Armored Core: Lunar Battle
Chapter one: Touchdown
Three machines trudged their way back to Global Cortex, avoiding the use of their thrusters to keep their integrities in tact. The three pilots have had a long day, hunting down Mirage's facility was one thing. Having to fight over 50 heavy MTs and three ACs guarding the place was a little harder. It was a motly trio of Ravens as well, and all three were pretty badly damaged.
Deathscythe VII, piloted by the ace Raven, Grim Reaper, was in better condition than most of the others. The entire Core was riddled with bullets, dents from explosives, and slightly charcoaled in several sections. The most notable damage was on the upper right of the machine, where the shoulder and head armor got melted and cooled quickly because of a near miss with an enemy's plasma cannon. His equipment, which was dropped during combat, was currently in a fellow Raven's hands, although he carried his damaged MG/1000, his RE/111 radar, and his Sol blade.
The lighter machine was Blur, piloted by Demon, the A-2 ranker. Built for speed, he had the misfortune of fighting the middleweight of the enemy AC team. His core was also riddled with scorch marks from near misses. His left arm was gone, destroyed by a lucky shot from a Karasawa. His machine gun is empty, yet he still retains a few missiles.
Painbringer couldn't exactly trudge along, because he had no real legs to speak of. His massive D3ta tank tread, tore up the ground as it advanced through the sand. Piloted by the hot headed Devil, the A-3 ranker, he is the most dangerous with his weapons only, but can't turn all to fast. His heavily armored machine, currently, carried the battlescars of two heavy ACs firing their heavy weapons at point blank range. Singed armor, bomb dents, bullet wounds, and the coup de gras. A very large hole was visible on the heavily armored core, where the enemy AC took a chance and fired a TITAN missile at point blank range. He is lucky that the missile didn't completely destroy his AC. All of his rounds were depleted, and he currently was carrying the dropped MWM-S60/12 missile launcher and the remains of Blur's left arm.
They arrived at a massive structure, the one place all Ravens go. "This is Global Cortex contacting AC group," an operator names Lians stated on the comm, "please identify yourself."
Nick, the Grim Reaper, opened a comm. "This is Raven MVS-10736-A-Earth, Grim Reaper reporting. Sending identification codes." He keyed his terminal and sent the required information.
"Raven MVS-10737-A-Earth, Devil. Sending identification codes." Nick looked as Chris's tank had it's lights glow as the information was sent. That's when he noticed the front end of his tread module smashed in between the treads.
"Raven MVS-10738-A-Earth, Demon here. Sending codes now." Eddy's single eye glowed brightly, then dimmed as the data was sent.
"Identification confirmed. Welcome back to the nest, Ravens."
"It's good to be back. Grim Reaper out."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!!" Chris stormed out of the garage a few minutes after parking his machine. "LAST TIME I WORK FOR CREST! THAT PAYMENT CAN'T REPAIR ALL THE DAMAGE AND REPLACE THE DAMNED AMMO!"
"Geese, tell the entire nest why don't you." Nick and Eddy trailed after their hot headed friend. "We could barely keep our suits as they were either. Hell, Deathscythe needs those two sections reinforced, otherwise I need to buy a new Skyeye and STO."
"Besides," Eddy chimed in, "Keep in mind that my unit's left arm was severed. I'm better off buying a new arm part than repairing the circuitry." He stopped to think. "If it's ok with you guys, I would like to borrow the computer tonight so I can soup up Blur."
They arrived at their room a short time later. "Computer's yours, Ed. Just don't take too long."
"HEY, GRIM REAPER." Nick turned around and instinctively blocked an incoming punch. The blue haired girl that threw it smiled. "I see that your still in top form."
"Tanja," Nick smirked, "there has to be a better way to get my attention."
She giggled slightly. "What better way than making sure you pay attention to your surroundings. You ARE the ace, after all. Make sure that you don't get beat outside your AC." She turned to leave, but then looked at him. "By the way, when will you be ready for another bout?"
Nick sighed. Tanja was the one who beat the controller and held the rank of A-1 for over two months. But ever since her friends and herself lost their A rank in the arena, all three have constantly tested the trio to keep all six of their skills in top form. "Our AC's are currently under maintenence. They won't be ready until midday tomorrow. And before you ask," he tossed her a chip, which she caught in relative ease, "all the data on what happened is recorded on that chip." She smiled, pocketed the chip, then walked into her room just a little ways down. Nick ruffled his short, brown hair and returned to his room.
Inside, his partners were already prepared for a party of sorts. Chris, who is about 18 and the youngest of the group, was already digging out the booze that they would be drinking for the night. His wavy, dirty- blonde hair went halfway down his forhead and failed to match his brown eyes. He often was taunted for his rather short stature, but he can handle himself in a fight, AC or human. His hot headedness has given him the Raven name Devil for two reasons. He can toast just about anyone if the blood gets to his head, and his own body heat created a rather heated aura for some god-forsaken reason.
Eddy is at the computer, making his AC requests to the shop and analyzing tactical data. His golden brown eyes read each line as he messed with his short, black hair. About 19 years old and at 5'7", he preferred speed over firepower and brains over brawns. Like Chris, he can handle himself, but despises fights outside of an AC. He is called Demon for the fact that he seemingly appears and disappears during the course of a battle.
Nick himself may be the leader of this motly bunch, but isn't all that different from his fellow partners. About 5'9" and 20 years old, he sported a body that wasn't all that skinny, but not quite fat. Compared to his rather average sized friends, he has the most strength and could take down any foe outside of an AC. Often forced to think on his feet, he normally follows orders and sticks to old military tactics to accomplish a mission, but can't handle the really technical stuff. His callsign, Grim Reaper, was noted for how quickly he managed to slice his way through the ranks and make it to #1 Ranker. Also, noone walked past his mech without getting a limb on their AC severely damaged.
He sat down on his bed and flipped through the Global Cortex channels, having a lot of thoughts on his mind. Amongst them was about Tanja, the blue haired and blue eyed girl he encountered in the hall. Roughly about his age, she used to be the Ace. Ever since she was shot down to B-1 ranker, she had always tested him. Quite a few men have looked at her for her looks. She often kept her hair long and straight, was about 5'5", amply shaped body with a more than average bust, so who could blame her for attracting unwanted attention. She was the smartest and strongest of her own team, the Breakers.
"Hey Nick. What'd ya do with Jen this time?" Chris didn't need to bother asking, considering she always threw a punch at him every time their paths crossed, which was at least three times a day.
"What else? She threw a punch and I blocked it." Nick started to flip through the channels some more, finding nothing but crappy soaps. "She also asked when it would be safe to challenge us again."
Ed looked up from the computer. "What, again?" He sighed. "I bet her team is just trying to get their ranking back again. That damn Linda almost gets me every time." Linda, better known as Sprint, piloted the fastest machine on earth, and is one of Jen's, aka Tanja's, friends. Normally fashioned after an old MT, it would be easy to hit, if she didn't always zig zag and fly around the field.
"Ya said it," Chris yelled, already having half a bottle of the strong stuff in his gut. "Bet lets see ya batle Kelly. Taht damned amor is ass tough ass min." Kelly, Big Shot to Ravens, piloted a tank type that rivaled the Pain Bringer in firepower and armor. "Ya ask meh, they gots a thing fer us." He starts chuckling to himself. Ed was about to make a snide remark when Nick interuppted.
"Hey, an AC news story."
'In other news, war breaks out on the moon. After suffering from an MT attack, Mars sent a strike force of NERVES RAVENS to attack the Neo Core corporation located on Lunar. Their efforts appear to be completely thwarted, however, due to stiff plasma defenses set up near the colony. A day of mourning for the lives of the Ravens and crew that have died in this suicidal attack, while some hope for the safety of those Ravens stranded on the moon and those now lost to the recesses of space.' Pictures were shown of the five freighters from Mars and their attempts to drop their cargo onto the moon. It also showed as the ships and a good majority of the pods were destroyed, while also showing several pods hitting the moon. Several more were seen veering off course, one of them streaming by the space camera.
Nick stopped the program and rewound it, a neat feature on the tv that seemed alot like those old ON DEMAND crap from before the Great Destruction. He then froze the screen so that the entire pod was locked on. He managed to see through a viewport in the pod, revealing a blue Zeo Matrix machine housed within. "MY GOD! GOING UP AGAINST NEO CORE WITH THOSE ANTIQUES! THEY ARE EITHER BRAVE OR STUPID!" Both partners looked at the sleek machine.
"Boy, I don't know whose luckier. The dead one's, the ones lost in space, or the ones that made it." Chris commented.
"Uh oh!"
All eyes where on Ed. Whenever he said 'uh oh,' that meant he just noticed something. "Spit it out, Ed. What's wrong?"
"That pod is heading here," he stated. "You could easily tell by the angle the camera's positioned."
Nick looked closely and barely was able to see mars in the background before the pod blocked the view. "Your right, but that pilot's a goner. Nothing can get even close to earth without id, otherwise it gets shot out of space." For the rest of their night, they started to chat on the survivor's slim chances of victory on the moon against Neo Core before finally going to sleep.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pod kept floating out in space, and the pilot of Zeo Streak was beginning to wonder about many things. Where was she going? Was she going to die out here? What happened to the survivors of this hellish day? She couldn't do anything else now, except pray.
The gravity of earth ensnared the tiny capsule and started to drag it down. Surprised, the Raven didn't realise what was happening until she saw the curve of the earth. She strapped herself in and prepared for the pod to seperate once it got through the atmosphere. The outer hull started to burn up as the atmosphere tried to stop it. The pod broke through within a minute and pummeled down to a desert region on the surface.
The pod, though, didn't open on the way down, slamming into the earth with the AC still inside. The pilot looked at the visuals, activated combat mode, and smashed the pod open. Once freed of its large and cramped prison, the Core jumped high and engaged its over boosters to put some distance away from her and the pod. She went as far as she could, stopped to recharge, then boosted some more. After doing this five times, the AC stopped and took a knee. The cockpit opened up and allowed the young Raven to get herself out. She removed her helmet, shook out her waist deep red hair, and examined the horizon with her reddish brown eyes. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, getting used to the atmosphere with each calming breath. "So, this is earth," she spoke to no one in particular. She turned and faced her AC, which stared back with its angled red visor. "Mother's home planet." She fell asleep out on the sand, her AC watching over her like a guardian.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"HOLY SHEEEEEEEEEEEET!" The three AC's started firing into the fortified defences of Lunar, which was trying to destroy them all. Of the three machines, the forest green Emeraude had taken lead, being the highest ranked Raven that made it. He was accompanied by a Zio matrix sleek model, similar to Zio Streak. It is a grey and red suit with a green visor equipped with a mild shield system, an energy assult gun, low trajectory missiles, a plasma cannon, and missile interlock systems. Called the Red Death, it shot without abandon with its plasma cannon while the other two gave it cover. A heavier Zio model had also made it. Equipped with the Rook core, the sleek egret head, the mighty VISE arm, and the ZIO/MATRIX flagship hover legs, this AC was literally armored to the core. Add the fact that it has the spread bazooka, chain gun, plasma cannon, throwing sword, and anti missiles, it was quite a force to recon with. This Blue and black unit is called Midnight. "THAT'S FAR TOO MUCH FIRE POWER! WE CAN'T TAKE THAT ON!"
"Fall back for now! We can't get repairs out here and we need a new plan." Another plasma bolt flew across the field, which was easily dodged by the team. "GO NOW! I'LL COVER YOU BOTH." With that, Destructor engaged his boosters and began his attack on the installation. A middleweight machine with a Nighteye, XROK, 2112 arm, and 02A legs, it is quite manuverable for an Emeraude. Equipped with rockets, missiles, an intercept system, 3443 blade, and semi automatic 10LB long range rifle, this is an adequate machine that is doing its job well. Dashing left and right, using his energy sparingly, he fired onto the enemy base and destroyed several MT units coming after him. Once his team made it out, he retreated as well. "Neo Core, you will pay for what you did on Mars and to us today. I swear it."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Doom started on their way to the desert region on the surface. They woke at midday to the sound of the comm ringing.
flashback
Nick groggily got up and answered the comm. "Grim Reaper...what is it?"
A technician responded on the other side of the comm. "Your team's ACs have been fully repaired and refitted. You can also tell Demon that the Speed Demon is now complete."
"Thanks. Just put it on the tab." He colsed the link and turned to Eddy, who had just woken up. " 'Speed Demon'?"
"Yeah, I made the request last night. Now my AC is alot faster." He was grinning at his supposed brilliance. Then the call came.
end flashback
"So, we are supposed ta get ta the MTs and investigate, right?"
"You got it, Devil. Global Cortex discovered that something got through the planetary defences and touched down here. The MTs were sent out early today to secure the perimiter, making sure nothing got in or out." Reaper looked at his data display. "We have no idea what it is, so they thought that a Raven team could handle the situation if it got a little dicy."
"We're here," Demon chimed, his vastly lightened mech thrusting forward at full burn. "Let's see how Speed Demon handles." Deathsythe and Pain Bringer activated their overboosts, just barely able to keep up with the light machine.
"I don't get this. Where are ta MTs." No sooner had Devil said this did his AC crash into a stealth MT, mowing it out of the way.
"Asked a stupid question." Reaper laughed at Devil. "Why is it you always crash when you aren't in battle?"
"Shut it!"
"Ravens. It's good to see you." The MT leader sounded relieved. "Nothing has entered or left the area since we got here. The object is 1500 km away."
"Rodger, we'll take it from here." All three made sure there weren't any hidded MTs anywhere before overboosting to position, arriving in minutes at the destination. Half buried in the sand was a pod. "What the... it looks like a drop pod."
"I'll vouch for that, Demon." Deathsythe approached the pod, cautiously looking around for any sign of danger. He carefully examined it, noticing the usual. Atmospheric burns, damaged armor, Locked seals. "Wait a minute. Drop pods burst in midair. This one must have malfunctioned."
Pain Bringer inched closer. "I don't think whatever was in there survived. Look at all the structural damage. Not even an AC can handle that rough a landing."
"Your wrong, Devil." Reaper said matter of factly and pointed his left finger at the pod. "Something did survive, and it broke out. Look." The other two ACs then noticed an entire section had been rammed out from the inside.
Demon turned towards the MT line. "How soon did you guys get here?"
"We were a little slow, due to it being very early this morning. If your saying something got out before we got here, then that may be possible."
Deathsythe continued his scan of the area until he noticed the missing sectoin of the pod a few km away. He walked over to it and had the mech drop the machine gun to pick it up. He examined the plate, then dropped it. "Guys, we have a Mars AC down here."
"WHAT? ARE YOU SURE?" His teammates were surprised.
"Look at the armor." He pointed to the plate he dropped. On it was a Zio Matrix logo, along with a number. "This is the same pod that was launched at the Lunar battle, one of the few Ravens launched off target, the exact same one the news caught on footage." He picked up his machine gun and opened a comm to the MTs. "Return to base, our job here is done." He looked at the damaged pod and barely saw the outline of an ACs footprint, surrounded by a slight depression where the thrusters were activated. "We have to report this to Global Cortex before something comes up."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two ravens were in the middle of an arena fight in the wastelands on the surface, giving their best. The two are heavy armored machines with bipedal legs. One had red and black armor and was loaded with missiles and a bazooka. His opponent wielded a blade, machine gun, medium missiles, and a TITAN launcher on his midnight black armor. They were each at each other's throats when their radars detected another unit in the battle arena. They stopped and stared at the direction, spotting a sleekly designed blue machine. They initiated scans, but failed to identify the parts the AC used, let alone its name.
"What the hell?!? This is a private match." The red one aimed at the newcomer, but his enemy held up a hand.
"I'll handle this." He stepped up and opened all frequencies. "This is AC Deomlition to unidentified AC. You have entered a battle zone. Leave now or you will be fired upon." The AC didn't respond and continued on its way through. "Unidentified AC. Leave now or you will be fired upon. This is your final warning." The AC still didn't respond, and was now getting closer to the two ACs. His systems then wailed, warning him that something was scanning his systems. "That's it, you asked for it." He armed his Titan, locked on and fired. The giant missile went straight for the blue Ac, which didn't seem to notice the powerful and deadly warhead. Its visor glowed a bright red just before the missile exploded, engulfing the fragile AC in flames. "We warned you." Demolition turned around when it detected a lock on.
"BIG MISTAKE!" The pilot grimaced as a loud female voice came from his speakers. He turned around to notice that the mech was untouched, aside from some scorching from the explosion. It then charged in for him. He backed up and both machines fired on the blue one. Their shots were evaded as the AC slid left and right, getting a little airtime as well to avoid some shots. The two former rivals put some distance between each other to better hit the mystery AC when it landed in the middle. It turned to face the black one, while the red one locked onto the blue AC. Before she had a chance to move, Bloodlust fired his missiles at it. The blue AC looked behind a second, then jumped into the air, effectively avoiding the missiles as they slammed into Demolition. The black machine used its standard thrusters to dash back to aviod the few still arching after the blue mech. He didn't even hear the whine of an overboost as the blue machine dashed right into his face, a blackish-blue blade visible from its arm.
"A moonlight..."
SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRAKKKKKKKKKK!!
The black titan collapsed as its legs were severed by the mighty blade. Blood lust stared at the carnage before dropping all of his equipment and overboosting out of there. The pilot fell unconsious as the blue machine overboosted away, one thougth still in his mind. "That mech is strong. We didn't even scratch it..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That is chapter one. I didn't plan on having a lot of action in this chapter, unfortunately, but it did find it's way in anyway. I already have two reviews because of the prologue. One more and the second chapter will start. Remember, this one was a freebe because of the prologue.
Now a moment to speak with the current reviewers:
BloodyKitsune- Thanks for the review. I am looking forward to seeing yours and don't intend on letting this one die, provided i get three reviews for each new chapter.
dasvidoniya- Really? Glad to hear that, more will come. Thanks for the notes about nonravens, but they can let their imagination run wild if they want. This isn't based on Silent Line either, I'm still trying to hunt that down.
I hope to hear from some more reviewers, and maybe from the current ones again as well. Till next time. Oh, almost forgot. I don't own the Armored Core series, just the cores I created for it. At least the pilots are mine.