Prologue
"We're getting our asses kicked guys! Let's show the IMC what we can do!"
"Dekk, move! Get your ass out there and do something useful!" The radio blared, much to the discomfort of the man subject under it's powerful blast of sound and general frustrated screaming. He looked up from his hands, and gazed over to a newly acquired waypoint on his HUD. He pushed himself up off of the floor, walking over to the doorway and grabbing the carbine off of the table beside it without pause. Almost as soon as he cleared the doorway, it was as if he entered an entirely different reality, bullets whizzing by into the wall, distant, and not so distant, explosions rocking the buildings and floor beneath him. He looked down the road, past the stores and garages on the sides, to the approaching pillar of human engineering and mechanical mastery.
"Titanfall in two minutes, standby." A boyish voice announced in his radio once more.
He would have been captivated by it, had it not immediately unloaded a burst of chaingun fire into the windows above him. Faintly, he could hear the screaming of some poor bastards the Militia usually threw in the midst of the conflict just to make things difficult and confusing for the enemy. It hardly ever was though, most of them being gunned down, stepped on, squashed, blown up, vaporized, incapacitated, decapitated, heads twisted into 180's and so forth. Dekk had hardly ever seen one of those soldiers contribute to something useful except occasionally pull out an ARCHER rocket launcher and slightly damage an enemy Titan's shield, only to be horrendously killed. But, just because they weren't exactly useful, didn't mean that he didn't feel bad for them.
He immediately cloaked, and crept towards the opening nearby, a small little showcase room for finely tuned, but now terribly scorched and torched cars. He waited for the hulking monstrosity of a machine to pass by, even if just by a little, before he burst into a sprint, running towards the giant metal creature. He took to the wall beside him, and began running up it at a slant, still approaching in his cloak. As the Titan continued to unload into the Militia forces, killing all manners of opponents, Dekk used his Jump-Pack to hop up into the air from the wall, latching on to the rear of the machine. Ripping open a latch on the back, and pulling out one of the Atlas's main shield cores, he brought the R-101C barrel down into the slight opening and let forth a wave of lead death. However, judging from the status bar on his HUD, the bullets penetrating the shield bar did a minimum amount of damage to the overall integrity of the Titan.
"Titanfall in one minute, thirty seconds."
The Titan stopped for a moment, and then a loud hissing sound pierced through the air. Dekk pulled back, and turned around to see a shotgun hovering dangerously close to his face. Bringing up his boot, it slammed into the hand-grip, sending the weapon flying from it's owner, a female Pilot wearing a Blue Visor helmet. He raised his own weapon, but it was smacked away by one hand, then the other came flying towards his own open-face helmet. He raised his left fist and stopped the blow, then retaliated by using his right to gut punch the opponent. She recoiled and bent over slightly, showing little signs of damage. She pulled a handgun, a heavy-looking metal revolver, and took a shot, the bullet embedding itself deep in his leg. His HUD flared, and instinct took over. He brought both legs up into the air before she could get off another shot, and used the Drop-Jump pads in both heels, kicking her square in the chest and shattering the rib-cage, sending bone shrapnel into her lungs and heart.
"Titanfall in one minute, approximately."
With a sickening crunch, she flew off of the Titan and slammed into an adjacent wall.
"Sorry lady, maybe if yo-" His raspy voice was suddenly cut off, abruptly by a hand, a large, metal hand, that reached up and plucked him off of the Titan's back, then proceeded to throw him down the street.
He tumbled and rolled, his HUD flaring as his own muscles and body flared in agony. Managing to stop himself, he noticed that his rifle sat very far ahead of him, and before he could think of moving toward it, a large metal boot slammed down over it, crushing the weapon. He followed the boot up, examining the pumps and plating that covered the weak-points in the structure, to the visor and the main operating 'eye' module that reported back to the Titan AI and provided sight for it.
As if detecting his own eye contact, it seemed to pulse in bright blue light.
"Fuck."
"Titanfall in thirty seconds, be ready, Pilot."
It felt as if the giant monster heard that little voice in his helmet, and proceeded to charge forward, intent on squashing the soldier. He pushed himself up off his feet and ran in the other direction, understandably, swearing and cussing the entire length of the street. Suddenly, a volley of rocket fire flew and screamed over and around him, exploding into the walls, cars, random soldiers who just happened to be there and the buildings ahead. He ran, but time seemed to slow down as he turned, one last missile flying right toward him. He hopped up into the air, and right before detonation, used his Jump-Pack. As he boosted himself up, the explosion expanded, pushing him up through the air, and sending his body further down the street. He could now see that he had received some wound on his face, blood spattered on his HUD visor, but he could not feel anything. Perhaps the addition of the relative 'health' bar did serve a purpose.
He looked up, and for some unresponsive, purely tactical AI, without emotion, it seemed to hate him, as if seeking revenge. It walked slowly, the heavy boots thundering into the road, almost reveling in the moment.
"Titan ready, call it in."
And that he did. A fiery orb began to fall from the sky, and right before that giant Atlas began to carve him a new anal orifice, a large mechanical monster, much like that which was to kill him, slammed into the floor ahead of him, a dome of electrical energy covering it. As debris and parts of asphalt rained around him, Dekk initiated AI Guard Mode from his position, lying on the floor, dying. The large Ogre stood in the smoke, a heavy 40mm Cannon sitting on the right arm, a shield materializing in the air before it, catching bullets and stray missiles as they flew toward it.
"We've been defeated, everyone to the evac point!"
The rain of bullets stopped, and hovered there, then were cast back at hyper-sonic speed, slamming into the Atlas Titan and sending it backwards. A small timer began to tick down at the top of his HUD, but he ignored it and continued to watch, despite the blood loss dizzying him. The Ogre stood, then ran towards the smaller Titan, punching the Atlas and sending it into Nuclear Alarm. A bright white light illuminated the area, and the Ogre, "Hunter", thundered back over and pulled the Pilot up into the canopy before detonation.
As the blast shook the machine, Dekk wheezed, "Alright Hunt, let's get the hell out of here."
He looked back to the timer, about twelve seconds until touchdown, meaning around twenty until dust-off. He pushed the Titan forward, battling enemy strays and pushing past the enemy frontline. Seeing a missile lock on his HUD, he recast the shield, caught the ARCHER rocket, and tossed it right back at the unfortunate grunt who thought he could make a difference. Before he could get any further, another Titan stepped in the way, the nimbler yet more fragile Strider variant.
"Don't have time for this shit." Dekk grumbled in annoyance, grabbing the other Titan by both arms, and pulling outwards.
The other Titan didn't seem to be in a compromising situation, and Dekk could almost feel the other Pilot preparing that conveniently placed rocket pod on that Titan. Dekk activated his own custom protocol, putting his own personal modifications to use. Activating that big red button that sat on the far right side of the cockpit, the screen before him took an amber hue as the pumps and hydraulic muscles in the arms and legs of the Titan began to pulse with energy. "Hunter" yanked off the left arm of the opposing Titan, and bashed it across the main chassis.
The Strider began to fire the rocket volley into the ground as it fell on its side, but before it could pick itself up, the strong metallic grip of the Ogre was upon it once more.
Twilight Sparkle, most often, was considered to be one of the best versed and knowledgeable ponies in the entire town. Or she considered herself to be. These two statements would go hand in hand, or, hoof and hoof at most times. However, this was not one of those times, mainly due to the fact that a giant ball of fire had pushed itself off of the moon in the middle of the night, and was intent on visiting for a nice cup of tea right in the middle Ponyville. At first, Twilight assumed Princess Luna was just enjoying her godlike magical power over the stars and night sky above, but correspondence between the two proved otherwise.
Princess Luna had no idea what the hell was happening.
Princess Celestia had no idea what the hell was happening.
Nopony had any idea why there was a absurdly large flaming meteorite heading on a collision course with probably the unluckiest town on the planet, but they did know one thing; it was coming in fast.
That, dear friends, is why at this current moment in time, the entire town of Ponyville has erupted in panic. Ponies threw themselves through windows, shattered glass on the street, some ponies even rubbing themselves on the floor and rolling to extinguish a fire that hasn't even arrived yet.
"Spike!" She called out over the loud panicking of the mobs below.
She could see from her balcony, in the dim light, the dragon in question, hauling a lassoed Rarity through the roads, his little clawed feet pattering on the ground at a speed comparable to an automatic machine gun. Behind him, the visible forms of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and the very timid Fluttershy struggled to keep up with the miniature 'hero'. Above, in the sky, she could see unicorn transports being held by pegasus Royal Guard, positioning themselves around the predicted collision site.
"I'm coming Twilight! I got Rarit-Y!" He was accented very profoundly by the floor with whom he crashed into.
Applejack and Pinkie managed to heft the unconscious reptilian fellow up, and carry him while he still clung to the rope hastily fastened around Rarity's waist. Somewhere in the distance, her brother, Captain Shining Armor, was leading and directing the evacuation and the defensive protocols and measures, establishing huge waves of master unicorn spellcasters to push back the potential disaster.
"Alright everypony, into the Library, now!"
She looked once more to the large orb, then teleported down to her friends to help.