《Titan Warriors - A Mech LitRPg》 Titan Warriors: Prologue - Mission Gone FUBAR Chapter Nada: June 22, 2018 ¡°Ghast 5 to Ghast Lead!¡± ¡°Ghast Lead, here. Report.¡± ¡°Sir, we are pinned down. I have lost 2 with another 2 injured. It is that damn Armor unit, sir.¡± An explosion shook the half burnt out building where Ghast Lead and his remaining three man team were hunkered down. Grey ash and brown sand fought to hide their desert camos. ¡°Fuck Rogers! Sir Rogers was just hit! What the fuck went wrong sir¡­¡± Another explosion cut the last message off. Ghast Lead watched as the building across the dirt street where Ghast 4¡¯s team had been holding up, collapsed. Even knowing no one was there to listen Lead responded, ¡°I¡¯m not sure Ranger. But, someone fucked up bad.¡± *** 6 hours earlier*** ¡°Go! Go! Go!¡± As the last member of the ten man Airborne Ranger team left the plane before him Lead sent a radio blurt to the General who he knew was listening in. ¡°Sir, Ghast team is a go! Repeat Mission is a go!¡± With that, he jumped out the back of a perfectly good high altitude plane. As he fell through the upper reaches of the atmosphere, he reviewed their mission in his head. Intel had confirmed the location of a High Priority Target. A target his government deemed necessary to take out. The man was currently supposed to be hold up in his Estate House inside the set of buildings and dirt roads that functioned as a city in this part of the world. The estate was a 25-acre compound lined by a two meter tall concrete fence. Guards wielding automatic weapons patrolled there perimeter at regular intervals. Inside was a lightly wooded luxury mansion at complete odds with eh stark poverty found outside the compound. The large modern mansion was flanked by two equally large garages that held the man¡¯s expensive collection of luxury sports cars. Tucked close behind the mansion, an Olympic sized swimming pool sat. Its¡¯ large playboy mansion style grotto was illuminated bright enough to easily pinpoint from orbit. Its brilliance standing out crisply from the darkness of the desert community built around it. The mission was simple. Get in unseen. Eliminate the target with as little collateral damage as possible. Then get to the extraction point as quick as possible. In, out and on your way. Everything was going fine until Riggs hit that damned trip wire¡­ They managed to land on target inside the Northeast quadrant of the compound undetected. No major injuries and in minutes the team was gathered. It was just like they had done a dozen times before. Then that all changed in an explosion of fire and shrapnel. Intel had assured them there was no surveillance or traps on this area of woods. The fucking Claymore that turned Riggs into a fine red hamburger meat let Lead know, the plan was FUBAR! Still they had a mission. With the element of surprise gone, he issued the commands and the team split into two teams. Fours team was to provide support while Lead took out the target. The five acres of lawns that directly surrounded the mansion had guards all over it by the time they reached it. With a hand signal, Lead took his team right and 4 went left. Exactly 180 seconds later 4 opened fire drawing the guards to them. Lead took the chase and charged his men close on his heels. They reached the mansion with no issues. Entry was a simple window smash and they were in. Lead took out the two guards who had heard the glass breaking with a pair of controlled three round bursts. A frantic room-to-room search began. Lead was happy when they found a secondary target sitting high off his ass in a fucking Jacuzzi tub with three nude women. The asshole had to of heard the gunfire. The girls clearly had they were terrified. Yet, there he sat so doped up that he didn¡¯t even respond when the bullets tore out the back of his head. ¡°Sir, this is too easy¡± 1 Complained. Lead felt the hand of fate close on his throat with those words. Still, he tried to recover the situation, ¡°Riggs would not fucking say so Private. Keep your mouth shut and eyes open!¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± Returning to the hall, they found a man and five guards running down the hall toward one of the garages. Lead took a shot, but only hit one of the trailing men. Two of turned and fired back forcing him back into the bathroom. Peeking out he cursed seeing they had exit through the door. Less than a minute later, he and his men ran up to the door. 1 peaked around the doorframe. A wall of lead lit up his man. His helmet stopped man shot. But, others found his unguarded face, causing his brains to explode out into the hallway. As one the team reached grabbed a grenade and tossed it into the room. Two frags and a smoke grenade bounced against concrete before explosions and smoke changed the guards¡¯ lives forever. Taking point once again, Lead rushed into the room. More than two dozen men had gathered around the door. Now they were all either dead or dying. Ignoring the piles of bloody meat, he scanned the massive room. More than two dozen Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other high-end cars sat on small raised display platforms; like some kind of fucked up car show. Across the room, another door sat open next to a closed garage door. Sprinting Lead and his team of three survivors ran. Reaching the door outside 4 cut in through radio traffic. ¡°Sir! 6 Took out the target, but sir. He reports that he thinks it was a decoy!¡± 6 was an excellent sniper. If he had been watching for the target then it wasn¡¯t a surprise he had taken the shot the moment he had it. But, the man also had an excellent eye. So if he said the target was a decoy, then Lead believed him.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Turning Lead was about to acknowledge 4 and return to the building to sweep it once more, but 4 came back over the radio. ¡°Lead, the other garage door just opened and sir¡­ they have fucking tanks! Three Russian T90s!¡± That was it. They had no way to deal with heavy armor assets like that. ¡°Pull back 4. We will sweep the mansion. Get your men back to the extraction point. The next six hours was a game of cat and mouse. A brief sweep of the mansion showed no further living souls inside. They had been led here after a decoy. It was probably a set up! Their bastard of a target was using them to take out his second in command! Intel said their military men liked the second more. One tank followed team two through the city, heedless of civilian casualties. Lead and his team however, managed to slip their pursuer and make it back to the pinned down team two just in time to see the building collapse on them. Looking back at his surviving men, he saw worry and fear, but mostly resolve in their eyes. Resolve to see the mission through. To get the job done. Making a couple quick hand signals that they watched closely. 8 nodded in understanding, before moving around and crawling through a crack in the wall. Ghast lead watched as his man went slowly from cover to cover. Crawling more than half the way in a low crawl. Until he reached the fallen building. When a set of four soldiers marched by barely paying attention Lead held his breath. Then as the ground shook from the deep thrumming stiletto of a nearly 50-ton tank rolling into view he cursed; but waited. Five minutes later he felt a tap on his shoulder nearly making him jump out of his skin. Spinning around he saw 8. Glancing behind him, he marveled he had not even seen the man come back, and he had been watching for him. Lead mouthed ¡°Report¡± silently. 8 shook his head slowly a deep frown pasted on his smudged face. He held up his clenched fist. Lead opened his hand underneath. 5 slightly damaged dog tags dropped into his open palm. This wasn¡¯t the first time Lead had lost men. God damn him, but he even now hoped that it wouldn¡¯t be the last. If there was others that meant he was able to get these two men. His last two men out alive. Placing the dogtags in his pocket. One last memento for families that would never know what their sons, fathers, and husbands died doing. He gestured for them to move on. Exiting the back of the building, they rushed across a mostly clean street into an alleyway. Moving through the piles of garbage and filth choking the narrow alley, they froze at the next street. There not 300 meters away was one of the three tanks. In its rush to out maneuver his other team; the tank had rolled through a building. Now though it sat there on top of the rubble¡­ A child¡¯s hand sticking out of the broken stones, like the rest of the garbage¡­ Lead was about to order them back up when the tanks hatch opened, to reveal none other than their target. The bastard was laughing through a thick dark beard common in this part of the world. Behind him, he pulled up a woman clothed from head to ankle. Her face was even concealed by a veil of cloth. The two were laughing together in voices that did not quite carry. As three more soldiers emerged from the vehicle: their target made some animated gestures. A few seconds later, the three saluted and ran off, guns held at the ready. The man watched them go for a few moments before he turned back to the woman. He stepped close to her, and then looked around once more, causing Lead to freeze else he be seen. Satisfied they were alone the man yanked the woman¡¯s robe off her to puddle on the muddy street. She stood there nude, illuminated only by the lights of the idling tank. Her dark skin contrasted with her small pert nipples poking proudly in the chill desert air. She moved to cover herself, but the man stopped her with a word. A tap on the shoulder made Lead look back. 8 mouthed, ¡°Sir that is him. We should take him out now.¡± Lead shook his head and gestured, ¡°Silently. Wait.¡± 8 nodded accepting the wisdom. Turning back Lead saw the man had taken the woman¡¯s headdress off and was kissing her roughly, pants dropping to his knees. As he shoved her against the tanks rough tread to begin his victory¡¯ reward: lead saw the girls face. She was barely a teenager! With the man¡¯s back to Lead and him roughly utterly engaged, lead snuck out from cover. Moving silently, Lead drew his knife from his belt. A mere two meters from the target the girl saw him. Her tear-filled orbs met Leads and then traveled to the naked blade in his hand. She silently watched him approach, while she was roughly being bounced up and down against the still growling vehicle. Lead let out a slow silent exhale and moved up the last few steps. Then in one silent quick movement. He pulled the man¡¯s head back and slid the blade across his neck. With eh red smile, the targets blood burst forth. Yanking him away, Lead threw the still dying corpse away from the girl. to prevent as much blood from getting on her as possible. Lead looked at the girl and gestured for her to follow him as he spun to leave. She shook her head and reached down to pick up her blood-splattered clothing. Lead was not going to risk his men for this girl, so with one last look at her he ducked into a nearby alley. Halfway down the narrow passage shouting could be heard from the street. Shortly afterward gunshots thundered through the night air. A flaking of mud brick near Lead¡¯s head made him duck down and look behind him. There at the entry to the alley stood three soldiers, guns raised and pointed. Before they could track on his hunched form, gunfire from above tore the three men apart. Looking up 8 stood on the low roof. His smile a brilliant white contrast against his ash and dust covered face. More gunshots from street level made him jerk suddenly. Then as if in slow motion, he fell into the alley. ¡°You fucking idiot! Lead seethed, ¡°Why did you just fucking stand there!¡± Moving through the alley, he made his way to where 8 had fallen, but before he got all the way, he could tell it was not looking good. The gunfire had torn through his lower pelvic region. One of the Ranger¡¯s legs was completely missing and his hip was a bloody mess. Shouting coming from the street told Lead he didn¡¯t have long and by 8¡¯s quick glance behind Lead he knew neither of them did. ¡°Sir it has been a pleasure. Pl¡­¡± He took a moment to spit up a mouthful of blood and maybe a bit of organ¡­ ¡°Please tell my wife and kids I love them¡­¡± ¡°Shut the fuck up Ranger. You¡¯re going to tell them yourself.¡± 8 just smiled and drew his tags from around his neck. ¡°Are you really going to pull that feminist romantic bullshit sir?¡± Lead smiled and took the offered tags. Bullets zoomed past him telling him, he was out of time. As he half ran half crouched away, 8 pulled two grenades from his vest. ¡°Come get some. You motherfuckers!¡± Lead ran across a narrow garden, tucked between buildings and into another alley before the grenades went off. Turning the corner, Lead nearly shot 7 on instinct as the squads only woman appeared like a ghost. ¡°Sir, you fucking kicked up a hornets nest. That bitch is directing them in our direction now. We need to go!¡± Not wasting time on words the two rangers misted into the dark city. An hour before dawn they emerged 27 kilometers from the city. Their extraction point was just on the other side of the upcoming hill. Their bird was to wait until sunrise and then take off, with or without them. But at this point Lead was not worried. IN 20 minutes, they would be there. The mission high was already starting to wear down. It had been slightly more than 30 hours since last he slept and the last couple of hours of running through nearly open terrain while avoiding detection had worn him down. But when 7 stiffened besides him, Lead stopped looking at their 6 and looked forward. Figures moved on the crest of the small hill. Their silhouette clear in the lightening sky. Then the rumble of a tank¡¯s engine, and blaring spotlights broke the waning nights hold. There in the shadow of the hill one of the tanks sat. Its lights shining directly on the two Rangers. Lead brought his rifle up to his shoulder ready to fight;7 following his lead. A soft female laugh made the two pause. The girl stepped into the light. Her smile hidden by her veil if not her mirth. In perfect English void of any accent she said, ¡°Rangers lead the Way! That is your motto right, American?¡± Lead frowned, his finger twitching to pull that last millimeter on his trigger. ¡°Why?¡± he rasped. She laughed again a beautiful cold sound. ¡°That bastard lured your people here to kill my husband. I loved the man. Yes, he liked his coca and stuck his dick in anything that would stay still long enough. But, he was a good man. A good provider and protector. His men and I loved him.¡± ¡°That is why that bastard lured you here. He dare not move on my husband himself. But, you Americans¡­¡± she spit on the ground. ¡°You self-righteous foreigners who think you always know best¡­ Well he called you, like the dogs you are!¡± Lead had heard enough; he pulled the trigger as gunfire erupted through the desert night once more¡­ Titan Warriors: Chapter 1 Chapter One: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location. April 1, 7215 As darkness descended on Brandon the pain vanished, being replaced by nothingness. No sensations, no lights, no sounds. Just nothing. Brandon could not feel his body; not even to blink. He could not even say black surrounded him because that would mean there was at least color. An eternity or maybe just an instant passed as Brandon had no concept of time When a Voice Boomed out of the nothing, Brandon might have jumped out of his skin if he could say for sure he had any. ¡°Earth Simulation Completed. Analyzing¡­ ¡°Who is that? What is going on!?! Am I dead?¡± Brandon called out to the oddly mechanical voice. ¡°Analyzation complete: Grade A- received. Conclusion¡­ subject S187-TR23-Nub6120-01-10-00147 PASSED.¡± ¡°What the hell does that mean? I passed? Passed what? Where is my team? IS this a prank?¡± ¡°Subject S187-TR23-Nub4129-01-10-00147 please choose a designation¡± Brandon always thought of himself as a quick thinker. His life on the battle fields had proven to him that being able to make a sound decision on the spot could save the life of himself or his squad. So, when most people would have been confused or let the strangeness of the situation affect them Brandon instead made a choice and acted on it. ¡°My designation is Brandon McDew. Now tell me where the fuck I am!¡± ¡°Designation accepted. Brandon McDew, choose a body.¡± Now this one gave him a seconds worth of pause. But an image of himself as he appeared before leaving the base two weeks ago came to mind. Suddenly he was there. In the nothingness Brandon stood naked as a newborn but not nearly as cute. A look of shock passed over the battle hardened face of the Ranger. ¡°What the fuck?¡± ¡°Confirm body specifications.¡± ¡°Do what? Confi¡­¡± But he trailed off thinking rapidly. With a few thoughts his body shifted and altered slightly. Brandon had always been a little shorter than he liked. Then what man didn¡¯t want to add a little more for the ladies. But the biggest changes were cosmetic. Gone were all his scars. The slight curve where he had broken his nose in a bar fight was gone. The large gash where he had a pound of shrapnel removed from an IED explosion was similarly missing. There might of even been a little more hair growing on his head, filling in his flattop. Or, perhaps a little less elsewhere but he would never admit to it. The voice repeated, ¡°Confirm body specifications.¡± Without hesitation now Brandon said, ¡°Confirmed. Brandon had enough time to consider is situation and decide that if this was Heaven then someone had not given him the entrance in the front doors. Hell was more likely, but why would they let him choose his body in hell? To then take it away? Or perhaps to break it and maim it piece by piece. ¡°Perhaps I should of kept the old one.¡± Without warning the world around him changed. He was suddenly sitting in a stiff plastic chair in a white space . There was no walls, floor, or ceiling to give any definition to his surroundings. Around him there were others also sitting in similar ugly puke green plastic chairs. They all faced the same direction. As He glanced around more people were appearing rapidly. There were men and women of every Ethnic group that Brandon had ever heard of. There were even some whom like him, had obviously discovered the ability to alter their appearances. The guy next to him was dressed in the same Royal Purple and Silver Uniform everyone else was, but his hair was cut in a military buzz. A military buzz composed of electric blue hair. He also had more muscles than anyone not living in a gym and on some hardcore steroids could ever acquire. The man turned and met Brandon¡¯s eye. The man¡¯s eyes were the same shade of blue as his hair.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. In the few seconds that it took Brandon to look around the number of occupied chairs had increased from some twenty to hundreds. Someone called out, ¡°What is all this rot?¡± Brandon turned to find the speaker, but before he could the voice rang out again. The way the others jumped, or grew stiff in their chairs he knew they could hear it too. ¡°Welcome recruits to House Nubran. In 15 seconds a screen will appear in front of you and a personal advocate will help you choose your path to best serve and bring glory to the mighty Baronet Reginald Nubran and to the honor of House Nubran. This process will take roughly 15 minutes as we begin to grow your bodies.¡± Brandon took in the statement quietly, knowing the value of gathering intel. One of the others in the room did not seem to like what they heard. ¡°Who the fuck is this Baronet what¡¯sh¡¯ma¡¯call¡¯it¡­¡± The man had asked one of the many questions everyone was curious about. Although Brandon would of started with the growing of their bodies, but regardless he spun to look at the speaker who had started making choking noises midsentence. A few rows back and a couple more seats over a man suddenly stood up his face turning a nasty shade of red in an instant. A second after that his head exploded in a shower of bone, hair and grey matter. The people around him flinched as gore flew toward them, but they need not bother. The little bit of brain the man had vanished midair a foot away from the corpse that had just fallen onto the floor and vanished as well. The room was utterly silent. Brandon was familiar with this kind of silence it was the kind that preluded violence and panic. The voice evidently knew this too. ¡°Enough! You all are now and henceforth property of his lord Baronet Reginald Nubran and his house. If you are deemed troublesome you will be terminated without preamble.¡± People shifted uncomfortably, for a few pregnant seconds in silence. ¡°Wait for it.¡± Brandon thought to himself. Then as if on que a couple dozen people across the white area stood, shouted, or in some other way responded with prejudice to the declaration. Not a second later more headless corpses began to fall to the floor. Brandon grimaced at the casual murder. He was not yet fully convinced this wasn¡¯t some kind of screwed up dream, but if it wasn¡¯t this Duke and his people seemed to not care about the group Brandon found himself in at all. Before more people could commit acts that amounted to little more than suicide a foot and half wide by a foot high box appeared before each person in the room. Inside the box was an image of a brain suspended in a viscous grey-yellow liquid within a glass tube. Bubbles floated up from the bottom toward and then passed the brain. Machinery could be seen with tubes and cables connecting to the tube. At the top and bottom of which was more machinery with lights coming on, shutting off, or just blinking. The voice spoke again, ¡°You are all now looking at everything you currently are. The you sitting in the chair is a shared simulation projected into each of your brains. Your brains were created in a lab owned by House Nubran. You were then each projected into a simulation of the Earth in the years between 100 and 2200.¡± The image zoomed out into a massive chamber full of tubes each with a brain occupant. ¡°The goal of the Earth simulation is to mature and teach each of you at an accelerated rate. This way a fully mature personality can be developed at the speed of 1 standard day per simulated Earth year.¡± As Brandon watched in mixed confusion, horror, and somehow acceptance, the image began to zoom back in and then split into two. The one on the left was of Brandon¡¯s brain, as a cart like machine with pinchers came up grabbed his tube carefully. Then removed it from the machinery connecting it. Once free it placed Brandon¡¯s tube in a cart behind it with other tubes and brains. The right image showed another identical looking brain in another tube. ¡°At the moment of death each person in the Earth simulation is evaluated and rated for usefulness to the House of Nubran. Those who have skills, talents, or abilities that are considered useful are sent into the whitespace. A cocktail of chemicals is then fed to the brain to slow its cerebral speeds, create a sense of calm and acceptance, and finally to prepare it for growth of a body.¡± As the voice spoke the image on the right suddenly had one light after another turn red. When a set of 10 lights on both the top and bottom of the tube¡¯s machinery were a solid red a blast of electricity was sent through the tube. The flash was bright and Brandon had to blink rapidly afterwards to clear the spots out of his eyes. The brain in the tube had been blasted apart and was quickly dissolving in the liquid. In a few seconds there wasn¡¯t a trace of it. ¡°The simulations, whom are not found useful, have undesirable personalities, or committed crimes are recycled for nutrients and fed to the next batch.¡± The right image slide out of view leaving only the left one as it followed the forklift like machine through a door and out of the massive chamber. The machine passed through a few more halls with branching connections. Other machines were everywhere as well. Some were like the forklift like one, with their own cart full of brain tubes. Others carried empty tubes in the opposite directions. As Brandon Watched the machine entered into another huge room. This one had much larger sized tubes in it. These tubes were easily 8 feet tall and could hold a full grown human with room to spare. Indeed many of them did. Brandon¡¯s eyes watched as they sped past tubes containing human bodies in various levels of creation. Some were little more than a skeletal system. Others had organs and muscles. Not one looked completed though. ¡°Congratulations! You have all been determined useful. As such in a few moments your personal advisor will begin the process of choosing your future in House Nubran. Although the Baronet gives you the privilege to choose how you desire to serve, sedition is not allowed. The Baronet in his glorious benevolence wishes you to have happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. But, any refusal of orders, violenc??e toward the royal family, or plot to overthrow the rightful reign of the House will result in your immediate deletion.¡± Titan Warriors: Chapter Two - Conscripted Chapter Two: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location. April 1, 7215 Brandon¡¯s screen showed the machine stop in front of an empty tube. It reached back picked up his container and then without ceremony dumped its contents into the larger container. Brandon swore he felt a lurch as he witnessed his brain fall and then splash into the now rapidly filling larger tube. ¡°well the drugs must be working really well. I just watched my brain be tossed around like some unwanted jello mold and had no real reaction. For that matter I am fully accepting this god awful situation at face value.¡± Brandon mused in a low whisper. The screen in front of him shifted to show a bored looking young woman. Her dark skin and black curls looked dull and lifeless. ¡°Well that is good.¡± The new figure said in a flat tone. ¡°It is always painful for new candidates to be shown candid images from the simulation of their lives. Memories of dead loved ones, moments kept private from the world and such.¡± Brandon¡¯s mind flashed a few such memories through his mind and was rather glad he would not have to share his most private moments with this poor excuse of a bureaucrat. The woman directly behind Brandon began to scream, ¡°No more¡­ No more¡­ I believe you. Oh for god¡¯s sake please just let me die. I can¡¯t live knowing everything I knew was a lie.¡± Brandon turned to look at the balling woman as she stood still screaming in hysterics. She took two steps before she collapsed to the ground and a couple seconds later vanished. The bored advisor¡¯s eyes moved from watching over Brandon¡¯s shoulder back to him as he turned back around. ¡°Well there are always a few of those too.¡± More crying could be heard in the room now. Oddly enough though it seemed that for the most part their conversations were being muted. The blue haired man was talking animatedly but Brandon couldn¡¯t hear a noise from him. ¡°Noticed did you? We block all sounds to protect your privacy. Others cannot see what is on your screen nor hear what is said while talking to your advisor.¡± ¡°Unless you want us all to hear it.¡± Brandon said, thinking of the lady behind him and the other noises around him. ¡°Yes, of course.¡± The woman¡¯s voice never shifted, changed or showed even the slightest bit of inflection. ¡°Well we should get started. I go on break in 15 minutes, and I¡¯m sure you do not want me to just randomly assign your aspects. So let¡¯s get started. I am Personal Advisor Nub23FA12564. I will be your House Nubran assigned personal advisor. Finally my name is Jandice. I will be leading you through the assignment of your Verric Nanites, as well as placement into your new position in our great House Nubran. First let me start with a small data download to your cerebral cortex.¡± Before Brandon could fully process the woman¡¯s statement her hand had moved and lance of pain shot through Brandon¡¯s head as news articles, data files, videos, and a jumble of other information sped through Brandon¡¯s mind. In 30 seconds he learned a lifetime of common knowledge of the modern universe. He spent another few minutes processing the information download. As the pain faded he considered his new knowledge. Apparently, the year was 7215. Humanity had spread to the stars millennia ago and now had colonized the entire Milky Way. Countless non-human species had been encountered in Humanities spread. In most cases war broke out and often ended in the utter extinction of the alien species. In the year 3226 Humanity had encountered an artificial life form calling themselves the Verric. The tiny machines called nanites could configure themselves to any larger construction on a whim. They had one purpose to bring order to the galaxy. Naturally Humanity had objected to any authority other than its own. The ensuing war was the closest Humanity ever came to losing a war; other than with itself. The Governments that survived the brutal wars that had made Earth uninhabitable, fell one after another to the Verric. The power vacuum left a system of aristocratic rule to govern the shattered Human civilization. originally the system was based on individual achievements, but later it became conferred by heredity. Large Noble families and super companies became the rulers of human occupied space. The Verric upon shattering the human resistance vanished. Many believed they left to another galaxy to spread their influence. Regardless, they never completely left. Every human, non-human and animal in every system now contained Verric nanites in their bodies. These nanites seemed to live in a dormant symbiotic state. The nanites drew nutrients and material to reproduce from their hosts. Humans gained numerous other benefits. The two with the most impact are a census system that tracks a person¡¯s data. Physical Attributes, Skills, property, and even social organization. The second alteration is an improvement system akin to leveling in a role playing game. Although the methods to gain experience is numerous, once a new advancement is gain the nanites will allow the host to select improvements to their attributes, skills, and abilities. Often these changes can take a host far outside what is normally possible by biology alone.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The screen in front of Brandon shifts again, splitting apart into right and left views. On the Left the image of his melancholy advisor sits. On the right returns to the image of a brain floating in a larger glass-like tube. Now though there are what appears to be tendrils dangling from the brain. A thick one comes from the bottom back of the brain and hundreds if not thousands of smaller ones, some as fine as a hair stretch from it. The Human Nervous system is on full display for Brandon. A jolt of concern pushes through the calm inducing drugs when he realizes this is HIS nervous system. As he watches white patches begin to appear on the top of the brain and along the length of his spinal cord. The advisor draws his attention back to her with a slight cough. ¡°So now we will begin the process of developing your body. As you know, there are 8 characteristics or Statistics the Verric use to determine a person¡¯s abilities. Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Vitality, Perception, Intelligence, Resolve, and Charisma. The biological Human maximum is rated as a 1.¡± ¡°In a trueborn genetics and training determine a person¡¯s exact value. For you vatborn we choose your genes and design your body like if you had been a professional athlete, world class intellectual, and cult leader all rolled into one.¡± ¡°your sire has blessed you as such. The vat born of House Nubran do not have the average .5 stat the most of humanity endures. Instead you get a resounding .7 in them all. Praise be to Baronet Reginald Nubran!¡± Brandon¡¯s eyebrows twitched as he considered this notion. ¡°I¡¯m sure the nobles and wealthy alter their children¡¯s genes to increase their abilities too. This sounds like medicine wrapped up to look like candy.¡± As the advisor prattled on about the glory of House Nubran Brandon Considered what he knew from the download about each stat. Strength was the primary physical score. It showed a person¡¯s muscles ability to lift, pull, squeeze, and hit. Dexterity was a person¡¯s score representing hand and eye coordination , aim, instinctual spacial awareness and fine motor skills. Agility is a person¡¯s reactions, balance, and flexibility. If dexterity pertains to the conscious portion of a human¡¯s movement agility is the unconscious side. Vitality measures endurance, immune system strength, recovery rates, and one¡¯s general ability to abuse one¡¯s body. Perception is a person¡¯s situational awareness, It also shows how acute the 7senses are. ¡°wait what? Seven senses? I thought there was only 5?¡± As Brandon thought that, the answer came to him. Two additional senses were positively confirmed in the twenty-second century. Empathy is a person¡¯s sense of another lifeforms emotional, mental and spiritual state. All humans have a level of it that they use to communicate on a subconscious level. Psionic is a sense that humanity has fantasized about for ages, but when Humanity came across an alien species that could truly use it to a measurable level it became a reality. The average human Psionic sense is so low that most people¡¯s sensitivity never even registers on the new acuity scale created to measure it. A few though have markedly stronger gifts with this sense. With a slight shake of his head to clear the distracting side thoughts Brandon continued. ¡°Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Vitality, and Perception¡­ next would be¡­¡± Intelligence gauges a person¡¯s mental faculties. Their logical reasoning, deduction, memory, and speed of thoughts are all measured by it. Resolve is a person¡¯s willpower. Someone with low resolve may have an addictive personality, or could be easily pressured into things by others. High Resolve can keep someone from sub coming to Psionic or Empathic attacks. Or even go as far as to keep someone alive when their body is at the point of shut down by determination alone. Charisma denotes a person¡¯s physical beauty and pheromones, thus how attractive they are to others. This also measures how likeable someone¡¯s personality is, or their inborn ability to have others follow them. Brandon¡¯s thoughts concluded and he focused back on the advisor whom had grown quiet as if expecting some kind of response. ¡°umm¡­ I¡¯m sorry could you repeat that?¡± Brandon Hedged. With the first emotional response Brandon had seen the Advisor sighed in frustration. ¡°I was saying your performance in the Earth Simulation marks you in the highest 99% of candidates. An the top 10% of new recruits. Based off our skills I suggest you join the House Nubran Military. Perhaps even as a Titan Jock .¡± ¡°A what?¡± The image of his nervous system and forming skeleton disappeared replaced by a scene of battle. Soldiers ran through a field shooting over their shoulders at something off screen. A large tank rolled into view as it ran over a couple of the fleeing soldiers. It¡¯s large turret barrel also facing behind it. Then a beam of energy shot on screen spearing through the previously impressive tank. The blue white blast cut through the thick armor like it was butter. The ammunition inside the doomed vehicle must of ignited because in a magnificent explosion the entire turret housing flew 10 meters into the air. A secondary explosion blasted the massive hunk of metal a half meter off the ground. Before the turret had landed a large metal foot came into view, followed by a 8 meter tall mechanical god of war. Brandon gasped, ¡°A mech¡± ¡°we call them Titans. They are the core of the modern military.¡± ¡°And I can drive one?¡± He was special forces through and through and right here and now Brandon couldn¡¯t think of anything more ¡®special¡¯ than driving a freaking mech! ¡°Well, your score is high enough that with the right allotment of points you could qualify to be a Titan Jock.¡± ¡°A what to do whom now?¡± Brandon¡¯s mind was racing but something about the way she worded the statement put him on edge. With a flicker of a frown the advisor reached to the side of her off screen. Suddenly a rush of calm and acceptance rushed over Brandon. The issue with her words, heck even the fact his old life wasn¡¯t real did not matter. He knew this advisor would do him right. ¡°Well if you think it is best.¡± ¡°I do. So here is a standard House Nubran military contract.¡± A screen full of words flashed up. Brandon¡¯s eyes narrowed and he began to scroll down the massive document. Even in his doped up state he still caught a few points. First, the ¡®Vatborn¡¯ had to be given legal rights by Verric standard law. But, they were born to a life of indentured servitude. Each one was being charged for the Earth simulation, costs of growing them and system upkeep. Brandon couldn¡¯t focus on an exact amount. Regardless, he got the feeling that the low pay rates they would receive would make it where they would die still owing the house something called Intergalactic Monetary Credits ¡®IMC¡¯ which was used as currency in the whole galaxy. Reaching the bottom of the contract he pressed his thumb on the screen. Somehow it was solid for the instant it took for his biometrics to register and accept it as a signature. Titan Warriors: Chapter Three - Designing a Body Chapter Three: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location. April 1, 7215 ¡°Good¡­ okay, so as part of the Standard military obligations the great House Nubran will pay for you to receive another 0.1 upgrade to your stats.¡± Brandon smirked, and thought, ¡°so they want to get accolades for improving their military forces? I would think it would be a common sense thing to keep us alive. Improving these stats has to be cheaper than growing a new person. Oh wait they are going to make everyone pay for their own growing. Like we have a choice.¡± A bitter smile crossed Brandon¡¯s face. ¡°Now on to your military profession. Your scores are extremely good and again I recommend the Titan Jock position. It will come with another 0.1 improvement to your stats, but House Nubran requires all of its Jocks to have a minimum of 1 in all stats.¡± ¡°So I can¡¯t do it?¡± Brandon asked. By his count his total would have been a 0.9. including the extra for being a Jock. He smirked and thought. ¡°No. This is some kind of gimmick. They are playing me.¡± ¡°Yes, it is true that with the two bonuses so generously granted by our Lord and Master that your Primary Attributes would only total 0.9. However, in the Earth simulation you earned 252 life points. These points are given by the Verric nanites to all vatborn. They are based upon your simulated Earth life. They can be used to increase your Primary statistics, Secondary Statistics, or skills.¡± ¡°there it is.¡± Brandon thought. ¡°So can you control the nanites?¡± The knowledge download said the answer was no. But, it was information given by the House so it may not be the truth. The advisor shifted in her seat uncomfortably. ¡°Uh no. During your bodies creation we can give them certain prods, but ultimately they do as they are programmed. Which is to say they try to bring a certain level of balance to the universe.¡± Brandon nodded thinking rapidly, ¡°So these points you mentioned are they assigned by you or the Verric?¡± The advisor waved her hand. ¡°it really doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Here take a look at what the system already recognizes you possessing in the way of Secondary stats, Tertiary stats, and Skills.¡± She made a couple gestures off screen and a new semitransparent Purple box with Silver lettering appeared in his vision. ¡°This is your Status Sheet. The Verric Nanites calculate it and project the image to your optical nerve. When your born you will be able to bring it up with a thought.¡± Name: Brandon Mc¡¯Dew Race: Human Subrace: Vatborn, Nubran AgeL18) Gender: Male CR: .54 (.72)( Advancement: (1) Faction: House Nubran Rank: - Primary Statistics Str: - (.9) Dex: - (.9) Agi: - (.9) Vit: - (.9) Perc: - (.9) Int: - (.9) Res: - (.9) Cha: - (.9) Secondary Statistics Marksmanship, Small Arms: 5. Hand to Hand: 3. Survival, General: 3. Explosives: 2. Marksmanship, Heavy Arms: 2. Survival, Arid: 2. Technician, Mechanical, General: 2. Driving, Wheeled: 1. First Aid: 1. Marksmanship, Sniper: 1. Sensor, Air: 1. Survival, Sub-Tropical: 1. Technician, Electronic, General: 1. Technician, Mechanical, Combustion: 1. Technician, Weapons, Small Arms: 1. Tertiary Statistics Morale; 0 Honor: 0 Reputation: 0 Karma: 0 Skills Language, English:3. Leadership, Small Team: 3. Running: 3. Art, Sculpting: 2. Climbing: 2. Communications, Bluff: 2 Language, Russian: 2. Mathematics: 2. Navigation, Land:2. Strategy, Land: 2. Swimming: 2. Traditional, Labor: 2. Art, Acting: 1. Communications, Diplomacy: 1. Language, Spanish: 1. Navigation, Sea: 1. Science, Biology: 1. Science, Chemistry: 1. Science, Physics: 1. Traditional, Commerce: 1. Traditional, Cooking: 1. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. As Brandon looked over the information the advisor continued in a tone of voice that showed she had said these exact words countless times before. ¡°This is just my best guess at your real sheet based on your performance in the Earth Simulation combined with what we have discussed so far. Numbers in parenthesis are the expected total once you are born. From here we can spend your earned points to upgrade your new body, or learn new things. I remind you that although your stats and skills show you have a good value in something that data is 4,000 years out of date. The weapons, tools, and equipment you know are so old they have no place anywhere but a museum.¡± Brandon nodded thinking, ¡°Yeah and this is one way they keep us dependent on them. Raise our minds in an age so far back that only the basics transfers over. But some things should be the same or at least close enough.¡± ¡°Mr. Mc¡¯Dew, you currently have 254 points. You can spend them with a thought for the next 3 minutes, after which point your body will be set and unspent points will only be usable on skills.¡± Brandon frowned, ¡°Wow no time to think this over huh? You said I need at least a 1 in all primary stats for the Titan Jock?¡± The advisor nodded. ¡°How much would that cost?¡± ¡°Primary stat increases cost 15 points. Secondary cost 10, and finally skills cost 5. You can look over a full list of known secondary and skills by thinking about it. Do hurry though your time is running out.¡± With a thought, he brought up a truly massive list of secondary stats and skills. A note at the top quickly explained the difference. Primary and Secondary stats are calculated to create a person¡¯s CR or Combat Rating. Skills were anything else the Verric decided to track. Brandon¡¯s mind whirled as all the games he had ever played rushed through his mind. Optimal builds, Power builds, and unusual builds that just worked well for him. ¡°No, this is not a game. This is my new life. I need to think about it that way. There will not be any rerolls if I mess things up.¡± Looking over his Status Sheet again his eyes caught on the rank position. ¡°I have a question.¡± The advisor just sat there, so he went on. ¡°What is my rank going to be?¡± ¡°Oh that will depend on your exact position. You record shows you lead a Ranger Squad with above average results.¡± Brandon nodded, ¡°If I plan on spending the points to get my primary stats to 1 and become a Titan Jock?¡± ¡°Then you would be given a Titan Platoon. The smallest unit of command. If you prove your leadership during training it would be confirmed and you would be granted the rank of Knight.¡± Brandon had no idea what that actually meant, but he had an idea. ¡°As a platoon leader would I get a Primary attribute increase?¡± The advisor shook her head, ¡°No only if your Primary did not meet the required level to become a titan jock. Brandon smiled, ¡°Oh but right now mine do not. So that means you will pay to bring me up to 1, right?¡± The advisor¡¯s mouth opened and closed twice. ¡°Well, n¡­¡± But, the answer was given for her. To Brandon¡¯s amusement a new box appeared. Verric dictate -- ¡°Verbal contract enforcement between House Nubran and envitro Brandon Mc¡¯Dew. Judgement in favor of Brandon Mc¡¯Dew. House Nubran will be charged 1.5 million IMC for the costs of upgrading all basic Human primary stats of Brandon Mc¡¯Dew to 1 from the previously agreed upon level of .9. ¡°Holy shit! So these things really do enforce and regulate even the overlords.¡± Brandon thought to himself. The advisor eyes narrowed and her face blushed in rage, but she said nothing just pressed her lips together in a thin line. ¡°Well then. I guess that is determined, but understand that I¡¯m going to note your file of this incident¡­¡± She paused then added, ¡°And do not think yourself smooth Knight. 1 is the standard that all House Nubran warrior caste is expected to achieve before they are allowed entry into the armed forces. So all you did is make yourself the equal of the true born.¡± Brandon¡¯s eyes twitched at this, ¡°So you intend on the vat born to be less than your ¡®true born¡¯?¡± The advisor just glared at him. You have 1 minute 58 seconds to confirm the rest of your choices. If you fail to I can revoke everything we have agreed upon up to this point.¡± Brandon growled but kept it quiet. He had pushed so far but made sure to keep it in a level he assumed would not end with this bland woman ending his life. After a brief consideration he decided to go ahead and spend the points to improve his Primary stats from 1 to 1.1. After all the house was going to help him get a freebie he might as well improve upon that. Especially, since it seemed that most Trueborn were already genetically perfect. There was no doubt in his mind that most would even be better. Doing a little quick math he realized he had roughly 134 points left after spending 120 to get his Primary stats to the increased level. ¡°Okay, I am going to be A Titan Jock. I need to know how to do that, or they will find some way to demote or remove me. It cost 10 points for each level of Secondary and 5 for each other Skill.¡± When the Advisor told him 15 seconds with a thinly veiled grin he confirmed his choices. In all he added. 3 Points in Piloting, Titan, Medium, which was the best the system would allow. 2 Points into Gunnery, Ballistic. 1 Point into Gunnery, Missile , and General. He also added 1 to Sensor, Land since it seemed there was a difference between it and the traditional radar/GPS he was used to using. Wanting to give himself more than just one option he also picked up a level of Pilot, Aerospace, Light which covered any small craft that could travel in atmosphere or be crewed by a small group in space. For his last Secondary skill he chose Technician, Small arms with the thought that pointing and shooting a weapon was easy. Especially if you knew how it worked and had a basic familiarity with weapons which he already possessed. Even, if it was outdated. Next he chose some skills that would help him navigate this new world he found himself in. He picked a level of History, local and system. ¡°It is always good to know the local history.¡± He got some leaderships skills figuring they may give him an update on any new processes discovered in the last 4000 years. And finally he found something called Protocol, Nobility and chose the Lesser nobility plus increased his diplomacy skill. ¡°If I¡¯m going to be working in a world with modern kings and queens I better know what to do when talking with them. Or, they may Red Queen my ass for some perceived disrespect.¡± With a final glance at his updated sheet he confirmed his point allotment with 5 seconds to spare. Name: Brandon Mc¡¯Dew Race: Human Subrace: Vatborn, Nubran Age:18 Gender: Male CR: 0.94 Advancement: 1 Faction: House Nubran Rank: Knight Primary Statistics Str: (1.1) Dex: (1.1) Agi: (1.1) Vit: (1.1) Perc: (1.1) Int: (1.1) Res: (1.1) Cha: (1.1) Secondary Statistics Marksmanship, Small Arms: 5. Hand to Hand: 3. Pilot, Titan, Medium: 3. Survival, General: 3. Explosives: 2. Gunnery, Ballistic: 2. Marksmanship, Heavy Arms: 2. Survival, Arid: 2. Technician, Mechanical, General: 2. Driving, Wheeled, Light: 1. First Aid: 1. Gunnery, General: 1. Gunnery, Missile: 1. Marksmanship, Sniper: 1. Pilot, Aerospace, Light: 1. Sensor, Air: 1. Sensor, Land: 1. Survival, Sub-Tropical: 1. Technician, Electronic, General: 1. Technician, Mechanical, Combustion: 1. Technician, Weapons, Small arms: 1. Tertiary Statistics Morale; 0 Honor: 0 Reputation: 0 Karma: 0 Skills Leadership, Small Team: 4. Language, English:3. Running: 3. Art, Sculpting: 2. Climbing: 2. Communications, Bluff: 2 Communications, Diplomacy: 2. Language, Russian: 2. Mathematics: 2. Navigation, Land:2. Strategy, Land: 2. Swimming: 2. Traditional, Labor: 2. Art, Acting: 1. History, Local: 1. History, System: 1. Language, Spanish: 1. Leadership, Large Team: 1. Navigation, Sea: 1. Protocol, Lesser Nobility: 1. Science, Biology: 1. Science, Chemistry: 1. Science, Physics: 1. Traditional, Commerce: 1. Traditional, Cooking: 1. The Advisor¡¯s mouth twitched slightly in a frown. ¡°Very well. Then Sir knight we are done here. Good day.¡± With that the advisor vanished. Leaving only the image of his still forming body as some kind of black cube was being attached to his spine right underneath his skull. Before he could even wonder what it was the world went dark around him again. Titan Warriors: Chapter Four - Noble Brainwashing Chapter Four: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location. April 2, 7215 Brandon awoke with a start. His lungs were on fire and felt like they might explode. On instinct he opened his mouth and gasped. A second to late he realized that he was in some kind of liquid. Eyes flying open as his lungs filled with liquid instead of the much needed oxygen. He was inside a large cylinder filled with an amber liquid. The liquid burned his eyes, making it impossible for him to clearly see outside the tube. Even with its walls appearing to be completely clear. Beginning to panic he reached out and slammed a fist on the glass. Between a surprising weakness and the friction of the water his fist barely thumped upon the glass. If he had been in any reasonable state of mind he may of noticed that there was red lights flashing outside his tube. The faint sounds of an alarm could also be heard. Yet, these facts were completely lost on Brandon¡¯s oxygen starved brain. Instead he Banged and slammed with no effect upon the glass of the tube. Going as far as to even kick and even slam his head on the clear prison once. His vision had begun to fade and the world around him was losing clarity when suddenly he was being sucked downward. With a splash and wet slap of flesh on metal, he stopped with extreme prejudice. The impact had two effects. First it knocked the liquid out of his lungs in an explosive gush. Second he discovered he was utterly nude. He did not even care that he could suddenly breathe! Instead he curled into a ball on his side and screamed, covering his freshly skinned sausage. A few minutes later he slowly became aware of voice talking above him. With tear filled eyes he opened his eyes and looked up. Three figures stood above him. One man and two women all dressed in black pants, purple and silver uniform looking shirts with white lab coats over them. One of the women held some kind of tablet while the other two figures studied him with clinical interest. Finally coming to himself enough his battle hardened mind kicked in. Rolling on his side he twisted and put his feet under him. In a low crouch he glanced around for anything he could use as a weapon. The scientists, for that is what Brandon assumed them to be, did not seem to be surprised by his movements. In fact the man looked at the woman with the tablet and clearly instructed her to do something. It was at this point that he realized they were speaking a language he did not understand. With a finger pointing at him the man smiled a look that did not reach his dark brown eyes behind thick glasses, and said something else to the two women, then turned and began to walk away. The woman now holding the tablet frowned as she saw the man turn and walk away. Her eyes met Brandon¡¯s and a look of displeasure flashed over her eastern Asian features. With a deep inhale she sighed. ¡°Fine, I guess your my problem.¡± Her Russian was worse than his if that was possible, but still understandable. Glancing around again for weapons, escape paths or anything else he paused. Getting his first good look around he noticed all around him were 3 meter tall cylinders. The bottom and top were some kind of Machinery . While in the center was a glass like tube containing people. Then suddenly he remembered. A split second after he remembered, the white space, the advisor, and the newly discovered purpose of his ¡®life¡¯; more information rushed into his head. Histories of people, families, cities, and Nobles flashed in his mind¡¯s eye. Followed by what amounted to years of etiquette and communications classes. Ways to properly show respect, while working to further his own goals with honeyed words. After that was memories of how to pilot a Titan. These images were so vivid and real he could nearly feel the controls in his hands. Even though he knew he had never once touched a Titan, he just understood them. Ultra-Light 15 tonners all the way to the colossal 300 ton Duplo machines that required two linked Jocks to pilot. He knew them all. Hatchetmen, Vipers, Astros, Braves, Ants, Firebugs, Odins, even the massive Ra. He knew the feel of each of their cockpits. Knew their unique textures. It was like he spent years learning about 100 different types of war machines. However, his knowledge for most was basic. Those that fell into the Medium tonnage range though. Those he had a special familiarity with. The information overload came so suddenly that Brandon lost situational awareness for nearly a minute. By the time he returned he had been helped to his feet. Embarrassingly he was now being dressed in a hospital gown by the slightly chubby woman who had held the tablet earlier.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I can dress myself damn it!¡± He didn¡¯t mean to snap, but everything together had put him in a foul mood. The assistant looked at him with honey colored eyes and smiled. ¡°Yes, honey you can. But, I¡¯m still going to help you.¡± Her Russian was smoother but still had a really awful accent to it. Almost bad enough to make him second guess his understanding. Sighing he resigned himself to be dressed by the oddly chipper woman¡­ When he was dressed the other woman pulled out a device that looked like a garage door opener. Pointing it at Brandon she pressed a series of buttons. Suddenly Brandon¡¯s skin began to crawl. Gasping he looked down and froze stunned. The white hospital smock had turned into a liquid that was now rearranging itself over him. It flowed like liquid mercury clinging and ebbing. In less than 30 seconds the white smock was gone. In its place was a perfect duplicate of the Purple and silver military dress uniform he wore in the white space. ¡°Close your mouth. It is unbecoming of a Jock. It is simple Nanofibers.¡± She handed him the device and with a few simple instructions showed him how to operate it. The nanofibers could adjust to over a hundred different outfits in any visible combination of colors. Best yet the fabric was able to adjust to protect the wearer from a decent range of temperatures. It would loosen its threads to provide a thinner lighter fabric if the wearer grew warm. Then it would thicken and tighten its fibers if the wearer grew chilled. ¡°Now come along. For some reason you awoke a full hour earlier than your vat mates. It seems the Verric nanites complement your natural biology better than most.¡± The two women led him passed rows and rows of humans in vats. There were men and women of every ethnic group, size, and shape. ¡°How many of us are there?¡± Brandon asked the back of the women. For a minute he thought they may ignore him. But, when they came to an intersection of two paths they stopped. The plump kinder looking woman tilted her head then said, ¡°In your Offling there was originally two thousand. After equipment failures, nanite rejections, and cullings there is 1,102 left. I would think that if everything works as normal then after basic there will be about 750. Then job training will claim another 250 or so.¡± Brandon blanched. She only expected a quarter of them to live through training? ¡°Now I have to get a cleanup bot to clean your mess and then check on the others. Percimil here will lead you to your muster area.¡± Without so much as a good bye she turned and left. The taller woman turned down a different path and walked off at a quick pace. Brandon had to jog to catch up. Thousands of questions flew through his mind but he could not decide where to start, so he kept quiet instead. Brandon followed the woman out of the gigantic room full of tubes into a hallway large enough to fit a football field and still have room. Pilotless machines zoomed in neat orderly patterns that no human mind could of kept up with. As they walked briskly down the corridor Brandon thought he was about to get hit twice. However each time the vehicle in question moved around them, avoiding impact by less than a foot. When the woman made a sharp right in to a doorway that Brandon had not even noticed he nearly lost her. Entering the large room he was eerily reminded of the Whitespace. The only difference was this room had what must be a thousand empty egg shaped chairs, with an equally white set of shelves next to each chair. The woman gestured at the seats. ¡°Find a seat and wait. Once the others awake, the processing will start.¡± She spun and started heading out the room as soon as Brandon looked from her to the seats. The door behind him closed before he could even glance back. ¡°Well shit. They are not big on customer service here¡­¡± Not seeing any difference between the seats he walked over to one near the back corner where he could see the only noticeable doorway into the chamber. To his surprise he didn¡¯t have to wait long. Other recruits also dressed in purple and silver uniforms entered the room minutes later . The door had barely closed before it opened again and a steady stream of people began to enter. Over the next twenty minutes people filed in to the chamber, slowly filling it¡¯s massive capacity. Many were men, but a fair number were women. All ethnic groups and body types were represented. Brandon remained by his corner watching and listening. One interesting point though was that just because they all seemed to be part of the same military now. Their benefactors did not grant them the ability to understand each other. For every new group there was just as a wide of range of spoken languages. The only thing they all seemed to have in common was a certain disposition that made Brandon think they were all past military. Or he reconsidered. They had been members of some military in the simulation. Finally the door stopped emitting more people. If there wasn¡¯t a thousand people in the room, Brandon would guess it was close. Slightly more than half had already found a chair and at most was trying to talk with their neighbors. The others were going from person to person trying to find someone they could talk to. Some had success, like the group near him that was slowly growing. They were speaking some rapid fire Spanish that Brandon could only catch a word out of five. All together it created a setting where the volume was slowly growing to an uncomfortable level. Suddenly the lights went out causing the white room to turn utterly black and all conversations to stop immediately in shock. Then the lights came back on once more. At the front of the room the wall there lit up like a massive projection screen. Everyone turned to the screen. Those close to an empty seat sat quickly. Rapid colors began to flash and a series of high pitched wails echoed from unseen speakers. The little shifting and movement in the room stopped. Those not near a seat or seating moved toward a chair almost robotically. Part of Brandon¡¯s mind struggled to remind him of something even though he could not take his eyes from the screen. In his inner mind a war was raging. Part of his Special Forces training was kicking in, while other parts dare not look away. He dare not, else he insult his master and Lord. His one true master Lord Nubran. Titan Warriors: Chapter Five - For House Nubran! Chapter Five: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location. April 3, 7215 Brandon returned to his senses some time later. He was now laying on a white cot like bed in a white room two and a half meters square. The only other thing in the room besides him was the same white cabinet as was next to his chair in the auditorium. ¡°Oh for fucks sake I have a massive headache!¡± Sitting up he groaned as stiff muscles protested from lack of use. Standing up he began to stretch and limber up while examining the room closer. Outwardly he looked calm and collected. Inside though a massive inner dialogue was playing out. ¡®Where the hell am I?¡¯ ¡®What did they do to me? Was that room a massive brain washing center?¡¯ ¡®Fuck I need to piss!¡¯ Spinning in a circle, Brandon searched for creases, or an opening that might denote a door, or vents, or anything really. His eyes were unable to see anything though regardless how hard he tried. On his second rotation, the cot he had slept on began to rapidly melt away. The cot dissolved into a white liquid that melted into the floor; before bubbling up into a new shape. ¡°Oh mother of god! My bed just turned into a toilet!¡± If he had to relieve himself any less he may have hesitated, but considering he was debating moving to a corner and letting lose, a mere second before; he just dropped trowe and let fly. Groaning in satisfied relief, he tucked everything back inside his uniform; only to have the uncomfortable feeling of the uniform moving against his skin. The toilet and his wastes merged back into the white floor; seconds before flowing back up into a new shape. While it did this his uniform flowed from around him into the small control stick he had been given earlier. Brandon barely grabbed it before it fell to the ground as his pocket disappeared around it. ¡°What the hell!¡± Now fully nude Brandon stood in front of what was clearly a shower with water already running inside the enclosure. Beside him, the cabinet opened up to show a small drawer with two identical control sticks and an empty slot for the one Brandon was holding. ¡°Huh, okay?¡± Placing the stick in the empty slot he saw a dim light envelop the device. ¡°Guess it is charging or getting cleaned¡­ Or something¡± Trying not to freak out about the weird situation he was in Brandon stepped into the shower. In small niches under the shower head there was soap, razor, shaving cream and shampoo. ¡°Oh I hope this water is not my recycled piss¡­¡± With a sigh he cleaned up. As soon as he rinsed the last of the soap from his body the shower stopped, and a quick warm wind spiraled around him locking him into a mini tornado that lasted for 15 seconds or so. Now dry and clean the shower began to liquefy running into the floor around him. Brandon stood there now clean and dry in the mostly empty white room. Stepping toward the cabinet he drew out one of the uniform sticks and tapped a button on it. The stick lit up as his uniform flowed out of it and onto his body. Now fully dressed Brandon looked around. The shower had vanished entirely being replaced by the familiar lime green egg chair and a stand similar to a mini table with a plate of steaming eggs and bacon on it. A cup of coffee sat next to one of what looked like orange juice and another of milk. Out of everything that had happened over the last half an hour this one gave him the most pause. It was one thing to shower or shit and not know where everything was going. It was another to have food appear out of nothing and then eat it¡­ ¡°you guys wouldn¡¯t just poison your military, right? You need us to fight the other Houses. So this has to be real food. It can¡¯t be some Nanotech shit¡­¡± Still not having convinced himself Brandon sat and began to eat. Years of military life had taught him when he had a chance to shut up and eat what he could. Surprisingly the food was not bad, he even found a biscuit and strawberry jelly that he had missed seeing. Sitting back in his chair with a content sigh he watched the now empty dishes disappear into the first opening in the wall he had seen since entering. He tried to see what was on the other side, but the opening was an exact fit so tight only Nano machines could manage it. Brandon looked around the small room waiting to see what was next. When the ceiling and walls around him began to melt away, he wasn¡¯t really that surprised, after everything else. He was surprised however to see he was still in the large auditorium along with the thousand or so others. Hundreds of Voices broke out as the walls lowered. Some even tried to enter into other people¡¯s cells. However the moment the last of the walls melted away the room went dark again. High pitched sounds erupted from unseen speakers causing a thrum to echo through the room once more. Lights followed next causing a multicolor strobe like effect, that created a myriad of odd distorted shadows and after images burnt into the eyes of all with-in the chamber. Brandon¡¯s special forces training with counter interrogation and brainwashing techniques kicked in.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The next three days followed the same pattern. He would wake up do his morning duties and then have the room around him melt away to reveal the brainwashing chamber. None of the recruits were allowed to talk to the others or allowed any other kind of interaction. They only knew the other recruits existed because of those few precious couple minutes as the walls melted away, and before the lights once more threw the room into a cacophony of brain melting chaos. During this time Brandon used every trick he knew of to protect himself. The one that seemed to be most effective was to constantly go over in his mind who he was and what was most important to him. The brainwashing kept slipping in tendrils of conditioning to obey the Noble houses. Particularly House Nubran. It was not his place to second guess his Lords or Ladies orders. It was his place to obey and die for the house when the time came. He was to watch for the golden eyes that denoted a Noble and observe the proper honorifics based upon their rank. He was to follow with-out question the orders of a Noble unless that order countered in body or spirit another order from a direct member of his Noble House. House Nubran first, all others second. His lordship Baronet Reginald Nubran above all others. Then he was to follow all lawful orders from officers in the direct chain of command between his lordship and himself. He was to be a good soldier. Work hard, obey and when the time came lay his life on the line fighting with honor for the house. He existed because Lord Nubran willed it and would remain so only as long. On the morning of the fifth day of his new life he awoke as usual and prepared himself. Only today his purple skin-tight uniform with silver edging had a decoration on his right shoulder. A patch was now embossed there in stark silver thread. Round shield like in shape; there was seven stars across the top with the first, fourth, and seventh larger than the others. Below the row of stars a hammer reminiscent of a large rectangle block of stone spit by a sturdy looking handle. The hammer floated above a sun like image that emerged three quarters concealed from the lowest point of the badge shooting solar like flares upward. Brandon somehow knew that this emblem was House Nubran¡¯s badge for the Titan Jock. It did appear to be missing his unit name and number on it, but the design was right. His implanted knowledge let him know the stars represented the 7 original Great houses. The brighter three being the ones House Nubran traced their ancestry from. The hammer above the star was the icon of the Titan Jock. When the walls descended this time so did all other furnishings except the cabinet. Forced to stand Brandon looked around at the other faces in the chamber. Here and there a cabinet with no one could be seen but for the most part other confused faces met Brandon¡¯s gaze. The large screen flashed to life with an image of Baronet Nubran in a perfectly tailored Royal Purple suit jacket and undershirt, with silver vest and aquamarine tie. The video began to play. Brandon was sure it was meant to seem like a live feed of the Baronet, but Brandon caught the small imperfections that gave lie to the situation. ¡°Congratulations recruits! You have started what I hope will be a long and successful career in my Noble armed forces. You will serve to protect House Nubran and its¡¯ allies from all threats foreign and domestic. A job I need each and every one of you brave souls for, because it is a dark day for House Nubran, indeed.¡± ¡°With the death of my mother, my siblings Lisa and Connor both dispute my birthright as oldest heir of the family. They have rebelled bringing war to our once peaceful star system. While my mother ruled, Pyillos enjoyed a golden age of peace and prosperity. Only needing to send forces to support our sovereign Great House as was our proper due.¡± ¡°Now though, the rebels have moved to take the throne of Pyillos from the rightful heir. Other malcontents who have long simmered hatred and resentment have also moved. They are attempting to claim by force what they could not by more peaceful means. These last two years have seen our peaceful star system drowned in blood and ash. Sadly though, I fear the fighting has just begun.¡± ¡°Recruits! Some of you have taken the first steps to be the backbone of my honorable warriors as Infantry, or Armor commandos. Others have stepped up to fly over my skies in powerful Aerospace planes. A few have even been chosen to represent the gods of the battlefield as Titan Jocks! Now, Battalion Attention!¡± Brandon and every other soldier in the room immediately stood rigid, arms pressed firmly down side, spine straight and legs together. ¡°Find your comrades in occupation and form up. Your Battalion Commanding Lord Knight will come to collect you shortly.¡± The image of Baronet Reginald Nubran did a smart salute where he crossed both arms across his chest, with fists clenched at opposite shoulders, and bowed his head. then with a quick snap his arms moved down his sides closed fists facing forward. ¡°For the honor and glory of House Nubran!¡± Everybody in the chamber did an exact copy of the salute and shouted, ¡°For House Nubran!¡± The image winked out leaving Brandon feeling confused in regard to his immediate reaction to the odd salute. Voices broke out immediately as fully half the occupants began to talk or shout at once. Banners floated down from above. Their silver on rich royal purple a stark contrast to the white space. Looking around Brandon discovered that there was one banner for each of the six main services of the armed forces. Infantry, Armor Cores, Marine seamen, Aerospace Pilots, Naval spacers, and Titan Jocks. The idea was clear they were to gather under each banner based upon their classification. Brandon was close to the Titan banner which matched his new patch, so he was the first underneath. Turning he continued to watch the other recruits. The majority it seemed was moving to the Infantry banner. Probably close to half the room. Another full quarter moved to the Naval banner. Brandon felt a pang of jealousy for these recruits. They would be going to space. While he was stuck planetside. The other four branches split the remaining quarter of the room. Marines got the fewest, which made sense with so much focus on air and space combat the need for a strong water-based service had declined. That is fewest besides the Titans who all told only had five people standing under the banner as the door opened emitting in a short skinny woman. She was maybe just over five feet in height and her tight purple uniform showed she was willow thin and waspish. Short black hair styled in a no-nonsense manner did nothing to soften a face creased from years of frowning. Eyes black as night glimmered with untold disapproval. The only thing that brightened her look at all was the specks of gold in the whites of her eyes and six golden diamonds on her lapels denoting her rank of Lord Knight. In a voice course and rough she screamed, ¡°Battalion! Attention!¡± As the room snapped to, she continued her dressing down. ¡°Okay your sorry excuse for shit-stains. Our Noble Lord Baronet Nubran has deemed it fit to activate the growth vats and birth you sorry Vatborn tumors! Now that your wasting oxygen on my planet, it is my duty to get you trained and ready to go die protecting those better than yourselves! I do not like you! I do not want to train your sorry asses! But, I was given an order to do so and by all the hair on Baronet Nubran¡¯s most glorious ass, I¡¯ll be damned if I fail at it! Do you understand, shit-stains?¡± ¡°The room vibrated with the shouted response, ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am!¡± Titan Warriors: Chapter Six - Sara Nubran Lunar base Chapter Six: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location. May 1, 7215 The next four weeks flew by in a blur of hunger, sore muscles, and exhaustion. The battalion was put through a more modern version of basic training. No deference was given to combat role, or rank. They were all expected to shape up or ship out. Except in this case ship out was in front of a very public execution. It seemed the Noble House did not take kindly to soldier¡¯s dereliction of duty. For the first couple days many of the soldiers were amazed by the genetically altered bodies they were given. However, that quickly disappeared when they discovered all it meant was they were expected to preform that much better, carry that much more, or survive that much longer. Brandon didn¡¯t even have much time to get to know anyone on more than a casual level. They were kept on such a tight schedule that not a single person found it appealing to lose valuable rack time to talk with their fellows. On Brandon¡¯s 31st day of life in this new existence the battalion was formed up on the muster ground for the first time. Five Company¡¯s, each with 5 Platoons. Each Platoon held 4 squads. Brandon knew each Infantry squad was supposed to contain eight men and women. Some in the gathering did. But the majority of Squads had a member or two missing. Slowly they were called one by one into the Lord Knight¡¯s office. When the Battalion¡¯s XO called off his name, Brandon snapped to attention and marched into the concrete building. He had not seen the interior of the Battalion¡¯s administrative office before. However his time in the Earth simulation gave him an idea and one that wasn¡¯t far from wrong. It seemed that no one had deemed it necessary to really change up the premise of basic offices in the last few thousand years. Brandon walked past the closed office doors of each Company commander. Voices could be heard with-in. At the end of the short hall a Fully armored pair of Marines stood at attention with eh Lord Knight¡¯s open door between them. Stepping inside the office Brandon was surprised to have both Marines follow him in before closing the door. With the two soldiers dressed in full powered armor that made them stand nearly 3 meters tall it was needless to say cramped. If this bothered the angry wisp of a woman behind the no nonsense metal desk glaring death at a holographic display it did not show. Brandon came to attention and stood there for a full three minutes while the commander¡¯s eyes rapidly moved back and forth. Although, the display was visible as phantoms of light from this angle it was not readable. She finally turned dark eyes on him grimace still in place. ¡°Congratulations soldier you have passed basic Infantry training and are now rated as an Infantryman. You can now serve House Nubran in glorious combat!¡± The zealot flare of a truly fanatical person flashed through her eyes. ¡°The psych levels show that your loyalty conditioning did not fully take.¡± Brandon froze, daring not to breathe. It had not taken Brandon long to discover that the majority of the other soldiers had drank the Kool-Aid and gone back for seconds. Even with as little personal interaction as he had with them, it was obvious. The Lord Knight let a long minute of silence pass as she stared holes in him. Then finally she nodded, ¡°however, you did not show any signs of insubordination, or traitorous inclinations. Since it is his Lordships design to get as many fighting men trained as possible I am making the call to give you the pass.¡± Brandon let out his held breath slowly and carefully. ¡°Now however that does not mean I approve of your request to become a Titan Jock. Those roles are the most coveted and sought-after positions in any armed forces galaxy wide. To have someone who may be harboring less than perfect loyalty piloting 25 tons of death god incarnate just will not due.¡± The holographic screen flickered drawing the Lord Knights attention. She navigated the screen with her eyes and implants only to have her already thin lips draw into an even thinner line. ¡°By his lordships hairy ass! Those House Sang Fe fuckers finally made a move! It looks like it is your lucky day Mc¡¯Dew we just lost a full platoon of Jocks and all Jocks in training are to be streamlined. The higher ups in their infinite wisdom think that if you¡¯re in 25 tons of metal it isn¡¯t as important to be able to fire a basic service rifle. I disagree. However, if I refuse your Advisor suggested role at his time due to my personal misgivings then I may be looking at a firing squad. So¡­.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. She drew out the last word in to almost a hiss as she flicked something through the display. A ping sounded in Brandon¡¯s head as his internal nanites lit up his personal HUD to show he received a priority message. ¡°There are your orders. Get the hell out of here. Your shuttle is on the landing pad to take you to be someone else¡¯s issue. Dismissed!¡± Having never been told to stand at ease, Brandon saluted arms crossing his chest and turned on his heel. The Marines exit the room first allowing him out. In the hallway back Brandon stopped abruptly as the door in to 2nd companies¡¯ commander flew open. A young woman was being pulled out by a pair of Marines. Each one held the arm of the dark-skinned woman. For her part she hung there limply with wide dark eyes glancing around in shock. When she saw Brandon she yelled out. ¡°help me! They say I¡¯m not loyal to Baronet Nubran! But, I¡¯ve never done anything. You have seen me! I¡¯m loyal! Tell them!¡± Her pleas were cut off as she was pulled around a corner and out of sight. The commander of 2nd company locked eyes with Brandon for a brief moment as he continued walking down the hall, then with a bare nod, he shut the door. Brandon entered the main room and hit the call button for the elevator to the roof and the landing pads there. Another soldier joined him after emerging from 1st Companies Co¡¯s door. The doors dinged allowing both men to enter. A few seconds later they went up the four stories and emerged on the roof. As Brandon stepped out he heard a semi familiar scream, ¡°No please!¡± Then a single gunshot rang out from somewhere behind the Battalion¡¯s compound. Brandon looked at the man beside him, a fleet spacer judging from his patch. The man looked at Brandon and smiled a thin smile, ¡°For the honor of his lordship.¡± Then the man moved off toward the pad with a large shuttle awaiting the fleet solider. Brandon went to another shuttle denoted on his HUD as the one he needed to report to. A Socman stood there with a pad in hand. The woman looked at his name on his uniform then her tablet again. With a nod she smiled, ¡°Sir, you¡¯re the first of our cargo to arrive. We will be stopping to drop off the Aerospace TG¡¯s first. Then we will take you Jocks to yours. Have a seat and buckle up.¡± Brandon smiled back and was going to ask her a question, but her eyes moved past him. Glancing back Brandon saw another soldier coming this way. Letting it be he stepped up the ramp and entered the personnel shuttle. Shuttles like this were made to deliver troops from ship to ship or ship to planet. Sometimes for things like this they were used to act as a bus across planets. Not designed for combat or large amounts of cargo the thing was filled with seats. Big enough to support a full armored Infantry platoon it currently stood empty. The seats were stadium style with five-point crash harnesses that were pulled down from the top to secure its¡¯ occupant. Seating himself Brandon buckled in and waited. Over the next three hours the ship slowly filled. Men and women entered, found a seat and buckled up in silence. Every now or then a gunshot would echo through the open gangway. Sometimes preluded by a shout or scream. Sometimes not. After the first one though, no one jumped hearing the weapons report. Finally the last person entered and the Socman at the gangway stepped into the craft. ¡°Okay folks buckle in. We are heading out.¡± There was just a slight whine of engines and a jerk as the craft lifted off. The shuttle completed a perfect vertical takeoff, followed by a 145-degree horizontal spin, and then it blast into the air. Inside those near a window gasped. Even those who had performed their simulation in later times was still amazed by the huge seeming leap in technologies. The G-Forces that the occupants should have been feeling was nearly totally missing. Brandon felt like he was going 70 down an interstate, not moving at hundreds of kpH. In less than 10 minutes the shuttle slowed and lowered, again in a sensationless vertical decent, to the ground. A short distance away stood the largest airfield Brandon had ever seen. Watching out the small round window of the shuttle he gasped seeing the area from the air. He counted no less than 50 runways. Some of which could hold three b-52¡¯s wing tip to wing tip. Others were smaller and longer. Then there was countless number of landing pads like the one the shuttled settled on. The gangway lowered a minute before the Socman appeared ¡°Alright, you Aerospace cadets. Your chariot has arrived. Now get the hell off my bird!¡± A series of nervous chuckles came from around the shuttle as most of the occupants unbuckled and exit the craft. Outside Brandon heard the screaming of Drill Sergeants or their more modern equivalents. Less than five minutes after landing the shuttle was taking off again. This time the journey was farther¡­ Much farther. To the surprise of the remaining five people in the seats they climbed and climbed, until the blue-green of the air darkened, becoming black. Brilliant stars glimmered in a view that nearly took Brandon¡¯s breath away, and he had never been one of those crazy ass holes who wanted to see space. Now that he was here though ¡­ It was truly an awesome sight. The shuttle moved toward the planet¡¯s second smaller moon. The stellar body was locked in a trailing orbit of the much larger sister. As they neared Brandon got his first look at real Titans. In the haze of the moon¡¯s limited atmosphere he felt his mouth fall open. He now knew why the Lord Knight had called them the gods of the battlefield. Moving over the blue looking moon was true metal Titans. Brandon saw a platoon of four Apaches working on moving in formations. The ¡®tiny¡¯ Titan weighted in at a mere 15 tons and stood over two stories tall. Farther out Brandon could see the hulking form of an Arrow as it moved on some kind of maneuver. The 35-ton behemoth was more than 18-meters-tall and alone carried two Guass Rifles, two phasers, and a long-Range Missile Launcher on its right shoulder. The humanoid looking goliath was nearly impervious to all normal Infantry wielded weapons and could crush the life from a person with a pinch of its¡¯ perfectly functional hands. Titan Warriors: Chapter Seven -Rumble in the Elevator Chapter Seven: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base. May 1, 7215 As they landed, struts whining on hydraulic shocks, a voice came through the shuttles speakers. ¡°We will be opening the door in a moment. Archer has enough air to keep you from instant suffocation. I would still advise you to take in a few deep breaths though. It will just take you longer to suffocate. When you exit the shuttle you will see a set of stairs some 20 meters from the landing pad.¡± The static of the speaker broke off and with no warning the flashing lights of the gangway was the first clue they had opened the hatch. Taking the disembodied speakers advice Brandon breathed in a few quick heavy breaths. On his third the sound of air escaping in a whistle let him know the cabin was equalizing pressure. With one last deep breath he unbuckled himself and followed a lean short woman of Asian descent who had already made it half way down the still lowering ramp. The moonscape was incredible all on its¡¯ own. The vivid blue sand like surface was a clear indication of a Cobalt or other mineral rich soil. The thin atmosphere allowed the stars to be seen clearly even during the daylight hours. That is, if this moon even had day and night cycles Brandon thought. In the distance a forest of large blue capped mushroom like trees stood sentinel. Then spread across the surface much like weeds on earth a variety of red and blue leafed small plants could be seen growing anywhere open ground was exposed. His sightseeing was cut short by the burning sensation in Brandon¡¯s lungs, indicating that he need to move his ass or risk taking a breath of this alien moon¡¯s air. Hustling he followed the Asian woman¡¯s short cut black topped head into the stairwell. They went down the narrow stairs some two hundred steps or so before the stairs ended in a white concrete looking room. Bright LED style lights in a white-yellow provided a dim illumination of the 5meter cubed space. Set into the wall directly across from the stairs was a set of metal sliding doors with black and yellow tape on their elevator like adjoining edge. Finally having to Breathe Brandon exhaled only to gasp. As he tried to breathe in his lungs struggled to pull in the thinner air. Then when he did manage to get a lung full it felt almost empty. His body telling him to exhale and breathe in a fresh chest full immediately. The doors pulled open allowing entry to all five of the gasping and wheezing Titan Jocks in training. The doors closed a few seconds later. They found themselves in a small two and half meter-wide square room. As a sense of movement was felt in the chamber, nozzles near the ceiling began to spray a thick gas into the room. Warily Brandon and the others inhaled the thicker air. The mist filled the small area both fixing and creating an issue. They were all able to breathe easily once again, to their great relief. However, the mist was thick and sticky feeling. Both on skin and in the lungs. It also created an odd tingly sensation. As the elevator stopped moving a mechanical voice chimed. ¡°Decontamination complete.¡± Then the doors slid open. A long white hallway lit by some unseen light source yawned in front of them. The areas utter lack of anything was disconcerting. It gave no sense of distance or scope. No one could tell if they were looking at a short hall, or something that went on for eons. The short Asian woman snarled out something in a language akin to Chinese or maybe Japanese. Then strode off into the hall. The others followed behind. They walked for nearly half a kilometer, occasionally a dark side passage would join the hallway they were moving through. Once their hall even joined another one. Here the way was easy to know because the one direction at the intersection was lit up the other was dark. Finally they reached an intersection where four other passages met. The room was semicircular still in the plain white. In the center of the chamber was a bank of elevators. Their shafts creating a pillar in the center of the large room. After pausing to look around the Asian woman walked to the elevator bank and hit the call button. The light had barely flashed on when the doors opened, to reveal an elevator large enough to hold ten people with room. Still oddly quiet the group stepped inside, only to pause. The Asian woman spoke looking at the others. A dark Hispanic or maybe Latin looking man spoke in Spanish, ¡°Sorry, I do not understand you. Do you speak Spanish?¡± He made it obvious that his question was directed at the entire elevator as a whole. Brandon understood him but did not see what the issue was yet. Looking over the shoulder of the short woman he saw the trouble. The bank of buttons must have had nearly 50 buttons. The light indicating which they were on was not the top although it was near it. Brandon was about to use his limited grasp of Spanish to respond when a ding sound saved him. The elevators call button dinged and a voice boomed out like the voice of god. ¡°Do not push any buttons, cadets. You are waiting for the others. So wait and be good.¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Others?¡± The tall blonde Scandinavian looking woman asked. Brandon looked at the woman, and said, ¡°That voice over the intercom was not speaking any language that I understood. Yet I understood it.¡± The woman looked at him then considered, ¡°ya.¡± Short and concise. That is exactly what he knew of the warriors of that particular national group. They continued to wait in silence for another ten minutes, then the doors opened. Years of battlefield wariness instantly had him on edge. Everyone in the elevator was tense and ready as the doors slid fully open revealing three more men and a woman. The newcomers were also dressed in the purple and silver military uniforms of House Nubran. Patches on their arms denoting them as Titan Jocks too. A 2-meter-tall man, lined with the types of muscles only acquired from years of intense work, glared at them His dark eyes narrowed as they settled on Brandon. ¡°American?¡± Brandon frowned. The man had the dark hair and complexion of an Afghan man. His demeanor was one of a highly trained soldier familiar with the battlefield. The tall blond woman looked sideways at Brandon before she spoke. ¡°Ya, he is. You have issue?¡± Her English was rough, but clear enough. The Afghan man snarled, ¡°A woman should be seen not heard. You can learn like this one.¡± Brandon looked as the man shifted with his shoulder toward the woman behind him. She glared at the man¡¯s back. Now that they looked it was clear the woman had a split lip, crusted with day old blood, and both eyes were black, if not swollen. One of the men with the Afghan man stepped between the woman and the group I the elevator hiding her with his body. The other took a step away from the others. Giving himself distance. Both of the women in the elevator saw the others state before she was concealed and instantly their already high tension went to the point of imminent violence. Brandon glanced up looking for the speakers and cameras he knew was somewhere. He expected the oversight to intervene. But, As the Afghan man eyes met the short Asian woman he smiled a smile only found on those who like to hurt others. ¡°Oh she is a pretty one. I will enjoy breaking her in.¡± The Asian woman snarled her muscles bunching ready to leap at the monster of a man. Brandon spoke loudly with a voice used to give orders over countless battlefields. ¡°Hey! Let¡¯s calm down. We do not want any trouble. Why do you not head around the corner and take another elevator. A voice ordered us to wait for more people. They have been watching us.¡± The Asian woman and the Slovak one glanced at Brandon quickly, but neither moved. One of the men beside Brandon stepped away distancing himself. The other moved up behind the dark haired Asian woman, in a sign of support. All of which Brandon noted with peripheral vision, never taking his eyes from the Fagan man. The Afghan¡¯s sneer flickered for a moment and his eyes roved around the area searching for cameras or speakers, just like Brandon had done earlier. He did not seem to have any better luck finding any, either. ¡°Just like a fucking American coward! Not only are you hiding behind your bitch!¡± He glanced another leer at the Asian woman standing at the front of the elevator. ¡°You also act all high and mighty. Fucking pretending to be serving some higher purpose. All the while you just walk over everyone else and expect them to accept it.¡± The man stepped closer followed by his flunky. He reached for the short woman with a ham sized hand. All the while staring down Brandon. ¡°Well, we are not in the desert anymore>¡± In an instant the area broke into violence. The Fagan man lunged to brag the Asian woman. She instead ducked under the reach and bound up in a flying knee, into the man¡¯s exposed ribs. The man who had stepped up behind her moved forward blocking the Afghan¡¯s flunky. The two men began exchanging quick jabs, blocks, and counter-blocks. The Slovakian woman moved to help but was taken off guard from the other man inside the elevator. The one Brandon had been wary of. He grabbed her left arm jerking it behind the tall woman¡¯s back. With a twist he made her arch her back, shoving her well-endowed chest into the air... A shocked gasp of pain tore from her throat. Brandon who was near the back of the elevator and not near the fighting outside the doors moved with a quick side step. Leaning back he used his small step to hit the man in the head with a side kick. The man¡¯s head rocketed back, forcing his body to follow. The man crashed into the elevator¡¯s wall and slumped to the ground. The Silvic woman was pulled off balance but managed to pull her arm away soon enough to only be yanked to a knee. Brandon Spun to check the fight up front and smiled. The two men were still exchanging blows, both being fairly equally matched. The Latin guy was shorter but had more raw strength. The woman at the back of the Afghan¡¯s group had taken the chance to interpose a few of her thoughts on the matter at hand. The Asian woman had both of the Afghan¡¯s man¡¯s arms locked with her own at her sides. The move making the much taller Afghan man look to be almost bending over to give her a hug. An illusion that was broken by the fierce head-butt she planted in to his downturned face. Meanwhile, the redheaded woman was laying into his exposed sides with quick kidney jabs. Brandon winced, that guy would be peeing blood for a week if nothing else. A voice boomed from unseen speakers, ¡°Enough!¡± The combatants froze. The instant reaction of a soldier given orders. ¡°It is good to see you having fighting spirit. You will have plenty of time to work out your aggression in your Titans. Now if your done playing get down here.¡± The speaker shut off. Only then did Brandon realize more people had entered the elevator room. Perhaps another eight or so. They stood there watching the fight with mixed expressions. ¡°you heard the man, ¡°Brandon heard himself saying. ¡°Let¡¯s get these ass holes off our elevator and head down.¡± Putting action to word he bent over picked up the unconscious man behind the arms and flung him with the help from the Slovakian woman out of the elevator. As they did the two women and the Latin man stared at the Fagan man and his flunky. ¡°Bitch you get your ass back over here.¡± The redhead smiled. Her lip breaking open to bleed again. A pink tongue licking the trickle of blood. In a surprisingly Smokey sounding voice filled with venom she spat, ¡°Fuck off. You can take his ass. Let him be your bitch!¡± She gestured at the limp form and stepped in to the elevator. Behind Brandon and the three others. Thirty tense seconds passed before the doors shut with a firm thwunk sound. No sooner had they shut than the Asian woman spun, ¡°I do not need the help of any man! I am fully capable of dealing with my own issues. Never interfere in my affairs again!¡± That said she spun back around to stare at the wall and closed elevator doors. All four of the others including the red headed woman stared open jawed at the Asian spit fire in shock. They briefly exchanged glances at one another. Brandon and the other man in the group held a shocked expression on their faces. The blonde Slavic woman had a neutral expression, but amusement glimmered in her pale blue eyes. The red headed woman looked at the other three then burst out laughing. ¡°Oh shit! You guys are fucking nuts! The good kind of crazy, but still fuckign insane!¡± Her laughter followed them all the way down as the elevator quickly dropped in to the lower levels.p Titan Warriors: Chapter Eight - Infantry Training Chapter Eight: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 1, 7215 An hour later and Brandon along with some seventy others were all sitting inside a white auditorium like chamber. After exiting the elevator they were lead into a series of offices and warehouses. There they were each subjugated to a series of health tests. Follow by immune boosting shots and a House Nubran Titan Jock nanite shot. The nanites would grant them access through the House Nubran security systems, thus unlocking the House owned Titans. Or, at least whatever titans they were given permission to pilot. Afterward they were taken to a quartermaster and issued their standard issue gear. As Brandon looked at each item the nanites in his eyes illuminated them, with a soft yellow white border before a see-through details box appeared in a personal heads up display. Name: Pk-268L CR: 0.15 Class/Design: Infantry Light Ballistic Pistol Weight: 2.1lbs. Owner: Freesource A simple yet effective military grade pistol. Light weight and sleek of design this weapon has been seen use as a personal or military issued weapon for over a thousand years, when a large weapon just will not do. The pistol fires a 0.003 caliber enriched tungsten sliver. Name: Pr 17 CR: 0.1 Class/Design: Combat knife Weight: 0.6lbs Owner: Freesource A basic nanite etched carbon edged combat knife. Name: XRX-27 Smartcloth Battle Dress Uniform Armor: 0.15 Class/Design: Nanofiber protective Battle Dress Uniform Weight: 1.5lbs Owner: Freesource Composed of highly adaptive nanite fibers this battle dress uniform is fully customizable. Fully capable of adjusting to the wearers size. It can also change colors and designs as needed. It even provides some limited form of protection. When in standby mode the uniform will return to a three-inch-long by inch wide control stick, where damage is repaired, and the nanofibers are cleaned. Name: VRTOL- Plasma Cooling Vest Armor: 0 Class/Design: Light Cooling Vest Weight: 8.2lbs Owner: Freesource This advanced plasma filled cooling vest can stand alone or plug in to a central cooling system for greater effectiveness. His uniform automatically adjusted, creating holsters for the weapons. A thigh holster on his right leg for the pistol and a sheath on his left leg. He wasn¡¯t sure about the placement until he received the vest. Afterward it was clear that anything placed upon his waist would be inaccessible. Where the pistol and blade looked sleek and high tech the vest was thick, chunky, and ugly. Its¡¯ puke green color was only slightly better than the odd sloshing sounds it made while he moved wearing it. Brandon¡¯s skin crawled pulling him from his unpleasant inspection of his new gear. Looking around he soon saw they cause. Across the room the Afghan man was staring hate filled brown orbs at him. The man had twice more attempted to accost Brandon¡¯s little group. Each time a well-timed interruption or a soft cough from a nurse cut the encounter short. Brandon smiled and gave the man a small wave. Fury washed over the hate filled mug as he stood explosively. He began to storm over with fist clenched. He only took a few steps however before a door that was previously invisible on the front wall opened. Everyone who had been sitting suddenly shot to their feet, standing at attention. Ten purple uniformed individuals entered and began walking toward the middle of the raised stage like platform located there. As they neared chairs rose from the white stage. Between the seats and the edge of the platform a lectern smoothly grew. The first nine sat on the chairs while the last moved to the lectern. He was a grey-haired man. Weathered features belied the cunning gleam in his nearly gold eyes. The already fairly quiet room grew so still the breathing of the audience seemed loud. As the man stepped up to the lectern with a military precise stomp he spoke in a voice rough from years of smoke and drink, ¡°At ease. Take your seats¡± Sitting Brandon studied the other people behind the man. Five men and four women all with the looks of warriors sat back studying the room, whispering with their neighbors, or in one case clearly working through commands in her personal HUD. ¡°My name is Lord Knight Andrew Nubran. Me and my knights will be responsible for training you rix begotten lumps of tube slime into something approaching Titan Jocks.¡± His tone of voice and expression belied his words, they remained neutral even when his words clearly spoke distaste. ¡°I have been ordered against my advice to train you lot. You will be the first ever vat born Titan Jocks. That is if any of you survive and pass. My great nephew is breaking from a thousand years of tradition and allowing you lot to become more than just the fodder your kind are meant to be. Please prove me right and fail over the next twelve weeks. Then I can show his Lordship that even with his need, Vat slime can¡¯t be true Jocks. ¡° Brandon shifted in his seat the man¡¯s complete lack of facial expression or voice inflection unnerved him. The way the Lord Knight stared at the wall as if not even deeming it worthwhile to look at them angered him. ¡°There is Eighty of you in here right now. I have been ordered to create only one company of Vat-born Jocks. For those of you who cannot count that is 20 Jocks. Some of you might live long enough to become Titan mechanics and might even do well enough to be able to lead a crew. However, most of you will die.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The way the man spoke as if he didn¡¯t care continued to eat at Brandon¡¯s fuse. ¡°Now don¡¯t think you will die like real Jocks inside a Titan¡¯s cockpit. No you lot will be placed in simulator pods. For the first four weeks we will keep the training wheels on. After that, the pod will inflict upon you any damage that you would suffer in a real Titan. If your rixing grey matter cannot learn in a training environment, then there is no way we will trust you in a billion credit machine. Have faith though rixers my nephew has some of the best paid medical staff on hand. They will pull you from your pod and save your life if it can be saved. In a real fight you may have to wait for hours or even days for medical help, so feel grateful.¡± With those words he did a precise about face and marched out of the room. As the door slid shut one of the women got up and moved to the lectern. ¡°My name is Knight captain Nowell. As I call your names please stand. She began to quickly call out names. ¡°The second name she called was McDew, so Brandon stood. The small group who had come in with him looked at him with mixed expression as he stood. The Asian woman glowered. While the Latin guy and the Amazonian woman smiled at him. The redheaded woman just looked confused. More people were called and stood, but none of the others were called. Second to last was the Afghan man. He stood spine straight and eyes forward, standing at attention proudly. Finishing up the last name she went on. ¡°Congratulations to those of you who are standing. You have been selected by merit to receive a promotion from Junior Knights to full Knights. You will thus be in direct command of a platoon of Titans.¡± Brandon looked around at the others standing. Most stood straight not looking around. A few though like him, cared less for the decorum and took the moment to scope out the competition. Because anyone with half a brain cell knew that yes, they were all on the same team. Yet, if they had listened to the Lord Knight their training would not be fully friendly. Not all of the men and women now standing would be alive in just a few weeks. ¡°Over the next two weeks you will all be tested in various combat and command simulations. Based upon your results you will be ranked and allowed to choose from eh pool of Knight Recruits to build your team. ¡°Once each team is organized, myself or one of the others behind me will choose two platoons and begin your training. By the end of Week 4, when the simulations turn active we will each choose one platoon to move on. The other will become subs and mechanic candidates.¡± ¡°Knights follow me.¡± She turned and began to move toward the door they entered from. Brandon exit the rows of chairs and joined the line heading out. As he moved another of the Instructors moved to the lectern. ¡°The rest of you will also be tested and ranked. Your results will then be given to your future platoon commander for selection. As their ranks let them choose the team they desire. Your ranks highlight your strengths and weaknesses¡­¡± The speech went on, but Brandon could not hear anymore after stepping from the room. With no ceremony or breaks they were led to a massive chamber full of grey circles. The ball like machines stood nearly seven meters tall and half that in width and depth. No seams, lights or any other indication to show what they were used for was visible. ¡°Each of you step in front of one pod.¡± The Knight Captain barked in a bored voice. The pods were set up in five rows of four. Exactly like a full Titan company, Brandon thought dryly. As Brandon stepped in front of one a screen appeared at chest height. The screen showed a diagnostic of the pod. It was currently empty and was reading as 100% operational. ¡°Now you Rixing lot. Place your left hand on the pod and say ¡®Assign Unit¡¯ to allow you access. This pod will be your bed, bathroom, workspace, a and in general your life for the next 4 days.¡± Brandon did not like the way that sounded but did as he was told. He placed his hand on the pod which highlighted his hand in a green outline. A yellow strip started at the top and moved down his hand quickly, ¡°Assign Unit.¡± The pod chimed as his personnel status sheet appeared. A full 3-D rendition of himself stood there nude and spinning. His complete statistics were labeled and easy to see. Height, Weight, eye, hair, Age. All the basics. Then it scrolled to his primary and secondary statistics. Followed by his system recognized skills. Lastly his affiliation, rank, and military service flashed on the screen. Brandon barely had time to glance over everything before it vanished. In a husky English sounding voice the pod said, ¡°Biometrics scanned. Synchronization complete. Assign Pod 4G-5.1 now?¡± With a nod Brandon said yes. Other confirmations could be heard for those nearby. A second later the lights around his hand vanished. Dropping his hand Brandon was about to turn back to the Lord Knight for further instruction when a seam appeared in the previously solid looking pod. In a few heartbeats the seam formed a full arch; suddenly a set of stairs flowed from the pod, creating an opening in to the dark interior. Glancing over his shoulder Brandon saw that the Knight Lord looked bored, so with a sigh Brandon stepped up the steps. He had to duck slightly to avoid hitting his head on the opening. Once inside the steps flowed closed sealing him in the dark interior. With a start Brandon felt something snake around his ankles and then something else grabbed his wrists before he could react. Pulling he tried to pull free and fight back. A shout pulled from his throat as another one wrapped around his waist then his forehead. In a few seconds he was fully unable to move. Something in the darkness removed his vest and he could feel more things removing his knife and side arm. Then to his utter dismay he felt his uniform flow off his skin. ¡°Oh no fucking way! I never signed up to be tentacle raped!¡± His fears were realized a moment later when something engulfed his manhood. A tiny prick let him know he was just devirginized. Gritting his teeth he braced for what was next. The cold penetration was less painful than he expected but still fucking sucked to have some unknown item shoved up his ass. The final straw though was when a nozzle shot up his nose and down his throat. He gagged as it entered his stomach. Completely violated and infuriated Brandon did not even notice when the pods cool interior began to fill with a warm liquid. At least not until it was nearly past his ass. He tried to pull free of the bindings again but was still held utterly still. As the liquid moved to his chest he could feel a tingle begin to numb his skin. As it reached his face he began to panic. Gasping he tried to hold his breath but a twist of the tendril in his throat made him gag and inhale the liquid. To his surprise he was able to breathe the odd fluid. More over as it spread over his eyes the dim lights that had begun to show in the pod cleared into a full panoramic vision. An instant later Brandon found himself standing in a war-torn city. He was wearing the now familiar light armor of an Infantry soldier. Including his weapon. ¡°Socman, the rixing enemies are trying to outflank us! They are on the west and north. A squad is working south as we speak. What are your orders?¡± Brandon looked over his shoulder the young Dreg. She was panicked and cleared had seen some combat. Her armor was covered in dust and had a few tears or puncture holes. He could see red puckered skin over her left breast where a nanite shot had clearly been used to rapidly heal a recent wound. Six other soldiers were spread around him kneeling or standing behind cover, each forming a basic perimeter. ¡°Socman?¡± Brandon snapped out of his confusion. ¡°We need to move out! In twos to the west. Go! Go! GO¡± As the first pair shot forward making a beeline for cover the concrete wall next to Brandon¡¯s head suddenly had a couple centimeter deep holes in it. It took his mind a moment of staring at the holes in fascination to realize; Bullets make noise and break things. Lasers put holes in things¡­ His dive to the ground saved his life. A sudden alter on his helmets HUD warned him that his shoulder lost nearly two thirds of its armor. Rolling he looked around saw a pair of troops wearing the colors of House Nubran¡¯Due purple with silver and teal running at his squad. Raising his rifle he took a shot as the two soldiers covering that section also popped up to fire from their cover. His helmet created a much slower beam of light from his weapons and those of his men to their targets. Thus allowing them to see where they were hitting. The charging soldiers took shots to their chest pieces, armor blacking and cracking or just deeply pitting. One of his men held his weapons trigger down creating a sustained beam that tore through the enemy¡¯s armor on the right. But as the beam created a full tunnel and passed through the fire stopped abruptly as the man¡¯s weapon shut down from overheating. The weapons rifling glowed a dull red and steam rose from eh weapon in shimmering waves. ¡°Move it people!¡± He shouted once more¡­ Brandon lost track of the scenarios he found himself in. The first one ended when he got his survive squad to a Forward Operating Base or FOB. The massive tracked structure was a marvel of modern Nano construction. It could pack or unpack itself in less than an hour. Converting from large tracked behemoth in to a full-blown military base. Better yet they could be customized per deployment for the types of units they were going to support. Infantry would get a barracks, command center, and armory. Armor units would get repair bays and smaller barracks for drivers and support crews. Aerospace would get landing pads or runways and similar. Even Titans could be managed by the massive structure. Finally after Brandon took a painful shot to the head on a failed rescue mission, where he was the sole survivor of a planetary dropship sent to recover the scion of some Lord, or the other; the scenarios changed. Titan Warriors: Chapter Nine - The First Mission Chapter Nine: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 2, 7215 Flinching from a painful impact that no longer existed Brandon glanced around. The sights and sounds hit him all at once, as soon as he realized he wasn¡¯t dead. The utter realism, even the pain of these training simulations was insane. Even knowing that his whole life before waking in the Tube was supposed to be a simulation. He just had no believed it on some level. Not until now. Each and every scenario made him feel like he was shooting in to the air, while balls deep in to a screaming hog. If anything the only issue was the transitions. One second, he was completing a mission or more likely getting killed. The second he was standing around in... Where was he? He stood in a cleared area inside a FOB¡¯s main bay. He recognized the walls and flooring from previous missions. Now though the bay¡¯s normal ceiling as absent and instead of areas for Infantry or Armor unit four large scaffolding rigs marked out births. In each Birth was a god of war. Although these ones looked little in their respective births. On his right, two three and half meter-tall balls with legs stood. The balls dark front had an open hatch near the bottom hanging between the legs. Front center of each ball was a clear plate of whatever high-tech equivalent was now used for glass. To the right and left of the cockpit window two nozzles stuck out some quarter meter. Judging by what he had learned recently of modern turrets he suspected a decent 100-degree firing arc on both of those. Above the cockpit, nearly on top of the ball was a machine gun. The weapons swivel mounting was clearly set for a full 360-degree rotation and if Brandon was to guess a nearly vertical max upward aim. Both of the spherical machines of war were painted a dull red, with yellow and orange wave like stripes. The distinct paint job complete Brandon¡¯s guess. If he was pulling from his implanted memories correctly these two were Fire Ants. A pair of fast light Anti-Infantry Titans. Their Light Machine Gun was supported by two highly volatile Flamers. To Brandon¡¯s left was House Nubran¡¯s single proprietary Ultra-Light Titan design. Also standing just over three meters tall these Titans were humanoid in appearance. Two arms, a and legs were mounted to a human like torso and head. The Apaches were painted to look like the ancient human¡¯s they were named after. Including a hate filled snarl on their mechanical heads. The Apache was a fast light scout class design. Low armor and only armed with a massive Enriched Tungsten hand axe, the design was suited for little more than information gathering. The Axe was capable of tearing through even another Titan¡¯s armor at an outstanding rate. However, since you had to be nearly on top of them to utilize it the weapon would be nearly useless against other Titans. Eyeing the meter and half tall weapon carefully Brandon was sure it could make short work of any Infantry or slow Armor the Jock could close in on however. A small crew was prepping all four Titans as Brandon watched. Fusion power plants were being stoked from standby. Their controlled chaos sending waves of heat in to the bay accompanied by the totally unique sound. Crews were doing final checks on weapon loadouts and armor plating. Last minute repairs that the beasts always seemed to need. When a figure appeared next to Brandon he turned to look. He had seen the man in the white space before. At the time he was just another face I the crowd, though. He stood some two meters tall, with well-defined muscles like most of them. His dirty blonde hair was cut into a flat top on a squared face. A nasty looking scar went from his scalp over his icily blue eye and down the middle of his mouth to his chin. He wore the House Nubran uniform under a Titan cooling vest. Pistol and blade were attached on leg holsters upon his upper thigh. Brandon met the man¡¯s cold gaze and nodded a tiny shift of his head. ¡°Da.¡± The man replied. Casually reaching up Brandon touched his chest just to confirm that he too was wearing the bulky cooling vest. Over the past days, weeks? However long it has been he grew accustomed to the feel of clunky armor restricting and limiting his movement. Even so no ground pounder would dare leave behind their life saving loadouts. Brandon had seen firsthand how important the gear was. Not like some stupid white armor from his favorite Space Opera back home¡­ Shaking his head Brandon brought himself back to the situation from his momentary mental check out. He was geared as a Jock. That meant only one thing. they were going to be piloting these beasts now. On the last two scenarios Brandon had been either supported by or fighting against Titans in his Armor division. Both times he got a heady respect for the machines. A titan could normally easily take on a full squad of armored units of the same weight. Even the fast Hover Armor units just couldn¡¯t match a Titan in mobility and reaction times.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As a third person appeared slightly behind Brandon he smiled. ¡°Right folks load up. Looks like we get to earn our pay today.¡± Not waiting to see if they listened Brandon jogged over to the farthest Apache. His brief look around had afforded him the chance to see this Titan seemed almost new, where the other Apache was sporting several recently replace armor plates and even maybe an arm or leg. Then even with the shitty weapons there was no way Brandon was going to stick himself in what amounted to a walking can of Napalm. Moving behind the titan Brandon saw the narrow opening that allowed entry to the cockpit. With a devious smirk Brandon climbed up in to the beast through an opening placed exactly where a butthole should be on a person. Climbing in to the tight dark confines was like climbing into the same area too. The air was instantly hot and humid. Odd smells permeated the stale air. If there had been any room to maneuver Brandon was sure he would of ran in to things. As it was there was only two ways to get in the tight location. In or out. Climbing up Brandon broke out into a heavy sweat before he made it the meter or so to the cockpit. The area was just big enough for a grown man to hold his arms out and touch both walls while standing in the center. On unfamiliar instinct Brandon reached up and grabbed the Neruo-helmet that would detect his brainwaves. Combining the nearly instant reaction time of the Titan with his own minds was the key to the Titans advanced abilities. As the open-faced helm slid over his skull, Brandon pulled two cords from its back and plugged them in to his vest. Instant a chilling flush of coolant began to swirl through the connections into and back out of his vest. In an instant he went from sweating to shivering. On the front of the cockpits view screen lights began to flash. The Titan¡¯s Ai now awake spoke into the slowly illuminating cockpit, its heavily accented voice was clearly Scottish. The dep rough voice spoke out, ¡°New jock detected. Neural handshake complete. Security check passed. Welcome Jock what is your call sign?¡± Brandon froze. ¡°shit! No one told me I needed a call sign! Isn¡¯t someone supposed to give me that? I did not think it was something I got to pick.¡± The Ai¡¯s voice akin to an old Sean Connery spoke up, ¡°Very well granting call sign ¡®Highlander¡¯.¡± Brandon¡¯s mouth fell open. Was he just given a call sign by a cheeky AI? With the acceptance of the call sign all handshakes were complete. With the sound of hydraulics the hatch behind and below Brandon shut closing him off from the outside world. On instinct he began to issue the startup commands. Normally it took nearly ten minutes for a Titan to go from full stand-by to active status. But most of the work had already been done by the Titan¡¯s crew. With a signal burst to the crew chief to unlock his Titan from the scaffolding, Brandon flipped the last set of switches. Sepia colored fluid began to rapidly fill the tiny cockpit. Brandon¡¯s Helm folded a mask over his face and completed a seal on hi vest¡¯s neckline. Even having the implanted memories of this occurring Brandon had a moment of worry. The ballistic gel served a number of purposes in the cockpit. First it softened an outside force upon the Jock. Second it acted as a type of stabilizer. The way the Jock would move in the gel was transmitted to a thousand different sensors in the cockpit. Those signals were then used to relay real time commands to the Titans durasteel skeleton and muscle framework. Lastly it provided a three-dimensional display interface with full touch reaction. As the environment appeared around Brandon he watched the scaffolding pull away from his Jock. It felt almost like it was pulling away directly from his own body. Taking a step forward the war machine responded perfectly. A voice came over the radio the same instant as a Mission briefing appeared on his HUD. ¡°The Jocks are ready to Rock!¡± ¡°Jocks your mission is straight forward. We got a lead on an enemy Forward Operating Base that has been acting as an Aerospace airfield. They have been conducting Ariel raids on House Nubran assets for over a month. Trillions of credits have been lost in damages and lost lives.¡± ¡°As of two hours ago we have pinned their location. Our scout counted a full platoon of downed craft.¡± ¡°The mission is simple get in fast: Destroy the downed birds before they can take off. If you do this will be easy. You¡¯re not equipped to fight an airborne target so hit them while they are down.¡± Mission Details Assault Beta, Sector 187, Pyillos System, Pyillos III Temperate Hills 250 Clicks Standard VTAP-47 Heavy Assault Helicopter - Platoon VAL125 Light Helicopter - Platoon GZA-75 bumblebee Stealth Bomber ¨C Platoon x3 Light Infantry - Company Unknown Titan¡¯s (Estimated 30 tons) Ultra-Light: 60 tons Fire Ant x2 Apache x2 Brandon glanced over at his friendly unit read out.
  1. Highlander
  2. Axeman
  3. Red
  4. Vampire
  5. Lightening Scout Helicopter
Marching his Titan down the small ramp from the Mobile Forward Operating Base¡¯s hanger, Brandon looked around. His three squad-mates followed behind. Outside the mobile FOB was a small established base. Bombed out hangers for armor units and damaged red brick barracks lay in unit groups in front of them. Along the outer edge of the base was a 10-meter-tall duracrete wall encasing the base. Guard towers supporting heavy machine guns were placed every few hundred foot, clearly showing this small base was never designed to be a high engagement zone. Titan Warriors: Chapter Ten-Titans Go! Chapter Ten: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 2, 7215 The bomb ravaged main road that led from the FOB to the bases main gate cracked with every step of Brandon¡¯s Apache. Seeing this Brandon shook his head. If these streets could not handle the Ultra-Light Titans, there was no way they would survive a heavier design. It was really poor planning in his opinion. The image of the blonde man in his cockpit appeared on his far left, as his heavily accented Russian voice spoke, ¡°Tis place been getting da shit bombed o¡¯it.¡± Above his image the name ¡®Axeman¡¯ and a rotating 3-D rendition of his Apache in a green wire framework floated. The image flickered out as it was replaced by an image of a woman he recognized. The Asian woman he had fought alongside in full helmet. Her mid-eastern Asian Accent and soft voice contrasting with her words, ¡°You are fucking stupid. Did not you listen to briefing?¡± Her call sign had her labeled as Vampire and her wireframe was one of the Fire Ants. Before an argument could break out Brandon cut in. ¡°Enough now. I¡¯m pulling up the terrain details now. Looks like our target is located in a valley with steep hills to the North and south. We should come up from the North where they will not expect us¡­¡± He was cut off b Axeman, ¡°Da you be great tactical mind of your age. However, this is easy op. We go straight in and blow the fuck out of em. Simple, easy, efficient. Be best, da.¡± To punctuate his words Axeman sprung forward accelerating his Titan to nearly top speeds. Straight toward the enemy base. The other Fire Ant piloted by Red sped up after him. ¡®Idiots!¡± Vampire snarled. ¡°I am with you Highlander. Let us do this right>¡± Sighing in frustration Brandon sped up to just under 120 kpH. Unlike, Axman and Red who sped south-east straight at the enemy base, he cut south through a valley that would lead parallel to the targets valley. As they moved he sent a coded transmission to the scout-copter to fly in from the south and send him real time feeds. It took them nearly two hours to get near the base. The low hills had gradually increased into large mounds of stone and dirt, topped in heavily wooded ridges. They valley they had been following was now a dried stream bed with smooth loose stones. As he and Vampire slowed to begin their trek up the hill above the base the copters feed finally came in. Through three different displays the valley came into view. In one feed a zoomed in standard view showed a tiny two runway airbase, with some dozen hangers and another dozen copters on a black tarmac. A three-meter-tall chain link fence surrounded the perimeter; with pairs of soldiers walking patrol. A river moved through the grassy valley a few hundred meters to the east of the camp. Creating a scenic like view, that would soon be marred by the harshness of war. The second screen showed an infrared rendition of the base. Buildings and visible copters were all blue or light green blobs. The odd visible soldier was a yellow orange. The camps barracks glowed a steady yellow and behind some of the hangers two dark orange and red masses loomed. The final view was a passive sonar display. The copter was still too far out for the passive sensor to show much. ¡°Scout 1 to heavy support. Have eyes on target. Holding steady awaiting further orders.¡± Brandon was about to que his mic when he was cut off, ¡°Da be good flyboy. We ca take it from here. Head on back ta base.¡± Brandon wanted to scream at the idiot. What eh hell was he doing? Didn¡¯t he see the two heat signatures that clearly showed there was two active Titans hiding there? ¡°Understood, Scout 1 out.¡± Pushing his machine faster than was safe Brandon maneuvered through the dense trees that lined the rim of the hill. As the two Titans crested the ridge and came over to the inner tree line they paused getting their first personal view of the base. They were still more than a kilometer from the base. Yet, they could clearly see Axeman and Red charging up the valley straight at the base. As they watched the base went into alert. Where a few moments before there had been peaceful sounds of wind through grass and tree. Now a siren blared echoing off the cliff faces. As they watched people began to move like an ant hill that was kicked. ¡°Shit they are going to launch those Aerospace bombers.¡± Brandon snarled. ¡°Na, we got dem. You stay up dar. We got this.¡± Shaking his head Brandon leaned forward rushing down the hill. Axeman ran straight through the fence like it was not even there. His large frame trampled over a pair of Infantry who had taken up firing positions and stupidly stood there guns ablazing. Red followed through the hole and let loose at another set of Infantry on both their right and left. Red-Orange flames shot out twenty meters, Napalm like incendiary leaving only blackened husks behind. Axeman reached the first of the hangers and half leveled the building with one titanic swing of his axe. A few more steps later, he leapt ten meters into the air and came down with a two-handed swing on the roof of the next. A green mission readout flashed on Brandon¡¯s right view. It showed that 4 of the estimated 18 Bombers were out of commission. As red fire burst over a grounded copter and a whole line of men and women running at more, things looked good for the two Jocks. Half a kilometer out Brandon¡¯s fears were proven correct. Axeman was just taking out a line of troops running toward a set of three hangers. Red was finishing up covering the last helicopter pads, and one of the two run ways in sticky flames; while holding a steady fire of machine gun slugs toward the armored camp command, in an impressive display of shooting. Two missiles snaked over the hangers hitting Axeman in the head and upper shoulders. The impacts took him off guard sending him falling back on his back. A squad of soldiers took the opportunity to charge forward on the downed Titan. They reached him as he rolled over on his front. Their weapons were too weak to normally do anything to Titan armor, however they tossed Grenades on the machines back. Red moved to support her downed comrade but was stopped as a rain of missiles hit around her. The Shapes of two titans came into view around the Hanger. A fire Ant rushed forward, and a Slinger sent another set of Medium Range missile from both shoulder mounted MRM=2¡±s toward Red, further backing up the short-range Titan. Highlander tore through the security fence seconds before the grenades sent Axeman sprawling back on his face.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Vampire keep the birds down. Don¡¯t let them get airborne.¡± ¡°Confirmed>¡± As he burst from around a hanger a mere hundred meters from the Slingers rear he watched the enemy fire Ant close to weapons range on the still recovering Axeman. Both flamers spat white hot death on the downed Titan. Instantly screaming came over coms. For an instant before the system cut off the image of Axeman liquid fire melting him from behind showed in all House Nubran¡¯s Jock¡¯s cockpits. On Highlanders display Axeman went from yellow, to orange, then red, and finally black. The titans fusion plant lost containment and in an instant everything with-in 50 meters of the downed Titan was engulfed in a blast that equaled the sun in temperature. Highlander had prepared for the blast a second before it went off. Video feeds had built in filters flash blocking out the worst of the lightshow, that eliminated two Titan Jocks. The Slinger¡¯s Jocks had been too absorbed on his continued onslaught of Red and was blinded by the blast. The jock never saw Highlanders axe coming. But they felt it when the weapons atom sharp edge cut through armor, jock, and titan system alike. He had been careful to aim his attack to avoid the Slingers fusion powerplant and as such had gotten the axe stuck in the now defunct metal coffin. As the slinger fell it ripped the weapon from Highlanders hands. Almost causing him to fall with it. Vampire had followed orders and was now stepping from around the set of three burning hangers. The system noting 6 more bombers destroyed, taking the total to 12 of 18. Seeing the blacked blast zone of Axeman and its collateral damage on both run ways, the enemy barracks and the House Nubran¡¯Due¡¯s Fire Ant. She turned toward the platoon of copters that was even now starting up blades in preparation of takeoff. Red was dazed by the blast. She had been dodging a juking to avoid the missile fire while still trying to prevent being surrounded by enemy Infantry. When the explosion happened she had been staring directly into the center. Combined with the last four missile the Slinger shot hitting her head on she panicked. Explosions rocking her head back, she yanked the eject lever. In milliseconds the emergency system tried to blow the top from the Fire Ant¡¯s spherical roof. But damage had completely slagged the top third including the machine gun. Secondary systems kicked in causing the entry hatch to blow off and drop the Jock out the narrow hole. At the same time The Titan¡¯s legs bunched throwing the metal beast into an airborne leap forward, hopefully to leave the Jock in safety. Red hit the ground going several hundred kilometers an hour. Bones snapped, and her shocked system snapped into blissful darkness. Highlander¡¯s mission details updated, showing all known enemy Titans destroyed. Then a second later a new secondary objective appeared. Retrieve fallen Titan Jocks. Checking he saw that Red¡¯s status had went from the yellow/orange to a brilliant blinking red. Glancing at his now fully active sensor suit, he saw that Only three hangers remained standing. However, both run ways were either destroyed or blocked, so those bombers were not getting off the ground. Then Vampire was even now heading for the last copter landing pads, flamers dripping Hell like a Woman¡¯s Fury. Turning his back on the fallen enemy Titan and his weapon Highlander accelerated to Red¡¯s Emergency Signal. Any Infantry to stupid or to unlucky to be caught in the way was either stomped on, or simply swat out of the way like toy soldiers. Their weapons simply ineffective against his Titans armored skin. One especially stupid soldier attempted to throw a grenade at him, in an attempt to emulate passed successes. The poor fellow popped up from a decent concealing cover and tossed the explosive. Highlander¡¯s sensors picked up the incoming slow-moving munition, then highlighted it in angry red on his Heads Up. With a slight twist at the waist Highlander bat the ball like explosive with a metal forearm. The swing was good! The green pineapple landed near the top of the mostly destroyed wall segment the soldier was using as cover, on inertia it rolled up the slight grade. Tittered on the edge then fell over disappearing behind the wall. A second later Highlander saw a fine mist of blood and body parts fountain up followed by a dull roar a split second later. He never even missed a step in his run. A minute later he approached Red¡¯s sensor beacon. There on the ground she lay. A broken bleeding mass of flesh. His sensors picked up her vitals from the tactical net. She was breathing, and her heart was laboring to beat, but growing fainter. The wreckage of her Fire Ant lay crumpled some 50 meters away. Straddling over the woman¡¯s fallen form, Highlander triggered his Titans single use emergency medical system. A white ball of goo fell from between the 9-meter-tall Titan¡¯s legs. Impacting the woman¡¯s limp form it exploded outward covering her in a white super cold tomb. In less than a second, she was flash frozen in a cryogenically secure coffin. Having done all he could for his fallen ally, Highlander turned his attention back to the battlefield. Vampire was now a mere 30 meters from the copters. Pilots, tech, and soldiers ran across the woman¡¯s field of fire. The six remaining Light helicopters were mere seconds for lift off. Flipping a switch she aimed her weapons at them and spoke. Voice blaring through speakers she shouted, ¡°Surrender, or die!¡± With her weapons trained on them no one expected to get passed the next minute without some form of injury. One by one the helicopter pilots switched off engines and stepped out of their grounded birds arms raised. Seeing their last viable fighting craft surrendering took the fight from the base and in a minute of time what remained of the enemy forces stood in an unarmed mass on the damaged runway. Brandon¡¯s vision went black for an instant. Then he suddenly found himself sitting in a firm unyielding office chair in a briefing room. A large table sat surrounded by mostly empty chairs. To his left a large holo display floated with a blue background and the House Nubran sigil rotating slowly in the center. To his right were more empty chairs and the rooms single door. Across from him dressed in the purple and silver House Nubran uniforms, was both Red and Vampire. Glancing around Axeman was missing. Before anyone could speak the Lord, Knight appeared at the head of the table. Her eternal glower was ever present, however now it looked even darker. As the three Jocks jumped to attention she glared, ¡°At ease. Sit the fuck down¡­ It looks like Congratulations are in order. You lot passed through your first Titan combats with decent results.¡± She waved, and a display appeared before each of the seated jocks. Due to a trick of the holo-display, only the person directly in-front of the display could make out what was being shown, while still allowing the entire room to see the display was there. After Mission Briefing Report. Jock: Brandon Mc¡¯Dew, (aka. Highlander) Mission Status: Complete Points Awarded: 3,714. Point Breakdown Mission¡­ Complete - 1000 points. Titan status... 94% - 235 Points. Titans Eliminated¡­ Ultra-Light x1 ¨C 100 points. Titan Assists¡­ Ultra-Light x1 ¨C 50 Points Aerospace Captured¡­ Ultra-Light x6 ¨C 450 points. Light x6 ¨C 675 points. Aerospace Assists¡­ Ultra-Light x6 ¨C 150 points. Light x 12 ¨C 450 points. Forsworn Taken¡­ Aerospace Pilots x22 ¨C 220 points.
  1. Infantry x11 ¨C 22 Points.
Non-Coms x121 ¨C 181 points. Infantry Killed¡­ Light x181 ¨C 181 points. Brandon looked over the screen before returning his gaze to the Lord Knight. A minute later both of the women had reviewed the results as well. It was Vampire who asked the question they were all thinking, ¡°Sir, where is Axeman?¡± The Lord Knights steely gaze turned even colder, ¡°Dead. We have no use for vatborn waste that can¡¯t even bother to follow simple strategies or failing that even preform a simple eject.¡± Her glower darkened, ¡°Heck there was even a full fourth of you vat-scum that did not even complete this simple mission.¡± She waved a hand at the wall and a listing of the current Jock standings appeared in order by points received. Vampire was ranked 5th, Highlander held 7th and Red was down at 10th. At the bottom of the list just below eight names with less than 1,000 points each was 6 names who were darkened out. In their points column KIA sat glaringly. All three Jocks stared blankly at the one labeled Axeman. ¡°Right you waste of my time Vat-Jocks. You have exactly 8 hours down time. Dismissed. And one more thing Mc¡¯Dew, if you ever waste another expensive Emergency Rescue Pod on a Vatborn, I¡¯ll personally see you flayed and quartered.¡± Before Brandon could respond the room was replaced by black nothingness. A few seconds later he found himself standing back in the quickly draining training pod. It took him a few moments to remember why he should have been in there. From his perspective more than two weeks had passed and it was odd to still be inside the pod. When the fluid drained a quick cleaning solution was sprayed on him and over the interior of the pod. In seconds it dissolved any residues on his skin and evaporated. The box he placed his gear in opened allowing Brandon to retrieve his uniform and weapons before the hatch flowed outward creating stairs. The instant Brandon decanted a wave of fatigue hit him like a sledge hammer wielded by a Titan. He nearly collapsed to the ground. Stumbling forward Brandon half walked, half fell to the white room and the only other place he knew. The one place he could sleep. Have falling on his cabinet, Brandon sighed in exhausted contentment as the walls began to form around him. Seconds after that his bed appeared. With an intense force of will Brandon shoved his weary body toward the cot. His already asleep body only mostly made it. Below the knees he still dangled awkwardly off the edge. However, deep snores clearly told the story that no one cared. Titan Warriors: Chapter Eleven – Round Two Chapter Eleven: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 7, 7215 Brandon awoke, stiff and sore. Bleary eyes glanced around the white room. Slowly he pulled himself upright. With a yawn and stretch, he yelped as he was dumped on the floor. His cot was dissolving into the floor. ¡°Didn¡¯t I fly to the moon? Isn¡¯t this the Titan Training facility? How did I get back here?¡± Brandon¡¯s rhetorical questions mattered little. He already knew the drill and was standing nude when the shower reformed. After a quick shower and breakfast, Brandon¡¯s room began to melt away. Even his cabinet sunk into the floor. Although instead of melting like the nanite structure, it simply sank down until the top was level and undistinguishable from the rest of the floor. As the walls melted down Brandon got an answer to one of his questions. He was still on the lunar base. In his exhausted state, he had found his way back to the first room the Titan Warriors had met in. Across the room numerous other cells were still standing. Some though like his had melted way revealing other Titan Jock cadets. Glancing at the wall Brandon saw a clock. Its sharp purple numerals contrasting against the white wall. He had only 18 minutes until his 8 hours of down time was up. From the glances of the others around him, Brandon guessed they were as unsure as he was. Should they be reporting to their pods? Or should they wait here? Finally, what about the others still in their cells? As another minute passed, Brandon made a decision. He turned on his heel and at a jog left the room. Most of those who had been standing there unsure followed close on his heels. The group began to split as they reached the individual Platoon rooms. Entering his Brandon made it to his pod, with 6 minutes to spare on the wall display. Placing his hand on the pod, he breathed a sigh of relief when it turned green and opened up. Pulling his vest off and unsheathing his weapons he stepped into the tight pod¡¯s interior. Blinking against the sudden bright light of a harsh sun, Brandon winced. It took him several seconds to understand the shift in his world. He was now standing with nearly twenty others on a black tarmac. Well this is disappointing.¡± Lord Knight Nubran said, in a cold emotionless voice. The twenty or so present cadets burst into activity. In seconds, they formed a rough formation and stood at attention. Even as more cadets appeared from nowhere. Lord Knight Nubran shouted at the newcomers,¡± you rixxing lot! Stand where you are! You will all be fined 1 point for every second you were late.¡± As he said that an image flashed in front of Brandon¡¯s face. It was a list of the cadets ranked from highest to lowest. An exact copy of the one he had seen earlier. Now though nearly a third of the listed names had their numbers ticking down. When someone would appear in the growing crowd of latecomers; a name would stop its meteoric decent. A few even dropped below the zero mark. Watching the names drop Brandon cringed in sympathy. However, he was more relieved to see that Axeman and a few other names from the KIA list were listed. Two of them were even in the negative 200¡¯s and dropping now. That at least told him that they had not died in real life. At least not yet¡­ Another two minutes passed then finally Lord Knight Nubran screamed, ¡°Right you rixing lot of vat scrum fall in!¡± In moments, the two companies of cadets were lined up. ¡°So you made it past your first stint in the simulators. Now we will up the length of your stay. This time you will be in for 11 days>¡± Remembering how bad he felt after getting out last time; Brandon had trouble not joining the Jocks around him who fidgeted nervously at the news. The Lord Knight sneered seeing the movements, ¡°You rixing lot, also passed your conventional military training. That means if you can not hack it as a real warrior; then you can join the ground pounders.¡± Not seeing the reaction he wanted he continued, ¡°We will be going over shipboard operations, then give you sorry lot some practice with orbital insertions, and finally some ranked missions. At the end of this segment you will be placed into your permanent units.¡± Having said everything, he needed Lord Knight Nubran just vanished. The cadets stood there still for a full two minutes before finally the black tarmac disappeared. Brandon found himself sitting in a room full of loud buzzing equipment. A harsh thrum vibrated through the metal floor decking beneath his feet. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the much dimmer lighting. He was in what must be a ships engine room. A grease stained jumpsuit that might have once been grey had replaced his Royal purple uniform. Upon his head was a thick construction worker style protective helmet. On his waist was a heavily weighed down tool belt. Odd tools pocking out from what must have been twenty pouches and attached satchels. Suddenly a siren began wailing and red lights began to flash across the room. A voice over the intercom shouted, ¡°Engineering! The reactor is reporting a critical failure! We have 30 seconds before it goes nova!¡± Brandon looked around at the stunned faces. They were looking at him for direction, yet he had no ideas what to do on this one. 30 seconds later, it didn¡¯t matter. That simulation ended with searing pain and a fiery conclusion. Brandon soon lost count of the number of simulations that he went through. It even began to get hard to remember this was all just training, not some kind of hellish torture. He was an engineer in some, a fighter pilot in others, a ship marine in a few, and even bridge crew. The only constant was that each and every scenario started and ended in high stress, high adrenaline action. As suddenly as the insane regiment of shipboard trainings started, they ended. After failing yet another shipboard mission, he found himself in the cramped cockpit of a Titan. ¡°Fucking shit! I will never criticize those damn ship pilots again! That was insane!¡± His musing was cut off by a voice coming over the radio. ¡°Class B insertion will commence in 30seconds ¡­¡± Quickly going through a checklist that was as familiar to him as showering, yet foreign, Brandon Discovered he was in a Bobcat.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The Light class Titan was specifically designed for combat drop scenarios. With large splayed feet, reinforced legs and hips. It was even a class B design, which meant it had a T shaped body. No arms, or head, and the legs attached to where the top and leg of the T met. It was a solid design used exclusively for almost a thousand years. Until the technology allowed for full Class C human chasses. It still provided unparalleled leg and hip support, along with a compact design. Brandon¡¯s fingers flew over the control systems, ensuring he was ready, as his mind wondered. When the radio said 5¡­4¡­3¡­2... 1... Brandon Jumped. The bottom of the transport opened up with both sides falling outward. Less than 50 meters away, the ground sped past too fast to clearly see. As Brandon¡¯s Bobcat slipped out the bay, his forward momentum carried him at a downward angle. Pumping his legs, he started a running motion. The Titans speedometer read an insane 300kpH when he hit the ground with a jolt. Shock absorbers built into the Ankles, knees, and hips of the Titan allowed a seamless transition to a forward running motion. Even with the speedometer dropping to a much slower, but more realistic 200KpH, the terrain sped past in a blur. Smiling wildly at the drops ease, Brandon laughed. He had not realized how stressed he had become at the continuous failures of the ship based training scenarios. With a silent vow, he promised to leave space to the spacers. He would keep his feet on the ground. Or, at least close to it. The cockpit around him shifted suddenly. ¡°Class B insertion will commence in 30seconds ¡­¡± He did not recognize the Titan design he now found himself in. But, a quick scan over internal systems told him the story he needed to know. This design was not going to handle the drop as easy. It wouldn¡¯t be as hard as one of the massive Titans might have, but it would be no cakewalk, either. Brandon completed drop-training scenario after training scenario. Each one growing more challenging in some way or the other. First, it was by getting Titans that were less capable of the drop. Then it was by increasing the drop height. Finally, He was jettisoned out of a hanger on a ship toward a planet far below. His Ultra-Light Titan was not designed for orbital entry and lack the heat dispersing shielding all together. Heck the hastily attached parachute was barely big enough to support his weight. He survived the trip though. His Titan would not be combat ready unfortunately. Both legs were shattered, and his entire left arm had burnt up in reentry. But as paratroopers have said for years, ¡°Any jump you can walk away from, is a good jump.¡± Finally, Brandon found himself standing in a Titan Bay. Unlike the last time this one was a full bay, not one created from a mobile FOB. The 20 bays around him each held Titans. Paint fresh, armor shined, and weapons polished to dangerous brilliance. Around him stood enough massed firepower to eliminate the entire military of most countries from the time of his simulation. Glancing around he nodded. The Titan Company seemed to be well balanced for a Light company. It was composed of 8 Exicuters, 6 Tomahawks, 3 Squirrels, 2 Thompers, and One Red Hawk. House Nubran owns the Exicutor design. Cheap to make and maintain they formed nearly a third of the Houses Titan forces. The body of the ugly little Titan resembled an upside down egg, with two long strut like legs attaching on the outside just below half way up the body. Each leg had a reverse facing knee joint and a spread three-toed foot that made the entire leg look like a chicken¡¯s. With decent armor for its weight, two heavy machine guns and a rack of three medium range missiles, the design was well geared. Weighing in at 25 tons, the machine was a decent light Titan, if extremely ugly and troublesome to pilot. The Tomahawk design is another House Nubran owned design. Taking up another full third of the House¡¯s total Titan tonnage, it is the main workhorse for the House. A standard class C design and weighing in at 25 tons it is more versatile than the Exicutor design. With two 50 cal machine guns, one rack of three MRMs, and a rack of two Long Range Missiles the design is mostly intended as a skirmisher, only moving in close when all heavily armored targets have been blown into submission. Squirrels are a Light C class Titan design. Being Freesource, they are found all over the galaxy. Lightly armored and equipped with only a Small Laser the design did not offer much bite. However, they could run circles around most other designs, with a tops speed nearing 300kpH. Thompers were the reverse of the Squirrels. A 25-ton class B design they topped out at a mere 70kpH. What they lacked in speed they made up for in armor though. Sporting an extremely impressive amount. However, their damage output was lacking as well making them unfavorable by most Titan Commanders. Brandon eyed the single Ultra-Light Guass Rifle jutting out of the Titan¡¯s T shaped torso. They were the definition of a vanguard, able to absorb anything in its weight class with ease. Finally, the Red Hawk. Another House Nubran unique design. The Titan weighed in at 25 tons and had the familiar class B shape. It was a scout Titan with a basic sensor Suite equal to the one he had used with the Apache. Equipped with an Ultra-Light Guass Rifle and a Small Laser it could dish out a decent punch. His Ruminations only took a minute or so, yet no one else had appeared in the Bay. Not even the work crews that a Titan needed to keep operational. With a Shrug Brandon approached the row of Tomahawks. If he had to choose and he was to assume this would be a full unit, then this was his optimal choice. The Red Hawk was a close second. However, that scout design was likely going to be needed as it was designed and a leader shouldn¡¯t be running off to scout alone. Brandon climbed up into the cockpit and began the system checks. Seconds after his electronics came up, a notification flashed on the front view screen. Choose your Pack and Jocks.
  1. Highlander Tomahawk
  2. ???
  3. ???
  4. ???
Two more screens appeared, one on each side of the main view. The right had a list of Call signs. The left was a list of Titans. The Titan list matched what he saw in the bay. He could drag and drop a name into each slot then a Titan next to it. When he selected a Jock, however the Jocks Status came up. Most of it wasn¡¯t Important. He didn¡¯t need to know these people¡¯s names, or ages¡­ well everyone was 18 it seemed. ¡°Guess that is the age they make us at.¡± Brando mused as he glanced over a list of skills. He stopped a second later and made his first choice. Vampire was on the list. To confirm he looked at her bio. Sure enough, the feisty Asian woman¡¯s mug shot looked back at him. Glancing at her skills, he smiled. ¡°Damn! She knows four different types of martial arts! No wonder she can fight.¡± She was also skilled at sensors, for both land and air. So he pulled her over and selected the Red Hawk as hers. ¡°Well if we are going to be the scout group then let¡¯s do it right.¡± He began to browse through the list of Jocks, searching for ones that had skills in either Light Titan Piloting, or Energy weapons. He opened up one labeled Ghost and saw the tall blond Slovakian woman. His smile grew as she had both Light Titan Piloting 1 and Energy weapons 1. He selected her and chose a Squirrel for her. His last choice wasn¡¯t so easy. He couldn¡¯t find anyone with either skill after going through the whole list. On his second visit, he finally settled on a Jock with the call sign Nova. He was one of the only two candidates with any Titan piloting skills at all. His was Heavy 2. The other candidate had Heavy 1. Choose your Pack and Jocks.
  1. Highlander Tomahawk
  2. Vampire Red Hawk
  3. Ghost Squirrel
  4. Nova Squirrel
Confirming his selection, a new screen appeared having him select two substitute Jocks and two alternative Titans. He quickly selected two Tomahawks as the alternative Titans and after a minute of debating, he made his selection for his Jocks. Starting unit assignment¡­ Marvel has first selection¡­ Selection Made. Highlander has second selection¡­ Vampire and Red Hawk selected. Pluto has third selection¡­ selection made. CaptainP has fourth selection¡­ First Jock taken¡­ selection made. Starslinger has fifth selection¡­ selection made. As the first round of drafts finished five Jocks appeared in the bay. Brandon recognized Vampire in the group. They all looked around for a moment then began to split apart. Vampire came over to his row of Titan bays, and climbed into the Red Hawk that had appeared there. The process started over again. This time there were more messages saying choices had already been made. To his surprise, though Brandon got both Ghost and the Squirrel he wanted for her. ¡°Highlander? What¡¯s going on?¡± Vampire¡¯s voice came over the radio. Her Titan and image appearing on his left console. A second passed then her callsign changed to ¡®Fireball.¡¯ Good to see you again¡­ Fireball? ¡°It is like the draft. Seems we are selecting a full platoon of Titans and Jocks.¡± She nodded, ¡°I like fire and this name suits me better.¡± Brandon noted she didn¡¯t say hi or anything, but left it alone. The next five Jocks appeared in the hanger bay and in similar fashion; they looked around then split apart. A minute later Ghost¡¯s icon came online. ¡°Dat you, American?¡± Brandon smiled, ¡°yes it is.¡± Ghost smiled back, ¡°Good. Now why da fuck am I in a Rixing Squirrel?¡± Their banter continued as the fourth round of selections went on. Brandon had to take his second substitute Jock but got the Squirrel. A minute later the last five Jocks appeared and split apart. Once Xerkal came online, Brandon began his startup sequence; the reactor began to warm up, engines vibrated to life, and fluid started filling the cockpit. Titan Warriors-Chapter12 First Defense Chapter Twelve: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 16, 7215 With full power and an active Titan in his control, Highlander smiled. Ghost voiced mirrored his thoughts, ¡°I like having dis much power between my legs!¡± The large hangar doors at the end of the bay began to swing open, as a voice came over the radio, ¡°521st Titan Company, command has ordered the base on full Alert! Your orders are as follows¡­¡± Mission Details Defense Beta, Sector 187, Pyillos System, Pyillos III, New Tarvanna City Temperate Grassland, Forest. 5,000 Clicks Standard Light Titan Company. Estimated 550 tons. Assorted Armor Battalion x4 Assorted Aerospace Battalion Power Infantry Battalion x5 Assault Infantry Battalion x 10 Heavy Infantry Battalion x 15 Light Infantry Battalion x 25 Metropolis of New Tarvanna New Tarvanna Emergency Responders New Tarvanna Militia Infantry Weight: 4,000 Tons Power Infantry ¨C Battalion x2 Assault Infantry ¨C Battalion x5 Heavy Infantry ¨C Battalion x5 Light Infantry ¨C Battalion x10 Ultra-Light: 2500 Tons MR-1970 Tomcat - Battalion x5 Light: 8500 Tons MR-2100 Bobcat Humvee - Battalion x3 MR-400 Condor - Battalion x2The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Marine Weight: 1,000 Tons National Guard Gunboat x10 Light: 500 tons Exicutor x8 Tomahawk x6 Squirrel x3 Thomper x2 Red Hawk x1 ¡°Fuck!¡± Ghost spat. ¡°Dat is a lot of manpower!¡± Highlander could only agree with her. A single Infantry battalion held 1,000 men and women; that meant counting only the Light Infantry there was 25,000 hostile soldiers out there. Breathing heavily Fireball almost gushed, ¡°More for me to kill!¡± Yeah¡­ Highlander was pretty sure she was insane, but right now, it was the right type of crazy. A map of the city came up on Highlander¡¯s HUD. New Tarvanna was built in a roughly square shape almost 50km per massive side. Splitting the city into North and Souths sides was a river. Roughly, one-half the city sat on both sides with three large bridges crossing the massive river. The North side of the city was bordered by thick woodlands. The south had Rolling fields of farms. The New Tarvanna military base sat on the South East corner of the city and had a 30-meter tall durracrete wall surrounding it. Heavy Laser Turret towers jutted up at regular intervals. New Tarvanna was built like any modern city in the war-torn universe; with massive emergency bunkers spread evenly across the city. The block wide structures would take a direct hit from orbit or battalion of Assault Titans to crack in any reasonable amount of time. Designed to hold a million people for an extended siege, they were the universes ultimate civilian protection. The bases command line had a split second of static before the voice returned, ¡°Titan Jocks we are dividing up the city into four quadrants. First Platoon you have the Northeast, third Platoon you have the Northwest, fourth Platoon you have the Southeast, fifth Platoon you have the Southwest, and second Platoon is assigned as quick response. We are unsure where the enemy will be coming from, so stay alert. Get to your designated areas and report any enemy contact.¡± Highlandr half shouted, ¡°You heard our orders let¡¯s get to it!¡± Placing action to words, he sent the final commands to the Bay¡¯s AI, having the scaffolding pull away from his Titan. Exiting the bay Highlander used his map and headed for the closest gate out of the base. He was marching down a street when a radio crackled over his coms. Barely understandable from the large amount of static interference, the garbled words took him a second to parse. ¡°Highlander, please come in.¡¯ Highlandr directed a bit of mental attention to his transmitter and refined the signal. ¡°Highlander here. Go ahead.¡± The voice came in clear now and he could tell it was a young female voice, ¡°Sir, Junior Knight Roso reporting in. I am with the 21st New Tarvanna Mechanized Infantry. We have been placed under your direct command sir.¡± As she announced the info, a new line appeared on his Unit roster.
  1. Highlander
  2. Fireball
  3. Ghost
  4. Xerkal
  5. 21st New Tarvanna Mechanical Infantry
He nodded after seeing a circle appear around a fifth blue icon on his map¡¯s HUD. It looked like the unit was directly in front of him waiting at the gate. Zooming in on the map the single large blip split, and split and split, until finally hundreds of dots sat taking up most of his map. Eyes squinting in confusion Highlander examined the screen, and then zoomed out a bit. A minute later, his unit rounded the last corner, bringing the gate into view a half kilometer away. To the left of it on the parade grounds, used for just this purpose sat the 21st. Highlander¡¯s confusion cleared immediately. The 21st was a mixed unit; composed of two full battalions of MR-400 Condors, a full battalion of Light Infantry, and half a battalion of Heavy Infantry. The condors were a fast lightly armored hover vehicle. Primarily used as a troop transport in the same way that the Humvee¡¯s of the 22nd century were. They were crewed with one driver and had room for 3 passengers and a gunner on a machine gun turret. The craft was more lightly armored than the modern wheeled version, but had a top speed of nearly 250 kpH. This actually made it where his Tomahawk was the slowest unit in his command. Seeing that the infantry were formed up in formation Highlander ordered, ¡°Load up and fall in line.¡± Like a well-oiled machine, the unit was loaded and moving out as the Titans filed passed a minute later. 15 minutes later and they were coming to a halt in the center of a massive bridge. Spanning the massive rivers nearly 2-kilometer width the bridge was located roughly dead center in the massive city. They stopped at a nearly invisible crease denoting one of the numerous sections that could be raised for Marine units or civilian shipping to transverse the blue-green waters that rushed underneath. Zooming out on his map Highlander could see the approximate location of the other Defending units, including the New Tarvanna militia and Quick Response teams. Each type of unit was color coded for easy recognition. Seeing the other Titan Packs were nearing their areas Highlander made his action plan. If they just stood there, they would grow lax and then react slowly when something did happen. ¡°Junior Knight Roso, I want you to divide up your unit into five detachments. Then assign one detachment to each of my Titans. I¡¯ll be sending them out on moving patrols.¡± A second later the radio chirped, ¡°Understood sir. Creating detachments now.¡± Highlander flipped over to the Jocks only channel with a mental command, ¡°I want each of you to split up and take a section of the city. Get out there and start making counter clockwise rotations. Do not get repetitive and use the same roads. Try to stay evenly spaced apart too. We have a speed edge so, let¡¯s use it here folks. I¡¯ll be staying in the center for now. In two hours, we will rotate the central position. Make it happen Jocks!¡± Titan Warriors - Chapter 12.1 Defending the City There was several confirmations and then they split up each heading in a different direction. As ordered, the 21st divided up and fell into line following behind. The next six hours was a tedious wait for an enemy to decide when they wanted to act. The sun was now directly overhead, making the reinforced streets shimmer with heat waves. Highlander was just turning down a side street aiming for one of the bridges when an alarm sounded followed a second later by coms. ¡°All House Nubran units this is command, the enemy has been spotted! Repeat the enemy has been spotted! Collapse toward the hostile forces and engage at will!¡± Flipping through a few views of his map Highlander finally found the red column of troops. They were marching up the largest street leading into New Tarvanna. If they followed the street the whole way, then in about 30 minutes they would reach the Southeast section of the city. Right next to the base. ¡°That makes no fucking sense,¡± highlander mused not keying in his mic. Fireball did not have the same composure, ¡°Why the every loving hell are they marching out in the fucking open? If they are aiming for the base, giving us this long to respond is dumber than a¡­ Damn this may just be the dumbest thing I have seen¡­¡± Highlander fully agreed but he cut into the chat before it devolved more, ¡°Right folks. Gather on the central bridge.¡± 10 minutes later the Map on Highlanders HUD showed a massive buildup of allied forces in the bases defense ring. It looked like most unit commanders wanted to let the attackers grind themselves against the defenses. On his tactical feed the large mass that was the enemy were only 15 minutes out now. Zooming back in to a more local view Highlander saw his group moving fast East out of the city. A minute ago the cities automated shields had burned into life. The shields dark orange glow looking like a half a pumpkin had formed to block the city from view. Shields like this is what had created the need for advanced land combat. The shield could stand against continued orbital bombardments as long as there was enough reactor fuel. Ballistic missiles, orbital strikes, and even nuclear and fusion bombs would do nothing to such a defense. Even highflying aerospace units would slam explosively against it. The only recourse for an attacking force was to get ground units inside the protective barrier, and once there destroy the shield generators. Now though Highlander¡¯s unit had left the barrier and was reliant upon Fireball¡¯s sensors for an early warning. Turning he moved off the road in massive multi-meter eating steps. Behind him, his unit followed. Moving over the flat grasslands Highlander¡¯s Tomahawk crunched grass, scrub bush, and small rock outcroppings under massive feet. The Hovercraft of the 21st however had to move a bit more carefully. Still at their current speed, they had plenty of time to react and then catch up if drawn out of formation. Highlander frowned, his Tomahawk while the unit¡¯s most powerful asset was also slowing the unit down. In the distance the flashing of weapons and explosions suddenly lit up the sky. ¡°Looks like we are missing da party.¡± Ghost said, her image flowing. ¡°Just hold the course. Fireball move forward and get me a better view of the enemy lines. Do not engage though. Roso, send a platoon with her for support.¡± ¡°Yes sir,¡± Junior Knight Roso said. Fireball¡¯s Red Hawk just sped up and quickly passed by, seconds later a group of the hovercraft detached and followed the human looking Titan. Using his optics Highlander zoomed in and could see the dark shapes of the enemy lines as they spread out to begin sieging the bases walls. Flipping his right side screen over to a copy of Fireball¡¯s view, he smiled. Her improved sensors and closer distance showed a highly improved viewpoint. Based on what he saw Highlander nudged his Tomahawk on a slightly more East by south east direction. His aim was at a set of LRM craft that was hanging near the rear of the enemy flank. From their location, they were free to fire round after round of their missiles and remain out of range from the bases defenders. Fireball seeing the unit¡¯s change of direction adjusted her course accordingly. 10 kilometers out, they were noticed. Two platoons of infantry and a pair of Heavy attack helicopters that Highlandr couldn¡¯t easily recognize turned toward them. Checking the locations of the enemies Titan assets and smiling to see they were all still focused on the base, at least for the moment he issued his commands. With one eye watching where he was running, he held his other on the range meter of his targeting bracket for the LRM¡¯s. Keeping the reticule on the lead helicopter, he said, ¡°Roso, as soon as those Copters are down you are to move forward. Swarm those LRM¡¯s and try to capture them, destroy them if not. Titans clear the pathway for them and stay alert. The moment his range counter reached zero the red reticules went green and he pulled the mental trigger. A Long Range Missile flew from over his head. Blue with contrails leaving a sullen cloud of exhaust in the blue sky. The targeted Helicopter did not even try to juke away. In an act of supreme idiocy, it flew head on into the missile. An impressive explosion flashed and flaming chunks of the attack helicopter rain through the clear sky. Highlander immediately shifted his brackets over to the second helicopter. His brackets snapped on target and lit green but a red circle wrapped around it for a few seconds as the Missile rack reloaded. The instant it disappeared he pulled the trigger. HIYA!¡± Fireball screamed as her Red Hawk burst forward trailing behind the missile. Hovercraft shot past her in a beeline for the LRM carriers. The enemy vehicles began to spin their turrets toward Highlanders troops but with a quick check at his range meter, he knew they were too slow. Already he was moving to close for the long-range weapons to track correctly, much less the faster elements of his unit. Seconds later flaming chunks of metal and plaststeel crashed into the ground a few tens of meters from the 21st who was now swarming out of their hovercraft like an angry anthill. The eight LRM craft tried to pull deeper into the enemy units, but the Heavy Infantry of the 21st nearly drove their Condor¡¯s down the much larger vehicles throats. Like a pack of wolves hunting a bear, the small Condors circled around the heavy treaded LRM carriers. Here and there, a Condor would stop and disgorge their Infantry who would then proceed to draw even closer on the fleeing craft. Here and there small groups of the two hostile Infantry platoons would try to interpose or otherwise engage the 21st. On those occasions, Highlander watched as either one of the two Squirrels or fireball would dash in, stepping over allied units and into the enemy lines like 25-ton wrecking balls¡­ Wrecking balls with machine guns. Turning his attention back to the larger battle Highlander zoomed out a little on his map and keyed it in with an overlay of Fireball¡¯s Red Hawk¡¯s sensors. A few of the nearby House Zing¡¯Fe units had begun to turn back away from the embattled base and toward their location. However, it looked like a random assortment of the closest units and nothing organized. Huh, I think the AI for this simulation is set to stupid¡­ Maybe I can take advantage of that.¡± Highlander mused to himself. Returning his gaze upon the 21st and his Titans, he saw the last of the LRM craft go up, exploding like an egg in a microwave. The Infantry unable to open it up had placed high yield explosive charges on the craft¡¯s vulnerable underside.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. With a quick tally, Highlander counted four of the LRm craft captured and the other half platoon destroyed or damaged enough to knock them from the fight. In the process, he had lost nearly 30 soldiers, either killed or injured and likewise out of the battle. Luckily, though his Condors were fine and of course, his Titans all looked green. ¡°Roso load your injured into those LRM¡¯s and have them pull back to the roadway. Everyone else follow me. Over the course of the next hour, Highlander led his unit on a series of Lightening raids. They would circle the outskirts of the battle and the bases walls, targeting any unit that ventured to far from the massed enemy. When an asserted effort was directed at them, they would use their high speeds to withdraw, only to come back at a different angle of attack. This kept his unit from suffering large numbers of casualties or damage. When the enemy finally breached the bases walls and began to swarm into the base proper, he had only lost a tenth of his Infantry assets, both in manpower and Condors. While all four of his units Titans were still green across the board. On the other hand, he had collected a full two baker¡¯s dozen of assorted craft. They were captured and being held by the 21st, and now stood waiting up North. Boss we going to get in dar, now? Or we going to stay out here playing tag, wit da babies? I want to add one of dose Titan kill patches to my baby here. You know da ones? The ones those flyboys always add when they freag anenemy plane¡­¡± Ghost¡¯s quirked smile added more joke to her lighthearted comment. Highlander chuckled and keyed his mic,¡± I know the ones, but I think we are best used by continuing to help out here. You will have to wait for your first kill patch. Plus I don¡¯t think simulated kills count.¡± Fireball broke in, ¡°I have personally led 112 Infantry, 2 Light copters and a Condor into the afterlife. I think I lead the kill counts. It is only natural of course that I am the first to kill a Titan.¡± Highlander let the good-natured ribbing continue for a little while. All the while, his eyes were focused on the enlarged battlefield map. ¡°Come on¡­ Come on¡­ I know you want to¡­ Just go ahead and do it¡­¡± The mass of red blots on his map began to shift and compact. Then in an instant like an hourglass being tipped on end they began to rush as a horde through the broken wall. Although out of range of the wall himself, the relatively small opening was making a squeeze spot for the attackers. A wise enemy commander would see the folly of trying to push all his troops into such a tight spot. However, this commander had already proven to not be smart at all. So pushing they were. On the other side of the wall, Highlandr saw the tidal wave of red being mowed down by House Nubran loyal troops. However, every minute that passed more and more came through. Then slowly the blue dots began to either disappear or be pushed back; allowing room for more enemy troops inside the base. The price in blood that the enemy was paying to gain that small advantage was unsustainable. Even from the distance that Highlander¡¯s unit stood, he could see the tactic was doomed to fail. Sure enough in 10 minutes the enemies push halted inside the base. After another 5 they began to be pushed back toward the entry point. Highlander had been waiting for that moment. With a command, he sent his entire unit into the rear of the enemy force. With the bases defenders squeezing them through the choke point and his unit urging them forward from the rear; the battle didn¡¯t last much longer. In less than half, an hour the scenario ended with a decisive victory for the defenders. After Mission Briefing Report. Jock: Brandon McDew, (aka. Highlander) Mission Status: Complete Points Awarded 7,632. Point Breakdown Mission¡­ Complete ¨C 2000 points. Titan status... 90% - 225 Points. Aerospace Eliminated ¡­ Ultra-Light x12 ¨C 600 points. Light x6 ¨C 450 points. Medium x1 ¨C 100 points Aerospace Assists¡­ Ultra-Light x7 ¨C 175 points. Light x 11 ¨C 142.5 points Armor Eliminated¡­ Ultra-Light x2 ¨C 100 points. Light x7 ¨C 525 points. Armor Captured¡­ Ultra-Light 18¨C 1350 points. Light x7 ¨C 787.5 points. Armor Assists¡­ Ultra-Light x4 ¨C 100 points. Light x 21 ¨C 787.5 points. Forsworn Taken¡­ Powered Infantry x3 ¨C 12points.
  1. Infantry x46 ¨C 138 points.
  2. Infantry x173 ¨C 346 Points.
Infantry Killed¡­ Powered x 4 - 8 points. Heavy x 82 ¨C 123 points. Light x213 ¨C 213 points. Objective Base Damages - -276 points. Infrastructure Damages - -274 points. The screen appeared for thirty seconds on Highlanders view screen after the battle completed. Without a comparison to the others rankings though he was not sure if he had done good or bad. Regardless the simulation did not give him much time to consider. Soon enough Brandon found himself in the familiar Titan bay with the exact same Titans. Going to his Tomahawk Brandon climbed in. The following events were almost identical to the previous events. A series of Titan and Jock selections were made. This time however, he did not know any of the Jocks on the roster. However, he attempted to make his placements with the same criteria as before. He paired the best Jocks to their preferred Titans, or at least the ones with the most weapons in common. After his new team was selected, the mission started in exactly the same way as before. ¡°This can¡¯t be an exact replay.¡± Highlander mused to himself after linking up with Lt. Roso for the second time. Counting on a change of some kind Highlander issued the same orders as last time. As his unit spread out to start its¡¯ circular patrol around the city, Highlander watched the majority of the blue allied dots move toward the base. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be doing the same? Boss?¡± The jock¡¯s image showed a blonde haired man that would have been a perfect fit for any old western movie set. His square jaw and southern twang fit the moniker perfectly. Glancing at his call sign Highlandr almost couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Rein in your horses there Cowboy bebop. This may seem like the same simulation as last time. But, I have never seen a repeated sim. Have you?¡± Cowboy Bebop chewed on his lower lip then shook his head, ¡°Na man. But, I hate to be sitting back here when all the fun shit is going on over there.¡± Putting on his best good old boy tone Highlander smiled, ¡°Lets just say for the one chance of a snow ball in hell. What happens if they do attack from somewhere else?¡± Cowboy frowned, ¡°Then a lot of these simulated people die. ¡°And?¡± A new image of a dark skinned man with a Mohawk and close cut beard came on. His call sign was Buzzsaw and he was Highlanders first choice this round. One of only two Jocks with any Titan piloting skills at all. ¡°Yo, Dumb fuck white boy! Did you not lose point¡¯s last round for damages done? Cause I sure as hell did. Now you have your fucking orders follow them!¡± Cowboys face twisted in rage, but before he could say anything Highlander overrode the coms with his command override. That¡¯s enough. You all have your orders. I expect you to follow them and keep radio silence until contact is made.¡± 5 hours 21 minutes and 1 seconds later Highlander was proven correct. A Civilian Aerospace plane happened to be flying in-bound toward the city¡¯s spaceport when it went up like a firework just two kilometers north of the city. Seconds later commands came down. City militia was reporting contact with the hostile forces over the entire northern border of the city. The enemy had used the heavy woods to move in close before becoming discovered. Highlander wasn¡¯t able to keep his unit as intact this time. With most of the House Nubran, forces located at the southern portion of the city Highlander had to play at delaying tactics until they could approach. This mostly meant sacrificing men and women in a slow withdraw, while trying to bleed the enemy for every step it took into the city. The only saving grace was the fact that the simulated enemy commander was not any more intelligent than the first commander. It used the exact same one plan. Move forward down the path of easiest access. When the last attacker was destroyed, the scenario finally ended. Highlanders Tomahawk had lost one leg, was showing red on every armor read out, and was showing empty on his remaining missile launchers. He was even close to running out of machine gun ammo for his surviving weapon at the end. However, he survived. Cowboy and Buzzsaw both had not. When the points were tallied, he gain a mere 164 points, with most of the points going to the negatives for loss of civilian life and infrastructure. However if he had not racked up a totally remarkable kill count he was sure that he would have been like what must have been most in this simulation and lost points. Again, however he was not given much time to dwell on the matter. Again, he appeared in the same exact Titan Bay as the last two times with the same Titan load outs. The scenario repeated another 8 times each time though the enemy commander was growing smarter and used a wider range of tactics. Finally, on the last scenario the enemy commander waited nearly three full days before, it used a diversion force to assault the city from the woods while his Titans came up from under the river once the defender force was deployed afield. This resulted in the defenders being pinched by two forces in the city they were supposed to be protecting. Highlander did not even see the shot that killed him that time. Instead he heard the warning siren of a missile and hit the eject button a second too late. Red flames and pain seared his mind for countless ages. When finally everything went black, Highlander lost consciousness. Falling into the black sleep of the dead. Titan Warriors: Chapter 13 - Forming a Pack Chapter Thirteen: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 19, 7215 Brandon awoke still in the Training Pod. The now familiar pinching in his man parts and the probe up his ass was a dead giveaway, even if the black void around him told him nothing else. A minute after he began to move the pod detected his awoken status and played a recorded video. Lord Knight Andrew Nubran¡¯s creased uncaring face appeared in the front of Brandon. ¡°Well that is it for basic training you Rixxing Lot. Now its time for you to be assigned to units and the real work will begin. Knights you have been ranked in order of your performance and will be allowed to choose your teams in order of rank. No that is not fair. Yes that does mean the best Knight will get to choose the best team. Yes it does mean that you rixers that can¡¯t deal will die.¡± The cold man¡¯s face showed a hint of a smile for a second as he let that hang in the air, ¡°There are 20 units to be formed from you lot. Each Knight will have exactly 6 hours apiece to review the remaining Jocks and Available Titans. At the end of that time, if they have not made their full selection they will forfeit the right to choose a platoon and will be demoted to Sub-Knight. Any Jock not assigned to a unit in 5 days will be reassigned or executed. Depending on how I feel that day.¡± Without a word, the screen went blank leaving Brandon in complete blackness again. Nearly panicking Brandon gasped past the tube in his throat, ¡°Oh fuck! How long was I out?¡± The pod did not light up or respond. With growing concern, Brandon initiated the ejection procedure. Still on wobbly legs, Brandon made it back to the White room in less than 10 minutes. Most of the room¡¯s cells were up showing that the Jocks who stayed in them were already present. Returning to his cell Brandon waited the tense minute for the wall to form around him. ¡°Time.¡± He commanded. A display appeared on the white wall. May 19 7215: 14:18 Brandon stared at the glowing numbers as if they would give him answers. After the digits flipped over, he shook himself from his bafflement. ¡°Chair, desk, interface.¡± He commanded the room. Thirty seconds later the furniture formed from the white flowing nanites. Sitting down he tapped on the interfaces display and growled. Knight Rankings Week 4. Selection Begins: May 19 7215: 00:00
  1. Eldritch
  2. Starslinger
  3. Highlander
  4. Pluto
  5. Solarice
  6. Marvel
  7. Cyclopes
  8. Boxxy
  9. Arimmel
  10. Captain DD
  11. Ice Queen
  12. Scarlett
  13. Gunslinger
  14. Goose
  15. Doorman
  16. B
  17. Goblin
  18. Misty
  19. Red Mist
  20. Kickass
Glancing over the listt the first thing he noticed was out of the 20 Platoon leaders, he was ranked third. The next thing he discovered was that the selection process started at zero hundred on the 19th. That meant it was already two hours into his selection period. Not wasting time on dwelling over broken eggs, he set to the task of searching through the roster.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. With a few flicks of the screen, Brandon pulled up the complete rankings in order of accumulated points. To his horror, nearly a quarter of the 80 Jocks had points marked in the negatives. That meant that during the ranked qualifying scenarios they failed to defend the city and the civilians. Or, perhaps they simply had bad Commanders who got them killed early on in the fights. Regardless, the future for these men and women did not look good. Doing some quick math Brandon discovered there was 52 remaining Jocks in the roster and he had roughly 4 hours to choose his team. That gave him about 4 minutes to browse through each cadet¡¯s report. Then he would have a couple extra minutes to finalize his team. Hunching over closer to the screen he set to work. with about 10 minutes remaining in his alloted time, Brandon sighed and closed out the last roster and field report. The files were erringly extensive. Considering that these people had technically only been alive for a few weeks the data contained inside was immense. The reports not only had current records including video replays captured during the simulations, full skill read outs, stat allotments, and debt analysis, they even contained a brief summary of the Earth simulation the brain was exposed to. This brief overview gave a personality profile. Family history, a brief life recap, and highlighted key moments. Brandon was unsure if he should laugh or cry when the last Jocks Earth simulation highlight listed him as graduating high school and being drafted into the armed forces. The date stamp on the record was less than a month before the end of the kid¡¯s simulated life. Unsurprisingly he had a very limited set of skills and was doing very poorly in the training thus far. Trying not to dwell on the kid¡¯s likely outcome, he started his selection process. His first choice was going to be Fireball but one of the two previous Pack Leaders had apparently taken her. Instead he selected Natalia Osvlik aka Ghost. He had the fortune of getting her on both the first and sixth run of the simulation. Both times, she had handled herself exceptionally. Plus the Blondie woman was someone he knew even if just a little. To fill out his third slot he selected Mama Pulrivi aka Buzzsaw. The man was a raciest ass but he could pilot a Titan like a madman. Brandon just hoped the man¡¯s abrasive personality and disdain for anyone not darker than milk chocolate wouldn¡¯t affect his overall battlefield performance; after all, you do not have to like someone to know they will watch your back when the shit goes sideways. Brandon¡¯s last selection was a gem that he had not had the pleasure of ever meeting in the simulations. Lorena Acosta aka Valkyrie was a Brazilian native before World War II made the nation mostly a glowing crater. She was skilled in Light Titan piloting, Ballistic weapons, and had even managed to earn her Aerospace pilot credentials during the training simulations. Glancing up at the time Brandon saw he had 4 minutes left in his selection window. With one last quick scan through his team, he confirmed his selection. As his new team¡¯s names vanished from the list of available Jocks, followed a second later by a notice stating his unit assignment; Brandon Sighed. Leaning back into his chair, Brandon felt the overpowering wave of exhaustion hit him again. Then a new screen appeared upon the interface causing him to sit bolt upright. ¡°Titan Requisition For Charley Team¡± sat bold at the top of the screen. Below it was a list of currently available Titans. Attached to each machine was a surprisingly detailed status sheet. Each Titan had make, model, production date, and an annoying long detailed history of the Titan¡¯s history. Glancing at the time Brandon only had two minutes to make his selection. Fortunately, most of the Titans were the same general designs. First he organized the list by tonnage and then by Design, and finally by production date. Moving down the list, he groaned, out of the over 200 Titans listed only 5 were not Ultra-light chassis, and those 5 were all Executer. It seemed the Lord Knight did not want to give anything special to the Vat born Jocks. Looking at the options he had Brandon settled on the least beat up Executer, a brand new Fire Ant, a Squirrel that had just been purchased from out of system, and an Apache slated to be walking off the line in 12 hours. In all this gave his unit mostly new Titans, with the exception of the Executer, which he was going to claim. That beast had seen two previous Titan Jocks Both of whom were now listed as KIA, leaving Brandon with a pit of worry in his stomach. Selection made he hit confirm and sent the request seconds before his turn ended. With baited breath, Brandon waited watching the clock. 3 minutes after the hour, Brandon got a notification approving the Titan assignments he requested. He glanced over the final assignment. Charley Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Jock Trainning Battalion. Pack Assignments. Knight Brandon McDew ¡°Highlander¡± ¨C Executer PL-RN-189Q564SL Jr Knight Natalia Osvlik ¡°Ghost¡± ¨C Squirrel UVS-008792438651 Jr Knight Mama Pulrivi ¡°Buzzsaw¡± ¨C Apache PL-AP-002B5879 Jr Knight Lorena Acosta ¡°Valkyrie¡± ¨C Fireant UNS003489751628 With a massive exhale, he let out the breath he had not realized he was holding. Leaning forward Brandon put his head on the desk in front of him. The cool faux metal of the nanite desk felt amazing on his pounding headache. After a couple minuts of justt sitting there, Brandon sat up. ¡°Bed,¡± he ordered. A mere two minutes later he had stripped and lay on his bed to get some much needed rest. Titan Warriors: House Nubran Military Ranks Common Rank Structure for Pyillous Star System Rank: Rank Name (US Army Equivelent) E1: Dreg (Private) Base Pay: 100/Month E2: Dreg (Private) Base Pay: 120/Month E3: Cotter (Private First Class) Base Pay 150/Month E4: Socman (Corperal) Base Pay: 170/Month E5: First Socman (Sargeant) Base Pay: 200/Month Leads: Squad E6: Master Socman (Staff Sargeant) Base Pay 220/ MonthUnauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. E7: Yoman (Sargeant First Class) Base Pay: 250 / Month Leads: Platoon E8: Franklin (Master Sargeant) Base Pay: 270/ Month E9: Squire (First Sargeant) Base Pay: 300/ Month Leads: Company E10: First Squire (Sargeant Major) Base Pay: 350/Month O1: Junior Knight, (2nd Lieutenant) Base Pay: 250/month Leads: Platoon O2: Knight, (1st Lieutenant) Base Pay: 300/Month O3: Master Knight, (Captain) Base Pay: 350/Month Leads: Company O4:Knight Commander, (Major) Base Pay: 400/Month O5: Knight Captain, (Lt Colonel) Base Pay: 450/Month Leads: Battalion O6:Lord Knight, (Colonel) Base Pay:500/Month Leads: Brigade O7:Rear Admiral Base Pay: 750/Month Leads: Planet O8:Admiral Base Pay: 1,000/Month Leads: System O9: Lord Admiral Base Pay: 1,250/Month Leads: Region O10: Marshal Base Pay: 1,500/Month Leads: Sector Titan Warriors - Chapter 14: Piles of Sh** Chapter Fourteen: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 20, 7215 Brandon awoke early the next day. After a brief shit, shower, and shave he dressed in his uniform and commanded his cell to lower. Not being sure of what to do with the day, he wasn¡¯t too surprised when a negative beep sound echoed through the small area in response to his command. Just to make sure though he tried again, with the same response. ¡°Fuck! What am I going to do just sit in here all day?¡± He snapped. Spinning around fully intending to kick his bed, Brandon growled. The toilet, shower, sink, and even his bed had vanished. As he frowned, a desk arose with the familiar interface, followed a few moments later by a chair. Sighing in resignation, he sat down. A simple memo sat upon the single display. ¡°Oh for fucks sake! I have to do rixxing school work now?¡± Indeed, upon the screen sat a list of required materials he was to review and familiarize himself with over the next few days. Some of it was simple, like his current chain of command and a basic breakdown of the most common modern Titan designs used in system. Others were more complicated. Over the next three days, he reviewed information and maps, weapon load outs, and status screens. After a while, the details began to run together, combining and merging to become blurry indistinct masses of information in his mind. However, three things stayed clear in his mind. First was a general breakdown of the solar system he found himself in. A detailed 3-D star map with the celestial bodies in current configuration held his attention for nearly 6 hours. He could tap the displayed planets, Moons, asteroids, and space stations to bring up relevant information. Bringing up a notepad, he jotted down some information Pyillos Solar System Sector 187. Pyillos -- System TR23 5 Planets, 3 Dwarf Planets, Inner Asteroid Belt, and thin Kepler Belt. Pyillos I: Volcanic Planet: Rich in rare heavy metals. 2 mining cities exist in bubble habitats. 1 Faction on planet. House Jemez owns the whole planet. Pyillos II: Desert Planet: Planet is hot and dry. Has very thin atmosphere. No usable resources. 5 small terraforming bubble habitats spread across the planet. 1 Faction on planet. House Jamez owns the full planet and all cities within. Pyillos III: Earth-Like Planet: Planet is temperate with rich farmland. Grows most of the organics for the rest of the system. Capital Planet of the system. ¨C 9 Factions on planet. Para continent. ¨C Largest landmass on the planet primarily controlled by House Nubran. Primarily excellent farmlands and hard wood forests. House Indeel owns a small mountain range near the southern tip with numerous heavy earth metal mines. Tershis Continent: House Nexell, Smith, and Xing¡¯Fe share this large landmass. With the largest urban centers and spaceports, these houses function as the economic backbone of the solar system. Welv Continent: primarily arid desert or land that was stripped mined this continent holds the honor of the oldest city in the system. House Nubran¡±Pol, Nubran¡¯Igan, and Nubran¡¯Iles run the industry rich area. Welv Minor Sub-Continent: Owned by House Cortez this area is the location of the only stable Geothermal Spring. Most of the population lives in cities on the bottom of the archipelago¡¯s ocean floors. Pyillos IV: Swamp Planet: A murky swamp world the entire planet is covered in a shallow freshwater sea. Native to a Non-human Race called the Pyria. Owned by 1 Faction. House Nubran¡¯Due Asteroid Belt: 1 Faction 3 Known pirate groups. House Nubran¡¯Dues Pyillos V: The systems one gas giant, nearly six times the size of Sol¡¯s Jupiter. Five factions have claimed the planets moons and lay claim to the resources required to create starship fuel in system. House Nubran¡¯Dues, Jesser, Lindgren, Ogle, and Smith¡¯Son Outer Reaches: 1 Pirate Alliance, 1 Rogue group, and 5 Pirate groups. Pirate Alliance: Dogwood Dirges Rogue Nation: Republic of Free Pyrians Kepler Belt: Lawless Zone with no formal groups. The mention of the various houses and their respective locations stood out to Brandon like a garden Gnome waving a red flag and not wearing any pants. The second thing he found a day later was some context for these Houses. He got a briefing on the current political and social-economic situation of the system. Currently House Nubran was in a state of war with a surprisingly large number of the Noble Houses. The primary conflict was split between House Xing¡¯Fe and the rebellious off-shot houses of Nubran¡¯Due and Nubran¡¯Dues. The war with House Xing¡¯Fe had been raging for over 500 years already whereas the death of the recently deceased Baroness Polly Nubran had led to the splintering of House Nubran and the two Nubran rebel houses. Adding onto the chaos was a small war with House Smith and House Nubran¡¯Igan. Both disputes were more economic in nature than the total war of elimination of the other three conflicts. Finally was a tiny conflict with an insignificant split group of the local non-human intelligent species. The so-called Republic of Free Pyrians was a minor footnote, clearly labeled as primitive and under geared. The Republic had no Titans other than battlefield salvage and very limited infrastructure to support the manufacture and maintenance of more conventional war equipment. There was even a short listing of House Nubran¡¯s current allied factions. The list consisted of only three names; House Indeel, House Nexell, and House Cortez.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. The last thing that caught Brandon¡¯s attention in the information flood was the footnote mentioning the recent addition of Vat born to bolster the flagging Human population. Due to constant warfare, the general population had grown stagnant and was even starting to decline over the last couple of years. Baronet Reginald Nubran had instituted the creation of processes sing centers to create an influx of ready-made adults. The Vat born were able to become useful contributing parts of society in less than a year; where-as the process took as many as 25 the old fashion way. New colonies often used the vat born to build up a decent population. So, ultimately the procedure was not anything to unusual, even if it was very uncommon for a well-established dynasty to do it. Brandon honestly figured the reason most Houses didn¡¯t create Vat-born was because of the costs involved. Why spend more money giving birth to a person than they would ever likely make in their lifetimes? It really did not make sense, except in the case of creating soldiers; for a House facing destruction. That morose thought left a bitter taste in Brandon¡¯s mouth. He really wished he had someone to talk to, at that moment. However, even if he could somehow gain access to one of his fellow Jocks, he knew it would be unwise to speak aloud such ¡°treacherous thoughts... Grinding his teeth, he kept reading the seemingly unending pile of information. A few days later Brandon got his new orders. He was to report to Simulation room AR5220at 06:00 the morning of May 24th. There he would meet his Assigned unit and they would proceed to the first set of full unit training. His unit would have 24hours to gain proficient rankings in their Titans as judged by the simulation AI. Once they achieved their certification, he would lead his unit to bay AR-Blue-320, where they would see the machines of war for the first time. After inspecting their Titans, they would sign off on the receipt of equipment docket, showing they claimed ownership of the multi-million credit machines. That is why a couple day later Brandon found himself walking into the first real Titan Bay in his life. As he exit, the white sterile hallway through the heavy security blast doors and into the quiet Bay Brandon smiled. Inside the massive Structure sat five rows of four Titans. The entire Alpha Company¡¯s Titans sat in their births, ready for pilots. Brandon¡¯s smile faded rapidly as his eyes roamed over the massive hulks. The bays were designed to adjust to the most massive Titans, and so the company¡¯s mostly Ultra-Light composition felt almost tiny. Added to the lackluster was the literal lack of shiny. The Titans Brandon saw were old, beat up war machines. Many were dented and rusted. Patchwork pieces of discolored armor showed the obvious replacement armor plating. Some even housed weapons that looked to be held together more from hope than anything real. ¡°They are a rixxing lovely lot, ain¡¯t they?¡± A chipper voice called. Swinging his gaze away from the rust buckets Brandon adopted his demeanor of Highlander. His no nonsense gaze fell like a hammer upon a man in dark purple grease stained coveralls. His thick black mane of hair was stuck out at odd angles to his head with various Oils and lubricants. In fact, the only part of him that was not covered in Titan life fluids was a set of shiny tools hung upon a tight tool belt at the man¡¯s waist. Brandon gestured toward the Titans with a flick of his head, ¡°They are¡­ something that is for sure.¡± Stepping up with-in five paces of Brandon, the man snapped to attention and saluted; arms crossing his chest. In a loud self-assured voice that somehow still carried a smile the man announced, ¡°Sir, Yeoman Cid Mier presents Training Battalion Alpha Company Titan bay is ready for inspection!¡± Brandon hid the grimace on his face and saluted back. The heavy doors behind him ground open with the scream of servos allowing a small group of other Jocks to enter into the bay. Glancing over his should at the group Brandon did not see any of his unit so turned his attention back to the mechanic. ¡°At ease. Lead me to the berths housing Charlee Platoons equipment.¡± The mechanic smiled brilliantly and spun on his hill in a surprisingly snappy military turn. ¡°This way sir Knight.¡± As the mechanic led Brandon through the bay, a dark humor bore down on Brandon. The machines Brandon passed were obviously only a step out of the recycler. As Brandon passed the largest Titan in the bay, An Arrow He froze. The six and half meter tall goliath was being held in place by the Bay¡¯s Scaffolding. It was plain that most of the Titans had replacement armor panels, and even a weapon or partial limb here and there. However, this Arrow was missing both its leg and arm of the left side. The armor paneling on the right was all blackened as if flames had cooked off all the paint. There was segments that Brandon could even see where the metal had become molten and ran in rivulets. Somehow missing Brandon¡¯s mood the mechanic stopped when he noticed Brandon¡¯s gaze. ¡°She is a beauty isn¡¯t she? This darling is fresh from the conflict with those Rebel scum!¡± Brandon looked at the mechanic and then back to the broken heap of machine to ensure they were looking at the same thing. ¡°How are we expected to work with these?¡± he started with the Arrow but his hand moved to encompass the room as a whole. ¡°These are barely functional,¡± With a glance at the Arrow, he added, ¡°if at all.¡± The mechanics brilliant smile vanished like a dream. With a face so startling, serious that the contrast was almost painful he stepped so close that his face was almost nose-to-nose with Brandon. Green eyes flickered around the room and the man¡¯s hot rancid breath washed over Brandon¡¯s face. ¡°Watch what you say you fool! Even a place like this has ears. If you value your head, then keep your trap shut and head down.¡± Suddenly steeping back the mechanic¡¯s smile returned. ¡°Ah not to worry your little head. Me and my mates will get these beauties right as rain for you Jocks by the time you¡¯re ready to take them into the field¡± Moments later Brandon stood before the line of 4 berths hat held Charlee Platoons Titans. The three small ultra-light frames and his own Light Executor were dwarfed by the bulk of the Arrow. However, Brandon was proud to see that he had done his diligence. Although far from perfect, the machines he saw were in better condition than he had expected. Heck, the brand new three-meter tall Apache sat in its own berth like a gleaming gemstone among the tarnished silver of the other Titans. The mechanic looked over the machines and Brandon saw a spark of respect glimmer in the man¡¯s eyes as he produced a data pad. ¡°Right here is your assigned Titan. Please take a moment to look her over and then when your satisfied sign off that you are claiming ownership.¡± Brandon spent the next fifteen minutes examining the Titan noting every point of damage, bit of rust, or defect both real and imagined for the mechanic to note down. Although Brandon expected the man to grow annoyed at the inspection, he didn¡¯t. Instead, the mechanic accurately wrote down the notes diligently and with care. Finally, when he was done inspecting his new charge Brandon accepted the tablet and signed the appropriate box. The mechanic smiled again, ¡°Perfect. It will take about fifteen minutes from your presets from the simulator pods to be downloaded to the Titan¡¯s core. After that, she will feel just like you like her to. And right about¡­.¡± Brandon felt a sharp pinch at the base of his head followed by a wave of nausea that sent him to his knees. ¡°¡­ Your Verric nanites will be granting you ownership and full rights to her.¡± Spinning on his heels the mechanic began walking back to the doors, but spoke over his shoulder. ¡°The first assignments is always the worst. The headache will mellow out in about 15 and go fully away once you jack in¡­ Whenever the higher ups let you do that.¡± Brandon rose slowly, and then spun on his heel after the mechanic. At the Bay entrance, the rest of the Company had finally shown up. Yeoman Mier saluted the other Knight¡¯s before he led them off to their own set of Titans. Brandon found Ghost, Buzzsaw, and Valkyrie. They had all gotten slightly acquainted while they gained their Titan certifications for the Platoons Titans. Now however Brandon clearly saw how much they still needed to improve upon that to make a real team. Buzzsaw stood in the middle of the two women ramrod straight, staring forward with unblinking eyes. While both Ghost and Valkyrie stood looking around. When Ghost saw him, she smiled a wide grin. ¡®Ah, dar you be American!¡± She gestured to the other two Jocks. ¡°We Thought ya might a gotten lost in the shitter or something.¡± Buzzsaw glanced at the blonde woman with a grimace clearly not amused. Valkyrie however just met Brandon half way and whispered, ¡°Is this a joke?¡± Not sure what she was meaning Brandon stayed quiet so she continued, ¡°I woke up this morning eager to see my new baby. But, these are steaming piles of shi...¡± Brandon cut her off, ¡°Enough Junior Knight! Do not finish that statement.¡± Brandon tried to telegraph with his eyes that he understood her feeling and completely agreed with it. However with a few quick glanced at the raised Titan Bay control room he indicated there was eyes and ears on them. Valkyrie snapped her mouth shut a second before she nodded in understanding. ¡°Our Titans are this way.¡± Brandon turned around and took his soldiers to their less smelly piles of shit¡­ Titan Warriors : Chapter Fifteen – Back Attacks Suck Chapter Fithteen: Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base May 25, 7215 After all of his unit had spoken with Yeoman Mier and accepted their Titans, Brandon led his unit back to the simulators for some more team building exercises. The next day Brandon received orders from Lord Knight Nowell. As the video came up Brandon winced seeing the woman¡¯s perpetual scowl. ¡°Knight McDew, you are to take your Pack to Simulator room A12 at exactly 05:30 tomorrow. There you will be assigned pods nine through twelve. You are to promptly enter the pods and have them ready to go by 05:45. At which point we will start a week long training program that will wrap up week six of your training.¡± She paused in her orders as she tapped on her screen a few times. A slow cold grin pulled at the edges of her dour image. ¡°As you know starting week seven training will move to live Titan training where damage to the Titans will be simulated. However, any damage the system predicts would be done to the Pilot will be actually inflicted upon the Jock at the controls. Additionally, Lord Knight Nubran has just issued an announcement that only 4 Company¡¯s worth of Jocks will move forward. That means this will be the final week of training for 5 full Packs.¡± Brandon frowned at his announcement. Not only would they soon begin to lose Titan Jocks to real injuries and even death, but also they were going to wash out a full fifth of the Battalion. Lord Knight Nowell went on, ¡°Lord Knight Nubran will choose individuals or whole Packs as he sees fit. So perform to the best of your ability over the next week. For the Glory of House Nubran!¡± The next morning Brandon led his unit in to the massive training room. The room resembled a 500-meter radius soccer ball. With stark white octagons divided by dark black lines. Brandon was sure he was looking at one of the only fully solid rooms e had seen in the base so far. The construction was hard plaststeel and Nanocarbonsteel construction; strong and solid. Inside set neat rows upon rows of simulator pods in groups of 4. The overall theme of the room was disconcerting in a majestic kind of way. There must have easily been enough pods in the room to house an entire Battalion. Finding the row with his units Pods Brandon was preparing to enter the pod when something hit him hard from behind. Being flung forward Brandon¡¯s face hit the cold metal of the pod. His skull cracked rebounding off the smooth surface. With his bell utterly rung, Brandon slumped to the floor when the arms around him let go and the body behind him pulled away. Still reeling, Brandon forced his body to roll on the cold durracrete floor just in time to avoid a black combat boot from smashing the back of his skull. With watery eyes still half clouded with black, Brandon glanced at his attacker. The Afghan man stood there pulling his leg back for another kick. On instinct born of years of martial training, Brandon caught the incoming foot, while his eyes flicked to his Pack. To his dismay, he saw they each had paired off with a man. As Brandon used his 1.1 strength to grip the foot and roll, he had a split second insight. If he was to guess from the men¡¯s appearance, they were all from a Middle Eastern decent. At least if the ruddy brown complexion, dark shaggy hair, and general facial structures were any clue. Being distracted by his thoughts, Brandon missed the opportunity to capitalize on his opponents collapse. Instead, he receive a boot to the face. Using Brandon¡¯s face as leverage the Afghan man yanked his foot free from Brandon¡¯s grasp. Using the momentum, he rolled backward coming back to his feet. With a couple cat like jump steps the man was towering over Brandon¡¯s dazed form. Raising his foot in a frontal scissor kick that would bring the back of his heel down upon Brandon¡¯s head the man froze as a voice called out. ¡°What is going on here Knight Madad?¡± The fighting instantly stopped as Lord Knight Nowell stepped into view. Her typical glower was replaced by an icy smile, just dripping poison. The Afghan man spun around on one heel, lowered his foot, and snapped a salute. ¡°Nothing ma¡¯am¡± ¡°Good. I thought you might be about to damage one of his Excellency¡¯s very expensive Vat born Jocks. And that just would not do¡­¡± her smile grew colder as eyes full of loathing fell on Brandon. ¡°At least not outside the battlefield, simulated or not.¡± The Afghan man spared a quick glance at Brandon. The glance told Brandon he was not going to like what the man said next. ¡°No ma¡¯am, of course not. Someone of my humble status would never presume to damage Lord Nubran¡¯s property.¡± He let the comment hang in the air for a moment. As Lord Knight Nowell nodded and began to walk away, he went on. ¡°Ma¡¯am if it is not outside this lowly one¡¯s station could he request that I meet this ant on the battlefield?¡± Lord Knight Nowell stopped in mid step. ¡°I will speak to your training officer Knight Madad. Perhaps we can work something out.¡± With that she disappeared behind the next row of pods. The Afghan man turned a dark glower on Brandon, who was still recovering from multiple hard hits to the head in a short period of time. With one more quick kick to Brandon¡¯s ribs Knight Madad growled something to the other three men before he turned on his heel. Brandon reached up to pinch his nose that had been dribbling blood since the first impact, Brandon looked at his unit. Ghost was glaring at the men with contempt as she muttered under her breath in quick fire Russian. Brandon only caught something about a dog and flesh-eating bacteria, before she spat a bloody globblet of flim on the floor and entered her pod. Buzzsaw didn¡¯t seem to be hurt at all but his fury-filled eyes met Brandon¡¯s with ill-concealed contempt. ¡°I am not sure what the rix that was about. I do know that it was your shit, not mine. Next time do not share, or I might just help the shit being shoveled.¡± With that, he bent down and entered the cramped pod opening.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Valkyrie was holding her ribs and breathing in short shallow breaths. Brandon asked, ¡°You okay?¡± She nodded once before looking in the direction the men had walked off to. Her eyes then went to Buzzsaw¡¯s pod before finally flicking back toward Brandon. She looked him over: Still laying on the floor with a face full of blood. Biting her lip, she disappeared into her own pod. When it closed up tight Brandon rolled over to his hands and knees. With a growl of rage, he punched the concrete floor, once, twice, and then stood. With his hand, aching from split knuckles Brandon climbed into his own pod, seriously hoping the loss of respect would not erode his authority too much. The next week proved that for Buzzsaw at least the confrontation had. The already headstrong man went from grudgingly following Brandon¡¯s orders. To outright ignoring ones that he did not agree with or understand. Which happened to be most. Then even Valkyrie also hesitated now as if unsure if she should follow Brandon¡¯s lead. Only Ghost was unaffected. So as the week progressed the Pack¡¯s standing began to slip. First, it was just a closing of the points between them and Pack Delta. But by late Thursday afternoon, Charley fell to 4th place. By midnight Friday as the final ranks were calculated for the last training mission in the simulators Echo passed them as well As the display faded showing the units, current standings a new one appeared. This one was also showing the current standings but there was no point totals. As Brandon watched, the team names began to move. Tango Pack moved up beside Alpha pairing them off. Tango had remained in last place over the entire training period. The 19th ranked team paired off with Beta in 2nd and it went on. The final rankings had Lima paired off with November, the 10th and 11th ranked Packs respectively. Once this was done, the list shifted again moving the even numbers tot eh right. Then a box appeared around the top two pairings. Followed by each next two pairings receiving their own box. Although it took him a second to realize the meaning, he guessed it before the screen flashed once more and faded out. They were being assigned a second Pack as a teammate to compete against the other two. A minute of blackness later Brandon appeared in the muster station of a mobile Forward Operating Base. The grey nanite walls showed it was a Battalion level structure. No sooner than had he looked around than his team appeared. Seconds later another four Jocks materialized into the simulation. Brandon recognized faces from the military Portfolios he was given at Pack selection. However, he had not worked with any of the other Jocks in the simulations yet. At least not in any none Battalion level exercise. Questions broke out almost instantly, but they were quickly interrupted as everyone¡¯s Com bracelets chimed. Tapping a button on the watch like device Brandon began to look over the holographic display projected in front of him. Mission Details Assault Beta, Sector 187, Pyillos System, Pyillos III Temperate 300 Clicks Standard Xing¡¯Fe Titan: Estimated 50 Tons Conventional: Estimated 75 Tons Static Defenses: 2 Medium Laser Turrets, 4 Light Machine Gun Towers, Ultra-Light Defensive Wall Red Team Estimated 200 Tons Total Weight: 200 Tons Ultra-Light: 115 tons Fire Ant x2 Squirrel x2 Apache x3 Light: 25 tons Exicuter x1 He raised his eyebrows. Glancing at the others in the room, he frowned. Buzzsaw, Ghost, and Valkyrie were all frozen. Like if someone had just pushed pause. Actually now looking around he realized that only one other person in the room was moving and she hadn¡¯t noticed the oddity yet. Either that or she was an excellent actor. His holo display changed. Mission Loadout Brandon smiled as he looked over the list. The Navel, Titan, and Marine options were all greyed out. However when he focused on the Infantry option lists of Light, Heavy, Assault, Powered and other unit types appeared. He could select a size of unit that would then show its CR or Combat Rating, Weapons, armor and Weight; before allowing him to add one or more of the selected type to his command. The woman, whom he assumed was the other Knight finally realized something was up, probably the extreme quiet. She glanced up then immediately reached for her sidearm. After a second, she had it pulled and pointed at the only other thing moving in the room, Brandon. She spoke in a British sounding lilt, ¡°What have you bloody done?¡± Brandon ignored her and continued to look through the list of options. ¡°Hey Highlander! You Rixxing shitdick! What have you done?¡± She apparently knew who he was, which annoyed him. However, he hid the fact and slowly glanced toward her. ¡°Me?¡± He asked in an innocent voice. ¡°Her gun never wavered but her finger twitched the slightest over the trigger. ¡°Yes you! What the hell is going on?¡± Brandon shrugged, ¡°I am guessing the simulation is paused so we can choose our full command.¡± Her thin blonde eyebrows met in the center of her forehead. ¡°Simulation? Paused? ¡­¡± Then she looked around as if judging where she was again. Brandon had his full attention on her now. He had wondered if losing track of reality and forgetting the long extended stays in the pods would cause some to lose track of reality. Now it appeared he had his answer. As the woman lowered her weapon, she frowned. ¡°Right. This is a simulation. This is¡­ training.¡± Brandon nodded no longer wondering why this woman was near the bottom of the boards. If you could not keep track of what was real, you were bound to score lower. Hell knowing that Brandon was facing artificial opponents and command equally fake Infantry had allowed him to issue orders that he normally would not have. Or at least that would have left him with nightmares afterwards. She however had lost track of the game and thus the edge knowing it was not real gave. In a shaky breath she asked, ¡°What do you mean the rest of our command Brandon gestured at her Com unit, where it blinked blue with a message. ¡°We get to pick about 60 tons of hardware to bring with us. It is a pretty extensive list too.¡± The blonde knight shook her head before nodding to Brandon, ¡°Okay let¡¯s see what we have.¡± After an hour and half or at least what Brandon assumed to be about that long: they had selected a complete command. The woman who he found out was Misty, was insistent on bringing nothing but Powered Infantry to support her Apache¡¯s. Whereas Brandon wanted a more diverse unit profile. In the end, they found a middle ground. They agreed to bring 2 full platoon of Powered Infantry for a total of 30 tons. Then Two squads of two MRG-588 Lightening Scout Helicopters added another 10 tons. Brandon insisted upon these so that he could maintain battlefield awareness. Lastly, they decided upon two, two unit squads of TR214-LRM2 Beavers. The lightweight-wheeled vehicles were slow but would give the unit a much-needed long-range asset. Additionally if all four were to target even Brandon¡¯s Exicuter with a couple full salvos, the chance of him being heavily damaged was high. Confirming their selections, the simulation unpaused leaving the others completely unaware of the lapsed time. Not a Chapter Mech Description: Exicutor
  1. Designation: Exicuter (Egg)
  2. Class (Tonnage: Light (25)
  3. Cost: - 747,250,000 IMC
  4. Combat Rating (CR): - 1,067.5
  5. Structure: Vertical Oval with two legs. Weapon points on sides or leg joints and top.
  6. Max Speed: 90kph
  7. Weapon Loadout: Hardpoints =3. Max weight=2.5t.
    1. R1: Heavy Machine Gun
    2. L1: Heavy Machine Gun
    3. T1: MRM-3.
  8. Armor Loadout: 3 Tons
    1. Front Torso: 1 tons (40)
    2. Rear Torso: 0.8tons (27)
Right Arm: 0.1 ton (3) Left Arm: 0.1 ton (3)Stolen story; please report. Right Leg: 0.5 ton (18)
  1. Left Leg: 0.5 ton (18)
  1. Heat and Ammo Loadout: -0.55 Heat.
    1. 1 Small Heatsink -2 Heat
    2. Weapons: 1.45 Heat.
    3. Ammo: MRM (45), Extended(16).
  2. Sensors and other Systems: Standard
  3. General Use and Purpose:
    1. The Exicuter is House Nubran¡¯s most commonly fielded Titan. With a low overhead cost and cheap maintenance, it is easy to see why the house fields so many of these ugly little buggers. Although its damage profile is not high, it can still beat most conventional assets. With two machine gun turrets, it excels at anti-Infantry combat. However the Medium Range Missile rack allows it to tangle with both light aerospace and armor assets