Standard Disclaimer here. I do not own Armored Core or Tenchi Muyo War on Geminar. this is a work of fanfiction. the previously stated properties belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 2: The Dreaming of an Answer

As I slept I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that I stood alone, standing on the ruined Spirit of Motherwill. It had been one of my most defining and difficult battles. As I looked down from one of the ruined flight decks I could see the burned out husk of Killdozer, Champion Champs' NEXT. He had been more a distraction than anything during this fight and a potentially deadly one at that, either by his missiles or from the missiles or Normals of the Spirit. I heard the softest whisper of a foot step and spun around quick to face...Insanity... The most powerful NEXT in the world now.

The AALIYAH frame towered over me. When I had designed it, its main color was as black as I could paint it. Its sub coloring was a dark blue and its support and optional colors were an almost blinding white, while its joints and devices on the frame as well as its eye were all bright vivid red. The weapons were all predominately grey and supported by black while the supporting pain was red and then I had touched those off with white. The last components of the Insanity were its stabilizers which were mostly on the head and upper core which were all the large versions of the AALIYAH stabilizers and then I had plasted the large AALIYAH upper leg stabilizers on it and to finish it on the middle and lower parts of the left leg were Akvavit LINSTANT and MADNESS stabilizers. The Insanity was an intimidating sight with its weapons and paint job.

Normally the weapons on it would have made it too heavy to move, however, I had tuned the legs to the max weight they would carry which was why the once speedy AALIYAH frame moved around at about average speed but could carry such heavy and powerful weaponry on its back plus what it held in its hands.

"He is rather beautiful for a weapon is he not?" Came a female voice. a small female came from behind Insanity's left leg. The first thing I noticed was her vived red crab-like hair. she wore odd clothing that I couldn't really describe and as for the woman her self...I knew that she was indeed a woman despite looking like a child. It was in her eyes. " I have to say that as weapons go he is well made and taken care of. I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into perfecting and maintaining him." She said as she looked up at Insanity.*

"Who are you?" Was all I could say seeing as I had no idea how I could dream up someone like this. everything else was easy. It came from my memory of one of my hardest battles starting out as a Lynx. Certainly it wasn't one of my favorites seeing as I actually had to work for it where most of my earlier jobs had been pretty much cakewalk. it was certainly a humbling experience that made me realise not to get full of myself. Being cocky had almost gotten me killed on this mission.

"I am your next client. My cohorts and myself have a job for you, you and your friends. You see, there is a war in the making at your next destination. Normally we wouldn't be involved seeing as we already set our pieces on the board in motion, however, someone else has seen fit to add their own pieces as well and they decided to cheat in this particular game. Therefore, we need to level the playing field back into balance. So we are hiring you and your allies as our equalizers. We, namely me, will provide you with supplies and a base of opperations as well as deal with a few..." She trailed off glancing at my right eye and arm. " 'Upgrades'..." She said with a face that made me, a battle hardened Lynx, want to run for the hills.

Rubbing my right arm nervously not sure if i wanted her anywhere near it. i knew why she looked. while my right arm was hidden beneath a leather shoulder pauldron that connected to a full leather sleeve, that ended in a long leather glove that buttoned to it. Everything made to completely conceal my biotech arm and hand. My eye was harder to hide because the crazy doctor and engineer who worked on it and my arm refused to do anything subtle with replacing them because they wanted them to look 'cool' as they put it. Most of the time my right eye was colored black-red-black. Black pupil, red iris and black scelera. When i was targeting something when i fired right handed it would turn into a red or green crosshair on a black background and when I used the zoom function it turned blue. It could move completely independant of my left eye and that tended to unsettle most people who looked me in the eye which was why I almost always wore a pair of sunglasses to hide my eyes. It didn't inhibit my sight since the biotech eye had various camera settings ranging from normal human sight to multiple IRNV settings. I was predominantly a southpaw however my father and his friends made me train and learn to be ambidextrous.

"What is the job then? What is the pay? Where and when is it?" I had started off asking, cutting straight to business. As weird as this dream was I might as well treat it like a job, at least until I could wake up from it.

She only smiled and tilted her head to look behind me. I hesitated a moment before I looked back and blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things but I saw my friends and their NEXTS spread out on the flight deck wings of the Motherwill they looked as confused as I did which did not make me feel any better. "The job is to win the war. simple as that. We need you to do what you do best, fight. as for pay. well...I AM the galaxy's greatest genius, so I suppose I could point your scientist and engineers in the right direction to get you off this dying planet." She said looking around at the barren earth around us. " I could give a starting bonus. I will create bunkers and have them delivered here for what is left of humanity to stay in safety and contamination free until your way to space is clear and your ships are built to get humanity off of the poisoned earth. As for you... Well we have no currency that your world regonizes." She said looking at us. Six in total, only two of us were in the in the top ten Collared rankings, one was retired, two were Originals, and two of us were Independent. We were a rag-tag band of Lynx and an operator.

"Then we will have to decline. Altruism will not pay for our repairs, our ammo, our living expenses, or our time. we did what we had to do for humanity to continue and we were paided for it. quite well actually. why should we work for you who cannot afford our services?" I said to the woman crossing my arms in finality, standing by my decision. In any event you cannot expect six Lynx to stand against an army. Numbers will over come even the best over time." I told her rather curtly while she looked at us all.*

"I'm afraid you are already hired, and I have ways to deal with your expenses. I just need you all to be ready tomorrow, and after your mission is done I will return you all home." she said in a sickenly sweet carefree voice and I took a step forward rather irritated.

"Maybe you didn't hear me the first time. So I will say it a little more simply. You can take this job, and stick-" She cut me off as she started walking off not caring what i was saying, and completely ignoring me. "Don't be late tomorrow. you have a war to prepare for today. I suggest you get cracking as soon as you wake up, ta-ta. * she said still cheerful and walked behind Insanity causing me to growl and storm after her but when I got behind Insanity's legs she was gone. I had to blink rapidly for a few seconds trying to figure out what the hell just happened and when I turned around my friends were fading one by one. "what the hell just happened?" I asked the empty air when a sudden loud ringing sounded off and i snapped awake back to reality in my own room. Groaning from just waking up and smacking the Off button on my alarm clock in irritation. Sitting up and rubbing my shoulder looking to the empty place beside me on the ruffled sheets. my bed partner had already left. I set my feet on the floor and held my head in my hands groaning. I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't really a dream and that I, and my friends, were just strong-arm enlisted into a war that was not our own. We needed to get ready. I get the feeling that we have no way of stopping her from getting what she wanted. I just wished I could see her again so i could get my hands around her neck.

Well another chapter down. Had to fight with a bad case of writer's block to get this one going. This story is going to take a different turn than when i started out planning. originally I had planned to set them in the beginning of the series of War on Geminar but realised that it would be ridiculously curbstomp-ish since, in my honest opinion, NEXTs will completely wipe the floor with any sacred mechanoid. So this is going to be set after the end of the anime. Another chapter or two and we will finally be on Geminar. And as to who the mysterious Sixth female Lynx is, I leave up to you readers to figure it out as well as who Darien is paired with. I already have it set but you are welcome to guess. currently designing the main villians and their NEXTs. Got the NEXTs pretty much done, I just need to work on developing the enemy Lynx who are all going to follow a particular theme. However i am open to suggestions for minor and mid-boss villians and or their NEXTS as well as the sacred mecha masters and their mechanoids. Tune in in within the next few weeks to a month and I will try to have the next chapter up. Bitches, Gripes Complaints? shoot me a message. constructive critism would be appreciated. Just don't act like an idiot or i will just block you. Seeya next time.

P.S. Next chapter i might put up Insanity's schematics for anyone who is interested as well as his paint scheme and FRS stats.

P.P.S. almost forgot. will probably explain the story behind Darien's eye and arm and their full capabilities next chapter too...probably...maybe...