Chapter 1: Unexpected Disturbances
2077, Earth
"Titan signals 200 meters northeast of your location. I'll stay here and secure the perimeter." told ME-5931 to James while he lied down on the ground
James calmed himself down and scanned his surroundings. He felt a sense of ease coming towards him and, given the impossibility of surviving the past events, it was as if a miracle had bestowed upon him. Nonetheless, his arrival on Earth has left him with doubts, concerned that he might be the lone survivor of the incident in Harmony. Now that his Titan has gotten hold of an unknown Titan signal within this forest, he's sure to find more batteries to power up ME-5931... perhaps even finding another fellow Pilot? James stowed his Kraber sniper rifle, L-STAR, RE-45 pistol and data knife on his body, munitions and his Anti-Titan weapon in his duffel bag and headed northeast to check the nearby Titan.
He cautiously trod in the forest, vigilant for potential threats. So far, he encountered nothing but dead silence, so silent that any signs of movement would raise his nerves, cloud his mind in anxiety. But as he reached a clearing within the forest, accompanied by a small river. The IMC Pilot got his sights on a large mechanical being, almost making him scream out fear. It was a Vanguard class Titan, its sapphire eye staring dead at James, as if it would kill. James rolled behind a tree, fumbling his hands as he reached for his Anti-Titan Weapon, cold sweat inducing on his skin. Seconds passed, nothing. The Pilot slightly peaked, only revealing his head out of cover, and saw the Titan idle as a statue, without a care about the world around him. Slowly and steadily, James activated his cloaking module, slowly crept towards Vanguard with his micro missile launcher. Upon reaching in front of the Titan, he turned off his cloak, waited for a response.
Moments passed, ten, if fifteen seconds, he felt the Titan would arise at any second. But so far, nothing. Remaining suspicious, the IMC Pilot activated his visor's thermal sensors, looked through the Vanguard's hull. "No Pilot, so far so good." Confirmed the absence of its Militia Pilot, James let out a sign of relief, his nerves relaxed. Then, he went on to search for supplies on this Titan.
His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed the Titan's serial number: EM-0983, found out it's the same Titan he fought against inside ME-5931 during the battle, before they were transported to Earth by the Fold Weapon created in space. "Sorry mate, but I'll have to make good use of you, whether you become salvage or not." James joked, trying to ease the emptiness of being on his lonesome in the forest. He's glad he survived what happened on Harmony. But what will he do next? Stranded in an unknown forest with two Titans, how would he contact help, let alone survive?
Putting his doubts aside, James moved under EM-0983's left torso and found its power source of 3 batteries, more than enough to keep ME-5931 up and running for a week. "Jackpot." James thought to himself. Without hesitation, he pulled the batteries one by one from the battery slots with care.
"Warning, heavy damage sustained." in a male's voice, the Vanguard spoke as the 2nd battery was pulled by James, but he couldn't care less about the Vanguard's warning, too fixated on helping his own Titan.
Looking at the final battery, James was about to grab the battery's handle and pull it off. But as he twisted to unlock it, he felt something worrisome lingering around his head. Despite knowing himself lonesome under the luminous moon, surrounded only by masses of green, his gut was telling him something's in the water, especially after the Vanguard Titan's call of warning. His face turned from relaxed to a mix of uncertainty and nervousness the further he pulled out the battery from the last socket. All seemed well, until the moment the battery was removed from EM-0983, he heard rattling sounds of grass and bushes, becoming more frequent and louder. Instinctively, he reached for his L-STAR, but no sooner he felt cold steel touching his throat than he tried to turn around.
"Don't move", he heard a voice whisper to him, one that was filled with malice and anger. A sinking feeling began to consume James after failed to react to the ambush in time, gulped as he felt the blade pressed against his throat, felt blood rushing and tingling pain on his neck. Now, he had no choice but to comply with his ambusher's orders, wait for an opportunity to strike.
"Put down your weapons." The Militia Pilot condescendingly, to whom James reluctantly dropped his weapons and duffel bag as the ambusher eased his blade. "Hands up where I can see them and turn around."
He was a Shinobi Pilot, a title earned by their swiftness as the wind, invisible like ghosts in battle. The Militia Pilot stood slightly shorter than James, brandishing a curved, tapered machete and a Volt SMG. His helmet, visor illuminated ice blue. Like James, he was battle hardened, evident by his ragged and dirty scarf which was stained in sweat and blood. Whoever this enemy is, the odds were definitely not on James' side, but he would try no matter what.
"Now, put the batteries back on my Titan." The Militia Pilot commanded, slightly showing his Asian accent, while shoving him to the ground, forcing him to pick up the batteries he stole. For the sake of living, James picked up the pace to do what the Pilot wanted.
The Militia Pilot aimed his SMG on his enemy, watching his enemy reinserting the batteries back to his Titan, so far so good. Yet, just as the enemy picked up the last battery, he stopped. Impatient with his insubordination, the Militia Pilot moved closer, pressing the barrel on James' back. "I said, pu-" just before he finished his sentence, James swung the battery with tremendous force towards his ambusher's head, knocking him off balance and disarmed both weapons at hand.
James then charged at the enemy to pin him down, only for the Militia Pilot to take advantage of his momentum to back throw James, subduing him. James was almost met with a blade to his heart as the Militia Pilot tried to end his life by impaling his data knife to the heart, to which he resisted by holding the blade in his hands, while punched the Militia Pilot's liver repeatedly and delivered a strong kick to the Militia Pilot's stomach, making the Militia Pilot groaned in pain and launched him feet away.
Recovered from the assault, James picked his nearest weapons: his RE-45 and data knife, emptied the magazine against his enemy but missed, to which his Militia counterpart retaliated by firing his Wingman Elite. The two dodged each other's bullets by circling strafed against each other, as if a dog chasing its tail, until their magazines ran empty. The two then engaged into hand-to-hand combat, throwing punches and kicks and knife fighting, trying to tire then kill each other until the last man standing, oblivious to what they brought upon themselves due to their hatred against each other, as they exchanged gunfire and fists.
As James and the Militia continued their fight, the rebooted EM-0983, sensed something amiss in the water and the other side of the river. "Erik, I've detected multiple anomalies within this area. We should get out of here." "Shimatta! Kind of busy here!" The Pilot named Erik exclaimed, before getting right hooked by James, falling to the ground. James then seized the opening to pounce Erik to the ground, punching his head repeatedly like a madman, cracking the Militia Pilot's visor. But as soon as James was about to land the final blow, he looked across the river, something was moving under the water, and on the other side of the river, there were steaks of crimson eyes staring at them.
"The hell?" Sensing awry, James ceased his assault on Erik, to which the Militia Pilot kicked him back, reloaded his magnum, then he noticed the strange things in the water…
Both Pilots activated their sonar pulses, scanned multiple unknown humanoid and mechanical figures advancing slowly towards his location. They were neither Spectres nor Stalkers, but enough for both Pilots to know that they are now being targeted by these automations.
Moments later, several automations, covered in rust and moss, emerged from the river, with their crimson eyes locked on the three unwelcomed visitors. They are as tall as Stalkers of the Frontier, and had cannons mounted on their arms. "Humans, destroy…" As soon as they set their sights on the humans and the Titan, they fired their cannons as they advanced.
James and his enemy made haste to evade the storm of bullets and take cover, picking up the closest weapons they could get as they took cover behind trees. About twenty of them emerged from the other side of the forest, converging and fired at their position. With their lives on higher stakes, James and Erik armed up, fending off the common enemy.
23:00, Somewhere in the Congo Basin, Africa
"God damn mosquitoes… Never was a fan of forests and jungles…" McCree blew a puff when smoking his cigar as he treaded the forest with his teammates Genji, 76 and Ana. Winston had sent the four to keep tabs on possible Talon shipments that would be leaving for Congo. So far, the team has seen no signs of the shipment for the last 36 hours, despite Overwatch's satellite surveillance support. Provided that Talon has been silent for the past two months, and the newly formed Overwatch has been eager to snatch up any techs they could find on Talon, he wouldn't be surprised that the task on hand would be a bust, as if Talon was dragging them along. With the search fruitless, he sighed and was about to call the team to call off the mission when loud noises echoed through the forest, akin to the sound of gunfire and explosions, enough for the four to be on high alert. "Area source of disturbance at 12 o'clock." Ana, the old marksman and spotter reported. Maybe this search wasn't so fruitless after all, and he could finally see some action, the cowboy thought.
Insert music: Killer7- Angel's Despair
"Jesus, they're everywhere!" James exclaimed. The swarm of automations were becoming more than that, their combined firepower was about to overwhelm both Pilots. In retaliation, the IMC Pilot deployed his Amped Wall to block the incoming symphony of bullets and plasmas, firing his machine gun through the wall, melting a group of those freaks with red plasma. Yet his sheer firepower stopped as the weapon overheated and melted the firing mechanism. James knew he was fighting a losing battle, and tried to flee, but he was knocked off guard as one of the robots charged at him, then it lifted him up by the neck, choked the Pilot, before disarming his weapons. James struggled helplessly, trying to break free from its hand but to no avail. As James stared at the bot's chaingun barrels rotating, he feared himself to die once again, as his breath cut short and vision fading. Yet, just as the machines yearn for the IMC Pilot's demise…
An arc grenade was sent towards James and the group of machines and exploded, sending bolts of blue lightning arcs, distorting James' vision and rendered the machines immobile, forcing James' attacker to let go of its grip on the Pilot's neck, freeing James from their grasps.
Recovered from the impairment, James saw his 'savior', Erik, cutting down the group of immobilized robots with his machete swiftly, leaving a trail of blue aura as he slashed the machines, before turning his attention on James, and lifted him up. "Shut up and help me." He said emotionlessly as he pointed his finger towards the other side of the river: about 4 larger bipedal automations, armed with missile launchers and machine guns, concentrated firing on the defenseless EM-0983. "Pilot, I need assistance, Hurry!" said the Vanguard Titan.
Realizing the hazards of being on his lonesome, James reluctantly helped the Militia Pilot. He took out the Anti-Titan micro missile launcher, fired at the attackers, While the Militia Pilot shot bolts of lasers with his Charge rifle. Destroying the automations with sheer firepower. With the combination of rockets and energy beams, the bipedal automations were destroyed by the IMC and Militia Pilots.
Song ends
With the outer threat neutralized, the Pilots raised their arms against one another, planning to end their fight. But as they looked around the piles of machines they lay waste to, piles of metal burned the trees with acrid smoke, ruining the landscape, combined with their deplorable survival situations. Both Erik and James hesitated. Why the continuous struggle for survival?
Just then, both of them heard footsteps coming from the forest behind them and swiftly aimed their weapons at the unknown.
"Well, what do we have here?" When the team rushed to investigate the sound of gunfire and explosions, the Overwatch agents stumbled upon something peculiar. "A mech, in the middle of the forest?" Soldier 76 asked as he took a closer look at the robot. The design of the mech was neither akin to Omnics' nor MEKKAs'. "No Talon markings either, we might be encountering something foreign. Weapons ready." Ana, the marksman added and alerted her teammates to the unknown dangers they might face ahead. "I'll watch your backs."
The rest of the team arrived at a small river within the forest, where the sources of disturbances originated from. The team were revealed to the sight of two soldiers with peculiar uniforms, wearing faceless visors of different designs, turned their weapons and sights at them as soon as they arrived. Alongside, on the soldiers' behind was another mech of unfamiliar design, which was also not functioning.
Seeing piles of rusted Omnics scattered around the riverside, as well as 4 OR-14s on the other side of the river, destroyed, the cowboy could tell that these 'soldiers' were battling a pack of Omnics before they arrived. How the two could survive battling 4 large combat automations was beyond him, let alone tens of Omnics, all of them were remnants of the Omnic Crisis, lay dormant for three decades until now.
A few seconds of silence between the two sides passed, more tension seemed about to unfold, before one of the two soldiers, wearing a faceless helmet illuminated with crimson light, holding a sniper rifle, spoke up first.
"Humans finally! Couldn't you guys arrive any slower? Are there any settlements nearby? I need a place to contact the IMC." James asked. This was a weird situation, the 4 people in front of him were neither IMC or Militia troops, as their outfits were rather foreign. 'Who in the world dresses up like a cowboy and as a green ninja dude in the middle of the forest?' James thought. If the IMC's not operating in whatever this place on Earth, what else could it be?
The soldier with white hair and beard, eyes covered with a cyclops-like visor, put up a hand to his ear and spoke. The two Pilots couldn't quite make out what the old soldier was saying, but the words 'incapacitate" and "interrogation" were enough to make both Pilots feel awry of how this confrontation was going to end.
"Did you kill these Omnics?" the soldier with cyclops goggles asked, with a slight bit of hostility radiated towards the Pilots. "Omnics? You mean these freaks? They interrupted our… 'businesses', it's only natural that we fought back and killed them all. Don't ask me, but these 'things' are a pain. Happy?" Erik rudely responded, caught off guard by this question.
"Then we have more reasons to consider you foreigners a threat…" unsatisfied with Erik's answer, the ninja unsheathed his blade on back of his hip and dashed towards the Militia Pilot like a flash, with the sharp edge almost cutting the Pilot's neck by few inches, making him gasped out the fear of death. "Nani!?" Erik bursted out.
"You two are coming with us, whether or not you like it. I suggest you come peacefully, before this ninja and old man here change their mind." The cowboy, after finishing smoking his cigar, tossed it away with his cybernetic arm, and reached for his revolver with the other hand. Erik judged the stakes, it's now two against four, probably at a disadvantage. But from their odd choice of clothing, he assumed the team were more like a rag tag group of bandits, surely, he can take on them, surely… He put his hands up in the air, slowly dropped his SMG and machete on hand, to which James also did the same thing with his Kraber. As the Militia Pilot felt the ninja's blade ease off from his neck, and saw the two other men lower their weapons on hand, he suddenly elbow striked the ninja's head, cracked it's visor and stunned him, reached for his kunai from his shoulder with his free hand, plunging it towards the armored ninja's waist, then yanked his kunai and threw it towards the cowboy, to which it struck his cybernetic arm, then he tried to make a run for his Titan.
"A sudden attack? Dishonorable." The ninja groned in pain with a synthesised voice, ignored the bleeding and dashed in front of Erik, blocking his escape. The Pilot tried taking his revolver from his hip, aimed at the armored figure. Yet the ninja was faster than him, swiftly ducked and evaded the bullet, delivering an uppercut towards the Militia Pilot's chin, knocking him unconscious.
Seeing how the fight ended in a quick matter, James tried to use the window of opportunity to make his run back to ME-5931. He executed a boosted jump with his jumpkit and delivered a jumping knee to the soldier with a rifle, cracked his visor and knocked him off ground, cleared a path to his Titan. But the closer he reached ME-5931, he noticed a shadowy figure next to his Titan. Their faces covered with a hood, aimed their rifle at him and shot. The IMC Pilot felt pain on his chest, followed by a strong sense of dizziness. "Anesthetic… Son of a…" James resisted the tranquilizing effects of the dart, picked up his pace and charged towards the tranquilizing agent. Despite his resistance, he was met with two shots to the body, feeling his body weakened to the extent that he slumped forward, resorted to crawling. As his vision and hearing faded, he saw the tranquilizing agent walked towards him, "Sleep tight.'' He heard the agent's rough, husky female voice, teasing him, before using the buttock of her rifle to knockout him. "Evie..." feeling the sedatives taking full effect, James fruitlessly called out to his Titan, before feeling the world around him blackened…
McCree gritted his teeth, yanked out the kunai lodged on his cybernetic arm, tried moving the arm but to no avail. "76, are you alright?" the cowboy asked his team leader, seeing his visor cracked and blood dripping out from his nose." "I'm fine…" 76 groaned, still feeling the pain of his broken nose, while tearing off his fractured visor. Looked at the visor and the mysterious soldier who ran far from him, he had considered himself lucky that the flying knee didn't blinded his sights, otherwise things would have gone worse. "76, I've sedated Tango No.2 here, what's your sitrep?
"The situation is under control, Ana. Let's gather what we can about these guys." McCree answered, while looking over the equipment of these two soldiers. Normally, he would think these two 'soldiers' were Talon operatives. But from the other soldier who tried to escape, neither team had known anything about this 'IMC' which the other soldier talked about. Contributing to the fact that the equipment they searched on the soldier they incapacitated, their weapons, armor were outwardly. "SRS, Lastamosa Armory, Hammond Robotics…" the more info the team gathered, the more riddles they have in their minds. Something's wrong with these soldiers and robots. But given that they managed to fend off a swarm of Omnics on their own, 76 and McCree knew that these outwardly combatants were worth more than interrogating… Now, he had to call for extraction…
"Winston, this is Soldier 76."
"Aye, how's the search?"
"We didn't find any trails of a Talon shipment. But that's less of a priority now. The important thing is that we found something more important."
"I'm listening."
"I'll explain everything once we arrive at Gibraltar. But we need drop ships… two actually for extraction. Make sure they are big enough, we got two mechs to carry…"
Skies over the Mediterranean Sea, Europe
Recovered from unconsciousness, James groaned, feeling the tingling pain on his head. Opening his eyes, he found himself sitting on a chair, with his arms on the back. He tried moving them, only to find his arms bound tight. Looking around, he saw himself sitting in some sort of military ship of some sort, like an IMC Goblin, but way more spacious, covered in white palate, with a table projecting a hologram of the Earth in the middle.
"You're awake." A voice from the left called to the IMC Pilot. James saw Erik, the Militia Pilot, like himself, sitting next to him with hands tied on the back. For a while, there was dead air between the two opposing Pilots, both of them thinking about what happened earlier. Before that, the two were battling to the death on Harmony, even after its destruction, they somehow got transported to Earth, doing the same thing all over again, until unwelcomed visitors, robots and humans alike, interrupted their duel, and ended up into this mess they made…
As James pondered about the past, something about the Militia Pilot lingered around his mind when fighting the Stalker-like automations. "Why did you save me?" he asked the enemy next to him.
"Save you? Don't be ridiculous. I was just trying to save myself the trouble of fending off these 'Omnics'… or whatever those guys call them. Besides, I have to protect my Titan. Should have killed you on the spot when the trouble's over, IMC bastard." Erik gave out a chuckle before answering coldly. "Yeah, I should have, terrorist." James responded with a sigh, wondering why he didn't pull the trigger on his enemy when given the chance.
Just then, the two Pilots heard a door swishing open, from the stairs above, they saw the three men walk through. The old soldier had his broken visor on hand, his nose bandaged, with gauze dyed in crimson blood; the cowboy, with his revolver on his right hand, his cybernetic arm punctured in the joint, clearly out of order; the ninja, inside his metallic suit, with a bandage warped around his waist, The sword on his back was quite a peculiar choice.
"Listen up, whoever you two, this dropship is about to arrive at our base of operations. So, it's best that you guys cooperate and answer our questions." After chatting with his friends, the old soldier turned his gaze towards the two. "To start off, who are you?"
"Fine, Staff Sergant James Eystein of ARES Division. 6th Generation Pilot of the IMC."
"Sergeant First Class Erik Fukuda of SRS, 8th Generation Pilot of the Militia."
"Military, noted."
"What about these mechs, do you guys own them?" the cowboy took out his phone and showed the Pilots cam footage of another dropship, with ME-5931 and EM-0893 contained inside. "How thoughtful of you guys. Yes, they are Titans, we are Pilots you know." Surprised they didn't know the existence of Titans, which have been the main combat forces in the Frontier war for hundreds of years. Yet, how on earth these guys in front of him are oblivious to the war was beyond him.
"Listen here mate, you guys are taking me to your commander right? Tell him, tell him that Harmony was destroyed and Commander Spyglass of the IMC has gone rampant to the extent that he abandoned all IMC troops on the planet. And when he knows Erik is from the Frontier Militia, I'm sure he will do the right thing and deal with this terrorist." James exclaimed, as he believed himself to be under IMC's protection here on Earth. Who would dare not to comply with IMC laws, given that Earth is the center of power of the IMC?
Much to the three men's confusion, the cowboy answered, "Sir, what you claim about the 'IMC' does not exist on this planet. Either you are making things up, or you are being crazy…"
"Are you joking with me? We are at war for god's sake!" Surprised by the cowboy's remark, the IMC Pilot let out a gasp of surprise. What is wrong with these people, if not the whole world itself?
"Pilot, you might want to check this out," Erik tucked James' with his arms. The Pilot then looked at the holographic screen on the table. It displayed a map, showing the coordinates of the jump ship, heading towards a location named Watchpoint Gibraltar. As he scanned the time on the bottom right-hand corner of the map, he couldn't believe what he was seeing…
"Watchpoint Gibraltar time: 7:38 am CET, Date: 5/6/2077"
"No…" James stumbled back, and couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. The Fold Weapon… it didn't just transport them back to Earth, he was sucked into that black hole the Fold Weapon created.
"Please try to understand, there is no IMC and Militia in this world, nor there's a war going on here."
