Author's Notes: Time for part 11. I'm going to try and squeeze some of Nexus into this, but none of the parts, judging from how I've started this on Silent Line parts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Armored Core. I'm just a poor boy from a poor family.

Trent looked up as Leigh draped herself over his shoulders. Her finger starting twirling his hair as she looked at him, then at the computer screen.

"What'cha doing?" She asked lazily, all of her fingers running through his hair now. Trent smiled, then pointed to a line of text on the screen.

"Contract. Crest wants me and two other ravens to test out their 'new model MTs.' They're probably just as weak as the originals." Trent sighed, then reached up to rub Leigh's shoulder. "But hey, it's easy money."

Leigh smiled and winked at him. "I'd have to agree with that one."

"No matter how tough they make those things, an MT is still an MT." Trent shut down the computer and stood up, then stretched and yawned. "Ho hum. This is going to be a long two days."

Leigh smiled at him, then placed her hands on his shoulders. "I think we can make time fly."

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Trent stood in the mirage briefing room, still in a daze. He wasn't sure how the past two days had gone by so quickly, but he was sure that they had, and he was also sure that he enjoyed himself. They had gone to the movies, resturants... and done all sorts of other stuff. It was thinking about the past days that kept him out of focus.

"--And you didn't hear a word I just said, did you?"

The raven shook his head, the question piercing the bubble of his fantasies. "What? Sorry, I spaced out."

The operator frowned, her hands coming to rest on her hips. "You're fighting ten of the new MTs. You'll be working with three other ravens in order to defeat the units."

"Three? But the contract said I'd only be working with two."

"We changed our minds. Three ravens might be insufficent against such a large number of MTs."

"Ten? A single raven could wipe out twenty MTs without breaking a sweat." Trent gave her his best 'what are you, stupid or something?' glare, and the woman returned it sternly.

"Maybe, but not when faced by them all simotaneously, and within a confined space as well."

The raven sighed. "I suppose you're right. Who am I working with?"

"We wanted this exercise to be between four ravens that have never met. You will meet your consorts in that room." Trent nodded, then walked over to the door, and opened it, stepping inside the room, he assumed that from the way the corridor leading into the place was so poorly lit because they didn't want him seeing who the others were.

"The lights will be turned on shortly. Please have a seat on the floor." Trent followed the order, and he could hear another do the same. "The lights will be turned on now. Please refrain from a violent reaction."

All four ravens shut their eyes as the lights were suddenly turned on. "Oh my god!" Trent cried as he covered up his eyes. "It's so bright!"

"Hey. I know I've heard your voice somewhere..." Someone said off to his right, sounding like they too had been victimized by the light.

"You sound familiar too... you both do actually..." A third person spoke. Trent slowly uncovered his eyes, and opened them little by little, squinting heavily against the harsh glare of the lights. The first thing he saw was a man of medium height with a unruly mop of brown hair.

"You're... I know you... Brad right?" The man's face instantly brightened with recognition.

"Trent! I thought I'd never see you again! Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, around and about, nothing to brag about really."

"Trent? Brad? Are you guys who I think you are?" The third man still had his hands clamped over his eyes. "I have a feeling I know you from somewhere..." The man clad in green combat armor stumbled around, his eyes still adjusting to the lights.

That hair looks familiar... Where have I seen it before? Trent thought for a moment, then recognition dawned upon him. Not wanting to crush his newly found hope before it could fly, he fired off a question at the other man. "What's your name?"

"My name? I'm Lysander."

"Yep." Trent grinned, and noticed that Brad was grinning too. "You know us. At least you should anyways. It would really be a bummer if you forgot us after all this time." The man finally uncovered his eyes, and looked at Brad and Trent. Then he started laughing.

"Trent! Brad! I missed you guys." He laughed again. "How've you been?"

"Not bad. Not bad at all." Brad replied, the grin getting wider. "But who's the fourth person we're supposed to be working with?

Faye sat in the corner, her head buried in her arms. Her foot worked its way up and down, striking the floor with audible tapping sounds. Lysander shot her an apologetic look, even though he knew she couldn't see him.

"Faye? I didn't know you took this mission."

"Yeah." She growled from underneath her arms. "I could say the same thing."

"Sorry about that." Lysander rubbed the back of his head, then walked over next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "These guys are old friends of mine."

Faye glared at him. "You didn't have to ignore me like that."

"Oh come on, you can forgive me can't you? Just this once?"

Faye sighed and looked at him through half-closed eyes. "I guess I can let it go this time." Lysander helped her up, and looked at the other two men.

"Brad, Trent, this is Faye, we've been working together... for a few months now." Lysander stumbled briefly as Faye glared at him.

"Heheh." Brad laughed, then grinned, leaning forward to offer his hand. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend Ly-" He abruptly croaked as Faye slammed her knee into his crotch, falling to the floor and rolling around weakly, his eyes tearing up.

"She doesn't like it when people call her that." Lysander apologized with a grin, and rubbed the back of his head. "I would have warned you beforehand... but I didn't know you'd say something like that."

Trent sighed at Brad's poorly disguised advance, and Faye's violent reaction to that. "Name's Trent. Nice to meet you." He said in the politest manner he could, offering her his hand. Faye looked at him warily, took his hand slowly, then squeezed it as hard as she could. Trent was surprised by her strength, but stared her in the eye levelly, squeezing back as hard as he could himself.

Faye eventually grimaced and gave up the contest of strength, looking at Trent with grudging admiration. Trent simply smiled back.

"I trust you've all gotten aquainted?"

"Ha!" Lysander laughed loudly. "We've known each other for a long time. Trent used to be Brad's and my teacher when we were learning how to use an MT. And me and Faye go back a ways." Faye glared at him for the last comment, but said nothing.

"Understood." The four ravens could hear the annoyance in the operator's voice, although Brad was still recovering from having his crotch brutally smashed.

"Ouchie." The floored raven finally whimpered, drawing sympathetic looks from Lysander and Trent, but a glare of contempt from Faye. The two male ravens helped their friend up, and he stood unsteadily.

"The test will begin shortly. Please proceed to your ACs." The operator interrupted them again in a terse voice.

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Liberator tramped out into the arena, where Tyrant, Endgame and Gorgon were waiting for it. The brown machine stopped when it was even with the other three, forming a line abreast.

"These MTs are a bit tougher than anything you're used to. Be prepared." The operator's voice sounded yet again, and Trent grimaced, wishing that they could just start the test. A few hatches on the floor opened at the other side of the room, and the ten MTs popped out of the holes.

The "new model MTs" had a massive quadruped base, but it was there that their resemblance to an AC ended. Instead of a core, head, and arms, along with the corresponding weapons, a huge cannon rested, the wicked-looking turrets seeming like eyes that were constantly seeking out targets. Trent's comm crackled as the operator spoke, "begin."

As the test started, Liberator and Tyrant boosted straight up into the air. Endgame charged to the left, and Flamestreak strafed to the right. Trent squeezed down on the trigger for his Spread Bazooka, showering four of the MTs with heavy impact, high explosive rounds. The black machines shuddered, one of them exploding as Tyrant's grenade launcher hit it square on the cannon.

Gorgon showered one of the MTs with a burst of grenade fire, causing the unit to stagger backwards. The unit's cannons swung in line with Faye's AC, and the Mirage test model was sent skidding back a few feet as the massive barrels recoiled, spitting out two huge fireballs. The black AC couldn't dodge at the short range, and suffered the impact of two heavy grenade hits in the chest. Faye growled as the Tank AC was forced back, and turned on the MIRROR, the soothing glow of energy washing out over the metallic shield.

Endgame seemed to be faring better against the MTs. When the grenades came, the AC seemed to fade out of the line of fire, appearing elsewhere to pelt the sinister looking machines with its KARASAWA and volleys from its missile launchers. The green and black AC managed to fell one of the MTs, but was pounded backwards by multiple grenade hits shortly afterwards, its armor peeling back and falling to the ground like smoking feathers.

Liberator and Tyrant were having problems as well. The heavier middleweight biped and the heavy reverse-joint AC had managed to dodge most of the enemy fire, but having to face five of the MTs, some of the hits had gotten through, blasting chunks of armor off the cores. Liberator and Tyrant managed to keep up a good shower of Bazooka fire, although Brad had switched to his rockets a few times to save ammo for his main weapon.

"BB. I'm going to support..." Trent read the raven tag on his radar quickly, then went back to speaking. "Firecracker. Hold them off for me, alright?"

"Yeah. I'll do what I can." Brad concentrated even more on the offensive, dropping down from the platform he had landed on to slash at the MTs with his laserblade. Although the manuver had left him more vulnerable-his AC had already taken some hits-he seemed to be doing more damage to the MTs than before, and one of the units fell to the ground, its left front leg severed.

Gorgon was in trouble. Although the tank AC had plenty of armor to withstand the grenades, the repeated pounding took its toll, and Faye couldn't seem to concentrate enough to fight back, the constant grenade impacts stunning even the heavy tank AC. The black tank AC was already showing some scars, the black paint job burned off where the exploding grenades had scorched the unit. As one of the cannons swung towards her, Faye braced for another impact, which never came.

The redhead opened her eyes slowly to see Liberator standing in front of Flamestreak, its laserblade plunged deep into the center of the MT. The black quadrped exploded with a thundercrack and shower of armor shards as the brown AC boosted away, leaving her to deal with the second MT. Must be one of those guys. Faye thought angrily, turning her focus to the MT.

As the first MT exploded from the KARASAWA round hitting it in the core, Lysander looked around for more targets. He settled for the other MT that had been attacking him, and launched a furious blitz from his laser rifle. As Mirage's test model stumbled backwards under the ferocity of the assault, Endgame's legs kicked it high into the air, and it came down with a vertical stabbing attack, impaling the MT upon its laserblade. As the unit went up in flames, its partially-loaded grenade rounds exploded, throwing Endgame backwards. Lysander grimaced as the AC slammed into one of the poles scattered around the arena and fell forward onto its face, more of its armor flaking away as it hit the ground. As he wrestled the AC back to its feet, he noticed that his AP was hovering around 25. Damn. I can't believe that two of them caused this much damage.

Trent skidded to a halt in front of the downed MT. His MOONLIGHT sliced the unit in half, and the generator overloaded from having nowhere to store its energy. The machine exploded with a tremendous thunderclap, which Trent ignored as he looked around for more targets. Liberator's boosters ignited as it skidded off towards its next target, an MT that had been harrassing BB throughout the whole test. His back-mounted chaingun spat out a stream of hot metal, pitting the legs of the test unit with scars. As the heavy machine swung its cannons around to meet the incoming threat, Trent sliced one of the barrels off with the MOONLIGHT. The MT staggered for a moment, the loss of one of its cannons throwing the AI off. Trent never gave it a chance to recover as he pounded a moonlight wave into the center of the machine, smashing its generator and radiator. The 6th MT exploded violently.

Tyrant, despite its wounds, was attacking another MT viciously. The AC circled the MT faster than its cannons could rotate, and started slicing at its unprotected side whenever the cannons were facing the other way. The results of his attacks showed, slices in the armor appearing all over the MT. Time to finish this. BB thought to himself as Tyrant brought its spread bazooka up, and annihilated the MT's center with a point-blank bazooka blast.

Faye swore as the double grenades hit Gorgon again, the tank AC being forced back a few paces. Fortunatley, the pounding had lessened ever since the first MT was destroyed, and Faye had been biding her time in order to launch a counterattack. Gorgon took the time that the MT used to reload its weaponry and flipped its grenade launcher over its shoulder, unloading a high-explosive fireball right into the MT's cannons. The back grenade launcher smashed the MT aside, and it slammed into the back wall, exploding just like its comrades.

The four ACs looked at the last two MTs, and the units seemed to balk under the stares of the four Ravens, as if they knew what kind of fate awaited them. However, the unthinking machines refused to go down without a fight. Liberator and Tyrant finished one off with a shower of spread bazooka fire, while the other went down to the combined might of Gorgon's grenade rifle and Endgame's KARASAWA.

"Nice work Ravens. The data we collected was accurate."

"They can go shove their data." Faye snarled viciously, Gorgon spinning around and stalking off.

Lysander sighed over the comm. "She's been like that ever since Flamestreak was totalled, sorry she wasn't in a better mood."

"Flamestreak?" It seemed Brad had recovered from getting kneed in the balls, and was talking normally again.

"Yeah. That was her old AC, a few months back it got damaged so badly that it would have been less expensive to buy a new one."

"I see." Brad replied.

"Yeah, it really sucks sometimes, but there's really nothing I can do, so I'll just work around it the best I can."

Trent chuckled at Lysander's comment. "I see you remember some of the stuff I taught you at least."

"Yeah." Lysander sighed again. "Hey, want to go get a drink or something? We should catch up, we havent seen each other in years."

"Sure." Brad and Trent both agreed at the same time, and the three ACs headed off in the same direction as Gorgon, all of the ravens looking forwards to learning what their friends had been doing.

Author Notes: Could this be another cliffhanger? Perhaps. But don't worry, I won't keep you waiting 5 chapters like last time!

To the Readers:

BloodyKitsune: Perhaps... perhaps... everything will be revealed later... just hold on to your restaints.

Duo: Heh, thanks again for the good review. You're right, the huge disorder unit that Helzehen fought is Ramiel from Evangelion. Same attacks, same everything. I just had to weaken him a bit for the purposes of this story. Scholar is no Eva unit 01, plus, there was nobody else there to back him up.

Isao: Wow, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It's great to know that I'm inspiring people, but what am I doing writing this when I could be reading and reviewing your story? (Just noticed that it was up) Time to R&R!