When the Titans Fall

Unwelcome Thoughts

It was a late summer day and there was a slight chill in the air, a taster of what autumn would bring to the small planet that they resided on, only about two thousand miles across and covered mostly in small farms and smaller houses. They lived in one of these houses, four people in total. Life had been good to these four, happily living as farmers with a decent income. The mother was cooking dinner when it happened, the father was at the table and the two twelve-year-old twins were playing in the back room. All stopped when they felt the rumbling. The father rushed to look out the window. All was normal for a moment, before a cluster of shadows crept over the horizon.
"What was that?" Called the mother from the kitchen, an edge of fear in her voice.
"It's bad. Some form of explosive I think. They're coming. Get the kids and go to the basement, I'll be right behind you."
Another bomb went off.
"Mom? What's happening?" Asked the little boy, as his mother left the kitchen briskly. She forced a smile
"There are some bad people nearby, so we're going to hide in the basement, ok?"
"But what about Dad?" Said the girl, worry flashing across her face.
"He'll be with us in a moment, now follow me."
They went into the basement and the father entered after them, holding a gun. They shut and locked the door and, soon a dull thundering reached their ears.
"What are they doing?" Whispered the young girl. Her father opened his mouth to answer, and a huge explosion rocked the room, drowning out the children's screams and the house collapsing and the door was blasted in and

It was gone. The dull thundering resumed, and then, several terrible minutes later, there was nothing. Just silence.
"They're gone." Said the father. His voice felt far too loud in the deafening silence.
"Are you ok?" Asked the mother to the children she was cradling behind her.
They both nodded, sobbing from terror.
"It's ok. It's fine. It's ok. Shhhhhh, it's ok." The mother reassured them, until several minutes later, both were quiet.
The parents exchanged a nod, and the family went back to what was left of the house. There wasn't much. Two shells had levelled the building to little more than half-walls and rubble. The fields were burning. The planet was on fire.
"Dear god" whispered the woman
"Firebombs." Said the father. "Those bastards used firebombs."
A high pitched whine pierced the air and the family scrambled to cover as another ship swung in from orbit, but as it flew overhead, the man noticed the Militia symbol emblazoned on the craft's side.
"They're here to help, stand up!" Said the man, hauling himself and his wife up to their feet.
There was a crack. The man stumbled, a hole in his abdomen. Another bullet slammed into the plaster next to his head as he slumped down the wall. His wife screamed, then the burning crops parted and five, seven, eight orange robots stomped into the ruins of the house.
"Go!" Roared the man, bringing the rifle to his shoulder and firing, firing firing toward the hostile monstrosities. The wife sobbed, grabbing the children by their hands and dragging them away from the robots, and the gunfire and their dying father who had stopped firing his gun and had a hole in his head and she tripped, dropping her children, and turned to see a red-eyed machine standing a few meters away. She closed her eyes. Then the gunfire started. There was no pain. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes, just in time to see a booted foot stomp the robot's head into a mishapen lump. The boot was attached to a leg clad in pilot gear, with an orange and black patched pattern. The pilot crouched and pulled his helmet off. He was a young man with green-grey eyes and his mouth in a solid line. Something in his eyes softened as he looked at them.
"Follow me. I can get you away from here." He led them through the burning plants, after giving them rags to cover their faces with, until they reached the planet's single landing area. There was a gunfight between the parked IMC ship, surrounded by stalkers, and the Militia craft, circling from the air as pilots shot from the door.
"Wait here." Said their pilot, bringing an LMG to his shoulder. "I'll try and make this quick."
He sprinted into the clearing and slammed into the nearest robot, sending it to the floor before blowing it's head off with a point blank shot. The remaining six stalkers turned to be met with tactical bursts for gunfire, destroying the heads and letting the bodies crumple.
"What's happening mom?" Asked the little girl
"The good man is going to get us somewhere safe, ok honey?"
"What's he doing? I wanna see!" The young girl started moving towards the clear area of the landing pad before the mother grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"It's not safe out there! Stay with me!"
The little girl looked back and screamed before a bullet punched through her side, the stalker behind them making a mechanical growl as the mother grabbed her children and ran, entering the clearing and watching as the pilot swung towards them, gun raised and fired, gunning down the orange robot in an instant.
"Stupid fucking ambush bots. How's the girl?"
The girl was unconscious and bleeding heavily, but for the time being, she was alive.
"Need a rope extraction, we have injured civilians and no time to clear the pad." Said the pilot, looking up at the ship, then turned to the family.
"Get into the ship, I've got the girl."
He picked up the child almost effortlessly and carefully place her over his shoulder as a rope was tossed from the flying ship, before climbing into the aircraft with the others.

Fox woke with a start. Bad move, a dull throb rocketed through her side. Right. Recently punched bullet wound. Speaking of...
Where the hell was she?
The door hissed and slid aside as Dee walked in, stopping suddenly.
"Hey, Dee..."
"I'm so sorry!" Blurted the older woman.
"Oh. No worries, just an old wound. I don't hold it against you, you couldn't have known."
"I just... I... I'm sorry." Repeated Dee.
"Yeah, you said. Don't worry about it, I'm tougher than I look." The half smile on Fox's face fades. "Where are the others? And where am I?"
"This is the hospital. You blacked out on us in the training room. As for your first question, well, B is with Echo in the quarters, Three's probably still in the training room. It's her coping mechanism. She hits things when she's worried, which is why Echo is with B. " They both laugh a little.
"Where's Alpha?"
"No clue. We generally don't know until he shows up, usually where we don't expect him. Are you looking for him?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I need to talk to him."
The door hisses again. Alpha stands there, still wearing that same orange and black with his LMG on his back.
"Dee, could you give us the room? It's kinda personal."
Dee looks between the two of them, then nods and leaves.
There was silence. Then Fox speaks.
"You remember me, don't you."
Not a question. Alpha doesn't respond for a few seconds. Then he slowly nods.
"You saved my life."
Another slow nod.
"Does anyone else know?"
Alpha shakes his head, then mimes zipping hid mouth closed. Fox assumed this meant he couldn't tell them, even if he wanted to.
"Should we tell them?"
Alpha pointed at her, then held his hands out at equal heights. 'Your choice' she guessed.
"We shouldn't keep this from them. They're our squad, they should be told, right?"
Alpha shrugged.
"But, on the other hand, do they really need to know? This doesn't really concern them."
There was no response from the Loner now, staring over his shoulder at the door. He turned back to Fox, nodded a goodbye, then left, probably to go back to being somewhere no-one would expect. Fox sighed. She had some answers now, but an even bigger question. Would the team even care if she told them, or should she keep the past to herself?