"…Sankari… Sankari… Sankari, snap out of it!"
The young man's posture jolted upward as he finally heard his name being yelled over the communication channel. The voice made his ears ring, and still faintly echoed in his headset. His eyes were slowly re-adjusting to his very closed-in surroundings. Small square lights flickered around his head, and three screens lit up the small space he occupied. His hands were loosely draped over handles on opposite sides of him. The monitors in front of him started to focus as his eyes completely adjusted. He could now see the small white lettering underneath the flickering lights. On the monitors he could see a long street with bent streetlights and decaying wreckages of cars and other structures. Two large machines stood on either side of him. Both of them were bipedal, but the one to his left, colored a pale white with dark red highlights, had reverse-jointed legs. The other had heavy plating, and bent slightly so that the entire machine was level with the reverse-jointed one. A third machine trotted into the monitor's view, much shorter than the other two due to the quad-legged design.
"Jeez, rookie," A female voice rang out over the comm channel. "We thought you had passed out. It took us a solid two minutes to finally get your attention." She scoffed. "That kind of behavior will get you killed."
A deep male voice quickly chimed in. "Raven, be nice. This is only his first mission since his training finished. You remember when you first stepped into battle? You nearly got ripped to shreds because you were afraid to pull the trigger on your enemy."
Snarls of irritation rumbled out from Raven, a faint thud sounding over the intercom. "You swore never to talk about that again, Befehl." He anger could almost be heard over the comm channel, sending a shiver down Sankari's spine.
"Now, now… Don't rip each other's throats out. Save that for the targets, 'lright?" A lighter male voice sounded as the reverse-joint stepped between the quad and heavy weight. His accent was quite thick, but not so much that Sankari couldn't comprehend him.
Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, all of the machines completely still. Raven broke the silence.
"Yeah. Fine," Defeat coated her tongue as she let out a heavy sigh. "Dammit, Shiloh. Your pacifist ways will get you annihilated some day."
Shiloh chuckled hardily. "I'm hardly a pacifist, m'dear. Simply a well taught negotiator." He corrected her playfully. "Now, to the matter at hand, eh?"
Sankari quickly shook his head. "Y…yeah. Sorry." He apologized softly. A second later, he felt his machine shudder and creak deeply.
"Sorry will get you killed, rookie," Befehl grumbled. "I don't need a corpse in my squad… and speak up when spoken to. That little voice will get you nowhere and won't even scare a fly." He barked, turning to face the street in front of Sankari. "Now let's not waste any time. We've got a commission to fulfill. The client wants the forces taken out in the city before they overrun the hospital five miles behind us. We have the upper hand since the enemy doesn't expect Armored Cores, especially four of them." His Armored Core turned slightly to look back at Sankari. "Don't disappoint me, Sankari. I let you in for a reason; I saw promise in you during your training. Don't make me regret it, boy."
"Yes, sir!" Sankari piped up, sitting up straight in his cockpit, gripping the handles on either side of the cockpit.
Sankari's Armored Core contrasted greatly in color to Befehl and Raven's Armored Cores. Mostly blue armor panels and the occasional red highlight heavily accented the light grey tinted armor plating. The machine's singular eye glowed a mix of yellow and orange, almost appearing golden. Raven's mid-weight mech was almost uniformly tinted a dark crimson with a slightly darker under-plating. Befehl's mech sported a main coat of camouflage green with a lining of bronze, along with dark grey under-plating.
The colors Sankari chose for his Armored Core were not simply for aesthetics. He remembered the story his father had told him almost 16 years ago. The great hero of the NEXT legend, Silver, had piloted a white, blue, and red NEXT. The machine was named "Retribution", and was the third revision he had made on the Retribution series. In honor of Silver's legend, Sankari had deemed his Armored Core the "Retribution Mark VI".
The words always repeated in Sankari's head when he thought of why he colored his Armored Core the way he did. His father had said 'We hope someday you will become that hero you speak of'.
Sometimes those words felt more like a curse than an honor.
"Alright, enough standin' around, let's go!" Shiloh called out, igniting his boosters and charging down the street. Befehl and Raven quickly followed, Raven taking the lead with her stronger boosters. Sankari quickly followed after, keeping his eyes on the street. His boosters brought him slightly passed Befehl, but just behind Shiloh's Armored Core.
"Check weapon systems. We don't want to go in unarmed. If they catch any sign of us, we'd be target practice for them," Befehl ordered as his mech raised its weapons slightly. The heavy weight mech held weapons perfectly complimentary to its intimidating build. Its right hand held a large Gatling gun, and its left held a thick howitzer.
Shiloh's mech held a Gatling gun in its left hand, but also had a pulse machine gun in its right. The pulse machine gun had three energy capsules along the top to hold the energy-based ammunition, but also gave the weapon a more intimidating appearance.
Raven's Armored Core readied its weapons next. Her quad-legged machine had completely different weapons compared to her counter-parts. Her Armored Core, Nightmare, held a short rail cannon in its right hand, and held rather basic-looking rifle in the other.
Sankari took a slow, deep breath as he flicked both plastic locks on the top of the handles and pressed down on the revealed buttons. He saw first a series of red bars trail from his shoulder to his wrist on either side of the cockpit, and then the red bars were replaced with blue bars. His mech raised its rather standard weapons. In its right hand, it held a long battle rifle. Its left hand held a long-barreled cannon, the base of which sported a wide barrier to protect the user while firing the heavy weapon.
"All systems are good, sir," Sankari called out, closing his eyes momentarily before taking a deep breath once again, and then gripping the handles tighter.
"Good. Enemy activity is minimal right now. I think now would be the perfect time to strike. Raven, Shiloh, flank them as Sankari and I take the middle path." Befehl barked, increasing thrust and heading around the corner of a crumbling building. Sankari nodded, knowing that order was indirectly aimed at him, telling him to follow Befehl with a frontal assault.
"Roger, sir!" Raven and Shiloh both responded, breaking off in opposite directions as they rounded the corner.
"Enemies are approximately 100 kilometers ahead. Be careful of your movement. They surely have recon units active just as a precaution," Befehl's Armored Core, Groller, slowed down a bit, the roar of its engine lessening. Sankari did the same, keeping a considerable distance between Befehl and himself, knowing that if a heavy firefight broke out, Groller could definitely take more hits than Retribution. Sankari spotted a large iron gate in the roadway directly in front of Befehl and himself. "Rookie, be ready. Once we break down that gate, our attempt at sneaking will be thrown out the window. Ready your weapons."
Nodding, Sankari hovered his trigger fingers over the raised trigger on the inside of the handles. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he felt adrenaline course through his veins, excitement making his heart feel like it skipped a beat or two.
Sankari nearly jumped as Befehl let out a primal-sounding battle call and initiated the Glide Boost thrusters. Groller lurched forward, crashing through the iron gates in their way. The young man's eyes widened just before he initiated Retribution's Glide Boost as well, following behind Groller.
Heavy ballistic blasts sounded from all directions as they entered the ravaged plaza. The automated voice saying 'battle mode initiating' was nearly muted out from the noise as Sankari and Befehl charged through the low-hanging pavilions. Both pilots turned their mechs to face back-to-back, guns upright and aimed at the rows of tanks and mortar troops, caught completely off-guard and frantic from the unexpected assault from the duo of Armored Cores.
Groller's Gatling gun mowed down anything it struck, tearing up the ground and already structurally compromised buildings in the process. Retribution's cannon blasts ruptured the ground with each heavy impact, sending any tanks not hit in the direct blast tumbling over foot soldiers and adjacent mortar units.
The tanks farthest from the iron gates were now rotated towards the approaching mechs. Sankari lurched forward as he combusted his thrusters' output, crashing through a nearby tank in order to avoid a volley of mortar strikes. Groller remained along its path, barely phased by the heavy strikes upon its armor. Befehl chuckled audibly over the intercom, launching Groller upward and boosting sideways away from the next mortar strike. He aimed his howitzer at the tanks and fired in between them. The heavy shell impacted deep into the ground, erupting shards of shrapnel and concrete, tearing apart the out-classed infantry units.
Sankari weaved around the tanks, blasting the remainder of the units with his battle rifle. Still ready to fight, he turned to Befehl, who was just finishing off decimating the last tank in the plaza.
"Befehl, we have a problem. I think they had a hunch we were here before hand. There's a squad of Armored Cores 150 kilometers head of you in the next plaza. From our scans, it appears one of them is equipped with a long-range Overed Weapon. Please use caution, sir!" Raven called out over the intercom as the duo pushed on, readying their weapons for the next encounter.
"Sankari, I guess this is more of a initiation than I hoped. Let's get them," Befehl spoke to the rookie in a calm, yet strong tone.
Sankari wasn't sure how to respond, so he simply nodded, almost forgetting Befehl couldn't see his nod. It didn't seem to matter, however. He knew Befehl understood his eagerness and his worry.
The road split off just before a tall tower, and both of them split off in opposite paths, mentally preparing for the engagement ahead of them. Just as Befehl rounded the corner, he initiated his Glide Boost, charging bravely into the plaza. A bright blue light zoomed passed Groller's head, nearly taking out its shoulder piece. The sound of the explosion behind him told Befehl that one of the enemies had a plasma gun, and was knew how to aim for the head properly.
Retribution was nearly blasted by a group of missiles as it rounded the corner. Sankari jerked sideways, boosting his mech sideways, and then forward to out-maneuver the missile group. His attempt at dodging did not work quite as he planned, as two of the missiles curved enough to ram into Retribution's left shoulder, staggering the mech slightly. Sankari's eyes quickly focused on the missile sentry gun placed conveniently at the corner on a slightly raised building. He gritted his teeth in irritation, remembering the trouble he tended to have with missile pods. One tips Befehl had taught him replayed in his head. 'Aim for the base', he was always saying when Sankari wasn't able to directly hit the missile launcher section.
He aimed his battle rifle towards the base of the sentry and pulled the trigger. The first few bullets missed, blasting chunks off of the building, but the next group of bullets struck along the base of the pod, causing the pod to flip forward. Just as it did so, the automated timer fired a group of missiles, which only succeeded in exploding just under the pod, effectively destroying it.
Retribution charged forward passed the destroyed pod and into the plaza, raising its cannon to prepare for the pod's user. A stream of fire immediately welcomed him in his path. Sankari boosted to the left, moving closer towards his enemy. The stream coming from the lightweight's weapon shifted towards Sankari again, leaving a trail of fire behind it. Quickly, Sankari boosted underneath the hovering Armored Core and pulled the trigger for his cannon, launching a shell directly into the mech's arm. The stream of fire curved upward as the lightweight's arm was sent spinning and crashing into the concrete.
The deep blue lightweight landed on the concrete heavily and reached backwards, replacing its long and clunky missile pod dispenser with a heavy weight heat howitzer, pointing the wide barrel at its white adversary.
Knowing direct combat would be foolish, Sankari lurched backwards, firing off a few rounds from his battle rifle at the lightweight as it fired off a blast from the wide artillery weapon. Retribution boosted sideways, facing its back to the enemy as it slipped behind the raised building the missile pod had been on previously. A massive eruption of heat blasted outward as the incendiary shells impacted the building. Sankari quickly reloaded the clip for his battle rifle as he neared the edge of his cover.
He spun Retribution to face his enemy, both the battle rifle and cannon aimed directly forward. He emptied his full clip into his enemy's core, shaking the lightly armored mech with every strike. Once his clip reached only a few bullets, he launched a cannon shell directly at the lightweight's head. The shell cleanly ripped off the mech's head, toppling it backward violently.
Sankari looked over quickly toward Befehl as the heavyweight's enemy exploded violently from a direct howitzer blast. Retribution boosted sideways and slipped behind a wall of buildings, initiating its scan mode.
Befehl caught sight of Raven and Shiloh as they slid out from the street and into the plaza, barely avoiding a heavy blue laser barrage. Nightmare reached back, the automated hangar arm grabbing the howitzer from its left hand, replacing it with a heavy shotgun. Nightmare lurched sideways as a heavyweight mech rounded the corner, its triple-pronged energy rifle poised to fire. The quad-legged mech swiftly flanked its enemy as Shiloh's mech, Sky-Talon, distracted the heavyweight with a volley of pulse and heavy Gatling rounds. The heavyweight as far too busy retaliating on the target in front of it to notice the blood-red Armored Core round behind it, shotgun at the ready. Just as it began to switch its weapons for a heavier firefight, its front core erupted in sparks and shrapnel as shotgun slugs ripped through the steel plating.
Slowly, the heavyweight fell to its knees, shuddering spastically. Raven aimed her shotgun at the back of its head and pulled the trigger, exploding the heavyweight's rounded head.
Shiloh and Raven quickly regrouped around Groller, taking the brief silence to gather their thoughts.
"How many Armored Cores were there?" Befehl asked, letting out a short but heavy sigh.
"From our initial recon search, there appeared to be four," Shiloh answered, shifting his gaze over to the wreckage of Befehl's foe, scattered quiet haphazardly over a wide area. He then looked over at the recent kill, then over at Sankari's kill. His brow quirked as his eyes darted around with curiosity. "Befehl… where is Sankari?"
All of them started looking around frantically. There was no sign of wreckage, and Sankari had successfully killed his target. None of their scanning systems could see any allied or enemy signatures within the vicinity of the plaza.
"Sankari, report in!" Raven called out over the intercom, still looking around for even a sign of their ally.
-
The sound of metal on metal sent a shiver up the pilot's spine as his mid-weight Armored Core deepened its stance. The pilot's dark blue eyes casually drifted to the raised orange switch at the top right of his control panel. He looked back up at his monitor, letting out a scoff as a sly smirk grew on his dried lips.
"They look scared. I sure hope they don't suspect I'm still around. That'd be… disappointing." The man spoke in a gruff voice as he looked over at his headset, making sure it was turned off and as far away from his as possible. "Time to give them their present," He flicked the orange switch and quickly gripped hold of the mech's handles as the monitor began to flicker, all of the status sensors going on and off rapidly. The entire machine began to shake as the large weapon on its back began to unfold. A curved panel folded upward first as the large barrel behind the Armored Core's right shoulder swung outward, and then forward as the cone-shaped power source began rotating to rest upon the machine's shoulder. The barrel was lifted upward by an automated arm, rotating to align with the curved panel. Once it locked together, the barrel lurched to the mech's front, latching onto its shoulder, creating a small eruption of sparks and fire. As the bottom layer of the curved panel broke away and hooked around the mech's right shoulder, the barrel extended, spreading out the glowing pipes and revealing a long nozzle, equipped with a bipedal stand. The weapon lowered itself down, once again sparking as it ground up against the wielder's shoulder.
The pilot's eyes narrowed as he aimed his reticle over the trio of Armored Cores about 200 kilometers in front of him. He held down the right trigger and the large cannon began to hum as electricity charged around the base of the barrel and the power source. The pilot's eyes traced the almost complete circle around his reticle as the humming from the cannon became almost deafening.
"It was fun while it lasted, mercs, but your time has come." The man scoffed as he started to ease off of the trigger. His eyes quickly darted to the bottom right of his monitor out of habit, checking the recon count. His heart skipped a beat as he heard exactly what his monitor told him.
Retribution leapt upward, kicking off front the building just behind the sniper Armored Core.
"Wooohoo!" Sankari called out as Retribution clocked the stationary mech with a solid roundhouse kick to the back.
The whole mech shook with the impact, snapping the bipedal support holding up the heavy cannon. The weapon and its user slide along the rooftop, crashing through into the floor just below. Unable to recover in time, the Armored Core lost its footing and tilted forward and began tumbling off of the building. The pilot let out a pained grunt as he was tossed back and forth in his cockpit. The force of the impact made him release the cannon's trigger as it fell, forcing the heavy cannon to fire its charged short straight down at the ground. Blue and red flames radiated outward violently as the mix of ballistic and laser ammo struck the ground.
The heavyweight Armored Core fell face-first into the flames, scorching its grey-blue armor plating as it rocketed towards the streets below. In an attempt to at least remain level with the ground, the pilot initiated the main boosters frantically. This only helped correct the angle that the Armored Core was falling at, and failed to even remotely slow the mass of metal.
The ground caved downward as the mech crashed feet-first into the concrete. The sound of shattering servos could be heard as all the built up force crushed down on it. The pilot's head lurched forwards and rammed into the control panel upon impact. Out of instinct, he struggled to flick the Overed Weapon switch back to its original position so he could attempt to fight back with his normal weapons. Just as his bloody finger hovered over the switch, the mech shook again.
Retribution landed harshly on its enemy's cannon, crunching the weapon beneath its weight. Retribution reached its left arm back, switch its cannon for a compact weapon. As the weapon locked around its arm, the opening in the front lit up. Fire and energy flickered at the tip of the weapon, crashing a waterfall of fear on the enemy pilot. Sankari pulled Retribution's left arm back, aiming directly in the center of his enemy's core. With a heavy grunt, he thrust the handle forward as fast as he could.
Both the weapon and Retribution's arm impaled the heavyweight, accompanied by screeching from metal grinding along metal. Without hesitation, Sankari pulled the trigger, and the enemy Armored Core erupted streams of fire and lightning. Sankari boosted backwards and away from the exploding machine.
With a confident smile, Sankari began heading back to regroup with his squad.
Well, I hoped you all liked this chapter. I'm sorry for the extensive length for an early chapter, but I couldn't find a natural point to cut it off.
Anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter! I intend to work on the next chapter quite extensively, but SAT practice, school, and a few other important things are a greater priority. Be patient, readers.
Also, feedback is recommended so I can improve. Review please!
