Chapter 0 Prologue: Empty past, uncertain future…
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Author's Note: IMPORTANT!
The prologue is the character biography and history rolled into one, it has most of his history, as for personality that's actually determined by the reader.
Reading this section is purely optional, but it gives context to the circumstances in which the character finds themselves in.
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Date: 20/02/2035
Location: Democratic Federal Republic of Australia, Carpentaria State (Formerly Northern Territory), New Carpentaria City (State Capital)
New Carpentaria was one of the largest cities in all of Australia, being the second in terms of population, third in terms of size of its metropolitan area, and third in terms of industrial development, it was however the first in terms of scale of international arrivals and probably one of the most advanced cities around in the world.
New Carpentaria began development and construction in 2015, after the overthrow of the previous Australian government in the July Revolution. It had been the forefront of development in Australia. In an agreement with other Pacific nations, namely Korea and Japan, Australia had brought hundreds of thousands of workers from other countries to develop the region that was Carpentaria.
In that time, Carpentaria had become a major population focus over the years, being one of the fastest developed cities in the world, including one of the largest ports in the entire Asia Pacific region, with the Carpentaria Naval Marine Installation, which was a massive artificial river route which led inland for fifty miles and allowed for hundreds of ships to come and go, dropping of considerable levels of cargo.
It was also home to one of the largest military installations in all of Australia and the Pacific barring Pearl Harbour, Okinawa and a few other locations, though Carpentaria was actually intended to allow ships from other navies to dock at the port, rather than just Australian ships. Hence it was known as the largest naval installation in the Pacific.
Of course this wasn't the only reason people came into Carpentaria for, no, it was for the amazing city itself, one of the most advanced places to live in, advanced self-driving vehicles, self-sustaining power systems made available by Tesla Industries, and individual use medical monitors to help determine a person's condition. There were an almost endless number of innovations in Carpentaria.
There was also a greatly cosmopolitan style of life in the metropolitan area, being home to millions of Koreans, Japanese, and other Asian ethnicities; along with them is every other race alongside them. The population consisted of millions living in such a vibrant community which shared all kinds of differences and experiences.
It was a symbol of Australia's sense of community, and friendship with others, not to mention its cultural belief, together it formed a very unique society, one which was dynamic in nature. It also meant that the country as a whole had a variety of varying different beliefs and ideologies, which were permitted in the country, as long as it didn't bring harm to the people or invite hatred for others.
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This place was the homeland for many, including one particular man who had grown up in this country, having lived a life filled with contradictions and difficult decisions, most of which were painful to bear.
His name was Rayleigh Hyung, a man from various backgrounds, Australian, Japanese and Korean, he was a person who had been born and raised in Australia, and he loved the country he was born into. It was the place he had known his entire life, and even as he went overseas and he went to explore the world around, he found himself longing for the chance to return home.
Rayleigh, or Ray as he liked to be called, was originally a normal person, albeit without many family members, unless you counted his brother in law's family. Ray had grown up being raised by his older brother after an argument between Ray and his father, his brother had allowed him to shelter at his house until he was old enough.
His experience in life was one faced with adversity, having a difficulty living up to expectations, and having to deal with lifelong issues, including the loss of family and friends. His parents died in an accident when he was older, and he never had the opportunity to reconcile, the words of his father still deeply seated in his mind, despite their argument having ended years ago.
Eventually opportunity came in a rather symbolic way, and he was given a challenge, one which he would live for the rest of his life, the Australian military had been on the lookout for viable candidates for serving their country. Men with good physical build, mentally sound, with a sense of diligence and discipline were being sought for a special program.
The program was supposed to be experimental and it required the highest standards for selection. And that said, there weren't many people in his school who wanted to risk going in, and he didn't blame them. The whole thing was all smoke and mirrors, people didn't understand the potential risks involved, and no one would be allowed to speak about them.
Being young, head strong, and driven by his father's words of criticism and resentment, he jumped head straight first, without looking behind him. This action would set him down on a path he somehow knew. From this point onwards, his life changed once more, and he followed with a burning determination.
He detached from his former life, seeking this challenge out, willingly, and knowing that the dangers it could entail were high. He told his brother his decision and cut his ties with his friends, knowing that he wouldn't have the opportunities to see them any longer, and even his extended family which he had liked, he knew that this road he now walked would be perilous.
Project 'Sentinel' had been one which entailed a great deal of challenges, one being the physical and mental requirements, though these could be addressed over time, the other was the method of training and merit. The process of creating Sentinel troopers was something of a complicated procedure.
Being voluntary, the project entailed high standards and expectations, leaving many to pursue to the goal of advancing individual limitations and excelling in specialised fields as well as being able to perform tasks and mission scenarios to the best of one's ability. This training regimen and various exercises were brutal and demanding.
Most went through a 3 month training regimen which was meant to weed out the weakest and push the strongest, Ray was lucky that he was right in the middle between the best and worse. His hardships and drive pushed him through the worst of the training and allowed him to prove his worth.
Upon completing the course of training, he had made a few friends; those of his training group had grown closer together as they continued to pursue their goals of succeeding in whatever program the Australian Army had prepared for them. Eventually the goals of the program were finally revealed and he and those within the 'Sentinels' were given the chance to see their goal.
The first stage augmentation process, a process meant to increase response time and operator abilities, followed by further training, though in the use of advanced mechanised units. The procedure continued for a number of months, until they were satisfied with the end results, they would continue to test.
Second stage augmentations were like the first, though with artificial adrenal nodes implanted into their bodies, a few suffered medical issues and were withdrawn, and those who remained, continued. More training came to pass with the use of these augmentations, specialised mechanised armoured frames were produced for them to use.
These machines allowed them to improve upon the augmentations and refine their unit's tactics and strategies, of course there was the added downside that they were imperfect and had many faults, some which were worse than others. Members of the corps began to suffer from motor nerve damage, mentally degenerative conditions and the sort, trouble caused by the combination of their machines and their augmentations.
But they persisted, even when their kin began to drop off one by one, it was a difficult time, but they adapted and persevered in the face of such difficulty. Eventually their corps was formalised to a group of some 150 members, all of them ready for the challenges which lay ahead, whatever they might be.
And as if fate had given them an answer, a war broke out due to worsening tensions in the Indochina region, the Australian ministry of defence determined that using the members of the program was the only way to know for a certainty the viability of augmented military personnel. This action would send Ray and his fellow augments into the midst of the Indochina crisis.
Of course they didn't just randomly shove them into a military mechanised assault frames and into the nearest warzone, they were officially mobilised as an attached special unit to Australian armed forces fighting in Indonesia and the Philippines. With initial operations held in the relative control of the Philippines to avoid losing the operators.
His life from then onwards with those of the project were all thrown into the war, so they could be baptised through blood and fire. This bloody baptism would ultimately determine whether or not they were ready for the horrors of war, or the hardships of conflict in their lives. And Ray, saw the challenge which lay ahead, and he pushed onwards.
Though war was a terrible thing, it gave Ray time to realise a lot of things, one being the fact that his father's words rang so hollow, as he had never gone to war. And all the good and bad most people experience, it wasn't like this in the military, especially when you're there to see it, it's arguable whether the war had changed him, or he had changed his view of war.
Either way, he grew tired, after serving for nearly 6 years, though it was in part of many different reasons, one being the medical condition of the 'Sentinel's', many medical complications arose which killed or resulted in a decommissioning of half the force, and the rest were either killed due to the war or were wounded.
Eventually out of the force of some 150 operators, only 33 had lived to see the end of the program and were able to retire, however of those 33, 13 were still physically fit and the rest were either mentally or physiologically handicapped. The Australian government had taken responsibility to take care of those who survived the program.
Ray found himself without a clear purpose again, his life had been thrown into the meat grinder, and most of his friends were either dead or long forgotten, his family didn't know whether or not he was really alive. As he had dropped out of contact after 2 years into his service, he had no doubt that they had moved on by then as well.
In the end, he medicated his problems of loneliness with alcohol and pain killers. Most of his days were spent mossing over online shows, anime or TV, and working part time at the nearby PX in the city of Carpentaria. But that changed after a few months, an acquaintance contacted him from the city, asking if he was interested in joining him in an old hobby.
Gunpla, a memorabilia of his youth, good and bad, it was something he had been passionate about, and what ultimately led him to take such interest in mechanised technology when he was younger. The origins of his passion brought him back to playing games from a long time ago, and he decided to go and join them. Since then, he had been playing Gunpla again, and indulging himself in the comfort of old hobbies.
For the most part, he spent a day a week at the stadium in Carpentaria city to help his friend out testing new systems for the new entertainment stadium being constructed in the city. Most of this just involved playing through a certain set of scenarios, and then having time to blow on playing matches with the testers.
Though most weren't on the same level as himself, but they were all creative, some did prove that they could do far better at certain things than he could. And he did admit, he was rather methodical in the way he dealt with things, but he was arguably very skilled at playing the game as well. Kicking ass for the most part and taking names, he was able to show them what a former military operator could do on their own.
He got around the main route through the CBD, heading east at a steady pace through Conciliation Avenue which led to Hunters Bay, it was home to the largest parks in Australia, intended for use during the last Olympics. It was an amazing sight to behold, though some of the facilities had become repurposed after use.
One such facility was the Beta Dome, a stadium which had once been used for football/soccer in the last decade but was repurposed for technology conventions, the dome had actually been intended for use as a holographic display. But it was changed to sporting as the Summer Olympics came, it has since then been under redevelopment.
Right now Tesla Industries and Anaheim Electronics had been supporting the development of a major technology theatre/stadium. Anaheim was supported by the US, though it was working in conjunction with Japan's, Plavsky Particle Systems Corporation. Tesla had also played a part in development thanks to their specialisation in advanced energy technologies.
In any event this stadium was currently under development for the sake of creating a stadium which would hold tens of thousands of people and allow for gamers across the world to join in playing a wide variety of games. The stadium was being set to hold the biggest event that was the Gunpla tournament of 2036, which was set to commence six months before the Olympic Games.
As he arrived at the stadium via the triple lane roundabout, he turned into the main path to the stadium. As he approached the main garage entrance, he used the pass given to him and waved it over the holographic interface; he was able to enter after a few seconds, as the doors and gates had to open for him to enter. As he went down the garage, he was able to locate his parking spot, in the visitor's parking area, next to the primary lift in the stadium.
Getting off his bike, he set his helmet aside and grabbed his old assault pack from the back end of his bike, the bag was stuffed to the brim with items, mostly his pilot suit, which he was allowed to keep, and his lunch and utilities. He had just finished work, so he had been able to grab some rations from the back of the store when it was time to close up, food which had ended its shelf life was up for sale over the counter, and like others interested in such things, he bought some to take home.
As he hauled his pack over his shoulder, he went to the nearby lift and pressed his ID over the reader and pressed for service access. The cold metallic doors to the lift closed, and he was able to go up to the servicing area in the stadium. Once the lift reached the floor, he stepped out and he was greeted by the plain white polished walls of the service junction.
Here dozens of lifts stopped off to deliver personnel and material, turning in, he headed off to the left and went down the corridor, and made his way over to the station where he was greeted by one of the stadium staff.
"Hey, is Michal Keller in?"
"Oh, umm hold on." The staff member said as they pulled up a tablet and checked. "Yeah, he's in. Why?"
"I'm here for simulated testing; I need to go see him." He told them.
"He's down by the next junction near administration, you can't miss him." The staff member said.
"Thanks." Ray waved as he went off.
As he headed over to the cross section down in the stadium, he took a left turn before following the directions to administration. It didn't take him long to track down Keller, he was the only person in the stadium who wore a black jacket and stood out with his black and greying hair, despite being in the same age range as Ray himself.
Keller suffered a strange condition during his childhood which resulted in him ending up with a greying set of hair. But he was physically fit, and he was in the same division as Ray was, but he operated as a mechanic in non-com duties. As he went over he was greeted by his old friend.
"Ray." Keller said with a cheerful wave.
"Hey there Keller." Ray replied with an outstretched hand.
Keller took his hand and gripped it firm while shaking it. "Good to see you mate, I was wondering when you'd be able to come along, and we've got a lot to talk about." Keller said before he stopped shaking Ray's hand.
"I don't doubt it." Ray said in response while he retracted his hand.
"Have you got your pilot suit with you?" Keller inquired.
"Yeah my old pilot suit still had the neural interface attached." Ray stated.
"That's good." Keller said.
"Is there anything I should know before I continue from our last session?" Ray inquired as they continued the discussion while slowly trading through the corridor.
"Yeah, make sure you have fun." Keller said with a smile.
"I had fun." Ray said duly.
"Dude, you acted like the guy who rolled through training, man it's meant to be a game. I know it takes getting used to, but I'd suggest that you relax, and besides we're going to be trying a full immersion, and we'll throw in a few more challenges this time so you can enjoy it more." Keller tried to reassure Ray.
"I hope you're right, that last test felt more like getting stuck in the midst of a plain run, not something I could call a fun time."
"Well it's better than getting sergeant to yell at you all the fucking time."
"So, where's everyone else?"
"Oh, well you'll be going first, mainly because we want to get individual testing done as quickly as possible, once we're through the others will be joining in, and we've got a lot better line up with Andre and Wilkes coming in."
"The two national champions from last year?" Ray recalled them from his memory.
"Yeah, I know, they've got a reputation, but seeing as you wanted a challenge." Keller suggested.
"Its fine, I was actually expecting something like this for a while now." Ray said promptly.
"Were you?" Keller said inquisitively.
"Yeah, real challengers are worth facing down rather than wasting time having to deal with the small fries. Though to be perfectly honest I'm not sure how well you'd measure up to Andres and Wilkes, they're not military, but they are avid Gunpla players, and they have a long history of wins." Ray said thinking over their track record.
"I'll see how they'd fare first before I reserve any judgement."
"Right after we complete the testing, but don't worry it shouldn't take that long. After that, you can indulge in kicking back with some fun."
"If you can call playing against kids and adults really fun." Ray remarked.
"Oh come now, where's the enthusiastic drive of challenging yourself, you set the bar too low for expectations when it comes to playing."
"I dunno, it's just the thrill of piloting in real life is hard to substitute." Ray suggested. "It's been a difficult thing to adjust to."
"Hopefully the national champions will be able to give you something to challenge yourself with."
"I have good expectations there." Ray admitted.
"After the match, want to kick back and catch a couple of beers by the pub?"
"Which one? The Sundown Lake Pub or the one closer to the stadium?"
"Sundown Lake is pretty good, and I've got my membership club." Keller said promptly.
"Neat, sounds like a plan." He said as he stretched his arms upwards with his fingers cracking.
"Alright, you'd better get going, I'll see you from the monitors." Keller said as he left, making a lazy wave as he went down the corridor.
Ray decided to get changed; he entered the locker rooms and found himself the first cubicle which was vacant. He set his bag down and opened it up, dressing into his operator's suit, he did a once over on the battery to make sure it was working properly, the interface seemed all good, despite being used for something like this. The operator's suits were notorious for suffering minor problems from long term storage and so forth, but his had weathered the years pretty well.
As he looked into his assault pack, he removed a large black hexagonal case, his 1/144th scale model stored inside of it. Opening the case from the top, he removed the base and stand on which his model was placed, the model was totally seamless in appearance, no glue residue, damage from the years that he had left it alone.
There were no flash remains from the printing production, and the coat of paint he had laminated was still there, glistening with life, unscathed. Of course he buffed the skin and joints in some sections to clean up some mess from past work, but for the most part it looked as it always had.
The model suit's design was an old one, taken from the Gundam UC era; he had combined the design from the Delta Kai and the Gundam Ex-S MSA-0011, though he only incorporated a few aspects of the Ex-S due to its immense size. He had also made it crucial to include the NITRO+ system to give his unit a serious boost when he needed it, added with the Hydra funnel system, his machine could go toe to toe with fairly heavy machines of larger calibres.
It was fully customised, but not to point it wasn't still based on those two machines, the whole point of the customisations were to improve the systems in a somewhat realistic scenario. Many modifications were based in real world particle physics and quantum physics, though that said, most weren't entirely applicable to real world use so they were implemented through simulation. Hence it was being used here in the stadium, and why Plavsky Particle Systems was licensed to do tests with said system.
This added to the abilities of the Eventide, but didn't give it an overwhelming advantage, seeing as virtually all other opposing machines utilised similar systems like the Eventide, though Eventide was lucky in the sense it had a few customised options for pilot interface, a given for Ray as it helped increase the efficiency of the tests and provide a great deal more feedback for the team's research and development department.
The Ex-Eventide had multiple I-field projectors, just like the Ex-S Gundam was. One mounted into the chest compartment, to provide sufficient protection against beam attacks, as for the rest of the suit, the light mass field projection allowed the machine to generate a protective particle field using light particles generated from the fusion reactor, dispersing energy in a wide area and deflecting impacts.
In space and in atmosphere, the Eventide was given the capacity to fly with the ability to move at ultrahigh speed, without overwhelming the pilot and the machine's structural integrity; this was simulated by the Plavsky particle generator located next to the reactor. For all intents and purposes, it worked like a charm, as it bled off most inertial forces, at least in the simulation.
As a final feature, he also added in ALICE, from the Ex-S Gundam, in hopes she could provide all the assistance he needed, ALICE was the name of his PC Artificial Intelligence, not really smart, but cleaver. It was capable of searching for solutions he inquired about and helped him research topics; she also worked well in sorting through his regular crap of videos and music.
ALICE was with him throughout his military career and received modifications over the years to provide him assistance in the field when necessary, other times she just stayed in the support role to help feed him information and nothing else. For the Eventide, Alice was crucial in tweaking the systems on the Eventide, and helping him to operate some of the more complicated aspects of his machine, as he could only do so much without overwhelming himself.
He also had Alice keep him up to date on information regarding the members of his unit when they were deployed. She kept the record of all the men who died under his command, a reminder of his days gone by, as for what she does these days is largely the same, albeit she just organises his regular schedules.
As he exited the section he turned to the main corridor where he was able to spot a familiar face heading back down, the blonde haired green emerald eyed woman named Christie. She was Keller's assistant, and a truthfully honest bitch, having had a couple of bad experiences with her thanks to her giving him the run around a few times when he was here at the stadium.
He approached her as he knew that she was the one who usually managed the oversight of the testing for Keller.
"Hey there, are we set to begin?" He asked the woman.
Christie replied with a curt nod. "We're ready, the interface pods are prepared, just follow me, no need to get lost like last time." She said with a rather patronisingly sweet tone.
"Hey that only happened once because somebody forgot to mention that the renovations removed half the direction posts and replaced them with stupid coloured markers which hadn't even been coded then." He said a bit defensively. Truth be told, the woman liked to tease him quite often.
"Semantics, you could have always turned back to the junction to ask for help, but that's just you."
"I'd have asked if you didn't tell me to hurry…" Ray muttered while rolling his eyes.
Together they went to the core chamber where the simulators were located; the area was pretty barren, sporting a large octagonal shaped display system which spans over forty meters across. There were pods located at each pointed edge of the display system; each was endowed with long wired cables and pieces of equipment sticking out of them.
Computer monitors and integrated BIOS computers were running systematic checks and error corrections, there were only three pods which weren't as heavily covered in wires, and this was the blue and dark grey one which had the name and number 'Ex Delta – Ray 01' stencilled onto the side and the others being two white and red and green pods which had indescribable names and words stencilled on.
Ray could only assume those pods were for the two national champions, as for his own pod, the pod was a large circular shaped object with a large canister like object attached to the back. The entire pod was mounted onto a circular shaped base which was designed to pivot and rotate around so the pilot could feel a certain level of simulated reality.
However he wasn't sure if the pivot was going to be used for this test as it looked like it was locked for this test, which wouldn't honestly surprise him. As he went over to the pod, Christie opened up the pod, tapping on a few keys and pressing on the front side of the pod; the hatch popped open with a hiss and lifted upwards.
"Don't tell me you're keeping your bag with you…"
"I feel that it's safer with me, besides it's something I've grown accustomed to whenever I go out." Ray told the attendant.
"Fine, but don't blame me if it goes flying around." Christie said as she tapped on the pod's door and closed it shut.
As the pod shut, Ray went about and got himself strapped in and his bag squared away behind him in a smaller compartment, something he suggested to his old friend when he asked about testing the system. He was thankful he made the small adjustment. As he rolled back into the seat, he pulled out his model and opened up the fore section display scanner; he placed his model within it and put his card into the pod's computer interface.
Hitting the activation key on the interface, the pod began to buzz to life, he took this time to make sure that his operator's suit was connected to the interface on his chair and he did all the pre-sequence tests before he began to interface properly. He pulled the controls up to his body and made sure his hands were in front of him.
The suit then chimed.
"Plavsky particle simulation activating, please wait…"
The internal structure of the suit formed from a sea of light, particles of bluish white scattered around and took shape, solidifying into panels and the surrounding area of the cockpit, visual displays and suit was soon adorned in a fully panoramic view of a fully simulated cockpit. A truly familiar feeling for Ray as he slid back into his seat, his hands glossing over the surface of the suit, just as he would when he got his next machine.
This habit was normal for him, having lived a life bound in military service; he had become accustomed to the start-up sequence procedures. Though he really hated it when he was in a rush, it was a pain in the ass when you were dealing with a variety of problems, and it could cost you your life in a real combat situation, something he learnt on a few occasions from seeing how machines were destroyed by enemy RPG fire concentrated on a unit which was in the process of starting up.
'Come to think of it, I had a few close calls back then as well, until I got my augmentations.' He recalled.
Augmentations were a costly but invaluable asset when it came to mobile weapon platforms, the system ensured that a pilot could be able to respond faster to emergency situations. Bypassing the normal start up procedures of the machine, the operator could directly reroute the controls of their machine through their implant. This is risky as the pilot would experience a flood of information, and potential risk of feedback could cause sensory overloads.
It wasn't uncommon for pilots to start having nosebleeds or later haemorrhages in their brains thanks to the augmentations, it was a risky proposition, and most would leave their machines on standby to negate having to go through the entire start up, even if it meant draining some power needed for operation.
There was always a gamble when it came to using these sorts of systems, but for those that could take the risk, it was usually worth having it. For Ray, he knew from experience that suffering a little bit of pain in order to get into action was crucial, though inadvisable; many operators like him did it.
An undeniable edge in combat was a small price to pay, even if it did hurt, and he knew that there were far worse instances than just being on the receiving end of some sharp feedback. During the war, many of them ended up having to fight outside their machines; conflicts were prone to such actions.
More than a few of his fellow operators were wounded or killed in doing so, mainly because they were performing various tasks, from securing strategic locations to tactical manoeuvres. It was how they all faced it in the same way, necessary risks in war, and such their lives were put on the line outside of their machines.
As the pain dulled away, he turned his attention to the monitor and did a quick check on his vital signs, to make sure nothing was wrong. Afterwards he signalled to Keller in the control room.
"I'm set to go, all systems are nominal."
"Alright Ray, we're loading scenario Delta-5, no need for the foreplay, we're going right into it." Keller stated as the technicians went to work.
The area was a clearing in the middle of space, with a few ruined space colonies and what looked like some sort of space fortress.
"Simulation begins in 30…"
"We tweaked this one from before, and added a few heavy hitters to the mix, hope you don't mind." Keller said enthusiastically.
"There's nothing to fuss over on this, I've got this." Ray said confidently, he was sure about what he expected of this battle.
"Good, the AMX-107 Rewooba custom is also going in this one, mind you we're using the simulated characters from in series, so you have a real challenge. Also we may have thrown a couple of curve balls so be mindful of those." Keller told him.
"I look forward to seeing what you've got." Ray replied with a grin.
"There's the enthusiasm I was looking for." Keller said with a chuckle.
"So when did the simulation start including this battlefield?"
"It's just something from one of the manga's that were made on the second Neo-Zeon war period, after Char's counterattack."
"I see, wait, did you include the Sleeves for this or not?"
"You'll have to wait and see, for the most part, the simulation is basically the same as before, but with added elites and changing battle tactics on the game, so you'll be in a situation which is constantly changing, hopefully it'll help give us plenty of feedback."
As the line closed, Ray turned his attention to the battle unfolding, there was a lot to do, but he determined on getting started. His Eventide sped off into the now active battlefield, thousands of light glimmering from the vast array of explosions, mobile suits and ships destroyed by beam fire. As simulated as it was, this was as real as he'd get to a space battle, at least in his lifetime. Ray's interface reacted accordingly and he was able to perform quite well, as he was used to the Eventide's control system.
In the simulated battle he turned his attention to the nearest neo-Zeon mobile dolls which were closing distance in on the scattered GM units. The exchange was sort of predictable, as the GMs were stock models and armed with standard loadouts, so they weren't special in any case. He turned into the battle, to support the GMs and wipe out the neo-Zeon machines as quickly as possible.
His first shots went wide and only chased a few of the machines away, he then managed to zero in on the ones which were scattering, aiming for the heaviest machines first, he cut down each machine with relative ease before turning his attention back to the rest, this time with the GMs predictably trying to pin them into a corner.
This exchange of fire was quite one sided as Ray managed to down three more machines, his shots as precise as ever, even without the need of his thrusters to help compensate for turn or drift. He made precise movements to avoid getting caught in the range of the neo-Zeon units. It wasn't long before they wiped the suits out, with moderate losses.
His attention was more focused on the asteroid fortress than anything else, it seemed like the focus of the battle was there, and he'd get to throw himself into a fight which would give him plenty of things to do. Ray turned around, Eventide transforming into flight mode before heading into the brutal melee occurring around the asteroid fortress.
In the battle, he could see various mobile suit types, with mobile armour providing fire support, the fighting was pretty solid, with machines forming team orchestrated engagements, with a vast array of fire being exchanged in the process. This looked like the battle of one of Mu colonies, though he could be wrong, it was hard to say.
Needless to say this battle was expectedly haphazard as fuck, with more explosions and the constant exchange of fire between Zeon and Federation forces, the difference was that these were Neo Zeon and later Federation forces. Most ships were the later 0096 era machines, so there was plenty of variety to be seen, though most battles weren't this large.
'I guess it's to be expected when it comes to Keller's idea of a truly immersive experience.' He thought as his machine continued to move through the battlefield, gunning down a couple of unlucky machines in his way.
The battle intensified as he helped push their attack on the Neo Zeon forces, his encounter with opposition was expected, mostly regulars with officers and the one Neo Zeon mobile armour which tried to gut his unit. He made a quick turn and gut the unit across from front to end, his reward was a brilliant explosion.
A burst of beam fire sent him reeling, his suit's display brought up a warning alert of a new enemy having entered his battle space. His attention turned towards what was coming at him.
"Incoming unit, silhouette, AMX-107." Alice chimed as his unit dodged another barrage of beam shots.
"So, she's here is she?" He asked aloud as he made a twist and turn before heading towards the approaching red mobile suit.
He turned his attention to his nine o'clock position and made a sharp turn to bring his beam weapon to bear, the transforming two stage mobile suit reacted as such, twisted into a cone before coming right at him. As it did such, he unleashed his machine's missile pods; he knew that he couldn't pin this unit down off the bat.
The missiles split around the unit and managed to force it into a sort of corner, the AMX-107 attempted to shoot down the missiles, without success. He then fired off his beam rifle and struck two of the missiles closest in formation of each other, in moments each missile detonated the other in a chain reaction of detonations.
This act, forced the AMX-107 to pull back from getting caught up in the blast, this also bought Ray enough time to transform and get out of the way of the AMX-107's range, this calculated move was right on the mark as he knew that the AMX-107 was customised along with the AI installed in it, meaning the pilot knew how to react to his attack.
Of course this wasn't the only thing he noted, but during the attack, he wasn't sure, but he was getting this feeling that he wasn't alone in this simulation anymore. He got around and made a beeline for the nearby space fortress, he knew that it wouldn't be a good idea for him to stay out here with so many potential threats.
Not to mention he was suspecting that if he had stayed out, he'd be attacked directly by the Rebawoo, and if his hunch was correct, he'd end up cornered. And he didn't want to waste energy in engaging just one mobile suit, as well as breaking his promise of restricting the use of his special one off abilities in simulated battle.
In any event, he made every effort to match the unit in terms of reaction; he had switched the beam setting to rapid fire and unleashed a short controlled burst in a spread to drive off the Rebawoo. Though he didn't have much luck, the unit managed to weave through his shots and circle around from his left side, using the debris field to block his view.
He immediately knew that this meant that they were probably going to try and flank him while using the debris field. A smart move, but he could predict the movement of the enemy suit. In his mind the best way to deal with them would be to quickly outmanoeuvre them in the debris field and lay into the machine before it could meet his attack.
Pushing down on the accelerator, he manoeuvred quickly around the asteroids, hugging the ground as close as possible while scanning his sectors for indications of the Rebawoo. He was rewarded by the sight of the suit's red armour as it hid behind an asteroid exactly parallel to his position. He knew there were multiple ways to hit this suit, but he chose to use the asteroids as an anchoring point so he could circle around.
Firing a pair of anchors into the surface and allowing him to make a rapid traversal of the asteroid, he released the anchors as the got around, he circled around and spotted the Rebawoo, or at least what he thought was the Rebawoo. He was almost ready to fire when he realised the suit was immobile.
"What the hell?" He said as he realised the dummy.
"It's a decoy."
"I can see that." Ray said as he moved the Eventide toward the dummy.
He came in close and took a closer examination, the dummy was tied down to the asteroid, he backed away, but he knew that there were asteroids bouncing around him. And out from behind one, there out popped a missile barrage, wide spread over an area, surrounding him. Ray didn't have much else to do but curse.
As he used his head mounted CIWS guns, he eyeballed the approach vectors and input the targeting information and let loose. He destroyed all six of the missiles, but the explosive force shoved his back to the asteroid, and the dummy. As he got close enough, the dummy suddenly exploded in a fireball.
"Explosive gas!" Alice yelled.
"I noticed." Ray snapped as he was thrown about.
As the explosive washed over the Eventide, Ray realised that he was a sitting duck, but he wasn't sure which direction to take, moving in this field while blind left him open to attack and going out with the Rebawoo waiting, it also risked him getting shot up. He determined his next course of action, he knew sitting around was a big risk, so he decided there was only one thing to do.
He slammed the accelerator as he exited the cloud, his suit's sensors on the lookout, he did his utmost to avoid getting caught like that again.
"Alice, where is it?" He asked as he attempted to regain visual on his surroundings.
"Behind you." Alice said promptly.
He inwardly cursed as he immediately turned to face the incoming machine, the Rebawoo's pilot managed to predict his approach and set a trap for him. Using a decoy so that it could get into melee range without him being able to counter quickly or manoeuvre out of the way. He activated his wrist beam blade and countered the strike before using his machine's thrusters to throw his weight around.
The movement managed to throw off balance the Rebawoo and give him some measure of leverage, this effort was rewarded with a reactionary slash in an attempt to strike him, though he managed to dodge the strike, he couldn't retaliate as his unit was still too close, not to mention surrounded by asteroids.
Their machines were locked in a struggle for supremacy, one red and one blue, the two were determined to outmatch the other, and neither had a great deal of success. Ray was being shoved back, and so he let the Rebawoo pilot throw them towards the nearest asteroid. As they got closer, Ray suddenly hit the secondary thrusters and his left side burners, making a sharp twist.
They suddenly broke out of their deadlock, and the Rebawoo was thrown at the asteroid, slamming into it. Ray drew his beam rifle out once more and dumped a burst of high powered shots into the asteroid; he narrowly missed his intended target. Cutting two massive holes and slicing open a line across the surface.
As he pulled away, the Rebawoo did likewise and fled out of range, laying down a barrage of beam shots and a few missiles. Ray decided to go on the offensive, and pursue the red Rebawoo. He transformed again and then continued on in flight mode, his speed and higher manoeuvrability allowing him to make sharp turns around asteroids and so forth.
He made a dash from the corner of one asteroid, leaving a trail of beam fire in his wake, his shots were dead on point, hitting hard with everything he could muster. His attacks managed to force the Rebawoo back momentarily before it moved above his axis and let loose a missile and a barrage of beam shots.
He turned away rapidly, making a corner turn and an upwards barrel roll before coming down from the flank of the offending machine. He transformed and got loose, laying down another barrage of shots, his beam fire cutting through the void. But much to his luck he couldn't land a good shot, the pilot seeing through it.
They closed distance quickly, he had no choice but to use his NITRO+, he knew that this pilot would stop at nothing to down him, and he wasn't planning on giving up. That stubborn part of him kicked into overdrive as he responded, allowing his augmentations to take over and his synchronisation with the Eventide to activate.
His NITRO system would be able to compensate for the Rebawoo's obvious psycho-frame which was making a lot of waves. The trouble was that he felt strange; his head had tinnitus ringing aloud, like someone was holding a bell next to his ear. Ray's implants began to hurt, not like when he overclocked the interface system in combat or when his suit's interface had an overload of feedback, no. This entire sensation was different.
"AGH!" He grunted through his teeth as his mind felt a sharp pain.
A voice then emerged, in his mind.
'Who are you?'
"What?" He grunted as his mind reasserted control.
"System alert, abnormal brainwave patterns detected." Ray heard Alice respond.
His body reacted and he knocked the Rebawoo away from him, only to see it suddenly reorient itself parallel to him. Its eye glowed before it reached out towards him; he felt his mind ping with pain. The image of someone's face appeared before him, a masked woman appeared with glowing red glasses.
"You, you are Gundam, my enemy!"
"What?" He grunted as his head burned.
"Gundam!" He heard them scream.
"Oh for the love of fucking…" Ray pulled his machine back and slipped out his wrist beam sabre to counter.
His attack was met by a beam sabre from the Rebawoo which then used its thrusters and threw the weight of its body around to force him away. This tactic worked well enough and Ray found himself suddenly facing open space, instinctively he used his machine's transformation mode and made an angular turn away from the Rebawoo's projected attack manoeuvre.
He was right on the money when a beam sabre nearly clipped his machine's body; this attack method was something he learnt from past engagements against opposing Gunpla players, during the nationals. They were highly skilled players who could accurately predict the movement of their enemies.
It wasn't thanks to some magical ability or bullshit empathic abilities, but their predicted moves based on their own experience and tactics. He got away before this unit could pin him, and besides, he needed time to recuperate from his experience, his head was ringing from the encounter and he didn't want to risk getting downed.
As he prepared himself the Rebawoo came back at him.
XXXXX
Keller noted the strange fluctuations on the system monitors.
"Hey what's with all these spikes?" The administrator demanded.
The head technician looked over the data and frantically tapped on the consoles before replying.
"The system's having some fluctuations, like the Zero system input from last month, we're not sure, but it's causing a lot of feedback with the simulated DIVA unit."
"Can you shut it down?" Keller said as he looked at the monitors.
The technician sifted through the system before replying. "We're attempting to sir, but it's not that easy, the DIVA's been plugged directly into the core of the stadium's server, it'll take a while to cut it cleanly."
Flashing screens appeared as the various systems began to pick up on errors, this time they were a lot more alarming. The display brought up an imprint of the DIVA system and Ray's own neural interface, the system seemed to be making some sort of comparative examination, the DIVA's use of the psycho-frame was trying to use Ray's own mind as a basis for itself.
"What the hell is that?"
"I don't know, it's like the system's gone berserk, the DIVA's subroutines are trying to copy Lieutenant Hyung's neural imprints, like a flash copy."
"What?"
"I don't know what to say sir, this has never occurred before, all the tests we performed from before never indicated the AI attempting to use the psychoframe system in such a manner.
"So what the hell is this thing trying to do with Ray's brain?"
"It's trying to copy it, in a manner of speaking, that's how the DIVA's AI was programmed, we installed a means of learning, but it seems to have gone well beyond the set parameters, it's currently attempting to directly imprint itself with the Lieutenant's memories."
"How the hell did it react to Ray's presence like this?"
"We're not sure, it could have been the psycho field or the AI's own programming gone rampant, we can only hypothesise at this moment." The technician said as the battle continued.
XXXXX
The Rebawoo was fast, not like an elite unit in the simulations, but closer to an actual pilot's level of skill, based on the response time and the fact that it was actually quite skilled in operation, being able to use the environment and the abilities of the Rebawoo to its full extent, it made sense that this mobile suit's AI was closer on par with himself.
"Alice, can you analyse the attack pattern?" He asked as he took a moment to breathe.
"I have completed preliminary observations, the pilot is highly skilled, more so than a normal operator. Judging by their ability to retaliate in response to your advances, it has been able to adapt and counter extremely quickly." Alice said as she continued to examine their battle.
"So, what sort of system are we looking at?" He asked as he propelled himself and countered a strike.
"Adaptive one, high tier level of complexity, Generation 3 or above in terms of development." Alice managed to determine through observation.
"I knew it; it wasn't just a normal AI. It's a D.I.V.A!" He said as he pulled his unit from the attack.
His senses were in overdrive as he activated his neural implant system to 100%, normally he wouldn't do this, but when faced with something that was using a newtype psycho frame like it, it was pretty dangerous to let his guard down. But there was also something else going on, he didn't know what, but in the moment he was engaged in the melee with the unit, while its psycho-frame was active, he felt something from it.
Luger Lugh was the archetype for the pilot operating the machine; however he wasn't sure how well they replicated the pilot operator. The abilities of adding in Luger Lugh and the DIVA system was something he hadn't expected, he knew that it was one of the best AI systems devised over the years in Japan, but he didn't think they'd throw this in so soon.
Seeing as he wanted to fight a real challenger, Keller decided to omit this little bit of information for the sake of keeping the surprise for later, that or he was pulling a fast one on Ray to see how quick he'd be able to respond to being thrown a curve ball. It wasn't surprising how the former technician had a habit of doing this out of the blue.
Regardless, this unit was very apt in beating the crap out of him despite his unconventional tactics in drawing it into the one place it didn't have as much flexibility. His assault talons were good in diverting its attention away from him, but it didn't work any longer as it could exit the debris field and reorient itself in another position.
'It's damn good…' He thought as he continued to chase after the machine.
Ray knew that he had to pull all stops on this one, as DIVA was designed to learn from him and advance, it hadn't used its special one off ability like his machine, but he could tell, it'd do so now. And his guess was correct as the Rebawoo began to change colour, its suit had a psycho-frame installed and it was clearly prepared for battle.
"Shit, here it comes!" He said as he gritted his teeth, he pulled his suit around as he immediately detected the incoming shots from the Rebawoo, the first and second shots clipped the debris he was hiding behind, and it was soon followed by a barrage of missiles.
The Rebawoo was learning fast, and it had already discerned his position with the psycho-frame, whatever happened before when he and the machine engaged in battle, he wasn't sure, but it was alarming the hell out of him. He managed to pull away and retaliate with his beam Lancer, but the suit dodged quickly, making a beeline for him.
But then he heard a voice in his head.
"There you are, Gundam!"
'What the fuck is going on with this simulation?' He thought as he dodged the immediate threat of getting lanced through the cockpit by beam fire, he retaliated accordingly and nearly grazed the outer armour of the suit, but the pilot's reflex was fast and they unleashed a hail of beam blasts.
'Damn it, this isn't like any AI I've ever fought." He thought grimly as he charged in beam rifle laying down suppressive fire.
He knew that he had other abilities which could be useful, but in this situation it was way more risky than simply buying time for Keller to fix the system. And he knew that using other abilities like his one off I field, or the use of the mega particle cannon were definitely not good ideas. The environment was too crowded, and with the asteroid belt the mega particle cannon had a higher probability of hitting something aside from the Rebawoo.
He instead used his funnel; Alice had taken over from this point, as she could make the funnels commit to fast strikes and better accuracy than his own mind. His blue and white funnels worked, making a series of turns and corners surrounding the red suit from multiple directions and laying down fire.
Rebawoo wasn't giving it up though, its pursuit was as he expected, unrelenting. He twisted about unleashing a burst from his lancer beam rifle before he made a sudden turn and brought his machine into flight mode and did a flip, gunning the thrusters to push him in a conical turn to avoid getting hit by the Rebawoo's beam weapons.
His funnels pursuing after the offending machine from behind, keeping their presence around through short attacks from the blind spot of the Rebawoo. The trouble was that the Rebawoo had a newtype archetype pilot which meant she could predict his attacks with relative ease. The shots couldn't pin the Rebawoo down.
His body felt the acceleration from the sheer number of evasive manoeuvres he was making; he knew that his body could only handle so much before it reached its threshold the trouble was that he wasn't sure about whether or not the safety protocols were in place anymore. Seeing as how the entire system was a mess with a renegade Rebawoo pilot copy using a highly advanced artificial intelligence to operate, this could only end badly.
As the got around to retaliating, the operator of the red machine managed to use their one off ability, sending a burst of psychic energy outwards and disrupting his funnels ability to operate. He cursed as he couldn't call them back. He knew a bad situation when he saw one, and he could tell this was going to be a cluster fuck.
He braced himself as the red machine got up and personal, he couldn't get out of the way faster as he was surrounded by asteroids, he attempted to make a series of quick shifts by propelling himself across the surface of the asteroids, but the Rebawoo had gotten too close for him to avoid. The red machine lashed out and he had to counter.
The feeling of the icy cold pick digging into the back of his head was worse than before, and it was costing him focus. His hands were gripped to the controls and his skin started to feel like someone was submerging it into freezing cold water. He slammed away and hit the Rebawoo before angrily commenting.
"Why don't you go and fuck yourself you crazed bitch, don't you have anything better to be doing?" He asked in annoyance.
"Shut up, Gundams are the enemy!" The woman yelled across the com channel.
"Yeah, and I've got a bottle of whiskey which says that you're off your fucking rocker." He retorted before slamming his thrusters and making a mid-action break before he used his arm to swing his body around to make an abrupt adjustment in course.
"Die damn you!" The woman shouted as she lashed out.
She sliced the space where the Eventide had been until Ray made his adjustment and swung around to hit her across the side and throw her unit back, he then unleashed his CIWS machine guns and spayed the head of the Rebawoo with shots, momentarily blinding the unit. He knew it wouldn't last long and went in for a quick strike against the body of the suit, his beam sabre nearly taking the collar of the suit off.
"I won't fall that easily!" The pilot yelled as she grabbed him.
Their machines were once again locked together, Ray was trying to swing his unit's legs around, but the beam sabre wouldn't activate. No doubt due to the Rebawoo's special ability to disrupt equipment and technology within a limited proximity thanks to its psycommu. This wasn't really the issue though; the issue was the damned machine was determined to strangle him to death.
The two were locked in a direct encounter, each machine charged with energies, generating a seemingly endless flow of light within the proximity around them. Ray wasn't sure what in the hell was going on, but he could tell that this effect wasn't part of the simulation, he attempted to reach out to Alice and get her to sever the connection between him and the system, but he felt his voice silence before he could even open his mouth.
He attempted a direct neural interface with Alice, but diving into the system proved difficult and the feedback he was receiving was too much for him to accurately determine what was going on, like everything was drowned in a blurry haze of thoughts and expressions. His body felt like a lead weight, this feeling continued to persist despite his best efforts.
His mind was gradually swallowed by a darkness which seemed to surround him in this sea of light and he eventually lost consciousness.