Armored Core: Overboost Destiny

Chapter 2: Homecoming

You have Mail-

[Request]

It has been a long time Raven. I hope your permanent vacation has been a pleasant one. Considering the following, I doubt you will want to stay. The Alliance supposedly destroyed a transport ship on its way to deliver supplies to Rapture space station. Every member of the Alliance was said to be seen, yet no order was given by either planet's government or military to do so. Van, your presence is requested by Nerves Concord, we cannot allow another interplanetary war to arise through ambitions and false accusations. Please re-initiate communication with us. For Earth.

Mail to Lynn-

Nobody should have said the war was over. As long as there are Ravens, there will be war. I bet the Alliance was conned by one of two things, one of the governments, or a new corporation that's coming out of the woodwork. Either way, they plan to take control of the only thing that can change things, Ravens. Something is not right here, lets get to the bottom of this before Earth and Mars start pointing fingers.

[…I'm back]

Van closed the lid to the laptop that was built in to his cockpit. His chair was turned to the right to use the laptop. The laptop allowed him to send and receive mail, order parts and fix small complications. Van contemplated his quest back to the mainland. Crossing the ocean would not be an easy task. Especially without a transport ship to take the Einherjar over the water.

Boosting over the Ocean would be too risky. Moving under the ocean wouldn't be any safer. 'Shallow' water would be my only bet, he thought. He'd have to find shallow areas and hop from one to the next.

The Einherjar walks across the sands of a frozen beach. The sand was icy and white, glimmering in the sunlight pouring down on the area through a cloudy sky. Van surveyed the mapping system on the cockpit window screen. The elevation of the land around him could easily tell him his next destination to land on. If it was too far, he'd have to limit release and overboost as far as he can. If he fails in landing on a shallow ground, he might not make it back up from the ocean depths.

"Why would they send me a transport ship when I can safely walk across water with an Ac that weighs tons. I can't fly…wait yeah I can!" Van yelled. He realized the EIP-X/AURA part could power the Einherjar with energy, and he might just be able to make it across the ocean with its power. Van turned his chair to his laptop, ran a few tests on how far this feature would enable him to go…and when the answer appeared on the screen, a smile stretched across Van's face.

Van turned back to his controls, switched on the inside part and closed off all the vents besides his overboost boosters. The Einherjar absorbed energy, then in a quick moment it was launched through the air in a red haze of energy, pushing it into the distance.

Scissors forest was just as he remembered it. It was thick with vegetation, beautiful in its own sense, and rainy just as it was the last time he was there. He moved the Einherjar across the canopy, boosting over it without the help of the exhausted AURA part. Van was familiar with the area now that he came close to the outskirts of the forest. It had been two years since he fought the ghost…two years since the war has ended and a time of peace had come. It has been two years of solitude on the Northeast Glacier…and two years away from being a Raven for Van. He still feels at home in Einherjar, but that has never changed.

"There it is…" Van whispered as he examined the ghost pilot's Ac just as it was when he left. Its paint had been rusted and the entire frame was tarnished. Van grew curious, was this pilot really a ghost?

The Einherjar landed next to the Ac and knelt down next to its side. The lower front of the Einherjar's core opened up, and Van stepped out of the cockpit, holding the top of the doorway outside. He looked at the colossal Ac, as a nice breeze blew across his neck. He stretched his hand out, opening his palm to feel the slight haze of rain touch his fingers. Van leapt from the cockpit door of the Einherjar to the front of the Ac's leg, close and accessible to where Van had landed.

The door of the cockpit opened, smoke crawled out from the sides of the door and sunlight poured into the room. Van held himself up on the edges of the door, looking into the cockpit. A human figure laid dead in the pilot's chair. Decayed…more than two years away. Van looked at the wall inside the cockpit, noticing a small screen. It said, 'Eight-ball pilot Hustler One…systems damaged…return to base.'

Van leaned against the cockpit doorway, watching the Ac he had pushed into the ocean being pulled underwater. Van took the cannon the Ac had and stuck the broken end of it into the Cliff beside the water. A fitting burial for a lost Raven, setting him out to see to drift into the afterlife.

Kregg Fortress was a little run down. It lost its pretty blue motif and had rusted away just as much as Eight ball had. Van entered by ramming into the two metal doors between two separate wings of the building. After the battle, Emeraude left their last stand and everyone attempted to return home. The Alliance was originally planned to destroy both the corporations. When Emeraude took out Zio Matrix, the other Corporations had fallen pretty fast due to repeated attacks by anonymous Ravens. This was the Alliance.

When Emeraude was the only one left, the Alliance become known and destroyed every main player in the corporation. Van wasn't considered one since his identity had always been kept a secret, Emeraude didn't want one of their best Ravens to be known about. Even with his reputation, Van wasn't trusted.

The Einherjar walked about the dark ruins of the fortress. Cracks in the ceiling and walls were pouring water in like a waterfall. The floor was covered in water as deep as a lake. The feet of Van's Ac pushed the water aside as they hit the ground. Van turned into a room with several large computers. Using the finger of the Einherjar, Van pressed a button on one of the screens, showing a list of letters and numbers.

This was a transmission number. When the war had ended, all the transmission codes to contact the corporations or organizations were changed. When Van had left, he hadn't replaced the codes to keep in contact with Lynn or anyone else through radio transmission. Of course, mail could have been an option but Nerves Concord doesn't allow personal mails to be sent. Privacy issues.

"2…4…G…I…9…E! There!" Van said, inputting the codes onto his laptop. A box appeared on his screen. 'Initiating re-establishment of communication.'

"Lynn…It's Van do you read?" Van said, watching for a signal on the screen. "Lynn are you there?" He asked again. Nothing was said. He sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Van…?" Lynn said softly. "Van!"

"Nice to hear your voice Lynn." Van replied. He smiled.

"Oh my god…Van! Van it is you!" Lynn said ecstatically. "I can't believe it."

"Well, I'm happy to hear from you too. How's life?" Van asked, seriously interested in how she has been. See, Lynn and Van had been a team since he first became a Raven. As he grew through the ranks, she rose with him and they both requested to work with each other every time they were split. All this and they've only met once.

"I've been helping Nerves Concord on this Alliance investigation. I'm a member of the Neo Isaac BOC now. I help with city ordinances and the like," Lynn said. "How was your hermit lifestyle going? What did you do?"

Van was surprised, she went pretty far in the two years he hadn't heard from her. He was proud. "Congratulations. Actually…the two years was more like a physical and spiritual training period. It feels like my physical strength has an impact on Einherjar's."

"Physical…" Lynn thought. "Oh, a lot of studies say that that is true. One's physical power does seem to have an effect." Lynn stated, her mind wandering a little.

"It's nice and quite up there. I think I'll shudder the next bullet I hear fired off. I'm too used to silence." Van said, closing his eyes.

"Silence is good…it is hard to stay with these days. I see why you left. Even in this time of peace we still have so many problems. But it is just easier to walk away than deal with them." Lynn said, getting slightly offensive.

Van raised a brow, opening his eyes and looking at the screen. "Huh?"

"You know, we needed you! You could've prevented this whole ordeal before any of it even started! We've always worked together, and then all of a sudden you run away! I was left alone Van!" Lynn yelled, bringing all her anger out that she had kept in these two years. She missed him, she didn't want him to go. She felt so betrayed by his sudden change of personality. She felt he was running from her.

"Well the first notice I got from you I came back didn't I?"

"Yes but…it's the principle of the thing. You left Van. Why did you leave?" Lynn said.

Van sighed. "I had left for personal reasons."

Lynn groaned. "Why won't you tell me?"

Van shook his head. "Fine. The last pilot I faced wasn't a ghost. He was real. He told me to stop, I did what I wanted to do and I need to stop before I end up like him. If you only saw him Lynn."

"So that's what happened…" Lynn realized.

Van nodded. "I felt he was right. I was afraid to continue…it was hard to come back to Lynn. But, I came back for you."

They talked for hours afterward. They had strong feelings for each other, yet neither one of them could admit it. They were an inseparable team. Their first meeting was the first time they realized they felt that way. Van had been assigned to protect the Neo Isaac BOC Headquarters, and a group of Acs has come to attack it. Lynn was in that building that day, working on getting information from Neo Isaac for another mission. Van took the Acs down, but then their leader showed up. Equipped with a giant laser cannon, the Ac tore a hole through Van's old armored core. If Van hadn't diverted the attack, the building would have been destroyed, and Lynn dead. The next day…Lynn had a present for Van from Neo Isaac.

Van had journeyed to the super highway connecting the major cities of the main continent. Sooner than he expected, he ended up where his real adventure began. The Einherjar stood in a test room. Pathways with glass ceilings and walls connected a central building with four pillars near the corners of the room. Van looked around. This was the place he first piloted Einherjar. For saving Neo Isaac and sacrificing his Ac, Van was given Einherjar as a gift. Fully equipped with a new head part, a new leg part, new extensions and an all new lightweight grenade launcher. All from Emeraude, his main beneficiary. The Einherjar was specifically designed for van's style…just as Lynn saw fit.

The start of his journey…the end of the beginning