Tobias' hand scrabbled to his midsection, on the right side of his stomach. He felt a large hole in his suit which the bullet had blown out of. It had gone straight through. He twitched a bit in pain, hearing the splashing sounds go blood pooling underneath him from the similar wound on his back.
"Tobias, I heard gunfire. Is everything alright?"
Before he could respond to KT's question, Dimitri stepped forward to tear the transceiver he borrowed from Gates off his helmet. He threw it on the ground, and crushed it with his boot. Then he held his wrist up to his mouth, and typed in some kind of new frequency. "Blisk, this is Dimitri. I've got the info we need. The Ark is in the southern aisles, in the site we marked off a few months ago. That temple in the water."
"Copy that, I'll notify Marder. Good work."
He looked over at Tobias' data knife lodged in the console. "What a shame, but I'm afraid that I can't have you disabling those generators." With a powerful swipe of his hand, he hit the knife and snapped the blade off, leaving half of it stuck in the slot as the handle flew to the far corner of the room.
It was taking everything Tobias had to not pass out. "H-how ... do y-you know where the A-Ark is ... j-just from...?"
Dimitri shrugged. "We've known which planet the Ark was on for awhile now, a nice little isolated rock out there we call Typhon. But still, scouring an entire planet is pretty difficult as you've seen by our efforts to find the Inferno." He shook his head. "I knew that they'd found it, but couldn't get it to work. We'd never have been able to do so without your help, so I suppose I should thank you." He gave a mock bow as Tobias writhed on the ground. "We knew where it was alright, just couldn't work the damn thing."
"You son of a bitch!" Gates screamed from the side, still locked to the pipe. "I've trusted you more than anyone for years!"
He shrugged. "That's why it's so easy to avoid detection. As dear Four here so eloquently put it," he said, gesturing at Tobias, "trust is a very hard thing to come by in these times."
Tobias grunted. "Why d-did you ever h-help me?"
"I've been trying to get you killed since the beginning, ever since I knew you were a former IMC. Accelerating your pilot training, telling Gates that you'd probably volunteer to be KT's pilot, getting you assigned to an defense op on a refueling raid when most wouldn't get that job for months ... I've been trying to keep you from spilling any secrets, and to kill two birds with one stone by taking out that Titan as well."
He made a 'tsk' sound. "But then you crashed on Tyche, and heard about Erebus... and goddamn, you are one determined person. I stuck close to you, trying to keep an eye on you. In fact, I encouraged you. I figured that this plan of yours to raid the Kraken was so dangerous, you'd die in the attempt." He shook his head. "But you survived. And then you kept surviving. And dammit, you just don't know when to die, do you? One mishap after another, but you always manage to come back on top. Well, not this time."
He turned his aim to Gates, forcing her to freeze lest she get shot. Slowly, he walked up to her, and grabbed her sidearm from her holster. "You won't be needing this."
Placing her weapon in a pouch at his side, he then turned towards the only other exit of the room besides the one that led back into the trenches; a tunnel that led back to the main hexagonal complex. As he walked out, he turned back to Tobias one last time.
"It's a shame, Four. Someone with your skills could have really made a difference in the IMC. It's a waste."
Then he walked down the tunnel.
Tobias couldn't do much more than lay there, feeling himself get weaker by the minute. He was losing a bit of blood, and honestly he didn't care. Dimitri had been revealed as a traitor, pain was forcing every sensible thought out of his mind, and he couldn't see a way out of this one. For once, he just thought about staying there on the ground ... letting it all fade away...
"Four!"
He heard her call his name, and feebly turned his head to see Gates. She was looking wildly from him to the tunnel. "Stay awake! We're gonna make it out of this one, you hear me? Stay with me!"
He slightly shook his head. "T-there's nothing w-we can do ..."
She froze as she heard him finally appearing to concede, to lose hope.
"I-I've tried my h-hardest to never s-surrender ... b-but I j-just don't see a w-way out of t-this one ..." He coughed, a bit of blood flying into the air as he did so.
Gates was motionless, just staring at him. "I never..." She shook her head vigorously. "I've never seen you give up, don't start now! If that bastard gets away, then everything you've done will have been for nothing! I believe in you, I've always believed in you! Fight this! Stay with me!"
The IMC would build their weapon. The frontier would be lost to them, and the Militia would be wiped out.
Gates' words began to take their effect on him. She was right, he'd never given up before. He wouldn't have survived Nedar if he'd given up, never would have found KT, never would have linked with her...
They were effectively locked in here since he couldn't move much and Gates was chained to the wall. And these walls were made to withstand a lot, this room doubled as a bunker. Which meant a lot of force would be needed to break in.
The neural link.
With one last ace up his sleeve, he closed his eyes and focused past the pain. KT, I need you. If you can hear me, I need you now.
Gates stared at him, watching him intently and trying to figure out what he was doing. He opened his eyes, and listened.
Nothing.
He sighed. He knew that gates believed in him, but maybe his luck had finally run out-
WHAM.
Dust shook from the ceiling and walls as a massive force hit the entrance wall. Gates jumped at the noise, turning to look at it as it received another.
WHAM.
The slightest of smiles tugged on the edges of his lips. "That's m-my girl."
With one last WHAM, the wall cracked apart and crumbled. A large metal fist had broken through, and retracted to allow visual sight within. "Tobias?! Are you alright?!"
He waved over at Gates' predicament. "Get ... get her free ..."
KT reached through the hole, gripped the pipe which Gates was stuck to, and snapped it. The Captain wasted no time in sliding the handcuffs off of the pipe, and ran to his side. "Alright, you stay with me, you hear? I told you, we're gonna-"
He gripped her tightly, and she helped him up to his feet. Reaching into a pouch at her side, she brought out some circular device. "This is a quick-acting medical cocktail. Should keep you on your feet for a while."
She exposed one of his arms by pulling up his white sleeve, and slapped it on. There was a mini-needle or something in it, and he felt it enter. That was the only bout of discomfort, however, as pain quickly began to become a bit duller than the sharp agony he'd been experiencing a few moments ago. He could feel his mind clearing a bit.
"What happened?!" demanded KT, her voice giving away just how protective she was trying to be.
"He's been shot," explained Gates, "Dimitri's a traitor. We have to stop him-"
Tobias shook his head. "No, that's... that's gonna be our job. You've got to get back, and tell everyone about the Ark and Typhon." He looked up at KT. "You said to ... the bitter end, right?"
She stared at him for a moment before nodding slowly.
Gates looked between the two of them. "Not that I don't doubt your resolve, but you're shot. You were just bleeding out. And now you want to chase him down yourself?"
He grunted, "I know what I'm doing. Get everyone to the evac zone, I'm gonna disable the guns while I'm up there. I've got a plan." He humorously pointed to his head, but she didn't seem to find it all that funny.
"Just stay safe, alright?" She reached her arms forward and gave him a hug. "I don't want to lose you a second time."
With that, she turned and left through the massive hole in the wall that KT had made, running through the snow back to the courtyard. He shambled over to KT as she analyzed him.
"Tobias, you need proper medical attention. I don't recommend-"
"We've got a job to do, Kay," he interrupted. "If we don't follow through, a lot of people are gonna die. It's up us now." Truthfully, he wanted to go home with the rest of them, but he was trying to give himself just as much purpose as Gates was trying to earlier.
The Tone looked at him for a moment longer, then nodded. Her hull opened up, and he pulled himself into it with a bit of difficulty. "Don't transfer control, you'll be more effective this way. Make ... make your way to that spot where you were reactivated."
She obliged, and he watched through the ocular systems as she waded through the snow towards the point he'd indicated. Battle still waged in the center courtyard, but they remained largely ignored so long as they didn't engage. She spoke to him, trying to get a better sense of his plan. "What exactly do you think you're going to do?"
"First, I need to disable the generators, blind the guns. And to do that, I need Dimitri."
"And then what?"
He swallowed hard, hoping she wouldn't notice the even tone of his voice. "And then we go home."
"I like that plan."
She didn't need to know that he wasn't being entirely truthful.
Eventually, they reached the location. KT ambled a bit, looking around.
"Alright," he said, pulling the release latch for the hull and exiting the chassis, "I need you to throw me."
She stared blankly at him for a moment. "Excuse me?"
He pointed up at the shattered window that he and the 6-4 had jumped out of earlier. "Right there ... I need to get to the command room, the one that Blisk interrogated me in. I think ... I can shut down the generators from there."
She looked up at the height, and sort of sighed. "I take back what I said about liking this plan."
He raised his arms up, waiting for her to grab him. Gently, she reached out and firmly held him in her grip. She raised him into the air, and looked up towards the hole, several stories up. Her eye rotated to look at him. "Good luck."
He gave her a thumbs up, and then she threw him. He felt himself soar through the air, finally losing momentum right as he sailed through the broken glass. He landed lightly on his back, and quickly righted himself into a standing position. He leaned out of the window to look at KT waiting below, and flashed her a thumbs up. She reciprocated the action, raising her own hand up to make a thumbs up as well.
He focused, and spoke through the neural link again. "KT, head back to the extraction point and help defend the area until I've disabled the guns. They're gonna need every hand they can get."
She hesitated just for a moment before nodding. "Be quick, we're running out of time."
As she lumbered off, he couldn't help but hope that she'd forgive him.
He pulled the Flatline off his back, and held it in a ready position as he pushed through the halls. He retraced his steps from earlier that Gates and the 6-4 had led him through until he finally arrived in a familiar hallway. Leaning around the edge of the doorframe in the center of it, he was pleased to see that the command room was still empty. Obviously, the IMC were a bit preoccupied with the battle raging across their precious planet.
He walked in, checking corners and ensuring that no cloaked pilots were in the area, he wouldn't be surprised like that again. When he was sure that it was clear, he made his way towards the control console. What he was looking for wasn't the database or even the command system, he had no way to access them without a certain something. But what he could do...
Spotting a microphone with a button beneath it, he thumbed the button and heard the signature tone of the loudspeakers around the base turning on. He wasted no time in shouting out orders;
"Militia forces, this is Lieutenant Four! Get to the extraction point on the double, we're getting out of here!" Letting go of the button, he was pleased to look out the observation window and see a general movement of the militia forces toward the missing segment in the complex, near the area between the facility and the trench.
"Well, look who's still trying to be a hero."
He turned at the voice, and saw two of his least favorite individuals standing there; Blisk and Dimitri. The former had spoken, and was now shaking his head. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?"
Dimitri nodded. "I'm telling you, this guy just won't die. Permission to fix that?"
Blisk laughed. "Permission granted. I'm getting on a shuttle out of here, Marder wants us to start looking for the Ark as soon as possible. Update me when you can, eh?" He patted Dimitri on the shoulder, and then left him and Tobias alone in the command room.
Dimitri began to raise up the wingman in response to Tobias' already leveled Flatline. "You've done your fair share of impressive feats, I'll admit, but managing to get back here and challenge me? That tops the list, kid."
"Fight me."
Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Tobias nodded towards the Wingman. "Blisk said he has a creed, something about deciding who is better than who. What is it?"
Dimitri narrowed his eyes, and paused for a moment. "His motto is, 'you kill me, you're better. I kill you, I'm better.'"
Now confident, Tobias gave a slight shrug. "Why don't you and I settle that then? Right here and now, no guns. Just two men fighting."
A thoughtful look came over Dimitri's face. "A chance to kick your sorry ass for all the trouble you've caused me? How can I say no?" Grinning, he lowered the Wingman as Tobias did the same with the Flatline. At the same time, each dropped their weapon to the floor and kicked it to the side of the room.
"You've just made a huge mistake." Dimitri charged hard and fast before he was prepared. A fist slammed into the side of his helmet, and he jerked away from the force reflexively. Another well-placed jab landed right where he'd been shot in his abdomen, and it took a lot of willpower to not cry out in pain.
Moving to the offensive, he threw a punch that connected with the bridge of Dimitri's nose. The mercenary stepped back, holding a hand up to it. "Solid punch, Four. Definitely got a lot of fight in you still."
Dimitri aimed a kick at Tobias' ribs that he managed to dodge, then countered with an uppercut. Dimitri caught his arm, and threw it to the side so that Tobias spun away from him. With his back exposed, Dimitri placed his foot against the other bullet wound, and shoved him into the computer console.
Tobias felt the front of his helmet crack fully against the force being driven against it, and it flew off when he bounced back off. Grabbing his hair, Dimitri slammed his face into the buttons of the console again. The metal clanged against his skull, and his vision began to swim.
Trying to focus on the objective at hand, Tobias launched himself at Dimitri and began to tear and claw at anything that he could get his hands on. Grabbing him by the shoulders, Dimitri picked him up and threw him across the room to the floor. Dimitri's belt and pouches came loose from Tobias' hand wrapped tightly around its strap, and landed next to him on the ground. His head slammed into the floor, and a dull throbbing echoed throughout his skull. He moved his right hand, trying to find what he was after.
Dimitri knelt down, gloating while he stared at Tobias bruised face. "Did you really think you could overpower me with a bullet wound? I'm surprised you even lasted this long-"
He froze as he felt the cold steel of a gun barrel press against his chin, and Tobias narrowed his eyes. "No... but it looks like I could outwit you."
Pulling the trigger of Gates' stolen sidearm that Dimitri had stored in his pouch, red was painted all over the window and console. His chest heaving with exhaustion, Tobias shoved the body off of him and began rapidly searching it. He found what he was searching for on an arm-strap wrapped around his left shoulder. Taking the data knife, he walked over to the command console and stuck it in.
"See," he explained to Dimitri's corpse, "I know that you guys probably put up... put up firewalls against any foreign software that's put into these things. But since you're actually IMC ... I've got a feeling that your knife might be an exception."
When the blue ring on the data-knife finished winked brightly, he knew he was in. "Gotcha."
He navigated through the complex's main command network, and found the generators' system. Without hesitation, he shut them down.
The reaction was immediate. The snowstorm that would otherwise be making its way toward the complex was now free to do so, unhindered by the generators. He closed his eyes, and braced himself.
This was going to be the hard part.
...
KT was standing guard over the evac zone, shepherding other Militia forces forward. With the snow now falling, the guns became inactive, and sat there harmless. They couldn't see or sense the Widow dropships rapidly approaching to pick up both humans and Titans alike. She looked around, expecting to see Tobias around. Where was he-
"Kay."
She felt a bit of her tension release once his voice came through their neural link. Gates looked at her curiously, noticing her movement. "Is that Four?"
KT nodded, and began to play the transmission through her speakers. "I read you, Tobias. The guns are offline, where are you?"
There was nothing but static on the other end of the line. She began to feel the familiar sense of apprehension creeping upon her. "Tobias? Are you there?"
"... I'm not coming with you."
Time stopped.
She struggled to process what he'd just said. "What do you mean you're not coming with?"
Gates seemed pretty taken aback as well. "Four, get your ass over here now, that's an order-"
"We have to find Typhon to stop the weapon they're creating. And we can't do that if we don't know where it is. Trying to find it like we did with Erebus isn't gonna work a second time."
"You don't know that!" Gates shouted, other riflemen and Titans staring at them as they walked past and boarded the dropships in a hurry.
"Do you think the IMC is dumb enough to fall for the same trick twice? The Militia would have won this war a long time ago if that were the case."
Gates fell silent, realizing how serious he was about this. KT struggled to find words, to find a solution to this. "We can ... we can ..."
"I'm going to give myself up. They won't kill me, now that I'm the Inferno. I'm too valuable to lose."
"How does that help anyone?!" KT finally yelled, reaching her breaking point. She was tired of having hope ripped away from her every time she was given any, tired of having her heart broken by this war.
"You were able to track me with the energy signature of the Inferno. When I ... when I'm finally brought to Typhon, as I'm sure they'll take me, then the Militia will know where to attack. Where to find and destroy the weapon."
Gates was shocked. "But that could be years away!"
"I know."
KT said nothing. There was nothing to say. She was going to lose him, despite all of her efforts to not do so ... she was going to lose yet another pilot. She was going to lose her best friend, and she wasn't sure how to continue on.
"C'mon!" yelled a riflemen to the two of them standing there. "We gotta get the hell out of here!" Indeed, the Widows were beginning to fill up and would take off soon. Only a few other Militia Titans were holding the enemy force back.
"Kay..."
She heard him say her name, and held onto it like a lifeline. "Tobias?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you through any of this... I never meant to break my promise when I said that I'd never abandon you. Not to mention that we won't get to have those adventures in the frontier I told you about."
He chuckled, but it sounded mirthless, like he was crying as he did so. The Tone held her composure well, using her anger at the situation to avoid breaking down. "But you have to."
"You said to the bitter end ... well, this is a pretty damn bitter end."
That tipped her over the edge, and her voice became choked. Gates had never heard a Titan cry before, but it certainly sounded like one was right now. "Please, don't do this."
"You told me that you were a lousy Titan, but a good friend. I'm sorry that I'm an awful friend ... but apparently I make a good Titan."
The massive doors of the open segment to the facility began to close to KT's and Gates' surprise.
"I'm shutting down all of the facility to demotivate you guys from forming some sort of rescue attempt. This is the way it has to be, please don't get yourselves killed on account of me."
Gates shook her head. "Dammit, Four..."
His voice crackled through her speakers again, sounding just as broken as she felt inside. "Kay, you're the best damn friend I could have ever asked for. You're more than a friend, you're..."
She nodded, hearing him pause. "I feel the same, Tobias. You're everything to me."
"... Don't hold yourself back for me. Get yourself a new pilot, a better pilot. Don't let yourself go to waste while I'm gone, that's the last thing I'd want."
"LAST CALL!" came the sound of someone over the speakers of the Widow. Numbly, KT and Gates rushed to board.
She stared back out at the facility as the dropship began to rise. "I refuse. This isn't the end, Tobias. We will find you, no matter how long it takes."
"...I'll miss you, KT."
She felt herself wilt internally at his words as the dropship quickly left a viable range for transmission through the Neural link. "Tobias, I... I lo-"
Static suddenly played over the link, and she quickly fell silent, feeling the absolute weight of complete loneliness wash over her.
...
"Tobias, I... I lo-"
KT was cut off was the dropship she was on left the signal's range of reception, and he just stared blankly out the window as several tears slid down his face.
Wiping them away with the back of his gloves, he turned and let himself fall onto the ground, taking a sitting position against the console as he resigned himself to his fate.
The sound of approaching footsteps grew ever closer, and with it, his desolate future.
As a prisoner.
As the Inferno.
As someone who had their last vestiges of happiness and hope ripped away from them.
To the bitter end indeed.