The year is 2716, one year after the disastrous Battle of Typhon. You're a regular Pilot, living paycheck to paycheck with a scrap heap Ion-class... until one day, your Titan just gives up and breaks down.

A day later, you find yourself browsing online scrap auctions, looking for a semi-repairable Titan to replace your Ion. The listings are all dismal... until you scroll down to a new listing. A Northstar. From Typhon, no less... and in quite poor condition. You spam the buy button, half-hoping to be outbid. However, you realize too late that you hit the "Buy Now" button.

Three months of scrubbing the cockpit, finding replacement parts, and frantically checking your bank account later, you've finally got the massive silver Titan back together enough to power it on for the first time. Slotting the data core it came with back in, you plug in a freshly charged Titan battery, praying to any deities you can think of that you haven't screwed up your soldering.

The round illuminated optical sensor in its cockpit hatch flickers to life, before it slowly looks down at you. A message pops up on your helmet, from your temporary connection to the Titan.

AH2181> PILOT? AH2181> WHERE IS MY PILOT.