Disclaimer: RealmOfEmptiness and Andivia don't own Kantai Collection and Armored Core. Try asking someone else.
White Glint First Arc: Part 1
The sinking wrecks of a half dozen ships and the flaming debris of crashed planes floated in silence.
There was a natural pause in the battle. Something unavoidable when a totally unexpected element enters the field. It was that moment where people have to stop and decide if they should be shooting the new guy.
White Glint's HUD lit up, targets designated and allies marked. Words formed on the screen:
"Main Systems Online, Engaging Combat Mode"
The blue lights of his helmet's faceplate lit up and, like a starting signal, the enemy's cannons fired. Shells met the empty space where white glint had once been just a few moments before.
Immediately return fire from a pair of high calibre rifles came from a spot ten metres to the right. Rounds crashed into the target, a young woman wearing little more than a shirt and underwear who somehow managed to carry a pair of triple cannons in her sleeves, but she was protected by the worst of it by a crimson field of energy.
"Primal armour... Some kind of NEXT?" The question didn't leave the AC's helmet, his lips whispering the words so softly they went lost through the cacophony of the battlefield, but it rose some important questions, the most relevant of which being what exactly his enemies could bring to bear against him. However he discarded them almost immediately: he'd find out soon enough after all. And if he was lucky his own primal armour would protect him from anything he couldn't evade.
It was only when the expected support fire from the second girl didn't come that he realised she wasn't there any longer. The second one had been an odd looking girl with extremely long hair floating in the water while she cradled in her arms some sort of mechanical fish, and she was conspicuously absent from the battlefield.
He couldn't find the missing combatant on his radar, so he ignored her and charged into the fray. He dodged to the side to avoid a second volley of shells, then boosted straight forward. Closing the distance so that he could pound on his opponent's armour with reckless abandon.
His enemy had a pathetic reload time and it was far too easy to predict where the next shot would be placed. It was almost unfair the way her target would practically teleport the instant after she fired. It was like trying to shoot a mirage for her. On the other hand White Glint was firing at a practically stationary target. So it was no surprise when her crimson shield broke within a minute of him opening fire. It was more surprising that it had lasted as long as it had.
White Glint went in for the kill. Boosting to near point-blank range for the killing blow, narrowly avoiding another salvo of shells that showered him in shrapnel when they exploded. But it was too little, too late: his own primal armour burst to life in a field of blue particles when the superheated metal encountered it. Not a single shard touched his pristine frame, even as the energy of his primal armour took a hit.
It was an instant before he pulled the trigger that he started to get a bad feeling.
It was while he was pulling the trigger that he realised why.
His target wasn't even trying to escape.
Then something erupted from the ocean below him: giant jaws threatening to swallow him whole. The only thing stopping him from falling down the gullet of a disfigured whale was the fact that he was holding it's jaws open with his legs. Well, that and the double cannons down the thing's throat, which were in a marvellous position to blow him to hell.
Glint leaned forward for a moment, bending his front knee. Then kicked backwards with everything he had a split second before the cannons below him erupted. The result was a blast of hot air and a pair of shells scraping his primal armour, but the backflipping NEXT suffered no direct damage before clearing out of the beast's jaws.
The instant he was almost righted from his impromptu backflip he reignited his boosters to avoid sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Barely managing to get them going in time, his feet ended up submerged to the ankle before he began to rise.
As soon as he was sure sinking wasn't an immediate concern he boosted backwards. Within a few moments he was a couple of hundred meters back and a dozen or so meters above the waves. Far enough to reassess the situation and high enough not to be taken off guard like that again.
His adversaries must have realised the same trick wouldn't work twice. Or maybe they just felt like putting more cannons on the field; either way, soon five more whale-like creatures burst from the depths to join their allies.
Inside his armour Glint was totally relaxed. He took a moment to check his ammunition indicator. "Seven targets. Twelve full magazines. Forty-six scatter missiles. No logistical support available..." He idly dodged a volley of fire from the arrayed opposition while finishing his assessment. Then he glanced over to the side and did something most would consider idiotic.
He tossed his left-hand rifle onto a disabled ship.
"...Sorry. I can't justify wasting more munitions in this skirmish."
His now empty hand slid down to his upper thigh, where the armour opened up and a boxy object with twin prongs extending forward attached itself to his forearm.
Then he abandoned the advantage of distance and charged.
[ Play - AC4A OST The Answer (Extended)]
In the blink of an eye Glint was practically at arm's reach from his first enemy, its guns trained on his form just a moment away from firing. That moment would never come: before the cumbersome opponent could even hope to retaliate energy erupted between the prongs on Glint's forearm and took the form of a blade that cleaved right through the adversary before him.
White Glint was moving an instant before the ammunition cache of his enemy ignited. The unintended explosion clouded the sight of his enemies as he flanked an identical copy of his last target.
The instant he passed in front of the enemy his wings began to extend; he was facing its side when the Over Boosters burst to life propelling him into the enemy at over mach one speed. It was only his own armour that stopped him from damaging his own body. Likewise the sheer mass of his enemy was enough to protect anything important.
It wasn't enough to stop it being shoved at mach one speed towards a pair of its allies. The boost lasted for less than a second, but the force was enough to crash the three creatures together. Glint didn't waste a moment: the blade on his arm burst to life once more and carved its way through his enemies once. Twice. Then a third time for good measure. There was no doubt they were eliminated when he broke away, making sure to keep one of the last two creatures between himself and the other two opponents so that they wouldn't attack for fear of allied fire.
It proved to be a wasted effort when the sound of numerous cannons firing met his ears. The sight of armour piercing rounds tearing through the beast in front of him made evasion an attractive option. Though he shouldn't have bothered: only two of the six penetrating shells actually hit and those had already travelled fully through their armoured ally. The damage was barely enough to scratch his frame through the primal armour... It was still the best they'd managed to do.
Three contacts pinged on his long distance radar. There was no way of telling if they were allies of the defenders or the attackers, but either way he had to hurry and finish these two off.
With a sense of urgency in his movements White Glint renewed his assault. He chose to use one of the sinking corpses as a stepping stone to launch himself above any planned follow up attack. It wasn't needed, his enemies had bet everything on that last shot.
They had no way to defend themselves when Glint descended on them.
His blade stabbed right into the centre of the remaining whale: piercing deeply into its form, and a moment later igniting the ammunition cache that Glint had aimed for. He was starting to learn where to hit these things for maximum damage.
He let the force of the explosion push him backwards, transferring the relatively small force into a spin that brought his blade around to cleave his final enemy in two. The slim energy blade met a crimson field: apparently the shield had recharged, but that resistance lasted for barely a second, shattering like glass.
It would have been a perfect strike, cleaving his enemy's head from her shoulders with no chance of resistance or retaliation.
He noticed it out of the corner of his eye, a faint streak in the water. His sensors weren't designed to pick up something like that, but he knew what it was.
Without warning he broke off, aborting the attack. Boosters flared as their power increased, lifting him just above the projectile as he disappeared towards its origin. He was flying practically sideways when he arrived at the position, blade-equipped arm reaching down into the water. He grabbed something firmly and dragged it to the surface, revealing the form of a familiar woman, her hair held in his hand. He dragged her fully out of the water before tossing her directly upwards.
He didn't bother lowering his arm. He simply changed its angle slightly, then ignited the blade.
The helpless woman was bisected as she fell through it, falling apart as she splashed into the water on either side of him. A crimson liquid that looked eerily like blood stained the pristine form of White Glint.
"Sorry, I almost forgot about you."
The line was delivered in a matter of fact tone. If anything, he sounded disinterested.
When he turned back to his original opponent those emotionless eyes of hers didn't seem so empty. Even if he had noticed, he wouldn't have understood what that look was.
Anyone else might have recognised it as the beginnings of panic.
It didn't get any further than that. She was dead with a quick boost and a swing of his arm. As the headless body fell into the water he had his first moment of real peace since the fighting started. Just a moment to rest.
Then the contacts closed to engagement ranges. Just as another pair of contacts left the harbour. He didn't have the chance to wonder about those from the harbour because two of the three contacts from out on the ocean unleashed about a dozen missiles each on him. A moment later the allied contacts behind him let loose their own missiles.
He sighed for a moment. He was allowed that much, the opposing weapons wouldn't hit for about twenty seconds yet. They were moving quite slowly for their size. That wouldn't make being caught in between two missile barrages any more pleasant though.
He was dragged out of his thoughts when a burst of machine gun fire impacted the water around him. Now that his attention was firmly focused on the oncoming objects he realized it wasn't actually a bunch of missiles: they looked like strange... bugs with machine guns on their underside.
He evaded their fire, now intent on trying to close the distance with those contacts. Drones were even worse than missiles. But then the rest of the drones added their own fire to the one that had already reached him.
It was like trying to evade a hail of needles. One or two would be annoying, yes, but would bounce right off his armour. One or two hundred would whittle it away and start battering his frame. So he couldn't afford to advance recklessly, that became doubly apparent when they started trying to drop bombs on his head.
It wasn't a particularly dangerous situation, it was just irritating. There was no telling when he'd next be able to resupply, so he needed to conserve everything he could. That meant recklessly firing his rifle to try to take down the drones wouldn't be a good idea. Using up a couple of missiles to take down whatever was controlling the drones would be a better one, but trying to get within range while dodging fire from practically every direction was taking forever. It was made worse when a new enemy with oversized hands that carried three cannons each opened up on him. His evasive maneuvers approached levels that would have put the rank one to shame, and it was taking its toll on his energy levels. He was about to cut his losses and just hit the Over Boosters when he saw something that made him doubt the functionality of his eyes.
It was a miniature plane. An ancient design that still used a propeller, and passed close enough for him to reach out and touch it if he so wished. But that wasn't too odd, it might just be an eccentric design for a drone or missile. It wasn't any more unusual than the ones firing at him.
The fact that there was a tiny woman sitting in the cockpit saluting him as she flew past instead made him pause.
'Was that a gremlin? Those little things some LYNXs say are responsible for malfunctioning equipment?'
He broke off and observed the new support dogfighting with the drones that attacked him.
He also waited for the error message telling him what was wrong with his eyes and sensors. It didn't come.
He tried to run a diagnostic himself to figure out why he was hallucinating. Sadly it said everything was working fine.
He was about to give up and just reboot the whole damn system when a voice stopped him. "Alright~! We're going all out Hiyou!"
Glancing over to the side he saw that the two allied contacts were a pair of women wearing white blouses with red trimmings, odd boots that seemed to allow them to stay standing on the water and some odd ship like object attached to their waists. Oh, and they each had a scroll hanging from their arms, with paper airplanes flying off that then become real planes identical to the ones assisting him.
Now, how do humans reboot their brains again?
"Don't be careless Jun'you, repairs were barely finished on time."
Glint sighed when he realised he wasn't qualified to deal with these kind of malfunctions. He'd just have to hurry up and take down the enemy, then he could deal with the gremlin hallucinations.
His Over Boosters slid into position once more and he was propelled forwards with the blast of a sonic boom in his wake. It took less than five seconds for him to close to the middle of his three enemies, right in front of the one that was still trying to hit him with her cannons. He cut his boosters the same instant his blade erupted into life. As predicted, an energy barrier of some kind protected the larger enemy.
Against the force of an overbooster propelled energy blade it lasted for about a split second. The enemy was bisected nearly instantaneously. Glint was carried on by the residual force behind his boost.
He took a moment to check back on the ongoing dogfight, using the electronics in his armour to zoom in on one of the allied fighters.
Yep. Still piloted by a gremlin.
His head fell in despair. He was White Glint. Line Ark's greatest military asset. The partner of Anatolia's Mercenary. The former partner of the legendary Joshua O'Brien. He'd destroyed whole armies practically alone.
And now he was seeing gremlins.
He really just wanted this to be done now. So he raised his rifle and fired two shots.
Two enemies hit the water.
"Mission Objective Achieved, System Returning To Normal Mode"
[ Stop Playing - AC4A OST The Answer (Extended)]
That was it, he was done. Now he just had to get his other rifle back and leave: it was definitely time to get a technician to look over his new body.
After the short trip to retrieve his rifle was done he found that, contrary to past affirmations, he didn't quite know what to do. He could leave, his job was done. Or he could maybe contact the base and ask for a resupply in payment, but first he needed to know a little more about the situation... In hindsight it had been a hasty decision to even participate in that skirmish, but he didn't regret it. He thought that his partners would have approved.
"Heeeeey~! Shiro-chan!"
He stowed away his laser blade as he walked over to the side of the immobilised ship. Looking over the edge he saw exactly what he expected: one of those two allied units, the one with violet hair, was standing on the water waving her arms to get his attention. He tried very hard to ignore the planes that were flying towards the scroll she held before turning back into paper. He was already questioning his sanity, no need to test it further.
Still, he had to answer somehow. He was loath to drop a rifle after only just retrieving it, so he settled for nodding his head in response to her odd greeting.
"Eeeeh? What's with that response? We just sank two fleets, you should be more excited after that!" She accompanied her exclamation with a raised fist. "Aaanyway~ Sonar's clear, so we're heading back. Admiral gave the green light for you to come in for repairs. Drinks are on me tonight eh~"
He blinked under his helmet. It was an attractive prospect really, even if he wasn't sure he could assume alcoholics, or liquid for that matter. But he couldn't accept without knowing who was in control of the base. So of course, he asked. "Which corporation is in command here?"
The girl, Jun'you the other called her, jumped back a bit in comical surprise. "Eh!? Shiro-Chan is actually Shiro-Kun? I thought all Shipgirls were girls."
Glint's head fell again. He was beginning to sorely miss sinking alongside his partner, that had been pretty peaceful all things considered. Then he reached up, feeling something crawling alongside his shoulders, that he somehow knew was supposed to be there, before he grabbed his helmet. There was a slight hiss as the slight pressure difference between the outside and inside of his helmet equalised, apparently his armour was totally sealed. Then he removed his helmet.
Later he would get confirmation by looking into a mirror, but at the moment the removed helmet revealed a mess of spiky chin length blonde hair, with soft slightly feminine features that were still clearly male and bright blue eyes. "I have no idea what a Shipgirl is. But I'm quite certain that this body is male. Could you please answer my question?"
She tilted her head to the side for a second before finally answering. "Eh? Well this is a Japanese Imperial Navy base. I don't think there are any corporations here."
He blinked. Maybe he misheard. He hoped so. "Japanese Imperial Navy... As in, the Navy of the country called Japan?"
She responded as she put her hands on her hips, leaning forward and speaking as though he was an idiot. "Huh, did you get hit on your head Shiro-Kun? Of course it is: the Japanese Imperial Navy is a part of the Japanese military."
Nope. He didn't mishear. "...Sorry, what year is it currently?"
She kept the same expression while answering. Not a hint of deception or humour. "19XX AD."
Glint froze in surprise.
'19XX? Seriously?'
The reason was obvious.
He died in 26XX AD.
He will die in over seven hundred years.
There was no way things like ACs currently existed. There was no way Line Ark existed... Anatolia probably hadn't even existed yet.
It was with a slightly shaken voice that he asked his last question: "Why do you keep calling me Shiro?"
It seemed to be a better question than his last ones. Jun'you's eyes lit up with a mischievous twinkle as she leaned back. "Eh, what else should I call a rude knight in shining white armour who doesn't even introduce himself? Or should I just say 'hey you' all day?"
A wry smile crept along Glint's face as he remembered what little of human interaction he'd seen. "I always thought it was traditional for the person starting the conversation to introduce themselves first."
She laughed. "Ah, yeah. I guess that's right." She struck a pose, some sort of military salute with one eye shut and a grin on her face. "Ex-merchant ship Junyo~! Your turn Shiro-Kun."
He couldn't help but smile. This little interaction, it was more than he'd ever had before. So he stood up straighter, pride in his stance and voice. "Collared's rank nine: White Glint. I'll be in your care."
And that's the chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed reading! I'm your friendly neighbourhood collaborator Andivia, and this is my little ending note.
Honestly, there's not too much I want to say. Just a note on Glint's appearance, he's based off the short haired version of Ky Kiske (Guilty Gear)... Not really much else to say there.
Shiro is Japanese for 'white' by the way. That's why Jun'you started calling Glint that. It's better than just yelling "hey you" in my opinion.
Anything else? Nope. Can't think of anything.
I guess that's it from me then. Hope you guys continue to enjoy our work.
