Armored Core: Lunar Battle

Chapter 4: Oblivion

A mild beep was heard within the cockpit of Zeo Streak. Pilan slept through it for five whole minutes before finally beginning to stir, her eye open halfway and looking at a screen to her left. Two virtual envelopes were listed on the console, signaling that she had mail. She knew it wasn't from Global Cortex, for any mail meant for her would have been sent to Tanja's room, not her AC. The first message didn't have a single clue as to the writer.

'Mars Raven. You don't belong here, and your planet's efforts against Neo-Core are futile. You are only protected so much by Global Cortex, but we will get you. Prepare to meet your death real soon.'

She immediately deleted the message. 'Filthy bastards. They haven't a clue what the hell's going on, unless they are from Neo Core.' She then turned her attention to her second piece of mail. Her eyes widened sharply, for the sender was Destructor. She immediately opened it, scanning the page quickly.

'To all Ravens that made it onto lunar. This message is specially encoded to prevent prying eyes from reading it. As you know, the transports were destroyed upon detection, taking down a few of our pilots. I don't know how many of you made it down, but your assistance in completing the mission is now dire. My team currently consists of three ACs, not enough to take the enemy on forever. Coordinates of our migration nest is further encoded on this message. We pray that you arrive in time to help our homeland.'

She would have smiled, knowing that her friend was still alive. She didn't, though, for no one was left on Lunar except for him and those two allies he had, and she was stuck on earth until further notice. She sat in her cockpit for five minutes thinking, then set up the message system for a reply to Destructor. She sent it out, then disembarked her AC to find her friends, the lunchroom, and a bathroom.

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Destructor was busy using his AC to help sort out some of the larger objects and mechanisms inside Alpha Nest. All of the equipment was a little old, but also had prototype equipment that easliy looked like Martian AC parts. This led him to assume that someone tried to create a colony on Lunar shortly after Earthlings started to move into space. An old Murakumo colony base existed on Mars, so this possibly was from that era as well. He stopped working and had his Nighteye scan the area quickly. The other two ACs, Red Death and Midnight, were held in storage bays that were apparently used for housing older AC models. Most likely, the two pilots were still on board napping. Destructor decided to let Doom and Dark sleep, they would need to be well rested to tackle Neo Core later.

The nighteye of Destruction beeped for its pilot's attention. "Encoded message detected. Shall I open it?" Destructor looked at his screen, noticing the message was encoded in Martian code.

'It must me a member of the strike team,' he thought. "Open it." The AC processed his request and activated the file within seconds. It was a video file, showing a Zeo Matrix emblem. He was about to groan, thinking it was a corporate represenative, until he noticed Martian writing under the emblem. It said 'Zeo Streak II.' The screen then changed to a picture of a red headed girl with brownish red eyes. She appeared to be 18 and was within the cockpit of a Zeo Matrix core. His eyes widened, he reconized the girl. "Pilan," he murmured, remembering the last time he saw her. She was on the same ship he was on, but he never saw her pod touch down.

"Destructor, its Pilan. As you can tell, I am alive and well." She smiled, but it wasn't a big one and it sure as heck wasn't cheerful. "Unfortunately, this isn't a time to be happy. I got your message seeking help, but I'm the only one that will respond. No one could see what happened all too well, but I saw everything clearly. The transports were destroyed, along with all but six of us. You three are the only ones on Lunar. Two others were lost in space, whereas I'm stuck on Earth and their damned goverment." Her expression drooped with his. There was no backup left, and she was too far away to be of any assistance whatsoever. "I'm sorry that this transmittion didn't get you what you wanted, but there isn't a hell of alot either one of us can do. I am trying to seek some way to be transported to Lunar, but that will take time. When I do, I will enlist some help from earth. I just hope that we can get there in time." She touched the screen with her hand, as if she were trying to reach Destructor through the screen. "I won't let this mission fail. I will get there and finish what we should have started already. I pray you stay alive long enough for us to assist." She had spoked completely in martian during her entire message. She reached higher on the screen to hit the send switch, with a very depressed look on her face. She then wispered something in a language only those two knew, then reluctantly ceased connections.

Destructor sat in the cockpit for a whole minute in silence after watching the file, then closed the screen. He then looked at a spot on his control panel, spotting a three year old photo of the duo as MT pilots. "And I you," he said to no one in particular, then went back to work. If they were trapped without backup, then all they could do now was harass.

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Tanja, Big Shot, Sprint, Devil, Demon, and Reaper were already at the mess hall when Pilan entered. The six looked over at her for a second, then invited her over to their table. She reluctantly accepted their invitation, for she had planned on eating alone. She collected what she wanted to eat and sat down, although half the stuff she had taken she wasn't too sure was actually edible. When she got back with her breakfast and started to eat, Tanja decided to speak. "Pilan, where were you last night?"

Pilan glanced up at the earthling, giving her a questioning stare. "In my AC." Tanja lifted an eyebrow, while everyone else except for Reaper spat out their drinks. She looked confused at the ravens' reactions. "Is there a problem?"

Reaper cleared his throat. "Pilan, it isn't normal for a Raven to sleep in their AC while they are in the Nest. You were granted use of the Breaker's quarters for a reason."

Pilan glanced at him. "Believe it or not, I prefer sleeping alone." She sipped her coffee, only to spit it up a second later with a look of disgust. "Yech!! You call this coffee!?!?"

Demon rolled his eyes. "I call this earth. Its natural that our versions of coffee are different." Pilan grimaced at her drink and threw it away, getting the disposable cup into the basket without even looking. She went to her food, only to have a slightly similar reaction to it as well.

Linda, or Sprint to employers, giggled a little. "Seems our foods are different as well. Maybe you should just have the fruits."

Sara shook her head. "Their atmosphere is slightly different, Linda. She probably won't find anything on earth that she may like." Pilan decided to just ignore the taste at that point, for hunger would overtake her sooner or later. The others dropped the subject and returned to their meals. They ate in silence, for they weren't able to think of many possible subjects that the Martian might partake in. Nick had noted how open she was when she spoke to him, but didn't seem to want to speak too much on a subject. He had tried to speak to her back when they were returning to the nest the first time on a private channel, but she barely responded. When they were about finished, Devil decided to try and start up one.

"Anybody get any good mail?"

His five friends glared at him. "Aside from the payment mail, hell no!" is all that the Breakers had to say. Devil put his hands up in self defense.

"Anyone get any THREAT mail?" Pilan asked. That turned a few heads at the table.

"Threat mail?" Tanja questioned. Pilan nodded. Tanja stopped to think a minute. "Not since I lost the A-1 rank."

"I get them all the time." Reaper said. "Of course, those are just from some Ravens that get in my way, and they threaten to have their revenge." He started to snicker. "Of course, most of them are so poorly skilled, they can't scare anybody."

Pilan got up and started to leave. "Heed my words. A few loners that vow revenge is one thing. having to handle a whole load of them at once is a trying task." She stopped at a mission board and looked at it. She frowned at the missions, which were too pathetic sounding to matter.

"Looking for a mission?" Tanja asked. The Martian nodded slightly, but made no sound. "Nick and I have accepted a tough job. Might be benificial if you tag along."

"Another time, perhaps. I have something I need to do." With that, Pilan left the room and headed to the Garage.

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Hunter III and Deathsythe VII sped down towards the desert region, trying to get to the mission area. Grim Reaper was checking the stats of the mission that he and Tanja had just accepted. Considering her skill and preference, it was Mirage that had employed them. One of their bases has been constantly attacked by unknown forces. It is too far away from a mysterious 'Silent Line' to be a target by that kind of force, but something exceptionally powerful had struck the base time and time again. To make matters worse, it was an AC factory, where the parts they often sell to the Ravens are made. One of their sensors have detected a force of MTs approaching the facility, and a strike force sent to stop them has failed to return communications. They are there to simply protect the facility from the impending attack.

"Tanja," Nick started on the comm, "any idea what kind of MT they are using?"

"They haven't a clue. All they know is that it is almost as strong as a standard AC, or so they say." The two took up positions at the base's perimiters, with several more newtype combat MTs at the ready. These models appeared to have a small STO core and were armed with laser blades, missiles, and a laser rifle. They are pretty mauverable and could take a bit of a beating, making them reliable units for MT warfare. Unfortunately, they must be fielded in numbers or in the hands of a skilled pilot to take on an AC.

"Ravens, there here. Hold them off!" No sooner had the employer said that, the enemy force arrived. There were about twenty MTs, but they looked nothing like any MT ever encountered in Layered or on the surface before. These ones were roughly the size of an AC, and appeared to be just as strong. They all appeared to have gatling guns on their right arms, rockets and missiles on their backs, and missile interception system installed. They immediately attacked, taking out three MTs without them taking a single shot. Mirage's units returned fire, but the manuverable foes were barely hit my the attack. Deathsythe and Hunter joined the shooting, firing machine gun and laser rifle rounds into the ranks. They actually scored the most hits on induvidual units, but failed to take even one down. Under normal circumstances, the enemy would have fell to their shots, noting that these were stronger than regular MTs. The enemy fired into the ranks with a whole variety of their three weapon types, taking down even more of Mirage's guards and just scraping the two ACs.

"They are pissing me off! Reaper, give me cover fire!" Before Deathsythe could respond, Hunter was already boosting towards the enemy, firing her rockets into them. She managed to take one down by blasting its leg off. Deathscythe fired at them with his gun, then switched to his missiles. They locked on immediately and were sent for their targets. One managed to dodge half the missiles completely, but the other mystery unit took them in and exploded, collapsing onto the ground. Hunter was now close enough for her favorite form of battle, sword fight. She ignited her speed blade and slasehd. A green beam cleaved the machine in half, which exploded seconds later. Another MT boosted to her and made a slice of his own, claiming her rockets before she could slice its right arm and leg off. Deathsythe followed suit, charging in using an overboost. One of the MTs fired its gatling gun at the advancing black AC, but he ignored the damage. He then body checked the MT into another one, which chose a bad time to fire its rockets. The two erupted in flames as the rocket detonated at point blank range, while Deathsythe turned to claim the head of another one. The duo continued to slice and dice their way through the ranks, occasionally firing their hand weapons into the further targets. Tanja even went as far as to activate her EO while she hacked away, taking down two to three enemies down at a time instead of one. Reaper fired his machine gun at medium range, but mostly used his throwing blade to conserve ammo from shooting.

Within minutes, the MTs were taken down. The entire base defence force was gone, but the two ACs that Mirage summoned had done the job. Both had some damages from the fighting. Tanja's rockets were destroyed from the one MT that got too close and her core was riddled with bullets, although the armor held up alot. Grim Reaper and his Deathsythe had only bullet wounds to deal with, for he had used his throwing sword enough to avoid true close quarters. There was a rather big dent in the left shoulder from where he had bodychecked several MTs at overboost speeds as well. The Skyeye scanned the surrounding area for additional targets, while Reaper checked the radar at the same time. "Hate to say this, girl, but they all got wasted." Tanja's RE/008 looked at his machine, before she checked her own built in radar.

"Seems so. Guess these MTs weren't as tough as they said they are." She surveyed the carnage they did. "Guess the mission is over."

"RAVENS!" Their radios spooked them a second, before they realized that it was their employer. "We have another contact, but it doesn't seem to be an MT."

The duo checked their radars again, with Deathsythe using a better scanner. "I detect nothing," the ace replied. Before any more words could be said, the two ACs detected incoming missiles. "Scratch that," he yelled as he dashed left and right to avoid the weapons. Tanja flew up while zig zagging, effectively dodging the shots. Then it showed up in her face, before slicing the agile unit's gun arm off. "TANJA!!!" Her unit fell from the sky, recovering just in time to prevent her AC from freezing while hitting the ground. She dashed backwards to avoid the new foe, who had dropped down in an attampt to slice her in half.

The AC was different from any other one ever encountered. This one used the standard Skyeye and Sto model parts mounted on a set of ORC legs and a rather light Marte arms. Attached to its left arm was a Moonlight blade, a machine gun in the right hand, a gernade launcher on the left back side, a new light laser cannon, and augmented armor plates on the shoulders. It held the reminants of one of the MTs, having commanded its missiles with precision using his hands. An emblem was seen on the left shoulder and armor attachment, which looked like a flaming skull. It was colored red and black with a deep green visor, which was staring down Hunter III. "You two are quite impressive to tackle Neo Core's MTs like that," the radio crackled, a deep menacing vioce clearly audible. "But, you will not interfere with their plans."

"Neo core..." Reaper reconized the name, the exact same corporation that Pilan was supposed to assult on Lunar. To make matters interesting, they were currently at war with Mars's corporations and had the upper hand. "Identify yourself."

"I don't see the reason for giving a couple of dead Ravens my name. If you must know the name of your deathbringer, the it is Oblivion." He immediately turned around and attacked Deathsythe, dropping the MT and shooting his machine gun. Reaper was unprepared for the attack, immediately loosing all of his radar functions as the Skyeye's antenna and his back radar were shot up by the machine gun. Deathsythe returned fire, but Oblivion had disappeared before he could even glance at the screen again.

"What the... No AC could be that fast." Reaper checked his damages real quick, while the female voice of the skyeye warned him that all scanners were down. He immediately turned his machine around searching for him.

"NICK! ABOVE YOU!" Reaper snapped his AC's head up, spotting Oblivion up there. He was flying above the ground, and his gernade launcher was armed.

"SHIIIITTT!!!" Deathsythe fired his machine gun without a care, trying to do some damage to the flying gernade armed AC. He started to dash backwards, only to get his missiles surgically removed by a fired gernade. He continued to return fire, taking Oblivion's attention away from Tanja. Her AC rose up into the air again, activating her EO energy guns as she rose. She locked on with her missiles as well and opened fire on Oblivion. He somehow saw the attack coming, evading the missiles and dodging the bursts with ease. Tanja started to plummet as her energy gauge neared zero from keeping her boosters hot while shooting the EO. Her AC took the gernade in the chest, sending her flying through the nearest building. Her systems started to heat up severely from the impact, and made her cockpit feel a little like an oven.

Reaper saw the damage done to Tanja and went berserk again. He put his thrusters to max burn and jettesoned the reminants of his radar and missiles. He flew up and fired his machine gun right at Oblivion, who took those hits like they were nothing. He pivoted in mid air and armed his laser cannon. Before he could accurately evade, Oblivion fired the laser into Deathsythe's core. The left side screens exploded as the laser barely missed the cockpit, the intense heat burned his arm rather badly as the glass fragments flew into him. His helmet protected his head, but his left arm was not in a position to be used from laser burn and cuts. Another explosion was heard as the laser penetrated the boosters and the radiator, causing the unit to fall back to earth. The AC's heat started to shoot through the roof as Reaper struggled to keep the machine in flight. Without the radiator, he couldn't actually do much of anything without raising the AC's heat. As he fell, he emptied the last of his machine gun rounds at Oblivion, who took mild damages as he evaded even more of the shots. The two landed onto the ground. Oblivion was able to engage his thrusters to control his decent, while Deathsythe slammed into the ground, creating a crater shaped like the unit and depressing the area around it.

Oblivion advanced onto the severely damaged Deathsythe, while Reaper tried to continue firing his now empty gun, dragging his mech out of the hole with the smashed in left arm. The cockpit felt like it was on fire, for there was no way for the AC to keep its own parts from heating it up. The armor outside started to glow a dull red with the heat, while a whole multitude of alarms went off within it. "Is that the best an Earth Ace has in battle." Oblivion stood in front of the machine. "Pitiful!" He fired his machine gun into the left arm, severing it from the joint and effectively removing his last weapon. Preoccupied with torturing the already useless AC, he didn't notice as Hunter got up and charged. Her green blade glowed with energy as she charged in and slashed. He barely dodged the attack, getting a nice cut on his mechanized shoulder. He turned and fired his laser at the unit, ripping half of the head apart on the left side and disabling the EO. "You can still fight, so you shall die first!" He armed his gernade and prepared to fire the death blow, before he heard a whine of an engine.

Reaper was royally pissed now, and he abandoned all reason as he struggled to get his AC up and activate the overboost. The cockpit was too hot, vapor was eminating off the armor, his wounds were burning. He didn't care, he wasn't about to let a teammate die with him. "Reaper! Stop it! You'll kill yourself doing that!" Tanja yelled. She already saw his plan, and it would result in his death. There was nothing she could do as the thrusters propelled the burning AC into Oblivion, who hadn't seen or anticipated the near suicidal move. The two impacted immediately, sending Oblivion through a small portion of the base as its balance was thrown completely off, while Deathsythe plowed into him hard enough to smash Oblivion's gun arm. It continued to speed forward, until the generator couldn't keep it up anymore and automatically shut it off. Deathsythe stood still on the ground, before collapsing forward. The armor's joints were starting to glow white as the rest of the armor turned a brighter shade of red, making it appear that the black core was going to burst with some kind of energy.

"Tan...ja....leave." She reconized his voice and looked at the core with what remained of Hunter's head. The picture was horrible, but she could make out the Skyeye's head facing her. The red 'eye' was phasing between dim and bright, occasionally turning completely off. She was just understanding what he was saying when she suddenly felt her AC being flung into another building. Oblivion was back on his feet, and had the moonlight drawn.

"He's dead already, and you shall now join him!" The red AC charged the diabled Hunter, blade set into ready mode. Before he could attack, his laser cannon exploded as it took a head on shot, the impact cancelling the blade's slash command. Oblivion turned around, and spotted a sleek blue AC crouched on one knee. Its red visor stared him in the eye, and its laser cannon propped on its round shoulder. It stood up, revealing the Zio Matrix logo on the arm. "So. The plus's daughter has arived. How inconvenient."

Zio Streak II lifted its Karasawa rifle, aiming for the core. "I will NOT allow you to take my friends," the AC shouted on the comms, "the same way you claimed my mother, you experimental FREAK!!!" Pilan fired a shot at Oblivion, who evaded the attack and hid behind another building. Tanja stared at the battle.

"You caught me at a bad time, Nine Breaker," Oblivion responded. "We'll settle this another time." The while of an overbooster could be heard as Oblivion flew into the air and jetted off. "Consider yourself lucky that she interfered, Raven."

Tanja was frozen in place, unable to believe what had happened. She was about to yell at Pilan when her AC interrupted. "Abnormal heat levels detected." She looked back at Deathsythe, whose armor had started to heat up to severe levels. Zeo Streak beat her to the downed AC, flipping it over and yanking the cockpit out of the core. The sleek hands then dug deeper and crushed the generator, which stopped the AC from overheating.

"Tanja!" She jumped when she heard Pilan yell her name. "Reaper is in very bad shape. Take him to the Nest immediately for medical treatment." Zeo Streak ran to Hunter, holding out its hand to the cockpit of the Mirage product. Tanja immediately opened her cockpit and got out to the remains of the crest manufactured cockpit. Opening the damaged door, she saw a sight that shocked her to no end. Nick was unconsious in his seat, the control sticks melted onto his pilot gloves. His left arm was a serious mess, for there were burned cuts and a severe laser burn all over it. There was also a big dent in the side of the helmet, where one of the screens had hit him when his AC toppled from the final overboost. The cockpit itself was nearly as hot as an active volcano, making her put her helmet back on before removing him from the decimated cockpit. She immediately got him into her AC and strapped him down, removing his helmet. Blood was seeping from the wound on his head, and his skin burned to the touch.

"Dammit Nick!" she whispered as she made sure he was secure before activating her AC. "Why the hell did you risk your life for my sake?" She turned the air conditioning on and started to boost as fast as she could to the Nest.

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Pilan watched as the blue Mirage AC boosted as far away as it could go, attempting to get to the nest with its precious cargo. She stood in front of the remains of Deathsythe VII, waiting for the entire unit to cool off before she even dared drag it back to base. She surveyed the area carefully, her Egret's visor taking in every single detail. "Oblivion, you haven't changed a bit." She looked at Deathsythe, spotting the one hit from a gernade. "Bastard human plus." She waited for half an hour for the black AC to cool. When it finally was cool enough she went to pick it up when she detected movement on her radar. She turned and aimed her Karasawa at the source. She saw a retreating blue AC heading in the direction she was looking, which almost was identacle to her current configuration.

"Is something wrong, Raven?" The Mirage employer looked at the mysterious martian AC that had stopped Oblivion from having his way.

"No, its nothing," she replied, scooping up the reminants. "If their mission was complete, send Tanja and Grim Reaper their rewards."

"And you?"

"I never accepted any contracts today. I'm just a rogue element that chose the right side at the right time." She oberboosted out of there, leaving the represenative to ponder what she said.

That is chapter 4. My bro is gonna kill me for what I did to his AC, but it will help move the story along. (note: Oblivion is just a random AC i thought up in my head. That is NOT my AC) I have also gotten copies of Nexus and Silent Line, which I have mission completes in. That doesn't mean I have all of their stuff, the hunt is on for the missing parts.

Bloody Kitsune was the last one to reply, but I honestly need her to explain what she meant in her review. Hope to hear from her and someone else before chapter 5 comes up. Till then.