a lab coat. He noticed that BP was active and functional but knew why he didn't respond.

On his hud he saw a frequency bar, on it was BP's identification code.

"Tell me Doctor, is it possible to access his computer?" Whitley saw the older man look at the doctor

"As it currently stands, no. we do not know where his main AI unit even is"

"Then do try and find it"

"The acces to my data core is only allowed for my registered Pilot" BP's voice rang out

Whitley smirked hearing his titan, the loyalty between the two was something only few pilots could obtain.

"Where is this data core to begin with" another masculine voice asked

"That information is classified"

Whitley continued to watch the scene play out. He waited anxiously for the time in which he could jump down and reunite with his titan, his friend. He noticed that the ginger haired walked around and looked at the facility. Whitley hid behind the terminal, he knew he had to stay as silent as possi-

Clank!

He turned his head and saw his alternator had fallen out of his holster. How! It was strapped securely to his holster. Looking through a small crack he saw the quad freeze, the older man looked at the ginger haired one and nodded, a silent call. He saw him unholster a hand canon while the other removed a...fishing rod?

Whitley activated his cloak and stood up, he saw a wall that connected from the overhang to the hangar. Running towards it he activated his jump kit and ran along it. He noticed how BP was now tracking him with his optic. Jumping again he landed on his titans back and his behind it.

"It's good to have you back Whitley"

"Likewise. Now what?"

"There is a control panel that has access to these chains. Once you find it, unlock me and we shall locate my weapon"

"How do we get out of here?"

"On route here I was able to map out a rough sketch of the facility. Once there we need to locate a suitable location to rest and try to contact the militia"

"Agreed" Jumping off of his titans back he noticed that the adults had left. Whitley ran through the hangar and found the control panel to the titan's chains. Releasing them BP landed and picked himself back up. Uncloaking himself, Whitley ran up to BP.

"I recommend you stay on foot, I need you to open certain doors that I cannot reach"

Whitley gave a thumbs up and the titan returned the gesture. As the two ran down the halls of the facility it felt odd for him knowing that there wasn't any added security. The most they walked by were droids and even then it was easy to take them out.

"Pilot, up there is a control panel that should take us to my predator canon"

"On it" Whitley climbed up BP and then jumped towards a platform. Opening the door he cloaked himself and ran through the area. Jumping up, he wall runs past a group of guards walking aimlessly.

"Pilot I have marked the location of the control panel. Once you unlock it we'll meet up near our evac point"

"Understood"

Whitley jumped down and continued to run through the hall. Eventually he made it to the room housing the control panel. Once inside he saw through a window the predator canon. Walking towards the control panel he removed the top and accessed it with his data knife.

The doors opened and from there walked in BP, he picked up his weapon and looked at Whitley through the window. He gave him a thumbs up and continued to move towards the evac zone.

Nodding to himself, Whitley was about to turn when a bullet impacted next to him. Turning around he saw the older man from before.

"Are you that machines pilot?" he asked

"What's it to you?"

"That machine can be of great use to Atlas"

Whitley looked at the cracked glass behind him, then at the man "Sorry, but he's my friend" with that he activated his cloak and deployed a holo pilot to run towards the door. The man immediately discharged his hand cannon at the false pilot, while Whitley smashed through the window.

It wasn't until the crash of the glass that the man noticed Whitley was gone. Running through the hangar floor Whitley jumped up and caught on to his Titan. Hanging on his back he pulled out his alternator and readied it.

"Pilot, I believe the plan was to rendezvous at the evac zone"

"Change of planes, they know you've escaped"

Before BP could respond the doors to the exit opened and revealed smaller mechs, about the size of reapers, walk out. Each had similar weapons, underneath them were soldiers. Leading the charge was the ginger from before but he was flanked by others wearing a similar uniform

"I believe a change of plan is in order"

"What kind of plan?"

BP readied the predator cannon to his side, the barrel began to spin up. "Attack"

Whitley nodded and jumped off of his titan. He ran towards the small group and fired at them. He noticed two slime-like arms launch at him. Sliding under them he shot at the man from which they came from. Surprisingly, the bullets ricochet off him. Standing up, Whit was about to reload when a hammer swung in front of him, catching him off guard. Jumping back he was able to dodge out of the way but was punched in the back.

Rolling on the ground he looked up and saw a dark skinned girl with yellow lightning flowing around her. Reaching to grab his alternator he felt nothing but air. Looking at the woman's foot, Whit saw her stomp it, effectively destroying the firearm. Reaching behind his back he pulled out an RE-45 and shot at her.

She blitzed past the bullets and eventually Whitley had to reload. However, unlike last time, Whit ran at the woman. Before they could collide he jumped over her and kicked the back of her head. She staggered from that while Whitley continued to move forward. Having reloaded he shot at the girl. Unfortunately the slime caught the bullets before they could collide with her.

"Pilot, I have cleared a path. I recommend you head over to me and enter the cockpit"

"I'm on my way" Whitley looked over and saw BP smashing a paladin into another. Running towards him he felt something snag his collar and yank him back. Turning around he saw the ginger holding the fishing rod smirk. Whitley turned and was about to shoot at him when he realised he couldn't move. He tried to move his finger or even his head but was unable to.

"Nice work Marrow" the ginger said.

Whitley saw another woman walk towards him, he noticed her slng the hammer on her back. Just as she was about to cuff him Whitley felt a large hand close around him and almost immediately he saw a dark room. It lit up instantly and he was once again able to move.

"Protocol 3: protect the pilot at all costs. Transferring Titan controls to manual"

Whitley cracked his neck and stretched his arms out. Gripping the two controls he flicked the controls back, causing the titan to backpedal. Running towards the door he dropped an electric smoke cloud behind him. Exiting the facility he was finally outside in the dark snowy tundra. He saw multiple tanks aimed at his Titan.

Pressing some buttons he maneuvered BP to grab his predator canon. Immediately the tanks began to shoot at the titan. Who in turn activated the barrier shield and spun up the barrel. Shooting at the tanks he was able to easily destroy them but was overwhelmed by the sheer nu-

"Smart Core ready to activate"

Nevermind. Pressing down on both trigger buttons, a smart hud activated on his Titans screen. There he saw multiple circles appear and from then on Whitley simply held down the trigger. Explosions from multiple tanks and aircrafts occured in the base. Once the smoke settled, he only saw wrecked vehicles and buildings.

"My scanners indicate there is no functioning hardware or utility. However, it seems like the facility's main power grid is still active. Shall I mark it on the map?" BP asked

"No, there are scientist's and innocent people here. Best to not let them freeze"

"Understood"

Alarms began to blair inside the hull. "It appears there is somebody latched onto my hull"

Unbuckling from the seat, Whit opened the hatch to the top. From there he was grabbed by the collar and thrown off his titan. Picking himself up he saw the man from earlier approach him. Looking at his Titan he saw that it was currently fighting glowing blue giants.

"This ends now" the man said and drew out his hand cannon. Whit raised his RE but it was shot out of his hand. Groaning, Whit looked at the man and reached for a pack of his. Rolling out of the way the man shot where he originally was. Running through the snow he activated his holo pilots and had them flank him. The man shot the one in front of him and the bullet passed through it.

In that moment Whitley threw what he got from his pouch, that being a gravity star. Landing near the man it activated and began to suck him in. Whitley took this time and ran at him, once the ordinance exploded he was launched towards him. Whitley raised his arm and hit him against the head knocking him down.

Checking over the man he noticed he was unconscious, he examined the handcannon of his. It reminded him of a wingman. Spinning it on his finger, he holstered it and ran towards his titan. He noticed it was still battling the glowing giants. Climbing up his Titans back he pulled out his charge rifle and began to shoot at them.

"Whitley, it's good to have you back"

Whitley would have responded but he noticed the giants stagger at hearing his name. He took this chance to enter his titan and charge up the predator cannon. Immediately he fired and tore the one in front of him up. Dashing forward he spun the barrel up and filled the second one up with bullets.

As it collapsed he looked at the surrounding area.

"Status report"

"Battery Charge is at 70%, I recommended we find a place to rest before we continue"

"Yes, we should"

"Pilot, if I may ask? Why are you carrying a lamp?"

"Honestly, no clue. Some people were fighting for it so I might as well take it"

"...I see. There seems to be a suitable outpost to rest in due north, 400 kilometers from here"

"Lead the way"

"Understood. Transferring Controls to Auto"

WIth that Whitley decided to take a much needed rest. Taking off his helmet, he leaned his head back and fell asleep.

Finally played Titanfall 2 and I love it. I finally found a game I don't suck, not to brag but I'm averaging top three inconsistently. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter and see you next time.