On the Front S5: Titanic Flow Pt.1

(Read the previous entry here)

“Sir.” I said, walking along the jutting balcony overlooking the city.

Commander Zavala stood, both hands on the railing, surveying his ward.

He turned.

“Ah, Sarech. Good, I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Yes sir, my apologies, I’ve been caught up in some personal matters.”

“It’s quite alright, but as you’re here, we should get down to business.”

“Yes sir.”

“How familiar are you with Titan?”

“I’m familiar with many Titans, to which are you referring?”

“The Moon of Saturn.”

I looked down at my boots, feeling foolish.

“I’ve never been.”

“Clearly.” Zavala said, his patience holding.

“What do you have in mind, sir?”

“The House of Dusk has set up a forward operating base not far from the New Pacific Arcology, they’ve been harassing Deputy Commander Sloane’s crews and have been carrying out Airstrikes on The Barge, which as you know, houses the bulk of our Extra-Martian fleet.”

“Yes sir.”

“I’ve assigned you as Showrunner on this particular operation. You’ll granted the Tactical Information and Sat Feeds you need, but the Assault is yours to plan and execute.”

“Parameters?” I asked, hiding my surprise on being offered the position.

“We can get you four platoons of City Militia, and the requisite support staff, and you may choose 3 Guardians for the Operation.”

“Yes sir.”

I turned to leave.

“Oh, and Sarech?”

“Yes sir?”

“This operation is top-level, Nightfall protocol is active for this.”

I remained silent for a moment.

“Yes sir.”

I walked away, thinking.

Step one, as I had once been told, is to come up with an Operation name.

“Ocean Hand.” I decided.

---

Maddie had been given the week off, because, reasons, she couldn’t actually figure it out.

The tiny, cramped alleyways of The Stacks seemed to appeal to her.

She said it gave off an intimate vibe.

I was personally not so sure.

She smiled, light rain falling onto her cheeks as we ducked into a Ramen Shop.

She ordered a Spicy Vegetarian, and I tried the special.

“I didn’t know you were Vegetarian.”

“Aren’t we all? Real meat’s practically unheard of these days.”

I pondered that thought for a moment.

“That is, unless Guardians can get the real stuff.”

“I...I…”

She raised an eyebrow quizzically, and began to grin.

“Well….I guess, if you can find it, and hunt it, I think you can.” I said, somewhat sheepishly.

“Ah, that is...if you can actually hunt anything.” I mumbled.

She laughed.

“Interdimensional Robots, Pirates from beyond the stars, a race of zombies, and planet destroying gerbils, but you can't hunt a deer?”

She giggled.

“Technically the Vex are cyborgs…”

She grinned and kept eating.

We looked up at the wall towering over us, and the smoking remains of the old Tower.

“Do you miss the old space?” Maddie asked me.

“Yeah.” I answered. “But to be fair, the new space is pretty nice.”

She made a gesture that perhaps indicated I was right, but simultaneously not right. Not wrong, but not right.

“So when are you heading out again?”

I pondered for a moment.

“Next 4 days or so.”

She nodded. Obviously understanding, but understandably displeased.

“Where?”

“Titan.”

She nearly spat out her rice noodles.

“You're going to a Titan?”

I laughed way harder than intended.

“No. It's a Moon of Saturn.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

“Yup.”

“What’re you doing out there?”

“Nightfall Protocol. Can't tell you.”

She looked at me like I had just kicked a baby in the skull.

“You don't know, do you?”

“Nope. Then again, I'm the Showrunner on this one.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I write the objectives, set the parameters, and yell at other Guardians.”

She nodded and slurped another long strand of noodle from the polystyrene bowl.

“So no chance of seeing any action then?”

“That's what I've got you for…” A more than slightly mischievous grin creeping across my features.

“Easy now…” She said, before kissing me slowly, as the sun dipped behind the Walls.

---

It was pouring, predictably.

I arced the Echo Class downwards through the Titanic atmosphere, pulling up, and crushing on the sunlight thrusters.

A Vector class, with its W like body-shape, settled into its cruising speed next to me.

Liquid Methane splattered against the bubble-like shape of my cockpit.

“Drew, I assume that's you.”

My ship registered a connection from the Vector class.

“Yup. Do you like it? I call it the Switchblade v2.”

“Is that the only name you give to your ships?”

“So far, yup.”

I remained silent.

“What the hell do you call that then?”

I looked around at the inside of my cockpit as my engine roared and pushed us into Titan more and more.

“The Apex.”

“Hmph.”

A tiny ball of light hurtled into the storm from high above, before expanding quite suddenly into a Minerva class ship.

The air shook with NLS displacement and everything vibrated.

“Mick!” I yelled over an open channel.

“Hi.”

“You're an asswipe, you know that?”

He giggled and stepped on the gas.

His afterburners kicked in and he shuddered off, lumbering off into the distance.

I pushed up the throttle slightly, keeping the two horizontal lines of light that revealed Mick’s engines.

Drew matched my speed.

“So….did ya fuck her?”

“I...what? Who told...what's that got to do with anything?” I squeaked.

He laughed, and seemed to struggling to breathe.

He sucked in air before bursting into laughter again.

“I hate you.”

“Yeah, I know.” He said, breathlessly.

More giggling joined the comm line, this time from Mick.

“So you finally did it….” He couldn't stop laughing.

“I. Hate. You. Both.”

“We know.” They both said at once.

Ahead of me, Mick suddenly jerked the stick back and flew upwards.

“Mick...what?”

An orange projectile shot through a cloud of methane and narrowly missed the tip of my wing.

“Shit!” I banked hard to the left, and disappearing.

“I think we're close.” Drew pointed out.

“No shit.”

We swooped beneath the clouds and the target appeared ahead of us.

It was a pair of construction Barges bobbing up and down on the huge waves.

A control tower stood in the waves a couple hundred meters from the prow of one of the barges.

A Spider Tank fired off a barrage of anti air fire.

I swooped around the edge of the smaller of the two barges, banking and firing the afterburners.

“Drew, I count 3 Spider Tanks. One on the smaller barge, one on the larger….”

“And the annoying one on the dock in the middle!” He yelled as I watched the Switchblade swoop and dive towards said tank.

His wing mounted machine guns lit up the artillery position, some minor explosions going off.

I swooped in, staying low, before pressing the lock-on button on the top of one of my control sticks.

I pulled the trigger as a barrage of missiles activated and hurtled into the middle tank, transforming it into a massive fireball almost instantly.

I swooped low and pulled back on the control sticks before turning on the sublight engines and flying off into the clouds.

“3 Guardians, 3 tanks. I've done my bit. Your turn.”

Some grumbling, as a Minerva class shot past me, heading downwards.

I flipped over and dropped into a steep dive, following Mick.

Drew shot along, two Skiffs on his tail.

“Mick, keep on the tanks, I'll help Drew.”

“If you could spare a moment I WOULD REALLY FUCKING APPRECIATE IT!” He yelled as the Skiffs pelted him with turret fire.

I pulled up and settled into attack speed.

A flick of a switch, and my machine guns whirred into life, spitting blue shots into the engines of the nearest Skiff.

I missed almost all of them, the shots that did hit caused the right engine to fail, making the improbably assembled craft spin and flail in midair.

The second Skiff was still on Drew’s tail.

I held down the lock-on button, which was enough to get the Elksni off Drew’s tail.

I followed the Skiff, pushing up the throttle slowly, edging closer and closer before pulling the trigger and shredding the enemies’ engine.

“Fuck you!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

“Fuck off!” Mick yelled, as the last Spider Tank disappeared into a puff of smoke.

With a deep breath, I pointed the ship towards the control center and pulled in, nice and slowly, giving Ghast time to calculate the Transmat.

Thankfully, as we found, the control center was abandoned.

We sent the all clear.

I collapsed into a chair in the observation deck.

“The techs will be here in a couple hours, and the troops a couple hours after that.”

Mick nodded.

“Fuck it! I'm gonna take a nap.”

And so he did.

(Read the next part here)

//Aw shit. Spent half my battery writing this week's entry, but hey. I think it's pretty ok. Thanks for reading, and look out for Titanic Flow Pt.2 this time next week.//

(Read the whole series here)