Sorry for the length between updates! It's all explained in the author notes at the end. While I'm at it, may as well give the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own most of the stuff featured in this chapter. I do own Jormagund however. Also, I don't own Evangelion either. (If you've seen the Anime, you'll know why I said that after you read this)
Jormagund, Ares, Helzehen and Remille sat around a large table, numerous plans and charts spread out before them. Each of the four Ravens had a pile of papers in their hands that they quickly sifted through, reading and digesting the information quickly.
"I think it's wise that we devise an entrance strategy before anything else." Helzehen cleared a large portion of the maps out, leaving one large one on the table. He pointed to two different locations. "These are the front and back entrances, respectively. There are advantages and disadvantages to attacking either one, but both of them are viable options for offensive operations."
"Well, I say we should attack from the front." Ares spoke first, his voice confident as he pointed to the map and drew a circle with his finger. "It leaves us more room to maneuver in case something goes wrong. In addition, it's going to be much more difficult for the disorder units to supply reinforcements to the front entrance of the base."
"Your words have wisdom." Helzehen took out a red marker. "Are there any dissenters?" Remille and Jormagund shook their heads, and Helzehen drew a large circle with a few arrows around the front of the base, drawing the words "Attack from here" in the middle of the circle. "Now that we know where to attack from, how shall we attack?"
"I say we split up. That way we'll be able to cover more ground and kill more disorder units than we could if we stayed together." Ares spoke once again, just as confident as before.
"No. We stay together." Ares looked at the dark-green haired raven in surprise, but Jormagund plowed onwards, giving him no chance to interrupt. "There are several reasons for this. First of all, if we have 3 ACs together, we stand more of a chance against large masses of the units. Second, if we encounter an exceptionally large one..." Jormagund shuddered, remembering just how many large disorder units he encountered. "We can take it out quickly and move on."
"I agree." Remille also added her opinion, outvoting Ares by a narrow, but present margin.
"Well, I guess that settles it. We stick together in a group, and focus fire on any opposition we encounter." Helzehen jotted some things down on a notepad. "Now all we need to do is find is the best way through the installation..."
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"T minus 30 seconds to drop. Are you ready?" The pilot's voice sounded nervous, as if he were entering combat.
He was answered by four "Roger."s.
"So, do you guys remember the plan?" Helzehen was the first to speak, breaking the tension that had gradually built up during the flight.
"Yep. Got it all written down here." Remille and Ares silently groaned at the response.
"You need to write that stuff down?" Ares recovered first.
"No. But it helps." Ares, Remille and Helzehen were left shaking their heads.
"We've arrived at the combat area, dropping ACs."
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The four ACs landed on the concrete at the top entrance of Zamda base, the long-destroyed radar dishes behind them. Disorder units cluttered the top of the base, and they started shooting at the four machines as well as the transport helicopter. The helicopter barely managed to get away, but it was a very near miss.
Crush Dragon, Providence, Wraith and Scholar whipped out their guns and started blasting away at the crowd of armored bugs. A few dozen rounds and thousand AP later, there were no Disorder units anywhere near the entrance of the base.
"You guys should go inside. I'll stay out here and intercept anything that tries to get in through this entrance."
"But I thought we were going to stick together." Remille's confusion was echoed by Jormagund and Ares, and the other three ACs turned to stare at Scholar.
"Well, that was the original plan... but I forgot that my missiles are practically useless inside, and without my missiles, I'm not much of a threat." The others could practically hear the ashamed, shitface grin that Helzehen had on his face.
"Oh, fine. We'll go in and clean up the inside." Jormagund's reverse-joint AC led the charge, and the three raven's ACs got on the lift. Crush Dragon's finger pressed one of the buttons, and the three descended deeper into the bowels of Zamda.
Helzehen simply checked over his weapons and sensors to make sure they were performing at top efficiency. "Now..." He said quietly to himself, pulling out a manuscript from a small compartment. "Let's see if they try to retake the base from the liberators."
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As the elevator rumbled deeper into Emeraude's facility, Ares, Remille and Jormagund couldn't help but be slightly nervous. Despite all their planning, hunting and killing dozens of Disorder units in a place as large as Zamda didn't hold too many perks, but plenty of flaws.
Being dead or seriously injured was just the beginning of the list.
"Well..." Jormagund tried to start up a conversation."Well what?" Ares snapped back, on edge.
"Well, I know the layout of this place, so I should be able to find an efficient way to clear them out."
"We already knew that Jorma..." Remille sounded exasperated. Jormagund's cough answered her.
"Sorry. Nervous." Crush Dragon's feet shuffled, like a schoolboy's.
"It's alright, I think we're all nervous." Providence nodded, confirming its pilot's nervousness.
The elevator slid to a stop, and the doors opened up ever so slowly, revealing an empty room. The only sign that it had been formerly occupied were scorch marks on the walls, floors and ceilings, which told of a great battle that had been fought here.
"Look out, I'm detecting contacts beyond the door." Jormagund's AC stepped forwards towards the first door, and pressed one of the buttons. The second door opened to reveal an armored bug with a rocket launcher on its back. It started blazing away at the three pilots as soon as the door opened up enough for the rockets to get through. It was cut down by a laser cannon blast and a stream of machine gun fire. "Nice work, but I hope you don't expect me to open all the doors." Jormagund's AC led the charge into the corridor, blasting the armored bugs with his bazooka, occasionally switching to his chaingun when the units were using weak or inaccurate weapons. Providence and Wraith backed him up with a machine gun and KARASAWA II as he inched his way down the corridor, destroying all before him.
"Door number three. There are some contacts behind that one too." Wraith quickly pressed the button and stepped to the side, allowing Providence and Crush Dragon to dispatch the disorder units with their weapons. As the armored bugs were cruelly annihilated under the weight of the KARASAWA II and Bazooka, the three machines moved into the next room, facing several new disorder units. The new ones had spindly reverse-joint legs, with a larger upper body. Fangs protruded from their mouths, and they had several cannons facing forwards, which quickly erupted into a spread of laser darts that impaled Wraith, forcing the white machine back a few steps. Crush Dragon and Providence opened up with their weapons and quickly reduced the units into ash.
"Crap." Ares frowned "I didn't realize they were down here too."
"Yeah. Those kind aren't fun to deal with." Jormagund's grim reply did little to assuage the other two's grimness. It was then that the door opened, revealing a larger disorder unit, which wielded two rocket launchers and a laser cannon. The unit started shooting at the group as soon as the door opened, and they were hard pressed to dodge the shots. The three ravens returned fire quickly, and the disorder unit was destroyed in short order.
"Well," Ares sighed. "I guess we'd better keep going."
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"Huh?" Helzehen looked up from his book as his radar suddenly beeped out a warning. "What the hell is that thing?"
Although he couldn't clearly distinguish the object, it appeared to be a huge diamond, and it was floating towards the base at a steady rate. Helzehen frowned as he quickly typed into the small laptop built into one part of Scholar's cockpit. "That's odd. It bears absolutely no similarity to any disorder units previously encountered... I'd better tell the others." Helzehen flipped on his radio, and addressed his three consorts quickly. "Jormagund, Ares, Remille. This is Helzehen. I've picked up a strange contact on my radar, and it's closing quickly."
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Having fought their way through about 3 rooms of Disorder units, Providence, Crush Dragon and Wraith were somewhat worse for wear, but they were still performing at top efficiency, despite having lost about 50 of their AP.
"Door number eight opening. Stand clear please." Providence stepped aside as Wraith's machine gun and Crush Dragon's bazooka cut the lifespan of a few disorder units short. The remaining laser-rifle-wielding units were easy meat for the combined weapons of the three ACs.
"Phew." Jormagund sighed and had his machine take a step forward. "Is it just me or are these little buggers getting harder to beat as we get deeper into the facility?"
"Yeah. They're definetly getting harder, and the worst part is that there's no sign of them letting up either." Ares replied gloomily, his AC moving towards "door number nine."
"Well, at least we're getting paid well for this." Remille's cheerful statement rubbed off on the other two, and they couldn't help but feel better.
"She does have a point there..." Providence took point as Wraith opened the next door, and the KARASAWA II and Bazooka quickly cut the waiting units to shreds. Remille helped the other two clean up the last of the units, and despite taking some damage, they were all ready to proceed into the next room.
"Jormagund, Ares, Remille. This is Helzehen. I've picked up a strange contact on my radar, and it's closing quickly." Helzehen didn't quite sound panicked, but he did sound concerned, and that was enough to cause the other three to formulate concerns of their own.
"I hope he's ok. Whatever that thing is, it sounds pretty tough."
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Helzehen stared oddly at the huge, blue, floating octahedron in front of him. What the hell is that thing?
"Unable to analyze." Helzehen cursed at his computer, then glared at the thing. Well, it's time to find out what you're made of you stupid blue diamond. Scholar's computers quickly achieved a lock on the thing, and fired. Helzehen smiled as his back-mounted vertical-launch multi missiles split into 8 different warheads above him, a total of 10 missiles screaming towards the unit.
Only to gasp, and slam his arm down on the chair as the missiles exploded harmlessly on a huge, hexagon shaped shield of an orange color. "Dammit!"
"Unknown energy reading detected." A huge green beam of energy barely missed the AC, burning a huge scorch mark into the pavement to the right.
"Holy shit!" Scholar quickly took cover behind a large building on the roof of the base, which another beam blasted into, starting to vaporize the structural material. After about twenty five seconds, the beam stopped, and Helzehen had some time to think.
Ok. I don't know WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL that thing is, but it's obviously powerful. It's obviously got some sort of auto-tracking system, and I'm obviously screwed if I can't find a way to break that stupid orange shield. Think Helzehen... think... Wait! I think I got it! If... by some unknown chance, the energy signature of my blade and its shield are the same... A few quick keystrokes confirmed this, and Helzehen went back to his thoughtful pause. Then maybe I can break the shield with my blade! It's worth a shot anyhow.
Scholar broke out into a headlong dash, another huge beam scorching the pavement behind it. Helzehen let out a sigh of relief as the weapon missed him, then abruptly turned and flew up high, right into the shield. The AC quickly activated its laserblade, and although the shield tried to counter the assault, it failed and shattered into a shower of orange-white energy shards. Helzehen didn't quite make it behind a building in time, and Scholar lost its right arm to the next beam, the appendage totally incinerated under the appalling power of the weapon.
Wow. That was too close for comfort. Helzehen fought down a shudder. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if that had hit my core instead... Suddenly the situation looked a whole lot brighter. He still had his missiles and blade, and the thing didn't have its shield anymore. Scholar overboosted from behind a building, firing its missile racks at the unit for all it was worth. As the huge blue octahedron was raked viciously by the missiles, it returned fire in the form of another laser, which hit the ground near Scholar and melted its foot. The machine lost its balance and tumbled behind another building, skidding to a halt as its foot melted to the ground.
Damn. Helzehen noticed that the repeated attacks were costing him dearly in AP. If the battle persisted for much longer, the huge unit that was attacking him would win, and he would die. No. This thing isn't going to kill me. I just have to think this through. There's a logical way to beat that damn thing, I've proved it so far and I can prove it again.
Scholar limped its way over to another building, and locked on to the blue octahedron again. Luckily it had landed behind 3 buildings with a slight gap between them. As the unit boosted between buildings, it unleashed swarms of missiles upon the octahedron once again. The missiles blasted the thing, and it shuddered in midair, sudden holes appearing in its reflective blue armor. I wish I still had my pulse rifle... Helzehen mourned the loss of his weapon silently, then came up with a new plan. That thing is pretty big... if I can get inside of it somehow, it's over. Scholar jumped up and activated its overboost function. As it zoomed towards the unit, it nearly lost its head to another laser beam. "Damn!" Helzehen yelled as the AC's vision wavered dangerously, and he almost had to switch to the optical cables on his core.
The damaged AC managed to reach its goal however, and landed in a hole in the disorder unit's shell. As he looked at the internal mechanisms of the unit, he noticed a huge red sphere right in the center of it. That must be the thing's power source... I'd better destroy it. Scholar's arm wound back, and it plunged the flaming purple blade directly into the sphere.
Oh shit! Was all Helzehen had time to think as the disorder unit exploded with a force greater than even that of a FIN-BOO rocket. The mangled remains of Scholar slammed into the mountainside, then slid to the ground, tumbling to the bottom of the huge crater like a puppet with its strings cut.
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The other three ACs weren't affected by the catastrophic battle on the surface, but all of them were knocked on their mecha asses when the huge explosion triggered a massive quake in the facility.
"What the hell was that?" Remille cried in surprise.
"Dunno." Ares blurted out a hasty response, just as surprised himself."I hope Helzehen's alright..." Her usually bright voice was tainted with worry, and Jormagund's AC stood up, then turned towards the exit.
"We'd better check that out. He might need medical attention or help." Jormagund paused, then his AC overboosted out the door, leaving grim words behind "Or both."
"C'mon. There are still more this way, I think he can handle whatever's up there by himself." Ares turned Providence towards another door, and Wraith reluctantly followed it. The machine gun and KARASAWA II quickly made short work of the few disorder units behind the next door.
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To say Jormagund was uneasy as his AC made its way to the surface was correct. The raven didn't like the feeling of unease that came from the quake, and now the elevator. It felt like something creepy was waiting for him just beyond his sight.
When the elevator reached the surface, Jormagund face fell. At some point the doors had been melted totally, and were now one solid piece of metal. He hoped that Helzehen was able to defeat, or even survive whatever had done that. The purple and black AC's foot wound back, then shot out like a spring, slamming into the metal. The door dented, but the attack had no effect otherwise. The AC kept kicking the door, and eventually slashed it open using its blade.
Jormagund's face quickly dissolved into an aghast look as he beheld the scene in front of him. Scholar was at the bottom of a huge crater, and small, scorched shards of armor were scattered everywhere. But worse was the ground. Huge scorch marks indicated that a weapon of massive power had been fired repeatedly, and the mangled remains of the entrance building confirmed that. Crush Dragon quickly slid down the slope of the huge impact and crouched beside Scholar.
"Hey... are you alive in there?" No response came from the other AC. Jormagund tried hailing the downed pilot again, but go no response a second time.
The 'savior of mars' popped open his cockpit and quickly climbed down his AC, using some handles of the VAT legs to lower himself down. He then quickly scrambled over to Scholar and climbed up the mangled remnants of the light purple AC, and used the emergency release to open up the access hatch for the cockpit. It's still warm... that explosion must have been pretty big...
As he peered into the cockpit, he couldn't really see anything, but he noted that it didn't smell of blood, and that was a good thing. The raven climbed deeper into it, and grabbed for where he thought Helzehen's shoulders were, accidentally sticking his hand right into the other raven's mouth. Ugh. Jormagund quickly pulled his hand out, then felt around for Helzehen's shoulders. After a few seconds he found them, and disregarding the "standard procedures," he quickly dragged the unconscious man from his AC, and laid him gently on the ground, checking him over for broken bones.
The damage could have been much worse. A couple of broken ribs and a broken arm would have the raven in the hospital for a few weeks, but it wasn't anything fatal. Helzehen finally proved that he was alive by groaning weakly and trying to roll over, only to be stopped by Jormagund.
"Don't move Helzehen. Just hold on until the chopper comes..." Jormagund carefully strapped Helzehen back into his mangled AC, figuring that he was safer in there than out in the open. After completing his task, he got back into his own AC and stood guard over his defeated comrade.
I don't want to leave him out there like that. But if those two get injured while fighting that disorder unit, I'll never forgive myself.
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"Alright." Ares breathed steadily, trying to ignore his flashing AP gague. "This should be the last room. We're almost done.""That's a relief." Remille sighed quietly, her AC leaking sparks and smoke from a few different places. "I'm almost out of ammo, and AP too."
As the door to the room opened, a huge disorder unit could be seen in the middle of it, its six legs splayed out in a ready stance as the two huge barrels on the ends of its arms swung towards Providence and Wraith, bathed in an eerie blue glow.
"Well." Ares said quietly. "That could be a problem."
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"Jormagund. This is Ares. We've run into a large disorder unit deep inside the facility. We need your help to take it out, we've suffered extensive damage and our ammo reserves are low. By the way, is Helzehen ok?"
"Yeah, he's fine, and I'll come down as quickly as I can. Do you think you two stand a chance against it in its current state?"
"Negative. I have about 800 AP left, and Wraith only has 600. We're not going to make it alone."
"I understand, I'm coming down now."
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The purple and black AC halted in front its red and white companions.
"So, what's the trouble?" Jormagund stared at the door quietly, not wanting to open it until he had a better idea of what was behind it.
"Well, there's a disorder unit behind it."
"I surmised that much Ares. What kind of disorder unit?"
"Alright..." The lanky raven began. "It has six legs, it's really big, and it has two sets of cannons on its arms, a pair of bigger ones and smaller ones--"
"Enough." Jormagund cut him off. "I know what you're talking about now, I've fought one of those before."
"Do you think we stand a chance?" Remille finally spoke up, sounding slightly worried.
"Yes. But only if I distract the thing and you provide me with some support fire. The room should be big enough, so you should have enough room to use your missiles Ares."
Providence nodded, indicating that the other raven understood.
"Ok." Jormagund breathed out. "Are you guys ready?"
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The door opened, and Jormagund was greeted by two huge laser bursts, which narrowly missed his AC. Crush Dragon flew into the room, borne on the massive flame of its overboost. It quickly stopped and spun around, shooting a bazooka round at the massive unit. As the armored bug recoiled slightly, a series of eight missiles slammed into its leg, threatening to knock it over and seriously damaging the armor. The bug spun around quickly to look for another target, when a laser blast hit it in the front, scorching the armor, then a bazooka round hit it in the side.
Jormagund kept his boosters on full as the disorder unit turned back to him, thin laser beams lancing out of the bottom barrels of its arms in an attempt to skewer his AC. Machine gun rounds hailed him as he frantically dodged the attacks. Despite taking a few hits here and there, Crush Dragon managed to fight back well with its bazooka, and the other's support fire harassing the unit caused it to become confused and constantly seek for targets.
As the purple and black AC managed to get behind it, the machine was greeted by a nasty surprise. Suddenly armored hatches flipped up on the back of the thing, and two boxes popped out of the holes, unleashing a swarm of missiles at the reverse-joint AC. It quickly dodged and returned fire in earnest, smashing one of the boxes with a well-placed bazooka shot.
Unfortunately, circling the unit left its frontal weapons open to fire on Providence and Wraith, and the two ravens were hard pressed to avoid the laser blasts and clouds of machine gun fire issuing from their enemy, nevertheless, Remille managed to return fire from the shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, which she had been saving for an occasion like this, and Ares with his laser cannon, the PLUS pilot dodging and returning fire with incredible accuracy.
Despite a valiant attempt, the disorder unit was crushed by the weight of the three streams of firepower being poured on it, and soon collapsed, exploding into a could of flames and smoke. The three machines stopped in their places, all of them heavily damaged.
"I hate those things." Jormagund spoke first.
"Phew. Those are no cakewalk." Ares sighed in relief, his AC sinking into a sitting position.
"Well, at least we could actually dodge its attacks in here. It was hell fighting one of those in a cramped subway."
"Good point." Ares sighed again and Providence shifted into a standing position. "Well, that was the last one, we should be getting out of here now. I hope Helzehen is still ok."
"Yeah. I had to leave him up there all alone... I hope no other units came."
"What?!" Remille exploded. "You left him up there all by himself?!?!!?"
"Believe me, I wouldn't have done it if I had a choice." Jormagund's AC shook its head in a gesture of apology. "I just didn't want you guys to die as well. And the I figured that the Disorder units would have left a downed AC alone."
"Oh..." It was Remille's turn to sound apologetic. "I see."
"It's alright, believe me, I didn't like having to do it either, but it was nessicary in order to insure the safety of you two." Jormagund sighed and turned towards the exit. "We'd better get to the surface."
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Providence, Wraith and Crush Dragon all broke the surface at the same time, to be greeted by the same sight. Scholar, lying defeated and broken in the middle of the huge crater.
"Hey Helzehen. Are you awake?" Jormagund spoke as his AC moved over to its fallen comrade, then bent down and gently gathered the defeated AC into its arms. A weak groan answered him over the comm as he walked over to the edge of the base and squatted down, waiting for the planes to come. "It's alright Helzehen, we'll get you to a hospital soon."
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"How is he?"
"4 broken ribs, a broken arm, broken leg, and 2 moderate concussions." Jormagund sighed and shook his head, putting his arm around Remille's shoulder. "He's going to be out of the action for a while."
"Oh... we should tell Ares. He'd want to know."
"I'll tell him later Rem. We should let him see to his own problems first. The war for mars is just beginning, and god forbid that we're caught unprepared."
Remille simply nodded resolutley, and Jormagund gave her hand a squeeze.
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AC Analysis: Wraith-
Description: Light but powerful AC. Uses mainly energy weapons and Zio Matrix parts.
Tech Base: Armored Core 2
Head: ZHD-2000/SV
Core: ZCL-XA/2
Arms: ZAN-202/TEM
Legs: ZLN-EK1/SRRT
Booster: ZBT-GEX/3000
FCS: DOX-ELENA
Generator: HOY-B1000
Radiator: RBG-CM6
Inside: N/A
Extension: BEX-BD150
Arm Unit R: ZWF-S/NIGHT (ZWG-MG/ENE)
Arm Unit L: ZLS0400/SL
Back Unit R: ZXR-S/STEALTH (ZWC-LQ/2552)
Back Unit L: ZXR-S/STEALTH (ZWR-S/60)
Optional Parts: SP-S/SCR
SP-ENE-SCR
SP-BE
SP-ENE-ACC
SP-E/SAVER
SP-VIECH
Colors:
Uniform Color Scheme
Sample Colors – Snow White
Other Attributes: Remille kneels to use her cannons, but is the mysterious ex-frightener PLUS? Guess you'll have to wait to find out. Another note – the parts in parenteses are are the parts she uses on missions. That energy sniper rifle would run out pretty fast against disorder units. Also, I think the AC is overweight, but I can't quite remember and I'm too lazy to check.
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Author Notes: Sorry again for the long pause between updates! I stayed the night at a friend's house for Haloween. Got tons of parts, and got to play some people who are actually good at Armored Core! (My other friends really suck.) And I've recived offical confirmation that I'm "Pretty good" and coming from someone who's played Armored Core for what I estimate to be about 2 or 3 years, that's pretty big praise. Anywho, enough about my little self-rant there. Phantasma fans will be happy to know that I'm planning a fic that gives Stinger a starring role! Don't know who Stinger is? Play Revolution.