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Reinforcements

"Great, I'll be there. Wreckage out," I said over my comm link.

"Who was that?" Ilia asked me.

"Sarah Briggs. The leader of the Militia. They set up an outpost on Vale's outskirts. I'm gonna head on over there with the Apex Predators if you wanna come with." I sheathed my data knives on the underside of my forearms, now carrying both knives and picks.

"Ozpin and Ironwood aren't going to be happy about this, Epsilon."

"I don't fucking care. I'm trying to save this planet, and all they're doing is getting in my way. Ironwood can't save the planet with his army. Not from the IMC. No matter what he says, he just has no idea what he's up against. If you're gonna come with me, follow me." I walked out of my dorm room and made my way to the warehouse. Viper already had the ship ready for takeoff. I walked past the three Titans and into the cockpit. Viper was at the controls and Kane was sitting in the copilot seat. I leaned against the wall as we took off. Ilia decided to stay.

Viper landed the ship in front of where Briggs was standing with a couple of other people. The Apex Predators and I exited the ship to meet with her. "Commander Sarah Briggs." I held out me hand.

"Captain Milo Hunter, correct?" She shook my hand.

"Yes. We spoke through the comms. These are the other Apex Predators: Kane and Viper. We're all that's not dead or working under a different allegiance. Thank you for coming here. It means a lot."

"Well, if everything goes to plan, we can put a major dent in the IMC. Hunter, there are some people you should meet." She motioned to a pilot in white armor with the grapple tactical. "This is Gates. She leads the freelance pilot group known as the 6-4. You'll meet the rest of them later."

"The 6-4 is family, Hunter, and you best not get on our bad side," Gates threatened.

"Gates, I get that we're both leaders of merc groups commonly deployed against each other. However, if your distrust of me and the Apex Predators continues, this whole operation is fucked. I know a thing or two about teamwork, and distrust is poison to it. I'm not asking the Predators and the 6-4 to get all buddy-buddy, nor do I expect it. We just need to tolerate each other enough to get through this mission."

Gates was silent for a moment. "Takes a lot to try to reason with me. You've got guts. Meet at the training room later. We'll see what you're made of."

I nodded down.

Moving down the line, Briggs motioned to a pilot in a red jumpsuit with a custom helmet. "This is Jack Cooper. Cooper... replaced Tai Lastimosa after he was KIA on a recon mission along with Major Eli Anderson. Lastimosa trained Cooper on the DL in his spare time. Cooper proved to be a capable pilot, one of the best in the SRS."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain," he said.

"You as well." I held out my hand for him to shake. He did not react to the cold metal of my arm.

"Lastly, this is Barker," Briggs said.

Barker held a flask in his hand. "Aren't you the kid who's all buddy-buddy with two of my men?"

"Yeah. Rumble and Venus. Briggs, I know Barker from when I was in Angel City a couple weeks ago."

"Why were you there?" She asked.

"Not important. Is this the entire Militia?"

"No. We left quite a few soldiers back in the Frontier."

"Well, the majority of the IMC is coming here, including General Marder, so I damn hope that the soldiers you have here are the best of the fucking best. If we destroy the Fold Weapon, the IMC has nothing to fall back on. They spent so much money restoring it, and they're getting desperate."

"Come with me to the war room. We need to talk strategy." Briggs went inside their biggest ship and entered the war room. We gathered around the table. Briggs, Barker, Gates, and Cooper stood on one side while I stood with Kane and Viper on the other.

"So," I started. "Because there are no planets near Remnant, the IMC will have the Fold Weapon ready to fire from a massive space cruiser. I recommend taking a light, small ship to said cruiser with a small team onboard. This team will plant explosives on the Fold Weapon. These explosives should, obviously, be on timers or remote detonation. After the explosives are planted, the team should get off the ship ASAP. From there, we blow the Fold Weapon to hell. May I suggest cloakers and phase shifters for this operation, as this thing will no doubt be heavily guarded. Those types of pilots will have the easiest time getting past security."

"I like your idea, but we need to know more about this weapon," Gates said.

"I can't speak much, but I can show you this." I unsheathed Ash's data knife plugged it into the port on the table. The file for Project Fold appeared on the wall. "This is an official document written by Vinson Dynamics about the Fold Weapon. Read it so you know what we're dealing with."

"How in the hell did you get that file?" Cooper asked.

"When we fought, Ash left her knife lodged in my chest before I killed her. It's got tons of top-secret shit on it. Right now, this is the only file that matters."

Briggs and Viper immediately started talking strategy, but I zoned out for a while. After about ten minutes, I heard Briggs say "Dismissed."

As we left the room, I grabbed Viper's shoulder. "Viper, I need a huge favor from you and Kane. I need you two to get back to Beacon and train me team in Titan combat. They need to be good at it by the end of the day. I have faith in them."

"Consider it done," Viper said. He and Kane walked to the dropship and took off in the direction of Beacon.

I walked down to the training room and met with Gates there. "You say teamwork's important. Let's see what you've got. Choose one weapon. We're going up against spectres."

I chose my Kraber AP. I loaded a fresh mag and pulled back on the lever to cock the massive gun. A shell flew out the side of the rifle. Gates grabbed a Mastiff shotgun. She loaded six rounds individually and attached the weapon to her back.

We entered the arena. There were doors on each side of the relatively small hexagonal arena, letting things enter. The A.I. started speaking, informing us on the current situation, "Live fire training exercise begins now."

Gates and I stood back to back as the doors opened. We each took three doors. Hordes of spectres came marching out of the doors, each armed with various firearms. I shot the heads off of seven spectres before reloading and taking out several more. I let none get near me. Gates had a different approach. She took out clusters of spectres with a single round from the Mastiff. When no spectres were close to me, I turned around and picked some off on Gates's half of the arena.

"Gates: shotgun!" I shouted over the weapons firing. "On my mark."

"Sync," she said.

"Mark!" In perfect sync, Gates jumped over me and grabbed the Kraber I threw in the air for her while I slid under her and grabbed the Mastiff she passed to me. I clubbed a spectre that got too close with the butt of the shotgun and resumed taking out the rest. I was able to hit a couple at a time. I reloaded the rounds individually in the temporary calm. After the last spectre fell, an alarm blared and the A.I. voice came on again. "Live fire training exercise complete. Excellent work."

Gates gave me back my Kraber and I handed her shotgun to her. "Thanks for the cover fire," she said.

"Thanks for the shotgun. And the trust," I said.

Briggs entered the arena. "Excellent work, you two," she said. "But you can't celebrate right now. Follow me."

"What is it?"

"The IMC are almost here. It should be a few days until they get here. We need to get everything prepared."

"I guess I'll be staying here until then. I have all the files and have a background with them, so I can help a lot. I hope it's not a bother."

"It's not. I need you to report to titanbay. I need you to motivate the soldiers for the upcoming battle."

"Yes ma'am. Consider it done." I made way to titanbay, preparing a speech in my head.