The Battle of Demeter, the most strategic battle yet of the Frontier War, had been won by the Frontier Militia only two years prior.

With Demeter's refueling stations destroyed, the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (more commonly called the IMC) had lost access to easy reinforcements from the Core Systems. With nearly a third of their fleet lost at Demeter, and many Frontier worlds rallying behind a newly revitalized Militia, the IMC were left in desperate need of manpower and materials. With access to the Core Systems cut off and reinforcements years away, the remaining IMC fleets resorted to raiding planets for the raw materials they needed to keep their war machine turning.

Planets like the agricultural world of Harmony. The planet I called home.

I was fifteen when my home world became a warzone. Back then, Harmony didn't have as many orbital defenses set up, so when the IMC showed up, they easily punched through its meager resistance and began their raid. One of their drop zones turned out to be close to the farm my family owned outside one of the few major cities on the planet.

I couldn't really tell you in detail about what happened during that first attack, only that everything suddenly went straight to Hell in an instant. By the time the Frontier Militia made it to Harmony and kicked the IMC off, I was pinned under rubble, badly hurt... and could only watch helplessly as my parents were consumed by the explosion that destroyed our home. I might have died too... if it hadn't been for the Militia Pilot who saved my life.

I saw a lot of things happen that day. Mostly all bad. But I will never forget the awe I felt when I first laid eyes on the true dominant force of the Frontier. That was the day I first met Captain Oscar Quinton, the man who would, one day in the future, train me to be a Pilot.

That was the day I saw what a Pilot could really do.

I remember seeing how he didn't just move like normal. He flew. I watched as he ran circles around the IMC that had attacked my home. Organic soldiers, robotic Spectres… It was like there was no target he couldn't outmaneuver with his speed. No place he couldn't reach with his jump kit and grappling hook. Nothing seemed able to touch him, and nothing looked like it could stop him.

And then when the IMC tried to bring out Titans - the bipedal, neuro-linked combat mechs that had revolutionized modern warfare - to kill him, he called down his own to stop them. I watched as the two - man and machine - became one, and engaged the IMC's war machines. They could only have been stopped by either overwhelming force, or an equal of greater skill.

Unfortunately for the IMC (and luckily for me), they had neither.

And when it was over… after his Titan had pulled the rubble off of me, and her Pilot helped me stand and limp my way to the Militia medics that had arrived… I knew what I wanted more than anything in this universe.

I wanted to be a Pilot like him. ...So that I could never feel as helpless as I had back then, ever again.

I may have been born on Earth, but the Frontier has been the only home I've ever known. A home that was being slowly consumed by the IMC's greed and warmongering, planet by planet, one selfishly sacrificed life at a time. I joined the Militia because I wanted to fight for the Frontier. To once again live in a time that was free from conflict and uncertainty, to continue to build a place we could truly call our home.

Demeter was the turning point for all of us. Five years after that fateful campaign, and three years after Harmony eventually became Militia HQ, we've reclaimed over a quarter of the Frontier from the IMC, with more people joining the Militia's ranks every day.

We're better organized these days; more like a professional military, with a legitimate government council representing the free worlds that have declared their independence from the IMC.

I know we still have a long way to go before the Frontier can truly be called free. And I know that I'm still a long way from becoming a real Pilot…

But when that day finally comes…No matter what happens…

I hope that I can live up to the honor.