Armored Core: Overboost Destiny

Chapter 1: Learned Lesson

Mission Name: Destiny's Override

Client: Emeraude

Opponent: Zio Matrix

Area of Operations: Scissors Forest

Weather: Rain

Mission Briefing to AC Einherjar:

It seems Zio Matrix is trying to put our corporation to an end. Forces have assembled along the mountain range surrounding Kregg Fortress, it's as you well know, our center of operations. It seems Zio is using all of their forces to overwhelm our last line of defense. As a key factor to our success, we are asking you to join our frontline and destroy our rival once and for all. We are giving you a special part for this mission, an inside part called EIP-X/AURA, please equip it prior to engagement.

The Einherjar stands alone in the dense forest. Rain falls down against its hull and down onto the forest floor. It's pilot, Van, looks around the area inside the cockpit. He's strapped into a seat by four belts stretched across his chest bracing the controls. The eye of the Einherjar shines red and the Ac's boosters ignite, sending him flying into the air above the forest canopy. In the distance, several groups of muscle tracers led by armored cores march toward the forest below Van's Ac.

The Einherjar lands at the edge of the forest, catching the marching enemy's attention. Van grins. A volley of missiles, rockets and bullets shoot out of the troop ahead of him. Van yells, switching on the newly equipped inside part. The Einherjar's vents scattered all across its body begin to open up completely, releasing gas into the area around it. Energy shoots out of the vents, covering the Einherjar in an aura of red energy. The aura seems to invigorate the core, increasing it's mobility, decreasing further damage it receives from both shell and energy weapons, as well as lowering the rate of energy consumption of the Einherjar's boosters.

"I guess they thought I couldn't do it alone…" Van sneered as he witnessed the ability given to his Ac by the EIP-X/AURA inside part. As the Einherjar boosted toward the enemy, Van's Ac hopped up into the air and came back down, throwing a burst of water up into the air and onto its legs. For a brief moment, the boosters on Einherjar's back and legs dimmed, then grew so immense the ac was hurled toward Van's target. Van grasped the control handles, clenching his teeth.

Van was astonished as he watched his Ac dash across the ground, so fast it started to fly. Even more so when he saw the power of the energy surrounding his core completely destroying a core he tore his Ac into. As Van's core came to a screeching hault, kicking up the earth in front of him, he quickly released the blade from his left arm and swung it around behind him, turning his Ac with it. The energy blade sliced through the head of another enemy, leaving it to fall to its knees completely helpless. The Einherjar lifted its right arm, drawing its gun toward the chest of yet another opponent.

The enemy Ac stared into the Einherjar's scope-eye, holding one of its own rifles toward it. Van noticed the howl of the overboost behind him, and stomped his foot on pedals on the cockpit floor. Einherjar leapt into the air, making the overboosting core that was aiming for Van collide with the other in a tremendous explosion of fire, smoke and electricity. The blast enveloped the area, hiding the Einherjar in a cloud of orange, black and red.

Van watched his screen, clocks and numbers that is out on the simple interface before him light up. He grasps his controls. Tiny sound signals light up the screen with red boxes and target marks. This was the Einherjar's eyes. The Einherjar's humanoid frame becomes one with Van's thoughts and body. Van hardly looks down at the meters indicating Einherjar's Armor points or ammo, he knows it by heart. He never looks at his controls either, he moves the machine just like he moves his own body. They become an invincible team, and at the same time become a single unstoppable entity.

"Let's try that one again!" Van roared, igniting the Einherjar in a burst of energy and opening the overboosters on the core's back. The overboosters inhaled energy for a short moment, then let out the giant blast of energy to send it flying across the field. Crashing through several Mt units Van noticed a single Ac boosting towards the forest between the field and Kregg Fortress. The Ac was but a cloud of water jumping up from the ground, travelling towards the canopy of the trees.

Van turned around, using the turn boosters mounted on his Ac's shoulders. Van sighed, noticing he still had quite a number of opponents. Van thought about his choices and made the Einherjar kneel down. The Grenade launcher fell forward, pointing and targeting the group of enemies he had left to take care of before he could chase after the lone Ac.

Van twisted the cannon to the left, fired, and slowly turned right, launching a spray of grenade rounds into the groups of muscle tracers and armored cores. Luckily enough for Van, the muscle tracers created a roadblock, tripping all of the cores behind them into a cloud of fire, destroying them as well. Van turned around with his turn boosters again, running toward the forest where the Ac had just entered.

Van watched his monitor as a small signal appeared. 'Incoming message' it said. Van's radio operator Lynn came onto his frequency. "Van, good job so far." She said.

Van narrowed his eyes. "Well I'm not finished yet right?"

"Of course not, but Emeraude is impressed. But even with your skill, they are being cautious with that Ac that entered the forest not too long ago."

"What do you mean, cautious?"

"They are sending in backup for you." Lynn replied hesitantly.

"Why are they being cautious Lynn. Tell me."

"The Ac that just entered the forest is out of our radar, we can't see it." Lynn answered, sounding a bit afraid. "It isn't stealth, I've never heard of anything so advanced it can't be detected. The imagery analysis we achieved for an image of the core is so sketchy, all the Ac's parts are outdated and haven't been seen for a long time."

"…A ghost?"

Be ca-…

"Lynn? Damn, the transmission was cut!" Van yelled. "The weather must have shorted it out." Van stated, shifting his Ac to the side to look behind him as he hears something peculiar.

"What the hell?" Van says, watching as a faint image of an armored core leaps towards him with its blade drawn. The Ac almost seems surreal until its image comes together from its recent haze. It was almost as if the Ac was changing shape, or disappearing. The Ac's blade came down hard and fast. Quickly, Van initiated the inside part and released his energy blade, holding it before Einherjar. The energy blade was glowing with the same red color of its aura, beating with power and surging as the enemy Ac's purple blade collided with it.

Einherjar's frame struggled under the force of the middleweight Ac's configuration. Van hit his Ac's boosters, easing the weight put on Einherjar's legs and giving him more of an advantage against his opponent's immense sword attack. Van recognized his enemy as soon as he got a good picture of him through the waves of energy running across his screen.

"You're the one who wrecked Old Avalon!" Van yelled, remembering the onslaught his opponent caused at the arena. His opponent had no pilot, it had no purpose, and it was uncontrollable. The two Ac's pushed each other away, leaving their energy blades drawn.

"You're wrong. It destroyed Old Avalon." The Ac pilot said.

"So there is a pilot… Van uttered.

"It was searching for me…a ghost."

The ghost pilot slashed its blade toward Van, who parried once again. Van lifted his rifle and fired several rounds into the core of the Ac. His opponent grabbed the rifle and crushed the barrel with its grip. The Einherjar twisted the rifle around with one hand and pushed the barrel into the other Ac, pushing it away. Van noticed his enemy had no weapons at all besides the blade. The Ac threw its shoulder into Einherjar and pushed him back, but Van quickly countered by grabbing the rifle with two hands and swatting the Ac in the head with the back of the rifle. The Ac stumbled back and Van dashed forward, only to stop to turn boost as his enemy thrust its blade toward him. Van smacked the batting rifle the Einherjar held against the back of his enemy's left knee, forcing his enemy to kneel.

With a quick jump, Van dodged the leftward slash his enemy threw at him. Then, the ghost pilot pulled his Ac up and twisted it, throwing its fist into Einherjar's core. The impact just knocked the core onto its back, but left Van's enemy with a big advantage. His enemy pulled its arm back, released its sword and swung it back down. The Einherjar quickly reacted, releasing its blade to parry, then igniting its boosters to pull itself off.

Van watched, noticing his Ac was overpowering the other. Einherjar pushed itself forward more and more.

The ghost pilot groaned. "In my age a pilot's skill with his core was what really mattered, I realize it takes cheap tricks to become a formidable opponent now."

Van leered into the Ac's face. He switched his inside part off, decreasing the power of his blade by more than half what it was. Van was being overpowered now through his act of self-confidence, yet he wasn't worried. "Wrong old man, it's more like it was in your day than ever these days." Just then, Van let his hold go. His enemy's blade drove itself into the ground as Van turn boosted and stabbed the Einherjar's blade through the middle of his enemy's core.

"No…" The ghost pilot struggled to say.

"Sorry, but nowadays it just takes a stronger connection between the pilot and the weapon to persevere."

The Einherjar stepped back, its blade already withdrawn. Van's enemy fell onto its back, motionless. It was over. Van noticed the incoming transmission message.

"Don't…repeat my mistake. You've…changed it…all…you can stop now."

"V-Van? Van! What happened, the screen went blank ever since you stopped. Did you find the Ac?" Lynn yelled, her voice breaking up through the intercom.

"…Yeah I got it." Van replied quietly.

"Isn't that…?" Lynn said, examining the Ac lying on its back before the Einherjar.

Van looked up at the sky. The rain had stopped, and the clouds began to break apart. Sunlight poured through the sky, glaring into the sensors of the Einherjar. "Yeah…it was him."

"Come home…"

The war between the corporations ends soon, Zio Matrix's last ditch effort to destroy its opponent Emeraude failed miserably. The last few Ravens were all that remained of corporations, as the Earth and Mars governments created an alliance among Ravens to destroy the corporations and bring peace to the planets. The alliance between the dozen Ravens was simply known as the Alliance. Van was quickly offered a spot at the top of the Alliance Faction, but he refused. Van would not end up like his enemy, he changed it all, and stopped. He decided to escape to North End and veer away from his reputation. He escaped to change his life. He walked away from being a Raven, yet he still keeps Einherjar at his side. Ready.

To be continued…