Armored Core: Lunar Battle
Prologue
Part one: Suprise Attacks
Several space ships began to depart from Raven's Nest Mars, complete with orders. The small fleet didn't seem to be a threat, but each one is capable of carrying up to five of the most powerful machines mankind had ever created, the Armored Cores. Each machine was unique, for every Raven has a different style of fighting and have varying amounts of cash. In the case of this team, however, all of them are top rankers and have the best equipment offered to them. If they went to earth, their machines wouldn't match up with the earth Ravens. That's because their machine parts are well over twenty years old based on when the parts were actually developed. All of the Mars AC's actually posessed the old prototype overboost thrusters, which was their only edge, compared to the new EO type cores available on earth.
The ships were heading to the new colony on the moon called Lunar, where the Raven's missions were about to take place. A new corporation that had settled on Lunar, called Neo- Core, had sent the new MT designs to Mars and badly damaged all of the factories on the planet with that strike force. This was essentially vengence for messing with Mars. Lunar doesn't even have it's own Raven's Nest yet, so Neo-Core can only defend itself using the newest MTs created on earth. That is provided they haven't gotten an earth Raven over to the moon as a precaution.
Inside the fifth carrier ship, one of the Ravens was checking an AC for possible errors and to figure out what back weapons to equip it with. The AC in question was a middle-weight machine, many of its framing parts and weapons belonging to Zeo-Matrix. Unlike most of the ACs in the hanger, this one was relatively new. Zeo-Matrix was given an order for all of the essential parts and two of the weapons almost two years ago, whereas the other Cores have been around for quite some time. Many Ravens were often granted the use of the ACs their parents once used when they, too, were Ravens. But this Raven didn't, for the origional was destroyed with the pilot inside. This Core was designed to commemorate the origional and fight on.
The Raven in question was busy making sure everything was in tip-top shape, sitting in the cockpit as the unit went through its diagnostics. "Let's see," the Raven muttered, "EGRET head and cameras are green. 202/TEM arms, condition green. XA/2 core, functional. XAI/FA legs." The pilot made the unit move its feet slightly for the test, so that the leg's functions could be confirmed. "Good shape. GEX 3000 boosters check out." The Raven scanned a screen. "Generator and Radiator efficiency is at peak. Weapons..." The Raven paused for a second, thinking. "Xeo-Streak, scan all weapon systems."
SCANNING...
ZEX-RS/Hound Missile intercept system fully loaded and on standby.
EWM-S602 missile system fully loaded and on standby.
ZWR-S/60 rocket system fully loaded and on standby.
KARASAWA-MK2 laser rifle fully charged and on standby.
LS-MOONLIGHT laser blade on standby.
The Raven smiled. It was kind of funny hearing the AC respond, yet sad at the same time. For some reason, Zeo-Matrix had sent an EGRET head with a voice matching the Raven's mother. Irony or on purpose, nobody knows. It could be Zeo-Matrix's way of commemorating their former best pilot for all of her years of service and for the use of their products. It would make sense, considering most of the equipment she used was made in a Z-M factory. The Raven started to remember many situations in which the mother had cared for her child, falling asleep in the cockpit.
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The Raven woke up a few hours later to the sound of the ship's alarm. Something was wrong, and this mercinary knew it all to well. The raven sat up in the cockpit and commed the bridge. "Captain, this is Raven ZX-10573-MARS. What the hell's going on up there?"
The comm screen opened and revealed the face of a middle aged man, whose eyes still held the fire from his youth. At this moment, however, he looked stressed. "Raven?!? WE'RE UNDER ATTACK, THAT'S WHAT!" He turned his head towards a crewman. "PORT THRUSTERS, FULL BURN!" The ship shook as the thrusters were engaged, moving it to the side and, hopefully, dodging whatever the hell was shot at them. "Bastard Neo-Core! THEY SET UP A SERIES OF DEFENCE CANNONS ON THE MOON! RAVEN, WE CAN'T GET ANY CLOSER! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO RISK A HOT DROP, AND I MEAN HOT!!!" He keyed off the communication to the raven and opened up a shipwide band.
"All Ravens are to report to the drop bay at once! Repeat, all Ravens are to report to the drop bay at once!" The Raven knew that only an AC can enter the drop bay, for it contained the drop pods that all the mechs use to go planet-side from orbit. Zeo-Streak's startup commands were processed quickly, allowing the Raven to move. Another Raven pilot stayed near the wall to avoid the Zeo-Matrix mech and get into his well armored Emeraude. His started up in no time and followed Zeo-Streak into the drop bay. The two machines were about to enter their pods when the comm started up again.
"ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Not even a second after he finished, a powerful plasma round forced its way up through the decks of the ship and destroyed the hangar, along with the three AC's still in there. The raven glanced back for only a second, surveying the hellish carnage that once was the hangar, before entering the pod. The two pods were then moved into firing position underneath the ship. The Emeraude's pod was fired down first. The Raven watched as the pod began its speedy decent and prepared for this pod to launch as well. Before it could launch, though, another round smashed into the side of the ship, causing it to spin slightly off course. The pod fired ten seconds too late and was sent away from the battle, and the intended target. The Raven paniced and tried to get Zeo-Streak out of the pod, but there was no way that AC was ever going to get back. The pilot watched in horror as more pods were dropped onto the moon. All four ships were destroyed in a matter of minutes. Very few pods were able to launch from those ships before they were destroyed, and even fewer pods ever made it to the moon. The Raven watched as her comrades were launched way off course or shot out of the sky. Only six pods survived, three of which were sent off course, including the raven of Zeo-Streak.
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"This is patrol team M-05. Nothing to report over in section A-4. Continuing to section A-3."
"Rodger that, M-05. Continue your patrol. Nightblade out." Josh sighed as he checked his montiors. 'Damn, nothing on radar at all.' He looked at his weapons gagues for the tenth time that night, then checked the comms. 'Mirage just had to hire us over the Ravens.' He thought of the vast amount of equipment that he had, with the main chasis and generator actually being Mirage products. 'But, it's the least I can do for them always having something out for AC pilots.' He checked his systems again. The Karasawa mounted on his right arm fully charged, Moonlight Blades on his left, Slug shotgun and low trajectory missiles on his back, shoulder mounted napalm rockets, and a great intercept system. Even the core's Exceed Orbit machine gun was primed. 'Because of Mirage's access to Zeo- Matrix specs when that company left for Mars, these weapons have become the stuff of legends and are powerful enough to take anything down.'
"Team M-07 reporting. Area B-7 clear."
"Understood, M-07. Check out area B-9, and step on it." Josh looked to his right console, spotting Shadow. Piloted by his friend Jake, aka Night Shot, that machine was the lightest and fastest machine they have. An assortment of parts from all the corps and a powerful sniper rifle make him deadly. And his natural sniper abilities have been helpful before, and they may be needed again. He was also prepared for close quarters with a light and fast blade, as well as a missile and laser launcher system for support. Emergency napalm rockets were standard issue for team Dark Doom.
"M-10. Area C-12 is dead as a doornail. Moving on to C-13."
"Move it, lugnuts, or else it's my bazooka up your armored metal asses!"
"DARK BOMB! SHUT YOUR HOLE!" Josh hated it when his best friend, Kyle, became like this. When the blood or boredom gets to his head, he could care less about allied MT support, as well as whoever gets in the way. He chose only the heaviest equipment he could handle, mounting several heavy weapons on a single heavy suit. The AC is as well armored as any could be, and could take a fight to the enemy. A TITAN missile strapped to his back, a chaingun on the other shoulder, a gernade rifle, flamethrower, anti missiles, napalm rockets in the core, and Exceed Orbit laser cannons made the Juggernaught a force to recon with.
"Heavy MT group M-02 reporting. Sector D-15 is secured. We picked up another blip on the radar again, but its gone. Possibly an enemy or else an animal taking a piss. Either way, it's close to Sector A." Josh groaned. MT radar was hopeless, for it picks up anything that generates abnormal heat. That could be anything from and enemy unit or rocket to some Joe and Jane trying to get it on.
"M-05 here. Check your radar again. I didn't pick up anything."
Josh moved his machine closer to Sector A from the rooftops of Mirage's factory. From there, his radar barely picked up a contact. "Battle positions, M-05. Incoming bogie, 3 o'clock." He enhanced his AC's magnification to get a better view. His RE/008 could barely get a lock on the unit, for it was almost as dark as the night. Only the few white plates and red eye on the unit gave it away. He reconized the head as an AC Skyeye. His computer pieced together the remaining parts of the enemy and came up with something. "Put your game-faces on. Enemy Raven approaching. Death..sythe...07. SHIT, THEY SENT THE ACE!" He turned his AC towards his two mercinarious comrades. "Nightshot, go greet our friend before he gets to Sector A. All MT units in all areas, scan for any other heat scorces! The ACE doesn't like to go alone!"
Shadow started to move, but then halted and hoisted up his sniper to fire. "Nightblade, possible second contact trying to get to sector C. I can't see him too well."
"Worry about the ace. I'll join you shortly." Shadow's Skyeye nodded, then overboosted to position. "M-02, turn these lights on now!"
"But sir, the enemy will see us if we..."
"And we can see them as well. One may be near the base, so TURN ON THOSE DAMNED LIGHTS!" Lights were flicked on, revealing the landscape and the enemy within the shadows. A tank type AC was visible, its mostly black armor dully shining in the light. It wielded a laser cannon and gernade rifle on its right, flamer and missiles on the left, and loaded with lots of armor plating. Computers ID it as Painbringer. "Sector C, enemy tank AC approaching! He must be trying to smash his way through. Dark Bomb, give them support. Watch it, that's the A-3 pilot."
"I'm on it. Gonna have me an order of scrapped AC and a side of salvage."
"You pay for the wine when this is over in victory. Now lets move." The two ACs went in seperate directions. Josh put his thrusters to full as he dashed his way to give Shadow a hand.
"Damn, he's fast. I can't get a good shot in. Get here quick, Nightblade."
"Just hold him off a little longer. I'm on my..." His systems started to whine its locked-on alarm, followed shortly by an incoming missile alert. He ducked behind an upcoming building, just barely dodging the missiles by a corner. His radar then detected AC activity.
"Nightblade, a third AC has entered the base, completely bipassing Section A defenders. Computers say its an A-2 ranker in a light machine."
Josh snapped on a comm to M-2. "You should have told me sooner, he almost got me!" He switched to all MT channels. "M-02 and M-08, report to sector C and give M-10 and Dark Bomb support. M-07 and M-06 get over here and help me out. M-05, M-03, M-04, give Nightshot some major support on the double. We have to take these bastards down!" He cut the channel and began his attack.
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Suprise Attacks end.
Loading Prologue part 2: The A rankers
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Jake was starting to crack under pressure. He never missed so many times on one AC before. Now that Josh was holed up by an A-2 pilot, he'd have to handle the ACE alone. He aimed and fired another shot at the incoming AC, managing his 5th glance. He locked on again when a warning siren sounded. Fifty yards, far to close. He took the shot as the AC slashed his gun, slicing the sniper rifle in half and sending the shot wide. Deathscythe swings his energy blade again, only to have it intercepted by Shadow's now gunless hand at the wrist. Jake then armed his laser blade and prepped the laser cannon for firing, then lunged his blade right for the black AC. Deathscythe parrayed the swing by swinging his gun arm to intercept, the clang of metal on metal resounded through the area. Jake then activated the cannon, which prepared to fire while he was standing. There was no way that he would remain standing after firing, but the Ace would take it head on.
Deathsythe's red eye glowed in reconizing the emminent threat, tilting to the side at the last second. The energy blast was fired, damaging the core and head of the enemy suit, but sending Shadow off balance as well. It fell backwards, but the grip on Deathsythe's arm prevented him from falling down. The metal of Deathscythe bubbled and sagged from the blast, but most of the head survived the shot. The ace knew that the cannon would be ready to fire in a matter of seconds, so he acted fast. He engaged his Overboost, the force sending them both straight. Deathsythe saw the building up ahead, and slammed into it full force with Shadow used as a shield. The laser cannon, plugged by a piece of rubble, exploded as Jake shot the cannon at the worst possible time. Realising his mistake, he dropped the cannon and armed his rockets. Deathsythe stared at the shoulders as they opened up, firing the deadly missile into the black core, igniting it in flames. The ace backed off, not wanting to get hit again by the napalm rocket. Shadow's visor was a little messed up, but Jake could still see the damaged suit not too far away. The siren wailed once more, Shadow was badly smashed up. The screen flashed its warnings.
'System Error: Output Down! Warning: Armor Low!' The message repeated itself several times, before Jake noticed how bad. He had mere seconds of power left, and he wasn't about to waste it. He armed his twelve shot missile launcher and struggled with the controls to keep the lock, until all twelve missiles were on target. He hit the fire control, just after the MTs showed up and the Deathscythe somehow jammed his lock. The missiles deployed, seeking any other target and slamming them down. Six MTs fell as the missiles connected with the armor plating.
"HEY, WATCH WHERE YOU ARE AIMING!"
Jake watched dubfounded as his missiles took the MTs down. "He has a missile jammer." He chuckled a little, then looked at his display. "He got me good, I can't fight anymore. Get them for me." The gadgue read zero as the AC's green visor faded to black.
'Defence system damaged. All combat systems shutting down...' The visors and gagues turned off, surrounding Jake in the shadows of Shadow. The only sound he heard was the sound of MTs failing to stop a single damaged AC.
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Josh ducked behind another building just in the nick of time as more missiles streaked past where he was, slamming into a nearby building trying to arch its way after him. "A-2 ranker, my ass! He fights more like a super ace!" He heard an overboost as the AC identified as Blur charged towards the corner of the ally. Josh jumped as the machine gun chattered, trailing his path as he climbed on top of the sector. His monitor pinged.
"He got me good, I can't fight anymore." Jake had been defeated, the core's many warning systems going out of control in the background. "Get them for me."
'Shit! Not even MTs can scratch an ace. Gotta finish this soon.' "Dark Bomb, get your target, then converge on my position. We must get these guys now!" Josh then aimed for his enemy, dropped down, and fired his Karasawa rounds.
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"Damn! I'm gonna get that ass for that." Juggernaught was still hauling ass over to where Painbringer was reigning all sorts of hell. The MTs were hitting, but the AC just plowed through them like it was nothing. His warning indicators blared as his target started to come right for him. Kyle was surprised, it seemed that the pilot of Painbringer was preoccupied with shooting out the enemy MTs so much, that he didn't realise that there was another AC in the way. Acting quickly, he dropped his machine to one knee and armed the chain gun. He pressed the trigger, sending the rounds on target towards the incoming tank. The bullets started to tear tight into the armor of the tank, worsened when the orbital guns started to take aim. The Ac looked Juggernaught in the visor before arming his gernade rifle, firing it into Juggernaught's chest. These attacks failed to phase them both, and neither one moved out of the way. A loud crash was heard as the two machines collided, with Juggernaught bening forced backwards with Pain Bringer. Both continued to fire at each other at point blank range, causing each other amounts of damage that only their types could handle. Gernades impacted, bullets flew, Lasers sliced up the air between the two machines, and flame throwers ignited them both as neither one could get out of the mad dash started by Painbringer.
But Painbringer was winning, for they both slammed into yet another building, greatly bashing up the heavy machine. Plus, the tank was using all of its weapons, while Juggernaught still had one unused. Toggling the weapon, he kept his flamethrower going just a bit longer as he locked on with the TITAN. Lock was confirmed, and there was no escaping it now. "Sorry buddy, but its up to you now. I'm about to play checkmate." With that, he fired the missile.
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Blur looked around, trying to find where Night blade disappeared. His scanning equipment was hit rather hard, so radar was offline. No matter, it was an inconvenience for the AC to be stationed at this base. It started on its way to the main building when a warning indicator flashed, just before the left arm controls locked up. Warning sirens blared in the light machine as it discovered that its blade arm was completely severed, taken off with one shot. He whipped around, pointing the Mg/500 at the core of the blue AC, whereas his own core was in danger from a point blank shot from Karasawa.
"Your empty, and your mine!" Josh yelled over the comm.
"So are you, but Grim Reaper has you," the pilot said right back.
"Sorry buddy, but its up to you now. I'm about to play chackmate." Josh barely got that before a loud and large explosion was heard. Only one thing could make that kind of noise, a TITAN detonation. Josh was shocked, both of his teammates were downed, and now his enemy seemed to have two downed cores left. His warning indicator flashed with another missile warning. He turned and fired his own missiles, resulting in both columns of misslies being intercepted and destroyed. The red visor of the RE/008 met the red camera of Skyeye.
"It seems we both have only one weapon left. Let's finish this like true warriors." In response, Deathscythe dumped all of his emptied weapons and his anti missile systems, keeping the Sol. Josh followed suit, sparing his Moonlight. The two sparred, white wave blades against black wave blades, both of them equally matched. Their attacks kept negating each other. Neither one gave up though, fighting on until only one will emerge victorious. Josh tried to swing one more, only to discover to his horror that he abused his generator. "It seems I lose." The Sol's beam hit the Ac dead on, causing the unit to collapse.
The Deathscythe stepped near the fallen AC. "Good match. You almost had me." It looked at the damaged Blur, before motioning to the AC to follow. The duo made it to the main building, where a badly burned Painbringer was waiting for them. The three machines entered the building, coming face to face with an unfinished Core with what appeared to be a larger Karasawa. All three used their remianing weapons to destroy the facility and the AC, until molten metal was all that was left. "Mission is complete, returning to base."
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This is a first in two ways.
1: First AC fic i've ever written
2: My brother came up with this idea himself. But he hates to type, I've got the account, and I thought I should add a little to it.
This isn't the end yet, this was only the beginning. Chapter one will come out shortly, but three reviews are required for chapter 2 to show up. Till then.