KT was not happy.
First off, she was going into battle without her Pilot. It was necessary, yes, but that didn't make it feel any less unpleasant. For the duration of the mission, she'd likely be concerned for his safety, analyzing chances of his survivability, and generally be slightly more inefficient than she would be if her processors were completely focused on the task at hand.
Now, she was trying to hold off wave after wave of IMC coming up the lift to take back control of the top of the Kraken. The Militia were fighting valiantly, but they'd already lost several Pilots despite her and the other Titans' best efforts.
"You're doing great, ladies!" a voice said over the comms, prompting Vale to turn Skids around and face the Pilots while blocking with the Ronin's enormous sword.
"Davis, your mouth is supposed to be shut if I recall correctly!"
"6-4, you're far more experienced than the other Pilots," KT said over the comms, catching a burst of gunfire with her vortex shield as she did so. "We would appreciate your support in assisting up front!"
"Not a problem," Dimitri responded, turning and rallying the other freelancers forward. "Come on!"
Dimitri, Bear, and Jax all ran up to the frontline with Anti-Titan weapons equipped. Over on the right, Tyra and CH were fighting the Atlas. As it stepped slightly too close, the Scorch lunged and hooked an arm around the enemy's shoulder. Then with its other hand, it produced a fiery shield that burned away its shielding and melted the protective casing of the Atlas' chassis.
"If you can't take the heat, then get the hell out!" Tyra feistily yelled through her Titan's speakers, and promptly threw the now helpless Titan off the side of the Kraken and into the depths of the ocean below.
KT decided to try and raise Four. "Pilot, where are you?" She would have patched herself into his helmet's video feed, but there was already too much to concentrate on for her to risk such a divide in attention.
"Gates and I are in a maintenance shaft and moving slowly towards the bridge. We're both safe."
Spinning around quickly, she held her vortex shield out as the Legion fired a blast of shrapnel at her. Running out of energy in her system's pool, she refocused her aim and released the shield, directing everything she'd collected back at some riflemen who were standing near the lift. Several of them flew back many meters from the impact while others simply exploded into pieces where they stood, sliced apart by the metal.
"Understood. Protocol two: uphold the mission."
"That's right. I know it's not what we originally planned, but we've had to improvise and go for a more stealthy approach. I'll update you when we get to the bridge."
She looked back in time to see Vale phase shift right through the Legion, and appear behind it. As it searched around for her in bewilderment, Vale drew her sword, impaled the Titan from behind, and then dragged it upwards to cut through the cockpit. The Legion's carcass fell lifelessly to the ground, no longer a threat.
"Call the extraction team quickly, and request a few Widows- you and the other Titans should be able to make it out of here on those. Then get the rest of the Pilots to safety, they're not doing much besides dying up there."
"Understood, Pilot."
He cut the link just before the cargo lift came back up, this time with a Tone and a Northstar. She quickly waved the other Pilots back, and held her vortex shield out again. "Call down the extraction team! You need to evacuate!"
She looked back as the new Titans took aim at her and the rest of Foxtrot-Three, now preparing to defend the extraction point with their lives. "I hope you hurry, pilot."
Suddenly, the Kraken lurched a great deal to one side, and she found herself sliding a bit towards one edge of the ship. McFarlane clamped June's clawed feet into the metal hull for stability, and Vale had to thrust her sword into it and hold on until the ship righted itself again. Now, however, there was a rumbling and sensation of motion that hadn't been there before.
Peering over the ledge, KT glanced below and froze in shock at what she saw.
"Oh, this isn't good."
...
Tobias and Gates analyzed the bridge from the vent above, figuring out how to proceed. Thankfully, Gates was a seasoned veteran and this was somewhat her field of expertise.
"Alright, so we hit those two on the left while those three are stunned, and once they're out of commission we can move on to the terminal." She shook her head in disbelief. "I'm surprised that it's not more heavily guarded."
"Anyone they can spare must be in the hangar trying to retake the top of the ship," he theorized quietly. "I don't think that they know our plan yet-"
With a massive groan, the Kraken shifted and pitched hard enough to slam him and Gates into the wall of the shaft they were crouching in. Scrambling to his hands and knees, he connected to his neural link once more.
"KT, what the hell's going on?!"
< The Kraken's captain has rightly assumed that we are trying to extract our pilots. They are taking proper measures to ensure that we do not escape. >
"And what would those measures be?"
< The ship has taken off; we are now airborne over the ocean and moving at a speed exceeding ninety knots. >
He swore. "Well... shit."
Gates was less than reassured by his reaction. "Is it leaving atmosphere?"
He shook his head hurriedly. "No, we interrupted their refueling process. They can't break orbit without reserves, so they'll have to return to the depot- but it could be awhile, and that's time we can't afford to let them have." He weighed their options carefully, but didn't see more than one viable path forward.
"Alright- KT, start feeding the extraction team our current coordinates as they change. It's gonna be damn difficult for them to keep up with the Kraken under fire, but if you and the other Titans can defend them, they should be able to get everyone out of here."
< I'm beginning to think you have an obsession with danger. >
Satisfied that she'd relay his orders, he pointed down into the room below them. "Gates, we have to do this now. Like, now."
She nodded, readying her R-201. "On your mark."
He held up three fingers, and began putting them down. Three ... two ... one ...
He made a fist, and they both kicked the vent cover open. Falling to the floor, none of the IMC soldiers had a chance to register what was happening before bullets were punching through the armor of the three near the top of a set of stairs that led to the ship's navigational console. The two nearest the door turned around in surprise only to meet the same fate that the other three had, and in less then five seconds everyone in the room was dead.
Well, almost everyone.
A balding man in a grey officer's uniform stood up from behind the bridge's holo-table which he'd been taking cover behind. Tobias recognized him, and felt his hold over the Flatline's grip waver ever so slightly.
"Major Boyles."
The Major narrowed his eyes. "How do you know me?"
Tightening his fingers, he gestured at him with the barrel of the gun. "Back against the wall."
Gates walked up the steps to the main console, and stuck her data-knife in it. She watched as the computer processed the intrusion, figuring out how to respond to the foreign authorization.
Boyle scoffed in outrage. "Goddamn terrorist! Where do you get the gall to issue me orders-"
"I said, back against the wall," Tobias growled through his teeth, jabbing his former CO none too gently. It seemed that the Major finally understood the gravity of the situation, and complied with his hands held high.
"We've got a problem!" Gates called down to him. "The terminal is rejecting my attempts to access it!"
"New security measure protocols from Spyglass himself," Boyles said with a grin. "Thanks to your many raids on our research centers, we've grown wise to your brutish methods. Only an authorized IMC individual can access it-"
Gates' pistol was in her hand before he could finish his sentence. "Open it!"
"I think not," he replied curtly. "I'd rather die than betray my men, and glad that I did so protecting them." He leered at her. "Can you say the same?"
"Actually, I can," she spat back. Facing Tobias, she shook her head hopelessly. "We're out of time, we need to get the hell out of here."
"Not yet," he muttered, walking up the steps and holstering the Flatline on his back. "Watch him."
"What are you doing?" she questioned, boggled at his blatant disregard for what she'd said. "Didn't you hear me? We can't just go back and find another IMC Pilot in the hangar-"
"Then it's a good thing we brought one," he cut her off, reaching the terminal and sticking his own knife in. The terminal took a moment to acknowledge the new hardware.
USER_ID / PASSWORD
Quickly, he typed in his credentials. It had been months since he'd last used them, but he assumed he'd been listed as MIA by the Kraken- so assuming that they hadn't disabled his codes yet ...
four.tobias / loneknight21
AUTHORIZED
The Major looked on in shock as Tobias was granted access to the terminal's data-base, and immediately began sifting through its contents. At last, he seemed to guess his captor's nature. "You're a deserter, aren't you? That's how you recognized me."
Tobias remained silent, still searching for any information on their target-
"I think I remember you. Your voice was familiar, but it escaped me until now." He furrowed his brow. "You were on the Nedar operation, weren't you? The one where our evacuation ship was destroyed-"
He clenched his jaw, a minute movement that the Major caught.
"So that's it? Yes, I know you, I had to fill out your name with the others in the reports- Thomas? Wait- no, it was Tobias, wasn't it? PFC Tobias Four. Pilot trainee." He nodded his head. "I'm right, aren't I?"
"What of it?" Tobias growled.
"Honestly, I'm more curious than anything. I wouldn't say we knew each other exceptionally well, but we'd certainly had a conversation or two." He tilted his head. "I distinctly remember your hatred of the Militia- I was actually quite impressed with your goal of eradicating them entirely, as you claimed on one occasion. It seems that a lot has changed."
"Shut up."
"What could possibly have happened to turn you away from such a promising career in the IMC?" Boyle's asked, making several tsk sounds. "Better pay, perhaps? If that's the case, surely you can be reasoned with-"
"They gave me a purpose," he answered shortly, his patience wearing thin. He entered the same directory Vale had accessed back on Tyche, the ARES Division's Special Projects database. He scrolled through the information until he found Project: Atlantis-
"And what purpose might that be?" the Major taunted with a scowl. "Assaulting those you once called your allies, betraying those you'd once fought and killed for? You think that makes you a hero? Quite the moral code you follow-"
"He said shut up," Gates iterated, aiming the P2016 once more. Concentrating, Tobias tried to pick apart any new information from anything they already knew. He was getting a little desperate, however, as nothing stood out that could give them a clue as to where the weapon might-
For studies related to Project: Atlantis, see [Research Site M31]
His eyes widening, he opened the suggested page and found what he was looking for.
RESEARCH_SITE_M31 LOC. / EREBUS
Boyles looked Gates up and down as she held the gun out at him. "Perhaps it's not the Militia that gave you a purpose, hmm? Perhaps a certain someone swayed you to their cause?" The Major's eyes lingered just long enough on Gates to make her less than comfortable. "Of course, if she's as equipped as she is charming, it's no surprise you turned traitor-"
Boyles wasn't able to finish his sentence as a flurry of bullets punched through his chest. His eyes widened in pain as he fell back against the wall, sliding down and staring up at Tobias who was holding the Flatline once more, its barrel smoking.
"I'm not a hero," he said quietly. "I'm just done being the villain."
With that, Boyles' head fell to the side, and he moved no more. Gates looked up at him.
"Four? You okay?"
"Don't worry about me." He made a dismissive motion with his hand; he had work to do. "Get out of here, and make your way back to the extraction point, I've got this."
She was taken aback by his sudden order. "What? Not a chance-"
"It only takes one of us to sort through these files, and I know the IMC systems better than you do," he said more harshly than he'd intended. "There's no need to risk both of our lives, I'll join you as soon as I'm finished. Now go!"
She was silent for several seconds, working his logic through her head before finally conceding with a sigh. "You better be at that dropship- if you die, I'm gonna kick your ass."
"You're the only person I'd believe could make good on that threat," he murmured as she turned and left.
...
The roar of the dropships split the air as they arrived, and KT was relieved to see several Widows in their midst, the only dropships big enough to carry the Titans. The doors on their sides opened, and technicians within beckoned the survivors over.
Dimitri held his hand up to his helmet. "Anyone not part of the 6-4 or in a Titan, get out of here!" He ducked to avoid another shot from the Tone, as neither of the new IMC Titans had yet been neutralized. The Militia forces all heeded his command and began to evacuate, save for two.
"You're not getting rid of us that easily, sir!"
Dimitri looked back and shook his head at the sight of two Pilots standing behind him with their weapons at the ready. "Davis, I'm not sure whether to commend you or throttle you." He waved the dropship off, signaling them to go before they took any significant fire. "If you're staying, help the Titans cover the right flank! That Northstar is giving us a hard time!"
"You got it!" the Pilot agreed, waving for his companion to follow him. "C'mon, Droz!"
"Foxtrot-Three! As soon as the next Widow is in position, get on it! Our window's getting real tight here!" No response was heard, but acknowledgement lights from them winked green on everyone's HUD, a sign that they understood. He looked over at KT who was covering the left flank with June.
"KT, where's your damn Pilot? We're running out of time!"
She had no answer for him, and that was starting to worry her.
Suddenly, a ventilation shaft's cover broke off several meters to Dimitri's right, and Gates tumbled out. He quickly rushed to her aid and pulled her into cover. "Captain! You alright?"
"I'm fine," she answered dismissively, analyzing their surroundings. "Is everyone safe?"
"The other Pilots have already evacuated, yes- but we need to leave now! Where's Four?"
"He's grabbing the data! He said he'd make it-"
Dimitri poked his head out slightly, ducking back behind cover when a bullet grazed the metal next to him. "Dammit, we don't have time to sit around and wait for him! He'll have to take care of himself!" Raising an arm into the air, he waved to the others around them. "Get your asses to the dropship unless you want to be left behind!"
KT found herself unsure of what to do. She'd just been given a direct order to evacuate, but ...
Protocol three: protect the pilot.
The second Widow's door opened, and the remaining Pilots entered into a sprint for safety. Bear and Jax jumped and weaved through the air as they tried to disengage from fighting the Northstar- unfortunately, it had other plans.
Lining its railgun up, it timed Jax's next jump perfectly and launched a round at him just as he reached the peak of his leap. One moment, Jax was there- the next, he wasn't. It was as though he had simply ceased to exist.
"JAX!" Bear witnessed the death of his friend, but was grabbed by Dimitri and forced towards the Widow before he could make any rash decisions.
"He's gone, there's nothing you can do!"
The Titans had no such limitation, however. McFarlane ran up to the Northstar before it could reload, and yanked the Titan's arm off. Its other hand scrabbled at its empty socket, only for McFarlane to use its arm as a battering ram and smack it off the side of the Kraken. Its thrusters sputtered and died, leaving it no means with which to save itself from a watery grave.
KT watched him run back to the others, rejoining them on the Widow as Captain Gates beckoned for her to follow. In that moment, she felt something ... strange. A feeling she hadn't really felt before- like a blaze of fire had suddenly been lit within her.
I am not losing another Pilot.
...
"Come on, come on ..." Tobias muttered to himself as he switched gears and accessed the Kraken's navigational database instead. Research Site M31 was apparently somewhere called 'Erebus', and he was hoping that such a site was under Spyglass's purview ...
"Four! Where are you?!" He cringed at the anger in Gates' voice as she screamed in his ear.
"It's almost done, it's-" His data-knife's handle light winked blue, and stopped flashing digits; it had found a match and downloaded it. He quickly yanked the knife out and sheathed it. "I just finished, I'm on my way!"
"Our second dropship has already left, and the third has to double back around! You have to be at the extraction point in two minutes!"
I can make that work.
He was about to jump back into the vent above with his jump-kit when a sudden sound caught his attention- a communications alert from the main console. He looked back at one of the screens, and paled at what he saw.
"Shit."
"What's 'shit', what do you mean 'shit'?"
"The bridge contacted other nearby IMS ships for help before we made it here," he said, stepping away from the console. "They've almost arrived- they'll be on top of us in just a minute or two."
"Then you better move your ass-"
"You don't understand," he cut her off. "Our frigate's in danger, they'll go after it if they detect it-"
He stopped as an idea came to him. "Unless ... unless they're too preoccupied with something else."
Reaching down to check his gear, he was satisfied when he found two satchel charges in a pouch. "Alright, change of plans." Grunting, he jumped up towards the vent and pulled himself into it. Hurriedly, he crawled his way back towards the top of the Kraken.
"No, there will be NO change of plans. Just get your ass onto that ship-"
"If those frigates catch up to us, we're all dead!" he argued. After a bit of navigating, he finally saw light at the end of the shaft. It seemed that the cover had already been removed, meaning this was likely the same escape route Gates had taken. "I'm on the hull now, I'm going to give them something else to occupy their time."
"Four, don't you dare-"
He terminated the connection, deciding instead to focus on the task at hand. Sprinting to the forward port-side rotor blade, still propelling the ship forward across the water, he reached into his pouch and pulled out one of the charges. Carefully he stuck it on the side of the blade's cylindrical housing-
Boom.
He felt the abnormal vibration in the floor beneath him just as he was reaching for the second charge. Hurriedly, he yanked it out and threw it onto the center of the blade itself, noting its tar-like adhesion sticking to the top of the hub.
Boom. BOOM.
Spinning around, he found himself facing a Tone barreling towards him. He quickly dove out of the way as it smashed a fist into the spot where he'd been standing a moment before.
"Where do you think you're going?" a woman's voice taunted him, the Pilot inside taking another swing at him on the ground. He just barely activated his thrusters in time to avoid being turned into mush.
"Chief Four, this is dropship 45-46, thirty seconds out."
He heard the approaching dropship pilot over the comms as he ducked to avoid another swipe from the Titan. Evidently, she didn't have any ammo, or she'd have shot him a long time ago. He fumbled for the remote detonator on his belt-
With surprising speed, the Tone swooped down and grabbed him by the arm, lifting him off the ground. To his despair, the detonator flew out of his hand and skittered several meters away to rest against a bulkhead fitting.
The Tone held him up in front of its optics. Having now been grabbed by an enemy Titan twice, he couldn't say that the experience was improving.
"You're not getting away that easily," its Pilot snarled at him, beginning to tighten its fingers. He could feel his bones cracking under the pressure, and he cried out in agony.
"After everything you've done, I'm going to enjoy watching you pop-"
"Don't you touch him, you bitch!"
The Tone had but a second to turn towards the voice before a large metal fist landed squarely in its optics and sent it reeling. Likewise, he had barely enough time to register the utterly bewildering realization that KT had just cussed the Tone out before he fell to the floor.
"Chief Four, dropship 45-46 has arrived!"
Gripping his arm, he yelled into the comms, "Open your starboard door, and pull up alongside the Kraken! Things are about to get hectic!"
He looked around wildly before he spotted the detonator several meters away. As he sprinted towards it, he was knocked aside by a backhand strike from the Tone. It tried to finish the job, but was tackled by KT. Sparks went flying as they skidded across the surface of the hull, both Titans wrestling with one another for control. He weakly picked himself up and covered the rest of the distance to the detonator.
He scooped it off the ground, and looked for KT. He caught sight of her near the edge of the ship, dangerously close to falling off entirely. She had ended up underneath the Tone, and was holding her arms up to defend herself from the latter's pummeling blows. He gritted his teeth.
"KT, hold onto something!"
Tobias watched as one of her arms scrabbled to find purchase, and finally grabbed a studded pipe that ran along the hull. "Why? What are you doing?!"
He pulled the trigger.
There was an immediate explosion as the satchel charges in the rotor blades blew up, and the mechanism was completely mangled. As the Kraken had built up a fair amount of momentum, all of it was now forced onto its port side, and the ship wrenched itself around that corner of the ship as though it had become anchored to its position in midair.
He searched madly for a handhold, and found the slightest grip in a thin seam as the Kraken began spinning counter-clockwise rapidly. It tilted downward towards the broken engine, and he felt his muscles straining to retain their grip.
The Tone tried desperately to hold onto KT, but the Ion kicked it away and sent it spinning into the open air where it hung for a moment before the far side of the ship made a complete revolution and obliterated it. With that problem out of the way, she looked to where Tobias was trying his damnedest to avoid being thrown off.
"Hold on, Four!"
"That's the idea!" he shouted back shrilly, but he could feel himself slipping. With each revolution, his fingers became weaker, and weaker-
The force was too much for him to handle, and he yelled out as his hands fell away. He felt himself hurling backwards through the air, tumbling head over heels-
He heard a scrape of metal against metal, and saw KT leap from her spot towards him. Quickly grabbing a new handhold with her left arm, she extended her right with hand outstretched, and he felt himself land in her grip.
"I've got you!"
Hastily, she raised him to her chest, and opened her hatch to allow him entry before closing once more. Usually, this was where he'd take over, but he didn't want to risk a neural transition while their lives were in KT's grip- literally.
"Sir? Are you still with us?"
Through KT's ocular systems, he noticed the Widow hovering in place a close distance from the Kraken as it continued to spin, trying to avoid being struck out of the air. "Hold position immediately! KT, I need you to start running calculations on when you have to let go in order to slingshot us into the dropship!"
"My auditory sensors must be malfunctioning- did you just say slingshot?"
"You heard me! We need to land safely inside-"
"Define 'safely'."
"Not dead! Just do it!"
There was a moment's pause, and all he could hear was the scream of the wind as it split around them. "Calculations complete. I trust you."
He exhaled deeply, his adrenaline rising. "That makes one of us. Do it!"
They made another half-revolution before KT released her grip. They were sent spinning off wildly, no control over their movements as they were flung out over the ocean-
Their tumbling came to an abrupt halt as they hit the inside of the Widow with a resounding slam. Despite the intense flash of pain in that instant, Tobias felt more relief than anything.
"Get us out of here!" he yelled, watching as the doors closed on the sight of the Kraken crashing into the ocean. His body and hands shook from the primal fear of surrendering his life to the whims of his Titan's calculations and sheer luck.
"Tobias, are you alright?"
He heard KT's question him out of concern, and he let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
"We barely made it out of that one, huh?"
"Thanks to your quick thinking, yes," she agreed with a synthetic sigh. "I'm glad you're safe."
He patted the armrest of the cockpit with an unsteady hand, then regretted it as he realized it was the arm the Tone had broken. "The feeling is mutual, Kay. You were supposed to evac with everyone else- why'd you stay?"
"I'm not going to abandon you," she spoke softly. "As you said; we are one."
In spite of everything they'd just been through, he smiled. "You got that right."
— X —
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