[u][b]Titus/Hippo 7[/b][/u]

Titus had been in a sound sleep and dreaming of home, when the familiar claxon-like call of the alarm filled his quarters.  Though not an officer, Titus was a senior NCO and a Lancer of the Emperor's Tagmata and so rated his own quarters.  Before he was fully awake, he had rolled up from his bunk and was already pulling on his uniform.  His task completed, he spared a moment to check his appearance in the mirror.  He adjusted the fit of his black uniform, checked his sidearm and ID badge and then proceeded out the armored door and down to the mech bays at a dead run.

He slowed as he reached the slatted catwalk above the bays and glanced down below.  As he'd feared, his maintenance section were still clustered around the looming bulk of his Cataphract class mech.  The Maintenance Sergeant in particular looked frustrated and utterly exhausted under his coating of grime and grease.

The left leg was still steadily dripping hydraulic fluid, the armor plating clustered around on the deck or still hanging from chain hoists alongside the eleven meter tall machine.

Still, despite her state of disrepair and after all these years, Titus still felt a certain awe as he gazed at the silent menace of the old mech.  A feeling crawled up his spine, not unlike what a person felt when looking at the fossils of prehistoric monsters.  Black and crimson banners hung fore and aft, like the surcoats of the horse riding warrior class from millennia ago.  A crimson crest stood transverse over the sensor suite that made up her "head."

Her form wasn't elegant or streamlined some of the newer designs, it was the brutally functional and simple bulk of an apex predator.  A metal demon crafted by man to rend and tear his foes.

Titus shook himself from his reverie and leaned over the railing and shouted down at the team's leader.

"What's your sitrep, Sergeant Morne?"

The Maintenance NCO glanced up at the Imperial Champion and shook his head wearily.

"The damn thing is fucked, Staff Sergeant.  I've had artillery mechs that weren't as temperamental, it's still leaking like a sieve and the engine stalls every time I try to put it in reverse."

Titus nodded slowly, there was no way that the team could reverse those kinds of faults in a hour.  Still, the mission came first and he highly doubted that whatever caused the alarm would be polite enough to wait for his mech to come back online.

"Can you reroute the APU from the right leg?"  He said to Morne.

Morne paused, sucking air through his teeth.  After a moment, he shrugged.

"I can but you won't have full speed and it'll have the turn radius of this ship if you try and go to your left."

Titus smiled grimly.  "I'll be in zero or low g for a lot of it, I imagine, we're not close to any worlds right now and so that means ship to ship.

"Get it done, you have twenty minutes."

Morne laughed and gestured for his crew to resume their work.

"You heard the man, get the right leg APU rerouted and get the armor back in place." He roared.

Titus opened the gate at the end of the gantry and slowly lowered himself into the cockpit with a series of half-turns and a small twist of his upper body, before he could finally ensconce himself in his ejection seat.  He pressed a plastic stud and the HUD flared into life, its dull green background lighting up the narrow confines of the cockpit.

Per what Morne had told him, the touchscreen flared with amber and red as caution and warnings scrolled past.  Well, if a mech worked fine that was because something truly awful was about to happen.  Or so they'd told him when he'd began his training.

Titus lifted his helmet with its integrated display from its armored case, beside his seat and checked the seal and his suit's life support systems were online.  That done, he raised the toggle cover and flipped the power switch that ignited the mech's engine.  The turbine started with a sound like a giant vacuum cleaner and then spun up into howling life.

"Engine online, main weapons online, suspension operable."  His mech's computer reported in her soothing voice.

"Well thanks, old girl."  He said, though he knew she couldn't truly hear him.

Titus checked the engine health panel and nodded shortly, at least the sealed oxygen mix tanks that kept the engine fed in vacuum were still working correctly.  The Cataphract had been hurriedly produced in a many ways and it showed, especially with the engine.  Instead of an atomic battery or a small reactor, the engine had been installed as a stop-gap design.  One that was still waiting for its replacement, decades after the fact.  The modifications to protect from and let it operate in space had been welded on under the carapace armor, as an afterthought.

Still, it was good enough for right and that would have to do.

Titus scrolled through his display, while he waited and carefully reviewed the data picket from Lucia.  Already, he could feel the deep thrum of the ship's engines rise, even through the armored bulk of his mech.  No doubt they were changing course and headed for intercept of what or who had attacked the good ship [i]Venture[/i]. 

His comms crackled as Morne's voice came through his helmet.

"That's as good she's gonna get."

Titus glanced down via an exterior camera and used his mech's waldos to raise the right hand in salute at Morne.

Morne waved up at the camera and grinned sourly.  "Best of luck, boss."

The gantry rose out of the way with a whine of hydraulics and Titus engaged his systems.  The Cataphract's armor was pitch black and it gleamed dully beneath the flashing light.  The plating was scored and lined with dozens of old hits, the grim souvenirs from countless fights.  Some from Titus' time and others from the men and who women had ridden the mech into battle before him.

There was a pause as Morne hurriedly stalked across the bay to grab a hoist control and carefully ease a gunmetal gray case down from the massive racks that served to house parts and weapons for the mech.  The object within was kite-shaped, though the bottom was actually squared off instead coming to a point.  Morne paused to lower his flash goggles and then keyed the switch.  The coffin-shaped case slowly swung open and Titus' mech reached out to take up the massive shield that let the Cataphract serve its grim purpose on the battlefield.

With its crimson field over a black background and the three ravens around the ovoid boss in its center, it could have been an oversized recreation of a shield from days long since past.

But as Titus grasped it, the thing flared into coruscating life, the jagged blue runes hissed and crackled with unnatural life.  But for all their brilliance, the shifting symbols never once cast a shadow or changed the ones that stretched throughout the bay.

Titus, his helmet's visor lowered, mirrored Morne's salute and stepped out on to the gangway that led to the dropships and airlocks.  With his mech's right hand, he readied the brutal shape of the massive maul and breaching tool, that served as his primary melee weapon.  Finally, he lowered the cockpit cover with a hiss of seals.

Now, his mech rose to her full height.  Like some primordial horror from the flickering shadows and turned to the right with an agility that belied her bulk and maintenance issues.  No longer a crouched and shambling thing, she stalked down the alloyed deck with a series of cascading rumbles.

As he drew to close the assembly point, he could the unmistakable shape of Baron Wilhelm's Black Knight.  Titus quickly scanned the comms channels and checked for any relevant traffic before making a comms check.  As he did so, he heard Onyx-9 report in and he smiled grimly.  This bunch of murdering pirates was going to be in for an unpleasant shock indeed, if that was the team leading their counter-boarding efforts.

"This is Hippo 7, REDCON 1, standing by."  Titus said.