I guess the more times you do the same thing, the more you get used to it. It's weird because I would have never thought myself as capable of being used to riding into a battle where I could die. Looking out the window at the multiple other stratoscopters, I was reminded of the battle back in Great Britain. The coalition of Canadian, US, and Overwatch armies went all out on this one. I could understand why though, as if this plan worked, it would be the turning point of the war, and prove that humanity stands a chance.
Although there was a sense of understandable nervousness present among the soldiers, one, next to me, directs my attention to it. Mina sat, with her eyes closed, and her hands gripping the seatbelt so tightly that her fingers were turning white with each shake of the plane. Placing my hand on her shoulder, I use her bioelectricity to calm her down, and she lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Thank you." She says quietly.
"It's no problem. It's your first mission in the field. It's normal to be nervous." I explain.
"Its just... There's so much riding on the success of this mission." She tries to reason with me, but I stop her.
"Don't think about any of that. Think about something else, something ridiculous. Like think an omnic in boxers. Rubber duck boxers and a shower cap." As she visualizes it, a smile slowly forms on her lips.
"There's no way you think about this during every fight." She says.
"I do, while humming Gimme Gimme by ABBA."
"No, not ABBA." She says in bewilderment.
"Mhm. You should try it." I suggest.
We go back in silence as her thoughts go back to the mission. Our stratoscopters went uncontested, which as I know, meant something was going to go astray somewhere. We landed 80 kilometers away from the omnium, which even in the distance was massive. Rows of US tanks sat waiting for us as soldiers piled out of the stratoscopters. Me, Mina and S3bastian found Jack and Sojourn talking with a man in a US army outfit.
He was Captain Page over the US division and was going to be responsible for the brunt of the attack. From scouting, they found that we still had the element of surprise and was estimated to completely wipe out any initial responses. They were prepared even if a Titan shows. Mina looks at me, from reading her emotions, I know she was hoping to catch me off guard and see if the mission will go as expected, but my face reveals nothing.
As we prepare for the attack, I go next to S3bastian and tell him to remain with the army in this attack. Not only would his help be needed when everything goes wrong, but I could bring him for the infiltration part of this mission as he didn't exactly understand how to be sneaky. Just tiptoeing around silently saying, 'Can't see me.' wasn't going to cut it for this one.
The soldiers begin their march, with tanks in the front, Armored Fighting Vehicles behind them, with the infantry following them. On our approach, red lights begin to flash as alarms go off within the omnium. Bastion units begin to spill out, along with OR-14 bots, but they easily get blown up by the tanks. Of course, omnics always find a way to come from somewhere as they appear on both sides of us. The tanks focus their fire on the front while the infantry deals with the omnics to the left and the right.
In the AFV, as bullets whiz past us, I can hear Mina humming Gimme right next to me, trying to calm herself as the battle rages on. I can feel it among the soldiers, the hope that this mission was going to be easy. Over the communications I hear Captain Page say that if things continue, we'll be in the omnium within the hour. I sigh as even if I didn't know it was coming, he definitely jinxed us. I'm glad Sojourn felt the same way as even she understood something wasn't right.
As the tanks just about reach the omnium blast doors, they begin to open slowly. Even though I expected it, I still stare in shock as a hulking figure has to duck out the omnium and stand in front of us. Before us was a quadruped Titan, with the shorter shoulder mounted turrets, and four mini turrets at its waist. It looked like two Titans fused together, complete with all their guns and turrets.
Though the silence, I could just make out S3bastian saying, "When I grow up, I wanna look like that."