Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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YEAR 2720,

THE JAMES MACALLAN,

DEEP SPACE, EN-ROUTE TO PLANET TYPHON.

Daniel Cooper dashes through the starting line, instantly hearing a loud beep as a timer appears on his HUD, both of which indicating that the Pilot’s Gauntlet had begun. He leaps onto the wall to his right with a boost from his Jump Kit and runs upwards at a slight angle, before leaping forwards past a pink-leafed tree on a large round pedestal.

As Daniel soars through the air, he brings his V-47 Flatline up to his shoulder and promptly takes out a trio of static IMC Riflemen, causing them to disappear in a sequence of orange flashes. As he lands with a thud, he quickly continues sprinting ahead towards a low-hanging wall with a small opening at the bottom.

Sliding underneath the low wall and into the next room, there’s some basalt rock formations laid out in an almost maze-like fashion. Cooper immediately double-taps an IMC Rifleman on his left with practiced ease, and then another one straight in front of him standing between the rock formation and the wall. He jumps on top of said rock formation, and shoots another Grunt hidden inside.

Jumping to the other side of the rock maze and turning into a long, tight corridor, Daniel takes out another Rifleman before propelling himself onto the wall on his left. He wallruns over a trio of Grunts taking cover behind another rock formation, and drops an Arc Grenade onto them from above, the electric munition detonating on contact with the ground and causing all three of them to instantly disappear in a series of quick orange flashes.

Daniel continues wallrunning through the corridor as he takes out three more Grunts spaced out from each other along the way, quickly reloading his V-47 Flatline with experienced ease soon after.

He reaches the end of the corridor and takes another corner, and enters a much longer corridor with a wide, circular section about halfway through it. On the ground below, was a series of curved staircases leading through a central basalt column adorned with a cherry tree on top. Behind that, were two more rock columns, both of which each having an IMC Rifleman standing on top of it.

Soaring above it all, Daniel lands on the left-hand wall and wallruns along it, taking out the pair of aforementioned Riflemen simultaneously. Just up ahead, was much smaller doorway with a holographic ‘FINISH’ floating in the middle of it.

Daniel leaps off of the wall and quickly plummets towards the ground below. He lands on his knees with a thud and slides though the finish line, his Jump Kit propelling him forwards into a somewhat round room with an assortment of weapons lining the wall on the right side, and a small patch of grass in the middle underneath a skylight. On the left side, leaning against the wall next to a large leaderboard, was Captain Tai Lastimosa in his complete Pilot’s garb.

“HEY! That was my best time!” Captain Lastimosa calls out to Cooper. “Damn, I’m gettin’ slow...” He quietly adds, shaking his head.

Daniel remembered what the veteran Pilot said to him when he first began his ‘informal’ Pilot training: “We’re at war, Cooper! Nobody’s got time for classes! And besides, you’ll learn far more in here than sitting in a classroom.”

“You getting tired watching me, old man?” Daniel jeers, panting slightly as a result of the artificial fatigue imposed on him by the simulation. In the time he’d been training to be a Titan Pilot under Lastimosa, he’d learned many things. One of which, was that the old Pilot enjoyed a bit of banter.

“Someone’s getting cocky, you only beat me by about half a second!” Lastimosa retorts with a laugh, thumbing to the leaderboard to his left, which now had Cooper’s name above his own. “I might be in my fifties, but I could still run laps around you, kid!”

“Why don’t you get in here and prove that, then?” Daniel challenges with a smirk, dropping his Flatline to the floor with a clatter. The rifle quickly vanishes with an orange flash similar to the Grunts in the Gauntlet, as he approaches his mentor.

“Nah, I’ve got something better in mind. Something you’re definitely going to like.” Captain Lastimosa assures, as he produces a tablet and taps on the screen a few times.

“But first, we’re going to need a little more space.”

The environment surrounding the Captain and the Pilot in training then suddenly shifts to a massive open meadow that heavily resembled that of the planet Harmony; with its natural basalt formations and pink-leafed trees dotted intermittently around them, as well as its blended patches of deep and light green grass.

This is right here... is what the Militia was fighting for. A world that wasn’t made of concrete and metal. To free their home — The Frontier, of the IMC and its oppression.

“Now, I’m going to show you the other half of being a Pilot: The Titan.” Lastimosa announces to Cooper.

“It’s about time! I was starting to think you were going to kick the bucket before you’d show me this!” Daniel jokes with an excited smile on his face.

Lastimosa lets out a hearty chuckle in response to Daniel’s remark, before he gestures to a Titan with a predominantly green paintjob crouched down about thirty feet away from them.

“That’s my partner, BT, he’s a Vanguard Class. A chassis we designed and built ourselves, one we didn’t have to steal from the IMC.” The Pilot explains, as the Titan stands up from its crouch to its full twenty-five foot height.

“Okay, go ahead Rifleman, use your radio to call in your first Titan!” Lastimosa orders Cooper after turning back around to face the Rifleman, whose eyes widen in slight excitement at the prospect of Piloting his first Titan — Even if it is only in a simulation.

Daniel’s brow furrows, as his excitement quickly turns to confusion. What was he supposed to say?

“Uhh... Rifleman Cooper to Militia command, requesting Titanfall...?” Cooper says somewhat unsurely into the radio on his shoulder, looking towards Lastimosa with a cocked eyebrow.

Then suddenly, Daniel hears a distinct *crack* emanate far above him, one that he immediately recognises from his years of combat experience in the Militia. Looking to the sky above him, he sees a bright, flaming object crackling as it falls from the (simulated) heavens.

As the falling Titan quickly approaches the ground, the outer heat shield protecting its body from the entry heat suddenly detaches, emitting a loud ‘THWOOM’ as it suddenly becomes much less aerodynamic, slowing its descent.

The Titan crashes into the ground, kicking up soil and other debris, as Daniel almost loses his footing from the ensuing vibration. After he regains his footing, and the dust settles, Cooper stares in awe at the sight of a black and orange Vanguard-Class Titan now resting on the ground near Lastimosa’s Titan.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Lastimosa calls out from beside Daniel, snapping him out of his stupor as he looks over to him. “I thought you wanted to learn how to Pilot a Titan!”

Daniel rolls his eyes and an amused smirk appears on his face as he jogs up to the black and orange Vanguard. Once he gets close enough, the Titan’s hatch opens with a hiss, revealing the inside of its cockpit. After slowing down, Daniel briefly hesitates, before he jumps up onto the open hatch and pulls himself inside.

The hatch then closes, sealing Daniel inside and briefly surrounding him in darkness before the display in front of him activates, revealing the simulated environment to him once more.

“A.I disengaged, transferring control to Pilot.” A feminine, monotonous voice sounds inside the cockpit, presumably belonging to the Vanguard’s A.I.

“Now, piloting a Titan in the sim’ is a little different to how it is in real life.” Lastimosa’s gruff voice suddenly sounds through Daniel’s radio, who clearly sees the Captain exactly where they were both standing moments ago through the Titan’s ocular system.

“In real life, you’ll have to form a ‘Neural Link’ with your Titan first. Then, you’ll be able to feel the Titan’s body, as if it was your own. You’ll know what I mean, when you get your own Titan.” The Pilot explains, pointing to his own helmet.

Daniel can’t help but smile upon noticing the Pilot’s choice of words. ‘When you get your own Titan’, not if.

Then... the Neural Link.

“Oh, shit. That means I’ll have to get neural implants, won’t I?” Daniel asks, sincerely hoping the Pilot would say no. If he recalled correctly, they were required in order to Pilot a Titan, and getting the implants themselves would involve getting multiple holes drilled through a person’s skull.

“Nah, that’s the old way. These days, that’s all handled by our helmets.” Lastimosa reassures, pointing to his own helmet.

As a now-relieved Daniel looks away from Lastimosa, and instead to the inside of the Vanguard’s cockpit, he’s admittedly overwhelmed when he notices the massive assortment of dials, buttons and switches laid throughout the cockpit.

“Now, don’t worry about any of the dials on the inside of the cockpit for now. Just focus on what’s on the HUD in front of you.” Lastimosa says, as if he already knows what Cooper was doing.

“Okay.” Daniel replies, turning his attention back to the Titan’s HUD.

“You see those two bars at the top of your HUD? The big one’s the status of your Titan’s hull integrity, and the little one above it is your Titan’s bodyshield.” The Pilot Captain explains. “If your shield goes down in a fight, your Titan’s hull will start taking damage. The shield will regenerate over time, as long as your Titan isn’t actively being hit.”

Lastimosa then goes over the other elements present on the Titan’s HUD, explaining to Daniel what’s what. After that, the Pilot Captain has Cooper simply walk around to get a feel of things, and eventually push his Titan into a sprint. Once Daniel has done that, some floating square targets suddenly flash into existence in front of him, each at varying distances. Then, a large, Titan-sized weapon appears in his Vanguard’s hands.

“Okay, this right here’s the ‘XO16-A2 Chaingun’. It comes standard with all Vanguard expedition kits, and fires twenty-millimetre tungsten-tipped armour-piercing rounds fed from a thirty-round drum.” The Pilot Captain explains. “Trust me, hit your shots, and that thing will tear through armour in no-time.”

“Go ahead, see if you can hit those targets out there.” Lastimosa says, pointing towards said targets.

After loading the chaingun, Daniel focuses as he brings up the corresponding reticle on the Titan’s HUD with the closest target. He squeezes the trigger, and twenty-millimetre rounds subsequently erupt out of the chaingun’s muzzle, promptly finding their marks on the bullseye, the targets flashing yellow with each successful hit. Despite the Titan weapon’s gargantuan size in comparison to standard infantry small arms, the recoil from the chaingun was relatively manageable, also accounting for the fact that it was a Titan wielding it, instead of a Grunt.

“I heard that you’re a good shot, it’s good to see that’s true in a Titan as well!” Lastimosa happily remarks.

Daniel fires a few more short, controlled bursts at the other targets in front of him, reloading the chaingun during the process. After successfully hitting the final target, that one as well as the others fizzle out before disappearing.

“Okay Cooper, now that you’ve gotten the hang of the basics, let’s step it up a notch.” Captain Lastimosa says.

Then, Lastimosa disappears as the environment around Daniel suddenly shifts again, this time into a village colony comprised of prefabricated structures, which his Vanguard now stood on the edge of.

“Okay Pilot Cooper, your mission is to clear this village of IMC infantry!” Lastimosa declares, as a window appears on the HUD of Daniel’s Titan, indicating to him that there was a total of thirty targets within the village for him to take out.

Immediately upon entering the village, Daniel’s Vanguard takes a missile to the abdomen, causing the Titan to stumble backwards slightly. Thankfully, the Titan’s shields seemed to take the brunt of the hit, his hull now at ninety-eight percent integrity.

Looking over in the direction of the arrow on his Titan’s HUD that indicated where the missile came from, Daniel sees a squad of Riflemen on top of a nearby building.

However, before Cooper can bring up his chaingun and return fire, IMC Riflemen suddenly emerge from the surrounding buildings and open fire on his Titan from all directions, Daniel instinctively shielding himself with one of the Titan’s arms.

“Cooper, use your Titan’s Vortex Shield to catch those rounds and send ‘em back where they’re coming from!” Lastimosa advises him through his radio.

Daniel already knew what a Vortex Shield was prior to this training session with Lastimosa. Vortex shields used the same kind of gravity-manipulation technology as Gravity Stars, and allowed a Titan to catch incoming rounds and missiles mid-flight, and then fire them back where they came from.

Suddenly, one of the Riflemen on the building reappears wielding an Archer Heavy Rocket launcher, aiming it towards the Vanguard. Before Daniel can recognise the ‘LOCK DETECTED’ warning on his Titan’s HUD, the Grunt fires, and the anti-Titan missile within erupts out of the Archer’s muzzle-end.

Daniel brings up his Titan’s free hand, and activates the Vortex Shield just in time to catch the incoming anti-Titan missile, as well as the rounds from the Grunts’ rifles.

Releasing the Vortex Shield, the missile and the bullets rocket back towards the rooftop where the squad were, the bullets turning the Grunts into Swiss cheese and the missile then blowing them to pieces.

“Good work, Pilot!” Lastimosa praises, “Don’t let the IMC overwhelm you, keep moving!”

Daniel continues pushing his Vanguard through the village, taking out more IMC infantry on the way, including a handful of Spectres, unknowingly crushing two of them underneath his Titan’s feet.

Soon enough, Daniel eliminates the final IMC Rifleman, letting off a spray with his chaingun at the building he was taking cover inside of, the twenty-millimetre rounds penetrating the thick concrete wall with ease.

“Not bad Cooper, you cleared the village and your Titan suffered only minor hull damage. Keep this up, and you’ll be a Titan Pilot in no time.” Lastimosa remarks.

“But that was only ground infantry. Let’s see how you hold up against something your own size!”

Then, another distinct crack echoes in the skies far above.

“Warning: Hostile Titanfall detected.” Daniel’s Vanguard warns, as he looks up to see another fireball rapidly approaching the ground. Like his own Vanguard from before, the Titan hits the ground with a massive crash, kicking up concrete dust and other debris in the process.

As Daniel raises his chaingun in preparation to fight the IMC Titan, his Titan suddenly locks up, and remains completely unmoving regardless of his input, frozen in place. Then, as the hostile Titan stands up, Lastimosa speaks up.

“This right here’s a Brute-Class Titan. It’s the most common Titan deployed by the IMC, mainly because of how quick and cheap they are to build. Basically the exact opposite of a Vanguard.” The Pilot Captain explains, the Brute now also appearing to be frozen in place.

“But don’t underestimate these Titans because of that fact, because they’ll mess you up if you give them the chance. They’re often deployed with chainguns, like our Vanguards, or sometimes, Quad Rocket launchers, like this one.”

“Remember, concentrate your fire on the weak points in the Titan’s hull when you can; they’ll be highlighted in red by your Titan’s Heads-Up-Display.” Lastimosa adds, as a countdown begins on the HUD in front of Daniel, counting down from three.

“Now take it out, Pilot!” Lastimosa barks.

The countdown hits one, and Daniel is then able control his Vanguard once again. He immediately fires a salvo of Acolyte rockets at the Brute, intending to follow up with emptying his chaingun into the Titan, partly to end the fight quickly, and partly because he wanted to try and impress his mentor.

However, as the salvo flies through the air towards the Brute, the Brute quickly brings up a Vortex Shield of its own, catching the rockets in mid-air, before launching them back where they came from.

Caught off-guard, Daniel isn’t able to bring up his own Vortex Shield in time to catch the returning volley, and the Acolyte rockets hit the Vanguard. While Daniel knew that everything around him was being simulated, it sure didn’t feel that way, with his Vanguard getting thrashed by the returning salvo.

“Vanguards aren’t the only Titans out there with Vortex Shields!” The Pilot Captain laughs. “They’re tricky bastards, let me tell you!”

Daniel huffs as he continues fighting the Brute, both it and his own Titan exchanging blows. Despite initially landing some good hits on the Brute, the fight was quickly proving to be much tougher than Daniel had been anticipating, the Brute’s Quad Rocket Launcher chewing through his Vanguard’s armour.

“Warning! Major hull damage detected, take evasive action!” The Vanguard’s AI warns.

“Cooper! Don’t stand out in the open; take cover! Lastimosa recommends. “Just because you’re in a Titan, doesn’t mean you’re invincible!”

Daniel internally chastises himself. How could he be so stupid? How could such a simple part of his combat training go right over his head?

Daniel then mentally commands his Vanguard to take cover behind a nearby building. He keeps his Chaingun trained on the corner, waiting in case the Brute came around it after him. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen, and the bodyshield on Daniel’s Titan soon begins regenerating.

The fight between Vanguard and Brute continues, the Vanguard eventually gaining the upper hand against the Brute behind cover. After using his Vanguard’s Vortex Shield to fire the Brute’s own rockets back at it, the Brute explodes spectacularly, and Daniel’s Vanguard stands triumphant.

“Enemy Titan neutralised.” The Vanguard’s AI announces.

“Not bad, not bad. You won the fight, but not by much. If another Titan was to show up right now, you’d be screwed.” Lastimosa informs.

Daniel looks up at the blue bar displaying his Titan’s hull integrity at the top of his Vanguard’s HUD, and promptly notices it at thirty-percent of its total capacity. His mentor was right; he would be screwed if he was to encounter another Titan, in the state his own was in. He still has a long way to go before he would become a Pilot, Daniel surmises.

“Luckily for you, Vanguards can repair that kind of damage in the field!”

“Wait, how the hell do they do that?” Daniel questions, cocking his eyebrow in confusion.

“All Vanguards come equipped with a state-of-the-art self-repair system. No idea how it actually works, but I do know that all you need to use it, is some fresh Titan batteries.” Lastimosa explains, as three charged Titan batteries suddenly appear floating in the air in front of Daniel’s Vanguard with a flash.

“Come on Pilot, hurry up and repair your Titan!” Lastimosa orders Cooper.

Cooper reaches for the Titan batteries with his Titan’s off-hand, grabbing all three Titan batteries in one deft movement.

“Self-repair system engaged: Restoring hull integrity.” Daniel’s Titan informs, as the dull blue bar at the top of the HUD turns green, and begins quickly filling back up until it reaches one-hundred-percent.

“Well done Cooper, you’re well on your way to becoming a fully-fledged Titan Pilot.” Lastimosa remarks.

Green dots suddenly flash in Daniel’s vision as the simulation ends, and the interior of the Simulation Pod is revealed to him.

“That’s all we have time for today. We’re getting close to Typhon now; we’ll be there in another twenty minutes or so.” Lastimosa informs Daniel through the Sim Pod’s internal speakers, as the doors slide open with a hiss. Sitting on the railing in front of the Sim Pod, was the Pilot Captain, holding a brown package in his hands.

“Here, I got something for ya’.” Lastimosa informs, as he stands up from the railing and hands the package to Cooper inside the Sim Pod.

Daniel promptly opens the package, peeling away the brown paper surrounding whatever was inside. Upon revealing the contents and seeing what was inside, Daniel’s eyes widen. Inside was a burgundy red Pilot’s jumpsuit; its colour identifying that its wearer was a Pilot in training.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, but you’re not officially a Pilot in training yet, per se. But once we get that research facility on Typhon sorted out, you will be.” Lastimosa explains.

Lastimosa then explains that he needs to get himself and his Titan ready for the mission, telling Cooper that he’ll see him down on the ground, before departing and leaving the unofficial Pilot-in-training by himself in the Sim Pod.

Believing that he had plenty of time to do so, Daniel quickly returns to his quarters on board the James MacAllan, once he’d recovered from the side-effects of using the Sim Pod, to try on the Pilot’s jumpsuit.

Now inspecting himself in a nearby mirror, the jumpsuit fit him perfectly. To think all it took was for Daniel to see a Militia Pilot in action, practically flying across the battlefield, to realise that he himself wanted to be a Pilot. And now, the day he would finally (officially) become one, was almost here.

In the midst of Daniel’s thoughts, the lights in his room suddenly begin to flicker, before the room suddenly vibrates violently as alarms begin blaring out.

“POWERING DOWN ALL NON-ESSENTIAL SYSTEMS. ALL PERSONNEL TO BATTLE STATIONS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” The MacAllan’s AI PA system suddenly announces.

Daniel quickly equips his rifleman gear over his Pilot jumpsuit, knowing that he simply wouldn’t have the time to change out of it, as he grabs his rifle as and dashes out of his quarters into the halls filled with other Militia soldiers scrambling to get to their battle stations. Thankfully however, his equipment hid the vast majority of the red fabric from view, meaning he hopefully wouldn’t be getting his ass chewed out by his commanding officer for being out of uniform, at least not right away. Being a Rifleman, Daniel knew that his battle station would be at the dropship.

However, he never makes it anywhere near the launch bay, as a near-deafening crash rings out through the Militia carrier, followed by an earth-shattering rumble, sending himself and some other passing soldiers stumbling to the floor.

As Daniel and the other Riflemen pick themselves up, another warning blares out from the MacAllan’s PA system, this time from the MacAllan’s captain, informing everyone on board that they were under attack by the IMC, as well as ordering them to evacuate the ship immediately. The captain attempts to repeat the warning, but his voice turns to static right after another explosion reverberates through the ship. The lights cut out, and are quickly replaced by orange emergency lights, flashing in sequence.

“WARNING: SEXTUPLE ENGINE FAILURE DETECTED, ALTITUDE LOSS CRITICAL. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.” The MacAllan’s AI PA rings out again.

Daniel feels his stomach flip as he feels the ship begin a rapidly descending. He scrambles into one of the nearby lifeboats lining the sides of the hallway, as do the other Riflemen, the hatch quickly sealing shut once he was inside.

After his abdomen and legs are secured by the lifeboat’s safety harness, a loud beep sounds, as the lifeboat jettisons from the Militia carrier. As his lifeboat quickly plummets through Typhon’s atmosphere, Daniel hears the frantic chatter between other Militia personnel over the blaring of alarms via the lifeboat’s on-board emergency radio.

“Broadsword Command, this is the Militia Ninth Fleet! We have been ambushed by A.O.D. at planet Typhon! The intel was wrong!”

“IMC on the port side! Port side! We’re taking hits!”

“This is no ordinary research operation!”

“We are going down! Repeat, we are going down! Coordinates to follow!”

“Sir, we’ve lost the Rickman! I’m seeing a ton of Anti-Orbital Defences, none of it was on the charts!”

“Decompression on decks five through nine! All hands, abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon ship!”

“GET TO THE LIFEBOATS! WE’RE GOING DOWN, WE’RE GOING DOWN!”

“This is the MCS James MacAllan, we are going down! I repeat, we are going down!”

“They’re jamming us hard, we’re not getting through!”

Then, as the lifeboat’s thrusters activate and begin slowing its descent, the resulting g-forces produced by which forces the blood in Daniel’s body to quickly rush downwards away from his head. Soon, Daniel’s vision goes dark, and the Rifleman passes out.

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Daniel Cooper had wanted to be a Pilot for years now.

But... not like this...

His mentor, who’d become the closest thing Cooper had to a father-figure in years, in the roughly two months he’d been training under him, now laid lifeless on the rocky ground underneath his Vanguard-Class Titan. He’d saved Daniel’s life from an IMC Titan during the ambush the night before, and yet again from a Prowler mere moments ago.

Daniel would give him a proper burial; it was the least his mentor deserved, after everything he’s done for him. And so, after stripping the Pilot Captain of his equipment under his orders, Daniel spent what felt like hours burying Tai Lastimosa underneath some rocks taken from the surrounding area, the fallen Pilot’s final words echoing in his mind the entire time.

“Take care of him...”

Whether or not Lastimosa had directed that at him, or his Titan, Daniel didn’t know.

But now... He was all alone... again. Or, at least Daniel briefly thought he was, until a monotone voice suddenly reverberates nearby, startling him slightly and reminding him that he wasn’t alone.

“Power low... Insufficient power…”

With his dying breath, Lastimosa linked Daniel to his Vanguard-Class Titan, designated ‘BT-7274’, judging from the matching number on the Titan’s hull. Alone, neither Daniel nor BT would last another day, being knee-deep in IMC territory.

But together... they might stand a chance.

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YEAR 2720,

TYPHON,

THE FRONTIER.

Daniel sees nothing but complete darkness. Is he dead? Is this the afterlife? He wasn’t sure, and he can’t remember a thing. Then, he hears distant voices, reminding him that he was still very much alive. As the Titan Pilot returns to the realm of consciousness, memories begin to trickle back into his mind:

Hijacking the Malta...

Fighting Viper...

Boarding the Draconis...

Securing the Ark...

“Protocol three: I will not lose another Pilot.”

As Daniel’s eyes open, he finds himself sitting on the floor within some kind of maintenance room, judging from all the pipes surrounding him. Nearby, the two remaining Apex Predators, Blisk and Slone, stood alongside a glowing hologram of IMC General Marder. Behind the three, stood a red and yellow Ion-Class Titan — presumably belonging to Slone — armed with its Splitter Rifle.

After that, Daniel immediately notices the remains of BT-7274’s battered and scorched chassis nearby, illuminated by a nearby floodlight. Several tools were laid out on a tarp on the floor beneath the Titan; likely evidence from the IMC’s vain attempt to remove the Ark from the Vanguard’s cockpit by conventional means.

With his hands cuffed behind his back, there wasn’t much else Cooper could do except sit still on the floor. Though, he did have a pin for picking the locks on standard handcuffs inside the hem of his right glove. But, upon hearing the shuffling of equipment behind him, he notices a pair of IMC Riflemen standing behind him with their weapons drawn, ready to end him if he was to try that. Or anything, for that matter.

“Blisk, your problems are not my concern.” Marder’s hologram informs, as Daniel’s head turns back to face the trio. “Once you have delivered the Ark — as per your contract — your payment will be transferred by the IMC.” The IMC General reassures.

Blisk scoffs. “Just have my money ready. I’ll get you your precious cargo, you useless naff.” Blisk insults Marder’s hologram, as the glowing General disappears. The leader of the Apex Predators then turns and raises his knife towards the Vanguard suspended from the ceiling.

“OI, TITAN! You’re going to open up and give me what I want!” Blisk shouts at BT, who doesn’t move an inch, except for the occasional twitch of his remaining, yet heavily damaged arm.

“Voice command... not recognised.” BT’s monotonous voice replies, his single eye flashing in sequence as he speaks.

Slone growls in annoyance, as she clenches one hand into fist and smashes it into her other palm. “Let me just rip it out of him!” She asks her fellow Apex Predator, thumbing towards the Ion in the room behind them.

“We can’t risk it, the Ark’s unstable.” Blisk explains, as he turns and kneels down in front of the sitting Pilot.

“Listen, hero. You have what’s mine and I want it back. So go on, tell your Titan to open up.” Blisk tells, as he points the tip of his knife straight into the Militia Pilot’s visor, so close that the blade was almost touching it.

“I’ll tell him to open up — When you’re dead.” Daniel retorts, the Apex Predator’s threat not phasing him in the slightest. He knew that they wouldn’t kill him. At least, not yet. After all, why go through all the trouble of restraining him and bringing him here, just to slit his throat? They clearly wanted him alive, probably in the hopes of using him to coerce BT into giving up the Ark.

Blisk sighs, as he stands up and returns his knife back into the sheath on his shoulder, snapping it into place with a click. “Still trying to be a hero, eh? I have a lot of dosh riding in this contract, my friend.” The mercenary informs, while Daniel remains silent.

“So, tell your Titan, that if he doesn’t open up, I will shoot you in the head.” He threatens, simultaneously drawing his Wingman from his thigh holster and pressing the muzzle straight into the forehead of the Militia Pilot’s helmet.

A few seconds of tense silence follows, before BT looks up towards the two Pilots, and his deep, monotonous voice reverberates through the room.

“Pilot in jeopardy... Ocular systems... marginal... Cannot visually acquire Pilot...” The Vanguard informs almost drearily, his eye appearing to squint at them.

Blisk briefly glances at the Vanguard, before lowering his Wingman and looking back at the Pilot, an idea entering his mind.

“Stand him up!” Blisk barks to the two Riflemen behind Daniel, as the Grunts quickly grab hold of the Militia Pilot’s arms and force the somewhat larger man to stand.

“Do you see him now? Right here, right here! Yeah? You see him now?!” Blisk roars at the Vanguard, quickly gesturing to the Grunts to bring the Pilot closer.

“Functions... compromised by... severe... crash damage...” BT blankly informs.

“I don’t care how broken you are! I know deep down, some things... some things, still work in there. Now open up — or I’m going to kill your Pilot!” Blisk shouts, as he brings the muzzle of his Wingman back up into the Pilot’s helmet.

“You still remember numbers, don’t you? I’m going to count to three.” Blisk threatens, cocking the hammer on his Wingman. As Blisk begins counting, simultaneously, a message appears on the left side of Daniel’s HUD.

“One...”

RECIEVING ENCRYPTED MESSAGE:

“Two...”

BT-7274: COOPER, TRUST ME.

“Three—”

Blisk is cut off by the sound of the lower half of BT’s hatch suddenly opening with a loud hiss, allowing the intense light produced by the Ark to envelope the room, quickly forcing him and the other mercenaries to shield their eyes, while Daniel’s helmet display automatically dims in response to the intense light.

As Blisk lowers his Wingman and looks towards the Vanguard, he lets out a quiet chuckle. “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He says in a slightly mocking tone, as he turns back around and faces the Pilot.

“You see, that’s the problem with teams. If you don’t win together, you die together.” Blisk taunts.

A mechanical whirring suddenly begins emanating from BT, and his remaining arm starts violently twitching. Then, without warning, the Titan’s hand lashes out towards Blisk.

Blisk notices the movement out of the corner of his vision, and reacts quickly, skilfully dodging the Vanguard’s sudden attack with the aid of his Jump Kit with only mere inches to spare. As Blisk quickly runs out of the room, Slone’s Ion-Class Titan quickly picks up its Pilot and places her into its cockpit, sealing her away from the hostile Vanguard, before it backs away out of the Vanguard’s range.

The pair of IMC Grunts restraining Cooper promptly release him, and the Pilot instinctively drops to the floor to keep himself out of harm’s way, as the Riflemen begin firing their rifles upon the Vanguard. In response, BT sends some nearby crates flying at the Grunts with a whack from remaining arm, knocking them down and far out of his reach. On the floor, Daniel removes the pin from the hem of his glove, and immediately gets to work freeing himself from his restraints, but struggling to do so from the awkward position his arms were in.

One of the Grunts quickly gets himself to his feet and continues firing on BT, while the other opts to do so from the floor. Suddenly, BT’s remaining Acolyte Pod reactivates, somehow still functional despite the damage the Vanguard has sustained. Then, with barely enough time for the two Riflemen to see both of their lives flash before their eyes as their rifles run dry, they’re swiftly blown to pieces by a pair of missiles from the Titan.

The Acolyte Pod continues firing wildly, clearly malfunctioning. BT does his best with his own damaged and malfunctioning systems to keep the missiles as far away from his Pilot as possible, as the pod continues firing its salvo in all directions around the room, destroying and igniting gas cylinders, pipes and many other flammable items.

This causes Daniel to accidently drop the pin he was holding between his fingers, letting out a curse as he feels around the floor behind him, desperately searching for it. As the room is soon engulfed in flames, BT’s Acolyte Pod suddenly ceases its fire, having expended the last of its ammunition.

As Daniel remains on the floor, desperately searching for the pin, he hears the loud thumps of Slone’s Titan re-entering the maintenance room. When Slone reaches the Vanguard, its fist slams straight into BT’s cockpit, and promptly rips the Ark right out him. As the Ion inspects the Ark in its hand, BT desperately reaches out towards it, the Ark just barely out of his reach.

“Nice try, love.” Slone taunts, her voice amplified by her Titan’s PA system, as she directs her attention towards the Vanguard.

“Say goodnight.” Slone remarks in twisted glee, as she jams the barrel of her Titan’s Splitter Rifle into BT’s cockpit, and starts unloading the particle accelerator straight into the Vanguard.

Daniel watches helplessly as the Vanguard tries in vain to pull the gun away from him, before his remaining arm falls limp, and Slone pulls the weapon from the now lifeless Vanguard’s cockpit.

“GET THE ARK OUT OF HERE, WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!” Blisk shouts from the safety of the neighbouring room.

Slone’s Ion-Class Titan gives Cooper one last look before it turns and leaves the room, the large door connecting both rooms sealing behind the Titan as it leaves, Ark in hand, leaving Daniel trapped inside.

As Daniel finally finds the pin on the floor behind him, he manages to open one of his cuffs, partially freeing himself. He quickly sits up and brings his arms around his front and opens the remaining cuff, releasing it from his wrist as it clatters to the floor.

The Pilot slowly picks himself up from the floor, looking around the surrounding room. The room was almost completely engulfed in flames now, and the temperature was getting hotter by the second.

Daniel slowly approaches BT’s battered chassis, which was now on fire just like the room surrounding it, searching for any signs of life in the Vanguard.

The Titan remains completely motionless.

After waiting a few moments, hoping for him to do or say anything… Daniel’s hope plummets.

Daniel looks over to the large door on the other side of the room – the only exit - and sees a terminal next to it. If he still had his Data Knife, hacking the terminal to open the door would be a breeze. But the IMC had confiscated it, and without it, there was nothing he would be able to do. Now, his odds of escaping the room before he burns to death was zero.

Until...

“Cooper…”

Daniel looks back to the seemingly-destroyed Vanguard. “BT?” He mutters, shocked and relieved that despite all the damage he’d sustained, the Titan was somehow still alive.

“I can no longer uphold the mission… But you still can…” BT explains, his distorted voice reverberating through the room.

“Take the S.E.R.E Kit… It is your best… chance… for survival…” He advises, as the Titan’s arm twitches again, as it slowly begins reaching towards his own head.

With a snap, BT removes his head from his body and attempts to give it to Cooper, but before the Pilot can reach for it, the arm suddenly falls limp, his head rolling out of his hand and onto the floor. Daniel’s HUD soon highlights it in yellow, with the words ‘SURVIVE, EVADE, RESIST, ESCAPE KIT’ hovering above it.

Daniel immediately kneels down and grasps BT’s head, facing the Titan’s partially closed eye up towards him. As if responding to his touch, the eye shoots open, surprising him slightly. Then, the sides of hid head extend outwards with a hiss, revealing a pair of hidden compartments within the Vanguard’s head. On the right side, Daniel sees the obvious grip of a pistol, alongside some spare magazines sticking out of it slightly.

Daniel gives the pistol’s grip a tug before sliding it out of its compartment, grabbing the spare magazines tucked away beside it as well and stowing them into the pouches on his vest.

Inspecting the Pistol, it shared the same colour scheme as BT’s chassis, being predominantly green, with some white and orange highlights. It was a pistol alright, but not just any old pistol. Some text soon appears in a window on his HUD, hovering over the sidearm, identifying it:

MK 6 SMART PISTOL: LOCKS ONTO TARGETS WITHIN RANGE FOR GUARANTEED HITS.

Daniel had only ever heard of Smart Pistols, and had never seen one before, due to how rare they were. But now, he has one, right in his hand, and he knew exactly what he was going to use it for.

He holsters the high-tech pistol into the holster on his right thigh, and reaches into the other compartment on the Vanguard’s head. This time, it reveals a Data Knife. He already knew what one could do, briefly remembering how he used one to take control of the IMC’s Battleship, the IMS Malta, as he quickly sheathes it onto his vest.

Both compartments quickly slam shut as BT’s eye pops out of its socket slightly. Daniel grasps the eye and gives it a firm pull, removing it from the socket with a click. On its side, was the Militia Special Reconnaissance Squadron’s Prowler insignia on the side, with the inscription ‘SRS VANGUARD-CLASS TITAN — BT-7274’ below it.

As his HUD warns him of the obvious high external temperatures, Daniel sprints towards the terminal on the opposite side of the room, BT’s Datacore firmly held in his left hand. He uses his newly acquired Data Knife to pry the digital keyboard up, before flicking the switch on the side of the knife’s handle to activate its hacking mode, causing a pair of thin wings covered in electrical circuitry to extend out from the handle parallel to the blade, before jamming it into the terminal’s now-exposed circuitry.

The holographic display on the handle lights up, initially glowing orange before soon turning blue, indicating the advanced hacking tool had done its job, as the maintenance room door to the left opens.

Daniel returns the knife back into the sheath on his vest as he draws his Smart Pistol. After running through the neighbouring room past a large cargo lift, the temperature quickly falling to a much safer level, the Pilot runs up a staircase that has a large ‘EXIT’ arrow on the wall pointing up it.

He ignores some crackling from his helmet radio, as he reaches the top of the stairs and continues into the connecting hallway.

“All call signs fire at will! Captain, do have a fix on that signal?” SRS Commander Sarah Briggs asks over comms.

“I’ve got something, but it’s faint. Cannot confirm.” The captain in question replies to the Militia Commander.

In the moment, Daniel ignores the radio chatter he hears, instead directing his attention to a squad of IMC Riflemen ahead of him at the end of the hallway.

“Contact, ten-thirteen! We’ve got a Militia Pilot inside the thermal facility!” One of the Grunts ahead of him shouts into his radio, Daniel hearing it in his own thanks to the helmet radio he stole from Kane, another one of the Apex Predators he encountered not long after he and BT escaped the MacAllan’s crash site.

Raising the Smart Pistol’s muzzle towards the squad, red holographic lines lead from the pistol’s muzzle straight to red reticles hovering over each of the Riflemen’s heads.

“Repeat, Militia Pilot—"

Cooper squeezes the trigger, and in a fraction of a second, five shots bark out, and every Grunt in the squad drops dead in rapid succession before any one of them have a chance to fire on the Pilot.

As a staircase brings Daniel to a walkway situated above a massive cooling chamber, he leaps across the gap to another walkway ahead. As more Grunts appear from another staircase ahead of him, they immediately meet their end, barely having any time to react to the Militia Pilot.

“Commander Briggs, I’m picking up a Datacore, but it’s a weak signal!” Another voice informs the SRS Commander over comms.

“Are you sure you have the coordinates? Boost the signal, I need to get through to them!” Sarah orders.

Daniel continues ignoring the radio chatter in the background, completely focused on following the signs leading him to the facility’s exit, and dealing with anything that gets in his way.

After running up the stairs where the Riflemen came from, the Pilot slides under a partially open shutter door and emerges outside onto a walkway overlooking the gargantuan spinning rings of the IMC’s Fold Weapon, the same weapon they intended to use to destroy the planet Harmony, home to the Militia’s headquarters. A pair of IMC Riflemen that turn the corner suddenly, are quickly handled by Daniel’s Smart Pistol.

“Commander Briggs, I have a lock on Cooper’s position! He’s pulled BT’s Datacore, he must have the S.E.R.E Kit!” Another voice informs Briggs over the radio.

“BT! Cooper! What’s your status?! Cooper! How copy, over?!” Sarah calls out to Daniel over comms.

Daniel raises his fingers to his helmet radio to responds, now actually in a safe-enough position to do so.

“Briggs, how the hell do we shut this thing down?!” Daniel asks the SRS Commander.

“Cooper — get to the bridge one klick north of your position!” Briggs orders with relief in her tone, as Daniel looks north, and sees the bridge she’s referring to in the distance. “We’ve only got one shot to turn this fight around, and you’re it!”

“Got it, I’m on my way!” Daniel replies, as he turns the corner and continues running along the walkway until he arrives at its edge.

Below the edge, was a landing platform, that currently had an IMC Goblin dropship on it deploying some troops. As the Goblin takes off into the sky, Daniel leaps off the edge, his Jump Kit slowing his descent to a safe velocity as he plummets to the platform below. The squad of IMC Riflemen below him were completely oblivious to his presence, and in less than a second, the entire squad lay dead at the hands of Daniel’s Smart Pistol, who quickly replaces the now-empty magazine in the high-tech weapon with a fresh one from his vest.

“Our fleets moving in on the Fold Weapon!” Briggs informs, as Daniel lands on the platform with a loud thud. “We’re coming, it’s not over yet!”

Damn right, it isn’t. Daniel internally remarks, as he runs across the landing platform towards a shutter door that was in the process of opening. As he slides underneath the door and he immediately headshots a Grunt using the door controls to the right.

The rest of his squad were inside waiting for the door to open, and are caught off-guard by the Pilot’s sudden appearance. Before any of them can react, they all swiftly meet their end.

Sprinting past the fallen Riflemen, instead of taking the stairs on the other side of the room, Daniel runs up the wall on his right, in order to reach a doorway just behind a catwalk above. As two more Riflemen suddenly emerge from said doorway, the Pilot leaps off the wall towards them, and puts both bewildered Grunts down with Smart Pistol-aided ease.

Daniel quickly runs down the hallway, passing by multiple sealed doors, and guns down two more Grunts that turn the corner. As the Pilot himself turns that corner, he’s met with an entire squad of IMC Riflemen taking defensive positions behind some barricades, led by a Shield Captain, who had an impenetrable energy shield projected in front of him that would both protect him from incoming fire, and allow him to return fire unimpeded.

Daniel quickly ducks back behind the corner with a boost from his Jump Kit as the squad opens fire, peppering the wall that was previously behind him moments prior.

“CONTACT! GAMMA TWO, ENGAGING MILITIA PILOT!” One of the Grunts radios in.

Normally, Daniel would use his Cloak to give himself an edge in situations like this, but since the IMC had confiscated that too, he would have to improvise.

He grabs a grenade from the belt of one of the dead soldiers on the floor next to him and pulls the pin, before he blind-throws the grenade around the corner when he finds an opening in the Grunts’ fire. He barely makes out one them calling out ‘GRENADE!’ before he hears it go off and the gunfire ceases, indicating that he’s hit his mark.

As he turns the corner again and continues running through the halls, still tightly grasping BT’s Datacore in his left hand, he quickly finishes off an injured Rifleman who’d somehow managed to survive the explosion. As he reaches the blast door that Riflemen had sealed behind them, Daniel quickly draws his Data Knife and uses it to pry the door’s control panel open, before jamming it into the exposed circuitry and successfully hacking it open.

“Cooper, you’re headed in the right direction, just keep moving!” Commander Briggs informs him.

“Solid copy!” Daniel replies, confirming that he knows exactly where to go.

“The anti-air defences are extremely heavy around the Fold Weapon! We’re having trouble getting boots on the ground, and we’re running out of options!” Sarah briefs.

Running into the next room reveals yet another massive cooling chamber — this one much bigger and longer than the one before, split into two separate chambers by a central support column.

Suddenly, some more IMC soldiers appear from a door on the right, and after Daniel quickly deals with them, he runs to the left side of the cooling vent and jumps onto the wall. As the Pilot begins wallrunning through the vent, feeling the heat rising up from below, a swarm of about half a dozen IMC drones fly into the vent from the other end, and quickly begin firing blue energy projectiles towards him.

After discovering that the drones were outside his Smart Pistol’s targeting range, Daniel quickly dodges their shots by leaping off the wall to the right, flying through a gap in the middle of the cooling vent’s central support column and into the other vent on the opposite side.

As the Pilot continues wallrunning through the opposite vent, the drones quickly give chase and follow him into it, before continuing to fire on him again. In response, Daniel begins leaping back and forth from wall to wall inside the vent, his erratic movement throwing off the aim of the drones for just long enough for him to reach the end of the cooling chamber.

As he leaps out of the vent, he plummets towards the platform below and lands on it with a loud thud, before turning around to face the swarm of drones now exiting the cooling chamber.

Bringing up his Smart Pistol, Daniel waits for it to automatically lock onto the fatal weak points on each and every drone, before squeezing the trigger and sending a guided round into each of them, causing the drones to either explode or quickly lose control and plunge back into the cooling vent.

Daniel turns and continues running through the thermal facility. As he runs around a bend, he sees sunlight spilling into the facility from outside.

“Be careful, the IMC’s setting up defences on the bridge ahead of you!” Sarah warns.

“Solid copy!” Daniel acknowledges, as he sprints up a ramp, past a control room.

“We have one Vanguard left in the racks! I’m pulling its Datacore and preparing it for Titanfall!” The Militia Commander suddenly informs. Daniel immediately puts the pieces together as to what she means, as he gives BT’s Datacore a gentle squeeze in anticipation.

As the Pilot runs outside onto the aforementioned bridge, he sees a multitude of IMC Grunts and drones taking defensive positions all across the bridge in a sort of ‘last stand’ to stop him at all costs.

“Contact! Militia Pilot’s at the bridge!” One of the Grunts on the bridge radios in.

Despite the overwhelming IMC resistance in front of him, Daniel doesn’t hesitate. He continues sprinting across the bridge, shooting two nearby Grunts preparing to open fire on him. Moving from cover to cover, his Smart Pistol makes short work of any IMC Rifleman or drone that got within its range.

A quick magazine change later, and Daniel takes out the last few Grunts on the bridge as he charges onwards, sprinting through a large building on the other side of the bridge, as Commander Briggs speaks to him again.

“Cooper, your Titan’s standing by! Call it when you’re ready!” The Militia Commander informs.

When Cooper enters the wide, open area on the other side of the bridge, he quickly confirms it’s clear and secure, before radioing Commander Briggs.

“Commander Briggs, requesting Titanfall on my position!” The Pilot calls out.

“Solid copy, standby for Titanfall!” Sarah replies.

As a distinct crack echoes in the sky above him, Daniel looks up and sees a flaming object fireball rocketing towards the ground, being propelled downwards by top-mounted a thruster. As the object approaches the ground below, its heat shield detaches, temporarily revealing a humanoid object that quickly hits the ground with a crash that kicks up a cloud of dust, obscuring it from view.

Daniel sprints towards it, and as the dust settles, it reveals a black and grey Vanguard-Class Titan. When the Pilot gets close enough, the kneeling Titan leans forwards, as a slot in its head opens up.

Not hesitating in the slightest, Daniel presents BT’s Datacore and slowly and gently inserts it into the slot on the Vanguard’s head, as if any lapse in movement would damage it irreparably. After clicking into place, BT’s Datacore retreats into the Vanguard’s head with a series of clicks, the eye spinning for a few moments, before the Titan looks straight at the Pilot and blinks.

“Hello, Daniel.” A familiar, monotonous warble suddenly greets him, the voice reverberating around them. The massive war machine slams a fist into the ground as it stands to it’s full twenty-five-foot height.

“Glad to have you back in one piece, BT.” Daniel warmly admits to the Vanguard, letting a relieved smile appear on his face.

“Over twenty-five-thousand, actually.” The Vanguard replies literally, Daniel smiling at his unintentional sarcasm as BT raises an arm, inspecting his new chassis.

“BT-Seven-Two-Seven-Four online and ready for combat.” BT declares, simultaneously producing a Titan-sized minigun from his back.

“It is time to complete our mission.” BT declares, as his hatch pops open with a hiss, simultaneously lowering the barrels of the Predator Cannon to create a pseudo ramp for his Pilot.

“Damn right is!” Daniel exclaims, holstering his Smart Pistol as he sprints up the barrel of the gun and leaps into the cockpit.

The hatch seals shut as BT turns around, Daniel simultaneously feeling the body of a Titan become his own, man and machine becoming one. The cockpit visual system promptly activates, resulting in the hatch’s interior quickly becoming transparent and revealing the outside world to his Pilot.

Hovering high in Typhon’s sky, was at least a dozen Militia battleships exchanging fire with the IMC’s anti-orbital weaponry on the ground.

“Cooper, we’re throwing everything we’ve got at the IMC but it’s not going to be enough to stop the Fold Weapon! I need you to get inside its control room, asap!” Commander Briggs reports to Daniel, as the Vanguard sprints down the slope towards a bridge, stepping on and crushing some Spectres underfoot along the way.

“Commander Briggs to all battle stations, I want close fire support on Cooper and BT! Do whatever it takes to cover them!” Briggs orders the fleet, several Militia Captains replying in acknowledgement over the radio.

“Cooper, get up that hill! We’ll cover you, move!” Sarah barks.

“Copy that, we’re on it!” Daniel replies, as he revs up the Predator Cannon and begins unloading it into an approaching IMC Tone-Class Titan.

The Tone puts up a Particle Wall in an attempt to stop the storm of armour-piercing rounds from chewing it to pieces. But thanks to the Predator Cannon’s high rate of fire, the Particle Wall only manages to defend the Titan for a few seconds, before it quickly disintegrates. Then, the IMC Titan explodes spectacularly at the hands of the Militia Vanguard.

“Cooper, we must stop the IMC from using the Fold Weapon at all costs. If we fail, the Militia planet of Harmony will be destroyed.”

“We won’t let that happen, BT!” Daniel determinedly replies to his Titan.

There’s more Titans of all varieties quickly approaching the Vanguard from further up the hill, with a Northstar hanging back to snipe at them from afar, as Daniel deploys the Predator Cannon’s Gunshield and spools up the Titan minigun again to return fire. Even with the Predator Cannon’s impressive firepower, it was quickly proving difficult for Daniel and BT to fight the hostile Titans all at once. Fortunately, they didn’t have to.

“Tracking targets — Firing, danger close!” A Militia gunner suddenly warns Daniel through his radio, as orange markers began appearing above of the Titans ahead of them. The Militia’s battleships in the distance begin firing upon the IMC Titans, as Daniel takes cover behind a rock formation as soon as they hit their mark.

“Direct hit, reloading!”

When the Vanguard emerges from behind the rock formation after the smoke clears, all that remains of the IMC Titans were a few pieces of scorched metal, not even fit for scrap. Cooper continues pushing BT’s powerful legs up the hill, as more IMC Titans begin approaching from further ahead.

“Cooper, Smart Core online and standing by for activation.” BT informs.

“Alright, let’s finish this, BT!” Daniel exclaims, as he spools up the Predator Cannon and deploys the Gunshield, the Vanguard advancing forwards towards the hostile Titans up ahead.

———————————————————

After eliminating several more IMC Titans, Reapers and infantry alike with the help from the Militia’s fleet and the Six-Four piloting the commandeered IMS Malta, Daniel and BT soon begin closing in on the Fold Weapon’s control room.

Running past some charged Titan batteries stored inside some pods, Daniel simultaneously breaks the pods and sweeps the batteries up with a swipe from BT’s hand. The Vanguard’s self-repair system automatically siphons the energy out of them and uses it to repair his damaged hull, bringing its integrity back to one-hundred-percent capacity, as the fight for Harmony certainly wasn’t over just yet.

Daniel discards the discharged Titan batteries and returns the XO16-A2 Chaingun to BT’s hands, as he walks his Titan down a ramp leading to the Fold Weapon’s control room. Upon entering the control room, a heavily-reinforced blast door automatically shuts behind the Titan, sealing Daniel and BT inside.

Up ahead, was Slone and Blisk’s Titans, standing underneath a massive railgun pointing directly into the centre of the Fold Weapon’s spinning rings, the Ion just finishing loading the Ark’s casing into said railgun, while Blisk’s Legion was facing another glowing hologram of General Marder in conversation.

“You have your money, Blisk. Now go, my forces will take over from here.” General Marder’s hologram orders Blisk.

“It’s about time they do something.” Blisk grumbles in reply. His Titan’s hatch slams shut upon noticing the Vanguard’s arrival, before he turns to the nearby Slone.

“I think our Militia Pilot’s trying to be a hero. He’s all yours, keep the salvage.” Blisk’s voice booms through his Titan’s PA system, as the Legion walks away towards another exit on the far end of the room.

“Who said anything about salvage? I’ll do this one for free.” Slone replies to the Legion, as she slams her Titan’s fist into its other hand, before producing a Splitter Rifle from its back and priming it for combat.

“ARK INJECTOR LOADED. SPOOLING UP STAGE ONE.” The control room’s AI reverberates, as multiple orange lights in the control room begin flashing in warning.

“You know what I see when I look at you? A pile of easy money!” Slone taunts through her Titan’s PA system, as she begins unleashing charged particles from her Titan’s Splitter Rifle at the Vanguard.

“Come and get it, then!” Daniel challenges, his own voice amplified and projected through BT’s PA system as he begins returning fire.

The Vanguard rushes towards Slone’s Ion, both exchanging armour-piercing rounds and charged particles as Daniel narrowly dodges a shot from her Titan’s shoulder-mounted Laser Cannon.

Thanks to the chaingun’s faster rate of fire, the shields on Slone’s Ion eventually deplete with a visible pop, and the Titan’s hull starts taking damage, Cooper making sure to aim right for the weak point in the hull highlighted on his HUD as he advances towards Slone.

The Chaingun soon runs dry, and with a mental command, Daniel keeps up the pressure by firing a salvo of rockets at Slone. In return, Slone quickly deploys her Ion’s Vortex Shield and catches the rockets in mid-air.

“Nice try love, but I’m no pushover!” The Apex Predator growls, as she fires the rockets back at the Militia Vanguard.

In response, Cooper deftly deploys BT’s own Vortex Shield and catches the returning volley, before quickly firing it back at the Ion.

“Neither am I, bitch!” The Vanguard Pilot growls, as the salvo hits Slone’s Titan and strips some armour from its hull and causing it to stagger.

“You little bugger! You’re really making me work for my pay, ain’t ya?!” Slone angrily exclaims.

The Ion briefly knocked off-balance by the salvo, Daniel sees the opening in Slone’s guard and quickly closes the gap, aiming BT’s left fist straight for the Ion’s main hatch in an effort to end the fight now, and stop the Fold Weapon from being activated before it’s too late.

Right before the Vanguard’s fist can make contact with Slone’s Titan, the Ion suddenly Phases away and disappears without a trace.

Before Daniel can realise what’s happened and react appropriately, BT’s chassis is suddenly hit in the shoulder from Slone’s Ion, who’s just reappeared nearby, taking a sizeable chunk out of the bar representing BT’s hull integrity at the top of his HUD.

“Sorry mate, it’s time to die!” Slone shouts at Cooper, as she charges up her Ion’s Laser Core and fires it at him, the red laser quickly threatening to burn a hole through the Vanguard.

With another mental command, Daniel quickly deploys BT’s Electric Smoke countermeasures in response, the thick, electrified smoke quickly enveloping the Vanguard and obscuring him from Slone’s view, giving him precious room to back off and take cover, allowing him to reload his Chaingun and allow BT’s shields to regenerate. With the knowledge that Slone’s Ion is equipped with Phase technology in his mind, Daniel quickly realises that this is a fight he won’t be able to end as quickly as he’d hoped.

————————————————————

“FOLD WEAPON APPROACHING STAGE FOUR: RING MOMENTUM AT NINETY-FIVE PERCENT.” The control rooms AI informs, as both Vanguard and Ion continue their dance, exchanging fire and insults all the while. Both Titans were now displaying moderate to heavy damage, the control room they were in also in a similar state from stray shots.

Like before, Daniel had tried several times to close the gap and end the fight, only for Slone to either Phase away or fire another Laser Core at him and force him to retreat, likely thanks to a supped-up reactor in her Titan.

However, BT had hypothesised that both her Ion’s Phase Shifter and Laser Core shared the same power supply, meaning that in theory, she wouldn’t be able to immediately Phase away after firing a Laser Core, temporarily leaving her Titan vulnerable to attack. With this in mind, Daniel had been quietly using the precious time he had left to charge the ace up his sleeve: BT’s Shield Core.

When activated, the Shield Core would do exactly what it sounded like, and surround the Vanguard’s chassis with a nigh-impenetrable energy shield for a few seconds. The only downside of this core, was that it required a tremendous amount of energy to function, meaning Daniel would only have one shot at using it. But with the Fold Weapon nearing its final preparation stage, it was their only chance at getting close enough to Slone to end the fight.

As Daniel blocks a shot from the Ion’s Laser Cannon with BT’s Vortex Shield, he then empties another drum from the XO-16 at the enemy Titan, before quickly reloading the Chaingun with experienced ease.

The swarm of tungsten-tipped armour-piercing rounds pummel the battered Ion, but not enough to cause any major damage. However, one of the armour piercers strikes a critical component in the Ion’s shoulder-mounted Laser Cannon, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks, taking one of Slone’s weapons out of the fight for good.

The Ion stumbles slightly before quickly regaining its footing.

“I’ve gotta’ say hero, this has been more entertaining than I expected!” Slone admits to the Militia Pilot.

“But I reckon it’s time I cashed my pay check!” Slone remarks as she powers up her Ion’s Laser Core, the front of her Titan glowing a menacing red.

Daniel quickly deploys another smokescreen to throw off Slone’s aim as much as possible, as he activates BT’s core with another mental command.

“Shield Core activated.”

The Vanguard emerges from the electrified smoke surrounded in a thick, blue energy shield, and rushes towards the Ion.

“Use that Core all you want - it won’t save ya’!” Slone barks.

The Militia Titan continues pushing through the burning red laser towards the Ion, Laser and Shield Cores clashing together in an amalgamation of blinding purple energy all the while.

Both Laser and Shield Core deactivate as soon the Vanguard closes the gap to the Ion, the Vanguard visibly unharmed, save for the damage sustained beforehand. With a devastating kick, the Militia Pilot knocks the Ion’s Splitter Rifle out of its grip, the weapon getting sent flying out of reach and smashing to the floor of the control room.

Slone quickly regains her Titan’s balance, before launching a mechanical fist towards the Vanguard.

The loud clash of metal on metal reverberates throughout the control room, as the Militia Titan catches the Ion’s fist with its free hand. Before Cooper can do anything else, the Ion’s other hand wraps around the barrel of his Chaingun, and wrenches the muzzle away from her Titan.

“I won’t lose to some pitiful excuse for a Pilot!” Slone roars at the Vanguard through her Titan’s damaged PA system, her voice heavily distorted as a result.

In response, Daniel uses BT’s strength to shove Slone’s battered Ion away from him. The Ion staggers as the Vanguard fires an Acolyte rocket into its damaged and exposed right shoulder, the piercing explosion decimating the joint in the process. Then, Daniel rips the right arm of Slone’s Titan right out of its socket, the tearing metal screeching in protest. With the newfound weapon, the Vanguard hits Ion in the side of it’s leg, bringing it to its knees.

With a thrust, the barrel of Cooper’s Chaingun punches straight through the damaged hatch of Slone’s Ion. The Apex Predator screams as twenty-millimetre rounds are unloaded straight into the cockpit, and the Ion soon falls onto its back and explodes, both Titan and Pilot dead.

“WARNING, ALL PERSONNEL MUST CLEAR THE CHAMBER IMMEDIATELY.” The facility’s AI informs. “DISRUPTION OF ELECTROMECHANICAL UNITS, INCLUDING TITANS, WILL BE SEVERE.”

“Cooper, get the Ark out of there before it launches! Hurry!” Commander Briggs calls out to Cooper over the radio.

“I’m on it!” the Pilot replies to the Militia Commander, as he leaves the deceased Apex Predator and beelines back to the loading gate on the Fold Weapon’s injector railgun.

BT’s hands latch onto the sides of the railgun’s loading gate and begin pulling, the pistons and servos in the Titan’s powerful limbs straining and groaning in protest as he does so.

“FOLD WEAPON PRIMING SEQUENCE COMPLETE. DEPLOYING THE ARK IN T-MINUS TEN SECONDS.”

Then, slowly but surely, the loading gate begins opening, the mechanism within fighting against the Vanguard’s efforts. Time almost seems to slow as both Titan and Pilot continue pulling with everything they have.

Then, as the facility’s AI counts down the remaining seconds from launch, Daniel uses a sudden bout of strength to pull the gate open just a little further, to expose the hidden internal mechanism fighting against them, and fires an Acolyte rocket into it in a desperate attempt to get the gate open.

The Acolyte rocket briefly penetrates the mechanism before detonating, spraying the Vanguard and surrounding area in a shower of shrapnel and other metal debris. The damaged mechanism creaks and groans as it fails and stops functioning, before quickly opening with a snap under the weight of the Ark’s casing.

“WARNING, INJECTOR RAILGUN FAILURE DETECTED. EMERGENCY FOLD WEAPON SHUTDOWN PROCEDURES INITIATED.” The facility’s AI informs, as the both the Fold Weapon’s injector railgun as well as several other systems in the control room begin audibly powering down.

“WARNING. HIGH ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE DETECTED IN CONTROL CHAMBER.”

“Commander Briggs, the Fold Weapon’s shutting down! We’re securing the Ark now!” Daniel says into his radio, feeling a wave of relief wash over him.

However, instead of hearing the Militia Commander’s reply, Cooper hears nothing but subtle static over the radio.

“Cooper, the Ark is emitting large amounts of electromagnetic interference. It is likely jamming our communications.” BT informs. “I recommend we secure the Ark and evacuate the facility immediately; more IMC forces are likely on their way.”

Humming in agreement, Daniel then uses BT’s fist to punch a hole in the Ark’s casing, the bright light produced by the Ark immediately flooding outwards through said hole. Then, Daniel prepares to disembark from BT, in order to climb into the Ark’s casing and secure it.

“Warning-”

Before BT can finish his warning, the Ark’s casing suddenly explodes in a blinding flash. The force of the blast sends the already-weakened and damaged Vanguard flying into a nearby wall, Daniel’s Neural Link to the Titan also severing simultaneously.

BT’s internal display flickers and quickly shuts off as the Titan crashes to the floor, leaving a dazed Cooper briefly engulfed in darkness before the cockpit’s emergency lights activate, bathing it in a dull orange.

“Cooper... The energy blast has overloaded my critical internal systems...” The Vanguard informs his Pilot in a garbled, distorted tone.

“Attempting to restore... Ocular systems...”

It takes a few seconds for the internal display to reactivate, and it soon shows that the Vanguard - and by extension Daniel – were now buried underneath the rubble of the collapsing control room that was quickly increasing by the second, with the bright light emitted by the nearby Ark peering through the gaps in said rubble and into the cockpit.

“Ocular systems restored.” BT informs. “My analysis indicates the Ark has reached critical state... Detonation will occur in approximately thirty seconds...”

Some text suddenly appears on the cockpit’s internal display, showcasing BT’s attempts at getting himself up and running again:

INITIATING EMERGENCY RESTART...

REROUTING AUXILIARY POWER...

FAILED – SEVERE REACTOR DAMAGE SUSTAINED – AUX POWER OFFLINE.

Despite repeating his attempts several times as fast as he’s able, BT is unable to successfully reroute his auxiliary power and is thus unable to get neither his auto-navigation systems, nor Daniel’s Neural Link with him back online.

They were trapped. This was it.

As several memories begin appearing in Daniel’s mind, he quickly realises... His life was quite literally flashing before his eyes.

Winning his first shooting competition as a teenager...

The day he was inducted into the Frontier Militia by then-field agent, now SRS Commander Sarah Briggs...

The first time he was officially deployed into combat as a Rifleman...

When he first started his ‘informal’ Pilot training with Lastimosa...

Being stationed on board the MCS James MacAllan, headed towards Typhon...

Linking to BT and piloting him for the first time...

Daniel closes his eyes as he grips the armrests of the seat within BT’s cockpit, bracing himself for his impending doom.

“Don’t worry, BT. I’m not going anywhere...”

“Copy that, Pilot.”

Despite his fate looming on the horizon, Daniel felt calm. And for the first time in many, many years, the Militia Pilot felt at peace. Then, he remembers...

...The last time him and his family were all together.

Now... He was going to see them again… After many long, long years.

Even though his eyes were closed, Daniel is still blinded from the bright light produced by the Ark’s detonation.

Then, the light’s gone as quickly as it comes, becoming complete darkness.

————————————————————

MEANWHILE, ON THE MCS TRINITY, ORBITING TYPHON...

“Cooper! BT! We just picked up a massive energy surge on your position! What’s going on in there?!” The SRS Commander asks the Militia Pilot from within her command centre in the MCS Trinity, orbiting high above Typhon.

Despite her plea, neither the Militia Pilot nor the Vanguard reply, the communication link emitting nothing but static.

“Boost the signal, get me through to them now!” The Militia Commander barks at her surrounding personnel, who quickly do what is asked of them.

Then, one of the men, Sarah’s good friend, Cheng ‘Bish’ Lorck, speaks up from a nearby terminal.

“Sarah, there’s too much interference; we can’t get a lock on their position! Even if they’re somehow still alive down there, they’ve got maybe half a minute before they’re vaporised!” He informs.

Sarah silently weighs her options for a moment. Her fists clench until her knuckles are white and trembling, before she slams one of them into the desk in front of her in anger. The Militia Commander quickly gets control of herself, before she sighs defeatedly and presses the push-to-talk button on the microphone on her desk.

“Commander Briggs to all Militia forces, evacuate Typhon immediately! Repeat, evacuate Typhon immediately!”

Sarah gets multiple confirmations from the various Militia personnel through the comm-link in answer. Soon enough, she sees the remaining Militia carriers and battleships leaving Typhon’s orbit for the safety of deep space on the hologram.

With a near-blinding flash on hologram, Typhon vaporises, leaving behind only the occasional piece of planetary debris. Getting up from his own desk, Bish approaches Sarah and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“There’s nothing we could’ve done, Sarah...” Bish comforts her with a solemn look across his features.

Sarah looks back to the hologram on her desk, showing what now remains of Typhon.

“A lot of people owe their lives to you, Cooper... And to BT...” She remarks solemnly, in a somewhat regretful tone.

Sarah then begins directing the personnel in the command centre to set course for planet Harmony, and make preparations to return home.

————————————————————

NEFARIOUS CITY,

CORSON V,

11:30 PM LOCAL TIME.

It was a dark and stormy night in Nefarious City. The metropolis had been subjugated by the self‐proclaimed Emperor Nefarious a little over half-a-decade ago. Due to the heavy rain, there was quite a bit of mist as a result. Not enough to make seeing difficult, but it did make it that bit easier to slip by any of the Emperor’s patrols.

Despite this, all the bots were going about their designated job, whether it be the aforementioned patrol, transporting something to one of the many factories in the city, or even making sure the emperor’s many gold statues of himself around the city were as immaculate as he was.

Scratch that, ‘almost as immaculate as he was’, the robotic tyrant would say.

Their pay was outrageously low for the immense amount of work they did, practically being slave labour. And if they were to complain about anything at all, they would be swiftly ‘reprogrammed’. All bots were also required by imperial law to worship their so-called, 'Emperor' like he was their god, here to grant them salvation. The message ‘Free time is time that you should be spending worshipping your glorious Emperor!’ was blared around the city over loudspeakers so frequently, it gave Phantom a headache anytime he heard it.

Besides that, the Seekerpedes were flying around as usual, their presence in the skies reminding anyone who got the bright idea of trying to leaving the planet would only result in their swift demise.

With all this in mind, anyone who dared to stand up against the tyrannical regime would be considered by many to be either suicidal, or just plain stupid.

But to the Polaris Resistance, it was a just cause. The Polaris Resistance was a group of freedom fighters that were willing to lay down their lives in order to fell the empire.

Well, that went for most of them, at least.

People who were sick and tired about how they were treated under Nefarious regime, would travel from all across the Polaris galaxy to join the other rebels and fight for the freedom of all.

Phantom was the codename of one such rebel. His job wasn’t fighting, but rather espionage, such as hacking into various systems for the Resistance, and designing and building technology that would help protect the lives of both himself and his fellow rebels.

His most notable invention was his 'Phantom Dash' module for the Omniglove, another invention of his that combined multiple gadgets into one sleek glove. When used, the module would momentarily displace the user’s molecules and make them temporarily untouchable, allowing them to pass through solid matter, subsequently allowing them to avoid bullets, explosions and all other sorts of dangers. Simultaneously, the mini thruster located in the Omniglove’s palm would activate, and propel its user in a given direction. Needless to say, when it’s used properly, it gave its user a serious edge in combat.

While in the field, Phantom was the Resistance's undercover specialist, as he was a professional at sneaking into heavily guarded areas without being seen. Any assignment that required anything besides taping down the trigger of a blaster was delegated to him. This meant that he often went in alone, which he preferred, usually. It meant that he wouldn’t have to babysit somebody who wasn’t good for anything else, other than fighting and being a distraction for the Troopers. After all, it’s much easier to sneak into a place on your own.

Phantom was about to do just that. The green reptilian alien, known as a Rilgarian, who was currently hiding within one of the many alleyways in the city, wore his signature black and orange jumpsuit with his multi-pouched belt, along with a little helmet covering the top half of his head, which also covered his eyes with a red visor.

He remains still, hiding in the shadows behind a dumpster, whilst keeping an eye out for any Troopers. He ducks back behind it when a passing Trooper suddenly stops in front of the alley’s entrance and shines a light down it. Waiting with bated breath, Phantom waits for a few seconds when the light disappears.

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been tricked out of hiding by one of Nefarious’ Troopers, a nasty scar on the end of his tail reminding him of that mistake. He always believed it was perfectly fine to make mistakes — as everyone did — as long as one learned from them. But, fighting against Emperor Nefarious, one rarely ever made the kind of mistake that they could later learn from.

After he was certain the Trooper had long left, he peaks around the dumpster to confirm his suspicion and finds the Trooper no longer present. Reaching into one of the several pouches on his belt, he removes a small green oval-shaped device from it and secures it to his belt’s buckle, before pressing a button on the centre of the device.

His figure glows briefly, before it shifts to perfectly resemble a synthenoid robot that was common in Nefarious City.

As he calmly walks out of alley, now disguised as a common bot, he continues down the main pathway and passes by another pair of Nefarious bots – A Slugger and Lasertrooper – neither of which batting an eye at him. Perfect, that means he can put his plan into action.

After another few minutes of walking, Phantom arrives at a train station. If he managed to board a cargo train without being noticed, it would grant him easy access to one of the biggest factories in the city – a warship factory to be exact, one that was currently in the process of assembling Nefarious next big project: His warship armada.

The Resistance simply couldn’t allow the armada to be completed, lest they allow Nefarious to obtain an edge in his attempts to subjugate the Bogon galaxy, which were currently fighting a war against the empire on the edge of their galaxy, just beyond the edge of Polaris. Last Phantom had heard, the war was currently in a sort of ‘stalemate’, with progress being slow on both sides. All the more reason to shut this whole operation down.

Once he was inside the factory, Phantom would then obliterate the production lines by strategically placing bombs around the factory, to both conceal them from any potential workers or security, and to ensure they caused maximum damage.

As he makes his way to the main platform, he makes sure he doesn’t move too quickly or suddenly, or else his disguise would falter, which was a result of the Hologuise not being in particularly good shape. Hologuises were rare, and Phantom never dared attempt to take it apart to repair it, for fear of accidently damaging it irreparably. But it worked, for the most part, and Phantom could get by that little quirk.

He notices a group of bots also heading towards the platform. He joins them, since travelling amongst a group of bots would be much less conspicuous than travelling alone.

Like the Troopers, they don’t bat an eye at him. One even attempts to strike up a conversation with him, to which the Rilgarian chooses to ignore.

As he and the bots were coming up on the station’s security turnstiles, each bot splits off from the group and swipes a key card on the scanner, before proceeding through a force field that Phantom recognised to be one that only allowed robots to pass through. If an organic were to try and walk through it, it would solidify, stopping said organic from passing through it, and then likely trip an alarm, too.

Fortunately, his Phantom Dash module allowed organics like him to pass through these barriers.

He approaches one of the security turnstiles, and quickly making sure there were no Troopers or other bots watching, he Phantom Dashes through it. His Hologuise flickers for a split second, temporarily revealing the Rilgarian, before stabilising again. He had designed his Phantom Dash module to work in tandem with his Hologuise, after all.

Double-checking that none of the Troopers had seen his true form, he is pleased to see that is indeed the case.

He opts against re-joining the group of bots, as they make their way towards a passenger train.

Spotting the cargo train he intends to stowaway on, it was guarded by far more Troopers than he had anticipated. That meant he would need to improvise. No problem, things not going to plan were normally expected, and improvising was a trait that all members of the Polaris Resistance had.

He slowly makes his way to the other side of the station that the cargo train was on, as not to garner attention from the Troopers. He notices the lights above him flicker for a moment, but he doesn’t think too much of it.

When he hears a familiar electrical whining sound, Phantom’s heart stops, as he knew exactly what it means:

His Hologuise has deactivated.

Looking down at the rest of his body, Phantom’s fears are confirmed.

How could this have happened?! And at the worst moment, too! Phantom did rigorous testing on combined use of his Hologuise and Phantom Dash, why wasn’t it working all of a sudden?!

On his hardened instinct, Phantom takes off running away from the train platform, as he hears what he thinks is the clattering of the Troopers’ legs now chasing him. But, instead of hearing the clattering continue like he expects, it instead remains... Eerily quiet, for some reason...

Normally whenever a Trooper spots somebody, they would make sure every other Trooper in the area knew about it. Then, they would never give up chase unless their target either managed to break line of sight and hide from them for long enough, the Trooper got destroyed, or... The Trooper caught them.

Phantom would normally chastise somebody for doing this, but as he keeps running, he risks a peak over his shoulder. Then, surprising him, he sees the Troopers and the other bots, all lying motionless on the ground. As it turns out, the clattering he heard wasn’t the Trooper’s chasing after him, but instead all of the bots, including the Troopers, suddenly collapsing to the ground, offline.

Phantom skids to a halt, and as he continues looking at all the downed Troopers and bots in confusion, his visor suddenly stops working. As he lifts the visor from his eyes, he’s able to see the train platform with all the bots for a split second, before all the lights in the station suddenly flicker again before cutting out, surrounding Phantom in pitch-black darkness.

Was this some sort of trick? Or one of Nefarious’ more depraved methods of neutralising or capturing a rebel? Phantom didn’t know, and he didn’t want to find out.

‘Come on, work, damn it, WORK!’ Phantom internally barks, as he lowers the visor back over his eyes and smacks it repeatedly, hitting the power switch as well in hopes of getting it working again.

His visor soon reactivates to his relief, and he immediately activates its built-in night vision function, revealing the train station platform with all the downed Troopers and bots to him once more.

Then, the Troopers start twitching slightly, a sign Phantom knew meant they were in the process of rebooting.

Once they finished rebooting, chances were, regardless of the status of the train station’s power, they would probably lock the station down and prevent any and all trains from leaving. The same could presumably be said for the warship factory; they’d probably assume that the Resistance was responsible for this, and be sure double up on security. Now, there wouldn’t be a hope of him sneaking in there, not without help.

Phantom takes off again, not daring to look back this time. Whatever that was, it must’ve affected the entire city, as he can’t see any kind of lights in the distance. And there was no way that someone else in the Resistance was responsible, inadvertently or otherwise, or else he definitely would’ve known about it beforehand.

————————————————————

UNKNOWN.

Daniel awakes with a startled jerk. He groans, putting his hands up to his head from the pounding headache he was currently experiencing. As he opens his eyes, the Pilot sees that he’s still inside of BT’s cockpit, the dials and buttons being the only sources of light within.

“BT, you alive?” Daniel asks, leaning his head back against the cockpit seat, trying to provide himself some relief from his headache.

“Affirmative, Pilot.” The Titan replies in his usual monotonous warble.

Daniel’s memory was fuzzy. He remembered grabbing the Ark, sure... or did he? Bar that, not much else. What happened after that?

“BT, give me a sitrep.” Daniel orders.

“My data recorder indicates the Ark destabilised upon our attempt to remove it from its casing, resulting in a catastrophic explosion.”

Then, Daniel remembers the explosion the Vanguard referring to. “How are we alive, then?”

“Unknown. However, my mapping systems indicate we are no longer located on planet Typhon.”

“...What?” Daniel utters in complete confusion. “Where the hell are we, then?”

“Unknown. While you were unconscious, I was able to determine that the geology of the planet we are now located on matches no known world in the Frontier.” BT explains.

“So, you’re telling me that the Ark teleported us somewhere?” Daniel questions, shocked by the Vanguard’s discovery.

“Most likely.” The Titan bluntly replies. “Attempting to restore ocular systems.”

Then, there was a brief pause, before an electrical whirring can be heard emitting from within the cockpit. Then the cockpit’s optical system reactivates, the hatch’s interior quickly becoming transparent again and revealing nothing but metal and concrete rubble burying the Vanguard.

“Ocular systems restored.” BT reports.

I was able to absorb some of the energy produced by the Ark’s detonation.” The Vanguard informs, as more electrical whirring is heard. “Self-repair systems engaged. I will be fully operational in approximately fifteen minutes, Pilot.”

‘Guess we’ll have to sit here and wait, then.’ Daniel internally surmises, resting his arms behind his head and getting himself comfortable. After a bit of waiting, staring at the black clouds slowly drifting above them, and some more waiting, BT finally had some good news for him.

“Motion Link restored – Pilot control re-engaged.”

Daniel promptly feels the Titan’s body become his own once again, and with a mental command, the Vanguard begins pushing the rubble off of itself, before standing up on its two feet and taking in the surrounding area. Both Pilot and Titan were surrounded by metal and concrete rubble, with a blanket of thick, black clouds covering the sky above them. Nearby, highlighted on BT’s HUD, was the mangled corpse of Slone’s Ion-Class Titan, crushed underneath a piece of wreckage.

“Scans indicate the surrounding wreckage originated from the Fold Weapon and its control room.” BT informs.

With this information in mind, BT’s theory of the Ark transporting them somewhere became a little more believable to Daniel. That’s one question answered, at least. However, that did beg another question: Where exactly did the Ark send them?

“Mapping systems restored.” BT suddenly informs. “Pilot, we are currently situated on a plateau with little geological activity, with an approximate area of thirty-thousand square kilometres.” The Vanguard explains, as a window displaying a map of the surrounding area subsequently appears on the HUD.

‘If we’re not in the Frontier anymore, then where in the galaxy are we?’ Daniel thinks to himself. They were at least still in the same galaxy... Right?

The Vanguard continues, pulling him from his thoughts. “Cooper my scans have detected the wreckage of the MCS Stockton, seven-hundred metres north-east from our location.”

Wait… the damn Stockton was here, too?! The Militia Battleship had taken a broadside and gone down while he and BT were advancing towards the Fold Weapon’s control room, and it was somehow here with them.

Another window appears, this time displaying a 3D render of the Stockton – Or rather, what was left of it. To call it a ship in its current state would be generous, to say the least.

“BT, are you picking up any life signs?” Cooper asks his Titan. From what he’s already witnessed, however, he already knows the probable answer.

“Scanning. No life signs detected.” The Vanguard answers.

Daniel frowns, unsure on what it is they should do in a situation like this. Sure, Militia infantry were trained to link up with one another and find a way to send a distress signal if they ended up getting stranded on a planet, much like they did on Typhon. However, that implied you were even in the Frontier, to begin with. He and BT didn’t even know what planet they were on.

But, as Daniel thinks back to the presence of the MCS Stockton and remains of the Fold Weapon on this planet, he makes a daunting realisation, one that could very well be the difference between life and death:

“BT, is there a chance that there’s other ships that were brought here with us, like the Stockton was?”

“That is a logical assumption, Pilot. It is well within possibility that other Militia and IMC vessels are present here as well. If they are reasonably intact, we may be able to use them to send a distress signal and request rescue.”

“That means we need to find one, then.” Daniel surmises.

“Yes.” BT plainly states, as a map of some kind appears the Heads Up Display in front of Daniel.

“By analysing the locations of the remains of both the Fold Weapon and the MCS Stockton, and cross-referencing them with the approximate locations the IMS Draconis and MCS Carter Braxton both crash-landed, I am able to determine both of their estimated locations on this world.” The Titan explains, as four locations are promptly highlighted with yellow markers on said map, with a blue marker, presumably standing for their location, in the middle of it all.

Two markers on the map disappear as the two remaining markers remain, both headed south-west. The nearest of the two one had a distance of approximately twenty-five kilometres, while the other was about sixty kilometres away from them.

“Well BT, I doubt we’ll accomplish much by just standing here.” The Pilot surmises.

“Agreed. Protocol Two, mission update: Search for and locate IMC or Militia vessels.” The Vanguard responded.

After navigating their way out of the field of wreckage, Pilot and Titan set out to the first set of coordinates: The IMS Draconis. Getting to it was easy enough, thanks to the fairly flat and uninteresting terrain on this part of the planet, as a result of long-since-cooled lava flows. Upon arriving at said coordinates after about an hour, the massive transport ship didn’t seem to be present at first. However, a few pieces of scorched metal sticking out of the ground here and there, suggested otherwise.

Wherever the Draconis had crashed, must have left it submerged in something, perhaps sand. And when the Ark transported it to this world, it remained submerged, this time in what seemed to be volcanic ash.

With the cargo ship submerged in said ash, there was no feasible way to get inside for the time being. With this in mind, Daniel and BT’s only chance now, was to find the MCS Carter Braxton.

Daniel recalled how the Braxton’s engines were decimated by Viper and the Malta during the fight to take over the IMC’s battleship, ultimately causing it to plummet towards the ground, forcing everyone on board to evacuate. This gave Daniel hope for the ship being even somewhat intact, at least.

But, to make matters worse, BT warned him of an incoming storm that would hit the plateau in approximately six hours.

Daniel and BT set out again, making their way to the final set of coordinates located in some kind of mountain range, hoping to find shelter of any kind before the impending storm hit.

————————————————————

UNKNOWN WORLD,

NEAR THE CARTER BRAXTON’S ESTIMATED LOCATION.

After a few hours of travelling through the mountains, the Pilot and his Vanguard-Class Titan now stood at the edge of a cliff, having finally arrived at the Carter Braxton. Resting on the side of a wide valley, the Militia carrier was in surprisingly good condition, save for some minor to moderate hull damage, alongside the heavily-damaged engines previously mentioned.

“Looks like the crash wasn’t as bad as it looked.” Daniel surmises. “Is anyone alive down there, BT?”

“Negative, I am not detecting any life signs within the Carter Braxton.” BT informs his Pilot. “However, ninety-five percent of the lifeboats have been ejected, it is possible any survivors were evacuated from Typhon prior to the Ark’s detonation.”

‘It looks like we’re really on our own this time.’ Daniel thinks to himself.

“Pilot, scans indicate the Braxton’s reactor is currently offline. It will require repairs before we can send a distress signal to the Militia.” BT explains.

‘Who knew that fixing things was such a big part of being a Titan Pilot?’ Daniel remarks to himself.

“I have identified an entrance. Marking your HUD.” BT informs, as a marker subsequently appears on the HUD, highlighting a large door on the Braxton’s port side near the front-end of the ship, likely for deploying smaller spacecraft like dropships and Hornet fighters.

After sliding down a nearby slope to get down from the cliff, Daniel and BT eventually reach the Braxton. After arriving at the cargo door highlighted on the HUD, Daniel begins looking for a way to get the door open. Appearing to be heavily reinforced, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to pry or even blow the door open, despite BT’s incredible strength and weaponry at their disposal.

Then, BT begins highlighting what seems to be power cables underneath the floor on the HUD, leading to some kind of junction box underneath the floor, likely still functioning from emergency reserve power.

“Pilot, I am detecting an active junction box beneath us, you may be able to use your Data Knife on it to open the door.” The Vanguard informs. “Disembark, and I will provide access.”

For a lack of any better options, Cooper disembarks from BT, the Vanguard’s hatch opening with a hiss as the Pilot lands on the metal floor with a thud, as he approaches the junction box.

Then, BT digs his large fingers into the floor, his powerful digits piercing the damaged metal with ease, before he gently bends a metal panel upwards and out of the way, revealing the junction box hidden underneath. Inside, the wiring and circuitry was thankfully relatively undamaged.

Drawing his Data Knife from his vest, Daniel flicks the switch on the side of the handle and jams the tool into the wiring, the holographic display at the top of the knife’s handle lighting up and displaying the progress on the hack.

After a few seconds, the holographic display turns blue, and the door begins slowly opening with a deep rumble. Soon enough, the door opens and reveals a large deployment bay, with a heavily damaged Crow or Hornet here and there, alongside cargo of all kinds.

“Cooper, I recommend we proceed to the Braxton’s spacecraft hanger. From there, we can access and repair the Braxton’s reactor, then gain access to an officer’s terminal and use it to send a distress signal to the Militia.” BT says, as the Titan enters the deployment bay and begins walking down a large hallway, presumably towards the spacecraft hanger he mentioned.

Daniel follows close behind, as the two make their way through the hallways.

Once Cooper and BT passed through the spacecraft hangar and reached the Braxton’s reactor, getting it up and running again was thankfully a breeze with BT walking Daniel through the process. Soon after Daniel managed to get out of the reactor chamber before the radiation produced burned him to a crisp, the ship’s power came back online. Now, he could get BT into an officer’s terminal and allow him to interface with the Braxton’s systems and send out a distress signal to the Militia.

The only unfortunate part, was the ships AI detecting multiple fires across the ship, and engaging the Braxton’s fire suppression system in response. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem, if the system hadn’t malfunctioned and sprayed water in the hallway Cooper just so happened to be in that moment.

Now completely drenched in water, Daniel could quickly feel the effects of exhaustion beginning to take over.

“Cooper, your vitals indicate you are currently experiencing acute exhaustion. I recommend you find a safe place to rest for the night.” BT informs him through his helmet radio. “For your convenience, I have located an officer’s quarters for you to take refuge in.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Daniel thanks genuinely to the Titan, as a white holographic line appearing on his HUD, leading the way to the officer’s quarters BT mentioned.

On his way there, he passed through what seemed to be an armoury. There were weapons of all kinds there, some he recognised, others he didn’t. Like the rest of the ship, there were a few crates scattered around the floor, of which he assumed to be ammo storage or the like.

The far wall was lined with large storage cases, each containing vastly different types of armour and equipment, such as light gear more tailored for scouting like Lastimosa’s, all the way up to a complete armour set intended to cover its wearer head-to-toe.

What catches his eye, however, is a particular set of predominantly black armour. It was noticeably sleeker than the other equipment present in the armoury, likely custom-made from the looks of it, with a large orange stripe on each of the limbs. It looks like it’s comprised of several hexagonal ceramic discs adhered above a high-strength alloy, resulting in a subtle honeycomb pattern on the armour’s surface. Next to it inside the case, was a folded-up exoskeleton, which Daniel safely assumed went with the armour, intended to enhance its wearers physical capabilities as well as provide great protection.

His attempt to open the storage case resulted in failure, as it (unfortunately) required a key of some kind. Getting back on track, he continued his way to what he hoped to be a nice, comfortable officer’s bed.

Thankfully, after what felt like a journey to him was thankfully nearing its end, as his HUD leads him down a hallway towards a door with a sign displaying ‘OFFICER ADAMS’ above it.

When he attempts to enter the room, the keypad on the doorframe requests a pin number with a beep. With a frustrated sigh, Daniel draws his Data Knife and uses it to override the door’s controls, granting him entry.

Hitting the keypad on the other side, the door closes behind him, giving him a feeling of security, even though Daniel knew the odds of someone else being alive on this ship and wanting to harm him were billions-to-one. On the far end of the room in front of a desk, Daniel notices an active terminal. He decides it would be a good idea to get BT into it and let him do whatever he needs while he slept.

Using the Data Knife that was still in his hand, Daniel quickly hacks the terminal, allowing the Vanguard access to the Braxton’s systems.

“BT, I’ve got into a terminal for you. You do whatever you need do, I’m getting some shuteye.” Daniel informs the Titan through his helmet radio.

“Copy that, Pilot.” The Vanguard replies.

Cooper takes off his helmet and sets it on the desk, before opening the quick-release clamps securing his Jump Kit to his lower back. The Pilot picks up a loose pillow from the floor and sets it onto the bed, as he then allows himself to collapse onto the bed, too exhausted to even think about organising the rest of the sheets scattered across the floor of the room. Then, almost instantaneously, Daniel Cooper falls asleep as soon as his head hits the lone pillow.

————————————————————

INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT,

NEFARIOUS CITY,

1:00 AM LOCAL TIME.

After parkouring through the city, Phantom eventually arrives at the hidden entrance of his abode, which was located underneath a bridge. Walking underneath the bridge, the Rilgarian quickly double-checks that there was no-one around, before he removes a loose metal panel from the wall and sets it aside, revealing a hidden keypad. After entering the eight-digit pin code, another panel nearby retreats into the wall and hinges open like a door, revealing a hidden hallway behind it.

After replacing the metal panel, Phantom walks inside and slams a fist into a large red button on the wall, which in turn causes the door to close behind him, securing his hideout.

The Rilgarian exhales a breath of relief as he continues down the tight corridor, tight enough that it would be impossible for the larger Nefarious Troopers to enter, now feeling much more relaxed now that he’s safe his hideout. But one can never really be too relaxed, holing up in the heart of the Empire, after all.

He enters a modestly sized room, with a workbench set in front of an array of monitors on the wall on the right side, alongside a simple, but comfortable living quarters on the left.

Taking a seat at his desk, Phantom quickly glances over each of the monitors on the wall, each displaying a live-feed of an area around his hideout, and quickly sees that there was thankfully nothing out of the ordinary. He then pulls his communicator from one of the many pouches on his belt, and switches it on. A small holographic screen flashes up, revealing a contact list containing the names of his fellow rebels.

He selects a name on the list, and hits dial. This name belonged to the Resistance’s unofficial leader: Carl Lepton Quantum.

Carl was a kind and charismatic man, who deeply cared for the other Resistance members and thought of them as his own family. With his confidence, he held the Resistance together through times both good and bad, and while his methods and plans could sometimes be... unorthodox, to say the least... they were usually successful nonetheless.

A few moments later, Quantum answers, the man always punctual.

“Phantom! How did the mission go?” The Resistance leader asks pleasantly.

Phantom lets out a sigh laced with regret. “Not well, Carl, not well... I couldn’t even get near the damn train.”

“Oh, Shoot!” Quantum exclaims disappointedly. “What in Zoni’s name happened?!”

“My damn Hologuise malfunctioned, and deactivated in front of all the Troopers.” Phantom explains lamentably.

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine, but something really strange happened afterwards. Something I figured I needed to tell you asap.”

Phantom proceeds to explain the strange phenomenon that occurred shortly after Phantom Dashing through the security gate at the train station to Quantum, like the lights flickering, to the bots and Troopers deactivating, albeit briefly, before the city’s power grid went down.

In response to this information, Carl hums in thought. “How long ago did you say this happened, Phantom?” He asks.

“About two or three hours ago, I think? Had to take the long way back to my hideout, to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”

“Huh, that’s strange. Something similar happened here in my hideout, about that long ago. The lights started flickering, but then, the power in the entire bunker went out!” Quantum explains.

“Really? That’s a… big coincidence.” Phantom remarks.

“Yeah. Backup generator kicked in after that, and everything seems to be working fine, now.” Quantum agrees.

“Did something like this happen to anyone else?”

“No idea, but it might be a good idea to ask them and make sure.” Carl recommends, Phantom humming in agreement.

Not before long, the other Rebels join the call. After explaining the situation, MoyDoy, the Resistance’s brawler, is the first to speak up.

As expected of an Agorian, MoyDoy possessed incredible strength, capable of sending Nefarious’ Troopers flying with his massive warhammer. He refused to use ranged weaponry, not that it wasn’t considered ‘honourable’ by Agorian standards, but rather that he couldn’t hit the broadside of a star cruiser to save his life.

After MoyDoy is finished, Clatchky is the next Rebel to recount his version of the events. Clatchky was an expert when it came to robots, and could reprogram them on the fly. He also happened to be a fantastic pilot, and could expertly fly just about any ship he could get his claws on. His only issue, was that he was a bundle of nerves, and as such he did not work well under pressure.

Then, there was Rivet. The reckless and stubborn Lombax fighter who’s known for her massive arsenal of weapons, and was a boon to the offensive power of any team. Or rather... the massive arsenal she was known for, after losing the majority of her weaponry during her previous stay in Zordoom Prison around six months ago. She’s also a fantastic engineer, able to make almost anything from scrap, and repair virtually anything with a proficiency that Phantom wishes he had.

He'd never offered his Hologuise to her in hopes she would be able to repair it, not because he didn’t trust her or that he doubted her skills in any capacity, no, not at all. The Hologuise worked well enough despite its quirks, and he simply couldn’t risk losing such a powerful tool.

After Rivet finishes giving her version of the events, it is then obvious that all of the Rebels had experienced a similar phenomenon to what Phantom encountered in Nefarious City, the previously mentioned timeline of about two to three hours lining up perfectly in each circumstance.

With this in mind, Phantom comes to the conclusion that whatever was responsible for what happened today, it wasn’t natural.

“It wasn’t something natural, like a quasar, that’s for sure. Probably some kind of EMP…” Phantom theorises, rubbing his chin in thought.

“Are you sure, Phantom? Sargasso’s pretty far from Corson V.” Quantum Questions.

“Is there even technology out there that can create an EMP that big?” MoyDoy asks.

“If there is, Nefarious has his hands all over it.” Phantom states confidently. “No idea why he would set it off now, though.”

“An experiment gone wrong, maybe?” Rivet suggests.

“Yeah, maybe.” Phantom agrees, briefly recalling the existence of Nefarious’ research facility on the planet Kreeli, and all of the unknowns that laid within it.

“Well, I guess that means we’re on to ‘plan B’ for taking down the warship factory, then?” MoyDoy asks.

“Shut it, MoyDoy! What if that EMP fried our network’s encryption?!” Clatchky hisses worriedly, interrupting the Agorian.

“Yeah, the last time that happened, I got an all-expense paid trip to Zordoom Prison.” Rivet recalls, groaning at the memory.

Phantom admittedly never so much as thought about the EMP potentially compromising their network’s encryption. For all they knew, Nefarious could be listening in on their conversation right now. He chalks it up to still being somewhat rattled after what happened at the train station, and makes a mental note to double-check it later.

The ‘plan B’ MoyDoy was referring to, would involve bringing in other Resistance members to draw out and distract the factory’s security long enough for Phantom to sneak in, do the deed and get out. It was a risky plan, involving so many of them in one place at once, but it was a risk they simply had to take, to have any hope of preventing Nefarious from getting his warship armada. ‘No risk, no reward’, as they say.

“Listen, everyone, how about we meet up to discuss all of this further? That way, Nefarious can’t listen in on us, if he is right now.” Carl suggests.

“That’s a good idea, Quantum.” MoyDoy agrees. “Should we meet up at the... *ahem* usual place?” The Agorian asks.

“Yeah, we’ll meet at the ‘usual’ place tomorrow at eleven AM Polaris-Standard-Time. Agreed, everyone?” Quantum asks the other Rebels, to which they all agree.

“Okay, see you guys then.” Phantom says as he hangs up.

He checks the time and sees that it’s about one in the morning, which was unusually early for him. Since there was really nothing else for the Rilgarian to do other than wait, he believes that a good night’s rest is in order. After standing up from his desk, and moving over to his bed on the opposite side of the room, Phantom climbs onto it, leaving all of his equipment on him, which would allow him to escape his hideout much quicker, if - Zoni forbid - his hideout was discovered whilst he slept.

Phantom then lies back, putting his hands behind his head for comfort, before he soon drifts off to sleep.

————————————————————

Chapter Text

COLONY F-14,

UNCHARTED PLANET,

THE FRONTIER

It was yet another cold, dry morning in Colony F-14. Several homesteaders were milling about, each working in some way, whether it was processing animals for food, helping to maintain buildings or farming in the fields surrounding the colony.

A woman with mid-length blonde hair kneeled in one of these fields, alongside a young blonde boy. A brown-haired man with a short beard approached the woman and boy, who had an old rifle slung over his shoulder.

“How are you doing, kiddo?” The man asked the boy.

“I’m fine, thanks.” The boy said, not even looking at his father.

“You look bored out of your mind.”

“Mom won’t let me play with my toys.” The boy answered irritably with his arms crossed.

“Daniel, this is for your own good. You’re going to need to know how to farm if you’re going to be a farmer when you grow up!” His mother said, who had beautiful mid-length blonde hair. She was trying (and failing) to teach him how to correctly plant and care for crops.

“I don’t wanna be a farmer, I wanna be a soldier and fight bad guys!” Daniel replied with a hand-gun gesture, “Bang, bang!” He exclaimed excitedly.

“You most certainly will not!”

“Aww, why not?!” Daniel asked dejectedly.

“Because I said so!”

The mother and son’s back-and-forth was soon interrupted by a hearty laughter coming from the father, as he gave his son an offer he couldn’t refuse:

“Tell you what, Son. If you learn how to farm off your mother, I’ll teach you how to shoot a rifle.”

Daniel let out a gasp at the prospect of shooting a real gun, and not just another one of his toys. “Okay!” He got down on his knees next to his mother, now eager to learn, much to his mother’s relief.

“Thanks, David.” Daniel’s mother replied with a loving smile.

“No problem, Ellen.”

At that moment, it seemed everything in Daniel’s world couldn’t be any more perfect. Absolutely nothing could go wrong...

.....

“RUN DANIEL, RUN!”

Daniel ran from the sound of gunfire and screaming and into the colony as quickly he could. With tears rolling down his face, the memory of the gunshot, then his father collapsing, still fresh in his mind.

He suddenly felt himself being picked up and pulled behind a dumpster next to a building. He looked up to see his mother, with her beautiful blonde hair flowing down the sides of her face.

“Are you okay?! She asked, as she inspected her son for any injuries. She let out a sigh of relief once she saw that he was more-or-less okay.

She peeked around the dumpster and spotted a small group of armed bandits quickly advancing towards them. They had to move now, or stay and hope they wouldn’t be seen. With the unlikeliness of the latter, she chose to do the former.

Ellen picked her son up yet again and run out from behind the dumpster, running as fast as she could up the road.

Gunfire sounded yet again, Daniel hearing his mother scream as he was suddenly dropped onto the ground hard. He checked behind him, and looked to see his mother, face down in the dirt.

“MOM!” He cried out, as he reached out to his mother. A hand suddenly grabbed him by the arm, before pulling him in the opposite direction.

He looked up towards the owner of the hand to see his older brother Samuel, with a rifle in his other hand, dragging him towards the perimeter wall.

“Go Dan, go!” He ordered.

“BUT MOM—”

“Just go, damn it!”

Daniel ran towards the wall as he was told, as his brother stopped to return fire on the approaching bandits. He picked off four of them, buying himself and his little brother some time to escape the others that would likely follow suit.

They both reached the perimeter wall, Samuel ushering Daniel through a water drain in the bottom of the wall. Daniel crawled through the drain, squeezing through a gap in the bars as he heard gunfire behind him. He only turned around when he heard a painful gasp, and the sound of something hitting the ground.

His eyes layed on his brother, blood pooling beneath him, his face looking towards him in the drain.

“Run....” Samuel rasps out, as he suddenly exhales, and doesn’t take another breath. Daniel saw more bandits approaching the drain, he turned and finished crawling through it, eventually emerging through the other side.

He stood up and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, up the hill towards the dense forest bordering the colony on its northern side. Once he got into the forest, instinct told him to keep going, his sprint fuelled by adrenaline.

After running on and off for what seemed like hours to Daniel, he collapsed onto his knees. He panted and panted, struggling to catch his breath . His throat was parched and sore, the cold air burning his lungs. He looked behind him, he couldn’t see his colony anymore as it was hidden behind trees.

He didn’t know remotely where he was now; Mom, Dad and even Samuel had always told him to never go into the forest...

Mom...

Dad...

Samuel...

They were gone...gone.

Daniel suddenly fell the rest of the way to the ground and started bawling, as the realisation finally set in. His family was gone, and he’d never see them again.

——————————

Daniel gasped for breath as he woke up in a cold, shivering sweat. He sat up and franticly looked around to verify his surroundings, before putting a hand on his face, “Fucking hell, it’s been a while since I dreamed about that.”

Sniff, sniff.

Daniel’s face grimaced, “Ugh, what is that smell?” He took another whiff, discovering the smell was originating from himself. One that likely went unnoticed from how tired he was the night before.

Damn, I need a wash. Daniel got up out of the bed and did some stretches to wake up his stiff muscles.

He noticed another door in his room. When he opened it, his eyes were met with a walk-in shower that when compared to the shower blocks he’d used as a Rifleman, seemed luxurious. After confirming that it still worked, surprisingly, he returned to his room to find something to replace his current attire.

After finding some standard-issue undergarments to wear, he began looking through a nearby wall closet anything to replace his torn and foul-smelling red jumpsuit. He found several discarded charcoal-grey jumpsuits, that were a similar make to his old red one.

He stacked up the undergarments on top of the folded jumpsuit and re-entered the attached bathroom, switched on the shower and began stripping himself of his clothing. The one-piece jumpsuit and undergarments fell away, revealing a large, brawny and scarred man, with a pair of dog tags around his neck.

Standing at a height of just over six feet, the sight of Daniel Cooper would make most people think twice about getting on his nerves. Anyone who did however, often ended up severely regretting their decision.

Daniel observed a particular scar on his right forearm, just below his elbow. It was obvious a bullet was responsible for its existence. Looking at it, one would think it was an older scar due to how faded it was. Though, in fact, this one had been acquired quite recently.

He retrieved a bottle of wash powder and stepped into the shower, letting himself melt under the stream of warm water.

——————————

MACALLAN’S CRASHSITE,

TYPHON

FOUR DAYS PRIOR

Sergeant Max Brown had a simple assignment for today; patrol MacAllan’s crash site in search of any Militia survivors. If he found any, his orders were simple. Kill-on-sight. So far, he and his squad had found none. The same could not be said for his allies in other squads, having discovered several survivors who had tried to escape earlier on that morning. Since then, no survivors had been found.

He saw a Search Drone overlooking the area, scanning for any survivors. It began broadcasting a message from General Marder himself, “guaranteeing” any survivor’s safety if they got rid of their weapons and surrendered.

He decided to check in on another squad’s progress in searching through a cave, in search of more survivors. “Zeta-Seven, this is Sergeant Brown. Give me a sitrep, over.” Max only heard static over the radio.

“Zeta-Seven do you copy? Come in—" Max suddenly felt his legs get knocked out from underneath him, as he landed on his back with a thud and a grunt. Before he could even process what happened, he felt the cold blade of a knife plunge into his neck, severing his jugular vein.

Max looked up, and was able to catch a glimpse of his attacker. A large man in a red jumpsuit and grey armour loomed over him, holding the knife firmly in his neck. He wore a green helmet with a distinct glowing blue “X” shaped visor, a Militia Pilot.

Max’s vision turned dark as he succumbed to blood loss, the man in question yanked the knife from his neck and sheathed it onto his stomach. He didn’t utter a word, instead, he turned to the weapons crate right next to him. He unslung a V-47 Flatline from his back and replaced it with a Longbow DMR from the crate.

After confirming the weapon was loaded, he kneeled down next to the cliff that had a decent drop just beyond it. Said drop would be no problem for Pilots like himself or Spectres, but if anyone else fell from that height, severe injuries or worse would be expected.

Below him further, were several munitions caches of the larger variety. They could be used as an emergency shelter and cover in the event of a firefight.

The Pilot looked through the rifle’s scope straight across from him, at a large prefabricated structure that had likely been erected earlier that morning. Judging from the large dish on the roof, it was a communications hub for the IMC, labelled with a big white “54” on both ends.

Another IMC Grunt came out of the entrance on the left-hand side, a perfect target. He lined up the sights, exhaled and squeezed the trigger slowly, until the tension in the trigger gave way. He felt the recoil and heard the echoing crack of his weapon discharging.

He saw the Grunt’s head arch back from the shot, as he collapsed to the floor. Several more Grunts emerged from the windows on the right. He began firing on them in quick succession, managing to take down two more.

Due to the high zoom on the rifle’s scope, the Pilot failed to notice a Grunt underneath the structure, behind some IMC Drone storage pods. Before he knew it, he had taken a bullet to his right arm. The Pilot let out a painful gasp as he dropped the rifle and backwards away from the cliff-edge.

He immediately heard the dead Grunt’s radio activate behind him, from another soldier alerting nearby IMC forces of his presence. “Ten-Thirteen, Hostile Pilot sighted! Bow of the MacAllan!”

His training kicked in and he began checking himself for injuries. The bullet went straight through his right forearm with a clean entry wound, a nasty exit wound and moderate bleeding. He clamped his left hand onto the wound in an attempt to stem said bleeding.

 Apart from his arm, nothing else was hit, thankfully. There was still a big problem; beyond the elbow, he couldn’t move his right arm anymore. He could still move his fingers, but the muscle only twitched when he tried to move the rest of his arm.

“Pilot, are you alright?”

The Pilot in question was thankful for the monotone voice, belonging to a Vanguard called BT-7274. Captain Lastimosa’s Titan. “BT I’m hit, I’m bleeding bad and my arm won’t move!” He informed, he could see tiny little hexagons on the edges of his vision, he wasn’t sure what they were.

“Take a deep breath, Pilot. The Nanites in your system will begin repairing the damage momentarily.” Almost immediately after the Titan said that, he witnessed the wound on his arm slowly sealing itself shut, until only a scar and some blood was all that was left behind.

“What the hell?” The Pilot was mildly disturbed at what he saw. He had never seen or even heard of anything like it. Maybe that’s the reason Pilots are so tough. He thought to himself.

After retrieving his rifle and clearing the area of any remaining threats, he decided to ask the Titan more about these “Nanites”. “BT, what are Nanites?”

“Nanites are a class of nanomachine that specialise in injury repair. Once a Pilot has acquired Nanites, any injuries they sustain will be mended rapidly, allowing them to recover and return to battle quickly.” The Vanguard explained.

“Do they eventually die off? Will I need more at some point?”

“No. Mark-Four Nanites naturally reproduce in the human body, removing the requirement of future infusions.”

The Pilot remembered Captain Lastimosa injecting him with something, that paralyzed him and numbed the pain caused by the shockwave from that IMC Titan almost landing him.

“Huh, good to know.” The Pilot remained on course on his objective of finding a second Titan battery for BT, continuing through an opening in the James MacAllan’s bow.

——————————

THE CARTER BRAXTON,

UNKNOWN WORLD

OFFICER ADAM’S QUARTERS

The Titan Pilot emerged from the shower, now thoroughly cleaned. He dried himself off with a nearby towel and decided to take a look at his face in the mirror above the sink. It was completely intact, Daniel surmised that it was made out of a shock-absorbent glass, or a very reflective metal.

He stared into the mirror, a man looking to be in his late twenties, with blonde hair and brown eyes stared back. He had some stubble growing on his face and a clean scar on his left jawline, that was obvious from the lack of facial hair growing on it. He acquired that scar a few years ago, from he was ambushed by an enemy Rifleman.

The Rifleman had managed to get a lucky slash on his jaw, only missing his neck by what Daniel thought to be sheer luck. However, Daniel being a fairly large and strong man came in handy at that moment, allowing him to overpower and kill the grunt with some effort.

Daniel put on the clothes that were folded up on the floor and exited the attached bathroom, wearing the aforementioned charcoal jumpsuit. Now feeling and certainly smelling much cleaner, Daniel’s stomach reminded him with a rumble that getting some food was definitely in order.

Since he was in an Officer’s quarters, he knew it was unlikely he would find any proper MREs to heat up with some water. Nutrient bars on the other hand, were far more likely. He searched through the drawers on the desk, he found a deck of playing cards, a small grey canvas satchel and a circular key.

He wasn’t sure what the key was for, he assumed that it might be important, so he stowed it away in his pocket for the time being.

Daniel decided to look through the satchel. He found the inner pockets were filled with what he was looking for. He had eaten nutrient bars before, most kinds didn’t have much flavour, but they did do a good job at holding off hunger.

He sat himself down on what was now essentially his bed. He was able to help himself to two bars before he was interrupted by flashing, coming from his helmet’s visor.

Daniel was unsure what it meant, maybe this was a warning of some kind? With only one way to suss out any potential problems, he put it on; his vision briefly going dark before the room was visible again.

“Cooper, I was able to integrate my AI functions with the Braxton’s systems. While you were asleep, I ran an environment scan.” The Vanguard explained via the helmet’s built-in radio.

 “These scans confirm this is a world not present in the Frontier, the plateau we are situated on is one of the only places on the planet in which human survival is considered possible.”

“So, we got really lucky in where we ended up.” Daniel surmised. “Is there anything else I should know – were you able to contact the Militia?” He asked hopefully.

What BT said next put the Pilot in a foul mood, only because it meant even more work had to be done: “No. I am unable to access the Braxton’s communications system. Scans indicate it has sustained damage due to the crash landing.”

“I presume you need me to go and fix whatever the problem is?” Daniel asked with a sigh. Great, more work.

“Yes, I have located the fastest route to the Braxton’s communications system. Marking your HUD.”

“Alright. In the meantime, see what the Braxton’s long-range scanners pick up.” Daniel ordered the Vanguard as he stood up to equip the rest of his worn and battle-scarred gear, alongside his newly acquired satchel. He would help himself to a few more nutrient bars on his way there, he thought.

“Copy that, Pilot.”

Cooper left his quarters and proceeded to the communications array at the front of the ship. After he grabbed a repair kit on his way there, he observed the Braxton’s interior becoming noticeably more and more damaged. Eventually, he noticed sparks coming from certain parts of the walls.

He had to crawl through a vent in order to get past a door that couldn’t be opened due to the damaged control panel.

Eventually, Daniel emerged from a vent in the floor and found himself in the Braxton’s communications room. The entire room was scorched black, likely from a fire caused by the crash; sparks were flying out of various exposed cables coming out of every surface.

 There was a massive cylindrical machine at the back of the room that continued into the wall behind it. Daniel assumed that it was important, but he would be lying if he told you he knew where to start. Fortunately for him, he knew someone who might. “Hey BT, how do I go about fixing this thing?”

“Use your helmet display to provide me with a better view of the central communications system. I will assess the damage and guide you from there.” BT explained.

“Ok, on it.”

The aforementioned cylindrical machine was highlighted on Daniel’s HUD. He stood closer to the behemoth of a machine, said machine taking up almost his entire view.

“Pilot, the central communications system is displaying moderate damage, however, there is potential it could be repaired.” BT reported. With a bit of luck, the problem would be a simple fix, Daniel thought.

“The most likely cause is damage to the Central Processing Module. You will need to remove it from the Central Communications System to assess the damage.”

Daniel did as BT guided him, he got to work on removing a panel from the side of the machine with the help of his repair kit. Upon prying it off, smoke quickly plumed out of the machine. Thankfully, his helmet’s respirator protected him from any of the smoke’s harmful effects.

When the smoke dissipated, it revealed damaged circuitry and wires. Daniel spotted a black and yellow striped handle attached to a triangular shaped part, and after a bit of tugging, he removed it from the machine. He didn’t need to inspect the Central Processing Module for long, to know that there was no chance they could fix it.

“Yeah, there’s definitely no fixing this BT.” Daniel relayed to the Vanguard, as he placed the damaged module onto the ground. “Does the Braxton have replacement parts on board for the communications system?”

“Negative, scans do not detect functioning modules nearby.”

“In that case, what do we do?” Daniel said as he stowed the model onto a clip on his back. Being unable to repair or replace the module, Daniel was at a loss for what they were supposed to do.

“Calculating...Cooper, proceed to the Titan Bay, the Braxton’s scanners have detected something that may be of our interest.” Cooper thought what BT said was really enigmatic, which was unusual, as the Titan would usually be straight to the point.

Arriving at the Titan Bay, he immediately noticed the black and grey war machine hoisted up in a Titan Rack. “How are you doing, BT?”

“All systems functioning normally. Power at full capacity.” The Vanguard replied as he stepped down and off of the Titan Rack and approached his Pilot.

The Titan stopped and kneeled down, before projecting what looked to Daniel like a 3-D map of the surrounding star system. In the centre of the map, was the parent star, with the planet they were on highlighted in blue off to the side.

The map zoomed in on a large asteroid field, highlighting a particular asteroid. “Pilot, the Braxton has detected an artificial structure within a planetary debris field, on the other side of the system.”

Wait a damn minute. An artificial structure, in unknown space, presumably very far from the Frontier, could only mean one thing in Daniel’s mind:

“Wait. You’re saying that you might have just found aliens, BT?”

“Scans indicate multiple unknown life-signatures in its vicinity, their probability of sentience is ninety-three percent.” That chance was way too high for Daniel’s tastes.

“What about the other seven percent?”

“There is a seven percent chance the Braxton’s scanners have malfunctioned and provided a false report.”

It was the likelihood of them having new neighbours that gave Daniel an idea. Some would consider it a really stupid and risky idea at that, but with them being unable to fix the Central Processing Module and subsequently unable to send out a distress signal, he thought — knew it was a risk worth taking.

———————————

“Pilot, I highly advise against this course of action.” The Vanguard recommended as he followed his Pilot into the Braxton’s aircraft hanger. Said Pilot carried his unused repair kit, while approaching a Militia Crow that was still in its rack.

“BT, you said that we’re not going to be able to fix the communications system without replacement parts and that we don’t have any spare, nor can we make any.” Daniel responded as began inspecting the Crow for damage. “Maybe, those aliens will have the technology to fix it no problem! All I can do, to have any chance for us making it back alive, is for me to travel to that asteroid and see if I can get one of them to fix it!”

Implying they don’t immediately kill me on sight. He admitted to himself. He looked back up at the Titan watching him closely, “Now come here and help me get this ship working, BT.”

Thankfully, the Crow only had minimal damage, making it a breeze to fix. Prior to Daniel enlisting as a Rifleman, he took a few classes on flying ships, so he knew the basics like how to take off and land. The same could not be said for advanced flying techniques and aerial combat, both of which he was hoping he wouldn’t need to do.

With the Crow now repaired, all he had to do now was prepare himself for the expedition ahead. He went back to the armoury and took a look at all the weapons on display.

He inspected an R-201 Carbine, fitted with an HCOG optic. Good rate of fire, decent accuracy out to long ranges. He thought. He picked it off the rack and set it down onto a nearby bench.

He spotted a Charge Rifle in the Anti-Titan section. Excellent range, great against armour. Onto the bench it went. He helped himself to a belt of Fire and Gravity Stars, to aid him whether he needed to fight, or escape quickly.

He was about to take his weapons and leave, as his eyes glanced over a familiar armour case against the wall. He remembered the key in his pocket and thought: Fuck it, might as well give it a try.

Daniel fished the key out of his pocket, inserted it into the lock and turned it. To his surprise, the case unlocked. He opened the reinforced display case, revealing the black armour in all of its glory.

Daniel stripped himself of Lastimosa’s gear and got to work donning the equipment of what obviously belonged to a high-ranking veteran Pilot. The gunmetal-grey exoskeleton went on first, running along his arms and legs before returning to his back, all while remaining fairly streamlined.

Each piece of black metal armour was adorned with a distinct tiger-orange stripe. On closer inspection of the individual pieces, they all had a subtle honeycomb pattern on the surface.

The armoured vest was comprised of several metal plates and was surprisingly light for how it looked, providing a substantial amount of protection to its new (and hopefully temporary) owner.

 It sported the orange SRS insignia dead-centre on the chest, a rig on the stomach and sides for carrying ammo, as well as a sheath for his Data Knife under his right arm and a holster for his Smart Pistol on his right hip. It had a metal loop sticking out the left side. Daniel had seen Pilots running around with combat axes and whatnot, and assumed that’s what it was for.

 It had a protective collar at the top of the vest to protect his neck on all sides. On the very bottom, was a flap to protect his groin that he was oh so thankful for. The armour on his legs were rounded and streamlined, the orange paint on the kneepads were scratched, presumably from use.

Two pauldrons went on his shoulders and curled around his biceps just above his elbow pads, both of which bore the green and orange skull insignia of the Marauder Corps. Two bracers went on each of his forearms, the left one was equipped with a built-in retractable blade that could be deployed almost instantly for a lethal strike.

In terms of equipment, the armour included a new cloaking module to replace the old one that the IMC confiscated from him when he was captured. When he tested it, he found it lasted significantly longer than Lastimosa’s. It also had a Grapple integrated into the right bracer and a Phase Shift on his left glove.

Speaking of the gloves, they were made almost entirely out of metal, and had the exoskeleton integrated into them. Daniel also found out the hard way that they had retractable claws on the tips of each of the fingers, and boy were they sharp!

Next, the Jump Kit. It didn’t look like anything special, and Daniel wasn’t an expert on Pilots gear by any means. Though he knew that most of, if not all Jump Kits, despite their cosmetic differences, functioned more-or-less the same. He connected it to a harness on the back of his armoured vest.

Finally, the helmet. It was black and grey, had an orange stripe going up each side of the helmet and a radio antenna on the left side. It looked like a modified or improved version of Lastimosa’s helmet design, sporting an upward crescent shaped visor, with a short line on each side of the respirator’s nose, much like his mentor’s.

Daniel put it on, his vision going dark. Once the display came online, it revealed the armoury just how it was moments prior. The armour was exceptionally high-grade and offered great protection, with the only gaps being around his joints to facilitate movement. Even then, the potential vulnerability was negligible.

The exoskeleton must have powered on; any weight Daniel felt from the armour vanished.  His vitals were displayed on the right side of the HUD, indicating body temperature, heart rate, and even a big ‘O2’ bar that indicated the helmet had its own built-in oxygen supply. It indicated it would last an impressive time of about an hour. In any case, he hoped he’d never need to use it.

Out of respect for the late Titan Pilot, he decided to keep Lastimosa’s scarf. He wrapped it loosely around his neck, letting the grey cloth rest over the top of his armoured vest.

He packed Lastimosa’s old, battle-worn gear into the display case. If it weren’t for Lastimosa and his Pilot training, he figured he wouldn’t have stood a chance on Typhon. Daniel would never forget the Pilot Captain, or anything he gave or did for him.

Before he could turn to arm himself and leave, his helmet display highlighted a storage cabinet up against a wall. He found it didn’t require a key, as it opened without issue. Inside, were various weapons intended for close combat. Machetes, combat axes and knives were the most common tools found.

Something in particular caught his eye, however. The object in question seemed to be a straight-handled hammer with a square head, with a large, pointy spike on the opposite side. Daniel picked up the tool by its rubber grip, even with his enhanced strength thanks to his exoskeleton, he could feel it had some heft. He holstered it in the loop on his left side, where it could be easily and quickly retrieved.

He stocked the pouches on his vest with as many magazines as they could hold, as with the exoskeleton he no longer had to worry about over encumbering himself. He returned to the two rifles on the bench, neither of which had slings, making him think: Alright, now I need to get slings for these.

He raised the carbine into the air while he was searching for anywhere that could potentially have what he’s looking for. Before he knew it, he was startled by a grey mechanical arm that had latched onto the rifle’s receiver from behind him.

He instinctively turned around and threw a punch at his sudden attacker, only for his fist to connect with nothing. He let go of the rifle and got into a defensive stance, scanning the room around him. After confirming there was no threat, he went to pick up his rifle, believing he was starting to lose his mind.

He looked around him and couldn’t for the life of him find his gun. “For fucks sake!” He shouted and threw his hands up in the air in anger. When he did, he felt movement on his back and found the Carbine’s grip back in his right hand. The grey mechanical arm then clamped onto the rifle’s shoulder stock from underneath his right arm.

Perplexed, Daniel released the gun and saw the arm suspend it at his side. He raised the gun into the air again, watching the arm this time. It released the stock, retreated under and around his arm, then clamped back onto the receiver. Like before, he let go of the rifle and watch the arm pull it over his shoulder and secure the rifle on his back.

He repeated the action with the Charge Rifle in his left hand, the same thing happening again. “I guess I don’t need the slings, then.” Daniel mused.

He picked up a duffle bag from the floor, double checked that he had everything he needed from the armoury, before returning to BT in the hanger. He saw the Crow in the main landing platform, ready to depart.

“Pilot, I have transferred some of my AI functions to the ship’s computer. It will allow me to pilot the ship personally when necessary, and ensure communications will remain intact when out of range.”

“Good idea BT, is the ship good to go?”

“Affirmative. All systems functional, fuel capacity at eighty-seven percent.” The Titan confirmed.

He began running a checklist to ensure he had everything he needed. “Ok, nutrient bars, check. Water canteen, check. Processing Module, check. Have I got everything, BT?”

“Affirmative. Ready for your departure, Pilot.

The door on Daniel’s side of the crow slid open and closed behind him when he entered the space-craft. He removed his long arms and placed the guns and the module into the duffle bag, then underneath the troop seats.

He went up front and got himself strapped into the main pilot’s seat, as he heard a loud rumbling and looked up to see the large aircraft hanger doors in the Braxton’s ceiling sliding open, presumably BT’s doing.

“Weather patterns are at suitable conditions for surface-to-space travel.” BT informed via a speaker on the cockpit’s control panel. Daniel powered on the engines of the craft, gripped the flight stick on his right and took off through the opening in VTOL mode, as BT took it from there.

Cooper witnessed the label “VTOL” on one of the screens turn off, indicating that the ship was now in standard take-off and landing mode. The ship accelerated across the planet’s stark landscape, before continuing up through the thick, dark clouds. Daniel couldn’t help but be a little nervous about his current situation.

“Engaging boosters.”

The ship accelerated even faster, causing Daniel to tightly grip the handle bars on either side of his seat. “Reaching exit velocity.” BT informed as the clouds began to dissipate, as a yellow sky emerged from beyond them. It too began to disappear as the ship gained altitude, before the vast emptiness of space was revealed.

“Warming: Detecting orbiting debris.”

The Crow quickly dodged to the sides to avoid said debris, some of which had very familiar structures on them.

“Cooper, this debris field contains structures we encountered on Typhon, as well as natural rock not detected on this planet.”

“Damn.” Needless to say, this was a big discovery. Both of them had vastly underestimated the side-effects of the Ark’s overloading and subsequent detonation. That left the question: What else did the Ark do?

His ship turned and appeared to follow the planet’s rotation for a moment, giving Daniel a great view of the planet he was on only minutes earlier. He couldn’t see the surface due to the planet’s thick atmosphere, which was more than likely caused by high volcanic activity. He could see several storms brewing within the planet’s dark clouds.

“Coordinates locked: Engaging Jump Drive in T-minus, five seconds.” 

After those five seconds passed, the planet in view became heavily distorted, before Daniel’s vision turned completely white.

——————————

PLANETARY DEBRIS FIELD,

UNKNOWN STAR SYSTEM

When Daniel’s vision returned, he witnessed a mass of asteroids scattered around the surrounding area. His eyes caught something big in the distance. He disengaged BT’s control, as he could take it from there no problem.

“Transferring control to Pilot.”

 He passed by some kind of animated sign mounted to a small asteroid. It was big, jade green in colour and depicted what appeared to be some kind of robot with cartoonish blasters behind it. There were letters projected next to it in an unknown language, in the same colour.

Behind the sign in the distance, was what he could make out to be several platforms. Some had ships on them Daniel didn’t look like any design he’d seen before. Up above them, was a giant statue of the robot he saw on the sign, with similar features and something round underneath it.

“What is this place?” Daniel asked nobody in particular.

“Unknown, scans detect large amounts of refined combustible fluid stored within the structure. It is possibly a refuelling station.”

As he came in closer, avoiding some more asteroids in the process, he reengaged the Crow’s VTOL mode. The ship slowed down and gave him finer control over it. Over a lack of options on where to land, he touched down on a platform that he didn’t notice was labelled with a big white “3” in the centre.

Once Daniel was sure he had landed safely, he shut off the ship’s engines and began observing the area around him. Up a ramp in front of him was another platform with another spacecraft on it, with a pair of red lizard things with long heads stood next to it. Neither of them had breathing masks, so Daniel assumed there must be an artificial atmosphere here.

Daniel had finally started to realise how stupid of an idea this was. There was absolutely no way he would be able to communicate what he needed to these things. Still, he hadn’t been attacked (Yet) and he was here now, so he might as well try.

“Pilot, are you alright?”

“Yeah uh, I’m fine, BT. Why do you ask?”

“Your heartrate is exceeding one-hundred-fifty beats per minute. I recommend you take a moment to reduce it.”

Daniel noticed the heartrate monitor on his helmet display; it was at one hundred and fifty-seven beats per minute. He got to work getting his breathing under control. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he held it for three seconds, then exhaled through his mouth. He repeated this several more times until his heartrate was down to a more normal level.

He looked up to see the red things on the platform ahead of him looking in his direction. They didn’t look too strong, if they decided to get violent, Daniel was confident he could fend them off.

He unstrapped himself from his seat and went back into the troop bay to retrieve his weapons. Once they were secured on his back, he exited through the side door on the right, stepping onto the platform.

He looked back at the door to watch it slide shut on its own. His helmets oxygen supply wasn’t being used, so that’s a plus. He walked up the ramp with a gait that radiated confidence, and was ready to draw his Smart Pistol at a moments notice.

“That’s a nice ship you’ve got there, mister.”

Before Daniel could even comprehend what just happened, he replied on instinct: “Thanks. Say, do you know where I would be able to get a Central Processing Module fixed around here?”

“I’m afraid I don’t.” One red alien replied. “You could ask around in Zurkie’s” The other said, as it pointed with its three-fingered hand to the giant statue of the robot at the top of the long ramp. “You might find someone who could help you there.”

“Got it, thanks.”

Daniel continued to the ramp leading to the statue. To anyone watching, the Titan Pilot looked completely calm on the outside. On the inside, however, was a completely different story.

Did they just speak perfect fucking English!?

The implications for this were massive. Why did they speak the same language? Is it because the English language is actually their language? If so, why did humans know it? Did aliens visit—"

“I ain’t seen a Commando around here in years!”

Daniel looked at the source of the thick southern accent, and saw a large jade and cyan robot, hovering via a small thruster on its underside. It featured two antennae on either side of its head, alongside gold protrusions around its “neck” you could say, that looked vaguely like a necklace.

“Uh, hello.” Daniel said plainly. “Who are you?”

“I’m Ms. Zurkon, I sell weapons and ammo! Here, come take a look at my stock! The robot now known as Ms. Zurkon said, as she hovered behind him and ushered Daniel against his will into her little stall and listing her stock. “I got Burst Pistol’s, Shatterbomb Gloves, and even the new Enforcer!”

 “I’m also the main supplier for the resistance!” She whispered with one of her thin, two fingered hands up to her face.

“Resistance?”

Ms. Zurkon quirked an eyebrow at that question, “You must not be from around these parts, the resistance fights against the Nefarious Empire!”

“Yeah uh, I just got here recently, I don’t know what either of those are.”

She briefly looked at him with disappointment before continuing, “Sweetheart, no wonder you’re carryin’ around your weapons like that! You don’t have a Holo-Manager!”

“A Holo-what?”

“A Holo-Manager! It stores compatible weapons when you’re not using ‘em! Here, I got a few spares in the back. Just one second...” Ms. Zurkon elaborated as she turned around and started rooting around in crates at the back of her stall, tossing around junk like it was nobody’s business as Cooper watched idly by.

She fished out a small, thin square object out of a box, before returning to the Pilot and handing it to him. Before Daniel could say anything, the object vanished from his right hand with a flash.

“What in the — where did it go?” He said as he looked around on the ground, thinking he’d dropped it.

“There you go, sugar! You’re now fitted with your very own Holo-Manager! She informed the “Commando”.

“Look Ms. Zurkon, I don’t have any money to pay you for this—”

“Oh, don’t worry about it! It’s on the house. Besides, if you need to make some quick Bolts, be sure to fight a round or two in my son’s Battleplex!

“Ok, thanks! I’ll have a look into your son’s Battleplex.” Daniel replied as he turned to exit Ms. Zurkon’s stall.

“You’re very welcome honey, and remember to leave your weapons with the bouncer!”

Cooper continued up the ramp until he reached the giant statue of what he assumed was Zurkie. He was able to overlook all of the landing platforms, his ship looking tiny in comparison to some of the others.

The Pilot looked towards the entrance emphasized by flashing lights and observed a rounded room inside, one that he assumed was an elevator. Around the entrance, were several posters each of various images. He inspected an orange one, and saw an image of the skull of something that if you asked him, looked rather feline.

Getting back to more important matters, Daniel stepped inside the assumed elevator and searched for the button to activate it. Finding none, he was confused on how the elevator was supposed to be activated.

Before he could react, a door on the elevator slammed shut, sealing the Pilot inside. The floor in the elevator started glowing, until his vision turned completely white.

After a few seconds, his vision returned to normal, and the door opened. It revealed a large hallway with a giant glass window on the right-side.

“What the hell was that?”

“Cooper, the room you are located in appears to be a short-range transportation device. This area appears to be located within a large cloaking field.”

A fucking teleporter AND a cloaking field big enough to hide a whole building!? This just keeps getting better and better. Daniel thought to himself.

Daniel proceeded into the hallway and looked outside the window to see several asteroids in the vicinity, the background rippling like a lake that had something big dropped into it. That must be the cloaking field BT mentioned.

He continued onwards, stepping over various cables and other bits of junk. He walked past several more aliens that didn’t pay him much, if any attention. One of them had a giant eyeball for a head.

He walked around a bend, before coming to the end of the hallway. The arch doorway had four laser beams going horizontal across it, with a sign on either side depicting a gun of some kind, crossed out with a red “X”.

Walking through the beams, Daniel expected an alarm or something to be triggered. Despite his expectations, nothing happened.

“Welcome to Zurkie’s Gastropub and Battleplex, where we slaughter hunger and thirst with a smile!” A small robot with two large eyes and an antenna on top of its head, said to the Pilot from the other side of a desk.

“I’m also going to need you to hand over any guns, sharp or pointy objects you have on you.”

Daniel reluctantly handed over his weapons to the robot, the mechanical arms folding up neatly on his back. “Now, I assume I shouldn’t need to worry about any of my kit going missing?”

“Of course not, sir! Your weapons will be stored securely until you’re ready to either leave, or fight in the Battleplex.” The robot assured as it pointed out one of the cases behind it.

“Good to hear.”

The Pilot began walking towards the door to his right, thinking about how easy it would be to sneak a pistol into here, as the bouncer failed to notice any weaponry not in plain view. He still had his Grapple, Cloak, Phase Shift and alongside his Jump Kit, he would be able to escape fairly easily should this whole thing go south.

The door opened once he got close enough, revealing the interior of the gastropub. It was a large, round open room with a segmented glass dome for the ceiling. There were several heads of various creatures hung up on the walls, with lights hanging down from the support beams above. There was some funky music playing, adding to the atmosphere.

There were several patrons of all shapes and sizes milling about and chatting to each other, some sat at tables both inside and outside of the various booths. There was a massive window taking up the far wall, several patrons stood in front of it looking out at something.

Daniel had to admit; this looked like a nice little establishment. No-one had seemed to notice him, those who did didn’t pay him any attention for long. They quickly went back to whatever they were doing; ignoring him like another face in the crowd.

One thing was still to be decided: Who should he talk to for help? He didn’t want to talk to just anyone, lest he talk to the wrong person. Daniel decided to walk around and get a feel of the place; maybe then he would find someone who could help him.

He walked over to the massive window at the back of the pub, getting a look at what everybody was looking at. He witnessed several drones repairing a massive platform with bullet holes, scorch marks and craters scattered across it.

“The next round in the Slaughterplex will be starting shortly!” Said a one-eyed flying robot very enthusiastically. “This one will be the once-per-week Horde Survival round! So, we need somebody strong enough to take up the CHALLENGE!  The grand prize is a whopping FIVE-THOUSAND BOLTS!”

Fucking hell, that certainly sounds like a lot of money. The Pilot thought. Maybe if I win that money, I can pay someone to fix the module for me!

Daniel noticed that a lot of people looked at the bot apprehensively, while said bot looked around frantically, like it was looking  for someone in particular to sign up.

Come on, Rivet! Where are you!? Zurkon Jr thought worriedly, Rivet was supposed to be at the pub fifteen minutes ago! Usually she’d be there on the dot every week, but today for whatever reason, she wasn’t.

Daniel knew that this was another big risk he was taking, but being a Pilot was about taking risks, and he wasn’t returning empty handed. He approached the hovering robot before stating:

“Well, if no-one else is going to, I’ll sign up.”

Zurkon Jr turned to face the Pilot at an incredible speed, before letting out an audible gasp at the sight of him.

“Ohoho, a COMMANDO!” Zurkon Jr exclaimed maybe a little too excitedly.

Daniel was a little disturbed at the bot’s excitement. Nonetheless, he continued, “Is there a problem with me being a ‘Commando’?” He asked innocently.

“Oh no, no, no! there’s absolutely no problem, Commando! Now tell me, what’s your title?

Daniel blinked. “My title?”

“Yeah! What do you call yourself to let everyone around you know that you mean business?”

Daniel thought for a moment before answering, “Where I’m from, people call me ‘Pilot’.” He said confidently.

“BAH! That’s boring!”

“But it’s—”

“Be quiet! I need to think of a good title for you...” Zurkon Jr said as he flew off and began flying back and forth.

He needs a name that’ll make the crowd think he’s a champion! Zurkon Jr thought, trying to think of a name for the newcomer. What do I call him? His armour’s pitch black, kind of like....Zurkon Jr’s mind flashed back to when he briefly studied geology in his spare time. He gasped as he realised he had a perfect title, and returned to the “Commando”.

“I’ve got the PERFECT title for you, now stand here and wait!” He ordered as he pointed a finger to the floor in front of some kind of computer. Daniel did as he was told without saying a word. Zurkon Jr selected something and then typed an unknown word onto the screen, as the floor underneath the Pilot began to glow.

Daniel realised he was on another teleporter, as it lit up and engulfed him in light. As the light went away, he could see he was now in the centre of the arena. A drone approached him with a box filled with his weapons. He retrieved them, before preparing himself for what would come next.

There were several floating stands filled with spectators. Daniel could hear several nearby spectators talking amongst themselves about the newcomer.

“Is that a Commando?”

“I think it is! I haven’t seen one since the day Corson fell!”

“I KNEW the emperor didn’t kill them off!”

The crowd continued conversing amongst themselves as more and more spectators noticed him standing at the centre of the arena.

“Today, I have a special treat for you my FIENDS! We have another round of  Horde Survival!” The crowd cheered at that, whatever it meant. “However, instead of the FIEND favourite, WE HAVE A NEW CONTESTANT!” The crowd cheering again as Cooper flicked off the safety on his Carbine.

The platform began shifting underneath him, as the bare platform transformed into a much more complicated one.

The large platform split into four smaller ones in the corners, with a smaller one in the middle of the arena. The gaps between them revealed an orange electric field below the arena, several bridges rising up from the abyss to connect them all together.

“This COMMANDO, has journeyed from far beyond the galaxy, in search of someone who can best him in a battle to the DEATH!” Zurkon Jr introduced.

“Introducing....OBSIDIAN!”

If he thought the crowd was cheering before, it was nothing compared to how they were cheering now.

“Today, Obsidian will be battling the thieving, treacherous SPACE PIRATES!”

Several floating rectangular pods rose up from underneath the arena, allowing the pirates to step onto the platforms across from the Pilot. Daniel could see they stood about eight to ten feet tall on average, some of which had what looked like metal skulls for their heads. Other than that, they didn’t look like they had much in terms of armour.

Daniel instinctively scanned the arena for an advantageous position, preferably one where he could reduce the potential sides he’d need to defend. He retreated to one of the corner platforms by propelling himself across the gap with his Jump Kit, then taking cover behind a metal barrier.

“Argh! blast that Commando to bits!” Shouted one pirate armed with a huge cutlass.

“Aye aye!” another shouted in reply, as a group armed with guns took cover on their platform and began firing what looked to be spiky balls upon the “Commando”. Daniel took aim and fired his Carbine in short, controlled bursts to take down a few on the other side of the bridge in front of him. He hit his mark, the bullets penetrating metal and hitting fragile circuitry, taking them down.

One after another, any pirate on the opposite platform to the Pilot was gunned down by him, causing the spectators to cheer him on. The pirates returned fire, some missing and others hitting the barrier in front of the Commando, breaking off metal plating in the process.

He heard movement to his right and saw more pirates, armed with swords crossing the bridge. Daniel quickly drew his Charge Rifle and charged up a shot, the end of the Anti-Titan energy rifle brightly glowing orange as it fired. The orange laser hit the pirate dead-centre, burning a hole through his chest and hitting some pirates behind him.

“Watch it, he’s got a Collider!” A pirate warned.

“Which, you can buy from my Momma, if you want one!” Zurkon Jr exclaimed to the crowd as they cheered at the display.

He returned to focusing on the ones across from him, spotting more sword-wielding pirates rushing him. Daniel quickly swapped back to his Carbine and took down three more before his gun was empty. He dumped the mag and slammed another into the Carbine quickly, racking the charging handle as he looked up and realised he was about to be overrun from both sides.

Both groups of pirates rapidly approached the Commando, intent on ending his brief assault against the Space Pirates. Daniel backed into the corner of the platform. From the perspective of the crowd watching, it looked like he wasn’t able to do anything up and was waiting for the pirates to end him.

“Looks like Obsidian’s surrounded! What will he do to get himself out of this!? Hopefully something EXPLOSIVE!”

Right before a pirate’s sword connected with Obsidian’s head, he clenched his left fist and a bright flash appeared and disappeared almost instantly. Nothing else happened, other than that Obsidian was now nowhere to be seen.

“What the – he was just here!” One pirate shouted, as she and the others scanned the arena for any sign of the Commando.

One pirate started laughing, “Looks like we were too much for the Commando to handle!” The others joined in on the laughing. She was about to ask Zurkon Jr about the prize money, before something hit the ground in between all of them, and the area suddenly became scorching hot. Hot enough in fact, that one pirate close enough to the source started to melt.

“AAAGGHHH I’M BURNIN’, I’M BURNIN’!!!” Said pirate screamed in agony, right before he collapsed, dead, the rest diving away from whatever just exploded.

Suddenly, gunshots rang out and a fellow pirate’s head right next to her exploded, then another, before the pirates were able to spot the source of the gunfire, that being Obsidian, on the opposite side of the arena behind the barriers.

“How’d he get there!?” Asked one very confused pirate.

“Who cares!? Blast him!”

The pirates returned to firing on Obsidian’s new position, forcing him to duck behind a barrier. The ones with swords rushing to get to him.

“Send in the Cutlassies!” One pirate shouted. Another pod appeared behind the bridge on the Pilot’s right side, where at least a dozen floating one-eyed bots with long blades for arms emerged.

Daniel responded by retrieving a navy-blue throwing star from his belt, and throwing it into the middle of the group of bots he now knew were “Cutlassies”. The star hit the ground and began to glow a deep blue. It rose up into the air, the Cutlassies being helplessly swept up by it.

He emptied a mag into the glowing swirl of metal, and then ducked back down behind the barrier. After a few seconds of the robots swirling around the Gravity Star, it exploded. The blast sent the Cutlassies outwards, now effectively shrapnel, into everything in its radius.

The pirates, being made almost entirely out of metal, were barely harmed by the unintentional bomb. The same could not be said about their optics, as pirates left and right were both partially and completely blinded.

“MY EYES!”

“I CAN’T SEE!”

Needless to say, the “Fiends” as Zurkon Jr likes to call them, showed their awe by cheering. Zurkon Jr himself was also very impressed, even asking Obsidian where he could get a few of those for himself.

“It’s not over yet, Commando!” Daniel looked back over at the far platform to see more pirates being dropped off by another pod, ready to take aim at him.

He let his rifle hang at his side, before pulling an orange and another navy-blue throwing star from his belt. He threw both in quick succession into the pod behind the newly-arrived pirates, both hitting the inner wall right next to each other.

The result was the pirates being pulled back into the pod by the Gravity Star, then getting melted alive by the Fire Star. Screams of agony were heard flooding out of now orange-and-blue glowing pod. When the Gravity Star finally exploded after what felt like an eternity to some, nothing but red-hot metal was spewed out of it.

The crowd began cheering wildly at the spectacle, some now standing up to cheer Obsidian on.

The crowd’s going crazy for this guy! Zurkon Jr thought, he might’ve just struck the jackpot! He decided to take a look at the leader board, to see where this potential champion in-the-making stacked up against the other fighters.

The sight of the leader board gave him a shock; Obsidian was only two-thousand points away from first-place! Zurkon Jr was simultaneously dreading and excited for what the Lombax would do if her record was broken.

Obsidian’s attention returned to the group of partially and completely blinded pirates. He decided that since the pirates were now vulnerable, now would be a good time to get in close. He holstered Carbine and retrieved his hammer.

“It looks like Obsidian’s about to bring the PAIN!” Zurkon Jr commentated as the spectators cheered in agreement.

The first two pirates in front of him on the bridge were completely blind, basically free kills at this point. He bashed one in the head, sending them off the arena. The other was crawling around, desperately trying to regain their bearings. The Commando kicked that one off the arena, both pirates exploding spectacularly upon hitting the energy field.

Two more pirates that were only partially blinded, stood up with swords in their hands and rushed towards Cooper. He responded by side-stepping the blade of the first one, grabbing the sword by the handle and using it to block an attack from the other pirate.

When the blades connected, the attacking pirate was dazed by the surprising amount of strength Obsidian had, giving him plenty of time to deal with the pirate whose sword he was still holding onto.

Daniel used his enhanced strength to wrench the sword out of the pirate’s hands, then quickly punched the pirate in the face to stun him. Thankfully, the metal on his gloves meant that he barely felt anything on his end. The pirate however, was a different story. The pirate received a fair dent in his cheek, and staggered from the hit.

He hooked the spike on his hammer around the pirate’s thin and exposed spine, before dragging and throwing him off the bridge and into the laser field below.

The last pirate recovered from the guard and declared, “You’re finished, you little scamp!” The pirate ran at him again with his sword raised into the air, ready to end the Commando. The Pilot charged and leaped at the pirate, his Jump Kit propelling him into the robot.

He hit the pirate hard, hard enough to knock the pirate’s sword out of his hand and send the both of them flying over a barrier and onto the platform closest to the pub’s window.

Not relenting in his attack, Obsidian used what he already had in his hand: His hammer. He held the pirate down with his other hand, then proceeded to strike the pirate in the head until his face resembled a metal pancake, the spectators cheering him on.

He stood up off of the pirate expecting Zurkon Jr to announce his victory, but his eyes caught movement within the smoke that was coming out of the pod across the bridge from him. Miraculously, a pair of pirates emerged from the pod, badly burnt and missing some parts.

“Ye...you’re not going to get away with this....” The front-most pirate limped outwards, stepping over the mangled bodies of her deceased comrades.

The other pirate continued, “When our Captain hears of this, you’re—” The pirate was cut off by four quick gunshots, then both surviving pirates dropped dead, their heads spitting out sparks where the shots hit.

Daniel twirled his Smart Pistol in his hand as he holstered it. “Obsidian has triumphed against the Space Pirates!” The spectators cheered at the announcement.

BEEP, BEEP!

“Wait a sec, what’s this?” Zurkon Jr continued as he inspected a tablet in his hand. A large leader board came into view above and behind some of the spectator stands, with an unknown word, presumably a name highlighted at the very top.

The highlighted name had the number 14,000 to the right of it, with the name below sitting at 12,500.

“OBSIDIAN IS THE NEW SLAUGHTERPLEX CHAMPION!”

The spectators erupted into applause and began chanting “Obsidian! Obsidian!”

Zurkon Jr handed the Commando a small disk that disappeared just like the Holo-Manager when he held it. A new indicator appeared on his HUD, containing an image of a bolt and the number zero next to it that quickly climbed to five thousand.

A lot of people in the pub were paying attention to Obsidian’s fight, including a certain Rilgarian. “Holy shit.” Phantom uttered quietly from his table next to the Battleplex window. From witnessing what the Commando did and how he fought, Phantom knew two things:

• Obsidian would be an invaluable individual to have in the resistance.

• Rivet was not going to be happy about her record being broken.

Phantom knew that he had to try and convince the guy to either join, or at the very least help the resistance. He observed him returning to the gastropub to the cheers of some of the patrons, this was his opportunity.

Phantom called out the Commando with a wave, “Yo, Obsidian!” Obsidian turned his head towards the Novalian, revealing the blue glowing visor of his helmet. “Those were some sweet moves you pulled against those pirates, where did you learn to fight like that?” Phantom asked as Obsidian approached his table.

“Who are you?” The Commando inquired through a filtered voice.

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Phantom, the resistance could really use a man with your skill.” This guy’s definitely new around here, if he wasn’t, we would’ve known about him sooner.

“Resistance? That’s the second time I’ve heard of that, and how they’re fighting a ‘Nefarious Empire’.” The black-armoured man responded, as he took a seat at Phantom’s table by the window. Phantom noticed how the man sat in a way that would make it near-impossible for someone to sneak up on him.

“Tell me, Phantom, what is this ‘resistance’?” The Commando inquired, placing both of his five-finger hands on the table. A feature that did not go unnoticed by Phantom.

“The resistance came together shortly after the emperor came to power about six years ago. Since then, we’ve been doing everything we can to rid Polaris of his tyranny.”

“Sounds like quite a noble cause.”

“You bet!” Phantom agreed. “Would you be willing to help us free the Polaris Galaxy?”

Obsidian paused for a moment. “Well Phantom, I need a Central Processing Module repaired. If you can get fixed for me, then I’ll consider helping your resistance.”

Ok, he wants something in exchange. I can work with this. Phantom thought.

“Alright, tell you what Obsidian, me and some of the other rebels are planning to raid a warship factory in Nefarious City in a few hours. If you help the others cause a distraction while I sneak in and blow the place up, I can have one of my rebel friends fix up that module for you, no problem.” Phantom bartered.

“What kind of distraction are we talking about?”

“A pretty simple one, actually. Get the attention of the guards in any way you see fit, and keep ‘em occupied while I do my thing.” Phantom explained as he raised his gloved hand across the table towards Obsidian. “Deal?”

The Commando remained silent, seeming to mull over the offer. He suddenly reached over and grasped the Rilgarian’s three-fingered hand in a firm shake, “You’ve got yourself a deal, Phantom.”

Great, I have him on board! Phantom thought, as he released his hand from Obsidian’s firm grasp.

 He remembered what he always gave every new recruit: A communicator and a mapping chip. He reached into one of the several pouches on his belt, before producing the orange communicator and a small thin square object.

“Now, we’ll need a way to contact each other, so here’s a communicator and a mapping chip, to help you find your way around.”

“Alright, thanks.” Obsidian replied as he stowed both items into the satchel on his left side. “Now, before I leave, tell me the specifics: What’re we going up against, what range will we be engaging them?

“Robots. They’re called Troopers, they average out at about fifteen feet tall. There’s several different kinds, but most crumble under sustained blaster fire.” Phantom informed as he handed over a small data-pad to the Commando that contained several photos of the aforementioned Troopers.

Cooper flicked through the data-pad, observing several white and black robots with massive orange domes for heads, and tentacle-like legs. Some wore what seemed to be boxing helmets on their heads, and had giant wrecking balls at the end of their arms.

“Those Sluggers like to get up close and personal, so it’s a good idea to keep your distance from ‘em.”

He handed the data-pad back to Phantom, as he stood up and away from the table. “Alright, I’ll see you in the city, Phantom.” Obsidian said as he walked away from the table towards the exit.

“I’ll send you the exact time and place in an hour or so!” Phantom called out to the departing Commando, to which he responded with a thumbs up.

After the Commando had left, two massive and familiar people approached Phantom’s table.

“So, who was that, Phantom?” The pink-skinned, shirtless Agorian asked him.

“That, Quantum, MoyDoy.” Phantom looked to both rebels, “Might just be our newest recruit.”

——————————

ZURKIE’S GASTROPUB,

SCARSTU DEBRIS FIELD,

ARIES SECTOR

Zurkie’s Gastropub. The resistance’s favourite establishment. The reason, was because of the owner’s not-so-secret distaste for the emperor. This led to the pub becoming a safe haven for rebels, pirates and anyone else who shared the sentiment — which was pretty much everyone.

It was Rivet’s favourite, due to Zurkie’s having a built-in battle arena for her to help her blow off steam and make some cash, and because Zurkie made the some of the best drinks and grub she’d ever had. Just thinking about that smoked Puffoid was making her mouth water. It was still right behind Mort’s Grunthor meatloaf, nobody would ever beat that. 

 Rivet landed her Royal Starship onto the corner platform she always used, one that had effectively become hers ever since she started coming to Zurkie’s. The reason for her presence today, was because Phantom wanted to talk about some kind of EMP.

She knew that Phantom didn’t like to call meetings unless it was serious, and in her books, an EMP powerful enough to knock out all the electronics from the Mort’s factory, to the Troopers in Nefarious City, was definitely serious.

Killing the engine and shutting off her ship, the canopy opened and the ship’s seats were lowered towards the ground for Rivet to get down.

After ensuring that her hard-earned ship was secured, she proceeded down towards the ramp that led to the teleporter that Zurkie used as the entrance for his pub. She knew that the reason for this, is if Nefarious’ forces, or anyone for that matter, were to attack his pub, he could shut it off, hiding away the rest of the pub in the cloaking field it was surrounded by.

She walked past some guy decked out in black armour that had orange stripes running down his arms and legs. He was inspecting an orange object in his hand. Other than that, she didn’t pay him much attention, the same as everybody else who she didn’t know here.

Up at the top of the first ramp, the Lombax spotted the friendly face of Ms. Zurkon, the resistance’s weapons dealer. She was the only dealer left in the galaxy who would be willing to sell her wares to the rebels.

“Hi, Ms. Zurkon!” The Lombax greeted the jade synthenoid.

“Hey, honey! How’s my favourite customer?”

“I’m doing great, thanks! You got any new blasters for me? She asked with a shrug.

“Oh, why I certainly do! I think you’ll like this one!” Ms. Zurkon said as she projected an image of a large, orange blaster.

“This one’s the Enforcer! A double-barrelled plasma cannon with double the power, and double the fun!” She explained, “Pull the trigger halfway to fire one barrel, or if you’re feeling confident, pull it all they way to blast ‘em with both barrels!”

“Ooohh! How much is that beauty going for?”

“One-thousand two hundred and fifty bolts, sugar!”

“That sounds good to me, I’ll take it!” Rivet exclaimed.

“It’s all yours, honey! Take care now!”

Pleased with her new blaster, Rivet proceeded towards the entrance of the gastropub. Stepping into the teleporter like she had done so many times before, a bright light enveloped her as she appeared on the other side.

She stepped into the weapons confiscation room, her many weapons being automatically and stored into the many weapons cases present, including her trusty hammer. Thankfully, the bouncer was already well-used to Rivet’s army’s worth of guns.

After entering the main pub, Rivet doesn’t see anything out of the usual. She scanned the same table by the Battleplex window that her and the other rebels would always sit at. Spotting several familiar faces, alongside a Rilgarian waving her over, she joined the other rebels at the table.

“Why is it that you’re always the last person to show up for a meeting, Rivet?” the large shirtless Agorian asked her.

“Hey, it’s not my fault that a Grunthor decided to plonk its ass on my ship!” Everyone at the table, bar the white Lombax, laughed at the explanation. “Can we just talk about what we’re here for?” She groaned.

“Yeah, Phantom. That EMP you were telling us about?” Clatchky asked.

“Yeah, the EMP. But before we get to that, I want to talk about plan B for taking down that warship factory.”

“What was plan B, again?” MoyDoy asked the Rilgarian.

“Plan B is for you, Rivet and Katzae to cause a distraction out front to get the Troopers out of the factory,” Quantum explained, “So that Phantom can sneak in and blow the place up, with the bombs that we got from that smuggler for that purpose.”

Rivet internally groaned at that first part. Specifically, Katzae. That Cazar, who had only been with them for a few months, was helping out with the “distraction”. That wouldn’t have been a problem, if he wasn’t a mediocre fighter, and didn’t need somebody’s help every thirty seconds.

Another thing about him, was that Katzae had an incredibly obvious crush on her, much to her annoyance. She had tried to drop the hint that she wasn’t interested several times, but unfortunately for her, he’s yet to take that hint.

Phantom had found him here at Zurkie’s one night, asking around on how to join the resistance. She couldn’t blame Phantom for taking him on board, this was a resistance after all, and they needed all the help they could get.

“And, I found someone who’s willing to help you three with that distraction.” Phantom said proudly, as he leaned back and placed his hands behind his head.

“Don’t tell me you found another Katzae.” Rivet blurted out without thinking.

“Don’t worry, Rivet. This guy’s good.” While Phantom didn’t seem to share her dislike of Katzae, he at least understood it.

“Good in what way?” Rivet asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“He’s amazing in a fight. I mean, you guys should have seen what he did to those pirates out in the arena!” Phantom exclaimed, as he suddenly pointed to a screen mounted on the wall above their table.

“Look! They’re showing a replay from his match!” Said screen showed a man in black and orange armour, getting up close and personal with several Space Pirates.

Rivet recognised him as the black-armoured man she saw on her way in. Now actually paying attention to his appearance, she realised that he was a big guy. Nowhere near as large as MoyDoy or Quantum, but definitely much larger than herself. Though, Phantom might be a little bit taller.

“Is that a Commando?!” MoyDoy asked, shocked.

“Well, he must be, if he’s tossing around those pirates like they’re nothing!” Clatchky answered.

“Wait, what’s his title!?” Both MoyDoy and Clatchky asked Phantom simultaneously.

“He calls himself ‘Obsidian’.” Phantom answered, a little disturbed at the enthusiasm from the both of them.

MoyDoy looked back up at the screen, now displaying Obsidian’s name at the bottom of a still photo of him brandishing a green and orange pistol. “The last Commando I ever saw was Captain Moonblade, a few years before Nefarious took over.” MoyDoy smiled pleasantly, “Nice to know they’re still around.”

“Phantom?” Rivet interrupted, “How do we know he’s not working for the emperor? I know Nefarious hasn’t hired anyone in a while, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped doing it.”

“His hands.”

“His hands?”

“He had five fingers. Just like you.”

“Five fingers? But wouldn’t that mean...?” Quantum asked.

“Yeah. I can’t confirm it, but I’m pretty sure he’s a Markazian.”

“But where’s his tail, then?” Clatchky questioned.

“Male Markazians don’t have tails, Clatch’.” MoyDoy corrected.

“Oh, right.”

“With that in mind, I’m pretty sure we all know how Markazians feel about the emperor.” Phantom continued.

“No shit, he blew up their planet.” Rivet added with a bit of anger in her tone. If Obsidian was here for revenge against the emperor, he would soon find out that would be much easier said than done.

“Anyway, we made a deal that in exchange for helping us with todays mission, I’ll get his ‘Central Processing Module’ fixed for him.”

“So, in other words, you want me to fix it for him?” Rivet presumed.

“I mean, of course. You know I’m no good at that stuff, Rivet.”

“Alright, he tell you anything else?” MoyDoy asked.

“Not much. Although, it seemed like he didn’t know much about the resistance or the empire.”

“That makes me think he ain’t from here. Bogon, maybe?”

“Maybe.” Rivet agreed. “If he was from Polaris, we would—” Before Rivet could give her input, she was interrupted by the lights suddenly dimming, and all of the screens in the pub displaying a familiar red icon. An incredibly annoying tune played, one that always played whenever Nefarious was making a public broadcast.

The icon gave way to the white metal and orange glass head of Emperor Nefarious himself, sat in his chair within his office, with several monitors behind him, each displaying him in a different pose.

“Why hello! My loyal subjects, rebels, pirates and anybody who happens to be watching...” Nefarious began, “Who am I kidding? You have to watch my glorious message to the galaxy!” He laughed, perhaps a bit too long to be considered appropriate for what he said.

He abruptly stopped the laughter and looked back at the camera, “Anyway, you all know why I’m here today.” He put his hand to the side of his head and leaned into the camera, as if trying to hear better, “What’s that? You don’t?” He removed his hand and leaned back into his chair, “Well, let me remind you!”

“Approximately eighteen hours ago, a large electro magnetic pulse was detected, temporarily disabling electronics in a *small* part of my beautiful city.”

“You may be wondering: Who could have done such a thing? Well, I’m here to tell you that it was none other than the resistance!” The screen swapped to an image containing evil-looking caricatures of the rebels.

“This band of lowlifes have once again tried and failed to undermine my—our way of life!” The feed returned to the office, the emperor raising a fist into the air, as if he was standing triumphant in the face of adversity.

“My top scientists are tracking the source as we speak, BUT!” He placed a large sack with a large “N” on it with a line going down the middle onto the table, “I’m offering a reward of one-million Nefbucks to anybody with information regarding the source of this minor annoyance.”

“Goodbye for now!” He added with a brief chuckle, before feed ended and the lights in the pub returned to their previous luminosity.

“Figured he’d blame it on us.” Rivet continued.

“But he just admitted that even he doesn’t know what caused it.” Clatchky added.

“What if he’s lying, though? Maybe he’s just trying to cover up an experiment gone wrong?”

“I don’t think so. If he really wanted to cover it up, why would he announce to the galaxy what happened?” Phantom questioned, “Would he not be better off keeping his mouth shut, or telling his “loyal subjects” in the city to not question it like he usually does when something doesn’t go his way?”

The rest of the rebels sat at the table seemed to wordlessly agree with him.

“So even Nefarious has no clue what caused it. In any case, what do you think we should do, Phantom?” Quantum asked the Rilgarian who appeared deep in thought.

Phantom remained silent for a few moments, before throwing his hands out in front of him. “Nothing! We do nothing.”

The other rebels blinked at Phantom’s suggestion, each wearing a face that said: “What?”

“Look, we know basically nothing about what happened and what caused it, not to mention we lack the means to figure it out ourselves, so the best thing we can do is nothing. We carry on with the plan to take down the warship factory as normal.”

“That means get ready, everyone! Meet Phantom in Nefarious city in four hours from now.” Quantum ordered confidently, the other rebels bar himself and Phantom, leaving the table to go and prepare for the task ahead.

“You were kind of quiet back there, Quantum. Everything alright?” The Rilgarian asked the rebel leader.

“Yeah, just thinking about something.”

“You’ve been doing that a lot recently. Anything on your mind?”

“I’ve been coming up with a plan that might give us a massive advantage against Nefarious.”

“Well go on, spill it!”

“It’s pretty risky, it would require us to—”

“WHAT!?”

The Captain and the Phantom both looked over to the source of the outburst, to see Rivet standing in front of the Battleplex’s computer with a shocked look on her face and her mouth agape.

 Clatchky approached the very disgruntled Lombax with a drink in his hand. “Is everything ok, Rivet?”

“HE BEAT MY FUCKING RECORD!”

Phantom inhaled sharply before he whispered to Quantum, “I knew she wouldn’t take that well.” They observed Rivet angrily signing up to the Battleplex, with Clatchky behind her attempting to calm her down, to no avail.

Chapter Text

——————————

“I’m offering a reward of one-million Nefbucks to anybody with information regarding the source of this minor annoyance.” Aired a voice Daniel found to be incredibly irritating via the speakers within his Crow. “Goodbye for now!” The voice added, which was followed by a brief chuckle, before the transmission ended.

Daniel scowled, “I haven’t even met the guy yet, and I already don’t like him.” He remarked from the pilot’s seat.  “Did you get all that, BT?”

“Affirmative. It is possible the electro-magnetic pulse may have been a by-product of the Ark’s detonation.” The Titan hypothesised.

“Well, if this “Nefarious” finds out we’re indirectly responsible for it, he’s going to gun for us.”

“That is a reasonable assumption, Pilot. Due to our lack of knowledge on this galaxy and its inhabitants, it may be prudent to avoid conflict unless absolutely necessary.”

After wordlessly agreeing, Daniel remembered that Phantom had given him a mapping chip alongside a communications device. He fished said mapping chip out of his satchel and held it in his left hand, “Phantom also gave me a mapping chip; I don’t have the slightest idea how to use it.” He admitted.

“If you bring it to me, I may be able to extract its data.” BT offered, as Daniel’s crow flew down through the dark clouds towards the Carter Braxton.

After another minute or so of flying, Daniel came up on the Militia carrier ship and saw the massive doors on its top already open for him. After landing his ship inside the MacAllan-Class Carrier, he gave the aforementioned mapping chip to BT.

The Vanguard was able to successfully extract the data from the chip, and projected a map of the entire galaxy in front of the Pilot. A bit of translating later, and it was found that the galaxy in question was called “Polaris”, containing several different sectors within, like the Cerullean, Vela and Verdigris sectors to name a few.

It was found that the star system they were located in had only two major locations: The Scarstu Debris Field, and the volcanic planet of Tharia.

After getting BT to upload a copy of the map to his Crow, Daniel figured he might as well pass the time while he was waiting for Phantom to contact him, by heading to the Braxton’s shooting range and testing a new weapon he’d purchased from Ms. Zurkon.

——————————

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

VVVRRRRRR!

 Daniel replaced the magazine on his newly-acquired “Burst Pistol”. So far, he was pleased with the performance of the orange and green-glowing weapon. Despite the lack of iron sights, Cooper found himself hitting his shots fairly reliably with the massive “pistol”, evident from the shots he placed on the holographic target.

Its two main features were the acid ammunition it fired, and its unique fire control system: Squeezing the trigger halfway made it fire slowly and precisely, while holding it down all the way made it fire much faster, at the expense of accuracy. No matter which fire mode was used, the recoil was very manageable. It wasn’t the only weapon he’d purchased; the other being a Shatterbomb Glove. It was a fairly simple concept; a glove that fabricates bombs into your palm that explode on impact when thrown.

Both weapons were stored in his Holo-Manager, and could be deployed by just a thought. Ms. Zurkon had also informed him about a substance called “Raritanium”, that she would be able to use to upgrade his new weapons.

Daniel was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a soft beeping coming from his satchel. The culprit was proven to be his new communicator, that had a small flashing light coming from a tiny opening in the front of the device. Almost immediately after, a beam of light burst outwards from the opening, turning into a holographic display, containing what looked to be a text and voice message respectively. With his other hand, he tapped on the voice message in an attempt to play it, and was mildly surprised when his finger touched something solid, instead of phasing through the hologram like he expected.

“Hey Obsidian, I sent you the coordinates for one of our safe-zones near the warship factory in Nefarious city’s Industrial District. Make sure you fly low once you get to Corson V, so you stay off the radar of any Seekerpedes. Be there in three hours from now, Phantom out.”

Alongside the voice message, there was a text message that contained a set of numbers: Obviously the coordinates Phantom had mentioned. Daniel decided that it would be wise to get his kit ready for the (hopefully) final stretch before he could get home. After all that was done and he had everything ready, he continued practising his aim with the Burst Pistol for little while longer, before getting into his Crow and setting out towards Corson V.

——————————

INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT,

NEFARIOUS CITY,

CORSON V

When Daniel arrived in Nefarious City, he was overwhelmed by the shear scale of the gargantuan metropolis. The coordinates to the “safe-zone” Phantom mentioned led him to an old dilapidated warehouse, located in the dark city’s Industrial District.

As he got his Crow inside and concealed from the outside world, he noticed a ship with a colour scheme reminiscent of the Troopers in Phantom’s photos, already parked inside the warehouse. With that, there were a few small crates at the very back of the warehouse next to a table, with some orange graffiti on the wall behind it, alongside a holographic map with several locations either circled or crossed-out in orange.

Getting back on track, the Titan Pilot exited the warehouse through a side door and into a particularly long alley, officially beginning his next mission.

Cradling a Spitfire outfitted with a standard Holographic Sight to his chest, Daniel had plenty of experience using one. Needless to say, The LMG was very effective, as it was capable of spitting bullets almost endlessly with easy to control recoil to boot. Just the kind of sustained fire he needed.

  The Spitfire wasn’t the only weapon the Pilot had at his disposal: Attached to his back, was an MGL. It fired out two magnetic grenades per trigger pull, which would veer towards and explode on contact with anything metal. It was designed to be used against Titans, and worked well against Reapers. As such, Daniel assumed it would be good for Troopers. To finish off his arsenal, he brought a few Arc Grenades with him, as they were designed to combat automated infantry in the earlier years of the Frontier War.

He reached into his satchel, pulled out his communicator and began scrolling down the list of names, now thankfully able to read the language displayed thanks to a translation program uploaded to his helmet by BT. Right next to a “Rivet” and a “MoyDoy”, was Phantom’s name and frequency.

  A few moments of dialling, he heard the green-reptilian alien on the other side pickup. “Phantom, this is Obsidian,” Cooper’s filtered voice spoke in earnest, “I’m leaving the ‘safe-zone’ now, where do I go?”

“Good to hear from you, Obsidian.” The Rilgarian spoke, “We’re waiting in an alley near the factory. My Nav-Unit’s turned on; you should be able to see it on the map in your communicator.”

Right on cue, a map appeared on the screen, with a blue dot in the centre that was presumably represented Daniel’s own communicator, with a green dot labelled “PHANTOM” appearing about a kilometre south-west.

“I see it, I’ll be there soon.”

“Just to warn you, the patrols have been stepped up as of late.” Phantom informed, “You won’t find a straight-forward path without coming across at least a few, so try not to be seen if you can help it.”

“I’ll manage.”

Phantom let out a chuckle, “Alright, whatever you say dude.” The reptilian alien remarked as the line went dead.

Daniel returned his communicator to his satchel, as he emerged from the alley and onto a walkway. “BT, triangulate Phantom’s signal and put it on my HUD.”

“Copy that, marking your HUD.”

The walkway continued parallel to a large gap, with what looked like cargo ships flying through it frequently. As Daniel peered over the guard rail and looked below, he saw nothing but a foggy abyss with no bottom in sight.

“Shit, glad I’m not scared of heights.”

He looked back up to the other side of the gap, where a HUD indicator for Phantom’s location appeared. He knew his Jump Kit wouldn’t be able to reach the other side; he needed another way across. His eyes spotted a bridge a short way up the walkway he was on, with several floating robots going across it from both sides.

As he approached the bridge, any robot that saw him seemed to be frightened by his presence, as they would quickly move out of the way as he got near.

Across the bridge, was a pair of large white robots that Daniel recognised to be Troopers from the pictures Phantom showed, both of them appearing to be conversing with each other. Behind them past another walkway, was a tight alleyway that looked like it would be easy to wall run from side to side.

 Daniel knew the Troopers would likely spot him if he just waltzed onto the bridge, and that it was probably a good idea to follow Phantom’s advice on not being seen on his way to the rebels.

He got to thinking. If he Cloaked and ran across from here, his Cloak would likely run out before he could even get close to the alley, so that was a no go. As he watched a handful of robots cross the bridge towards the Troopers, an idea popped into his head.

The Pilot quickly hid in a nearby alley, concealing himself from the many robots floating about. When a large red robot floated onto the bridge, Daniel sprang out. He pinned one of the robot’s arms behind its back and pulled it downwards, to where it was floating just above the ground beneath it. As a result, Cooper was successfully concealed behind the bot.

“Whaa!?” The red robot yelped, as it tried to turn around to face its sudden attacker. “Who are you!? Let me go!”

“Shut up and keep moving, or I’ll throw you off the bridge!” The black-armoured Commando hissed, as he shoved the robot onwards across the bridge. With the lingering threat of being thrown into an endless void, the robot ceased its resistance, now complying to get whatever was happening over and done with.

Daniel was able to get halfway across the bridge before the Troopers noticed something was amiss. One Trooper walked onto the bridge to investigate, both of its arms raised and ready to strike at a moments notice.

“Citizen! I order you to explain your reasoning with this disturbance!” The Trooper’s voice boomed, as the red robot froze up from the order.

“Umm... uhh...” The red robot stammered, as he was continuingly pushed forwards by Obsidian, slowly getting closer and closer to the Trooper. Once he got close enough to said Trooper, Daniel quickly flicked his wrist and vanished from view, then threw the bot out of the way.

The now invisible Pilot ran through the investigating Trooper’s tentacle-like legs and off the bridge. The Troopers thankfully couldn’t see through his Cloak, which was what he was expecting, as the only thing Daniel knew that could would be other Pilots, as a Pilot’s helmet contained specialised sensors that could detect light being distorted by a Cloaking Module.

As he ran past the other Trooper at the end of the bridge, it reacted upon hearing his boots hitting a stray puddle. “Warning! Possible resistance activity detected!” The Trooper informed as it began shining a light around and scanning the immediate area. The other Trooper on the bridge turned around upon hearing its compatriot’s warning.

The Pilot kept running towards the alley, when a pair of floating troopers suddenly emerged from it. In response, Daniel used his Jump Kit to leap over the two smaller Troopers and into the alley. His Cloak deactivated as he landed on the hard metallic floor and rolled, but he didn’t stop moving. On instinct, he launched himself onto the wall and bolted down the alley.

He wallran from side to side, climbing higher and higher as he came up to a T-junction in the alley. Finding himself not particularly fond of the idea of potentially being in a confined space with another Trooper, he fired his Jump Kit again, propelling himself over the top of the building ahead and onto the roof.

The Commando slid across the top of the building and came to a kneel just before the edge of the roof, and let out a breath. “Okay, note to self: Stick to the rooftops.” He was pretty confident that he wasn’t seen, the lack of any alerted Troopers heard as he went through the alley supporting the notion.

 Alright, time to get a move-on. Daniel thought to himself. After all, he didn’t want to keep the rebels waiting. He spotted a large tower crane up ahead, which gave him an idea on how to traverse the cityscape much faster. Thanks to his Jump Kit, the Pilot effortlessly jumped across the rooftops and towards the crane.

The tower crane itself happened to be situated within a massive gap between the buildings, its mast disappearing into the void below. Cooper found a few smaller cranes sticking out the side of a nearby building that looked to be under construction, the last of which holding a metal wall panel over the edge. He triangulated the path he would take and took off at a sprint, putting his plan into action.

He jumped and fired his Grapple onto the end of the first crane. Immediately after it hit its target, Daniel felt a sharp tug on his right arm, as the compact reeling system in his right bracer pulled him towards the end of the crane.

Just before he slammed into it, Cooper fired his Jump Kit to the left and released the Grapple, sending him flying upwards past the empty cranes. He flew towards the last crane holding the aforementioned metal wall panel.

The Pilot slammed against the floating wall panel with enough force to move it slightly. Thankfully, his Jump Kit kept him firmly attached to it. He ran along the side of the panel as far as he could, before leaping upwards as high as his Jump Kit could allow. Right as he felt himself slow down, he fired his Grapple towards the bottom of the crane’s jib.

The Grapple hit its intended target, and Daniel felt a sharp tug on his right arm again as he was subsequently reeled upwards towards the jib. With another boost from his Jump Kit, he dodged the metal jib and released the Grapple, sending  soaring him past the crane and into the sky.

His Jump Kit automatically activated, correcting his orientation and slowing his descent. If anyone else had been in his place at that moment, they likely would've been shitting themselves. But not Daniel. To him, this was just what Pilot’s like himself did every day: Practically flying through the battlefield and moving in ways many would deem to be straight out of a video-game, and the thrill of which simply couldn't be compared to anything.

Straight ahead, near the HUD marker for Phantom’s signal, was an absolutely massive building. He presumed it was the factory Phantom wanted to blow up. If he was to hazard a guess, it looked to be at least half the size of the Braxton. Daniel wondered just what kind of bombs Phantom must be packing, as he got ready to land on the roof of a building.

——————————

A particularly cold breeze blew through the alley, causing Rivet to tighten the orange scarf around her neck in response. She sat with her legs crossed atop a dumpster, with a scowl on her face. It had been a few hours since she was dethroned as “Queen of the Battleplex” by a black-armoured Commando only known as Obsidian. The same Commando who would apparently be helping herself and her fellow rebels with their next task.

To make matters worse, she had spent a good hour-and-a-half trying to reclaim her throne, to no avail. Each time Rivet came close to beating Obsidian’s high score, she would be hit by a stray blast or an unnoticed opponent, resulting in deducted points. She had been just as surprised as everyone else when Zurkon Jr reluctantly announced that his Battleplex would be closed for the rest of the day, due to a lack of available contestants. Rivet had never heard the spectators boo so loudly.

The only upside to it, was the considerable number of bolts the Rebel Lombax had earned in the process. She used it to treat herself to a brand-new Warmonger, since she lost her old one (and most of her arsenal) the last time she was incarcerated in Zordoom Prison. Good times. She thought.

When Rivet realised that she would have to postpone her reclamation of the top spot, she made her way to Corson V to proceed with the resistance’s next mission: Destroy the nearby warship factory by any means.

While there were many factories in the city like it, the little detail that made this factory in particular special, was that it was the forefront of the emperor’s new Warship Armada. If they managed to take this one down, it would seriously impair the production of said armada, thus dampening Nefarious’ ability to send fighters to distant planets.

Rivet’s ears perked up when she heard a quiet beeping sound, one she recognised to be from a communicator. She instinctively checked her own communicator attached to her belt, as her eyes caught Phantom removing his own communicator from its pouch and then stepping away from the other rebels, around the corner of the alley.

After a brief conversation (one that she couldn’t quite make out, her hearing was good but not that good, damn it) with whoever it was on the other end, the Rilgarian returned from around the corner.

She decided this was a good opportunity to get a little jeer in, “Was that the girlfriend, Phantom?”

Phantom let out an annoyed sigh. “For the last time, Haleigh isn’t my girlfriend!”

“Oh, so it was Haleigh then?” Rivet and the other rebels let out a slight laugh at his exasperated reaction to the comment. “Seriously though, who was it?”

“It was Obsidian, says he’s on his way from the warehouse.” The Rilgarian replied.

“Well, we better get comfortable. Ya’ll know how long it takes to get around with all the patrols lately.” MoyDoy added, as he leaned against the wall next to his massive Agorian Warhammer, and started fiddling with the straps for the bracers and pauldrons on his arms and shoulders.

Rivet noticed movement on the edge of her vision to her left, spotting Katzae slowly shuffling closer to her. Oh Great, this again. She said to herself internally.

The Brown-furred Cazar started rubbing the back of his neck, “Hey Rivet, uh...how are you keeping?” The brown-furred Cazar asked with a nervous smile on his face.

“I’m fine, Katzae.” Rivet replied irritably.

“Oh uhh...okay.” Katzae acknowledged as he began to awkwardly shuffle away from her, and began playing with the handle of the machete attached to his belt that he always brought with him wherever he went.

Rivet let out an annoyed sigh through her nose. The young Cazar had been fairly persistent as of late in his attempts at flirting, even if they were often only awkward at best. The fact that his outfit looked like a poor attempt to imitate her own attire, certainly wasn’t helping. He wore a light-grey long-sleeved jumpsuit, black and grey metal gauntlets, a pair of old, rusty greaves and a pair of large, white single-lensed goggles. The only unique thing about the outfit was the orange sleeveless jacket that he’d worn for about as long as Rivet knew him. (Which wasn’t very long, mind you.)

She felt a tingling feeling start to travel up her legs, one she knew was from a lack of circulation. She uncrossed them and let them dangle over the edge of her perch, hoping to get some blood back into them and prevent them from going numb just before the next mission, as she knew that she’d never hear the end of it if she ended up falling flat on her face.

 Rivet looked up across the alley, and took notice of the strange look MoyDoy had on his face; one that looked like combination of nervousness and barely-contained excitement.

“You okay there, MoyDoy?” She asked the Agorian in concern.

“Oh? Yeah... it’s just... I’m about to meet an actual Commando!”

“You scared of a guy less than half your size?” Rivet said jokingly, to which MoyDoy laughed at. “What even is a “Commando” anyway?"

“Do ya’ really not know?”

“Nope.”

“Well, it’s kinda hard to explain what a Commando is without tellin’ ya’ about their history. They’re basically super-soldiers that used to serve in the United Polaris Army. They’re well-known for goin’ AWOL and fighting against the Polaris government and the army during the Great War.” The Agorian explained, “No-one’s seen one in years, not since Nef’ went out of his way to wipe ‘em off the face of the galaxy.”

“The Great War? You mean the war where Polaris fought against Bogon with an army about ten times bigger than theirs, and somehow got destroyed by them anyway?” Rivet questioned.

“Yep. Bogon’s army was no joke, let me tell ya’. Didn’t help that the Commandoes were helpin’ ‘em too. Destroyed loads of things that were important to the Polaris Army, like the old gelatonium refineries on Jasindu, as well as killin’ lots of important people in both the government and the army.” MoyDoy explained. “With Bogon’s help, they managed to more-or-less wipe the army and government out.”

“Why would they do all that?”

“It was because didn’t agree with the war, they believed it was only a ploy for the government to line their own pockets. That, and they had used the army to... let’s say... subdue any of their own citizens that protested the war.”

“Damn. Sounds like the Commandoes were pretty noble, then.”

“Some would argue against that, but to each their own, I guess. When the war ended, they sort of became their own thing for a while, before they pretty much disappeared, ‘cept for a few. The last Commando I ever heard of in Polaris was Captain Moonblade, a couple years before all of... this happened.” The Agorian remarked as he gestured widely.

“How come you know so much about the Great War and the Commandoes, MoyDoy? Isn’t the Holo-Net in this galaxy pretty much dead because of Nefarious?”

“I may have a book or two about them...” MoyDoy admitted, as he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck.

“I never took you for guy who’s into reading.”

“I thought the same, until I learned about some of the things the Commandoes did, like when Captain Moonblade took down an entire platoon of Polaris soldiers on his own!” The Agorian exclaimed excitedly. Rivet was smart enough to know that when a book was captivating enough to make MoyDoy of all people actually want to read it, chances were it was an interesting read.

MoyDoy himself seemed to correctly guess what she was thinking, “You can borrow it sometime if you want, ain’t like it’s getting any use from me by sitting in a box.”

“Huh, Thanks. I might—” Whatever Rivet was about to say evaporated as her large ears picked up a distinct whooshing sound in the vicinity. Before she could ask the other rebels whether or not they could also hear it, a large dark figure landed on the ground in front of her, with a loud metallic thud that reverberated through the alley.

“GAAAHH!” Katzae yelped, as he leaped away from the sudden intruder.

Acting on the same battle-hardened instinct that’s kept her alive all these years, Rivet summoned her trusty OmniHammer and leapt off the dumpster into the air towards the figure.

She heard Phantom and MoyDoy call her out, but she ignored it in the heat of the moment. She swung her hammer down towards the intruder, who quickly side-stepped the attack. Her hammer struck the ground with a loud bang, creating sparks in the process.

Not relenting in her assault, she immediately tried to swing the hammer upwards from the ground towards the figure’s head, who deftly caught the handle with both hands. Before she could react to the grapple, her legs were suddenly swept out from underneath her, and she felt her OmniHammer slip out of her hand.

The Rebel Lombax landed on her back with a thud and let out a grunt. Before she could pick herself up, she felt the bottom of a boot hit her chest hard, knocking the wind out of her. Almost immediately after, she felt something cold and sharp poke into the front of her neck.

“You were fast, I’ll give you that.” A filtered masculine voice spoke, as Rivet looked up to see a double-edged blade protruding from the figure’s left arm. Instead of seeing a face, her eyes met a blue-glowing crescent-shaped visor. “But... not fast enough.”

Before she could think of a snarky reply, the blade retracted, and the man took his boot off her chest. His gloved hand reach down to offer her a hand up, which she hesitantly accepted, as she recognised the black and orange-striped armour from before.

Obsidian pulled her up to her feet with relative ease, and looked behind her towards Phantom. “Phantom, you should’ve warned me to look out for flying furballs!” He called out as he released the Lombax’s hand.

“We weren’t expecting you to be here so soon!” Phantom admitted, “And sorry about her, she can be a bit jumpy at times.” Phantom replied to the man.

“Easily startled, huh?” Rivet heard the armoured man quietly mumble under his breath, as he looked back at her. “So, tell me, what’s your name, Fluff?”

“It’s Rivet, thank you.” She sternly corrected as she went to retrieve her OmniHammer that she had lost during the brief scuffle.

“Eh, peculiar, but definitely not the weirdest name.” The man replied, as he looked over to Katzae, who was in the middle of dusting himself off. “Hey, Kid, you going to tell me what your name is, or are you just going to stand there and gawk?”

“Why the fuck do you wanna know?” The Cazar spat out, clearly still upset from when he was almost used as a landing platform.

“I want to know, because I’m not going into a life-or-death situation without at least knowing the names of who I’m going to be entrusting with my life.” The Commando spat back.

Katzae let out a hushed growl, “Katzae Vyrnix.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Obsidian responded, as he looked towards MoyDoy expectantly, which the Agorian began to look slightly nervous under the Commando’s gaze.

“I-I’m M-MoyDoy, sir.” The Agorian informed as he stood at attention.

“Alright, now that that’s sorted, shouldn’t we get started on destroying that factory?” The rebels wordlessly agreed, as MoyDoy retrieved his Agorian Warhammer and stowed it on his back. Phantom lead the group around the corner and towards the entrance of the alley, with Rivet following close behind. She was immediately on edge when the Commando retrieved a long gun from his back and racked something on it, which made a distinct ker-chunk in the process. The other rebels noticed, especially MoyDoy.

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, is that a combustion-based gun?” the Agorian asked.

“If by “combustion-based”, you mean “does it use gunpowder as a propellant”, then yeah.” The Commando answered. “And quit calling me “sir”, will you? You’re making me feel old.”

“Sorry.”

A combustion gun? Really? Where’s this guy from, Solana? Rivet thought, as the group exited the alley and into the open. Thankfully, the area outside of the factories loading station looked almost abandoned, with no bots in sight to potentially alert the Troopers to their presence.

The rebels approached the large security gate connected to an orange force field fence that surrounded the exterior of the factory’s loading yard. A force field like this one was pretty-much impenetrable, where even Phantom Dashing wouldn’t allow you to pass through it. Thankfully, this fact was something the Emperor didn’t yet know of.

One by one, the rebels Phantom-Dashed through the security gate and took cover on the other side behind some shipping crates. Rivet watched Obsidian disappear on the other side of the gate with a flash, before reappearing on her side with another flash. The group weaved through the tight walkways between the containers, and before long, they were close-enough to the factory’s entrance.

Obsidian peaked around the container he and Katzae were behind, before retreating back behind it and looking across at Phantom, “Alright, there’s two of them at the entrance. What’s the plan, Phantom?”

The Rilgarian thought for a moment before continuing, “I’m gonna move up ahead and get as close to the entrance as I can, then I’ll slip by when the shooting starts.” Phantom explained. “MoyDoy, Rivet, you two get up close and personal and do your thing. Obsidian and Katzae, climb on top of the containers and cover them from above.” The Rilgarian ordered.

After a mixture of ‘got its’ and ‘okays’, both the rebels and the Commando started getting into their respective positions. Rivet got down low and weaved in and out of the shipping crates, before getting down behind a stack of barrels. MoyDoy hid behind a shipping crate across from her, giving her a thumbs up, which she returned. Above and behind the both of them, she saw Obsidian and Katzae looking down at the both of them from afar on top of a shipping container.

“Alright gang, I’m ready when you are.” She heard Phantom inform through her earpiece. Time for a bit of fun. The Rebel Lombax thought, as she nodded at MoyDoy to inform him that she was taking the first shot this time. The brand-new Warmonger that she had been saving for this moment materialised, and she felt the heft of the rocket launcher in her hands.

Rivet took aim at the right-hand Trooper stood at the entrance, which was looking at the other in conversation. Won’t even see it coming. She squeezed the trigger, the Warmonger letting off a single rocket that flew towards the Trooper and hit it dead centre, sending it flying off it’s feet to the ground. Body parts and pieces of armour were blown off instantly.

The other Trooper stared down dumbly at its wrecked counterpart on the ground, before it sounded the alarm. “Resistance alert! Resistance alert!”

She heard a loud wailing alarm activate, likely alerting every Trooper in the factory to their presence. On queue, Several more Troopers of different varieties emerged from the factory, ready to repel the sudden attack. “Release the Warmonger, Lombax!” One Trooper ordered.

Rivet felt the familiar surge of adrenaline in her veins, a sensation she had come to enjoy, and almost crave. It only intensified when she dodged a Trooper’s laser by flipping out of the way, the laser burning a deep gash into the barrel she was behind only moments earlier.

“Hey, you missed me!” Rivet jeered, as she fired another rocket at the group of Troopers, obliterating the smaller ones and knocking back the bigger ones. The Troopers didn’t even have a chance at getting their bearings when two more rockets hit them one after the other. The resulting heap of orange glass and white-painted metal on the ground just outside the factory entrance was a treat to her eyes.

As Rivet was about celebrate her small victory, another group of Troopers emerged from the alley, some of which were Sluggers. She tried to fire her Warmonger again, and instead of hearing a rocket taking off and immediately crashed into a Trooper, all she heard was the click of the rocket launcher’s trigger.

She looked to where the ammunition was stored on the end of the gun, and saw a distinct lack of rockets. “Aww, damn it. Why’d I spend all my Raritanium upgrading my Blast Pistol?” The Lombax scolded herself after realising her mistake.

“Yer gettin’ sloppy, Rivet!” MoyDoy yelled, as he charged a Slugger with his Warhammer and let out a battle cry. When they both met, the Trooper wound up one of its massive arms to ‘punch’ the Agorian. Unfortunately for him, said Agorian was faster. MoyDoy’s Warhammer smashed into the Trooper in a wide side sweep, putting a sizeable dent into the side of its abdomen and sending it flying into another Trooper.

Before he could finish them both off, they were suddenly lit up with a spray of bullets, alongside a few shots of superheated plasma that burned and punched through their armour with relative ease. The sources proved to be Obsidian’s machine gun and Katzae’s Combustors respectively.

MoyDoy quickly brought his focus back to the other Troopers, with Rivet equipping her new Enforcer to help. She pulled the trigger all the way, firing two shots of plasma into a Trooper and knocking it onto its back. She repeated the action against two more Troopers, occasionally using her hammer on any smaller ones that got too close, while MoyDoy proved himself to be a deadly threat against any Trooper that thought otherwise.

Amidst the carnage, Rivet noticed a lone worker bot quickly entering the factory on the edge of her vision. A bot she knew was Phantom in his Hologuise. Her and MoyDoy continued their assault against the Troopers, dodging lasers and wrecking balls, giving a spectacular show to the Commando and the Cazar covering them from afar. Or namely, the Commando, for all that Katzae could do was stare down at the white Lombax, in absolute awe at the power she demonstrated.

“Huh, looks like they’ve got this taken care of.” Obsidian remarked beside the Cazar, as he did a quick double-take to ensure that there was nothing behind them that they needed to be concerned about. Unfortunately, there were somethings to be concerned about, namely a group of Troopers that had suddenly appeared from different directions, all of which were rapidly approaching the security gate.

“Aw, shit! Kid, we got more of them behind us!” The Pilot warned, as he jumped across a few crates to get closer to the gate. He swapped his Spitfire for his MGL and expended the entire eight-round belt in four two-shot bursts, the magnetic grenades veering into and blowing up a quartet of smaller Troopers that had almost made it to the gate.

Daniel heard his helmet radio go off as he was in the process of reloading, “What’s going on back there, guys!?” A feminine voice spoke.

He tossed an Arc Grenade to slow down another wave of large Troopers that had made it past the gate, the blast of electricity stunning some of them as he put two fingers to the radio on the side of his helmet. “There’s Troopers behind us! Me and the kid can handle them, focus on your bunch!”

“Okay!”

The Commando narrowly dodged a Trooper’s laser, then used his Jump Kit to periodically jump between the crates while he continued firing his MGL at the Troopers. Katzae had managed to catch up to the fight, and started firing upon them with his pair of Combustors. But the Troopers kept on piling through the gate, with some of them opting to fly over it entirely.

“Surrender while you still can, rebels!” One Trooper ordered just before it was met with a stream of bullets.

“Damn it, where do they keep coming from!?” Katzae asked no-one in particular. It was beginning to look like the Commando and the Cazar were going to be overwhelmed. Luckily, Cooper had just the thing to repel the sudden onslaught of Troopers. He lobbed another Arc Grenade at the group, stunning and staggering some of them. Just like Ms. Zurkon had taught him, he thought about which specific weapon he wanted out of his Holo-Arsenal, and a Shatterbomb Glove materialised over his right hand.

He wasted no time in lobbing out several bombs in the vicinity of the Troopers, either killing or dealing devastating damage to any Trooper that failed to dodge the incoming bomb, giving the Commando and the Cazar some much needed breathing room.

While he and Katzae were now doing a decent job at preventing the other Troopers from getting past the gate again, a Trooper that was similar in size, but looked mildly better armoured compared to the rest hovered above the fence at the same height as the Commando and the Cazar on top of the shipping crates. Cooper had just noticed it right as the magazine in his Spitfire ran dry, alongside the massive quadruple-barrelled guns it had for arms.

Katzae had noticed it too, a look of horror spreading across his face. “A Blitztrooper!? What the hell is one of those doing here!?” He exclaimed as said Blitztrooper raised and revved up both of its arms, giving them both an idea of what’s to come.

“Prepare to die, squishies!”

The Blitztrooper opened fire, unleashing a sweeping storm of dense laser fire upon the both of them. Daniel instinctively activated his Cloak like he had done many times before, vanishing from view, then dropped down off of the crate he was standing mere moments before the many laser shots would have hit him.

Unfortunately for Katzae, he was not so lucky. Cooper watched the Cazar take a nasty fall from the top of the crate onto his side and curl into a ball, clutching at his left arm, right as a pair of small Troopers caught of to them. The Pilot quickly and smoothly drew his Smart Pistol and put a pair of guided rounds into each one, taking them out and causing him to abruptly reappear. He holstered the pistol and ran over to the injured rebel. “Kid, are you alright!?”

“It only a graze, I’m fine!” Katzae reassured through grit teeth. A small blue-glowing tube suddenly materialised into his right hand, which then popped off the top of said tube with his thumb before pouring the glowing substance onto his badly-burnt upper left arm. The substance appeared to permeate into the Cazar’s arm, as the wound proceeded to heal up quickly. “That’s gonna leave a mark.” Katzae surmised.

Right as he was about to pick himself up, the Commando grabbed Katzae under the right arm with his free hand, and hoisted the Cazar to his feet. “Get up, then! We need to get to cover before that thing shows up and lights us up again!” Obsidian said as he reloaded his Spitfire and quickly retreated towards and crouched between a metal barrier and a shipping container.

Katzae was about to follow him, right as he got an idea. A Mine Glove materialised onto his left hand, which then fabricated a spiky ball into his palm. He placed one next to a stack of gelatonium barrels right next to a walkway that the incoming Troopers would likely take. He lobbed several more on the ground a little bit in front of the path, before taking cover behind the barrier beside the Commando.

“Kid, spread the fuck out.” Obsidian ordered, “Do you not know anything about spacing?”

“Will you stop calling me ‘kid’? I’m twenty years old!” Katzae replied vehemently.

“That makes you younger than me, so you’re still a kid.” The Commando replied. “Now fucking move already!”

The Cazar did as he was told, crouch-walking to the other end of the metal barrier. Daniel heard him mumble something under his breath. Teenagers. The Pilot thought to himself, recalling the time when he was a narky teen. He suddenly heard multiple loud and metallic thumps quickly approaching, and got his MGL ready over the barrier in response.

A few seconds later, a trio of Troopers rounded the corner by the stack of gelatonium, with one stepping just a bit too close to the mine laid there by Katzae, the effect being almost instantaneous. The mine detonated, sending heated spikes into every direction including a few gelatonium barrels. This resulted in an explosion that blew all three Troopers to kingdom come. Flaming gelatonium coated the surrounding area of the improvised bomb, some smoke arising from said bomb, and some falling just short of the Pilot’s and Cazar’s cover.

“How’d that feel, you bunch of oversized tin cans!?” Katzae yelled at the deceased warbots. He noticed his mines had also been covered in the flaming green fuel. “Uh oh.”

Said mines detonated, with flaming spikes narrowly missing the heads of both Obsidian and Katzae, then embedding themselves into the container behind them both before quickly burning out. A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed, with Obsidian sending a sharp glare towards the Cazar through his blue-glowing visor. “Sorry.” Katzae meekly apologised.

The Commando heard more Troopers approaching, “Eyes up, here’s more of them!” He informed as more Troopers rounded another pathway to their right. Getting his MGL to bear again, and unleash two bursts magnetic grenades upon the Trooper in the front of the group. The grenades veered towards and detonated on impact with their target’s upper abdomen, stripping armour and evacuating wiring and other vital components from the Trooper’s body, before it fell dead.

Daniel ducked back down behind his barrier mere moments before a Trooper’s sweeping laser hit him, burning a deep gash into his cover and the crate behind him before it met its end at the hands of his MGL.

Suddenly, some Sluggers appeared from both pathways, rushing towards the pair. Cooper swapped back to his Spitfire and held the LMG’s trigger down on the group to his right, while Katzae fired both of his Combustors as fast as he could at the group coming from the left.

“Ceasefire, squishies!” One Trooper ordered.

“How cowardly to hide behind cover!”

The Commando and Cazar ignored the Troopers, slowly but surely whittling them down one by one. With the near constant fire on their behalf, any Trooper that managed to get close to their position was swiftly cut down.

While he was in the midst of reloading, Cooper spotted the Blitztrooper making its return on top the containers directly in front of himself and Katzae. He pulled out his last Arc Grenade and threw it in between the two groups of Troopers, the electricity arcing to both groups and finishing off the weaker ones while stunning the rest.

The Commando summoned his Burst Pistol into his right hand, “Kid, it’s back! Light it the fuck up!” The Commando ordered while he took aim with the acid-firing pistol.

“Would you stop calling me that!?” The Cazar rebel replied as he brought both his Combustors to bear against the Blitztrooper up above as it revved up its guns again.

“Let’s try that again: Prepare to d-AAHHH!”

The rapid-fire shots of acid and superheated plasma proved to be too much for the Blitztrooper to handle, as armour and other extremities melted off, and the machine fell backwards off of the top of the container.

By then the other Troopers had recovered from the blast of electricity, with Daniel and Katzae returning their attention to them. Another minute or so passed with a close shave against a laser here and there, the Commando and Cazar looked at the burnt and shredded piles of metal left in their wake, having seemingly dealt with all of the flanking Troopers.

“That all of them?” Obsidian’s filtered voice remarked.

“I hope so.” Katzae replied. “I never had to fight so many Troopers for so long before...”

Of course I end up with the kid with fuck all combat experience. Cooper thought to himself as he pulled out his communicator and pressed one of the side buttons. “MoyDoy, Rivet, do you copy?”

“I hear ya Obsidian!” MoyDoy replied presumably from his communicator, “Me and Rivet are just finishin’ off the last of the—”

“Initiating rocket barrage!”

“OH SHIT!”

MoyDoy was cut off by a sudden cascade of blue explosions, that lit up the other side of the factory’s loading yard.

“That doesn’t look good.” Daniel spoke blankly.

“You think!?” Katzae replied, “There’s only one thing that does that, and I’m not going anywhere near it!”

“Suit yourself then, kid. Stay out of the way and try not to get yourself killed.”

Before Katzae could reply, Daniel took off at a sprint, leaping onto and wall running on the side of some containers, towards where he saw the other two rebels last. He jumped across to and wallran on another container, before using his Jump Kit to propel him onto the top of the containers.

Then he saw it; a massive white and black warbot that dwarfed the other Troopers, hovering in front of the factory’s entrance. It left an epicentre of destruction in its wake; shipping containers blown open, craters and scorch marks left in the metal ground, alongside the broken and destroyed Troopers. There he noticed something lying on said ground, a something with white fur.

The machine raised one of its equally massive arms and pointed it at the downed and wounded rebel, with then started to glow blue. “The Emperor will be so pleased when he learns that I neutralised the Lombax!”

Cooper subconsciously brought his Spitfire to his shoulder, exhaled the breath he didn’t realise he was holding, took aim at the warbot, and fired. The LMG immediately kicked back into his shoulder at a rapid succession with its distinct chuck-chuck-chuck sound filling his ears, as it endlessly ejected spent cartridges.

The rounds uselessly pinged off of the warbot’s thick armour plating, doing little more than being an annoyance. However, it did get its attention. It stopped its attack on the Lombax to glance up at the Commando currently scratching its hull.

“A new rebel? How delightful!”

The warbot raised its arms again in Daniel’s direction and unleashed a barrage of blue-glowing rockets into the sky, with then redirected their course and quickly flew downwards to the Commando.

Oh man, I wish BT was here right now. Cooper thought.

——————————

It was times like this, that made Rivet hate getting blindsided. While she and MoyDoy were busy taking out Troopers, a Juggernaut had appeared out of nowhere and taken them by surprise, firing a cluster of energy rockets at the both of them, sending Rivet herself flying into a container. As for what happened to the Agorian, she had no idea.

And there she lied, dazed and disoriented, helpless on the ground. The massive warbot was taking glee that it was going to be the one to finally end her. Until it wasn’t. A series of bangs, loud enough for Rivet to mistake for small explosions suddenly erupted in her ears, then she looked up to see bullets pinging off of the Juggernaut’s armour, with the warbot looking at something in the distance, before taking aim and firing another barrage.

She wasted no time in taking advantage of the opportunity to escape the Juggernaut’s clutches. Fighting through the pain, she forced herself up and ran down a narrow pathway in between some crates. After a few moments of painful running, she stopped, put her back up against a crate and pulled the communicator off her belt.

“Phantom!” Rivet loudly whispered between pained breaths, “I hope you’re nearly done in there, because there’s a fucking Juggernaut out here!”

“I’m working on it, just hold out for a little while longer!” The Rilgarian replied, much to Rivet’s frustration.

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not getting killed out here!”

“You will not escape me, rebel!”

Rivet’s breath hitched in her throat, she stood completely still and dared not move, because only Zoni would be able to help her if she was heard by the Juggernaut. She tried to listen closely to get an idea of where it might be located, but the sound of her heart pounding in her ears made the task nearly impossible.

Though, she clearly heard a pair thu-thunk! Sounds through her heart’s fast thumping, which were followed by a quartet of small explosions.

“Ow! You will regret that, new rebel!” The Juggernaut promised, as she heard the sound of the Juggernaut’s Plasmatic Crash Beam being fired. Rivet risked a peak around the corner of the crate, and saw the Juggernaut facing away from her, picking up and throwing around some crates in its search for the “new rebel”.

While its back was turned, Rivet quickly left the crate she was hiding behind in favour of a few much larger containers close by. Once she had herself safely hidden behind one, she produced a vial of Nanotech from her Holo-Manager, popped off the cap and downed it in one go. She cringed at the taste, despite her many experiences with the near-universal remedy. Almost immediately, the pain she felt faded away, and she could feel herself breathing easier.

She pulled her communicator out again with the intention of contacting the resistance’s brawler. “MoyDoy, are you okay?” She asked her fellow rebel, only to get static in response. “MoyDoy, just say something - anything if you can hear me!” Rivet heard static again. That was a bad sign, to say the least. But she knew the Agorian was tough, really tough. She’d seen him tank hits like they were nothing, though it did little to ease the pit forming in her stomach.

Rivet’s excellent hearing picked up a faint electronic buzzing sound within her immediate vicinity, one she didn’t recognise. She looked around for what could be the source, and let out a yelp when Obsidian suddenly appeared beside her.

“Where the hell did you come from!?”

“Quiet!” The Commando ordered, as he put his hand over the Lombax’s mouth, and removed it once she had gotten the point. “Where’s Phantom?”

“He’s still in the factory.” Rivet whispered back.

“Perfect.” Obsidian said sarcastically, “Okay, tell me, what are you supposed to do against one of these things, run or fight?”

“Run, obviously! But Phantom’s still in—”

“He’s got that disguise thing. He should be fine, right? What’s stopping all of us from just getting the hell out of here?”

“Hologuises don’t really work on Juggernauts for some reason.” Rivet clarified. “We can’t just leave him behind!”

Obsidian paused for a moment before he continued, “Alright, that means we have to destroy it, here and now.”

“How the hell are we supposed to do that!?”

“Where did you go, squishies?” The Juggernaut boomed.

“How about that rocket launcher of yours? That shredded through the Troopers just fine, didn’t it?” Obsidian suggested.

“It’s out of ammo...”

“Of course...” The Commando muttered quietly.

“Come out, squishies! The Emperor demands your blood!” The Juggernaut boomed again. This time however, it sounded close. The Commando and Lombax both leaped away from the crate mere seconds before the Juggernaut whacked the container away with a blow from one of its massive fists, revealing them both to the warbot.

Rivet quickly picked herself up and Obsidian did the same, as he flicked his wrist, shimmered for a few seconds and then completely disappeared. “What the—” She was interrupted by the Juggernaut, when it tried to slam an arm down on top of her, which she dodged with a backflip. The front of the Juggernaut’s abdomen split open to reveal an orange capacitor that then started to glow purple; a warning sign she immediately recognised. She used her Omniglove to Phantom Dash through the Crash Beam when it fired, avoiding what would have no-doubt been a lethal blow if it weren’t for Phantom’s tech.

Rivet heard her earpiece come to life, and heard the Commando’s filtered voice come through. “Rivet! I can see some of those flammable green barrels just south of where you are, try and lure it to them!” Though she couldn’t immediately verbally acknowledge the idea, she knew exactly what he was referring to: Gelatonium barrels. Something that might actually put a dent into that warbot.

“How do I get to them!?” Rivet asked as she dodged a swing from the Juggernaut.

“Go straight through the gap in those containers to your left!”

She looked to her left, and sure enough, there was a small gap between a set of containers. She continued evading the Juggernaut’s blows while trying to put some space between it and herself.

“Please stand still, you are making it unnecessarily difficult to destroy you!”

“Oh, is that so? Maybe you should work a little harder!” Rivet taunted the Juggernaut, as she took advantage of an opening and sprinted away, squeezing through the small gap between the containers. The Juggernaut smashed them out of the way a few moments later and giving chase.

 She materialised her Blast Pistol and fired off a couple of shots behind her as she ran. As expected, the acid rounds did little more than irritate the Juggernaut and give its Raritanium armour some mild and harmless burn marks.

“Take a right!”

She did exactly as she was told, taking a sharp right turn upon hearing Obsidian’s order.

“Now left!”

A left turn later, and Rivet turned onto a wide pathway that would be wide enough for at least two Juggernauts to hover side-by-side within it.

“Now just keep going down that path until you get past the barrels, I’ll shoot them once it gets close enough!”

“You better not miss!”

“Give up, rebel! Resistance is futile!” The Juggernaut bellowed, as it fired another barrage of rockets at the Lombax. This time however, she was ready for them, and with some Phantom Dashes alongside some impressive acrobatics in the form of various flips on her part, Rivet was able to dodge the rockets with only a few close calls.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, until Rivet saw the Juggernaut leap into the air towards her. She dove to the side and narrowly avoided being crushed by the warbot in the process. Rivet quickly recovered and continued running, while dodging rockets and Crash Beams alike. Despite Juggernauts being by far the slowest class of Trooper, it was still managing to keep up with her.

Suddenly, blue-glowing rockets flew over Rivet and hit a stack of containers on either side of the pathway, sending a few of them crashing to the ground below and blocking the path ahead of her, as she quickly slid to a stop.

“There is nowhere left to run, Lombax!” The warbot declared. “Give up now so I can make your death slow and painful!”

Rivet turned around and faced the Juggernaut, which already had both its arms primed and ready to launch another volley at slightest provocation. She noticed the mild green glow of some Gelatonium barrels stacked into a few crates behind a container to her right, about halfway between herself and the now slowly approaching warbot. Rivet knew exactly what she needed to do. She slowly raised both her hands into the air, feigning a surrender.

“That’s a good Lombax...” The Juggernaut began, “Do you have any last—"

BOOM!

The Gelatonium barrels all burst in a sudden and catastrophic explosion, that completely engulfed the Juggernaut in flaming fuel and smoke, the blast knocking Rivet to the ground and onto her back. She looked up and for a moment, it seemed that Obsidian’s plan might have worked. But, to her horror, the Juggernaut emerged from the smoke, albeit covered in scorch marks and black soot, turning the previously mostly white war machine almost completely black as a result.

“I can get that repaired. Unfortunately for you, rebel, you cannot.”

She noticed movement on top of one of the containers to the left of the battered Juggernaut, right before the multiple bright flashes and loud bangs of automatic gunfire erupted. The rounds shattered the Juggernaut’s orange glass dome of a head to pieces, and one eye was completely destroyed by the stream of gunfire. The Juggernaut immediately realised where it was suddenly being attacked from, and it turned to locate the threat.

Rivet saw the opportunity and materialised her Blast Pistol while she was still lying on the ground. She carefully aimed the weapon right between the warbot’s two remaining eyes and pulled the trigger all the way back, causing all three of her Blast Pistol’s barrels to fire simultaneously, with the middle shot flying between her intended targets while the other two hit an eye each. The effect was immediate, with the acid rounds melting into the eyes and damaging them irreparably, effectively blinding the Juggernaut.

“No! My optical systems are compromised!” The Juggernaut exclaimed in a slightly panicked tone, as it fired another crash beam in the general direction of the where the cascade of gunfire was originating from. Rivet spotted a brief and somewhat bright flash on the top of the container just before the purple energy beam closed in. Then, another flash happened, with Obsidian suddenly appearing from it into the air and landing onto the Juggernaut’s shoulder. He quickly climbed over the armour plate and firmly grasped onto the rim of the Juggernaut’s damaged head with one hand, the other holding a Burst Pistol.

The Commando pointed the barrel of said pistol down into the centre of its head, where the warbot’s eye stalks were connected into the main body of the machine, and then started unloading the magazine into it. Immediately as a result, the Juggernaut started to thrash around and fire rockets indiscriminately in all directions, causing Rivet to instinctively shield herself with her arms.

After a few seconds of chaos, the explosions died down. Rivet heard a loud crash followed by a smaller thud. She looked up again to see the Juggernaut lying motionless on the ground, with green acid and other fluids oozing out of what remained of its head. She lied back down on the cold ground, bringing her eyes back to the bleak Corsonian sky, thankful that the ordeal was over.

“You still alive, Furball?”

Rivet watched the source of the familiar filtered voice cross onto the edge of her vision, and gaze down at her. “Yeah, I’m good. That was kinda cool...” Rivet replied softly while still looking at the cloudy sky.

“That’s twice I’ve saved your ass now.” The Commando informed as reached out to offer her a hand up, which unlike last time, she eagerly took.

She released the Commando’s hand as she suddenly heard heavy footsteps approaching. She looked towards the source and was thankful to see a familiar large, pink-skinned individual running down towards herself and Obsidian.

“Hey! are you guys okay!?” MoyDoy called out, as he came to a stop beside the two.

“Yeah, we’re fine!” Rivet replied. She noticed how he was covered almost head to toe in cuts and bruises, (As was expected with his brawler’s style of fighting) but was surprised that they were the only things in terms of injuries present on the Agorian. “What happened to you?”

“I don’t know. All I can remember is waking up underneath some sheet metal and seeing the Juggernaut firing rockets all over the place.” He let out a low groan and put one of his hands to the side of his head, “I think I might’ve hit my head or somethin’; it’s killin’ me.”

“Use your Nanotech, MoyDoy.” Rivet said sternly. She knew that MoyDoy had a habit of deliberately not using Nanotech on his wounds, so he would get more scars and by his logic, “look tougher”.

The Agorian in question replied like a child being reminded by his mother to take out the trash, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” MoyDoy assured as he materialised a vial of the glowing substance and drank it down without so much as a slight cringe, before disposing of the leftover vial.

“Is your communicator working alright? I tried to ask you where you were, but I got nothing.”

“Yeah, about that...” MoyDoy produced his communicator, which looked to Rivet like it had just been stepped on by a Grunthor.

“How’d you manage that?”

“I have no idea. That’s the third one I’ve broken now, Phantom ain’t gonna be happy...” MoyDoy muttered, “Wait... Where’s Katzae?” He added as he looked back at Rivet and then towards Obsidian.

“I’m here.”

The trio looked over to the Cazar in question, who had suddenly appeared behind Obsidian and Rivet.

“Where have you been? We could’ve used your damn help, you know!” Rivet angrily said to Katzae, who shrunk back at her outburst.

“To be fair on the kid, I don’t think a pair of pistols would’ve been much, if any help with that thing.” Obsidian interjected. “Him getting involved would’ve only made things harder for us.”

Rivet found it hard to disagree with the Commando’s point, but didn’t really make her feel much better about the Cazar’s actions, or lack thereof.

 “And where the hell is Phantom?” Obsidian continued, “He couldn’t still be—”

KABOOOOM!!!

The group immediately flinched at the deafening explosions that had just taken place. They collectively looked on at the warship factory in the background, now engulfed in flames and smoke. The Rilgarian in question strode forward from between some crates while dusting off his hands in a job well-done, before noticing the stares being given to him by the rebels and the Commando. “What?”

“Took you long enough. Now, isn’t it time you upheld your part of the deal?” Obsidian said.

“Of Course! A deal’s a deal, after all.” Phantom replied. “Do you have it with you?” He said somewhat cryptically.

“No, its in my ship back at that safe zone you told me about. I couldn’t risk getting it even more damaged than it already is.” The Commando explained.

“Alright.” Phantom replied, before looking back at Rivet, “Rivet, meet Obsidian back at the warehouse safe-zone near here and see about fixing his module for him.”

“Yeah, sure.” She replied nonchalantly.

“Okay. You all know the drill gang; split up and make sure you’re not followed back to your safe-zone.” Phantom ordered, and the group of rebels began to disperse, with each one of them going their own route, Rivet included. She was about to backtrack to the entrance of the loading yard, when she noticed Obsidian running straight towards the energy fence.

Confused on what he was doing, Rivet watched him suddenly jump up onto the side of the containers with the assistance of some sort of jetpack, wall run on it similarly to how she and the other rebels often did with their Omnigloves, then leap over the energy fence entirely.

It was at that point the Rivet realised, with his apparent ability to vanish and reappear at will, the prowess he demonstrated against the Juggernaut and his rather unique method of traversal, that there was more to Obsidian than what meets the eye.

——————————

Daniel parkoured efficiently through the city, opting to stay high above any Troopers that might have patrolled below him, after taking into consideration how dangerously low he was running on reserve ammo. He periodically used his Grapple in conjunction with a well-timed boost from his Jump Kit, to allow him to cross the open spaces that his Jump Kit alone wouldn’t allow.

“BT, it’s done, the factory’s dealt with.” Daniel informed the Vanguard-Class Titan through his helmet radio, “I’m going to meet one of Phantom’s buddies back at the warehouse, so she can fix the module for us.”

“Understood, Pilot. You performed well during the engagement, and also demonstrated the ability to make informed decisions quickly. Your personal combat efficiency rating has increased.” BT responded.

Cooper continued to maintain his current elevation where he could, easily avoiding some Troopers in the process, as it seemed that even so (presumably) far away from home, people still didn’t look up, which was all the better for him. Before he knew it, he’d made it to the roof of the warehouse he’d initially arrived at. He dropped down through a broken skylight onto some rafters, confirmed the interior was secure, then dropped to the ground below.

He entered the army-green and yellow Crow and retrieved the Central Processing Module from the duffle bag, and found it was still just as heavily damaged as he’d left it. I’ll be very impressed if she can fix this. Daniel thought, as he placed the module back into the bag, and sat himself down on one of the seats in his ship’s troop bay. Once the weight was taken off his legs, he felt a familiar fatigue begin to set in.

 There was a feeling of slight emptiness within his stomach, which was followed by a low rumble, which Cooper knew was the reason behind the sudden fatigue he was experiencing. After all, he’d experienced it throughout the majority of the time he spent on Typhon. The Pilot let out a sigh, “That’s what happens when you run on fumes, Coop...” Daniel reprimanded himself as he reached into the satchel on his left side, retrieved a nutrient bar and opened the visor on his helmet with the push of a button. It didn’t do much to alleviate his hunger, but it would tide him over for now. I gotta get some actual food when this is all done. He thought.

Speaking of which, if himself and BT were able to get the Braxton’s communications system working again and send out the distress signal to the Militia, how long would it take for them to receive it? He remembered when they used the IMC’s Interstellar Beacon to send a distress signal on Typhon, it only took mere seconds for Militia HQ to receive it, despite how it took nearly an hour or two to travel to the planet from Harmony. Though, he knew that the Braxton’s communications system would pale in comparison to the Beacon. That, and they were certainly in different galaxy now.

Even if by some miracle, that they were only in the next galaxy over, the likelihood of rescue at this point was still extremely low. It could take months, or even possibly years before they’d get something as simple as a response. Daniel noticed his heartrate spiking in his HUD, put his hands on either side of his head (or helmet, you could say) and took several deep breaths to regulate it. Take it easy, man. You’re only getting yourself worked up. The only way you’ll know for sure is if you try.

After the initial anxiousness when he arrived at Zurkie’s, Daniel was remarkably calm about his current situation, which could be chalked up to his years of combat experience that trained him to stay calm in stressful situations. Speaking of which, he never ever thought he’d live long enough to meet and speak with a sentient lifeform that wasn’t a member of his own kind. That was literally First Contact, and... Ok, maybe it wasn’t really First Contact, considering it was just himself, but the point still stood.

He was in the middle of taking a swig from his water canteen when his thoughts were interrupted by the echoed creek of a door being opened. He looked towards the other end of the warehouse, to see a familiar white and blue-furred alien entering through the door in question. He put his canteen away and closed the visor on his helmet, as Rivet walked over to his Crow.

“Nice ship.” She stated nonchalantly, as she poked her head in through the open side door and leaned against the doorframe. “Look, I have somewhere I need to be, so I’d appreciate if we could do this quickly.”

“Fair enough.” Daniel replied, as he produced the Central Processing Module from the duffle bag on the floor of the troop bay, and handed it to the Lombax. She inspected it closely, taking in every minute detail. The Pilot noticed Rivet furrow her eyebrows together, which was something he did not like the look of due to what it could mean regarding the module’s reparability. “Well, can you fix it?”

She looked back up to meet the Commando’s gaze, whilst keeping a careful grip on the yellow triangular-shaped module in her hands. “Of course I can.” She reassured confidently, “Might need a day or two though, I’ve never seen tech like this...” She resumed her inspection of said technology, before she quickly looked back up at him. “I’ll need to bring it back to my place where all my tools are, is that okay?”

While he wasn’t exactly pleased to hear that he wouldn’t be getting the Braxton’s communications system working again today, at least Rivet would be able to fix it. ”Sure, do whatever you need to do.” Daniel confirmed with a nod.

Rivet nodded back, “That settles it, then. I’ll let you know when I have it working.” She informed, as she stepped out of the Crow, quickly walked over to a switch on the wall and pushed one of the buttons. Subsequently, the hanger door at the end of the warehouse began to slowly slide open, as she returned to the white and orange ship parked near his own. Its orange glass front split open into three separate pieces, with a pair of seats lowering to the ground, which she then climbed into.

After a few moments, the ship’s rear split into three separate pieces, revealing a single large thruster that then visibly powered up. The ship then took off at a considerable speed, with the result of the sudden increase in power from the thruster sending several pieces of junk on the ground flying backwards. After a few seconds, the ship left the warehouse and disappeared into the dark sky with a flash.

As for Cooper, he realised that there was no reason to linger on this planet any longer, and he too left the heart of the Nefarious Empire.

——————————

Chapter Text

OUTPOST L51,

SARGASSO

Rivet emerged from her bathroom wearing a baggy white t-shirt and a pair of grey shorts, entering the large, open spacecraft hanger she called her home. She finished drying off her face with a towel and then hung it up on a drying rack, before continuing on to the other side of the room, passing by her signature jumpsuit that was hanging up as well, and was soaked in a particular green fluid which slowly dripped into a bucket sitting beneath it.

Whilst she was sneaking between the patrols on her way back to her ship in Nefarious City, Rivet had gotten a message from Mort, who informed her that there was a problem at the gelatonium factory, and to get back as soon as she could. To be exact, one of the pipes on the factory’s interior had burst, sending gelatonium gushing out onto the factory floor.

To make matters worse, the controls to regulate the pumps were damaged in the process, rendering them inoperable. That meant that she needed to engage the manual pump shutdown switch with her OmniHammer... Which ended up requiring her to wade through waist-high gelatonium to get to it...

Thankfully however, that was all the help the Morts needed from her, and after offering her a glass of lemonade as a thank you (Which Rivet gladly accepted), they came in and started remedying the situation by using some external pumps to slowly but surely drain the raw fuel from factory floor and into temporary storage. After that, Rivet treated herself to a nice hot shower (A good ten minutes of which was spent cleaning gelatonium off of just her tail) and changed into some more comfortable clothing.

After glancing over the message Quantum sent her (and presumably the other rebels), telling them the usual “good job” and “lay low” like he always did after a successful mission, Rivet was finally able to take a better look at the piece of technology given by Obsidian for her to repair, which currently rested on top of her workbench, alongside a toolbox containing some of her most prized tools.

After switching on her work light, she immediately got to work disassembling it. She slowly and carefully unthreaded screws and popped out pins, then removed of the module’s metal shell piece by piece, exposing its internal components, most of which was displaying extensive damage.

Anything that couldn’t be replaced, she carefully removed with the help of one of the many tools at her disposal, and placed into a tray with the intention of repairing later, taking care to ensure that she didn’t accidently worsen their condition. Any broken parts that she could replace easily, she removed and tossed into her scrap bin. A warm smile slowly made its way onto her face, as she reminisced of the time when she was younger and would try and tinker with anything she could get her hands on, much to Mort’s dismay.

This tech... I’ve never seen anything quite like it... Rivet thought. She had no idea what it was used for, though it was thankfully proving to be easy enough to work with, despite having to essentially learn how everything worked and went together at the same time. Then again, that was the way she’d worked with at least eighty-percent of the things she’s ever worked on, and she always loved that kind of challenge.

Usually, Rivet would be completely engrossed in whatever it was she was working on, whether it was one of her personal projects, or a simple repair job for one of her fellow rebels. This time however, she wasn’t, as there was something else floating around inside her mind:

When she got back to the warehouse, she just barely caught a glimpse of Obsidian’s face through his open helmet while he was sitting in his ship. Though, she was unable to make out any features other than light skin and that he had two eyes, before his helmet snapped shut.

She wasn’t sure if he knew that she’d almost seen his face, though his calm disposition after the fact suggested that he didn’t — Or he did, and simply didn’t care. Wait a second, why am I thinking about this of all things right now? She wondered, as she carefully removed a tiny wire with a tweezer and placed it into the tray. Maybe it was simply because of how mysterious he was?

And speaking of mysteries, there were many things about the Commando that just didn’t add up to her, from him being able to vanish and then reappear at will, to his very sudden appearance. Why did he only show up now and not when Nefarious took over years ago, or even before that? She assumed Nefarious was the reason he was even here in the first place, but then why did he ask Phantom about both the Resistance and the Empire like he was some tourist learning about history? He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to go into something completely blind. And again, why would he only appear now, right after the emp?

After that last thought, Rivet suddenly stopped her work as she noticed something, a something that made her kick herself internally for the fact that she didn’t notice it sooner:

Obsidian had appeared not even a day after the emp had happened. An emp, mind you, that was powerful enough to disable things from simple electronics to warbots, from Corson V and all the way out to Sargasso, and likely even beyond that. The timing was simply too convenient to be jogged up to a mere coincidence. Was Obsidian connected to it somehow? Or... was he even responsible?

...

Ok, Rivet admittedly thought that last part might be a little too far-fetched to have any weight, but the more she mulled it over, the more plausible it became. It wouldn’t be too improbable to assume if Obsidian possessed technology that could allow him to vanish and reappear at will, to also assume he had the technology required to produce an emp with such a large range, however mild its effects were.

That still left one more question in Rivet’s mind: Where did Obsidian even come from? It was fairly obvious that he wasn’t from Polaris, otherwise the Resistance (and likely Nefarious, too) would’ve known about him a long time ago. But that still begged the question: Where did he come from? Considering his usage of a combustion gun, Solana seemed most likely, as Rivet knew that Solana’s economy had been doing poorly ever since Nefarious took over Polaris. Since combustion guns were far cheaper to build than modern blasters, their popularity unsurprisingly skyrocketed.

Looking over to where her communicator rested next to her bed, Rivet hummed in thought. Should I let the guys know about this? She questioned. She had no doubt that Phantom wanted to pitch the idea of possibly recruiting Obsidian into the Resistance to Quantum, especially after the huge success they had taking down the warship factory with the Commando’s help.

But then she started second-guessing herself: What if she ended up being wrong about this? What if it was just a mere coincidence? She had seen some pretty crazy coincidences over her years of fighting against the empire, now that she thought about it. That, and it was definitely possible that the other rebels might not be overly fond of working with someone who could be responsible for causing an emp that powerful. If this went wrong, she could end up robbing the Resistance of a potential ally, an ally that they could absolutely use right now.

Rivet thoroughly deliberated on what she should do next, before she came to a conclusion: You know what? I think I’ll hold off on letting the guys know about this — At least for now, anyway. She needed to learn more about this “Obsidian”, and actually confirm whether or not he had anything to do with the emp, like she now suspected. Obviously, there wasn’t much she could do from the confines of her hideout. However, there was a device currently resting on her workbench that could give her the perfect opportunity to do some sleuthing.

Rivet cracked her knuckles, picked up her soldering tool again and returned to repairing the module with renewed vigor. A few hours passed by, as Rivet continued working on the module into the evening, replacing or repairing many of the module’s internal components in the process. After that, Sargasso’s sun dipped below the horizon and plunged the swamps around Rivet’s hideout into darkness, with the only light sources left behind being Sargasso’s moon, the planet’s various forms of bioluminescent flora, and the lights surrounding the Morts’ Gelatonium Refinery and their other installations.

——————————

ZURKIE’S GASTROPUB,

SCARSTU DEBRIS FIELD,

AROUND 3 P.M PST

After finishing up the repairs on his module, Rivet made sure to get in touch with Obsidian to inform him of its status, and to arrange to meet at Zurkie’s in the afternoon. Rivet admittedly would’ve preferred to go on a solo-mission right now, or even fight in Zurkon Jr’s Battleplex to earn herself some Bolts, but a deal was a deal, and she wasn’t going to leave Phantom hanging. Oh well, maybe she could do the latter once she finished her business here with Obsidian, and work to reclaim her spot on the leader board.

While she was landing her ship on the same platform that she always used in the landing port, Rivet spotted the Commando’s green and yellow spacecraft parked on one of the outer landing platforms. Specifically, the one next to and below hers.

Noticing that the Commando had arrived before she did, Rivet couldn’t help but think that there might be a chance that wherever he was currently living might actually be closer to Zurkie’s than Sargasso, wherever that was. Or, his ship was simply faster than hers, or he wanted to be punctual and left sooner than she did. You never know.

Once she greeted Ms. Zurkon and restocked her ammo and Nanotech supplies like she always did whenever she happened to come by, Rivet deposited her weapons with the bouncer and entered the Gastropub, holding the repaired module by its convenient handle and resting her other hand against her hip.

The pub was pretty lively, as it usually was, with nearly every table and booth taken up by at least one or two people, with the booth closest to the entrance was taken up by a group of Space Pirates. Three of which sat at the table inside discussing something with one another, while a fourth Pirate leaned against the wall next to their booth, who was keeping a close eye on something over by the Battleplex window. Despite the sound of the bustling Gastropub in the background, Rivet’s fine hearing allowed her to eavesdrop on their conversation, albeit unintentionally:

“So, we wait for him to leave, then we follow him outside, and then we gut ‘im, right?” One of the Pirates asked the group.

“Ye need to lay off the grog, matey.” Another told him.

“What do ye mean?”

“’Cause I told you that already!” She answered irritably.

“Why are we even doin’ this?” The third Pirate questioned. “We could be out pillagin’ right now, but nooo, he’d rather have us waitin’ ‘round to kill some guy that bruised his ego!” He remarked irritably.

“In case ye didn’t hear, it was a bit more than just a bruised ego he got.”

“Ehh, whatever. Me point still stands.” He replied, as he took a swig from his drink. “And I never understood why the Captain made him of all Pirates his First Matey. He’s nothin’ but a cowardly excuse of a Pirate, can’t rhyme to save his life, and — Oh Zoni, don’t get me started on how he sings!” He added with a groan, putting his free hand over his face.

“Well, I heard that he apparently saved the Captain’s life durin’ an Imperial raid a while back.” The first Pirate said.

Suddenly, the fourth Pirate standing outside the booth leaned in to speak. “Whatever ye lot be grumblin’ about — It don’t matter. If the Captain made Pierre of all Pirates his First Matey, then I won’t question his reasonin’.” He told the group, “I suggest ye lot do the same, unless you's would rather become Bubbles’ dinner!” He warned, as the other Pirates promptly shut their mouths.

Rivet stopped and actually shuddered as she heard that last part. Not the part about the Pirates possibly being fed to their pet Kraken, but rather, Pierre. The Pirate’s First Mate who, for some unknown reason, greatly enjoyed flirting and messing with her, much to her own annoyance. Her ears pressed against her head, as Rivet sincerely hoped his name being mentioned didn’t mean he was here. A quick scan around the place (thankfully) seemed to prove otherwise, which allowed her to relax a bit. She then started wondering: Just who had pissed off Pierre enough to make him send a hit-squad after them?

Looking down to the Battleplex window, Rivet saw that there were many people of varying shapes and sizes standing at it, all of which were intently watching the current ongoing deathmatch. There was a table on each side of the window, the one on the right being the table that she and the other rebels usually used whenever they were having a team meeting. A familiar Commando sat at that said table with his arms laid on it, occasionally looking out into the arena and also keeping a close eye on his surroundings. When he looked back in her direction and promptly noticed her presence, he gave a small wave, which Rivet acknowledged with a wave of her own.

As she walked down towards the table, Rivet began thinking over just how she was going to learn more about Obsidian, and hopefully gather some clues on his potential involvement with that emp. There was really only one way that she could do so here without arousing any suspicion: By simply asking him a few questions. She knew she would need to be extremely careful in what type of questions she asked, and how she spoke — The last thing she wanted was for him to think that there was any kind of malicious intent behind them, and ideally, only think she was being curious, and (hopefully) oblige in giving her some answers.

“Hey, watch out, the floor’s wet right there.” The Commando warned suddenly, pointing a finger down towards a particular part of the floor near the table, which on closer inspection, had the obvious damp sheen of water on its surface.

“Oh, thanks.” Rivet replied, as she carefully stepped around the aforementioned piece of wet floor and joined Obsidian at the table, placing the module onto the middle of it as well. “Oh, and uh, here’s your module.”

“Thanks.” Obsidian spoke, as he reached over to the module on the table and pulled it over to himself, and he began to inspect her handiwork. “I must say; I am very impressed you were able to get this thing fixed up.” The Commando admitted, then looked back to her, “I assume it didn’t give you too much trouble, then?”

“Nah, wasn’t too hard. I like doing that kind of stuff, anyway.” Rivet admitted, simultaneously brushing off the praise with a wave.

“Well, I suppose I better pay you for your work, then. It’s the least I can do.” Obsidian reckoned, as he materialised a few Bolts into his right hand and offered them to her. Not wanting to come off as rude, (and simultaneously admitting to herself that she could use the extra cash,) Rivet somewhat reluctantly accepted the Commando’s offering and deposited the Bolts into her Holo-Manager, subsequently watching her balance climb by approximately two-thousand Bolts.

 As Obsidian returned to inspecting the module for a brief moment, she noticed his armour was now sporting some new scuffs and scrapes on its surface, giving it a more battle-worn look. Looks like he’s been busy. She remarked silently.

As she was pondering over what she would say next, what she overheard the Pirates talking about popped up in her mind again, remembering how they wanted to ‘gut him’, whoever this ‘him’ was.

As Rivet leaned back and raised an arm to scratch a sudden itch on the back of her head, she gazed over by the booth at the entrance again, and noticed how the lone Pirate standing outside the booth was glaring straight at the Commando sat across from her, who was now inspecting the module on all sides. When he noticed her looking his way, the Pirate quickly looked away.

It didn’t take Rivet long to connect the dots: The Pirates were planning to kill Obsidian, having been ordered to do so by Pierre, because he had apparently ‘bruised his ego’, or whatever. Now, where have I heard that before? Rivet remarked internally, recalling the multiple instances in the past when she was ambushed by Pierre’s crew whenever they just happened to be on the same planet. Good times... She sarcastically remarked to herself.

Being all-too-familiar with what that felt like, Rivet decided that she should warn Obsidian of the threat he likely didn’t yet know about. “Hey, uh, just to let you know, I overheard those Pirates say that they’re planning to follow you outside and attack you after you leave.”

The Commando’s head quickly perked up upon hearing the Lombax’s warning. “Huh, I figured they were up to something. That asshole’s been watching me ever since I got here.” Obsidian replied with a huff and a nod towards the Pirate standing outside the booth.

“Not exactly ‘subtle’, are they?” Rivet commented with a cocked eyebrow and a knowing grin.

“I take it you’ve dealt with them before?” He presumed.

“Oh, trust me, you don’t know the half of it.” Rivet said dryly. She looked at the module again, and immediately thought of a good question to get herself started.

“Just out of curiosity,” She began, “What’s that thing even supposed to do?” She asked, as she gestured towards the module being held by the Commando.

Obsidian remained silent for a moment before he spoke. “Eh, it’s nothing special. It’s just a processing module for a communications system.”

“Huh, okay.” Rivet acknowledged, happy to have an answer for at least one of her questions. “And... where did you learn to fight like that?”

“I’m sorry?” He replied in a stiff tone.

I should’ve known this wouldn’t be easy... She thought. “Back when you took out that Juggernaut at the factory, I mean. I’ve never seen somebody pull off something like—"

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my Petite Chérie, and my Adversaire!” A new, heavily-accented voice commented suddenly, one that Rivet recognised immediately. When both herself and Obsidian looked to the voice’s source that had suddenly appeared beside their table, Rivet was unaware that he was thinking the exact same thing she was:

Oh, great.

It was Pierre, the last person she wanted to see right now. He wore the same outfit that he’d worn as long as she had the misfortune of knowing him, which consisted of a cyan vest and plain black pants, alongside his signature hat that had a single blue and white feather attached to the top. But, unlike the last time she’d met him, Pierre was now sporting an eyepatch over his right eye, and there was some visible damage that could be seen peeking out from underneath said eyepatch. How did that happen? She wondered, as she knew from past experiences that Pierre wasn’t the kind of Pirate that fought his own battles.

“Oh, hey Underbite!” Obsidian suddenly spoke in a much too friendly tone that was laced with obvious sarcasm. “You looking for a rematch?” He queried, as he cracked his knuckles and pointed a thumb out towards the arena.

Rematch? Rivet idly thought to herself. Okay, something definitely happened between those two. But what? She wondered.

Pierre on the other hand, merely shook his head in response. “As much as I would love to take you up on your offer, there is a far more important matter that I must tend to.”

“I, Pierre Le Fer, am here to reclaim what you have stolen from us!” He declared loudly, then gesturing widely, before turning his head back to look towards the other Pirates by the entrance of the gastropub. Rivet knew that this was just Pierre trying to show off in front of his fellow Pirates, which was usually after he was embarrassed in front of them in some way. What the reason was today, she didn’t know.

“Stolen? What have I apparently stolen from you?” Obsidian retorted accusingly.

“The blue orb!” Pierre answered sharply. “We discovered it first, and as such it is rightfully ours!”

In response, the Commando let out a small snort, which then turned into full-blown laughter.

“What? What is so funny!?” Pierre demanded, as he put both his fists at his sides.

It took a few seconds for Obsidian’s laughter to reduce to where he could speak again. “A Pirate of all things is bitching about getting robbed!” He remarked, as his laughter turned into mild chuckling and eventually died down altogether.

Pierre scowled at the remark, while Rivet had to quickly hold back a surprise snicker. She had to admit that Obsidian definitely had a point there, and this was definitely new territory, even for Pierre. But, when the Pirate’s head suddenly snapped over to her, was when she realised that she might’ve accidently let out a tiny snort.

Pierre then crossed his arms over his chest. “And why are you here with him? Is this another one of your desperate attempts to gain my affection, Rivet?” He asked the Rebel.

“What are you talking about, Pierre?” Rivet questioned in a dreary tone, clearly not in the mood for whatever it was that he had in store.

“You know exactly what I am speaking of!” The Pirate said, as he gestured to both her and Obsidian. “You are dating this man in a pitiful attempt to make me jealous!”

“I... Wait, what?” Rivet spoke dumbfoundedly, with a slightly confused expression appearing on her face. That was a new one, she had to admit.

“I will admit that I am somewhat flattered that you would go to such desperate measures in your attempts to win my affection, I must reiterate that my heart is taken!” Pierre added.

“Are you paying a whore to fuck you, or something?” Obsidian jeered at him.

In response, Pierre sneered at him. “Oh, be quiet, you pest!” He ordered the Commando in an irritated tone, with an equally irritated expression now beginning to appear on his face.

“With a face like that, it must cost you a small fortune at the least!” Obsidian taunted even further, which only caused Pierre to become visibly angrier as a result. The First Mate then exhaled sharply, composing himself.

“Why do you have yours hidden behind a helmet, then?” Pierre argued. “Why don’t you remove it so we can see who truly possesses the more charming appearance!” He challenged.

 “That wouldn’t even be a contest.” Obsidian laughed again.

“Oh? How so?” Pierre inquired in a doubtful and mocking tone.

“Because I'm not a bucktoothed, one-eyed bastard!” The Commando insulted.

In response to the insult, Pierre let out a fierce growl, then suddenly clenched both of his fists and angrily glowered at the Commando. In return, Obsidian quickly stood up out of his chair with his fists raised.

“If you really want me to take your other eye, I’ll be more than happy to oblige!” He challenged, as Rivet instinctively got up out of her own chair and excused herself from whatever was about to happen next.

As her eyes quickly went back to the Pirates at the entrance, she saw them all standing outside the booth closely watching Pierre and Obsidian, keenly waiting to back the former up at a moment’s notice. She knew from experience that being outnumbered by hostile Pirates with her arsenal was already a pretty bad situation to begin with, let alone completely unarmed.

Thankfully, before the altercation could escalate, Zurkie suddenly appeared between the First Mate and the Commando, with both of his arms outstretched in an effort to keep the two separated.

“Zurkie’s is a violence-free zone! If you want to fight, then do so outside!” The Gastropub’s owner sternly ordered, as he pointed a finger in the direction of his son’s Battleplex.

“Yeah Pierre, let’s head outside and give these fine people a show!” Obsidian challenged, his voice dripping with malice, as he lowered his fists and began cracking his knuckles.

Pierre continued to glare daggers at the Commando for a few tense moments, as he then began to literally tremble in what could only be a pure and only barely-contained rage, before he let out another angry growl and then turned and stormed off.

“Coward!” Obsidian called out after him, chuckling mildly as he returned to his seat. Once Pierre was out of sight and the other Pirates had gone back into their booth, Rivet sat back down in her own seat and let out a sigh of relief, now able to relax a little with that crisis adverted. In all the time she’d known Pierre, Rivet had never seen him get so angry just from an insult. Must be sore about losing his eye, however that happened. She thought.

As Zurkie left to return to the bar, the Rebel leaned over the table towards the Commando. “Hey, what the hell was all that about?” She asked inquisitively.

“Long story.” Obsidian dully replied, as he let out a sigh. “Fucker needs to learn how to mind his own business...” He muttered to himself.

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” Rivet coincided.

As an amphibian waitress with pink skin and large green eyes carefully carried a tray of empty glasses past their table, the Lombax attempted to ask the Commando another on of her many questions: "How were you able to—”

“AAHHH!”

The Rebel was cut off when the waitress walking past their table cried out suddenly, when she slipped on the previously-mentioned wet floor. As a result, the tray and empty glasses she was carrying were flung high into the air.

Before Rivet’s brain could even comprehend what happened, Obsidian suddenly clenched his left fist, then jumped out of his seat at a breakneck speed, becoming nothing but a dark blur for a split second. When he stopped, Rivet could only sit there stunned in shock when she saw him holding the waitress by her waist with one hand, and all of the glasses perfectly on the tray with the other, as if she’d never slipped at all.

“You alright there, Ma’am?” The Commando asked softly, being careful as to not let any of the glasses on the tray in his other hand fall off it.

“Yeah, I’m okay!” The waitress replied, “That new janitor Zurkie hired is so damn useless! Can’t put up a ‘wet floor’ sign to save his life!” She angrily remarked as she quickly regained her posture, prompting Obsidian to let go of her. She then gripped his free hand with both of her own and brought it into a firm shake. “Thank you so much! I’m already struggling to make ends meet as is; there’s no way I would've been able to afford to take time off if I'd gotten hurt!” She explained.

“No problem — And be careful, alright?” Obsidian replied, as he then carefully handed the tray back to her.

“Oh, I will!” She acknowledged, “I’m gonna give that janitor an earful the next time I see him.” She irritably spoke to herself, as she walked away to tend to the other tables.

Rivet on the other hand, could only sit there with her mouth agape and her mind in flurry. How did he move so fast!? She thought bewilderedly, baffled on how the Commando was able to move faster than what even the quickest of species out there could only dream of.

While she was thinking that, as Obsidian turned back around reached over to pick up his module, Rivet could swear that there was a glowing blue ring on the back of his left hand. As quickly as she saw it, the glowing ring vanished, like there was nothing there to begin with. Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Was she going—

“Well, I suppose I better get going.” Obsidian said abruptly, snapping Rivet out of her stupor. “And again, thanks for fixing this thing for me, I owe you one.” He said somewhat warmly, as he turned and began walking back to the entrance of the Gastropub.

“Wait!” Rivet spontaneously spoke without thought. The Commando ceased his departure, then turned back around to face her, tilting his head in question.

“Uhm...” Rivet stammered, before she recalled the question she was about to ask the Commando before she was suddenly interrupted. “How were you able to just disappear by flicking your wrist like that?” She asked, flicking her own wrist for emphasis. “Do you have some kind of gadget that lets you turn invisible, or something?”

The Commando nodded. “Yeah, it’s called a Cloaking Unit.” He explained, as he raised his left hand and flicked it, just like he’d done at the factory. Rivet watched him flicker for a split-second before he completely vanished from view, and she heard a faint, but familiar electronic buzzing. She squinted her eyes and focused on where he stood, trying to see if she could actually see him or not, and found nothing. About ten seconds after flicking his wrist, the Commando reappeared in the same spot he had vanished from only moments prior. “Do you... not have those here, or something?” He asked with a hint of surprise in his tone.

“No!” Rivet said enviously. “The closest thing we’ve got would be Hologuises, like the one Phantom has.” She explained. “Even then, they’re really rare.”

“Fair enough.” The Commando remarked. “See you around, Fluffball.” He spoke, as he turned back around again and made his way towards the exit — uninterrupted this time.

As Rivet rolled her eyes at the use of the nickname and watched Obsidian leave the Gastropub, she realised that with every answer she obtained only left her with even more questions.

As Cooper retrieved his weapons and left, the Pirates all stood up from their seats to follow him. Before they could, however, their First Mate suddenly appeared again, and stopped them with an outstretched arm. “Change of plan: Do not kill him. Follow him discreetly, and report back to me when you have learned where he is hiding.” Pierre ordered them in a dark tone.

“Aye aye, First Matey!” The other Pirates affirmed, one of which giving him a Pirate’s salute.

As they left, Pierre put a finger to his eyepatch. “Fils de pute. I will have my vengeance, Commando. An eye for an eye, as they say.” He quietly remarked to himself, as he let out an ominous chuckle.

——————————

THE CARTER BRAXTON,

THARIA,

EIGHTEEN HOURS EARLIER

 

Daniel entered Officer Adams’ quarters with a somewhat tired look on his face, and carrying a standard Militia MRE in his hand. After setting it down on the desk, he then removed his equipment and put it down onto the floor next to it, placing his helmet on top of the desk as well. Once that was done, the Pilot sat himself down and let out a weary groan.

As it turned out, eating nothing but nutrient bars for two or three days straight wasn’t good for you. So, saying he was eager to get some actual proper food into him was an understatement.

Upon ripping the bag open and freeing the included plastic spork from its prison, he took his water canteen from his pack and unscrewed the cap, and then slowly poured the water into the bag, stopping once the bag’s dry contents were just barely submerged. After replacing the cap on his canteen and putting it down on the desk, Daniel could hear the sound of the water inside starting to bubble as it came to a boil, due to the chemical reaction from the bag’s inner lining. A few moments after that, the delicious aroma of a warm MRE entered his nose.

Thankfully, unlike the older, typically tasteless survival rations that were commonly used by Militia forces in the years prior, these new ones were of much higher quality in terms of nutrition value and taste, which encouraged soldiers to actually finish their meals.

After enjoying his meal for a few minutes, his attention was caught by his helmet’s visor flashing a few times. He knew that it was most likely just BT trying to get his attention in order to tell him something. As Daniel somewhat reluctantly placed MRE back down onto the desk, he reached over to his helmet and put it back on. What BT said next, almost made his heart miss a beat:

“Cooper, I have detected the Ark’s energy signature on a planet designated as Torren IV, located in the Vela sector.”

“Wait, what!?” Daniel spoke bewilderedly, completely caught off-guard by the Titan’s report. "I thought the Ark blew up on Typhon, and you're telling me that It's here!?"

"Yes." The Vanguard monotonously confirmed. "I am unable to determine the cause of it's current resurgance. Nonetheless, it must be secured asap."

After brushing off the inital shock, the rational part of Daniel's brain started to kick back in: BT was right; they had to secure the Ark asap, as there was no telling what could happen if someone found it. That, and if the Ark was able to bring them here, there was the possibility that it could bring them back.

A determined look appeared on Daniel's face. “Get the ship ready BT, I’m on my way!” He ordered, as he quickly stood up and started hastily reequipping his gear.

“Long-range scans indicate that Torren IV’s geology primarily consists of arid and rocky deserts that contain deep canyons that span across the majority of the planet’s surface. BT informed. “I recommend bringing additional water provisions with you.”

“Copy that, BT!” Cooper acknowledged, as he left Officer Adams’ quarters and raced down the hallway towards the cargo lift, mentally preparing himself for what was to come.

However, there was nothing that could’ve prepared him for what was going to happen...

——————————

Chapter Text

TORREN IV,

VELA SECTOR

The army-green and yellow Militia Crow gently touches down onto the rocky ground, kicking up some loose sand in the process. As the sand quickly settles once the engines power down, the cockpit canopy pops open, and the black-armoured Titan Pilot hops out and lands on the ground with a thud, as he feels a sharp increase in the temperature as the sand lightly speckling the ground beneath him crunches under his boots.

Sand. It just had to be fucking sand, didn’t it? Daniel thought idly, as he brings up his Hemlok Burst Fire-Rifle equipped with an HCOG sight and quickly sweeps the area, making sure that there was nothing that required the rifle’s immediate attention. Thankfully, there was nothing of the sort, and the Pilot relaxed. “BT, what’s my distance from the Ark?”

“Scans indicate the Ark’s energy signature is approximately one-point-two klicks from your current location. I have marked the fastest route on your HUD.” The Vanguard informs matter-of-factly.

“Copy that, BT.” Obsidian acknowledged, as a waypoint marker appears on his HUD in front of a crevice located within a nearby cliff face. Sand shifts under his boots as he begins walking forwards into the crevice, keeping his weapon raised all the while, feeling an arid draft as soon as he got inside.

After another minute or so of walking, the crevice led him onto a precarious path located on the inner wall of a ravine. Looking down below, he could see a small stream flowing at the bottom of the ravine, with a swarm of insect-like creatures scampering around down there. The Pilot continues onwards for a bit, until he spots a large gap in the path up ahead. Being experienced with his Jump Kit’s capabilities, he speeds up into a full-on sprint towards the gap.

Before he plunged into the chasm below, he fired his Kit, propelling himself over the gap with relative ease, and lands on the other side with a moderate thud.

“Cooper, you must move quickly.” BT speaks in his ear, “I am detecting multiple airborne contacts approximately ten klicks out from your location.” He cautions.

“Great. Let’s hope that’s not Nefarious’ bots checking out the Ark’s energy signature. The last thing we need is Nefarious, or really anyone for that matter getting their hands on it and using it for who knows what.” Cooper agrees, as he pushes himself into a light jog, knowing that the odds of someone else having also detected the Ark’s energy signature was almost certain. He continues on the path through the ravine for a few more minutes, until the marker he was following led him to a somewhat narrow opening in the cliff face.

Turning sideways and shimmying through the opening, Daniel found it to be a fairly tight squeeze, as the spare magazines on his vest scrape against the wall slightly. Once he was out on the other side, he found himself walking through a passage that had several forking paths in an almost maze-like formation. Before he could ask BT where to go, as if the Vanguard was reading his mind, a marker suddenly appears on one of the paths to his right.

After walking down that path for a minute or so, it eventually intersected onto another winding path on the edge of a cliff. Daniel then laid his eyes on the massive canyon out beyond the cliff’s edge, as well as some strange pincer-shaped objects on the horizon.

“Hey BT, what’s up with those pincer-looking things?” Daniel asks his Titan.

“Structural analysis indicates those objects are in fact a form of satellite. Scans indicate they are currently dormant, possibly as a result of decommissioning.” BT quickly reports.

As he turned to start walking down the path, Daniel tenses when he spots clear and fresh footprints in the sand, alerting him to the fact that he wasn’t alone. As he continues following the path across the cliff, now much more cautiously, he eventually starts hearing the ‘clank!’ of something being repeatedly hit against something else somewhere ahead of him. As he slowly and cautiously approaches the source of the noise, he then heard voices.

“Why are we here minin’ Raritanium; doesn’t Pierre want us lookin’ for the Fulcrum Star?” Daniel hears a masculine voice ask in an inquisitive tone.

“Yeah, and as far as he knows, we are.” Another feminine voice says, as another ‘clank!’ was heard. “But I’m tellin’ ye; that’s just another one of his wild goose chases. We’ll only be headin’ back to the cove empty-handed. If we mine some Raritanium instead, then we’ll at least be gettin’ somethin’ out of this, y’know?” She explains.

“Fair point.” The first voice agrees. “Aye Hector, hand me a pickaxe would ye?” He asks, as someone else, presumably this ‘Hector’ person, grumbles and begins audibly rummaging through something.

Right as Daniel arrived at a bend in his path, he takes cover just behind the edge of the cliff face and slowly peeks his head around the corner. Then, he could see a pair of white and cyan robots he recognised to be Space Pirates, one of which was hitting a pickaxe against a shiny, blue and almost ice-like crystal formation jutting out of the wall.

On a small boat-like ship nearby, a third Pirate, Hector presumably, was rummaging through one of the many crates on board. Cooper observed that all three of the Pirates were moderately better armoured than the Pirates he’d fought at Zurkie’s, having outfitted themselves with armour in the form of chest plates and pauldrons.

A few moments later, Hector produces a pickaxe from the crate and tosses it to his fellow Pirate, who then thanks him and returns to the crystal, the sound of clanking now increasing two-fold, as the flag atop the ship’s flagpole that proudly displayed the Space Pirates’ robotic skull-like insignia gently flaps around in the wind.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but the fact that this ‘Pierre’ was here searching for a ‘Fulcrum Star’ right when the Ark had mysteriously reappeared, didn’t sit right with Cooper. If it was actually the Ark that Pierre was looking for, Daniel knew he had to get to it before he did, and that the consequences could be potentially catastrophic if he didn’t.

The Pilot brings up his Hemlok and aims the crosshairs at the head of the Pirate standing on the ship, seeing as he wasn’t preoccupied with something and would likely react to the sound of gunfire the quickest. Daniel then squeezes the trigger, and the rifle quickly coughs three times in quick succession, the rounds finding their mark within the Pirate’s head, killing him instantly. As the Pirate hit the deck and oil began to leak out of the new holes in his head, the other two Pirates were startled by the sudden attack, and both dropped their pickaxes in favour of their swords.

“Shite, it’s the Commando!” The female Pirate suddenly exclaims, as she looks towards her ally’s killer with pure malice, then proceeds to rush him down.

“What’s he doin’ here?!” The other asks nobody in particular, as he joined his remaining ally in rushing towards the Pilot, swords in the air.

In response, Daniel quickly flicks the fire selector above his Hemlok’s pistol grip with his thumb, engaging his Hemlok’s built-in CPU into changing the fire mode from the usual three round bursts, to five. He squeezes off two five-round bursts, the first one at the closest Pirate, and the second at the other Pirate following close behind. Subsequently, both Pirates face planted into the sand upon receiving a lethal dose of high-powered lead.

Shortly after which, bolts began to fly out of the Pirates’ bodies towards Daniel, (Which admittedly startles him slightly) and were automatically deposited into his Holo-Manager, subsequently increasing his current balance by a couple hundred bolts.

Assuming the fighting was over, Daniel is caught off guard when he hears something rapidly approaching from behind him. He quickly turns around, but before he could raise his rifle to respond to the probable threat, he is slammed into the wall behind him and pinned to it. Mildly dazed with his rifle pinned to his chest, Cooper looked up to see that it was another Pirate, this time armed with a shield as well as a sword, and using said shield to pin the Commando to the wall.

“I’ve gotcha, ye dirty little scamp!” The Pirate snarls out, as he glared at the Pilot through the shield’s viewport. On instinct, and with his exo-enhanced strength, Daniel frees his left hand and clenched it into a fist, activating his Phase Shift before the Pirate could do or say anything else. Instantly, the Pilot disappears with a flash, as he’s pulled into the Void.

“What the?!" The Pirate says, as he looks around bewilderedly, before putting a hand to his face. “Oh, I need to lay off the grog...” He remarks. When Obsidian suddenly reappears behind him, the Pirate turns around just in time to receive Cooper’s bracer blade to his neck, severing cables and other vital wiring in the process. The Pirate then drops to his knees, as his systems begin to slowly shut down.

“No, you don’t.” Daniel says coldly, as oil begins to leak out of the wound in the Pirate’s neck, which then begins to steadily flow down his white-armoured chest. As he tries to raise his sword in a desperate attempt to at least take the Commando down with him, it only results in his already weak grip on the weapon faltering, and the sword clatters to the ground.

As the light left the Pirate’s eyes and he went limp, Cooper quickly yanks the blade from his neck and shakes off some of the oil, before retracting it back into his bracer. Then, the Pirate slumped backwards onto the ground, dead.

I’m really starting to hate this galaxy. Daniel silently remarks to himself, thankful for his helmet display highlighting the weak point in the Pirate’s neck in a bright red, as he turns the corner and slowly walks towards where the other Pirates were standing, making sure to pay extremely close attention to his surroundings as he carefully stepped around their lifeless bodies.

After that, Cooper stops as he walks past the blue crystal the Pirates had been mining. So, this stuff’s Raritanium? He silently remarks, as he picks up a piece of loose crystal off the sandy ground and inspects it in his hand, recalling what Ms. Zurkon mentioned to him about Raritanium back at Zurkie’s. Focus, Dan. He silently reprimands himself, as he deposits the ice-like crystal into his Holo-Manager and continues on towards his objective, ignoring the rest of the Raritanium and whatever the Pirates had on their ship.

As Daniel jogs down the path, it eventually leads him to a somewhat long and visibly-weathered metal tunnel that perforated through the cliffside. The interior was fairly dark, with the only light present within originating from both entrances. He’s able to get about halfway through it, when another Pirate suddenly appears at the other end, prompting Daniel to quickly conceal himself behind a small wooden crate.

“Shiver me timbers, I’m bored. I need me some action...” The Pirate mutters, and after staring up the tunnel for a few moments, he then turns around and pulls a piece of paper out from a pouch on his side, and struggles to read it. “Darn it, me old eyes ain’t what they used to be...” He remarks, as he raises the paper up closer to his face to get a better look.

And with no hostile reaction from the Pirate, as well as the Pirate being preoccupied with something else, Daniel creeps out from behind the crate and begins slowly sneaking up behind the Pirate with his rifle trained on him, should he turn around at an... unfavourable moment. Fortunately for Cooper, the Pirate remains entirely focused on the paper in his hands.

Once he was directly behind the unware Pirate, Cooper releases his Hemlok from his grasp, allowing it to hang against his side, and then draws his hammer. After twirling it in his hand to point the sharp pick forwards, Daniel promptly raises the weapon high into the air, before he swiftly buries the pick into the top of the Pirate’s head with both hands, killing him instantly, and relatively quietly.

As Daniel drags the Pirate’s body back into the tunnel and hides his lifeless body behind the crate that he himself was behind moments prior, he suddenly hears the low, distant rumble of a ship approaching. He quickly rips his hammer’s pick from the Pirate’s head and holsters it, then slowly exits the tunnel out through the other side, and crouches down behind a piece of jagged, rusty scrap metal sticking out of the ground.

Standing up ahead in a wide and relatively flat area that had several rock formations dotted around the place, were about a dozen or so Pirates, all of which were looking at something out of Cooper’s view. As the Pilot peeked his head over his cover to get a better look at what was going on, a small Pirate ship with three Pirates on board suddenly arrives nearby, and hovers just beyond the edge of the cliff in front of the other Pirates.

“Watch it mateys, someone’s after killin’ four of our own further up the canyon!” The ship’s captain informs the Pirates with a pointed finger, in the general direction of the Pirates that Cooper had encountered mining Raritanium earlier. “If ye see anyone strange, kill ‘em!” He orders, as he swiftly drags his thumb across his neck for emphasis. He then grips the ship’s wheel and flies off, leaving the other Pirates to themselves.

“I Bet’cha it was the Lombax; she’s been pesterin’ us fer weeks now.” A nearby Pirate reckons to one of his nearby compatriots.

“’Course it was the damn Lombax! That bilge-rat’s always followin’ Pierre ‘round like a hungry Antara Swarmer...” The Pirate next to him bitterly remarks.

The fuck is a ‘Lombax’? Daniel silently questions. He snapped himself out of his brief stupor with a swift shake of his head, understanding that he has no time to dawdle.

Seeing a trio of Pirates grouped together in front of him in conversation, made Obsidian recognise the kind of opportunity he had. Allowing his rifle to freely hang from its mechanical arm against his side again, Daniel reaches down to his belt with his now free hand and pulls a frag grenade from it. Firmly gripping it in his right hand, he pulls the pin with his left, before hurling it towards the three Pirates and ducking back behind his cover.

The grenade soars through the air, before it lands on the ground near them with a small thud. The Pirates quickly look down at the source of the noise and just as they realised what they were looking at, the grenade detonated, subsequently accelerating the metal fragmentation outwards at a velocity of many thousands of feet per second. Needless to say, the Pirates’ armour stood no chance at protecting them from the almost point-blank explosion, the fragmentation shredding through their bodies and blowing off limbs, as the explosion sends them flying.

“WE BE UNDER ATTACK! RALLY UP, MATEYS!” One of the nearby Pirates warns, as the other Pirates nearby swiftly drew their weapons in response to the sudden threat, with three sword-wielding Pirates quickly hurrying towards the positions of their fallen comrades, while the Pirate Corsairs armed with pistols instead opted to take cover behind rocks or scrap metal.

Cooper peeks back over his cover with his rifle in tow, and lines up the sights on the three Pirates, who were fortunately for him, too preoccupied with examining their comrades’ mangled bodies to immediately notice his presence. Three well-aimed bursts later, and they promptly joined their crewmates in the afterlife. Unfortunately for Daniel, this action didn’t go unnoticed.

“IT BE THE COMMANDO!” A Pirate called out. “Ye won’t best us this time, scallywag!” He vows, as he and other Pirate Corsairs began firing on him.

In response, Cooper activates his Cloak and launches himself out of his cover with a boost from his Jump Kit, just as shots began peppering the scrap metal he was behind only a split-second prior. As he dashes to and gets behind a rock formation a decent bit away from his original cover, Daniel then quickly swaps the magazine on his Hemlok before he begins returning fire from his new position, deactivating his Cloak.

“What the— He was just over there!” A bewildered Pirate suddenly exclaims, as he and the other Pirates readjust their aim towards the Pilot’s new position. As they both exchanged shots with each other, one by one, the Pirate’s numbers slowly declined, whilst showing little progress in repelling Obsidian’s attack.

One of the Pirates then procures a crudely-made bomb from a pouch on her belt, and tosses it up in the air in her hand for good luck, before she pressed a button on its top to arm it. “This’ll sort ye out!” She yelled, as she then lobs the bomb towards the Commando. It then lands on top of the rock formation with a clink! and rolls off of it, landing right next to him.

On instinct, Daniel quickly activates his Phase Shift with a clench of his fist and vanishes from this realm, just before the bomb exploded and blew the rock formation to pieces. The Pilot then runs out into the open, as he reappears with a flash and quickly draws his RE-45 Autopistol from its newly-equipped thigh holster, and fires off a spray at the startled Pirates, forcing them back behind their cover. He then slides behind another rock formation, which happened to be significantly closer to where they were holed up, and quickly reloaded his pistol.

One of the Pirates growls fiercely, “Why won’t ye just die already!?” She angrily roared, as the other three remaining Pirates continue peppering the rock formation Obsidian was behind with their pistols, blowing off chunks of it in the process. As she pauses to reload her own pistol, she looks around at all of her deceased comrades, and suddenly realises that they were losing this fight.

She frantically pulls her communicator out from her pouch. “Pierre, we need backup!” She calls into it, “The Commando’s here, and he’s kickin’ our arses!”

“Quoi?!” The First Mate replies, somewhat taken-aback, before he composes himself and continues. “Erm, do not fret! Reinforcements will arrive momentarily, as will I!”  Pierre informs confidently, as the channel then turns to static, and she then resumes firing at Obsidian’s position alongside her crewmates.

Instead of leaning out to return fire, Daniel waits until he gets the visual and audible confirmation from his Cloak’s HUD indicator that it had finished recharging. He then produces another grenade from his belt and held it tightly as he pulled the pin, thus preventing the lever from immediately flying off and starting the detonation process.

With a flick of his left wrist, his Cloak activates and the Pilot vanishes again, as he jumps up on top of the rock formation. Then, with the help of his Jump Kit, Daniel leaps over the Pirates and drops the primed grenade right on top of them, then quickly takes cover behind a large rock upon landing somewhere behind them.

The female Pirate was notably more observant than the others, as she notices the grenade seemingly dropping out of thin air, and quickly dives out of the way. The same unfortunately could not be said for the other three Pirates, as they continued focusing their fire on the rock formation, not realising that the Commando was no longer behind it.

As the grenade exploded and killed the three oblivious Pirates, the last remaining Pirate was able to dive out of the way just in time to not suffer the same fate, but was not left completely unharmed, as she takes some fragmentation to her back, and one of her legs was completely blown off. As she hits the ground with a loud metallic thud and let out a pained groan, she then looked forward and spotted her pistol only a few feet in front of her.

The Pirate struggles, as she slowly and painfully crawls towards her fallen weapon. As she was about to lay her hand on the pistol’s grip, it’s suddenly knocked far out of her reach by an invisible force. Then, a pair of dark, armour-clad legs suddenly appear in front of her with a shimmer. She looks up, and to her horror, sees the muzzle end of a rifle pointed right in her face, and behind it, the blue, crescent-shaped visor of Obsidian’s helmet glaring back at her.

In that moment, she feels only one thing: Complete and absolute terror. She puts up one of her hands in an attempt to surrender, but before she could croak out a desperate plea to spare her life, Obsidian promptly finishes her off with a three-round burst to her head, and her body goes limp and slumps face-down into the sandy ground.

“Warning Pilot, detecting multiple airborne contacts en-route to your location. Exercise caution.” BT’s monotonous voice abruptly warns Daniel through his helmet radio.

“Solid copy, BT!” The Pilot quickly responds. Great, here comes the cavalry. Daniel remarks to himself, silently hoping that this wasn't going to become the norm for him.

A few moments afterwards, three more Pirate ships appear up ahead, in an area that had several elevated rock slabs on the other side of a small chasm, with both areas being connected by an old, sketchy-looking rope bridge. The ships carried all different manners of Pirates, from ones armed with swords and shields, some with pistols, with one ship carrying a swarm of Cutlassies. As the ships slowly lower to the ground and the Pirates on board begin disembarking, Daniel runs ahead and slides into cover behind a large rock then quickly double checks his ammo.

While the Pirates swiftly spread themselves out and took cover behind whatever was available, a fourth Pirate ship suddenly appears and slows until it was hovering above hem. Daniel noticed that it only had two Pirates on board: One at the front behind the wheel, while the other was at the rear, hanging off the side of the ship’s flagpole.

“Ahh, so you must be this ‘Obsidian’ I have heard so much about!” A loud, amplified remark suddenly emanates from the ship, grabbing Daniel’s attention.

As he peeks his head out and looks up towards the ship, he uses his helmet display’s built-in magnification function to get a better look at the two Pirates on board. The one behind the ship’s wheel looked no different than the other Pirate’s he’d encountered so far, leaning against the wheel with a bored, disinterested look on his face, like he didn’t want to be there.

The other, who hung off the side of the ship’s flagpole, looking down on Cooper with the help of a spyglass, looked notably different than the rest of the Pirates, as he wore a cyan vest and a black Pirate hat that had a blue crescent emblem on the front, with a blue and white feather sticking out on top. The Pirate also had a particular facial feature that stood out to Daniel: A huge, jutting underbite.

“And who the fuck are you supposed to be? Wait, let me guess; is it Captain Underbite?” Cooper mocks in reply.

“Oh, so sassy! And ferocious, too, from the looks of it!” Pierre remarks, as he puts his spyglass away and gestures to the deceased Pirates scattered around the Commando. “You remind me of another certain someone I often encounter...” He muses, as he then jumps down off the flag pole and leans a foot against the small railing on the edge of his ship’s deck.

“But no, I am no captain. I am Pierre Le Fer; First Matey to Captain Blackwater, and Pirate Extraordinaire!” Pierre proudly exclaims as he throws his arms into the air, before lowering them and putting his fists on his sides. “And you, must be here for the Fulcrum Star as well, no? He presumes with a pointed finger.

“And what if I am? Are you gonna come down here and fight me for it yourself?” Cooper challenges. He doesn’t fail to notice how the First Mate had just put himself right out in the open.

“Under normal circumstances, I would accept an offer of a duel...” Pierre admits, “But alas, you have yet to prove you are a worthy opponent!” He boastfully declares.

“Oh, is that so? Well, in that case, here’s your proof!” Daniel shouts, as he brings his rifle up and lines up the sights on Pierre’s head as quickly as he could, then squeezes off a three-round burst.

Before Pierre could react, two of the rounds narrowly whizz past his head, while the third just barely misses its intended target and instead hitting his hat and blows it straight off his head. Almost immediately after which, Pierre lets out a deafening squawk through his loudspeaker, before he subsequently falls backwards onto the deck and out of the Commando’s sight.

After a briefly checking himself any injuries, Pierre quickly sits up once he discovers that he was fortunately completely unharmed, much to the relief of the other Pirate on board, who quickly runs over to him upon witnessing what he feared was the death of his First Mate. As Pierre then reaches over and picks up his fallen hat, he immediately notices a small hole on the brim that wasn’t there previously. A furious scowl then burns across his face, as he realises what the Commando had just done. He then stands up and promptly affixed his slightly damaged hat back onto his head.

“First Matey, are ye alright?!” A concerned Pirate calls out from the ground beneath the ship.

“Pierre, should we attack?!” Another asks.

Pierre doesn’t respond. Instead, he retrieves his nearby loudspeaker from the ship’s deck, while also making sure he remains behind the edge of the deck, out of Obsidian’s view.

“You shot my hat! How dare you!” Pierre furiously roars into his loudspeaker. “Pirate Mateys, I believe you all know what this implies...?” The First Mate hints. Upon hearing this, the other Pirates’ eyes instantly widen in anticipation, realising that Pierre was referring to Article Twelve of the Pirate Code:

“If an outsider damages a Pirate’s prized hat, they shall pay for it with their blood!” The Pirates recite in tune, as they then cheer and holler in excitement.

“Precisely! Mateys, ATTACK! Show that fool what happens to those who trifle with us Pirates!” Pierre commands his crew. In response, the Pirates let out battle cries and the Corsairs begin firing upon Obsidian, while the sword Pirates and the Cutlassies wisely chose to remain in cover, and wait until they had an opportunity to close the gap and swarm the Commando.

After exchanging fire for about half a minute or so, one of the Pirates threw another bomb at Daniel in an attempt to flush him out. In response, he Phase Shifted and then launched himself out of the blast radius with his Jump Kit towards another rock about twenty feet from his original cover, successfully dodging the crude explosive.

Whilst that was happening, Pierre flinches slightly when his communicator suddenly goes off inside his pouch, due to him still being somewhat uneasy after almost having his life ended by the Commando.

Pierre then retrieves the device in question, “First Matey, I think we’ve found the Fulcrum star!” A Pirate on the other end informs.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Secure it for transport on the Command Ship, I will return shortly.” Pierre replies curtly.

“Aye aye, First Matey!” The Pirate fervently responds, as Pierre pockets his communicator and raises his loudspeaker again.

“Well, it has been fun, Obsidian! I bid you adieu!” Pierre smugly calls out to the Commando battling the Pirates below with a laugh, as his ship then swiftly accelerates away from the battle.

“Cooper, I am detecting the Ark is currently being relocated; Pierre’s ship is headed towards its location. You must reach its location asap, and secure it by any means necessary.” BT informs his Pilot.

“I hear ya, BT!” Daniel acknowledges, as he dodges a shot from a Pirate, and promptly returned the favour with a burst from his Hemlok. Even though he’d already made a dent in the number of Pirates firing at him, there were still way too many of them left on the other side of the bridge to deal with in a reasonable amount of time. If he chose to whittle them down one-by-one, he would be practically forfeiting the Ark.

“Scans indicate an opening leading to an extensive ravine network approximately fifty metres from your current location. I will lead you directly to the Ark’s location from there.” The Vanguard suddenly indicated.

A new waypoint marker then appears on Daniel’s HUD, in front of a passage just beyond the Pirates, which presumably led to the ravine network BT informed him of. As the Commando squeezes off another burst and took down another one of the many Pirates shooting at him, he realises that he needs a way to get past them. With a clench of his fist, the Titan Pilot activated his Phase Shift, and promptly vanished. He then darts out of his cover, jumping over a piece of scrap metal in the process, and continues his sprint towards the chasm separating him and the Pirates.

After Daniel reappeared with a flash, he hurls his two remaining frag grenades at the Corsairs firing upon him, forcing them to briefly cease their fire to dodge the explosions. Some weren’t fast enough to escape the blast radius in time, and were promptly blown to bits.

“Don’t let him get ‘cross the bridge!” One of the Pirates barks, as the remaining Corsairs quickly resume firing on the Commando, as a pair of Cutlassies quickly hover over to said bridge and slice the pair of frayed ropes holding it up, causing it to plummet into the chasm below, successfully preventing the Commando from crossing to the other side... Or so they thought.

After dodging a few of the Pirates shots with a swift Jump Kit-aided side-step and sending back a few shots of his own, Daniel reaches the edge of the chasm and leaps across to the other side without skipping a beat.

“He’s got a bloody jetpack!” A Pirate notices.

“It won’t save him! CHARRRRGE!” Another sword-wielding Pirate cries, as all the Sword Pirates and Cutlassies quickly rush out of their cover to swarm and overwhelm the Commando. But, before any of them could get close enough to attack, their target suddenly shimmered and vanished before their eyes without a trace. Every Pirate present then stop in their tracks, very confused on what just happened.

“What the— He just disappeared!” A baffled sword-wielding Pirate says bewilderedly, as he looks around for any sign of the Commando.

“We can see that, ye fool!” A disgruntled Corsair replies. “Look around, and watch your backs! He’s gotta be ‘round here somewhere...”

As the Pirates began searching the surrounding area, they weren’t observant enough to notice a set of footprints in the sand, quickly making their way towards the passage behind them.

As Cooper ran into the passage and his Cloak subsequently ran out, he relaxes slightly upon confirming that there were no Pirates on his tail. He continues down through the passage, until the path he was on suddenly ceases upon reaching the opening to a narrow ravine. With no conventional means of traversing it, this would be where most men’s journeys would come to an abrupt end. But Daniel wasn’t like most men: He was a Pilot, and problems such as this one, were never an issue for Pilots.

With the help of his Jump Kit, Daniel jumps onto the ravine wall and begins wallrunning along it, leaping across to the other side when he feels his kit’s thrusters begin to stall. As he wallruns from side to side through the ravine network, following the waypoints given to him by BT, he suddenly heard a thunderous roar coming from the engines of a (presumably) massive ship somewhere above. As he turns a corner into another intersecting chasm, he spots the massive ship in question slowly flying about thirty metres above him.

“Pilot, the Ark is on board that ship.” BT informs, as an indicator marked ‘ARK’ subsequently appeared on Daniel’s HUD. Judging from where it was located on the ship itself, Daniel surmised that that it was likely inside the ship.

“Copy that!” Daniel responds, as he quickly picks up the pace on his wallrunning. Once he was underneath the flying ship, he began quickly jumping back and forth between the two walls within the ravine, steadily getting higher and higher as a result. Once he found himself leaping over the ravine’s peak, he quickly raises his right arm and fires his Grapple up towards the ship. The Grapple flew upwards and latched onto a metal railing on the edge of the ship’s deck, and began reeling him upwards with a sharp tug.

As he was reeled up to the aft part of the ship, Cooper dodged the exhaust coming out of the ship’s engines with a boost from his Jump Kit, swinging him outwards from the ship slightly, as he eventually reaches the railing and grabs ahold of it with his other hand. He quickly climbs over and onto the wooden deck, then took cover behind a nearby crate stack undetected.

He carefully leans out from behind the crates, allowing him to see that the ship’s upper level was divided into three separate decks, with multiple Pirates spread out across them. Most of them were in the middle of undertaking various tasks; like maintaining the old, rusty cannons located on either side of the ship, or bringing crates from the various crate stacks down to the ship’s lower levels, such as the stack Daniel was currently hiding behind, as he quickly ducks back behind it when a Pirate suddenly approached and removed a crate from the stack, before carrying it over to a nearby staircase and disappearing below the deck.

Waiting until he has an opportunity to do so unnoticed, the Pilot quickly and quietly follows the Pirate down the same staircase into the ship’s lower deck. The Pirate ahead of him then turns and continues down another set of stairs down towards the ship’s lower decks, where the muffled sounds of more Pirates could be heard originating from. Daniel instead continues forwards, towards the Ark’s HUD marker straight ahead of him, which leads him to a pair of closed wooden doors with slatted windows that obscured the other side.

Getting up close and peering through the slats, Daniel could see into an extravagant living quarters, where Pierre and two other Pirates stood around a metal crate on the floor.

Pierre then kneels down and releases the clasp holding the crate shut and promptly raises the lid, and subsequently, a familiar and almost blinding blue light to emanate outwards and completely flood the room, prompting the Pirates to flinch and shield their eyes with their hands. Some of the light pours out through the slatted windows and into the hallway as well, as Daniel’s helmet display automatically dims to account for the sudden increase in luminosity.

After recovering from being suddenly blinded, Pierre reaches into the crate and carefully scoops the source of the blinding light out of it: The Ark, which Daniel notices that it appears to be much smaller in comparison to when he’d last seen it on Typhon, to the point where Pierre was able to easily hold it within his right hand.

Any questions Daniel had as to why that was the case, would have to go unanswered for now, as Pierre frowns upon noticing something about the brightly-glowing orb’s appearance. The First Mate carries the Ark towards a nearby desk where an open book sat on top. After looking back and forth between the Ark and the book’s pages for a few moments, one of the other Pirates in the room speaks up.

“First Matey, is something wrong?”

Pierre doesn’t immediately respond, and instead starts flicking through the book’s pages for a few moments before he hums in thought. “This is quite strange; it looks nothing like the depictions of the Fulcrum Star in the manuscript...” Pierre mumbles to himself.

“But it is the Fulcrum Star, right?” The other Pirate asks.

“Perhaps not. The manuscript doesn’t contain any information describing something like this...” Pierre admits, as he closes the book and turns around to face the other two Pirates. “If you’re not the Fulcrum Star... Then just what are you?” He mumbles, as he stares deep into the Ark.

“I hope that means it’s worth somethin’. I could use me some new boots; these ones have more holes in ‘em than Blargian cheese!” A Pirate remarks with a laugh, as she raises her foot to show one of the heavily-worn boots in question. The other Pirate in the room chuckles mildly, as his gaze wanders towards the door to Pierre’s quarters.

“OI! Who’s that outside?!” The Pirate suddenly shouts, as both Pierre and the other Pirate quickly look to the door in confusion, and immediately notice a blue visor glaring back at them through the slatted window.

Realising that he’s been noticed, Daniel backs up from the door slightly and draws his Smart Pistol from its holster, as the Pirate from the other side orders him to show himself. With pleasure. He silently remarks, as he then plants an exo-enhanced kick directly between the two doors, causing them to both fly open with a loud snap, revealing him to the trio of Pirates.

Pierre gasps upon seeing the Commando, and then quickly runs around and hides behind the other side of the desk in response. “HOW DID HE GET HERE?! KILL HIM, KILL HIM NOW!” He furiously orders his two Pirates with a pointed finger, who both quickly draw their swords.

As the closest Pirate swings his sword at the Commando in a wide sweep, Obsidian simply ducks under it, before he immediately fires a pair of guided rounds straight into the Pirate’s face, causing him to instantly drop to the floor, dead. The second Pirate is just barely able to raise her sword for a swing of her own, before she too meets the same fate.

Daniel vigorously marches over to the desk, then reaches over it and grabs a cowering Pierre by the neck with his free hand before the Pirate has a chance to say anything. He then violently drags him over it and onto the floor with his exo-enhanced strength, knocking over everything on top the desk and causing Pierre to let out a panicked yelp. Then, pressing the muzzle of the Smart Pistol right into Pierre’s right eye, he squeezes the trigger and fires the weapon, sending an unguided round straight into it.

The round must not have hit anything vital, as Pierre immediately screams in agonising pain. “MERDE! MY EYE, MY EYE!” He howls, as he promptly releases the Ark from his grasp and clasps both his hands over his right eye. Upon seeing the Ark, Cooper releases Pierre from his grip, and quickly reclaims it from the floor with his now-free hand.

As Daniel feels the Ark’s strange chill seep into his hand, he quickly informs BT that he’s secured the Ark, as he suddenly hears the sound of multiple heavy footsteps rapidly approaching. Several Pirates suddenly appear in the hallway outside the room, likely having heard the commotion and came to investigate it.

“WE’VE BEEN BOARDED MATEYS, ALL HANDS ON DECK!” One of the Pirates shouts, subsequently alerting the ship’s entire crew to his presence, as the Corsairs draw their pistols and aim them at the Commando.

“He’s got Pierre!” A stunned Pirate notices, as their First Mate writhes around on the floor in agony. “Give up, ye’ve got nowhere to go!” She growls.

Daniel slowly holsters his Smart Pistol. “Okay, okay, you’ve got me.” He says, faking a defeated tone, as he then passes the Ark from his left hand to his right, and puts his left hand up, feigning a surrender.

“Ye’ll be walkin’ the plank straight into the mouth of a Kraken fer that!” Another Pirate remarks, the others nodding and grunting in agreement, as a pair of Pirates then enter the room and cautiously approach the Commando to apprehend him.

A smile creeps onto Cooper’s face behind his crescent-shaped visor, as he clenches his left fist. Immediately, his Phase Shift activates, and the Pirates, including the ship he was in, instantly vanishes as Daniel immediately begins falling, his Jump Kit automatically activating to slow and control his descent.

As Daniel passes the Ark back to his left hand, he points his right arm upwards in preparation to Grapple onto the ship when it reappears. The colour then quickly returns to his vision, as did the Pirates’ ship, but before he could fire his Grapple, the Ark suddenly begins quickly emitting pulsing waves of energy in all directions, and starts becoming brighter in brighter in the Pilot’s hand. The light show happening in his hand diverted Daniel’s attention from the Pirates’ ship long enough for it to fly out of his Grapple’s range.

As he continues falling, a sudden gust of wind blows the Commando off balance slightly, and without thinking, he fires his Grapple at a rusty metal beam attached to a piece of old scaffolding that hung over the ravine’s edge. The Grapple latches onto the beam, and after feeling a tug on his right arm, for a moment it seems that it might support his weight long enough for his Jump Kit to correct his balance...

Until it doesn’t.

The beam breaks away from the rest of the scaffolding with a loud metallic snap, sending the broken beam along with Daniel plummeting down the ravine.

Daniel was able to vaguely make out BT warning him that the Ark was beginning to overload in his ear, before the Ark’s bright luminosity suddenly increased, blinding him, as another pulse knocked him hopelessly further off-balance. The only thing Daniel could remember before he blacked out, was a cold, numbing sensation in his left hand.

————————————————————

NEFARIOUS TOWER,

CORSON V

Within top floors of Nefarious Tower, the tallest building in the known universe, the tyrannical Emperor that the tower and the city was named after layed back in his chair facing the wall of monitors behind his desk, with one leg crossed over the other. His Assistant hovered beside him, nervously fiddling with her three-fingered hands.

Each of the outer monitors currently displayed a clear video of each of the Rebels, including a white and blue-furred Lombax battling some Laser Troopers with an Enforcer, a pink-skinned Agorian wielding an Agorian Warhammer and slamming it into the dome of a Nefarious Slugger, and a brown-furred Cazar duel-wielding a pair of Combustors and firing them at a horde of Troopers filtering through the loading yard’s main security gate. When a Blitztrooper suddenly appears and spins up its guns, that particular video feed abruptly ends when a stray shot from its barrage of fire unintentionally destroys the camera.

Alongside those three Rebels was a video of a green Rilgarian sneaking past some Troopers, as he suddenly shimmers and transforms into a standard worker bot, then quickly enters the factory. The feed then changes to a video of that same bot sneaking past the factory guards, by blending in with the other worker bots. The middle monitor then changes to display an image of a destroyed Juggernaut displaying major damage, with oil and acid leaking out of where its head once was.

“Assistant, do tell me: Why did the Troopers not manage to kill or even simply capture a single Rebel?” Nefarious asks in an eerily calm tone. “Why is my warship factory not completely intact, but instead, nothing but smouldering concrete and metal?!” The Emperor suddenly roars in pure fury at his Assistant, his orange eyes shrinking and becoming tiny pinpoints, as she quickly shrinks at his outburst.

The plan was quite simple: Should the Rebels somehow repel the sudden horde of Troopers arriving at the main gate, a Juggernaut would be quietly deployed to ambush and quickly overwhelm them, then capture or kill as many of them as possible. Or, at the very least, force the rebels to completely abandon their sabotage mission altogether. But instead, none of these things happened, and the Rebels were able to completely destroy the factory and somehow kill the Juggernaut, with absolutely no casualties to boot!

“I’m very sorry your greatness, but there was an... unexpected development.” Nefarious’ Assistant says somewhat nervously, as she then produces a tablet and taps away at it in her grasp.

 The large middle monitor then very briefly turns to static, before it returns with a hazy image of a distant, well-armoured, Markazian-like figure standing atop a shipping container, wielding a strange, unknown weapon. Even though the quality of the image was lacking, Nefarious could easily make out the blue glow of the figure’s crescent-shaped visor permeating through the haze.

“It appears the Resistance has recruited a new member into their annoying little cause.” She states with a scoff, as she crosses her arms. “A Markazian, it seems.”

“Do we have any better pictures of this individual?” The Emperor asks somewhat irritably, now having calmed down from his prior outburst, as he leans his head against his hand on his chair’s armrest.

“No sir, any other camera angles we may have had of the Markazian were unintentionally destroyed by the Juggernaut not long after it was deployed.” She explains. “We were unfortunately unable to extract any footage from the Juggernaut’s data drive due to heavy acid damage.”

The Emperor growls, as he swiftly uncrosses his legs and slams a foot down onto the floor in anger, before sitting up straight in his chair. “He’s lucky they killed him, because if they didn’t, I would’ve had him sent straight into a smelting pit for his folly!” Nefarious angrily responds.

“If you would like, I can have that arranged with his remains, your majesty?” The Assistant offers somewhat eagerly.

“Yes, you do that, Assistant.” He grumbles, as the Assistant taps away on her tablet, forwarding the Emperor’s orders to the Troopers. Nefarious returns his gaze to the large monitor displaying the likely perpetrator behind the Resistance’s recent success. “Who are you?” He seemingly asks the figure on the monitor with a gesture, as if he was expecting a reply.

“Shall I attempt to learn more about this new rebel? I can go and ask around in that traitor’s pub in the Scarstu Debris Field, if you wish?” The Assistant suddenly offers, looking up from her tablet. Her ability to do such a thing without being recognised was thanks to the fact that hardly anyone, bar the Resistance, knew who she was. The fact that she didn’t sport the typical Nefarious colours of white and orange, definitely assisted her there.

“No need, I suspect we’ll be seeing more from our mysterious new friend very soon.” Nefarious says with a wave of his hand, as he then chuckles ominously, with the Assistant soon joining in.

————————————————————

Daniel’s eyes shoot open, and he lets out a groan when he finds himself staring up into the sky from the bottom of a relatively thin ravine. He didn’t remember how he got here. He didn’t even remember what planet he was on. He notices how groggy he feels, as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep a flashing, yellow indicator on suddenly appears on his HUD that says: ‘WARNING: INTERNAL TEMPERATURE LOW.’ Looking to his body temperature readout on his HUD, sure enough, his body temperature was slowly but steadily falling.

It was then that Daniel notices how his whole body felt numb, and was violently shivering from how cold he was. Was being at the bottom of the ravine insulating him from the planet’s (which he then remembered as Torren IV) scorching heat above? Maybe. But that didn’t take from the fact that he was freezing, and needed to find a way to warm up. As he sat up, he could immediately tell that the source of the cold wasn’t due to anything in his vicinity, like being partially submerged in heat-sapping water for example, and that it was instead emanating from an icy, throbbing sensation in his left hand.

When Cooper raises his left hand to inspect his shivering palm, there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with it at first glance. When he shakily rotates his wrist to inspect the other side, he discovers the apparent source of the numbing cold:

The Phase Shift that once rested on the back of Daniel’s glove, was now replaced with a similarly circular device that looked almost completely different to a Phase Shift. Where the thick copper coil making up the majority of the Phase Shift’s mass once was, a shiny, silver in colour, but also unusually unreflective metallic ring now took its place, glowing a familiar blue on its top.

Daniel then recalls the Ark overloading in his hand, and the strange, otherworldly chill he felt from it, after he recovered it from the Pirates. Before he had time to dwell on that thought, he suddenly feels himself becoming more and more drowsy, as the flashing yellow marker on his HUD then turned red:

WARNING: INTERNAL TEMPERATURE CRITICAL. HYPOTHERMIA IMMINENT.

Daniel tries to pick himself up from the sandy ground, but his legs suddenly give way, and he quickly finds himself laying on his back staring up at the empty sky again. As the cold continues emanating from the device on his left hand, Daniel tries to sit up again, only to find that he can’t, due to a sudden stiffness gripping his muscles. He desperately tries to raise his arms, to no avail, only barely able to twitch his fingers.

Daniel’s breathing quickens as he begins to panic. Why was this happening? Did it have anything to do with the device on his left hand? Of course it did, he knew that already... Didn’t he...?

Shivering, weakness, confusion. Yep, I’m freezing to death.

 In a sudden bout of clarity, Daniel remembers that the cold was coming from the device on his hand, and that he needed to figure out how to shut it off, now. Fighting against the almost corpse-like stiffness in his left hand, he eventually manages to clench it, as if he was activating his Phase Shift, in a desperate attempt to deactivate the device. If this didn’t work, there would be nothing else he could do, but accept his fate.

Fortunately, and immediately, the cold throb emanating from his left hand ceases, as Daniel feels the warmth from Torren IV’s scorching heat embrace him, as he watches his HUD indicate that his life signs were now stabilising. He lets out a sigh of relief, and after a few moments, he eventually finds the strength to roll onto his side, as he hears a familiar Vanguard’s monotonous voice speak to him through his helmet radio.

“Cooper, be advised, I have just detected a severe time distortion in your area.” BT informs blankly, “Exercise extreme caution.”

“’Time distortion’?” Daniel asks in confusion, as he slowly picks himself up off the sandy ground. “What are you talking about—”

“FIND THAT BASTARD, AND BRING ME HIS HEAD!” Pierre’s accented voice echo through an amplifier, from somewhere above the ravine. When Daniel looks back to his glove, he finds that whatever was on his hand, had completely vanished.

Before Daniel could linger on any thoughts he might have, BT speaks again. “Warning: Pirates inbound.” The Vanguard warns, as Daniel then hears and sees a multitude of Pirate ships of varying shapes and sized fly over his ravine.

One of them flies and stops just above the ravine, and shines a spotlight down into it at the other end. The spotlight slowly travels down the ravine towards Daniel’s position, who in response, calmly flicks his wrist to activate his Cloak. Even if the light were to shine directly on him, as long as he his Cloak was active, it would be as if he wasn’t there at all.

It was only after a few seconds that Daniel realises that flicking his wrist did nothing. A window suddenly appears on his HUD, stating: ‘CLOAK OFFLINE’. Before he can turn to leap onto the ravine wall to escape, another window appears: ‘JUMPKIT OFFLINE. REINITIALISING... 20%’.

“You’re fucking shitting me.” Daniel remarks, as he flicks his wrist again and again, in hopes of jump-starting his Cloak, to no avail. “Damn it, not now!” The Commando frustratedly remarks, as he freezes when the spotlight suddenly shines over him, and a multitude of roars are heard above on the ship.

“HE’S HERE! GIVE HIM A BROADSIDE, MATEYS!” A hatted Pirate, likely an officer of sorts, orders the crew, drawing his sword and raising it into the air, while the Pirates manning the trio of cannons on the side of the ship line them up on the Commando, as Daniel’s Jump Kit’s initialisation progress jumps from twenty percent, to sixty percent.

“Oh, give me a fucking break...” Cooper dismally grumbles, as he gets into a low, prepared stance, with his knees and elbows bent slightly, getting himself prepared to dodge without the assistance of his Jump Kit.

REINITIALISING... 80%.

“Steady... Aim... FIRE IN THE HOLE!” The Pirate officer calls out, swiftly swinging his sword downwards, as the trio of cannons subsequently erupt in sequence and fire a bombardment of cannonballs at the Commando.

REINITIALISING... 100%. JUMPKIT ONLINE.

Even with the aid of his newly-reactivated Jump Kit, Daniel only barely jumps out of the way in time to dodge the three cannonballs hurled at him by the ship’s cannons, which subsequently kick up lots of sand and leave moderately sized craters in the ground in their wake.

“Miss!” The officer says, “Reload and fire again!” He orders the cannon crew, as they proceed to do just that.

Seeing an opening, Daniel turns and leaps onto the ravine wall and starts wallrunning away from the Pirate ship above him.

“He’s runnin’! Get after him!” The officer commands, as the ship turns and starts pursuing the Pilot.

 “BT, my Cloak’s offline and my Phase Shift’s gone! I need an exit!” Daniel informs, “And what the hell was that thing on my hand, and where did it go?!” He asks frantically, as he quickly leaps to the opposite wall to dodge a lone cannonball fired at him.

“I will explain later. Continue evading the Pirates until your Cloak comes back online. I will bring the ship to your position when you have successfully eluded them; we cannot risk it being destroyed.” The Vanguard-Class Titan responds in his ear.

“Got it!” Cooper replies, as he narrowly dodges another

cannonball that slams into the ravine wall where he was a split-second prior, breaking off a big chunk of rock and causing it to plummet to the bottom of the ravine with a loud crash. Daniel knew that BT was right: They simply couldn’t risk the ship getting shot down, not when he was actively being attacked. If that happened, then he would be as good as dead.

As Daniel continues evading his pursuers through the ravine for a minute or so, dodging their shots all the while, (The aim on some of which were very poor, he notices) a stray cannonball suddenly slams into the ravine wall just ahead of him, and knocks him off of it. Before he can fall to his doom, he quickly fires his Grapple to the other wall and manages to successfully recover, as he then continues wallrunning on the other side.

Eventually, the relatively thin ravine Daniel was parkouring through ends, and leads him into a much wider intersecting ravine that leaves him far more vulnerable to the Pirates than before. His overall speed begins faltering, from needing to jump at a far straighter angle to reach the opposite wall. As the Pirate ship chasing him starts flying above the middle of the ravine, both cannon crews on either side then take turns firing upon him whenever he leaps over to their side.

“Warning: Additional Pirates inbound.” BT warns, as two more Pirate ships quickly appear from different directions overhead, and join the other in raining cannon fire down on the wallrunning Commando.

“Ye can’t run forever, it be only a matter of time!” A Pirate atop one of the ships called out to him.

Daniel knew the Pirate was right; even though their shots were currently uncoordinated, it was only a matter of time until he would meet his end. But with his Cloak still offline, and his Phase Shift seemingly no more, what else could he do?

“BT, I could really use an idea right now!” Cooper asks, as a cannonball strikes the wall above him and sends shrapnel-like rock fragments straight into him, making him flinch, though he was thankfully protected from it by his armour. After a slight delay, BT responds.

“Calculating...”

“Cease fire! Reload and await my command!” The first ship’s officer orders, as all three ships promptly cease their assault on the Titan Pilot. The officer then draws his sword and raises it into the air, similar to before.

“Steady...!”

“Cooper, I may have a solution. Clench your left hand.”

“Aim...!”

Daniel knew from many past experiences to always trust the Vanguard’s advice, and to be honest, he was desperate for any kind of solution right now, no matter how unusual it might sound. Daniel then clenches his left hand into a fist.

Almost instantaneously, the shiny metal ring from before materialises onto the back of his glove, and he feels a familiar and otherworldly chill begin flowing through his body, causing him to suck in a sharp breath. What the ring was, or what its activation had done, Daniel had no idea.

As Daniel leaps across to the other side of the chasm to dodge the inevitable barrage of cannonfire, after a few seconds he notices that it... Never comes?

As he risks a peak over his shoulder at the three Pirate ships, he sees all of them... flying at a snail’s pace?

The Pilot then immediately anchors himself to the wall with his Grapple to get a better look at the ships, and sure enough, all three of the Pirates’ ships were moving so slowly, they might as well not be moving at all. A few seconds later, as Daniel feels himself getting colder and colder, the Pirate officer very slowly swings his sword downwards, and after a lengthy delay, each of the cannons erupt into a symphony of fire and smoke.

As the cannons begin peppering the ravine wall in an extremely slow sequence, Daniel sees a group of dragon-like creatures flying slowly far overhead, flapping their wings far too slowly for it to be possible for them to maintain their flight, as he notices the ‘LOW INTERNAL TEMPERATURE’ warning appear on his HUD again. Now that he knew how to shut the thing off, Daniel clenches his fist again, and everything around him, including the Pirates and the creatures flying above him, resume moving at a normal speed.

As the barrage of cannonfire quickly resumes and subsequently finishes, the Pirates on the opposite side of the ship visibly recoil in shock. “WHAT IN ZONI’S NAME— How’d he move so fast?!” One such Pirate exclaims, pointing a finger at the Commando hanging from the ravine wall, as the rest of the crew manning the cannons turn around to look, and the three ships slow to a halt.

“Pilot, I have marked your HUD with coordinates for exfiltration.” BT informs, as a waypoint indicator appears on Daniel’s HUD, leading somewhere further down the chasm.

“How hard can it be to shoot a single man?! The officer angrily exclaims, “Prepare to fire again, and do not miss this time!” He orders, pointing the tip of his sword towards Obsidian, as the Pirates quickly man the available cannons facing towards the Commando’s new position.

“Steady... Ah ta’ hell with it, just blast him!” The officer shouts with some impatience, as the cannons subsequently fire a massive volley of cannonballs towards Obsidian.

Without thinking, Daniel clenches his fist again, and subsequently, he feels the distinct chill emanating from his left hand return, as the cannonballs headed towards him subsequently slow to a crawl, now appearing almost as if they were suspended in mid-air.

In the moment, Daniel ignores this, and he quickly retracts his Grapple and resumes wallrunning down the ravine, avoiding their line of fire with ease. As the Pilot wallruns around a bend and breaks line of sight with the Pirates, a new waypoint marker appears on his HUD, leading him further down the ravine.

What Daniel didn’t know, was that from the Pirate’s perspective, everything didn’t slow down, like it appeared to him. Instead, the Commando the Pirates were firing upon instantly accelerates to an almost blinding speed, becoming a dark blur and quickly whizzing down the ravine and disappearing around a bend all within a fraction of a second, leaving the Pirates completely dumbfounded.

“What the hell?! Where’d he go?!” A Pirate manning one of the ship’s many cannons exclaims, as he lets go of his cannon’s grips and rubs both of his eyes. The other Pirates on his side of the ship were in a similarly confused state, unsure of whether or not what they all saw was simply a figment of one’s imagination, a hallucination resulting from an overindulgence in grog, or proof that Obsidian possessed magical powers.

“Ah, don’t tell me ye’s all lost him!” The ship’s officer calls out. “We were right on top of him, how could ye’s lose him?!” He roars furiously.

“I don’t know, he just... disappeared!” The Pirate explains, as the ship speeds up again after the officer’s order, with the other two ships following close behind.

“Well, maybe if ye weren’t takin’ so long to reload the bloody cannon, ye might’ve been able to land a shot!” Another Pirate on the other side of the ship’s deck jabs at him.

“Don’t be gettin’ on my case! His aim was all over the place!” He retorts, as he angrily gestures to the Pirate on the cannon next to him, who wore a black beanie alongside an eyepatch over his left eye.

The Pirate in question then slowly and shakily turns around to face his compatriot, and points an accusing finger at him. “I’m drunk, *hic*, you don’t have an excuse!” He slurs out, before he suddenly loses his footing and hits the ship’s deck with a crash, and passes out cold.

As the Pirates continue bickering amongst each other, the trio of ships eventually fly past a small chasm intersecting the large ravine, that unbeknownst to them, contained the Commando they were chasing.

As Daniel hung from the wall with the aid of his Grapple, he let out a shivery sigh of relief, as he felt the heat of Torren IV begin gradually warming him back up. Raising of his left fist, Daniel looks at the ring-shaped device protruding out the back of it. “What the hell is this thing?” He asks nobody in particular, as he hears the engines belonging to a familiar dropship above him.

“Pilot, I am detecting a fleet of spacecraft entering Torren IV’s atmosphere; likely Imperial forces. I recommend that you evacuate immediately.” BT’s monotonous voice warbles from the green and yellow Militia Crow’s PA system, as the ship carefully lowers itself into the ravine and stops next to the Pilot hanging from the wall, before the side door slides open.

With a boost from his Jump Kit, Daniel effortlessly jumps from the wall and lands in the Crow with a small metallic thud. When he does this, he sees an indicator pop up on his HUD:

CLOAK ONLINE.

Daniel lets out a defeated sigh. Perfect fucking timing, as always. The Pilot silently remarks, as he walks up to the front of the Crow and gets himself seated in the Pilot’s seat. “Get me off this goddamn planet, BT.” Daniel wearily remarks to BT, the Vanguard issuing an acknowledgment, as the Crow’s engines subsequently pick up again, and the Militia Dropship takes off into the sky, disappearing into the cosmos with a flash.

————————————————————

THE CARTER BRAXTON,

THARIA

Daniel sat on a small crate with a solemn expression on his face, his helmet sitting beside him, with the black and grey chassis of BT-7274 standing almost motionlessly nearby within the Braxton’s spacecraft hanger. “So... you’re saying that this thing can slow down time?” Daniel asks in a grave tone, raising his now gloveless left fist to reveal the glowing, alien device protruding out the back of it.

“While also protecting you from its effects, yes.” The Vanguard’s monotonous voice reverberates through the hanger, confirming Daniel’s suspicion.

“I swear, I feel like I’m in a video game sometimes...” Daniel sighs, placing his palm over his face. “And what the hell happened to the Ark back there? Why was it so much smaller on Torren IV than on Typhon?”

“It seems that activating your Phase Shift close proximity to the Ark greatly destabilised it, and subsequently caused it to overload. As for the change in the Ark’s mass, it is possible that the Ark overloading on Typhon caused it to separate into multiple fragments, instead of detonating like we previously believed.” BT explains, as he then crouches down and projects a map of the Polaris Galaxy in front of Daniel, marked with several glowing orange dots marked: ‘UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE’. Daniel sees that there was at least a few dozen of these dots marked as such located throughout the galaxy, as the Vanguard-Class Titan continued. “The Braxton’s scanners are currently detecting multiple unexplained energy signatures throughout the galaxy. However, I am currently unable to confirm if any of which are derived from the Ark.”

“Looks like only time will tell.” Daniel reckons, as BT finishes the projection and stands up. “But that still doesn’t explain why... this happened.” The Pilot says, raising his left fist into the air again, showing off the metal ring protruding out the back of his hand. “Or what that freezing cold I felt was...” Daniel mutters, as he relaxes his fist, and watches in mild concern as the ring subsequently retreats back into his hand, and disappears.

“My analysis indicates that your Phase Shift was able to absorb a portion of the Ark’s energy when it was overloading, the result of which significantly altering its molecular structure and producing the time-displacing device currently merged with your hand. It is bonded to you at an atomic level, and cannot be removed by any conventional means.” The Titan explains.

“As for the cold sensation you observed while the device was active, this can likely be attributed to the radiation it produces as a by-product.”

“...I sincerely hope this isn’t the kind of radiation that’ll make me start throwing up my own organs soon...”

“Other than the continuous fall of your body temperature while the device is active, I have not detected any other side-effects of this radiation on your person.” BT reassures Daniel, who breathes a sigh of relief.

“Well, thank fuck for that... That’s like... the second time in a week I’ve cheated death.” Daniel remarks.

“I do not believe it is possible to cheat against something that does not possess a physical form, especially while in combat.” BT states completely monotonously, prompting Daniel to let out an amused snort at the Titan’s inability to understand certain phrases.

“It’s a phrase, BT. It just means I survived a near-death situation.” Daniel explains with an amused expression.

“Understood. I have added the phrase ‘Cheat Death’ to my vocabulary. Taking into account your explanation of the phrase, we have both ‘cheated death’ more than three-hundred times within the last one-hundred-and-sixty-eight standard hours.”

Daniel stared at the Vanguard with a blank expression for a few seconds, before looking away. Had he really almost died that many times within the last week? It sure didn’t feel that way. But when he thought over it, he realised that every little skirmish he had been in, even if it was with a lone Grunt or Pirate, technically had been a near-death situation. Or when he miscalculated a jump at the MacAllan’s crash site, and only barely managed to grab hold of the ledge and prevent himself from falling into the rapids, was yet another time he’d cheated death. After a while, without him even realising it, they had all just... blended together. As concerning of a thought it was, it was almost as if he’d gotten used to it. After all, death was a subject Daniel had been very familiar with for many years now...

“Daniel, your vitals indicate you are now beginning to suffer from exhaustion.” BT suddenly informs Cooper, who looks back up to meet the Vanguard’s lone eye. “I recommend you return to your quarters and get some rest.”

“Yeah, I think I’ve earned it.” Daniel agrees with a low sigh, as he grabs his helmet and glove and stands up off the crate and begins walking towards Officer Adams’ quarters, before suddenly turning around to face BT with his left fist raised, showing off the device on its back. “Hey — Now that I have this thing, ‘cheating death’ should be a breeze!” Daniel calls back to the Vanguard.

“Cooper, I must warn you: Third-parties may experience the device’s effects differently than how you do. They may instead observe you briefly gaining incredible speed.” BT cautions him, “If you must use it in any given situation, use it as sparingly as possible, in order to prevent yourself from developing hypothermia.”

“Got it, bud. I’ll see you tomorrow!” Daniel says with a thumbs-up.

“Farewell, Cooper.” BT replies, mimicking the gesture.

With that, Daniel departs the Braxton’s hanger, and continues onwards towards Officer Adams’ quarters, to obtain some well earned rest.

Chapter Text

————————————————————

ZURKIE’S GASTROPUB,

SCARSTU DEBRIS FIELD,

PRESENT DAY.

As Daniel exits Zurkie’s Gastropub through the exit teleporter, and emerges outside into the surrounding void of space carrying the repaired central processing module in his left hand, he walks past Ms. Zurkon and bids her farewell, and thanks her again for the ammunition she sold him for his Holo-weapons on his way in. The jade robot returns the farewell with a warm ‘You’re very welcome, hon!’, and a wave from her pincer-like hand.

As he continues walking down the ramp leading to the ship landing port, Daniel sees a medium-sized Pirate ship similar to the ones he encountered on Torren IV the previous day, that wasn’t there on his way in, hovering above a far landing platform. He spies a few Pirates on board the ship’s deck, seemingly busy with various jobs on board.

With his helmet display’s magnifier, he easily sees that the Pirates were subtly watching him. Daniel feels a sense of unease and quickly passes the Central Processing Module over to his right hand, as he recalls Rivet’s warning that they plan to ambush him. His left hand twitches, ready to clench at a moment’s notice to activate the time displacing device imbedded within it. The ‘Time Shift’, as he recently named it.

Earlier that morning, he and BT did multiple tests and discovered many things about the Time Shift’s capabilities, some of which would be quite useful in the future. (If he lived long enough to make use of it.)

They discovered that Daniel could no longer simply Phase Shift out of danger like he could before. Though, the trade-off of being able to bend time to his will seemed more than fair. There was also seemingly no limit to how long the Time Shift could remain active, if the steady decrease in his body temperature was to be ignored.

His choice in clothing, or any kind of external heat source for that matter, had no effect on the practical length of time he could keep the Time Shift active, before he would begin to feel the negative effects of hypothermia. Though, both would affect how long it would take for his body temperature to recover, meaning he would be able to use it more frequently on warm planets, like Torren IV for example.

And finally, if he were to fire any kind of gun while it was active, the round would still travel at a considerable speed, but would be slow enough for Daniel to possibly dodge incoming fire. And no, the Time Shift unfortunately did not work alongside BT when he was inside the Titan’s cockpit and linked to him, like Major Anderson’s time travel device did. BT hypothesised that this was likely due to the massive difference in mass between them both, and that it might be possible to share its effects with something, or possibly someone closer to Daniel’s mass.

Back when Daniel helped out that waitress, the entire ordeal was over in a blink of an eye, to anyone who happened to see it. To him, with time slowed to a crawl, it took about a quarter of a minute to calmly collect the near-frozen glasses from the air and return them to their tray, and then use his other hand to quickly deactivate his Time Shift and catch her mid-slip.

Despite the good deed, Daniel knew that he had been unwise – no, borderline stupid to activate the Time Shift in front of so many people, even if it was a simple heat-of-the-moment impulse. And judging from the shocked look on Rivet’s face, she had definitely witnessed the kind of power it granted him at the mere clench of his fist.

Then again, luck must’ve been on his side, as it seemed that she was the only person in the pub who actually noticed, which was aided by the fact that the place was nowhere near as crowded as it was the last time he was there. He had no doubt she would have more questions to ask him in the future. Though, she was probably just being curious.

As he gets closer to his ship, the Commando presses his fingers to his helmet radio. “BT, we might have trouble. Get the ship ready for take-off.” He orders “And be ready to cover me if those Pirates try anything.” He adds, as he continues through the landing port, passing by several aliens refuelling their ships, chatting to one another about current events, or evacuating the contents of their stomach after having too much to drink in one isolated case.

“Copy that, Pilot.” BT responds monotonously.

As Daniel walks past yet another ship, he takes a wide berth around it, just in case there were any Pirates ready to jump out with swords and pistols drawn. Another ten or so paces later, he finds himself walking down the ramp leading towards his Crow, which was already hovering in place above the platform, ready for take-off.

The Militia dropship’s side door slides open with a hiss, and Daniel quickly jumps inside, after doing a quick double take at the Pirates’ ship, and seeing that strangely enough, none of the cannons were being manned and aimed towards him like he expected.

“BT, get us out of here, now!” Daniel barks, quickly strapping himself into one of the troop seats while holding the module tightly to his chest, having no intention of sticking around any longer. The side door promptly slides shut and the Crow quickly takes off from the platform and flies away into deep space, producing a shockwave that scatters bits of trash and other debris across the platforms, while also throwing many unfortunate aliens close enough to be affected onto the ground.

Daniel breathes out a sigh of relief, “That was close, too close.” The Pilot says as he unclasps himself from his seat, then kneels down onto the floor and reaches under the seats and pulls out a black duffle bag from underneath it. As he then places the Central Processing Module into the bag before securing it back beneath the seats, he is about to order BT to bring them back to the Braxton, when he hears one of the instruments in the cockpit begin to beep in warning.

“Warning Pilot; detecting an incoming bogey on radar.” BT warns, and as Daniel is about to go to the cockpit to see what was on the radar for himself, said radar appears in a window on his HUD, displaying a yellow dot at the very bottom of it, indicating that the bogey was following far behind them.

Shit, they’re playing it smart. Daniel thinks to himself, simultaneously realising that his Time Shift would be of useless to him, trapped within the confines of his ship. He straps himself into the pilot’s seat, now believing that the Pirates might be planning to disable his ship and strand or capture him in deep space, as if they wanted to kill him, he was certain that they would’ve tried to do so at Zurkie’s. He’d overheard some stories from other patrons of what Space Pirates often did to their prisoners while he was waiting for Rivet to arrive, and none of them were good stories. Even then, with all these ‘what ifs’ running through his mind, Daniel was completely unaware that the Pirates had no intention of harming him in any way under their First Mate’s new orders.

Daniel knew that his Crow wasn’t as nimble or well-armed as any of the Militia’s Hornet fighters; it was only a dropship meant for deploying and evacuating troops. Even though it was armed with a fifty-calibre minigun under its nose, it was only intended to be used for self-defence, and with the Crow not possessing the shielding technology like the IMC’s newer Goblin dropships did, they wouldn’t stand a chance against a ship armed with a half a dozen cannons.

With simply fighting the Pirates out of the question, Daniel knew that there was only one option left.

“Scratch that, we’ve got to lose them, BT!” The Commando tells the Vanguard, knowing that they couldn’t risk leading the Pirates back to the Braxton.

“Copy that, executing evasive manoeuvres.”

Soon after Daniel quickly straps into the pilot’s seat, the Militia Crow swiftly accelerates before taking a wide right turn, avoiding getting any closer to the Pirates’ ship, before eventually heading in the general direction of Zurkie’s refuelling station floating just on the edge of the Scarstu Debris Field.

“I will attempt to fly us through the Scarstu Debris Field; it will give us the best possible chance at successfully evading the Pirates.”

“Ok, do whatever you need to, bud!” Daniel acknowledges with a hint of unease in his tone, as there was practically nothing he could do to help, and clutches onto the armrests on either side of his seat.

As they fly past Zurkie’s at a distance, some of the aliens on the refuelling platforms were still recovering after being hit by the shockwave caused by their sudden take-off, and some of which begin angrily shaking their fists and shouting curses at the green and yellow ship as it zips past.

As the Crow continues dodging asteroid after asteroid, Scarstu’s debris field starts becoming denser and denser with the asteroids within gradually becoming more plentiful by the second. A few moments after, Daniel watches the Pirate’s marker on the radar begin falling further and further behind them, until it finally dips off of the radar completely, likely no longer being able to navigate the debris field due to their ship’s larger size compared to the Militia Crow.

Daniel relaxes upon seeing this, and promptly releases the armrests he didn’t realise he’d been squeezing in his grip.

“It appears the Pirates bear some resentment towards you.” BT mentions, the Crow’s console flashing in sync.

Cooper lets out a frustrated sigh in response. “Tell me about it...” He says sarcastically, resting his head against his hand leaning on the armrest of his seat.

“It is likely resulting from the repeated skirmishes between you both, as well as you recently stealing the Ark fragment from their possession on Torren IV.” BT replies to Cooper, oblivious to the sarcasm in his Pilot’s request.

“Speaking of which, have you gotten any closer to finding any more Ark fragments, BT?” Cooper asks the Vanguard.

“I was able to confirm the presence of an Ark fragment somewhere within Polaris’ Cerullean Sector.” The Titan informs. “Additional analysis is required to determine its exact location, due to lingering gases within the sector interfering with the Braxton’s scanners.”

“Okay, that’s great.” Daniel replies. “In the meantime, let’s head back to the Braxton and get that communications system up and running again.” He says with a small smile underneath his visor, looking back under the troop seats at the duffle bag containing the repaired module.

“Solid copy, Pilot.” BT replies.

The Crow suddenly takes a left turn, and after flying through Scarstu’s Debris Field for another few minutes, they eventually reach the outer edges of the debris field, revealing the void of deep space to the Commando once more.

“Initiating Jump Drive. Jumping in three, two, one, mark.”

The green and yellow Militia Crow subsequently vanishes with a flash, leaving behind no trace besides a brief stream of blue energy in the general direction it went.

————————————————————

While Daniel and BT were able to make it out of the Scarstu Debris Field unscathed, the Pirates following them on the other hand, were in a completely different boat altogether...

Back on their ship, the Pirates scrambled to their feet after their ship suddenly struck an asteroid with a loud metallic crash, the resulting damage ripping several engines from the ship’s body and outright disabling the remaining ones. As the Pirates’ ship floats helplessly through the debris field, leaving a trail of wood and metal debris behind it, the Pirate officer at the ship’s helm growls in anger. The same Pirate officer that had been in charge of chasing the Commando the day before.

Despite his crew’s warnings that their ship wouldn’t be able to safely navigate the debris field and that they should instead turn back, the Pirate Officer had ordered the crew to keep following Obsidian’s ship, due to his own wounded pride from what had occurred on Torren IV. His crew failing to kill a single man under his command, despite that man being, according to his crew, ‘too fast to hit’, had reduced him to a laughing stock amongst all the other Pirates.

How he wasn’t immediately stripped of his rank and reduced to swabbin’ decks, was nothing short of a miracle. (And a bit of begging the Captain for another chance, which of course was aided by his good record up until that point.) As such, he wanted to prove to the other Pirates that he wasn’t a ‘Joke of an Officer’, despite the events of the previous day.

The Officer scowls, regretting that he should’ve just swallowed his pride and actually listened to their warnings. He lets out a fiery growl upon realising that there was only one thing he could do to get himself and his crew out of this situation alive:

Begrudgingly, the Pirate Officer pulls his communicator from his pocket and dials Pierre’s frequency. After a few seconds of somewhat restlessly waiting for the First Mate to answer, he does so.

“What is it? Have you located the Commando’s hideout?” Pierre asks.

“No, First Matey... erm, we lost him.” The Officer reluctantly says, bracing himself for the inevitable angry tirade Pierre would unleash on him.

“Incompetent imbécile! I trust you with one simple task, and you still let me down!” Pierre shouts over the communicator after a furious growl.

“I will give you one more chance to find where that Commando is hiding, and in exchange, I will keep this matter off the record.” The First Mate offers. Pierre knew of the Officer’s willingness to make up for his past blunder, and as such this offer was simply too good for the Pirate Officer to refuse.

“Aye First Matey, but we’ve no idea where he might’ve gone!” The Officer informs, as he watches one of his crew members duck underneath an asteroid passing over the ship’s deck, most likely the result of the forcefield generator protecting the deck being disabled from the crash.

“Use your CPU, you dimwit! Where was he headed when you last saw him?” The First Mate asks.

“Well, after he left Zurkie’s, we were followin’ him just fine, but then he suddenly turned ‘round and flew back into Scarstu’s Debris Field, and that’s where we lost him.” The Officer recalls.

“He probably noticed you following him! What did I say about being discreet?!” Pierre chides loudly, causing the Officer to flinch.

The First Mate sighs loudly in frustration. “Where was he going before you lost him?”

The Officer pauses briefly to think, placing his hand against his chin. “He was headed further into the system, I think?” He answers.

“There’s only one other planet in this star system...” Pierre realises, as he laughs wickedly. “Return to the Cove at once and organise a search party to assist you in searching that planet, what was it called again...?” He muses. “Whatever, search every centicubit of that planet’s surface and inform me at once if you discover any leads on the Commando’s whereabouts.”

“Aye aye, First Matey!” The Officer replies, as the line goes dead.

As the Pirate officer pockets his communicator and lets out a sigh of relief, thankful that his First Mate had given him a second chance, (which was more like his third, at that point) he realises something when he notices his ship still floating helplessly through space...

He’d forgotten to tell Pierre that he and his crew were stranded.

“Ah, shite...” The Officer remarks, as he starts to dial Pierre back, preparing himself for yet another inevitable chastising from his First Mate.

————————————————————

THE CARTER BRAXTON,

THARIA.

After inserting the repaired Central processing Module back into its slot with a light shove, Daniel Cooper closes the access panel on the Braxton’s Communications System before radioing BT.

“Alright BT, the module’s in, and everything else looks good.” He informs, as he returns his repair tool back into its repair kit, having repaired some of the damaged circuitry inside the massive machine. “Let’s see if it works.”

“Copy that.” BT responds, as Daniel stands to his feet and backs up away from the communications system, his legs feeling some relief as a result of kneeling for the past while.

A few moments later, Cooper hears the massive machine begin powering up, before it eventually settles into a low hum, with some screens and lights on the system turning on as well.

“Communications system online. Initiating diagnostics...” BT informs. A few moments pass, before the Vanguard returns with good news.

Diagnostics complete: Systems functioning at one-hundred-percent capacity.” The Titan reports in Daniel’s ear.

Damn, Rivet knows her stuff when it comes to fixing things. An impressed Daniel silently remarks to himself. If he ever needed to get anything fixed in the future, he knew exactly who he’d go to.

“Attempting to establish direct contact with the Militia Headquarters on planet Harmony...” BT informs. After a tense few moments, BT returns with some rather unfortunate news.

“Cooper, I am unable to establish contact with Militia HQ. We are likely out of range.”

Daniel sighs. “I figured that much.” He states. While he wasn’t exactly pleased to learn that, it wasn’t unexpected, either. Especially after discovering the existence of an entire galactic civilisation that was also being subjugated by a tyrannical robotic emperor.

After a few moments of thinking, Daniel gets an idea: What if there was some way they could broadcast the distress signal, in all directions? That way, no matter what direction the Frontier was from them, maybe the Militia would receive it in a few months time? After all, all modern types of transmissions and communications travelled at speeds several times the speed of light.

Even if the Militia likely wouldn’t be able to arrange rescue, due to the fact that Jump Drives aren’t capable of inter-galactic travel, with a bit of luck, they might only be a galaxy or two over. From there, maybe Daniel and BT could acquire a ship that’s fast enough to allow them to travel between galaxies in a relatively short time? After all, if this galaxy had teleportation technology of all things, then it would be safe to assume that they probably also had spacecraft technology that made Jump Drives look like early petroleum engines in comparison.

But there was no point in doing any of that, not yet. They had to figure out just where in the universe the Ark had sent them, and the only feasible way they could do so in that moment, was to contact the Militia and inform them that they were in-fact not dead, and in dire need of assistance. From there, the Militia could probably trace their transmission, and use it to determine where they were located in relation to the Frontier. Daniel thinks that his idea was at the very least worth mentioning to the Titan.

“BT, is there any way you could use the communications system to broadcast the distress signal?” He asks, silently hoping that his idea was possible.

“Yes, but I highly advise against doing so. This galaxy possesses technology far more advanced than our own; the possibility that a third-party will intercept and crack the broadcast’s encryption is extremely high.” BT explains.

“The Militia also likely believe that we perished on Typhon, and any attempt to communicate with them may be dismissed as a form of deception by the IMC.”

Daniel sighs, agreeing that the last thing they needed right now was to lead the Pirates or Nefarious straight to their doorstep. But, what other choice did they have? Just do nothing and wait and hope that the Militia comes to find them? Fat chance, all things considered.

“Cooper, Nefarious is likely now searching for fragments of the Ark as well. If he were to acquire even a single one, with the resources and technology he likely has at his disposal, the results could be catastrophic.” The Vanguard informs.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Daniel morosely agrees with a sigh. “We can’t let anyone gets their hands on any Ark fragments, period.” The Titan Pilot firmly declares. The last thing him and BT needed was for Nefarious to construct his own Fold Weapon, or worse, if that was even possible in this galaxy.

“Agreed, Pilot. Protocol Two, Mission Update: Locate and secure fragments of the Ark.” BT announces.

“In the meantime, I recommend that we procure a suitable storage apparatus capable of masking the Ark fragments’ energy signatures from the Empire and other third-parties which may want them for themselves.”

That would be easy enough if they could get into the Draconis, and salvage the Ark’s old casing, implying that it survived both the crash and the Ark transporting it to Tharia. But right now, they couldn’t, not with the Draconis almost completely buried and the frequent storms on Tharia. And with the lack of any way to transport BT, it made simply bringing the Vanguard along to dig a way inside currently impossible.

Their second option was to construct an entirely new casing. But that required finding someone who was both capable of and willing to construct it for them. That, and the raw materials it would no-doubt require, which would cost Daniel bolts he simply didn’t have.

While on that train of thought, Daniel suddenly remembers the Raritanium he picked up while he was on Torren IV, and quickly materialises the ice-like crystal into his palm from his Holo-Manager.

“BT, if we were to build an entirely new casing, would some Raritanium work?” He asks, holding the crystal up to the lights above him.

“Bring it to me, and I will determine its suitability for a construction material of a new casing for fragments of the Ark.” The Vanguard asks.

“Got it, on my way.” Daniel affirms, stowing the chunk of Raritanium back into his Holo Manager.

————————————————————

As it turned out, Raritanium would be a perfect material for constructing a new casing for the Ark fragments. In its raw, crystalline form, it was nigh-impenetrable by scanners and radiation, meaning that it would completely mask the energy signatures of the Ark fragments. He could probably sell it, too, recalling what the Pirates mentioned as they were mining some of it on Torren IV.

“But where are we supposed to get more of this stuff?” Daniel asks, now in the Braxton’s spacecraft hanger alongside the Titan. “And I’m not going back to Torren IV anytime soon.” He firmly states, recalling his incredibly poor luck during his prior mission on the desert planet. Or good luck, you could say, considering he was still alive to tell the tale. That, and that Nefarious’ forces were likely crawling all over the planet right now, searching for the now-non-existent fragment of the Ark.

“Perhaps you could request help from your new allies in the Resistance? If you explain the dire circumstances as to why the Raritanium is required, I am certain they will be more inclined to assist you.” BT suggests.

Daniel mulls over the Vanguard’s proposition. He was reluctant to tell the Resistance what the Ark was used for, and he wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure whether or not he should trust them, yet. If word got out what the Ark was and what it was used for, there was no doubt in Daniel’s mind that nearly everyone in the galaxy would want it, for their own reasons or another.

But... how else was he going to get his hands on some more Raritanium?

Reluctantly, Daniel reaches into his satchel and retrieves his communicator with a sigh. “Let me give Phantom a call, and see what he says...”

After scrolling through the list of contacts and dialling Phantom’s frequency, the green reptilian alien promptly answers.

“Hey Obsidian. Did Rivet fix that module for you, afterwards?”

“Yeah, it’s working fine now, but I’ve got another problem that I’m hoping that you can help me with.” Daniel informs, as he takes a seat on top of a nearby crate.

“Sure! What sort of problem do you need my help with, my armoured ally?” The Rilgarian returns enthusiastically, more than willing to help the Resistance’s new ally.

“I need Raritanium, and lots of it.” Daniel explains, “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me where I could get some?”

Phantom audibly hums over the communicator. “Well, there’s always cargo trains carrying the stuff all over Nefarious city; every one of the factories uses it in some way or another.” He explains, “You could probably snag some off of one, if you wait a couple of days for the heat from our last mission to die down—”

“I can’t afford to wait that long, Phantom.” Cooper interrupts. “I need it as soon as possible.”

“Hold on, what do you need it so urgently for?” Phantom questions.

Daniel briefly pauses, carefully choosing his next words, before he sighs. “Trust me when I say that it’s better you don’t know, at least for now. But I can guarantee that the Resistance will greatly benefit in the long run.” He says, hoping to persuade Phantom. He technically wasn’t lying in that last part; the Resistance would benefit from Nefarious not being able to get his hands on the fragment of the Ark, if Cooper managed to find and secure it before he did.

“Alright, in that case, I’ll come with you and back you up!” Phantom suddenly offers, after silently thinking it over for a moment. “I’ve actually been planning to board and blow up one of those cargo trains myself, with a spare bomb I have left over from the factory.” He admits.

Daniel hears the Rebel tapping away on what was presumably keyboard, before Phantom speaks again. “Okay, the schedule here says that there’s a cargo train due to bring raw materials out to a warbot factory in the Industrial District in about two hours.” The Rebel explains. “I’m sending you the coordinates to a bridge that you can hide your ship under. I’ll meet you there.”

“Fair enough, see you then.” Daniel replies, as the line goes dead with a click.

The moment Phantom mentioned a train, Daniel immediately thought of tight, enclosed spaces. He makes a mental note to bring a shotgun with him, as he stands up from the crate he’s sitting on.

“Well BT, it looks I’ve got a train to catch.” The Pilot remarks, as he begins making his way to the Braxton’s armoury to equip himself for his next mission.

————————————————————

INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT,

NEFARIOUS CIY,

CORSON V.

The Militia Crow emerges from the foggy abyss, and flies up towards a small platform underneath a somewhat inconspicuous bridge on the outskirts of the Industrial District of Nefarious City. Upon reaching the platform, the Titan Pilot inside sees the Rebel, Phantom, leaning against a wall nearby, which has some blotches of orange spray paint on it and the floor. As the ship touches down, the rebel greets him with a quick wave, before standing up from the wall and slowly walking over to the ship.

The dropship’s side door slides open, and Obsidian emerges from inside, stepping down onto the metal platform with his L-STAR energy LMG hanging over his chest.

“Now that I’ve thought about it, they would never expect us to try and pull off anything in the city the day after a mission. We usually try to keep a low profile for a few days.” Phantom says to the Commando. “As long as we keep our heads down, this should be fool proof!”

“We’re about to board and destroy a no-doubt heavily-guarded cargo train, and you want us to ‘keep our heads down’?” Daniel retorts, feeling somewhat uneasy in comparison to the rebel’s optimism, especially after the last time they were here.

“Hey, like I said, they shouldn’t be expecting us.” Phantom informs. “And by the time they do realise it’s us and send out reinforcements, we’ll be long gone!” The Rilgarian reassures with a confident smile.

“Hopefully.” Daniel remarks, as Phantom turns and begins walking up the stairs, gesturing for him to follow.

“Come on; there’s a spot not too far from here where the train will slow down to turn a corner. We can jump on board there.” Phantom informs.

After climbing to the top of the stairs and going through a narrow walkway, it brings the Commando and the Rebel into a derelict, intersecting alleyway. It seems like no-one’s travelled through there for some time, judging from the several overfilled dumpsters with trash spilling out onto the ground around them.

After quickly peaking his head out and looking up and down the alley, Phantom takes a left and quickly speeds up into a brisk jog, with Cooper doing the same to keep up with him. They continue jogging through the alley for a minute or two, taking a turn here and there, until their progress is suddenly halted by a Nefarious Trooper appearing from an intersecting alley far ahead of them.

“Quick, hide!” Phantom hisses, who quickly ducks behind a dumpster, with Obsidian following suit, hiding behind a nearby pipe.

Mere milliseconds after they’d both completely hidden themselves, the Trooper turns and shines a bright light down the middle of the alley, moving back and forth mere inches from where they were both hidden. Then, after a few moments, the light suddenly turns off.

As Daniel starts slowly leaning out to peek, Phantom quickly gestures to him to stay put.

“Don’t move; it could be a trap!” The Rilgarian whispers to him.

With the distant sounds of the city around them, it was difficult to tell whether or not the Trooper had left.

With a flick of his wrist, Daniel activates his Cloak and quickly vanishes from view, causing Phantom to be taken aback slightly and widen his eyes in confusion.

Now-invisible, Daniel quickly leans out from behind his hiding spot to see the Trooper still standing in the middle of the alley, one of its laser arms pointed towards them. After a few tense moments, the Trooper lowers its arm and turns to continue patrolling down another alley.

“We’re clear.” Daniel informs Phantom, as he reappears with a brief shimmer and steps out from behind the pipe.

“Hey – Was that invisibility tech?” Phantom suddenly asks as he stands up from behind the dumpster, to which Cooper nods in confirmation. “Man, the things I could pull off with something like that...” The Rebel mumbles in slight awe.

“Phantom, we’re too vulnerable down here on the ground. We should get up to the rooftops.” Daniel recommends, looking up and pointing a finger to said rooftops above them.

“That’s what I was just about to say.” The Rilgarian replies, as he begins looking up and down the alley for a suitable spot to scale to the rooftops.

Phantom’s experienced eyes quickly snap onto a nearby recess with another dumpster sitting within it. Looking up, he smiles when sees the recess continuing up the side of the building, straight to the roof.

“There, we can use this to get up top.” Phantom informs, nodding towards the recess.

Cooper looks at the recess, and quickly recognises that he can simply use his Jump Kit to jump back and forth between the two walls in order to ascend to the rooftops. But Phantom didn’t have a Jump Kit, how was he going to get to the roof?

As Daniel is in the process of internally asking himself that question, Phantom climbs on top of the dumpster and materialises his Omniglove onto his right hand. He then jumps from the top of the dumpster as high as his legs can propel him, and slams his right hand onto the wall, producing a loud metallic bang. His Omniglove’s magnetic function activates, and firmly attaches the Rilgarian to the wall.

The Rebel pulls himself up until he gets a good foothold on the wall, then simultaneously disengages his Omniglove’s magnets and jumps away from the wall it to the opposite one behind him, turning in mid-air and magnetically attaching himself to that one like before. He repeats this action several times, ascending higher and higher, until he eventually reaches the roof of the building, grabbing hold of the railing and pulling himself up and over it.

Daniel had to admit; the fact that Phantom was able to do something like that without a Jump Kit was pretty impressive.

“Yo! You coming up here, or what?” Phantom calls out from the roof, snapping Cooper out of his thoughts, who sees the Rilgarian leaning over the railing waving down at him.

Daniel then runs at the recess and propels himself over the dumpster towards one of the inner walls. After his boot firmly connects with the wall, the Titan Pilot begins walljumping back and forth with the help of his Jump Kit, and quickly ascends the building. With one last jump, Cooper leaps over the railing onto the roof next to the Rebel.

“Come on, we need to get moving; the train will be here soon!” Phantom informs, wasting no time and breaking into a sprint across the rooftop, as Obsidian soon follows close behind.

Daniel surmises that Phantom’s clearly been doing this kind of work for some time, considering that the Rebel was able to keep a consistent lead on him without breaking a sweat, despite Cooper being a trained soldier. As they near the edge of the rooftop, Daniel prepares to use his Jump Kit to leap across the gap to the rooftop on the other side.

Phantom on the other hand, who was still ahead of Cooper by a few feet, jumps onto the railing at the roof’s edge and leaps off of it without hesitation. At first, it seems that the Rebel won’t make it, until he sticks his right arm out behind him with his palm facing outwards. Then, his silhouette suddenly distorts, as he’s propelled forwards over the gap onto the opposite roof via a miniature thruster in the palm of his Omniglove.

As Cooper lands next to him on the roof, the pair continue their sprint towards the train’s route.

“The hell was that?” Daniel asks.

“It’s my Phantom Dash! Designed and built it myself, as a matter of fact.” The Rebel says proudly.

“You named it after yourself?” Daniel questions, raising an eyebrow under his helmet.

“For the record, it wasn’t me who came up with the name.” Phantom informs with a hint of frustration in his tone. “I would’ve made you one, but the materials I need to make them are hard to get. Especially that Phase Quartz...” the Rilgarian remarks, Cooper humming in understanding.

The Rebel and the Commando continue travelling across the rooftops for a few minutes, jumping over gaps where needed, until the two eventually arrive at their destination: That being the roof of a building overlooking a huge, bottomless abyss resembling a T-junction far below them.

“Okay, this is the spot.” Phantom informs. “The train should be here any minute now.”

Sure enough, no more than a minute later, the train in question comes into view in the distance, barrelling towards the T-junction. As it nears the junction, the train quickly decelerates, before it begins turning into the chasm alongside Phantom and Obsidian’s position.

As the train turns through the junction and into the centre of the abyss alongside their building, Obsidian and Phantom both soon realise that despite the train flying about twenty feet lower than the roof, it was still simply too far from their building for them to be able to jump on board, Jump Kit and Phantom Dash be damned.

But, Daniel knew that he could absolutely make it if he were to use his Grapple. The only question in his mind, was whether or not Phantom had one, too.

“Phantom, you have a grappling hook?!” Daniel frantically asks, as the rear-most carriage finishes turning and the train begins speeding up again.

“I’ve got a Hookshot, if that’s what you mean!” Phantom confirms, raising his right fist and deploying said Hookshot out the side of his Omniglove, realising what the Commando was suggesting.

“THEN JUMP!” Obsidian yells, running and launching himself off the top of the building with the help of his Jump Kit and firing his Grapple at the train. Phantom swiftly follows, propelling himself off the roof with a Phantom Dash and quickly launching his Hookshot towards the train as well.

Both Grapple and Hookshot find their marks, latching onto a railing at the back of the rear carriage. Almost immediately, both Daniel and Phantom are violently yanked by the accelerating train.

They both begin reeling themselves in towards the train. But due to the intense winds, as well as them being inside train’s slipstream, Phantom and Obsidian struggle to keep themselves from being blown around, the two almost crashing into one another, if it wasn’t for Daniel’s quick thinking in using his Jump Kit to dodge the Rebel.

Soon after the near-miss, the Commando continues reeling himself in to the back of the train, the Rilgarian following close behind him.

After climbing onto the platform at the back of the train, the Commando grabs the Rebel’s left hand and helps him over the railing and onto the platform. “You alright?”

“I’m good... I think...” Phantom says through heavy breaths with his hands on his knees. “You are crazy, man! Something tells me Rivet’s gonna love working with you...” He remarks.

Daniel chuckles slightly. “Believe me, that was tame compared to some of the other things I’ve done.”

Phantom steadies his breathing and stands up straight. “You sound like you have a few stories to tell.” The Rilgarian remarks.

“Oh, I do...” Daniel replies, silently recalling plenty from Typhon alone. Time travel, for one. The Pilot silently remarks to himself.

“We should try and keep this quiet, for as long as we can.” Phantom recommends. As the two turn to face the large door leading into the train.

“And if it goes loud, we move quickly, do what we need to do and get off the train as soon as possible.” Daniel adds, the Rilgarian nodding in approval.

When the two approach, the large door leading into the first carriage automatically slides open with a hiss, Daniel instinctively shouldering his L-STAR and scanning the interior, with Phantom following close behind him, Combustor in hand. Other than a variety of wooden and metal crates stacked on either side of the carriage, there was nothing else of note.

The two slowly make their way through the carriage, Daniel keeping his weapon raised and checking everywhere for any potential hostiles. As he glances over the numerous crates in the carriage, he remembers what it was that he was here for.

“You see any Raritanium?” Cooper asks Phantom.

“None in here, anyway. We’ll keep looking, it’ll probably be in one of the other carriages ahead.” Phantom answers.

As the Rebel and the Commando continue sneaking through the carriage, a monotonous warble suddenly interjects through Daniel’s helmet radio.

“Cooper, my scans are detecting a large deposit of Raritanium in the next carriage directly ahead of you.” BT informs him.

The door to the next carriage slides open just like the last, and reveals yet another room filled with cargo crates. Amongst them, were two massive open crates on either side of the carriage full to the brim with Raritanium, the ice-like crystals sparkling under the carriage’s interior lights.

Phantom lets out a low whistle in awe. “Man, I’ve never seen this much Raritanium in one place. There enough of it here for ya’?”

“More than enough.” Daniel confirms, already having a general idea of how much he needs, thanks to prior calculations by BT. The Commando lets his L-STAR hang against his side as he reaches into a Raritanium crate and begins depositing the chunks of crystal into his Holo-Manager.

Under normal circumstances, as per his training, Daniel would usually secure the rest of the train before he would even think about going near the Raritanium. But, with the current circumstances regarding the next Ark fragment, he thinks best to prioritise the Raritanium first and foremost.

After depositing around half of the Raritanium inside the crate into his Holo-Manager, BT informs Daniel that the amount now in his possession will be more than enough to construct a new casing for storing the Ark fragment. But Daniel knew that it wouldn’t hurt to have a surplus, just in case.

“Hey – Feel free to help yourself to some of this stuff; take it as my thanks.” Daniel says to Phantom, who’s standing nearby with his arms crossed, inspecting the crates of Raritanium himself.

“Appreciate it, man.” Phantom thanks him, dematerialising his Combustor as he too begins taking Raritanium out of the other crate and depositing it into his own Holo-Manager.

Nearly everyone in the Resistance used Raritanium in one way or another, from Phantom himself using it to construct his various gadgets, to Rivet using it to upgrade her weapons. So, Phantom was more than happy to help himself to some, too.

Not long after the two continue looting the Raritanium, the door on the other end of the carriage suddenly slides open, and a Nefarious Slugger appears in the doorway.

“Ooh, intruders! Oh, how lucky I am, today was getting boring!” The Slugger gleefully remarks, as it eagerly smashes the wrecking balls at the end of its arms together at the prospect of having something to squish.

With the Slugger being such a large and relatively close target, Daniel doesn’t even need to use the sights on his L-STAR, and instead opts to simply fire the weapon from his shoulder, sending a stream of red-glowing charged particles straight at the warbot’s head region. Daniel had plenty experience using an L-STAR on Typhon, the energy LMG being very effective in its anti-infantry role.

He’d previously learned first-hand how the L-STAR worked, or rather, how the projectiles it fired affected its targets. When its charged particles hit something, it would disrupt the target’s atomic structure, resulting in high heat and kinetic damage, as well as leaving the target temporarily vulnerable to other sources of damage. IMC body armour was rendered practically useless by this absolute monster of an energy weapon, while it was in Cooper’s hands.

Its ammunition came in the form of square, magazine-like batteries that were then loaded into the rear of the energy weapon, with each one giving the user one-hundred shots to lay down. They were also much lighter and more compact than traditional magazines, allowing its wielder to keep a surplus of spare batteries in reserve.

The only downsides, was that it would quickly overheat if it was fired for too long, which would then require the heat sink at the muzzle-end of the weapon to be replaced before it could be used again. This meant that weapon required a decent amount of skill and situational awareness on the wielder’s part to determine whether they should keep firing and risk an overheat, or stop and risk losing their life.

After taking too many charged particles for its molecular structure to remain intact, the Slugger’s head explodes spectacularly, splattering the inside of the carriage and both the Rebel and the Commando in a combination of oil, metal and glass, as the rest of the Slugger’s body collapses to the floor with a crash.

Despite the L-STAR being a relatively quiet weapon in comparison to conventional firearms, the sound of the Slugger’s head exploding, however, was not.

“Damn!” Phantom exclaims, rubbing some oil off of his cheek. “Let’s hope the other Troopers didn’t hear that!”

Unfortunately, more Troopers can soon be heard approaching from the carriages ahead, their tentacle-like legs clanking against the metallic floor.

“Phantom, get down!” Daniel barks, as he pulls a satchel charge from his back and lobs it onto the Slugger’s corpse, before taking cover behind the Raritanium crate. The Rebel doesn’t question the Commando in the slightest upon seeing him toss the explosive ordinance, and he too takes cover behind a metal crate on his side of the carriage.

“I’ve detected an auditory disturbance - Moving to investigate!” A Lasertrooper reports as it nears the Raritanium carriage, another Lasertrooper following close behind it.

Upon entering the carriage and seeing the destroyed Slugger, the leading Trooper gasps in shock.

“One of our units is down! Who could have done this?!” The Trooper exclaims in anguish, as both it and its other fellow Trooper surround the dead Slugger and lower themselves to inspect their ally’s lifeless body, completely unaware of the fatal mistake they were currently making.

Daniel readies the oversized detonator in his right hand, and activates it by swiftly double-squeezing its trigger in rapid succession.

The satchel charge detonates, and the force of the subsequent explosion shears off the appendages of both Lasertroopers and sends their bodies flying into the walls of the carriage, the resulting impact then crushing what remained of them, as their mangled bodies then fall to the floor.

As well as destroying some of the crates nearest to the explosion - their contents getting thrown all around the carriage - the door which the Troopers came through is also blasted off and sent crashing onto the floor of the next carriage.

Then, as the smoke clears, there’s a few moments of tense silence, before about half-a-dozen hovering Trooper Heads are seen rushing towards Obsidian and Phantom from the carriages ahead.

“They definitely know we’re here now! Get ready for a fight, Phantom!” Cooper shouts to the Rilgarian, as he quickly runs out from behind the half-empty Raritanium crate and quickly advances towards the front of the carriage, letting off a spray of charged particles at the arriving Trooper Heads, killing two of them as he then takes cover behind the doorway at the end of the carriage.

As the remaining Trooper Heads return fire at Obsidian, one of them informing the rest of the train’s security of their presence, Phantom gives the Commando some supporting fire with his Combustor from behind his crate. He was somewhat unhappy at the mission going loud so soon, but understood that it wasn’t Obsidian’s fault. There was no way in hell that they would’ve been able to sneak through the train, especially with the number of Troopers that were probably on board.

Right as Daniel and Phantom take out the final Trooper Head, the door at the end of the next carriage suddenly slides open, and a Slugger followed by two Lasertroopers charge in.

“Surrender now, squishies! Resistance is futile!” The leading Slugger barks at the Commando and the Rebel, as it rushes through the carriage to close the gap, while the Lasertroopers fire their ion-flux lasers at the Commando and Rebel.

Daniel didn’t want to repeat the mistake of using the Time Shift in front of someone again; not unless he absolutely had to. So, instead, he leans out, brings up his L-STAR and starts unloading it into the attacking Troopers in the carriage ahead, Phantom assisting him with shots of superheated plasma from his Combustor.

One after the other, the Slugger and one of the Lasertroopers quickly falls to Phantom and Obsidian, their heads and other body parts either exploding or getting holes burned through them as a result of their weapons’ effects.

Unfortunately, as Daniel ignores the ‘DANGER: OVERHEAT’ warning on his L-STAR’s miniature display as well as the heat emanating from its now-red hot barrel and keeps his finger pressed on the trigger, a massive spark suddenly occurs near the energy weapon’s muzzle, and it abruptly stops firing before he can finish off the last Lasertrooper.

Daniel hisses in pain as he quickly removes his left hand from the weapon after the resulting heat burns it slightly, and the fins at the L-STAR’s muzzle pop open to vent the lingering heat from its internal components, revealing its partially-melted heatsink; the weapon now effectively disabled.

This happens at the worst possible time, as Phantom takes out one of the Lasertrooper’s legs with a stray shot from his Combustor, causing the warbot to lose its balance and fall to the floor, his Combustor only clicks when he attempts to finish it off. The Rebel then notices the empty plasma reservoir at the rear of the weapon and begins clumsily fumbling with it in an attempt to reload the plasma pistol, inexperienced from a lack of use.

As a result of all this, the heavily-damaged Trooper is able to survive just long enough for it to sound the alarm.

“RESISTANCE ALERT, RESISTANCE ALERT! SEND REINFORCEMENTS!” The Trooper cries out, it’s voice distorted due to the damage it’s sustained, as it struggles to pick itself up from the floor of the carriage.

After soon recovering from burning his hand, Cooper quickly lets go of his disabled L-STAR, the energy weapon automatically hanging against his side, and materialises his Burst Pistol into his palm. He quickly finishes off the Trooper, the acid-infused rounds piercing through its armour with ease thanks to the L-STAR weakening it.

“I think that was the last of them!” Phantom remarks, after no more Troopers appear from the carriages ahead, as he stands up from behind the Raritanium crate with his reloaded Combustor.

“You heard what that last one said; there’s back up on the way! Let’s blow this thing up and get the hell out of here before they show!” Daniel tells him, replacing his L-STAR’s melted heatsink with a new one from his satchel before tactically reloading the energy weapon.

The Commando and the Rebel quickly begin running through the next two carriages, stepping around and jumping over the decimated corpses of the Nefarious warbots, and passing by more cargo crates and nothing else that’s noteworthy.

After the next carriage door automatically slides open, they run out onto some open carriages with an assortment of crates and shipping containers of all sizes, secured to the carriage via magnetic pads on the floor, and the view of Nefarious City is revealed once more.

As they run across the open carriages, jumping over crates, shipping containers and other cargo, Obsidian and Phantom and arrive at the next carriage just behind the train’s engine.

As the door to the carriage slides open, and Daniel walks in first with his L-STAR raised, he immediately lowers it upon seeing something that throws the entire plan of blowing up the train out the window...

The Pilot sighs. “Why can’t anything just be simple in this galaxy...?” He quietly remarks.

Phantom cocks an eyebrow in confusion at his remark, before he steps into the carriage next to the Commando, and his mouth falls open in shock.

Instead of more cargo, there’s prison cells lining both sides of the carriage, with aliens of all shapes and sizes held captive behind orange forcefields. Every single one of the prisoners look up at the door the second it opens, some with fear, others with indifference, as if they’ve already accepted their fate.

But, upon seeing Obsidian and Phantom instead of one of the Nefarious Troopers, their sullen and fearful eyes widen with hope.

“What the — The schedule said nothing about there being prisoners on board!” Phantom says in worried surprise.

In response to this, one of the female prisoners speaks up. “You can’t just leave us here!” She desperately cries out, slamming her fists against the forcefield.

The other prisoners begin murmuring apprehensively amongst themselves.

“Hey, we’re gonna get you all out of here, I promise!” Phantom assures, putting his hands up in an attempt to calm everyone. “Just need to get these cells open, first...”

“Cooper, I am detecting Nefarious forces converging on the train.” BT suddenly warns Daniel, as a window subsequently appears on his HUD showing the train with a trio of red dots quickly gaining behind it.

“Solid copy, BT!” Daniel replies with a pair of fingers to his helmet radio.

Phantom looks back over his shoulder as he’s inspecting one of the control panels to the cells. “‘BT’? Who’s—”

“These prisoners can wait, Phantom, we’ve got more Troopers on the way!” Daniel interrupts the Rebel, thumbing towards the carriages outside, as he turns and jogs back through the sliding door.

“Okay, everybody just sit tight. We’ll get you all out of here soon!” Phantom reassures all the prisoners with a thumbs up, as he too joins Obsidian outside, the door sliding shut behind him and leaving the prisoners isolated from the outside world once more.

“I thought this was a cargo train, Phantom, why the hell are there prisoners here?” Daniel asks in mild frustration, as he takes cover behind a crate.

“No idea - But we gotta deal with the Troopers and get ‘em outta here, before they’re locked up in Zordoom Prison or enslaved in the mines on Blizar Prime. If either of those happen, they’ll be as good as dead!” The Rilgarian replies.

A few moments later, three Nefarious Dropships fly up from above and behind the train, then slow down to match its speed, with one flying directly above the train and the other two on either side of it.

The three Dropships then each deploy two Lasertroopers and a Slugger onto the train, their arms and legs folded up to allow for easier transport, amounting to nine Troopers in total. Upon seeing this, Daniel and Phantom to take cover behind some crates.

The Troopers and Sluggers all quickly transform out of their compact state in mid-air, their arms and legs extending outwards and back onto their combat-ready forms, as they all land in various different places on the train, causing it to wobble slightly.

“This train belongs to the Emperor!” One of the Troopers declares.

As the Dropships fly off, the Lasertroopers open fire from several different positions while simultaneously keeping their distance, as a Slugger quickly rushes forwards towards the Rebel and the Commando, its long legs allowing it to effortlessly step over any cargo on the carriages.

“Prepare to be pummelled in the name of his Majesty, Rebels!” The Slugger announces.

As the Slugger rushes towards their position, Daniel realises that he doesn’t have enough time to safely lay down a satchel charge to deal with it, and instead switches to his EVA-8 Shotgun.

The EVA-8 Shotgun was a select-fire repeating shotgun designed for extra-vehicular combat. It was extremely useful both in conventional and exo-atmospheric conditions, thanks to its ability to also function as a simple pump-action with the push of a switch. This allows the shotgun to still be used in a vacuum, like in space, where the gas system required for semi and fully-automatic fire fails to function properly as a result.

Due the twenty-round drum magazines the shotgun was famously known for being notoriously bulky and heavy, Daniel always opted to use the much smaller and lighter twelve-round box magazines on Typhon. Just like the one he was currently emptying into the Slugger in that moment with help from Phantom’s Combustor, which soon collapses in the middle of winding up a swing, its internal systems shredded after receiving a lethal dose of armour-piercing buckshot and superheated plasma.

Kicking out the now-empty magazine with a fresh one from his vest, Daniel quickly inserts the new magazine into the EVA-8 and racks the pump, chambering a new shell. The Commando switches back to his L-STAR, and him and Phantom proceed to engage the Lasertroopers further ahead, their ion-flux lasers burning through some of the smaller crates ahead of the two on the carriage.

“More Sluggers, straight ahead!” Phantom suddenly warns, pointing towards two Sluggers that were currently rushing towards them from the far carriages.

Recognising a stack of Gelatonium barrels a little bit ahead of himself and Phantom, Daniel throws a satchel charge onto the floor next to it. As the Troopers get close to the barrels of Gel, Daniel readies the detonator.

“GET DOWN!” Daniel warns Phantom, as he and the Rebel duck back behind their respective pieces of cover.

The Pilot detonates the satchel charge, and the resulting force of explosion from the satchel combined with the combusting Gelatonium blows the two remaining Sluggers as well as some cargo crates off the train.

At the rate himself and Phantom were taking out the Lasertroopers from their position, Daniel knew that they would eventually burn through his and Phantom’s cover. But with the distance the Lasertroopers were maintaining while firing at them from the other end of the train – some of them even standing on top of the rear carriages - there was no way he and Phantom would be able to deal with them before that happened. The only way they possibly could, would be to close the gap and take the fight directly to the Troopers.

While it might’ve been impossible for Phantom to do just that without being turned into Swiss cheese, it wasn’t for Daniel.

He recalls a similar situation that occurred to him on Typhon that gives him an idea, that situation being how he used his Cloak to secretly advance on a squad of IMC Riflemen firing on his position behind cover.

“Phantom, stay here and give me some covering fire, I’m gonna take care of those Troopers!” Cooper orders while firing a spray at the Troopers.

“Okay, man!” Phantom responds with a curt nod, as he lets off a few shots of his own at the Nefarious warbots.

After ducking back behind his crate to ensure the Troopers can no longer see him, Daniel activates his Cloak with a flick of his wrist and vanishes with a brief flicker.

He dashes out from behind the crate and sidesteps a Trooper’s laser, as he runs up the carriage towards a massive crate: A perfect position to gain a tactical height advantage against most of the remaining Troopers.

The Commando leaps up on top of the large cargo crate with the aid of his Jump Kit and prepares his last satchel charge. Daniel knew from experience on Typhon that if he was to fire any kind of firearm while Cloaked, doing so would deactivate it and instantly reveal him. But he also knew that throwing grenades and other types of ordinance, didn’t.

Seeing a Lasertrooper on the next open carriage, Daniel throws the satchel charge onto the floor next to it, and double squeezes the trigger on the detonator before it can react to the explosive ordinance seemingly appearing from thin-air.

After seeing the Trooper get blown off the train by the explosion, the other three remaining Troopers briefly stop firing their lasers in apparent confusion.

Still Cloaked, Cooper materialises his Shatterbomb Glove onto his right hand, the glove instantly materialising a Shatterbomb into his palm. Without skipping a beat, he hurls it directly at the next Lasertrooper’s midsection and continues jumping across the tops of the crates towards the two remaining Troopers standing on top of the rear carriages.

The Shatterbomb detonates on contact, the explosion throwing the Trooper backwards and blasting its head straight off its body. Its head falls into the carriage’s floor and bounces along it for a few meters before eventually coming to a stop, while its crystalline-shrapnel-filled body crashes to the floor of the carriage.

As he lands on top of another crate, the Pilot turns his attention to the two final Lasertroopers standing on top of the rear carriages, and throws another bomb towards the closest of the two.

“Where are those bombs coming from?!” The last Trooper cries out in confusion, as it watches its fellow Trooper get launched off the train from an exploding Shatterbomb.

As another Shatterbomb appears from thin air, the Trooper’s eyes widen in surprise as the armoured Commando suddenly appears on top of a crate with a shimmer. The Shatterbomb explodes on contact with the Trooper’s hull, sending the warbot flying onto its back and shattering the orange glass dome on its head.

“Phantom, that was the last of them! Hurry and get those cells open before more show up!” Daniel speaks into his communicator, the Rilgarian replying a confirmation as the Pilot turns and begins leaping back across the crates towards the front of the train.

When he re-enters the prisoner carriage, Cooper finds Phantom kneeling in front of an open control panel for one of the cells, tapping away on his tablet he had plugged into circuitry behind it.

“Phantom, what’s the plan?” Daniel asks curtly.

“The plan is; once we get all these cells open, I’ll get on the train’s controls and take us somewhere where we can get everyone off safely. Then, I’ll arrange for backup to meet us there to get them off-world.” The Rilgarian explains, while keeping his eyes trained on the control panel in front of him.

After a few more moments, the red screen on the control panel turns green, as the orange forcefield it corresponded to fizzles out and deactivates, much to the relief of the prisoners inside.

As Phantom continues working to get the other cells open, Daniel’s eyes wander over the group of aliens leaving their now-open cell. He notices that while the group was rather diverse in terms of species, they all shared similar features, such as their clothes being well-worn and stained with dust; likely originating from them living on a dry planet.

But, when he notices a few smaller aliens in the group, many of them nervously clinging to the larger members of their species, Daniel’s eyes widen as he quickly realises...

...They were children.

Stunned in shock, Cooper doesn’t immediately register the sound of the carriage door sliding open behind him.

However, Phantom and the other prisoners do, as the Rilgarian looks up from the control panel he was currently working on to see two heavily-damaged Trooper Heads – one missing its glass dome - hovering in front of the door.

“Nice try Rebel, but decapitation only kills organics!” The leading Trooper laughs, as both Troopers aim their head-mounted lasers at the Commando and begin charging them up, the orange lasers glowing and crackling menacingly.

Upon hearing the Troopers, Daniel snaps out of his stupor and turns around to face them in the process of charging their weapons. Simultaneously, his fist instinctively clenches and activates his Time Shift, resulting in everything around him slowing to a crawl.

Before the two Trooper Heads have a chance to fire their lasers, the Commando instantly appears behind them and takes them out with two quick point-blank blast from his EVA-8 Shotgun in the blink of an eye.

After the two Trooper Heads die, Daniel looks over at Phantom and the prisoners, and sees their shocked faces, as well as their mouths agape in pure shock.

But before anyone can do or say anything else, the train suddenly brakes and the carriage lurches, causing everyone inside to stumble slightly as a result. Then, as the train slows to a stop, a voice suddenly reverberates throughout the carriage, one that Cooper vaguely recognises from the broadcast BT intercepted when he was leaving Zurkie’s for the first time.

“Oh, my, my, what a show!”

Phantom and the prisoners also recognise the voice, the rebel’s bewilderment quickly turning to a foul grimace, as some of the prisoners gasp while others cry out in fear, upon hearing the voice of Emperor Nefarious.

“I must admit; I didn’t expect the Resistance to perform something as bold as this!” Nefarious remarks. “And I also didn’t expect to ever see one of your kind again, much less in my galaxy, in my city... Commando.”

“So, I’m guessing you’re the so-called ‘emperor’ I’ve heard about?” Daniel supposes, his eyes quickly scanning the inside of the carriage for any cameras, of which he can’t find any that are visible.

“Oh, it’s lovely to see that I’m still well-known beyond my galaxy. And do tell me; where did you come from? I was certain that I had exterminated your kind off the face of the universe.” Nefarious adds with a growl.

Daniel is left slightly confused by Nefarious’ statement. But before he can dwell on it, the Emperor continues.

“Oh, but I’m sure you’ve travelled a long way to be here, and what kind of Emperor would I be if I didn’t offer my esteemed guest a warm welcome?”

“Cooper, be advised: A large airborne bogey is rapidly approaching your position; E.T.A, ninety seconds.” BT suddenly warns Cooper.

“You may have performed well against my lowly Troopers, but I am curious to see how you’ll perform against one of my Seekerpedes!” The Emperor announces, before emitting an evil, drawn-out laugh. “Best of luck to you, Commando! Oh, and do try to make this interesting!”

“Oh, Zoni! We’re all gonna die!” One of the prisoners gasps, throwing his hands to his head in exasperation. The other prisoners scream in panic, with some of the children beginning to cry.

“HEY! Everyone calm down! No-one’s gonna die! Like I said, we’re gonna get you all out of here!” Phantom firmly reassures, the confidence in his tone actually calming the panicking prisoners down somewhat.

Phantom then quickly removes his tablet from the control panel as he turns and runs into the next carriage, with Daniel quickly following suite behind him.

The next carriage was clearly a control room of sorts. The interior was sleek and noticeably more compact compared to the others carriages, with row of monitors displaying various camera angles around the front, sides and back of the train’s engine, all situated above a large control panel near the front of the room.

As Phantom reaches the control panel, takes a hold of the train’s throttle lever and pushes it forwards in an attempt to get the train going again, the train briefly begins speeding up before it suddenly stops again despite the Rilgarian’s input. As Phantom looks at the train’s controls in confusion, one of the screens above the control panel flashes red and displays ‘MANUAL CONTROL DISABLED’ in big orange text.

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t know you would try that? I honestly feel insulted!” Nefarious’ jeering voice suddenly cuts into the carriage.

Ignoring the Emperor’s taunts, Phantom swiftly plugs his tablet into a slot the train’s control panel and begins hacking into it. After a few moments, his tablet’s screen turns red.

“Damn it! They must’ve changed the security protocols; I can’t get past them!” Phantom yells in alarm, quickly retrying the hack, but cursing after getting the same result a few moments later.

“Oh, how I love that look of hopelessness and desperation!” Nefarious taunts, the Emperor enjoying every second of Phantom’s dismay. At this point, the Titan Pilot had had enough.

“Move over; let me try.” Daniel orders Phantom, clasping a hand onto the Rilgarian’s shoulder and pushing him aside as he draws his Data Knife from its sheath on his vest.

“Have you lost it?! What do you think a knife’s gonna do?!”

Daniel remains silent, as he removes Phantom’s tablet from the slot in the control panel and shoves it into the Rebel’s hands, before quickly deploying the wings on his Data Knife with the flick of a switch and jamming the blade into the slot. The holographic display on the Data Knife bursts to life, displaying the progress on the hack in a luminescent orange.

A few tense moments later, the display turns from orange to blue, and the red screen above the train’s control panel turns green and displays ‘MANUAL CONTROL RESTORED’, as Daniel then removes the Data Knife from the slot and returns it to the sheath on his vest.

“Oh, well done! If you can’t hear it, I’m rooting for you, Commando!” Nefarious taunts, his sarcastic metallic clapping audible in the background.

Daniel pushes the train’s throttle lever all the way forwards, causing the train to begin moving again and quickly pick up speed.

“Now, get us out of here Phantom.” Daniel orders a bewildered Phantom, patting him on the shoulder and subsequently snapping him out of his stupor.

“...You have a trick up your sleeve for everything don’t you?” Phantom remarks in awe, as he grips the train’s steering wheel with both hands and begins driving the train.

After a few moments of driving the train with no issues, Phantom notices some movement on the monitor displaying a camera feed facing behind the train, and his stomach drops. A massive, white object looms in the distance far behind the train, steadily getting bigger and bigger. When a bright blue light suddenly flashes at the front of the object, Phantom’s eyes widen as he realises that he has only mere seconds to react.

“HANG ON!” Phantom shouts over his shoulder to Obsidian and the prisoners in the carriage behind them, as he suddenly rips the steering wheel to the right only a split second before a powerful blue laser connects with the train. The laser burns straight through the rear carriages at an angle and severs them from the train. The thrusters underneath the carriages keeping them airborne quickly die out after being cut off from their power supply, and promptly fall into the abyss, never to be seen again.

As a result of the sudden hard change in direction, Phantom and Obsidian are both thrown to the left, the Rilgarian clinging onto the steering wheel for dear life, while the Commando manages to catch and anchor himself with his Grapple, by quickly firing it into the floor. Unfortunately, the prisoners in the carriage behind them, however, aren’t so lucky, having nothing to brace themselves against as they’re all flung to the floor and land on top of one another.

“The hell was that?!” Cooper shouts, quickly regaining his footing and retracting his Grapple as Phantom steadies the train out.

“The Seekerpede’s behind us!” Phantom replies in a distressed manner. As he glances at a dial displaying the train’s speed, he notices that the train has gotten moderately faster since losing the extra weight. Another quick glance at the monitor showed the Seekerpede was still gaining on them, but much slower than before. This gave him an idea.

“Go and decouple the rest of the carriages, we need more speed!” Phantom orders the Commando, pointing a finger toward the back of the train.

“On it!” Cooper acknowledges, as he turns and runs back through the prisoner’s carriage, sidestepping and outright needing to jump over some prisoners who were still in the process of picking themselves up from the floor.

Daniel emerges outside, the first thing he immediately notices is that the carriages at the back of the train are completely gone. The second, is the massive, centipede-like craft flying in the distance behind the train. Several times larger than even the biggest of Titans, the Seekerpede was hard to miss, equipped with equally massive mechanical mandibles on its front with big, obvious missile pods on the sides of its head.

Knowing that the weapons he had on him probably wouldn’t have a hope of putting even a scratch on the Seekerpede’s armour, Daniel instead quickly scans the floor of the carriage beneath him, his eyes soon spotting a large metal couple in the gap between the two carriages, securing them together to the rest of the train.

Not knowing how to even begin to manually decouple the remaining carriages from the train, Daniel’s instead opts to materialise his Burst Pistol into his hand and squeeze off a few rounds into the couple. The acid sizzles and sputters as it chews through the couple, before eventually, the couple breaks with a snap, and the carriages in front of the Pilot separate from the train before they promptly lose speed and plummet into the abyss below.

The train lurches again as it begins speeding up, and the Seekerpede chasing the train begins steadily becoming smaller and smaller.

“Phantom, rear carriages are decoupled!” Cooper informs the Rebel via his communicator.

After a few moments, it seems like the train is finally beginning to outrun the Seekerpede, until suddenly, the search-and-destroy craft begins charging up its laser again, the bright light produced partially obscuring it from view.

Before Daniel can shout a warning into his communicator, the train suddenly dodges to the left, right when the Seekerpede fires its laser.

Almost as if it’s learned from the last time, the Seekerpede seemingly predicts the train’s movement and goes straight for the kill, tracking its laser beside the train’s engine. The laser connects with the large thruster on the right side of the train’s engine, obliterating it in an explosion that violently shakes the rest of the train. Before the laser can burn into the rest of the engine, miraculously, the laser suddenly stops, presumably to recharge.

As the train lurches yet again and quickly begins decelerating, it starts leaning slightly onto its right side, the train off-balance as a result of missing its thruster. At the rate they were going now, the train didn’t have a hope of outrunning the Seekerpede, which was now steadily gaining on them. In a few moments, the Seekerpede would land the killing blow.

Stuck here on the train, Daniel’s ability to move was extremely limited, and even his Time Shift wouldn’t offer much in terms of an advantage. As he looks over at the buildings whizzing by the train, he gets an idea as he recalls...

“I’m rooting for you, Commando!”

...Nefarious was clearly interested in him... For some reason.

With this in mind, if he could get off the train and back onto solid ground, there was a chance he would be able to lure the Seekerpede after him. Then, he’d have way more options in terms of manoeuvrability, which would allow him to take full advantage of his Time Shift’s capabilities, and he just might stand a chance at escaping it. Either way, the train certainly didn’t.

With this idea in mind, Daniel quickly dashes back through the door into the carriage, dodging terrified prisoners desperately clinging onto whatever they could hold onto, until he reaches Phantom at the front of the train, who was struggling with the train’s steering wheel and other flight controls to keep it flying straight.

“Phantom, I have an idea! Can you get this thing closer to those buildings?” Daniel quickly asks, pointing to one of the monitors displaying the buildings in question whizzing past the train.

“I can try! What are you planning?”

“I’m going to jump onto one of those buildings, and try to lure that thing away.” Daniel quickly explains in a calm manner, that almost throws Phantom for a loop for how nonchalant he sounded.

“Are you crazy?!” Phantom exclaims, the Rebel briefly turning to look back at him with a face filled with disbelief.

“I don’t see any better options; we’re sitting ducks in this thing!” Cooper retorts.

Phantom lets out a frustrated sigh. “Okay, fine!” He shouts, as he carefully begins driving the train closer to the buildings, pushing another lever forwards to gain some altitude. “I swear, you’re worse than she is...” He mumbles. After another few moments of gently coaxing the controls, the train pulls up alongside the rooftops, and Phantom pulls back on the trains throttle slightly.

“I can’t slow us down any more, the engine will stall if I do!” Phantom informs.

“Don’t worry, this will do!” Daniel reassures, as he turns to exit the train’s engine room. “Here’s hoping that this works...”

“Wait, hold on! Take these with you!” Phantom suddenly calls out, Cooper turning back towards him, as the Rebel temporarily turns on the train’s autopilot with the push of a few buttons on the control panel. He then quickly shrugs his backpack off of his shoulders and unzips it, before he pulls two objects out of it.

“Here’s my spare bomb and its detonator. Probably won’t do much to it’s armour, but it might come in useful.” The Rebel explains, as he hands them to Cooper.

“How much of a punch does this thing pack?” The Commando asks, inspecting the high-tech bomb and carefully handling the detonator in his other palm.

“Trust me, it’ll make the ones you used look like toys.” Phantom answers.

Daniel nods in thanks as he stows the bomb into his satchel and puts the detonator into a spare pouch on his vest.

Unbeknownst to him and Phantom, their whole exchange had been heard by the prisoners in the carriage behind them, including the Pilot’s offer of luring the Seekerpede away from the train.

As Daniel jogs back through the carriage to leave, the prisoners quickly parting to let him through, they can only stare at him in awe and admiration at what he was about to do for them, at the risk of his own life. Before he can go through the door to exit the train, he’s interrupted by one of the prisoners calling out to him.

“Wait!” A female alien suddenly shouts, as she runs out from the crowd towards the Commando and quickly grabs hold of his left arm, stopping him in his tracks.

“Who... Who are you?” She quietly asks, her large blue eyes almost seeming to pierce straight through Cooper’s visor and into his amber eyes behind it, while the other prisoners look on at them in silence.

The Commando briefly pauses, his crescent-shaped visor silently staring back at her. At first, Daniel is admittedly caught off-guard, and unsure of how to reply. But then, as if on cue, he suddenly recalls the moment when Zurkon Junior gave him his new ‘title’ as he entered the bot’s Battleplex the day before:

“Introducing... OBSIDIAN!”

“...I’m Obsidian.” Daniel softly responds after a few moments, before he gently pulls his arm away from her grasp and turns and exits the train, the door closing behind him.

The Seekerpede had gotten significantly closer in the time Cooper was inside the train and was now much larger in the sky behind it, and was steadily getting bigger and bigger. Whether or not the Seekerpede’s laser was still recharging, or that the Seekerpede was now playing with its food, was a mystery in that moment.

Daniel turns his attention to the buildings still whizzing by the train. With a clench of his fist, his Time Shift activates, the alien device materialising onto the back of his hand and slowing the world around him to a crawl, the buildings now moving past the train at a significantly reduced pace.

Daniel waits patiently for the right moment, then launches himself off the train with a Jump Kit-aided leap, and lands onto the roof of a nearby building. He wastes no time and quickly deactivates his Time Shift, time resuming at a normal speed as the train swiftly speeds off. He then turns around to face the Seekerpede, shoulders his L-STAR and lets off a stream of red charged particles straight at the Seekerpede’s head.

As was expected, the bright red particles only dissipate upon hitting the Seekerpede and cause no noticeable damage to it. However, they served as a perfect way to get its attention, the stream leading straight back to the Pilot.

The Seekerpede immediately slows and turns its attention towards the lone man standing on the roof, completely forgetting about the train. Then, the Seekerpede suddenly emits a near ear-rupturing mechanical roar and mashes its mandibles together in apparent anger, as it soon changes course from chasing the train and towards Daniel’s building.

“You want me, Nefarious? Well, come and get me then.” Daniel quietly growls, as he turns and starts sprinting across the rooftops, quickly checking over his shoulder to confirm that he has the Seekerpede in tow.

As the Titan Pilot leads the Seekerpede deeper into the city, Phantom pulls his communicator out of its pouch and quickly dials the frequency for the Resistance’s unofficial leader: Carl Quantum.

Quantum quickly picks up, but before he can even say anything, Phantom beats him to the punch.

“Carl, I need help in the city! We’ve got a train full of prisoners and there’s a Seekerpede on our tail!” Phantom frantically explains.

“WHAT?!” Quantum responds in shock, and has a mild coughing fit which he quickly tames before continuing. “What in Zoni’s name happened down there, Phantom?!”

Phantom had already informed him that he was going to be raiding and destroying a cargo train with Obsidian, after the Commando had requested his assistance in acquiring some Raritanium. Despite Quantum’s reluctance to approve on such a mission so soon after the last one, Phantom, like he’d reassured Obsidian, reassured Quantum that they wouldn't be expected, and that it would be a simple in-and-out job. So, his shock was completely justified.

“Long story! Obsidian’s luring it away from us as we speak, I need help to get these people off this planet pronto!” Phantom frantically informs.

“Okay, head to the nearest safe-zone, I’ll send backup to meet you there!” Quantum replies.

“Got it!” Phantom acknowledges, as the line disconnects.

Phantom silently prays to Zoni himself that they would be able to get to the safe-zone and get the prisoners off the train and safely off-world before anything intercepted them. However, he was completely unaware that the Emperor was now focusing all of his attention on Obsidian.

————————————————————

Torren IV was beginning to sound very appealing to Daniel in that moment.

As the Seekerpede continuously fires its laser and missiles at him, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, the Pilot easily avoids them with the help of his Time Shift and continues parkouring across the rooftops, the Seekerpede following close behind. However, Daniel was quickly beginning to feel the side-effects of over-using the time-distorting device: He could feel himself beginning to slow down and become more sluggish, and the otherworldly cold produced by the Time Shift was now causing his body to shiver slightly. He knew he wouldn’t be able to continue using it for much longer.

After hitting his Cloak to buy himself a brief moment to slow down and recover, the Seekerpede screeches in frustration is it slows down and begins firing missiles at the surrounding buildings upon losing its quarry. Daniel seemed to be correct in assuming that Nefarious was more interested in him than the train, as the Seekerpede appears hell-bent at ensuring his demise.

Pilot jumpsuits, like the one Daniel was currently wearing, contained special fibres that mask their wearer’s heat signature from thermal sensors, and was originally intended to make a Pilot’s Cloak more effective against Titans. So, even if the Seekerpede possessed similar thermal-sensing technology, Daniel would still remain completely invisible to it while Cloaked.

Right before his Cloak runs out, Daniel drops down out of sight onto the side of the building and starts wallrunning, hoping to put some distance between himself and the Seekerpede, as well as buy himself some more time to recover from his Time Shift’s effects.

“BT, does that thing have any kind of weakness I can exploit?” Daniel asks coolly, as he continues wallrunning back and forth between the buildings with the aid of his Jump Kit.

“Scanning... Scans indicate the Seekerpede possesses a large flight stabiliser located behind its head region. If you were to damage it, it may impede the Seekerpede’s flight capabilities.” BT explains, as a holographic model of the Seekerpede appears on Daniel’s HUD and highlights the circular flight stabiliser in yellow, showing exactly where it was located behind the Seekerpede’s head.

Daniel realises that if he could destroy the Seekerpede’s flight stabiliser with Phantom’s bomb and permanently ground it, it would no longer be able to continue chasing him or the train, and thus allow both to escape.

Once he’s gotten a good distance away from where the Seekerpede last saw him, his Cloak recharging during the process, Daniel vanishes again with a quick flick of his wrist, before he quickly reascends to the rooftops with the help of his Grapple, to get a visual on the Seekerpede. He soon sees it searching the vicinity of where he previously was with a large spotlight, and notices that its flying too high and too far from any buildings for him to be able to reach it, even with his Grapple.

In that moment, Daniel wonders whether or not Phantom had freed the prisoners yet. The Titan Pilot pulls his communicator from his satchel, with the intention of finding that out.

“Phantom! What’s the ETA on those prisoners?” Cooper speaks into the communicator, as the Seekerpede unleashes another salvo of missiles into an unfortunate building, blowing it to smithereens.

“I’m unlocking the rest of the cells now! We just need a little more time, we’ll be outta’ here soon!” The Rebel promptly replies.

Currently unable to reach the Seekerpede, his only option right now was to continue luring it away, until Phantom gave him the all-clear. As his Cloak runs out, Daniel reappears with a shimmer as he squeezes off another stream of charged particles towards the Seekerpede’s head to get its attention again.

The Seekerpede soon looks straight at Cooper, its spotlight completely illuminating him. The Seekerpede roars again as it fires its laser at the Commando, burning a large gash through the rooftop, as its quarry zips away to another building in the blink of an eye.

Cooper continues luring the Seekerpede across the rooftops, periodically using his Cloak and Time Shift to avoid its attacks, until he eventually arrives at what appears to be a large construction site, with multiple buildings under construction and several cranes set up around the area.

He notices a particularly tall crane on the other side of the construction site. Maybe he could climb it, and use it to reach the Seekerpede? A risky plan, for sure, but armed with his Cloak and Time Shift, it was a risk Daniel knew he could absolutely take.

As the Commando continues making his way to the other side of the construction site, he runs past one of the many cranes within it, one that unfortunately wasn’t anywhere near tall enough to reach the Seekerpede’s altitude.

Then suddenly, the Seekerpede screeches as it lunges at the Pilot like a hungry predator going in for the kill, scraping one of its mandibles across the rooftops towards him. Daniel instinctively activates his Time Shift upon seeing the mandible in his peripheral vision, as it slows to a crawl just mere feet away from him.

Once he makes a safe distance from the Seekerpede, he deactivates his Time Shift with a clench of his fist and keeps running. The Seekerpede swiftly returns to a normal speed, and its mandible slices straight through the base of the crane. The crane groans, as it soon collapses and lands on the Seekerpede with a massive crash, pinning it to the rooftops. The Seekerpede almost appears stunned from the impact, unable to fly for a few moments, before it soon recovers and throws the crane off of itself, then bellows a furious mechanical roar.

The Seekerpede takes flight and returns to the skies as it then unleashes yet another barrage of missiles at Obsidian. The missiles race towards the Commando, before impacting and resulting in a cascade of explosions. The Seekerpede slows down and begins circling the site, inspecting its handiwork.

Unknown to the Seekerpede, Daniel had timed the activation of his Time Shift so that the missiles would detonate just a split second after its activation, the explosions obscuring him from the Seekerpede’s view as he blinks away from the danger zone almost instantaneously. Upon deactivating his Time Shift, Daniel then activates his Cloak as he runs toward the crane, buying him some time to scale it, before the Seekerpede can realise that its prey has survived.

Upon reaching the crane, the invisible Commando fires his Grapple upwards and begins reeling himself up, periodically speeding up his progress with some well-timed boosts from his Jump Kit. He’s able to make it about halfway up the crane’s mast, when his Cloak deactivates and he reappears with a shimmer. Obsidian presses onwards, continuing to scale the mast, until a familiar blue laser suddenly appears, missing him by mere feet as it slices straight through the crane.

The mast creaks and groans as it breaks off from the rest of the crane with a loud metallic snap, and quickly leans over before it starts falling. Hanging from his Grapple, Daniel clenches his left fist, and the severed mast’s descent subsequently slows to a crawl as his Time Shift activates. As he looks back in the direction of the Seekerpede, he sees it now looming over him and the crane, it too slowed from the effects of his Time Shift.

This was his opportunity to end this now.

As the mast continues falling at a leisurely pace, Daniel swings himself on top with a boost from his Jump Kit, before he sprints up the remainder of the crane’s mast, his legs propelling him forwards with everything they have. Upon reaching the end of the crane, he leaps off towards the Seekerpede, his Jump Kit propelling him through the air.

The Pilot lands on the very tip of the Seekerpede’s large mandible, and after recovering from a somewhat shaky landing, he makes his way across it towards the Seekerpede’s head, before jumping over the Seekerpede’s head with another boost from his Jump Kit. After landing on the Seekerpede’s long, flat back right next to the flight stabiliser highlighted on his HUD in bright red, Daniel quickly places Phantom’s bomb inside a small vent inside it, his body now beginning to burn from the cold as a result of his Time Shift remaining active for so long.

Cooper then jumps off the side of the Seekerpede and begins descending towards the rooftops below, knowing from experience that his Jump Kit would be able to take the fall. He quickly deactivates his Time Shift with a clench of his fist. Immediately, the crane’s severed mast resumes falling at a normal speed, as it quickly plummets and crashes next to the base of the crane.

After a few seconds of falling, Daniel lands on the roof of a building. Due to his body now feeling numb from the combination of his Time Shift’s effects alongside the chill from the wind blowing past him as he fell, his legs buckle upon hitting the roof, causing him to tumble as he rolls across the roof for a few feet, before coming to a stop on his back.

Daniel quickly fumbles to get the bomb’s detonator from its pouch in his vest, before he manages to get his hands on it. Flipping up the safety cap, he practically crushes the large, red button underneath with both his thumbs.

High above in the sky inside the Seekerpede’s flight stabiliser, Phantom’s bomb subsequently detonates in a catastrophic explosion that’s almost as big as the Seekerpede itself, producing a visible shockwave that swiftly radiates outwards in all directions.

Daniel watches in a daze as the Seekerpede nosedives out of his vision, leaving a trail of smoke and flames behind it, until a thundering crash echoes in the distance. He groans in pain as he stares up at Corson V’s dark sky. While the nanites in his system worked well for injuries, they unfortunately did nothing to relieve the numbing cold he was feeling, as his body shivers uncontrollably in a desperate attempt to warm itself up. Thankfully, the weather in Nefarious City in that moment was clear, and the Pilot was thankfully shielded from what little wind there was blowing over the rooftops.

As Daniel makes a mental note to bring some heat packs with him next time, a staticky, but familiar voice suddenly emanates from his satchel, jolting him out his daze.

“Obsidian, come in! I just heard the bomb go off, are you alright, man?!”

Cooper takes a deep, shaky breath as he slowly sits up and reaches into his satchel for his communicator.

“I’m good...” Cooper replies after a few moments, much to Phantom’s ease, who breathes an audible sigh of relief.

“I thought we lost you there, man.” The Rilgarian admits. “What about the Seekerpede?”

“Hang on, give me a second...” Daniel replies, as he slowly picks himself up off the roof with a groan and cautiously approaches edge of the rooftop. Far ahead, half buried in a series of buildings, the Seekerpede lies motionless, where only its tail that was hanging out of said buildings is visible.

Then, as if on cue, something inside the Seekerpede explodes and sends debris flying in all directions, as well producing a purple fireball that quickly dissipates. Soon, thick, black smoke erupts from the site that quickly begins rising into the sky.

“What was that?!” Phantom questions, having seemingly heard that explosion through the line.

Daniel takes a few moments to steady his breath, before breaking the news. “Phantom... The Seekerpede is down. Repeat, the Seekerpede is down. That thing won’t be causing any problems any time soon.”

“Wait a minute — Is it dead?!” Phantom asks in intense surprise.

“It sure looks like it. It’s not moving anymore, I can tell you that much.” Daniel describes, as lets out a cough. “That bomb of yours worked like a charm.”

“Holy...” Phantom remarks in shock, before sighing in relief. “Thanks man, we owe you one.”

“Alright, I’m getting off this shithole of a planet before another one of those things shows up...” Daniel remarks.

“Oh, you said it, man. Good luck with whatever you need that Raritanium for.”

“Same to you.” Cooper replies, as he ends the call. He sincerely hopes that this would be the last time he would step foot on Corson V, at least for a long while.

————————————————————

As the Commando prepares with BT to rendezvous with his Crow and leave the planet, Phantom is escorting the last of the prisoners off of the train and towards a large cargo ship, piloted by none other than Clatchky. After the final prisoners quickly walk up the ramp leading into rear of the ship, he gives the one-eyed Rebel a thumbs up through the canopy window, who quickly returns the gesture, and the ramp subsequently retracts and the rear door closes. The engines spark to life as the ship takes off and flies away to the outskirts of the city, putting some distance between them and any of Nefarious’ forces before leaving the planet entirely.

Phantom pulls out his communicator again, and as he’s about to dial Carl Quantum’s frequency to inform him that the prisoners are on their way off-world, he sees a familiar Lombax jump down from the top of the parked train in the corner of his eye, and begin making her way over to him, prompting him to instead pocket his communicator for now.

Wielding her Warmonger, Rivet’s job had been to keep watch for and deal with any arriving Nefarious forces. Thankfully, not even a single Trooper had appeared, and evacuating the prisoners had gone off without a hitch.

“It looks like you and Obsidian had loads of fun today...” Rivet remarks in a familiar tone of annoyed dissatisfaction that makes Phantom groan, as he braces himself internally.

“Rivet—”

“If I had done something like this the day after a mission, you and Quantum would’ve chewed my ears off for it!” Rivet complains in frustration, gesturing an arm to the parked train nearby. She wasn’t wrong, far from it in fact, and Phantom had to agree.

“... Are you upset that I didn’t ask you to come?”

“Yeah! The least you could’ve done is ask me for help, instead of asking a Commando you barely know...” Rivet admits, as she sulks at the idea of missing out on a mission as fun as raiding a cargo train.

“Hey, Obsidian asked me for help, not the other way ‘round!”

“Huh? He asked you for help?” Rivet questions, her ears perking up in curiosity.

“Yeah, he said he needed Raritanium as soon as possible. Told me that it would help us out in the long run.”

Rivet scoffs as she dematerialises her Warmonger back into her Holo-Manager and crosses her arms. The Lombax and the Rilgarian stand together in an awkward silence for a few moments, as Phantom sees the Lombax’s eyebrows furrow in thought. She clearly wanted to ask him something, judging from the expression on her face.

“Did you happen to notice anything... strange about Obsidian on the train?”

“Where’s all this coming from?” Phantom suddenly questions. “Look, I know you’re not exactly trusting towards strangers, but come on, Rivet! He helped us out at the factory, didn’t he?”

“Will you just answer the question... Please?”

Phantom sighs. “Fine. A few things, actually. I found out he has this dope invisibility tech, and he also has this knife that somehow was able to hack through the train’s security protocols when I couldn’t.”

“...Anything else?” Rivet asks in a hopefully after a brief pause, rubbing her right arm as the tip of her tail twitches in anticipation for his answer.

Phantom thinks in silence for a few seconds, until he remembers a crucial moment when the Commando saved them from that pair of Trooper Heads that ambushed them.

“There was a point where he moved crazy fast to take out two Troopers that ambushed us, why do you ask?”

“A-hah! I knew I wasn’t going crazy!” Rivet suddenly exclaims, clenching her fists in gratification. “Did you see a glowing thing on his left hand?” The Lombax asks with a strange amount of enthusiasm, briefly throwing Phantom for a loop.

“Now that you mention it, I think I did see something glowing on his hand— Wait, how did you know about that?”

Rivet almost appears shocked at her own words for a few moments, as her eyes widen. Unbeknownst to Phantom, she’d realised that she’d just revealed a little too much information, information that she didn’t quite want the Resistance to know yet. At least, not until she’s able to confirm whether or not Obsidian was involved with the EMP that happened the other day.

“Uhm... Lucky guess?” She answers with an awkward smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

Phantom had known her long enough to know that she was clearly hiding something. Whatever it was, it could wait, as the odds of Nefarious’ forces showing up got greater and greater the longer they waited around.

“Alright, we should get out of here before any Troopers show up.” Phantom says, breaking the awkward silence that had now befallen them.

Rivet immediately takes this as the cue to make her escape, running off into an alley, presumably towards her ship.

As Phantom too takes off into the city, taking out his communicator again and dials Quantum’s frequency, his eyes widen as he realises the magnitude of what Obsidian did. The Commando killed a Seekerpede, something no-one in the Resistance, hell in the entire galaxy, has ever managed to do to date. If Quantum didn’t want him to join the Resistance before, he absolutely will now.

The unofficial Resistance leader soon picks up with a click.

“Carl, the prisoners on their way off Corson V as we speak. And you’re not gonna believe what Obsidian just pulled off...”

Chapter Text

————————————————————

ANGEL CITY, PLANET ANGELIA,

THE FRONTIER,

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO...

A young boy’s heart pounds in his chest, as he sprints through the backstreets of Angel City as fast as his legs can carry him.

“GET BACK HERE, KID! I KNOW YOU ROBBED ME!” A man behind him yells out.

As he dodges clueless bystanders who neither knew nor wanted anything to do with the altercation, the boy continues running, until he sees the entrance to an alley a ways ahead of him.

The boy sprints into the alley and quickly pulls over a garbage can, spilling its contents onto the ground in hopes it would slow down his pursuer. To his fear, he looks over his shoulder to see the man jump over the garbage can after him, and was now quickly catching up. The boy skids to a stop and turns around as he swiftly pulls a small folding knife from his back pocket, and quickly flicks it open before pointing it straight at the man.

“Back off, or I’ll slice you open!” He threatens, as he points the knife towards the man, who quickly comes to a stop about fifteen feet away from him, upon seeing the weapon. Usually, a quick show of his blade would be enough to deter anyone from pursuing the boy any further, if he found himself being chased.

The truth was, the boy had stolen from him, or rather, his store. But it wasn’t much, only a small sandwich to stave off the hunger. The boy hated feeling hungry, and it was something he felt all too often lately, ever since he ran away from the orphanage.

“YOU’RE GONNA NEED MORE THAN THAT, KID!” The man growls, as he pulls the side of his jacket away from his waistline to reveal the grip of a pistol sticking out of his waistband.

Upon seeing the man was armed with a far superior weapon, the boy turns and begins running again, the man quickly giving chase. However, the man quickly gains on the boy, and tackles him to the ground once he’s close enough to do so. The impact from the tackle knocks the boy’s knife out of his hand, as it skids along the ground a few feet.

“I’M SICK AND TIRED OF YOU KIDS STEALIN’ FROM MY STORE!” The enraged man roars as he forces the boy onto his back, before he wraps his hands around the boy’s throat and begins squeezing.

“I’M GONNA ENJOY THIS, YOU LITTLE SHIT!” The man remarks, his anger quickly turning to disgusting satisfaction as a sick grin etches across his face.

The boy scratches and kicks helplessly as he tries to break free from the man’s grasp, to no avail. The boy could no longer breathe, and soon, darkness begins creeping up on the edges of his vision. Not much longer, and the boy would die, strangled to death by a deranged store owner.

In his final moments of consciousness, the boy reaches out and desperately claws the ground next to him in search of his lost knife. His fingers eventually feel plastic and metal, and wrap around the knife’s handle in a tight grip, the boy’s knuckles quickly turning white.

In an instant, the blade plunges straight into side of the man above, the man roaring in pain as he briefly relents on his grip on the boy’s throat, just long enough for him to gasp for another breath of air before releasing the knife and going for the pistol concealed in the man’s waistband.

After a few seconds of struggling, a deafening crack echoes through the alley, startling birds from their perches above.

The man immediately cries out as he releases the boy’s throat from his grip, the boy quickly crawling backwards out of his reach until he finds his back pressed up against a wall.

The man desperately presses his hands over the gunshot wound in his stomach in an attempt to stem the bleeding, as he keels over onto his side, groaning in pain. The pool of blood beneath him steadily grows larger and larger, until his arms suddenly go limp, and the man exhales loudly, never to take another breath.

The boy stares at the man in horror, as he realises...

He... He killed him...

Daniel Cooper gasps for breath as he stares down at the bloodied pistol in his hand, his amber eyes wide in horror. That was the exact moment he learned a harsh lesson, one that he would remember for the rest of his life...

Kill... or be killed.

————————————————————

PLANET FASTOON,

CERULLEAN SECTOR.

As Daniel finds himself staring down at the Hammond P2016 pistol in his hand, he quickly shakes his head and pulls himself out of the flashback. He continues threading on the suppressor on the end of the pistol’s barrel, until he hears a click that confirms that it’s secured to the weapon.

He’d gone to Zurkie’s Gastropub to commission the storage apparatus from Ms. Zurkon, considering she built and sold her weaponry of her own design. After trading some of his leftover Raritanium as payment, she told him that she’ll have it ready in a few hours. In the middle of all that, BT suddenly informed him that he’d located the Ark fragment in the Cerullean Sector, on a planet designated ‘Fastoon’. Naturally, Daniel wasted no time in getting to Fastoon to secure it, before someone else did.

Upon breaking through the thick clouds of Fastoon’s atmosphere, he immediately learned that Fastoon was a dry and dusty world. As a result of the thick clouds of dust reflecting a large portion of the planet’s sun’s heat away from the planet, Fastoon’s surface temperature remained on the cooler side.

Now inside his Crow sitting on the outskirts of a slum built in the ruins of an old city, in a large plaza with what appears to be a destroyed fountain in the middle of it, Daniel figures that he would need weaponry that would be a bit quieter, upon seeing that the slum was densely populated. And so, he equipped himself with an R-97 Compact SMG from one of the duffle bags located underneath his Crow’s troop seats, and outfitted it with a suppressor like he’d just done with his pistol, so that he could minimise attracting any unwanted attention from the natives, if he had to use them.

As he steps out of his Crow through the side door, Daniel then orders BT to find him the quickest path to the Ark fragment, a HUD marker subsequently appearing in front of an alley on the other side of the plaza. The Pilot begins jogging across the plaza towards the alley, at the same time, not knowing he was being watched.

A lone, hooded figure wearing a dusty, military-green cloak crouches on the edge of a rooftop overlooking the plaza, watching the black-armoured Commando.

“So... you can apparently bring down a Seekerpede single-handedly, and yet you can’t help but stand out like a sore thumb?” A feminine voice remarks, “Where do you find these people, Skipp...?” The figure mumbles in mild annoyance, as she stands up and begins sprinting across the dilapidated rooftops out of sight.

Back to Daniel, as he jogs past the broken-down fountain in the centre of the plaza, he passes by two aliens wearing masks over their faces and sitting on said fountain, who were in the middle of a conversation. When he gets close to them, they both immediately stop talking, outright gawking at Obsidian as he jogs past. Once the Commando is out of earshot, their conversation continues.

“Wait a minute; he’s that guy on all the Emperor’s wanted posters! Obsidian, I think his name was!” One of the aliens says to the other.

“What did he do?” The other alien replies with a shrug.

“Didn’t you hear? He saved all those people locked up on that train in Nefarious City!”

“That was him? Well, what do you think he’s doing here, then?” The other alien asks.

“No idea, but I’m not sticking around to find out!” The first alien suddenly announces, as he then quickly stands up from the partially-destroyed fountain and leaves the plaza at a brisk pace.

After Cooper enters the alley, he finds that it’s rather quiet compared to the slums outside it, with nothing within besides the odd dumpster or the few specks of trash or mound of dust speckled along the ground.

As he continues speed walking through the alley, a trio of masked aliens suddenly walk into the alley from an intersecting one, and upon noticing the Commando, their demeanours change from smiling and laughing in conversation, to anger.

“HEY! You Resistance members know well enough that you’re not welcome on Fastoon!” One off the aliens calls from the other end of the alley, his voice echoing slightly.

“I’m no Resistance member, now get out of my way." Daniel sternly orders, as he continues speed walking down the alley, getting closer to the aliens.

In response, the three aliens form a sort of wall, preventing the Pilot from moving any further, as he comes to a stop.

“Look, we appreciate you and your friends saving those people on that train in Nefarious City, and bringing them back here to their families, but we don’t want you here.” The middle alien tells him more softly, after seeing that being antagonistic simply did not work on the Commando.

“Like I said, I’m not with the Resistance, now move it—" Daniel tries to explain and order, as he’s suddenly interrupted by the alien on the left side of the ‘wall’, so to speak, who was also wearing goggles over his eyes, likely to protect them from dust.

“You Resistance members can all go to hell for all I care! Do you have any idea how much trouble you lot have caused for us since that last stunt ya’ll pulled here?!” The alien yells in frustration.

“Now, the Emperor sends Troopers down here every month to search for ‘Resistance activity’, and drag away innocent people for being ‘suspected Resistance members’!” The frustrated alien says, as he steps closer to Obsidian.

“Hey, back up—” The Commando firmly orders, as he starts raising the muzzle of his SMG towards the alien native in warning.

“I LOST MY GODDAMN SISTER BECAUSE OF YOU LOT!” The alien suddenly snaps in a rage, as he suddenly closes the gap with the Commando and grabs and wrenches the muzzle of his SMG to the side with a surprising amount of strength.

“GET THE FUCK OFF OUR PLANET—”

In an instant, the alien is silenced by the Commando’s bracer blade plunging straight into his throat. The alien’s eyes widen in shock, before the Commando throws the alien off him.

The alien falls to the dusty ground, emitting gurgled gasps and desperately grasping at his neck to stem the bleeding, before soon succumbing to shock. The other two aliens are frozen in shock upon seeing this, but before they can react, Obsidian swiftly brings up his R-97 and lets off a suppressed spray into the other closest alien, who falls against a nearby dumpster, dead.

The remaining alien yells in fear, as he turns and begins running down the alley away from the Commando. Like the previous alien, Obsidian calmly squeezes off another burst into the back of the fleeing alien, who collapses face-first onto the dry, dusty ground. Then, after the spent brass ejected from the SMG clinks to the ground, all is silent, as blood begins oozing into puddles underneath the dead aliens’ bodies.

Most people would be distraught, or at the very least feel some regret in circumstances such as this one. Daniel felt... nothing. He’d taken so many lives over the years, the vast, vast majority of which while he was serving in the Militia, he’d grown numb to the act of killing. To him, killing was often no more than a chore that simply had to be done, in order to survive. In Daniel’s mind, it was either him or them. So, it might as well be them.

Then suddenly, Daniel feels a presence behind him, and the Pilot almost instantaneously turns around and raises his SMG towards it in alarm.

Standing a few feet behind him, was a figure wearing a dusty, military-green cloak, a bandana obscuring their face, as they stood with their gloved arms raised in the air to clearly demonstrate that they intended no harm to the Commando.

“Relax, big guy. I’m a friend of Phantom’s.” A feminine voice reassures.

“Who the fuck are you?” Daniel demands, his eyes watching the figure like a hawk, still somewhat uneasy from the woman suddenly sneaking up on him, as he lowers his R-97 upon learning that she was a friend of Phantom.

The figure slowly moves her three-fingered gloved hands to her bandana, pulling it down from her face before also lowering her hood, causing the green cloak covering the rest of her body to part somewhat. Underneath the cloak, the woman wore a fancy, blue, single-breasted, vest and simple white button-up shirt buttoned all the way to her neck, with plain black pants and thigh-high brown leather boots. As the woman put a hand on her hip, it revealed she wore matching leather gloves that went up past her elbows.

To her facial features, she had pale-red, mid-length hair and green eyes. She also had perfectly smooth, pale skin, with what appeared to be mild makeup in the form of lipstick, mild blush and eyeliner on her face. While she clearly resembled an organic lifeform, the thin, but distinct black lines in her ‘skin’ dictated that she was in-fact, some kind of robot.

“My name’s Haleigh Coggs, and if the rest of the Resistance finds out what just happened here, they’re not going to be happy with you, let’s just say that much.” Haleigh says, pointing a chastising finger towards the Commando.

“And what makes you think that? Those bastards attacked me, they didn’t give me much of a choice.” Daniel retorts.

“Because you did have a choice, multiple in fact! You could’ve just walked away, and they were all unarmed, it wouldn’t have been too hard to knock them out!” Haleigh angrily defends. “And that last guy was already running away, he wasn’t even a threat anymore!”

“And why should I have given him that mercy? He sure as shit wouldn’t have, if the roles were reversed.” Daniel retorts again, causing Haleigh to scoff in annoyance.

“You clearly wouldn’t have come here, if whatever it is you’re here for wasn’t really important...” Haleigh figures, as she puts her hands together and paces in thought.

“So, I’ll tell you what: I’ll tag along with you and make sure you don’t needlessly kill anyone else along the way, and help you with whatever it is you’re doing here. That sound good?” Haleigh offers, taking slow steps towards Daniel as she points the tips of her fingers towards the Commando in proposition.

“...Fine.” Daniel begrudgingly accepts with a sigh, rolling his eyes.

Haleigh smiles as she then walks over to a nearby dumpster, to retrieve a large piece of grey fabric from it. After shaking it out, loosening some dust from it in the process, the fabric reveals itself to be another hooded cloak, stained from dust and worn from use. The bottom of it was tattered and frayed in stiff comparison to Haleigh’s cloak, which ignoring the dust, was kept immaculate.

She presents it to Daniel with an outstretched arm. “Here, put this on.”

“Why?”

“A man armoured and armed to the teeth isn’t exactly subtle. It’s why this happened to begin with.” Haleigh explains, gesturing to the three corpses. She then tears a red poster down from the alley wall, and shows it to Obsidian. It turns out to be a wanted poster, depicting the armoured Commando’s helmet and crescent-shaped visor in all its glory. “And in case you haven’t noticed, you’re a wanted man, Obsidian.”

Just my luck, not even here a week, and I’m already on a damn wanted poster... Daniel internally remarks, as he begrudgingly takes the cloak from Haleigh and puts it on, throwing it over his shoulders. Once he has it secured around his shoulders, Daniel then puts the hood up over his helmet, as he then turns and continues walking through the alley, stepping around the bodies of the aliens as Haleigh follows close behind, putting her own hood and bandana back up.

“So... is it true?” Haleigh suddenly asks, looking at Cooper apprehensively.

“...What?”

“That you... killed a Seekerpede in the city?”

“Yeah?”

“Damn. That explains why there’s so many wanted posters of you around, then.” Haleigh reckons. “Just make sure you don’t do anything that’ll piss off Nefarious as much as that did for a while; let the heat die down.”

Daniel scoffs. “Trust me, I don’t plan on going back to that shithole of a planet anytime soon.”

“That shithole used to be the home of tens of billions of people before Nefarious took over, just so you know.”

As the Commando and the robot continue through the alley, the HUD markers Daniel’s following eventually brings them onto a busy street, which they turn and continue down, passing by aliens of various different species.

As they continue through the slums, Daniel following the markers on his HUD laid by BT, he couldn’t help but wonder as to why the Resistance wasn’t welcome on this planet.

“Why is the Resistance not... welcome here?” He asks.

“You can blame the Lombax for that one.” Haleigh replies. “Came here for Zoni knows what right after a mission, and ended up leading a bunch of Nefarious’ Troopers here.”

“Who is the ‘Lombax’, again?”

“Don’t you know her? You know, Rivet, the one with the white fur?” Haleigh answers as she looks a him in question, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, I didn’t know she was the ‘Lombax’. Daniel replies.

“Anyway, they chased her halfway across the city, and left a trail of destruction trying to capture her. She eventually lost them, but then they thought her hideout was somewhere here in the city. Now, they search the place once a month, and lock up anyone with the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, because of all that, a lot of the people here hate the Resistance, for a bunch of different reasons.”

Daniel hums in understanding.

“What are you here for anyway?” Haleigh asks.

“I’m looking for something.” Daniel answers ambiguously.

“And that is...?”

“Something you do not want Nefarious getting his hands on, believe me.” Cooper assures.

“Ooh, so secretive.” Haleigh teases.

Eventually, Daniel and Haleigh arrive at a large building at the end of a junction, with a big, broken glass dome on top. Upon entering the building through its large, open doorway, it reveals a huge, bustling indoor market set up inside of the interior of the building, packed with stalls selling all kinds of wares, from clothing to pottery and furniture.

“Ark fragment located. Marking your HUD.” BT informs Cooper through his helmet radio, as a HUD marker appears above one of the stalls on the opposite side of the market.

Daniel carefully navigates through the crowd of aliens towards the HUD marker, taking care to not accidently bump into anybody on the way, with Haleigh following close behind.

Upon getting within view of the stall, Daniel sees the Ark fragment resting on a shelf behind the stall’s owner, the light it’s producing making it hard to miss. Upon closer inspection, it appeared the Ark fragment had some rusty metal bent around it to form a sort of stand, the result of which making it look vaguely like a lamp.

As an alien woman walks past the stall, the owner of said stall whistles at her, getting the woman’s attention as her head turns to look back at the stall owner.

"Hey lady! You wanna buy this lamp I made? I’ll give it to you for a thousand bolts!” The stall’s owner bargains, as he quickly grabs the ‘lamp’ from the shelf and presents it on the table at the front of his stall.

“What kind of lamp is worth a thousand bolts?!” The woman laughs. "It better be a damn good lamp for that price!" She remarks, as she steps closer to the stall in curiosity.

"Oh, trust me, it is!” The stall owner reassures with confidence. “You wanna buy it, or what?"

"Well, why don’t you tell me what makes this lamp sooo special, that makes it worth that much to begin with?"

"Well, it doesn’t need power, and it never turns off! So, if we end up getting another blackout like the one the other day, you’ll be set!" The stall’s owner answers.

"What do you mean it doesn’t turn off? Isn’t that kind of the whole point of a lamp?"

"Look, if ya’ ain’t gonna buy it lady, then beat it!” The stall owner demands, slamming his hands on the table in frustration as the woman briskly walks away to look for something far more worth her time and money. The stall owner then returns the ‘lamp’ to the shelf behind him, with all the other crudely-made trinkets, as he waits for next potential customer to walk by his stall.

“You came all the way out here... for a lamp?” Haleigh asks Daniel incredulously.

Daniel ignores her, instead focusing entirely on the Ark fragment. While he could just purchase the Ark fragment from the stall’s owner and save everyone involved the trouble, his last resupply with Ms. Zurkon had left him running low on bolts, too low unfortunately to be able to afford it. Not in the mood nor willing to bargain with the stall owner for the Ark fragment, Daniel’s grip on his R-97 tightens underneath his cloak as he prepares to take it by force.

As he takes a step forward to do so, he’s suddenly stopped by Haleigh grabbing him by the shoulder.

“Not everything needs to end in violence, Obsidian. Just buy it from him.” Haleigh chastises in a whisper.

“I don’t have enough to afford it.” Daniel informs, as he shrugs Haleigh’s hand from his shoulder.

“Spend all your bolts on that armour of yours?” Haleigh remarks with a small laugh, as she suddenly materialises a glowing chip of some kind into her right hand, and hands it to the Commando. Upon taking hold of the chip, a window appears on his HUD, informing Daniel that it contained exactly one-thousand bolts.

“Thanks, I guess.”

“You’re welcome. Now, hurry up and buy that ‘lamp’ and get out of here, so I won’t have to babysit you any longer.”

As Daniel walks in front of the stall, the stall owner’s eyes light up upon seeing the potential customer.

“I’d like to buy that lamp you have there.” Daniel says, pointing to the ‘lamp’ in question.

“Now, we’re talkin’! I’ve been tryin’ to sell this thing all day!” The stall owner says with a friendly smile, as he turns around and retrieves the Ark fragment from the shelf, and sets it down onto the table to present it to Daniel just like he did to the woman a few moments ago.

Before the can even open his mouth, however, a young Cazar suddenly sprints up to the stall on all fours and deftly snatches both the Ark fragment and the chip from Daniel’s fingers, before quickly running away with both into the bustling crowd.

“HEY! GET BACK HERE, YOU FURRY BASTARD!” The stall owner calls out after the fleeing Cazar, as he tries to jump over the table to chase after him, and only ends up falling flat on his face when his foot gets caught on the edge of the table.

Daniel lets out an audible growl in annoyance as he takes off after the Cazar, his boots pounding against the cracked and broken tile floor, as he yells out several commands for the Cazar to stop, which are ignored. Haleigh calls out to Cooper to not hurt the Cazar, too, as she sprints to keep up with the Commando.

While Cooper certainly wanted nothing more than to put a bullet into the Cazar for his thievery of the Ark fragment, he didn’t exactly want to attract any more attention to himself, some of the bystanders watching on as he chases the Cazar through the market. With this in mind, using the Gravity Stars on his belt or his Time Shift, was completely out of the question.

As the Cazar dashes though the bustling crowd of aliens at an impressive speed, he suddenly skids into a turn as he runs out a side door and into another busy street. Daniel follows him out the door and into the street, almost running into an unfortunate native who was just about to walk through it into the market in the process.

Due to his own inexperience with his Grapple as well as the stress of the whole situation, the idea of possibly firing said Grapple at the Cazar to trip him up and stop him, unfortunately never enters Daniel’s mind, as he continues sprinting after him.

The Cazar then quickly takes a turn down a quiet side street, populated with far less aliens than the main street he was on seconds before. Thanks to Daniel’s superior endurance as a result of his experience and training, he was now steadily catching up on the Cazar, who was visibly beginning to slow down, and panting heavily from exhaustion.

The Cazar risks a peak over his shoulder to see the armoured Commando gaining on him, and quickly turns and runs through the open doors of a random building on the side of the back street.

The Cazar’s bare feet slips on the waxed wooden floor of the interior of the building, a bar, and he falls to the floor. The ‘lamp’ also crashes to the floor, its crude construction quickly undoing itself, freeing the Ark fragment from its ‘stand’ as it rolls along the floor and underneath the bar.

Daniel quickly catches up to the Cazar, and pins him to the ground before he could attempt to pick himself up and escape, the fast movement of which causing the hood of his cloak to fall off his helmet. He flips the Cazar over onto his back and grabs him by the throat with one hand, and raises his other into a fist, ready and absolutely willing to beat the Cazar into giving up the Ark fragment.

Then, Daniel notices that the young Cazar was shirtless, his fur dirty and matted in some places. And his shorts – the only piece of clothing he did have - were also dirty and worn from use, with several holes in it.

It was only then, when he hears a loud rumble emanating from the Cazar’s stomach, does Daniel notice the Cazar’s ribs protruding through his pelt as he pants heavily, desperately holding onto the glowing chip with the sum of bolts on it in his clawed hand while the other struggles against the arm pinning him to the floor.

He was hungry. Starving, even. And desperate, too, if his previous actions meant anything. The entire time Daniel was chasing him, he never noticed any of these things. And now, there was nothing but pure fear in the young Cazar’s eyes.

Daniel lowers his fist, realising that the Cazar was no different now, than he was many years ago.

“Keep the bolts, you need them more than I do.” The Pilot tells the Cazar in a sudden act of sympathy, as he releases him from his grip. Almost immediately upon being freed, the Cazar gets up and runs out the bar’s back door on all fours, out of sight.

“Aww, so you do have a conscience!” Haleigh coos behind him, having watched it all from the doorway of the bar.

“Only when people aren’t trying to kill me.” Daniel dully remarks, as his eyes quickly scan the floor for the Ark fragment, only to find that it was suspiciously missing from where he’d thought it would be.

“Looking for this?” The Cazar bartender asks Daniel, the alien holding the fragment of the Ark in his hand.

“Oh, thanks.” Daniel thanks the bartender, as he approaches the bar and extends a hand over it towards him, relieved that his mission was finally over, despite the little hiccup involving the young Cazar.

Then, the bartender quickly draws his arm back, bringing the Ark fragment out of Cooper’s reach.

When he sees this, Daniel quickly draws his Smart Pistol from his holster, and points it at the Cazar.

“Hand it over, now.”

Upon seeing Obsidian’s Smart Pistol pointed at him, the bartender only laughs. “You have some serious balls, Commando, I’ll give you that! Though, I suppose that should be expected...”

After hearing the shuffling of clothing and a series of clicks and clacks around him, Daniel then notices that he has blasters trained on him from every direction, from patrons around the bar. His left hand twitches as he prepares to activate his Time Shift, before Haleigh suddenly speaks up.

“I’m sorry about him, Mr Vyrnix! He’s just really fond of his possessions, as you can see.” Haleigh says to the Cazar behind the bar, as she grabs Obsidian’s hand and wrenches it downwards with strength that was fairly appropriate for that of a robot.

“Clearly!” The Cazar bartender now known as ‘Mr. Vyrnix’ says with a laugh, as he waves a hand, and the patrons immediately lower their weapons. Haleigh glares at Daniel, silently commanding him to just listen to her, as he begrudgingly returns his Smart Pistol to its holster on his hip, still glaring at the Cazar behind the bar.

“Hey, Isaac! When was the last time someone pulled a gun on me?” Mr Vyrnix asks an alien standing next to the bar’s back door. “Never!” He quickly says before the alien can provide an answer.

“You’re probably the only person in the galaxy who has the balls to do something like that, and in my own bar! And for that, you have my sincere respect.” Vyrnix admits. “Tell me, what’s your name?”

“Obsidian.” Daniel answers curtly, still glaring at the Cazar through his visor.

“I already know that, from all the wanted posters around the place! I mean your real name.”

Daniel remains silent. He sees Haleigh give him a glare out of the corner of his eye and nod, silently telling him to answer the Cazar’s question.

“Lastimosa. Tai Lastimosa.”

“Tai Lastimosa... I’ll remember that name until the day I die.” Mr. Vyrnix admits. “Look, Mr. Lastimosa, I’m willing to give whatever... this... is to you, But I need something in return.” He says, nodding to the Ark fragment in his hand.

“Great, more bolts I don’t have.” Daniel quietly mumbles.

“No, I assure you it’s not money I want.” Mr. Vyrnix reassures, taking Daniel by surprise for the fact that the Cazar actually heard him. “I want a favour, so to speak.”

“What kind of favour?” Haleigh asks, stepping forwards in front of Daniel slightly.

“I have reason to believe that there’s some slave traders operating in an old factory on the outskirts of the city. The one near Kerch Avenue, I believe. Unfortunately, as of currently, myself and my men are stretched thin fending off a rising drug epidemic on Fastoon.” Vyrnix explains, as he picks up a glass from the bar and begins drying it with a hand towel.

“So, I was thinking; a Commando like yourself would be able deal with this problem far more easily and efficiently than ten of my best men could.” The Cazar reckons, as he continues drying the glass, nodding towards Obsidian.

“So, you want him to go and deal with these slave traders, and in exchange, you’ll give him what he wants?”

“Exactly! And if you find anyone being held captive, be sure to send them my way.” Mr. Vyrnix confirms with a smile. “I take it we’re at an agreement? I’m a man of my word.”

Before Daniel can open his mouth to reject the Cazar’s offer with some tasteful words, Haleigh speaks up.

“Absolutely. We’ll deal with those slavers for you, Mr. Vyrnix.”

“Hey, I never agreed to—” Daniel speaks, as he’s almost immediately interrupted by Haleigh.

“Zip it!” Haleigh whispers to him in a hushed hiss, as she then grabs Daniel by the arm and leads him out of the bar and back into the side streets. After being dragged by Haleigh a few paces, Daniel suddenly stops in his tracks and tries to yank his arm out of the bot’s grip, only to find it was unsurprisingly far stronger than it looked.

“Who the fuck was that asshole? Why the hell are we doing his bidding?” Daniel asks Haleigh, his patience with her growing thin.

“One: That was Wyll Vyrnix, the ‘mayor’ of Fastoon. And two: I’m trying to help you.” Haleigh informs, raising a finger for each question answered.

“Help me? It would’ve been far easier for the both of us to just shoot the bastard! Now, we’re running one of his errands, no thanks to you.” Daniel rebukes.

“Are you nuts? Do you seriously think you could take on all those guys in there at once?” Haleigh asks incredulously.

“And what makes you think I can’t? I killed a Seekerpede, didn’t I?” Daniel replies in frustration.

Haleigh groans in annoyance. “I’m trying to teach you that not everything needs to have a violent outcome. And since you seem to have a habit of making enemies wherever you go, I’m trying to stop you from adding him and the people of Fastoon to the list, just because you have an itchy trigger finger.”

Daniel opens his mouth to object, but seemingly predicting this, Haleigh silences him with a finger to his helmet’s respirator.

“And despite Mr. Vyrnix’s outward appearance, he actually does a lot of good to help the people of Fastoon, like stopping a rising drug epidemic — As you already heard, and bringing in food and supplies, and maintaining Fastoon’s infrastructure, to name a few. You kill him, and you’ll doom all the people on this planet that need his help.”

Haleigh then loosens her tight grip on his wrist, then moves her other hand to gently hold Daniel’s own. “I know that you’re not just a mindless killer, and that you do have a heart in there, somewhere. So, put it to good use and help me deal with these slavers, so we can get your ‘lamp’ back. Deal?”

After a few moments of silently mulling it over, Daniel sighs in defeat. “What the fuck did I do to deserve this shit...?” He mutters to himself as he shakes his head in annoyance.

“That’s the spirit!” Haleigh says sarcastically. “Now, come on, let’s get moving!” She says as she releases Daniels hand and gestures for him to follow.

The robot and the Commando both continue through the streets of Fastoon for a few more moments, before Haleigh eventually speaks up again.

“So, Tai...” Haleigh teases, as a smile creeps onto her face underneath her bandana.

“Not my real name, just so you know.”

————————————————————

After spending some time moving through Fastoon’s streets, and eventually ascending to the rooftops in order to avoid the bustling crowds, Daniel and Haleigh eventually arrive at the slave traders’ factory, overlooking it from the top of a nearby building. The factory was shaped like an ‘L’ and looked derelict and abandoned, the large label painted on its side describing its name and commercial purpose worn from years of neglect. On the way there, Daniel had learned that Haleigh was excellent at climbing, and was able to scale entire buildings like they were nothing, putting even Phantom’s skills to shame.

“You see any ways in?” Daniel asks Haleigh, as he quickly scans the factory’s exterior for any potential entry points. Meanwhile, Haleigh produces a set of binoculars from underneath her cloak, and begins search for a way inside, as well. Any potential ways inside that Daniel sees, were either blocked or boarded up with signs stating: ‘WARNING: DERELICT BUILDING — KEEP OUT’ on them.

“What about that power line, over there?” Haleigh says, pointing to said power line, which was leading from one of the many surrounding buildings straight to the factory. If it was inactive, they could easily use it to zipline over to the factory’s roof, and then continue planning their approach from there.

“Good eyes.” Daniel complements.

“I’m a robot, of course I’ve got good eyes.” Haleigh replies sarcastically, as she stows her binoculars back into underneath her cloak.

After checking that the power line was inactive, Daniel and Haleigh use it to zip line to the roof of the factory, then move slowly and as quietly as they can across the roof, to avoid creating too much noise and potentially informing the slave traders’ inside of their presence.

Looking through the cracks of a boarded-up skylight window, Daniel and Haleigh see several aliens tied to the support beams inside the dim factory below. Every single one of them was blindfolded and gagged with rags, presumably to prevent them from calling for help or seeing their captors. There were also several old abandoned machines in the factory floor below.

“Are you going to throw another hissy fit if I kill any of these guys?” Daniel asks Haleigh, who scoffs.

“Of course not, they’re slave traders, for Zoni’s sake! If anything, death is a mercy compared to what will happen to them if people find out what they’re doing here.”

“Duly noted.” Daniel replies, double checking the ammunition on his R-97 Compact SMG.

“Cooper, my scans are detecting a possible entry point leading into an isolated room on the opposite side of the factory’s roof.” BT suddenly informs Daniel, as a HUD marker subsequently appears above an open skylight on the other side of the L-shaped building. “You can use it to discreetly access the factory’s interior, and avoid attracting notice from those inside.”

Daniel silently thanks the Vanguard for his input. “Over there, the skylight. We should be able to use it to get inside.” He passes on to Haleigh, as he points towards the skylight in question. They both then continue slowly and quietly skulking across the roof of the factory, until they reach the skylight.

After double-checking that the room was clear, Haleigh drops down onto the floor from the skylight, making little noise as she does so. When Daniel does the same, he lands and makes significantly more noise than Haleigh did, which could only be attributed to his higher-than-average weight of two-hundred-and-fifty pounds, not including his gear.

“Hey! Who’s in there? I can hear you, y’know!” A voice suddenly calls out from beyond the room’s door.

“Oh, shit!” Daniel exclaims, silently chastising himself as he raises his R-97 towards the door. “Sounds like it’s time to fight our way in!”

“Not yet it isn’t! Hide there, and wait for my signal!” Haleigh orders Obsidian with a whisper, pointing a finger towards the corner of the room behind a shelf, as she grabs a chair from a nearby desk and sets it in the centre of the room facing towards her.

“What? Why?” Daniel asks hushedly, keeping his R-97 and focus on the door.

“Just do it!” Haleigh hisses.

“Fine, suit yourself, then!” Daniel replies as he then hides in the corner and conceals himself behind the shelf.

Once Obsidian was sufficiently hidden, Haleigh pulls her hood and bandana down and throws her cloak behind her back, before partially unbuttoning and spreading her white shirt wide open to reveal her cleavage, as she stands with her hands on her hips, and with one foot on its tip-toes.

“Oh, for the love of Zoni, who’s—” The voice says in frustration, as the door opens and reveals one of the slave traders, as he’s then cut off by Haleigh.

“Hell-oo, handsome~” Haleigh says in an alluring tone as she raises her arms behind her head and leans back slightly.

The slaver’s eyes go wide when they see Haleigh, and he lets out a low whistle. “What’s a gorgeous lady like yourself doing in a place like this?” The slaver asks, his attention entirely on Haleigh, (or rather, her chest) and thankfully nowhere near the Commando hiding in the corner of the room behind the shelf.

“Oh, I’m just looking for some fun, if you know what I mean~” Haleigh replies with a seductive wink, as she smiles at the slaver. “And you, look like just the kind of fun I’m looking for.”

“Oh, it must be my lucky day!” the slaver remarks quietly, as he enters the room.

“Oh, it is. Now, shut that door behind you. You wouldn’t want to have to share any of this, now would you?” Haleigh tells him, gesturing widely to herself.

“Oh no, you are all mine, beautiful!” The slaver replies, a sick, perverted grin flashing across his face as he happily closes the door behind him without so much as taking his eyes off the bot.

“Now, sit yourself down.” Haleigh orders the slaver in a commanding tone, her eyes directing him to the chair in the middle of the room. The slaver looks at the chair for a moment, appearing to hesitate briefly. “What’s wrong, do you not want a quick lap-dance before we get started?”

The slaver goes slack-jawed, and he just can’t sit down on the chair fast enough. “Sorry, I just haven’t had any action in months!” He admits, as he jitters slightly in the chair from excitement.

“Oh my, you must be all pent up!” Haleigh says in feigned worry. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you out with that in just a moment.” She adds.

Daniel notices the emphasis Haleigh put on the word ‘moment’, and takes this as his cue. Quietly drawing his Data Knife from his vest, Daniel slowly begins creeping up behind the sitting slave trader, taking extra care to not make any noise as he does so.

“Three... two...” Haleigh counts quietly. “One!”  She says noticeably more loudly.

Taking that as his cue, Daniel uses his other hand to cover the slaver’s mouth from behind, and simultaneously plunges his Data Knife into his throat with frightening proficiency. The slave trader struggles for a second or two, before his movements eventually cease as his arms go limp. Knowing from experience that it was now safe to do so, Daniel removes the blade from the slaver’s throat, and wipes the blood away onto the alien’s shoulder as he then returns the knife to its sheath.

“Works every time!” Haleigh remarks, a satisfied smile appearing across her face as she buttons her shirt back up.

“I’ll be honest; I had no idea what your plan was there, for a bit.” Daniel admits. “And why’d I have to do the dirty work?”

“Because I hate getting blood on me, it’s disgusting.” Haleigh explains. “And hey, it worked out in the end, right? Or are you trying to say that you wanted to give him a lap dance?” She asks jokingly.

This draws an audible chuckle from Daniel, a small smile creeping onto his face under his visor as he walks over to the door and cracks it open, taking a peek outside the room they were in.

Outside, there were several walkways overlooking the factory floor below. On said factory floor, there were multiple old shipping crates and containers, and more slave traders, comprised of a variety of different species, many of which visibly armed with weapons of all kinds and no slaves to be seen.

“Let’s deal with the guys up here first.” Daniel recommends, after noticing that there were significantly less slavers present on the upper levels.

“Good idea. Let’s split up, you take this side, I’ll take the other.” Haleigh agrees.

“Got it.” Daniel replies with a thumbs’ up.

As Haleigh pulls her bandana and hood back up, she gets down low as she begins silently moving to the other side of the upper level across a catwalk, taking out a slaver unnoticed along the way. Daniel activates his Cloak as he moves forwards to temporarily mask his movements from any slavers.

Daniel crouches behind a wooden crate, where there’s a slaver sitting on it on the other side facing away from him. While there were other slavers ahead, they were not currently looking towards him. Drawing his Data Knife again, Daniel repeats the action of covering the slaver’s mouth and slitting his throat open, the invisible Pilot flickering slightly in the process, before dragging and hiding his corpse behind the opposite side of the crate, out of sight.

He moves ahead and gets behind another crate when his Cloak runs out. Thankfully, there was a convenient piece of sheet metal propped up against the walkway’s guard rail, giving Daniel the perfect cover for him to remain unseen by the other slavers across from him while his Cloak recharges.

However, this plan goes out the window when suddenly, one of the slavers walks past Daniel’s crate at a brisk pace, presumably searching for the missing slaver Daniel took out moments prior.

Activating his Time Shift, Obsidian whizzes past all of the slavers in the blink of an eye, all of them then subsequently fall to the floor in rapid sequence, their throats slit by the Commando’s knife.

Looking to the other side of the factory floor, Daniel can see Haleigh taking out the last of her slave traders by putting him into a chokehold from behind, before gently lowering his unconscious body to the ground.

She looks over at him and makes an ‘OK’ gesture, which Daniel returns, communicating to each other that they’ve both dealt with all the slavers on their respective sides of the factory’s upper level.

As Haleigh quietly moves across another catwalk towards the Commando, she soon regroups with him as Daniel scouts out the rest of the slave traders below with his helmet display’s zoom function. There was at least ten slave traders they would have to deal with, many of them within direct line of sight from each other, making the idea of simply gunning them down with his suppressed R-97 a fruitless one, if they wished to continue remaining unnoticed.

“See those two on the other side of that big container?” Haleigh asks, pointing out the two slave traders in question, who appear to be in conversation with one another. “They’re out of sight from the others.”

Daniel immediately understands what she’s suggesting, as he readies his R-97 and takes aim. Haleigh then materialises a weapon into her right hand, one that Daniel doesn’t recognise.

“It’s silent, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Haleigh reassures, seemingly predicting what Daniel was about to ask her. “You take the one on the right, I’ll take the one on the left. On three.” She says, as both her and Daniel take aim.

“One... two... three!”

Simultaneously, a suppressed round flies out of the barrel of Cooper’s R-97, while what seems to be a sawblade flies out of Haleigh’s weapon with a click. Daniel’s shot hits the head of the slaver on the right, dropping him instantly, as Haleigh’s sawblade hits the other slaver in the neck, almost outright decapitating him in the process, and he too hits the floor, dead.

“What’s that thing?” Daniel asks Haleigh, nodding to the weapon she has in her hand.

“Buzz Blades. Ms. Zurkon sells them, but I have to warn you; they’re not cheap.” Haleigh replies. Daniel makes a mental note to look into these ‘Buzz Blades’ with Ms. Zurkon later, as he greatly approved of the idea of having a silent, yet lethal weapon on his person at all times.

“How do we go about dealing with these guys? Doesn’t look like we’ll be able to do it without being noticed.” Daniel asks, gesturing to the group of slave traders below, who, were all standing within line of sight of each other. If him and Haleigh were to alert them, they could end up alerting the rest of the slave traders in the other section of the factory, and then this whole escapade would get a lot harder.

“Oh, that’s easy: Distract them.” Haleigh replies matter-of-factly.

“Distract them? How are we going to do that this time?” Daniel asks her. “What, are you gonna go topless and do a little dance, while I sneak up and stab them?” He remarks sarcastically.

“Don’t be so perverted, it’s a lot simpler than that.” Haleigh retorts with a small laugh. “Though, that probably would work, y’know...”

“I wasn’t being serious.” Daniel says sternly. “Now tell me, what does this ‘simpler’ method entail?”

Haleigh doesn’t reply, as she quickly fires another Buzz Blade over towards the group of slavers standing near each other. The Buzz Blade hits the concrete floor a bit away from the group, and the crumbling sound produced by the Buzz blade imbedding itself in the concrete reverberates throughout this section of the factory.

“What the hell was that?!” The slave trader nearest the Buzz Blade’s impact site yells out, as he and the other slavers in the group turn to look at it, as he then slowly walks towards it to investigate.

Now that every slaver present was now looking towards where the strange sound originated from, this left two slavers at the rear of the group completely out of the fields of vision of the other slavers.

Seeing this, Daniel finally understands what Haleigh’s plan entailed, as he aims his R-97 towards the two slavers. Another quick countdown later, they both slavers meet their end and join their allies in the afterlife at the hands of the robot and the Commando.

As the final slaver discovers the source of the strange sound, that being a Buzz Blade courtesy of Haleigh, he quickly turns around when he hears the sound of his nearby compatriot fall to the ground dead behind him, only to receive another Buzz Blade to the face, ending his life instantly.

“That’s all of them.” Haleigh declares. “Hey, we make a great team, y’know?”

Daniel scoffs. “We haven’t been in an actual fight, yet. This here’s just a warmup.” he replies, gesturing to all the dead slavers around the place as he swaps the magazine on his R-97.

“Aww, you buzzkill.” Haleigh morosely remarks, her shoulders slumping.

“I’m serious. I’m looking forward to seeing if you can fight as well as you can sneak around.”

“You know nothing about me, Commando.” Haleigh says with a sly smile.

Haleigh and Daniel then proceed through a set of doors at the very end of the upper floor, and pass through an abandoned, dilapidated office area, with no slaves or slavers to be seen. After they exit the offices, they proceed down a staircase that intersects into a hallway, with another doorway at one end, the other leading back to the previous section of the factory.

As Daniel cracks the door open slightly to peak beyond it, he sees another wide factory floor much like the last, this time with the soon-to-be-slaves himself and Haleigh were here to rescue, under watch by the remaining slave traders. There were also several old, rusty machines scattered around the factory floor.

The area directly beyond the doorway was quite sheltered from the little natural light was pouring into the factory, and was quite dark as a result. This would give Daniel and Haleigh the perfect cover to remain undetected while they advanced on the slave traders and formulated a plan.

Thankfully the old, rusty door doesn’t creak whatsoever when Daniel slowly pulls it open, and he and Haleigh crouch low and sneak into the next section of the factory, undetected by the slavers thanks to the dark.

“Get down, someone’s coming!” Haleigh suddenly warns Daniel from behind, prompting them both to take cover behind an old machine.

A slaver is then seen heading towards the set of doors Daniel and Haleigh came through moments ago, walking slowly and carefully to make sure he doesn’t trip on anything hidden in the darkness. Daniel then draws his knife in preparation to take him down when he gets close.

“Don’t! We need him alive.” Haleigh quietly whispers to Daniel.

“Why?” Daniel whispers back.

“We need to find out who their boss is. We’ll need to bring them in alive to Mr Vyrnix, and that way, he’ll be more than happy to give you back your lamp, and this whole operation will come crashing down.”

“Why should we go through the trouble? If he’s the ‘mayor’, won’t he just publically execute the bastard for being in charge of something like this?”

“Probably. But, it’ll send a message to anyone else who’s thinking on going into the business of slave trading on Fastoon.”

“Fine.” Daniel accepts.

“Damn it, I can’t see shit back here...” The slaver says, as he gets closer to the machine Daniel and Haleigh were behind.

“He’s mine.” Haleigh whispers to Daniel, as a pair of gloves tipped with razor-sharp claws suddenly materialises over both of her hands.

As the slaver unknowingly walks past her and Daniel, Haleigh lashes out, grabbing the slaver by the scruff of the neck, before throwing him over her shoulder and slamming him onto the ground behind the machine next to Daniel.

The slaver groans in pain on his back, as Haleigh clamps her clawed hand over the slaver’s mouth, the other on his shoulder to prevent him from moving.

“Now... who’s your boss?” Haleigh asks him, taking her hand off the slaver’s mouth as her glowing green eyes glare at him from above. The slaver remains silent, his eyes staring up at her, wide and full of fear.

“Answer me, or I will tear your face open.” Haleigh threatens with a growl, digging the tips of her sharp claws into the slaver’s face.

“I-it’s Damien, the big guy with the tattoos!” The slaver suddenly says. Haleigh looks up at Daniel, silently asking him to verify the slaver’s information.

Daniel looks over the old machine they were behind, and uses his helmet display’s zoom function to search for the leader in question. Soon, he sees this ‘Damien’, his big gut making him stand out among the other slavers, most of which were either skinny or average-sized, and had tattoos all over his arms.

“I see him, he’s here.” Daniel informs Haleigh, who then releases the slaver’s face and smiles as she cups his cheek.

“Good boy.”

Arcs of electricity suddenly erupt out of the tips of Haleigh’s claws like lightning. The slaver convulses uncontrollably on the floor for a second or so, as Haleigh then releases him and he promptly goes limp, his brains fried from the sudden shock therapy session.

“Don’t worry, he’ll just snooze for a while.” Haleigh reassures. “You should get yourself a pair of these Tesla Claws from Ms. Zurkon; they would’ve greatly helped you out in that alley.”

“Noted.” Daniel replies, as he and Haleigh begin moving up towards the rest of the slave traders.

Soon, after further scouting out the positions of the slave traders, Daniel sees that they won’t be able to take out any more of them without being noticed.

“Time to go loud Haleigh, get ready.” Daniel informs her, as he pulls a Gravity Star from his belt, and prepares to throw it at a group of slave traders ahead.

Haleigh raises an eyebrow. “You had throwing stars on you this whole time? Wouldn’t it have been easier to use them instead of creeping up on those guys with your knife?” She asks.

“These aren’t ordinary throwing stars: They’re Gravity Stars.” Daniel informs, as he throws it near a group of slavers talking to each other.

The instant the Gravity Star hits the ground, it quickly levitates a couple of feet in the air, as it glows and begins producing its gravity field. Instantaneously, the group of slavers as well as some small pieces of loose debris get sucked into the gravity field and float helplessly, as the other slave traders as well as the slaves watch on in confusion, alongside Haleigh, who is stunned by the sight.

As Daniel then opens fire on the other slavers taking cover behind various machines, the Gravity Star implodes, and the resulting shockwave sends everything caught in its field flying outwards, including the slavers unfortunate enough to be caught in its radius.

“IAN! GET YOU AND YOUR BOYS’ ASSES IN HERE, WE’RE GETTIN’ JUMPED!” The slaver’s boss yells into his communicator after taking cover behind one of the machines. Ian however, never replies to his boss, already dead as a result of Haleigh and Daniel, as the line remains static over the sound of gunfire.

“IAN, ANSWER YOUR DAMN COMMUNICATOR, YOU LAZY SACK OF SHIT!” The boss roars again, only to pocket his communicator in frustration when the answer remains the same, as he joins his underlings in fending off the sudden threat hiding in the darkness.

“HEY, watch where you shoot! Don’t hit any of the slaves!” Haleigh warns Daniel, as she joins him in firing upon the slave traders with her Buzz Blades, the Commando yelling out an acknowledgement over the sounds of the battle.

As him and Haleigh take out some slavers closest to them, Daniel takes this as the opportunity to push up on the slave traders and keep up the pressure on them, as he notices they were merely firing wildly into the darkness. Daniel then uses his Jump Kit to move from cover to cover as he pushes forward. As a result of his fast movements, his hood and cloak is blown off his head and over his shoulders, revealing his true identity to the slave traders as he exits the darkness.

“That’s the guy from the fuckin’ wanted posters!” One of the slavers calls out, as Daniel continues moving from cover to cover, taking out some more slave traders along the way. Haleigh begins moving up out of the darkness too, staying low and moving quickly to avoid being hit, as she takes cover behind a machine.

Daniel throws another Gravity star towards a group of slavers behind cover, in such a way so that they’ll be pulled out from behind their cover by its gravity field. Just like he intended, the Gravity Star pulls the slavers out of their cover, making them ripe for the picking. A few bursts from his R-97 later, and their corpses are flung outwards by the Gravity Star’s implosion. Some slaves tied up to a nearby support beam are pulled towards the Gravity Star, but thankfully remain attached to the beam even after it implodes.

The slave trader’s numbers were now beginning to falter, but the ones remaining had hunkered down behind their cover, and now that Daniel and Haleigh were now out of the darkness, they could now see their targets somewhat. All this was now making it difficult for Daniel and Haleigh to return fire without being hit.

“Can you get a shot on those guys?!” Haleigh shouts to Daniel over the sound of gunfire, as she reloads her Buzz Blades.

In his current position, Daniel couldn’t. But, he had several tricks up his sleeve to choose from, to give him the edge he needed in this situation.

“Haleigh! Stay down and hold your fire, I’ll handle those guys!” Daniel informs, and before Haleigh can reply, Daniel activates his Cloak with a flick of his wrist, as he draws his hammer and rushes out of cover towards the slavers. He knew from his experience that melee attacks of any kind would only cause him to briefly flicker while he’s Cloaked, instead of completely deactivating it and revealing him outright like firing his weapons would do.

Leaping over a broken conveyor belt, Daniel’s boot lands on the head of a slaver crouched on the other side. As a result of the Pilot’s weight, the alien’s head slams into the concrete floor with a crunch as the combination of the impact breaks his skull.

Cooper continues sprinting through the factory floor past one of the machines, and takes the jaw off of a slaver behind it with his hammer as he sprints past. Right after he takes out another slaver with his hammer, his Cloak deactivates, and he quickly materialises his Burst Pistol into his palm as he begins firing at the startled slave traders taking cover together in a row behind some machines.

After seeing the few men he has left fall to the acid-infused rounds of Obsidian’s Burst Pistol, the slaver’s boss decides to cut his losses, as he quickly takes off running towards a nearby doorway with a faded ‘EXIT’ sign above it, abandoning the remaining half-dozen or so of his underlings.

“I’ll get him, you handle the rest!” Haleigh calls out as she sprints after the fleeing slave trader, through the same exit door.

“Got it!” Daniel replies, as he throws another Gravity Star towards the group of remaining slavers, pulling them out of their cover and into the gravity field. After taking them all out, the Gravity Star’s implosion soon spits their lifeless bodies outwards. Then, as the dust settles, it gets quiet, the smell of blood lingering in the air.

After a quick look around the room, Daniel confirms that the last of the slave traders have been dealt with, with only their boss unaccounted for. Though, Haleigh was probably introducing him to her Tesla Claws right about-

A muffled gasp suddenly emanates from one of the nearby slaves, still tied to the support beam and gagged and blindfolded, catching Daniel’s attention.

Daniel then remembers that he wasn’t alone — The slaves still needed to be rescued.

Drawing his Data Knife, prepares to remove the blindfold from one of the aliens tied to the nearby beam. The moment he touches the alien’s face to remove the blindfold, the alien emits a muffled cry as she begins desperately trying to pull herself away from Daniel, only managing to move a few inches as a result of her restraints.

“Relax, damn it! I’m trying to help you!” Daniel’s filtered voice reassures. This elicits a response from the alien, as she then calms down, but was still nervous evident from her shivering, or was she just cold? It was fairly cold inside this old factory, now that Daniel thought about it. Either way, it was time to free her and the rest of the aliens from their restraints.

Two quick cuts later, the gag and blindfold fall from the woman’s mouth and face to the floor, the woman gasping for breath as soon as her mouth is freed to move again.

“Thank Zoni you came for us when you did! They were getting ready to bring us to who knows where to auction us off like animals!” The alien woman cries out, as she gasps in apparent pain. “Hurry up and cut these damn ropes, will you? My legs are killing me...”

Daniel quickly gets to work cutting the ropes binding her and the other two aliens to the beam. After another few moments of cutting, the rope falls slack to the floor. Upon being freed, all three aliens immediately fall to their knees, as a result of being forced to stand in that position for who knows how long.

One of the aliens, a young man, looks up at Daniel, and his eyes widen when he sees him. “Wait a second — you’re Obsidian!” The young man says in awe.

At that moment, Haleigh returns through the exit door, carrying the slaver’s unconscious body over one shoulder.

“I take it that’s all of them dealt with?” She asks as she approaches Daniel, gesturing to the slave traders’ corpses scattered around the floor, as she then lays the unconscious slaver boss onto a nearby conveyor belt.

“Yeah. Now, help me cut these people loose.”

“I will, just give me a sec...” Haleigh replies, as lowers her bandana and grabs some of the fallen rope from the floor and uses it to restrain the slavers’ boss, tying his wrists behind his back and doing the same with his ankles.

As Haleigh is doing this, the woman on her knees looks up at the slavers’ unconscious boss, and a look of barely-contained rage burns across her face.

“You BASTARD!” She snarls with tears in her eyes, as she uses her rage to will herself to her feet with surprising speed, as she starts weakly hitting the unconscious slave trader.

“Hey! We need this bastard alive!” Haleigh tells, putting herself between the woman and the slaver. After a few moments of struggling against Haleigh, the woman gives up, her anger still simmering.

“I hope the only reason why you’re doing that, is because you’re going to make him pay for what he did, right?” The woman asks, glaring at the slaver.

“We’re taking him to Mayor Vyrnix, how does that sound?” Haleigh replies.

“That sounds perfect, to me...” The woman answers, as she smiles and wipes the tears from her face.

“And hey, that was risky throwing one of those Gravity Star things so close to those slaves!” Haleigh admonishes Daniel. “What if they got pulled into it and got hurt?”

“They wouldn’t have, because they were tied up! I knew they’d be fine, and look, they were!” Daniel retorts.

“But they still could’ve— Wait, how did you know the ropes would hold?”

“Because I checked! You see how thick those ropes are? Even if a hurricane came through here, they would’ve been fine.” Daniel explains.

Haleigh remains silent as she stares at Daniel with her mouth slightly agape.

“What?” Daniel asks, slightly uncomfortable from her staring.

“And here I was thinking you were a lost cause... Looks like you might still have a chance after all, Tai.” Haleigh suddenly says, a warm smile appearing on her face.

“For the last time, that’s not my real name.” Daniel groans.

Daniel and Haleigh then proceed to cut the ropes restraining the rest of the slaves to their beams. It all goes off without a hitch, until Daniel is freeing a young woman who is tied to a beam by herself and sitting on the floor, instead of standing like the rest of the slaves. He notices that one of her pants legs is rolled up, exposing a set of bloody bandages wrapped around her calf.

“Can you walk?” Daniel asks her.

The young woman tries to move her injured leg, only to wince in pain. “N-no....” She weakly replies.

“How did this happen?”

“I tried to get away, a-and... they shot me...” She answers through pained gasps.

“Haleigh, I need some help over here!” Daniel calls out to the bot on the other side of the factory floor, who was helping some slaves to their feet. Haleigh quickly jogs over to Daniel and the injured woman.

“What’s wrong?”

“Bastards shot her when she tried to escape.” Daniel explains, gesturing to the woman’s injured leg as Haleigh kneels down to inspect it, gently feeling it to determine if there was any swelling, the woman wincing in pain again when she does so.

“That leg’s broken, I can’t give her any Nanotech until its reset. And if that wound’s infected, it’ll only seal the infection in there, and she could lose her leg, or worse.” Haleigh explains.

“What do we do, then?” Cooper asks.

“The only thing we can: Take her to a doctor.” Haleigh explains, as she stands up. “There’s a hospital not too far from here. You may bring her there, I’ve gotta get the rest of these people and that slave trader safely to Mr. Vyrnix. I’ll pick up your ‘lamp’ while I’m there.”

“Okay.” Daniel acknowledges, as he uses his exo-enhanced strength to carefully pick the woman up and carry her over his shoulder, being careful to avoid moving her injured leg too much in the process.

As he carries the woman out the exit door, he hears Haleigh shouting to get the attention of the slaves behind him, as she explains that she’ll be escorting them to the mayor of Fastoon.

————————————————————

After getting directions to the hospital from a passerby, Daniel eventually arrives at the hospital Haleigh mentioned. Similarly to the surrounding buildings, the hospital was dilapidated and worn-down, with some of the windows sealed up with metal or wood. When he walks through the front doors into the hospital’s reception area, the doors shutting behind him on their own, Cooper sees that some effort was put into maintaining the interior and making it look at least presentable.

Walking up to the receptionist’s desk, he sees a male alien sitting at it sorting through paperwork, and speaking to someone on the other side wearing a long white coat. A doctor, if Daniel had to assume.

“Hey, are you doctor? This woman’s hurt, she needs help!” Daniel informs.

The doctor turns to look at Daniel, and he gasps upon seeing the injured woman on his shoulder.

“Mindy?!” He exclaims in shock.

“You know her?” Cooper asks.

“She’s my sister-in-law! She’s been missing for days!” The doctor explains, before turning to the receptionist. “Get my assistant to the emergency room right now, and tell her Mindy’s here!” He orders, the receptionist doing just that, grabbing a communicator on the desk, and doing just that.

“Quickly, this way!” The doctor tells Daniel, gesturing him to follow.

Daniel quickly begins following the doctor through the halls of the hospital, passing by other hospital personnel as they look at the Commando carrying the woman over his shoulder.

“Where did you find her?” The doctor suddenly asks.

“I found her tied up with a bunch of other people in an old factory not too far from here. Some kind of slave trading operation.” Daniel explains.

“Oh, dear god...” The doctor remarks in shock.

“Don’t worry, the people responsible won’t be causing any trouble ever again.” Daniel reassures.

“Well, that’s reassuring to hear, at least.” The doctor admits.

As they reach a particular room, the doctor quickly opens the doors as he beckons Daniel inside. As Daniel enters and the doctor helps him gently set the woman down onto the vacant bed in the middle of the room. Right after they do this, another woman in teal scrubs suddenly bursts into the room, panting heavily, presumably the doctor’s assistant. Her eyes widen when she sees the woman, Mindy, on the bed.

“MINDY!” The woman screams, as she rushes to the side of the bed beside the doctor. “Thank Zoni you’re okay! Where have you been?!”

Mindy doesn’t reply, seeming only semi-conscious at that point, probably from to not being able to sleep from the stress of her situation. The doctor’s assistant then notices Mindy’s dirty, unkempt appearance, as well as the bloody bandages on her calf.

“What happened to you?” She asks worriedly.

“Some slave traders got her, shot her in the leg when she tried to escape.” Daniel explains, as the doctor inspects Mindy’s injured leg.

“Oh my god, those animals! I’ve heard rumours about them being here on Fastoon, but I didn’t think they were true!” The doctor’s assistant replies.

“If she was shot, there could be a bullet as well as some bone fragments still in there. They’ll need to be removed before we can begin treatment.” The doctor explains. “Get her prepped to be x-rayed.” He tells his assistant, who nods in acknowledgement.

“Zoni bless you, sir! You’re an angel!” The doctor’s assistant thanks Daniel profusely, as she wheels Mindy’s bed into an adjacent room, presumably to begin the x-rays on her injured leg.

As the doors close behind them, the doctor turns back to face Daniel. “That woman you just saved is my assistant’s — my wife’s sister.” He corrects. “Now listen, if you ever need medical attention that nanotech can’t fix, you come here and you see me, understand?”

“I will. Thanks for the offer.” Daniel thanks genuinely.

“It’s the least I can do, after what you’ve done for us, and for those other people, from the sounds of it. You’re a goddamn hero, mister.” The doctor says, as he gives Daniel a quick, friendly pat on the shoulder before he then joins his wife and sister-in-law in the other room.

Daniel stands there completely still for a few moments, as he dwells over the doctor’s words.

“...No. I’m not.” The Pilot mumbles to himself.

Then, Daniel is interrupted by a chime from his communicator. Upon producing it from his satchel, he sees an unknown frequency on the communicator’s holographic display. Daniel answers, not exactly knowing what to expect.

“Hey, it’s me.” Haleigh Coggs’ voice answers. “All the slaves are safe, and I’ve got your ‘lamp’. There’s a plaza down the street from the hospital, meet me there.” Haleigh explains, as she hangs up before Daniel can reply.

Daniel then leaves the hospital and begins walking down the busy street towards the plaza. How Haleigh had the frequency to his communicator, was anyone’s guess.

————————————————————

Daniel arrives at the plaza Haleigh mentioned, which had an open market set up within it much like the previous one he and Haleigh went through, with several stalls and ships parked within it. After initially seeing no sign of Haleigh, Daniel opts to lean against a large broken spire located in the centre of the plaza, while waiting for her arrival.

After a few minutes of waiting and closely watching the crowd for any signs of the bot, Haleigh suddenly appears beside Daniel, the Commando having heard no signs of her approach, prompting him to raise his R-97 halfway before realising it was her.

“You need to stop sneaking up on me...” Daniel says as he lowers his SMG, concealing it back underneath his cloak.

“Relax! Why are you so tense all the time?”

“Do you have my ‘lamp’ or not?” Daniel deadpans irritably.

“Quit being such a grouch, I have it here.” Haleigh mumbles, as she produces the Ark fragment from somewhere within her cloak and hands it to Daniel, who stows it into his satchel for the time being.

“Mr Vyrnix gave you his thanks for dealing with the slave traders for him, and he said that you’ve got a favour from him anytime you want it.”

“Is that so? I didn’t think he was the type to give favours to people.” Daniel remarks.

“No, he isn’t. You seriously impressed him, and that’s no small feat.” Haleigh explains, as the two fall into a comfortable silence.

“How is the girl?” Haleigh asks after a few moments.

“As it turned out, she was the sister-in-law to some doctor there. He told me to come to him if I ever need medical help, as a thanks.” Daniel recounts.

“You see? That’s what happens when you keep your finger off the trigger; nobody had to die for no reason, and now you’ve made a couple friends. Friends you’re absolutely going to need if you’re planning on staying here in Polaris for long.”

When Daniel turns to look back at Haleigh, he finds that she’s completely vanished from his side without so much as a trace.

Daniel silently lingers over Haleigh’s words for a few moments. He then radios BT to tell him to bring and land the Dropship at a closer, and preferably more discreet location, as he stands up from the broken spire and begins walking through the market. As he walks past a parked ship, he suddenly hears a ‘Psst!’ emanating from the rear of the ship.

Looking towards the source, Daniel is admittedly unnerved slightly when he sees a pair or eyes looking at him through an open slot in the rear door of a ship.

“You look like the kinda’ guy who walks around with lots of Raritanium. I’ll buy it off ya’ for cold, hard bolts, if you’re interested. No questions asked!” The person on the other side offers.

“Who are you?” Daniel asks the mysterious stranger, his grip tightening around his R-97 under his cloak as he quickly checks his surroundings to make sure it wasn’t some kind of ambush.

“Oh, my apologies, mister. The name’s Jim Cognito. I deal in selling and installing ship mods, like advanced weaponry, armour, and when I can get my hands on ‘em; Hyperdrives.”

Daniel’s interest peaks when he hears Jim say ‘Hyperdrives’. Was this just the spacecraft technology he needed, in order to travel to other galaxies? He had to find out.

“Tell me more about these ‘Hyperdrives’, Jim.” Cooper asks.

“Well, a Hyperdrive is fairly self-explanatory: It allows a ship to reach Hyperspeed. Most ships you see nowadays would take hours to reach the Bogon Galaxy, for example, while a ship with a Hyperdrive can get there in minutes.” Jim explains, Daniel’s eyes widening behind his visor upon his suspicions being confirmed.

“Do you have any in stock?” Daniel asks hopefully.

“Not right now, I’m afraid. I had to stop sellin’ the Hyperdrives I had in stock before, because I learned that they were defective, and blowin’ up in my customers ships. Couldn’t have all that bad press, you know.” Jim explains.

“The guy I was gettin’ ‘em from in Bogon swore that they were fresh off production line, so I ain’t done business with him since. And with Nefarious’ little war with Bogon on the edge of the galaxy, it’s been difficult to get anything in from them lately. So, I’m sorry to tell ya, but I probably won’t be able to get a workin’ Hyperdrive in for ya’ anytime soon.”

“Well, you let me know as soon as you get one in, I’ll buy it and have you install it in my ship, it that’s alright?” Daniel tells, giving the mysterious stranger the frequency to his communicator as well.

“Pleasure doin’ business with ya’. But, perhaps I could take some of that Raritanium off your hands? I’ll give ya’ fifty percent for it.”

Daniel takes a few moments to mull over Jim’s offer. “Make it sixty, and we have a deal.” He barters.

“Done.”

The total amount of bolts Daniel receives in exchange for the Raritanium at sixty-percent of its original value, brings his current balance to around thirty-thousand bolts.

“If ya’ ever... err... come across any more of this stuff, you come straight to me, ya’ hear?” Jim calls out to Daniel as he walks away, the Pilot raising a thumb in the air in acknowledgement.

With Jim here to purchase Raritanium from him, getting his hands on some more Raritanium was beginning to sound like a very lucrative way to make some bolts. But he wouldn’t be going anywhere near Corson V to get some, not for a while at least.

————————————————————

THE CARTER BRAXTON,

THARIA.

Not long after leaving Fastoon, Daniel was contacted by Ms. Zurkon to inform him that she’d finished constructing the storage apparatus for the Ark fragment. After travelling to Zurkie’s to pick it up, Daniel soon placed the recovered Ark fragment inside, to ensure that the apparatus could mask its energy signature, and prevent Nefarious from detecting it. Thankfully, it was up to spec, preventing even BT from detecting the fragment, and soon Daniel returned to the Braxton on Tharia.

After storing the apparatus in a secure location on the Militia carrier, Daniel was only about to drop off his weapons at the armoury, when BT suddenly contacts him via radio with some unfavourable news.

“Cooper, I am detecting multiple unknown vessel signatures entering Tharia’s atmosphere.”

“Oh shit, is it Nefarious?!” Daniel asks worriedly. Did Nefarious somehow managed to track them to Tharia? If that was the case, it meant that himself and BT had a massive battle ahead of them.

“Unlikely. Scans indicate the vessels’ outer hulls are primarily comprised of wood.” BT informs.

Daniel promptly realises what this information means. “Pirates.” He growls.

“Lock and load, BT. It’s time to welcome our guests.” Daniel orders the Vanguard, as he prepares to rearm himself for his next encounter with the Space Pirates.

————————————————————

Chapter Text

————————————————————

PLANET ARDOLIS,

CERULLEAN SECTOR.

Carl Quantum gently touches his Royal Starship down onto the landing platform outside the Space Pirates’ base, where just beyond said platform, a small army of Space Pirates awaited his arrival.

As Carl carefully climbs out of his ship, a trio of Space Pirates separate from the group and approach him with their weapons drawn.

“Ye try anythin’ funny, and you’ll find yerself on the end of me blade.” The Pirate warns Carl, as if he needed to be warned.

“Understood, loud and clear.” Quantum reassures with a confident smile.

The three rather mean-looking Pirates escort Carl away from his ship and towards the entrance of the skull-shaped mountain the Pirates called their home.

While on the exterior, one wouldn’t think in a million years that the unofficial leader of the Resistance was nervous. On the inside, however, was the complete opposite.

His heart’s beating so hard, it feels like it’s going to burst out of his chest at any moment. A bead of sweat slowly drips down his forehead underneath his mask, and Carl has to literally force his legs to move forwards one after the other, despite his instincts screaming at him to turn and run back to his ship as fast as his legs can carry him.

Damn... Maybe Phantom was right? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, after all...

After he told Phantom, the Rilgarian had initially been gobsmacked at his plan of meeting with the Pirate Captain on Ardolis in hopes of forming an alliance.

“Carl, you can’t be serious! This is Captain Blackwater we’re talking about! You’re seriously going to Ardolis to try and form an alliance with him?!” Phantom had argued.

“I know how bad it sounds, Phantom! But hear me out: The Pirates and the Resistance share a common enemy in Nefarious! If I can convince Blackwater to join forces with us, we might be able to free the galaxy from that tyrant, once and for all!” Carl had rebutted.

As much as Carl hates to admit it, the Resistance has made little, if any progress towards dethroning Nefarious since its inception all those years ago.

This made Quantum realise that they need to acquire some kind of edge, if they want to beat the Emperor once and for all. And this little ‘meeting’ he’s managed to organise with the leader of the Space Pirates was just one in a long list of potential solutions to this problem.

After traversing the halls of the Pirates’ base, Quantum and the three Pirates tasked with escorting him eventually arrive at a pair of large, imposing double doors with the Space Pirate flag hung up on each side, with another Pirate standing on guard nearby.

“The Cap’ain be waitin’ for ye’ inside.” The Pirate informs.

“Thank you.” Carl replies amicably, as he raps his knuckles against the door.

“Enter!” A loud and imposing, slightly accented voice booms through the door.

Quantum steels himself as he grips the handles of the double doors and pushes them open, revealing an impressively grand-looking office.

On the far side of said office, overlooking Ardolis through a large window, is Captain Sievert Blackwater himself, standing with his hands crossed behind his back.

Lightning suddenly strikes somewhere outside, the brief flash of light illuminating the dread Pirate’s slender and intimidating silhouette for but a moment, prompting Quantum to bite back a nervous gulp. Despite him being significantly larger in size in comparison to the Pirate Captain, Carl doesn’t feel too confident in his ability to survive a violent encounter with Blackwater in a confined space.

Quantum steps into the room, and the three Pirates go to follow him inside, before they’re interrupted by their Captain’s stern tone.

“Leave us be, this is a private conversation.” Captain Blackwater orders the three Pirates with a wave of his hand, without so much as turning his gaze away from the window.

The three Pirates share a momentary look of hesitation amongst each other, before following their Captain’s order and leaving the room, shutting the door behind them with an audible click.

Now alone with the dread Pirate Captain, Blackwater turns around to face Quantum. He’s wearing a dark teal overcoat over his slender frame, alongside his signature tricorn Pirate hat, with a pair of pistols strapped to his chest and a cutlass sheathed on each hip. To his facial features, his head resembled a long and thin skull, with black metallic protrusions on the lower half of his face resembling a beard. He’s also noticeably taller than the other Pirates by at least two or so feet, putting him roughly equal to Quantum’s own height.

Captain Blackwater was well-known to pride himself on being a gentleman. (Or at least, a gentleman by Pirate standards.) This was the only reason Carl ever so much as thought about arranging a meeting with the Pirate Captain. It was also the main contributing factor into making Carl believe that there’s so much as a chance that the two could come to some sort of agreement.