~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prologue
3 years Ago-Emerallis System

The sound of ships flying slowly above the sparsely lit district of the small remote planet in the Emerallis system would rumble the very poorly build brick and wooden houses with broken windows and trash littering the streets. The city was never really in such a bad shape until the great invasion from the IMC who leveled majority of the city leaving the rest to simply crumble to shanty towns and poor,red-light districts with Marshall Law strictly being enforced with public executions.

Callie's mother use to tell her stories how the IMC are wanting to help the frontier lands be successful and free and how the Militia are terrorists,lowly scum bags who only want their precious resources for themselves; but those stories seem to be so far fetched. Why would such a large force simply level a city on mere rumors of militia forces being within?

Callie wanted to know the truth and part of her told her the IMC was nothing but lies yet the reasoning part told her to follow the IMC so she wouldn't be executed alongside her family for doubting the IMC. As the sound of fain gunshots rang out across the night sky,Callie laid in her bed clutching her pillows tightly wanting the horror to just end. No more death-No more suffering; She would be finishing her medical and engineering classes soon to develop ways to save others and maybe try to help her city.

"Callie dear-pack your bags quickly of only what you need...Your father was just arrested and they'll be coming for us."

She heard her mother's voice cut through her door that would open as Callie sprung out of her bed scrambling for any nearby clothes before the sound of specters and spotlights were shining across the street causing her to panic and skip out on the clothes before dashing after her mother through their back door.

They would enter the back alley and ran down the trash and junk filled street until the rain had finally let go and poured before the sound of thunder and lightning rang across the sky with a few gun shots zipping past them alongside hollering.

"Go Callie-Keep running! I won't make it but you will..go"

"But mom I can't leave you! They'll kill you!"

"And they'll kill you too now GO!"

Her mother yelled as she gave Callie a good shove off a gentle hill twords the river before all Callie could see was spotlights on her mom as her body staggered and flailed as bullets rained down on her body. Feeling her body slam and tumble down the hill with her head whacking a rock or two before feeling the cold river suck her down into its bone chilling grasps. It was at that moment Callie's life seemed to be over as she laid there half floating away while partially unconscious; IMC forces rushing to her body and dragging her out yelling words about get a medic or something before everything went black.

 Chapter one
2208-Spring
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A high ranking IMC officer would stand in front of a small crowd of fresh faced recruits who had just finished training and were to be assigned to their regiments. One by one he would call out each name of the recruits and gave them their regiment and squadron number. About an hour passed before She heard her own name called.

"Private Callie J. Casanova-Step forth"

Feeling her heartbeat rapidly hammering against her chest and her blood pumping; Callie stepped forth and stood straight,as tall as she could with her shoulders squared and chin leveled to meet her superior who simply nodded.

"You are assigned to be one of the select few to serve under Commander SpyGlass himself. Call it a one up from being in the IMC's main force medic."

He would finish before leaning and whispering in her ears with a hint of concern for her well-being.

"Just-be careful,Spyglass has a superiority complex and isn't afraid to be harsh..I wish no one would be chosen to serve under him. Good luck and don't get killed"

His words sent a cold,dead chill down her spine and through her nervous system alongside the others muttering on why SpyGlass chose her and not anyone else. Callie knew of the stories and rumors of his ruthlessness,no care about human lives, and how he always believed he was right and never wrong. Realizing her life wasn't gonna be easy-She had to mentally prepare herself for the harshness to come. She was in her own thoughts use to watching people die but nothing in her entire life could ever prepare her for what laid in wait for her.

Stepping back into formation,another half hour passed before all was done and dismissed to the Mess Hall where pilots usually kept to their own groups as did riflemen and grunts. Grabbing a tray with a simple salad,drink,and paying for it,Callie found herself as usual alone in a corner table eating by herself as she had her data pad on the table studying over her medic and Engineering notes while making edits to her coding formulas.

She had grown use to the whispers,the stares,and the jokes thrown at her for being from the Emerallis system which was known for their odd accents and way of speaking such as the hard "R"s and the in-correct usage of you guys (Ya'll). So what if she didn't fit their views, She was smarter them all but she also believed she was unlucky to be chosen. Having gotten so use to drowning out the voices,Callie didn't hear the footsteps behind her until a hand placed itself on her shoulder making her jump and almost fall out her chair if the pilot didn't catch her first like he did and helped her back up before sitting down next to her.

He wore the same pilot jumpsuit with the IMC armor over it; with the bright blue hues of it contrasting against his sharp features and tousled jet black hair with vivid green eyes. She couldn't recall his name but recognized his outfit from when she was doing her final test and he was there to help judge her skills.

"WHOAH! Calm down-I didn't mean to scare you..I just wanted to ask if you want to join me and my buddies over at our table. You're always sitting alone and rumor has it You're gonna be part of Spyglass's forces! I envy you ya know. Supposedly his titans are superior to even the ones we have!"

The male pilot exclaimed as Callie sighed unsure what to say before an alarm went off and a voice echoed from the speakers placed around the mess hall.

"Calling all Pilots! SpyGlass's fleet has entered the airspace! All Pilots and key personnel report to Main Hangar!"

The many pilots in the mess hall would finish their food quickly and left hastily to get to the hangar as Callie threw away her half eaten salad and left with the male pilot following her

"Envy me huh-I don't think there's much to be envious about...specifically where I'm going"

Callie muttered softly mostly to herself as they entered the hangar being extremely large;holding four drop ships themselves with rooms for titans to move about. It wasn't long until a white and gray drop ship would land on the outside platform before its side hatch opened and the tallest Simulacrum Callie had ever seen stepped out wearing the most typical military general uniform as its face had a red glowing light. On each side he was followed by two heavily armed and armored specters with Spitfires.

Every pilot and personnel would salute and stand attention as the IMC's commander stood present for SpyGlass to enter and stand beside him before gazing slowly over each person present and made a sound like he was clearing his throat despite not having one. His voice was strong and rather more human like then Callie expected,the silkiness and clarity of it almost made him sound like a true,kind general.

"Aides and gents...Pilots and simulacrums...I thank you for your wonderful salutes and attention. I won't be here long as I have a long trip to make twords the inner frontiers but I believe there were five people I had personally selected to join me should be here? If so do step forth."

Callie wanted to stay put and hide but She knew couldn't as he would easily point her out. Knowing his words were nothing but a mask to make himself look like some hero; She would put a stoic face on and strided forward until she stood beside the other chosen few as the nearly six foot five Simulacrum would step forth inspecting them until he came to Callie.

Leaning down and cocking his head to the left as if thinking before she felt his cold,metallic fingers grab her jawline and gently titled her head side to side as if studying her. For a simulacrum,she expected his grip to be stronger then a humans but, he wasn't being gentle with her clearly as he let go with a well closest thing a robot could make to a snort.

"Most of you look like chumps except you woman-There's something about you that stands out most brightly..Like one star shinning brighter then the others"

His words ranged loudly as the others seemed a bit hurt by his bluntness yet SpyGlass would lean close to Callie's ear and whispered the words she wish she would never here.

"And I'd love to find out what it it-that makes you tick,makes your blood run cold,and how much it takes to break you bit-by-bit"

Leaning away from her stoic face that by now she was forcing herself to keep as inside she was scared; not for everyone but for herself. She didn't want to be his personal plaything,his little marionette doll to toy around with. SpyGlass would raise a hand as he turned to leave for the five to follow him onto the ship before it took off.

Glancing back out the window,Callie knew this was the last time she would see any of them.
Feeling a cold hand grip her shoulder and turning her around,she found herself face to face with SpyGlass with no one else in the hull as he spoke more-gently this time.

"not being able to say goodbye to friends is tough but in this world,Friends will only drag you down as dead weight and prevent you from reaching your fullest potential. Come-let me show you where You'll be working and sleeping"

Callie at first was unsure but followed him anyways learning each corridor,every nook and cranny in case shit went haywire and she wanted to hide from him. what felt like a long walk was really only ten minutes as they entered what appeared to be the closest thing to a medical bay with broken specter parts laying in piles,hanging on racks,and blank data cores lying around. To the normal eye this looked like a junk yard but to an engineer it was basically heaven. Callie let out a gasp of excitement,which she didn't expect to come out as SpyGlass seemed-pleased with her reaction.

"I figured you would like it. Your career field is quite-interesting and those fields can mingle with the right mind...You're free to experiment as you please when I don't need more specters. There are other engineers here but they will be under your command as you are being promoted to the Engineering Commander...Enjoy your time here"

SpyGlass explained before leaving her to her own devices. Glancing back as the door closed,Callie would take a deep breath to steady herself as she strided around the room inspecting everything as she talked to the few human engineers and MRVN Units learning their names and roles. Maybe she was wrong-but the part of her called reasoning told her this wasn't gonna be normal. Taking a clipboard and seeing what needed to be done, she would start to issue orders.

"Alex-Cliff-Unit 6433! Double time on the specters. and Ticks. Units 2121,9897,and Nergel! Get those Data Cores ready and put their chassis together. All other MRVN units-Double time on those Reapers! We need this done NOW NOW NOW!"

Her words echoed clearly as they responded with seriousness and busily went to work to meet the order and exceed it as much as they can with her helping every now and then to push it along until a few days later, the demands would become so outrageous that Callie would find her men being beaten and MRVN units shut down. The amount of stress this brought onto Callie had caused her to slowly become less caring with her lack of sleep and constant harassment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three Weeks Later
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The large ship and its fleet had entered the air space of a small colony planet called Mercellis; which held one of the largest Specter factories and was currently in the midst of a full scale war on the border between the Militia and the IMC with the Remnant Fleet to come in as reinforcements. While they would need to ensure a safe air space,the fleet would wait a good ways away and send a ground force first to help clear a path.

"All forces report to their pods for drop! Repeat-All forces report to their pods for drop!"

The robotic voice echoed across the ship as pods one by one filled with specters and reapers to be dropped onto Mercilles while Callie and the other four were brought forth into a pod against their wills and sent to the ground to quote on quote Spyglasses's words; To support the IMC when in reality Callie knew he was sending them to die not needing their worthless bodies anymore.

The pod would rumble and shake violently as they entered the atmosphere before a loud boom of its outer casing came free allowing the pod to land in the field and open with the four rushing out yelling only to find themselves face to face with a militia legion who just mowed them down without a second thought. Callie stayed in the pod and watched as they just were simply gunned down; echoed by the sounds of yelling,gun shots,metal on metal from titans..The sounds rumbled through her body as she stepped out glancing both ways before rushing into the lush flora hiding amongst it in her simple olive drab outfit with a band on her forearms with a red cross showing she is a medic alongside her medic rucksack.

Poking her head from the bushes,she watched as two IMC tones and a IMC Ion would come charging forth to be met head on by a Blue militia Ronin and a Green Militia Ion who didn't back down from the challenge. She found her breath getting caught in her throat witnessing the raw power of pilots and titans fighting each other. Each ear deafening boom and metallic clang of their fists meeting the chassis was beautiful yet terrifying. Glancing over as she saw a IMC Pilot without a titan sprinting across the grounds gunning down grunts and rifleman easily before all she saw was the pilot's body go flying to the side as a small explosion hit near him.

Managing to find her breath,she went to rush to him as his voice called out faintly for help only to make a few meters across before an explosion went off near her sending her rag dolling across the mud as rain begun falling softly then heavily. Rolling onto her hands and knees,she could feel everything slow down as all Callie saw was militia and IMC soldiers left and right just gun each other down as bodies landed in the mud,arms and legs flying across the field with bodies laying upon bodies. Her breathing would become ragged and quick as panic,fear,and adrenaline was rushing all through her while trying to move her body but it felt sluggish and weighed down. Her eyes scanning over as the horrible visions and reality of war-Women and men tearing each other apart,titans exploding with their charred chassis falling over,burnt flesh and agonizing screams filled the air.

Nearing halfway to the pilot her stomach just dropped as a titan just seemingly stepped on the upper half of the pilot causing mud,blood,gore,and the lower half of his body went flying a few feet. The sight was the last straw as she found herself vomiting over her self and the ground before letting out a terrified,dried sob with no tears just pure terror. The sound of war was around her yet no one tried to shoot here since she was a medic and didn't even carry a weapon.

In her moments of utter terror and panic,she would hear a voice calling to her as her terrified,shocked,mud and blood covered face would stare at a militia pilot raising an arm at her as if begging her. Any IMC soldier would've killed or let the pilot die but Callie finally seeing the horror decided to play her role as she could-Help others. Finding some sort of strength,she launched herself across the field heading twords the militia pilot while stumbling in the mud every now and then as bullets whizzed by her and explosions danced around.

Sliding twords the pilot,she would find herself staring at the pilot's face clearly visible from behind his broken visor that He was around his late twenties and had a nice,groomed,short beard. Scanning his body for the wound,she found a few bullets wounds and quickly ripped her medic pack off to scavenge bandages and swiftly went to work cleaning the wounds and cutting away at his pilot jumpsuit to clear the wound area before wrapping his abdomen a few times and tied the bandages off. Callie would place a hand against his neck after helping him take the helmet off to make sure his pulse was okay but his face went from shocked to blank as Callie felt the cold barrel pressed against the back of her head and a voice she knew better then most.