Disclaimer:
Armored Core 3 and all related trademarks are property of AgeTec. This story is not indorsed by AgeTec and is not meant for profit or commercial release, it is merely a work of fan appreciation for a wonderful game about big robots that you can't help but love.
With that said enjoy the show.
A Mercenary's Vicarage: Written by Sean Conner
Chapter One: Desperados
The white and ice blue AC plodded though the dimly lit streets of the abandoned aboveground city. The world had been though a lot in mankind's history, for a long time the people of earth had been forced to live underground. Now things were different, the air on the surface was breathable again, but repopulation of the surface was slow to say the least.
The AC, whose Global Cortex registry designated it "Snowfall", belonged to a Raven, one of the elite mercenaries of this hostile future. Ravens were legendary, they had brought about all the greatest upheavals and heroics of the last fifty years. If it was in a history book a Raven probably did it.
Today's mission could probably be considered to be quite historic as well, or at least a noble one, a step back onto the surface. Silver, as the Raven called himself, was being employed by the corporation Kisaragi to flush out the remaining Union forces in this city (which Silver believed had been called Edmonton or something of the sort) so reconstruction could commence. Union was a high profile terrorist group, or so the corporations claimed. Silver knew they weren't nearly as malevolent as they were made out to be, but a job was a job.
"Nothing on the scopes…" Silver reported, carefully stalking between the blown out buildings. His AC (an abbreviation of Armored Core, the name of the highly destructive and customizable battle mecha that the Ravens were known for piloting with exceptional skill) was a fairly heavyset robot. It was faster then it looked though, thanks to a high performance booster. It was equipped for close combat so city fighting was right up Silver's ally so to speak. As for Silver, he was around thirty, with white hair and light blue eyes. At the moment he was wearing a black AC jumpsuit.
He stalked around a corner, leading with his MWG-MG/1000 machine gun, and again the street was empty "They're probably hiding. Be careful Silver." His Global Cortex contact, Rellena, warned him. She had much better scanning equipment then he did, orbiting satellites and whatnot, so if anything was here she should be able to see it if he couldn't "It will be hard to find them if they're keeping their MTs powered down, or if they are underground."
"I know tha…" Silver didn't finish that sentence, since the road in front of him suddenly blew upward and a torrent of missiles streaked into the sky and started to ark back down towards him, and his FCS error light came on. He didn't think twice and slammed the Overboost button. The boosters built into the core of his AC flipped up and he rocketed forward. The enemy MTs were already jumping out of the hole they opened up from the old subway tunnel they had been hiding in, but Silver managed to weave between them, though he didn't think until he was passed the hole and around the corner that he could have probably taken one or two out on the way.
The missiles pounded the derelict building he had ducked behind. A quick check of his radar showed him he was vastly outnumbered; their were at the least twenty MTs, all battle types save for a few ECM MTs that were jamming his locking system "Guess that's them huh?"
"Silver…" Rellena wasn't really cut out for this job, in Silver's opinion. She worried too much. Silver boosted back around the corner and aimed high. As he jetted across the street he laid down heavy fire and managed to blow both of the ECM MTs out of the air, and his FCS stopped beeping at him.
The other Union units weren't going to wait and pressed forward. Silver jumped back out into the street and started to fire indiscriminately into the mass of MTs ahead of him. They were equipped with a chain-gun on each side and missile launchers in the core, which was mounted on reverse join legs. The fire coming back at Silver was heavy, so he closed quickly. Once he was point blank he jumped up over the forward MTs right into the middle of them. He landed on one and knocked it over, then jetted back and turned. His laserblade flashed to life and he sheared the legs off one of the MTs, then jetted right and riddled another with machine gun fire.
The chain-gun fire was too heavy though and Silver had to fly up and land on a building for cover. His vertical missile launcher came up and he waited until he had acquired four locks, then fired. The missiles flew up then came straight down on the Union soldiers. A couple large explosions told him he had taken out a couple, and he fired another volley, and then another after that.
With their numbers cut in haff or so by Silver's missile attack the Union started pulling back, but Silver couldn't have that and jumped back into the fray. He dodged around a pair of missiles in the air and opened fire with his machine gun again. He hit something vital in one of the remaining MTs and it blew in haff, and the shrapnel caused another weakened MT next to it to go up in a ball of flame. Silver kept firing and jetting forward at angles that were closing the gap between him and the MT quickly as well as dodging their now sporadic fire.
Another fell to Silver's fire, though without an explosion, another had its right missile rack hit and that blew apart its right side and toppled it over. The last haff dozen MTs started firing their missiles and Silver hit his missile interceptors, and missiles launched from his shoulders and shot down most of the incoming barrage. He boosted straight forward and the remaining missiles overshot him, and again he was close enough for his blade.
He stabbed the first through the cockpit, then turned and hit a second blade trigger, this time rather then just cutting the blade's energy detached and flew at the MT, cutting part way though it's waist and causing it to fall forward as it's legs gave out. The last few MTs started to fire again and Silver used the smoke of their fallen comrades to shield him somewhat. He came around and cut apart another MT, then fired his machine gun into the next one. It fell back as the cockpit was destroyed and the pilot killed.
Four missiles hit his left side suddenly. His AC staggered from the impact and the elbow of the left arm was bent in at a bad angle, leaving the arm sticking as the joint seized up, then fell limp at his side totally worthless now. Silver boosted backwards and switched to missiles. As he dodged the incoming fire four missiles locked onto the last two MTs, two on each. He let them lose and seconds later the first one hit. The MT's right ammo storage was hit and exploded, the force blew it into the second MT and caused them both to tumble over. The second missile hit where the first MT had been but the third and fourth missiles hit their mark, and the second MT exploded brilliantly, taking his damaged partner with him.
Silver checked his radar, and he saw a slight flicker. He turned his AC on the spot to face the last surviving MT. It was already crippled, and it barely was able to stagger to its feat. The ACs good arm rose and leveled its machine gun at the MT, and a cold smile crossed Silver's lips as he pulled the trigger.
"Well, that's about all I can do…" Sean said humbly. Sometimes the reasons for the pair of ACs to not run at one hundred percent baffled him. Fortunately his AC had just had a professional tune-up, something that poor Maverick had needed for a while. Vixen Doll on the other hand usually wasn't on the combat roster, so it tended to get less maintenance then it needed, which was a lot, quite a bit more then Maverick for certain.
"Just do the best you can Sean." Luna said from the catwalk that ran in front of the powered down ACs. The two story tall, state-of-the-art battle mecha didn't appear quite as dangerous when they weren't running. Sean's AC, Maverick, was a mid-weight humanoid AC, a fairly proven design, with a high power Karasawa laser rifle in it's right hand and a Moonlight laser blade on it's left. Its other equipment included powerful, wide range radar similar to the one on Vixen Doll that Sean was having trouble with, and a small missile launcher. It had missile interceptor extensions and a powerful Overboost type core. It was painted green and gold, with gray joints, and had Sean's old Raven emblem on the shoulder, an old western gunslinger with a wide-rimmed cowboy hat tipped over his eyes, and a cigarette between his lips. He had his hands in his pockets and was leaning against a large, stylized "7" painted in green camouflage.
Vixen Doll was quite different from its partner. Equipped with hover-type legs, a variety of sensors including a (normally) very powerful radar, as well as laser based missile interceptors and an Orbit Cannon, which releases independent weapon pods, and ECM jamming pods in the shoulders. It was mostly designed as a support AC but it did field a pulse rifle and a Moonlight laser blade for combat. The hover AC was painted dark purple mostly, with a brighter lavender color on some spots, as well as gold. The emblem on its shoulder was a gold circle made many interwoven lines. It resembled a Celtic knotwork design.
Sean jumped down from the shoulder of Vixen Doll onto the catwalk, as he stood up Luna could see his shoulders slumped a bit. She walked up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders and started rubbing them for him "It's not your fault." She assured.
"Well," he patted her hand "That doesn't change the fact that your radar isn't working right. I got it up to sixty percent power, and other then that all that's wrong now is the ECM jammer isn't working. It'll probably have to be replaced."
"Well if that's all I'd say she's combat worthy, the head is equipped with a ECM jammer too." Luna said
"I suppose. I think we need to take her in to a professional though."
Luna smiled and hooked an arm around his waist, and started guiding him towards the trailer they lived in "Well we need money to do that. Actually I managed to find a job for us brother."
Sean's mood brightened right away "Really? Who for?"
By this time they reached the stairs that went down to ground level. All their AC maintenance equipment was stored in this warehouse, as well as their ACs and extra weapons they had collected over the years. The place was very large but was little more then four walls with a roof, so they lived in a long, silver travel trailer that was currently attached to an old truck that didn't run anymore.
"Well…" Luna began to say. Though allegedly his brother Luna didn't look much like Sean. She was around nine inches shorter then him, and had straight sandy gold hair that hung to about an inch and a haff above her shoulder, with the bangs cut just enough so her hair wasn't in her eyes. Her eyes were hazel colored, so looked green or gold depending on the light, and her eyes themselves were somewhat oval shaped which suggests some Asian blood in her. At the moment she was wearing a gray AC pilot jumpsuit, with the front zipped down to her waist and the sleeves rolled up, under it she had on a plain white t-shirt.
The jumpsuit was designed to provide protection against the elements as well as reduce injury from shrapnel, in case the AC sustained enough damage to where bits of the cockpit started coming lose and flying around. Besides that they were fairly comfy and quite warm, and inside the un-insulated warehouse it was hard to keep warm "The job is from a small criminal group. They wouldn't divulge much information on themselves but they want us to provide cover for a bank heist they are planning. They're going to pay us with a cut of the money from the job so were being paid in illegal credits. Thought I should run this by you before I signed us up."
Sean frowned. He was a pretty tall guy, six foot one without shoes on and the combat boots he tended to wear added an inch and a half. His hair was dark brown and wavy, and he kept is fairly short, three or four inches at the most. His eyes were a similar color, and overall he wasn't the type that would stand out in a crowd. He was pretty handsome and muscular, where Luna was stylishly beautiful and small. Where they got the idea that they were siblings was anyone's guess, but they thought and acted similar enough that no one questioned it much "Well, I don't much like the idea of pulling a job like this, but we don't have a whole lot of options. I'll tell you Luna, I'm tempted to give a call to Global Cortex…"
"That bunch of idiots? Damn you are desperate." Luna frowned too "Well, why don't we see how things go after this job. Maybe work will pick up."
Her brother shrugged "Well, we can only hope."
Two days later Sean was in the cockpit of his AC. He tapped a couple buttons on the glass screen of the data pad attached to the ceiling and everything started coming to life. A few taps of the keys on the pad in front of him started the diagnostic check. His main screen turned black with a green grid, and bold orange lettering began to fill the screen, as well as a wire model of his AC.
Loading all data…
MWG-KARASAWA: 100 percent energy.
MWM-S42/6: 42/42 ammunition. Missiles full.
MRL-RE/111: Radar functioning. No errors.
MLB-MOONLIGHT: Blade operating at 100 percent efficacy.
CWEM-AM40: VG MG response normal. Missiles full.
Sean only glanced at the check, and then activated his camera and mapping systems. The diagnostics screen split down the middle and the outside view came up on his screen, albeit from his ACs point of view. Quickly, gages such as heat, ammunition remaining, energy and the like began to fill his screen, as well as radar and an orange tinted box in the center of his screen. He flicked on his video comm. unit "This is Maverick, all green across the board."
"Roger Maverick. My AC's reading combat worthy." Luna said, her face coming up on small screen in the corner of his main screen. Luna used her own name as her call sign, and Sean had used to use his own as well, but started using Maverick after a while since "Sean" was a little less then inspiring. "I'm feeding you my map data now." She added. His map of the surrounding area panned out and covered most of the city now, including a marker showing where they would be meeting their employers, and her face disappeared with a beep.
Sean hit the final switch and the smooth male voice of his computer said "System start-up complete. Engaging normal mode." Sean hit the switch to split the catwalk in front of him, and he gently pushed forward on the left stick, and his AC took a careful step into the warehouse, then another. Once free of the docking bay he moved to the door and panned the camera around to make sure that his sister hadn't had any trouble. His AC's head and torso turned so he could look behind him.
Vixen Doll was right behind him, and it even raised its gun in a bit of a salute. Sean would have returned it but he didn't have his gloves on. Most ACs had human-like hands and arms, and they could be moved around as such. To do so you had to be wearing a special pair of heavy gloves that had sensors and computer chips in them. Pressing a switch next to the control stick would switch the gloves on, since using them all the time to aim and fire your weapons and whatnot was to complex (It did make it look a bit odd when you turned them off, as the AC appeared to press an imaginary button). Normally your weapon responded to your camera, so which ever way you were looking was the way your gun would point. Some pilots used the gloves for complex laser blade maneuvers, or for precise shooting. Sean was rarely that technical about fighting, but Luna always wore her gloves and switched between them and her normal controls fluidly enough that it was almost like her AC was an extension of herself.
Besides that an AC's controls were fairly simple. The left stick was used for moving forward, backwards and strafing left and right. The right let you look up and down, and turn left and right. The camera would normally stay right in front of you but if you wanted to look around without moving a small pad under you right thumb let you do that. The weapon buttons are customizable, and Sean had it set up so all his weaponry was controlled with the right stick, and he switched weapons and activated his missile interceptors with the triggers on the left, as well as his Overboost. Boosters and jumping are operated with peddles on the floor, so you could control your thrust and your jump height.
Sean nodded to his sister, though without his vid-link on she couldn't see it. He centered his view back in front of him and hit a switch on the pad under the main screen with his right hand, and the warehouse doors opened into the dark, night streets (of course, night and day were fairly relative in the underground Isaac City).
He flipped on his vid-link and said "See you there."
Luna smiled at him over the camera "Remember, if we aren't there in six minutes the contract is off." As a reminder Luna fed his computer that data, and a timer appeared at the top of his screen.
He smiled back "I know, I know. Should be no problem." His sister nodded and her face winked out, and she took off. With her hover legs she didn't have to worry about crushing cars or stepping on people so she could take a shorter route. Sean had to mostly stick to back streets and rooftops to make sure their weren't any unnecessary causalities.
He knew he was waking up everyone in the building when he landed on the roofs of these places. Sean was trying to be quiet but when you're running around in a two-story tall robot that weighed god-knows-how-much it was hard. He stopped to rest his generator a moment, then hit the boosters again and flew for the next building. His radar beeped and he took a glance. It showed one green dot and haff a dozen yellow ones. The green dot was Luna, so he knew he was close. Good thing too since he only had a minute and a half left.
Three more buildings and he was able to drop onto the street. It was deserted at this hour so he didn't bother with a soft landing. The impact forced his AC into a near crouch and the road cracked under his feat. The cockpits of ACs are suspended on elastic-like cables so that you could drop from long distances without injuring yourself. That didn't mean you could fall as far as you wanted, since your ACs legs would probably snap, plus the fact that you'd still get thrown around as your cockpit bounced to compensate for the impact, but it let you be a little more reckless, an attribute which AC pilots were legendary for.
His employers and Luna were inside a desolate parking building, so he strolled on in. They were on the first floor and a number of powered down MTs and trailers were sitting around, as well as Vixen Doll, which appeared to be in standby mode. As he walked in his comm. screen came up, this time it was a gruff looking balding fellow with an eye patch. "You're late." He said.
Sean didn't bother powering down, and replied "I've got a good thirty-two seconds. If I was late we wouldn't be having this discussion." Sean didn't turn on his camera, so on the other side of the communication the gruff man couldn't see Sean's face.
"Turn on your camera." He ordered.
"No." The man apparently didn't like Sean's response, but he didn't argue the point, maybe he was thinking about the fact that Sean hadn't powered down, and hadn't registered any of the criminals MTs as friendly.
Luna's face came up next to the criminal's boss, she was giggling cheerily "I see you don't trust him either." Sean shook his head with a smile, since of course she could see him. If the thief heard her he didn't show any sign of it.
"Alright, Maverick, Luna, lets get down to business. My name is Razor, I'm in charge of this operation so once the mission starts you'll be answering to me, alright?"
"As long as you're pleasant about it." Sean said
Razor sighed and ran his fingers though his hair "Ok, one of you covers us during the job and the other keeps our escape route secure, is that good for you? You'll cover us until we reach the Sendo Bridge. We'll blow the bridge and after that we should be clear, so you're on your own after that. We'll pay you after we make it to our safe house."
"Sound's fine." Luna said, and Sean nodded an agreement. They weren't worried about not being paid, especially considering the group they were working for. If you needed to hire a pair of Ravens for extra muscle then you probably didn't want to piss them off after the job.
"Ok, lets talk about our pay." Sean added.
Razor scowled but said "25,000 for each of you."
"A little light, but that's what's in the contract." Luna said to both of them, and Sean grinned. Best not to let Razor know that they had been very, very pleased with a 50,000 credit payoff.
"Ok, we take off in ten minutes. Security should be light but we expect the Guard to show up and the whole operation will probably take a half an hour. This bank is fairly high profile so we can probably expect the Guard to go all out in trying to stop us."
"Not a problem. Is that it?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"Ok, Maverick out." Sean cut the link to Razor and stepped closer to the group. His head and waist tipped a bit and he watched the gang scramble to their MTs and the trailer trucks, which probably had the equipment to hack into the bank "You should power back up too Luna."
"I'm way ahead of you." Sean turned his camera and saw Vixen Doll flanking him, and her left arm, the one with the laser blade on it, waved at him. Sean smiled, and hit a switch in front of him. The computer's voice came over the speakers again.
"Main system engaging combat mode."
Minutes later they were moving down the street. The whole party consisted of four basic Battle MTs, two trailer trucks and the two Ravens. The MTs were painted black and were equipped with a single cannon mounted on the center of the core. They moved on reverse-join legs and Sean knew they were pretty weak from having fought the same model in previous missions, though they were usually painted tan.
It was nearly two in the morning so the group attracted little attention. Sean and Luna both moved slow, not for cautions sake but because the MTs couldn't keep up if they ran at full speed.
The bank came into view and the trucks zipped forward. They came to a screeching halt and crews hopped out and started the process of breaking in. Personally Sean thought a Karasawa shot or two would do the trick just as well, but he didn't feel like offering up his ammo.
Unsurprisingly the alarms went off almost right away, and Sean took his position in front of the MTs. Luna turned her AC down the street and hit her boosters "Good luck." She said over the vid-link.
"Be careful." Sean replied, and the link closed. He swung his rifle around to where he guessed the Guard would be coming from. The Guard was the police of the modern era. They were equipped with customized Battle MTs and were not strangers to fighting ACs in combat. When the Guard was first established they were more or less a joke and they relied on hiring Ravens very heavily. Though they still would bring in the Ravens for difficult jobs they weren't anyone to mess with, unless you were good. No MT made by any of the companies was a match for an AC, even in superior numbers.
It was a mere three minutes before the Guard showed up in full force. All Sean could see were some fairly standard Battle MTs, chain-guns where arms would be, missiles built into the core and heavier reverse-joint legs then the criminals MTs had. They were painted in the Guard's blue paint scheme, and had flashing red lights on the shoulders. Their were four there and Sean's radar picked up more flanking them for a total of eleven Guard units so far, some aerial. His FCS immediately highlighted the nearest with a red crosshair, and his gun started to track the Guard MTs movement.
Suddenly his comm. was full of noise, some of it directed at him but most of it was communication interceptions. He did pick out "This is the Guard, power down your MTs and surrender or we will be forced to engage."
No one bothered with a witty retort and simply opened fire. Sean jumped and hit his boosters, keeping his view centered on the Guard MT, then let a stream of white-hot energy go with a pull of the trigger under his index finger. The laser blast hit the Guard in the shoulder, twisting his MT around as the missiles and ammunition in that side blew. When the flash cleared his chain-gun hung limply from what was left of the shoulder. Coming to a hover Sean calmly fired again, this shot hit the MT between its legs. The joints were melted or ripped apart and the MT collapsed.
He didn't have time to pay much more attention to what was on the ground because he felt the shock of something solid striking his back. His foot left the booster peddle and he fell straight down, avoiding anything else that was coming in. He hit the booster again and went sideways, but was still losing altitude. He landed on the roof of the bank and had managed to turn around in that time. Two aerial Guard MTs were approaching.
Sean recognized the model, even customized as it was for police work. It was a more advanced model, one actually worthy of worrying about. Its core was almost flat and formed wings, and it was attached to its reverse-jointed legs with a thin waist, leaving a wide gap between the waist and the core. That was actually a fairly powerful laser cannon it could fire when not in flight mode. It also has a rifle equipped in the core, so it could fire in flight mode. On the ground they were fairly easy targets but in the air it would be hard to hit them with the Karasawa, sort of akin to swatting flies with a large hammer.
The two fired at him again, but Sean goosed his boosters and slid to the side, then slid back as they fired a second volley. He let lose two shots but the Guard pilots jinked to the right and sped up. They were over the bank quickly and they switched to ground mode. Their legs folded down and the lead one fired its laser cannon (just because he was in the air doesn't mean he couldn't fire, he just couldn't in flight mode).
Sean jetted left and forward and fired again, ignoring it as the laser blew a good sized chunk out of the bank's roof and scuffed his AC with shrapnel. This time the pilot didn't have his quick handling to dodge and was hit square in the core, knocking the unit backwards. His wingman landed on the roof but the lead was knocked back enough he fell to the street. Sean jetted forward and his blade flared to life. The Guard didn't have time to bring his cannon to bear but he did fire several rifle shots. Sean ignored them as they left dents in his armor but did little more then cosmetic damage. He slid left just a little bit and cut diagonally up, detaching the MT from its legs.
He didn't attack further and instead jetted off the side of the bank with a little hop. He landed in the street in front of the bank but out of sight of the first few Guard MTs he saw. Instead he had to nearly leap to the left as a huge blue laser blast nearly burned him. He realized to late that the laser wasn't aimed at him, he just happed to get in the way. It burned its way through the night air and cut one of the legs off a surviving black MT. It toppled forward and slammed the ground hard enough to bend its cannon.
"Raven! We're taking a beating here!" One of them yelled
Sean was tempted to yell back but didn't have the time. He boosted backwards and left, firing his Karasawa at the wounded Flight MT. The first shot hit it in its knee, effectively crippling it but Sean fired again without thinking and the shot hit it its laser cannon. Something went critical and the MT blew apart in an orange ball of fire, littering the area with bits of armor and blowing up a good-sized bit of the road.
He turned his AC and came to a halt, sending sparks flying up as he skidded to a stop. His blade flared to life again and he slashed across the core of one of the first Guard MTs. The slash went right through the cockpit and the MT was left standing there with the pilot dead. His rifle whipped up and around and fired two shots at the last Guard MT even as chain-gun bullets ripped holes in his arm, but didn't strike anything load baring. They both hit dead center and the MT blew apart.
Sean jetted backwards into an ally, his AC's energy drained, and looked at his radar. More units were incoming but he didn't think there would be much after this next wave, the Guard simply didn't have enough units to keep a sustained attack going. He switched weapons and his rifle lowered, and his missile launcher flipped up and the hatch on it opened. His targeting box changed a little bit, mostly just got bigger, and he stepped out into the street, since for the moment it was clear.
He didn't have much time to rest his jets though, since pink blasts of plasma were coming from both his left and right at the last three MTs stationed in front of the bank. His energy bar wasn't even half way up, but he took it in stride and centered his view over the enemy. He couldn't see them yet but he could get a lock at least.
The missile crosshair was a little different. More of a box actually, as it beeped away a one, then a two, then a three appeared around the box as it achieved locks with multiple missiles. A fourth missile had locked on before he got around the corner, and without hardly looking to see what it was he was about to blow apart he pulled the trigger. Four missiles fired in succession and were yellow flashes in the night as they flew at their target. The first three did the trick and the fourth simply caused the MT to explode, rather then simply be ripped apart.
Sean turned just in time to get some plasma to his core. The impact shook him and set off a couple warning lights, as well as increased the heat in the cockpit by about fifty degrees, but he was still combat worthy and jetted to the side, more or less using his allied MTs as cover as his missiles split locks between the two incoming MTs. The street was narrow so the didn't have any room to maneuver, not that Sean really did either.
These plasma rifle equipped Guard MTs were on hover legs, witch gave them good speed and the rifles were powerful, but their armor was very light witch made them an all or nothing unit. He had two locks on one and one on the other when he fired the next salvo. The blue Guards tried to evade but the missiles moved to fast. The first two hit their mark and the subsequent explosions crippled the MT, leaving it barely mobile and its gun destroyed. The Second MT got incredibly lucky, as he dodged onto the sidewalk the missile corrected its course right into a lamppost. It exploded and destroyed the light but the MT was untouched.
The Guard unit landed there and let off a couple shots. With his boosters Sean was able to dodge, but the black MTs weren't that fast and one blew up on the first hit, the second shot flew through the blast and skimmed the MT behind him but didn't leave any real damage. Sean and the last two black MTs opened up on the Guard MT, and between the cannons of the MTs and Sean's Karasawa they lit it up nicely, the explosion taking a chunk out of the building it was next to.
Sean let out a sigh, and flicked on his vid-link to the two remaining MTs, who both looked a bit stunned, probably from the battle. They both were wearing green pilot suits, gloves and helmets with comm. pieces attached "You two alright?"
One nodded, the other looked a little shaky, Sean guessed he was the one who had gotten scorched a bit by that last shot "If you two have any backup units, I'd suggest you give them a call. The Guard will probably mobilize units from other districts pretty soon."
"Rodger Maverick, I'll have Razor call them in. All we've got in reserve are some helicopter crews though. They were going to join us when we escape." The pilot who nodded before said.
"Considering you might not live to escape without them I'd say it couldn't hurt."
Luna let out a relieved breath when her brother's face came up on her screen "The first wave of Guard units is scrapped." He informed her.
"Good work Maverick, it only took you two minutes too." She snickered.
Sean smiled back "Felt longer then that. My ACs integrity is…" he paused and looked down at his gages "6,702 with no problems." ACs had an AP (Armor Point) rating of between 0000 and 9999. It wasn't a very good display of how damaged you were, since even a small shot could damage something vital with a little luck, but it was something you could read quickly in the heat of battle.
"They roughed you up a little eh?" Luna laughed.
"Yeah, they're using pretty advanced units so keep you guard up and take them down fast. If you have any trouble call me, I should be able to get to you pretty quickly."
Luna nodded and Sean's face disappeared. Normally she'd watch him on her radar, and usually cheer when she started to see enemies disappear, but her radar wasn't working at full power for some reason (Sean had been working on it and guessed it was something in the power route to the shoulder, and not the radar itself) so she had been blind and waiting to hear from him.
So all she had to do was wait. According to a quick text message she got from the crew inside the bank said they would be ready to go in ten minutes, since a blast that hit the building had somehow knocked out a chunk of the security.
Luna hated waiting like this. When she was working as Sean's support, feeding him information from her computer at the warehouse she felt better, it was more like she was helping. Out here she could be a liability and she knew it. That's why her AC was set up to support Maverick, rather then fight on it's own. She didn't feel good about being out here by herself.
It was almost time for the crew at the bank to move out, so she started powering up. As she went through Vixen Doll's diagnostic check something beeped. Luna skipped the diagnostic and brought all systems up. There was a single enemy unit on her radar, so without hardly thinking she turned and slid sideways into the street. She could already see it! Her radar must have been weaker then the diagnostic reported. It was an AC.
Luna suddenly left a lump in her gut, but she didn't have time think about that. The enemy AC fired two missiles at her and Luna switched on her laser interceptors. As the missiles neared the lasers on the sides of her shoulders rotated around and fired on the missiles. One exploded and the other she was able to side step easily.
Switching to her Orbit Cannon she moved forward and quickly got a lock as her interceptors shot down the next two missiles. She fired the weapon and three small guns shot out of it. They encircled the AC and started firing rapid-fire pink lasers at it. Once the cannon reloaded she fired again, sending out another three.
Then the enemy AC, whom she could only assume was a Raven hired by the Guard, had had enough of that and brought up it's machine gun and started firing a constant stream of bullets at Luna's weak armored AC. She jetted away and avoided the majority of the fire, and got into an alleyway. She hit a button on the data pad and small message came up "AC identified as Bally Good." The computer said in an even tone even as the message scrolled across her screen.
Before she could act further Bally Good appeared at the entrance of the ally and Luna got her first good look at him. He was using heavy reverse-joint legs, a machine gun in his right hand and a howitzer in his left. She knew he had missiles already and saw his head was a wide-range radar type. He was painted orange with gray joints.
He started plugging Luna with bullets and the howitzer came up and fired an explosive shell into her as well. Luna backed up quickly and dropped an ECM pod, hoping to jam him long enough to get out of this confined space. It didn't work and he kept firing, eating away at her core's armor. She jetted up and let lose three more orbit guns, not even thinking that they would hit the walls around her. Two exploded as they tried to encircle him, but one survived. She cleared the top of the buildings and slid over, shielding herself from further fire.
A quick look at her AP showed she was down to less then four thousand "Son of a…" she muttered and hit her vid-link "Maverick! I need help the Guard's hired a Raven!"
Her brother's response seemed long in coming "I'm tied up here Luna, try and come to me."
Luna didn't get time to think further as Bally Good leapt onto the building. He fired another howitzer shot and this time did some real damage. It hit her right shoulder and the Orbit Cannon exploded, shredding the armor on her shoulder down to the frame.
She whipped around and brought her pulse rifle up, though some miracle her right arm was still working enough to do that, and she started firing ion pulses into the orange AC. He didn't even seem to notice and fired another howitzer shot, and his machine gun soon joined it. The howitzer shot hit her legs and the machine gun was hitting her in the waist. The combined fire damaged her hover abilities but she managed to boost off the side of the building.
Normally hover legs let you land as soft as a feather from almost any height, this time she slammed into the ground and hit her head on the side of the cockpit, and her vision blurred and her ears started to ring, so she barely registered it when Sean's face come up on her screen "Were heading out Luna! I'll be there soon!"
Bally Good wasn't content to wait and he jumped off the building. Luna feebly tried to lift her ACs damaged arm to fire at him but he landed right on top of her. The weight of his AC damaged her core and ripped her right arm off at the shoulder. Somehow he didn't lose his balance and he started firing his machine gun into her at point blank range.
The bullets tore though her core and head. Her sensors started getting fuzzy, she lost her main camera and the light inside the cockpit started to flicker. One bullet hit the side of her cockpit and most of the top and right side were ripped away, and Luna was buffeted with shrapnel. It was all she could do to activate the glove for her left arm. Her Moonlight came to life in a flash and she slashed up at the Raven. Her attack was blind, but he didn't see it coming and she managed to shear off the barrel of his machine gun.
He jumped back in surprise, and threw away the destroyed weapon. Deciding Luna wasn't much of a threat at this point he fired one last howitzer shot into her legs, crippling them completely, and he took off for the bank.
Luna slumped back and powered down her ruined AC. Slowly she pulled off her gloves and felt the side of her head, her hand comming away bloody. She could feel the stabbing pain of other wounds as well but as tempted as she was she fought against just passing out from the concussion and brought her communications back online with what little power she had "Sean…" She muttered feebly.
"Luna! Are you all right? You sound hurt, why's your camera off?" He rattled off the questions in rapid fire, and she couldn't really process them, so she didn't.
"That AC is coming your way. Finish the mission, I'll be ok."
"What do you mean? What happe… Oh crap! Luna he's hear I can't t-" the transmission cut off there, and Luna decided she was done, so slipped into unconsciousness.
Sean jetted to the side as another howitzer shot nearly hit him. As long as he kept moving this Bally Good person couldn't manage to hit him. But Sean was preoccupied trying to figure out what happened to his sister. His best guess was this guy had beaten her, but he was sure she was ok since he'd gotten a message from her just a moment ago and she sounded fairly coherent. Regardless though the fact her AC wasn't on his radar anymore worried him.
Bally Good jetted around the corner and got a face full of laser before he could snap off another howitzer shot, and Sean took the opportunity to jet forward and slash at him with his Moonlight, but Bally Good jetted back and flipped his missile launcher over his shoulder.
"Maverick we're moving out." Razor's voice came over the comm.
"Leave me!" Sean yelled back as he jetted around the incoming missiles and turned his missile interceptors on in anticipation of more "I'll keep this guy busy just get out of here!"
"Alright Maverick, good luck." The trucks, two remaining MTs and the three helicopters that had joined them began moving out, leaving Sean to duel with this guy.
Sean fired with his Karasawa and hit twice but neither seemed to slow him down, and Bally Good came back with another volley of missiles. Sean's interceptors took care of them, and the fight raged on.
Sean didn't have time to screw around with this guy. If the Guard reinforcements got here then he'd be totally out gunned, or they would cut off Razor and his gang before they made it to the bridge. He fired again, the laser streaking passed Bally Good and blew a chunk out of a building in it's way, then Sean hit his Overboost and used the enormous thrust to whip around Bally Good and flee down the street towards Razor's group.
Bally Good couldn't keep up without an Overboost, so was left in the dust as Sean flew off faster the Bally Good could track with his missiles.
It only took a few seconds to reach the fleeing criminals, and he killed his forward thrust and turned around, walking backwards along side the black MTs. He switched to missiles and waited. Bally Good wasn't far behind but Sean was far out of range of his howitzer. As soon as he got a lock with one he let it fly. It shot off and hit Bally Good in his core, and Sean fired another with similar results, though he tried to dodge this time.
After that one Bally Good turned on his missile interceptors, but backed off. Sean switched back to his Karasawa, which was almost depleted of ammo, and didn't pursue Bally Good, if the pilot had decided it was time to disengage then Sean was fine with that.
Sean turned around and followed along side the group. His radar was clear save for the AC, and it was retreating Time to find out what happened to Luna. He ran ahead of the group and started looking for her.
It wasn't long before he found Vixen Doll's shattered husk. The hover legs were crumpled in and looked like they had been hit with several howitzer shots, the head and core were a mess and almost totally destroyed by machine gun fire, and the right arm was laying next to the AC.
"Luna!" Sean yelled over his vid-link "Luna come in! Luna!" He ran up to her AC and saw that the cockpit had been hit.
"S… Sean?" Her voice came back weakly.
"Hold on Luna I'll get you out of there." Sean reached for his ACs gloves so she could try and pull the cockpit open.
"Wait…" Luna's face came up on his screen, and she looked bad. She had a black eye and a number of cuts on her face, and blood was trickling down from her left temple, and she had a number of wounds on her arms as well "Leave me. The mission is almost over you can come back for me… We really need that money."
"Screw the damn money! Luna we need to get you to a doctor." He said simply.
"I'll be fine here by myself. The bridge isn't far, just a couple of blocks."
"… Ok, I'll get them across the bridge." Sean said. Luna gave him a reassuring smile and the link closed. Sean pulled the gloves off and out them back on their hanger, and started to walk away from Luna's AC. Leaving her made him feel like dirt, but she was right, the mission would be done and over with soon, and their wasn't much sense abandoning it now.
Sure enough two blocks down the road was the bridge "This is it." Razor's face came up on Sean's screen "I'm sorry about what happened to your partner."
"She'll be fine. Just get moving."
Razor nodded and the group quickly started across the bridge. Sean decided that it'd be a good idea to escort them part way across the bridge, since his radar showed a few units, probably all the Guard could manage to throw together.
Halfway across the bridge something flashed out of the corner of Sean's screen. Before he could turn an explosive shell hit one of the last two MTs. A second shot hit it and it blew up, the explosion knocked one of the trucks on its side and it screeched to a halt.
Sean whipped around and fired off a snap shot, but it went wide. It was Bally Good again. The bastard had circled around and managed to get the drop on them. Sean gritted his teeth and started firing as fast as his Karasawa would cycle. One of the shots hit him in the shoulder but just shook him around, the only other one that hit was much more successful as it blew the spindly radar head right off his core.
Bally Good managed to land on the edge of the bridge and Sean floored his boosters and rammed the orange AC left shoulder first. That pushed him back over the edge of the bridge and before he fell Sean lashed out with his laser blade, cutting across his waist. It left his legs only half attached and he fell backwards into the darkness. Sean switched to missiles and managed to fire one after Bally Good as he fell, but he was quickly out of sight and range so Sean didn't know if it did any real damage.
His adrenalin fueled moment of glory was interrupted by Razor "We're about blow the bridge, get clear Maverick."
He turned his AC back towards the city and hit his Overboost. The huge blue flame propelled him out of harms way and behind him he heard the support-ripping explosions of the demolition charges, and the subsequent collapse of the bridge.
Sean let out a long breath, calming himself. He hit a couple of switches on his panel and the reassuring voice of his computer said "Mission objective achieved. System switched to normal mode." His missile pod closed and folded back over his shoulder and his Karasawa lowered, it's ammo spent.
He started to boost back to his sister but from here he could see red and white flashing lights. Thinking quickly Sean jumped and took to the rooftops. He was able to get close enough to see and he crouched and zoomed in. Luna's AC was surrounded by about a haff dozen police cars and one Guard MT. Sean very nearly brought his weapons back on-line, but when he saw Luna on a stretcher being wheeled into a waited ambulance he thought the better of it.
Feeling a bit defeated he turned and left, heading back for home. Luna's rescue would have to wait.
The next afternoon, after a restless sleep and a long shower to try and compensate Sean was slouching on the couch with his arms crossed, watching the flat screen TV across from him. It was the news, and the headline was about the daring robbery at the Tegshu Bank late last night.
"It's reported that six Guard members were killed attempting to stop the criminals, who made off with more then one hundred thousand credits." The reporter at the moment was a pretty blond woman wearing a blue suit "However, several of the criminals were captured alive. One was piloting an AC that was destroyed by a Guard hired Raven." Sean sat up at that point, and turned up the volume "Although the Raven was able to destroy the criminal AC, a second AC, the one which destroyed the Guard's MT squadron, was able to defeat the Raven. The Raven's current status is unknown. Global Cortex has been contacted about the two ACs and they deny that they are registered Ravens, although at this time it is believed the two rouge pilots were Ravens."
The woman pushed something on a screen that was mostly hidden from the camera, and continued "The unknown AC pilot was injured during the battle, but will be released into Guard custody this evening. Here is a picture of the pilot that was taken earlier today." The screen changed to a picture of a cleaned up Luna. She was in a white hospital room and seemed to be resting comfortably. No heart monitors or anything were hooked up to her so she couldn't have been badly hurt, though the bandage around her head worried Sean a bit "The pilot, who's name is unknown, will be transferred to the 3rd Guard Unit in downtown Isaac City, where she will await her court date."
Sean smiled Saves me the trouble of finding her. The report continued for a while, but Sean didn't pay much attention to it after that Lets see… I've got fifty thousand credits, Maverick is pretty much ready to go, the Karasawa is powered up… Hmm… A plan started to formulate in his head, unfortunately he didn't like the way it ended, but it was about all he could think of. He'd have to work quickly though, and would probably have to spend most of his reward on pulling this plan off. He got up and turned on Luna's computer Time to call in a few favors…
On her side of this situation Luna was rather depressed. She'd been in prison for three days now, and her court date was in another two. Right now she was handcuffed and wearing the bright orange overalls prisoners are given at the door. She hadn't been told where they were taking her, maybe because they thought she was mental or something. Since her capture she hadn't said a single word, it seemed like the best way to go about things.
The guards led her into a small room that was split by a long desk with a vertical piece of glass splitting the desk. She looked between the guards and they sat her down in a chair in the center of the desk.
A minute or so later a door on the other side of the glass opened and her brother stepped though. He was wearing a red vest over a white t-shirt, with blue jeans and boots. He had a sad look on his face. Sean took a seat across from her and the first thing that he said was "I'm so disappointed in you…"
Luna was a bit stunned, and just stared at him a moment. Sean looked up to the guards and asked, "Could you leave us alone please?" Luna was quite surprised when they nodded and left the room.
They sat in silence for a moment, and then Luna asked "Why?"
"Because…" The lights started to flicker and Sean smiled, he held up his right hand, witch had been out of sight, and was holding a small one-button remote "Because we were being recorded. Anyway how you holding up?" He sounded much more like normal now.
Luna let out a sigh "You have no idea. For one, one of the officers gave me this," She pointed to her left eye, which was black. Her right eye was too but that was from her AC getting totaled "They aren't very happy I'm not cooperating. Two, one of the other female prisoners keeps eyeing me up, and she's a lot bigger then I am." Luna shuddered a bit "And three I'm sleeping on a concrete slab."
"A concrete slab eh? Good that works with my plan." Sean smiled.
"How did you knock out the cameras anyway?"
"It was pretty easy. I found some old EMP generators in the warehouse and I rigged them to this switch, then I just dropped them on the building last night."
"Ah, cool. So what's the plan?"
"Well…" Sean leaned forward "It's a pretty simple one. Obviously you can't be confined inside a prison if the prison is no longer around you. Just get under your bed at lights out tomorrow. By the way can you give me a description of your cell block?" Sean pulled a note pad and pen out of his back pocket, it already had a rough map of part of the building.
"Ok, behind that door there," she pointed at the door behind her "is a hall, it goes about… Yeah that far, then takes a left. No a little longer, ok good. The prisoner cells fill pretty much that whole area, and there are four on each side, I'm in that one. No the one next to that. Right! Ok, so after you spring me what's our plan? We can't stay in Isaac."
Sean nodded and put the pen and paper back "I know, we aren't. I think our best bet is to-" He was cut off as his remote beeped at him, and the lights were back steady. The troubled look came back and this time Luna almost giggled, he was really hamming it up but it apparently worked. "I think I've said enough." He stood up, but winked at her before he left. Luna could see as he opened the door that it was total chaos out there. The guards came and got her, and put her back in her cell, though now she had a bit of a smile on her lips.
The next night Sean was standing on Maverick's shoulder, scooping out Luna's prison with a pair of high-power binoculars. He could have used the scope in his AC to as good if not better effect, but he didn't want to chance powering up until the last minute. Dropping those EMP pods on the roof of the place was risky enough, and this wouldn't be any less so.
Through the windows he could see the lights flick off, and he walked down Maverick's core and dropped into the cockpit. The hatch closed over his head and he strapped himself in and stuck the binoculars down at the side of the seat. He started his damaged AC up, and read the diagnostic before switching to combat mode.
Loading all data…
MWG-KARASAWA: 86 percent energy.
MWM-S42/6: 35/42 ammunition.
MRL-RE/111: Radar functioning. No errors.
MLB-MOONLIGHT: Blade operating at 100 percent efficacy.
CWEM-AM40: VG MG response within operational parameters. Missiles 80 percent.
Warning, armor integrity at 68 percent.
He didn't much like the look of it, but he hadn't had time to get things tuned back up and his missiles re-stocked. Hopefully he'd be in and out quickly enough that combat would be minimal. He hit a switch on his forward data pad and reached over and pulled on his gloves as Maverick's confident, unwavering and, ultimately, inhuman voice came on "Main system engaging combat mode."
He hit a couple more switches and his target box changed to a row of flashing red lines that went out into the distance. They looked kind of like a long, straight, bad graphics road. Sean hit another switch and his AC's arms came to life. The flashing lines shifted and now represented where the Karasawa was pointed. Sean shifted to a crouch and carefully braced his Karasawa hand with his left hand. Outside his AC was in a pretty respectable snipers position.
Sean corrected his aim to the left, and could only pray that Luna was braced and he was pointing at the part of the wall he thought he was. Gently he pulled his index finger as if the gun was in his hand and the Karasawa kicked, firing off a single laser blast. It flew into the distance and ionized part of the wall, but mostly blew it apart. Sean used is left hand to kill the gloves and he pulled them off and got his hands on the controls where they belonged, and hit his Overboost.
He leapt from his crouch and blasted towards the destroyed wall, then killed his thrust and landed one leg inside the prison and one leg out. He shifted his camera around and looked around, both the beds in the cell were partial covered in rubble. His heart plummeted until he saw an arm sticking out of the pile and waving at him. He pulled on his left glove and started to carefully move the debits out of the way, and after he had cleared a hole Luna squeezed out. She coughed and waved at him, and he opened his hand and she climbed on.
As he was lifting her up something hit him in the right shoulder and even punched a couple holes in his prized laser rifle. Sean whipped his gun up and got a lock easily, and snapped off a couple shots. The basic Guard MT went up in an orange ball of fire, and Sean's radar showed more units coming in. He pulled Luna up to his cockpit and popped the hatch. She jumped in and landed hard in his lap, forcing most of the air out of his chest "Christ, you didn't have to jump on me."
"You didn't have to bury me in concrete." Luna laughed and Sean shifted a bit so he could see around her.
He hit his boosters and went straight up and got clear of the prison, then headed for the streets "Be careful you don't kill anyone." Luna said as Sean weaved through traffic.
"Hey, who's driving here?" Sean said just before he clipped blue compact. After Luna glared at him Sean sighed and gained some height, and landed on a roof.
His radar was clear, so he took a moment to rest his energy, then started hopping rooftop to rooftop. They managed to get to the outskirts of the city without running into any Guard patrols thankfully "So what is our plan?"
"Well," Sean said as the began crossing a bridge into the industrial area "I have a transport plane waiting to ship Maverick to Layered, and a car for us."
"You don't mean… We aren't working for Global Cortex now are we?"
"Well, considering that you were captured by the Guard, and I sprung you and killed a Guard officer in the process, not to mention the six last night and the illegal credits in our bank account, I thought we should lay low for a while."
They had crossed the bridge and Sean hit the overboost again, now heading for the outside connecting airlock that would lead them to the airstrip "So becoming registered Ravens counts as keeping a "low profile"?" Luna asked sarcastically.
"When you want to hide a leaf, put it in a forest. I called in a few favors so everything is ok"
Luna rolled her eyes "Ok sage boy, what about my AC? I'll need it if I'm going to be registered again, and I don't think we have the cash to repair it. " how do you plan on getting out the gate?"
"Well… The problem with that was I couldn't think of any way to get it out of the impound… So it's still back in Isaac…"
"WHAT!?! Are you kidding me!?! It cost almost a million credits to put Vixen Doll together!"
Sean sighed "Please… Don't remind me. I'm sorry Luna but it was the best I could do. She was totally derelict and their was no way I could have gotten her out even after I broke in."
Luna sighed as well, and looked at the main screen at the large door they were coming up on "Fine, more pressing matters. How do you plan on getting out the gate?"
Sean managed a chuckle "You'd be surprised what five thousand credits will do to gaining a gate guards loyalty."
"So the transport is the favor you called in? One of our old transport pilots?"
"Well he did used to be a pilot for us, but no. That's what I spent the last of the credits I pulled from the bank on. No the favor was getting us a Raven test with Global Cortex, had to call Silver up on that one."
"Ahh, that old psychopath."
The airport came into view and Sean used the last of his energy to get to the transport aircraft. Once there the back hatch opened and he walked inside and turned around, then took a knee and powered down. The hatch opened and he and Luna both climbed out and got to the ground. Outside it was cold and dark, and they could barely see Dak, the pilot. He was about as old as Sean, and about the same height, but his head was shaven and he was considerably more tan.
Sean smiled at their old comrade and shook his hand "I really appreciate this Dak."
Dak laughed and replied "Not nearly as much as I appreciated the thirty thousand credits you gave me, even if I'll have to launder the damn things through half a dozen accounts before I can use 'em."
Sean released his hand "You're welcome to the rest too, but good luck getting it out of our account after this."
Dak shrugged "I think what you gave me will keep me happy for a while." He took a look over at Luna "Damn, even beat up like that you still look good."
Luna smiled "Thanks…"
Dak turned towards the ladder up to the airlock "Guess I'll see you two in Layered."
"With any luck. See you." Sean left Dak and Luna followed. He led her to a small two-door car. He went around to the driver's side and Luna opened the door and got in. Inside she saw her computer and some of their things packed up in the back seat. Sean got in and started the car up "Funny how things work out huh?"
Luna shifted the seat back a bit and buckled up "Yeah…"
Sean put the car into drive and started down the road. Although the surface of Earth had been habitable for several years outside roads were mostly used by transport trucks. But the roads were there to use, and this way if Dak was caught with the AC responsible for destroying a dozen or so Guard MTs Sean and Luna would be in the clear.
"You ok? You seem depressed?" Sean said.
"I dunno. I feel kinda… Beaten. I mean, we usually aren't the one's running away. It's like the two kids who ran away from home and now were running back into the arms of our parents, who are just going to say "I told you so.""
"It kinda does. But at least this way we might get some work, and not work that makes me feel morally like dirt afterwards." Sean added sullenly. Luna patted his knee, then let him drive.
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Well that was it, I hope that it didn't induce projectile vomiting from every orifice in you. If you liked it please don't be shy about leaving a review or dropping me an e-mail at Butterfly Edge@aol.com
If response is good (or if you ask nicely) I'll put together a website with the parts list, stats, paint schemes and such for the ACs in this story, so you too can fly around in your very own Maverick if you want. Yes, all ACs in this story went through rigorous testing before being allowed onto center stage (and Vixen Doll really dose suck that much!)
See you next chapter.