The Disclaimer / Warning:
I would like you to know that I don't own anything that I don't explicitly state is mine; they belong to whomever they belong to. Any names, idea's, and other stuff that is similar to other works is not an attempt at plagiarism, but a way for me to get around a lack of original creativity and possibly pay a small homage to those works and their content. The respective maker(s) work is theirs and NOT mine.
Anything that is original in this work; specifically but not limited to, things like the story, explanations on things, original character and mecha designs, are mine to a degree, and not part of this Fan Fiction's source material(s).
Because I want the Armored Core and Muv-Luv stuff to be as awesome as possible and because I've never actually played any of the Muv-Luv games, both universes will not match up completely to their canon sources; but they will stay true as much as the story allows. Also as a side note the character designs are anime-based, so when I say red hair I mean RED, and there are characters with naturally blue hair.
Also Course Language, suggestive themes, lead-up or references to Lemon/Lime Action, High-Octane Action and Hints to Gore i.e. Large blood volumes, are very possible. You have now been warned. :]
Stabber OpSig:
Anyway…
BEGIN THE STORY!
ENTER PASSWORD
WAITING…
A shadowed figured then rapidly typed on the connecting control pad with a noisy and fast staccato of simulated clicks. He pressed the last key of the password with an even louder click.
PASSWORD ACCEPTED
The computer started making a rapid beeping noise while it was thinking.
Then a harsh electronic "brrrm" sounded from the computer.
Everything on the screen became a dull orange color
MAIN SYSTEM START-UP
A calm, stately male computer voice came online, "Good Morning. Main System, Checking Pilot Data."
PILOT DATA
HANDLE: Hydra
SERIAL NUMBER: QB-27396
ARENA RANK: B-1
Harsh electronic "brrrm" sounded again, and WELCOME BACK dominated the now harsh pink screen.
"Main system, Normal mode activated, now resuming mission. Welcome back."
In the center of the screen, an image of a blood red orb appeared in the center. A black hexagon then expanded from behind the orb. Then the orb shifted downwards while a blue orb expanded above it. The blue orb suddenly stopped expanding and instead grew out pointed, cartoon looking snakeheads that started to slither to each of the hexagons corners. While the other snakes stopped at the corners, the top corner snake instead made a U-turn towards the red orb while 2 clawed arms grew from the main blue body to grasp the red orb. When the top head and claws nearly touched the red orb; they stopped and the image flashed and revealed that each of the snakeheads now have a harsh pink dot for an eye and a gagged insane grin.
The Image was now complete; showing a sharp, insane-looking 6-headed blue hydra grasping a Blood red orb underneath its body with stubby clawed limbs.
The harsh pink screen then turned to static, and then turned into a multi-colored map in the center with menu lists on both sides. The mapped showed a mountain range in the lower left quarter of the map, a desert in the upper left, a hilly grassland with a center lake in the upper right, and in the lower right an urban area near a ocean coast.
Sitting in my comfy, stuffed, office chair, I looked at the computer display of my Armored Core's operating system. It showed the map for this side of the known world.
I say known, because most of it, or what little is known, is made up of Contaminated Areas that are irradiated and broken. The habitable areas are mostly composed of large topside city-states and Layered, vast underground complexes with everything needed for a subterranean civilization. There are still some greenery and wildlife, but those are somewhat scarce on the surface and are mostly found in or around the Cities and Layered complexes.
How I fit into all of this is that most conflicts; from the days before the National Dismantlement war, the Great Destruction, to today; there have always been advanced modular robotic vehicles called Armored Core's (AC) that have been the prominent weapon on the battlefield. From the beginning, elite mercenaries called Ravens are famous for piloting these ACs with awe-inspiring skill and power.
I'm one of those elite mercenaries; and so far, life is good.
I moved the computers cursor over to the menu on the right side, and selected the top button ARENA. The map and side menu's disappeared in a harsh pink static, and was replaced by a list of letters going from A to E, with long numbered sub-lists under each of those with. Each of the bullets in the sub-lists starts with alphanumerical designation, like E-3, and has a Raven's handle and Armored Core name beside it.
The Arena is the Raven ranking system and competitive sport system. Ravens are ranked based factors such as Pilot and AC design performance, and how they do in matches against each other. The matches are watched as a spectator sport where the admission and betting provide a handsome profit for the Raven management organizations and the Raven participants themselves. To be high in the rankings brings fame and fortune, and I'm quit high in the ranks.
I selected B-Rank, the second highest, then the top spot, B-1, and examined the data. The screen now showed an AC in a pose on the left half of the screen while various data was on the opposite side.
All of the data on the right was for my stats that arena gave to the public, which is looked at by other Ravens, Arena fans, and potential clients looking to hire a Raven.
AC SPECS
Mobility Spec Medium Bipedal
=PARTS=
HEAD: H10-CICADA2 [Multi Spec]
CORE: CR-C98E2 [Light Weight] [Exceed Orbit KE-Type]
ARMS: YA10-LORIS [Heavy Weight]
LEGS: CR-LH89F [Medium Weight]
The AC is silver and dark purple in color with black highlights; it has an overall angular, somewhat blocky design to a majority of its parts. The shoulders are square and thick with spindly skeletal arms. The legs had an angular, pointy and blocky, knight's armor design; with pointed knee armor and blocky spike extending from the 'toe' on each foot. The Core, or chest, extended longer than a human torso and ended in a point in the front, has 2 silver cylinders jutting out and away from its back. The Head was a roughly disk shape with a large round sensor on the top and 2 small vertical eyes at the front, both of which have a harsh pink color that glowed in frightening manner. Above the head, a small winged craft, the Exceed Orbit pod, hovered over the AC with a sickly yellowish-green flame.
=WEAPONS=
L ARM UNIT: UBR-25/H [Battle Rifle CE-Type]
R ARM UNIT: 02-DRAGONSLAYER ver.2 [Laser Blade EN-Type]
L EXTENSION: CR-E73RM [Relation Missile CE-Type]
R EXTENSION: CR-E73RM [Relation Missile CE-Type]
L BACK UNIT: WB27O-HARPY2 [Orbit Cannon EN-Type]
R BACK UNIT: WB01M-NYMPHE [Small Missile CE-Type]
Its pose had it left arm and knee bent and raised to the air, and the Left arm has a large blocky rifle, which is almost as big as the arm itself, equipped and pointed into the air. The right, with the blade like laser blade emitter attached to the wrist and extending past the hand, was underneath the core in a guard position ready to slash.
Combined with the picture's angle, and the fierce pink glow from the head sensors; it looks poised to kill anything that got near it.
No that is what I call a work of art.
The last bit of Data was for myself as pilot.
PILOT NAME
RANK B-1 Hydra
=PROFILE=
A former LINX, this Raven lives up to that status by bringing that legendary, NEXT-like power to the fight right from the get go with fast, accurate and brutal attacks. Those that wish to compete in the A-rank have to get past him, few ever do.
Hehe… former LINX… Now that brings back memories. Oddly enough I started my career as a LINX that was recruited by Rayleonard, a corporation that fought in the National Dismantlement War and the LINX war. Common sense says that I'm lying and someone would call bullshit on that little piece of trivia, my response to that would be "Cryogenically Frozen". At the end of the LINX war, under circumstance that for the grace of me I cant remember if my life depended on it, I was frozen not to be found and waken until well after the Great Destruction.
Before that, my career started when Rayleonard scouted me to be a LINX, an AC pilot with a certain psychic trait needed to run the special control system, the Allegorical Manipulation System (AMS), of a super-advanced Armored Core, called an Armored Core NEXT.
NEXT's make use of a soft neural link control system, and is reinforced by Kojima Particle's, reactive and corrosive particles that enhanced and expanded the capabilities of an Armored Core to the extreme. Combine that with someone controlling the thing with their mind, and you've got a weapon that is faster and more powerful than nearly anything that can be fielded conventionally.
Rayleonard gave me their flagship model the 03-AALIYAH, a NEXT of legendary status today, and I showed an unusually high compatibility with it, despite my AMS compatibility being considered lower than the other LINX. From there, my combat ability evolved to bring out the most in the 03-AALIYAH and my combat style, even today, still reflects its characteristics: Fast and a tendency for close-combat.
But for all of their great quality parts, personnel, and drive, they still fell in the LINX war. It's headquarters Exavil fell, hehe… literally, and the corporation died. Not only that but Anatolia, my home colony, was destroyed by the very Raven hired to sustain it. The only other survivor in all that mess was my friend Thermidor, another LINX from Rayleonard. Both of us had many things in common, such as being under the tutelage of one of Rayleonard's top LINX, Zanni, before all we knew was destroyed.
From what little I got from the history books, Thermidor succeeded in the Closed Plan, Rayleonard's ultimate ambition, during the chaos of the Great Destruction. I just wish I could have fought with him to complete it as well…
…
Rayleonard's gone… The Closed Plan was completed without me… And Thermidor's no longer around….
What's the point?
I put my foot on the computer console, and gave a push to give my comfy office chair a spin. I let myself feel the dizzying effects of the spin.
When the spin started to loose speed, I quickly put foot my back on the edge of the console, bringing me to a sudden and exhilarating stop.
I cannot wallow in those kinds of thoughts, I WON'T…
Now feeling really irritated and a bit dizzy, I went back to the computer and backed out of the ARENA menu. The map screen was no up, and I moved the cursor over to the MISSION REQUESTS button in the left menu.
Doing a mission should get my mind in order and remind myself why I live: For the consecutive adrenaline rushes and other thrills of that come from dominating a hectic battlefield both physically and mentally. Hehehaha… just thinking about that makes me feel much better than before…
I looked over the filter function, usually don't use it but I feel particularly impatient right.
Lets see… Deselect all corporations, Murakumo, Mirage, Emeraude, all of them; I want something that will be a challenge, terrorists, warlords, and those other morons give asinine missions that are challenging yet are no brainers to do.
I looked down the current Mission list, its menu being on the top and bottom of the list this time. Still nothing but Territory factions, and those missions never feel like I've made a lasting impact afterwards with how those wars go.
I stopped at moving down the list when a mission with a [REDACTED] sender came by. There are only 2 groups I know, that would send me a mission request like this, and I'm hoping it's the one that means the most to me.
The title says Attack Excavation in the Contaminated Area. Missions to the Contaminated Areas have always been and interesting. Heha.
I selected the mission request. The screen turned to static, and then went black.
A proud, somewhat arrogant sounding man started announcing the mission and the transcript was being made while he was talking.
"Hydra, we would like you to assault an Exusia Corporation Excavation in the Contaminated Nucleo Area."
Oh. Hehe. Usually the mission requester just says 'Raven' when referring to the receiving Raven. It must be them. HoHo! This must be a good day for me for them to be giving a mission, in the Contaminated Area no less. I always like doing missions for them. A wide grin started to form on my face.
The recording of the man continued with the briefing "We have recently learned that they have seized an excavation from Kisaragi and are setting up long-term installations"
The screen now showed a small picture in the corner of smaller image of the imposingly jagged and angular, reddish-orange glow lined buildings that this unusual Corporation uses. I find them nice to look at, and at the same time they definitely give off that 'come near and something will kill you' feeling.
"We believe that the excavation is meant to recover lost technology, possibly the remains of ruined Layered. Even without the excavation it gives us a unique opportunity to raid this facility for Corporation Technology"
That would be a promising find for the organization, and will definitely advance our goals significantly.
"The defenses there should incomplete, but still expect heavy resistance"
Another set of pictures came up of an unusual machine with a sphere core with 4 thick 2-segment pointed limbs at equidistant points around the core; and of a Large bulky missile with a slanted grid pattern of holes in the center. Both of these are weapons are stables of the Exusia Corporation.
"Your mission is to clear out the base so that our teams can recover any recoverable technology, we are prepared to give you a bonus for any pieces of technology that you scout out ahead for us."
"Briefing over. Anyway Hydra we have sent you the Emergency Spatial Shift device and installed it to your Transport."
The Screen now had a picture of my transport, a heavy blocky helicopter with 2 large integrated cargo containers for the sides of the aircraft and a helicopter blade on top of each container. On the helicopter's left side, my hydra emblem adorned the entirety of the flat front of the container.
"Its test usage is not a necessary part of the mission, and is only meant to be used as an escape measure. We theorize that even if it does malfunction, it will only send you to the upper atmosphere. Consider it a gift and insurance policy from us, as gratitude for your patronage and loyalty to our cause. Best of luck friend"
=BRIEFING OVER=
ACCEPT MISSION
YES
NO
So they got that thing to work… Hopefully nothing weird will happen when I use it. Like that incident with that cat, and that girl…
That was weird….
Wait a minute, what am I thinking… this sounds like the mission I was looking for; Like all the missions I've done in the contaminated area, they've always been challenging and interesting; and when this mission is complete, the organization and the Corporation wont soon forget the effects. HehahahaHA!
My grin got wider and turned into a manic smile. I placed my foot on the console, and lightly pushed myself away towards the large observation window to the side of me.
I shift my chair to spin to face the window, and right when my chair was about to hit the wall with the window, I stopped the chair by placing my other foot on wall beside the window. With my foot on the wall I leaned back in the oh so comfy chair.
In the window, it showed my hanger, essentially a hole in the ground, with a circular floor structure. The hanger had various crates and cargo containers strewn about and even a large flatbed truck big enough to carry an AC.
In the center of the room in all its glory, my Armored Core, My Needler, stood in the center of the large room at 10 meters tall. Its beautifully harsh pink sensors were off and near black, but right now that didn't diminish how sublime it was.
My smile renewed, a wide toothy, insane smile plastered my face.
Yes… this mission…
With a dark murderous glee, this mission should be fun.
I lost a bit of feeling in my head and it felt like everything was slowly spinning.
"…wuuuoaaaaerrr…"
My leg fell to the floor, my chair straightened out, and I grasped my forehead with my hand, trying to get myself to focus.
"…oooooooahuuuh…."
My Sense of my surroundings got a bit sharper, but only a little. That's a good sign at least that the weird event has passed.
What the fricken hell was that? Now I feel tipsy and not the good kind of tipsy… I have a mild headache and it's starting to go into my eyeballs and subsiding quickly.
If I wasn't siting in this chair, I might have lost my balance and damaged my precious brain. That would not have been good…
Whatever it was, it was without a doubt a psychic event. It felt like I was either hearing or thinking someone else's thought, but I know I was thinking that thought myself without anyone else's influence. Even with my, somewhat limited experience in psychic phenomenon as a LINX, that was very unusual, and out of nowhere.
And I didn't fear it like usual…
Geez I thought I wouldn't need to deal with that psychic nonsense ever again. With quality LINX, if you have one Psychic trait you're bound to have others as well. It's one of my least favorite things about being a LINX.
But… I will admit that those annoying quirks have saved my life on more than one occasion.
Anyway, if that event was meant to cause me harm, it was a failure and if it happens again it seems that the event only makes me disoriented, possibly annoyed and paranoid but those are from knowing I'm under attack. Therefore it's a not a problem without an immediate workable solution.
Now back to the mission, a general "clear the area" assault followed by a possible search and destroy facility Investigation; the fist part is my favorite type of Mission. The difficult part will be the defenses, in the Contaminated Areas, when the Exusia Corporation is involved, there are always overwhelming weapons and they never seem undermanned in a fight.
I leaned back in the chair, put my foot on the wall, and lightly pushed off. With the movement of the chair straightening, I jumped out the chair and landed a few feet away from the observation window.
With that bit of exercise finally clearing my head, I resumed admiring my Needler in the Hanger below. It stood in its standby position with my hydra emblem on the left shoulder. It reminded me of a sleeping monster one doesn't wake.
It almost looks like a sort of white knight armor, and the odd thing is that I'm more of a Black Knight, A free lance one at that.
I don't think I'll be…
…a white knight coming to the rescue…
...any time… ever…
"waoh'oooooo…"
That woozy inducing Psychic event made me feel wobbly, and a swayed a bit in every direction.
Oh not AGAIN!
I finally lost my balance and my face went right into window. My face made a continuous squeaking noise as it slid down the window. Near the bottom of the window I completely fell to the ground and laid there flat on my entire front.
With two of those strange psychic events back-to-back and how I fell, I felt really drunk, with everything happily spinning and my eyes feeling crossed. It felt like I found an insanely fun… something, maybe Hentai… and my brain's going into a high-speed haywire with fantasizing back and forth about something I can't comprehend.
"Heh… Heh… Heh…"
My brain going in nonsensical circles and probably other shapes, maybe a flower, and making no sense is starting to make me feel very, very sleepy.
You know what… I think I'm going to take a nap for a bit…
"Aaaaaaaahh~…"
Heh heh… This floor feels nice~…
DONE!
Stabber OpSig:
The Protagonist has been introduced, and I finally got this Chapter done. Thank [REDACTED] for the Snowflake Method! I don't think I would have gotten going without it. I think what also helped is that I'm a bit of a Perfectionist and a Night Owl.
The next chapter will introduce another very important character from my version of the Muv-Luv universe to this story; and NO it isn't Takeru [REDACTED SPOILER], but it is a character from the canon, it's just my portrayal of [REDACTED SPOILER] may as well make [REDACTED SPOILER] an original character, the wiki has very little info on [REDACTED SPOILER], at least for now.
Also, if you have a problem with me not describing Hydra physically, that's based on trying to give the feeling of the Armored Core games. As AC fans know, you only see a character's vehicle and hear their voice. I was trying to stay true to that; this will change when Hydra [REDACTED SPOILER].
What inspired me to do this was how empty both the Muv-Luv and Armored Core sections are, at least when I started thinking about this; and also MuvLuv: Comet by Alastor Mobius Toth here on . It's a really interesting read and you should check it out, along with Muv Luv Extreme by Impulse Zero. Last Time into the Loop by PaulXion is great too, but its ridiculously long, hope I can match it someday.
In College to be a writer and this is my first work, ever, so please review accordingly when or if you do.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and are hungry for more, because more is coming, hopefully like a Ruitare / Destroyer-Class (Muv-Luv fans know what that is). :]