Okay, notes first. Thanks for the first review Ace of Aces, I appreciate it a lot. Anyways, yeah, Serena's friendly because to be honest, guy doesn't seems like he'd make friends with Otsdarva or similar. Nor Shamir, sheesh, that'd be asking for the guy to be nearly killed. Anyways, two side notes beside that, I'm making the assumption that Collared has a main mercenary base, where they report every now and then, and, sometimes they will pop up, like Otsdarva did before, every now and then. Another note, my favorite idea of a type of romance in this would be with Wynne and the guy you play as, so, I'm gonna go edit it a bit, major plothole for what seems to be a mid 20's to be interested in a 16 year old, huh? Anyways, sorry for the boredom. (AU about the story a little bit)
Disclaimer: If I was sitting here and I owned the series, you think that I'd be sitting here sending this to ?! I don't own, however sadly, From Software's Armored Core games, namely Armored Core For Answer.
Chapter 3: B7(first attack), an Arena Match, and a very nice brother.
Day began as it had for the last few weeks, alarm went off, I punched it, stupid thing didn't smash when it hit the wall, but, it did stop at least. AC pilot clocks, they're made to be as shatterproof as a square foot of steel. Maybe squashing it with a foot on my AC would work...Oh well, gotta get up. Besides, it'd be better than having Serena begin again with the wake-up thing. Hell, they didn't hire an operator, they gave me a friendly drill-sergeant almost. First time I did physical tests she ran beside me yelling to keep running or it's 25 more push-ups. Okay, not really, the physical tests were to make sure I could pilot an AC effectively, with good response times, and to make sure I could survive being stranded, if I barely managed to survive the generator overloading. It can take about 10 or 15 minutes, but, when the AP hits 0, you've got a generator breech, signaling a surefire death if you can't move. Lovely, morbid thoughts and it's barely 6 in the morning.
"Yo! Kid! You better be awake finally, you won't believe what came in from your brother!" Serena, as doing her usual part, making sure I'm awake, still here, alive, and ready for that day. Really, drill-sergeant/nanny/friend. You'd think I was about 10. I knew some in the Lynx War were, I think Serena was as well, so, she obviously didn't run across my brother in a hostile manner. She did mention how he beat her in an Arena Match simulation though. Before she shouts again, I go, get dressed, and open the door to a fairly excited Serena, though at times it was hard to tell.
"Kid, Hangar 11, that's the shipment place, since it's your Hangar." I nod, and turn, just to turn again.
"Okay, fine, Serena, I am tired beyond comparison, can you show me?" She laughs for a few seconds, then straightens back up, a little more serious but with a grin.
"Very well then Kid, but just to note, you gotta run because you forgot!" Grumbling, I begin running, with her running alongside. She's definitely more athletic, she wasn't even winded after the half mile run almost.
"Well then, looks like you are practicing to stay physically fit. Anyways, Kid, go on inside, I hope you remember where those cargo bay hatch releases are, I can't remember where the things are half the time." She shrugs
"Hehe..Then maybe you should do some push ups, because you'd expect me to remember each and every time."
"Hey! I'M the drill sergeant from Hell, not you!" she jokes
I simply smile in response, and quickly go press the release button combination for them. Then, slowly, it opens to reveal something that drew all eyes, it practically seemed to have an odd glow to it. A White Glint head, but, painted as my Aaliyah was. My eyes were glistening, I saw some of the videos that had White Glint in them, whoever the pilot was, well, the pilot was overly exceptional in piloting. However, it didn't seem to be my brother, so, oh well. The next few cargo releases revealed its core, legs, and arms. Along with many OTHER sets of arms, usually from Lynx War times, but, included GAN 01 SUNSHINE parts, an odd 063AN quad leg set, a stripped down, upgraded, Aaliyah reactor made to be the same weight and power of an X-Sobrero generator, and plenty more besides that!
"Kid, when you're done staring, you really should come over and see this..." Serena slowly said, looking at the Weapons screen. I walk over, with a still-stunned expression. I felt my knees grow weak, sitting there, right in front of me, was most of the weapons, reading as SOLD on my screen. Awe-struck, and wanting to prove it real, I pressed the Weapons button on the screen, which made the four weapons racks disappear for a moment, then come back, loaded with every single weapon there was on there reading as SOLD.
Almost right as soon as I could recover, I had a message on the screen, I opened it, and, well, Serena couldn't resist knowing what it said. It read like this:
Hey little brother, I know you just started, and, that plenty are not going to enjoy this, but, you're my brother. I figured this little 'startup' gift for surviving thus far should be good enough to let you survive what's going to happen. I wish I could say a lot of this in person, but, at present my duty's to my Company, so, I cannot be there to see your dumbfounded expression that I know you have. Anyways, little bro, this might help you out, I've had the Aaliyah frame before, particularly hard to handle with standard equipment. However, this bonus should help. No need for the thanks little bro, I know you'll get along just fine with this stuff. See you some point. Your older brother
"Well, as I expected, that'd be my brother. Hang on..." With an excited look, I look to Serena, who just laughs, saying
"Yes, they are all your weapons, and parts, no one else's. So, if you want to do an AC test or similar, go ahead. Oh, and since I'm thinking about it, you actually can test yourself against my personal skills in an AC, I was in the Lynx Wars you know, so, it'd be nothing to fight against you." She said, smiling and apparently being a little full of pride.
"I might do that at some point, it might help. Anyways, thanks, I guess I got testing to do, this will be fun."
"Well, I'll leave you to it, there's an MT and Normal test set in your AC, so, just test the parts you wish to use in the Test specs. You can't modify which MTs and Normals you run across, but, you can adjust your parts. It'll give you an estimation of how good it'll do."
"Okay, thanks Serena, see you"
She walks off, and, I, still very excited, jump into the cockpit, and immediately begin testing the new parts, which turn out to be quite effective in many cases. And, for some reason, the White Glint legs slowed it down a lot, resorting to use the 061AN04 quad legs working with the White Glint core, head, and arms, which instantly made the thing shoot off at high speed. A selection of weapons helped out a lot, I found out that the X-Sobrero generator was particularly powerful at being able to provide EN, if a bit shorthanded on KP. I didn't know where my brother got this stuff, but I had a few ideas, the biggest one was that he took prototype parts from a Line Ark raid, and sent the parts he had and bought using his own account he sent to me.
"Well, if you're ready, then we might be able to give you an Arena Match, since you can actually adjust to your specific style" Serena said, showing her odd tendency at times to pop up.
"Yeah, who's my first one? Anyone to worry about?" I asked, while still admiring the blue NEXT that was to be mine.
"No one to worry about, he's using a GA NEXT that uses mainly demo equipment, if it was anything to worry about, it was very little. Mainly, this is to see if you're good enough to take down another NEXT." Serena said, while going over to a chair and sitting on it in a relaxed way.
"Okay, I'll take it" I reply, going to grab my new suit,
"Hold on there Kid, there's just one quick thing for you, you can do this stuff from your NEXT, as expected, but, it can be run as a sim. I'll explain it to you, you power up the NEXT, as usual, but do not power up the weapons or the NEXT's parts, you power up the FCS, and the network connections. You sign in, and make sure that you click Arena Match, and accept the ranked 30 match." She said, looking over the completed NEXT as well.
"Doesn't sound terribly difficult, okay. I'm going to use the equipment I have on there now, so, do I change anything about it?" I ask, going to the cockpit of the NEXT
"No, it uses the weapons on there now. Here's the rules:Just fight, and beat him, seriously, this guy's never won an Arena Match, don't be the first." She replies, getting up and walking away. "Oh and one last thing, don't beat him too badly." She grins
"Fine, take all the fun out of it..." I smile back, knowing she's joking.
After saying bye to Serena for a bit, I quickly go to my NEXT, and do just as she says. The guy's online, accepts, and I quickly chose Old Peace City, and, beginning on the southeastern side of the map, I quickly see if might be helpful in taking down those with a ton of explosives. I boost off to the left, and see a little white Kojima Particle cloud that signaled Overboost. I smiled, knowing full well he was sacrificing a part of his shield. I simply chuckle, and still using my 750 KM boost, meet him in less than a second, and started using an old Sirius and a new GA gatling gun for the left arm. The Sirius seemed to clang, and a shot rang out, taking almost 8000 of AP out, smiling, I open up with the Gatling guns, which do a terribly large amount of damage, and circle him. He kept trying to use his Dozar attachments to melee, but, I dashed around it. After a couple of Sirius shots, and a fair amount of rounds from the gatling gun, he switched tactics and attempted to use his shoulder weapons to catch me, which worked little, I weaved and dodged them easily, and finished him off with a final shot from the Sirius.
Yawning a little from the easiness of the match, I jump out of the cockpit and do some more testing around with weapons. An hour later, Serena comes back again.
"Heard you completely kicked that guy out, not even a single hit. Nice, only the top Lynx could say that when they were at your ranking" Serena said, while watching me continue to test weapons for the NEXT.
"Really? Sweet, maybe I should keep going until I face them one on one"
"Haha, slow down a bit though Kid, go do some missions. Which, by the way, you got a new one, you're to attack B7, and clear it out completely. Nothing big is there, just Normals and MTs, routine stuff." Serena mentioned, and pointed to the briefing room "Though you gotta sit through that briefing again about the mission"
Sighing, "Okay Serena. I'll go to the briefing." As usual, the recorded mission briefing. It seemed odd, even with Line Ark a major threat, the League still decided to wage their own petty wars between themselves. How much of it was Line Ark's fault I'd yet to see, because the League was fairly corrupt, and needed to be redone. But, for a merc my level, that matters about zero on the scales. Serena, before I left the briefing, also mentioned my suit was ready.
I walked over to where my suit normally sits, and, it looked similar to the rental, but, in excellent condition, with my name, SMITH, DAVEN. I put it on, and it felt completely right. Smooth, smelled new, no limitations in movement, slightly cool, and actually soft. Before I got in my NEXT again, I asked what it had on there, and Serena basically said it was similar to having a full-body conditioning thing, where it adjusted temperatures to suit climates and if it noticed the pilot was beginning to heat up because of combat, it immediately cooled down somewhat, to help counter sweat, and keep the cockpit bearable.
I quickly power up the AC, and finally hear the X-Sobrero generator full-force. It was quiet, as some of the technology was, and the NEXT immediately responded to everything almost, it was just as sensitive as it was on the tests. Smiling, I take it to the launchpad.
"New name for the NEXT huh? I take it you like the name, and that it goes fast then. Strayed Glint, you can take off, go get 'em Kid." Serena said.
"Roger that Serena." G-forces hit again, but, this time even less, I assumed the suit also had a G-reduction thing.
"Okay, yeah, it's fast, I don't think Shamir's Red Rum really compares to that, you're going over 700 kilometers an hour there, are you using a light overboost or something?" Serena asked
"Nope, not in the least, I wonder about overboost, I'll use it." I said, toggling overboost, which sent it maybe 900 kilometers faster in less than a second.
"Okay, okay, I get the point braggart, use regular boost, because you're getting close to B7. The gates will automatically open." Serena reported, returning to her operating voice.
"Fine, roger Serena, I'll cut the mike off." I said, muted the mike.
"Okay, good, you're next to the base, drop in and neutralize the targets."
The bay door opened, and revealed a sharp drop off, which I jumped down. Twice that happened, before I ran into anything, and, it was a few small Normals, which were taken out almost immediately with the Gatlings.
"Warning, enemy inbound, believe to be an enemy NEXT" a female operator rang out.
"Took 'em a while to notice..." I mutter to myself, boosting down the final drop off. Almost immediately I noticed the heavy Normals, and boosted forward, firing both Gatlings at the Normal, shredding it to bits before it finally explodes. The others managed to turn around fast enough and fire their weapons, which I deftly dodged, and took down another with a Sirius shot and the other with a burst of gatling. Happy with the results, I boost through the doorway, and in very short order run into a small group of lighter class Normals, which said hello to a smattering of Gatling ammo and fell to pieces. Not too far after, another group of heavies was waiting, on was reduced to scrap and glowing hunks of the titanium-steel alloy, the other was so holey it looked like a gray Swiss cheese. Another set of talk that I didn't catch from the enemy radio, and another small wave of light Normals, that were obliterated, and a final group of heavy Normals. Opening the barricade with my Sirius key, I decide to head left.
"This is simpler than I hoped..." I muttered, as I went through another group of Normals. The next set of barricades fell fast as well, and then I ran across what seemed to be small gun-turrets to a NEXT, and another small set of light Normals and heavies. All of them fell beneath the fast firing gatling guns.
"Reinforcement Normals sent from HQ"
"Two final groups, then this slow mission is over. AP is still over 35000" I say to myself, breaking the silence as I like to do still. After about 5-10 seconds, I'm sitting in front of a similar group, which fell just as fast beneath the shoulder gatling and the Sirius cannon.
"If this is all, then I have nothing to worry about..." I said, almost yawning. I sometimes barely noticed the side quick boosts, since the suit was dampening it effectively. The last group was up on the first level up to return, and was turned into glowing hunks resembling both Swiss cheese again and little pieces of glowing metal ready for a furnace.
"Mission complete, good job out there Kid"
Finally able to stop the mute on the helmet, I happily said "If these Normals get any easier, then I may as well just send in my NEXT with no weaponry besides fists and feet, and kick their butts across the mission-space. Seriously, this was by far one of the easiest."
"Just you wait Kid, you'll be eating those words soon." She said, in her normal voice. "Though to be honest, 'soon' doesn't mean tomorrow or anything, so, guess we might as well find out." She replied to herself, in her operator voice.
"Okay, okay, fine. Almost back to base, ahh, I miss outside from being in that place." I said, taking my helmet off and opening the hatch of the NEXT when I landed, walking the thing to the hangar.
"I wouldn't doubt it Kid, watch out on number 5 runway, Rai-Den's coming in again, and number 3 runway, Otsdarva." She said, making sure to sound like she was mentioning something that should be overall hated with Otsdarva.
"I remember, the LAHIRE frame. Not a bad setup on weapons, based off the vids of his fighting. Nothing compared to White Glint though." I said back.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, welcome back, make sure to head to debriefing immediately. Oh, and your 'friend' Wynne stopped by during your mission wanted to see how you were doing. I wouldn't doubt that you like her either, I can bet already that you're smiling at that prospect." She said, in a serious voice again.
"Oh, come on! I can't win with you around at times!" I said, smiling.
"Why do you think they made me your communications officer, or rather as I know you think, drill sergeant? Because I tend to get to know people well."
"Good point Serena, fine, fine, I'll go make sure this NEXT is repaired, I'll be in the briefing room in a few."
A mechanic, obviously new, scrambled up the paths to the cockpit of the NEXT, almost falling down in the process, since the thing was still swinging around.
"Hey, how new are you? I've not seen you around lately." He looked at me, dumbstruck for a second, then...
"Your main mechanic was transferred out to an Arms Fort, I'm his new replacement! So, what's the problems?"
"Paint got a little dinged up, armor might need slight replacing in some sections, but isn't this your job to figure this stuff out?" I said, climbing out of the thing.
"Well...Okay, fine, yeah."
"Figured. Anyways, what's your name? I'm curious, since I've no idea what it could be." I said, taking a look back.
"Eh...James Carlton. Yours must be...Smith Daven?" He said, taking a quick look at the name on my suit.
"No, it's last name first, Daven Smith is my name, or, if you talk to Serena, Kid...Oh well." I began walking away. "Nice to meet you James, see you later."
"Okay, see you later Daven."
Walking into the debriefing, they basically congratulated me, gave me the check, and said to move on, Otsdarva's coming for his own check from his mission.
Grumbling a little bit, I get out of the room, and run into Serena and Wynne, who are talking together, and hadn't noticed I was there yet.
"Hey Wynne and Serena, how's it going?"
Wynne managed to look at me first, since she only had to look past Serena.
"Pretty good, just wanted a few questions about how you're doing from Serena, since, well, the higher-ups don't feel like reading reports about a rank 30 Collared member, and would want some lackey to do all their work. I swear that this job just gets nicer and nicer. At least the jobs still hold some pride, if not much, I don't enjoy killing just for a paycheck really."
Serena, who was turned around by this point, gave me a quick smile, and said
"Well, she was also wondering about more than just that, though of course, if I mention anymore, she may just decide to face me off in her own NEXT, and, I was ranked in the top half of the old 40, but, that doesn't mean anything compared to the rank 3 Collared" I sighed, before replying.
"Umm, okay Serena. Anyways, Wynne, nice to see you again, but, I need to get out of this suit."
"Likewise Daven. Well, if it's okay to call you that anyways."
"Oh, it's just fine Wynne, I don't mind at all" I said, with a quick smile.
When I came back in jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, Serena was standing there waiting.
"I knew you liked her. Haha, and she likes you too, apparently. Not all of the questions were official type things you did for a normal report to higher-ups." Serena said, walking with me.
"Okay, but what can I do about that just yet? Otsdarva knows me as this guy who's likely to defect, and the higher-ups don't trust me since my brother went off the radar."
"True Kid, but you gotta remember, there's a time to fight, and a time to eat! And I know you've not had lunch either, so I may just be tempted to have you do 50 or 75 push ups and say you'll never skip a meal again." She said, with a grin, showing it was a joke.
"I'm starving and I have to do push ups?! Great, they did assign me the drill sergeant from hell for sure!" I said with sarcasm.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, don't go complimenting me. Flattery doesn't work, push up counts do!"
"You're crazy...Fine, fine, I'll go eat before you make me do a run around the base too."
Apparently, she never though of this, as she suddenly stopped, and had an evil smile.
"Good point, next time you skip, you have to run around the base, and if you skip again, you run twice, and so on. That oughta scare you into eating."
"Okay, drill sergeant from hell doesn't sound like enough, but I'm going to eat now Serena, so, happy?"
"Okay, okay, see you later Kid." She said, before splitting off before the cafe on the base.
The cafe, well, it looked like a cafe from the 21st century. Tiling on the floor, though instead of the old stuff, it was a composite of plastic, concrete, and for some odd reason, kevlar, though the reason for kevlar still escaped about 99% of everyone. The only truly major difference was the trays were automated to move across the counter on their own, and the teller machines just had to scan your ID.
I grabbed an MRE, for some reason, GA still had the bright idea of using this stuff, though it wasn't all bad. The turkey soup in this one was good, generally. I checked the back of it, and was happy it was set to expire 10 years after the date. Swiping the ID card, I go off and sit, eat, find the dessert in the MRE severely distasteful, and happily move on, before bumping into Otsdarva, who quickly began yelling he'd fight me if I ran into him again.
I managed to laugh all the way to my room, where I opened an old book, settled down to read, and, then fell asleep, thus marking another day down.
There you go, another chapter down. Sadly, my game disc has decided to quit working for the moment, but, I'll get it to work again. Sorry about how late this chapter is, though with all this extra stuff, I guess that's expected.
