Chapter 10:
Secrets Untold No More

Smoke bellowed through one of the old, abandoned cities, the sounds of large metallic feet hitting the ground echoed through the garden of wrecked skyscrapers and houses. A pair of ACs, accelerating on yellow plumes of exhaust stopped behind a large cathedral type building, their target seemed to be a large warehouse

Tomiya raised the left hand of his AC to look at it, it was encased in an orange cylinder. "I can't believe I let that inventor use my AC as a test dummy for her new weapon!"

A yellow and black quadruped turned it's head towards Cold Dragon, waving it's dual bazookas around slightly. This AC belonged to Mokohara, this was her "Thunder Horse". "Don't worry about it. She seems nice, and she seems to know what she's talking about too." She said to him.

"...What was the mission again?"

"Clear out the warehouse, This will disable Mirage from getting a foothold in the city." She told him.

"Oh. I'll head in, If I give you a signal, back me up."

"...Alright"

Tomiya slammed his foot onto a pedal in his cockpit, initiating his boosters, he went around the cathedral and took to the sky. He let the boosters stop and crashed through the ceiling of the warehouse, firing his machinegun down at the MTs inside on his way downward, striking shots in cockpits and headparts. He caught a glimpse of an AC out of the corner of his eye, raised his left arm, and the cylinder shattered, a salvo of missiles flying towards the AC. The AC attempted to dodge to the side, but was caught by some of the missiles, knocking it to the ground. This bought Tomiya enough time to finish off the remaining MTs.

"I didn't expect they'd send YOU here..." The pilot of a black AC said to him, getting up off the ground.

The black AC shared a similar construction to the unknown AC Tomiya had faced in the factory, only it was lighter, and had a lighter Grenade launcher, the voice, however, was the same.

Tomiya narrowed his eyes, hearing the voice. "It's you...". He shook the scraps of the missile cylinder off of his left arm, pointing his machine gun at him.

"Since...we'll most likely meet after this, I might as well give you my name...My name is Dennis Glaeser. I'm sure you've heard of my little band of pilots, the Roter Tod."

"Roter Tod? What are you talking about?"

"Oh? So he didn't tell you?"

"You sound like a damn crackhead! Talk sense!"

"Well, in that case.." Before Dennis could finish his sentence, a dark, almost black brown AC with one red eye boosted in front of Dennis

"I'll take care of this one..." The pilot said.

"Who are you?" Tomiya shouted.

"Oh, this is Agraya, she's a replacement for that useless Kaosu...you know, the one who joined up with your little ragtag band of Ravens?"

"!" Tomiya's eyes widened "What are you talking about?" His face tore into a snarl as he spoke.

"I'd tell you, but that would take too long. Why don't you ask Till..." his AC started to back out of the warehouse. "Agraya."

"Yes, Dennis?" She replied.

"Kill him." He said, boosting out of the warehouse.

"Looks like today isn't your lucky day" Agraya said to Tomiya. She flipped the Chaingun over her shoulder and fired several rounds from it. Tomiya dashed to the side, raising his own machinegun and firing several rounds. One round hit a lucky spot, and knocked the Chaingun off of it's mount, the gun flailing wildly before stopping.

"I'm going to get you for that!" She shouted, raising her arm and firing a grenade.

Tomiya was already in the middle of boosting towards Agraya's AC, he moved to the side, spun around and swung his blade into the midsection, below the cockpit.

Agraya shouted. "This is impossible! You can't beat me! ... Go ahead and kill me already!"

Tomiya closed his eyes. "No." He kicked over the standing legs of her AC with his. "Become a better pilot and leave the Roter Tod, from what it seems like...they're up to no good."

Agraya went silent for a moment. "I suppose you're well informed of his company's doings...Sakata Industries..."

"What do you mean?"

"The B-type...It-" The com channel cut out.

Tomiya sighed. "Guess I'll have to finish that sentence on my own..." He kicked his thrusters and headed out of the warehouse. "Mokohara, mission's complete, let's go." He said.

"Right behind you." She replied.

----------------------------------------------------------

In a forest, a lightweight AC wielding dual Rifles was holding off a squad of MTs, the MTs were heavily armored and had a red "S" emblazoned on their shields.

"Come on! Come on! I'm getting bored!" the pilot shouted. One of the rifles ran out of ammo. He tossed it up, caught it by the barrel and flung it at one of the MTs, scoring a direct hit in it's head, reaching into his Hangar and pulling out the handgun he had stored in there, firing alongside his other rifle.

A loud gunshot was heard far off, one of the MTs falling with a large hole in it's chest. The pilot looked behind him, a teal AC with black joints and a glowing orange eye was there, holding a rather sizeable rifle, looked like a sniper rifle.

"You look like you could use some help." The other pilot said. This was Stephanie's AC, Without an actual "pay", she decided to become a Raven to make money. Plus, her being an inventor also let her have her own toy to play around with, the rifle she brought was a custom sniper rifle adapted to shoot not bullets, but an uranium dart designed to liquify armor on contact.

"Save the formalities for later, we have MTs to take care of." Stephanie added, firing another round. The only downside of this custom weapon was that the reload rate was slower than the average sniper rifle. The round blew through one MT, and lodged itself in the other, rupturing fuel storage in the second one and causing it to explode.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chiyo picked up the newspaper off of a coffee table, adjusting her glasses a bit while reading it under her breath to herself. "Several Ravens reported as missing...Hozumi, Brace...whoa...over 10 Ravens gone missing.."

Darien sneaked up behind her and grabbed her shoulders lightly. "Boo!"

"EEEK!" Chiyo picked up a coffee mug that was on the table and swung it right into Darien's head, breaking it. Darien stumbled back and fell down, holding his head.

"OW, THAT REALLY, REALLY HURT!"

Chiyo was now standing over Darien, her red braid falling over her shoulder, hand with the handle of the coffee cup still in hand. She blinked, looking down at Darien for a moment.

"...OHMYGOD! I'm sorry!" She hurried and helped Darien up off the floor, Darien was simply dazed that Chiyo didn't simply walk off.

"Um..." Darien just let his sentence trail off.

"You shouldn't have snuck up on me, Darien" Chiyo said, while somewhat leaning on him as to look him in the face.

"I...uh..." Darien's cheeks began to grow red. "...sorry?"

Chiyo smiled. "You're forgiven".

Darien smiled sheepishly. "Um...not to say that I'm not enjoying this, but could you get off of me before I start pitching a tent?"

Chiyo looked down, and blushed, then quickly stopped leaning on him and sat a seat away on the couch, looking away.

Darien just raised an eyebrow at her, then shrugged.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephanie lowered her rifle as she kneeled her AC on the ground, the MTs that she and the other pilot were fighting had all been put out of commission. "So...what's your name?"

The pilot was silent for a few seconds. "My name is...uh..Chris." His AC's head turned towards a bird. "Hey look, a bird...Oh. Yours?"

"I'm Stephanie." She replied.
"Thanks for helping me back there." Chris said

"No problem" Stephanie replied.

"...Hey! Wanna go get a coffee or something?" Chris asked

"...Um...OK." Stephanie said. "But where are we going to put the ACs?"

Chris grinned. "We can put them at my place!"

"Alright".

Chapter 10 end...