Soon after becoming a Raven I found out why I had such a difficult time finding them. They were an "Underground" group you could call it. Staying in the shadows and accepting few contracts for the Ravens to do. Anytime they accepted a contract from someone, the person who the contract came from was sworn to silence about the Nest. Ravens were also hard to find on the news because most of the time the area that the mission was in was classified so it couldn't be on the news.

It took a while for my first mission as a Raven to come in. It was a very difficult one too. The pay from it would have bought me a standard built AC. Apparently, there was a secret facility that Kisaragi had built to develop a new type of weapon stronger than even the TITAN missile launcher. The facility was guarded by three different AC's. I had to go in there and level the facility, killing anything that got in my way.

I looked up the profiles on the AC's and pilots guarding the facility. All of them were high ranking in the arena and very expensive to hire. This would be the most difficult mission I had ever been on. But it would not be the most difficult I will ever do.

The first pilot I looked up was DeathsHead. His skill was in-between the other the other two pilots skill. He preferred the most destructive path possible towards victory. He had a slow tank tread AC with two TITAN missile launchers, and a Grenade Launcher for each arm.

The next pilot was Quixx. He was the lowest skilled pilot of the three, but still quite formidable. He had probably the fastest AC in the arena. His AC had the highest output boosters and the lightest parts with a core that had Over-Boost capability. His only two armaments were a Machine Gun and a Moonlight blade.

The last pilot was Silver Stripe. The best of the three. He was a medium wight AC, capable of being both fast and destructive. He had a back part taking up both slots capable of making him invisible to radar. He also had and extension part that made him unable to be targeted. His two armaments consisted of the fastest Machine Gun made, even though it had little ammo, and a Moonlight blade. He could easily sneak up on people and take them down in one slash with his blade.

This would be a difficult mission for even a team of two highly skilled AC's. I had to do this by myself. I couldn't back down out of the mission because the Nest had already told the employer that I would do it. If I told the Nest that I wouldn't do it because it was too hard, I probably wouldn't see the light of another day. I sent a reply telling the Nest that I would be ready the next day.

I had to make sure my AC was working perfectly for tomorrows task. I brought it into the shop saying that I wanted a full check done on the AC making sure that it was in perfect condition by tomorrow. I knew it would be expensive, but it would be worth it if I finished the mission. If I didn't, well, then the money wouldn't really matter now would it?

The next day I was in my AC checking over it's systems making sure it was ready for when I arrived at the drop zone. The ships slow humming was soothing and helped me relax. I was rather tense because of what I had to do.

I didn't realize I had fallen asleep until the first warhead detonated on the ship. The anti-air defenses had started firing on the ship that was transporting me to the drop zone. This was bad, the fact that we were being fired upon meant that the pilots protecting the plant knew where we were coming, and where. If all three of them attacked me at once, I knew I was dead.

The next missile that hit the ship hit right below where my AC was stored. It weakened the hull enough that I was suddenly falling through the bottom of the ship. I was still a good distance from the drop zone. I would have to get there myself.

I looked up to see what had become of the pilot and it was just in time to see a fireball where the ship should have been. I felt sorry for him. He was a new pilot who had just started doing this about a month ago. He was an energetic pilot enthusiastic to help Ravens.

All thoughts of remorse about the pilots death were driven out of my mind as I heard missile lock warnings. I quickly dodged the missiles that weren't annihilated by my missile defense system. Fortunately, there was only one wave because after the first wave I was too close to the ground for the anti-air missiles to target me.

Even though the anti-air missiles weren't targeting me anymore, it was only a small relief. As soon as I had hit the ground DeathsHead had started firing upon me. I was barely able to recover from the large fall and boost out of the way in time to dodge the large grenades headed my way.

I knew my AC was more agile than his slow tank, so I decided to take advantage of that maneuverability. I started boosting around, dodging grenades while getting ever closer to his AC. Then, in a small lull while his grenades were reloading, I let my energy get back to max, and activated my Over-Boost. He didn't even know what happened. One moment he was aiming at me, the next I was behind him tearing apart his AC with my blade. It only took a couple of seconds before his AC was scrap metal.

I realized I had made a mistake when my lock-on warning system started screeching at me. I turned around and saw, to my horror, two large, deadly, TITAN missiles heading my way. I hadn't destroyed the head on DeathsHead and he had turned it enough to be able to get a lock on me.

I took one shot at his head with my rifle to demolish it, then turned around and hit the Over-Boost button. The computer gave me and error and told me that my Over-Boost was still charging. I immediately pressed, and held, the boost button while aiming down with my rifle. I took very careful aim and destroyed one of the missiles heading at me. I got lucky, the shot had hit the missile in the right way so as to make it explode, taking out the other missile with it. Although I did take some damage from the explosion as well. It isn't called the "Nuke" for nothing.

I soon reached the factory I was supposed to destroy without any further difficulties. With luck, the other two AC's would be somewhere else so I could destroy the factory and get out of there without any more difficulties. I checked my radar and looked around but I didn't see anything protecting the facility.

He armed his dual vertical missiles launchers on his back and targeted multiple points designated in the e-mail that contained the details about his mission. Two volleys of fully locked on missiles hit all the targets designated. He turned to leave.

That was probably the best thing that he had ever done for himself. If he hadn't turned to leave, he would have had a moonlight blade straight through his middle. As it was, it still went through some of the side of his core. Silver Stripe was right next to him with his blade activated and looking menacing. He de-activated his part that makes him invisible to radar just as another blip appeared at the very edge of his radar range.

Silver Stripe lunged back for another strike and he dodged out of the way. Then he did a quick turn and boosted into the area that was soon to be reduced to nothing but rubble. He knew that he would be instantly destroyed if he was there when his missiles hit all the targets. Seeing that neither Silver Stripe or Quixx was following him, he activated his Over-Boost and...

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Silver Stripe watched as the AC identified as WarMark boosted into the area that is sensors showed was about to be leveled. He knew he had failed his mission but he could take a certain satisfaction from the fact that WarMark would be annihilated. The enemy AC was still in the factory when everything erupted into a massive geyser of flame. After watching that, he turned and left.

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Hope you like it. I know I still haven't revelealed the name of the AC pilot this story is following, and I know I still haven't gotten around to why this story is called what it is, but I'm getting to it. Please R&R.