Its been a few weeks, and I had started training the girls in the new playground that Luna had built for us. It had walls, gaps to slide under, and generally had everything needed to train a new pilot. We had also been practicing the pilots gauntlet in the titans shared simulation.

I told them about a few of the weapons that were in the second game, and showed them how to use all the weapons.

But like all countries at war, I eventually had to deploy.

I was called to the commanders office while I was having Rarity and Twilight learn how to wallrun better, and Rainbow how to slide properly. She had the angle down, but she could never hold the motion, and she was to slow on the momentum and struggled with the transition to and from running. I got a call over my helmet.

"Cooper, we need you to come to the command center. We have to talk." Celestia says. I nod, and say ok. Then I have the girls stop, and Twilight show me where the command center is after giving the girls the rest of the day off.

Reaching the command center, I see the two commanders at a holo table,looking at the terrain of someplace. Looking up as I enter, they becon me over.

"Cooper, its good to see you. We need your help. We have an ore harvesters that has been attacked recently, and have only barely ever held off the advances. We need to send you out to hold it until we can send some more reinforcements to hold it again. You'll have some forces there to assist you, but they are mostly grunts. You will have Luna assisting you in her Titan, and she should be able to use her magic to aid you. We have also had several million rounds made for your weapon, and if you will give me a moment before you leave, I can give you a warp pocket for your ammo. The terrain is fairly rough. You will need to be careful, we won't know what they will throw at you." Celestia says. I nod.

"Yes commander. What's our exit strategy if we loose the harvester? Also, how many troops can we expect when we arrive?" I ask. Liluna answers.

"Our getaway will be a single airship that will pick us up on yours or my order, and we will hold while the grunts get on. We can expect about 50 men to be there, and they will be getting an ammo drop every fifteen minutes." I nod again.

"When do we drop?" I ask, and Luna grins.

We are in the airship to drop us off over the harvester. Me and Luna have both geared up, and I am now rocking a SMR launcher. It fires micro missiles at enemies. Its my current anti titan weapon.

The warp pocket that Celestia made was a spell that would warp ammo to certain pockets, depending on which ammo was in the pocket. One had Flatline ammo, another had ammo for my RE-45, and the last had ammo for the SMR.

We passed over a large area with several large rock formations, and got about a hundred feet from the ground, and me and Luna jumped from the airship. We hit the ground, and I had my rifle up instantly. Luna had her G2A4 Scout again, with a B3 Wingman pistol as her sidearm, and a mag launcher as her anti titan. We saw the harvester nearby, and a large building a bit further away. We move towards the building. Nearing it, we see some soldiers poke there heads out. One comes out to great us. It's a male stallion, with some nice battle armor, and a cigar in his mouth. Taking it out, he addresses Luna.

"Commander, it's good to see you. Me and my men have been holding the fort for a while now." I almost faint when he starts talking. I will call him Sergeant Avery Johnson, and that is his name forevermore.

"Sergeant Green Hell, its good to see you again. What is the situation here?" Luna asks.

"Well, the bastards hit us hard. We have about fifteen wounded, and of those ten are critical. I recommend immediate evac for them. Otherwise, the other five are lightly wounded, and can still fight. We have plenty of ammo for our turrets and guns. We also have an active radar to detect different titan signatures, and we have hacked into the enemies transmissions, and can give you a report of whats going to be coming at us. It isn't perfect, so try to keep an eye out." We nod, and I say.

"Got it. I'm making your callsign Sergeant Johnson, because I will remember that better than your real name. Sorry sir."

Johnson looks at me.

"The hell are you talking about?" Luna answers.

"He is a corporal, and he isnt from here. I will switch callsign to Johnson for ease of communication. He is here to help us keep the griffons and Minotaurs away from the harvester." I nod, and then turn to Luna.

"I'm going to scout out the area. I know we have a scan, but I trust my eyes better." Luna nods, and I leave.

Jumping up onto some rocks nearby, I look around. Plenty of cover for titans, and grunts will have plenty of avenues to come running at the harvester. Plenty of areas for mortar titans to hunker down, and platforms for mortar spectres.

I look around the area, and get a good map of it. Then I head back to the fort. Luna is just finishing up with Johnson. She turns as I arrive.

"Okay, I did a full scouting, the grunts will have plenty of avenues for approach, so if we can route them passed here, that will help us a lot. If we can't, we will need a few grunts to patrol the small caves throughout the area. Titans have a few limited areas of approach, but they have plenty of cover, and ways to cross around to other paths to the harvester. Mortar spectres and titans will have plenty of areas to setup, so those will need to be checked regularly. If we get some auto turrets, I have a few areas we can set them up, and if we have arc traps to set down, the titan avenues are good for those." Luna nods.

"I agree. The airship with our titans will be here in twenty minutes." A crackle of static comes over our radios in our helmets, and sergeant Johnson came on.

"Yeah, and the enemy will be here in one. We just got wind that they are sending in a wave of enemies. About 95 grunts, and thirty five spectres. Some mortars spectres are to be coming in as well, as well as some new type of enemy unit. Lets give them bastards hell." And I say.

"Hoorah!" Luna looks at me, and turns back, as possible landing zones for the enemies are shown.

Suddenly, a bunch of drop pods fall from high in the sky, and me and Luna point our rifles at the objects. Some doors opened, and griffons fly out, and a couple minotaur started to run out. Me and Luna opened fire on them, and they fall quickly. On my mini map, I can see the dots of the enemies heat signatures, direct live feed from the sattelites orbiting the planet. I look over to Luna, only to see sky blue hair, and slit pupils.

Nightmare Moon fires into the grunts, and I take off towards another part of the terrain, jumping and climbing over the rocks. Reaching the area I was heading towards, I find the griffins flying overhead and Minotars running into a cave. I run to the otherwise, and throw a grenade into it. I can hear that it killed a few, and the stragglers come out, only to get shot. I run away, and head to another area.

Making my way around the battlefield, I kill griffons and minotaurs alike.

Finally, as I am crossing to another area, I get hit out the air by an unknown factor. I get up, jump back to the top of the rocks, only to see an enemy I hoped wouldnt be here. A reaper was positioned on a rock formation a little away, and I knew it would be tough to beat. I opened my coms.

"Got eyes on the new enemy. It's called a reaper. Aim at its center, where the upper part connects to the legs. It'll go down quicker. Use anti titan weapons to bring it down faster." I say, and then pull out the SMR.

I shoulder the weapon, and aim. Firing from this distance, about 98 meters, would have only a small amount of spread. It would be easier closer, but then I would be at its mercy in weapons. I fire at it, and as I had said, the spread wasnt good, but it all hit the target.

I run closer, reloading. I jump, and fire at the reaper. Finally, it goes down.

"Call out if you see anymore reaper." I say over the com's, before running some more, and taking down a group of mortar spectres.

Running to a nearby rock ledge, I jump off, and double jump and grapple to the next rocks over. I pull my Flatline out, and fire upon the griffons flying around, and minotaur grunts running out of rudimentary drop pods. Made for high altitude drops, with more speed and less of a target than HALO jumps.

Luna is on the other side of the field, and is using her G2A4 to snipe any grunts or griffon fliers she can, and is using her wings to hop around much like me. She can't wall run to flank enemies, but she can teleport, which helps her out.

Finally, the last grunt dies, and the wave ends. Seargent Johnson comes over the com's.

"Luna, Cooper, get back to the bunker. We got some presents for you. And also, Celestia just arrived with your titans, much better name for them than mechs if you ask me." He says. Luna flies towards me, and I just raise a hand in the air. She grabs it, and heads towards the bunker.

We land, and Johnson meets us.

"Good to see you can hold your own. Otherwise, I'd have to be carting your ass out of here. Now, you can call in your titans, and Hearths Warming came early, cause I have some presents for you." I smirk under my helmet. God DAMN, Sergeant Johnson is a badass. In game and apparently here too.

Me and Luna turn and call our titans in. I hear over the com's the catchphrase that everyone hears.

"Stanby for Titanfall."

I turn to Luna.

"Thats why the game is fun. Those three words change the battle in our favor. Those, are the best words you will ever here." Luna looks up, sees the titans coming down, and nods. Her hair starts to shift to a mix of white, with baby blue streaks. She looks at me, and her pupils are semi cat like.

"I can feel the hope." She says. I just smile and nod, though she cant see it through my helmet. The titans land, and mine stands immediately.

"Hello Pilot. Hello Luna. Ready for harvester defense." Mika says.

"Good to see you Mika. Now, Sergeant, you have some presents?" He smirks, and he points behind him.

"We got a drop of deployable auto turrets. Take one with you, and drop it down. It can take down titans if placed right, and kill hundreds of grunts if you do the same." I nod.

"I'll put one near the harvester, as a final defensive line. If it goes down, get some men to fix it as soon as possible. Also, Luna, take my particle wall. I saw you don't have one, and you are open when sniping. Use it, and cover yourself." I hand her my particle disc, and she accepts it.

"Thank you, Cooper. We will put it to use." Mika interrupts us before we talk further.

"I am detecting more dropships on the way. Hacking the enemies communications shows that several titans will be coming down, as will many grunts, spectres, Griffin fliers, three cloak drones, and several nuke titans. I suggest deploying those turrets, and getting the bunker ready to help fight titans. Luna and my pilot can only do so much before the titans will overwhelm us. Backup is appreciated." I nod.

"She's right. If you have any anti titan weapons, specifically ones that can reach for a distance, that would be good. I need to talk to Twilight about making arc traps." I mutter to myself. Luna looks at me.

"Arc traps?" I explain.

"Traps that are like mines, but they are electric, and put out enough joules to stun a titan momentarily. It really helps, as it gives us time to take them down. It works for grunts too. And they can be set to registered titans so they wont be set off by our titans." She nods.

"Tat would be useful, but for now we need to get everything ready." And we both move out the bunker.

Running out, I take to the rocks, running, wallrunning, double jumping, and grappling my way around. I put my turret around on top of the stones near the harvester. It still can reach any enemy that gets near the harvester, but will be hard to hit. Nightmare Luna sets hers up across from mine, on the rocks on the other side.

"Okay, as Mika said, we got Griffon fliers, Minotaur grunts, apparently three cloak drones, and titans, as well as nuke titans. The numbers are 35-46-3-12-8. Lets kill these bastards." I say again, and Luna joins me.

"Hoorah!" And I look to her. I just smile after, and turn back to the fight. Then I think.

"Hey, why dont they throw down another magic jammer, like they did at the ruins?" Nightmare Luna answers.

"Its because they want to capture this harvester. If you take a moment to look, they are actually trying to hack the magic circles that are teleporting the ore back to the Canterlot factories, and make them go to one of the two factories controlled by them." I nod. Makes sense. But then.

"But then wouldnt they just attack the bunker, and try to kill them, and then hack the harvester? It would be easier, and would save time." Luna pauses for a moment.

"I never thought about that." And she gets ready, as we get pings of enemy drop positions.

The wave starts, and we start on the grunts from the drop pods. The griffons come next, flying overhead much like the drones in game once more. Shooting them down isn't much harder than duck shooting. In fact, it's much easier. They fly in such close formation that the bullet spread usually gets one, as does the recoil spread. The first minute was good.

Then I saw the Titanfall marks on my mini map.

"Sarge, get some grunts out here, we got titans incoming. We cant kill all the grunts and griffins as we fight, so your going to have too." Sarge comes over the com's.

"Roger that. Gear up boys and girls, we're heading out! Grab those auto turrets, and bring them with us. Were moving to the harvester." And he hangs up. I contact Luna.

"Enemy Titanfall signatures detected. Get in your titan, and prepare for a fight." I say, before I contact Mika.

"Mika, come pick me up." And she responds.

"On my way, Cooper." I move towards her as well, and we meet up. She opens, and I hop in.

And then I feel the neural link activate, and our bodies and minds become one.

We move out, and move over to the titan drop zones. Seeing the symbols on my mini map, it looks to be mostly titans with the XO-16, some with the 40mm, and the rest with the quad rockets and triple threats. All of them will have swords, and they only have two chassis types, so it wont be too hard to beat.

The first titan drops, and it's unshielded. Guess the Griffon's's and Minotaurs don't have shield domes for their titans yet.

I start to fire upon the titan as it stands up. It brings its weapon to bear, but blows up from damage shortly after, never having fired a single shot. Then, more titans drop, and I shoot at them, backing up. And it looks like they have a new weapon, but it's just the Legion's mini gun.

I fire at them first, as they are the most dangerous. They have more ammo than me, and can eat through shields in moments if they are allowed sustained fire on an enemy.

The first Legion goes down quickly, having been an Atlas chassis, but the ogre Legion next to it takes some more time. This allows the other titans to get up, and start to fire on me.

I quickly use my energy shield, and catch the incoming bullets. After a second, I have enough caught, and I return it to sender.

The ogre I had fired upon explodes, and the two Atlas near it are damaged by it and the ammo I flung. I then lock on with the rocket pods, and fire. It hits both, but one takes more rockets and explodes. The other gets a burst of gunfire, and does the same. That's five down, three more in my vicinity to go.

The three remaining titans are 40mm users, one ogre and two Atlas. They all aim, and I dash for them. Pulling a sword of one of the fallen titans, I throw it at one of them. I is deflected, but it gives me time to rush in, and slam its arms up, disarming it. The cockpit is forced open, as I climb out of mine and onto the other titan. Mika sticks her gun in the cockpit, fires once, splattering the pilot, and then slams it closed. As she does this, I unscrew the battery, and pull it out, before leaping back into my titan. As I get in, our connection strengthens, and we kick the dead titan over. My titans health immediately rose from the battery.

The other two titans hadnt fired on us, and we use the time to shoot at them. Moments later, one explodes, and the other follows shortly. We turn around, and scavenge a sword from one of the titans, placing it and our XO on our back, before picking up one of the legions guns, plus one magazine of ammo.

That's when I see the nuke titan symbols appear.

They fall from the sky, and stand up much quicker than their brethren. All of them are ogres, and all of them are carrying the Legion guns, or the 40mm cannons. I fire.

The first takes longer than all the other titans to go down. When it gets to what must be its doomed state, it stops moving, and starts to glow like a mini sun. Then, it explodes. Violently.

The other ogres next to it are only slightly damaged by it.

I have finally enough kills to activate my third upgrade core, and do so, before charging in with the legions gun. Sweeping it low, I ram it as hard as I can into the ogre in front of me. The gun pierces the body, and I lift the titan up, the gun shoving further in.

I pull the trigger, and empty the weapon into the titan. As its body starts to smoke, it starts to be torn through by the bullets, before it finally explodes, much less violently than it would if it had gone nuclear.

I throw it and the gun away, before grabbing my sword off my back, and dashing after the other three nuke titans heading for the harvester.

They shot at me, but these ones only had the 40mm. I charged the three nuke titans, and the closest one charged at me.

He swung his cannon at me, and I blocked it with my sword. I then reached up, grabbed the cannon, and ripped it out of his hands. Tossing it away, I then heavily slashed him twice, before he dropped to the ground. I flipped my sword around in my hands, before walking up to the downed titan, and plunging the sword into its back, and all the way through. The titans core was cut through, and didnt even explode as it wasnt able too. I picked up the 40mm, and started to fire at the next nuke. It turned around as I dashed towards it, and slammed into it. It stumbled, before I jumped up, and slammed down onto it. It fell onto its back, me on top. The pilot inside ejected straight up in front of me, and I immediately targeted and killed them with a single shot as they came up infront of me.

I then get off the titan and throw the cannon at the final nuke, getting its attention. Its nearing the harvester, so I need to get it away from it. I motion for it to come at me. It does.

It rushes me, and I pull my chaingun off my back. The titan continues to rush me as I shoot it, before it is tackled from the left by Luna's atlas.

Luna gets up quickly, and grabs the titan, before bodily lofting it up, and slamming it back down. She then kicks it to me, where I stop it, shove my gun in its face, and fire point blank.

Needless to say, it died.

After that, Johnson came over the radio again, and says.

"That seems to be the last of them. We got nothing else on our radar, and the bastards upstairs said to get the next assault ready. Come on back, grab some more auto turrets, and get ready. We have it on good news that they're sending more titans this time. I nod, exit Mika, and turn to her.

"Mika, can you please grab all the titan weapons and bring them here, plus any ammo. Also, grab yourself a sword."

"Okay Cooper. I will also grab a sword for Luna." I nod.

"Good idea." Luna just looks at me.

"Why are you grabbing me a sword?" Mika turns to the atlas, grabs the sword from it, and swings it at the nearest rock. The blade shatters instantly, sending metal flying. Me, Luna, and Johnson duck as it does. Luna gets up and stares.

"Oh. Thank you for getting me a sword Mika." Mika's ocular system nods, and she moves off quickly. Lunas atlas just stays crouched.

"I need to get me an AI core." She says, looking at her Titan. I just nod, and grab another turret. Luna does the same, and after we head out, she asks me.

"Cooper, would you like to grab some coffee after this defense is over?" I look to her.

"Why are you asking?" She shrugs.

"I feel like we could use the down time, and it will be a nice way to ask you questions about yourselfand you world. Also, to tell me more about the references your making, to things I don't know." Mika chimes in.

"He would love too. Also, I can help with those references, but it will have to be after the battle." I just scoff.

"Mika, stop butting in. I may want to have coffee, yes, but don't start embarrassing me." She looks at me across the terrain.

"Are you sure you want me to stay out?I'm the best wingman you'll get." I just fire at her once, and she just flips me the bird.

"She seems to have more life now. She wasn't like that before." I nod.

"It isnt a bad thing. It feels easier to interact with her this way. Almost like..." But I didnt finish my statement. Happily, Luna didnt ask. Mostly because she didnt get the chance too.

"If you two are done chatting, word is that the next wave is coming. I have here that they'll be sending about 40 griffons, 54 grunts, 4 cloak drones, 23 titans of assorted variety, and 17 nukes. Were in for the long haul here, so kill the big bastards before they get close. We cant take those nuclear explosions, so try and keep them away from us. And dont go dying on me. I dont want to have to pick up your scraps off the field." Me and Luna reply, before we get in our titans.

"Hoorah!"

It was hard fought, but we beat the wave. Johnson only had one casualty, but the pony wasnt dead. Heavily wounded, and unconsious, but not dead. The mare would be needing some new legs though.

Me and Luna used up all the weapons Mika had scavenged, and the ammo for them was used as well. I had to steal about fifteen batteries to keep my titan running, and Luna did much the same. After the battle, we headed for the bunker, and Johnson met us.

"We got word from Celestia that the troops and extra titans will be here in thirty. Problem is, the enemy will be here in ten, and they are throwing us everything they can. We have a higher amount of nukes coming in, so keep them away. Good thing is, we got ourselves some heavy turrets. They can take down titans quick, and shred grunts even faster. Also got some anti titan weapons for ourselves, some more SMRs and mag launchers. I'll be having some of my men through the caves to help you out, but you two will be our heavy hitters, and the ones drawing the most attention. So all I have to say is, dont die. We get back, I want drinks to be on me, with all of us." And we nod.

"Hoorah!"

I stayed out of Mika this time. I would be of better use running around, firing with the SMR, than in my titan at the moment. Also, it meant a little more ground could be covered.

I was on the far roght of the terrain, Luna on the far left, and Mika controlled the center. For the most part, I had cover from a single grunt troop, firing at any griffons or minotaurs that came at us. It was the same thing for the other groups of anti titan grunts.

We made short work of most titans that came at us. Some of them, we couldnt get fully. They got past us. But they usually got taken out by the heavy turrets, or other anti titan grunts. About halfway through the battle, I had to call Mika.

"Mika, I need you. We have to many titans over here for us to handle ourselves."

"Understood Cooper. On my way." She says. I break off from the grunt, and run for my titan. I reach her about half way, and get in. Again, I feel my senses expand, and our minds join.

We then bring out our gun. I start to fire on all targets. I use every trick in my book, and every strategy to best utilize my weapons and abilities. I ducked around corners, I dashed, grabbed, and slammed titans into others. I stole weapons, and used them on the titan or others. I fpught like a maniac.

I didnt realize that the fight was over, till Mika stopped us. From punching Luna. After that, I heard over the com's.

"We beat them back. The commanders arrived with the reinforcements. Come on back to the bunker, and we can get the he'll out of here. First rounds on me." I just looked around. Then I heard Celestia over the com's.

"Cooper, Luna, you've done good. Get back to the bunker, and we'll get you out of here." Luna comes over and pats us on the back.

"Good job Cooper. And dont hit me." I open the cockpit, and step out on the lip.

"I didn't mean to almost do so. I was just on autopilot. Not thinking. Mika stopped us. Sorry." Mika starts to move off, me still standing on the lip of the cockpit. She moves after me, and opens her cockpit as well. She then takes off the eyepiece she was wearing, and put it on a hook near her.

"I understand, Cooper. It happens to me too. Now let's go home. Green is buying us drinks."

I smirk, and Mika walks us onto the airship.

Author's Note

Hey guys, hope your having a good time. Here is the next chapter, and anyone who has had to do this understands the pain of this title. Also, Johnson will be a major part, but I dont think he will die anytime soon. Anyways, hope you all enjoy, and have a nice day.