[M] Titanfall (Blazing Falcons & ChaosBringer) IC

[Blazing Falcons]

"Magpie Actual, requesting permission to depart from MCS Bishamon." Salter said. "Roger that, Magpie Actual, cleared to depart. Bishamon control out." the traffic controller answered. "Try to get us down there without crashing, huh Salter?" Talon said. "Yeah, yeah. Kiss my ass, there's more to one of these things than there is to a titan." Salter shot back, "Jumping in three... two... one..."

The blinding light of the dropship's jump was seen and the passengers could look out the window to see the sprawling forests of Nostavo below. The destination for the dropship was a FOB (forward operating base) situated in a mountain-side ruin. "Magpie Actual to tower, ETA is ten minutes, out." Salter announced. The next five minutes were silent, save the sounds of the dropship. "Salter, we don't talk as much as we used to." Talon said. "That's because you and I are jack, smart, and dumb asses of equal caliber. Or I guess that's what you'd believe. I'm doubtlessly the better smartass, the other two go to you." Salter answered with a laugh. "I'd say you're just the better ass in this scenario, no one's ever accused you of being smart, Salter." Talon retorted with a laugh of his own. The other pilots on the dropship joined with him.

The rest of the trip went without much banter, and touched down safely. "Alright, everybody out, jackasses first!" Salter shouted. Another pilot tried to get in on the jabs going back and forth between the two men, "I didn't hear you clearly Salter, you say fat asses? How far do we need to back up to make room for you?"

Talon grinned at the comment as he exited the dropship. The temperature was cool thanks to the elevation. There weren't any mission briefings scheduled for the next few hours, and Talon wasn't sure what to do with himself in the meantime.

[ChaosBringer]

"This is Pelican Rogue, departing from SSR McMahon, requesting clearance to depart." The voice of Sarah was monotonous, robotic as she did the necessary procedure for their departure. She was responded through the crackling coms, a voice all to known to everyone in the unit. "Pelican, this is General Falls, and, pardon my French, but who the fuck gave you clearance to depart?" Sarah let loose a low chuckle. "Orders from the top itself, General." The crew let out a knowing snicker. Elysia was among them, looking towards the cockpit, helmet in her hands.

"Oh, for fuck's sakes... Gimme a second..." A period of silence followed by an undignified Falls in the background. "What?! What the fuck do you mean he said 'go for it'? Was he drunk again?! Oh, for fuck's sakes!" More silence, followed by a crackle in the comms and a very tired sounding General. "Fine... You have clearance, Pelican. You better come back to me, understood?" Sarah shrugged. "No promises." Was the only response, before the chatter was cut off. As the ship began to come to life, the soldiers within it did as well. Soon enough, the metal vessel left the confines of the ship, Elysia let out a hearty laugh.

"It's about fucking time, eh?!" She called out, to which the remaining five pilots cried a resounding "Aye!", followed by lighthearted laughter from even their pilot. "Alright boys, buckle the fuck up. I'm not gonna clean up your shit and vomit after the jump!" Sarah cried out from the cockpit, as she initiated the sequence for hyperspace, putting the target up at the holo-display in the center of the ship. "Now, here's the relay of the area in which you unlucky bastards are gonna land. You should know this already, as it was put up in resort brochure. We're gonna get our debriefing right there. Word of mouth is, the big man himself is gonna be there, alongside a nice little lass you all might now by the name Briggs."

"So, finally gonna meet your twin, eh Sarah?" A gun shot resounded through the ship, alongside a squeal that resembled a little child. "Keep talking and the next one is going up your ass, Jeffrey!"

The whole crew roared with laughter, as they made the hyper jump.


-----

As the ship landed into the LZ, the pilots inside all hastily removed their belts, some of them strapping on their helmets, others checking their guns. Pilots were an alert bunch, even if they could be lighthearted at times. As Elysia jumped off the dropship, she stared at the rendezvous point. Clearly, they weren't alone, as she could see familiar markings on the other dropships in the vicinity. Militia, ACE, and 6-4.


Seems like someone was setting up a party.

[Blazing Falcons]

Talon was at the VR range practicing with his favored sidearm. The system had been updated with a 'survival' mode to accompany the range and the gauntlet. He had set it to allow other pilots to join in, but the already torrential flow of enemies he was holding off would increase significantly. It was mostly IMC grunts, but they were bolstered by stalkers and the occasional reaper.

"Twelve-fourteen, pilot is in our sec-" the grunt exploded into pixels before he could finish. Talon grabbed the arm of another simulated grunt and pushed him in front of a cluster of reaper rockets. Talon left a hologram where he stood and ran to cover to ambush the reaper. The wall he chose to run behind was already occupied by a squad of specters and a duo of stalkers. As though his situation wasn't tight enough, his hologram had just gone down and he was being flanked by grunts.

"Well crap." Talon said as he fired twice and destroyed one of the specters and dropped another hologram before spinning on his heels to neutralize the grunts that were now firing on him. A few shots from the stalkers grazed him and the reaper now had its attention on him again. He was about to send a mass invite for help when the sim shut down on its own.

"The hell's going on? I was killing it!" Talon yelled to everyone else in and around the sim-pods. "Some kind of welcome briefing from the brass is what I'm seeing." A technician said, pointing to a nearby sign. "It should let you go back to where you were, but they said that they've invited a bunch of top pilots to give inspiration and whatnot." he continued. Talon exhaled and said, "I guess I'll check it out. Kicking IMC ass does get tiring."

As he made his way to the 'welcome briefing', Talon saw another dropship come in and unload more pilots. He didn't think he'd seen so many pilots in one place before, especially for something that could easily turn out to be nothing. He was looking for any familiar looking people that he might have heard of or even known. It didn't look like it- Wait. He was far from certain, but he thought he saw the one folks called "Queen." She did jump from an ACE dropship. Even if it wasn't anyone he might know, he could still direct them to the briefing.

"Hey, welcome to Nostavo folks. Talon Peak, Marauder Corps." He held out his hand for someone to shake it. "There's some kind of, as I was told, 'welcome briefing' that's beginning shortly. Figured I'd let you all know while I headed over."

[ChaosBringer]

It was... Nice. The weather was mild, a cool breeze hit her skin, and she was sure she could hear some kind of bird singing. It was actually rather beautiful. Elysia hummed, looking around for a moment, crimson eyes scanning everything she could find and then some. She hummed, walking to wards the building in which they were to be briefed and acquainted, just in time to find someone from the MC greet them all. He was rugged, with brown hair and a shaggy beard. The trademark soldier. As he called out to her unit, she saw some of them nod or wave back in greeting, a sign of respect between pilots.

She chuckled, grasping his outreached hand with her left, and patting at his shoulder once. "Elysia Rose. Although you may know me as Queen." She flashed him a cocky grin. "Nice to see a friendly faction for once. With everyone on the rise, it's getting kinda hard to distinguish friend from foe, eh?" She parted, patting him again with her left arm as she walked towards the building. "Hope you MC folks fire better than you talk, cuz' otherwise we might be going home in pieces!" She called out, as he walked towards the building. Several soldiers of her unit cackled, incluiding the two Sims they had on her team.

As she walked towards the standard issue, improvisational building, she felt a sort of... Dread forming in her neck. She didn't like not being informed, and the fact that they had so many factions here had placed a bit of doubt on her head. And yet, she didn't really mind. Best case scenario, she gets to kick ass and chew bubblegum.


Worst case scenario, she dies. But hey, didn't they all know that?

[Blazing Falcons]

"Hells yeah I shoot better than I talk!" Talon said with a smile. "Great to meet you, ma'am, I heard a lot about you before, during, and after my combat pilot training. I operate an Ion, my preferred strat is to hang back most of the time and engage with the laser for the money-making, and give little bursts from the splitter rifle to harass. Anybody gets too close, five-way lens. I'm rambling, sorry about that." He finished, still with his smile, albeit notably more embarrassed.

As though a guardian angel was looking out for him, a voice came over the base's PA system stating that the briefing would begin in five minutes, and encouraged all present pilots to attend it.

"As I said, I'm heading over there. See ya later, maybe then, yeah?" Talon said as he took off towards the designated assembly area at a brisk pace. The base's lighting was rather poor, the lights that had been rigged up were fairly short range and not very bright, making it so that the glow from other pilots' gear or the sunlight from the opening in the mountain where the hangar was hurt the eyes.

When he reached the briefing, the assembly hall had been divided up into thirds, with each organization occupying one of those thirds. Unlike the rest of the base, the room was well lit. The back of the room was cut three feet higher than the rest of the room, with stairs on either end leading up. Perhaps whoever--or whatever--originally built the structure, had used the room for the same purpose. There were three steel chairs behind a podium, and Barker and Gates had taken seats while Commander Briggs stepped up to the podium.

"I want to thank you all for being present today. Titan pilots, dropship and fighter pilots, grunts, everyone. The IMC is still on the run, and they've become more desperate after the destruction of the fold weapon on Typhon. If we keep the pressure on, we may be able to force them into unconditional surrender. I'm not saying victory is close, but right now the war is going well for us. The reason we're here on Nostavo is because the Angel City Elite-" She was interrupted by a small group of ACE pilots cheering themselves. Once they'd finished, Sarah continued.

"The Angel City Elite have discovered an anomaly here. We're not sure what it is yet, but we hope to begin excavation soon to determine if it's something that needs to be kept from the IMC. We've already detected, and in some cases, engaged IMC scouts here on the surface. We have teams from every organization rotating between guarding dig sites or here, and patrolling the forests. I want two-thirds of Marauder Corps pilots on guard duty, the rest on patrol. The furthest of you away from me are taking patrol duty. Each group will spend two weeks on guard, and one on patrol duty. I expect the best from all of you, Marauder Corps, 6-4, and Angel City Elite. Make me proud!" As she stepped away from the podium, there was clapping and cheering from all the present pilots, but the loudest of which came from the M-Corps. Talon figured there'd be similar repeats after the other COs finished their speeches.

[ChaosBringer]

Queen laughed. He was cute. "Monarch. Usually hang in the front lines, siphoning energy every way I can, and dealing most of my damage in bullets and rockets through the face. It's surprising how quickly I can get the bad boy powered up, though it does help that I'm good at my job." She winked, her cocky grin plastered upon her face as she kept walking towards the point. The air was warm against her face, and she rather liked it, to be honest.

Walking inside the building, she noticed none other than the big shots standing in podiums, looking proud as alway. Or bored, in the case of Barker.

As she heard the MC CO speak her piece, he couldn't help but chuckle at the soldier's rallying cry. It was nice, to be fair. Also, adorable.

"Alright, now that the madame's over with her rallying cry, it's time to go into real buisness, kids." She heard his voice, and grinned. Right down to it, huh? Barker explained the situation with a shit eating grin and a condescending tone, as was usual for the little bastard. At the end, however, he spoke some surprising words.

"So, here's the deal. We're doing this for the frontier, fellas. We're doing this for not just us, but every single person out there in the outer colonies. And we will win, no questions asked. Understood?"


The air shook with the cries of the Elite, every soldier pumping their fists in a triumphant roar.

[Blazing Falcons]

After the speeches and assignments had concluded, everyone had broken up into their squads and worked to get into the appropriate mindsets for their posts. The dig site teams had taken gondolas down. The dig site was an unexpectedly large plot of tan compared to the jungle and mountain surrounding it. Construction equipment roared and rumbled around the site at all times, but not much louder than the jungle's wildlife at night.

As for the pilots that had been assigned to patrol the jungle, it took a little longer than an hour to be prepped and sent out. Talon's squad consisted four pilots, including himself. Their respective utilities consisting of an A-Wall, Pulse, and Grapple. He was glad to have each of them really, considering the particularly dense section of jungle they'd be stuck in for the next few hours, their abilities would likely be much more helpful than a hologram.

They'd been out there twenty minutes, and already half of them had gotten bored. Talon being one of them. "I think I over-anticipated how much action we'd be seeing out here."

"Just twenty minutes short of a week and you can be bored somewhere there are dedicated latrines. Something to look forward to, yeah?" One of his squad mates responded.

"You know it. 'Less we get shot at soon. Which I both invite and dread at the same time." Talon said, adding a nervous laugh.

"Go with a middle ground, hope we get beset by hostile wildlife. That way we get action with minimal danger." Another squad mate commented.

For some time, the pilots offset their boredom by telling war stories, bitching about problems, and offering snarky solutions that weren't all bad. Damn, Talon loved military life.

[ChaosBringer]

It was an hour or two -she didn't check, preferring to actually do shit instead of toiling away- when Queen and her squad were set up at their respective point. A rather dense area of the jungle, they were there mainly to provide recon and to guard the nearby installation that was underway. It was rather quiet, as they were a couple of clicks away from their objective, posted by the entrance to a ridge, a perfect spot to think, shoot rocks, or simply keep watch.

Just the way she liked it.

At the moment, Queen found herself surrounded by three pilots, Strike Time Epsilon. Or, as they called themselves, Yepsilon.

Shitty name, but it was nice. Right now, she was perched atop a tree, checking different segments through her holo-visor and pinging spots with her sonar every few minutes. It was monotonous work, but if they didn't do it, who would? Besides, she was having a good time. Conversing with her teammates about the upcoming hell, playing with one of the bullets of the LMG that was strapped to her back.

"So, Queen."

"Yes, Joker?"

"After this, what are you going to do?"

"Me? Hang back, kick shit, drink some. We got a busy week ahead of us, though I would prefer it stays not too busy, you know?"

"Haha, fuck yeah. After those skirmishes in Baltimore, I've had my fill on enemy drops. Doesn't mean I don't miss our titans, tho. Arsene must be getting lonely without me."

"Here's hoping Johanna is good, haha." She laughed through the mic, as the other two, another female and a male pilot, interjected.

"So, thinking of big bulky metal things already?"

"Oh, zip it Skull. We both know you'd love to ride Queen's magnificent pony."

"Hey, Oracle, I didn't say I didnt want to! But still, one would think these two are fucking their Titans."

"Knowing you, you have half the blade in Jotaro."

"S-Shut up!"

The soldiers cackled, some of the stress and tension released for a moment.


A moment that wouldn't last long.

[Blazing Falcons]

The booming report of a Kraber broke the organized chaotic sounds of the jungle wildlife. It tore through a branch and struck the A-Wall in Talon's squad, nearly ripping him in half. "Hostile contact!" Talon shouted. He and his remaining squadmates dived for cover as Talon repeated himself to the other patrols. "This is Badger 1-1! We've been engaged and have taken casualties! Jackson is KIA, say again Badger 1-4 is KIA!"

He sent a hologram out at a sprint, it was hit center mass by another Kraber shot. Talon swore, then called out to his remaining squadmates, "You guys good?" The replies were positive. "Alright, I'm gonna send another holo. If it gets shot I'll pop an E-smoke. Lacey, you huck a sonar blade along the vapor trail the shot leaves, rodge?" "Yeah, ready when you are." Lacey answered.

Once again, a hologram sprinted through the brush. No shot chased it. "Dammit." Talon mouthed, "Alright, new plan. Lacey, throw that thing and hope we get lucky." The blade flew and stuck in a tree. Nothing appeared on their HUDs. Talon stuck his SMR out and around from where he was hiding and sprayed shots throughout the jungle. Branches, small trees, and soil were all disturbed, but nothing indicated a hit on an enemy sniper. "Badger 1-1 to all call-signs, right now it's looking like we've got a sniper or a sniper team. Badger is unable to neutralize, requesting assistance."

More shots rang out through the jungle, and other scout teams lit up the comm channels reporting firefights.

[ChaosBringer]

One second, they were laughing.

The next, Queen felt her whole body shiver, and felt a body on top of her, throwing her from the tree unto the hard ground, a good twenty meters. Air shot out of her lungs, but her senses kicked into overdrive. She noticed Joker atop of her, his helmet shining as he put a hand to her head. "Shut up. We have a sniper. Skull and Oracle are on the ground, look up."

She did, seeing the trail of smoke. It had gone right by them. One second later, and she would've lost half her goddamn head.

She nodded, Joker pulling back as he checked the comms, with Queen following soon after. She checked her HUD first, her display lighting up as channels exploded all over the place. Teams asking for assistance ASAP, dying squads, people in the midst of gunfights.

"Fuck." She swore, standing up and pinging her squad. Three blue lights shone. They were alive and well, good.

"People, we need a good formation. Skull, set up a couple of satchel charges and prep a tick for deployment. Secure this zone and the surrounding perimeter. Oracle, prep a beacon, launch it up to orbit, and call for Titanfall."

Two green lights blinked. Roger that.

"Joker, help Skull, then head on to assist in operations. Skull, cover Oracle. I'll be going with Joker, and we'll split up to assist as many as we can. Remember team, we're backup. Don't be a hero, and come back to me in one piece. Understood?"

Three lights blinked. Once, twice, thrice. Fuck yeah.

"Move out!"