NUMBANI, 3 WEEKS LATER
Jason POV
I was at one of my most impatient points in time as I waded through the sewers of the city known as Numbani, since Vale still couldn't crack the coding on the black box we recovered after our first local contact. She had already sent me to where the IMC was supposed to be set up, only to find a dump, and to the middle of the ocean, where me and Arsenal found the Titanic, but nothing in what would help us open it. I wasn't sure of her planning as she sent me to Numbani to see about anyone we could potentially trust with us, like more drones for instance. Me and Sarge were heading through the sewers due to local reports of something that had been scaring citizens, only to be called "E-54," by the locals. We had just rounded the corner when we saw a hulking figure round the corner. We pursued, only to come to a divergence in the pipes. I went one way and Sarge, the other. I had gone only about 2 miles into the pipe when a bright light went off. Immediately thinking of a flashbang, I activated my reflector shades on my helmet and raised my Wingman, only to see a giant robot. It was green and white, with 4 legs and a giant cannon on one of its hands. It almost resembled the wrecked ones I found in Eichenwalde, but this one had horns instead of cannons on the sides of its head, and it had a golden face plate. It would almost be cute and childlike apart from the height and the cannon. Suddenly, a girls voice came from behind the machine, "Wait! Both of you!" I looked and saw a young African American girl, with mechanic wear and goggles. "Who are you and why are you in the sewers?" she asked, I slowly lowered my weapon, not holstering it, but lowering it just in case things went south. "I would ask the same of you, but then again it's 2 against 2, only you have the bigger gun," I said jokingly. Sarge rounded the corner behind me, EV8 shotgun raised. I signaled him to stand down and the green giant lowered the cannon. The girl smiled and replied, "It's okay, Orisa tends to be intimidating, but she is still childish, I'm Efi, her creator and friend." I sighed in relief, thanking that this didn't go into a gunfight. "I'm Jason, and this here is Sarge. Sarge gave her a crisp salute, doing the same with Orisa.
"So why were you down there again Jason?" Efi asked, as me, her and Orisa walked down the street. Sarge went back to the ship to take over since Vale was now in Jason's helmet. "Well, me and my crew picked up a strange reading from there and decided to check it out, but I assume we saw you down there, since there was a black object down there." Suddenly, cheering from up ahead stopped us as we looked and I almost laughed at what I saw. A small parade was going through the street, but on the main float, was the weirdest mechs I had ever seen. There were 6 of them, they looked like damn beetles, with twin cannons on the arms, thrusters on the back. Three were blue, and three were pink, with logos all across the top. The pilots were in the front, waving and showing off to the crowd. My laugh stopped, as I saw these were teenagers, 3 guys, 3 girls, wearing skin tight jumpsuits. The girl in front seemed to be getting a lot of attention, as the crowd cheered, "Hana! Hana!" Efi must have seen my concerned look, as she said, "Don't worry, those people are the Korean M.E.K.A force, well trained mech pilots who fought a colossal omnic recently and succeeded. They're all gamers, who were put into the program. Today, they're celebrating their victory and the leader of Korea should be giving a speech about their program today."
I nodded, but thought it was kind of wrong to be putting people this young on the front lines. This was a common misunderstanding at the beginning of the Titan wars, as most normal troops thought it was a breeze, until their first combat mission. As the parade slowed, an alert went off in my helmet, "Boss, we got something weird in that tower up there. Several of the security force aren't responding, and it seems if the building power has been cut," Vale said, showing the camera footage as I saw that the guard positions were red. "Well let's check it out I guess, is there anyone else in that building?" I asked. "No it's under construction, so you won't have to keep your camo on." I turned to Efi, who was sitting on Orisa's back, tinkering with one of the horns. "I'll be back, something is going on in that tower there, I'll try to be back down soon as I can." Efi nodded, indulged in her work, as I ran towards the tower, feeling that heroic music was playing for some reason.
I huffed as I got to the third to last floor, Vale snickering in my H.U.D.
"At least you didn't have to run up 32 flights of goddamn stairs," I said, coming out of tiredness and into combat mode as I raised my CAR rifle, sweeping the room.
I checked each door and right at the end of the hallway, a door stood open. I snuck in and saw a man, dressed in black, pointing at what seemed to be a .50 caliber sniper rifle right down towards where the parade was. "Hey moron!" I yelled. The guy flinched, pulling the trigger, the shot echoing down the empty hall, he cursed and fired again. I grabbed the guy and practically threw him across the room. He slammed into a wall and I took a special handcuff I made and threw it at him. It immediately attached to his arm, and magnetized to the wall. I looked down from where he shot from to see the crowd going nuts, and up on stage, there were two bodies, not moving. ¨Who did he shoot?" I asked, feeling dread as I saw some of the pilots getting in their suits, worried they might trace the shot and I would be discovered, maybe accused of the shooting. ¨He shot one of the pilots, she is KIA, and he shot the Korean leader, only an injury to the shoulder.¨
I took the guy by the collar of his shirt, demanding a answer, but he only smiled, saying, "It won't matter what you do, and what you ask of me, the stage has been set and our operation shall begin. Besides, it looks as if you will have your hands full anyways," Confused, I turned to see through the window, that 3 of those mechs were flying towards the floor I was on, the one in the middle was that leader, Hana Song. I could see tears on her face and her and the other two had faces of complete malice. I flew back as Hana rammed me with the mech, me and the sniper flying backwards into a wall. "Why?" Hana choked between anger and tears, "Why did you shoot her?" I began to explain, when the guy pulled what appeared to be a detonator, pressed it and once again, I flew backwards into the opposite wall.
"He just blew himself up!" I thought, as I pulled out my SIDEWINDER micro missile launcher, turning back towards the pilots, "Listen, the guy who exploded shot the two down there, I said, I had nothing to do with it, I came up to get him,"
"Liar! You're going down hard for what you did to Claire!" said the pilot on the right, noticing the name Lucas on his mech. I saw the cannons began to spin as I ducked behind cover, barely avoiding the fire that engulfed my previous position. "Titanfall in three minutes top, I suggest a jump to the nearby building. I nodded, then tossed an electric smoke grenade, stalling the mechs long enough for me to make my exit, I threw myself out that window just as several missiles flew straight out the window. As I fell, Vale marked the position that I could make it to. I timed it right and my jump kit bursted to life as I flew towards the building edge. Just as I was about to grab it, something hit me from behind, and I flew off course, as the other pilot slammed into me. Hana came in moments after and I was pinned, hurtling towards the ground. I only managed to climb free of the pin and onto the back of the mech. My data knife was already out so I hacked in and slowed the mech down, only to be flung off by Hana. I hit the ground and the rest of the pilots converged on my position, just as they opened fire, a object flew in front of me and a light shield appeared. I turned and saw Efi and Orisa behind me. Efi looked frustrated and yelled at the pilots, "Why are you trying to hurt this man? He did nothing, only trying to help. I picked up the SIDEWINDER, as I saw that the cannons were spinning up again. "Take them both down," Hana said out of bitterness. "My shield won't be able to hold them back long sir, is there anything we can do?" Orisa said. I nodded and told them to get to cover as I caught out of the corner of my eye, a bright object falling from the sky. They ran to an alley and the shield went down as I stood there, about to be obliterated by children with giant death machines, when smoke came from the sky, covering my Titan as he landed. I hopped in and readied the XO-16 assault rifle and primed one of my favorite Titan abilities, Salvo Core. The smoke cleared and I saw the mechs, this time, they had a few more, meaning there were at least 8 now. All looked battle hardened, but I saw their faces as I emerged and they were startled as I charged out at them. They opened fire with missiles, but the vortex shield caught them and sent them flying back, knocking out 5 at once, the pilots safely ejecting. I wasn't trying to kill them, as it would make things worse. The remaining 3, including Hana began to pummel my Titan, but my weapons were stronger, as the XO-16 shredded through one of them. "Pilot, a friendly dropship is inbound," Arsenal said. The Orion came into view, but Hana and the remaining Pilot began to shoot it, so I sent a signal to Arsenal and he picked me out of the cockpit and threw me at Hana. I plunged my data knife into her mech and it began to stutter. As she ejected, I grabbed her and yanked her towards the dropship, gun against her spine area. I saw mechs dropping from the sky and saw the pilots entering them, meaning they would destroy the dropship if I didn't board it soon. As I began to back away, the pilots approached, guns spinning, but they stopped as soon as they saw I had their leader. One mech halted the others and approached me. "Let our leader go and come with us now," he said in a calm voice, but like the others, there was anger in his eyes. I laughed and said, "Can't do that, but I'll hand her over, if you let me and my friends leave. He acknowledged me with a stern, but angered nod, and I beckoned Orisa and Efi over since they would be in deep trouble if I left them there. They boarded and I release Hana, but out of nowhere, a girl snuck up on me and tackled me to the floor as stumbled, Hana screamed something and the mech cannons whirled up. I yelled for Vale to go and the ship began to rise up. Sarge grabbed the girl, taking her wrists and pinning her to the wall with the magnetized cuffs. The mechs opened fire just as we made our jump.
"Damn, that was close."
I nodded looking around as I saw Orisa and Efi talking in the corner. Zen was watching the prisoner, while Sarge was nowhere to be seen. I walked down to the armory and saw him with one of the machines from Eichenwalde, only white and green paint instead of the orange and red. I also noticed a bird flying around as well. "This lad here boss, is Bastion E-54. Turns out he was the feller down in the sewers, so we talked it out and he was looking for somewhere safe." I smiled and said, "Welcome to the crew Bastion, we'll need all the help we can get." Vale came over the comm, and sounded concerned, "All crew members, please report to the briefing room, we may have a problem.¨
WATCHPOINT GIBRALTAR
The once filled hallways of this abandoned faculty used to be a home for him and his friends, now, it was always dead silent, apart from the few operatives left,who actually tried to help the world. Mercy sighed at the thought of this as she, Genji, Mccree and Tracer headed towards Winston's lab, where he called the members for a meeting. When they entered, A table had been set up and Mercy saw some familiar faces, There was Fareeah, aka, Pharah, who wasn't a part of Overwatch, but had been friends with organization members since Ana was her mother.
There was Reinhardt,who gave them a good long hug, as they gotten close since the Uprising in London, Torbjorn was tinkering with a different turret, chuckling merrily as Tracer gave him a quick hug, there was a girl there who was unfamiliar, but had armor that looked similar to Reinhardt, and Winston himself who gave them all a smile and a welcome, but had a concerned look in his eyes. "Thank you all for coming here today, before I get to the point, I would like to introduce new members to our ranks, here is Pharah and Brigette. Brigette here is Reinhardt's apprentice. So on to the point. As some of you already know, Tracer and Genji encountered a stranger who had way more advance gear and armor than us, and also during that time, something big dropped from the sky and looks to be Ominc." Tracer smiled and said, "He seems nice and he was also being targeted by Talon." Winston looked at her, then to his console, "I'm not so sure though Lena, take a look at what happened at the Korean celebration in Numbani." Everyone watched as the Korean leader was giving his speech, M.E.K.A pilots behind him when a gunshot went off and struck him in the shoulder, then another hit a female pilot right in the head, then it showed 3 of the pilots head towards a building, guns firing, when a armored figure burst out of the window, attempting to grab the roof ledge of a nearby building, only to be rammed by the mechs, the figure hit the ground, and a shield popped up as he fired back, with an Omnic and a girl behind him. Smoke engulfed them as more M.E. surrounded him, only to see a colossal looking Omnic appear from the smoke and began destroying the mechs. Finally, a ship closed in and the armored figure, with the girl and the Omnics, retreated in, but one of the downed pilots tackled the armored figure and the ship took off. Winston looked and everyone was stunned, puzzled and a bit worried. "Vait," Torbjorn said, "Go back to ze girl and that Omnic," Winston rewinded the footage and paused it. "I know her, she vas a little one named Efi that I met in Numbani a long time ago, Me and her mother worked on the OR-15's before Doomfist came and wrecked the damn things, I don't think she could ever do something like that, but I haven't seen her for quite a while." Winston nodded, then looked to see Genji and Tracer sharing looks, as if they were wrong about that stranger. Reinhardt stood up shouting, "When will we act? This could be something grave that requires our attention, This could start a war." Winston only replied, saying, "We will investigate this, but we will need to bring him in, use lethal force if necessary. We still need to find out what Talons next move is, since there hasn't been activity since Doomfist's escape. Pharah, you have worked with those pilots before, so I need you to speak to them and get a report from them." Pharah nodded, smiling as she used to fly with some of them, and helped with some of their assignments. "Tracer, I need you, Genji, and Mercy to go on retrieval, there's a beacon in Antarctica, near one of our old watchpoints, and Reinhardt, go with Torbjorn and Brigette to check out Eichenwalde, since that was the last sighting point of this armored figure."
Everyone nodded, and as their dropship lifted off, Mercy couldn't help but feel as if something else might happen, something worse than they could imagine."
MILKY WAY GALAXY, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
As the day went to night, no one expected the terror soon to come, as three, fully functioning IMC warships emerged from their warp, the crew beginning to wake from stasis, and preparing for a siege.