"We're almost to Navis HQ guys, get ready." Aylis sounded unaffected by William's death. To tell the truth I don't think any of us were affected on a personal level. I know I didn't hold him in very high regards, but he was still a Raven.
Either way, it's not anything to get upset about anymore.
"We should probably get in our ACs Garret," Moby said, putting a hand on my shoulder, causing ash from my cigarette to fall to the ground.
I climbed to Shyft's cockpit and started the booting sequence. Within seconds the diagnostics overview came up as the CPU started systems checks.
"Say Aylis, you gonna come with us on this drop?" Moby said over radio.
"I'll land the transport first but count on some support fire if you run into hostility."
"That's along the lines of what I didn't wanna hear. Aylis, I don't want you coming down at all. We can't lose another person."
"Garret, you sound like you're the leader of this group, something we don't need right now. Besides, if I stay up here, there's a more likely chance that one of you two will die. You're gonna need all the help you can get if this gets serious. And on the other hand, it's easier to gun down a transport than an AC."
"I guess you've got a point, just be careful."
"I will, don't worry. Ok, drop time. Ready?"
Moby already had Caesar moved by the hatch as it opened. He pushed the AC out in a manner that made him look like he just plain fell. I followed, making my exit a little more stylish with a running start to a jump.
Below us was the rubble of what used to be a young corporation. Navis had been wiped from existence by the same force as Kisaragi by the look of things. The radar showed me Caesar and the transport, but nothing else.
"It looks clear. We should be able to investigate without trouble."
"Still keep on your senses Moby; they could be just out of radar range with sniper rifles."
As if on cue, a bullet flashed by just below my AC.
"Shit Garret, you fuckin' jinxed us."
"Just shut up and get ready to fight. Aylis, hurry up, I don't know how many we've got here."
As we landed, about twenty FlashTactics came into view in all directions.
"By my count, we've got about eighty ACs here Garret, even with Aylis' help we don't stand a chance in hell."
"Just conserve ammo and aim for the cores and we should be alright. You take south and west, I got north and east."
"This is suicide man."
"We stand better chances fighting than we do running. Now go!"
He took off to the south as I boosted to the group in the east. I dodged a fair share of bullets, but nowhere near enough to keep damage to a minimal. As I met with the first three FlashTactics, I sliced the cores open with Shyft's laser blade and kept going, watching them disappear from radar. The next opposition was a group of five. They did a fair amount of damage to my AC's blade arm, leaving me to mow them down with machine gun fire.
I watched the ACs fall over, waiting to see the streams of oil that signified hits on the pilots. None ever came. I peeled back the front of the core as much as I could with my AC's bad arm, revealing an empty cockpit.
"Shit."
"What? What is it Garret?"
"We're not fighting a legion of robot pilots."
"What?" Aylis' voice was frantic as she finally came onto the field.
"Mirage has programmed the ACs to fight on their own with a cheap and massively produced AI."
"How do you know it's cheap?"
"Do you really think we'd still be alive if they were the robots?"
"Good point. Shit. Love to talk guys, but I'm lookin' down about three barrels right now. Aylis, some cover fire would be very nice."
She obliged, her muzzle flashes visible from my standing point, giving her position away to the FlashTactics to the west.
"Aylis, watch your west flank, they're comin' for you."
I had to focus on me now, realizing the twelve blips on my radar, not twenety meters away. I fired a missile pod into the sky, watching it explode into a massive amount of missiles, each picking a target AC and making contact with it. I repeated this until I was out of ammo do to so. There was still three left, aiming their chain guns at me. I boosted into the sky and found the first, dropping on to of it, crushing it, but doing a good amount of damage to my AC's legs in the process. The other two came into view and opened fire with their rifles. I answered with my machine gun, a volley of shots into each core, disabling the two ACs.
"I got the twenty on the east, what about you two?"
"I got about fifteen that attacked me from the west, the rest are still there, standing watch. I've also helped Moby with the groups to the south. Unfortunately I'm out of ammo, all I can do is defend myself with EO."
"Get back in the transport and get ready to pick me up along with a few ACs here. My AC is beaten pretty badly and could use some repair parts."
"Ok, Moby you gonna be alright by yourself for a while?"
"Yeah, I've got a decent supply of ammo and I've already taken out a bunch to the north. There's about seven left here."
"Good, I'm on my way Garret."
After a bit the transport landed and Aylis used the worker MT to get Shyft and some spare part ACs inside, including a leftover Navis model, perfect except the core. I made quick work of disconnecting parts and putting them on my core. Luckily the Navis AC had the same legs as Shyft and some arms about the same weight. I put a FlashTactic head on Shyft and grabbed the laser blade from another, putting it in the hangar space I forgot my core had. I put my machine gun in the opposite hangar space, replacing it eith the rifle the Navis AC had. In the left arm I equipped the Navis' left arm shotgun. I also took a FlashTactic chain gun. I powered up and got back onto the field, running for the five that were left in the west.
"Aylis, take the sniper ammo from the FlashTactics and dump the rest of the parts. Then just wait until Moby and I have this place cleared."
I met up with the first of the five, shooting the shotgun once into its core, knocking it flat from the closer range of the shot. It disappeared from radar as three more opened fire in me. I answered with a rain from my chain gun, rendering the AI programs useless as the bullets cut the power to most systems. The last came from the sky, landing in front of me, firing into my core once with his rifle. Fortunately he missed me and any major wiring. I butted the AC with the shotgun, knocking it over. I fired into the core with the same gun, watching the AC go limp.
"Moby, how's it goin' with those seven to the north?"
"They're gone."
"Good Aylis, get us out of here. We've got a date with some AC manufacturers tomorrow."
