Armored Core: Justiciar
1383 Kurara Way, home to Raven liaison officer Miozuki Iruka… five years after the events of the cataclysm and the Internecine event in which an undisclosed Raven brought the conflict between Vertex and Alliance to a halt; the Raven order is flourishing under this new found peace as various factions and independent warlord groups gain momentum and vie for power. Alliance, having grown in might, toppled under the weight of its own beaurocracy and in-fighting; in turn giving rise to an edge for the Kisaragi loyalists to reform Kisaragi and take dominance in corporate power. Mirage and Crest in the wake of financial insolubility merged to stand as Axiom Industries. It is now a more orderly time as corporations vie and struggle for power and the Raven order flourishes. It is just as the days of old, but, as Miozuki and a select few Ravens will soon find out… even the days of old we're haunted by the demons of ages past…
Versurs Highlands, 02:00 AM
Operation Code: 16-56-36-0
Mission Callsign: Clipped Wings
Conditions: Fog
Recommend Raven Rank: S
Estimated Success Rate: 0%
Junkyard was a promising young Raven who was easily the quickest ever to have attained the prestigious S-Rank. He had been approached with this mission by Kisaragi, a now powerful and prominent corporation who had promised a lavish reward upon completion. He had signed the deal, despite the warnings of unknown and definitely powerful opposition. But, now faced with this final briefing, he contacted his liaison officer briefly as the Cranwell Transport Helicopter's powerful twin-rotors drew him relentlessly to the target area. "Miss Miozuki, could I have a word?" Miozuki Iruka was at her desk when the call came in. She patched his cockpit feed through to her desk camera and asked, "What's the problem, Junkyard?"
Junkyard wasn't overtly frazzled to her, but he seemed keen to know why any assignment had a '0%' Success Estimate. Miozuki called up the profile and was a little shocked herself. "I'm going to patch into your optics feed. Give me a good look Junkyard. You said it was Kisaragi who sold you the contract?" Junkyard nodded as he flipped a few switches on his optics board, saying, "Affirmative, ma'am. Is there anyone else on call I could get to… in case things get, you know, ugly?" Miozuki shook her head as she saw all her other clients were currently on assignment. She replied, "You're flying solo, Raven. We'll send anyone over as soon as we get a squawk though."
Junkyard's grip on his analogs grew tighter and his knuckles turned white as he said, "Right. I'm over the target area. Stand by for AC Drop." The Cranwell locked its altitude and released the magnetic locks on the large, nearly 3-ton walking tank with rocket boosters that was the Armored Core fighting unit. His system sprang to life and began to chirrup and report, "FCS Online, Main System Online, Ambient Temperature 12 degrees Celsius, Combat Mode Engaged." And with a glow of rust colored optics, the cameras in the robot's head focused on the hilly expanse of the green Versurs Highland. He engaged the boost system and began rabbit-hopping the sixty foot machine at 300+ kmp/h. The sun shone dimly through the fog, casting odd shadows and eerie silhouettes on the sparse trees and mired hillocks.
"Scope is clean, anything on your end, ma'am?" Miozuki switched to a satellite feed and initiated a thermal scan of Junkyard's general position. It came back clean for a few sweeps, so she transmitted, "Thermal is good, Junkyard. Is there anything on your radar?" Junkyard checked his heads up display, bringing the high-end Head part's radar into a bigger focus to examine better. Junkyard had invested in a good Head; one of the four Armoring components of the Armored Core unit. He also put much stock in good Core type parts; these parts being the housing for the pilot, and the Fire-Control System (FCS for short) that allowed weapon functions. Junkyard favored EO type Cores, a type of core with built in weapons that followed the AC around whilst hovering mid-air.
Junkyard saw nothing on his radar either and flicked it back into the corner of his display with a push of the button. For a moment, nothing really happened. Junkyard's AC, "Scrapheap" stood alone in the highlands as a cloud broke and the sun shone down cleanly on the face of his unit. Miozuki squinted at the thermal scan a bit more before slightly relaxing and turning around to sever the feed. As she did so, a small thermal convection formed in the troposphere over the Versurs Highland. She turned and looked back at the screen remarking, "That's odd. Junkyard, what's going on over there? Report." Junkyard looked around at the fields, and finally up at the storm clouds coming fast over the horizon. He smiled, and replied, "Just a little rain ma'am. I think I'll be okay." But Miozuki wasn't so sure… because in the time he took to transmit that the radio noise in the area had rose high enough to cut his communications off from her and the temperature in the troposphere was spiking to an abnormal height for such a localized event.
Junkyard saw the clouds blackening, but that wasn't what scared him. What scared him was his ambient thermometer was spiking at the same time as the fire that was forming in the clouds… at the same time that Miss Miozuki went silent and the radio whiteout took her place. Junkyard raised his Right Arm Weapon and scanned for targets, he had come too far in life to be scared of fireworks. Right and Left Arm Weapons had many varieties for AC units; from laser swords to bazookas, and everything you could think of. Scrapheap was armed today with an energy blade and a double shot laser rifle. Pilots could change their weapon load-outs to suit different missions, but Junkyard had a rather limited supply of funds; and therefore options.
The grass began to scorch a little before the ECM level knocked out his radar. Even his FCS was beginning to fade in and out as the magnetic storm peaked. He turned all around, and swore he saw something off to the right, to which he immediately armed his Back Unit Missile Launcher and took aim. The unit locked onto something and he pulled the trigger. A compact warhead fired from his Back Unit and smacked unceremoniously into the dirt. He followed this weird target which never seemed to present itself well; and unloaded two more missiles before he gave up and resumed scanning. Back Units like the kind on "Scrapheap" are usually missile launchers, rocket launchers, or powerful radars… typically. But, there were also powerful cannons that ACs would utilize to great effect. Junkyard did not have any of these.
Miozuki watched as the temperature spike and magnetic storm passed. Junkyard was already breathing his relief at her… but, she was holding her breath in fear. The satellite scan had just registered an unidentified AC approaching Junkyard at 600+ kmp/h; an unheard of rate. She ran to her desk and ran an identification algorithm to find the AC. She never heard what happened next as the camera in Scrapheap witnessed the horror that was to unfold. AC Scrapheap fired up her thrusters as the unidentified AC approached, her pilot determined to defeat this enigmatic foe. Finally Miozuki sent him a name, "AC Rukara detected. Pilot status unknown, please standby for more intel."
Junkyard's eyes widened as the AC stopped at a dime to face him. It was simply impossible that anything like that could walk, never mind move so fast. He attempted to hail the AC, but he could only hear strange ghostly noises in return. He was suddenly transfixed by the sounds, like mournful birds and weeping women and whispering children and giggling lunatics all at once. Suddenly a premonition of great danger eclipsed him… and he raised his gun and fired. However, the enemy AC walked through the dual laser burst with equanimity. He jumped into the air and boosted back, wild eyed and shrieking in complete terror. Miozuki stood frozen as the live communication feed filled her office with Junkyard's final hours. He begged, pleaded, shrieked, sobbed, and jeered. One moment he would be gallantly resisting only to be blubbering for his life the next. He unleashed a salvo of four missiles, and continued to empty his laser rifle as he landed a distance away. The resulting fireball burned and smoked for a minute, a ray of hope dashed in seconds as the thrusters of Rukara burned to life and cleared the dust away into a fiery charge.
Junkyard went berserk and began back boosting as fast as he could. He engaged his energy blade again and again, helplessly and in a panic. The Generator and Radiator parts of his AC… its very heart, beat energy and fluids into his overheating and dying mech. It was as if man and machine were locked in their mortal fear of perishing together. The Generator gave up second as the Radiator overheated and began sucking the life out of its counterpart. Suddenly the boosters, the wings of all Ravens went dim and the Generator, Scrapheap's very heart; as if to save her doomed pilot went into emergency charge, but to no avail. Rukara closed the gap and Miozuki's eyes widened and her throat caught in a muffled scream as a gaping black maw projected from the "AC" and… ate Junkyard?
At the point of connection all that was left was Junkyard's piercing, pitiful cry of death and fear burned into Miozuki's mind forever and the contradicting silence of the sterile green words on her desk monitor, "Signal Lost" on an anti-climactic black standard. She stood there for hours and stared at it, too nauseous to move, and too scared to vomit. Night fell with her standing there… the phone rang, cars passed. Everything seemed surreal until the phone rang at 23:08pm and a man from Kisaragi left a message saying they wanted info regarding the mission that had just occurred in the Versurs Highland. At this she regained enough of her nerve to sit, and yelled in pain from her stiff muscles. She stretched, and as she felt the waves of relaxation go over her, she looked around at her dark office and felt an ominous presence… like eyes watching her.
She began to grip the chair harder, and eventually ran blindly to the light switch. She was crying as the light came on, she fell to her knees and sobbed. She had watched Ravens die before… but, never, never like that. It wasn't that he died; it was that he suffered. And for the life of her she wondered what had killed him. What was that ominous black maw that had snuffed him out, and caused a hardened soldier to weep like a little toddler? It had rattled her, moved her, and now she was crying hysterical for the horror of the reality that such things could exist. Kisaragi's call had made the mind numbing experience all too real. She needed answers, and she knew a man who might just have them. He was an enigmatic man, a specter from days gone by… a hero of the ages; Element Neo.