Shhhunk. Shhhunk. Shhunk.

This sound was rhythmic, though not rhythmic enough to be automated. It wasn't a 'something' that was behind us, that much was clear. Slowly, Hermes and I turned our heads toward each other. We both had the same look on our faces: the kind of look Lucy used to give me back home when I found her sneaking food off my plate when I wasn't looking. We were caught.

"I'll admit…" The voice startled me. Female, yes, but more grizzled and pissed off than any woman I'd ever encountered. Not only that, a distinctive robotic warble underlay its bellow. Only one way you could get that kind of tone, that kind of volume. "...no one's ever managed to escape from those dungeons, long as I've been in charge."

My and Hermes's faces both grew more grim as we simultaneously pivoted to get our first look at our pursuer.

My heart immediately sank as I watched this monstrous Titan finish its row of clapping at our 'achievement'. This thing wasn't like any Titan I'd ever seen. All the ones for civilian use were like the hulking Atlas Titan that (hopefully) presently inhabited our ship's cargo hold. None of them were as lithe and lightweight as the one in front of us. And certainly, I'd never heard of a Titan seeming so primeval, to the point of being abstract in its construction, especially with its triple-joined legs… and certainly, that sentiment wasn't helped by the massive row of shark's teeth painted below the central glowing view port. And, most of all, I'd never heard of a Titan carrying a sword on its back, let alone one that was almost comically massive.

"Not that that's much of a feat, given the outright dunces under my command," continued the pilot of the Titan. "Suppose I'll have to have a chat with them later-" She turned away, glancing back in the direction from where we'd come. "You didn't kill them, did you?" Her tone was completely nonchalant.

Like hell if we were going to respond. Even if we could have found the words to say, we knew they likely wouldn't have done us any good.

The Titan threw up its hands to its sides, palms up. Didn't have shoulders, so I suppose that was the only way it could 'shrug'. "The silent type, huh? Fine by me. I'll find out soon enough." It took a step forward. "Not that your punishment would be any worse. There's only one way to deal with spies." She put a serious stink on the last word, there. Bringing its foot forward, the Titan widened its stance, and quickly drew the sword from its back. Around the blade, an electrical arc slithered, crackling loudly across the river valley. She held the sword in front of her, straight vertical, cleaving the view of the Titan faceplate in two.

"Spies?!" I interjected. Quickly, Hermes hit me a sideways glance, shooting daggers. Right. Mouth shut.

Hermes stepped forward slightly as well. "Uh… spies?". Wow. Pristine word choice, there.

The Titan flicked its wrist, swinging the point of the sword toward us in a swift riposte. It ended up less than a foot from the tip of Hermes's nose, causing him to go wide- and cross-eyed, as he faltered backward.

"We've got cameras all around the Cove. Facial scanners. And when they ping someone from an official IMC database, I tend to take notice." The Titan drew the sword backward, giving it a spin, and letting it hang at her side. "So…" She became more smug. "All I need to know is how large of a force we should be expecting. I know damn well the IMC have got a fleet somewhere in this system, just waiting for you to say the word before they all swoop down on us."

Hermes nodded, trying to gain some self-assurance. "...ah. Baranova, the 'Pirate Queen', I presume?"

"The very same. As if you didn't already know." She didn't even move remotely as she retorted, her form frozen in place.

"Well… look. We're not with the IMC," shouted Hermes, nearly cutting her off (though, I'm sure, he knew damn well we'd both be dead if he disrespected her as such). "In fact, that's who we're running from."

"Iiiii'm not hearing an answerrrrr!" She was almost singing now. She was getting some real joy out of watching us squirm. Me especially, I'm sure, as I slowly edged my way toward the wall of our ship to regain my balance, my face going mildly green. She swung the sword up to a readied position. "Just let me know how many AA cannons I need manned, and I might even turn down the voltage on my sword as I cleave your heads off."

"We're from Barker's colony! You know, the one he set up to run booze after Demeter? We've done plenty of business through here before, just hear-"

"Barker got blown to smithereens on Demeter. Everyone knows that." Her quick retort was completely genuine. I suppose Barker wouldn't have ever tried to quell such a rumor; it would have only benefited him, really. "Good thing, too, for him; he still owed me over thirty thousand credits."

Hermes quickly pleaded with her. "Look, we'll show you our flight logs! I've only been to two planets in the last six months, one of them being this one-"

"Final chance." The Titan lurched forward, smoothly, scraping up sand with its feet and flicking it onto us. I wiped it away from my mouth with one hand, my other balancing my weak form against the cargo door of the ship. I'd managed to make it over without alerting her. Good. Hopefully, I could pull something off, here. This really was our 'final chance': I had one shot to make any kind of move. No more sitting idly by.

"Fine!" I shouted at her, still trying to look rattled and requiring the ship for balance. A weighty silence followed. Hermes once again looked over his shoulder at me, pursing his lips and giving me an extreme intensity behind his eyes. But I couldn't shut up this time. "Look… the truth is… that..." I paused, trying to think of the words I had to use. How could I make my point clear, and especially make sure Hermes had time to react?

A moment. "Yeah, go on," the Titan shouted, her vocal pitch rising impatiently.

Slowly, I straightened my back, getting ready for the inevitable physical trauma I was about to experience. Pulling my hand away from the ship, I readied a balled fist. "...I… AM IN IMMEDIATE… PHYSICAL… DANGER!" Well... that would have to do.

I slammed my fist against the cargo door release. It quickly shot up, and it was less than half a second before my Titan had me in her hand, sliding out into the open. In front of me, her other hand was extended, a swirling blue aura emanating from it, disturbing and suspending the surrounding mud. But a second more, and she had placed me inside her cockpit, initializing the systems and once again revealing the world around me.

Baranova was even faster, though. Already, she had rocketed backward, sliding beyond the sandbar and into the depth of the river (though, it barely came up to the Titan's 'ankles'). My Titan dropped its hand-shield, and stood to full height directly outside the cargo bay. It seemed my loud declaration had also worked, to some extent, on Hermes: he was already cowering near the front of the ship.

From the river, I heard a warbling growl from Baranova. "Well, well… an IMC Atlas Titan." She brought forth the sword, spinning it around in front of her in a figure eight, its electricity crackling and leaving a light ozone ghost in the air. She pulled it up above her head, pointing it toward . "Another one to add to our collection…"

In the momentary silence, my Titan's voice rang throughout the cockpit. "Welcome back, Pilot. Transferring controls."

I quickly retorted, keeping my eye on Baranova. "Yeah, yeah, just help me fight this thing!"

"Our last control session ended unexpectedly. Would you like to begin a sequence of tutorials detailing the various control patterns-"

"What the- no! No! Just have to hold this bitch off!" I almost immediately regretted using the word. I had a fleeting thought of her responding about not seeing a female dog in the vicinity, or some other bullshit. Luckily, she glossed over that bit.

"Understood, Pilot. Beginning assistive combat mode." A few of the lights around me dimmed, and turned a pale blue. Still, the amount of controls glowing around me was daunting, how was I-

What the hell? Where did Baranova go? I had looked away only for a moment at the blue lights, she couldn't have-

WHAM! From behind, a huge force pushed me forward, and I could feel as some of the armor on the back of the Titan crushed inward. The entire body of the Titan was shaken off balance, as I fell to my hands and knees.

"Pilot - heavy damage sustained."

My voice strained. "Yeah, I noticed… but from where?"

And, right on cue, there it was. The sound. The one that had been plaguing us during our escape. Just out of my peripheral, I saw Baranova's Titan suddenly appear out of thin air, with a faded black outline behind her just disappearing. What the hell was this? Just as quickly as she had appeared, she disappeared again to the same sound, leaving behind an aura of the same swirling, warping black and white.

Great. Teleportation. If Hermes had realized that was what the sound meant, no wonder he was in such a hurry to get away.

So, a murderous pirate queen in a slick new teleporting Titan with a massive electric sword, versus a kid with a bum shoulder who had had a total of about sixteen seconds of time in a Titan in his whole life?

Well, someone was going to have to fight dirty.

I pushed forward with my Titan arms, quickly shifting back to my feet. I spun side to side, slowly becoming accustomed to having to clench my right hand across the controls and pivot an entire upper chassis to look around. Dammit, she was nowhere in sight, how was I supposed to-

She appeared, straight to my right. I couldn't react in time. Her sword trailing behind her, Baranova swung it upward, dragging it along the ground in my direction and sending a wave of arcing electricity in a sinister trail straight for me.

Suddenly, my Titan crouched, outstretching its hand and bringing up that swirling shield from before, holding it to the ground. Just in time, too, as the electrical wave was just about to hit us, it was suddenly absorbed into the shield, the electricity twisting around the hand and disappearing into the center unceremoniously.

"Shit… did you do that?" I asked the Titan.

"Affirmative. Assistive combat mode is enabled."

Damn. Maybe we could actually do this.

Upon seeing our defense, Baranova disappeared once again, and I heard her reappear almost immediately behind me. I squeezed down on the pivot controls, the Titan spinning on its heel to face Baranova, digging us into the sand slightly.

Baranova dashed forward, swinging her sword and producing two more electrical waves on each side of me. Only thing I could do was mash the heel of my palm into the movement control, causing me to leap backward and only just avoid the end of her blade as she brought it into the air.

We were both in the thick of the river now, the water running just around our ankles. Baranova spun her sword again, then crossed it over her body horizontally. She brought up her other hand, and drew it across the blade's length, dislodging bits of sand and clay. Wait… could the blade be short-circuited somehow? It was as noteworthy a tactic as any other, really.

I pushed forward abruptly on the movement control, while priming my Titan's arm back into a bated punch. My fist shot straight toward Baranova's faceplate, a direct hit!

But she was gone. Just as my fist would have connected, she managed to disappear again, with the same sound as before once again repeating behind me. How was I supposed to even get a hit in edgewise?

"Gotta admit," yelled Baranova. Once again, I had to whip around to see her. I was getting better at controlling this thing, though. "You're faster than I expected." She flicked her wrist, and the sword began to pulsate with an excess of electrical arcs. "But not fast enough." From somewhere between the main cockpit and the waist area of her Titan, a noise, like a ship engine spinning up, emanated, along with a strong yellowish-white light. But a moment later, there was a blinding flash of light, and once again, Baranova was nowhere to be seen.

Shwiff-pop. Behind me again, damn. I turned, and there she was, sprinting at me, sword raised, still glowing with that same yellowish light. Then, she was gone again. Shwiff-pop. To my left again, the same way. Shwiff-pop. Gone. Then to my right. Gone. Somewhere behind my left shoulder, then gone. She would appear for less than a second, sword raised, coming straight at me, then disappear, and reappear somewhere else in the same fashion.

So fast was I turning that I began to get dizzy. Her pace was quickening. She'd be there barely long enough for my eyes to register, then disappear and reappear somewhere else. Left, right, behind me, she was everywhere. It was beginning to seem that she was in multiple places at once, practically forming a circular wall of her near infinite forms around me.

And the circle began to zero in, her Titan coming ever closer and closer in every direction. All I could do was continue to turn, spinning and whizzing around to try and tackle her head on… but there was no way. There was no 'head-on', she was everywhere, and I wasn't going to be able to turn fast enough.

"Where's the arm controls?" I shouted.

"The Titan arm interfaces are located on the outer sides of the movement and pivot controls."

I moved my hands to the outer controls, assuming direct influence over the Titan's arms. Dammit, these controls were completely different than the movement ones. The movement was just a circle where you'd press the direction and intensity you wanted, and the turning and punch functions were just a set of buttons. These were some kind of large pads, that would rock back and forth as I moved my arms in the same way the Titan's would respond. I got the hang of it after a few moments, but even that proved to be too long a learning curve.

"Pilot - we are sustaining damage."

"What?!"

Shhing! The sword grazed across my Titan's outstretched right arm, before dissolving back into the ever-shifting wall around us that was Baranova's Titan. It was subtle, but I could feel a slight change in the weight of the arm. She'd outright manage to dissolve some component of my armor. That sword, that speed! I was planning on trying to move my arm into the veritable wall she'd created, maybe try to disrupt her movement somehow, but if I hit that sword inadvertently? I could say goodbye to my entire arm. Or the Titan's arm, anyway.

Whap!

'Whap'?

The sound was accompanied by a huge lurch to the side throughout the whole Titan, and we stumbled to the side, very nearly falling into other side of the Titan wall. She'd flat out slapped me with the side of the blade to move me closer to her! And, sure enough, another shing accompanied a piece of the opposite elbow's armor getting sheared off before we managed to amble back the center of the ring.

Even there, in the center, I began to feel a few small nicks slicing into the main chassis of my Titan. If she kept this up, we'd be torn to shreds in seconds once we collided with the edge of the ring!

All the slices… they were coming in mostly at eye level now. If it got any more intense, it'd break through the view screen and slice my real body to bits. Slowly, I lifted the Titan's arms up, feeling the resistance as they were marred by a thousand cuts. I lifted them to cover my face, cowering. I felt the Titan's knees begin to falter.

Then, in an instant - it stopped. I let the Titan's arms down, revealing Baranova directly in front of me, dashing forward, sword lifted into the air! She bellowed, and roared at me through the Titan's communicator, the cacophony rattling the entire Titan chassis. She had the hilt of her sword clenched firmly in both hands, ready to bring it straight down onto me!

And swing it down she did, the electricity's crackle and pop even more intense than ever. I swung my arm up, and extended my fingers in its path. The blade came down straight into my Titan's palm, slicing through the armor and machinery in a flurry of sparks. Now her sword was lodged in my wrist, and her pressure downward continued; she meant to slice my arm straight through the middle.

I held against the pressure as best I could; my knees faltered, and I fell to a kneel, my arm already quivering and ready to break under the pressure. Still, she pushed and pushed downward, and my arm began to waver more fervently, the armor buckling and crumpling under the pressure. The pain even travelled into my bad shoulder, as if the arm was my own.

I… couldn't hold it any longer. Watching in horror, I saw even more sparks fly from the mangled joint, as Baranova's sword's electrical output seemed to intensify.

Wait… could I still try to short circuit the sword? There was really no other option, anyway; the sword was lodged in the Titan's hand, only Baranova herself would be able to tear that veritable Excalibur out.

"Gh…" I struggled. "Titan, gimme the shield! Right hand!"

"Affirmative, Pilot. Vortex shield engaged."

I pushed down hard into the muck of the river. Wasn't able to watch the shield itself; I wasn't able to turn my whole body to look. Here's to hoping it picked up enough grime to screw up that blade…

The arm swung forward under my control, fingers still extended, and my eyes widened as I saw large globs of sand, mud, and water encircling my palm.

"...release!"

I flicked the Titan's entire forearm forward in an instant, splattering the faceplate of Baranova's Titan with the mixture. She recoiled, adeptly pulling her sword from my arm and tumbling backward, the hand not occupied with her sword wiping away the mess. Now, that's fighting dirty, I thought.

Not even bothering to use the vortex shield any longer, I picked up a massive ball of mud and river water and threw it straight at her sword. The electrical arcs began to intensify, slowly wrapping around the foreign masses. Sparks flew, and the electrical arcs continued to gain fervor.

In fact… there seemed to be no end in sight to the increase. My thoughts were going a mile a minute - I didn't have time to wait for whatever would happen with the sword!

Still on my knees, I lurched forward, extending my fist for the closest piece of her Titan: the leg. My Titan's knuckles slammed straight into the Titan's knee - its upper knee, I supposed - and dislodged a few errant pieces.

Resolute, I pulled myself forward in the sand and began to beat the kneecap inward, laying down alternating punches from either side. The joint was loosening, more sparks were flying, some kind of brownish fluid was spraying everywhere. But a few more moments before Baranova took notice-

There! I pulled back on the arm control, winding up a wallop, and drove straight into the center of the joint. The whole assembly shattered beneath my blow, and the entire bottom portion of the other Titan's leg was severed, quaintly tipping over into the sand.

Baranova let out a pained cry, as she flailed her Titan arms to try to regain balance. It was to no avail, though; her Titan toppled to the side, the stump where its leg once was digging straight into the sand. She began to flail her arms violently, both trying to lift herself out of the sand and… just seeming to throw a tantrum. She shouted something… I could tell it was angry, but it was largely unintelligible.

After a moment, I struggled, and managed to lift myself to my feet again. My Titan's left hand was usable on its own, but the vortex shield was unusable in that hand, and I couldn't close the hand completely, either. Still, the overall damage wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Chalk one up for fighting dirty, I thought.

In front of me, though, Baranova managed to claw at the sand enough to gain some traction. She pulled herself forward, and though she wasn't even attempting to stand up and balance on one foot, she certainly didn't endeavor to stick around. After but a moment of a crawl, she disappeared into the same shwiff-pop.

Behind me, I immediately heard Hermes vacate his hiding spot, and run over toward me. "You're letting her get away?!"

Slowly, I turned toward him. The damages had obviously taken their toll on my Titan's overall fortitude and mobility. "Wasn't exactly in a position to stop her. She can teleport…"

"Kid, if she gets back to the settlement…" He motioned toward Smuggler's Cove, which suddenly seemed a lot closer than it did when we had just escaped. "...then we're screwed. We already know those AA cannons're online! If she tells 'em to fire on us, we're sure as hell not gettin' outta here alive!"

Dammit… the AA cannons! If they were jumpy enough to start firing at absolutely nothing while we were down in that dungeon… hell, it was a wonder they hadn't obliterated us with them already. He was right, we were screwed if Baranova got back to the Cove, and with no way to stop her when she was teleporting…

"What's the play then?" I shouted down to Hermes.

He threw up his hands. "You tell me! You're the one in the Titan!"

I looked out toward the settlement. Despite our dire straits, it looked almost peaceful. Serene. Would almost be a shame to have to run back…

A shame… a damn shame. Hermes's words rang in my mind as clearly as if he'd spoken them to me the very same from right where he stood in front of me. In an instant, all I could lose flashed before my eyes. If Baranova, in her fit, did as she set out to do, then my way out of here, my way back to my life… would be gone.

And the only thing people would have any cause to say in the wake of it… the only thing written in the history books, the news outlets, if they ever bothered with me… was that it was a damn shame.

I was already in action, my uninjured Titan hand springing forward towards Hermes, his expression not even having time to register. He was in my hand, and I was sprinting over the riverbed, approaching Smuggler's Cove once again.

"-man, what the hell-?" Hermes's incomplete bewilderment crackled.

"Can you hack a turret?" It almost sounded like a statement as it came out of my mouth. I'd almost assumed he could.

"What the- what?" He was still completely in shock from being taken up into the Titan's hand. Or maybe I was just squeezing him a little too tight.

"The AA turrets. If I drop you off at that first one-" His gaze took a quick detour toward the nearest AA gun off to our left, before returning to me. "-would you be able to hack it? Turn it to our side?"

He hesitated, looking somewhere between dumbfounded and annoyed. "...I don't know anything about these turrets! I don't know anything about any damn turrets, what makes you think I can hack them?"

"Fine! Could you at least try to disable one of them while I take care of the others?" From outside the city, it was possible to tell that there were three main AA guns: the one closest to us, and two on the outer edges of that water treatment canopy where we'd escaped the dungeon. Figured Hermes could take the one closest to the ship, so he could run on back as soon as he finished… well, whatever he was going to do with the turret, now. Then again, if I couldn't take out the other two, and they managed to hone in on the ship… he'd still be shit outta luck.

"Disable it? I just said I don't know shit about these turrets, how am I supposed to-"

"Just break some shit, Hermes! Can you at least do that?!"

He threw up his hands, still bewildered. "I… can try! I guess!" He was just saying that to get me off him. Or maybe he just wanted me to drop him sooner rather than later.

I pivoted slightly, deviating from the original path. I could have brought my Titan straight through an underpass, and ended up at the back of the settlement beneath the turrets… but there was no way up. If there was, we would have noticed it while we were escaping… would have made our job significantly easier, too.

That was when I heard it: Baranova had reappeared, somewhere, above us. She had neared the turret, somehow making it there before us, even with a bum leg.

"Wake up, idiots! We got company; get your shit pointed planetside!" That was the only thing I heard her screech, her pride however lacking, before I heard her disappear again. Immediately following, I stopped in my tracks, skidding slightly and kicking sand up into my hand with Hermes. Through Hermes's spitting and breathless cursing, the nearest turret sputtered to life, and slowly its cannons began to prime and spin towards us, blowing away seemingly years of grime and dust as they did so.

Hermes, finally dislodging the final speck of sand from his lip, also noticed that upon which my gaze was so transfixed. He turned back to me. "Your time to shine!"

Had to think fast… as useful as that vortex shield was, I wasn't keen on the idea of having to actually take fire to use it. Furthermore, chucking sand and mud wasn't going to cut it this time. Who knows if it could even stop a round as large as these turrets could bang out? Frantically, I looked around for something, anything, that I could use as a weapon.

Damn, nothing around but sand, water, and rocks!

Maybe...

To my left sat a boulder: a regal thing, massive and struck clean and smooth from the water surrounding. My gaze shifted, from the boulder, to my sliced hand, back to the boulder again. I abruptly leapt, much to Hermes's nauseous chagrin, toward the boulder, stretching out the fingers of my sliced hand and mashing them into the side of the boulder. Just as I desired, the fingers dug in, and allowed me to pull out a sizeable chunk of the boulder. With the massive stone in hand, I pulled my arm back, and aimed the boulder at the cannon like a shotput. Following through with my whole body, I hurled the stone at the cannon, shaking Hermes violently in the process.

"Could you just… put me down…" He could barely let the words escape. Hermes almost sounded earnest rather than angry. I think the stress was getting to him. Or maybe the nausea, anyway.

The stone flew true for the cannon, colliding directly between the massive barrels, and causing them to both suddenly unlock, and fall limp against the body of the cannon again like a deflated balloon, so hard that the falling barrels made massive dents into the side. Well… that took care of that.

Or, maybe not. In the distance, I could hear yet another cannon firing up, and I could've sworn I heard Baranova appearing and disappearing again, along with some sound of a loud cracking and slicing. She was beginning to become more zealous with her sword, no doubt, though how she was able to move so swiftly with a missing leg wasn't clear. More than likely, once she'd alerted the last turret, she'd circle back around and come for me again, and whether or not she was dragging herself around one leg, it was not something I'd like to deal with.

Hermes, seeing the destruction of the first cannon and, too, noticing the second, looked up toward the viewport of the Titan. "Get moving!" He yelled.

No need to say it. I turned back, heading around the boulder and up the hill beside it. As long as I stayed in the thick of the buildings, they wouldn't shoot at me, right? They wouldn't risk destroying the entire infrastructure of this place just to 'stick it' to someone they didn't like, right?

...except, that's exactly what it seems Baranova did to seize power here in the first place. Dammit. Nonetheless, I kept Hermes close to my chest, and my free hand low to my other side, in case I had to pick up anything else from the ground to throw.

"There's three more of those turrets, Hermes. I'm dropping you at the one on the right." My voice retained some urgency, though somehow, I could feel it waning; a sheer confidence was rising in me with every step of this Titan - we could do this! "Do whatever you can to stop that thing from shooting at us, and I'll do the rest!"

"Fine! Dear god, just put me down somewhere already!" Hermes shouted, now visibly struggling to break free of my clutches.

Crack! Just as we had reached the street, a flash of something metallic came streaming forward, out of nowhere, straight in front of us! It was all I could do to skid to a stop, feeling the Titan's thrusters kick in and aid me, pushing me to the side away from the source of the object.

Though, whatever it was, it didn't seem to aiming for us in the first place.

"Pilot: dimensional warping detected. Suggest immediate evacuation from the area." Shit. Was it Baranova's teleporting Titan again? If so, she'd had the jump on us; why didn't she attack?

Instead, directly to the side of the road, a palm tree came crashing down, splintering as the metallic object sliced through it. The top portion of the tree slumped for but a moment, before disappearing into the black and white swirl of nothingness into which the metallic object also vanished. If it was Baranova, had she just missed? Leg or no leg, I doubt she could be that careless - especially with the element of the surprise.

"No way." Finally I responded to my Titan. "Let's get to that turret!"

"Affirmative, pilot. Assistive controls are at the ready."

Forward we marched, straight for the turret. But Smuggler's Cove wasn't going to let us get there without a fight. As we moved down the street, more and more its occupants began to emerge, each of them armed to the teeth in their own scavenged weapons. A mixture of rifles, pistols, and launchers lay between us and the turret.

"Aww, shit! Kid! Move!" shouted Hermes, realizing he was still in danger. As much of his body was concealed by the Kong-esque fingers of the Titan, his head and most of his legs were completely unguarded, sticking out the ends of her hand like a runner's baton. He'd be about as useful as a runner's baton soon enough, if anyone tried to take a shot at us - and that inevitability was driving closer and closer by the second.

As if reading my mind, the Titan responded in kind. She crooked her arm, while still keeping it maneuverable and under my control, and engaged the vortex shield. Between that and her solid chassis, Hermes was mostly covered, and getting to the turret was possible. Good thing, too - it was just one more moment before the bullets began flying, tracers darting like fireflies throughout the expanse before us.

I tried to lean into our trajectory, and let the thicker part of the Titan's hull take any stray rounds that missed the vortex shield. Just a little further…

Shit. Just as we had reached the intersection in front of the cannon, an eerie thrumming began to emanate from it, and sure enough, it slowly started to pivot, its cannons rising and pointing directly at me like the eyes of a predator.

"Hermes, get ready!" I shouted, my tone getting further and further to the point of utter direness. Behind me, I could hear the local forces regrouping; after having jumped out of our way as we passed for fear of getting trampled underfoot, they were surely trying to flank us for their revenge.

"Hit it!" yelled Hermes, his hands firmly planted on the topmost finger of the Titan's hand. I could hear them behind me: the pirates were ready to fire - it was a wonder that they hadn't already. Hermes would have to go now, or everything they had would tear straight through my back.,

With a forced cry, I released the Titan's hand, Hermes using his grip on the massive finger to launch himself forward. He bounded toward the ground below, landing hard, but quickly recovering with a roll across his back. Swiftly, I turned to meet the pirates. Instinctively, as if both my and the Titan's minds were in sync, my fist slammed into the ground before me. A shockwave erupted from it, expanding through the nearby concrete and sending a wave beneath the group of pirates. Damn good thing, too; now floored and trying to regain their balance in front of me were no less than fifteen ragtag vagrants, some even sporting patchwork armor not unlike that of the boat men we had met hours before. A few of them were even holding bulbous rocket launchers, the kind that would make short work of my Titan's hull if they'd gotten them off. If I had turned just a half a second later—

No. No use in thinking about that now. Just had to find a way to make sure they knew I wasn't screwing around; I certainly didn't want to kill any of them, despite their sentiment towards me. But I had to make sure no one would get any ideas as soon as my back was turned-

Well, that was easy. Shouldn't have been. What had happened? As soon as any of the waylaid pirates had found their respective footing, they instantly scrambled for any nearby shelter. I suppose they got the idea, I thought to myself, slightly surprised at my own tenacity.

But it was short-lived. Soon, the true harbinger of their departure appeared, there, at the end of the street. Emerging from the swirling dimensional rift was Baranova, standing on her own two feet again. Now I understood: where I had mangled her leg, she had taken that thin tree she'd chopped down, and another just like it, and stuck them directly into the exposed machinery and wiring, making herself a meager prosthetic. Patchwork armor, patched together Titans on the fly; these pirates sure knew how to make do with the least. The 'Pirate Queen' had a big Titan peg leg. Who'd've thunk it?

She stood still at the end of the street, staring me down. I must say, she actually did a decent job with the length of her 'peg leg'; from where I was standing, I could only just barely notice her leaning down on that side.

"Alright, kid, operator's down, control pad's busted, let's—" Hermes emerged from around the parapet guarding the turret, immediately yelling to me. Surprising he hadn't noticed the complete silence that had erupted… what did he think I was doing? Standing there stoically waiting for him to finish up so I could ferry him to the next one? Whatever thought was in his head, it shattered quick as he spotted Baranova standing at the end of the street. "Shit…" he said under his breath. "Shit, shit, ship ship— I'll fire up the ship, get that last cannon down!"

I only glanced down for a moment to see him as he ran past me, making for the way we had come. He'd gained plenty of rips in his coat and scuffs on his face, but at the very least, he'd picked up an assault rifle somewhere. At least he could fend for himself on the way back - or at the very least, not die without putting a few rounds down range.

I realized only then that we had really just gone in a circle; I was standing in the street between the water treatment plan where I had first heard the shwiff-pop of Baranova's Titan, and where I'd imagined Hermes leaving me behind. And there he was, running off for the ship alone, all the while Baranova's gaze was fixed on me, somehow entrancingly, keeping me trapped. Gone in a circle, indeed.

Not sure why I expected Baranova to say something. Perhaps, since she had spoken to us earlier by the ship, I thought she'd have something lined up to spout. But given how much damage I'd done, there was nothing left to say.

Leaning forward, she began her bounding sprint straight at me. It was a clear shot up the street, nothing could slow her down. Hell, even losing a leg didn't seem to phase her; the speed she'd picked up in less than a second was remarkable. She drew her sword from her back, dragging it along the ground beside her as she ran. It would have truly been something to behold - had she not been meaning to slaughter me.

What to do…? What could I do? I stood transfixed, like a dunce, as an entity solely geared toward my demise just about soared at me, sword agleam with electricity. She was already halfway down the street, and I was frozen in place.

"Pilot: suggest you use your environment to your advantage." Baranova was just about on top of me. "Now, please."

One thing at a time.

Just as Baranova was to reach me, I felt the Titan lurch to the side abruptly, thrusters engaging to push us out of the way of the thrusting sword. Baranova seemed rather nonplussed that she hadn't managed to gore me, but she wasn't deterred. Without missing a beat, she flipped the sword in her hand, spinning it in a half circle and stabbing the ground beside her, slicing into the pavement and sending an arc wave along the ground at me.

Couldn't move in time; I'd only just settled from dodging her first strike. The electricity crackled as it snaked up my legs, and every joint in the Titan's body locked up. Through the distorted view screen, I watched helplessly as she drew her sword triumphantly from the ground like a veritable Excalibur, and began to walk toward me. The effects of the arc wave were fading, but even so, this wasn't sustainable. I couldn't just run around this colony endlessly. Had to focus on getting that last cannon down, and somehow get the hell out of here.

As Baranova drew closer, the Titan's most recent suggestion came ringing back through my brain - use the environment to your advantage. What was there? Was she telling me to hide? This place wasn't exactly designed to let an intruder have a fighting chance. Hell, I'd end up six feet under the environment at this rate.

Wait - just how easily had Baranova stabbed the ground? The shockwave I had sent through the ground before; was the pavement that loose? Could my weapon… be underfoot the entire time?

Baranova was just about on top of me as my vision finally cleared and I snapped back to reality. Almost theatrically, she took the sword in both hands, then raised it above her head like she was about to chop a log of firewood in half.

Not today.

I dashed backward just as her sword began to come down, and it chopped into the ground just like before. Though this time, there was no electricity snaking toward me, and Baranova was certainly not pleased about it.

Hurrying, I reached down with my damaged hand and scraped it along the ground, the pavement peeling easily away like a thick layer of dead skin. Not wasting any time, I hucked the glob of crushed pavement at Baranova, and she recoiled away, her arms flailing at her sides.

"Oh, you gotta be fuckin' kidding me!" Oddly enough, that wasn't the most explicit or threatening thing Baranova'd said yet, but it scared me the most. She was annoyed enough to get vicious.

I spun around toward the water treatment facility where we'd emerged from the dungeon, and ran in. If I could grab another piece of pavement debris, and get it thrown at that last turret, then I'd be home free.

Home. It was almost in sight. Once we got out of here, we shouldn't waste any more time - we had to go straight for the IMC and get Lucy and dad back. To hell with 'laying low'.

That was all shattered as I emerged from the other end of the water treatment canopy. A massive regiment of pirates stood there, completely blocking my path. Their weapons, a mixture of automatic rifles and rocket launchers, were all poised to obliterate me in my tracks.

I just reacted. Maybe it was the Titan, maybe it was some instinct deep in me. I just sweeped my bad hand across, knocking them all aside like toy soldiers. A few even went flying and hit the broad side of the nearest building, those going limp with a fleshy thud.

Maybe they were dead. No way to tell for sure. What was for sure is that I'd be dead if I didn't move. I regained my pace, continuing up the street. I was almost there; the cannon was just around the corner now.

"Pilot - mind your six."

I swiveled to check over my shoulder, somehow expecting Baranova to be directly behind me now, sword at the ready. Instead, I was greeted with a few of the same vagrants I'd just slapped around. At least I hadn't killed them all, I thought. Maybe that was something.

The ones coming up on me now had automatic rifles - nothing a moment uptime on the vortex shield couldn't take care of. I guess they'd seen that trick already, though; as soon as I caught a reasonable amount of bullets in the fray, the pirates all dove for cover. Suppose it was better that way, anyway. The quicker I could get that cannon, and the fewer casualties I dealt, the better.

I rounded the corner swiftly, and immediately stopped. Hadn't noticed it in the fray before, but the cannon was already getting primed. I needed something to throw, now!

"Come, get it set, go!"

From behind me, I heard a couple of frantic voices. I turned, and saw two more pirates, one monitoring as the other mounted up a particularly nasty looking rocket launcher in the window. How much more obvious could you get? I could just pull up my vortex shield, and redirect the rocket at the turret.

I threw a quick glance at the turret only to realize - it was nearly set to murder me. The cannons were just stopping, pointed directly at my center.

Not enough time. My hand flew out at the two pirates in the window, but I wasn't going for them - not directly, anyway. My fingers wrapped around the inside of the window, and I tore a huge piece of the building away. Debris spilled into the street, along with both of the pirates who hit the ground one on top of the other unceremoniously. I'd actually barely gotten any of the wall, but had a decent chunk of the roof in my hand.

Spinning and following through, I wound the building piece up and threw it straight at the turret. It was easier this time. Maybe because I'd already done it before. Sure enough, the front of the turret crushed inward, and the two barrels on the sides were pulled abruptly together, causing them to wrend unnaturally.

"That's it! Let's get back to the ship!" I pressed the pads of my fingers as hard as I could on the front of the movement control, and we dashed forward, continuing into a sprint. "Reroute all the power we've got into movement!"

"That is not a function this unit possesses. Note: the ability to reroute power is not standard on any IMC-sanctioned-"

"Whatever, just go!" I could already hear some of the pirates regrouping behind me. Hopefully, by the time they could take aim, we'd be long gone out of their range.

We'd really just ended up doing a massive loop around the colony. I emerged off the street right by where Baranova had cut down the tree and nearly sheared me in half, too. Still, it eluded me why she hadn't just sliced us in half already in the same way. She obviously had the speed for it, and the skill. Was there something more going on here?

Already, we'd reached the ship; I'd barely realized it, lost in thought. Hermes had already gotten everything primed, and as we came up on the ship, the hatched door flew open. The Titan and I bowed our heads, and dashed straight into the hatch in one quick motion.

"Alright, lemme out!" I yelled to the Titan, and the view screens went dark, immediately opening like a massive mouth and spilling me out. I jumped down and immediately made for the opening into the cockpit, slipping in and stepping up next to Hermes.

"We're in; close us up and get us outta this system!" I shouted, Hermes trying to distance himself from me. It did get pretty loud if you shouted in that cockpit, but my ears were ringing so loudly, I barely noticed.

"I'm doing what I can here, kid! Goin' ta FTL ain't exactly bakin' cookies!"

We had already lifted off just after the Titan and I had gotten in, and by now, we could see nearly the entirety of Smuggler's Cove from in the cockpit. Despite our experiences there, the view certainly was still dazzling. Like ants, the pirates dashed around, some even stopping and staring up at us as we ascended like a-

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! From the ship's controls, a massive red light flashed, and an image of the ship came up on one of the smaller view screens. Around that image of the ship, a concentric circle slowly shrunk.

"What the hell- one o' the cannons is locking onto us!"

"What?!" No. No way. This couldn't be happening. After all that, one of the cannons was still operational? That couldn't be, I had destroyed all of them-

Except I hadn't. Hermes had taken one of them.

"The ones I hit certainly couldn't be doing anything!"

Hermes knew what I was implying, and he gave me a look of both defense and accusation. "Well, I ripped the entire damn control panel offa mine! How in the-" He stopped abruptly. It took me less than a second to follow his gaze and realize what he was seeing.

Down below, at the cannon Hermes had defaced, stood Baranova. Even at this distance, there was no mistaking it - her hand was poised over the destroyed turret control panel, and a thick tangle of wires stretched between her Titan's hand and the controls. And, sure enough, the turret was turning. It had a definite bead on us. Somehow, even though I couldn't see her, I knew Baranova had a massive smile on her face.

"Open the cargo hatch and turn us aft." I didn't even know what 'aft' was. But with what I was planning, it likely wouldn't matter anyway. Turning on my heel, I made for the port between the cargo area and the cockpit.

Hermes looked over his shoulder, still blindly flipping switches on the dash and trying to evade. "What are you gonna do?"

I didn't answer. Hell, I barely even knew what I was doing myself.

But it had to work.

As if the Titan and I were already in sync, it opened up, and I jumped up onto the outstretched lip, letting it fold me directly into the pilot's chair.

Hermes must have thought it couldn't hurt to do anything at this point, as the cargo hatch swung up abruptly. I took the top of the hatch in my broken hand as much as I could, steadying myself as the Titan and I leaned around the side. Despite my poor nomenclature, Hermes must have obliged again, as he turned the ship so the Titan and I were facing directly out at the cannon. Maybe he realized what we were going to do. Or maybe just didn't care at this point. I wonder if I would have, if I were him.

Had to time this exactly right. I couldn't keep the vortex shield up forever, and Baranova would never fire on us if she saw me baring it. I could catch the massive rounds from the turret, and send them flying straight back at it. With that, we'd be free to make our jump out of here.

As if on queue, just then, the sound of the turrets echoed up to us, and I could just barely make out for a split second the flash of the muzzles of the two barrels. In turn, I threw out my hand before me, the vortex shield immediately emerging without my verbal command. Hey, I was getting at this whole Titan thing. She wasn't quite the burden I'd initially pegged her for. Maybe, whenever we got… wherever we ended up, she'd have a place in our-

It was as if the vortex shield wasn't even there. The rounds from the turret were massive, and I could only realize it too late. They tore past the vortex shield, going straight through the Titan's arm. The light emanating from the vortex shield, a symbol my hope for our escape, immediately vanished and was replaced with a searing light on that side of the Titan. The turret had punched through the vortex shield straight into the Titan's shoulder, tearing off its whole right arm, and bringing a massive chunk of the chassis with it. I watched helplessly as the arm clunked down to the floor of the ship, and tilted over the edge, falling down to the ground below.

Couldn't even watch that for too long, either. Immediately, I heard an even louder BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP echoing through the ship. I could barely even realize there was a massive alarm light blinking; the light now flooding in from the huge hole punched straight through the ship's roof saw to that. A loud bang and sputter came from the engines, and the ship immediately dropped to the side and began to spin around uncontrollably, descending all too rapidly.

"Engines are out! We're going down!" Somehow, Hermes's voice cut through the commotion so clearly. He must have been shouting right at the top of his lungs, the kind of yell you'll only hear when someone realizes that they're actually about to die. If my airways hadn't been closing up from the excess of adrenalin, perhaps I'd have done the same.

"Pi-pi-pi-pilot: protocol-col-col-col two, up- protoco-o-o-o-l three. Ee." She could barely speak, barely hold it together… I'd say mentally, even, but I think it was everything the Titan could do to to hold onto the ship for balance and keep the entire chassis from falling apart physically. I almost thought she'd failed at that even, for a moment; from above me, a mess of wires and electrical components suddenly dropped into view. However, in the center of it was a massive metal cylinder, with a glowing blue circle on the side of it. Through the shaking, I could see its label: 'SERE Kit'. "Remove-move the SERE Kit. Kit. It contains-s-s-s my main AI core-ore."

Why should I remove this thing? This Titan knew where home was, it knew plenty about me apparently, too; if I remembered correctly, it said it had some kind of profile on me when I first got in back home. The worst thing I could do now was remove this thing. If anything, it should get destroyed with the rest of the ship. And me.

Yet, somehow, I still found myself reaching up for it. What was I doing? My bad shoulder was screaming, too; I wouldn't gain anything from this.

The way the SERE kit was connected in was completely ramshackle. Quickly, I tried to remove each small connecter while counteracting the motion of the ship, and ignore Hermes's desperate screams of "Shit! Shit! Shit!". This thing was just as much patchwork as I'd seen down in the cove below. No matter how you looked at this, it was clear: this 'SERE kit' was not supposed to be in there. Who the hell had managed to meticulously feed all those errant wires around into the Titan's systems?

There was one final connector: a large one straight in the top of the cylinder. We'd reach the ground in a few moments, I had to-

"Thank you, Pilot." Her final words to me there came out at as clear as ever, as if she wasn't even damaged. "I'll always be with y-" Her final word was cut off, as I pulled the plug from the SERE kit, and let it drop into my lap.

My hands fell down to my sides, slamming down into the Titan movement controls. But it didn't move. It was just frozen in place. As was I; staring out the open cargo port, waiting for the cold ground to meet us. Oh, why had I gone for that damn kit?! I could've used that time to figure something out? What in me was telling me to keep this thing-?

I thought I knocked something on the controls of the Titan, as it suddenly sprang into motion again. It slowly leaned out of the port, pushing me out of the pilot's chair and onto the surface of the view screen, which continued to flicker. Suddenly, I heard a robotic voice echo inside the chassis - not robotic like the one whose kit I somehow was able to hold onto as I fell, but a voice that was entirely monotone and computer generated. Still, that didn't make its words hit any softer.

"Ejecting pilot."

The entire top of the Titan just about flew off and disappeared into the torrent of wind spitting through the cargo hold, and the pilot's seat flew up directly at me. Had I actually been fully seated in it, perhaps it would have been a smooth ejection - well, about as smooth as being ejected out of a large robot from the perch of spaceship spinning out of control could be. But I'd become unseated and lay on the frontal view screen, and the pilot's chair just about punted me out of the side of the ship.

If it had ejected me any earlier, I'd surely be dead immediately. Sure, it would have taken longer to make landfall, but I likely would have just died of shock from seeing how high up we were. Not that what really ended up happening was much better.

I was thrown onto the main part of a large roof, sliding forcefully along the surface, my initial speed carrying me up the slope. My arms still clung to the SERE kit, though frankly, I likely would have let go if I could have moved my arms at all. It felt like just about everything that could have broken inside my body did right at the first moment of impact, and the burn of the friction on my back didn't make it any better.

I crested the top of the roof, and though I slowed, the ride wasn't over yet. Slowly, my speed picked back up as I slid down the other side of the roof, headed head first for the edge. If I could've just reached out and grabbed onto something, I could've stopped myself.

But if I opened my arms, I would have lost my SERE kit.

I couldn't lose her.

Whump.

Nevermind. Not everything must have broken on that first impact, because after falling two stories from the roof and hitting the hard pavement, I could feel just about everything left breaking again.

Something was leaking. The SERE kit? No. Warm. Running down my head. Blood? My entire damn brain? Hell, it felt like the latter. I could only just hear myself sputtering over the ringing in my ears. Couldn't breathe through my mouth; my airways were still closing up, and I could feel the blood pooling at the back of my throat. Couldn't breathe out of my nose; too much blood in there too.

Through the smallest possible breaths I could take, my breaths in and out bubbling through the blood in my mouth, I tried to stay awake. Darkness was closing in again.

But it was because of me. If it was to end here, at least I went down fighting for what I believed in. What I loved.

I felt my arms cling to the SERE kit even tighter, as my eyelids got heavy. Couldn't keep it up anymore.

I think mom would understand. I think she'd be proud.

She could tell me herself. As my vision faded, I knew I'd be seeing her soon anyway.