It was now the dead of night. Anthony and Rebecca had been stalking through these mountains for over a day now, following tracks and signs, which were rather obvious in the case of a Titan. Atlases and Ogres were the heavier of the three Titan platforms and Malcovitch's upgrades made his Atlas all the heavier. Despite this, Malcovitch seemed able to work around this. His Atlas Titan's enhanced speed, stealth, and agility made it very possible for Malcovitch to even create confusing tracks and trails in the rocky, craggy terrain. Both Militia pilots were now more than exhausted..... Anthony found himself glad that he had brought extra water and rations for the two of them, along with some caffeinated drinks that he decided the crew should have access to. What upset him however, was that they seemed to have just about lost the hostile pilot.

"This guy....," Rebecca began, "He is really starting to piss me off. He's too evasive, too resourceful."

"He's an inventor and a pilot in one, what do you expect?" I retorted.

She could only sigh and silently agree. We continued along, attempting to find where the trail continued. This continued for a few more hours. With it being four in the morning, it was time to stop the search and make to rest. We decided to sleep in our Titans for the remainder of the night, the machines being the safest places for us at the moment. We put them on autopilot, allowing the AI's to take control.

I sighed and leaned back to unwrap another ration bar. "Jeeves... could you alert me if trouble pops up?"

"Of course. Would you like some water to go with that?" He activated the hatch to the storage compartment containing the water bottles.

I chuckled and nodded. "Sure would. Thanks for reminding me," I said as I grabbed one of the half full bottles.

"You're very welcome Sir Dubias. Get some rest. Vanessa and I will keep a lookout."

I nodded and opened a channel with Rebecca.

She smiled and made to speak first. "Guess the fun continues later huh?"

I nodded. "Looks like it. That guy is good at playing hide and seek I'll give him that. It's late though and we've been up for what, a day and a half?"

"Just about...." She yawned tiredly.

I had an angry look on my face by then.

"Hey," she started, "Don't be like that, we knew it would be a tough mission. Took us a year and a half to get this far. We won't let him get away this time."

"I can't help it. I feel like he's toying with us...." I muttered.

"He's a psychopath, whadya expect?" she laughed, "He's just like any other psycho terrorist. Put a bullet in him and it's all over. Come on, cheer up. It looks like he's more interested in running than hunting which gives us a chance to talk and rest." She looked around and a pang of regret crossed her features. "Besides, catching him in this terrain is next to impossible with the gear he has.... He's stuck on this world now. Distress beacon on that IMC Destroyer was disabled and knowing how their protocols work, no one will be coming to rescue him. There was no response in the communications logs, and those were intact and fully connected, though how is an absolute mystery to me."

"Ballsy crew," I answered simply.

"I will give them that," she muttered in response, "They did manage to keep the superstructure and some systems of their ship intact so I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised. Regardless it made it easier for us to cut them off."

"Don't forget that we're cut off too...." I retorted sadly.

"Right..... but we got an army and he now has nothing but his Titan. I doubt there is any way he can repair it if it takes heavy enough damage, and if it does, it'll be that much easier to hunt him."

"A fair point...." I replied, "But he still has an uncanny ability to hide and strike from the shadows."

"That's why you have me. You remember what my skill set is don't you?" she laughed.

"How can I forget," I retorted, laughing along with her, "When you're not out being a ghost, you're boasting about how awesome you are."

"Heeeey, I'm not ALWAYS like that."

"You are often enough."

We both shared a hearty laugh at that. After our conversation, we spent some time in silence, simply eating our food and sipping our water as we got lost in our thoughts. My thoughts turned to home.... and to how my life was before all this started. I tried my best to focus on all the good times, both before the IMC's return and after. There were a few, just enough to keep me positive.... most of the time. Birthdays and Christmas with Mom and Dad.... Halloween, Easter. Fun times I had at the local fair with my family and a few local friends I had. Meeting Rebecca and finding out how awesome a team we are. Going and getting a little tipsy with the crew after a great victory on the battlefield. So many good times, and I would cherish them all. If there's one good thing I can say about my life, it's that I have no regrets, and that made things a little easier to go on. That doesn't mean I don't remember the bad though.... the darker moments.... my family's death, my first kill, stuff like that.... being young and naive wasn't always a good thing. It had it's perks but it made me vulnerable. I remember the lessons those days taught me though, and they give me drive.

My thoughts were soon interrupted however, and I saw Rebecca's face change to an expression of mild surprise. Something was on the motion tracker and our AI's saw fit to notify us with a soft alarm.

"Talk to me Jeeves, what is it?" I asked.

"Unknown contacts, multiple, none as large as a Titan however," he replied. "Indigenous life forms perhaps. I suggest we investigate."

I nodded and looked to Rebecca. "I guess we have work to do."

Forest Talon never felt more alive. After the reports of strange sounds of combat and machines in the mountains had come in after the crash, he had been dispatched with his squad. His squad leader hid behind the boulder to his left and his other two squadmates hid along a larger boulder to his right.

The squad leader looked at him and gave him the signal to investigate but be stealthy. He stayed quiet and began advancing to the edge of the cliff, hunched down. What he saw below him shocked him. Two massive mechanical bipeds with large weapons akin to rifles, though one looked longer and boxier.

He waved his squad leader over, who, upon seeing the bipeds, was initially shocked, based on the expression he gave.

"King Blazewind would have a field day with tech like that," he whispered, "Not to mention the reward we would get for taking it down and bringing it to him....."

Talon froze. "How would we bring them down.....?"

"A surprise attack. Hit them from the rear. They're bound to have more weak points. Get your blades and rifles ready." He said as he looked back to the rest of the squad.... however he had failed to notice the gentle hydraulic sounds coming from the slimmer one noticing and looking up at them.

"Uh.... boss?" Talon spoke up.

"Shhh, keep your voice..... down...." he noticed too late that they were spotted, and he was looking face to face at the slimmer one.

I couldn't believe what I saw.... creatures straight out of mythology and Rebecca was the first to notice. She was aiming right at them though.

"You know," I hear her say, "You shouldn't whisper about ambushing a girl right next to her ear." I could hear the dark, humorous sarcasm in her voice.

Apparently she had picked up what they were saying thanks to the ability for her Titan to pick up on more acute noise in otherwise silent environments. But something else struck me as odd.

"Wait wait wait, they spoke Engli....?"

"RUUUUN!!!" I heard one of the gryphons yell and they began to take flight.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!!!" Rebecca fired her plasma railgun, picking one out of the sky. Judging by the fact that they were planning to attack in the first place, I took no issue with it. I took aim and fired, a burst from my cannon took down one more, another burst hit another. The last was almost out of range but Rebecca was already scoped in.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit!"

Forest Talon's entire squad had just been obliterated just because the thin robot had the uncanny ability to hear whispering. His heart was pounding and he was flapping as fast and as hard as he could to get away. He heard a mechanical whining coming from behind him and he flapped even harder. His muscles ached already. He looked behind and saw the smaller one's boxy rifle glowing at the tip, as if ready to spew a superheated projectile. He immediately made to dive and dodge.

Just after the last gryphon dove, she fired, and missed. "FUCK!"

It was too late to take another shot. He was already out of sight, likely flying down the mountain to tell his comrades what had happened.

"That's no good...." I muttered. "Karish?" I called after keying on my long range comms.

"Mon we have been tracking you for ages. We saw what happened, what was that!?" He bellowed

"Easy Karish, they were whispering about attacking us. Rebecca's Titan picked it all up and AI cleaned up the noise no doubt. A little too quite even to whisper without being heard by us at that range."

"Well you let one get away. Orbital images show settlements throughout the region and he's flying towards one that looks like a lower tech military outpost," Karish explained. "He's in quite a hurry after that display."

"Fuck.... send a couple jumpships, we need a team to disassemble our Titans and bring em back with us," I ordered, sounding frustrated, "No use leaving em for the locals to find. First alien species we encounter and it's already gone fucking FUBAR."

"They're already on their way. And hey maybe it was just one nation. Don't judge the masses for the action of a few yeah?"

"Let's hope they have the same mindset...." I muttered.

(Two days later)

Celestia and Luna were in their dining room within the castle. Between them this time was a small portion of the long table, a cup of tea for each of them, and a Chess board. Celestia looked rather confident whereas Luna looked like she was halfway between having a heart attack and having a fucking fit. Ah the joys of sibling rivalry.

She caught something in her eye. Luna's king piece had only one escape route and one of her rooks were guarding it. The solar diarch still had two rooks and a bishop blocking all other escape routes. One thing Luna hadn't noticed yet was that Celestia's queen piece was in a perfect position to eliminate Luna's guarding rook. The eldest sister took the opportunity and closed the gap. "Checkmate," she said smugly.

"NOOOOOOOO! I WAS OOOH SO CLOSE!?" Luna whined.

Celestia could only giggle at her expense. "Better luck next time," she sang teasingly.

"I want a rematch!" Luna demanded and began resetting the board.

"Oh alright, one more." She made to help reset the board but they were interrupted (AGAIN!?).

Celestia looked to the dining room door, shocked to see a Guard rushing over urgently, holding up an envelope in his magic grasp. "Urgent message from the spy network. Communications intercept amongst the Gryphon Rebels."

Celestia took the letter and opened it to read.

"What does it say....?" Luna said after a short wait.

Celestia sighed. "It seems our otherworldly guests experienced an ambush attempt. A Gryphon Rebel scouting party had all but one team member annihilated and he reported what happened. His team had tried to ambush two very LARGE bipedal machines."

"Sounds exactly like one of the war machines described in the recon report earlier this week. At least we know they won't ally with the Gryphons....." Luna theorized.

Celestia sighed once more, "Here's hoping. We should go ahead and attempt contact with these aliens before things escalate further."

Luna nodded. "I'm way ahead of you. Valiance called for some engineers from her airship crew to help set up a long range communicator in the observatory at my request. She actually seems rather excited at the idea of first contact.... though I should probably inform her of what's happened."

"Then let's make haste to the observatory," Celestia said, concluding their conversation. They picked up their tea and left the dining room.

Author's Note

Okay so that went well... or so we should hope eh? XD