"Blue-Team, you are cleared for departure."
"Copy that," Tobias replied, switching his comm channel to an open broadcast. "This is Blue-1, we're green for takeoff! Go, go!"
As one, the many Goblin dropships belonging to Blue-Team began to rise into the air of the hangar. With the shield doors lowered, they boosted out into space and set their sights on Regis, the large planet now looming before them in much closer proximity thanks to the efforts of Red-Team.
New Humanity cruisers and frigates were still putting up a heavy fight to keep Embers ships from getting through- thankfully, the civilian ships were occupying most of their attention to keep fire off of the main fleet. Small ships- like the Goblins they now were riding in on- seemed to be ignored in favor of large scale targets.
"Approaching atmosphere now, sir," called the pilot up front, turning her head slightly behind to help her voice carry to the drop-bay. "You might want to hang onto something!"
True to her word, the metallic sides of the dropship began to rattle as they battled with the growing resistance that a firmament provided. He glanced around the room at KT and the other soldiers that made up the squad of Blue-1; three riflemen and a Pilot. Kay's aptly colored visor noticed the movement and matched it to meet his gaze.
"Been a while since we lead a task force, huh?"
He gave her an anxious grin, the most it seemed his face was willing to provide. "I only remember one of us doing any leading."
She shrugged. "As a Titan, my body was your body. Therefore, I helped lead."
He raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Can't exactly argue with that logic …"
She hummed playfully. "I'm sure you'd still find some way to try-"
A loud boom suddenly rang out seemingly next to the ship, and a thorough shaking of the dropship immediately followed it. As it quickly became too unstable to stand properly, his hand shot out and grabbed one of the safety handles hanging from the roof as the grunts followed suit. Kay, for her part, seemed to actually be balancing rather well without the need for a handhold, though she darted her gaze around nervously just as much as they did.
"What the hell was that?" cried out one of the riflemen, looking to the pilot up front for answers.
"AA fire, we're getting hammered hard!" she yelled, yanking the stick sharply to avoid getting hit from another barrage. "It's getting worse the closer we get to those production sites!"
"Blue-16 just took a nosedive! They just-"
A resounding explosion echoed throughout the area as a massive pyre of flames blossomed from the wreckage of what was presumably Blue-16 after it had crashed into the thick forest below them.
Tobias grimaced, but he called out to the pilot all the same, "We're too far to turn back now- keep going!"
"Yes, sir!"
He opened up his comlink again. "Blue-1 to all ships, continue to advance! Green Team's depending on our arrival!"
"Copy that!"
"Understood. Pressing forward-"
"Holy shit, INCOMING! EVASIVE MANEUV-"
The sky lit up as dozens of missiles tore through the ranks of the dropships simultaneously. Tobias looked out the side-window in horror as he watched two, then three, then four ships crumple in mid-air from the impacts and begin to fall towards the-
KER-SCREE-
The screech of metal against metal became intensely loud as their left wing was hit and it proceeded to wrench itself off and away from the rest of the Goblin. The shift in aerodynamic balance caused an immediate drop in altitude as the main body of the ship swung downward towards the trees.
With a startled shout, Tobias felt himself slam into the side of the bay along with the other squad members and KT, unable to counter this magnitude of g-force. The pilot struggled to retain control and screamed, "BRACE!"
One final ripping shriek of metal was the last thing he heard before everything went black.
…
"Lock and load, people! Let's go!"
Gray and Fallon waved the rest of their squad off of the dropship's ramp and onto the ground a meter below. Following their team's example, they jumped as well and bent their knees as their boots absorbed the impact and crushed the vibrant amaranth-colored grass beneath them. Looking up from this edge of the forest, they saw that the leaves of the trees shared the same pinkish-red coloration.
"Pretty," Fallon commented rather disbelievingly, as though he couldn't grasp such a beautiful sight to be associated with the destructive nature of Spyglass's operations. His calm trance was promptly interrupted by sounds of nearby gunfire.
"Not the time, Dean!" Gray called out, and he hastily readied his weapon. Other squads moved alongside them as the Goblins lifted off again, adding their firepower to the mix and attempting to provide aerial support. Their target was the massive production facility ahead; the jaw-dropping wildlife had been converted to gray stone and concrete as the base stretched on for nearly a kilometer- and this was only one of three.
"Blue-2, come in!"
Fallon quickly checked the frequency number. "Reading you loud and clear, Blue-4."
"Blue-1 hasn't checked in- their ship went down half a click behind us!"
He was forced to put his shock on hold while he dodged a burst of hot plasma from a stalker's L-STAR. Once he saw another Pilot take it down, he reopened the comm channel. "Repeat that- did you say Blue-1?"
"Affirmative- their wing was blown off by anti-air. Some of 'em might have survived, but it didn't look pretty."
He let out a tired sigh, at a loss for the moment. "Shit. Stand by, Blue-4."
Turning to Gray, he saw her looking back at him. "You catch all that?"
"Yeah, and I don't like the sound of it," she admitted with concern. Stepping back for a moment, she gestured to the other squads and waved them forward again, pressing on the boundaries of the facility. He followed after her.
"Four didn't survive all the shit he did before just to die in a crash," he muttered, taking a glance back at the forest and coming to a decision. "You're gonna have to lead Blue by yourself- keep up the assault, I'm going to go back and look for survivors!"
"What?" she exclaimed. "We took heavy hits, we need all the support we can get-"
"You're not thinking about the bigger picture," he cut her off. "Four's the one carrying the Cinder- even if he's dead, we have to retrieve it or this will all be for nothing!"
Her grip tightened around her weapon handle as she frustratedly spat, "Shit!" Resignedly, she nodded her head in understanding. "Hurry up, then- I'll tell Green about our situation."
He wasted no time in turning around and opening a link to the fleet above them. "Inferno ground control, this is Pilot Dean Fallon- I need my Titan a bit earlier than expected. Transmitting coordinates now."
"Roger that. Standby for titanfall."
Looking high above them in the sky, Fallon watched as a streak of light began to curve downward, veering away from the heavy fire of the battle in orbit. It steadily grew brighter and bigger until one final flash signified the activation of the retro-thrusters that kept Titans from creating craters when they landed.
With a loud slam and grating of metal, a Tone now crouched before him and raised its optic up to meet his eyes. "Hello, Pilot."
"Good to see you too, KN," he greeted the Titan, and jumped forward for it to catch him and place him in its now open hull. "We need to hurry- a friend of ours crashed a ways back."
"Admiral Four? Is he alive?" it questioned in a baritone voice.
"I sure as hell hope so, buddy."
…
Gates was waiting for extraction with the rest of Red-Team near the large congregation of Gremlins and Samsons when she received the comm notification.
"Green-1 to Red-1, come in Gates."
She opened the channel. "This is Red-1, you're clear. What's the situation, Buck?"
"We're- hold on."
Through their radio connection, she heard the loud sounds of grinding metal as he presumably pummeled another Titan before returning his attention to her. "As I was saying, we're moving up fine for the most part- we'll be at the east site in less than five minutes. What's the status of Red-Team?"
"Most of us are here, resistance was lighter than expected. We're waiting on extraction from the orbital communications compound. Why?"
His voice sounded pained as he spoke the next part. "Blue was hit hard as they tried to deploy. They lost half their ships in the drop … including Blue-1."
She felt her voice hitch as she suddenly tried to form words, but couldn't. Davis, overhearing the exchange, noticed the lack of throat functionality from her, and stepped in. "Is Four alive?"
"Unknown, Fallon is moving to check for him and the Cinder now. He's in a Titan, so it shouldn't be long- but that's not why I contacted you."
"We're listening."
"Blue-Team is still trying to fight their way through their production site to meet with us at the southmost target- but they're not nearly as efficient with only half their numbers. If Red is up for it, they could use the support."
Davis was on it in an instant. "Perez, what's our distance to the production sites?"
The sergeant brought up a geographical display on his HUD. "About five klicks."
The Pilot nodded and returned his focus to the comms. "Alright, tell Blue to hang tight; we're on our way."
"Copy that, see you then."
With the link terminated, Davis began gesturing to the rest of Red-Team. "Perez, hail the Byzantine and tell them we won't be extracting just yet. Everyone else, pile back in the cars! We're moving out to assist Blue!"
A chorus of 'affirmatives' and 'yes sir's' echoed as they began to coordinate their next step. Gates watched it all with interest, noting just how effective a leader he could be when he put his mind to it- a trait she hadn't seen often with him.
"You coming, El?"
She blinked a few times, having been drawn out of her stupor by the sound of Davis' voice as he looked curiously at her. Shakily, she nodded.
"Let's do this."
…
Something was pressing into his chest. It was heavy, and he could feel himself struggling to breath with it weighing down on him.
Opening his eyes dazedly, he saw what appeared to be a large chunk of metallic debris from the ship draped over his torso. Seeing the actual cause of his problems seemed to suddenly increase the level of discomfort he felt, and he groaned as pain began to spread through his body now that he was conscious.
Placing his hands on the one edge that he could manage to reach, he grunted as he began to lift it up and away from him. His arms shook with the effort, and he knew it wouldn't be long before they failed and it came down- with much harder force- right on top of him. Just before they did so, he used his thrusters to launch himself backwards and away from the metal as it slammed loudly into the dirt.
Coughing from the release of pressure on his lungs, he hastily tried to force air back into them. As he did so, he took a look around at their surroundings; many of the trees appeared to have broken some of the fall, but the dropship was still lying in several pieces that had been strewn about from the impact. He noted with greater sorrow that they were accompanied by what appeared to be the bodies of the rest of Blue-1; the riflemen and Pilot. The ship's pilot wasn't seen, but she'd likely still be stuck in the cockpit … wherever it'd landed.
He hadn't known their names- it seemed that this operation was going to leave behind a lot of unmarked graves. With some conviction, he hoped he'd be able to rectify that when this was all over- assuming he ever got the chance.
Hastily, he checked the pouches of his suit and reached into one to ensure that the object driving this whole thing forward was still in one piece-
With a sigh of relief, he pulled out the Cinder and saw that it was still intact. His fears assuaged, he replaced it in its assigned pouch, and stood up with one more thing to find.
"Kay!"
He hollered to the open air, but received no response. Worriedly, he scanned the pieces of wreckage in the near vicinity for a sign of her-
There! Over the crest of one rather hefty debris pile, he saw a sliver of familiar white metal as it disappeared behind the remains of the dropship again. Without hesitation, he ran after it and leapt over the pile to find Kay crawling on the ground weakly. Sliding into place next to her, he tried to help her up to her feet.
"Kay! You alright-?"
Unexpectedly, she shoved him away from her and he stumbled backwards in confusion as she fell back to the ground. He looked over her for signs of damage, but aside from a few scrapes and black marks that marred the otherwise pristine metal, she appeared to be fine-
"Go …" she urged with a growl, sounding as though she were fighting some unseen enemy. "I- I …."
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
He didn't realize- not yet. The crash had put her into recovery mode, knocked her offline- and now her mind was a free for all as each fragment vied to take control. She let out another moan of pain as the ringing voices in her head became louder, and louder …
He needs me! I have to be ready-
I can fight this! I can fight-
No, this isn't an enemy we're able of standing against! He's my priority, and I'll do whatever it takes to-
I can't do that! He's not the only one at stake, billions are counting on us-
Enough. It's clear that I must look at this from an objective perspective.
Her quaking stopped. She became mobile once more, standing up quickly and with purpose. Tobias watched her movements warily, unsure of what had just happened.
"The odds of success were already low- dangerously so. With the destruction of the MAC defenses and deployment of teams Red and Green, the chances increased- but that was quickly overtaken by the bombardment of Blue-Team," she observed concisely and monotonously, glancing around the forest as she took in more information.
He finally seemed to understand what had happened. "Athena?" He'd never spoken with this fragment, though Pietas had told him it was one of Spyglass's favorites. Though at least it didn't seem to be aggressive at the moment …
"Affirmative," she replied, turning back to him. "Blue-Team's forces were depleted by approximately fifty percent. Their likelihood of success in reaching the target is currently even lower than initial predictions. Moving forward with the plan would expectedly result in your death-"
"Kay, listen to me," he muttered cautiously, holding his hands out neutrally. "The odds aren't what matter right now-"
"Fragments Pietas, Virtus, and Themis would assist you with carrying out the operation," she continued, ignoring him, "thereby becoming partly responsible for your demise. Artemis would go against it, resulting in a far more favorable outcome where you live."
His eyes widened as he realized exactly what Athena had in mind. "Wait, don't-"
"Decision has been reached. Relinquishing control to Artemis."