Chapter 2: Unexpected Answers
The flight to Harmony was quite for the for the first five minuets or so when until Bear made it into the data and started with "Wow" and "No way" with several "Unbelievable". After a few minuets of this Gates finally said "What is so dam unbelievable?" With an exasperated tone. "Well we assumed that the IMC were sending a new weapon out here something they developed, but that's wrong they found it. Its some old world military secret they found buried in some bunker on Earth of all placeless." Bear replied with surprise. "What are you saying?" Gates said surprised herself. "The IMC dug him up is the short story." Bear said as he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the cargo hold. "What else dose that say?" Gates asked as she moved over to look at the screen herself. "Well from what I can get just looking at the first couple of pages it was some old world government setting up some new weapons project but it never went anywhere, some thing called project Olympus."
The rifleman seamed a little jumpy, he couldn't blame them he had just incapacitated four of them in just as many seconds. Now the eight rifleman all stood at a good distance away from him rifles pointed, that was fine with him he didn't have any plans to escape he wanted to learn what had happened wile he was in stasis. As he was thinking that woman walked back in, he remembered that her name was Gates. She stopped in front of him and took a breath then said "Your name is Alistar Cambel correct?" "Yes" was all he said "Is this project Olympus data we've found true?" "That depends on what you have." She held a data pad up so he could see it. "Well?" "That's all accurate, now if I may ask a question?" She was stunned for a second and then said "Just one" The rifleman around her looked confused at the back and fourth that just happened. "Where am I?" was all he asked, Gates took a moment to think then explained the hole thing the frontier, the war between the IMC and the Militia, where they were now and where they were going. After a moment he spoke up again "I wont cause any trouble would you be so kind and unbind me and I can explain a few things my self." Gates considered what he said for a second then ordered the rifleman to lower there weapons and stepped forward to untie him, after he was untied she looked at him and said "Follow me to the bridge, and if you try anything." She adjusted her grip on her R-201 and he nodded his understanding and he did as he was ordered and followed her. Upon reaching the bridge she sat down in the captions chair again saying "Ok begin explaining." taking a moment or two to collect his thoughts he started "As you know from the info you have I was part of a black list project called Olympus, this project was indented to make a new type of soldier and a new type of mechanized infantry. There solution was to make a soldier that could operate a new heavy walking tank we called them titans and we were the pilots. Project Olympus never had much success because they were to worried that if they deployed us in full force it would blow the cover of the project and so with the inability to achieve a good enough success rate in ops they shut it down, most of the members either joined the military or went home I was different so they put me in to stasis hoping to revive the project and use me to help, as you can see that went well." There was silence for a few seconds then Gates spoke up "How long ago was this?" "Well I went into stasis in 2035 I don't know what year it is now or if you use the same calendar now but I hope that helps." The room was silent again, finally Bear broke the silence by saying "That was a hundred and ninety eight years ago." A serious tone of shock in his voice. "So a anther question then, you had titans over a hundred years ago?" Gates asked stunned. "Well that depends what are titans to you" He said, Bear taped his data pad for a second and then showed him a picture "Like this" Alistar looked at the picture and then said "Yes" And with that another silence this one a little longer. After a few minuets Gates asked a question "From what I've seen in the data we have you have extensive training in all sorts of combat and strategy, is that true?" He adjusted his stance saying "Yes over ten years of combat training and military strategy, including reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War and teaching some classes on the subject" Gates turned and looked at Bear "What do you think?" He took a second to respond still recovering from his beating and the shock "I think, well its worth trying" Alistar looked from one to the other confused "Trying what? he asked. Gates looked back at him "The IMC shipped you out here to use you to win, we want to ask if you would be willing to help us" He stood in silence for a couple of seconds thinking finaly asking "Who exactly would I be joining?" Bear answered before Gates could "Well overall it would be the Militia but there are sub factions that really make it up you could join one of them or work as a freelance pilot" He stood still pondering for a moment and asked another question "How many factions are there and who are they?" Gates answered this time "There are three major factions, the Marauder Corr run by Commander Sarah Briggs she also runs the Special Recon Squadron or SRS a sub group of the MCOR. Then there's the Angel City Elite or ACEs under Commander Robert Taube but everybody calls him Barker He's ex IMC but he helps the Militia after an old friend of his dragged him in to help finish an opp. Lastly the 64 run by me we're the smallest group in the Militia but we hold our own" He replied faster then they were expecting "I'll do it, and if I could grab my gear from the cargo hold be for we get to Harmony it would be much appreciated" Gates stood up and said "Yes you can I'll go with you and send the rifleman up to the bridge" As she finneshed they started walking to the cargo hold. On the way down Alistar spoke up "Thanks for coming I really didn't want to get shot trying to explain this to your men" "Well I don't want you to get shot either now that you've agreed to help us" She replied and they continued walking.
Down in the cargo hold all the rifleman ended up going to the bridge as it would be more comfortable for the rest of the trip. Alistar had opened one of the crates, the one that Bear guessed was a locker and it seamed that he was right. Gates could see him dig out an over suit of a dull almost matte grey color and put it on along with several pieces of armor of the same grey color next he pulled out a pistol she didn't recognize and holstered it finally he grabbed a rifle she also didn't know and a helmet that looked just like the vanguard helmet that Cooper wore again the same grey. "Interesting armor." Gates said in a matter of fact way. "It doesn't look much right now but give me a sec." He said as he leaned down into the crate again this time pulling out a plate carrier tacvest with several extra armor plates on it and a small backpack with a wire running down to a jumpkit. She was a little surprised to see the jumpkit considering how old this stuff was, but none the less there it was. After he put on the vest and the backpack he hooked up the jumpkit and finaly put on his helmet saying. "Now the fun part." As she looked at him his gear began to cycle through many colors and camo patterns in quick succession. "Wow" was all she could say as he continued his equipment check. He began talking to a in helmet OS "Begin tactical ability check" "Standing by" "Cloaking" "Check" "Grapple" "Check" And he went on to check all of the tactical ability's that Gates had ever heard of "Ordnance check" "All ordnance check" "Well that's my kit, do you think I should wake up my titan now so we have a chance to explain things to him?" He asked looking at Gates. "Uh ya sure" she managed to say utterly dumbfounded at the level of tec she just saw. "Ok you might want to stand back a bit." he said stepping over to the third and largest crate. Doing as he suggested she watched as he put in the pass key and took a step back, with a slight groan of metal that hasn't moved in some time the crate opened to revile what looked like a vanguard class titan but based on what his armor did she decided not to take it for granted. He stepped forward reaching up and pushing a unseen button on the extended data core, it took a second as the data core came online it lighting up in the standard blue hew, it retracted in and the titan gave a small jolt a movement as it came fully online "Hello Alistar" it said upon seeing him "Hey Storm" Alistar replied with a hint of joy in his voice "It's been a wile since we last talked" "It has, Al who is this?" Strom said his gaze falling on Gates "Oh uh she's-" and he went silent for a few seconds and then Storm said "Nice to meet you Commander Gates" "Uh nice to meet you" was all she could say "Um my bad, Commander I have a miniature computer in my head and I can share memory's and large amounts of data between me and my titan, and I suppose I should introduce you two properly Gates this is TK-0421 TK this is Commander Gates as you know." As Alistar finneshed the titan turned to him and blinked. Suddenly Alistar said "No I don't know when we'll get there" with the silence so suddenly broken Gates jumped a little coming out of some deep thoughts, "Are you ok?" "Ya I'm fine" "sorry Storm was just wondering when we'll make it to Harmony" "We should be there in the next two hours or so, sorry Storm?" "Ya it's a reference to one of my favorite movies growing up his id number is, well I suppose no one would now it now." He finneshed. "Well I guess just get comfortable and wait till we arrive." Was all Gates said before she left to go back to bridge leaving the two of them alone in the cargo hold, she had to make some sense of all this before they docked at Harmony and she had to explain all of this