“Alright, eyes up, look alive.” She said, pulling up a holographic screen containing the dozen or so checklists they’d have to perform upon exiting the warp tunnel.

As the stars around them came back into focus, so did the fiery wreck of a consulate ship being split apart. With how close the vessel was near the warp gate, a piece of it tore a sizable gash through the side of the Tacitus.

A cloud of metal debris and several unfortunate crew members flew out the wound, with Eve stumbling as the ship shuddered from the impact. “Sitrep!” She yelled, grabbing the console to stand back up. “Section fourteen and seventeen hull pierced, sealing breached areas.” 

“Fourth Centauri and Luhman home fleet engaged with two Irenix fleets.”

Eve tapped the center console and brought up a holographic map which displayed ship positions and information as it was made available to them. It only took a second of actually viewing the map to make the first decision. “Divert power from weapons to shields, get us a drop course over the planet.”

She moved her hand back to the console and opened the comms line. “Katherine-”

“Already on it princess don’t have to tell me.” 

Alarms blared throughout the hangar, with the overhead lights being switched to a red hue. Five apartment sized drop pods had been moved to the center courtesy of the rail and magnet system above. Two of them had ramps acting as their doors where troops and armored vehicles were entering. When the bottom was filled, the floor would ascend to the top layer like an elevator, and an empty one would take its place.

Three of the pods were reserved for one titan soldier each, with them loading their usual loadouts and accompanying ammunition. Below them on the ground, other crew were loading supplies into their armor. Given the size and thickness, there were a number of small spaces that could be used to store magazines, medical supplies, anything needed for the mission ahead. A few of the braver crew actually climbed up the armor using strategically placed pegs and dips. 

“Five minutes to drop point.” The PA system blared. 

The crew quickly loaded the last few pieces of equipment and cleared the three titans. Once the stragglers had jumped off, they quickly entered the tight spaces of their pods. The doors closed, sealing them inside.

The bottom door of the fifth pod slid down. With all of them prepped and ready, the rail system carried them deeper into the ship. The interior of the top floor was almost designed like an amusement park ride. Rows of stands with straps attached surrounded a projection table, where Katherine stood at the helm and the other soldiers silently observed.

“Alright people hot drop time, only got a rough destination and no orders. Only to help where we can.” She swiped her hand at the holographic planet above the table, switching to a different continent. Opening up her hand, it zoomed into a region on the West coast. Making the motion again, the map locked onto a city that was in the path of the ship. “This is where we’ll be ending up, or at least should be. Knock on wood.”

The soldiers around her looked at each other and then the surrounding room. Completely made of metal. “...Bad omen.” Katherine muttered. “Just strap in, it’s gonna be a rough ride.”

She and the others selected a stand, looping their arms and securing themselves. 

Shudders and metallic groans echoed through the room as the pod was moved again. A resounding clunk signaled everyone to brace themselves, with most of the soldiers’ posture stiffening. Not Katherine though, who relaxed into the stand with a deep breath.

A thunderous roar preceded their launch as they were fired from the ship’s belly into the planet’s atmosphere. From the outside, the pod didn’t look all too different from a bullet as it tore through the sky.

The inside was a rumbling rocking ride for five minutes, with one question inevitably rattling in some soldiers' heads. Would they make it?

They were answered by a gentle shudder as the pods impacted the ground. The subsequent explosion of dirt and debris contrasted against the relative quiet inside as the shock absorbers and internal dampers softened the blow.

A quiet mechanical whir sounded as the first floor was pushed up. Katherine quickly unfastened the straps and jogged over to the projection table again, which turned on as she approached.

It automatically displayed several camera feeds which showed their surroundings. Since they weren’t being shot at, Katherine initiated the opening sequence.

A short alarm blared and the overhead lights turned green as the doors slid up. The others followed suit and undid the straps to get off. They quickly made their way to the broken street, with the lights inside beginning to flash.

When everyone had gotten off, the lights flashed red. The floor rose revealing another layer. While this process repeated, Katherine’s head turned down the street where one of the titan pods had landed. It was Jackal, their frontline specialist. Sporting the heaviest armor of the three and unsurprisingly the tallest at thirty five feet tall.

On the other side was Angel, their medic. To the front was Adler, anti-armor specialist.

The three titans began converging on their pod which was still offloading soldiers, their combined set of steps producing a slight tremor.

By the time they got there, the last few floors were unloading tanks and APCs. “Where to?” Jackal asked.

“No idea yet.” Katherine said, looking down each street to see if there was an indication of where they would be needed. She turned around and looked past the street behind him. A few dozen blocks away, a crashed ship had leveled an entire section of city. “Let’s start there.”

It was silent agreement with everyone and they began heading towards the ruins to check for survivors. The company of soldiers formed into a convoy, Jackal and Adler took up the front of the convoy followed by their armored vehicles. Everyone else along with Angel stuck to the rear.

Katherine eyed the radio operator and motioned for him to join her closer to the front of the formation. He caught sight of her and quickly followed behind. “Yes ma’am?”

“I need to know what exactly is ahead of us.” The request was immediately followed up by the operator. He had a pda attached to his wrist and flicked it up. It took a few minutes of interacting with the interface for him to produce an answer.

“Trident class troop carrier, it was downed half an hour ago. Survivors were scattered after Irenix ground forces landed nearby to finish the job.” He explained.

“Then we’ll link up with them. Past that, we can figure out later.” Katherine said as they continued down the street. The column started to split into two separate groups, thanks to the indented footprints that Jackal was leaving behind.

“There’s one more thing about this carrier, there was a titan on board.” The radio operator said.

This drew a confused raised brow from her. “I thought ours were the only ones?”

“Apparently not, they’re from a separate research division. He serves with their mobile infantry unit, specializing in rapid insertion and response.” He said, reading from a basic file. “Must’ve been why they were singled out and hunted like this”

Katherine nodded. “They’ll have to be our priority.” Her eyes drifted past the column of soldiers, counting the buildings to see how close they were getting. “I doubt they’d still be at the crash site, likely at least a few blocks away.” The convoy at the moment was only ten blocks from the ship.

“Their comm lines should still be active, I might be able to trace them.” The radio operator said, tapping away at the pda.

Her brow furrowed and she stopped walking. The soldier just behind nearly bumped into her. “Jackal, stop here.” She called out.

The lead titan looked back. “How come? We’re nearly there.”

“Just dig in-” Katherine never managed to finish her sentence as a wall of bullets slammed into the front of the convoy. Jackal and the tanks up front took on most of the blows, shielding everyone else behind. “Take cover and form up a perimeter, we hold here!” She yelled, pushing past while the others dispersed.

Their armored vehicles moved to form a wall facing the street in which dozens of Irenix soldiers had poured out to engage. With their sides turned, Jackal knelt down and began firing single shots at different clusters of enemy soldiers.

It would be an understatement to call what he was firing ‘bullets’, even though he was wielding what amounted to a machine gun scaled up to his size. They were borderline tank shells, and Jackal didn’t need to spray down the street like a human sized traditional gunner would. He simply tapped the trigger at a group or a piece of cover and everything there turned into a crater.

With the support of the tanks and troops behind him, the initial group they were firing was quickly cleared. However, that was replaced by an actual battalion. Equipped with armored vehicles and mechanized units to match.

As soon as the similarly sized mechs stomped onto the street, it evened the playing field. And they were standing out in the open practically begging to be shot. “Get to the sides, go!” Jackal’s order echoed off the streets as he stood up.

Standing even taller than the mechs, he proved to be an attractive target as rounds began shattering against his armor. Jackal held up a hand to his face as he blindly pulled the trigger and let the machine gun loose. 

While the street in front of them became obscured from dust, falling building parts, and the occasional spurt of red mist, everyone else used the opportunity to head for the alleys and side streets. Angel had moved in front of the retreating troops, acting as a shield for those who were wounded in the initial barrage. Adler had rushed forward to the intersection and took cover behind a convenience store. 

Once the battalion was more or less in a better position, Jackal moved to the same intersection. “Five mechanized armor, and at least a dozen tanks.” He said, dropping the drum magazine which cracked the tarmac below.

Adler simply nodded and moved his shoulder closer to the edge of the building. His spotter had been perched just behind his neck, and slowly stepped over to peak around the corner. He used a high powered scope to see past the smoke, taking note of enemy positions. “Jackal, give the left side of the street a burst. Adler, I’ve got a walking armor alllllll the way in the back. Betting on AP munitions.”

“Not for long.” The titan muttered, changing to a crouched position. When he held his breath, the spotter rushed back closer to his head. Adler rounded the corner and brought up his rifle, which held still despite its weight.

The spotter locked on to the invisible laser being shone from the barrel, which currently was off target. “Right more, about a car’s length.” He grabbed a fistful of hair to keep himself steady as the titan adjusted his aim. “Tiniest bit upward…” A pause. “Hit em.”

Even with the springs built into the butt-stock, the shockwave still shoved at the spotter’s chest. Though hundreds of shots had taught him the best foot placement and conditioned his limbs to hold on tight.

There was the initial ear tearing gunshot, followed by a distant metallic ‘thunk’ as the mech fell over. “Anti armor down.” Adler called out.

The vehicles that had taken to the alley ways drove out and joined Jackal in laying down a blanket of fire past the debris smoke which began to clear. Other soldiers began to follow as well, with a few staying back to tend to the wounded and manage communications with the ship.

Above their heads, a metallic hand attached to a winch flew by. It impacted Jackal’s shoulder and he stood still upon hearing it.

A few seconds later, Katherine rocketed along the path of the metal wire. She braced her leg out in front, with it absorbing the other wise bone shattering force upon landing. From there, she kicked a small lever left of his lower back.

A fifty cal machine gun popped out of a hidden socket embedded into the armor, flipping out and facing forward. Katherine grinned while climbing up higher and manning the weapon. Together, Jackal focused on demolishing vehicles and potential cover, and she swept the playing field with crayon sized bullets to catch stragglers.

The combined amount of gunfire had masked the approach of several of the mechanized units flanking their left side. A few blocks down, one had taken up position at the corner of an intersection. It was using a long range rifle similar to what Adler had packed. She barely noticed it out of the corner of her eye.

“Fuck!” Katherine tried to turn the gun but its turning radius was limited. “Jackal, left flank!” 

“What?” He said, lowering his weapon and looking at her.

Within the time span of the warning she was trying to give, the mech had time to acquire target and fire. And of course the target would be the largest one there, Jackal.

However, one thing preceded the subsequent shot.

A streak of blue light flashed from the top floor of the office building to their right side. This was followed by both an electronic pulse emanating from the source weapon and a small orange glowing hole in the mech’s shoulder. 

The barrel of the opposing rifle, once perfectly aimed for Jackal’s head, had veered wildly to the left. Out of instinct the trigger was still pulled, firing a shell into the lower floors of the office.

“I got him!” Adler called out. With how close they were, he simply aimed down the scope for center mass and fired.

The round punched straight through the chest, tearing apart the power core and sending it falling backwards. That wasn’t the only one though, and the others began peeking around the corners of the building they’d selected for cover to begin returning fire.

This forced the battalion to reposition, not leaving much in the leeway of matching the firepower being thrown at them. “Who was that shot from?” Katherine called while Jackal jogged over to a corner store, leaning against its front.

Adler’s spotter again gripped the titan’s hair as they moved around. He waited for another body shattering shot to be fired before looking down his scope up at the office building. His eyes glanced over the myriad of broken windows, stopping at one which had a faint glow. He focused the scope, seeing a woman wielding what appeared to be a smaller version of the rail cannons attached to warships. 

She seemingly spotted him, giving a short wave, and a grin accompanied with a wink. From there, he was able to make out the symbol on the bluesleeved uniform she was wearing. “Rapid response unit ma’am, definitely with us.”

“Good, we can use the extra hand.” Katherine said. “Jackal, they’ve got our flank, focus on our front.” With the momentary dip of firepower being flung down the street, the main force they were fighting began to creep back up to re-establish a foothold. Soldiers took cover in craters and the few remaining armored vehicles began to push out from their hiding spots.

Thanks to certain features, their new ally’s position became incredibly obvious. The blue streaks of light and electronic pulses from the higher floors of the office building near them presented a clear target. One of the walking armors who wasn’t taking enough fire to be occupied aimed at the floor. Katherine’s eyes widened, not needing to look back to trace where the shot would be hit. “Oh shit-”

What occurred was barely even audible, the singular shot and explosion was hardly noticed over the chorus of the conflict boiling around them. She looked back to see a fiery hole where the floors used to be, and the occupant dangling from a sagging metal beam. They were wearing a jetpack but the engines had smoke emitting from several holes.

“Jackal, throw, now!” She yelled, moving off the machine gun. He sidestepped into cover with a confused look.

“Where?” Katherine simply pointed up at the burning floors. Seeing his target, he nodded and offered a flat palm to her.

She climbed up the shoulder and hopped onto the hand. Katherine crouched down as the fingers curled up around her. Holding their pads, she hunched a bit, trying to make herself as small as possible. Jackal had dropped his gun, holding his free hand out towards the burning floors. 

The metal beam that the rapid response soldier was hanging onto was seeming to grow impatient, and it shuddered and dropped slightly.

“No, lower than that.” Katherine said, with Jackal aiming two floors lower. “Go!”

The grip she had on Jackal’s fingers tightened as her cupped platform wound back. Everything blurred and her stomach twisted as she went from stationary to flying through the air.

As Katherine had predicted, the beam snapped. The rapid response soldier dropped for a few seconds before something or rather someone impacted them.

She did her best to orient herself upward and grab the soldier’s waist. “Hang on!” Katherine yelled, slamming her metal arm onto the passing windows and tightly gripping. While there was nothing to stop their fall, the friction of metal fingers against reinforced glass began to slow them down.

Aiming her prosthetic foot down, the tarmac cracked under the force of their landing. Katherine’s still good foot still hurt but the remaining force that wasn’t absorbed didn’t result in anything permanent.

Breathing heavily, she put the soldier down in front of her and aimed a toothy grin down. “Still breathing?” The rapid response member simply looked up with wide eyes, nearly stumbling. “...Hello?” Katherine lightly waved in her face.

It took them a moment. “Y-Yeah, all good.” She quickly said. “Thanks for the save.” Her eyes darted over Katherine, particularly at the arm and leg. They met their eyes and quickly averted.

“Good.” She looked down the street, letting out a sigh. Only a few more stragglers who seemed to be retreating. Most of the fighting was still coming from their flank, but with Jackal joining the others, it seemed the fight was quieting down. “Looks like we get a few moments to breathe,” Katherine checked the name badge, which read, “Carol-”

“Just call me Cap.” The rapid response soldier interrupted.

“Noted?” She said with a confused smile. “We’re the same rank but it’s whatever.” Katherine began walking up the convoy line towards Jackal and the others. “I’m guessing you’re from the downed troop transport. They had a titan stationed with them, any idea of their whereabouts?”

“We got separated during an ambush, but that wasn’t too far away. With all this noise he should be here soon.” Cap said. As they got closer to the intersection where the titans were positioned, she grabbed the rifle holstered to her back. It was a weapon designed for heavy damage at long range, but that was where the similarities to a traditional sniper rifle ended.

The barrel was thicker, with multiple vents lining the structure. The weapon almost seemed to hum with energy as she loaded in two separate magazines. One into the buttstock itself and another under the rifle where one would expect it to go.

“I don’t know what that thing is but that is not standard issue.” Katherine said, looking at the weapon.

“RnD got a hold of some of the more exotic weapons the Irenix have cooked up. It’s basically a wieldable rail gun.” The two took up position next to Adler, though they were a bit late as the last few shots sounded off. What remained was one last walking armor still hiding around the corner of an intersection a block away.

The titan next to them was scoped in, barrel trained at the store corner. “Either fuck off or try your luck, get on with it.” Adler grumbled, firing a round that grazed the building. Still, it didn’t compel them to make a decision.

As he pulled the bolt to rack another round, a few tremors shook the ground. “Maybe this fight isn’t completely over yet.” Katherine said, running to Jackal. She shot her hand at his shoulder and grappled back to her usual position on the mounted gun.

Looking over to the side, she was confused to see Cap lower their weapon. “Trust me , that ain’t more armor coming in.”

Katherine tilted her head, still not quite understanding. A metallic crash and faint yell drew her attention back to the street they were holding. Everyone's eyes were at the intersection as the walking armor was pushed out of cover, a serrated knife jabbed into the left center of the chest. It just barely missed the pilot as its arms pushed against the hand that had it caught.

A new figure made itself known as it stepped past the building, wearing a darker set of armor. A mask covered the bottom of his face and a dark visor did the same for the top half.

He stopped at the middle of the intersection and pushed down harder, forcing the mech onto the ground. From there, the titan punched downwards, easily accessing the inner workings. Everyone watched in morbid curiosity as the faint yelling ceased, drowned out by crunching metal and exploding parts as the titan simply closed their hand. When it came out, the mixture contained a black liquid, and a dark red which dripped down to paint the tarmac.

When they stood up, Jackal's eyes narrowed. Especially as Adler side eyed him. “Thought you were the tallest-”

“Shut the fuck up.” He muttered as the new titan began walking towards him.

“If you’re feeling insecure about certain things you can talk to Angel, he knows a thing or two being the shortest-” Katherine never got to finish her remark as he placed the pad of his index finger on her mouth.