A robot as tall as the average human stairs blankly at the planet below while standing over a terminal, the planet's blue glow flooding the command deck the mighty IMC warship. People walking around the the robot working on other terminals, the flashing screens barely making a difference in the bright glow of the planet before them.
A man in a bright white military suit comes through a large metal door behind everyone on the deck and the robot. People who were moving about stop in a attendance and salute when the man walked by up to the robot who suddenly comes to life as the officer taps the terminal the robot is standing over.
"Private, what's the scans show for whats on the surface?" The man in white calls to a young man sitting hunched over a terminal with five different colors flashing on the screen.
"Nothing sir, our scans aren't picking up anything. Surface scans haven't been able to see what's on the planet's surface. There's something blocking the scanners, we believe it to be Militia jammers preventing us from seeing them." the young man, turning to face his officer.
"Shit... alright, send word to the staging crew to get ready for Delta in thirty minutes." the commander said.
"Yes, sir." quickly responded the private turning back to face his monitor.
"Alright, you got that Clockwork?." the commander turning now to the robot still waiting silently waiting for orders. "Get your squad ready. Deployment is in thirty minutes."
The robot gave a small robotic nod, then turned around and marched off the deck leaving the glow of the planet behind with the commander and the crew.
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The robot enters through a large door which leads into the barracks, stopping just as it enters the door way.
"Delta squad, deployment in thirty minutes, gear up and meet in the Titan launch bay to prepare for drop." the robot says in a voice that sounds like it's about to blow a fuse.
An arm droops over the side of one of the bunk beds in the long metal room.
"Clockwork's vocal processor is messed up again..." said a man who was on the top bunk, now slowly falling off, still half asleep.
"I don't want to go to school today ma..." said another voice from across the room.
"Sargent Snake, your mother died ten point six years ago. So she currently unavailable to tell you to go to--" said Clockwork
"Thank you for the reminder Clockwork, I'll remember that next time." Snake said as he turn his back to the robot.
A third figure starts to move from the bottom bunk from the man who is falling off his bed. This third man, with short black hair and dark brown eyes, sits up on his bed and grabs the arm of his bunk mate and pulls him down onto the floor with a loud THUD.
"Gah! What the fuck man!? Was the needed, Hell?" asked Ares.
"You two heard Clockwork, it's time to wake up and get ready for deployment." said the man named Hell, who got up and turned on the lights to the barracks. showing the disheveled condition of the barracks. "We've rested long enough, after our recon of the surface of this new planet, we can all come back and sleep in." said Hell in a yawn.
"Can't believe we got stuck with this job, don't you think it would have been easier to send a bunch of Specters? Like, come on! We should be back on the front lines fighting this war." Said Snake who was now sitting up on his bed.
"With the new line of Specters coming out on the battlefield they didn't need us on the front line, they won't want to lose their most valuable squad now would they?" Hell said chuckling a little at the statement.
"Guess so." grunted Snake.
The rest of the time they got dressed and suited up in silence. Heading out of their barracks with Clockwork in tow. All heading to the Titan launch bay. Stopping at the armory to pick up their weapons, Hell grabbed the R-101C Carbine, Ares got his Longbow-DMR sniper, and Snake threw his EVA-8 shotgun over his shoulder. Clockwork always had his R-97 SMG and smart pistol on him, along with his metal backpack which holds the squad's medical supplies and explosives. After they finished getting their weapons, ammo, and grenades. They walk into the Titan launch bay room where their most prized positions stay when they're not active, anyways at the ready.
The sight of their Titans always made the pilots have a smile on their faces, All three of the Titan's were painted with the IMC color of choice, a off-white, though none of them liked the color much, it was the color for which they fought the war. The closest robotic giant to them was large, Heavy-class titan, know as the Ogre, which is piloted by Snake. Affixed to the back of the chassis was a rocket salvo and a one-man landing pod built specifically for Clockwork. Next to the Ogre was Hell's titan, a medium-class Atlas. It's "eye" looking down at it's pilot. Lastly the titan furest from them was a light-class a Stryder. With so little armor the internal wiring was visible for all to see.
The squad walks up to their Titans, stopping in front of the them when the ships commander comes over their helmets radio.
"Squad, this is a simple recon mission, your being deployed to the planet in search of a rebel resupply base which is why the rebels seem to be so well in recent months. We need you to search the area where we believe this base to be, our senors haven't been much help, so you'll probably be down there a while. You have a lot of ground to cover. You'll be dropped into a forest to help conceal your position when you fall." the commander said.
"Don't worry commander, we've got this covered." Hell responded looking back at his squad who were playing rock, paper, scissors. "This will be a piece of cake."
"Alright, and if you see any Militia bastards, you know what to do." said the commander. "Deployment in thirty seconds, good luck."
When the coms when silent Hell turned around to face his squad who were finishing up their intense rock, paper, scissors match.
"Alright you three, you heard the man. Lets get moving, saddle up and get ready." Hell said with authority
Without a word Ares, Snake, jumped into their Titans and strapped in. Clockwork entering a one man pod that was attached to Snake's Ogre's hull. Hell turned to looked over his shoulder at the crew at the terminals ready to shoot him at that planet, giving them a thumbs up before getting into his own Titan and strapped in. As his Atlas' cockpit doors closed, sealing him inside the metal beast. The heads up display activating with a soft female voice coming over the Titan's com-system.
"Pilot entering, assuming control to Pilot." said the female voice.
"Everybody, check in." Hell announced over his Titan's communicator.
"Delta-three, ready." Ares replied.
"Delta-two, ready and waiting." said Snake.
"Delta-four, ready." Clockwork said quickly.
The Titan's AI voice coming back over the coms. "Drop in ten seconds."
"Ok, everyone here we go." Hell said over the female voice as it counted down. "Prepare for Titan fall."
Then as if on que, the the Pilots and their Titans drop, starting their decent to the glowing planet below.
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On the planet's surface
Princess Celestia and Luna sitting out on the porch of their castle watching the stars in night sky, enjoying a cups of tea.
The light of the moon and the stars bathing the whole of Canterlot with a bright silver glow beneath them.
"Another beautiful night, dear sister." said Celestia
"It is truly a piece of art we can create, but something feel... wrong." Luna responded still gazing up into the night sky.
"What do you mean, sis?"
"Do you see that star that is flashing up in the sky, near the moon? We did not put it there, it is out of place on my canvas of the night." Luna said as she pointed to the star.
"Even pieces of great art can have mistakes and still be considered beautiful and elegant." Celestia said, giving Luna a small smile.
"We understand this, but that star... it doesn't feel normal, like it's not an actual star..." Luna now averting her gaze from the sky and now looking at her older sister.
Celestia still giving her sister a smile. "I'm sure it is fine, your probably nerves about tomorrow's meeting with the officials from Saddle Arabia.
"I suppose your right, big sis." smiling back at Celestia with a chuckle before looking back at the night sky and seeing three shooting stars. "Oh, sis, look! Shooting stars, let us make a wish!"
"Alright, but we head off to bed soon, we must be up early."
Princess Luna and Celestia both look at the falling stars and close their eyes, making their wish. After they finished making their wishes and drinking their tea, they retreated into the castle to get a good nights rest.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed this prologue thus far, see y'all next time!
Golden Oaks Library
Twilight sits out on her porch looking through a large telescope. Looking just over the dark and gloomy Everfree forest at three strange lights which seem to be falling into the forest. Using her magic to write notes down about the anomaly on a scroll floating nearby. It was late into the night when Twilight's small purple scaled assistant walks up behind her.
"Twilight, you've been 'staring' at those 'shooting stars' for the past fifteen minutes, it's late, don't you think you should go to bed?" Spike said with a yawn.
"I've been "staring" at those "shooting stars" for fifteen minutes because you don't usually see an actual shooting star for more than a few seconds! Those lights are clearly not shooting stars, but meteors! which, by my calculations, are going to hit somewhere in the middle of the Everfree forest in approximately one minute! I need to know where they'll hit so I can go check them out in the morning, I'll want to know where to go with the girls." Twilight responded without taking a breath for her sentences.
"Well, have it your way Twi, I'm going to bed. Night" Spike rolled his eyes as he turned his back to the distracted lavender unicorn.
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Over the Everfree Forest
It felt strange to him, Ever since he became a pilot every drop to a planet's surface always went as followed: Drop on planet, shoot the enemy, get shot at by the enemy, almost get killed by enemy, shoot the enemy some more, win the fight, go home, eat, rest, repeat. Dropping onto a planet where the immediate task was not to shoot shit. Hell sat in his titan thinking of this until he was snapped out of his thoughts by the titans coms.
"Yo, Hell, you still with us? We're landing in a minute, what's our first course of action? Snake called out.
"We are going to need to find a vantage point that way we hopefully get a better view of our surroundings, we are going to be planet-side for sometime without reinforcements. So if we can't find a good vantage point, we'll have to make a camp and do some exploration when we've done that." Hell responded.
"Sir, command downloaded a small map of what they were able to scan of the planets surface into my data storage, when we land, I may be able to find us a reasonable vantage point." Clockwork said through the com.
"Landing in, fifteen seconds." the titan AI said.
"Alright people, get ready. We've got a lot of work to do, we wouldn't want those Militia bastards getting the better of us!" Hell shouted over the coms. Which was meet with a quick cheer from his squad mates.
"Landing in..
5...
4...
3...
2...
1..."
Hell could feel his titan's robotic ankles buckle as the titan made contact with the surface of the planet. The feeling of nausea rising inside him, the feeling quickly subsiding. Having dropped so many times, one gets used it. Not soon after Hell felt small shock waves indicating that his squad mates had landed as well. Hitting a few buttons on his titan's control broad making the Titan's hud come to life.
The forest was extremely dense, the trees were much taller the titans. they could barely see pass the brush at the edge of the small clearing. Which was only just big enough to fit the large titans. The only light that seem to be in the forest was in their small clearing from where they had dropped through the upper layer of trees.
The capsule on Snake's titan opened up for Clockwork, who then jumped to the ground below. Surveying the area for a moment before turning it's attention to Hell's Atlas.
"Commander, I suggest we find a place to set up a temporary command center. Also as we entered the troposphere of the planet, I noticed that it will start to precipitate soon." Clockwork said
"I sure hope they have a five star bed and breakfast nearby, we didn't get a chance to eat before we had to be down here." Snake grunted.
"Fuck that shit man, sleeping in the trees under the stars is the best." Ares said
"That's because your a damn tree-hugger Ares, but hey, if you like having a tree branch in your ass, that's your thing." Snake responded with a chuckle.
Hell rolled his eyes behind his helmet as the two continued to argue over the best places to sleep. He began to move his Atlas towards the treeline, calling out for his squad to follow, Hell was starting to get the feeling this mission was going to be a very strange, more strange than other recon missions. It was probably just the forest getting to him. Even while being in his titan, he felt like the dark, damp, and dreadful atmosphere of the forest getting to him inside his titan. Hell shook the thought and feeling out of him and continued to trudge through the dense forest in his mech.
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Fluttershy's Cottage
The dark interior of Fluttershy's cottage was filled with the many sounds of sleeping animals, Fluttershy awoke to the all too well known foot of Angel rapidly kicking at her tired form. Now half-awake, Fluttershy groggily sits up in her soft wood-framed bed, looking at Angel who was now standing next to her waving his hands around like a mad-rabbit. Look quite scared about something, which is rare for the little white devil.
"What's the matter Angel?" Fluttershy yawned while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
Angel changing his wild flailing to pointing to the open window that looked over the chicken coop and the Everfree Forest's edge. His ears standing up right indication he can hear something. Fluttershy now somewhat awake gets out of her soft, warm, and welcoming bed and flies to the window to try to hear or spot whatever Angel can hear. After staring out at the forest's edge and tilting her head so she could hear better, the faint noise of that of a big creature marching through the dense forest.
"Oh, Angel." Fluttershy chuckled, turning back to Angel. "It's probably just a Ursa minor returning back home for the night."
Just as Fluttershy left to window to return to her bed, a thunderous boom roared from outside making the yellow pegasus to dive under her covers in fear of the sudden sound. When the sound dissipated, and she found enough courage to emerge from under her bed sheets, shaking like a filly after a bad dream. She sees Angel who looks to just have gotten out of the shock himself after the loud noise, now looking at her as if to say, "I told you so!"
Fluttershy gulped, "I guess I'm going to have to ask Twilight in the morning to help investigate that..." starting to shake more just at the thought of having to go after whatever made that sound.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere in the Everfree Forest, Forty-five minutes Earlier
The conversation between the squad before, now long gone and replaced with the depressing silence that forest seemed to radiate. Only being broken by the rainfall and Clockwork every so often to give the team an update until they reached a large cave which was to be where Clockwork was leading them so that they can make their temporary base of operations. They would need to find a better place soon though, the forest was a good place to hide, but not very good for operating a supply base.
After what felt like hours of walking in their titans to get to the cave, now they stare at the entrance of the "large cave". The entrance was clearly much bigger than even the Atlas. The inside of the cave was even darker then the forest. As the titans came to a stop, the noise they made echoed through the cave adding to it's eeriness.
"Well, looks nice, but I bet there's better real estate somewhere else." Snake said.
"What? You afraid of the dark, Snake?" Ares said jokingly.
"No!" Snake snapped back, "It just givin' me the creeps."
Hell pushing a few buttons on his control panel , and grabbing his rifle as the cockpit's door opened up letting him jump to the soggy ground. Taking his rifle and turning on it's attached flashlight, he approaches the cave, gun forward checking the darkness for any possible threats. After a few minutes of looking around the mouth of the cave, seeing that the coast was clear Hell turns around and walks back to his squad.
"The cave looks clear. Snake, Clockwork, get the gear and set up camp, we're sleeping here tonight." Hell said. "Ares, I want you be first watch. Also I want a quick recon of the nearby brush. Make sure there's no dangerous creatures out there or any Militia scouts."
"Got it, commander." Ares respond, turning his titan around and headed back into the forest,
Hell watched as Ares walked back into the forest, his titan, even through it is a giant robot, it moved in near silence as it re-entered the brush. After the Strider disappeared into the brush, Hell turned his focus to Snake and Clockwork setting up a few tents in the mouth of the cave and turning on a few lamps which did little to light the area, but was just enough to be workable. Rejoining the two Hell helped set up the last tent and grabbed some fire wood. After all was done Hell ordered Clockwork to enter standby mode.
"Hurry up, Hell. It's cold in this damned cave." Snake said while taking off his helmet. Revealing his pale scared face and his buzz cut hair. His breath visible in the cold air of the night.
Feeling the cold as well, Hell quickly set up a fire place and lit the wood ablaze with a lighter. The fire did much more the light the cave. The soldiers could clearly see just how large their cave really was. But most importantly the fire warmed up their cold forms. After a short time of enjoying the warmth and eating rations. Hell was starting to feel his eyelids become heavy. Sleep has been a rare commodity for the past week. The thought of exploring an uncharted planet so far from any star system, and having no reinforcements to back you up if things go to shit, unnerved him. His squad was his family, he couldn't live with himself if he lost them.
As Hell was getting up to get to his tent, he heard a sound, but this sound caught is attention. It was different from the noises of the forest, and it differently wasn't a titan. It sounded like... wings, but too loud to be a simple bird's. Hell didn't know what inhabited this world, what ever was making that noise had to be big.
"Hey, Snake, you hear that?" Hell said, as he started to wonder closer to the opening of the cave.
"Hear what?" Snake replied
"Sounds like... flapping wings." Hell said, pulling out a pistol from his belt as he took steps outside of the cave. What ever was making the noise had to be getting closer, being it was getting louder and louder, very fast. Snake grabbed his shotgun and joined Hell outside the cave.
Hell put his finger to his ear, "Ares, we're hearing a strange noise here at camp, are you hearing it?" Hell waited a second for a response, but Ares didn't answer. "Ares, respond." Hell said a few times, still with no response.
Snake and Hell scanning the sky for what ever was making the sound. As the beating of wings became more and more clear. It wasn't long before they spotted the cause, the night making it hard at first but as the creature landing infront of the cave between them and their titans, they could see crimson red scales, two huge wings, four legs, and long neck with a large snake like head topped with two curved horns atop it's head.
Hell and Snake looking on in awe the beast in front of them. "I...is that what I think it is?" Snake said in the worried voice.
"Ye...yeah...I do believe that is a dragon...and honest to god dragon." Even as he said it, Hell couldn't believe it, a dragon, an actual dragon, just like all those silly fantasy stories his dad used to tell him when he was a kid.
The dragon putting folding it's wings to it's body turned to the cave, to noise the two, bipedal creatures, as it did so, it put it's head low and puffed a cloud of smoke into the faces of the strange creatures at the entrance to it's home. It wanted them gone. It reared it's head back and took a deep breath.
Hell's helmet filtered out most of the smoke making so he could only smell the sulfur the smoke left behind. Unfortunately, Snake wasn't as lucky since he took his helm off, he now sounded like he was about to cough up a lung. Hell's view changed from the ally to the dragon as he saw it's head pull back and what look like fire escaping it's mouth. Just as Hell realized what was happening, fire shot forward from the dragon's mouth. Hell pushed Snake and himself away from the inferno just in time as it flew past them and into the cave. Standing up, Hell took aim with his gun and fired at the dragon. The low caliber rounds bouncing off of the dragon's scales.
"Aw shit, Atlas, switch to Guardian mode!" Hell shouted, hearing the titan's AI voice respond, "Affirmative" Seeing his titan come to life on the other side of the fierce beast and start to charge at it.
The titan ran up behind the dragon, before it even realized the titan's presence, the titan slammed itself into the dragon causing it to stagger, before the beast could fully recover from the sudden attack, the Atlas delivered a right hook to the dragon's side. Hell watched as his mech defended him while he helped Snake.
"Looks like the neighbors, have come to say hello." Snake coughed.
"I think we might have made camp in it's house, or it's trying to eat us, either way I'd like to not be roasted on the first day on a new planet." Hell replied, still watching the dragon and Atlas fight.
"Where the hell is Ares when you need him?" said Snake
"I don't know, but we have to deal with that thing first, so watch my back I'm gonna get my titan." Hell said, as he started to run off to his titan who was blocking a flurry of attacks from the Dragon's claws.
Snake stood up getting closer to the crimson beast, as he did so, he fired a few rounds at the dragon, taking the dragons attention just long enough for the Atlas to deliver an upper cut into the monster's jaw sending the dragon reeling. Hell took the opportunity to hop on top of the giant robot, open the hatch and jump into the Atlas. Just as the hud came to life, the dragon slams itself into Hell's titan, quickly recovering from the attack, Hell swung punch after punch. keeping the beast under pressure. Now that man and titan where one the fight was becoming one sided.
Until the dragon caught the Atlas's fist, Hell responded with another swing from his other fist which the dragon also caught with ease. Hell tried to break the titan out of the dragon's grip but it was stronger then he thought. Hell began to struggle to get the titan free, this was so much more then he was expecting from the beast.
Snake watched from a distance, knowing getting too close would either get him injured or killed. Screaming internally knowing he can't help Hell, his titan would take too long to get started due to it's nuclear core. Snaked watched and hoped Hell could get free and kick the dragon's ass.
The dragon held the titans arms out stretched, it stared at the weird metal creature that ate the smaller creature, these weird beings invaded it's home. He had enough of these creatures. It cocked it's head back taking a deep breath wanting this fire ball to melt right through the metal man.
Hell couldn't see anyway out other than ejecting, he didn't want to abandon his Atlas so early into the mission but it's looking as if he needs to. As Hell refocuses his attention back to the dragon his eyes widen as he sees the dragon getting ready to breath fire again right into hull of the mech. Quickly he pushes the buttons on the control panel to activate ejection, as his hands reach down to grab the lever, a loud ring is heard before the dragon's head bursts like a watermelon spraying blood, bits of skull, and brain all over the Atlas, covering the hud in thick blood. The dragon's limp form falls over letting go of the Atlas. A hush falls over the clearing in front of the cave as the ringing fades away. Hell was surprised by the dragon's death, as he looked from where the shot came from, Ares's Strider emerged from the tree line with the barrel of his plasma railgun smoking from the full power shot it just fired. When the Strider fully emerged from the forest into the clearing, the Strider opened so it's pilot could drop to the ground. When he did, Ares stood there for a moment looking at the headless corpse of the once-was dragon before drawing his attention to his squad leader's Atlas then Snake.
Ares looked down and sighed "So, we're on an uncharted planet, that has huge dragons of fantasy, what's next? Fucking talking unicorns?"
Author's Note
I hope you liked the chapter, my friends. Sorry it took so long to publish. I was planning on letting this story die, but after much thought and titanfall 2 coming out, I thought, "ya know, fuck it, might as well try to finish this." I'm glad to be semi-back and writing again. I hope I'll see you in the next chapter.
