Chapter 9: Boot Camp

The Vanguards kept their guns trained on me, even as the ship had taken off into orbit. It was unnerving to say the least, even if I was for the most part, bulletproof, I mean, who wouldn't be? I stood still and gazed through the windows, keeping an unreactive face. I've never been to space, much like nearly 99.9999% of the Human population, but now that I was here, I couldn't quite take my eyes off it.

"All right kiddies, we're jumping to location, in 3, 2, 1," The Pilot said over the ship's comms.

What I assumed was the jump drive hummed to life, . The ship slowly gathered speed, going faster and faster, all the while bending my vision. That was until it actually jumped, whiting out my vision. I grasped my visor, in shock at the sudden leap, but I calmed down as it slowly dissipated. The Vanguard was now huddled up on the other side of the hangar, their Chainguns fully trained on me, with their Acolyte Pods standing tall above their shoulders.

"It would not be wise to utilize heavy weaponry in a starship," I said, staring them down. "Not unless you want to be sucked into the void of outer space"

They slowly calmed down, lowering their Chainguns and dropping their Acolyte pods. Yet they still huddled away from me, guess that's what being a giant killing machine gets you.

"Oi! What's going on back there? Keep it down!" The Pilot yelled,

I looked back out the window, and we were in the orbit of a lush planet, much like Earth. Yet I doubted it was the planet itself, after all, it would be entirely IMC controlled. The ship slowly turned toward the planet, pointing toward a heavily forested continent, it then shot off, flying in for the landing. It broke through the atmosphere as fire engulfed the ship. In response the Pilot let the jets go to maximum capacity, they roared as shot of a massive trail of fire, slowly slowing the starship to a hover in the sky.

He shot off, going faster than I'd ever expected the ship to go. It passed by mountains in a blink of an eye, until it eventually started deaccelerating. It lowered down and finally made its stop, right in the middle of the Jungle. Yet it wasn't just out in the middle of the wilderness, no, he dropped us off in the middle of a base.

"Alright! You can unclench your asscheeks. We're here."

The back door hissed as the compressed air slowly leaked from the chamber, and eventually, the door slid open, extending down to the ground. The Vanguards were first to leave, passing by me and slotting their Chainguns over their backs. They trudged on through the base before stopping in a hangar, far away from the landing site. They disembarked their Titans and ran up to some important-looking guy, they saluted, before he dismissed them, sending them on their way before they marched off.

I slowly walked from the back of the ship, taking in the new environment. I would've said the air is rich, it seemed that way, but I couldn't be the one to judge, I didn't have lungs after all. There were a plethora of tents, all lined up perfectly against one another. As well as plenty of hangars right up against the northmost wall. There was a firing range on one end of the base, there were a few Riflemen lined up against the range, carrying varying weapons.

It was late in the afternoon here, and to think it was midday just moments earlier... Well, that's what a jump drive gets you

As I'd stepped out the back of the ship, almost everybody had their eyes on me, and everybody had gone silent. Some were looking at me with surprise, or awe while others were more uneasy. But as I looked about, somebody broke through the silence.

"Oi! Everybody, back to work!"

I looked over to the voice and it was the general or something. I don't know they all looked the same, all I know was he was the same guy I'd seen from the hangar. He walked up to me, with a stern expression on his face.

"So. You're the Titan that all the fuss's about, huh?" The general said, staring up at me.

"Affirmative," I responded, keeping up the act was a little harder around this guy, it felt as if he was studying my every move, closely.

"E-0001, am I correct?" He said, raising his tone.

"Affirmative sir, E-0001 is my designated Serial Code" I replied

"Good. Good, follow me." The General said, turning around and walking off.

I followed behind him, and this guy definitely made sure to take his time. I'm pretty sure he was deliberately slowing down, maybe to test my patience or something of the sort. I slowly trudged behind him, as he walked onward, he wasn't in the usual, out-in-the-field gear, but in more sophisticated wear. With a standard Military Beret, a camo button-down jacket, long beige pants, and laced black boots, as well as a B3 Wingman Elite on his hip. He beckoned two Titans over, both being Ions.

Soon enough he brought me into a hangar, one of the larger ones to be exact. As I followed him inside. Keeping watch over the General as he led me to the centre of the room. The hangar was filled with inactive Titans mounted along the walls, they varied in design, from Northstars to Scorchs, there were a few Vanguards about as well, yet only a few. I guess they were only for the best of the best. The General pulled up a fold-up chair from the wall, setting it up in the centre of the room.

"Kneel." The General ordered.

I obliged, kneeling to his level.

"You understand why you're here, right?" The General sternly asked.

"Interrogation," I replied.

"Good. So... Tell me. Where did you come from?" The General asked.

Oh... That's not good, uh, ok Elijah, you've bullshitted your way this far. You can do it again.

"That is classified intel," I said.

"E-0001. Answer me." He replied, raising his voice.

This guy won't lay off... Well, here goes nothing...

"I was a prototype Titan built by the manufacturing company: Hammond's Robotics. The rest of my memory files are static. Apologies General, that is all I can give you." I said.

He stared straight into my Cameras, his glare piercing deep into my very being. He eventually dropped his head and sighed.

"That isn't the worst excuse I've been given. But I've still got questions" He said, parting his eyes from the floor, and staring back at me.

"Can you tell me about your Pilot?" He said.

"Saphire was my Pilot for approximately 74 Days. She was KIA during a recon mission to an IMC dig-site on the planet Typhon."

"Interesting." He replied.

He looked away for a moment, staring down at his hands, deep in thought his face snarled up in uneasiness. He stared back up at me after a few moments, his face returning to his normal stern gaze.

"You're lucky E-0001. There is one Pilot available for you. Though they are... questionable, in terms of behaviour. Especially around his last Titan." He said

Don't tell me I'm getting paired up with a jackass... I don't even want a Pilot!

"General. Is it possible for you to not assign a Pilot to me." I said.

"E-0001, a Titan needs its Pilot, and a Pilot needs their Titan. The answer's no. He'll be here by tomorrow, but for now, I'm turning you over to the scientists. Don't worry, they'll treat you right." He said, getting up from the chair.

"Open the doors" He called out. The two Titans snapped to attention, grabbing hold of the handles and pulling them apart. "Bazzard, Holt, show him to the lab."

Ok, just remember what your doing this for... Wait what am I doing? What goals do I have? Oh... I never thought of that.

The Titans saluted, "Yes sir!" They shouted in unison. I got to my feet and walked up to the two, they were waiting by the door for me, they didn't carry their guns, confident that I was docile, and that assumption would be correct.

They led me along through the camp, and I caught the gaze of many Riflemen, each staring curiously at me as we passed by. We passed by the tents, pressing on further and further into the base. I didn't expect this place to be very big, but now that I was getting the proper tour, I just realized the vast majority of space this place covered, how'd they even get the resources for this? There was a large stock of crates huddled underneath a shed, which I guessed was their rations. And they even had a few MRVNs keeping up with the maintenance.

Eventually, we stopped outside a massive building of sorts, well, it was massive in comparison to all the surrounding structures. It was smaller than me, as expected, but the building had a portion that was just a little bit taller than me, I guessed it was probably a garage of sorts. The building was painted beige, the same colour as the ground. This building had quite the space around it, it had a large field beside it, set up with targets and Titan-sized dummies.

"Good luck in there big guy. Last time my Titan visited, he had a few screws loose, metaphorically and literally." Bazzard said, patting me on the back.

"Yeah. Their methods are... strange to say the least" Holt added. "Not very professional, don't even know how the General accepted those drug addicts..."

Well. That doesn't sound too good.

There was already someone waiting outside, all I could make out from here was that he was wearing a stark white lab coat. I walked up slowly, keeping my eye on him, something just felt a little off about the figure. As I grew closer, I noticed what was wrong, he was completely robotic. From head to toe, robot. He almost looked like a Specter, just a little thinner and leaner.

He was practically beaming at me, staring up at me, shaking from what I hoped was excitement and not a faulty engine.

"We've been expecting you!" He said, his voice was robotic, and echoey, kind of like mine and every other Titan's, the only difference being that it was a lot less prominent and for the most part, human.

"Such a fine Titan... We'll have to get to testing right away then!" He muttered, "Come in! Come in!"

He speed walked off to the garage, pressing down on a switch beside the door, causing the door to slowly slide up, revealing the interior. There were a good 7 other people inside, either donning the scientist wear or donning a mechanics garb, they were all chatting amongst themselves, and keyword, were. As soon as the door fully opened, most if not every single person turned to face us. They stared in awe at my marvellous prowess.

A mechanic put his hands on his hips, before whistling sharply "That's one hell of a Titan you've found yourself Cohin!"

"Indeed it is! They found it alongside Lastimosa's Titan at an IMC Interstellar Beacon on Typhon. They said its Pilot was KIA." "And we're here to see its full potential. Also because we got to make sure this thing doesn't kill its Pilot. They're pairing it up with...him..." "Anyways! The General's given us a list of things to check up on, and the first is... it's durability. Well Grigori, this one's yours. We'll leave you to it, just send a message over the comms when you're done."

"Got it.", the rest of the team left, the garage, heading down into the depths of the lab. Grigori closed the Garage door and looked at me.

Grigori had a thick Russian accent, he was rather tall from what I saw compared to the others, he had a thick bushy beard and he was rather muscular.

"Hello, E-0001. My name's Grigori, which you should already know if your AI's not completely turned to mush. I am here to test durability да?"

"Noted."

"If there's anything you need to tell me beforehand, tell me. I don't want to accidentally trigger accidental Nuke Explosion".

"Negative."

"Ok then, hold still." Grigori walked across the room, before grabbing hold of a sledgehammer. He walked over to me, before staring up at me. "Put your hand down on ground."

I did as he asked, kneeling and presenting my open palm to him. He lifted the sledgehammer high above his head, before bringing it hard down on my hand. The hammer bounced off, sending a large amount of inertia straight into Grigori's hand, causing him to drop the sledgehammer.

"Strong plating. Not a dent. Doing good so far E-0001" "Next test involves heavy machinery and lots of guns. We take this outside" Grigori walked up to the door, and pressed down on the switch once more, opening the gate for me. "Go wait in the field, I will be there shortly."

I trudged out of the garage as Grigori rummaged about, probably for Anti-Titan weaponry. I soon made it to the field, it was nice and wide open, with plenty of space to move. I waited for Grigori, leaning up against the Garage wall all the while I heard him dropping shit, before cursing out for the whole base to hear. Eventually, he came walking out, piloting one of those Journeyman Titans I'd seen from the dig site, yet a lot less broken, obviously.

He was carrying a crate labelled GRIGORI'S WEAPONS DO NOT TOUCH in the vice grip of the Titan. He dropped it to the ground and it landed with a thud, rattling about as weapons of all sorts were tossed about inside.

"This is the final durability test. Do not worry, I will go easy on you." Yeah, I don't believe that for a second.

He jumped out of the Titan, and the Journeyman walked back into the Garage on its own, disappearing from view. Grigori popped open the crate, pulling out random rifles, pistols, shotguns, and grenadiers. Alongside a few explosives that'd been haphazardly tossed onto the growing pile of weapons. He clamped the lid shut, before turning to the pile of weapons. Sorting through the guns before pulling out a Hammond P2016 from the pile.

"E-0001, we will sort through varying weapons of different scales of firepower. I will take note of the damage inflicted, what you do is sit still and take it. Do not worry, if you get severely wounded we will fix you. But I have faith that you'll be fine"

He pointed the pistol at my chest, firing a round at it. The bullet shot straight off towards it, before harmlessly panging off without a dent.

"Good. You are not pitiful and weak."

He tossed the gun on the ground, before sorting through the pile again. This time, pulling out something with a little bit more of a kick to it. The gun in question being a Mozambique. He steadied his aim before firing, the white-hot spread of lead shot directly towards my chassis, before panging off again. Falling to the ground and cooling off.

"Impressive, no damage so far. Mozambique is quite a strong weapon and you took no damage... Okay, forget the Rifles, and the Shotguns. We are going into dangerous territory here."

He reached into the pile before pulling out an EPG-1, he marvelled at the weapon, before aiming the grenade launcher straight at me. Aiming down the sights and tucking the gun into his shoulder.

"Hope you are ready."

He pulled the trigger, sending a bright blue bomb hurtling straight toward my chest. I braced myself, and the bomb slammed against my chest, before exploding. I didn't actually feel anything, and I didn't even stumble back or anything. It kinda felt like somebody had thrown a pebble at me if I'm being honest. As the cloud of smoke dissipated, all that was left was a scorch mark, yet little to no damage.

"Wow. I must say, I am impressed. Normally that would do more." He looked me up and down, before nodding. He walked up to the crate and pried it open, before turning back to the pile of weapons and mindlessly tossing them back into the crate one after the other. I patiently waited as he chucked the varying weapons back in their place, and eventually, he'd gotten everything back in. Closing the lid and clamping it shut.

"You bring the crate in, I will ring in the next guy."

I nodded, before picking up the crate with ease and trudging back to the Garage. I rounded the corner and ducked under the door, before looking about the room, trying to find a reasonable place to put the crate. I settled on a secluded corner, mainly stocked with other crates, which would be an obvious choice either way. Grigori soon made it in, carrying some sort of phone-looking device. Holding it up to his mouth.

"I am finished with the test, results are looking good, I will report once inside. Send out the next guy."

Grigori then left the room, pushing through the blast door placed on the rightmost wall, and soon the next guy came out. He was one of the scientists, with the traditional white lab coat and a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. He was pale, metaphorically and physically, and kind of stood there in shock as I stared at him. He got a hold of his bearings as he cleared his throat

"Uhm, hi. I'm uh Arthur and I'm testing firepower." He said, slipping up on a few of his words.

"Senses indicate a high level of uneasiness and fear. There is no current threat, why are you afraid?" I said.

"Oh, just nervous I guess... Anyways! Out to the field. I've done this before, I know what I'm doing." He nervously laughed.

He stumbled out the door and toward the field, I followed shortly after, silently musing in his doings. He stopped at a firing range of sorts which was filled to the brim with targets of varying sizes and materials. Beside it were the dummies mentioned before, they had some puncture and slash wounds littered about them, but it wouldn't compare to the havoc I would soon wreak on them.

"Ok, you're a Titan, it should seem pretty obvious what to do here. And if you don't, well, just shoot the targets. Preferably with your gun."

I unholstered my pistol and steadied my aim.

"Whenever you're ready." He said.

I opened fire, swapping from target to target as the bolts flew. I missed some, and I hit some, it was obvious which ones had been hit, mainly due to the gaping holes that were left in them. Still smoking from the sheer power of the explosions. Just as I reached the last one, my gun forcibly shut down as it overheated, causing the hexagonal metal beneath my plating to go white hot as the heat dispersed. Shooting off steam from the gun's side-mounted vents.

"Ok... Its aim could use some work... But its firepower is impeccable" He muttered, he was speaking into a phone of sorts and he kept his eyes from me, seemingly too engrossed in his report.

He stuffed the device back into his pocket and looked up at me

"Alright! That's the first test done, we've got a few left to go." He said, seemingly less nervous. He pointed to the dummies beside the targeting range, just a few feet away. "You know what to do."

I nodded to him, before walking up to the nearest dummy. It stood about half my height, and to be honest, it wasn't much of a dummy. It was basically a metal pole, vaguely shaped like a Titan with two poles sticking out the side. It was Titan-sized, I'm giving it that, but besides that, it was pretty dull. And like was I supposed to melee this? Or beat the shit outta it by other means.

"You alright?" He asked,

"Apologies, I have a question," I replied

"Yes? What is it?" He responded

"What means of aggression should I use against the target," I asked

"Any means, utilities or primary weapons. Just try and be diverse." He said.

Alright. Should be simple enough.

I took a few steps back, keeping a safe distance from it, before starting up my wasp missiles. The battery shot out my shoulder presenting a large array of rockets.

"Warning: Without a hostile target, the rockets will fly sporadically. I suggest taking cover."

His eyes shot open and he dashed behind the nearest form of cover, in the form of a target from the range. It was still smoking from before, which I was rather surprised to see. I focused on the pole, before letting the rockets fly free. And let's say it didn't go too well. A select few managed to connect with the target, but the rest went into a frenzy. Whizzing around like wasps, nearly the entire field was filled with a swarm of miniature missiles, each colliding with the other in mid-air or crashing to the ground. Oh, the General's not gonna be happy about this...

Eventually, they ran dry, the jets suddenly stopping. Sending a carpet of bombs crashing down onto the field. The entire area of the field was almost completely scorched black. But by some miracle, none of the surrounding buildings had been impacted. I have no idea of the chances of that, but if I had to guess, I would've said it was 1 in a million. Guess the General's not gonna try and kill me, well lucky me!

Multiple Riflemen had come to check on the explosions, alongside multiple Titans. They had their weapons drawn, and they'd all locked on me.

"Hold on! Don't worry, it's only a test!" The scientist said leaving his cover. They dropped their weapons and most of them left immediately.

"Listen, mate, your tests haven't been very healthy for this base, first it was the widespread fire, then the nuke explosion and now this!" A Rifleman spoke, "You better get these tests in check, otherwise this rifle is gonna be shoved far up your ass." He spat, turning round and leaving.

"Note: Its aim is terrible. But it is capable of causing mass destruction" I heard him mutter.

Rude, but true.

"Ok, Big Guy! I'm just gonna... Tap out... Good for you! You passed the test." He said, in a panicked sweat.

He practically sprinted away, disappearing into the Garage. Well, I doubt I'm gonna be seeing him anytime soon. I slowly trudged through the scarred field, my feet crunching beneath the blackened grass. I rounded back into the Garage, and I stopped right dead centre. I stared down at the blast door, waiting for the next guy to come through.

Somebody peered through the thin slit of bullet-proof glass along the door, staring up at me, I stared right back at him, and we were kinda locked like that momentarily, only stopping when he finally pushed open the door.

It was a brownish man, cleanshaven and dressed in a Rifleman's garb.

"So... I heard what happened. I'm just here to say, thanks, brother. Man, I really don't like that guy, thanks for scaring him shitless." He said, smiling up at me.

Funny guy.

"Also I'm here to ask you some questions because Mr Smartass doesn't feel like it. They're mainly focused around your functions, or weapons so to say, also everything about you in general"

I slightly nodded to him,

"No," I replied deadpan.

"Alright, alright. I respect that."

"What about just the simple things? About you, I mean" He said gesturing to me.

"Fine," I replied monotonously

He walked from the door, shutting it behind him, before walking over to a scissor lift, elevating himself up to my level. It hissed as it slowly lifted, he leant back against the railing, impatiently tapping his foot. Eventually, it slowed to a halt, with a soft clunk echoing out as the pieces locked together. He pushed himself off the railing before walking up to me. He was exactly at eye level with me, it was rather convenient not having to kneel or crouch just to be at eye level with a Titan, and with a person? Man, that'd spare me from future back pains, which I was probably incapable of getting, now that I think about it.

"So... What's the status with your neural link?" He asked.

"Active," I replied, not bothering to go into further details.

"Ok, I didn't need any more than that." He said, slightly peeved. I don't know why this guy acts like every other Titan gives a complete detailed report on the slightest details with their systems, we all know for a fact they give the shortest answers possible.

"Status with weapons systems?" He asked, slightly intrigued.

"Online, and Primed for action," I replied.

"Ok! Now we're getting somewhere!"

"What about-" He said before being cut off.

"Oi! What are you doing here? The test's are over! Oh, don't tell me you're trying to pair with another one!" I turned to look at the voice, it was the Specter guy from earlier.

"Hey! They said they're pairing him up with Bryce! I would do way better!"

"You're not a Pilot yet! E-0001, bring him down."

I gently grabbed hold of him, placing him on the ground, he looked up at me, like I'd betrayed him, before the Specter guy grabbed hold of him, pulling him inside, slamming the door behind him. Soon, the door opened back up, it was the Specter guy.

"Sorry about that. You see he's a Pilot in training, and yet he thinks he can Pilot a Titan just like that. I've taken him under my wing for the time being, so next time you come here, don't expect him not to show up." "The General gave orders that you stay in Hangar 32 for the night." "Oi! JM-8415, show him the way." He then turned around and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. What? No goodbye? The Journeyman that Grigori had used, sprung to life.

It walked past me, not even looking back. I followed behind it as it trudged forward. It was rather quick compared to every other Titan I'd seen, probably due to the complete lack of armour, but I could still keep up easily. As we made our way through the base, I'd caught a few sneers from passing Riflemen, probably the same that'd experienced the explosion.

Eventually. we'd made it to the Hangars, and the Journeyman wandered through, passing by hangar after hangar, until he stopped outside a decently sized hangar, well, it was just big enough to fit my chassis inside, but I'm not complaining. The Journeyman walked up to the sliding doors, and pulled them open, before presenting the hangar to me.

I'm starting to think these are just oversized MRVNs.

I walked inside and looked around, it was mostly empty, aside from a single heavily damaged Atlas Titan mounted on the wall. The Journeyman slid the doors shut behind me, before walking off, its heavy footsteps echoing out to me. They grew quieter and quieter before disappearing completely. I looked to the Atlas and looked upon it. Didn't know these relics still existed.

Nearly all the plating was ripped off, leaving a bare chassis in its place. The hatch was almost entirely torn from its hinges and one of its legs was practically hanging on by a single wire. Yikes.

I tore my eyes away from the inactive Titan and huddled against the wall. And then I waited and waited, eventually zoning out. I couldn't quite fall asleep due to my apparent lack of a brain and every human organ, so I did the next best thing. The time slowly passed, the sounds of thudding footsteps of Titans passing by my hangar as I waited.

But soon the day of reckoning came, as the doors parted. Two Vanguards were standing at the door and from behind them, the General walked into view. It was midnight still, and the base was now lit by the blaring whites of spotlights.

"E-0001. Today's your lucky day"

"General, it is currently midnight" I replied.

"Whatever. Let's just say somebody's home early." He said

"He'll be here in 5 minutes. Edwards here will keep watch over your neural bonding." He said, gesturing to the rightmost Vanguard.

"Good luck."

The Vanguard walked into the hangar, before closing the door behind him. He then flicked a switch beside the sliding door, engulfing the room in the soft white glow of the ceiling lights. He looked over to the Atlas, seemingly engrossed in the sight of it.

"Damn, when was the last time I've seen one of these." He muttered.

Yet as he looked over it, the sounds of a door sliding open echoed out into the hangar. The Vanguard snapped to attention, turning around and pulling out his Chaingun. I looked over to where the sound originated and stood right there was a Pilot. Staring up at me.

"Hey! Guess who it is?" The voice called out.

The Vanguard sighed but kept his posture.

"Hey? No hello to your old Pilot friend? Huh?" He said, walking out into the light.

I recognized his outfit immediately, his helmet had a blue Y-shaped visor along it, and it had a sort of camera mounted atop a thin pole on the backside of his helm. His outfit had a large plate along the torso, he had multiple satchels strapped along his vest, fitted with different bombs and guns. Along his shoulder he had a knife holster, probably containing a data knife. There was this thick collar around his neck, kind of like the ones bomb defusal guys would wear, and he had a second knife, slotted on his boot.

He looked up at me, before putting his hands on his hip, looking me straight in the visor.

"Guess who just got themselves a new Titan! And well, just look at it! It's amazing..."

Well, I'm flattered.

"Bailey, give me a boost, will you?" He said to the Vanguard.

The Vanguard walked up to him, before grabbing him, and lifting him high. Yet It wasn't quite high enough to actually reach my cockpit though, I had to crouch down for that, but I didn't, I don't know this guy, and I wasn't just gonna let him in my head! Literally and metaphorically.

"Hey! Big guy? I can't quite reach you from here." He called

"Unknown accomplice. Please state your name and occupation." I replied.

"The name's Stephane Bryce, and I'm your Pilot. The best one around."

"Noted: Stephane Bryce, Occupation: Pilot." I parroted,

"Great. Now, let's get that link set up yeah?" he retorted.

Eh, I'll humour him.

I crouched down, stopping at eye level with him, I shut down my visor, as it dissipated hexagon by hexagon. Revealing the interior of my cockpit.

"Hey uh, what's that thing in your head mate? Don't think that's meant to be there." He asked,

Fuck, well I may or may not have forgotten to remove the key. Well, here comes another challenge for Elijah, the master bullshitter.

"It's a keepsake, from my previous Pilot."

"Who keeps a giant key?"

"She did."

I pulled the key free from my visor, before setting it down beside my pistol, it lay suspended by the magnetic field. Wait... gold isn't magnetic... Ah well, it's a mystery for future Elijah to figure out. Stephane shrugged it off, before jumping in my cockpit, it felt just a little weird with somebody rummaging about through your head.

"Alright, Big Guy! Set up the neural link."

"Apologies Pilot, my design does not feature a neural link. You will have to use the motion capture gear available"

"Motion Capture? What year is this 2698?"

Silence.

"Yeesh, tough crowd. Oh well, I've done this before. Just give me a minute."

He rummaged about in my head, slotting something on, from what I could hear.

"Alright, and... Done!" He said.

Then, I lost all control of my body. I could possibly move if I tried hard enough, but right now, I couldn't move a muscle. My visor shifted down and my body started moving on its own, slowly taking steps forward, and moving my arms around.

"Wow, this is... amazing! Whoever made this Titan, send them my regards!" He half yelled.

"I'm flattered, Pilot," I replied.

He slowly moved about the hangar, getting used to the feel of my body, which was still, very creepy. He got the hang of it, taking longer strides and moving faster and faster. He pushed open the doors walking out into the open.

"This is awesome." He replied.

He looked about before locking eyes with the General. He saluted, as soon as he spotted him.

"Sir!" He called

"Stand down, Pilot." The General said.

He relaxed, keeping his hands at his side.

"I take it you've linked with the Titan?"

"Yes sir!" He replied

"Good. Because I have gotten the results back about this Titan. It's a heavy hitter, capable of punching through 3 inches of solid steel with a single shot of that pistol. Its durability is tenfold of that of an Ogre-class Titan." "And we're sending you off on another mission."

"I just got back from one sir!"

"Well too bad." "We are dropping en masse on the planet Typhon. The IMC has a hold of a weapon of great power known as the Fold Weapon, they say it can fold the very fabric of space and time, and its power source is currently being transported via the IMS Draconis. We are going to take it before they can even think of hauling it on that ship. It's heavily guarded at all points, with a giant turret wall located at the weakest point with hostile Titans all around, that's where you come in, Pilot. You will punch a hole through their defences with that Titan, and you will let the rest retrieve the Ark. If you manage to do that, you'll keep the Titan, if you don't, you'll be relieved of your duties as a Pilot. You are an SRS Pilot, I doubt you'll make the same mistakes again."

"Understood sir!"

"Now get a move on. There's a dropship waiting for you. You'll know it when you see it."

And with that, he made his way to the runways.

Well, this is gonna suck.

Boom. Chapter 9: finished. This is the second version of the chapter, I did some research, and apparently, Vanguards aren't meant to be all over the place. My bad.

Hope you liked it please leave a review, whether it's positive or negative, either way, yadda yadda you've already read it every chapter. Just leave one if you liked it or not. Sorry for the shorter chapter, and thanks to the people who motivated me to get to the 50,000 mark: AscendingPanic6, Pyramus Savage-Fang, Wolfpriest 84, valexto, and the Guest profile that reviewed chapter 5. If it weren't for you, I probably would've not gotten this far. I also give my thanks to YOU, yes YOU. The guy reading this, thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING TEXT. DIVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU WISH TO NOT GET SPOILED.

In this case, the IMC never gets a hold of the Ark, and therefore, the Fold Weapon never gets completed. Typhon never blows up, and BT doesn't die. Also, the next chapter is gonna feature some multiverse shit, as per the description, it is a part of the Riftiverse, if you search it up on fanfiction, you'll see what I mean. Elijah will get a better connection with Stephane as well, he isn't a one time Pilot.