The Grey One By Kitsune D'gon Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't own Armored Core. Amazing huh?
Matthew appraised the man in front of him. Not much was striking about the man, although his clothes and manners identified him as a corporate executive. Matthew sighed for business was slow, especially with all the Ravens heading to the new Raven's Ark, and him being named an illegitimate Raven didn't help much either. He would have to accept the mission if he wanted to stay on top.
"How much for this?" he asked gloomily.
"The mission details and payment are located in this briefcase."
Matthew opened up the briefcase without looking for signs of explosives. If he died, Matthew doubted he would care much. He also doubted that anyone would miss him. Matthew examined the contents of the briefcase. He only had one question for the mysterious, albeit a bit plain, man.
"Is that before... or after taxes?"
Matthew ran to the curb outside of his apartment. He hailed a taxi and gave the directions to the hanger. He ran the mission through his head one more time. He was supposed to go to some coordinates outside of town and be picked up by a transport copter. By the time he was done running the final mission objective through his head: Destroy the lab's generator, the cab had reached the hangar. He tipped the driver and ran into the hanger. Matthew soon found and greeted the head mechanic.
"So... how's Old Grey doing?"
Old Grey was Matthew's A.C. The paint job was done in a metallic grey. The design had an O.B. (Overboost) core and medium weight humanoid legs. The A.C.'s micro missile launcher with extensions and lightweight laser cannon glistened dangerously. A heavy machine gun occupied the right hand, while a laser blade was on the left. An emblem of an old grey wolf was displayed on the left shoulder.
"Looks a lot better than when you brought him in."
Matthew winced at the memory. He had foolishly accepted a mission rated way above his Raven rank. During the mission, one of the arena rankers had ambushed him. He barely escaped from the trap and had ran to this hanger to have repairs. The A.C.'s circuitry was exposed and several gaping holes in the armor gave testament to the enemy's firepower. A team of mechanics had to work for five days to get it all repaired.
"I'm going to be taking him out for a couple of days."
"Finally got a mission huh?"
"O c'mon... you know I was just waiting for a mission worthy of my skills."
They both had a chuckle at that.
Matthew tried to go over the mission one last time before he was dropped, but he was too nervous to focus on the details. The copter seemed to bob up and down, pressing Matthew against the shoulder straps and then slamming him back. A countdown from twenty appeared on the screen in front of him. Soon after that a voice crackled in his head.
"This is Bird Dog One, are you ready Grey Wolf."
"Grey Wolf is ready. Let me drop."
"Dropping. Good luck Grey Wolf."
Old Grey was soon falling through the sky. When the countdown reached five, he activated the auxiliary boosters. His teeth began shaking as the boosters slowed his descent. The A.C. shuddered when it hit the ground. Matthew scanned the radar looking for enemy units. The radar appeared clear.
Matthew maneuvered his A.C. toward the base. He kept his pace to a walk. Four blips appeared on his radar as he neared the base. He crouched and waited for the first blip to come within range of his missile launcher. He heard the lock on beep, activated the extensions, waited one second, and let loose with a salvo of missiles. The extensions raced ahead, one exploding brilliantly against the target, the others running into trees. The target, a reverse joint security MT, staggered back from the blow. The micro missiles flared out and converged on the MT. The MT disappeared beneath the fiery explosion. The other MT's, seeing their comrade slain, turned and ran back to the base.
Matthew boosted toward the base, ignoring the other three MT's. A very brave, or stupid, MT pilot fired off a rifle round at Matthew. Luckily for the Mt pilot, Matthew ignored the inaccurate rifle round and continued onward toward the base. He reached the approximate base coordinates. He stared at the landscape incredulously, not seeing a base anywhere.
"Now where's that blasted base...?" Matthew whispered to himself.
Matthew was beginning to wonder what was going on when the ground began to shake violently. A section of the ground pulled back to reveal a giant platform elevator. The platform reached the service and two large humanoid MT's stepped off. A loud wailing siren went off as one of the MT pilots spoke.
"Unidentified A.C., you are trespassing on company property. Power down immediately."
Matthew had to bite back a laugh. Did these clowns really think that he was going to surrender? But as he watched the two M.Ts, an idea came to him. He activated his speakers.
"This is the pilot of the A.C. I am surrendering."
He had to give them credit though. They did keep their rifles trained on him as he began acting like he was powering down. He kneeled his A.C. down and lowered his generator down enough that he could get only one shot off. He let the right arm assume a relaxed position on the knee, pointing the machine gun towards the one on the right.
"Unidentified pilot, drop your weapons!"
Matthew activated the laser cannon, flipping it over the A.C.'s shoulder and fired off a round into the MT on the left. The laser projectile burned through the chest armor. The pilot's last screams were cut off as he was burned to a crisp. The other MT got off a shaky two shots, both hit Old Grey in the leg armor. Matthew unloaded a full clip into the MT with his machine gun. The MT jerked backwards as the rounds hit. When it finally hit the ground, it lay there with several gaping holes in the chest armor.
Matthew walked over and activated the elevator. The elevator groaned as it slowly moved downwards. Matthew waited until the elevator hit the bottom floor. He got off and swept the area with his sensors. His sensors found a door leading to a hallway, which was supposed to eventually lead to the generator. He quickly entered the door and began to walk down the hallway.
A menacing sight awaited him in the room at the end of the hallway. There was an A.C., painted blood red. It had a large laser blade, laser rifle, and a grenade launcher. The core of the A.C. appeared to be an E.O. model. The enemy A.C. activated its E.O. and began to attempt to chip away at Matthew's armor.
Something within Matthew snapped. He was sick of everyone telling him what to do, acting like he should be thankful. But most of all, he was sick of everyone trying to kill him. He was determined to take a stand, to make a difference, and he was going to start right here.
"I will not run away anymore!" he shouted as he charged.
The E.O.'s bullets continued to connect into Old Grey, but Matthew didn't slow down. Matthew didn't even take the time to activate his laser blade, rather, he just lowered Old Grey's shoulder and slammed into the enemy A.C. The force of the blow knocked them both to the ground. The enemy A.C.'s E.O. function was disabled, the two orbits destroyed. The other A.C. took to the air in defense. Matthew quickly followed after him, boosting towards the A.C.. Matthew activated his laser blade and shot off several rounds with his machine gun. Suddenly, he was forced to dodge to the left as a grenade round flew past him.
"That's... that's not possible!" Matthew gasped.
Old Grey's right arm below the elbow joint had been destroyed. Sparks showered the floor where he stood. Matthew's head began to fill with a thousand thoughts. Is he one of those H-plus experiments I've been hearing about? Will I be able to beat him? Can I complete this mission, will I survive the mission?
Matthew decided to try something desperate. The back of Old Grey's core began to shine with a green light. A brilliant burst of the green light shot out as Old Grey Overboosted. He headed toward the door leading to the generator room. The other A.C. sensed something was wrong and attempted to follow him. Matthew turned Old Grey in a half circle and let loose with the micro missiles, making the doorway a blazing inferno. As the enemy was distracted, Matthew headed for the generator. When he finally found it, he was slightly disappointed. It looked like any other generator he had seen. He took a picture with the A.C.'s sensors of the emblem. He didn't know why, but it seemed familiar. It was a picture of two bird-like creatures attacking each other. Then he activated his laser blade and stabbed into the generator.
For several long seconds, nothing happened. Then all the lights turned off. Matthew wearily smiled. His smile froze when he heard an announcement go over the speakers.
"Main generator disabled. Emergency mode activated. All personnel please evacuate immediately. The base will self-destruct."
Matthew sighed wearily. He decided not to fight fate. He was going to die there, the laboratory being his grave. He knew he had no chance. But something seemed to gently caress the back of his mind. It gave him new strength, strength to fight on.
He used his overboost to fly down the hallway. He felt the Earth around him start to rumble as the base began to destroy itself. The other A.C. was attempting to escape as well. With the heavy E.O. model, however, he wouldn't be able to get out in time. Matthew was able to watch his demise on Old Grey's sensors. The last thing Matthew saw of the A.C. before it was caught up in the fiery blast was its hand, reaching out in vain. Old Grey reached the elevator, he was not very far ahead of the blast. Matthew boosted upwards, putting all his efforts in one last hope.
"So... you were able to destroy the laboratory, the H-plus experiment, and the Raven you hired?" The man sitting behind the desk asked.
"Yes sir," the plain man responded, "No one should know he was missing. He was not employed in the Raven's Ark."
"This is much better than anticipated. Now no one can implicate us in any way relating to-
The man was cut off as his secretary called him. He answered the message, very annoyed at the interruption.
"Alright Alice, this had better be good."
A pale woman appeared on the screen. She had the company's logo, two giant birds fighting one another, on her uniform. She appeared to be very upset.
"Sir, security says there's an A.C. headed right this way!"
Both men looked out the window just in time to see an A.C. fire a laser projectile into the building.