"Warning. You outnumber enemy Titans six to one. Six to two. You outnumber them six to two."

Danniek's gaze flicked across his Atlas's display to the radar, saw the familiar red glow of an unidentified high-heat source. Just hot enough to be the exhausts of an enemy Titan's reactor.

"Jaggerjack, two enemy Titans five hundred metres out! Over the north wall! Over!"

"Copy. Yeah, I see them too. Seems like they're Stryder-class. Scouts."

When a single corporation exclusively owned an entire celestial body, it was often extremely expensive to build defences all over the surface. The easiest way to defend one's investments on such a large area was often to build an orbital defence platform to cover the skies, and use a mobile attack force to wipe out landing parties. Kodai's command centre would have detected the IMC on their radio scanners, and by the looks of things had sent a scouting party to investigate the uninvited visitors.

"I'll hold them off," called Danniek. "Veronica, stick my other Titan into guard-mode."

He flicked his left leg backwards; kicked his right forward and the Atlas followed suit, turning its enormous legs to the left, hauling its torso around atop them. With a flick of his right middle finger the 40 millimetre cannon's safety was disengaged, with a curl of his toes and a lean of his torso the Titan began to storm forward, ground shaking underneath it; with the rocking of his shoulders and the movement of his legs the Titan began to sprint.

He was Danniek no more. Now, he was the Titan, man of steel, heart of stars.

Danniek the Atlas dropped his left shoulder and continued through the concrete wall surrounding this particular shipyard. 28 tons of steel becoming a nuclear-propelled wrecking ball. Saw the Stryders coming over another wall in the distance and wished he hadn't gone on his own.

"Jaggerjack, I'm gonna need some help..."

"What's the matter?"

"Two Stryders and three Paladin-class lightweight battle tanks. Not sure if I can handle that many."

"On my way," replied Jaggerjack the Ogre.

"Attention, enemy Titans and Paladins!" growled Danniek the human into a microphone.

"ATTENTION, ENEMY TITANS AND PALADINS!" roared Danniek the Atlas at the Stryders and Paladins, voice rolling across the concrete. "Enemy Titans, surrender immediately! Lay down your weapons and power down! You will not be asked again!"

"Fuck off," came one reply, a few seconds later, similarly bellowed at the volume of a small rocket engine. "This is our land."

The other reply came in the form of three shots of a Paladin-class lightweight battletank's main gun, all of which Danniek's shield redirected with a crackle of electrons and a rattle of his Atlas's chassis, tossing Danniek about within.

"Warning. Critical damage. Recommend regen."

"I know," muttered Danniek the human. Danniek the Atlas fired a shot back, retreating back through the hole he'd made in the wall before dashing behind it, curled into a crouch. Saw Jaggerjack the Ogre.

"Behind here," Danniek the human radioed, motioning to the wall with his left thumb.

"Gotcha. The Aussie manoeuvre?" suggested Jaggerjack the human.

"Sounds about right."

"Let's do it. Three. Two. One. Mark."

Danniek the Titan rose to it's feet again, shield reservoir now full of ions salvaged from the Atmosphere, 40 millimetre cannon now fully loaded, dash rockets now ready to fire once again.

Dashed to the side, then forward through the hole in the wall. Sidestepped to the right to avoid the Paladin fire, ignored the chaingun fire now rattling across his shields. Danniek the Atlas broke into a full sprint towards the rightmost Battletank, Jaggerjack the Ogre just behind him. The two stryder Pilots had different ideas, and one dashed to the left, one dashed to the right.

The Aussie manoeuvre was designed to allow an agile unit to take on a larger force comprised of slow units and more agile units. By presenting an opportunity for a flank, the attacking force would bait the agile enemies into leaving their slower units behind. If the attacking force could get amidst the slower units the agile enemies wouldn't be able to attack due to fear of hitting their own forces.

"Keep going," ordered Jaggerjack, catching a Quad rocket's rocket square in the chest. Must have been modded to be rapid fire. "They're trying to flank us. Plan's working so far."

"Shield at 30%," reported Danniek. "100 metres."

He saw the Paladins' cannons rotate towards him, fired a shot from his own cannon at the tanks. Explosion should obscure their optics for a second.

The tanks fired anyway, tore through his shield and put a sizable dent in his chest armor, but it was too late. Danniek was almost atop them, mid right-step. Twisted his torso, flicked his left foot around, now facing the other way. Up went his vortex shield and he caught some of the enemy Stryder's chaingun bullets.

For the Paladins, however, this was the end. He took a step backwards, then another, placing all of his 28 tons upon the rightmost Paladin's hull and it began to buckle under his weight. Pulled his left arm downward and released the vortex shield's stored projectiles into the Paladin's hull, shot a round of his 40mm cannon through the hole.

"One Paladin down."

He took a step backward, expecting to land on the next Paladin but instead found concrete. Flicked his eyes to the left, saw the two tanks mid-retreat. Felt the enemy stryder continue its' chaingun fire.

"Warning. Critical damage. Recommend regen."

Danniek the human rolled his eyes in annoyance. Danniek the Atlas fired a cluster missile at the remaining two Paladins before stepping off the destroyed paladin, grabbing its underside and flipping the lightweight battletank onto its side as a makeshift shield.

"Where are ya, Jaggerjack?"

"Back a bit. Aussie maneuver's gonna work here, Danniek. Engage as you see fit. Over."

A hundred metres behind Danniek Jaggerjack the Ogre dashed backwards to avoid the punch of the enemy Stryder, deployed its particle wall to block the Stryder's quad rocket fire. It dashed to the right, then right again, now beside the particle wall and Jaggerjack the human swore in annoyance before launching two uncharged plasma railgun shots into the stryder's chest. It responded with a third dash – this time directly at Jaggerjack the Ogre – and unleashed a cloud of electric smoke and a barrage of rockets.

Jaggerjack the Ogre leaned foreward, threw a punch and hit nothing but smoke. Walked to the side, taking a bolt of crackling electric smoke along the way. Deep inside the cockpit, Jaggerjack the human's eyes flicked across his display. Titan shield core charge time remaining: 30 seconds.

"Alright," he muttered, bringing the railgun to Jaggerjack the Ogre's eyes. Spinning the flywheels, charging the coils. "Let's see how you like this."

The enemy Stryder dashed in again, ducked under the charged railgun shot and landed a punch on Jaggerjack's right flank, followed up with three rockets directly to Jaggerjack's optical sensors. Jaggerjack's screen flickered green as two of his cameras went offline. The Stryder dashed in for another punch -

Jaggerjack the Ogre leaned forwards and swung its plasma railgun like a baseball bat, the block of titanium lacerating the enemy Stryder's armour. It stumbled backwards, panels of armour tearing away as the pilot inside clawed at his eyes.

He flinched, thought Jaggerjack, pulling the triggers for his shield core.

And the internal pressure within Jaggerjack the Ogre's reactor doubled. The power of the stars, shackled within his torso. His reactor vents began to glow orange; his shield ports opened wide, sucked in electrons faster than before. In an instant, Jaggerjack's shields were back online; a second after, it was overcharged. He dropped to his knee, stabilised the railgun and began to spin its flywheels. The enemy Stryder fired a salvo of rockets in desperation; Jaggerjack the Ogre made no attempt to avoid them.

Unleashed a bolt of plasma directly into the enemy Stryder's torso, stripping it of its shields and dropping its hull integrity to half.

"Now you die," Jaggerjack the human growled, tapping his ordnance control button. Pointed his left fingers at the enemy titan, locking on a single guided missile, then another, then three, four, then five. Drew his fingers into a fist, confirming the lock, before punched skyward to indicate a launch direction. Jaggerjack the Ogre's multi-target missile pod responded, catapulting five missiles into the air. The Stryder attempted a dodge as the missiles dove downwards. The missiles missed. Jaggerjack's railgun didn't.

Danniek focused his entire attention towards the chaingun-equipped Stryder on the other side of his makeshift shield. His cluster missile was still reloading; his vortex shield was low…

Fuck it, it's a Stryder. With an X0-16. I can take it.

He stepped out from behind the Paladin-shield and fired five shots. Two shots connected with the Stryder's torso, one slammed into the Stryder's left leg, and the remaining two shots missed entirely after the Stryder dashed to the side.

He adjusted his aim, shoulder joints rattling as electric motors dragged the cannon into a new position. Continued firing. The next shot took the Stryder's shield down.

10 left, he thought, and was confirmed when flashed his eyes along the Titan's display. Oooh, cluster missile's up.

He advanced toward the Stryder, firing his cannon the whole way. Hit another six shots, flicked a cluster missile ahead of the Stryder and scored a few hits.

It fired back, and Danniek caught the chaingun bullets with his vortex shield, hurled them back at the Stryder. They were all it took to cripple the machine. It stumbled, left leg falling from its' torso, and in that moment the Pilot inside ejected sideways through the air, throwing an arc grenade at Danniek to spite him.

"Jaggerjack, we're done here," radioed Danniek the human.

"Copy that. Rim, we're coming back to you guys now."

"You better hurry," growled Rimjob. "I just picked up six heat signatures. Hot enough to be Titan cores."

"Here come the defenders, huh?" muttered Jaggerjack. "We're on our way. Danniek, those guys were just the scouts. The real battle starts now."

"Nghhh…"

Zeta opened her eyes, saw the interior of her hoverbuggy. Outside buildings zipped past. She rubbed her eyes, winced at the pain in her back.

She was sitting on one of the rear seats -

"Oi, Zeta. You alright?"

She looked to her left, saw Bruce's worried face looking back at her.

"Yeah… ugh, my back hurts though."

"No wonder. You've just had a stem-cell shot, so you're stable at least."

"Great. Wait, where are we going?"

"We asked your AI where you'd like us to take you after we got out of the prison. Plus told us to head to your hoverbuggy, then instructed us to enable the autopilot."

"Fair enough… Plus, where are you going?"

"We are headed for one of Snake's hideouts."

"Good. Plus, have you told Snake that we're going there?"

"Affirmative."

She sighed, fell back into her seat and closed her eyes.

"Wake me up when we get there."

"Gotcha," she mumbled.

Sleep came for her in an instant.

"Captain Soryuu, we're receiving a hailing signal," called a comms technician. "We're not sure of its origin."

Soryuu glanced at Vice Captain Roberts.

"You've done a fantastic job so for, Captain," he smiled. "And we'll be off to Carlyle soon. This call is your decision."

She nodded, once at Roberts, and once at the comms technician.

"Patching the signal through now," said the technician.

"Hello, Captain Soryuu," said the voice of Marcus Graves. "Still with the IMC?"

Soryuu froze.

"Look, I know you're there. I can hear the sounds of the bridge through the microphone."

"Wha- I- well, that is," she stuttered, "I'm with New Tokyo's fleet now. Fancy meeting you here, Graves!"

"Cut the crap, Soryuu. I remember teaching you in navigation class so I could get my command licence. You were the best navigator in the class."

"Well, that was a long time ago-"

"As you're probably aware, I'm field commander of the Militia's Marauder CORps. I've got some questions to ask you. I've also got the entire Militia fleet above this planet locked onto the Shikinami, so I suggest you come over to the retaliator to answer those questions. I'll see you in an hour, Captain Soryuu. Graves, out."

The entire bridge was silent, all eyes on Soryuu.

She stared at Captain Roberts, eyes pleading for help.

"He wants to speak with our captain," she croaked. "And he knew. Knew that we were here. How the hell did he know?"

"I've just spoken with the Captain Soryuu of the Shikinami," said Graves to Menelaus. "I'm meeting with her aboard the Retaliator soon."

"Meeting?" asked Menelaus. "Hmm. If you can find out more about them that would be great. Once we've gleaned every bit of information out of them that we possibly can, we blow them out of the skies."

"Menelaus, are you sure tha-"

"With all due respect, Graves," said Menelaus passionately, "we must eradicate the IMC. They're a threat to the peace we've managed to build up."

"You're right, of course. I only wish we could resolve this war without having to fire upon a ship of civilians. I recognise that starship. It's a superfreighter. Half the crew are probably civilians they hired at their last port."

"Sacrifices have to be made," sighed Menelaus.

"ETA to carlyle refueling station: 45 seconds," displayed Overwatch's monitor.

"Alright, everyone!" roared Jenni from inside her Titan's cockpit, in the bowels of the shuttle. "This station's acting like one giant centrifuge right now. It's too low for its speed! There's going to be a kind of gravity when we land! IS EVERYONE READY?!"

"YES, MA'AM!"

"Depressurise the shuttle, Overwatch!"

"Depressurising shuttle," displayed Overwatch's monitor, and Jenni's helmet's oxygen supply began to kick in. "Depressurisation complete. ETA to carlyle: 20 seconds!"

"Open the shuttle doors!"

The shuttle's doors slid open and the soldiers aboard the shuttle caught a glimpse at the enormous refueling station. Above loomed Carlyle. A few metres below lay the refueling station.

The station skeleton was comprised of enormous beams of titanium, criss-crossing sporadically to hold up equally large slabs of aluminium. Huge spherical fuel tanks lay amidst the titanium skeleton, storing the station's plunder siphoned from the Dawntreader below. Walkways large enough to hold the weight of three bulldozers. As evidenced by the three bright yellow bulldozers lined side by side upon one such walkway that lead from the base of the gas pipeline to a large building located on the far side of the station.

That walkway probably leads to their command centre, thought Jenni. That's why they've blocked it.

The gas pipeline connected with the station just below them, entering through the roof of a rather sturdy-looking building. Smaller pipelines snaked out of the building, heading in all directions towards the spherical fuel tanks in the station. Chances were this building held up the entire station. Or rather, held down the station, stopping it from falling up away from Carlyle into a higher orbit.

And they were landing atop this building in five seconds.

"Standby for Titanfall," muttered Jenni, leaping from the rear cargo bay of the shuttle and landing on the building's roof with a silent clang!

For out here, in the vacuum, even the Titans were silenced.