And so it begins. This is my first fanfic, so any advice or comments are welcome. I will try to update this weekly.

I hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: All characters, concepts, etc. are owned by their respective creators, From Software and Roosterteeth. I only claim ownership of the crossover storyline.

In the aftermath of the National Dismantlement War, Corporations seized control of the planet and its resources, becoming the new world leaders and forcing civilians into corporate-run colonies.

For a time, there was peace between the companies, until they began to compete for resources, utilizing advanced humanoid machines called Armored Cores.

Of special interest were each company's limited number of hyper-advanced Armored Core NEXTs, easily capable of defeating entire armies alone.

These NEXTs, and the pilots, called LYNX, would eventually become the dominant forms of warfare on the planet, and battles between them were both awe-inspiring and catastrophic. Some LYNX, however, were not under the control of the major companies, and worked independently as mercenaries, adding another element of danger to the ongoing LYNX War.

One such LYNX was the mysterious figure known as Anatolia's Mercenary. His incredible combat skills drew the attention of many major players in the war, with some companies openly engaging in hostilities against his home colony of Anatolia, and others aligning with him in hopes of using his abilities.

LYNX mercenaries often came into conflict with each other, forced to kill former allies and betray previous employers. However, in the case of Joshua O'Brien, a lasting friendship was made. The pilot of White Glint from my home colony of Aspina, Joshua was an excellent pilot and a genuinely good person. He fought hard to support our home, and when he was sent to defeat The Mercenary, they realized how similar they were in their goals, and made an agreement together, a truce. In all their missions, even when pitted against each other, they refused to use lethal force against their counterpart, leaving them disabled to be saved later. Of all the LYNXs fighting in the war, these two mercenaries were the only ones to recognize their own humanity.

But the scheming corporations had other plans, and as the LYNX War drew to a close, their friendship could not last…

ACT I

Chapter 1: Fall

I sat on the cold workbench in the garage, absent-mindedly swinging my feet as I watched Joshua tuning up White Glint from a steel walkway high above me. The NEXT towered over us, standing almost ten meters in height. Even in the dim light coming through the windows the machine was a brilliant, almost blinding pure white color. I would have said it looked like fresh snow on a mountain, but I hadn't seen snow yet. Aspina was in a rather arid region, and I was only fifteen at the time. I always wanted to travel, and Joshua would tell me stories of all the places he had been. It fascinated me how large the world seemed from down here, looking up at the majestic head of White Glint, proud and sleek.

Early on I had developed a love for tinkering with anything I could get my hands on, which is how I met Joshua. To get to the garage from the helipad where spare pieces were dropped off for repairs, you have to go by my house. As the wind picked up, dust flew into the air and obscured the ground, so Joshua didn't see that one of the multiple lens pieces that comprised the camera of White Glint had rolled out from his truck as he drove past. I saw this happen from inside my house, and my curiosity got the better of me. I ran outside and quickly found it: a large, three foot long strip of Aegisterean plastic lined with a complex lens system. Inspecting it, I quickly found a rip in the metal of the camera system on the backside where it had landed heavily after falling from the truck. Rather impulsively I reached inside it and tried to feel for any damage.

As I brushed my hand against a thin cable, I felt a shock and yelped in fright, pulling my hand back as the lenses began to glow. I was baffled by what was going on, until I realized it must have a backup power source for emergencies. This is NEXT tech after all. I spent the next hour carefully moving things around inside the hole, getting the lenses to open and close, refocusing them into different patterns. And that was how Joshua found me. I was so focused on my work that I didn't hear the truck pull up a few feet behind me, or the footsteps as the young man walked towards the nerdy little girl messing around with a piece of his NEXT in the dirt. When he tapped me on the shoulder I nearly jumped out of my skin. I quickly turned and crawled backwards, frightened I had been caught with this expensive piece of tech. Everyone knew of Joshua, but not too many people talked with him. His green eyes seemed kind enough, and his hair matched the brown of the dust swirling around my arms and legs on the ground. He asked me what I was doing in a fairly casual tone, and I'm pretty sure my response was just a bunch of nervous stammering. He smiled and asked if I liked NEXTs, and at that point the biggest grin I ever had stretched across my face. From there he loaded up the camera on his truck, and after quickly running inside my house and yelling to my parents where I was going (to which I got a rather muffled "okay" from upstairs as they tried to wake up my older sister) Joshua drove us over to the garage, which wasn't far anyway.

After that day, the garage became my second home. I was inside nearly all of my free time, talking with Joshua, reading up on all the companies, and LYNXs, and NEXT parts. It was like spending time with the older brother I never had. I suppose for Joshua it must have been a similar feeling, as I came to learn he was an only child, and his parents had passed away a few years ago, just before the National Dismantlement War. I dreamed of flying my own NEXT one day, of seeing all these places Joshua told me about with my own eyes, without the gunfire and explosions destroying it around me.

As the LYNX War came to a close, Joshua grew increasingly anxious, and I knew he was worried about what would happen if we lost. One day, though, he returned with a beaming smile on his face and I knew what had happened. He told me he had destroyed the headquarters of Akvavit, our main rivals, and that Anatolia's Mercenary had taken down Rayleonard, their partner company. The war was effectively over, and for a few days, we enjoyed some peace and celebration, free of endless worry. But on the fourth day, that peace would be broken, very violently.

Stomping feet and screams trickled through the windows and doors into the garage, where I was stooping over to pick out a welding tool for Joshua. Normally he had a team of engineers crawling all over the NEXT, making repairs to get it ready for combat. But since the war ended, we had been alone in making a few minor adjustments and tune ups, and it gave us a lot of time to talk. The running and yelling grew louder, and I looked up at the windowed double doors and onto the dusty street. People ran past in a panic, talking incoherently and nearly knocking each other over in a mad dash away from the direction of the helipad. A clear, gruff voice called out above the noise of the crowd.

"Everyone get down!"

I tried to look for the source from inside the windows, but I didn't dare try to step outside into the the stampede. Behind me, I could hear a lift groaning as Joshua slowly descended from White Glint's shoulder. The voice called out again, a little closer this time.

"Nobody move or we will fire!"

Without warning, a sharp noise erupted from outside, and the screaming intensified. I flinched in surprise, and it took me a few seconds to realize it was a gunshot.

"I SAID NOBODY MOVE A DAMN MUSCLE!"

An eerie quiet descended upon the crowd as everyone froze and dropped out of sight below the windows, probably hitting the dirt as quickly as possible. Joshua stepped up beside me. I edged closer to him as I whispered.

"Joshua, what's going on out there?"

When he turned to me, his normally smiling mouth was turned down in a grim line, and his eyes were narrowed and focused. For a moment I was taken aback by his dark expression, and I thought this is what he must be like when he's fighting. I began to grasp the severity of the situation.

"I don't know Ruby, but it sounds bad. I'll go have a look. Stay away from the windows, and if anything happens hide, do you understand?"

The voice from outside cut me off.

"Joshua O'Brien, come out with your hands up!"

I looked at my friend with a new fear in my eyes.

"Joshua don't g-"

"Do you understand!"

It was not a question this time. Solemnly, I nodded and began to back away towards White Glint, ending up behind the left leg, where I could lean out barely see the windows. Joshua watched me retreat into my hiding place before he turned and slowly opened the doors leading outside. I could see that all the people had indeed dropped to the ground, and were now covering their heads with their hands in a desperate attempt to feel safe. My stomach began to tighten as I tried to make sense of what was going on. Joshua stepped forward, hands raised, and addressed the man closest to him, standing with a large gun in what seemed to be a black military uniform.

"What's happening here? What are you doing! I thought you were on our side-"

The soldier slammed the butt of his rifle into Joshua's stomach, forcing him to double over as he groaned in pain. A second strike to his back forced Joshua onto his knees. The soldier who hit him spoke, and I could hear he was the one who had yelled out orders before.

"You listen to me, O'Brien. We asked very politely for your assistance on this one last job. It's vital for our survival that you accept it."

Joshua glared up in anger.

"You want me to kill him."

"He's too powerful to be left alive and turned against us. Before, we were asking. Now, it's an order. Kill Anatolia's Mercenary and destroy the colony."

Joshua groaned from his injury as he straightened up in defiance.

"I'm the only one with a chance of beating him, and you know it. What happens if I say no? You'll kill me?"

I try to forget this part, but I can't. The unchanging, unfeeling face of the monster as he nonchalantly raised the gun. Another gunshot. Joshua screaming in rage. A mother slumping to the ground as the crowd screamed in terror. The red trickle mixing with the brown dust into a terrible sludge as it flowed towards Joshua, staining his leg as he looked on, frozen. I burned the face of the soldier into my mind, so that I would never forget his face when I hunt him down and kill him. At the time though, I just retreated further back behind White Glint's leg, my face pale, stomach churning. I realized I was shaking, but could do nothing to stop it. The beast spoke, his voice no longer human, replaced with the guttural growl of some primal evil.

"We're ready to destroy everything you hold dear, Joshua. This colony will be erased from history as though it never existed," he spat, "unless you come with us."

A broken voice responded wearily from the ground.

"I will, just please don't hurt anyone else, please. Let me get White Glint and-"

The soldier cut him off roughly, pulling him to his feet with a brutish tug under Joshua's arm.

"You won't be needing White Glint now. We've got something special for you."

As the soldier turned and motioned to three other similarly dressed men, Joshua cast a short glance back over his shoulder. He met my tearful stare with a final, sorry smile. His lips moved as though he was trying to mouth something, but I was too far away to see if he was. With that, he was dragged off towards the helipad, and quickly passed from my view. That was the last time I saw my best friend.

I emerged from my hiding place as people began to stand up. Some of them ran off, while a few stayed behind to help with the woman who had been shot. Lightheaded from everything that had just happened, I stumbled over to the door frame, and my gaze fell upon the body that still lay in the dirt, unmoving. An older, bearded man who I vaguely recognized pressed his hand to her neck, but quickly pulled away and shook his head. He said something to the other adults here, and they ran off towards somewhere. I didn't really know and didn't really care. I couldn't take my eyes off the the woman. A dark haired girl, probably a little older than me, came crying over to the lifeless form in front of the garage. She fell across the woman and wept heavily. I started to tilt over and quickly sat down against the wall, more collapsing than sitting. I felt like I should be crying, but all of the water in me was already rolling down in a cold sweat as I shook uncontrollably. I somehow moved my leaden arms up to cradle my face, and finally wept dry tears.

I didn't find out until later that the old man, Abe Marsh, designer of White Glint, had asked one of his assistants to carry me home. I was told to rest, but that was hardly possible for the next three days, until another unexpected visit changed our lives forever.