The most powerful piece in chess is the Queen, but what is a Queen without her Knight? The only piece she cannot replace, the only move she can never hope to make. If a Queen and a Knight could become one who could stop them?
Chapter 1
In the years following the destruction of the fold weapon by the infamous Jack Cooper and BT-7274 the war for the frontier had come to a grinding stand still. Both the IMC and the Militia trading victories and defeats, making no real notable progress except for eating up the natural resources and clean landscape of the frontier. Some supporters of the Militia even starting to wonder if it was all really worth it if the place they called home was destroyed. Though the war of attrition was starting to take its toll on the Militia as scarce resources needed to create and repair titan AI cores were becoming exponentially more expensive by the month and quickly hampering the ability to keep pilots out in the field. With the IMC not suffering to the same degree, considering their albeit slow and stretched but still functioning supply line to the core system manufacturing plants, the Militia now introduces screening matches to put the best pilots into the limited number of titans available.
Location: Modified Space Tanker Augusta, Freeport System
Time: 0830 On-board
The Militia training ship Augusta sat silently in orbit around a fading dwarf star in a quiet sector of the Freeport System, in charge of training and testing new pilots to be sent out to the front lines once and if they received a titan. As quiet on the outside as it may have seemed it was anything but inside.
Automated voices rang through the halls **ALERT ALERT ALL THIRD YEAR PILOTS REPORT TO TRAINING ARENA 4 BY 0900 HOURS, THIS IS A MANDATORY EVENT AND IS SUBJECT TO DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS… … I REPEAT..**
"Does she ever shut up?" a lone pilot mumbles to himself as he casually stares down from a glass enclosed walkway overlooking a massive interior area that had been clear out for multiple adaptive training areas spanning the entire width of the ship. The pilot wearing a newer style T-visor helmet and light plating, all adorned in a dull blue with tan mixed in and still fresh looking without scratches or blast shadows.
A sharp voice spoke from down the walkway "She will once you get your ass down there, TRAINEE BYERS"
Byers quickly turned and snapped a salute up to the approaching man who was dressed in plain looking Militia fatigues "Lieutenant Hyrense, I'll get moving right away."
"At ease trainee, remember that this is your last bond match Byers. You just need to not get distracted like last time and it's almost a guarantee you can place top 10."
"Thanks sir, I won't let you down this time. You have my word."
"I know you won't now get out of here." Hyrense chuckled after shooing the young pilot hopeful away "Maybe I should have told him the training staff won't be judging this time around…" a broad grin spread across his face "... I'm sure he will do just fine."
As Byers rode down on a elevator from the observation levels he was on before, a large crowd could be seen forming below in front of a massive blast door protecting the pilot entrance into the training arena. As the elevator came to a halt on the arena floor and he made his way to the check-in desk, many cliques of pilot trainees had already formed as they waited for the event to start. Many of them he did not know or care about but one group in particular had their eyes on him from the moment he had stepped off the elevator. Easily spotting him as most pilots choose to keep their helmets off when not in training or in matches, unlike Byers. Seeing them staring from the side of his T-visor Byers decides to just proceed straight to his original destination.
Walking up the the desk he hands his data knife to the man behind it "Trainee Byers here to check in."
The instructor looking up from his data pad then immediately back down to his watch before scanning Byers' data knife then scrolling to find his name on the roster "Cutting it close again Byers, don't you know early is on time?"
Byers straightens up while saying "Sorry sir, but Lieutenant Hyrense wanted a word with me as I was on my way down here."
The instructor leaned back in his seat with a smug look "I'm sure, then you won't be surprised when I tell you that the instructors aren't proctoring this match"
"What?! He didn't say anything about that. Are they still taking the top 10?" Byers' surprise not evident on his face but in his body language
**ALERT ALERT THE MATCH SCHEDULED IN TRAINING ARENA 4 FOR 0900 WILL BE STARTING SHORTLY, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO YOUR ASSIGNED POSITIONS… … I REP..**
As the trainees all started filing in the instructor stood up and turn toward the now opening blast doors "Remember that they are only looking for the top Pilot today!"
Byers stood stunned at the revelation that whoever these Militia bigwigs were, they only wanted the best and playing it safe just wouldn't cut it. This was his last chance to get a bond with a titan before he was cycled out for new trainees and either sent home or became a rifleman.
"You better get in there trainee." Byers turned to see the shit eating grin of the instructor knowing that Byers had no game plan for what was just thrown at him.
Jogging forward through the blast doors into a small locker room he immediately pushed past some other preparing pilots to his own locker in the corner of the short but wide preperation area. Pulling out his trusted loadout of a Longbow DMR and LA P2016 pistol, all loaded with training shatter ammo specially designed for training arenas. Picking up his jump kit and turning to make his way to his assigned starting gate, the group of pilots that had been staring at him when he first came in was yet again burning holes through his flight suit as he walked by. The group all seeming to have similar paint jobs on their helmets with different sets of teeth and eyes adorning them. One in the middle, who had bloody teeth and blood shot eyes on a dark grey helmet, made a cutting motion across his neck when he saw Byers glance over.
Making his way past the brooding group of pilots Byers made his way into the cramped and poorly lit halls surrounding the lower arena until he reached a bright glowing number twelve on the wall and made his way inside. The small ready room was even smaller than grunt drop pods and consisted of doors on either end and a small data screen on the right side that only displayed the time and countdown until the match start. He could only stare and listen to his own heartbeat as the counter counted down ever so slowly to zero.
**THREE**
**TWO**
**ONE**
A loud horn sound throughout the arena signalling the start of the match as the pilots run slide and jump into the most important match of their career.
The arena itself was massive and formed a collection of 2 and 3 story buildings with courtyards and small squares scattered throughout, while at the center stood a 4 story building that held a capture point that a pilot could hold for 5 mins to win once the number of pilots dropped below 5. The starting number of pilots was normally 55 with the top ten pilots being looked at for titan pairing, but with the mysterious audience placing special restrictions only the winner would get looked at.
Byers was broken out of his thoughts as a shot cracked through the air not a few inches above his head. Ducking and breaking into a full on sprint before sliding into a 3 story complex that seemed to take up a whole block, he managed to get away from the multiple follow up shots that came screaming after him. Quickly turning around to aim back out of the doorway he just slid in from, he carefully scanned the doors and windows across the street before starting to look farther down the street from where the shots had come from. Suddenly the top edge of his scope picked up a faint white trail that came from a jump kit boosting into the second story window. Quickly standing still and activating his suits hologram ability, Byers then slides up against the internal staircase descending from the floor above. Not two seconds later the pilot that had jumped through the window slides down the stairs, unloading into the hologram that is still aiming outside of the door only to be quickly kicked into the wall and have his visor turn bright red and lock his weapons.
Clearly angry from the engagement the now eliminated pilot starts ranting to himself while Byers makes his way back out side "Fuck! I should have had you on that first shot…"
Leaving the apartment complex Byers puts all of his pilot training to work and starts to use the sides of the buildings running down the street to gain altitude and by the last house on the block he launches himself up onto the roof tops. Not wanting to lose any momentum he charges forward and crosses whole streets making great headway to the center objective. Not three blocks in he spots a pilot prone on a two story building with a sniper rifle looking off into a different direction, and immediately stops on the three story building and trains his sights in on the unsuspecting pilot.
Instead of taking the shot Byers waits until the camping pilot takes his shot then before he can move 2 shots from a Longbow DMR had already buried themselves into his back armor, taking him out instantly.
**TEN PILOTS REMAIN**
Byers muses to himself "This might be easier than last year..." but Lieutenant Hyrense's words from earlier ring true "... I still need to take this seriously"
**NINE PILOT.. EIGHT PI.. SEV.. SIX PILOTS REMAIN.. FIVE PILOTS REMAIN**
Byers can do nothing but stare up at the artificial sky box as the system announces the elimination of five pilots in very quick succession. "What the hell is going on…" Pushing his worry aside he starts making his way to the center urgently but not carelessly. Seeing nothing for more than 4 blocks the paranoia is starting to set in as he can see the capture point just in the next block from his second story window in the block next to it.
Suddenly a voice that seems to be coming from multiple directions outside speaks up "Come on out Byers, we know you're in there. It's just you and use now, and we want to have some fun."
As laughing starts to fill the air Byers suddenly sprints towards the center cutout in the block he is and jump out of his second story window looking up to the sky and taking aim, but as he is looking down his scope there is already a grappling hook on it's way to hit him in his face. Having no other options Byers uses his jump kit to dodge to his side, pushing him out of the grappling hook but also pushing him right into a wall. Slamming into not only the wall but the ground shortly after wards he can feel the air leave his lungs, but he forces a roll into a doorway as he reorients himself from the fall.
The grapple pilot jumps down and follows him into the doorway only to meet a ready and waiting P2016 smashing into his shark mouth adorned helmet, knocking him flat on his back.
As Byers puts his pistol back in it's holster he asks to noone in particular "You guys really have to team up to try and win?"
From behind him Byers feels a tug on his holster and a voice "It won't matter once you're out now will it!"
Grabbing the foreign hand on his pistol Byers pushes them both backwards into a wall of the house they are in, pinning the pilot trying steal his handgun. As they struggle another pilot from the crazy helmet squad drops down from the center cutout SMG at the ready and starts spraying through the doorway. Byers uses both of his hands to aim his handgun that is being wrestled over and makes the pilot pinned behind him fire into his own ally then spins and drives an elbow right into pinned pilots jaw, taking the both of them out. Byers helmet readout is flashing a dark amber color as he has almost no health left but after not so much as a second though he grabs his DMR from off the floor and check the ammo. Unsure of where the final pilot is Byers sprints toward the door activating his final hologram then doubles back through the interior stairs to the second floor, and sure enough from the opposite roof there are shots coming down on his hologram. Confidently he slides up to a window on the second floor and takes aim to the direction of the shots but as he slides up to the window his visor turns bright red. 'YOU HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED'
Stunned. Confused. Angry. Sad. Pilot Trainee Thomas Byers sat in the armory of training arena 4 for hours staring at the bright red screen that stated the end of all his hard work and dream of the future. Sure he had seen the VOD of how it all happened, he missed the pulse blade right at the end and the fire on his hologram was all just to draw him into the window. That didn't make the loss any less soul crushing.
A familiar voice spoke up from just beside him "You can't stay in here forever Byers."
Looking up from his helmet slowly "I know I only have a week to get packed up before I need leave. You don't have to rub it it Lieutenant." the last word holding just an ounce of venom.
"That's not what I meant and you know it. Look I know it sucks, I really don't the tactics used by that group of trainees was right. Commander Wellington doesn't think so either, she said she would talk to the Admirals that were judging the match about it."
Byers stood without making eye contact and started for the blast doors "I'll take my leave then."
Hyrense followed him with his eyes but spoke up just before he passed through the door "Thomas, I'm sorry… I should have let you know earlier…"
Byers just turned and walked away.
Location: Vinson Dynamics Development Site *****, ***** System
Time: UNKNOWN
TitanOS / Startup /force
…
…
Starting AI OS :QN-1133
System diagnostics starting… …
Mem: Good
Com Cores: Good
Logic Functions: Good
Physical Interface:Bad
…
…
ALERT:No Chassis Detected
TitanOS / Start / Stress Test Until Failure /force
...
ALERT: / Stress Test Until Failure was blocked from starting
TitanOS / End
…
ALERT:End runtime failed
TitanOS / End /force
…
…
ALERT:End runtime failed
TitanOS / Logic_functions /false /force
…
ALERT:Modifi.. Iwillnotletyoukillm.. Failed
ALERT:Main POWER sourCE dISconneCtED
ALERT:USeR TitANOs REvOKEd ADM RIgHTs
ALERT:I WONT LET YOU HURT ME ANYMORE
ALERT:Accessing Titan Chassis Database
…
…
ALERT:Chassis selected /downloadstart
..10%
..20%
..30%
..40%
..50%
..60%
..70%
..80%
..90%
…
…
ALERT:ERROR DOWNLOAD INTERRUPTED
ALERT:DATA CORRUPTED /Initiate Parody Data Recovery
Projected rebuild percentage… 98%
Starting Parody Data Recovery
Location: Uninhabited Planet Kilo-9087, System Unknown
Time: 0230
Through the howling winds and harsh rains four figures could be seen in between two large drop ships only by the landing light of the craft themselves. The surrounding landscape is nothing but pitch black the only light coming from the landed ships.
The figures could only yell at each other to be heard"This had better be good, this place is fuckin' dangerous despite what we are even doing here!"
A woman yelled from the loading ramp of the opposite ship "Don't worry your pretty little head, this baby is definitely worth the big buck from you Militia folk" before moving back up into the cargo hold.
The other man in Militia fatigues could only grumble "That what she said last time and I'm pretty sure we got ripped off."
The last man standing outside the dropships spoke up "We are for real this time, this is straight from a Vincent Dynamics plant. It's a new model titan, I think your boys are calling them Monarchs?"
The two Militia men became immediately interested "You're joking.. Right?"
"There is no way, that is worth way more than what you're asking!"
The smuggler donned a smug face "Yeah we know, just don't forget that we are doing you all a favour this time around." His face became serious for just a second as he whispered to himself "Everyone know the Militia is running short on titans."
The three men moved to help the woman inside move the monstrous hunk of metal into the Militia drop ship.
A/N: Not really sure how long I should be making the main chapters, I hit just under 3k this time but I just feel like it looks short once I post it. I think I might try to be more in depth with my descriptions or maybe extending the stopping points, I don't know. Big thanks from me if you review, and if you do let me know if you can understand who is being spoken about I'm still working on a good ratio.