JaphetSkie here! And this is Chapter 1 of Armored Core: Ouroboros! Yeah, I occupied 3 chapters for a prologue, character profile, and timeline, but it's for the sake of understanding the fic for a little bit. Anyway, have fun!

I don't own Armored Core or Muv-Luv

Chapter 1: To the Other Side

At Yamamoto Offshore Base, 1.5 Km away from the Anomaly

September 12, 2074

"It's kinda weird, seeing those who I turned my back against and killed in cold blood, now fighting alongside me." Leo thought as he walked the hallways of the base alongside his former mentors, Maximilian Thermidor and Kasumi Sumika.

When he became a LYNX when he was 19 at his original time, he didn't take missions right away. Unknown to anyone, Thermidor trained him for 3 years at the field of NEXT combat before Kasumi took over and taught him the things every LYNX must know. It was only when he was 23 when he took his first mission.

He always made count as to who are the ones that are present in every loop he went through. Strangely, Mikael doesn't exist here or in the second timeline. He never existed as well. Hell, not even Ex-Machina Inc. existed. It was like something wiped them away from existence, but what did?

Was it because of the experimental 5th-dimensional bombs Omer used against them on his original world, or was it some cosmic entity's will? He'll never know. He's a genius at many fields, but Quantum Physics, Philosophy and Metaphysics are not one of them.

"Something on your mind, kid?" Thermidor asked him. He snapped out of his musings and replied, "It's nothing." Kasumi however is not convinced at him.

"I know you, Leo. When you say 'it's nothing', something is bothering you. And your aura is a dead giveaway that your mind is in a turmoil right now." She explained to him.

He clicked his tongue. Nothing gets past her. Might as well spill his thoughts, he sighed. "It's kinda uncomfortable, you know. Working with the ones you killed."

Truth be told, they both had suspicions at him since his appearance, but they kept it to themselves and waited for the right time to confront him about it. By the time they did, they metaphorically backed him to the corner as he ran out of alibis and excuses to tell. He then decided to screw it and told everything to the two. They were shocked at first, but Kasumi's aura reading ability and Thermidor's telepathy confirmed that everything he said to them are true.

Surprisingly, they didn't hate him for it, but rather they understood why he did such atrocities. Heck, they even thought of their alternate selves as stupid for trying to stop him for it.

"Well, we're not the same people you killed, are we?" Thermidor assured him. Kasumi then said, "Don't feel guilty for killing our other selves, Leo. They just didn't understand why you did that."

"It's not that easy." He rebutted. "I killed more than what anyone in human history could. You think someone sane enough would recover from that?"

"You will, Leo. It might take a long time, but yo-" Then she stopped walking for a second, her eyes having a faraway gaze. She then shook her head, as if snapping out of trance.

"Something wrong?" Leo asked her. She then replied, "Yeah. I got another one of the memories of my other self." Thermidor frowned at that.

From what he observed, anyone who held close interactions with Leo tend to get glimpses of the memories of their alternate selves. He'd already seen the memory of his alternate version faking his own death at Line Ark when White Glint "defeated" him. He couldn't help but cringe at his other self's horrible attempts of disguising as another person.

Hell, Stasis and Unsung didn't have much differences at all. They both used nearly the same weapons, for goodness' sakes! Anyone could've seen through that!

"Which memory is it this time?" He asked. Kasumi replied, "Arteria Carpals. The one where Leo killed my other self, if I recount what he told us." Leo moaned in frustration at that.

"Ughhh…Arteria Carpals. Godamnit, why did it have to be Arteria Carpals?" Kasumi rubbed his shoulder in assurance. "As I said, they didn't understand. Let's keep going."

"Alright, alright. Let's just go to the briefing room." Leo said to the two as they continued on walking.

"Max?" He called to him. Thermidor replied, "Yeah, what is it?"

Leo made a request, "Can you teach me how to conjure stuff? Seems kinda useful." Thermidor chuckled, "Yeah, sure. If we make it through the mission."

At the briefing room…

"Alright. Everyone's here. Let's get started." An officer wearing a standard Navy BDU have stated.

"So, 10 out of 12 LYNXes here will be divided to 2 squads. Also, there's gonna be 5 of you per squad." He began.

"Squad 1 consists of Otsdarva, Gerald Gendlin, Serene Haze, Lilium Wolcott, and Wynne D Fanchon." The mentioned LYNXes stood up and looked at each other, before sitting down once again.

"Squad 2 consists of Hari, Neo Nidus, Malzel, Shinkai, and Julius Emery." The ones called nodded at each other, seeing that they were comrades at the field.

"Strayed, CUBE. You're going to stay back and reinforce the other squads if necessary. For the meanwhile, you two will help out the landing force." Leo raised an eyebrow to that, seeing that he's paired with the same guy he'd beaten at Line Ark.

"Excuse me, sir. But wouldn't it be a better option to have Strayed go as a spearhead?" CUBE asked.

The officer explained to the LYNX, "We already got intel to the enemy numbers and present strains from the drones we sent. Our forces are enough to take them all out. Directly sending in Strayed to the enemy will be gratuitous overkill." CUBE nodded in understanding.

The officer continued, "Here's the plan: All the subs will go to spearhead the attack. First, they'll clear out the sea of any Harvesters underwater. Then they'll deploy missiles, drones, and decoys to preoccupy any TK-Class Harvesters there, especially the damn shooters. The battleships will do the same soon after."

"Squads 1 and 2 will go and search for Harvester shooters once the landing force goes in. Our air support cannot go in without your confirmation that all shooters are dead."

"As they go at it, Squad 1 will conduct hit-and-run attacks to any Type-WATCHER and Type-CYCLOPS to the field around these parts." The officer pointed to a region in the map of Sadogashima.

"Squad 2, you do the same, but in this region." The officer said, pointing to another region of the island.

"Strayed, CUBE. Stay close with the landing force and make sure none of the sons of bitches get our forces before they make landfall. Ya'll help them get a foothold once they land to the beach."

"Coordinate with the fleet in case you need some fire support. Our ground artillery can also help you out once they gain a foothold at the beach."

"And lastly, ignore the HK-Class Harvesters. Our conventional forces and MTs will take care of them. Except for the Type-SPIDERs, that is. Feel free to shoot them if there's a lot of 'em getting too close for comfort."

"And once their forces on the beach are down, we'll set up a defensive line and will make a steady advance to the Hive on the island, while the subs surround the whole island. We'll go in and place guards at all entrances while the rest goes in and make a thorough sweep at the Hive."

"Gendlin, Nidus. You two patrol outside in case SS-Class Harvesters show up. Strayed, stay in one of the entrances and standby until reinforcements are needed on the Hive."

He then finished the briefing. "That'll be all. You got your orders. We'll move out in the next hour." Everyone present stood up and left the room to prepare for battle.

1 Hour later, at the base's LYNX Hangar…

"For a powerful LYNX, you surely never wore the appropriate pilot gear." CUBE commented as he noticed that Strayed didn't wear the HEVN-7X Hostile Environment Nanosuit that all LYNX wore. Instead, he was wearing a custom HEV-5A Hostile Environment Infantry Armor without the helmet, but with a black sleeveless coat over it.

Leo shrugged, "Nah…I got my powers, so I'm not worried." CUBE then replied, "Big words. But knowing what you can do, I can safely assume that you can back them up."

Seeing that the mission is about to start, he told CUBE, "Let's go. It's almost time." His fellow pilot replied, "Yes, let's." before going for their respective NEXTs.

Leo entered his NEXT, the familiar monotonous voice asking him for the codeword. He intoned the right codeword and commanded the system to activate the NEXT.

A few seconds later, the system declared the NEXT as fully functional after activating all of the systems and commencing system scans.

[System: Normal Mode]

The hangar bays then opened, with his NEXT boosting out towards the sea. The Anomaly could be seen ahead, with allied ships and AFs going towards it as well.

It is now official. The invasion had begun.

He can see CUBE's NEXT, Fragile, hovering above the water beside him. He could also see his fellow LYNXes in their respective NEXTs catching up with them as well.

"Alright, guys. Let's do this!" He told everyone at the comms. The others were also doing the same.

"This is Gendlin. Let's get this over with."

"This is Serene Haze. Stay safe, everyone."

"This is CUBE. Let us do our best."

"Otsdarva here. Stay alive as much as possible."

"This is Lilium, wishing you all good luck."

"Tch, luck only gets you so far. It's skill that we need." Hari scoffed.

"Hey, stop trying to start an argument and let's just get on with it!" Wynne reprimanded him.

"Yeah sure, why not…" he shrugged her off.

Leo shook his head in amusement. They might be pilots of high-speed weapons of mass destruction, but they're still human.

As their NEXTs glided on towards the Anomaly, only one thought is in his mind.

"Here we go, unto the other world. Another Hive's gonna bite the dust once we're done."

Done with 1.6 K words! Next chapter is the invasion at the MLA Sadogashima Hive. And no, Leo will never find out how he became a Causality Conductor. So far, only Thermidor and Kasumi knows about his situation. About the characters:

Leopold Hector Burzleich/Strayed (age 23, Psychic Class 5): Had silver hair and red eyes, like Kaworu Nagisa from Evangelion.

Maximilian Thermidor/Otsdarva (age 27, Psychic Class 4): Had brown hair and green eyes. Guess which anime assassin had such looks.

His Psychic abilities are: Telepathy, Conjuration, Telekinesis, Retrocognition and Scrying

Kasumi Sumika/Serene Haze (age 25, Psychic Class 4): Her waist-length hair's crimson red, and her eyes are bluish violet. There's a certain MLA character she resembles, but with a few differences.

Her Psychic abilities are: Mediumship, Aura reading, Levitation, and Astral Projection

And for a few terminologies:

HEVN-7X Nanosuit: HEV Nanosuit made out of, well nanomachines. Only LYNXes have access to these. These things function like Tony Stark's armor at Infinity War, but minus the long-ranged flight part. Its flight time is only for 15 seconds, and it can fly at speeds of 60 Km/H.

HEV-5A Hostile Environment Infantry Armor: League's standard issue HEV infantry armor. Can augment user's strength and agility, and it can tank bullets and energy weapons alike. It also have the special functions of the Exosuits from CoD:AW. Yeah, it can boost. And it looks like the Jaeger pilot suit at Pacific Rim: Uprising, just to let you know.

For anyone who doesn't know who Mikael is, it's Old King. His name is Mikael Arkovsky, age 57, Psychic Class 4. His abilities are Pyrokinesis, Energy Manipulation, Remote Viewing, and Telepathy.

That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.