Left Behind
A Titanfall Fanfic.
By Indogma
Chapter 1:
Standby for Titanfall
"Evac ship has arrived from the Odyssey, Graves." Came the report.
"How many made it?" Asked the former Admiral grimly.
"Only one pilot," said the serviceman weakly.
"Damn," Graves sighed.
"So much for retaking the Odyssey," Sarah sighed, leaning on one of the consoles of the militia's flagship Homer.
"IMC's just trying to counter us wherever we go." Bish commented, "If not, why keep us from the ship? It has to value to them. Or us for that matter…"
"It's apart of our past," Graves said, "And it's the least I can do for Mac."
"Yeah, yeah," Bish grunted.
"Who was the survivor," Sarah asked.
"A pilot named Josh Murry."
"It's gone," E sighed letting his spitfire's barrel sink towards the ground. "Evac's gone…"
"Yeah," Tas nodded, "It is."
"Looks like we're stuck here," Hack commented.
Don said nothing as she scanned the sky above looking for any forlorn chance a shuttle had remained behind, but her search was interrupted by the ground shaking beneath her feet. When she caught sight of the Atlas Titan, she said, "We've got more immediate problems."
"What'dya think Don," Tas asked checking his ammo.
"We need to jerry-tom it." She looked towards E. "Anvil have the slammer mod?"
"Yeah," E said lifting his gun on his shoulder. "I'm playing brain surgeon I take it?"
"Hacks and I will run decoy. Tas you're pilot control."
"Got it," Tas nodded darting forward and turning on his cloak.
"Where am I in this?" E asked.
Don looked around and found the ideal spot for E to camp until the titan strolled by. "See that rail overpass." E nodded. "Wait up there, we'll him under you. Hacks do you have any ark grenades left?"
"One," Hacks shrugged.
"Better than nothing," Don sighed checking the remaining ammunition. About two clips worth left. With a final nod toward Hacks and E, they darted ahead towards their places.
"Murry…" Rook growled, still on the ground looking up towards the sky. "Eat shit and die." But no one heard him as he kneeled in the dirt. For a moment he remained there, caught in a daze.
"TITIAN!" Came a panicked scream from affair. Rook turned to see a small group of militia grunts running down the small road between the ship and the buildings. When the grunts had darted from view, an IMC Atlas appeared in hot pursuit of the troopers, one of the victors picking off the remaining enemy survivors.
Rook watched the titan until it disappeared behind the buildings and was gone from view, but his eyes remained on the corner of the building; the realization of threat of the enemy titan means he was still in danger not connecting in his mind.
"Pilot!" Came a call from the young man's side. Rook turned his head lazily to see a grunt pulling at his shoulder. "Get up! We need your help!" The man pointed down the road where the titan had strolled across. "That titan's killing my men! I need y—" then the man's head exploded; blood and gray matter spattering the helmet of the rookie pilot, like a sick painting.
Rook stared the deep red of the flesh blood now streaked across his visor. Blood; is it mine? Trough the blood he caught sight of another image, a gray mass moved towards him. A titan. Suddenly his mind came to life, and Rook realized he was in danger. He darted from his spot on the ground and ran to a nearby doorway of a building, falling to the floor as his legs fell out from under him as he reach safety.
"You alright?" Came a hand tugging the pilot away from the doorway just a barrage of bullets came flying where the pilot once stumbled.
For a moment Rook could only stare at the blurry images that clouded around him. At first he instinctually reached for his carbine, but something prevented him from pulling the trigger on whether. Then his eyes seemed to come to their sense and he could recognize who they where. They where the Militia grunts that he had seen running away from the titan just a few moments before.
"Yeah," Rook exhaled, agreeing while his body did not feeling fine.
"Did you see our Lieutenant out there?" One of the grunts asked.
"Who?" Rooks asked absently looking at the blood on his visor. "Oh, uh, I am not sure…"
"Get down!" Came the cry as a renewed salvo of bullet's came in through the doorway.
"Oh god, oh god oh god," pleaded one of the grunts, fretting for their life.
Meanwhile the IMC pilot was enjoying herself in this turkey shoot. One pilot, about five grunts were not much for this pilot, and she was eager chalk up the kills for himself.
Then a frightening sound to any pilot rang in her ears. The beeping sound of a missile lock on. Darting her gaze around, she saw one pilot, with short blonde hair, standing to her left pointing an Archer missile launcher at her. When the sound of a lock on beeped in her ears, and saw the smoke of a take off. The IMC's pilot shook from a direct hit, and the pilot turned fully to mow down this pilot would attack her. But as she tried to target the pilot, she had sprinted down the road between the Odyssey and the shantytown buildings.
"Get back here," The IMC pilot cursed turning to give pursuit to the pilot. The grunts inside the building could wait and would not do much damage to her or her Titan if left alone. She was not sure if she had seen a pilot as well in there, but the imminate pilot was more of a threat than the one she might have seen.
Giving chase, the IMC pilot was rewarded by seeing another pilot along with the one who had shot at her sprinting down the road in full retreat. "Easy," the pilot boasted zooming in on the slower pilot, strangely the other pilot than the blonde harred one, and opened fire. Only three rounds were shot off, before the automated voice informed the pilot. "RELOADING WEAPON."
She was out of bullets; only a minor set back, but nonetheless an inconvenient one. She looked back at her targets and saw that they where already under the over pass and seemed like they where heading to the building on the far end of the road. Well, this pilot was not about to let her prey escape. So with both of her dashes she sped ahead until she reached the over pass; where three things happed at once.
One, she had ran out of dashes to use, and now had to content with walking to her prey. Two, her gun was now reloaded, and ready to shot out hot death upon the two pilots, who had just ducked on the first story of the building. And she would have been more than had done, if it was not for the third item. The sound of soft rattling's echoed inside the cockpit. At first the pilot dismissed it as her Titian scraping the sides of the over pass. But once she crossed the makeshift bridge, the rattling continued, causing her to worried.
Her fears were confirmed a mere second later. "ENEMY PILOT ABOARD." She had been boarded!
Panic set into the Pilot as she could hear the shots hammering her Titan's brains, and the armor gage on her HUD diminishing rapidly. Instinctively, she triggered her elect smoke on her titan, causing a thick fog of electricity to spew from her Titan. For a moment, she waited in that smoke and watched as the enemy pilot indicator to turn off. Soon it did, and either the other pilot had died or had bailed.
"Better get rid of that one," the IMC pilot said to herself.
She got as far as turning slightly before she was bombarded by heavy fire form the front. The other pilot she was chasing had a sidewinder! She turned back to exit the smoke, only run into a Ark grenade, causing her screen to go wild.
Then it was like hell broke loose. She could not tell what was hitting her, but whatever it was it was coming from all sides. Mag rounds from her left, a beam laser from her back, and a combination of a sidewinder and Archer missiles from the front.
Needless to say, she was all but fucked.
It took only second's for her Titan's core to overload, and she knew it would not last much longer. Furiously the IMC pilot pounded her keys of her console and ejected form her Titian and activated her cloak.
She swung her head in the air angrily, searching for any or all of the pilots who did this to her Titan, and piloted what she would to them.
Then there was loud, krack, and all of the thoughts had stopped. In fact everything about the pilot stopped, apart from a small stream of blood that flowed from the pilot's helmet.
Her body became like a ragdoll, her limps flaying in the air as he plummeted towards the ground. And in a freaky connection her she smacked into the ground at the exact moment when her titan imploded.
Coincidence or not, most of the Militia pilots did not notice it as they appeared from ever they where. Don and Hacks walked out of the building on the edge of the cliff, E jumped down from the over pass, jumping on it when the smoke was released, and Tas just appeared out of nowhere like he always did.
They were alive and well, despite all of the circumstances.
"Admiral Graves! There's scans showing several of our pilots are still alive at the Odessey!"
"Are you sure," Bish exclaimed looking at he monitor.
"At least five pilots and several grunts are still down there!"
"Can we send a hell rider down to get them?" Sarah asked.
"No time." Graves dismissed, "Most of the IMC fleet is on it's way here, and we can't get tangled in a full out fleet action just for five pilots."
"So are we just going to leave them there?" Sarah snipped.
Graved said nothing at first, and instead headed towards the monitor to look join Bish. "Who is down there?"
The serviceman pulled up five profiles on each of the five pilots. "Captain Donna "Don" Enny. Senior officer of the 26th Marauders. Master Sargent, Taseté "Tas" Isamuto, second officer of the troop. Sargent Edgar Eniquiéz. Corporal Barbara "Hacks" Hicks. And Private first class, uh," the serviceman tried to dig a little deeper, "Rook, Sir."
"Are they all still alive?"
"As far as I know," Bish nodded looking at the date himself, "And it seems, three of them have been left behind before. Don, Tas and E, all were left behind at Fracture, Sir. They know what to do I bet."
"There's more then just those three," Sarah countered. "Those are some tough odds they will be able to do it again."
"Well lets try to better them then" Graves declared turning towards Sarah, "Load up their spare titans with everything you can think of. Food ammo, anything they might need."
"Should I throw in a few special weapons as well?"
"Whatever will help then get through this," Graves said. "Just get them ready to drop."
"Is it gone?" One of the grunts asked aloud hearing a large explosion.
"It might be a trap," another said.
"Pilot, go check out," one of them requested.
Rook shot an uneasy glance towards the grunt who had said it, but understood why the grunt would ask him. A pilot could get away easier from a titan easier then a grunt could. Still, it was not a likable request.
Equipping his helmet, still covered in that other grunt's blood, he took one step forward only to stop mid step as he and the grunts heard a rattling from the next room. Everyone turned their guns towards the small room to their left and waiting nervous as a footstep could be heard. Then a figure came out of the door and jumped back as he saw about seven or sow guns pointed at him.
"Jesus Christ!" E swore ducking to the wall as a trigger-happy grunt opened fire.
"Hold your fire!" A grunt shouted, silencing the gunfire.
"Goddammit Rook, get those grunts under control!" He fumed, still hiding behind the wall.
"Lower you guns," Rook said at last, "He's with us."
"Thank you," E's said tightly walking out from the cover. "What are you all doing in here?"
"Hiding from a Atlas," replied the grunt who had ordered the ceasefire.
"That Atlas is dead," E replied. "No need to hide any more." He looked past Rook towards the grunts. "Who's in charge of you guys?"
"I guess I am," said the grunt again. "Why?"
E pointed outside, "Don wants all officers of the survivors to meet with her."
"Why?"
"Cause we're going to be here for a while."
"Looks like you missed the ride too, Rook," Don commented seeing the other pilot walking in with the seven grunts.
"Yes, Sir," Rook agreed half-heartily.
"You wanted to talk with me?" Said the "leader" of the grunts.
"I did. I'm Captain Don of the 26 Marauders."
"Sergeant Dlow." The man replied. "In charge of the grunts it seems."
"Lucky us," came a snarky response form on of the grunts.
"Sergeant, I'm sure I don't have to inform you that we lost this fight. As we missed our ride."
"I know, you're man said that you were stuck here."
"We all are stuck here," Don replied flatly. "And that means we are going to get moving if we want to live."
"Why the hell do we need to do that?" Came a protest from the snarky grunt. 'We have defensible positions here? Why not dig down and hold out here?"
"Because we have no fleet support," Don said shaking her head. "What you want to do, if you have a death with and want to go out in a blaze of glory, you can do what you said. But it will be short and a very pretty death; once the fleet locks on to your defenses."
"What should we do?" Asked Dlow.
Don pointed towards the jungle, "We get moving into the tree line. There they can't lock on us from above."
"Isn't the jungle a bad place to be?"
"So's being in the crosshairs of an orbiting ship," Don countered. "The truth is, the jungle might kill you. The IMC will kill you. Understand that dipshit?"
The snarky grunt, grumbled to himself, but it seemed he learned his lesson, for now.
"Good," Don said turning back to Dlow, "Now we better gather our resources."
"What do you have?" Dlow asked.
"Five pilots. You know me, Rook there and E. Tas is on the top of the ship keeping an eye out for incoming titian drops. And Hacks… is doing her own thing."
"So that's five pilots," Dlow summed up. "I got seven grunts all low on ammo and out granades."
"Good. We can't eat grenades. Do you got any food?"
"No," Dlow shook his head.
"Well that's not good," Sighed Don. "Food would have helped us last a bit longer. But now we are going to have to scavenge…"
"What the hell do you know about scavenging?" Spoke the outspoken grunt.
"Because, you little shit," Don said getting into the grunts, "I've been left behind before. And if you little shit stain was to get off this planet at all, you'll do as I say."
"And if I don't want to?" replied the grunt standing his ground.
"Gunther," growled Dlow.
"Then you get left behind," Don said pulling out her Wingman pistol and pressed it against the man's leg. "With two shot out legs so you can't follow." She saw the fear in the man's eyes and twisted her threat, "I wonder how long you can keep up with us be you were bleed out? Hours? Minutes?"
"I get it," Gunther sneered.
"Then keep your mouth shut. 'Cause one less mouth to feed would be ideal."
"Like you would feed us anyway," snipped back the grunts.
Don gave no reply to the grunts accusation, but she did remove her gun from the grunt to turn towards the leader of the grunts.
"Dlow, have your people fan out and search the shantytown."
"What are we looking for?"
"Anything. Extra guns, ammo, food, and anything we can drink. No booze, unless you want an group of drunken soldiers." Don looked up towards the sky as if she was gauging the time by the sun. "We don't have long until our fleet bugs out of the orbit. Hopefully we will not be noticed by the IMC, but if decide to look for us, this is the place they will start looking."
"Got it," Dlow nodded. "You heard the pilot! Fan out!" When the pilots were gone, only E and Rook stood standing in the road.
"What should we do?" Rook asked.
"Pilot meeting," Don said pointing towards the wretched ship.
"Heard you had trouble with one of the grunts," Tas said suddenly as the five pilots meet in the large hanger of the ship.
"Have him on your crosshairs?" Don sneered.
"Might have been lining up a shot," shrugged Tas. "Would have stopped any trouble in the ranks."
"That's what we need to decide," Don said sternly. "What do we do with the grunts?"
"What do you mean?" Rook asked.
"There's thirteen of us with the grunts. Mean's we have to feel seven extra mouths then we should. You know how much food that is?"
"Water as well." Added Tas.
"That mean's we'll have to play babysitter to them," Don exhaled rubbing the back of her neck. "Unless we ditch them now go on our own."
"You can't mean that," Rook said. "You said you've been left behind before. So it will be easier time."
"Kid," E pointed to himself Tas and Don, "We all were left behind once."
"What? What happened?"
Don said nothing to the Rook and looked towards Tas. "What do you think?"
Tas shrugged, "Leaving them behind might be the best. Save us some trouble."
"Hacks?"
The woman shrugged, "Doesn't matter to me."
"E?"
"Ditch 'em. We can't have any more liabilities then we already do."
Don nodded and sighed, "Is that what you want?"
"What about me?" Rook demanded. "Don't I get a say?"
"We'll ask you when you've earned it Rook." Don said crossly. "And how you handled that Titian proves you haven't earned a kill."
"You asked Hacks." Rook grimaced.
"Hacks is our tech. Her opinion matter far more then a no-kill pilot. That means if she told us were to shit in a volcano we'd do it. Is that clear." The Silence from the Rook told Don that is was.
"Then its decided," Don summed up sadly. "We—"
"Pilots. This is Admiral Graves." Came a call suddenly to there ears. "We cannot send a ride to pick you up. But we can give you a fighting chance. We're dropping your spare titan's now, along with a supply cache of food and water. Keep up the fight, and we'll be back to pick you up. Good luck."
"What the hell's he talkin' about," He asked.
"Pilots, standby for Titanfall." Came Sarah's voice confirming the drop. "Titans will fall on the south clearing of the ship."
"Shit," exasperated Don. "Rook, go find the grunts and warn them that we have friendly Titans falling. Make sure they don't get trigger happy on out titans."
"Why do I have to warn them? They can't do much."
"Because if you don't I'll break your knee caps. Go. Warn. Them."
Knowing his CO could and would make good on her threat, Rook bolted off to find the grunts.
With the dunce now gone form their gathering, the four pilots reconvened.
"What the hell is Graves doing?" E declared. "Giving us our titan's without our asking for it."
"I don't mind," Hacks declared.
"You wouldn't." E's sighed. "You treat yours like a pet."
"And you don't?" Hacks asked.
"Pet or not, we're in trouble here Hacks," Don barged in, "With our titan's dropping, the IMC is bound to notice."
"And with our titans its going to be harder to hide…" E added.
Suddenly there came the sounds out several heavy impacts of falling to the ground.
"They're here," Tas said.
Looking towards the south, all four pilots saw five fire balls falling down to the ground.
"What the hell is that?" Cried Dlow as he rushed into the Odyssey with all of his grunts and Rook at his heels.
"Our titans," Don said plainly. "Didn't Rook tell you they were dropping?" She glared at Rook.
"You man did, but that doesn't explain what the hell you are playing at calling down your Titans!"
"We didn't. They were dropped for us."
"How convenient," Gunther drooled.
Don glowered at the grunt.
"So we have our titans?" Hacks shrugged, "What's the problem?"
"That fact that you didn't tell us you had your fuckin' titan." Dlow fumed. "You kept us in the dark!"
"So the fuck what?" Tas said sternly, showing the first sign of emotion that Rook had ever seen. He turned to stare down the grunt sergeant. "If you are afraid of being left in the dark, let me ask you this: what the hell are you doing to do about it? Make us tell you everything we do? You think you can make us do anything?"
Dlow said nothing, as he had to look up at the tall sniper.
"Tas," cautioned Don, "That's enough." It took a moment for Tas to finally step back, but even when the sniper was out of the grunt's face, the tension hung in the air. Until Don spoke again, "Look, it's clear we don't trust each other—"
"You can say that again," snipped Gunther.
"BUT, as I can see it you have several options before you." She pointed towards the jungle, "You can try your luck in the jungle by yourselves." She shifted towards one of the nearby buildings. "You could try to make a defensible position here and try to hold out until the fleet tries to retake the planet." She dropped her arm. "Or you can come with us, along with our titans."
"I thought we were leaving them behind?" Rook hushed to Hacks.
"Things changed when our titans fell," Hacks whispered back. "I bet Don wants ground support for our mechs."
"I would suggest you follow us," Don added.
The grunts exchanged looks between each other. "Why would we do that?" Asked one of the grunts.
"Because that is your best bet," Don said plainly. "Seven grunts on their own? How long do you think you will last?" Again more nervous looks. "How about seven grunts five pilots with their titans?"
"Even if we did go with you, what guarantee do you have that we will not get killed?" Asked Dlow.
"None," Don admitted.
"Figures," Gunther scoffed.
"You better watch your mouth, son." E growled. "A loose tongue as a way of being cut off if you are not careful."
"How died and made you in charge?" Gunther snapped back.
"He's done this before," Rook said angrily.
"He's right," Tas said crossing his arms. "Three of us have been left behind before. How many of you can boast that?"
None of the grunts spoke, even the one named Gunther. Suddenly Dlow spoke, "I'm assuming there are conditions to following you?"
Don nodded, "If you follow us, you take our commands." She said plainly. "That means everything I, Tas, E, or Hacks say is a command." Rook wanted to interject but a glance from Don told him she had left him out purposefully, again.
"Is that all?" Dlow asked.
"For now. There might be more conditions as issues arise," Don promised.
Dlow looked back at his men. "I need to talk this over with them."
"Then I would be quick." Don said looking to the sky. "It won't be long before the IMC has orbital control." She turned back to the grunts. "You have about ten minutes to decide. A second later and we will be gone. Understand?"
Dlow nodded, "Will be there."
"If we want to," added Gunther.
With the terms, what there were, laid out for the grunts the Militia pilot turned to head for their titans.
"God damn," marveled E looking over his Atlas titan. "They sure did deck her out."
"Which one is that one?" Hacks asked interested.
"Sully," E boasted. "After a girl I new back on the core planets."
"And I though you didn't treat your Titian's like pets," Hacks teased.
"I only called this one Sully cause she's a bitch to handle." Then he added in a whisper. "Much like the Sully I did know."
"So they gave us moded weapons," Tas commented.
"Probably thought we were desperate." Don added.
"Hell," E said cheerfully. "If that is what it took to get better weapons, I'd wouldn't mind getting left behind more often."
"This is probably because there were so many of us," Don answered. "They probably didn't want a repeat of what happened at Fracture."
"Well we're nearly there already," Tas said.
"What happened at Fracture?" Rook asked again.
"Nothing worth telling," E said sternly.
"Why not? I'm a pilot, I should know this."
"Rook," E said crossly, "Even Hacks doesn't know what happened." Rook turned to hacks, but she was to engrossed with looking over her titan to listen. "And it's best that it stays that way."
"Then how about why we're suddenly asking the grunts to join us?"
"'Cause the IMC going to be hunting us," Don said atop her titan. "And the grunts are going to be easy targets."
"I though you didn't care—"
"I don't," Don replied quickly. "But I can't just leave a group of our own people behind knowing they will die. If it would have just been us on foot we, the grunts would have just slowed us down. But with our titans, we can't out run them."
"I doesn't hurt to have cannot fodder too," Tas said coldly.
"Enough of that Tas." Don said. She turned back to Rook. "So it is better just to work together then piss them off and ditch them."
"I still don't under stand," Rook said.
"I though you wouldn't," Don sighed under her breath. "Just check over your titan. We don't have lone before the IMC comes to secure the ship."
Rook did as he was told and headed towards his own Atlas.
"You alright?" Asked Tas, stepping on Don's titan.
"Not now Tas," Don warned.
"One moment you're trying to rid of the grunts, and now you want to save them. It would make anyone think something was wrong."
"We have a better chance to this time, Tas." Don said looking at her second in command. "As well as put them in more danger then they sould be."
"Is this what happened at Frac?"
"Maybe," Don allowed. "Maybe I feel like I owe them something. Or maybe it's that I want to get it right this time."
"If you ask me, you did it right the first time."
"Well I wasn't asking you!" Don snapped. "Is your titan ready?"
"I don't know."
"Then go find out!" Don ordered.
Tas only nodded and turned to check on his Orge.
Free of distractions, Don turned to look over her Atlas herself. Until a new voice drove her away from her titan: "Hey, Don?" The captain turned and saw Hacks standing at the foot of Don's titan, a mischievous smile on her face.
"What is it—" Don suddenly cut herself off as she noticed three Specters behind the pilot.
"I was wondering since we are bringing along the grunts I could have these tag along?"
"Did you just find them?"
"Nah," waved Hacks, "I had them out scavenging for spare parts incase they broke one of theirs." Don noticed a large sack of robotic limbs on the backs of one of the specters.
"Why?" Don asked.
"Cause then they could keep us with us if we had to bug out. They can run almost as fast as I can, and for just as long."
"You planned to have them follow us even after we ditched the grunts?" Don asked.
Hacks shrugged. "Maybe. I can't leave them behind without trying to bring them along."
Don shook her head. Hacks was always a strange one.
"They're clear of any IMC programming that might have had them traced," Hacks added. "And I can program them to take your orders incase I get shot."
Don weighed the options in her mind. When she made her mind, she sighed allowed, "Alright Hacks, bring them along."
"Thanks you, Sir." Smiled the blonde haired pilot. "You won't regret it."
"I already do," Don sighed. The from behind the blonde haired pilot, Don saw the small gaggle of grunts walking towards them. "Made up your mind?"
Dlow stepped forward and looked up at the pilot. "We've talked about it," he glanced over his shoulder and his grunts. His voice sounded nervous, like he was agreeing to sell his soul, "And we will go with you and your pilots."
"So agree with everything?" Don asked. "You follow my orders. No questions asked?"
Dlow nodded reluctantly. "Yes. We agreed."
Don glanced back, and wondered if everyone had agreed, or were strong-armed into submitting.
"What the hell?" Cursed someone to Don's right. She turned and saw Rook's cockpit had been opened. The inside of the cockpit had been stuffed full of supplies. Boxes of ammo, field rations, one or two gallons of water, and a few extra firearms.
"Supplies," Don realized, her mood improving with the sight of the items stuffed into the cockpit of the titan. She then lowered herself towards the top panel of her cockpit and open it only slightly. Sure enough in her titan was also filled with supplies. All the better. After all it looked as though the grunts had not gathered much of anything when Don had ordered them to gather supplies. But now it was irrelevant now, thanks to Graves and their Titans.
She turned back and looked to the grunts and tested her power over the grunts. "Go help the Rook with those supplies."
There was a brief moment when the grunts did not move, but merely stared at the stuffed titan, until they realized that what was inside the titan was their means of survival.
"Don!" Came a worried E's voice. "We have shuttles dropping!"
She swung upward and saw several IMC grunt shuttles dropping on the far side of the Odyssey.
"Change of plans!" She told everyone jumping down from her titan. "Grunts! Gather what you can from Rook's titan! Pilots! Turn the titans to follow! We need to get into the jungle!"
"Scans show five enemy titans remaining on planet surface." Reported a specter on Admiral Spyglass's bridge. "Probably of disruption of supply routes on planet: high."
"Location?" Asked the Admiral.
"Less then a thousand yards away from the ship: Odyssey."
"ETA for range to orbital bombardment?"
"Half hour," replied the specter. "Corse of action suggested inadvisable. Remaining forces reported heading into the jungle. No clear target is visible. Orbital bombardment inefficient. Propose sending task force of pilots after remaining pilots."
"Proposal accepted." Spyglass said. "Call Sergeant Blisk.
"Admiral?" Said the blonde cruel soldier.
"Sergeant Blisk, you are to remain in planetary orbit with the titan carrier Predator. A group of rebel pilots remain on the planet. It is vital that they are removed before they harm any supply route on the planet."
"A bit of hunting, eh?" Blisk smiled evilly, "Sounds like fun."
"Are your orders clear?"
"Aye, sir." Blisk nodded. "I get right to it."
-End Notes-
A bit of a off chapter, I admit. The reasoning of why the pilots had to take the grunts and go into the jungle is a bit wonky.