[Author's Notes]: Well here we are at the final chapter for Volume 2, I know recently the chapters have been getting shorter and shorter and I apologise for that. I tried my best to make sure that this chapter did not shall short for a content-drought situation. So final chapter of Volume 2…let's go!

Standby for Titanfall!

Chapter 14: Even Titans may fall

As time passed, I only just made it to the edge of Vale's city borders from following the railway line displayed on the HUD, the Atlas Military hasn't arrived at the scene to intervene yet. Yet, the smoke cloud trail leads to the breach where the timeline said it would.

"Irene, it's time. Deploy Containment Protocol!" I ordered on the comms.

"Copy that, Pilot." Irene answered. "Sending in the titans."

When I almost made it to the breach location at a high altitude, I saw over the distance that Sam's titan was already on the ground with her Grunts squads as planned held their ground against the Grimm with Connor.

Opening encrypted channel….

Connor: Where are you Fred?! The Grimm are almost through our first line of defence!

Fredric: Look above!

Closing encrypted channel….

As each titan pod was dropping from orbit like it was raining meteor strikes, there was only one thing left to do…

"Alright FS, time to make an entrance." I said as I hacked the nearby Vale speaker systems to play the soundtrack.

"Wait, you're not thinking…." Vanessa said as I exited the cockpit of FS and activated my jump kit.

"Woahhh!" Vanessa screamed but immediately laughed as she was experiencing free falling for the first without a titan. "Hahahaha!"

As I free fall, I deployed a yellow smoke trail on my jump pack.

[Now Playing – You are the Jumpmaster by Stephon Barton]

That's right, they need a jump master. Apex Legends style!

"Irene, sync all titan drop points to my HUD!" I said free falling as all titans are dropping in with their path's location marked. I then picked BT's drop point and readjusted its trajectory near Connor's location. Right on top of an Ursa…..

As I finally arrived onto the rendezvous point that Connor and Sam were at on the ground, FS and many other titans were dropping in after that as they immediately go to work on the Grimm nearby to support Sam's Grunt Squads.

[End Track]

"Now that was a sight to behold." Said Sam in her STRYDER.

"So, what did I miss?" I asked.

Connor immediately lets out a sigh of relief like the weight of the world just got lifted off his shoulders, and he immediately gives me a punch on the shoulder.

"Ow…." I said painfully.

"That's for making me worry." Connor answered.

"Whatever, you liked the lightshow." I rebutted.

What does it take for a guy like him to be impressed anyway?

"Anyway, plan goes as follows." He said. "Kill all Grimm until the Atlas Military arrives, and we keep on going until all Grimm is exterminated from this sector. Clear?!"

"Clear!" everyone answered nearby.

"Alright, let's bring the pain to them!" he answered as he embarks onto BT and goes on his merry way of a killing spree.

"Alright FS, let's take it to the sky." I said embarking onto FS and taking off into the sky for overwatch support.

Once we're in the air, two Nevermores were charging at me as I fired my railgun and shot it down as it dissipated. Immediately, I got flight core ready but I won't use it just yet.

"Flight Core ready." Said FS.

I jet past them to move quickly to the next target, but a Yang suddenly almost hit us in the air as she was firing her Ember Celica at the Grimm below.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" she said….

.

.

Wait for it…

.

.

…as she immediately gets knocked back down to the ground by three Nevermores behind her.

That backfired fast.

I looked down to see that Connor was holding down the area assisting the Grunt Squads to evacuate the civilians in the area while Team RWBY was holding off their side as each Grimm tries to go on the offense but failing to get a strike.

The titans on the other hand are doing pretty well, no damage to nearby surrounding structures. Obviously… no explosives are allowed. So much Cluster Missiles.

I flew in for a support run and deployed several tether traps behind BT as four Ursas were charging at them as they were busy with several Creeps in front of them.

The tether traps deployed and trapped them in place long enough for BT to notice and immediately eradicate them with ION Splitter Rifle.

"Covering your six." I said.

"Thanks Fred!" Connor thanked over the comms.

"Warning Pilot, incoming collision." FS warned. I looked in front of me and immediately as one of the Nevermores charges straight at me and immediately knocks out my titan's shields to 0.

"Watch out!" Vanessa said.

The other Nevermore attaches onto FS as it ripped one of her Flight Thrusters, then as soon it tries to go for the other, I aimed my Railgun to fire at its head but the last Nevermore grabs FS' arms and tries to rip it only to flinch it and shot its wings off as its pain rips off another one of the Flight Thrusters.

"Warning, Flight systems failing. We are descending at a rapid pace." FS informs.

"Ah damnit!" I said in the heat of the moment as all of her systems are being attacked. "Divert all power to flight systems and activate flight core!"

"Flight Core activated. Warning, danger close." FS said as flight core activates and flight systems manages to extend its use for a brief moment and targets the Nevermores surrounding us.

"Fire!" I shouted as the missile's fires at the Nevermores immediately releasing their grip on FS, but with a cost of the explosion damage from the Flight Core did a heavy number on FS's chassis integrity. They tried to go for another strike at us.

"Warning, sustained severe reactor damage." FS informs. "Friendly Titan attacking your Target."

I looked over to see that Sam's titan SY fired her XO-16 at my targets.

"Fredric! Hold on, I'm coming!" said Sam over the comms as she saw my current state as my titan was no shape for combat and trying to intercept my collision. Then suddenly Vanessa immediately links into FS' remaining systems.

"I got it." Said Vanessa as she did her best to steer FS into a safe crash-landing zone, but there wasn't any. "You won't mind if I kill a few more Grimm at this current state, right?"

"What?" I questioned her in confusion as she steers FS into a street filled with Beowolves and crushes it upon impact as it wipes them out to 'soften' the impact. Although it could not said to be the same when my consciousness fades into black.

As the view was slowly becoming clearer, I hear a faint distress call that Vanessa was signalling.

"Mayday, Mayday, Pilot Fredric and Titan Designation FS-1041 are down and in critical need of support. I repeat, we need backup to our location ASAP."

.

.

.

I woke up to hear Vanessa was calling me to wake up.

"Fredric, wake up!" she says. "Come on Fredric, wake up!"

She hacked into my Pilot Ability systems and activates Stim on me to slowly recover from my injuries.

"Ah…..I'm seriously feeling that first thing in the morning." I answered in agonising pain.

"You've been out for a few minutes, Grimm has been coming in our direction since the impact but I took them out with FS' Cluster Rockets so far."

"How is FS doing?" I asked still trying to shake off the drowsiness.

"FS is critical systems are offline. She's out for now, she told me to eject your SERE kit as soon as you're ready to move before she went offline."

She trusted Vanessa in that moment? Wow…. that's…. a surprise.

"Thankfully judging from your current state, you should be okay for now." Vanessa informs. "Opening the hatch now."

The cockpit door opens and I disembarked off FS as I looked at her condition, her chassis is burnt. The SERE kit ejects off from FS chassis and opened it to equip the Amped SMART Pistol and Data-Knife I saved a while back. I holstered the SMART Pistol and the extra Data-Knife, then FS' data core ejects finally out of the SERE kit.

"Thanks FS." I said as I took it out and holstered it too.

"You know that she can't hear you right?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah, I know."

Mood killer.

I took out my G2 and cocked it as I received a transmission from Irene.

"Pilot Miles, do you copy?" she asked.

"Five by five, Irene." I answered. "I'm fine but FS is out for the count, I need a crew to extract the fallen chassis. What's the current status of the Containment?"

"The Atlas Military hasn't arrived still but the civilians are out of the kill zone. Connor is still holding off the Grimm breach with the Grunt Squads and Titan Units are re-tasked to kill any Grimm on sight, while Commander Stone is on her way to your location for pickup." Irene informs. "Titan Dropship and a crew is deployed. They're on their way now to pick up the wreckage."

"Copy that Irene. Thanks for the info." I answered.

"And Fredric…...it's good to know that you're still in one piece." Irene compliments as the transmission ends there.

"Thanks Vanessa, for helping me out in that moment." I thanked.

"You showed me a good fight, although it was short lived for the excitement. The free fall was fun, but the fight was well…. less than to be desirable." Vanessa said. "Now we're even."

Ah…. doesn't like holding favours…. And insulting my fight style?... Mai Feelings…

I see a Titan Dropship landing as the engineering crew disembarks with a standard ATLAS titan model equipped with a XO-16TBR for the heavy lifting and defence.

"It's good to see you still alive and kicking Pilot!" said one of the engineering crew members as he approaches to greets me.

"Something as bad as this?" I questioned. "It takes more than that to just kill a Pilot together with his titan."

"We'll take over the salvage operation from here." He said as Sam had just arrived with her titan to pick me up.

"Pilot Miles!" she said over the comms in her titan as she lowers her titan to allowing me to rodeo onto SY. "It's good to know that you're still in the fight. General Camerone told me to go after you while I re-tasked the Grunts Squads and Connor told the Titan Units to go on the offense after the civilians are extracted out of the Grimm Kill-zone."

"Thank you, Commander Stone. Good to know." I thanked although now I know who made the call. "Now let's hurry to get a move on back to the fight."

"Yes, sir." She answered as we headed back to the fight.

As we managed to return back into the war zone, I just saw that Team JNPR had arrived at the scene to support Team RWBY. Sun and Neptune were there too…. wait…. if they're here…then…

I looked up into the sky to find the Atlas Military had just arrived above Vale's Airspace, an Atlesian Airship just arrived along with their Dropships flying in to deploy their AK-200s.

"Crisis averted…" I said as the Atlas Military takes over the operation to exterminate the Grimm.

As the Grimm decreases in numbers after Glynda closes the breach, I rendezvous at the centre of the city where I see Torchwick was arrested and being taken in by the Atlesian Knights.

Team RWBY, JNPR and CFVY, with the addition of Connor and Sam saw me and they rushed towards me and asking me how I was doing hearing that I went down with my titan. I was fine, I told them. But it was an almost near-death experience.

"Fredric, you son of a bi*ch you scare me like that again, I swear to god I'll shoot you myself." Connor said mostly in relief as he brought me in for a bro hug in which I returned the favour for that. "But all in all I'm glad you're ok."

He smiled as he pat me on the shoulder, he then saw FS' data core that I was holding in my hands. He once again puts in hand my shoulder and I looked at him.

"She's not out of the fight just yet mate." Connor stated assuring me and I nodded in response as I put my core away safely.

That was the first time ever he said my actual name…wow.

I took the last Ship out of Vale as the crew are packing up and returning to base while Connor and Team RWBY head back to Beacon Academy.

Once I arrived back on the Jack Cooper, Summer and Frost were there to greet me as Summer ran towards me and shoved me into a hug to the floor. While Frost gave me a simple handshake.

"Ow….hi Summer…" I greeted in agony still recovering from some of the minor injuries.

"She was really worried when Vanessa called in the distress signal about your combat status." Frost said as I looked down at her still hugging me but she was hugging tighter and I quickly gave her a quick multiple taps on her to signal that it was getting a little too tense. She immediately released me from her iron grip.

"Sorry. Still getting use to the power adjustments to this body." Summer answered. "Welcome home Pilot."

"Thanks Summer, it's good to be back." I answered.

"I already have the medical team ready to check on your status for any further injuries." Frost informed. "As much as you would like to ignore it, I would urge you to do so."

"Sigh….alright. I'll head over there now." I said as Vanessa transferred back to the ship's network mainframe and she appears on a nearby terminal.

"Don't be such a wuss about it, no any reckless operations are allowed until you get yourself checked out." Vanessa objected.

"Hah…..Copy that." I answered and she smiled and giggled before disappearing from the terminal and meeting Irene back at the main holo-deck back at the bridge.

After I got myself checked out by the medical team, I went back to the bridge as Frost, Summer, Irene and Vanessa are gather around the holo-table.

"Hey Fredric, what do you need? Though that you would need rest after the battle on Vale." Irene questioned.

"As much as I want to have a rest, I have a suggestion for an upcoming simulation for Team RWBY and JNPR Pilot Training." I requested. "Give it a little spin."

"And what's that?" Vanessa asked.

"Gambit." I answered as I showed them a Gambit Coin to them.

[Author's Notes]: Wow…..Volume 2 is now in the bag. I still can't believe we've made this far. Well, thank you for sticking around with me and Cronus. It has been a 2-3 years in the making to get where we are at right now and I thank you both fellow readers of Cronus and mine for taking across the journey of our two fellow pilots on Remnant. Thank You.