A/N: First of all, I want anyone reading to know that this is the first fanfiction or any form of proper writing I have ever done. So, if there's any errors in terms of spelling or grammar, that's the reason. And if you have the time, please leave a review! Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!

Secondly, I own neither Titanfall nor Ratchet Clank. All rights to both go to their respective holders.

UPDATE 11/08/24: Just to let both new and current readers know, I have since completely rewritten this chapter into something that much better reflects my current writing abilities. So, just in case you're wondering why the writing style suddenly shifts between this chapter and the next few, that's why.

With that dealt with, please enjoy the new and improved first chapter of Vanguard Of The Rift!


YEAR 2720,

THE JAMES MACALLAN,

DEEP SPACE, EN-ROUTE TO PLANET TYPHON.

Daniel Cooper dashes through the starting line, instantly hearing a loud beep as a timer appears on his HUD, both of which indicating that the Pilot's Gauntlet had begun. He leaps onto the wall to his right with a boost from his Jump Kit and runs upwards at a slight angle, before leaping forwards past a pink-leafed tree on a large round pedestal.

As Daniel soars through the air, he brings his V-47 Flatline up to his shoulder and promptly takes out a trio of static IMC Riflemen, causing them to disappear in a sequence of orange flashes. As he lands with a thud, he quickly continues sprinting ahead towards a low-hanging wall with a small opening at the bottom.

Sliding underneath the low wall and into the next room, there's some basalt rock formations laid out in an almost maze-like fashion. Cooper immediately double-taps an IMC Rifleman on his left with practiced ease, and then another one straight in front of him standing between the rock formation and the wall. He jumps on top of said rock formation, and shoots another Grunt hidden inside.

Jumping to the other side of the rock maze and turning into a long, tight corridor, Daniel takes out another Rifleman before propelling himself onto the wall on his left. He wallruns over a trio of Grunts taking cover behind another rock formation, and drops an Arc Grenade onto them from above, the electric munition detonating on contact with the ground and causing all three of them to instantly disappear in a series of quick orange flashes.

Daniel continues wallrunning through the corridor as he takes out three more Grunts spaced out from each other along the way, quickly reloading his V-47 Flatline with experienced ease soon after.

He reaches the end of the corridor and takes another corner, and enters a much longer corridor with a wide, circular section about halfway through it. On the ground below, was a series of curved staircases leading through a central basalt column adorned with a cherry tree on top. Behind that, were two more rock columns, both of which each having an IMC Rifleman standing on top of it.

Soaring above it all, Daniel lands on the left-hand wall and wallruns along it, taking out the pair of aforementioned Riflemen simultaneously. Just up ahead, was much smaller doorway with a holographic 'FINISH' floating in the middle of it.

Daniel leaps off of the wall and quickly plummets towards the ground below. He lands on his knees with a thud and slides though the finish line, his Jump Kit propelling him forwards into a somewhat round room with an assortment of weapons lining the wall on the right side, and a small patch of grass in the middle underneath a skylight. On the left side, leaning against the wall next to a large leaderboard, was Captain Tai Lastimosa in his complete Pilot's garb.

"HEY! That was my best time!" Captain Lastimosa calls out to Cooper. "Damn, I'm gettin' slow..." He quietly adds, shaking his head.

Daniel remembered what the veteran Pilot said to him when he first began his 'informal' Pilot training: "We're at war, Cooper! Nobody's got time for classes! And besides, you'll learn far more in here than sitting in a classroom."

"You getting tired watching me, old man?" Daniel jeers, panting slightly as a result of the artificial fatigue imposed on him by the simulation. In the time he'd been training to be a Titan Pilot under Lastimosa, he'd learned many things. One of which, was that the old Pilot enjoyed a bit of banter.

"Someone's getting cocky, you only beat me by about half a second!" Lastimosa retorts with a laugh, thumbing to the leaderboard to his left, which now had Cooper's name above his own. "I might be in my fifties, but I could still run laps around you, kid!"

"Why don't you get in here and prove that, then?" Daniel challenges with a smirk, dropping his Flatline to the floor with a clatter. The rifle quickly vanishes with an orange flash similar to the Grunts in the Gauntlet, as he approaches his mentor.

"Nah, I've got something better in mind. Something you're definitely going to like." Captain Lastimosa assures, as he produces a tablet and taps on the screen a few times.

"But first, we're going to need a little more space."

The environment surrounding the Captain and the Pilot in training then suddenly shifts to a massive open meadow that heavily resembled that of the planet Harmony; with its natural basalt formations and pink-leafed trees dotted intermittently around them, as well as its blended patches of deep and light green grass.

This is right here... is what the Militia was fighting for. A world that wasn't made of concrete and metal. To free their home — The Frontier, of the IMC and its oppression.

"Now, I'm going to show you the other half of being a Pilot: The Titan." Lastimosa announces to Cooper.

"It's about time! I was starting to think you were going to kick the bucket before you'd show me this!" Daniel jokes with an excited smile on his face.

Lastimosa lets out a hearty chuckle in response to Daniel's remark, before he gestures to a Titan with a predominantly green paintjob crouched down about thirty feet away from them.

"That's my partner, BT, he's a Vanguard Class. A chassis we designed and built ourselves, one we didn't have to steal from the IMC." The Pilot explains, as the Titan stands up from its crouch to its full twenty-five foot height.

"Okay, go ahead Rifleman, use your radio to call in your first Titan!" Lastimosa orders Cooper after turning back around to face the Rifleman, whose eyes widen in slight excitement at the prospect of Piloting his first Titan — Even if it is only in a simulation.

Daniel's brow furrows, as his excitement quickly turns to confusion. What was he supposed to say?

"Uhh... Rifleman Cooper to Militia command, requesting Titanfall...?" Cooper says somewhat unsurely into the radio on his shoulder, looking towards Lastimosa with a cocked eyebrow.

Then suddenly, Daniel hears a distinct *crack* emanate far above him, one that he immediately recognises from his years of combat experience in the Militia. Looking to the sky above him, he sees a bright, flaming object crackling as it falls from the (simulated) heavens.

As the falling Titan quickly approaches the ground, the outer heat shield protecting its body from the entry heat suddenly detaches, emitting a loud 'THWOOM' as it suddenly becomes much less aerodynamic, slowing its descent.

The Titan crashes into the ground, kicking up soil and other debris, as Daniel almost loses his footing from the ensuing vibration. After he regains his footing, and the dust settles, Cooper stares in awe at the sight of a black and orange Vanguard-Class Titan now resting on the ground near Lastimosa's Titan.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Lastimosa calls out from beside Daniel, snapping him out of his stupor as he looks over to him. "I thought you wanted to learn how to Pilot a Titan!"

Daniel rolls his eyes and an amused smirk appears on his face as he jogs up to the black and orange Vanguard. Once he gets close enough, the Titan's hatch opens with a hiss, revealing the inside of its cockpit. After slowing down, Daniel briefly hesitates, before he jumps up onto the open hatch and pulls himself inside.

The hatch then closes, sealing Daniel inside and briefly surrounding him in darkness before the display in front of him activates, revealing the simulated environment to him once more.

"A.I disengaged, transferring control to Pilot." A feminine, monotonous voice sounds inside the cockpit, presumably belonging to the Vanguard's A.I.

"Now, piloting a Titan in the sim' is a little different to how it is in real life." Lastimosa's gruff voice suddenly sounds through Daniel's radio, who clearly sees the Captain exactly where they were both standing moments ago through the Titan's ocular system.

"In real life, you'll have to form a 'Neural Link' with your Titan first. Then, you'll be able to feel the Titan's body, as if it was your own. You'll know what I mean, when you get your own Titan." The Pilot explains, pointing to his own helmet.

Daniel can't help but smile upon noticing the Pilot's choice of words. 'When you get your own Titan', not if.

Then... the Neural Link.

"Oh, shit. That means I'll have to get neural implants, won't I?" Daniel asks, sincerely hoping the Pilot would say no. If he recalled correctly, they were required in order to Pilot a Titan, and getting the implants themselves would involve getting multiple holes drilled through a person's skull.

"Nah, that's the old way. These days, that's all handled by our helmets." Lastimosa reassures, pointing to his own helmet.

As a now-relieved Daniel looks away from Lastimosa, and instead to the inside of the Vanguard's cockpit, he's admittedly overwhelmed when he notices the massive assortment of dials, buttons and switches laid throughout the cockpit.

"Now, don't worry about any of the dials on the inside of the cockpit for now. Just focus on what's on the HUD in front of you." Lastimosa says, as if he already knows what Cooper was doing.

"Okay." Daniel replies, turning his attention back to the Titan's HUD.

"You see those two bars at the top of your HUD? The big one's the status of your Titan's hull integrity, and the little one above it is your Titan's bodyshield." The Pilot Captain explains. "If your shield goes down in a fight, your Titan's hull will start taking damage. The shield will regenerate over time, as long as your Titan isn't actively being hit."

Lastimosa then goes over the other elements present on the Titan's HUD, explaining to Daniel what's what. After that, the Pilot Captain has Cooper simply walk around to get a feel of things, and eventually push his Titan into a sprint. Once Daniel has done that, some floating square targets suddenly flash into existence in front of him, each at varying distances. Then, a large, Titan-sized weapon appears in his Vanguard's hands.

"Okay, this right here's the 'XO16-A2 Chaingun'. It comes standard with all Vanguard expedition kits, and fires twenty-millimetre tungsten-tipped armour-piercing rounds fed from a thirty-round drum." The Pilot Captain explains. "Trust me, hit your shots, and that thing will tear through armour in no-time."

"Go ahead, see if you can hit those targets out there." Lastimosa says, pointing towards said targets.

After loading the chaingun, Daniel focuses as he brings up the corresponding reticle on the Titan's HUD with the closest target. He squeezes the trigger, and twenty-millimetre rounds subsequently erupt out of the chaingun's muzzle, promptly finding their marks on the bullseye, the targets flashing yellow with each successful hit. Despite the Titan weapon's gargantuan size in comparison to standard infantry small arms, the recoil from the chaingun was relatively manageable, also accounting for the fact that it was a Titan wielding it, instead of a Grunt.

"I heard that you're a good shot, it's good to see that's true in a Titan as well!" Lastimosa happily remarks.

Daniel fires a few more short, controlled bursts at the other targets in front of him, reloading the chaingun during the process. After successfully hitting the final target, that one as well as the others fizzle out before disappearing.

"Okay Cooper, now that you've gotten the hang of the basics, let's step it up a notch." Captain Lastimosa says.

Then, Lastimosa disappears as the environment around Daniel suddenly shifts again, this time into a village colony comprised of prefabricated structures, which his Vanguard now stood on the edge of.

"Okay Pilot Cooper, your mission is to clear this village of IMC infantry!" Lastimosa declares, as a window appears on the HUD of Daniel's Titan, indicating to him that there was a total of thirty targets within the village for him to take out.

Immediately upon entering the village, Daniel's Vanguard takes a missile to the abdomen, causing the Titan to stumble backwards slightly. Thankfully, the Titan's shields seemed to take the brunt of the hit, his hull now at ninety-eight percent integrity.

Looking over in the direction of the arrow on his Titan's HUD that indicated where the missile came from, Daniel sees a squad of Riflemen on top of a nearby building.

However, before Cooper can bring up his chaingun and return fire, IMC Riflemen suddenly emerge from the surrounding buildings and open fire on his Titan from all directions, Daniel instinctively shielding himself with one of the Titan's arms.

"Cooper, use your Titan's Vortex Shield to catch those rounds and send 'em back where they're coming from!" Lastimosa advises him through his radio.

Daniel already knew what a Vortex Shield was prior to this training session with Lastimosa. Vortex shields used the same kind of gravity-manipulation technology as Gravity Stars, and allowed a Titan to catch incoming rounds and missiles mid-flight, and then fire them back where they came from.

Suddenly, one of the Riflemen on the building reappears wielding an Archer Heavy Rocket launcher, aiming it towards the Vanguard. Before Daniel can recognise the 'LOCK DETECTED' warning on his Titan's HUD, the Grunt fires, and the anti-Titan missile within erupts out of the Archer's muzzle-end.

Daniel brings up his Titan's free hand, and activates the Vortex Shield just in time to catch the incoming anti-Titan missile, as well as the rounds from the Grunts' rifles.

Releasing the Vortex Shield, the missile and the bullets rocket back towards the rooftop where the squad were, the bullets turning the Grunts into Swiss cheese and the missile then blowing them to pieces.

"Good work, Pilot!" Lastimosa praises, "Don't let the IMC overwhelm you, keep moving!"

Daniel continues pushing his Vanguard through the village, taking out more IMC infantry on the way, including a handful of Spectres, unknowingly crushing two of them underneath his Titan's feet.

Soon enough, Daniel eliminates the final IMC Rifleman, letting off a spray with his chaingun at the building he was taking cover inside of, the twenty-millimetre rounds penetrating the thick concrete wall with ease.

"Not bad Cooper, you cleared the village and your Titan suffered only minor hull damage. Keep this up, and you'll be a Titan Pilot in no time." Lastimosa remarks.

"But that was only ground infantry. Let's see how you hold up against something your own size!"

Then, another distinct crack echoes in the skies far above.

"Warning: Hostile Titanfall detected." Daniel's Vanguard warns, as he looks up to see another fireball rapidly approaching the ground. Like his own Vanguard from before, the Titan hits the ground with a massive crash, kicking up concrete dust and other debris in the process.

As Daniel raises his chaingun in preparation to fight the IMC Titan, his Titan suddenly locks up, and remains completely unmoving regardless of his input, frozen in place. Then, as the hostile Titan stands up, Lastimosa speaks up.

"This right here's a Brute-Class Titan. It's the most common Titan deployed by the IMC, mainly because of how quick and cheap they are to build. Basically the exact opposite of a Vanguard." The Pilot Captain explains, the Brute now also appearing to be frozen in place.

"But don't underestimate these Titans because of that fact, because they'll mess you up if you give them the chance. They're often deployed with chainguns, like our Vanguards, or sometimes, Quad Rocket launchers, like this one."

"Remember, concentrate your fire on the weak points in the Titan's hull when you can; they'll be highlighted in red by your Titan's Heads-Up-Display." Lastimosa adds, as a countdown begins on the HUD in front of Daniel, counting down from three.

"Now take it out, Pilot!" Lastimosa barks.

The countdown hits one, and Daniel is then able control his Vanguard once again. He immediately fires a salvo of Acolyte rockets at the Brute, intending to follow up with emptying his chaingun into the Titan, partly to end the fight quickly, and partly because he wanted to try and impress his mentor.

However, as the salvo flies through the air towards the Brute, the Brute quickly brings up a Vortex Shield of its own, catching the rockets in mid-air, before launching them back where they came from.

Caught off-guard, Daniel isn't able to bring up his own Vortex Shield in time to catch the returning volley, and the Acolyte rockets hit the Vanguard. While Daniel knew that everything around him was being simulated, it sure didn't feel that way, with his Vanguard getting thrashed by the returning salvo.

"Vanguards aren't the only Titans out there with Vortex Shields!" The Pilot Captain laughs. "They're tricky bastards, let me tell you!"

Daniel huffs as he continues fighting the Brute, both it and his own Titan exchanging blows. Despite initially landing some good hits on the Brute, the fight was quickly proving to be much tougher than Daniel had been anticipating, the Brute's Quad Rocket Launcher chewing through his Vanguard's armour.

"Warning! Major hull damage detected, take evasive action!" The Vanguard's AI warns.

"Cooper! Don't stand out in the open; take cover! Lastimosa recommends. "Just because you're in a Titan, doesn't mean you're invincible!"

Daniel internally chastises himself. How could he be so stupid? How could such a simple part of his combat training go right over his head?

Daniel then mentally commands his Vanguard to take cover behind a nearby building. He keeps his Chaingun trained on the corner, waiting in case the Brute came around it after him. Thankfully, this doesn't happen, and the bodyshield on Daniel's Titan soon begins regenerating.

The fight between Vanguard and Brute continues, the Vanguard eventually gaining the upper hand against the Brute behind cover. After using his Vanguard's Vortex Shield to fire the Brute's own rockets back at it, the Brute explodes spectacularly, and Daniel's Vanguard stands triumphant.

"Enemy Titan neutralised." The Vanguard's AI announces.

"Not bad, not bad. You won the fight, but not by much. If another Titan was to show up right now, you'd be screwed." Lastimosa informs.

Daniel looks up at the blue bar displaying his Titan's hull integrity at the top of his Vanguard's HUD, and promptly notices it at thirty-percent of its total capacity. His mentor was right; he would be screwed if he was to encounter another Titan, in the state his own was in. He still has a long way to go before he would become a Pilot, Daniel surmises.

"Luckily for you, Vanguards can repair that kind of damage in the field!"

"Wait, how the hell do they do that?" Daniel questions, cocking his eyebrow in confusion.

"All Vanguards come equipped with a state-of-the-art self-repair system. No idea how it actually works, but I do know that all you need to use it, is some fresh Titan batteries." Lastimosa explains, as three charged Titan batteries suddenly appear floating in the air in front of Daniel's Vanguard with a flash.

"Come on Pilot, hurry up and repair your Titan!" Lastimosa orders Cooper.

Cooper reaches for the Titan batteries with his Titan's off-hand, grabbing all three Titan batteries in one deft movement.

"Self-repair system engaged: Restoring hull integrity." Daniel's Titan informs, as the dull blue bar at the top of the HUD turns green, and begins quickly filling back up until it reaches one-hundred-percent.

"Well done Cooper, you're well on your way to becoming a fully-fledged Titan Pilot." Lastimosa remarks.

Green dots suddenly flash in Daniel's vision as the simulation ends, and the interior of the Simulation Pod is revealed to him.

"That's all we have time for today. We're getting close to Typhon now; we'll be there in another twenty minutes or so." Lastimosa informs Daniel through the Sim Pod's internal speakers, as the doors slide open with a hiss. Sitting on the railing in front of the Sim Pod, was the Pilot Captain, holding a brown package in his hands.

"Here, I got something for ya'." Lastimosa informs, as he stands up from the railing and hands the package to Cooper inside the Sim Pod.

Daniel promptly opens the package, peeling away the brown paper surrounding whatever was inside. Upon revealing the contents and seeing what was inside, Daniel's eyes widen. Inside was a burgundy red Pilot's jumpsuit; its colour identifying that its wearer was a Pilot in training.

"Now, I know what you're thinking, but you're not officially a Pilot in training yet, per se. But once we get that research facility on Typhon sorted out, you will be." Lastimosa explains.

Lastimosa then explains that he needs to get himself and his Titan ready for the mission, telling Cooper that he'll see him down on the ground, before departing and leaving the unofficial Pilot-in-training by himself in the Sim Pod.

Believing that he had plenty of time to do so, Daniel quickly returns to his quarters on board the James MacAllan, once he'd recovered from the side-effects of using the Sim Pod, to try on the Pilot's jumpsuit.

Now inspecting himself in a nearby mirror, the jumpsuit fit him perfectly. To think all it took was for Daniel to see a Militia Pilot in action, practically flying across the battlefield, to realise that he himself wanted to be a Pilot. And now, the day he would finally (officially) become one, was almost here.

In the midst of Daniel's thoughts, the lights in his room suddenly begin to flicker, before the room suddenly vibrates violently as alarms begin blaring out.

"POWERING DOWN ALL NON-ESSENTIAL SYSTEMS. ALL PERSONNEL TO BATTLE STATIONS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL." The MacAllan's AI PA system suddenly announces.

Daniel quickly equips his rifleman gear over his Pilot jumpsuit, knowing that he simply wouldn't have the time to change out of it, as he grabs his rifle as and dashes out of his quarters into the halls filled with other Militia soldiers scrambling to get to their battle stations. Thankfully however, his equipment hid the vast majority of the red fabric from view, meaning he hopefully wouldn't be getting his ass chewed out by his commanding officer for being out of uniform, at least not right away. Being a Rifleman, Daniel knew that his battle station would be at the dropship.

However, he never makes it anywhere near the launch bay, as a near-deafening crash rings out through the Militia carrier, followed by an earth-shattering rumble, sending himself and some other passing soldiers stumbling to the floor.

As Daniel and the other Riflemen pick themselves up, another warning blares out from the MacAllan's PA system, this time from the MacAllan's captain, informing everyone on board that they were under attack by the IMC, as well as ordering them to evacuate the ship immediately. The captain attempts to repeat the warning, but his voice turns to static right after another explosion reverberates through the ship. The lights cut out, and are quickly replaced by orange emergency lights, flashing in sequence.

"WARNING: SEXTUPLE ENGINE FAILURE DETECTED, ALTITUDE LOSS CRITICAL. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY." The MacAllan's AI PA rings out again.

Daniel feels his stomach flip as he feels the ship begin a rapidly descending. He scrambles into one of the nearby lifeboats lining the sides of the hallway, as do the other Riflemen, the hatch quickly sealing shut once he was inside.

After his abdomen and legs are secured by the lifeboat's safety harness, a loud beep sounds, as the lifeboat jettisons from the Militia carrier. As his lifeboat quickly plummets through Typhon's atmosphere, Daniel hears the frantic chatter between other Militia personnel over the blaring of alarms via the lifeboat's on-board emergency radio.

"Broadsword Command, this is the Militia Ninth Fleet! We have been ambushed by A.O.D. at planet Typhon! The intel was wrong!"

"IMC on the port side! Port side! We're taking hits!"

"This is no ordinary research operation!"

"We are going down! Repeat, we are going down! Coordinates to follow!"

"Sir, we've lost the Rickman! I'm seeing a ton of Anti-Orbital Defences, none of it was on the charts!"

"Decompression on decks five through nine! All hands, abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon ship!"

"GET TO THE LIFEBOATS! WE'RE GOING DOWN, WE'RE GOING DOWN!"

"This is the MCS James MacAllan, we are going down! I repeat, we are going down!"

"They're jamming us hard, we're not getting through!"

Then, as the lifeboat's thrusters activate and begin slowing its descent, the resulting g-forces produced by which forces the blood in Daniel's body to quickly rush downwards away from his head. Soon, Daniel's vision goes dark, and the Rifleman passes out.


Daniel Cooper had wanted to be a Pilot for years now.

But... not like this...

His mentor, who'd become the closest thing Cooper had to a father-figure in years, in the roughly two months he'd been training under him, now laid lifeless on the rocky ground underneath his Vanguard-Class Titan. He'd saved Daniel's life from an IMC Titan during the ambush the night before, and yet again from a Prowler mere moments ago.

Daniel would give him a proper burial; it was the least his mentor deserved, after everything he's done for him. And so, after stripping the Pilot Captain of his equipment under his orders, Daniel spent what felt like hours burying Tai Lastimosa underneath some rocks taken from the surrounding area, the fallen Pilot's final words echoing in his mind the entire time.

"Take care of him..."

Whether or not Lastimosa had directed that at him, or his Titan, Daniel didn't know.

But now... He was all alone... again. Or, at least Daniel briefly thought he was, until a monotone voice suddenly reverberates nearby, startling him slightly and reminding him that he wasn't alone.

"Power low... Insufficient power…"

With his dying breath, Lastimosa linked Daniel to his Vanguard-Class Titan, designated 'BT-7274', judging from the matching number on the Titan's hull. Alone, neither Daniel nor BT would last another day, being knee-deep in IMC territory.

But together... they might stand a chance.


YEAR 2720,

TYPHON,

THE FRONTIER.

Daniel sees nothing but complete darkness. Is he dead? Is this the afterlife? He wasn't sure, and he can't remember a thing. Then, he hears distant voices, reminding him that he was still very much alive. As the Titan Pilot returns to the realm of consciousness, memories begin to trickle back into his mind:

Hijacking the Malta...

Fighting Viper...

Boarding the Draconis...

Securing the Ark...

"Protocol three: I will not lose another Pilot."

As Daniel's eyes open, he finds himself sitting on the floor within some kind of maintenance room, judging from all the pipes surrounding him. Nearby, the two remaining Apex Predators, Blisk and Slone, stood alongside a glowing hologram of IMC General Marder. Behind the three, stood a red and yellow Ion-Class Titan — presumably belonging to Slone — armed with its Splitter Rifle.

After that, Daniel immediately notices the remains of BT-7274's battered and scorched chassis nearby, illuminated by a nearby floodlight. Several tools were laid out on a tarp on the floor beneath the Titan; likely evidence from the IMC's vain attempt to remove the Ark from the Vanguard's cockpit by conventional means.

With his hands cuffed behind his back, there wasn't much else Cooper could do except sit still on the floor. Though, he did have a pin for picking the locks on standard handcuffs inside the hem of his right glove. But, upon hearing the shuffling of equipment behind him, he notices a pair of IMC Riflemen standing behind him with their weapons drawn, ready to end him if he was to try that. Or anything, for that matter.

"Blisk, your problems are not my concern." Marder's hologram informs, as Daniel's head turns back to face the trio. "Once you have delivered the Ark — as per your contract — your payment will be transferred by the IMC." The IMC General reassures.

Blisk scoffs. "Just have my money ready. I'll get you your precious cargo, you useless naff." Blisk insults Marder's hologram, as the glowing General disappears. The leader of the Apex Predators then turns and raises his knife towards the Vanguard suspended from the ceiling.

"OI, TITAN! You're going to open up and give me what I want!" Blisk shouts at BT, who doesn't move an inch, except for the occasional twitch of his remaining, yet heavily damaged arm.

"Voice command... not recognised." BT's monotonous voice replies, his single eye flashing in sequence as he speaks.

Slone growls in annoyance, as she clenches one hand into fist and smashes it into her other palm. "Let me just rip it out of him!" She asks her fellow Apex Predator, thumbing towards the Ion in the room behind them.

"We can't risk it, the Ark's unstable." Blisk explains, as he turns and kneels down in front of the sitting Pilot.

"Listen, hero. You have what's mine and I want it back. So go on, tell your Titan to open up." Blisk tells, as he points the tip of his knife straight into the Militia Pilot's visor, so close that the blade was almost touching it.

"I'll tell him to open up — When you're dead." Daniel retorts, the Apex Predator's threat not phasing him in the slightest. He knew that they wouldn't kill him. At least, not yet. After all, why go through all the trouble of restraining him and bringing him here, just to slit his throat? They clearly wanted him alive, probably in the hopes of using him to coerce BT into giving up the Ark.

Blisk sighs, as he stands up and returns his knife back into the sheath on his shoulder, snapping it into place with a click. "Still trying to be a hero, eh? I have a lot of dosh riding in this contract, my friend." The mercenary informs, while Daniel remains silent.

"So, tell your Titan, that if he doesn't open up, I will shoot you in the head." He threatens, simultaneously drawing his Wingman from his thigh holster and pressing the muzzle straight into the forehead of the Militia Pilot's helmet.

A few seconds of tense silence follows, before BT looks up towards the two Pilots, and his deep, monotonous voice reverberates through the room.

"Pilot in jeopardy... Ocular systems... marginal... Cannot visually acquire Pilot..." The Vanguard informs almost drearily, his eye appearing to squint at them.

Blisk briefly glances at the Vanguard, before lowering his Wingman and looking back at the Pilot, an idea entering his mind.

"Stand him up!" Blisk barks to the two Riflemen behind Daniel, as the Grunts quickly grab hold of the Militia Pilot's arms and force the somewhat larger man to stand.

"Do you see him now? Right here, right here! Yeah? You see him now?!" Blisk roars at the Vanguard, quickly gesturing to the Grunts to bring the Pilot closer.

"Functions... compromised by... severe... crash damage..." BT blankly informs.

"I don't care how broken you are! I know deep down, some things... some things, still work in there. Now open up — or I'm going to kill your Pilot!" Blisk shouts, as he brings the muzzle of his Wingman back up into the Pilot's helmet.

"You still remember numbers, don't you? I'm going to count to three." Blisk threatens, cocking the hammer on his Wingman. As Blisk begins counting, simultaneously, a message appears on the left side of Daniel's HUD.

"One..."

RECIEVING ENCRYPTED MESSAGE:

"Two..."

BT-7274: COOPER, TRUST ME.

"Three—"

Blisk is cut off by the sound of the lower half of BT's hatch suddenly opening with a loud hiss, allowing the intense light produced by the Ark to envelope the room, quickly forcing him and the other mercenaries to shield their eyes, while Daniel's helmet display automatically dims in response to the intense light.

As Blisk lowers his Wingman and looks towards the Vanguard, he lets out a quiet chuckle. "Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" He says in a slightly mocking tone, as he turns back around and faces the Pilot.

"You see, that's the problem with teams. If you don't win together, you die together." Blisk taunts.

A mechanical whirring suddenly begins emanating from BT, and his remaining arm starts violently twitching. Then, without warning, the Titan's hand lashes out towards Blisk.

Blisk notices the movement out of the corner of his vision, and reacts quickly, skilfully dodging the Vanguard's sudden attack with the aid of his Jump Kit with only mere inches to spare. As Blisk quickly runs out of the room, Slone's Ion-Class Titan quickly picks up its Pilot and places her into its cockpit, sealing her away from the hostile Vanguard, before it backs away out of the Vanguard's range.

The pair of IMC Grunts restraining Cooper promptly release him, and the Pilot instinctively drops to the floor to keep himself out of harm's way, as the Riflemen begin firing their rifles upon the Vanguard. In response, BT sends some nearby crates flying at the Grunts with a whack from remaining arm, knocking them down and far out of his reach. On the floor, Daniel removes the pin from the hem of his glove, and immediately gets to work freeing himself from his restraints, but struggling to do so from the awkward position his arms were in.

One of the Grunts quickly gets himself to his feet and continues firing on BT, while the other opts to do so from the floor. Suddenly, BT's remaining Acolyte Pod reactivates, somehow still functional despite the damage the Vanguard has sustained. Then, with barely enough time for the two Riflemen to see both of their lives flash before their eyes as their rifles run dry, they're swiftly blown to pieces by a pair of missiles from the Titan.

The Acolyte Pod continues firing wildly, clearly malfunctioning. BT does his best with his own damaged and malfunctioning systems to keep the missiles as far away from his Pilot as possible, as the pod continues firing its salvo in all directions around the room, destroying and igniting gas cylinders, pipes and many other flammable items.

This causes Daniel to accidently drop the pin he was holding between his fingers, letting out a curse as he feels around the floor behind him, desperately searching for it. As the room is soon engulfed in flames, BT's Acolyte Pod suddenly ceases its fire, having expended the last of its ammunition.

As Daniel remains on the floor, desperately searching for the pin, he hears the loud thumps of Slone's Titan re-entering the maintenance room. When Slone reaches the Vanguard, its fist slams straight into BT's cockpit, and promptly rips the Ark right out him. As the Ion inspects the Ark in its hand, BT desperately reaches out towards it, the Ark just barely out of his reach.

"Nice try, love." Slone taunts, her voice amplified by her Titan's PA system, as she directs her attention towards the Vanguard.

"Say goodnight." Slone remarks in twisted glee, as she jams the barrel of her Titan's Splitter Rifle into BT's cockpit, and starts unloading the particle accelerator straight into the Vanguard.

Daniel watches helplessly as the Vanguard tries in vain to pull the gun away from him, before his remaining arm falls limp, and Slone pulls the weapon from the now lifeless Vanguard's cockpit.

"GET THE ARK OUT OF HERE, WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!" Blisk shouts from the safety of the neighbouring room.

Slone's Ion-Class Titan gives Cooper one last look before it turns and leaves the room, the large door connecting both rooms sealing behind the Titan as it leaves, Ark in hand, leaving Daniel trapped inside.

As Daniel finally finds the pin on the floor behind him, he manages to open one of his cuffs, partially freeing himself. He quickly sits up and brings his arms around his front and opens the remaining cuff, releasing it from his wrist as it clatters to the floor.

The Pilot slowly picks himself up from the floor, looking around the surrounding room. The room was almost completely engulfed in flames now, and the temperature was getting hotter by the second.

Daniel slowly approaches BT's battered chassis, which was now on fire just like the room surrounding it, searching for any signs of life in the Vanguard.

The Titan remains completely motionless.

After waiting a few moments, hoping for him to do or say anything… Daniel's hope plummets.

Daniel looks over to the large door on the other side of the room – the only exit - and sees a terminal next to it. If he still had his Data Knife, hacking the terminal to open the door would be a breeze. But the IMC had confiscated it, and without it, there was nothing he would be able to do. Now, his odds of escaping the room before he burns to death was zero.

Until...

"Cooper…"

Daniel looks back to the seemingly-destroyed Vanguard. "BT?" He mutters, shocked and relieved that despite all the damage he'd sustained, the Titan was somehow still alive.

"I can no longer uphold the mission… But you still can…" BT explains, his distorted voice reverberating through the room.

"Take the S.E.R.E Kit… It is your best… chance… for survival…" He advises, as the Titan's arm twitches again, as it slowly begins reaching towards his own head.

With a snap, BT removes his head from his body and attempts to give it to Cooper, but before the Pilot can reach for it, the arm suddenly falls limp, his head rolling out of his hand and onto the floor. Daniel's HUD soon highlights it in yellow, with the words 'SURVIVE, EVADE, RESIST, ESCAPE KIT' hovering above it.

Daniel immediately kneels down and grasps BT's head, facing the Titan's partially closed eye up towards him. As if responding to his touch, the eye shoots open, surprising him slightly. Then, the sides of hid head extend outwards with a hiss, revealing a pair of hidden compartments within the Vanguard's head. On the right side, Daniel sees the obvious grip of a pistol, alongside some spare magazines sticking out of it slightly.

Daniel gives the pistol's grip a tug before sliding it out of its compartment, grabbing the spare magazines tucked away beside it as well and stowing them into the pouches on his vest.

Inspecting the Pistol, it shared the same colour scheme as BT's chassis, being predominantly green, with some white and orange highlights. It was a pistol alright, but not just any old pistol. Some text soon appears in a window on his HUD, hovering over the sidearm, identifying it:

MK 6 SMART PISTOL: LOCKS ONTO TARGETS WITHIN RANGE FOR GUARANTEED HITS.

Daniel had only ever heard of Smart Pistols, and had never seen one before, due to how rare they were. But now, he has one, right in his hand, and he knew exactly what he was going to use it for.

He holsters the high-tech pistol into the holster on his right thigh, and reaches into the other compartment on the Vanguard's head. This time, it reveals a Data Knife. He already knew what one could do, briefly remembering how he used one to take control of the IMC's Battleship, the IMS Malta, as he quickly sheathes it onto his vest.

Both compartments quickly slam shut as BT's eye pops out of its socket slightly. Daniel grasps the eye and gives it a firm pull, removing it from the socket with a click. On its side, was the Militia Special Reconnaissance Squadron's Prowler insignia on the side, with the inscription 'SRS VANGUARD-CLASS TITAN — BT-7274' below it.

As his HUD warns him of the obvious high external temperatures, Daniel sprints towards the terminal on the opposite side of the room, BT's Datacore firmly held in his left hand. He uses his newly acquired Data Knife to pry the digital keyboard up, before flicking the switch on the side of the knife's handle to activate its hacking mode, causing a pair of thin wings covered in electrical circuitry to extend out from the handle parallel to the blade, before jamming it into the terminal's now-exposed circuitry.

The holographic display on the handle lights up, initially glowing orange before soon turning blue, indicating the advanced hacking tool had done its job, as the maintenance room door to the left opens.

Daniel returns the knife back into the sheath on his vest as he draws his Smart Pistol. After running through the neighbouring room past a large cargo lift, the temperature quickly falling to a much safer level, the Pilot runs up a staircase that has a large 'EXIT' arrow on the wall pointing up it.

He ignores some crackling from his helmet radio, as he reaches the top of the stairs and continues into the connecting hallway.

"All call signs fire at will! Captain, do have a fix on that signal?" SRS Commander Sarah Briggs asks over comms.

"I've got something, but it's faint. Cannot confirm." The captain in question replies to the Militia Commander.

In the moment, Daniel ignores the radio chatter he hears, instead directing his attention to a squad of IMC Riflemen ahead of him at the end of the hallway.

"Contact, ten-thirteen! We've got a Militia Pilot inside the thermal facility!" One of the Grunts ahead of him shouts into his radio, Daniel hearing it in his own thanks to the helmet radio he stole from Kane, another one of the Apex Predators he encountered not long after he and BT escaped the MacAllan's crash site.

Raising the Smart Pistol's muzzle towards the squad, red holographic lines lead from the pistol's muzzle straight to red reticles hovering over each of the Riflemen's heads.

"Repeat, Militia Pilot—"

Cooper squeezes the trigger, and in a fraction of a second, five shots bark out, and every Grunt in the squad drops dead in rapid succession before any one of them have a chance to fire on the Pilot.

As a staircase brings Daniel to a walkway situated above a massive cooling chamber, he leaps across the gap to another walkway ahead. As more Grunts appear from another staircase ahead of him, they immediately meet their end, barely having any time to react to the Militia Pilot.

"Commander Briggs, I'm picking up a Datacore, but it's a weak signal!" Another voice informs the SRS Commander over comms.

"Are you sure you have the coordinates? Boost the signal, I need to get through to them!" Sarah orders.

Daniel continues ignoring the radio chatter in the background, completely focused on following the signs leading him to the facility's exit, and dealing with anything that gets in his way.

After running up the stairs where the Riflemen came from, the Pilot slides under a partially open shutter door and emerges outside onto a walkway overlooking the gargantuan spinning rings of the IMC's Fold Weapon, the same weapon they intended to use to destroy the planet Harmony, home to the Militia's headquarters. A pair of IMC Riflemen that turn the corner suddenly, are quickly handled by Daniel's Smart Pistol.

"Commander Briggs, I have a lock on Cooper's position! He's pulled BT's Datacore, he must have the S.E.R.E Kit!" Another voice informs Briggs over the radio.

"BT! Cooper! What's your status?! Cooper! How copy, over?!" Sarah calls out to Daniel over comms.

Daniel raises his fingers to his helmet radio to responds, now actually in a safe-enough position to do so.

"Briggs, how the hell do we shut this thing down?!" Daniel asks the SRS Commander.

"Cooper — get to the bridge one klick north of your position!" Briggs orders with relief in her tone, as Daniel looks north, and sees the bridge she's referring to in the distance. "We've only got one shot to turn this fight around, and you're it!"

"Got it, I'm on my way!" Daniel replies, as he turns the corner and continues running along the walkway until he arrives at its edge.

Below the edge, was a landing platform, that currently had an IMC Goblin dropship on it deploying some troops. As the Goblin takes off into the sky, Daniel leaps off the edge, his Jump Kit slowing his descent to a safe velocity as he plummets to the platform below. The squad of IMC Riflemen below him were completely oblivious to his presence, and in less than a second, the entire squad lay dead at the hands of Daniel's Smart Pistol, who quickly replaces the now-empty magazine in the high-tech weapon with a fresh one from his vest.

"Our fleets moving in on the Fold Weapon!" Briggs informs, as Daniel lands on the platform with a loud thud. "We're coming, it's not over yet!"

Damn right, it isn't. Daniel internally remarks, as he runs across the landing platform towards a shutter door that was in the process of opening. As he slides underneath the door and he immediately headshots a Grunt using the door controls to the right.

The rest of his squad were inside waiting for the door to open, and are caught off-guard by the Pilot's sudden appearance. Before any of them can react, they all swiftly meet their end.

Sprinting past the fallen Riflemen, instead of taking the stairs on the other side of the room, Daniel runs up the wall on his right, in order to reach a doorway just behind a catwalk above. As two more Riflemen suddenly emerge from said doorway, the Pilot leaps off the wall towards them, and puts both bewildered Grunts down with Smart Pistol-aided ease.

Daniel quickly runs down the hallway, passing by multiple sealed doors, and guns down two more Grunts that turn the corner. As the Pilot himself turns that corner, he's met with an entire squad of IMC Riflemen taking defensive positions behind some barricades, led by a Shield Captain, who had an impenetrable energy shield projected in front of him that would both protect him from incoming fire, and allow him to return fire unimpeded.

Daniel quickly ducks back behind the corner with a boost from his Jump Kit as the squad opens fire, peppering the wall that was previously behind him moments prior.

"CONTACT! GAMMA TWO, ENGAGING MILITIA PILOT!" One of the Grunts radios in.

Normally, Daniel would use his Cloak to give himself an edge in situations like this, but since the IMC had confiscated that too, he would have to improvise.

He grabs a grenade from the belt of one of the dead soldiers on the floor next to him and pulls the pin, before he blind-throws the grenade around the corner when he finds an opening in the Grunts' fire. He barely makes out one them calling out 'GRENADE!' before he hears it go off and the gunfire ceases, indicating that he's hit his mark.

As he turns the corner again and continues running through the halls, still tightly grasping BT's Datacore in his left hand, he quickly finishes off an injured Rifleman who'd somehow managed to survive the explosion. As he reaches the blast door that Riflemen had sealed behind them, Daniel quickly draws his Data Knife and uses it to pry the door's control panel open, before jamming it into the exposed circuitry and successfully hacking it open.

"Cooper, you're headed in the right direction, just keep moving!" Commander Briggs informs him.

"Solid copy!" Daniel replies, confirming that he knows exactly where to go.

"The anti-air defences are extremely heavy around the Fold Weapon! We're having trouble getting boots on the ground, and we're running out of options!" Sarah briefs.

Running into the next room reveals yet another massive cooling chamber — this one much bigger and longer than the one before, split into two separate chambers by a central support column.

Suddenly, some more IMC soldiers appear from a door on the right, and after Daniel quickly deals with them, he runs to the left side of the cooling vent and jumps onto the wall. As the Pilot begins wallrunning through the vent, feeling the heat rising up from below, a swarm of about half a dozen IMC drones fly into the vent from the other end, and quickly begin firing blue energy projectiles towards him.

After discovering that the drones were outside his Smart Pistol's targeting range, Daniel quickly dodges their shots by leaping off the wall to the right, flying through a gap in the middle of the cooling vent's central support column and into the other vent on the opposite side.

As the Pilot continues wallrunning through the opposite vent, the drones quickly give chase and follow him into it, before continuing to fire on him again. In response, Daniel begins leaping back and forth from wall to wall inside the vent, his erratic movement throwing off the aim of the drones for just long enough for him to reach the end of the cooling chamber.

As he leaps out of the vent, he plummets towards the platform below and lands on it with a loud thud, before turning around to face the swarm of drones now exiting the cooling chamber.

Bringing up his Smart Pistol, Daniel waits for it to automatically lock onto the fatal weak points on each and every drone, before squeezing the trigger and sending a guided round into each of them, causing the drones to either explode or quickly lose control and plunge back into the cooling vent.

Daniel turns and continues running through the thermal facility. As he runs around a bend, he sees sunlight spilling into the facility from outside.

"Be careful, the IMC's setting up defences on the bridge ahead of you!" Sarah warns.

"Solid copy!" Daniel acknowledges, as he sprints up a ramp, past a control room.

"We have one Vanguard left in the racks! I'm pulling its Datacore and preparing it for Titanfall!" The Militia Commander suddenly informs. Daniel immediately puts the pieces together as to what she means, as he gives BT's Datacore a gentle squeeze in anticipation.

As the Pilot runs outside onto the aforementioned bridge, he sees a multitude of IMC Grunts and drones taking defensive positions all across the bridge in a sort of 'last stand' to stop him at all costs.

"Contact! Militia Pilot's at the bridge!" One of the Grunts on the bridge radios in.

Despite the overwhelming IMC resistance in front of him, Daniel doesn't hesitate. He continues sprinting across the bridge, shooting two nearby Grunts preparing to open fire on him. Moving from cover to cover, his Smart Pistol makes short work of any IMC Rifleman or drone that got within its range.

A quick magazine change later, and Daniel takes out the last few Grunts on the bridge as he charges onwards, sprinting through a large building on the other side of the bridge, as Commander Briggs speaks to him again.

"Cooper, your Titan's standing by! Call it when you're ready!" The Militia Commander informs.

When Cooper enters the wide, open area on the other side of the bridge, he quickly confirms it's clear and secure, before radioing Commander Briggs.

"Commander Briggs, requesting Titanfall on my position!" The Pilot calls out.

"Solid copy, standby for Titanfall!" Sarah replies.

As a distinct crack echoes in the sky above him, Daniel looks up and sees a flaming object fireball rocketing towards the ground, being propelled downwards by top-mounted a thruster. As the object approaches the ground below, its heat shield detaches, temporarily revealing a humanoid object that quickly hits the ground with a crash that kicks up a cloud of dust, obscuring it from view.

Daniel sprints towards it, and as the dust settles, it reveals a black and grey Vanguard-Class Titan. When the Pilot gets close enough, the kneeling Titan leans forwards, as a slot in its head opens up.

Not hesitating in the slightest, Daniel presents BT's Datacore and slowly and gently inserts it into the slot on the Vanguard's head, as if any lapse in movement would damage it irreparably. After clicking into place, BT's Datacore retreats into the Vanguard's head with a series of clicks, the eye spinning for a few moments, before the Titan looks straight at the Pilot and blinks.

"Hello, Daniel." A familiar, monotonous warble suddenly greets him, the voice reverberating around them. The massive war machine slams a fist into the ground as it stands to it's full twenty-five-foot height.

"Glad to have you back in one piece, BT." Daniel warmly admits to the Vanguard, letting a relieved smile appear on his face.

"Over twenty-five-thousand, actually." The Vanguard replies literally, Daniel smiling at his unintentional sarcasm as BT raises an arm, inspecting his new chassis.

"BT-Seven-Two-Seven-Four online and ready for combat." BT declares, simultaneously producing a Titan-sized minigun from his back.

"It is time to complete our mission." BT declares, as his hatch pops open with a hiss, simultaneously lowering the barrels of the Predator Cannon to create a pseudo ramp for his Pilot.

"Damn right is!" Daniel exclaims, holstering his Smart Pistol as he sprints up the barrel of the gun and leaps into the cockpit.

The hatch seals shut as BT turns around, Daniel simultaneously feeling the body of a Titan become his own, man and machine becoming one. The cockpit visual system promptly activates, resulting in the hatch's interior quickly becoming transparent and revealing the outside world to his Pilot.

Hovering high in Typhon's sky, was at least a dozen Militia battleships exchanging fire with the IMC's anti-orbital weaponry on the ground.

"Cooper, we're throwing everything we've got at the IMC but it's not going to be enough to stop the Fold Weapon! I need you to get inside its control room, asap!" Commander Briggs reports to Daniel, as the Vanguard sprints down the slope towards a bridge, stepping on and crushing some Spectres underfoot along the way.

"Commander Briggs to all battle stations, I want close fire support on Cooper and BT! Do whatever it takes to cover them!" Briggs orders the fleet, several Militia Captains replying in acknowledgement over the radio.

"Cooper, get up that hill! We'll cover you, move!" Sarah barks.

"Copy that, we're on it!" Daniel replies, as he revs up the Predator Cannon and begins unloading it into an approaching IMC Tone-Class Titan.

The Tone puts up a Particle Wall in an attempt to stop the storm of armour-piercing rounds from chewing it to pieces. But thanks to the Predator Cannon's high rate of fire, the Particle Wall only manages to defend the Titan for a few seconds, before it quickly disintegrates. Then, the IMC Titan explodes spectacularly at the hands of the Militia Vanguard.

"Cooper, we must stop the IMC from using the Fold Weapon at all costs. If we fail, the Militia planet of Harmony will be destroyed."

"We won't let that happen, BT!" Daniel determinedly replies to his Titan.

There's more Titans of all varieties quickly approaching the Vanguard from further up the hill, with a Northstar hanging back to snipe at them from afar, as Daniel deploys the Predator Cannon's Gunshield and spools up the Titan minigun again to return fire. Even with the Predator Cannon's impressive firepower, it was quickly proving difficult for Daniel and BT to fight the hostile Titans all at once. Fortunately, they didn't have to.

"Tracking targets — Firing, danger close!" A Militia gunner suddenly warns Daniel through his radio, as orange markers began appearing above of the Titans ahead of them. The Militia's battleships in the distance begin firing upon the IMC Titans, as Daniel takes cover behind a rock formation as soon as they hit their mark.

"Direct hit, reloading!"

When the Vanguard emerges from behind the rock formation after the smoke clears, all that remains of the IMC Titans were a few pieces of scorched metal, not even fit for scrap. Cooper continues pushing BT's powerful legs up the hill, as more IMC Titans begin approaching from further ahead.

"Cooper, Smart Core online and standing by for activation." BT informs.

"Alright, let's finish this, BT!" Daniel exclaims, as he spools up the Predator Cannon and deploys the Gunshield, the Vanguard advancing forwards towards the hostile Titans up ahead.


After eliminating several more IMC Titans, Reapers and infantry alike with the help from the Militia's fleet and the Six-Four piloting the commandeered IMS Malta, Daniel and BT soon begin closing in on the Fold Weapon's control room.

Running past some charged Titan batteries stored inside some pods, Daniel simultaneously breaks the pods and sweeps the batteries up with a swipe from BT's hand. The Vanguard's self-repair system automatically siphons the energy out of them and uses it to repair his damaged hull, bringing its integrity back to one-hundred-percent capacity, as the fight for Harmony certainly wasn't over just yet.

Daniel discards the discharged Titan batteries and returns the XO16-A2 Chaingun to BT's hands, as he walks his Titan down a ramp leading to the Fold Weapon's control room. Upon entering the control room, a heavily-reinforced blast door automatically shuts behind the Titan, sealing Daniel and BT inside.

Up ahead, was Slone and Blisk's Titans, standing underneath a massive railgun pointing directly into the centre of the Fold Weapon's spinning rings, the Ion just finishing loading the Ark's casing into said railgun, while Blisk's Legion was facing another glowing hologram of General Marder in conversation.

"You have your money, Blisk. Now go, my forces will take over from here." General Marder's hologram orders Blisk.

"It's about time they do something." Blisk grumbles in reply. His Titan's hatch slams shut upon noticing the Vanguard's arrival, before he turns to the nearby Slone.

"I think our Militia Pilot's trying to be a hero. He's all yours, keep the salvage." Blisk's voice booms through his Titan's PA system, as the Legion walks away towards another exit on the far end of the room.

"Who said anything about salvage? I'll do this one for free." Slone replies to the Legion, as she slams her Titan's fist into its other hand, before producing a Splitter Rifle from its back and priming it for combat.

"ARK INJECTOR LOADED. SPOOLING UP STAGE ONE." The control room's AI reverberates, as multiple orange lights in the control room begin flashing in warning.

"You know what I see when I look at you? A pile of easy money!" Slone taunts through her Titan's PA system, as she begins unleashing charged particles from her Titan's Splitter Rifle at the Vanguard.

"Come and get it, then!" Daniel challenges, his own voice amplified and projected through BT's PA system as he begins returning fire.

The Vanguard rushes towards Slone's Ion, both exchanging armour-piercing rounds and charged particles as Daniel narrowly dodges a shot from her Titan's shoulder-mounted Laser Cannon.

Thanks to the chaingun's faster rate of fire, the shields on Slone's Ion eventually deplete with a visible pop, and the Titan's hull starts taking damage, Cooper making sure to aim right for the weak point in the hull highlighted on his HUD as he advances towards Slone.

The Chaingun soon runs dry, and with a mental command, Daniel keeps up the pressure by firing a salvo of rockets at Slone. In return, Slone quickly deploys her Ion's Vortex Shield and catches the rockets in mid-air.

"Nice try love, but I'm no pushover!" The Apex Predator growls, as she fires the rockets back at the Militia Vanguard.

In response, Cooper deftly deploys BT's own Vortex Shield and catches the returning volley, before quickly firing it back at the Ion.

"Neither am I, bitch!" The Vanguard Pilot growls, as the salvo hits Slone's Titan and strips some armour from its hull and causing it to stagger.

"You little bugger! You're really making me work for my pay, ain't ya?!" Slone angrily exclaims.

The Ion briefly knocked off-balance by the salvo, Daniel sees the opening in Slone's guard and quickly closes the gap, aiming BT's left fist straight for the Ion's main hatch in an effort to end the fight now, and stop the Fold Weapon from being activated before it's too late.

Right before the Vanguard's fist can make contact with Slone's Titan, the Ion suddenly Phases away and disappears without a trace.

Before Daniel can realise what's happened and react appropriately, BT's chassis is suddenly hit in the shoulder from Slone's Ion, who's just reappeared nearby, taking a sizeable chunk out of the bar representing BT's hull integrity at the top of his HUD.

"Sorry mate, it's time to die!" Slone shouts at Cooper, as she charges up her Ion's Laser Core and fires it at him, the red laser quickly threatening to burn a hole through the Vanguard.

With another mental command, Daniel quickly deploys BT's Electric Smoke countermeasures in response, the thick, electrified smoke quickly enveloping the Vanguard and obscuring him from Slone's view, giving him precious room to back off and take cover, allowing him to reload his Chaingun and allow BT's shields to regenerate. With the knowledge that Slone's Ion is equipped with Phase technology in his mind, Daniel quickly realises that this is a fight he won't be able to end as quickly as he'd hoped.


"FOLD WEAPON APPROACHING STAGE FOUR: RING MOMENTUM AT NINETY-FIVE PERCENT." The control rooms AI informs, as both Vanguard and Ion continue their dance, exchanging fire and insults all the while. Both Titans were now displaying moderate to heavy damage, the control room they were in also in a similar state from stray shots.

Like before, Daniel had tried several times to close the gap and end the fight, only for Slone to either Phase away or fire another Laser Core at him and force him to retreat, likely thanks to a supped-up reactor in her Titan.

However, BT had hypothesised that both her Ion's Phase Shifter and Laser Core shared the same power supply, meaning that in theory, she wouldn't be able to immediately Phase away after firing a Laser Core, temporarily leaving her Titan vulnerable to attack. With this in mind, Daniel had been quietly using the precious time he had left to charge the ace up his sleeve: BT's Shield Core.

When activated, the Shield Core would do exactly what it sounded like, and surround the Vanguard's chassis with a nigh-impenetrable energy shield for a few seconds. The only downside of this core, was that it required a tremendous amount of energy to function, meaning Daniel would only have one shot at using it. But with the Fold Weapon nearing its final preparation stage, it was their only chance at getting close enough to Slone to end the fight.

As Daniel blocks a shot from the Ion's Laser Cannon with BT's Vortex Shield, he then empties another drum from the XO-16 at the enemy Titan, before quickly reloading the Chaingun with experienced ease.

The swarm of tungsten-tipped armour-piercing rounds pummel the battered Ion, but not enough to cause any major damage. However, one of the armour piercers strikes a critical component in the Ion's shoulder-mounted Laser Cannon, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks, taking one of Slone's weapons out of the fight for good.

The Ion stumbles slightly before quickly regaining its footing.

"I've gotta' say hero, this has been more entertaining than I expected!" Slone admits to the Militia Pilot.

"But I reckon it's time I cashed my pay check!" Slone remarks as she powers up her Ion's Laser Core, the front of her Titan glowing a menacing red.

Daniel quickly deploys another smokescreen to throw off Slone's aim as much as possible, as he activates BT's core with another mental command.

"Shield Core activated."

The Vanguard emerges from the electrified smoke surrounded in a thick, blue energy shield, and rushes towards the Ion.

"Use that Core all you want - it won't save ya'!" Slone barks.

The Militia Titan continues pushing through the burning red laser towards the Ion, Laser and Shield Cores clashing together in an amalgamation of blinding purple energy all the while.

Both Laser and Shield Core deactivate as soon the Vanguard closes the gap to the Ion, the Vanguard visibly unharmed, save for the damage sustained beforehand. With a devastating kick, the Militia Pilot knocks the Ion's Splitter Rifle out of its grip, the weapon getting sent flying out of reach and smashing to the floor of the control room.

Slone quickly regains her Titan's balance, before launching a mechanical fist towards the Vanguard.

The loud clash of metal on metal reverberates throughout the control room, as the Militia Titan catches the Ion's fist with its free hand. Before Cooper can do anything else, the Ion's other hand wraps around the barrel of his Chaingun, and wrenches the muzzle away from her Titan.

"I won't lose to some pitiful excuse for a Pilot!" Slone roars at the Vanguard through her Titan's damaged PA system, her voice heavily distorted as a result.

In response, Daniel uses BT's strength to shove Slone's battered Ion away from him. The Ion staggers as the Vanguard fires an Acolyte rocket into its damaged and exposed right shoulder, the piercing explosion decimating the joint in the process. Then, Daniel rips the right arm of Slone's Titan right out of its socket, the tearing metal screeching in protest. With the newfound weapon, the Vanguard hits Ion in the side of it's leg, bringing it to its knees.

With a thrust, the barrel of Cooper's Chaingun punches straight through the damaged hatch of Slone's Ion. The Apex Predator screams as twenty-millimetre rounds are unloaded straight into the cockpit, and the Ion soon falls onto its back and explodes, both Titan and Pilot dead.

"WARNING, ALL PERSONNEL MUST CLEAR THE CHAMBER IMMEDIATELY." The facility's AI informs. "DISRUPTION OF ELECTROMECHANICAL UNITS, INCLUDING TITANS, WILL BE SEVERE."

"Cooper, get the Ark out of there before it launches! Hurry!" Commander Briggs calls out to Cooper over the radio.

"I'm on it!" the Pilot replies to the Militia Commander, as he leaves the deceased Apex Predator and beelines back to the loading gate on the Fold Weapon's injector railgun.

BT's hands latch onto the sides of the railgun's loading gate and begin pulling, the pistons and servos in the Titan's powerful limbs straining and groaning in protest as he does so.

"FOLD WEAPON PRIMING SEQUENCE COMPLETE. DEPLOYING THE ARK IN T-MINUS TEN SECONDS."

Then, slowly but surely, the loading gate begins opening, the mechanism within fighting against the Vanguard's efforts. Time almost seems to slow as both Titan and Pilot continue pulling with everything they have.

Then, as the facility's AI counts down the remaining seconds from launch, Daniel uses a sudden bout of strength to pull the gate open just a little further, to expose the hidden internal mechanism fighting against them, and fires an Acolyte rocket into it in a desperate attempt to get the gate open.

The Acolyte rocket briefly penetrates the mechanism before detonating, spraying the Vanguard and surrounding area in a shower of shrapnel and other metal debris. The damaged mechanism creaks and groans as it fails and stops functioning, before quickly opening with a snap under the weight of the Ark's casing.

"WARNING, INJECTOR RAILGUN FAILURE DETECTED. EMERGENCY FOLD WEAPON SHUTDOWN PROCEDURES INITIATED." The facility's AI informs, as the both the Fold Weapon's injector railgun as well as several other systems in the control room begin audibly powering down.

"WARNING. HIGH ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE DETECTED IN CONTROL CHAMBER."

"Commander Briggs, the Fold Weapon's shutting down! We're securing the Ark now!" Daniel says into his radio, feeling a wave of relief wash over him.

However, instead of hearing the Militia Commander's reply, Cooper hears nothing but subtle static over the radio.

"Cooper, the Ark is emitting large amounts of electromagnetic interference. It is likely jamming our communications." BT informs. "I recommend we secure the Ark and evacuate the facility immediately; more IMC forces are likely on their way."

Humming in agreement, Daniel then uses BT's fist to punch a hole in the Ark's casing, the bright light produced by the Ark immediately flooding outwards through said hole. Then, Daniel prepares to disembark from BT, in order to climb into the Ark's casing and secure it.

"Warning-"

Before BT can finish his warning, the Ark's casing suddenly explodes in a blinding flash. The force of the blast sends the already-weakened and damaged Vanguard flying into a nearby wall, Daniel's Neural Link to the Titan also severing simultaneously.

BT's internal display flickers and quickly shuts off as the Titan crashes to the floor, leaving a dazed Cooper briefly engulfed in darkness before the cockpit's emergency lights activate, bathing it in a dull orange.

"Cooper... The energy blast has overloaded my critical internal systems..." The Vanguard informs his Pilot in a garbled, distorted tone.

"Attempting to restore... Ocular systems..."

It takes a few seconds for the internal display to reactivate, and it soon shows that the Vanguard - and by extension Daniel – were now buried underneath the rubble of the collapsing control room that was quickly increasing by the second, with the bright light emitted by the nearby Ark peering through the gaps in said rubble and into the cockpit.

"Ocular systems restored." BT informs. "My analysis indicates the Ark has reached critical state... Detonation will occur in approximately thirty seconds..."

Some text suddenly appears on the cockpit's internal display, showcasing BT's attempts at getting himself up and running again:

INITIATING EMERGENCY RESTART...

REROUTING AUXILIARY POWER...

FAILED – SEVERE REACTOR DAMAGE SUSTAINED – AUX POWER OFFLINE.

Despite repeating his attempts several times as fast as he's able, BT is unable to successfully reroute his auxiliary power and is thus unable to get neither his auto-navigation systems, nor Daniel's Neural Link with him back online.

They were trapped. This was it.

As several memories begin appearing in Daniel's mind, he quickly realises... His life was quite literally flashing before his eyes.

Winning his first shooting competition as a teenager...

The day he was inducted into the Frontier Militia by then-field agent, now SRS Commander Sarah Briggs...

The first time he was officially deployed into combat as a Rifleman...

When he first started his 'informal' Pilot training with Lastimosa...

Being stationed on board the MCS James MacAllan, headed towards Typhon...

Linking to BT and piloting him for the first time...

Daniel closes his eyes as he grips the armrests of the seat within BT's cockpit, bracing himself for his impending doom.

"Don't worry, BT. I'm not going anywhere..."

"Copy that, Pilot."

Despite his fate looming on the horizon, Daniel felt calm. And for the first time in many, many years, the Militia Pilot felt at peace. Then, he remembers...

...The last time him and his family were all together.

Now... He was going to see them again… After many long, long years.

Even though his eyes were closed, Daniel is still blinded from the bright light produced by the Ark's detonation.

Then, the light's gone as quickly as it comes, becoming complete darkness.


MEANWHILE, ON THE MCS TRINITY, ORBITING TYPHON...

"Cooper! BT! We just picked up a massive energy surge on your position! What's going on in there?!" The SRS Commander asks the Militia Pilot from within her command centre in the MCS Trinity, orbiting high above Typhon.

Despite her plea, neither the Militia Pilot nor the Vanguard reply, the communication link emitting nothing but static.

"Boost the signal, get me through to them now!" The Militia Commander barks at her surrounding personnel, who quickly do what is asked of them.

Then, one of the men, Sarah's good friend, Cheng 'Bish' Lorck, speaks up from a nearby terminal.

"Sarah, there's too much interference; we can't get a lock on their position! Even if they're somehow still alive down there, they've got maybe half a minute before they're vaporised!" He informs.

Sarah silently weighs her options for a moment. Her fists clench until her knuckles are white and trembling, before she slams one of them into the desk in front of her in anger. The Militia Commander quickly gets control of herself, before she sighs defeatedly and presses the push-to-talk button on the microphone on her desk.

"Commander Briggs to all Militia forces, evacuate Typhon immediately! Repeat, evacuate Typhon immediately!"

Sarah gets multiple confirmations from the various Militia personnel through the comm-link in answer. Soon enough, she sees the remaining Militia carriers and battleships leaving Typhon's orbit for the safety of deep space on the hologram.

With a near-blinding flash on hologram, Typhon vaporises, leaving behind only the occasional piece of planetary debris. Getting up from his own desk, Bish approaches Sarah and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"There's nothing we could've done, Sarah..." Bish comforts her with a solemn look across his features.

Sarah looks back to the hologram on her desk, showing what now remains of Typhon.

"A lot of people owe their lives to you, Cooper... And to BT..." She remarks solemnly, in a somewhat regretful tone.

Sarah then begins directing the personnel in the command centre to set course for planet Harmony, and make preparations to return home.


NEFARIOUS CITY,

CORSON V,

11:30 PM LOCAL TIME.

It was a dark and stormy night in Nefarious City. The metropolis had been subjugated by the self‐proclaimed Emperor Nefarious a little over half-a-decade ago. Due to the heavy rain, there was quite a bit of mist as a result. Not enough to make seeing difficult, but it did make it that bit easier to slip by any of the Emperor's patrols.

Despite this, all the bots were going about their designated job, whether it be the aforementioned patrol, transporting something to one of the many factories in the city, or even making sure the emperor's many gold statues of himself around the city were as immaculate as he was.

Scratch that, 'almost as immaculate as he was', the robotic tyrant would say.

Their pay was outrageously low for the immense amount of work they did, practically being slave labour. And if they were to complain about anything at all, they would be swiftly 'reprogrammed'. All bots were also required by imperial law to worship their so-called, 'Emperor' like he was their god, here to grant them salvation. The message 'Free time is time that you should be spending worshipping your glorious Emperor!' was blared around the city over loudspeakers so frequently, it gave Phantom a headache anytime he heard it.

Besides that, the Seekerpedes were flying around as usual, their presence in the skies reminding anyone who got the bright idea of trying to leaving the planet would only result in their swift demise.

With all this in mind, anyone who dared to stand up against the tyrannical regime would be considered by many to be either suicidal, or just plain stupid.

But to the Polaris Resistance, it was a just cause. The Polaris Resistance was a group of freedom fighters that were willing to lay down their lives in order to fell the empire.

Well, that went for most of them, at least.

People who were sick and tired about how they were treated under Nefarious regime, would travel from all across the Polaris galaxy to join the other rebels and fight for the freedom of all.

Phantom was the codename of one such rebel. His job wasn't fighting, but rather espionage, such as hacking into various systems for the Resistance, and designing and building technology that would help protect the lives of both himself and his fellow rebels.

His most notable invention was his 'Phantom Dash' module for the Omniglove, another invention of his that combined multiple gadgets into one sleek glove. When used, the module would momentarily displace the user's molecules and make them temporarily untouchable, allowing them to pass through solid matter, subsequently allowing them to avoid bullets, explosions and all other sorts of dangers. Simultaneously, the mini thruster located in the Omniglove's palm would activate, and propel its user in a given direction. Needless to say, when it's used properly, it gave its user a serious edge in combat.

While in the field, Phantom was the Resistance's undercover specialist, as he was a professional at sneaking into heavily guarded areas without being seen. Any assignment that required anything besides taping down the trigger of a blaster was delegated to him. This meant that he often went in alone, which he preferred, usually. It meant that he wouldn't have to babysit somebody who wasn't good for anything else, other than fighting and being a distraction for the Troopers. After all, it's much easier to sneak into a place on your own.

Phantom was about to do just that. The green reptilian alien, known as a Rilgarian, who was currently hiding within one of the many alleyways in the city, wore his signature black and orange jumpsuit with his multi-pouched belt, along with a little helmet covering the top half of his head, which also covered his eyes with a red visor.

He remains still, hiding in the shadows behind a dumpster, whilst keeping an eye out for any Troopers. He ducks back behind it when a passing Trooper suddenly stops in front of the alley's entrance and shines a light down it. Waiting with bated breath, Phantom waits for a few seconds when the light disappears.

It wouldn't be the first time he'd been tricked out of hiding by one of Nefarious' Troopers, a nasty scar on the end of his tail reminding him of that mistake. He always believed it was perfectly fine to make mistakes — as everyone did — as long as one learned from them. But, fighting against Emperor Nefarious, one rarely ever made the kind of mistake that they could later learn from.

After he was certain the Trooper had long left, he peaks around the dumpster to confirm his suspicion and finds the Trooper no longer present. Reaching into one of the several pouches on his belt, he removes a small green oval-shaped device from it and secures it to his belt's buckle, before pressing a button on the centre of the device.

His figure glows briefly, before it shifts to perfectly resemble a synthenoid robot that was common in Nefarious City.

As he calmly walks out of alley, now disguised as a common bot, he continues down the main pathway and passes by another pair of Nefarious bots – A Slugger and Lasertrooper – neither of which batting an eye at him. Perfect, that means he can put his plan into action.

After another few minutes of walking, Phantom arrives at a train station. If he managed to board a cargo train without being noticed, it would grant him easy access to one of the biggest factories in the city – a warship factory to be exact, one that was currently in the process of assembling Nefarious next big project: His warship armada.

The Resistance simply couldn't allow the armada to be completed, lest they allow Nefarious to obtain an edge in his attempts to subjugate the Bogon galaxy, which were currently fighting a war against the empire on the edge of their galaxy, just beyond the edge of Polaris. Last Phantom had heard, the war was currently in a sort of 'stalemate', with progress being slow on both sides. All the more reason to shut this whole operation down.

Once he was inside the factory, Phantom would then obliterate the production lines by strategically placing bombs around the factory, to both conceal them from any potential workers or security, and to ensure they caused maximum damage.

As he makes his way to the main platform, he makes sure he doesn't move too quickly or suddenly, or else his disguise would falter, which was a result of the Hologuise not being in particularly good shape. Hologuises were rare, and Phantom never dared attempt to take it apart to repair it, for fear of accidently damaging it irreparably. But it worked, for the most part, and Phantom could get by that little quirk.

He notices a group of bots also heading towards the platform. He joins them, since travelling amongst a group of bots would be much less conspicuous than travelling alone.

Like the Troopers, they don't bat an eye at him. One even attempts to strike up a conversation with him, to which the Rilgarian chooses to ignore.

As he and the bots were coming up on the station's security turnstiles, each bot splits off from the group and swipes a key card on the scanner, before proceeding through a force field that Phantom recognised to be one that only allowed robots to pass through. If an organic were to try and walk through it, it would solidify, stopping said organic from passing through it, and then likely trip an alarm, too.

Fortunately, his Phantom Dash module allowed organics like him to pass through these barriers.

He approaches one of the security turnstiles, and quickly making sure there were no Troopers or other bots watching, he Phantom Dashes through it. His Hologuise flickers for a split second, temporarily revealing the Rilgarian, before stabilising again. He had designed his Phantom Dash module to work in tandem with his Hologuise, after all.

Double-checking that none of the Troopers had seen his true form, he is pleased to see that is indeed the case.

He opts against re-joining the group of bots, as they make their way towards a passenger train.

Spotting the cargo train he intends to stowaway on, it was guarded by far more Troopers than he had anticipated. That meant he would need to improvise. No problem, things not going to plan were normally expected, and improvising was a trait that all members of the Polaris Resistance had.

He slowly makes his way to the other side of the station that the cargo train was on, as not to garner attention from the Troopers. He notices the lights above him flicker for a moment, but he doesn't think too much of it.

When he hears a familiar electrical whining sound, Phantom's heart stops, as he knew exactly what it means:

His Hologuise has deactivated.

Looking down at the rest of his body, Phantom's fears are confirmed.

How could this have happened?! And at the worst moment, too! Phantom did rigorous testing on combined use of his Hologuise and Phantom Dash, why wasn't it working all of a sudden?!

On his hardened instinct, Phantom takes off running away from the train platform, as he hears what he thinks is the clattering of the Troopers' legs now chasing him. But, instead of hearing the clattering continue like he expects, it instead remains... Eerily quiet, for some reason...

Normally whenever a Trooper spots somebody, they would make sure every other Trooper in the area knew about it. Then, they would never give up chase unless their target either managed to break line of sight and hide from them for long enough, the Trooper got destroyed, or... The Trooper caught them.

Phantom would normally chastise somebody for doing this, but as he keeps running, he risks a peak over his shoulder. Then, surprising him, he sees the Troopers and the other bots, all lying motionless on the ground. As it turns out, the clattering he heard wasn't the Trooper's chasing after him, but instead all of the bots, including the Troopers, suddenly collapsing to the ground, offline.

Phantom skids to a halt, and as he continues looking at all the downed Troopers and bots in confusion, his visor suddenly stops working. As he lifts the visor from his eyes, he's able to see the train platform with all the bots for a split second, before all the lights in the station suddenly flicker again before cutting out, surrounding Phantom in pitch-black darkness.

Was this some sort of trick? Or one of Nefarious' more depraved methods of neutralising or capturing a rebel? Phantom didn't know, and he didn't want to find out.

'Come on, work, damn it, WORK!' Phantom internally barks, as he lowers the visor back over his eyes and smacks it repeatedly, hitting the power switch as well in hopes of getting it working again.

His visor soon reactivates to his relief, and he immediately activates its built-in night vision function, revealing the train station platform with all the downed Troopers and bots to him once more.

Then, the Troopers start twitching slightly, a sign Phantom knew meant they were in the process of rebooting.

Once they finished rebooting, chances were, regardless of the status of the train station's power, they would probably lock the station down and prevent any and all trains from leaving. The same could presumably be said for the warship factory; they'd probably assume that the Resistance was responsible for this, and be sure double up on security. Now, there wouldn't be a hope of him sneaking in there, not without help.

Phantom takes off again, not daring to look back this time. Whatever that was, it must've affected the entire city, as he can't see any kind of lights in the distance. And there was no way that someone else in the Resistance was responsible, inadvertently or otherwise, or else he definitely would've known about it beforehand.


UNKNOWN.

Daniel awakes with a startled jerk. He groans, putting his hands up to his head from the pounding headache he was currently experiencing. As he opens his eyes, the Pilot sees that he's still inside of BT's cockpit, the dials and buttons being the only sources of light within.

"BT, you alive?" Daniel asks, leaning his head back against the cockpit seat, trying to provide himself some relief from his headache.

"Affirmative, Pilot." The Titan replies in his usual monotonous warble.

Daniel's memory was fuzzy. He remembered grabbing the Ark, sure... or did he? Bar that, not much else. What happened after that?

"BT, give me a sitrep." Daniel orders.

"My data recorder indicates the Ark destabilised upon our attempt to remove it from its casing, resulting in a catastrophic explosion."

Then, Daniel remembers the explosion the Vanguard referring to. "How are we alive, then?"

"Unknown. However, my mapping systems indicate we are no longer located on planet Typhon."

"...What?" Daniel utters in complete confusion. "Where the hell are we, then?"

"Unknown. While you were unconscious, I was able to determine that the geology of the planet we are now located on matches no known world in the Frontier." BT explains.

"So, you're telling me that the Ark teleported us somewhere?" Daniel questions, shocked by the Vanguard's discovery.

"Most likely." The Titan bluntly replies. "Attempting to restore ocular systems."

Then, there was a brief pause, before an electrical whirring can be heard emitting from within the cockpit. Then the cockpit's optical system reactivates, the hatch's interior quickly becoming transparent again and revealing nothing but metal and concrete rubble burying the Vanguard.

"Ocular systems restored." BT reports.

I was able to absorb some of the energy produced by the Ark's detonation." The Vanguard informs, as more electrical whirring is heard. "Self-repair systems engaged. I will be fully operational in approximately fifteen minutes, Pilot."

'Guess we'll have to sit here and wait, then.' Daniel internally surmises, resting his arms behind his head and getting himself comfortable. After a bit of waiting, staring at the black clouds slowly drifting above them, and some more waiting, BT finally had some good news for him.

"Motion Link restored – Pilot control re-engaged."

Daniel promptly feels the Titan's body become his own once again, and with a mental command, the Vanguard begins pushing the rubble off of itself, before standing up on its two feet and taking in the surrounding area. Both Pilot and Titan were surrounded by metal and concrete rubble, with a blanket of thick, black clouds covering the sky above them. Nearby, highlighted on BT's HUD, was the mangled corpse of Slone's Ion-Class Titan, crushed underneath a piece of wreckage.

"Scans indicate the surrounding wreckage originated from the Fold Weapon and its control room." BT informs.

With this information in mind, BT's theory of the Ark transporting them somewhere became a little more believable to Daniel. That's one question answered, at least. However, that did beg another question: Where exactly did the Ark send them?

"Mapping systems restored." BT suddenly informs. "Pilot, we are currently situated on a plateau with little geological activity, with an approximate area of thirty-thousand square kilometres." The Vanguard explains, as a window displaying a map of the surrounding area subsequently appears on the HUD.

'If we're not in the Frontier anymore, then where in the galaxy are we?' Daniel thinks to himself. They were at least still in the same galaxy... Right?

The Vanguard continues, pulling him from his thoughts. "Cooper my scans have detected the wreckage of the MCS Stockton, seven-hundred metres north-east from our location."

Wait… the damn Stockton was here, too?! The Militia Battleship had taken a broadside and gone down while he and BT were advancing towards the Fold Weapon's control room, and it was somehow here with them.

Another window appears, this time displaying a 3D render of the Stockton – Or rather, what was left of it. To call it a ship in its current state would be generous, to say the least.

"BT, are you picking up any life signs?" Cooper asks his Titan. From what he's already witnessed, however, he already knows the probable answer.

"Scanning. No life signs detected." The Vanguard answers.

Daniel frowns, unsure on what it is they should do in a situation like this. Sure, Militia infantry were trained to link up with one another and find a way to send a distress signal if they ended up getting stranded on a planet, much like they did on Typhon. However, that implied you were even in the Frontier, to begin with. He and BT didn't even know what planet they were on.

But, as Daniel thinks back to the presence of the MCS Stockton and remains of the Fold Weapon on this planet, he makes a daunting realisation, one that could very well be the difference between life and death:

"BT, is there a chance that there's other ships that were brought here with us, like the Stockton was?"

"That is a logical assumption, Pilot. It is well within possibility that other Militia and IMC vessels are present here as well. If they are reasonably intact, we may be able to use them to send a distress signal and request rescue."

"That means we need to find one, then." Daniel surmises.

"Yes." BT plainly states, as a map of some kind appears the Heads Up Display in front of Daniel.

"By analysing the locations of the remains of both the Fold Weapon and the MCS Stockton, and cross-referencing them with the approximate locations the IMS Draconis and MCS Carter Braxton both crash-landed, I am able to determine both of their estimated locations on this world." The Titan explains, as four locations are promptly highlighted with yellow markers on said map, with a blue marker, presumably standing for their location, in the middle of it all.

Two markers on the map disappear as the two remaining markers remain, both headed south-west. The nearest of the two one had a distance of approximately twenty-five kilometres, while the other was about sixty kilometres away from them.

"Well BT, I doubt we'll accomplish much by just standing here." The Pilot surmises.

"Agreed. Protocol Two, mission update: Search for and locate IMC or Militia vessels." The Vanguard responded.

After navigating their way out of the field of wreckage, Pilot and Titan set out to the first set of coordinates: The IMS Draconis. Getting to it was easy enough, thanks to the fairly flat and uninteresting terrain on this part of the planet, as a result of long-since-cooled lava flows. Upon arriving at said coordinates after about an hour, the massive transport ship didn't seem to be present at first. However, a few pieces of scorched metal sticking out of the ground here and there, suggested otherwise.

Wherever the Draconis had crashed, must have left it submerged in something, perhaps sand. And when the Ark transported it to this world, it remained submerged, this time in what seemed to be volcanic ash.

With the cargo ship submerged in said ash, there was no feasible way to get inside for the time being. With this in mind, Daniel and BT's only chance now, was to find the MCS Carter Braxton.

Daniel recalled how the Braxton's engines were decimated by Viper and the Malta during the fight to take over the IMC's battleship, ultimately causing it to plummet towards the ground, forcing everyone on board to evacuate. This gave Daniel hope for the ship being even somewhat intact, at least.

But, to make matters worse, BT warned him of an incoming storm that would hit the plateau in approximately six hours.

Daniel and BT set out again, making their way to the final set of coordinates located in some kind of mountain range, hoping to find shelter of any kind before the impending storm hit.


UNKNOWN WORLD,

NEAR THE CARTER BRAXTON'S ESTIMATED LOCATION.

After a few hours of travelling through the mountains, the Pilot and his Vanguard-Class Titan now stood at the edge of a cliff, having finally arrived at the Carter Braxton. Resting on the side of a wide valley, the Militia carrier was in surprisingly good condition, save for some minor to moderate hull damage, alongside the heavily-damaged engines previously mentioned.

"Looks like the crash wasn't as bad as it looked." Daniel surmises. "Is anyone alive down there, BT?"

"Negative, I am not detecting any life signs within the Carter Braxton." BT informs his Pilot. "However, ninety-five percent of the lifeboats have been ejected, it is possible any survivors were evacuated from Typhon prior to the Ark's detonation."

'It looks like we're really on our own this time.' Daniel thinks to himself.

"Pilot, scans indicate the Braxton's reactor is currently offline. It will require repairs before we can send a distress signal to the Militia." BT explains.

'Who knew that fixing things was such a big part of being a Titan Pilot?' Daniel remarks to himself.

"I have identified an entrance. Marking your HUD." BT informs, as a marker subsequently appears on the HUD, highlighting a large door on the Braxton's port side near the front-end of the ship, likely for deploying smaller spacecraft like dropships and Hornet fighters.

After sliding down a nearby slope to get down from the cliff, Daniel and BT eventually reach the Braxton. After arriving at the cargo door highlighted on the HUD, Daniel begins looking for a way to get the door open. Appearing to be heavily reinforced, it's unlikely that they'll be able to pry or even blow the door open, despite BT's incredible strength and weaponry at their disposal.

Then, BT begins highlighting what seems to be power cables underneath the floor on the HUD, leading to some kind of junction box underneath the floor, likely still functioning from emergency reserve power.

"Pilot, I am detecting an active junction box beneath us, you may be able to use your Data Knife on it to open the door." The Vanguard informs. "Disembark, and I will provide access."

For a lack of any better options, Cooper disembarks from BT, the Vanguard's hatch opening with a hiss as the Pilot lands on the metal floor with a thud, as he approaches the junction box.

Then, BT digs his large fingers into the floor, his powerful digits piercing the damaged metal with ease, before he gently bends a metal panel upwards and out of the way, revealing the junction box hidden underneath. Inside, the wiring and circuitry was thankfully relatively undamaged.

Drawing his Data Knife from his vest, Daniel flicks the switch on the side of the handle and jams the tool into the wiring, the holographic display at the top of the knife's handle lighting up and displaying the progress on the hack.

After a few seconds, the holographic display turns blue, and the door begins slowly opening with a deep rumble. Soon enough, the door opens and reveals a large deployment bay, with a heavily damaged Crow or Hornet here and there, alongside cargo of all kinds.

"Cooper, I recommend we proceed to the Braxton's spacecraft hanger. From there, we can access and repair the Braxton's reactor, then gain access to an officer's terminal and use it to send a distress signal to the Militia." BT says, as the Titan enters the deployment bay and begins walking down a large hallway, presumably towards the spacecraft hanger he mentioned.

Daniel follows close behind, as the two make their way through the hallways.

Once Cooper and BT passed through the spacecraft hangar and reached the Braxton's reactor, getting it up and running again was thankfully a breeze with BT walking Daniel through the process. Soon after Daniel managed to get out of the reactor chamber before the radiation produced burned him to a crisp, the ship's power came back online. Now, he could get BT into an officer's terminal and allow him to interface with the Braxton's systems and send out a distress signal to the Militia.

The only unfortunate part, was the ships AI detecting multiple fires across the ship, and engaging the Braxton's fire suppression system in response. This wouldn't have been much of a problem, if the system hadn't malfunctioned and sprayed water in the hallway Cooper just so happened to be in that moment.

Now completely drenched in water, Daniel could quickly feel the effects of exhaustion beginning to take over.

"Cooper, your vitals indicate you are currently experiencing acute exhaustion. I recommend you find a safe place to rest for the night." BT informs him through his helmet radio. "For your convenience, I have located an officer's quarters for you to take refuge in."

"Thanks, buddy." Daniel thanks genuinely to the Titan, as a white holographic line appearing on his HUD, leading the way to the officer's quarters BT mentioned.

On his way there, he passed through what seemed to be an armoury. There were weapons of all kinds there, some he recognised, others he didn't. Like the rest of the ship, there were a few crates scattered around the floor, of which he assumed to be ammo storage or the like.

The far wall was lined with large storage cases, each containing vastly different types of armour and equipment, such as light gear more tailored for scouting like Lastimosa's, all the way up to a complete armour set intended to cover its wearer head-to-toe.

What catches his eye, however, is a particular set of predominantly black armour. It was noticeably sleeker than the other equipment present in the armoury, likely custom-made from the looks of it, with a large orange stripe on each of the limbs. It looks like it's comprised of several hexagonal ceramic discs adhered above a high-strength alloy, resulting in a subtle honeycomb pattern on the armour's surface. Next to it inside the case, was a folded-up exoskeleton, which Daniel safely assumed went with the armour, intended to enhance its wearers physical capabilities as well as provide great protection.

His attempt to open the storage case resulted in failure, as it (unfortunately) required a key of some kind. Getting back on track, he continued his way to what he hoped to be a nice, comfortable officer's bed.

Thankfully, after what felt like a journey to him was thankfully nearing its end, as his HUD leads him down a hallway towards a door with a sign displaying 'OFFICER ADAMS' above it.

When he attempts to enter the room, the keypad on the doorframe requests a pin number with a beep. With a frustrated sigh, Daniel draws his Data Knife and uses it to override the door's controls, granting him entry.

Hitting the keypad on the other side, the door closes behind him, giving him a feeling of security, even though Daniel knew the odds of someone else being alive on this ship and wanting to harm him were billions-to-one. On the far end of the room in front of a desk, Daniel notices an active terminal. He decides it would be a good idea to get BT into it and let him do whatever he needs while he slept.

Using the Data Knife that was still in his hand, Daniel quickly hacks the terminal, allowing the Vanguard access to the Braxton's systems.

"BT, I've got into a terminal for you. You do whatever you need do, I'm getting some shuteye." Daniel informs the Titan through his helmet radio.

"Copy that, Pilot." The Vanguard replies.

Cooper takes off his helmet and sets it on the desk, before opening the quick-release clamps securing his Jump Kit to his lower back. The Pilot picks up a loose pillow from the floor and sets it onto the bed, as he then allows himself to collapse onto the bed, too exhausted to even think about organising the rest of the sheets scattered across the floor of the room. Then, almost instantaneously, Daniel Cooper falls asleep as soon as his head hits the lone pillow.


INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT,

NEFARIOUS CITY,

1:00 AM LOCAL TIME.

After parkouring through the city, Phantom eventually arrives at the hidden entrance of his abode, which was located underneath a bridge. Walking underneath the bridge, the Rilgarian quickly double-checks that there was no-one around, before he removes a loose metal panel from the wall and sets it aside, revealing a hidden keypad. After entering the eight-digit pin code, another panel nearby retreats into the wall and hinges open like a door, revealing a hidden hallway behind it.

After replacing the metal panel, Phantom walks inside and slams a fist into a large red button on the wall, which in turn causes the door to close behind him, securing his hideout.

The Rilgarian exhales a breath of relief as he continues down the tight corridor, tight enough that it would be impossible for the larger Nefarious Troopers to enter, now feeling much more relaxed now that he's safe his hideout. But one can never really be too relaxed, holing up in the heart of the Empire, after all.

He enters a modestly sized room, with a workbench set in front of an array of monitors on the wall on the right side, alongside a simple, but comfortable living quarters on the left.

Taking a seat at his desk, Phantom quickly glances over each of the monitors on the wall, each displaying a live-feed of an area around his hideout, and quickly sees that there was thankfully nothing out of the ordinary. He then pulls his communicator from one of the many pouches on his belt, and switches it on. A small holographic screen flashes up, revealing a contact list containing the names of his fellow rebels.

He selects a name on the list, and hits dial. This name belonged to the Resistance's unofficial leader: Carl Lepton Quantum.

Carl was a kind and charismatic man, who deeply cared for the other Resistance members and thought of them as his own family. With his confidence, he held the Resistance together through times both good and bad, and while his methods and plans could sometimes be... unorthodox, to say the least... they were usually successful nonetheless.

A few moments later, Quantum answers, the man always punctual.

"Phantom! How did the mission go?" The Resistance leader asks pleasantly.

Phantom lets out a sigh laced with regret. "Not well, Carl, not well... I couldn't even get near the damn train."

"Oh, Shoot!" Quantum exclaims disappointedly. "What in Zoni's name happened?!"

"My damn Hologuise malfunctioned, and deactivated in front of all the Troopers." Phantom explains lamentably.

"Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, but something really strange happened afterwards. Something I figured I needed to tell you asap."

Phantom proceeds to explain the strange phenomenon that occurred shortly after Phantom Dashing through the security gate at the train station to Quantum, like the lights flickering, to the bots and Troopers deactivating, albeit briefly, before the city's power grid went down.

In response to this information, Carl hums in thought. "How long ago did you say this happened, Phantom?" He asks.

"About two or three hours ago, I think? Had to take the long way back to my hideout, to make sure I wasn't being followed."

"Huh, that's strange. Something similar happened here in my hideout, about that long ago. The lights started flickering, but then, the power in the entire bunker went out!" Quantum explains.

"Really? That's a… big coincidence." Phantom remarks.

"Yeah. Backup generator kicked in after that, and everything seems to be working fine, now." Quantum agrees.

"Did something like this happen to anyone else?"

"No idea, but it might be a good idea to ask them and make sure." Carl recommends, Phantom humming in agreement.

Not before long, the other Rebels join the call. After explaining the situation, MoyDoy, the Resistance's brawler, is the first to speak up.

As expected of an Agorian, MoyDoy possessed incredible strength, capable of sending Nefarious' Troopers flying with his massive warhammer. He refused to use ranged weaponry, not that it wasn't considered 'honourable' by Agorian standards, but rather that he couldn't hit the broadside of a star cruiser to save his life.

After MoyDoy is finished, Clatchky is the next Rebel to recount his version of the events. Clatchky was an expert when it came to robots, and could reprogram them on the fly. He also happened to be a fantastic pilot, and could expertly fly just about any ship he could get his claws on. His only issue, was that he was a bundle of nerves, and as such he did not work well under pressure.

Then, there was Rivet. The reckless and stubborn Lombax fighter who's known for her massive arsenal of weapons, and was a boon to the offensive power of any team. Or rather... the massive arsenal she was known for, after losing the majority of her weaponry during her previous stay in Zordoom Prison around six months ago. She's also a fantastic engineer, able to make almost anything from scrap, and repair virtually anything with a proficiency that Phantom wishes he had.

He'd never offered his Hologuise to her in hopes she would be able to repair it, not because he didn't trust her or that he doubted her skills in any capacity, no, not at all. The Hologuise worked well enough despite its quirks, and he simply couldn't risk losing such a powerful tool.

After Rivet finishes giving her version of the events, it is then obvious that all of the Rebels had experienced a similar phenomenon to what Phantom encountered in Nefarious City, the previously mentioned timeline of about two to three hours lining up perfectly in each circumstance.

With this in mind, Phantom comes to the conclusion that whatever was responsible for what happened today, it wasn't natural.

"It wasn't something natural, like a quasar, that's for sure. Probably some kind of EMP…" Phantom theorises, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Are you sure, Phantom? Sargasso's pretty far from Corson V." Quantum Questions.

"Is there even technology out there that can create an EMP that big?" MoyDoy asks.

"If there is, Nefarious has his hands all over it." Phantom states confidently. "No idea why he would set it off now, though."

"An experiment gone wrong, maybe?" Rivet suggests.

"Yeah, maybe." Phantom agrees, briefly recalling the existence of Nefarious' research facility on the planet Kreeli, and all of the unknowns that laid within it.

"Well, I guess that means we're on to 'plan B' for taking down the warship factory, then?" MoyDoy asks.

"Shut it, MoyDoy! What if that EMP fried our network's encryption?!" Clatchky hisses worriedly, interrupting the Agorian.

"Yeah, the last time that happened, I got an all-expense paid trip to Zordoom Prison." Rivet recalls, groaning at the memory.

Phantom admittedly never so much as thought about the EMP potentially compromising their network's encryption. For all they knew, Nefarious could be listening in on their conversation right now. He chalks it up to still being somewhat rattled after what happened at the train station, and makes a mental note to double-check it later.

The 'plan B' MoyDoy was referring to, would involve bringing in other Resistance members to draw out and distract the factory's security long enough for Phantom to sneak in, do the deed and get out. It was a risky plan, involving so many of them in one place at once, but it was a risk they simply had to take, to have any hope of preventing Nefarious from getting his warship armada. 'No risk, no reward', as they say.

"Listen, everyone, how about we meet up to discuss all of this further? That way, Nefarious can't listen in on us, if he is right now." Carl suggests.

"That's a good idea, Quantum." MoyDoy agrees. "Should we meet up at the... *ahem* usual place?" The Agorian asks.

"Yeah, we'll meet at the 'usual' place tomorrow at eleven AM Polaris-Standard-Time. Agreed, everyone?" Quantum asks the other Rebels, to which they all agree.

"Okay, see you guys then." Phantom says as he hangs up.

He checks the time and sees that it's about one in the morning, which was unusually early for him. Since there was really nothing else for the Rilgarian to do other than wait, he believes that a good night's rest is in order. After standing up from his desk, and moving over to his bed on the opposite side of the room, Phantom climbs onto it, leaving all of his equipment on him, which would allow him to escape his hideout much quicker, if - Zoni forbid - his hideout was discovered whilst he slept.

Phantom then lies back, putting his hands behind his head for comfort, before he soon drifts off to sleep.


A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Vanguard Of The Rift! Like I said previously, I have since completely rewritten this chapter to better reflect my current writing capabilities.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!