Kevin anxiously looked at his watch as he descended in the elevator. A hand came up from behind and placed itself on his right shoulder.
“Yo Kevin, take it easy, I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” Said Jonathan; a short brown skinned man of South American descent.
“Nothing to worry about; vice admiral Graves just called every pilot on the ship to the debriefing room. That’s never a good sign.” He said, trying to keep any distress from showing in his voice.
“Well, we’re running a bit low on fuel, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of us. It could be just another fuel raid on some IMC outpost.” Jonathan said, trying to sound convincing.
“Where exactly are we going to get the fuel? It’s been six months since we took out Demeter, all the secondary refueling stations are empty and we’re running on fumes!” He turned around to face Jonathan; angry was starting to seep from his voice causing Jonathan to retract his hand.
“Dam it dude, I’m just trying to lighten the mood.” He retracted to a defensive stance, hands splayed out trying to calm down his apprehensive friend.
Kevin sighed, letting himself relax.
“Sorry bro, I’m just tired of fighting, that’s all.” His right hand gripped his helmet tighter as he tried to calm himself down.
“I understand, we all are; but we’re fighting for a cause, remember?” Jonathan replied, he moved next to Kevin, preparing for the doors to open.
“You’ve got a family to back to, yet out of the two of us, you’re the one acting like this war isn’t such a big deal.” Kevin replied in a dead pan tone.
“Of course it’s a fucking big deal; my motto has always been to take things in a positive manner. How do you think I was able to raise two kids?” Jonathan said, giving Kevin a cheerful smirk.
Kevin ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair, wondering what battle lay beyond the two elevator doors.
The door opened revealing the large debriefing room; almost all the pilots were already present some four dozen or so in numbers.
Both of them entered the room, vice admiral Graves was already standing in the middle of the large circular room. Taking their seats, they waited for him to begin speaking.
“I'll make this a quick and simply as possible.” The admiral said. He was a tall man, dark skin, and in his early fifties, experience and hardship were clearly visible in his eyes, earning the respect of everyone he met.
“As all of you are aware, we’re dangerously low on fuel, our entire fleet is running a fumes; we will run dry in a matter of hours.”
The room remained silent; none of them were surprised by the remark.
“All secondary outposts are dry, and we're running out of time. But I do have some good news, a saving grace per say.”
The pilots gave a questioning look to each other, small chatter emitted from the room.
Jonathan leaned in towards Kevin.
“Saving grace, the hell is he talking about? I thought he was supposed to be a hell of a tactician; now he rambling about miracles and shit.” Jonathan said in an annoyed tone.
“Just be quiet, it’s just of figure of speech, I think he might have something up his sleeve.” Kevin replied
“Please, lower your voices I’m not finished yet.” The admiral put his hand up, signaling to the pilots.
The room immediately did so; and he continued to speak.
“In the mid twenty first century when mankind first started to explore the galaxy, before we discovered the frontier. We worked on ways to be able to refuel in the middle of nowhere.”
He paused for a second; taking in the puzzled looks his audience had on their faces.
“We built refueling stations on asteroids, comets, and even small dwarf planets. We discontinued their usage once we build more permanent locations.”
“A few centuries ago, an outpost named IMCP-23 built on a twelve mile wide asteroid was knocked out of its orbit and sent flying into space. All crew was lost, and the resources it contained were never recovered.” Jonathan nudged Kevin.
“I told you this was going to be a refueling raid.” He said leaning in.
“Yeah, all we have to do is find it in the middle of empty space.” Kevin rolled his eyes, unconvinced that the admiral’s plans were even fishable.
“As of recently, we were able to locate it moving towards the IK Pegasi binary star system.”
The pilot’s curiosity increased, yet they did not speak as they eagerly awaited the admiral to continue.
“That’s why I called all of you here. We're going to take that refueling outpost. With that we’ll have enough fuel for five more months, and eventuality wins this war!”
The room erupted in cheer, as the men and women clapped and even fist bumped the air.
“Please quiet down, I've still not told you everything. The IK Pegasi binary star system is comprised of two stars rotating one another; current calculations indicate that the smallest star will generate a Type Ia supernova in as little as three hours.”
The room regained its silence once more as their moral quickly began to drop.
“Shit, this guy plans to lead us to our deaths?” Jonathan said.
“To be honest, I really don’t know what to think. He must have a master plan or just lost his mind.” Kevin said as he began twirling his finger through his hair.
“Furthermore, inside sources tell me that IMC are well aware of the station as well. That leaves us an incredible short time to engage the enemy and take as much fuel as we can.”
The room did not cheer this time.
“I know it’s extremely dangerous, that’s why I'm only sending three ships. The refueling station has a anti matter core, it can last for millennia unattended, that means artificial gravity and atmosphere should still be online, giving us the opportunity to fight on the station if we have to.”
The room did not say a word. Some stood up, preparing to leave.
Anger began showing in the admirals face, he could not let the moral his soldiers drop so low.
“We're not fighting for just ourselves; we're fighting for our children, wives, girlfriends, and every single colonist that is alive on the frontier, if we give up now we're responsible for the death of billions! Now get rid of those disgruntled attitudes, you’re all going to die someday, not many can say that they died by a supernova.”
The admiral finished, slightly out of breath, he regarded the pilots once more.
Slow claps quickly escalated into a full cheer, their moral back in check the admiral let out a relieved sigh.
“Good, now get to your stations we’re leaving in five minutes!”
Standing up, Kevin and Jonathan made their way to the elevator.
“Come on man cheer up; if we take that fuel we’ll basically win the war!” Jonathan regarded his concerned friend.
“I would, but I get the feeling that bound to go wrong.” Kevin replied.
“Na, you just over reacting, it’ll be like any other battle, just point and shoot the robots in the face.” Jonathan said, nudging Kevin’s arm in the process.
“Yeah, I hope I’m wrong.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bullets flew through the air ripping up a heavily damaged titan to Kevin’s right; he instinctively put up his vortex shield to catch any stray projectiles.
“Dam it, Jonathan where are you, I just lost my support!” He yelled into his coms.
He released his shields and sent the projectiles flying back at the three titans in front of him.
He released a volley of rockets and dashed into a side building.
“You’re outnumbered three to one, additional support is strongly advised”
He quickly checked his components checking up on the health on his Ogre class titan.
“For fucks sake Jonathan, I’m can’t take any more hits! Move your ass right now!”
He didn’t have much time, the three titans closed in on his position, making sure he would not escape.
Kicking his brain into survival mode he had only seconds to think of a way out.
He charged head first into the group of titans, taking multiple 40 mm cannon rounds to the chest; he stopped several feet in front of the titans, the rounds ripping apart his armor as flames erupted from the titan.
Reacting quickly, he set his nuclear reactor to self-destruct and ejected.
In the air he could see his titan explode in a massive explosion, taking out everything within one hundred feet. He landed several hundred feet behind, just in time to see a small mushroom cloud form.
Right at that moment a stryder class titan dashed behind Kevin; he quickly spun around believing it was another IMC titan, aiming his carbine at it.
“Don’t get too trigger happy, you might dent the pain job.” He quickly recognized the voice as Jonathan arriving a few minutes too late.
“Shit man, it took you long enough, I had to blow up my titan to take those guys out!” He said as he pointed to the mushroom cloud that formed in the distance.
“Well sorry. You’re not the only one dealing with shit! I got swarmed by that dam spectre’s, they started climbing up on me and shit!”
“Touching story, it’s going to be a few minutes before I can call up another one. Can you give me a ride?” He didn’t for an answers, he quickly flew in the air with the help of his boosters, landing right on the back on Jonathan titan.
“I never can get used to stryder class they’re always so skinny, I can’t a proper footing on the back” Kevin said, fidgeting uncomfortably on the back of the titan.
“There’s plenty of room inside, why don’t I open it up and let you in, you could sit on my lap.”
“Fuck you man, just get us the hell out of here.”
“So soon, don’t we have to finish the job?”
“No, Charlie point has been dried up, we pulled all the fuel we could. That leaves Alpha and Bravo; we should head for the nearest point and help out.” Kevin said as he took out his B3 wingman revolver.
“Yes sir”
They made their way to Bravo point, sounds of bullets, rail guns and explosions increased.
Several titans could be seen firing at one another, some even doing hand to hand combat.
Spectres stood in the open firing their weapons at grunts and titan alike. On the other hand grunts were huddled in ditches or behind structures, lobbing grenades and firing rockets.
“That's pure chaos over there; you better watch your back, don’t want to get shot off!” Jonathan said, trying his best to be heard over the sound of gun fire.
“I got one minute before I can call my titan in, let do this!”
Jonathan charged up his rail gun and activated his dash core, while Kevin took aim with his revolver.
They sprinted towards the enemy, the stryder easily crushing spectres that were in its path at the same time letting his rail gun rip spectres in half.
Kevin scored several headshots from his revolver, not missing a single round.
The stryder stopped abruptly, causing Kevin to miss one of his shots
“What’s the deal man, you made m...”
In front of them stood four titans, two atlases, one ogre, and one stryder.
“We’re screwed now, I’m activating my dash core hopefully we’ll take out two before we have to bail it!” Jonathan’s voice filled with dread.
“I’m calling in my titan, just give me five seconds!”
The titan began to advance on them but suddenly stopped, after several long seconds they turned around and began to head back.
“Ha! They’re scared of us, what a bunch of pussies!” Jonathan said in an overly excited manner.
“No, look, the spectres are also retreating. Something’s not right.” Kevin replied anxiety present in his voice.
The vice admiral appeared on the top right of his visor.
“We have to get the hell out of here, our initial calculations were wrong, the star system is about to blow in less than five minutes! Get your asses to the nearest drop ship this instance!”
“Shit man, it’s only been two hours!” Jonathan hastily said as he activated his dash core, accelerating to the nearest drop ship.
Upon reaching it, Kevin flew off the titan, followed by Jonathan who was close behind.
Once in the drop ship they quickly took off, getting a better view of the carnage that had occurred on the station. Bodies of men and machine were laid throughout the station, burning structures, and ripped open titans covered almost every square foot.
They exited the artificial atmosphere, revealing the aftermath of the war that had been waged in space. Both the Militia’s ships had been badly damaged; large gashes had been opened on the sides, revealing their interiors.
“We don’t have enough time; we’re not going to be able to get inside!” Jonathan could no longer control his own emotions.
“Chill the fuck out. We don’t need to get in the ship; we just need to get close enough so it takes us with it when it jumps!” Kevin grabbed Jonathan by the shoulders giving him a smack across the cheek to knock back some sense into him.
“You’re right, I over reacted a bit there, ha…” Rubbing his cheek, he peered out the side to have a better look at the star system.
“It doesn’t look so bad, I say we’re two billion miles away” Jonathan said.
No sooner was the ship engulfed in an incredible light; its luminosity was so bright they could feel the heat through their helmets.
The heat only intensified as the ship began to violently shake.
“Jumping in three, two, one”
Kevin slowly opened his eyes and was assaulted by light rays creeping though the forest leaves.
His hand went to his face, realizing he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
“Shit, am I dead?” He began to sit, his entire body protesting in pain.
“Everything hurts, so I guess not.” He said, inspecting his body as best as he could. From what he could feel, he had no broken bones but would be hurting for the next couple of days.
He took in his surroundings, noticing the lush fauna.
“I’m probably on some planet on the frontier.” He began walking to a clearing he could make out just up ahead.
He found the wreckage of the drop ship he had been in. There was Jonathan and the ships pilot sitting to the side, both seemed to be having some sort of conversation.
He made his way to them as quickly as he could, trying to ignore the soreness in his body.
Both men stopped their conversation and regarded him as he neared.
“Hey man how you been? How was your nap?” Jonathan asked.
“Alright I guess. If you knew I was unconscious why didn’t you help me out!?” Kevin replied grinding his teeth under his helmet.
“You were alright, just some minor bruising and shit. You were sleeping like a baby; it would have been rude to wake you up.” Jonathan gave Kevin a sly smirk.
“Well thanks a fucking lot. Where are we anyway?” He panned his head in all directions trying to recognize anything.
“I’m not sure, communications are down. To be honest, it kind of looks like earth, the trees kind
of look like pine.” Jonathan replied.
“I did see some drop ships flying over the west, just after I woke up. They weren’t in the greatest condition.” The ships pilot replied.
“At least they’re others; someone is bound to have a working com.” Jonathan regarded the Kevin, giving him a small smile hoping that things would turn out for the best.
Their conversation was cut off short as sounds of gun fire could be heard coming from the north.
Jonathan quickly rose to his feet, tossing Kevin his helmet as he put on his.
“I’d say those gun shots are no more than half a mile north.” Jonathan said.
“You’re right; we’ll have to go on foot until coms go back online.”
Jonathan turned to face the ships pilot.
“Keeping checking up on the signal, use the ship’s radio if you can.”
The pilot nodded, and they both took off to the north.
Using the tree as leverage they reached a clearing in the forest after some twenty minutes of
travelling.
“I think I see houses man, they look weird though.” Jonathan told Kevin.
Kevin quickly stopped just before the clearing started, analyzing as much of the scenery as he could.
He could clearly recognize the structures ahead of him as houses, yet they had a strange appearance, instead of a steel and concrete construction they appeared to be made out of wood, hay and even brick.
Upon closer inspection he could make out shattered windows, bullets holes and even small fires on the streets.
More gunshots could be heard, snapping them back to their senses.
“Move man, some Militia could need our help!” Kevin said as he sprang into action, making his way to one of the homes he used his booster to get to the roof, Jonathan followed a close second.
“You take the left side, I’ll go right, let keep parallel to each other at all times!” He ordered Jonathan.
Jonathan leapt from the side and made his way to the home adjacent to his partner.
They began running on top of the houses, making their way deeper into the town.
Kevin stopped as he spotted something in the middle of the street.
“Hold up!”
He quickly made his way down to street level, followed by Jonathan who came from the other side.
What he had originally thought was a human in bright clothing, turned out to be a minty green color creature lying on the ground. Blood ran down it lower left leg.
“What the fuck is that?” Jonathan asked.
“It, it looks like a horse; scratch that, a pony” he replied just as puzzled as his partner.
“Look, it has some sort of horn on its head.” Jonathan pointed out.
The pony began to move.
“It’s probably some alien wild life, come on; there are other things we have to worry about.” Jonathan said.
Upon hearing his voice the pony quickly turned to face him with an expression of pure horror.
The pony quickly tried to stand but failed, it tried to crawl away from them.
“Easy there little guy, no need to be frighten.” Kevin regarded the creature as harmlessly as he could, as he slowly inched closer to it.
The pony’s horn glowed with an amber aurora, emitting a small beam of energy, grazing Kevin’s helmet.
“Shit man, what the fuck was that!” Jonathan jumped back raising his sub machine gun and pointed it towards the pony.
The pony instinctively curled up into a ball as tears rolled down its cheeks.
“Pl..please don’t hurt me again.” The pony said; leaving Kevin and Johnathan dumb founded.
Jonathan lowered his weapon and looked at Kevin, noticing the burn mark left on the left side if the helmet, a small amount of smoke emitted from it. If it had hit him directly, it would have ended him.
“Well fuck; what kind of sick twisted genetic shit they have been doing here!”
Kevin didn’t have time to answer as the ground started to shake beneath them.
Out of the corner of the street ahead of them, an ogre class titan came into view. Its chain gun rose, and aimed straight at them.
“Well shit, that’s definitely IMC”, Jonathan raised his SMG, fixing his sights on the titan.
Kevin quickly rose to his feet; he grabbed the SMG by the end of the barrels and pulled it down.
“Wait! It’s not being aggressive; I bet it’s on auto pilot.”
Jonathan analyzed the titan for a few seconds and came to the same conclusion.
“You’re right; but that means there’s a pilot somewhere around here. Best thing to do is take it out before he comes back.”
“Yeah; I was thinking the same thing, still, a titan on auto pilot is dangerous.”
Kevin’s eyes wandered back on the creature; it was now starting at the titan as well. He couldn’t see its face but he could guess it was one of pure fear.
The titan began walking at their direction, weapon still raised.
“Jonathan, you got your sidewinder? “
“Yeah, but only one clip, I left the rest back on the drop ship.”
“Don’t worry, I got some EMP grenades. One my mark, I’ll distract the titan with my carbine and make my way to the roof tops on the right. While you take the injured...”
He observed the pony once more.
“Pony, to the left roof tops. I’ll throw some EMP nades, and take its shields down and you finish it off with you sidewinder. Got it?”
The titan was no more than one hundred feet away.
“1, 2, 3 go!”
Kevin raised his carbine, letting his trigger finger chew though his ammo, as the titans shield absorbed every one of his rounds. He quickly made it to the roof tops, noticing Jonathan on the other side of the street with the pony on his shoulders, running parallel to him.
The titan fired onto Kevin, debris filled the air as the massive rounds ripped through the fragile homes.
Turning his cloak on, he threw an EMP grenade, hitting the titan in the chest. The titan firing began erratic and it desperately tried to predict Kevin’s position while almost completely blind.
Not waiting for it vision to return, Kevin threw another nade, once again hitting it in the chest.
“Now, Jonathan!”
Rockets struck the back of the titan; they penetrated the steel with ease, small flames were now visible emitting from the titan’s body.
The titan spun around quickly putting up its vortex shields, absorbing Jonathan micro rockets and sending them back on him obliterating the roof he was on.
“No!”
Putting in a fresh magazine, he sprinted to the roof’s ledge, jumping off and landing on the titan’s back.
He turned the latch releasing the door to the brains of the titan; he processed to empty his gun into it, causing the titan to explode. Chunks of steel rained down, crushing homes, and smashing down on the streets.
Kevin made his way to where he last saw his friend; all that was left was a smoldering collapsed roof.
“I’m alright!” Jonathan said catching Kevin’s attention. He was on the street on the other side of the house, with the pony lying next to him.
“I thought you were dead!” Kevin examined his friend, trying to find any damage or any signs of injury.
“I jumped off the last second, other than a sprained ankle I should be fine.”
Kevin landed beside his partner, his attention returned to the injured pony that was next them, it had passed out but maintained a steady breathing pattern.
“You have any idea where we are? I’ve been to many planets, but never have I seen colorful talking ponies.” Jonathan said, breaking the silence.
“I have no idea. But what I do know is that this battle is far from over.”
Author's Note
This story was written out of pure fun. I didn't really bother trying to get it edited because it's not meant to be taken seriously in any way.
If it gets a fair amount of views, I'll try to see if I can it fixed up before I post another chapter.
