Chapter Ten:

Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base

May 2, 7215

The bomb ravaged main road that led from the FOB to the bases main gate cracked with every step of Brandon’s Apache. Seeing this Brandon shook his head. If these streets could not handle the Ultra-Light Titans, there was no way they would survive a heavier design. It was really poor planning in his opinion.

The image of the blonde man in his cockpit appeared on his far left, as his heavily accented Russian voice spoke, “Tis place been getting da shit bombed o’it.” Above his image the name ‘Axeman’ and a rotating 3-D rendition of his Apache in a green wire framework floated.

The image flickered out as it was replaced by an image of a woman he recognized. The Asian woman he had fought alongside in full helmet.

Her mid-eastern Asian Accent and soft voice contrasting with her words, “You are fucking stupid. Did not you listen to briefing?”

Her call sign had her labeled as Vampire and her wireframe was one of the Fire Ants.

Before an argument could break out Brandon cut in. “Enough now. I’m pulling up the terrain details now. Looks like our target is located in a valley with steep hills to the North and south. We should come up from the North where they will not expect us…”

He was cut off b Axeman, “Da you be great tactical mind of your age. However, this is easy op. We go straight in and blow the fuck out of em. Simple, easy, efficient. Be best, da.”

To punctuate his words Axeman sprung forward accelerating his Titan to nearly top speeds. Straight toward the enemy base. The other Fire Ant piloted by Red sped up after him.

‘Idiots!” Vampire snarled. “I am with you Highlander. Let us do this right>”

Sighing in frustration Brandon sped up to just under 120 kpH. Unlike, Axman and Red who sped south-east straight at the enemy base, he cut south through a valley that would lead parallel to the targets valley.

As they moved he sent a coded transmission to the scout-copter to fly in from the south and send him real time feeds.

It took them nearly two hours to get near the base. The low hills had gradually increased into large mounds of stone and dirt, topped in heavily wooded ridges. They valley they had been following was now a dried stream bed with smooth loose stones. As he and Vampire slowed to begin their trek up the hill above the base the copters feed finally came in.

Through three different displays the valley came into view. In one feed a zoomed in standard view showed a tiny two runway airbase, with some dozen hangers and another dozen copters on a black tarmac. A three-meter-tall chain link fence surrounded the perimeter; with pairs of soldiers walking patrol.

A river moved through the grassy valley a few hundred meters to the east of the camp. Creating a scenic like view, that would soon be marred by the harshness of war.

The second screen showed an infrared rendition of the base. Buildings and visible copters were all blue or light green blobs. The odd visible soldier was a yellow orange. The camps barracks glowed a steady yellow and behind some of the hangers two dark orange and red masses loomed.

The final view was a passive sonar display. The copter was still too far out for the passive sensor to show much.

“Scout 1 to heavy support. Have eyes on target. Holding steady awaiting further orders.”

Brandon was about to que his mic when he was cut off, “Da be good flyboy. We ca take it from here. Head on back ta base.”

Brandon wanted to scream at the idiot. What eh hell was he doing? Didn’t he see the two heat signatures that clearly showed there was two active Titans hiding there?

“Understood, Scout 1 out.”

Pushing his machine faster than was safe Brandon maneuvered through the dense trees that lined the rim of the hill.

As the two Titans crested the ridge and came over to the inner tree line they paused getting their first personal view of the base.

They were still more than a kilometer from the base. Yet, they could clearly see Axeman and Red charging up the valley straight at the base.

As they watched the base went into alert. Where a few moments before there had been peaceful sounds of wind through grass and tree. Now a siren blared echoing off the cliff faces.

As they watched people began to move like an ant hill that was kicked.

“Shit they are going to launch those Aerospace bombers.” Brandon snarled.

“Na, we got dem. You stay up dar. We got this.”

Shaking his head Brandon leaned forward rushing down the hill.

Axeman ran straight through the fence like it was not even there. His large frame trampled over a pair of Infantry who had taken up firing positions and stupidly stood there guns ablazing. Red followed through the hole and let loose at another set of Infantry on both their right and left. Red-Orange flames shot out twenty meters, Napalm like incendiary leaving only blackened husks behind.

Axeman reached the first of the hangers and half leveled the building with one titanic swing of his axe. A few more steps later, he leapt ten meters into the air and came down with a two-handed swing on the roof of the next.

A green mission readout flashed on Brandon’s right view. It showed that 4 of the estimated 18 Bombers were out of commission.

As red fire burst over a grounded copter and a whole line of men and women running at more, things looked good for the two Jocks.

Half a kilometer out Brandon’s fears were proven correct. Axeman was just taking out a line of troops running toward a set of three hangers. Red was finishing up covering the last helicopter pads, and one of the two run ways in sticky flames; while holding a steady fire of machine gun slugs toward the armored camp command, in an impressive display of shooting.

Two missiles snaked over the hangers hitting Axeman in the head and upper shoulders. The impacts took him off guard sending him falling back on his back. A squad of soldiers took the opportunity to charge forward on the downed Titan.

They reached him as he rolled over on his front. Their weapons were too weak to normally do anything to Titan armor, however they tossed Grenades on the machines back.

Red moved to support her downed comrade but was stopped as a rain of missiles hit around her. The Shapes of two titans came into view around the Hanger. A fire Ant rushed forward, and a Slinger sent another set of Medium Range missile from both shoulder mounted MRM=2”s toward Red, further backing up the short-range Titan.

Highlander tore through the security fence seconds before the grenades sent Axeman sprawling back on his face.

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“Vampire keep the birds down. Don’t let them get airborne.”

“Confirmed>”

As he burst from around a hanger a mere hundred meters from the Slingers rear he watched the enemy fire Ant close to weapons range on the still recovering Axeman. Both flamers spat white hot death on the downed Titan.

Instantly screaming came over coms. For an instant before the system cut off the image of Axeman liquid fire melting him from behind showed in all House Nubran’s Jock’s cockpits.

On Highlanders display Axeman went from yellow, to orange, then red, and finally black.

The titans fusion plant lost containment and in an instant everything with-in 50 meters of the downed Titan was engulfed in a blast that equaled the sun in temperature.

Highlander had prepared for the blast a second before it went off. Video feeds had built in filters flash blocking out the worst of the lightshow, that eliminated two Titan Jocks. The Slinger’s Jocks had been too absorbed on his continued onslaught of Red and was blinded by the blast.

The jock never saw Highlanders axe coming. But they felt it when the weapons atom sharp edge cut through armor, jock, and titan system alike.

He had been careful to aim his attack to avoid the Slingers fusion powerplant and as such had gotten the axe stuck in the now defunct metal coffin. As the slinger fell it ripped the weapon from Highlanders hands. Almost causing him to fall with it.

Vampire had followed orders and was now stepping from around the set of three burning hangers. The system noting 6 more bombers destroyed, taking the total to 12 of 18.

Seeing the blacked blast zone of Axeman and its collateral damage on both run ways, the enemy barracks and the House Nubran’Due’s Fire Ant. She turned toward the platoon of copters that was even now starting up blades in preparation of takeoff.

Red was dazed by the blast. She had been dodging a juking to avoid the missile fire while still trying to prevent being surrounded by enemy Infantry. When the explosion happened she had been staring directly into the center. Combined with the last four missile the Slinger shot hitting her head on she panicked.

Explosions rocking her head back, she yanked the eject lever. In milliseconds the emergency system tried to blow the top from the Fire Ant’s spherical roof. But damage had completely slagged the top third including the machine gun. Secondary systems kicked in causing the entry hatch to blow off and drop the Jock out the narrow hole. At the same time The Titan’s legs bunched throwing the metal beast into an airborne leap forward, hopefully to leave the Jock in safety.

Red hit the ground going several hundred kilometers an hour. Bones snapped, and her shocked system snapped into blissful darkness.

Highlander’s mission details updated, showing all known enemy Titans destroyed. Then a second later a new secondary objective appeared.

Retrieve fallen Titan Jocks.

Checking he saw that Red’s status had went from the yellow/orange to a brilliant blinking red.

Glancing at his now fully active sensor suit, he saw that Only three hangers remained standing. However, both run ways were either destroyed or blocked, so those bombers were not getting off the ground. Then Vampire was even now heading for the last copter landing pads, flamers dripping Hell like a Woman’s Fury.

Turning his back on the fallen enemy Titan and his weapon Highlander accelerated to Red’s Emergency Signal. Any Infantry to stupid or to unlucky to be caught in the way was either stomped on, or simply swat out of the way like toy soldiers. Their weapons simply ineffective against his Titans armored skin.

One especially stupid soldier attempted to throw a grenade at him, in an attempt to emulate passed successes. The poor fellow popped up from a decent concealing cover and tossed the explosive.

Highlander’s sensors picked up the incoming slow-moving munition, then highlighted it in angry red on his Heads Up.

With a slight twist at the waist Highlander bat the ball like explosive with a metal forearm. The swing was good! The green pineapple landed near the top of the mostly destroyed wall segment the soldier was using as cover, on inertia it rolled up the slight grade. Tittered on the edge then fell over disappearing behind the wall. A second later Highlander saw a fine mist of blood and body parts fountain up followed by a dull roar a split second later.

He never even missed a step in his run. A minute later he approached Red’s sensor beacon. There on the ground she lay. A broken bleeding mass of flesh. His sensors picked up her vitals from the tactical net. She was breathing, and her heart was laboring to beat, but growing fainter. The wreckage of her Fire Ant lay crumpled some 50 meters away.

Straddling over the woman’s fallen form, Highlander triggered his Titans single use emergency medical system. A white ball of goo fell from between the 9-meter-tall Titan’s legs. Impacting the woman’s limp form it exploded outward covering her in a white super cold tomb. In less than a second, she was flash frozen in a cryogenically secure coffin.

Having done all he could for his fallen ally, Highlander turned his attention back to the battlefield.

Vampire was now a mere 30 meters from the copters. Pilots, tech, and soldiers ran across the woman’s field of fire. The six remaining Light helicopters were mere seconds for lift off.

Flipping a switch she aimed her weapons at them and spoke. Voice blaring through speakers she shouted, “Surrender, or die!”

With her weapons trained on them no one expected to get passed the next minute without some form of injury. One by one the helicopter pilots switched off engines and stepped out of their grounded birds arms raised.

Seeing their last viable fighting craft surrendering took the fight from the base and in a minute of time what remained of the enemy forces stood in an unarmed mass on the damaged runway.

Brandon’s vision went black for an instant. Then he suddenly found himself sitting in a firm unyielding office chair in a briefing room. A large table sat surrounded by mostly empty chairs. To his left a large holo display floated with a blue background and the House Nubran sigil rotating slowly in the center. To his right were more empty chairs and the rooms single door.

Across from him dressed in the purple and silver House Nubran uniforms, was both Red and Vampire. Glancing around Axeman was missing.

Before anyone could speak the Lord, Knight appeared at the head of the table. Her eternal glower was ever present, however now it looked even darker.

As the three Jocks jumped to attention she glared, “At ease. Sit the fuck down… It looks like Congratulations are in order. You lot passed through your first Titan combats with decent results.”

She waved, and a display appeared before each of the seated jocks. Due to a trick of the holo-display, only the person directly in-front of the display could make out what was being shown, while still allowing the entire room to see the display was there.

After Mission Briefing Report.

Jock: Brandon Mc’Dew, (aka. Highlander)

Mission Status: Complete

Points Awarded: 3,714.

Point Breakdown

Mission… Complete - 1000 points.

Titan status... 94% - 235 Points.

Titans Eliminated… Ultra-Light x1 – 100 points.

Titan Assists… Ultra-Light x1 – 50 Points

Aerospace Captured… Ultra-Light x6 – 450 points.

Light x6 – 675 points.

Aerospace Assists… Ultra-Light x6 – 150 points.

Light x 12 – 450 points.

Forsworn Taken… Aerospace Pilots x22 – 220 points.

1. Infantry x11 – 22 Points.

Non-Coms x121 – 181 points.

Infantry Killed… Light x181 – 181 points.

Brandon looked over the screen before returning his gaze to the Lord Knight. A minute later both of the women had reviewed the results as well.

It was Vampire who asked the question they were all thinking, “Sir, where is Axeman?”

The Lord Knights steely gaze turned even colder, “Dead. We have no use for vatborn waste that can’t even bother to follow simple strategies or failing that even preform a simple eject.” Her glower darkened, “Heck there was even a full fourth of you vat-scum that did not even complete this simple mission.”

She waved a hand at the wall and a listing of the current Jock standings appeared in order by points received. Vampire was ranked 5th, Highlander held 7th and Red was down at 10th.

At the bottom of the list just below eight names with less than 1,000 points each was 6 names who were darkened out. In their points column KIA sat glaringly.

All three Jocks stared blankly at the one labeled Axeman.

“Right you waste of my time Vat-Jocks. You have exactly 8 hours down time. Dismissed. And one more thing Mc’Dew, if you ever waste another expensive Emergency Rescue Pod on a Vatborn, I’ll personally see you flayed and quartered.”

Before Brandon could respond the room was replaced by black nothingness. A few seconds later he found himself standing back in the quickly draining training pod. It took him a few moments to remember why he should have been in there. From his perspective more than two weeks had passed and it was odd to still be inside the pod.

When the fluid drained a quick cleaning solution was sprayed on him and over the interior of the pod. In seconds it dissolved any residues on his skin and evaporated. The box he placed his gear in opened allowing Brandon to retrieve his uniform and weapons before the hatch flowed outward creating stairs.

The instant Brandon decanted a wave of fatigue hit him like a sledge hammer wielded by a Titan. He nearly collapsed to the ground. Stumbling forward Brandon half walked, half fell to the white room and the only other place he knew. The one place he could sleep. Have falling on his cabinet, Brandon sighed in exhausted contentment as the walls began to form around him. Seconds after that his bed appeared. With an intense force of will Brandon shoved his weary body toward the cot. His already asleep body only mostly made it. Below the knees he still dangled awkwardly off the edge. However, deep snores clearly told the story that no one cared.