> The Titanfall
>  by Failsafe99
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prepare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My name is Jack Cooper. My wife, was named Mika, pronounced kinda like the rock. She was the one who got me into playing Titanfall, and Titanfall 2 when it came out.

She was a big gamer, and got me into it. She also pushed me to join the military though. She loved to see me come home.

Shortly after the launch of Titanfall 2, she had bought me a keychain of BT, the titan companion from the story. I put it on my gun. Because protocol 3.

We would play the game together, and would play Attrition to no end. I would always play with the Monarch, with a particle wall pilot. My loadouts would varry.

When my wife died, I was sent home for the funeral, and a month after, went back to the Marines.

Four months later, when I heard the call for a volunteer mission of high risk, I didn't even have to think. I was the first, and surprisingly only, volunteer.

I entered the warehouse that I had been flown out to, and was greeted with a sight. It was made into an obstacle course.

It had high walls, training dummies, and other areas. I internally groaned. 

There was a few scientists in the room, and they saw me enter. Calling me over, I went.

"Are you Staff Sergeant Jack 'Pilot' Cooper?" One of them asked. I looked for rank insignia, and saw the eagle of a Colonel. I salute.

By the way, funny thing is, my name is the main characters, but my voice is the same as Isaac Clarke's, from Dead Space 2 and 3.

"Sir, yes sir. I am here for the volunteer mission I signed up to do." The colonel nods.

"Yes son, I know. However, you wont be here just yet. If you follow us, we need to do some stuff, then we can get you suited up for the mission. By the way, I'm Colonel Potter." I just nod, and follow.

We exit the warehouse, and go to another building. When we enter, I see that it is a hospital. And it only has one bed. The colonel turns to me.

"I need you to get into your skivvies, and lye on your back on the table." I nod, and do so.

I was starting to get confused. What was happening? What where they going to do to me?

As I lay on the table, one of the scientists moved to a little cart in the corner, and pulled it over. As he did, I saw what was on it. It had a syringe and a bottle on it, and some band-aids. That was it. The scientist spoke to me.

"We need you to relax as much as you can. Also, breath deeply, and don't panic. If you feel any pain, any at all, tell us." I nod, and he does the same. The scientist then turns to the table, and grabs th syringe. Sticking it in a bottle and drawing out some fluid, he turns to me.

I lye still, waiting for the needle. As the man moved towards me, I saw the liquid inside was a very diluted blue color.

After he stuck me, the area that was injected started to tingle. I had to resist the urge to scratch it. After a minute, my whole body tingles, and I had to really resist the urge to scratch. The colonel asked me.

"You okay Cooper?" I nod, responding.

"Yes sir. It just tingles all over." He chuckles and says.

"Yeah, I was told that might be a side affect. Just hang on for a moment, your body will take some time too adjust to the injection."

And after that, I was told to dress in the clothing provided.

As I got off the table, I noticed that I seemed to be moving more fluidly, if that was right.

I stood up, and the doctor that had been the same size as me before, was an inch or two shorter now. 

My muscles felt tight, like they needed to move. I eventually said something.

"Sir, am I supposed to be feeling funny? My body feels different, and I know I am taller." The colonel nods.

"That means everything is fine. The sho. you were just given enhances your skeletal structure, increases muscle mass, and gives a permanent boost to your stamina. All because of nanomachines. Don't worry about it much, it won't kill you. It will take some time to get used to the enhanced musculature. If you will follow me and the scientists, we can start getting everything ready." I just sigh, nod, and follow them back to the warehouse from earlier.

As we enter the building, we head to a side room. Laid out inside, across several tables, was what you would expect of pilot gear from Titanfall. I was getting confused. The colonel saw this, and nodded.

"What you see is real Cooper. Titanfall was a successful game. And the tech in it, was phenomenal. The only thing we couldnt yet create, was the titan. This here is experimental technology, that you are going to be learning to use. We have a year, to train you, and perfect your equipment, before we send you off on your mission. With that said, let's get you geared up Pilot." 

I look at him when he says this, and he just laughs. One of the doctors comes over, and hands me a suit. It was a one piece set of clothes. I moved over to the changing room pointed out to me, and proceeded to put it on.

After I had, I came out, and had the pilot gear undersuit on. One of the doctors in the room came over, and handed me a vest, which I put on. After I had, I looked down to see it was a bulletproof vest.

"This vest was made with our best and newest methods of bulletproof armor. It isnt even out of testing. It is made of a semi new metal, that is ten times stronger than iron, and as light as a soda can. The metal doesnt even have a name yet. It is supposed to disperse the kinetic motion of a bullet across the body, so it feels more like a punch than a bullet." The colonel says. I nod. Sounds good.

The scientist directs me over to the next table. On it, I see a harness, like for zip lining, and a familiar contraption.

"This is the jump kit. You might be familiar with the design, but we had to do some fixing up of the innards. Inside the device, it will take oxygen from the air, and then burn it for propellant. The nitrogen and other elements in the air, will be used to power the rest of your equipment." The scientist says. He then grabs the harness, and he tells me to take off the vest.

I do so, and he helps me strap on the harness over my chest and legs. After that, he picks up the jump kit, and attaches it to the back of my harness, near the waste.

"It will take some time to get calibrated to your weight, and movement, but once it does, the game will become real. You will be able to run on walls, double jump, and fall from heights you would normally die from. Now, lets move on to the equipment."

We moved on to the third table, and I saw a bunch of things on it. One of the objects was a disk, about 5 inches in diameter. I pick it up. The scientist sees, and tells me what it is.

"That is the particle wall. It takes light, and then makes the light into a solid wall. I won't go into specifics on how it works now, but I can give you a book on it later. It will protect you as if you are behind cover, but unlike the game, we couldnt find a way to fire through it, without messing with the integrity of the protection. So it acts as deployable cover for now. We have a year though to make it shoot through able."

"It still is better than what I would have thought. I didnt even know till today that science could do this with light. It's amazing." The scientist nods in agreement, and picks up an arm mounted pack.

"This is connected to the jump kits energy reactor. It is your pulse blades. There is three in this arm pouch, and it goes on the upper arm of your non dominant hand. That way, you can reach and throw them." I move my left arm over to put it on, and he plugs in a small cord into the harness, and then attaches the pouch.

"The blades work by sending out a radar like pulse that travels through walls. It then is relayed back to the knife, and then to the helmet." I nod, and move on. I pick up the hack knife next.

"The knife works like a regular knife, and a hacking device. It plugs into any type of data device to download it. It has the latest in speed decryption. It can hack anything in seconds, and download in 30 seconds. It's sheathed in the jump kit, right here." He then points to a spot, and I slip the knife in. It was in an easy to grab location, that could be reached quickly.

The next item was a glove like device. The scientist started to tell me about it.

"The phase shift. It is still very expirimental, so we will really need to work out the kinks, but it works close to what it is supposed to. It allows you to phase out of our reality, into a small subspace that is just like our reality, and slip out to get the tactical advantage on an enemy." The colonel speaks up.

"This is it. We still havent been able to figure out cloak, which I find funny, as we can slip back and forth out of our dimension, but we cant be invisible. Still, you have one piece of equipment left." And the colonel points to the last object on the table.

The helmet. It looked like the helmet from the campaign.

"All of the suit is air tight, and has an experimental system in it that blocks radiation of any kind. Though, it only works for about 2 minutes before you'll start to feel the first effects of radiation. Now, we get to the real weapons." Said the colonel. We walked to another table.

On it, sat three weapons, and lot of ammo. I recognized the guns and everything.

"The Flatline, the stinger, and the RE-45." The colonel nodded. The scientist with us picked up the Flatline.

"As you said, this is the Flatline. It fires .30-06 caliber bullets at an affective range of 65 to 70 meters, with varrying amounts of accuracy." He picks up the RE-45 next.

"This is the RE-45. It fires .9mm bullets, with an affective range of 35 to 40 meters." He sets it down, and picks up the rocket launcher.

"And the Stinger. It's been slimmed down so it doesn't weigh you down to much. It fires the standard rocket for an anti aircraft portable launcher. These will be you weapons for the next month, while we train you." He points to Colonel Potter.

The colonel speaks.

"Son, you have been chosen for a special mission. You are going to be going behind enemy lines with this equipment, and you will cause as much havoc as you can for two months. At the end of that time, we will send a helicopter to a specified point, and pick you up. If you die, we will know, and have killswitches in place to destroy the equipment so the enemies cant get it. You'll pretty much get an acid bath. Understand son, it's because this tech, cant get into any enemies hands. You will be regarded a hero, no matter what happens. Now, with all the grim shit out the way, lets get your helmet on, and get you on the course." I nod.

I understood what he said. And also, there was an unspoken message, one that he hadn't said, but I saw and heard from a mile away.

If I am in danger of getting caught, I was probably supposed to off myself.

I grabbed the helmet, and the scientist that had been talking to us, pulled one more gadget out his pocket.

"Wait, Pilot. This is yours. It acts as a signal amplifier, a video communication device, and an MP3. Here, just put it in the left leg drop bag." I do, and we head out to the course.

I look at the course, and when I walked in to the warehouse the course was set in, I had to admit, it looked terrifying. Now, with my new equipment, it looked totally different. Cooper was right, pilots see the world differently. I could already see five diferent ways to move through, thinking like a Pilot.

I had a year to truly become one. Learn about how to use my equipment, and train my body and mind to think in three dimensions. I grinned and put on my helmet.

Better get started.
> Standby
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been almost a year and a half since I volunteered for the new Pilots program. They upped the training time to give me more time to learn my equipment.

It had been rather easy to do. Each thing worked in tandem, and as long as I didnt fuck up, I could keep myself moving. A few times, we did mock trials, we're I would fight against a squad of Marines. 

I could beat them all, without taking a single bullet, and had little trouble beating them in hand to hand. I had been training almost everyday, with five days train, two days rest.

I was pretty much able to do whatever I wanted, so long as I never disclosed my training, or the nanobot injection.

And the nanobots were amazing. We had too run multple tests overtime, to see how the nanos had been acting inside me.

We had found out that I need less food to survive now, that my lungs were ten times more efficient, and that I could almost run indefinitely, and that my reactions were ten times faster than a normal human marine.

It was exhilarating, but the training was the best part.

Everyday, I trained. Even on most my days off. It was so fun.

Running on walls, shooting out the new grapple they made, that went to a part of tbe armor that acted as a backpack and gun holder.

But the parlour, the running, the grapple swinging, the jumping and sliding, all of it made my heart soar.

If only my wife could see me now, with all my equipment, and my new physique. I was now well muscled, and it showed. Not mister Olympia size, but I had muscle.

Back to everything else though, it had been a year and a half, and I was now going out into enemy lines, in southern Russia.

Things had started to go bad with them shortly after the new president was elected. The thing is, it wasnt the one they wanted. They had started to threaten our bases, and had finally, about a month back, declared open war. I was now going into Russia, to cause havoc towards any Russian bases I may find.

I had been loaded into a cargo plane late in the night, and flown over towards russia, as close as they could get.

After I dropped, I was to use my jump kit to get myself as far into Russia as possible. My jump kit would slow me down enough that my newly enhanced skeleton wouldn't shatter or I splatter across the ground and die.

I got the green light to jump, and I ran out the back of the plane. The CO2 recycler in my helmet, for use in gaseous or low oxygen environments, kicked in, as the atmosphere was thin.

I jumped out the plane to an expanse of white under me. Clouds.

As I started to fly my way to my left and into Russian airspace, I hadnt hit the cloud layer when my hand started to tingle. It was the one with the phase shifter.

As I was falling I glanced at it, and after a moment it went away. I looked down to see the clouds coming up at me, and the n my hand started to get shocked.

I glanced at it, just before it made me jump. I was falling through an expanse of black and white shadows, what I call the void, and then, a second later, I popped back into reality.

The first thing I saw, was I was not were I was supposed to be. I was now falling into a desert, and could see some buildings below and infront of me.

I could also see what looked to be airships, and titans, fighting in the streets of the destroyed city.

I angled down, trying to reach the ground faster, and see what's going on. I reached a building quickly, and angled to help decelerate, and rolled as I hit the rooftop.

I came up, and went to the edge of the roof. As I did, I got a ping on my HUD. After, I got what seemed to be a call.

The ping seemed to come from the center of the city. The call, was the startling part.

"Pilot, I need you now. Two factions are in conflict over my possession. I am currently at the marker I just pinged you with, and being protected by three primitive titans, and a group of scientists and civilians. They won't hold much longer."

I choked up for a second. The voice sounded just like my wife's. I got up, and started towards the waypoint.


I reached it relatively quick, but I had already been informed that it was too late. One of the titans had been destroyed, and the other two were immobilized. The scientists and civilians had been rounded up, and drug out to the center of the street.

I had got to the building, and gone down a few levels to get closer. As I had been heading down, I had seen skeletons of humans, old and worn over years of exposure, with a few weapons nearby.

One had had a gun case near it, and I had opened it up, finding a fricking Longbow DMR in it, with a 4.5 scope attached. I picked it and whatever ammo was in the case up, and made my way to the nearest window, aiming out with the DMR.

"Titan, what is your designation, and can you give me a feed on what is happening live? Patch it through to my HUD."

"My designation is MK-1579. And yes, one sec." she says.

Suddenly, a small screen appears on my HUD, and I look at it. It shows two groups, one on it's knees with guns to their heads, and the others holding the guns.
What got me was that the people looked like they were horses, but they walked on two legs, and had hands and feet, like humans. But then the talking started. It was a female.

"What is going on?! Who are all of you ponies?! This city only appeared last night out of the sands, so how does anypony else know about it?!" She raged. All the other captives struggled against their bonds, and then a laugh was heard from somewhere unseen.

"Oh miss Doo, this city has always been here. It just finally got unhurried from the ground last night. Any who had been paying attention would have seen it comes up. But I saw it myself, and knew you would come to study it. The strange vault that held the mech chassis, that was just a bonus." And then the strangest creature pushed through most of the ponies with guns.

It stood upright, but it was naked, and had no defining features of gender. The voice sounded male though, so I went with he. It had a dog like face, and blue fur, plus a tail that ended in a hand. The mare who had first spoke, struggled against her captor with more vigor, and spat at the creature.

"Ahuizotl. Should have known it would be your filthy paws trying to pillage this place! This is Equestrian property, you shouldnt be here! So let us go, and tell your stupid mercenaries to go fuck you instead!"  Ahuizotl just laughed.

"I would, if I wasn't going to get something I have wanted for a long time out of this. You see, someone came to me, and said that they knew of an ancient ruin that was too appear last night. And that, that mach would be here, in a special vault in some hidden part of the city. I was to find the vault, and get in. If I couldn't, destroy the place, and come back with his team and try again. My payment, he said. Was the ability to do whatever I want with you and your team. That you brought the Elements with you is even better, as it makes it more fun. The Griffin's are going to be so happy when I bring this back to them." Doo just looked horrified, and I had had enough of watching.

"MK, patch me to your external speakers."

"Done."

"Step away from the hostages, or I will use lethal force. This is your only warning."

The blue furred creature looked around surprised, before finally settling its gaze on my titan. He laughed.

"And what are you going to do? Your just a locked down mech, you can't do anything." I sigh.

"Fine, lethal force it is." I say, before sighting on the pony that was holding the leader of the scientists. Slowly breathing, I let out my breath, and then pull the trigger of the Longbow.

The shot flys true, and hits the pony in the head, splattering his brains all over the dirt and asphalt behind the shocked mare.

After that, I switch targets to the blue creature, Ahuizotl, and fire off a shot.

He gets blocked by a random mercenary who moves to protect him, and Ahuizotl ducks out and runs before I cab fire again. I continue to fire on the marcs, and hit most of them holding the hostages.

"Ok, MK, break free and start taking down titans, I'll be there soon." I say.

"Got it Cooper!" she says, and I falter a shot, but still kill the merc.

She sounds so much like my wife.

I shake it off, as now is not the time to get emotional.

I fire a few more times, and change magazines, before I pack up and move back. Turning around, back towards the window, I run towards it.

I was on the fifth level of the building. A year and a half ago, I wouldnt have done this, running to jump out a window. Now, it was all part of the fun.

Running towards the window, I see a waypoint appear on my HUD. It was my titan, who was slowly moving towards my position. I waited for her to get closer, and then jumped out the window.

She was a little farther than my jump, but I didnt worry. I boost jumped once, and made it directly over her.

As I neared her top, I could see the top hatch open. I aimed for it, and got my legs in. Showing my body fit her in, I hear the hatch close behind me, as I sit in the pilots seat.

I was awed. I was about to pilot a titan. I also had no idea how to do so.

"Protocal 1: link to pilot. Establishing nearulink."

A green flash happens, and then I feel my thoughts expand, so to say. After, I felt as if I was a part of the titan. MK continued.

"Protocal 2: Uphold the mission. Protect Equestrian scientists, and escort to safety."

"Protocal 3: Protect the pilot."

"Lets go Cooper."
> Monarch, Online
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as MK said let's go, I pulled my arm back, and slammed my elbow into a titan behind me. MK then pulled our gun up, and fired the XO-16 chaingun at the titan on our left, and got it off us. Then, I heard MK say.

Monarch, online. Welcome aboard Cooper." before we continued killing the titan next to us.

MK and I continue to take on the titans around us, until they all have been cleared out. Afterwards, I turn to the building that I had caught the science team running into for cover.

"MK, external speakers please."

"Of course, Cooper."

"It is all clear now, you can come out."

After that, I saw all of them come out, and stair at me with awe. I open the front, and step out and hop down from my Titan. The pony person that had been talking to Ahuizotl earlier comes up to me, pointing a gun, as does several of the civilians.

"Who are you, and how did you kill those mechs so quickly?" She says.

"I am Staff Sergeant Jack Cooper. I am with the United States Marine Corps.. May I ask who you are?" She looks at me, still pointing her gun. It looked to be a Hemlok BF-R.

"My name is Daring Doo. Archaeologist and historian of the Canterlot Archaeological Society. Now answer my second question, how did you kill those mechs so easily?" She says. I nod, and look at MK.

"My Titan. She is more advanced than those other mechs. Also, we had superior tactics, and a better understanding of each others workings. That a good enough answer?" Before Daring Doo opens her mouth to speak again, MK speaks up.

"Cooper, I detect multiple titan signatures closing in from multiple directions. I recommend the scientists try and get those two titans running, and get to cover so they don't get hurt."

I nod. "Okay Mika." 

And I pause.

I just called her Mika. I shake it off.

I have to focus right now, I still have to protect these people. I start talking again.

"Miss, shes right, you need to see if you can do anything for those titans, and then get to cover. If you cant do anything, then get to cover, and try and give me fire support. I will go fight those incoming titans." I turn, and start running, and she calls out to me.

"Wait! How are you going to fight those mercs mechs without being in your own?" I stop, and pull the Stinger launcher off my back.

"With this. Hurry and patch them up, or get to cover." She nods, and rushes to one of the titans.

"Cooper, I detect twenty Titan signatures. Twelve Atlas chassis titans, and eight Ogre chassis. Weapons vary, but I detect no plasma or arc energies." I nod.

"So they only have two types of titans, and old school weapons. What do you have Mika?" I was quickly getting over using my wife's name for her. It was so easy. Mika answered.

"XO-16 Chaingun. Upgrade core with arc rounds, rearm and reload, and superior chassis. overcore, and energy thief, with a dome shield drop. I also have the vortex shield, rocket salvo, and energy siphon." 

I nod. I can work with this.

"Alright then, give me a scan of the city. We need to work out a battle plan."

"Affirmative. Uploading an overview map of the surrounding city that I nabbed from one of those titans."

I pull it up in my HUD as a mini map, and look through the city.

"It looks like there is a large area up ahead thats clear of buildinvs, some plaza of some kind. Plenty of hiding spots for people to try and flank us. Stay out of the center as best you can. Stay in between buildings. That gives us choke points.use the vortex to the best of your ability, and deploy a smokescreen often. Use the energy siphon to steal shield power, and use your upgrades. When you reload, try to find some sort of cover, that way if one of them uses a 40mm cannon, they cant get a full lock on you. I will be jumping around and taking care of on foot patrols trying to find the scientists. Got all that?"

"Yes Cooper. Harvester defense tactics on an attrition gamemode."

I think for a second.

"Yeah, pretty much. But I want you to keep moving, dont just follow me. I'll be running ground, and providing support to you and them. Keeping everything I can off their backs. Hopefully they have a way out of here besides walking."

"Agreed."

And we waited for the titans to come.


I was currently trying to remember and run all the routes through buildings, jumps between, and fastest routes to get around. 

Mika was walking around, her scanners marking everything that had got closer over the last minute.

It was time for battle.

"Ok Mika, time to show them how a real titan-pilot team works."

"Understood Cooper. Engaging hostile Titans."

And as she said that, I found the science team in one of the buildings. They looked to all be carrying a sword for a titan between all of them.

"What are you all doing? You ned to make sure that you can defend yourselves, not carrying a titans sword. Take it to that window over there, and leave it. I'll place a ping on it for my titan to grab in times of trouble.

The scientists do so, and Daring Doo comes over, along with a pony with rainbow hair. Both have guns, Daring having a Hemlok still, and rainbow having a C.A.R. smg. Daring was asking me a question.

"What is your plan? We have an airship coming to get us, but it's about twenty minutes out. The two mechs are beyond repair with what we have at hand. And we have a bunch of marcs coming in from all around. We need to figure out how we are going to fight them off till help arrives."
"Well, I want any civilian with a gun to take up position by the windows, and fire on any titan that comes close. If no titans are nearby, then shoot any infantry that comes close to the building. Have the scientists see if they can get a few guns and help out." The rainbow haired pony speaks up.

"And what will you be doing? Our flight magic, and the unicorns magic are being jammed by the airship up over there, so we're grounded. What can you do?" I shrug.

"I'll be jumping from building to building, and from alley to wall to window, and clearing out any enemy that is search in for you, or locking on to my titan." We all hear the sounds of guns firing, and I finish up. "Get ready, battles started." And run over to the window, leaping out.

The two ponies run over to the window to see me send my grapple out, and latch onto the nearest titan, before rodeoing it, and taking its battery. I hook it onto the back of my jump kit, and jump off the titan, but not before leaving a grenade in the battery port.

Jumping off, I shoot my grapple again, and make my way over to another building, and see some ponies in front of me with guns. They all seem to have R-101 carbines from Titanfall 1.

I grab my Flatline, and start firing at the mercenary soldiers, killing a few, before running forward and grabbing one to use as a shield, while using his gun to fire on the others.

After dispatching the other soldiers, I grab a magazine of the shield, kill him, and reload, before jumping out the building to the ground, and taking out a few guys on the way down.

Having used the ammo in the stolen gun, I toss it and grab another gun, a R-97 smg.

I run around the park and plaza, killing any hostile in and around the area I find.

Meanwhile, Mika is using the buildings for cover, and has grabbed one of the 40mm cannons, and just using it as a regular gun with no lock on. She is firing on one of the ogres, who has a triple threat.

It was the shotgun the ronin uses, but it shoots three mines instead. It was one of the weapons in the first Titanfall.

She shot it down, and tossed the 40 mil into an atlas, and stole the atlas weapon, a quad rocket, before slamming the rocket pods into the titan, and firing point blank.

The 35 ton machine was blown backwards through the first floor of a building.

Mika turned around, emptied the rest of the quad into some other titans, before tossing the weapon again.

Then, when three other titans came at her, she used the vortex shield.

The headlight stopped the bullets, and the magnet in the hand caught the bullets from chainguns, guns, triple threats, and rockets. After a second, Mika returned the ammo to its owners.

After that, her first upgrade was ready.

"Coop, I need an upgrade."

I look over to her, and feel the drop bag on my left leg vibrate.

I take out the little tablet that the scientist gave me, and saw it said, 'activate upgrade core', and had a button under it. Tapping the button, I saw Mika's chaingun bullets have a blue-ish energy field around them, and the titans she hit seemed to go down quicker.

Arc round upgrade, first upgrade ability.

I shoot the merc coming towards me, and continue protecting the scientists.

Mika used a smokescreen, and went between some buildings. After a minute, I saw her over with the scientists, and she reached into the building to grab the sword that the group had brought.

Bringing it out, she takes off down another alley, and I finally say something.

"Hey, coming to you. Open up and lets rock." She just blinks a green livht on my HUD, and pings a location.

Heading towards it, I find her crouched behind a partially collapsed wall, shooting at some titans a distance away.

I boost slide under her as she stands up, and she reaches down, while opening her front hatch.

I jump into her hand, and she stuffs me inside the cockpit.

And then, the neural link hits me, and my senses expand.

It is like my mind joins with Mika's AI. We are both in control. And we trust each other to get us through.

We stand up, and shoot the atlas titan on our left, shredding through its armor in moments.

Then, we use the vortex, and catch the quad rockets coming at us from the right, before sending them at the ogre in front of us.

Using the multi target rockets, we lock them all on the quad titan, and fire them, shooting them and obliterating the titan.

Deploying a smokescreen, we move away, and down some streets, moving to get behind them.

Doing so, we pull out the sword, and move behind the closest titan, before shoving the hunk of sharp metal into the back of the titan, in the location where it would hit the cockpit.

The sword comes out the front of the metal giant, and we pull it out, then but the titan in half at its 'waist'.

The other titans that had come searching turn to see us, and we use a dash to move closer quickly, before slicing the barrel off a 40 mil, and then grabbing the gun, throwing it away, kicking the titan into another, and stabbing both of them through with the sword.

We then pull both of them off, and throw the sword at a titan. It hits it, only slicing off an arm, and smockscreen away. Running, we eventually make it to the plaza again, running out towards the center on accident.
As we turn to move back to cover, the remaining titans surround us, and we pull out our XO-16.

We had been able to get all three upgrades, but against this many titans, we wouldn't last long.

And then, I heard a voice over our com's.

"You have done well, mech driver. We can finish it from here."

And then thunder seemed to rain from the sky. Looking up, we saw an airship, the size of the one that you have to fight on in the campaign of Titanfall 2. It was raining down rockets, and destroying the rest of the enemy titans.

We saw a titan drop from the bottom of the ship, an atlas colored in different blues, and it landed nearby.

It immediately rushed another titan, and drew out a sword, slicing the entire thing in half down the middle.

And then the battle was done.

The blue titan turned to me, and opened a com channel.

"Where is the science group? We recieved a distress signal from their downed airship, and they got a message out that they were in trouble, and needed immediate pickup."

We point over to the building said group was in, as they made their way out. Daring Doo walked over near the titan, and started talking to the pilot.

"Hey Luna, thanks for the effort, but he's the one who did most of the fighting. Any way, we got two mechs over there a ways, that need to be lifted to the ship. Plus we got some equipment to get from a vault near the center of the city." The other titan had been watching Daring, and looked back at me.

"We thank thee, operator. Without you and your strange mechs help, the science team might have perished. If you would, please exit your mech, so we may talk to thee."

We shrug, and put our gun away. Then, Mika opens the cockpit, and I step out, the neural link more individual between us, instead of being one mind.

The other titan looks at me, before opening her cockpit as well. Stepping out, I see a mare that has wings and a horn. Her fur is midnight blue, and her hair is a snow white color.

Her body structure was like an elves, curves that showed a feline grace and muscles that seemed taught as wire.

She looked at me, as she pulled out a gun, a G2A4 rifle. I pull out my Flatline just in case something happens, but keep the safety on and barrel down.

Both of us hop out our respective titans, and walk up to Daring in the center. Daring looks at me, and asks.

"Hey, can you and your 'titan' as you call it, help us carry stuff out into the airship? It will help us get done faster." I nod, and answer.

"Yeah, Mika and I can help out. Hey, didnt you say that Mika was also in the vault?" Daring pauses for a moment, and then says.

"Yeah, I did. But, I remember saying that before you arrived. Howed you know?" I shrug.

"Mika played a live feed for me. She was watching the whole time, and I saw what you said to Ahuizotl through her. Thats also why I stepped in when I did. I heard what he would do." Daring nods, and then the blue Pegasus/unicorn hybrid asks me something.

"Operator, may we see your face? Also, what is thy name?" I sigh, and take of the helmet.

When the two ponies see my face, as well as the rainbow haired mare from earlier, they all gasp. I had a feeling, it was probably because I was human.

"My name is Jack Cooper. Staff Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps. And I am a human."
> Debrief
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mika and I helped to get the two titans onto the airship, and the vault were Mika had been stored.

Inside the vault, we also found six more titans, two atlas, two ogres, and two striders, each a class from Titanfall 2.

What I found weird though, was that each titan was missing an AI core. 

Also in the vault was weapon schematics, as well as blank AI cores. We grabbed all of the files and loaded the airship.

Some of the scientists, one being a purple unicorn pony, a grey regular pony, an all pink regular one, and a yellow pegusus pony were debating on how to split up the weapons from the seven titans in the vault. I walked over.

"Don't seperate the weapons from them. The weapons for those titans are specially tailored for its fighting style, and abilities. They are connected, and separating them would prove detrimental to everyone. I would just find out how to replicate them, and then build new ones."

They all looked at me, the purple one mouth open and looking super curious, the pink one gasping and looking extremely excited, the gray one was deadpan, and the pegusus was scared. The gray one talked to me, speaking in the most deadpan voice ever.

"How do you know so much about those mechs?"

"Because I have used them before. Not those specific ones, but ones like them. I could tell you each of their 'names', which also happen to be their abilities and weapons.

"From left to right, we have Ion, Tone, Scorch, Ronin, Northstar, and Legion.

"The only thing is, they won't work without a AI core to help run them."

The purple pony spoke up.

"What's an AI core? And can you show us one?" I nod, and motion for them to follow.

We head over to Mika, and I walk up to her.

"Hey Mika, I need to pull your AI core for a sec. I'll put it back in, but I need to show these girls what an AI core is."

"Ok. Just don't drop me."

After that, she kneels down infront of me, and I climb up to her ocular system, and much a button, disconecting the entire piece from the chassis. Getting down, I sit down on her outstretched hand, and pull out the central glowing "eye".

The core wasnt very large, about as big as a softball, but shaped like a cylinder. As I stood up and showed the three mechanics, cause I was pretty sure they had to be, the pegusus and unicorn gasp.

"This is Mika's AI core." The pegusus and unicorn were looking at it, and each other.

"Could that really be what they really are Twilight?" Asks the pegusus.

"Its possible Fluttershy, but I want to check with one first. We can start with mine. Wait, we never introduced ourselves. My name is Twilight Sparkle, head of science and weapons making for the mechs." The pegusus speaks up next.

"I'm Fluttershy, head of mech design." And the gray deadpan tells me who she is.

"Maud, head mechanic. The pink mare that was with us before she disappeared is Pinkie Pie. Be careful later, she will be giving you a surprise party. Its better to be warned of it now, and then not be scared later. She's also my little sister." I just nod, and say.

"My name is Jack Cooper." I say. They all nod.

Twilight speaks up.

"Lets go test something out. If it works, it might help us with fighting the Griffin's and Minotaurs." She starts to walk off, but I stop her for a sec.

"Yeah, ok. Just let me put my titan back together." After that, I put the AI core back in the module, and it blinks a few times, before looking at me, and blinking twice. I hand it back to Mika, and she reattaches it to her frame, blinking and moving it to readjust.

We then head off back to the mech hanger, but Twilight gets a call.

Answering it, she talks for a few seconds, before hanging up.

"Our test can wait. The Commanders want to see you, Jack. Fluttershy, can you get the girls to get their elements, and meet in the hanger by the new mechs?" Fluttershy nods, and has Maud come with her to help. Twilight motions for me to follow, and leads me through the halls.

Following Twilight through the halls, we eventually reached the bridge, and I saw that the blue furred pilot was there, along with a white furred lady who was taller than her by a head. She also had wings and a horn, and her hair was a light pink. As we entered, Twilight called out.

"Commanders, I have brought Jack here, as you requested." The two pony people turn around, and look at me, the blue furred one with admiration, the white one with tired eyes.

I had seen them before, in commanding officers who had been on just one mission too many, and looked done. I salute both of them.

"Pilot Jack Cooper reporting, commanders. Is there something you want me to discuss?" The white one nods, and then says.

"I am Commander Celestia, and this is my younger sister, Commander Luna. We would like to talk to you. If you will follow us, we can head to the captains quarters, and discuss our topics there." And we head to her office, tucked away a few corridors down from the bridge. Entering the room, I saw some pictures, a Mastiff shotgun on one wall, and a simple desk. Celestia walked around and sat in her chair, almost slumping over after, and her sister grabbed a chair nearby.

Twilight grabbed a chair, and sat down, but I remained standing. Celestia must have caught on, because she says.

"You need not sit with my permission. Go ahead." To which I grab a chair and sit. Celestia leans forward, and then she taps a button on her desk. A flat piece of glass rises out, and blinks on, before Celestia taps a few keys on a keyboard she pulls out. After she does, a video appears on screen.

"Every time scientists go out for a field study, they are required by the rules of the Equestrian Science Department for them to record everything that happens, so they may go back later and learn from them stuff that might have been missed. This time is no different. This is the recording. I am going to skip ahead for now, as we will talk about some of the other points of this video some other time, when we have miss Doo with us. For now, lets look at your fight against the other mechs that attacked the group."

We watch me as I got in my titan the first time, and started to beat the other titans holding Mika. Then, we skipped to the part were I was setting up to take on the titans coming in, plus ground infantry. Telling Daring and the scientists to get ready to fight, and then the final battle, up until Luna's titan came in, and the aerial bombardment happened. After, Celestia leans back, and says.

"Now, having seen this, I must ask. What are you, and how do you have this technology? Our mechs cannot do what yours did. That shield on the arm, the electric smoke, the laser on the shoulder. And your own, the kit you wear now. How is it that you have this?" I sigh.

"Look, you might not believe me, but what I am about to say is true. I am not from this world. I am a human being, who was to be sent behind enemy lines back were I am from. A year and a half before then, I volunteered for a special assignment. I was flown to a newly built base, and was then given an injection, and the equipment that I have now. A year and a half later, I was about to go for a jump, and land behind enemy lines, to go mess up everything I could. But, when I was coming down, my phase shifter malfunctioned, and the next thing I see, is not the forest I was supposed to land in, but a desert and ruins. Then, I found out that I am getting pings from a titan set to be mine, and follow its trail, to which I found the science team, and my titan. The rest you can see. The titan, I know about its equipment. Humanity created it. However, my time hasn't created Titans yet. We did make a videogame though. In that game, we had titans. You could swap loadouts for them, and then you were able to go up against other people on our planet and fight, or a defense type game. But, we never made them. Now, I would like to ask a question. How did you come to have titans, and all the technology you have?" All three of the ponies in the room stared at me. Then, Celestia leaned forward.

"I believe you. Your eyes would have betrayed you if you had lied, but they never once changed. I will tell you how we came to have these 'Titans' as you call them. Long ago, before our kind came around, there lived a race of people. They were technological geniuses, and supposedly had made it out beyond the solar system. They created the titans. For a time, they were well off, until they devolved back into their old ways, and went to war. They eventually ended up bombing the whole planet, and leaving it behind, or so it is said. Thousands of years later, ponykind grew from the ashes. We started to explore, and as we did, we found other species to have evolved as well.

"Ponies were the first to find the mechs, and we decided to share the design with all other species. We found the holo-tables, and other technology, and shared it too. And after that, we all prospered and our civilizations grew. And then, about five hundred or so years ago, a meteor shower hit the earth. Dozens of meteors, across the world. We have looked at most of the meteors, and found vaults similar to what daring and her group found. Inside, we're weapon schematics, and a few new weapon designs for the mechs. Others, we have not been able to enter. This is the first vault that has been found that held mechs, and yours is the first new mech design in over 700 years." Twilight says something.

"Commander, he also was telling us about the new mechs we found with his. He said they had 'names', and that each one was a special built for its weapon." Celestia listened, and then looks to me.

"Can you explain a bit more in detail?" I nod.

"Of course. Overtime, the original titans were made to be able to switch loadouts at will. However, they would always be pretty weak because of that. A few years after the first game, the one I told you about, another game came out. In it, it gave the titans seven set loadouts, and you could slightly customize it, but it was always the same weapons and gear. Those six titans, are those six loadouts, with mine being seven, or the Monarch loadout. It's chassis is the vanguard chassis. The chassis that I have seen you all using is the Atlas and Ogre style. The North Star and Ronin are the stryder chassis, which was one of the selections in the first game. Does that help explain it?" Twilight was taking notes as I had been explaining things, and looked up.

"That helps a lot. Now, what exactly is an AI I core?"

"It is exactly as it sounds. An artificial intelligence core. It was madd so that titans would have more of an ability to adapt to a battle situation and fight better than just programming different responses into its computer systems."

"So an AI core is supposed to be a sentient computer?"

"Yes." 

"Well, I think that me and the girls might be able to make those six titans work. Also, I like the sound of 'titans', better than mechs. I think we should start calling them that, and make it official. Commanders?" Twilight says.

The two commanders had been quiet the whole talk I had with Twilight. Luna speaks.

"I agree. Titan sounds more fierce than mech. I agree it should be changed. Sister, what about you?" Celestia is just sitting, thinking.

"Jack. You said these were a videogame in your world, correct?" I nod.

"Yes, the name was Titanfall and Titanfall 2. In the second game, which had a story, the homework was called Harmony. The main character, was Jack Cooper. And no, I just happen to have the same name." Celestia nods.

"Well, do you know how we can possibly make this game, and train our operators to do what you do?" I shake my head.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea how to do game development. I was just a marine, a grunt. I never got into programming and coding. Also, I am what is called a Pilot. It's been my nickname ever since 2 came out, and my wife-" I stop. "She told my squad about it. And now I am one." I say, siting back and looking depressed. Celestia sees this, and nods.

"Well, that is too bad. Now, Twilight, you said you might be able to get the six titans working. How?" Twilight gets a little giddy.

"Well, I asked Jack about his titans AI core earlier, and he showed it to us. When me and Fluttershy saw it, we noticed it looked a like the Elements of Harmony. So, I was going to use Magic, and see if it is an AI core." Luna and Celestia nod at this.

"Then we shall accompany you to the hanger, in case something goes wrong.' Twilight nods, and we all get up and head out the office.?  Luna starts to walk alomg beside me, and starts talking.
"We saw how you fought. We would like to fight you at some point, to see how you fight for ourselves." I look at her, and I see her hair is now a light blue colour. Her eyes are still turquoise, but are now slit pupils, like a cat's.

I was a bit taken aback by it. She still looked the same, but diferent. Yet, still amazing.

Celestia must have heard, and turned around.

"Nightmare, let Luna back out. You will see him fight when it happens. I will not have you do mock battles for your entertainment."

'Nightmare' pouts, before closing her eyes, and her hair turns white, and when she opens her eyes again, they are back to normal pupils. She looks around for a moment, before sighing.

"I'm sorry. She snuck up on me right then. I usually just let her out in battle, but I was off guard then." Celestia nods.

"Your fine sister. I understand." And gives her a hug. I just stand there and watch, and don't say a word.

You don't get promoted by commenting on personal lives. We make it back to the hangers, and I saw the rainbow haired pony, the pink pony, Fluttershy, an orange regular pony, and a purple haired, white curried unicorn pony waiting for us. The white unicorn speaks first.

"Twilight dear, why did you need us and the Elements?" Twilight hurries to them.

"Pinkie, did you grab mine? I need it." Pinkie tosses it to her gently. "Thanks. Girls, Jack here gave me an idea as to what the Elements might actually be. His titan has a thing called an AI core, that looks much like the Elements. So, I was going to try and place it in one of the new titans, and see if it would make it work." She looks over to me, and asks.

"Hey Jack, which one is the easiest to use? I dont have near as much training as the other do." I point to Ion and say.

"Ion. She is the easiest to use. And, she is the first one you get in game." She nods, and runs over to the cockpit, opening it manually. Getting in and sitting down, she looks up,  and sees the opening for the core. Putting it in, it connects, and starts to set itself. Then, the cockpit closes on her.

"Hey, whats going on?" Twilight yells out. Ions external speakers come on, and they all hear.

"Pilot on board. Welcome, Twilight Sparkle. Please remain calm. Now administering nano injection. Remain still."

Inside the cockpit, Twilight is slightly freaking out. When she sees the needle come out towards her arm, she stiffened up, and it stabs gently into her arm. As it does, her arm starts to get tingly, and the needle retracts. When it does, she lightly scratches it.

"Dang, I fell tingly where it injected me. Also, what did it mean by nano?" I tell her. 

"It means nano bots. Don't scratch it to much, it will go away soon. Thats what I was injected with." Twilight sighs.

Her entire body tingles, and sge had to resist scratching it. Then, after three minutes, it was gone. The titan spoke again.

"Ion online. Updating protocal. Protocal one, link to pilot. Establishing neurolink."

And we hear Twilight gasp. I can guess what happened.

"Protocal two, uphold the mission. Current mission, none. Protocal three, protect the pilot. Pilot Sparkle, I am MG-5984. You may call me Magi."
(Pronounced ma-gee)

Twilight was still in awe.

"Oh Faust! This is amazing! We are so tall! What is this, and how does it work? Jack, is this what you experience when you get in your titan?" I nod to her.

"Yep. Fun huh." The titan looks around, and then the optical camera proceeds to move up and down.

"Hey, I am seeing multiple different things on the screen. Three squares with various symbols, two circles, one at the top left, ths other in the bottom left, and what looks like a bar around that one. Plus, I have a line in the middle bottom of the screen. What are they?". I just say.

"Ask Magi. She'll tell you what everyting is." Turning to the other girls looking at the titan, they all look pretty excited, in differing degrees.

"Well, the others are Tone, Scorch, Northstar, Ronin, and Legion. Choose." The girls all walk over to one of the titans, and climb inside. I turn to the commanders, and say.

"I never got their names." Luna is watching everything, and tells me.

"You know Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, correct? The others are Rainbow Dash, who was on the expedition with her aunt Daring Doo. The farmer is Applejack. And the white unicorn is Rarity." I thank her, and turn to see that Fluttershy had taken Northstar, Rarity had taken Tone, Rainbow had taken Ronin, Pinkie had taken Scorch, and Applejack had taken Legion. I saw them all working everything out, and decided to do something.

"Hey Mika, come here." She walks over. I hop over the edge and boost towaards her, and she grabs me, opening up and placing me inside.

"Welcome aboard Cooper." she says as my senses expand. In seconds, I am one with my titan. I ask Mika.

"Do we have any training simulations? Ones that can be shared through multiple titans?" Mika answers.

"Yes. I have a number of simulations we can go through. If you would like, I can patch you through to the others, and start up a titan versus titan training simulation?" I nod.

"That would be great. It would help us all with learning how to use our titans. You tell the others, I'll tell the commanders." I then speak through the speakers.

"Commanders. My titan has a simulation system that can connect to the other titans. We are about to do a simulation to help them learn how to use their titans." The Commanders nod, and I can see Luna's eyes shifting between slits and regular pupils. She looks so excited. I turn back to the girls in their new titans. Opening a com, I talk to them.

"Okay girls, we're going to a titan versus titan match. You wont be able to leave your titan in the simulation, so dont try. This is to help you all learn how to use your titans, and get to know them better. Let's go."
> Canterlot Stronghold
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The titan versus titan match had been against AI opponents, and had lasted a decent while. When it ended, we all got out, and it was night. Getting something to eat, we then went to bed.

The next day, we got up, and everyone on the airship seemed to be happier. During breakfast, I asked the group of girls I had sat with why.

"Well darling, today we reach the Canterlot Stronghold. Home for most of us." Rarity said. And I understood.

"Can any of you tell me about the stronghold?" Twilight nods.

"Well, it used to be the capital. Then, a little after the war started, about fifteen years ago, it was turned into the largest fortress in Equestria. It was built up around the vault that had fell in the center of it. It was opened, but later on, in thr crystal caverns underneath the city, they found another, and have been unable to open that one. After that, the princess, Celestia was the ruler at the time, sent out expiditions to each of the seen crash sites of meteors around Equestria. Some of the vaults opened when we found them, others had to be guarded because we haven't opened them. When they opened your titans vault, it was the first time we had found any sort of mech that we could possible use.

"When they found the other titans in the vault, they didnt know what to do, so they marked it, and had started to bring your titan on tontheir airship." Rainbow cut in.

"We had been searching rmthe ruins for a day and a half when we came across that vault. I had been helping with the guns, pinking them up, and searching for anything of use. Daring and the scientists were pouring over the skeletons that were all around. Actually, if I remember correctly, we found one with the same gear as you, but it was all rusted and broken." I bob my head in understanding.

"Yeah, that might be. My race is the ones that made the titans, after all. That was a Pilot who was killed in battle. Also, you missed a lot of good stuff. The rifle I shot Darings captor with, was in a gun case, protected from the elements, around the top of the building behind your group." She looked at me, and then slumped. After that, a voice came over the intercom.

"we will be arriving at the Canterlot Stronghold in fifteen minutes. I repeat, fifteen minutes."

Everybody in the cafeteria cheered, as did the girls, and they all started eating quicker. Fluttershy looked at me and said.

"Hey, you might want to hurry. Your probably going to be called to the bridge by commander Celestia." I nod, and wolf my food down.


Like Fluttershy said, I was called to the bridge, along with Twilight. As we moved to the bridge, part of the ealelier conversation came to mind.

"Hey, Twilight. Didn't Celestia say that about seven hundred years ago, the vaults fell from the sky? How did she know, especially to send out expeditions for each meteor?" Twilight looks at me.

"Well, Celestia has been Princess for the last thousand years. You might not know it, but she also had to move the planet for those thousand years, as Luna was in a coma, trying to get her fragmented mind in control. Only recently has Luna been awake. And when she woke up, only two of the hundred or so personalities were 'alive' so to say. Luna and Nightmare Moon. We're here." And she walked through the door to the bridge.

As we entered, Celestia saw us, and Luna greeted us.

"Welcome back to the bridge, Cooper. We wanted to give you a view as we came to Canterlot Stronghold." I nod, and stare out the front viewport.

As we came out of the cloud layer, I could see a mountain. And all around that mountain, was the stronghold. The entire mountain had ports with airships going in and out. When the view screen in front of Celestia came on, I could see that inside the buildings built into the side of the mountain, were titan repair and refit stations. In the end, I saw that the entire mountain had been hollowed out, and turned into a fortress. And it was massive.

Celestia saw my look of disbelief at the giant fortress in the mountain, and smirked.

"After the first vault fell and we opened it, we started to tunnel through the crystal caverns underneath the old castle. Then, when the war started, I had the old city demolished, and the people moved into the new city underground. After a while, the entire mountain was hollowed out, and made into a factory for the titans. The ponies live underneath the factory, and the entire factory can be collapsed to protect them. The outside can withstand the force of the old world nukes, and it can be sealed off to fend of intruders. The top of the mountain has a silo, and a thing called a MAC cannon. We never figured out what it meant, but it is a powerful weapon for defense." I look at her, and say.

"Magnetic Acceleration Cannon. MAC. It was originally used to launch crates of food into orbit, and when humanity found an alien race, started to build ships that could shoot giant metal canisters at the enemy. This is a different game, but it is surprising that humanity made it." Celestia nods.

"Thank you for telling us. Set final approach coarse and take us into hanger ten. Tell the technicians to help unload the damaged titans, and have them repaired and find some operators for them." As Celestia started to give out orders to the bridge, Twilight turns to me.

"Cooper, I have a question. When you were talking to me when I was in the titan, and got the nano injection, you said you got it too. What did you mean?" Luna and Celestia looked at me while I answered.

"When I was first starting out in the volunteer program, I needd to get an injection of the same type of nanobots you did. That way, they would have time to change me. You might have noticed your taller now, and you need to eat less? Well, that is the nano bots working to make you better. I only need half the caloric intake than most humans, I can run almost indefinitely at full sprint, and can my muscles are five times stronger than a normal human. Also, my lungs work ten times better than a normal humans. I can almost see in the dark, not quite all the way. My skeleton is five times stronger than humans. My reaction time is ten times faster than normal. And I am still learning more." Twilight is gaping open mouthed at me.

"So I can expect that from me and the girls?" I nod.

"Its a very definite possibility." She starts to mumble to herself, before looking at me again.

"Then, can you teach us to do what you do?" I nod, but say.

"Yeah, I can, but you need the equipment I have." Luna then comes up to us and says.

"We have the equipment. When the second vault was opened, we found the same type of equipment you wear. We conducted tests with them, but they all resulted in injury for the pony. Usually broken bones or whiplash. We never found any who could use them, though that hasn't stopped most pegasi from trying. We can have them to you six by the end of the day. What else would you need?" I grin.

"We're going to need a playground. It needs to have lots of walls, doors, open spaces, windows, anything that can be used to parkour. You do know what that is, right?" Luna nods.

"Yes. We have an indoor parkour training area, mostly to keep ponies in good shape. We will make a new one, and I think I know what you need. We can have it set up sometime over the next few days. I can contact you then." I nod and turn to Twilight.

"In the meantime, when we get the jump kits, I want you and the girls to wear them all the time. Not to obvious places, but when your not there, wear them. Get used to the feeling, and also so the jump kit can get used to you. Day after tomorrow, meet me at the parkour gym. Luna, do you have any jumpsuits as well? Like mine." Luna nods.

"Hundreds, for both male and female body types. We can fit them with those when we do the jump kits." I nod.

"And do you have any wing binds? We will need them for the pegasi." She looks at me, as does Twilight, and says.

"Yes, but they are for prisoners. Why do you need them?" I sigh.

"Its so so can teach the two pegasi how to move without wings, in case they are injured, or lose one." They both nod in understanding, and Luna says.

"I will get them, but you are not allowed to put them on them until training time. Pegasi, and Alicorns, hate their wings being clamped to them. It hurts. So only during training, and teach them how to use the kits with wings as well." I nod. After that, the bridge is plunged in shadow. 

Looking out the bridge window, I see we have passed into the mountain. As we do, Celestia says.

"Make final docking preparations, and then announce the good news to the crew. Everyone is to take shore leave, while maintnence is done on the ship. I want you all to have a good time. Cooper, I would like to talk to you for a moment." She then starts to walk away, and I follow.

We make our way to her quarters, and she sits down. "Sit." And I do.

"Cooper, you said that the six new titans wouldn't work without an AI core. I would like to know how to make one." I sigh.

"That is something I dont know. One way that AI's were made was to take the brain of a recently deceased person, and then run electricity through it, into a blank core. But, it would kill any living being. The only other way is to make a program that will constantly evolve itself, slowly making it grow overtime, till it eventually becomes sentient. Those are the two methods I know, and the second is the most dangerous. Reason is, it could grow to despise its creators, and kill them. It has happened in movies, and it is a real thing that could happen. The second method, the effective life of one of those AI's, is seven years, for mostly the same reason. It will slowly start to think itself to death, and will eventually think itself god, or at least human. It was given the term 'rampancy' because the AI would run rampant and ruin most things. I know of no other way." Celestia nods, and then has a thought.

"If you were able to shield parts of the mind from damage, do you think it would be possible to take part of the personality out of a pony?" I sigh again.

"The only person I know of to make a AI from a living human, did it by cloning herself, and using the practically dead clone. The clone was imperfect, and would slowly die from disease or medical complications, but she was able to create an AI that later went on to serve for 8 years, but after seven she still started to go rampant, and she eventually became their greatest enemy, cause she thought herself god. Thats why I told you the down sides." Celestia nods again.

"What if we were to limit the amount the AI could grow? After a certain point, it would stop, and we use it from there?" I think for a second.

"It could work, but how would you stop it? The AI I told you of, she cracked any type of code she could find for fun, in seconds. The only other way to make an AI that I can think of, is to make a 'dumb' AI. An AI that has only specific knowledge, and nothing else. It only has knowledge of one, maybe two areas of need, and it doesn't go beyond. Those AI's I am pretty sure lasted longer. And that is what I am pretty sure the titans AI are. Though, the six used some special ones, and they have their own personality. Not all titans give themselves names." Celestia sighs.

"Thank you for telling me what you could. When you leave, go to the bridge and have Luna set you up with a house in the city. Then Twilight and the girls can take you to it. And Cooper, when training for the girls starts, I would like reports on progress. Try not to hurt them to much. You may leave when ready." I nod to her, and leave.

I then make my way back to the bridge to talk to Luna. Walking back into the bridge, I see she is one of the last few left.

"Luna, Commander Celestia told me to have you set me up a house in the city, and the girls could lead me there. But, if it is alright with you, I would like one of the maintence crew rooms. That way, I can be closer to my Titan. I am used to cramped quarters, so dont worry to much, and also, if you could have one of the technicians teach me how to service my titan, I would also appreciate it." Luna nods at all this.

"I can arrange for all that. Know though, that the crew wont be happy you took one of their bunk rooms." I nod.

"Understood ma'am." I then salute before leaving. Before I get far, she says.

"Cooper. By any chance, was there a training bit in the game?" I nod.

"Yeah, why?" She then says.

"If it was like most tutorials, it would have been somewhat like the game itself. So, I have a feeling it might have been like a simulated neurol link. Am I correct?" I think. Shit, she's right.

"Your right. The tutorial is a fake link. Its like the simulation I did with the girls. Why are you asking all this?" She then says.

"So I can have a training pod made to help train pilots." I nod, that makes sense. She waves me off.

"Go. I will text Twilight later about the location of your sleeping arrangements. And also when the course and gear are ready." I nod, and leave.

Time to prepare some new trainees.
> Kiting Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I met up with the six to talk to them, and they all decided to give me a tour. Leading me out of the airship from the hangar, we also lead the titans to their docks in the stronghold. After we left them to the technicians to wax and polish, we left for the tour.

All of them showed me their homes. Applejack worked in the farming district with her family, the Apples, growing pear and Apple trees. When I asked about the pear trees, she got a sad look, and I didnt ask more.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I said.

"It's alright. I just miss them." She says. I nod.

"Same for me." And she nods. The others didnt ask me, thankfully. It would be hard to explain a titan with the same name as my dead wife. I place a hand over my left breast pocket, we're I kept our rings. Hers was a nice ring.

It was a silver version of the One Ring, from LOTR. I had a gold one like in the movie.

Rainbow worked in the farming district as well, as a cloud carrier. When she showed me her house, it was fairly large, but plain. It had a small pond out front with some fish in it. She showed me what she did, and flew up to grab a cloud that floated overhead. Brining it down over the fish pond, she gave it a shake, and rain started to come out of it, into the pond. I was impressed.

Rarity lived and worked in her shop, in the business area of the city. I kept looking around, though, and it looked to be as bright as day. I had to ask, before we reached Rarity's home.

"Hey, girls. I have a question. Why is it as bright in here as it is outside?" Twilight points up, and I look.

"Do you see the giant crystal that glows like the sun?" I turn to look, and finally blind myself when I finally see it. From the brief glimpse I had, it was indeed a crystal, and shone like the sun. Twilight noticed I was blind, and said.

"Yeah, I know. That crystal is infused with solar energy. Every day, Celestia raises the sun, and charges the crystal with a portion of its light. She only has the energy to do it to last a day though, and has to charge it again the next morning. It levitate through the air in the regular pattern of the sun, and during the night, Luna raises the moon, and charges it with a portion of its light, and sends it back along its levitation path. Then the cycle repeats every day. It's pretty efficient, and keeps us going." I just walk along with them, amazed at the power of the two commanders, if they raise and lower the sun and moon. And use those energies to power this crystal to give the people and plants life. I am amazed.


Finally reaching Rarity's place, I see it is a clothing store. Rarity grabs my hand, and drags me inside.

"Okay, darling. I will need your outfit. I can make you another set of the one piece suit, and possibly get you another vest, but I can also take measurements for your clothes to wear outside of work time." I struggle to stay standing against the now stronger than before unicorn, but it takes a little balance. I speak up.

"You dont have to do that Rarity." She drags me over to a room, and says strip, then also says.

"I dont have to, but I want to. Besides, you will need new clothes soon anyways. You'll smell if you just stay in those. I can make you some regular clothes for now, and get your suit ready before tomorrow. It will take a bit of time, but I can get it done, especially if the, pilot kits, as Twilight called them, are ready before 3, and we can get them on." I sigh.

"Okay. Also, the kits are called jump kits, because they help a pilot jump around and use the terrain. With it, you can run on walls, double jump, fall from about a 15 story building, or at least a high altitude, with little to no damage, lets you do a power slide, and with the right mods, it can let you hover when aiming down sights. Its a pretty useful tool on the field." Rarity was looking at me while she measured me, stripped down some to get better measurement.

"Really? Well, it seems like we will be getting quite the workout in the next few days after the course is set up, correct?" I nod.

"Yes. All of you will need to be at your best. Also, for the Pegasus, I will need to restrain your wings. I was told to only do it when training though, because it is painful, but its so you can learn how to not use them, in case of injury or loss. With that in mind, I want when I get them, for you to take them home, and at some point in the day, wear them for thirty minutes to an hour, to help get used to the pain." Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were looking pained, but nodded.

"If it will help me get better at helping protect ponies, I'll do it. Just don't expect me to not complain at some points." Rainbow says. Fluttershy nods.

Shortly after, I am done being measured, and all of us are walking around again. We head over to Fluttershy's place of work, and I find out she is the local vet for the entire city. We reach her place, and I see that her home also is a pound. We go into the house, and every creature looks over at us, and perks up to look it's prettiest.

"Now now, none of that. Your all the prettiest, so stop trying to make yourself look better." From overhead, a large snake dropped down. It wasn't huge, but it was still large enough to make a decent scarf for Fluttershy. Which it was doing.

"Oh, hey Angel. Are you behaving?" The snake looks at her and nods. I ask.

"Hey, Fluttershy, what type of snake is Angel?" Sge looks at me, and says.

"She's a black mamba. And yes, I know they are one of the most deadly snakes in the world. Don't worry, she wont hurt anyone." I just take a step back, and the girls chuckle. Fluttershy then asks me.

"Would you like a pet? I'm sure theres someone here for you." I think for a moment. 

"You have any birds? Crows or ravens, specifically. I've always liked crows and ravens." She nods, and we go to an atrium like area. She then looks up, and makes a perfect crow call.

Moments later, about fifteen crows land nearby, along with a couple of large ravens. They all look around, and Fluttershy hands me a bag.

"Here, give them some food. If they arent hungry, they'll fly away. If not, then thats fine. Though, I dont see all of them, though it might be because of eggs." I nod, and start to throw out some feed lightly. Most of the crows and the two ravens peck at the food, but others fly away. 

After feeding the crows, they all fly off while cawing. One of the ravens comes over to me, and looks at me. Fluttershy reaches down and it hops on her arm.

"Can you say hello?" The raven nods, and says.

"Hello." I look shocked. I had heard that they can mimic humans speak, but never seen it. I raise my hand gently to stroke the feathers of the raven. It looks at me, and I start to stroke it.

After a minute, it hops over to my arm. Fluttershy then says.

"I'll get the papers for it ready, but what will his name be?"

"His name is Apollo." She nods, and leaves. I wait for a moment, before walking out the atrium with Apollo.

Fluttershy was at the front desk, shuffling a few papers around, and finally held one out to me on a clipboard with pen.

"Here you go. If you could sign the circled lines, then hes all yours." I nod, sign, and he crows out. After that, the tour begins again, but Twilight takes a call, and then says.

"Okay, the jump kits are ready, so we can go pick them up whenever. Also, the wing restraints are ready as well." I nod, and ask.

"Anywhere else important to head too before we go get your gear?" Pinkie nods.

"Yepperooni. But it's on the way, so it wont be out of the way." I nod, and she bounces down the street. I just shake my head, and we all follow her.

She leads us to a bakery. The sign above the door says Donut Joe's. I smile, and we all head in. Behind the counter inside is who I presume to be Joe. Pinkie bounces up to him, and he gets an angry look on his face.

"Pinkie, how many times do I have to tell you, don't hide your party supplies here. I went in the back storeroom, and bout got blasted by your party cannon." Pinkie looked sad.

"Oh, I'm sorry Joe. I meant to get them out earlier. I put them in there because I was planning his welcome to Equestria party." And she points to me.

He looks past her and sees me, and nods.

"Okay, but make sure it's out by the end of the day. Now, new guy, what you want? On the house for today, since apparently your new to Equestria." I look at him.

"You'll just let me pick some donuts despite never having met any of my species, let alone me?" He nods.

"Your with the 6 elements. They're pretty much your ticket into anything. They all are a vouch for you." I look at them, and they all nod. I shrug.

"Maple frosted with bacon bits, if you have it. And a nice lemon filled, frosted donut please." Donut Joe nods, and grabs a box out from behind the counter.
"So, thats one dozen. Whats the next seven?" Twilight speaks up.

"Make it ten. And I'll pay for the commanders usual. Also, our usuals." Donut Joe nods, and starts grabbing out donuts from behind the counter, back in the back of the store, and placing them in the boxes. Five minutes later, he's done.

"Okay, that will be about 35 bits." Twilight nods, and pulls out a pouch, grabs some gold coins from it, and hands it to him.

"Here you go. Thanks for the donuts Joe." He nods, and we all wave bye. Twilight wraps the boxes in her magic, and floats them alongside us as we head off. Pinkie bounces next to me.

"That is the best donut shop in all Equestria. Not even I can compete with Joe. I work in Ponyvile, but live here for the most part, as does the other girls." They all nod, and she giggles, and we head on.

They lead me through the city, Twilight in the front. We eventually make it back to the upper levels, and the titan hangers. Continuing on, we finally come to a storeroom, with both the commanders in it, plus some technicians. Commander Celestia sees us, and then the donuts, and doesnt greet us. She just walks over, and Twilight hands her a box.

"Thank you Twilight. Now, if youd set aside my sisters box for my later consumption, that would be appreciated." Luna appears to hear that, looks at us, and doesnt greet us. She just dashes over, and Twilight hands her another box.

"Thank you Twilight. We are grateful for the donuts." And shoves one in her mouth. All the girls are giggling at their antics, and Twilight just smiles, and distributes the boxes.

The technicians get a box too, and Luna says.

"We have the jump kits ready, as well as the restraints. Let us eat first, and then we shall outfit the girls." We all nod, and continue eating the donuts.

Afterwords, the girls are given the jumpsuits, and told to change. Rarity scoffs at her suit.

"Why must we wear these horrid things again?" I say.

"These wont get in the way of the kit, and won't ride up and let the belts chafe you. I know from experience that it isnt fun without these suits. Also, they have lead in them, to help protect from radiation. If you want, take it home and fix it up, but nothing shiny, you dont want to attract attention." She nods in understanding, and the rest of the girls get dressed in the jumpsuits.

"Okay, next is the straps. They go around your body, to help with the balance. Start with the straps at the feet, and it will continue up the body, wrapping around vital balance points." They all nod, and the technicians help them with the straps. Once all of them are done, they put their boots on.

"And now, the bulletproof vest. It's not entirely bulletproof, so do get into cover, but it won't hurt when you get shot a couple times." They nod again, and are given the vests.

"And the helmet and jump kit. These are the two most important pieces of your pilot gear. Keep them maintained, and they wont fail you. Commanders, do you have any special equipment, stuff that was found that you don't know what it does?" The commanders nod. Luna points to a nearby table.

"All of the unidentifiable objects are over there." I thank her and walk over. Looking at the table, I see most of the gear I have. Picking up a 4 inch disk, I turn.

"This is the particle wall. You toss it out, and it makes a deployable cover with light, that you can shoot through, but others cant hit you back." I toss the disk, and the cover springs up, glowing a light blue color. Everyone is astonished at the sight, and I turn to commander Luna.

"May I borrow your weapon, please?" She pulls out her P2020 pistol, and hands it to me. I walk to the front of the shield, and fire three shots at it. They all bounce off. Going behind, I fire three more shots, and they go through, into the wall. I then hand the gun back to Luna.

"That is the partcle wall. The next equipment we have, is the pulse blade." I pick up an arm gauntlet, and pull out the knife inside.

"This gets thrown into a wall, and it sends out a radar pulse, that is sent back to the knife, and then to the helmet, and lets you locate enemies through walls or in the immediate vicinity." I then demonstrate its ability. They were surprised.

I grab the next piece of equipment. The phase shift.

"This is the phase shift." Rainbow looksat me intensely.

"Yes Rainbow, just like your titans. It allows you to slip out of reality for a few seconds and get behind your enemies." I then activate my phase shift, and walk behind Rainbow, and pull out my data knife. I then put it to her throat, and phase back into the world. She tenses up when she feels the knife.

"Its a thing you need to watch out for. If you see an enemy go in to a phase, watch out. You'll probably have only a few seconds to see them when the come out." I remove the knife from Rainbows throat, and go back to the table.

"One more piece, the hack knife. It is used to kill, and to hack into enemy computers or ships, and sometimes enemy robots." They all nod.

"That's all that you have, and what I have. Now, lets get running. We need to get the jump kits calibrated to your bodies and center of gravity. Techs, if you could please put the restraints on Rainbow and Fluttershy. I'm sorry, but it's for training, and if you go flying, it might mess it up." They both nod, and Rainbow grits her teeth.

They are then put in the restraints, and I say.

"Okay, were going to run around the hanger. I'll be ahead of you, and if you cant do it, dont try. The jump kit will calibrate itself, and it helps to move to give it a better chance to do so. Helmets on, and follow me." They put on their helmets, each a different look, and I run out the room. I go left out the room, and wait to see what will happen, and eventually they all come out.

"Girls, I said run. So, that means run. I dont want anyone slacking, or I'll talk to the commanders about cleaning duty." The girls all get in gear after that, and follow me as I run. If I remembered correctly, it was the walls in that calibrated first, and then the double jump comes later, with the slide being almost immediate. So, with that in mind, I start the run.

This was going to be fun.
> Harvestor Defense, Two Player, Easy.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its been a few weeks, and I had started training the girls in the new playground that Luna had built for us. It had walls, gaps to slide under, and generally had everything needed to train a new pilot. We had also been practicing the pilots gauntlet in the titans shared simulation.

I told them about a few of the weapons that were in the second game, and showed them how to use all the weapons.

But like all countries at war, I eventually had to deploy.


I was called to the commanders office while I was having Rarity and Twilight learn how to wallrun better, and Rainbow how to slide properly. She had the angle down, but she could never hold the motion, and she was to slow on the momentum and struggled with the transition to and from running. I got a call over my helmet.

"Cooper, we need you to come to the command center. We have to talk." Celestia says. I nod, and say ok. Then I have the girls stop, and Twilight show me where the command center is after giving the girls the rest of the day off.

Reaching the command center, I see the two commanders at a holo table,looking at the terrain of someplace. Looking up as I enter, they becon me over.

"Cooper, its good to see you. We need your help. We have an ore harvesters that has been attacked recently, and have only barely ever held off the advances. We need to send you out to hold it until we can send some more reinforcements to hold it again. You'll have some forces there to assist you, but they are mostly grunts. You will have Luna assisting you in her Titan, and she should be able to use her magic to aid you. We have also had several million rounds made for your weapon, and if you will give me a moment before you leave, I can give you a warp pocket for your ammo. The terrain is fairly rough. You will need to be careful, we won't know what they will throw at you." Celestia says. I nod.

"Yes commander. What's our exit strategy if we loose the harvester? Also, how many troops can we expect when we arrive?" I ask. Liluna answers.

"Our getaway will be a single airship that will pick us up on yours or my order, and we will hold while the grunts get on. We can expect about 50 men to be there, and they will be getting an ammo drop every fifteen minutes." I nod again.

"When do we drop?" I ask, and Luna grins.


We are in the airship to drop us off over the harvester. Me and Luna have both geared up, and I am now rocking a SMR launcher. It fires micro missiles at enemies. Its my current anti titan weapon.

The warp pocket that Celestia made was a spell that would warp ammo to certain pockets, depending on which ammo was in the pocket. One had Flatline ammo, another had ammo for my RE-45, and the last had ammo for the SMR.

We passed over a large area with several large rock formations, and got about a hundred feet from the ground, and me and Luna jumped from the airship. We hit the ground, and I had my rifle up instantly. Luna had her G2A4 Scout again, with a B3 Wingman pistol as her sidearm, and a mag launcher as her anti titan. We saw the harvester nearby, and a large building a bit further away. We move towards the building. Nearing it, we see some soldiers poke there heads out. One comes out to great us. It's a male stallion, with some nice battle armor, and a cigar in his mouth. Taking it out, he addresses Luna.

"Commander, it's good to see you. Me and my men have been holding the fort for a while now." I almost faint when he starts talking. I will call him Sergeant Avery Johnson, and that is his name forevermore.

"Sergeant Green Hell, its good to see you again. What is the situation here?" Luna asks.

"Well, the bastards hit us hard. We have about fifteen wounded, and of those ten are critical. I recommend immediate evac for them. Otherwise, the other five are lightly wounded, and can still fight. We have plenty of ammo for our turrets and guns. We also have an active radar to detect different titan signatures, and we have hacked into the enemies transmissions, and can give you a report of whats going to be coming at us. It isn't perfect, so try to keep an eye out." We nod, and I say.

"Got it. I'm making your callsign Sergeant Johnson, because I will remember that better than your real name. Sorry sir."

Johnson looks at me.

"The hell are you talking about?" Luna answers.

"He is a corporal, and he isnt from here. I will switch callsign to Johnson for ease of communication. He is here to help us keep the griffons and Minotaurs away from the harvester." I nod, and then turn to Luna.

"I'm going to scout out the area. I know we have a scan, but I trust my eyes better." Luna nods, and I leave.

Jumping up onto some rocks nearby, I look around. Plenty of cover for titans, and grunts will have plenty of avenues to come running at the harvester. Plenty of areas for mortar titans to hunker down, and platforms for mortar spectres.

I look around the area, and get a good map of it. Then I head back to the fort. Luna is just finishing up with Johnson. She turns as I arrive.

"Okay, I did a full scouting, the grunts will have plenty of avenues for approach, so if we can route them passed here, that will help us a lot. If we can't, we will need a few grunts to patrol the small caves throughout the area. Titans have a few limited areas of approach, but they have plenty of cover, and ways to cross around to other paths to the harvester. Mortar spectres and titans will have plenty of areas to setup, so those will need to be checked regularly. If we get some auto turrets, I have a few areas we can set them up, and if we have arc traps to set down, the titan avenues are good for those." Luna nods.

"I agree. The airship with our titans will be here in twenty minutes." A crackle of static comes over our radios in our helmets, and sergeant Johnson came on.

"Yeah, and the enemy will be here in one. We just got wind that they are sending in a wave of enemies. About 95 grunts, and thirty five spectres. Some mortars spectres are to be coming in as well, as well as some new type of enemy unit. Lets give them bastards hell." And I say.

"Hoorah!" Luna looks at me, and turns back, as possible landing zones for the enemies are shown.

Suddenly, a bunch of drop pods fall from high in the sky, and me and Luna point our rifles at the objects. Some doors opened, and griffons fly out, and a couple minotaur started to run out. Me and Luna opened fire on them, and they fall quickly. On my mini map, I can see the dots of the enemies heat signatures, direct live feed from the sattelites orbiting the planet. I look over to Luna, only to see sky blue hair, and slit pupils.

Nightmare Moon fires into the grunts, and I take off towards another part of the terrain, jumping and climbing over the rocks. Reaching the area I was heading towards, I find the griffins flying overhead and Minotars running into a cave. I run to the otherwise, and throw a grenade into it. I can hear that it killed a few, and the stragglers come out, only to get shot. I run away, and head to another area.

Making my way around the battlefield, I kill griffons and minotaurs alike.

Finally, as I am crossing to another area, I get hit out the air by an unknown factor. I get up, jump back to the top of the rocks, only to see an enemy I hoped wouldnt be here. A reaper was positioned on a rock formation a little away, and I knew it would be tough to beat. I opened my coms.

"Got eyes on the new enemy. It's called a reaper. Aim at its center, where the upper part connects to the legs. It'll go down quicker. Use anti titan weapons to bring it down faster." I say, and then pull out the SMR.

I shoulder the weapon, and aim. Firing from this distance, about 98 meters, would have only a small amount of spread. It would be easier closer, but then I would be at its mercy in weapons. I fire at it, and as I had said, the spread wasnt good, but it all hit the target.

I run closer, reloading. I jump, and fire at the reaper. Finally, it goes down.

"Call out if you see anymore reaper." I say over the com's, before running some more, and taking down a group of mortar spectres.

Running to a nearby rock ledge, I jump off, and double jump and grapple to the next rocks over. I pull my Flatline out, and fire upon the griffons flying around, and minotaur grunts running out of rudimentary drop pods. Made for high altitude drops, with more speed and less of a target than HALO jumps.

Luna is on the other side of the field, and is using her G2A4 to snipe any grunts or griffon fliers she can, and is using her wings to hop around much like me. She can't wall run to flank enemies, but she can teleport, which helps her out.

Finally, the last grunt dies, and the wave ends. Seargent Johnson comes over the com's.

"Luna, Cooper, get back to the bunker. We got some presents for you. And also, Celestia just arrived with your titans, much better name for them than mechs if you ask me." He says. Luna flies towards me, and I just raise a hand in the air. She grabs it, and heads towards the bunker.

We land, and Johnson meets us.

"Good to see you can hold your own. Otherwise, I'd have to be carting your ass out of here. Now, you can call in your titans, and Hearths Warming came early, cause I have some presents for you." I smirk under my helmet. God DAMN, Sergeant Johnson is a badass. In game and apparently here too.

Me and Luna turn and call our titans in. I hear over the com's the catchphrase that everyone hears.

"Stanby for Titanfall."

I turn to Luna.

"Thats why the game is fun. Those three words change the battle in our favor. Those, are the best words you will ever here." Luna looks up, sees the titans coming down, and nods. Her hair starts to shift to a mix of white, with baby blue streaks. She looks at me, and her pupils are semi cat like.

"I can feel the hope." She says. I just smile and nod, though she cant see it through my helmet. The titans land, and mine stands immediately.

"Hello Pilot. Hello Luna. Ready for harvester defense." Mika says.

"Good to see you Mika. Now, Sergeant, you have some presents?" He smirks, and he points behind him.

"We got a drop of deployable auto turrets. Take one with you, and drop it down. It can take down titans if placed right, and kill hundreds of grunts if you do the same." I nod.

"I'll put one near the harvester, as a final defensive line. If it goes down, get some men to fix it as soon as possible. Also, Luna, take my particle wall. I saw you don't have one, and you are open when sniping. Use it, and cover yourself." I hand her my particle disc, and she accepts it.

"Thank you, Cooper. We will put it to use." Mika interrupts us before we talk further.

"I am detecting more dropships on the way. Hacking the enemies communications shows that several titans will be coming down, as will many grunts, spectres, Griffin fliers, three cloak drones, and several nuke titans. I suggest deploying those turrets, and getting the bunker ready to help fight titans. Luna and my pilot can only do so much before the titans will overwhelm us. Backup is appreciated." I nod.

"She's right. If you have any anti titan weapons, specifically ones that can reach for a distance, that would be good. I need to talk to Twilight about making arc traps." I mutter to myself. Luna looks at me.

"Arc traps?" I explain.

"Traps that are like mines, but they are electric, and put out enough joules to stun a titan momentarily. It really helps, as it gives us time to take them down. It works for grunts too. And they can be set to registered titans so they wont be set off by our titans." She nods.

"Tat would be useful, but for now we need to get everything ready." And we both move out the bunker.

Running out, I take to the rocks, running, wallrunning, double jumping, and grappling my way around. I put my turret around on top of the stones near the harvester. It still can reach any enemy that gets near the harvester, but will be hard to hit. Nightmare Luna sets hers up across from mine, on the rocks on the other side.

"Okay, as Mika said, we got Griffon fliers, Minotaur grunts, apparently three cloak drones, and titans, as well as nuke titans. The numbers are 35-46-3-12-8. Lets kill these bastards." I say again, and Luna joins me.

"Hoorah!" And I look to her. I just smile after, and turn back to the fight. Then I think.

"Hey, why dont they throw down another magic jammer, like they did at the ruins?" Nightmare Luna answers.

"Its because they want to capture this harvester. If you take a moment to look, they are actually trying to hack the magic circles that are teleporting the ore back to the Canterlot factories, and make them go to one of the two factories controlled by them." I nod. Makes sense. But then.

"But then wouldnt they just attack the bunker, and try to kill them, and then hack the harvester? It would be easier, and would save time." Luna pauses for a moment.

"I never thought about that." And she gets ready, as we get pings of enemy drop positions.

The wave starts, and we start on the grunts from the drop pods. The griffons come next, flying overhead much like the drones in game once more. Shooting them down isn't much harder than duck shooting. In fact, it's much easier. They fly in such close formation that the bullet spread usually gets one, as does the recoil spread. The first minute was good.

Then I saw the Titanfall marks on my mini map.

"Sarge, get some grunts out here, we got titans incoming. We cant kill all the grunts and griffins as we fight, so your going to have too." Sarge comes over the com's.

"Roger that. Gear up boys and girls, we're heading out! Grab those auto turrets, and bring them with us. Were moving to the harvester." And he hangs up. I contact Luna.

"Enemy Titanfall signatures detected. Get in your titan, and prepare for a fight." I say, before I contact Mika.

"Mika, come pick me up." And she responds.

"On my way, Cooper." I move towards her as well, and we meet up. She opens, and I hop in.

And then I feel the neural link activate, and our bodies and minds become one.

We move out, and move over to the titan drop zones. Seeing the symbols on my mini map, it looks to be mostly titans with the XO-16, some with the 40mm, and the rest with the quad rockets and triple threats. All of them will have swords, and they only have two chassis types, so it wont be too hard to beat.

The first titan drops, and it's unshielded. Guess the Griffon's's and Minotaurs don't have shield domes for their titans yet.

I start to fire upon the titan as it stands up. It brings its weapon to bear, but blows up from damage shortly after, never having fired a single shot. Then, more titans drop, and I shoot at them, backing up. And it looks like they have a new weapon, but it's just the Legion's mini gun.

I fire at them first, as they are the most dangerous. They have more ammo than me, and can eat through shields in moments if they are allowed sustained fire on an enemy.

The first Legion goes down quickly, having been an Atlas chassis, but the ogre Legion next to it takes some more time. This allows the other titans to get up, and start to fire on me.

I quickly use my energy shield, and catch the incoming bullets. After a second, I have enough caught, and I return it to sender.

The ogre I had fired upon explodes, and the two Atlas near it are damaged by it and the ammo I flung. I then lock on with the rocket pods, and fire. It hits both, but one takes more rockets and explodes. The other gets a burst of gunfire, and does the same. That's five down, three more in my vicinity to go.

The three remaining titans are 40mm users, one ogre and two Atlas. They all aim, and I dash for them. Pulling a sword of one of the fallen titans, I throw it at one of them. I is deflected, but it gives me time to rush in, and slam its arms up, disarming it. The cockpit is forced open, as I climb out of mine and onto the other titan. Mika sticks her gun in the cockpit, fires once, splattering the pilot, and then slams it closed. As she does this, I unscrew the battery, and pull it out, before leaping back into my titan. As I get in, our connection strengthens, and we kick the dead titan over. My titans health immediately rose from the battery.

The other two titans hadnt fired on us, and we use the time to shoot at them. Moments later, one explodes, and the other follows shortly. We turn around, and scavenge a sword from one of the titans, placing it and our XO on our back, before picking up one of the legions guns, plus one magazine of ammo.

That's when I see the nuke titan symbols appear.

They fall from the sky, and stand up much quicker than their brethren. All of them are ogres, and all of them are carrying the Legion guns, or the 40mm cannons. I fire.

The first takes longer than all the other titans to go down. When it gets to what must be its doomed state, it stops moving, and starts to glow like a mini sun. Then, it explodes. Violently.

The other ogres next to it are only slightly damaged by it.

I have finally enough kills to activate my third upgrade core, and do so, before charging in with the legions gun. Sweeping it low, I ram it as hard as I can into the ogre in front of me. The gun pierces the body, and I lift the titan up, the gun shoving further in.

I pull the trigger, and empty the weapon into the titan. As its body starts to smoke, it starts to be torn through by the bullets, before it finally explodes, much less violently than it would if it had gone nuclear.

I throw it and the gun away, before grabbing my sword off my back, and dashing after the other three nuke titans heading for the harvester.

They shot at me, but these ones only had the 40mm. I charged the three nuke titans, and the closest one charged at me.

He swung his cannon at me, and I blocked it with my sword. I then reached up, grabbed the cannon, and ripped it out of his hands. Tossing it away, I then heavily slashed him twice, before he dropped to the ground. I flipped my sword around in my hands, before walking up to the downed titan, and plunging the sword into its back, and all the way through. The titans core was cut through, and didnt even explode as it wasnt able too. I picked up the 40mm, and started to fire at the next nuke. It turned around as I dashed towards it, and slammed into it. It stumbled, before I jumped up, and slammed down onto it. It fell onto its back, me on top. The pilot inside ejected straight up in front of me, and I immediately targeted and killed them with a single shot as they came up infront of me.

I then get off the titan and throw the cannon at the final nuke, getting its attention. Its nearing the harvester, so I need to get it away from it. I motion for it to come at me. It does.

It rushes me, and I pull my chaingun off my back. The titan continues to rush me as I shoot it, before it is tackled from the left by Luna's atlas.

Luna gets up quickly, and grabs the titan, before bodily lofting it up, and slamming it back down. She then kicks it to me, where I stop it, shove my gun in its face, and fire point blank.

Needless to say, it died.

After that, Johnson came over the radio again, and says.

"That seems to be the last of them. We got nothing else on our radar, and the bastards upstairs said to get the next assault ready. Come on back, grab some more auto turrets, and get ready. We have it on good news that they're sending more titans this time. I nod, exit Mika, and turn to her.

"Mika, can you please grab all the titan weapons and bring them here, plus any ammo. Also, grab yourself a sword."

"Okay Cooper. I will also grab a sword for Luna." I nod.

"Good idea." Luna just looks at me.

"Why are you grabbing me a sword?" Mika turns to the atlas, grabs the sword from it, and swings it at the nearest rock. The blade shatters instantly, sending metal flying. Me, Luna, and Johnson duck as it does. Luna gets up and stares.

"Oh. Thank you for getting me a sword Mika." Mika's ocular system nods, and she moves off quickly. Lunas atlas just stays crouched.

"I need to get me an AI core." She says, looking at her Titan. I just nod, and grab another turret. Luna does the same, and after we head out, she asks me.

"Cooper, would you like to grab some coffee after this defense is over?" I look to her.

"Why are you asking?" She shrugs.

"I feel like we could use the down time, and it will be a nice way to ask you questions about yourselfand you world. Also, to tell me more about the references your making, to things I don't know." Mika chimes in.

"He would love too. Also, I can help with those references, but it will have to be after the battle." I just scoff.

"Mika, stop butting in. I may want to have coffee, yes, but don't start embarrassing me." She looks at me across the terrain.

"Are you sure you want me to stay out?I'm the best wingman you'll get." I just fire at her once, and she just flips me the bird.

"She seems to have more life now. She wasn't like that before." I nod.

"It isnt a bad thing. It feels easier to interact with her this way. Almost like..." But I didnt finish my statement. Happily, Luna didnt ask. Mostly because she didnt get the chance too.

"If you two are done chatting, word is that the next wave is coming. I have here that they'll be sending about 40 griffons, 54 grunts, 4 cloak drones, 23 titans of assorted variety, and 17 nukes. Were in for the long haul here, so kill the big bastards before they get close. We cant take those nuclear explosions, so try and keep them away from us. And dont go dying on me. I dont want to have to pick up your scraps off the field." Me and Luna reply, before we get in our titans.

"Hoorah!"


It was hard fought, but we beat the wave. Johnson only had one casualty, but the pony wasnt dead. Heavily wounded, and unconsious, but not dead. The mare would be needing some new legs though.

Me and Luna used up all the weapons Mika had scavenged, and the ammo for them was used as well. I had to steal about fifteen batteries to keep my titan running, and Luna did much the same. After the battle, we headed for the bunker, and Johnson met us.

"We got word from Celestia that the troops and extra titans will be here in thirty. Problem is, the enemy will be here in ten, and they are throwing us everything they can. We have a higher amount of nukes coming in, so keep them away. Good thing is, we got ourselves some heavy turrets. They can take down titans quick, and shred grunts even faster. Also got some anti titan weapons for ourselves, some more SMRs and mag launchers. I'll be having some of my men through the caves to help you out, but you two will be our heavy hitters, and the ones drawing the most attention. So all I have to say is, dont die. We get back, I want drinks to be on me, with all of us." And we nod.

"Hoorah!"


I stayed out of Mika this time. I would be of better use running around, firing with the SMR, than in my titan at the moment. Also, it meant a little more ground could be covered.

I was on the far roght of the terrain, Luna on the far left, and Mika controlled the center. For the most part, I had cover from a single grunt troop, firing at any griffons or minotaurs that came at us. It was the same thing for the other groups of anti titan grunts.

We made short work of most titans that came at us. Some of them, we couldnt get fully. They got past us. But they usually got taken out by the heavy turrets, or other anti titan grunts. About halfway through the battle, I had to call Mika.

"Mika, I need you. We have to many titans over here for us to handle ourselves."

"Understood Cooper. On my way." She says. I break off from the grunt, and run for my titan. I reach her about half way, and get in. Again, I feel my senses expand, and our minds join.

We then bring out our gun. I start to fire on all targets. I use every trick in my book, and every strategy to best utilize my weapons and abilities. I ducked around corners, I dashed, grabbed, and slammed titans into others. I stole weapons, and used them on the titan or others. I fpught like a maniac.

I didnt realize that the fight was over, till Mika stopped us. From punching Luna. After that, I heard over the com's.

"We beat them back. The commanders arrived with the reinforcements. Come on back to the bunker, and we can get the he'll out of here. First rounds on me." I just looked around. Then I heard Celestia over the com's.

"Cooper, Luna, you've done good. Get back to the bunker, and we'll get you out of here." Luna comes over and pats us on the back.

"Good job Cooper. And dont hit me." I open the cockpit, and step out on the lip.

"I didn't mean to almost do so. I was just on autopilot. Not thinking. Mika stopped us. Sorry." Mika starts to move off, me still standing on the lip of the cockpit. She moves after me, and opens her cockpit as well. She then takes off the eyepiece she was wearing, and put it on a hook near her.

"I understand, Cooper. It happens to me too. Now let's go home. Green is buying us drinks."

I smirk, and Mika walks us onto the airship.