Chapter 13: Sticky Situation
"Ah hell, this sucks" I was looking around for some spare AC parts, the mission to raid Klein's fort was taking place in 2 days and I didn't even have a completed AC. "Shade and BB from Global Cortex" Jean was reading off the list of Ravens that where lucky enough to be able to pay back Klein "Helios, Aeries, Rose and Light Seeker from Nerves Concord" she licked her lips, "from Rapture Point we've got Odin, Morgue, Firefly, Tiara and Dusty, all high ranking Ravens" "And from Claymore." "Patterns, Coco Bird, you, Florescent Light and." Jean looked up at me "Yuri.Renee got picked" I said half heartily, out of over 100 Ravens she got picked as well "Chris, you still need an AC" she was waking down the dirt path, on both sides of me where make shift hangers with ACs housed within them, without the Garage provided by Claymore it was a hassle to change a part or two, much less make an AC. I passed by Coco Bird's hanger, his flaming red AC tank was all ready while I was still trying to get one. "Jean" I caught up with Jean, this mission had no reward, but that didn't stop nearly all the remaining Ravens from signing up. Each nest could only spare so many Ravens, the ones that Jean read off the list was the team responsible to enter the fort and clear out any baddies, the last group of Ravens consisted of elite AC pilots and would come in after our sweep. "Jean!" I said again, she ignored me and continued down the path, "ello? Are you listening to me?" "Hey Chris" she turned toward me, we had stopped infront of a closed hanger "What?" "Remember when I said I'd pay you back for saving my life one time?" "Uhh, yeah why do you ask?" "Because I'm repaying my debt and saving your ass" she called for some technicians to open the hanger "How?" "With this" she grabbed my head and turned it to the contents of the hanger I couldn't believe my eyes, "well?" I was looking at my old AC, the one that didn't have a name and was the only thing my dad left me. I Looked at Jean, speechless. "You know, I always called this a piece of sh*t, but now it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" I said, I had an AC to pilot, and now I get to join in the fun. "uhh, yeah, umm Chris?" "Yeah" I was still mesmerized with the AC before me, even if it was obsolete with chipping paint and a cr*ppy radiator, it was still my baby "You may have an AC but you don't have any weapons" I looked more closely.never mind I woke from my trance and said, "this is a piece of sh*t" "I could ask some Ravens if they could spare a part or two" I said, looking around into the other hangers "Yeah you could but I doubt it, your AC is too old to use some of the newer parts" "dam" "Yeah Chris, I know you have a stash of AC parts somewhere, why don't you use thems?" I scanned my mind and only came up with one hit, I had something in cold storage.but it only brought back bad memories that weren't mines to begin with "Chris I'll ask some people if you could use some of their old parts ok?" Jean had already begun walking down the path, "I'll be back in an hour or two" "Yeah." my mind went back to the warehouse that me and Jean went shopping for AC parts. I didn't tell her that I had a weapon stored there, she'll kill me if she found out that I was using credits to store a fossil of a weapon. But it seems that I had no choice, if I was gonna rock with the big boys in this fight, I was gonna have to whip it out, even if it did kill me once before.
"Chris I got some parts for yo-" Jean was just entering my hanger when she saw the weapon I had installed on my AC "Don't say anything Jean" I was touching up on my emblem when I heard her walking in, "as soon as this is over that's going back into storage" "Chris but, but, but-" "You think I enjoy it on my AC?" my hand was covered with silver and yellow paint, even if the emblem was less then 5% of the total AC surface area it was like painting a mural "I thought it blew up with your." she stopped, then began looking at a modified Kawasawa , it's silver polish shined in the sheets of light from the blinds of the hanger. She looked at the long barrel and energy battery housing, my dad had modified it to fire in 2 kinds of weapon fire, 50 regular energy blasts or 5 shots of concentrated death. "I had it fixed" I was still thinking back to the explosion, where the real Defect died, it ripped at my mind knowing that I was a clone, "and put away" I looked at her, "what do you have?" "Your going to love it" she reached into her purse bringing out a crumpled piece of paper, "left arm part, the CLB-LS-1551 laser blade, right back unit, the ZW."
"This is a joint effort, so try not to be a hero" The leader of our group was an old man, two scars running down both sides of his face creating an illusion of the number Eleven on his face by the looks of it he must be 70+. All around the room I saw skilled pilots, all grizzled vets who have seen more then their share of blood on the battle field and rankings sucure in the upper levels in the arena. Our leader had assembled us and was going over our part in the mission. The jet sank to the right and his coffee slid off the table crashing into the floor but was muted by the thunder outside, we where already on our way to Klein. "The first wave has cleared out the outside defenses, the second is already trying to breach into the fort" he turned on the hologram table and pointed out our entry point, "we clear out the northern sector while group 4 has the eastern and 5 with the depository" he looked up, "any questions?" no one said anything or make a gesture, everyone knew what to do. I looked at Renee again, she was off in a corner her orange hood covering her face so all emotion from her was hidden. I sighed deeply, what the hell happened to us I thought, leaning my chair backwards
We landed about 1000km from the fort, we were waiting for our ACs to arrive via space drop. As we waited we looked at the carnage around us, ACs and MTs scattered about, one of the vets covered her eyes when she found the wreckage of her husbands AC. It had been assaulted with a barrage of machine-gun ammo and the core had a giant gapping hole in it, the product of a large rocket. We looked in awe into the distance, there was no noise, nothing moving besides pillars of smoke, a graveyard of pilots was before us, their metal caskets gleamed when a cloud or two allowed the sun to penetrate. The sight was horrifying, twisted metal blended in with red blood, not many where sure that the red ACs that lay before us where originally painted red, but stained. Smoke from fires here or there burned into the distance, the crow of a dying Raven echoed into the distance, our bones chilled. "Get ready" Count One said, his voice woke us up from our trance. We looked up, our ACs where on their way. 17 glowing balls of fire rained down from the sky, our ACs within the capsules that had been deployed from space, their red glow reminded me of the blood in the battle field, I looked away but there was red everywhere, my eyes fell upon Renee, the orange drowned away all other colors, I was at ease. Exactly 500 meters from the ground the capsules split apart releasing our ACs into free fall, the automatic boosters turned on slowing their decent, all landing within a mile from our position, time to suit up.
Within 30 minutes of our arrival time we where all ready, it was time for us to venture out into the carnage. "Everyone move out, hovers take point" Count One adjusted his helmet, a giant number 11 was on it, each of the 1s over the right and left side of his visor, "lets go"
Our approach was a slow one, with all this fuel around from the MTs that spewed from Klein's fort the overboost and boost was out of the question or else everything would be engulfed with flames. The hovers floated about to and fro; not bothered by the wreckage that lie below, they had already made contact with the first group of Ravens that where also going to help us in our sweep in the fort while the rest trudged along the swat of dead Ravens. My bipedal was making good time, being able to maneuver and light enough to walk upon other ACs, my route was a straight line. The reverse joints of our group found a creative way to get from point A to point B, their grasshopper like jump propelled them way ahead of me. Tanks on the other hand were slow enough, with all the debris and junk on the ground they were dead last since they had to find an opening to get past the wreckage. 2 hours late to our entry point the hovers of our group and the first team entered the fort, any and all transmission from them ceased. Klein's fort was more or less like a dome, it reminded me of the arena, I know that battles where being waged just as our group reached it. "Light seeker, fire a taco" Count one ordered, we had arrived at the target area an hour late. "Roger that" although his AC wasn't a quad or tank, he fired a grenade blast at the wall that would be our door in. We where all given the special OP-INTESIFY optional part, only the elite where allowed to receive this, and it clearly shows why. No longer needing to knell to fire cannons, increased radiator; booster; and energy recovery.simply put the whole 9 yards. "Tanks out in front" the just arriving tanks rolled thru the collapsed wall, switching to their Grenade cannons. The tanks where to take the brunt of any attack, hovers where to scout and the mids where the ones to "soften up" the baddies before the elite group came in. At least that was the plan, the hovers had already floated on in with the first group, including Renee. "Lets clear out" "Roger." there was a pause in the transmission, "1000 credits for whoever gets into a battle first" I heard the team chuckling in the static, "your on"
"Nothing here" "Here too" "Where is everyone?" "I'm just entering the dome.oh hell" "What?" "I've just found everyone" "and?" "and." the sound of an AC overboosting was heard in the background, "their all dead, I'm going in" "NO Yuri report your posistion!" "No time" there was an explosion on the Com link, "tell Defect.I said bye" the battle raged in radio silence, the dome walls muted all cries of help
"This area is all clear" I said into the link "Good, that brings the number to 10." Count One paused for a second, "I want you to check one last area before we let the Elite come in" "Shoot" I said "Search the dome area, that'll be 11." "Roger I'm on my way" I switched on my Overboost, and blasted down the corridor.
I blinked once, twice, a million times, the image didn't change, I wasn't imagining this. When I opened the doorway to the dome, I didn't know it would also be the doorway to destruction. The doorway opened slowly, creaking as it rose up into the ceiling, an AC toppled over scaring the bageezes out of me. It had its back against the doorway, and fell to my feet as the door opened. I recognized him instantly, it was Chain Iron, his AC riddled with bullet holes that I knew the pilot didn't survive. Before me among the buildings within lay the remains of countless ACs, including the hovers of our groups. They had all been destroyed, the hair on the back of my neck rose, something was happening in here and I wanted to know what. Just as I entered a building near the other side of the dome collapsed, someone was still fighting. I switched on my overboost again, speeding toward the rubble.
"Who are you?" Renee boosted behind a building, just avoiding a shotgun blast "I go by Kitty" She switched weapons, "but only those who are maunders may call me Caitlin" "How about b*tch?" Renee turned and fired her machine gun into the building, the bullets tore up the walls and continued thru, just missing Kitty on the other side. "Hmm, how entertaining" Kitty raised her weapon, "tell me how this feels" launching a capsule in Renee's direction "what the?" the building collapsed infront of her, Renee had just got a glimpse of the capsule before it erupted. Renee's left part of her AC was covered in goo, the capsule had spattered out a blue liquid that blocked out the orange. "Are you ready?" Kitty pressed her trigger and an explosion ensued, Renee's left arm exploded "HOW?!?!" Renee was stunned, somehow the goo Kitty launched exploded. She watched in horror as all the blue spatters that didn't land on her AC created mini explosions. "Magic" Kitty replied and began to launch capsules into the air. "What is that?" Renee was dogging the blue goo as they rained down from the sky, only a small portion of the goo landed on her but the damage it dealt was as much as a TITAN missile, if more then 25% of the goo covered her AC the it would be game over. "Its something I've created" The cat was chasing Renee around the buildings, "It seeps into your AC and blows it up from the inside out" "Your mad!" Renee saw that Kitty's AC was also covered in the blue goo, if she pulled the trigger then she would explode as well "I know" Kitty continued launching capsules and spoke into the link, "and soo the cat chased the orange bird up a tree" "B*TCH!" Renee was concentrated on dogging the goo, her weapons forgotten in the chase "The bird thought it would be safe to fly away" Kitty fired her left hand weapon, launching another capsule but this time the goo that erupted was red.anything covered in it sizzled and melted, it was an acid. Renee now had to dodge the red as well, both liquids created the color of death when combined, purple was not a favorite color of Renee. "But the cat jumped after the bird, catching it in mid flight" Kitty was launching capsules indiscriminately now her AC coated in purple but continued the chase "the cat fell to its doom.but not before having a last meal." Kitty's AC was sizzling and Renee watched as the metal frame of it melted off, reveling a skeleton. Renee tried to get away but she had nowhere to go, Kitty had trapped her in a dead end. "Meow" Kitty said and launched her last capsule at Renee covering her completely. "RENEE!" she heard on the com link before Kitty pressed the trigger, she looked behind Kitty and saw an AC with a Kawasawa.she knew who it was
Time stopped, I found Renee, and I knew that in a matter of seconds I would lose her, time began to resume, and I tried to fight it back, I was forcing my mind to keep time still, I wanted at least one more second with her, just one more.
"Ah hell, this sucks" I was looking around for some spare AC parts, the mission to raid Klein's fort was taking place in 2 days and I didn't even have a completed AC. "Shade and BB from Global Cortex" Jean was reading off the list of Ravens that where lucky enough to be able to pay back Klein "Helios, Aeries, Rose and Light Seeker from Nerves Concord" she licked her lips, "from Rapture Point we've got Odin, Morgue, Firefly, Tiara and Dusty, all high ranking Ravens" "And from Claymore." "Patterns, Coco Bird, you, Florescent Light and." Jean looked up at me "Yuri.Renee got picked" I said half heartily, out of over 100 Ravens she got picked as well "Chris, you still need an AC" she was waking down the dirt path, on both sides of me where make shift hangers with ACs housed within them, without the Garage provided by Claymore it was a hassle to change a part or two, much less make an AC. I passed by Coco Bird's hanger, his flaming red AC tank was all ready while I was still trying to get one. "Jean" I caught up with Jean, this mission had no reward, but that didn't stop nearly all the remaining Ravens from signing up. Each nest could only spare so many Ravens, the ones that Jean read off the list was the team responsible to enter the fort and clear out any baddies, the last group of Ravens consisted of elite AC pilots and would come in after our sweep. "Jean!" I said again, she ignored me and continued down the path, "ello? Are you listening to me?" "Hey Chris" she turned toward me, we had stopped infront of a closed hanger "What?" "Remember when I said I'd pay you back for saving my life one time?" "Uhh, yeah why do you ask?" "Because I'm repaying my debt and saving your ass" she called for some technicians to open the hanger "How?" "With this" she grabbed my head and turned it to the contents of the hanger I couldn't believe my eyes, "well?" I was looking at my old AC, the one that didn't have a name and was the only thing my dad left me. I Looked at Jean, speechless. "You know, I always called this a piece of sh*t, but now it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" I said, I had an AC to pilot, and now I get to join in the fun. "uhh, yeah, umm Chris?" "Yeah" I was still mesmerized with the AC before me, even if it was obsolete with chipping paint and a cr*ppy radiator, it was still my baby "You may have an AC but you don't have any weapons" I looked more closely.never mind I woke from my trance and said, "this is a piece of sh*t" "I could ask some Ravens if they could spare a part or two" I said, looking around into the other hangers "Yeah you could but I doubt it, your AC is too old to use some of the newer parts" "dam" "Yeah Chris, I know you have a stash of AC parts somewhere, why don't you use thems?" I scanned my mind and only came up with one hit, I had something in cold storage.but it only brought back bad memories that weren't mines to begin with "Chris I'll ask some people if you could use some of their old parts ok?" Jean had already begun walking down the path, "I'll be back in an hour or two" "Yeah." my mind went back to the warehouse that me and Jean went shopping for AC parts. I didn't tell her that I had a weapon stored there, she'll kill me if she found out that I was using credits to store a fossil of a weapon. But it seems that I had no choice, if I was gonna rock with the big boys in this fight, I was gonna have to whip it out, even if it did kill me once before.
"Chris I got some parts for yo-" Jean was just entering my hanger when she saw the weapon I had installed on my AC "Don't say anything Jean" I was touching up on my emblem when I heard her walking in, "as soon as this is over that's going back into storage" "Chris but, but, but-" "You think I enjoy it on my AC?" my hand was covered with silver and yellow paint, even if the emblem was less then 5% of the total AC surface area it was like painting a mural "I thought it blew up with your." she stopped, then began looking at a modified Kawasawa , it's silver polish shined in the sheets of light from the blinds of the hanger. She looked at the long barrel and energy battery housing, my dad had modified it to fire in 2 kinds of weapon fire, 50 regular energy blasts or 5 shots of concentrated death. "I had it fixed" I was still thinking back to the explosion, where the real Defect died, it ripped at my mind knowing that I was a clone, "and put away" I looked at her, "what do you have?" "Your going to love it" she reached into her purse bringing out a crumpled piece of paper, "left arm part, the CLB-LS-1551 laser blade, right back unit, the ZW."
"This is a joint effort, so try not to be a hero" The leader of our group was an old man, two scars running down both sides of his face creating an illusion of the number Eleven on his face by the looks of it he must be 70+. All around the room I saw skilled pilots, all grizzled vets who have seen more then their share of blood on the battle field and rankings sucure in the upper levels in the arena. Our leader had assembled us and was going over our part in the mission. The jet sank to the right and his coffee slid off the table crashing into the floor but was muted by the thunder outside, we where already on our way to Klein. "The first wave has cleared out the outside defenses, the second is already trying to breach into the fort" he turned on the hologram table and pointed out our entry point, "we clear out the northern sector while group 4 has the eastern and 5 with the depository" he looked up, "any questions?" no one said anything or make a gesture, everyone knew what to do. I looked at Renee again, she was off in a corner her orange hood covering her face so all emotion from her was hidden. I sighed deeply, what the hell happened to us I thought, leaning my chair backwards
We landed about 1000km from the fort, we were waiting for our ACs to arrive via space drop. As we waited we looked at the carnage around us, ACs and MTs scattered about, one of the vets covered her eyes when she found the wreckage of her husbands AC. It had been assaulted with a barrage of machine-gun ammo and the core had a giant gapping hole in it, the product of a large rocket. We looked in awe into the distance, there was no noise, nothing moving besides pillars of smoke, a graveyard of pilots was before us, their metal caskets gleamed when a cloud or two allowed the sun to penetrate. The sight was horrifying, twisted metal blended in with red blood, not many where sure that the red ACs that lay before us where originally painted red, but stained. Smoke from fires here or there burned into the distance, the crow of a dying Raven echoed into the distance, our bones chilled. "Get ready" Count One said, his voice woke us up from our trance. We looked up, our ACs where on their way. 17 glowing balls of fire rained down from the sky, our ACs within the capsules that had been deployed from space, their red glow reminded me of the blood in the battle field, I looked away but there was red everywhere, my eyes fell upon Renee, the orange drowned away all other colors, I was at ease. Exactly 500 meters from the ground the capsules split apart releasing our ACs into free fall, the automatic boosters turned on slowing their decent, all landing within a mile from our position, time to suit up.
Within 30 minutes of our arrival time we where all ready, it was time for us to venture out into the carnage. "Everyone move out, hovers take point" Count One adjusted his helmet, a giant number 11 was on it, each of the 1s over the right and left side of his visor, "lets go"
Our approach was a slow one, with all this fuel around from the MTs that spewed from Klein's fort the overboost and boost was out of the question or else everything would be engulfed with flames. The hovers floated about to and fro; not bothered by the wreckage that lie below, they had already made contact with the first group of Ravens that where also going to help us in our sweep in the fort while the rest trudged along the swat of dead Ravens. My bipedal was making good time, being able to maneuver and light enough to walk upon other ACs, my route was a straight line. The reverse joints of our group found a creative way to get from point A to point B, their grasshopper like jump propelled them way ahead of me. Tanks on the other hand were slow enough, with all the debris and junk on the ground they were dead last since they had to find an opening to get past the wreckage. 2 hours late to our entry point the hovers of our group and the first team entered the fort, any and all transmission from them ceased. Klein's fort was more or less like a dome, it reminded me of the arena, I know that battles where being waged just as our group reached it. "Light seeker, fire a taco" Count one ordered, we had arrived at the target area an hour late. "Roger that" although his AC wasn't a quad or tank, he fired a grenade blast at the wall that would be our door in. We where all given the special OP-INTESIFY optional part, only the elite where allowed to receive this, and it clearly shows why. No longer needing to knell to fire cannons, increased radiator; booster; and energy recovery.simply put the whole 9 yards. "Tanks out in front" the just arriving tanks rolled thru the collapsed wall, switching to their Grenade cannons. The tanks where to take the brunt of any attack, hovers where to scout and the mids where the ones to "soften up" the baddies before the elite group came in. At least that was the plan, the hovers had already floated on in with the first group, including Renee. "Lets clear out" "Roger." there was a pause in the transmission, "1000 credits for whoever gets into a battle first" I heard the team chuckling in the static, "your on"
"Nothing here" "Here too" "Where is everyone?" "I'm just entering the dome.oh hell" "What?" "I've just found everyone" "and?" "and." the sound of an AC overboosting was heard in the background, "their all dead, I'm going in" "NO Yuri report your posistion!" "No time" there was an explosion on the Com link, "tell Defect.I said bye" the battle raged in radio silence, the dome walls muted all cries of help
"This area is all clear" I said into the link "Good, that brings the number to 10." Count One paused for a second, "I want you to check one last area before we let the Elite come in" "Shoot" I said "Search the dome area, that'll be 11." "Roger I'm on my way" I switched on my Overboost, and blasted down the corridor.
I blinked once, twice, a million times, the image didn't change, I wasn't imagining this. When I opened the doorway to the dome, I didn't know it would also be the doorway to destruction. The doorway opened slowly, creaking as it rose up into the ceiling, an AC toppled over scaring the bageezes out of me. It had its back against the doorway, and fell to my feet as the door opened. I recognized him instantly, it was Chain Iron, his AC riddled with bullet holes that I knew the pilot didn't survive. Before me among the buildings within lay the remains of countless ACs, including the hovers of our groups. They had all been destroyed, the hair on the back of my neck rose, something was happening in here and I wanted to know what. Just as I entered a building near the other side of the dome collapsed, someone was still fighting. I switched on my overboost again, speeding toward the rubble.
"Who are you?" Renee boosted behind a building, just avoiding a shotgun blast "I go by Kitty" She switched weapons, "but only those who are maunders may call me Caitlin" "How about b*tch?" Renee turned and fired her machine gun into the building, the bullets tore up the walls and continued thru, just missing Kitty on the other side. "Hmm, how entertaining" Kitty raised her weapon, "tell me how this feels" launching a capsule in Renee's direction "what the?" the building collapsed infront of her, Renee had just got a glimpse of the capsule before it erupted. Renee's left part of her AC was covered in goo, the capsule had spattered out a blue liquid that blocked out the orange. "Are you ready?" Kitty pressed her trigger and an explosion ensued, Renee's left arm exploded "HOW?!?!" Renee was stunned, somehow the goo Kitty launched exploded. She watched in horror as all the blue spatters that didn't land on her AC created mini explosions. "Magic" Kitty replied and began to launch capsules into the air. "What is that?" Renee was dogging the blue goo as they rained down from the sky, only a small portion of the goo landed on her but the damage it dealt was as much as a TITAN missile, if more then 25% of the goo covered her AC the it would be game over. "Its something I've created" The cat was chasing Renee around the buildings, "It seeps into your AC and blows it up from the inside out" "Your mad!" Renee saw that Kitty's AC was also covered in the blue goo, if she pulled the trigger then she would explode as well "I know" Kitty continued launching capsules and spoke into the link, "and soo the cat chased the orange bird up a tree" "B*TCH!" Renee was concentrated on dogging the goo, her weapons forgotten in the chase "The bird thought it would be safe to fly away" Kitty fired her left hand weapon, launching another capsule but this time the goo that erupted was red.anything covered in it sizzled and melted, it was an acid. Renee now had to dodge the red as well, both liquids created the color of death when combined, purple was not a favorite color of Renee. "But the cat jumped after the bird, catching it in mid flight" Kitty was launching capsules indiscriminately now her AC coated in purple but continued the chase "the cat fell to its doom.but not before having a last meal." Kitty's AC was sizzling and Renee watched as the metal frame of it melted off, reveling a skeleton. Renee tried to get away but she had nowhere to go, Kitty had trapped her in a dead end. "Meow" Kitty said and launched her last capsule at Renee covering her completely. "RENEE!" she heard on the com link before Kitty pressed the trigger, she looked behind Kitty and saw an AC with a Kawasawa.she knew who it was
Time stopped, I found Renee, and I knew that in a matter of seconds I would lose her, time began to resume, and I tried to fight it back, I was forcing my mind to keep time still, I wanted at least one more second with her, just one more.