Standard Disclaimer here. I do not own Armored Core or Tenchi Muyo War on Geminar. This is a work of fanfiction. The previously stated properties belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 11: War for Answer.
"Where are they Miss Haze?" I asked as our forces were getting ready for battle The week had passed slowly as we pushed the training and for repairs to the damaged frames. Mexiah had worked around the clock with Wahanly to repair the mechanoids with other Sacred Mecha-Guardians to be ready for the beginnings of war. Theresia had drawn short straw and so she was currently baby sitting Kenshi in the event that our kind of tech showed up on their end of things. She had several GA SOLARWINDs and Aldra GOPPERT-G3s as back up to hold the line long enough in the event that a NEXT showed up. We had taken up seperate positions in pairs while we had other NORMALs spread around. Many of the BFF Silent Avalanche NORMALs were camoflaged around the outside of the valley hidden in the trees in powersave mode while a number of Aldra and GA NORMALs were station around the school and we had finished off with a number of Arisawa ZENGAME at various entrances and around the valley edge. Kenshi's team of Mechanoids were staying relatively close together with others of their small army, but spread out enough that a well placed explosive round wouldn't take them all out like I had shown them the first and only time they fought Insanity.
"The Land Crabs are a little ways off still, when they come within range of the small cannons I will have Motherwill open fire. I'll save the long range cannons for a 'just in case' scenario but I don't think we will need them." She said to us as she scanned the area with Motherwill's sensors. Motherwill's flight decks were opening up and the A.I. controlled NORMALs were either bracing for long range sniping or getting into position to let off their missiles and defend the Motherwill. The missile batteries were all opening up and the smaller long range cannons were tracking for targets. there were a number of Omer flight NORMALs in the air patrolling. All the A.I. reporting to Motherwill's more advanced A.I. system that was assisting Miss Haze in the control room and reporting anything critical that she couldn't keep track of. Our own personal A.I. were busy running a variety of system checks and scans for us, they were learning at a fast rate and becoming more familiar to us, though they still gave me the creeps, not to mention since Insanity's A.I. was starting to turn into something of a smart ass, I could hear Canis arguing with his own which was nagging him constantly. His was turning into a worry wart and bugging the hell out of him on procedure and tactics and such, generally just making a nuisance of itself, which I was almost glad that mine just let me do my own thing knowing I wouldn't listen to it... almost...
"Systems are functioning normally. A few glitches in the firing system have been corrected and that little quirk in the air condition? Just took care of that too, thank you very much. You know, you really are lazy when it comes to repairing these minor issues. do we need an intervention?" Isanity rattled off its report and checks to me. knowing full well the last bit was going to annoy me.
"Insanity?" I asked through gritted teeth. looking up at one of the cockpit cameras, basically looking it 'in the eye'.
"Yes Darien?" It said in reply. I could practically see its grin since its tone made very clear it was being as sarcastic as possible.
"Shut Up." I growled before glancing over to where Lily and May were stationed. A small army of SOLARWINDs were close by to back them up as well as standard snipers who were lined up in rows close by who were be following Lily's orders. Their team was to defend the Holy Land while Canis and I were to harrass their Arms Forts and their defensive forces protecting them. The sniper NORMALs had orders to start firing as soon as they came even close to range while the SOLARWINDs were to smoke anyone else out of hiding. Everyone had orders to keep them busy while Kenshi and his force took care of the Mechanoids and Mechaworkers. All other noncombatants were send to safety deep inside the Holy Land or to Motherwill. Some of them were assisting Miss Haze and the principal in the command center. We had spent as much time as we could training some of Kenshi's wives to handle working in the center as Operators and working the instruments, some had been trained as gunners and were controlling at least half of the guns and missiles.
"Dare the drones report that the Arms Forts have stopped outside our range of fire and have started unloading NORMALS and Mechaworkers. Some of the workers appear to be modified to carry carts full of Mechanoid pods and what appears to be some kinda of launcher for them. I guess some of the fighters from the Holy Land war took a leaf from Kenshi's book to get their mechanoids into the Holy Land. They are outside of the draft so we can't send any of the mechanoids but I sent some of the Omer ARGINEs to harrass them and destroy as many as possible though they have a number of SOLARWINDS protecting them, some of the NORMALs dashed into the trees and are trying to avoid detection from camera and have deployed ECM. Still scanning for NEXTs but I suggest checking the forest for those NORMALs. I'll keep you posted if the drones or NORMALs spot anything." Miss Haze said as she gave us what intel was available to us. Canis and I flying up and towards the direction of the forest and the Arms Forts, both of us landing on the cliffs and skating into the trees. We could see the ARGINEs flying above and ahead of us.
"Dare, the Land Crabs are on the move again. They are starting to rush in now. They chased off the drones so if there was a time for the NEXTs to come out it would be now, so be aware." Miss Haze said over comes as Canis and I skated further into the forest while keeping our eyes on our radars waiting for anything that showed up or if we encountered ECM we would know that they were in the area.
"Darien, ECM detected to the north" Insanity said as it was checking whatever didn't have my attention for the moment. as annoying as it could be it did know how to do its job.
"Roger that, Canis you heard it, lets move." I said as Canis and I veered north we saw the ARGINES swooping down dive bombing their targets and saw return fire up ahead and so we both Over Boosted to get there. The first shots had been fired. the war had begun. Canis and I boosted into the fray. I stayed low cutting down anything that was close by with the MOONLIGHT while CANIS flew into the air and started firing missiles all around. We were trying to get closer to the mechanoids and mecha-workers as the mecha-workers pulled their carts and others pulled their catapult/slingshots, loading up Mechanoids and weapons and getting them in range before starting to launch off as many as they could. We could see the long range cannons firing from Motherwill at the LANDCRABS while they rushed foreward, firing cannon rounds and strafing laser at the Motherwill or at our supporting NORMALs. Motherwill's cannons also targeting as many of the flying Mechapods and weapon barrels as they could hit.
"Dare we have NORMALs touching down down on the Holy Land, mechanoids too, they are morphing as they drop. Kenshi's troops are engaging and our NORMALS are engaging the opposing NORMALs as they land. A few tried to get close to Kenshi though Theresia blasted them apart." May said over comms reporting their situation. I took a quick glance at the window that popped up showing what they were seeing.
"How are the girls doing on the guns?" I asked while dodging a SOLARWIND blasting its bazooka at me. Boosting to get around it before I cut it in half. The ARGINEs were down to half their number though they at least took out a good deal of the mechanoids, workers and many of their NORMAL guards. Canis and I were boosting all over the place, Canis destroying many of the SOLARWINDS with single shots from the BECRUX while keeping others moving with his Omer rifle.
"they seem to be alright, they are at least hitting targets though I doubt they would be lethal shots if not for Motherwill's A.I. they seem to be highly relunctant to deliver lethal blows." Lilium said while she was busy dodging missiles launched from a NORMAL before she took it down with her laser rifle. She was busy taking out a number of enemy ARGINEs and DULAKEs with her long range weaponry while May was destroying a lot of the less armored NORMALs with single shots from her bazooka or raining pain with the gatling gun or her vertical missiles. the two of them worked well together.
"Some are leaving their controls and Motherwill is taking over, not that big a deal but it makes the point that they are not ready for real war." Miss Haze said over comms while she kept shifting targets for the cannons and missiles taking on whatever seemed most critical. "A few are sticking it out and are getting less and less help from Motherwill. they seem to be taking the more deadly aspects of war better than others and- Oh crap, flying jeep. " Miss Haze said over the comms and she send what she was seeing on screen as we saw a number of heavy choppers rush in over the edge and fly low. releasing full armed and armored jeeps with full crews. looks like they were armed with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. the jeeps rushing around avoiding fire while firing at our mechanoids. heavy assault helicopters were rushing in and keeping everyone busy with missiles and rockets the Mechanoids taking a lot of damage mainly because of the choppers.
"Miss Haze send out another wave of ARGINEs and have the snipers start targeting the flyers. Theresia have your NORMALs start firing on the jeeps before they do any real damage and make sure we don't get any runners. We do not want to have to chase them around on foot anywhere inside. " I ordered seeing the battle in the Holy land start to get more complicated, that was before I felt a heavy bazooka shell impact and explode in my back. I turn boosted around, thinking that that felt a lot more destructive than usual for a GA NORMAL grade bazooka and I got my answer. There was a GA NEXT behind me that took me by surprise.
"Darien I just saw a large chunk of your AP drop, what just happened?" Miss Haze said over comms. focusing back on me and linking to my camera's and saw what I saw. "Ahh hell, we got NEXTs." She said while trying to scan the area and get targeting solutions for the cannons and missiles. I boosted away dancing out of the way of a barrage of vertical missiles only to take a sniper round to the chest and I saw an IRREGULAR flying far off and another NEXT that jumped up and was firing away with a small sniper cannon and what looked like PM vertical missiles. I had to rush out of the way as fast as I could while being sniped at before taking another heavy bazooka shell in the back followed by a very heavy missile. Canis overboosted over to me and took the second missile though I still got a good chunk of the backlash. both of us heavily damaged in the suprise attack. The backup ARGINES flying our way while Canis and I overboosted to get away and let our KP recharge and give us breathing room to regroup. That ambush almost took us out with the heavy firepower. Our rear cameras scanning the enemy NEXTs one was a old heavy SUNSHINE model with two BIGSIOUX on its back and a GA Bazooka in the right hand and a arm mounted gatling gun on the left. the flying sniper was definately an irregular with BFF 063 head and 047 arms, a TELLUS core and EKHAZAR legs. a heavy BFF 061 sniper rifle in it's right hand and a 051 rifle in the left. it looked like OSAGE and MP-901 vertical missiles on its back and the other sniper was a more traditional BFF 047 with assault rifles in its hands and a small sniper cannon and another 901 on its back. Both snipers had BFF flares on their arms so it was going to be tricky hitting them from a distance.
"Darien get out of there now! Regroup back on the island." Miss Haze yelled over comms while Canis and I booked it as fast as we could having to dodge a lot of missile barrages and the heavy missiles. and still getting hits from the sniper rifle and cannon. they certainly were not amateurs and were working together covering each other. the SUNSHINE was the muscles but the other two would keep us busy from ganging up on him. Especially after that devastating ambush.
"Kasumi fire the large cannons and missiles at them, we have to keep them off Dare and Canis until we regroup." Theresia called over comms while Kenshi and his small army were busy fighting off a swarm of mechanoids. I could see that the boy was much better against an opponent on their terms. He and his wives were pushing back the enemy mechas. He and Chiaia were especially skilled together as she seemed to have copied a few of his moves. Wahan using her gunpowder cannon next to Yukine while Aura and Lithia provided long range archery fire. Theresia was next to Lapis who was watching everyone elses backs with her spear and backed up by the Rainbow Quartet. Morgan was in the thick of a large gathering of mechas as she ripped them appart with her axes. everyone else leaving her to her own devices.
"You know, that really friggin' hurt..." Canis said to me as we boosted to the island and landed close to the girls. Lily and May catching use and helping us upright while the cannons sounded off and we saw the massive projectiles fly past into the woods followed by a thick barrage of missiles. Lily firing over my shoulder with her laser rifle as the NEXTs were dodging back and forth trying to avoid the sudden assault from Motherwill. they might have been able to dodge the cannons but the missiles were tearing them up. as were a number of BFF sniper NORMALs. Lily was targeting the SUNSHINE since it was the biggest power threat and also weak to her laser rifle. her missiles targeting the 047 with May's verticals following suit. trying to make the snipers run out of their flares.
"Canis, target the 047 with Lily. May, keep that IRREGULAR busy. I have a score to settle with Mr. SUNSHINE boy." I ordered before taking off boosting for the heavy while the others did as told. I was hurt badly but I was pissed and I could still run circles around the SUNSHINE while my friends kept the snipers busy. the SUNSHINE spun towards me and fired both heavy missiles at me I boosted to get around him while he was running a barrage of chaingun fire at me with the occasional bazooka round thrown in. i noticed he had OMER side boosters on and he turn boosted very quick to keep track of me and keep me from getting behind him, smart, but not smart enough. dodging the current missiles and then opened fire with my motor cobra as I got in range after timing his fire rate and blew up his next set of BIGSIOUX missiles in his face, blasting him with the SIRIUS as I closed in and then cut him in half with the MOONLIGHT. With the loss of their heavy frontline fighter, the snipers were easy. They had eventually ran out of flares from the constant barrages from my friends and Motherwill and with them distracting them I moved in for the kill as Canis overboosted in range as well, wanting payback, both of us too close for the sniper rifle and cannon. I targeted the IRREGULAR since he had a TELLUS core. blowing holes in him with the TRAVERS while Canis took care of the 047 with his BECRUX. neither one of them really prepare for close range combat which made them easy pickings without having to worry about heavy fire in our backs.
"God damn it... Darien we have a couple squads of foot soldiers who broke into the school buildings. they are empty thankfully but others broke into the halls that lead down into the areas where the non combatants are hiding. we will have to clear them out. " Miss Haze said as camera feeds showed enemy troops breaking into various school buildings and the halls that led to the shelters. Jeeps were either abandoned or destroyed. others were still running around trying to avoid fire from the NORMALs though they didn't last long. With most of the enemy force destroyed, Miss Haze turned the large cannons on the Land Crabs to end that particular headache while our NEXTs moved to the buildings that the enemy soldiers occupied. Our NORMALs were mopping up the stragglers and a couple of the Silent Avalanche NORMALs were picking off the remaining mechanoids and mecha-workers as they tried to run seeing that their assault force had just been wiped out. We didn't want any survivors going back and reporting our tactics and strategies.
"Alright we are going to clear out the halls down to the shelters. We will have Kenshi's people clear the empty buildings. Thersia, Lily, you two stay out here and guard the NEXTs Canis, May, on me." I ordered as the cockpit opened up and Insanity knelt down to let me out. Climbing down and followed by Canis and May. Looking back I saw that Beast and Insanity had taken a beating from those NEXTs. It was a rookie mistake. One of us should have been visually scanning for NEXTs but we got too comfortable with just NORMALs at that moment. Judging by the LYNX and NEXTs, while not amateurs, were probably just a small stone cast in to test the waters and see what we would do. I knew they had to have better LYNX and NEXTs. This was only the first battle. they wouldn't send out their best just yet.
"shhh...be very very quiet, we're hunting shit heads..." Canis said as he cocked his rifle. May and I doing the same while checking that our body armor was good to go.
"Canis?" I said though my tone made it clear it was a question to the man in question.
"Yes Darien?" He said, though I knew he was smirking as we moved. I took point while he brought up the rear. May was in the middle.
"Shut up." Was all I said while my bionic eye started scanning and targeting. Looking for any signs or clues as to where they went. scanning through various filters before stopping on a infrared that took in recent heat and I could see their tracks. "Alright, going silent, link to our cams." I said as I turned on my helmet cam, putting my earpiece in so I had comms with Motherwill. Canis and May doing the same before we headed in. Slowly heading down the halls. Clearing one room by another and leaving infrared marks on rooms we checked. I took up point with May in the middle and Canis being our rearguard. We moved slow and quiet, all of us having screwed silencer's on our guns. We all carried extra gear. I carried a more modern version of a old XM25 and May carried a short 12ga shotgun on her back for blowing locks and room clearing. Canis carried a small sachel full of personnel explosives, setting claymore traps covering our asses and by rooms we cleared to keep the enemy from trying to sneak behind us.
We moved deeper in, tracking the enemy soldiers, and heard crying from one of the rooms as well as a slap and someone barking out orders to keep the hostages quiet. Looks like they broke into one of the safe rooms and took girls hostage. We moved in close to the closed door, stacking on opposite sides of the door. I stood to the left of the door by the handle against the wall and May was on the opposite side with Canis who was stacked behind her. Canis readied a couple flashbangs while May pulled her shotgun and placed it against the door lock mechanism. They looked at me and I nodded, turning my head as May gave two quick blasts blowing out the lock, I performed a spinning back kick opening the door and Canis tossed the grenades inside. We covered our eyes and ears briefly as the flashbangs went off. Hearing screaming and yelling as we rushed in one after the other, spreading out and opening fire. Pushing girls down as we moved in, the enemy troops were all blinded and as such, were firing blind. Occasional rounds hit our armor but we put them all down one by one as fast as possible before they could recover. Girls still on the ground, screaming and crying. Some having been hit by stray shots from the enemy troops. They looked like a mix of soldiers wearing uniforms of this world of an odd brown/burgandy color and others wearing uniforms and clothing similar to our own. The firefight lasted all of two to three minutes. One of the native soldiers had rushed my blind side when he recovered from the blinding. Knocking me down and we ended up in a wrestling match. He kept trying to stab me with his knife while I had to keep a hold of his wrist to stop him. I brought my fist up hard under his jaw. stunning him briefly but he only sneered when I didn't move my knuckles from his jaw.
"That all you got? My kid hits harder than you." He said trying to pull his wrist from my left hand but it was locked tight and he looked suddenly confused at my strength.
"My best shot? no...you aren't worth It. Keeping thinking about your kid, it is the last thought you will have in this life...now go to hell." I growled out lowly. He started to say something till he felt something on the back of my wrist move and he looked confused for a split second before a shotgun round blew his head apart from his jaw up. The round having blasted through my sleeve straight into his head. His brain and blood splattering over the floor and wall. shoving his dead weight off of me and getting up. Pulling my sleeve back exposing the firearm in my wrist. ejecting the empty shell and reloading it before the firearm sunk back into its housing before I pulled my sleeve back down. picking up my rifle. Canis snorted seeing the guy's head while he and May started helping the girls cutting them loose and helping the ones who were hurt. Tending to their wounds.
"Miss Haze? we cleared the building, all targets are dead, hostages secure. We have wounded non-coms." I reported, breaking radio silence finally. Moving to snoop through the dead soldiers' pockets one by one, looking for anything to tell us who they were, what their orders were, maps. crypto, anything and everything that we could use.
"Understood. Dare, Kenshi just reported back. They cleared their building. they have live prisoners. I suggest we take and interrogate them ourselves." Miss Haze reported back. All the action outside had completely quieted down and they were in the process of checking on damage and clean up.
"Canis, head out and clear up your traps, we don't want anyone coming in and getting pump full of shrapnel. " I ordered while moving to help May with one girl who had a round go through her thigh. We had to tourniquet her leg because the bullet had gone through her femoral artery and stuff her wound with a clotting agent. Canis walked off to take care of his traps. The girls were all still terrified and many of them fainted or puked at the sight of all the dead bodies and blood. I shook my head and closed my eyes. These people weren't ready for war, they were all still kids just playing at war.
A couple hours later we had all the hostages out and being taken care of. Our NORMALs were cleaning up the rubble and wrecked NORMALs and mechanoids and mecha-workers. The rubble being cleared out and the dead were being given their last rites. Kenshi and his wives all made it out ok, but many of their mecha master allies and common soldiers had been killed in action. Motherwill was churning out brand new NORMALs from its forges to replace the ones we lost as well as fabricating ammo to reload our weapons. My team was currently back in Motherwill around the table in the study going over everything we pulled off the bodies and from the wreakages of NORMALs and vehicles. the prisoners were locked in separate cells in the brig watched over by mini NORMALs gagged and blindfolded. We didn't want them communicating with each other.
"Dare, I keep coming across one word in many of these files. I think this is who is calling the shots though I can't tell if it is the name of a person, object or group. The word I keep coming across, is 'SINNER'." Lilium said as she held out a set of orders half burned, from one of the NEXT wreakages we found. I took the papers from her looking them over. what was legible was that 'SINNER' had issued orders for a quick blitz strike to test defenses as well as babysitting some little douchebag, the words on the paper, not mine, named Dag-something, the rest was burned too badly to read. There was something else in this set of orders and others about recovering the Mecha-Lord, though for what I couldn't tell. We managed to pull something from some of their less damaged computer files from the NEXTs and NORMALs of some of their small staging areas as well as crypto codes. So I knew what our next moves were.
"Well we have a much better starting point now. We need to start making plans and start working on hit and run tactics. take out their supply lines and caches, push them back a little and make then think twice about attacking us again. and hopefully on these raids we could get intel on their NEXT forces, the real threat that we had to worry about. We also needed to find out who or what this, 'SINNER' was. Whatever it was, it was important.
"I think we need to run things a little closer to how we do things back home. Two of us go and attack one of these targets tomorrow and the others standby here to protect Kenshi and the holy land." Miss Haze said as she was flipping through a file that was scavenged from one of the Land Crabs.
"Agreed. I'll run out to one of them tomorrow. May. I could use your assistance, we will need a lot of firepower." Theresia said as she set down one of the crypto tools we had confiscated. She had been busy unlocking it and downloading the codes to our systems so we could start hacking their comms.
"Alright. you handle that. Canis, you will be on standby for their back up if they need it. Lily? you and I need to talk to Kenshi and the others about our next moves." I said while setting down the papers. Ghost was in my lap sleeping. snoring rather loudly for a little furball. We may have won the battle, but the war was far from over, and I knew that it was only going to get worse. This was only a skirmish despite the magnitude of the battle. those NEXTs would have had us had we been any less skilled and had they been better than they were. They got the drop on us and it almost cost us. There had to be better and more dangerous LYNX out there. We knew at least one was out there. and there had to be more, many more. you didn't throw NEXT and LYNX away like that unless you did.
"I'll keep Motherwill working on replacing our downed NORMALs. Also I'll start training some of these girls as operators, the tougher ones, and while I'm at it, I'll send some more drones out tomorrow to scout our list of targets" Miss Haze said while she stood up and stretched out.
"Alright, we'll interrogate the prisoners in the morning before we talk to Kenshi, see what else we can get out of them. take a break people. We certainly earned it today." I said while standing. Picking the still sleeping ferret and setting him on my shoulder. Everyone else getting up and splitting up. I had made my way out of our manor and out to the hanger, checking on Insanity. Watching the machines make repairs and reload the weapons as I walked up to the console and started to work. My hands a blur over the controls. checking on the firing systems and working on revamping the sensors and radar.
"Can I ask you something?" A robotic male voice called out from Insanity. The A.I. sounded serious for once. The head of Insanity tilting down to look at me.
"What is it?" I asked, not stopping while I continued to fiddle with the computer systems.
"Why do you fight?" Insanity asked. The question stopped me for a brief second before I continued to work checking that the reaction time was still green.
"Ask me that a couple years ago and I'd say it was to make a living, to follow my parents footsteps. To not be bound by the companies that basically enslaved the rest of the human race back home after the National Dismantlement War. Now? I fight for a future worth living in. Giving the human race a second chance." I told the machine. Stopping what I was doing to look up at it.
"A second chance? After all the people you killed, directly and indirectly, while working with ORCA?" Insanity said as it looked down at me.
"Yes... Many had to die to give the rest of humanity a chance to leave our planet. To escape to the stars, and begin again. Their blood is on my hands, whether I directly killed them or not doesn't matter. It is something that I have to live with. But the race will continue. Hopefully the Crazy Bitch holds up her end of the bargain..."I told Insanity while finishing my work quickly.
"one last question... Why didn't you delete me just now?" Insanity just asked out of the blue as I shut the console down for the night. His tone clearly curious and somewhat surprised. He had noticed that I had pulled up the system and had worked right up until all I had to do was push a button and purge him.
"Because while you are a royal pain in my ass, you also watch my back. Maybe later if you piss me off some more. But for now, you're safe. Good night Insanity..." I said and started walking off. The hanger main lights shutting off leaving only the emergency red lights on. Hopping in the cart I had driven and drove out of the hanger and back to the manor. Insanity was getting more intelligent and aware by the day, it was constantly watching and learning.
Upon arriving back up I noticed that Kenshi and his wives were over for dinner again. Sighing before heading in. knowing we were going to have a long chat over dinner and tomorrow in the morning. I just wanted dinner and sleep, not play twenty questions with a bunch of kids. Well I might as well get it over with, and see how they took war on our level and not theirs.
IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE! well finally worked the motivation to finish a chapter that was half written for months. not my greatest work but im hoping to improve on the next chapter. I can see the story start to finish in my mind but putting it to paper is a royal pain in the ass. and i already got future stories planned but those as well as new ones that just formed are making it hard to focus on just one story. hope you enjoy it and to my few loyal readers. I'll try to finish this project for you all.
