Special Thanks to AznMagicman, deathmask83, Rigged Bomb, Gkoh, cv snowblind, the renegade soldier and alexkehling for their reviews. I'm grateful for it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Armored Core or Gate: Thus The JSDF Fought Here except for my own ocs.
*** 6th Episode: A Dance With Dragons***
"So how's the elf we saved doing Kurokawa?" Itami asks her over at the communications channel of his NEXT.
"She's doing fine Commander." Kurokawa answered "Her vitals are steady so I think she would regain consciousness soon."
"That's good to hear." Itami said in relief "But still, man this sucks."
"Do these people have a destination in mind?" Kurata asks suddenly from the comms.
"Apparently not." Itami muttered in response.
"They don't?" Kurata gasps in surprise
"Nope." Itami sighed "However, one thing I know is that being on the run is exhausting. You could say that they're going to keep running until they know that the fire dragon isn't coming after them, it seems. I guess refugees are the same anywhere you go."
During the slow procession, the caravan ran into a couple of problems when a few of the carts got bogged down when they tried to cross a particularly muddy part of the road while another got its axle broken again due to the stress of carrying its heavy load. Luckily, the first problem was easily solved when the recon group's ACs helped by effortlessly lifting the carts off the mud but the second problem was unfortunately, unsalvageable as they don't have the luxury of time to stop and make repairs to the cart so the elder told the owners to just shoulder what they can lift and burn the cart down as they can't afford to stay for any longer. The owners reluctantly agreed and with much hesitation, they picked the most vital supplies they need from their cart before they torched it to the ground.
After that certain event, the caravan's procession went on to continue as normal as it can for a few hours until…
"Commander! There's someone coming from the road up ahead." Takeru alerted Itami as he saw a faint beep on the radar of his NEXT alerting him that someone is about to approach them. The signal was too small to be a dragon meaning that it's just a person which was a big relief and since there is only one target pinging on Takeru's radar, it means that the person is pretty much alone and unaccompanied by anybody.
Itami turns the glance of his NEXT towards the road up ahead from where the signal was spotted and he zoomed in its view.
"Let's see… Who could that be-A Gothic Lolita girl?!" Itami cried out suddenly in surprise
"Come on bro, don't try to mess with me here." Takeru sighed
"No, I'm serious!" Itami insisted "Just look carefully and zoom in the view of your NEXT!"
Takeru rolled his eyes and did what Itami told but his skepticism was instantly washed away when he saw that Itami was telling the truth.
"Well I'll be damned, it feels like I'm in an anime story or something." Takeru mumbled as he watched the figure of a young girl with long dark hair wearing a black and red Goth loli outfit casually walking towards the convoy from ahead of the road on the screen of his NEXT. However, what really caught Takeru's attention about the girl was the absolutely large battleaxe resting nonchalantly resting on her shoulder. Takeru wondered in bafflement on how the little girl even managed to lift that monstrous weapon as the axe was even bigger than her own height.
"Oh, where do you people come from? Where are you going?" The little girl chuckled and Takeru suddenly felt a slight chill travel down his spine as he felt that something is really wrong with this girl and that was before he noticed that a large flock of crows were strangely trailing her as if they knew that death is following this girl wherever she went.
However, for the children who suddenly burst forth joyfully from the backdoor of the leading APC, their reaction seems to be the opposite of what Takeru has.
"It's the Oracle!" The children cheerfully exclaimed as they dashed towards the mysterious girl "The oracle is here!"
"Oracle?" Itami wondered out loud
"She looks just like a child." Kurokawa commented
"A very creepy child to be exact." Takeru adds as he still couldn't shake off this strange, nagging feeling he have about the mysterious girl even when he saw a bunch of children younger than her assembled around her, eyes full of awe and excitement as if she was some kind of famous celebrity or something.
"Where did you come from little ones?" The strange girl asks the children that gathered around her.
"From Coda Village!" A little boy answered her
"We fled from the village." A nearby wounded villager explained
"There was a fire dragon. We had no choice but to run." Another villager added
The rest of the recon team watched the villagers and their children talk to the girl from either the screens of their NEXTs or from their binoculars.
"They appear to be praying to her." Kurokawa comments
"So that outfit she is wearing is actually religious or something?" Takeru asks her at the comms
Suddenly, the girl finally noticed the strange people accompanying the villagers as well as the 5 towering giants and this caused her interest to spike up as she had never seen such strange looking beings before in her entire long lifetime.
"Interesting." The girl said softly a she licked her lips "Who are these strange people you are traveling with?"
"They are good people!" One of the children answered cheerfully "They saved us!"
"So they did not force you out of your village then?" The girl asks
"Nope!" Another child answered "It was the fire dragon that forced us out of our village."
"I see." The girl smiled before her attention fell back on the metal giants and the strange vehicles the unknown people were riding in.
"How do those things move? And what are those strange, metal creatures may I ask?"
"We don't know." A little girl replied this time "But the inside of those metal carriages are much more comfy than our own carts and those giants are very helpful and friendly!"
"Oh, a comfy ride then?" The girl chuckles, turning her glance towards one of the metal giants before she licks her lips "I would like to see how comfy it is to ride it too."
Itami shifts uncomfortably inside the cockpit of his NEXT as he noticed that the strange girl was actually glancing at his side. It doesn't help that his screen was displaying the creepy, sexual look that she was giving.
"Tachibana, do you think she is looking right at me?" Itami asks uneasily
"Sorry bro but I'm sitting this one out." Takeru replied
***Later***
After letting the strange girl join them, the caravan continued on its journey and it was when the sun has finally set up high in the afternoon that the caravan begins passing through a rocky, desolate area called Roche Hill.
"Man, there is nothing around here but rocks and vultures for miles." Takeru complained
"The elder said that it might be 12 more miles before we can finish crossing this area." Itami informed him through the comms.
"Seriously? Man, I knew that when I got assigned as a private by the boss that this job is gonna be disappointing but it seems I was wrong to think that it can't get any worse-"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The alarm warnings equipped to the entire recon team's ACs and vehicles suddenly began blaring madly which unexpectedly caught them by surprise as one large red dot can be seen rapidly approaching them on their radar screens.
"Commander Itami! We are detecting a very large object approaching us. By its size alone, it is almost as big as one of our lesser class Arms Forts!" Kurokawa informed him
"As big as an Arms Fort?" Itami gasps in shock "No way! The only thing that big in this world that we have seen would be-"
"The fire dragon." Takeru finishes for him and Itami shudders slightly as even though LYNXs were taught to fight Arms Forts in regular training, no one has actually ever fought one in years besides the ones in the training simulations found at the LYNX Academy founded by the League and ORCA and no one has especially fought a living creature that's almost as big as one.
"C-Commander!" Kurokawa cried out in great alarm "The dragon is headed for the backside of the caravan! The majority of the civilian refugees are located right in that position and if the dragon reaches them-"
"Shit!" Itami swore hard before he quickly began relaying orders to the rest of Recon Team 3.
"Kurokawa! You're in charge of gathering and leading the civilians out from this place into safety! Kuribayashi and Tachibana! You guys are with me! The rest of you, follow Kurokawa's orders and make sure to protect and lead every possible civilian to safety at all costs!"
"ROGER!" Everyone yelled at the same time through the comms.
Entering his NEXT into combat mode, Kuribayashi and Takeru's portraits both popped up at his screen at the same time.
"Commander! What do you want us to do?"
"Ever played Monster Hunter, Kuribayashi?" Itami asks "Cause that's exactly what we are going to do except… with bigger weapons."
The green visor like eyes of Itami's NEXT Kagerou suddenly glowed as its laser blades unfolded in its forearms.
"Well then, let's go hunt a Rathalos shall we?" Takeru joked
***XOXOX***
The fire dragon roared furiously as it flew over the defenseless caravan on its mighty wings, burning both carts and hapless humans with columns of its blazing hot breath.
Countless civilians screamed in pure terror as they either scrambled away or got incinerated into a pile of ashes by the dragon's breath.
One of the refugees, a young boy, was trying to drag his little sister who was trapped under the weight of their collapsed cart just as he felt the ground below his foot shook heavily and he turned behind him and saw that the dragon has practically landed right next to him, its single, undamaged reptilian eye staring directly into his soul while its scaly body basically dwarfs the insignificant little human.
Both the boy and his sister froze deeply in fear as the dragon raised it head up high, its mouth filled with blazing hot flames.
"Tachibana!" Itami shouted to his friend at the comms.
"Right!" Takeru yelled back as he fired two flash rockets from his NEXT Amatsu directly at the dragon's face, blinding its single decent eye for a good while and forcing it to cancel its breath attack as the blindness caused the beast to stumble back in surprise.
"Kuribayashi!" Itami shouted next
"Roger!" Kuribayashi answered as she aimed her bazooka at the dragon's scaly chest.
Pulling her trigger, Kuribayashi scored a direct hit with the rocket fired from her bazooka and the resulting explosion forced the dragon to stumble back even more than it could do before falling flat directly on its back.
With the dragon momentarily helpless in its position, Itami and Takeru's NEXTs, Kagerou and Amatsu, flew in and started hacking and slashing with laser blades installed in the forearms and a short version of Yanagida Industries' infamous MURASAME chainsword respectively while Kuribayashi assists by peppering parts of the dragon with the machinegun of her GA03-SOLARWIND.
The two refugee children watched in amazement as the mighty fire dragon, a creature of terrifying legend and power whose strength and fire allows it to easily dominate the armies of kings, nations and even the Empire itself, is now having its scaly ass handed over to it by just three gigantic beings. From their position, the children could see hundreds of its crimson colored scales swiftly cracking apart and breaking off due to the sheer amount of damage being inflicted upon the dragon's body and with each scale being broken off, its defenses decrease and the soft flesh underneath its armor like scales were now rapidly being exposed.
In a desperate attempt to throw them off, the dragon began flailing very wildly while breathing several columns of flames at the air on the same time. This forced the two NEXTs that were flying and slashing around it to temporarily back away to avoid getting swatted by the dragon's large claws or getting caught by its flames.
Takeru's laughter filled the communications channel before he spoke "Man, I think we made it angry bro!"
"Then let's make it dead instead." Itami replied as both he and Takeru switched to their long ranged weapons just as the fire dragon finally got back onto its feet.
Both Itami and Takeru's NEXTs as well as Kuribayashi's AC began locking on their missiles at the heavily injured target.
By now, the fire dragon was severely wounded as most of its marvelous, crimson scales were now either broken off or heavily cracked while the exposed flesh underneath was filled with immeasurable gaping slash wounds, bullet holes and ironically, 3rd degree burns cause either by the bazooka of Kuribayashi's AC earlier or by the hot laser blades of Itami's NEXT Kagerou. However, despite being classified as a mindless beast, the dragon was actually pretty intelligent and it knew when to flee when the fight is lost due to it having centuries of experience fighting against immeasurable armies and human tactics. On the other hand, the dragon knew that the strange beings won't allow it to escape and would quickly kill it on the spot before it can even managed to take off into the sky so at this moment, it needs a distraction.
The dragon's single eye swiftly scanned the battlefield for anything it can use to distract the three beings and its eye landed directly on the two tiny children nearby who were watching the entire fight this whole time.
The dragon gave the reptilian equivalent of a smirk. Centuries of experience has taught it that even though most creatures it had fought and killed were cold, heartless bastards like itself, the dragon knew that there are still a tiny, foolish few who would stupidly try to protect others from harm. Hoping that the beings in front of it are part of that tiny, foolish few, the dragon begins flapping its extensive, battered wings in order to lift its injured body off of the ground while a large fireball began forming insides its mouth.
"Commander!" Kuribayashi yelled "The dragon is trying to lift itself off the ground!"
"Don't allow it to escape!" Itami commanded
However the dragon finally unleashed the scorching fireball from its mouth and threw it at its targets with a thunderous roar. The two NEXTs weren't particularly worried about the dragon's attack since they noticed that the fireball it threw appeared to be weaker than the ones it had been throwing around earlier and that they were pretty sure that it would be very weak enough to be easily countered by their Primal Armor. Imagine their surprise however when the dragon's fireball merely flew straight pass them at a very far off angle, making them wonder if the dragon was even aiming or not but nonetheless, it was all explained when they noticed that the fireball was headed for a couple of children nearby who are currently frozen in fear at the sight of the scorching fireball headed towards them.
Kuribayashi swore while Itami and Takeru swiftly used their Over Boost in order to overtake the fireball's speed and block the attack using their NEXTs' Primal Armor, acting as personal shields for the two children that were targeted.
The fireball approached and the green wall that is the Primal Armor of Itami and Takeru's NEXTs appeared and easily absorbed the brunt of the devastating inferno.
Seeing that the distraction it made work, the dragon quickly attempted to fly away but unfortunately for the beast, Kuribayashi won't let it go that easily.
"Oh no you don't!" Kuribayashi shouted before she pulled her trigger and unleashed a couple of missiles from her AC.
The dragon saw her attack coming and quickly spun around the air in order to maneuver around her attack. The action it made managed to save the dragon from the first missile which missed and blew off in a separate direction but with the second one, the dragon was not as lucky as the second missile practically manage to catch its left arm, detonating upon connection and blowing it clean off its socket. The dragon screamed in agony at having its arm painfully amputated like that but nevertheless, it chose to ignore the miserable pain emanating from its smoking stump and continued to flap its battered wings in order to recuperate its strength and recover from the embarrassing and painfully miserable defeat it has experienced today at the hands of three, metallic beings it has never before seen in its entire long life.
***End Of Episode***
***Encyclopedia***
Fire Dragon – An ancient, powerful beast whose size and strength dwarfs every dragon that the forces of the League and ORCA has ever faced and seen. In the Special Region, this beast was regarded as harbinger of death and destruction due to its extremely destructive behavior and the fact that it only wakes up every hundred years or so from hibernation in order to wreck the entire country side. Recently, this beast has awoken years earlier than its regular schedule which caught many inhabitants of the Special Region by surprise resulting in a very high fatality count in just the few weeks that it has awoken. Its sheer size, strength, flame breath, surprising agility when in the air and tough, armor like scales makes it almost match an Arms Fort when it comes to sheer destructiveness. However, the most surprising thing about them is their intelligence in which the LYNX pilot, Itami Youji reported that it fired upon a couple of helpless civilians in order to use them as a distraction and escape. Currently, there is only one fire dragon known and even though it was reported to have been heavily injured in battle, LYNX pilots were still warned to avoid facing the creature in a one on one fight and instead try to engage it with a well experienced team if they ever encountered it in the Special Region. Strangely enough, Fire Dragon scales fetch for a ludicrously expensive price inside the Special Region and are almost deemed as valuable, if not more, than gold.