Authors Note: From Software and Agetec own Armored Core and Armored Core 2 but none of the characters in this story.
Authors Note: Sorry for not updating this story any sooner I had writer's block. Well, anyways on with part two of Tiger's Vengeance
Part Two: Know when to quit
"Looks like the party's already started" Kounji yelled with a sense of disapproval.
He was referring to the explosions and gunfire burst he could here off in the distance from his position within the city. The experience pilot zipped his yellow and black stripped AC "Tiger" from building to building has he came in from the direction perpendicular to Kai's route. He neared closer and closer to a submerged area with practically no skyscrapers near it. The site perfectly began to fit the target area that was described in the briefing that his operation runner, Mia, and the Demons leader Vance Kurasagi led him and Kai through earlier. Kounji seeing that his energy capacitors were beginning to run out he bobbed his AC up and over a nearby building and slid to a stop has he touched down on its roof. From there, he let his energy charge up and continued his flight over the buildings. After a few more seconds, he touched down on the first building in the mission area.
As his mission plan instructed him to, he clicked on his communiqué device and tried to contact Kai. "Mouse, this is Tiger come in" Kounji spoke.
"Mouse, this is Tiger repeat do you read"
Kounji suddenly began to grow worried. His core's computer suddenly began to speak to him.
"Enemy has commenced jamming. Communication between us and the Kentaro is impossible," it said
"Crap, Kai must have been discovered, until I can find the jamming source she's on her own." he thought to himself. He glanced around the surrounding area looking for anything particularly of his mission's interest. As he surveyed the area for several moments, he slowly began to focus his search towards the water. Suddenly directly, between Kounji's perch and the JPO building, the floodwaters suddenly became full with ripples. Kounji blinked as a strange grayish boat that looked much like a fat ice cream bar emerged from the water causing small waves as it headed off towards its home base.
"So, there's our boy right on time, it's probably going to be evacuated within fifteen minutes. If we're going to hit the target I have to get it now, with or without Kai." He spoke to himself.
As much as he was angry with Kai he knew that she was headstrong when it came to some things and she had to get the job done her own way. He clicked a button on his console, making his external camera follow zoom in closer on the unit. From this view he could noticed a few letter and number markings on its side. "UIX-4001" it read along it's starboard side. As the unit began to near an entrance ramp to the base Kounji zoomed outward to get a look at the surrounding area. Not to his surprise, he found several twin-barreled sentry guns lined up along the entrance ramp.
" Four sentry guns lined up around this entrance ramp here, guess Kai saw that, and this is probably why she didn't go any further. These probably could have ripped her core to pieces," Kounji thought aloud
Kounji looked downward towards the emerging vehicle. It 's rear suddenly dipped into the water bringing the front of the vehicle to point straight in the sky. As he looked on a sphere like objected suddenly sprang on top of the vehicles top. Seconds later arms came from its underbelly has well. The supposed boat continued to move towards the ramp. Suddenly the growing worries within Kounji's head began to bloom. The unit came from the water trudging along the ramp with its artificial legs. Water poured from the unit profusely onto the grated walkway as clanked across it. Kounji's hands gripped on to his controls in fear.
"Chrome, has the ability to create MTs that are capable of changing in to a bipedal mecha, and can also submerge itself underwater. No one is supposed to have this kind of technology." Kounji yelled.
Suddenly while Kounji was focused on the unit's movement, a buzz crackled causing him to grip his sensitive ears. After a few moments the channel cleared.
"Communications jamming has ceased, attempting to contact Allied unit Kentaro" the rough voice of his computer stated. Kounji grinned and waited as his computer ran through it's contacting of his coremate. A confirming beep sounded from his comp and he saw the face of distraught and sweating Kai staring back at him.
"It's about time boy scout, I've been trying to contact you forever" Kai yelled.
"Yeah, I've had jamming problems Kai, and from the look of all that sweat on that cute face of yours, you've had some of your own trouble as well."
The young female pilot cringed her face at Kounji in mild anger.
"Tell me about it, two armored cores. I just disabled one but an old friend of ours is piloting the other. I don't think I can hold out much longer."
"Old friend?"
"Yeah" Kai said cringing. "Your ex-girlfriend, Shina Kobayashi"
Suddenly Kounji's heart rate began to pick up drastically. His most-beloved rival in the Fortgarden MT Academy had just become his only obstacle keeping him from completing his mission.
"Hang on Kai, I can be there in less than two minutes"
"Hurry Kounji... Damn it she's too good she just dodged that entire volley. Missiles incoming.... It's going to be close... Ahhh." Kai screamed
"Kai!!!" Kounji yelled.
The pilot quickly spun his mecha of into the direction of the explosion he heard and boosted off as fast has his generator would allow him. As he cut through the air like a bat out of hell, completing the mission was the last thing on his mind. The survival of his friend Kai was all he could even care about.
"Mia, Unit Kentaro is down, we're aborting.
"Roger that Tiger, I'm sending the request for your pick up immediately.
"My pickup but what about Kai?"
"Her area's too hot with activity right now we can't endanger the dropship pilots' lives."
"Don't worry I'll have that freaking area clear, I'm not leaving my best friend behind goddamn it". Kounji yelled.
Kai gripped the side of her rib cage that was in agony with her right hand. An explosion to the front of her core had caused pieces of metal to become dislodged from the cockpit's interior and explode wildly outward. One of which Kai was sure of by the pain in her side hit her but blood trickling from her forehead made her begin to think more damage had been sustained. She squinted due to pain while she looked through her HUD goggles at the opponent who wounded her. All of the actual features that appeared in the HUD were no longer there. Kai's AC lay sitting near the edge of the broken overpass overlooking the temporary base. Its left arm was destroyed, right arm full of MG 500 rounds and its core cracked, as it remained motionless on the old demolished highway.
"I can't tell you how fitting it is to see you in your place Isamo." Shina mocked in a darkened tone.
"Shina you demented bitch do you want me to die?" Kai cried out before she gasped and gripped her side. Her white gloves with its red stripes suddenly grew stained with her precious blood.
"I didn't want you get hurt like you are now, but you gave me no choice it's my duty to protect the new unit and this base. Mercenaries like you could learn a lesson or two about being dutiful through chrome. It would have been smarter for you to have stayed a tech and never have gotten involved." Shina lectured coldly.
"What's it worth being dutiful to a corporation that seeks nothing less than complete domination of the underground world. You had to give up your friends, Kounji, even your damn parents. You would have been better off being an officer in the damn Guard." Kai shrieked gasping for air and gritting her teeth.
"I do what I can here to make a difference in the lives of the people in the underground cities. If I have to give up all of those people who I care about to do then it's worth it in my book. If the soldiers who fight above ground have to die because of it then so be it. They knew the cost and so did you." Shina yelled back.
"Why waste your sense of justice on an evil corporation who will only push its ideals on the populace when it achieves its ends. If you were a mercenary like me you could dare to have a choice, dare to look at the war at all angles, dare to have something beyond Chrome." Kai spoke in an honest tone.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up" Shina shrieked
The angered Kobayashi raised and pointed her unit's machine gun towards Kai's decimated AC.
"Chrome and the special forces are all I need in my life. I don't need someone who I thought would appreciate the sacrifices I've made in my life telling me that I've wasted it on something I feel is worth believing in. I don't need you or him." Shina yelled breaking down into tears.
"Chrome doesn't need you Shina, Chrome only took advantage of your sense of duty they never gave a damn about the real Shina, at least when you're a mercenary you know that truth." Kai spoke with rasp in her diminishing voice.
Shina was infuriated by Kai's remarks. The simple fact that this girl, which she only knew through her lover, claimed her superiors did not give damn about the people under them, only themselves, was as preposterous has it was biased. Besides what did it matter the higher up rarely had too much contact with the grunts anyways. Still Chrome's agenda did bug her a great deal. As Shina's adrenaline began to filter out of her body an overwhelming guilt began to flood her system. Her attention focused on a rattle within her pilot seat; she had developed a nervous twitch in her leg that caused her feet to tap the grated metal under her. It was as if she suddenly had killed someone in cold blood for the first time all over again. Except this time it was a friend of hers. "Why" she screamed.
"Repeat, Sacred Weasel do you read?" a voice crackled in her radio.
Shina, with her teary brown eyes and distraught voice, attempted to bring her self together before she could make reply. She was so out of situation, so out of self-control that ops first request didn't even remotely register in her senses.
"I copy, Hostile target neutralized" she spoke.
"We copy that, however we have detected a incoming high heat source rapidly approaching your position."
"What?" Shina gasped to herself. The pilot pulled her tear drenched goggles from around her head and threw them to the floor in anger. The thought of fighting another AC after that escapade seemed an impossible task. She rested with the idea of calling for MT support but something pushed her from making the order, a premonition. " If Kai was here and she brought a partner with her, could it be..." she thought. Suddenly the idea of living to face Kounji with what she had done made her feel nauseous; it was far too overwhelming for the pilot
"Sacred Weasel, your unit looks to have taken a bit of damage. Do you require MT support?"
"MT support is not required I can handle him. Continue evacuation procedures and get yourselves out of here." Shina replied yelling.
As the enemy ac's blip in her radar came closer and closer to her and the flume created by the AC's booster grew brighter, she hoped her nightmarish milk run wouldn't turn any worse but things seldom did not.
"Get out of my way " Kounji grunted at three hovering MT's he quickly approached. He acquired a lock on the center MT within the triangular formation and fired his laser rifle dead center into the unit, exploding it into a burning fiery melting wreck. The other enemy units returned fire but there shots flew off to the side of the approaching mecha as it let off its boosters allowing it to freefall before it touched a building underneath. Shots smacked into the buildings roof as she jinked to the left of the unit and returned fire at the unit hitting the left most tiny flying units underbelly, causing its generator to explode. It's partner's fire managed to smack in to Kounji's leg arm causing its armor to bend inward slightly but not enough to make the enraged pilot flinch. Kounji reacted by releasing his units thin cyan radiating energy blade from its casings inside of his left arm and splitting the enemy unit down the middle. As the unit exploded and he touched ground again he took off into an energy-regaining run and boosted off towards a not too distant Shina. Kounji found it difficult to control his anger as he neared toward the enemy unit with his vastly increasing speed. He kept going fearing the worst could have possibly just happened to his old friend. "Kai, please hang in there, I'm coming for you." Kounji spoke aloud. He closed nearer and nearer to the unit of Shina, the unit of his former love.
He finally came within locking range of Shina's urban humanoid core with his laser rifle held outward and aimed directly at its chest. His trigger finger shook nervously as he achieved full lock. "Why did you have to hurt Kai, Shina? Why?" Kounji screamed at his once beloved. For the next few seconds there was silence. Kounji touched his core down on one of the tall buildings. He was close enough to finally make out the situation. Two-disabled cores, one that had taken a moderate amount of damaged, lay behind Shina. The other laid tattered, its arms broken, core cracked, by the highway's edge. From he could gather, Kai managed to disable the AC of Shina's partner but could not hold up against the superior skills of Shina.
"Kill me" Shina pleaded distraughtly
"What?" Kounji asked irritated and stunned
"Kill me, Kounji I broke our friendly vow. If we were to ever meet in battle we would not kill each other unless the cause was just enough. Kill me, kill me now, I don't want to live in this life with her death on my hands. I just don't deserve to live," She pleaded
Kounji continued his press onto the highway, still maintaining his lock while he maneuvered in a circle keeping a close position away from her. He gripped his control stick tighter to keep his trigger finger from tapping the trigger, but it didn't work too much. He squinted his eyes at the incessant headache and screamed because his mixed emotions for Shina and for Kai, for revenge and for understanding brought him to the edge. Disturbed and running low on energy he touched down on asphalt his back turned to Shina and his unit's feet next to the wreckage of Kai's unit. His computer suddenly reacted with bio readings that began to scroll across the HUD of his core's internal computer.
""Bio scanner detects a faint a bio signal resonating from AC Kentaro. Readings are fading" The computer lifelessly read.
He began to grow a little optimistic about the situation, but the realist in him knew it was too soon to be content. His radar began to beep as another object began to approach the scene. It read as blue on his radar which indicated it was high above. "Salvation" Kounji sighed. With the chance of Kai's survival quickly rising, Kounji began to feel less and less inclined to fulfill Shina's wish; Her plea for her very own death.
"Revenge by death wasn't in the vow." Kounji smirked.
"But why?" Shina cried.
Kounji raised his rifle has he rotated his core back towards her. His aim rested on the head of Shina's core. He pulled the trigger. Quickly the blue light that erupted from the gun smashed right through the unit's gray visor and out the back end of head. A miniature explosion erupted within the end signifying the end of the core's eyes and ears to the world. The blast's force knocked the enemy unit backwards. It quickly lost its balance and collapsed on its back.
"Shina, I don't want to kill you but I still can't forgive you right now." Kounji explained in softened tone.
Kounji moved his unit's head so that he could view the incoming aircraft coming to receive him and his wounded partner. In is mind he felt he convinced himself that he had done the right thing not killing Shina. Suddenly another radar bleep entered on his screen. Kounji's computer tagged as the mission objective, the prototype MT. It was incoming.
"Salvation, this is Tiger, pick-up area secure." He said sternly.
"Roger, that tiger we're almost there, ETA 30 seconds". The pilot replied
"Got it, please hurry I don't want to lose, Kai" Kounji replied, his voice slowly beginning to crack up.
"Roger that, Kid"
Shina wiped her teary eyes with her black flight gloves has she came to. She suddenly came to realization that she hadn't been killed. "Why". She asked to herself.
Shina released the straps that held her into the pilot seat and climbed off, her feet clanking has she touched the slightly inverted cockpit floor. The pilot had managed to obtain only a bruise on her shoulder from the sudden jolt her unit received to its head that laid it out on the road. She felt a tiny sting has she rubbed the purple skin. In a way she was glad Kounji hadn't killed her with that blast but still she wasn't happy to lose him again or his trust for that matter. She feared she probably would never regain it, his or Kai's. Through the confines of the metal cockpit she resided in she could here the sounds of a plane engines whining as they warmed for takeoff before takeoff. She stepped up to the cockpit's opening crouched. She prepared herself for the cold breeze that the sea outside would bring as she popped the hatch. A gust of wind came through the doorway has Shina locked her squinting eyes on the plane, as it finished powering up it's engines. She took a slender gray tool from her tool belt and attached a hook from its end to hook on top of her unit's doorway. She clicked a button on the hilt on the butt of the tool and a cable unraveled from the top allowing her to descend from her core. The moment she touched the ground took off into a sprint towards the plane. From the open hatch of the plane she could make out Kounji's unit unleashing energy beams off at something. Gasping for air has she ran, her foot hit a piece of concrete causing Shina to slam into the ground skidding. She grunted and pulled herself up on to her knees in anguish. She looked off in the direction Kounji was firing and saw the booming mecha that was the UIX on a buildings roof to her right.
The craft flickered its outer lights before it pulled up into hover above the ground shooting dusk and particles in every direction. Shina failed to cover her face from anything that came her way. She wanted to see her friends has they left her life once again. She wanted to see the flight of her only love. Kounji continued the trade fire with the unit has the plane pulled away. The airplane climbed away from the scene and off into welcoming blue sky.
"That was him wasn't it" Jenkins, who was behind her, asked
Shina stood up and turned to face her lightly wounded partner and forcefully smiled.
"That was him" Shina, replied beginning to tear up again.
She looked up towards the UIX it's broad arms and menacing chest plate and height wasn't has comforting to look at has it was in the bases hangar bay. "Damn you, you blasted machine" she shrieked.
Oh my, well it's been quite awhile since the last update for this story.
Linay- so, it seems that old Boy scout's love for the Captain is what kept her alive but are we going to be able to say the same for Kai. Will the menacing UIX unit be the weapon that meaning military superiority for Chrome finally. Will I even appear in this mini- series? Find out in the next chapter of Armored Core: Tiger's Vengeance
Authors Note: Sorry for not updating this story any sooner I had writer's block. Well, anyways on with part two of Tiger's Vengeance
Part Two: Know when to quit
"Looks like the party's already started" Kounji yelled with a sense of disapproval.
He was referring to the explosions and gunfire burst he could here off in the distance from his position within the city. The experience pilot zipped his yellow and black stripped AC "Tiger" from building to building has he came in from the direction perpendicular to Kai's route. He neared closer and closer to a submerged area with practically no skyscrapers near it. The site perfectly began to fit the target area that was described in the briefing that his operation runner, Mia, and the Demons leader Vance Kurasagi led him and Kai through earlier. Kounji seeing that his energy capacitors were beginning to run out he bobbed his AC up and over a nearby building and slid to a stop has he touched down on its roof. From there, he let his energy charge up and continued his flight over the buildings. After a few more seconds, he touched down on the first building in the mission area.
As his mission plan instructed him to, he clicked on his communiqué device and tried to contact Kai. "Mouse, this is Tiger come in" Kounji spoke.
"Mouse, this is Tiger repeat do you read"
Kounji suddenly began to grow worried. His core's computer suddenly began to speak to him.
"Enemy has commenced jamming. Communication between us and the Kentaro is impossible," it said
"Crap, Kai must have been discovered, until I can find the jamming source she's on her own." he thought to himself. He glanced around the surrounding area looking for anything particularly of his mission's interest. As he surveyed the area for several moments, he slowly began to focus his search towards the water. Suddenly directly, between Kounji's perch and the JPO building, the floodwaters suddenly became full with ripples. Kounji blinked as a strange grayish boat that looked much like a fat ice cream bar emerged from the water causing small waves as it headed off towards its home base.
"So, there's our boy right on time, it's probably going to be evacuated within fifteen minutes. If we're going to hit the target I have to get it now, with or without Kai." He spoke to himself.
As much as he was angry with Kai he knew that she was headstrong when it came to some things and she had to get the job done her own way. He clicked a button on his console, making his external camera follow zoom in closer on the unit. From this view he could noticed a few letter and number markings on its side. "UIX-4001" it read along it's starboard side. As the unit began to near an entrance ramp to the base Kounji zoomed outward to get a look at the surrounding area. Not to his surprise, he found several twin-barreled sentry guns lined up along the entrance ramp.
" Four sentry guns lined up around this entrance ramp here, guess Kai saw that, and this is probably why she didn't go any further. These probably could have ripped her core to pieces," Kounji thought aloud
Kounji looked downward towards the emerging vehicle. It 's rear suddenly dipped into the water bringing the front of the vehicle to point straight in the sky. As he looked on a sphere like objected suddenly sprang on top of the vehicles top. Seconds later arms came from its underbelly has well. The supposed boat continued to move towards the ramp. Suddenly the growing worries within Kounji's head began to bloom. The unit came from the water trudging along the ramp with its artificial legs. Water poured from the unit profusely onto the grated walkway as clanked across it. Kounji's hands gripped on to his controls in fear.
"Chrome, has the ability to create MTs that are capable of changing in to a bipedal mecha, and can also submerge itself underwater. No one is supposed to have this kind of technology." Kounji yelled.
Suddenly while Kounji was focused on the unit's movement, a buzz crackled causing him to grip his sensitive ears. After a few moments the channel cleared.
"Communications jamming has ceased, attempting to contact Allied unit Kentaro" the rough voice of his computer stated. Kounji grinned and waited as his computer ran through it's contacting of his coremate. A confirming beep sounded from his comp and he saw the face of distraught and sweating Kai staring back at him.
"It's about time boy scout, I've been trying to contact you forever" Kai yelled.
"Yeah, I've had jamming problems Kai, and from the look of all that sweat on that cute face of yours, you've had some of your own trouble as well."
The young female pilot cringed her face at Kounji in mild anger.
"Tell me about it, two armored cores. I just disabled one but an old friend of ours is piloting the other. I don't think I can hold out much longer."
"Old friend?"
"Yeah" Kai said cringing. "Your ex-girlfriend, Shina Kobayashi"
Suddenly Kounji's heart rate began to pick up drastically. His most-beloved rival in the Fortgarden MT Academy had just become his only obstacle keeping him from completing his mission.
"Hang on Kai, I can be there in less than two minutes"
"Hurry Kounji... Damn it she's too good she just dodged that entire volley. Missiles incoming.... It's going to be close... Ahhh." Kai screamed
"Kai!!!" Kounji yelled.
The pilot quickly spun his mecha of into the direction of the explosion he heard and boosted off as fast has his generator would allow him. As he cut through the air like a bat out of hell, completing the mission was the last thing on his mind. The survival of his friend Kai was all he could even care about.
"Mia, Unit Kentaro is down, we're aborting.
"Roger that Tiger, I'm sending the request for your pick up immediately.
"My pickup but what about Kai?"
"Her area's too hot with activity right now we can't endanger the dropship pilots' lives."
"Don't worry I'll have that freaking area clear, I'm not leaving my best friend behind goddamn it". Kounji yelled.
Kai gripped the side of her rib cage that was in agony with her right hand. An explosion to the front of her core had caused pieces of metal to become dislodged from the cockpit's interior and explode wildly outward. One of which Kai was sure of by the pain in her side hit her but blood trickling from her forehead made her begin to think more damage had been sustained. She squinted due to pain while she looked through her HUD goggles at the opponent who wounded her. All of the actual features that appeared in the HUD were no longer there. Kai's AC lay sitting near the edge of the broken overpass overlooking the temporary base. Its left arm was destroyed, right arm full of MG 500 rounds and its core cracked, as it remained motionless on the old demolished highway.
"I can't tell you how fitting it is to see you in your place Isamo." Shina mocked in a darkened tone.
"Shina you demented bitch do you want me to die?" Kai cried out before she gasped and gripped her side. Her white gloves with its red stripes suddenly grew stained with her precious blood.
"I didn't want you get hurt like you are now, but you gave me no choice it's my duty to protect the new unit and this base. Mercenaries like you could learn a lesson or two about being dutiful through chrome. It would have been smarter for you to have stayed a tech and never have gotten involved." Shina lectured coldly.
"What's it worth being dutiful to a corporation that seeks nothing less than complete domination of the underground world. You had to give up your friends, Kounji, even your damn parents. You would have been better off being an officer in the damn Guard." Kai shrieked gasping for air and gritting her teeth.
"I do what I can here to make a difference in the lives of the people in the underground cities. If I have to give up all of those people who I care about to do then it's worth it in my book. If the soldiers who fight above ground have to die because of it then so be it. They knew the cost and so did you." Shina yelled back.
"Why waste your sense of justice on an evil corporation who will only push its ideals on the populace when it achieves its ends. If you were a mercenary like me you could dare to have a choice, dare to look at the war at all angles, dare to have something beyond Chrome." Kai spoke in an honest tone.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up" Shina shrieked
The angered Kobayashi raised and pointed her unit's machine gun towards Kai's decimated AC.
"Chrome and the special forces are all I need in my life. I don't need someone who I thought would appreciate the sacrifices I've made in my life telling me that I've wasted it on something I feel is worth believing in. I don't need you or him." Shina yelled breaking down into tears.
"Chrome doesn't need you Shina, Chrome only took advantage of your sense of duty they never gave a damn about the real Shina, at least when you're a mercenary you know that truth." Kai spoke with rasp in her diminishing voice.
Shina was infuriated by Kai's remarks. The simple fact that this girl, which she only knew through her lover, claimed her superiors did not give damn about the people under them, only themselves, was as preposterous has it was biased. Besides what did it matter the higher up rarely had too much contact with the grunts anyways. Still Chrome's agenda did bug her a great deal. As Shina's adrenaline began to filter out of her body an overwhelming guilt began to flood her system. Her attention focused on a rattle within her pilot seat; she had developed a nervous twitch in her leg that caused her feet to tap the grated metal under her. It was as if she suddenly had killed someone in cold blood for the first time all over again. Except this time it was a friend of hers. "Why" she screamed.
"Repeat, Sacred Weasel do you read?" a voice crackled in her radio.
Shina, with her teary brown eyes and distraught voice, attempted to bring her self together before she could make reply. She was so out of situation, so out of self-control that ops first request didn't even remotely register in her senses.
"I copy, Hostile target neutralized" she spoke.
"We copy that, however we have detected a incoming high heat source rapidly approaching your position."
"What?" Shina gasped to herself. The pilot pulled her tear drenched goggles from around her head and threw them to the floor in anger. The thought of fighting another AC after that escapade seemed an impossible task. She rested with the idea of calling for MT support but something pushed her from making the order, a premonition. " If Kai was here and she brought a partner with her, could it be..." she thought. Suddenly the idea of living to face Kounji with what she had done made her feel nauseous; it was far too overwhelming for the pilot
"Sacred Weasel, your unit looks to have taken a bit of damage. Do you require MT support?"
"MT support is not required I can handle him. Continue evacuation procedures and get yourselves out of here." Shina replied yelling.
As the enemy ac's blip in her radar came closer and closer to her and the flume created by the AC's booster grew brighter, she hoped her nightmarish milk run wouldn't turn any worse but things seldom did not.
"Get out of my way " Kounji grunted at three hovering MT's he quickly approached. He acquired a lock on the center MT within the triangular formation and fired his laser rifle dead center into the unit, exploding it into a burning fiery melting wreck. The other enemy units returned fire but there shots flew off to the side of the approaching mecha as it let off its boosters allowing it to freefall before it touched a building underneath. Shots smacked into the buildings roof as she jinked to the left of the unit and returned fire at the unit hitting the left most tiny flying units underbelly, causing its generator to explode. It's partner's fire managed to smack in to Kounji's leg arm causing its armor to bend inward slightly but not enough to make the enraged pilot flinch. Kounji reacted by releasing his units thin cyan radiating energy blade from its casings inside of his left arm and splitting the enemy unit down the middle. As the unit exploded and he touched ground again he took off into an energy-regaining run and boosted off towards a not too distant Shina. Kounji found it difficult to control his anger as he neared toward the enemy unit with his vastly increasing speed. He kept going fearing the worst could have possibly just happened to his old friend. "Kai, please hang in there, I'm coming for you." Kounji spoke aloud. He closed nearer and nearer to the unit of Shina, the unit of his former love.
He finally came within locking range of Shina's urban humanoid core with his laser rifle held outward and aimed directly at its chest. His trigger finger shook nervously as he achieved full lock. "Why did you have to hurt Kai, Shina? Why?" Kounji screamed at his once beloved. For the next few seconds there was silence. Kounji touched his core down on one of the tall buildings. He was close enough to finally make out the situation. Two-disabled cores, one that had taken a moderate amount of damaged, lay behind Shina. The other laid tattered, its arms broken, core cracked, by the highway's edge. From he could gather, Kai managed to disable the AC of Shina's partner but could not hold up against the superior skills of Shina.
"Kill me" Shina pleaded distraughtly
"What?" Kounji asked irritated and stunned
"Kill me, Kounji I broke our friendly vow. If we were to ever meet in battle we would not kill each other unless the cause was just enough. Kill me, kill me now, I don't want to live in this life with her death on my hands. I just don't deserve to live," She pleaded
Kounji continued his press onto the highway, still maintaining his lock while he maneuvered in a circle keeping a close position away from her. He gripped his control stick tighter to keep his trigger finger from tapping the trigger, but it didn't work too much. He squinted his eyes at the incessant headache and screamed because his mixed emotions for Shina and for Kai, for revenge and for understanding brought him to the edge. Disturbed and running low on energy he touched down on asphalt his back turned to Shina and his unit's feet next to the wreckage of Kai's unit. His computer suddenly reacted with bio readings that began to scroll across the HUD of his core's internal computer.
""Bio scanner detects a faint a bio signal resonating from AC Kentaro. Readings are fading" The computer lifelessly read.
He began to grow a little optimistic about the situation, but the realist in him knew it was too soon to be content. His radar began to beep as another object began to approach the scene. It read as blue on his radar which indicated it was high above. "Salvation" Kounji sighed. With the chance of Kai's survival quickly rising, Kounji began to feel less and less inclined to fulfill Shina's wish; Her plea for her very own death.
"Revenge by death wasn't in the vow." Kounji smirked.
"But why?" Shina cried.
Kounji raised his rifle has he rotated his core back towards her. His aim rested on the head of Shina's core. He pulled the trigger. Quickly the blue light that erupted from the gun smashed right through the unit's gray visor and out the back end of head. A miniature explosion erupted within the end signifying the end of the core's eyes and ears to the world. The blast's force knocked the enemy unit backwards. It quickly lost its balance and collapsed on its back.
"Shina, I don't want to kill you but I still can't forgive you right now." Kounji explained in softened tone.
Kounji moved his unit's head so that he could view the incoming aircraft coming to receive him and his wounded partner. In is mind he felt he convinced himself that he had done the right thing not killing Shina. Suddenly another radar bleep entered on his screen. Kounji's computer tagged as the mission objective, the prototype MT. It was incoming.
"Salvation, this is Tiger, pick-up area secure." He said sternly.
"Roger, that tiger we're almost there, ETA 30 seconds". The pilot replied
"Got it, please hurry I don't want to lose, Kai" Kounji replied, his voice slowly beginning to crack up.
"Roger that, Kid"
Shina wiped her teary eyes with her black flight gloves has she came to. She suddenly came to realization that she hadn't been killed. "Why". She asked to herself.
Shina released the straps that held her into the pilot seat and climbed off, her feet clanking has she touched the slightly inverted cockpit floor. The pilot had managed to obtain only a bruise on her shoulder from the sudden jolt her unit received to its head that laid it out on the road. She felt a tiny sting has she rubbed the purple skin. In a way she was glad Kounji hadn't killed her with that blast but still she wasn't happy to lose him again or his trust for that matter. She feared she probably would never regain it, his or Kai's. Through the confines of the metal cockpit she resided in she could here the sounds of a plane engines whining as they warmed for takeoff before takeoff. She stepped up to the cockpit's opening crouched. She prepared herself for the cold breeze that the sea outside would bring as she popped the hatch. A gust of wind came through the doorway has Shina locked her squinting eyes on the plane, as it finished powering up it's engines. She took a slender gray tool from her tool belt and attached a hook from its end to hook on top of her unit's doorway. She clicked a button on the hilt on the butt of the tool and a cable unraveled from the top allowing her to descend from her core. The moment she touched the ground took off into a sprint towards the plane. From the open hatch of the plane she could make out Kounji's unit unleashing energy beams off at something. Gasping for air has she ran, her foot hit a piece of concrete causing Shina to slam into the ground skidding. She grunted and pulled herself up on to her knees in anguish. She looked off in the direction Kounji was firing and saw the booming mecha that was the UIX on a buildings roof to her right.
The craft flickered its outer lights before it pulled up into hover above the ground shooting dusk and particles in every direction. Shina failed to cover her face from anything that came her way. She wanted to see her friends has they left her life once again. She wanted to see the flight of her only love. Kounji continued the trade fire with the unit has the plane pulled away. The airplane climbed away from the scene and off into welcoming blue sky.
"That was him wasn't it" Jenkins, who was behind her, asked
Shina stood up and turned to face her lightly wounded partner and forcefully smiled.
"That was him" Shina, replied beginning to tear up again.
She looked up towards the UIX it's broad arms and menacing chest plate and height wasn't has comforting to look at has it was in the bases hangar bay. "Damn you, you blasted machine" she shrieked.
Oh my, well it's been quite awhile since the last update for this story.
Linay- so, it seems that old Boy scout's love for the Captain is what kept her alive but are we going to be able to say the same for Kai. Will the menacing UIX unit be the weapon that meaning military superiority for Chrome finally. Will I even appear in this mini- series? Find out in the next chapter of Armored Core: Tiger's Vengeance