Howdy folks, I hope three weeks isn't too long for an update,. I've been
working way to much for my own good lately as well as slacking. Anyways
this chapter will rap up a great introduction to the main character as
chapter three or"deck three" will get this story moving along. Well,
without further a do , a story.
Deck Two: 8x5
Barely grasping the situation unfolding ahead of him, Edge rushed his core backwards into the rear of the large yet still small elevator. His hope was that the missiles would chase the decoys he hurriedly deployed. They didn't. Instead, the small salvo of missiles broke passed the orbiting defenses and keeled in ward toward their prey. Maybe they weren't producing their heat signature's properly but the person who depended on them didn't have to time to dwell on that, he had his life to still worry about.
Edge knew that he would heavily damage his core if he over boosted toward the strong duracrete wall to his right or left. In the split second that the events were occurring, his well honed instincts kicked in, telling him that his core needed to be moving to the right of the elevator, and out of it fast. His core pushed to the side quickly, as his hands dance over the controls. The two missiles on his far left, slammed into the wall behind him, giving it a blackened texture. The next closest two shot past him very close as he was almost out of the lift, narrowly missing his boosters blue flumes. Steps out of the confined space, his core shuttered loudly, has two missiles exploded the Scion blades' left side, catering their points of impact and exploding in bright flames across it's reinforce armor. Edge grunted, yet didn't lose his concentration as he assaulted the right most disk shaped unit with his blade, causing a deep horizontal gash across its head, while knocking the dead walking mecha on its back.
Relieved that he was still quite alive, he could finally make some more sense of the situation and get a look of the surroundings as he shot through the emptier section of the room. He had escaped, conveniently into the facilities automated manufacturing area Parallel conveyer belts made up most of the room, connected to presses that shaped molded alloys into parts and furthered the process as it ran deep into the facility. As he had put a little distance between himself and the Indie fighters, a quick turn to look behind him was met by plasma burst to his core's chest. His core's chest armor had become weakened and had heated up pretty well weakening his core's armor threshold far lower than the pilot wanted. Its legs fought to grip the steel floor as the unit's braking system slowed the machine's momentum, so that its pilot could propel himself back toward his targets. His weapons switched over to missiles, Edge darted back and forth, boosting past a support pillar each time dodging the left most opponent's plasma shots until he locked a good five missiles on to him. He grinned has he fired the salvo at the less agile mech. The five fiery streaks all hit their target exploding it in to pieces across the factory floor. At the same time is other door greeter, let loose it's a dual flight of missiles at the blade, a last act of revenge for his nine fallen comrades. Edge strafed his core right, comfortably out of the missiles arch, and retaliated by sending five well-trained shots in rapid succession towards the center of the target. The one by one his shots dented the area around the MT cockpit, except for the last shot which cracked the transparent steel shielding it's pilot. Now pilot less, the MT walked under it's own will forward and was effectively harmless.
After Edges attacks, the enemy's strength had been effectively cut and the takeover stopped. There was, however, a unit left, a unit that hadn't entirely slipped his mind, but didn't present itself as a threat either. Edge took himself towards the blue blip on his radar, scanning the surroundings with his eyes as well. The targets heat signature was low, way to low to be an AC, but Edge wasn't going to take chances. He eased his way closer and closer towards the blip getting increasing closer to towards the room's loading dock. As he passed by one of the pressing units of the manufacturing areas, Edge could hear a , like of pressure being released from above. He bit into his lip in intrigue has steam coated the room from above into the room; effectively fogging it's confines.
"Watch your ass, Edge I don't like this" Sharon exclaimed in a downbeat tone.
"No shit." Edge yelled loudly, his eyes scanning continuously around the room in front of him
Suddenly Edge could here sounds coming from a loudspeaker, but the steam shooting over him made it's muffled its contents rendering its contents impossible to understand. He promptly engage his the scion blade's head mounted noise canceling system and an instant later he could hear the voice
"You raven, who has defeated my comrades, expect me to surrender but you will get no such pleasure from me. My comrades sacrifices shall drive me to defeat you."
"I've heard it before." Edge laughed contemptuously. "Now, hand over the hostage and you'll have time to reconsider your options. I've killed too many today"
"The Foreign Minister to Mars, Daniel Louis Killian, victimizes the people living under the Earth government's tyranny by representing the Earth government's policies and not it's people. Without him we wouldn't have had a Civil Commotion on Mars and not have lost that many lives. He, my friend must atone for his crimes."
"Hey, I didn't vote for him either pal, but killing him isn't going to do anything."
" I see, there's no use arguing with you, you and all the other raven's are just pawns. You're pawns, for the corporations, and the corrupt government. You'll see you won't be able to turn a blind eye for much longer." The man laughed hopelessly.
Suddenly, Edge heard the terrorist leader approaching, from where he did not know, nor could he even pinpoint, but it was closing. He rotated the unit searching the dark, clouded assembly area but couldn't make out anything further than 50 feet in front of him. The room suddenly was filled with deafening machine gun fire as the enemy target attacked him. His targeting computer, finding a sufficient heat source to track, locked edge's gun automatically to the target firing in front of him. The scion blade fled into the sky as Edge commanded it, and holding his lock the pilot emptied rifle shots into the terrorist target. Yet after firing 6 six shots it hadn't even flinched or begun to explode. Weaving in and out of the terrorist's line of fire, yet still pressing towards the target, Edge descended quickly, swooping in the leader's MT. Taking some slight fire to his ac's right arms as he landed, he discharged his laser sword quickly from his left arm, and slashed across the MT 3 times in rapid succession, causing the unit's ammo to exploded from its holds all across the unit. The scion blade back stepped, as Edge began distancing itself away from the dying unit. Edge's trained brown eyes squinted as a brighter explosion emerging from the unit blinded him.
"Just remember Raven, no matter how much of hot shot you think you are, you're worth nothing to them. Nothing…" the terrorist cried has he was silenced.
Edge opened his eyes again, as the unit keeled over, collapsing on to concrete floor. Drenched in dozens of sweat droplets, Edge smiled in great celebration, the mission was accomplished. Calming himself, Edge took a deep breath of relieve, slouching in his pilot seat as much as his restraints would allow. He was in need of a cigarette really bad. He took a moment to whip sweat from his brow before reaching to his side to grab the pack of cigs he started on earlier. Not the moment his fingertips had touched the pack, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a speeding projectile fly across his view monitor. Quickly he sat up and rotated Scion in the direction the projectile flew and watched in horror has as a small transport truck was tossed into air in an engulfing fire. Edge suddenly became wide eyed and knocked over the pack of cigs has he rotated the core in the direction the projectile came from. He could see nothing but a red light, shining brightly behind the smoke, and then a moment later it had there was nothing. Edge over boosted quickly toward the corner has the light silently went off but has he slowed down and reached the corner of the room, the steam had dissipated and there was nothing there. Not a hole in the wall no point of entry nothing.
The pilot cursed himself to death and as the words "Mission failed" scrolled across his data screen. Across the radio channel he could hear the frantic voices of military personnel trying to make since of the situation. As the voice of an angered Chatlu began to ring in his ears like the sound of drums pounding, it had become more of a reality to him as well a truth that he would never be ready to accept. The Foreign Secretary to Mars was dead and it was his folly that made it so.
***
The trip home via land transport had been full of regret and brooding for Edge. When he had finally reached his core's home garage at dusk that evening, instead of opting to have one of the garage tech's do it for him, Edge taxied, or brought his core to it's docking bay himself. In his angered mood no one was going to be controlling his armored core, but him tonight.
From what many people had told him, when Edge messed up he turned into the worst possible enemy he could to himself. Today wasn't an exception. He spent the whole ride home that night replaying the events in his mind, seeking an answer that would at least allow him to explain his failures. No matter how many times he checked, Edge's findings were too minor or bleak for him to figure out how he had no indication that the foreign minister was still endangered. Even further, he wondered exactly what the red light he saw could have to do with it. He felt as if his instincts that he had become so accustomed to placing trust in, had failed him miserably.
White-hot steam sprayed from the Scion Blade's Black and Orange colored arms and legs as it finally came to rest within its home docking bay, within Garage X1-010B2. With less will or energy than he had earlier, Edge slowly began to shut down all of his core's energy controls one by one, sighing as he shut off the last one. In an instant, he was in darkness for a small dome light above him. Under it's small luminance, he sulked on his pilot couch, brooding over the events that had occurred earlier.
"It just doesn't add up, why would the Indies leader have sacrificed himself if there was one more unit left? Why wouldn't they coordinate." he thought while he released the couch's confining restraints.
Edge, still feeling puzzled, exited the tattered core and made his way out onto the upper walkway of the Garage. He stiffly and angrily walked until he reached a near by ladder and quickly climbed down it's steel bars. As he reached the bottom of the ladder, he heard heavy footsteps and the sound of clanking tools behind him.
"Now I know that there has to be only one tech that would be foolish enough to try to sneak up on me with that many tools on his belt, and that hard of a step. Leland!" Edge laughed as he released his grip turning to meet his old friend.
"And there's only one Raven that come in here with core looking like complete hell and get away with it because he looks worse. " Leland responded laughing almost harder.
Leland had become one of Edge's most trusted friends since he decided to base himself at the garage six years before. The tech didn't look more than a few years older than edge but was a little bit shorter and showed bleak signs of gray near his ear. His hair for the most part was brown, and his eyes of a jade green. The tech being faithful to his very non –cosmetic nature bared a constant five 'o clock shadow much like Edge, and a grease stained tan jump suit with an old ac unit patch on his shoulders.
The two friends almost immediately started walking away from the unit and walked across the semi- busy garage deck.
"So how was it today?" Leland asked.
"She handled very well out there, although the brakes on the ELN-02A legs felt like they had been worn down a bit, not to mention that the ZAN- 202/TEM arms aren't rotating really well when I switch over to my rifle or swing the ELS-3443." Edge sighed
"I meant for you" Leland asked, looking slightly annoyed
"Oh, pretty freaking bad, the foreign secretary to Mars is dead and his blood is on my hands"
"Holy shit, Edge, that is pretty freaking bad, I would feel like complete shit right now if I was you".
Edge stared blankly towards the technician. Leland wasn't what edge would consider the best person to talk to after a personal failure.
"Sorry, blasted exhaust gets to you after a little bit. So you messed up pretty bad I figure. Don't worry Edge it's not like it isn't the first time. This just happens to be more important than the others. Besides you've failed only twice in like ten years of being of pilot that's got to amount for something." Leland suggested.
"I'm not worried about finding more jobs, Leland, I'm worried about getting rusty. There were so many things I wasn't quite ready for this time. I feel like I've completely lost whatever that great thing was that everybody thinks I have." Edge answered sounding almost apologetic.
" Listen, Edge I would love to sit here and watch you beat yourself up over this, but I do have other clients' AC's to work on here. Get some rest, man. Drink, watch some Arena, do something. I'll see if I can get repair work started on your arms and your core parts by tonight. I think as far as the legs go, you're going to need a new braking optional part; those things only have like a seven year life span." Leland replied optimistically
"Thanks partner, say you just reminded me, I have to set up a drinking date with this one operator. She sounds like a fox, but I've been disappointed before" Edge replied, conforming partially to the idea of cheering up.
"Crikey, maybe I need to let a diplomat get killed, then maybe I'll get a date. Oh well I guess I'll have to deal with all the run-of-the-mill technician groupies. You know all of those young nubile women I need to beat off with a stick. "Leland sighed sarcastically.
Yeah, right, see ya around Leland" Edge replied, waving before turning away and walking towards a personnel elevator at the end of the docking section.
Admittedly, Edge's mood had become cheerful when he entered the empty elevator's confines. The lift transported him smoothly above the garage section of the building, into its residential area. These facilities weren't nearly as cushy as the ones the Nerves Concord operated on the other side of Old Isaac, but they were home and Edge found comfort and solace amidst its imperfections. It wasn't perceived as odd to find ravens that wanted to have facilities independent of the Concord's own. In fact, it was quite welcome in most cases. The garages of the Nerves Concord were constantly busy, its staff continually praying that many pilots would come up with their own garage facilities and residences to relieve pressure. Indeed this was what the Heaven's Arc was, a facility owned independently of the Nerves Concord Corporation to give at least a few of it's pilots an alternative in terms of lodging and ac maintenance. Heaven's Arc performed all of the duties needed by its pilot tenants without all the pizzazz or class, except for arena challenges which had to made from a pilots own private console, or terminal as it was once called through the Concords usual network portal. The fee's for joining up with the arc were a little bit more than he would have paid for the services the Concord's operations, but Edge deemed not having a tech accidentally remove his core's arms and give him someone else's bullet riddled arms worth shelling out an few extra hundred credits a month.
As the lift's doors opened to the floor containing the pilots own berth, his anticipation for turning in for the night reached its peak. If he wasn't so tired he would have jogged off the elevator to his apartment with glee, but instead the pilot walked down the long dim hallway. As he neared his apartment which was mid-way down the hall, he could make out excited hollers and yells, originating from a room further down, . As he approached it further, he could hear the distorted the sounds of machine gun bursts and wildly exploding metal emanating from a surround sound pushed to its limits. Yeager, his wife who went by Ultima, and one of other 's Arc's tenants, Hellcat, must have been having one of their coveted "arena nights" as they called them, again. It would be futile to bother them as they hollered and screamed for the Armored Core pilots dueling it out over television.
Upon opening the door, Edge found that his room was indeed in the same condition he had left it, dirty clothes, and unorganized documents strung across the across his living room floor. Being careful not to upset the balance of the room or injure himself for that matter, he slowly tiptoed his way into his bedroom in the rear of the apartment. The pilot threw himself onto the bed, which to his own amazement was prepared. He didn't even bother to get out of his flight suit as laid on his stomach, his tense arms angling loosely over the bed' side. His body was relaxed, less tense than before, his mind was not. His thoughts about the incident earlier stressed out his mind further, causing the cold feeling of failure to wallow in his stomach.
The pilot curiously turned his head glancing at his computer that he would have to turn on eventually. As he panned closer to his nightstand to check the time on his alarm clock, his eyes stopped short, fixed instead on a tiny 8x5 portrait of a young beautiful red head, her arms resting on the shoulders of clean and- shaven young man. "Samantha" he spoke aloud.
Looking at the woman again initially brought him further pain, his last memories of her so dark and tainted. When he remembered the times when the picture was taken though, he thoughts became warmer. She was his lover. He was regretful of how he had lost her. The Foreign Secretary, even though Edge didn't know him outside of holovision and the Interplanetary Networks, was lost too, and someone out there tonight would grieve him. Twice he had failed now. He lied there on the bed dismally thinking, about how alone he was now, how his life was without her. Edge was happy however that he was in fact alive and that was due to an astute operator.
He remembered however that he would have to set a date with Mchale. She was part of the reason he was still alive tonight. Tomorrow, he would have to thank her proper with a drink and a pack of unired regulars.
"I'm slacking again, Sammie" he thought internally, as if he was speaking to her directly. Edge smirked at the portrait, nudging it with his finger, as he pulled himself up off his bed. He powered up his computer console, quickly bringing up his consoles messaging system to leave a short note for the young operator. Noon sounded like a safe time to set with her, so he typed in a quick message, simple and to the point, and sent it to her. Powering his computer down, Edge gave a quiet sigh, and plopped himself down into bed again. His mind drifted as he fell into slumber.
-----------------------------------------------------
Voice actress of Sharon.- Wow, it's so sad to see our hero in such deep remorse about his past losts. Next time Edge, meets me but will he be in for more than he bargained for. (tee hee) We'll see next time in… Two People Met in a Bar… Read and Review please, thanks..
Deck Two: 8x5
Barely grasping the situation unfolding ahead of him, Edge rushed his core backwards into the rear of the large yet still small elevator. His hope was that the missiles would chase the decoys he hurriedly deployed. They didn't. Instead, the small salvo of missiles broke passed the orbiting defenses and keeled in ward toward their prey. Maybe they weren't producing their heat signature's properly but the person who depended on them didn't have to time to dwell on that, he had his life to still worry about.
Edge knew that he would heavily damage his core if he over boosted toward the strong duracrete wall to his right or left. In the split second that the events were occurring, his well honed instincts kicked in, telling him that his core needed to be moving to the right of the elevator, and out of it fast. His core pushed to the side quickly, as his hands dance over the controls. The two missiles on his far left, slammed into the wall behind him, giving it a blackened texture. The next closest two shot past him very close as he was almost out of the lift, narrowly missing his boosters blue flumes. Steps out of the confined space, his core shuttered loudly, has two missiles exploded the Scion blades' left side, catering their points of impact and exploding in bright flames across it's reinforce armor. Edge grunted, yet didn't lose his concentration as he assaulted the right most disk shaped unit with his blade, causing a deep horizontal gash across its head, while knocking the dead walking mecha on its back.
Relieved that he was still quite alive, he could finally make some more sense of the situation and get a look of the surroundings as he shot through the emptier section of the room. He had escaped, conveniently into the facilities automated manufacturing area Parallel conveyer belts made up most of the room, connected to presses that shaped molded alloys into parts and furthered the process as it ran deep into the facility. As he had put a little distance between himself and the Indie fighters, a quick turn to look behind him was met by plasma burst to his core's chest. His core's chest armor had become weakened and had heated up pretty well weakening his core's armor threshold far lower than the pilot wanted. Its legs fought to grip the steel floor as the unit's braking system slowed the machine's momentum, so that its pilot could propel himself back toward his targets. His weapons switched over to missiles, Edge darted back and forth, boosting past a support pillar each time dodging the left most opponent's plasma shots until he locked a good five missiles on to him. He grinned has he fired the salvo at the less agile mech. The five fiery streaks all hit their target exploding it in to pieces across the factory floor. At the same time is other door greeter, let loose it's a dual flight of missiles at the blade, a last act of revenge for his nine fallen comrades. Edge strafed his core right, comfortably out of the missiles arch, and retaliated by sending five well-trained shots in rapid succession towards the center of the target. The one by one his shots dented the area around the MT cockpit, except for the last shot which cracked the transparent steel shielding it's pilot. Now pilot less, the MT walked under it's own will forward and was effectively harmless.
After Edges attacks, the enemy's strength had been effectively cut and the takeover stopped. There was, however, a unit left, a unit that hadn't entirely slipped his mind, but didn't present itself as a threat either. Edge took himself towards the blue blip on his radar, scanning the surroundings with his eyes as well. The targets heat signature was low, way to low to be an AC, but Edge wasn't going to take chances. He eased his way closer and closer towards the blip getting increasing closer to towards the room's loading dock. As he passed by one of the pressing units of the manufacturing areas, Edge could hear a , like of pressure being released from above. He bit into his lip in intrigue has steam coated the room from above into the room; effectively fogging it's confines.
"Watch your ass, Edge I don't like this" Sharon exclaimed in a downbeat tone.
"No shit." Edge yelled loudly, his eyes scanning continuously around the room in front of him
Suddenly Edge could here sounds coming from a loudspeaker, but the steam shooting over him made it's muffled its contents rendering its contents impossible to understand. He promptly engage his the scion blade's head mounted noise canceling system and an instant later he could hear the voice
"You raven, who has defeated my comrades, expect me to surrender but you will get no such pleasure from me. My comrades sacrifices shall drive me to defeat you."
"I've heard it before." Edge laughed contemptuously. "Now, hand over the hostage and you'll have time to reconsider your options. I've killed too many today"
"The Foreign Minister to Mars, Daniel Louis Killian, victimizes the people living under the Earth government's tyranny by representing the Earth government's policies and not it's people. Without him we wouldn't have had a Civil Commotion on Mars and not have lost that many lives. He, my friend must atone for his crimes."
"Hey, I didn't vote for him either pal, but killing him isn't going to do anything."
" I see, there's no use arguing with you, you and all the other raven's are just pawns. You're pawns, for the corporations, and the corrupt government. You'll see you won't be able to turn a blind eye for much longer." The man laughed hopelessly.
Suddenly, Edge heard the terrorist leader approaching, from where he did not know, nor could he even pinpoint, but it was closing. He rotated the unit searching the dark, clouded assembly area but couldn't make out anything further than 50 feet in front of him. The room suddenly was filled with deafening machine gun fire as the enemy target attacked him. His targeting computer, finding a sufficient heat source to track, locked edge's gun automatically to the target firing in front of him. The scion blade fled into the sky as Edge commanded it, and holding his lock the pilot emptied rifle shots into the terrorist target. Yet after firing 6 six shots it hadn't even flinched or begun to explode. Weaving in and out of the terrorist's line of fire, yet still pressing towards the target, Edge descended quickly, swooping in the leader's MT. Taking some slight fire to his ac's right arms as he landed, he discharged his laser sword quickly from his left arm, and slashed across the MT 3 times in rapid succession, causing the unit's ammo to exploded from its holds all across the unit. The scion blade back stepped, as Edge began distancing itself away from the dying unit. Edge's trained brown eyes squinted as a brighter explosion emerging from the unit blinded him.
"Just remember Raven, no matter how much of hot shot you think you are, you're worth nothing to them. Nothing…" the terrorist cried has he was silenced.
Edge opened his eyes again, as the unit keeled over, collapsing on to concrete floor. Drenched in dozens of sweat droplets, Edge smiled in great celebration, the mission was accomplished. Calming himself, Edge took a deep breath of relieve, slouching in his pilot seat as much as his restraints would allow. He was in need of a cigarette really bad. He took a moment to whip sweat from his brow before reaching to his side to grab the pack of cigs he started on earlier. Not the moment his fingertips had touched the pack, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a speeding projectile fly across his view monitor. Quickly he sat up and rotated Scion in the direction the projectile flew and watched in horror has as a small transport truck was tossed into air in an engulfing fire. Edge suddenly became wide eyed and knocked over the pack of cigs has he rotated the core in the direction the projectile came from. He could see nothing but a red light, shining brightly behind the smoke, and then a moment later it had there was nothing. Edge over boosted quickly toward the corner has the light silently went off but has he slowed down and reached the corner of the room, the steam had dissipated and there was nothing there. Not a hole in the wall no point of entry nothing.
The pilot cursed himself to death and as the words "Mission failed" scrolled across his data screen. Across the radio channel he could hear the frantic voices of military personnel trying to make since of the situation. As the voice of an angered Chatlu began to ring in his ears like the sound of drums pounding, it had become more of a reality to him as well a truth that he would never be ready to accept. The Foreign Secretary to Mars was dead and it was his folly that made it so.
***
The trip home via land transport had been full of regret and brooding for Edge. When he had finally reached his core's home garage at dusk that evening, instead of opting to have one of the garage tech's do it for him, Edge taxied, or brought his core to it's docking bay himself. In his angered mood no one was going to be controlling his armored core, but him tonight.
From what many people had told him, when Edge messed up he turned into the worst possible enemy he could to himself. Today wasn't an exception. He spent the whole ride home that night replaying the events in his mind, seeking an answer that would at least allow him to explain his failures. No matter how many times he checked, Edge's findings were too minor or bleak for him to figure out how he had no indication that the foreign minister was still endangered. Even further, he wondered exactly what the red light he saw could have to do with it. He felt as if his instincts that he had become so accustomed to placing trust in, had failed him miserably.
White-hot steam sprayed from the Scion Blade's Black and Orange colored arms and legs as it finally came to rest within its home docking bay, within Garage X1-010B2. With less will or energy than he had earlier, Edge slowly began to shut down all of his core's energy controls one by one, sighing as he shut off the last one. In an instant, he was in darkness for a small dome light above him. Under it's small luminance, he sulked on his pilot couch, brooding over the events that had occurred earlier.
"It just doesn't add up, why would the Indies leader have sacrificed himself if there was one more unit left? Why wouldn't they coordinate." he thought while he released the couch's confining restraints.
Edge, still feeling puzzled, exited the tattered core and made his way out onto the upper walkway of the Garage. He stiffly and angrily walked until he reached a near by ladder and quickly climbed down it's steel bars. As he reached the bottom of the ladder, he heard heavy footsteps and the sound of clanking tools behind him.
"Now I know that there has to be only one tech that would be foolish enough to try to sneak up on me with that many tools on his belt, and that hard of a step. Leland!" Edge laughed as he released his grip turning to meet his old friend.
"And there's only one Raven that come in here with core looking like complete hell and get away with it because he looks worse. " Leland responded laughing almost harder.
Leland had become one of Edge's most trusted friends since he decided to base himself at the garage six years before. The tech didn't look more than a few years older than edge but was a little bit shorter and showed bleak signs of gray near his ear. His hair for the most part was brown, and his eyes of a jade green. The tech being faithful to his very non –cosmetic nature bared a constant five 'o clock shadow much like Edge, and a grease stained tan jump suit with an old ac unit patch on his shoulders.
The two friends almost immediately started walking away from the unit and walked across the semi- busy garage deck.
"So how was it today?" Leland asked.
"She handled very well out there, although the brakes on the ELN-02A legs felt like they had been worn down a bit, not to mention that the ZAN- 202/TEM arms aren't rotating really well when I switch over to my rifle or swing the ELS-3443." Edge sighed
"I meant for you" Leland asked, looking slightly annoyed
"Oh, pretty freaking bad, the foreign secretary to Mars is dead and his blood is on my hands"
"Holy shit, Edge, that is pretty freaking bad, I would feel like complete shit right now if I was you".
Edge stared blankly towards the technician. Leland wasn't what edge would consider the best person to talk to after a personal failure.
"Sorry, blasted exhaust gets to you after a little bit. So you messed up pretty bad I figure. Don't worry Edge it's not like it isn't the first time. This just happens to be more important than the others. Besides you've failed only twice in like ten years of being of pilot that's got to amount for something." Leland suggested.
"I'm not worried about finding more jobs, Leland, I'm worried about getting rusty. There were so many things I wasn't quite ready for this time. I feel like I've completely lost whatever that great thing was that everybody thinks I have." Edge answered sounding almost apologetic.
" Listen, Edge I would love to sit here and watch you beat yourself up over this, but I do have other clients' AC's to work on here. Get some rest, man. Drink, watch some Arena, do something. I'll see if I can get repair work started on your arms and your core parts by tonight. I think as far as the legs go, you're going to need a new braking optional part; those things only have like a seven year life span." Leland replied optimistically
"Thanks partner, say you just reminded me, I have to set up a drinking date with this one operator. She sounds like a fox, but I've been disappointed before" Edge replied, conforming partially to the idea of cheering up.
"Crikey, maybe I need to let a diplomat get killed, then maybe I'll get a date. Oh well I guess I'll have to deal with all the run-of-the-mill technician groupies. You know all of those young nubile women I need to beat off with a stick. "Leland sighed sarcastically.
Yeah, right, see ya around Leland" Edge replied, waving before turning away and walking towards a personnel elevator at the end of the docking section.
Admittedly, Edge's mood had become cheerful when he entered the empty elevator's confines. The lift transported him smoothly above the garage section of the building, into its residential area. These facilities weren't nearly as cushy as the ones the Nerves Concord operated on the other side of Old Isaac, but they were home and Edge found comfort and solace amidst its imperfections. It wasn't perceived as odd to find ravens that wanted to have facilities independent of the Concord's own. In fact, it was quite welcome in most cases. The garages of the Nerves Concord were constantly busy, its staff continually praying that many pilots would come up with their own garage facilities and residences to relieve pressure. Indeed this was what the Heaven's Arc was, a facility owned independently of the Nerves Concord Corporation to give at least a few of it's pilots an alternative in terms of lodging and ac maintenance. Heaven's Arc performed all of the duties needed by its pilot tenants without all the pizzazz or class, except for arena challenges which had to made from a pilots own private console, or terminal as it was once called through the Concords usual network portal. The fee's for joining up with the arc were a little bit more than he would have paid for the services the Concord's operations, but Edge deemed not having a tech accidentally remove his core's arms and give him someone else's bullet riddled arms worth shelling out an few extra hundred credits a month.
As the lift's doors opened to the floor containing the pilots own berth, his anticipation for turning in for the night reached its peak. If he wasn't so tired he would have jogged off the elevator to his apartment with glee, but instead the pilot walked down the long dim hallway. As he neared his apartment which was mid-way down the hall, he could make out excited hollers and yells, originating from a room further down, . As he approached it further, he could hear the distorted the sounds of machine gun bursts and wildly exploding metal emanating from a surround sound pushed to its limits. Yeager, his wife who went by Ultima, and one of other 's Arc's tenants, Hellcat, must have been having one of their coveted "arena nights" as they called them, again. It would be futile to bother them as they hollered and screamed for the Armored Core pilots dueling it out over television.
Upon opening the door, Edge found that his room was indeed in the same condition he had left it, dirty clothes, and unorganized documents strung across the across his living room floor. Being careful not to upset the balance of the room or injure himself for that matter, he slowly tiptoed his way into his bedroom in the rear of the apartment. The pilot threw himself onto the bed, which to his own amazement was prepared. He didn't even bother to get out of his flight suit as laid on his stomach, his tense arms angling loosely over the bed' side. His body was relaxed, less tense than before, his mind was not. His thoughts about the incident earlier stressed out his mind further, causing the cold feeling of failure to wallow in his stomach.
The pilot curiously turned his head glancing at his computer that he would have to turn on eventually. As he panned closer to his nightstand to check the time on his alarm clock, his eyes stopped short, fixed instead on a tiny 8x5 portrait of a young beautiful red head, her arms resting on the shoulders of clean and- shaven young man. "Samantha" he spoke aloud.
Looking at the woman again initially brought him further pain, his last memories of her so dark and tainted. When he remembered the times when the picture was taken though, he thoughts became warmer. She was his lover. He was regretful of how he had lost her. The Foreign Secretary, even though Edge didn't know him outside of holovision and the Interplanetary Networks, was lost too, and someone out there tonight would grieve him. Twice he had failed now. He lied there on the bed dismally thinking, about how alone he was now, how his life was without her. Edge was happy however that he was in fact alive and that was due to an astute operator.
He remembered however that he would have to set a date with Mchale. She was part of the reason he was still alive tonight. Tomorrow, he would have to thank her proper with a drink and a pack of unired regulars.
"I'm slacking again, Sammie" he thought internally, as if he was speaking to her directly. Edge smirked at the portrait, nudging it with his finger, as he pulled himself up off his bed. He powered up his computer console, quickly bringing up his consoles messaging system to leave a short note for the young operator. Noon sounded like a safe time to set with her, so he typed in a quick message, simple and to the point, and sent it to her. Powering his computer down, Edge gave a quiet sigh, and plopped himself down into bed again. His mind drifted as he fell into slumber.
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Voice actress of Sharon.- Wow, it's so sad to see our hero in such deep remorse about his past losts. Next time Edge, meets me but will he be in for more than he bargained for. (tee hee) We'll see next time in… Two People Met in a Bar… Read and Review please, thanks..