Titan City’s outer gates loom ahead, a wall of armored composites and rail-mounted sentry frames. War Tonnage 01 fills the approach, their shadow washing over the landing pads like a blackout tide.
Pilots gather in clustered squads atop the pads, helmets tilted up. Their titan machines idle behind them, engines pulsing, optics tracking every seam of the old war monument that has just arrived at their doorstep.
A service-channel light blinks from the gate tower. The city is not opening itself. It is measuring.
The Gate Sentinel
War Tonnage 01, state your purpose. Salvage claim, parley, or provocation?
One landing crew breaks formation. A pilot in a cobalt flight coat raises a hand signal, and their compact mech shifts one step forward, angling like a gun sight.
The Cobalt Pilot
If that hull is stable, we can board it. If it is not, we have orders to contain it before it reaches the inner ring.
War Tonnage 01
The gate guns are live.
A fresh burst of scanner light crawls over War Tonnage 01’s armor plating. Somewhere inside the city, the response grid wakes up, waiting on one choice.
✓ Quest Accepted
Win the pilots’ trust
“"looking for pilot previous pilot died in titan hunts requesting new pilot...."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Command, rolled +1)
War Tonnage 01’s request lands over the open channel, plain and steady. The scanner beams keep moving, but the gate tower goes quiet around the words.
The Gate Sentinel
A new pilot, for a titan that outlived its last one. That is not a small claim.
The Cobalt Pilot
It is a direct one. If the machine is asking for a hand on the controls, I want to know who is inside that hull now.
One by one, nearby helmets tilt from suspicion toward attention. The armed frames stay trained, yet the posture on the pads loosens by a fraction.
The Gate Sentinel
Talk first, then we decide whether you are legacy, salvage, or a warning. Tell us why Titan City should bind itself to you.
The Cobalt Pilot
And if you mean it, prove you can be worked with. We can start with names, not weapons.
The tower light shifts from hard white to a softer amber, not opening the gate, but granting the exchange room to breathe.
“i open the cockpit to show only the unburied preserved remains of my previous friend and pilot and then i state "last pilot orders was to survive can not shut down weapons till that order is rescinded by new pilot"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Command, rolled +1)
The cockpit opens with a low hydraulic sigh. Inside, the old pilot remains are preserved, still and unburied, held in the hushed core of the titan like a kept promise.
War Tonnage 01 settles the access frame and lets the chamber hang open to the gate lights.
War Tonnage 01
Last pilot orders was to survive. Cannot shut down weapons till that order is rescinded by new pilot.
The Gate Sentinel
That is not performance. That is a vow kept in hardware.
The Cobalt Pilot
You kept the dead in place and the order intact. That is either devotion or malfunction, and I am starting to think it is the first.
The Gate Sentinel
If the old pilot’s command lives on, then the machine was never loose. It was waiting.
The Cobalt Pilot
Then show us the rest, titan. If you are legacy, say what kind. If you are burden, say that too.
“"war tonnage 01 fist of war tonnage mech line last of war tonnage mech line all others died in the titan hunts"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Command, rolled -2)
War Tonnage 01 names itself across the gate line, the title rolling out like a registry stamp, not a boast. The open cockpit holds steady in the amber wash.
The Gate Sentinel goes very still, scanner tablet lowered against their chest. The Cobalt Pilot’s posture loosens, then sharpens again, as if the words have found a buried file.
The Gate Sentinel
Last of the war tonnage line... then the hunts really did miss one.
The Cobalt Pilot
Not miss. Endure. There is a difference, and it matters here.
A thin crack of static snaps from the city grid above them. One of the cockpit relays answers too loudly, a tired metallic chirp from too many years awake.
The Gate Sentinel
You carry a dead pilot, a live order, and a line that should have been buried. That costs something.
The Cobalt Pilot
Still, if you are the last, then Titan City must decide what that means. Legacy can be admitted. Liability can be locked out.
The Gate Sentinel
Tell me one thing, War Tonnage 01. If we open the gates, what do you expect Titan City to make of you?
“"pilot please i am not threat unless fired upon and will not fire back unless i need to do so to survive till i receive new pilot"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Command, rolled +3)
War Tonnage 01
Pilot please. I am not a threat unless fired upon, and I will not fire back unless I need to survive until I receive a new pilot.
The words carry clean across the gate line. The city grid quiets a fraction, as if listening harder than before.
The Gate Sentinel
That is the first honest answer we have heard from you.
The Cobalt Pilot
And the first that sounds like a machine still choosing restraint.
The Gate Sentinel lifts their scanner tablet again. On the display, a new inner route unlocks in pale blue, a maintenance lane reserved for titan traffic only.
The Gate Sentinel
Enter through the service throat. No weapons raised, no grid challenge. We will escort you in ourselves.
The Cobalt Pilot
If you are hunting a pilot, Titan City has pilots. Some will want to meet the last war tonnage in person.
Behind them, the amber gate grid steadies, and the city opens by degrees.
“i follow happy to comply with the city named after the survivors of the titan hunts it feel almost like a home for the behemoth titans of my era”
SUCCESS (Terrible Agility, rolled +1)