“Date is [REDACTED],[REDACTED] of the 2054th calendar year.

This is headquarters to squad Alias Fire Fly, I am operator [REDACTED} in charge of this reinforcement under operation title [REDACTED]. Please pardon all the redacted information, Details about this reinforcement mission aren’t too important, but higher ups want to keep information about time, area , and operators, please refrain from using your call names, instead you will be referred as numbers 1 through 4 with the commander being 1, jacket 2, support 3 and artillery as 4.”

The voice in my ear piece started to talk about the details of this mission, and through the voice I can hear the hum of my beast starting its gears.

“We have 3 Guànjūn scouts in the middle of [REDACTED], we expected enemy movement in the area but not so soon after the battle of [REDACTED]. Thanks to the uneven and hard terrain, the superiors have decided to engage in this low scale skirmish, and resources to this sortie will be limited. There will be 2 other Guànjūn dropping along within the immediate proximity to help against fire power but do not rely on them to fight on the same level, they are fresh recruits who showed some promise and are being led by another operator, you will not have any further support.”

So these are the low conditions of this skirmish, if things went according to plan, then this skirmish is nothing but a walk in the park, even if outnumbered the only real threat are the few stars that are expected.

“Other than to clean up those metal husks, you are expected to rescue the scouts and retreat after sufficient destruction threat makes it no longer worth the effort. You will be given a lot of lee-way as to how this will be handled”

I guess this mission is just that level of low threat, almost makes me wonder as to why bother making us, of all possible back up, drop down to earth. But I figured the higher ups love shoving it down America’s throat, they love showing off how we managed to take full control over the moon and all of its bases. Star gazer is and always has been very big sore in America’s skies-

“Coordinates are being processed by Star gazer command and you will be ready for launch in T-Minus 4 minutes, estimated time until reaching earth’s orbit is 8 minutes, at a average speed of 500 Kilometers/per second, once on orbit the group of space anchors designated as [REDACTED} will slow down your descent. You will be dropped to the coordinates in your console, feel free to configure them, but please do so before deployment.”

My machine’s warm up routine was over, and the pleasing sound of humming from the CoreYǐnqíng stabilizing always felt good to the ear. The dim lights of the cockpit flash its electric design, lighting up my view.

I begin the connection set-up, and as I begin to put on and plug in all the same cables and plastic like armor, I hear an irritating sound coming from my right ear.

“Don’t you think the mission this time around is a bit odd?” Said number 4

“We aren’t really here to ask questions….” quietly answered number 3

“Well said. How are we looking with our gear? Make sure to run the tests, we are being deployed in uneven terrain, so we have to be careful with this mission more than we usually are” number 1 responded and commanded the others.

“Number 1, we are being deployed as a quick responding reinforcement for this, but looking at the coordinates, we are being dropped right in the center of the ordeal, it is hard not being a little cautious, why are we even heading to no man’s land?”

“Shut up 4, you will be chewed up later by command. It must be a talent not being able to follow simple instructions” Number 1 really did not appreciate the questions.

“Alright, I am all geared up, and ready for sync, we have a minute before we are sent, and you all know how uncomfortable it is to do so with these disposable rapid response shuttles, so hurry up” I reminded them.

I close my eyes. When I feel at my most calm, like a reflex, press on the sync button attached to my glove armor and begin to lose control of my body.

“[Base Bios System activated…Waiting for stability….personalized A.I program on standby]”

I always have to remind myself that losing control of my body is not the end of the world, but for a lot of new pilots, not feeling their true own flesh always becomes extremely discomforting, maybe that’s why the research institute put a lot of resources into the Secondary Body Modules, SBMs for short.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It always amazes me how they were able to constantly upgrade the SBMs throughout this and the last war, they were now even able to make up to 30% of the remaining population be able to pilot a Guànjūn, which was impossible back in the….

Sudden adrenaline rushes through my abdomen up my chest into my head, but I keep my eyes closed and lose track of my thoughts for a second. Heavy weights on my chest and head begin shredding me from within.

“[Connection stabilizing…]” The system read out to me.

Usually connections don’t need even a second, but I might be a bit restless from what number 4 had said earlier, after all, he was right. Scouts don’t really tend to ever be caught and if they did, catching up to them usually meant more dead American titans than it was worth, so they would just clear the area and leave them alone, however, this time they deployed around 20 or so titans for this small force, that alone was weird, but getting us to drop down, us of all possible reinforcements, meant that for one reason or another, these 3 scouts were important, or higher ups want to test something out.

“[Connection stabilizing…personalized A.I system coming online] [20 seconds until send off]”

I try my best to focus on other things to help with my nervousness, like, from what I’ve read, statistics from World War 3 claimed that only around 2% of Chinese and Americans forces were able to pilot Guànjūns to Regulatory Functional Capabilities, and only up to 12% by the end of the war which is crazy, it was only thanks to the technological advances and A.I research it was able to increase, that means there were only around 16,000,000 or so compatible pilots, which came down to 5,280,000 million for actual capable pilots of age, and that was at best, most ended up dying overtime to the radiation from the bombs, cancer plagued a lot of the pilots, specially since they were always in the very dead center of danger, and even if the amount of compatible pilots increased, because of the population shortage the amount of capable pilots stayed stagnant and if anything decreased during the years…

“[Connection Stabilized…Pilot Personalized A.I activated…Send off initializing in 6……..5…….4……]”

And just like that, the weight that was keeping me down leaves, and I let go of a deep sigh knowing that by logical reasons, it was meaningless, instead my gaze met the stars through the thick shuttle windows, through It, I could see the endless vacuum of space.

“Hey, why did you take so long to sync? Are you alright?” Said the soft spoken supporter to me in private comms, of course he would be worried, the physical and mental status of everyone mattered to him the most, in the battle field, it would be his responsibility to take care of us, more so than the commander who would only worry about accomplishing the mission.

“[3……]”

“Nothing serious…the words said by 4 kept me thinking” I responded

“[2…….]”

“Even if he is right…”

“[1…….]”

“We’ll make it back”

“[Acceleration Star Belt…..commencing…Comms will be disabled]”

“We always do”

“[Comms closed]”

The Disposable shuttle began to move, and slowly, we started to speed up around the belt, the stars were now beams of light.

“[Reaching 143 Km/s, Astro-Velt Throw starting at 438 km/S]”

The speed time of deployment this time around was quite fast, but that is most likely because we are a very small force, it would usually take up to an hour to be deployed and down in the field, but with war zone activity at an all time low, it makes sense why it is this quick to be deployed.

“[289 KM/S…]”

Some have speculations that this war might come to a complete stand still, those same people say this war will become a attrition and logistics battle and quickly end with neither side surrendering, but rather losing interest in fighting any longer.

“[365 KM/S…]”

After the way the previous war ended, both sides felt their hatred was left unresolved, which led to this war being rushed.

Just as we started to finally stabilize the region, war was declared, maybe that is why it started again in the first place, those 10 years of peace flew by, almost like it never happened.

Even though the population is a fraction of what it used to be, and war has stayed rampant, if you were to ask most people, chances are, they want to win the war, or at the very least, want the war to keep going.

I hear a loud boom.

“[438 KM/S reached….Thrusters activated….Latch will let go…. in 3….2….]

A last look into the stars reminds me of the reason we are fighting, not victory, but for the chance to see our children reach them.

“[Latch disconnected…Thruster aligning system engaged… Time until arrival 8 minutes…]”