Armored Core: Pain's Resonance
Prologue
Sweat ran down over his brow and plastered his shirt to his wet skin as he ran. His satchel trailed behind him like a marionette being dragged by its strings. "Shite, shite!" he cursed loudly in between exhausted breaths as he ran past storefronts and wooden stands filled with apples, watermelons, and other such delicacies. He caught a quick glimpse of the price tag for one of the melons, a measly 70 pounds.
He took a sharp turn at a cross street and continued to run as a radio blared out from a meat shop, the smell of fresh fish and beef overpowered and filled his nostrils as he tried not to gag. Two old men dressed like fishermen sat and played checkers outside of the shop, while the radio continued its rant uninterrupted. "And so it's another cheeky 107 degree day here in London, slightly clo…." The sarcastic voice of the radio died away as he continued to fly down the street, the sun beating down on him like the great eye of an oppressive god.
After a few more turns, he hopped a wooden fence then crossed an open yard and came to a stop. Hands on his knees and panting heavily, he looked up and frowned. The object of his ire was East London High School, neatly situated on the coast and made up of old, worn buildings composed of concrete and metal. He sighed and looked at his watch, "8:38, only twenty-three bloody minutes late," he said aloud to himself. Not too shabby, yesterday he had been more than thirty minutes late. He adjusted the strap of his satchel, noticing that it left a wet spot were it had rested on his shoulder and continued to run toward the school, only stopping to change into his spare uniform.
The door to the class-room creaked open slightly, the sound inaudible over the loud lecture taking place. He stuck his head through the crack to see if there were any empty seats left, and upon spotting a prime candidate in the back he made his way stealthily toward it. Before he made it even four feet, a voice directed at him froze him in place. "Ah, Mr. Wakefield, so glad you could join us this fine day." He stood straight up and turned red-faced to his professor, Mr. Martin.
Mr. Martin took a long look at his watch then back at Aaron Wakefield, smiled sinisterly and tapped the back of an empty seat next to him. "Only twenty-seven minutes late, I expected you to beat yesterday's record by a mile," he said sarcastically. "Here, I saved you a seat right up front because I remembered how much you enjoy learning about World Economics." Other students snickered as Aaron walked with his shoulders slumped toward the seat. As he passed the second row he caught the glimpse of someone out of the corner of his eye, and he uncomfortably took a quick peak and saw a cute girl staring intently at him. He sat in his seat and buried his head in his hands. Only six and a- half hours to go, he thought. It may not be that bad, he thought to himself, not so reassuringly.
"And so, due to the declining economic conditions and ever present natural disasters plaguing the America's, The United States dissolved and formed the Atlantic Union, an alliance of North and South America as well as Australia most recently, in order to address…." Mr. Martin's voice was like a child pulling at a locked cabinet, making noise but not achieving entrance into Aaron's mind. He stared blankly out the window, thinking an endless parade of thoughts. He thought of home, and how his newest video game sat on his table unused and neglected. He thought of the cute girl who always looked over at him when she thought he wouldn't notice, he thought of the ocean as it sparkled outside the window in the dim morning sun, and how he had learned that in the past the ocean was far away from London, but had slowly crept up until the former capital of the United Kingdom became little more than a fishing town.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, another sparkle caught his eye. As if broken from a spell, he leaned toward the window and looked intently at it. It was moving across the ocean toward shore, the bright sun reflecting brightly off its metallic surface. As he tried to make out what it was, another appeared, then another, and another. Some were close, others far off, but all were heading over the ocean toward London.
He fixed his gaze on the one seemingly closest to the school, finally as through an epiphany realized it was a helicopter. They all were. Over a dozen helicopters were making their way inland, each one carrying an unidentifiable object underneath, by way of heavy cables. Before he could make out what they were carrying, a loud alarm sounded off throughout the school. Students began to shift uneasily in their seats, and Aaron noticed the alarm made a noise unlike the usual fire alarm. Mr. Martin, upon telling the class to settle down, made his way quickly to the door and looked out down the hall.
Aaron stood up as students began to whisper in hushed, worried tones. "Yah think there's really a fire? Mr. Martin seems crazy worried." a girl asked her friend. "What're yah on about? It's just a drill." said a boy hunched casually back in his chair, trying all too hard to look cool. Aaron walked over to the window and looked out.
He stared out as the helicopters crossed the threshold onto land, still a little way off from the city. He heard Mr. Martin in a heated discussion with another teacher as someone walked up behind him. He turned and saw it was the girl who liked to stare at him, Tabitha, or Tabby as her friends called her. She looked inquisitively at him then out the window. "See some 'thin?" She asked in an embarrassed tone, her cheeks turning slightly red. He quickly turned back to the window, feeling his own face starting to turn red and stated, "Nah, just some helicopters."
He could see her reflection in the glass and thought about how cute she was, the butterflies in his stomach making him jittery. He cursed under his breath so she couldn't hear him. Butterflies, he thought? More like worms. She came up beside him awkwardly and looked out toward the helicopters. "What's that under em?" she asked. "I have no…" Aaron's reply was cut short as the ground shook violently and he fought to keep his feet. A girl screamed loudly and Tabitha knocked into him and they both fell to the ground. The shaking quickly subsided and silence descended on the classroom. Aaron looked up from the ground at Tabitha as she quickly got up off him, muttering an apology and looking around to see if anyone had saw. "Blimey, what the hell was that? An earthquake?" someone yelled. "No, nitwit, how could they know an earthquake was gonna happen before it happened?" replied the reclining boy condescendingly as Aaron got to his feet.
Aaron along with Tabitha and most of the class turned to the window as the helicopters dropped their payloads over London, the cables hanging loosely from their underbellies as they flew across the city. Everyone stared wide-eyed as the helicopters were met with bright trails of light emanating from the city, those that were hit exploded into chunks of twisted metal and smashed into buildings, causing them to collapse and sending trails of smoke into the sky. "What's happening?" Tabitha began as Mr. Martin burst back into the classroom and in a voice filled with urgency and disbelief yelled, "Students! We're leaving, NOW!" Outside in the hall, it was utter chaos.
Students ran in all directions, yelling and attempting to get out of the school as the staff tried to keep the order, but their voices were drowned out. Students in Aaron's class began to panic, but Mr. Martin in the most authoritative voice he had ever heard, ordered them to stay put and wait for the hallways to become clear. It didn't take very long. "Line up and go out single file." He ordered. "I still need to grab the emergency kit." Aaron took the last spot in the line as the students began to file out, not aware that Tabitha was behind him, or that they were holding hands.
Mr. Martin went over to a low cabinet near the window, and rummaged through books and papers until he found the emergency kit. The students had all filed out until it was just Aaron and Tabitha standing in the doorway. They turned to their teacher as a loud grinding noise filled the classroom and the surrounding area, Tabitha clasping her ears and sending a chill shooting up his own spine. Mr. Martin rose and pressed his hands against the window, his neck straining as he tried to see what was causing the noise. Suddenly the wall left of the window exploded inwards, catching Mr. Martin in the mountain of debris. His scream was cut short as a piece of concrete slammed into his head, sending a spray of blood shooting throughout the classroom. Aaron instinctively grabbed Tabitha and pushed her down as she shrieked in terror.
After a minute that seemed to him a lifetime, Aaron sat up and coughed as he inhaled the floating dust that settled like a deep mist around the classroom. He swiped the small rocks that had collected on him and Tabitha away with his free hand and Tabitha coughed and rubbed her red, irritated eyes. Aaron was surprised to see no tears, and she looked around the class as the dust cleared and grabbed Aaron's arm. "Where's Mr. Martin?" She asked as her face took on a worried countenance. He helped her to her feet and he surveyed their former classroom.
It was a warzone. Desks were strewn everywhere along with papers, books, and binders, while debris made up of the wall and shattered windows formed a great mound where the wall used to be. Then he saw Mr. Martin. Tabitha buried her head in Aaron's shoulder as his entire body went cold. Mr. Martin's broken body lay pinned under a desk and debris, broken glass jutted out of his body like a sick collage. He was caked with blood and dirt, most of his bones visibly broken as blood flowed from his wounds like a broken sprinkler.
But it was not his broken body or the look of frozen terror on his dead face that made Aaron's blood run cold with fear. A huge mechanical construct lay in the mound of debris, dwarfing anything and everything in the classroom. It looked like a giant human, its mechanical limbs strewn about and its head tilted as it lay on its back. It was heavily armoured like a tank, and had to at least be five meters tall standing upright. The armoured giant was painted in a desert tan colour, and a giant gun lay unused beside it in the rubble. Aaron stood and stared at it, his body frozen and mouth open catching particles of dust as he realized exactly what it was. Tabitha looked at him through red-eyes and asked in a slow, quivering voice, "What….is….that?"
"A bloody Armoured Core." Aaron replied in disbelief. He had seen glimpses of them on the television and in newspapers, but never before with his own eyes. They were the newest and most deadly innovation in warfare, giant bipedal tanks modeled after their makers, albeit slightly un-proportioned. Almost like an extension of the human body, the pilot sits in a cockpit buried deep in the chest and controls the behemoth by way of a myriad of interfaces, foot pedals, and joysticks. Five meters tall and equipped with some of the most devastating weaponry in the human arsenal, they were capable of extreme speed due to the many verniers and thrusters located across their frame. He knew so much about them because most boys his age were obsessed with them. Aaron and his friends collected pictures and articles about them, greedily ripping them out of newspapers or off the internet. Aaron always thought they were the coolest things ever, but right now, the machine was an object of terror.
Tabitha stared in awed silence at the damaged machine, her eyes then quickly darting to the huge weapon it had dropped, which was many times bigger than herself. Suddenly its huge head began to shift, a loud groaning of metal preceding the event. The armored core lifted its head up a ways, a blue light shining out from a deep socket as its main sensor came back online. The head turned to regard the weapon, disregarding Aaron and Tabitha as it tried to right itself. It propped out its left arm and began to push itself up, but the arm was too heavily damaged and began to splinter, lubricant sputtering out of it in a waterfall. The arm gave and with a heavy crash the armored core once more fell back into the rubble, sending out another cloud of dust. Aaron rubbed his eyes with a fierce intensity and thought to himself that this was a dream, a very bad dream, but then Tabitha's shriek of terror forced his eyes back open.
She fell to her knees, tears finally streaming down her cheeks as another large form appeared out of the dust. Aaron grabbed a hold of her as the second armored core made its way through the rubble, painted in a black and gray camouflage it made itself known as it made its way through the gap in the wall, the sound of moving pistons and hydraulics ever present as it climbed the mountain of rubble. Desks and cinderblocks were crushed and turned to powder under its incredible bulk as it stopped in front of the damaged core. It held a large weapon similar to the other in its right hand, and a huge cross shaped shield was attached to the other, riddled with pot marks were it had met large caliber rounds.
Its right shoulder was square and held tubes for launching a myriad of warheads, and its overall design was similar to its damaged cousin, albeit with noticeable differences. The black core's t-shaped head sensor lit up a light green as it combed over the classroom, affixing its sharp gaze on the tan core. Aaron made out the numbers 02 painted on its frame, as well as a distinctive emblem of a Raven with its wings spread wide on its left shoulder plating. The tan core reached out with its right arm and tried to grip its fallen weapon but with a horrendous screeching the black core lifted its leg and crushed the arm, sending sparks and metal flying in all directions. A sharp piece of metal grazed his face, opening up a deep cut on his cheek. Blood flowed freely out of the wound but Aaron was frozen in place.
Lubricant drained out of the broken arm and pooled on the ground, meeting the blood that had drained out of Mr. Martin's body as it made its way across the tiled floor. The black core then raised its weapon at the others chest, servos and hydraulics hard at work to perform the extremely fluid and precise movement. Aaron unfroze and instinctively covered his ears, yelling for Tabitha to do the same as the weapon fired. The entire room lit up as large shell casings fell to the ground, Aaron's ears were ringing and he was sure he couldn't even hear himself think. The rounds ripped into its cockpit and caused the entire core to shutter, its black blood pouring over its armor, tinged with red. The firing stopped as the last of the shells clattered to the ground, smoke rising from the red hot barrel as the core finally ceased moving.
Aaron and Tabitha held on to one another for all dear life as they stared at the black core, both of them deaf as a loud ringing overwhelmed their hearing. They stared at the black core in horror and shock, the silence settling in his ears now like a knife slicing through his spine. He looked and saw an arm reaching out from the ruined chest of the tan core, limp and covered with blood as it coldly reached to the sky, begging for aid form a god that would not answer. The black core lowered its gun and with a creak its head turned to regard them, its green sensor once again lighting up as its gaze was fixed upon them. Aaron was certain, beyond a doubt that he and Tabitha were going to die.