"Enemy Pilot spotted!"

"Clearing balcony."

"Man down! Man down!"

"Balcony cleared, advancing."

Cervius sighed as he shifted in his seat. As usual, the radio was packed with chatter. As usual, it appeared that the forces of the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, or IMC as it was more popularly known, was losing the fight. As usual, Cervius would drop into battle anyway, ready to kill or be killed.

"Hey Cervius," began a female voice over the squad-com, "you good over there?"

The voice came from the Titan across from his. Like his, it was a Stryder model Light-Titan. The cockpit, which took up the entire torso, was a simple rectangle with the optical sphere set in the upper right corner when one was looking at it. The arms and legs held little armor, the inner workings out for all to see. Like everything else in the IMC, both Titans were an off-white color.

"He's fine Rachel," replied a gruff voice as the deck shook beneath Cervius's Titan. Turning his head, the optics following, Cervius watched as a massive, gorilla-esque Titan strode over. It wasn't massive in height but more in weight. The Ogre, as it was named, was a Heavy-Titan. Whereas the Stryder relied on agility and speed, the Ogre relied on brute force. A favorite saying amongst Ogre pilots was, 'With armor plating this thick, you don't need to run'. While it was true, the Ogres weren't invincible. A skilled Stryder pilot could severely cripple or destroy an Ogre by outflanking it. Two capable Stryder pilots would have no trouble with the slower moving gargantuan, a fact that Rachel and Cervius had proved many times.

"I do believe I asked him Cole, not you," was the snappy reply. Cole chuckled as he settled his titan above the drop door and turned to face Rachel and Cervius.

"I'm fine, Rachel. I just have the feeling that this is going to be a repeat of past missions," Cervius stated.

"Reaver Squad. Drop occurring in twenty seconds. Prepare to drop," Spyglass informed the three pilots. Spyglass was the name for the model of robot used by the IMC to relay tactical information to IMC troops.

Cervius rolled his neck before his hands danced across the controls. With ease born from months of constant combat, he had the Titan retrieve an ammo drum from the storage clasp and load it into the XO-16 Chaingun held in it's hands.

"Well. Repeat or not, I'm just happy to get back into the shit," Cole stated with a throaty chuckle as his Titan racked back the charging handle on the 40mm cannon in it's hands.

"Just remember that your not invincible will you? Cervius and me are tired of abandoning a hunt to drag your ass from the fire," Rachel replied with bite.

"It's not my fault they feel the need to gang up on ol' Ironskin here."

"Ironskin? Really?" Rachel asked, amusement in her voice. Cervius found himself chuckling at the nickname. Nicknames were rarely given to Titans as you were bound to have it shot out from under you during a battle. Such was the way of modern warfare.

"Shut up. Both of ya."

Rachel and Cervius both broke into laughter as the monotone voice of the Spyglass came back over the net,

"Drop in ten seconds."

"So," Rachel began after regaining her composure, "what do you think the Militia threw at us this time?"

"It's Demeter," Cervius replied, "they've thrown in everything."

Demeter was the IMC's main refueling point between the Core worlds and the Frontier. Without it... well, let's just say that it would be endgame.

"Five," Spyglass droned, "Four...Three...Two...Dropping."

Faster than Cervius could blank, the doors below his Titan retracted into the hull. With the ship inside the planet's gravity well, the three Titans were able to begin falling toward the planet.

"Engaging warpfall," Rachel stated.

"Engaging warpfall," Cervius stated not a second after. His left hand flew over the small keyboard in the cockpit. The world began to stretch and grow brighter before everything slammed back together with an audible pop. Cervius had only a millisecond to observe the refinery before flames swallowed his Titan. Not a second after that the Titan hit dirt, it's knees bending and left hand extending to catch itself. As with every warpfall, Cervius was left feeling like his insides had been torn out of his body and then haphazardly stuffed back inside. It was not a pleasant sensation but he had learned long ago how to push through it.

Rising to his full height, Cervius examined his surroundings. It was hell. The Militia were through the outer defenses and running amok inside the refinery. Spotting a squad of Militia Grunts, Cervius leveled his XO-16 on them and promptly blew them away.

"Cervius, hostile Titan near my position," Rachel reported. Looking at the map displayed on the Titan's screen, Cervius saw the icon that marked Rachel's position. She wasn't that far away.

"Roger, moving to support," he replied, turning his Titan and taking off at a jog. One unlucky hostile Grunt found himself underneath one of the Titan's feet. Rounds pinged off the Titan's shielding as both IMC and Militia Grunts threw rounds back and forth at each other. A rocket sped in front of the charging Titan before soaring through a window and detonating.

Rounding a building, Cervius saw Rachel's Stryder behind a Particle Wall that near failing. Down the street sat an enemy Atlas, a Medium-Class Titan, that had it's 40mm Cannon blasting away. Activating thrusters located on the back of the Titan's hip, much like Cervius's own jump pack, the Titan lurched forward to come up next to Rachel. As soon as the Titan stopped, Cervius threw up his own Particle Wall, Rachel's failing a second after.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Cervius replied as he began blasting away with the XO-16. According to the readout on his screen, the Atlas was nearing the Doom state. The Doom state was when a Titan sustained so much damage that the core began to overload, leading it to eventually self-destruct.

A boom and the shaking of the Earth signified that another Titan had reached the surface.

"Honey! I'm home!" Cole announced before booming in laughter. Two seconds later and the booming of his 40mm replaced that of his laughter. With the combined firepower, the enemy Atlas tried retreating but it was too late. The readout changed to show yellow and black bars and a red countdown timer, a sign that it was Doomed.

Acting quickly, Cervius hit the thrusters in three separate bursts. This brought him right in front of the enemy Titan. Punching his left hand through the outer shell, he grabbed the pilot and yanked him from the Doomed machine. With the enemy pilot in his grasp, he swung around and flung the man at the building next to him. He hit with a splat and the breaking of bones. Blood splattered as his body fell to the ground below.

"A bit brutal, don't ya think?" Rachel asked as she piloted her Stryder past his.

"War is brutal Rachel," he replied as he reloaded his nearly empty XO-16.

Cole boomed in laughter again, "Looks like Cervius found his balls!"

"Yeah, they were in your mom's mouth," he replied. Feminine laughter dominated the net for a full minute.

Minutes continued to tick by as Reaver squad fought against seemingly endless waves of Militia forces. As they fought, they heard the deteriorating situation over the OpNet. The Militia leader was making headway in rigging the reactors for detonation, an act that would blow up a quarter of the planet at the least. It began to look that no matter how hard the IMC fought on the ground, the Militia was still going to win. This was proven when the Militia leader hardwired the reactor for destruction.

"Shit. Alright Pilots, we're pulling you out. Dropships inbound," informed Vice Admiral Greaves.

"Negative," interrupted Spyglass, "evacuation cancelled. Capital ship override engaged."

"What are you doing?" Greaves screamed.

"Moving the fleet to a safe distance," Spyglass stated, whether in reply to Greaves or not, no one could tell.

"Son of a bitch!" Cole shouted, droning out the remainder of the transmission, "They're just going to leave us here to-"

Cole didn't finish as the reactor erupted. The resulting explosion engulfed the battlefield, Reaver squad included. Next Chapter: Meeting the Mythological Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes