Chapter 3
"Severed"
The clouds continue to roll in as the rain begins to fall. The ground cracks as the drops of water crash into it's barren surface, like metorites screaming down from space. In less than minutes he is drenched, yet relieved. As if the days burdens are being cleansed from his mind, and the heart stains on his hands are being purged. Recent events have left him drained and apathetic, this change in weather was like a change in his spirit as it prepared him for the task at hand. Taking one last good look at the three wooden crosses, he rises to his feet, turns his back, and walks away.
"Raven its time." The radio in his vest pocket speaks out, the voice distorted due to interferences from the current weather condition.
Once inside the cockpit of his AC, Power Trip, he responds in a calm, yet irritated voice. "Roger that. I'm on my way now."
The rain pours off of the dark blue AC as rises from its crouching position. The gears turning and hydrolic pistons in the legs forcing the AC to its feet. The overboosters rise on the rear of his AC's core as he jets off into the distance.
"Raven, the old space station is being assaulted by a group of MT's. These pilots are all members of 'The Keepers'. Their target is a network of abandoned tunnles underneath the space station. I'm uploading the area map to you now. Eliminate them before they find a way into the tunnles or cause a great deal of damage to the space station. I know you have had recent events with this organization, but don't let this be a personal vendetta. You and I both know how carried away you tend to get. I know what you would really like to hear is, 'exterminate with extreme prejeduce' and I am sorry for nagging. Just be careful."
"Laura, you're a sweet girl and I appreciate your concern, but don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Out." He hates it when she gets so sentimental on him right before a mission. Though he appreciates the sincerity of an honest woman's voice. He used to have a male contact who was a prior raven and very skilled, but he lacked compassion and was a cold, bitter person.
So many nights have been much like this one. Cold and lonelier than the distance between the stars. Everytime he pilots his AC he is taken over by adrenaline. This is what he lives for now, just him and his AC, Power Trip. Blazing across the desert towards his destination, he studies the map carefully.
"Laura, where do these tunnles lead to?" He asks out of curiousity.
"According to our archives they are unexplored, but these files are fairly new. I will see what I can find for you. "
The dark blue AC approaches the old space station with no signs of any one else on the radar. The AC rapidly decreases its speed until it came to a halt. The space station yet another one hundred meters to the North. And to the South, a long streak of glass caused by the powerful overboost of the AC. The sand left melted under the heat and pressure of the overboosters and cooled into its glass form.
He heads onwards with his blue AC, nearly invisible in the dark. His AC treading heavily on the landing pad of the space station. No signs of near by activity. He waites and closely observes his surroundings. Nothing, but sand and the space station. Then, a shot is fired.
The round of a MWG-SRFE/8 energy sniper rifle barely glances the left leg of his AC, but its just enough to send his AC off balance and tumbling to the ground. The moment Power Trip makes its impact upon the landing pad, eight combat MT's with parrying blades and bazookas appear. Each one wearing a white robe with the markings of "The Keepers". Their emblem was often found somewhat disturbing. A large open palmed hand, fingers spread, with an eye in the center of the palm. A large dagger gouging the eye out, and circling around the eye the words "Close your eyes and follow us to The Chosen One".
He quickly shifts around with the controls in the cockpit, manuevering his AC back to its feet. And calls out to Laura in a hesitant tone of voice, "This is Breaker, commencing operations."
Power Trip charges forward with its MWG-MG/1000 lighting up the nearest MT in a hurl of machine gun rounds. The MT crashes to the landing pad before Breaker even reached it's position. He continues straight forward, ramming another one of the MT's, sending it flying backwards. Breaker switches on his overboosters and follows through with two fast slashes with his CLB-LS-2551 laser blade. Destroying the MT and killing the pilot before the MT even hits the ground.
Three of the enraged MT pilots fire a volley of bazooka shells at Power Trip, blugeoning it in the core. Breaker, disoriented from the shell shock takes Cover behind a large boulder. The MT's continuing their assault, break apart and advance on his position in a flanking pattern. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Breaker readies his shoulder mounted grenade launcher, and straifes hard to the right. His timing and aim are precise as the MT wanders helplessly into his line of sight. Three, two, one, he pulls the trigger. His AC jolts rearwards, it's legs stuggling to brace itself in the loose sand, as the powerful projectile departs towards its destined location, enlodging itself into the core of the enemy MT. Breaker finding himself very unamused when the grenade does not explode. Its as if the grenade itself is mocking him.
The MT unleashes a bazooka round, and it screams towards Power Trip as the AC still struggles to recover from the effect of the grenade launcher's powerful recoil. With the round just moments away, Power Trip starts to straif to the left, but is nailed from behind with another energy sniper rifle shot. The shot forcing the AC to stumble forward, directly into the path of the bazooka round.
The round lands a direct hit to Power Trip's left arm unit, severing it completely. Breaker revolts with another hurl of machine gun rounds, ending the short lived life of the misfortunate MT pilot.
"Breaker, whats going on down there?" Laura's tone of voice makes it quite apparent that shes concerned.
"I'm fine! Three down, five to go!" He proclaims his victory before its even near.
"You mean six to go. I am picking up a high energy reading coming from ontop of the hill to the East. Its an AC, but I haven't gotten a positive identification on it. Breaker behind you and coming in fast! Its another AC!" Laura's voice sounding very tense.
Breaker spins his AC around just in time to see the AC overboosting in from afar. He switches on his overboosters to go and rendevu with this incoming raven. His AC takes off, flying forward to the right, spinning around in circles. The entire world seems to be rotating at a greatly increased speed as he feels a gut wrenching feeling overcoming him. He realizes that the snipers shot has damaged his overboosters. Power Trip's frantic spin about quickly end as the AC crashes into the same boulder in which it had taken cover behind moments ago. Breaker grabs his head in agony, his ears ringing, his head aching, he wanted to vomit.
"Breaker, target AC identified as Necrofix 6, piloted by Judas. Look alive he's coming in fast."
"I see him, I see him." Seeming very irritated to say the least. "Look at this guy, he thinks he's some kind of bad ass, just charging in head first. That guy doesn't even have any main weapons from the looks of it."
Power Trip drops its right knee to the ground and lowered itself in preperation to fire it's plasma cannon.
"Lets see how he likes this!" Breaker pulls the trigger and fires a blast of plasma towards Judas. Necrofix 6 quickly jolts to the left and then back to the right, dodging the blast gracefully. The AC was advancing fast on Breaker's position, but he was determined to take it out before then. He fires again, and again, and again. Each blast is dodged with little effort. Breaker in shock by the reaction speed of this pilot and AC. He continues firing as it closes in on him.
With one shot from his cannon left, he stops firing, waiting for the perfect time to fire. Ten seconds until Judas' AC is ontop of him. He counts down, eight, seven, six, five, four, fire! He pulls the trigger. The blast goes flying towards the AC. With just a split second until impact, Necrofix 6 jolts to the left and the plasma blast goes jetting by it, then the AC jerks back to the right and chambers its right arm. Just as it arrives to Breaker's position, Necrofix 6's right arm flys forward, making contact with Power Trips core, just below the cockpit. As the right fist of Judas' AC connects with Power Trip, two large spikes impale Power Trip, puncturing the AC's core all the way through, literally nailing it to the boulder its in front of.
Power Trip falls silent as the spikes retract back to Necrofix 6's KWB-SBR44 right armed parrying blade. Power trip falls to the ground.
"Dammit! You bastard!" Breaker, enraged, does everything he can to try to get his AC's recovery system up and running. There is no response at all. His cameras are off, his internal lights are off, his entire AC is powerless. He's alone in the dark, destined to meet with his fate. Its time to come to terms with reality and bite the bullet. He lowered his head in shame. He had failed.
The clouds continue to roll in as the rain begins to fall. The ground cracks as the drops of water crash into it's barren surface, like metorites screaming down from space. In less than minutes he is drenched, yet relieved. As if the days burdens are being cleansed from his mind, and the heart stains on his hands are being purged. Recent events have left him drained and apathetic, this change in weather was like a change in his spirit as it prepared him for the task at hand. Taking one last good look at the three wooden crosses, he rises to his feet, turns his back, and walks away.
"Raven its time." The radio in his vest pocket speaks out, the voice distorted due to interferences from the current weather condition.
Once inside the cockpit of his AC, Power Trip, he responds in a calm, yet irritated voice. "Roger that. I'm on my way now."
The rain pours off of the dark blue AC as rises from its crouching position. The gears turning and hydrolic pistons in the legs forcing the AC to its feet. The overboosters rise on the rear of his AC's core as he jets off into the distance.
"Raven, the old space station is being assaulted by a group of MT's. These pilots are all members of 'The Keepers'. Their target is a network of abandoned tunnles underneath the space station. I'm uploading the area map to you now. Eliminate them before they find a way into the tunnles or cause a great deal of damage to the space station. I know you have had recent events with this organization, but don't let this be a personal vendetta. You and I both know how carried away you tend to get. I know what you would really like to hear is, 'exterminate with extreme prejeduce' and I am sorry for nagging. Just be careful."
"Laura, you're a sweet girl and I appreciate your concern, but don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Out." He hates it when she gets so sentimental on him right before a mission. Though he appreciates the sincerity of an honest woman's voice. He used to have a male contact who was a prior raven and very skilled, but he lacked compassion and was a cold, bitter person.
So many nights have been much like this one. Cold and lonelier than the distance between the stars. Everytime he pilots his AC he is taken over by adrenaline. This is what he lives for now, just him and his AC, Power Trip. Blazing across the desert towards his destination, he studies the map carefully.
"Laura, where do these tunnles lead to?" He asks out of curiousity.
"According to our archives they are unexplored, but these files are fairly new. I will see what I can find for you. "
The dark blue AC approaches the old space station with no signs of any one else on the radar. The AC rapidly decreases its speed until it came to a halt. The space station yet another one hundred meters to the North. And to the South, a long streak of glass caused by the powerful overboost of the AC. The sand left melted under the heat and pressure of the overboosters and cooled into its glass form.
He heads onwards with his blue AC, nearly invisible in the dark. His AC treading heavily on the landing pad of the space station. No signs of near by activity. He waites and closely observes his surroundings. Nothing, but sand and the space station. Then, a shot is fired.
The round of a MWG-SRFE/8 energy sniper rifle barely glances the left leg of his AC, but its just enough to send his AC off balance and tumbling to the ground. The moment Power Trip makes its impact upon the landing pad, eight combat MT's with parrying blades and bazookas appear. Each one wearing a white robe with the markings of "The Keepers". Their emblem was often found somewhat disturbing. A large open palmed hand, fingers spread, with an eye in the center of the palm. A large dagger gouging the eye out, and circling around the eye the words "Close your eyes and follow us to The Chosen One".
He quickly shifts around with the controls in the cockpit, manuevering his AC back to its feet. And calls out to Laura in a hesitant tone of voice, "This is Breaker, commencing operations."
Power Trip charges forward with its MWG-MG/1000 lighting up the nearest MT in a hurl of machine gun rounds. The MT crashes to the landing pad before Breaker even reached it's position. He continues straight forward, ramming another one of the MT's, sending it flying backwards. Breaker switches on his overboosters and follows through with two fast slashes with his CLB-LS-2551 laser blade. Destroying the MT and killing the pilot before the MT even hits the ground.
Three of the enraged MT pilots fire a volley of bazooka shells at Power Trip, blugeoning it in the core. Breaker, disoriented from the shell shock takes Cover behind a large boulder. The MT's continuing their assault, break apart and advance on his position in a flanking pattern. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Breaker readies his shoulder mounted grenade launcher, and straifes hard to the right. His timing and aim are precise as the MT wanders helplessly into his line of sight. Three, two, one, he pulls the trigger. His AC jolts rearwards, it's legs stuggling to brace itself in the loose sand, as the powerful projectile departs towards its destined location, enlodging itself into the core of the enemy MT. Breaker finding himself very unamused when the grenade does not explode. Its as if the grenade itself is mocking him.
The MT unleashes a bazooka round, and it screams towards Power Trip as the AC still struggles to recover from the effect of the grenade launcher's powerful recoil. With the round just moments away, Power Trip starts to straif to the left, but is nailed from behind with another energy sniper rifle shot. The shot forcing the AC to stumble forward, directly into the path of the bazooka round.
The round lands a direct hit to Power Trip's left arm unit, severing it completely. Breaker revolts with another hurl of machine gun rounds, ending the short lived life of the misfortunate MT pilot.
"Breaker, whats going on down there?" Laura's tone of voice makes it quite apparent that shes concerned.
"I'm fine! Three down, five to go!" He proclaims his victory before its even near.
"You mean six to go. I am picking up a high energy reading coming from ontop of the hill to the East. Its an AC, but I haven't gotten a positive identification on it. Breaker behind you and coming in fast! Its another AC!" Laura's voice sounding very tense.
Breaker spins his AC around just in time to see the AC overboosting in from afar. He switches on his overboosters to go and rendevu with this incoming raven. His AC takes off, flying forward to the right, spinning around in circles. The entire world seems to be rotating at a greatly increased speed as he feels a gut wrenching feeling overcoming him. He realizes that the snipers shot has damaged his overboosters. Power Trip's frantic spin about quickly end as the AC crashes into the same boulder in which it had taken cover behind moments ago. Breaker grabs his head in agony, his ears ringing, his head aching, he wanted to vomit.
"Breaker, target AC identified as Necrofix 6, piloted by Judas. Look alive he's coming in fast."
"I see him, I see him." Seeming very irritated to say the least. "Look at this guy, he thinks he's some kind of bad ass, just charging in head first. That guy doesn't even have any main weapons from the looks of it."
Power Trip drops its right knee to the ground and lowered itself in preperation to fire it's plasma cannon.
"Lets see how he likes this!" Breaker pulls the trigger and fires a blast of plasma towards Judas. Necrofix 6 quickly jolts to the left and then back to the right, dodging the blast gracefully. The AC was advancing fast on Breaker's position, but he was determined to take it out before then. He fires again, and again, and again. Each blast is dodged with little effort. Breaker in shock by the reaction speed of this pilot and AC. He continues firing as it closes in on him.
With one shot from his cannon left, he stops firing, waiting for the perfect time to fire. Ten seconds until Judas' AC is ontop of him. He counts down, eight, seven, six, five, four, fire! He pulls the trigger. The blast goes flying towards the AC. With just a split second until impact, Necrofix 6 jolts to the left and the plasma blast goes jetting by it, then the AC jerks back to the right and chambers its right arm. Just as it arrives to Breaker's position, Necrofix 6's right arm flys forward, making contact with Power Trips core, just below the cockpit. As the right fist of Judas' AC connects with Power Trip, two large spikes impale Power Trip, puncturing the AC's core all the way through, literally nailing it to the boulder its in front of.
Power Trip falls silent as the spikes retract back to Necrofix 6's KWB-SBR44 right armed parrying blade. Power trip falls to the ground.
"Dammit! You bastard!" Breaker, enraged, does everything he can to try to get his AC's recovery system up and running. There is no response at all. His cameras are off, his internal lights are off, his entire AC is powerless. He's alone in the dark, destined to meet with his fate. Its time to come to terms with reality and bite the bullet. He lowered his head in shame. He had failed.