Chapter One
As he looked out his window, Lieutenant Jim Hammet gazed into the eternal nothingness that is space. He was light years away from home and hadn't been there in ages. He tried recalling memories of his home: his house, his family, his wife, his two kids, even his dog. He hadn't heard from them in a while either. He found this strange, because the postal system had improved by leaps and bounds in the last century. They weren't even using envelopes at all anymore. Everything was electronic now, bills, letters, even junk mail, just everything.
Jimmy, as everybody called him, was now 32 years old. He had been with the Ravens for 10 years and was firmly established as a veteran. Nobody suspected or even thought of calling him 'over-the-hill' as he was still one of the best pilots the Ravens had. This was part of the reason why he had lasted so long, and why he was planning on getting promoted to a desk job when he turned 40. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to this, because he loved being in the thick of things. And when he thought about sitting back watching an operation unfold instead of being there taking charge he just couldn't stand it. But then again, he did have a wife and two kids who he had to look after, and he couldn't do that from six feet under.
He suddenly snapped out of his daze when he realized his pager was buzzing.
"Excellent, time for some simulation." Jimmy said as he got up and exited his dorm. The pneumatic door slid open with the sound of compressed air being released. He found himself in the off-white colored hallway of the housing deck of the station. He made his way around the circular deck and found the elevators. He picked up his cardkey from his side, it was attached to his belt through a lanyard, and slid it into the slot on the metallic panel between the two elevators.
"One moment please, Lt. Hammet." Came the female voice of the station's computer system. Several moments later the doors opened and admitted Jimmy into the elevator. He felt the elevator begin moving downward and then backwards, a major improvement over old elevators. Newer elevators could now travel not only up and down, but left, right, forwards and backwards. The cart came to a stop and the doors to Jimmy's left opened revealing the simulation deck.
"Ah, right on schedule Jimmy." The voice of the commander, a Major, of simulations greeted him. "As always."
"You kidding? Why would I want to be late to playing video games?" Jimmy joked around with the Major, he was really eager to get into the simulator. "Okay, lets get going."
"Okay, which model do you want to practice first?"
"I think I'll start off with the Rhino. I had some problems with it last time." Jimmy was referring to his heavy assault Core.
"What kind of problems?" The Major asked as he punched in a few commands to the simulator.
"Basic stuff really, controls seemed a little bit off. Movement seemed a bit sluggish, but everything else - weapons, engine, defense - seemed okay.
"Well, if movement was a little sluggish, we could try dropping some weight." The Major suggested. The Major was also in charge of planning modification of the Cores to meet the pilots' requirements. "This of course would mean sacrificing a few things. We could try cutting out some of the ammo for the weapons you use least."
"Yeah, that sounds good. So, run the simulation and keep track for me, okay?" Jimmy responded. He had asked the Major to do something they always did: keep track of which weapons pilots used most and least frequently. This way they could determine the optimal combination of ammunition to load into a pilots Core for a given mission.
Jimmy jumped into the generic core used for simulations. It was a base model that simulated movement, firing of weapons, taking damage and so on. It had all the controls, abilities and drawbacks of a pilots real Core, and was tailored, via computer, to simulate the pilot's actual Core. It provided the most realistic non-live-fire exercise a pilot could get, and it was pretty life-like.
The Core closed and Jimmy got himself situated. He placed the helmet/headset on his head. He found the two joysticks that controlled movement – one for the left arm, one for the right arm, when moved together they pivoted the upper portion of the Core, the part on top of the legs, side to side or up and down. His feet found two pedals which controlled movement of the Core's legs and therefore forward, reverse and strafing movements. He began punching in start-up commands that were now instinctive to him. He pushed buttons, flipped switches, light came on, screens lit up, the two joysticks receded into the control panel and two more came out which were replicas of his own Core's joysticks. These had buttons and levers which controlled weapons, boosters and the like.
The main screen in front of him was projecting the image of what was directly in front of his Core. It projected a bleak landscape of a red desert. There were several mountains in the distance, several rocks strewn around, but no major obstacles. He tilted the joysticks down and looked at his Core's arms. In the right hand was a modified assault rifle. It fired solid bullets at a relatively quick rate and did not have that much recoil and therefore remained accurate. It had a very large ammunition payload and that was part of the reason as to why Jimmy liked it so much. Many thought it was an out-dated weapon, but Jimmy proved time and again that in the hands of one who knows how to use it, it is still a deadly weapon – even against the most recently designed Cores. In his Core's left hand was a laser based weapon. It was a submachine gun of sorts and fired laser shot in three shot bursts or in a constant, full-automatic spray of laser bursts. It was a newly designed weapon which worked off the Core's power and therefore could theoretically last forever. He flipped a switch on each joystick and over each shoulder two large, side by side cannons appeared. These four cannons fired high intensity laser rounds. They could break through the toughest barriers in seconds and were the most lethal weapon on Jimmy's Core. They had an effective range of miles and had pin-point accuracy for up to 5 miles. On each of his Core's shoulder Jimmy had a medium sized missile launcher. He used these for aerial targets, and also for combined long-range attacks with the quad-cannons.
Jimmy reached up and hit two buttons. These set off a series of automatic actions pre-programmed into his Core. The assault rifle in his Core's left hand was secured to his Core's back and the submachine gun to his Core's hip. The Core's right arm then reached over to it's left side and grabbed a hilt. There was no sheath, just the hilt attached to the Core's side. However, as the arm extended upward, it moved as if drawing a sword. It then moved the other hand to join the left hand on the hilt and moved into a sword-fighting stance. Once this was finished Jimmy hit another button and a beam of light shot up from the hilt of the sword. It traveled upward, curving slightly. It had created the Core's last-resort weapon. A sword made of what appeared to be light, but in actuality was trillions of photons compressed into the shape of a 15 foot long, foot wide masamune. Wielding this sword was the hardest thing Jimmy had learned to do with his Core. It required all the concentration, practice and expertise of sword fighting in person, and much more. Jimmy had to use all four appendages at once to control his Core in a sword fight. He had to coordinate the legs and the arms to maneuver his Core while sword fighting. It took several years for Jimmy to master the art. Most pilots didn't totally master it but just became proficient enough to survive most fights, or taught themselves how to maneuver into a position where they could use a different weapon.
"You ready, Lieutenant?" The Major's voice echoed through the helmet.
"Yeah, lets get going." Jimmy answered back into the microphone in front of his lips that was part of the helmet.
"I guess you want to start off with some close quarters combat?" The Major asked noticing Jimmy's sword being drawn.
"Yeah, I'll see how she handles, maybe it was just me last time." Jimmy responded, half joking about himself.
"Okay. We're sending in several ACs for you to engage." The Major reported, and sure enough several Armored Cores dropped down onto the ground. Jimmy quickly surveyed them and took note of make, model and what weaponry they had. They looked like pretty nimbly ACs, and therefore would be somewhat even matches for him in a sword fight considering he was in his bulkiest of Cores.
There were three Armored Cores in front of him. Jimmy was standing sideways to them, with his arms outstretched towards the ground, sword facing towards the enemy. He quickly began moving forward and as he did so the ACs drew their swords. The swords they bore weren't nearly as advanced as Jimmy's, but they were still a threat. Once Jimmy was in range of the first AC, it tried to slash at him with it's sword. Jimmy parried this by bringing his sword underneath the enemy's and halting it. He then spun his sword out and around the enemy's and proceeded to slice off the enemy AC's arm. Jimmy brought his sword up diagonally and slice the AC across it's chest. Jimmy then pulled off one of his favorite sword fighting techniques, and one of the most difficult. He dropped down close to the ground, spun around, kicking the legs out from underneath the AC with the crashing sound of metal slamming into metal. Jimmy spun around until his sword was underneath the enemy AC and with a combination of his rising and the enemy AC falling he sliced the AC in half at the waist. He heard electronics buzzing, pieces of metal falling to the ground and then the crashing down of the two pieces of the fallen AC.
Jimmy now had his back to the other two ACs who were moving around him so that they were at his sides. The one to his right attempted to slash at him with an over-the-head slash, followed, moments later, by the one at his left doing the same thing. Jimmy blocked the attack from the right first throwing the AC back several paces. Jimmy then quickly spun around to parry the other attack. He swiped the oncoming sword away from him with a downward parry and then raised his sword so it was even with the AC's head and drove his sword straight throw it, killing the AC instantaneously. The last AC had now recovered from its throw and way coming towards Jimmy. He still had his back to it and right as it was about to slice his back open Jimmy engaged his boosters and flew up and over the enemy AC. He hovered there for a split second as he saw the confused AC below him. He then plummeted down to the ground and brought his sword all the way down through the AC as he landed crouched down right in front of it. As he stood up the AC was standing there supporting itself by it's two halves resting on each other.
Jimmy shot himself up into the air with his boosters and landed about 50 yards away. He 'sheathed' his sword and brought out his four cannons. They had continuously been charging and storing energy in their batteries since the Core had been activated and were now at their peek energy levels. He set them to fire all of their stored energy at once. As he did so he also knelt down to brace his own Core for the shock. The massive guns came up over his Core's shoulders. Tiny particles of light began creeping towards them and forming globes of light at the end of each barrel. His Core began shaking from the pent up energy, Jimmy took careful aim at the AC that was standing dead before him. When the computer system gave off a buzzing sound, signifying that it had locked onto the Core, Jimmy's hands clenched the joysticks, felt the triggers underneath and pulled them back with a slight, almost inaudible 'click' as the four guns fired simultaneously sending a shockwave out all around and through his Core. The four cannons let out a blaring report as they sent four massive balls of energy towards the Core. A wave of dust was sent back from where there ends of the barrels were and Jimmy felt the shockwave as the rounds found their mark, completely obliterating their target and creating a crater underneath it that was about 50 feet deep.
"Okay, I think I'm done now." Jimmy said satisfied to the Major. "The Core seems fine. You sure there wasn't a bug going around the system that was slowing everything down the other day?"
"Nice performance Lieutenant." The Major responded, complementing Jimmy. "I don't think so, but I'll look into it. I guess you'll be able to keep your ammunition, Jimmy."
"That's good." Jimmy said laughing. "Okay, lets shut this thing down, and get me out of here." With that Jimmy unbuckled his safety harness, flipped switches, and punched in shut down commands and in bunches lights started going out and the screen in front of him faded to black. The hatch above him opened and Jimmy climbed up and out of the simulator.