For the third time, the call rang to an automated answer system. Berlioz closed his phone, leaning his forehead against the transporter window, keeping his eyes closed, not wanting to see anymore smoke rising from the Ark. There had been delays getting them back, meaning he had watched the GA broadcast while returning. He felt, wrong. Watching Exavil fall hadn't been nearly as harrowing to him as it had to Fiona who he'd been speaking to while the broadcast was on. He'd only started panicking when she told him that they were being attacked and had to leave the operations room. Had it been possible, Berlioz would have blown the back of the transporter out if using Supplice had been an option, but even he knew that at this distance, Supplice couldn't carry itself far enough. He would have fallen out of the sky before he even got half way, convincing the pilot to fly closer wasn't an option either, any closer and they risked drawing the attention of the flights attacking the Ark.

The best he could do was sit, wait and watch. Instead of dwelling on the attack only a few kilometers away from him, he thought about what this would mean for him. Exavil's destruction would be catastrophic for Rayleonard. It was likely that Victor Rayleonard was inside the building at the time, probably buried in the rubble if not killed in the initial explosion. If that were true, then losing both their CEO and their Headquarters in the same attack would cause faith in the Corporation to plummet, stock value would crash and their investors would likely pull the plug. The end of Rayleonard would not be graceful or memorable. It was short, brutal and over in minutes. What was once effectively the greatest power in the world was reduced to trash priced bonds and trademarked technology.

With it being less a question of if Rayleonard fell and more when, Berlioz knew his contract with them would likely default to the Raven's Ark. He wasn't going to lie, finally being free of Rayleonard was something he'd wanted for a long time now.

The phone in his hand vibrated, not even checking to see the caller ID, he answered, "Berlioz here."

"Berlioz! Where are you?" He recognised Fiona's voice.

"Fiona, I'm fine, orbiting the Ark in a transporter. Where are you, are you alright?"

"Yeah they pulled us out of the Operation's Room before the attack arrived, we were too close to the Ark's exterior. The Governor has already spoken to me regarding your situation with Rayleonard, he's already talked it over with the Vice President of the Corporation, your contract has been transferred to the Ark, you are no longer tied to Rayleonard."

Berlioz breathed a small sigh of relief, but as much as he was relieved, guilt chewed away at his insides. Hundreds, if not a thousand or more people died to secure his freedom. It wasn't something he was going to take for granted.

"The Governor knows you wanted out of being a Raven, but you know there's still work to be done. The Ravens are now at war with GA, you're to go to the Exavil wreckage, investigate what destroyed the building. Then report back with your findings."

The frame of Berlioz's phone creaked as his grip tightened, "I'm not liking what I'm hearing, because what I'm hearing sounds a lot like orders."

There was a pause, then Fiona continued, "I hate to say it Berlioz but whatever took out Exavil could be a serious threat. The Governor is right to send you out as you're the best asset the Ark has so suck it the fuck up. You can get pissed with me when you get back but for now do your goddamn job." The line went dead. Best asset huh? Nothing fucking changes. Slipping the phone back into one of his jumpsuit pockets he walked towards the gantry. I don't remember the last time I was a person, not a weapon. Reaching the highest point, he walked a short ways across to a small control panel, punching a code into the number pad. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, why would anything be different now?

In front of him, mounted in the transporter gantry stood his AC, Supplice. The head of which was now lifted away from the core, exposing the cockpit beneath it. Taking a short step off the gantry walkway, he landed on top of the AC walking to the opening and sliding inside, the head lowering back down, sealing him inside. In the pitch black, Berlioz took a moment to calm himself. Someday, I'll never have to sit in you again. It was impossible to tell if his eyes were open or shut, but his familiarity with the cockpit meant he knew exactly where he needed to reach to begin the start sequence. In moments, the auxiliary power flowed in from the transporter, filling the dark space with a dim glow as the display backlights came to life. Shifting down in his seat till he was in a rough slouch, he closed his eyes, taking advantage of the long journey for a few more hours sleep.

#####

The sleep came in fits and spurts like it always did. Berlioz had come to hate sleep, the way it toyed with him, giving him moments of respite and then tormenting him with drawn out replays of his past, the last few months had been particularly harsh. Three or at best four hours of broken rest were the best he could achieve. Enough to function, enough to survive, but not enough to feel entirely human. The com channel blinked at him, he accepted it and shifted in his seat, trying to stretch in the small space.

"Ninebreaker, we're fifteen minutes away, please be ready for the drop." The channel went dead. Berlioz slowly sat up, reaching over to the right. In moments, the high pitched whine of the generator filled the cockpit. He was glad that for the first time in a long while, this was a mission where he wasn't expecting to kill anyone.

A thought crossed his mind, and he reopened the com channel while Supplice ran across the board tests, "Pilot, what is the drop distance for this operation?"

"Uhhh drop is at 1km from target area." Berlioz frowned, clearly the Ark believed the threat to have passed, allowing for an extremely close insertion. He didn't like it, being dropped in that close meant potentially missing something further out.

"Pilot, I'm overriding that, drop will be at 6km from mission area, I will close from there under my own power." There was a delay between Berlioz speaking and the pilot's reply, he assumed that the pilot was talking it over with his co-pilot. It wasn't common for Ravens to go against mission parameters while outside of a mission area, but one advantage of being the Ninebreaker was that rules were frequently flexed for him.

"If you're sure then... Mission parameters have changed, drop is in four minutes at 6km outside mission area." Berlioz closed the channel, the likelihood of someone complaining was unlikely, it wasn't exa-

"Berlioz, care to explain why I just received a new set of mission parameters?" Mentally groaning, he replied "Because I don't want to drop feet first into what could potentially be a trap. Dropping from further away means I have a chance to react should I run into anything down there." Of course Fiona would take the opportunity to pick at something.

She snapped back, "Berlioz, the parameters that are set in place by the contractor are there for a reason, it's not on you to make those kinds of call!"

"Are you done?" Berlioz knew for a fact this was simple procedure, she knew him well enough that if she didn't at least give the impression she was reprimanding him for his blatant disregard for the set order, then there would be higher powers to answer.

"Yeah I'm good, everything looks fine on my end so you can prepare for the drop." Fiona's tone had changed to what he normally expected, relaxed and focused.

"Confirming mission objective, investigate Exavil ruins for evidence of the method of attack and report back with my findings" Berlioz parroted the mission briefing in front of him.

"Mission objective confirmed, please report on touchdown." The line went dead but was immediately opened again.

"Ninebreaker, we are now inside drop range, you are cleared to drop." The pilot closed the line immediately afterwards and Berlioz disconnected the gantry power line, allowing Supplice to run entirely off its own generator. The slight shaking that began indicated the gantry moving him to the now open hatch at the rear. In seconds, the wide open forests of the former Canadian North West rushed along in a haze of vibrant green. It hadn't been long since he was last able to see it, but he had been here for a very different reason.

Being Rayleonard's Ace, the CEO, Victor Rayleonard, took great pleasure in showing him off to the higher ups of other Corporations during formal events and conferences. Like a pedigree show dog being displayed to the adoring masses. The shiny glazed look in their eyes, almost salivating over him, every single time it made him want to throw up. From the moment Rayleonard had dug its claws into him, they had desperately fought to keep him, pushing for a contract extension on three separate occasions.

Had he realised the reason behind the test pilot program they started nearly eight years ago was to produce a Raven of unparalleled skill for their own personal use, he would never have signed up. It wasn't his dream to be the best. It wasn't his dream to stand above other Ravens. It was never his dream. It was always theirs. Before Rayleonard even achieved the position of leading Corporation, the second that power was remotely in their grasp, they blindly reached for it with no regard for the cost. Whatever he had believed in before, they had stamped it out of him, replacing it with their perfect vision of the world. But to Berlioz, the enormous forest spread out below him, was pretty perfect the way it was. He released the gantry clasps, Supplice idly leaning forwards until it toppled out the back.

Falling was strange. Those seconds of weightlessness, it wasn't something he ever really got used to, it was always unnerving. But after those few seconds, Supplice self righted, it's boosters burning a clean, pale orange hue. Berlioz kept an eye on the rapidly dropping altimeter all the while keeping Supplice the correct way up, making minor adjustments to the throttle. Allowing Supplice to drift forwards while dropping, Berlioz aimed for a clearing just outside a forest to his south.

Flaring the boosters hard in the last hundred meters, Supplice touched down lightly, it's feet sinking slightly into the earth. "Fiona, I've touched down, confirm mission start, Supplice switching to combat mode." The HUD adapted to the change, with previous core elements moving to secondary monitors and new ones taking their place.

"Mission start confirmed, you are free to proceed Berlioz." Supplice sunk down, it's knees bending, before Berlioz pushed the boosters to 100% and kicked off the ground. It wasn't exactly the most efficient method of travel but the forests prevented him from moving via the ground. Also traveling via the air meant he would be able to spot potential targets from some distance away. With the still clear column of smoke ahead, Berlioz kept his altitude relatively low. If absolutely necessary, he could drop into the tree line to avoid enemy fire.

However, the few kilometers between the drop and the edge of the Great Slave Lake were uninterrupted, Berlioz dropped the boosters and settled on the shore of the massive lake. In the centre, Rayleonard had built an artificial island on which Exavil, their Headquarters stood. The building was shaped like a cone that had been cut in half and leant several degrees inwards, giving the impression it was pointing towards some far off object in space. Twin rows of support beams held the highest points up, preventing it from toppling over. However, where Exavil once stood, there was a pile of rubble, twisted metal and glass, still smoldering even hours after its destruction. Small fires could be seen burning and black smoke continued to rise into the sky like a beacon. A black pillar to show that the mightiest had already fallen.

Berlioz couldn't get a good look from the coast, but was weary to go closer, "Fiona, has there been any movement in the rubble? Any signs of survivors?" His reason for asking was twofold, searching for survivors with an AC was awkward and calling in a support team would be a far better option. The other reason was for his own protection.

"No, the drone the Ark sent earlier detected no signs of life, it can be assumed that everyone died in the building's collapse. You're far enough away from population centers, you're permitted to engage your Primal Armour." Turning to his right, there was a system panel that was not standard issue in an 03-AALIYAH frame. Flicking a pair of switches on it, another small display filled with information next to the main monitor. The increasing humming behind him confirmed that nothing was out of the ordinary.

Primal Armour. Rayleonard's greatest ace up their sleeve. Developed in absolute secrecy by their AkvaVit division, a small group of their top engineers and scientists working on prototypes that could help them stay in power. Primal Armour used particles, referred to as Kojima Particles by their discoverer Dr. Gen Kojima, were the byproduct of a malfunctioning prototype generator. After multiple experiments, it was found that these particles could be molded using special rectifiers to shape the particles into various forms. What was found, was that when molded, the particles behaved like a non-Newtonian fluid. It was perfectly fine for objects to pass through the particle field with no resistance at slow speeds, but once accelerated to high speeds, the particles reacted violently, forming a nigh unbreakable wall. Once this was understood, the technology was quickly pushed to the front of R&D by Rayleonard and adapted to create a shield. The Kojima Particle system was attached to a generator and fitted to a modified 03-AAYLIAH frame.

However, the Kojima Particles came at an unforeseen cost. Only weeks after the initial discovery of the Kojima Particles, Dr. Gen Kojima and the entire research staff who had worked with her fell critically ill, displaying accelerated symptoms of radiation poisoning. Within days, all those affected died, their lab sealed to contain the particles. Rayleonard took over the project, unwilling to allow such a valuable piece of technology be discarded for being 'too risky'.

When Berlioz was selected as the top pilot at the end of their test program and 'persuaded' to sign on with Rayleonard, they presented him with the customised AAYLIAH frame, equipped with the Primal Armour System. In weeks, the new AC and it's powerful shield allowed his already high average success rate in missions to climb to 100%. In a month, he challenged and defeated the then Ninebreaker Wynne D. Fanchon, a Leonemeccanica signed Raven. Fanchon, desperate to hold the highest position in the Ark, refused to stand down even when clearly beaten. She fought to the death, dying at the hands of Berlioz in single combat.

The toxic and polluting nature of Kojima Particles, Berlioz made a note of only using it in areas away from population centers, to try and keep the risk of harming civilians by accident. But here, literally in the middle of nowhere, it was perfectly acceptable. The humming had reached an extremely high pitched whine before becoming completely inaudible. It was then that he knew it was ready, twisting a dial on the control panel. Several of the fin banks integrated into Supplice's frame shifted slightly, and a haze not unlike the one given off by extremely hot objects emanated out. Kojima Particles in low density concentrations were virtually invisible, when charged and struck by a high speed object, they flashed a dirty yellow or amber mix, arcs of electricity would cascade from the point of impact, rolling across the particle field, often striking the ground. Once the air around Supplice was saturated to a suitable level, Berlioz pulled a small lever on the control panel. The effect was immediate. The air around Supplice crackled for several seconds before settling down. Like this it was nearly impossible to tell the field was active unless you paid attention to the slight shimmering around the edges of objects inside or behind the field's area of effect, like tree branches or the grass and dirt at his feet.

The channel between him and Fiona was technically open at all times, which was uncommon as most Ravens and Operators equally preferred the channel only to be active when absolutely necessary. Berlioz had altered his com system to only effectively minimize the channel display, rather than actually shutting the channel down. It had taken some serious manipulation on his and the hangar engineers part to work this system so two channels could be open simultaneously.

"Fiona, I'm gonna move in for a closer look, give me a heads up if you spot something before I do." She laughed at him, but the joke was clearly lost on him.

"The likelihood of me seeing something before you when all I've got are grainy drone feeds and your sensor data is pretty low, just use your damn eyes and I'm sure you'll be fine" With a wry grin, he throttled Supplice up, sliding down the short bank onto the lake. ACs were able to slid along the surface of water just like they did on land as they were able to adapt their thruster power and angle to provide the necessary lift to prevent themselves from sinking. It was less sliding over the surface and more hovering ever so slightly. The result was the same as Supplice flew across the lake towards the smoldering wreckage ahead.

Supplice transitioned smoothly from the water to the artificial embankment and travelled the short distance up to the edge of where Exavil stood in only seconds. As much as he had despised Rayleonard, he had always admired Exavil as a building. Calling it different wouldn't do it justice, it was flat out strange. Or at least, it had been. The wonderful building that Berlioz had come to enjoy seeing was little more than a pile of rubble, glass and metal. He took a few steps forwards until he was in front of a particularly large segment of concrete, using the end of his left hand rifle, he lifted it high enough that he could see what was underneath.

He was silent and motionless long enough for Fiona to speak, "Hey, what are you looking at? The feed's too dark for me to make it out. Berlioz?"

Lowering the concrete, he turned Supplice to the right and began walking around the edge of the destroyed building. "It was nothing, I'm gonna move around the other side and see if there's anything there." She didn't say anything in return, but he knew that she would be going over the footage later on, maybe he'd give her a heads up to not look too closely.

On a side monitor, he brought up the footage from GA's broadcast, specifically the feed that showed Exavil's destruction. While he flicked his eyes from the main monitor, to the one showing the footage, he slowly played the video back, frame by frame over and over, trying to work out exactly what happened. Three blasts on the right hand side of the structure came first, then immediately two more blasts to the support structure that held the pillars. Finally a sixth blast was in the water, only a little away from the island. Supplice came to a standstill on the right side of the island, where the blasts had been seen. He had seen enough combat to recognise certain things, like the final blast, the one that hit the water, it was different to the rest. The fact it hit water, not metal or earth gave away an important fact, the spray of water was clearly directed, implying that it wasn't simply an explosion, it was an impact. Something landed there and it was highly likely that the other explosions were also the results of something hitting Exavil. A projectile of somekind? But that blast, if it was kinetic force alone it would have just punched a hole right through, there's clearly an explosion. But what kind of shell could cause a blast that large?

"You look like you've got something, speak up" Fiona was on point as usual.

"I think the explosions were caused by a projectile, perhaps a shell, but I'm struggling to think of a weapon system that could do something like this." He stared at the blast from the shell that hit water. Throwing Supplice backwards, he slid out onto the water, positioning himself where his view lined up with that of the footage. The direction the water sprayed and where he was standing now fit. Whatever it was, it came from roughly the North West.

"You think, a projectile did this? Yeah I'm with you on the confused side. I don't know of anything that could do this, perhaps something that was developed just for this? That was never announced?" The fact that Fiona couldn't think of anything wasn't too troublesome considering he was equally stumped.

Supplice slid back to the island, riding up the bank to the edge of the rubble again. "I'm gonn-" He stopped. His gaze locked on an enormous splash around a thousand meters away. A second one, this time not even half the distance from him. Fiona didn't need to even start shouting a warning. Berlioz was already in motion, throwing Supplice backwards at full thrust, dumping power into the reverse thrusters flaring them at twice their rated level. Even protected inside the AC, the blast rocked him hard enough that the straps cut into his chest and shoulders. His main feed was obscured for a split second as the PA field became opaque from diverting the blast away from Supplice. Where he was once standing was a several meter wide crater, rubble scattered by the blast. He had next to no warning for the incoming fire, had the first blast been a direct hit it's unlikely either his PA field or the comparatively weaker armour of Supplice would have survived.

Primal Armour was strong, no doubt, it gave an AC frame like the 03-AALIYAH a level of durability that would be impossible without. But it certainly wasn't invulnerable, every hit that the PA had to take, would erode away at the field. Kojima Particles that reacted would become inert and breakdown into harmless base elements. Under heavy fire, the level of Kojima Particles able to maintain a formed and cohesive PA field would drop too low and the field would destabilize and would need to be rebuilt. A side monitor dedicated to monitoring the flow of Kojima Particles to the field as well as the field itself showed that taking just the edge of that blast had pushed his PA almost to the breaking point. There was a max rate that the field could be supplied with particles, it was a simple case that when the rate of erosion surpassed the rate of supply that the field began to wear away.

It would be several minutes before the field would be at full strength, he couldn't afford even a near miss like that again. He pushed Supplice forward, riding the edge between the island and the water, trying to make the nine meter AC a more difficult to hit target. "Fiona! Do you have eyes on the target?" The sooner he found out what exactly was trying to kill him, the sooner he could leave. He wasn't going to screw around today.

Fiona quickly came back to him saying, "No, I have no idea what it was. There was no weapon fire alert within a ten kilometer radius of the drone I am however picking up a large signal on the long range radar to your North West."

He frowned, Nothing inside ten kilometers? Seriously? That means indirect fire from... somewhere. He looked up, the Leonemeccanica made drone that Fiona was using to monitor the mission area usually operated at around 2 kilometers above sea level, it could go higher but being a typical aircraft design, it needed time to climb. Unlike an AC. It wasn't exactly an intended design feature, but particular ACs could gain altitude extremely fast, Supplice was one of them. "Our objective at the end of the day was recon right? So let's get some fucking information and get out of here!" Berlioz jettisoned the grenade launcher on his back and dropped both rifles. Keeping his weight down would mean less to haul up.

Angling Supplice's boosters almost straight down, he maxed the throttle, lifting Supplice into the air in a single motion. Watching the altimeter climb, pushing his AC's output this high meant he'd eventually have to come back down as sustained high speed flight was outside the perimeters of Supplice's design. If he didn't burn out his boosters, he'd drain the generator's capacitors and run out of usable energy. Passing two kilometers, he faced towards the North West. Continuing to climb, he squinted at the main monitor, but there wasn't nearly enough detail to make anything out. He flew by three kilometers, now zooming the main view in to try and pick the target out. A warning flashed up, indicating a booster temperature warning. In the very far distance, around forty five kilometers away, was what looked like a bizarre blur on the horizon. Having spotted it, he quickly locked the camera onto that region and pushed the zoom as far as it would go, cleaning the image as must as he could with the limited image manipulation available onboard Supplice.

Taking a slew of images without taking the time to look at them, he killed Supplice's throttle before the boosters blew out. The AC dropped like a stone, that horrid falling feeling taking a hold of his gut. Orientating Supplice upright he touched down and spun on the spot, ready to head away from the Exavil ruin. "Fiona? I got some shots of the target I'- ACK" He didn't get to finish his sentence, it was like being shot by ten grenade launchers and a thunderbolt all at the same time. His senses were scrambled as everything went spinning, his ears ringing, his head pounding. All the monitors flickered and some came loose, flailing about on broken mountings. Supplice came to an abrupt halt, Berlioz didn't move, taking the time to try and work out exactly what happened. The most logical conclusion was that he was clipped by another one of those explosions, it couldn't have been a direct hit as he was still alive. As his ears began to filter out individual sounds from the ringing, he could hear Fiona shouting at him, which was perfectly understandable considering the state Supplice was likely in.

"Berlioz?! Berlioz are you there!? Please!" He probably would have grinned at her lack of her usual demeanor if he wasn't genuinely in excruciating pain.

"Yeah I'm still he- still here don't fret just yet." He hissed out through gritted teeth. Most of the monitors had remained operational, meaning he had awareness of his situation, but the blood streaming down the left hand side of his head made it somewhat difficult to see. He couldn't see anything on the main monitor, that combined with the fact he felt like he was falling out of his seat meant Supplice was likely face down in the dirt, or worse, the lake. AC cockpits were watertight only to prevent the pilot drowning in the event the AC fell into the water without a way of getting out.

Taking hold of the controls, he pushed Supplice to its feet, made easier that he had hands free to do this with, rather than rifles. Peeking to his left at the PA monitor, he saw as he expected, that the field had completely collapsed, however what was more concerning was that the Kojima extension on his generator had failed, meaning it was no longer producing particles to restore his PA. With his primary advantage clearly overpowered, retreat was a suitable option.

"Are you able to get out from there?" Fiona having somewhat regained her composure.

"Yeah should be fine, I'm calling it, recon complete, declaring mission success, moving t- to evac point. S-supplice switching to Normal Mode." Not wanting to give the unknown target another opportunity to kill him, he pushed Supplice forwards, lighting its boosters and sailing into the air back to where he was dropped earlier.

"Understood, the transporter will be orbiting at original drop location." The channel closed and Berlioz let out a strained sigh. Looking down at his jumpsuit, the shiny wetness slowly running down him and the puncture hold in his right side gave no impression that he was coming away from this unharmed.

"Shit."