Let me rant for a second. This is the second version of the first chapter of this story. The first was lost in a freak accident involving anger and a floppy disk. The floppy disk didn't fair too well. Ok, Armored Core is in no part ours, though we wish it were. I want you to know that there are two people writing this story, so expect differences between things here and there, but bear with it. On to the story.
Within the drab gray walls of the living quarters, an alarm echoes throughout the complex. A Raven, one of the pilots of the Armored Cores, giant machines designed for warfare, rolls over in his bed. The alarm grows louder, coming from a speaker placed a few inches behind the farthest wall in the room. He reaches down next to the bed, pulling out a long, thin knife. He cracks open one blood-shot eye, takes aim, and lets fly. A loud pop is heard and sparks fly from the end of the knife, now sticking straight out of the wall. The Raven rolls back over and returns to sleep.
Just as unconsciousness pulls him under once again, a loud banging sounds from his door. A fellow Raven trying to wake him up; he recognizes the voice:
"Tryg! Hey Trygre! Get up, you lazy bum! Trygre! We got Stealth activity in the complex! They're heading for the arena!"
The voice at the door was his best friend, his wing mate, Omari, who went by the callsign Atlas. They met when they were just starting out in the business, in an arena match, designated for the lower ranks. After the fight lasted for hours, only to end in a draw, they both wound up at the same party. Impressed with their respective skills, they decided to go on the next mission together, and hadn't split since. Omari stood damned near 6'5", weighing around 275 lbs., and was built like a brick outhouse. He piloted the second heaviest Core the team owned. His unique style romanticized the term "assault and battery", with him being the assualt.
Trygre, now awake and very groggy, stands and begins getting dressed. He pulls on baggy black cargo pants and wraps a belt around them, then finds his camouflage mesh shirt and pulls it on. He heads to the kitchen, stops in front of the mirror, and fixes his short blond hair. He spikes it up with a quick glob of gel, and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge. He bolts out the door, and seeing his teammates waiting for him, slides to a halt.
"Sorry guys. You too, Kyra. Anyone gonna tell me how last night went? My head feels like a sack of-"
"It should, but we don't have time for this now -- Stealth have taken a Kisaragi facility and they're holed up inside it. The place is just outside of the Nest, but it's too close for anyone to ignore. Apparently they're sweating bullets; they're sending us and the Terror Team in to take the facility back."
Stealth Faction, a new group that had just recently appeared, was funded by some unknown source and had no apparent purpose. Their attacks came sporadically, and always in varying force. This, however, seemed to be the biggest one yet, and with good reason. Stealth were invariably known to use unmanned MTs, something spectacular considering the amount of firepower they carried. Still, sending two teams of Ravens to take back one facility seemed a little overwhelming.
"Wait, Omari said they were in the complex and headed for the arena... You anus!"
"Had to Tryg, I knew it'd be the only thing to make you get up that quickly."
A new voice chimed in.
"Yea, and that was the fastest you've gotten him up yet, Atlas. Too bad you could never match my record."
"That's only because I don't look as good as you in a nightie, Kyra."
Kyra, the only female of the team, leaned against the wall and smiled. Her stature was petite with her height only reaching 5'7", weighing at the most 145 lbs.. Her hair was a deep red with the last inch or so a very bright green, ending at her shoulders. Her azure blue eyes stared towards Omari and she smiled again wickedly. Kyra was a female with all the right curves, and more than enough bust to turn a parties eye.
"I bet you do, Atlas. But I don't think Trygre would appreciate you waking him up in one!"
"If you people don't mind, we still have to find Sieg and get to the docking bay. If we're late again, we're gonna hold up Atomos' launch. You all know how rare it is that they use the damn thing, so let's make the most of it."
The paranoid one that was now speaking was their mechanic, Ryan Dashi. His name served no purpose however, since the entire Nest called him Fyx. The mechanic was of asian descent and stood 6'2", weighing 245 lbs.; the wisest of the entire team, unlike the rest of the ingrates he worked alongside, his free time was spent repairing their AC destruction and strategizing their next missions or arena bouts. Fyx often spent his time admiring the Atomos, the largest dropship the Nest owned. He had helped design and build it, so he was often very aggravated when they held up its launch. He brushed a lock of his brown hair out of his eye and turned to walk down the hallway.
"You know Fyx, you need to ease up a bit. The thing will launch no matter what."
The team all snapped their heads down the hallway past Fyx, smiles crossing Omari's and Kyra's face. Sieg, the final member of the team, stepped around the corner. The quintessential ladies man, with his charming and debonair attitude he was usualy the only one not alone in the bar besides Kyra, the only person to shoot him down. His facial features reflected the vigor and charm the entire Nest knew about, and his stance was always one of courage. The opposite had been said, and proven, to be true in combat. He piloted the team's light mech, relying more on speed than raw power.
"Great. Now that Sieg is here can we go now? We're already late as it is."
The team just shrugged at Ryan's outburst, use to them after all their years on the receiving end. Racing down to the hanger to make up for lost time, they arrived right as the other team did. Lining up with the other members, they snapped to attention as the commander walked into the hangar and strode in front of them.
"Here's the situation. Two hours ago Stealth activity was detected around the Kisaragi plant five clicks to the east. fifty-three minutes later, they overran the perimeter defenses and had moved into the building. twenty minutes after that, they completed a purge of the building, removing all hostiles. They then entrenched themselves, preparing to ambush the reinforcements when they arrived. In seventeen minutes, their offensive had crushed the last forces Kisaragi was able to assemble on short notice."
Xavier, leader of the Terrors, stepped forward and raised his arm. "Sir, how is that possible? That plant is a major center for Kisaragi, it even supplies the nest with a fair share of parts. How could Stealth's MTs have overwhelmed their defenses at all, let alone that quickly?" Finished with his question, Xavier stepped back into formation.
"The opposing force does'nt consist entirely of MTs. Three unknown ACs led the attack, backed up by only one squad of 7 MTs. It was these pilots that allowed the victory to come so quickly. Here's a satelite feed of what happened during the battle." The commander stepped to the side, and a section of the floor slip apart, revealing a three-dimensional projector.
"This first one we have code-named 'Osiris'." came the commander's voice as a picture took form four feet off the floor. The AC was bipedal, and heavily armored. It's color scheme was the Stealth standard, black with gray, denoting him as a common soldier. "In it's right hand it holds a plasma rifle, energy output calculated at sixteen hundred units. The left arm contains an energy-shield, defensive coverage one hundred fifty units. The back mounted weapons are standard grenade launchers. The core-type is exceed orbit, possesing of a single satelite weapon, energy output calculated at five hundred units." As the commander tapered off, the rotating three-dimensional image of the Core faded out, only to be replaced by a scene. "This is satelite feed of the battle at the Kisaragi plant, focusing in on Osiris." The camera zoomed in on the right side of the facility, showing 'Osiris' and two military issue MTs. The MTs split to the sides as the defending forces streamed out of the plant. Osiris cut on it's boosters, strafing to the right while it opened up with it's plasma rifle. The opposing force dissapeared under the bolts of raw energy. Finishing it's circle-strafe, it activated the grenade launcher on it's right shoulder while walking backwards, and fired, catching a group of powersuit operators as they exited the building. Osiris dashed back into the middle of the fight, and activated it's satelite. The weapon swiveled above its' home, purposefully targeting enemies that would fall in a few shots. The enemies that didn't fall to the weapon pod caught grenades from every concievable angle. The 'Osiris' finally came to a halt, its' enemies nothing more than smoking slag strewn about it.
The gruesome sight faded out, this time being replaced by another AC. It was black and gray as well, another grunt. This Core was bipedal as well, but didn't have nearly as much armor. It looked to be built as a quick assualt mech. "Next is code-name 'Ishmael'. The right hand wields a machine gun, damage calculated at four hundred fifty units per bullet. The left is a laser blade, aproximately six meters long, energy output calculated at twenty-five hundred units. Across it's right shoulder a chain gun is slung, and the left shoulder houses missles. The core-type is overboost, with the thrust power estimated to be two thousand units." The picture faded out again, and the pilots already knew what was coming. "This time we will focus only on Ishmael." The scene of the factory sprang up, and immediately zoomed to the left. There stood 'Ishmael', along with another two MTs identical to the ones with 'Osiris'. This time though, the MTs hung back while Ishmael stepped forward as the defenses came out. The attackers stood still as the defenders formed ranks, armed themselves, and fired. Ishmael activated his his overboost as a beam of pure light boiled from his left hand. He dashed right upto the enemies, and cut off his overboost while performing a spinning slash, scything right through the middle of the enemies' ranks. Passing through like butter, he swung around to his right and boosted while unleashing his machine gun on the confused hostiles. The defenders started falling like gnats as the gun ripped through them, those still standing trying in vain to target the infuriatingly fast mech. When Ishmael finished taunting the inferior MTs he came to a rest to the side of the stitched-together ranks. He unfolded the chain-gun from his right shoulder and unleashed hell with both his arm and his shoulder weapon. The chain-gun's rounds frequently passed right through the first target to strike the second as well. As Ishmael finally stopped shooting, the only remanants of the humans who tried to defend themselves were scattered parts and blast marks.
Even Omari was relieved when the scene of carnage faded out, only to have the same thought as everyone else when the next Core was displayed; What the Hell!? This core differed from the previous ones in two major ways: instead of two, it had six legs, and its' hologram stood half again as tall as the others. The color scheme on this one had the standard black, but the gray was replaced with red, signifying the commander of the attack. "The final Core is 'Agememnon'. Obviously the leader of the assualt, this core is unlike any we have ever come across before. We contacted all three corporations to see if any made a leg part like this, but all denied it. The only weapon it carries is a lasar rifle that spans both of its' hands. The power output was calculated to be sixty-five hundred units of damage."
"Sir!," cut in Trygre. "Is that correct? No weapon we've heard of, including the experimental ones, has breached six thousand damage. Are you sure that your calculations came out properly?"
"I assure you Trygre, my calculations are correct. Now that that is out of the way, the core-type is exceed orbit, possesing four satelite weapons with a power output estimated at one thousand units." The moment the sentence ended, the holographic scene showed the behemoth AC slowly walking toward yet another of the facilities entrances, accompanied by three lightweight MTs. 'Agememnon' came to a stop and lowered the cannon, aiming directly at a battalion of defense MTs gathering in front of him. A loud whirring sound echoed through the cannon as a blue light poured out from the opening. A plasma stream spewed forth, encompassing not only the battalion of MTs, but the facility entrance itself. Violent explosions rattled the building, but died quickly as the energy bolt dissipated. The hologram froze, and the commander stepped forward.
"This is only one part of the equation. We do not know who supplied, or even manufactured, these parts and ACs, but they must be taken down. I ask the teams present for complete secrecy in this matter. I only ask because the Nest would go berserk if they found out a force like this was so close."
The Terror Team grouped themselves and talked quickly, then Xavier stepped forward and spake.
"We guarantee secrecy. We accept the mission as well."
"Thank you. Paradox, how 'bout it?"
The team gathered, huddling close. Fyx spoke up first.
"I think we should keep quiet about the deal, and take the mission. There's nothing I'd rather do than show up the Terror Team."
Omari threw his comments in quickly as well. "Fyx is right. We have to take this mission and stomp that giant mech into the dirt. I'm worried about that power, though. Tryg, what're your thoughts?"
"I think we should do it. Xavier is doing this to goad us into it, and we should take the bait. I don't think any sane person, or group of persons, would do this. So lets."
"Wow", Kyra chimed in, "Think that up all by yourself, Trygre? Of course they're goading us into it, but why?"
"To make sure we get toasted, that's why." Sieg had a strange feeling Terror Team wanted them to get spanked by that plasma beam. Though he did want to go face to face with that 'Ishmael'. "I say we do it."
"It's decided then. Let's tell 'em we're going."
The group dispersed back to their positions and Fyx stepped forward.
"We're going, and we're keeping quiet."
When Fyx finished, Omari stepped forward,. "Just one question sir When we toast these guys, can I have that canon?" Those present chuckled at the light-hearted comment, but quickly returned to business.
"All right. There's one other thing about that giant Core though. The satellite feed caught one other thing before it got out of range to see. Apparently Kisaragi had a backup force holed up in the building that got out just in time to beat on 'Agememnon'. Here's the vid."
The hologram kicked on once again, showing the horde of MTs trying to swarm the giant death bot. 'Agememon' dropped the cannon and activated its Exceed Orbit. Four satellite orbits swiveled above the giant mech raining down plasma bolts. Within seconds an entire battalion of defenders dissappeared. The gargantuan AC halted the Exceed Orbit, and the flooding of coolant can be heard even through the hologram's recording. It fades out, and the commander steps forward once again.
"Now that you all have the information, get your ACs prep'd and onto the Atomos. We launch the mission in ten. Dismissed."
The second chapter will be the mission and the AC battles. Not a whole lot of action in this one, we know, but we wanted to get this outta the way. Please R&R, and we'll bring up the next chapter soon as possible. Thanks for reading.