It's been a while, so here's the story so far:

The Austraeus, an IMC freighter, warps from the core worlds to the frontier. Along the way they discover Demeter has been destroyed, and the IMC has fled to outpost 207. The Militia think that the IMC won't be able to warp to the frontier for a long time, and the captain of the Austraeus decides to use this to his advantage. While the Austraeus drops into orbit around Venice 3 (a trading hub) one team of IMC soldiers jumps to Carlyle refueling station, another jumps to Venice 7 (home to Kodai's manufacturing plant), and still more jump down to Venice 3 to scout for supplies and information.

On Venice 3, a bounty hunter named Zeta discovers the IMC on accident but decides to side with them. Unfortunately, the Militia and the Venice 3 senate also discover the IMC. The Senate, lead by a man named Menelaus, shoots the Austraeus in orbit, and the explosions of the Austraeus's fusion reactors propel it and the Militia's battleship the Retaliator into Venice 3's atmosphere.

The Carlyle team manages to recover the Dawntreader, an ancient starship presumed KIA. In the process, Carlyle refueling station is destroyed, and most of the IMC soldiers are killed.

The Venice 7 team managed to convert a Samson Assault truck to a mobile hardpoint by mounting a long-range communications dish to its roof. They managed to hack into Kodai's main computer network, transferring ownership of all of Kodai's 'for sale' starships to the IMC. However, in the process, the IMC troops are cornered in a warehouse.

Within Kodai's warehouse, four IMC Titans and a Samson assault truck fled from a squadron of Kodai Titans.

Jaggerjack the Ogre stormed through the halls of shelves, heading straight for the warehouse's west wall. Beyond the wall would be a dropship, ready for evacuation.

I hope.

He pulled his left fist back and hurled it forward through a wall of shelving ahead of him, burst through the hole he'd made.

"Through here!" he roared at his allies behind him.

Boxes of Kodai-made munitions toppled to the ground as he demolished the next wall with the top of his chassis. The power cable that had been amping his railgun pulled taught, then popped from the socket on his arm.

Railgun's not amped anymore. I'm just an ordinary Ogre.

He took a left, then a right, then ran head-first into the Kodai Titan that had been waiting for him. It swung a punch, connected with his Railgun, knocked it to the side. He spun on his foot, carrying the railgun in a full circle before swinging it at the Stryder. It dodged. He cursed, took a quad rocket to the face.

"Open the upper eject hatch," he grunted, grabbing his DMR and hauling himself out of his seat and through the portal. "And fire everything we've got."

"Switching to Guard Mode," replied his AI.

A DMR shot to the Stryder's Sensor array temporarily blinded it and the Stryder stumbled backwards. It dropped a particle wall and opened its front hatch, exposing the pilot inside.

Manual targeting, eh? thought Jaggerjack, clutching the handholds on his Ogre's back. Well, I was going to rodeo it, but, if she wants to do it this way...

The Kodai Pilot pulled the trigger on her right joystick, firing her Stryder's quad rocket. As the four rockets left the Stryder's cannon Jaggerjack leapt from his Ogre's back, tucked his legs under his body as the rockets passed underneath him.

"Titan doomed," announced his Titan AI.

He hit the ground, rolled around the Stryder's particle wall. Crouched, shot upwards twice into the Stryder's open Cockpit and through the female pilot's head.

Open Cockpit's a good counter to sensory disruption, but it has its drawbacks.

Her corpse toppled from the cockpit and he leapt up to take its place. "Be advised," he announced through his helmet's radio, sliding his hands into their control gauntlets, "I am currently inside an enemy Stryder."

He spun on his new heels, sprinted back to the IMC party. Rimjob the Autotitan stormed after him, plasma railgun in its hand. Behind it rolled the Samson, behind it, Danniek and Rimjob's Titans. Danniek stopped for a second, spun in a circle. Dropped his particle wall and fired his cluster missile. Flicked his feet underneath him, hauled the battemech's legs around in a circle to face his destination again. This move exposed his back to the enemy Titans - but, they were now dealing with the cluster missile, allowing him to storm after his allies unhindered.

"ETA to the shuttle arrival?" he asked.

"One minute."

Jaggerjack burst through the warehouse's entrance, winced as his eyes were blinded by the lights in the sky shining through his open cockpit.

Lights in the sky? We're too far away for the sun to be that bright.

His eyes focused a second later and a smile crept across his lips.

A fleet of starships were ascending to space. Plumes of helium erupted from the fusion thrusters of cruisers and battleships; pillars of flame burned from the chemical rockets of frigates and destroyers. The dark Venice 7 sky was ablaze with light.

"They did it," whispered Jaggerjack. "They finished the hack."

"ETA to dropship?" growled Rimjob, dropping his particle wall a split second before an enemy cluster missile slammed into it.

"40 seconds."

"Where is the damn thing?!" he exclaimed, turning to continue after his party.

As Jaggerjack the Stryder continued its sprint away from the warehouse, Jaggerjack the human glanced down at the map his new Titan's AI had drawn for him. He was running at the head of the party, who were marked as hostiles on his radar. Behind him was Rimjob's auto-titan, firing automatically at anything that moved. Following that came the Samson of soldiers and civilian mechanics, and following that came Danniek and Rimjob the Atlases. The five vehicles were currently fleeing the Kodai Titans following them, marked as friendlies on the Kodai radar.

He looked up, saw Kodai's engineering district ahead of him. It seemed that the small - well, compared to a Titan - two to three story buildings encircled the warehouse. With a pulse of his dash rockers, Jaggerjack the Stryder shot between a row of buildings down a wide street. With a flick of his eyes, Jaggerjack the Human checked the rear cameras.

They're still behind me. Good.

A small dropship - Crow-Class, thought Jaggerjack - sped towards them, low over the horizon. In the sky high above Venice 7, railgun rounds, missiles and lasers flashed and sparkled between Kodai's starships and the starships the IMC had stolen.

Makes sense that they'd have a fleet of their own. But they'd never have anticipated someone stealing ALL of their ships.

"This is the evac point!" called Jaggerjack. "20 seconds to arrival."

He spun on his feet, raised the Kodai Stryder's Quad rocket to his eye.

Danniek the Atlas bobbed to the left.

Rimjob the Atlas ducked to the right.

Jaggerjack's finger twitched and the rockets fired, soaring along the street, between the buildings, between Danniek and Rimjob and over the Samson to detonare in the chest of the leading pursuing Kodai Titan. It stopped abruptly, as if it had ran into a brick wall, before recovering.

The other Kodai Titans returned fire with a barrage of chaingun and 40 millimetre cannon rounds. A 40 millimetre cannon shell impacted with Rimjob's left arm, throwing him off ballance. Danniek the Atlas managed to throw up his particle wall a moment later.

"I'm down," growled Rimjob, Atlas toppling to the ground. "Ejecting."

His Atlas exploded and he shot into the air, rained arc grenades upon the approaching Titans.

Back on the ground, Danniek the Atlas popped its damage core and loosed five railgun rounds from their magazine.

"Alright, people," grunted Jaggerjack, taking a step over the Samson so that he was between it and the approaching Kodai Titans. "Evac in 10 seconds. Get into that dropship as quick as you can."

Out of the engineering workshops stormed a squad of Kodai soldiers, armed to the teeth with anti-titan and anti-personnel weaponry. Aisling, inside the Samson, ducked behind the armored doors as the IMC soldiers traded fire with the Kodai soldiers. Danniek's foot put an end to the battle, squashing three of the Kodai riflemen and forcing the rest to retreat back inside the workshops.

The dropship - a Crow-class orbit-to-atmosphere transport - swooped to a halt a metre off the ground, just behind the Samson. Like an angel from the heavens.

"Move!" ordered Jaggerjack.

Rimjob hit the ground, jump kit jets flaring. With a leap, he was sprinting along a workshop wall. A pulse of his jump kit left him standing atop an enemy Titan's chaingun. The Atlas took a step back on reflex, then drew its left arm back. He jumped over the punch, somersaulted onto the Atlas's back, tore the service port off the Atlas's head and stuffed an arc grenade inside.

Two of the soldiers within the Samson pushed the doors open and scooted backward, slowly retreating to the Crow. Aisling, Nathan and Philip followed them out.

"Cover us!" ordered one soldier.

"On it!" replied the four men still left in the Samson. They opened fire, carbines rattling at the Kodai workshops where the Kodai soldiers hid.

High above the first story of the workshops, Titans continued to exchange fire. Danniek the Atlas's left leg collapsed under a rain of chaingun fire as his particle wall fizzled out. His Chassis fell to the ground with a thud.

"Punching out," he grunted, pulling the eject lever. A split-second later his ejector seat propelled him through the hatch in the top of the Titan.

Rimjob slid off the Kodai Atlas, rolled to the left as it tried to stand on him. The arc grenade he'd dropped inside exploded and it fell to the ground in spasms as the its Pilot's muscles jerked uncontrollably.

Jaggerjack dodged two 40 millimetre shots, took another to the face, fired his quad rocket in retaliation. Ducked under a railgun shot that punched through the workshops behind him.

"Is everyone in the dropship?" he rasped, hull exposed under his new Stryder's dead shield.

"We're in!" replied Aisling.

"Danniek, get to the dropship," ordered Jaggerjack, popping his dash core.

"On it!" replied Danniek, tossing a spare arc grenade to Rimjob, who caught it, pulled the pin and lobbed it into the oncoming Kodai Titans' sensors. He leapt into the air, sprinted along a workshop wall toward the dropship. Took a carbine shot to the ribs and kept going, stim replacing his lost blood.

Jaggerjack dashed forward, kicked the spasming Kodai Atlas's cockpit door in, and continued onward, dashing over the dead husk of a battlemech and throwing his fist in the face of another Kodai Titan.

"Four on one," he growled through the Kodai Titan's radio. "Let's see how you face up to me."

He faked a punch - prompting his opponent to punch back - but fired his quad rocket instead. Took a 40 millimetre cannon shot to the back and keeled forward. Tried to dash, but found that his dash core had ran out. Cursed, popped his particle wall and tried to escape backwards.

"Wait!" screamed Aisling as the Crow began to rise into the air to join the fleet of stolen Kodai starships. "Jaggerjack-"

"-Will eject," interrupted Rimjob, leaping from the top story of the workshops and into the dropship. "Who's flying this damn thing?" he asked, extending his hand to Danniek and hauling him up.

"I am, Sir!" called a soldier from the front of the Crow.

"Hover just above that Stryder!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The Crow continued to rise, rockets flaring underneath it, jump drive preparing to launch it into orbit.

We might just make it out of here alive! thought Aisling. We came, we managed to hold the hardpoint long enough for the Austraeus to hack into the Kodai starships… We're going to make it!

"I can't stay here much longer!" shouted the Crow Pilot. "Those AA cannons will start tearing us to pieces any minute now!"

"Jaggerjack! Time's up, we've got to go!"

"See you later, assholes," growled Jaggerjack through his Stryder's Kodai radio. "Punching out!" he called through his helmet's IMC radio.

The explosives in his ejector seat detonated, propelling him out his dying Stryder's cockpit. He shot high into the air, stretched his arm out for the bottom of the dropship.

Aisling saw the next few events rather slowly.

Danniek leant out of the Crow's open door. He extended his arm to Jaggerjack.

Jaggerjack caught Danniek's hand.

Danniek began to pull the Pilot into the Crow.

A burst of chaingun fire tore Jaggerjack to a meaty pulp. A drop of blood landed on Aisling's helmet.

Another bullet flew through the Crow's door and tore through Danniek's shoulder. He screamed. Rimjob pulled him away from the Crow's door.

A man screamed in pain. A woman screamed in shock. Someone began to order. The Crow's door slid closed.

"Aisling!" roared Rimjob, snapping her back to reality. Danniek's blood coated his gloved hands. "Get me the medical kit in the corner!"

"Jumping to orbit!" screamed the Crow pilot as she dumbly handed him the kit. "Cabin's pressurised now! Jumping in three-"

"JUMP NOW!" roared Rimjob.

"Mark!"

And then, Venice 7 was gone.