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Standby for Titanfall3,558 words
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Standby for Titanfall

“Pilots, this is Captain Miles speaking. We have tracked the rebel carrier to this backwater settlement of theirs. She’s badly wounded, and has stopped here to take on water after our last engagement. As such, the rebels have deployed a small ground force on the coast, and a considerable number of fighters. Your objective is to take the coastline from the rebels so our anti-air teams can neutralize their airforce. Once that is done, we can finally take down these rebels and rejoin the fleet. Pilots, prepare for titanfall.”

Pilot Dillemuth sighed as the captain finished his announcement. They had been chasing this one Militia carrier for the past three weeks and had only managed to damage her water tanks. But now it finally seemed like they would be able to take down their target.

While most other IMC pilots were excited to get the chance to kill more of the Militia, Dillemuth was rather indifferent about the whole affair. He was a mercenary, a soldier of fortune. He didn’t share the same hatred and bloodlust of many of his fellow pilots. To him, this was simply a job.

Being a mercenary in the IMC carried its own issues. He was constantly ridiculed and looked down upon by his superiors and fellow pilots. But he didn’t care. Everyone was motivated by something different, his motivation just happened to be a paycheck.

As many other pilots began to climb into their titans, Dillemuth continued to fiddle with his own Ogre titan. The IMC allowed a maximum of two titan upgrades and two pilot equipment upgrades per pilot. In Dillemuth’s eyes, this was a stupid policy. Why not give pilots whatever support they wanted? It was something the young mercenary didn’t understand, nor did he respect it. Giving a cautionary look around to make sure no one was watching, Dillemuth pulled a fist-sized chip out of his pocket and plugged it into his titan.

“Join the IMC, they said. They’ll provide you with everything you need, they said,” the pilot muttered as he closed the access hatch of his titan.

The pilot chuckled to himself as he climbed into his Ogre. He would be riding down with the first wave of the assault. Typically, first wave pilots didn’t last very long. But Dillemuth had a plan. He would stay back and fight defensively and allow the really aggressive and insane IMC pilots to rush headlong into the enemy. If he was lucky, he could just pick off the survivors with his 40mm cannon.

While his Ogre wasn’t the fastest, or most agile, it was built like a tank. He had once seen a single veteran Ogre pilots take on three Atlas titans, taking only moderate hull damage in the process.

Now it was his turn. While this wasn’t his first fight, he was still relatively new to the IMC. The one thing he never enjoyed was dropping into a battlefield. He would have much preferred to ride down in a dropship, and then meet his titan on the ground. Unfortunately for him, that was not an option today. Resigned to his fate, Dillemuth closed the hatch on his titan and prepared for titanfall.

The young mercenary ran through a quick mental checklist as the other titans joined him in the drop zone. Each titan would be secured inside a fairing before being dropped from the carrier. The ride from low orbit would be quite short, about two minutes. Though for Dillemuth, it was two minutes too long.

Just as he was reflecting on how much he hated dropping from orbit, the countdown timer began to beep. With one last deep breath, the timer sounded a long, high pitched tone. Suddenly, Dillemuth found himself falling from the bottom of the ship. As his titan hurtled toward the surface, it felt like his stomach had just tried to occupy the same space as his brain.

After a few seconds of what would later be described as one of the worst possible feeling known to man, the fairing around his titan broke away. As soon as the debris were clear of the titan, it extended its arms in preparation for landing. Only seconds later, Dillemuth’s titan landed with a thunderous boom.

Quickly standing up, the Ogre removed the 40mm cannon from its back as the other five titans landed nearby. This was it, time to earn his paycheck.

“Alright pilots, this is a battle of attrition. Kill all the Militia fighters in the area,” announced the captain over the radio.

His group’s leader, riding in an Atlas, turned to face the other four titans. “Alright, you heard him. If it isn’t IMC, you kill it. There isn’t a whole lot of cover around here, so be careful. Watch for Stryders in the tree line to our right. Dillemuth, Johannas, you’re with me. We’re going along the left side by those hills. Guyy, Ramirez, you two take the tree line and cover us.”

“Uhhh, shouldn’t I go on the right with Ramirez? We both have longer range weapons,” Dillemuth

stated, not wanting to be in the first group to charge into the Militia.

“Yeah, fine. Guyy, with me. Let’s go kill ‘em all!”

The three titans began their charge toward the hills on the left, while Dillemuth and Ramirez made their way to the edge of the tree line. While Dillemuth’s Ogre wielded a 40mm cannon, Ramirez’s Atlas used a plasma railgun.

“Man, I can’t wait to kill some fucking Militia. BOOM! Headshot! Right through his fucking domepiece!” Ramirez exclaimed over the shortwave radio as the pair made their way along the forest edge.

Dillemuth rolled his eyes as he continued forward. “Yeah, that’s great dude. Now do you mind keeping your focus on our left flank?”

“Yeah whatever man. These Militia fucks couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn. Why do you think they haven’t beaten us yet?” Ramirez stated with excitement.

“I guess you’re right. On the other hand, they did kinda destroy Demeter. Ya know, that one critical link back to the core worlds? The thing that is literally our only line of reinforcements and resupply. But if you don’t count any of that, then I guess you’re pretty spot on,” Dillemuth stated sarcastically.

“The only reason they did that is because they’re too scared to fight us head on. That’s why they did a pussy move like that,” Ramirez continued.

“I got an idea, let’s play the don’t-speak-unless-actually-necessary, game.” Dillemuth replied dryly.

“Man, fuck you,” Ramirez shouted back.

It was at that moment that a single shot was fired from inside the treeline, striking the Atlas in the body. Dillemuth couldn’t help but chuckle at the very precise shot managed to completely disable the shields of the Atlas. Both pilots now began to scan the forest for the source of the projectile. Though the dense trees made that much more difficult.

“Hey Ramirez, what was that about the Militia not being able to hit a barn?” Dillemuth chuckled.

“Fuck you dude!” The other pilot shouted back as another round impacted his titan.

This time Dillemuth was able to see where the round came from. Though it came at the cost of Ramirez’s titan, which was now on fire. Seeing that his partner would soon be forced to eject, Dillemuth began to fire into the woods, hoping to hit whatever was in there.

“Mother fuckers! I’ll fucking- Oh shit!”

Dillemuth turned to his partner in time to see a Stryder dash out of the woods, only to punch straight into the cockpit of the doomed Atlas. In one swift motion, the titan ripped Ramirez from his seat before crushing him like a tomato.

While Dillemuth wasn’t happy to watch the Militia kill his partner, he also wasn’t all too sad to see the loudmouth go. What did make him happy was to see the Stryder in front of him had quite a few blast marks on its hull. Deciding to put his Ogre to good use, he began to sprint at the enemy titan.

Before the Stryder had a chance to finish discarding the dead Atlas, Dillemuth’s Ogre slammed into its side. The IMC mercenary quickly brought up his cannon and quickly fired two shots into the unshielded Stryder. With his target now critically damaged, Dillemuth dashed forward before using his titan’s superior strength to finish off the enemy.

Rather than try punching through the badly damaged titan, Dillemuth knocked the weapon away from the enemy titan before grabbing each of its hands. With a quick tug, the Ogre ripped the arms off the Stryder and proceeded to use them to bash the enemy titan into the ground. Seeing that the Stryder’s arms were now firmly embedded in the cockpit, Dillemuth picked up his own cannon and continued heading toward the coast.

“Hey, Kessel. Ramirez is dead. Stryder got him from the woods,” Dillemuth stated calmly over the radio.

“Shit,” came the voice of their team leader, “Guyy is also dead. Are there any more titans in your area?”

Dillemuth took a quick glance around as he walked onward. “Not sure. I haven’t been shot at in the past minute.”

“Alright, we’re here at the beach fighting four Militia pilots. I’m not sure where the other two are.”

Dillemuth turned around to glance at the burning Stryder behind him. “I managed to decapitate the Stryder that popped Ramirez, so that eliminates one of your missing titans.”

“Good work. Head into the woods and see if you can find the other missing pilot. Good hunting.” With that, the line went dead.

Now on his own, Dillemuth stopped to look at the forest. It was very possible that another Militia pilot was lurking somewhere in the woods, just waiting for him to drop his guard. Dillemuth quickly reloaded his cannon before starting the trek into the woods.

Moving a large titan through the woods was no easy task. The large pine trees were packed tightly enough to inhibit visibility, without always preventing the titan from moving. As he continued to move through the woods, there was a loud crack as the tree next to him exploded in a shower of splinters and wood. Without pausing, Dillemuth sent his titan into a sprint, easily trampling any trees in his way.

As he continued to run, more trees began to explode around him. Gradually he was beginning to pinpoint just where the shot were coming from. Keeping pace with him only a hundred meters away was a Militia Stryder with a railgun. Knowing that his opponent was faster and more agile than he was, Dillemuth changed course and began to run at the Stryder, forcing it to take time to evade the charging Ogre.

As the young mercenary pilot sent the enemy titan fleeing into the woods, he began to really take in his surroundings. He was standing on the edge of a small grassy clearing. Oddly enough, railroad tracks cut through the left hand side of the clearing. Dillemuth found this exceptionally odd. Trains hadn’t been widely used in centuries.

However, the young pilot would not get a chance to reflect further on this development, as his titan was hit in the back by a fully charged railgun slug.

“Warning, we have sustained severe damage. Seek cover immediately,” warned the onboard AI in a male British accent.

What his attacker didn’t know was that he had a fully charged ability core. With the flip of a switch, his titan’s core began to shimmer and glow as the external energy shields were supercharged. Now that his titan's shields were even stronger than before, Dillemuth once again charged his opponent.

The Stryder pilot was quite surprised to see the Ogre turn and charge after having been shot in the back. Even more startling was the fact that it’s shields were now back to full. Now with an angry Ogre pilot bearing down on him, the Stryder pilot took aim and began to charge up another shot. Just as his gun was about to be fully charged, the Ogre had moved within striking distance.

With a quick dash to the left, the nimble Stryder managed to evade the Ogre, but at the cost of a missed shot. Now having to charge the rifle again, the pilot once again took aim. Only to watch a single missile fly from the Ogre’s shoulder. before he could react, the missile hit him dead center. As the primary explosive detonated, dozens of smaller charges flew into the air and began raining down on the area.

Quickly, the Stryder pilot used another quick dash to avoid taking any more damage from the cluster bomb. Finally, with enough distance between them, the Stryder took aim and fired another fully charged round from the railgun. This time it found its mark, causing the Ogre to stumble slightly as its shields strained from the impact.

Dillemuth recognized the glow coming from the Stryder’s weapon and quickly deployed his titan’s electric smoke. While this was effective for electrocuting and killing anything within the smoke, it was also very useful for obscuring the vision of enemy pilots and missiles. Utilizing the smoke to his advantage, Dillemuth quickly moved back into the tree line in hopes of surprising his opponent.

Sure enough, as soon as the smoke faded, the sound of a railgun shot echoed through the clearing. Surprised to see his opponent was no longer with him, the Stryder pilot began looking around, only to be nearly knocked to the ground by a sudden impact from behind.

Rather than take his opponent at range, Dillemuth decided to engage the enemy titan up close where his Ogre was much better suited. The Stryder pilot tried to throw a quick punch before dashing backward, only to have his punch caught by the much stronger Ogre.

Now with one hand caught and the other one soon grabbed as well, it looked like the Ogre was going to give this Stryder the same treatment as the other one before. Wanting to keep things a bit more lively, Dillemuth began to force the enemy titan to the ground where he could easily smash him.

Though as the Stryder was forced to a knee, a thunderous boom and blinding flash of light forced a pause in the combat. Off in the distance, the Militia carrier had burst into flames and was in the process of crashing. Surprisingly, the IMC carrier was also gravely wounded and looked to be on the verge of death as well.

“All pilots! This is Captain Miles, we have sustained heavy damage from Militia fighters. I doubt we’re going to last much longer up here. Do whatever you have to, but get clear of the coast. You’re all on your own now. Miles out.”

With another massive explosion, the IMC carrier cracked in two and began to fall. Just as both pilots finished watching their respective ships die, a third explosion tore through the forest, this one much closer than the others. Looking to the left, a large ball of fire and smoke began rising from just beyond the clearing. Strangely, the sounds of screaming and yelling echoed through the woods.

The two pilots continued to stand there, frozen in their combat. Suddenly a very loud, and very sinister sounding laugh, echoed over the screams of terror. Both pilots couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread at the evil sound. Slowly, Dillemuth reached forward and opened a channel to the Stryder pilot pinned below him.

“Alright, look. Seeing as my employer just exploded, I have no more reason to kill you. In fact, I would rather go see what’s happening over there. So either I can let you go and you can not shoot me, or I can kill you now if you think you lack the discipline. You’r call,” Dillemuth stated bluntly.

“Fuck you! If you think that just because our ships ship exploded, I’m just gonna let you walk away, then you IMC guys are more retarded than I thought,” the Stryder pilot shouted in response.

Dillemuth sighed and simply continued to press down on the titan. The Sytrder’s shields tried for a moment to reactivate, only to be shut down the the Ogre on top of it. The Stryder pilot knew he was in trouble. His titan was beginning to break under the strain of wrestling with the Ogre. Perhaps living to fight another day was better than needlessly dying here.

“Fine! Fine! You win!”

Dillemuth smirked at this and slowly let up his assault. The Stryder slowly stumbled to its feet before raising its railgun. Dillemuth just stood there in his Ogre, waiting for the other pilot to make a move.

Inside the Stryder, pilot Villarreal was having a serious problem. If he tried to take out the Ogre now, he would probably die. But if he went along with this other titan, perhaps he could eliminate him later when he had the element of surprise.

Leaving the Stryder behind, Dillemuth began to pilot his Ogre toward the source of the now subsided screaming. As he walked away, the Ogre raised its middle finger up over its shoulder, in plain view of the fuming Stryder pilot.

“Hey fucktard, wait up!” Called the Stryder pilot.

Dillemuth’s Ogre looked to the right as the Stryder caught up and began walking next to him. “Oh, what’s this? Is the big bad Militia pilot scared of being alone?”

“What? No! Fuck you man. I’d just... rather not be... left to die in the wilderness,” muttered Villarreal.

“Uh huh, sure. So what’s your name?”

“Why the fuck would I tell you that? You were trying to kill me just a few minutes ago!” Exclaimed the irate Militia pilot.

“Alright, guess I’ll just have to call you... Shit-face Mcgee. How’s that sound?” Dillemuth said with a chuckle.

Oh fuck you! You think you can just call me whatever the fuck you want and I won’t do anything about it! Is that what you fucking think!?” Villarreal shouted as he brought his Stryder to a stop.

“If you are so insistent on doing something then you can do one of two things. You can try to hurt me, or you can just tell me your fucking name,” Dillemuth replied as he stopped to face the Stryder.

“Fine, you wanna know my name so fucking badly?! It’s Villarreal. There, happy?” The Militia pilot said with a huff.

“Thank you, Shit-face Villarreal Mcgee.” Dillemuth answered with a flourish and bow of his titan.

The Stryder pilot was at a total loss for words as the Ogre in front of him did a bow before turning and continuing on toward whatever lie ahead. With a quick dash forward, the Stryder caught up to the slower Ogre.

“So... any idea what the fuck is causing all this?” The Stryder pilot asked while looking up at the rising smoke and flames.

“Nope,” replied the Ogre pilot.

“So we’re just gonna walk in and see what happens?”

“Yup.”

“This plan is fucking stupid, I hope you know,” Villarreal chidded.

“I didn’t hear you suggest anything. So if you have something better, I’m all ears,” Dillemuth replied with a frustrated sigh. The agitated Stryder pilot quickly stopped talking after hearing that.

After a few more minutes of walking, the glow of fire could be seen through the trees. Without missing a beat, both titan pilots jogged out into the clearing. Before them was a scene out of a bad monster movie.

Standing over a burning and wrecked train was a creature easily as tall as a standing titan. Its coloration of red and black, coupled with the massive curved horns on its head, gave it a demonic look. Attached to what looked like the body of a horse, was the upper torso of a man with curved black horns, forming what could only be described as a centaur. Between the base of the horns sat a glowing ball of light, gently floating in mid air. Making matters even more complicated, the centaur seemed to be holding a white horse with wings and its own horn protruding from its forehead.

While the white horse seemed to be being slowly crushed by the centaur, everything stopped when the titans emerged from the forest. The eyes of the centaur, and the eyes of dozens of other creatures around the wreckage were fixed on the two pilots.

“Hey Shit-face?” Dillemuth asked with concern.

“Uh huh?” Villarreal quietly responded.

“What the fuck is that?”

“I dunno...” the pilot replied timidly.

“I kinda wanna kill it. Wanna help?” Dillemuth asked.

“Not really, I kinda wanna just go back into the woods. This clearing sucks,” Villarreal pleaded.

“Don’t be a bitch. Either you help me fight this... thing, or I tear off your legs and leave you here. Deal?” Dillemuth said in a very threatening tone.

“...kay.” Villarreal said as he brought up his railgun and fired.

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