War. In the face of conflict and impossible odds, champions always rise. For throughout the ages, the crucible of war has always forged distinguished individuals capable of incredible feats. Now more than ever this is all too true. The Frontier Civil War has been the scar of the age, the fiery crucible in which champions are born to this day. Who are these Champions? They are Pilots, warriors of speed, agility, stealth, and accuracy, paired with their greatest weapon of all, enormous mechanical soldiers, loud and proud, deadly and devastating, the Titans. Our story follows two particular individuals. Frontier Veterans by the names of Anthony Dubias and Rebecca Thorne.

Our story begins.... with a manhunt....

[Suggested Listening]

My name is Anthony Dubias. I am a ship Commander and Titan Pilot of the Frontier Militia. I grew up on the Frontier ya know. My family and I were farmers, happy and content with our lives as we thrived. I won't deny that the first half of my childhood was amazing..... then the IMC returned after years of being preoccupied at the core worlds.... They tried to claim all that we had worked so hard to build ourselves, saying "This is our property because we brought you guys here" or some shit like that. There were no legal IMC claims out here.... They tried to take over, tried to steal all that we worked so hard to build..... executed a man just down the road for not giving up his product without pay..... My parents and baby sister were next though not before my dad put a shotgun blast in the IMC representative's chest..... Militia resistance came all too late to save em.... but they weren't too late to save me. I had hid that night until they showed up, and lo and behold, my uncle Ricardo was the Militia platoon leader that saved my ass, directly no less, he fought on the front line. I vowed vengeance on the IMC that day, fought and trained so hard.... My first time in a Titan I felt sooooo powerful. Now here I am, hunting a terrible threat on an unknown world. My ship high in orbit and the enemy ship nothing more than orbital debris, we had hunted this man for seventeen months and now we finally have him cornered in a jungle..... a jungle filled with dense fog....

Focus, that is what I knew. Me, my teammate, and my target are all that exist in this world right now. In my mind's eye everything else was an element of the field, a statistical number. Cover size, strength, and thickness. Number of available allies. Number of rounds for my titan's 40 mil. Man and machine melded together in the most deadly display known to humanity, I surged my Ogre forward through the trees. Damage to the titan's right arm was superficial but damage to the left leg left a noticable limp. Time to adjust strategy. Beside me, my partner stalked along in her Strider, Plasma Railgun at the ready. My comms crackled to life, breaking my focus just a bit.

"This guy is fast....." I heard Rebecca say, "Too fast. That can't be a normal Titan."

"Fast? What about stealthy? I've never seen Titans cloak before.... stay sharp...." I replied.

Our target, obviously, was the subject of our brief conversation. A brilliant mind of Russian and German descent by the name of Gerald Malcovitch. Hell of an inventor, but on the wrong side. His titan was a heavily modified Atlas with notable differences in the appearance of the legs and back. The beast was almost as fast as a Stryder, and it had a stealth module now too courtesy of it's own pilot. The emblem I had seen on his titan was a flaming black skull with some kind of demon tongue.... what is this guy a sadist? I preferred the Phoenix emblem myself, same as Rebecca. We were the Rising Flame me and my buddy. Rebecca.... the first person besides my uncle and cousins that I could call trustworthy.... that I could call a friend. In the back of my head I laughed even as we continued hunting. We certainly weren't compatible as a couple at the moment. The first time we met we were arguing like one on the battlefield though. Constantly getting in each other's way and stealing each other's kill marks, stuff like that. You wouldn't call us friends by a long shot that day.... but later that week, oh man that was hell. We had a conversation after we lost most of our platoon.... decided that working together was a far better idea.... how we survived to have that conversation well that was a miracle. In any case, we started communicating with each other, set up a private peer-to-peer channel even to help block out distractions. We became unstoppable. We became gods of the battlefield. We were reforged in the crucible of war. So many instances where one of us should have died but the other always came in the nick of time to save the first. Militia command noticed our unbelievable performance and teamed us up. Even gave us our own platoon and ship. A couple hundred strong, a quartet of other pilots under our command, and a carrier that had been "liberated" from an IMC shipyard that we named "Fyrebyrd". One proud team we were.

That was the day they gave us the mission to hunt this inventive psychopath that were now chasing through the woods.

The comms crackled again with a male, Russian accent coming through. He had hacked our comms....

"Awww do the two little birdies still want to play? Come on then. I'm waiting," he taunted.

I growled into the comm. "Malcovitch you'll die today!"

What can I say? My anger was warranted considering he was the one that murdered my parents..... yeah he was that "dignitary's" escort, you know the one that my dad shot before getting brutally murdered.

I saw the blur of movement and I rushed ahead, anger getting the better of me. I barely registered Rebecca yelling, "Anthony WAIT!" into the comms.

My Ogre stepped into a clearing by my command and came to a halt. My burst fire 40 mil was primed and ready. Yet I saw no sign of Malcovitch.... Until a cloaked giant fist came into contact with the left side of my Titan's chassis, sending my Ogre staggering for a second. I turned and fired on the recloaking form of Malcovitch's Atlas but it was too late. Scored one or two hits on the shield and he vanished back into the fog and trees.

Rebecca finally caught up. "Anthony what the hell are you THINKING!?" she screamed in her... not gonna lie... adorable French accent.

I sighed, trying to catch my breath and reign in the anger. "That bastard NEEDS to die," I growled.

"Look I know you're angry but rushing off like that isn't gonna help," She explained, "You gotta reign it in. He's trapped and running like a coward but he's still a real threat. Keep it together.... alright?"

I looked at the small window at the top right of my HUD where her face was on full display through the channel. Her expression was one of genuine concern. I nodded in response. Then the top left of the HUD lit up with Malcovitch's face. "Awwww, what an adorable couple," he taunted again.

I growled in anger but the look Rebecca gave me helped me reign it in.

We continued on, hunting. That's when we heard it. A jumpship engine.

I keyed the fleetcom to the Fyrebyrd. "Hey Lieutenant. We're hearing a jumpship down here. Did you deploy any?"

Our third in command, a brawny dark skinned man by the name of Karish responded. "Nah mon, all dropships are aboard and accounted for. The target must have his own on the surface," he said in his Jamaican accent.

I cursed under my breath. Rebecca and I rushed forth. If he escaped and got back to the IMC it would take months to catch him again.

"No no no no no...." I muttered as we came to the next clearing. An autopiloted Atlas was cloaking as Malcovitch waved at us nonchalantly.

"See ya later ya?" he said, mocking us. "I have places to be."

The hatch closed and we opened fire, doing our best to damage the jumpship. We broke the shields and did some damage but it was too late...... he had escaped.... then I remembered something.

Rebecca confirmed it. "His titan....." she said.

Before she could say anything further an arc blast struck her titan in the back, downing her shields.

"SHIT!" I got between her and the now decloaked assailant. Apparently Malcovitch had given his Atlas an AI upgrade as well. I aimed and fired a few bursts but some were dodged as the titan did one, two, three, FOUR dashes, each evading rounds while the shields blocked the rest as the Atlas closed the distance. I threw out a punch with my Ogre, forcing the Atlas back.

Rebecca had recovered by then and tackled the enemy Titan, giving me a moment to contact the Fyrebyrd. "Karish! Malcovitch is escaping!"

"I see it, one IMC jumpship made it's way out of atmosphere and is preparing to leave system. Fighters are pursuing and engaging. Looks damaged already, what did you do to it?"

"I'll tell ya later just....!" I was unable to respond when Karish cut me off. I had rejoined the furball when the Atlas had kicked Rebecca off by then. I stomped on the chassis and finished it off with the entirety of my Ogre's weight.

"Shit! IMC DESTROYER! HE MUST HAVE SENT A DISTRESS SIGNAL! Fighters are scoring hits on his jumpship but it looks like it's spinning up to jump mon! Sending a pickup to ya!"

"What about the Destroyer!?"

"We're engaging. Thing is pounding us but we're pounding back. Fighters launched and a couple bombas have already scored a hit on one of their engines."

Rebecca and I disembarked our titans to board the jumpship Karish had sent when we heard him curse loudly yet again. "What is it Karish!?"

"Malcovitch he.... he jumped his craft into the hangar of the destroya...."

"Is he dead!? PLEASE TELL ME HE DIED!" I screamed.

"Nah mon he survived it. He's got balls, I'll give him that," he growled, "Destroya jumped blind mon, get aboard, I got a fix on their trajectory. We managed to fuck em up good before they did too. Looks like they'll be ending up in unexplored space."

"Pilot, get us to the Fyrebyrd PRONTO!" Rebecca yelled into the jumpship cockpit.

"Aye ma'am."

Within minutes we were aboard. The Fyrebyrd jumped in hot pursuit.

Author's Note

Yes guys I am back in the writing business as inspiration has arrived from the GREAT BEYOND! Does this mean my Light Behind the Veil story is failed? No it does not, hiatus will likely drop shortly. Simply had the inspiration for this one and had to get started. Far from done fellas.