Solace - Chapter 2

Terminology

The Controller - An omnipresent artificial intelligence in charge of maintaining all aspects of mankind's underground refuge, Layered. The Controller's influence is so pervasive, so tightly interwoven into even the smallest facets of everyday life, that its existence is rarely given a second thought. The lives of all who dwell in Layered are inextricably tied to The Controller

Layered - A subterranean society. Layered is ruled by an AI simply known as "The Controller" which dictates nearly everything that goes on in this world.

24:00 The Ark

Blanc lay in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep within his quarters. 'What a colussal clusterfuck that turned into,' he thought mildly to himself. After he had fired the titan upon the rookie, upon hearing the pilots cries of despair he had lost it completely and regressed into a child-like state...the same as that night. His face formed into a grimace as he remembered what he sought to put right. To others around the Ark Blanc was an easygoing, friendly raven who never failed to attract a small group wherever he went due to his general likability. Many also enjoyed the joke that was the names of him and his AC, Noir which was the whitest of white, and himself Blanc who was black. He was chided over these names ceaselessly, he took it in stride. However, he also had another not so coveted reputation on the battlefield. It was spoke of in hushed whispers late at night in the ark, that when Noir and Blanc went out on missions that they switched names and personas...Blanc becoming Noir...the darkness inside manifesting itself during battle and Noir becoming Blanc, the ying to his yang. Operators for Blanc and sometimes Sikas, said that when they were together it wasn't as bad, sometimes during the easier of the missions operators would jostle for the position of who would be communicating to them via comlink, simply because the conversations they had were priceless. On missions Blanc undertook alone, only one operator could stand the eerie silence and be unfazed. Flora was Blancs' operator for solo missions bar none. Many thought it was the perfect arrangement because Blancs onfield persona matched hers perfectly. However, hers never changed.

It was now, alone in his room that Blanc began to reflect upon his life from that fateful night till now...

"I'm gonna become an AC pilot," a young Blanc said passionately to a young Sikas. Sikas looked at him skeptically and went back to doing his homework on life during the Layered/Controller era. Blanc looked up reproachfully at Sikas' lack of enthusiasm on the subject.

"I'm serious!" he said sulkily,"I'm gonna grow up and become one, and then get that black AC...I know it did it...I know it..." And in a move that Sikas had come to predict when Blanc talked about his past, his hand reached up and gripped his head as though it were about to explode. Sikas got up and gently guided Blanc into a chair beside him.

"You should try not to get so worked up over it..." Sikas said sympathetically. Blanc looked up at him through angry eyes, and said more to himself than Sikas, "I will become one...a true Raven...the best..."

"Well Mr. I'm gonna be the best, how do you plan on entering the Raven exams with lose low marks of your hm?" Sikas chided him in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Well...first off you could let me copy what you've already got done..." Blanc said slyly and in one motion whisked Sikas' homework off of the table and began to copy what he had written.

"HEY!" Sikas' yelled in mock anger and made a feeble attempt at snatching back his work. They quarreled and laughed that whole night as they toiled, and when the work was finished and they lay in their beds at the orphanage they discussed their future.

"AC pilots." Blanc said adamantly,"its the only course of action that makes sense after what we've been through..." Sikas sighed resignedly, in his mind though he silently agreed with every word Blanc said. His parents...his family had been killed in the same attack that had left Blanc an orphan. And upon meeting in the orphanage they formed a powerful bond of friendship. Mess with one and you took them both on was what the other boys there had learned.

"So what do you say?' Blanc raised himself up in his bed and stared intently at Sikas,"For our parents. For ourselves. And most importantly...for closure." Sikas closed his eyes for a moment before rolling over onto his side, facing away from Blanc.

"Well, I guess I had better become one," he said with some amusement," someones gonna need to make sure your dumbass doesn't die out there." He heard Blanc lie back in his bed and could almost picture the smile of satisfaction on his face. 'The cocky bastard,' Sikas thought dimly before he drifted off into sleep.

And so it began with that one promise shared late at night. Blanc and Sikas both applied to The Academy, an organization which determined those suited to become Ravens. Only the most promising candidates were accepted into the rigorous 6-year program, which pushed both the physical and mental boundaries of the students. It was an environment they both thrived in, coming out in many of their classes as the top students, instructors couldn't say enough good things about them. However, the highlight of their collective years at the Academy can be boiled down to one amazing event. The last test a a student must pass before ascending to the rank of Raven, was to pass a series of tests both in and out of an AC. These tests all cumulated to a mock battle between the student and their instructor, using blank rounds and empty warheads, this was the event that decided whether or not you were ready. Sikas and Blanc both made it to this stage with no problem and eagerly awaited the chance to show off the results of their training. As they sat in the observation room with the few other hopefuls who had made it this far, they chatted idly while watching the action down below in the arena. One of their peers, Evangel, was down there battling one of the instructors as they spoke. The purpose of these battles wasn't necessary to win, most of the time the rookies failed against the more experienced and well-equipped instructors. It was to observe their battle potential...and nothing brought out that better than a good sparring match.

"So what do you think Sik," Blanc asked looking up from the spectacle below,"hows Angel doin?'" Sikas studied the arena for a moment.

"Well..." he said slowly, "he's not doing too bad..pretty good actually. Nothing compared to us though." And tipped Blanc a wink. Blanc gave a light laugh, and returned to watching the arena battle. During these battles the rookies were given limited customization to work with to test how well they could work with the materials provided. Blanc mentally sized up both the AC Evangel and the instructor he was against, now recognized as Instructor Ivanov, were using. Evangels AC's was mid-close range model which was armed with a close range machine gun in the right hand and a long range laser blade known as the halbard for its reach. On its back there was one mid ranged radar and a small missile launcher. Ivanov was using a mid-long range model which itself sported a high powered rifle in the right hand and a medium powered rifle in the left. Its back mounted weapons consisted of a set of vertical missile launchers, which at the moment were activated and locked onto Evangels AC.

"This might be it..." Sikas said under his breath. All sets of eyes within the observation room were now glued to the battle below.

Evangels AC was now boosting in circles around the other AC, throwing up dust as it went.Suddenly, he charged straight to towards Ivanov. Sikas groaned loudly as Ivanov fired the missiles, and then in the blink of an eye switched to his rifles. Both rifles mercilessly pounded shell after shell into Evangels AC. One of the others in the room, a boy named Ammo, commented, "Those shots aren't doing anything, to his armor! He can win this if he keeps at it!" Sikas shot him a dirty look, and mutter something incoherent that sounded a lot like, "Cretin." He then said out loud, "Its over...the moment he charged straight at Ivanov it was over. The instructor planned this." Ammo looked at him like he was crazy, he began to retort but was silenced by a poke to the ribs from a friend beside him. He shrugged and sat down to watch the rest of the fight. Blanc never looked away but like Sikas knew what was about to occur. Evangel continued his head on rush towards Ivanov, raising his machine gun to fire and extending his arm blade. As he reached Ivanovs' position, the instructor sidestepped his rush and overboosted several hundred yards away. As Evangel slowly turned around to face Ivanov, the 4 vertical missiles the instructor had fired rained down upon his AC ended the match promptly. There was silence in the observation room.

"Wha...what just happened," Ammo asked, breaking the silence. Sikas looked at Blanc, "You wanna handle this one? It's my turn next anyways." Blanc looked up and nodded then shook Sikas' hand and wished him luck, before turning around and explaining what occured to Ammo and the rest in the room.

"Well, it was assumed by the majority of us that the instructor had locked onto Evangels AC the moment he activated his missiles right?" he asked. They all nodded. He continued," But suppose the instructor didn't lock onto Evangel...but the very ground he himself was standing on? Thats' why Sikas said it was over the moment he rushed him head on. Because it truly was. It was a great display of foresight and ability on the instructors part." he summarized. The rest of the group sat thinking over his words. A young-ish looking girl raised her hand in an attempt to ask him a question. A flicker of amusement passed over his face before he nodded for her to go ahead.

"Well...oh my names Sandy by the way Sandy Roberts." she gave him a little wave, which he returned with a small two fingered salute. "Well I was wondering...would Angel have stood a chance if he didn't charge in or was the match over before it began?" Blanc pondered this for a moment then replied, "Evangel is an exceptional pilot, however his weakness lies in that if battle is drawing out longer than he likes, he loses his temper and rushes in headlong. This weakness is also a great strength in a certain way as is does throw one off, if not used to this tactic." She nodded ferverantly. "So I guess that Angel would have stood a better chance if he had kited the instructor and fire his machine gun...so the short answer to your question is yes." She thanked him and began to talk to her friend.

Blanc turned back to the arena as the rest of them began to discuss the battle and his words. Rising up from the underground hangar he saw Sikas' AC making its way into the arena and smiled briefly, he almost felt bad for the instructor that would have to face either him or Sikas. Ivanov was also Sikas' instructor, so after a brief break and some minor repairs, his AC strode back out onto the field to face Sikas. There was some scattered talk about the design Sikas was using in his battle, many didn't think it was viable for combat. Blanc disagreed with them, as he looked over the AC his friend was piloting he wondered if people were so shortsighted that they couldn't see the genius behind the model. Sikas' AC which he had knickname Cypher temporarily, was a mid-long range model equipped with an energy shield on its left arm while its right had a large powerful sniper rifle. Mounted on its back was a vertical missile launcher along with another small rocket launcher. In the background Blanc could hear Ammo mocking the design of Sikas' AC, he looked up someone irritably and in a sweet voice asked, "If you could kindly shut the hell up, that would be super. Thanks." And turned back to the arena. Silence raged within the observation room as Ammo made his way over towards Blanc. He stood beside him and said, "Say that to my face." Blanc was about to stand up when a voice rang out through the room, "Oh sit down fatass, you wouldn't stand a chance against him. You wanna spend a week in the infirmary over your stupid comments?" Ammo turned around in surprise and grinned embarrassedly. It was Evangel back from the hangar, he walked into the room amid the buzz of questions and said, "Well guys..." he looked abashed for a moment, then a grin leaked out, " I'm a Raven." There was much congratulation and cheering at those words, before Evangel shushed them up and went to sit beside Blanc as they watch SIkas and Ivanov prepare for battle.

The starting siren sounded and it began.

At once it was apparent that neither one was holding back whatsoever, as Sikas launched a volley of missiles from both of his back mounted weapons, while boosting backwards and taking pot-shots whenever he could. Ivanov meanwhile was laying down a barrage of rifle fire in the tracks of Sikas' strategic retreat. Sikas strafed to the left and once again began to take shots at Ivanov, seemingly random shots to the untrained eye. However. Blanc knew Sikas' style and immediately saw what his battle strategy was. Meanwhile once more Ammo guffawed boarishly in the background ridiculing Sikas' style of combat. Ivanov continued his rifle barrage on Cypher, as he ran in zigzags towards him. Boosted backwards once more, keeping the distance between them large enough to take his shots unhindered, and for Ivanovs' shots to be less than accurate at that range. The few bullets that did come into contact with his AC only hit one part, his arm activated energy shield kept the damage to a minimum. Suddenly the back of Ivanovs AC spread open and they could hear the whine of a generator building up power for overboost, as it reached the pinnacle of it charge, Sikas stopped Boosting backwards and powered forward now straight towards the streak of silver that Ivanovs AC had become while in OB. Sikas activated his vertical missile launcher and targeted Ivanov, he fired three into the air and switched to the small rocket launcher, which he fired two more from. Switching quickly to his rifle he flew straight up into the air as Ivanov blew past below him, the small rockets targeting Ivanov were close on his tail as he swerved and dodged to avoid them. One lost its lock and crashed into the ground creating a small explosion, the other still on Ivanov was about to meet a similiar when Sikas targeted the rocket and shot it with his rifle. The small resulting explosion cause Ivanovs AC some damage to the leg, the part Sikas had been shooting at from the beginning. He fired 2 more small rockets at Ivanovs crippled AC, which he managed to dodge one of again but the second Sikas shot once more this time blowing it close to his AC's right arm, rendering the weapon and arm useless. Sikas still hovering in the air heard the whistle of the vertical missiles coming back down from their journey into the sky and released his boosters as they rushed past him eager to meet their designated target. Ivanovs AC was sparking from the entire right side and try as he might, he could not get it moving. The three missiles plowed into his AC causing a moderate amount of damage and Sikas was declared the winner.

Inside of the observation room an outbreak of talk follow this announcement, Blanc sat back as Evangel sat there in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Did you...I mean you saw...?" he stuttered, "man that guy is good...I barely put a scratch on Ivanov myself..." Blanc said nothing just continued to watch the arena as Cypher walked back to the hangar and several MT's carried the remains of Ivanovs AC off the battlefield. Blanc finally broke his stare at the arena and stood up and stretched and went to use the bathroom. When he came back, he noticed that Evangel was now sitting with that Sarah girl and her friends and was chatting it up with them, while his seat was apparently occupied by someone else at the moment. He looked over at Evangel, who gave a him a shrug and went back to flirting. Blanc walked over to the girl sitting in his chair and sat down beside her, she made an apologetic movement with her hands and got up to leave. "Its fine, was getting a little lonely sitting here anyways, mine names Blanc and you would be...?" he offered his hand to her. She looked at his hand... then smiled slightly and shook his hand. A girl behind them leaned forward and said to Blanc, "Don't waste your time cutie, shes mute anyways, you need a girl that can talk to you." The girl sitting beside him looked mollified as her face glowed with embaressment. She got up and made as if to leave, when Blanc reached out and grabbed her hand. He didn't know why he did or why he wanted this girl to stay but he did. He turned to the girl behind them and said, "Well thank you for your opinion Ms...?" "Andrews, Roquelle Andrews, "she piped out expectantly. "Well Ms. Andrews, first of all may I say that you have the tact of an elephant, and probably the waistline of one too. I make my own decisions thank you very much, now leave us alone," he said lightly. The girl was shocked into silence and got up and left the room, meanwhile Blanc still hadn't let go of the unknown girls hand. He realized he still grasped her hand and slowly let go, "Please stay," he said sincerely, "I'll do enough talking for the both of us." She smiled faintly and sat down again, as a new combatant entered the arena. He looked over at her through the corner of his eyes, she was quite pretty he admitted to himself...black hair with some stylish white streaks...a petite figure and full lips. He shook his head slightly...girls were distractions, he didn't need that right now, so he began to talk about the matches, then he began to tak about AC's, occasionally looking over at her to see if she was bored. However, it seemed quite the opposite, her eyes which he noticed were amethyst, were completely enraptured with what he was telling her. Once after she noticed him watching her she lowered her eyes and that ghost of a smile danced across her face. The door to the room opened up and as Blanc kept talking Sikas entered, he looked over and spotted Blanc and was headed over when he was intercepted by Evangel who led him over to the group of people in the center of the room. Blanc watched out of the corner of his eye as Evangel whispered something to Sikas, who then grinned widely and gave Blanc a large thumbs up, which was returned by the middle finger from Blanc. The girl beside him watched the whole thing and giggled soundlessly at the exchange of body language, as Blanc turned back and caught her smiling he said, "You should do that more often...' She looked at him questioningly. "You should smile more often," he said gently, as he turned back to the arena and watched the battle raging below. He didn't see as a single tear rolled down her cheek and she smiled shyly, nor did he notice as she gently rested her head first against the back of his seat, then his shoulder, until later when it was his turn to battle.

"Oi..." he prodded her with his finger, " hey wake u...mmfmffm," his voice muffled through a hand. Sikas looked at him sternly, "That is not the way you wake up a lady...poking them and saying 'oi'...yeesh haven't I taught you anything?" Blanc opened his mouth to retort but was silenced again by the hand. He looked up menacingly at Sikas who slowly removed his hand, and gently shook the young lady dozing on his friends shoulder. She awoke with a start, then blushed once more as she realized where she had been sleeping, Blanc gave a her a little hello then said, "Well its my turn to go wish me luck!" Sikas extended his hand and they shook, while the girl sat there looking slightly confused, as he walked out the door and down to the hangar, Sikas noticed her watching where he exited and said to her softly, "Hes going to be a Raven, the best." And settled back to watch the match. The young girl sat there and contemplated this information, before turning towards the arena and awaiting Blancs arrival.

Blanc entered the cockpit of his AC and started it up, he performed a full systems check before strapping himself into the metal behemoth known as Quicksilver. He lowered the helmet onto his head and immediately he was peering through the optics of the AC. He slide his arms and legs into the harness' provide and felt them contract and fit themselves to his body. He lifted his arm, and outside Quicksilvers arm was raised as well, he took several steps forward so he was standing on the elevator which would raise him into the arena. The AC computer made some last minute checks to harness pressure and a systems scan ensured that all was good and well. Blanc took a deep breathe and relaxed himself completely, or tried to as the elevator took him upwards to his last obstacle before becoming a raven. He saw the arena slowly come into sight bit by bit until at last the elevator docked with the arena field. He stepped off and looked up towards the observation box way above the arena. He turned towards it and waved. In his mind he could almost hear Sikas saying something (I can't believe he did that.), which warmed his heart greatly. He looked forward now as elevator opposite of him brought forth the instructor he was to fight. His instructor was a very severe, and tough woman by the name of Althea Mendez. She expected nothing but the best from those under her tutelage, she commanded respect and authority and recieved both from students and other instructors alike. Blanc expected this to be an interesting battle, but he was sure he would come out on top. Quicksilver was a close range model equipped with a halbard laser blade which he frequently brought to bear, in his right hand he held a standard issue rifle, and his back mounted weapons included a a standard missile launcher as well as chaingun which his AC had to kneel down to use. He glanced over at the AC that Instructor Mendez was piloting andwas fairly impressed. It had dual handguns, and a wicked looking linear canon mounted on the back. The latter of course being set to its lowest setting but still quite formidable. 'Figures the bitch would still use something like that in a match like this,' he thought in amusement. However, what really set her AC apart from the other instructors in todays tests were the hover legs she was on. Extremely fast, and agile it would prove difficult to overcome. Blanc himself had chose the fastest legs that were offered, but they still weren't anywhere close to the speed that those hover legs possessed. He grinned to himself, 'Thats why this win will be spectacular.' When the odds were stacked against him as they were now, his true potential shone. However, up in the booth Sikas was a bit concerned. "...That AC has triple the firepower of Quicksilver," he said under his breath. The girl sitting beside him looked over at him in alarm, as he went on talking more to himself than anyone else, "The spec difference between the two is phenomenal...however they forgot to factor in one thing," he said in satisfaction. The girl looked over at him curiously. He looked up at her, "Well you see, Blancs aim is second to mine meaning one thing. His aim is accurate to one hundredth of a unit with any gun," he said happily. She sat there awed and looked back down to the field where the final preparations were being completed.

The final siren sounded, signalling the beginning of the last battle.

Blanc unloaded with the rifle at Mendez, but in a flash she dodged them and hovered over quickly to Blancs position to began the assault with her dual pistols. These weapons were by no means the strongest, but being repeatedly pounded upon by them does start to have its effect upon armor. This fact became steadily apparent as the match progressed. Everytime Blanc would try to get into position to land a rifle shot, Mendez would quickly boost around kiting him while firing shots at him. Back in the observation box, Sikas sighed loudly and said, "Boy is she going to regret kiting him so much." It turns out he was correct.

As Mendez continued her relentless assault with her dual pistols, Blanc boosted backwards away from her and her kiting and headed straight for the air. In midair he switched to his back mounted chaingun, so that he landed in position on bent knee, cutting down on activation time exponentially. Mendez somewhat taken aback by this quick activation time tried strafing left and right to avoid the imminent barrage to little avail. The whirring sound of the chainguns rotation filled the arena, and soon it was replaced by the sound of 100 bullets per second slamming into either the arena walls or Mendez's AC. Mostly her AC. As her AC was battered by the shells, she overboosted quickly to her left, far too quickly to follow with the chaingun, so Blanc stood Quicksilver up and switched back to the rifle and began to chase after Mendez. She swung arund quickly in a short arc and lowered her hover legs to the ground while bringing forth the linear cannon. Blancs eye grew wide as he sped towards the charging cannon, he estimated that he had about 10 secs to get out of the path of the cannon or he was toast. Quickly strafing right then left and right again he assessed the one fatal weakness of the AC in front of him. While firing the linear cannon, AC's without tank legs or specially modified leg parts must remain stationary. He released the lock the weapon had to his hand and just as the cannon had finished charging and fired, he threw his rifle into the oncoming beam then boosted to his left. The beam discharged the blank shots in the rifle creating a moderate explosion which knocked Quicksilver out of the air and sent it crashed to the ground. Meanwhile, Mendez didn't get out of it so easily either, her linear cannon, after being blocked by the rifle had suffered some sort of technical failure and was rapidly losing power. She switched over to her handguns and once again resumed her hit and run tactics. Blanc meanwhile had pried Quicksilver out of the ground and was taking some damage from the handguns as he stood gathering his bearings. 'Thats it,' he thought and dropped his rifle. Mendez appeared puzzled by this move and stopped for a fraction of a second to ascertain what he was up to. She didn't have to guess for long as the slim purple looking blade materialized from his AC's left arm. Activating the back mounted missile launcher he kept her in his sights long enough to get a 4 missile lock on, he fired and immediately boosted straight after the missiles towards her. She saw the missiles coming and tried to outrun them in the process turning her back on Blanc. This was her fateful mistake. Never one to let opportunity go to waste, Blanc hit his overboost and caught up to her before the missiles did and with one thrust of the blade sank it into her generator from behind. As the hover started to dived into the ground he excuted a beautiful pirouette in mid-air which ended with the halbard blade slashing the head of the AC off and leaving a long jagged mark through what was left of the linear cannon. With one more quick movement Blanc impaled the AC through its core and lifted it up before throwing it to the ground. As Mendez hit the arena floor, Blanc over boosted once more past the fallen form of the AC, and stood with his back towards it as the missiles caught up with their target and the 4 plowed into it.

The announcer came on over the intercom and announced Blanc as the winner. Inside the observation box, people were ecstatic, "Did you SEE that?!" "Some top Ravens can barely do that stuff..." "Whats the guys name?" "That was hella cool..." Sikas looked a bit miffed, he looked over at the girl, "Were they all like this when I won my match?" he questioned her. She nodded vehemently. He sat back satisfied at this while she looked mildly amused. Back out in the arena more MT's came out to get the wreckage of Mendezs' AC while a medical vehicle also was out there to pry the unconscious Mendez out of the cockpit. 'Way to overdo it,' Sikas thought proudly. Sikas stood up, stretched and then yawned, "Well," he said, "I'm gonna go see the winner then call it a night." The girl looked slightly crestfallen. Sikas noticed this and added, "You can come too, I'll bet he'll be glad you were watching as well. Come on." She perked up at this and nodded slightly as she followed him out down towards the hangars.

Blanc pulled off his helmet and released the harnasses binding him to the AC. He climbed out of Quicksilver, pausing once to give it a quick pat with his hand, 'You did good buddy,' he thought. He climbed down from the load platform and slowly walked through the hangar and into the main Ark hallway, which was virtually empty. He was surprised, 'Guess not many late night sorties going on today,' he thought. As he walked through the hallway and made his way to his room, assuming Sikas would pop by anyways, he ran into the pair of them coming down from the observation box. "There he is...that was pretty brutal my good man, brutal indeed...well done," Sikas said grinning all the while. Blanc grinned back at him, and they bantered for awhile before Blanc noticed the girl standing off to the side. "Oh hey," he said in a pleased tone, "we're you watching too?" he asked. She nodded shyly and held out her hand for him to shake. He looked at Sikas nonplussed, reached out and shook her hand and said, "Thanks." Sikas looked at the two of them and told Blanc he would call him later. He walked away with a smile plastered on his face, leaving the two of them alone in the hallway in front of Blancs room.

They still held on to each others hands, as they stared into each others eyes. Moments passed before embaressment caught up with them and they let go. As she turned to walk away he called out to her,"What is your name??" She paused and turned back, giving him that smile again and placed her bag on the floor while fishing for something within. She pulled out a pen and paper and wrote something on it, which she folded. She replaced the pen, then walked over and handed him the piece of paper. Smiling once more at him she walked away up the corridor and around the corner. He looked at the paper and walked into his room, he smiled as he read what was written there and then fell asleep with what was written on his mind.

Flora.