Naruto/Titanfall (Earlier this Year)
Naruto Tales: Titanfall
Prologue
Rekindling the Flame
"Titanfall. (Noun) A slang word created soon after the creation of the autonomous and/or piloted vehicles known as 'Titans' Used to describe the act of a 'Titan' being dropped from orbit via de-orbiting thruster attached to it. Originally this action was known as 'Ground Pounding' or 'HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) with Style'"
Universal English Dictionary 2150 AD
Long ago, mankind learned many technologies that allowed it to do things never thought of before. But as always man's instinct for warfare caused these technologies to be used against one another in the name of many causes, both selfless and selfish. One of these technologies was the 'Bipedal Advanced Robotic Mobile Vehicular Infantry Unit' however these goliath vehicles soon gained another name 'Titans'. With the introduction of Titans to the battlefield, every rule of warfare was changed. When space travel evolved to the point that kilometer long vessels capable of deploying Titans were created the rules changed even more.
Once Infantry was the most important aspect of ground warfare, then cavalry, siege weapons, gunpowder units, tanks, aerial vehicles and finally atomic weapons.
However that changed with the Titans, these twenty foot tall robots revolutionized warfare once more, capable of carrying weapons capable of negating all other types of vehicle or technology, however these Titans had two ways to fall. First was naturally another Titan, while damn near invulnerable to most other vehicles, other Titans were easily capable of breaking through the defenses of a Titan. The Second however was most ironic, these massive Titans could be taken down easily by a Infantry Trooper who managed to get on its back and get close to its core.
This lead to the final revolution of warfare for man, they created special Infantry suits that allowed their Infantry to maneuver in Three dimensions with the help of plasma thrusters. Using these thrusters these Infantry were easily capable of getting past the less agile Titans and attacking their core. The answer to this problem was two part, the first was the creation of special defenses that the pilot could trigger when their sensors detected an Infantry unit 'Rodeo-ing' their Titan. The second part was to train the pilots to be the Elite Infantry, capable of fighting both in and out of a Titan, and in the event of a 'Rodeo' the pilot could simply pop-out and kill the attacker.
These advancements combined with the capability of interstellar travel lead to the one inevitable conclusion, an interstellar war involving all of Humanity. Near the end of the war many of the planets settled by man were burning with atomic fire as desperate men and women used nuclear weapons to prevent their enemies from winning. A group of like-minded men and women escaped in a convoy of five ships.
The five ships were the Agamemnon, a Sparta-class cruiser, the Icarus, Sisyphus and Tantalus, three Medea-class mining vessels and the Daedalus a Athena-class manufactory ship primarily used to make Titans. While these men and women wanted peace they knew they would have to have some weapons to defend themselves.
Using Hyperspace they travelled in stasis for nigh upon a century to bridge the massive gap between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, upon entering the Andromeda galaxy they found a Earth-class planet on the edge of the galaxy. However upon trying to land they discovered their landing gear was critically damaged by a suicide saboteur, without the fuel needed to break free of their atmospheric entry they were force to crash down, however before hitting they were able to escape via the use of twenty 'Goblin' Dropships in their main ships hangers. While the five ships crashed and were thought lost, mankind landed and soon recovered upon this glorious new world.
However as with all things it came at a cost, with the loss of their main ships mankind had been reduced to near stone age. They were able to recover but they soon lost their Dropships and forgot all about their main ships, after several millennia they had completely forgotten about their once golden age of technology. However the five main ships thought lost has survived the impact and were slowly repaired by the Nanobot repair systems they had been created with, however the Daedalus would never be able to fly ever again as its engine core was damaged beyond repair by a jagged spike of hardened diamond and obsidian.
NT:T
Long after the landing of man on the unnamed planet, a almost cataclysmic event happened. The Hyperdrive core of the Daedalus, damaged by its crash landing overloaded, the energies created by the core discharging violently to prevent damage to the ship melded with the indescribable natural energy of the planet and birthed a being that would be come to known as the 'Juubi'. This powerful being terrorized mankind for nearly five decades before a young man whose name has been lost to history, came up with a power capable of defeating it. Naming this power Chakra the young man found ways to use this power and taught other how to, before using it to seal the Juubi's soul and power within himself. He then captured the Juubi's body in a powerful technique that created an impenetrable prison and he then launched this prison into the sky to become the first and only satellite of the planet.
Following this the man who became known as the Rikudō Sennin split the Juubi's soul and power into nine parts, creating the nine beings known as the Bijuu. Soon after naming these nine beings the Rikudō Sennin passed away and Humanity given a new and powerful tool, soon forged it into a weapon and began to fight their eternal conflict.
And once more man descended into conflict and bloodshed. But the nature of these battles often meant that little to no lasting damage was done to nature and within days the scars left by these new Chakra warriors were healed due to the lingering Chakra in the damaged areas helping to heal the land, these Chakra warriors eventually came to be known as the Shinobi and Kunoichi.
Nearly a hundred years before the beginning of our tale however one man's dream revolutionized the Shinobi world, this man Hashirama Senju, thought to create a place where the Shinobi could rest and so was born the idea of the Hidden Villages. The first and greatest of these villages Konohagakure no Sato, was built in a special location. It was built over the crash site of the five main ships of mankind. Unbeknownst to man, almost ten kilometers under the surface of the planet lies a three kilometer high cavern where the five ships lie to this very day. Running on minimal power to preserve their hydrogen fusion power generators so that they'll last as long as possible. (Considering that they still have fuel for another twenty thousand years at max power, smart money says the ships won't have a problem)
Soon after the creation of Konoha, its two founders, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, soon split over a difference in ideology. They came to the location of a large river and there they fought. For the first time in several millennia the Bijuu were seen. You see after their creation by the Rikudō Sennin the Bijuu hid from the world. However Madara in arrogance and selfish pride used his powers to disturb the rest of the greatest of the Bijuu, the Kyūbi. The Kyūbi's cries of anger and rage shook the world and woke the other eight Bijuu. This lead to the subduing of the Bijuu by Hashirama after he soundly defeated Madara, this subduing and later sealing of the Bijuu within humans who became known as Jinchūriki. Lead to the start of a new era, the Era of the Jinchūriki. Once more man had a weapon capable of changing the tides of battle with but a single use, however they were limited in the fact that there could only ever be nine Jinchūriki.
Due to the Jinchūriki and their effects on the military balance of the Hidden Villages three major wars would be fought over the balance of the villages and the distribution of the Jinchūriki. In another world these wars would be secretly fueled by a Konohian war-hawk known as Danzo Shimura. However not long after the end of the first war, while still a young lad. Danzo Shimura found the tunnels that riddled under Konohagakure no Sato. Following the tunnels right to the bottom he discovered the ancient starships, however within the Daedalus he discovered some Atlas-class Titan standing, waiting for their pilots that they never received. Intrigued Danzo spent most of his time trying to understand the technology of these ancient ships rather than trying to become Hokage or trying to make Konoha the most powerful Hidden Village (By virtue of being the only Hidden Village) Even with his great knowledge and cunning he never discovered how to use the Titans due to the fact as a security precaution any knowledge on how to link pilots to Titans was deleted from the five ships databases.
Six years prior to the start of the story a mishap occurred and a Bijuu was unleashed upon the village of Konohagakure no Sato. During the battle the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze gave his life to seal the Bijuu, the Kyūbi within its second host. His own son, Naruto. While angry at his sacrifice and choice of host Minato's wife, now widow Kushina Uzumaki was also deeply moved by the lengths of which her husband would go to in order to save his village.
While raised in a loving environment, Naruto Uzumaki(-Namikaze) a blonde haired blue eyed six year old boy with three marks on both cheeks that resembled whiskers had one major problem. He was hyper and loved to explore (He also hated theoretical classes and loved practical classes), one day following the end of his third day of Shinobi Academy he decided to finally enter the tunnels below Konoha (Despite his mother's continued warnings not to)
Slowly making his way down Naruto eventually found his way into the Daedalus while Danzo was away at a council meeting.
This is where our story starts.
NT:T
Naruto gasps as he looks in wonder at the massive metal structures in front of him (Unbeknownst to him they were actually spaceships or he might have simply fainted due to shock and awe). However being the curious (And sometimes clueless) child that he is, Naruto decides to explore one of the ships (Ignoring the large 'Do Not Enter' signs) he quickly manages to find his way to the place that had stumped and infuriated Danzo Shimura more than anything else, the Titan Bay.
Looking up at the massive metal vehicles in awe Naruto did what any other clueless, hyperactive and curious child would do, he climbed them. Despite going over the Titans with the proverbial microscope, Danzo Shimura had never noticed a small lip right at the top of the Atlas Titan.
Perhaps a description would help, the Atlas-class Titan stands at around twenty-one feet tall, its legs and arms are both ten feet long. It's arms are similar to human arms in that they have elbows and four fingers and a thumb on their human shaped (But vastly bigger) hands, their legs however instead of having one joint, have two. They come out at a forty-five degree angle from the hips of the machine, they then bend backwards in a perfect corner shape with the joining point facing forwards (When seen from the side of course) they then terminate in another joint the leads in a acute angle down to the feet. The feet are flat plates with four square protrusions, one at each corner that act as toes. The torso of the machine is a squat box/cylinder with a hidden cockpit entry and a imbedded spherical head with three eyes in a loose triangle cocked to the left, the right most eye is massive, the middle/bottom eye is somewhat smaller and the left most eye is tiny, about the size of a pencil. On the top of the Titan is an obvious entry hatch but one that cannot be opened, sticking out diagonally from the middle of the 'shoulder blades' of the Titan is a cylinder that sticks out with a hatch and handle in the side of it, this cylinder is the Titan's core. However hidden underneath the core is a small hidden lever that is used to open the entry hatch so that a pilot can be bonded to a Titan. Now many may wonder what this bonding is, to put it simply the Titan records the DNA and Neural state of the pilot (Which is adjusted if the pilot ages) and will only work for that pilot and that pilot only.
Naruto in his curious exploration of the Titan (Having been taught how to climb both with and without Chakra) soon finds this lever. (Which would later become a point of shame for Danzo Shimura and his elite ROOT agents that they couldn't find a simple lever) and pulls it. When the cylindrical core moves aside to allow entry, Naruto as a curious six year old quickly climbs in.
As soon as Naruto sits in the cockpit seat the Titan powers up and the core entry closes. Then the Titan's A.I starts the Titan's initial start-up routine.
Atlas-class Titan online, A.I fully functional, Pilot detected in Cockpit. Scanning Pilots DNA and Neural Map
Naruto looks around in confusion at the sudden sound of a robotic yet feminine voice "What?"
Lingual shift detected, Asian ancestry, Japanese-English hybrid with at least forty generations of lingual shift. Recalibrating for language shift and transmitting corrections to other Titans and the Daedalus A bar appears on one of the five screens in front of Naruto, there is one large one with three smaller ones surrounding it on its top, left and right sides. These screens usually show what the external cameras would see, but are now showing the progress of the machine powering up and transmitting data to the other machines, to the left is a keyboard with a small screen on top of it. When the progress bar fills up the Titan A.I continues Lingual shift update complete, Titan Pilot DNA and Neural Map have been archived, Pilot appears to be Six years of age, is this correct?
Naruto jerks in surprise "Hey, I can understand you now! Huh, oh yeah, I'm Six years old, I'll be seven in three months on October Tenth!"
Pilot Age confirmed, could you please provide the current date for the day and month
Naruto smile happily "Yeah, it's July tenth, it's also a Wednesday"
Day and Month confirmed, Year? On the main screen a Heads Up Display (HUD) appears with a thick bar with a smaller bar surrounding it, above that is the current day and month.
Naruto scratches his head "It's the seventh year After Kyūbi"
Affirmative, correcting information, sending data to others. Start-up complete, please speak your name After the day and month appears '7 A.K' to indicate the year.
Naruto puffs up "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Dattebayo!"
Name Confirmed, Naruto Uzumaki. Would you like to activate the Pilot tutorial program for this Titan? A pop-up appears on the main screen saying 'Tutorial Y/N'
Naruto scratches his head "I'm not sure, what exactly is a tutorial?"
A Tutorial is a program designed to help people learn to operate a machine or vehicle they have never used before
Naruto then nods "Sure, activate the Tutorial"
Understood, preparing tutorial download into Pilot memories, neural link at 100%. Program beginning in 3. 2. 1. Activate A flash of light occurs and Naruto jerks back as suddenly all the information he needs to know to use the Titan is downloaded into his brain.
Unconsciously Naruto uses the neural link between the pilot and Titan to move it forwards, (A/N: I don't actually know how the controls of a Titan in Titanfall work, so here is my hypothesis, since during the game-play videos I have seen there is some hand held controls and a keyboard I'm working on the hypothesis of a neural link for the legs, head and upper body movement and hand control for the arms and triggering of weapons. A/N Ends) using the handgrips he makes the Titan stretch like it's been sleeping for a long time and needs to get kinks out of its back. Despite the strange and organic nature of this action it is actually a well thought out and commonly used action to help keep a Titan's hydraulics and internal mechanics working as well as a quick indicator as to whether or not said mechanics are functioning properly.