I, Simulacurm. [Worm/Titanfall]

royalMJD · Mar 18, 2026

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Interviewer: Dr Joseph Martinez

Interviewee: SUBJECT FW21582 "Taylor"

Date: 21.01.2710

Site: Typhon Fold Research Facility 03-Kappa

Foreword:

[BEGIN LOG]

(Interior: Subject FW21582 is strapped to a medical gurney with IV drips inserted into her upper arms. There are sedative injectors on standby. No staff are currently in the room with Subject FW21582 – Observation is being performed via cameras and speakers)

Dr Martinez: Good morning, Taylor. How are you feeling today?

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21582 shows no signs of responding to the question)

Dr Martinez: I hope the new medication hasn't been too jarring.

Dr Martinez: We noticed you haven't been sleeping recently, Taylor. The team and I are starting to grow worried.

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21582 appears to start sobbing)

Dr Martinez: Taylor? You can speak to us, we're here to help.

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21582 finally turns to the camera)

SUBJECT FW21582: H-Help? Help?! You're not here to help. I'm lying here strapped to a table with needles in my arms, my legs are fucking gone! And you keep asking the same questions over and over. Fuck you and your help.

Dr Martinez: Taylor. I've told you this before; it was the only way we could save you.

SUBJECT FW21582: Yeah, well, I don't feel very saved. How many days have I been stuck tied to this bed for? Days? Weeks?

(Dr Martinez starts to show signs of visual frustration)

Dr Martinez: Look, Taylor, you know how this works by now. The more you cooperate with me, the easier it will be for today's interviews and testing session to be over. Then I can leave you alone, and you can go back to resting.

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21582 begins to sob even more)

SUBJECT FW21582: What more can I give you? I've already told you everything I remember. That I was shoved in a locker before blacking out and waking up outside of here, wherever here even is!

Dr Martinez: We're just trying to clarify and clear up some...irregularities in the story you've been telling us.

Dr Martinez: (A pause as Dr Martinez appears to contemplate his notes for a moment, and let Subject FW21582 calm down)

Dr Martinez: Alright, Taylor. New question. You claim to have been seeing moving shadows in your peripheral vision recently? Are they the reason you haven't been going to sleep

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21582 pauses before answering again)

SUBJECT FW21582: The shadows? Yeah, I didn't notice them at first, but I swear they're here with me. Every time I close my eyes.

Dr Martinez: Can you describe these shadows to me Taylor? Do they have figures or are they just shapes try and go into as much detail as you can.

SUBJECT FW21582: I…I can't really describe what they are. Sometimes I feel like I see a person, sometimes it's just dark, but I know they're always there. I can feel them watching me.

Dr Martinez: Okay. We're going to run a quick experiment, okay? I'm going to slowly dim the lights in your room, and I want you to focus on the shadows.

SUBJECT FW21582: Wait what? No, please don't.

Dr Martinez: I'm sorry, Taylor, but we have to do this. Now just do your best to focus on what you see.

SUBJECT FW21582: No! God no! Please don't turn off the lights

(The lights in Subject FW21582's cell are slowly dimmed)

SUBJECT FW21582: NO! PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU, I'LL DO ANYTHING, DON'T TURN OFF THE LIGHTS. PLEASE!

(One-minute passes, and the lights grow dimmer. Subject FW21582 starts to hyperventilate.

Dr Anderson: (Dr Anderson, a secondary observer, speaks up after the monitor screens start flashing amber)

Dr Anderson: Martinez, take a look at this. We're getting some strange readings. Could be background noise?

(The lights go dark and through thermal cameras Subject FW21582 can be seen freezing before she starts to struggle and thrash against her bindings before releasing a scream)

SUBJECT FW21582: WHAT ARE YOU?! GET AWAY FROM ME! HELP ME PLEASE!

[NOTE] A monochromatic rift starts to appear above Subject FW21582's head, and the observer room is bathed in crimson from every monitor present

Dr Anderson: Sudden temporal Fold detected! Gravitational readings are going through the roof! Administering sedatives now!

Dr Martinez: No, wait! I want a few more readings!

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21582's restraints start digging into her body, and her screaming and thrashing become even more intense, blood starts leaking from her nose and eyes)

Dr Anderson: Blast your readings, Martinez! We're going to lose the subject, and then we're next! Her blood pressure is skyrocketing, and her pulse is a fucking seismograph!

[NOTE] A Wailing klaxon starts to sound as the door to Subject FW21582's room seals itself before an automated message begins to play

Facility 03-Kappa OVERLORD: Warning unstable Temporal Fold detected, warning unstable Temporal Fold detected, warning unstable Temporal Fold detected.

Dr Martinez: Fine, god dammit! Administer emergency sedatives now!

SUBJECT FW21582: (Subject FW21852's eyes roll back before her body suddenly goes limp as needles depress across her entire body, the rift collapses, and the only sound that can be heard from the cell is Subject FW21852's shallow breathing and the wailing of the alarm)

Dr Anderson: Blood pressure, pulse and brain activity are all stabilising, and blood oxygen levels returning to normal. Jesus, Martinez, never do that again.

Dr Martinez: (Dr Martinez doesn't respond to Dr Anderson. Instead, all of his attention is fixated on the readings coming from the monitors)

[END LOG]

ADDENDUM TO FW21582_Interview8

Date 23.01.2710

[NOTE FROM TEAM]

Subject FW21582 at 0416 hours showed signs of an unknown temporal power causing visible temporal flux in her containment cell. Whether this is because of the circumstances in which she arrived on Typhon or her proximity upon arrival to Project HOURGLASS, it is unknown. Further testing must be conducted.

Sedation was authorised after gravitational wave readings exceeded facility safeguards. Temporal resonance immediately ceased when Subject FW21582 was rendered unconscious.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Subject FW21582 threat rating updated to reflect new status as "Temporal-Risk"
Subject FW21582 containment status updated to reflect new threat rating
Relocation to deeper and more reinforced facility chambers before further testing commences
Dr Martinez undergo immediate retraining in IMC emergency temporal procedural management

Betad by: No one! All work is written by me with the power of Microsoft Word's grammar checker, so forgive any minor errors. This is my first published story, so feedback is always welcome.

This story is a Worm x Titanfall cross. Prior knowledge of both universes is unnecessary, as logs like this one will help fill in gaps. This is just a quick snippet of the main story to come, which will primarily take place in the sunny city of Brockton, so I hope you enjoy.

Worm is owned by Wildbow, while Titanfall is owned by Respawn Entertainment

royalMJD · Mar 19, 2026

1.1

██ . ██ . 2711 IMC Typhon Facility 09-GAMMA

The dull buzzing of an alarm was what woke Taylor at exactly 0700. Same sound, same frequency, same tone. For the last eleven months, it had been the exact same noise. On the alarm's fifth ring, her hand reached up and struck the clock, and the room returned to silence.

She allowed herself a few deep breaths before swinging her legs out from under the sheets and placing both feet on the ground, shivering at the sensation of cold metal on skin. Her legs were four months old. Vat-grown replacements, Dr Martinez had told her. A reward for her ongoing 'cooperation' with his testing.

Most mornings, Taylor still expected to wake up and look down only to see two stumps, and some mornings she still expected the slight delay that occurred when her legs were freshly attached. How they had fixed her legs so quickly was a question she tried not to think about.

The legs didn't change the fact that she still hated the IMC for stripping her of so many basic rights in the beginning. But she didn't live in a bed anymore, strapped in all the time.

She had learned to enjoy the small victories.

Her moment of peace didn't last as the lights in her room brightened far too quickly.

"Subject FW21582. Waking cycle complete."

The voice seemed to emerge from every wall panel at once.

"Good morning to you as well, Overlord"

A low hum passed through the wall panels in acknowledgment.

"Your biometrics indicate a slightly elevated stress response while resting. A deviation of 3.4%. I have logged this change"

Taylor stood, stretching her arms over her head and rolling her shoulders, hearing the satisfying pop of her back.

"Yes, well, thank you for that wonderful information, Overlord."

Taylor crossed her room, retrieving her standard IMC subject test uniform from a hanger in the corner. She dressed slowly as she moved through her familiar morning routine.

"Dr Joseph Martinez has requested your presence at 0730 hours in Simulation Room Three. IMC personnel will arrive shortly to escort you."

Taylor flinched at the sudden interruption, then blushed, realising no one was there to catch her reaction anyway.

"Of course he has," she groaned.

Taylor moved back over to her bed and sat on its edge, lacing up her boots. With nothing to do after getting dressed, her mind began to wander. Thoughts of what Martinez might want from her today plagued her. These last few weeks, he had been drilling her with questions, and it was starting to get to her.

Idly, her fingers traced patterns in the air as white and purple arcs of energy jumped between them.

Taylor didn't notice at first but when she looked down at her hands, the world around her grew quieter. Her vision remained locked on her hand, and the rest of the space around her gradually drained of its colour. The constant hum of the facility stretched into a low metallic groan, and at that moment, Taylor's world grew still. Yet she didn't blink as her vision began to darken further and the arcs of energy began to coalesce. A rift was opening at the edge of her perception

Suddenly, her body felt misaligned.

Taylor's feet buckled.

She hit the floor hard.

Her stomach rolled as the world around her grew muted. Next came the pain. It wasn't sharp. It was pressure, and it came washing over her all at once.

"Subject FW21582 phase shift threshold detected."

Colour snapped back into place all at once and Taylor gasped as the voice cut through the haze in her brain.

She shook her head rapidly to clear her vision as the realisation of what she had just done hit her.

The energy dissipated between her hands.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," she cried out as she tried to stand up off the floor, stumbling as her balance still hadn't returned.

"Overlord, please…don't call for the guards again!" Taylor pleaded with the walls of her room.

"Reminder, Phase-shift transitions are restricted to authorised testing environments and pose great bodily harm should they occur unsupervised," Overlord replied mechanically "Unsupervised activities present unacceptable risk to the subject",

The doors to Taylor's room slammed open.

All she could do was fall backwards and sigh.

Today was going to be another long day.

The synchronised stomping rang out as a harsh reminder of who was escorting her as Taylor was wheeled to the front door of Sim Room Three's observatory in cuffs.

White ceiling lights passed by, each reflecting off the polarised visors of her escorts.

"You know, I can walk now." Taylor murmured, trying to get comfy in the wheelchair.

Neither soldier responded. She shot them a frustrated glare, but any further commentary died when she saw the first guard rest his hand on his rifle. The rest of the trip was done in silence.

When they finally reached the door to the observation deck, it opened with a hydraulic hiss and Taylor spotted Dr Martinez arguing with a technician by a row of monitors, each displaying technical readouts and surveillance feeds from all across the facility.

She noted that a few of the feeds were trained directly on her own room, but she was quickly wheeled away to a separate section of the observatory by the guards.

She could still hear Martinez in the background, "…I don't care if your device says it's normal. Just replace it!"

The technician seemed to hesitate. "But, Sir, command has specifically stated- "

"I don't care what command has stated; I need this monitor replaced, and I needed it replaced yesterday!"

Taylor couldn't see what happened next, but from the scurrying of feet, she imagined the technician had run off to do whatever Martinez had asked for.

When all was quiet, and she wondered what was taking so long, she heard the deliberate striking of leather heels on metal as Martinez approached.

"Good morning, Taylor,"

He turned to her escorts before gesturing at them with a flick of his hand. They complied at once, removing Taylor's cuffs and leaving the room. The door slid shut behind them with a dull thud.

Taylor slowly stood up from the wheelchair and began testing her balance before rubbing her wrists. "You know, the cuffs are unnecessary."

"Merely a precaution," Martinez replied. "Overlord reported a phase-shift threshold breach."

Taylor looked away. "I lost focus."

"That makes it the third time this month", Martinez said as the smile slowly dropped from his face.

Taylor, unable to meet his eyes, spoke to the floor. "Yeah, well, I'm still trying to get used to…" she waved her hands around the room "Everything."

Martinez focused on her for far too long before responding.

"And you're doing very well considering the circumstances of your arrival," he said. "Far better than either you or I could have predicted."

Taylor still refused to meet his gaze. He turned away before the silence became too awkward, tapping commands on a screen mounted to his wrist.

"I requested you here early today for a very specific reason."

A few more taps, and a door at the far end of the observatory split apart, revealing a corridor bathed in harsh white light. Yellow warning signs lined the walls. Voltage warnings and Radiation.

Martinez didn't seem bothered in the slightest as he began to walk towards the doorway before glancing over his shoulder.

"Well?" Martinez said before walking further into the corridor.

The hesitation lasted only a moment. Taylor glanced over her shoulder before steeling herself, as she took a step forward and followed him in.

The air in the corridor was cooler than the observatory and tasted more sterile. It reminded Taylor of her early months here. Medical rooms, gurneys and needles. Not one of the memories was pleasant.

An involuntary shudder went down her spine as they kept walking.

As Taylor passed by, another warning sign appeared.

WARNING: IONISING AND LASER RADIATION

NO ENTRY FOR UNAUTHORISED PERSONAL

Taylor's footsteps slowed as she looked to Martinez. He was unbothered, moving further down the corridor at a steady pace. He didn't explain where they were going, just expected her to follow.

"Environmental radiation readings are below the acceptable safety threshold," Overlord stated from somewhere above her.

Taylor kept walking.

After what felt to Taylor like several minutes, they finally reached a sealed bulkhead with a biometric scanner nearby.
Martinez walked up and pressed his wrist against the scanner without slowing.

The scanner flashed green as the bulkhead doors groaned open, revealing the vast empty chamber beyond. The observation deck sat high in a far corner, overlooking the whole chamber.

Martinez led her to the centre where he finally stopped. Taylor, close behind, folded her arms before finally asking Martinez the question that had been plaguing her the entire walk here.

"So", she said cautiously, "are you going to explain what we're doing here?"

Martinez still just stared forward into the chamber before finally answering. "I've studied other subjects with people like you. The fold, its power is extraordinary. And unfathomably dangerous."

"Today was the final sign that something needs to be done. Now, when your power activates, it displaces you in this reality, we both know this."

Taylor's brow furrowed and she hesitantly nodded. "That's one… way to describe it"

"What you don't understand, Taylor, is that your phase shift is abnormal. Something else is interfering with your ability to shift, and your body is unable to handle the forces acting on it."

He turned towards Taylor, a serious look drawn on his face.

"You don't know how close you truly are to your own death each time you shift."

Taylor snorted. She could very clearly remember the darkness, the pressure, the shadows.

The pain.

She clenched her jaw.

"I wasn't trying to get myself killed."

"I know." He paused, "And that, Taylor, is exactly what is wrong. Your foundation is flawed"

Martinez turned around once more and tapped a few buttons on his wrist pad. Panels in the floor that Taylor hadn't spotted earlier opened up, and prefabricated structures arose from the ground.

"If the body doesn't know where it is at all times, the brain can't comprehend the idea of displacing itself from our reality"

Concrete and steel buildings rapidly filled the chamber. Ropes and cables littered the chamber, trenches appeared, and sand and mud replaced the smooth steel.

Taylor's arms went slack.

"An obstacle course?" she said, "That's your solution?"

"It's a controlled stress environment," Martinez stated, "It's designed to test your balance, coordination, cardiovascular endurance and decision-making under pressure. The course can be adjusted through my wrist pad or up at the observation room."

Martinez tapped his wrist pad again, and Taylor saw new obstacles and terrain appear and disappear. Climbing holds, balance beams came and went.

She glanced up to the observation deck, then back at the course.
"This is supposed to help me how?" She asked. The skepticism clearly echoed in her voice.

"Physical control builds instinct." He continued. "This instinct will help stabilise the transition."

Taylor walked slowly towards the course.

Towering steel loomed over her, and it seemed even bigger when she was up close. Running had never been her strength, nor had climbing, or balance, or anything physical for that matter. She'd spent the last three years of her life trying not to draw attention to herself.

"I don't think I can do this." A pause. "Look at me." She gestured vaguely at all of herself before pointing towards the obstacles.

"I've never done anything like this in my life, and now you want me to do it under the context that if I don't get stronger, I'm not going to survive?"

Martinez said nothing, and Taylor felt her head drop.

"I'm not expecting you to succeed, Taylor," Martinez said neutrally.

Her gaze snapped up to meet his.

"I am, however, expecting you to try." He continued. "Choosing not to try is the only outcome in which I cannot help you survive"

The words caught her flat footed. For a moment, there was silence, and she didn't know how to respond.

She had expected pressure. A demand. Some carefully disguised order framed behind polite pretences. Instead, Martinez stood there, watching and waiting. There was no urgency in him, no visible disappointment when she didn't immediately move. There was nothing.

That almost made her as uncomfortable as being forced would have.

Turning back to the obstacles, she grimaced. Her eyes traced the narrow beams suspended over trenches and the climbing nets that would certainly hurt if she fell. It looked less like random obstacles and more like equipment designed to test every physical insecurity she had.

Taylor's hands curled at her sides, and behind her, Martinez shifted his weight and gestured to the first obstacle but said nothing. Simply waiting as all while the weight of the decision rested with her.

That was what made it so hard to refuse.

Taylor didn't move.

Seconds passed. Then minutes.

She was prepared for the correction. For Martinez to clarify. To remind her that refusal wasn't really an option...yet nothing came. No guards stormed in with guns trained on her. No warning from Overlord about compliance echoed in the chamber. The facility that she believed was so used to noting down every deviation of hers, remained quiet.

The absence of demands and instruction felt foreign, almost unsettling.

For the first time since arriving on Typhon, Taylor realised that no one was making the decision for her.

Which meant not moving was also her decision.

She slowly exhaled and began walking to the start before even more self doubt could creep in.

This time, the ground felt unfamiliar. Textured, rough, uneven. She was so used to the solid, flat flooring of medical chambers and cells that when she first stepped onto the dirt, she stumbled and had to catch herself. Her feet had yet to be accustomed to terrain like this.

Once again, Martinez said nothing, watching with the same measured gaze. He offered no words of encouragement, no motivation, only his attention.

The first obstacle appeared simple. A rope with a bell attached to the top.

It should have been simple; all she had to do was climb the rope and hit the bell. It was no more than 15 feet, but when she held onto the rope, her throat tightened.

Her body recognised this feeling before her mind did. The moment when someone else was going to decide what she was worth.

For a heartbeat she didn't move.

The bell did not mock her. It didn't taunt her; it made no sound. It simply hung there.

She imagined falling from halfway up, imagined hitting the ground, imagined the disappointment that Martinez would feel, imagined the disappointment she would feel. She almost let go.

Instead, Taylor pulled.

The first pull was awkward, and the rope strained louder than it should have. More strength than technique, and her arms were shaking as she struggled to lift her weight off the ground for the first time. Feet, unable to find a solid hold to stand on.

She barely rose at all before doubt flashed through her mind.

It was too difficult. She wasn't built to do this.

Her foot slipped.

She hung on as hard as she could. If she fell now, she didn't know if she'd have the confidence to try again.

For a single moment, Taylor hung from a rope, four feet above the ground. Contemplating whether she really could do it. The ground was close enough that she could simply drop down and quit if she wished.

She pulled again.

She shifted her grip and tightened her legs around the rope, finding purchase. It felt unstable, but it worked. She didn't slip.

She pulled again.

This time, she focused solely on the next foot of rope.

One arm out. Pull.

One arm out. Pull.

She settled into a steady rhythm as she climbed. Inch by inch, she moved. Her shoulders began to ache, and her palms felt like they were on fire.

The last stretch was the hardest. Her arms shaking, fingers gripping the rope so hard her knuckles turned white. Her vision began to blur as tears started to form in her eyes.

Just as she was starting to grow worried, she'd never reach the top, she felt something brush her head.

Lifting her right arm, she struck the bell.

The sound rang clear across the testing chamber. Undeniable proof of what she had just accomplished.

Taylor stayed there for a second at the top of the rope, catching her breath. She descended slowly, taking care to avoid burning her hands sliding down the rope.

When her feet were planted again, she looked up at the bell. It suddenly didn't feel so far away.

Her arms still ached and her hands burned, but the fear she was waiting for never came. Turning her head, she locked eyes with Martinez.
He had been standing there the entire time. Hands behind his back. Composed. His expression hadn't changed, he hadn't moved to help, he hadn't gone to tell her to stop.

He waited.

For a second, she was unsure he would say or do anything. A correction, a reminder. Instead, he nodded. It was a small one, a slight dip of the chin, but it was enough for her.

The smile that formed on her face was the first one in months. It was small and uncertain.

And for the first time that day, she did not look away from his gaze.

High above them in the roof of the chamber, the cameras watched her.

…

It never once occurred to Taylor that she wasn't wearing her glasses.

"Betad by: Myself (and a grammar checker)

Hey everyone, hope you enjoy the first full chapter of I, Simulacrum, and the beginning of the first act "Cold Start." Only 5 chapters in this arc as its the setup leading us to Earth Bet and Worms main timeline.
As always, feedback is welcome. I'm still trying to find my style and rhythm as someone learning to become a better writer. But I hope you enjoy!

Worm is owned by Wildbow and Titanfall is owned by Respawn Entertainment.

royalMJD · Saturday at 7:25 AM

1.2

██ . ██ . 2712 IMC Typhon Facility 09-GAMMA

Understanding

Taylor yawned and spun her pen smoothly through her fingers.

It was too early to be learning about fold theory and alternate timelines.

Standing at the front of the room, writing on a board was Martinez. Numbers, graphs, lines all flowing out from his drawings. Taylor understood some of it, but a few of the finer concepts went over her head. She quickly shook herself out of her stupor as she realised she should probably start taking notes and began writing.

"Last week, we worked on understanding the current theories and science surrounding alternate timelines. Today, Taylor, we're going to be working on understanding the mass displacement principle behind your powers." Martinez continued. "When you enter the phase shift, all your mass is moved from our current timeline into the alternate. Through past testing by other researchers, we've found that you can bring everything you consider "you" mentally into the phase. This includes any clothes you may be wearing, any weapons you may be holding or even your own limbs."

Taylor let out an involuntary shudder at the mention of limbs. What poor soul had been the one to test that? She wondered.

"The phase-shifted timeline mirrors our own. Physical structures remain constant. Walls, terrain, buildings, doors. They all stay present and solid."

Taylor let out a small frown. "So I can't just run through things?"

"No." Martinez paused, "Not inanimate things. But when you return, your mass forcibly reasserts itself in this timeline and if that space is occupied the results are rather...catastrophic."

Taylor slowly lowered her pen, curiosity piqued, "Catastrophic?"

"Observe," Martinez gestured to a screen on the wall, and Taylor turned to watch.

A video was playing, and Taylor could spot a title in its corner: "Cpl. Chen - 2710 Battle of Demeter"

The video was a helmet camera recording. The image bounced with every step as the pilot, Cpl. Chen sprinted through a narrow corridor almost faster than Taylor could keep track of. Metal walls flashed by on both sides while the sound of distant gunfire echoed in the recording.
A pistol snapped up into view at the bottom of the frame as the pilot slid behind a piece of broken-down machinery. Bullets ricocheted off the metal inches from the camera lens.

"Contact front! It's a pilot!" Bullets continued to fall around the cover, a cacophony of sound. The pilot lifted up his left wrist, and as his hand clenched, the world drained of colour.

The corridor was painted in that familiar monochromatic grey as he entered phase shift. Sound had dulled almost into silence when the pilot stood up and rushed through the distorted world. Taylor could see vague outlines of people approaching and speeding up.

Then the colour returned and so did the pilot. He reappeared directly inside another soldier.

The recording erupted in a violent explosion of blood, viscera and shattered body armour as both bodies tried to occupy the same space. The camera jolted wildly as the pilot pulled his pistol up, and just before he could put a bullet through another soldier, the recording paused. Frozen in the colour of blood.

Taylor shoved her chair backwards.

She turned away, one hand over her mouth as her stomach rolled.

"Oh shit, eugh-"

The room was silent except for the sound of Taylor's dry heaving.

Martinez calmly turned off the screen "That is what happens when someone is standing where you decide to come back."

When Taylor had wiped her mouth dry, Martinez reached into his pocket and pulled out a futuristic-looking vambrace. Just like the one Cpl. Chen had used it in the recording.

"Is this…?" Taylor asked curiously.

"A phase anchor? Yes, it is." Martinez said as he passed it to her.

She slowly turned it over in her hands.

"What exactly does it do?"

"It reduces the aftershock of shifting too many times in quick succession. Most pilots also use it as a tool to assist with their initial shift. However, you seem to have no issue doing so on your own."

Taylor slipped the vambrace on. It fit perfectly.

Motion

She'd seen many obstacle courses by now, but Taylor had never seen one quite like this.

The course stretched across the entire chamber, a labyrinth of steel, concrete and walls. Although the course didn't just stretch outward.

It went up.

Taylor had to crane her head back to see the rest of it. Suspended platforms, overhead rails, massive walkways and metal pillars that eclipsed some of the buildings. The course was almost as tall as it was long. Her eyes were transfixed as somewhere overhead, metal shifted as the course changed in layout.

"You're staring again, kid."

Taylor turned to see Sergeant McGill, her training instructor, leaning against the railing behind her.

"Don't get any ideas. They spend months learning to run that. You're not ready for it yet," she smirked as she looked Taylor up and down.

Taylor glanced back just in time to see a figure dashing towards one of the steel walls.

The figure didn't slow.

With a great leap, they angled their boots and began to run along the side of the wall. Halfway across, they twisted their body and launched themselves, soaring through the gap with their jump kit. A brief burst of flame was visible from the thrusters on the figure's belt as it shot them towards a parallel wall, where they landed even higher than before, and they took off running again.

Taylor stared.

So that was a real pilot.

Privilege

Taylor hesitated just outside the doorway as noise leaked through. The mess hall was loud. Not an alarm in her ear, sort of loud. But real people loud.

The yells and laughs of conversation filled the air as trays clattered against metal and chairs scraped the floor. Soldiers, scientists, engineers and technicians came and went. Some ate quickly before rushing off to their jobs, while others took their time. She even spotted a few people in test-subject uniforms. Just like hers.

In the distance, a television could be seen reporting about battles on a planet she'd never heard of.

Taylor hesitated again.

For the lion's share of a year she had eaten alone. Her meals had been brought to her room or handed to her after training; normally, there were also guards. Always somewhere quiet and controlled. This was different.

"You coming?" McGill asked, already walking in ahead. "If Martinez and the shrinks didn't believe you could be trusted, you wouldn't be here."

Taylor followed.

They moved through the line together, the metal tray sliding along as Taylor glanced at the food options available to her. Potatoes. Boiled vegetables. Meat. Bread. Proper food.

She couldn't remember the last time she had sat down and had a proper meal.

Around them, people moved as usual. No one was watching her. No one seemed to care that she was there in a different uniform. No one seemed interested in the girl who had spent most of her year locked away by herself.

Her phase-anchor began to glow.

"Taylor." McGill's hand was resting on hers, and the glow faded.

"I'm fine. It's just strange being around so many people again."

McGill said nothing as they moved to sit at an unoccupied table. They ate in silence, with all their attention being taken up by the ongoing war reports

"Mass casu- ...Frontier Militia pushing int- ...Transports targ-..."

Taylor hadn't known the IMC was at war.
Although, in hindsight, it made sense as she glanced around at all the military-looking personnel.
Halfway through their meal, Taylor asked McGill a question that had been itching at her since she first walked into the mess hall.

"Do they actually eat?" Taylor, while pointing to a Simulacrum sitting alone across the room.

She had heard about them before, but never seen one in person. Machines built with a digitised human consciousness. Memories were preserved and uploaded into mechanical bodies so that they could exist long after their biological bodies were gone.

The one sitting across the room sat with a clean tray.
McGill hesitated for a second before responding.

"They think they do."

Taylor wondered why McGill had paused before thinking better of it. Maybe it was taboo to ask about.

She stabbed her fork down into her potatoes. She was hungry after all.

Evaluation

The room was empty.

Taylor stood in the centre of a relatively featureless room. All the walls were featureless except for a large door at the far end of the room. There were also sandbags scattered all over the area, each marked with countless splatters of orange paint.

McGill's voice came alive over a speaker and camera system.

"Dr Martinez and his fellow researchers believe we've built up your strength enough to begin more coordination and dexterity work."

Taylor bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. She had enjoyed the exercise and training she'd been getting recently. She was getting stronger by the day.

"By doing what?"

McGill's answer came by virtue of a door opening on the other side of the room. From the darkness of the hallway, a robotic figure stepped out into the light. It stood a little taller than she did and was covered in what looked like heavy armour plating. What alarmed Taylor, however, was the assault rifle it was wielding.

Taylor stared at it, then turned back to the cameras.

"A training robot?" She called out.

The robot raised its rifle, and Taylor had just enough time to register the action before it fired.

A puff of orange paint splattered across her chest, and she hit the floor a moment later, staring up at the ceiling.

"Right. If that were a real bullet, you would be seriously hurt." She could almost hear the smirk in McGill's voice. "That is a spectre, one of Hammond Robotics' finest inventions, a standard combat robot used across IMC space."

Taylor groaned as she pushed herself up onto one elbow, locking eyes with the robot's featureless faceplate. Across the room, the spectre hadn't moved since she first shot. The rifle was still trained on her. Taylor slowly climbed to her feet, and as she stood up straight, she saw the robot's finger squeeze the trigger.

Taylor yelped as she ducked behind the nearest sandbag, as she heard soft puffs of paint impacting the sandbag she was hiding behind. When there was a break in the shooting, Taylor stuck her head over for a peek before orange filled her vision and she realised she was lying down again.

"Congratulations, Taylor, you lasted a second longer that time"

She wiped the paint with her forearm. Across the room, the spectre reloaded, and Taylor could almost feel the headache this would bring.

"Right," she muttered, pushing herself back to her knees. "So this is how it was going to go."

This time, she was faster, sprinting the moment she stood up, Taylor beelined it straight towards a sandbag closer to the spectre. The pfft of paint striking the ground where she had just been kicked her body into overdrive, and she leapt for cover, landing right behind another barricade. She had made it halfway across the room in that move.

She sat there for a moment to gather her bearings before another splatter of paint, this time on her arm. Taylor spun around as the impact knocked her to the floor once again.

"What? You didn't think the spectre couldn't move, did you?" McGill's taunting voice came out.

She looked up to see that the robot had moved to a different part of the room.

"Again", McGill called to her.

Taylor got to her knees and stood up again.

Perseverance

Three days.

Taylor had been fighting the Spectre for three days.

Every attempt ended the same way as the first fifty. Orange paint. Floor. McGill telling her what she had failed at this time.

As she walked into the room on day number four, Taylor realised something while looking at the newer stains on the sandbags. She really hated that orange colour.

The door slid shut behind her, and McGill's voice rang out over the speakers like it always did. "Whenever you're ready, Taylor"

The spectre raised its rifle, and Taylor was already moving.

Sitting behind cover, Taylor began brainstorming once again. For the last three days, nothing she tried worked.

"Think Taylor, Think!"

She'd tried running. She'd tried hiding. She'd tried baiting the spectre into wasting all of its bullets. None of it had worked. It hadn't made a single mistake in all the time it had been fighting her.

She flinched as a round of paint whizzed above her head.

Oh. Yeah.

She was still supposed to be fighting it and still being evaluated. Peaking through a gap in the sandbags, Taylor could see the robot holding its position. She knew that if she charged it head-on, she would, without a doubt, be shot. But hiding here was doing her no good, as evidenced by her previous attempts.

There was one thing she still had yet to try.

Taylor looked at her left wrist, where the Vambrace had been resting.

The phase anchor.

She hadn't forgotten all the lectures talking about the dangers of phase-shifting. She especially hadn't forgotten what had happened the first few times she had involuntarily shifted. The video from Demeter hung at the forefront of her brain.

But the spectre was still firing, and she was no closer to winning this fight.

Another burst of paint.

She'd had enough.

Exhaling sharply, Taylor closed her eyes, clenched her fist and rolled out from behind the sandbag.

Blue light filled her vision briefly before her world was washed in grey. The phase anchor hummed an aggressive blue light as it worked to help manage the forces acting on her.

Across the room, slightly distorted but still visible, was the outline of a machine. She couldn't help it.

Taylor ran. Hard.

Her legs were pistons propelling her across the room as hard as possible. The blue light from her arm was beginning to die down.

Colour snapped back into place, and she reappeared right in front of the spectre.

For half a second, it felt like her world froze before she reached out.

The punch was sloppy, her form was off, and it was a punch that contained all three days' worth of her frustration.
But it worked, and her reward was the satisfying crunch of its faceplate as it toppled backwards and hit the ground. The hum of its servos ceased as it lay there unmoving.

Taylor could only stare at it in silence.

"Well." McGill's voice rang out, "...Congratulations. You got there in the end."

Somewhere deep in a room in Facility 09, a lone researcher was reading over his notes when a ping from his personal datapad alerted him of a new message.

Dr Martinez glanced down at the message.

Then he smiled.

royalMJD · Tuesday at 11:21 AM

1.3

██ . ██ . 2713 IMC Typhon Facility 09-GAMMA

[Destination]

[Agreement]

[Trajectory]

[A̶g̴r̴e̴e̸m̷e̷n̵t̸]

[̶̛̮̽̓È̴̝̫͆̒r̶͍͚̂r̴̪̔̓ö̵̧͓́͛r̴̖̫̚]

[̴̮͗E̷͉̕r̸̮͂r̵̤͝ő̸͕ȓ̶͔]

[Host connection lost]

[Searching]

[Searching]

[Searching]

[Searching]

…

ORDINARY

Taylor woke with a strange feeling she had remembered something important and then just let it slip away again.

It hadn't been the first time she'd woken like that recently. The dreams never brought images that she could grasp for more than a fleeting moment. No faces, no specific locations and no voices she could remember. What remained, instead, was the memory of something vaster than she could comprehend in a place she couldn't quite reach.

The lights in her room slowly came to life, and Taylor yawned as she lay in bed simply enjoying the quiet. She had asked for the alarm to be removed a few months ago, and she couldn't be happier that the techs had finally pulled through with her request.

A familiar voice came to life above her.

"Good morning, subject FW21582. Waking cycle complete"
"Urgh, Overlord, how many times have I told you just to call me Taylor?" she groaned as she rolled back over into her blankets.

"Acknowledged. However, IMC identification protocols require I use your registered subject identification."

"They always do," she mumbled out from under her pillow.

Letting out a sigh, Taylor pushed herself upright. The room was still silent, and the lights weren't at their full brightness just yet. For a moment, she simply sat rubbing away the last vestiges of sleep before her gaze drifted to the small collection of things that had slowly taken over the shelves and space around her.

The room had looked nothing like this when she had first arrived. Nothing more than plain walls, an empty hanger alongside a desk and a chair. However, that had now changed.

A cracked spectre faceplate sat on top of the small filing cabinet next to her desk. Its surface was still imprinted with the dent she had left in it months ago. Next to it rested a small plaque. Engraved with the insignias of the IMC and ARES Division, it was given to her on completion of her basic mobility training course. Between them, a data knife sat resting in its sheath, the handle worn from use. Martinez had issued it to her during one of her phase-shift test runs, stating that it had all the instruments needed to record data inside the phase.

She had convinced him to let her keep it.

There were other small knick-knacks scattered around the room as well. Training gloves rested on the back of the chair, loose sheets of paper lay scattered across the desk. Notes from all of Taylor's lessons with Martinez, along with her own research from testing with her powers.

The clothing rack was also looking fuller now. Where once only a single test subject uniform had lived, now it was filled with training outfits and armour plates. Taylor would never admit it to anyone, but she loved how the armour looked on her, especially with how her training had filled out her frame.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and let her eyes linger on the faceplate once again. She kept it for a reason. It was a good reminder of how far she'd come. Another second before she nodded and stood up.

Slipping on her phase-anchor, it began to glow as it interfaced with her powers. A satisfied nod, and Taylor made her way over to the clothes rack.

Overlord would probably start to complain if she lazed around for too long.

PHASE

Taylor sat on the bench in the staging room, elbows resting on her knees as she stared at the floor, one leg bouncing in anticipation of today's testing.

She rolled her shoulders and took deep, calming breaths. Out of routine, she ran her right hand along the phase-anchor to make sure it was secure, fingers tracing the scratches and marks it had received from the abuse she put it through in her training.

"Alright," she muttered. "Just another day. Just another test."

The door at the front of the room slid open, and two technicians pushing a cart of equipment entered. Both wore the standard IMC reinforced lab gear. Thick, reinforced suits and hardened polycarbonate visors, along with their own phase-anchors, ensured that only something catastrophic could harm the technicians.

One of them gave her a quick once-over before looking back at his datapad.

"Good morning, Taylor."

"Morning."

"We'll need you to be standing for this."

Taylor stood up and straightened as the techs began attaching equipment to her. Adhesive sensors were attached to her neck, arms, and legs, while a neuromonitor was placed on top of her head. The other technician stuck a telemetry sensor to her vambrace.

The technicians stepped back before reviewing the live feeds on their datapads.

"Neural monitor is online and running at 100%," the first technician said. "Phase-anchor telemetry is synchronised," was the reply.

With both technicians satisfied, Taylor was given the all clear to proceed to the next room.

Unlike her mobility and live-fire training areas, this room was nearly empty, except for a few objects which stood out. There were rings on the floor, each one corresponding to a distance: 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, all the way to 250 meters, and gridlines had also been marked out. Taylor could see a multitude of cameras and sensors trained on the centre. Taylor, unperturbed by this, walked to the centre circle and stopped.

Martinez's voice came over the speakers not long after Taylor arrived in the middle.

"Good morning, Taylor. I hope our test the other day wasn't too trying. Today, we're doing standard protocol phase testing," he told her. "Entry, duration and controlled calibrated re-emergences. Nothing too complex for you today."

Taylor glanced up to the observation deck, where she knew he would be watching from and nodded once to confirm she had heard the instructions.

She brought her gaze back to the phase-anchor on her wrist. The device glowed blue as it cycled its power, ready to assist her when she was ready to begin.

"You may start whenever you're ready,"

Taylor rolled her neck once before dropping low into a sprinter's crouch.

"Deep breaths," she told herself.

She clenched her fist as the familiar whine of the anchor thrummed to life, and she kicked off, leaving imprints where she had been standing.

Her world became grey.

SHIFT

Colour returned to Taylor with an explosion. Sound followed a moment later.

She burst back into reality as a spray of metal and fractured plating exploded around her. The spectre that occupied her point of return simply ceased to exist. Fragments of the composite rained down as Taylor sprinted forward, not losing any momentum, before landing a left hook directly to the second spectre's torso, shattering the chestpiece, shrapnel ripping through the machinery beneath.
Taylor continued running.

"Don't stop moving, Taylor! Remember! Momentum is everything to a pilot! Keep moving and blow aside anything stupid enough to get in front of you!" McGill called out from the sidelines.

Another pair of spectres activated at Taylor's three o'clock, just behind a low wall. Her heel struck the ground, pivoting to launch herself straight at them, losing as little speed as possible. The brief glow of their plasma grenade launchers was the only warning she got as the balls of blue energy came streaking towards her. She clenched her fist again, disappearing and reappearing as the rounds flew through the space she had just been in.

Taylor's vision began to grow fuzzy, and she roared in pain. Her phase-anchor pulsed violet in warning, its systems straining to absorb the aftershock of rapid, repeating shifts. It didn't matter; she didn't need to shift again. One more step and she was on them.

Vaulting the wall, Taylor's foot connected with the head of the first spectre, nearly knocking it clean off, before she turned to its partner and slammed her elbow hard enough to cave the second spectre's head in.

The room fell silent.

For a moment, Taylor stood where she was, surrounded by the broken robots. Limbs and machinery were shattered where she had torn through them.

The phase-anchor dimmed as the violet light slowly changed to blue.

"Time…" McGill called out as she slowly walked towards Taylor.

"Three minutes and twenty-four seconds," McGill said as Taylor felt a smile grow on her own face. She couldn't believe she was still improving.

"New record."

"So," Taylor called out, as her vision already began to clear up. "Does that mean I finally get to see a Titan?"

McGill paused. She looked down at the spectres, then back up at Taylor.

"You know you're not a pilot."

A beat.

"...yet." Taylor grinned.

McGill pointed over her shoulder back towards the doors of the training chamber.
"Come on."

AWE

"I'll show you something cool."

McGill had said those words to her months ago, the first time she had brought Taylor to the Titan hangar. Even now, she couldn't help staring at the Titans being worked on in their maintenance docks.

Each Titan towered several meters over her. Hulking machines with armour plates thick enough to shrug off tank rounds and weapons dangerous enough to make her wonder why they even needed soldiers in the first place.

The engineers and pilots moved like a well-oiled machine, working in harmony to ensure their Titans were at full fighting capacity. Welding torches flashed against armour as maintenance crews worked on damaged parts, while loaders carried bundles of ammunition back and forth.

Taylor had quickly found the best place to watch all this from.

Sitting cross-legged on a maintenance catwalk above the hangar floor, Taylor rested a notebook on her legs as she quickly scribbled another observation.

Taylor turned back to the hangar as somewhere below, a Titan shifted in its cradle, mechanical servos groaning out as technicians cut around a damaged armoured plate.

She paused, tapping her pen against the paper as another Titan moved to its docking cradle somewhere on the other end of the hangar. The heavy vibrations of its footsteps echoed even up to her perch. Below, a pilot climbed into their open cockpit while engineers shouted readouts and measurements over the noise of a reactor startup.

Taylor's eyes drifted across the hangar with constant interest.

The pilots still intrigued her just as much as the Titans did.

They moved through the hangar with confidence that even now, she still couldn't get down. So sure of themselves in the way they did everything. Some walked past with helmets under their arms, others still had their jumpkits on, laughing as they walked between their war machines.

She stood up and leaned forward on the catwalk railing.

There was always something happening here. A Titan waiting for upgrades, scores of pilots returning from their missions, MRVNs and spectres intermingling with support crew. She couldn't remember when, but at some point, the catwalk had become her favourite place in the facility.

She glanced down at her notebook again and flipped back through the pages. Dozens of drawings and notes filled the paper. Weapon systems, Titan chassis variables, pilot equipment and other smaller observations.

Her first notebook had filled up even faster than expected. The second had soon filled just as quickly. Now the third one was still in progress, but she was sure she'd need to tell Overlord that she'd need another delivery soon.

Taylor would get around to that eventually. But for now, she simply watched the world go by.

The hangar never stayed the same for long.

Titans and pilots came and went.

Crews she had grown familiar with didn't return to their designated cradles, and new ones were called in to replace them.

Taylor kept on watching.

And she kept on training.

SKY

The wind blew softly through the valley.

Taylor sat near the edge of a cliff, boots dangling over a drop that led into the vast forest below. From where Taylor was sitting, the trees all merged together and looked like an emerald sea stretching to the horizon, interrupted only by the occasional rock outcrop or river.

The mountains surrounding the valley rose like great walls of rock, and their peaks had been worn down by centuries of erosion. Thin stratus clouds surrounded their peaks while the pink sky above them hung like a quiet tapestry.

Pulling her hood a little further over her head and leaning back, Taylor rested her hands against the rock behind her.

Her jumpkit lay behind her on the ground, straps unbuckled and thrusters quiet but still warm.

She had run a mobility course three times that morning. All three times were the same.

Breakthroughs in her skill were still being made, just not as big as they used to be.

Taylor tilted her head back and watched the sky.
High above Typhon, the shattered remains of its moon, Orthros, lingered. The broken moon dominated the horizon. Massive chunks drifting in silent orbit and forming Typhon's belt. She'd been told that a fold weapon had been tested on the moon long before she had arrived.

Even now, she found it hard not to stare.

The first time she saw Orthros, she was utterly transfixed. Taylor had been shocked by many things since arriving here, but she'd never once considered a power that could blow up a moon.

And she held a connection to that same power.

Taylor's eyes tracked a thin stream of clouds slowly moving just under the debris of Orthros, and she reached out her hand, almost imagining they were close enough for her to grasp.

A soft chime echoed in her ear.

"Subject FW21582. Scheduled training block has concluded. Return to Facility-09 GAMMA for debrief in thirty minutes."

Taylor groaned as she was pulled out of her relaxation.

"Make it an hour, Overlord," she pleaded.

"Request denied. Dr Martinez has specifically requested your presence"

Taylor sighed, just like always.

She didn't move.

After a moment, Taylor reached into her pocket, pulled out her issued datapad, and, after turning it on, looked at the date once again.

FACILITY NETWORK: ACTIVE
DATE: 12.06.2714

Another moment as she just stared.

Nineteen.

Five years since the locker

Five years since Earth

For a moment, she tried to picture her dad standing in their kitchen like he used to on her birthdays.

The memory came slowly now, like looking through a frosted window. Taylor could remember the joy of his smile, but not the shape of his face.

What came more easily was his voice.

Happy birthday, kiddo.

Taylor blinked once and thought she felt a tear run down her cheek, but when she wiped her hand, it came back dry.

She let the datapad screen dim in her hands before slipping it back into her pocket and watching the moon once more.

The sound of boots crunching behind her alerted her that she was no longer alone.

"Is the moon that interesting?"

Taylor didn't flinch.

"I think so."

McGill set her pilot helmet on the ground beside Taylor and joined her, dangling her feet over the cliff.

"You've been coming out here a lot."

"I know, I like it out here."

Her mentor stood and dusted herself off before tapping Taylor's jump kit with her foot.

"You're getting a lot better with that thing."

"I still can't wall run like you yet."

"You'll get there, eventually."

And for a moment, they both just watched the sky.

McGill's tone shifted.

"Enjoy the quiet while it lasts, Taylor."

Taylor frowned and tilted her head slightly.

"What do you mean by that?"

McGill didn't answer straight away. Instead, she stared at the horizon with intensity, as if she was trying to burn the view into her mind.

"Intel's been coming in over the last few weeks from higher up."

This got Taylor's full attention, and she turned to face McGill, who, in turn, was now looking up at the moon.

"The Militia."

Taylor's brow furrowed in confusion.

"They're nowhere near Typhon."

"They weren't. Past tense."

A cold wind pulled at Taylor's hood.

"The Militia's combat forces have been targeting IMC bases and facilities across the whole Frontier. Factories, power plants. research facilities"

Taylor felt a knot begin to tie in her stomach.

"And Typhon?" This time, McGill turned to her. "Typhon is full of research projects."

Taylor looked back up to the sky.

"They're coming here."

McGill didn't try to hide it.

"Yeah."

She stared at Orthros for another second.

Then she reached for her jump pack, stood up, and reattached it to her belt.

"They'd have to get through the IMC first."

Bending over, she picked up McGill's helmet before handing it back to the older woman.

"Guess we should head back then."

McGill put on the helmet and said nothing else before breaking into a sprint, jump kit flaring to life.

Taylor, not one to be outdone, followed.

PREPARATION

The hangar felt different now.

The moment Taylor stepped through the massive doors, the change was obvious.

The space was much louder than she was used to.

Arc welders flashed along Titan hulls as maintenance crews worked tirelessly to ensure everything was perfect. Ammunition pallets were moved across the decks while transport crews moved around missiles and spare Titan batteries. Above it all, the rumble of Titans moving around or performing diagnostic checkups.

Pilots moved through the space with intent now. There was no more laughing or idle conversation. Everyone had their helmets on and jumpkits already attached.

Weapons were checked and double-checked.

This was no longer a drill.

Taylor slowed slightly as she finally reached her destination.

A Ronin Titan frame, its massive broadsword rested to one side, mechanically polished by a crew of worker bots as another team were fiddling with its triple-barreled leadwall shotgun.

The cockpit was open, and the pilot was yelling something to a technician before she spotted Taylor.

"Told you the quiet wouldn't last."

There was no time for Taylor to respond before McGill was already turning back to the screens in her cockpit.

FRACTURE

The phase testing chamber was empty when Taylor stepped inside.

She walked to the centre circle automatically, boots clicking rhythmically against the floor.

Above her, the lights in the observatory brightened as diagnostic equipment powered up. Even from such a distance, she was able see with absolute clarity the lone figure standing by the windows.

The bags under his eyes made it clear he'd been under pressure.

Maybe the war-readiness was getting to him as well.

Martinez's voice came over the speakers.

"Taylor, this was unexpected. We don't have any scheduled testing until later this week, and right now I'm quite limited on time. There are projects that need evacuating from the site."

Taylor glanced up.

"I know."

Silence.

"Then why exactly did you ask me to come here?"

Taylor flexed her left arm. The phase-anchor hummed gently as its systems began to cycle.

Down in the hangar, Titans were powering up.

Pilots were preparing for deployment.

Everyone in the facility was getting ready.

Everyone was giving it their all.

McGill, yelling at haggard technicians, came to mind.

Her fist clenched even harder.

"Everyone else here is doing their part. Pilots, soldiers, engineers, scientists, maintenance workers."

She looked down at the phase-anchor.

"I've not been giving it MY all."

Martinez was quiet, and when he spoke again, concern was laced in his voice.

"Taylor, you're already pushing the limits of what that body can do."

Taylor smiled in response.

"Isn't this why you've been training me these last few years?"
Taylor closed her eyes.

Three years of training.

Two years of controlled shifting.

All leading to this.

Opening her eyes again, Taylor began to focus.

As she held one hand out in front of her, the world began to grow quiet.

Grey crept across the walls and floor at first. The bright lights of the chamber dulled until everything was washed in the same muted shade of grey.

The facility noises stretched and faded until…

Silence.

Taylor didn't blink as her vision darkened again.

Familiar arcs of energy began to flicker between her fingers.

Her phase-anchor rapidly shifted from blue to violet to red, and finally to grey, as the colour drained from it as well.

At first, the arcs were faint. Small tendrils no thicker than a hair. Then they brightened, snapping and curling around her hand.

Taylor felt the pressure hit her a moment later.

It built slowly behind her eyes.

The same crushing weight she remembered from all that time ago.

The same wrongness pressed against her mind as she violated the fundamental laws of reality.

Her stomach rolled.

Somewhere in her mind, there was a lock she had kept hidden away, afraid of what it might contain.

For years, she had ignored it, for fear of what it might contain.

Every time she'd experimented with her powers, every training session, every phase shift, every step had pushed her closer to the one sealed door.

Because she remembered the last time it had opened.

The pain.

The voices.

The shadows.

The feeling of something beyond her comprehension trying to reach into her mind.

Her breathing slowed again.

She wasn't that girl anymore.

She was someone stronger, and she wouldn't be afraid.

Taylor flexed her fingers.

The arcs snapped brighter.

The pressure rose again.

Taylor cried out in pain as her mind felt like it was beginning to collapse.

The lock was still there.

Waiting.

In reach now.

All this time.

She turned the key.

Reality split.

A thin fracture formed in front of her hand.

A kaleidoscope of purples, blues and greys bending and twisting.

The chamber alarms screamed to life.

Above her, Martinez shouted something that she couldn't hear.

██ . ██ . 2715

MILITIA FLAGSHIP – MCS James MacAllan
LOW ORBIT OVER TYPHON

The bridge of the 9th Milita Fleet's Flagship was silent. Consoles hummed softly as tactical officers muttered reports to their neighbours while sensor data streamed across the main display. Beyond the glass of the bridge, Typhon filled the darkness.

Commander Sarah Briggs stood at the front of the bridge with her arms crossed, studying the planet ahead.

Somewhere down there on Typhon, the IMC had found a weapon - a machine capable of ripping planets apart, and if Militia intelligence was correct, the IMC planned to use it against the inhabited Militia homeworld of Harmony.

They couldn't let that happen.

Briggs finally turned to address her crew.

"Begin deployment checks."

The bridge surged to life.

"Copy that."

"Dropships standing by."

"All carriers and escorts holding position."

Briggs glanced once more at the planet.

The final order came without hesitation.

She had a planet to save, after all.

"Start final approach, inform all pilots to stand by for Titanfall."

royalMJD · 2026-03-25T22:16:57+0000

1.4

██ . ██ . 2715 IMC Typhon Facility 09-GAMMA

ESCALATION

Taylor reached towards the rift she'd opened, fingers hovering a scant few centimetres from the rend of impossible colour which she had created. For a moment, she simply stood there, feeling the pull of it. The Fold pulsed against the surface of reality, like a vast ocean contained only by the thinnest layer of glass. It felt like it was calling her in. It would have been so easy for her to step closer, to lean into that feeling.

But she didn't. Not yet. The desire was there all the same, whispering at the back of her mind with the promise of more power. Taylor felt the weight of something vast and unknown pressing against her psyche. Taylor grunted, and instead, she pulled her hand back and clenched her fist.

The fracture resisted. The blue and violet energy pulsed brighter, the primal force of the Fold refusing to be contained so easily. She frowned as she felt the portal's resistance. Then Taylor pushed with a different kind of strength, not physical, but mental, the same kind of strength she had used to initially open the portal. Slowly, the fracture collapsed inward, colours folding in on themselves as the tear shrank, twisting and writhing. Finally, only a narrow line in reality remained and eventually even that snapped shut with a final crack of displaced air.

Silence was replaced with the wailing of alarms in the room as the world came rushing back to meet her senses.

The observation deck also erupted with noise, and scientists and technicians who had been observing from out of sight tried and failed to process all of the readings they had just received.

Taylor winced as she spotted a few of the computers, shutting themselves down from the pure information overload.

In the computer pits of the observation deck, technicians were frantically shouting over one another.

"What the hell was that?!"
"Energy spikes off the chart!"
"Phase anchor sensors around the room have crashed and are restarting now."

Someone slammed their hand against a console.

"Doctor Martinez-!"

Taylor was still watching the observation deck as the door to the testing room burst open.

Martinez hadn't even bothered to use the elevator from the observatory; instead, he ran directly into the emergency stairway door and shoulder checked it before sprinting down the steps, two at a time.

He entered at a near sprint, lab coat flaring behind him like a cape as he crossed the room towards where Taylor was standing. He only began to slow as he approached the centre, stopping a few meters away just in case there were any lingering effects from the portal Taylor had opened.

For a moment, he didn't speak, breathing hard and attempting to gather himself, eyes still trained on the spot where the fracture had hung only moments ago. Then he finally turned back to her. "Taylor…are you okay?"

There was a rare flash of concern in his voice.

Taylor flexed the fingers of her left hand, feeling the echo of pressure in her mind.

"I opened it." She responded simply

Martinez let out a stunned blink.

"Yes, I can see that, but you know-"

The entire facility shook. Lights flickered overhead, and a distant boom rolled through the structure.

Taylor and Martinez both stopped whatever conversation they were about to have as they looked towards the ceiling.
Then came another boom and the facility shook again, harder this time.

Overlord's voice cut through the speakers.

"Attention all personnel. Orbital defence grid under attack. Multiple hostile signatures entering Typhon atmosphere."

Martinez's spine stiffened as he stood upright."Militia fleet detected, all combat personnel to readiness level one. Priority code ALPHA. All combat personnel to readiness level one. Priority code ALPHA."

The lights in the chamber abruptly shifted to blood red as the facility switched to emergency lighting, the message continuing.

"All civilian and scientific staff report immediately to the lower levels. Internal evacuation protocols are now in effect. This is not a drill. Repeat this is not a drill."

The message looped.

"Attention all personnel. Orbital defence grid under attack. Multiple hostile signatures enter…"

Taylor stopped paying attention after that, already rushing out the door, Martinez doing his best to follow.

Deep inside Facility 09-GAMMA, Titan batteries were inserted as reactors began to power up.

The corridor outside the testing chamber had changed in the blink of an eye.

Emergency lighting bathed the wallway in crimson as scientists and technicians flooded the space in tense groups, many still clutching data drives, research notes, and secure storage devices as they made their way to the lower levels.

Everyone in the facility had participated in an emergency training drill before; the threat of the Militia always existed. A group that was discussed in briefings and simulated evacuations. But drills were one thing. Today, the threat was real.

Somewhere in space above them, Militia troops were already descending through the atmosphere, and they had come to kill.

Taylor and Martinez stepped into the sea of people moving through the corridor, letting the crowd's flow carry them forward as evacuation plans pushed them toward the more secure levels of the facility.

Security personnel were already moving in the opposite direction.

Four IMC soldiers in reinforced armour quickly jogged past, rifles in hand and anti-Titan weaponry attached to their backs. Helmets hermetically sealed and weapons clutched tight, as they pushed toward the upper levels of the facility. One of them was speaking into a comm unit attached to his chest.

"Foxtrot Actual, Foxtrot Hotel-one. Copy breach confirmed on upper levels. We are moving to intercept host-"
The rest of the transmission was cut off as the squad vanished around a corner in the hallway.

Automated messages from Overlord continued to echo through the many corridor speakers.

"Attention all personnel. Orbital defence grid under attack. Multiple hostile signatures detected breaching the facility. All civilian and scientific staff report immediately to the lower levels."

A heavy metallic crash sounded behind Taylor. She turned to see Emergency bulkheads sliding rapidly into place. Locking mechanisms slammed shut as another segment of the facility was isolated. Shouts erupted from the other side. Several people had been too slow and were now trapped behind the doors, forced to find alternate evacuation routes.
People continued moving towards the lower levels. Not slowing for fear of the same fate.

The steady flow of people began to slow as the corridor they had been following widened into a larger reinforced chamber, carved deep into the rock beneath the facility. Heavy blast doors dominated three of the four walls, all leading to other sectors of 09-GAMMA. One had already been sealed, and the engineering crews present were attempting to weld whatever scrap they could find to reinforce it further. Evacuees continued to pour through both entrances as security personnel waved them forward, shouting directions while trying to maintain a semblance of order.

Beyond the main chamber, the bunker opened into a deeper storage section. Lined with emergency supplies and sealed ammunition crates, all of it arranged around a final reinforced exit leading even deeper into the facility.

This southern section had already been turned into a fortified defensive position.

Staggered barricades had been installed across the chamber, forcing anything that entered the bunker doors to cross the open ground before it could reach the survivors behind them. It was rudimentary, but effective. Anyone coming through the main doors would be walking into a kill zone.

The IMC troops moved quickly, taking up firing posts as the last few evacuees were pushed behind cover. Some men dropped to their knees behind stacked crates, rifles pointed at the doorways. Other soldiers made final checks on heavier equipment, their faces sealed beneath helmets.

Further along the defences, a small Anti-Titan team was clustered together, armed with rocket launchers and arc grenades, while nearby, several IMC spectres stood at attention, heads sweeping the open space. Beside them stood stalkers, larger and heavier than the spectres. Their broad mechanical frames were positioned at the very front of the defensive line, where they could absorb the first impacts should the doors give way. Near the centre, two heavily armoured troopers activated hardlight shields; see-through blue barriers woven into existence with a burst of light.

Overlord's voice echoed through the bunker's speakers.

"Captain Jackson, all crew have reached designated muster stations. Sealing bunker doors now."

"Acknowledged, Overlord!" a soldier called out somewhere along the defensive line.

The response was followed by the deep rumble of the bunker doors moving into place. Massive locking mechanisms began to engage as the remaining bulkheads closed. The engineering teams pulled back behind the defensive line, having done what they could to reinforce the space. For a few seconds after the doors closed, no one moved. Soldiers tightened their grips on their weapons. Behind them and the inner barricades, civilians huddled, some staying quiet, hands on their heads, while others cried silently.

No one dared to make a sound.

At first, the sounds beyond the doors were distant - small sporadic bursts of gunfire, an explosion launched from somewhere nearby.

Then a burst of static came through one of the soldiers' helmets. "-peat, Hostile Titans in the facility, we need to mov-"
The transmission dissolved again before the report could finish.

At the mention of a Titan, some of the soldiers exchanged nervous glances.

Captain Jackson was already moving among the defenders, checking weapons and ammunition crates while giving short instructions to his men. His attention was fixed on ensuring everyone was at full fighting capacity.

Taylor stood quietly among the defenders as he passed, hood pulled low over her head.

Jackson reached the end of the line before turning back to inspect the barricade again.
His eyes lingered on her for a moment. Recognition flickered in his eyes as he spotted the armour she wore and the jump-kit attached to her waist.

"A pilot?" he asked, his voice cutting through the tension.

Several of the nearby defenders looked over their shoulders. A few of them felt a flicker of hope at the mention of the elite fighting force.

Jackson let out a small breath that almost sounded like a chuckle.

"Well, I'll be…now the odds are in our favour.

Taylor didn't correct him. Not wanting to diminish the sudden change in morale spreading among the soldiers.

"Got separated during the breach," she said evenly.

Jackson nodded once, accepting the explanation. He barked for one of his men, and a younger soldier rushed over and, within moments, handed Taylor his R-97 SMG. She checked it quickly and pulled the combat knife from the same soldier's vest without asking, before stepping into position behind the barricade with the rest of the defenders.

Once more, the room was silent.

Then something hit the door.

The reverberation was hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling. Another blow followed, heavier this time, and Taylor watched as the bulkhead door caved inward. Around her, the defenders tensed. One of the soldiers next to her muttered something that sounded like a prayer under his breath.

Taylor kept her focus on the door, the R-97 resting steady against the barricade. Two years ago, McGill had placed a gun in her hands for the first time and told her every pilot needed to know how to fight, with or without their Titan around. She had picked it up quickly. Rifles, pistols, grenades, whatever McGill had told her to use. The mechanics of it were never difficult for Taylor.

That never meant that she liked it.

Another thump, and this time the shape of something huge was clearly dented into the metal. A fist. Whispers spread among the defenders.

"Titan"

Taylor felt the adrenaline begin to course through her system.

A fourth thump, but this time the dent didn't deepen.

A breath of relief washed over the defenders. An uneasy belief that maybe the door would hold.

Then a red point appeared in the centre of the bulkhead. It was faint at first, no more than a glowing spot against the steel. But that spot burned brighter and widened.

"Shit! Enemy Ion!" Someone shouted

The glowing red point suddenly flared white. A thin beam lanced through the centre of the bulkhead, carving into the metal with ease, molten metal spraying onto the floor in a shower of sparks. No one fired; there was no target to shoot at yet. All the defenders could do was watch helplessly as the Titan dismantled the doors' internal locks from the other side.

Finally, the beam died, and the hiss of molten metal was clear in everyone's ears.

Taylor's eyes widened as the door screamed and began to rise. Forced upwards from below by something inhumanely strong. The first metallic finger appeared. Then another. Then a whole hand, followed by a second, as the Titan on the far side lifted the door.

"Steady!" Jackson called out.

The opening widened.

"STEADY!"

The bulkhead was wrenched upwards. And behind the door stood a Titan.

It barely fit in the doorway; a towering war machine of angled armour plating and mechanical servos. Its central optic was glowing an angry red as it stared into the bunker. For one suspended moment, nobody fired. Then someone screamed.

"OPEN FIRE!" and the bunker erupted.

Taylor squeezed the trigger along with everyone else as the defenders unleashed everything they had into the breach. Rifle rounds sparked off the Titan's chassis while rockets and grenades streaked through the air. The stalkers surged forward without hesitation, their batteries rigged to blow if they could get close enough to the Ion's legs.

In response to the volley, the Titan deployed its smoke countermeasures, obscuring itself from sight.

The defenders kept firing anyway.

The space was a cacophony of sound. The crack of gunfire, men shouting orders and the impact of rounds ricocheting off armour.

Bullets and rockets all vanished into the cloud. Someone shouted not to let up, and the firing continued.

For a moment, she thought they had gotten it.

Then the smoke moved. Not outward.

Inward.

The cloud twisted to a single point, spiralling like water in a sink. Taylor's stomach dropped as recognition hit. She had seen enough footage of Ion's to know what this meant.

The smoke cleared, and the Ion stood unbothered in the centre of the doorway. One arm raised.

A field of warped light hovered in front of it. Inside the field, the defenders' barrage slowly swirled around. Bullet's still spinning, grenades trapped mid-flight, rockets still burning.

The Vortex shield

And through the field, Taylor swore the Titan's red optic settled on her.

She stepped into the Fold an instant before it dropped the shield.

The bunker became a shadow of itself. The world around her drained of colour. Shapes moved in silent outlines. Soldiers, spectres and civilians all blurred into faint silhouettes against the grey world. Then colour snapped back into place as she exited the Fold.

She reappeared in a slaughterhouse.

The barricade was gone.

Where soldiers had stood seconds earlier, the bunker floor was slick with blood and pieces of armour. Stalkers and spectres lay in smoking heaps. Metal fragments lay deformed where redirected rockets had exploded. Behind the remains of the line, civilians had been torn apart among the supply shelves. One scientist collapsed over a crate of rations, lab coat turning red with blood. Another had been thrown against the wall so violently that the concrete behind him was plastered with his remains.

Only then did the Titan move through the doorway. Pulling the Splitter rifle off its back, its footfalls echoed through the bunker as it advanced over the first bits of wreckage, searching for survivors. There were still a few. One soldier fired his rifle from behind the shattered barricades. The rounds glanced harmlessly off the Titan's chassis.

The Ion brought its rifle to bear and fired once.

Supercharged plasma crossed the room and erased him. One moment, the soldier was crouched behind his cover. The next he was gone, the only remains being a warped gun, lying on the ground.

"MOVE!" Someone shouted behind her.

The remaining defenders scattered. A stalker charged forward, its battery glowing red-hot as it was rigged for detonation, but the Ion's shoulder laser flashed and punched straight through its chest, turning the machine into molten slag before it even managed three steps.

The Titan kept advancing.

Taylor forced herself to think.

Ion.

She knew the chassis. Knew how it fought. Knew what made it so lethal.

All Titans were susceptible to EMPs, but Ion especially. Its guns, shield and lasers all relied on the same power source. The more power it spent, the more vulnerable it was. Taylor's gaze homed in on the arc grenades clipped to the vest of one of the dead soldiers beside her. Her pulse quickened as the idea formed.

If she could get those grenades close enough…

"WATCH FOR MY SIGNAL!" She yelled out, not waiting to see if anyone heard.

Snagging the grenades, Taylor vaulted the barricade and made a sprint for the Titan. The machine reacted with haste.

"Hostile Pilot detected. Splitter rifle locked on target."

The bunker floor blurred as she accelerated.

Taylor phased.

The regular world twisted again as she disappeared and tore up the remaining distance between her and the Titan. The machine's massive outline turned as it searched for her.

Just as she was about to reach the Titan, she pulled the grenade pins.

5.
4.
3.
2.

Colour snapped back into place as Taylor reappeared just underneath the Titan's rifle and hurled both grenades directly at its centre mass. The Titan brought its fist down to crush her in the same instant.

Taylor was already gone, back in the Fold.

1.

Boom

Taylor emerged behind the Titan as arcs of blue and white electricity exploded across its chassis. The machine staggered, systems spasming as its shields went down, movement suddenly slow and unrefined.

"GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!" She shouted.

What remained of the survivors unleashed everything they had into the Titan. An Archer round tore through the air, slamming into its main body and blowing apart the optic. Another rocket struck low, tearing through a joint and ripping one of its legs off. The Ion collapsed sideways into the floor, with enough force to shake the chamber, before a final rocket punched straight into the cockpit.

The explosion bloomed out, a twisted scene of fire and metal.

The Titan convulsed once, systems collapsing as its link to its pilot was severed.

The only sounds left in the bunker were the hiss of burning metal and the ragged breathing of the surviving defenders still standing behind the barricades. No one moved.

The Ion lay in a smoking ruin across the bunker floor. Its shattered chassis still twitching weakly. Around the room, soldiers began to move again. Someone let out a shaky laugh while another lowered his rifle and patted himself over.
They had actually done it.

Taylor didn't relax.

She was still standing closest to the breach.

That's why she heard the noise first.

A heavy metallic footstep echoed from the corridor, beyond the smoke and the ruined bulkhead.

Taylor's head instantly shot up.

Another footstep followed. Slow and with a heavier gait.

"Contact," she said, beginning to comprehend what was happening.

"CONTACT!" This time, an urgent yell from the defenders prompted Taylor to retreat immediately towards the barricades.

The celebrations died instantly.

Shapes moved through the breach. Not one, but several.

The first figures to emerge were Militia soldiers.

They advanced through the smoke cautiously, rifles raised and scanning the bunker, before they noticed Taylor standing next to the Ion's destroyed frame, where they froze.

Behind the soldiers, something massive moved in the corridor.

Then a second titan emerged.

Where Ion had been sleek and angular, this Titan was a walking fortress. Thick armour plates wrapped around a broad and solid torso. Legs thick, like massive tree stumps. Every part of its frame was designed to absorb as much punishment as possible. It steamed from the vents on its back and in its hands held a launcher the size of a small cannon.

The barrel still glowed faintly orange.

A low voice rumbled from the Titan's speakers.

"Thermal systems active, thermite launcher is armed and ready."

Someone found their voice.

"Scorch!"

The Militia soldiers immediately fanned out to the sides of the scorch, finding cover in the stray rubble, rifles snapping up to meet the defenders.

The scorch opened fire.

The first thermite shell struck the ground just in front of a remaining barricade.

White flame erupted outward in an explosion. One soldier who had been behind the barricade screamed as the fire splashed across his legs. Molten metal burning through flesh and armour. He collapsed as he clawed at his thigh desperately, while the fire ate through his leg.

Another nearby soldier jumped in to try and rescue him, only to recoil as the immense heat scorched her gloves.

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK NOW!" Jackson roared out.

Gunfire erupted again as the defenders tried to slow the advance. The Scorch weathered the storm of bullets and rockets with ease, while Militia fired back, using the Titan as mobile cover, forcing the remaining defenders to keep their heads low.

The scorch advanced through its own thermite without slowing. Shell after shell, more of the bunker began to burn.

Spectres surged forwards to intercept, their metal bodies charging towards the Titan in a desperate bid to buy time.

The Scorch stopped, and the hydraulics whined as the machine raised both arms high above its head.

"CORE-!" Someone yelled out, but it was too late.

The Titan slammed its fists into the floor, and the space in front of it was consumed in flame.

A wave of thermite erupted outward from the impact point, racing across the ground - a veritable tidal wave of burning metal. It tore through the charging spectres instantly, engulfing them in white flame before they could even reach the Titan.

The wave kept travelling.

It rolled straight toward the defenders' position, melting barricades and burning through cover and incinerating everyone unlucky enough to be caught in its wake.

Taylor didn't wait for any orders to come. The moment the first thermite shell fired, she'd already begun moving.

The floor behind her had ignited into a wall of flame as she sprinted back. Soldiers scattered in every direction, dragging the wounded and pushing aside burning debris as the bunker turned into chaos.

Behind her, the Scorch fired again. Another thermite shell screamed overhead and burst near the ammunition crates towards the back, causing rounds to go flying as magazines began to cook off.
Deeper in the bunker, Martinez was already helping another struggling scientist to his feet and pushing him towards the southern corridor.

"MOVE! NOW!" Someone screamed.

Civilians stumbled through the growing cloud of smoke. Some clutched burns. Others limped from wounds left by the Ion's onslaught moments earlier.

"Captain Jackson!" one of the defenders cried out over the noise. "We can't hold this position! We need to move!"

Jackson turned toward the sealed bulkhead at the far end of the chamber.

"Overlord! Override southern bulkhead control! Open it now!" He barked.

Overlord's voice answered straight away.

"Override accepted. Opening the southern bulkhead. Routing escape path."

The massive door began to rise, and Jackson swung his rifle to the opening.

"Move! All surviving personnel, we are Oscar Mike! Titan killers cover the retreat!"

The defenders didn't hesitate. What remained of the line collapsed as soldiers grabbed the wounded and rushed them towards the now open corridor, while others kept firing on the advancing Titan.

Taylor reached the retreating defenders in seconds. Two injured civilians were struggling to keep up, one barely able to stand.

She scooped them both up with ease and kept moving.

Behind her, the Scorch continued its advance.

As Taylor sprinted past the grim-faced defenders still firing toward the Titan, she offered them a silent prayer.

They already knew they wouldn't be leaving.

Taylor didn't look back.

The corridor beyond the southern exit twisted sharply, then narrowed into an older maintenance tunnel. Exposed pipes ran along the ceiling, dripping water, and the lighting here was noticeably darker than the main corridors used above.

It was a tight squeeze, but at least the Titans wouldn't be following them down here.

Slowly, Taylor and the remaining survivors pushed deeper into the tunnel. Without the immediate threat of gunfire or Titans, the adrenaline faded, and people began to slow. Some leaned against the walls, chest heaving as the shock of the retreat finally caught up to them. Others sat on the floor, too exhausted or injured to remain upright.

Taylor reached a wider junction where several maintenance tunnels intersected, and she carefully lowered the two people who were on her shoulders, easing them against the wall.

One of them looked up at her, face pale from blood loss.

"Thank yo-"

Taylor had already turned away.

Across the junction, the remaining combat medics were already beginning triage. One of the medics turned on their headlamp and immediately started cutting through the remains of a soldier's melted armour and clothes. At the same time, another held a bloody rag to a civilian's bleeding head wound.

Taylor stepped behind them.

"What do you need?"

The medic barely looked up.

"I'm going to hold him down. You'll need to pry him free of his armour"

Taylor knelt and started to pull the metal plating free from his torso. The fragments were still hot enough to burn as she roughly kicked them away.

The soldier cried out in pain as the armour was pulled away, but the medic immediately leaned in and began tending to the exposed burns beneath.

Around them, the tunnel was filled with low voices. Someone further down the hallway was crying. Another soldier sat back, propped against a pipe, methodically checking the rounds in his remaining magazines.

Captain Jackson moved through the survivors, taking stock of who had made it into the tunnel in time. Spotting Taylor assisting the medics, he made his way over.

"Pilot, you got a moment?"

Taylor turned to the medics, silently asking if they still needed her.

"We've got the rest," and the medic waved her off.

Taylor stood and turned back to face Jackson.

"What is it?"

Jackson glanced past her at the wounded before he lowered his voice so only she could hear. "We've lost most of the defenders." He told her bluntly. "The facility has been breached in multiple other entry points."

He tapped the datapad in his hand. Taylor could see warning messages rapidly scrolling down the screen.

"Overlord is reporting multiple hostile Titans in the facility, Militia infantry too. You're the only pilot we've got down here, which means you're also the only one who can move fast enough to find a gap and break through to the upper levels."

He paused to let that sink in.

"We've got enough food and medical supplies to last us down here for at least a week, and no Titan can get to us here."

Jackson turned and gestured down one of the many branching corridors.

"Overlord says there's a service lift about one klick down that tunnel. It'll connect you to one of the upper levels from there. If you can reach Hangar Bay Two, there are still defenders hunkered down there."

He turned back to Taylor and met her eyes.

"If you can reach the hangar and link up with IMC forces, you might be able to reopen a path for the rest of us."

"Think you can do that, Pilot?"

Without another word, Taylor nodded and broke into a run down the tunnel.

Within seconds, she was moving faster than anyone else in the corridor could track. Boots struck the floor in rapid succession as she accelerated, weaving around pipes and equipment without slowing.

Tunnel lights glinted off her combat rigging as she passed them.

Then she was gone.

The survivors watched her disappear around the bend, then slowly returned to their work.

Only Martinez kept watching, long after she had left.

Taylor quickly reached the end of the maintenance tunnel less than a minute later, her pace never slowing as the passage finally opened into another section of the facility. The cramped corridor fed into the wider network of utility tunnels dug in the lower levels of 09-GAMMA, walls lined with even more pipes, electrical cables and access ports, all of which shook as the thumps of ongoing battle could be felt in the levels above her.

Dust drifted through the stale air as fragments of insulation and metal panels lined the floor, evidence of heavier impacts somewhere above her.

Taylor barely registered any of it.

Her attention remained fully fixed on the route in front of her and the obstacles in her path. She vaulted over a waist-high maintenance cart without breaking stride and slid under a jammed bulkhead door.

The movement was instinctive. Her body moved on instinct. Years of training carried her through obstacles with no hesitation. Four hundred meters became three hundred, then two, walls blurring as she closed the distance to the service lift Jackson had mentioned.

Finally, the lift came into view. It was tucked away in a narrow chamber at the end of the corridor, its reinforced door already open where someone had abandoned the lifts earlier during the initial evacuation. Taylor crossed the final stretch to the lift in seconds, slamming her hand into the ascent button the moment she entered, and the elevator shuddered as it began to rise.

The ascent felt agonisingly slow after the speed she'd been running at; she realised she probably could have wall-climbed up the shaft faster than the lift was moving. The lift finally shuddered to a halt after about a minute of ascending, and it came to a stop somewhere far above the maintenance network. The doors barely opened when Taylor heard voices through the gap.

Militia soldiers.

Taylor moved the second the opening was wide enough.

The four grunts standing in the lobby by the elevator barely had time to react before she was already among them.

The first soldier hadn't even raised his rifle before Taylor's hand snapped out to strike his shoulder, the force of the blow shattering bone as the weapon slipped uselessly from his fingers. Before he could even register the pain, she carried the motion into a spinning elbow, perfectly chaining the strikes together and striking him directly in the face, dislocating his jaw and knocking him to the ground unconscious.

The momentum of the spin flowed straight into the next strike. Taylor delivered a kick directly into the solar plexus of the second soldier, where he was sent flying across the room before collapsing in a wheezing heap, desperately clutching at his pulverised ribs.

The other two soldiers managed a short burst of fire at Taylor, but she was already moving too fast for them to adjust their aim.

She caught the barrel of the Flatline belonging to the nearest man and shoved it aside before dropping low, driving her other fist into his knee. The joint bent backwards with an audible snap, and he fell to the floor instantly, where she kicked his weapon out of reach.

Turning to the final soldier, he threw his rifle to the ground, and he held out his hands in a desperate bid to surrender "No wai-" Taylor closed the distance before he could finish his sentence. Lifting him with one hand by the front of his combat rigging, she slammed him into the ground with enough force to crack the floor beneath them.

Something in the soldier's spine gave way with a sickening crunch. He lay there, gasping, unable to move.

Taylor stood for a moment, listening and waiting.

Nothing. No gunfire, no more voices, only the wailing of the emergency alarms and the hum of the facility's power grid. She stepped over the bodies and moved toward the far end of the lobby.

A service corridor stretched beyond the elevator chamber. Taylor broke into a run as she began her race through the upper levels. The hallway here was much larger than the tunnels below. Equipment storage rooms flashed past as she continued to sprint through the hallway, red emergency lights strobing nonstop. Somewhere above her, another heavy impact rocked the facility.

Meanwhile, Overlord was a constant companion, guiding Taylor through the facility.

"Subject FW21582. In six hundred meters, take the next right. Warning: Militia patrol ahead. Three hostiles detected. Engagement advised."

"Thanks for the heads up, Overlord."

Taylor kept running.

The corridor widened ahead into a junction just as the voices reached her.

"...command says Titans are already inside the facility, we just need to ho-"

Taylor stepped onto the wall, her foot catching the surface as her jump-kit activated and kept her planted against the metal. She ran three quick steps before pushing off and sailing silently over the patrol.
Her landing behind them made a dull thump, and one of the soldiers had just started to turn when Taylor's hand shot out, grabbing his combat vest and spinning him around to face her while the other hand ripped an arc grenade free from his rigging.

"What the fuc-"

Taylor delivered a kick straight to his chest. The soldier was sent backwards into his two squadmates, sending all three into a heap on the ground. She cooked the grenade briefly and tossed it directly into the middle of them.

Blue energy burst from the grenade, and all three men convulsed on the ground as the charge surged through their bodies and equipment before they collapsed, unconscious.

She was already running again before anyone could arrive to investigate the noise.

"Subject FW21582. Hangar Bay Two in four hundred meters." Overlord said calmly.

Taylor didn't need the information, however, as it was clear from the rising sounds of gunfire that she was getting close. The passage ahead eventually widened again, opening onto a service catwalk overlooking the hangar doors.

She slowed as she reached the railing, cautious not to make unnecessary noise and give away her position.

Two Militia Titans stood in the corridor beneath her, acting as a barrier to the reinforced doors, their explosive 40mm rounds repeatedly hammering the entry point. Furthermore, Militia infantry had taken cover behind the Titans, rifles trained on the entrance, waiting for the moment the doors were knocked down.

Taylor's eyes swept the space, looking for another way inside.

Her vision locked onto an exhaust vent set high above the blast doors.

Too far.

Even with the jump-kit, the corridor was too wide for her to wall-run from the left wall to the right.

A thought crossed her mind as she turned her eyes back to the Titans below.

That would do.

Taylor vaulted the railing and dropped hard to the floor below. Spriting straight towards the Titans, their backs still turned. She leapt, her boot striking the Titan's shoulder plating with a loud clang.

The reaction from the Militia forces was instant.

"Hostile pilot detected on the hull," the Titan's voice boomed through its external speakers. "Deploying anti-rodeo countermeasures."

At the same time, the infantry spotted her, and gunfire erupted down the corridor.

Rounds sparked against the Titan's armour as Taylor pushed off its back, using it as a massive springboard toward the far wall. The second Titan's 40mm cannon swung upward to meet her.

The shot exploded just behind her, and Taylor was thrown forward from the shockwave as shrapnel pinged off her armour.

Taylor shifted into the Fold again.

Reality twisted as the next round soared uselessly through the air where Taylor had just been.
When she reappeared, her jump-kit had already flared to life, carrying her the last few meters towards the opposite wall.

For a split second, she ran along it, stabilising her momentum before kicking off again, crossing the last of the distance to the vent.
Her hands caught the edge, and she hauled herself inside as fast as she could, another 40mm shell screaming beneath her, nearly clipping her leg.

She rolled into the ventilation shaft and scrambled to reach further inside, moving on her hands and knees. Behind her, the opening erupted with bullets and more 40mm rounds. Each impact made the vent shake violently as broken circuitry fell from the ceiling.

After several meters of Taylor crawling, the shooting stopped - the attackers realising their quarry had escaped. Taylor paused and caught her breath before she began moving again. After another minute of crawling, she spotted a hatch and, dropping down, found herself landing on the deck of Hangar Bay Two.

The noise of gunfire assaulted her ears.

The battle had already reached the hangar, with soldiers firing from behind machinery and hastily erecting barriers. One defensive line faced the partially opened external blast doors and the rain-soaked landscape beyond, while another defensive line was positioned towards the heavy internal doors facing the facility. Tracer rounds streaked through the open doorway in the rain outside, answered almost immediately by the roar of a Titan's rotary cannon returning fire.

Several IMC Titans stood behind the outer barricade, massive frames absorbing impacts as they fired towards their Militia counterparts. Heavy autocannons, shotguns and laser rifles all fired, the sounds overlapping and deafening those inside with a storm of noise.
Taylor rose from her crouch and moved over to the barricade, grabbing one of the defenders' shoulders.

The soldier stopped shooting just long enough to turn and see who had tapped him, expression changing the moment he recognised the jump-kit of a pilot.

"I need to find Captain McGill!" Taylor shouted over the gunfire.

The soldier nodded sharply, muttering something into his helmet comms, before giving Taylor the thumbs up. A moment later, he turned back to the barricade and resumed the act of firing out the external doors.

McGill's Ronin stood among the machines holding the line, its shotgun laying down suppressive fire. After one final shot, the Titan stepped back from the firing line. The Titan turned swiftly as it began making its way across the floor towards Taylor's position.

When the Ronin reached her position, a hiss of hydraulics was heard as the cockpit slid open, revealing McGill inside.

McGill leaned forward, helmeted head tilting down towards Taylor.

"Taylor? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be with Martinez!" McGill demanded, hissed out.

"I was!" Taylor shot back, "But enemy Titans attacked our position, we had to retreat, and they sent me here to find you! We still have civilians trapped, and we need to get them out."

McGill let out an audible groan as she briefly slumped back in her seat

"Oh for crying out lo-"

Taylor's vision flashed white.

Something tore through the Ronin from behind.

Taylor blinked to clear her eyes, and for a moment, she didn't understand what she was seeing. The Titan's cockpit had simply exploded outward in a spray of armour, electricity and blood as the plasma bolt punched straight through the machine.

The blood splashed across Taylor's face.

McGill never finished her sentence.

Then the Titan's reactor went critical.

The explosion threw Taylor backwards, and she found herself staring at the ceiling as the Ronin burst apart in a storm of fire and twisted metal. The shockwave rolled across the hangar floor and sent nearby soldiers flying. The defenders shouted in shock as emergency crews tried to extinguish the burning wreckage while the other IMC titans kept on returning fire outside.

Something landed in Taylor's lap, and when she sat up to look at what it was, she realised it was a piece of McGill's helmet, still smouldering.

Her fingers shook as they closed around it

"No…"

The word broke in her throat.

"NO!"

Taylor screamed.
The mental locks shattered.

Reality warped.

The Fold pressed against the world, distorting the space around her as distances began to warp and geometry twisted in on itself. At her wrist, the phase-anchor flared violently, its lights racing through warning colours.

Blue.

Purple.

Red.

The warning beeps became a single drawn-out tone as it overloaded from the energy surge.

The phase anchor stuttered.

And it failed.

[H̵o̷s̴t̴ ̶C̸o̸n̵n̷e̵c̶t̷i̷o̴n̷ ̴R̶e̶-̴e̴s̶t̴a̸b̵l̷i̴s̷h̸e̴d̴]

A tearing pressure split across Taylor's mind.

High on the cliffs above the landing pad, the Northstar Titan fired again.

Taylor's head flicked towards the distant flash.

And in the same instant, she knew exactly where the shot would land.

Her hand shot out as reality tore open beside her, a fracture of blue light ripped into existence, and the plasma bolt vanished into it.

Another fracture ripped open in the air beside the first. The plasma bolt erupted from it a moment later, tearing back out into the sky.

Far above the battlefield, the distant Titan staggered as the redirected shot slammed into its waist armour, sparks erupting across the machine as the round tore through the central joint, severing the legs from the rest of the chassis.

Taylor moved as soon as the round collided.

The jump-kit on her back roared to life as she sprinted toward the hangar doors. The world twisted as she unleashed her power. The world briefly warped in front of Taylor as a fracture materialised in front of her. She stepped through it in a single motion.

She emerged back into realspace fifty meters ahead, with a thunderclap of air announcing her arrival.

Rifle fire immediately began to streak towards her.

She didn't look

She didn't slow

"Don't stop moving, Taylor! Remember! Momentum is everything to a pilot!"

McGill's lesson echoed in her mind. A pair of fractures tore open beside her, and the rounds vanished inside, before the portals collapsed, leaving no sign the bullets had ever existed.

Another fracture opened ahead, the Fold bleeding into reality as the eerie light shone through the rain. She stepped in once again with no hesitation.

Grey

Then reality snapped back into place, and Taylor appeared in realspace once more.

Her jump-kit flared as she dashed between the legs of battling Titans. An IMC Scorch fired from above her, the heat from its thermite round washing over Taylor as the superheated metal exploded against the chassis of a Militia Titan across the landing pad.

She shifted again

The fractures opened exactly where she needed them to. Rifts opened and closed in the same breath as she crossed the battlefield in incomprehensible bursts of motion.

Step.

Shift.

Step.

Shift.

The hangar faded into the distance behind her, as did the ongoing battle.

Step.

Shift.

Ahead, a wall of rock rose from the ground where the crippled Titan lay burning near the edge.

Taylor stepped through one final fracture, and reality settled around her.

The Fold vanished, leaving her standing at the top of the cliff.

In front of her lay the broken Northstar, leaking oil and sparking in the rain.
The machine's upper chassis had collapsed backwards and burned, while the force of the plasma impact had left the legs lying several meters away from the main body.

Taylor stood there, watching the burning wreckage as the distant roar of the battle continued below her at the facility.

The cockpit of the Titan shifted. The front armour blew off its hinges as the emergency release was triggered, and a figure slowly clambered out of the ruined Titan, armour scorched and movements unsteady.

He hadn't noticed her yet. Eyes locked on the battle below, as he made his way over to the edge of the cliff.

Taylor stepped forward and flipped the safety off her weapon. The Milita pilot froze when he heard the noise and turned to see her standing there, barrel pointed directly at him.

A brief second passed, the world went still, and neither of them moved, the rain falling steadily between them as the burning Titan crackled behind her.

"Well? What're you waiting for? Do I-"

Taylor's R-97 barked.

The burst of gunfire snapped his head back, and the pilot collapsed into the mud. The water around him slowly began to turn red.

The rain continued to fall.

Taylor lowered the weapon slowly. The weapon felt heavy in her hand.

She turned and walked to the edge of the cliff.

Far below, the battle still raged across the landing pad. Titans moved through the rain, trading blows while soldiers fought and died around them.

Taylor watched for a moment.

She could mourn for McGill later. She could mourn for herself later.

Then she stepped off the cliff.

Beta'd by: my mates Jacob, Kel, and Chris. All of you are legends, and I appreciate you guys loads.

There was a lot of escalation in this chapter, and I'm happy to announce that Taylor is finally growing into her powers properly now. Apparently, all it took was more trauma and the death of her mentor and friend.

PTSD, thy name is Taylor.

The next chapter is the last one set on Typhon. And after that…we're headed to the Bay.

Small lore note: Titanfall never really explains the Fold/phase dimension in much detail beyond gameplay mechanics, so a lot of what you're seeing here is me extrapolating and filling in the blanks.

In other words: yes, I'm absolutely making parts of this up.

And given how weird Fold physics can get (Not to mention parahuman interactions and shard mechanics), there may occasionally be the odd continuity error along the way. I will try my best to rectify any errors before I post a new chapter, but I am only human after all.

Worm is owned by Wildbow, and Titanfall is owned by Respawn Entertainment.

Thanks for reading.

I, Simulacurm. [Worm/Titanfall]

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royalMJD

Getting some practice in, huh?

royalMJD

Getting some practice in, huh?

royalMJD

Getting some practice in, huh?

royalMJD

Getting some practice in, huh?

royalMJD

Getting some practice in, huh?

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