No sooner had they gotten outside the city limits and over the dense forested areas, then alarms started blaring from the cockpit.
"Multiple Archer rockets launched! Taking evasive action!" Matt and Sully both stood up and approached the back of the dropship.
"Slingshot us in then get the hell out of here! Fred, get ready for a rough landing!" Matt barked at the pilot and then his Titan. He pulled a lever and the back of the dropship slid open with a hiss. Matt heard the familiar dull boom of Archer Rockets being fired and braced himself. The ship's pilot pulled a perfect 180 degree turn, with Matt, Sully, and their titans being flung out, carried by the momentum. As the air whipped around him, Matt saw several rockets whizz past him after the dropship. He braced himself for his landing, as unnecessary as that was. Matt landed with a small boom square in the middle of an infantry squad. In spite of physics, his entire body was not reduced to a fine mist on the ground; his Jumpkit allowed him a safe albeit heavy landing. The infantry immediately trained their rifles on him and we're about to fire when FR-3D landed right behind him, his landing caused not only a large boom, but a massive shockwave that sent the infantry flying backwards. Nodding back to his titan in approval, FR-3D grabbed Matt and pulled him in.
"Transferring controls to pilot"

"Enemy Titan approaching at 11 o'clock." FR-3D alerted Matt with several red warning lights.
"Kind of obvious, Fred!" Matt replied as he sliced the Titan in half with a single cleave of his sword. The sounds of battle were all around him. This wasn't some minor incursion, this was an attempted invasion!
"Did you alert Angel City to this mess?" Matt yelled over comms as he ducked behind a tree to hide from a distant titan.
"Yup, they are sending backup our way now!" Sully responded. Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw him flying from tree trunk to tree trunk, shooting any and all enemies below him, with his titan close behind, taking care of anyone he didn't finish. A titan appeared in the distance, the railgun it wielded brightening quickly. Matt pulled FR-3D behind the nearest tree as the railgun shot blasted right where he had been one second earlier.
"We need to close the distance to the enemy Northstar." Matt commanded. "Execute a throw maneuver!"
"Acknowledged. Calculating trajectory to mount enemy titan using environmental data." FR-3D responded. A bar showing the calculation progress appeared in front of Matt, but it was going to take way too long.
"Screw mounting! Reduce accuracy to seventy percent, just get me close enough to distract him, then you charge in after!" He ordered.
"Acknowledged." The bar filled almost immediately after the affirmation, and Matt jumped out into FR-3D's hand before he dashed in and out of cover, executing the throw in that brief instant. Matt soared through the forest, ducking and dodging through the branches in the canopy. The Northstar saw him coming, but couldn't line up a shot through all the branches. Just as he flew over it, he saw the railgun start to glow again, but before it could turn him into meat chunks, FR-3D's sword stabbed right through the center of the titan.
"That was a bit close…" Matt mumbled as he dropped back into FR-3D's cockpit hatch.
"When you expedite calculations, potential errors increase in probability."
"Noted." Matt replied before returning his focus to the battle.

"Reinforcements will be there in one minute!" The transmission came in as Matt grappled above the treetops, then descended under again and laid waste to the small squad of grunts below. They were holding out, but things were getting dicey, and he had lost track of Sully.
"Sully where the hell are you?! There are too many soldiers, We need to fall back! Reinforcements are almost here!" Matt shouted into his radio, only to receive silence.
"Fred where are you?" Matt asked, switching channels. Suddenly a titan burst through the trees behind him, poised to strike, before FR-3D tackled it to the ground and unloaded a full magazine of shotgun blasts into its chassis.
"Pilot, I am unable to complete protocol 3 if you are too far away." He replied as he held out a hand. Matt rolled his eyes as he hopped back into the cockpit.
"We needed to disrupt them, and splitting up was the best way to do that. Reinforcements are just about to arrive, do you have a lock on Sully's position?
"Negative. Last known location was far into enemy lines, his chances of survival are diminishing."
"Then we're going after him!"
"Affirmative."

Matt stood in front of the hunks of metal that used to be Sully. The reinforcements had arrived and were already pushing the Remnant Fleet forces back; his assistance now unnecessary. He just stared at it. He should've cried, or had some sort of emotional reaction at not being able to make it in time to save him. But he just couldn't bring himself to feel sad over it.
"I guess this is the only peace you can really have when you're like that…" He muttered to himself solemnly. "Rest well Sully. I'll remember you at your best. At your most….human." He said before turning to FR-3D, who had remained silently by his side.
"We still got the invitation, right?"
"Affirmative. The location given is on the planet of Donovan III, in the city of Old Vemia."
"Okay. It's time for the real mission to begin…"