The Pilot of the Shadows

Landing, Typhon

After what felt like forever, they finally landed on Typhon. Winter's thoughts racing as she contained herself from acting like an overly excited puppy, trying to look at everything at once. She kept wondering if her father had seen Typhon before and if he had been just as excited as she was at this moment.

"Come on, Kiddo, it's time to unload everyone. I could use a helper" The Pilot winked at her in a playful manner before unbuckling himself and then her. They both got up, one after another, and made their way out of the ship and outside to a large flat landing pad. All the students of her class piled out of the ship and into a gaggle (a group of people mingling). Winter shadowed the pilot who didn't seem to mind having her follow him around, in all honesty, it looked like he enjoyed having her with him and she didn't mind either. The pilot then got all the teens into a semi-circle around himself and Winter.

"I'm sure you were aware ahead of time about the animals of Typhon. The Prowlers are dangerous ground dogs that will have no mercy when they find you. They are extremely territorial about prey that they have, if you stumble upon a Prowler just pray that it doesn't attack you and eat you. As for the Flyers, they are also territorial about their prey but they will fly off with said food. Both these creatures are not to be engaged at all. Is that made clear enough?" Everyone nodded in agreement. The pilot then nodded once and turned to the camp entrance. "Onwards into the camp, shall we?"

The pilot lead the way into the camp with the class following behind, Winter beside him. Once they entered the camp, they were all given gear to protect them while on Typhon, Winter got a bit of unwanted attention due to her dad's helmet that she was still wearing. Most of the comments from the soldiers were kind and thoughtful while a few of them were not needed. After breaking away from the nosy soldiers, Winter finally got the gear she needed. They were then introduced to their own tents that they would be having all to themselves, mind you a few students asked if there were bigger tents so they could sleep with their friends, but Winter was perfectly fine being on her own.

Soon after they had all settled into their tents, the Pilot came back and rounded up all of them, bringing them over to a few tables to get dinner since they had lunch on the ship and a few hours had gone past since they had gotten the procedures, gear, and tents set up out of the way. The soldiers were kind enough to provide us with the meals we needed and snacks. Dinner was delicious for being a packed serving of food. All the food was packed in these brown plastic bags, even the chili was in a brown bag!

Once everyone was finished, they were rounded up yet again to sit around a campfire to relax and share stories. Some of the students left halfway through while the rest left later on until it was only Winter, Mark, the pilot, and a few soldiers. The soldiers told stories of the battles they fought and the terrors they faced, the battles were exciting when they mentioned that communication would come through only saying 'Titanfall incoming!' And they would look up to see a Titan falling from the sky and drop down right in front of them, how it rose from its crouched state and started advancing on enemy lines. A few soldiers even mentioned her father in which she would scoot close to the soldier speaking and listen with wide eyes as the soldier would explain how her father would fight with the strength of 100 men and have the wisdom of an old commander.

Mark soon went to bed after the story of her father, leaving Winter with the soldiers and the pilot. They all continued to tell stories until one soldier looked at his watch and chuckled which made them all look at them.

"It's midnight boys, time to hit the hay. And you, young missy, need your sleep for the wonders we'll be showing you tomorrow" The soldier stretched and started to get up but was stopped as Winter started to beg.

"Please just one more story of my father! I want to know what he was like after a battle" She smiled sheepishly but they couldn't see it under the helmet. Even if the darkness had begin to spread across Typhon, Winter refused to take off her helmet. The helmet slowly adjusted to the light, letting her able to see the world around her as if it was daytime anyways, to which she didn't complain.

"How about this, I'll tell you something about that helmet then you go to bed?" The soldier had sat back down and now all eyes were on her. Winter eagerly agreed and took off the helmet, handing it to the soldier who took it with gentle hands and showed her the inside of the helmet. "You see, inside of the helmet has the genetic coding of every pilot that has ever worn it but in your helmet, or I mean your dad's, it only shows his and now yours, meaning that if he had a Titan left then it would now listen to your commands but sadly his Titan was destroyed when he died on the battlefield."

The soldier handed back the helmet to Winter who stared at it in shock. The soldiers around her then got up and left, the pilot staying behind with her.

"So if my dad had a Titan still then I would be in control of it? But the helmet spoke to me when I put it on. It called me pilot as if there was still a Titan connected to it..." She looked at the Pilot beside her who just shrugged.

"I have no clue how that part works, I only knew a few things that I told you because my buddy was a pilot of a Titan. He didn't show me anything else sadly or I would have told you." He stretched and slowly got up, offering her a hand to help her up. She took his hand and got up and put her dad's helmet back on, it lit up the area around her again through the visor just to see where she was going. "Anyways, kid, you should hit the hay too. I'll take care of the fire from here"

She thanked him, heading off to her tent and get ready for bed. Once she laid her head on the pillow, sleep fell over her and she was out. A few hours later she awoke but the sounds of alarms and people rushing around. She quickly got dressed and poked her head out of her tent only to see everyone far away from her and rushing to the ships. Once she got up and started running towards them, they had taken off and jumped into hyperjump leaving her all alone in the camp with no one to save her.

She closed the gates and locked them before running around to each tent to see if anyone was left behind with her but to her surprise, someone was left behind and it was the one person she hated the most, Mark.

[1253 words, proofread]

A/n
Hello fellow readers! I know I'm sorry, I left you on another cliffhanger but don't worry! Chapter 4 will be out tomorrow for y'all :D Chapter 3 was a kinda difficult one to make since I wasn't sure how to have Winter be left behind and as you can see the end was a little rushed but eh it here.
- Snow ❄️