February 23rd Afternoon

A lone battle damaged Armored Core could be seen only as a jet black streak across the desert terrain, as it boosted through a desolate landscape. The pilot, Garik was running out of time. He ran through the messages, nothing. Nobody would come to his aid.

Several minutes passed… Nothing…

A message bleeped across Garik's visor, "twenty minutes remaining until launch"

Twenty minutes and the world was screwed.

Another five minutes passed as Garik impatiently crossed the desert aimlessly. He scoured the radar and messages, nothing. He pressed on with grim hope.

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble, a giant blip appeared on the radar. This was it, there may be hope yet. Garik ran a check through the Armored Core's weapon systems.

Rifle rounds: 32, Shoulder Rockets: 0, Shoulder chain gun: 0, Chest rockets: 6.

"A few good shots and one good salvo of rockets, maybe I spoke too soon, we all might not be screwed after all…"

Ten smaller blips appeared coming out of the bigger one, and aligned themselves between him and the giant blip.

"Jesus Christ! What else could go wrong today?"

The blips began to converge on his position. A second later, five more blips materialized from inside the giant blip.

Garik gripped the trigger for his rifle, looks like there isn't much I can do from here, "let's hope the Alliance's missiles had some effect, or I stand no chance against this thing."

A giant eight legged monstrosity of a machine rose from the sands, several cannons unfolded from the legs, four laser platforms flipped open on the platform at the top of the legs, twenty missile silos opened up, the flawless machine glinted in the sun's light…

"…Ten minutes until launch…"

Garik eased his finger off of the rifle trigger, the war machine was unscratched, there was no way he could destroy it if he wasted even a single shot. The clock was ticking, and the blips were getting closer…

Garik rose over the last hill of sand, and fifteen MT's came into sight. "Good, no Armored Cores. I might be able to withstand their fire." Garik let go of the booster, "I need to save the rest of my energy reserves until I need them. An eternity of thirty seconds went by as the MT units closed in.

The first three in the middle had rifles, so they opened fire first. Garik started to zigzag forward in an attempt to close the distance with a minimal amount of damage. Five more began to open machine gun fire. Garik's Armored Core held, but was starting to buckle under the stress. The last two began to rush the armored core, with swords ready.

"…Eight minutes until launch…"

The sword MT's closed on either side of Garik's Armored Core, but he continued to just zigzag. Ten feet away from the armored core, it opened its boosters and used all its energy at once. The armored core overboosted through the line of shooters, dragging the center three to the ground as it flew through their line.

Seconds later the armored core skidded to a stomp, its armor was overheated, and had taken too much damage move. It needed to cool down. The next five MT's stood side to side, carrying rocket launchers, and heavy shields.

There was no way Garik's armored core could survive a single salvo of rockets.

"…Six minutes until launch…"

"It's time to cut my loses." Garik flipped the switch and released his only salvo of rockets. Two of the MT's raised their shields, another fired back, the last two on the ends attempt to evade. The two with shields survived, and returned fire. The one who returned fire fell, and another couldn't evade in time. They then commenced to return fire.

The lone armored core's left arm was blown off, and a hole was blown into the cockpit. A piece of shrapnel from the rocket embedded itself into Garik's shoulder.

"…Warning, five minutes until launch…"

Movement was regained, and Garik rushed closer to the front two MT's, not the wisest move, but it should keep them from attacking with rockets for fear of hitting each other, or themselves in the explosion.

Suddenly, the armored core began to flinch due to several rifle rounds from the back. It seems that the first ten MT's had finally caught up.

Garik boosted towards the giant monstrosity, and spun around midway there to squeeze off several rounds of rifle fire to slow down the closest pursuers.

"…Warning, three minutes until launch…"

Garik's armored core had reached the base of the massive machine. He ran a check through the radar, the MT's were too far away to worry about, and so he commenced his climb.

Garik reached the top, and began destroying all the defense guns.

"…Warning, one minute until launch…"

Garik ran his armored core into a panel, which housed some of the controls for the missiles. He then commenced firing off the rest of the panel. After the panel fell, Garik commenced firing into the circuits.

Suddenly, a cannon blast blew into the armored core's back. Garik was beginning to lose too much blood, and his consciousness, his hand slipped from the trigger. "…Damn, I'm outta ammo…"

"…Ten…"

…Garik's eyes were getting heavy….

"…Nine…"

…A dark shaped loomed on Garik's view screen…

"…Eight…"

…It was a jet black armored core, it was completely unharmed, and the radar couldn't detect it…

"…Seven…"

…The armored core began to move closer to Garik's fallen core…

"…Six…"

…The armored core raised its gun…

"…Five…"

…It fired…