Armored Core: Salva Nos
By: T.R. Fanatic ("Everyday, I face the fact that I don't own Armored Core...")
Prologue
"You ready?" a voice from the radio asked.
"Ready whenever you are..." replied the AC pilot, though, in truth, he wasn't really ready. It was his first time out in space, first time being inside a space cruiser and his first time going to Mars. At least now, I'll be free... he thought. That's what matters...
"Escape pod release in five seconds." the voice informed. "Good luck out there."
"Thanks..." the pilot replied in a nervous tone as the escape pod that carried him and his AC began its decent towards the planet's surface.
The interior of the pod was dark. Luckily for the pilot, the green glow of the AC's system calmed him like a night light would to a child.
I'm finally away from hell! he thought. No one in their right minds would chase after me now!
He was a Raven on the run. Back on Earth, he was forced (because the other choice was death) by a nameless client to take up a series of missions that required him to assassinate many top officials among the Earth Government's cabinet.
Infuriated by these senseless murders, the Earth Government, along with Nerves Concord of Earth, issued a high-priced bounty on the AC pilot -- dead or alive.
Many Ravens agreed to the mission, but failed when doing so. After all, they were facing against Meteor 1, a name that fit perfectly with the AC. Despite its heavyset frame, the burgundy and charcoal colored AC could outrun any AC or MT in hot pursuit. It was how half of the Ravens failed in capturing it.
The other half? They witnessed a deadly performance from Meteor's well-balanced arsenal: a bazooka, an effective laser blade, a heavy laser cannon and an armor-piercing missile launcher. All of that from a pilot that once worked in a cubicle! 2
The manhunt put some heavy stress on the pilot, to the point where he couldn't sleep at night. Desperate to find a way to escape from this situation, without going to the "other side," he rounded up every last Credit he had for a one-way trip to the red planet...
Just as the pilot started to calm down from his mind's rantings and a string of "what if's," the pod, along with the AC, began to shake violently and burn up as it entered the atmosphere.
Think of the mission at the heating vent... the pilot thought, bearing the hellish warmth, while holding tightly to his good luck charm. It was a raven's black feather that fell on Meteor's head before it set out on its first mission.
Most Ravens find it to be a superstitious ordeal that when a wandering raven or a raven's feather lands on an AC, the pilot will have good luck for the rest of their lives. Some Ravens go to the extremes and consider the raven or its feathers landing on an AC a blessing or a sign that the pilot's dreams, good, evil, whatever it may be, will come true very soon.
The two halves of the escape pod broke free and sent Meteor off for the rest of the thin-air free fall.
The pilot, with eyes still adjusting to the sunlight, squinted at the scenery below him. Blue sky and red sand. he thought. At least my AC will blend in...
Staring at the red desert below, he noticed beams of light darting through a long patch of land, the same area he was falling towards.
Great! Just my lucky day! I'm falling right into a battlefield!
A minute passed... He rubbed the spine of the feather for luck before activating his boosters, making a soft landing on the hard ground.
...The battle had just ended. Meteor was surrounded by an army of brown humanoid-like MT's in many different forms, split in two, ripped limb from limb, gaping holes where a cockpit used to be or the most popular: piles of shrapnel.
The pilot fell speechless. He wondered what man, machine or monster could do such a thing...
No sooner was his question answered when a voice came over his radio. The person on the other end spoke in a unrecognizable accent. What's worse was that the person also spoke in a language that didn't even sound human. The only word that the pilot could truly understand was "Raven," but the person said it in such a deep accent that the pilot almost missed it.
The pilot looked towards the blip on his radar. Meteor held the bazooka in check as it scanned the red, orange and gold monster with green eyes glowing in its head and core. It looked much more sleek than the bulky burgundy AC, armed with, what appeared to be, two different back-mounted cannons, a strange red and silver mechanism attached to its left forearm and a giant silver rifle carried in its right hand.
The person, supposedly inside the strangely decorated beast, stated his un-translatable sentence once more, but now sounding a bit annoyed with Meteor's pilot.
"I... I... really don't know what you just said..." the pilot replied.
The person tilted the monster's bird-like head off to the side, looking at Meteor like it was crazy. "...Oh, so you speak that language!" the person said in his flawless English.
"...So do you..." The pilot sighed, knowing the last thing he wanted to do was to insult the locals.
"Ah, forgive my rudeness." The person continued. "I do not have a real name, but everyone calls me The Dragon Slayer. Slayer for short. And the AC that you see before you is the Phoenix. 3 Nice, huh?"
"AC?" the pilot asked while Meteor pointed. "That thing's an AC?"
"And let me assure you that Phoenix can beat that out-dated model that you pilot!" Slayer added before muttering something about Emeraude and an AC in the strange language. 4
"Out-dated?" the appalled pilot asked, eyebrows raised. It was one of his pet peeves (one of the worst, in fact): when a rivaling pilot dared to insult Meteor, he had to show them its true power in battle (unfortunately, this nearly cost him his life a number of times before). "Is that a challenge?"
"Do you accept?" Slayer asked.
The pilot smiled wickedly, adding a small laugh. "I'll show you that my AC's not 'out-dated!'" Meteor quickly pulled out the bazooka and fired a devastating round. Phoenix pivoted ninety degrees on its right foot and watched as the round flew by.
"Slow..." Slayer muttered as he countered by pulling out the giant silver rifle and fired a round of pure energy back at Meteor.
Having it be too fast for the heavy AC to dodge, the pilot braced himself as it took the brunt of the attack, losing its right arm along with the bazooka...
"I told you that you can't beat me!" Slayer teased.
"Ha!" the pilot cackled. "I'm just getting warmed up!" He ordered Meteor to fly towards the standing Phoenix, bringing out its laser blade, glowing in its beautiful yellow. The pilot let out a roar as Meteor stabbed Phoenix... but only connected with the air.
It was within a matter of seconds that Phoenix flew backwards using the strange metal plates attached to its shoulders.
Out of rage, Meteor threw another slash but still missed the dodging Phoenix. The pilot threw his last ounce of hope (and possibly some stupidity mixed in) into one more blade slash, only to have its entire forearm cut off by Phoenix's blue laser blade.
The pilot fell into shock. This was it for him, he assumed. He was too afraid and too paralyzed to bring out the missile launcher or the laser cannon (knowing that Slayer might have another dirty trick up that AC of his). Tears began to roll down his face, one falling onto the feather clutched in one hand. He didn't want to go this way...
Phoenix brought out the white shoulder-mounted cannon and aimed it directly at Meteor's head.
"Nice try..." the pilot heard Slayer say as he looked up at the barrel of the cannon, glowing in a blue-tinted white...
Footnotes...
1. Meteor (from the original Armored Core): Piloted by: Bandit. Head: HD-ONE; Core: XCH-01; Arms: AN-3001; Legs: LN-3001; Arm Weapons (R): WG-B2120, (L): LS-3303; Back Weapons (R): WC-XC8000, (L): WM-MVG404; Booster: B-P351; Generator: GRD-RX7; FCS: QX-9009
Color: (General): (Base): Red: 32, Green: 16, Blue: 16; (Optional): Red: 12, Green: 12, Blue: 12; (Detail): Red: 24, Green: 24, Blue: 24; (Joint): Red: 12, Green: 12, Blue: 12.
2. Stupid aptitude test... ran through the pilot's mind throughout each and every workday... Until the day he quit.
3. Phoenix (from AC2): Piloted by Dragon Slayer. Head: ZHD-2000/5V; Core: ZCL-XA/2; Arms: ZAN-616/AUR; Legs: ZLN-XA2/FF; Booster: ZBT-Z1/ARTERE; FCS: DOX-ELENA; Generator: HOY-B1000; Radiator: RBG-CLX5000; Inside: INW-DEC-MQ2; Extension: BEX-BB210; Back Weapons (R): ZWC-LQ/2552; (L): EWC-GN44-AC; Arm Weapons (R): KARASAWA-MK2; (L): LS-MOONLIGHT; Optional Parts: SP-S/SCR, SP-ENE-SCR, SP-BSI-LE, SP-CIR-K, SP-BFS/LOSP, SP-ENE-ACC, SP-CBRK, SP-VIECH
(AN: I know... overweight model...)
Color: (Head): (Base): Red: 100, Green: 0, Blue: 0; (Aid): Red: 100, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Optional): Red: 110, Green: 50, Blue: 0; (Detail): Red: 0, Green: 200, Blue: 0; (Joint): Red: 35, Green: 35, Blue: 35.
Color: (Core): (Base): Red: 100, Green: 0, Blue: 0; (Aid): Red: 110, Green: 50, Blue: 0; (Optional): Red: 100, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Detail): Red: 0, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Joint): Red: 35, Green: 35, Blue: 35.
Color: (Arms): (Base): Red: 100, Green: 0, Blue: 0; (Aid): Red: 100, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Optional): Red: 110, Green: 50, Blue: 0; (Detail): Red: 0, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Joint): Red: 35, Green: 35, Blue: 35.
Color: (Legs): (Base): Red: 100, Green: 0, Blue: 0; (Aid): Red: 100, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Optional): Red: 110, Green: 50, Blue: 0; (Detail): Red: 100, Green: 100, Blue: 0; (Joint): Red: 35, Green: 35, Blue: 35.
4. What he really said: "Honestly, what on Mars is Emeraude thinking sending an AC like this?"
(Pointless and random AN: I just want to clear up one more thing, I'm not Yuki Kajiura and I don't claim ownership to her music. The title, "Salva Nos (Save Us)," seemed to fit for the fic... (me and my fear of getting sued...))
T.R.: Now I'm going to sit back and relax and wait for your reviews. Should I keep going or forget about it and go back to working on "In TALON's Grasp?" It's your call.