The dropship broke Jantii's atmosphere, and descended through the clouds as the wind whistled by the viewport and doors. In this cramped of a space, the occupants aboard could practically feel the tension radiating off of one another.

Tobias looked at the others deploying with him in this ship; Tyra, Vale, and Gates. There were two other dropships with them, one of which carried Dimitri, Bear, and other Pilots that Gates had handpicked for the mission herself. McFarlane and Jax were with the last ship of Pilots and riflemen—

"Man, that wind is messing with my nerves. It's not just me, right? Everyone else thinks that's ominous as hell too—right?"

He heard the sudden transmission from a Pilot on the second ship, and watched as Gates held a hand to the side of her helmet with a growl.

"What's your name, Pilot?"

"Davis, ma'am. Lance Corporal Davis."

"Alright, well Briggs told us to pick you lot for your skills, not for your mouth—so shut it!"

"You got it."

"Is he in your ship, Dee?"

Dimitri came onto the comms. "Affirmative."

"Well, if he opens his mouth again, you and Bear are welcome to personally remind him of my last order."

He heard Dimitri laugh as Bear's voice came onto the comms, also cheerful. "Gladly, Captain!"

She muted the connection, and faced Tobias with a low groan. "I had to fill out the roster with a few new faces—so let's hope that they know what they're doing."

Turning to the front of the ship, Gates yelled to the pilot, "How close are we to the coordinates?" They checked a readout on a nearby monitor.

"Fairly close ma'am, ETA two minutes. Be warned, there's a massive storm approaching; might make the drop a bit more interesting." It was true, they could all hear the slight creaking of the dropship as the elements began to more aggressively jostle it around.

Gates glanced over at Tobias, looking him up and down. "You ready?"

He nodded shakily, though he tried not to let her see his anxiety. Though he had faith in the operation as a whole, he had to admit that he wasn't entirely enthusiastic about their method of reaching the Kraken—in fact, he was downright terrified.

"KT, you there?"

< Yes, Pilot. Standing by. >

He breathed out. "Good. That's good. I don't want to be alone for this—you'll be here the whole way through?"

< Through thick and thin. >

"Thanks, because I get the feeling like we're about to have a lot of that."

The ships finally broke free of the clouds, and all the occupants were treated with the sight of a shadowy blue ocean below them, the only foreseeable land just a silhouette on the horizon, and a refueling depot right in the middle of the water. Dark clouds littered the sky, and one could see the occasional flash of lightning as the storm worsened. Rain pelted the windows, falling torrentially from the sky.

Situated next to the depot was the IMS Kraken. Rather than relying solely on thrusters and jets for in-atmosphere traversal, it was equipped with four massive rotating engine blades in cylindrical chutes on the four corners of the ship. He knew the reasoning for this—though expensive as hell to produce, the IMC had certainly created a warship that was just as capable and efficient in planetary atmospheres as it was out of them.

An alarm sounded in conjunction with a green light flashing, and the drop bay door opened.

"Target reached, all teams deploy! Go, go, go!"

All three teams leapt out of the ships and into the air, beginning their rapid descent. Tobias gritted his teeth as he streaked through the sky, the air screaming as he tore through it at terminal velocity.

< Pilot, from your helmet feed, I've calculated that the best area to land would be here. >

A little blue square appeared on his HUD near the center of the ship's top. It was far enough away from the bridge that they likely wouldn't be detected too early, but could maneuver into a better position when necessary.

"Oh, so not in the giant spinning blades?"

< Very funny. >

He grinned, almost physically sensing her rolling her optics. He deferred to her advice, and aimed for the region she'd highlighted. He glanced around, looking for Gates, Vale, and Tyra as they fell. The others were spaced out a bit, and farther up in the sky—hopefully, they'd all manage to regroup quickly.

Gates spoke through the comms, "Thrusters in three ... two ... MARK!"

He activated his jump kit on the dot. It was amazing technology, to be able to take all this downward momentum and reverse it without any adverse effects to the user. He felt himself slow down considerably, and hover for a moment in the air. Then he dropped the remaining ten feet to the 'ground', if it could be called that.

"Alright, Team-A is clear. Just waiting on Team-B and ..." Gates stopped talking suddenly, and looked skyward. "... C." He followed her gaze, and realized why she'd fallen silent.

Team-B was nearing the ship, but Team-C was still approaching. As an unexpected gust of powerful wind picked up, one of them was thrown off course.

"Jenkins, correct your course! Now, damn it, NOW!"

"I'm trying, it just won't—"

The man didn't even have time to scream as he fell straight into one of the rotor blades that adorned the ship. Red, viscous blood sprayed in every direction, but no chunks of meat flew out; he'd been effectively vaporized.

Tobias felt his gut clench a bit. "God ..."

Gates beckoned the survivors over, acting quickly. "Hurry! There's no way they didn't detect that—"

On cue, alarms began to ring, piercing the air with their shrill cries.

< Pilot? What's going on? >

Upon hearing the whirr of machinery behind him, he turned around to see a hole opening in the top of the ship. He knew exactly what that door was.

"Oh, shit."

Gates looked at him. "What?"

"That lift leads straight to the hangar—normally, it's used for loading cargo, but it can be used for reinforcements to combat invaders ... like us."

Indeed, the cargo lift's platform came up the shaft; on it were several grunts and two sterile white Titans, a Legion and an Atlas.

< Four! Talk to me! >

"Kay, things are a bit hectic right now!" He waved to everyone and pointed towards the rear of the ship. "Get to cover!"

The top of the ship was a rather open space—but fortunately, there were many ridges and external vents that provided enough cover for their needs, and the teams all scrambled to get out of the Titans' view.

"This is Sergeant Pierce, we've got Militia on the ship's exterior! I repeat, Militia are on the ship's exterior!" he heard one of the grunts yell into his radio. The Titans moved forward a few steps to begin attacking, but were forced back by the magnetic grenade-launchers and charge rifles that the Militia had brought for such a situation. In turn, the IMC riflemen began to fire at the Pilots in the hopes of breaking their defense.

Tobias slid into cover alongside Gates, ducking down as a hail of bullets whistled by. She looked at him, her chest heaving. "You know, I'm starting to doubt your skills as a strategist!"

"So am I!" he shot back. The slight humor of the moment was wiped as another round of projectiles peppered the pipe they hid behind, and showered them with sparks.

"We're not going to get anywhere close to the bridge with this much resistance!" she shouted, holding her weapon up above her and firing blindly back at them. "We need a new plan!"

He racked his brain for options, then groaned as one came to him. "Alright, I've got an idea—but you're not gonna like it."

"Anything's better than being a sitting duck!"

She had a point. Opening his comm channel to the whole squad, he glanced off to his left where Tyra, Vale, and McFarlane were crouching behind a vent. "Vale, this is Four—I need you guys to focus on these Titans!" He saw the simulacrum look around for him, then shoot her hand exasperatedly to the side.

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?"

"I'm going to even the playing field," he answered, pointing at the sky. She looked up, realized what he meant, then flashed him a thumbs up.

"Reading you loud and clear!"

"Wait until my mark, I'll make the call—everyone else, back them up! We'll need to hold off the enemy here, this is our only extraction point!"

He looked up at the clouds above which the Militia frigate was hidden, safely looking down on them from low orbit. "This is Warrant Officer Four of the ground team, I am requesting four titanfalls—serial designations are SKD-3812, CH-1134, JUN-1300 and KT-0298!"

"Request acknowledged—standing by for titanfall on your command."

He spoke a bit quieter, switching his comms once more. "Kay, you ready?"

< On your word. >

He nodded, and turned to Gates. "Follow me, don't get shot."

She snorted derisively. "As if I was planning on it!"

Peeking around the edge of the pipe, he finally yelled, "MARK!" and stepped out of cover.

Several things happened at once.

First, the Titans took notice of him and Gates running towards them and the cargo lift. They hefted their guns, and prepared to fire.

Secondly, a flash of light lit up in the sky as the four Titans that he'd called in broke atmosphere, and hurtled down to the top of the ship below.

Under normal circumstances, any object with the mass and velocity of a titanfall would have gone right through the ship and likely killed everyone aboard. Luckily, as with the scenario on Tyche, there were precedents in place to prevent that. It was only because of such advancements in technology that the Titans did not completely obliterate the hull of the ship, and send it sinking into the depths below with all hands. Instead, they landed in a defensive line between the IMC forces and the Militia.

Finally, the rest of the Heartless sprinted out of cover to eagerly hop into their respective Titans, and hastily embarked. After a moment, the Ronin, Scorch, and Atlas all turned to face the two IMC Titans who now seemed to be a bit unsure of themselves.

Tobias saw KT standing next to them and watching him as he and Gates charged ahead. "KT, help them and defend this point!" he ordered. "I'll be back as soon as I can!"

< Understood, Pilot! Stay safe. >

Sliding forward, they ran around the Legion and Atlas that had come under fire from the new arrivals, too preoccupied with being so suddenly outnumbered that they paid the two Pilots no mind.

Sliding forward and onto the cargo lift, Tobias slammed his hand down on the platform's controls, triggering it to lower back down into the Kraken's hangar. Gates jumped onto it next to him, and breathlessly said, "There were supposed to be twelve of us, not two! How the hell are we going to pull this off?"

He frowned under his helmet, asking himself the same question. "We'll find a way. We have to."

Gates tilted her head. "I don't know if you're just excessively optimistic, or completely lack common sense."

"Thanks for the encouragement."

"That wasn't my intent at all."

Finally, the platform exited the central shaft and continued to lower to the floor of the hangar many meters below. He smacked her shoulder, and pointed out a door at the far end. "That way is to the bridge!"

"I don't see how we're going to get there with a hangar full of IMC in our way," chastised Gates. As she spoke, the aforementioned IMC forces on the ground took notice of the lift as it descended, and began to point at them. Time to move.

"Yeah, change of plan—follow me!" Without waiting for her reply, he dove off the lift and into the throngs of enemies below. Unhooking a canister from his belt, he tossed it into the middle of the floor and watched them explode into dense clouds of smoke. There was immediate confusion as many of the IMC soldiers spun wildly around trying to regain sight of him.

Sliding forward through the fog, he lifted his Flatline and aimed at a particular spot through the smoke—a spot which he was trying to precisely recall from his memory of the ship's layout. Pulling his trigger, he emptied the entire magazine and noted the frightened cries of riflemen around him as they heard the gunfire. A quick glance behind him confirmed that Gates was still following him closely, so he took the opportunity to reload.

Reaching the far wall and sticking a leg out to brace himself, he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his target; a vent cover which had broken apart after being riddled with bullets, revealing an opening behind it.

He heard movement next to him as Gates slid into position next to him. "A maintenance shaft?"

"Yeah. These shafts run all over the ship's framework so that the engineers can fix any ventilation problems—and there are plenty, thanks to the added complications of the rotor blades," he explained. "Jospert—er, my friend and I realized that there's one fatal flaw with them; a certain person, say, a Militia Pilot, could use them to work their way up to the bridge nearly undetected from anywhere on the ship, and nobody would be the wiser."

He coughed slightly, and continued, "But we didn't exactly feel like voicing our concerns to Major Boyles, so ..."

Gates turned to him, seemingly impressed, and chuckled. "Of course not. Well, if you have any concerns about flaws like this in our ships, by all means—please voice them."

"You got it," he agreed, then looked back at the hangar where the smoke was starting to dissipate. "Crap, we're running out of time." Holding a hand towards the opening, he gestured for her to enter.

"Ladies first?"

—X—

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