Gridiron (Stories from the Outlands)

“	Torn between her brother and the only cause she’s ever known, Bangalore has difficult decisions to make - and hard consequences to face - after the Battle of Gridiron.

Gridiron
Watch here
Release date	Jan 04, 2022
Production	Psyop
Length	8:25
Promotes	Gridiron Store
Previous	Ashes to Ash
Next	Judgment

This article is about the animated short. For the planet, see Planets and systems#Gridiron.

Gridiron is a Stories from the Outlands animated short released on January 04, 2022, during Season 11.

Synopsis

In the past, Anita Williams celebrates officially becoming an IMC soldier just like all her family members. Her brother Jackson congratulates her with a bracelet made of bottlecaps, and the two drink beer at the shooting range.

Later, Anita is on the ground during the Battle of Gridiron, and gets ambushed by an enemy Cloak Pilot and stabbed in the abdomen. Barely conscious, Anita is pulled into the medical bay of the IMS Hestia, and witnesses the attack on the planet from space. The ship receives orders to attack, but Jackson, now a lieutenant and the ship's commanding officer, decides to ignore the order and activates Anita's stasis chamber, preparing the crew to flee the mission.

In the present, Anita reawakens from stasis to find that the IMS Hestia crashed on a beach in Storm Point, Gaea. Jackson greets her and shows her the small town nearby, where the crew has been living for some time. Anita doesn't accept this, and returns to the ship to try to contact the IMC; despite Jackson's claims that the war is over and the IMC is gone, her S.O.S. is received by Commander Scryer. Furious, Anita confronts Jackson at a local bar, having discovered that he disobeyed orders and fled the battle. Their argument is interrupted when Scryer's ship arrives in town.

Scryer declares that Jackson is a traitor to the IMC and insists on killing him on the spot, but Anita defends him and insists on a proper hearing. Scryer responds by remotely firing missiles at the town and equipping his Pilot suit to take them down himself. During the fight, Scryer gains the advantage by cloaking, but Anita is able to track his movement by watching the motion in the dust and smoke around the wreckage. The two finally kill him when Jackson holds him down and Anita stabs him with his own blade.

The two leave town, knowing that they are no longer welcome and that the IMC will continue to try to hunt Jackson down.

Details and easter eggs

• The flashbacks in this short take place in 2715, the same year as the events of Titanfall 2's campaign. The present-day scenes take place one year later in 2716.
• In the Youtube premiere countdown sequence, Bangalore and Wraith discuss the crashed IMS Hestia, and Bangalore clarifies that there was a Hestia-02 which Jackson's apparent death occurred on.