Ehrenburg
A colossal wall of dust trailed behind a large armored hovercraft, making it way at full speed across the East African desert. Its massive cargo hold housed two NEXTs waiting to deploy.
"Fucking Christ! Hope! I can't get this fuckin' gyro working." a female Lynx screamed from inside her opened SOLUH Core. From his seat atop his bright white NEXT the male Lynx just shook his head.
"What are you laugh'n at?" the frustrated woman growled. The male Lynx held up his hands defensively, not wanting to rub the fiery Spaniard the wrong way. The female Lynx began to speak again before a hatch on the upper level of the cargo hold opened. A shapely young Asian woman stepped in.
"Come on Hope, can you help me out?" the Spanish Lynx asked."
"Eva, you should have gotten this fixed while we were still in Line Ark, you knew we weren't bringing any mechanics with us." Hope replied
"Pleeeease, just take a guess 'cause the legendary mercenary of Anatolia ain't doin' shit." Eva said sarcastically. Hope looked toward the male Lynx, who shrugged and slide off his mech onto the catwalk. He walked across the cargo hold toward Eva's NEXT, joining her at the back service opening. The Anatolian Lynx crawled inside and began to try his luck at a vexing problem. A few minute later he reappeared shaking his head.
"Well that.s awesome, no GFD Gyro means no Quick Boosting. Fuck my life." Eva sighed.
"20 minutes until arrival at the combat zone." a near emotionless female voice emanated from the cargo hold's intercom.
"Eva I thinks it's better if you just sit this one out." Hope advised
"Hell no, I've been sitting in here for God knows how long since we left Australia. I'm gonna see some fuckin' action." Eva responded. Hope rolled her eye as she made her way back to the hatch knowing it was a wasted effort to try and convince the head strong Lynx otherwise.
"Lock and load guys, I'm going to make sure Kiki has started her phase of the attack." Hope said before disappearing through the hatch. The two Lynx attached to finishing components to their NEXTs and pilot suits before ducking into their respective cockpits. Their Core's sealed with a hiss as the monitors inside flashed on displaying diagnostic starting sequences. The flaps on the white mid-sided NEXT creaked opened as its Lynx tested the deployment of its Assault Armor amplification veins.
"10 minutes guys." Hope's voice sounded over their radios, "We have confirmation that Aretha-00 has engaged Gachirin."
"Engaged? I though Kiki would take down Nidus in one shot." Eva commented
"Neo Nidus pilots a strudy NEXT it would take more the one shot to bring him down." Hope explained, "Fiona where do estimate the BFF forces are?" she asked.
"25 minutes and closing, but I just received a transmission from the Big Box team. It seems Omer was supporting GA's containment team, so it might be fair to assume that we will be see opposition from Omer at the Ehrenburgs as well." Fiona replied.
"Alright, you guys heard that right? Keeps your head up for-"
"Yeeeah!, I did it guys! I killed Neo, hah ha!" Hope's speech was cut off by an extremely energetic female voice. Everyone cringed as the girly voice continued to rip across the radios."I'm so awesome! First I was like BOOM! And Neo was all like Oh Noes! And then I-"
"Kiki! Shut up! You've only been talking for 5 seconds and I've already got a headache" Eva yelled.
"No! You're just angry that Dion likes me better!" Kiki yelled back.
"Kiki, sweetie. Just calm down." Hope said in an effort to control the young pilot.
"What? You little bitch! I don't give a fuck what Dion-"
"EVA. Stop. You know better than to argue with her" Hope demanded.
Eva grunted in response.
"Ah, ugh, I'm sorry." Said another female voice that was the same pitch as Kiki's only more civilized.
"Tintin, sitrep." Hope quickly asked knowing that the sane persona could switch at any moment.
"We got rid of Neo but we're still cleaning up some Normals. I'm sorry I can't talk for long, Kiki is really antsy today. Eva I couldn't help but over hear, power down your NEXT and hard reset the distortion gyro's setup that shoooooo look at the colors! It's so cool when these little guys go boom!" Kiki's voice once again squealed.
With little warning the hovercraft slowed down and spun 180 degrees as if someone had pulled an imaginary E-brake. The largest door in the cargo hold opened up flooding the room with sunlight. The cat walks folded away allowing the NEXTs inside to move.
"Your first objective is to confirm that Neo Nidus is deceased." Fiona notified
"I'm releasing the locks, Eva see if Tintin's idea works." Hope said.
"Already done, I've got green on everything." Eva replied with the utmost confidence.
"Okay. Fiona we're good to go." Hope replied.
"We are 850 meters from the combat zone. Miura you are cleared for sortie." Fiona announced. The Main Boosters on the "Algebra" red SOLUH ignited propelling it out to the hover craft's back platform. It jumped off the craft while firing its Over Booster, shooting it away.
"White Glint you are cleared for sortie." The white mech followed suit behind the Miura, pushed by the bird like Over Boost array that showed off its legendary design.
Eva waited until the first Ehrenburg was completely in view before killed her Over Boost. White Glint did the same several meters behind her. Their NEXTs glided across the ground, approaching the two cannons that were closest to each other.
"Guys! Hey guys! I'm over here!" Kiki voice echoed through both cockpits. As the mechs came closer the true girth of 00-Aretha came into view. It's massive foot kept half of the smoldering remains of a machine pinned to the ground.
"Yes we see you Kiki." Eva deadpanned, "where's Gachirin."
"Right here!" Kiki squealed, leaning the enormous machine down to look at the mech underfoot, both the legs on Nidus's NEXT were gone. The core itself was completely concave from the weight of Aretha's leg.
"Fiona, Hope. Confirm, Neo Nidus is deceased." Eva announced.
"Affirmative, you three need to go take defensive positions stat. BFF's ETA is 10 minutes." Hope's voice replied.
"Be on guard, there is no doubt that BFF knows something is amiss." Fiona added.
"You heard 'em guys let's-" Eva stopped herself as her eye caught sight of a warning flash from her HUD. "What the fuck is that?" she barked.
"Cruise missiles! They're from an Eclipse, you can't let them reach the batteries." Hope quickly replied.
Before Eva even had time to think of a next move her display was engulfed in blinding white light. As the dust cleared it revealed that White Glint had activated its Over Boost, moving to intercept the missiles.
"Contact." Fiona voice was heard again, "Confirmed, Lilium's Ambient and Wong Shao-Lung's Strix Quadruped have entered the combat zone."
"Alright, Game time. Kiki handle the old bastard. Lilium is mine." Eva commanded
"But WHHHYYYYY? How come you get to choose who to fight, that's not fair!" Kiki whined.
"Fine. who do wanna fight then?" Eva impatiently asked.
Kiki made an audible 'hmph' before replying, "You're mean." 00-Aretha roared as in Over Boost activated. Eva followed, activating her own Over Boost. They sailed in between the two Ehrenburg cannons onto the lake before they were forced to scatter from a spread missile volley. The quintuple gatlings wailed as the sprayed blindly in the direction of the Quadruped. Eva rolled her eyes as she broke away from Kiki's fight, quickly beginning to scan the horizon for any signs of Ambient. She smirked as her radar began to show static from ECM.
"Bad idea bitch." Eva laughed as she Quick Turned, she followed it with a Side Boost as Lilium's 063ANAR assault rifle peppered the water beside her. Lilium closed the gap now firing her 067ANLR laser rifle in unison with her 063ANAR. Looking to end the battle as quickly as possible, Eva lunged into Lilium's fire swinging her MUDAN. Unfazed, Lilum dodged the punch in a pirouette like movement. Adding a swift roundhouse to the back of the Miura, Ambient Back Boosted away releasing a volley of her shoulder mounted high action missiles. Flames engulfed Eva's NEXT as a Side Boost did little to dodge the homing incendiaries.
"Damn, and here I thought her Collard rank was bullshit." Eva commented. She sprayed her CANTUTA machine gun at the BFF frame. Predicting Lilium's dodge, Eva fired her own volley of scatter missiles at Ambient. In a clever maneuver however, Lilium plunged her NEXT into the lake letting the missiles detonate on its surface. She ascended, once again firing both weapons. Eva answered by firing both her machine gun and releasing another wall of MP-O200 scatter missiles. Readying her MUDAN for another pass, her lunge was halted as 00-Aretha collided into Ambient with a large flash and a sickening bang.
"Oops, sorry. Come back here old guy!" Kiki said before Hyper Quick Boosting in the opposite direction. Though it was still floating above the water, it looked as though Lilium was completely stunned. Eva watched as the 063AN frame's head turned to try and obtain of visual of the left arm was no longer there. Ambient's left arm along with its assault rifle had been completely blown off by the impact. In an instant Eva was in front of Lilium, pushing them out of the lake and into onto the ground. Behind them the sounds of Arms Fort Eclipse falling into the water overpowered everything for miles. Eva walked her NEXT in front of Wolcott's now paralyzed machine.
"Well, it just sucks to be you." Eva chucked. She brought her CANTUTA up to attention when she heard Wong Shao-Lung's NEXT glide around her. But instead of flanking her, the Strix Quadruped slammed into the rock wall right behind the princess of BFF's fallen NEXT. In a brilliant flash of red, 00-Aretha was on top of the quad leg, it's gatling guns jammed into the side of its Core.
"Not bad Kiki, back off let's see what we need to do with them first." Eva said. The unnamed Lynx landed beside Eva, his brilliant white Core showed little evidence of it being in battle.
"That was faster than I expected, job work." Hope voice filled their cockpits.
"Confirm, have Strix Quadruped and Ambient been disabled?" Fiona's semi-monotone voice asked.
"Done and done." Eva responded.
"Stand by, Dion has modified his orders. Confirm the status of the Arm's Fort Eclipse." Fiona said.
"We blew it the fuck up, not sure why that's supposed to matter though." Eva replied smugly.
"What? It's not blowed up, I can see it right there." Kiki interjected.
"Dion wants any of the Eclipse's survivors to be taken as prisoners." Hope explained.
"Hm? I thought we weren't doing anything like at until much later." Eva said.
"Hence why the orders have changed." Hope replied.
"What about these two?" Eva asked.
"Well let's see." Hope said, the sound of keys being typed was heard in the background.
Suddenly the sound of Wong Shao-Lung coughing echo across the radio.
"Who are you people?...White...Glint?" He asked in between spasms, no doubt coughing up blood now.
"I'm sorry master, Lilium has betrayed your trust." Ambient's Lynx had a feminine yet flat voice.
"Dion's giving the thumbs downs. Dispose of them quickly and continue with the second objective." Hope commanded.
"You heard her Kiki, have at it." Eva said.
"Wai-!" The elderly pilot's voice was cut off by the sound of metal being torn. Aretha's gatling guns ripped through the core, slicing it in half. The NEXT's Primal Armor flashed away as the mutilated machine slumped to the ground, a green mist seeped into the air as the mech began to leak Kojima Particles.
"Bummer, I wanted to finish our fight." Eva smirked, as she placed the business end of her MUDAN physical blade to Ambient's Core.
"But don't worry, I'm sure I'll see you hell, Lilium Wilcott." Eva engaged her blade, the end of it exploded leaving two large intersecting craters in the late Lilium's NEXT.
"Wrap it up children, we're due back at Line Ark in 4 days." Hope advised, "Kiki, head back this way, we need to let ORCA know what happened, okay."
"Yeah! We're gonna go prank call ORCA!" Kiki giggled, 00-Aretha's Over Boosted activated propelling it away from anti-satellite array.
"Hey, do you think I would have beaten Lilium." Eva asked the quiet Lynx as they started toward the downed Eclipse.
When they dropped their hand held weapons at the foot of the lake, White Glint's Lynx extended his mech's right hand, tilting it side to side in a "so-so" motion.
"What the fuck does that mean? I can 'kinda' beat her?" Eva fumed, extending the middle finger of her SOLUH's frame's left hand.
Though just barely, Eva could have sworn she heard Anatolia's Lynx laugh. A sort of laugh that hadn't been heard in a long time.
